I hate being right ...

I finally received the telephone call I've been dreading yesterday. As was my prediction, I didn't get the promotion for which I applied. Unfortunately, I found out because the position my competition held was posted as vacant before I'd been called and told I did not get the job. So, I did the math and figured it out before my boss called me. That was definitely not his intention and he apologized profusely for it. He gave his reasons for why I wasn't picked and said it was the hardest decision of his DM career thus far. I'm not judging that reasoning, nor am I going to go into it on here. If you have questions, ask and I'll discuss it one-on-one.

So, I have no plans for now other than to be the best I can be at my job, improve the area he said was the deciding factor in the decision, and make President's Club again. I've got a good chance of it considering how we're doing thus far. The trip for managers this year is to the Ritz Carlton on Grand Cayman (see above picture). I'm not actively looking to move until I know whether or not I make it. I'm eligible as long as I'm hear through the end of March. Buddy and I are both content to stay here that long if we suspect we will get such a fantastic trip out of our patience. We'll see.

An approximation of normal ...

I can feel myself slipping back into better routines. Yesterday, while mostly spent catching up at work, was much more like it should be with the return of one of my most valuable team members. Even with one of my assistant managers out, the cloud of tension that had been hanging over me pre-vacation seems to have lifted. Granted, I have yet to hear anything about the promotion for which I applied almost a month ago, but I have very little anxiety about that; I've simply resolved that I haven't gotten the job. All I'm really waiting on is the conversation with my boss about why and to vent some of my feelings of isolation and professional disappointment over being kept in the dark for so long.

But, I am content with how yesterday played out for me. I began my day blogging and on the computer. I like that. I feel as though I have the ability to gather my thoughts and mentally prepare myself for the day by focusing on myself for thirty minutes to an hour. It is a good start ... well, that and the huge cup of coffee I sip while doing it. ;)

I went to work looking very sharp in my new light blue Burberry polo shirt. I looked smashing if I do say so myself ... which I do ... often! ;) But, I also looked fat (at no fault of the shirt, mind you). I love having a shirt who's fabric is slightly stretched and tight in all the most flattering places; this shirt does stretch and is tight but not so much in the flattering places as the most unflattering ones.

I led my weekly conference call with senior project coordinators. It went nether well nor poorly, it simply went. I think the routine and pace of the call will have to change next week. We'll go over the required numbers but it will be time to start infusing some of my passion and personality into the call. I was able to leave work at the relatively decent time of 6:45p after arriving at 9:15a. It felt good to have such an abbreviated day after what I had been working during peak. I still have a long to-do list, but I got quite a few things accomplished and started yesterday that I should be able to finish shortly. It's all about breaking the large number of tasks into manageable portions and then delegating said tasks to those who can handle them and will learn from them.

After work I dusted off my bag and went to the gym. I really did feel better doing some cardio again. I realize how much stamina and strength I've lost over the last month by how tired I was from simply doing 25 minutes on the elliptical machines. Driving home was a bit of a challenge and a scare. It was raining horribly last night. People here do not experience rain often enough to know what to do when driving in it. To make matters worse, most of the highway is under construction, so it has no lighting whatsoever. As I age I am plagued more and more by night-blindness. In total darkness, with my headlights on, at night, I see fine. But if I have cars behind me and their lights are reflecting in my mirrors at all, my vision is significantly impaired. Add rain reflecting off the asphalt into that and I'm scared. If you add a torrential downpour into that and I almost wet myself. I think I sweat more in the car on the way home than I did in the gym. *g*

As you can tell by this post, I survived. I took a really hot shower and then, instead of slipping into some vacuous routine of online chatting, I got on our ultra-comfy sofa and started reading again. I have a backlog of six books to get caught up on now with more to come this weekend when Buddy & I go to Barnes & Noble to spend some birthday monies. Anyway, I buried my nose in a book until Buddy got home with dinner an hour later. I ate, spent a few minutes talking to him and went to bed.

I like that routine. There is enough with the gym and reading to keep my mind occupied but not so much to cause me to feel frantic. Plus, it betters my mind, body and spirit. I feel much more recharged after 7.5 hours of sleep and 20 oz of Starbucks coffee. ;)

HO HO HO!

