Don't Call it a Comeback...

Well I figure 2 years is long enough to go without a post on this thing.  Time to dust if off and brush up a few things.  Over the next few weeks, I will be updating some pictures, post and news.  Before I spend much time however, I'm curious...  does anyone give a crap to hear what I have to say?...  Seriously, that is not a rhetorical question.  Looking for some answers here.  For those of you who know me, know that I have plenty to say.  I am not shy with my opinions and will typically say things everyone else in the room wants to but are too nice, so they don't.  If people would follow and be entertained, I'll start this thing up.  If not, then the 3 Ret-Brothers are looking to start a YouTube Channel that will have a weekly rant, random videos and funny spoofs...  More info to come.
"Life is a garden, dig it." - Joe Dirt

- ReT

I'm like a kid chasing a dollar tied to a string...

Time again to post something... Here's the deal, I have figured out why I suck at 'blogging'.... I'm not married!! Lol. Really I think I only post something when there has been a change in my life. So I just got dumped on Monday, and now here I am updating... I feel like that kid chasing the dollar... you know the one that is tied to a string but he doesn't know it. Every time he gets close and thinks he can grab it, the jerk on the other end yanks it away, all the while laughing at the kids efforts. That seems to be my life with dating, and the illusive event known as marriage. The nurse I was dating got scared and broke up. It seems that if she has any doubt or fear, she takes it as a bad sign and says she is "unsure" and doesn't feel right. Again, it looks like it's time 'to learn something' from this crap and move on. At least work is going some what better. Those clients that have had the faith to trust me have done quite well over the past couple of months. I'm tired of hearing all the doomsayers and Chicken Little's! This is NOT the end of the United States. This is NOT going to be the great depression of 2009/2010. Yes it's a time to become more frugal and live more moderately, and those who invest wisely will come out of this GREAT!! Don't take my word for it though... that's just what Warren Buffett has said, (if you don't know who that is, he is richer than Bill Gates and is investing like crazy right now). So if you're interested let me know, if not with me, ask Scott Slade or Jake Halliday (Jason Slade is doing juuuuuust fine... help the newer guys). I guess that's it for now. I'll blog again when I find the next dollar bill to chase down the cursed street.
- ReT
"... We must believe we can succeed or, by definition, we have already failed." -John Huntsman

New Year... new outlook.

So I had the privelege of running into Nama Diane Slade the other day, and she told me she used to read my blogs until i quit updating it. I told her I would, and that I'll try to get in at least one post per month. The short update on the New Year follows:
Life is going alright for now. I would say GREAT, but then something crappy would happen tomorrow (I only say that cause it recently did). Work is moving ever so slowly, but moving none the less, which is the most important thing. I like what I'm doing and hope to continue progressing and helping folks with their future. The best news in my life right now is that I just started dating an amazingly awesome muchacha. She is fun to be around, and we just mesh really well. We have been "hanging out" since early December, and decided to "date" a week ago. She is 28, a nurse, totally cute (would you expect less?...), speaks Spanish and athletic (plays ball, runs, and throws a football almost better than me!...Almost). I'll keep everyone posted... Hooper gets married in 2 weeks, and my Mom gets married the day after him! I'm excited for Ryan, but realize this means I am the 'last one', which is what I always thought it would be anyway. And my Mom will be married twice before I can get married once!! So things are pretty good, and this month could be awesome...as long as a certain person (who needs to just go on with his referbished life) doesn't do anything stupid to my Mom, create some drama and ruin everyone's day.
- "We can have anything we want in this world, but only after we have helped enough other people get what they want." - Zig Zigler.
- If you don't have all that you want...start helping others obtain their dreams and desires. - ReT

Holy Shiiiii..... 2 posts and a Facebook.... WTF?...

I don't know what has happened to me. This is my second blog post within the same month, and I actually started a facebook page.... Don't ask, I don't know what has gotten into me.
Life is somewhat confusing at times, and now is one of those for me. I'm loving my job but wonder if timing is wrong. All I can do is keep working my tail off and hope it works out. I love Christmas, but don't feel like the Holidays are even here. I like my truck, but would trade it quite quickly for something with better gas mileage (almost 100miles a day commute, YES 100 per day!). My youngest brother is a really good kid, but he has no clue what he's going to do with his life & is WAAAAY too lazy. I love the freedom of owning and living in my own home, but would move in with mom in a second to have little to no rent for a few months.....well, I'd have to think about it a while.
On a good note, I have been playing softball every Tues night, and am finally hitting the ball out with consistency. Last night was 2 home runs and a double in 5 at bats....maybe I should look to grow my hair out and join a professional softball team. I'd be around women all the time that way, but some of them could eat me for lunch....have you seen softball games? Amazon women what?!? Yes, there are a few exception, but they are exactly that...exceptions.
Anyway, I'll write again when I have something more meaningful to say.
P.S. Is anyone else SICK of that stupid Beyonce commercial!!!? Let me, let me upgrade.... I want to shoot the TV every time I hear that stupid thing come on.
ReT

Making a blogging comeback...

