So this year, I did my annual Black Friday shopping in Brainerd, Minnesota. It worked out well as all my usual stops have locations in the Brainerd/Baxter area and there was less people. Don't get me wrong, it was still very busy, but not insanity. The exception was Wal-Mart...still out of control, which I despise. I am going to have to admit, I used to love the thrill of a traditional Black Friday. You know, way back about three years ago when stores didn't open until like 5:00 a.m. on Friday morning. This year, the earliest stores to open where Best Buy and JCPenny, which I think opened up at 5:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Thursday. They were followed up by Target and Kohl's opening at 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Thursday. Wal-Mart had doorbuster items released at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving night and again at 6:00 a.m. Friday morning. For me, it worked out okay. I went to my Thanksgiving festivities in the area for the day, and we had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner at about 2:00 p.m. We didn't rush to get done early, we just chose to eat at this time to be able to go shopping later in the evening. So by 4:00 p.m., our family was done with the Thanksgiving festivities and then we switched gears and put our focus on to shopping.
When I did go Black Friday shopping in the past, I usually just bought for myself but I have gotten better at actually buying gifts instead the last couple of years. This year I started off in line at Target at about 5:10 p.m. and the temperature was a not-so-balmy five degrees above zero. Many of the media outlets were reporting that this was the coldest Thanksgiving we have had in about 30 years. Target was and is usually a good starting point, because they usually have a great Black Friday system in place for the rush. When I arrived, I received this firecracker thing that was advertised in their ad for a select few first guests. The firecracker turned out to be a bust as the coupon was for 25% off a holiday wreath. With the store laid out as it was for the Black Friday sales, I was not interested in buying a holiday wreath at this time. In fact, it probably would've been pretty hard to actually get to the wreaths to buy one. I probably got out of Target in less than a half hour and then headed across the street to Best Buy where it had been open since 5:00 p.m. So I arrived about an hour and a half after the opening. I still got a couple of movies I was looking for and got out of that store also within about a half hour. There wasn't a mad crowd. After that, I wanted to buy a sound bar for a television I have at Wal-Mart which was releasing it at 8:00 p.m., so I had time to swing by JCPenny for a bit. JCPenny had a promotion going on where everyone who entered the store would get a coupon for $10.00 off a $10.00 or more purchase. The thing JCPenny did to make it exciting for shoppers was that 1 out of every 100 coupons was a $100.00 off a $100.00 or more purchase. My wife and I did not receive the big prize coupon, but were appreciative of the $10.00 coupons. After those were spent, I headed over to Wally World to attempt to get my hands on a Vizio sound bar that was on sale for $58.00. The thing that made the situation somewhat chaotic was the fact that all the doorbusters being released at 8:00 p.m. were all together in one area, the meat department. So, once they cut everything open and the first three rows in front of me got what they were going for, I did get my hands on one of the last sound bars available. It wasn't game over at that point because I had to get through the crowd, work my way around the aisle food coolers in the middle of the meat department aisle and head to the women's department where the checkout line started. Even though I was about 150th in line at that point, it did move fairly quickly and I got checked out and out of the store in about 45 minutes. This was by far my most successful Black Friday venture at Wal-Mart, even though people were still crazy and the scene was still somewhat chaotic. Then the night was finished. At about 9:15 p.m., I was home and the majority of Black Friday was already over.
On actual Black Friday the next morning, I hit stops at Menards, Bath and Body Works, and Papa Murphy's to capitalize on some specials and that wrapped it up. I miss getting up at 2:00 a.m. on Black Friday and heading out the door at 3:00 a.m.to get in line for a store that opened at 5:00 a.m. That is a tradition that is fading fast. It is the next step in the retail stores attempt to forget about Thanksgiving. They previously started this by putting out Christmas decorations as soon as Halloween was over. Pretty soon all Black Friday will be is an increased amount of drones flying through the air delivering packages purchase online. Don't get me wrong, I know this year had a lot of criticism about opening on Thanksgiving night, but again we need to remember that it boils down to choices. Just because they open early, doesn't mean you have to be there. You can choose to not participate. As far as feeling bad for the workers who work the madness, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Last year, when I was at Target on Thanksgiving Night for their Black Friday events, an employee told me that every single employee working the Black Friday opening on Thanksgiving night chose to work that shift. Nobody at Target was scheduled, assigned, or forced to work. They did not have to work Thanksgiving night if they chose not to. So, I think we need to respect the business that choose to stay closed on Thanksgiving all day and night, but also not feel as bad for people who work on Thanksgiving night because it does come down to choices. This is something I and my co-workers preach to our students everyday at school.
#nobloodagainonblackfridayevents
Friday, November 28, 2014
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Garrison, My Unofficial Second Home
One of the things I cherished most in my life was my grandparents. They were very special to me and I was probably closer to them than my own parents. Growing up, I always looked forward to the end of the school year because I often times couldn't wait to go up to their lake home near Garrison, Minnesota. Their home was in our family since sometime in the 1950s and the lake home, often referred to as "the cabin", was purchased by my grandmother's parents. Originally, they were looking for a lake home in the Crosby, Minnesota area and couldn't find a place they wanted to buy. To my understanding nothing really caught their eye when they looked up in the Crosby area. So, they shifted slightly south in the Mille Lacs Lake region and found "the cabin"on a small lake connected to Mille Lacs Lake called Smith Lake. I loved everything about that lake. I really felt at peace there and I also felt relaxed. I loved to help my grandpa with things around the place, and as kid, it was a big deal to take the big trip to Brainerd, which was 20 miles away. In my childhood, I was obsessed with trains, so for me, going to Brainerd was enjoyable because it was a railroad town. I was always amazed with the fact that there was a street on the east side of Brainerd that had railroad tracks run right down the middle of the street. I remember every time going past that street hoping to see a train go down the middle of the street because that was something that I had not seen before. When I was older, probably in my mid 20s, I was driving to Brainerd and my grandma was riding with. More than likely we were on our way to Wal-Mart to get groceries because they were Wal-Mart lovers. Anyways, finally I saw a train taking a trip down the middle of that road, and I told my grandma that I was going to drive down to the end of it, watch it, and take pictures of it. I think for her it was a rewind of time as she knew as a kid I was obsessed with trains. Apparently, I wasn't the only one obsessed with this as there now are You Tube videos of this exact thing that I saw.
