So, I've been here a while, seeing all of the amazing sets the ladies put up, reading about peoples' lives and just basically watching. Seeing everyone putting themselves out there made me realize I should put myself out there a bit, too, after all participation is the whole point here, right? So, here's some of my story as it has gone so far. I, for the most part, like to do do things most guys like to do. I'm a movie lover, collect movie and sports memorabilia and autographs, play video games when there is free time, I love muscle cars, I have a 1968 GTO (I'll post a picture) that I spend a lot of time maintaining and taking to car shows. I have a tight-knit group of friends that I have known for a loooong time and a family I am very close to. Recently there have been some big shakeups, and that is where the moral (morals, I should say) of my story will come into play.
I grew up on the south side of Chicago. After graduating high school I was guided toward the construction trades. I've been a Local 134 Electrician for 18 years now. In recent years, the industry has been hurting. The Union puts us back to work in the order we get laid off, and the wait has been anywhere between 1-3 years in Chicago. So, 2014 was a rough year, I was out of work, a lot of friends lost parents, then the really hard part came. My mom passed away on 3/2/2014. I was a mess for a while, then, not much later another friend lost his father. A group of old friends gathered at that wake that hadn't been together in years. I had a chance to catch up, and all of us felt like we needed to hang out (we just wished it was different circumstances). I spent hours in the parking lot that night talking to my friend Gary, it had been about 10 years since we heard from each other. While we were talking, there was a horrible car accident in the intersection, Gary and I ran out, and pulled one of the drivers out of his car that was destroyed in the middle of the intersection, carried him to the curb and waited for paramedics to arrive ( Iwon't get started about the 10 idiots standing around taking cell phone pictures and not helping anyone). So, Gary and I kept in touch, until one day in late December of that year, I see a post on his facebook page that said someone was worried about him, they saw him last night and can't get in touch with him. The next day, the RIP posts started. After a lot of questions, we found out what happened. We all knew Gary had his problems, but he was just starting to come around and wanting to fix them. Evidently, Gary was at someone's house, there were drugs involved and Gary had more than he could handle. Rather than try to help a guy that I KNOW would run into traffic to help a stranger, someone put him in the passenger seat of his car, drove him to a gas station, and just left. He died in the spot they left him. So, a few days later we are at his wake. I met a girl that used to hang out with the group I hung out with. Time goes by, we hit it off, next thing you know we are together and with the work situation the way it was here, we decided to be spontaneous and move to Vegas.
On April 25th 2015, we left for Vegas, the only plan we had was that I was going to see if I could land a good job somewhere. I left my dog, Rocky with my Dad and was going to come get him once we were settled in, and in my rush, I forgot to say goodbye to him. That bothered me. Then on May 14th 2015, I get a message from my sister, Rocky had a stroke and he was on his way to the vet and it didn't look good. My dog of 14 years passed away. Then after a month of applications, I get a call for an interview. Next thing I know, I got an 8 month gig as an Engineer/Electrician at Mandalay Bay. Over time, though, I started to realize that I was the only one that wanted to put anything into the relationship, and I did put a lot in. I got her a car in my name, a cell phone and on a 3 day weekend from work, I drove from Vegas to Chicago to pick up her son that had been staying with her mother and back to Vegas and pretty much went straight back to work when I got home. She had hard times before, and I was looking to make it all right again. Then it was myself, her and her son. She said one day we should start looking at dogs, asked me to do it. So, one day I come back with a beautiful little Husky puppy. Her name is Jasmine, and there will be pics of her as a puppy and now as well. Then, I got another little (then, not so little now) guy, A Great Pyrenees named Chewbacca. Pics incoming of him, too. After all of this, I started to realize that no matter what I did, she was never going to be happy, or even function in the relationship. It was like I had an angry roommate, all the time. All I asked her to do was watch after the dogs while I was at work, and clean up after her and her son. She'd have none of it, she stayed in bed most of the day, every day, the dogs weren't getting housebroken and as payback for me "getting away" to work for 10 hours a day, she left the dog poop wherever it landed most of the time for me to clean up. The situation continuously declined until January 29th this year. The job at Mandalay had ended, and I had enough, I packed Jasmine and Chewbacca into my truck and made my last 25 hour drive from Vegas to Chicago.
I kept her cell phone going for 4 months and let her keep the car with hopes that she'll make the payments, which I doubt, but I hope so. I just refused to leave her stranded with no car and no phone. Even sent some money after I left to keep her going until she could find something. I sat here, for a while, feeling stupid for not listening to my friends when they told me not to go, feeling bad for it all not working out and thinking I'm getting to old to not be able to find a girl that is capable of a relationship. After a while, though, some things dawned on me. 1) I had the balls to leave on a moment's notice, 2) I have great friends that welcomed me back without even an "I told you so", even though I didn't listen, 3) That I should listen to my friends, because they are looking at the situation without the love goggles on and 3) The love of a (or 2) dogs can make any situation better.
This site has helped a lot, too. Seeing some of the others' blogs has helped to understand that, feeling sorry for myself wasn't going to help anything. You have to be positive and surround yourself with positive people. There are a lot of positive people here! On that note, I am going to attach the pics and give everyones' eyes a break.
Thank you for reading, I hope I didn't bore you too much! lol
Jimmy
