Work Memories

I have worked my fair share of part time jobs and I have to tell you some of the best moments that have made me look back and laugh (or cringe).

1) Mona Lisa Fondue Restaurant (Position - Food Runner)
Ok, so this was my first job and this was this a NICE job. The most cultured first job a kid could ask for. I worked as the food runner and it was my responsibility to go grab the food orders and bring them to the wine cellar. There are so many memories and so I will begin with the most memorable.

We wore white collared shirts and when you are handeling cheese and wine glasses, stains are bound to happen. Our work prepared for this and bought these amazing SHOUT wipes to help with on the spot corrections and these little sheets of awesomeness worked way too well...

The Holy Grail of Laundry

See, I had spilled some wine on me when I put an empty glass in the dishwashing rack. There was a big red stain on my shirt and I was not happy. I quickly grabbed a SHOUT wipe and started to rub the stain out and to my surprise it was back to being as white as Ivory soap. I was so amazed by this, that I needed to tell all my coworkers the wonders of the SHOUT wipe. I turned to one of my female coworkers and began to explain what the miracle of what just happened. She was impressed by them too, but was upset that the wipe did not remove the cheese stain around her chest area. Without thinking...again without thinking...I proceeded to take the wipe and rub vigorously around "that" area. It was only when my sister came into the kitchen and yelled, "GEOFFREY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!" that I realized the horror of what I had just done. Needless to say the lady was mortified and I became the kid who helped out way too much...

2) Colorado School of Mines (Position: Summer Conference Assistant)
Lots of memories from the two summers I worked in this position. The most memorable of which is when I had a fake marriage with one of my coworkers to play a prank on all of the other SCA's. There are pictures to prove it and we went all out:

Our coworkers weren't too happy to hear that it was all a prank and that they had to get up early and dressed up for nothing. We didn't mind at all though, considering it made the time pass quickly and we got free cake out of it.

Another great memory of stacking all the pillows we could find into one of the worker's bedroom:

3) Colorado School of Mines (Position - Student Center Desk Worker)

And last but not least, the time where I was working the Student Center Desk and had a squirrel run into the building. I was on the last half-hour of my shift and was working on some homework, when I noticed something small run past the desk. I honestly thought it was my imagination until something peered around the corner of the desk and I noticed something very small and furry. I couldn't believe that a squirrel actually got into the building and all I could think about was "Crap. How am I going to get this thing out of the building?".

Pictured: Pure EVIL!

Luckily, the building had only two students in it at the time and I thought I could try to maneuver the little guy out without bothering them, but of course he ran by them and I had to alert the students to the problem. They tried to help and we almost had him out a couple of times but to no avail. Unfortunately, the rest of the story is confidential and for the protection of the school cannot be told any further.

So there you have it. Some of the most memorable moments from my working past. I hope you got a good laugh at my expense.

Creeper Status

So apparently to my friends, I am known as "the creeper". This is probably a very accurate statement. I really don't mean to be, but I have this problem of wanting to know everything about everyone that I have met. The problem is that I am actually very good at doing this...and its all thanks to Facebook and having a very, very active social network outside of the internet.

But I don't think my creepiness ends at my "Facebook stalkerisque" techniques. No...it goes a lot further than that.

I apparently have this really bad habit of staring off into space in the direction of one of my friends. And I just stare for a really, really long amount of time. Also, I don't have self control when it comes to doing really awkward things like standing uncomfortably close to one of my friends.

Luckily, I have a good support group of friends that let me know I do these things and that it creeps them out and they still accept me as a friend for it.

To my friends: your support though has actually turned into a game of sorts for me though. It's called "The Line" test and I am constantly pursuing where that line is and how far over I can cross it...and I have crossed it...many, many times.

It's a good thing to know where that line is because I can actually gauge my level of how open I really can be to that person. So for those of you that I am "extra" creepy around, I probable have not found that line yet.

So if you are reading this and are officially creeped out, then mission accomplished. See, I really am good at this game. :)

And if you are one of my friends and read this, can you please comment and let me know some specific moments of awkwardness/creepiness that you have experienced with me. Can't wait!

Land Navigation (I'm bored, so its long)

So, last Friday the MS III's (Juniors in our ROTC program) had to go to Colorado Springs to do some land navigation. Now, I will admit that I am not as good as some of the other guys in my class, so I was looking forward to honing in my skills. To help people not accustomed to the Army's land navigation course, I will lay out the ground rules:

1) You are given a map of the area, a protractor, a compass, your LBE (light belt equipment, which basically has two canteens and a bunch of pockets), a pencil, notepad and a sheet with 8 points for the day course and 5 points for the night course in grid coordinates.

