Who is thaT?

Heh.. Hi!

Know it’s been a while since I’ve written.. Just thought I’d put some things out there..

I’ve been on a forced vaca from work since the shutdown hit.. I mean, literally, at midnight on the 1st, we were told to pack up and go home, and watch the news to see when we are expected back..

Blagh.. But, the time off has been nice.. I’m not even sure if I’ll be paid Saturday. I filed Unemployment for the first time in my life.. We DO know, however, that we’ll be paid back at SOME point. Once we are, we’ll have to pay back any compensation. Not a huge deal. Someone said last time, it took them like 9 months to pay back our money.. Sigh.

I’ve pushed myself WAY outside of my comfort zone a couple of times over the last month or so… It started with a cashier at a local convenience store I go to once a week to pick up a sandwich and some snacks.. This pretty cashier would always ask me how I’m doing, etc. Maybe I misread signals, but it felt like something was there. My normal reaction would be to not say or ask anything out of the ordinary, and go home and kick myself. This time, however, a good friend of mine advised me to push myself. (Her actual words were for me to put my big boy panties on, lol.) So I did. Went in one night after work with a paper in my back pocket with my numbers on them. Handed it to her as she handed me my receipt. Said, "This is for you." She seemed to smile and say, "Thank you." Wow, I thought. But, when I then said, "Maybe we could go out for coffee one day?," her face seemed to kind of drop, and her voice got low as she said, "I…. Alright."

I never ended up hearing from her, but that alone was HUGE for me. My friend said it could open up doors.

So, a friend pointed out that Rob Trujillo from Metallica would be at a local theater introducing the midnight showing of their new movie a couple of weeks ago. I am a HUGE Metallica fan, and was psyched as anything. So, when I got in line, there was a cute girl there. Me and her started talking, and when the line began moving, I quickly asked if I could sit with her and her friends. She agreed. Just before the movie was intro’d, I asked if I could have her number. She leaned in, and said she was seeing someone and didn’t want to mislead me. I replied that it was cool, and that we could be friends. She asked what my name was and then gave me her number.

It may not seem like anything huge, but I have literally NEVER done anything like that in my life.. She has become a decent friend, and we’ve been texting here and there. We’ve thus far hung out once at a beer tasting, which was pretty cool. We’re also supposed to do lunch at some point.

I’m going to write a separate entry in here at some point to talk, in detail about the traumatic experience that I’ve alluded to previously.