Travels, travels, travels

I’ve been traveling since the beginning of March. Haven’t had time to write anything. Don’t worry, I recognize that this is about the lamest excuse but right now it’s all I’ve got. To be completely honest, this has been the most emotional month for me since my mom passed away in November, 2007. Besides, I know how long-winded I am when I write and I haven’t really been much in the mood to spill my emotions all over my laptop keyboard.

Pasadena

I spent the first week of March in Pasadena, CA. Surely, many people think that a trip to the L.A. area sounds like a lot of fun. Strangely, I’m not one of them. This was a business trip and one that I’ve made many times before. I have completely lost track of how many times I’ve been to Pasadena and L.A. It no longer really holds a whole lot of excitement for me.

The trip was for a team meeting, but not just for the SharePoint team I’m on, but also the web administration team (which I once was the only member of) and the database administration team (which I once turned down the opportunity to lead). One of my friends, who I look at as “heavenly sandpaper” is Brett. Brett has always rubbed me the wrong way. He’s always been very arrogant and abrasive (like me). Also like me, he’s really come around. Now we’re like really close brothers. This trip gave me my first opportunity to share with him on a personal level all the things that happened in my marriage, divorce, and other associated legal proceedings that I hope to one day have behind me.

Rehashing my last year or more made this very emotional to me. But it was a good trip because I also got to meet a couple co-workers who I normally only talk to on the phone.

Tampa

One of the things I’ve been thinking of doing for a very long time is moving, and not like across the neighborhood or even across town. More like across country. This is so totally not the easiest decision to make. One of the places that I’ve been thinking strongly about is Tampa. To be honest and thorough, I have to say that I really feel like God is guiding me to Tampa.

1. Some time ago, I got back in contact with a friend of mine from junior high and high school. I found out that she moved to some town in Florida I’d never heard of. Because I didn’t recognize the name of the town, I just tucked it deep in the recesses of my brain that she was there just in case I ever made a trip to Florida, I could go see her.

2. When I was moving back to Texas after 8 years in Pennsylvania, I was leading several men’s Bible study small groups out of my home in conjunction with my church. During this time, I became really good friends of one of the guys who was in all of my men’s groups. His name is Dave and it was no coincidence that he worked at the same company I did. Several months before I moved back to Texas, he and his family moved to Florida to some town I’d never heard of. I remembered that he was working in the Tampa office because that was one of the offices I visited in ‘99 with work.

3. In November, after dating a girl for several months, we had a disagreement and it was clear that it was over.  It was just a couple days before the anniversary of my mom’s passing. Two days later, a girl added me as a friend on Facebook. I have no idea who she was or where she came from, only knew that she is from the Tampa area. On the day of the anniversary of my mom’s passing, I had my status indicating that I was commemorating my mom’s passing. This girl from the Tampa area left me a note on my Facebook wall that was incredibly compassionate. To say the least, it was just what I needed to hear at the exact moment I needed to hear it.

Over the next couple months, she and I exchanged conversation. It seemed that her every word to me was crafted with an uncanny insight into my life and was injected with some of the most compassionate words. She has always known the exact words to say at the exact moment I needed to hear them. I am a notoriously sensitive guy. Since my mom passed, I get emotional easily. This girl had a way of making me cry with every word I read.

So as I got to know her, I came to find out she lived in a small town named Lakeland, which is near Tampa. So I asked my friend Dave, who works in the Tampa office and who has been bugging me to come see him for a couple years now, if he knew where Lakeland is. Come to find out, that’s where Dave lives. So I have to wonder, is this a coincidence? No, I don’t believe in coincidences. I have had the great blessing of hearing God speak to me several times, and although this was not the norm, this was one of the way God has spoken to me. I’ve heard “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous”.

I have a penchant for using my friends for my own personal counselors. I mean, I just ended a nearly two year series of meetings with a real counselor but it’s always good to get an opinion from a friend about “am I insane, or what?”. My good friend Jennifer from high school is pretty up-to-date with everything going on in my life. I explained this coincidence to her. Am I crazy? I’m thinking about moving, is God pointing me toward Lakeland/Tampa? Her response was not exactly what I was expecting. “Lakeland, Florida? Isn’t that where Sharon lives?” Sure enough, I catch Sharon on IM the next morning and ask her the name of the town she lives in. “Lakeland”

I’m not one to believe in coincidences so I have to assume this is God talking to me. And my daughter has been bugging me to go and spend at least one day with her and her mom on Spring Break in Florida.  I’m not in any hurry to spend a lot of time around her mom, so I decided I could follow them to Florida and continue on to Tampa to visit with friends. I’ll come back and spend a night or two with them at the camp site. Besides, I have a buddy named Dave in Mobile (not the same as the one in Tampa) I could spend the night with on the way down and on the way back.

