Bringing the Drama

on Saturday i went into NOLA with some youth group people to participate in some mission work. it was me, one other adult, and three kids from our church. we were meeting up with people from other youth groups to do some stuff in the 9th ward. they broke us up into different groups to go do 4 different projects and mixed up the groups so different people from different youth groups would meet each other. i led three other guys to go move mattresses in preparation for a giveaway next week. basically we showed up at a flooded out gym at a church, and moved mattresses and box springs inside to stack up against the wall. the mattresses were donated from a hotel in Dallas and are going to be given away to people in the neighborhood in the next week. initially we started with an 18 wheeler full, so it was a daunting task at first to see what looked like an endless trailer full. in addition, there were supposed to be 10 people to do the job, but we only had four due to the small number of people helping today. we got it done though, even though we were undermanned, and had some fun along the way.

however, it wasn’t all total awesome fun time. we’re a united methodist youth group because we’re at a UM church. i get that. we got shirts today with a GIANT UM logo. at lunch we had to read these devotionals that were like a page and a half long. then when we got back to the church we originated from, they had a whole worship service, complete with communion. it just seemed too complicated to me. the shirts, i can deal with a logo on the shirt, but a huge logo? the devotional at lunch, reading that sheet of paper, just seemed a little much. when we finally got to the prayer, the kid that said it said a great one. why couldn’t we just have gone with that? then after, the worship service, we had been out all day doing work, we were tired, and yet i felt like i was sitting through a service that was for the leaders to make themselves feel good at leading worship. the first song had lyrics like “I am free indeed” and yet i was sitting there thinking i was trapped and not free! there was also this part of the service where the different groups got up to the front to talk about their project, so i went up there when my group did. the leading pastor asked us a trick question almost. we’re up there and all talked about our day and how hard we worked, and the guy asks us if any of the people there at the old gym were members of the church we were at. we had no idea, but we didn’t think so, which we responded with, but then he says “well, there was one lady who was a member of the church.” dude, what was that for? i should have asked him that. we finally were able to leave at 4:30.

the main thing though was going out there helping people. i was proud of the guys i worked with, and of all the other kids who showed up. i just wish the adults involved wouldn’t have made the rest of the day so jampacked with irrelevant stuff.

with the main project where i work eventually ending, the mother company set up an internal job fair to place people so they wouldn’t have to get laid off. i’m not technically on that project anymore, but i am looking for a new job, so i printed off some resumes and went after work yesterday. i was kind of nervous before, because i wasn’t really sure what i wanted to do or where i wanted to go. the job fair had EVERY unit of the company and every location, which made it about 15 or 20 different sets of people to talk to. i ended up talking to the people closely related to the 3 jobs i’ve already applied to, as well as people involved in the jobs i’d like to do. i’m not really sure straight engineering is my bag anymore, so i’m looking for a change in location and job function. the people last night sounded like they could help me accomplish both. i was very encouraged leaving to go home, because the people sounded legit in their “send me your resume and we’ll get this ball rolling” thing. it’s not something i have not heard before, but last night they sounded like they meant it. one guy was even ready to give me his cell phone number if he had any questions, but i declined. work numbers are fine with me unless you’re the CEO of the company. i’m going to email my resume off to the people i met last night today and we’ll see what happens. it sounded like i’ll have options, so i hope they all come through.

speaking of my resume, i was a little self conscious about it because it’s been the same basic format for years. i have my jobs listed then bullet points listing highlights. i saw one guy’s resume on one of the tables while i was talking to someone and it had his name and address at the top, then his job listing was like one big long paragraph! seeing that made me feel a little better about my resume.

i got home about 7:40 and decided not to go to small group that started at 7:30. instead, i kept on my pace towards the half marathon and ran 4 miles. it’s been getting cooler here, so running last night was fantastic. i even felt good after the first mile….(it’s always the hardest i think). i have to run 6 miles on Saturday which i’m not looking forward to, but i’m going to try.

so i got home tonight and went running along my usual route. of course i took the trusty nano along, using the nike+, but i failed to click on the playlist with my running songs. i ended up shuffling ALL of the songs on the iPod. my luck continued as the songs shuffled into my ears were slow songs. initially i thought it would suck, but it got me thinking about my pace. i kept a much more even pace tonight than i have the past two weeks, and actually had a better time. maybe running to A Fine Frenzy and slower Ryan Adams isn’t such a big deal after all. i don’t plan on trying it next time, but i guess if i notice a difference, i’ll go with the slower songs again.