2) You plot your points onto the map and figure out a course of action to find all 8 or 5 points within a 3 hour time limit.

3) Your points are these white and orange patterned kites that have a number and a clacker attached. (See below)

The Holy Grail in all land navigation

4) You cannot talk to anyone while on the course (a simple hello is fine, but you really can't discuss the course).

5) At night, you can only use a red flashlight to help you in seeing the points or your map. No white light available. It is a very bad thing if you use your white light and you are not injured.

6) To pass, you need to get a 5/8 for the day and 3/5 for the night. Its very bad if you do not pass. I know what this feels like. You do not want to disappoint your cadre and it also make for a bad morale booster when you realize you hiked around 3 hours for nothing.

So, pretty easy, right?

Well, it is...sorta. See I am an engineer and naturally, I tend to make things a lot harder than they usually are. In this case, I never am able to find the right strategy that works for me. Normally, I plot out all my points and then decide to figure out my plan of attack by figuring out which known points I will go for and then do my azimuth (direction) and distance from that point. By the time I am finished doing that for all 8 points, I have used up about 25 minutes of time.

So since I have already wasted so much time, I try and go find these points by dead reckoning (basically using your 100 meter pace count and a straight line direction to get to your point). The only problem with this method is that its tedious and woods are filled with a bunch of obstacles and if you are not careful about what is straight in front of you, you can drift to the left or right of your point, especially if you are going over 500 meters to your next point.

If you are unfamiliar with the area, like we were since we were on Boy Scouts land, you can get very confused, very easily. I usually fall under the horrible conflict of wasting a lot of time trying to find one point instead of just moving on to the next and coming back for it later. This is exactly what happened the first course we went out on that morning.

I found my first point easily enough, but the second, third and fourth points were driving me nuts. I figured after spending 30 minutes looking for them that it would be best if I moved on to the fifth and hopefully would find it and get the others later. I found my checkpoint and then proceeded to dead reckon to the point through woods. After nearly killing myself by tripping over a log hidden under brush, I scrambled back up to my feet and found my point sitting where it should. This elated me and I quickly gave my thanks to the Lord as I was one step closer to passing this task.

Ok, so I have one hour left to figure out three other points for a pass and get to the finish point. I could have gone for the three points in an area that I had never been before or I could have gone back to the first three I missed and try to find those now that I had a better sense of the area. I decided to go with the latter and went back to the checkpoint I had encountered before. I quickly whipped out my map and protractor and shot a new azimuth and direction to the third point.

After walking the right paces, I found myself in a lot of brush and wood. I did not see white and orange. Uh oh...this is not good. At this point you start to panic a little and go into Army mode. I figure I could use the clover technique (pretty much how it sounds, you walk a clover in your area and hope to see something). Two minutes later, I spotted it in a tree. SUCCESS! Get the number and I am off.

The next two points were pretty easy to find and I was not happy with myself, since they were in the area I was first in, but my pace was off and I ended up further than where I should have been. Oh well, I got my 5 and thats all I needed to pass. I just had to get back and pray that they were right.

They were, but my pass was not met with the same excitement from my sergeant. It's true that you should strive for excellence and get 8/8 on every land nav, which is exactly what he believes. I do too and I was very upset that I didn't get all of them. I vowed on my next course, it would be done.

Next course goes and I am off; determined and willing to find all of my points. No stupid mistakes this time...

If only that were true. I decided not to waste my time with plotting all the distance and direction for each point cause I did not know if I would even get to that point and I needed all the time that I could get. I figured I would look at the terrain and map and go from there. With my first point plotted, I knew the checkpoint I needed to get to. The only problem was that I thought I knew how to get there.

Apparently this map was not updated and so the trails and roads we were using were not all on the map. This created a big problem because when I took off running to my checkpoint, I soon realized that the trail I was on ended and went to a cliff.

I stumbled down the cliff to another trail, walked past some random point, and tried to get my bearings straight. After looking at the terrain and the map I knew where I kinda was but not really. I decided it would be best to head back to the start point and then use a magnetic direction to try to get to my checkpoint.

(start inner monologue)
Run back to start point, whip out compass, find distance and direction and GO!


I am thirty minutes behind and have not even found a point yet...this is embarrassing...


Doot de doo...


