Everybody's working for the weekend

Man work has been wild lately. Some days I am totally busy for the entire 10+ hours I am there and other days I seriously scrape the bottom for stuff to do. Wednesday night I had dinner with the colonel and some big shots in the HIMARS program from Dallas and Huntsville. The meal was amazing!! The food was killer and I had a great time just shooting the bull with some big shots. On Thursday I got to sit in on a quarterly management review (QMR) that was really cool too. The whole thing almost convinced me that I really might enjoy this job.

I finally got to see V yesterday. It was the first time I had seen her in over three weeks, so I was pretty pumped. I caught myself going 10 or 15 over the speed limit on the way here. Today we went out to a cool little joint downtown to eat some sushi. It was quite stellar, but not worth dealing with going downtown. The weather was great, though, and walking around was fun. I hear the nice weather is gone for a little while. ugh.

I made spring break plans with V today. We are going to visit Vicksburg, Mississippi and hit up all the Civil war stuff there. I am pretty excited about the fact that it is only 4 hours from my house. I will probably go geocaching while I am there and we might even go to Jackson to drop off my Capital geocoin. Woohoo!

So the leg isn't really coming along as well as I had planned. It is still somewhat sloppy and has been driving me nuts here lately. It popped to the side a little bit yesterday at work. I don't know what the issue is.

I don't ever want to grow up

I went to see my grandpa in Dallas this weekend. He is in the nursing home now and they feed him through tubes into his stomach. I had been told we wouldn't understand him and that he was in really bad shape. Well, he wasn't either of those. We understood him just fine and shared quite a few laughs with him. It's amazing how thin he is now that he doesn't eat anything. Being in the nursing home really make me think about my life. It really isn't fair. We learn so much, save money, make relationships and then bam-o we're stuck in an aging body clinging onto our lives. I made a commitment to myself to continue working out and making sure I am healthy. Just parking out a few extra spots from walmart or taking the stairs instead of the elevator can make a difference, but I do not want to just stop at that. But back to my grandpa; he kept talking about how most people hate being in the nursing home and how all the old people want to leave, but he was content. He said that God puts us where we can make a difference and that God has put him there to change lives. It's amazing to hear this coming from a guy with a feeding tube sitting in a wheelchair.

My grandpa reminded me to enjoy the little things. He couldn't eat or drink anything due to not being able to swallow and he said over and over how much he missed tasting things and chewing things (at which point he would chomp his dentures together). He was starting to swallow better, so we gave him some coca-cola. He LOVED it and shortly after started twitching in his legs. It was so funny. He would look at his legs and say "what do you suppose is causing them to do that?" We would laugh and tell him that not having a coke for a few weeks and then getting all that caffeine at once was doing it. He didn't care and he took some more sips of coke. To tell you the good spirits he was in, let me tell you about when we first came in with the coke. He just looked at it and licked his lips over and over and when dad finally asked him if he wanted some, my grandpa nearly jumped out of his chair with a "yes!" We gave him a real small amount in a cup and he took it, looked at it and said "awfully generous of you" with sarcasm in his voice. We told him that we wanted to make sure he could drink it okay, and he needed to drink it slowly. He downed it like an alcoholic downs a shot of something. He did that for a few more glasses and then we quit. He was sooooo funny, you can't even imagine it. He has a wise crack to every person he passes and he flirts with all the ladies.

Anywho, other than going to see my grandpa with my family this weekend, I have not been up to a whole lot. Last weekend a few of us went to LR and got a hotel to see Watchmen in IMAX. I liked it, but wish it didn't have all the crap that it did to keep the audience in it more. oh well. V joined us for dinner beforehand and the movie and then on Saturday for some mall time. It was a good weekend. BTW, there was a car show downtown on the river and that was SWEET! Super nice Corvettes and GTOs and such.

I just finished up my first homework assignment for my second class since starting this masters program. I need to start working on studying some for the GRE and my exemption tests. Woowee! I passed my last class only missing 2 points overall, so I think I am going to throttle back a little for this class. Spend a little more of my time doing what I want to do, which probably means I will still spend as much time on this as usual, just less time reading it. Eh, I will get through it.

No word on going back to Faytown fall 2010 for a MSME degree. I want to, but really it depends on V's plans. I hope it works out, I am already excited about that possibility.

Have a GREAT week!

I made it!!

