The Chronicles of Gene

Here I sit at my desk reading some email thinking to myself it's been far too long since I wrote on either of my blogs lately, this one and asquad.ca. Why? Have I been too busy to spare 10 to 20 minutes a month to say hi or rant about some washed up celebrity? Apparently.... how sad is that.

This post isn't about Britney or Lindsey, they get enough attention as it is, this is about me and where I am compared to December 04, 2006. So much has changed this year, so much has happened sometimes I can't even comprehend it all. Last year I was still living with Ryan, I was working 14 hour days 5 days a week and including a 8 hours on Saturday. Was waiting for the hill to be open. Was waiting for the work to be done. Ran myself down past the point I couldn't even see the line anymore, was so focused on getting ahead at work. Was getting ready to move into a new apartment with Tasha and the girls. Was one of the top producing Account Managers at work and was out selling the salesmen, that part was fun ;).

Now I sit here it's December 4, 2007 and what have I accomplished? What did I do that made me enjoy my life? What have I done to make others laugh? What have I done to make others feel loved?

Well, Big White opened and me and Ryan made great use of our pass. It was the only thing which allowed us to blow the stress of work at the time off. I moved into 302 with Tasha and the Girls. Had my first Christmas as a family, it was fun watching the girls tear through their presents and play with the small stuff. Work didn't settle down until about the beginning of March, sadly it had stayed my top priority instead of making myself the top priority. It had devastating consequences. I lost my drive for improving myself, lost all the gains I had made at the gym, lost my self confidence and my ability to deal with stress. Almost lost my relationship more then once due to situations at home which would blow up when they didn't need to. Overall I was a miserable cunt hiding it all one joke at a time.

I eventually realized what was going on and went about to getting my drive to improve me back, it was up to me and only me to find happiness in my life again. I had to realize my actions and energy was completely and utterly disgusting to me, I remember saying to myself more then once "Gene, if Gene from 2006 could see you he'd bitch slap you! Get your shit back together you know this will not lead to an amazing life". It's been an up hill battle, especially in the beginning, there were a few slide backwards but I wasn't going to let it be prolonged. I stood my ground and pushed forward. I got back to writing down my goals again and trying to use positive peer pressure to help achieve them and applying a consequence for not meeting them. If I don't meet a goal, that's $50 to a charity or to Tasha to spend, either way it goes against my financial goals of saving and not spending on unintended expenses. So far so good.

Realizing I need to go to the gym at least 4 times a week or else the stress just starts to bubbling up to the top and gets to me very quickly. Since September I've been very focused when it comes to going to the gym. My body is returning to it's former glory once again. I can look in the mirror and be happy with what I see. Tasha got me a Flash journal from Chapters to keep track of my workouts and I must say it's really helped me push myself and motivate me to push more then the week before. It may be funny but having the Flash staring at me just makes me go harder, it works for me so why fight it! I haven't had the plateau like I used to after a couple months, the weight keeps going up, the intensity gets higher and as a result my body is in great shape. I never used to like cardio before but I've found a new love for it and the burn it can bring, no more dogging it on the stationary bike at level 5.

Reading, damn I forgot how much I enjoyed doing it. I've been reading a few of Robin Sharma's books and it's really helped motivated me to learn more and read more about improving myself and inspiring others to achieve greatness. Re-read the body for life, currently re-reading the automatic millionaire again. Lately I've been listening to Tony Robbin's Get the Edge series and taking a ton of notes along the way, if you haven't truly listened to any of his stuff I highly recommend it. His energy is amazing and I find with each portion I listen to I want to listen to more.

Aside from improving myself it's been a busy year, had a few really great guy trips. Me and a few friends rented a cabin up at Postil lake and had a blast, think it's become an instead annual guys trip for the summer. Went house boating on Shuswap lake with Tasha and 22 other people. We meet some amazing people we didn't know and had a time of our lives, it was one of the biggest highlights of the summer without a doubt. We are going again in 2008 August Long, can't wait for it. Of course went to Merritt Mountain Fest again, I think it was the last year though cause they are changing the format and it just wasn't as fun as years past. First night at Merritt I find Ryan and Charlie down in the beer gardens in Camp C and we go get a beer and the girls behind the bar already know them both by name. I got a great laugh out of it.

We had the 4th annual guys weekend up at Sun Peaks and this year we had enough guys to rent a big ass cabin up there. We brought a keg down with us and more boys from Acro. First night we got just out of control, a bunch of Deano's friends from the hill came over and we got the party going. Lots of drinking, some boat races, drinking games and tons of laughs about jokes only guys would love. Somehow this chick ended up hanging around with us, and by hanging around us I mean trying to convince any of us to fuck her. I've never seen one girl throwing it out there and not a single guy in the place was picking it up. We mocked her, we made jokes at her expense, we got more drunk and load about the jokes and she stuck around. She was on a mission, got to give her an A for effort. She thought me and Jon were hot stuff and wouldn't leave us alone so we said "Hey lets go in the hot tub", she said she didn't bring a bathing suit we said "Neither did we, go get changed!". She went upstairs got the major hottie shirt and came down in only that. At this point me and Jon laugh, run down stairs put our shoes on and run outside and hid behind this storage shed and drank. We got to listen to her in the hot tub with Deano, Shane and Ryan going "Where's gene and jon?". We thought it was funny as hell and went back in the house for more booze. Long story short Dean ended up nailing her, he's a trooper! Me and Micah thought it would be funny to kick the door open and take pictures of her in his room (don't worry we used the handle to open the door). God damn it was a fun weekend. The second night we ended up at the owner's of Mac Daddy's 45th birthday party, we somehow crashed it and didn't get kicked out it was a great time, lots of food and some good tunes and laugh.

Me and Tasha went and saw Syliva Brown in Vancouver, that was a fun little date trip with just the two of us. She didn't feel good so we didn't get to crazy down there but we had fun none the less. Stayed right down town so we had stuff to do.

How could a year in review be complete with out the biggest change in my young life. I became a foster parent. That's right I became a foster parent to a 2 month old baby. The process which me and Tasha went through was long and very tedious, it took us over 9 months to get to the point where we had our first placement. We went to more courses then I could count, all of them mandatory but the majority of time I was one of the only men at them which annoyed me for more then one reason. Regardless it's been amazing going through the process of having a baby around which is totally dependent on you. I can truly say it's helped change my outlook on life and has helped me reduce my stress in life by just taking a step back and realizing I need to relax.

He's not the only baby in the house, Tasha also bought me Lucy. She's a Manx kitten, but growing very quickly into a Manx Cat. As RyRy says "She's a Manx with no tail". She's been a great additional to the family, we all love her very much even though she begs for food worse then any dog I've seen. She can be a stinkier but she is the most chill cat I've ever met, the girls drag her all over and she just goes with it. Very affectionate and damn cute. Everyone who sees her just loves her, she's got a great personality.

Overall it's been a crazy year with tons of ups and downs but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I look forward to what the next year brings. Oh and I just got promoted at Acro to Software Supervisor so it's the first chapter to the year here, guess all that hard work got acknowledged.

Labels: Personal