Cowboy Country

So its 8pm and i'm at work. I'm putting in my 14th hour of being here, and have to at least be here till 10. But likely longer so i'll at least be putting in 16 hours. Ya thats not good. So becuase of this week, i missed out on biblestudy, and visiting Jenna this week, and even talking to her. bummer.

But this week has also brought many great things for the short one that it is. Now even though its Humpday (wednesday) it certainly sounds like i'm concluding the weeks events. Well thats because im leaving for texas tomorow morning at 715am. Ya hope i can get some sleep.

So this trip is not pleasure, its more like a company conference about safety. SO hopefully i can get some directions to see the stuff about where you know that one president got shot. Well see how much time we have though.

Well i better get back to work. I love to fly, but i hate being cramped in those airplane chairs.

Not sure when i'll get back. But i might have the ability to catch an evening fireworks show at Disneyland? WHo knows though.

You ever have one of those worship services or experiences praying or in church where you just realized how awesome God's grace was or his love for us and you just end up balling becuase of how great all that stuff is. Well it was funny. I was listening to a song that EricJ gave me. The artist is Shawn Mcdonald. So far i'm really liking it. But one of the songs the guy sings "what am I" And it was really cool having a conversation with God while on my way to work. Whenever he would sing what am I i would think I am your child. and halfway through the song, i here this I clame you. I didn't start balling, but i knew if i started, I'd be so late for work (it was just around the corner. It's a shame i couldn't stay longer in the car, but you know, It certainly started my day off pretty awesomely.

The second church that i had been attending had the College group lead. They were pretty rockin. One of the electric guitar players had one of those violin bows and played his guitar with that at times. It had a really cool effect. Not that God looks for cool effects when his people gather, but it was still neat.

Yesterday my parents and myself got a little tour from a friend in Mission Viejo. Got to see a lot of mountains. We also picked up a lot of mission trip stuff. I'm almost ready for it i think, but i'm not all there yet.

I'm sure there is more, but once again i have to wait for a phone call. later all.

by request

So cindy wanted some beach. so heres some beach from my old apartment window. I miss that place.



i was also beginning to think about my driving. I was driving down the 710 the other day and its only 3 lanes in some parts. And i was like man i'm bored. I'm used to driving on 5 or 6 lane freeways. I can't imagine what it will feel like to drive on I74 or I65 again with only two lanes. its going to feel like a piddly little highway.

Good Speakers

Now with the title you would probably think that i went to go hear some good sermon or went to a conference where there where some good preachers or something. Well, that is so not the case. And i'm sorry. I hooked up my sound system today and since i don't quite have the speaker wire yet, i plugged in Dan's (before he moved to texas he gave them to me) speakers and put in some old school Bebo Norman. Just some awesome soft accoustic music. My car stereo speakers are so blown its not even funny when bass tries to come through. I sadly could care less if i have it fixed, because i can still bug out to the music. But still man, music is so cool.

So its been a while since i have updated. To tell you the truth i haven't been home much at all this past two weeks. I've either been at biblestudy or in Mission Viejo visiting and having some good times with Jenna. I've been to the youth group twice. I played dodgeball with the kids this week and totally blew. It's not like the old dodgeball we used to play. If you get hit out, you go to the other side. But they can through you the ball and get people out even after you've been tagged out. I'd almost want to get tagged and get it over with so i can not have to worry about getting tagged out and throw the ball at everyone else. Go figure. I definately look forward to improving my dodgeball skills though.

My dad emailed me the other day about a possible web job for his church. So depending on the scope i may take it. I'm already swamped as it is, but i think this will deffinately help pay for gas money to and from Mission Viejo. But we'll see.

My parents come to the apartment this week, and we will be visiting Jenna's church. I've been there once already. There worship leader plays piano. I'd say he is really good, but i've only seen him once. But hes really good.

As EricB said in his latest post, there is so much to say, but to put it into words would just not do it glory, so i guess i'm ending it. Its been a pretty awesome two weeks. I keep feeling that i am going to regret having such a great week and enjoying life? Thats just wrong

supa fast

So i'm connected to the internet i think via the community college of some sort two buildings down. Its shotty but at least it allowed me to check some email and stuff. but some exciting news has happened which i look forward to sharing. But real briefly,

I have met someone. We have been emailing for the past week, and finally met in person yesterday (monday). The oppurtunities that i had been mentioning earlier about the mission trip as well as the worship band thing have all been through her. She seems and is a great women. I look forward with my time with her as we develop our friendship over the next couple of weeks. Then seeing how we really act on a mission trip. I'm told mission trips bring out either the worst of the best in us. I'm not too worried it should be a blast. Well thats all for now. I have to get to bible study.