I made it through surgery fine. It turns out that my ACL was stretched but not torn and so the doctor left it. He said that it was starting to tighten back up and I can tell. He did clean out some scar tissue and some torn meniscus. I actually got up and walked out of the office and it wasn't too bad, until the pain medicine in my knee wore off. Then it was not quite as much fun. I can walk and all, but I do have a bit of a limp. I am strengthening my knee through some workouts, and I can tell it is getting better. I am going to start therapy this week.

On the non-surgery side, I went geocaching again yesterday. I hit up three different caches. One was right near the Krispy Kreme, which made things interesting. Caches in Little Rock are tough because of all the people nearby, so I have to be extra careful. V is going home this weekend and I am staying around to meet up with the RFCs for Spring Retreat, so I am going to go caching again today once V leaves. There's apparently a huge park in the middle of Little Rock with a few caches that I am going to knock out. I hope to find another geocoin. What's a geocoin you ask? Well I will attach a picture. This one will be hard to let go of; it's a cool little German coin. I found it near the Game and Fish Commission. Their building is really cool; it looks brand new.

Going under...one last (hopefully) time

So I have a torn meniscus in the back of my knee and my ACL is critically weakened. The doctor is going in orthoscopically tomorrow to repair the meniscus and check the ACL with surgery on it if needed.

So this weekend I am enjoying the ability to walk and enjoying it with Vanessa. It is Valentine's day weekend and all. We didn't do anything real special, just investigated some sports store sales and made sushi and went to this trendy restaurant in West Little Rock. We got some killer stuff at the stores, including but not limited to: ski pants, ski goggles, and some thermals. We also managed to find some nice sandals for cheap.

So yeah, that pretty much sums up my life right now. I worked for the last two weeks and got quite a bit done, even though it was painful at times. Work went really well; I stayed really busy.

So this will be the last post for a little bit, until I can get back up and moving and find some firewall-free internet.

Big Day Tomorrow

So I go in for another xray tomorrow. If it looks good, the doc is going to let me start putting weight on it. This leg will be shocked to know that it will be getting the full weight, but rather a 15lbs less weight. Apparently all those days of not eating much has finally caught up to me. I am shooting for 175 or less when it's all over, but I figure once I start building leg mass again, that will change.

I'm worried about the news for a couple of reasons. 1) if it's not healing, I might have another surgery. That means more money and time gone for me. 2) If it is healed enough to walk, when should I try to go back to work. I feel horrible for missing so much, but I move around a lot and don't want to be at work with crutches and such. 3) I am worried that the doc is only looking at the bones and not other stuff. By other stuff I mean my muscles and tendons. A bone break does not cause your leg to pop sideways. Maybe it was just the trauma of it all. Regardless, I am a bit worried about it all. I am sure it will all be okay though.

Being back at my house reminds me of the real world. My heater is jacked up, my house gets cold easily and I can't figure out why. I think it is insulated well, but I don't know. Needless to say, once I recover financially from the hospital, I need to insulate my place better or do something.

*edit* I found out today that my ACL is possible torn. I go in for a MRI on Thursday and a doctor visit on the following Monday. If I do have a torn ACl, then I will be going under for an outpatient surgery. That'll put me out of work for another two weeks after the surgery. But, to counter this possibility, I am going in to work this week and next (hopefully). If I do need surgery, I am planning on putting it off for a week so I can get in more work time. We're starting a new project and I super pumped about working on it. I did a lot of prep work for it and I am hoping to see the fruits of my labor.

An update, with graphic pictures

So I went to the Doc's last Monday and apparently I have micro-fractures in my Tibia with a bone contusion somewhere in my knee as well. I am ordered to put zero weight on it until he can xray it again at the end of the month. That's really the news I have. My cuts are healing nicely and since so many people seemed interested in seeing the graphic shots of my leg cut open, I am posting them on here with pictures of my healing leg.

Work has been more than I could ask for. I am on short term disability until at least Feb 2nd at which point I have to decide if I can go in or not. I do so much moving around at work, I don't know if I will be up to it by then, but I am hoping. My biggest fear is all this being held against me in the future. I have plans for a spring break during the beginning of April, so I am hoping I can still use vacation on those days.

Anywho, here are my pictures. I will put the most recent ones first and the pictures of when my leg was cut open and left open last. They're pretty gruesome. The little white things are not drainage hoses, but rather rubber band-like strings actually holding my skin together.

Frisbee?!?! Are you kidding me?

Okay so the past couple of days have been wild. Saturday and Sunday were great! The weather was nice and warm and I got a lot of stuff done. Saturday night Stephen, David and I all browsed walmart for a while and hit up some Taco Bell. We then went over to Stephen's and watched Inside Man. Good movie, btw. Sunday I went to church and got some yummy Burger King for lunch.

