$cott

Congratulations to Scott on having his job status made permanent, and on his major pay raise!
Drinks are on him!
Way to go, bro!

Change

"The times they are a-changing"

-Bob Dylan

Broken

"I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken -- and I'd rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived."

-Margaret Mitchell

Crazy

Ever feel like just doing something crazy?!?!

Thanks!

Extra special thanks to "The girl from California" for helping me make a major decision tonight!

Love

"You love her, but she loves him,
and he loves somebody else -
You just can't win.
And so it goes until the day you die.
This thing they call love,
its gonna make you cry.

I've had the blues, the reds and the pinks.
One thing's for sure...

Love stinks "

"Love Stinks" by the J. Geils Band (As heard in the movie "The Wedding Singer")

So.... um, yeah.... "love". It's the #1 subject for songs, movies, TV shows, poetry, books, and practically all forms of artistic expression in our society. People have lived for love, and people have died for love. Wars have been fought over love. Love is supposed to be the thing that makes life worth living. In short, love is supposed to be the "end-all, be-all" of our human existence... and maybe it is.

I always assumed that I would have my love-life sorted out by now. I thought that by this point in my life I would not only have love, but that I would understand it as well. This, sadly, is not the case. In fact, the older I get, the more difficult love seems to become. As my experience and confidence have grown over the years, so have my questions and confusion about love. I have seen some people do some really amazing things for love, and I have watched many others do really, really stupid things for "love". I've watched love grow, and I've watched love die. I've watched people pretend their love isn't dead, when it so obviously is (I've seen that too often lately!). I've watched others who refuse to admit they are in love, even when they so obviously are.

The truth is, I don't think it gets any easier. I think from our teen years till the grave love will have the power to lift us up, or to break us down. We might become better at deceiving ourselves into thinking that love-gone-bad can no longer hurt us... but it can. We can fool ourselves into thinking that love is not a priority, but it is. Over the years some of us collect our hurt feelings and use them as a shield to protect ourselves from the risk involved in loving someone... but I know damn well that shield is made of glass-----it can be easily shattered.

The last few months I've learned that unrequited love certainly stings as much today as it did when I was 18. Granted, I don't let it consume my existence like I used to, but the hurt and longing are the same.

Tonight I'm sending out a salute to all of you who do crazy, impetuous, stupid things for love. I'd also like to salute those who have the feelings, but who can't or won't (for whatever reasons) act on them. Keep the faith my friends. You never know how things might play out. The only constant in this life is change.

Soul for sale...

Though I had many fine adventures traveling the world while working as an Audio Engineer on cruise ships, I swore I would never do it again (for various reasons). As of today I have a solid job offer on the table, and I'm actually considering accepting it. I've had a few offers from cruise lines over the past 2.5 years that I've been back in Michigan, but for some reason I'm really considering this one. Perhaps it's just the money? Perhaps I miss the excitement and insane pace? Perhaps I've just been stuck in Michigan again for too long? MMMM...

Oh yes, my friends... "The Mouse" has a cruise ship, and he wants me on it...