Stephen's Journal

10:15am: How I got here
A decade ago I made my first LJ post. I believe that post was made in the AMC at Fontbonne (I checked, it was a Sunday so I doubt I was on campus). Back then I had no idea I would have this 10 years later (each year I wonder if this is the last. How much longer will LJ be around?). I also didn't have the slightest inkling I would be working for Sprint in Kansas City. So how did I get here? Looking back gaming and women have had a lot to do with it. So in brief recap form:

2002
Personal: Joe bought X-Box and I got introduced to RPGs with Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance.
Professional: No job to be had, started substitute teaching.

2003
Personal: Dated Mandy Robb.
Professional: Turned down a chance to teach for the Marianists and get a masters degree. Part of it was Mandy, part of it was teaching in Detroit. Long term subbed at St. Mary's and taught EJ Forman. His aunt, Joanne Coyle hires me on at Hold Child.

2004
Personal: Alecya introduces me to tabletop D&D a hobby I have kept with me to the present day.
Professional: Was going to lose my job but Dolores Perlow gets another job allowing me another year at Holy Child.

2005
Personal: Move to Farmington. Played in John Miller's D&D game, met Spooky and is invited to play in a private D&D game.
Professional: RIFed in Arnold. Barbara Monohan finds me and offers me a job in Bonne Terre.

2006
Personal: James (last name escapes me) has a baby. Spooky's game dissolves. Meet John and Sarah, play in their game. Start dating Sarah.
Professional: RIFed in Bonne Terre. Emily Bach hires me on in Farmington.

2007
Personal: Lots of couple events with Sarah (moving to a new place, vacations). Burnout of D&D.
Professional: New principal in Farmington and the start of a long downward spiral.

2008
Personal: Return to D&D
Professional: No more teaching. After leaving St. Joe, I did do some looking but in retrospect it was half-hearted. Started working at Accent with Sarah.

2009
Personal: Break up with Sarah.
Professional: Promoted to help desk, new group of friends in Chris/Clarence etc. keeps me in Farmington after breakup.

2010
Personal: Dated Whitney King and Laura Wilson. Move to KC.
Professional: Promoted to WFM. After breakup from Whitney, start looking for jobs. Stephanie Young introduced me to a job website. Hired on at GMC.

This was meant as a high level overview. There are plenty of more lines that can be drawn. Plenty more people who have had influences in my life that led to chain reaction events. Note I have nothing in 2011. Things stayed the status quo with my job in GMC and dating Laura. I think the cracks in our relationship started to show themselves this year but maybe they were there last year as well. More time and hindsight may answer that. Time has been a large eye opener. I'm sure if I met Dolores today and told her that she getting another job impacted my life greatly, she'd be as shocked as anyone. Had I been RIFed in 2004 I wouldn't have made my down to Farmington (no open position in Bonne Terre) and life (mine and others) would have turned out quite a bit differently. I'm sure everyone has those examples in their life. With Laura, it was not going to school in Illinois. The fact that things happen at all make it quite a coincidence. Similarly, I'm sure I've had an impact on far more peoples' lives than I know. I found out more about one of those impacts not too long ago. I think we focus on ourselves so much that we forget about the bigger picture.

I've learned a lot over the years but in some regards I keep making the same mistakes. After Mandy and I split, I regretted not taking the job opportunity. So when Sarah moved back to St. Louis I stayed put. When Laura announced her feelings for me, I stayed the course. Maybe I'm going too far the other direction. After the breakup with Laura, Sean told me I need to stay away from the divorced and single mothers. You'd think I would have learned something with Whitney. A while ago, I jokingly told Sean that if things didn't work with Laura, my next girlfriend would probably have 3 kids. Sean's advice is sound and something that I've really taken to heart. Opportunities don't come along for me that often so I tend to hang on and make the most of them.