Getting back to "the cabin", that place made me a fisherman. It made me a bass fisherman. The lake featured some northern pike and had some good crappie holes, but you never heard or saw anyone pull out a walleye on the lake. The lake, even though it was connected to the ever famous Mille Lacs Lake, was a totally different type of lake. It was a very clear lake, but it had a very weedy bottom. The lake also featured several areas of lily pads. The east end of the lake was my favorite to fish and I was often times successful. I could out fish anyone of my relatives and it would be funny when my grandma would kind of get mad at me, because I was filling the live well while she was questioning her techniques. But, leave it to my grandma, who would accidentally cast into the water as we were moving at a pretty good clip and she would be yelling thinking she got stuck on weed when instead there was a fish on the end of the line. My biggest prize of a fish that I ever caught in Smith Lake was at about eight o'clock in the morning on the north side of the lake on a nice calm sunny morning. It was a 20.5 inch small mouth bass that got my adrenaline going when I caught it. Of course, I was fishing alone that morning, but when I put it in the live well in the boat, it had to curl to fit. I brought it into shore, showed people, took a picture, and let it go.
"The cabin" meant happy family times in my life. It was a place where people went to relax, enjoy the beautiful view of Smith Lake, and spend time on the boat and enjoy each other's company. I remember watching many Twins games with my grandpa there. I will never forget those memories. Even as I got to the working age in life, I still took off on a Friday night and headed up to Garrison. Yes, back then, I was a citidiot. That's city and idiot together. I loved the place so much and I wanted to own it someday. Even my first job was in Garrison at Dairy Queen, which no longer exists today. If I couldn't have owned "the cabin", I at least wanted it to stay in the family. When my grandparents became older and were unable to take care of the place, their four children were more interested in the money instead of keeping a family jewel. Of the four that decided the fate of the place, none lived near Garrison and didn't understand the charm of "the cabin". Ironically, I work in Onamia, Minnesota which is only about a 20 minute drive from the cabin. I drive by the Holt-Smith Lake Road (otherwise known as Linden Street) everyday on my way to work. Still to this day, I can't drive down that road. When they sold the place, my favorite place ever to fish was taken from me. The only time I get to fish now is when we take a week long trip to Park Rapids, Minnesota and get out on Boot Lake, which I am grateful for. Other than that, if I go out to New York in the summer, I usually go out fishing on Lake Champlain in eastern New York. It is a little different style of fishing, but yet I am still grateful for the chance to experience Lake Champlain.
I think about my days at "the cabin" all the time and how happy those times were. I will cherish those times forever.
#championbassfisherman
Getting back to "the cabin", that place made me a fisherman. It made me a bass fisherman. The lake featured some northern pike and had some good crappie holes, but you never heard or saw anyone pull out a walleye on the lake. The lake, even though it was connected to the ever famous Mille Lacs Lake, was a totally different type of lake. It was a very clear lake, but it had a very weedy bottom. The lake also featured several areas of lily pads. The east end of the lake was my favorite to fish and I was often times successful. I could out fish anyone of my relatives and it would be funny when my grandma would kind of get mad at me, because I was filling the live well while she was questioning her techniques. But, leave it to my grandma, who would accidentally cast into the water as we were moving at a pretty good clip and she would be yelling thinking she got stuck on weed when instead there was a fish on the end of the line. My biggest prize of a fish that I ever caught in Smith Lake was at about eight o'clock in the morning on the north side of the lake on a nice calm sunny morning. It was a 20.5 inch small mouth bass that got my adrenaline going when I caught it. Of course, I was fishing alone that morning, but when I put it in the live well in the boat, it had to curl to fit. I brought it into shore, showed people, took a picture, and let it go.
"The cabin" meant happy family times in my life. It was a place where people went to relax, enjoy the beautiful view of Smith Lake, and spend time on the boat and enjoy each other's company. I remember watching many Twins games with my grandpa there. I will never forget those memories. Even as I got to the working age in life, I still took off on a Friday night and headed up to Garrison. Yes, back then, I was a citidiot. That's city and idiot together. I loved the place so much and I wanted to own it someday. Even my first job was in Garrison at Dairy Queen, which no longer exists today. If I couldn't have owned "the cabin", I at least wanted it to stay in the family. When my grandparents became older and were unable to take care of the place, their four children were more interested in the money instead of keeping a family jewel. Of the four that decided the fate of the place, none lived near Garrison and didn't understand the charm of "the cabin". Ironically, I work in Onamia, Minnesota which is only about a 20 minute drive from the cabin. I drive by the Holt-Smith Lake Road (otherwise known as Linden Street) everyday on my way to work. Still to this day, I can't drive down that road. When they sold the place, my favorite place ever to fish was taken from me. The only time I get to fish now is when we take a week long trip to Park Rapids, Minnesota and get out on Boot Lake, which I am grateful for. Other than that, if I go out to New York in the summer, I usually go out fishing on Lake Champlain in eastern New York. It is a little different style of fishing, but yet I am still grateful for the chance to experience Lake Champlain.
I think about my days at "the cabin" all the time and how happy those times were. I will cherish those times forever.
#championbassfisherman
Friday, November 21, 2014
Being Cheap or Being Sensible?
I am somebody who is always trying to reduce costs. I think that is an appropriate term instead of calling it being cheap because if money needs to be spent then it has to be spent. If you watch the show on television called "Extreme Cheapskates", that is nothing like me. In fact, I struggle with watching that show because some of the measures that are done to save money makes me sick to my stomach, literally. At work, I am known as a guy who uses a lot of coupons. I don't take offense to anything my co-workers point out because at times I know they mean well and respect me. I work in the education field as a paraprofessional. For as vital as support staff are in a school, we are not offered enough hours and the pay is below the federal poverty line. With that being said, I take saving money seriously. It does take some effort, but it can pay off with some big savings.
When it comes to eating out, we all have long days, family and friends that visit, or you just don't want to do dishes...so we eat out. If I go to a sit-down restaurant to eat, then I never order a beverage with my meal. Often times, a soft drink or anything else on the beverage menu will cost each person a minimum of $2.49 for one beverage. So I drink water, which is a more healthy option anyways. Do the math, for a family of four, that means a ten dollar bill just for beverages. That is equivalent to three gallons of milk, and in some cases four gallons of milk. It just doesn't make sense to me. For me, this is not too difficult of a task as I quit drinking soda pop (soft drinks) almost 13 months ago. To make matters worse, a lot of places offer bottomless beverages on the soda pop and people think they need to get multiple glasses of the soft drink to justify the cost.
