Skip it

So nothing happened the week before last. I swear. That’s why I didn’t write anything.

Nah, that’s not true. The thing is, it was an emotionally exhausting week and I basically tried to recuperate last weekend and didn’t get around to it.

We’re having some big (or potentially big events) the first and second week of September and I was at the reins for the news conference.

It went extremely well – we only have three media outlets here – but one person wasn’t happy with how it went down. She wasn’t present at the event and … anyway, I don’t know or want to go into it, but let’s just say it was exhausting.

Not stressful, though. It’s kind of weird. All that – and it was A LOT – just didn’t stress me. If anything, it made me more apathetic. I thought it was very odd for me to react that way, but ah well.

So, although I wouldn’t say the thing is under control or anything, it’s moving along in a way that hopefully will go off all right.

This past week has extremely busy, not that most of mine aren’t these days. I routinely work 12-14 hour days and make my little commute (across the parking lot) home at 9:30 or 10 p.m. after starting the day at 7 a.m.

But this week I had a couple of meetings that knocked me out of commission for the regular stuff, so I had to carve out time out of the air to get that stuff done.

We’re trying to figure out how to parlay a $25k donation into $100k, so I’ve been working on that. My supervisor and I did some brainstorming and next week I need to follow up on that kind of stuff.

Really, I feel like I’ve been in meetings for two weeks. I’m not really sure what “routine” is, but I’d welcome it.

I did take a day off (at least mostly off) yesterday. My sitemate and I headed down to Bismarck to meet her boyfriend, who had Guard training.

Her highlight was seeing him, but mine were otherwise: I got to eat Cracker Barrel *plus* I learned there’s a 5 Guys. Woo-hoo!

So I had the CB Saturday special (chicken and rice – I LOVE that stuff) and we went to see “The Campaign,” which I loved but Ashton hated. I laughed through the thing but she felt it was the stupidest movie ever. It was dumb, I admit (c’mon – it had Will Ferrell in it), but I really needed the humor.

Bismarck, it seems, doesn’t have a whole lot more than Minot, but we did fine. We went to a museum, to DQ (this was before I learned they had 5 Guys) and to the mall, which was dead. However, they had a used CD spot in the mall and I got Keith Urban and Mark Willis’ greatest hits plus a Rodney Atkins one – the one with “When You’re Going Through Hell.” They had a lot, so maybe if I go back I can check it out again.

Bismarck is only an hour and a half away, which I didn’t realize. I thought it was more of a solid two, but it’s really an easy drive. I almost commuted that long on 696 from Hazel Park to Novi when it was rush hour for softball.

Next week – tomorrow – I’m taking my car to get $1500 in body work done – I’m fixing the dent that Bob (accidentally) gave me and the key scratch I got at the ranch, plus getting a $35 piece of plastic to replace the one that fell off sometime when I was in Indonesia. It goes where fog lights would go if I had fog lights.

The plan is to drop it off in the morning then have Ashton pick me up there and take me to the 8:15 meeting. After the 9 a.m. meeting, I have to hope I can get a ride back to Hope Village. I was thinking my supervisor would be there, but I’m not so sure – he’s speaking today in Williston and I wasn’t sure if he was headed straight back or not.

But either way, there are usually 2-3 people who make their way back to Hope Village after those meetings so I’ll figure it out.

The car should only take three days or so to fix, so I probably won’t even miss it. Yesterday, when I went to go to Bismarck, I realized I hadn’t driven it since Monday’s meetings. A spider had even set up residence on my side mirror.

I evicted him.

What’s in a Name?

I finally got around to painting a sign for my RV.

Almost everything here as a name. This tradition predates me, but I think it’s cute so I said early on that I needed one for my little abode. I got the wood for it a few weeks ago but lacked the time to do it.

Most of the stuff is either named for something Biblical or something local and up until now I had intended to call my place “the bled” because it’s Arabic for “country” and I am the last house on the road. 

