Perspective

As I was finishing up at work this morning, I went into Kim's office. Kim used to be my direct supervisor until she and I were both simultaniously promoted. I went into her old position.

Little bit of a back story here. Natrually, when you work with someone, day in, day out, you are going to forge a relationship. Kim and I have a unique relationship. She was my boss from September of 2001 until June of 2005, so naturally, we know each other well, and care about one another a lot. She is a very special lady.

Back to the story. Kim has been having a very rough time lately. She is going through a divorce. She has 3 children, the oldest of which is currently a senior in high school. Kim is only 35 years old so naturally, she had her children at a young age. More on this in a minute.

Anyway, I went into her office just to chat and see how she is doing. Like I said, she and I have a special relationship and to an extent, we can read eachother up there better than anyone else can. We can tell when the other one is in a bad mood or has something on their mind. Today was one of those days that I could tell Kim was thinking about something. During work, while everyone was there, I just walked up and gave her a hug. I told her I love her and she just smiled at me.

After the sort, and after I finished up all of my work, I went into her office just to chat. I asked how she was and she said she was ok. She asked about my dating life, which is non-existant. (LOL)We got to talking about her, and she said that after her divorce, she never wants to get married again. She said something very striking to me...she said that she was entirely too young when she got married and she now realizes that she was never truly in love. She said as sad as it sounds, that it is true. She said that she felt that she and her husband got married for the wrong reasons and she knows that he was never truly in love either.

I've been thinking about this all day. It's really sad that she said that. I am NOT knocking her. It just got me to thinking.

Usually, I am pretty care free and laid back. There is the occasional moment or day that I feel lonely and desire for companionship. However for the most part, I am very content with my life and my singleness. As I told Kim when she asked, I guess I have not gotten married because God's timing for that to happen just hasn't happened yet. If and when I find the girl that God intends for me to marry, then I will know it.

Kim's experience just solidified that for me. I would rather be single and happy than married and miserable. Too many times, we get wrapped up in the great things that come with a relationship. Relationships are indeed great and I treasure the ones that I have. However, they do require work and dedication. We can't go into them with our eyes closed.

It's ironic that this conversation happened today. Recently, despite "hiding" my feelings, I have been in a funk about being single. I have kinda moped around and felt sorta sorry for myself a little. No more! The conversation that we had, reminded me of just how blessed I am in life. Yes, we all have our battles, but God has blessed me in SO many ways, that I have no right to even begin to feel sorry for myself. I have a lot of great Christian family and friends who love me very much, and of course, who I love tremendously. Life has been good to me and I appreciate that.

To all of my friends who read this regularly, thank you for being a part of my life. I love and appreciate you all very much. I am blessed to have you in my life and am always here for each and every one of you. In your own ways, each of you has impacted my life in your own unique way, and helped to shape who I am, and who I will become. You mean the world to me.

Life is fixin to get very interesting

Sup y'all? Not a whole lot of new 'news' here to report. Just some interesting stuff at work that is going on and will be going on. Let me elaborate.....

First of all, Adrian, my terminal manager informed me on Thursday that in May, I will be training Julius, our night shift manager to do my job, for about a week. After that, I will be spending an entire week working the night shift, learning all of the administrative stuff (since I already know the "physical part" of the night shift work, the office work is all I don't know) that goes along with that aspect of our business. THEN....probably in early June, I will be spending a week with Greg Lang, who is the full time manager who deals with the delivery aspect of things, learning HIS job. All of this is so that I can have some legitimate experience so that Adrian, in his words, can "get you promoted, out of here and on your way to bigger and better things."

Then, on Friday, I was speaking with my regional manager, he tells me that he is going to be here the first week of May so that he can observe my management style, and get me certified on some things, which will allow me to get ready to transfer out. He told me "Greg, you're doing a fantastic job, don't doubt that.That made me feel good.

Both Adrian and my regional boss (Ed) know that I want to get transferred by the first of the year at the very latest, so it looks like they are confident enough in my abilities to help me along in that process. Things seem to be looking up!

Now...here's the question...though a lot of it depends on exactly where there are openings...where do I want to go? Part of me wants to stay in Texas and try to go to Dallas, Ft. Worth, or Irving. Maybe even Austin to be closer to my nephew and niece there, who I don't get to see enough of. There are several other good facilities in Texas that I would definitely consider. Outside of Texas....anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE Tennessee, especially eastern parts of it. Where will I end up? Who knows? But for now...the pendelum seems to be swinging toward me getting out of Texarkana sooner rather than later :)

Returned From NYC

I got in yesterday from my trip to New York City and lemme tell ya...I was exhausted. New York City was awesome! So much to do....never a lapse in finding something to do if you want to.

My trip started out stangely. My dad dropped me off at the airport in Little Rock and as I was checking my bags in at the curb, security was in an argument with a man about his leaving his car unattended. Security was trying to explain to him that he can't leave his car there (in the drop off zone) and the man insisted that a friend was watching it, and his car. The security officer told him, that every car had to be atteneded, so this idiot goes off and starts screaming in Arabic. Lovely. NOT smart to get mad and scream in Arabic at an airport of all places. That may not be politically correct...but we all know it's true.

Then I went onto Albany via Chicago. That leg of the trip was uneventful. Dustin picked me up in Albany and gave me a brief tour of the city. It is much more beautiful than I thought it would be. We went on to his house, had dinner with his wife and stayed up pretty late talking and watching movies. Monday we drove around Albany some more after going to a state park in the mountains. At the state park we walked trails (absolutely gorgeous views) and grilled hot dogs. In Albany we went and saw the state capitol, the downtown area, etc. I was really pleased at how clean the area is. Most big cities are dirty in the downtown areas, but that is not the case with Albany.

