Jeff’s blog

Cheri and I have been talking about Junior High and High school recently and it brings all kinds of memories back, mostly negative. I hated school, which was why I skipped every chance I got. In junior high, I estimate I skipped around 100 days in the 3 years I was there. Usually Mondays, still hate Mondays – lol. I’m not saying if you don’t like school to skip it, I’m just explaining what I did.

Everyone has their own memories of high school, some good, some bad. Mine are mostly bad. I’m not saying I had a horrible childhood or anything because outside of school, I enjoyed my life. What I remember about junior high was getting picked on. Mostly verbally but I was still picked on. Now in hindsight, some of that was my fault, maybe most of it. I was quiet, I didn’t go out of my way to make friends, I alienated people, and because I did some of that, I think kids thought that I thought that I was better than them. I had no desire to “conform” and be a “popular” kid. I took it to extremes where I would do anything to not be popular. I had a few friends that I ate with and talked to, but nobody I was really close too. The one guy that was probably my best friend at the time, ended up in a different click in high school and I lost touch with him. I slept through most of my classes because I like to stay up late at night. I was smart enough to pass anything in class which made up for the fact I hardly ever did any homework. Usually equaled to a C or D but that’s passing and that was all I cared about.

High school was more or less the same, with less skipping because they threatened to expel me if I continued to skip. I started to drive so I would leave after 3rd hour with the career center kids and go home. I was late a lot to 1st hour. One year they threatened to kick me out of my 1st hour if I was late again, so anytime I was late, I would skip that hour and they never did kick me out. The first few years of high school were the same with the kids, got picked on, made fun of, whatever you want to call it. I can think of one kid who constantly wanted to fight me (yes, I do still remember his name) so he could prove how manly he was. I finally gave in and said yes, he told me to meet him somewhere and I told him no, he wants to fight me so bad, he can find me wherever and we’ll do it then. Him and a buddy ended up coming down to my friends house when we were there. They brought a football and we started off by playing a 2 on 2 football game until I ripped his shirt trying to tackle him and then it was on. He kept coming at me, all I did was defend. He maybe landed 3 punches and I never threw any. He eventually got bored and went home but after that day, he wasn’t much of a problem after that either. He particularly didn’t like me because of the next paragraph, a positive about high school. But I’ll get to that in a few. What I did learn in school, was to not care what people thought of me. It took me a long time to learn it, but I did. Once I did, I’d get called a name, I’d look at them and say “thanks.” Once they figured out I didn’t care what they thought, they left me alone. My mom had been telling me that for years but you all know that we’re so much smarter than our parents at that age. And don’t even get me started out on girls, because I had crushes on a few but most wouldn’t give me the time of day. Not that I had the confidence to go up to them either. I don’t recall even having a girlfriend through all of high school. Which might have been a good thing considering I married the next one I dated (2 years after high school.)

The one positive I had in school was sports. Because I was so antisocial, I never really did any organized sports in school. I had gym teachers telling me to all the time to try out for basketball and track but I never did. Probably the only regret I have about school is not playing sports. But in gym class, I was an equal. I was very athletic although I didn’t look it. I used to tear up some of the basketball players who played for the school in gym class. No matter the sport, I picked it up quick and got better than most in a short amount of time. Which would be the reason the kid in the above paragraph didn’t like me. For all the sit there and take it I did in school, in gym, I was aggressive and went after those I didn’t like.

Outside of school, I was a different person. I went to a club in Elkhart where I was popular with the kids and the adults, was liked and looked up to. I’ve always had a great family, although I didn’t appreciate them much back then so my life equaled out I guess.

