Once in a blue moon

On this non-celebrated, rarer than a blue moon day (albeit more common than a black moon, which I will leave to you to figure out), I have decided to break out of my normal positives a plenty style and take a look at what has happened since the last Leap Day. Concentrating on a day by day basis, it is sometimes difficult to find the great things that happened that day, even when I know there must have been thousands of them that I just wasn't paying attention to. This often leads to thoughts about the general larger overarching positives in my life that are sometimes missed by looking for shorter term details.

Four years ago was 2004 believe it or not, and a whole lot has happened since then. At that point in time, I was buried in my classwork (happily at times!) and life seemed to be flying by. I definitely had a nice apartment, extremely close to campus, in the Presbyterian Campus Ministry building, with a pretty awesome roommate who I still hang out with when I get a chance. I must say that in retrospect, things were going really well...classes that may have seemed overly challenging were rewarding in the end, and those that required a lot of work were still enjoyable and are part of the reason I can do my job so easily today.

Senior year, design class was going well, and I once again confirmed that I had picked the absolute perfect major for myself. I definitely have to acknowledge that I was extremely fortunate to have found such a perfect fit, and known it since I was in jr. high. This does not happen for most people, and some even graduate without knowing for sure what they want to do. Senior year came with its challenges, but like all challenges they inspired positive changes. A big item to every graduating senior is the question of what to do after graduation. For some, this is a long and arduous process, for others a painful realization that they may not be where they want to be. I was more than fortunate when it came to this issue, as most who know me understand. I began applying to graduate schools, and before I could even finish the applications, a well known professor, and author of one of my textbooks, called me up to get me to go to Texas A&M and work with him. Being completely unable to say no to such an opportunity, I was in the door before finishing the application. The relief that this type of event brings is amazing and is one that sticks with me. Just one more example of how fortunate I was, and something that happened long before I started listing things in this blog.

I will admit that I was nervous about moving down to Texas, to a university/town/state I had never even visited. I checked out the area online and even communicated briefly with Kyle, and had a plan in place to at least start to try and make some friends. Everyone who I know for sure reads this knows the outcome of that...and it is another one of the huge positives that squeezes into so many of the details of my positives.

Moving was a long drive, with all of my stuff fitting in my car, and I managed to convince myself to give the United Campus Ministry a try and go tubing. That is one experience I have not forgotten, and though I don't remember who all I talked to that day, I do recall some people thinking that someone else must have brought me but they didn't know who.

The integration into UCM was quick and seamless, and I remember pausing after one semester (or less) and realizing that it felt like I had been in UCM for years. I recall Tara and I discussing it once and on more than one occasion she had forgotten I wasn't there before August. UCM became my second major and any investment I made into UCM was returned 10 fold.

The two years at Texas A&M flew by with remarkable speed and was gone before I knew it. As many know, they were not without their lack of challenges, some of which were quite huge and academic. The ride was bumpy in some areas, but the UCM friends managed to smooth it out anyway, and keep everything positive, for which I am extremely grateful.

I once again approached the problematic position of graduating. I often found myself slightly worried about what I would do when I graduated and what I would do if I did not find a job. The only thing that kept this feeling from becoming major was the sense that it would all work out just fine, and the fact that I had been in communication with Kevin E. about potential employment, and I had him as a strong internal advocate for hiring me. I am glad that he put his reputation on the line to help me out, and I know that he feels like it has paid off. I managed to get the job with my present employer AMA at the last possible moment. I had discovered that I was getting an interview on a Tuesday, and flown up for an interview the next Tuesday. The following week was an exceptionally long one with a rewarding finish. I presented my work for my Masters degree and got a job offer the following Tuesday at the exact same time (offer came during my presentation). I am glad for both of these positives, and it made for a huge day. I moved out of my apartment the following week and was grateful to have friends who let me stay with them for a few days until I flew up to VA to start my job.

