The Year of the Rat A.K.A the state of the mark
I am sitting here with lucky cat sleeping at my side as i prepare to recount the events since my birthday post.
I don't get how Karma works. Seems like whenever i have an amazing stroke of luck. People around me are crashing and burning. The better my luck the harder a time people are having.
I got back from dragon con in a less than wonderful mood. I have had more boring birthdays but this one was completely deviod of any action. I headed right back to work/hell the next day. Which pretty much was hell. I was faced with a very hard decision to change my vacation dates. I pushed them back one month. This kind of screwed me because i had been planning a thailand trip pretty much all year. By changing the dates the price jumped a ridiculous amount. So i had to go to the fall back plan. The Philppines. I don't know about anyone else but planning an international trip is a BITCH! There are so many things to consider. I wish this had been one of the stops i would have made on the carrier when i was in the navy. That way making a blind trip to a place i have never been wouldn't be so hard. My friend Nel offered to meet me at the airport but when she found out that i wouldn't get in until late at night she lost interest. I have heard more bad things than good about the Phils. Scams robberies ripoffs. Corrupt cops what have you. Then a few of the people that i was supposed to meet up with started to fall through. I was actually getting disgusted with the idea of even going there at all. It was looking like it was going to cost me a lot more than i wanted to pay out. I didn't like the idea of going it solo to a place i have never been anyway. So even though i promised my Friend Nel that this would be the first time we would meet. I secretly started watching the fares to thailand.
They were staying steady around 1260 then they jumped to over 1300 bucks. I was like fuck that! I am not about to pay 1300 for a plane ticket no matter what. The phils was staying around 1130. Which is darn good. Something told me check the previous day to when my vacation started. Lo and behold! The fare to thailand dropped to 1038!! I almost went to the bathroom on myself! I couldn't believe what i was seeing. Later i did some checking and that beats the prices i have paid in the past 2 years. Well i wasn't sure my boss would have let me go. They seem to want to have a heart attack if anyone is gone longer than a week. I always get away with it by saying i am going overseas and need the time. I hatched a backup plan. I made calls locally. I was one number away from calling my usual travel agency but the second to the last quoted me an amazing price for the same day i was originally leaving. $1076. I still beat the previous years costs. When she quoted me that price i went ahead and got the ticket. So i am confirmed! I even got all window seats which i never seem to get. So i will be leaving out on Nov 6th for my 8th trip back to Thailand.
but it doesn't end there! While the sky was falling all around me a few more random convergences fell into place for me. I had been looking for a former coworker from about 12 years ago. He finnally made a myspace page. I got in contact with him and he said i no longer owed him for this very nice bass guitar i was supposed to buy off him over a decade ago. He passes me an email he got about a Job opprotunity in Pax river Mayland. I would be doing what i was doing in the navy only as a civilian. And possibly 7 dollars on the hour more than what i am making now. Which gave me serious pause when i had to think about it. That wasn't even the first job offer that came my way. My friend victor contacted me about the birth of his first Son. He also told me there was a contractor job coming availible in hawaii making somewhere in the area of 60-70k a year which would be great for living pretty comfortably in hawaii.
But wait there is more. Most of you don't know this but i have a pseudo kinda sorta adopted daughter. Yes the child free individual i am does. I haven't seen her since she was 4. The reasons behind this are long diffucult and a source of anguish for me and i don't feel like telling that story. At least not now. Anyway. A while back i found her mothers sister on myspace. I checked back every now and then to see if she might have added her sister but never did. I did a search for the girl online a couple weeks ago to see if maybe i could find a picture and i did! Adria is about 10 years old now and a girlscout. And she looks like she is probably as tall as me hehe. So i checked her aunts myspace again and she had posted family pictures. It was great to see that she is doing so well dispite the conditions she had to grow up under when i knew her. I can only hope that she continues on the good path. Maybe i can make it there for her graduation. Anyway i guess i will be posting more after this . I find it theraputic hopefully this trend will continue and my trip will go off without a hitch. I'll be posting more updates later.
