For The First Time

this past friday, for the first time, i volunteered at children's medical center. i was with a group from the art institute of dallas, which i'm an alumni of. the art institute of dallas has started a new program is which students, facility, and alumni can participate in a monthly art project in which those who volunteer go and work with the children on arts and craft projects. the projects are largely theme based. so for november we helped the kids with thanksgiving art projects. i'm told the number of kids varies greatly because of many different variables. such as time of day, the schedule of procedures for a child, or the child's mood and energy level. previously we were told that children are more active in the mornings. i guess friday wasn't typical because we only had 6 children for 6 volunteers. never-the-less it was a lot of fun helping the kids make hand turkeys and place mats for thanksgiving. i too made a hand turkey.

saturday, for the first time, i was THE photographer at a wedding. i must say that i was nervous at first and i didn't totally know what i was doing, but i had a lot of fun and i believe everything turned out well. especially when i consider this was my first ever wedding to shoot. i'll be posting some of the wedding photos on my photo blog over the next couple of weeks. the only disappointment for me was my camera. though it is a nice camera. there were a few shots that would have been great if the picture wasn't blurry.

on saturday i also carved my first turkey. i attended a thanksgiving party at a friend's house and evidently no one knew how to carve a turkey. a group of ladies in the kitchen came up with the idea that carving a turkey sounded like a "jlay job". i don't know exactly why they thought it was a jlay job? maybe it is because it involved a big knife? either way it was evidently a job for me. while i was standing on the back patio drinking a beer i heard the hostess call out my name from the kitchen. i proceed to make my way to the kitchen where i'm asked if i can carve a turkey. i quickly thought to myself, "i've seen my dad carve a few turkeys. how hard can it be". at this point i agreed to carve the turkey. i took off my nice shirt (leaving me in my white undershirt), put on an apron, and proceeded to carve the turkey. i started by tearing the legs and wings off the bird. after that i sliced the meat off the bird and placed it on a platter. while i'm doing this a couple of people commented on how great of a job i was doing. at which time i proceed to let that cat out of the bag. that being that i've never carved a turkey before in my life. i've only seen my dad do it a couple of times. which made my turkey carving abilities even more impressive. what can i say...it isn't rocket science.

Naturally Baked?

like a lot of days, i brought a sandwich for lunch. lately i've been eating chips out of the company stash as opposed to my usual triskets. today while opening a bag of baked doritos i noticed that the bag states that the chips are "naturally baked"; as opposed to un-naturally baked? to say that the chips are naturally baked implies that there is/are un-natural ways to bake chips. i asked a co-worker what un-natural way she could think of to bake chips and she replied, "blow-torched?" i have to give her creative credit on that answer because that is un-natural in my book. even more important, i want to know what method of baking chips is natural. the only one i can think of is sun baked, and i promise these "naturally baked" chips aren't sun baked. i asked wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, what naturally baked is and it had no answer. so, fritolay, how do you naturally bake a chip?

Busy Life

over the past six weeks my life has become quite busy. in a post in september i mentioned that i was going to experience some explosive change in my life, and i've made a point to make that happen. which is why i've become quite busy over the past six weeks. around the first of september i made the decision to quit approaching my part-time financial services career lackadaisically, and i've stuck to that plan for almost 10 weeks now. it is my goal to be a full time financial consultant by january 1, 2008. i'm really tired of working a job that doesn't hold any guarantee for the future and whose pay is based upon the position and not the person. if i achieve my goal i plan on rewarding myself with a new car; specifically the new dodge challenger.



i've also made a point to increase my volunteer activities. since august i've added habitat for humanity, children's medical center of dallas, and one.org to my charitable activities. which before the additions there was only one activity, and that is the well community, which i'm still involved with.

besides these changes, more are coming. i'm happy with my life, but i'm not content with it. a wise man told me that we will all feel pain in life. you can't always choose whether or not you will feel the pain, but sometimes you can choose what kind of pain you feel. two of the pains in life are the pain of change and the pain of regret. both can bring equally matched pain, but only one will bring positive results. it hurts to step out of your comfort zone. it hurts to choose whether or not to keep someone in your immediate circle of friends. it hurts to work late and sacrifice time that could be spent with friends for the benefit of you and your family’s future. it hurts to remove luxuries that you are use to having in order to prepare for the future, but with the pain of change you can have either positive or negative results. the pain of regret only gives one result; a negative one.

My Little Toe

last night i stubbed my little toe on the corner of my bed so hard that i cut a big gash in it, and blood came pouring out. i had to stay up an extra half-hour last night just to make sure that it had stopped bleeding. who needs blood all over their bed sheets? amazingly enough it doesn't hurt today. never-the-less it is wrapped up with a bandage and sports tape to protect it as the large piece of floppy skin heals back to my toe, TMI i'm sure.

Milestone

okay, so i have set a record. since i started blogging i have never gone this long without blogging. i've had stuff to write about and i've thought to myself..."i should blog about this", but i just haven't had time or made it a priority.

anyway, tonight while playing softball i hit a true homerun. one that actually went over the fence. i've hit many homeruns in my softball career, but never one over the fence. part of that could be because the dallas league i played in didn't really have fences. the league in farmers branch that i play in now has nice fields with fences and i now know that i have the ability to hit a dinger. i must say it felt really good. heck, it is the first time i hit a homerun in a game since i was this big....

this is me when i was 11 years old