I believe everything happens for a reason. This exercise has shown a lot of the cause and effect in my life. When I moved down to Farmington, I thought maybe I had found the ending. I always knew I would live in the country at some point and things seemed to fall into place. A job had found me in Bonne Terre. I wanted to live in Festus originally but couldn't find a spot so I decided to move to Farmington. Farmington turned out to be an avenue to Kansas City. Is KC the ending? I can't say for sure but looking back on things I wouldn't bet on it. I'm considering putting in for another job with Sprint. Sounds like they are looking for someone with familiarity of systems agents use. Maybe I'll get the job, maybe I won't (knowing the recent luck of GMC I won't). When I took that job as an agent back in 2008 it was because I liked Farmington and wanted to stay down there. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it might qualify me for a job 4 years later.

Where this is all headed remains as much of a mystery today as it was when wrote my first post 10 years ago. If these last 10 years are any indication, it will continue to be a roller coaster of a ride. I've always been a big picture guy. That's part of what I liked about moving to GMC from a site. The big picture in life will always allude me. I think I've learned to accept that. Then again, I still have a lot more learning to do and hopefully enough life left to get through most of it.

7:58pm: Disregard last post
It was a lie (partially). Just needed some more misdirection for Laura. Last night did suck, but I have Saturday and Sunday off . Here at FM White Castle, then to STL.

3:23pm: Superbowl
Yesterday I went over to Kellie and Matt's for Superbowl. Matt is from Pittsburgh, so the household was rooting for the Steelers. Aimee, January, Scott, Cody and Erin from work were all there, so I did know quite a few people. We hunkered downstairs in front of the big screen and watch the Packers take it to the Steelers. I really didn't think they had a chance, I was just hoping they would put up a good fight. I think the best commercial was the little kid acting like Darth Vader. I think it was a Volkswagon commercial. It was some sort of car company.

I made white boy burritos, but I think I blended the mixture too well. It wasn't creamy like it should have been, it was more liquid. I think it solidified a bit once I put it in the fridge. They didn't sit overnight like they should have. Overall, they were off. They had a lot of Mexican food there. Beef burritos, chicken enchiladas, lots of chips and dips. For dessert I had a slice of ice cream cake. I caught some flack for not having anything to drink. Cody and Matt were taking shots every time the team they were rooting against scored. Cody was pretty gone, and quite hilarious.

Today I've been catching up on Outsourced, doing a little bit of cleaning and hopefully some more unpacking.

10:58am: Quick 2 days
I stayed at the Marriot the last two nights. I quite a comfortable king sized bed. Still not quite the same as sleeping at home. I got home about 20 minutes ago. I think we had close to 9 inches of snow. Going home Tuesday night would have been tough. Last night was fine, but since the room was paid for, we all thought we should make use of it. The General Manager of the hotel picked us up personally Tuesday night after work in his truck. I was very impressed at the service. He said they went from 90% booked to about 30 because of the weather. Yesterday we were all going to take the hotel shuttle back to campus, but Aimee and Justin got called in early. I took the shuttle back by myself at 2:15. These last couple of nights have been busy due to all the weather related issues. We've had several sites down (all seem to be tech support sites too), and some network issues in storm related areas. Maybe things will be a bit quieter tonight. I still have no idea about next week's schedule. I'm hoping I'm off for Superbowl. I've been off the last 2 Sundays, so I'm not holding out home that I will get it off.

12:06pm: No working from home
Yesterday the supervisors were working on a contingency plan to have us work from home if needed. This has never been done in our group's history. Today I got a call from Trent, and it looks like they are going back to the old standard of putting us up in a hotel. I'll be away from home tonight, and possibly tomorrow night as well. I went out driving a little while ago and the roads haven't been plowed. It was slow going. I'm gonna pack a bag and a few other things and hit the road here shortly. I don't have to be into work until 2, but I'm taking no chances.

9:27am: There and back
So since I had the weekend off, I decided to drop in on St. Louis. I left Saturday around 9 am, and got there in time to surprise my family when they were visiting my aunt. We had a really good visit. Sounds like my aunt has had a few accidents though. She's fallen a couple of times, one of those falls broke her nose. After the visit we went over to Joe Boccardi's for dinner. I think those leftovers will be lunch today:) The evening was spent around the house with my dad and sister. We played a game of Settlers of Catan. It ended up being a very close game with me wining, and my dad and sister 2 points behind.

