All Work...

The last week has been work, work, work. Over the last few weeks, I have worked more than my share of hours. I am tired of working, so this weekend I took a mini vacation. I went to visit my friends in Tyler, TX to help his birthday. We were discussing how different life turned out compared to what we all dreamed it would hold back in high school. We even busted out the senior year yearbook and re-read our bios. It is amazing how life changes and new challenges are thrown at you every day and how on overcomes these challenges.

In a few short weeks I get to go visit another friend from high school on her special day. She is marrying another guy from NMMI. It is going to be quite the little reunion and I am very excited about it. I can't wait to see all of my old friends again and catch up with everyone. It seems as though I have almost lived 2 lives. A life at NMMI and then a life in College. Up until now, these two lives have existed separately. I think it has been that way for everyone though. After NMMI's graduation, everyone was so excited to be done and leave that life style, nobody looked back. Now that we are all done with, or finishing, college we are looking back more. Rethinking how we interact with newer and older friends and trying to find a way to let the 2 lives intersect and coexist. Both phases of my life are very important and have made equally large impressions on how I view and interact with the people around me.

The newest challenge I have is introducing my two lives to each other. For the most part they are two very separate 4 years divided into chunks by a year abroad. Now, going to this wedding, I am going to begin trying to mix the two and see how it works out. I have amazing friends from both parts and I think they would all really like each other so we will see how this experiment works out. The brightest point in all of this, I get to go dress shopping. I am terribly excited about that.

Time to Catch Up!

These past few weeks have been pretty busy. I need to catch up so I will try to make things short and sweet. First off, I finally have a tan. After 3 days at the lake over Labor Day weekend, I am not longer blinding white. I even managed to not seriously burn, which was pretty surprising for the lack of sun I had been exposed to over the last half year. The lake was so wonderful and relaxing. It was great to be able to hang out with all of my friends that came up and spend time practicing my water skiing. One big weekend and the season is over. Oh well, I'm excited for snow skiing next!

The most exciting part about Labor Day was Evi. She is my best friend from my exchange year and she was able to come spend 2 weeks with me. We both flew home for the lake, then flew back on Monday. She had to keep herself preoccupied for a few days while I worked (which she did just fine by sleeping, reading, shopping, and tanning) but then we headed to New Orleans for a weekend. We didn't get there till late Friday night, but we had a blast. Our hotel was in a terrific location, not even a block away from Bourbon Street. We hung out on the street, did a city tour, toured an Estate (we didn't have time for a plantation), and took a steam paddle boat up the Mississippi. I was so happy to get to experience such a fun city with Evi. She said Bourbon St. was a bit much for her, but other than that she loved it. On the way home we also managed to stop at a wonderful outlet mall. We were short on time, but we both managed to find some good deals and great clothes. She had to leave the next day (Monday) but it was a great 2 weeks and I can't wait to see her again!

The Weekend!

I am so happy it is Saturday. Although, it doesn't feel much like a weekend, I'm still happy it is here. Today I went to the gym, then to work for a few hours then to the grocery store. I've been told about this grocery store, Brookshire's, but I've never been. There is another location closer to the house which is nicknamed "Crackshire's" because it apparently caters to the less fortunate crowd. Now I've been to this location, and its like any other grocery store. But the Brookshire's on Line Ave.....its like a food mecca! It reminds me a lot of a Whole Foods. There are all sorts of fresh prepared food, veggies, salads, cheeses, everything. I went on overload upon walking in and ended up buying chicken stuffed with a jalapeno stuffed with cheese, green beans with garlic and dill, and a turtle cheese cake for dinner. Oh, appetizers were tomato with fresh mozzarella and fresh basil from the basil plant I bought. I had a blast grocery shopping! I also found the great jalapeno relish that I eat all of Kathy's supply of. I bought 3 bottles, I hope that will hold us for awhile.