Tuesday started with us getting up at 4:30am to catch the 5:10 train to New York City. We both caught a few minutes of sleep on the train but not much. The train let us off right at Madison Square Garden in NYC. We immediately went walking and hit Times Square. TV does Times Square no justice. It is SO big and SO busy. We did so much that I don't remember what order we did things in. Then we went to Rockefeller Center. And this huge Catholic Church arcross from Rockefller Center. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it but it is a magnificant structure and the inside of it is gorgeous. I got some good pictures of it.I know on Tuesday we visited Ground Zero which was very somber. There are signs all around the perimeter telling the story of 9/11. Very sad indeed. A list of all of the victims who passed away is also present. Just trying to read the names and soak them all in is an extremely daunting and sad task. You can't get a really good picture of the area where the Towers stood, but you can see this big, gaping hole in the ground and the landscape and know what happened. After that, we grabbed a bite to eat in Manhatten (VERY pricey) and made our way to our hotel in New Jersey to get a couple of hours rest before heading back into the city. That evening we went to Times Square again (I wanted to see it at night) and then to the Empire State Building. I wanted to go to the top (Observation deck) but there was a 2-2.5 hour wait. It just wasn't THAT important to me. If I was in NYC for a week...yeah I would have done it...but with only 2 days, that would have taken a lot of my time. We milled aound in NYC for a while, just looking, etc until we headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday we headed into NYC and went into Central Park. It's amazing. We were on the outter edges of the park and still, a lot of the hustle and bustle of the city were drowned out. We also visited the Statue of Liberty. Again, there was about a 2 hour wait for the ferry, and we didn't have that kind of time before the ball game. The part of the trip that made me the most upset was the fact that my camera quit working at the Staue. I got one decent shot of the Statue from land and then, my camera died. I was pretty mad about that. Dustin got some good pics and said he'd send me some...but it's just not the same. After that we hopped on a subway and headed to Yankees Stadium where we had tickets for an afternoon game. THAT got off to a bad start when security made us leave the stadium area and check in our bags (we were carrying backpacks) at a bowling alley across the street. Naturally this bowling alley charged $5 just to put a bag in a closet. Robbery I tell ya! Seriously though, I overheard someone say that this bowling alley made over $150,000 last baseball season just having bags checked in. GOTTA be some sort of agreement with the Yankees. There is NO indication on the tickets that wouldn't be let in. Both of our bags were small enough to fit under our seats. Anyway, after the Yankees game we went into the Financial District, walked around a bit, ate some dinner, and went back to the vicinity of Penn Station where we would catch our bus back to Albany. We watched in amazement, along with about 100 other people, as this artist took 2 pans of spray paint, a ruler and a pan lid and did a PERFECT painting of the NYC skyline. It was amazing. All I could say was wow. This guy was awesome. It was spectacular.

Then we headed to the bus terminal for our ride back into Albany. That was uneventful except for the girl sitting in front of us talking on her cell phone for 2 hours solid while everyone else tried to get some sleep. Ah well. We got back to Albany and stayed up talking with Dustin's wife for a while before going to sleep. Got up the next morning...went to the airport and left. I just got my luggage today though. Somehow it got lost either in Albany, Chicago, St. Louis or Little Rock. No telling LOL

All in all I had a wonderful time. I loved visiting Dustin and Laura, definitely loved NYC. I plan to go back up there sometime but will definitely spend more time there. Two days simply isn't enough. I will try to work it out so that I can go up there in the fall, to see Dustin and Laura, to see the leaves changing colors and to spend more than 2 days in the City. I had a spectacular time and look forward to going again.

I will try to post some pics soon. I dunno how to do it, but I will try. I just got my digital camera and am still learning its featuers. Stay tuned!

One more week.....

One more week (actually 6 days but who's counting?) until I am actually in Albany, New York. Most of our plans are getting more and more set in stone. There are places that Dustin and I both want to go, so we'll get as much of that done as possible. I was doing some research and it costs either $14 or $18 to go to the top of the Empire State Building and look out from the observation deck. I am sure that it is a spectacular view...but is it worth that kind of money? I dunno. When it is all said and done, it's still just looking out the window of a big, tall building. Will I go? We'll see.

Definitely want to go see the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero and Central Park. Time Square is of course a natural. If any of you have been to NYC and have other suggestions, let me know. I may even try to take in a museum or two. Most of it just depends on time, and walking distance. I am getting more and more excited.

Tomorrow is gonna be a crazy day. I have to do my regular duties at work, and then it is off to the college with my regional HR rep for a job fair. So I will be pretty packed in until 1 or 2p.m. Add to that the fact that due to the job fair, I have to bail on a conference call with the Regional Director of Operations, and it's just gonna be a lovely day LOL. Adrian, my direct supervisor suggested that after the job fair I come back to work at 430p.m. for the second conference call but I told him no way. The thing is, I am considered part-time. I am paid salary, based on a 30 hour work week (or less). If I do that, then that will have me at about 13 hours tomorrow. I told him I would do it if he covers me on Saturday since I will be WAY over my hours by then, he said no...so I said no too. Simple as that. I put in far more hours than I am "paid for" as it is...and to add to my already stretched work load would be unfair. So, they will just have to gimme a run down later.

By the way, the lip is healing up very nicely. I still have a small knot/swelling on my upper lip but it's nothing major and it is going down in size. Thanks to all of ya who called and checked on me. Thanks for all of the jokes on my inability to say certain words too. That was MUCH appreciated :) LOL It's all good though.

I'll leave ya with a good one today. Go read the 23rd Psalm. I sometimes read it during frustrating times, and it reminds me of who is actually in charge and leading my path :)