Getting back to saving money, there are many reward cards that big stores offer to enhance the savings. While having a bunch of these rewards or savings cards can get kind of messy to organize, but they do help. There is an app that is free that can be downloaded to manage all of the rewards cards for national and regional stores. It is called Key Ring. By doing this, your cards and their respective barcodes are all stored and now digital. I have rewards cards for Best Buy, Big Lots, Kmart, PetsMart, Price Chopper, and Staples on this app. All I have to do is select the store and the barcode for my reward card shows up and needs to be scanned by the cashier. Simple as that.
I use to be a big Wal-Mart shopper. I used to always buy my groceries believing their slogan that they are the "Low Price Leader". Now, I only usually go to Wal-Mart to get my oil changed. Instead, I have become a Costco and Target guy. At Costco, I stick to knowing what I need and what I feel is a good deal. As an added bonus, Costco usually has gas 3-10 cents per gallon cheaper than the rest of the area. Target on the other hand, has been innovative in saving their customers money. First, if you get their Target debit card, it links to your checking account. That means it is not a credit card and you get to save 5% off your total purchase each time when you use your Target debit card. In 2013, Target launched the Target Cartwheel app on smartphones. This app offers shoppers an additional percent off many of the items in their store. Every department in Target is represented on the Cartwheel app. It is not uncommon for there to be 40% or 50% off deals on items on the Cartwheel app. Since I started using the app just a little over a year ago, I have already saved $120.00 just using this app. I think it won an "app of the year" award as well in 2013. Target also has their own store coupons and honors manufacturer coupons as well. You can combine both a Target coupon and a manufacturer coupon on one item to maximize the savings. It is common for me to save 30-50% off my total purchase when I use my Target coupons, my manufacturer coupons, my Target Cartwheel app, and my Target Debit Card. That is four different savings in one trip and there is no catch.
So, if you know me, you may here me often say, "I had a coupon for that". It doesn't mean I am not willing to pay for something I want, it just means I want to get for the most fair price legally offered. When you work in education, you earn your wages. For me, I want to make the most out of those earned wages, that is all.
#shoppingsaver
When it comes to eating out, we all have long days, family and friends that visit, or you just don't want to do dishes...so we eat out. If I go to a sit-down restaurant to eat, then I never order a beverage with my meal. Often times, a soft drink or anything else on the beverage menu will cost each person a minimum of $2.49 for one beverage. So I drink water, which is a more healthy option anyways. Do the math, for a family of four, that means a ten dollar bill just for beverages. That is equivalent to three gallons of milk, and in some cases four gallons of milk. It just doesn't make sense to me. For me, this is not too difficult of a task as I quit drinking soda pop (soft drinks) almost 13 months ago. To make matters worse, a lot of places offer bottomless beverages on the soda pop and people think they need to get multiple glasses of the soft drink to justify the cost.
Getting back to saving money, there are many reward cards that big stores offer to enhance the savings. While having a bunch of these rewards or savings cards can get kind of messy to organize, but they do help. There is an app that is free that can be downloaded to manage all of the rewards cards for national and regional stores. It is called Key Ring. By doing this, your cards and their respective barcodes are all stored and now digital. I have rewards cards for Best Buy, Big Lots, Kmart, PetsMart, Price Chopper, and Staples on this app. All I have to do is select the store and the barcode for my reward card shows up and needs to be scanned by the cashier. Simple as that.
I use to be a big Wal-Mart shopper. I used to always buy my groceries believing their slogan that they are the "Low Price Leader". Now, I only usually go to Wal-Mart to get my oil changed. Instead, I have become a Costco and Target guy. At Costco, I stick to knowing what I need and what I feel is a good deal. As an added bonus, Costco usually has gas 3-10 cents per gallon cheaper than the rest of the area. Target on the other hand, has been innovative in saving their customers money. First, if you get their Target debit card, it links to your checking account. That means it is not a credit card and you get to save 5% off your total purchase each time when you use your Target debit card. In 2013, Target launched the Target Cartwheel app on smartphones. This app offers shoppers an additional percent off many of the items in their store. Every department in Target is represented on the Cartwheel app. It is not uncommon for there to be 40% or 50% off deals on items on the Cartwheel app. Since I started using the app just a little over a year ago, I have already saved $120.00 just using this app. I think it won an "app of the year" award as well in 2013. Target also has their own store coupons and honors manufacturer coupons as well. You can combine both a Target coupon and a manufacturer coupon on one item to maximize the savings. It is common for me to save 30-50% off my total purchase when I use my Target coupons, my manufacturer coupons, my Target Cartwheel app, and my Target Debit Card. That is four different savings in one trip and there is no catch.
So, if you know me, you may here me often say, "I had a coupon for that". It doesn't mean I am not willing to pay for something I want, it just means I want to get for the most fair price legally offered. When you work in education, you earn your wages. For me, I want to make the most out of those earned wages, that is all.
#shoppingsaver
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Pets Are Family Too!
I don't understand how people can abuse animals. It doesn't make any sense to me. While wild animals are meant for the wild, pets are animals that look to their owners for support and love and they are as loyal as can be. When push comes to shove, they would even do anything to protect their owner.
I was on the heels of a bad breakup and I was feeling pretty alone living on my own and still trying to figure out life at the age of 22 years old. In March of 2000, I went to Buffalo, Minnesota to a pet rescue called Adopt-A-Pet and I was looking to get a kitten for a pet. I figured a cat would be a good fit for me because I could take care of it, but yet it could be on its own for a couple of days if I needed to be gone. When I arrived at Adopt-A-Pet, of course they had two four week old kittens looking to be adopted. The problem was that she and her sister (from the same litter) were the only ones left and the lady in charge that day said I could adopt just one of them, but she was afraid that the other one wouldn't survive without her sister. You have to remember that they were only four weeks old and still eating baby rice with milk mixed in. So, naturally I took both of them and it was one of the best decisions I made. By doing this, they could grow up with each other and I knew it wasn't going to be an issue because they were from the same litter. I will say this though, for two cats from the same litter, they sure had different personalities. The thing that they had in common though was their loyalty to me.
