TejanoJuanSays

Build Me Up Buttercup I took our new puppy, Butter Cup, to the vet this morning. My wife found something crawling in her poop. Not good for the pup, we have only had her for a couple of weeks. A Christmas gift for my wife and our dog, Bentley. He now has a friend to play games like chase you over there, pull this toy, and let’s find paper to shred.  Buttercup and arrived a few minutes before the clinic opened, like a few others did. It was a cold morning so we waited in heated car. Buttercup did her usual thing, ok, one of her usual things, she cries when she is cold. I made sure to have my hand and arm for her to lean. After a couple of songs on the 80s station, she likes Men at Work, the clinic was not open. I made sure to wrap Buttercup in a warm blanket, like a football. We walked into the clinic and I signed in for us. Buttercup is new to the clinic so there was some other information to fill out. Buttercup helped me fill in all of the blanks on the paperwork, a...

Many stories can be told at Christmas time. Hallmark, Lifetime, Up, ION, Freeform, depending on your cable provider. These stories have happy endings before some sort of conflict as we get to the ending. Some good stories and some great stories along with some good endings and some great endings. That is television. I like television movies. When it comes to family and Christmas the stories can be great and have great endings and sometimes the stories are not so great and do not have happy endings. Last night my little family had a great story. We visited my Sister’s for a Pajama Party on Christmas eve. There were games like the one where you write down as many words about Christmas next to the letters from the alphabet. I had two minutes to write down words, I came up with ten, thanks to thinking of the song, twelve days of Christmas. I did not win, but it was fun. Next was some game where you unwrap Saran wrap that is in the shape of a ball. It is filled with goodies. My daug...

December 23 rd . Went to the mall for Christmas shopping today. It is two days to Christmas, so not last minute, I’d like to think. After spending 10 minutes on the expressway, the traffic slowed to a crawl nearing the cxit. This took about 15 minutes. Then to find parking another 15 minutes. Finally, an open space in all the traffic. Did not matter where I was parking, I knew I was going to walk around the mall store by store. Now to get to the stores. My phone counts steps. So far at 1500. Made a stop at Home Depot. Need to mow the lawn after shopping, depending on energy level. First stop Macy’s, first floor found perfume for wife. Nothing for daughter. Second floor nothing interesting. Third floor men’s shop. Cologne, wife will get that for me, hopefully the one that comes with the free watch. Leaving Macy’s at 2300 steps. Walking through the mall, people all over looking for gifts like I am. One lady was wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, did not know if I missed the cont...

I have given countless presentations and talks in my life. I have worked as a substance abuse counselor at methadone clinic and I also worked in a prison with substance abusing offenders. I also spent some time developing my routine as a stand-up comedian. In the last 5 years as a professor, I have prepared for class, local, state and national presentations. I still get nervous and I have learned to use that energy to my advantage. The most difficult presentation that I have done was a eulogy about six months ago. It was for my best friend, David. It was not a presentation that I had prepared for like all other presentations in my life. I remember the day that his brother Michael tried to find me. He called any and every number. He found my work number and I had just missed him. I sat at my home computer and decided to check Facebook. There was a direct message from Michael’s daughter, Angela. The message said to call her father Michael because David had died. At the time, Ange...