I said above that the only regret I had was not playing sports for the school and that’s true. That was my ONLY regret because all the other stuff, made me who I am today. I still have some of the attitudes like not caring what others think, but I learned to care what I thought. I still don’t go out of my way to make friends, but I don’t alienate either. If you ask most of my friends from work (and I have) what their 1st impression of me was, the 1 word answer I received the most was they thought I was an a@@hole. But if you take the time to get to know me, I’m a pretty straightforward type of guy, I don’t take any crap from anyone (including bosses, not a good thing) and if you want to know something, ask, because I have nothing to hide. But if your looking for a certain answer then don’t ask me, because I will tell the truth, regardless of how it makes you feel. Which would be why everyone assumes I’m an a@@hole when they meet me. But if you know me, I’m loyal to my friends and family and nobody else. I’ll be the nicest guy but don’t cross me. I’ve never been in a fight (unless you count the one in high school) but I don’t back down from them anymore either. I’m a straightforward, in-your-face kinda guy. It probably helps that I put 100 lbs on since school as well. I am a pretty calm individual, it takes a lot to get me going, probably from sitting there and taking it for as long as I did. I pride myself on being in control, I can only name a few instances where I said something I didn’t mean. I know as far as school memories, there isn’t much up there as in individual stories but I don’t really remember individual stories that shaped who I was. The whole experience shaped who I have become, in good ways and in bad.

If there is one lesson that I could take from school and teach it to my kids, it would be to be yourself (I know, cliche) but it’s true. That can be ones greatest asset at the end of their life is to look back and say “I did it my way.” If your truly being yourself, then chances are you are truly being happy. And that’s what life is about, being happy.

For those of you who have followed my twitters for a little while, I’ve posted a couple of not funny then, funny now status updates about past embarassing stories. To be honest, I can’t take credit for the idea. Next time your watching “the Big Bang Theory” or “Two and a Half Men”, pause it right after the end of the show. It’ll be a white screen with writing on it. It’s usually pretty funny stuff and once in awhile it’ll be not funny then, funny now stories. As for mine, I will post the original status message followed by the complete story. Then in the future, after I post the status, I will blog the story.

1. once sprained his ankle skiing, on the rope tow back up. Not funny then, funny now.

Went skiing up at Royal Valley (I think) with my mom and brother. I was probably pre-teen. It was the one and only time I went skiing. Did the bunny hill ok so I moved up to the intermediate. Went down all the way without falling then went to grab the rope tow (a rope moving at the speed of lightning) it didn’t rip my arms off so I started up and about half way, twisted my ankle and fell. Come to find out, there was ice frozen to the bottom of my ski’s which is what caught and took me down. I did get a nice ride on a sled to the medical area. Then had to go to the hospital for x-rays. They had to cut my socks off and the nurse took my pants off, very humiliating at that age. I’m also believer in why where clean underwear, if you have an accident, you’ll probably crap in them anyways. Funniest part of the trip was watching my mom try to ski down the hill, she stayed up and made it at the cost of sending the instructor into the bushes.

2. once ate a whole box of Twinkies and had to stay home from school the next day, because of gas. Not funny then, funny now.

Not much to this story. My grandma Rosie would let one of us at a time spend the night at her house, even on school nights because she would drive us to school in the morning. She’d always take us to the grocery store so we could pick something out to snack on. I picked Twinkies. Had a couple throughout the night and then once they went to bed, being the smart guy that I am, snuck out to the kitchen, took the box to my room, at proceeded to eat them all. All was well until the next morning when I was sick. I couldn’t get off the toilet for most of the day and Rosie had to call me in sick.

3. once hit a Mercedes with a rock, wouldn’t confess and my brother, 2 cousins and I all got spanked. Not funny then, funny now.

We were down in North Carolina at my cousins house. There was a junkyard across the street from their house and Kevin and I were throwing rocks at the cars there. A Mercedes drove in front of us and I hit it, couldn’t tell you for sure if it was an accident or not, but she stopped and talked to my uncle about it. He got all 4 of us together and when nobody would confess, he spanked all of us. Moral: If your going to get spanked, make sure the others can’t laugh at you.

4. once was accused of being gay, so I hit on the guy and he freaked out. Was funny then, still pretty funny.

Back when I was originally on 3rd shift (I got hired in on 3rd) I would run the overhead crane for the unracking area. One of the girls (Lori) told me that Tony had told her that he thought I was gay. She told him I was married to a woman and he said it was a cover and I hadn’t come out of the closet yet. So I started to hit on him. I’d walk by and nudge Lori and say loud enough to hear “Boy Tony’s ass is looking mighty fine in those jeans” and he would just say shut up. After awhile, it really got to him and he went off “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME YOU .” When I wouldn’t stop and after a few winks and puckered lips towards him, he finally said, “ok, I get it, your not gay, now just leave me alone.” I found it rather amusing as did the other unrackers.