WOW!! I thought I was bad before, but this is ridiculous! It has been 9mos since my last entry, and I figured I should update this although it's not read much. I promise if I ever get married, my "family" will be actively involved in the friend blogging sensation. So let me catch up anyone who might be bored enough to read this.
Over the summer was another fabulous beach trip to San Diego with fam and friends. The Bridges came again (I hope they are regulars from now on) and the Slades even showed up. Of course Hoop was there and our buddy Jared and his wife Candace came from Vegas. I also took a girl to the beach for the first time in 20 yrs of going! She and I were connected at the hip for pretty much all summer. Things appeared to be moving along nicely until a month ago. I decided after 5 mos of "hanging out" on a daily basis, we should be able call ourselves a couple or at least 'dating'. She is apparently still not over her EX and not ready for a serious relationship. So I was tired of walking, talking and acting like a couple if she couldn't put her heart in it too. Now I go once again into the wonderful world of singles dating...this shiz is getting WAY old!
In other news, work is wicked hard right now with the market in the crapper & everyone thinking we are headed for The Depression of '08-'09, but I'm hanging in there. The savvy investors are dumping money in & gonna be stupid rich 10 yrs from now, when this is all over! I also finalized my insurance licensing today, so anyone needing Life Ins, let me know.
My madre has a man-friend named Dave, whose pretty cool & they are kinda getting serious. The only thing that bugs me about him is the way he smacks his gum, but if that's all I can find wrong...that's pretty dang good. My sis April just had her second baby a while ago, boy number 2, named Graham.
That's pretty much the scoop for now. Headed to Vegas this weekend to compete in The World Series of Poker tournament, so wish me luck! It's a $20,000 buy in so I hope to at least make that much back. Poker at Quentin's house has taught me a lot over the last year, so we'll see how it goes. Yes it's a gamble but the winner gets 9million! And crap, the 10th place still gets like 750K.
- Life really is what you make of it. We can choose to be happy, or wallow in our self-pity. If life hands you lemons....trade them to someone else for oranges or apples or something else you really want. - ReT
Oh...and I was just playin about the poker. Lol.

Do I Push Your Buttons?......

Well, I just got back yesterday from a quick trip through Las Vegas and Utah. I'm between jobs right now and don't want to get hired on anywhere for only two weeks, so I used some of my tax return money and took a trip! I figured "why not go!? Do something spontaneous!" So I thought I'd either go to Texas (where the Sis, Bro-in-law & nephew live), San Jose, CA or Utah. Seeing that the first two are some 20 hrs away (and I'd be driving alone), I went with Utah. Besides, I figured that way I could do a little snowboarding, hang out with some friends, take out a way cute girl on a date (which didn't really pan out...) and enjoy colder weather (it is winter in the rest of the country you know). First, I rolled to Las Vegas for a night and stayed with some friends, while making my way north to Utah. They're a younger married couple who are always fun to be with. After a night of cards, steak and chatting I went up to UT.
I had a bunch of things planned while I was up there, but none of them really worked out... Nobody was available to go boarding, so I almost went alone, until I remembered that I try to do crazy things and could likely get hurt without any help around. Then that cute girl I mentioned got stuck out of town overnight, which canceled the fun group date A Lowe and I had planned. The next day (Sunday) I was going to drive to Milad, ID to go flying in a private plane (a friend from my mission is LOADED!) but the weather was too ugly. Monday, everyone went back to school and work so I decided to drive home.
Although a lot of my "plans" didn't work out, I still had a good time. I hung out with Aaron Lowe a lot, watched "Lost" for the first time ever, saw the movie Be Kind, Rewind (with Jack Black), and even managed to spend a few hours with the cute girl Sunday night. We chilled at her place and talked a lot. She says I like to push peoples buttons, and I analyzed that on my way home (I'll save that for another post...coming soon).
I did TONS of thinking this trip! About life, work, family, future, etc. I took two audio books with me; one by the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad and one called Think BIG and Kick Ass by Donald Trump. Both were good and got the brain juices flowing. All said and done, I'm glad I went. The thinking lead to a lot: I have a new idea for a book I'm going to write, decided that I wished the cute girl lived in AZ, figured out that American Idol is not for me, realized that I try too hard to do everything on my own, figured what my 3 wishes for a genie would be..., how to whistle using two fingers, figured out how to retire before 50, and that time travel really is possible with the curvature of the earth, space time continuum and one secret additional thing...
"Be a man of the sea.... not a man of the land. A man of the land simply follows the roads, but a man of the sea must chart his own course" -Ret

Just call me Hoover....cause I SUCK!!!!

Once again I have taken forever to update anything in this blog. A couple of people have mentioned they actually miss reading some of my colorful remarks, so I guess I'll start up again.
As some of you may have already read on Scotty's blog, I have been offered a position ad Edward Jones as a Financial Adviser. I am in the process of accepting, and I'm actually going to get fingerprinted as soon as I finish writing this entry. I quit my job about two weeks ago and have been riding out a severance deal, while waiting to hear back from EdJones. I've stayed busy (and sane....well as sane as I can) with other things: cut down a tree in Mom's backyard, fixed a quad, rebuilt a carburetor on a motorcycle, cleaned out my closet & dressers, cleaned out the fridge, was an MC at a huge charity event, DJ'ed a high school dance (I was looking for a wife, but no luck....j/k), etc... I just found out I can't start at Jones until March, so I'm going to be looking for a temp job this week. I was thinking 7/11, so I can have all the Slurpees I want... or maybe QT, where the fountain drink combos are virtually limitless... or maybe one of those guys that stands on the street corner twirling a sign around hoping people will stop at the business being promoted... or maybe I could work for Jamba Juice and stand on the corner wearing the big banana suit! Either way, I have a month to kill until I start at EdJones.
As for the rest of life, I doing fine. Still single and not dating that much anymore (and for those of you who assume, NO I don't have any make-out pals either). There's nobody around that I'm very interested in. I'm excited to start this new job, however I understand how difficult (and low paying) it is in the beginning. But, I know how rewarding it will be in the long run!!
I'll stop for now; Rachel F. once told me my blogs are WAY too long so that'll be it for now and maybe I'll post the rest tomorrow.
Shoot for the stars! That way if you come up short, you'll still land on the moon! - ReT