From the Desk 7/11/2008

Time at work today seemed to pass fairly quickly which was unusual for a Friday. I spent part of the morning making copies of pre-purchase slips in preparation of the Georgia Classroom Gift Card early shopping that we are offering our customers. The copier was acting up as usual so to offset the consistent jamming that it was experiencing on each run of copies, I set it to copy an extra 5 copies per set. Of course, in doing so, the copier ceased to jam at all and I ended up with extra copies for each set. It never works out easily with technology, does it? I really need to go to the store to do some grocery shopping because I really didn't have any food to bring for lunch today. I went home for lunch and enjoyed my time away from my desk, even though it didn't last long enough.

After lunch I met with Chris and we went over the plan for the remaining mass emails to promote the details of the Classroom Gift Card and announce the dates for our special Back-to-School Savings. I worked on an outline/ draft of a sign to promote the tax Holiday in both Georgia (July 31-August 3) and Tennessee (August 1-3) I continued to make copies in spurts as to not monopolize the copier (though it seemed that everyone left early so there was really no one to interfere with my copies). The time had rolled around to 4:30 and Vickie called over to my desk to tell me to go ahead and go home early if I wanted to. I of course said yes, and I headed home after talkking to Chrisitna to see if we were doing anything tonight. She said she would call me after she talked to Leslie to see what she wanted to do.

I went home and almost fell asleep on the couch before Chrsitina called. She swung by the apartment and picked me up. We went over to Leslie's house and met her and Bill. We all piled in Bill's car and went to iHop to grab some dinner. I had the New Your Cheesecake pancakes ith scrambled eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. Needless to say, I was about to explode from the sheer amount of food I consumed. After that we made a brief stop off at Target to pick up batteries for the radio and snacks for Christina and I. We then drove down to the drive-in theater in Atlanta to view a double feature. This was my first experience at a drive-in and it seemed like it would be fun. There was no clouds so rain wasn't going to be an issue (for once) and the temperature wasn't too bad either. The first movie, Hancock, began at 9:30 and it was really good. I had heard mixed reviews, but in the end it was worth the cost of the ticket. The second movie, which began around 11:15, was You Don't Mess With the Zohan. This was Adam Sandler's latest comedy about an Israeli special forces agent who leaves the country for America where his one dream is to be a hair dresser. The movie had some funny parts, but overall was lacking in a engaging plot and a strong enough supporting cast to maintain interest. We ended up leavin about 45 minutes in to the movie as it was simply not very good. We arrived back at Leslie's and after getting some gas Christina dropped me off at my apartment. I was exhausted and about to fall asleep as it was now 2:05am and I was running on not much sleep to begin with. My head hit the pillow and the only though I remember before falling asleep was that I would still be tired since I had to get up and drive to Chickamauga tomorrow to hike with Aunt Paula, Amy, Laura, and Zach.

Meditation for the day: John 15:10 “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.”

From the Desk 7/10/2008

This morning I woke up to the sounds of the lawn care company mowing and weed eating beginning at 7:00am. My guess is they were forced to get an unusually early start due to the weather this week. It seems that it can be sunshine and blue skies one minute and the next lightning is hitting everything in a 10 mile radius and the rain is coming down so hard you can barely see. I thought that weather was common only in Florida, but apparently I was wrong. I worked with Mike this morning to create our own graphic to update the header on www.schoolbox.com to announce the details about the GA Classroom Gift Card and contest that is sponsored by one of our vendors, Carson-Dellosa. We were supposed to have this done on Monday, but the guy we normally work with on these projects wasn't responding to our emails/phone calls so we had to take measures into our own hands and figure out how to do it ourselves. It really wasn't difficult to do and we will more than likely be updating lots of the headers ourselves to ensure they are done in a timely manner. I was treated to lunch today by Becky Morris, our rep from News For Kids, a program that we have sponsored since its inception that helps promote literacy through providing newspapers to classrooms as a teaching tool.

We talked about the changes in the program and what new tools they are going to provide to keep the program fresh and effective. We ate at T.G.I.Friday's since it was close and if you have the opportunity to try the new Red Pepper Chicken & Sausage Penne dish I highly recommend it. We also talked about how she came to be in her position and how I came to be where I am. It always amazes me how people take different paths, but always seem, eventually, to end up right where they are supposed to be and doing what they love. After lunch she drove me back to the store and then gave me a bag of gifts for Chris, Dave, Carmen (who helped her immensely in connecting us on the phone) and me. It contained a glass with the new News For Kids logo and a flashlight key chain. I thanked her for lunch and we set a meeting to discuss our renewal procedure with Dave. The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing the mailing list for our catalog mail out. 5:00 arrived and I headed home after saying goodbye to Christina.