Sunday morning there was a 2.5 magnitude earthquake that hit St. Louis. I slept right through it. Sunday was spent with Laura. We hit the brewery for a tour (and free beer). Lunch was at Courtesy Diner, followed by a trip around the Science Center. They have steelwork up for the expansion. That place feels kind of small on the inside now. On the first floor off towards the left they have a section about how the human body is gross. Looked like it was a pay to get in, so we didn't do that. We caught part of a presentation about energy in weather. We say a tesla coil in action, and saw a fire tornado.

After the Science Center, we headed back down south and caught the movie "Season of the Witch". We both enjoyed it. Like my dad said, it won't win any awards, but that doesn't mean it is not a good film. The theater we were in had very comfortable chairs as well. We parted ways after that, and I hit the road back to KC. I stopped in Wentzville for an Imo's pizza, and was delighted to find out they have one in Overland Park.

12:15pm: One of these things isn't like the others
Today's mission was to get my hair cut. I found a place online that was fairly close. This place had 7 reviews, all of them good. They talked about how great the barbers were, how friendly it was and all the sports related stuff. I found the place, went in, and immediately saw a large blackboard with the football playoff bracket drawn on it. I looked around more, and found I was the only thing white in this place. The experience was pretty good though. Apparently, despite having an all black staff, they quite a few white customers. My barber kinda looked like Ice Cube from Friday. Turns out he goes to STL every year for a big hair convention. He said he loves it because there are lots of women there. I never thought about turning around and leaving, just because I don't want to be that type of person. I will have to say I was hesitant at first, but things turned out well. I'll probably be back in a couple of months when my hair gets unmanageable again.

1:01pm: Good weekend
I've been lazy lately, and sleeping in a lot. So posting has taken a backseat. Laura came into town on Saturday via the train. During her trip out, we both had Latitude running on our phones. It is a tracking system, so I could see how close she was. It was off a few times, but I think that was due to lack of signal. We had a wonderful time. We watched Snatch and Despicable Me. Despicable Me was very cute. I got hooked on that because Kelly at work had her text tone set to the line "He's so fluffy, I'm going to die!" from the movie. We were going to try and get together with Bryan and Erika, but that didn't pan out. Sunday we watched the football games. I hope the Packers take it to the Steelers in the Superbowl, but I'm not sure that is going to happen. We went to Walmart in between games and bought a bunch of snacks for dinner. I ended up having the real weekend off instead of Sun/Mon. We hung out Monday morning, and she stuck around the apartment while I was at work. Her cousin and his gf came over for a bit that evening. Tuesday morning was an early morning as the train left at 8:15. After dropping Laura off, I went back to bed for a while. Sleep has been really good lately.

1:33pm: Nothing burned down
Cody called out last night, which left Nicole and I there for the last hour by ourselves. We have a total of 9 weeks experience between us. Kevin stayed an extra hour until 11 then hit the road. Thankfully nothing happened that last hour. We had a few sites go offline briefly around 10:30, but came back up right away.

Laura is about an hour out from KC. She took the train up. I've been following her progress on Latitude. Quite the nifty app. Cody is the one who first showed me it a while ago. He was following his wife's progress to pick him up for lunch. Bryan mentioned it last week when I was over there. Laura's coverage along the way has been spotty as she passes through mid Missouri, but I get an update roughly every 5-10 minutes. Need to leave for the station here in about 30 minutes.

12:02pm: Snow Part 2
They are talking 4-8 inches here today into tomorrow. The snow from our last storm is still partially on the ground. The job goes on. GMC never closes. Last year they had a big storm over Christmas, and the company told the night employees to pack a bag and they were put up in a hotel. Gonna be interesting as always. Laura is planning on coming out this weekend, this time though probably taking the train. I've got the whole weekend off as schedules keep getting messed with. Next week I work a Mon-Fri. I have a funny feeling I won't have next weekend off, which would help with seeing my aunt. I will be glad for a set schedule here in another month or so. Our last 2 noobs started today, and Kelly's last day is Thursday. Hard to believe I've been there over a month already.

