Jobless no more!

That's right. I am once again gainfully employed (I don't start until June 4, but hey, I got the job, so that is just semantics). Thanks to everyone for their support during the highs and lows of the job hunt.

I'm going to work for a place called BLF Management. They are an association management company (they do all of the membership, publications, conferences, day to day operations, etc. for various associations). I'll be serving as their Managing Editor. It is a small company, less than 10 employees, but they've been in business for a while and they are growing, so that's a good sign.

So, as far as the story of how I got this job, here goes. I saw an ad on monster.com last week. On Friday at about noon I decided to apply for it. By 2:30 they were calling my home and cell numbers and emailing me. I called them back and the lady said that the president of the company wanted to have me in for an interview. So, I said that sounded good and she said "How's tomorrow look for you?" I was kind of in shock. I never expected a Saturday interview, but hey, I wasn't busy, so I went ahead and did it. The interview went well and he asked me to think about the company and position and get back to him if I thought it was something I'd like to do. I emailed him on Sunday night that I was interested in the position. I received word from one of my references that they called her yesterday and then another said they called her today. I then got a call on my cell phone at about 1 p.m. (while I was outside building a wall - long story) and the director of operations asked that I give her a call back. I called back at about 3 p.m. and she offered me the job. I already knew about benefits, salary, etc., so I accepted it on the spot. Very quick - that's what I'm talking about!

So, as of June 4, I'm back in the workforce, paying my taxes to Uncle Sam.

Quick update on my mom

Sorry for the lack of updates. Mom got through her surgery fine and she's pretty close to fully recooperated now. She starts chemo again starting on Monday and she'll do that every other week for two to four months. She's not looking forward to it, but she knows she'll get through it (the first time she did chemo it was more like seven months). Thanks to everyone for keeping us in your prayers and I'll update again soon.

- C

Another update on my mom

Mom's surgery is at 7:30 a.m. eastern on Wed., April 4. Should be a 3 - 4 hour proceedure. She'll likely spend the first day in ICU and should be in the hospital for 7 days total. All thoughts and prayers are encouraged and appreciated. Thanks for all of your support!

- C

Update on my mom

Here's the story on my mom. She saw the surgeon yesterday. There are three spots on the liver. Two are on one side, one is on the other. That poses abit of a problem. If all three were near each other, they could just hack that section off and be done with it. In this case, they'll hack off the section where the two are and then with the third one, they'll scoop it out if they can, if not, they have some device that they'll insert into it and kind of burn it out. The part that they'll cut off has only a 1 - 2% chance ofrecurrance. The other one is a bit trickier. If they scoop it out, there is probably a 10% chance that they can't get it all and it'll return at some point. If they burn it out, there is a 17% chance it could return. The good news is that if it does return, they can always go in later (once the liver has grown back to the normal size - about nine months - and remove that one like they are doing the two together this time. This is a tough surgery though, tougher than the other two she's had. There is a 1 - 5% chance at mortality. Complications can include liver failure, heart attack, stroke, infection, bile leak, etc. She'll be in surgery for 3- 4 hours and then she'll spend seven days in the hospital with the first day in ICU. They're supposed to call today to let us know when it is taking place. It'll either be next Wed. or the following Wed. After the surgery heals enough, she'll do chemo (every two weeks for about two months I believe). She doesn't want to do the surgery next Wed., because she doesn't want me to associate my birthday with her surgery (our neighbor told her the other day that her mom died on her birthday and she hasn't liked her birthday since then). I'll update when we know more.

Update on my mom

My mom went to get a PET Scan last Monday and went to see the oncologist today to get the results. She had to get the PET Scan because the previous CT Scan showed some "suspect" spots on her liver. The PET Scan confirmed that there is some beginning cancerous activity on the liver. She will see the liver surgeon next Monday to figure out exactly what they'll do surgery-wise and when they will do it. After the surgery she will have to go through chemotherapy again. The oncologist did say that it is still good that the activity is only on the liver because you can cut away 80% of the liver and it will grow back to normal size in about three months, so it is an organ that they can continue to operate on in the future if they aren't able to get all of the cancer cells with this operation. They also have a way they can make the liver larger before surgery so they can remove more of the organ in hopes of getting all of the cells. Last year when she went for the first surgery for this cancer, they told her that the usual life-span is 3 - 5 years. The oncologist today said that with this type of cancer, it could be 10 - 20 years or more, so that is fantastic news. Please keep my mom and our family in your prayers and thoughts. I'll update again when we have more information.

