Track 11 - Fair Games

Imagine sitting in hotel ballroom after hotel ballroom listening to the same four hour presentation over and over. It sounds exciting doesn't it. I will attach the sign up sheet so you can get on board with this. It's an opportunity that you don't want to miss. During the days, there are multiple hours of sitting at the sales table waiting for the sales break. That's when my ADHA kicks in and I begin thinking of ways to past the time other than the normal internet surfing, texting, and facebooking. Last night I came up with the best game yet. Here is what I saw:

I have always loved carnival games. I used to get so excited to go to the state fair because I wanted to play the midway games. My favorites were the spray the clown in the mouth and race to the top and the Kentucky Derby ball game. It didn't matter that the games were completely rigged in favor of the house and that I was paying $25 for 70 cents worth of fabric and sawdust. I think like a winner and I knew I'd win... eventually. When I saw the tray of glasses all I thought was glass bottles and little rings. Just gotta get one ringer and the giant panda would be going home with me! I approached my two fellow sales guys and pitched the challenge. Each player would attempt to land a fruit snack in one of the glasses from across the room. The last player to make one had to drink the remnants of the "winning" glasses. Yes, I know, that is disgusting. But if you are worried about that, you are thinking with a losers mentality and as a winner, I really wanted to see one of my cohorts drink backwash of strange seminar attendees.

Just as believed, I did not lose. Mike was the sad sap that had to drink two half-full (hope you caught the optimistic insert) cups. These were the two he drew. An empty coffee cup and a water glass.

I think I threw up in my mouth and passed out due to oxygen deprivation from laughing so hard. The food for thought from this blog post is to think like a winner. That's the secret.

Track 10 - Back At It

Its a different day and a different story. That's what makes life worth living. Can you imagine a life that everyday is the same? No thank you. Yes I love Groundhog's Day as much as the next man but that is the best Hollywood could do to romanticize the idea. For most of us, it would be terminally boring.

I am in a ballroom in Allentown, PA working. Some people take working for granted. I don't. I have a new appreciation of the daily grind. Working for the man has never been more fulfilling. Here's the explanation. I have never been fired from a job. O contraire, I exceed expectations of my employers. How is it, that at 32 years old, I have been laid off not once but twice?! Those unfortunate events may reek havoc on some individuals confidence. Not mine, I have an eternal optimist. I believe that I will always land on my feet. In fact, the day I was laid off most recently, I took off on a two week road trip. No job searching, networking or resume touch ups. Instead, it was open road and familiar faces.

Today, as I sit at work bored like many of you on a work day waiting for the clock on the wall to free me from employed incarceration, I have a half smile on my face because it feels good to be employed. Paychecks will be flowing weekly and my frequent flyer miles will continue to grow. I am happy that my public life and societal contributions firmed up. The draw back, my personal/social life once again takes a back seat. How will this affect my search for "her". We will see. I'll keep ya posted.

Track 9 - Big (uh) O

Adversity can tell you a lot about a person. Everyone handles it differently. An example from my life would be when I went camping when I was 18. That night we had a couple uninvited visitors in the shape of black bears. They were brushing by the tent, sniffing and lapping the tongues around. I thought for sure they saw Haribo or Black Forrest printed on our tent and I instantly thought it was payback for all the delicious gummy cousins of these two I had devoured. The interesting part of this traumatic experience was the demonstration of different personalities. I dealt with the stress by attempting to be funny, lighten the situation a tad bit and ease the tension. One girl dealt with it by crying unconsolably. A young man I didn't know very well became rude and bossy. And finally, one guy showed courage (at the time I thought it was masked by stupidity) and selflessness. He informed the rest of us that if a bear opened the tent, he was going to throw himself at it while the rest of us escaped. Fortunately, it never came to that but it was an interesting sociological experiment.

Recently I took the short 530 mile drive from Salt Lake City to Denver to visit the family. In the passenger seat was my navigator, a special young lady that was brave enough to accept an invitation to hang with my parentals and me for the weekend. Here is the tie back, 25 miles outside of Laramie, WY we heard a currrrplunk and smoke billowed out from underneath my beloved Subaru. I love my car. I take good care of it. There was no reason why I should be mosquito dusting behind my car. Like it or not, we were broken down on the side of highway.

