Monday, June 25, 2007

It's Wii-tastic!

I'm not going to sit and here and lie to you: I'm behind. I've decided not to try and catch up with the daily reports at this point, since there's just so much going on, but I will give you an update on all the stuff that's gone down in the last few days.

I got a call Friday morning from Kele at Big Loud Bucks, asking if I could come in for a tour of the office and a bit of face-to-face time once I get back in town. I had mentioned I might be getting back on the 1st, and so she suggested Monday the 2nd. Thus, the decision of when I'm going back to TN was made for me. I will be leaving sometime Saturday and arriving sometime Sunday mid-afternoon. I fully expect some sort of parade or party to greet me upon arrival.

This call came at the tail end of a 60+ hour work week, which I will be apparently coming close to this week as well. What to do with all this extra money...

Oh wait, I bought a Wii! That's right, I picked one up Sunday morning and it's pretty fricking sweet, especially on my aunt and uncle's big screen. I'm really excited to bring this back with me, there will be so many great times with that thing, I can see it now.

It's extremely hot, with temp and humidity at unseasonable and unreasonable levels. So, since I'm sitting in my car in the Christmas Point parking lot to steal their wi-fi in a car that doesn't have properly functioning A/C, I'm going to cut this short. I'll be back on here before I leave, but that is happening so much faster than I can comprehend at this point. Oh well!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Animals, Angels, and the rest

We're catching up, slowly but surely. Here's the next batch of completed entries (I'm up to 47 hours of work at this point, btw).

Sunday, June 17, 2007


Father’s Day has come and gone.


I finally decided to buckle down yesterday and buy my dad’s present from the collective children, which included gift certificates for movies and Famous Dave’s, some chocolate-covered cherries, and a new game, The Last Word. I had never played it before, but it seemed to have a decent enough premise, so I bit the bullet. After church and a lunch of steak, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes, my family sat down to attempt this new game. The goal is to be the last person to say a word that starts with the appropriate letter and fits in the appropriate category before the buzzer goes off. It really is that simple too, and we had a good time playing it. Quick rounds too; we were able to fit in three boys vs. girls rounds in probably an hour at most.


Another game of hand and foot ensued at the end of the day, following a trip to Motley for a grad party. It was extremely close, especially going into the last round, but dad pulled out the victory with a big dumpster dive that created multiple clean books. I came in third for the second game in a row, both being behind Abby and within a few hundred points of the champion. Oh well, it was a nice way to cap off Father’s Day for everyone, especially dad!


I started reading Rob Bell’s “Sex God” tonight, and it’s pretty good so far (I’m through the introduction and first two chapters). The subtitle is “Exploring the endless connections between sexuality and spirituality,” and that really says it all. The first few chapters highlight the creation of man and what is significant about the narration in Genesis. Pretty basic stuff so far, nothing too Earth-shattering, but solid nonetheless. I might hold off on Half-Blood Prince for a bit to see how this goes.


Monday, June 18, 2007


So… much… work.


I got up this morning and started work at 7:30. Our job was a wood job, which I usually enjoy doing because it’s kind of like fitting a puzzle together. Even though it is harder on my body than a normal carpet day, the reward is greater both creatively and financially (wood jobs are some of the best money-makers in our field).


This job, by all accounts, should have been better than usual: the wood was 5” wide, rather than the typical 3 ¼” pieces, and the room was pretty wide open with very few tricky cuts. All the makings of a “gravy” day, in the words of my dad.


Not so much.


We had such a hard time getting the pieces to fit together all day. There would be pieces that looked great, we’d nail them in, put the next row on, and it would look like crap all of a sudden with gaps and cracks everywhere. So we’d take off the new row, rip out the old, and replace it with a new piece. This one would go fine, but we’d have wasted ten minutes just getting the stupid piece out. We were supposed to be installing 700 sq ft of wood; by 6 we had installed 600, and were stuck. We could not get the next row to work, no matter what we did. We were afraid we would have to take off several rows and re-do some 50 feet of wood, which would suck. All of this was taking place without the aid of my father, however, as he was working at church today, so we called him and he said to stop where we were and he would come up and try to fix it.


The other guys all went home, but I went back to the job with dad. He was expecting the worst
going into it, but was relieved to discover he could fix the problem by removing just two boards and doing some fancy cutting on the replacement pieces. This went great, and we kept moving to try and finish the kitchen so they could set cabinets even if we weren’t able to get back to this job for a couple of days. By the time we were done it was 9, and I was pretty tired (13 ½ hour days will do that).


