Chapter 1

On returning from a 2 year trip to Spain, Nate arrived back in the United States and didn't quit know what to do with himself. First off, everything was so different. He left from a small city that in the suburbs a when he returned that small city wasn't so small anymore. The world moved at a very different pace than over in Spain. He very quickly starting missing the laid back, friendly environment that he was so accustomed to and had to re adapt to the fast pace, not so cordial American life. The other big thing that he was having a hard time with was finding things to do and people to do them with. When he left, so did everyone else it seemed. And when he returned, they were all gone or had gotten married, causing a huge damper in the ability to hang out.

One day as Nate was out shopping, he pulled into the parking lot of a local store and as he was getting out of his car he could not believe what he saw. Getting out of a car was a girl, medium height, slender, dark brown flowing hair with lighter highlights, jeans that held her form oh so beautifully, a sweater that was baggy yet formed just right, and boots that gave her that look that every guy would die for. He recognized the girl, but wasn't for sure if it was who he thought it was. "Could it really be her?" he thought. He tried to follow her into the store but it was around Christmas and as soon as she got into the store, she vanished into the mass of people. "Now what do I do?" Nate thought. He didn't want to miss out on getting reacquainted with his old friend if that was in fact her.

After spending a good part of and hour in the parking lot waiting for the beautiful girl to return to her car, Nate found that he had to leave. In a daring attempt he left a note on her windshield with his name and number. If it was who he thought it was, that was all it needed to say. Sadly Nate left without finding out who this mysterious girl was and hoped that he would hear from her soon.  

In the following days, Nate found time to spend with one of his good friends named Matt. Matt did decide to get himself married and all, but he still had time to share with Nate. They would go and play pool, go hiking and golfing, and other such activities. It was nice for Nate to be able to have a friend to do things with again after all.

On one such day that Nate and Matt were playing a few intense games of "9 Ball", Nate received a phone call on his cell phone from a number that he didn't know. It was odd for him to be receiving phone calls in general as not to many people knew his number since he had just returned back from Spain. As Nate stood there looking with a blank stare at his phone, a thought popped into his head. "Was it? Could it be?" he wondered. Is this the phone call that he had been waiting for the past few days? The shock and wonderment almost made him miss the phone call when at the last minute he flipped the phone open and said "This is Nate..."

There was a moment of silence. A moment that Nate could hear his heart beating, slowly, yet seemingly so fast that it was about to jump out of his chest. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, a very soft, sweat voice on the other end came on and said "Is this the Nate that hopefully still likes Sarah?" His heart stops. Nothing is happening. Everything around him has now ceased to be, and in his brain the explosion of thoughts happen. There are so many things that Nate wants to say, but the only thing that comes out is "Depends on if this is the Sarah that still like Nate?". The reply was simple yet so profound of "I thought you were gone forever!" The conversation was short sadly, but she did ask Nate what he was doing right then. He replied with playing pool with his friend and Sarah knew the location. She said she had to go but would call again shortly.

As Nate went back to playing pool with Matt, his head was filled with happy thoughts and memories of his long lost girlfriend and how awesome it was that it was here that he saw and that she had called. Now all he wanted to do was see her. Nate and Matt kept on playing pool as Nate talked about the phone call. As he was about to take a shot, he looked up at the last moment before striking the ball and saw his Angel. She had shown up to surprise him. And what a surprise it was, because his focus immediately left the game of pool sending the ball flying in her direction.

Words That Get the Best of Us

So I have recently left a high stress job. One in which yelling and being yelled at is common. In fact, the slew of profanities that I used to use on a daily basis was that of a sailor, and it was accepted because that was the environment in which I worked. I have now left that job and entered a new field of work. I deal a lot with people and have to act professional and courteous, which at times is hard enough not having the background that I have, but now that I do have said background it takes extra strength to hold back. That being said, it does surprise me as to how many people get offended by words. They are only words people! If I happen to "fucking" in a sentence, it is not the end of the world I promise. I don't understand how words can make people get the panties in such a tight bunch. How have you survived this long if you get butt hurt over words? It really does amaze me. So for those people that do get offended by words, I have one thing to say to you. Build a big fucking bridge, climb to the top of that mother fucker, and jump your sorry ass off of it so the rest of the world doesn't have to deal with your sorry shit for emotions self! 

Rules are Rules

So recently I've been having this really fun experience with people that just don't seem to understand rules.  Let's say that there is this really big company that has been around for years and years.  In this company they pay people to make rules and regulations.  Not just make rules for shits and giggles, but so that everybody regardless of how long you have worked for the company or what position you hold all fall under the same rules and regulations.  Sounds like a pretty good plan to have in place right?  That's what I would think, but for some reason there are people that happen to work for said company that think that the rules can be bent for their benefit.  The shitty part about that is that they bend the rules so that they continue to look good even when the shit keeps hitting other people and they have to deal with the bent rules.

This being said, I decided I had had enough of this bull shit.  It sure is fun to go and rat out what would be your manager to upper management.  It's especially fun when the upper management looks at you because you have all of your ducks in line and tells you that you are right and have every right to go and give your manager an ultimatum.  So that is exactly what happened.  I gave them the ultimatum and they finally understood that I was not someone that they can just throw to the wind and hope everything ends up all right.  I am now in a great position to levy money, time and travel against my management.  This is such a great feeling.  Now we just wait for a little bit longer to make sure that they do what they said they would or all hell will break lose on them.  Because the nice upper management that I talked to, well let's just say they have my back.

In short, do your fucking job the way the rules say to do it and then there will be no problems.