Looking for a new job blues

I think I'm job averse. I've had plenty. Actually enjoyed some of the things I've done, but....basically the business world sucks. Most of the reason behind my lack of enthusiasm is due to the profession that I chose. Accounting. Don't go into accounting. Everything you have ever heard about accountants is because they get beaten down by accounting. It is boring. It is repetetive. It is not a social profession. It is you and a bunch of numbers and rules. Sometimes you get to discuss what rule to use for certain numbers and some times you even get to talk about how to interpret the rule and make a decision, but mostly it's just following the rules and plugging in the numbers. I wish someone would have told me that when I was in college. I was naive in college. I was young in college. Most 18 year olds don't have the capacity to understand that what they study will have such an effect on their entire lives. You think you do, but you don't. I think it is a bit different today than it was 20 years ago, at least I hope it is. The internet and the dot com era had something to do with that, but for someone who is 42 and is just realizing that what they have been doing for 20 years is not as fulfilling as they would like, it is hard to find a new profession. There are responsibilities to the people you support to think of. You can't just go back to school for 4 more years to learn something new and going out on your own to run something that might be of interest is very risky and takes capital. Are you willing to jeopardize all you have for a new start? It is not a fun position to be in. Most small businesses do not work on a long term basis. Success usually comes after at least one failure. For all the people that have taken the chance and succeeded, many more have failed. Do you have the confidence that you will be able to make things work no matter what? Can you subject the rest of your family to that for the sake of being happier in your daily work environment? Unfortunately I am very analytical and I tend to over-analyze and I need to quantify the positives and negatives and there is no way to do that. It is a matter of the heart and what you want out of life and how can you make the best compromise to have the best quality of life possible.

Eat, Drink and Watch a Basketball Game

My friend Ira invited me to the Nets-Heat game 3 on Friday night at the Continental Airlines Arena. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=260512017 His wife received two tickets from a client and she was happy not to go. So off we went. Getting to the Meadowlands from central New Jersey is no easy feat, but it was a playoff game - Shaq, Wade, Kidd, and Carter - and the tickets were for a suite. For those of you who have never been to a game in a suite - well, it's kind of like having a party in your basement to watch a game on tv but you also have a full size basketball arena right there with 15,000 other people yelling and screaming and wishing they were in your basement because you have free food and free drinks and a tv to watch replays and another tv to watch the Yankees-Red Sox and your own private bathroom. They are called suites, but they should be called "Sweets"!!! There were hotdogs, beer, wine, soft drinks, chips, subs, and philly cheese steaks. And brownies and chocolate chip cookies for desert. Apparently there are other items - the suite owner gets to order whatever they would like. They said they ordered sushi, but they didn't get it. Nobody seemed to care. I'm 42 years old and I've been to two sporting events where I got to go to a suite - I can't seem to wonder what the kids that get to go to every game - and there were several - get as a special treat. If you already have what most people consider a once in a lifetime kind of thing on an every day basis, what do you consider a once in a lifetime thing? What do you get excited for? Do you have to be 50 yard line for the Super Bowl? In the dugout for the World Series? Oh well, I'll never know. I'm more than thrilled to be thrilled by getting some free food and drink and enjoying a great game with a great friend.

New York Style Bar Mitzvah

My wife and I went to a relative's Bar Mitzvah yesterday in NYC. I'm still not sure how we spent 6 hours at a Bar Mitzvah, but I'll try to fill you in on some of the details. Stop me when you've had enough. Let's start with the Temple. http://www.emanuelnyc.org/ We were in the smallest of 4 sanctuaries and this one held 257 people. The largest was being restored. It holds 2,500. After the service, we climbed onto double decker buses to take us to the Rainbow Room for the reception. http://www.rainbowroom.com/index.htm The kids were immediately wisked off to a casino where they honed their skills on craps and blackjack and roullette. The parents ate and drank. Sushi, tenderloin, passed appetizers, cold salads, pasta, vegetables, and a full bar. For over an hour. I was full, I was buzzed and I would have been very pleased with the event if it would have ended there. It didn't. We were summoned by a cross between a dinner bell and the Bells of Notre Dame to go to another room. Table number 5 - right next to the speakers. Speakers for the entertainment troupe - an emcee, DJ, and 5 Dancers! Yes, 5 dancers to help grandma boogie and to get the kids out on the dance floor - that didn't happen - not the 13 year olds anyway. I don't think it is socially acceptable to dance if you are a 13 year old boy. But you can play "Crazy musical chairs". We didn't get to stay around for the 3 foot chocolate fountain - our babysitter bill was building into 3 digits - but by that time we were full, both physically, mentally and emotionally. It was quite a spectacle and as over the top as it seemed, it never once felt that way. We had a great time and were honored to be invited to such a great event. We wish the Bar Mitzvah boy much success.

Fear and Joy in an indoor waterpark

The life of a two year old boy can be pretty crazy. Don't let me be the one to analyze, but how in the world do you go from sheer terror to pure joy in a matter of minutes? Great Wolf Lodge has opened a new indoor waterpark in Scotrun PA in the Poconos and we were lucky enough to go last week with 10 million other lucky parents and their screaming offspring. Really it isn't that bad, but quiet and relaxing it is not. My son was very excited to go until it was time to put on his bathing suit and then it was time to go home. An hour of crying and asking to go home led to a more sedate walk thru the waterpark in Dad's arms. Maybe he would have a good time after all. Well, that was enough for one day. Day two - excitement until the bathing suit went on. More screaming and wanting to go home. Of course, we paid so we were going to stay. How traumatized could he get? Well, I don't know what happened - I passed him off to my wife after an hour or so. Next thing I know he is jumping up and down and splashing and having the time of his life. We even went down the waterslides and loved it. My wife doesn't have an answer - she didn't do anything but hold him - he just finally decided he had seen enough and needed to be part of the action. If only the rest of us could lose our inhibitions so easily.

