From the Desk 6/19/2008

This morning for some reason I woke up at 5:45 and couldn’t get back to sleep quickly so I decided to go ahead and get up. I sent out a few emails and printed some wedding package info to distribute this weekend then decided to shower and get ready for work. I packed up my hiking clothes too, as Mike, Leslie, Christina, and I were going hiking after work today. I left for work a little early to run by the post office to mail out some bills. I got to work and almost immediately began working on a printing project so I wouldn’t be occupying the copier during the busy parts of the day. I had to print 1300 flyers to be placed in bags handed out at a Home School show in Chattanooga in about 3 weeks. The copier actually behaved itself during the printing and didn’t jam or complain at all. After that I set a meeting with Dave and Chris for when they return from their trips on June 30 to sit down and talk about my “secret project” that some of you know already. I then began the tedious and mostly boring task of sorting, editing, and de-duping the customer mailing list in preparation for the mail out of the BTS flyer on July 3rd. This doesn’t sound like an especially labor-intensive project, but you have to remember that one of the lists I was pulling from contained over 25,000 names. I worked on that and finally finished around the time I was going to take lunch (12:00). I had intended to go and get my car registered and the title in my name with the state of Georgia on my lunch break, but I was cautioned by the locals here that it would be crazy at that time of day and it would be best to go first thing in the morning when they open at 8:30. So I made sure it would be ok with Mike if I came in a little late tomorrow after taking care of that and he said sure.

I was on my way out the door to lunch and while walking though the retail floor I saw Christina. I asked her if she wanted me to pick her up anything from Chick-fil-A since that’s where I was going. She said yes so I went and got me a chicken finger salad (which was huge…too much for me to eat in fact) and a bottle of water and got Christina a chicken sandwich. I returned and Sydney, the manager, was kind enough to let Christina take a break and eat some lunch with me. While we were eating, she invited me to go to church with her the next Sunday I was in town (which made me so happy to say yes to that!) She also told me about a free concert by A Fine Frenzy (one of my favorite bands) on Sunday night at 7pm. Unfortunately I will be honoring a great minister of music, Mr. Wendell Boertje, at that time in Knoxville. I wish I could go to the concert though. We finished up lunch and she returned to the sales floor as I went back to my desk. I spent a great deal of time in the afternoon searching online to find a program that we could use to map the location of our customers that shop at each store by charting their zip codes. My search was not very successful, but I will continue to search tomorrow. It was winding down towards the end of the day and I ran out to my car to grab my clothes to change into for hiking. Christina met Mike and I at the front of the store and we journeyed to Kennesaw Mountain. Mike was under a bit of a time crunch so we (Christina and I in my car, and Mike in his) drove separately. We arrived and climbed our way to the top of Kennesaw Mountain without stopping once! We took a brief rest at the top before deciding to go ahead and complete the 5.5 mile loop. Along the way we did see many signs of wildlife. We encountered 2 snakes, a rabbit, and even a deer. The deer was very tame as it almost ignored us being there about 20 feet away from it while it was eating some grass. We finished the hike and I took Christina back to her car at the Box. We chatted on the way about plans for tomorrow night and I couldn't stop smiling (I probably looked goofy....well goofier). I made my way home feeling the effects of not hiking as often as I used to. I ate some dinner and then packed some things for my weekend in Knoxville since I wouldn't have time to pack Saturday morning. I listened to a new album I bought on iTunes by Ray Lamontagne. The album is called "Trouble" and it is a smooth, slow, soulful album filled with blues chords and deep lyrics. I highly recommend it to all. After wasting some time online, I finished a load of laundry and then went to bed.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."