Odd Ends

I keep saying that I'm going to turn this into something of actual value and not just a place where I bitch about my life. I mean, I'm still going to bitch about my life a ton, but I'm hoping to interject some valuable stuff now and again too.



Summer. Well, I've got just under a month of summer left before I move back up to the wonderful Muncie IN. If you've not been to Muncie, you're not missing a terrible amount of things, as it lives up quite well to the stereotype, but around Ball State it gets pretty nice.

Being back home where you grew up is nice, but actually thinking about it is kind of depressing, ya know? It's like, hey, here are all the places and had fun and grew up and stuff, they haven't changed much, but they aren't as much fun anymore. Like I went to one of my favorite parks on the 4th of July and my favorite part was the really large open field. And of course being home is always filled the memories of old friends and old jokes, and things that are super great and important to you, but I mean, what's really the point of trying to relive them? You can't, people change, stuff stops being funny, that's life.

For those that follow my daily life adventures on the twitter scope and on Facebook, earlier this summer I was looking at three jobs and having a ton of money. Well thanks to the drought nobody is doing any landscaping work, myself included, and I've stopped doing anything with College ProPainters, and now I'm getting the crap hours at American Eagle, getting like 4 1/2 hours a WEEK. While that's super lame, I'm at least selling stuff on eBay.

That's basically my home life. That stuff, working out, Brosday Group, which is just me and like two other guys that get burgers and see a movie like once a week, and then my online classes. My home life is kind of boring, and I'm really, reaaaaally excited to get back to Ball State, this is my first year returning to a college for a second year, it's oddly exciting not having to start all over new.

And for those that don't know, though if you're reading this you should know, I love baking, and I'm actually studying Food and Hospitality Management with a minor in Entrepreneurship and Political Science, and I'm planning to open my own bakery, The Steele Oven. See, it's clever because Steele is my last name, get it? Well anyway, those plans are coming along really well.

Unfortunately, thanks to the unreasonable heat, I've done next to zero baking this summer, though I've done a lot of recipe research and I've got a good handful that I want to try. One friend is encouraging me to keep working on a bacon cookie, though my previous tries haven't gotten me anywhere, and I found some recipes based on girl scout cookies that I'm eager to try as well.

And unless you've been living under a rock all summer, you've heard about Carly Rae Jepsen. I got a hold of her other songs to see if she was just some kind of one-hit wonder, and turns out she's not. She's got an EP out with 5 songs call Curiosity, and she's got some pipes, at least more than I was expecting, and I'm really curious and hopeful to see where she goes from here. Personally, I hope she goes for more of the Pop Top 40 hits and stays aimed at youthful adult type people, and doesn't shoot for a pre-teen idol, because I've got her on the fence based on her EP. But it's totally worth a look, it's not often that a smash hit comes out of the blue from an unknown and she's got the potential to put out more!

Summer Drags On

So pretty much half of what I said in my last post turned out to be false, Bret fucking bailed on me as my workout partner, AFTER I went and signed up for the gym membership at the place that he liked and suggested, so now my gym is all the way down on fucking 86th street, and I have no workout partner. If it's not clear, that really bothers me. I thought Kaylee might be one of the people I ended up seeing more this summer, nope, I've got a feeling that I might see her two or three more times, but that's fine with me. She changed a lot after a year at IU, and she's not really the Kaylee I was friends with, so it doesn't bother me that much. Tim is still gone, Collin is still working a ton and now spending every free weekend up at Purdue, so I see him on Tuesdays only which is kind of disappointing, and I feel like there's some bro-codes being violated.

I've got two jobs this summer, one I love and one I hate. I love working at American Eagle, I like the work that I do, I like the people I work with, I really like my bosses, I just wish that I could get more hours. My job with College ProPainters is miserable. My title is Marketing Manager, but I'm nothing more than a door-to-door salesman, and I'm working in some really low income areas and these people couldn't care less what their house looks like, and I've made exactly 0 dollars from that job. I'm making some fair cash on eBay, nothing awesome, but about 120 so for.

And thanks to me not getting enough hours so far, I'm spending about 35 dollars more a month than I'm making, and it's looking very bleak that I'll be able to scrounge the money to get to New York. I had to scrap the train ride idea, it would take me like a day and a half via train to get there. The tickets were more expensive, and then I've got like a day and a half of food to purchase on a train.

We're in a mega-drought right now, but it's at least cooled off finally outside so it's a little more bearable to be outside. Because of the 90+ degree heat, I didn't do any work with ProPainters for like a week and a half, I just couldn't handle outside. But this mega drought has translated into no storms to enjoy, and everything I've tried to plant dying.

