Shay Thomason

Wikipedia says work is defined like this:
Manual labour, effort expended by people on productive activities in the home, school, or employment, or, by extension, one’s place of employment or employer.

That’s what I do. I work. Maybe you work too, I don’t know, but no matter what we’re doing, we’re usually working. It’s hard to think sometimes that I spend the majority of my day right now making latte’s for people who think that I’m some kind of loser kid. Now I know that’s not all people, but I think that’s probably the majority. I mean, these guys in suits walk in all the time, I say hi to them and ask them how they are doing and they just ignore that fact that I said anything to them and then follow that by saying, “Venti Carmel Frappuccino.” The best part about that is they go to their office later with their Frappuccino as if that is some sort of intense coffee drink. But we all know that those Frappuccino’s are simply a cup full of sugar and ice. There’s nothing intense about it. I like the guy who runs the construction company and orders a black coffee, and minutes later he’s in line again for a refill, that’s intense.

Maybe I’m complaining, but I hope not. It’s not that I’m not thankful for my job, because I am. It provides the money I need to support the wife and me. Maybe that’s why we work in general. I mean, it’s not like we can just go through this life being supported by the kindness of others. People are kind yes, but like Paul said, “If they don’t work, they don’t eat.” Anyways, I smell like coffee right now and I need a shower, so I’m gone.

So next time you go to Starbucks and you’re wearing your work clothes, try smiling at the person behind the counter, and when they ask “How are you?” you might try responding by saying, “… uh.. it’s going OK, thanks for asking..”

Ok, that might sound a little bit disgusting, I know, but let me explain. The funniest thing just happened while talking to my friend Tristan on the phone.

So I randomly called Tristan to talk to him and just to say hi. But while I was talking to him we suddenly stopped. And that’s when I heard the words… but before I tell you.. let me set it up. He was driving his new Mazda down in Orange Country, CA and talking to me on the phone. And when Tristan stops mid sentence, I know something is wrong. So he was driving around with his sun roof open and then he says, “.. Oh man.. ” and I said, “what?”… to which he replied “… I JUST GOT POOPED ON!..” I couldn’t believe my ears. Then he says, “.. THERE ARE CONVERTIBLES ALL AROUND ME WITH THEIR TOPS DOWN, AND I GET POOPED ON THROUGH MY SUN ROOF!..” I couldn’t stop laughing. I think I almost crashed the car I was driving when I heard that. I mean, I’ve heard of people getting pooped on while on boats and stuff, but never in their car, through their sunroof. My friends are great.

So here I am. I’ve opened 4 days in a row at Starbucks this week. That’s 4 days in a row at 4 in the morning. It’s good money, but it’s not good hours. Nothing I can do though, gotta take care of the wife and me. I need a shower though, I smell like coffee. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, yet I smell it all day long, so I’m over it. Maybe I need to drink some coffee? hhm.. We’ll see.

Shaycam.com welcomes the Winter Olympics..

Click to see my little video!

Never thought it was possible. In fact, I’ve only seen it in the movies and televisions shows. Today, I was on hold with 911. No really, it’s true. You can forget about those urban legends, and “oh that’s just Hollywood trying to spice things up”; it really happend to me!

You’re probably wondering why I was calling 911 in the first place. Well, let me expound. While watching the Simpsons tonight in our living room, Bethany and I heard a noise and then a yell from a woman. When I ran to our balcony (we’re on the 3rd floor of the apartment building), I didn’t see anything except a woman walking towards the parking lot. Then I heard that woman say, “are you alright, is everyone alright?!!” That’s when I heard, “.. nooo… I’m not alright..” To which the woman walking turned around and yelled, “someone call 911…!” So at that point I grabbed my sandals and I was out the door.

When I reached the bottom of the stairwell I realized that a younger man in a little car had hit an older woman. His front windshield was broken at one point which must’ve been where her head hit it. The woman was laying on the ground holding her head, but the man who hit her was sort of in shock. Everyone was just standing there staring at her, and everyone kept saying “someone call 911”. So 3 of us we’re on our cell phones in the parking lot of our apartment complex dialing 911. And to our amazement, “.. now connecting you… [pause]… we’re sorry, all of our agents are currently busy…” One of the guys was like, “I thought this only happend in the movies, I’ve only heard stories of it happening, I didn’t know it was real!!” I couldn’t believe it either to tell you the truth, it was weird. So I ran back up 3 flights of stairs and grabbed our house phone which connected me right away with 911 emergency. After explaining to the woman on the phone what had happend the ambulance was there in less than 3 minutes. It was a crazy ordeal, and I still don’t know how the woman is. She was talking and communicating to us, but she had to leave in the ambulance. So sad..