Tomorrow I'm going to church. There are a ton of Methodist churches around and some of the people I have met were talking about going. I asked if I could tag along and I'm getting picked up around 10:45 tomorrow morning for the 11 am contemporary service. I didn't know Methodist did contemporary so I am excited to check it out. The church also looks AMAZING. Not quite the European ancient gothic style, but the southern massive style with giant pillars, red brick, and big steps. I'll keep you posted how this goes.

Car Trouble?

Something that I've noticed around here....there are broken down cars EVERYWHERE. I literally mean EVERYWHERE. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't see some poor, lone car parked on the side of the road, on the off ramp, on a median between 3 roads, in the grass on the side of the road, somewhere. At first I just wrote it off, oh that car has trouble, no big deal. Then it came to my attention, they are everywhere! Either Shreveport has horrible mechanics, the upkeep habits of this city are below standard, or all the lemons are shipped here, but this seems to be an epidemic. I just hope I won't become one of those people.

Work is about to be shaken up again. One of our key guys, who is full of knowledge, is leaving. The worst part of him leaving is the experience he is taking with him. The rest of us will be picking up the slack and working on team work. Things go easier when we all help each other and this location is still working on that concept. Things are really going great though and I love being here and watching all of these transitions take place. It is a great learning opportunity and I am so thankful to be part of it.

Less than a week until one of my best friends from Germany arrives. Evi is flying in on Monday and I am so excited to see her. It was a bit of a last minute, impromptu trip but the timing couldn't be better. We are headed home for Labor Day to work on our tan at the lake, then back here for a few days so I can work, then we are on for a weekend in New Orleans. We are going to have a blast and you will probably hear about it in the next few weeks. Be excited!

Party!!!

Last night was my first social engagement since moving here. I attended a "Wine & Win" party which was a ton of fun. I would love to host one of these some day so I better write this all down. They had everyone bring a bottle of wine, and $5 to enter. The hosts took the wine, put it in a bag so the bottle was fully covered and put a number on the neck of the bottle. Everyone then had a little score card with numbers corresponding to the number of bottles of wine. The wine was set up at different tables around the room so it encouraged mingling and talking which was great to get to know a ton of people from around here. They also had some FABULOUS cheeses set up and some sushi. I had to know where they got the cheeses from, and the answer, Sam's. Guess I'll be headed there for my cheese shopping from now on! After 2 hours everyone voted on their favorite wine and turned in the number to preferred bottle. They tallied up the scores and the winning bottle had 6 votes (mine got 2 which put it in 5th place). The winner, which turned out to be a Menage a Trios, got all the money from the pot. Last night it turned out to be $115, so not a bad little purse.

What I learned from "Wine & Win": I do like red wine. I don't like Syrah. The cheap wines are just as good as the expensive ones (2nd place was Charles Shaw, otherwise known as 2 Buck Chuck). I like Malbec (Kelly and I had some in Holland I really like it, turns out, I still do). There are a lot of people who have unsophisticated palates but still enjoy drinking wine. Rating 23 wines on a scale of 1 to 10 is sort of difficult.

I attended the wine party with one of my roommates and some of his friends from Med School. So after the wine party 1/2 of us decided to go out. We took a cab to the party so we were taking a cab home. It was an interesting experience taking a cab in Shreveport, but not a bad one. We ended up at The Phoenix Underground which is a pretty cool little bar/club. It is an after hours place so it was really starting to get hoppin' about the time we were leaving (at 2:30am). They played some great music though and there were lots of people, which is generally a good combination. I do miss having girl friends though to go out dancing with. I will hopefully make some in my time here so that I can truly enjoy all the things Shreveport has to offer.

Call Me Betty....

Betty Crocker that is. Now, I'm not the chef, nor do I have a vast knowledge of cooking, but I won't burn the house down. I haven't actively cooked a meal in probably 8 months. I've warmed things up, but actually cooking, yeah thats another story. Due to my new work out schedule and yearn to get into shape, i've been trying to watch what I eat a lot more. Now, that doesn't mean that McDonald's doesn't happen to get into my belly at lunch time, but I try to keep it at a minimum. Today, I resisted the donuts. So by little steps, maybe progress will be made.