I really just want to go to sleep right now.


Tuesday, June 19, 2007


Animals and Angels.


That is the title of the chapter out of “Sex God” that I read last night, and it was really, really good. The chapter discusses how there are two extremes to how humans can view sex: there is the animal perspective, where it is an inborn desire that is insatiable, a fact of life that we will eventually succumb to, and there is the angel perspective, where sex is a primitive act that is not discussed or acknowledged, and essentially only exists for procreation purposes. The problem with these views, Bell says, is that we, as humans, were not created as simply animals or angels. Animals are bodies without souls; angels are souls without bodies. As humans, we have both bodies and souls, and therefore there must be some sort of middle ground that exists where both the desires of the flesh and the soul are satisfied. In this place, sex is not a given, nor is it unspeakable. A balance must be achieved that both acknowledges and encourages the sexuality that is inborn in all humans, and is able to control this force to avoid its abuse.


I wish there was some quote that I could give you from it, but I would really need to post the whole chapter, as the progression in thought and logic is really key to understanding the important points made later in the text. I’m excited to keep going in this book and see where this thought goes.


I also had one of the most vivid dreams I’ve had in awhile last night. I dreamt I was at some sort of high school dance, one where they parade all the couples around in front of the parents, all that jazz. I didn’t recognize my date, but I remember knowing that she was one of the most popular girls in school, and she seemed to be having a great time. At some point I realized she was blind, but this didn’t really change too much about what happened except she bumped into different objects around the room when I would forget to guide her (she didn’t seem to mind this, and laughed about it every time she ran into something). So it was a weird kind of date, and yet I remember having such a great time with her, I actually felt great all day today as a result. Even though I have no idea who this person was, not to mention it didn’t actually happen, I still found myself returning to that feeling from my dream throughout the day. Thinking about that in hindsight, I guess I’m weird. Any suggestions on the meaning of this dream are welcome and appreciated.


During the middle of the cursed wood job yesterday, I realized my phone was beginning its slow march toward death. I had thought the battery was dying faster up here because of the terrible reception at the cabin, but it turns out that’s not the only reason. Even with some semblance of service, my battery gave out early on yesterday, so I had several messages by the end of the day, one from Big Loud Bucks, who wanted to schedule an interview for the today. I was able to get a hold of them on Dean’s phone, and scheduled a phone interview for 11:30.


Well, in order to conserve my precious battery life, I worked the morning without turning my phone on, and called promptly at 11:30, only to have my phone begin beeping at me that the battery was running out a mere 10 minutes into the conversation. This lasted for 20 more minutes before it died completely, and I had to run in and grab DJ’s phone to finish up the interview. It went very well, and I think I have a great shot at being offered the position. I have no idea what kind of salary they’re looking at, but I do know they’re not looking to hire until late July at the earliest, so I may end up staying up here for a few extra weeks if this all works out, allowing me to make an extra grand or so before heading back and having two weeks to get back into the swing of things on that end of the world. I guess we’ll wait and see.


In the meantime, I need a new phone.


And today was another 11 ½ hour day, so I need some rest.


11:18, hopeful, stagnantly, cheeseburgers

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

An installer's work is never finished

I'm a little behind in all of this... OK, a lot behind, but this past week has basically been work, work, and more work. It's Wednesday, and I've already worked 35 hours this week! No signs of letting up until Saturday or Sunday either, and next week may be my last week up here... no way of knowing at this point. I had an interview Monday with Big Loud Bucks that went really well, and one of the people working in the office was a student of Gonas' and a member of Belmont SIFE, so I'm looking pretty good at this point. The position wouldn't hire until August most likely, in which case I may stay up here for an extra week or two and make a bit more cash before heading back to Nashvegas and getting back in the groove of things.

All of that is for another time though, as I have finished entries through Saturday, and hopefully I'll be able to post the rest of them by Friday. That's the new goal: caught up by Friday. We'll see if that happens.


Thursday, June 14, 2007


I never knew how much I missed doing nothing until I did it.


Today was just really great all around. Well, almost all around. I woke up at 8 (that was the lame part) and read more of Order of the Phoenix until 10. It was at this time I decided I should maybe make something of my day… so I watched some Family Guy and then prepared to lay on the dock and read more OotP. The rest of my day included spending an hour and a half at Caribou, buying a great swimsuit at Steve and Barry’s for $5, searching for a Father’s Day present, and teaching my mom and Rachel to play Hand and Foot, which I won quite handily. A great way to spend a day off, but it’s back to the grind tomorrow…


Friday, June 15, 2007


Today was probably the closest to a stereotypical day in my summer life as there is.


