Story Every Day

[storyeveryday]

Birthday Baseball

For Elise's dad's birthday, her mom got him tickets to a semi-pro baseball game. Of course all five of us went and we had a ball! (Sorry for the bad joke). We got there and the parking lot was already full. An open spot we had to pass up was too small for the van. But we found a spot not too long after that. We walked in and there were all sorts of venders. There were free samples of Mt Dew and Bud light and bouncy houses and zip lines. It was like a little festival! Our seats were the very last row, between home and 1st base. Even though you couldn't get any further away, it wasn't a bad view at all. It was actually pretty perfect. The only "bad thing" was that a few foul balls got pretty close, though really, even people up close behind the net weren't safe cause a few times it just bounced back down there. So really, no matter where we could have sat, that would have been a "danger". As soon as I realized who we were playing, I realized that I have a friend who works for them. She wasn't at this game because she only does stuff at home games. It was still neat though that I had this random connection. The game itself went kind of slow. No one scored for I think the first six innings. Two innings later it was all tied up again. It got kind of exciting in the tenth inning, but then it went into an extra inning. Spoiler, the home team won. Right before the first point of the game was scored, we went to get brats. So we missed that, but the brats were good. I got an extra long one with shredded cheater cheese, fried onions and pulled pork. It was really good, but messy. It's hard to say what the high light of the game was, but there were a few really cute moments with little kids. This little three year old sang Take Me Home to the Ball Game perfectly. And this other kid got to do bowling with a giant, inflatable ball and baseball players as the pins. What made that one extra awesome was that the little boy missed the pins completely so they all, simultaneously hopped over so that the kid nailed them. It was so cute. I'm glad we went. -Chuck

[storyeveryday]

A Long Drive

Being a photographer, I have to make a lot of long drives for work. Luckily, the decision of the company I work for now doesn't send me to for. Regardless, I am not a fan of driving in general, especially if it's more than an hour. Today I had to do exactly what I don't like doing, but it was completely, without a single, tiny doubt worth it. I drove my fiancée three hours in her car to her family's house for the holiday weekend. Normally she'd drive because its her car. The reason she didn't is because she asked me to since she had to get up really early and work an extra long shift. Without even hesitating I said yes. She knows I really don't like driving, especially if it's long distance and if there's gonna be more than two lanes on one side. But that didn't matter. Letting her relax and knowing that I was able to make her just a little bit happy is all I needed. Seeing her wonderful smile was all I needed to do something I hate doing and it was one hundred percent worth it. -Chuck

[storyeveryday]

Excited to Cosplay!!

This year for Gen Con, I decided to cosplay. The last time I went all out was back in high school. I partly did it for myself and to impress a girl. And ever since then, I've wanted to do it again, I just haven't had an opportunity. I didn't go to any conventions or themed parties or even a Halloween party where people actually dressed up. But then last year at Gen Con there were LOADS of people in cosplay. I loved it!! When just going from one area to the next, I didn't see the thousands of people surrounding me. All I saw were the hundreds of people dressed up as fictional characters. I was even lucky enough to get a few photos with some of my favs. So this year I am inspired. I'm dressing up all four days, with a different costume each day. The order hasn't been decided yet, but here's my picks: Scott Pilgrim (Scott Pilgrim vs the World), Chuck (Chuck TV series), Rory (Doctor Who), R (Warm Bodies), and Voyager Medical Officer (Star Trek Voyager). R is actually my back up in case my Star Trek one falls through. I'm both nervous and excited. I purposefully picked out a couple that don't scream cosplay, just because I want to ease myself into it. Though I am really excited for Chuck day and Star Trek day. I spend most of today researching. Can't wait!!! -Chuck

[storyeveryday]

Going Through Old Boxes

That is exactly what I did. Dad and I went to the storage shed to find all my old boxes, but to also look for stuff mom was missing. Most of my stuff was sitting right in front. After we loaded up those, we then proceeded to dig through every single box in there. It was crazy. There's a lot of junk, but also some pretty neat stuff. Of course loads of photos and somethings Kyle had misplaced, but we also found an old doll. I remembered it always sitting out, but no one ever played with it. It looked like it was made out of a very soft rope. I'm sure there's a name for it, but I don't know it. But what's really cool about it is that mom actually made it way back in the day. I never that. Sadly, we did not find mom's missing box. Though the trip was successful because we were able to find all of my boxes. Hopefully I'll find some more treasures as I dig through those. -Chuck