Around 2:30 I headed to the park to play some much missed ultimate frisbee. We had a good crew of 8 or so with some cheerleaders. The team I was on was up 3-2 and we were moving the frisbee quite well. I got a pass that was a bit out there and I took off at a sprint. I stuck my right leg out and that is when it hit the roof. I landed wrong on it and it buckled backwards, popping about five times. I hit the ground in the most horrible pain ever. It hurt so bad I was rolling around and moaning. One of the guys on the other team (I won't name any names Stephen) thought I was just mad at myself for missing the pass and told them to keep playing. They got in a toss or two before figuring out that I really was in pain. Since we were at the park, there was no way to get a vehicle to the field and everytime I stood on my right leg and it straightened it out, it buckled (read: lots of pain). I could apply some weight on it if it was bent but not much. We found a chalker and I loaded myself onto it to be hauled to a vehicle. I climbed in back of Stephen's rodeo and we went to Eldorado's ER.

The ER was quite full. I filled out all the paperwork and just chilled in my wheelchair. I needed some ice because my knee was swelling, but the receptionist kept giving me the run-around. After sitting for about two hours, I was starting to get into some real pain. I asked the receptionist if she knew when I would be seen, she said there was no way to know that. Needless to say, she was a not-nice person. I finally got into the ER and the doctor was like "oh man, this is bad. How long has it been this swollen?". He left and came back in about 20 minutes. I went in and got an xray and then waited again. I finally got some ice at this point. NExt they took me to the CT room and pumped me full of this crazy hot stuff. It was wild feeling it going through my veins. They said the swelling was bad and they couldn't tell much. I then got moved to a bed and sat there for another hour or two or three. I got to the ER at 4:40 and left at 11:40, with nothing but some pain pills and a bag of ice.

Monday morning, I got a call from the ER that I needed to get there immediately because due to the swelling they were concerned about complications. I had kept it straight, elevated and iced and the swelling had gone down. It mostly felt okay. The doctor gave it the look over before sending me to my appointment with the sports medicine doctor. Enter extreme pain! I wheeled into the clinic and about 5 minutes later, the pain hit. My toes felt like they were on fire and my entire foot was going numb. I couldn't move my toes and my calf started to burn. I was shaking, crying and my arms and face were twitching. I got into a room and the doctor came in and said, "I was looking at some of your scans, I will be right back." At this point I am on the verge of screaming and I'm hitting my face and squirming and rolling around. The doctor comes back in (it's about 2:45 by now) and says "we need to get you into surgery now. Go back to the hospital". UGH! I get in the truck, still in extreme pain and put the ice back on my knee. The pain goes away. I'm not even kidding. It felt instantly better. I was talking on the phone and everything. I get to the hospital and they're not sure where I am supposed to go but I end up in a child's room with a baby bed and fishes on the walls. I went in for surgery at 4:30, way past my pain meds wearing off.

Surgery went quick and then I was back in recovery and then in my room with dad. Oh yeah, I should mention that when Stephen took me home Sunday night at midnight, dad was there to help me. He's been a life-saver, as was Stephen. The surgery consisted of the doctor slitting my leg on both sides and letting the pressure relieve itself. What happened is that my leg had swollen so much I was getting compartment syndrome. Essentially my skin wouldn't stretch anymore and the swelling was crushing my internals (veins, arteries, nerves). So now I am chilling at the hospital with this huge brace on my leg and a full wrap. I have to get my sheets changed every now and then due to the bleedout from my leg. My doctor was not in today, but he'll be back tomorrow to check it out and see when he can "sew it back up". I'm not sure if that means my leg is still split open or what, but I do know that my morphine pump has been a miracle. AMAZING!

So that is the story of how I got here. I have had a ton of people come by, call me, text me and post messaged on facebook. They have all been huge helps knowing they are concerned. I am hoping to be out of here by Friday and heading home. Luckily we are off after Thursday, so I'm not missing much work. I will probably have to apply for short-term disability but that depends on how I heal over the break. Needless to say, I won't be using my vacation days to go boarding with the RFCs. That's the biggest letdown of the year for me. I had been counting down...

One last thing, at one point Sunday night, one of the doctors mentioned that I could possibly lose my foot. You want to talk about praying...oh yeah I did it lots and lots.

He's a maniac, maniac...