when i went to upload my run, i started a training program for a half marathon. according to the schedule, i should be able to run it by Christmas. i guess we’ll see about that.

work was okay today i guess. i was having a conversation with a couple of co-workers at my desk when BO guy randomly rolled his chair over to offer us some walnuts he had in a big ziploc bag. just another day at the office!

today there was no carpool, so it was just me in the car on the way to work. i FINALLY broke out my FM transmitter for my Nano to use in the car. i’ve been struggling with the radio lately, even the classic rock radio, because it seems they play the same 50 or so songs. (a lot of AC/DC for some reason). yesterday i uploaded a lot of songs to my iPod and almost filled it, so i have about 600 songs. anyway, on the way to work this morning, i had the songs on shuffle and Yellow came on. in the serene morning on the bridge, it felt like the perfect song for that moment. i remembered the show i went to in Houston hearing Yellow and how everyone collectively smiled, how Yellow was the first Coldplay song i had ever heard, how at that concert i felt a part of something bigger than just me, blah blah blah.

(why oh why was Viva La Vida so bad?!? i really wanted to like it!)

after this past weekend’s college football games i don’t know what to believe anymore. i remember back in my Catechism days, we had a retreat and we played this game called Backpack Mess Up. it was something where everyone would be categorized as something normally found in a backpack. then the person leading the game would call out items and those people would have to move around. then if the person said backpack mess up, everyone had to move around. come to think of it the game wasn’t that much fun, and it doesn’t really make any sense as i described it. so this weekend in college football felt like backpack mess up. four top 10 teams lost, including UF on a blocked XP (wtf?). Clemson blew an easily winnable game that defies logic. everything i thought i knew was turned upside down. except LSU won, and that was the one thing all weekend that made sense.

the Saints game on Sunday made me feel great. it felt like 2006 again. hopefully it’s a sign of things to come for the season and not an aberration. welcome back Deuce!

last night i had a dream involving another celebrity…actually two celebrities. i dreamt i was in the Atlanta metro area (i think) and going to visit an old run down museum to Izzy, the mascot for the Atlanta Olympics. i’m pulling up to the museum at the top of this hill and i see a few other cars and trucks, and guys in black tracksuits. i park the car and realize the guys in black tracksuits are part of Alton Brown’s Feasting On Asphalt crew. AB is actually there as well, and talking to a group who looked like they were about to go tour the museum. i get out of the car and one of the tracksuit guys and i start talking, and he remembered me from the previous day from a cooking demonstration or something. i remember thinking AB would remember me from our somewhat awkward encounter at the bookstore in NOLA. as we walked over to join the tour group, i woke up. the reasoning for having this dream may be found below….

yesterday i had PT and then lifted weights at the gym (they are in the same location, so i really have no excuse) and got home about 7:30 (JUST in time for How I Met Your Mother!). i had plans to use the chicken i had bought that had an expiration date of 9/20, and had hopes of trying out the Macaroni Grill dinner stuff i had bought the last time i went to the store. i figured it was like one of those supper bake things, where you just lay everything out and put it in the oven. oh no, this process involved oil, a skillet, coating chicken in flour, and large BBQ tongs. i had never fried or used hot oil before, so it was going to be a night of firsts in the cooking department.

the box says prep time was 20 minutes, but whatever, when i saw everything i’d need and what i had to do, i knew it wasn’t going to only take 20 minutes. i was tired, i was getting a late start cooking, but i decided to do it anyway.

i cut and breaded the chicken according to the instructions and oiled the pan to cook them.

the box called for 1 lb, but i had bought 1.5 lbs, and stupid me didn’t use the big skillet, so i had to go to the skillet twice to make to cook all the chicken. since i don’t have regular sized tongs, i had to use my giant BBQ tongs which were ridiculously oversized for this endeavor. (sorry, no pictures of those)

i added the cooking wine and the seasoning to the chicken after they were browned on each side and let it simmer. then i got out my big pyrex dish thing and put the finished chicken in while i went to the 2nd batch.

meanwhile, the pasta’s cooking in its own pot ready to be served in time when all the chicken was done. the 2nd batch didn’t do as well, since there wasn’t as much chicken, the oil did some popping. it ended up being okay, and nothing caught on fire.