Our job was just outside Alexandria, so we drove for an hour and a half to get there. I was stuck driving the tomb on wheels, which happened to be chock full of pad at the time, so at least it didn’t echo or anything. It was quite a large job, around 330 yards of carpet. (Carpet is always measured in yards for some reason, square yards to be more specific. For those who don’t think that abstractly, if I ever mention the yardage of carpet again, just multiply it by nine and that’s the square footage. In this case, that’s 2970 sq feet.) The large majority of this job was also on wood rather than cement. (Wood is always preferred for carpet installers, at least from my experience: the tack goes in easier and stays in better, blades stay sharper longer when cutting in pad than on cement, and securing the pad is easier with staples on wood than glue on cement.) Now that you’ve had your carpet installation lesson for the day, I think all I need to say is the job went very smoothly, and we were able to finish right on time.


The drive back was decent, and was faster with the help of the movie game. Once home, clean, and fed, I taught my dad how to play hand and foot, making that three converts in two nights. I won the game again, but my mom is getting better, and my dad always picks up card games quickly, so I’m sure I’ll be fighting for my life before too long.


Dad has given me the option of working for a few hours tomorrow with him or not, and I’m not sure which way I’m leaning at this point. I don’t necessarily need the work, but I wouldn’t refuse the money either. Who knows, who knows.


Saturday, June 16, 2007


Completion


After about a week of reading, including most of today, I have finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This at least has me caught up so I don’t feel guilty about seeing the movie, and I’m sure I will have no problem finishing Half-Blood Prince before Deathly Hallows is released in about a month. Plenty of time, no sweat.


It had been interesting to see how I’ve reacted to this series. I’ve always thought the movies were entertaining at least, and everyone would talk about how great and amazing the books were, but I don’t think I ever really believed anyone. Now, having just spent the last week wanting to reach through the page and strangle Professor Umbridge, I have begun to understand. These books are extremely well-written, particularly the further into the series you get, and the stories are completely engrossing, charming, exciting, and worthwhile. I would absolutely recommend these books to most anyone.


In other news, I was able to squeeze in a five person hand and foot game this afternoon, which included my greatest single hand ever (over 6400 points) and my first loss since returning home. That’ll teach me to expose my family to the joys of great card games!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Am I becoming one of those people?

Wednesday, June 13, 2007


What a waste.


I went into today knowing that it would be a bit of an odd work day, with lots of small jobs and running around. I didn’t plan on it being what it became though.


We started at 8, and began the day by fixing a problem with someone’s kitchen laminate. This went fine, and we next headed over to discuss some flooring options with Sherry Solstad, which took about an hour, but was productive nonetheless. Next up was a trip south of Pillager to install a flight of steps. The carpet we put in was a brown berber, which actually had potential to look decent, had it not been squeezed between white berber and white tile; I can’t really explain how terrible a choice this was, you’ll just have to trust me. To give you an idea of how random this house was, there was a point in the basement where I could see six (yes, six) different types of flooring: an area of large white tile, small white tile, large blue and gray tile, white berber, a blue and purple plush carpet, and the new brown steps. Quite ridiculous.


At this point, dad went in to work at church, and my job was to go up to the carpet store and get the boxes of wood that we would need for tomorrow’s job. This is always easier said than done, as this store in particular is infamous for its disorganization, at least in installer circles. When I arrived at the store, it took a good 25 minutes for them to figure out which job I was supposed to be picking wood up for, as the one we had been told we were going to do was not the job they had planned for us to do… seriously, how do these people get anything done? After another 15 minutes spent loading the product and getting unneeded directions, I followed the store owner to the job site, where we were told the area wouldn’t be ready for flooring for at least another week. What?!? Another week? There was a substantial breakdown in communication somewhere along the line, which seems to happen quite often in this business.


After checking with several other options for work tomorrow, dad was unable to come up with anything. So, as of now, I have the day off. It’s weird, because the longer I work at this job the more I want to have steady work; my first summer of flooring I would long for days like tomorrow, even pray that the schedule would fall apart so I could have a day to do nothing. Now, I’m kind of disappointed, and even went so far as to suggest potential schedule changes to my dad to see if there was anything he hadn’t tried yet. When did I become that guy?


I think my day off will consist of a lot of reading, as I am 200 pages into “Order of the Phoenix” and it has sucked me in completely. There’s a good chance I will be able to lay out on the dock for a bit too, and I might be able to squeeze in one of the Die Hard movies, which I purchased this evening.