I got on the phone to call a tow truck and Miss MVP got on the phone too. Before I was off, she had found a mechanic that was open and had them committed to looking at my car that night. By the time we rolled up to the garage, it was 945 PM and we were going to be stuck in Laramie for the night. That's when I saw another side of my travel companion. Positivity. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Find the silver lining. Turn that frown upside down and smile that frown away. I was so impressed. Our plans were shot. We were stuck in a cowboy town with no car eating sandwiches from Wal-mart. I would have understood had we both been grouchy and frustrated. That wasn't the case.

I try to start people off in a positive light. Everyone starts OK with me. From there some people go up and others go down. Adversity lets us really see into who others are. Life is hard. It is full of trials and unexpected twists. It is how we handle these situations that make us who we are. At times I worry that my generation has had it too soft and we are a bunch of entitled little whiners wanting the whole world to pat us on the butt and say here you go kid, good job. It is refreshing each time that my theory is proven false.

Track 8 - Hats, Bats, and Flats

Thirty-two years old and laid off twice. Some people might start to get very discouraged. I just accept it as part of the career fields I have chosen, sports and entertainment and sales. Both are notorious for layoffs as the economy ebbs and flows. It is getting old. I have never been fired. To the contrary, I have always received praise and accolades for my work ethic and drive. I was laid off from the Nuggets because I was making too much money in a non-essential position. The most recent layoff was just bad luck. I unknowingly jumped onto a sinking ship. StoresOnline, is no longer a seminar company. That does not bode well for a seminar salesman. Last Tuesday my company told me without as much directness and articulation as Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland but with the same final result, "Off with their heads!!!"

Now what? Many of my coworkers went into panic mode or self-preservation mode. Frantic calls to others to hear what their plans were and texts going out as quickly as their fat fingers can navigate their smart phone touch keyboards to networking associates regarding possible open positions filled the air. What did I do? Hung up the phone from the conference call mumbled, "well that sucked," turned up my tunes on the stereo, and turned my car south and headed for sunnier locations. Road trip!!!!

Hats, bats, and flats. That is the name of my road trip. Hats because I am wearing many different hats during the trip:

friend and ex-mission comp

brother

uncle

Food critic

wheel-man

surfer

and as always eye-candy for the ladies.

The bats part was a bit of a surprise. I am a huge sports fan but not a huge baseball fan. I enjoy baseball because it is summer time and I like being outside in the warm evenings. I think baseball is great because it doesn't require a lot of focus to follow and is very slow moving which makes it easy for me to feed my ADHD on my phone, with binoculars, or day-dreaming. Friday, I dropped my brother and sister-in-law off at LAX. They are headed to Hawaii. Thanks for the invite guys... jerks. It was early evening and my buddy had to work late so I needed to find something to do. It just so happened that the Dodgers were in town so I bought a ticket and went.

Notice the Dodger blue. I didn't want to end up like that Giants fan.

The next day we decided to have a marathon activity day. We got up and went surfing for an hour. I am a natural born surfer and when I say that what I really mean is, I am terrible! Immediately after surfing we drove down PCH to Sunset Beach and paddle boarded the harbor. In Florida, I had seen a pair of red Rainbow sandals and I wanted them. Unfortunately, when I got to the register, I discovered I had left my credit card at the restaurant. Utah doesn't have an abundance of good surf shops, I don't know why with all the Californian wannabes there, you would think we'd have a whole mini Huntington Beach promenade. Lucky for me, Rainbows are made in San Clemente, CA, only about 40 miles from where I was and they had the factory store. We cruised down there and bought my new flip flops and then headed to Anaheim for an Angels game.

Notice the Angels red. I am a chameleon.

By this time, I decided that I would try and watch a baseball game in each destination. In fact, the Angels game was the third game I went to that week. I was at the Bees game, Triple A affiliate of the LA Angels, on Monday the 4th of July.

