Bringing the Drama

my cell does not accept incoming calls cause of where its based. i can make calls out though, sometimes. i’m okay. my house has a tree in it, maybe two. its still there which is what i was hoping would be the case. more to come later. i might go home thursday and have a tree cutting party friday. its definitely not as bad as i thought it would be. i haven’t been home yet to see anything, but my friend len was able to get in there yesterday luckily. being in the military has its priveleges. no flooding in my neighborhood, and the tree doesn’t sound as bad as i could have been.

as far as work, i will probably have a long vacation. i haven’t heard anything, but i know there was major flooding on that side of town.

uncertainty really sucks. i have a lot of it in my life right now, but also with a hurricane in the gulf. two days ago i was figuring the storm would follow the path the hurricane center set out. but thanks to some very wrong forecasting, looks like the storm is coming straight for N.O. so i’m heading west. i think i’m going to head the same place i did last year, to my grandfather’s in baton rouge. all the computer models on trusty weather underground are pretty much set on the MS/AL border. and usually when 4 out of 5 are the same, i figure that’s pretty dependable. i don’t want to go too far. my parents are heading for houston. anyway, i’m packing up the computer, no telling what will happen in the next few days. so if you could, say some prayers for safety and that the storm doesn’t directly hit N.O. i’d like to have an undamaged house and an office to go back to on tuesday.

personally, i’m hoping for a repeat of ivan, the storm just veers east at the last minute. i only had a few branches down. i cut my grass this afternoon. so at least i don’t have that to do when i get back.

so the trip for work was cool. i hadn’t been to DC in about 8 years, so it was good to see the new monuments like the ww2 and korean war memorials. my friend melanie and i walked around saturday night and saw them all. you would think two people from N.O. would be able to deal with the sweltering temps of DC in the summer, and i guess technically we did. but it was quite warm and humid for after 9 pm at night. i did get some cool pictures though. oh, and i was not able to make it to the orioles game because my plane was delayed 4 hours. so basically i got to the airport at 7:15 for an 8 am flight, only to have to sit in the airport until 12. so i didn’t get there till the afternoon. i ended up having to take a cab from the airport to the hotel. and i felt bad cause i couldn’t really understand what the cab driver was saying when i was trying to ask him questions. i really don’t like car silences like that, esp when the drive was about half an hour.

the conference was awesome. i met a ton of new people and learned a lot. the company i work for is pretty cool. i met people from different sites around the country, and saw how their jobs compared to mine. i guess i don’t have it so bad off, i mean, i like the people i work for, just not the work. some people liked neither. it was good to be in an environment where i had to meet people. i remember one of the reasons i went to clemson was to meet new people, and i remember that first week doing things not knowing anyone. last week was similar, and i loved it. the center was kind of out in the boonies, so there was not much to do other than go to the sports bar at night. it was so funny seeing everyone in the morning after staying up late. i of course was also in that number. apparently a lager called yuengling is popular up in virginia, and i had some of that. it really wasn’t bad, but nothing mind blowing.

this weekend was tough getting back into the regular routine. i am already dreading going to work tomorrow. one of the things i’m thankful about the program is the rotations, so i can see a light at the end of the tunnel for my frustrations. and i won’t get pigeonholed in my current position, which i was afraid of. my september is shaping up to be really busy. i’ll be out of town for three out of the four weekends. and the fourth weekend i’m going to a concert. just the way i like it.

so obviously my plan in the last post did not work, in fact backfired since nobody even commented. what a sad day.

i went to out to best buy and walmart with my friend chad earlier tonight and told him i was having to think of something good, something that i could leave up for a week since i’ll be out of town. i might as well just talk about some of the more interesting things i’ve read about this week. i’ve read articles this week about a man biting a mailman. yes, you read that right. my friend jacob interviewed nada surf, so that was cool to read. though somehow the story was missing, i don’t know, a dog chewing through something. but i digress.

the most interesting thing i read this week was this series of entires about this complicated relationship. it brought up several questions i had regarding how i’m sharing my faith, in addition to totally breaking my heart. i’m still trying to process what i had read and what it made me think. i realized sometimes how i’m like natala in that i want to tell someone the gospel and see them saved because i want to be involved in that salvation story so to speak. but then i realize i made more of an impact on andy by just living as an example than the night i talked to him about the gospel on the way home from an lsu game. its been interesting how my mindset has changed over the years. when my friends and i would go to fca, i remember they made such a big deal about getting people saved as fast as you could. i was so uncomfortable on mission trips having to talk about the impact God had on my life after about 5 minutes of talking to them. it didn’t seem real to me then, and it doesn’t really seem real to me now. i don’t want to look like i’m selling something. its not real. my friend mike posted about an experience he had a while back in pasadena, and my first thought to his post was how different we look at things now compared to how we looked at them 5 years ago. five years. it doesn’t seem that long, but it feels like an eternity. anyway, chew on the links, and i’ll be back to share much more next weekend. shalom.

in the spirit of tonight’s title (which incidentally is taken from this cd), i’ll begin with a statement, then continue with other things…

one of the cool things about having word press is that you get to see how people are getting to your page. such as what they are searching for to wind up reading what you write. one of the things i’ve been noticing, is the famous friend of LGID still reads. well, at least i think she does. this can mean one of two things….1) she’s waiting for me to say something bad about LGID so she can speak up again to add her ‘food for thought’ or 2) she finds what she reads interesting and maybe she’s interested in getting to know me better. so for you K, if it is #2, you can reply to that email i had sent you and we can talk. there’s my food for thought.

so today was exciting watching the shuttle land. (hope you have real player!) i had been pretty nervous about it landing ever since they took off a couple of weeks ago. but it was really cool to watch it land this morning. work’s been pretty great this week. the other day me and some other people got a bonus. of course, that bonus was for all the hard work and OT we had put in over the holidays, etc the past couple of years, so i guess it was nice to see that stuff recognized. things are rolling along, and i get to go to DC this weekend to stay for a week. so it’ll be the longest i’ve been gone from work ever, at least my current job. i haven’t had holidays that last that long, even though theoretically around christmas i should. i’m really looking forward to this weekend, it should be fun.

i went out and got the new nickel creek album today, and like chris alluded to back at jazz fest, its really good. i’m excited that they announced tour dates, and sure enough, they are playing new orleans.

so today at work i literally saw the concept of “too many cooks in the kitchen” being manifested to show how bad an idea it is. and i’ll leave it at that.

so i scored my tickets to the schmay on saturday. the HOB is basically a freakin bar, there’s no seats except tables around the edges of the floor area. this kind of crap pisses me off. its bad enough i have to deal with TM on a regular basis for tickets, but i feel bad for people who are naive enough to pay money for scalped tickets by brokers who purposefully got tickets in order to gouge people. also, notice the guy selling for $10 a tip on how to bypass the line into the show. its called “buy a meal at the HOB”. someone should send me $10.

another thing…i was discussing my trip to the grocery store earlier tonight with marika. why do people insist on walking their cart around like they have all freakin night? why do they stop their cart in front of a section of produce i’m trying to get to, then act like they don’t see me? is it just because they don’t care, or are they really that oblivious? and another thing, on my way there i see this mint green escort pull out of the target parking lot. four not ready for gq people in the car all smoking. what’s the deal? why knowingly kill yourself? esp if you can’t really look cool doing it? seriously. if you want to be giving yourself bad lungs, go right ahead. but please take a look in the mirror and decide if you look good doing it. two wrongs don’t make a right!