Other recent purchases:
Paramore’s “Riot” – quite good, it’s been growing on me since yesterday.

Family Guy Volume 4 – These boxed sets are starting to piss me off: I paid $20 (on sale from $35, mind you), and it only comes with 14 episodes! What happened to the 27 episode boxes of yore? I haven’t watched them yet, so they may be worth it, but we’ll see.

Seinfeld Season 7 – I caught on, and now wait for the next season to come out until I buy the previous one. This allowed me to get this one for $17. I haven’t watched any yet, but it’s Seinfeld; how can you go wrong?


Other things on the agenda tomorrow:
- Fill out a profile on Monster
- Submit my resume to Big Loud Bucks (I hate country, but it’s an industry job that fits me and I have a shot at…)
- NBA Finals Game 4 (I’m feeling a sweep, but I hope Cleveland can pull out at least one win)


11:38, warm, surprisingly, lasagna

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Moving on up

Monday, June 11, 2007


I am writing this laying in a shelf-bed, tucked away in the back corner of my aunt and uncle’s “cabin” on Gull. That’s right, as of this morning, my parents are homeless.


I spent most of this past week either working for my dad or helping get things moved out of my childhood home. There is nothing surreal for me about knowing that I will never be going back to the house that I called home for the last 15 or so years. Whether I wanted it to happen or not, it has happened, and now we’re moving on. I am actually quite fine with the move; I figure it only impacts me two or three times a year, and I also think that not having that house to come home to will make it easier for Nashville to feel like home, for me to feel like I can really put down roots of my own.


Until I return to my home in Nashville, this cabin will have to do. In all honesty, even though I will be working most days for the rest of my stay here, coming home to this place makes every day feel more like a vacation. I feel like I can rest more out here, like there is less distractions and disturbances.


One aspect of this feeling may be due to the lack of proper technological connections out here. My family decided that they didn’t need to pursue an internet connection for the cabin because they all had their own way of getting online that didn’t involve home. This leaves me to wander aimlessly in search of free wireless, and I have found three establishments that offer it so far. The problem is I have to drive 15 minutes any time I want to check my e-mail or anything, and, unless I want to appear rather stalker-esque and sit in the parking lot, I have to spend $3 on a drink from Caribou or a shake at Culver’s.


The other lacking technology at the cabin is cell phone coverage, which is apparently non-existent. This wouldn’t be terrible except I’ve been using my phone as an alarm clock this summer, and in order for my phone to know what time it is, it must have a wireless signal. This means I have to switch to roaming mode on my phone in an effort to achieve some semblance of service so I can wake up in the morning. So now I can see who is calling me, but can’t answer because the cost of those calls would be obscene, thus I am left with a pile of missed calls that I will return the next day while at work or something.


Work has been mostly as expected: generally long hours spent in random corners of Central Minnesota, installing various forms of floor coverings with a most truly motley crew. I so wish I had the energy and motivation to wake up at 6 every morning and going running for an hour before work, but I may have to give up that dream, at least while I’m doing flooring. The hours are just too long and the toll on my body is too great. I had aspirations that I would be able to push through the pain and become some sort of physical beast by the end of my month at home. So far, that’s a negative.


Goblet of Fire is finished, and now I’m on to the Order of the Phoenix, which I’m a chapter into and am really excited to move through. Onward we shall continue…


9:53, relaxed, moderate, lasagna



Tuesday, June 12, 2007


Summers in Minnesota are amazing. The temperature usually hovers somewhere in the low 80s, the sun shines 80% of the time, and if you can get past the 80% humidity that likes to creep in a good amount of the time, it's an awesome place to chill.


There are, however, about two weeks when everything changes. This is one of those weeks.


The temperature has settled into the low 90s for each of the last few days, and, with a relentless humidity, it's been nearly unbearable. I experienced my first brown-out today at the cabin, which lasted for about an hour before a full blackout ensued. With nothing to do out there, I decided to come in to Caribou and check out what's happening in the rest of the world, which is apparently not much (at least that I'm interested in).


I think these daily journal-style posts may work (for awhile, anyway). The posting may not happen every day, but I'm gonna try and write every day anyway. We'll see how it goes.


8:00, tired, minimal, cheeseburgers

Monday, June 04, 2007

Sleeplessly leaving Seattle

All right, the craziness is slowly coming to an end. A recap:

Abby graduated on the high school football field Thursday night. It was probably the most student-centric graduation I've ever seen. They got to do a bunch of stuff they wanted to, and the administration was great at giving them that freedom. After the ceremony and the obligatory Dairy Queen run, I was off to John's house to get some sleep before my flight Friday morning.