So i'm sitting here bummed that i'm going to miss church today. Today is check out day. As per my contract i have to be out by noon. Thats fine. So i'm pretty much all packed i just have to take the last round of stuff from my apartment to my car at 9am. I look at the office and nobody is in there. So i look at the hours. Seeing as how i had to be moved out by noon, i would have thought that they would have been at the office at least by 10. I was wrong. They don't open until 11. This bumbs me for two reasons.

1. Duh i missed church.
2. I really wanted to go visit a different church that i have the oppurtunity to go on the mission trip and play in the worship band for. Somebody wasn't going to be there, so i wanted to see how friendly the church actually was without me being introduced to everyone by my friend.

So that church service starts at 1045, and its 30 minutes away. So there is no possible way after going through the walkthrough and stuff i could make it. So then that brings me to my regular church. Well they start at 11, and well still probably couldn't get to it in time.

So ya i'm bummed.

So whats in store for this week. Well i've got OSHA training, and continue to finish these abatements.

well thats not everything, but i've got to get going.

One of the reasons i moved to california was to get away from the cold weather. Well today has been not one of the coldest days here since i've been here, but as i was driving back from my apartment i was beginning to think how cool it was if it rained on moving day, i would never have to get wet because i have underground parking at both places.

Then it starts sleating. ya thats right. Ice pellets started to hit my car. Whats the deal. Hail in California. Go figure.

I WIN

WIN #1

Winning this book means three things to me.
I know get the status of "Kevin from Long Beach"
I have won this contest once so i'm that much closer to catching up to Will and Bobby.
I'll probably never read it and try to sell it on ebay to help with cost of living out here.

I fear telling people about the site because then there going to give me less of a chance to win free business books. And from it would seem, people seem to win a lot. So each day they give out a free contest. You have to anwer two random questions. For example for this one that i one, they asked for a Haiku. I said no. and the other question asked who lived on some street. And i replied with some character in a musical i did in highschool. And I won. WOOHOO.

I was surfing sites today and saw this image. I hope he doesn't forget about numbcheck skills. Girls really like that.

i don't know

so lately ive been finding that when i have been talking to people on the phone and i'm describing something i can go off on a slight tangent, and have absolutely no clue what i was talking about in the first place. Or i can like talk about something. cough and just totally forget what i was talking about. This is probably not the greatest of things to happen to my brain. Its so annoying. And i always talk about boring topics, so the person listening has no clue what i'm talking about so they can't even bring me back into my own conversation that i was trying to talk about in the first place.

Mexico update.
I've found out that we will be going to one of two places to build a house in a week. One of them was Tijuana, and i can't remember the other. I'm still praying on if i should go or not. i have until march 21 to decide. Then have to come up with the money in a months time. It might be discounted since i will be a leader i think, but still, not sure if i can budget that in. If anybody feels like they want to support the mission trip and put some money down i guess you could always contact me or something, but well see how that goes.

In my packing of things today i found the cards that i had packed to help introduce Euchre to the wonderful world of california since it is only a midwest thing. What a perfect time to start introducing it to people on a mission trip.

Does anybody want some furniture. I'm probably not going to have the ability to put everything in my apartment. I'm going to have a desk i think, and a cabinet on wheels sort of. If you had like a vcr, DVD, amplifier and stuff it would probably be good for things like that. The more i thinkabout this move, the more i think it would hve been better to just sell it all and buy stuff here. But then i couldn't have taken some things like my dads speakers. and my computer, and instraments.

fingernails

So last night i went to the laptop on the coffee table and proceeded to log into blogger to post something. I knew i wanted to post something, i just didn't know what. So while i was in deep thought i actually fell asleep. SO no post for you guys last night. Sorry. Hopefully i can make it up to you today.

