travel

We'll, statistically if you travel as much as I do, it's bound to happen. My trip home from Maryland as recalled from my mind:

So I was sitting around watching the rep from the other company goof around and muck the traffic system up and decided it was time for me to leave and head for the airport. It was 3pm in Maryland and my flight was to depart around 7. Knowing ahead of time that the interstates in DC heading towards Reagan International are HORRIBLE for signage I wanted to give myself plenty of time. My rental car, a very fast Pontiac Grand Prix, I got and bought the prepaid gas so the goal is to bring this baby back on fumes. So I start heading south towards DC and hit the outer DC beltway, 495. As expected... bumper to bumper with a top speed of 10 mph, but mostly stop and go. As I'm sitting in traffic, I'm trying to make heads or tails of the map provided to me from the rental company. Now I'm no idiot, and every other airport I've ever flown into provides a map that has ample detail so navigation of the city is easy. Not the case in DC. The green lines from the different freeways are so jumbled and so close together the author decided to leave off highway labels. For a great example, I suggest you pull up Mapquest.com and locate DC. Now your zoom level should be the 5th bar from the top. Walla... my map. The airport is located under the "110". So anyways, I'm on the beltway looking for 295 south figuring once I get there I should see a sign for the airport, and if not look for 395 since my best guess says it might touch 295. I finally get to the 295 exit and head south. The traffic suddenly opens up and now I'm making GREAT time. I'm heading south and see the highway 50 exit feel like I'm getting close. The next thing I know I'm at mile marker 4 and traffic suddenly slows to a crawl. A half mile later I see an overhead sign says "4 miles to 494/94". CRAP. Not knowing where I am on the map and not seeing any signs saying airport this way or 395 this way I figure they must still be ahead. I go 2 more miles and still see nothing. It's now 4:30 and my gas gauge is on E. I decide that I need to turn around and head back north on 295 and I need to go west. However my low gas is starting to become a serious concern. So I exit 295 south at mile marker 1 and get back on (and traffic is free flowing, rah!). At mile marker 3 I exit and head east in search of gas. As so as I get on the road heading east I know I may have made a mistake. The speed limit is 45 and I'm going 2. Crap. I decide to get on the horn with my cousin and hope he's near a computer and can get me directions. I give him a call and as luck would have it has Internet access where he is! I finally get turned back around and head back to the freeway and get back on heading north. The next exit off 295... 395! Sweet! However, as I was merging onto 395 I noticed that there is NO exit from 295 S to 395! So Brian navigates me to the airport and I arrive at 5pm with the gas gauge well below E.

So I get my boarding pass for wonderful ATA and sit in at the gate. Boarding time comes around 6:30 and I get on the plane. The flight is nice and we land at Midway on time and I head for my new departure gate. After sitting for 30 minutes I board the plane at 7:30. We sit at the gate for what seems to be an unusual amount of time but finally pull away at 8 and sit. About 8:15 we finally begin moving towards the runway and get into the line for departure. We then pull out of the line and sit, again. It's now 8:45 and we are still on the ground! What the heck is going on?! So the captain finally comes over the P.A. and says, "there is a VERY large weather system in WI that we won't be able to get over. We are going to have to re-route to Green Bay and then head west of Duluth and down to Minneapolis. However, we're not sure if we have enough gas to make that flight so we're doing some calculations. Sorry about the delay, but we should know shortly." Great. So another 15 minutes goes by and he comes back on, "Sorry folks, we're going to need to head back to the gate and get some more fuel". Well, what can you do. So we head back and sit back at the gate for another 15 minutes. The captain then comes over the P.A. and says, "Sorry folks. We came back to get gas and in doing the preflight inspection again we have found a tube (some kind of drain tube for deicing) that is broken off on the underside of the fuselage. Unfortunately that means we can't fly this plane. Everyone is going to have to deplane and head to gate A12 since we have a spare plane there. GREAT. So everyone grumbles and we get up and get into the gate area. It's now 10:10. The lady at the gate (B 26... the LAST gate in this concourse!) says over the PA, "if everyone will please head to gate A12, we can get you home as soon as possible, thanks." No, thank you lady. So like cattle, we head down the B concourse and make the turn onto A. I'm one of the first people to get to the gate and grab a seat close to the boarding door. After another 30 minute wait the lady at the gate announces, "Sorry ladies and gentleman, but the seating assignment on this flight is different than the seating assignment on the other plane, so seating will be first come, first serve." Talk about a MAD DASH! EVERYONE grabs their stuff and sprints for the gate. Being close I made it towards the front of the line and got into row 8. So the plane finally fills up and we sit... and sit... and sit as they load baggage, go through preflight, fuel up, and run the food service. It's now 11pm, the time I was supposed to arrive in MSP and I'm still at a gate in Chicago. We finally pull away and get on our way. We land at 12:30 and I got home at just after 1:15am. Wow, what a long trip. Hopefully I don't ever have to go through that mess again...

