This is one of those posts I wish so hard I didn’t have to write. Joshua Amir Nossoughi, died on Saturday, July 9th 2011. He was a great friend of mine and many others. I’ve known Josh for many many years. He was a wonderfully caring, talented, selfless person. My memories of him bounce through my mind and it makes me happy. He had such an air about him that everybody loved. You couldn’t help but to love him.

So many memories I have of Josh are based around his amazing talent on the piano. The man could play anything effortlessly. He would make things up to make you laugh by singing silly songs about the color of your hair or what he ate for breakfast. Or he could keep the atmosphere serene with some beautiful classical music. Whatever mood you were in, he had the ability to mimic it through the piano.

Josh was the person to hang out with. You never quite knew what was in store when you did so. You might end up trying to order Sassafras in a McDonald’s drive through, taking a random trip to go snow skiing, spending the day at the pool with frozen smoothies, visiting his sister and nieces, going to a diner, or whatever else presented itself. If there was fun to be had, he could find it. And if there wasn’t fun to be had, he would make it. That was who he was.

Josh had an amazingly huge heart. He never asked for a lot or wanted to have everything. Just the opposite. He would, without question offer whatever he had, be it food, clothes, money, time, or energy, to someone who needed it. And it didn’t stop there. He followed through with his generosity. If you needed a ride somewhere, he would give it. Then he would offer a ride back. If you needed money for a drink of water, he would make sure you had enough for a milk shake.

The past few years, I’ve not had the opportunity to be as close to him as I used to be, though, I’ve thought of him constantly. He has left a lasting impression on me, as I’m sure he has to so many others in his 33 years of life. He is not one to be forgotten. He will be remembered forever by his friends, his family, his wife and 3 sons, and anyone lucky enough to have met him. Joshua Amir Nossoughi, your name and memory will live on forever in everyone you touched. I love you.

All this job searching and unemployment stuff has got me thinking about beer. Not in the becoming-an-alcoholic kind of way, but more of a this-is-my-chance-to-sell-my-beer-legally kind of way. I’ve found a gov. program that assists starting businesses by offering business classes and business plan help and what not. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and wondered how I could manage with a full time job and a 1 year old. Now I have no job and my 1 year old is turning 3. So where does that leave me?

This is where I look for opinions and suggestions, advice and so on. If anyone has any experience or knows anyone with experience, I’d appreciate some guidance. Comments are open for anonymous posts if any lurkers wanna contribute.

Man! Moving sucks. The past two days has been spent moving all the small crap out of the old place and into the new. Holly has been awesome unpacking stuff as I bring it in. If she had been working or something, the house would be packed to the ceiling right now. Instead, there are only a few boxes around, and we can properly relax tonight with a movie and a beer.

Tomorrow will be cleaning day for the old place. Pack up the garbage and scrub everything down. That will be the end of it. So sad. That house will be very much missed.

We spent the day in the “big town” yesterday. The main goals were to cancel Holly’s cell phone, finish filing for unemployment, and pick up a few groceries. Mind you the word “few” should be stressed, but I don’t know how to do that on an iPhone. Oh well. Just imagine it.

Anyway, the trip was way too easy. We went first to the phone store who told us they don’t handle cancelations and that we had to call an 800 number, which she wrote down for us. We quickly stepped outside, parked our fannies on a bench and Holly quickly dialed the number. All the while she let me know that she did not want to be calling. Only because she hates phones though.

After a few minutes of weaving her way through the computerized system and a few more of talking to a rep, the deed was done. She found out that her contract had been up for a year already, which meant that all the fuss over not paying the cancelations fee because we live in the dead zone was for nothing. Good to be prepared anyway.

After that, we headed to the dreaded unemployment office. Boring. We waited for about 45 minutes before I was called in. It took all of 5 minutes to confirm the information I gave when I first applied. Then she gave me a few instructions and sent me over to Workforce where, again, it took only a few minutes to confirm the info already given.

All in all, it went very smoothly and gave us plenty of time to buy what few things we could. That trip to town will make things so much easier. Phew.

Now we just need to finish moving.

Well. This is going to be a busy week. We’ve found a new place to live and we have 5 days to move in. Tomorrow we start hauling stuff over there. We’ll move as much as we can to get a good start. Thursday we have to go up to town so I can hit the unemployment office and Holly can take care of her phone stuff. We could also do with some things from the store. You know, like bread, flour, milk and eggs. That sort of stuff.

Friday will be another big moving day. Hopefully at this point we’ll be able to move all the last things like couches, beds, dressers, cats, etc. If not, at least we’ll have some of Sunday. You think we’d be able to do it a little faster seeing as how we seem to have experience with this sort of thing.

The weekend will be our finish up and clean up days. The power and cable are all scheduled. We’ll just have the cats left. That will be the last thing. Then we’ll be all moved. And Gavin missed all of it. Lucky kid.