A frequent question this time of year seems to be "what did you get for Christmas?" Invariably, because I am part of a couple, the follow-up question is "what did Buddy get?" I can say one or the other, but I also think it is fair to talk about what we got together. Knowing Buddy he would get mad if I claimed it all *g*. I figure I'll just post something on here to get it out of the way; or, if nothing else, to give myself something to copy and paste when I'm answering in e-mails and online. I know, I'm blatant cheater, but that is OK.

Together
1000 thread-count king size, ultra deep pocket, mint green sheets (yummy).
$655 cash.
Assorted Harry & David Chocolates and goodies.
The chance to see our families and surprise the daylights out of them on Christmas.

Me
$50 Visa Check Card (I used it on three books at the giant Borders on Kirby & W. Alabama).
A super cool Alabaster paper weight for my office.
A Burberry picture frame (silver, with a lavender suede trim).
Four Dark Walnut (espresso colored) picture frames from Bed, Bath and BEYOND *said with dramatic echo*
An XM Satellite Radio.
Two Burberry shirts (one polo with the check pattern on the inside of the collar, one pink with the check pattern in white).
A recording of the 9 Beethoven symphonies.
A Starbucks tumbler I can put my own pictures in (and no, they won't be of me).
A Martha Stewart Cleaning Bible (700+ pages of how to clean ANYTHING).
Assorted candies, chocolates and little gifts from my mother's gift bag (it would need it's own list, but it's one of the best parts of Christmas for me).
A Movado pen.

Buddy
Assorted candies, chocolates and little gifts from my mother's gift bag (it would need it's own list, but it's one of the best parts of Christmas for him too).
A Starbucks tumbler I can put my own pictures in (knowing him it won't have pictures of me but pictures of the dogs).
A special edition, Product Red 8GB iPod.
A Movado case for his iPod.
A MacBook (white).
A neoprene inner case for his MacBook.
A super cool outer case for his MacBook.
A red case for his red iPod.
An unnecessary copy of iLife software (he installed it before I read that the MacBook came with it).

Buddy has been like a little kid all week with his MacBook. He's soooooo proud of it. :) Anyway, I'm sure I forgot some things. That has nothing to do with whether or not Buddy or I appreciated them so much as the fact that it's not even 07:30 and my coffee hasn't quite kicked in yet.

Happy Times

If you're paying attention, dear reader, you will notice I have taken my blog from myspace and transferred it to this superior site. I like this format and layout. I like how much customization I can put into this. Honestly, I just use myspace for blogging and random messages to friends. So, that's why I have so many posts in one day.

Anyway, what a BRILLIANT vacation we've had home to Houston! Buddy and I left Harlingen at 7am on Christmas morning to drive to Houston to surprise our respective families. We have spent the week at Buddy's parent's house, doing our usual whirlwind tour of the city and things we miss so dearly about living here. It was a great surprise for his mom and mine. Buddy's mom actually physically shook, she was so startled to see Buddy in her house after we'd just talked to her and she thought we were in Harlingen. My mother's reaction was very similar. She took a good 45 seconds before she got up to hug me because she just couldn't wrap her brain around what images were being presented to her eyes. I adore surprises like that!

When we tried to surprise Granny & Paw-Paw, the joke was on us! I phoned their house on Tuesday before we planned on the hour long trek to their house to play out our little joke. Their absence on a day not usually reserved for Granny to get her hair done made me think to call Richard & Linda. I'd JUST missed them as they had flown up to Al's ranch north of Dallas. It's a good thing I called first or we would have been REALLY confused! As it ended up, we joined up with uncle Richard & aunt Linda, my sister Mandy, my 2nd cousin Jan, her Twins and Granny & Paw-Paw for dinner at their house on Friday night. It was a great time!

As it says in my biography on the right, I'm a big city boy. Houston has a city population of 2.1 million with a metro area population of 5.3 million. There are 90 languages spoken frequently in Houston. There is a vast amount of culture and FOOD! We miss eating a large variety of food, so we've gorged ourselves on French, seafood, Italian, Vietnamese, a kosher deli, more seafood and (of course) Paw-Paw's dinners. We intentionally didn't eat any Mexican food all week. We get so tired of that living in the Valley. It was nice not to have any.

Houston also has a huge arts and entertainment scene. It has the 2nd largest number of seats in a theatre district in the US. It is one of only five US cities to have permanent professional resident companies of the major performing arts: opera, ballet, music and theatre. While we couldn't go on any excursions those places, we took ourselves into a couple of artistic adventures. Wednesday we planned a trip to the MFAH to see the "Dogs in Art" Exhibit. We knew about it because it was cosponsored by Starbucks, who is Buddy's employer. The exhibit is a chronicle of the most famous and important pieces of art centered around dogs from the Renaissance through modern day. I learned a lot while we were there and the pieces themselves were cute, breathtaking, fascinating and thought-provoking all at the same time.