Sunday was my travel day. I left Seal Beach, CA and drove 949 miles to Salem, OR to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. Salem has a single A affiliate of the SF Giants so that will do.

It was my niece's first baseball game. She was into it. Even started keeping stats. You know those asians love their numbers!

I think you understand the bats part now. But what is the flats all about? Well, a certain friend of mine wished a horrific accident on me. I have driven over 2000 miles already on my trip. Before leaving, she noticed that my tires were pretty close to bald. I explained they were my racing slicks. She told me they were going to blow out, flip my car, and I would end up upside down in the middle of the highway. Don't you put that voodoo on me Ricky Bobby! Sure enough, what do you think happened?

This picture was taken the moment the tire blew out.

You should all know, I am finishing this track strapped into my car by my safety belt upside down on highway 22 in Oregon. Please send help!

Track 7 - Bad News

Why is the phrase, "we gotta talk," almost always followed by bad news. Here's an example, you're dating a pretty young lady and you think everything is going great. You have plans to hang out so you throw on a new t-shirt, jeans and your favorite kicks accessorized with a smile and head over to her house only to be greeted with a "we gotta talk." Might as well have filled your shoes with annoying little pebbles, because instantly you are uncomfortable and you know what's coming. Dang it, this is going to suck!!

Last week, I was out cruising around northern Indiana. Temperature was above pleasant. Humidity was just below a steam room. Hair was frizzy and standing on end like I had stuck a staple in the outlet again like I did in 5th grade. Sitting shotgun in the Kia minivan I could have really used a new york cabbie's beaded seat. Life was fantastic. Minutes later, I was sitting through my speaker's seminar, and received an email from my boss. In not so many words, it said, "we gotta talk." Whaaaaaaa? Luckily, it was to the whole sales staff and not just me but the feeling was a familiar one, dang it, this is going to suck!!

Ok ok, I will jump ahead in the story and just get to it. My company always takes a summer and christmas sales break. I knew the summer sales break was going to be 5 weeks long. Sounded great. I was planning to regress back to summertime in Elementary school before I had to work and all I worried about was whether I wanted to ride my bike, go to the pool or build a fort. Five weeks, piece of cake. A welcome extended vacation. A quick trip to Ohio and a week in Florida that was all that stood between me and Never Never Land. In other words, I was dressed in my new T-shirt, jeans and favorite kicks and knocking on that lovely ladies door. Then, the "we gotta talk" email. Stupid "we gotta talk."

This is the news. The company has decided to extend the summer break out to 10 weeks. Yikes. In addition, they are dumping 20% of our routes and reducing the sales staff. Double and triple yikes! I am not that old and I have already been laid off once. To hear that layoffs are looming is disconcerting. Jobs are hard to come by. I don't think there is anything I like less than job hunting, ok, maybe having tiny rocks in my shoes but that's about it. Hello panic, you unwelcome friend. I did not miss you but I see you standing on my porch. My boyish jovial summer just turned into a sit and wait for the call to the gallows. I have no idea what the outcome will be. I am staying hopeful but dang it, this is going to suck!!

Track 6 - Hero

On May 21, 1998 nearly a year before the Columbine shooting, a boy named Kip Kinkel walked into Thurston High School in Springfield, OR and opened fire. He killed two students and injured 22 others. I remember the event not for the horrifying act itself but for the story within the story. The part of the story that stuck out to me and burned a permanent scar in my memory and I think of it often is how it ended. Kip's rifle ran out of ammunition after firing more than four dozen rounds. In the few seconds that the shooter began to reload, Jacob Ryker, sprang to action. He had already been injured but it didn't stop him. He tackled Kinkel taking another bullet to the chest but managed to disarm him and hold him down until the police arrived. Who knows how many students owe their lives to the courage of their fellow classmate, Jacob Ryker.