Job stuff

I went to another job interview on Thursday (it was actually rescheduled from the week earlier because of bad weather). Again, I think this went pretty well, but the man doing the hiring didn't seem too interested in making a quick decision, so I could be waiting to hear on this one for quite a while. It is a smaller company - about 75 employees, but it sounds like it could really be about to take off and they've grown from 25 to 75 employees in the past two+ years. I also heard back from another very large company earlier this week and they asked me to send them some writing samples and salary requirements, so I'm hoping to hear back from them sometime as well. We shall see! That's all for now folks!

Movie Review - Ghost Rider

When I was in Texas last weekend, I went and saw Ghost Rider, starring Nicholas Cage, Peter Fonda, Eva Mendes, Donal Logue, Wes Bentley and Sam Elliott. This is the next in the long line of superhero/comic book adaptations to hit the big screen. It seems that once Spider-Man and X-Men opened the door, the rest of the heroes decided to come flying through as well. I'll be honest with you. I don't particularly like the Ghost Rider comics. I believe I've read one issue and didn't even get through it. This led me to believe that I would also not like the Ghost Rider movie. However, I do like Nic Cage and I'm a big fan of Sam Elliott. Also, Eva Mendes is uber-hot.

So, I went into the movie, trying to give it a fair shake. Turns out, it wasn't that bad. Cage brought a likability to the Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider character and now that I better know the origins of the character, I think I may actually like the Ghost Rider.

The movie was the typical first movie for a specific character in that they had to spend a good portion of the movie explaining who, what, where, when, why and how. That sometimes lends itself to a boring (at least first half) movie, but I didn't get that from this one. They did a good job of explaining the situation without making the viewer fall asleep (such as the Fantastic Four movie). The acting was pretty good. I thought Cage did a good job, as did Elliott. I didn't think that Fonda was all that great. Bentley was okay in his evil role. I liked the special effects and thought the flaming Ghost Rider and his bike were done well. The action parts of the movie were also pretty well done. In all, I'd give Ghost Rider 2 1/2 stars out of 4. The movie does lend itself to sequels if you were wondering.

Now, we all have to get ready for the Spring/Summer blockbuster season. Upcoming are Transformers, Spider-Man III, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Live Free or Die Hard, Rush Hour III and Shrek the Third.

Another job interview scheduled

I've got another job interview scheduled for Tuesday. Your positive thoughts are welcomed and appreciated. This interview is for the following position (which I'm still trying to completely get my head around):

Customer Experience Designer
Creative writer/designer with experience developing consumer-focused communications tools to write, design and produce letters, newsletters, websites and other marketing materials. Create the "customer experience" for our services, educate patients on health benefits, wellness, disease management and how to use healthcare more efficiently. Must have bachelor's degree, strong writing skills plus ability to design/create finished materials, and strong background in consumer communications.

I figure they must think I'm capable of it based on my experience, or they wouldn't have invited me in for an interview. We shall see my friends, we shall see!

No job for me and other stuff

I called today to follow up on the job I interviewed for last Monday and was told that they were about to make the offer to another candidate, so no dice on this one for me. Oh well, at least I got interviewed this time. Maybe the next one will be the one. I sent my resume off to five or six other places today. Maybe I'll get something out of this bunch. We'll just have to wait and see. At least I'll have a tax refund coming to me shortly - that'll make things a little easier for a while money-wise.

It is so cold here today. The high temp was 10 degrees and when I got up this morning it was 1 degree! They cancelled most of the school around here today because of the uber-cold. We're supposed to make it up to 18 degrees tomorrow, but we're also expecting some more snow.

My grandma got some bad news today. She had a CT scan last Monday in preparation for her chemotherapy starting today. She met with the doctor this morning before chemo and he told her that there is a spot on her lung, according to the scan. They're not sure if it is cancer or not, so they're going to do another CT scan in a few months to see if there is any change to the spot. So, more uncertainty, more worry. 2007 hasn't started off too well for my family.

Some not so great news

My mom had a CT scan on Tuesday (she has them every three months) and went to see the doctor for the results today. The doctor told her that there are some "suspect" spots and they want to do some other kind of test on Feb. 19. If the "suspect" spots are indeed cancer again, she'll have to go in for another surgery to have it removed and then likely go through more chemotherapy. Needless to say, she isn't having a very good afternoon. Hopefully the extra test will show them not to be cancer. Any thoughts and prayers you can send her way would be much appreciated.

Job Interview

Well, the streak is over. I got a call last week from an HR rep regarding a resume I sent in about three weeks ago for a PR Specialist position with a publicly-traded software company. She did the normal phone screening thing and I guess I passed because she set up an interview for me with the director of public relations. I had that interview today and I think things went really well. I spoke with the director of PR, one of the other PR Specialists and the director of corporate communications. Come to find out, the director of PR and the other PR Specialist had both spent a significant amount of time in Texas, so that was an easy way to break the ice with them. The PR specialist even knew one of my former co-workers at my last job from when she worked at an agency in Austin.

I went in for the interview all dressed up in my "interview, wedding and funeral suit" and felt a bit out of place. How cool is this? They were all wearing jeans!

I'm hoping this comes through for me - jeans, salary at or above what I was making at my last job and the people I talked to seemed pretty nice. I guess I just have to wait and see now.

A couple of movie reviews

After many months of not visiting a movie theater, I have been twice in the past two days. Yesterday I went and saw Night at the Museum and today I saw Epic Movie. Talk about a tale of two movies!

First up is Night at the Museum. I know people that had already seen this movie and I had heard good things about it. I must say though, the best part of this movie to me was the trailers for the upcoming releases. This was a total geek-fest of trailers. They had Transformers, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Spider-Man III and the Simpsons Movie. How great is that? I know where I'll be this summer - in the theater!

As far as Night at the Museum goes, I really enjoyed it. I'm a big Ben Stiller fan and I also like Robin Williams a lot, so that helped out a lot. I thought the story was fun and the acting was good. There were a lot of talented actors and actresses in the film. I was really shocked to see Stiller, Williams, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Anne Meara, Bill Cobbs, Ricky Gervais, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Brad Garrett (although you didn't actually see him - he was the voice of the Easter Island head) in the same movie. This was a fun family film and would be enjoyed by those of all ages. I give Night at the Museum 4 out of 5 stars (probably really 3 1/2 stars, but they get an extra half star for the great trailers!).

Next up was Epic Movie. For those that haven't seen the trailer for this one, it is a spoof film in the mold of the Scary Movie series. That is where the similarities end. This is no Scary Movie - I'm not sure I'd even call it a movie at all. It is the most ridiculous, poorly conceived, piece of trash I've seen in a long time. I'm so glad I went to a matinee rather than pay $8 for an evening showing.

As far as people you'd know in this film, there are these great actors - Kal Penn (Kumar from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle), Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler's Mom from American Pie, Joey's agent from "Joey" and many other movies), Crispin Glover (why, why would you do this movie????), Darrell Hammond (from SNL), Carmine Electra, Fred Willard and David Carradine.

They poorly parody such movies as X-Men, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Carribean, Superman Returns, Snakes on a Plane, Nacho Libre, The Da Vinci Code, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting (thankfully). They also do a horrible parody of SNL's "Lazy Sunday." I give this movie 1/2 star out of 5 and I implore you, whatever you do, please do not go see this attrocity. I'm begging you!

Don't call it a comeback ...

... I've been here for years!

Well, I've been here in Ohio for about seven months now, but I had to lay out a little respect to my man LL Cool J (do you know how difficult it is to find a picture of this man with a shirt on?).

First off, I'd like to apologize to my faithful readers for the lack of updates since November. There have been many instances where I planned to write a little something, but it always seemed trivial or self-serving to do so.