So through all of my life's journey for the past 14 and a half years, they shared the experiences with me. They lived with me in Rockford, Brainerd, Bemidji, back to Brainerd, Milaca, and now Baxter. I lost one of them this week. On Monday, November 17th, I got up in the morning to start my morning routine and I went down to our laundry room where their food and water were located to get a razor. That is when I found my girl, Echo, taken from me and put into god's arms. I was crushed. I wasn't ready and I was sad.
When I think about Echo's life, I am proud to say that she had only one family. She didn't have to be given up for adoption, she was well taken care and she was able to enjoy life and grow up with her sister Shadow. I am proud of that. So on Monday in the Sarych house, Kari, Mille, Bella, Shadow, and I had a sad day as we realized that a member of our family had left us. Pets are family too.
I was on the heels of a bad breakup and I was feeling pretty alone living on my own and still trying to figure out life at the age of 22 years old. In March of 2000, I went to Buffalo, Minnesota to a pet rescue called Adopt-A-Pet and I was looking to get a kitten for a pet. I figured a cat would be a good fit for me because I could take care of it, but yet it could be on its own for a couple of days if I needed to be gone. When I arrived at Adopt-A-Pet, of course they had two four week old kittens looking to be adopted. The problem was that she and her sister (from the same litter) were the only ones left and the lady in charge that day said I could adopt just one of them, but she was afraid that the other one wouldn't survive without her sister. You have to remember that they were only four weeks old and still eating baby rice with milk mixed in. So, naturally I took both of them and it was one of the best decisions I made. By doing this, they could grow up with each other and I knew it wasn't going to be an issue because they were from the same litter. I will say this though, for two cats from the same litter, they sure had different personalities. The thing that they had in common though was their loyalty to me.
So through all of my life's journey for the past 14 and a half years, they shared the experiences with me. They lived with me in Rockford, Brainerd, Bemidji, back to Brainerd, Milaca, and now Baxter. I lost one of them this week. On Monday, November 17th, I got up in the morning to start my morning routine and I went down to our laundry room where their food and water were located to get a razor. That is when I found my girl, Echo, taken from me and put into god's arms. I was crushed. I wasn't ready and I was sad.
When I think about Echo's life, I am proud to say that she had only one family. She didn't have to be given up for adoption, she was well taken care and she was able to enjoy life and grow up with her sister Shadow. I am proud of that. So on Monday in the Sarych house, Kari, Mille, Bella, Shadow, and I had a sad day as we realized that a member of our family had left us. Pets are family too.
Friday, November 14, 2014
Even Without A Dad, Things Can Turn Out Right
In our society today, there are many extended families living under the same roof. There also is a very high divorce rate in our society. I mean, think about it. As time goes on, life gets faster. Time has always flown by, but now the pace of life has increased with many homes having both parents working and perhaps a single parent working multiple jobs. You add that with the technology that speeds up everything and the stress of it all is just too much. The divorce rate in our country today is nearly 50 percent. Last time I checked I don't see 50 percent of our children failing in society. Things can turn out right if a divorced parent makes the right choices with their children. I am a product of a divorce, an ugly one. My parents were divorced by the time I reached the age of one. As I get older, I keep learning tidbits of details of the divorce. My mom remarried and adapting to a stepfather was tough. What made the divorce tough was that my father drug the divorce out as long as possible and made life tough for my mom purposefully and he put me right in the path of it. It was the only thing that my dad could do to "stick it to my mom" so to say and have it hurt. This went on for years. For a while, my dad bought me a lot of nice things and as an innocent child, I accepted all of it. I was a kid, I didn't realize what was going on completely and I didn't know the whole story. I still don't know all of it and I am okay with that. I have heard enough. The divorce battle went on and on all the way until I turned 18 years old. For a while, I felt lost. I mean there was this massive battle that went on because of me and when you think about it...that sucks. The focus of my parents were on a divorce battle instead of what was going on with me. I don't want to be selfish, but I missed out on a lot of opportunities because of that divorce. My dad even decided to get remarried a few years after divorcing my mom. If one divorce wasn't enough to have on my pre-teen shoulders, his second wife decided to leave that marriage, and I had to hear my dad tell me that it was because of me and the problems he was having with my mom being so difficult. I couldn't even comprehend this and I couldn't believe it. Again, only being an innocent child, I had no idea what an impact this was making on me. Life at home, living with my mom and step dad, wasn't easy either. The fighting of the divorce plus living in a house filled with stress caused by high demanding jobs was difficult and sometimes scary. Every dinner, instead of talking about my day at school, I had to sit there and be quiet and listen to everything going wrong at LSI Corporation. My mom was busy after she got home from work with making dinner and looking at the mail, so there was no time to talk about my day. This is why I felt lost. I felt that the difficulty caused by my father from the divorce created a lot of anger from my mom and stepfather. Many times that anger was taken out on me. I wasn't the most social kid, because I wasn't really taught those skills like I should have been. In high school, I was a pretty straight and narrow kid that stayed out of trouble. By rights, I should have been rebelling. I should have been smoking and drinking because those opportunities were there. My own stepfather didn't even trust me driving any cars in the house, and to this day, I don't know why. Being older now and been more mentally developed, all I can come up with is the fact that it was due to being pissed off at my dad for the pain and harassment he was causing. It was years of build up by the time I was able to drive.
I had a good core of friends in high school. I am thankful that I was at a small rural school because it really helped take the stress away of a large school. Remember, I wasn't the most social youth. For some reason, I chose to make positive choices. I think the reason why I made positive choices is because I was, without knowing, wanting to help other kids who were in similar shoes as I was. I didn't want another person to go through what I had to go through. My closest friends knew none of this about me. I didn't want to bring them down with my deal. So I became involved in the community, became the official youth representative for the community of Rockford, as I wrote about in my Youth Action Force blog posting. It sucked. I was reviewing a video I had made with a friend to promote our Youth Action Force group and my stepfather came downstairs and told me to, "get that stupid shit off the TV now!" He followed with, "Nobody gives a shit about that garbage." I was devastated and felt like I had no one to tell my feelings to. Even then, I forged forward and still took pride in my positive choices.
Getting back to my father, he attended my high school graduation. I lost it and cried at graduation because I wasn't ready for that next step in life. I didn't feel like I had a support system in high school, now I am supposed to go out on my own and be alone more. It hit me immediately after the graduation ceremony was completed and it scared the crap out of me. So, I went to start college at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota and my dad owned an auto body business about five or so minutes away from the college, so I had an arrangement with him to work there after classes. Because of the ugly divorce, none of the three parental units were supportive or cared if I went to college, it wasn't important to them. If it was, it was never verbalized seriously.
