It’s been a hot minute. Things have been a little upside down in the upside down. Almost 2 weeks ago on Sunday morning while I was having coffee with the wife, we talked about my parents and how I haven’t seen them in 15 months. One thing led to another, she said, “Why don’t you just drive and go”, and 24 hours later I was driving to North Carolina by myself the surprise them.

Anyone who is close to me knows that I do not like to drive very much. Yes, I have an awesome car, I do love to drive but it’s not something  that you drive to North Carolina either. It would’ve cost me double to take Violet to North Carolina.

I left at 4:30am in the morning. The goal was to try and get past Washington DC before rush-hour. I did pretty good. I only stopped once for a cup of coffee and to top off my gas. As I was crossing the Virginia border into North Carolina a recruiter I was dealing with called me about a job interview. Of course they wanted to speak to me in a few hours. Two hours later I was walking up the back steps of my dad‘s tailor shop, I’m not sure what I was expecting but he pretty much just stood still almost in shock. He was looking out the window trying to figure out who else was there.  Just me pop!  He told me he was finishing up a coat and he was coming home. One of the best things ever was the fact that he took the rest of the week off with me. He’s never done that.

After a quick Bojangles stop, I pulled into my moms driveway, put my mask on, put my hoodie up a little bit, dropped my hat over my face, and knocked on the door. She could not see my face through the door and started tapping on the window for me to look up a little bit at her. I did she opened the door, She thought I was with the electricians that they were waiting for to come and wire some lighting but she pretty much had a heart attack when she realized it was me. No one new I was going except my cousin Frankie and best friend Tom. And they only knew because they both wanted to do something with me that day, LOL.

My dad came home not too long after and I had to jump on a video call in an hour I needed clothes. My dad went into his walk-in closet pulled out a few Tupperware of brand new dress shirts with matching ties and a few minutes later I was steaming a brand new $350 dress shirt. Between the shirt and a tie I was wearing with sweatpants underneath, it was over $500. Who in their right mind no matter if you have the money or not would pay that? I look just as cute with my $30 shirts from Kohl’s. The first thing I noticed that my parents house with the Internet was crawling. Fuck me! The woman interviewing me looked like Qbert and my sister kept trying to Facetime me over and over again during the 1/2 hour call.

I thought the call went fantastic. That was over a week ago and I still haven’t heard from them and the recruiter pretty much ghosted me too. Oh well.  Seems to be a thing lately.

The company that I had three interviews with emailed me yesterday to let me know they found someone who had more experience than I did with IT renewals. It’s funny since I did that for over 2 1/2 years and told them things in my interview that they did not even know themselves. But screw them they’re in blue Bell PA and I don’t want to drive there every day anyway.

The one magical thing that happened an hour later was that the very first company I interviewed with that I liked very very much, that I thought ghosted me as well, reached out and wanted to talk to me. This was a few hours after I got to my dads and while we tried to pull it together that evening, I did not hear from them.

I woke up on Wednesday morning and decided to give them a call. My little brother was on his way to visit once he knew I was in North Carolina, he lives about two hours from my parents. He was planning on mom day anyway so it worked out perfect. I figured if they were calling to let me down easy at least I have my family around to distract me for the day. That wasn’t the case, the company I really want to work for offered me a job. A few hours later, my offer letter was in hand. So of course I made the mistake of taking the very first offer at my last job and was frustrated about it,  2 and half years later when the company offered zero quality of life or merit raises or anything of the sort. Of course a very old-school Italian father just wanted me to sign it and be done with it. But I had already bought myself a few days before I had to sign the offer letter. I’m not someone that was going to go back-and-forth five times, this was the original job I interviewed with, this was the original job I wanted. This office is literally in my childhood neighborhood. A quick counter offer, a short phone call with my soon to be boss, and the offer letter was signed.