When described, the whole experience sounds awesome, but I am constantly reminded that it was much more than that and that the positives were HUGE. I developed an amazing set of friends who welcome me back with open arms if I come to visit, and some of whom even take the time out of their own lives to plan a trip up to visit me! UCMers, you are all truly the best friends I could ask for!

My job has been something of a constant positive, as I work with some amazing people on a daily basis, and get to do some really interesting things. The months have flown by, and my co-workers all seem to appreciate the work that I do and are already putting some higher responsibilities on my shoulders. It is very nice to be trusted.

One major concern I had moving to a new area was the issue of friends once again. I had a plan going to TAMU, and it worked out just how I had hoped (and then some!). The plan for while employed was much less defined, so I decided to combine the friend finding with something more important...finding a home church. The task of finding a home church has been much more extensive than I had imagined, and some would look at it as a frustrating task, and allow it to consume them and cause them to give up. I realize that each church I visit is unique, and some I agree with more than others. The jumping around and seeing different points of view has helped to dramatically sharpen my own views, which I previously was not as sure of. In this way, I have benefited greatly from the experience already, and am likely to continue to do so.

Having more alone time has also caused me to often take a look around and realize that a large hole needs to be filled. This round hole has been plugged with square pegs in the past via the gaining of friends and not worrying about much else. The filling of the hole can only be accomplished through more active religious studies. Some would say that not hanging out with friends all the time would be boring and frustrating, but sometimes that is exactly what is needed to show us that we are missing, or lacking, in the most important area of our lives, and that we need to concentrate more on God than we have been. This experience has been a critical one, and is not yet over for me. I hope everyone has the feeling at some point (sooner rather than later!) that leads them to the same conclusions! I may not have found a home church yet, but I have found some religious friends, and grown a lot in my own faith.

This brings me to my next large positive, and much closer to the present. I am lucky enough to have some co-workers who are as fond of Ultimate Frisbee as I am, and one who actually plays on a regular basis with some friends of theirs from their church (not coincidentally the most recent one I visited). We get to play quite often, even in the wind, rain, or cold! It is great to have a group of people to hang out and get some exercise with in a fun outdoor way.

This brings me up to the present day, and I really hope that everyone who has actually bothered to read this all the way to this point (I know there may only be 2 who do), takes the time to stop and think about what has happened to them in the last 4 years. It is truly remarkable how fortunate we can be on the whole, and yet how wrapped up in day-to-day business we can become. I encourage you to stop and take a half an hour sometime soon to sit by yourself in a quiet area and think about the larger positives that have come about in your life. You will be amazed how quickly a half an hour can really go by, and that it truly isn't enough time to fathom all the great things God has provided for you. And with that I say, Happy Leap Day.

Cool and Toasty...Contradictory?

* Cool Weather. While I don't particularly like really cold and windy
weather unless snow is present, I do enjoy having at least a few days
below freezing each year. February has been strangely warm this year,
and its nice to finally have a cold day.

* Toasty Car. When I got in my car in the middle of the day to drive
over to the bank on Center, my car was quite toasty, which was
completely unexpected due to the cold weather outside. That is the
sign of a nice sunny day! I was a pleasant surprise, and did not go
unnoticed

* Chatting with co-workers for about an hour after normal work had
ended. It doesn't happen often, and we didn't realize how late it had
gotten, but it was nice to hang around and chat.

Sun and Possible Snow

* Sunlight. It is nice to be able to see the sun, even when I leave work late. It hasn't been very long since it was dark before 5pm and I had to leave early if I wanted to see daylight. Soon Daylight Saving Time will be here and we will even be able to play Ultimate in the evenings after work again.

* Chance of snow. Even the chance of snow is nice after having lived without snow for so long. I should have made a bigger snowman last time, but I might just get another chance!

* Super productive day at work. I had given out an estimate for a day and a half to complete what I managed to do after 11am today. I still have a lot of work to do this week, but busy and interesting sure beats slow and boring!