Saturday and Monday nights, I went over Bryan's place and we played Settlers of Catan. Everyone had a blast, and Bryan definitely is the sheep monger of the group. He also has a tendency to trade sheep in for either brick or wood, then build a road. We joke about "Bryan roads" made mostly of sheep. Saturday it was just Erika, him and I. Monday, MJ joined us. We had Waldo's pizza on Monday. Those 3 like going there because they have quite a vegan selection. I enjoyed their non-vegan products as well.

3 more days before I get to see Laura again. Mixed with the weather, I have a feeling it will be a long 3 days.

1:00pm: The missing link
My television is working. I needed to hook an antenna up to it. The scanner only found 9 channels. Currently it is on Fox for the Bears/Seahawks game. Hopefully I can find CBS later for the Jets/Patriots. I flipped through quickly. I think I found an NBC channel, a Spanish channel, a PBS like network and several religious stations. This opens up some possibilities though.

12:29pm: Be careful what you wish for
My last post I mentioned how it would be too long before I saw Laura again. I was wrong, it was only a couple of hours. She stopped in Blue Springs due to the weather after being on the road for over an hour. I headed out there and the roads to there weren't that bad. After some debate, we headed east. The plan was for me to drop her off and then her brothers would come and pick up her car when conditions were better. We made it to Booneville and stopped for gas. The roads were getting worse, and we were driving into heavier weather. At that point we decided to turn around and head back to KC. Along the way back we stopped to refill my washer fluid. I cut my finger getting the plastic cap off, and then we lost the cap. Laura ended up going back the next day and missed work. It should have been her last occurrence, which would mean she would get fired. The day was not listed as a weather day (which would have spared everyone an occurrence). Fortunately, because Devin (her previous manager) neglected to take care of something, she was showing one more occurrence than she actually had. Not sure when I will see her next. I'm not going to even try and guess because you never know what is going to happen.

5:58pm: "Weekend" with Laura
Laura just left a few minutes ago. We had a great 2 days together. She makes me happier than I've been in a long time. We are on the same page about so many things, it is scary sometimes. Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where he dated Janeane Garofalo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3uvWh4GywA

Sunday we headed out to Lawrence, Kansas. Laura wanted a picture in front of the Lawrence sign. She is a huge Supernatural fan, and the show is set in Lawrence. While we were there we visited KU's museum of natural history. It was housed on campus, and had to use some navigation to help get us there. Overall it wasn't bad, but some of the exhibits looked a bit dated. The lighting in the building could have been better also. It was spread across 4 floors, but the exhibition space on each floor wasn't that large. There seemed to be a lot of other space that was off limit to the public. I think it was research and classroom space. We killed maybe 1.5 or 2 hours there, then headed back into town. We stopped at a Super Target, which I had not known existed. There we bought some Jelly Belly jelly beans!

Dinner was at Red Lobster in which we had a spacey waitress. We ended getting a meal for 2 deal. I had the fried shrimp, Laura had a linguini pasta with shrimp and scallops. We also got a dessert, which we finally ate earlier today. She was all over the place, one minute trying to be our friend, and the next seeming to be cold. I had to wait forever for my ketchup, and we almost didn't get a second basket of rolls. Last night we hung around the apartment, talked and crashed early. Laura has not been inducted into the Snatch society yet, as I can't find my DVD. It's not with the rest of them, and I have no idea which other box I would have put it in.

This morning we slept late, then hit BWW for lunch. We played 3 games of trivia. The first I sucked it up big time. The other two games were close. Overall Laura or I won each of the games. Afterwards, we went looking for the Sprint call center in Lenexa, but had no success. We hit a gaming store in town and looked around there for a while. I got my Lake Shore Drive at 25 CD, and she got her dice. The snow was going full force all day, but the roads have been pretty clear. We double checked with her work, there was no way she was getting the day off tomorrow. So after as much delaying as we could reasonably justify, she hit the road back to Farmington. I'm not sure when I will get to see her again, but I can tell you it is too long:) The time seemed to fly by with her here.

