From the Desk 8/26/2008

Today began the same way last night ended: pouring rain. I swam my way into work and managed to get soaked despite parking 15 feet from the warehouse door. (I might recommend to the building improvements committee to enlarge the cover over the door so that is doesn't pour a steady stream of water on you as you use store and Howell Mill store for the majority of the day. That effort was in vain as I got reacquainted with being wet walking out to get in my car. It rained the entire 40 minute drive to the store. Traffic was heavier than I was used to, but I knew that it was actually light for late morning traffic given the weather conditions. I arrived at the your key card to gain access to the building. I typed up the final list of questions for the video interview at the Northlake store today while I attempted to air dry. I was fairly dry by the time I gathered up my stuff to journey to the Northlake store around 10:00 and walked around, taking an official tour of the store guided by Cynthia, the store manager. She is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet and was genuinely excited to have me at her store. After getting the tour, I met Alison Brown, who I would be interviewing, for the first time in person. She seemed very energetic and I hoped that the energy she displayed would come across in the interview. We settled on filming in Leland's office as it was the nicest location available in the store. The filming went well. There was only one phone call that interrupted the interview and there were little to no areas that needed a re-take. Alison was very grateful for us doing this and I told her we were equally excited about her trip and the opportunity to tell her story to other educators by linking to the video and her blog from our website. Once I packed up my video equipment, I loaded everything back in my car as it began raining again. (It should be noted that the only time it rained heavily throughout the day was when I was driving on I-75, I-85, or the 285 bypass) I made my way, with no trouble in directions, to the Howell Mill store at the edge of Buckhead near downtown Atlanta. I arrived and began helping Leslie compile a proposal for a nearby school to purchase supplies from us at a discount to stretch the value of their educational dollars. We worked on the wording and some specific points we wanted to make before we went next door for some lunch. We ate at La Parilla Mexican Restaurant on their outdoor patio for lunch as the sun had come out (again, I wasn't driving anywhere). I had a delicious steak fajita salad while we talked about what was going on in our lives. We didn't talk about too much as we needed conversation for our dinner at Marlow's later tonight with Stacy. We enjoyed our food and as we were wrapping up eating....you guessed it. It started pouring again!

We walked quickly back to the store and wrapped up work on the proposal around 1:30. I said goodbye to everyone there and then hit the road back to the office. I encountered very little traffic on the way back to home base, but it rained most of the way back. When I arrived, I walked inside to be pleasantly surprised to find that Christina was working! I wasn't sure when she was working this week, but I was smiling as I greeted her and gave her a quick hug. We talked briefly about my journeys today and then I returned to my desk.I looked over the schedule left on my desk for the Fall installment of the Bright From The Start Workshops. I will need to create a 2-page flyer to print for the store to pass out as well as a full color version to link on the website. I talked with Vickie about my travels and we made a plan to get the donation jars and donation cards separated for each store and sent out by Friday so we can kick off the Breast Cancer promotion the first week of September. I finished out the rest of the day working on some more ideas for the marketing meeting. I went home briefly to get some stuff done before meeting Leslie and Stacy for dinner at 6:30.

I got less done than I had hoped, but I met the girls at Marlow's Tavern for dinner and laughs. We ate and caught up on each other's lives until 8:00 when we headed out the door into the once again rainy weather. I called Christina and she came over to hang out. I was on the phone with Hickey when she arrived and was sitting at my computer checking things online. I didn't hear her knock on the door, but figured out that she had arrived when she just came on in and appeared in the doorway to the spare bedroom and startled me slightly. We watched The World's Funniest Commercials 2008 on TBS. I enjoy these programs despite the never-funny host (and script writers) and when it was over we kept giggling about some of the things we just saw. We then turned to watching the last half of "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith". After that was over it was time to say goodnight and I walked Christina to her car. We made plans to hike tomorrow after I get off work. I went to sleep quickly and knew that the week only half over and I was already exhausted.

Meditation for the day: Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."