Sometimes it’s a bit tough to be a social beast out and about…

I apologize for the long drought of posts. A wonderful woman currently holds my attention. This woman being my mother, my best friend. She’s recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and we’re doing what we can to keep things good with her so she can kick that thing to the curb.

My mother has been my best friend for a long time. I feel quite lucky to have such a wonderful woman as my best friend and have told her many times over the years that I think she did a great job raising me and that I feel very fortunate to have such a rockin’ mother.

A new site has been set up as a tribute to all the good mothers out there. “My Mom Is My Best Friend” (www.MyMomIsMyBestFriend.com) is where you can read about the woman who made me who I am and hopefully we will have submissions and stories of other great women out there who have had such a positive influence on the lives of people around them.

Peace, love, and health to you all out there!

Friday night and you’re sitting around the house wondering why nobody is calling you. You think about those crazy friends of yours who seem to be out ALL THE TIME. “How do they do it?” you wonder. Well, without straining my brain too hard I can venture there’s one huge difference between what they are doing and what you are doing. It’s about being accessible.

There are a few prerequisites to being the social beast that everyone knows and loves. You’ll probably read through this list and go “no shit Sherlock” but often times people forget these things. I’ll be that happy little angel sitting on your shoulder reminding you of these things.

1. Be geographically accessible – It helps to live near all the activity. It really does you no good to live an hour or two from where you want and need to be for all your social activities. There’s a reason people chose to live in the city and why certain parts of the city command more of a premium than others…accessibility to the hot spots.
2. Make the time to be accessible – If someone calls and asks what you’re doing tonight or tomorrow night, realize they are asking this because they want to do something with you. If you’ve got plans to cut your toenails you can easily postpone that task and head on out to be with your friends. The more you’re out and about, the more you’ll be seen and the more people you will meet.
3. Make yourself accessible – Expand your horizons, try new things. You prefer indie rock shows but a friend calls and wants to hit a metal show with you. Go! You never know who you’ll see there and you’ll more than likely enjoy the atmosphere and being out and about anyway. Open yourself to all sorts of new activities and save your judgement for later.

Granted there are other things that need to happen to be the social beast that you crave to be but this is all about accessibility. You’ve got to get out and about, you have to be in the mix of things. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…you DON’T need loads of money to be the social beast. Since when did socializing be a money-oriented sport? You’ve got friends…see them! Buy a 12 pack of cheap swill and enjoy a day at the pool or a night shooting the shit. It’s THAT easy. You’ve got friends…enjoy some quality time with them all around town.

Welcome back my fellow travelers in life,

I must apologize for my absence but alas, social duties prevail! I spent this past weekend up in Pittsburgh visiting a bunch (“bunch” in my definition is not five. Let’s lean more toward fifty or more) of friends up at Carnegie Mellon. CMU has an event each year called Carnival and yes, it truly is a carnival. Aside from the rides and games that are brought in, it is a time to catch up with many (and sometimes debauchery is involved) and enjoy both old and new friendships. This one lived up to that promise as I arrived Thursday evening, caught up with people I haven’t seen in a year, played some games and then continued on with the weekend. I was even lucky enough to be invited to a friend’s 10 year wedding anniversary gathering over the weekend (which is of course an honor for me to be invited to something as grand as that).

I won’t go through the weekend blow-by-blow rather I just want to mention that it was a weekend full of energy, activity, friends and fun. This whole weekend was done rather affordably too. Aside from the airline ticket (which was purchased rather cheaply nearly six months prior) the entire weekend cost less than $50. Yes, it IS possible. True, it would have been fun heading out and partaking in some of the off-campus activities but nonetheless I had a blast and was glowing (while also recovering) from a great weekend.

After I returned to Atlanta I met up with a good friend for lunch on Monday. We had a great meal at Radial Cafe on DeKalb Ave and used a 2-for1 coupon that was on the back of a grocery receipt. Next up was a quick trip to a CD store where he dropped off some CDs to sell and we perused the new music that was out and about. It was fun seeing some of my friend’s bands with their new releases out there and it reminded me that I need to go see more shows (usually another cheap activity for me…hurray!).

But wait! I think I WILL go to a show! Another one of my good friends is involved in a new gig – Prognosis …an industrial sounding project that has recently been signed and is getting ready for a big tour including a European tour. (He’s also the guitarist for Novocaine and Brass Knuckle Surfer) It was cool seeing him up there with new music (if you haven’t noticed I love hitting the local music scene and supporting the peeps) and also catching up with other friends (Dan, the drummer from Zoroaster was also there and it was cool as hell catching up with him again).

All in all it’s been a very busy time BUT it’s been a good busy. Some people assume that being social means you’ve got to spend loads of money to go to this bar and that restaurant. Such is not the case. You can live a social life and even run yourself into the ground (in a good way of course) by living on the cheap. Hurray!

To all the other social beasts out there, don’t let this economy bring you down. Go out, have fun, enjoy life and let’s show them who’s boss!

So there I was this morning sending out a “Happy Friday!” to some of my friends. One of them happens to be an old coworker at a company I had left back in December and he ended up switching to the department I was in. It was my quick note to him that reminded me of one of the worst positions I ever had…doing support for a tech company. This job had me starting work at 11pm and ending at either 7am or 11am the next day. Not only that, work started on Thursday and went to Tuesday morning. No more weekend activities for me!

Worst. Job. Evar.

I couldn’t stand it. I was tired. I was cranky. My friends and family were concerned about me. My health was clearly affected. Terrible. Terrible I say.

I had another job offer in October that started in January. I stuck with the crap job to December and was then going to take some time off for the holidays to spend with family and friends but ended up leaving that job a week earlier as I had caught a rather nasty cold and couldn’t fathom staying up all night again and again. So I left and never looked back. My health immediately improved, my happiness returned and life was good. I started my new job in January and then they laid off my entire team three weeks later. Ayeee!

I’ve been working on a few side projects since then. Some personal, some professional with the hope that something will catch and we’ll come up with the next big thing. There are some smart and driven people out there despite all the doom and gloom you see on the news.

So what’s the point of this ramble? It’s not a full business ramble you’d see in in ChiaTown.com or a pure life rambling you’d find in WaxPorhetoric.com but rather something that mixes it all…something that the Social Beast is…a mix of many things. My point to this morning babble is that I’m off on my own again and I’m ok with it. It gives me the opportunity to explore new options. Thinking about that old job just gives me the shakes and made me wonder “is it ok to take any crap job to survive in this economy?” Honestly, I don’t think so. Yes, we all need to survive but good lord, when your very soul and core are destroyed from someone else’s schedule it’s just not worth it. We weren’t put on this planet to be mindless drones. We’re here to interact with others (family, friends, acquaintances, strangers, etc) and hopefully have a positive influence on their lives. Don’t take whatever you can get if it’s going to run you into the ground and negatively affect your health and your relationships.

That’s my ramble for now. Happy Friday to you all. Enjoy it, enjoy your friends and family and get ready for a good weekend.