there and back again...

Once again, I write this from far, far away. This time, I'm in Swansboro, North Carolina... just off the crystal coast and north of Camp Lejeune. Last time I wrote, I had returned from a great trip to the Pacific coast of Oregon. I spent one day doing laundry, then drove out to Baton Rouge to visit my sister Colleen and her family. Before we got together, I drove thru downtown and had a Frostop rootbeer in a frozen mug. Frostop was my first real job... a fifties style diner where the rootbeer was the only reason to come back. Was still sickeningly sweet... but good.

I met up with Colleen and her family for a top notch Cajun seafood dinner, and hung out with the kids for a few hours. With the exception of a massive nosebleed and an upset stomach... we had a good time.

The next morning, I took off on the longest drive I've ever attempted to give my truck to my last sister, Sandi. Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Swansboro, North Carolina. Unfortunately, it didn't start off too well. My stomach was tearing me up the whole way... which made the hourly stops very necessary. Thankfully, I made it to Augusta, Georgia in pretty good time... no major slowdowns or incidents... thank god.

I left Augusta around four in the morning (couldn't sleep... spend most of the night in the bathroom) in the pouring rain. Didn't help that I left my window down the previous night and had to sit on a cold and soaking wet seat...

I drove for a few hours and got to Florence, South Carolina. I pulled off to use the bathroom, and noticed that my truck was making a grinding noise. I drove into a McDonalds, and saw some smoke coming from my engine. I filled the engine coolant reservoir, and let the truck cool off for a little while. I took off again, and made it about five miles north when my temp gauge pegged out... while I was on the long and narrow bridge crossing the Great Pee Dee River. Billowing smoke started to pour out of my engine and I pulled off as soon as possible.

So there I was... about three hours away from my destination in a broken-down vehicle, in the middle of nowhere South Carolina, in the cold and pouring rain. Almost started to freak out... but then the general silliness made me bust out laughing. I took some good pics while waiting two hours for the tow truck.

Sandi and the kids drove down for lunch while the truck was being repaired. Turns out my water pump burned out... could have been worse...

Spent the past few days touring the coastal towns and beaches of North Carolina. Beautiful little seasides and saltwater marshes... and toured the old Fort Macon. We shucked oysters one night with the neighbors and played cornhole in the yard... good times.

We just had Christmas and opened some presents. I'll be arriving back in Houston on Christmas day wearing my new Swansboro football t-shirt...

I wish everyone a very merry christmas... peace on earth... goodwill towards men...

ben

From one trip to another...

I finally left my job. My last day was December 7th with the City of Houston. To my amazement, they threw me a going-away-lunch... and everyone actually came! Granted, we went to Ninfa's, about one step up from Taco Cabana... but it was better than nothing. Over my over-friend chimichanga, I received high praise from my bosses... which came as a complete shock to me! I honestly didn't think I accomplished one damn thing of significance while I was there, but listening to them you would have thought I saved the mayor from a burning building. Honestly... I was a little touched by the whole thing. My last day was spent shredding everything in my desk and finding a way to ditch at lunch.

As a gift, they gave me a pen, a keychain, and a business card holder with the official City of Houston seal. Thank you for your tax dollars...

That evening, I packed everything up from my sister's house (feeling like a Clampett) and moved in with my parents. My mom recently redid the kitchen, so I'm sharing a room with a glass dinette set and some bar stools. I only had a few days to get settled and relaxed, then mom and I flew out to Portland, Oregon to visit my sister, Kim. They flight was fine, but long. The ticket said it was a direct flight to Portland, but we couldn't figure out why it was taking seven-and-a-half hours... turns out all Southwest flights on the west coast stop in Oakland... oops.

Still, we had a blast at my sister's. I got to spend a ton of time with her absolutely adorable little girls, and got smeared with butter by a... well... buttery one-year-old. Wanna play a magic trick on your friends, spend a few minutes with your nieces, then surprise them with their grandma under the Christmas tree... and poof... you'll never see them again...

Kim lives in a little ag town called Albany in central Oregon... mostly sod farms, wineries, and mills. We took an hour's drive west through the misty hills and hit the Pacific. Damn that was beautiful!! We walked along the beach and saw a myriad of lighthouses perched hundreds of feet above the rocks. We strolled through little towns that looked so much like Cabot Cove I kept asking where was Jessica Fletcher and the sheriff...

Ended up at the Yaquima National Park, walking along the lava rock beach... the rocks polished like glass from the water. As the waves crash, it sounds like pouring marbles into a bag... the little black spheres tumbling up onto the larger rocks and washing back into the water. We saw harbor seals playing in the surf. To say it was beautiful just doesn't do it justice.

The next day, we took off to the east, heading into the Cascades. I was supposed to go skiing, but a lack of snow put a hamper on that. Instead, we hung around a very nice house in the middle of the woods and just dicked around. We ended up sledding with the kids, sipping on hot chocolates, and playing cards and Yahtzee. All the while getting toasty with a roaring fire and beer chilling outside in the snow flurries.

