Three changes lately: The weather has been nicer, I've been working more around my own apartment building and accomplishing more maintenance tasks, and I've taken on a second job: Karaoke host at The Mix on Wednesday evenings.
I love this pleasant and comfortable weather. Blame it on global warming or whatever, but the climate has been quite different these past few years. Last year in March, perhaps later, we had snow. I thought for sure our winter months this year would have found snow on the ground. I even purchased two fifty-pound bags of de-icer for the sidewalks and entry ways. As it turned out, we only had one, maybe two days of a light dusting of snow on the ground. I have UK blood running through my veins. The climate of the Pacific Northwest is a lot like the climate over in the UK only a few degrees cooler. So give me some snow for a few days and I'll be fine. Give me a sprinkly or a light shower of rain and I'll most likely walk in it without an umbrella. Give me blue skies, sunshine, and temperatures anywhere between the mid-seventies to low-nineties and I'll be giddy. But give me temperatures any higher than that and you'll find me indoors with the fans going, a cool cloth on my head, and a pathetic look on my face as I gripe and complain, "It's too flippin' hot!"
Bob is getting along just fine at the other apartment building. I don't know what all he understands or can handle regarding management the apartments as well as the tenants therein, but I think he'll manage. He still has some learning to do, but so did I when I first started with the company (and I had been in and out of the apartment management/maintenance field since I was a teenager). I'm glad he's over there now because that has freed my ability to do work around here. Last week I had only one vacancy. This past Saturday I showed the unit in the morning, took his completed application, sent it in, it was accepted, and then the individual and I signed a thorough lease later that same day. That was awesome! Now I'm completely full. Though I'll have another vacancy come up by the end of April, I'm hoping that it'll be cleaned up, painted, new carpet and blinds installed, and rented by the end of May. Along with the regular office duties, other work I've been able to do around the building has been that of water heater repair, cadet heater installation, tile counter work, installing of over twenty carbon monoxide detectors, and miscellaneous maintenance room tasks. I have a couple of other projects in mind, but they can wait just a little while longer.
For not quite a month I've been the new karaoke host at The Mix on Wednesday nights. I've never done that before, but it's sort familiar territory for me as I used to DJ from time to time. I know how to set the equipment up, work the sound board, get the music going and whatnot. I rather like it. I like to sing, but I also like to help others have a good time. "But, Xade, it's just karaoke." No, not really. I say that because karaoke might be the tool needed for people to express themselves in ways that they might not express themselves at other times in their lives. Whether they sound good or sound bad, they're having a good time and that's the point. Sure, I definitely appreciate it when they sound good. I mean, before I took on this position, do you know how many times I've listened to others sing and tried so hard not to come across as a Simon Cowell? As a "guest judge" for a karaoke contest a few years ago, my remark to one particular singer who sang a selection from Prince and the revolution was, "You just made Prince sound like a pauper!" I can't come across that way whilst I'm working! No matter how bad the person might sound -- even if the person with the microphone had no more than a five note vocal range -- I have to put on a smile and say, "Nice job! Well done!" When it comes to karaoke, you clap. No matter what, you clap. Either you clap because the singer sounded great, or you clap because you're glad the "singer" is done. Either way, you clap.
Life has been... well,... upon pondering about it for a moment, I must say it's been fairly well. Hey, it could always be worse, right? I love the man I'm with and get along with him just fine. I don't have to think too hard as to why I love him. There are many, many reasons. We are lovey-dovey just about every day; not in an over-the-top, "get a room" kind of way. But everyday we hold hands, cuddle, tell each other, "I love you," and truly appreciate and respect one another's company as well as one another's space. I try hard not to exclude him in anything. If there's a place I'd like to go, I ask him if he wants to go with me. If there's something I'd like to do that I think would be fun for the both of us, I ask him if he would like to join me. Even if I'm about to walk into the kitchen to get something, I ask him if there's anything I can get him. It's taken me a long time, perhaps even too long, but I think I've finally learned not to be so selfish or self-centered. And that's a lesson I've had to learn the hard way. But, hey... at least I've learned the lesson.
I've gotten older, too. I can feel it and recognize it. I have more wrinkles and grey hairs. I'm losing hair where I need hair and growing hair where I don't want hair. I get tired earlier and usually am wantin to close my eyes for some much needed sleep by about 10:30 or 11. I've gone from a waist size 32 to 33, maybe 34 depending on the trousers which means, in my opinion, my sands are shifting into sand dunes. My bones ache and creak every once in a while. I don't have the patience for other people's drama any more, no matter who they are. And I'm not even 45 yet! Well, at least not for another month or so. But you know what... I'm happy. Or, to quote what's-his-name from A&E's TV show, "Duck Dynasty," I'm happy, happy, happy.
I won't be able to help out with a church service any more after this month as I'm being required to work in the afternoons on weekends beginning in April, so my last message for a while will be this upcoming Sunday which just so happens to be Easter. I'm really looking forward to that. I've sung at countless Easter services before, but I've never given the message at one. So this will be an absolute joy for me. I'm not sure how many will be in attendance, but that's okay. Whether it be 500 people or just 5, I like the dynamic and energy to be the same. In my opinion, that's how it's supposed to be. And that's the way I like it.
I suppose that's about all for now. Until next time...
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