Saturday, September 27, 2008

all by myself

So, Julie is out of town for a while.....She left early this morning to go to OK to spend time with her grandma, aunts, and madre celebrating her grandma's bday. She's excited......Tuesday she heads to Wichita Falls for work and finally she is back home Thursday night.....so, we'll be spending lots of time apart - since I was in San Antonio Monday - Thursday last week.
I already miss her which is crazy:)

Last week - I was in San Antonio for training which was fun.
I had a busy day on Monday getting geared up to head out of town for 3 days, so I had a lot of last minute stuff I had to finalize for work. The plan was to leave around 4 that afternoon to head for old SA......did that work out? Not so much.
I got a call to head out to Nolan to a wind farm, they had a bunch of stuff to get rid of and needed someone there that day. So, I headed that way thinking I'd be out there for about an hour - my bad.....I was out there for 3 1/2 hours - It was a great meeting though and well worth my time but it delayed my trip to SA by almost 4 hours. I finally got on the road around 8pm.....putting me in SA at midnight - it was a long.....LONG drive. I dang near lost my voice because I was singing so loud to stay awake. I'm not kidding......I stopped more than I ever have on that drive (once in Brady, then in Mason, then again in Fredericksburg) because I was so tired.

but, I made it....got about 4 hours of sleep, got up and sat on my butt for 9 hours for training.

I hung out with my parents and got to eat some great food at Pappadeux Tuesday night - I love that place. Julie doesn't really like seafood so I jumped all over the opportunity to stuff myself - almost to the point that I was sick - full of fish....Man....Abilene needs a Pappadeux!

Wednesday night I went with the group to eat at Iron Cactus on the riverwalk......we were trying to eat and get out of there so we could all go back and study for our presentations the next day - that didn't so much happen. We sat down about 10 minutes after a 40 person table sat down....man - we were there for about 2 1/2 hours. Management felt bad so they said they'd give us a 30% discount - which he later corrected and said he'd give us $30 off. My food was good - had fish tacos but it wasn't worth waiting that long....and we didn't even have dessert.

But, Thursday was a beating. There were 9 of us in the class and each one had to get up in from of the class and pretty much do a full blown sales presentation with the teacher as the customer. I was glad when it was over.....We all did good but it was brutal. We didn't get down until about 2.....and then it was FINALLY time for lunch......I eat WAY too much and too often to wait that long to eat.
So we went to Alamo cafe before everyone went their different directions.

My day went from good to bad pretty quick. My mom sent me a text message and said Mamaw wasn't doing very good and was back in the hospital. She was having a hard time breathing (she has emphysema) and once she got out of the hospital she'd have to live in an assisted living home.
Then, I went to get some coffee with a few high school friends, and my good friend I've known for about 10 years told me she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I was heart broken.

So, I finally got out of SA about 4 pm and back to abilene around 8ish.

Now....I'm here....hanging out with the dogs.....which, we had a rough start to our time away from mom....Boomer got in the trash - ate about 5 tortillas, some salsa, and who knows what else....has had bad gas ALL day long (I swear it smelt so bad I thought he sharted...no joke)
but, they finally calmed down and are back to their lazy selfs - thank goodness - i didn't want to put a for sale sign on them and let them start walking the streets only hours after Julie left:)


That's about all she wrote....I have 2 HUGE appointments on Tuesday so hopefully those will go well.
Please keep my grandma (Mamaw) and my friend in your prayers. They both definitely need them.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

and...he's....back

Wow - i just realized how long it has been since I've posted a new blog. Thank you ALL for being so patient...haha...by ALL i mean....the 2 that actually read this blog! haha

Things have been so incredibly busy with life and work....well, mostly life. Over the last 2 months i've been hustling and bustling, just trying to get to see current customers as well as pick up some new business. It's going great and I still love my job. I'm working long hours but I know it will pay off in the long run.

A few stories from my travels:

A few weeks ago I spent the day in San Angelo (well...that's pretty much every week) but this drive home was definitely....interesting to say the least.

