Joel Gross's Blog

I am starting to get really excited about this late spring and summer. I love the bright sunshine, parks, bonfires on beaches, cruising around various lakes in nice boats, surfing at the ocean, lazy days, outdoor parties, pretty ladies and their summerwear, exercising outdoors, hiking, mountain climbing (perhaps Ranier?), close friends, canoeing, exploring, walking around at midnight in a t-shirt and shorts and being warm, the scenery, sailing, vacations and did i mention fine women?

The last few summers have been pretty nice, because fine weather and regular sunshine greatly improve my mood. I have had tons of free time, but no money and my friends were all in the same boat. I went home for one summer (big mistake).

However, this will be my first summer as a college graduate. I have been earning a healthy income for the last year and have some extra money that I can spend on fun stuff. I also have saved up some extra vacation days and will probably take a random day off here and there throughout the summer and go to lakes and beaches and on trips. The passion of fine summers is incredible; it raises a hot love of life and people that gives me chills.

I am going to spend as much time as I can outdoors with the people I care about. I would like to be able to visit a lot of the parks around here and also head over to Eastern Washington for a few long weekends and also out to the ocean for some surfing. Currently, I am looking to a get a new, and much better, apartment with an area where I can have BBQs for my friends. I should also be able to use my grandparents cabin on White Pass with the pools and tennis courts and gorgeous mountains all around on my own by then.

The recent days have been tough, but I have some high hopes for the future. A lot of pieces in my life that I have been working on for a long time are beginning to fall into place. My best times are definitely coming!

I was checking through the search engines and doing some research and came across some pretty entertaining stuff today:

-Michael Jackson is a crazy bastard: he’s making a 50 foot robot of himself that will roam the Las Vegas desert and shoot laser beams. Yahoo’s Article on Wacko Jacko

-World’s tallest man finds a wife… I feel his pain, though it can’t compare to being 7’9” The Giant

-This retard put himself ina coma by choking himself with a rope to get high Duh…. Somebody should introduce these people to alcohol or heroin or something safe.

-I love to try new things, especially things that challenge me.
-People describe me as skinny to medium build and physically fit: 6’5” 220 lbs.
-I have a job and am working on starting my own business
-Give me good food and tasty drinks and i’ll be your friend for life.
-When I’m upset, I de-stress by running for miles.
-I listen to most any music.
-I’m 23 and am having the best time of my life and am working to make sure it just keeps getting better.
-If something bad happens, I’ll give you a hug and make a joke to try to make you feel better.
-I don’t need money, but enjoy strategizing ways to make it.
-I love to explore and go on trips and adventures.
-I almost always am on time.
-I call when I say I will.
-A great conversation can be better than sex-especially because it isn’t over in 8 seconds ;).
-Reading is a great passion of mine.
-I don’t drink pop and rarely eat candy.
-Once you become one of my good friends, you will be on for life.
-I can conduct myself with class, though sometimes i have fun by letting the small-town boy show through.
-Kids and dogs usually love me and I them.
-Bottle of wine + good friend= Happy Joel
-I drive like a madman.
-I am preparing to climb Mt. Ranier this summer.
-I am a decent chess player.
-Loyalty is my foremost virtue.
-I can make a mean pasta and a decent steak.
-I hate people who abuse those who can’t fight back (ie- don’t be a bitch to your waiter/child/employee, because I will call you out).
-Sailing with a bottle of rum is fun.
-I’m learning to dance.
-I prefer natural women (don’t like tanning, makeup, bleached hair, etc.) Be who you are.
-I think anyone who claims only to like a certain type or genre of something (music, girls/boys, books, games) and discounts everything else is an idiot.
-I am a strange combo of nerd and meathead.
-I sometimes dream of hitting the open road.
-The only foreign country I have ever visited is Canada :(. I will fix that soon.
-I want to learn a foreign language.
-I grow on people; you may not like me at first, but eventually you will love me.
-Grammar is the devil and I’ll put my commas wherever I want to.
-I ski more for the scenery than for the thrill (though at times, you need the thrill).
-I know how to move websites up in the organic results of search engines. Don’t piss me off or you may find www.yournameisachildmolestor.com ranks #1 for your name.
-I am very good at making bets and negotiating.
-I am a flag football fanatic.
-You must’ve been really bored to read this whole post.