So what’s the moral of the story? Write your local congressman and tell him that it should be mandatory for cell phone companies to directly connect you with the local 911 in your area. We should never have to hear an automated answering service in the event of an emergency, how lame is that?

Listening to Bush right now. No, not the president. The band. Did you forget who they were? I sure hope not. “Got a machinehead better than the rest..” – Gavin Rosdell.

It’s been a long day. Opened at Starbucks this morning, I really don’t like getting up at 4am. It’s early. I’m sure if Gavin worked at Starbucks for any amount of time we would have heard a song about getting up early. It happens to the best of us. Sometimes we just have to get up early, even though we hate it. Don’t you hate that?

I’m sitting in my winter session class right now. It hasn’t even started and I already want to go. It’s nothing against the class I’m just not feeling it right now, I need sleep.

I hear the most humorous stories at work sometimes. For instance, this one lady told the person taking her money that her dog had seizers. How did she have time to tell her about that? I just don’t tell the person making my coffee everything, but this lady sure did. It still makes me laugh to think about. I should probably get started on my class. You kids have a good night.

Yesterday I was coming home from work and a guy on the side of the road flagged me down while I was waiting to make a right turn. Hesitant, I didn’t want to roll my window down at first to allow him to talk to me. Now, it’s not like my car has automatic windows either. Anyways, after I finally leaned over my passanger seat and rolled the window down a crack, the man asked if I could take him only a mile and a half down the road. Upon quick consdiration (it’s amazing the light didn’t turn green yet), I said, “Suuuuure.”

He was a nice guy and his name was Dan. He promised me he wasn’t a crazy person and just needed a ride, which of course is reason to believe that someone is a crazy person, but that is beside the point. Yet in the maybe 3.5 minutes he was in my car I learned that he had been married at age 21, divorced when he found out she was cheating on him, and then remarried to which he said that woman had died after having 2 kids with him. He told me he is now a granfather to 2 children. Really, this is all the truth and not doctered in any way. Maybe you’re wondering what he needed a ride for? Well, it turns out his car was getting repaired at a local shop and until they got it fixed he would be walking. Long story short, I dropped him off in front of the repair shop and he was on his way and so was I.

So, what’s the moral of the story. I guess it’s that you can pick up people on the side of the road sometimes. I’m not saying we should start vanpools for picking people up, but I am saying that I took a little bit of a risk, and it worked to a blessing to someone. He didn’t shoot me, so that’s a bonus. He didn’t knife me, so that saved me some grief. Instead, he just had a conversation with me, like a man in the market would if I was checking out at the grocery store. I guess that’s all.

My wife Bethany must’ve had a break at work or something and was doing some surfing and came across one of the best lists on the internet. It’s the “Top 30 Random Chuck Norris” facts. It’s hilarious. Let me just give you a sample of the ones that I thought were funny:
1. Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
2. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
3. Chuck Norris can unscramble an egg.
4. If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.
5. Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
6. Chuck Norris sleeps with a night light. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.
7. Chuck Norris can touch MC Hammer.
8. Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.
9. Superman owns a pair of Chuck Norris pajamas.
10. Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that’s why there are no signs of life there.

If you’re not a Chuck Norris fan, that’s ok. I don’t really don’t think the kids who thought these up are Chuck Norris fans either, but simply have no time for anything else in this life except to think of witty sayings concernings his amazing martial arts abilities.

Speaking of guys on TV, I’m seriously becoming one of the biggest Conan O’Brien fans. I knew liked him, and that I thought he was the funniest guy on television, but quite honestly, I really don’t want to miss another show. As if to say that sometime around 12:35am every day I might be missing something or an sweet one-liner that can tickle my funny bone. To be honest, I’m jealous of future generations. When Conan takes over for Leno that’s just an extra hour of sleep that kids will get because they won’t stay up to watch Carson Daly after Conan because that would be like taking a step backwards in humor. But they will simply fall asleep satisfied from watching good, (usually) clean fun.

Not much else to say about that, just finishing up some work today and starting the weekend. What do you think of when you hear the word “weekend”? I always think of the band Hey Mercedes (who recently broke up) and their song “Our Weekened Starts on Wednesday”. That would be sweet, Wednesday weekend. That’s a good band name, or even a good blog title. Nevermind. I need to get to work, don’t want to get fired on the 2nd project!