[storyeveryday]

Something in the Mail

On Saturday Dad handed me my mail. I'm always confused whenever he does because I so rarely receive anything unless I order something. But there was something even more peculiar and that was that I got a note from the post office saying I need to sign for something. That's never happened before with any of the other packages I've received. Also, the thing I had most recently ordered wasn't supposed to get here till Wednesday. So all weekend I sat around incredibly confused. I was able to look up the tracking number and whatever it was shipped from Seattle. I didn't order anything from there. But I had two ideas. One: that the pop figures I got for free from the Pop Tarts box shipped five weeks early. Or Two: someone is trying to kill a random person and I just so happen to be that random person. As I drove down to the post office I figured it was number One, but I couldn't stop thinking about number Two. But the moment I was handed the envelope, I knew what it was. At the very top it read "Gen Con" the board game conversation I'm going to in a month. They were our badges!! I completely forgot that I ordered them because Kyle had to work when they went on sale. Instantly all my fear was replaced with great excitement!! We have less than a month till the best four days in gaming and I could not be more pumped!! -Chuck

[storyeveryday]

Thoughts on "My Main Blog"

I got to do the work that I really enjoy doing and that's working on my main blog. It's a place where I get to share all my thoughts on movies and shows that I'm watching. Or even the board games I'm currently playing. I also get to show off all the neat toys my family has. There's such a great feeling I get whenever I work on it because I know that that's exactly what I want to be doing with myself. It's so much fun for me to know that I get to randomly entertain strangers with the nerdy thoughts in my head and the toys in my room. I am so incredibly glad that a year and a half ago I decided to start that blog. -Chuck

[storyeveryday]

A Sad Day for Turtle

Kyle (my brother) rescued some turtles a few months ago. This girl went on vacation to Florida and bought some turtles on a whip. Once she got back, she realized how much work they’d be, so Kyle took them off her hands. He’s always wanted some and since he had a nice job, he knew he could afford to take care of them. They start off the size of quarters and in the time that he’s had them, they’ve grown to the size of the palm of my hand.

He’s got a nice big tank for them, that we actually got from a dairy farm. Its meant to be in the ground, but for the winter, Kyle’s had it propped up in the basement. There was a heat lamp right above a fake log sticking out of the water so they could bask and then a heating rod in the water, so it’d always be the perfect temp. But since its summer and pretty nice out, Kyle decided to bring the whole thing outside.

What he did was he made a wooden frame with mesh wire wrapped around. Basically, it was a big box to go over the whole tank. He didn’t cover the back in wire, but it was okay because it was pressed against the house, so nothing big could get in. But then, of course, something happened...

We didn’t notice right away and that was our problem. Had we, we maybe could have prevented this whole ordeal. But its no ones fault that the side of the tank gave out. Its plastic so it just kind of bent or buckled. This meant that the water went right up to the edge of the tank and a curious turtle could easily climb out. But to truly escape, it had to then walk all the way around the tank, climb over the wooden frame (roughly two inches high), and then somehow get between the house and the frame. We don’t know how it managed all of this, but it did.

They had only been out there a day and a half when we noticed the missing turtle. It couldn’t have gotten too far, but even with all four of us looking, we coudln’t find a thing. We’re glad that there hasn’t been any sign of its death and we still have hope. Its just slowly fading. If we don’t find it before the weekend ends, we’ll probably never find it. I think the saddest part is that it doesn’t even know its in danger. That it would have had a long, happy and maybe even fat life had it not been so curious.

-Chuck

[storyeveryday]

The Foreign Land of Wisconsin

My parents and I went out to eat that the restaurant my brother works at. Its on the far side of town near the big interstate, so its not surprising that people from far away would stop there for a meal. In the booth right behind, it was abundantly clear that these people were from out of town. From the way they talked, I could tell they found this whole visit to Wisconsin a big novelty. One of them answered a phone call at one point and after he told his friend where he was, he paused as if expecting a gasp.

But what really threw me was their lack of knowledge about German and Norwegian foods. The waiter had to explain what lefse was to one of the women. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it explained before. It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I’d be will to bet that 95% of the people I’ve talked to in my life, know what lefse is, if not have eaten it. After that, one of the guys ordered a bratwurst and almost got sauerkraut. Just by chance he didn’t order it. But then, the woman who didn’t know about lefse asked what both where and that’s when they all learned what he almost ordered.

