Texas bound

I am sitting in my hotel room in Clinton, Mississippi thinking about all that has transpired since I last posted. It's been quite a lot. I'll start with last Saturday.

Last Saturday-It was my last day working at chick-fil-a waugh chapel. I'm not really sure you are supposed to be that upset when you leave your job, but whenever your coworkers at your job have become your second family, you are bound to get upset. It's harder than it was last time I went to college. I have grown closer to many of the people there, partly as a result of me coming out of my shell quite a bit over the past year. Also, I knew last time that I would be coming back. This time I am not so sure. Anyways, it was a great day for the most part. I guess as good as it could be. Kayla brought in pink roses, and a little stuffed monkey and a balloon for me. And Tina made me a special gameplan and had everyone sign the back of it. I took my camera to work that day and the day before in order to get pictures with a lot of my friends there. Three o'clock came all too quickly, and I was soon clocking out for the last time.

Sunday-I played Chick-fil-a soccer, and then went to Rita's and hung out with Andy, Ariel, and Bryan P. I had swedish fish rita's. It sounds weird I know, but it was so good. Plus they give you a package of Swedish fish so it's even better. :) Afterwards, I went with my family to meet our friends the Kinkades who we had not seen in 3 years. It was great to see them again. After that, I went to Joey's house to watch a movie with him, Ruthanne and Mike called the soloist. Fairly good movie, but not a favorite. All that was left for the day was staying up till four in the morning to do all that packing I had been procrastinating about.
Monday-I had to get up at 7 to be able to sell my textbooks from summer school at the college. Then came home, finished packing, and loaded up my car. The rest of the day was perfect. Really perfect. Too perfect to even write about. But I did get very upset when I to tell someone special goodbye. My spirits were lifted when I hung out with Tim and Aaron in the pouring down rain in the Chick-Fil-A parking lot. They were fun to be with and made me laugh even though I had to tell them bye too. I got soaked standing outside, but honestly it felt so good. It almost seemed to wash away all the stress and worries. By the time I left there I was laughing. Then I went to Kayla's for the night.
Tuesday-Said bye to Kayla. :'( Picked up my uniforms at the cleaners, dropped them off at chick-fil-a. Ate breakfast at chick-fil-a and said a final goodbye to the people working. I love that the last familiar face I saw in Maryland was Tina's smiling face waving goodbye from the drive-thru window. I miss that place. I drove down to Potomac Mills to meet Mom. From there we drove to Greenville, SC. It was a very emotional day. There were times that I got so incredibly sad just thinking about the fact that I was leaving. Songs would come on the radio that I would sing at Chick-fil-a with my friends and I would have to switch the station. It was hard.
Wednesday (today)-Left South Carolina. I am doing better emotionally. I wish I was at Chick-fil-a working right now instead of in a hotel room bloggin but I am trying to be happy about this. I need to make friends in San Angelo, and people are not going to want to be friends with someone who is depressed. In other news, I decided Alabama is beautiful. Really beautiful. As far as the atmosphere goes, I am glad to be back in the SOUTH!! Even though Maryland is technically considered the South by some people, I'm sorry it's just not the same. I had Sonic for the first time since I left last year. It was so good! I have some pictures that I've taken along the way....

Me On Monday

South Carolina-my windshield is filthy I know.

South Carolina Again.

ATLANTA! HOME OF CHICK-FIL-A

Favorite State So Far is ALABAMA!

THIS made my day. Car in South Carolina. Hard Core Rap was playing. Wondering if I could get my car to look like that. ^_^

Moving

With less than three weeks left in Maryland, much of my thoughts are turned to my upcoming move. At the very beginning of the summer, I was looking forward to this move. I was going back to Texas the only state that at the time had any worth to me. But over the summer, I have realized how much I love the life I am living here. What changed? I don't even know if I can even name all the things that changed. It was such a gradual change, and i didn't fully realize the extent of my feelings toward this move until I had a chance to stay here.
I thought I had found a way I could afford to stay here. I thought I could work it out at work and manage my finances so that I could afford to rent an apartment on my own and be able to make it here on my own. And though I might could, there is too much unknown. I might could make it here, but I'm not for sure and so I have decided not to risk it.
Therefore, it is back to the original plan. I gave notice at work yesterday. My last day is August 8th. I'm leaving a good job, a church, and friends, especially a few VERY close ones. I can't help think that I am leaving behind me the best few months of my life. I can only hope the best will get better. I have an unexplainable feeling that I am making the right decision, but I am afraid that the next few months will be extremely hard. I am scared of starting school that I have never even set foot on, having to find a job in this tough economy, finding a new church, and making new friends. This has to be the hardest move ever. And I am pretty sure it is because for the first time I have the choice of whether or not to move. Before it has always been that the army has told dad where to go and as a family we followed. Although I do feel like this is the right choice, I guess my main underlying feeling is fear apart from the wish not to leave the people here.

A Note on Work

So I'm just in a really good mood tonight and thought I would try to rub it off to all of my readers. Why the good mood? I'm not really sure. I had to work tonight and it was so amazingly wonderful even though it was so cold. I've been really enjoying my job lately. Like I don't mean to complain about my job in Dallas but I really didn't enjoy it there. The people that you work with makes all the difference. I felt like there was just a general negative attitude with the people that I regularly worked with there. It made me realize what a blessing my job here in Maryland is. It is filled with positive attitudes, respect for your other employees and genuine concern for your coworkers. It is so refreshing after what I was used to. Yes, it was a great experience for me. I'm just glad to get out of it. I hope that by working where I did in Dallas that I always remember to stay positive at work because it adds so much to the environment even if you're doing one of the lowliest of jobs such as bagging fast food :D

2009

Can you believe it is 2009?  I mean really.  We are almost a decade past all the y2k stuff.  I remember very well when everybody was worried about all that and now looking back it's hard to believe it's been nine years since all that junk.  Wow.   In other news.  My new years was spent sick and working...great combination.  It was my parent's 21st anniversary so I do believe they had a nice evening together.  

Lately I have been working a lot and trying to get ready for the spring semester.  I went and registered the local community college for the four classes I am going to take there.  I am taking:

Composition and Literature II

Principles of Nutrition and Lab

Entrepreneurial Science

and Music Composition which will be online.

I was also going to take a Personal Health/Fitness Class and a History Class but I dropped those so I could do the AF ROTC program at UM.  I'm not too upset about the Personal Fitness class, but I am kinda bummed about the history class.  Oh well.  But anyways to register for this AF ROTC program my mom and I drove down to the campus today.  Which by the way is about 45 minutes away.  That will be a fun drive every week.  But anyways we started in admission because I really had no idea where to go.  We didn't think it would be very hard because I only wanted to take one one credit hour class through the intercollege program that Maryland has.  Well, apparently I was wrong.  Very wrong.  So we go down to admissions at about 11:00.   Ask them where to go and how to proceed.  The lady at the front desk (nice enough but totally clueless) didn't really know what to do of course so she goes and talk to somebody and is informed that she needs to talk to a certain gentleman at the college.  Well, she tried calling him but of course he had just left for a meeting.  Go figure.  Well, she said we could start by filling out a transfer application.  And she told me I was going to need an official transcript from Dallas Baptist University.  Well I have an official transcript with me so I didn't think it was going to be a problem.  But when I showed it to her she saw that wasn't in a SEALED envelope and I thought she was going to throw a fit. I thought she had to be joking.  They were going to make me resend off for a new transcript in a sealed envelope so I could take one class and get one hour worth of credit.  Turned out we didn't even need the transcript after all.  But anyways I still had to fill out the transfer application.  Now this is not some short one page application.  This is a 6 page application.  And from the application I thought they were going to need my ACT scores and me to write a 500 word essay.  All for one credit hour.  What really blows is I was already accepted to the community college and so since this is an intercollege program you would think this whole having to do two application thing wouldn't be an issue but apparently it is.  So anyways...they didn't ask for the ACT score, the essay or the $55 application fee (I'm hoping I don't get a notice in the mail that I need to send them $55 dollars, but we'll have to see on that one.  I gave the lady at the front desk the application and then we had to wait while someone that could enter into the system came and got it and then we had to wait while she put it in the computer system.  They call me back up to the desk and tell me I am good to go register for my class.  By this time it is 1:00.  Did I mention that I was supposed to be at work at 3:00?  So we go upstairs to registration.  The lady at that desk looks me up in the system and was like have you taken the college orientation yet.  I was like ummm...no.   She explained well you can't register for classes until you have done the orientation unless you have special permission.  She gave me a phone number to call so that I could either set up a time to do orientation or get permission to skip it.  I call the number and ask if they could give me permission to skip the orientation and they inform me that each department of the college does their own orientation and so I would have to gain permission from the ROTC department before I could register for classes.  I couldn't go to orientation because it was on the 23rd of January and classes at the community college start on the 21st and I have a class at that tine. Well I didn't happen to have the ROTC number on me so we decided to walk to the ROTC office.  It was very windy and cold outside and UM is not a small campus.  Finally, we reached the office and SANITY.  They finally knew what they were talking about.  The lady at the office a Captain Carlsen gave me the name of a lady in the registration office that could help me register for that class.  Turns out that will be my professor as well so I'm thinking her class is going to be great because she seemed like a really nice lady.   But anyways.  It's like 1:30 or a little bit later by this time so we don't have time to walk over to the registration building again.  So we have to go back over there and register for classes.  But hopefully this time it will go a little bit smoother.   Oh, and all the parking at UM costs.  There is no like free visitor parking or anything.   I don't they should make prospective students pay to park at their school.  But that's just my opinion.  But other than that UM is a beautiful campus even in the winter and there are so many huge sport complexes it is insane.  But the whole hassle with nobody in admissions and registration not knowing what in the world they were talking about kinda diluted any aspirations I had of going there as a full-time student.  

We stopped and got Subway on the way home becuase lately I've been on a Subway kick.  By the way if you haven't had the prime rib sandwich from Subway it is amazing.  I recommend it on the Italian Herb and Cheese bread with provolone cheese and whatever vegetables you like.  It's delish!  Lol.

I did make it to work on time and that went well.  Even though it was about an 8-hour shift which usually gets long and boring.  It actually wasn't too bad.  We have about 6 new people that we've hired since I left and so far they all seem like they are pretty good.  The interesting part of work was during closing.  Two guys came to clean some of the parts in the kitchen and they took the parts and put them outside in the drive-thru lane to clean them.  Well, a customer that didn't know we were closed went thru the the drive-thru lane and ran over these long metal parts.  This bent them all up.  And the company that is cleaning them was saying they weren't going to pay for it even though they should have kept the parts in the store and cleaned them there to begin with.  So we had to call the operator and the operator had to talk to the guys.  I don't know what the final resolution was, but I do know that we have to have those parts in full operation before we can run the fryers tomorrow morning at 5:30. Hmmm.....I wonder what will happen.  So when I was walking out to my car I saw the parts still sitting in the drive-thru lane because the guys still hadn't bothered to move them.  And two of the parts were completely bent out of shape and the other one was severly damaged.  So yeah.  And then the guys took some more of the parts out of the kitchen and put them in the drive-thru as well.  It's like really...are you thinking this thru?  Those parts just go ran over and you are going to put more of the parts in the same place.   But anyways I've probably rambled enough for today.   It was a very interesting day to say the least...

Oh and one more thing-there might be a new blog address in the next week or two and I will be sure to post it so stay tuned for that.  

But back to the original post subject-

HAPPY 2009 EVERYBODY!!!!!

Mega Churches and 5-Alarm

So today has been a little on the bold side for me.  I went to a mega-church today, and I had the 5-alarm burger at Red Robin.  Now neither one of those are too extreme, but i'm proud of myself for both of them...lol.  

About the church...

I went to Gateway Church today.  My friend Elizabeth goes there and so I went with her.  She carpools with about 15-30 other people.  Today they had 18 so the rides up there and back are a lot of fun. The church is about 30-45 minutes away from campus so unfortunately it's not that close.  I really liked the church...it was awesome.  Music was awesome.  Sermon was wonderful.  The pastor preaches in biblical, applicable, funny way.  So I loved it.  The only bad part is because we go with so many people.  Whatever the group's plan for lunch is...that's what my plans for lunch are.  They go somewhere after church every sunday and spend about $10 a meal.  Sorry but that's not in my budget.  I could drive myself, but then I'm spending 30-45 minutes worth of gas doubled.  So I don't think I'm going to go there.  However, I will probably go there this coming Sunday because a guy from campus that I know will be playing in the worship band and he invited me to go on Sunday. But anyways, the church has two campuses...they watch a live feed at the other one.  They also broadcast their services online.  Between the two campuses they have 10 weekend services.  They also have 16,000 people.  So this is huge.  They are about to build a whole new main campus too.  And to think that 8 years ago the church started in somebody's living room with 30 people.  God is at work!

5-Alarm Burger-DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!!  We went to Red Robin for lunch after church.  They have so many options for meals there.  It is insane.  There were several things that looked delicious on the menu.  But I finally decided on the 5-Alarm burger. This burger comes with seasoned meat, jalapenos, tomatos, lettuce, chipotle mayo (my new favorite thing EVER), tangy salsa, and pepperjack cheese (another new favorite).  This burger is amazing!!!!!  My mouth was on fire!  And oh my gosh, the fries at Red Robin are amazing.  Especially when you add the Red Robin seasoning to them.  MMM.... And Liz got a oreo shake and she didn't want all of it so she shared with me.  BEST shake I have ever had!!!!  Red Robin=YUM!!!!

But now, unfortunately it's back to the mundane.  Homework and sleep to get ready for the third week of school.  It's going by really fast.   

Oh, and last night I went to a coffeehouse in downtown dallas called Opening Bell with Liz to hear a girl from school sing.  She was amazing. And I got a strawberry smoothie since I absolutely cannot seem to stand the taste of coffee unless it is in a Coffee-caramel milkshake from Chick-fil-a.  So i stuck with my smoothie.  I  loved the atmosphere of the coffee shop.  Unfortunately it itself wasn't in the best area.  We passed a BIG party on the way there and we explored the building a little and almost accidently walked into a bar.  Oopsss....but it was a great night!  However I was trying to take pictures of the Dallas skyline from the parking lot and this guy that worked in the building told me i couldn't and that if anyone caught me they could fine me a lot of money.  There were no signs posted so that was a little frustrated.  I offered to delete them, but he said it would be alright....just to keep it in mind next time.  Then I went to Liz's townhouse and chilled and watched a movie with her.  Fun. Fun. Fun.

The Ups and Downs

Life is full of ups and downs. Sometimes these are found over a period of time such as months, and other times the ups and downs fluctuate within a period of hours or minutes. Today was a perfect example of the latter. I worked until 4 today. And no offense to any Chick-Fil-A people who are reading this. But it was kind of a tough day at work. I got a promotion, and today was the first official day as team leader. And so I am trying to learn all my new responsibilities. And I think there are some people who are not willing to wait while I learn. But anyways. My mom came in to eat around 3:30. She asked how I was doing and I pretty much summed up the day by saying I was hot, tired, and frustrated. All that would soon change though.

The next person that came to my register was my best friend who lives in Germany. I have not seen this girl in 5 years. Needless to say I was excited. After I finally got over the shock, I wanted to shout. But since I was working the front line that was kind of out of the question since we are supposed to keep our composure at all times. So Karis I am so sorry I did not seem as surprised as I was inside. I am so glad you are here!

I could not wait until 4:00 to come! I had known she was coming but she was not supposed to come until the 3rd or so I thought. She flew over early and her family will be her the 3rd. She came to see me graduate!!!! This means more to me than I can say. So tomorrow we are going to go to IKEA and Washington DC. Not really sure what we are going to do there, but whatever it is it will be fun. And then we leave for Pennsylvania to get ready for graduation. So yeah, the day sure had a turn around. And it was definitely for the better!!!!

A Glimpse into a Chick-Fil-A Day

I worked today from 11:30 to 4:00.  Now Fridays at Chick-Fil-A are normally busy.  But today was especially busy.  Not really sure why either.  Both the front line and the drive through were slammed during lunch rush.  

Sometimes on Fridays during lunch hour we implement what we call the Drive-Thru play. Instead of giving your orders to a person through the speaker box.  You would instead give your order to a individual outside who can also allow you to pay outside if you are paying with a credit card.  This is an attempt to improve guest satisfaction, speed, and provide face-to-face interaction.  Most of the guests really enjoy this when we do it.  The problem is this makes working in the drive-thru even more intense because of the fast pace.  But back to the story.....

I got to work and like the minute I got there I was placed on drinks.  The person that was doing this job already was needed elsewhere in the drive-thru.  Replacing someone on drinks can sometimes be difficult.  It is sometimes hard to tell what drinks they have gotten and what drinks need to be made.  So after learning my place, everything went relatively smoothly.  Until around 1:00.  Around 1:00 the lunch rush starts to slow done for about half an hour or so.  This made the person outside taking orders a little bit ready to come in especially because of the heat.  So I switched places with her.  Taking orders outside, although it is hot, has got to be my favorite job at chick-fil-a. You get a fast-paced job, but still have face-to-face interaction.  So anyways I did that for about an hour, and then we reverted back to old methods and used the speaker box again to take orders since the rush was now winding down.  When I got inside,  my next job was already lined up for me.  I was pretty much put in charge of a birthday party.  I had never done this before so it made me a little bit nervous.  But it went fine.  I was t

he person who got all the food for the kids,  got them ice cream, helped to clean up the tables, got their drinks, and helped with the "cow" appearance.  A Chick-fil-a birthday party last up to 2 hours.  So although I was scheduled til 3.  I was asked to stay til 4 to finish up the birthday party.  But anyways. The kids had a great time and really enjoyed the cow and none of them were scared of it like they normally are.  By the time the birthday finished up and it nearing 4:00, I was ready to go home.

So a brief summary of the day,

I got to do some things that I don't normally do which provides a little variation from day-to-day.  Also, it was a hectic day, but it was for the most part a controlled chaos.    For some reason, I like the controlled-chaos days.   

So anyways.  That was my day.  Probably more details than you ever wanted to know.