The Pink Pagoda in Seoul

I've always been a fan of impressionists. I well remember when Rich Little or Fred Travalena would go on one of those cheesy 80's game shows, and I'd always laugh at their impersonation.

On one of my favorite episodes of M*A*S*H involves movie night in the mess tent, where the projector constantly breaks down. Klinger tries to fix it (in the dark) and a variety show breaks out. There's a Father Mulcahy sound-alike contest, some singing, and what not. And Major Houlihan, before her rendition of "c'est magnifique" is introduced by Hawkeye as, "the toast of two continents and the Pink Pagoda in Seoul." Classic TV, and I laugh every time.

Something else about that sequence is Radar doing an impersonation of Jack Benny. I'm not old enough to know much about his show, but I am a fan of keeping things like that alive, so I have a very limited knowledge through things like this. But Father Mulcahy played the piano and asked, "now, Mr. Benny?"

But Jack Benny's shtick was about always being 39 years old. It's relevant because I turned 39 this week, for the first (and hopefully not last) time. It was a day like any other day-- went to church for a men's group meeting and ran a seven-miler on campus (love the Alabama fall weather!). There are really several things I could say about being a year older, but I remember something my Uncle John said in 1994. He talked about being at an age where he knew he had lived longer than he was gonna live. Passed the halfway mark, so to speak.

That's about how I look at it right now. I'm halfway to 78, which, I guess, is in the neighborhood of the average lifespan of an American male. I guess I've accomplished a few things, and hope to achieve more in the years to come. It's starting to become pretty heavy stuff-- remembering when I was XX years old, thinking of the decisions I made, etc.

There are many more decisions to be made, and soon. Hope they're good ones.

Boy, the Way Glenn Miller Played...

I earned a 92 on my first pre-cal midterm last week. I was very pleased. Worked my tail off studying last week doing practice problems, and went to the math lab for a Thursday night, 8:15 test. Intro to microeconomics is not going as well-- having a little trouble grasping concepts. Got a 69 on my first test in that class, week before last. So hopefully, things pick up a little.

Part of my econ class involves a Wed 6:30 pm lab, which so far has not passed 30 minutes in length. It takes me longer to drive to campus, park, walk, repeat than the actual lab does. Immediately following lab is team trivia at a local watering hole. A colleague of the wife invited me a few months back, and I enjoy it. She comes along now, too, as we recreate some of our old trivia magic.

A favorite question last week involved the car mentioned in the theme music to All In the Family. I sang the whole song (loud enough for my teammates only, btw) to get to the type of car, a LaSalle. Being able to pitch in was important to me. It's all fun, I know, and nobody keeps score of how many questions each team member answers, but I do like being able to pitch in. We'll be back there this Wednesday, too.

Job news: bad news, and OK news. OK news: I got a job as concession stand help at the Bama football games-- Friday preparation such as making popcorn and stuffing it into bags 700 times, lugging tubs and cases of drinks down ramps and into place for the next day's game. It's hot and sweaty work, especially in the Alabama heat, but it's something, but it's not often (yet), and it gets in the way of gameday. The hope is to land a more permanent gig, which leads us to...

Another job interview last Wednesday, and learning Friday I was not selected. Bummer. So I'm still working on figuring out which direction to go. Wanting very much to contribute, yet unsure of which way to turn or look. A lot going on for me these days, much to sort out and understand. Still very much upside down right now. Trying to look forward and give effort.

I'm still here, and I'll be around.

Take Two

Today was the second day of school at the University of Alabama, and for the second time, my first day. I had an intro to economics course at 9:30 and pre-calculus (again) at 12:30. One problem with summer school is that four months of classes are condensed into one, and since I was so far behind the curve, I was in trouble from the start. I just didn't realize it. After a day of school, I do not have that feeling. Not yet, anyway. So I spent the day getting a parking pass, computer codes, syllabi, etc. I even had to get a clicker for my econ class-- it's used to answer questions in class, and by extension, take attendance. And pre-calc is the same as before-- everything done online. It takes a little getting used to-- this is nothing like it was when I was at Texas Tech back in the day.

It's nice to have something to focus on, to get another iron in the fire. There was a big disappointment a few weeks ago, on the job front. Not the end all, be all of jobs, but it would have meant stability and a chance to contribute meaningfully on a long-term basis and to give us a way to transition through the next few years. I interviewed for a job that I wound up not getting. Well, I assume I didn't get it, since nobody called to tell me-- I found out from the jobs site. I don't feel like I was treated well. But I'm pleased at how I've moved on and how I've let go of things.

The census job continues, but weekly hours are down from 40 to 35 as the workload has thinned out. Might last another week or two. I've met some interesting people and made some friends along the way. The hope is to find a campus job that can mesh with my classes.

And I'm also onboard to help with UAB Athletics for a second season. I've helped as a spotter for home football games, and as mentioned before, helped with public address (1MC for you Navy types) for volleyball, baseball and women's hoops, and this Sunday, women's soccer. Mr. Norm Reilly and his staff are nice people and have been very good to me, and gave me something to do when I had nothing to do after first moving to town last summer. I'm looking forward to it.

Decommissioning

I reported to my first ship, the USS Benjamin Stoddert in February, 1990. I worked in the mess hall for three months, and made one deployment in 1991, standing three-section watchstander duty (which is worse than port and starboard duty, imo). It was an older ship, and it was decommissioned in December, 1991.

It's something only a crewmember can understand, having worked onboard, watching a ship, essentially die. I get a little worked up at times like those. I don't really remember much about the ceremony, I just remember being on the pier for it.

