Gun Control

So I have always been a strong proponent for the second amendment. That all changed today when I had a gun pointed at me…

On Friday, I got something in the mail but it was to someone else in my apartment building. It was late when I got the mail and I wasn’t going to disturb someone late at night. So today, I went downstairs to deliver his mail and he met me at the front door with a gun pointed at my lower body.

Now, this wasn’t just an average communication of words. I simply said, “This was delivered to us I believe it’s yours.” He said absolutely nothing! He just took it, shut the door and locked it. After he took it was when I noticed the gun in his hand.

My fiancé and I drove over to the leasing office to inform them that there is a firearm on the premises. They were out touring the complex so I wasn’t able to speak with them. We ran out, did our errands real quick, then came back and I started to look at the rules. I was looking to see what their policy was on having firearms in the apartments.

To my surprise there was nothing. So I was finally able to reach someone at the leasing office and she said, firearms are not to be in the apartments. She told me to call the police and she would call the property manager. So I called the police and they sent over three squad cars.

They came upstairs and took my statement and then went downstairs to check everything out. The tenant in question decided to try and play it off that it was a knife. The police showed me what he claimed he had when he answered the door for me. I know a gun when I see it. I’ve handled my fair share of guns. It’s easy to determine the difference between the two.

They went back downstairs to continue their investigation. Low and behold, who was right? Me. There was in fact a gun, and he was not licensed to own one. He was arrested on the spot and taken away. After my ordeal having a gun pointed at me for the first, and hopefully in my life the last time. I am no longer a strong proponent of gun owning. Leave it for the professionals.

The moral of the story? If you receive someone else’s mail, send it back to the sender. I’m not delivering any one else’s mail that gets delivered to me anymore. Not after that.

A Rough Road

I work in customer service for First Niagara Financial Group. I took a call today from a customer who was unemployed. They had some fees that they wanted to have refunded. Before this past month I would have never refunded them. That all changed quickly for me.

About four months ago I left First Niagara to pursue a new business path in administration. About three months later I was let go from my position. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I called my Dad on my way home nearly in tears. It was incredibly scary for me. I just bought a new car and I was getting ready to sign a lease on a new apartment. The first thing I did was go home and apply for unemployment (I’ll come back to this later.) After that I called my former manager at First Niagara and explained my situation. He told me to reapply. The following Tuesday I received a call for an interview there, and was offered the job the following Wednesday.

At this point I was two weeks out without any pay. I was starting to run low on money, so I withdrew from my 401k. I know I shouldn’t have done this, but you have to do what you have to do. My parents also stepped in to start helping me out more. They paid for my insurance, helped with any credit card bills that I had. They were truly a great help.

I started back up at First Niagara two weeks later. At this point I was going on four weeks with unemployment and have not yet received my first paycheck. My car payment was coming due, bills were falling behind, I truly was at the point of tears most of the time. After my unemployment came in I was truly grateful.

When I spoke with this customer, I felt for her. I was at about six weeks without my unemployment and any form of income. Of course I was more than willing to help them out. They were truly grateful for my assistance and understanding.

Tonight, with me receiving my first official paycheck on Wednesday for two full weeks of pay, it was time to go over my monthly budget, and balance my paycheck. My fiancé and room-mate were both watch a movie. I looked out and I broke down into tears. I was so grateful for all of the help and understanding they gave me. I started to think about my parents who were very helpful. I called my credit card companies and they were more than willing and understanding to help me out during my time of hardship. It just makes me feel so good to know that there are people out there, even complete strangers who are willing to step up to the plate and help another person out.

After telling my story, all I can say is; if you know of someone who is truly in need of help…stepping up to the plate could change their life. I know that with my parents, fiancé, room-mate and all the companies I was working with on payments helping me out, I would have never made it through such a difficult time.

Get Together

So, as in one of my older posts I revealed that I FINALLY got my own place. I am so excited to have this new found freedom that I didn’t have before. Up until then I was living with my fiance and his mother. My parents never came down to visit, but I would always go up to my hometown to visit with them. It was nice to do that, it really was. But everything up there was always the same. Nothing changed.