i needed to run the dishwasher, so i was down on plates and almost used a paper plate to serve. (what, it’s just me, i don’t care!) i ended up using a bowl and that worked out better anyway.

the final verdict was the taste, so around 9 pm i was finally able to eat, and it was fantastic. the box says there are 5 servings, but i think i’m only going to be getting 3 servings out of it. there’s not much pasta that comes in the box, so i guess they don’t plan on people eating a lot of the pasta. i might have to try to portion better next time though just to see if i can get the 5 servings.

so a couple of weeks ago when i packed up to go to ATL and then possibly evacuate for Gustav, i packed up among other things my checkbook. until today, it was MIA and i had no idea where it was. i looked in several places where i thought it would be to no avail. i knew i only had one check left in the book, but i couldn’t even find my replacement checks. the lost checkbook was looking like it was going to be a problem when my fridge broke, but the crisis was avoided when i ended up FIXING IT MYSELF and buying the replacement part with my check card. i had looked into ordering new checks, but getting two books of checks canceled just seemed silly to me since i knew if i kept looking i’d find my lost checks. today i went to work unpacking stuff i had packed and doing a lot of laundry. found in a Target bag with a travel bottle of Listerine and a travel bottle of shampoo was my checkbook and extra checks. i felt very relieved, esp since my electric bill was due tomorrow and i was going to have to write a check. it’s the only check i write, mostly because to pay that online i have to sign up for another website not related to my power company, which i don’t want to do. (i know, i’m weird like that)

another high today was the Ryder Cup. The US pulled off the huge upset! so maybe it wasn’t as big an upset as the 1980 US hockey team, or Giants over the Patriots, but it was close! all of the players were making great shots all 3 days, and especially today. it was fantastic to watch. the only downside of watching pretty much all three days of coverage was the NBC commentators. today while the Americans put together an amazing Singles round, Johnny Miller made every effort to say how the Europeans would be able to make a comeback to win (the US had entered the day up 2 points). despite his condescending tone throughout the past two days, i enjoyed watching the tournament for the sights and sounds [HD was gorgeous!]. the crowd and players were so amped with the chanting and the flag waving. it was amazing to watch. i can’t imagine having that much pressure on almost every shot. i’ve played in tournaments before, and had pressure putts, but to have so much riding on it…..your team, your country? crazy.

and now the low….i watched the Saints/Broncos game today. it was a wild game with each team making plays. i caught the very end of the 1st half, where the Saints could not get a TD from inside the 5 yard line and turned it over on downs. why there was no play action i will not know. they got a safety on the next Broncos play, but still, they could have had a touchdown. anyway, fast forward to the end of the game…..Broncos lead 34-32 but the Saints have the ball in FG range. the Saints, instead of staying with the offense that got them there [Drew Brees had over 400 yards passing], they played for the FG. they ran the ball and ultimately it came down to a 3rd and 1. they had the same situation last week against the Redskins and did not make it. so today, with a chance to redeem themselves, they run THE SAME PLAY THAT GOT STUFFED LAST WEEK. no problem right, they can still kick the FG right….WRONG! the kicker missed the FG and the Broncos took over and the Saints never were able to threaten again. there was no excuse for them to lose today, it was ridiculous and very frustrating. however, considering the other results for the sporting events i watched this weekend turned out in my favor (like LSU!), i can stomach a Saints loss, although i surely did not want to lose like that.

last night i had a dream where i went with some people to Steven Curtis Chapman’s house. i don’t remember why we went. i do remember having some time with SCC where i told him about how i wanted a job in Nashville and if he could help me. i also remember dropping the name of someone i know there already in music, on the business side. i woke up before SCC dropped the valuable knowledge that i’m sure he possessed.

this morning i woke up and met up with Chad at the gym for my first experience with a Spin Class. Chad told me last night that it was an intermediate class, so i wasn’t too worried about it. i’ve been running a lot more the past week or so, how hard can riding a bike be? the instructor came around and asked if there were any new people there, and Chad and I were the only ones. she came around and helped us get our bikes setup and she kept the microphone on, so the entire class heard her. she asked if we had done the Beginner class, which neither of us had. so she says “well this is the extreme class, but if you can’t do something off the saddle (that meant standing up off the seat), you can sit back down”. great, the EXTREME class! we started out on the least resistance on the pedals, which was a piece of cake. i don’t know if i was increasing the resistance right, because i never really had a problem peddling sitting down. the standing up and peddling, which the instructor said was like going up a hill, was hard. my right foot came out of the pedal about three times, which caused me one time to almost fall off the bike. that would have sucked and i probably would have been singled out by the instructor. (we were pretty much peddling the whole time, and we did this thing where we’d stand up off the bike then back down, and during those motions is when my foot came out. it sounds easy, but you try it!) The music was a lot of techno, which was kind of cool, including a techno version of “Ice Ice Baby”. also, “Behind These Hazel Eyes” came on, and i may or may not have lipsynched. Chad and I were able to complete the class though, and it was cool to do something like that. the only issue i have with it is that it’s at 8 in the morning, on a Saturday. yuck. there will be a next time i go though, and i’ll be sure to bring a towel, some water, and turn the resistance knob the right way.

