POPAT for you, POPAT for me!!

I don't know if you will notice or not, but I just upgraded the blogger site. I have no idea what in the hell this effects as I haven't had a chance to play with it yet and I wanted to get this post out before a meeting with a client I have later today. My apologies for not posting in some time. I've been very busy with work, moving out of state, and trying to raise a family. Such is life. But to make up for my absence, I figured I'd write a lengthy post describing some of what I've been up to.

9 years ago, I met a beautiful woman named Stacey. She was my complete and utter opposite. Straight-laced, good person, and actually wanted to improve the world. My interests at the time included getting high, watching the Scooby-Doo, finding someone to screw for the evening and occasionally going to class to take a test. At some point in there we fell in love, got married, and had two alright kids. How it happened, I will never now. Personally I think I just want to spite her ex-boyfriend for being an asshat, but I suppose its possible that opposites do really attract. When I got married, I was faced with two choices. My path or hers. As much as I would have loved to stay on my path, I knew I couldn't raise kids on it and probably couldn't hold together a marriage on it. So little by little I started to change myself. I quit the drugs. I got a descent job. Went to carpentry school (and actually went to class every day). Quit screwing around. And last year, I stopped watching TV so much (even my beloved Scooby-Doo). Now I'm lucky if I see an hour a week. By no means was this all a quick change. It's taken me several years to get to this point and to change my mindsets as much as I have. But its been worth it. Hell, just hearing Mr. Nuts tell me "You've grown up Couch." has almost made it worth it. My most recent mindset change is to attempt to stop swearing so much. Though that one may end up the same way quitting caffeine and liquor did and end up getting put back on the shelf till another time.

Two months ago, I decided to take one more step with my life. I think I gave Mr. Nuts and Jimbob a heart attack when I asked them if I could use them for references. I put in an application for a position as a city cop. I mostly figured, they would start a background check and just dismiss me on principle. However, much to my surprise, a week ago, I got a letter saying I had made it through the first phase of the hiring process and they scheduled me to take a POPAT test. Ten years ago, when I was in shape, ran CC, wrestled, and ran track, it probably would have been a lot easier. Today, it was a work out. I was definitely out of breath and then some by the end of it. But I passed. Thank God. Now I enter the third phase. Interview and background check. I go next Monday morning to interview and I have to have my entire job history, education history, driving history, credit history, and all of the places I've lived put together by then. Working out of a union hall for the past 8 years, this is not going to be easy. I also need to include 5 references for my character who are neither related to me or another reference (ie: Kat) and that I haven't been employed under. So, I am going to list Mr. Nuts, Jimbob, BC, and Nicloe (providing they are all ok with it.) I still need to find a 5th person, so if you know me well, and are okay with telling the police what a jerk I've been to you all these years, please let me know. I probably should go thru the site and remove some of my more vulgar blogs as I'm guessing if they search hard enough, they'll find them. But who knows, maybe they'll find them as entertaining as you all have and think I'd make a good candidate just for the stories to come.

Other then that, things are good. Still trying to sell the house in Michigan. God I can't wait to get out from that load of debt. Paying for utilities in two states is damn expensive. I've been working round the clock (even had to stop raiding) to pay for moving debt, Stacey's school loans, and utilities at both places. Hopefully once the house sells, I'll be able to catch back up as I hate seeing my credit suffer as much as it has of late. But the weather is gorgeous down here. The people are friendly. The food is excellent. And the work is plentiful. I really think that once things start getting settled that this will be a good move. There are still a few things that I miss from Michigan, but thats mostly people and they know who they are. Michigan does have a lot better drivers though. Thats for sure. Anyways... Peace out, and wish me luck on phase 3.