Sorry Kids

OK, it's been quite a while since I blogged. A bunch going on so if you think some of this stuff is worthy of longer posts, let me know and I will expand my ramblings.

First the work stuff. My last day wasn't the 19th as the expected. It ended up being this past Friday the 22nd. Things were delayed due to a death in the family (thanks for the messages and condolences from those that knew) I had to back things up a few days as I was in WV most of the week prior to this past. I had my exit interview on Wednesday. It didn't have nearly the fireworks I was expecting. Spoke with my boss about an hour and half over lunch. He had previously heard most of what I had to say over the past few months from me so it wasn't a ton of surprises. Stayed pretty busy all week but I think I was as professional as possible and left them in pretty decent shape with regards to my accounts.

I'll be "unemployed" until July 9th. Will be spending most of the week of the 4th in Florida with family. I'm looking forward to that as well as getting some stuff done around here in the mean time. Probably spend a day or two in TN as well.

Speaking of family, I was looking through some of my sisters pictures on Facebook today. Since she is college bound later this summer she got her account set up. In the pictures is a shot of my 12 yr/old brother with a traditional pyramid as seen in beer pong in front of him. I know he had seen it at a tailgate with us old fogies but wow. He looked a little glazed but I doubt my sister would have let him partake. It's just weird seeing a him playing this at my parents house

Done and Done

I turned in my official two week notice yesterday afternoon to my boss Rick who is the company President and heir apparent to his father. It was twice as smooth as I imagined it would be. I was not counter offered which was a pleasant surprise. I expected it but I also think it is a move of desperation. To borrow a phrase from Nobrainer, "Desperation is a stinky colgne." With this in mind I was extremely pleased to not have to deal with it and proud my boss didn't go that route. This occured between 5:30 and 6 last night. This morning we told Richard (Rick's dad and the CEO). He was shocked and disappointed that I would be leaving. Rick was also disappointed but not nearly as shocked. I have a feeling this stems from a fear he has had over the past year or two (he expressed this concern) along with the donscontent that I have been expressing from time to time and my curiosity in leaving this office for another one in the company. I will be having an exit interview sometime this week over lunch. I really don't want to sling any mud or say something taht could jeopardize a good working relationship moving forward but I think if their are any fireworks, that's when they will happen.

Go Time

It's go time as in I'm gone. Details to follow.

What's Wrong Here?

We've had two temp's in our office helping with phones and some secretarial work this week due to family illness issues keeping some of our normal support staff out. The first one sucked so I don't care that she didn't come back. No surprise. The other is here and owrking up front. I think she is different from the one yesterday. I didn't pay enough attention to lock in what the other one looked like other than she had one of those funny pull over hair do's with the hair on the "pulled from side" cut really close. Anyway, the one here today is driving a Mercedes ML type SUV. It sports a vaniety tag reading "BlkBarbie." I kid you not. Obviosuly not mom or dad's car. I jsut wanna know how payments are taken care of on a temp workers payroll unless she is doing this to fill time between normal jobs or works like 18 hours a day doing other stuff too. I thought I had de-senstized myself to stuff like this but I was shaking my head again this morning, so I guess not. Doesn't "that" Barbie have a name anyway?


***********UPDATE****************
I officially feel like a fool. I overheard an introduction of the the temp from last week to the lady she was in for this morning. She was brought in as our regular person was iffy depedning on her husbands health after the weekend. Anyway, the temp apparently has served time in Iraq with our armed forces. To what extent and in what role, I don't know, but either way I should maybe not be so quick to judge in the future. It's something I do, I know it, and this time it made me the fool....again.

Ouch

My face and brain hurt. Out of four of us who drank heavily, we went "0-fer" with regards to making it to work on time today. If I hadn't awakened to the sound of Mexican's building houses behind my friends place, there is a good chance I would still be asleep. Still uncertain if I slept somewhere other than a bed for any length of time. I didn't crap myself, but I missed a damn good opportunity. That is all.

