I just looked at what I'd written about over the last few weeks and realized I had missed a few things along the way that I wanted to write about. I'm going to use this post as a general clean-up on the events of the last couple weeks and hopefully be able to get a fresh start in the days ahead. Jim and Marilyn (Amy's folks) have dial up and I felt like I was monopolizing time on the computer and phone line, so I started doing only "mission critical" things like job searches and email and had to leave the blog alone for a few days. They just got a second phone line dedicated for the computer, so I should be a little freer in posting things in the days ahead.
On the job front...
Had the two interviews yesterday and applied for two more jobs today. One was for an "Executive Search Consultant" and the other was for a library assistant position at Augustana College. Add that to the Citibank and art gallery interviews from yesterday and I think I'm showing a willingness to be pretty broad in the scope of what I am willing to consider for employment. The only one that I really have little to no interest in now is the Citi job. Just didn't feel like a good fit for me at a company that is more obsessed with money than people.
On the home front...
It looks like we'll be back in Indiana from about the 17th through the end of camp on the 30th, but we'll be without the kids. We couldn't take them to camp with us and the thought of having to drive back midway through those few weeks to take the kids back seemed like more stress on them and us than it was worth. It should give us a chance to be around Hanfield for a few Sundays, so we'll look forward to reconnecting with some friends.
We did finally have a musical outlet last weekend. Casey, Amy's brother, is a part of a great church in Mitchell, SD that was having an outdoor event that he was organizing music for. He invited us to do about 20-25 minutes worth of music and then we sat in with the band from the church for another 12 songs or so with me on guitar and Amy doing some vocals. Casey is a solid guitar player/singer and they had invited a guy that used to go to their church who is now living in Omaha who was a great guitar player as well. My job was to listen to what they were doing and try to figure out where I could color around the edges and support what they did. I got to do a fair amount of ebow, tremolo, effect-heavy color stuff and had a good time with it. It was a little over 90 degrees on a metal flatbed trailer, sunny and about 25-30 mph winds. It presented a few challenges and was not the most comfortable setting to play in. There were times we felt like we were in a sandstorm with the wind whipping through the gravel parking lot at the site that they are renovating for their new building. They hope to be in the building in October and it was somewhat reminiscent of the building at Hanfield circa 1998.
The first lady did about four or five songs all of very different styles with recorded accompaniment. The second girl did one Jaci Velasquez song with piano accompaniment. We did five songs including "Famous One", "Who Am I?" (which I wrote a couple of years ago but seems more appropriate to my life now than it did then), "Breathe On Me Now" by Kathryn Scott, "Come Thou Fount" and "I Will Not Forget You" from the first "Enter the Worship Circle" CD with Waterdeep and 100 Portraits. The big band followed with a slew of songs from artists like Casting Crowns, The Newsboys and Shane & Shane as well as a few originals from Casey and Dave (the other guitar player). Things went really pretty well with the exception of one power outage that held things up for about ten minutes. I felt like our set was received well (especially considering we were the only ones that don't go to that church) and we really were glad to have the chance to do something musical after being out of action for about three weeks. I told Casey we'd have to look for an excuse to do some more together.
The best thing about the trip to Mitchell, though, was seeing Casey's family. We hadn't seen them since Christmas and had fun seeing the changes in the kids. The last time we had seen Chase (born last fall), he was just a lump who didn't do much and whose expression didn't change much. He was crawling, expressive and just fun to be around. Rylie, their daughter who is three, is just about the cutest child God ever placed on the earth. I did my best to keep her off balance and had fun playing with both kids. I had been thinking about how nice it was going to be for everybody to get to see our kids more often, but I hadn't considered how much I was going to enjoy seeing Casey's and my sister Rena's kids more often.
Otherwise, my time has been spent on the computer looking for jobs, on the bike or in the hot tub (one of the perks of living here). I accidentally went for an 87 mile ride the other day. I had mapped out a route that I thought would be around 70 and discovered it was a bit more once I was too far to turn back. It was around 90 degrees that day and I came back tired and with a little bit of heat rash from the bike shorts on my legs where the elastic was. What I love about riding around here is the view (the Missouri River and lake area above the dam), the hills and the fact that it is different than what I'm used to riding. What I don't care for is the wind which is usually pretty stiff and the road construction which is eating up the main roadway right outside the park entrance where Jim and Marilyn live. No matter which way I ride I have to contend with construction somewhere which can make for some dangerous riding. Oh well. If that's the price I have to pay for the view and the hills, I'll do it.
Life is good on the river and will be even better with employment and the sale and purchase of homes. Hopefully it won't take too long.
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