Tonight, I cooked myself a chicken breast as well as some frozen green beans. I also cooked another chicken breast and got it ready for my lunch tomorrow. I left the other two in the baggie marinating in Ms. Dash's new no sodium marinade. So far, I really like the stuff. I also made chili and put it in the crock pot for Frito Pie tomorrow. Kathy and Ky (the ladies who own the house I live in) have been so nice to me and always give me some of their food, I thought it only fair that I return the favor. Now, I'm sure my trainer wouldn't 100% approve of the chili, but I figured if I can stay away from the fritos I might be ok.

Another issue I had today, reusable grocery bags. Now, I'm barely getting over the habit of not bagging my own groceries (I was helping the Target lady the other day and she didn't approve so she dumped out my bag and re-did it) but I still like to use the reusable earth friendly bags. What makes me mad, is that I pay $3 for this bag and the only benefit I get from it is knowing I'm doing good. In Europe, you had to pay for every shopping bag you used, so you were being punished for not thinking ahead or re-using. In America, you're basically being punished for using a eco-friendly bagging method. Where is my rebate on the money I'm saving the grocery store by bringing my own bags?? I think America has missed part of the lesson on this whole reusable/recycle concept.

Alright, enough for today. I have been getting up at 4:30 so that I can go to the gym before work and get my cardio in. It seems there just isn't enough hours in the day. I am always exhausted by about 8 so when 9:30 rolls around, I'm a grump. I hope everyone's week is going great!

I'm Melting!!!

This past week has been a blur. Business has been slower than preferred, but I will say it is a bit of a nice break. Things have been pretty crazy since the day I got here so a quieter week was very welcome.

Last week I was on call for the first time ever. I would love to say it was uneventful and boring, but I'd be lying. There were "misunderstandings" that resulted in one of our customers "hating" us and somehow I was in the middle. I was mostly a casualty of war, but it was still frustrating and I still get mad about it any time any one brings it up. Most people don't but there is this one fellow who does. I would like to say he tries to be ornery but he just doesn't pull it off very well. My grandfather is much better at it, which is probably also why I seem to handle this fellow pretty well compared to others. I've had a life time of practice.

I spoke to the poor on call guy today, he was lucky enough to be running around all night and didn't get home until 7am this morning. He then has to work all day but hopefully he will get tomorrow night off. The way they do on call around here is interesting. Sometimes people alternate, such as one guy does it Monday and Tuesday, the other guy handles Wednesday and Thursday, the other one Friday, both on Saturday, then the last one on Sunday. That seems pretty complicated to me. The other way that people will do it is that one person handles the phone calls the other person drives. This only seems semi fair, but I don't think any one person should have to do all the driving. These rigs can get pretty spread out and you can easily travel an hour and a half in one direction for a single rig. I know it is part of the business, but I think trying to keeps peoples continual subjection to such trips should be kept to a minimum. It makes it a little less painful if people trade off.

The upside to all of this hard work is the wonderful weather. Yesterday the thermometer across the street on the bank like building read 101 degrees. Thats not counting the humidity. The radio has been saying that the heat index has been up around 114 degrees which is insane. Blond haired people who freckle and sweat a lot are not made for this climate. That translate to "I hate it." The upside, people pay good money to sit in saunas...all I have to do is walk into the warehouse. It's almost like a day at the spa....almost. Today there appears to be a bit of breeze out and the humidity doesn't seem to be so bad. I thought I would go lay out for a bit and see if I can get some color. I never last long, which is probably for the better since there is nothing worse than dealing with a sunburn. I better take lots of water with me!!

I hope everyone is doing well, and I will keep working to get better about my blogging. I do enjoy it and I have missed it.