Well I guess we should start with the NBA finals, since as of the other day, they are now officially a wrap. Lebron Lebron Lebron. What can I say? He wanted it more, plain and simple. He actually played like it mattered, for the first time in his career. Now, am I backing the bandwagon up and securing my seat? Hell no. He’s still a chump as far as I’m concerned, and that will never change. But he won, and I can’t debate that. Normally I would make some rational points on why OKC lost, and say it should have been different, but honestly, I can’t do that either. Could they have played better? Not at this point in their careers, no. They made a shit ton of mistakes, but every mistake they made, if given a mulligan, they would probably make again, because every mistake they made was made from youth and inexperience, and unless you make those errors, especially in big games, you aren’t going to not make them again. They are vital to growing as a unit, as a basketball team, and very much needed in development of a championship caliber collective such as the Thunder will be for the next two thirds of a decade or so. My only complaint about the finals? Not the refereeing, because that’s part of the game, and no not Lebron winning, because it was going to have to happen eventually. No, my only complaint, much like the only complaint the ladies have with me, is that I just really wanted the finals to last a little bit longer. The whole NBA playoffs this year were just fun. Exciting, energetic, fun. And if it wasn’t for stupid injuries, some serious and some not so serious, no doubt caused by a lockout shortened season with a condensed schedule, I know these playoffs not only could have even been a bit better, but turned out completely different as well. But it’s over now. So thanks for 6 months of dunks, steals, no looks, blocks and a story line that makes the Young and the Restless seem like amateur hour, see you in the fall NBA…………
So what else is going on? Ok, well, we finally got our raise. After a year and almost a half of arbitration and mediation our contract situation has finally been resolved. Did we get what we want? No. Did we get enough? I would say yes. Now as far as some of my co-workers are concerned we didn’t get nearly what we should have, but these are the same people that, if given a bag of gold, they would have the audacity to say straight faced, “What? Only 5 pieces?” I’m more than happy with what we took, and even as far as what we conceded, it still beats the alternative. There are a lot of bus drivers out there that forget exactly how basic and simple of a job we have, and yes at times it can be stressful, but I believe we are rewarded handsomely in exchange for this. Besides, stress is only as stressful as you let it be. When you get to a certain point in a stressful day, the mentally strong have the ability to say “ok, that’s just about enough worrying for today”, and let whatever happens happen. Some will say, yeah but the people are this, and the people are that, blah blah blah. Are we the only organization in the world that has to deal with people? Hardly the case. And it’s all relative. The guy that works at the coffee shop deals with people (some decent, some idiots I’m sure), and so does the cashier at Wal-Mart. Now take what we make an hour and divide it by what they make an hour, and then multiply that number by the number of people they deal with in a day, and you probably get approximately the number of people we deal with in any given day. Sure there is a factor or two missing from the equation, but it’s not that far from accurate. So it’s all relative, and we are adequately compensated I would say. But even more important of a factor is this, the guy at Wal-Mart or the guy at the coffee shop, etc. has to be nice, courteous and to some extent genuine. We do not. Despite what the “blue suits” say on T.V. our job is not to smile and say hi, tend to your every beck and call, or even give a shit for that matter. Our job is to get from one side of the city to the other side of the city without hitting anything, and if can be done, in a timely fashion. Nothing more, nothing less. So how then, is it stressful? Why do you care? Here’s a piece of wisdom for all my co-workers out there and for anyone else interested as well. Don’t go giving a shit when it ain’t your place to give a shit. Apply that, and see how ridiculously your perspective changes, and how easily your day gets. And to those that say we still don’t get paid enough for what we do, I would like to do an experiment with you. I’m going to get you a shovel, and out of my own pocket I’m going to pay you 12 dollars an hour to go out and dig a ditch. I’ll pay you myself for 2 reasons. 