Today was good. I went to Bible class and learned about self-control, which currently I have none of. I sat next to a really nice lady who's in her 30s and has a cute little kid. She comes to our singles class and I really think she's nice. It was nice to have someone to sit close to. After church, the preacher invited me to eat. That was fun...and free.

I came home and cleaned house some. I mostly did laundry and ironed. I then did something I am super proud of: I ran almost 2 miles. Yeah, that's right. I strapped on my camelback and took off running. It took about 20minutes, but that's okay. I am not going for the land speed record, just endurance and calorie burns. I showered and went to a small group Bible study and although the actual discussion was lame, the people there were nice. One guy is younger and a coach and he invited me to a ball game Tuesday. It's nice to have something to do that I dont have to plan myself. I will probably see if the guys want to go and maybe this girl I met at work. Her name is Katie, she's 25 and has a kid ( I think). She's pretty cool and a little wild, but that's okay. I am trying to bring her into the circle of friends so we have some female presence. I miss hanging out with girls (especially one in particular whose name will not be mentioned here but begins with a V).

Other than that I was a wreck today. I've been really lonely or something lately. I just feel like my life goals and ambitions are crap. I worked for four hard years and I am not using a single bit of my education. That's aggravating when you sweat blood in a degree program only to not use it. I graduated cum lade with honors and I am writing planning and looking up stuff in an inventory system that makes dewey decimal look like a genius (he's the one that came up with the numbering system on books, FYI). Plus my friends are hard to get together (there's only about 4 of them), so we don't do a whole lot anymore. When it was warm, we were hitting the frisbee and golf course. Not so much now. Boo! I am ready to move out to somewhere awesome. I just need to get through the next...um...20 months. I could have fathered two kids and have one on the way in that amount of time. Here's a big no to that one. Ugh. I am random because a recent decision (a small, trivial decision) has gotten me stirred up. I will leave it up to you to figure it out. Whomever "you" is. There's not a whole lot of "you's" anymore. Oh well.

what a N-E-R-D

That's what my cousin said about my mentor at work. He's a nice guy, but such a dork. He cracks me up by his ability to laugh at his own jokes. That makes me laugh just thinking about it. While we're on the topic of work, I had my year-end review with my manager today. I got a "successful contributor" rating which apparently makes me eligible for a big(er) raise. I don't know what we're talking about but I am hoping for 100%. Wouldn't that be nice? "Blair, you work really hard and always dress so nice. I think we're going to double your salary. Would that be okay?" Dreaming is great. Speaking of dreaming, I am not going to get the extra that I was hoping for tomorrow. We're working the next two Fridays so we don't have to work the 22nd and 23rd. Woohoo! I get a full two weeks off, plus my week of vacation on the slopes. I am already counting down the days.

I am really down right now about work, though. It just makes me so mad to know I worked my tail off in such a hard major to come here and not use it. people keep telling me that is how life is, but I refuse to accept it. I've been thinking more and more about going back to grad school in Fayetteville in a year and half when/if Vanessa goes up there for pharm school. I just enrolled in a master's degree operations management program from the U of A, but it is mostly for the business side of my work. I think it'll be useful, but I really want that MSME. Any comments on my plan?

I love my church here. It is so much fun and the preacher is the coolest guy ever! We're talking about Christian finance and how to invest wisely. He took us on the web last night and showed us all these cool sites for investing. As soon as xmas is over, I might try to scrounge up some loose change and invest a little on my own. It's exciting! Also exciting is that fact that I am about to start working with the middle school here on the LEGO robotics competition. I was supposed to go get the kit tomorrow, but since I am working I don't know when I will get to go by. Ugh...work on a Friday. How lame?

Time for a shower and to read some more of the book the preacher gave me. It's called "How not to marry a jerk". It is really good so far, although most of it I have heard before when I was on the prepare-for-marriage-even-though-it's-far-away spell I was on last summer. I read some cool self-help marriage books in Joplin. I am a D-O-R-K, I know. Peace out.

Almost December

Wow I can not believe how fast time has gone by. I graduated half a year ago. In that time I went to Mexico and Ukraine, got security clearance, started work and bought a house. Man oh man! I can't believe it.

This past break was nice. My entire production crew left early Wednesday, so my lead let me leave early and I got home before dark. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner consisting of homemade rolls, shrimp and some other stuff I don't remember. Thursday we got up and changed out Cory's busted tail light and drove to LR. I rode with Cory and we had a nice chat. We had another Thanksgiving meal at my aunts and watched some good football on their 50+" TV. It was amazing. I played a few rounds of two-hand-touch and then we checked into a hotel, right as Cory left for Fayetteville to going skiing with his gf. I was jealous. I swam at their indoor pool and then went out for some good Waffle house burger and hashbrowns. Yummy! Friday morning my parents were up and out at 4:30 for shopping. they got some stellar deals and I got to sleep late. It was nice. We then drove to best buy and got some more stuff. DVDs for less than $5 is insane. And they were good DVDs.