I travel each week. Being on the road and coming in contact with so many people I have often had the thought, could I be a hero? I think I could. In fact, I have committed to being one when the time comes if it ever does. My father taught me that if I make up my mind ahead of time, when the decision making moment arrives, the choice has already been made. My fellow sales guys and I have tossed the idea around. The fear exists that one day a disgruntled former attendee will emerge with a gun and start shooting in one of the meetings. There are crazy people out there. My mind is made up in the face of peril I am not going to hesitate, hide, or run. I'm taking the sucker down like United flight 93. I almost had my chance.

I was working in southern Mississippi in a ballroom filled with nearly 200 people. I was talking to a pair of attendees in the front of the room when unexpectedly, I heard some women scream and a commotion in the back. Over the microphone, I heard the speaker plead for some help from the crowd. I had no idea what was happening. I shot my eyesight across the crowd and before I could even compute in my mind what was happening I saw another sales rep along with two guests tackle another guy. What happened was the restrained dude started beating up his girlfriend in the middle of our sales break. She ran for cover, trying to get away. His pursuit was determined and vicious. He knocked a table out of the way. Grabbed the girl by her hair and yanked her around while the crowd tried to stop him and then.... it was all over as quickly as it had begun. I didn't have the chance to Jake the Snake Roberts flying body slam him. But here's the thing, I was ready and willing to. I can almost say I'm desirous to be a hero. So if you are ever out when tragedy strikes, just hope that I'm somewhere near because if I'm going down, I'm going down in a blaze of glory!

Track 5 - Is Missing

Missing someone is a strange feeling. Really, I don't think it makes much sense at all. What is there to miss? I can understand an amputee saying they really miss their right leg or left arm. I bet life was a whole lot easier before always having to pay twice as much as you need to for things like having to buy two shoes. What do they need a right shoe for? But to say you miss someone, baffling. I'm sure you didn't miss the person before you met them. Whoa, before you jump all over me, I know, I love that line in The Wedding Date when Nick says, "I think I'd miss you even if we had never met," too. It tickles my romantic bone. But really, you can't miss something you never have experienced. I can't say I miss speaking Baule. I never even been to the Ivory Coast much less spoken their second most common language.

Missing someone is accepting codependency. My whole life I have ultimately depended on me. Even when I was a babe, I had to breathe, I had to swallow the food my mother shoved in my sometimes unwilling mouth, and I had to dodge the cars like frogger when crossing the street. All of a sudden, sitting in your rocking chair on the porch of your life you realize that you feel a void. The void being created by the lack of presence of another human being. Why? That's the moment that you should really miss independence. You are no longer satisfied with just being yourself. Your own thoughts are no longer sufficient entertainment. You have given up freedom and are now reliant on second-hand happiness.

Silly it is. Perhaps sad too. What a waste of emotion to put such stock in the company of another. How does it happen? How does someone impact us to the point that missing someone can creep in like the winter air through the crack between the door and floor. You didn't invite it. You don't even want it inside. But, it forced its way in anyways. Ugh, stupid Missing.

To miss someone wrecks an otherwise calm, peaceful, and pleasant evening. Instead of enjoying a plate of nachos and not having to worry about the other person inevitably grabbing the best, middle, cheese smothered chip you had been saving for just the right moment, you sit there and wish for it. I once had someone tell me, "It's kind of funny how when you're around, I'm nervous. And when you're not, I kind of wish you were." In other words, they miss me. Its bonkers. Sayings like, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Why? Shouldn't presence make the heart grow fonder not the other way around? But, missing someone does that. When I'm missing someone, I miss feeling freewheeling and individualistic and long for those feelings to return.

Here's the kick in the pants, upon contemplating missing someone, I have realized something most intriguing. For how barmy missing someone is, when I don't have someone to miss when they are gone, I miss that feeling even more. I don't ever want to be in a place that I miss, missing.

Track 4 – It’s all about the details

I love details. Maybe its because I’m very visual. I can recall things by picturing them in my mind. I wouldn’t say I have photographic memory but I definitely use a lesser-developed similar skill to record things to memory and also to rate things. For example, I love Disney because every detail is attended to. Hotels are themed. Parks are immaculately landscaped and clean. I even admire the paint jobs on the woodwork and accent pieces. My pleasure taking of small things spills over into all aspects of my life. I love the way the wind blows the hair back off a pretty girl’s face as she swings in the flat light of the evening sun. It amuses me the way the propellers of an EMB120 vibrate the cabin and turn your seat into a massage chair. I think you get it. It is the often over looked details that make life worth living.

