From the Desk 8/12/2008

This morning I woke up and put on the appropriate attire to work for the day on the warehouse. Dave had sent an email yesterday to Tausha, Stacy, and I to ask for more help if we had time to get them through their last large push of Internet orders they received at the tail end of the GA Classroom Gift Card time. I had my cup of coffee and checked some emails before making my way back to the packing tables around 8:45. Tausha and I helped pack up the seemingly never ending line of orders on carts while Stacy helped them pull the orders. Time passes quickly when you are focused intently on doing something quickly (and accurately) that you are not used to doing so when I glanced at the clock and saw it was 10:45 I was surprised. I figured that I had time to pack one more order so I grabbed the only order not being packed at that time, which was actually loaded onto 2 different carts because of its size. I worked on packing the order as fast as I could, but soon realized that it would take longer than 15 minutes. Blair came back and asked us where we wanted to go for lunch since we had deemed that today we would eat out for our one day of the week we've allowed ourselves to do so. Tausha eventually came back to help me finish my order after she had left, thinking I was almost done. She helped me finish amid the threats from Blair that if we didn't hurry up they would leave me! We finished and then made our way out through the store front to Mike's car. The car ride over there made me glad that I had certain height/leg space requirements as the backseat was filled to capacity with Blair, Carmen, Stacy, and Tausha!

We went to Jersey Mike's and I decided to sample a new sub this time. Stacy bought my lunch instead of dinner as it was more convenient to get that out of the way. I had the Buffalo Chicken Sub (shredded chicken grilled with cheese, served with lettuce and buffalo sauce). It was fantastic and something I would recommend to others, although I might ask for light sauce as the amount they put on mine was a bit overpowering. We ate and joked with the staff there before returning to the office. I stopped by my desk to check emails and messages of which I had both. I took care of those quickly and then returned to the warehouse to continue packing. It took until 2:00, but we finally reached a point where we were caught up on packing and the orders weren't being pulled as fast so they were able to keep up without the assistance of Tausha and myself. On the way back to my desk I glanced in the mail room to see if I had anything in my box. In a rare moment I saw that I had received some mail! It was a disc containing the trial version of Microsoft MapPoint 2009. The company I ordered this software from had said they were going to send me the trial version to tide me over until the full version was released and shipped on September 1st. It took me a bit of time to install the program as it is Windows based and I had to run my virtual machine to make it work. The virtual machine basically runs Windows as a separate program allowing me to have both operating systems (Windows and Mac Leopard) on the same machine at the same time. I didn't have any clue on how to use the features of this program, but I quickly learned some of the features. I am excited for the potential of this program to generate demographic information in targeted areas around our stores to better equip me to create marketing messages that speak to our customers near each store. I am certain I will be spending a good deal of time in this program over the next few weeks. Once again, I looked up at the clock and saw that it was 5:00 and time to go home.

I talked with Christina on my way out the door and then went home to change into non-smelly clothes. I met Leslie and Stacy at Marlow's Tavern for dinner. I had the usual Hot and Sweet wings and they did not disappoint. We ate, laughed, and talked there for almost 2 hours before parting ways. We had remarked that it had been far too long since the last time we had gathered there on the Friday before I went to Charleston with Hickey and the Tuckers the first weekend in June. We also remarked that it was a week before Christina and I had our first date (on Friday the 13th!) and it just struck me as odd that only 2 months had passed since then as it felt like a long time had gone by. We said goodbye and I made 2 stops on the way home. I first stopped off to fill-up my car at the nearest Exxon station. If you look closely at this picture just know that no, you do not need to get your eyes checked. The price of gas is $3.66 per gallon! (still its disturbing that we get excited over that amount as being "cheap"). I then ran by the post office drop box to mail out some bills and made my way back home. I was home for about an hour when Christina came over after work. We listened to the Human Fuse CD as I am trying to educate her about my friends back in Knoxville. We also watched the Family Guy marathon on TBS and then switched over to Home Improvement before Christina had to leave for the night. I walked her to her car, said goodnight, and then returned to my apartment. I sent her a quick message on Facebook, telling her to enjoy the Jack Johnson concert tomorrow night (she tried to buy me a ticket, but it was sold out) and then I went to sleep.

Meditation for the day: Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”