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methodwriter85

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  1. methodwriter85

    Resume Fluffing

    By methodwriter85,


    employment
    So in my job search to enter the legal field (either as a receptionist, a paralegal, legal assistant, etc etc) I had my resume redone by some nice paralegal lady I met in a Facebook group. Only I'm a little worried that she fluffed it up a bit too much. I'm trying to get it peer-reviewed on Facebook before I start posting it to Indeed.
    I've kind of taken a break the past couple of weeks from applying but I'm trying to get myself back into it. My goal is to at least get an interview before the one year anniversary of my graduation pops up- I'm already at 6 months. Yikes!
    It's been pretty frustrating although this time around, I have a job while I'm looking for one. It's not fun to look when you don't have one.
  2. methodwriter85
    So I started the job application process to try and get started on my paralegal career. 
    I'm not going to lie. I haven't applied for jobs since 2015 and I'm trying to break into a new field. It's really hard not to think about the three years I spent trying (and failing) to break into the museum field when I got my master's degree. In 2015 I finally got real and started working a retail job I've been in since, save for the lost COVID year.
    Going on the advice I've been given, I'm trying to look at legal assistant/administration jobs as well as file clerking. I'm also thinking about volunteering with the legal aid society for my state if I can't find anything in a couple of weeks.
    I've been saying to myself that every Wednesday (which had been a class day) will be spent advancing my employment goals. I did stick to that today, starting up an Indeed profile and sending my resumes in to two different places. I've also sent off my resume to one of my professors to get a reference letter.
    So yeah, if you're a lawyer or you're a paralegal, I'm totally open to advice!
  3. methodwriter85
    Now what? 
    No clue, but we'll see!
    I'm leaning towards starting out by applying for file clerk jobs, and see where things go from there. I'd say I'm probably most interested in contracts, torts, or probate. 
    Now I'm just going to take things in and see where things go.
  4. methodwriter85
    I had so many goddamned unpaid internships. Deleted some of them; mostly deleted the short-term holiday gigs I had at retail stores in the early 2010's. Ah, the life of a Millennial. (I still get PSTD flashbacks to Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe" as someone who worked as a Victoria Secret's stock boy during Christmas 2012.)
    For context, I'm a 39-year old who had the whole "let me get an arts degree in a subject I LOVE" deal and ran smack head first into the Great Recession of the 2010's. I think my low point was getting rejected from Target. Been stuck working in movie theater for the past 10 years. (I also volunteer as a Facebook guru for a small local museum.) Great job but I gotta move on- so I've been working on getting a paralegal certificate since September. A small unexpected inheritance made it possible. I am finishing in about 10 weeks or so it's time to start sending out resumes!
    I'm going to try and be optimistic because you know what? It can't be any worse than trying to get a paid museum job in the 2012-2014 era.
    Anyone else trying something new late in life?
  5. methodwriter85
    Holy crap, it's getting real now. So yeah, I just finished the 3rd module of my paralegal training with a 93 class average. (Open notebook testing but that doesn't make it as easy as you might think it would be.) I'm throwing myself full force into this, and seeing where things go. I'll be at graduation before I know it! And then...the job search. I don't know if I'm really ready for that again, but I'm excited to find out where this all could take me.
    I've been pretty lucky that I have a pretty cool group of classmates to work with. We have a whole text chain going on where we bitch and vent about assignments or helpful hints to get us going. I'm just glad it's not grad school. Now THAT was intense. I thought about going back to grad school (maybe a library of science) but I just couldn't make myself go through it again.
    Also, in February 2025 news...Eagles win their second Super Bowl. Woo-hoo!
  6. methodwriter85

