Tag Archives: thoughts on stuff

May 2, 2013

Summer Plans 2013

By Canadian Bald Guy

It’s now May and spring has officially begun, as the weather recently has been great and the winter tires are now off of my car. Of course, with the onset of spring comes a (seemingly) short summer period. June, July, and August…that’s pretty much it for summer. An extended winter season has delayed my summer planning, so I might as well try to get it all done now.

1. Get married. This one is at the top of my list. The wedding is tentatively scheduled for August 11th. Wait…no, I shouldn’t say “tentatively” because at this point, it’s cemented to be on that date. The only possible hitch is that my divorce won’t be finalized by then, but I sent the final documents yesterday…so it should only be a month (maybe five weeks) before it’s done. I hate that I’ve waited this long to get it taken care of and that I’m making Sunshine nervous about the timing of everything. Let me just say that I do NOT want to EVER get divorced again (the whole process is brutal) and I certainly WANT to get married in three months. This time is the last time. Period.

2. Lose 20lbs. I know that I’m healthier now than I was a few years ago. I know that I’m lighter now than I was just over a year ago. However, I’m 10lbs heavier now than when I first moved here to live with Sunshine. I honestly don’t know what the deal is, but I think it’s simply because I’m eating real food for the first time in years. I’m not pigging out every day, but I’m eating healthy amounts of real food…and I think my body simply isn’t used to it. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. But if I’m getting married again (for the LAST time), then I want to look my best for the big day. I’ve got three months to do it…this shouldn’t be an issue if I stay focused.

3. Buy a new BBQ. One of the things I stopped doing a couple of years ago was barbecue. I was living alone and just didn’t feel like taking the time to go out and throw something on the grill. Fast forward two years to me closing out my home recently. Sunshine and I took a look at my barbecue and realized that because I had left it outside uncovered for two years, it was rusted beyond repair. Now? Now I want a NICE barbecue. I’ve been looking at this gas barbecue as a possible option. 40,000 BTU’s? Yes, please! Mmmmm…I just want to taste some rib-eye fresh off the grill again.

4. Go to a GOOD drive-in movie. We actually got to see a couple of movies one night at a drive-in during the summer, but the only problems were (1) the movies weren’t any good and (2) the theatre was about two hours away from Sunshine’s house…meaning it was around 2am by the time we got home and we were DEAD tired.  There is a drive-in only 30 minutes away from my house, so hopefully we can schedule something over the summer.

5. Take a weekend trip with Sunshine. We tried to have a “stay-cation” last weekend but it wasn’t the same as actually getting out of the city and doing something. When we lived apart, we would sometimes do overnight trips in certain places just so it felt like a vacation. Where we haven’t been able to go anywhere so far in 2013, it’d be awesome if we could go somewhere…even if it’s an overnight trip…and just leave the city behind us. I know we’ve got a lot going on with the wedding and all, but I’m hoping we can still make this happen.

6. Walk a half-marathon. Yeah…this is really going to happen. I’m scheduled to walk a half-marathon on my birthday, September 14th. I’ve begun training and I’m averaging about 5km/hr right now. I’d like to get that a bit faster before September, but I think walking 26km is something I could totally do. Sunshine and I walked 8km a few weeks ago and did 9.5km last weekend, so by the time late summer arrives we should be doing 20km easily. I’m (surprisingly) looking forward to this.

7. Go to at least 5 restaurants that we have never been to before. We easily accomplished this last year and, quite honestly, I can’t wait to do it all over again. It’s one of those “small things in life” that we experience together and enjoy a lot. And now that I’m living in the city with her, we can take advantage of all that the city has to offer during the week…not just the weekends. I’m really looking forward to trying different restaurants this year.

8. Get a family portrait with ALL of our kids in one spot. With Rugrat tentatively sheduled to come visit the second week of August, that means both Sunshine and I will have that entire week off to spend together with all of our kids. It will definitely be hectic, but I think it’ll also be a blast.  BUt something I definitely want is to have a picture with all of us together…and one done professionally. Last summer my ex-wife took a picture of all of us together and it wasn’t quite the masterpiece I wanted, so hopefully we can get ‘er done this summer.

