Buckeye Mike

Have you ever been destitute? Really in a place where there is not a lot of hope and you are not even sure where your next meal is coming from or how you are going to come in out of the rain at night? A lot of you have fallen on hard times at one point or another in life, just as I have. Many times I have had to scrape up or borrow money just to buy a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, or to put enough gas in my car to make it to work, not sure how I was going to make it home. I can remember my mother, even at the end of her life when she did not have to worry about money, rolling change at the kitchen table because she had done it all her life. Certainly many people who read this can relate. But I am talking about truly down and out, with no signs of things getting better. Over the last 18 months, my blogs have come to you sparingly. I have been busy making a life with Tiffany. She changed my world when she walked into Tailgaters Bar and Grill for a blind date on April 4 of last year....

To say the last 3 weeks have seemed like total chaos would be an understatement. What started as a date night for me and my sweetheart on June 29th has turned into little sleep, lots of work, and even some pain mixed in. As we headed to BW3 that Friday night, I saw the storm clouds rolling in. Knowing that our water division manager, AJ, was headed to North Carolina for vacation, I told Tiffany that if the pouring rains and gusty winds led to flooded basements, it would be a busy weekend. We ordered our wings and waited for them to arrive, all the while chatting and flirting like we did when we first met. Until the phone rang. The boss. Ugh. Fifteen minutes later I was en route to a Staples store. Having lost a big part of their roof in the storm, I was in full commercial project mode when I dropped Tiffany off at Gant's Pizza (her cousins own it, fantastic stuff, you should try it). This is what I do. Coordinate resources and assemble teams to get this retail store back open f...

I do not pretend to be anything I am not. Sure there was a time when all I wanted was for people to like me and see me as a good guy. I would turn into a chameleon depending on the day or mood or company I was keeping at any given time. But now, not so much. The failures, mistakes, moments of weakness, and episodes that found me flat on my face or ass changed me. Not in a hard way, but in a very positive, this is who I am and if you do not like it oh well kind of way. Feeling as though I am really in a groove in life is a great way to wake up every morning. From reporting to a job I love to spending my evenings with my boys and a cute little red headed girl, it is a good time to be me. I have been counting the days since everything changed and I found myself on the path I always believed I should be on. Today is day # 472. And while I cannot wait to hit 1000 days and beyond, I savor each one today as though it was the first or last. I think that is why I do not blog as much anymore...