Mindless Juices

so, last night, Sabrina and I went out to a club. Well, it was more of a lounge/club. It was actually pretty nice and a place I could definitely bring someone who was looking for that sort of atmosphere. It was on Duke's East Campus, so, you might be concerned since it's in Durham, but it's not as bad as people say/think. Anyway, my beautiful bride made herself even more beautiful and I looked OK, as usual. We headed out to The Siren's Lounge. Sabrina's friend Chris sort of rented out the place. I'm not sure exactly because there were people there that didn't know about the party, but we didn't pay a cover charge and he had a caterer bring in some food. Anyway, the place is a cigar bar/bar/club. Lounge is definitely a good description. The main room is the bar and they sell cigars as well as various types of alcohol. The atmosphere was soft lighting, classy, red and browns, wood grain with just a touch of modern with neon lights in the fridges chilling the cold liquors. The music was Top 40 hip-hop/dance. The bartenders were OK, but nothing special. Anyway, the best part of the evening (besides having the hottest girl in the place on my arm), was having the birthday boy, Chris, call me Mark for most of the time we were there. Now, Chris knows better, but he was euphoric with his party, drinking a little and trying to impress the chick he's seeing by playing the grand master of ceremonies for his party. I didn't mind. I also met some of my wife's co-workers which is always nice to put faces to the names. Lastly, I think it's important to note that the second best looking girl in the bar had a swarm of guys around her until her Vin Diesel wannabe boyfriend showed up. They walked by us once and even though my wife smiled at her, I saw her look sideways at my bride. She was threatened. Her boyfriend also gave my wife a second look. THAT is proof she was the best looking woman in that place. I'm not biased... well, I am, but I have proof.

... for me to go against the grain. "If all your friends jumped off a bridge..." I say, geranimo. My DNA

Ever been asked why manhole voers are round? Well, it's a common interview question. Unfortunately, as more people learn about the question, they'll bother to find the answer. Luckily, I've known why they are round since before I was seven. I learned it on Mr. Wizard. He was a great man. No, I'm not going to tell why they are round. Ask around, search the internet, whatever. But, please don't post the answer in my comments. If you do, I will delete it. I appreciate the fact that at the end of my interview, I was told that I am one of few people to answer that question correctly. Also, does anyone know what it is an interviewer learns from the question," If you could be any type of animal, what would it be and why?" If not, then who cares to speculate on my answer: a lemur. They cool, they've got the whole island to themselves (more than any other animal) and my wife would still love me if I was a lemur. Yes, I actually gave this as my answer because it's the truth. I found out the position was posted externally as well as internally. So, no matter how well the interview went, I still may be a less qualified candidate. So, pray for me. As I said in the interview, while it is a step up for me, I really feel like I can do some good in this position. It will be a lot of work, but that translates to a lot of opportunity, in my opinion.

