Leading Off – The freshmen are coming! The freshmen are coming! Yesterday at 9 AM all the dorms on campus opened, which means that the Fall 2006 semester is officially underway. Well, not from a scholastic perspective, but from a ministry perspective. I have yet to make my first appearance in Dorman Hall, but that should happen later today.

Job Situation – I will be starting work at the Department of Elder Affairs this Friday. This new is awesome for two reasons: (1) it means that I can hang out with freshmen in Dorman Hall for nearly all of freshman week, and (2) it means I finally know when I’m starting! I was sent at email with forty-one attachments — forty-one! — to read up and learn about all the various procedures. I’m pretty excited about how things worked out.

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Leading Off – I am among the employed! You are reading the words of the newest employee of Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs. Look out paper, you’re about to get pushed!

The Interview – I had the interview on Tuesday. First, I have to comment on my suit. Every time I wear a suit I feel like I’m wearing a Halloween costume. It’s just not me and I feel like it’s painfully obvious to whoever sees me. But anyway, my interview was at 9 AM, bright and early. It was by far the most low-key interview I’ve had throughout this whole job search process. It went a little something like this:

1) He told me what the DOEA was about
2) He asked me to describe myself
3) We toured the office
4) He offered me a job

I wish they’d all been that easy, even if they didn’t all end with a job offer. He gave me until Thursday to make a decision. I thought it over on Wednesday, but there really wasn’t much to consider. I need a job, plain and simple. My new boss will be out on leave until Wednesday, so when he gets back we’re going to talk about start date and finalize a starting wage.

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Leading Off – I have returned to Tallahassee! I arrived yesterday afternoon after making the long trip from St. Louis. The trip wasn’t all that bad. Here’s how it went down.

Nate Griffin’s Revenge – So before I left on my trip I had to go the the Connecticut DMV. I needed to get a registration for my car in my name for the trip down, even though I’m almost immediately going to turn around and need one in Florida. This was a tricky operation. Connecticut is really anal about getting vehicles inspected and normally won’t give you a registration without first checking your car out. But I found out that there’s such thing as a transit registration, which is what I thought I needed to get. They’re good for 30 days. So I went down there, asked for the proper paperwork, filled it out, and went up to the counter. They gave me a registration that was good for 10 days. Sadly I didn’t notice this until I was already halfway out the door, so I had to get back in line to ask what the deal was. It turns out that a transit registration is only good if I was going to buy a car in another state and bring it back to Connecticut. But since I wasn’t going to do that the state figures they’ll stick it to you as you’re leaving. It’s not that big a deal. It just means that registering my car in Florida is now higher on my priority list.

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State Of The Andrew Address 2006

To my family and friends,

I hope this letter finds you well. First, before I get to new business I feel I should get us all on the same page. This past April I graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in religion. I knew this summer was going to be very different compared to those since I began college. In past years I had participated in training programs, mission trips, and study abroad programs, but I felt it prudent to devote this summer to finding a job. That has been my mission since the first of May.

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Leading Off – Wow, so much good tennis and soccer over the last two days. And I picked three out of four of the victors correctly! I will say this though, I have spent entirely too much time in front of the TV this weekend and feel very lazy. Still, it was worth it.

Midseason Review – We have arrived at the halfway point in the baseball season. I forgot to do this last year due to all the NCP commotion, but this year I want to make sure I get my midseason baseball picks locked in for all the world to see.

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Leading Off – This week has felt much longer than it has any right feeling, given the holiday and all. Time passes by so slowly here in Connecticut. I can’t say I don’t enjoy being here, because I do enjoy spending time with my family, but I’m ready for the next step to begin.

Does This Make Him My Cousin-In-Law? – Whoa, déjà vu. Only a week ago I was writing these very words for someone else. Congratulations are in order for my cousin Beka, who recently got engaged. Now, the details that I have regarding this engagement are few and far between. I was wasting some of my morning on Facebook and noticed that Beka had updated her profile with a shot of an engagement ring, presumably her own. Upon further inspection of her profile I discovered that, according to her “Relationship Status”, she is indeed engaged. Now, I do know that both she and her beau are both over in Australia on a mission trip at the moment, so there should be a fun story that accompanies this revelation.

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Leading Off – I really like this topical blog entry style that I’ve stumbled upon. I’m not the type of blogger who posts a lot of small entries, and I’m not the type of blogger who consistently writes long essays on a single topic. This helps me be somewhere in the middle. Expect more of this to come.

The “Eric W. Schwartz” Part of the Program – Congratulations are in order for my longtime friend Eric, who as of this past Saturday is engaged to be married. I have known Eric since I was six years old and going to St. Mark’s Elementary School back in south Florida. He was my closest friend all the way through middle school and remains a man I highly respect and admire. I couldn’t be happier for him.

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