My dad started his business when he was young. The funny part of the story is that it was my mom's father who gave him a loan to start his business. Think about that, the father of the person he was so angry at afforded him the opportunity to have his own business. When it came to repayment, my dad told my grandpa that if he could screw him out of that money, he would. Thankfully, there was a written agreement in place. While working for my dad after college classes, he let his detailing guy go and I became the detailer for all the cars that were finished with repairs. One day while working, I was out back behind the shop helping my dad load a satellite dish onto a trailer that he was going to scrap, I think. If you remember satellite dishes from the 80s, they were giant! And heavy! Anyways, I was standing on the trailer trying to lift this stupid satellite dish onto it and my dad pulled forward while I was standing on the trailer holding up this big ass boat anchor. The motion caused me to lose my balance and my grip and the weight of the dish caused me to tear a bursa sac on my right hip. This injury caused me to need about eight to ten weeks of physical therapy for two or three times a week. When I got back from the doctor appointment with the diagnosis, I explained to my dad that I had to attend these therapy sessions. His response was, "this isn't go to work for me." He fired me from my position at his business. I was shocked and hurt once again.
To get back to my original point and to close, I had a shitty childhood. I had a lot of battles that I had to go through alone. I didn't have support, I was hurt, it was stressful, and I should have been in trouble. My dad and I have had a few encounters in the past 10 years. The first time of talking after being estranged for about nine years, we sat at a restaurant and he continued to blame everything on me. That was two weeks before my wedding. He still came to my wedding along with my two uncles and aunt. After that, I saw him a couple of times. I always went to him, he never came to see me with the exception of my wedding. The last time I saw him, I crossed paths with him about three or so years ago at restaurant only a mile and a half away from my house I just moved into. I invited him to come see it, he replied with, "maybe some other time". I have since moved from that house, he never saw it. It was my first house. That was the last time we talked.
With all those battles, struggles, and missed opportunities as a youth, I chose to do positive things. I didn't have support, I just did what I felt was right and I am glad it was positive. I have been back at college for three years now trying to complete my teaching degree. I worked for a couple of school districts, including the school I work at now. My job as a paraprofessional involves with working with a lot of troubled youth. The ones that really need the help. My crappy childhood and situations fuels me everyday to help the youth I work with. I take it seriously and I believe in professionalism with the responsibilities of my job. I am self driven, I was not taught these skills as a child. I would say the best coping mechanism that I discovered that helped me the most, that I use to the present day, is humor. It may be dry at times, but I like to make people laugh because it is an escape for me. Besides, I would rather be in situations around people who are happy and I want to be around people who enjoy being around me. My co-workers are kind of forced to be around me, contractually, but I call several of them my friends. I did okay. Things could've been different and I wish some things were. However, I often tell the students that I work with that what is done is done, you can't change it, so the focus needs to be what lies ahead. This is what I need to do and it is what I do. At the end of the day, even without a dad, things can turn out right.
#listentoyourkidsandwhattheyhavetosay
I had a good core of friends in high school. I am thankful that I was at a small rural school because it really helped take the stress away of a large school. Remember, I wasn't the most social youth. For some reason, I chose to make positive choices. I think the reason why I made positive choices is because I was, without knowing, wanting to help other kids who were in similar shoes as I was. I didn't want another person to go through what I had to go through. My closest friends knew none of this about me. I didn't want to bring them down with my deal. So I became involved in the community, became the official youth representative for the community of Rockford, as I wrote about in my Youth Action Force blog posting. It sucked. I was reviewing a video I had made with a friend to promote our Youth Action Force group and my stepfather came downstairs and told me to, "get that stupid shit off the TV now!" He followed with, "Nobody gives a shit about that garbage." I was devastated and felt like I had no one to tell my feelings to. Even then, I forged forward and still took pride in my positive choices.
Getting back to my father, he attended my high school graduation. I lost it and cried at graduation because I wasn't ready for that next step in life. I didn't feel like I had a support system in high school, now I am supposed to go out on my own and be alone more. It hit me immediately after the graduation ceremony was completed and it scared the crap out of me. So, I went to start college at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota and my dad owned an auto body business about five or so minutes away from the college, so I had an arrangement with him to work there after classes. Because of the ugly divorce, none of the three parental units were supportive or cared if I went to college, it wasn't important to them. If it was, it was never verbalized seriously.
My dad started his business when he was young. The funny part of the story is that it was my mom's father who gave him a loan to start his business. Think about that, the father of the person he was so angry at afforded him the opportunity to have his own business. When it came to repayment, my dad told my grandpa that if he could screw him out of that money, he would. Thankfully, there was a written agreement in place. While working for my dad after college classes, he let his detailing guy go and I became the detailer for all the cars that were finished with repairs. One day while working, I was out back behind the shop helping my dad load a satellite dish onto a trailer that he was going to scrap, I think. If you remember satellite dishes from the 80s, they were giant! And heavy! Anyways, I was standing on the trailer trying to lift this stupid satellite dish onto it and my dad pulled forward while I was standing on the trailer holding up this big ass boat anchor. The motion caused me to lose my balance and my grip and the weight of the dish caused me to tear a bursa sac on my right hip. This injury caused me to need about eight to ten weeks of physical therapy for two or three times a week. When I got back from the doctor appointment with the diagnosis, I explained to my dad that I had to attend these therapy sessions. His response was, "this isn't go to work for me." He fired me from my position at his business. I was shocked and hurt once again.
To get back to my original point and to close, I had a shitty childhood. I had a lot of battles that I had to go through alone. I didn't have support, I was hurt, it was stressful, and I should have been in trouble. My dad and I have had a few encounters in the past 10 years. The first time of talking after being estranged for about nine years, we sat at a restaurant and he continued to blame everything on me. That was two weeks before my wedding. He still came to my wedding along with my two uncles and aunt. After that, I saw him a couple of times. I always went to him, he never came to see me with the exception of my wedding. The last time I saw him, I crossed paths with him about three or so years ago at restaurant only a mile and a half away from my house I just moved into. I invited him to come see it, he replied with, "maybe some other time". I have since moved from that house, he never saw it. It was my first house. That was the last time we talked.