So, we wake up and head out on Friday. I handed off all of my work responsibilities, save a few minor ones, and threw care to the wind. We drove up to Virginia to find out that God had allergies and was sneezing all over the town of Lynchburg... it was SO windy! We picked up our Impala and met up with Nick and Kelli and hit the road after a quick goodbye to Charlie. Now, one might wonder about a road trip with friends with whom you've never really spent an extended amount of time with. Sure, we've stayed with them before for the Vroom weekend, but we're talking road trip here... 8-10 hours in a confined space... However, it was actually quite nice. While it was difficult to find a good sleeping position (it always is), we all managed a little bit of rest along the trip. Conversation was the usual good, no pressure, easy-as-pie conversation. We played a little CD trivia that Sabrina's mom got her for her birthday. We listened to music and I believe, only one veto was used the entire trip. We went and saw "The White in White," Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest musical. The scenery was AMAZING. The lighting was AMAZING. Now, if you've ever been to newhope when I've run lights, you know that I'm a lighting tech moreso than any other type of tech. There's no possible way I could describe the scenery and lighting to do it justice. There were two moving curved walls with doors in them and another stationary curved wall upstage and it had a smaller wall that came out of it, but was replaced by another wall, but the smaller wall came out and rested on the turntable on the stage so it could rotate around and it had doors in it. Moving walls isn't a big deal. Les Mis builds and moves a gigantic barracade. However, the walls were made out of projection screen material and there were, at least, 4 projectors that projected down at such an angle that they completely covered every inch of wall and didn't have any shadows from actors or scenery cast on them. Additionally, the lights did not spill on to any of the screens in any significant way. They utilized the wall movement and projections in all sorts of different ways. It was truly unique and entertaining. We went to the top of the Empire State building. Sadly, it has reclaimed its reign as the tallest building in NY. It was very cold and very windy. In fact, at one point, I found out that the phrase "chilled to the bone" was a literal phrase. My bones actually HURT. Specifically, my shin bones and my jaw bones. Interestingly enough, it was only cold and windy on three sides. There was one side that was VERY pleasant, but it did not really have anything to look at. On the NBC studio tour, I learned a lot about the history of NBC. I was very surprised at the small sizes of the studios. I suppose growing up in FL and visiting MGM and Universal, you get used to the size of sound stages. I guess we always assumed that TV studios were smaller, but still very big. One interesting factoid is that the nightly news has a one minute video loop running behind it to make you think there's hustle and bustle. There's just a desk and a camera, no hustle, no bustle. Also, there is a guy that walks in with some papers. If you watch the news, keep your eye out for him. He'll come in about every minute. Oh, while the other three stood in the cold on the TKTS line, I was sent to wait in the "Wicked" cancellation line. I was the first in line for tickets to "Wicked" that night. Behind me was a nice older couple who own a travel agency in West Palm, Florida. I taught the wife how to second act. A couple left the matinee performance. They checked their coats, so they couldn't leave until they found someone to get their coats out of the room. Interestingly, there is a sign that says they will not open the room until after the performance, but apparently, that didn't apply to these two jerks who thought, "I won't even bother to stay for the rest and find out if my inclinations of dislike are fulfilled by the second act." Anyway, I knew there were two extra seats for the second act. I explained it to the wife, but her husband was nowhere to be found. She probably would have done it if she could have found him. Behind them were three rich college girls. How did I know they were rich? Two were in their first year in medical school. One was in her second year of law school. They were taking a weekend trip to NY and seeing a Broadway play. They were friendly and had seen a lot of plays. All in all, it was very good conversation while I was waiting. Perhaps my favorite part of the trip was on the way back. The girls were sleeping, more or less. It was relatively late. Nick and I were just chatting about our jobs, LEDs, million dollar ideas, blue collar vs. white collar... While there were many talks, there was little time for nothing but talking. So, it was a nice way to end the trip. All in all, I can honestly say that I would gladly take a road trip with Nick and Kelli. I am sure I would want them on a plane trip. I can only hope they fell the same way. Sabrina and I were usually the second couple down to the lobby. We were never late to anything (thanks to the flexibility of the schedule), but still, it's pretty unusual for us. It's very unusual for Sabrina. Upon arriving back to NC, I had an interview for my new job. That'll need to be another post.

SO, Angela's post has me thinking about friendships. And I'm going to jump right in. My favorite friendships are the ones with some high shcool buddies. We got a variety of nicknames, but there were five of us. Initially, there were 4, but Brian Mistler joined the mix in seventh grade. We played little league together. We played soccer together. We hung out together. We played video games together. We grew up together. My favorite part about the friendships is that it doesn't matter how much time has passed or what has happened, it's always like nothing's really changed. We've been there for each other through dumping girls, getting girls, dreaming about girls, and getting dumped by girls, life's little let downs, life's great adventures, college(s) and careers... it's all just easy. Maybe all of us weren't there for everything, but one of us was always there for one who needed it. If we haven't talked in literally years, we catch up, but it's not awkward. There's a sort of unwritten rule that we're there for each other. I wish I could say it's like "Four Kings," but it's not. It's simpler than that. We haven't really done life together. We've kept in touch and we keep up on each other's lives through our parents who all still live in Florida. We just grew up together, but that was enough to make some ties that were, in my opinion, everlasting. Now, I love my wife and she truly is the best friend I've ever had. But, her friendship requires work as a necessity of the marriage. It doesn't make it bad. I'm happy to do it. But, it's a very different friendship from the ones I described. There's something truly wonderful about a friendship that requires work. In philosophy, Kant speaks of the morality of one's will. The example often used by my professor was one where you're sick in the hospital and two friends come to visit you. All other things being equal, one WANTS to come visit you and does NOT. I think the friend who did NOT want to visit me and still did is a better friend. That notion of sacrifice says more about his morality than the other friend. There's a lot more to it, but you get the gist. Friendships that ask you to work at them can be more rewarding for that reason. In marriage, there are times you'll do something you're not interested in doing because your spouse wants you to. You'll watch TV shows, you'll spend time when you'd rather be doing something else, you'll do chores you hate, etc., but you get a certain reward you don't get from hanging out with easy friends. No, not the kisses and the hugs, or the gifts or the words of appreciation. There's an internal reward of a feeling of doing something for the sole purpose of trying to make your spouse happy. THEN, the success of actually making your spouse happy has its own rewards. So, that's my little schtick on friendships. I'm not sure there are any other types. You either have the easy ones and they vary in degrees of acquaintances to lifelong friends, but they don't require much effort on your part. And you have ones that you have to work on. They vary in degrees of how much work you have to put in and they vary in degrees of acquaintances to lifelong friends, but they all require some extra effort and offer their own set of rewards.