Countdown to Begin

According to a phone call I just received I will be receiving a formal offer from York/Johnson Controls in the coming days. Once this offer is officially received I will hasten my current withdrawl from current employment. Unless a mighty stout offer is also received in the coming days for a sales position based in Richmond involving coal and material handling systems for industrial and utility (power production) facilities, I plan to stay put in Charlotte and start playing ball with the big boys. Getting into the corporate world should also give me the chance to move up the ladder should it be the thing for me and my skills allow for it. I'm just excited that I get to move into more of a truly technical sales position, or so the plan goes.

Chess Match

Well, I think the chess match has officially started. My boss randomly sauntered into my office about 5:45 this evening while I was finishing up a quote. A fair amount of evenings, he or I am already gone. He asked about the Columbia thing and I said that I just don't want to go. Said I had thought about it a lot. The market is what I am looking for (no BS) but I just don't like the town. Said I had spent some time there and tried to give it another shot but I just don't like it. Most of which is the god's honest truth. Needless to say it caught him off guard. He wondered if I had been going down there or thought about getting in that groove. My answer was the above. He said he had to go but we would talk more about it later. So now what. I am supposed to have some finality on two options in the next week. The third is out there and Career Builder has all my info and I have shot my resume out to a few local corporations in the Fortune 500. If I wanted to do insurance he would be a piece of cake. Since the resume has been up they have emailed me a ton and called a few times. They make telemarketers peons on the scale of annoying people.
Sounds like I need to throw the strategery gear into 5th and figure out a plan. Hopefully I can sneak my Bishop around before the King rallies his knights and pawns.
Stayed tuned, conversation may get interesting for a change.
but for now...it's time to get out of here and go have a beer or three downtown.

Business and Women

I've come to the conclusion that businesses are like women. They talk and talk and talk about what they want to do and what they would like to see happen and then they don't make a frigging decision FOR-E-VER. Please people, for the love of god and all things sacred, make up your mind and let me know your decision! In the mean time, the folks over at Tums thank you.

Go For It!

Run for President, Nancy Boy, and see what happens. At least it's cheap to give Obama a buzz cut. Further proof that most dems have no freaking clue how to do anything but spend more of the taxpayers dough.

Updates

I'm going to Richmond on Thursday afternoon. Should be a good trip. Dinner that night and something formal the next morning or so the story goes. I am also supposed to have a formal interview next week in town with a major equipment and controls provider. Columbia and the contracting position in Charlotte are still viable options at this time as well. Hopefully I'll have more direction this time next week. Until Thursday I'll have to continue BSing my bosses as they know I am going to Richmond thanks to Terry "Captain Fuckup" Haywood in my office.

Poot coined a term "Haywooded" about 18 months ago. It's when you get screwed by Terry. Often times he knows this has happened after the fact at best but doesn't realize he is screwing you in the process of the event. Sadly, even afterwards, he doesn't always realize it. In this instance, only I know I am an getting screwed and can't really get any understanding out of other folks I work with. Anyway, since he has known I was going to be out of the office he has mentioned it in front of Richard (the big boss) on the way to lunch yesterday, then again in our weekly meeting this morning in front of both Rick and Richard. Both Rick and Richard are going to be gone Friday (Rick for the rest of the week). They asked where I was going to be so I had to give them a story and flat out said Richmond but used family as an excuse. I had to be sure I had something worthy of being gone on short notice. They don't care to have Terry as the only sales person here and have even had me come back from work trips a day ahead of them to hold down the office after Terry has been left alone as the only commercial sales person (Charlie, the old industrial specialist doesn't count) for more than a day or two. With this in mind, I didn't want them to have any reason to ask me not to leave. Anyway, I BS'ed the family thing like it was my dad's request. I'm just hoping karma doesn't bite my ass. I do have an aunt in Richmond and my dad is the one that put me in touch with the right folks for this possible opportunity. Not all my story is crap, fortunately. And I may try and have lunch with my Aunt on Friday.
I am also hoping my reasons for going have been enough not to raise suspicion nor generate anymore questions. Had it not been for Captain Fuckup, Rick would have left for the week without realizing I would be gone later too and the likelihood of Richard even realizing would have been slim. Now I just have to find a good story for my return and the family stuff I was doing come Monday. Let's just hope the interview goes so well, I am convinced it is a good idea or that it doesn't work to the point I can chalk it up to time wasted and that going was good learning experience.

