Special Orders

Let’s be honest… having something special-ordered is quite a process. And there are many hands that must touch the specially made item between the placed order and the received item. And there’s something significantly awesome about having something that nobody else has. But when many hands must touch something, there are many chances for error. Sadly, every once in a while, an error shows up. And then blood boils. See… here’s the problem. When many hands have touched something, it’s really easy to hide finger prints. If ten people have had to work on a special order item and one of those people didn’t get their morning nap, they could’ve dozed off while that item went down their assembly line station. But once the item has been sent to its new order, that napping worker is in the clear. And you know who gets all of the fire & brimstone from the owner of the not-exactly-right item? Not the sleepy employee. No, it’s customer service. Customer service ends up taking the blame and apologizing for most all problems and the drowsy lineman just puts his feet up and lets the products just slide on by.

I don’t know why I write about this aside from this fact… Customer service must be a ridiculous job. Telling people you’re sorry for things you didn’t do or even understand. Having to give discounts and refunds and return shipping for stuff that lazy Susan in the factory has let slip. Not for me. No thanks.

Ah, technology.

I’m sitting at a fast food place that boasts free wifi to customers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone really take advantage of it… But I am today. Not with a computer, mind you, but with my cell phone. I think wifi at any fast food place is a little weird… Greasy fingers and non-USDA beef mixed with computer keys is a pretty bad mix. Which is why I’ve opted for greasy fingers on a small piece of glass that also touches my face regularly.

In five minutes, I’ll be the only person without a red & yellow uniform. Maybe I should go to that produce shop at the mall that decorates in stainless steele. Afterall… I’ve got an apointment there in an hour.

So I’m Not Supposed To Do This Anymore?

The paper said last week that multi-tasking is a really bad thing. There was a study released that showed the terrible side effects of doing multiple things at once. Well, after reading the article, putting the cell phone down and stopping the movie I was watching, I spent the rest of the day trying to stick to one task at a time. It didn’t go well.

My First Job of the day allows me to do many things from the comfort of my own chair. I can watch tv, talk, text, surf the web, drink some coffee and laugh with a good buddy… all at the same time. And I do all of those things regularly. Very regularly. In fact, if it weren’t for the time I spend at First Job, I wouldn’t have much of a blog. So hearing that I’m hurting my brain by multitasking really doesn’t do good things for my production levels. I’m really gonna have to work on that.

24 Hours

Within twenty four hours, I’ll have traveled 150 miles with a truck & trailer to pack up my MMGFF’s* world, drive it back the 150 miles, unload it and put it in her new living space.  After months and months of searching for jobs, apartments, furniture and miscellaneous household goods, things are starting to get exciting.  I’m sure that at some point tomorrow I’ll be less excited and more sore and tired and ready to quit, but for now, i’m just happy that things are working out.  Speaking of working out, it’s time to go to my discount gym.

* Magical Mystery** Girl Friend Forever

** From The Beatles album, Magical Mystery Tour, which was pretty darn good. Not magical/mysterious*** so much, but an icon of unadulterated creativity and musical genius.

*** Harry Potter sucks.

Things I’ve Never Thought Of Til Now…

I’ve been ’shopping’ for discount furniture this week.  Not for me, exactly.  I’m looking to find great deals on cheap furniture for my GFF, Jeannette.  See, the thing is… she’s moving close by.  And she doesn’t have an apartment’s worth of furniture.  So I’m doing what I can to help her have places to sit & hang out.

It’s strange what I’ve never noticed about furniture before now.  I’ve never realized that furniture sometimes smells bad when you plop down on it.  And if it’s older, it has dust plumes along with the smell.  And some furniture leaves parts of itself on you when you get up.  Cushions are sometimes full of pillow guts and sometimes they have frames and springs and old bones in them.  Strange what I’ve never had to know about used furniture until now.  But learning is great.  Some might say that it’s half the battle.

Amazing how sometimes God sometimes lets us get through parts of scripture a thousand times with one application, but then for whatever reason He sees fit, the next time a totally new and other application comes out.  That’s gotta be how the scripture is living & active.  And probably part of how we see the Holy Spirit at work.  Glad I’m buying furniture & learning so much about it.  Guess that’ll allow me to testify about the work that Broyhill & Posture-pedic have done in my life one day.