For like 2 years now, I've been trying to get my parents to let me do a ton of work in the back yard, and I finally made plans for a brick patio and got my mom completely on-board. My dad however is a moron, and has no interest in spending money on something like that, he didn't even want to spend money so that I could go purchase weed and feed for the lawn, complaining that we put two bags down last summer. The fucking idiot doesn't realize that it's something that really needs to be done like every 2 months, and our yard needs just shy of 4 bags. So I'm pretty sure that the brick patio is out of the question now.

This is shaping up to be one of the worst summers ever basically.

The Storm of Summer

I got home like 4 days ago, and I'm actually already kind of tired of home. Maybe I'm just forgetting about the adjustment period of being back, but so far this just really isn't suiting to me. My bed for one is just not working at all, last night I didn't fall asleep until close to 7:30 AM, and I was up around 10.

It is however good to be back with all my high school friends, even though I feel like I'm never going to see them. Tim leaves the day after his 21st for his internship for like two months, and I probably wont see him again until one of us visits the other or there's a break that we both go home for, because I'm probably going to be leaving on the 10th or 11th of August for Ball State. Collin decided to get a job this summer, which is great and all, but he works like 12 hours a day Monday through Friday and every other Saturday, starting at 7:30 in the morning. That on top of him being the most whipped individual I've ever encountered, I don't expect that I'm going to really see him this summer because even last night, when his girlfriend isn't even back in town, he ditched us for her. I'll actually end up seeing Bret probably no less than 5 times a week since we're gonna workout together starting this week. I'm looking forward to having a workout partner, it gets so boring when you go by yourself. And I assume Kaylee will keep herself plenty busy as always, but I'm expecting she's one of the people I'll see the most this summer. Then there's the handful of college friends as well that I'm hoping to get together with, but that's just like maybe once or twice over a whole summer. And I'm going to go up and spend a few days with Jessi up in New York this summer, I'm entirely decided on that, and I'm planning on taking a train either to or from, because I think that would be really awesome.

All I've really done so far is clean and do yard work. I'm gonna go in today and talk to David at American Eagle and get my hours going so I'mm have some income.

Holding Back

This is going to be one of those posts that I look back at and mostly regret, I already know it.

So. The section leader lists came out today, and there was a name missing from it.

The trumpets get three section leaders, and while it was obvious who two of them were going to be, I sincerely believed it was going to be a coin flip for the third person.

So right now, I'm stuck between continuing to not comment on facebook or twitter about the section leader choices, artificially congratulating everyone, and openly saying that I think the absolute wrong choice was made. Luckily, this is not facebook or twitter, and I'm going to say exactly what I would if Dr. Vondran were to ask me how I felt about the choices.

While I respect you(Dr. Vondran) an immense amount, and I have faith that you know exactly what you're doing, I think you made the absolute wrong choice by picking Alec, and I'm going to do everything possible in my power for the next two weeks and next fall to prove that I was the better choice to work alongside Jared and Nick, and hopefully around this time next year, you look back and remember this conversation, as well as my attitude and work ethic though the fall 2012 semester.

Yeah, I did tell people that I was fairly confident that I would get the position, because if you don't have confidence if yourself then you sure as hell aren't going to get it, I also commented that I felt it really was a coin toss between him and I.

Alec on the other hand, decided to talk trash about me to my roommate for next year, who has been awkwardly distant the last few weeks, and possibly other people. That I'm a bad musician, unfocused, passive-aggressive, and that he's "100% sure that John wont get section leader". Additionally, he spoke poorly of one of the guys who was going to get the position without a doubt.

What were some of the negative things I said about Alec? He whines, a lot. I feel like anyone you ask would agree with that. What else did I say? Nothing in fact. Who did I say it to? Anyone who asked me my thoughts on who would get picked, not singling out people that are close to him.

I'd like to talk trash about Alec right now, as he saw fit to do about me, but I'm going to stay above that, it wont reflect the outlook that I have in life, nor speak well on behalf of my character. Instead, I'll end with a quote from one of the to-be section leaders, it's actually quite inspiring.

"I'm not going to march next year unless I get section leader."

-Alec Burke

That's the mentality of a true leader if I've ever seen one.

ASTEROIDS: THEY WILL KILL US ALL

That's actually the title of a paper I'm writing about impending doom around 2184, when a sizable asteroid is expected to cross paths with our lovely little blue planet. If I would actually start writing about it instead of finding ways to distract myself, it would be a pretty legit paper.

So as I found out, I could Actually be home for summer two Mondays from now. Yes, my summer break starts in April and I'm quite excited.