Rediscovering DVDs

* Sleeping in and going into work a little later than my planned 8am

* Leaving work early simply because I felt like it and wanted to go for a jog, even if it meant I had to do a little work in the evening to get my hours

* Apples and Caramel Dip!!!

* Watching a dvd. I hadn’t watched a dvd since I moved (as was evident by the fact that my video cable from the dvd player to the tv had never been hooked up) and had forgotten how much better the sound quality is than watching movies on tv

Lazy

* Finishing up a slight busy period at work , and now the rest of the week should be pretty smooth and allow me to work on whatever I feel like working on

* Getting off work at 4:30. Some days I feel the need to stick around
later, others I just go ahead and leave when my 8hrs is up. It's nice to
have flex hours

* Lazy evening in front of the TV without worrying about much of anything

Waters Edge

* Going to a new church (Waters Edge) and having a good time.  It was very odd to walk into a church I have never been to before but know that someone there would know me (co-worker).  I walked in looking for them and scanning the crowd and completely missed one of the other people I know walking up to me until they asked if I had found my co-worker yet, then led me to him.  The service was nice and the attendees are much younger than most churches which is a definite plus for me.  It was nice to see some people I recognize from Ultimate and feel welcome.

 

* Ultimate Frisbee for a couple hours in the afternoon.  Unlike previous weeks it was not raining or windy, however it was a little cool which turned out to be quite nice when running around as much as we do.  The teams may not always come out even (quite often they do not since some people haven’t seemed to figure out who not to group on a team), but we had a lot of fun anyway and I came away sore as always.  I guess the soreness is a reminder to me for the next couple days of the fun had playing Ultimate.

 

* Hanging out with some people from the church I went to in the evening at Starbucks.  We played taboo until they kicked us out due to their new earlier closing time.  It was a lot of fun and it seems like I am getting to know some of the people in this town.  There were about 12 people there, and 3 of them were Ultimate players, and a few more I had met this morning.  If only I were better with names!

Shopping

* Going shopping and finding everything I wanted pretty quickly.

* Assembling my new file drawer. While most people don't like to assemble things once they get them, it gave me an extremely constructive task to work on for a little bit in the afternoon, which helps to satisfy the urge to do something constructive each day.

* Seeing some nice steaks in the discount meat section at Kroger for the first time since I started keeping an eye out for them in early January. I picked up some and am really looking forward to steak and fries for dinner! yum yum. I even put a Chipotle Cinnamon rub on it which I have had once before and really really like.

Warm Drinks on a Cold Evening

* While I know I just mentioned hot chocolate 2 days ago, it is amazing how awesome it is, and how much warmer it can make you for a few hours afterward on a cold evening! It looks like it may be making a reappearance into my regular routine.

* After having run out of cereal (must go grocery shopping tomorrow!) I had breakfast cereal bars at work w/ hot apple cider from a mix! It was so good and hit the spot. It sure seems like I'm back to my warm drinks again :)

* Talking to Tara in the evening while she was driving to Plano to visit Alison.

*Getting in a few games of Command and Conquer

* No traffic on the way to work despite all the warnings weather.com and NASA emails were putting out about how horrible everything would be in the morning.

Mostly Lazy Evening

* More fun planning for the May visitors J

* Having a mostly lazy evening

* Being able to leave work at 4:30 when I felt all “worked out”

* Getting in a little exercise

Hot Chocolate!

* Having hot chocolate with lunch! I love hot chocolate and I was a little
cool during the day, so it was a perfect touch. I had gotten a company mug
a couple weeks ago and finally remembered to take it home, wash it, and take
it back so I could use it. Very warm and nice.

* Being enough ahead at work to not worry about coming due dates!

* Getting a call from Ange after the failed lunar eclipse and chatting with
her, and tara, with a few crazies in the background :-P.

Productive Evening

* Getting the laundry taken care of and mostly put away

* Finished sorting/filing all the papers/mail that stacked up since
Christmas

* Getting in a little bit of actual work done in the evening to be able to
round my work hours up meaning I will go less into the negative vacation
hours in May!