CEO

We've all seen those cheesy sayings, especially on shirts. Thing's like "The only problem with winning the rat race is you're still a rat." and "You are the CEO of your life." I'm sure someone who reads this has a parent with a shirt or note pad with emblazoned upon it. If you have this(and are under 50) you shold be shot to help rid the world of lameness.
Anyway, with all that is going on I've decided to have one of those CEO moments. A plethora of options are presenting themselves but one that stands out to most is Vegas. I'm gonna let it pass. I've heard both ends of the spectrum on living in the town and there seems to be no middle ground. More importantly, the position requires a minimum two year time committment, in my mind, to really get established and make headway. It would be in sales with equipment I am not currently up to speed on so a product learning curve would occur first then relationship building. My gut says I'll be wanting to head back east in a few years. Some have voiced concern that I would go wild out there. That't not it. Being away from those folks as they have families as well as being away from mine is my concern. Doing something like that at a young age would probably be fun, no disagreement. Let me go be a facilities engineer and live it up then. Otherwise, I see no reason wasting the time and money a trip would consume for a position I am having stronger and stronger reservations on taking. There are options on the coast and I love nothing more than drinking and being on the water so I think I have plenty of fun options around.

Piece of

Shit car. After getting jerked around by the morons at Home Depot for the better part of the weekend on an aerator that Poot and I were splitting for our yards, they now get to stare at my car in their lot until sometime Monday morning. The jerking around came as the idiots that rented Poot the piece of equipment gave him no instruction on the 4 different switches on this thing nor the levers. No operation manual or "quick start" sheet was provided either. Within about 5 minutes we had the machine cranked and within another 5 we had it working properly, and figured out how to control it. Finished his yard and took it to my place, figuring I would knock my yard out in about an hour. Poot hauled it up there, thinking he could bring it back, to the local HD where he rented it, and we would be done without any trips today.
Engine turned over initially then sputtered out in about 10 seconds. That was the end of any hope. Poot called the knuckleheads we rented it from and all they could say was "you probably flooded the engine, let it sit." They mentioned something about not knowing our mechanical inclination and messing with the spark plug but that was it and gave no detail. We had already "let it sit," which I did for another hour, then again overnight, getting no crank at any time.
At this point I gave up hope on getting my yard done this weekend. Returned it about 9:30 this morning to find out they were going to give us another machine for an additional 4 hours (not to be billed) which also meant I was going to have to bring it back to the south side of town today, not tomorrow. Fine, just get this over with, as little confrontation as possible, please.
Got my yard done, came south to drop it off, had a few other errands to run on this side of town everything is good. Jackass as the rental counter wanted me to back to the rental door because he couldn't come out into the lot. I was in the first spot in the aisle directly outside this door and wanted to do some other shopping after returning the equipment. With a crappy attitude and disbelieved look I finally back over unloaded and jumped in to re-park and get on with life as HD had pretty much wasted a solid 6 hours of my weekend already. Oh, and they have the nerve to tell us that we got ahold of some bad gas with the first machine as it was running fine after they drained the tank. It just so happens we never had to refill it as we were running on the tank they provided us in the beginning
Time to get moving on. Car won't crank.
I've had some power issues indicating the alternator was going bad, or at least had a bad spot. Occasionally it would clock and not fire the car but nothing too bad. I was always able to get it started, much like a contrary starter. Granted I had been putting off having it looked at, I really didn't think I was engaging in very risky behavior. Poot came up to HD, gave me push and I guided it into an easily accessible spot in their lot. In the morning, I will see what the dealership can do about towing it down. They will be fixing it either way as I am only a couple miles up the road. Should make for an interesting way to start the week.
Either way I am in an extremely pissy mood at this point, have an evening of office work ahead of me I had hoped to nickle and dime my way through over the past two afternoons and evenings when I thought all this other stuff would be done. Fortunately Poot is running me to meet Skippy who is riding with the fiance to work in the morning and letting me bum his car during the day while, hopefully, mine gets fixed.
We'll see how it all shakes out, the story could get even more ridiculous with a car dealership and their service department involved.