I know not everyone knows foods that I’m very accustomed to, these people just really stood out. They gave off a very big city, Chicago vibe. (They were actually from Chicago so that makes sense). But I think this whole situation has reminded me how much I enjoy being a small town kid. And by small town, I mean (not counting college), the largest city I lived in was four hundred. The smallest was barely one hundred.

-Chuck

[storyeveryday]

I Quit

I quit my job today. It was actually really, really easy. I called my boss yesterday to quit, but he didn't answer and didn't call me back. So I called him again today and sane story. Then I called him a third time and he finally answered. He had given me this week partly because I had such a rough week last week and partly because he's actually really struggling to find work for us. Even so, I told him how I felt and he wasn't the least bit surprised and was incredibly understanding. He was just like, "You either love it or you quit and I could tell you didn't love." He knew how stressed I'd been and honestly, I wanted to quit like a month earlier, but I stuck it out. I tried. But all the things I didn't like about this job FAR outweighed the things I did. It was so much fun to met all these interesting people and hear all these neat stories. Without a doubt I'm going to cherish that for as long as I can. My boss even said that the churches loved me. I made so many great connections that really felt real. I'm going to miss that. But now I have a few weeks before my next job starts. Thankfully I already have that lined up. In the mean time, I'm going to see if I can volunteer at the camp I used to work at. They're always looking for extra help. Hopefully, I'll be able to do that for at least a couple of the weeks. Overall, I'm happy. This is something that I knew wasn't working and I needed to change. It's also been really nice that dad and Elise have been very supportive. And that my boss was super understanding. Also, he was really cool because he said he'd love to bring me back if they're ever short a guy. I could def get behind that because there wouldn't be the same kind of pressure. It'd be more lighthearted and that's always a good thing. -Chuck

[storyeveryday]

A Series of Annoying Events

I was anxiously waiting for a call back from someone, but I didn’t just want to sit around waiting for it, so I decided to take a walk with the dogs. Riley was already outside hooked up and Lou was inside. Somehow, Riley snuck inside before I could get Lou in his harness. So I just let her run free once I got her in her harness and leash. As I was getting Lou into his, Riley decided that now would be the perfect time to pee right next to the door and then drag her leash through the pee. So our walk was off to a great start.

Once we were all outside, we started to make our way down my normal path, but in the distance, I could see a bunch of kids in the street. Knowing how poorly Riley reacts to groups of kids, I decided to go in the opposite direction for our walk. That went fine for a while. Riley actually went to the bathroom outside. (Something she rarely does on walks).

Half way down the street, the middle schooler turns on to our road with a bike and a bowl of ice cream. She was riding her bike with no hand while eating the bowl of ice cream. I would have been impressed, but I was too busy trying to make the dogs not notice her. They eventually did, but they didn’t care by that point since she was too far away.

When we rounded the corner, I could see that the middle schooler had met up with some other kids across the road and that there was a middle aged woman walking her small dog. Again, I tried my hardest to make sure my dogs didn’t notice this dog, but again I failed. As we got closer to the other dog, I realized that all those kids were staring at me for some reason. Then when we were about ten feet away from the other dog, at which point Lou and Riley were pulling real hard, my phone started to ring. It was very loudly playing Hooked on a Feeling. I figured it was the call that I was very anxiously waiting for and I thought about not answering it. But then I was like, “No. Everyone’s gonna judge me for not answering my phone and I don’t want to have to call this person back again.”

So I answered it just as we were getting past the little dog. Thankfully it was mom and I told her to hang on because Riley was still trying to prove that she’s a bigger dog, even though we were already past the little one. Eventually she calmed down and I could talk to mom for a minute. After we hung up, our walk wasn’t quite down yet. Two more things happened.

The first one was a very large dog suddenly appeared, but thankfully he never left his yard. The second one was a couple of high school kids working in a garden. I paid no attention to them, but Riley wanted to start something. That got their attention and I ended up just waving to them.

When we finally got home, I left Riley hooked up outside and brought Lou in. What was meant to calm me down, only made things more problematic. Regardless, I think the dogs had a nice time.