So being funemployed during a pandemic is not fun. But I have a feeling that it’s going to be the best thing that ever happened to me. You are now reading a blog by Strategic account Manager,  Franco Sicilia. I am not even sure if I wrote about it in my last blog but I am also a scrum master now, so my official emails will say Franco Sicilia, CSM.  HA!

The only hard thing is that I don’t start till April 13th. So funemployment gets to run a few weeks more. It was a great feeling turning off the looking for work area of LinkedIn. I haven’t said much yet because I would like to walk in the doors of the company first. My hiring is also conditional until my background check comes in which is not going to be a problem. That is clean as well as my child clearances, if they check them too.

North Carolina.

I got my dad drinking Jack Daniels with me every night.. I sat next to my mom and watched crappy Italian television with her every night too. We went out to eat, we ran errands, and I upgraded my dad‘s dial-up Internet to something a little more high speed while we were there. My dad and I also did man shit together, we drilled a ring doorbell into his wall. I got the whole house running for him. Man shit.  I got to spend time with my parents, got to see my baby brother, did man shit with my dad, had a dinner date with my mom and got a new job. The ride home to Philadelphia was luckily uneventful. The puppies really missed me.

I tried to get back into the gym and swing of things and it’s been very hard. We booked another trip to Orlando because we found a window where airfare and four nights in one of the cheaper Universal hotels was literally under $650. I won’t really have any official vacation time till the fall, just in time for Halloween horror nights, that they did announce this week. So why the hell not.

If you are in my circle and want to go, dates are picked and we are booking this weekend.  Just saying. 

Honestly my weight has been about the same since the new year. Every time I’m going to try a new program, or shake it up I figure I might as well wait till I’m done going on my trip, going to this wedding, going where ever….. Eating a little more sensibly will be easier this time with just Amber and I. We also won’t drink nearly as much as we did, or I did because she doesn’t drink as much as I do half the time, when it’s just us. I have taken off about 5 pounds since last week and my visit to my folks, I’m sure some of that is water I feel like I keep losing those same 5 pounds. I definitely think it’s time to have more calories in my life and reverse diet for a little while. I am going to jump on that when we come back from Orlando. That will give me three weeks before my new job, and for three weeks I will gym like it’s a job in itself.

My goal is to take off 20 pounds before summer. I know I can do that. I will just have to focus, and I will have to show the one thing that I have not shown in over a year, self control.

So the last 10 days since I wrote you have been very eventful for me. There is a strange feeling of being in a holding pattern right now waiting to start but I’ll just have to get over that. This company wants me. They created a position around me. It’s something I know I will be successful in and can’t wait to get started.

The biggest stressor I have had since October is on its way out the door. It’s time to give up excuses and to pull my shit together.

Oh and I got my first Covid shot too.  Second on on the 20th.

Have you ever gone to a doctors office and not fit in the waiting room seat? Have you ever had a panic attack because you were so worried about going on a job interview and having to sit in the chair in front of the interviewer? Have you ever had to buy two airplane tickets on Southwest because you were too big? Did you get in a car accident that almost killed you because the seatbelt did not fit and back in the 90s you just could not jump on the Internet and buy an extender online? I did all of those things. Did you know there are Facebook groups for overweight people that are universal enthusiasts? Peloton enthusiasts? There are. The universal one will teach you all the tips and tricks to fit in some of the rides. It all honestly depends Where are you carry your weight but they exist.

It sucks that they exist  but that is the world we live in. I find myself screaming atshows like my 600 pound life or thousand pound sisters. The voices in my head during those times are crazy.

I will leave it at that for now, I just wanted to catch everyone up I was still out there paying attention.

Watch what you put into the world. You will get what you give. It’s not karma. It’s life.

Feel the love,

Franco

Well. It happened. I turned 50.  

I was in Florida. I wore to goddamn Hufflepuff robe.  (I rocked that shit BTW).

I got to see my sister and my nieces and I was surrounded by love.

We had to fly out a day early because of the storm coming in, it turned out to be fantastic. 