i had today off, so i woke up early to watch some early play in the Ryder Cup. i LOVE golf, and the Ryder Cup is one of my favorite events to watch. it’s the US vs Europe in match play, there’s drama. unfortunately, the US hasn’t won since 1999. that year they had an epic comeback to win, but that kind of drama has been absent ever since. this year everyone counted them out because they didn’t have Tiger, they haven’t won since 1999, Europe’s really good, but i had a feeling they could pull it out. anyway, so this morning i woke up and watched some of the early matches. i went running, then had PT, and came back this afternoon to watch the afternoon matches. it was fantastic! a couple of times i saw myself out there. J.B. Holmes bombed a drive down the fairway, only to yank the 2nd shot way off line. i do that when i’m playing, it sucks. you feel so good after the drive, you’re hitting from the middle of the fairway with a wedge or something, all you have to do is put it on the green, and you screw it up. anyway, the US has a 3 point lead going into Saturday, first time they’ve had a lead after the first day since 1995. two more days of Ryder Cup watching!

in addition to the golf, there’s soccer this weekend. my friend jacob really got me into watching English soccer, and there are some big games coming up this weekend. i’m going to be watching tomorrow morning before college football starts up as jacob’s fave team West Ham plays, then my supposed favorite team Arsenal plays. then Sunday, Chelsea plays Man U. awesome!

and of course, it’s LSU/Auburn weekend. i’ve already been sending trash talk emails and facebook messages. i can’t wait for the game to start! i’m going to watch it at a friend’s house with some other people. it’s going to be great! i remember standing at my sink peeling an apple when Flynn threw the TD pass last year, and jumping up and down with the knife in hand when LSU won. this year i will be more careful with sharp objects.

oh, and the Saints play the Broncos. almost forgot about that!

so an update on my shoulder….i started going to PT on Monday and the PT assigned to my case examined me and took her time, a little more than the orthopedist did. she doesn’t think i have a torn labrum, but rather an impinged muscle. specifically, she thinks it’s possible the supraspinatus muscle could be impinged. she said it could have happened when i had a small irritation, then gotten painful when i did something like boxing. (we had a fight night [with gloves and mouthpieces], and explaining that was a bit awkward. “were you punching a bag?” “no, i was punching a person”. i suspect that night i could have really hurt it, because i was swinging hard (and missing mostly) but i don’t specifically remember feeling anything other than soreness). she gave me rehab exercises to do at home and so far i think they have helped a lot. on Wednesday i had my first real PT session, and she had me use weight machines and free weights to work my shoulder. then she massaged all the muscles around to get blood flow going. it was a little painful, but it felt great after. i need to do my rehab exercises before i go to bed tonight actually. i have my next appointment tomorrow right before lunch and don’t want to disappoint! the good thing about the impinged muscle is obviously it probably will not involve surgery, just some PT. i’m still in line to go back to the orthopedist the first full week of October, so hopefully i’ll have a definitive answer of a diagnosis one way or the other after that.

last weekend, i moved any and all hurricane debris out to the edge of the street to be picked up. this included the branches that fell during Gustav AND the branches and fence pieces that fell during Katrina that i always thought i would burn in my firepit that i never got around to. the parish came and picked up the stuff yesterday, so my yard looks much better, and i don’t have a pile of old wood in my backyard anymore.

today at work was another episode out of a tv show. the BO guy sits behind me by about 10 feet now, and normally it’s fine. he sometimes is on the phone a lot, but lately it’s been okay. today though he called IT…..ON SPEAKERPHONE. he was on the phone for at least an hour on speakerphone, and at one point had two IT people on the phone with him, so it was like a 3 person teleconference. i think it was something about his password, but i wasn’t sure. we don’t have a complicated operation going on to login to the computer. you log on to the computer with one password, then log on to the network with a different password. this simple concept is lost on the older people at our office sometimes, most recently today. i’m definitely getting tired of the circus that’s been going on lately. things are in the works though like resumes being sent out, so we’ll see what happens soon.