I woke up a little while ago and am not feeling well and can’t sleep 🙁

A question I asked many times during my undergrad was, “How in the hell am I ever going to work every day?”

For many of you who knew me, I had the ultimate class schedule for my last two and a half years of college: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:30 to 730. 4 day weekends every weekend, bedtime at 2-4am and waking up before noon was as rare as actual work getting done. So, i’m going to help you folks out who are still being “educated”.

1. School life
2. Real life

1. Tough day: having a paper due in two days and spending an hour and a half writing it in your boxers.
2. Tough day: having a report due in two days and spending 18 hours slaving away on excel.

1. Eating all day long, including in class. Usually consuming giant tubs of pasta.
2. Packing a daily backpack full of food for the day: 3 protein drinks, 2 fat turkey sandwiches, 1 Costco chicken bake, 1 bag of carrots, 1 pack of dinosaurs and 3 oranges.

1. Hanging out with your best friends all day playing video games, watching movies, going to work out and play sports.
1. Sitting at a desk all day surrounded by people you may or may not like, frenetically trying to keep on the workload your new boss heaps on you (boss quotes- “You’re salary, so you have to work as long as it takes to get the job done… but if you finish early you have to tell me so I can give you more tasks… if you leave before 5 you don’t care about your job”)

1. Relaxing all day till 11 at night, then getting dressed and heading out to party.
2. Waking up at 7am, slaving away till after 5, then either going to happy hour and heading home by 9 or 10 or trying to take a nap so you won’t be exhausted when you party with your friends at 11… though you will feel jet-lagged the rest of the weekend.

1. Working out at the IMA 4-5 days a week, 1-2 hours a day.
2. Working out at the IMA 3 days a week, 1/2 to 1 hour, desperately trying to save as much of your measly free time as possible.

1. Meeting new women in class, at your friends place, at the bar.
2. Meeting new women at… nowhere, just cut your testes off.

1. Carefully spending the pittance of money provided by financial aid on books and food.
2. Spending lots of money on all sorts of toys you will never have time to use because you are at work.

1. Using Facebook/Myspace at home because you’re bored.
2. Using Facebook/Myspace at work because you’re bored.

1. Enjoying the beautiful sunshine and spring weather by going to Madison beach or the park every day.
2. Working in the attic and not having any windows… it’s sunrise when you go in and sunset when you go home.

1. Counting off the days till the end of the quarter.
2. Counting off the days till the end of your life.

Hopefully that provides some clarification to all the college students out there…

This is going to sound like your parents/grandparents advice, but whatevers: It makes me sad that many people are unable to live within their means. I have a lot of friends who make good money, but spend it as fast as they make it. They are then forced to go and beg for a raise from their boss, thinking, “if I just made XXX more dollars a month, I wouldn’t need to worry about money anymore”. However, once they are granted the raise, they think, “hey, why not treat myself a little bit? I can afford to buy XYZ now…” And thus the cycle continues.

Though, I am thinking about hopping into the cycle and buying myself a hot new car.;)

I drove down to Puyallup earlier today to spend the night with my grandparents, which I haven’t done in a while. And I’m starting to remember why I haven’t been down in a while: my grandpa has had me working on his various computers for him the whole time. He has a computer he bought ten years ago that was a piece of crap even then that has never worked very well and now the CD drive has died so he can’t play MS Flight Sim ’98 (Uggh). Grandpa also upgraded to IE7 and hates it because they moved all of his icons around. Old dogs really can’t learn new tricks (he turns 70-something tomorrow).