While we were there we also saw that the MFAH (Museum of Fine Arts - Houston) will be the only American museum to hold the French Impressionist collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art while they undergo renovation. The exhibit will be on display February through May before it leaps the pond to Berlin.

Our other museum excursion was unplanned. We were on our way to the Galleria to go to the Movado store to have my watch examined when we saw a sign for the Smith Family Gem Vault at the HMNS (Houston Museum of Natural Science). Well, I like jewelry and Buddy likes ANYTHING blinky and shiny, so we just did a random exit off 59 on Greenbriar, drove down Rice Boulevard (which is art in and of itself) and took a wander through the museum. We saw pieces in there that blew my mind. Besides having several pieces that were once part of the Russian crown jewels (ca. 1790s), there were modern pieces as well. I'm talking 300 carat yellow sapphires set in platinum and flanked with white and GREEN diamonds. The collection also contains the world's largest cut piece of aquamarine with a total weight of 10,385 carats. It was truly breathtaking.

Today we took the dogs to a dog park in town off Allen Parkway. Both dogs got to run and play with other dogs, chase sticks, etc. Chloe spent a lot of time chasing other dogs toys and drinking their water. She's selfish like that ... she gets it from Buddy. *g* Then we took them to Memorial Park and did one lap around, which was three miles. All four of us were tired! After we finished, Scoot couldn't even get in the car. She was soooo tired! She crawled up her front legs inside and Buddy picked her back legs up to get in. She's gonna sleep well tonight!

We're leaving to go back to the Valley tomorrow morning. I want to get home early, get laundry done, get settled and mentally prepare myself for going back to work. Maybe sometime this week I'll find out something about my job. I certainly hope so.

Inspiring inspiration

I was milling over the core values of the company in preparation for my interview the other day and I started thinking about one of them: innovation.

Innovation is defined as a new idea, method or device. For a company like FedEx, it is paramount to our success. Fred Smith founded a company that had never been dreamt of previously because he had an idea. He was inspired by something in his own life to devise a solution. So innovation is often the child of inspiration.

If that is true, what is inspiration? Each person has their own definition they use in their daily lives, but my choice for inspiration is that it is a sudden intuition as part of solving a problem. But what inspires that inspiration? Is it simply the silencing of the mental clatter of our daily problems and perplexities that resound in our own mind? I think so.

My best thinking occurs when I am focused enough during states of tedium which require a high enough level of concentration to engage my mind without utilizing all of my thinking resources on one particular item. My own examples include driving my car to and from work, taking a shower, or watching a B-grade television show. All are examples of times when I have enough clarity of thought that a new idea can meander its way into the peripheral vision of my mind's eye.

So many people formalize the process of deducing new ideas, when they are not truly deduced in the first place. It starts with silencing our own mental clatter and taking our inspirations from that silence. Those inspirations should then be written down and formulated upon. Then you can find new innovations.

Proof & Beliefs

I spent some time this morning thinking about the difference and sameness of proofs and beliefs. When you say the word proof, my mind immediately gravitates toward our court system.

In civil law, we ask what the preponderance of the evidence says. In a criminal court, something has to be true beyond reasonable doubt. So criminal courts remind me of observational scientists amassing enough evidence to make the likelihood of anything else negligible.

Then my mind wanders toward mathematics, science and geometry. The difference between the two couldn't be more clearly defined. In law the facts are amassed to support a claim; in science, a claim is fashioned around the nature of the facts.

I'm drawn to a television episode I recently saw about breaking the sound barrier. Prior to that event, scientists formulated that the instant a plane started across the sound barrier, the molecular structure of the metal would begin to change. These scientists came to this conclusion using their own understanding of science and mathematics. We understand that their hypothesis was incorrect. However, at the time all of their mathematical and scientific conjecture pointed toward their conclusion.

Belief lent itself to proof yet it should not have done so. We don't come to any beliefs as the result of proof. Belief is our complex integration of a vastly greater sea of evidence than memory or logic can handle. Belief is based on the trust of the proof of ourselves or anther, regardless of how right or wrong it turns out to be. Belief can also be influenced by our own level of knowledge. If one doesn't have the technical understanding to prove to yourself what you are being told and it goes against your own beliefs, you will err on the side of belief.