I am a happy person. I wake up on the right side of the bed every morning and I attribute a lot of my love for life to appreciating small moments and taking advantage of every opportunity I get. I make it point to appreciate each second I’m given. Does that mean that I don’t waste more than I should? Of course but I also think I live life to the fullest more than most. It is one of the reasons I have taken to my job so much. I am given the chance to visit countless cities. Some are more exciting than others I can honestly admit but everywhere has unique qualities. It becomes a game. Find something interesting, fun, or notable at each stop. Some are easy and others are more difficult than seeing the hidden picture in those Magic Eye 3D pictures.

Let’s go through some of them. In the upper mid-west, they speak with passive language and negative undertones. Here is a simple example. I ask hundreds of people a week, “How are you doing?” What I noticed in Wisconsin is that surprising amounts of people speak backwards. Instead of answering the question with “I’m well or I’m doing great,” they answer with, “Not bad,” as if bad is the norm. That’s just one example but it happens a lot, don’tcha know? In the South, I enjoy how they aren’t scared to slow life down. Shoving as much as they can into each day isn’t their most important priority. Southerners love conversation, family, and NASCAR. Talk about patience. I mean all you are really watching for and waiting to have happen are the crashes. If there aren’t any cars flying through the air and landing on the roof, it’s a pretty boring sporting event, though I admit I watch an astonishing amount of auto racing.

In each town, I go out and explore it. Even if I only have about a half hour I like to drive around the area looking at the downtown and surrounding neighbor hoods. Calgary reminds me a lot of Denver. Greenville, SC has a jewel of a downtown with a tree lined main street and a park with a beautiful waterfall on the Reedy river. Central PA the public is skeptical and cautious from years of blue-collar labor. They appreciate a dollar. It’s not easy come easy go. As you see, I like to learn areas and cultures. It makes my job interesting and each week a new adventure.

So, this is what I’m saying, you always have choices in life. You can focus on what could go wrong or the stresses in your life. You could complain and say your life is boring and uneventful. Just as easily you could do what I try to do and appreciate the details. Moment by moment enjoy it. Just a fleeting second if seen with a grateful observant eye can tint the whole day a brighter color. I don’t want you to be so focused on the destination that you miss the wayside.

Track 3 - Going Deep

Airplanes give you a lot of time to think. Take today for example, I made sure I had a couple DVDs with me to pass the time as I cross the United States in two tin cans that should never be able to fly but somehow do. I was running late because I forgot my phone and had to go back and get it. As I hurried to board the plane I was the last passenger on, yeah, I was that guy. The guy that opens all the over head bins actually expecting to find one empty to store my carry on while everyone else sits there staring at me knowing good and well they are all full because they have been on the plane for 20 mins and Mr. Last-One-On acts surprised to find no room. I gave up my search as the know-it-all college kids scoffed, "they're all full, man." I know but excuse me if I want to feed the insatiable curiosity inside me to open just one more bin. Upon realizing I was that guy, I took my roller back up to the front of the plane and asked the flight attendant to check it for me. Here is where I tie everything together. Moments after sitting down without my bag accessible, I realizes I left my headphones in the carry on. Here I am, laptop, two movies, and no headphones to enjoy them with. Ahead of me lay a three hour flight with no distraction. I mean come on, there is no way I am going to spend the time chatting with my neighbor, the young guy with the premature graying, short khaki shorts with glaringly white legs, reading Eat, Pray, Love. No joke and if you have read my early tracks, you know how I feel about that. You mean I was going to be alone with my thoughts? That is a scary proposition.