Really though, it is actually pretty nice being down here and sitting by a big roaring fire with my grandparents and just relaxing (and of course messing around online). Bestemor (my grandma) rented Wedding Crashers and wants me to watch it with her soon. I have pretty much the greatest grandma of all time. Not only does she watch fun movies, but she is one of the greatest cooking talents in the state- she fixed me a giant dinner of roast beef stew and tasty salad. I’m glad I came down, I was feeling pretty down and talking to Bestemor and relaxing has helped me find some peace.

I have never had a blog before and I’m sitting in my room bored on a Friday night, so I suppose this is a good time to write my first one. Tonight, I met my a friend from high school, Nick, after work to relax and catch up. I walked from my company (by Qwest Field) up to his tower (on 6th and Union) and he said he wanted to meet a couple of friends for drinks. He and I headed downstairs to the Union something something Bar & Grill which was a fairly fancy-schmancy place full of the well-to-do trying to drink their week away. We sat down on a couch that had a coffee table in front of it and another couch on the other side with some fat drunk bragging about how much money he made to everyone in listening distance. The man sickened me and I will do everything in my power to avoid becoming him. Anyways, Nick’s four lady friends showed up a little while later and sat down and started chatting. Three of the women were older and wore designer suits and talked a good game about how successful they were and who they knew and the hot places they were going tonight and tried to cover their sad desperation as smoothly as possible. There was one girl who was about Nick and I’s age (she was 24) and dressed in relaxed jeans and sweatshirt and seemed to still be human. So Nick and I started talking with her as we watched the Sweet Sixteen games on the giant plasma television. She was really funny and seemed to be pretty interesting. She was well-travelled and had gone to college in Australia and we were having genuine fun. Katie (her name) started to shoot the “I’m into you” eyes at Nick and became more flirtatious with him as time went on and I was rooting for him. We started to discuss jobs and Katie described her parents boutique investment firm with $250 million under management with her and her parents as the sole employees. Nick started to get drawn in. Then it happened and disappointment hit: she came out and told us she had a boyfriend. Nick and I backed off and started chatting with each other, but soon I noticed that she was still sending strong looks Nick’s way and she rejoined our conversation and was even more flirty than before. We were a little surprised and started to joke around about her boyfriend, but she kept pursuing. Finally, we got up to leave and she gave Nick a smoky look and said, “I WILL be seeing you again.” We just cracked up and walked out. But now I’m thinking about it a little bit more and how terrible is it that this girl who openly said she was very happy with her boyfriend was still actively chasing other men? The thing that really has bothered me is that I have had so many friends who have been dating so-called “good girls” and even some with great, genuine loves who have had their girlfriends go around behind their backs and cheat on them. Even friends who attended religious universities where the women think they will burn in hell for eternity for doing so. Why? Maybe the grass is just always greener…

Also, I am not sure I like the path I have picked for my life. I went to school for business and have been pursuing business and production and the making of money for the last few years and I know that is not what makes me happy. What makes me happy is relationships with people and I thought that I would be able to develop tons of those by joining the business world, but everywhere I’ve looked thus far people put up fronts and facades. Sometimes, I can find genuine people, but it sure as hell has not happened much. McCormick & Schmick’s was full of people dressed up and trying to impress one another. I felt like an outsider, though I am a part of it. I started conversations with some of the older people there and the first man was a powerful lawyer/lobbyist who couldn’t stop dropping names: Gene Juarez, the Carter Administration, Boeing, blah, blah blah. I don’t give a shit who you know, who are you? It seems like you are just a shell who can’t communicate as an individual. The sad thingwas that when I started to ignore him he was surprised and resentful; it probably doesn’t happen enough to him. Sorry about the rant, but I am just pretty confused at this point.

The best time I had during the evening was when we went back to Nick’s nice & clean (if you know my roommates, you will understand why this is important to me) apartment and played a game of darts.