AHA! THERE IS THE CHECKPOINT! Allright, I know the point is in this direction, must hurry.
(end inner monologue)

So I run past the log I tripped down the first time and run up to the point. You have got to be kidding me...

You know that random point I was talking about earlier? Yeah, that was the point I was looking for the entire time. I just didn't realize it. I wanted to bang my head against the tree until I saw red cause that is how angry I was with myself. Anyway, I was 40 minutes behind schedule and needed to catch up fast. Quickly plotted my point and direction, this one doesn't seem to bad.

That was before I reached the 50 degree incline with jagged rocks that looked as if they were waiting for an unsuspecting cadet to get impaled on. Well, personal courage is one of the Army values. Now is a good as time as any to face up to my fear...of rocks...wait, this doesn't make any sense. Rocks love me!

Pictured: What I climbed up... 

After facing what seemed like Mt. Doom, I quickly found my point and was off in the woods to the next.  Looking at the map, it was in some kind of a depression and in little vegetation. Shouldn't be too difficult. For once, it was right there for me to easily nab. 3 down, 5 to go.

Luckily there was a trail next to this point that lead to the next checkpoint. I had only eaten up and hour and fifteen minutes of my time and was nearly half way there. Walking down the trail, I realized I had not seen this checkpoint and was a lot further than I thought I was, especially when I got to the bend. Oops. Guess I'll have to go back if time permits.

There comes a point when you are doing land nav that you have to think about what you can physically do with the time you have left. This is crucial, because while you would like to get all the points, if you don't get back in time, none of them count. I found three more, but with only 20 minutes left, I knew I didn't have a shot in the world to get them and back on time. This is where the kicking yourself commences. If only I hadn't wasted my time looking for that stupid checkpoint...

Still I passed with 6/8, but I knew the sergeant wasn't going to be happy. I was right...

Now that I had an extensive knowledge of the area, I felt like nothing was going to keep me from getting all 5 of my night land nav points. The only kicker was that our cadre knew we had been to most of the points out there, so this time we needed to get 4 out of 7.

I started off well and knew the most of the area of where I needed to go. I had already been to three of them before, so I wanted to start there and be confident in my mapping skills.

At this time though, your body starts to hurt. Blisters on feet, knees and ankles hurt, your mind starts messing with you and by messing with you, I mean, it seems like you are going to have a panic attack at any moment...

In the dark...in the woods...alone...

Let me paint you a portrait of what this looks like. You are walking and your eyes are kind of adjusted to the dark. All features are hazy and you just hope you are going in the right direction. Trees are all around you and you hear twigs break and brush move around you. You think its just coming from you, but no...it is off in the distance too. When your mind starts to imagine things, thats when it starts to get bad.

My mind usual resorts to things in horror films...some of you already know my problem with this. If you don't, view the video below.



That mask will haunt me forever.

As I went and found the first four points in an hour, I knew I was golden as long as I found the trail that lead to the checkpoint I passed the first time. There is a difference though in finding a trail in daylight and with no light. It is also terrifying when you can't find said trail and don't have any clue where you are on the map. And you hear things. And all you can think about is:



Long story short: I found all 7 of my points in an hour and fifty three minutes. Problem was that I mixed up two of my points in my scared state...

Did I mention I don't like land nav?

Lessons Learned

As with any experience in life, you need to reflect upon what was and figure out how it will help you in what could/will be. This past week has helped me to figure out things that I truly value and found some things inside of me that I didn't know they were there.

First, my friends are some of the best people in the world and I am very fortunate to have them. Second, I know I am not always right (in fact, I am probably wrong a lot of the time), but I do know that when I feel convicted about something, I will change and if God does not put that personal conviction inside of me, then it will not happen. No person can do that.

With my last relationship coming to a close I learned a lot of lessons about me and who I want to date. All in all, it was a good experience and I am using it to grow and hopefully use these lessons to understand important things in the person that I like and will hopefully, one day, marry.

I am not going to apologize for the actions that led up to the breakup because I do not feel in the wrong. There was a lot that I did to try and make it work and in the end, it was not what I wanted. I tried to deal with everything in a very mature manner and I wish it was reciprocated, but it was not. I'm not angry and I am not going to harp on it anymore. Again, this is a learning experience and that is all it will be.

I pray that she is happy with whoever she decides to be in a relationship next. That's all I can do for her at this point.

As for me, I will continue to pray and hope that God will help me in my search to find someone that I can make joyful and be joyful at the same time. Thank you again to all my family and friends for their prayer and guidance on this issue. I love all you guys!