    Trying something different

    By methodwriter85,


    Education
    So I decided to start training as a paralegal under University's of Delaware professional certification program. I've been saying I was going to do it for years, and thanks to a small inheritance, I could. It's set up as eight training modules over 11 months. Classes two nights a week. It's been an adjustment but it's also been a lot of fun, and really stimulating. I just finished the first module, with seven more to go. I'm pretty excited. I am hoping to become a real estate law paralegal. (I'd probably have a better chance with personal injury, though.)
  7. methodwriter85
    So on Sunday I went to the bench dedication ceremony that my friend's Steve family threw for him. I was hoping there would be at least one college friend showing up, but it was just me. Steve's parents actually came from New Jersey but they decided to move to the University of Delaware area about six years ago. 
    It was a really interesting experience- the bench is in a park that was built on the site of a dorm that was next to the dorm that I used to visit a lot because Steve was an RA there. Both of the dorms (Rodney and Dickinson) were these standard issue 60's dorms that managed to stay open all the way up to about 2015. Rodney became the park with the retention pond, while Dickinson became the site of new student apartments.
    I managed to hold it together until I realized that the bench is basically in view of this railroad underpass that you had to go through in order to get to Rodney and Dickinson if you were coming from the rest of the campus. There was this sidewalk that paralleled the train tracks that would take you to Rodney, and then Dickinson. I cannot tell you the amount of times I walked under that underpass in order to hang out with Steve in that dorm. I kept looking at that underpass, and then I started tearing up as I kept getting flooded with the memories of a friendship that I thought was going to be lifelong but I only got to have 6 years of.
    After the ceremony I wound up going to the parents house, where they were having a luncheon. The family was pretty welcoming and I stayed for about three hours. I wound up having a talk with Steve's dad and Steve's brother. Steve's brother looks so much like him that it was kind of hard to not be reminded of him. There was this bit where I told Steve's brother that I think it was an interesting coincidence that his parents moved to where Steve went to undergrad and he replied "It's not a coincidence" in a way that just reminded me so much of how Steve would talk. (The brother's voice was not quite the same, so it wasn't too freaky on me, but still.)
    Steve's dad, his brother, and I basically sat on a bench in the backyard that they put Steve's name on and had a conversation about our mutual grief for Steve. I get the feeling that Steve's dad wanted to talk to Steve's college friends because that's a part of Steve's life that he wasn't there for. Steve's brother asked me if I would be interested in spreading a part of his ashes on their family property farm. I think I will take them up on that offer, but only if I can get Ian (our mutual friend) to be there. Ian unfortunately lives in the Midwest and wasn't able to come out for the bench ceremony. 
    When I decided to leave, he wound up giving me one of Steve's pocketknifes. Steve collected them. I remembered that, and took one, and then I took off.
    It was a good experience. It felt a bit like a redo of my experience in 2014, when I tried to attend Steve's memorial but a lot of crap went down so it didn't go the way I wanted it to. This redeemed it for me, honestly. I do wish I had actually known people there, but there were very welcoming regardless and I'm glad I did it.
    Later that night, I wound up going to the Riverfront in Wilmington and silently watched the water, remembering my friend. I started crying and playing the song "Pursuit of Happiness" by Kid Cudi, which was so who Steve was.
    I've moved on, but that loss will always be with me. And that's okay. 
     
     
  8. methodwriter85
    Many of you know about my friend Steve, who died of a heroin overdose when we were 27 years old in 2013. It was, to say the least, a very painful experience for me, during a very turbulent year and half of my life.
    I recently got an email from our mutual friend inviting me to a bench dedication they're doing for Steve at a park that was, coincidentally, built near the site where their former dorms were.
    I mean, I'm going. No doubt about it. I just don't know how I feel about more crying. I'm going, though. I like to think it will be a positive experience.
    It's just weird to have this come up after having to go to my dad's funeral a month ago. Like I'm having to revisit painful memories from first my childhood, and now my 20's.
     
  9. methodwriter85
    Wow, it's been a long time.  I am six months into being 37 years old now- can you believe it? I loved my early 30's, the mid-30's were consumed by the Covid Pandemic, and so far my late 30's have been an interesting ride.
    Actually, it's been a long and difficult year for me. For pretty much all of my 30's I've been in a holding pattern- living with my mom at her house, helping her with bills, and working in a movie theater. Even the Covid pandemic didn't really change that much for me, save for some extra money that allowed me to put a down payment on a 2-year old economy car after driving an awful 2006 beater for 6 years. As soon as the COVID lockdowns ended I went right back into working at a movie theater.
    My mom got sick in October, and since then she's been in and out of the hospital as she deals with liver failure. (Not even an alcoholic- go figure! We think it's because of her Aspirin usage. And probably just being 76 years old.) One of my sisters has been having my mom stay at her home about 30 minutes south of her home, as she's a nurse and can look over her better than I can. It's been a really difficult, horrible situation to go through.
    In March, my mom has been generally stabilizing with some decent medication, but then we got hit with some shocking news- my estranged father I haven't spoken to or seen since 1995 passed away at his home in the American South at the age of 70 from lung cancer. He was a chain smoker, so it wasn't a shocker, but it was shocking to learn that he had kept a Christmas card my sister (the nurse one) had sent him around 2015 or 2016. That is apparently how the sheriff knew to notify us. Funny enough, when the sheriff came to my sister's house, my mom thought it might be about me and I got inundated with worried phone calls from her.
    My dad was an abusive drunk who I hadn't seen since I was 9 years old. Apparently he managed to get it together enough to live an out and proud life as a gay man in a Southern resort area town and went on to a pretty decent life. My sister (the nurse one) has been acting as the executor of his estate. He wasn't rich, but he did have a house and some retirement accounts. Since he didn't leave a will, everything's being taken care of in probate, which is going to be an interesting waiting period. My dad and my mother were never technically divorced, and by the law of the state he died in, that means he was married, so that also throws a wrinkle into everything. His house is already up for sale, and the estate sale people pretty much cleared out his house and it's like he was never lived there.
    My dad was cremated, and his ashes were interred in a vault at a Veteran's cemetery near us. We did the whole big family reunion and wake for him, and it was an interesting experience. I saw relatives I haven't seen since about 1993. 
    Pretty mixed feelings about all this but I think the best way to describe it is that I feel relief. I don't have to wonder if there's going to be some day that I can talk to my dad again, and confront him about what he did, and possibly even try to salvage some kind of relationship with him. I know he's gone, and he's taken all his secrets and motivations with him, and I can let go of my anger at how he treated me as a child. It makes me sad that I have so few positive memories of my father but what I can remember is that he was a prankster who loved travel and cooking, and he kept those passions into the end of his life. Finally, my dad was able to go out peacefully in his sleep after living a pretty solid, if quiet life on a nice sunny street in the American South.
    As for me, I kind of just feel like I'm at the end of something. Maybe it's just hitting my late 30's, but I know things are changing again, and I'm not sure to what. I like to think I'll handle it well, no matter what happens. 
     