Update: It's not the alternator. Apparently my battery is shot and won't hold any charge. This will make the second battery in 18 months after the original lasted a good 3-3.5 years. While at the shop they recommend a transmission flush (at nearly 100K miles, I'll go with it) and a new water pump as mine is leaking. I wanna call BS on this but know better. I have noticed what I thought was a bit of an excessive condensate trail. I've had no overheating issues but better safe than sorry. It's gonna sting when I pull that credit card out. At the same time, I'm that much closer to a free flight outta here to somewhere relaxing.

Change O Plans

So, as some (or most) of you know I am headed to Vegas for a "Bachelor Party" in March. Said "party" was going to be legit the weekend of St Patty's Day. That didn't work out so I had to bet and declare with a firm that wants to speak with me about a position out there. The weekend that things are supposed to happen is the 29th through April 1. A good friend was supposed to coming out that Friday to meet me after my day long interview. Turns out he had RSVP'ed a party in Tampa for the same weekend, many months back, and had forgotten about it. Not a big deal, I'm a big boy and can travel alone. My thing was, I wanted some folks out there to party with the other two days of my trip. Especially on my first trip to Sin City. I was also hoping someone who had been would be able to make it so they could point me at least somewhat in the right direction. So much for that. Now I'm to the point where I don't care who goes with me, as long as someone comes to hang. Again, I can mange on my own but a partner in crime is always more fun. Any takers?

Channel Surfing

I'm not typically one for the awards shows but stumbled upon the Grammy's tonight. I was bored with Sunday night TV and started flipping chanels and decided to see what was on the HD Discovery channel. In the process I got the Grammy's on the HD CBS chanel. Initially I caught a tribute to the Eagles by Racal Flats and Carry Underwood. They had one award presentation then a 60's, 70's and now R&B collage with Smokey Robinson, Lionel Ritchie, Chris Brown and surprise pop up by Christina Aguilera. The music in both was surprisingly good. Christina was doing an old cover and looked good in some classy all white suit get up. More importantly Carrie Underwood (who won the one award I saw, Best Newcomer) was freaking rediculously hot in HD. These are the moments I'm glad I pay extra. Now on to the Military Channel to regain my manhood from watching this stuff alone.

Big D

Yeah, so the conference was uneventful. I did the networking I set out to do. Some travling this spring may result from it and I will keep you posted if/when that unfolds. As for the goings on there, not as eventful as I had hoped. Our hotel was not downtown. Not that being downtown has the benfits it did in Chicago. Dallas is one spread out place. It was $15 no matter where you go, and that was without the $2-3 a person extra, above two in a vehicle. Most of the time boozing was spent in the hotel bars where a 16oz draft Fat Tire was $5.50 (I'll pay between $4 and $6 in Vail for this, or $4.50-5 for a bottle) or $5.75 for a bottle of anything else, including but not limited to Mich Ultra. And yes, we did havea female sales person with us drinking this. That's some screwy pricing, and no there wasn't a 7eleven close by.
On the last night though, I got to verify some things being quite large in Texas. At the new D bar, things were quite large. Double D met some double D's. The nice part was, unlike many clubs that I have either expereinced or heard of, interaction was allowed. None of this "Not between the knees dancing" or "Touch me like that again and your outta here buddy" crap or any of that. The girls earned their cash and whether or not you were allowed to "verify" the construction of the goods, you could without comment anyway. We'll say that was the best $20 I spent all weekend. Just $20 you ask...yes, just twenty in the club. When you sell a few hundred grand worth of a product for one company you get the occasional cover/drink/dance treatment and if you are really lucky, you may cram into a van with a dude inthe luggage area going to the club but take the stretch hummer home because you just don't want to wait on a cab.

Leave a message at the beep.

