A Guide To Marine Life

The weekend at Searcy turned out to be quite a bit better than I had thought it would be. I had an enjoyable time, even though I didn't really play all that much frisbee. I got to see Doc, which hadn't happened for a while, and also see his two daughters (he didn't have any when I left). He was doing well, and he's going to be moving soon. Crazy stuff. I spent Saturday playing on and off with a team from Little Rock that Jordan and Brett play on, and in between watched Mandi play with the girls team, and got myself a haircut so that I can look professional when I (hopefully) go in for an interview or two in the coming days. Sunday was spent watching and talking with people for the most part...at least until one of the torrential downpours that Arkansas is known for decided to hit Searcy. Now, on it's own that wouldn't have been all that bad, but once we started on our way home, it decided to follow us. So for 9 hours, we drove through pouring rain. I think it had to be one of my worst weather condition drives home from Searcy in all of the times that I've made that trip. In the future, when attempting long trips, check the weather, and if it's possible to not be driving in a hurricane by leaving a little earlier...make sure you do that. But we made it home, even with all the rain, and were certainly glad that we had made the trip out there.

On the job front, I've talked today with the guy from AGT in one of those initial phone-screenings, so hopefully once he's talked with a few other people they'll decide to bring me in for an interview at their company. I'm cautiously optimistic on at least getting that far. I'm still waiting to hear back from Aerotek regarding the position that they've submitted me for. Given the lady's stringent policy on what she's looking for, I'm not as hopeful for that one...but you never know what will happen. At some point, everyone has to hire for the positions that they need. I'm just hoping one of those will end up being me.

Today it kind of clicked in to being Christmas. My dad and I put the lights up on our tree, which I always enjoy looking at when it's dark outside and seeing the lights on in the living room. It's cool, just going through that each year, and having this massive temporary decoration in the middle of the house. I'm sure if I googled or wikipedied the origins of putting up trees at Christmas I'd learn something new. It's neat though, to look back through the trees that we have put up. There have been smaller ones, bigger ones, some bizarre shaped ones, but they've all looked nice by the time they're all decorated. And of course, there are always the favorite ornaments that you always look for once you've got them all put up. At my grandparents house, it was always a game when they first put the tree up to go and look for the ornaments that played music. They had 3 specific ones that all played songs when you pulled the strings, and we'd come in and immediately go and look for them, and not do anything else until we found them. In fact...I still do that. At our house, there was a bizarre light on one of the strands that we'd hunt for. It really looked like an ice cream cone covered in sprinkles almost. And then there was a musical one hidden away somewhere.

There is also the requisite Christmas music. I've always liked the Little Drummer Boy, Do You Hear What I Hear, and of course, the 12 Days of Christmas. I'll put up the Relient K version in a while when we get closer to actual Christmas time. Christmas also signaled the year-end Christmas Recital for piano, where we'd play some songs for our parents and any other students parents. There was usually some standard classical fare, and then some fun Christmas stuff mixed in with some sing-along material. I generally liked this recital the best out of the yearly ones, I guess just because it was more laid back and mostly about having fun rather than putting on a good performance. And besides, how can you be nervous when you're thinking about having a holiday, and presents, and food? I think pretty soon I'm going to have to go find our Christmas music books and bust out some songs.

But here it begins, the countdown to yet another year. The theme for the rest of my posts this year will probably be recollections from the past year. And Mandi, no comments about my inability to remember things.