  10. methodwriter85
    What a strange year it was to live through. I really enjoyed my early 30's and I had gone into 34 thinking it was going to more of the same. Same place of work, same places I went to on the days I had off, and pretty much the only difference in my life would be what movies where coming out when, or what community and regional theater shows I'd watch when I got the chance. (Last show I saw was a Delaware Children's Theater production of Newsies in January 2020. Quite fun.) There were things I always liked doing throughout the year- barhopping on Halloween, battling people at the mall on Black Friday, and my biggie- going out on New Year's and just barhopping.  I tried doing the Halloween thing, but all the Covid19 restrictions were depressing. Didn't bother with Black Friday, and I stayed at home to watch the Ball Drop. The last time I was home on New Year's was in 2004-going-into-2005.
    Everything got upended, and I've basically spent a year of my life stuck in my room listening to music and watching YouTube videos. It hasn't been the tragic-filled year that it has been for a lot of people, and I'm covered in ways that a lot of people teetering on the edge of the abyss are not. I can't complain as much- I've lived through worse and got out through the other end.
    I'm not really sure what's next for me. When I was 25, that used to terrify me. At 35, I'm okay with just taking things as they come. Maybe I should be more proactive and try to figure out where I go now, but if there's anything this year taught me, it's that life changes on a dime like that.
    I just really hope there's some semblance of normal this year. We all need it.
  11. methodwriter85
    I wrote this article for Reddit just for the hell of it.
    ***
    Someone posted earlier about the annoying amount of over-development and suburban sprawl in Delaware. I thought it would be interesting to go a little bit over the reasons why the system is set up like the way it is, and how the forces of suburbanization have made Delaware into the bedroom community it is today.
     
    Wilmington developed at a steady pace throughout the 1800's- especially during the Civil War, which the du Pont Company really flourished as at the time they were known for gun powder. In 1864, a horse railcar line was developed around Delaware Avenue, which allowed for Wilmington residential development to expand out towards the "country", and leafy residential neighborhoods began to sprout. Note that this would be a continuing pattern for Wilmington's elite- building pretty "country" houses and pushing north of Wilmington.
     
    Soon, the railroad came, as well as the trolley car. This allowed for Wilmington's first official suburb, Elsmere, which was developed in 1886 by Joshua Heald for working middle-class families. Though there were talks for Wilmington annexing Elsmere into their city boundaries, Elsmere had incorporated as its own town by 1909. Wilmington couldn't really do much about it, because they had a weak city charter and New Castle County government would thwart them time after time whenever they tried to expand their borders.
     
    World War I and World War II brought continued prosperity to Wilmington, which reached 112k in population by 1940. Again, given that Wilmington had a weak city charter that made it hard for them to annex surrounding land into their city, a lot of residential development began to spill out of the borders of Wilmington, which was made even easier by the car. It was around this time that the prosperous North Wilmington suburbs were developed, originally for the du Pont company chemists and their families. (Think Alapocas, Greenville, Talleyville, etc.)
    Meanwhile, the more solidly middle-class suburban development continued out from Elsemere along the newly built Kirkwood Highway. Newark, which had been a relatively small town throughout most of its history, also exploded in population, going from just 6k people in 1950 to over 20k by 1970. The first wave of suburban sprawl began to hit the Newark area as areas such as Brookside were developed.
     
    As the 1950's continued and gave way to the 1960's, suburban development and flight from Wilmington continued. There are a couple of factors for this. The first is that the building of I-95 required demolition of several city neighborhoods, which destabilized the entire area and also made it even easier for people who worked in Wilmington to commute from the suburbs. The second is that the G.I. Bill, which returning WWII vets were using to buy homes, strongly favored new construction in the suburbs as opposed to the older housing stock. Third, the returning G.I.'s and their wives would give birth to what is known as the Baby Boomer Generation. This cohort was so large that entire children-consumer industries sprang up. These G.I.'s preferred to raise their kids in their suburbs, continuing the suburban flight from Wilmington. Finally, the perception of Wilmington being unsafe stemmed from the Wilmington riots of 1968, which led to most of suburban Delaware turning their backs on Wilmington and never looking back. From the 1950's through the 1980's, Wilmington's population would drop from 95k in 1950, down to about 70k by 1990, which is more or less where the population has stabilized.
     
