Three Words Back...

Your Name Is Calvin Klein, Isn't It?

"I mean, it's written all over your underwear."

I think the fact that someone left their CK Tighty Whities on the hotel laundry room floor is another sign from above that I need to watch the original Back to the Future soon.

I Should....

I should really go for a run.
I should turn on my work laptop and blahblahblah workaholic-talk.
I should get my dry-cleaning ready for tomorrow morning.
I should go do some regular laundry.
I should return some emails.
I should return some phone calls.

But I'm freaking exhausted, and the last time I got eight hours of sleep on a weeknight Clinton was in office.

YouTube Tuesdays: This Is The Day

This one is for my friend Gina, since I never get the chance to talk to her much anymore.  She likes this song and the movie, and I really dig the fact that there's a Gin Blossoms song fading out at the beginning of the clip.

Beginning A New Post...

I love the BEGIN A NEW POST button here at the typepad homepage.  I'm just one click away from bringing up a clean white page that exists solely for me to pour out the contents of my head.  And then I get to highlight and delete the rough draft, fine tune the next few drafts, and settle on a final draft that will only change once or twice more afterwards.  I guess for some people that does not sound like the ideal way to spend a Saturday night (or Tuesday afternoon, or whenever) but it's equal parts fun, exciting, soothing and cathartic for me.

I feel more like me when I'm behind the keyboard.

But that's not what this post is about.  It's really about an otherwise non-eventful, non-newsworthy Saturday night.  I'm spinning through my recent itunes purchases, wishing my venti iced hazelnut latte came in a bottomless cup, and researching plane fares and assorted other things online.  It's a quiet night in room 207 here in East Greenbush, New York.

But it's the kind of quiet night that I want to remember.  It's not exciting for you guys to read about, but I'll need the reminder for myself.  That there were quiet nights in solitude when I wasn't stressed out from work, wasn't lonely for anything or anyone in particular...wasn't wishing for life to be any different than it is right. this. minute.  There's a verse that talks about being content no matter what circumstances you find yourself in.  That's me tonight.

I'm good for now.

Just Call Me Goodyear

...because all I am is tired.

More words, and (possibly) better jokes to come soon.  For now, the list of things to do remains unwritten and (mostly) unchecked.

It's been a great week so far, but now it's time to knuckle down and get this branch grand opened next week.  So much left to get done before I leave for Texas (!) next month.  Such a long drive for a short stay, then it's one last branch in 2008.  This one will be in small town, Louisiana, near Lafayette. 

And outside the swirl of all things bank-related, I have other friends who continue to do their best to provide me with some semblance of a real life outside of work.  Thanks to everyone who keeps me plugged into their lives across all the state lines and time zones in between.  I am rich with good friends that I do not see nearly enough......

YouTube Tuesdays: I'mTrappedInAnATMVestibuleWithJILLGOODACRE!

There are no words for how much I love this next clip.  I believe this was the first Friends episode I ever watched...and in the Chandler Bing character I saw a lot of myself (only funnier...plus this also probably explains all those sweater vests I wore in college....)

Two Days In The 'Cuse

It is a laaaaaazzzzzyyyyyy Monday morning for me, and though it's not really a day off, it kind of feels like one.  I need to leave in a couple of hours for Syracuse - a short two hour drive from Albany.  Our "two days of meetings" starts today with a team building exercise at 4:00 (grade school Olympics!), a murder mystery team dinner at 7:00 (my character is a wanna-be intellectual / 80's pop star), and whatever shenanigans we all decide to get into afterwards.  Tuesday is the all day meeting, and then it's back to our respective branches in PA / NY for work on Wednesday.

I've got eight minutes to catch the Residence Inn breakfast.  Don't think that's going to happen.  Here's why I missed bacon, eggs, coffee and a glass of orange juice: HBO was showing Back to the Future II.  Or as I like to call it, the best sequel since The Godfather II.  I caught the last 45 minutes of it, at about roughly the point where Marty stows away in the back of Biff's newly manure-free car en-route to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance.  So of course I was immediately sucked in and had to stay for the ending.  (Going back to the year 1885!)

Credits roll and the movie ends.  In the back of my head I'm thinking, "How can you show Back to the Future II and NOT follow it up with part III?"  I consider mocking this while pulling out my laptop and checking my email.  And somewhere around the time I typed the first paragraph you just read, they announced that part III IS coming on next!

So really, this blog exists solely to act as a request for one of my faithful readers to call the bank and tell them I will be leaving for Syracuse about two hours later than expected.

(Have I mentioned before that one night back in college Jeff Scott and I made our girlfriends sit through a Back to the Future marathon?  That's a lot of time travel in one night.  Hee...fun times)

Some Days It Catches Up With Me

I really miss my cousin.  Some days it gnaws around the edges, and some days it sits heavy.

It still feels like I should be able to call her any time I have a spare minute.  It still stings when I realize that I can't.  I'd like to talk about all of our every day, mundane things that pile up over long distances between phone calls.  I wish I could tell her how much she meant not only to me, but everybody else that she came into contact with.

Some days all these emotions catch up with me, and for all the color in the world....to me it all just looks a little grey.

Doing Some Cool Things At Work

Had a cool conversation with one of my traveling team members last night.  I mentioned that I wanted to put together a proposal with ideas for how our company - especially those of us that live out on the road - can take steps to offset our carbon footprint.  Well, she brought up her own great community invovlement idea - collecting the soap and shampoo samples that our hotels replace each day and donating them to local women's shelters.  Now that's what I call a fantastic idea...

I just wanted to brag on some of the ways my friends and I are looking to impact the communities we serve.  And if anyone out there has any experience in carbon offsets for businesses, shoot me an email.  I'd love to hear some success stories.

I Broke Three World Records While Typing This Blog

• Bela Karolyi needs his own talk show.  Like tomorrow.  Obviously it will need to come with subtitles, but this needs to happen as soon as the Games are over.  Someone get FOX on the phone.
• Did you see it when Bob Costas brought up Bela's questioning of whether the Chinese women gymnasts met official age requirements?  His face was eerily reminiscent of Mike Myers' when Kanye West made his "George Bush doesn't like black people" remarks.
• And yeah, I don't think those girls look 16.....but then, I wouldn't peg half of the Americans as old enough to drive, either.
• Alicia asked me if Michael Phelps was contractually obligated to take off half of his swimsuit once he's out of the water.  I don't know what the big deal is, I see a chiseled physique like that each morning when I get out of the shower.
• Is it me, or does Andrea Kremer sound like a schoolgirl with a crush when she interviews Michael Phelps?
• Seriously though, winning 5 gold medals while setting 5 new world records (some of which are relay events, so props to the other guys, too).......that's pretty amazing.
• Hey camera team, I'm okay with a wide shot the next time an athlete steps off the mat/field/whatever after just blowing their chance at a gold medal.  I don't need you all up in some teenager's grill moments after her slip-up effectively eliminated the US from finishing in first.  She's trying not to burst into tears and you're practically inside the hugs of encouragement she's getting from coaches and teammates.
• Loved the interview with Phelps where he talked about his goggles filling up with water right after diving into the pool.  He wasn't a jerk about it, but surely someone somewhere is losing a sponsorship deal over this, right?
• You ever wonder what it would be like to be friends with Bob Costas?  I can barely handle the guy as a sports analyst / studio figurehead.  Can you imagine having him go into narrator-mode while eating pizza and watching a game, or just grabbing coffee?
• Thank you, Olympics, for keeping me up until 1:00 in the morning.  I wonder if I could call in late for work with the excuse that my body is on Beijing time?