Let's jump back to those headphones that I longed for and had no way of retrieving. It is that very pair of headphones that sparked these thoughts. Yesterday, I was returning home from California. As I unzipped the protective case to my Bose Quiet Comfort 15 Noise Canceling headphones, the guy sitting next to me without transparent pale legs, actually, he may have had them also but thankfully, he had them covered up. Focus, focus ok, he said, "Nice headphones. Must be great to tune everything out." I responded with a quick quip and said, "It is but I really wanted a pair of kid kicking the back of my seat canceling headphones but couldn't find any." He laughed and I considered that as fulfilling my neighborly responsibilities and slipped them over my ears. Instantly, with a flip of the switch, good-bye engine noise, hasta luego uninteresting conversation of the guy from Montana that designs eye glass manufacturing software pitching his career to the young woman next to him as if he were Matthew McConaughey talking about his upcoming role in a new cliche rom-com, and hello sanctuary.

The world is full of chaos. Being a spiritual person with a strong faith in God, I view the world as being full of moral polluters, temptations, and filth. I'm not getting on my soap box and going to start a rant about morality or the wickedness of the world. Instead, I am just relating it to my noise canceling headphones. I was taught my whole life to have faith in God. It has been a strength for me through many difficult times in my life. I find peace in believing there is more to life than just hooking up with whatever will let me, yeah I chose the word whatever, getting drunk to the point I pass out with my hand in the toilet and my body squeezed in between the toilet and wall like one of my college roommates loved to do, or searching out a temporary high huffing the trapped methane from house hold cleaners or decomposing human feces. Yep, people do that, its called jenkum. Don't ask why I know that. I relish the fact that I have something that keeps me grounded. Something that I can turn to when dreary reality around me invades my space and touches too close to home for comfort. To me, faith and the teachings that built it in me are just like my noise canceling headphones the difference being, I am not blocking out the crying baby three rows back because his ears won't pop, instead, I am blocking out the ruckus of the world. Those are my thoughts, judge them as you may.

Track 2 - The Great Idea

Welcome to the world of a traveling seminar sales guy. Every week I fly out from home to some magical location like Forrest City, AR or Beaver Dam, WI. Places that I have to battle the Travel Channel for first dibs. I will admit, it is a unique experience I have to visit so many places off the beaten path. The draw back is, I don't get a lot of time to go out and site see. Most of my time is spent inside hotel ballrooms or conference center banquet rooms. Days are filled analyzing who was to blame for the gaudy chandeliers and why no matter when the room was renovated that they all have similarly loathsome 70's era carpet. Just because you use mirrors and gold trim, it doesn't make it any classier. But enough about the interior decorating. Back to the important stuff, the great idea!

This week found me deplaning in Sacramento, CA with my regular band of misfits. Bob would be the speaker and Tommy the manager. I would play my regular part as sales staffer or, in other words, do boy. As Tommy and I made our way across town, we stumbled upon a taco hut. The place looked like certain food poisoning. We had to try it. Just as expected the flavor and value were amazing. As we enjoyed our combination of street tacos, burritos, and horchata, we decided that was all we were going to have the whole time we were in California. Breakfast, lunch and dinner would be enjoyed at a shady dive mexican taco stand. The further from a health inspector the better.

I decided to document our visits. Just so you know, it's late friday afternoon and we have stayed true to our commitment and enjoyed 11 straight meals from taco carts. You may be asking, 11 doesn't seem like enough? Well, neither of us like the mornings very much and I have a talent for sleeping, so we only had breakfast one day and we dined on a breakfast burrito (establishment not pictured... sorry). Here goes:

Sunday dinner: Chando's Tacos. Sacramento, CA. This is the place where the great idea was created.

Monday lunch: (no pic) La Rosa Blanca. Sacramento, CA

Monday dinner: La Garnacha, Sacramento, CA. We were told this is in a rough part of Sac-town where gang shootings happened. We said, "Perfect. Show us the way!"

Tuesday lunch: Mi Jalisco. Sacramento, CA. Best horchata of the week!

Tuesday Dinner: Tacos El Sabroso. Sacramento, CA. Hands down the most delicious tacos and burritos of the week. It's off Madison.

Wednesday lunch: Tacos Los Tres Hermanos.

Wednesday Dinner: Carolina's. Sacramento, CA.