I believe both must be taken hand in hand. Had we not people who challenged the beliefs of the day, we would still be traveling on what we thought was a flat world at sub-sonic speeds. To never challenge beliefs is to stand by the status quo. Proof gives us, not belief, but confidence in what we all knew or suspected to be true. Or it might tell us when we were wrong in our suppositions. Proof may not instill belief, but we've missed something very important if we don't understand the value, the structure, and the limitations of proof.

I guess opposites do attract.

*Jeopardy! theme plays*

The waiting game has begun. After closing my store on Sunday night because someone called in sick, I woke up at 6am on Friday for my journey to Houston.

I opted to drive back and forth instead of flying. We don't have the discretional income at the moment for me to rent a car to drive around the city. I could have stayed with friends, but I really wanted to visit with my grandmother since Tuesday was her birthday.

I feel the interview went well. There are several things about it which bring me to that conclusion. First, the person whom I thought would play a large role in the interview itself, perhaps providing more challenging questions than the other two actually was relatively quiet. At one point my boss asked him if he had anything for me and he said he had nothing. I asked if there were any type of HR related questions for me at all. His response was "no, you've already answered everything I had, which is good." To repeat his comment, that's good.

I had a lot of questions and requests for opinions thrown at me over the course of the 1.5 hour interview. I not only had an answer for every question, but based on the comments made about the store/cluster in general through the course of the interview; my answers were what needed to be said. For example, it was said later in the interview that what the stores need is a manager who will treat them like human beings as opposed to over tasked drones. One of the questions that was asked early on was "What would you say is your greatest skill as a manager?" My response was: "I've had a lot of success on paper at my store. I'm soaring above plan and profit expectation and have great customer service scores. A year ago, I would have said my ability to manage those things is my greatest attribute. But, I've learned something about myself and management in general. My greatest and most valuable skill which I bring to the table is the ability to infuse a positive attitude into the work atmosphere. I do that by humanizing my employees. I treat them as people and am genuinely interested in them, their lives and who they are both in and outside the company. They understand that I'm actually interested in them as people and give me more respect for it than they would if I were just some guy barking orders. By making them feel like they have ownership in the performance of the store and company and that THEY are respected attitudes change." When I was given a turn to ask questions later on, one of mine was what the store needs most. My boss' response actually mirrored what I bring to the table to the point that he reused some of the phrases I uttered.

I am now at the portion of the interview process I dread the most: waiting. Two people were interviewed on Friday which leaves three more candidates. My boss will be in my center with HIS boss on Tuesday and in Corpus Christi on Wednesday. That means that he will not have the opportunity to complete the interviews until Thursday. The plan is to have a decision by Friday. This will truly be one of the longest weeks I've had in quite some time.

If less were more it would be called less, not more!

While nervous energy abounds, I find myself less concerned than the outcome of my interview than I was before. While I knew that I would BE interviewed for the position, the simple acknowledgement of that seems to have helped my concerns. I'm flying to Houston on Friday morning for a 3:00 interview time.

Why am I less concerned about the outcome? I don't know for sure, but I think it is a quiet confidence in my own abilities to interview well coupled with my own assuredness of my readiness to take on this next challenge in my career. In my first 21 months as a manager I have managed to lead the store to breaking sales and profit records and then shattering my own records twice over. In doing all of that, I've still maintained one of the most engaged and happy teams in the company.

My prediction is that what I have accomplished will not be a matter of discussion. More emphasis will be placed on and time spent on HOW I've accomplished these things and how I would adapt that methodology to a multi-unit setting. I think one of my strongest attributes as a leader is how positive I am. When you lift a team's confidence in itself and allow it to flourish, success happens on its own. It isn't really about what I can do; it is about enabling them to do what they can do. That is the secret.

Perhaps I'm subconsciously practicing for my interview? LOL

The Way Home ...

The first event in what could work out to be a phenomenal win or a horrifying disappointment for me came to pass yesterday. One of the managers in Houston is leaving to be closer to his family in Louisiana. That opens a position for me to fill ... and now I'm nervous.

I will have to interview for the position and I'm not even sure who all is applying at this point. It is quite imaginable that there will be manager or two in my district applying for this position as it would be a promotion for many. There is also the distinct possibility that several managers from the north Houston district will apply for the position. The fact that I don't know is a source of concern because I can't rate myself against my competition.