I've also been at the commissioning of a ship, my brother's, the USS Port Royal, in Savannah, in the summer of 1994. It's a very inspiring ceremony, and dad and I enjoyed it. So I've seen both sides.

Today, I said goodbye to an old, reliable friend. My old 1999 Chevy Cavalier finally went belly up last week. We'd spent over a thousand bucks fixing it last month, and the starter and battery cable it would need required another 900+, which we weren't willing to spend.

So this week, we cleaned out my car, took a few pictures and took off the license plate on the back and the custom UTEP front license and sold it for 300 dollars. That car took me a lot of places-- we saddled up and drove to Levelland, Hobbs, Big Spring, Clarendon, Midland, Odessa to broadcast basketball games in 1999, to Woodward in 2001 and Clay Center in 2002 for jobs, to Manhattan from 05-09 to see my girlfriend and to Alabama last year for a new life. Lots of stories, countless burgers and gatorades, and 133,000-plus miles. I didn't get all maudlin or anything, but it is the end of an era.

This week, we bought a new red Honda Fit for the wife. She really likes it, and has already named it Scooter. I get her Honda CR-V, which does have cruise control. It took me about an hour to reprogram the radio stations. So I go from being a Chevrolet man (1990 and 1999 Cavalier) to being a Honda man.

Heartaches, Hard Knocks and Things I Don't Know

I'm a fan of Garth Brooks' music. I'm not hard core, fawning over him, but I do like his songs a lot. The title of this post is a lyric from "When There's No One Around," a song off his Sevens album. He talks about a man so immature but he's still my best friend, just one of the boys who gets lost in the crowd, and how it's four in the morning and a tape of his failures playing inside his head.

This song reminds me of me, a lot. I'm bad about lying awake and thinking about everything bad, wrong or embarrassing I've ever done, and how I still fight the battles of 25 years ago. I can still get worked up over things that happened eons ago, thinking of what I wish I'd done, even though the healthy thing would be to let them go and focus, really focus, on the future. And before you know it, it's time to get up and your blood is still boiling over something that's long since out of sight. And everyday it's a challenge to let go of the past, to release and forgive myself and live.

Which brings us to our learning experience of the week.

Wednesday morning I chose to drop my pre-calculus class at UA. It just got to be too much. I thought that throwing time at the problem, it'd work itself out. But I never seemed to get very far in terms of my assignments in relation to how long I spent on them. And I'd not had a math class or looked at algebra rules (GRE buildup notwithstanding) since 1994. In addition, all this was being thrown at me three and four lessons at a time during lecture. Not a lot of time to soak up lessons. When you add in that I'm working 40 hours a week at the Census office, it was more than I could take. I got home Tuesday night at 9:30 after work with three homework assignments and three quizzes to bang out, plus study for a test the next morning. I was tired and defeated.

We'll look at some things and rework the plan and move forward. I have the best woman on the planet in my corner, who is uber-supportive as I look for a direction to go in. If I could learn to fly, I'd never touch down.

Imaginary Numbers

I'm a week and a half into my first college course in 13 years, and my first math class in nearly 17. MATH 112, Pre-Calculus, at the University of Alabama. Imaginary numbers is a concept I learned about this week-- i= negative square root of 1. Because real numbers didn't provide enough torture.

The idea was to take pre-calc in preparation for full-blown calculus in the fall. But re-learning math rules, and grasping new concepts in a condensed, fast-paced, four-week class is proving to be a challenge. Everything is done on the computer-- homework, quizzes, practice problems, even tests, but the tests are proctored and done at the math lab only. It's a really snazzy program. I just wish I picked things up a little faster.

So it's an uphill struggle right now-- it's an 8 am course (all they had-- ug), plus working 40 hours at the census office. And running. Doesn't leave a lot of time for much else. But I'm up for the challenge.

And at the census office-- more police work... Figuring out which set of info to believe. Things have thinned out there a lot-- people being released for lack of work. Thankfully, I'm not one of them. I still have a place to go, and people willing to pay me to be there.

So-- work and school, all wrapped up together. Busy times. It requires much giving of effort.

Bring it on.

Catching up

It's been an exciting couple of weeks around here-- much to say and much to catch up on.

I'm now enrolled in my first college course in 13 years... Pre-calculus, MATH 112 at the University of Alabama. It's a sort of warm up for calculus in the fall, since I've not taken a math class since 1994. I'm not even sure if 2x3 still equals six. Right now, I'm an accounting major, but really I'm throwing things at the wall and trying to find something that sticks. If we find that I don't like accounting, we'll try something else. But a new adventure, and new adventures in math, begins next week. It's an 8-9:45 class, so coffee, lots and lots of coffee will be needed. And some painkillers too. I'm reminded of taking honors trig as a senior in high school, and getting a 59 on the final to get 5.9 points and get semester credit by 0.5. I'll have an excellent tutor, and more motivation (not by much) than I did in 1988, so I think things will go better.

And speaking of new adventures, two of my best friends from college, and on the planet, came through Tuscaloosa two weekends ago. Drew lives in Houston, and through the magic of facebook, reconnected with his former girlfriend Heather. Things have progressed rapidly for them, and Drew flew up to eastern Ohio to move her down to H-town to live with him. They stayed with us on their way south, and we had a great time-- good food and lots of stories, some of which are actually true, some of which are aging well with time. I'd not seen Heather since- 1996?- and Ann had not met her. Those two kids look great, and look so happy they seem to glow these days. It was great getting caught up and reconnecting with old friends.

Heather and I have things in commmon these days-- leaving a stable job with decent pay, picking up and moving to a new part of the country, with a lot of uncertainty. Granted, there's a lot of stability in both our situations, but much change as well. I strongly suspect she reacts to change better than I do. But I think we'll all be OK.