still here

I'm still here in Maryland. 2 days of work and the other company I'm here with haven't solved a single problem. My faith in these guys is dwindling fast. As I speak, I am waiting in my hotel room for him to call me. If I don't hear from him in a few minutes, I'm calling him. I'm so bored running from work site to work site on the side of the freeway. Nothing for me to do but watch his product break over and over. What a disappointment. The good news is I fly out today at 6pm... just in time to get home by 11 and have another "Friday off" go wasted. If things were going normal, I get every other Friday off since I work 9 hour days. However, things have been so busy of late that I haven't had a Friday off in almost 2 months. 2 weeks ago I put in a 86 hour week!! Good thing I get overti.... oh wait. I'm salary. Crap.

back to it

So here I am, once again... in wonderful Maryland. The reason, the company we are partnering with are boobs. The short of it is, I'm out here to baby-sit. Anyways, now onto the real reason I was going to post. Basically, it's amazing that every time I put faith in God he comes through. So today I was out to dinner at a Lone Star steak house. I had some king crab, salmon and shrimp and the waiter was maybe the best I've ever had. Anyways, so there was this small family on the other side of the half wall, father, mother, and a baby. So dinner is going great until the infant started crying (I'm not sure of the age since I couldn't see it). I thought to myself that maybe I should pray that God can help this baby. Nah, I'll wait it out. So I waited... and waited.... and waited. A minute or two goes by and I say what the heck. I said a little prayer and what do you know. The little one became quiet within seconds of me saying "amen". God's power is amazing and it's getting more obvious how His miracles go unseen by people everyday. They are so simple and in plain sight.

soccer

I used to play soccer for years. Back in the day as a youth, I was on a couple of teams that qualified for national tournaments. Unfortunately, we never decided to travel to the games so I never got to play on a national level. After youth soccer I played high school. I ended up lettering my senior year, even though I never actually played in one single varsity game. They gave me the letter for playing JV for 3 years, wonderful eh? After high school I went to college and played fairly sparingly for a couple of years, but after my soccer friends graduated, my soccer playing stopped all together (in 1998). After graduation in 2000, I got invited onto a team with a friend from college in 2002. Since that time, I've been playing spring, summer, fall, and winter. Its weird though... back in college, high school and youth soccer I always played defense. I was a solid defender, with my biggest asset being my speed. Since I always played D, goal scoring was rare... and if I scored 2 goals in a season I was an all-star! Since college and playing on a few different teams, I've continued to play D, but occasionally taking the ball up or even switching with people to play forward. The result? Well, tonight we played and one, 3-1. I had two of our goals (and I forgot to bring my soccer shoes so I played in my tennis shoes!!). It's weird being called a goal scorer from my teammates since I have such little playing time playing up front and not so few offensive moves. In the past two years, I think I may have scored in or assisted in almost every game which had factored into 60-75% of the teams offensive production. Now I'm not trying to brag, rather, I’m just sharing a new experience (goal scoring). I can’t wait for the next leagues to start this winter… and yes I did say leagues. Since this spring I’ve been playing in two leagues twice a week!

evangelism 101

Let's just say attending this seminar was inspiring to say the least. To some it up, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron are two AWESOME endorsers of Christ and definitely have something positive in their partnered ministry. The topics covered: how to evangelize, when to evangelize, techniques on positive evangelism, and why we should be evangelizing.