With all those battles, struggles, and missed opportunities as a youth, I chose to do positive things. I didn't have support, I just did what I felt was right and I am glad it was positive. I have been back at college for three years now trying to complete my teaching degree. I worked for a couple of school districts, including the school I work at now. My job as a paraprofessional involves with working with a lot of troubled youth. The ones that really need the help. My crappy childhood and situations fuels me everyday to help the youth I work with. I take it seriously and I believe in professionalism with the responsibilities of my job. I am self driven, I was not taught these skills as a child. I would say the best coping mechanism that I discovered that helped me the most, that I use to the present day, is humor. It may be dry at times, but I like to make people laugh because it is an escape for me. Besides, I would rather be in situations around people who are happy and I want to be around people who enjoy being around me. My co-workers are kind of forced to be around me, contractually, but I call several of them my friends. I did okay. Things could've been different and I wish some things were. However, I often tell the students that I work with that what is done is done, you can't change it, so the focus needs to be what lies ahead. This is what I need to do and it is what I do. At the end of the day, even without a dad, things can turn out right.
#listentoyourkidsandwhattheyhavetosay
Monday, November 10, 2014
Not Another Data Breach!
At what point does our federal government stop and take a moments notice that the security of our identity is not safe and that changes need to be made. The data breach craze hit the mainstream media about a year ago when it was revealed it was revealed that Target's information was breached for about 14 days in the second half of November 2013. Now a year later, the list of companies that has had their private information stolen is numerous and continues to grow. Dairy Queen, Jimmy Johns, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus, and locally in Minnesota...Grand Casino Mille Lacs to name a few, who have had their data breached. Home Depot's information was exposed for six months before they caught it. My debit card was terminated on the spot when my bank caught someone trying to make a purchase at a Target in Toronto up in Canada. I found this out when I tried to purchase some gas for my car after work one day. There was someone online who commented on the report of the Grand Casino breach that they have already had their debit card changed four times this year already. The message here is that credit and debit cards are no longer safe in this country. This has turned into a crisis and I work hard for the little money I earn. Now that the politicians are done bashing each other in campaign ads for the election, it is now time to get down to business. A top priority of the legislature when they return to session is how to fix this massive problem. If people are going to be afraid to spend using a debit card or a credit card, then the nation will be right back in the financial crisis we just worked so hard to get out of.
#getdowntobusiness
#getdowntobusiness
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Youth Action Force
I have always been someone who likes involvement. In fact, it was involvement that led me to work with kids. When I was in high school, there was a group called Torn Curtain that wanted to get a youth center developed in the town I grew up in of Rockford, Minnesota. Torn Curtain did have a religious connection to the Christian faith and they reached out to a community member who had children in the district. The individual that they reached out to was a lady named Lynn and she had a connection to the Rockford Community Education department of the schools. That is why they approached her to get the ball rolling on this topic. Anyways, a group of my friends at the time asked me to be involved in this venture. I was a senior in the high school and decided to meet with this group on occasion to get the idea moving even further. Now, as a high school senior, Torn Curtain's desire to have this happen was for their religion. I am not sure if their motivation was financially driven, but they wanted this to happen. After meeting with them a handful of times, we as a group looked at how difficult it was to get the idea of a youth center to accepted in the communities of Rockford and Greenfield. Rockford, Minnesota is located about 35 or so miles outside of Minneapolis in western Hennepin County. We were pretty rural for only being that far away from Minneapolis and it was a classic case of small town difficulty in getting something different to be accepted. Anyways, after a few failed attempts to get community leadership to like the idea of getting a youth center built, we decided to step back and look at the steps we were taking in making this a reality. One of the other group members and myself pitched the idea of stepping back from the youth center concept and launching a group that got students more involved in the community. In our small community of Rockford, you either participated in sports or music and that was about it. If you were not involved in those things, it led to more free time which led to the opportunity of more risky behaviors including things like binge drinking, drugs, or sexual experimentation. So, I co-founded our group and we called it "Youth Action Force". It became the backbone of Youth Development in Rockford. We created a video to pitch the group, we had a booth up at the local Rockford Riverdays Festival and we had logos and banners and we were going strong. Another reason we decided to go away from the youth center concept and detach from the involvement of Torn Curtain was we didn't want their to be a religious affiliation tied to the group. We felt this would discourage someone outside of the Christian faith to not participate because of that affiliation and that was kind of going against what we were trying to do. We also couldn't have a religious connection if we were going to bring this into the schools. It would've completely limited what we could have done to gain exposure. So, the meeting with Torn Curtain was an uncomfortable one. It was intense and I personally did not see their reaction coming prior to the meeting we had with them. We simply wanted to get youth involved in the community before trying to get to a youth center built. The members of Torn Curtain were mad and they were not shy about voicing their anger. For me personally, this reassured to me that we had made the right decision. This also told me that they had their own hidden agenda with this mission and it didn't match up with ours. We also wanted to reach out and offer youth involvement to the community to those students who didn't feel like they had a place or an identity. I am talking about those students who didn't play sports, who did participate in band or choir, and didn't have the home support to guide them in what positive involvement was. I also didn't know how much work leading this organization would be. We were doing things in the community like taking care of a memorial garden around a flagpole in tribute of a respected community member, we also did fundraisers to raise money for things that involved youth in a positive way that there were no funds for, and we even had a Youth Speak Out Day at school.
After launching the program and introducing it to students, we had like 70 youth signed up with Youth Action Force and they had active roles within the group. I still to this day do not know how we pulled of the Youth Speak Out at school because the principal allowed us to have an entire afternoon, have break out sessions in all the classes, and alter the daily schedule to make the program work. I don't know how we did it. We took all 70 signed up youth plus the original six of us who were the board of directors and we paired up and held discussions in classrooms about community involvement, the state of the youth, and what the responsibility of youths were in the community. It was a huge success, but the burnout was starting to hit.