9. Enjoy life…especially the life I live and how I live it. One of the things I’ve been working on recently is trying to love myself. As difficult as that has been, it’s also helped me to remember how much I enjoy living life.  Is my life perfect? Not by any stretch. But it’s a good enough life that I don’t’ want to take it for granted. It’s funny…this past weekend I told Sunshine that sometimes I don’t feel like she “stops to smell the roses” and enjoy what’s around her.  It’s definitely advice that I need to consider for myself.

10. Smile every day. It’s easy. It’s fun. It can make someone else’s day without you even realizing it. There is ALWAYS a reason to smile at least once during the course of every single day. My task…heck, my personal mission…is to never forget that.

4 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Stream of Consciousness, Thoughts on stuff

January 28, 2013

Resolutions Can Suck My Left Nut

By Canadian Bald Guy

new-years-resolutionsI refused to make resolutions this year. It just seemed like a ridiculous notion…starting the year off by making promises you probably won’t be able to keep. You promise to lose weight, but dieting and going to the gym is long done and gone by the time the summer arrives.  You promise yourself that you’re going to start saving up money, but just can’t help buying that unnecessary 20-disc blu-ray collection of “The Best of Firefly”. You tell yourself that you’re going to become a better person, yet you still find yourself tripping small children as they gleefully skip along unaware of your cruel intentions.

Okay…maybe that last one is a bit “off”, but I think you get my drift.

Yet here I am at the end of January wanting to talk about New Year’s resolutions. Why? Well, I figured that if I told myself that I wanted to start something at the beginning of February, then it’s not really a resolution and I won’t have to end up breaking it.

Make sense?

Here’s the deal…there are a lot of things on my plate right now and 2013 looks to be a heckuva interesting year. I’ve got a wedding to prepare for, a new job to flourish in, a family trip to Florida to begin planning, a second mortgage to finally dump, and a meeting tomorrow evening that could alter my entire life on a go-forward basis (oooohh…the intrigue of it all!). I need to write these things down so I’m held accountable for them. I am a terrible procrastinator and I need this…I really need accountability.

The problem is I feel that if I had put some of these things into some type of “resolution blog”,  then it would just kinda be for the sake of blogging. I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to just throw shit against the laptop and call it a blog post. I only want to write because I love to write, not because I feel obligated to join a thousand other bloggers.

So there you go. No resolutions this year, but I’m absolutely going to write down my goals and objectives for 2013. There’s just too much going on to NOT write them down.

3 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Stream of Consciousness, Thoughts on stuff, WINNING

January 18, 2012

My “Long-Distance Relationship Bucket List” for 2012

By Canadian Bald Guy

Last year, Sunshine came up with a dual blog-post idea for the two of us. Here is the idea…

  1. We each outline 10 things that we want to accomplish in the next year as a couple.
  2. Share our lists via our blogs.
  3. Get out there and make each other’s dreams come true!

So without comparing notes of any kind (her post can be found here), here is my list of things (in no particular order ) that I would love to do with Sunshine in 2012:

1. Go to Maine to visit Jobo. We’ve been blogger friends with Jobo for awhile now and us visiting her almost took place last fall.  Well, the wheels are in motion and we’re going to see if we can really make this happen in 2012. Sunshine and I deserve a vacation, and what better way to relax than to meet a blogger friend in the beautiful state of Maine? Hopefully we can make this actually take place.

2. Enjoy the Saint John waterfront in the summertime. The last time Sunshine and I visited Saint John we were attacked by a fog monster. I know that the waterfront there, while not as awesome as Halifax, is supposed to be quite excellent in and of itself. I’d like to experience that.

3. Attend Farmer’s Markets in both Saint John and Fredericton. Sunshine and I love going to farmers’ markets. While we have a special place in our hearts for the market in Halifax, we really loved our last visit to the market in Saint John and can’t wait to go back to visit again. And where we both lived in Fredericton back in the 90′s (just down the street from each other, no less!), we would both love to go back and see what their farmer’s market has to offer.

