My Pre-Interview Game Face
It’s weird to think my blog will be ending soon. There’s only a few days left to this whole thing. Crazy! I know it doesn’t have to end if I don’t want it to end, but I created this site with the intention of detailing a certain period of my life, and that’s where it’s going to end. That being said, I can honestly say I’ll miss a lot about this whole experience. It’s been a lot of fun reflecting on my life – it’s helped teach me about myself, and more importantly, it’s helped shape me into the person I want to be. Anyways, I’ll touch more on this stuff on day 90.
I didn’t go to the cities this afternoon, and that means I missed my flag football game. It just doesn’t make sense to leave as there are still things in the Winona area I need to figure out. My car being one of them. At this point, I think I’ll drive back to Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, and spend Wednesday and Thursday nights in the cities before heading to California on Friday. That gives me time to figure out some things both in Winona as well as home in the cities.
Totally unrelated, but I’ve decided I’m going to buy a sailboat. I’ve always wanted a sailboat, and it’s time to make that dream come true. It’s not something I’m going to rush, but I guarantee you it’s going to happen by next summer. The first step in the process will start this summer. I’ve decided to take sailing lessons in Bayfield, WI. Information about that can be found here (you know, in case you want to join me)! haha
In all seriousness, I love the idea of owning my own sailboat, and it’s been something I’ve thought about for many years. I love the idea of sleeping on a boat. At night, if I’m ever having trouble falling asleep, I sometimes picture myself sleeping in the cabin of a boat during a heavy rain storm, warm with plenty of blankets, anchored out somewhere on the lake. Of course having family and friend outings on the water would be great, and spending an entire weekend sailing around the Apostle Islands sounds pretty awesome, too. I finally have the financial resources to make it happen, so I’m going to start embarking down that road. Once I learn how to sail, I’ll start researching the different options available in sail boats, and the costs associated with docking a boat in a marina and winterizing the boat during the winter. The plan will be to learn to sail this summer, and then to buy a used boat big enough to sleep 5-6 people next spring. I’d like a boat like this.
Story 13 of 15
When I was in 6th grade, my sister, brother, and I all decided to get a paper route together. We figured it was the easiest way for us to make a quick buck at that age and, who knows, maybe have fun doing it in the process.
We were right about it being the easiest way to make $$ at that age, but we were wrong about it being fun. It was miserable from the get-go. First of all, we had to have the papers delivered by 6:30AM, which means we had to wake up no later than 5:30AM to get them delivered on time. For those of you who know me, yea, waking up at 5:30AM is like kicking me in the shins over and over again. 5:30AM is primetime dreamin’ time! Secondly, in order to get paid, we had to “collect” money from a lot of our customers, meaning we literally had to go door to door in our free time to ask for money from a bunch of deadbeats. Finally, when you have a paper route, you don’t get days off. You can’t call in sick, and you can’t not show up for work. Yes, that was a double negative, but that’s my best way to describe a paper route – a bunch of negatives.
Our first day delivering newspapers happened to be on a Sunday, and Sundays were the worst because the newspapers were at least double the normal size. That particular Sunday, it was Hallie and I doing the route. That’s how it worked – each person had 2 days on, 1 day off. So on any given day, there’d be 2 out of the 3 of us doing the route.
Our first day on the job it was raining buckets. Normally I like the rain, but not when I’m delivering heavy newspapers at 6 in the morning. So Hallie and I woke up at 5:30AM, rolled the big ass Sunday papers – then stuffed them in our yellow newspaper bags, and out the door we went.
It was miserable from beginning to end. We were soaking wet and we were trying to deliver the newspapers to the right houses and we hadn’t yet identified which houses got the papers and which ones didn’t. At one point, I remember my sister handed me a paper and told me the address where the paper needed to be delivered. So I went and looked for that house, and for the life of me, I couldn’t find it. I don’t know if it was because it was too dark and I couldn’t see the address, or if it was raining too hard, or if I simply forgot the address, but I couldn’t find the house.
So I threw the paper in some random bushes and said “screw it.”
Between the 3 of us, I recall we each made about $30/month. I remember one day – after getting paid – my brother and I went to a baseball card store in downtown Winona and spent all of our money on a box of unopened packs of baseball cards. We literally spent our entire months worth of income on a box of baseball cards. Our parents weren’t happy about that.
To make a long story short, we got a lot of complaints, and ended up getting fired after 6 months. The district manager came to our house, sat us down at our dining room table, and fired us. That was the greatest day of my life.
I chose this song because – 1: I like it, and 2: the day I got fired, I considered myself the luckiest man in the world. No, not really, but I had to draw a parallel somewhere, and that was the best I could come up with.