So!! I was in Atlanta last weekend with the Statesmen, which was so much fun. It was one of those eye opening moments that happen now and again that make me realize I want to do nothing but perform. While we were in Atlanta, it got around that there was an a cappella group among our larger group(minus two people), and we were asked to perform on that Friday, it was so much fun. Saturday night we rode back to Muncie all night, got back about 9:30 in the morning on Sunday, concert call time at 1:30. And while it was nice to be back in a familiar area and a schedule I know and can control, man I really just want to go perform more. Oh, and Katie surprised me and was able to come up to see my concert on Sunday, but she couldn't stay super long so we just got a quick dinner after, nothing too exciting.

I'm going down to IU this weekend. It's Little 500 this weekend, which was a fortunate coincidence, because this was like the only weekend in the last few months that I would have been able to manage going down there.

I took almost a week off in between workouts, with going to Atlanta and all, and damn did that set me back. Cardio was totally fine, but I haven't been able to really lift with my upper body since Monday. Like yesterday, I thought I should be alright, but I barely got in the position and started to hurt. And on the flip side, I've done lower body for four days now and am totally fine, no soreness at all despite raising my max weights, including maxing out the possible weight on one machine.

AND! In my personal finance class, where the professor had surgery and we've had a random sub for like a month and a half, the final project for the class got dropped, AAANNNNNDDDDD he said that he was going to put a massive curve on the final exam so that everyone would end on a high note because of how much the class got messed up. We seriously stopped learning any of what we were supposed to be learning. So that's pretty sweet. Pretty much, the rest of my semester is this paper I'm putting off, two astronomy worksheets, and my exams.

There's really not much else to mention, or at least a ton that I would mention on here.

Life is pretty good, I'd have to look for reasons to complain. I'm ready for the semester to be over, but not ready to be home, it's an interesting mix.

Sidewalk Drawings

Ok, so it got super warm like just over a week ago, like 80 degrees in mid-March. And as much as I love every kind of weather, especially rain and thunderstorms, thinking it was summer was kind of fantastic. But I live in Indiana, and like two nights ago we were under a frost advisory, and then the next night the low was 57, and now it's fantastic outside again.

I'm beyond ready for summer right now, but what I'd really like is to have summer happen, just have everyone stay on campus just like normal for a week or so, because it's going to be weird going home for 3 months and not seeing these people.

I've got plans already for this summer, thankfully. American Eagle has offered, well mentioned that the position will opening up and they'd prefer that I got it, a position that's gonna allow me to work for more than just the floorsets where we change the inventory, I'd be doing inventory and stocking the whole day long, which I would love. I'm also hoping to be working with a landscaping company that a friends family owns.

That's two part-time jobs with some killer advantages, 50% employee discount at American Eagle, and getting paid to work outside all day is employee benefit enough.

I'm also going to be doing two 90-day workout programs at the same time, P90X and Shaun T's Insanity workout, both of which are kind of the same thing, and have awesome reviews. I might ask Collin if he wants to do them with me, since he's constantly trying to get ripped and we've been talking about it for like 3 years now, like when we were gonna join the football team senior year.

This summer I swear I'm going to learn to rollerblade, hopefully get better at tennis too.

But I've sat around long enough, time to go do something that's not just sitting indoors.

Writing In Stone

Screw writing things in stone, write them in the sand, it's much less permanent.

Day one back on campus after an interesting spring break, which I will now summarize.

Thanks to my mom, I failed to get the living room all painted, it should have been a two day project, three days max. Spent a week on it and it got maybe half way done. But they paid me 80 bucks all the same for everything I did, because I did paint the whole ceiling and clean through all the air vents which likely hadn't been done since the house was built.

I got to give my puppies a bath, and they were super stinky. Despite that I hurt my back in the process, that was one of my favorite things that I did at my house. It's one thing to say goodbye to people for months at a time, because they understand and you can still talk to them, but dogs don't quite get it, and talking to them over the phone only confuses them. I know Raven has really stressed out this year. Last year I was home so often, it was rare that I went 2 weeks without spending a few good hours playing with her, Jack too. There was one weekend last semester after it had been probably 2 1/2 months since I'd been home, she got out of the back yard, and after running around for like 20 minutes, I was alone in the garage swearing because all the bike tires were flat, and she just comes running in the garage right up to me, seeming quite proud that she had finally found me. So I played with her hardcore that weekend and my mom said that she was super relaxed for the next two weeks and well behaved. But now I'm off topic as always and not talking about my spring break.

I made and ate 6 pounds of fruit salad all by myself.

I got to make lots of cookies and muffins, though my oven got sick so I had to call off the pies and new peanut butter-based recipe I dreamed of.

Drank 5 separate nights.

Got to spend an awesome night with a friend from New York whom I don't get to see often enough.

Spent several hours debating with someone wether it would be a good idea to ingest glitter or not, because I wanted to put glitter in a shot we were thinking of to represent a Golden Snitch.

Got to go to a few of my favorite places in my hometown area, all of them being parks go figure.

