Friday, May 15, 2009

The Other Shoe...

Yesterday my boss handed me my schedule and told me, "You got two Saturdays off!"

Immediately I started looking at my schedule to try to find the blow she was cushioning with the good news. I was expecting to not have any other days off or to be closing every day or something. After perusing the schedule, highlighting my hours, counting them, and putting a green ring around payday (also known as Water Guy day), I came to the conclusion that there was no bad news. I had plenty of hours; I opened a lot; AND I had two Saturdays off.

So why was I looking for the bad news?

I don't know if I've addressed this subject on my blog before, but I know I've been thinking about this for a while.

This whole "waiting for the other shoe to drop" thing...

I always find myself waiting for the bad news. I get a paycheck that's large and I expect car trouble or something else expensive. I do this ALL THE TIME. It's kind of a bad practice to get into, but I think I've found the cause.

Living in Illinois. Living in the Midwest, in general. Think about it. What do we get after most gorgeous days in the summer? A storm. The best days are followed by tornado warnings. And if it's a mild winter? We just KNOW it will be a scorchingly bad summer. Mild summer? Bad winter! We just EXPECT it!

It's the weather in the Midwest. It makes us all expect the worst after a bit of good news.

Think about it.

Well, I'm done waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's sandal weather!

Out

5 comments:

David said...

Here's my suggestion (and feel free to shoot it down):

Move to MN!!

1) Skiing. Rob loves it. There's lots of snow here in the winter. And now just skiing. Plenty of winter sports.
2) Opportunity. Overall, MN has a great economy, and you'd have a better job of finding a full-time job here.
3) It's not Illinois.
4) Worship. A friend of mine was talking the other night about starting a faith community, kind of in the Emergent model, with some "progressive seminary" friends from Bethel Sem. He said that Aaron and I would be welcome and accepted there, and it would be nice to be out and do basic things like hold hands as we worship G-d.
5) Stuff ta do. The Twin Cities is just teeming with things to do. And due to the proximity to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, there's a high homosexual population around here. (Go figure, and I'm still single. But hopefully not for long!) And we have more theatre companies per capita than any other city in the country.
6) Radio. Saint Paul is home to Minnesota Public Radio. You're not going to find a better hometown station that provides such great coverage and programming.
7) Me! Sorry, I'm always trying to pull people here; but that's because it's a great place to live, and I've been trying to build a community of friends here for a while.

It's up to you and Robb. But there are six great reasons. There are way more than that. I could sing the praises of MN all day long.

Viewtiful_Justin said...

He'd LOOOOOVE to move there, I think. There's a Ski Area Management college up there, his favorite ski lift is up there (The Hall Sky Cruiser at Lutsen), and it's not hot.

And that's why I'd be miserable. I need warmth, and the winters in IL are horrifying enough to keep me from EVER moving north.

But you make a convincing argument.

David said...

Understandable. About two months in to winter and I'm ready to head south and get the hell out of this place. But then spring comes and I remember why this place is home.

Not gonna lie: It would be nice having a friend like you here, especially if my guy moves up here. (Talk about climate shock!) Of course, you have friends of your own there.

It's really not that bad. Students come to my school from places like Georgia and survive. This city is designed for winter. If you play your cards right, you hardly have to go outside.

Just saying.

Viewtiful_Justin said...

Well, we've got no plans to leave as of right now, but I have told him that if he wants to move, it would be really easy for me to quit my job and go with him. It's no big thing to me.

As far as my friends go...it'd be hard to leave them. But it wuld make seeing them so much sweeter. And maybe I'd learn to call them once in a while. I'm a terrible phone caller.

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