I honestly can’t say enough about the trip it’s been three weeks and I’m already planning to get away for a few more days before summer hits. Why not right?

I had zero problems on any rides. Hagrid’s gave me a little bit of a run for my money. But it worked out and I got on it three times. Probably the most fun I’ve ever had. I am pretty sure my smile lasted hours under that mask. The weather was beautiful and I am very thankful not only for the trip that my wife planned but for my friends who came along as well.  We could not throw a massive party and i didn’t miss that for a second.  I handled 50 with grace. We watched the Super Bowl in a cabana by the pool, I had a pink doughnut as my birthday cake, and lots of whiskey was consumed.  I got to see my sister an family.  I ate at Bubba Gumps and I got a lot of beads at Mardi Gras.   Thank you for the drinks, the robe, the good intentions and all the awesome comments. 

It has been a few weeks let’s catch up.

Everyone else in the house has gotten their second Covid shot, I finally get to have my first one tomorrow. I’m not going to debate vaccines and that shit with anyone. In the end it’s like politics and religion it’s a personal matter and it’s my own.  When I was a flourishing business owner. I needed to be around people. Hopefully that day will come sooner than later. And it’s just a small way to protect myself and my family. I miss my parents. I need to visit. I would not be able to live myself god forbid I got them sick. The good news is that they have been vaccinated as well. Both of had their second shot.

I think since returning from Florida I have fallen out of love with the peloton. It’s just very hard for me to get on there. It’s definitely very hard for me to do the longer classes in the power zone challenge.  I am trying to get my head screwed on straight and will head back at it, the morning. I might not even go downstairs until I get on the stupid bike. I know I don’t have to go crazy but I should do cardio at least three times a week. I know it’s going to get nicer soon and I could probably get a few walks in but it did not seem to do anything for me so that gets frustrating too. I am definitely reworking my macros for Monday morning and will probably eat more. I will probably have some more carbs. Think it’s time to reverse diet for a few weeks. Did you know the Coke zero actually has 11 calories LOL. Mother fuckers hide those calories everywhere.  I have been getting to the gym 3 to 5 days a week. That is always constant.

Well I’m not incredibly stressed about finding employment. I do get stressed out when you had meeting after meeting with a company and then they go quiet. I don’t know how long it takes somebody to decide if you’re the right person or if I’m just upset because you met with six people in a WebEx and they didn’t offer you the job right away. I am awesome. Someone should hire me.

I put a lot of that on a pause this week and got my certified scrum master certificate. I know I talked about it here a few times and I’m sure you’ll probably have to Google it to see what it is but it was over 16 hours of class time and then a test. Are usually hate that kind of things but I must’ve paid decent enough attention because between my notes and what I sucked in, I got 100 on the test and now I’m a certified scrum master.  OK you can call me master for short.  I know sooner or later I’m going to find the perfect fit. I don’t want to force myself into a situation that is not going to be prosperous or make me happy. I wish the band was playing more so there will be zero financial stress. But we are doing OK.

Andrea and I are playing a private birthday party this week. They reached out to me but apparently the seventy year old man who was celebrating his birthday, has a crush on Andrea.  That’s OK I will slide in there on her coattails.  Crabby and I have a few shows coming up and the band and I are playing in April. I miss playing music. I have been spending some time reaching out to all our customers and almost no one is really pulling the trigger on full bands. I can’t believe this is how I’m spending the bands 25th anniversary.

I’m going to to have to get my shit together because I am not going to have another fat summer. I know I am still down over 100 pounds plus from when I started this journey but I got that taste of 170 pounds lost and was so much more confident, pain-free, and agile at that number for the couple weeks that I got to sit there. It’s going to take some hard work but I will slowly get there. It does not get easier as you get older.

I hope this finds everybody well. Thank you for reading. I’m still out here doing the thing.

Peace, Love and Stuff.

Franco Sicilia, CSM