    In the late 1970's, Christiana Mall began to be developed, which drove more development. The success of that mall meant that developers have clamored to build retail in the areas surrounding the mall since, hoping to capture that success as well- you see that today with the new Christiana Fashion Center. The building of nearby Christiana Hospital in 1984-1985 would also be a major driver of development in that region. Another biggie would be MBNA, which was founded in 1982 and became a massive behomoth of a suburban office complex in Ogletown.
     
    Ah, yes, we can't forget about banks, which began a boom in Delaware in the 1980's due to laws passed in 1981 that were favorable to banks. This did in fact led to a lot of office development in Wilmington, but the Baby Boomer bankers preferred living in the suburbs to living in the city. I mean, there were some city neighborhoods that got revived (think 40 Acres/Trolley Square) but by and large the affluence that was being driven by the banking boom of the 80's/90's was going out into the suburbs instead of being invested into the city. At least, beyond the gleaming office towers.
    The next round of suburban development (the 1980's-1990's) would take place around the Bear/Glasgow area. Originally cheap farmland (this area was big on horses), it became known for townhomes and cookie cutter housing developments. On the more upscale side, the affluent developments around Hockessin began to pop up as well. Both of these areas were not incorporated, which meant that developers did not need to go through city laws/city councils in order to get their developments approved- just having to deal with the city. I grew up in Bear during the 2000's, and I remember my jaw dropping when someone told me that Bear had largely been the "country" back in the 80's. You can still see some remnants of its past (I remember seeing some horse farms close to Old Porter Road) but man.
     
    Anyway, another really, really huge factor in the suburban sprawl deal in Delaware comes up in the 1990's. That would be the construction of Route 1. Originally built to bypass Route 13 and create a faster route to the beach, this would help the MOT area (Middletown, Odessa, Townsend) explode in population, as it was now a more convenient area to commute from. Middletown had 3k people in 1990, now it's up to over 20k, and that's just within the city limits. One difference in the suburban sprawl story of Middletown is that the mayor of the 1990's actually set this in motion on purpose, because Middletown was a dying farming town. The town began to aggressively annex surrounding areas so they would benefit from the building of the housing developments and strip malls. This would led to Middletown's population growing by 206 percent between 2000 to 2010. Not that there hasn't been some pushback- in 1999 Middletown residents rejected a school referendum purely as an attempt to stop the suburban development, but of course, it didn't really work.
     
    Route 1 has been a major driver of suburban development all across the state for the past 20 years. I lived in Dover from 2005-2006, and I remember there was a lot of suburbs getting built around the former farmland. Downstate also saw a lot of this growth, particularly with the beach areas, although that growth hasn't extended out to the western part of Sussex County.
    One thing that began to happen, especially during that 2000's real estate boom, is that developers in New Castle County started talking about "re-developing" golf courses, nature preserves, and former office complexes, particularly in the more crowded part above the canal. One particularly nasty fight occurred when the Stoltz Company wanted to build a 13-story tower in Greenville at the former Barley Mill Office complex, and basically the residents banded together to sue them 'til kingdom come until those plans were dropped. Another really controversial move has been talk abut re-developing the Newark Country Club, which has been bandied about for at least the past 15 years but it keeps getting thwarted. I also remember there were some whispers about developing in Bellevue Park around this area, although I don't know if that came to fruition.
     
    The Great Recession did put a damper for a while for suburban development in Delaware. Development has come back, but if you notice, a lot of what's getting built currently are townhomes aimed at seniors as well as apartment buildings. (Notably, the Newark student apartment buildings that everyone likes to bitch about.) You're not seeing as many plans for McMansion developments the way you would have back in the 90's and the 2000's.
     