So, some updates are in order. No Virginia, I do not have a J-O-B yet, but I've been working hard on it (especially this month - there weren't very many things to apply for during late November and all of December). I've been sending out the resume, but I haven't had any bites yet. I'm going to keep on keepin on though and eventually, I'll land a job that I like - bank on it!

Second update, my mom's doing fine. She's due for another three-month CT scan next month, so we're hoping for some more good news.

Third update, I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. My mom had just gotten out of the hospital at Christmastime last year, so it was wonderful having her here with us and healthy this year. My brother was here from Texas during Christmas, so it was nice that we could all be together during that time.

Last update, and a not so good one. A couple of weeks ago, my grandmother went to the hospital to have an operation to remove her spleen, gall bladder and part of her pancreas due to a cyst on her pancreas. The surgery went fine (which was a blessing in itself, considering she's 75), but they determined that the cyst was cancerous and she starts chemo in a couple of weeks, to be followed up by radiation treatments. If you could, please keep her (and my mom) in your thoughts and prayers.

So, that is about it. I plan on updating more often and hopefully soon with a job update. Thanks for all of your understanding and best wishes and a belated happy New Year to you and yours! Peace out yo!

Job Interview

I went on my first job interview in almost eight years today. I interviewed for a position as a public relations specialist with a small marketing firm. I think the interview went well. I fully expected to be nervous (I was always nervous when I interviewed before), but I wasn't. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it was because for the last part of my tenure at my old job I was the one doing the interviewing. Maybe it is because I know there will be other jobs if this one doesn't work out. Maybe it was because I'm not even entirely sure I'd want this job. Whatever the reason, I wasn't nervous - but man, do I hate wearing suits! Well, that's all I've got for now - the lady said they'd call sometime next week and either let me know if they want me to come back in or if they are going another direction - we shall see! In the meantime, I'll be checking Sunday's paper for latest and greatest new listings!

Job Hunt

For those of you that were worried that I might have decided to never go back to any kind of job, you can now rest easy, as I've begun the job search. I sent out four resumes last week (some which most likely are out of my realm of expertise). I got a voicemail yesterday afternoon from one of the places and they want me to give them a call back regarding the open public relations specialist position (it is at a marketing firm). So, on Monday I plan to at least have my first phone screening (in almost 8 years!). Luckily I was performing these phone screenings pretty regularly at my last job, so I should hopefully be pretty comfortable with it. Wish me luck!

It snowed today

When I got up this morning, Oct. 23, imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and there were big white snowflakes falling outside. Nothing stuck to the ground or anything like that, but there were snow flurries hanging around almost all day. It sure was pretty out there. For a guy that left Dallas four months ago, it is kind of shocking to see snow in October, that's for sure!

And a fun week was had by all ...

My former roommate, Jeff, flew up here to Ohio to visit on Friday, Oct. 13. He arrived at about 9:30 p.m. and the fun times began. We got up early on Saturday morning and drove about an hour and a half southeast to Rio Grande, Ohio for the annual Bob Evans Farm Festival. When I was a kid, I would go with my mom and dad to work at the festival each year (although it is quite debatable how much "work" I actually got done). It was nice getting to go back and re-live a little of my childhood for a day. We arrived at the festival at about 10:30 a.m. and proceeded to walk the grounds. Let me tell you, this was a cold, windy October day. It was probably in the lower-40s while we were there. We went to a lumberjack/log rolling show and checked out other old-timey activities.

After leaving the festival, we visited with some of my family that lived nearby and then headed back to Lancaster for the evening. Sunday was basically spent hanging around the house watching football.

On Monday, we got up really early and headed for Cleveland (about a two and a half hour drive) for a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We ended up stopping at an outlet mall along the way. We got to the Hall of Fame at about 11:30 a.m. and spent the next five hours or so there. It is really a neat place if you ever happen to get the chance to visit. If you are really into Rock and Roll history, I would even say it should be a destination trip for you at some point in your life. We left Cleveland after the Hall of Fame and drove about 40 minutes southeast to Akron, Ohio. That's where we stopped for the evening. We had already decided that we wanted to go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio the next day, so we would just stay over somewhere and Akron seemed like as good a place as any.

