the j-o-b. and other stuff.

I've been extremely blessed to have thus far weathered the economic storm untouched. The week before our group had a one-week layoff downtown, I was transferred to my "facility rotation" at the Tech Center in Mossville. In the meantime, 5 of my coworkers (including my supervisor), were laid off indefinitely. Myself and the other two rotation participants were told that since we are "the future of the company", they decided to keep us for the time being.
Last week it was announced that our facility would join another in creating the first "regional campus" and that I would become a permanent Tech Center employee as the Hazardous Materials Coordinator on May 1. It couldn't have come at a better time!

Easter this year has been a wonderful time of reflection. What a difference a year makes. One short year ago, I was working frantically to finish my Master's degree thesis-five years in the making. I was in a job that was barely covering the bills-and often came up short. I was trying to figure out how to save enough money to get married. Life was good, but it was hard.
Things have changed. I have a beautiful, wonderful wife. I've traded two jobs for one that pays more than double. And just received a promotion nine months in. I'm blessed to be part of a growing community called Imago Dei and it is exciting! Life is good. And it's easier.

I hope to blog more often. We'll see.

Knockin the frost of the tires.

After work this evening I drove to the gym, just as I do every evening. But when I pulled into the lot, a buddy of mine drove up next to me and said the power was out and wouldn't be back on anytime soon. So I turned around and drove back home. I had already taken my "pre-workout magic drink", so I HAD to do something. Although it was only about 37 degrees out, I decided to pull the bike out from the back of the garage, air up the tires, and put a few miles on.

I took a new route and ended up on a street that dead-ended at Springdale Cemetery. There was a well-worn trail through the row of trees that lined the boundary of the expansive site, so I followed it in and got on the main road, winding down a valley and then up a hill to the top of the bluff. Within a few short minutes, the sounds of the city around me were drowned out by the soft cracking of gravel under the tires and a choir of songbirds roosting in the massive trees that rise up from the monument-studded landscape. It was beautiful.

The sting of crisp clean air in my lungs as my legs churned the pedals up the inclines. The trees rushing past, weaving and dodging the puddles in the broken blacktop on the downhill sections. I felt like a kid again. And any stress from my busy day had vanished.

I made my way to the other end of the cemetery, around the back of Glen Oak Park, and up past the Zoo before returning home. I must do this more often.

maybe when it warms up.