Accidentally ate over 7,000 calories in a single day.

Still ended up loosing another pound over break.

And thought a LOOOOT about my future, which is a good segway.

In just under 3 months, I'm going to be 20, and while I love my birthday, it's really starting to freak me out. I've acted like an adult for longer than I know, and I'm legally an adult too, and while being 20 doesn't change thaaaat much, it's called Twenty, not Twentyteen. The bulk of my defining life has been lived as a teenager, and I don't want to stop being a teenager, like ever, I understand it too well. Come fall, I'll be starting my 3rd year of college, and this crap of me floating around between 6 different majors just can't keep going on.

I auditioned for the musical theatre department, and while I think I did an ok enough job for my audition, I feel like it's a coin toss wether I'm going to get in, a coin toss that isn't in my favor, because that's totally possible.

I am happy to say that I think I have three, maybe four probable options that will be my life plan once I graduate, and these are in no particular order.

1.) Find out that I really do have a nack for performing and acting, move out to LA, and begin my acting career. Spend as long as two years living on ramen noodles and vodka in my apartment with either Chandler and/or Jae. Finally get cast in the role that gets my career rolling, become a global heart-throb, have more money than I know what to do with, dedicate a large portion of my free time to helping with two issues that I feel very strongly about, Falling Whistles and environmental protection and reform. Maybe meet a sweet lady along the line, have four kids, they'll be pretty cool.

2.) After taking a few entrepreneurship classes, find out that it's really what I want to do, minor instead of major in theatre, take restaurant management classes, graduate. Move back with my parents for a few months while I look for an apartment not too far. While looking for an apartment, apply for the proper bank loans to purchase a location, renovate it for my needs, talk to Tim and Q about being my initial employees/partners, Q for PR and to work the front counter, Tim to help run the money and help in the kitchen, and open The Steele Oven. It'll be a rough year or two, and my living standards will be minimal because it can take two years or longer to make a profit, but in the end The Steele Oven will become a very popular bakery, which I will later expand to also feature cafe drinks. After opening several locations, I will contemplate partially selling out my ownership of the company, as I intend to have a family, and need more personal time to myself to take care of my life. I wont be rich beyond belief, but money will never be a problem.

3.) I can't justify moving out to LA or opening The Steele Oven, so I continue my education at the IU Law School, studying intellectual property ownership. I'll be shit broke after like 9 years straight of school, but my parents wont mind having me home now and again to mooch a good meal and to do laundry, I'll help around the house too, taking care of the yard now and again as needed and surprising them by driving up to shovel the drive early in the morning. Once I finish law school, I'll go take the bar exam, which I can't imagine having any trouble with, and I actually want to take it in the next year or so just to know what I'm up against, and who knows, I could get lucky and pass it and be a lawyer by 21. I'll most likely stay in the Indianapolis area, because there's a lack of patent and copyright agents in that city. The money will be really good, and I can work from home 3 days a week.

4.) I fall in love with an amazing lady, she's got a fantastic career lined up for herself that will be more than enough income to live off of. We get married, probably after I graduate, start a family. I'll find work while she's on maternity leave, most likely with a landscaping company assuming it's the correct season, and it'll be easy to come and go as pregnancies do. I'll gladly opt to be a stay at home dad and raise the kids, because while I had the potential to go out and be the money maker, the opportunities panned out for her first and she has a secure, well providing job. I'll love waking up each morning and making a fresh breakfast for the kids, getting them off to school, working outside while I'm home alone, tending to the awesome yard I've been working on for years. And I'll be crazy happy.

There's an infinite number of things that could happen with my life, and I know I don't have the control over it that I like to think I do, but sometimes it's fun to pretend.

SOOOO, now to day one back on campus.

Of three classes, I got really bored during the second one, otherwise it wasn't bad.

Revamped my eating and workout habits for the rest of the semester, cut another 400 calories from my daily intake, I actually would have been crazy under if I hadn't found the bottle of Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew in my fridge and decided they needed to be drank haha.

Worked out tonight, but only did half an hour instead of an hour. I have to say that I was quite satisfied, being able to see definition in my arms without flexing, good way to start my new nutritional plan.

Got lunch with the standard group, Chris, Hannah, Tarryn, and... I have no idea how to even start spelling his name....... But anyway! I really like these guys, they're cool!

I have an exam that I need to take online before Wednesday, an exam that I will be able to take on Wednesday, an extra credit paper due Wednesday, and another exam Next Wednesday. I'm oddly not worried about this haha.

It's almost midnight, Peter has been in bed for like an hour already, I'm getting a little sleepy myself. I can't decide if I want to make my bed, or if I'm going to be alright just sleeping in my sleeping bag like I did last night, it was actually kind of fun, though I'm going to use an actual pillow haha.