My parents then took me to the stadium for the cold, rainy football game. And it was AWESOME!!! I wore my rainjacket, but still got cold and wet. It was well worth every second though. V and I stayed for the entire time, although she did retreat to the concession area during the halftime downpour. My voice is gone and I had so much fun with the local drunks at the game; we cheered super loud.

Saturday I just chilled around the house and watched all sorts of college football. We burned some brush, cleaned some stuff and then went to the Egleston's for one of the best meals ever; they had shrimp, mac-n-cheese, buffalo wings, potato wedges, rolls, white queso, crab dip, bbq brisket and...ice cream. Wowie! We then watched "I am Legend". They were quite scared at times and I enjoyed being prepared for most of the startling parts...most. Today I went to church and drove home. It was cold in the house, but not as bad as I thought it would be.

I just got done working out and now I am getting ready for a shower. This week will be good as we're working on a contract and I am heavily involved. Work is not too bad as long as I stay busy. When I am not busy and I have looked for stuff to do is when I really dislike work. I am going to start asking my lead for more stuff to do, so I can get back into the habit of working every available minute; I like that much more.

Three weeks until break and 35 days until I hit the slopes. I got my 5th day lift tickets today and now I am SUPER pumped. Need to get back to training. Have a great day!

Wow, what a weekend!

So this past weekend was AWESOME!!! To start off, I met with my mentor on Thursday and we got to tour the rocket facility. It was really neat and they actually do some serious engineering there; I think I might try to get transferred over. Then when I got home, V was waiting on me. We quickly packed all my stuff into her jeep and took off towards Dallas. Filled up for 1.94, which was pretty amazing and grabbed a bite to eat at Sonic (which now has the brownbag special again, woohoo!)

Friday morning we got up and headed to the stock yards, but not before Gege cooked us a great breakfast. It was gorgeous weather and we got to see the cowboys herd the longhorns down the road once we made it to Ft. Worth. While we were there, we decided to hit up the zoo. We had gone to the LR zoo two weeks before and had a great time, so we talked to the info booth and they hooked us up with some sweet deals and we headed south to the Ft. Worth zoo. On the way to the stockyards, I passed about ten buses and thought it was kind of strange for buses to be out at 11am. Turns out that they decided Friday was the perfect weather for the zoo as well. We admired the lions and tigers and apes while kids of all ages whistled and hooped and yelled and said "here kitty, kitty". It was fun. v and I took our pictures in one of those cool little photo booths, but they didn't turn out too great. oh well. We capped off a great day by knocking back a few Krystal burgers and headed back to McKinney.

Saturday was college football. My grandma is a HUGE sports fan and we enjoyed sitting around watching the games. V and I went to the $3.25 movies and saw the movie about the guys who get community service with two "different" kids. Can't remember the title, but the movie was super funny. We took Gege's car and dropped the top; it was gorgeous weather again. We decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner that night and took Gege along. When we got there, LSU and 'bama were duking it out and people were going crazy for LSU to win and knock off an undefeated team. Didn't happen, but sure was fun to watch. We made it home just in time to see the *yawn* Texas Tech game.

Sunday we went to church and a ton of people my grandma had never met came and talked to us. I talked with an older man who was an Arkansas Alum. Cool guy. We had some disgusting Mexican food for dinner. Around 3:30 we headed back to Camden, but only after getting in some small shopping sprees. Nothing eventful happened on the way home. Went to work on Monday and got sick about three hours in and went back home. I probably would've toughed it out normally, but since V was there I went home. After taking a nap, I felt worse and decided to sleep late Tuesday. V left Tuesday morning and I headed into work. It was a long, slow day (most of the week has been) and I wished I were still sleeping.

That brings me to today. I just got back from El Dorado. I go every Wednesday and buy groceries, eat at Wendy's and go to Bible study. I really enjoy the church there and go every chance I get. The preacher and his wife teach the singles class on Wednesday and we're going over Christian finances. It is some cool stuff and I am learning tons.

Speaking of learning, I am about to start working on my master's degree. I plan on enrolling soon for a master's of operations management. It's a BS degree, but it'll look good on the resume and teach me some business practices. Hopefully I will finish it in about 18 months. Through online, video and live classes, I can crank out some hours.