With everything going on with Youth Action Force, I had to still carry a regular job. I started off at college for awhile, but college was not the most important thing on the radar for me. They were not really supportive of it, morally or financially. So I was kind of lost myself. You see, the Youth Action Force organization was welcomed with both arms from the community. The city loved the proactive approach, the county collaborative was impressed, and the Community Education department of the Rockford School District loved that it was happening because it was the cornerstone of their youth development that they were required to address. However, there never was any money to pay for everything that I was doing. I did this all for free and eventually I came to an ultimatum with myself. I either needed the Rockford School District to pay me as an employee for what I was doing, or I was going to have to leave it so I can focus on taking care of myself. In the end, after three years of dedicating everything to Youth Action Force, I had to step away. Unfortunately, the program ended up going away shortly after my involvement had ended. It could have been a great long lasting program. I had a couple of other schools districts that were interested in developing their own Youth Action Force chapters, I suppose I would call it. Youth Action Force was becoming a brand, but without the initial financial commitment it was suffocating.
I am proud of what I accomplished with Youth Action Force because I can call it my own. I was not the only one involved but I co-created it and co-coordinated it and I am proud of that. Even though I didn't make a dime from any of it, it did give me a whole set of skills for the future that I use today. It eventually did lead me to another Community Education opportunity with the Crosby-Ironton School District, which I miss and will talk about in a future blog post. Youth Action Force taught me to think out of the box, make decisions on the fly, and multitask. I need all of these things in my job today working with a high concentration of special education and mental health students. I still have my Youth Action Force banner at my house today and I will have it forever.
#yaf
After launching the program and introducing it to students, we had like 70 youth signed up with Youth Action Force and they had active roles within the group. I still to this day do not know how we pulled of the Youth Speak Out at school because the principal allowed us to have an entire afternoon, have break out sessions in all the classes, and alter the daily schedule to make the program work. I don't know how we did it. We took all 70 signed up youth plus the original six of us who were the board of directors and we paired up and held discussions in classrooms about community involvement, the state of the youth, and what the responsibility of youths were in the community. It was a huge success, but the burnout was starting to hit.
With everything going on with Youth Action Force, I had to still carry a regular job. I started off at college for awhile, but college was not the most important thing on the radar for me. They were not really supportive of it, morally or financially. So I was kind of lost myself. You see, the Youth Action Force organization was welcomed with both arms from the community. The city loved the proactive approach, the county collaborative was impressed, and the Community Education department of the Rockford School District loved that it was happening because it was the cornerstone of their youth development that they were required to address. However, there never was any money to pay for everything that I was doing. I did this all for free and eventually I came to an ultimatum with myself. I either needed the Rockford School District to pay me as an employee for what I was doing, or I was going to have to leave it so I can focus on taking care of myself. In the end, after three years of dedicating everything to Youth Action Force, I had to step away. Unfortunately, the program ended up going away shortly after my involvement had ended. It could have been a great long lasting program. I had a couple of other schools districts that were interested in developing their own Youth Action Force chapters, I suppose I would call it. Youth Action Force was becoming a brand, but without the initial financial commitment it was suffocating.
I am proud of what I accomplished with Youth Action Force because I can call it my own. I was not the only one involved but I co-created it and co-coordinated it and I am proud of that. Even though I didn't make a dime from any of it, it did give me a whole set of skills for the future that I use today. It eventually did lead me to another Community Education opportunity with the Crosby-Ironton School District, which I miss and will talk about in a future blog post. Youth Action Force taught me to think out of the box, make decisions on the fly, and multitask. I need all of these things in my job today working with a high concentration of special education and mental health students. I still have my Youth Action Force banner at my house today and I will have it forever.
#yaf
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Accountability Please and Thank You
The word accountability has come up a lot lately in my world and I think it is reminding me of something I strongly believe in. Lately I have come across situations where I have either chosen or had conversations forced on me that lack accountability. Today at work, a co-worker was confronted, but yet still no accountability in sight. It drives me nuts. I believe in working my tail off when I go to work. I go in with the thought of how can I help the school I work at be better. What can I do to make an improvement. I have seen some that do not carry that same work ethic, but yet they are not held accountable, when instead they almost get out of duties which is the last thing that I want to see happen. I also recently had an uncomfortable conversation brought to my attention of situation that didn't involve me, and no matter how many times I tried to change the subject, I had to go through an uncomfortable half hour instead of the person involved just taking responsibility and apologizing for their poor choices. I find it difficult to go to school and work with students and expect them to hold themselves accountable if I don't role model that behavior myself. So it really frustrates me when others don't hold themselves accountable as well. In my Foundations of Teaching class for college, teacher accountability came up in this last chapter. I think the lack of accountability is often times overlooked and I am not talking about accountability for testing scores. I am talking about accountability for poor choices. If people make a conscious effort to hold themselves accountable and take responsibility when they make a poor choice, I think they will find themselves happier and find that more people want to be around them.
The second thing I had on my mind is the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and shopping. In years past, I looked forward to Black Friday. It had become somewhat of an event. I was crazy for doing it, but I found myself participating again the next year. The sad thing about Black Friday is that it is disappearing fast. In exchange for Black Friday we get Hurry Up Say Hello And Eat Your Food Fast Thanksgiving Thursday. I go back and forth on this issue and it is a hot button topic in the media. Costco doesn't cave in and they are closed on Thanksgiving. Wal-Mart is only closed on Christmas Day, but their Black Friday sales didn't start until midnight until two years ago. I commend Costco and I can't even fault Target. Target does open for a few hours late Thanksgiving night and last year the cashier told me that every Target employee had a choice to work the Thanksgiving night sale. It was okay if they did not want to, everyone that we saw in the store had chosen to be there. I have already chose to participate again this year, but it is a little frustrating with how spread out in time it is becoming. The funny thing about this year is that none of the big box stores want to release their Black Friday ads first this year. In the recent past, the first one to release their Black Friday Ads and Information was usually the one to get criticized the most in the media. So they are all scared to take the plunge. Ultimately it is up to you the shopper if you are going to support Black Friday or not and that needs to be remembered.
Please feel free to leave any comments about my writings.
#dontgetmeonaroll
The second thing I had on my mind is the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and shopping. In years past, I looked forward to Black Friday. It had become somewhat of an event. I was crazy for doing it, but I found myself participating again the next year. The sad thing about Black Friday is that it is disappearing fast. In exchange for Black Friday we get Hurry Up Say Hello And Eat Your Food Fast Thanksgiving Thursday. I go back and forth on this issue and it is a hot button topic in the media. Costco doesn't cave in and they are closed on Thanksgiving. Wal-Mart is only closed on Christmas Day, but their Black Friday sales didn't start until midnight until two years ago. I commend Costco and I can't even fault Target. Target does open for a few hours late Thanksgiving night and last year the cashier told me that every Target employee had a choice to work the Thanksgiving night sale. It was okay if they did not want to, everyone that we saw in the store had chosen to be there. I have already chose to participate again this year, but it is a little frustrating with how spread out in time it is becoming. The funny thing about this year is that none of the big box stores want to release their Black Friday ads first this year. In the recent past, the first one to release their Black Friday Ads and Information was usually the one to get criticized the most in the media. So they are all scared to take the plunge. Ultimately it is up to you the shopper if you are going to support Black Friday or not and that needs to be remembered.
