Don't worry, I'm alive

Well, if you haven't already noticed, I haven't updated this thing at all. I've never been good at blogging or writing in journals and this is no exception. I'm going to try to be better, but I'm not making promises I probably won't keep. I talk to everyone on a regular basis that would even read this website, so I'm not overly concerned with keeping it absolutely up to date. Nevertheless, I'll try and we'll just leave it at that.

So, I've been in California for just shy of two months. I have come to the conclusion that Los Angeles is a great place to visit, but not necessarilly a great place to live on a permanent basis. There are great aspects about this city, but there are an disproportionate amount of horribly awful things to counter the good. I'm not going to go on a smear campaign to cut down LA, but if you know me at all, you'll understand that stupid drivers, superficial people, and areas crowded with way too many people drive me absolutely bonkers. Having to deal with these issues on a daily basis is just down right annoying. That's all I'm going to say about the bad because honestly, my experience here, in California, hasn't really been bad at all.

To most of you, this will come as no surprise at all, but I have recently joined a kickball team. One of my co-workers happens to be the captain of a local WAKA sponsored team and she asked if I would want to play for them. Not one for turning down any opportunity to participate in pure awesomeness, I accepted and am very happy that I didn't give it a second thought. We have played two games already and have obtained victory in both. Our team is good, not great, but good enough to give the rest of the teams in the league the challenge they are looking for. The Pregnant Cheerleaders (my team) "sucked" last season according to everyone on the team, so coming out 2 and 0 with decisive wins is certainly uplifting for the veterans of the team. We're going to have our first real challenge next Monday against the famed "Uno Mas," a team that is considered to be at the top of the league, despite their not making it to the championship game last season. My role with the team varies week to week. Historically, I played shortstop/3rd base and catcher, but he has me at center field because I'm one of the few people on the team that can catch on a consistant basis. I did get to play one inning at catcher last night, due to some positioning confusion, so that was a nice change of pace. I think our coach is going to have a hard time placing me from now on, seeing as that I made a key play at catcher and have literally done nothing in center field. We'll see how this develops over the next few weeks.

My job is going well. We are almost finished with the web project and next week I will move to the actual IT team. I turned down the web developer job at the high school for various reasons that I won't say here, but fortunately my boss kept a position open in the IT team in case something like that happened. I'm looking forward to doing something else with my time; the web project has been an interesting experience, but I figured out very quickly that it's not something I would want to do on a full-time basis. I know the other IT guys will be happy to have me on board since they are currently working with half of a staff and there is a lot of work to be done.

Just in case you didn't know, I work for one of the more predominant private Jewish schools in the LA area. It's a big deal for those of us that are Jewish and/or rich, but seeing as that I am neither, the majesty of the place doesn't exactly blow me away. It is a great place to work, though, and I am going to work here for as long as possible (or as long as they'll have me). I should go full-time with them at the beginning of November. They have to complete their contract with my job agency, so for the last two months I have technically been a contractor, despite the fact that I am working full-time at the temple. The temple pays the job agency my salary and in turn, the job agency pays me, so even though it might be easier to just have the temple pay me, that's not the way the contract works.

Megan and I brought two new lives into our home over the last couple of weeks. Frankie and Roxie, our brand new kittens, don't get along right now, but they do seem to like us and the apartment. I'm hoping that they will come around to each other soon, because I am tired of having to pry them apart when they decide to be mean to each other. Despite their constant bickering, they're quite lovely animals and they're great companions for Megan and I. Here's hoping that they will be with us for many years to come.

I recently bought a new Macbook, something I have desired since April when it was first released. It's a good little machine and it does what I need it to. I'm not going to completely switch, nor will I ever become an Apple zealot, but I will be the first to say that Apple makes some good stuff.

I think that about wraps it up for now. I'll try to fill in some of the missing time with stories and adventures, so check backwards in the blog for updates.