* Having a generally clean apartment and desk. A little more work and it
will be cleaner than ever. The desk is usually the stumbling block, but
with the papers sorted, it is better than normal

*Managing to update this on a fairly regular basis recently!

Presidents Day

*Getting the day off work for Presidents Day.  It is not a well remembered holiday and I probably only remembered it because it means I don’t have to go to work.  I had a few people ask why I wasn’t at work (since I was online) and so I don’t feel bad not being the only person who wouldn’t remember the holiday.  It was nice to have a 3 day weekend because it somehow seems much more than 1 ½ times as long as normal weekend.  Somehow, Sunday felt more relaxing than a normal Sunday because I knew I had another day, and today felt more relaxing than a Sunday usually does.

 

*Remembering to set aside some God time!

 

*Playing Frisbee with Kevin.  Even though we had just played ultimate yesterday, we got together to toss the disc around for about 40 minutes.  That was all the longer we lasted since we were still both worn out from yesterday, but it helped break up the afternoon and make the day more rewarding.

 

*Having plenty of dinner ideas for the upcoming week (including leftovers)

 

*Talking to Tara on the phone for a while.  It was nice to get to talk to her on the phone and laugh at myself, as well as hear what I already knew…I have TOO MUCH FREE TIME!

 

*Planning

 

*An amazing day outside!  Today’s high was about 70…is it really February????  According to weather underground the record is 78 (sheesh!) so we didn’t break that but still!

Ultimate

* Ultimate Frisbee in perfect weather! It started raining as I left my
apartment but stopped shortly after I got there. We played for 2 hours and
had a ton of fun.

* Not hurting myself playing ultimate

* Being productive in a fun way

Official May Visitors

*Getting the flights finalized for Andrew, Ange, and Tara!!! It is now
official that they are coming up to visit in May, and it should be an
amazing time!!!

*Finishing up my federal and state taxes, w/ refunds. :)

*Starting to look up restaurants and things to do for when I have visitors
in May :)

SNOW!!

Waking up to 1.5" of snow on the ground, and 2-3 on my car!!!! It was awesome. I even made a little snowman before work.

*Making it to work safely despite all the accidents around

Lifted up (and away)

*Playing ultimate for the first time since November.  Even though it was windy, we still had a large turnout and played for 2.5 hours!  I was amazed at how much we could actually play in the wind.  One of the throws actually went way up in the air turned sharply, went 15-20 feet out of bounds and then turned around again and came all the way back into the endzone.  Someone almost caught it even though all the rest of us were way at the other end not moving after we saw it veer out.  All in all it really wore me out and I’m still sore, but it was worth it.

 

*Talking to Katherine for a while Sunday evening, venting back and forth about different things.  Even though we didn’t actually manage to catch up at all, I felt a lot better after a not so great day.  We’re both usually are too busy to chat, so it was really good that we got a chance.

 

*Revived hope to find a home church out there somewhere

Fun & Relaxing Week

*Lounging around and doing very little on a Saturday.  All week I went to work and came home and didn’t do too much besides chatting with people online.  It made for a pretty good week.  And Saturday was full of lounging around with some fun IM conversations

 

*Catching up with Katherine!  It had been a while since I talked to her, and we had some much needed catching up to do.  We didn’t get all the way caught up, but we did our best!

 

*Getting praise for a job well done at work

 

*Playful banter…

Amazing friends

It has been a long time since I updated this and it is time to get back in the habit of listing the positives!

*Safe trip home from SC after Christmas.

*An AMAZING weekend in TX with some of my best friends. It was quite a busy weekend
*Having amazing turnouts at all of the weekend events
*Laser tag
*Blue bell tour
*Making it back in one piece with all my luggage (eventually)
*meeting new people/making new friends
*Too many other things to list!

*Rock climbing with Adam in Richmond

*Quick workdays

*Good conversations with good friends