I'm from Dixie!

Well, over the course of the past two days, I've made over 400 phone calls helping people to deal with their glea of getting to see Alan Alda up close or the disappointment of having to sit in an adjoining theater in overflow. I can't wait until I get to tell people that they can't even come to the JFK Library for "A Conversation with Alan Alda," which is the event. I've been asked to come back for tomorrow because the job hasn't been completed and there are still bunches of people to call. By the end of today, I was starting to lose my voice. I tried at one point to go into my "broadcast" register and, put bluntly, failed. It was rather discouraging. I have thought about calling some of you and leaving my speal but I didn't think that would be appropriate.

But you're all dying to know why I am from Dixie. I called a woman today who picked up and said that she didn't have much time to talk. Well, it turns out that she did. Towards the end of me answering her questions about the event, she quickly asked, "Are you from the South?" I replied, "No. I'm from the Midwest."

"Ohhh. That was my second guess."

Over the next five minutes (which seemed like a long time since my conversations up to that point had all probably been less than one minute long and focused on business), the woman explained to me that she very much enjoyed accents and dialects. She had served as a receptionist at one point where she greeted international travelers and enjoyed trying to pronounce their names correctly. She was very confident of her talent, which I don't doubt that she has, as many of these people were glad to have had their name pronounced correctly by a dumb American. I also found out that she would ask these travelers to leave behind alphabets for their language so she could be better prepared for the next time. At least, that's what I got out of it. Anyway, this kept going on and on, with it being very interesting, but I wondered how did this woman suddenly become graced with plenty of time that she didn't have before? She then told me she was getting a new frig and was moving things around for it to be delivered. She was very concerned about the delivery men hitting anything, especially things on a window sill. Some folks interpretation of not having time is sometimes mind boggling.

So, who knew I would be learning so much about one person from one little phone call to a stranger! Back to it tomorrow.

Hi, you've won!

The first day on the job at JFK Library went fairly well. I spent the majority of today jotting down info from voicemails of people calling in reservations for upcoming events this fall at the library. Some people can really just rattle off their phone number...incredibly quick. The last part of the day I then took the compiled list which had been scrambled and started at the top telling people that they had been selected to come to an event featuring Alan Alda (M.A.S.H. and PBS star). Responses ranged from ho hum to very excited. People had known they only had a chance at getting in for this forum. I continue the calling tomorrow working with winning reservations for about 200 more calls, then moving on to overflow people and finally finishing with "losers". The manager and myself are responsible for calling each and every one of these people who requested tickets to the event, telling them the news, and sending off the tickets to the winners. That's what the next two days will be like.

The library is in a very nice spot. It's right on a point facing a part of the Boston Harbor with lush grass and weeping willows around the outside. The building was designed with the corner facing the water being made entirely of glass and the offices inside the building are set up to look out of that. That allows for a nice view at least. Here is a picture of the huge flag that hangs by the windows looking out to sea.

Picture notes: the pipes you see are framing of some sort on the inside of the glass. I assume it is some type of steel. Down on the grass you can see JFK's sailboat. Click on the picture for an enlarged view.

In case you're interested

Found this today on Apple's trailer site. Just no one tell Scott Metzger, ok?

Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Movie Trailer

Job Search Update

Two-and-a-half months into my job search here in Boston, I am finally starting to break through a bit and get a little work here and there. Last week, I finished up a stretch of working for Blackwell Publishing for two weeks. They simply ran out of work for me so they let me go. I wasn't terribly heart broken but it was nice to get a paycheck for that time. Last Friday, I interviewed for a photography/videography position at Draper Laboratory where Mrs. Wright works and where Violet has interned in the summers. The man that I interviewed with liked the photos and videos that I showed him. At the end of the interview, he said my stuff looked promising. They are interviewing a few more applicants this week and then I should hear back from them. In the meantime, I was able to find three days of work for this week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). I'll be at JFK Library in South Boston calling people to tell them whether or not they were able to get tickets for an event that is coming up. Essentially, I get to make or break people's days. I'm glad that this worked out so that I'm not just sitting around the house waiting to hear back from Draper. You can continue to pray that God would grant me the Draper job as it seems like it would be an enjoyable position and would provide stableness with it being a permanent position.

Billary

The last two posts here have featured material that Harold Milligan of Hebron RPC in Clay Center passed on to me while I was at K-State. He told me not to use this photo in school while I was student teaching. He didn't think it would go over very well with people. I don't know. It's very well done...

Lots of C's

This is a clip from Johnny Carson's days about a Clapper Caper. Enjoy. I did.

A Draper Project

I didn't have much video of my own going into my interview with Draper this morning so I decided to make one. I ended up making an instructional video on Wiffle ball pitching. It is based on my pitching style so for you hard-core players, the pitches may look different than yours. Also, I had to shoot all of the video with the Wright family digital point-and-shoot camera so the video is not of the greatest quality. Anyway - I hope you enjoy.

El primero

I had nothing else to do this afternoon after going to an interview this morning at Draper Laboratory, so I decided to start a blog. I must admit that this is a bit of a copy cat of Esther's. In my defense, there really aren't that many choices of how to do things on here.

I guess there could be a bit to actually update you all on. Last Saturday, a group of us held a going-off party of sorts for Brian before he headed off to Geneva. We started out the group fun by playing soccer. However, the fun started long before then. About three hours to be exact. Brian pulled out his soccer/futbol jerseys and we all decided we just had to wear them to play. The following are the results of such craziness.





Sportin' the fauxhawks. Brian didn't have much confidence in mine - that quickly changed.


Sylvia unfortunately was stuck taking the photos. She ended up sporting a pretty kickin' England kit. In the end, we all got laughed at.