Biblestudy yesterday was cool. Talked about Job. I was totally reminded of one of Scott's serman back at VU when he preached on this chapter. I can remember while going through the verse God was acting like a father or grandpa, trying to show off his kid. Like he was pulling out his wallet to say hey look at my boy. he's the bomb. Booya! And "Satan" was like well of course he is good, nothing bad has ever happened to him. I'm almost convinced that if there was not trouble or sin in the world (well if there wasn't sin God could live on earth because he can't be in the presence of sin) we would have a hard time believing at times that we really need Him or even have a relationship with him. Its sad to think that we can be that superficial, which is always something i struggled with growing up. Knowing that Jesus is your Lord and Savior is a pretty big deal, and a really good reason to know the guy. He died for yours and my sins. But i always disliked that. I hated that my motivation to know God was that because i knew he can save me and let me go to heaven. I hated that i was his friend because i knew i could get something out of it. And thats a pretty BIG thing. I didn't like the fact that that was motivating me. I wanted to have the friend becuase he was my friend, not because i was able to gain something from the friendship. Like when looking for friends you tend to look at simalirities and how well you can get along, and how that person can benefit you. At least thats the way i think i was. Anyways, ya I always have these ideas to share like the day after biblestudy happens. I'm going to have to find a way to go ahead in time get the information i was going to think about and then go back in time and share it.

So now putting all seriousness aside here is what happened to me today.
I've been needing a haircut for the LONGEST time. I was a full month overdue from needing one. (During my little scavenger hunt to find where i could get a money order i found a place to get a haircut). So i finally decided to go inside and see if they took walkins. Well the place looked pretty cool and like a salon. I fear going to a barbershop for some reason. But the guy at the register looked like a pimp to the ladies that where working in the salon (there where only 2). But still it was funny. So There was an opening. So i do the normal ya its been ages since i have had a haircut and i am in dire need of one. So she does the haircut, and then comes the washing of the hair. I was expecting some sort of you know shampoo and condition of hair to clean the hair to prep it for the gel/hairspray she was going to put on. ya for somereason i got a scalp and part of the back of my neck massage. It felt really good but still kind of shocking. Then to top it all off she used her fingernails. I love fingernails. Not as good as when the hairstylest takes the razor on the back of the neck, but still a great relaxing feeling.

Then she proceeded to show me how i could style my hair since i played the i'm a dumb Indiana person that knows nothing about how to style my hair (it wasn't hard at all). So she gave me like three different ideas, and left the weirdest one on me. It looks like a bomb went off in my brain and the hair just went in every which direction. Well have to see how the people at work think of it.

Today was the first day of 7 trainings for pasteurizer training. We learned a little, but i think i got a lot more done thinking about other stuff. I wrote like two pages worth of thoughts about life and how to help a friend decide a career path. But the topic was Passion. No not the movie/concert/or seminar thing. But passion and work. I may share my thoughts at a later date. I'm not sure. But ya hope your all having a good day.

mixed feelings

So okay, along with this oppurtunity that I mentioned earlier that i would probably have the ability to start playing and later down the road leading worship for a group of highschoolers, there also happens to be an option of going to mexico for a week. Now my vacation days are set in stone. They are real tough to move and very rare circumestances are made to change these dates. I may beable to convince my boss or GM to get these days changed but i'm praying about it. The whole mission trip would be to drive (ya drive to mexico... not something too many people do from Indiana) to mexico and build a house in 5 days i think. the Mexico border is only 4 hours away i'm told. So this would be a cool thing to do with some of my vacation. And i would learn a TON about building a house and maybe even become a Mr. Fixit guy around the house... whenever i can afford one. Maybe i'll just rent for the rest of my life.

So whats planned for this week. NOT AN AUDIT. woohoo. nock on wood. Monday will start early. I have to be at work at 5am to be trained on confined spaces so that i can train others on confined spaces. And finish up some abatements from last weeks audit. I've got the good ole biblestudy on Tuesday, Pasteurizer training on Wednesday and Thursday. And i have a vacation day scheduled for friday. I was supposed to use that day to move into my new apartment. But with the mexico thing being a possibility i may have to bump that to the april mission trip.

And just as a little side note, its nice to see that there are people out there with blogs. So keep posting, you guys give me entertainment at night. Its great to read up about your days.

7th floor privaledges

So last night i was on the phone talking to someone and i here this mass amount of sirens. (And for your knowledge california building structures usually don't get that high so i have a pretty good view of things since nothing aorund me is tall.) So i go to my window and see this light shining down on the street. I couldn't tell it if was from the cop cars or if it was from up above. Needless to say it was from a helicopter shining its light on Ocean Blvd (the street i live on). Following the one car on the street was that one helicopter and from what i saw 9 police cars. Wow a highspeed chase. COOL, and it even had a helicopter to follow the driver. You could tell when the driver changed directions on streets by how the helicopter flew. The ended up coming back towards the apartment but on a different street. Then after the helicopter passed me you could here the sirens stop, so i assume the guy got caught. I wonder if that will ever be on COPS? But ya, that was cool to see my last weekend here living in the highrise.