4. Do a half-marathon together. Now I’m not going to be able to run a half-marathon like Sunshine did back in October, but I have an exercise goal of walking a half marathon at some point during the year. And she has already told me that she’d love to walk it with me, so that’s definitely something I want to accomplish in 2012. For me, the guy who NEVER exercised his entire life and wondered how he suddenly got overweight once he stopped smoking and entered his mid-30′s, actually walking a half-marathon will have a lot of meaning…knowing that I’m finally taking control of my life in a healthy way so that I can live to see my children grow old.

5. Attend a live play or a musical. We could have said that we did this while on the cruise ship last March, but realistically speaking…the entertainment was too cheesy to count as a REAL play or musical.  I’m a huge fan of live theatre and it’s been way too long since I last saw something. I don’t think Sunshine is much of a fan, but I’m hoping we can watch something at some point during the year because there always seems to be something going on in her city to watch.

6. Attend a concert together. Again…we could have cheated last year and considered the entertainment on the cruise ship as “a concert”, but it REALLY wasn’t. Obviously, it’ll be tough to try to match-up our schedules with a concert that we both want to see…but after missing out on such diverse acts as Prince and Platinum Blonde over the past couple of months, I’m really eager to see a concert with her in 2012.

7. Go to at least 5 restaurants that we have never been to before. We easily accomplished this last year and, quite honestly, I can’t wait to do it all over again. It’s one of those “small things in life” that we experience together and enjoy a lot.

8. Go to a strip club. Funny enough, this one might be the first one to be crossed off of the list. I think the conversation started last fall when I noticed a lot of signage around her city for a particular adult entertainment establishment (the only one in the city, actually). She casually mentioned that she wouldn’t mind going to the establishment with me at some point, which made me a VERY happy camper who was even more impressed at just how awesome his girlfriend was.  And after reading a certain person’s own list recently, Sunshine got the idea to casually suggest it as an option of “something to do” this upcoming Friday night.  Ummm…hell yeah I jumped at that idea!! 

And for those who would like to “live vicariously” through this unusual dating experience, I shall be Tweeting from the adult entertainment establishment on Twitter: @CanadianBaldGuy

9.  Go to a GOOD drive-in movie. We actually got to see a couple of movies one night at a drive-in during the summer, but the only problems were (1) the movies weren’t any good and (2) the theatre was about two hours away from Sunshine’s house…meaning it was around 2am by the time we got home and we were DEAD tired.  There is a drive-in only 30 minutes away from my house, so hopefully we can schedule something over the summer.

10. My mystery pick.  I think Sunshine has an idea of what this could be. I think long-time readers of this blog have an idea of what this could be. At some point…at some time…something is going to happen this year.  That’s all I’m willing to say at this point. I guess it’s all the more reason to stay tuned!

14 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in relationships, Thoughts on stuff, tourism, travel

November 9, 2011

Now That We’ve Found Love

By Canadian Bald Guy

The world of celebrity is full of crazy nonsense at the moment and only proves that the internet is a wild and wonderful place.  But after writing this post, I think it’s obvious I need to get out more…

1. Dang it…I hate being at the age where artists I’ve enjoyed over the years end up passing away. It really sucks. Heavy D was only 44 years old and planning a new album and a comeback, so it’s very disheartening to learn of his passing.  I’d be remiss if I didn’t post my favorite song of his (and one of my all-time favorite hip-hop songs)…

2. Somebody tell me why Kim Kardashian (or ANY of the Kardashians) are popular beyond belief?  I mean, she is only known to anybody because she made a sex tape with a rapper (who was actually more popular than her at the time)…and now TMZ is following her every frickin’ breath because she wants out of her sham-only-for-money-and-publicity wedding? I just don’t get it. If she wasn’t so slutty, nobody would know who she was right now (or Paris Hilton, for that matter)…nor would they care.

3. I got quite the kick out of this video. I gotta say…this has never happened to me on a first date.  Or a second.  If fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever come right out and asked for one.  My loss, I’m sure.

