Back in the High Life Again...

For those of you who have been wondering what I have been doing since my last post back in July - here is a recap of sorts. For all souls who have been concerned about me, let it be known that the concern is greatly appreciated. I'm concerned about myself too!!

Anyway, I started in my new position on July 16. My new boss is a pretty cool person who has shown me the ropes and has been a constant source of encouragement and support ever since I came to Tennessee. The people I work with in my department are pretty cool as well. I have a lot on my plate with this new position, but one of the key things I do are Out-of-Stock audits. I did a store in Memphis & showed my audit to the co-manager who told me that I am not making friends very fast around here. My boss HOWLED when I told him that. He thought it was so funny, he brought it up at a meeting with some Cincinnati corporate bigwigs when they came down. Anyway, I told this person that I have a job to do, and that I am only trying to help, not hurt. I think this co-manager got the message.

With some minor exceptions, I work Monday - Friday. There have been a couple of rare exceptions when a store has had an issue on a Saturday or Sunday, and I go to that store to resolve it, and then I go about my business. I absolutely love my new job - I haven't been this happy at Kroger in a long time.

So, getting used to the new job wasn't a problem. Finding a house that I like turned out to be a nightmare. My real estate agent showed me about 30 houses in Southaven, Olive Branch, Bartlett, and Cordova before I finally found one that I liked. It amazes me how people could care less about houses. I have asked many times, how in the world could people live in a house that looks like that. Anyway, I narrowed my search down to two houses - one in Cordova and one in Bartlett - that I could see myself in. The one in Bartlett was around 1600 square feet that had a huge game room and a fourth bedroom. It was an older home (built in 1977) that needed cosmetic work done on it (mainly paint and new carpet), but it was a decent house. The one in Cordova was about 1450 square feet, but was only 2 years old and in immaculate condition. It also has a jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom (which is big, by the way). I bought the Cordova house. The house is a little smaller than the house I had in Hot Springs, but that's OK. It's just me and JLo that are here...

OK, I now hear you saying, "JLo"? JLo wanted to come with me, and I wanted her to be with me. We are now living together - and I can hear some Christians out there reviling me as I type this. The living arrangement has been a constant struggle. JLo brought all of her stuff with her, and it freaked me out when I saw items in my new home that I had never seen before. We have argued more that we ever have. It's just part of the new adjustment. The first night after the movers brought our stuff was a bad night. It was like a maze just trying to get to the kitchen. I never realized that we had so much stuff. At first, thoughts of me making a terrible mistake with this house crossed my mind, but cooler heads prevailed, and we sat down and had a long talk. Basically, I suggested that we have a major garage sale in the near future - we have too much junk that we don't use, so why do we need it? Fortunately, JLo agreed with me. Unfortunately, we haven't had the garage sale yet! We may do a Christmas garage sale next weekend - weather pending, of course.

I have rekindled old friendships with some of my Jonesboro friends that I haven't seen in a while, and I have gotten e-mails from an old friend of mine from high school as of late. I have seen my ex-brother-in-law and ex-sister-in-law a couple of times. And I even called my ex-wife a couple of times because I needed a couple of favors. The electric bill was in her name, and I needed her signature on release of title. Surprisingly, my ex-wife was very co-operative with me on this. On the day that I closed on my Hot Springs house, I called my ex-wife to thank her for her help. She congratulated me on my promotion, and she told me that she knew that I worked very hard for it. I told her one major perk of the new job, and she thought I would say not having to deal with customers. I told her these three words: "OFF EVERY SUNDAY". She said, "Wow". Then I thanked her and told her that my work in Hot Springs is now officially over. She told me good luck. I haven't spoken to her since, although I heard from a reliable source that she was furious when she found out how much I made from selling my house. I bought the house in Hot Springs for $78,000 in 2001 and sold it for $110,000 in 2007. I pocketed around $28,000 from the sale, which I used to pay off credit card bills & used for down payment on the new home. Pretty cool, huh?

What irritates me now is that I am still unpacking JUNK! But that's OK. JLo loves it here - she managed to transfer from the Kirklands in HS to the Kirklands in Memphis. I have taken her to restaurants that she has never heard of (like the Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Memphis), and we spent a wonderful evening not too long ago on Beale Street. She really seems to enjoy it here, which is more than what I could say for my ex-wife when we moved to Hot Springs.

As for me, I absolutely love it here. I have been needing to get out of Hot Springs since 2005, and it finally happened for me. There is so much to do in Memphis, and so many places to go. What is just as nice is that Tunica is about 45 minutes from here, and Nashville is about 3 hours from here, should I go there for a weekend. JLo and I have talked about doing that sometime next year.

Speaking of vacations, your humble servant has never been on a cruise before in his life. In 2008, I go on two of them. JLo and I will be taking a cruise from Galveston, Texas, to Cozumel, the week after Valentine's Day. I also won a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Nassau in the Bahamas, which we will be going on sometime next summer. I am excited, and I can hardly wait.

Speaking of vacations, you already know about the South Padre Island vacation. My second week vacation was spent in Hot Springs - JLo's sister MLo flew from Washington state to Little Rock. Since that vacation, MLo has left her loser husband and is now in Hot Springs until something better comes along. I spent my third week vacation in Dallas, but I was only there for three days, and I was only there for the Dream Theater concert (their new album, "Systematic Chaos", is one of the best albums released in 2007). My fourth week vacation was spent resting and unpacking. I found out that I qualified for a fifth week vacation back in March of 2007 that I didn't know about. I will take that vacation after the holidays, and I will be resting, I'm sure.

As far as concerts, in 2007, I have seen the Who, Little Feat (twice), Dream Theater, Delbert McClinton, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I attended the 2nd annual Feat Fest in Eureka Springs back in September, and the only bad thing about this one is that it started raining during the Feat Jam. I ended up leaving my guitar in the car because I am picky about playing in the rain. Still, Spacely and I had a wonderful time, and you can bet your bottom dollar that we will do this again next year.

Yesterday, JLo and I celebrated three years of dating by going out. We went to On the Border for dinner (we went to On the Border on our first date), and then we went to the late show. If you haven't seen "August Rush", I swear, you need to see this movie. It was such a good movie - the music scenes in this movie are breath-taking. Awesome movie. Do not miss this one.

Now that I have an internet connect, more posts coming from me!! I know - how could you stand the wait?

Until next time... take care.

And Merry Christmas.

- Bolivar