    Anyways...
    1.) Delaware has always been a really convenient place to travel through when it comes to go to Philly, D.C./Baltimore, or New York City. This convenience has only increased with the building of roads like I-95 and Route 1. (Probably the new 301 is really going to jumpstart some new suburban sprawl as well.)
    2.) Delaware has historically stayed away from compact urban development. Newark was originally a sleepy town that had a small college. Dover was small town until the 1970's. A lot of Delaware was rural for most of our history. (Still shocked at the thought of Bear being a sleepy little farming community as recently as the 80's.) Our only "big" city is Wilmington, and even when they had 100k residents, they weren't building tall apartment buildings- note the row-homes and townhomes.
    3.) Developers like building on flat, open spaces, which Delaware had/has a lot of because we had so many farms. And we are largely on the Atlantic Coastal plain.
    4.) Wilmington lost 40k people in the course of about 50 years, and been unable to entice people to come back. One interesting fact- in 1940, Wilmington had 112k people. Delaware itself only had 266k people. That means that over 40 percent of the entire state of Delaware lived in Wilmington in 1940. Now that percentage is down to about 7 percent!
    5.) Government, especially in New Castle County, has a really, really hard time saying no to developers. There's also this mindset of not thinking ahead. I've learned in the Memories of Newark group that in the 1960's, the Newark City Council was floating the idea of building a by-pass that would have gone around the Main Street area. Sort of similar to what's going on right now with the 301, which is going to by-pass the current 301 that goes through Middletown. It was floated because at the time, Newark was booming, and the traffic problems we see today started to appear. However, the city council voted it down because they thought it was unnecessary. Today, the proposed bypass would be impossible because most of that land got developed, so Newarkers today basically have to pay for the mistakes that were made 50 years ago. And you see similar stories to that again and again- developers getting their way and our government not making them put in the infrastructure needed because they don't want to lose the development deals.
     
    So yeah, there you have it. It's basically almost inevitable that Delaware basically is the way it is. We're basically just reaping what Elsmere sowed back in the early 1900's when they refused to become part of Wilmington because they didn't want to pay city taxes.
    TL;DR: Delaware's life as a suburban bedroom community is the result of forces that were set in motion as early as the 19th century.
    Edited...looks like people want some sources so here's a couple:
    "Corporate Capital- Wilmington in the 20th Century" by Carol Hoffecker, Temple University Press, 1983.
    Wilmington DE population
    Newark DE Population
    Dover DE Historical Population
    Delaware population figures
    Middletown DE Wikpedia Page
    Save Our County- Website for the group that fought the Stoltz Company tooth and nail over the proposed Greenville development
    Push for country park on former orphanage site remains strong, Newark Post Online 2017
    West Main Street Residents Want By-pass, Newark Post Achives September 2,1994
    Christiana Fashion Center's first phase on target, Delaware Business Times March 2015
    Northern Delaware's Christiana Mall remains resistant to retail's rough patch, BisNow 2018
    Banking Haven- Washington Post 1983
    Middletown, Delaware Annexing Farmland- New York Times 1990
    Market Street Renaissance- Out & About, October 2015
    Developers Target Delaware Golf Courses January 2016
    ***
    Growing up as suburban kid...I wouldn't have it any other way. I fucking LOVED hanging out at the mall growing up. I don't know if I would have liked being a city kid, or being in some small cow town or something.
  12. methodwriter85
    Can someone make it stop? Please?

    Ugh. I miss the days when I only really cared about the next party I was going to and whether or not I'd pass my classes.

    Backstory:

    I've been using Medicaid since 2015. I got rejected for this year because I made 61 cents over the limit. 61 cents.

    So now basically I need to work less if I want to get my Medicaid back, or I have to buy insurance on the Marketplace. And I've got to get this all done by June 21st or else I won't be able to get discounted insurance on the Marketplace.

    Although I guess it's progress that I'm now on the edge of eligibility. I mean, in 2014, I made like 2500 dollars total.
     
    Anyway, I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks trying to work less, and then I'll re-apply for Medicaid. I really only care about this because I don't want to pay the tax penalty.
  13. methodwriter85
    We had our opening today and I got named Volunteer of the Year. Pretty proud of that. I have a plaque and everything. Nice cap to 5 years of service to them this May.
     
    The immature, spiteful part of me wants to snap a photo of my plaque and send it in an email to the archives that canned me as a intern 4 years ago with the capture, "Fuck you", but gladly I've learned a lot in the past few years.
     
    It's been a pretty gratifying experience in general. Volunteer work can really enhance a person's life if it's done right and at the right place.
  14. methodwriter85
    Joy. Just pure joy. I'm sitting here in my living room (I decided not to go out because I honestly don't want to deal with crazy crowds) and I'm just savoring the moment.
     
     
    I am so proud of this team, and I'll never forget this moment. E-A-G-L-E-S!!!
  15. methodwriter85
    Wow, it's been awhile since I updated. I usually don't go that long with this blog. Hmm.
     
    Winter was alright; early spring has been as well. My life has a general pattern right now- work, watching YouTube videos a lot, strolling Netflix, using my employee pass at the movies. On the weekends I have off, I usually will go into the city of Wilmington to catch either a play or a movie at either Theater N or Penn Cinema on the Riverfront. Possibly a beer or two every weekly or bi-weekly.
     
    It's a big cry from my heady days as a young college student, but eh, it kind of works for me. I find lately that I really enjoying being solitary, and not having to expend the energy to be Fun Loveable College Slacker Party Boy anymore. (I can still be that guy every once in a blue moon, but I feel a lot more relaxed now.)
     
    I do think a lot about where I'm going to go next. I've spent almost 2 years at this crummy (but ultimately easy and sometimes even fun) job being a movie concessionaire. Funny that Day 3 I was ready to quit; now here I am two years later at the same place. It's soul-crushing at times, but hey, a boy's got to eat, right?
     