Got a 360 a few weeks ago and still spend my small amount of free time on it. I have also started working out again and can tell my body needs it. Just like it needs sleep right now. Goodnight!

It's been quite some time since I last posted and a lot has happened. My house is coming along pretty well. I am mostly finished painting and now I just need to touch up some trim. I ended up getting $300 from the termite place to replace those hardwood floors they tore up; it was not a lot of money but I feel it is sufficient. I am still eating dinner in my living room, but soon I will tile in or hardwood in my dining room and start eating in there again. I'm waiting on some blinds for my office and dining room and the job will be complete. The bathroom is posing some small issues with the tiles not staying down and the time fitment, but I am mostly done with it. My bedroom is 100% as is the den (minus a big TV).

Enough about the house. Work is going well. I am loaded with stuff now that I am covering my area and another guy's area. We're trying to gear up for a busy 2009 and I am looking forward to seeing if we've prepared enough.

My birthday was Tuesday and it was good. I went with some people to work and drove down to El Dorado to hit up some Applebee's. It was good, except the waiter never could get the tickets right. It all worked out for the better, though; I got a free appetizer and a free drink. We have been playing ultimate twice a week and have anywhere from 6 to 9 people. It's been really good with a bigger group. Tuesday I am going to my church in Eldo to play some basketball in their gym. I think a few people from work are going to go as well, so that should be fun.

I'm getting an Xbox 360. I have put it off and put it off, but it's killing me now. I have been browsing for a few weeks and I am telling myself to wait for those Thanksgiving sales. I just don't know if there will be better deals then or not on 360s. But I am getting one, mark my words!

I had an old friend send me a message today and it really rattled me. I haven't talked to this person in some time, due mainly to the fact that when we last talked I left with a flood of emotion. I was filled with the memories of those last days and it rattled me to the bones. I suppose I never really healed from it all...I'm not sure I ever will.

It was a Chamber of Commerce day in Fayetteville

Man campus was great on Friday. It was awesome to just chill and not go to class or have things to study for. I went to the ME building and logged into the computer there. I saw my old boss from the FEP and printed off some stuff from the library. We then proceeded to hit up some B-dubs and watched Iron Man at Kristin's apartment. It was bittersweet to be there again crashed out on the couch. I remember all the movie nights we had there and the great parties we put on. Ryan, Kristin, V and I considered going to the Hper to ball it up some more, but decided we'd rather just eat some ice cream at Cold Stone.

Today was fun too. It started out with rain and cold, but by game time the weather had cleared and it was great. V and I sat next to some cool guys who were up cheering and throwing out all these Razorback stats. The game started pretty good; the hogs played some good defense and actually moved the ball. I thought the hogs had some great plays and showed me that they can actually play. Their biggest problem was just keeping the ball moving. They'd have some awesome plays and then drop it in penalties or just stall out. We never miss a chance to shoot ourselves in the foot. But yeah, at halftime we went over to the student section and cheered. I thought a few times that we were going to pull off an upset, but during the fourth quarter, we just died. It was cool seeing Tebow play and the gators did a decent job. I felt like Tebow didn't really play until about the third quarter. He seemed to be holding back.

Anywho, I'm at V's for the weekend. My car is getting some tune-up work on the suspension, so I'm probably not going to be at work on Monday. Fine by be; I could use the extra sleep.

I am not going to lie; I am struggling. Yeah I miss being able to walk to V's house but more than that I miss being around people my age. I enjoy work most of the time, but there's just not college-age presence here. I have quite a few good friends that are either co-ops or new hires, but they're a big stretch on my Christianity. I never knew that f*** and s*** where publicly accepted but apparently they're okay. I have always considered them hardcore words. I digress. I drove 30 minutes to church today and that wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't have at least four other churches of Christ that were closer. I've tried most of them out but none of them have anyone between ages 18 and 28 and the few that are close to that are married or engaged or have kids. Ugh. The church in El Dorado seems promising, though, so I look forward to going back there.

I am excited about going snowboarding this year and having money. Woohoo! I might even consider buying some gear. Oh yeah... I need to start training though. Ultimate frisbee twice a week is helping keep me from balooning, but I need to work a bit harder and start lifting some more.

This weekend I worked over 2o hours on my house. I put in tile in the bathroom and hall, painted the dining room and waxed the floors. The hardwoods in the bedrooms look soooooo good. I will post pictures when we're totally done. I can't believe the difference once I painted and changed the floors. Night-and-day.

