Leading Off - I’m exhausted today. It’s strange to be so tired that I can’t even work up the energy to do my data entry, a task that takes little energy to begin with. Why so exhausted? Well, first because of Tuesday night when I stayed in Andy’s room until pretty late. Then Wednesday morning I got up early to be apart of the first ever “Man Morning” at Villa Special. But the real reason I’m tired is because of my second business trip that occurred yesterday.
Quote of the Day - “I feel like I was just made into the butt of someone’s joke.” — Lindy Davis, after we were photographed receiving our Emmys in Jacksonville
Elder Affairs - On Monday I was asked if I’d be willing to head over to Jacksonville on Wednesday to participate in a phone bank to help seniors on the first day of Part D enrollment. Sure, I thought. Anything to get me out of my cube. But as yesterday rolled around I was beginning to wonder if I’d made a mistake. You see, we didn’t leave Tallahassee until about 1 PM, so I was in for a late night return. I didn’t receive the training I needed to assist people over the phone until Wednesday morning, literally right before we left. So I really wasn’t all that confident in my ability to say or do anything of value for anyone.
The trip to Jacksonville was uneventful. I rode down with John (my boss) and Lindy. John has lots of stories to tell and I, being a listener by nature, was happy to have the narration. The phone bank was being held at a TV station. I didn’t put two and two together until I saw the setup. There were two rows of tables with four phones each forming a sort of mock stage surrounded by lights and facing a camera. Yep, we were going to be broadcast out on the channel 4 evening news.
We started taking calls at 5 PM and kept it up until 6:30. I ended up talking to eighteen different people, which was evidently a low total compared to the other seven volunteers. I have to say, I think phone banks were made for people like me. It was the same feeling I get when I’m under a strict deadline or when I’m taking questions from a large group and I’m expected to know the answers. I work well under that pressure generally. But did I know my stuff? Yeah, actually, I think I did. We didn’t have access to the internet as we were on the phone with these people, so I wasn’t able to help look up specific Part D plans. But I took a lot of phone numbers and addresses and they’re going to be contacted by local SHINE volunteers within the next few days. I was able to give people hope, which I suppose is almost as valuable as the information itself.
If you want a better explanation to the quote above you won’t get one from me other than to say that I agree with Lindy completely.
The drive back was not nearly as fast as the drive there. We dropped off John in Lake City since he needed to head to Orlando. Lindy and I made the rest of the trip home at a very slow pace due to terrible rain storms that followed us most of the way. I don’t really mind driving in the rain but it made an already long day even longer. I didn’t actually get home to my house until 11:15 at night. This morning I was thinking of all the good reasons why I should skip work. Even as I was in the car driving to the office I was still trying to convince myself to stay home. In fact, I’m still thinking of all the reasons why I should leave early. I’m really whipped. I’m just glad I only have to work four hours on Friday.
FSU Football - Alright, I don’t really want to talk about Wake Forest. They destroyed us. I will say this. The one thing I had to take away from this season up until that game was that all of our losses were close. I was even starting to be a little more optimistic about the Florida game, since they really haven’t beaten the pants off anyone this year. But after this past Saturday I really don’t think there any hope.
I’ve wanted Jeff Bowden to be fired for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he’s stepping down, but I’m having a hard time jumping for joy about a guy losing his job. It’s even harder when you know that his father had such high hopes for him. It’ll be interesting to see who is hired to replace him and even more interesting to see if this affects Bobby’s future at FSU.
I probably won’t be attending the game this Saturday against Western Michigan and I know I won’t be at the Florida game. That means I’ll only have gone to one game this year, that against Troy. It also will mark the first year I haven’t painted up for a game since coming to FSU. Sad times.
The rest - Here’s a random observation. I’ve been eating out with people a lot lately. I’m a little concerned about my diet and more concerned about my budget. Starting with Tuesday of last week I have had a meal out with a friend (or group of friends) four times, and I’ll be adding three more to that total by the end of Sunday. That’s not even including the cookouts at the duplex last Saturday or this Saturday, or alumni team dinner tomorrow night! (By the way, I’m really amped about alumni team dinner. So good.) And don’t forget, the first week of this month was spent in Tampa on business where I ate out every meal. Ugh! I’m pining for a nice quiet evening at home with a simple meal. Strange, I know.
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