I got a call from Christina after she got off work at 6 and soon after I went over to her place to hang out. We were watching Jeopardy (which I normally know some of the answers, but not tonight...) Wheel of Fortune, and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? while we waited for Leslie to get off work. Leslie and her fiance Bill came over and we watched Batman Begins in honor of the next installment of the series, The Dark Knight, which comes out next Friday. It was a good movie, but about halfway through I realized that I was very tired as I caught myself allowing my head to droop a little at some parts. After the movie was over we all said goodbye and went our separate ways. I got home and quickly fell asleep, knowing that tomorrow was Friday and smiling because today was good day.

Meditation for the day: Matthews 4:$4 “Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

From the Desk 7/9/2008

I woke up this morning determined to break my habit of a cup of coffee once I got to work. I managed to avoid repeating this inexplicable morning ritual...until 10:00 when I decided to have a cup. I actually missed the taste of it, not the effects because the one cup I have been having hasn't really impacted my alertness level. I worked on answering/opting out of many offers for advertising and sponsorships this morning. It is definitely the time of the year where people are bombarding the Box with offers to advertise in Back-to-School special publications and donate to many different, albeit noble, causes to kick of the start of yet another school year. I spent the majority of my morning on the phone or responding through emails.

After enjoying a not long enough lunch break, I returned to working on the catalog mailing list for the next mail out in early August. I spent a large amount of time on Google maps typing in addresses of accounts that were missing the zip codes necessary to complete the mailing. I had around 150 addresses left and managed to make it through about half of them before my eyes had had enough of looking at the same spreadsheet for 2 hours. I also double checked all of the flyers I printed as Leland would be spending the day at Town Center tomorrow preparing the bags for new teachers in the counties we service. I had contemplated seeing if anyone wanted to go hiking after work, but I soon realized after looking outside that the weather was not conducive to outdoor activities. It began to rain just before I walked out side to leave for the day.

I drove home through the downpour and lightning (which only seems to occur when I am going to and from places). I ate some dinner and then took a brief nap to recover from the weekend. I'm not particularly good at regaining lost hours of sleep, but I am able to keep going until the fatigue doesn't seem to have an effect on me anymore. That's probably not a good quality, but it keeps me going. Christina called me when she got out of class and she came over to hang out. We ended up watching a comedy special on DVD: Jeff Dunham's (a ventriloquist) Arguing With Myself. It was hilarious as it always is, no matter how recent I've watched it. Christina really liked it to as there were parts we both couldn't stop laughing at. When that was over, we watched an episode or two of Criss Angel: Mindfreak. He is a magician who specializes in doing tricks in very public places in front of impromptu crowds of onlookers. I took this opportunity to show my own magical skills and performed my trick: driving a penny through a table using a salt shaker (Thanks to dad for teaching me this trick!). It went off well and then we watched a trick on TV and I felt my trick's impressive shrinking faster than your wallet when you buy gas. I walked Christina to her car and said goodnight. I then checked a few things online before turning in for the night.

Meditation for the day: Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”

From the Desk 7/8/2008

This morning it was difficult to drag myself out of bed. I realize that it had only been 5 hours prior to waking up that i had laid down to go to sleep. I sleepily got ready for work and almost forgot to take some clothes to change into for hiking after work today. I drove into work and had a bagel that School Box provided for the office staff this morning. To accompany my bagel I had a cup of coffee, something normally out of the ordinary but seeming to become more common. I struggled to make it to lunch time without falling asleep. I joined Carmen, Stacy, Anna, and Tausha in the break room for lunch today. I felt like I would fall asleep just chewing on my Smart Ones 3-cheese ziti I had brought, but I managed to keep my head upright for the time being.

After lunch the tired feeling only multiplied and I had to continuously work on something that involved walking back and forth from my desk to the copy room to avoid falling over asleep. I managed to remain awake and somewhat productive until 4:45. I then checked with Christina to see if she still wanted to go hiking after work. She said yes so I ran to my car, grabbed my clothes, and changed to be ready for my hike. We left the store just after 5:00 and though I was tired, I was looking forward to being active and seeing Christina. We decided to do the loop at Burnt Hickory Rd. as it was very hot outside and that particular trail is mostly in the shade.

