The Other Drummer

Welp, got laid off a couple weeks ago. It was a Wednesday, I think. Kinda sucks.

Should have known something was up when my check engine light came on the night before.

No hard feelings toward my former employers. This is the third round of layoffs in as many years and they broke the news with graciousness and emphasized that it was strictly due to the fact that I hadn’t been busy for quite a while (mild understatement) and that it didn’t appear that I would become busy anytime soon.

When I came home my wife’s reaction was about the coolest one could expect: she started laughing.

She has a lot of faith in me. And I love her for that.

I’ve been blessed with a lot of job leads in a very short amount of time. Thank you to everyone who reached out to me and for me. I’m truly appreciative.

Why haven’t I mentioned this sooner? Well, getting laid off wasn’t the worst thing that happened. Here’s the sequence of events:

1. Tuesday night the check engine light comes on. Bad omen?
2. Wake up Wednesday feeling a bit queasy. Go to work anyway.
3. Grandma A. checks into the hospital for open heart surgery.
4. Get laid off. Wow.
5. Get the flu. Feel gross.
6. Thursday I sleep in then play with my kids all day. Grandma A. has surgery.
7. Friday 7:30 AM – get a call. Grandma A. has had a severe stroke. Rush to hospital to give a blessing.
8. Spend the next several days trying to be helpful to my wife and her family.
9. Tuesday Grandma A. passes away.
10. Funeral for Grandma A. was the following Saturday.

So, yeah. Rough couple of weeks.

Now that things have settled down a bit (relatively) I hope to get back to blogging a bit more. I’ll keep you apprised of how the job hunt is going and if you happen to know anyone who needs a copywriter or social media strategist, let me know.

Image courtesy of here.

Way to go Utahans! There are 44 states that have fatter people in them than you! Your all-natural health drinks from tropical islands and your vitamin supplements are paying off!

Of course, having nearly a quarter of your adult population obese isn’t exactly a good thing but it looks like the folks at calorielab.com are grading on a curve (pardon the pun). So grab a Jamba Juice, Iceberg milkshake or some fries with fry sauce and celebrate our less-fatness!

A buddy of mine from work had a couple extra tickets to the Ani DiFranco concert on Saturday night.

“Who?”

Exactly. I’d never heard of her either. A quick trip to iTunes revealed some folksy, mellow acoustic music. Sure, it was a bit pro-woman, but the chance to hang out with my wife at a free outdoor concert was too good to pass up. So we decided to go.

We arrived on-time, picked up our tickets and made our way to the back of a very long line to receive wrist bands (why you need a wrist band when you have a ticket is beyond me). It’s not often that I feel overdressed but the fact that I had on all standard articles of clothing (shirt, shorts, shoes) made me feel really out of place. That, and I’d bathed within 72 hours of the concert. Based on some snap judgments of other attendees, I would say the stereotypical Ani DiFranco fan is…how do I put this tactfully?… liberal, earthy, bra-less women who dig chicks.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

While waiting in line we became friends with a guy named Christian who was selling homemade jewelry to raise money to fix his ’72 VW van. Christian was a proper earthy, hippie-type complete with a beard, matted dreadlocks, and nothing on but overalls. He seemed like the perfect candidate for my new project and he agreed.

When we finally found a spot at the very back of the venue we came upon a girl who had her back to us, laying on the ground puking. We spread out our blanket a few feet away and she slowly moved away, using a railing for support and continuing to vomit every few feet. We spent the rest of the evening screaming, “PUKE!” at people who wandered over to the barf-soaked open area looking for a place to enjoy the concert. Everyone was very grateful that we warned them and, hey, who doesn’t like to be appreciated?

The acoustics weren’t great so we couldn’t hear too well. My wife and I passed the time enjoying the beautiful backdrop of the mountains and people watching. Then I suggested brainstorm Things You Won’t See at an Ani DiFranco Concert. Here’s what we came up with:

1. Confetti cannons
2. An opening prayer
3. A Saturday’s Warrior montage
4. Tap dancing
5. Someone boasting about their Girl Scout Cookie sales record
6. Ventriloquism
7. The Pledge of Allegiance
8. Army recruitment officers
9. Sequins

Since we’re old, boring, married people we ended up leaving around 9:30. Overall, despite all the “negatives” we had an enjoyable time.

Image courtesy of here.

The other day El Presedente was in town. On day two of his visit I was dutifully riding the train to work. (I’ve been much better about riding the train lately – I haven’t driven to work in a couple weeks.) As we approached the Courthouse stop Mr. Train Driver said we were going to have to wait a few minutes because of the presidential motorcade. Great. I Twittered that I’d be stuck waiting for the motorcade.

Sure enough, we waited a few minutes at Courthouse before Mr. Train Driver said we could proceed to Gallivan, but we’d have to wait there. When we got to Gallivan I considered jumping ship and walking the rest of the way, but decided against it reasoning that maybe the wait at Gallivan would be short too.

I opened up The Lappy and using Salt Lake’s beautiful free Wifi jumped on the Internet. Looking at Twitter, I saw that someone had replied to my original tweet about being stuck, and said he needed to be downtown in 45 minutes and asked what parts to avoid. From that point on I Twittered where I saw traffic problems from my phone. Really, it’s pretty cool that nowadays we can communicate this way. But I digress.

The train started moving again and we got as far as Temple Square and Mr. Train Driver said we weren’t going any further, he was heading back to Sandy and everyone needed to get off.

As I walked toward work I came to 300 West, near KSL, and there was a cop in the street preventing anyone from passing. The motorcade was neigh.

Here are some pics I snapped with ye ol’ iPhone. The camera on the iPhone is kinda crappy. Sorry.

About a dozen motorcycle cops came first. The whole motorcade was bookin’ it – probably doing between 40-50 mph.

The President was in one of these limos. It was interesting to see that they weren’t traveling in the same lane. Security measure I presume.

There go the limos. There were also probably about a half dozen Suburbans overall, some with crazy-looking comms equipment on their roofs.

Note the rolled-down rear windows in the Suburban in the above picture. The back tailgate window was also open and had what I believe was a sharpshooter (sniper) looking out the back. It was then and there that I was glad I had decided against mooning the motorcade.

After more cops there was an ambulance bringing up the rear with its lights on, just in case.

I admit it was pretty cool to see everything. I wonder if the President even thinks about all the measures and precautions that are taken for him, or if he’s used to it now and it’s just part of the job.