They finally came down to my area to visit for the first time in a year. They saw my new apartment, brought me a table, the china cabinet and some other miscilaneous furniture that I had at their house. I was so excited to get my table. It belonged to my great grandparents, it’s over fourty years old and still in amazing condition. The china cabinet was my parents, it was the first piece of nice furniture that they purchased together and have had it for over twenty five years. It’s nice to have these pieces passed on to me and my fiance. I have so many memories with each so it is very nastolgic to sit at the table that was once owned by my great grandparents.

During their visit we had no idea what to do. In Buffalo there is always something new happening. The first night was really just relaxing, getting them settled etc. But, my mom had always wanted to see fireworks over Niagara Falls. In the rain and cold, we trucked out there to watch them. It was quite a display. I was so happy to see it myself. On Saturday, my fiance had to work, but my parents and I drove around. I got to show them where I worked, we were able to relax at the apartment and just catch up. That same night, we all went to Taste of Buffalo. If you are ever in Buffalo during that time, it is worthwhile to go! Over fifty restuarants and seven wineries all took part to make this experience wonderful. You just purchase some tickets, go to the booths that interest you, hand in however many tickets something costs, and then taste the food of Buffalo. It was amazing! On Sunday it was mostly just relaxing and saying goodbye. But before that we took them to our favorite breakfast spot. The Village Diner in Youngstown, NY. I don’t think you could ask for better food and such a cheap price. Between all four of us it cost under fourty dollars. We got to walk around Lewiston and enjoy the warm weather. We checked out a few antique shops. Aaron, (fiance) saw an old salt and pepper shakers and a mustard jar from France. It was $22.00 which was not to bad at all! My parents bought that for us to help build our nic nac collection in our new old china cabient.

All in all, it was an ideal weekend. We all got to spend time together. I enjoyed taking the time to show my parents the area, walk around, shop, enjoy some amazing food and just have an all around good time!

Gun Control

So I never really post about my political views or my thoughts on sensitive topics. However this was too good to pass up. I see all these posts about how police are killing citizens, how there was a massive shooting, you name it I’ve probably seen it at least once this year.

A great example; I live about ten minutes from Buffalo, New York. On the 4th of July they were doing fireworks at a local area called Canal Side. A friend of mine posted, and it was documented in the news that people were running for their life because a crazed gun shooter. It was a little unnerving knowing that I’m only ten minutes from Buffalo, about twenty minutes from where it happened.

I am a strong believer in the second amendment, however I am also for stronger gun control. I don’t believe in taking guns away from law-abiding citizens, however when the second ammendment was written, it was intended for a handgun, a pistol and a rifle. No one needs a semi automatic or an automatic gun. The only ones who needs those are the army. That’s it! Feel free to disagree, this is my opinion, and I would love to hear what your opinion is as well!

I think the topic of gun control hit me hard because of the Orlando shooting. The crazed gunman took the life of many gay men, which I am a gay man myself. But that is another story for another day. But, my personally opinion is that if you’re ever suspect of potential terrorism by the FBI, not mentally stable, have been convicted of any crime, anything along those lines you should not be allowed to purchase a gun.

Now I know what you’re saying, if you don’t allow them to buy the guns then they’ll buy them off the streets. I know that and it’s harder to stop. I think the only thing we can do in a situation like that is to be safe, be aware of our surroundings, and if we see anything that is out the ordinary to let local authorities know immediately before it could be too late. Just my random, tired thoughts for the evening.

Moving

Holy crap has it been a long time since I’ve posted on here last! So an update, I no longer live in Northern New York. I moved out to the buffalo area about a year ago, and I just got an apartment with my a roommate and my fiancé. All was going well until…tonight.

So he has to be up at 3:50 to be to work at 5. So he was already in bed and I was watching TV. As the time came near for me to go to bed as well, he was upset and homesick. Now I know all about homesickness. I’ve gone through it before, but I went through it alone. People would tell me, “now you don’t have to say goodbye anymore.” More backstory, my fiancé and I did long distance for three years. Fast forward to now, he thinks I’m annoyed with him because I distinctly remember him telling me that. We only moved twenty minutes away from his mother’s house so it’s not like we can’t go and visit.

I offered to have my parents bring my bed down so we can have it there in case he wants to stay the night but that’s counter active to trying to get over homesickness. I don’t know. I’m not an empathetic person whatsoever, but now he’s upset with me and I don’t know what to do anymore. Nothing I says helps him at all, and it doesn’t seem like he wants my company now.