    I don't know what or where or how I'm going to go to that next place. I've gotten pretty comfortable treading water, and it all still kind of works for me.
     
    The 5th anniversary of my grad school graduation is in May. Crazy, right? Thankfully, I did do volunteer work to keep my degree relevant, but I do wonder if I might wind up getting a certificate or something and doing something else. I have to see where things go. I find I don't feel a rush to get there.
     
    In my late 20's, I was so full of anxiety about making things happen and breaking into my field. (I think that's why I had my breakdown when my internship fell apart 3 years ago.) I felt like I was on some kind of timeline.
     
    At my early 30's, I just kind of feel...cool. I guess. Things will happen when they happen. Life has a funny way of dragging you into where you need to go and what you need to do.
     
    Anyway, by some dumb mistake, I'm stuck watching a musical called Once at the DuPont Theater in Wilmington more than I planned on seeing it. I meant to get the Saturday matinee, but I accidentally bought the Sunday matinee. I then bought the Saturday matinee ticket and hoped I could get someone to buy the Sunday matinee ticket off me for twenty dollars off, but no dice.
     
    It kind of sucks because I was planning on going to the season opening of the museum I volunteer with, but if I blow this off, I'm throwing 63 credit card dollars down the drain.
     
    So yeah, it looks like I'll be seeing Once twice. ;-)
  16. methodwriter85

    32 Candles

    By methodwriter85,

    Okay, so tonight I celebrated my 32nd birthday with my niece who just turned 23. (She was born the day before my 9th birthday- I on December 7th and she on December 6th.) My family has been doing joint birthdays for us forever. This year, we were having it at Red Robin. So it's me, my mom, 2 sisters, 2 brother-in-laws, 3 nieces, and 2 nephews. One sister (the one with the daughter turning 23) and her entire family is basically on a vegan diet.
     
    So me and my mom show up late, which is strike 1. I thought we were supposed to be there at 6:30, but it was apparently 5:30. Then my vegan sister bitches about my mom bringing an ice cream cake, which is strike 2, because she got this custom ordered vegan cake. I knew that would happen, so I asked my mom to get me just a small ice cream cake that would just be for me and maybe her and my non-vegan sister, and that would be it. She didn't listen to me, and instead got a larger cake that could serve 8-10 people and had my niece's name put on it along with mine. (Which I told my mom repeatedly before that the niece wouldn't eat because she's vegan.) Then my mom, who is braindead with social cues, decides to make jokes about my Vegan Sister's lifestyle, which again brought out her pouty face. Strike 3 happened when my mom didn't finish her cake, and the nephew that is on the Vegan Diet threw a hissyfit because his mother wouldn't allow him to eat the cake. The sister then just picked up a bottle of ketchup and squirted it on the leftover ice cream cake. She basically seemed to be starring daggers at me and Mom as we left.
     
    I was pissed because so much of this could have been avoided if my mom had actually listened to me when I told her that she only needed to get a 4 person cake. The only reason why I asked was because I knew that otherwise I'd have to have the niece's vegan cake, and I wanted my own little non-vegan cake. I'm also just pissed that this stuff always seems to be a big fucking issue whenever we have family get-togethers, to the point where my mom actually hosted a secret Thanksgiving dinner not on actual Thanksgiving and didn't invite my Vegan sister and her family to. The problem is that her son (he's about to turn 5) throws all these little hissyfits about not getting to eat non-vegan food whenever we have get-togethers. Like tonight he kept staring at the Caravel ice cake in its box and then he tried pouncing on the leftovers of my mom's slice of the ice cream cake. So therefore the Vegan sister continually tries getting us to not bring non-vegan food to family events.
     
    I kind of wish I had done what I did last year and just celebrated my birthday by taking up a train to Philadelphia and hanging out around Center City for an afternoon. FAR less stressful.
     
    But yeah. I just feel pissed. Honestly, I didn't even give a shit about getting a cake. I'm just tired of feeling like I have to kow-tow to my sister's vegan diet at every single fucking turn, to the point of her trying to rope me into eating a cake I don't want to eat because it's "for everyone." That's why I tried having another cake brought in that would have just been for me.
     
    And I just get tired of my mom not listening to me. She insisted on getting this bigger cake, that I knew was mostly going to go waste, and then snapped at me when I pointed that out to her. Then she admitted after we got home that I was right, and she should have gotten the smaller cake.
     
    Anyway. Yeah, I don't think I want to do this kind of thing anymore, if it means having to go through THAT again. I'm 32 anyway- I really don't need birthday cakes and the candles and all that anymore. I won't have my next milestone birthday for another 3 years.

    I think for 33 I might just go to Philly or Baltimore or DC or something. Who the fuck knows? What I do know is that I don't want a repeat of THAT shitshow.