12:04pm: Weird schedules
So after my 11 day straight stretch, I had yesterday off. I was semi-productive but ended up crashing out early. I close today, then have the next 2 days off. Maybe after that I'll just work 5 days and then have another weekend. However, until we get Nicole (our 2nd of 4 new people) trained, I imagine I will have the crazy shifts. Originally I figured I would have yesterday and today off, but I'll take 3 out of 4 days. I will especially take it since Laura is headed this way after work. She is scheduled until 7:30, and if she works that whole time she won't make it in until after midnight. Hopefully there is some early release going on today. She put in for the day off several times, and was rejected. We'll have all of Sunday and part of Monday together, which will be awesome.

Today Bryan texted me and let me know that our friend Patrick would be in the area today, and was wanting to get together. Timing is tight, but if Laura ends up working a full shift I may have a short time to drop by and say hi. He is in town for the Chief's game tomorrow. So here are my predictions for Wild Card Weekend:

AFC
Ravens beat Chiefs
Colts beat Jets

NFC
Eagles beat Packers
Saints beat Seahawks

That puts 2 wild card teams into the divisional round. There we would have:

AFC
Patriots beat Ravens
Steelers beat Colts

Steelers beat Patriots

NFC
Falcons beat Saints
Eagles beat Bears

Falcons beat Eagles

That would leave an Atlanta/Pittsburgh Superbowl. I'm not sure who would win that one. The Falcons have flown under my radar all year. I can't wait to see how that all turns out. I'm even more excited about these next two days though:)

10:24am: Affinity for accordion
I just realized I have an affinity for accordions. My favorite 2 artists are Weird Al and They Might Be Giants. Both feature the accordion prominently (although not on The Else album ((Jason Koon's theory is that Linnell is getting arthritis and not able to play as well))). I just downloaded Stereo Love. I heard on AT 40 while I was still in Farmington. Euro beat + accordion = awesomeness! Also downloaded Home by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros. I watched a clip of them playing on Letterman, and they had an accordion player! I think I was subconsciously drawn to the song for that reason. Maybe I get it from my father. He used to play the accordion as a kid (not sure for how long though). Plus I've been to the Polka Hall of Fame. Maybe I need to spend some time in Germany this October to get my accordion fix.

12:30pm: Ringing in 11
Had a great time last night over at MJ and Matt's house. I met Bryan, Erika and Mandy over near the Plaza. I finally got to see Bryan's place, complete with a sarcophagus and servants quarters. He also showed me his Boxee, which very cool. It collects free television shows and movies for you online, and puts them in 1 place so they are easy to access. From there we headed to Blue Springs for the party. We ate, drank a little, and played board games. Apples to Apples was very fun. The second game we played didn't last too long. It was Wit and Wagers. You would answer trivia questions, then bet on other people's answers. We only got through 4 turns before we turned on the ball drop. After that we sat around and talked until after 2. Overall, they had a great group of people there. Only thing that would have made it better is if Laura had been there.

3:53pm: Top 10 Events of 2010
This day each year I read back through my old posts. As I was reading this year, I kept thinking about how I got things ordered wrongly. Then I read last year's list and apparently I had commented on the fact that I thought I had made some mistakes. This year I double checked my list, and I stand by my decisions (for now). Here we go, the 9th annual Top 10 List.

10) Turning 30 years old - I often joked about not turning 30, and counting backwards. 30 isn't bad. It
is just a number after all. I had a wonderful night with some great people. Dinner, sno cones and frisbee; it doesn't get much better for an evening.

9) Missing family events - One thing I like so much when growing up was the stability of having certain traditions. It marked the passing of time, and was a good guidepost of where you were at in the year. This
year I missed many of those. Some weren't so bad. The Battle Reenactment at Pilot Knob only comes once
every 3 years. Missing out on the annual pumpkin patch trip and the 4th of July concert at Francis Park
left me feeling a little empty. I fear it is only a sign of things to come in future years. Maybe it's
time to start making some new traditions.

8) Mrs. Cummins - It never really hit me until the end of that funeral mass. She was my college mom. As
much as I worried about how Sean would take it, maybe I should have focused a bit more on myself. What a
wonderful woman who meant a lot of things to a lot of different people. Hopefully she knows how many lives she touched.

