Blog of Josh Hall

I love to look at her.  She has no idea I love her.  She’s just thinking about that blue duplo brick in her hand.  That’s my daughter playing over there.  She’s very curious.  I’m entertained at her furrowed brow.  Then, she locks eyes with me and smiles.

What a bug.

I had a dream where Kallie and I were in New York City eating with the owner of some restaurant with a camera crew.  Somehow, we had won the opportunity to be on some reality travel show and meet this owner.  While we were eating, Kallie looked at me and said she was going to be late, that she had to be “there” at 2:00 PM and it was now 2:32 PM.  I was a little frustrated that she let it get to this point, but I jumped in to action and asked the owner if he knew the fastest route to Pennwood and Fifth Avenue.  He didn’t have a clue, but Kallie said it was really easy to get to and I started following her at a jogging pace through a back alley.

As we ran, we encountered a group of 5 or 6 male teens who I assumed were also going to the same place and we needed to get in front of them to beat them there.  As the alley zigged and zagged, I told Kallie to follow me and we basically parkoured through some building windows, fire escapes, and ramp railings to get in front of the teens.

We came to a top of a hill, with a few trees spotting a clean cut hillside.  At the bottom was a road, which I recognized as Fifth Avenue.  Slightly to the left, along side the road, was a white building with no windows, kind of resembling a gymnasium.  As we went around to the front of the building, I knew that we were at Kallie’s American Idol auditions, because I had hadmyauditions in the same building a week or so prior  (I actually do think this was another dream I had previously).  So we enter the first large room, that is half the size of the building, and approach the registration table.  Kallie’s all set and we move into the second room, which is dimly lit and set up like a gym with a stage in the front.  It’s pretty empty, considering the event, with maybe 60 people standing or sitting around the room with a few folding chairs scattered around.

At this point, Kallie no longer looks like Kallie.  She is instead a 6’7″ African American woman, who has to be near 300 pounds.  I still have this sense of loving her so much and being so proud of her.  She got up on stage and sang this super energetic and soulful song, just like some diva.  As she was performing, some 40 something blonde homely mom came up to me, said her name was Susanna, and she recognized me from my audition and thought I was great.  She also introduced me to her mini-her daughter, named Susanisha, or something similar.  It was a little awkward.

My mom ended up showing up and bringing Juliette.  My mom then yelled at me for not paying the $5 to get into the audition room.  I dismissed her by pointing out that no one cares and they weren’t enforcing it.

I wish I could say this was one of my weirdest dreams.

TED talks are great.  There’s just so many of them, that it’s hard to know which ones to watch.

Well, here’s the 10 most viewed:

http://www.news.com.au/business/executive-lounge/brains-trust-ted-talks-most-viewed-videos/story-fng3e17m-1226520145281

Do you still sign in to instant messaging programs from home?  I still use IM at work, but that’s it.  In my single life, I was signed in 24/7 and I’d be up all night talking to anyone that wanted to chat.

Recently, I guess I linked gchat to my google search profile or something, because I was searching for something and an IM popped up from a friend.  I didn’t know what to do with it.  I had been so removed from the whole IM interface outside of work and I forgot it existed.

I still have no desire to introduce that back into my life of distractions, but I was curious if anyone else had dropped off the IM radar too, or if I was the only one.  I know a few people still plan times to do video chat, but I think that’s a separate category since it’s planned and it’s video.

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When I was kid, we had an uncle that would give us a $100 bill if he were in town during our birthday. He was in twice for my birthday, and both of my $100 bills got spent at the fine establishment of Toys R US. In 1 trip each. The first time, it was $100 worth of Micro Machines and the second time it was $100 worth of LEGO sets. I Can’t believe my mom didn’t say a word. I think the Micro Machine packages were $3.99 each, with 3 or 4 cars in each package. I still remember the young blonde cashier’s expression as her eyes got big as if to say, “Really?? You’re buying that many?!?” I proudly returned a satisfied smirk as if to say, “Yep, ring ’em up.”

I grew out of micro machines after a few years. I enjoyed them immensely, but it was certainly a toy that required you to “act out” and I wasn’t so into that. I enjoyed displaying, collecting, and building. So, yeah, I still have the pieces for the LEGO sets, but the micro machines were all sold at a flee market that my mom took me and Travis to. Yet again, I’m surprised she didn’t say a word when I let my entire micro machine collection go for dollars. I don’t remember the exact amount, but I’m sure it wasn’t $100. I’m sure it wasn’t $50.

That said, thanks, Mom. Thanks for letting me take risks, make mistakes, and learn from them on my own. In a time where we were on food stamps, living on potatoes and onions, you let me live. You let me play. For those that know me well today, just think how uptight and boring I could have been if I were told my whole childhood I couldn’t have anything because we needed to save every penny or else.

“Home is where your heart is; work is where your laptop is.”