I'm jammin in the "Short Bus" (that's my BRIGHT yellow, GMC Astro's nick name), probably listening to talk radio (as usual) when a single cab toyota tacoma passes me. I didn't think anything of it b/c people typically pass me (short bus doesn't have cruise control - so i typically drive 75 mph but will, without realizing, slow down to 65.
So, we're cruising a long when all of a sudden, he gets really, REALLY close to the guard rail in the left lane. He gets back on the highway and off he goes again. So i start watching.....the dude is completely....and utterly HAMMERED out of his mind. It was obvious. He would go from lane to lane, and even from ditch to ditch (no joke.) After about the 3rd time he ran off into the ditch I decided to call the cops. The operator answers the phone, ask where I'm at, and what type of vehicle it was, yada yada...then says, Sir, you're the 5th person that's called about this vehicle. Holy wow!! That's a lot. Unfortunately we just entered Runnels county from Tom Green county so it took them a while to get someone out there.
I counted.....he was in the ditch 10 times and in the median (almost going into oncoming traffic) 9 times.....we lost 2 highway signs that day......and finally 4 police cars come hauling butt down the street....and he pulled over.
It was unbelievable - it was only 2:30 in the afternoon and this guy could have killed some one.
I'm totally surprised he did not flip his truck since he would hit the ditch/median driving about 75mph.
So, that was a fun day and made the trip home go by pretty fast.

What else - not a whole lot. Julie and I, Jeff and Hayley, and Katie and Donnie all went to the rodeo last weekend and had a blast. typically the fair is packed (which it was) which means parking is a pain. So, being the smart guy I am, I parked in the first spot I saw....come to find out, it was the furthest parking spot from the entrance - which would typically be no big deal except the fact that there were about 100 parking spots between where we parked and the entrance....I swear, I need a water break and a nap before we got to the entrance.....then, my bride had the great idea of going out the south entrance b/c it'd be closer....oh no....we walked like 10 miles.......after eating a lot.......it was not a pretty sight.....haha - we probably walked eleventy billion miles that night - no exaggeration:)

But, we did have a great time....Jeff and the crew left so Julie and I hung out with my co-worker Brent, his wife Tiffany, and their 3 (almost 4 according to her) Mallory the rest of the night. She was a blast - wanted to ride everything, telling her dad she didn't get scared on the roller coaster, and having a ball!!

I toned it down a notch this year as far as food goes for the fair - last year I was miserable - here's my list (and i'm sticking to it)

1) Fajita burrito
2) Cheese fries
3) Funnel Cake
4) Dr Pepper

That's it - I'm not kidding.

On another note, I'm playing softball again this season......which is fun except the fact that we've played 1 game out of 3.....the others have been rained out...which they just tack on to the end of the season...so we might be done with this season in January.....2010 or something like that.
The game we did play, it actually rained about 2 hours earlier......i don't think i've mentioned this but we had a bit of a mesquito problem late August......they were bad....frickin everywhere....and did you know that when you add water and humidity - they get WORSE!!! So we all hosed down with off and what not - but oh no...it didn't help....not at all....those suckers were out of control!!
It was not fun playing in the outfield that night - but hey - on the other hand at least we won our game - oh wait...no we didn't!! but, we only lost by 10 - it was a close one:)

Julie and I did go to the ranch a few weekends ago - man...I love that place.....It's so relaxing.
Saturday Mike, Barbara, and I went to Archer to load the feeders with corn which I thoroughly enjoyed. I got the crap bit out of my by a fire ant - and not just any fire ant but the ones that are HUGE!! They look like mini horses - no lie - that sucker hurt - I cried...not really - but it did sting for about an hour.

Then we ate at the Wildcatter in Graham - Julie has pics on her blog - it....was.....AWESOME...great food, great atmosphere, great scenary - I loved it.

That my friends is all for me. I promise, for the "It Is What It Is" faithful, i'll try to do a better job updating you on everything.