-Chuck

[storyeveryday]

A Simple Haircut

As a kid, I remember not particularly caring about how I got my hair cut. Mom would just sit me down every so often and just cut it. Once I hit high school I started to get real persnickety. The reason being, I was in wrestling and you couldn’t have long hair if you were gonna compete. So, during wrestling season, my hair was very short. Almost buzzed, but not quite. After each season was done, I let it grow wild! Sometimes not getting it cut for most of the year.

But now that I’m out of sports, I just want to be stylish/lazy with my hair. I still tend to go with the, “let it get supper long before cutting it” thing. But when I get it cut, I go for something specific, instead of just wrestling short. I’ve discovered that the hair at the back of my head grows faster than the rest. So if I don’t want a little mullet, that has to be cut the lowest. Usually I’d let the top, sides and front all be cut equal to each other, but I’ve started to realize that I like it better when I leave the front a little longer. It keeps more of the swoosh that I like. It’s also easier to grab onto when you’re board. So yep. In other words, I got a haircut today.

-Chuck

[storyeveryday]

A Change to Games

We play games every week and its really fun, but I think I want a slight change. Though, really its something I’ve wanted all along. I just really want it to happen soon rather than later. That change being, more people playing with us. Its always being myself and my two brothers. We’re the most consistent of the group. And actually, until my current job, I hadn’t missed a single week and I was very proud of that fact. And there’s three other guys who show up too and sometimes some girlfriends. But what I want is consistently, a large group.

So in my dream scenario, there’d be multiple games going on at one time. Maybe like, one two player game, one four player game, and one five player game. Some people playing more casual stuff, while others play more intense, hardcore stuff. And then you can really jump around, so that every game you play in one night isn’t with the same couple of people. That just sounds like a really fun way of mixing things up. And like, everyone knows each other and are friends. Maybe not the closest of friends. But still, everyone gets along and wouldn’t be afraid to call them out as a betrayer or a spy.

Maybe one day when everyone’s either got a significant other or when we all find jobs that we’ll stay at for the next decade. Regardless, it should be fun whenever it happens. I’m just hoping its sooner than later.

-Chuck

[storyeveryday]

Beach of Tomorrow

Elise and I went to the beach to discuss wedding plans. I think its the first time we’ve really sat down and talked about that stuff. We were going to start with guest list, but I didn’t want to take out my phone yet, so we skipped a couple topics on her list. I don’t remember what we talked about first, but I know we talked about how much we want to spend. Neither of us really knew how much we wanted to spend or how much our parents are going to give us. We just know that our parents will help in some capacity and that’s nice.

There was also discussion of where we wanted to live afterwards, where we want to look for future jobs, current jobs, and how close we’d like our parents to be. There was lots of heavy stuff. But the beautiful sunshine and shimmering lake seemed to balance it all out.

The lighter stuff was when we finally talked about our guest list and who we want for our bridal party. It was fun to imagine all those people potentially coming to help celebrate our marriage. It kind of makes it more real. Solidifies things a little.

It’ll be really exciting once we start actually booking places and inviting people. Then it’ll be REALLY real. But I can’t wait!!

-Chuck

[storyeveryday]

A Simple Conversation

We started to tear down our equipment because we only had a couple people left for the week. But what we took down first was the divider between where we sell pictures and where we take them. Since it was my partner’s turn, I decided to instead of waiting at my desk, I’d wait in the other room with our helper lady. Without even trying, we had a half an hour conversation that flew by! Despite our very obvious differences, we had a fantastic conversation, covering a verity of topics. Here are just a handful I remember.

Its very common to change careers multiple times throughout their life and that she’s WAY above average.

That some people just thrive on drama and how that can destroy a work place.

They’ve developed cars that have a washer and dryer in them for people who are really active.

The shooting in South Carolina.

The fact that her husband’s family has been members of this church for AT LEAST 145 years.

The big debate about who choose to accent the white ceiling with a line of light purple (which I thought looked really nice together).

And so much more! It was such a great conversation, even though she had 40 years on me, was a grandma, and didn’t understand half my interests. We could still relate. It wasn’t hard at all for us to connect. This conversation with this woman was easily the highlight of my week and I wish the best for her.