Have a great week. Today was such a gorgeous day and I enjoyed the drive down to Eldo. I've been in a great mood all weekend; the only thing that would've made it better would've been if a certain little lady would've come down and helped. (geez there are a lot of would've in that sentence)

Everybody's working for the weekend

We worked on the house this weekend. Mom, dad, Chelsea, Ted, Susie, Patsie and I all busted it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and still have more to do this weekend. I will be glad when we're done updating, so I can start not spending more money than I make.

Work has been good. Rather slow this week until today but I am starting to enjoy it. I have some problems with management, but that'll be resolved soon. I don't really sit back and watch things happen that I don't think is right and that's probably going to get me in trouble. I've found some really cool guys at work and they're helping me out extensively on all sorts of stuff. One guy at work was just saved a few weeks ago and we talk about God and church quite a bit. It's a nice reprieve from the excessive cursing and crude jokes everywhere else.

I can't wait for the football game Saturday and next weekend. I am going to eat myself sick on sushi in Fayetteville. That's really one of the biggest things I miss about town. That and a more contemporary church; going to mine makes me want to never go to church again. Ugh...

Oh btw, the first picture shows what the previous owners did about water problems. Who knew that toilet paper could be such an effective water blocker. It's gross because we find it all over the place, stuffed in holes. The wooden floor is where the termite people tore up my hardwood and replaced it with that plywood and the other picture is outside my living room, which has eight total windows.

Busy man

Wow it's been forever since I posted. I've been quite busy. I started an ultimate team here and we're playing twice a week or more. I only live about a mile away, so I normally just jog over to play. We have about 8 or so, but I'm talking to a lot of people about coming. Scheduling is just being a pain. Besides that, I'm working on my house to get ready for all the week we're doing this weekend. I'm repainting, repairing the floors and laying tile. I had hoped to get some tile from some people who built a new house a few years ago, but it was all broken. :( It's crazy how much money you can drop into a house and still find other things to drop money on. I'm hoping to at least be content after this weekend, although I know I'll still need to repaint my room and the bathroom. Oh well.

Speaking of my house, it's a mess. The termite people came in last week and left everything just sitting around. There are all sorts of fast-food cups and dust and the carpet isn't fixed. The carpet was on top of hardwood floors, but they replaced it with plywood, so I'm fighting the company to come back out and put down real floors again. I can't imagine how they could take one thing out and replace it with something totally different. The whole process has been somewhat stressful, not much, but a little. I just want my hardwoods back. I dropped something like $600 last weekend on paint and blinds and just having that 100 or so for hardwoods would be nice. Like I said, it's expensive owning a place.

Work's getting better. I got promoted this week, but no change in title or pay, just more responsibilities. I don't quite understand that, but oh well. I did get a nice shirt though. I am now the head ME for final integration...I think. I don't do a lot more, but I'm the go-to guy for all sorts of new things. I am really developing some good relationships with some of the guys at work. Today one of the engineers and I talked about Jesus Christ for about an hour. He said he'd be interested if I wanted to have a Bible study at my place sometime. He's a new Christian and it's great to see his passion and his trials. He's probably in his late 30s and going through some tough times. He's cool though. Another guy works on the floor and he's really nice, but not a Christian. We talk some about church and such, but mainly I can just feel my presence making an impact on him. Just since I've been hanging around him, he's reduced his cussing quite a bit. One day he was saying something or another and I told him to settle down and watch the language (real nonagressively) and he said sorry and that he really needed to clean up his language. I was impressed. He works almost right up until break and I talk to him about meeting production goals and he's really gung-ho about it. Inspirational, really.

Anywho, I've got to get some sleep. I start work at 6am on most days, but on the Fridays and Saturdays I actually work, I start at 5. Woohoo!

BTW, if you saw the explosion at Aerojet in East Camden, that is less than a mile from my office. We didn't evacuate, but one of the other Lockheed facilities did. Crazy huh?

There is a 100% chance of rain for the next 24 hours. How crazy is that? The rain here has been so calming; not that I've been stressed or anything, it's just amazing to sit and listen to it. I sat in my car for about 10 minutes when I got home and just took it all in.

