I’ve decided that I’m going to do this week’s “Question of the eeek” courtesy of Snarkland…it’s a really interesting one.

Do you think the days of our parents/grandparents, the days of working for one company for twenty-odd years and retiring with a gold watch, are over? Do you know anyone who’s worked in the same job long enough to get that kind of retirement package? When you retire, how many jobs do you think you will have had?

I have to say, this is a rather interesting question to answer. My family, for many years, has bounced around from self-owned-business to self-owned-business. For the past 20 years my grandmother has been the proud owner of a jewelry store and my grandfather ran an appliance store. When the appliance store was no longer needed (PC Richard and Sears opened up in the area) my grandmother managed to merge things together in such a unique way - it’s unreal. Consider it one-stop-shopping if you may but in that massive storefront for appliances she’s now housing a jewelry store, beauty supply store and salon. In many regards it’s a real womans store, it fills all of their personal needs. Jewelry, great hair and cosmetics. Considering she’s located in a rather ritzy part of town, business does very well for her. Customers average $600-$1000 per purchase in her stores and that’s repeat customers who come in on a weekly basis…talk about a high paycheck - eh?

My father has been working for the hospital for the last 6 years. Now, recently he went to a benefit dinner to honor those celebrating a milestone of some sort with the company. 5 years gets you a gold plated pen that says thanks for your services. 10 years gets you a few extra vacation days and some bonuses and then it goes on from there. This dinner was unique though, a woman who’d been with the hospital for over 50 years is the ONLY person in the entire hospital that’s actually been there that long. She’s been there longer than the building itself, her retirement package included a $500,000 bonus for her services. I think that’s just about as rewarding as one can get, right?

I don’t personally think I’m going to earn a retirement package, that’s mainly because I work primarily online and freelance work doesn’t offer you very much as for as company perks is concerned…heh.

For a while now I’ve been looking into Reading Tutors for a friend of mine. She has a six year old who hasn’t quite grasped the English language the way most children of the same age would. Yes, they’re basically with ABC’s and learning to put sentences together but this doesn’t mean that there can’t be a little bit of outside help to make sure she’s taken care of. I’ve been reading through a few databases and for some reason Score Learning Center seems to pop up quite a bit. I looked into them and they can basically offer a child everything they need so they can excel in anything they set their minds to. It’s good to know there are companies such as these around to help students get the most out of their education.

Tonight, while I wasn’t really in the mood to barbecue, I wound up grilling up some chicken. A sometimes valuable resource told me that if you boil it first, it cuts down on cooking time on the grill. What they failed to mention was the fact that it also dries it out disgustingly. I wasn’t overly happy with how dinner turned out tonight, but at least I didn’t break my diet because of it. There was hardly any fat left on the chicken and I believe whatever was left was instantly melted off by the flame. I threw some mixed veggies on the plate and called it a day. However, now my stomach is bothering me and I’m unsure if it’s based on the fact that it was the only meal I had today, or if the chicken just isn’t agreeing with me at the moment. I’m sure I’ll figure it out sooner or later.

For a few years now, I’ve been interested in learning more about paintball. It looks like it could be a lot of fun for all age groups of men and women alike. A friend of mine used to go every weekend with his father and he said it’s not only a great work out when you’re on the course, but it helps your hand-eye coordination as well. So I’ve been reading into many resources about the subject because one day I’d like for Sean and I to try it out.

One of the first things I’ve looked into are guns, and I’ve managed to come across Spider paintball guns which are really cool looking. I came across a set for around $179 that includes everything, my issue is that I don’t really understand what any of it does. All I really know is that if you’re going to use a paintball gun, you’re going to need a helmet and proper padding. The gun’s can come in many different colors, I found a Blue one that I thought was rather cool looking so that’s good enough for me.

Another paintball gun that I found interesting was the Spyder VS3. It’s an all black gun that looks rather small but I’m sure up close it’s a monster, you can’t really tell that well with the pictures found. Most of the sets that are sold I’m unsure if all of the images are pictured in true size or if they were multiple pictures morphed together for the sake of creating the set. Then there’s the Spyder Pilot which is a black and red combination that I’m literally falling head over heals for. I love the color red, half of my closet is filled with multiple shades of red so naturally being the girl that I am, I’d make it a point for not only the shoes to match the purse, but the purse to match the paintball gun. That may sound a little strange but I’m itching to get myself onto the course.

Originally when I saw, Spyder paintball, I assumed that it was the name of the game played, I was unaware of the fact that it’s actually Spyder paintball guns, a brand name. There are many other brands to choose from though. There’s also a brand named Tippmann but I didn’t personally find any of those paintball guns to be appealing. Just because it’s main purpose is to shoot multi-colored paint pellets, doesn’t mean they can’t look good too.

The one thing I haven’t found out, however, is in regards to the actual paint balls themselves. Do all of the canisters come in multiple colors or can you have ‘ammo’ that is based solidly on one color? Say you’re out on the course and you’re on the blue team, you’re playing against the red team…can each team have pellets that are based primarily on the color of their team? I’d think it’d be strange to be hit with a blue pellet when you’re on the blue team; How would you know that your own team member didn’t accidentally shoot at you? Maybe I should do some more reading into this before I load up on the gear and head for the course, shouldn’t I?

I know down here it’s a very popular past-time, this whole state is filled with gun lovers of all ages for both hunting and painball so naturally they would be the ones to go to for advice, however I’m sure they’d consider me a ‘city girl’ and take me for all I’m worth. This is why I find the internet to be such a valuable resource when it comes to thinks like this. This way I’m not taken advantage of by any means necessary.

Sometime’s you don’t realize how fast time can just fly by. This time last year I was just getting to know Sean but I was still mourning over the death of Joe at the same time. Two days from now my father will be celebrating his 59th birthday and 5 days from now my sister will finally be turning 21. Where exactly did the time go? I’ve been living in Delaware for almost 6 months now and it doesn’t even feel as though it’s been that long. It’s been 6 months since I’ve slept in my own bed, it’s just a strange feeling when you begin to look back on things.

A friend of mine believes that the only reason my schedule is so messed up is based on the fact that I’m home sick. I was born and raised in New York and now I’m living in a state where everything is basically backwards to me. Hell, the owls talk to each other during the DAY! They’re supposed to be nocturnal! No one wants to accept a tip for anything they do for you and coming from New York you’d expect to tip someone based on their services. Naturally the UPS guy (unless he’s delivering a huge box to your front door) isn’t going to accept one but down here if you even tip a waitress more than a dollar she freaks out and asks if you’re absolutely sure about it. I’m used to 20%, so I divide any check by 5 and get the tip amount, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that - some down here will completely disagree.

So no, I can’t say I’m going through New York withdrawal, I’m just having an issue with Delaware adjustment. I admit that for the first couple of nights I was unable to sleep down here because of the fact that I’m so used to excess street noise and now I’m sitting in the middle of hear-a-pin-drop farm life. The tourists coming into the area, while they are annoying during the day, the extra cars on the road at night are helping me to sleep better. In the beginning I wouldn’t crash until about 9am but this was based on the fact that they were building a house next door and all of the machines going off put me back to my comfort zone of New York and helped me fall asleep. Once they were finished with their construction, however, I was kind of left at a stand still. Now it doesn’t matter if it’s noisy or quite if I’m tired, I crash. I just wish I could get it done earlier in the morning than I do now. Midnight should be my limit - not 6am for crying out loud! :ugh: