Grinding Gears

7:05 am, my eyes open, a broken thought runs through my head. Did the professor say we were suppose to meet earlier this week? I run to look at the schedule to see class started at 7:30 today, an hour early! Oh crap! Grab my baseball cap, my books, and shoes, as I hit the road. Thinking, please, please, it's election day, let the traffic be light today!

Sure enough, the traffic was light, and I knew I had to keep moving, as I shifted the gears up and down, making my way to class. Normally I wouldn't sweat being a few minutes late, but in our program, the door shuts at the start of class, and doesn't open till the end. One missed class is like missing a weeks worth of content.

The program so far, feels a lot like my trip into school today. The classes are very fast paced and the instructors are not going to wait for anyone to catch up. This seems very apparent as I see my class shrink weekly.

I must say though, that I welcome the daily challenges, grinding a few gears here and there, but passing through this thick blended medical concoction.

Radical Change

It's been quite awhile since my last entry. A lot of new stuff is going on, and i'm pretty excited! Sometimes that nagging feeling, or that voice we commonly ignore needs to be listened too.

A couple of months ago I decided to listen to that voice, that gut feeling. I walked into work on a friday afternoon, and after more than five years I resigned from my job.

This was of course not a random careless decision. It surely sounds a little crazy, almost radical. I've been battling the desire to do something that is more rewarding, and that I am passionate about.

I have enrolled into school for my second degree. Now with a BS in business, I have chosen to go into the field of medicine, an area that i've always had an interest. The specialty i'm looking to get into is Physical Therapy. I feel a strong calling to pursue this field to help engage in a field where I can help people recover from their injuries.

Tomorrow marks a big day, it's the first day of classes. It should be a pretty awesome day!

I will keep you all posted. This new journey is not going to be easy, but I know its going to be so rewarding.

Wafting 101

It was the ninth grade, Mr. Dinges class, in which I remember the first use of this word, waft. Chemistry was a subject that required precision, and some adventure. This also was the introduction to the scientific calculator, something that didn’t get me that excited.

What I did gravitate to, was the fun lab experiments where Dinges let us work together and mix various chemicals. Heating beakers with the bunsen burner, and working with all the acids and bases, seem to push and excite us. The mix of fear and empowerment to work with items that could maybe explode, or even burn us was instrumental as a young boy, to the interest of the subject.

Mr. Dinges laid out the safety instructions, as well as the precautions and rules to follow. During the demonstrations, as he followed through the examples, he made it clear that you should never inhale the chemicals directly. You should take your hand and waft it in your direction.

I won’t forget that day, and anytime I smell a really foul odor, sometimes… it makes me think of that very moment. Today just happens to be one of them.

The past two days I’ve been in kind of a cleaning frenzy. I spent most of the night after work cleaning up around the house and cleaning my car. It is amazing how much one can appreciate when things are clean and tidy. There is much more ahead, and to that point, I was thinking about cleaning out the refrigerator.

The thought was a good one, but it was met face first, when I attempted to claim an Edy’s Fruit popsicle from the freezer. I am still baffled at how it is possible, but this unearthly odor came out nearly before I was able to get open the door. It almost knocked me out. Mr. Dinges probably would have handed me a box of baking soda and say go at it, but dear lord!

I am very curious how something can rot at that temperature? As a child I may have been somewhat excited about working with varying chemicals, but now grown up, I am struggling to not avoid what has defiled my freezer. No waft, or mask, will make this search any easier.

Fallen Friend

Brian Merritt was one of those guys that could not only make you laugh, but a person that was genuine, kind, and reliable.

I’ve known Brian since the early days of elementary school. It’s was crazy but growing up year after year, he always ended up on my baseball team. Brian was that guy who would cheer on his teammates when we won, and when we lost. And we lost a lot. Brian was always the guy to help us keep our heads up.

I remember last year around Christmas time running into Brian. We were both in town and ran into him while I was meeting up with some friends. It was so cool to catch up. Brian was real excited about his job and career. What was so cool, was to pick up where we left off. He was just that type.

A week or so ago, Brian shot me a message letting me know he was heading into town and to wish my family a great holiday. I unfortunately didn’t get to see Brian while I was in town. I am sorry I didn’t, but am grateful that we did communicate.

I was driving down to Sinai Hospital today, and just recalling some of the great memories of my friend. I know a lot of them were years ago, but it did get me a little choked up.