4. Justin Bieber’s got his first paternity lawsuit.  Awwwwww…how cute.  I’m actually kind of torn on the whole thing. I mean, he’s taking a DNA test to prove he’s not the father and then plans on suing the accusor “to show there are consequences to making false accusations.” So in that regard, I say good on him for showing the crazies out there that people can’t just make up claims about celebrities in order to get their names in the paper or have a chance of making contact with the celebrity in question. 

But on the other hand, if he (as a 16-year-old kid at the time, mind you) actually took this girl (who was 19) into the washroom after his concert and banged her for 30 seconds before dumping her and moving on to the next concert as she claims, then as a dude I just gotta say…

I’m only kidding, people. Relax. Don’t hate me.

5. Conrad Murray found guilty of causing Michael Jackson’s death. Good. Here’s the thing…even if he somehow wasn’t found directly responsible for Jackson’s death, it’s glaringly obvious that everything he was doing for him (i.e. administering anasthetic privately in somebody’s home) was illegal in itself. So I’m just glad that they found him guilty of something because the guy has to pay for robbing the world of the greatest musical talent of my generation.

6. Sure…the video isn’t always in sync and there are probably better videos out there, but the fact that this was done in (almost) one take over the course of only one hour is quite impressive. Seriously…try watching this and NOT smiling at least once.

7. I take that back. Try watching THIS and not smiling at least once.

6 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Stream of Consciousness, Thoughts on stuff

October 6, 2011

8 Years on the 4 Year Plan

By Canadian Bald Guy

If somebody could tell you that you could go back in time and change ONE THING about your education, what would change?

Think about it for a second…what one thing about your scholastic achievements at any level would you want to get back and do-over and/or change altogether?

For the longest time, I really thought about being a DJ. Near the end of high school, it’s all I really wanted to do. I wanted to go to broadcasting college and become a radio disc jockey for a living. My dad, though, said that if I wanted to do that I would be on my own…but if I went to a university to get a Bachelor of Commerce degree, he’d pay for the whole thing.

I was a meek 17-year old kid afraid of his own shadow, so I chose Option B.

But now as I step closer and closer to being 40 years of age, I realize that I never would have made it as a DJ. My voice was alright, but it wasn’t great.  I’ve gotten a lot better with age (ten years DJ’ing and MC’ing during the 90′s certainly helped me hone my skills).  When I listen to the radio, I know that I’m better than some in the business, but not better than most. And then when I think about how much radio DJ’s make for a salary…realistically, my annual income as a DJ after 10 years probably wouldn’t be a whole lot more than what it is right now.

So for me, I would change one specific thing: my first three years that quickly turned into seven.

Y’see…for whatever reason, I just couldn’t focus coming out of high school. Whether it was because I was never truly “into” doing the university thing or because, in the back of my mind, I felt like I wanted to “rebel” against my parents for “making” me go to university…I really didn’t do very well at all my first year out of high school.

I needed a 1.1 GPA to get back into university after the first year. I ended up with a 1.0 and was “politely asked to leave”.  After a “year off” I went to a different university…at which I ended up having the same result (yikes). I then went to a community college for a year and did extremely well, probably due to the fact that I was tired of messing up and finally felt as though I wanted to get my act together. The second university finally let me back in and I completed my degree.

Now…if I could do it all over again, I’d absolutely want to complete my studies in four years instead of eight.  I graduated high school in 1990 and didn’t get my university degree until 1998, which is ridiculous on a 4-year degree.

I wish I didn’t squander opportunities and skip courses. I wish I had been able to focus harder on the tasks at hand, even up to and including my final year (where I dropped a course because I had completely forgotten about a mid-term and missed writing it).  I wish I had concentrated on a major of study and had worked harder to get better grades, as my post-graduation career maybe wouldn’t have begun selling suits for a living.

For many years, I resented my father because I felt as though it was his fault that I wasn’t doing what I truly wanted to do. I finally realize now that I would have been happy, but not a whole lot better off than I am now. And with the degree that I’ve got, I’ve at least got more opportunities outside of my current job than I would have had with a broadcasting degree.

Regrets? I have a few…but only about the choices that I made, not the ones that were made for me.

*****

So what about you? Are you happy with the education you received? Would you have liked to take a different field of study? Would you have liked to go at all?

198 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Life

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