Please feel free to leave any comments about my writings.
#dontgetmeonaroll
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
When Does Right Get To Step In?
Well, this is blog #2. If you read the first one, I know it was your typical introductory material. Anyways, right before I left work today I heard the verdict of Adrian Peterson's child abuse charges and I don't get it. I am a homer living in Minnesota who is a die hard Minnesota Vikings fan and I struggle with the message in today's verdict. I know that the legal system allows plea deals in exchange for an admission of guilt, or in this case a plea of no contest, but the sentence was knocked down to a point where Adrian Peterson is going to start sleeping good again after today. First of all Adrian Peterson has been getting paid for the past eight weeks while he was placed on the commissioner's exempt list. So, for the past eight weeks he has been getting paid approximately $700,000 a week for being sent home for poor choices that he made. His punishment for the child abuse charges against his own son resulted in 80 hours of community service, no jail time, and a fine of $4,000. Four thousand dollars would be a big problem for me, who works in the education field as a paraprofessional. For an athlete, they probably pull out of their pocket and pay it. The loser in all this is his son who suffered a torn scrotum as a result of his punishment choices. That child has live with the trauma for the rest of his life because his father couldn't control his anger at that time. I hope the NFL does the right thing and suspends him for at least the rest of the year without pay. I also hope they don't honor his time that he has already sat out because he was still being paid. I make bad choices and I lose my job, I don't get paid to wait and see how it plays out. As a Minnesota Vikings fan, I think Adrian Peterson has a hell of a lot of talent and may be the best running back in the game today. It is too bad that he made the choice to throw that talent away because he felt he was untouchable and had to display his feeling of power in the manner he did to his own son. I know that culture was brought into play in trying to explain his actions, but in what culture is it tolerated to abuse people, especially one of your own and a product of you. I hope the Minnesota Vikings do the right thing and do not have Adrian Peterson dress in a Vikings uniform again. What every athlete needs to remember is that no matter how skilled you are and how much money you can make, everyone is replaceable. Our Vikings have had a struggle this season with a number of issues, but we have won the last two games, have a near .500 record, and we have one of the best defenses in the league. We have done fine without you Mr. Peterson and I hope that you have to now go out and earn everybody's respect back. Remember it takes a lot longer to earn the trust back than it takes to lose it.
In closing today, I voted. I am not going to go into who should vote for who, because it is not my place. I just hope that everyone who was eligible to vote took advantage of their freedom to do so. I leave you tonight with the thought that you can't complain about our leaders at any level if you don't vote.
#choices
In closing today, I voted. I am not going to go into who should vote for who, because it is not my place. I just hope that everyone who was eligible to vote took advantage of their freedom to do so. I leave you tonight with the thought that you can't complain about our leaders at any level if you don't vote.
#choices
Monday, November 3, 2014
Blogging Rookie
Hello. My name is Tim Sarych. I wanted to start doing something new so I have decided to start a blog. I am typing this first blog on my iPad mini, so this first one may be short. Anyways, there are a couple of things going on today that I want to talk about. The first one being that I am a college student with Bemidji State University and I also work full-time. I just completed an assignment tonight about cultures and teaching. I interviewed a student for this assignment and he has a lot going against him in life. While I was interviewing him, I asked him if anyone had been racist against him. I was shocked to hear his answer of no. He believes in the Muslim religion, and I asked him what was something that people should know about your culture. He told me that he wants people to know that Muslims want to help people. He went on to say that Muslims want to help to the point that they would even help when people didn't need it. He also stated that people hold Muslims accountable more often because of their religion. It was an interesting interview. The purpose of the assignment was to bring more cultural awareness to teaching. I am thankful that I have worked with a high variety of diversity for the past eight years and I am colorblind when I see a student's skin color. Every student deserves an opportunity.
Today was my official one year anniversary of drinking no soda pop. I remember when I made the decision a year ago, it wasn't a hard one. In fact, I just decided to go cold turkey and quit right on the spot. As I posted on facebook yesterday, I still drink non-carbonated fruit punch, lemonade, and Gatorade G2. Gatorade G2 has a lot less calories and sugar than regular Gatorade. My friend and co-worker, Amy, pointed out that I have a Mike's every now and then. Another co-worker who I respect greatly, Mary, pointed out in my defense that Mike's is a lemonade. She's right! I feel better about myself for making the year mark and I am going to continue this challenge because I want to be more healthy. That is my goal.
I going to end this first blog with this. I don't know what I will be blogging about. There is no set schedule or agenda here. I just want to express what is on my mind. I think this fits in with becoming more healthy. I want to try and blog a couple of times a week and see how it goes. Lately, I feel like I have been in position where I can't say what is on my mind completely and I think this will help. Have a good night everyone and a good Tuesday tomorrow.
#healthyisthegoal
Today was my official one year anniversary of drinking no soda pop. I remember when I made the decision a year ago, it wasn't a hard one. In fact, I just decided to go cold turkey and quit right on the spot. As I posted on facebook yesterday, I still drink non-carbonated fruit punch, lemonade, and Gatorade G2. Gatorade G2 has a lot less calories and sugar than regular Gatorade. My friend and co-worker, Amy, pointed out that I have a Mike's every now and then. Another co-worker who I respect greatly, Mary, pointed out in my defense that Mike's is a lemonade. She's right! I feel better about myself for making the year mark and I am going to continue this challenge because I want to be more healthy. That is my goal.
I going to end this first blog with this. I don't know what I will be blogging about. There is no set schedule or agenda here. I just want to express what is on my mind. I think this fits in with becoming more healthy. I want to try and blog a couple of times a week and see how it goes. Lately, I feel like I have been in position where I can't say what is on my mind completely and I think this will help. Have a good night everyone and a good Tuesday tomorrow.
#healthyisthegoal
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