Thursday lunch: Rosario's Tacos. Merced, CA.

Thursday Dinner: This place. We weren't sure it's name because the sign was busted and torn down. Just that fact alone made it perfect for our hunt. Merced, CA. Try the pupusas here.

Friday lunch: Taco Grullo. Stockton, CA. Not great. I'd recommend looking for a different taco truck.

I have two more meals in California, Friday dinner and Saturday lunch. I am going to call this a wrap on the track but don't worry, we'll find two more stands. I am not sure I'll wake up in the morning. I can feel my arteries hardening and my intestines loosening as I type but it is an experience that I would suggest everyone try at least once in there lifetime. If you have a taco cart that I have to try, let me know. Until next time. Peace up, A-town down.

Track 1 - Who, What, Where, Why

I am different than you and your different than anyone else you know. I am just a normal guy per most people's evaluation. I just had my 32nd birthday (happy birthday to me). I am single and around that fact most of my focus revolves. I always laugh at my friends and siblings how their social media outlets change the moment they get a significant other and even more so when they have kids. Their facebook changes from spontaneous adventures skiing, mountain biking, Vegas, and Hawaii to crazy excitement at Gymboree and Babies R Us. Those changes to a single guy take my interest from Fast and Furious to Eat, Pray, Love. I lose all connection and intrigue because I no longer have much in common with them. I'm not dogging them for that, on the contrary, I think its great. Thanks a lot for leaving me behind everyone! Or is that just how I am supposed to feel. That my life isn't progressing because I don't have anyone to live for and to put before myself? My mom thinks so.

I have been blessed with one of the greatest mothers in the world, and as any great mother, she wants me to be happy. She also wants me to find "Miss Right". I do too mom but relax a little. I am looking. To be completely honest, let's go on a little tangent about that phrase. To be completely honest, hmmm, always kind of a funny turn of phrase implying that all the other things weren't honest. I usually avoid that saying but oh well it works. So back to me being completely honest. Recently, I have really started to desire a wife and family. My job takes me and my compadres on the road. I noticed recently that I am jealous of their happy reunions each week with a loving wife and little rug rats running up to greet them. I smile and then turn to find a taxi home. Ok, it's not that bad I have awesome friends and roommates that volunteer to pick me up but you get the idea. When I realized that I was envious of those relationships I realized I need a new dating strategy. I am not going to divulge all the details about what I mean by that. That will be touched on a lot in upcoming entries. I can't put all the juicy stuff in the first slice.

If for some reason you continue to read my directionless rants, I will go into a deeper explanation as to my mental and emotion internal adjustments. There are a lot of factors and pressures that also weigh into it. I will be the first to admit that my potential mate stock value continues to fall as my age climbs, except now I take my dates to the Melting Pot instead of Taco bell but come on we all know that women aren't gold diggers (lqtm). Well it's 1:30 AM and I am going to crash out. So until next time, dueces.

Introduction

I was sitting on a plane flying home from Detroit, MI, gazing out the window at the endless line of blue with the fading sun. The flight started at sunset and as we sped through the troposphere heading west I couldn't help but think we were chasing that falling sun. With that thought came a new one.

My job allows me to travel almost every week and I return late Saturday nights and on most of these flights I see the same spectacle of the prolonged sunset. It is a view that now reminds me of heading back. Returning to where I truly want to be. Home. Home has many different meanings for people. To some, its a physical location of there temporal dwelling. To others it has a spiritual meaning. The place where their heart is. Where they are comfortable, at peace, or happy. I decided to write my thoughts here using both those meanings under the title of "Chasing The Falling Sun" because that's where I'm at in my life. I am searching for love, career success, spiritual growth and it will probably be extremely boring to read, sorry. I am not writing this for any particular person or purpose more than to share my quest to catch up to the light and make it home. So sit back, throw on a pair of noise canceling headphones and get lost in the sliver of heaven where the white fades to blue, purple and then to black as I sort through my thoughts.

I took this picture from my airplane window last Saturday (May 14, 2011) flying home from Atlanta, GA.