We began hiking the trail and about 30 minutes into the loop it began to get dark from the ominous clouds overhead. Not long after that, it began to sprinkle lightly. Neither of us seemed to mind the rain as it was cooling us off and we knew that we needed all the rain we could get. It soon turned from a sprinkle of rain to a down pour an we sought shelter under the leaves of a large Oak tree along the side of the path. We waited there for a minute or two and then continued on the trail, not caring if we got soaked or not. The rain let up as we made our way to the last part of the loop and when we emerged from the woods onto the trail back to the car it stopped raining completely. It was a fun hike even if it did rain (there's something about rain that can be "romantic" sometimes....or perhaps I'm just crazy, you decide). I dropped Christina off at her car at the Box just as it was beginning to really storm. The rain was coming down very hard by this point and the lightning accompanying this part of the storm was both frequent and very close. I made it home safely navigating through lots of puddles and uncertain drivers. I made a sprint from my car to the apartment in a futile attempt to remain only partially drenched. Clearly it was a useless expense of energy. I ate a quick dinner and then promptly went to work on the reception video I wished to finish by tomorrow night. I managed to get about 60% done with the entire project which was more than I expected. I took a break in front of the TV to take my mind off the video work ahead. It worked too well as I woke up at 8:45 to the sounds of my cell phone playing a Dave Matthews Band song signaling that Christina was calling. I missed the call, not being able to be conscious enough to reach my phone in time. I called her back and she invited me over to watch some episodes of Boy Meets World with her. I talked to mom on the phone while on my way to her apartment, updating her about the weekend's festivities. When I got to Christina's apartments the guest gate, where you type in a code to gain entrance through the gate into the complex, wasn't working properly. Finally a kind resident who passed through the gate walked back and swiped his card to let in the line of cars that were attempting to visit residents. I finally arrived at Christina's apartment and we watch 6 episodes of season 5 from my Boy Meets World DVD set. I realized what time it was and reluctantly told Christina that we would have to finish watching the rest of that disc another time. I drove home, through more rain and storms, and went almost immediately to bed as I was definitely feeling the drain from not getting much sleep last night. I went to sleep to the sounds of the movie "Clue" and the gentle pounding of rain on my bedroom window.

Meditation of the day: Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

From the Desk 7/7/2008

I woke up this morning wishing I could sleep longer, but I knew that work had to be done. I did quickly have a smile on my face as I remembered that the Dave Matthews Band concert was tonight at 7:00! That was enough to wake me up and get me moving. I made a few stops on my way to work to buy gas (at $4.05 per gallon) get breakfast (at Chick-fil-A) and run by the ATM. I got to work and was pleasantly surprised to find no messages and no emails waiting to begin the week. I caught up with everyone on their weekends and 4th of July activities. I then begin the task that would take the majority of the day for me to complete. I had a list of zip codes with address quantities for each that was given to me by Chris for our winter marketing piece. I had to eliminate 7,000 addresses by zip code and then send the revised list along with our in-house mailing list to the company assembling our winter piece. In order to make sure that we did not exclude any valuable zip codes, I had to run a zip code purchase report for each store and verify that the top 25 zip codes (by sales) were included on the list. I then had to figure out which zip codes could be removed due to lack of sales and low-level of addresses on the list. I took a break for lunch and was about halfway through the project.

During lunch I visited the website that we were told would have our (Christina's and mine) picture from the Braves game yesterday. You can see it here. (We were mostly dry when they took this picture) After lunch I continued to work on the mailing list. I managed to shrink it down to the desired number of addresses and then sent that list along with our list to my contact at the catalog production company's mail house. I also began researching the different lifestyle categories that Claritas, a demographic/psychographic research firm, has used to label the zip codes in which our stores are located. I began to watch the clock the closer it got to 5pm in anticipation of the concert tonight. Of course, it only seemed to make the time pass slower, but eventually 5pm did roll around.