Free lunch container

So you will probably read this out of order but i forgot to post it with the previous post.

Imagine you have just read that huge post below this one and then you came to this one.

While paying for my first months rent with the money order checks that i got from the grocery store, i had asked how much it would cost to rent a fridge (someone had mentioned to me that they had that oppurtunity. I just wanted to see if it would be worth it to rent it (which it probably wasn't it but just wanted to see). So the manager heard me ask (he showed me around last week) that i needed a fridge. And get this. He had an extra one and was going to have a work order put in to have it moved to my apartment tomorow (Sunday). SWEET. So i got a free fridge. I'm not sure if its totally mine and i can take after my ten months are up? or if i have to do one of those pay it forward if someone else wants it he can offer it up to someone else in need. Tough choice if its a nice fridge. I'll have to take a picture of it tomorow.

Well its near the end of the day and i accomplished a lot, but still didn't get any of the work i wanted to get done for work. All well i guess i'm allowed personal productive days every once and a while.

So in other news (remember the cliffhanger ya thats this information). I've got some bad news for some and good news for others. I might have the chance to be a part of a worship band for senior high kids. It would deffinately get me back into the worship scene again which i'm excited about. But because of the distance and being in the middle of the week it may be quite the hassle. This is obviously not all the news i have to share, but just a little bit. So keep on the edge of your seet for more exciting updates on my life. Becuase i'll probably spill the beans way before i'm probably should.

nobody wants my money

Today was quite commical. it went as follows.

So i go to call to have the electricity turned on in my new apartment, that went okay.

Then i try to find a bank so that i can get a mail order or cashiers check to pay the first months rent at the new apartment. Here are the steps that i had to take to get a mail order.

1. show up at calnation(bank) to get a mail order. In order to get a mail order i have to create an account with them, so i begin to look at what they have to offer. After the dude goes through his little information he tells me that i would not have the ability to access my money for nine days. Okay i have the money, why can't i get it. I can give you a check from another bank, can't you just cash that and give me a mail order? Its money. It should be good anywhere. But they guy redirects me to a mail place that can do work orders, or go to ralphs to cash my ralphs paycheck. that i wanted to deposit.

2. Being a fan of Ralphs i walk into their grocery store, but don't see any type of area that could cash my check or do money orders. so i leave

3.. I walk into the mail place asking to get money orders. The lady says there mail order machine is broken. and states that Long Drugs can do mail orders)

3. So i walk into Long drugs and everything would seem to be okay. They only take cash or debit cards to do money orders. So i put my debit card in and it doesn't work because of the limit put on my card so that if someone where to steal it they would only beable to take so much away. GREAT.

4. So then i walk into Ralphs again and actually ask if there is a place that does mail orders. I then get directed to this little station by a window. I ask the lady if they do mail orders, and she says normally we do but our machine is broken. GREAT. two in a row. Then i ask if she can cash my check. She looks at my check and states i can't cash anything higher than 300 dollars and that we don't carry that kind of cash. Well i know they do, they just don't want to admit it or make a habit of it. So with being turned down so many times

5. So i go to the rental place and tell them i have everything you need except the money order. I can write you a check yadda yadda i have the money. Then they say that they can't do that it has to be this other way. (i think its just so the government can track me or something.) So she says that i can probably call my bank and get the limit raised for an hour so that you can use the debit card.

6. So i go home and log on to get the number to call. I call and at this time i have been having a terrible time with my reception and practically have to have my head out the window so that i don't lose reception. So i call and get put on hold to talk to a customer support person and my phone connection gets disconnected. Great so i call back again. During the process i get put on hold for a while during the time where she is upping my limit so that i can get money out), and during the whole time of hearing music i get this static like i don't have the greatest connection and could lose the it at any minute. So while waiting the music cuts out and i look at my telephone screen and it is black. SO i freak out and press a button, luckily everything was okay and the music started playing again. But later find out that she can't raise the debit portion of my account, and that i would have to call the actual branch on Monday to get it raised. GREAT.