I don't get how Karma works. Seems like whenever i have an amazing stroke of luck. People around me are crashing and burning. The better my luck the harder a time people are having.
I got back from dragon con in a less than wonderful mood. I have had more boring birthdays but this one was completely deviod of any action. I headed right back to work/hell the next day. Which pretty much was hell. I was faced with a very hard decision to change my vacation dates. I pushed them back one month. This kind of screwed me because i had been planning a thailand trip pretty much all year. By changing the dates the price jumped a ridiculous amount. So i had to go to the fall back plan. The Philppines. I don't know about anyone else but planning an international trip is a BITCH! There are so many things to consider. I wish this had been one of the stops i would have made on the carrier when i was in the navy. That way making a blind trip to a place i have never been wouldn't be so hard. My friend Nel offered to meet me at the airport but when she found out that i wouldn't get in until late at night she lost interest. I have heard more bad things than good about the Phils. Scams robberies ripoffs. Corrupt cops what have you. Then a few of the people that i was supposed to meet up with started to fall through. I was actually getting disgusted with the idea of even going there at all. It was looking like it was going to cost me a lot more than i wanted to pay out. I didn't like the idea of going it solo to a place i have never been anyway. So even though i promised my Friend Nel that this would be the first time we would meet. I secretly started watching the fares to thailand.
They were staying steady around 1260 then they jumped to over 1300 bucks. I was like fuck that! I am not about to pay 1300 for a plane ticket no matter what. The phils was staying around 1130. Which is darn good. Something told me check the previous day to when my vacation started. Lo and behold! The fare to thailand dropped to 1038!! I almost went to the bathroom on myself! I couldn't believe what i was seeing. Later i did some checking and that beats the prices i have paid in the past 2 years. Well i wasn't sure my boss would have let me go. They seem to want to have a heart attack if anyone is gone longer than a week. I always get away with it by saying i am going overseas and need the time. I hatched a backup plan. I made calls locally. I was one number away from calling my usual travel agency but the second to the last quoted me an amazing price for the same day i was originally leaving. $1076. I still beat the previous years costs. When she quoted me that price i went ahead and got the ticket. So i am confirmed! I even got all window seats which i never seem to get. So i will be leaving out on Nov 6th for my 8th trip back to Thailand.
but it doesn't end there! While the sky was falling all around me a few more random convergences fell into place for me. I had been looking for a former coworker from about 12 years ago. He finnally made a myspace page. I got in contact with him and he said i no longer owed him for this very nice bass guitar i was supposed to buy off him over a decade ago. He passes me an email he got about a Job opprotunity in Pax river Mayland. I would be doing what i was doing in the navy only as a civilian. And possibly 7 dollars on the hour more than what i am making now. Which gave me serious pause when i had to think about it. That wasn't even the first job offer that came my way. My friend victor contacted me about the birth of his first Son. He also told me there was a contractor job coming availible in hawaii making somewhere in the area of 60-70k a year which would be great for living pretty comfortably in hawaii.
But wait there is more. Most of you don't know this but i have a pseudo kinda sorta adopted daughter. Yes the child free individual i am does. I haven't seen her since she was 4. The reasons behind this are long diffucult and a source of anguish for me and i don't feel like telling that story. At least not now. Anyway. A while back i found her mothers sister on myspace. I checked back every now and then to see if she might have added her sister but never did. I did a search for the girl online a couple weeks ago to see if maybe i could find a picture and i did! Adria is about 10 years old now and a girlscout. And she looks like she is probably as tall as me hehe. So i checked her aunts myspace again and she had posted family pictures. It was great to see that she is doing so well dispite the conditions she had to grow up under when i knew her. I can only hope that she continues on the good path. Maybe i can make it there for her graduation. Anyway i guess i will be posting more after this . I find it theraputic hopefully this trend will continue and my trip will go off without a hitch. I'll be posting more updates later.