Catching Up in Ultimate Randomness

Well, it has been some time since the last entry. I guess the most important point to point out is that I am still here. For the most part, things are better! So let’s see…I didn’t get that job I was talking about last time. I did however start two new different jobs within a week of each other. The first one is at Amazon a couple towns over. I work on the ship dock and mostly act as a glorified garage door opener. I say that, but I do a few different things, that just happens to be the primary thing I do. Open and close the dock doors, strap up trailer loads to leave, and generally try to make sure containers get to the doors on time so everyone gets their packages when they are supposed to. In fact, that’s also mostly my secondary job, which is strictly making sure those containers get to the doors. The third job I have is as a trainer. Sometimes I will get a group of new hires and train them in the different processes on the dock. Most of the time, though, I do manager training. New area managers are basically given a week where they train in each area of the building to learn the whole process. Being as ship dock is the last stop in the building, it’s also the last stop for the managers. So most Fridays, I do that. Give them the tour, show them the different jobs around the dock, and I try to do my best to explain how it connects to the other parts of the process and, most importantly to me, make sure they understand that the numbers they get from the computer can’t tell them everything. After all, anyone who has worked for any length of time knows that things like rates can’t tell you everything that is going on. Only talking to your employees and seeing how they work can give you a full idea of what might be going on. Luckily, most of them get it. But that is what I do most of the time.

The other job has been the best part of my life the last few years. For two years, I have been a trivia host. I mostly just substituted for hosts taking nights off for awhile, but now I do 3 regular shows a week with one or two subs or private shows added in every now and then. It’s really hard to explain how much doing trivia has impacted me. I have made friends out of players, I have regular teams that I talk to both before and after shows, and I’ve gotten to explore my personality in ways I never would have imagined. Turns out, I am actually pretty good at it. I host games in Mt. Juliet, Nashville, and Gallatin. The first two are regular trivia, but the third one is a survey based trivia game, kinda like Family Feud. All of it is alot of fun and consiering I have groups that come in every week, seems like they have fun with it as well. I mentioned I had made friends as a result.

There is one couple and their group of friends I hang out with that started coming to the Wednesday game and we got to talking after shows and, back in April, Sam (the wife) invited me to her 1920’s murder mystery birthday party and it was a blast! It’s also my go-to profile picture for my social media accounts. One of the few times I actually thought I looked pretty good. Still have all the same old hang-ups with my appearance, which is a large part of why I am still single, though not nearly the only thing. Still, it was alot of fun and now we all get together for game nights every now and again. I’ve made a few other friends as well, mostly from Amazon. There is one guy, Andrew, who started up a D&D game with friends of his. I mentioned how I had been wanting to get into one, so we all got to talking and now we have been running our first campaign for coming up on 2 months now. Another buddy I made, Drew, is a local musician and I got to see him perform at Metro’s Got Talent last night, a local Nashville talent show they do yearly. He got second place, but it was really close. The whole show was entertaining and I was really glad he invited me to go. Another buddy I made at Amazon, Ty, just moved back to Georgia a couple weeks ago. He is a writer and we used to spitball ideas for his stories while we were at work. I gave him a couple of good ideas to the point where he said he was gonna give me a writing credit when he finishes up that one, which I thought was pretty cool. Turns out my relationship experiences are paying off for something. Hope he is doing well down there. It’s been a large part of me trying to get back to writing, at least in some form. Long story short, I am really trying to get out of the house alot more often these days and while just being out there hasn’t changed much romantically, it has improved my life overall. Only downside is…man, I am tired most days. I am usually out of the house from 6:30 AM til 9 PM at the earliest at least 4 times a week, though usually 6 or all 7. It’s really weird becoming popular at 41. But hey, people like having me around and I like actually doing things I enjoy, so it’s usually worth it.

The biggest part of the last 2 years I haven’t talked about yet is when I got sick. Like alot of other people, I got the Covid, back in December 2021. I ended up getting pneumonia from it and was in the hospital for a week. I went in on Christmas Eve and got out the day before New Year’s. Then I spend 3 weeks at my ex-wife’s house while I recovered because there was no way I was able to take care of myself. And yes, we are still on good terms. I know it seems so weird to people, but getting along was never the problem for us. We’ve been friends for 26 years after all. But ask yourself if you ended up in a relationship where your partner feels more like a roommate. That was the issue for her and, in all honesty, she did us both a favor. We care about each other, but we both need to be loved in a different way that what either of us was able to provide. Plus, her house is chaos and I would be miserable living there. She has been dating this one guy for almost 5 years now and he lives there. We get along just fine, mostly because he has seen our dynamic. On top of that, I go over and help out with things that he can’t stand, like cleaning the goat barn. It’s good exercise, but as he likes to say, he is not a Farmer John type. Neither am I, but I don’t mind it as much. Anyway, they both took care of me and got me back on my feet. Unfortunately, her dad also got Covid at a Christmas party and got pneumonia. He didn’t make it. The only part I was happy about is that she, her mom, and her sister were all there with him at the end. I know it’s been a rough 2 years for the three of them, but they all seem to be doing the best they can these days. We had a nice Celebration of Life a couple months after. It was really nice and it was great to see how much of an impact he had in so many people’s lives. Still miss him. He was like a second dad to me after I moved here and I do what I can to make sure they are all doing ok.

Anyway, I think that is all the big stuff to get caught up on. Hopefully, I will keep this going and get on here for the day to day stuff. Of course, there will be the whiny, “woe is me” stuff because, let’s face it, depression is just a part of who I am. Just luckily, it takes less of a hold these days. But I still get lonely. I do wish I had someone to share things with, but I also understand that a large part of that is not doing anything to make it happen, for whatever reason. The honest answer is I know I like myself most of the time. I also feel like the person I am is not the kind of person that anyone is looking to invest their romantic time into. Anyway. on that note, I am going to head out. I hope anyone who reads this has a fantastic day and a week full of goodness coming up. Until next time folks, be good to yourselves and to each other. World needs more of that. Good day!