Niagara Falls

Random photo that I took when I visited Niagara Falls. 

Bar hopping…or at home party??

So I was recently looking through the local news website, http://www.newzjunky.com. I came across an article about a fight that broke out in a Utica bar here in NY. Click here to read the article. It got me thinking about why I never go out with my friends and drink at bars. I mean I will, but it’s not something I enjoy. The town that I grow up in and still currently live unfortunately, is very notorious for having bar fights happen quite frequently. A more recent bar fight led to the Chief Officer of Fort Drum NY no longer allowing any soldiers to attend this bar. Which is upsetting to me!! I love going out with my solider friends and having a good time! They’re all amazing people. Then I really started thinking…okay, I can go to the bar and watch people get their asses beat, or….I can head to the liquor store, and invite a few friends over for some beer pong. I like idea two better! We’re all in familiar territory, we can all BYOB or whatever you want as long as it’s not illegal, and just have a great time. During the summer when the pool is open we’ll all put a fire in fire pit and just have a blast! You can’t do that at the bar! Let me know what you guys do when it comes to partying in the comments below, or you can use the poll that is listed below as well!

So Sad!

I was going through a few articles on http://www.newzjunky.com. Where I live this is pretty much our way of getting the news, school closings (as we always get the worst when it comes to snow,) and just about everything else. This article was completely heart wrenching for me. The article talks about a family who was flying back on a private plane from visiting their son who is in the army. The plane went down and killed everyone on the plane, except one little 8-year old girl. This brave girl crawled out of the wreckage and trudged through a dark forest, with injuries that can be traumatic to such a young girl, to find a house to get help. You can read the article here.

My heart goes out to this little girl and her family. Having a nephew that is only a year older than she is, I cannot even imagine him walking around with possible broken bones, and absolutely scared to death trying to find some help. Because of this little girls bravery her life will go on and she is able to tell her families story. My thoughts and prayers go out to this family.

New year…what’s going to change?

2014 brought a lot of great things for me and my family. I hope it did for you as well. Here’s to the new year! I’m sure you are all making your new years resolutions or have already made them. I know I have. How many of us are going to stick to our resolutions? In the past I have told myself time and time again, “I’m going to lose weight,” or “I’m going to start saving my money.” I never followed through. I’m not a fan of excuses, but, last year college got in the way of everything like it always has. I was glued to my textbooks what felt like constantly. As for saving my money? I ended up buying a car instead. This year is going to be different, and I’m making that promise to myself. Will I still be going to school? Of course, but since it’s online I won’t have to be worried about going to a class directly, which will be nice! I’m going to have to start saving for an apartment, that is if I want to move at the end of summer.

This isn’t my greatest post ever because I’m exhausted and I haven’t posted anything in a while, but have you made any resolutions for the new year?

The Story of Ryan Anderson

So I wanted to talk a little bit about about something that hits home for me, depression. My wonderful and loving fiancé suffers from depression himself. At times it is very hard on me because me personally, I have no idea how to cope with someone who has depression. I will admit I get angry at times. I get angry because I know I can’t help him, and it hurts because that’s all I want is to be able to be able to help in every which way possible. I want that feeling of helplessness and sadness that he goes through everyday to just disappear. There are times where he’ll be pouring his heart out to me and I’ll start talking but I feel like all I say goes in one ear and out the other and it leads to an argument. What gets accomplished there? Nothing. The story of Ryan Anderson, NBA player for the New Orleans Pelicans describes perfectly how I feel whenever we get into an argument. Click here to see the video on Vimeo. The last thing that I ever want to do is to get a call at 3 AM from the hospital saying that my fiancé had attempted suicide. Just the thought of it brings me to tears, and the thought is always there. I’m afraid with depression that there may come a day where it will get so bad that he won’t be able to handle it anymore. I think that’s why I try to “help” him as much as possible because I don’t want that day to come. See I grew up in household where you can always help someone out, but it’s a life changer for me to know that I can’t help him. All I can do is be there for him, and on certain days that’s not enough for me. I feel like I have to do more even though I can’t. I will never know the struggle that he goes through on a daily basis and maybe I will never truly understand that, but one that I do have to say is that he is never alone. Anyone who suffers from depression should never go through it alone.