7) Laura Noll - I had to redo the list to add this one. An end of the year relationship that brings holds great promise for 2011. It was a strange set of circumstances that brought us together. Funny how things happen when you least expect it. You would think that by now I'd learn to expect that these things happen at the oddest intervals.

6) WFM - This time last year I had posted about a job that I applied for and didn't get. Beginning of the
year it came open again, and that job was mine. I was ready to get off the floor. From my start at Accent,
I thought the bridge would be the perfect job for me. It had a high learning curve, and by the time I left I
still didn't know anything. Plus it led to greater, grander things.

5) Facebook - Livejournal is all but dead in my mind. Not for me, but for everyone around me. Still I cling
on. I know several people will tune in for this countdown specifically. It will be a Livejournal exclusive. Facebook has made it easier to keep up with people, and in large quantities. It certainly has its merits, and does consume more of my time than LJ does. I need to do a complete post on Facebook vs Livejournal. Look for that in 2011.

4) California - This year's trip marked the 4th time I've been out there. It also marks the first non-summer trip. It was great to see the family again, and explore parts of the state that were previously unseen. Crater Lake was spectacular, and Lake Tahoe was pretty neat too. Most of all, it was a great bonding time with my dad.

3) Cell phone - After years of holding out, I have finally joined the rest of civilization. I finally
put reason above principle and gave in. After about 9 months with one, I have to admit it would be hard (but
not impossible) to go back to life without one. The convenience is very nice, and has transformed has life
greatly. I love my new phone, and not having to pay a cell phone bill certainly is nice.

2) Whitney King - Whitney is tied to so many things on this list, this would have been the number one entry
up until about 90 days ago. The cell phone and Facebook were all her doing. The relationship burned bright and fast for a while, then faded. As I've said many times, I believe things happen for a reason. I believe she was there to keep me in Farmington long enough for event # 1 to happen.

1) New city and job - A no brainer on this one. It has been the most startling change I've undergone since 2005 when I moved and got a new job. This time around, the move was easier. Granted I'm further away from my family, and that is tougher. I think moving away to Farmington helped prepare me for this move. Yes everything does happen for a reason. I've learned that a lot this year. Everything fits into place when
looking in hindsight. I thought Farmington was a destination in my life. I figured something permanent
would come from it. It was just another stop on this crazy journey of life. As my Facebook bio says, "Just another soul making my way through life, and taking it one step at a time." This time last year Kansas was
not on my mind. Makes you wonder where I'll be this time next year.

Honorable mentions: New addition to my aunt's convent, eye problem, Aunt Evelyn passing away, golf at Pallos, find out my sister is pregnant

8:59pm: Christmas Recap
So I headed out of Kansas City the night of the 23rd to beat the storm. Leaving about 11:45, I got into St. Louis about 4:15 am. When I woke up at 10 on Christmas Eve, there was snow on the ground. Glad I headed out early, otherwise I'm not sure how long it would have taken me. That day dad and I hung out around the house. I ran out to get him his SNS gift card. I found out the hard way that there is only 1 left turn lane going into the Walmart Complex on Telegraph. Traffic was about 12 cars deep in the lane, so I swung in where there used to be a second lane only to find I was floating in no man's land.

Kristina and Brian showed up a little before 5, and we hit SNS for dinner. The place was not crowded at all. Maybe the weather had something to do with that. We all got Chili though, and it tasted good on such a cold day. We ventured out intending to go to the Brewery to see the lights, but opted out because of road conditions.

The space under the Christmas tree was not crowded either. There were 2 big gifts under the tree, and one big gift hiding. I got a television, my cashews, an SNS gift card and an Onion calendar. My sister and Brian got a new Dyson vacuum, a gift card to Babies R Us and an ornament they can't use until next year. My dad got his Dilbert calendar, 2 SNS gift cards (Can you tell we like SNS?) and a television. My sister had previously hidden the television in my dad's house while he was helping me move. She got it up just before present opening and set it in the living room. Overall a good Christmas to be had.

