11/22/06: Retirement Plans

Well, I am now 1 week into my "retirement"! LOL

Of course, I'm a bit young to be retired for real, but I am taking a few weeks off from work before I start school on January 8th. I haven't posted a blog in a while, and I'm about to be out of town for a bit, so I thought I would offer an update to tide you over (as if everyone were just holding their collective breath!).

So far, retirement has been busy. I just moved the last of my stuff out of my apartment and into Mom's house. Actually most of my worldly possessions currently reside in her much too-crowded garage at the moment. I have come to the conclusion that I have TOO MUCH STUFF. Life would be simpler if I could carry all my possessions in a sack. Probably not happening. Oh well. I digress . . .

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving with the families (yes that's plural; holidays get complicated when the parents are divorced), then Friday morning about 6:30am I am headed for Godfrey for the remainder of the meeting there. I will return to Paducah Saturday night, only to get up and hit the road again by 7am Sunday morning.

I am headed out of town with Bro. Tim Hughes en route to a 2-day meeting in Veracruz, Mexico. The plan is to visit several churches on the way to Brownsville, Texas--tentatively Paragould, Arkansas Sunday morning followed by Little Rock Sunday night, then possibly San Antonio and Dallas and 1 or 2 more in Texas. On Thursday, we will get on the bus with the Brownsville people to head south to Veracruz for the meeting.

Just to give some perspective on this trip, if we were to drive straight through, it takes approximately 21 hours to get to Brownsville from Paducah--it is the southernmost point in the BIG state of Texas. Then, from Brownsville, I'll be looking at another 14-16 hours on the road to Veracruz.

I've spent quite a bit of time in Mexico in the past, but have never actually been all that far into the country. The furthest I've ever been was Ciudad Victoria, which was about 5 hours (I think) from the border. I'm really looking forward to seeing Veracruz; it's supposed to be a beautiful area of Mexico. It will be great to be able to use my Spanish for several days! I only get to speak Spanish sporadically at Mexican restaurants and with a few Spanish speakers that I know locally, so my brain will be getting a good workout!

Most of all, I'm looking forward to meeting and spending time with more of God's people. I have been doing a bit more visiting other churches nearby over the last few months, but on this trip I'll be visiting several churches that I've never been to before, so that should be cool.

When I get back, I'll have to get to studying for my GRE, the graduate record exam, which is required for formal admission to the MBA program. I'm scheduled to take it January 8th, meaning I'll have to actually miss my first day of one of my classes. I'm currently registered for Principles of Accounting, Principles of Microeconomics, and my personal favorite, Business Calculus. I figure that will probably be the worst class of the whole program, so I might as well get it out of the way and done with my first semester!

So, a few more weeks of taking it relatively easy, then it's shift back into student mode, find a part time job to pay the bills, and get to it! I'll probably be offline for a little over a week while I'm on my trip. Hope every one has a great Thanksgiving! God bless!