3 years late to the game, but I'm here!

This was me as of 6/25/13.

As of 6/26/13, I joined the cell revolution of smart phones, data plan and all!

Now, if I can some how get this contraption so that my head is fully supported and I no longer have to hold my own head up, I'd be one heck of a bad-ass walking down the street.

I won't go into the story of how long and painful the process was to get this cell phone at the store, but if there is one thing that working at my last job has taught me, is that I appreciate people with effective and concise communication styles. It's funny how I quickly adapted to my new phone and the capabilities that it allows me to do. I've been more organized with all the planning, task lists, and notes I have made for myself on this contraption.

Shiny new toy

The old me would have been weighted down with a non-smart phone, a MP3 player, a camera, and the rubber band that held them all together. My pockets have never been more empty!

The best part is the fact that I can Face time with people! Like this adorable niece! 

Totes Adorb

Peek-a-boo! She finds me all the time.

Today, I found out what my Resting Bitcy Face looks like...

Unaware

This weekend was awesome. Saw some former co-workers for lunch and coffee and I honestly don't miss work. Good times, great friends and goofy laughs. #Thesummerofbobby #Bestdecisionever

Who wants to go to Dublin with me in Oct?!!!

Michigan and Back

It's been quite some time since I've updated. To my one anonymous blog flower, I'm sorry.

I've spent several days back in Michigan. 7.23 days to be exact. That has been the most amount of consecutive days, I think, I lived with my parents since I got my first big boy job. At first it was nice to be back in a comfort of your family, but soon we all got too comfortable with each other and it was like I was 18 again. Like most first generation kids out there, I was at the cross roads of the
"old world" and the "new world. The old world was filled with delicious home made dinners, discussion in Chinese, and a loving grandmother, but the new world provide nights out, drinks at 11pm, Panera cookies.  I'm grateful to have my family. Every visit, I walk away with things I never knew about their past. It's scary to hear know thats what they went through...raising me.

The bight side, I did get to see some of my old friends and neighbors. Laughed and joked about the old times and caught up on the shenanigans of their lives.

I took a lot of shit from these ladies, but I still rock the socks and sandals look!

6 bucks for a small? I liked them when they were racist.

I became a cat person for 7 days.

Coming back in Minneapolis gave me a sense of relief, comfort and a need to catch up on things I've missed.  My yard and garden went through puberty. Everything just grew from no where. I spent most of last Thursday mowing and raking. Got my first raking related injury.

They're better because they came from my garden.

Friday afternoon I had my first moving Sale! No, I am not moving, but one of my good friend is. I helped her sell some of her belongings by offering my yard. Both of us were surprised by the onslaught of Friday Yard sellers. These are people are skilled at yard selling. They've honed their craft at mass quantity bargaining down to the last penny, their penny. After the rush, I had time to just enjoy the amazing weather.

After the mad rush

What's that term called? Chillaxing?

Friday night provided a bday celebration in the park and little storm that ripped out several dozen trees, created mass power outages, and a drenched Bobby. After the storm, the bday party goers all wandered the streets to evaluated the damages. I ran into fellow wonders who happened to be Nate and Carmen! Like two animated Disney birds flying towards me. It was great seeing them. We explored the neighborhood and provided our own commentary on what took down the trees, but in Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones lore.

Tree down = Photo opportunity!

 I headed back to my house that night not sure what kind of damage, power status, or havoc my neighborhood was in. Surprisingly, my street had power and cable and I surveyed the outside of my house to find no damage. Unfortunately, some houses in my neighborhood didn't have as lucky.

There is a house under that tree.

Lightning?

There was an Orc hiding under there, I'm sure of it!

I drove out to Eden Prairie, way South from me, to see some old co-workers and enjoyed some great spring rolls! Oh did I mention, the meat was cooked in butter? Oh yeah. I am fat.

I left with solid butter in my stomach.

Reliving my years as 15 year old

I'm back in MI visiting my family.

Yup. Back in my home town. I don't know why I was expecting a fun and exciting adventure. You'd think I learned after 30 years of being in this town. A rush of reality halted all my expectations and motivation.

But I'm a clever kid and I filled my time up with my first love, TV!

More exactly. Game of Thrones! I'm all caught up with the 3rd season. I've been avoiding the internet with any post that was related to it. I heard so much about this "Red Wedding". It wasn't easy avoiding the internet for spoilers, recaps and the public's reaction to the show. I avoided it all and watched the Red Wedding in shocked horror while phantom tears ran down my face. Damn you George R R Martin for developing characters that I love and simply destroying them in front of me (weeping).

During my marathon of Game of Thrones, I have developed an appreciation for the Queen Regent, Cersei Lanister. She's beautiful, mean, and beautifully mean.

Just doing a quick internet search she's actually really funny when not being mean and cruel. And she's a hipster.

Back to reality. Today my day consisted of a trip to Costco to see what I can do to improve my non-smart phone. This is what I ended walking away with. The lesson I learned today is, it's the simple things in life that makes me happy.

All I need is a brick of Night Cheese

Who wants to trade 30 Rock quips and quotes with me?

Side Note: Now that I have all this free time, I learned what "Twerking" is and I joined Pintrest...No further commentary.

Where are you going?

"Where are you going?"
"What are you going to do?"
"Do you have a plan?"
"Are you rich?"

These are all standard questions I'm getting in response to me explaining my current state of employment. To be honest, I some days I don't know what I'm going to do and the fear of uncertainty begins to creep up. Other days, I can't even take a break from all the things I have going on. Then I have to remind myself, "IT'S ONLY BEEN A WEEK!" And I slow down to enjoy the moment.

Friday and Saturday were both busy days. Which I enjoyed since it didn't require me to do any office related work. Instead I worked on my yard, cooked, meet friends up, and chatted with some industry folks.

