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Ever since I walked into that Columbus Crew game with my friend Dan three years ago I knew that I wanted to spend my life working, in some capacity, for a Major League Soccer team. Pair that with my newly remembered passion for writing and I have a recipe for destiny.

I have encountered a few roadblocks over the past few months, mainly my lack of a degree, but I haven’t let that hold me back. I’ve been enrolled in school for a while now, and have been working my tail off trying to prove myself during interviews. I’ve taken the strategy that love and passion for the game and the fans is not something that can be taught, but I am still growing as a writer.

Basically, I’ve been telling people that I’m already in love with the game and the people and not a bad writer, and asking them to hang with me while my writing improves.

Well, this morning all of my begging and pleading and ass kissing has paid off. After a long interview process, I’ve been offered, and therefore accepted (duh) a job as a staff blogger with the NASL side Crystal Palace Baltimore.

My duties will be to generally maintain the teams online presence in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as writing articles and a blog for the club’s official website. It’s not the big leagues yet, but I’m tickled pink.

Also, there are going to be nice bi-weekly paychecks coming my way just because I want to hang out with a bunch of soccer players.

I’m going to be leaving town at the end of next week, so anyone that wants to share one last pint needs to get in touch ASAP. Also, if anyone wants to take a weekend trip to Baltimore to help me move, I’ll be forever in your debt.

So yeah, off I go into the great unknown…

(And if anyone wants my Crew Season Tickets, they’re going to the highest bidder…)

One of the areas of my life where I’m discovering that my tastes are unique from, apparently, the rest of humanity is in my approach to gadgets. Namely, the amount of things that my techo-accessories can do. With the exception of my cellphone (we’ll get to that in a minute) I prefer to own a set of specific toys, rather than one or two that can do everything.

For example:

1) I still own an iPod. I also have a wicked cool phone that can hold and play music, just like my iPod. But I still carry and use “The Beast” as much as the day I got it.

I remember one day, back when I had a job at That Place, a co-worker saw my phone and iPod sitting side-by-side on my desk and quickly asked me why I don’t consolidate the two, “Your phone will play your music, you know.”

I replied that I did know, but that I wanted separate devices. He shrugged his shoulders, rolled his eyes, and our conversation resumed. Every time I have the iPod in one hand and the phone in the other I think about that exchange and smile.

2) I very rarely use the camera on my phone. It takes pretty good photos, for a phone, but it rarely occurs to me that I always have a camera in my pocket. There have been times in the past, like that trip to NYC, that I’ve actually thought to myself “Man, I wish I had a camera right now….oh wait, I do. On my phone.” Then I get out my phone, take the picture, and go on with life.

But I know from experience, that if I have an actual camera in my pocket, or somewhere equally handy, I’ll take more pictures than will ever be necessary. I just haven’t trained myself to think of my phone as a camera yet. That’s why I’ve been saving money to by this for the past 6 weeks.

3) Regarding that camera I’m about to buy: It’s very highly touted for it’s amazing abilty to shoot HD video. I could care less. I want to take photographs, not make movies. If I wanted something that would shoot HD video I’d go buy an HD video camera.

4) I’m also looking, and saving, for a new watch. My old watch isn’t broken, it still works perfectly and looks good too. I just want something a little simpler. Something that doesn’t weigh my arm down or look like it came from the 1990′s. Also, I don’t always need to know what time it is in Cairo.

A watch should tell time. It should tell me what day of the month it is. That’s all I want a watch to do. The watch I have now tells me everything except barometric pressure. My new watch will just tell me what time it is, in Ohio.

5) About that phone. It’s the Original Google Phone and it does everything but make coffee in the morning.  I use it for everything from a phone to a web-surfer to a flashlight to a level. It’s like an electronic Swiss Army Knife – a thousand functions packed into one handy little package.

But I still only consider it a communication/information device. I hardly ever use the camera or music player, like I said. It might play movies, but I already have a DVD player. It’s wicked handy all of the time, but there are some things that I just don’t use it for. Like IM. Why do I want to be signed into Yahoo chat 24/7?

I’m not sure when, or why, I became so persnickety (that word was in my spell check, btw) but I am. I might have gotten it from my dad. I might have developed it on my own.

I do know this: Cameras are good at taking photos and mediocre at everything else. My iPod is a Beast at storing/playing my tunes but is crappy at displaying photos, and my phone is the slam when it comes to gathering info or keeping in touch but is a sub-par flashlight or level or movie player or camera or video recorder.

Point of the story: Some things are mediocre at a lot of functions but a lot of things are superior at one function. I like superiority.