What it boils down to is how I interview compared with their expectations of how I will interview. I need to interview well by my own standards, which indeed are higher than anyone else's for me. I need to hone in on what weaknesses I have not yet tackled and show I have a realistic understanding of my own developmental needs.

The bottom line is, I need out of Brownsville. I need out of the Valley. I want this promotion to be my way home. Wish me luck!

Despite my best efforts

Without much forethought or effort, I can string together a mighty onslaught of insults about where I live. If you've known me for any length of time, you have probably been subject to one of my tirades.

For the last few days, I have tried to limit what it is I let annoy me about living here. My thought is that if I lessen the amount of complaining I do I will see a reduction in my unhappiness. By taking all of the things that get on my very last nerve and trying to ignore them, I might be more content with my own situation. On paper (or the screen), it looks like a good idea. In practice it is proving to be quite the challenge.

One of my largest problems with the area in which I live is my own boredom with it. I talk about what there ISN'T to do here but I realized that I have not done any real research into the matter. The question crossed my mind: What if I've lived down here since March of 2005 and because I ASSUMED that nothing of any interest was occurring, I have been missing out on things I might enjoy? So this morning, I made it my mission to explore the arts and entertainment calendar of the Rio Grand Valley. Here is what I found that I can put on my December Calendar:
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Candlelight Posada, Archer Park, McAllen, first Friday and Saturday nights in December. Christmas entertainment with a South Texas flair...food booths, luminarias, twinkling lights, caroling and a live Nativity scene.
Christmas Boat Parade, Port Isabel, early December. Don't miss this spectacular parade as boats make their way from Port Isabel along the causeway and along the bay at South Padre Island.
A Christmas Celebration, Edinburg, second Saturday in December, celebrates the season with mariachis, dancers, a crafts fair and Las Posadas production.
Christmas Street Parade, South Padre Island, early December. Grab your favorite parking spot on Padre Blvd. for the enchanting Christmas Street Parade.
Winter Vegetable Show, Pharr, early December, showcases the Valley's many vegetables shown by 4-H and Future Farmers of America members.

I'm particularly enthralled by the last entry. I am ashamed to admit that I have wasted SO much time complaining about the cultural void here when I could have been looking at a 10th grader's tomato. What an ass I am.

I have spent a while looking up what I would like to do in Houston and I realized that there was more to do in the WEEK of December 3^rd than I have time to post on this blog. They are all activities that I miss having available to me; musical concerts, art exhibitions, book signings, the theatre, etc. And I should note, I did not do all of the things I wished when I actually lived in Houston. I had all of it available but had not the funding to partake in it. Now, with plenty of income available for artistic adventures, I have nothing to do but look at the size of an eighteen year olds zucchini.

Is my dilemma clear?

Marathon Days

I had to chuckle at how it played out. I was having a good laugh with someone and Karma decided she would demonstrate her sense of humor as well. I don't think she's very funny.

I strolled into work yesterday morning at 9am and everything seemed to be going smoothly. There wasn't a mob of customers overwhelming my two employees there. The workload in the back seemed manageable considering we've got someone on medical leave for 7 weeks. The center was mostly clean, albeit a few spot here and there I decided to touch on before I began my day in earnest. Overall, the morning was shaping up finely. I looked to one of my employees and asked "Is it a good day?" He replied "Yes sir!" I responded "Yes it is. Do you know WHY it's going to be a good day? Because I said so." This apparently got the attention of Karma. My employee bounced back with "Yes sir. What the boss says is what goes." Here was my biggest mistake. "Yes, it's like the movie 'Dogma'. If I were wrong, the universe would actually begin to collapse in on itself and life as we know it would end."

*BEEEEEEEEEEP: William, you have a call on line one.* comes from the intercom. One of my two people working in the evening was calling in sick. Seriously, it was that fast. I was dumbfounded by how quickly Karma decided to punish me. You see, dear reader, when one person is out on medical leave and another calls in sick, I am the only person who can cover. I worked from 9am until 10:12pm. In some work worlds, working 13 hours may not seem as painful as I imply. However, 13 hours on your feet, back and forth with a 9 minute lunch dealing with an impatient public (with some being nice and some not) face-to-face is an extremely long day. I made it a point to look at what time we left because the team member closing with me remarked that she'd never gotten out that early before.