Last night I had my first out door BBQ of the summer. I just ate. I started the second I set my stuff down on the porch. Brandi made a killer guacamole and I mentally put handcuffs on my arms to stop. The inappropriate humor proliferated that night. The guys and I were all trying to one up each other to see who had the most clever lines. That night also made me an Asshole...

In Presidents and Asshole. 

  

The night also included an impromptue excusion to St. Paul's all night Northern Spark Art Festival. It was St. Paul's first ever. The experience was very unique. The "Art" was hit or miss. Mostly just hipster art, AKA hipsters' attempt in being an individual...on a low budge. But fun to people watch at 1:30 am.

Minneapolis Hipsters have nothing on St. Paul's hardcore Hipsters

St. Paul's Union Station - Awesomely designed station

Hipsters love the Never Ending Story's Bat

I would prefer this over my current mode of transportation

When I'm not meeting up friends, eating, or "chillaxing" on my couch in my luxurious sweatpants, I'm out in my back yard undoing my house's previous occupant's gardening work. They planted plants that over took my back yard and the only way to get ride of these plants is to pull them all out, manually. So that's what I've been doing. Pulling out plants. And it's not easy, because they have bulbs on them and I don't get the bulbs out as well, nothing I have done would matter next year. I'm so close to being done...I think...

This took weeks to clear out. You scoff, but once I show the before picture...

These will not be here tomorrow afternoon

Damn these plants and their perennial bulbs! I hate you.

Progress

What day is it?

Holy crap it's Thursday?

Oddly, the days of the week have lost all meaning to me. In retrospect, my work Outlook Calendar ruled my life and meetings dictated what I was going to do for the day. I remember when I would only have one meeting on the calendar, it was like getting a warm hug from God. Today, it's like doing running high fives with him.

So you guys know I used to be fat right? Yep. I was what they call in the fashion industry "Husky". I was a round boy, with a bowl cut. I recall my mom correcting me at Kohls, to try husky pants rather than normal sized pants. Well if I kept up this food excursion I've been on, I'll be walking down memory lane at Kohls.

This Elderberry Macaroon from Cupcake in the Mall of America caught my eye. I love all things blue food coloring. Consequently, my tongue ended up matching my sweater. The MOA also had Masu, a Japanese Raman joint. Their food was good, but the broth needed to be hotter, temp wise.

You gotta taste this blue food coloring

Phase 1 of turning into a Smurf

I guess you can fill a store with just Peeps

Is this why oil and plastic prices are up?

Itadakimasu!

I watched two films the last two days. Yes I said "films". Makes me sound more elite before I tell you which movies they were. Beautiful Creatures and Cloud Atlas. Both movies, not the best. The story sounded decent based on the synopsis, but I was tricked by the movie industry once again! 

Kyle Gallner was in Beautiful Creatures. I've seen him in other films, most of which *Spoiler Alert* he dies...horribly. I'm glad to not see him scream in pain in this one.

Yesterday, I also met up a old co-worker for lunch (I had a cubano sandwich, nom nom nom). A fellow colleague who left a while back to to pursue another career path in life. It was awesome and great to compare life adventures and catching up.

It occurred to me last night that I have a sh*t ton of ties. This is what 4.5 years of the corporate industry has lead me to. Great, I can start wearing ties with jeans in casual settings like someone from a J. Crew catalog, but more Asian.

This would be categorized as "First world problem"

My 1st day of Retirement v.1.0

My inaugural day of my Retirement v. 1.0 (SUMMER OF BOBBY) began at 9:17am on Monday. This is a stark contrast to the 6:20am awakening I would subject myself to just so I could catch a bus to take me to work.

Let me describe my morning. Bright morning sunlight colored my bedroom walls. Sounds of birds chirping with each other. Fresh breeze from my window was Mother Nature's subtle nudge waking me up. I had no concept of time because I turned off all my alarms (I would set 7 alarms with different times to get my ass up). I'm going to enjoy waking up like this.

My day was awesome. I took a friend to try a Jucy Lucy at Matt's Bar, where I left no sign of a burger ever came. Wondered around Lake Harriet, followed by an expedition to Uptown. To which I have not been in a while and should frequent that area more often. The amount of wondering hipsters are exponential.

Dinner consisted of one of my favorite Japanese dishes, Katsudon. I had it at Wasabi. I do consider myself a Katsudon snob, so after a few bites, I concluded that it was a 5/10. But I devoured it like my childhood hero, Cookie Monster.

If this is any indication of what my summer will be, I made the best decision of my life.

What will this summer hold for me? Will my vampire skin finally accept sunlight? Could I become a wondering transient hipster with tunnel plugs and ironic tattoos? Or will I be on TLC's Hoarders? Place your bets!

(Insert Picture of Jucy Lucy)

Lake Harriet

A duck's life

Katsudon - try it at your local Japaneses Eatery

#WEIdding

I f*ck'n love these people!
Together, we are the cast of FRIENDS. We are the Cosby Family. We are a Modern Family.

I'm still riding high on the awesome time I had the past 3 days. Hence the sentimental post.

Yesterday, was a great day. I was able to see my some of my closest Minneapolis friends all together. I stood with a guy I consider an extended brother while he was getting married to one of my amazing friends. I met both of their wonderful families and we all celebrated the night away in the grandest of fashion. I would be quite sad without each of them.

Getting Ready!

Groomsman BL

The Weizcaks

We're all feeling Lucky

Wei & Lam

The newly Mrs. Wei! Stunning

Drinking together

Wedding Party line up, Von Trapp style

The Gentelmen

This was an incredible way to end my crazy last week and to begin my tomorrow!