"I Drank the Kool-Aid!"

For some of my...um..."older" readers, let me explain what "I Drank the Kool-Aid" means. Simply put, it means buying in to what someone has to say or believes passionately about; typically it means internalizing what an organization believes in or does.

On Thursday, I proudly proclaimed to my team at The SCOOTER Store that "I Drank the Kool-Aid!" And everyone smiled and laughed and really knew what I meant. Really the only downside is that I am surrounded by University of Texas fans. I was fortunate enough to meet the President of the Comal County Red Raider Club, and believe it or not, he works at TSS too! Small world.

From the beginning, TSS preaches to "Always Do the Right Thing." And as I spend more and more time in various departments, I know that they mean it.

Highlights from the week:

• The owner of the company, Doug, is a big believer in fitness. He has lost a lot of weight and really wants his people to be healthy too. Today is his birthday, and yesterday we had a quick celebration that featured a birthday cake big enough to feed the Army of the Potomac. Rather than eating the cake though...and you'll love this....we blew it up! His cake exploded! It was greatness.
• I have decided that I will never, ever go to the H.E.B. here (grocery store). It is a complete and total disorganized, rude mess. If I want disorganized and rude, I'll go to Wal-Mart and at least spend less.
• I'm still not quite used to seeing beer in convenience and gorcery stores.
• I'm still chomping at the bit to get into the meat and potatoes of the job. I can't help myself!

I've been spending quite a bit of time in the company gym, and the results have been pretty good. I'm bulking back up again and feeling stronger and better. The downside is that my BG has not been good at all. I have been eating pretty well, so that's not the problem. I think it's mostly the stress of being away from home and the newness of a new job. It'll settle down soon, I hope. During my first week, my infusion site ripped out during the night, and I had to go to work with a 500 BG. Yikes! I explained to my boss what was going on (his aunt has T1) so he'd know why I was drinking 30 gallons of water and excusing myself to the restroom every 20 minutes. He was, as always, very kind and understanding. After a four-hour temp basal and some pretty aggressive bolusing, I was all good by noon. Fortunately, I have not had a serious low BG at my new job yet. I say "yet" because we all know that for any T1, it WILL happen. It's just a matter of time. For that I keep some juice in my desk, and I carry a Caprisun in my bag with me everywhere I go.

On that note, since I do carry around a kit, juice, and various office-related materials, I do carry a very nice SCOOTER Store bag that my boss gave me, and my co-worker Jessica has labeled it my "Man-Purse."

I love it at The SCOOTER Store.

Day Four at The SCOOTER Store!

Wow. I don't even really know what to say, and I know that is incredibly unusual. Maybe it would be best to summarize in bullet points again. Yeah. I like bullet points.

1. I started off the day by saying something in front of the boss I probably shouldn't have. It wasn't anything inappropriate or anything like that. It was more of a wrong place, wrong time type thing. I'm still learning these things, and I expect to make that mistake again. Being very open and honest has served me well, and I plan to continue to be that way, I just need a filter.
2. I cannot emphasize enough how fun it is to learn all of the things I am learning. And I am learning a lot for sure! Today I actually drew a picture. A picture! Just so I could wrap my head around all the various systems we use day in and day out.
3. Having a day full of meetings, planning sessions, and brainstorming sessions has really given me a chance to stretch my brain in ways it just hasn't been stretched in a long time. And the really cool part is that the people around me are incredibly bright. I told my boss the other day that I haven't met a single person that has what I call the "Khloe Kardashian" look; that is, everyone there has something going on upstairs.
4. I met an incredibly passionate guy named A.B. yesterday. And from what I understand, his intellect and passion have really helped to pull the company together in lots of great ways.

I could go on and on, and I will on another night. For now, I am just trying to soak it all in!

My 1st "First Day" in over Eight Years

Today was my honest-to-goodness very first "first day on the job" since I joined the car washes back in 2000. Well, I had a first day when I started teaching last year, but it wasn't so much a first day as it was a good hard shove.

As I always teach my students, the first day for any employee is always the most awkward. You don't know anyone, don't know where to go, don't know what all the unwritten rules are, don't know if people are happy, mad, or indifferent to the fact that you are there. I've always tried, whenever possible, to make sure I spent time with new people, even at the car washes.

Here are the highlights of my first day:

1. I pulled on EVERY one of the eight or so front doors before giving up, only to discover that the one door I didn't try was the correct door.

2. When I got to my cubicle, I discovered that the people in the department had decorated my cube with red and black ribbon, and it was adorned with "Welcome Nick!" signs. That meant more to me than you might think. I can't wait to decorate it with my kids' drawings and my "Office Space" kit.

3. When I was setting my things up in my cubicle I raised up and hit my head...HARD...on a shelf. It was one of those "make you dizzy and nauseated for an hour" head hits. No one seemed to think that was entirely unusual.

4. I did not meet one person, not one, that did not seem genuinely happy that I was there, despite the fact that there are some 850 people that work in the building(s).

5. I thought I was over-dressed in slacks and a polo shirt, only to discover later in the day that everyone had earned a "Casual Monday" reward.

6. I got a great laptop computer, a Blackberry (it will be in tomorrow), and the coolest desktop phone you've ever seen. Unfortunately, I do not have a trash can. If that's not a call to unionize I don't know what is.

7. I ate lunch with a guy that shares the same title as I have. It was relaxed, upbeat, and very open. I enjoyed it tremendously.

8. There is a gym right next door to me...a brand new one, with a smoothie bar and TWO personal trainers.

9. There is a full-time physician and nurse on staff available to the employees.

10. Finally, lots of organizations claim to want to "Do the Right Thing," but I think I have finally found one that really does. And I think they've done a good job, based on the people I met today, of finding people that believe in that too.

And the best part? When the IT department connected my computer, I had 62 emails. 62!

I've spent the last 8 years being the best at what I do, and I hope to get there again very soon. Frankly, I am not accustomed to not being very good at ANYTHING I do, and I intend to bust my rear until I am there again.

Sounds

Every house has a sound to it. Some houses sound like a quiet summer afternoon...all the time, maybe because its occupants have grown older and spend more time apart than together. Or maybe they have said all there is to say. Or maybe they can simply communicate with a glance and a hand brushing against a cheek. Some houses sound like rage, with people yelling at each other all the time. Maybe they do that because that's what they saw their parents do, and so they yell at their kids, and the kids, as they grow older, yell back. Those are sad sounds.

My house sounds like children. Happy children. Children that love their parents, and that know their parents love them. It sounds like televisions changing channels, and Playstations, and Barbi Guitars, and laughter. Mostly laughter. We laugh a lot in our house.

It sounds like sewing machines humming, and computer keyboards clicking, and refrigerator doors opening and closing. Kids turning on lights and their father following behind and turning them off again. The kids asking a question like "Can we have some cookies?" And mom saying "No" and dad saying "Yes" all at the same time. And then us laughing about it.

Sometimes our house is quiet. Quiet is uncommon in our house, but it's never an awkward quiet. It's a quiet that says "We all love each other and we know it."

It's a great house. But it's just a house. Sometime soon we'll all be together again all of the time. And no matter where we are, it will sound the same.

My Students

It has been my great joy over the last couple of years to be an instructor for Wayland Baptist University. Some of you know, some of you don't, that I earned an MBA several years ago, and decided that I would like to teach part-time. It was partially about the money, partially about the thrill of teaching, and mostly about being able to share what I have learned over the years and relate them to the topics in a way that makes sense. At least I hope that's what I have been able to do. Over the next couple of weeks, after I have moved from Lubbock, I will finish up the last few weeks teaching my two classes via the Internet. I don't like it, because it's not my style, but I have to do it to finish the classes.

Tonight my students all told me the same thing; that they were absolutely horrified of me the first night of class. And I had to confess that I was equally horrified of them. As the instructor, you are the one that is supposed to have all of the answers even if you don't. But I'll say this, I have truly enjoyed teaching for Wayland. My students all have full-time jobs, most have families, kids, husbands, wives, etc., that they have to leave for 3-5 hours every night that they have class. These are people that WANT to be in class. They aren't there because their parents insisted they go to college. They're there because they were born to be that way. They were born to be doers.

And I hope they learned as much from me as I did from them.

Well. I'm moving.

Good evening to all nine of you. I sit here tonight with a mix of excitement and complete dread. I have put in my notice with the car washes, and my last day at work will be this Friday. Not that long ago, I thought for sure that two of the three of the car washes I operate would be closing and bulldozed, so I told my boss that I would probably start looking for another job, and he said he understood. Little did I know that one of the two jobs I interviewed for would turn into an actual job in such a short period of time. My new title will be "Director of Distribution" with The Scooter Store at their corporate office in beautiful New Braunfels, TX. The money's good, the corporate culture is awesome, the hours are great, etc. In other words it's all the things my current job isn't.

I start my new job on Monday the 13th, and I will be moving down there next weekend....without my family. They will have to stay home until our house sells, and God only knows how long that will be. So I'll be staying in a place called the Gruene Sunday Haus for at least the next two months...all alone. And to be honest, I've never lived alone as a type 1 diabetic, and that part bothers me a little bit. Mainly I am flipping out because I will be away from my family for an extended period of time. New Braunfels isn't THAT far from Lubbock, but it's far enough that weekend trips home won't be that easy (anyone got any airline miles they want to donate)?

And finally, the best part. The COBRA payment. A "normal" family with four relatively healthy people might be able to scrape by without insurance for the 90 day waiting period. Well, as you know, we're far from normal or healthy. But for a mere $886 a month I'll be able to keep our health coverage. Gee, is that all?

More details to come, but there you go.