Closer to being a Georgian

I began this morning waking up to a very cold day with the sky being littered with lots of flakes of snow. That meant that when I went out, there was no one on the roads. That is comforting to know that people down here at least have the sense to know that if they aren't comfortable driving in the snow, they shouldn't try. (Or maybe its because it was at 8:00am, you decide) I got my new driver's license and a one step closer to belonging in the state of Georgia. I think that my picture came off great considering the potential for a disastrous picture that seems to haunt most people on this particular form of ID.

Next on the agenda for the day was to pick up Cooper from the vet where Stacy had him boarded while she was out of town. I arrived there, without getting lost I might add, and picked Cooper up. He was terrified and constantly shaking the entire car ride to Stacy's house. When we arrived I called Stacy to let her know that her child was home and fine. It was a good thing that she didn't hang up quickly because I soon discovered that the key she gave me, wasn't working. I tried every trick I could think of, but the lock wasn't going to budge. I told Stacy not to worry, I would bring Cooper by once she got home. So for the remainder of the day I was hangin' with Mr. Cooper. (yes this is a reference to a sub-par but still funny TV sitcom that was on during the mid 90's) Cooper was a good companion for the day. He didn't make much noise (except for the occasional snoring while dreaming) and he didn't eat anything or pee on anything. He did however leave little white hairs all over everything! Oh well, that will give me something to do tomorrow...cleaning!

I also got a chance to play Command and Conquer 3 online with Jubin for a couple of hours. We hadn't played in some time and we had to get back in the groove before we were able to totally dominate our adversaries. I watched The Bourne Ultimatum tonight and I think Cooper liked it as much as I did-or perhaps he didn't really care because he was passed out asleep on my big blue blanket. I ended up dropping Cooper back off at Stacy's, after their flight was delayed due to weather, around 11:30. I probably should go to sleep now seeing as how I'm going to try and get up and go visit a church tomorrow morning.

Meditation of the day: Job 22:23-27 " If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you. Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

It's been a long time...

I apologize for those of you that look forward to my posts on my blog. I have become very busy as of late and have been somewhat distracted from my normal routine. I will try and give you an accurate update of the past 3 weeks and promise to make a more concerted effort to update more frequently.

I came into town for AMTT's birthday and that Friday night I went to AppleBee's for half-price appetizers and a drink with Hickey, Jared, Shannon, and Glenn. It was a fun time and it was something I really needed. I won't go into details concerning the next night as you were all there at Wasabi for the celebration. I returned to Kennesaw on Sunday night after walking 5 miles with Hickey at Lakeshore that afternoon.

I came back into town the following weekend to celebrate the occurrence of Leap Day! Not really, I came into town on Thursday evening to prepare for helping the Knoxville location with its inventory. When I arrived in K-town I went to my usual place of wasting time...Movies 4 Sale. I met Hickey, Chan, Walker, Matt, and Jared there and we watched part of Lost in Translation, one of Hickey's new favorite movies...he may be on to something, though. It is masterfully written and the cast only bolsters its potential as breaking into my all time top 25 list. After they closed the store I met Hickey, Chan, and Couple X at AppleBee's for half-price appetizers and a drink. We spent a couple of hours there, all the while distracting ourselves from the reality of our individual lives. I went for a drive with Hickey on Northshore (the best road to just put on some music and go) for a while and then returned to The Hickey Coutry Inn to retire for the evening. I awoke the following morning and went to CBCB to work out. While there I had a chance to talk with Rev. Moreland (a.k.a. "the Mark") and worked out with Charlie too. I went to The School Box around 4:00 and worked on inventory with them until it was finished around 11:45. Finding myself wired and not at all sleepy, what else was I to do? I went to AppleBee's (yes again) with Hickey, Jared, Shannon, Glenn, and Crystal for the usual. We had a blast talking to Megan, our usual waitress on Friday nights, and her boyfriend, the bartender. After I fell victim to exhaustion, I spent the night at Le Chateau de Taylor. It is a very business friendly sleeping establishment that is famous for its homemade breakfasts and improved amenities with each visit.

The next day (Saturday March 1st) Hickey and I drove down to Kennesaw to drop off my newly repaired coffee table and while there at lunch with Stacy (from The School Box) at Taco Mac. It was delicious. I had a Havana Cuban sandwich that was the best I've ever had, and I will definitely go back to try some of their wings. After lunch we parted ways and Hickey and I drove back to K-town to commence filming shots for a music video of "Roses On My Grave" by Papa Roach. If you have an opportunity to listen to this masterpiece I highly recommend it. We filmed until it got dark, then filmed some more. We drove around for a while and then ended up back at Hickey's where we ordered some PJ's Pizza and watch the final 3 episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?. It took us both back to a simpler time in our lives where the only thing we worried about was if the new episodes on Snick or Saturday morning cartoons were going to be as good as the previous week's. I spent a second night at Le Chateau de Taylor and went to CBCB the next morning for worship. I ate lunch at Red Lobster with mom, dad, and Amy. I ended up running 4 miles with Hickey just before I left town and then hit the road to go back home to GA.