And remember, at birth, Chuck Norris came out feet first so he could roundhouse kick the doctor in the face. Nobody delivers Chuck Norris but Chuck Norris.

Everyday I find that instead of having a Palm Pilot, I have Post-It notes. I wonder if other people are into that. I mean, the Post-It note is like the classic way to write down things we’re not supposed to forget. Quite honestly, if I was going to make a prediction, it would be that with the advancement of technology at the rate it is, and the fact that things like VHS and tape players are becoming obsolete, that even though this is all happening, the Post-It note will prevail. It will prevail only because of usefulness in the home, workplace, and education. My compliments to Spencer Silver who invented this wonderful piece of paper. On another “note” (haha), I’m taking a digital photography class right now. I’m doing my best to bring out the “cam” in shaycam. Really, I like this class and I think everyone here at shaycam.com will enjoy what comes about because of my involvement in this class. Here’s a pic I took the other day. The subject we were supposed to shoot was “public.” Tell me what you think. I thought the picture really brought out the look and feel of an ashtray, but maybe you guys won’t feel the same? I just want to make sure that everyone knows that this really is the closest I have ever been to cigarette, and I’m not a smoker. Smoking, it’s not for me, I think it’s gross, but people do it.

I guess that’s all from me today. Got a sore throat this morning and I’m not into that. And remember, when your battery dies on your palm, your cell phone loses all it’s bars, your GPS can’t connect to the satellite, and your laptop keeps coming up with a blue screen… your Post-It note will still be stuck to your chosen location for quick memory access.

Here’s some friends that I hung out with on new year’s eve. I promised them I would load some pics up, so here you go. I haven’t done any blogs while sitting in Starbucks in a while. So, here I am. I’m a bit distracted by a small group of people in front of me that are sort of having a meeting. It’s funny when you overhear people’s conversations. It’s not that I’m trying to listen to them, but they are within 3 feet of me and are talking loud enough for “all to hear.” Nevermind them.

I feel like a stay-at-home mom right now. Bethany has been working and I’m actually looking for a job. I’ve got some great opportunities lined up, but unfortunately opportunities don’t bring paychecks. Did you know that just living is pretty expensive. Well, I’m sure you know that. I am amazed about how quick the monthly budget adds up. I’m not ignorant by any means, but I’m just amazed.

I’m taking a sweet photography class for winter session at a local community college right now. I’m not kidding, I’m totally stoked about. It’s all about taking pics. I’ll try to post some here as I do this class. It’s only a month long, and it’s just about taking cool looking pictures. Alright, back to working on my resume. Peace.

There has been a little rain today.

My Itunes has been playing on shuffle since 11:00 o’clock this morning. It’s currently playing Mat Kearney (pronounced Karney). If you haven’t decided to enjoy his music, then you should probably start your Google search for him as soon as possible, he’s great.

Doesn’t rain just make you feel like taking a nap or sleeping. Just the sound of the rain upon the top of your roof or maybe outside your window on the ground. Bethany is taking a nap on the bed right now. I don’t really feel like sleeping, even though I probably should because I know we’re going to stay up late tonight to bring in the new year. You see, California doesn’t understand rain I think. I mean, I was born here, raised here, and live here now, but I just got back from being in Seattle the past couple of weeks. People in Seattle see rain as a normal part of life. You won’t see a weather guy in Seattle freaking’ out about rain coming to their area. But I have been watching the news the past couple of days and that’s about all I am seeing. “OH MY GOSH!!! RAIN IS COMING TO CALIFORNIA!!!” You would almost think King Kong was actually in town (and I don’t mean the movie, I mean the monster). I guess that’s enough about rain.

I’m sure I should probably be writing something about 2005, but nothing is really sticking out to me except getting married. Which, if one thing was going to happen in 2005, I would want it to be getting married. It’s been a good year, full of laughter, joy, honor, forgiveness, passion, regret, fun, and the like. Tomorrow is just another Sunday, another day to go to church and enjoy the people who walk this life along with me. I’m always excited to be alive. I’m always wanting to get more out of it. So if I had one memory about 2005, it would be getting married and our honeymoon. What’s your favorite memory from 2005? Post it! We’ll all read them and try to enjoy that memory with you.

Oh, and don’t worry, I’m not going to close this blog by saying “See yah next year!”