1:03pm: Christmas Eve^2
Today is my Friday at work, and I have a 3 day weekend! After Christmas I go to Monday through Friday. Next week I open, which is going to suck. I have to wrap a few things today. I don't have much to give this Christmas. I have a feeling it is like that all around, but I don't really care. I'm just glad I get to spend it with my family. Tomorrow may be a challenge driving out in the snow. I'll keep an eye on weather conditions to see what is going on. Right now it appears it will be only snow. South of us will get the wintry mix. As far as I know we'll do the usual Christmas Eve stuff. Christmas day I'll head out to Richards for a while, then may make my way down to Farmington for a bit. Looking forward to being back in the area.

12:59pm: Raining
As I said on Facebook, when it rains, it pours. The job so far has been great. I have a wonderful team I'm working with. Trent, my new supervisor, will be awesome (although I will miss Dan). From what I'm told, Billy (the other sup) doesn't like anyone right away. I'm not going to sweat that one. She'll be gone sometime in early 2011 as she transitions to another role. We have 3 other newbies start soon after the first of the year. This second week I'll still be working openings. Sunday I'm in at 7:30, then its 5:30 for Monday through Thursday. I do get 3 days off for Christmas, then I'm on a Monday through Friday schedule for probably 2 weeks or so before I'll be on my normal schedule.

The other piece of news has been developing. I found out the Saturday through some Facebooking that there someone in Farmington that really likes me. She was too chicken to tell me before I left. Of course, it wouldn't have made a difference if I had known during the process. I've turned down a job once in my life to a woman, and I've learned my lesson. We've been texting, chatting and playing some games online together. I'll go into the story about the night that made her realize her feelings for me another time. I always thought she was cute, but was taken. We plan on meeting up over my 3 day Christmas break and see how things go. We click on many different levels, so I'm very optimistic.

That has been my life this past week. It's hard to believe that it has only been a week. The days fly by as all I do is eat, sleep, work and talk to her. The week as a whole has crept. Thankful for a day off as I have lots to do. I just now picked up my key to the mailbox. It wasn't ready on move in day, so I got it today. The only thing I have so far is my welcome packet from the USPS. I'm anxious to see my last paystub from Accent, because the check wasn't as large as I was expecting it to be. I'm guessing taxes took a big bite out of it. I'll know soon hopefully.

9:12pm: Step by step
The move to KC went more smoothly than I could have imagined. Chris, Stephanie, Joe and my dad helped me pack up. Chris packed the truck masterfully. All those years of tetris paid off:) We headed out, swapped out furniture and my dad's house. The entertainment center was the heaviest thing of all. We got the table and chairs from my sister just fine. On the road we headed west. The lock we had to secure the truck wasn't long enough. So we stopped at Walmart in Wentzville, and ran into Mark and Michelle! After a brief chat and a lock, we headed west some more. Dinner was at Denny's in Warrenton, then stayed the night in Boonesville. The next day we got to Lenexa about 10:30; and I signed paperwork. Bryan met us shortly after, then Ethan and Scott showed up. Scott brought his son with him, and we unloaded pretty quickly.

Things around here are decent. Still lots of unpacking to do. Work so far has been good. Sunday was slow, but today I learned lots. There is so much to remember up there! I'm really liking it though. Today I got my new phone and connection card. The card isn't running as fast as I would like it. I think its the way this place is built. I'm still waiting to hear back from TW about a wired internet connection. We'll see how the aircard goes. So that is all for now, just a quick update. More to come later.

8:51am: Goodbye Farmington
I sit here waiting for Joe and my to show up. Chris and Stephanie will be by later to help out. This is it. Not to say I'll never visit Farmington again, but it won't be the same. Yesterday Whitney and I went to Dairy Queen to see each other one last time. She is getting married soon. I dropped a bunch of stuff off at Sarah and Art's and saw them for the last time in a while. Then I went up to Cecil's for one last BOGO with Joe. All of this was in the span of about 4 hours. It was a heck of a way to spend 4 hours. Sleep didn't come too well last night. This morning I moved a bunch of stuff into the living room, and packed a little more.

This is my last post from Farmington. It's been a hell of a ride. It was nothing like I expected it to be. In the words of some wise dolphins: "So long, and thanks for all the fish".