7. So i go back to the bank/grocery stores/ mail place to see if they would give or take cash advances. Well by this time the bank is closed, and the grocery stores don't do it. And the mail place doesn't do that either. GREAT

8. So seeing as how my gas empty light has been on ever since step 1, i figured i should probably get it before i go back to the rental property and see if they know of any places to get some cash. Its like money wasn't good. Everybody likes money. WHile i'm putting in my credit card to pay for the gas it asks for my zipcode (second time) i put a zipcode in and it doesn't work. SO i have to go inside and tell him how much i want and then have it pumped out. In the mean time there is a one dollar service charge. I'm beginning to hate these gas stations that are asking for my zipcode (the past two gas stations) Now that i have my apartment address i can change all of that so that i can stop being denied.

9. So we get on the web and look for some places call around and this guy walks in all mad and tells me not to rent with this place because of what had happened. So that was exciting, but then was directed to another Ralphs much further down the road. Which was really cool because it had a barnes and nobles, COMP USA and other cool stuff that makes california berable. haha.

10. SO i go to the bank inside the grocery store and finally someone says they can help me. And the guy says if you turn around ralpsh can do money orders for you. AWESOME. Because i really don't feel like walking around with this money in my pocket. So i got all of that and was able to go back to the apartment and pay the first months rent.

So that was quite the adventure. It was also cool that i was able to find a wellsfargo bank, so i may sign up with them. Not too thrilled that its inside of the grocery store though. But its probabaly a better place to go since i know they have them in the midwest if i ever travel or move back there, vs. going with calnational.

Anyways, tomorow is church, and probably have to go into work and finish some stuff up.

Until then.

2nd time around

So Rachel M tagged me. This is the second time. Unfortunately by doing the next post that i'm about to unleash it will delete the information that is at the bottom of the website so i will do this again.

Four Jobs I've Had:
Carwash Attendant - probably the easiest job i ever had. I can't believe i got paid to hang out with friends and make fun of people that thought five quarters equaled a dollar fifty.
Teachers Assistant - taught my own lab section on webdesign to a bunch of weirdos.
Porter - cleanin tables and dishes
Assistant Supewrvisor - intern one summer i got to fire a bunch of people that year.

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
Jurassic Park - Timmy the human piece of toast.
Napolean Dynomite - i have only seen it once but GOSH it sure seems like i could.
Prince of Egypt
National Treasure


Four Places I've Lived:
West Lafayette, IN (home and apartments while in college)
Vincennes, IN (college)
Indianapolis, IN (internship)
Greensburg, IN (first job)
Long Beach, CA (sorry had to put that in there so that i could have a place other than IN and sound like ive actually been outside the state.
(Which whenever i sign stuff, people ask me all the time what the abreviation for Indiana is? IN duh.

Four Shows I like To Watch:
Grey's Anatomy
House
Seinfeld
Macgyver

Four Foods I Like:
Lasagna (Stouffers)
Biscuits and Gravy (I stay away in fear of clogging my arteries
Chili (Moms home Cookin)
Pizza

Four Sites I Visit Everyday:
http://www.lbclifegroup.com (coolest site ever)
http://gmail.com (Email)
http://www.inbubblewrap.com/ (i'm so hooked i can't wait to win)
http://www.homestarrunner.com

Four Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. Get Married
2. Travel to Europe
3. Go to one of those midevil theatre dinner things.
4. Find a job i enjoy.

You've Been Tagged:
Andy
Josh
Amanda
Abby

its all weird

wow what a week. So stressful. We had an internal auditor show up on Tuesday. Its one of those suprise audits. So not knowing when my part would be needed i couldn't get anything done all week. They didn't get to my part until the very end. We got a good in one of the areas, so we will probably have a return audit in the future. So right now we are moving like crazy to get these abatements done. As if we weren't busy to begin with. I'd tell you what my rating was, but unfortunately there is no sense telling you becuase it could fall if we don't do great again on the second time they come. If they come.

So i was driving home and a smell passed my nose. It was one of those smells from the bottom of one of those old fireplace match sticks with the really long wooden sticks. I love that smell.

Then when i got home i walked in the elevator. Someone had left a nice little fart smell behind. What a funny thing to do. Pass gas in an elevator then exit it and wait for someone to walk into. Priceless.

So i'm not the greatest at leaving cliffhangers to my blogs, or setting up situations to tell you stay tuned until next time, but i do have some information that may begin to change much about my blog. An almost life changing event. At least for me anyways. I probably won't have the ability to mention anything for a couple of weeks, but for those of you who already know be quiet, and for those of you who don't, well i guess you'll just have to stay tuned. This could be really exciting.

oh ya i almost forgot. I get my apartment tomorow. i don't move in until next week. So ya thats some news for ya.