so Thursday night, i noticed my refrigerator making a clicking sound every few minutes. it was still working, but i knew there was a problem. i googled the problem and realized it was a broken start relay. not immediately finding a how-to, i called to schedule a repair from Sears when i got to work the next morning.

this experience kind of played off of my Subway experience on Thursday. i stopped on my way to Jacob’s to get a sandwich. the guy asked me white or wheat, i told him wheat. he makes my sandwich and gets to the toppings. i tell him “lettuce, tomato, onions”, he puts lettuce, tomato, pickles. i repeat “onions” twice before he figures out onions does not equal pickles. he goes to take them off but i told him i was going to ask for them anyway. when i open the sandwich, he made it on white. hopefully the kid is not looking at subway as a career. anyway, so calling Sears….i tried to schedule one online, but they were giving me a time window of 8 am to 5 pm. whatever. i called the 800 number to hopefully talk to someone and schedule a slimmer window. it gave me the option to schedule a Friday appointment online, but when i called, the guy told me the next available day would be Tuesday. i told him about the available Friday appointment online, but he said he didn’t see that. so i told him i’d call back later and hung up. i went online and scheduled the Friday 8-5 appointment. someone called me about an hour later and said nobody could come Friday, but they could come Saturday. fine, so i agreed to that and figured someone would call me in the morning.

i stayed up most of the night watching the Ike coverage (i was fascinated to see a hurricane’s landfall from the comfort of my home instead of being evacuated). i got up this morning and googled how to fix the start relay. i found this webpage where the guy basically made a picture tutorial on how to fix it. it seemed easy enough, so about 9:15 am i set off to Home Depot to get the replacement part. sadly, HD does not carry any refrigerator spare parts, just spare refrigerators. one of the guys told me about an appliance part supply place, so i took off for the supply store. i called my sister on the way to get the location because all i had was a street name. i found the place and walked in to find two gentlemen discussing appliance brands and the guy behind the counter had a cowboy hat on.

after the other customer left, i explained to the guy behind the counter my problem. i had brought the model number of the fridge but unfortunately he did not have the part in stock. he asked if i had brought the original part, but i hadn’t, so i had to go back home then return with the original part.

the original part:

when i got back he saw that he still did not have the replacement part, but he would be able to help me out with a universal relay, something i’d have to rewire to get to work. we walked over to a rack full of relays and he pulled one off the rack. he opened it then said “i have no idea of your experience level for this” and i told him i didn’t really work on refrigerators, but if he told me how to install it, i’d get it done. he showed me what i’d have to do, which didn’t seem complicated, as long as i kept the wires correct. i wrote down his instructions and thanked him for the part. it was $27, Sears was going to charge me $65 just for coming out, then i assume money for the part.

on my way home i called up the Sears 800 number and cancelled the appointment. i was on hold for almost 10 minutes! the guy asked me why i was cancelling, and i told him “i figured out how to fix the problem and am doing it myself.” this was about 11:30, and no one from Sears had called me to tell me they were coming, so who knows when they would have actually gotten to my house!

i started by taking off the old wires using scissors so i could splice the new relay in. i plugged in the relay to the compressor like i was shown at the supply shop, then plugged in the wires to the capactior. then i spliced the power wires together.

i plugged in the fridge….the compressor didn’t kick on. i called the shop, he asked if i had wired everything and i told him i did, and he said to just wait, but he gave me the number of a guy to call if it didn’t work (he was going to be at the shop until 1). so i waited and watched the Clemson/NC State game, then i went and checked the fridge, still nothing. i looked at the wiring i had done……i had mixed up two wires going into the compressor (there are three). so i changed the wires and plugged in the fridge. SUCCESS! the compressor kicked on and everything works. i fixed the fridge myself for $27.

here’s what all i needed, the utility knife, scissors, and instructions:

i ended up throwing out the milk, juice, and meat that i had in the fridge, but it wasn’t that much. i might throw out more tomorrow if i think i should….but still, I FIXED THE REFRIGERATOR MYSELF! FOR TWENTY SEVEN DOLLARS!