I drove home and found that they had closed the parking lot by my apartment to re-seal the pavement. It was curious to me that they had not mentioned this event previously and I wondered how they got all the cars cleared from the lot. I parked across the way and changed into clothes more suited for an outdoor concert. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then Christina arrived to pick me up so we could go to the concert. We made a brief stop on the way down at the OK Cafe in Buckhead to meet another Dave Matthews Band (DMB) fan who was going to purchase Christina's two tickets since we decided to use mine as they were closer seats. We met and exchanged the tickets for money and then continued on our way down to the concert. We hit stand still traffic about 3 miles from the exit we were going to take. We sat in creeping/stationary traffic from 6:25 until 8:25 when we finally were guided to a place to park and we walked quickly into the Lakewood Amphitheater. We arrived at our seats just as DMB played their first note. The rest of the concert was nothing short of amazing. The opened with the song Bartender off of their Busted Stuff album. They played many of their greatest songs and even played two cover songs: "Sledgehammer" by Phil Collins (Genesis) and "Money" by Pink Floyd. Both covers were excellent. They finished the concert with an encore of "Crash Into Me" and a 12 minutes version of "Ants Marching" that allowed all the band members an opportunity to let their skills shine. The concert featured three guest musicians. First, Tim Reynolds, arguably one of the best guitarists in the world and a long time friend and recording partner of Dave Matthews. The second was filling in for

an injured band member. LeRoi the saxophone player was injured in an ATV accident on his farm about 2 weeks ago. He suffered several broken ribs and a punctured lung. Needless to say he will not be back for the remainder of this tour. Taking his place was Jeff Coffin, the saxophone player from the band Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. The third guest was a trumpet player named Rashawn Ross from Soulive, who played better than I could ever dream. It was hands-down the best concert I've ever been to. The journey home was almost as congested as the drive down. We managed to find our way back onto the main road and stopped off at a McDonald's to get some Cokes as we were really thirsty from the dancing/singing at the concert. We made our way back to I-75 through downtown Atlanta. It wasn't the quickest route, but it was good for site seeing and it delayed the end of such a great night. Christina dropped me off at my apartment and I went inside and almost immediately crashed into my bed. I faded into sleep still hearing "Crash Into Me" playing in my ears.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 138:2 “I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.”

From the Desk 7/6/2008

This morning I woke up earlier than the past two days, but it was ok as I was excited about going to His Hands for worship. I got ready and ate some yogurt before leaving to go pick up Christina. We arrived around 9:45 and grabbed our seats when they opened the doors to the worship center. We were soon joined by one of her roommates, Laura. The music was amazing as it was last week. Something kind of funny hit me as we were singing one of the songs. It was talking about how this world has qualities that His world does not. I kind of realized (I know I'm slow, but this is something that a different environment has taught me) that when singing theses songs, similar to when we sing "hymns", that they are more than just songs we sing and simple praises. They are a musical prayer that when we really focus on the words of what we are singing to God, it can be just as powerful as a prayer. I should have seen that over my many years singing at Central Bearden, but for some reason when singing hymns it seemed to have become just singing not praying. I attribute this to my comfort level at CBCB, not due to the passion of any of the ministers to prepare and lead the congregation. We observed the Lord's Supper and then sang the song "All I Need Is You" which was beautiful and helped me focus on what we were doing while taking the bread and the cup. The message was the first week focusing on what heaven is like and how we can be examples of Christ to "be heaven on Earth". It was a stern, but useful reminder that people are always watching to see where they might find God and who they might go to if they want to seek Him.

After worship concluded we talked briefly with a couple of friends then made our way to the car. We decided on Zaxby's for lunch, and though I had not eaten there more than once I remembered it as being tasty. I had the Cajun Club sandwich with fries and it was delicious. After that we went back to Christina's to print out the tickets for the Braves game we were going to that afternoon. Her printer was not cooperating so we dropped off by my apartment to print out the tickets. As I drove us down to Turner Filed we noticed the sky getting darker and the wind moving the trees more than before. It began to rain about half way down and continued to rain harder the closer we got to our destination. We waited in the car until the rain let up and then walked quickly to the entrance gates. We were close and then the rain picked back up, ensuring that we were soaked by the time we got under shelter. We hovered under cover near some lockers in an attempt to dry-out. We waited there for around an hour and then decided that we could probably make it to our seats without getting much more drenched. We climbed the winding ramps up to the upper deck to find our seats. By the time we arrived, the rain had stopped and soon after that the field crew came back out to begin prepping the field for play. The game was scheduled to begin at 1:35, but the rain delay pushed the first pitch back to 3:25. It was interesting to watch the crew work on the rain soaked field, and from our seats (just to the right if home plate in the upper deck) we had a great view of everything that was going on.

