Personal Days

My last day of work is April 4th. Hallelujah!!! Actually it could be tomorrow and I would be ok, but its not. So, I will last until April 4th. So, I emailed my corporate office to see how many vacation days and personal days I had left. I received an email back from my representative at corporate, where all she does is keep track of this stuff, that I had two weeks of vacation time and 24 DAYS of personal time. WHAT?!?!? I had absolutely no idea how in the world that would happen. But I definitely called my boss to let him know that if that was the case, I was going to be needing to take some serious time off. Well, the smart man that he is, figured that there was no way that I had 24 DAYS of personal time. So, I sent him the email so he didnt think I was just making it up. Well come to find out, I have 24 HOURS of personal time. Thats three days. Thats a major difference. Regardless, I am taking it. So, we already had Friday off work for Good Friday, so I figured I would come to Hot Springs for a long time. So I took Wednesday and Thursday off work. 2 of my 3 personal days.

Well, if you live in Oklahoma, you know what the weather was like the past couple of days. Rainy. Stormy. Lightening. Thundering. Etc. Well do you know what way the system was moving. Yes. thats right... right down I-40.

Ok, my thoughts on rain. I have always said that I love rain. Well now my love for rain comes with a disclaimer. I love rain when I can be sitting inside watching the rain. You know, on the couch with a blanket. I do not love rain, in fact, I despise it, when I am driving. Last night quite possibly was the worst trip in my entire life. I was driving 35 to 55 the entire way. A 5 1/2 hour trip took me closer to 7 hours. Constant rain. The constant rain, and my tires loosing traction, and the stupid 18 wheelers who acted like it was a beautiful sunny day, caused me great stress. I would have to carefully release one finger at a time from my death grip on the steering wheel just because my hand was cramping up. By the time I got to Conway, I was crying. Stupid rain. Stupid rain when I am driving.

But I got safely to our new house. I had warned Craig I was in a bad mood. But, he unlike any other, can quickly have me forget why I am in a bad mood, and I am laughing and happy! I love him.

He is on the way to the airport to pick up a guy who is leading worship tonight. I stayed at the church, so I could write thank you notes. Writing this blog is one of my rewards for staying focused. I learned this trick in college. Anyway, I didnt want to go with him to Little Rock to pick up Michael, because it was cloudy and I thought it might rain again, and I just really didnt think I could take it. Anyway, so here I sit in the youth floor working on my hundred thank you notes from the shower last weekend. And Mr. Pepsi man comes up to empty the machine. I guess maybe FBC Hot Springs is leaving the Pepsi contract. Well, it brought back memories of my Pepsi days... so here is how our conversation took place.

Me: So, how do you like working for Pepsi?
Pepsi Man: Oh I absolutely love it.
Me: Oh thats great.. I worked for Pepsi in Oklahoma City and I hated it.
PM: (looking at me strangely), what did you do for Pepsi?
Me: Oh I was a management trainee, I ran a route with about 150 convenience stores and small grocery stores
PM: (looking at me even more strangely) You ran a route?
Me: Yea, I did. I had probably the roughest route in OKC. If there was every a shooting in a convenience store, it was in my stores.
PM: I bet you could have had alot of sexual harrassment lawsuits?
Me: (WHAT IN THE WORLD, Where did that come from??).... Well, I definitely learned alot.
PM: Yea, you could have learned alot in prison too...
ME: silence.. quickly writing more thank you notes...

I am not sure how that conversation went there... but it did. CRAZY!

Well, my reward time is over... thank you notes it is!