From the Desk 4/25/2008

It's Friday! I was happy that the weekend was here. Not because I don't have to go to work, as I love the things I working on right now, but as a chance to see family and friends for my trip to Knoxville this weekend. I arrived at work a little early as traffic was light. I witnessed The School Box's own MacGyver, Mihn, using his agility and ingenuity to open Vickie's locked office door, as she had locked her keys inside. Normally Vickie would just go to another source for keys (Mike, Dave, or Michaele) but all three of them were not in the building at that time and she needed to make a conference call. I began working on a sign to promote some Case-It brand binders that we were going to put on sale. We are now in the mode to move out old product from last year's back-to-school to make room on the shelves for new product this year. I also spoke with Dave about details concerning the Summer Learning insert into the newspaper in about 3 weeks. I called the Chattanooga Times Free Press and The Knoxville News Sentinel to make sure they had us on their schedule for when they would receive the inserts from us and when they would go out for delivery. After finally speaking with the right person at the News Sentinel everything was set on our end.

Our lunch group (Stacy, Tausha, Carmen, and Blair - Mike was MIA on vacation today) went out to eat today for Tausha's birthday. We ate at On the Border Mexican restaurant and we asked to be seated away from as many people as possible because when we all get together we will inevitably end up laughing very loudly and could potentially disrupt other patrons eating their meals. I had the Fiesta Chicken Salad, which was a salad with fiesta chicken, bacon, black beans, corn, and crispy tortilla strips with chipotle-honey mustard dressing. It was delicious and I was rather proud of myself for ordering a salad and attempting to eat healthier than I normally would. We convinced our server that we needed them to sing happy birthday to Tausha to enhance the celebratory meal. They did and she was embarrassed to our satisfaction. We took some pictures and then headed back to work. Once I was back at my desk, I had trouble focusing because I really just wanted to take a nap. I decided to remain here in Kennesaw for tonight to continue the celebration with Tausha and company. I was the first time where I could have had plans in Knoxville, but instead had plans here at my new home to keep me out of my apartment on a Friday night. We spent some more time at the office celebrating Tausha's birthday with a cookie cake from Rhonda in the warehouse. I ran by the bank to deposit a wedding video check and then made my way home.

I ran by the apartment office to pick up a package that had arrived for me. It was my new cell phone! I decided to upgrade since my current phone had a battery that was limping along having to be charged sometimes daily and the speaker phone was busted as I had accidentally dropped it one too many times. I played around with it for a while and added everyone into my contacts list. I ate some dinner and waited for the night to go on until we were all supposed to meet at 10:20 to watch Baby Momma in the theater near Town Center Mall. About 9:45 Stacy called me to say that Tausha was really tired and so was she, so I decided that we could just go see it one night next week. I decided to spend the rest of the evening working on some reading and napping. I retired for the evening a little earlier than planned, but that way I can get up early and head into Knoxville first thing in the morning. See you all soon!

Meditation for the day: Psalm 119:33-34 "Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart."