Random trivia

1. My birthday is Aug. 19, 1966
2. I’m the oldest of 2 boys
3. I met my wife on July 4, 1992
4. We were married on May 3, 1997
5. My first job as at the Jenkintown Library
6. I had my first car accident and only one where I was fault on my mother’s birthday in her car when I was 17
7. The first car I owned was a 75 Mustang—it died after 3 months
8. I’ve had 3 cars totaled including 1 while it was parked and never been at fault
9. I spent 4 years in the army as a helicopter mechanic and loved it
10. I graduated from Philadelphia University when it’s name was Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science
11. My degree’s in accounting
12. I hate math and I’m not very good at it, or at least anything above adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing
13. My daughter was born on Sept. 26, 2004
14. I was on a youth group retreat, and my wife was with me
15. I first held her on Nov. 22, 2004
16. Had to leave her on Nov. 26, 2004
17. Finally saw her again and the adoption was final June 8, 2005
18. I love to cook
19. I hate to do dishes
20. I hate clothes and would wear shorts all the time if I could
21. Worked my way through college at UPS even drove the brown truck, hated the brown uniform
22. I wish I could write better and struggled thru every English class I ever took
23. There were 47 people in my high school class and it was a public school
24. I went to the same school district from kindergarten thru high school only had to change buildings once the leap from elementary to the junior/senior high across the street
25. I’m a whiz at trivial pursuit
26. I wear glasses with progressive lens (i.e. no-line bifocals)
27. I’m scuba certified and have dove in the Red Sea and the Great Barrier Reef
28. I can't spell to save my life

Jumping topics

Just some random thoughts/going ons.

• 
  Moved Ella out of the crib and into a toddler bed the other night and on the first night I peeked in early in the morning and there she is sleeping on the floor next to the shelve with all of her books.
• 
  Also the bed move timed perfectly with an ear infection, what fun and we’ve already forgotten to give the antibiotic once. I have enough trouble remembering to take my medicines and now I’m supposed to remember for some one else. We need to come up with a better plan.
• 
  Never tried fantasy football before and now suddenly I’m in 2 different leagues. Talk about throwing yourself into the deep end to learn.
• 
  Now usually I can see the point of the sermon series they do at church but right now I’m wondering if they really needed to spend 4 weeks on the book of Ruth.
• 
  How much would it cost to replace my lawn with Astroturf?
• 
  Slowly through Dora we are learning Spanish. Guess I should have paid more attention in high school. Of course I’ve had that thought before trying to buy diapers in Guatemala and having to hold one up and point. Not a high point in travel, but it did work.

One nice thing about Ella not feeling all that well is she actually will slow down to cuddle every so often. Of course it’s only for a minute but it’s a great minute.

• 
  Actually watched Miami Vice the other night when they had it on, transported me right back to my senior year in high school. It’s scary to think that it was 21 years ago I graduated and that I actually thought those clothes looked good. Fashion sense has never been my strong suit.

Well got to go and actually try and get some work done but one good thing is my one in-bin is empty. But the e-mail is full.

One thing I won't miss

One thing I won’t miss with the impending job change is the commute. It’s about 35 miles from my house into work. Now most of that trip is a 55-minute train ride. Which in a way I will miss since it does give me almost 2 hours a day of time to read. Now I could end up with as long of a commute if I take another job in the city but my hope is to find something a lot closer to home.
Any way I was reminded today of that fact when the train ride turned into a 2-½ hour ordeal. That made me question having that cup of coffee first thing every morning. The bright note was a got through a lot of the book I’m currently reading, The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy. Plus while people were upset and some uncomfortable, as it was standing room only for a good part of the trip, they stayed polite with each other and some even joked about it. Of course those of us who have ridden the train for years are use to delays like this and know that complaining will just waste energy.

To introduce the family

I just wanted to take a chance to introduce the family. The picture is a bit dated since it's from last November but I don't have a more recent shot of all of us. So here's Cindi (my bride), Ella (the best daughter in the world), and me.

False idol

I am also a typical American male with all that entails and to me one of the most negative is that we tend to define ourselves by what we do as a job. That was one thing I struggled to avoid in my last entry and didn’t mention what my job is and only mentioned it since the fact that it’s going away soon is huge life event for me.
I currently work for a large hospital chain in the business office (i.e. billing and collections) responsible for 5 hospitals. My job title is Supervisor Payment Posting and Adjustment, which just means it’s my people who make sure once the bill is paid the payment, is put on the right account. I’ve been with the hospitals for almost 9 years and in the current job for a just over 2 years.
Right now I’m reading Losing Moses on the Freeway: The Ten Commandments in America by Chris Hedges and in the chapter on idols he touches on how many time we hold our jobs up as an idol. He goes on about our lives end up revolving around false gods of wealth, social status, job, etc. To me this summed it up; "we depend on our idols to give us order and meaning. We depend on our idols to define our place in the world." That so much sums up what I have done and still do to a large part.
It’s almost instinct for us as American males to have one of the first questions when we meet to be "what do you do?" We let the job define us to others and seek approval through it. All too often we think higher of a person based on the title a vice president is better than a janitor, when in reality that janitor may be a far better man than the vice president. I’ve been guilty of this and have pursued the title so my worth would be seen as higher not only by others but by myself.
A couple of years ago I was in a bible study on finances and one of the verses that we covered during it was Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the lord, not for men". My problem is that I don’t know how to live that and do work for men and for their approval. I end up striving for words of approval and recognition here and now. The question is how do I find my way to the other path and truly work for God.

I am......

I'm giving this a try after going back and forth on actually doing it for a while. In the while using every excuse I could find. The latest was that since I found out recently I'll be out of job by the end of the year I couldn't possibly start. But really that was just an excuse to hide behind and the reality is it's nice to have a place to say what's on my mind.

Just really this is going to be a quick introduction to who I am. I am a husband to my lovely bride of 9 years Cindi. I am a father to Gabriella, a very cute and extremely active 21 month old. I am a son and do care and worry about my parents but sometimes have trouble showing it. In addition I am a sinner who is only save by the grace of God which I have choosen to accept. Many times I am not the best at showing this to the world.

This is a little of who I am the rest I'm sure will come as I start to figure out this whole blog thing a little more and actually use it to it's full advantage.