So my flight from Pasadena lands Thursday night. I get home about 9:30p and do my laundry before going to bed. I go into the office on Friday and then directly off to my Bible study Friday night. I get home from Bible study and pack my bags. First thing Saturday morning, I’m on the road to Florida.

I spend Saturday night with my buddy Dave in Mobile while the ex and my daughter continue on to Pensacola for the night. Dave and I are drag racing addicts (neither of us profess to be “recovering addicts”). We stayed up watching racing, car shows and racing. I mention to Dave that I’m going to Lakeland to look for a place to live and explain my reasoning and my challenges. He throws out the idea of moving in with him since he’s lived alone since his divorce 12 years ago. I’m taking this seriously now.

I head out Sunday morning and drive to Lakeland to my (other) buddy Dave’s house. I visit with Dave and then hit the sack.

One of the nice aspects of this trip is that I get to work in the Tampa office while visiting friends in Florida. Is that great or what? Even better, since I’m staying with Dave who works in the Tampa office, I get to carpool! After work on Monday night, I go golfing with Dave at Bramble Ridge. Tuesday night I have dinner with my Facebook friend. Wednesday night I spend the evening at my friend Sharon’s house.

I was planning on driving back north on Thursday and spending Thursday night with my daughter and ex-wife at their cabin but work didn’t go so well. I ended up having to work on Thursday and Thursday evening I offered to take Dave and his wife to eat as thanks for putting me up for the week. Instead, Dave’s wife prefers to cook dinner and stay in. Friday morning, I drive back north and spend the night instead with Dave in Mobile because I have to work first thing Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon I head back to Houston. The 8 hour drive turns into 9-1/2 because of the non-stop rain.

Back Home Briefly

I was back home for a couple days this week.  I had an appointment with a dietician (will be another blog post) and decided to start Monday night with my exercise program. Went to the track in my neighborhood and walked a mile. Seemed like enough for the first night.

I spend working in the office, catching up on things. My best friend in the whole world, Jen, is flying in from Chicago Thursday afternoon for the weekend. I was planning on taking all of Thursday and Friday off. Was going to spend Thursday doing some last minute cleaning around here. Again, I ended up working Thursday morning. I left the office to pick her up at the airport. After picking her up, we went to pick up my daughter and from there went to eat at Houston’s Restaurant on Kirby. The filet mignon was to die for.

Friday morning, after taking my daughter to school, Jen and I head out to San Antonio for the day. We spend almost 5 hours walking around San Antonio. By that time, we were both spent and ready for the 3+ hour drive home.

We had tickets for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Saturday night. Jen saw that they were having a cavy show that morning, so we were up early in the morning, went to pick up my daughter, and we went to the cavy show at 8a. Being an avid guinea pig lover/owner, this cavy show was non-negotiable. After that, I took her down to look around the Ike decimated Galveston and we were going to eat at the Kemah Boardwalk. Unfortunately, time wasn’t on our side, neither was the mile-long line to get into the boardwalk area. So we at at Fuddruckers on NASA 1 in Clear Lake, directly across from the Johnson Space Center. We left there and went to the rodeo where I learned it’s not always a good idea to bring a PETA aficionado to a rodeo. :-)

Sunday morning, I took Jen to the airport and returned home to an empty house and the realization that life is not all about traveling and happy times with friends. I sat demoralized in my bed and wondered what I will do next. Around sunset, I decided to go to the track and walk. Thought maybe I would just walk a mile or so. A mile turned into two, two turned into three, three turned into four and I finally realized that I feel as good after four miles as I did after one. How often do I feel good enough to walk 5 miles. So I walked 5 miles. Quite an accomplishment for a tubbo like me. But I paid the price today with sore muscles and joints all day.

Now to decide what I’ll do for the rest of today. Should I go walk?