We got up on Tuesday morning and drove the remaining half hour to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We spent a couple of hours there and then headed back home to Lancaster (about two hours away).

On Wednesday, we drove to the western part of Columbus and spent the day at the Columbus Zoo, home of Jack Hanna (the dude that is on Letterman with his animals all the time). Very nice zoo. We are both animal lovers, so it was pretty cool to both of us. I really enjoyed the Red Pandas and the Komodo Dragons and of course the Koala Bears.

On Thursday we went to see Employee of the Month since it was a gloomy, rainy day. I enjoyed the movie (not just because I got to look at Jessica Simpson the whole time either!).

Friday was kind of sad because I had to take Jeff to the airport so he could return to Dallas. It was nice having a friend around for a week since I still don't really know anybody here. All in all it was a great week.

Just wanted to check in!

I haven't posted in a while, so I wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and kicking (barely after a day full of removing a cinderblock wall and moving six trailers full of dirt). Not a lot going on here right now. The county fair is this coming weekend, so I'll probably check that out. My former roomie is coming into town next weekend for a visit, so that'll be fun. Maybe we'll get into some trouble and I'll be able to post about it! Well, hope everyone is doing great and hope to hear from you all soon!

Garage sale

In an attempt to add a little income to my life, I helped my mom, grandma and grandpa with a garage sale this past Friday and Saturday. We headed to my grandparents' house on Wednesday night with a truckload of stuff to sell (in addition to the car full of stuff I had taken down two weeks earlier).

We spent Thursday getting ready for the sale and opened up shop at about 8 a.m. on Friday. We had customers non-stop. It was pretty impressive. We closed up shop on Friday at about 5:30 and went out for some dinner. I went over to a cousin's house and watched Poseidon (decent movie) and got back to the grandparents' house at about 12:30 and then got up at 7 a.m. the following morning for more garage sale.

We opened at about 8:30 and it was a bit different than the previous day in that we have very few customers from 8:30 - 11. Things picked up in the afternoon and when we finally closed the sale down at about 4 p.m., we had as a group made about $450. It was a lot of work, but my grandparents were able to clean out their garage a bit and make a little money and I was able to make a bit of spending money for myself. Good times!

My mom and I got home at about 9:30 last night and I was pretty quick to hit the sack.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - I sprained my ankle as we were cleaning up the garage sale, so that's always loads of fun! That's all for now!

It was bound to happen ...

Yesterday my uncle had a big Labor Day get together at his house. There were probably nearly 100 people there at various times of the day. There were five four wheelers at the party, including my dad's and my mom's. My two cousins and I were out riding (I was riding my dad's and one cousin was riding my mom's and the other cousin was riding a dirt bike) and one of them said we should race. So, we raced. There was a big open field that made a good race track. Unfortunately, we didn't designate a finish line, so by the time I started breaking, I realized that in front of me was a treeline and then a creek. Well, being the quick thinker that I am, I decided that hitting trees or flying into a creek 12 feet down were not good options, so I continued to break as hard as I could (the grass was wet, so I wasn't getting much traction) and once I knew for sure I couldn't stop, I turned the handlebars to the right. I was thrown from the four wheeler and it turned over on its side and nearly flipped over on me. Luckily it stopped and just ended up on its side rather than squashing me. I stayed on the ground for a minute, making sure I wasn't hurt badly and then got up to see what kind of damage I did. As far as I went, the only thing that hurt was the shoulder I landed on. My cousin and I flipped the four wheeler back over and it seemed to be okay. I just stood there for a few minutes, calming down and then got on the four wheeler to take it back to the house. It wouldn't start. I tried again - still wouldn't start. Finally I gave it some gas while I hit the ignition switch and it started right up. I drove it back to the house and that was the end of my four wheeling for the day. I did learn some valuable lessons from this experience. First, always have a finish line with enough braking room. Second, it is better to flip the four wheeler on its side rather than crashing into very large trees. Third, victory is sweet - that's right, I won the race!