Wild Tangents
Marc talks about life in Nashville, life as a Catholic and life as a geek.

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Last week my good friend Rob interviewed me for Faith Journeys #3, which is an episode of a show he runs on his Tupelo Catholic podcast feed. I figured I would post it here in case anyone looking around here might want to hear it…

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WOW. It’s been over a month since my last post. I’ve been really busy with both work and a few side projects I am doing. One of those is the Catholic Vocations Podcast. The very first episode of that podcast went out Thursday. For the most part, it will be interviews with people who have followed a religious way o f life within the Catholic Church. That would include Priests and Deacons, as well as religious brothers and sisters. I am pretty excited about it. So if you’ve ever wondered what’s up with someone who might decide to live that kind of life go check it out!

Work seems to be slowing down somewhat for the end of the year. I’ve been really busy for the past seven weeks with trips out to Phoenix and Folsom. Next week I’ll be back in San Francisco for training. After that, I should have a welcome break until the week after Thanksgiving when I go back out to Folsom. I am actually looking forward to the new year and the new project it might bring to me.

I just had to pass along a couple of cute little stories of things that have happened to me this week since I got to Phoenix. Before that, I have to say that this seems to be a really cool town. I’m working on a project at a high tech company. They make parts for computers among other things. I won’t say who it is, but they’re a pretty INTELligent company. It turns out that instead of being here two weeks and very busy, I’ll be here four weeks. I have quite a few friends here, who I look forward to meeting up with while I’m out here. Anyway, on to the stories.

The first happened Sunday. I know, I should be home on the weekends. But initially it sounded like I was going to be very busy. So I decided if I could find a good flight I would fly out Sunday afternoon. Well, I couldn’t find one. Everything seemed to be too expensive, so I decided to just go ahead and fly out on Monday morning. The problem is our travel agency’s new website has the worst user interface I have ever seen. I am not exaggerating there either. So instead of changing the flight search from Sunday afternoon to Monday morning, I ended up changing it to Sunday morning. No hilarity ensued. So here I am getting into Phoenix at 1025 Sunday morning.

UGH!

Anyway, I told you all that to let you know what kind of state of mind I was in when I stopped by a grocery store to pick up some bottled water. It’s the desert, so I figured it would probably be a good idea to keep hydrated. I stopped at a grocery store called “Fry’s Food”. In case you are asking the same question I was, I think they are somehow related to the electronics store. As I was paying for my Aquafina, they of course asked me if I had me “Fry’s Food Club Card”. As I ALWAYS do when I am out of town and am asked for such a card, I replied with “I have my Kroger Card”. Like I said, I always say that. It’s just my way of amusing myself. The really funny thing is that Fry’s Food is owned by Kroger. Yes, they took my Kroger card, swiped it and it worked. Now in my half dazed, “I’ve been up since 3:30am central time and it’s now 2:00pm pacific time” mental state, that was just very surreal.

So I’m sure now you’re wondering if that was both my stories or just one. I hate to break it to you, but I’m not finished.

I noticed on this little listing of local events that Def Leppard is playing here in Phoenix tomorrow night. Big deal right? Well, you see this week I have a shadow. She’s a fresh from college green consultant who I ma supposed to be mentoring. I mentioned the concert to her and guess what she said. “Who?” Now I feel old.

I sudenly regret every time I have said to someone “You mean Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?”

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As I sit here watching the news coverage of the various ceremonies to commemorate the terrorist attacks on my country, I think back to that day.

I had been living in Seattle but had to move back to Memphis due to being laid off (ironically from the same company I work for now). I had made that trek across the country just a couple of weeks prior. It was a wonderful drive that made me proud to be an American. Seeing so much of this wonderful country filled me with that pride and a certain sense of awe. Even in my despair at loosing my job, I knew that everything would be OK. On 9/11 I was still so newly returned to Memphis that I was staying with my aunt and uncle. They had gone with their kids and grandkids to San Diego to visit my cousin. They would be over a week late getting home.

I had slept late that morning. It would be another week before I would start a new job. In my groggy half-awake state, I was really confused. Wy was the news on all the channels? Not just the news channels and the network’s morning show, but ALL the channels. Just about then the phone rang. it was my mom asking, “Are you seeing this???” It took a moment for it all to sink in. It took a really long time for to accept that this was deliberate attack on the US. I was shocked and stunned. I attribute my reaction to this tragedy as being one of the two big catalysts for my reversion back to the Christian faith.

On this day six years later, my prayers continue to go out to the victims of this attack. My prayers also go to a conversion of the people who would do this sort of thing. THat the Lord will soften their hearts and make them come to hope for the same peace I do.

It’s been a long time since our Vegas trip. I’ve been a little busy and a little lazy. But I am fianlly getting around to posting some of the pictures. Here’s a sample:

Our first stop after getting to Vegas was the Hilton to go to the Star Trek Experience. They had Klingons and a Borg walking around. Here’s one of the Klingons.

Not long after getting there, Suzette was suddenly attacked by a Gorn!

I was able to fight him off, but I worked up an appetite so we had lunch. MMMM……Iguana burgers!

Exchanging war stories with with a crusty old Klingon warrior.

This was Suzette’s main reason for going to Vegas. She really wanted to ride the Gondolas at the Venetian. She got her wish. Here we are. This is inside BTW. They had a huge indoor shopping area that was made to look like an open air mall.

I managed to meet up with Vegas favorite and the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley. Here I am showing him some new dance moves. He was standing around at this place that must have been a big hang out for celebs. It was Madam something or other.

Here’s Suzette getting a little too close to her favorite actor at that celeb bar.

Here we are with a nice scene of the strip behind us. I think this one was taken from one of the walkways that go over the street.

We took a lot more pictures. Some of them I’ve posted up on Flickr. Take a look at the whole set!

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I want to thank everyone for your hopes and prayers on our trip down south to Columbia. We spoke with a number of people down there and were very please with the staff and the campus. Unfortunately they would not budge on allowing Suzette to submit her application for the spring semester one day late. She is planning on applying for the fall semester of ‘08 at both Columbia and Vol State.

We have been happy with the folks at Vol State. They have been kind and courteous though out the past year and half she’s been attending classes there. The big problem is that the nursing program at Vol State is administered through TSU. The folks at TSU have been nothing but difficult and rude through the process of Suzette trying to apply for the nursing program. Between the stories we have and the stories told by her friends at Vol State who are trying to get into the nursing program, I also wonder if finding out about Columbia State wasn’t a double blessing.

My only fear is that Columbia State is pretty far away. Even the Franklin campus is pretty far. We might have to move again. I really love Gallatin, but if it’s best for Suzette, we will do it.

I just cleaned up the style sheet a little bit. I changed the unvisited links to the same color that visited links used to be. I then changed the visited link color to something that looks a little more orange to me.

I also put that horrible picture of me that I use everywhere up in the upper right hand corner. That way you might recognized me when you visit here, if you’ve seen one of my comments or otherwise noticed my presence somewhere else.

I’m also going to to be working on the “about” page. Don’t expect it soon, but know that I am working on it.

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