10:15pm: 36 hours
My time in Farmington is almost done. 36 hours (+/-) remain. I've tossed a lot of stuff out, stuff I probably needed to toss a while ago. I honestly don't know why I hold on to stuff. Jokingly, I blame genetics, but in reality think I long for the good old days. As I reminded people on several occasions, one day we will look back at this time frame and call it the good old days. I leave Farmington with a lot of emotions. It was quite crazy how I came to be down here. I've had some crazy times down here. Part of me always thinks what if. For one person, I was so hesitant to leave this area. For another, I was convinced I wouldn't stay here forever. Now neither are in my life (well not physically). Both have moved on, and yet here I am. At the moment, I'm convinced I'm not meant to be with anyone. I want to say I'm OK with that. Some days I am, others I'm not. I just keep clinging on this notion that things happen for a reason. 6 years ago, if you would have told me that I would be in Farmington working at a call center, I would have laughed you out of the room. Strange how things work out. While I was down here, I was convinced that this series of events was leading to something permanent. The people in my life have kept me down here just long enough to get my ticket out of here. Part of me was ready to leave 1.5 years ago. I didn't have anywhere to go to though. Now my destination is clear, my ticket is punched and I sit here wondering if it's the right thing to do, or if its just another temporary stop. What am I waiting for? I know no matter what happens I'll survive. I'll do more than survive. I'll adapt, I'll thrive and I'll look back and realize how much I had, how lucky I've been and ask myself what I've done to deserve it all. I've had a lump in my throat throughout this whole post. I want to cry, but I'm not sure why. I did this to myself. I'd like to think I'm in control of my destiny. In reality, I'm not completely sure why I decided to move on. This year has been quite tumultuous for me. Maybe I'm trying to run away from something, but running into the unknown doesn't seem to make sense. I'm a big picture type of person, and it kills me that I don't know where this is all going. At least I'm on the road to somewhere. I just can't help but look back a lot.

On a side note, I guess you have to leave before everyone tells you how much they appreciate you. That doesn't make leaving any easier. Also, I think I chose bad days for moving. Getting people to help out has been hard. I'll have Joe, Dad, Chris and Stephanie down here helping. That should go just fine. I don't have any sure bets on the other side yet.

3:09pm: It is over
My last night was pretty quiet. Callouts took care of overstaffing, and the agents were busy most of the night. I cleared out my e-mail, and sent out my final words to everyone. By 11:20 it was all over. Today, I went in to turn in my badge and say a few goodbyes. Life was busy as usual there. Time keeps marching on. It was kind of funny because I posted last night on Facebook that it was my last shift. Melody posted that I couldn't leave, which led to a back and forth between the Egans and Chris at GMC. My decision was already made. I will miss it there for sure. It has become home for me. One summer several years ago I posted about my epoch of friends. I need to go back and update that to include the Accent crew. Outside of work I haven't hung out with many people in a while. Since I started the 3 day/2 night shift I couldn't game anymore on Friday nights. Even if I didn't see them outside of work, we were still close.

The next step is packing these next 3 days and leaving town on Thursday, with an arrival date of Friday in Lenexa. Times are still pending. Not sure when I'm getting the truck on Thursday, but I should know tomorrow. For now back to packing and throwing stuff out.

9:51am: 2 days left
I survived the 6-2:30 week of work. Things probably wouldn't have been so bad had we not been so overstaffed. Our headcount has gone up, but not our requirements for staffing. I'm pretty sure that is a mistake on the other end, but that is story for a totally different post. It's been getting harder and harder to get people off the phones and take early release. I only have to close tonight and tomorrow and my career at Accent is finished. I've racked up 47 hours to far this week. My last paycheck should be a double paycheck with the overtime, holiday pay and the vacation hours I'll be cashing out. That will be very helpful as I'm not sure where I'll be in the Sprint pay periods.

As for the move, I think I'll be packing up down here on Thursday and unloading in Lenexa on Friday. I don't know what kind of truck I'll be getting yet, nor when I can pick it up. I should know both on Tuesday. That leaves Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to clear out this place. I've got books and assorted things packed up already. I also need to patch the two holes in the wall in the bedroom. I've already thrown a lot of stuff out during this past week, but I know I have a lot more I need to throw out.