We had a layover in Oakland on our return trip. After bumming a smoke from mom, we stood outside and slowly saw a group form up on the curbside pickup. It consisted of a bunch of very good looking people wearing Santa hats (fine), one in an elf costume (ok..), one elf (goofy but seasonal..), and one wearing a banana suit. I accused my mother of dipping her cigarettes in angel dust...

Good trip... really good trip.

While I was away, my new employer sent me books to study. The Expert Expatriate and Understanding Arabs. I have two weeks before I leave, and I feel woefully underprepared. I've studied my Arabic, but not nearly enough. I have the manuals to prepare for the classes that I will teach, but none of the textbooks to go back and cram. And all the while, I'm on a whirlwind marathon of traveling. I have one day at my parent's house, and tomorrow I'm off to Baton Rouge to visit another sister. The next day, I have a two-day drive to the Atlantic coast of North Carolina to visit yet another sister!

I'm the one leaving... why the hell couldn't they come a visit me??

So far, I'm three books, two lab manuals, four sets of fingerprints, one college subject, two-thousand miles, a Christmas, and an upset stomach short of being ready to move to the middle east...

Sounds about par for me...

ben

It's a karaoke Christmas...

I went up to Dallas to spend the weekend with a close college buddy. He and his wife were having a party, and wanted to see me before I moved. As soon as I got there Friday night... I knew it was going to be one of those weekends.

They were knee deep in cleaning products, nothing was ready for the party the following night, and the house smelled faintly of incontinent dogs. I love these two people with all my heart, but every time I go up there for some type of party, they never seem to have anything planned out in advance, and that always initiates a three-day argument. Let me take an aside... I'm not married... hell, I've never even been in a really long-term commitment. So I am not an expert, or barely even knowledgeable on the topic of married life. Couples fight. But I beg of you... please... when you have out-of-town company who drove four hours to spend a very precious few hours with you before he moves eight-thousand miles away, would it kill you to not send me upstairs to sit quietly while you and your wife bitch at each other! I personally loved it when they were openly fighting during the party itself over who got to run the karaoke machine... classic.

It was a great party, though. I still don't like karaoke, but obviously I am in the minority on this one. The next day we went and played absolutely horrendous golf with a couple we met the previous night. Scott kept catching me staring at the woman we were playing with... but I would have beared her children if she would have let me.

So far, everything with the move seems to be going very well. I still have some financial issues to deal with, but it's all coming together. One thing I'm upset about is my Arabic lessons. I bought a little workbook and some CDs to try and pick up some basics. I was doing really well for about two weeks until the quickie move and end-of-job issues started popping up. Hopefully I'll have some more time to study in the next few weeks... but considering my travel schedule... that probably won't happen.

My current job with the City ends in two days. Until last year, I had never quit a job in my life for reasons other than "I'm moving away" or "I'm going to college." My previous job I interviewed for and won during my last semester in college. Let me tell you... that is one of the greatest experiences ever... not so much starting your career... but knowing that for one full semester you only need D's. Anyway, I worked at that company for almost nine years, quickly moving up the ranks of technical staff and then management. Towards the end, I was really getting tired of what I was doing. I had nowhere else to climb in the company, and my friends and family could tell that I was sinking under the stagnant waters quickly. My parents were openly wanting me to quit and do something else. This came as a shock to me; as my dad had worked for the same company for 27 years, I thought that the long-term employment with one company was the only way to go. But, bolstered by their support, I started looking around, found my current job, and quit. I can honestly say that the day I turned in my resignation was one of the hardest days of my life. Even though I knew I couldn't keep working there, I had grown up in front of these people, and many of them were considered very close friends.

I did not have the same feeling when I quit the City. In fact, I was extremely anxious and excited about quitting this time. I enjoyed the work, and some of the people were very friendly. But in my job I'm completely separated from everyone, by physical location and the nature of my job. No one knows exactly what I do, or how it melds itself into what they do... and you know what... neither do I. That is my biggest concern with the City, is that there is a huge lack of focus and direction from our leadership. My current boss gets these grandiose' ideas, will have absolutely no knowledge or insight into what planning or preparation is required to make his plans a reality... and will assign his woefully under trained and ill-equipped staff to get results. Just doesn't make for a successful bureau.

I'm really concerned for my laboratory. I handle most of the hands-on workings of a very complex analytical system; including all the quality control and data analysis. I'm actually writing this entry in my mobile lab while the turbopump warms up. The two other members of my team... aren't here. In fact... they're never here. Neither of them spends any more time in the lab that what is absolutely necessary, and neither of them have a grasp on the workings of the systems. This isn't that they're not as good as me... it's that they don't have a fucking clue as to what is going on. This... makes me really worried.

But, at least they're taking me out to lunch tomorrow to celebrate my leaving... even if it is to Ninfa's...