The next day after the seminar I called my dad and we got to talking. I told him he missed a great seminar on evangelism. He asked where it was held at. I told him... and he said, "I was there!!". Who knew... my dad and his wife were in attendance. Good for them.

Anyways, I'm thinking of buying the DVD of the seminar so I can watch it again.

good times

I was listening today to my walkman at work, listening to AM980, my new favorite radio station and more specifically Todd Friel. Today being a Wednesday made today's show "Witness Wednesday". Basically Todd takes his show out of the broadcast booth and to the campus of the University of Minnesota - live. Talk about awesome! While live on the air he just walks around campus asking people about their faith, and if they're open to it, he gives them something to think about.

On a similar note, I decided yesterday to sign myself up for a seminar that is coming to town this Saturday. The hosts, AM980. The speakers, Roy Comfort and Kirk Cameron. Yup, the same Kirk Cameron from the childhood TV show Growing Pains. The topic, Evangelism (learning how to teach others how to come to God). It should be good. For some more information on Ray and Kirk's ministry, check out their website at: http://www.wayofthemaster.com/

the HS

So when I was in Baltimore I decided on the last night that I was going to treat myself to a nice dinner. I was sick of eating at McDonalds every meal and went online to search for a local seafood joint. I found a place that was highly recommended called Timbuktu and headed out. As I got there I walked into the front door into the waiting room and almost as soon as I walked through the door I knew something was different. It wasn’t the ambiance, the smells, the waiting room (30'x7') PACKED shoulder to shoulder full of people, or anything really that any of the 5 senses can detect. This was stronger. What I felt was the Holy Spirit. I've felt it before plenty of times, but this was different. I was exhausted from a long week of work and walking into a room like that was the last thing I expected. The room was so full of the Holy Spirit it almost made me woozy. The best way to describe it, a deep euphoria so thick it was like the fog in San Fran bay, dense enough that you could cut it with a knife. Man, what a pleasure.

baltimore

Well, I'm out here in Baltimore MD working on a system project utilizing a new product, a license plate reader. The first thing I have to say is no, this reader doesn't read your plate if your speeding and send you a ticket. Rather, we are using multiple readers in different locations to estimate travel times to certain destinations. So far, things are going rather slow and like normal, we are behind schedule. It's amazing how often that happens too. Fortunately, this time ALL the problems during this project have been outside of my control and in the hands of other companies and their products/services. Pathetic. I hate feeling like I'm not in control of the situation, especially when I'm in front of the customer.

Well, my only hope is that I am able to get back in time to enjoy this weekend. If all goes well, I'm supposed to be heading up north to a lodge Friday afternoon for a small get together. Man, I could sure use a nice relaxing weekend too…

3 words

So I've been listening to that Christian radio station and Todd. As he goes to commercial he says something that I missed the first few times.

Talk the walk.

In fact, that's the name of their ministry, Talk the Walk Ministries. Brilliant.

the tc

I'm continually amazed at the area I live in. Just yesterday I was talking to my cousin talking about Christian topics and he happened to mention a Christian radio station locally here that I hadn't heard of. The station happened to the AM dial and featured a guy from 3-6 named Todd Friel. My cousin said this guy was great so I decided to check him out. Let's me just summarize Todd like this: he get IT. He pulls no punches at all and tells it like it is. He's the closest person I've ever heard to Ruben, and this guy has passion. I'm pumped that I found him on the dial! The radio station also has a good web site full of good information for believers as well as pagans, something worth checking out here: http://www.ttwministries.com/index.htm.

Another thing I found out today about the TC (twin cities) are the amount of Christian Book stores. They're everywhere! In the TC alone there are more than 10 for sure.

Just what the doctor ordered... another reason to love this area.