I got to bed around 2 Friday morning and woke up at 6:30 to get to the airport on time. Not much for traffic, small lines at the airport; I was ahead of the game. My first flight was to Las Vegas, which was around 3 hours long and including a showing of "Breach" with Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillipe. It was quite entertaining, worth a rental if there's nothing else you want to see.

Anyway, I had about an hour and a half in Vegas before my next flight, so I took my time deciding what over-priced airport food I was going to purchase (ended up at Pretzelmaker or something like that (quite good)). I also played $2 worth of slots in the terminal, which I swiftly lost. We boarded a little behind schedule, and had to sit in our seats for an hour with no explanation as to why we weren't moving. I took advantage of this time to continue in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I began Friday morning and am currently beyond the 400 page mark. Once in the air, the flight was a bit over 2 hours, and I arrived safely in Seattle at 3:04 (Pacific).

Ben picked me up and we went straight to the church, where the rehearsal was finishing up and people were getting ready for the rehearsal dinner, which was pizza and Jay Berry's. Dinner was great, I got to know Autumn's friends Amelia (actually named Emily) and Jena, whose house me, Ben, and Jess would sleep in that evening. Jena even knew how to play hand and foot, so we took advantage of that before adding Amelia for a few rounds of Pit. Bed time arrived between 10:30 and 11, and we all were up and out the door by 8:30 AM.

I spent the next several hours setting up for the reception with the wedding party and Autumn and Andy's families. I figured out at this point that this was a fairly small wedding, judging by the size of the hall and the number of places set. It's what they wanted, and the main reason they had it in Seattle in the first place, so I was cool with it.

The wedding itself took place at 3, followed by pictures and the reception. I was seated at the band table for the reception, since that's where Ben was and Jess was at the head table. We had some interesting conversations regarding foaming hand soap and platypuses, among other things, over a buffet dinner including salmon, chicken, potatoes, and lighter snacky foods.

Next up came the live music and dancing, which sounded great but didn't have as many people dancing as they had hoped, although I don't know how many of the 50 people they were expecting to dance... I did get a few spins in with Jess, and then it was time for the bride and groom to jet off to Seattle, where they awaited their Alaskan cruise.

The rest of us stayed behind and cleaned up the hall, which took about an hour, and then it came time for me to go to the airport; not because I wanted to, mind you, but because it was a half hour away and few people with cars were heading that way. So, I was dropped off at the airport (I'll switch to Central time for perspective's sake) at 11 PM for my flight that departed at 2:50 AM. Again, more Harry Potter was read, and by the time we boarded I was exhausted. I fell asleep before take-off, and woke up 2 hours later, somewhere over the Dakotas. We landed at just after 6 AM, at which point I got in my car and drove home, pulling in just before 9 (I almost fell asleep a couple of times, and my mom called me at the perfect time to make sure I was staying awake, otherwise it could have been disastrous). Sleep came again, this time in a bed, and I was out for around 3 and a half hours.

When I awoke, family and friends had already started arriving to help set up Abby's grad party. I made small talk in my pajamas with my grandpa for a bit, then finished up the slide show I had promised Abby I would do. More getting ready, more food prep, and before I knew it, 3 o'clock rolled around and people started coming.

Though the party officially ended at 6, they didn't really stop coming until 7:30 or 8. My parents made the comment that it was nice to have four grown children to share the hosting burden with, but I was unfortunately stuck with the proposition that any guest who talked to anyone else in my family undoubtedly asked how I was doing, and, when they found out I had graduated, wondered what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I can't count the number of times I had to explain how I kind of had a job, but not really, and that I loved Nashville and yes, the weather is quite lovely down there, blah blah blah. I was also given the joy of trying to explain the concept of a music video to my great-aunt Dolores, whose only point of reference are the Gaither Homecoming videos, which she says are getting a bit too modern for her tastes. I am now supposed to send her some of these odd four minutes videos so she can see if she likes them, and she told me I may even have a customer in her, or even a salesperson. She really has no idea what Just Kidding does (she thought the name was quite ridiculous in and off itself), I might just send her the newest Gaither video and she won't know the difference.

Anyway, that's that. My family is moving out on Saturday now instead of tomorrow, which gives my mom and sisters some much-needed time to finish up the packing while my dad and I have another banner week in the flooring world.

I'm gonna try and read some more Potter now, peace out.