An hour and a half remained until he was free to leave; no cutting out early today as he had to man the phones from 1 to 5 instead of his prefered 8 to 12. This was the day he'd waited for all week. Friday, the day the love of his life and he would take the trip south to Cincinatti Ohio, home of the famous WKRP. He sat in his chair staring at the computer screen hoping the phone would ring or he would receive an email or an IM... anything to keep him occupied for this last little bit of time. Sure he could have cleaned his desk, but it always seemed pointless until he lost sight of his keyboard. That also was his attitude on washing dishes and doing laundry, both of which he hated doing, but begrudgingly always did. As he looked at his desk he realized he'd forgotten to take his Nexium and knew with the long trip ahead of him he'd best take it now or else this would turn out to be a very unpleasant trip. He popped the purple pill and sipped from the lemonade he had bought at lunch from sbarro. Now that his ulcer is on the way he can't drink caffeine. Don McLean swaggered from his speakers singing about the day that he'll die; if he had died after this song had came out he'd have been an enormous hit and all would have mourned him, but instead he'd gone on to make a load of crappy albums that never went anywhere near American Pie. "eighty degrees" he thought to himself as he checked the weather for the fiftieth time today and looked out the window at the sky littered with clouds and the trees waiving silently in the gentle breeze that must be just outside his window. Behind him he heard his fellow employees discussing things they could have asked him about but didn't. He decided not to chime in because they wouldn't listen anyway. The taste of his cheap lemonade lingered on the roof of his mouth so he went for water. "what is that smell??" he wondered to himself. He had a nose that was stronger than most, and thus was privy to things that most would never notice until they had stepped in it. Something smelled sweaty and kind of like vinegar. He was pretty sure it wasn't him. "still eighty degrees."

an hour and ten left.

Constant Upheaval

A few weeks ago I would have told you my life was nearly perfect, I was looking to get a new job doing the thing I’ve always wanted to do, I was about to talk to the father of the girl I’m in love with, the sky was blue, the birds were chirping… all was well with the world.

Oddly, this scared me. I mean, if everything had gone as well as it looked like it was going to, life would have been perfect… and that’s NEVER been the case for me.

Luckily, something fell through. The job I’ve always wanted fell through, leaving me soon to be unemployed. Right now it’s just a count down until my last day here (Aug 31) and let me tell you it’s hard to stay dedicated when there’s nothing keeping you here. I’m doing it, mind you, but I constantly have to check my attitude.

So I’m job hunting again, I have a few good leads and granted the ND Human Resources Dept IS helping me all they can. I spoke with a lady on Monday, and she’s going to push me to businesses outside of ND that they have good relationships with. I’m pretty stressed about the whole thing of course as this couldn’t have come at a worse time (attempting to save up for a ring).

So, as strange as this sounds, I sort of feel more comfortable this way. That’s probably a lie, I really do hate all this stress, but if things all of a sudden became perfect I’m not sure what I’d do. Maybe I’m not comfortable; maybe the correct word is familiar.

On the super bright side though, her dad gave me the thumbs up to marry his daughter. I feel ridiculously honored and humbled. It’s strange to have a great family on my side and one on her side as well. This is what people always told me to wait for. “She’s out there. Just wait for her. You’ll find her. The perfect girl.”

Believe me, I’ve found her.

A Few Thoughts on Leadership

Ok granted, the buzzword in business and churches alike for the past 10+ years has been “Leadership” and developing leadership, and synergizing leadership and blah blah blah… but what is this creating? Massive amounts of Middle Management. The chance to manage even one or two people is jumped at faster than a $20 on the sidewalk. People would rather have Mgr. before their name than make another $5k. Why? Because we’re told we’re supposed to.

Now I’m not saying John Maxwell isn’t great, and that he doesn’t teach good leadership principles, because he is and does. I like John a lot, but eventually the pendulum he started needs to swing the other way.

Ok, we’ve developed our leaders, but what about our followers?

What are the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Followers”? Rather than pushing them to perform just for a raise or a new title and some power, shouldn’t we be pushing them to follow because that’s the way you’re supposed to work?

I think the topic has some merit, and over the next few weeks I want to look at it more. Somebody should write a book on this, preferably someone with a longer attention span than mine though…

I think this is especially important for people my age. We come out of college and we’re expecting some high paying job as a CEO. This however seems to be the exception instead of the rule. This leaves us discouraged and disappointed as we assume a role with “Assistant” tagged on the end. How do we become the good followers that our employers will keep on board long enough that we can get rid of that Assistant tag and become Managers? Another question, what’s wrong with being an assistant?

Right now they’re just thoughts to ponder. I want to start down this road though; I’m hoping it doesn’t turn out too much like “Brave New World”

Ole' Kentucky Home

Ok so as promised, here are the pictures from Kentucky.
This is me driving my jeep down the creek. It was really cool, the creek actually crossed the road, in 2 places. note: i didn't say the road crossed the creek, i said the creek crossed the road. Nate and I turned down it and drove up a ways in both directions. This was a pretty shallow part, but still really cool.






These were some of the horses that my cousins own. They had a lot of em. I was really hopin to get to ride one, but the one guy was gone and the other had messed up his back pretty good, but he promised to let me ride next time I come down. These were the mommy and the baby horses. There were probably 6 or 7 pairs in this field.







These were the stallions. Evidently they're pretty virile, as they have like 6 or 7 kids between
the two of 'em. As you can see in the picture, the one on the right is giving the other one a firm pat on the back. Or, he's trying to kick him in the face. Either way they were really cool.