So Many Things…

Jugglers must have their shtuff together.  Being able to keep track of all of the objects in the air and knowing when to grab which object… I don’t think I’d be able to keep that stuff going.  I’d surely drop something.  The tennis balls or flaming chainsaws or small dogs with swords.

I’m pretty sure juggling is a metaphor.  Or a simile.  Or maybe just an illustration.  I’m not exactly sure how a metaphor is like a simile, but they’re both illustrations somehow.  Either way, the juggling is my life these days.  Between two jobs, a daily commute, a relationship, friends, family, summer camps, a few minutes at the gym and trying to keep some sort of spiritual life, I’ve started letting a few things slip.  And I’m starting to feel the slip more than I have before.

How is it that people can do this?  I think I’ve missed something.  Somehow others are able to juggle their lives.  And somehow others are able to make their lives spin without dropping anything.  But maybe it’s less that others are able to juggle and more that I haven’t figured out how to fake it.  And maybe I’m trying to give each ball 100% of my attention instead of giving less time to less important things.  So maybe the issue is priorities rather than juggling.

I think it’s time for a priority check for me.  And possibly a day off.

Kickin it Old School…

I’ve got a birthday party for a 4 year old on Saturday. The gift process is strange for a person of that age. Never quite sure what a young kid would like… rarely clothes, but costumes are great. Never books, but leappad (whatever the stink that is) is wonderful. At any rate, I’ve come up with a solution. Vintage toys. The things that shaped my childhood are now turning into the things that will & are shaping this four year old. Amazing. Well, she won’t have to dig through a dumpster to get her vintage stuff. Sadly, I did enough of that for the both of us.

All Is Well

It’s been a quick three days.  I’ve gone to the beach, swam in a canadian pool a few times (at night, when nobody knew), had 8 meals & 5 snacks with 30 teenagers, had a good chat with my canadian mother, and even got to sit by the fire a couple times.  All in all, it’s been a great few days.  The down side so far is only this… the rain hasn’t really let up much.  Sunday started with a torrential downpour.  By torrential, I mean that shingles were literally floating down the streams to the sides of dirt paths.  Where there used to be grass is now pond.  The Sunday waters are starting to retreat, but this morning I woke up to amazingly loud, bed-rattling thunder and a pretty heavy rain.  After driving into town for a box of Tim Horton’s best for the staff, the rain had stopped and left behind only a really thick fog of humidity.  And by humidity, i mean that it’s humid.  (Your line here would be “How humid is it?” to which I would reply)… It’s so humid, my beard & arm hair are curling.  I can see my own breath & it’s 80 degrees.  The camp pool is panting.  It’s humid.

Aside from weather and Tim Horton’s, things are going very well.  On Sunday night, I gave a talk & the teens seemed to respond pretty well, but were somewhat apprehensive because we were still trying to figure each other out.  Monday night, three teens stood up and made some sort of spiritual commitment, which we were all pretty excited about.  Last night, after a slightly shorter talk around the campfire, I broke the group up into their cabins and had them discuss.  As I walked around the little village of cabins, I heard some really great conversation (both about the message, about boys, about the food at camp…) and was pretty encouraged to hear that they’ve been soaking in the stuff I’ve said so far.  Tonight will be another commitment talk & God will be faithful.  Hope your week is going well!

And They Keep On Changing

I’m at a camp this week.  I’ve been here at least a dozen times, but things have started truly changing.  Where I used to have to drink only bottled water and shower with bleach water, now they have true plumbing and running water in many of their cabins.  There are also people that work here now, whereas before, they had an old volunteer security guard that slept the days away.  There’s talk of paving roads, building a real facility to house teens & kids and even getting rid of the glass-shard gravel playground.  Boy, time flies!

It’s been a strange start to the week, but now that things are starting to roll, I feel great about it.  With wifi in the office, I think this may actually turn out to be a great week.  I covet your prayers.  Need anything from Canada, our great neighbor to the north?

That Bob Really Is A Prophet…

The times, they really are a’changin.  Not just the interest/inflation rates, mortgages, the cost of coke and the length of unemployment lines.  Here’s how things are changing around these parts.  My GFF is moving from Holland, MI to Jackson, MI because of a long string of “coincidences.”  Which means I’m seriously trying to make sure things are smooth & easy for her.  Obviously Holland is a wonderful & beautiful place where wooden shoes, sandy hills and kind dutch live, but Jackson has … well, Jackson has a job & it has me, her BFF.  So the next few months are going to be awesome and terrifying.  Join us, won’t you?