Brian Merritt, you were a great friend, and person that I will always hold in high regard. Thank you for your sense of humor, thirst for life, and most of all friendship. You will be missed by many.

Glimpses of the Holiday Spirit

Ever had a day just a little more tiring than most?

Well, that was my day today. Though there is something nice about being on the road early enough that traffic is sparse. You almost feel like the road is all yours.

So i've been listening to the holiday music on my commute to work. Slowly, I think I feel the season soaking in. The fact is almost anywhere I go, I hear Holiday music. But I don't think for me that it is the music, or even all the Christmas decorations that makes me think the holiday spirit is here. It's something different.

After work today, I got my hair cut. This stylist was a new one. She did give a good haircut but I was more impressed with how she treated her customers. I guess the best way to describe her is kind. I'm starting to notice kindness more often, and surely appreciate it.

The fact is, she was somewhat nice to me, but it was more how she treated this elderly woman while she was in the middle of cutting my hair. She without hesitation stopped what she was doing, and spoke to her in such a nice way, and then spent time on her hair. She even helped the woman call her ride.

It was just nice to see patience and kindness like this in action. I've had my haircut many times and have seen good customer service before, this was different, and just pretty cool to see.

I made it a point to let her know that she does a great job, and handled that one situation very well. The hair cut honestly is not the best i've ever had, but I think i'm going go back to her anyways.

At much surprise, as I left the building, right in passing, a child walked by and told me to have a great holiday, and continued to walk on.

All of this kindness revealed after a long day, got me thinking.

I would pinpoint for me, that the Christmas season has started.

I have a feeling that this will be a great Christmas.

Back to Blogging

The other day I was thinking back upon some of the events and things that have happened in the past few years. I thought it was kinda of interesting to go back and reflect on the days past.

So now i'm going to try to get back into blogging again. I am very excited about this upcoming year, and am looking forward to highlighting all the cool and fun things to come.

I'm looking forward to sharing the times ahead.

Banks

The Fleece Exchange

Are you the type of person who prefers a crowded room?

This time of year is flat out crazy. People seem to be running around everywhere, shopping, dining, and traveling.

I headed back into town today and knew I had tons of errands to run. First of all, I had a great Christmas. I received a lot of great things; my family and friends were overly generous.

So tell me, do you also have trouble returning items you didn’t like or maybe didn’t fit?It’s weird, it’s almost like when you go out to a restaurant and what you receive, just isn’t exactly what you ordered.

Well, today I had to exchange a gift. Funny, you think that after a long holiday shopping week, and with Christmas over, that things would lighten up.

Yeah, that wasn’t the case today. I turn into the parking garage, and my search for a spot went from optimistic, to frustrated, to flat out “mission impossible-like” strategic.

My mid-afternoon visit to the mall would begin as I nosed my car up to the seventh and final floor of the parking garage.

This whole experience started to get me thinking about strangers and people in general. What is it about large volumes of roaming strangers, that changes a person? People go nuts this time of year. Why?

Anyways, I was briefly at the food court, and realized that there was not nearly enough seating for number of dining customers. It made the trafficking through, equally as enjoyable as finding the parking spot.

Off to the department store I went, to make the exchange. As I walked, I looked at the unfamiliar faces all around. I thought to myself, why is it that I at times find myself more interested in the people I read about in books and magazines, or even as to the extreme as those that I think of, that are named on a dedication wall, or in a cemetery?

Generally speaking I think we as a culture are so tied up into our own lives, and the people and things that revolve around it, that everything outside of that is normally not of interest. I think we have become so narrow focused that our peripherals have become blinded.

It doesn’t help that we have twenty things rolling around up in our heads at one time. And that our attention spans are limited to maybe five minute intervals.

So I thought again. How can we want to care more, or be more interested in those outside our bubble of life? Does it matter that we don’t want anything to do with them? Should we engage the unknown?

Frankly, I prefer the road less traveled. I am not excited when I have to wait in any type of line. Sometimes I just think that waiting in line is just another way to test our patience. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a complete disdain for lines, I just notice myself having to more consciously control myself.

I think there is something to learn though. Whether we are out at the local shopping mall, fast food restaurant, movie theater, metro station, school function, or even a local pub; we need to be more aware of those around us. To respect them, their issues, and their lives.

Just some thoughts that came out of my trip to the mall.