And here's Nate. He's looking as sexy as ever posed on top of a waterfall. You can't really see the
waterfall from this picture, but trust me; it's like a hundred feet tall. This was taken down in the "Holler" where Nate and i spent the night in a cabin my cousin built with a chain saw. WAY cool. The place was seriously neat, they had 3 beds, a fridge, an old wood stove and a disgusting outhouse!! it was just like home! .... ok well i really only have one bed at home, but it's pretty close.



Ok, so i lied it's not really a hundred feet tall, but it's a really cool waterfall. The water level was
down because they hadn't had much rain, but there was still enough water for me to wash my hair in (wash: rinse grease and smoke out from the night before).

Kentucky is a BEAUTIFUL state, if it werent for the complete lack of civilization, i would totally move there. The people there are so much nicer than northerners, land is cheap and brimming with oil (my cousin is an oil rancher in KY) and i could have a dog named Opie if i lived there. I think that's pretty sweet.


Ok, so this one requires some explaining. Nate and I were driving home from Kentucky and since my stereo got stolen, we had to listen to a CD player and ear phones. That song by Michael Jackson was on, the one about butterflies or somethin, and this is the picture Nate took of my interpretive dance. This is the international symbol for "Butterfly".


How DO the ladies control themselves?

Just gimme a minute here

It’s been a long last few weeks for me. Lots of stress and very little rest. Tonight J and I are gonna lay around and probably fall asleep watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

In the last 2 weeks I’ve lost my job, seen friends, seen LOTS of friends, been without J for almost 2 weeks, driven to and from Russell Springs, KY, hung out with my brother at ONU in Ada OH, 4th of July party, made a kung fu video for church, welcomed J home (see previous entry) and killed her the fish I was fish-sitting.

I need a nap. Preferably a nap with the woman I love. My plan for tonight is to fall asleep watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, then wake up and maybe get some pizza hut ordered in… nope nope… I’m broke, no pizza. *sigh* I spent a ton of money on gas getting to KY and back. It sucks when you can’t plan for expenses.

Ok so anyway, this is my last complaining post for awhile I promise. Tonight I’m gonna post my pictures from KY. They’re really cool.

King of Woo

My girl is home.

Wow. It’s funny how much you can miss someone. I mean, sure she’s just “a girl” but… she’s more than that. We’ve spent pretty much every evening together for the past 4 months, and being without that for 2 weeks is like someone coming in and taking the toilet out of your bathroom and saying “hey Bub, I’ll bring this back in a few weeks.” Sure you can get by without it, but do you want to?

Yes. I just realized I compared my girlfriend to a toilet.

I welcomed her home properly; she came over to my place filled with candles and soft music playing in the background. After saying our hellos, I gave her a foot massage as she told me about her drive home. It was so good to see her and just be near her again.

I am the King of Woo.
Woo: Population 2.


There’s a problem with this though.
I’m sitting a really high standard. I mean, if I do stuff like this “Just Because” how do I handle the big things? Can I keep this up for the next 80yrs+? I think I can pull it off at least for another 20 or so before I start to lose my creativity, but… whatever. Right now is good. That’s all that matters.

On a sadder note because of the terrorist attacks that happened this morning her dad wont be able to take his trip to Oxford to present his speech on “The elements of law and religion in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Jack London’s Martin Eden.” He’s of course sympathetic to those in England, but this was a big opportunity for him. He was invited about a month or so ago and it was a great honor, now things are postponed indefinitely.

Pray first for the families of those hurt and killed in the attacks, then pray for him; this would be a tough one.

Lightning Rod

Well before I get into my weekend, let me tell you about my job.

To quote a post 8 months ago “It is finished.”

That’s right kids, Kyle lost his job again. Feel free to start calling me “Lightning rod” as I tend to attract these sort of things.

 

So God is freakin awesome, and I don’t deserve to be called his son. Here’s why:

So big boss calls me and gives me the news. I get pissed. Really pissed, (for the sake of time I wont explain, but I had good reason to be) walk out to my jeep and call and talk to my mom and dad (always a good idea) and they calm me down some. I then had to go to a luncheon for our department. That was uncomfortable. I didn’t talk at all. If you know me that’s rare. My big big big boss at the end of the luncheon gave us the afternoon off and as I was walking out, my boss stops me in the parking lot. She apologizes over and over about how sorry she was that it happened like this, she feels terrible, knows I’ll do fine and will get another job and offers to let me have Friday off. I take it. I get in the jeep and sit there for a minute. Crap. I can’t be mad at her now. She said sorry. But I could still be mad at my big boss, so fine. I just needed to be mad, and that’s ok. So I head back to the office to finish up some stuff. My boss is there. We start talking again, and she mentions that she talked to a lady in HR on her way in and that she’s going to do everything in her power to get me a job here so that I don’t end up unemployed. She has since followed through on that and is going above and beyond what she needs to do to help me out.

 

Now here’s the thing. This all happened within a 3 hour span of time. I’m in shock and awe and anger and various other emotions and then I can’t be mad like I want to be, and then I can’t even worry like I wanted to because I have someone helping me.

 

I read this morning in Purpose Driven Life (Day 18) that we are to forgive right away. Forgiveness isn’t trust, forgiveness is letting go of the past, trust is about future events and it takes a track record to build. So I have to forgive my big boss. So I did that. And im cool now.

 

Moral of my story: When something bad happens, keep your eyes open right away because God can bless you faster than you think. I wanted a good day to mope and be angry, He came through in under 3 hours. God cares more than you think.