The First TommyBlog.....OMG!!

Check this out....my own blog-site. I know you're saying, "it's about time". Well with the pushing of my friend Rick, I have finally made the plunge into blog-dom. I must say it feels wierd and quite frankly I have no idea how it will look. I'm sure at some point I will put up some links and such for you all to check out. Until that time, I will use this arena to spew my thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, I am glad you took the time to check it out. Let's see if I can make it worth your while.....let alone mine.

My first thought is about Facebook. Wow, what a freak show that is. I just figured out some of the ins and outs of it and I can't believe how trippy it is. In just two days I have talked to people from my past of 25 years! My friend Ted had pictures of me from the early 80's on his....whatever it is you have on Facebook. I only found out about this because when I logged on last nite, my best friend in the world, Billy who lives in Michigan was online of the Facebook and told me to look it up.

I didn't know what I was doing being a newbie to Facebook, but Billy walked me through it via Facebook's IM system. I must admit it was friggin awesome. In the last 36 hours I have talked via the Facebook system to some people I haven't even thought about for years! Not only that, but I was connected to people I worked with in previous years that were very close to me. If you give it some thought....people you work with are people you spend time with for at the very least 40 hours a week. How many hours a week do you spend with your spouse a week? What happens when you leave a job? You leave all those people behind, like they never meant anything to you during the time you spent at that job. And they do the same. It's messed up.

I had a close friend in college. We were the closest of friends for two years. As the time was coming close that we were going to go separate ways due to graduation(or just leaving school because the funds from Pop ran out as was my case) he said to me, "its been fun, but I'm sure we'll never see each other again....that's the way it is with friends...they come and go". I've never talked with him since. I hope I find him on Facebook because we were so close. I'm pissed at him because he was right.

I sometimes think of all the friends I've had like him(his name was Phil) through the workplace. You spend so much time with the people you work with. You are forced into being teammates. You do everything you can to do your best and not hate your job. You are put into a situation where you must rely on people you don't even know or barely trust, but you have to work together.

If you think about it, that is the kind of people you choose to have as your friends. But when the work ends, so does the friendship, the comaraderie and the bond that was built from working together for at least 40 hours a week. Our friends from high school and college could screw us over and we would forgive them in a second, but when it comes to the people you work with the screwing over could mess up your life for years.

I remember being pissed at my good friend Bobby for something I couldn't even dream of remembering today.......I confided in my friend Billy....I said Bobby really screwed me over and Billy said, "Tommy, if you can't shit on your friends who can you shit on?" Sometimes the meaning of being a friend is being there to be shit on. Everyone needs to shit on someone now and again. I remember thinking...I hate it, but he's right.

At work it doesn't work that way. There's money involved. Workmates may love you, but ultimately they are working for dollars. If you lose your job, they will most likely move up on the pay scale. After all, if a spot is eliminated everyone has a chance to move up. Especially in the payscale world. It's horrible that I think that way, but it's true. Sometimes I wish it wasn't true but I know it is.

The bottom line is this....no matter how much you care about someone you work with...no matter how much you do to help them with their career....when it comes down to you or them they will always choose them....it's the way of the world. Your true friends are those who have nothing to win or lose by being your friend and they still are.....Billy and Bobby are my boys!!

This is the first installment of many more to come....check back every day....I have way too much to spew! I will be writing on this site every day.

Peace,
Tommy