But I changed my mind late in the game – after my first draft – and figured it might not translate well to this community. First, I’d have to explain it to everyone, which gets kind of tiresome, and second, the fact it’s in Arabic might be a little offensive to some.

So, after painting over “BLED” in red paint, I took a look at the other colors I had to work with, saw yellow and figured I’d go with the Nole.

My home-for-now has a “This is Seminole Territory” sign out front now with as close to garnet and gold as I could get.

I like it.

I also did Ashton one that says “Minot AFB” and filled in the blank next to “Why Not Minot?” with the rest of the air force mantra “Freezin’s the Reason.” (Although, now that I think about it, I think I left out the “’s.” Considering that I first misspelled it “freezen’,” though, I’m not all that concerned about it.

Shortly thereafter, I pulled photos of all the signs I had taken around thus far and posted them to our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.273947246047031.57431.181740875267669&type=3).

Immediately after I did that, someone posted where was the sign of one particular bunkhouse? I’d missed it, so I took the camera back out and shot about five more photos, including the one with the sign on my car, and updated the album.

Facebook is fast, that’s for sure. I totally detest it, but I’m forced to update three different sites now, plus our regular web site.

That one, www.hopevillagend.org, has been revamped incredibly since I started working on it. I spent what seemed like an entire day uploading photos, which are here: http://www.hopevillagend.org/campus-photos/. I also added links to all the media I could find, which also took a month of Sundays.

Anyway I am now doing the bulk of the work for the Hope Village FB site and what I can on two others. And I am doing all the work for the regular site.

So, in addition to painting and uploading stuff this weekend, I took a time out to update my resume. At the rate I am going, this entry is going to be longer than PC’s, and I’m still only two months into a 12-month tour.

The Bright Lights of Denver Were Shining Like Diamonds

I guess they were, anyway. Although I flew into Denver on Friday, I didn’t see squat of the Mile High City.

Instead, I spent my time in Aurora, which is a fairly boring suburb but contains, at least, a really nice softball complex, a Ted’s Montana Grill, an Outback Steakhouse and a Chick-Fil-A. Oh, and many hotel rooms, one of which in particular featured comfy pillows and an actual bathtub.

None of those things can be found in Minot, so I had a great weekend away even though I didn’t do squat. Honestly, that was much of the beauty of it. It’s been awhile since I’ve done squat. In fact, since my swear-in of June 14, I haven’t had a day off. Technically, I hadn’t had one before that, either.

So no complaints about the weekend in the Denver area. I took long naps, enjoyed pillows and salmon (not at the same time) and got to see Zippy.

Now it’s back to work and of course I feel extremely behind. We have a HUGE thing coming up starting Sept. 5 and I am in the middle of it.

It’s great fun but extremely stressful.

This past week was also fun and stressful. A partnership I put together made me a hero.

My supervisor *finally* got with the Zac Brown Band auction winner  (I'd been harassing him morning and afternoon until he did) and the guy gave us a $10k check and a promise for $90k more.

The initial check was for a "Gator," a John Deere 4-wheeler to haul things.

Steve, our site leader, didn't know about the meeting or the money, but he's the guy who wants the Gator.

Slight backstory: All our buildings here are named. When we got the two new reefers and I told Steve they were now "Cain" and "Able" and ever since he's been joking that I will name every new thing we get. (Note: I swear, the naming things predated me.)

So after I learned of the money -- but before Steve did -- I went into his office and found him sitting at the computer. I put my arm around him and said, "Just so you know, it has to be 'Seminole.'" He looked at me really weird and I continued, "I just can't call it 'Gator.'"

For about three seconds, he had a look of total confusion and then he put it together. It has been a long time since I've seen anyone that happy. He couldn't believe it. Guy's been walking on air ever since.

In other news, the wheat field behind my RV has been harvested. It was quite a Monday!

(If you enlarge the Gator shot and look closely, you can see my feet and my Chacos.)