I worked at The Good Guys for 6 years (Nov 1999 – Dec 2005). I worked in customer service (as an MCA, or merchandise control associate), and I spent a lot of time answering phone calls, probably the most I’ll ever do in my lifetime. Every time I picked up the phone, I was had to say, “Thank you for calling The Good Guys in Fairfield/Concord. How may I assist you/How may I direct your call?” And I totally had it down.

That was nearly 8 years ago. And yet, to this day, when I hear my desk phone ring (which looks like the the phones they used at The Good Guys, and the ring sounds like it too), I have the overwhelming urge to still say the whole “Thank you for calling The Good Guys” bit. I literally have to pause, say under my breath “Caltrans IT, this is Eric”, sometimes even a couple of times over, before I actual pick up the phone. It’s kind of weird, but it happens EVERY time.

And while I’m on the topic of old habits dying hard, maybe two or three months ago, I found out that I had been tying laces COMPLETELY WRONG for basically my entire life (when do we actually learn to tie laces? 4, 5 years old?). I always just thought that I wasn’t tying my laces very tightly, and that’s why they always got loose and had to re-tie them. I Googled it, and came across Ian’s Shoelace Site. I learned the bunny ears method, but the way I learned to do it, the starting knot and the finishing bow where in the same direction, creating a “Granny Knot” or “Slip Knot”, which sits crooked/unbalanced and can become undone very easily. The pictures on the site made it crystal clear what I was doing wrong, and the correct way to do it and what it should really look like.

So now, I have to un-do maybe 28 years of muscle memory. I can totally tie my laces the old, wrong way without looking at the laces, and do it hella fast. Now, I have to look and make sure I’m doing it the opposite way that I did it before. It’s kind of frustrating, but at least now my laces don’t come loose or undone anymore, not nearly as often. I’ll eventually get used to it, but so far it’s been tough.

So the Giants got no-hit today against Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds, and in doing so, fell to last place in their division. I totally wanted to post something snarky on Facebook about it, because literally no one mentioned it, and I want to say about 85% of my friends on Facebook are Giants fans. I wanted to post something like,

“if no one on Facebook mentions an event, did it actually occur? maybe the wheels are falling off the bandwagon, even without getting hit…..” (pun totally intended)

But then I got to thinking about karma. It’s kind of low to kick someone while they’re down, right? I don’t want karma to come back and haunt the A’s. So I didn’t post anything and put it here instead.

The Giants have won 2 World Series rings in 3 years, and they have the 2010 NL Rookie of the Year and 2012 NL MVP, Buster “the ladies love me” Posey. So you know what Giants fan, CRY ME A FREAKIN’ RIVER for getting no-hit. Aside from losing Posey to an injury for the entire 2011 season, y’all had EVERYTHING go your way for 2 out of the last 3 seasons. So there goes your karma. You’ll probably be getting more for blocking the A’s from moving to San Jose, just you wait and see….