The game began and in the first inning at Chipper Jones first at bat, he drove a home run over the left field wall to give the Braves an early lead. The rest of the game was less exciting (for Braves fans) as a grand slam was hit by the Houston Astros in the 3rd inning. The Braves fought back and tied the game up when the 9th inning ended. We were now headed into extra innings. Christina and I hung around until the end of the 12th inning and decided that we were hungry and would just read about the outcome later online. Before we left we did have a photographer take out picture and tell us that it would be available online the next day. I'll have to see if I can capture a thumbnail of the photo to show you (cause I don't want to buy one). We made our way home in what turned out to be beautiful weather. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and there was a gentle breeze that kept the temperature quite tolerable. We went to my apartment and ordered some pizza. Once it finally arrived we ate while watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on ABC Family. I took Christina home before the movie ended as we had both seen it and knew that I would have to get up early for work the following morning. I drove her home, through another severe storm filled with minimal rain and lots of lightning. I walked her to her door and then headed back to my apartment. I did a few things online before giving in to the fatigue from the days excursion.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 18:30 “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.”

From the Desk 7/5/2008

This morning I once again enjoyed sleeping until 10:00. I'd better be careful not to get used to this or Mondays will begin to be a bad day due to the hour at which I'll have to arise. I checked email and did a few other things online before eating some breakfast. I watched some TV, trying to motivate myself to go ahead and finish up the ceremony video. I began working on it around 12:30 and finished with the editing part at 3:45. I set it up to render and burn to DVD and let that run while I drove over to Stacy's. She was out of town, but I needed to mow before the grass reached record setting levels for height and thickness. I was happy to find that the grass had not grown as much as I had anticipated, but also glad to go ahead and cut it before it had a chance to. It only took about 20 minutes to cut the grass and empty the bag. I thought about putting together the coffee table that she bought when we went to Ikea, but I left her a note saying I'll help with that next week.

I went back to the apartment and found that the project had experienced an error and crashed. That was not unexpected as I have only had one project out of the many I've done with Avid that didn't crash at least once. I checked a few settings and then started it off burning again. While it was doing its thing, I opted to play some Guitar Hero III and finally beat the game on the easy setting. I think my skills are improving as the medium songs no longer appear impossible (but the hard setting does). I played a few more songs and then checked to see if the project was still running without errors. It was and was almost finished so I sat and watched it to make sure nothing went awry in the closing minutes of the process. It finished up and I played it to check some spots and make sure it was correct. It looked great and I began duplicating the four copies of the ceremony disc. I was able to finish making the copies before I had to jump in the shower to get ready for dinner.

I picked Christina up at the Box when she got off work at 8:15 and we left to go to dinner with Leslie and Brian. I hadn't told Christina where we were going to eat (I tried to make it a surprise) but she soon figured it out as that was the only thing out that direction. We parked and I thought I might get away with not having to have my car valet parked, but those were the only spots left so I gave my keys to the gentleman as we walked inside and he handed me my ticket in return. I've never had my car valet parked before so this was unusual for me. We ate in the upper level of the Elevation Chophouse restaurant. It overlooks the runway at McCollum Airport so as you dine you can watch planes take-off and land. It was a beautiful sunset that was ending at that time too. We ordered our meals after much contemplation with what to get. Our food arrived after a while and that is when the conversation got quiet as we were all anxious to sample our meals. I ordered the Pan Seared Scallops which were served atop this greenish mixture that looked like runny guacamole. It tasted very good though and I looked it up to see what I had eaten. It was an olive relish with a ring of tomato puree on the rim of the bowl. In the center was a rocket pecan-risotto. The scallops were perfectly cooked and were the biggest I had ever seen. Not exaggerating, they were about half the size of a canister of Play-Doh (3 inches x 3 inches!) Christina selected the Grilled Atlantic Salmon which looked delicious as well. We finished dinner and then decided to order and split the creme brule, which was recommended on every review I read of the restaurant. There was a good reason it was hyped because it was delicious! The valet brought my car up and then we parted ways with Leslie and Brian. After picking up her car from the Box we went back to may apartment to watch The Italian Job since Christina had never seen it and it was on my top 25 list of movies (which we're slowly working our way through, adding in her favorites as well). She enjoyed it and then it was time to say goodnight. I walked her to her car and then went back inside to get ready for sleep so I would be rested for church tomorrow.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 121:7 " The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;"