Fall and Rise

Last week my wife got a phone call early Monday morning. Her reaction was nothing short of panic. Who could blame her. Her father had a stroke. We live an hour away so we rushed to get her to the hospital while I stayed with the kids. The original prognosis was not good. The word Massive was never used, but a rather large stroke was indicated with statements such as "50-50" chance of ever walking again. It was diagnosed as something called a Left Neglect which basically means that the left side of his body becomes useless. I know next to nothing about strokes and the information came in slowly and sketchilly, but things were not looking good to say the least. Well it seems that the doctors jumped the gun a bit. It is now 10 days later. He has been transfered to a rehab unit and has successfully (with help) been able to get up and walk a few steps with a walker. His speech is slurred compared to before the stroke, but if you didn't know him from before you would not be able to tell. It has been quite a jump from the initial hours. It has also been quite a process. You'd like to think you can be prepared for such things, but the reality is always more of a challenge than you would expect. Aside from the physical issues, the mental stress involved with everyone is tremendous. Does he need to go into an assisted living facility? How will he manage? What will it cost? The questions just keep coming and daily life doesn't stop. Our children are only 2 and 3 and they don't understand why they can't see mommy for a couple days. And you can't just put them in the house and go sit at the hospital. They need to continue with their lives and you need to find a way to maintain normalcy for them and still take care of the needs of the person who has been hospitalized. It isn't easy. But my parents were here to help with the kids and my wife's family rallied and provided the necessary support to keep spirits high. My wife's father was the real hero though. He hasn't stopped telling jokes yet. Hopefully it continues because he has a long road ahead - being 83, he's succeptable to additional strokes as well as other complications. But so far so good. We've got our fingers crossed and we're looking for many more steps in the right direction.

GATORS 73 UCLA 57

I can finally put some college basketball demons to rest. The Florida Gators are National Champs! A far cry from a 5-22 season my freshman year of 1982. http://www.gatorzone.com/basketball/men/media/2003/pdf/126.pdf
You will notice that there are not a whole lot of winning seasons until recently. But boy how one win makes up for an awful lot of L's. I don't like to brag, but I would say that my predictions from yesterday were pretty spot on. Final score - I predicted 72-60 - can't get much closer than that! 5 gators in double figures - 4 and one with 9. MVP - Joakim Noah. Not much to say except that the game of their lives and they played the game of their lives. Six turnovers??? Holding Aflallo to zero in the first half??? 5 Blocks by Noah in the first half??? They were spectacular and dominant. The second half was a barrage of 3's and dunks. No contest.
Congratulations to the University of Florida Gators 2006 NCAA National Basketball Champs! How bout them Gators!
May you rest in peace Norm Sloan.

Gators in the Championship Game!

Go Gators! For the 2nd time in the Billy Donovan era the Florida Gators will be in the NCAA Championship game tonight. So far this tourney they have looked like anything but the Gators of usual. Strong defense, timely 3's, clutch shooting and a minimum of turnovers. They have looked like the team to beat. That being said, it will be interesting to see what they do with a UCLA defense that has made two excellent offensive teams in Memphis and LSU look downright awful.
A couple keys to the game. First Florida needs to stay in their offense and not launch shots early. Secondly they need to get out and run as often as possible and keep the ball out of Corey Brewer's hands on the fast break. He has been terrific in the open court when receiving the ball, but when he leads the break he loses it every time. Keep the big men out of foul trouble and don't let UCLA get hot from beyond the arc and Florida should pull away. I predict a tight game at half turns into a Gator romp with 5 Florida players in double figures and Joakim Noah being player of the game. Final score: Florida 72 UCLA 60.

Shakespeare the Musical?

My wife and I went to McCarter Theater in Princeton the other night and saw their rendition of A MidSummers' Night Dream. McCarter puts on some wonderful shows and their plays are Broadway quality if not always compelling, so we were excited to see what they would do with another Shakespeare play. We saw Hamlet last year - I'll talk about that another time. First of all you need to know that my wife and I have 2 little ones and getting out of the house to see a 7:30 play is not always stressfree. Couple that with the fact that they aren't the best of sleepers and a Shakespeare play and you get the recipe for a snoozefest. Add to that the fact that we always get a drink at the bar right before showtime and we were ready for a restful few hours.
The look on my wife's face when she realized that the play was almost three hours was priceless. Now I'm not a Shakespeare fan and I have not seen this particular play in its traditional trappings, so I can't really expound on the literary correctness or how true this was to the intent or anything like that. I'm just looking for something that I will enjoy and I enjoyed. Groove Lilly - a 3 piece group set the entire production to music. It really kept things moving - even for 3 hours. The stark contrast between the royal palace and the forest where most of the action occurs brings to life the "dream" as it were. With Cirque du Soleil type acrobats and songs to bring the dialogue to life, it was an exciting production.
My wife did get her nap in but woke to enjoy the great closing to the first act and the hilarious play within a play in the second act. The only problem with this play being 3 hours was that after getting out at 10:30 there is nowhere to go eat in Princeton so it's home to relieve the babysitter and forage in the fridge for whatever looks appetizing.

Starting to Blog

It seems that the thing to do is to write a blog. The question is: what to blog on? You might think that with the state of the world right now there are numerous things to expound upon and you would be right. But am I ready to tackle the world or just my little corner? Only time will tell. The start will be slow, but I think once we get going, it should be an exciting ride. Welcome.