-Chuck

[storyeveryday]

Told What To Do

I'm working with a man this week that I will hopefully never see again in my life. From the moment I met him I knew things were gonna be rough. Let's call him Bob. Bob is a divorced grandpa who has been doing photography most of this life. Obviously, he's good at what he does. I am ok at what I do. And I'm very fine with being ok at this since I'm new to it. We're both on loan from different territories. He's several hours from home. I'm just over an hour from home. Our first day, I arrived at what I thought was on time, but was actually early. Bob showed up fifteen minutes late, grumpy and mumbling to himself. He didn't say sorry or smile at me. He was short and annoyed. I instantly had a panic attack. Thankfully he wasn't paying attention to me, otherwise he would have seen me crying. After my first session, I called my boss in a panic, but he was no help. He was like, I have to stay. They really need me. I just wanted to run and hide. Eventually I called down some, thanks mostly to Elise who left me an incredibly beautiful voicemail. As the days went on, I quickly learned that I needed to distract him by making him talk about his boring life, otherwise he'll criticize the crap out of everything I'm doing. Just cause we both know Bob's better than me at this, doesn't mean I want you to give me a hundred tips on what I'm doing wrong. It'd be so nice, if he was just nice! For instance, today: I was about to leave. As a courtesy I told him. I was expecting him to say either see you tomorrow or drive safe. Nope. He just told me to tear down the studio. He didn't ask. He just told me to, like I was a little boy who forgot to pick up his toys. At the end of each day he takes the camera home with him, so he was just telling me to put the camera in the box and shut off the lights. He easily could have done that himself since he was literally just using all that stuff. But he didn't and for some reason expected me to go out of my way and do it. Had he asked, I would have gladly done it. It's easy and takes two seconds. But he didn't ask. And that is why I don't like Bob and hope I never see him again. (He did other stuff too. I'm just tired and wanna stop thinking about it). -Chuck

[storyeveryday]

An Unexpected Story

Told my coworker that I had my name legally changed like a decade ago. He then told me that when he was a kid he knew this Jewish girl that changed her name from Fanny to something else because of all the bullying she had gone through. He then went on to tell me the history of this family and how they relate to him.

Fanny’s dad was from Poland and her mom was from Russia and I think were both Jewish. During World War II both of their families were captured by the Nazis and brought to concentration camps. That is where they met. He was fifty. She was eighteen. At the end of the war, they were married with a little baby. Both of their families were completely dead. They were the only ones left.

Before my coworker was born, his father took this family in, while they tried to get on their feet in America. He didn't mention how they met. He just told me that because of this gesture, the two families stayed very close over the years. My coworker recalled when he was about four, listening to the grown ups talk, but because of their thick accents, he couldn't understand the dad at all and could barely understand the mom. His parents, though, didn't have any problems.

The last thing he told me about this family was about the baby that was born in the concentration camp. She was quite a bit older than him, but he very distinctly remembers that she was a knock out, utterly amazing babe. Easily one of the most beautiful people he has ever had the fortune of meeting.

-Chuck

[storyeveryday]

An Hour Early

I was an hour early for work today. After being initially very upset at myself, I looked up the nearest park and headed out. It was just over in the nearest town a couple miles away. It seemed like a pretty straight shot there, but there was unmarked construction going on, that threw me by surprise. I had to drive around, but it wasn’t bad.

When I got to the part I quickly discovered that it wasn’t a regular park. It was a baseball field, a football field, and a pool that was also under construction. But it just so happened that there was a baseball game going on, so I decided to check it out. It was middle school baseball, so the coaches and umpires were all high school kids.

At first I couldn’t tell who was home and who was away, but eventually I realized that the purple team was home. It became very clear very quickly that they were the scrawny and less skilled of the two teams. And what made it even worse was that the blue team was a little obnoxious. After something good happened for their team they’d this version of the chant from Finding Nemo. In the movie they say, “Shark Bait ohh haha.” But these kids replaced “Shark Bait” with “Baseball”. And even their coach seemed kinda like the stereotypical tough love coach.

Even though that team was kinda lame, the purple guys had a few great moments. The best was easily when the second smallest kid on the team went up to bat. He had three balls and two strikes. He’d been missing the ball and getting fouls. But then he made contact and that sucker went flying right in between a couple of kids. And even though the kid after him struck out, the little guy was able to steal his way to third. So when the next kid finally hit the ball, he was able to make it back home and their he was greeted with thunderous applause! And by that I mean, three of the six people there clapped for him. I’m glad I stumbled across this game and was able to share a moment with this kid I’ll never see again.

-Chuck