    For my actual 32nd birthday I quietly had a celebration wacky wheat beer at Stewart's Brewing Company and then saw the Disaster Artist at Regal People's Plaza. That was nice. I'll just hold on to that. The next night, I met up with my friend Shana at Brio Tuscan Grill and had a few drinks before going to the holiday party at the theater. That was fun, too. I even got a handmade card from a few of the managers.
  17. methodwriter85
    Last night I went on the Wilmington Halloween Bar Loop, for my 4th year doing it. It was a really good time- I flew solo again and dropped about 59 dollars total on Uber. (My belief has always been paying 50 to 100 dollars on a cab ride is much, much cheaper than a DUI.)
     
    I hit up Chelsea Tavern, Ernest and Scott Taproom, a Mexican bar, Trolley Tap House, Catherine Rooney's, and Trolley Oyster House. The Loop is no longer utilizing the buses as a free shuttle, so I decided not to hit up the Firestone Roasting House on the Riverfront like I did last year.
     
     I stuck to a reasonable 6 drinks. My tolerance level is vastly reduced and I didn't feel like puking. I went as a Blue Barracuda from Legends of the Hidden Temple, which was fun. I did not think anybody would remember that show, but I got a shit ton of compliments from people that night about my costume. Two people even took a picture of me. One really cool moment happened when I found another guy dressed up as a Blue Barracuda. We joked about being each other's missing teammates, and people complimented us on being total randos that just happened to be teammates. LOL.
     
    It was a fun night. Definitely better than last year, when absolutely only one person got that I was Dustin from Stranger Things, and I broke my phone when I dropped it at the Trolley Square Oyster House. I was lucky enough that I was able to hail a taxi, but yeah, it wasn't nice having to replace my phone.
     
    I don't really do the party thing anymore, but it's fun to go back to your old party boy self every once in awhile.
     
     
  18. methodwriter85
    On Monday, August 21st I got to see the solar eclipse. In my area, it was about 77 percent coverage, so just a partial one, but still incredible to watch. I got off work around 1:17, and drove over to the Glasgow County Park on Route 40. There's a little running hill where I went to the top and watched it with about 20 or so people. It was pretty cool- absolutely amazing to watch the sun turn into a little tangerine slice.
     
    Definitely won't forget it, for sure.
  19. methodwriter85
    In this episode of React, the elders of the show react to photos taken of them when they were young.
     
    I thought it was pretty touching, especially the guy who realized that all of the friends that were with him in the mountaintop photo were all passed on.
     
    And it was interesting watching them react to their 30's/40's photos and about how much energy they had...there's something I think is pretty cool about these particular decade's of one's life, and it kind of felt like they concurred to that theory I had. And it made me think, "Hey, I might not be 21 anymore, but I've still got some great decades ahead of me."
     
    I do a lot of interaction with older people in my life due to my volunteer work with the local history museum. I really do get such a kick out of hearing where they've been and what they've done in life- my favorite volunteer was a man in his late 80's/early 90's who was a local artist and also fought in World War II.
     
    It's also fun to picture what older people were like when they were young- some people have such a zest for life that it's really easy to picture them young, and some just seem eternally grumpy.
     
    Anyway...that's pretty cool of FineBros to give the elders a platform on a space that tends to skew pretty young. As much as I like Smosh or Jenna Marbles, it's nice to see people over a certain age sharing their viewpoints and stories on YouTube.
  20. methodwriter85
    Freaky shit.
     
    Officer Shot, Killed at Convenience Store in Bear, DE
     
    This stuff happens, but there's something surreal about this one for me because I am very familiar with the store. I used to walk there all the time when I was a kid because I lived like a 10-minute walk there back then. I also pretty much always get my gas from that WaWa- I'm usually at that store at least once a week or two weeks.
     
    This very pro-NRA conservative type posted a video about witnessing the shooting:
     
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpy85ir4wcY
     
    I can't even imagine how I'd react in that kind of situation.
  21. methodwriter85
    Well, the 2016 Thanksgiving weekend is upon us...I guess my biggest "Thanks" is for the fact that I'm in generally decent health and I'm still gainfully employed, even if I'm not making too much.
     
    I pretty much worked on Thanksgiving morning, and then I went over to my Vegan Sister's house for a Vegan Thanksgiving. It wasn't too bad. Then today my mother and I cooked dinner for my other sister, who brought her family over. We were able to facetime with my sister and niece who live in California. It was fun and generally low-key.
     
    Right now I'm listening to some mid-90's music ("Crazy Life" by Toad the Wet Sprockett) and just thinking about the Thanksgivings when we were all kids (or just barely out of that) and we all basically lived together. Twenty years ago, back in '95 or '96, we all (me, my mom, my 3 sisters, my oldest niece, and a verging-on-ex husband of my oldest sister's) lived in this townhouse. I remember it being pretty fun- the turkey refused to cook because it was frozen, but we sat around and had fun and watched Winona Ryder "Little Women's" and played Monopoly after dinner. That was such a huge thing for us.
     