This week at work has been quiet as the purchasing department, Dave, Chris, Mike, and Vickie are all gone to Orlando for the NSSEA conference. I created the Summer Learning insert in 2 days and am just waiting on approval upon everyone's return on Monday before we proceed to printing. I went to dinner Thursday night with Leslie, the manager of the Howell Mill store. She offered lots of good insight and I really think God spoke to me through her. She also offered for me to accompany her and her boyfriend Brian to church one weekend when he is in town. He live in Birmingham for his job right now. I also think we will go to a contemporary service called 7/22 that meets at Buckhead Church on Tuesday nights. I have been wanting to go to a contemporary service for a while now so I think this is an awesome opportunity to seize. That's about all I have for now. I am picking up Stacy's dog, Cooper, from the vet tomorrow where she had him boarded for her trip to NSSEA. I hope he remembers me and doesn't run in terror (he is extremely skittish due to abuse from his first owner). I also hope to get my GA driver's license at some point tomorrow. (but I still bleed orange!) I'll write more after this weekend. Hope all is well in Knoxville.

Meditation for the week: Psalm 84:11 "For the LORD God is our sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; He will withhold no good thing from those who do right."

Sushi = yummy!

On Monday I ate lunch with Mike, Stacy, Tausha, Blair, and Carmen from work. We wnt to a new sushi restaurant in the shopping center near the store. I had a volcano roll (which has crab meat, salmon, avocado, and some spicy stuff) and it was delicious. I hope to eat there again and try some more varieties. I know some of you are surprised that I would even consider consuming a meal such as this, but you must remember that I have come a long way from only eating peanut butter and chicken. At work the past two days I have been chipping away at the early childhood flyer and by the end of work today I have completed the production/layout of 2 1/2 pages! I know it doesn't seem like much, but when you consider prepping the graphics for the flyer, writing/editing the copy for the items, and designing the product layout 2 pages in 2 days isn't bad. I need you all to pray for no rain this Saturday for 2 reasons: first frisbee golf in the rain is no fun and I'm hoping it will hold off so I get to hang out with Jubin. Second, I think that a Valentine's Day dinner (although a little late) would be much more enjoyable with pleasant weather.
I made another trip to Walmart tonight and now have everything I need to establish a very healthy eating plan for myself centered around 2 smoothies a day that combined contain all the servings of fruit, calcium, and vitamin C that I need in one day. It also fills me up without loading up on the calories or fat so I can still enjoy a hearty (hopefully healthy) dinner. I have also found as close as I think I will a picture of the DVD/Bookcase I'm looking for my living room area. Keep your eyes peeled (but not too hard) for something like this. I have yet to see one anywhere that is in stock! Oh well, I'm off to fold some laundry and then off to bed to dream of finger paints, art easels, and glues for teachers.

My fingers aren't broken... I can still type

Greetings! I haven't forgotten how to type or the website I use to post this blog. I just have been busy at work and found myself going to bed early or losing track of time in the evenings. Now that things have somewhat normalized at work I will only be updating this blog 2 times a week since the posts otherwise would be one or two sentences. I have continued to work this past week on the early childhood flyer that will go out in about 3 weeks. I also will begin next week to put together the initial layout of the Back-to-School flyer and finish up the fist round of signs for the retail sales floor. I had some visitors this weekend in Georgia. Mom, Dad, and Grandmother came down to visit me and bring down a few items for the apartment. We ate lunch at Ted's Montana Grill ad t was just as good as I remember it from my Nashville trip with Stephen and Whitney. We did a few things around the apartment and I gave them a quick tour of Kennesaw. Well that's about all for now. I'll try and update every few days to keep you informed of all my adventures (or misadventures) here in Georgia!

I've been workin' on a flyer. All the live long day...

Today at work I really only did about 3 things. That doesn't mean I was asleep at my desk or staring blankly at my large computer screen. (Although I imagine that I will someday hit a creative stumbling block and consider resorting to either of those things to break the cycle) I worked on 2 flyers and had a meeting today. I put some finishing touches on a Dr. Seuss flyer that I will need to print later this week. I got Stacy to proof it for me (Vickie calls her Eagle Eyes) and we got everything squared away and received a final approval from Vickie. I also worked for quite a while on the signs/flyers for VBS that will be coming up in a month or two. I like Lifeway's website because they provide free hi-res clip art for download on any VBS theme that they are promoting. This year's theme is Outrigger Island: Living God's Unshakable Truth. It is a fun sign to put together and the flyer I'm working on will be complete when I get a finalized list of products we will carry to support that theme. We will also be featuring another theme: Power Lab! Discovering Jesus' Miraculous Powers. I met with Dave and a gentleman from 104 the Fish radio station. The Schoolbox had sponsored a Private School Expo at the beginning of this year and had received a fairly good response from the spots we ran to coordinate our sponsorship. We talked about many different ways that we could use both the radio and their website to draw people to our store and our website. Nothing was set in stone (pricing is always the last thing to get to) but I feel confident that we will definitely be using them in the future.