1, I know you won’t make it 2 hours before you concede and come running back to drive your bus at what all of a sudden became a reasonable wage, and 2, it’s worth the $24 to me, to not have to hear you bitch anymore. There are a lot of people out there that work a lot harder than we do, and wish they took home what we get deducted from our pay cheques, let alone what we make. Think about that for a second next time you open your mouth and sheer foolishness falls out of it, will you please. Or just do what I do. Get yourself a twitter account and pick one dumbass everyday doing dumbass shit, and tweet about him. Make a joke out of it. You have no idea how good it feels to hit that tweet button and wait for the “likes” and “LOL”’s to roll in. Very calming indeed……..Anyway, what else? Oh, want to know what I did with the raise? Well, it’s not even in affect yet, but half of it has already been spent. The Pontiac was about to get a little expensive repair wise, and I hate paying for stupid repairs, so I tricked out and copped a new whip. Got me one of them Jap-Mobile Rouge’s, and It marks a few firsts, and hopefully a last as well. It’s, the first time I’ve ever had an odometer that low, the first time I’ve ever not had a four door sedan, the first time I’ve ever paid that much for a car, and most interestingly the first time I’ve ever had a non-North American ride. Hopefully it also marks the last car I’ll have for a while. Understand, I’ve been driving for 11 years and this is my eighth car in that span, so I played a little strategy on myself with this one. In that time frame I have yet to lose money on a trade in, and normally I won’t go any further than 4 years on a financing term, but this time I took a five year plan, and I did this for a couple of reasons. First, the cost was simply too high for 48 months, maybe we don’t make enough money at work after all, lol. But second, after two years, I simply won’t have enough paid off to get a reasonable trade in on it, thus forcing myself because I’m stubborn and won’t take a loss, to keep it longer. It’s bad when you have to set yourself up to avoid your own idiocity, isn’t it? This thing requires very little pimping too. Normally the first thing I do is rip the stereo out and put something real big in. But it came with a Bose system, and not even I’m dumb enough to fuck with that. As soon as I got home, I dropped the satellite radio in and we were good to go. It came with a sub already, and it’s decent, but those that know me, know that there can never be enough bang in the back, so I might do something about that. Although I don’t know if a stock system has an output for any extra boom, but we will go see the Noise Boys around the corner and see what they have to say about it. If anyone can do it, they can. The grill is kind of generic too and could use something extra, but I might be a little too progressed in life to be swapping grills……. Hmmmm…Maybe not. Tints are on, paint polish is applied, and I got Eli looking for some Sean John license plate covers, so all in all this bitch is set to stunt. Now all I have to do is wait and enjoy some of that fuel economic shit these foreigners are always boasting about. I’ll keep you posted.
Damit it. I’m already pushing my word count here, and we haven’t really covered anything. We haven’t talked about women (they truly make no fuckin sense), baseball (@JoeyBats baby), and my post-surgery comeback to the basketball court (kings stay kings, albeit very sore kings), or how my ex is already re-engaged (checkers move if I ever saw one), or my second consecutive "Summer Of Brad" (off to a pretty good start i must say). It’s clear my mind simply cannot be contained in 2000 words. I have to track down Eli and get a meeting about this. I know what he will say already though. “Post more regularly”. Easier said than done little buddy. Who’s going to drive the buses, lift the weights, hit the jumpers, and love the ladies if I’m in here posting more? Speaking of Eli and ladies, he’s got himself a new little lady friend so he’s been spending more time with her, and less time riding my back lately. Not completely off my back, but a little bit, and because of that fact and that fact alone, although I haven’t met her, I already like her. They even started a little blog of their own, if you want to pop over and have a look see, please do. Its bush league at best, but it’s cute, and fun, so check it out. Don’t be surprised if I take it over and make it run sometime in the near future. But listen, I have to run, I got a bunch of stuff to do on this beautiful afternoon, and this coffee tastes like shit. I think there might be some Splenda in it, and something that tastes like cream cheese. I guess I can add standing in front of a mirror and practice ordering “black coffee” to my already ridiculous day off itinerary……..Be back in a couple of weeks………………………. Hang in there……….