    I miss that- everyone's kind of scattered off into their own thing and own lives now, and beyond that, Sister 1 and Sister 2 aren't talking over some dumb-ass issue I'm not going to get into, and we basically had this split Thanksgiving because of it. And my mom's 70 now and I'm realizing more than ever that I probably won't get decades more of memories with her, and some day making Thanksgiving dinner with her is going to be a memory that I'll have to hold on to and cherish because she won't be here. Maybe before my 30's are out.
     
    But yeah, I miss those Holidays. I really do. I guess you just miss childhood in general, but I think back in that time, we had managed to come back together after the absolute hell that my dad had put us through. He was gone, we were all living together, my oldest sister was doing fun things like taking us to the zoo or the movies while the Smashing Pumpkins or the Goo-Goo Dolls played on her car stereo, and there wasn't all these adult concerns and adult worries and adult squabblings. A great Christmas present (I think mine for that year was a Goosebumps ice cream machine) and everything in the world was perfect for a moment. I don't get those moments any more.
     
    Of course, things weren't perfect and I'm definitely looking through things with rose-tinted glasses (my mom's gambling addiction was still there, we could barely afford that townhouse, those 3 sisters still fought quite a lot, and the oldest sister was basically on the verge of dumping her first husband), but I still wish I could spend a moment back in Thanksgiving 1995/6.
     
    What are some of your happiest Holiday season memories from your life?
  22. methodwriter85
    So over 40 million people decided to hand over control of the country to a racist, homophobic, sexist xenophobe who starred on a realty show.
     
    I fucking blame the DNC for failing to connect Hilary with the voters.
     
    Just disgusted. Completely and totally disgusted. I think I'm done with caring about politics. May God help us through these next four years. Or actually, may god help Trump when the working class straight white males who voted for him realize that he isn't actually going to bring back manufacturing jobs.
  23. methodwriter85

    Stranger Things

    By methodwriter85,

    I finally broke down and got Netflix so I could watch Stranger Things, which is kind of like an homage to 1970's/1980's sci-fi teen fantasy movies/books. It's about a nerdy group of middle school friends in small town America 1983, when one of the group goes mysteriously missing.
     
    Some big nostalgia factor- aside from being set in '83, it's also got 80's teen stars Matthew Modine and Winona Ryder. Winona especially turns in quite the performance as a single mom slowly but surely coming apart at the seams as the horror of realizing her son has gone missing.
     
    I'm on the 4th episode currently- it's been pretty true to the early 1980's setting other than some anachronisms, like playing "Hazy Shade of Winter", a 1987 song, or someone calling another person a "douchebag", which is more late 90's slang. I'm pretty thrilled by that- nothing's more annoying than watching a period piece where they completely bungle the setting and don't get it right, like 'The Carrie Diaries". But yeah, watching the show, they really get that "First-Term Reagan America" ennui right, with the girls in the prairie blouses and long tartan skirts and the guys in tight jeans and pattern/colored polo shirts and the way the cars/houses look. Still lots of traces of the 70's, but slowly fading out.
     
    The soundtrack has been pretty fun- they played one of my favorite songs...the melancholy
    . 
    Anyone else watching it?
  24. methodwriter85
    Alright, this is my offer for Music Monday...a nice little uptempto pop rock song about nostalgia and the beauty of youth:
    Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams
     
    A snippet of this is currently playing on the advertisement screen at my work; I think as part of some classic 80's playlist. I started singing along to it, and my co-worker Devan, who's this funny sarcastic Mormon, looked at me and said, "Well, you can actually remember 1969, can't you?"
     
    Ooh, burn. I flipped him off. Then, I started laughing hysterically, and thought about all the times I'd say stuff like that to Adam when he was 30-ish and I was 23-ish, similarly to the current age gap between Devan and I. Only I'm on the wrong side of it now. LOL.
    But yeah, I was like, "This song was a big hit the year I was born so I feel an affinity for it," and he was like, "Well, I have a brother who was born in 1989." Nobody there knew the song, and I realized it's because 80's nights and 80's parties just aren't really a thing like they were back when I was 21. And MTV/VH1 aren't airing retrospective 80's music videos anymore like they did when I was growing up.
    Anyway, it made me laugh and it made me think, "Wow, karma is a BITCH."
  25. methodwriter85
    The Human League were an 80's British synthpop band, best known for their 1982 monster hit, "Don't You Want Me." They had some other, lesser-known songs, including this top 10 hit from 1983:
     


     
    Man, Phil Oakley rocked the hell out of the 80's androgynous look. And this is just a song that would be fun as hell to dance to.
     
    The thing of note about them is that the two female back-up singers/dancers were just ordinary teenaged girls that Phil found dancing at a night club, and asked him to join a band.
     
    Any of you guys remember this now-obscure oldie?
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