I have a friend who has an iPhone. He uses it for everything – to listen to music, as a camera, to make phone calls, to make his morning coffee. I’m quite sure he’ll laugh at me if he ever catches me putting my camera away and getting out my phone while listening to my iPod. He likes his gadgets integrated, I like my specialized. Different strokes, I guess.

What about y’all? Are you waiting for the day when everything you need/want will be on one pocket sized device? Or do you still have four tools to do four jobs?

Really? Twenty Ten? I can’t believe I’ve made it this far. Let alone the rest of the world, I could have sworn we’d all be dead by now. Either at the hands of a zombie apocalypse, some crazy world-wide epidemic, or even thermonuclear war. But then again what do I know, Nostradamus I’m not.

But anyway,  here’s a quick recap of ’09: Got hired by That One Company after temping there for more than a year; Parted ways with a girlfriend of three years;  Fell in love all over again with The Massive; Kicked started a career in writing; Followed The Crew to Chicago, Denver, New York, and Chicago again; Got touched by the economy; Picked myself up by the bootstraps; Enrolled in college; and Finally found gainful employment. Busy year, eh?

But that was the past. It’s all about the future now, and I’ve got big plans for this year. I’m going to buy a new (to me) car. I’m going to move into a new (to me, probably) apartment. I’m going improve my personal brand and get paid for writing. I’m going to get my associates.

There are a few other things that I want to do in the next 365, but I’m going to keep those under my hat for fear of jinxing them. But lets just suffice it to say this will be a big year for me. I’m going to make things happen.

Carpe diem, y’all.

This touched off an all night game of  ”What Would You Buy” between myself and Mr. Oaks. It was decided that a 9 million dollar jackpot would pay out about $5 mil after taxes, so we played with that number. It went pretty much like this:

• Two million would go straight into stocks. I’d get a nice little trust fund/nest egg going.
• $500k would go into a CD or bonds or some safe investment, where it would slowly grow and be waiting for when I needed it.
• I would take half a million and pay off my mom’s house and car, pay off my grandparents medical bills, and do other nice things for family members.
• I would give Mr. Oaks and Mr. Garee $50k each to buy a car or whatever they want. I would pay off Ms. Reitz‘ college.
• After those things are taken care of, the fun starts. First thing I’d do is go buy a car. Either an Audi S6, a Subaru Legacy GT, or a Volvo V50R. And I’d pay cash, just for the fun of it.
• Then, and I do mean immediately, I’d drive that new car to Easton to the Apple Store and do my best to spend 10 large.  I’m talking about a 13″ MacBook Pro (for carrying with me) and an 8-core Mac Pro with a 30″ HD Cinema Display. And a new iPod touch and whatever other toys I thought I might need.
• While I’m at Easton I’d probably spend a few hours just shopping around. I know I could spend some time in Bang & Olufsen, and it wouldn’t be hard to drop some coin at Nordstrom. I’d drive that new whip to Polaris, too. There’s a Finish Line there where I can grab some new kicks, not to mention Brooks Brothers (for those of you that know me well, you know why I want to walk into that store more than any other dressed in old jeans, a nasty t-shirt, and my steel-toes).
• Next would be a new place to live. I’m not sure if I would buy a house or a condo, but you can be sure it would be wicked cool – lots of mod furniture and super cool touches. An awesome foos table is a must, as is a monster (80″) TV and stereo system.
• The boys’ (and maybe a couple girls) and I would go to the World Cup,Champions League Final, and maybe Euro 2012. Also, there is not a single Crew game that I would not attend – home or away, foriegn or domestic.  We’d probably take in a few EPL matches too. I know for sure that I want to go to St. James Park and the boys would want to visit The Emirates.
• I’d see a Sox/Yanks weekend at Fenway. There is only one person in the world I would take with me.
• College would be paid for. For myself, my mom, and that one other person (you know who you are).

I’m sure there’s more. I’d buy a digital camera and a point and shoot, I’d get a lot of new clothes and shoes, I’d buy a new watch or two.  I’d get my teeth whitened. I’d probably spend a cool million in the first month.

It would be no problem, really, if you knew there was more where that came from to spend a lot of money in a short time. After the car and the house and the travel, the little things all add up pretty quick. Especially when “little things” are $5,000 – $10,000 apiece. The challenge would be making the money last.

I don’t think I’d stop working altogether. I’d certainly finish my degree, cause $5 million won’t last forever and I’d have to get a job at some point out of boredom. But I would certainly take some time to travel.

So what about y’all: If you suddenly had a check for $5 million what would you do? That’s life changing money, but how would your life change? I know there’s a lot of things we all have in common (houses, cars, etc.) but what would you do differently with your windfall than I would with mine?