I finally know what my parents meant when they said it never ends. I painted some stuff today and found more stuff to fix up here. I'm starting to like my house much more, although a bigger AC unit will help me like it faster and more. I guess I'm really just happy to have my own place. Camden's not great and I probably won't get out of this house with much of a profit, but it's not too bad. I like walking around my place in my undies or playing my music as loud as I want. I can watch TV in the morning or TV at night, although I only have rabbit ears so I don't get many channels. It's just nice to always have something to do. At the same time, I'm utterly exhausted every night. I've gained some weight and my feet don't like it. I don't know what I've been doing different, but I'm determined to lose the weight. I just started working out a few times a week and that's already making an impact. It's weird because I look better than I've looked in a while, but I weight more.

I'm pumped about the game this weekend. I love LR games when I don't have to drive there from Faytown. I've got some coworkers who are throwing a tailgate party, so that'll be fun.

Good luck paddling on the river tonight.

My house part 1

I only took a few pictures but here's a good couple of shots of the house before we start doing much. As you can see, it's a mess. My stuff is laying all over the place but slowly becoming organized. The bedrooms are so packed with stuff right now, I'm not going to post any pics of them. They're carpeted with the same stuff as the living room and dining room. I pulled up a corner of the carpet in the front bedroom and found hardwood flooring. We're going to pull up carpet slowly and one room at a time and I hope we find some beautiful floors. This weekend we'll start painting and working on the bathroom. I've been power washing the exterior and it's making a huge difference. I am basically finished cleaning the outside, I just need to clean a few spots a little better. Next I will start working on the yard. It's got a ton of potential, I just don't know where to start. I tell ya, between work and this house, I sleep like a rock every night. My feet are sore, but I suppose that has something to do with standing out on the cement floor with production so much.

Camden's really not too bad. There's not much to do, but since I'm so busy with work and the house, it doesn't really matter. There are some good little restaurants and all the catfish I could ever want. I'm looking forward to fall and spring to hit up some of the local campgrounds. There are supposed to be some decent ones down in Louisiana.

It's starting to sink in that I will be here for a little bit. Stress "little".

Wowza, it's 1:30

My microwave just shorted out, my a/c isn't big enough for my bigger house and I don't have a garage, but you know what? I have a/c, I have a kitchen and I have a car to park in a garage that doesn't exist. While I'm on the topic of my house, I've got a funny story. A few days ago, I roach bombed my porch. I had seen a few roaches here and there outside and maybe two inside so I thought I'd give it a try. After playing around with the bomb, I went inside. Lo and behold, they ran from the porch into my laundry room! There were four or five (actually three, that I could kill) and they were WIRED! I smashed them and have been finding dead roaches here and there ever since. I plan on bombed the attic and crawlspace this week, but I've got to keep them out of my house otherwise. This is going to be messy.

I went to El Dorado today to hit up some home improvement stores, a super center and to get some food. I really enjoyed the trip there; it's four lanes at 65 and quite pretty. I cruised along and took it all in. I can't wait to go back down there during the fall and camp down in Louisiana. I haven't spent much time in northern Louisiana, so I'm interested in seeing what it's like. I have heard a lot of good stuff about Shreveport-mostly the boardwalk there.

Anywho, this place is almost up and running 100%. It's at about 60% done; I need to paint, put in fans, fix the bathroom and I'll be done. The Eglestons and my family are coming into town next weekend to spend a day working this place over. The yard needs some cleaning and clearing, but it's going to be gorgeous this spring. The previous owners spent a lot of time on it and I plan on bringing it back to that point. "Plan" being the key word there. You know me...

The workin' man

I tell ya, between working 10 hours a day and fixing up the house, I am super busy. I have only done a few small things to the house and it already looks a lot better. I spent another couple hundred this week to get some more stuff for furniture and general repairs. It's kinda cool being in my own place because I can paint how I want, carpet how I want and fix stuff that's broken and it actually helps me out. Plus it's nice putting money forward on something that's mine; I'm not throwing it down the drain. I still have a long ways to go to getting it where it's home sweet home, but it's definitely growing on me. The biggest issue is going to be working on the bathroom. Replacing the floor boards and redoing the tile is going to be a nice all day event. Mom and Dad and the Eglestons are coming down on Labor Day weekend and so we'll knock out some serious work then.

Work's been good. I worked Friday and Saturday this week, which is overtime pay. It's picking up quite a bit, but I still have to find things to do from time to time. I am really enjoying spending time with the production crew. They're a cool bunch of guys with all sorts of personalities. I am sad because all my cool co-ops left. Chuck and Megan were from Texas Tech and Marty was from Wisconsin. We enjoyed a good weekend in Fayetteville and plenty of good times in Camden. Their last night we went to the Sand Bar and had some good food. I got crab legs and some Texas toothpicks. Both were amazingly good.

Peace out!