For my 1st real blog, I want to explain why twitter, facebook and myspace (and maybe this blog) are important to me. Some of you know some of this some of you don’t. Some of you wonder why I like to spend so much time on the computer, this is a lot of the reason why.

It started in October of last year. To avoid getting laid off, Tina had to go to 2nd shift where she had more seniority. It wasn’t too bad, I was still working 1st. We didn’t see each other in the morning but I’m a night person and would stay up late until she got home from work and we’d have about an hour to catch up on the day so it wasn’t too bad. While Tina was at work, I had both kids every evening but we had a weekly get together at my mom’s for supper because my brother had his kids that night. Then a few months ago, they had another layoff. They downsized a lot of departments, so a lot of people got shuffled and I ended up having to go to racking or another shift. I chose to go to 3rd shift as the racking pay would be almost a $3/hr pay cut. So now, I see Tina for a few minutes when I get home in the morning, and about 5 minutes at work. Not much time to talk. Marriage is fine, been married way too long to let something like this get in the way. But I do get lonely to talk to someone (an adult.) And our Wednesday nights are gone because my brother moved closer so we don’t meet at my moms anymore.

This is where the above sites come into play. I’ve gotten in touch with a few people from school that I talk to again (Cheryl & Gary) plus I talk to family a little bit but mostly, I feel connected to other people and that helps with the loneliness. The kids are great but I can’t exactly carry on long conversations with them, and they go to bed at 8 so there’s a few hours when I’m by myself. Anyone who knows me, knows I like my alone time. I’ve always been a loner, but I get way too much of it now. On 3rd, there’s a few people I talk to but no one I really talk to (if you know what I mean.) On 1st I had a few people I could really talk to. Weekends are great, Tina’s home and she’s my best friend. Has been for 15 years. But it gets lonely during the week.

I really like the twitter because everything goes to my phone (if twitter ever gets fixed that is) plus it’s cool to actually communicate with celebrities, makes you realize they are just normal people as well. I don’t have too many “friends” on twitter which is the downside. Facebook is great because I got together with a lot of people from school. Which is real funny if you know me because I absolutely hated school and before, didn’t really want anything to do with most of the people I went to school with. That was why I didn’t go to the last reunion. I think I might actually go to the next one. I got back together with an old friend (Gary) and made a new one that I didn’t talk too much back in school (Cheryl.) Plus with facebook, I have 13 relatives, including some in college and other states that I get to keep up with. Now Myspace is another story, it was the 1st of the 3 that I got hooked on. I like it because I could “decorate” it with backgrounds and pics and such, but I just don’t use it much anymore. The last status update I put on it says “is not updating his status anymore here, come find me on facebook or twitter. There’s a link on my myspace profile page.” There’s only 2 people that I really communicate with on myspace anymore. One (David) has a facebook page, but prefers myspace. We e-mail through myspace here and there. and Chris, who works 2nd shift so I talk to him more outside cyberspace through texting, e-mailing and talking anyways. So I don’t use the myspace very often anymore.

Hope this clears this up some. Helps some of you understand why I’m always trying to get you people signed up for facebook or twitter or why I get cyber”needy” and want to talk. Well this is long enough, so I’m going to say farewell. Almost 800 words for my 1st official blog, hope my website has enough space if they’re all this long – lol.

Hello all, as you can tell, I decided to start a blog. The main reason is because Cheryl is making me (lol, j/k.) This first post is just going to describe what to expect from me as I travel down this new venture. Awhile back, I blogged on yahoo360 and did a little on myspace as well but got bored with it. Recently I came across my yahoo360 page and was reading the blogs. It wasn’t anything really interesting in content but it did remind me of things my kids have done and things like that. Sorta like a “secret public journal” – birbigs. So that is essentially what to expect, as the title says “A Day in the Life of Me.” I can’t guarantee it’ll be interesting, I can guarantee it’ll be about me and my family. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get good at it and it’ll be interesting to all of you too – lol.

So stay tuned and we’ll see how this goes. I have to go make supper now and then run to the library but I will try to post an actual post tonight.

For quick updates to what I’m doing, you can follow me on twitter – http://www.twitter.com/jlaws13 as well.