Today starts my ventures about the southwest and Rocky Mountains over the next ten days. I leave in a couple hours for ASHRAE in Dallas. 2 days of sles meetings, dinners and hospitality suites and another day and half of product show and suites. The room ain't cheap but I am splitting it with a coworker. The flight is taken care of via a credit from a trip I was supposed to take last spring. It could be intersting. Most meals and some alcohol is comped but I am going with an agenda other than just having fun a learning this year. It's all about networking and getting my name out. Hopefully I will have some good leads when I return. Hopefully I will also find out if everything is really bigger in Texas. We'll see, and if i do, it will make for some good reading later on. I mean why not, it's not like I am going to have to deal with anything past the next four days.
I get two days to pretend to catch up in the office and get some house chores such as laundry done before heading to Colorado with Poot and a couple of his boys to go skiing. That is a straight fun trip. No doubt. Super Bowl parties at 9000 feet should be a good time. I would say cheap drunk too, but I know nothing out there is cheap. At least it takes less, especially when it's my favorite beer, Fat Tire. Can't get it east of the mighty Mississippi so I must enjoy it as much as possible while there.
If anything fun or interesting happens, I'll throw a post up at my earliest opportunity.


Beep............

Stereotyping....No, Not Me.

As anyone who has traveled through Charlotte knows, I-77 can be quite busy. Traffic jams can occur at any time of day due to the city (and possibly state’s) inept at preparing for a growing population and the infrastructure issues created. Throw in that Charlotte is a distribution hub for multiple truck lines with it being an interstate crossroads and you can imagine the challenges on the roadways at any given time. As we all know, the morning and afternoon rush is going to be bad, it doesn’t matter if you are in Atlanta or Anderson. We have it no better here as you could guess.
In a rather quick manner, I learned some of the tricks for navigating the interstate at least coming into work in the mornings. Certain lanes move much quicker as they are not subject to direct merging on and off at the main downtown interchanges. From time to time to though, you get some real winners in these lanes. You know. That person that even in heavy, slowly moving traffic, stays back 5 car lengths and lets every Tom, Dick, and Harry merge in front of them. That same person that may pull up relatively close at a stand-still only to be the main reason of the snake effect once motion resumes. Normally they are in some clunker that just doesn’t have any acceleration left in the engine or somebody in an SUV busy talking on the cell phone (no headset). These are all stereotypical and it’s pretty easy to ID the driver type. This morning, I had the winner or all winners though. For starters, the car was a white Chevy Impala, government tags, and car ID number in the back window. A head silhouette was not present, at least not enough to see any curvature. No extra antennae present. The lag behind the car(s) in line was more than the usual 1-2 car max, and exceeded the 5 or so lengths I have come to sometimes accept before sputtering off multiple slurs and explicatives. It was easily 7-10 at any given time. Note, this was noted at speeds at or below 30MPH. You know where this is going. Automatically, I’m thinking fat black woman in her 30’s maybe pushing 40. I zip out into the left lane next to the HOV lane (this lane is usually slowed up by the HOV folks being forced to merge back in on down the road about a ½ mile) and pass them. Sure enough, I hit the nail on the head and to top it off, she is on her cell, no headset. I instantly begin thinking about writing this post as I cruise along. Typical Char-Meck government worker. Spends her commute on the phone then bitches about answering it when she gets to work, making sure that what ever service is providing the municipality is done at a bare minimum level.
Commute continues as normal. I have passed most of the main turnoffs where the bank folks peel off so traffic has lightened up, at least until I approach the lower side of the downtown loop where merging delays are common. I am catching traffic ahead of me with no one closing in behind me until I see what approaching, the White Impala. This crazy ass lady is still running her jaw and now she is doing 70+ and coming up quickly on one big ass bottleneck. Fortunately nothing bad happened. She got on the breaks, actually got in the quickest lane for traffic passing straight though and held her ground through the slow down without leaving big gaps. Who knows, maybe she got off the phone.
This is the kind of crap that kills me though. And I am sure it’s not limited to our traffic but damn. The sad part is, it takes about 2 seconds to profile the driver simply by the vehicle type. People can say what they want about racial profiling and all this PC crap. Until incidents like this morning start becoming young white men, I’ll keep calling it like it is.
Oh, and did you hear about the pizza joint in Texas taking pesos now? That’s a whole ‘nuther story. Yeah, that's a can of worms I'm not getting into this morning.