Now to report on the weekend. I went to Knoxville (and saw most of you) I ate a nice breakfast of Pancakes and Bacon Saturday morning and at Pork Tenderloin with fried rice, veggies, and egg rolls Saturday night for dinner. If people keep cooking like that when I come into town, I just might come back every weekend! I went and saw Rambo in the movie theaters with Charlie and Hickey Saturday night. It was really good. It was your typical Rambo movie, but with the technology and special effects we have now the blood seemed more red and more plentiful than the past Rambo movies. I went back to Hickey's parents house and hung out there for a while. I went home and went to sleep in my new business class room at Le Chateau de Taylor. (I had a clock!) Then I drove home Sunday morning and met Whitney here at my apartment on her way back from her friend's place in Atlanta. It was really good to get to spend some time with her. (I kind of miss her if you can't tell) Anyways, that's all for today! Have a great week everyone!

Does anybody have some Advil?

Today at work was a really good day, aside from the fact that I had a headache that started around 10am and lasted until I got home from work around 5:15. Luckily Stacy had some pain meds and was gracious enough to share them with me. I worked on a couple of small projects for Kenny to provide our new Market Reps in the TN stores with flyers to distribute. I also printed out the 350 flyers for the Boys and Girls Club conference in Knoxville in March. I talked to Chris today and she wanted me to put together a flyer for the Knoxville store to promote TCAP test prep books. I put that together and am waiting for approval after a final proofing. I did do a lot more leg work on the sales flyer piece we are trying to produce in the next 2 weeks. Stay gave me a list of what will probably go on several of the pages of the flyer (Dave will authorize the final list of items) and I began collecting the graphics, cleaning them up, and typing out the product descriptions. I must admit that it is starting to look like a real flyer!

Not much happened at home tonight. I went and ran on the treadmill for about 20 minutes after eating some vegetarian vegetable soup for dinner. I watch the Lady Vols dominate Ole Miss in basketball and then decided to write on the blog and call it an early night so I would be rested for my drive to Knoxville tomorrow after work. I hope the wind dies down. I can hear it whistling in the trees outside my office window at the apartment. It is supposed to be cold here in the morning. Hopefully not cold enough to warrant wasting gas to heat-up and thaw out my car. Oh well, I will see you tomorrow night or Saturday, or if not then at least know I will be in town! Goodbye until tomorrow.

Salaries, Copiers, and Smelly Trash Cans

The day started off pretty good, and I guess it ended that way too. I met with Dave around 10:00 to discuss all the marketing opportunities that I have been asked about over the past week and a half. It didn't take long to discuss most of them because they were calls that I probably should have declined in the first place. Now that I know what media we do and don't use, I can begin to make some of those calls on my own and save some time and headaches. I did show Dave my layout and cover design for the sale flyer that we were contemplating and he really liked it. I spent a good deal of the morning simply printing out the retail signs that I have been making or revising in an effort to put together a master binder of all the signs available to the stores. I felt that it would be easier and more efficient/cost less to send the binder around to the stores with the operations managers and have them put together an order form for each store so I can print only the signs they need. I ran to Chick-fil-A for lunch today and redeemed my calendar coupon for a free chicken sandwich! Around 2:00 Mike (the tech guy) and I were given a thorough tutorial on all the features of our new copier. It does everything (short of making a pizza or cappuccino). It will even scan and image in and email it directly to my inbox! It also does lots of other cool things that I probably won't remember how to do when we need to use it. Tomorrow I will break it in and print 350 flyers for our sales rep in Knoxville.
I also received my paycheck stub that accidentally got sent to the Knoxville store last week. When I opened it I was very confused and after conferring with our HR manager I figured out that the incorrect pay rate had been applied for my new position! We worked together and got it straightened out.
Now for the Smelly Trash Can. I got back to the apartment today and was greeted at the door by a very foul odor that seemed to kick me in the face when I got close to the kitchen. I still don't know what caused that odor, but I promplty tied up the trash bag and took it out to the dumpster. I will be going to Walmart tomorrow and buying some air deodorizer to terminate any lingering odors and prevent future smelly take overs of the kitchen. Well I will leave you to marvel at the flyers I made that I have included in this blog. (it's okay that you had to re-read this section because you were no doubt drawn to look at the pictures of artistic genius again and again.) See you in 2 day!