Valentines Day!

First, if you have not seen this video, you must to  get in the mood for reading this post.

Ok, well I started the day out with a fun little surprise: a whole bunch of long-stem roses on her desk with a card and a small heart-shaped tin of chocolate.  During the time when I was in a meeting with my staff, Syd went around the office and planted a scavenger hunt for me.  It was pretty stinking awesome.  I went all over the place and everywhere I went there was a little rhymed message for me with directions to the next location.  I was completely shocked at the time she spent thinking of locations, rhymes and what to get that would tie together.  I think I like her.  A lot.  So, I get to the final location and it tells me that I have to wait until 8pm to open the last gift.  I wait patiently for the day to wind down, head to the house and begin preparing the rest of my part of the day.  I went out to the field behind the house and cleared a fire pit and then placed little lunch bag luminaries all the way from the fire pit to the end of the driveway.  I gathered a few felled limbs and prepared for a small, but satisfying fire.  I laid out a large blanket and part of a desk to serve as a tabletop.  This was where the picnic was going down.  We had talked about how we both wanted to come out to that field and look at the stars and possibly also build a fire out there, so I prepared for both.  When she arrived from getting off of work, I had already begun to prepare the stew (a recipe from Kenya) for the picnic.  We both worked on it until it was ready to simmer.  We then packed up and went to the next part of the evening… rollerskating.  I brought some snacks to help fight the starvation before the real dinner.  She kept trying to guess where we were going, but didn’t get it until we pulled into the parking lot.  We skated around a hundred elementary school kids, trying not to kill them or ourselves in our ineptitude.  After skating and feeling both silly and a little sore, we went back to finish preparing dinner.  I asked her to make some grilled cheese sandwiches while I went to go prepare a little more.  I had purchased a little sandwich cutter that made the grilled cheese look like a couple of hearts.  Sweet, I know.  I went out and lit all the luminaries and got the picnic area ready and made sure that everything was a go.  When I came back I asked her if she was feeling warm. “No.” Well, I had just the thing to help her out with that.  We went out to the driveway and I gave her the jacket that was on the trunk of my car and then pulled two sleeping bags along with a flashlight.  She was carrying the bags and I had the cooler filled with picnic stuffs and the flashlight to help out when necessary.  We walked toward the first luminary, and then she noticed more in the distance.  Being winter, there was little interfering with the view of a faint light going through the woods.  We followed the lights all the way to the field and she was completely at a loss when she saw the picnic setup and the making of a camp fire.  It was pretty awesome.  So, I struggled with the fire while she got the food out and on the table, and we enjoyed a nice meal of some of the best improvised stew I have ever had in my life.  After the meal, we curled up in our respective sleeping bags and held hands while telling stories and marveling at what God had placed above us.  Syd made a comment toward the end of the evening that it was a modern miracle that we had not made out.  I guess she is right.  It was pretty tough, but we made an agreement and I have people holding me to it.  Integrity is essential to every Christ-follower’s life.  I’m still working on it.

All in all, it was a wonderful day.  I am glad I got to share it with such a special person.  Now, all I have to do is figure out how to use all the other ideas I had for V-day on other occasions.   Any other good stories out there?

Interview mishap

So, I went to my first interview with a company that I thought would have some promise. I was really discappointed. I got there and it was sketchy all the way through. First off, it was a “marketing” group, not a marketing “firm.” This made me a little wary, but I didn’t want to judge a book by it’s title, like that Eggers work. Also, random side note, this is a really pathetic/funny video. So, when I arrived at the interview site, which was their office, I was greeted by a less than professional setting.  There was music blaring from a computer which was most nearly described as a bad mix of early 90’s and this year’s hits.  Also, the Clemens/McNamee hearing was playing on the television loud enough to be heard over the music.  All of this was a distraction from the fact that there was nothing in the office.  Just a desk, some chairs and a few out of date magazines that did not have a subscription (like the business had not been there long enough to have ordered their own magazines).  The receptionist, who was also the HR representative according to the email that she sent me, mostly tried to make conversation with the six of us waiting to go into the ten minute interview for which we all arrived a little early but the process was backed up.  She did a poor job of answering the phone and seemed to have no clue how to say “please hold while I answer the other line.”  She merely would let the other line die and call it back if she recognized the number.  I quickly realized from sizing up the office that there was no way that there could be a real operation going on in that suite.  There were four rooms: the receptionist area, the boss’ office, the conference room and the restroom.  There were no cubicles, no other offices.  Just what was needed to get people through the interview process to be sold on the quick promotion to leadership/management role that would entail 6-10 months of hard work with people.  The real job was selling promotional offers and coupons door to door.  As much as I like hard work, that is not something that plays to my strengths.  I was hoping the job would be some sort of outside the box marketing opportunity to blaze trails into places where the market has not yet reached potential.  Boy was I disappointed.  I was also disappointed by the boss’ office.  It was a neat room because the only things in it were his desk and two chairs.  There were no business tools or paraphernalia.  There were sun-stains on the wall where the previous tenant had obviously hung some pictures.  There were no other pieces of furniture or furnishings in the room.  After a very brief get to know you, the boss told me about the business and what it entailed.  He was so good at it, it was almost scary.  All of the tell-tale signs of a salesman with a product that is not good enough to stand up to scrutiny.  Moving quickly through all the points, he wrote down a lot of short-hand phrases and circled a lot of information that made no difference on my application.  All of the distractions mounted until I made the ultimate conclusion.  This job was not for me.  And that is the phrase, “not for you,” that tipped me off.  Salesmen who know how to manipulate someone’s phyche use words and phrases that make potential buyers feel like a better person when they choose to side with the seller.  This approach is one that not only makes someone seem like a forceful and judgmental person, but it also changes the way they communicate off the job.  My cousin tried working for a company like that in Florida and it changed how she acted and spoke with her own family.  She reeked of the rhetoric of sales and it offended me.  That was the biggest reason I did not want the job.  I like who I am becoming without trying to learn how to be a jerk and change it all of the sake of making someone else money.

All in all, it was an interesting experience and I don’t want to repeat it any time soon.

Videos

These are some videos that I have been in that are on the internet.

And, I wrote the script for this video:

I hope you enjoyed them all. I can’t be blamed for the insanity or the damage done to viewers.