2006 Review and 2007 Predictions

Major things from 2006.
Started talking to chic in early part of year only to find out by mid summer she is absolutely nuts. Liked a lot for a while. Communication with her is back but only as a joke almost.
Bought a house that most of the readership has seen as did Poot.
Finished grad school in June and finally got my piece of paper in early December. I think I need to get that framed soon.
Had a big ass party to celebrate birthday and the two other good things listed above. Awesome time seeing everyone. Chic in first comment was a bit of a buzz kill there but oh well.
Joined a social club to get out and meet some other folks since bars = talking to the same few people I went out with and spending lots of cash and having a 50/50 shot at making a fool of my self.
Sat through a football season with lots of hype and promise to watch it fall apart down the stretch.
Met a couple chics that I enjoyed talking to and spending time with. The one in Charlotte is a straight friends zone thing. The one in the upstate is really awesome but may never speak to me again because of the train wreck that was this past Friday night. For those details talk to Poot, Agent, or Jessie. I recommend the second two for a clearer rendition of the night. Sometimes you get what you deserve.
I thought I had gotten better about getting plastered. The reality is, I am just as bad about it as I was if not worse. Instead of spreading it out though, I throw several days worth into individual evenings and end being a real dumb ass. Effects are probably worse this year than in ones past as the stories aren't any funnier but the things I do have much longer staying power.
Married off several friends and watched another get engaged. Congrats to all these folks.

2007 Predictions/Expectations/Direction
Keep doing the social club. Will try to do some of the stuff that aren't happy hour and sports related. Otherwise my under 35 network won't expand, which it hadn't really been doing as planned. I'll probably get frustrated with is by late spring and say screw it.
Get more involved in doing things for my professional organization as I am in line to be VP then President of the local chapter beginning fall of this year and rolling through 08-09 on the time line.
I will be attempting to cut back on the booze. It's fun at the time. It accomplishes nothing. I'm too old to act like I'm 20 on weekend nights. Any help or friendly comments to take it easy will be greatly appreciated. Hitting be in the head when I take these comments as a challenge to prove I can drink more will be acceptable and is officially encouraged. Please have someone print this off as a reminder I said it.
I'll actually get to the doctor and get my body checked out. I'm sure this crap with my skin will be something extremely odd and will continue to piss me off as it gets worse before they find a medicine that must be taken 14 times a day to get better. Alcohol won't be recommended with it, which won't be as big a deal. Unfortunately, neither will be lots of summer sun without 30+ sunscreen. My pastiness will continue.
I'll keep being a workaholic and hopefully doing well. Little things at work will continue at piss me off after they build up in which case I will look into other job options. The likelihood I actually change will be less than 5% as I get away with a lot at my office.
I'll enter the 07 college football season with high hopes. The Tigers will find a way to dash those. Some one will be the new Proctor.


Keep on keeping on and see what surprises pop up. There is always something out there that blindsides us. Who knows what it will be in 07.

Mid-Holiday Report

So this is how things have shaken out since the post last Thursday afternoon:
Got email diss from Charlotte girl and went to the party with Poot as mentioned in comments on the last post. Party was a pretty good time. Good drink special, decent music but low on scenery other than the girls that work at the place, which can never be complained about. Called to wish the other a Merry Christmas while traveling from one house to another on Christmas Eve. Rang three times, then sent to voice mail (typical when someone sees who is calling and hits the ignore option). No text messages, calls, or emails since, sent or received. Last night I drank a big glass of fuckitall and have said the hell with them. They have to make quite an effort for any further attention.
As a funny side note, I did get a Merry Christmas email from crazy girl from this summer. Apparently I am still in one of her email lists for some reason. I replied, more to be a smart ass than anything. I'm guessing she didn't realize I am still on that list though I haven't received anything in quite a while from her and she would peridocially send forwards to a large list of people. Anyway, referenced seeing her at a big social shin dig though I we never spoke. Wished her well and said to let me know if she ever wanted to get together or chat. I expect nothing more than a smart ass email from her or nothing at all. I have little desire to see her unless she decides she wants to prove some big talk in the bedroom from before. I really don't expect to hear from her at all.
On to nothing inparticular but at least not going to think/worry about where I stand with what was believed to be current options. Will laugh if I hear back from the crazy girl from summer. Any suggestions on how to fill some time this winter are more than welcome.