Hopefully, today will be better. I will not feed my own ego, even in jest. For my own well-being, I may not let others feed my ego. I really don't want to run the risk.

Wish me luck. ;)

Clearing out the Cobwebs

I am fantastic. That is a proven fact and books have been published on the subject. However, even though I'm fantastic, I've felt myself a bit boring lately. Despite my travels this year, where I take up residence has me a bit down and bored. Inevitably, that leads to being boring. I don't like being boring and I don't like myself when I am as such.

What to do about said boredom? Well, like most other things, it has involved spending money. *grin* Buddy and I took 22 of our favourite pictures from vacations this year and printed them out in sizes ranging from 4x6 to 18x24. Luckily, I did them all at my store so I got a good discount on it ... that 30% can come in handy. But, they look gorgeous. I've got pictures from Toronto, Houston, Las Vegas and Hawai'i.

Our next step was to go to Hobby Lobby with all of these pictures in mind and get frames for them. I thought this would be the really expensive part because Buddy said "I don't want cheap looking frames." I knew what he meant, but usually when he says something like that it means I shouldn't look at the checking account when he's done. Anyway, we found a very nice assortment of frames. They're not all the same, but there are some of similar styles. That's going to make it easier later on to add to the assortment when we go on vacations.

Anyway, we picked out the type of glass we wanted and had the framers take care of the three 18x24's. I picked them up on Saturday and we hung them all up. The result is a fantastic homage to our adventures this year. Since they've been hung, I find myself looking up and staring, almost longingly. It is definitely enjoyable to have those short little mental holidays every time I look at the wall. I invite you all over to see. It's beautiful.

BUT! You could very well be asking yourself how displaying these printed snapshots of my life outside of the Valley decrease the boredom I incite in myself. The answer is simple ... it won't. The process of going through the pictures and thinking about the fantastic places that I've been this year inspired me to do more traveling. Granted, I don't really have the funds to go on a long trip at the moment, but I still want to. Well, that desire led me to ponder what it is that I enjoy about travel. There are some places I go because of who I'm going to see; Houston is home to most of my family and friends while Toronto is home to two of my two best friends (besides Buddy). I began thinking back to my trip to Europe while in college. Outside of my group, I didn't know anyone there, so what was it that I liked? It boils down to the culture and history. Language, architecture, music, art, literature, food ... these things truly define a society beyond where the lie on a map.

That bit of self-discovery of my own feelings of the matter has led me to a solution for myself. I will take one country or culture per year and I will study it. I will study the basics of the language, the architecture, the music, the art, the literature, and when I can, the food. I'm enrolling myself in my own self-taught school. I will look up social groups/clubs of people who are a part of my culture of choice and do my best to interact with them. Will I get tire of my country/culture of choice? Perhaps, but the simple fact that it is MY choice will allow it to hold my interest far longer than it would if it were a class I'd picked in school on a whim. I am excited about this, and as you might have guessed, have already begun my first year-long journey.

"Well he lives in Mexico (practically) so he must have picked Spain or Mexico for his first adventure. That would be the only logical choice." First, I think those are two very distinct cultures. I wouldn't study England to learn about America and so I will not study Spain to learn about Mexico. True, there is a language commonality; however there are great differences in that as well. One of those two would be the logical choice. However, because I feel like I am being pressured by my situation and the expectations of the society in which I live, I have rebelled against the choices of Spain or Mexico.

Instead, I have picked a culture about which I have been fascinated for quite some time. Glenn, my favourite roommate in college was a Russian major and I have always had a particular liking for composers such as Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky and the like. So, I choose Russian. I bought a book called "Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia" as well as a book on beginner's Russian. I was at Starbucks reading the other day and Nikki a friend of ours sat down next to me and asked what I was reading. I showed her and she said "oh, that's SUCH a Starbucks type of book." LOL

So, wish me luck in my new studies. I think knowledge and the activation of neurons is a surefire cure for boredom. I just have to ensure I don't use that as a replacement for my time at the gym!

wow ...

I got this as an e-mail from my mother last night. Call the President ... this child got left behind.

This is not a joke. Today, I saw this message written on plain paper and posted on the I-pod display case at the Atascocita Wal-Mart. At first I thought it must be a joke, then realized that it was not. I was so amazed I got out my pen and wrote it down verbatim…

"ATT:

Pleab axe a Wal-Mart associate four assitance wit da I-pods"