Confused...In Need of Help

I'm once again in need of the publics’ opinion. As Agent Orange once stated, I live in a Soap Opera and it entertains him greatly. Some of you are familiar with my efforts over the past few months, some, not so much.
Quick re-cap. There was slump buster that most of you know about. She has not been and won't be part of any future considerations of options and hasn't been in them for over a month now. Her purpose has been served outside of being a decent person to hang out with in town with other friends present. These other two individuals of interest have been at least acquaintances since early in the football season. One, a person I met here in Charlotte, the other, a person I met during the season that lives in the upstate.
Breakdowns:
Charlotte girl. Cute, kinda country as she grew up outside Aiken. Lives here and we know each other through friends. We have dinner or hang out occasionally. Tonight possibly being one of those nights. She will randomly call without prompt and talk for 10, 15, 20 minutes or so. She has mentioned New Years plans and asked if I want to join her and two of her girlfriends. I have somewhat declined as I am not interested in the uptown on NYE thing. The last two years this has been attempted and neither has been a rousing success due to crowds and additional cost in comparison to a normal night out. She is quite attractive as Poot can attest. I can’t read her or her intentions. Though she definitely shows interest in keeping contact. Joining three girls out sounds like a sucker punch for a free sober driver or an attempt at a set-up with one of the friends. As mentioned, I can’t read her though.
Upstate girl. Many of the general readership has met this one over the course of the last half the season of home games. She took my extra ticket to GT along with MD and NCSU. We hung out a little prior to the USuCk game as well. I stayed at her place the Saturday of NCSU and slept on the Aerobed as I intended. She has come to Charlotte, and stayed at the house with several of her friends for her birthday a couple weeks ago. Contact prior to that was sporadic via phone and every couple of days while checking on football plans via email prior to her visit. Now emails are at least every other day and we have spoken on the phone in similar intervals, with time lengths anywhere between 10 minutes and close to an hour. I am not making half of these initial calls/emails either. I even received an email this morning after she didn’t get a chance to call me back last night as she was out late, asking if she could call me back this evening while she was traveling. That came along with the text message sent late last night indicating she would call today instead. She has no NYE plans and they haven’t really been discussed past the fact she has friends that want to do something in downtown G’ville and may possibly do that. She, like I, am not too geared up for heading out on NYE with the clustered masses and would much prefer hanging out with friends or a house party. The funny part about this one is she has told mutual friend(s) that she doesn’t want to give me the wrong impressions or that things are “like that” between us. My quandary with this one is I don’t know many, if any girls, that aren’t interested in a guy that make this kind of effort to stay in regular contact with them. May be it’s the time of year and she’s single. Maybe she is interested. I was filled on the past relationships the other night without prompt so I know she is getting pretty comfortable with me and the info she passes along. Now if she would just make her intentions or wants more apparent, I would know how to handle things and which way to go.
Now, here is what I feel my options are and I would like general feedback to he above, alternate opinions, or your thoughts on the following:

Option 1- Hope to hang out with Charlotte girl tonight. If she makes a special effort to hang out, see what happens. Push to do something on NYE or at least the night before depending on how her out of town visitor situation plays out. Mainly hoping for her to show her cards tonight and go from there with her.

Option 2 – See how conversation with Upstate girl goes this evening, and assume it goes well as it has been, especially after the wealth of personal info given last time. Parlay it into additional conversation over the holiday weekend by phone and suggest to just hang out NYE with her doing something low key just to have something going on.

Option 3 – Let tonight happen as it may. If Charlotte girl doesn’t call to hang out, I go meet Poot at some party around 9:30 and get my conversation in with Upstate girl prior to or on the way to meet him. Don’t mention any plans unless they are presented to me by either female. Assuming none are, play things by ear over the next week. Don’t bring up the subject of NYE put don’t avoid it, and be as equally prepared to head out of town or out on the town next weekend as I would be to sit around and watch football all weekend.

There it is. Let the fun begin.