Tonight is the second night this week that Joy has been in Gainesville while I am stuck here in Orlando without her. She keeps calling me to ask if I miss her yet, and I do. She is lucky though, she's got all our friends up there with her to keep her company. In fact, two of them are staying with her in her hotel tonight.
Joy is up in Gainesville doing her job and searching for a new apartment for us during her off hours. Her company is paying for a few nights stay in a decent hotel up in Gainesville, so that makes her week kind of fun for her.
It's 2AM and I am tired, but I have a lot of disjointed things I want to say, so here it is in list-form, because that is how my mind seems to work...
--Joy left for Gainesville when Hurricane Wilma was barely gone from Florida. Ever since she left it has been really cold here in Orlando. I am a true Florida-boy and I hate the cold. I know that it is just SIXTY degrees farenheit, but I am cold!
--Last night I had a hard time going to sleep. It was cold in the apartment. Joy turned off the A/C when she left and I haven't bothered to turn on the heater or the A/C since then because it has basically been in the 60s and 70s outside since she left. Joy is a little furnace when she sleeps and that made it hard for me to get a good night of sleep during the first few months of marriage. However, now that I am used to sleeping with her, I am having a hard time sleeping without her. This was predicted.
--Joy, being the furnace that she is when she sleeps AND having the sunny dispostion that she has, is dully missed. I feel like her absense caused the cold. Everywhere I go I am cold, and I feel like it will be warmer again this weekend when I am with her again. This is probably all in my head, but it's lodged in there pretty good now.
--Joy and I are moving to Gainesville the week between Christmas and New Years. This is a week that Joy has off from her job for some reason, and I have the 26th off because Christmas is on a Sunday this year. So, I am planning to do the larger part of the move on the 26th of December. We are wanting to find an apartment by then because it is exactly two months away.
--I am really excited about moving back to Gainesville!
Tonight I had a rather fun exchange with Joy.
We're both kinda sick, which is something we picked up from our trip to Gainesville last weekend. So, I've been eating a lot of Chicken Noodle soup. I had another can tonight as soon as I got home, because it makes such a difference to how I feel when I am sick. After I finished my soup I rinsed out my bowl and left it in the sink, because the dishwasher was full of clean dishes. Then I went to go shower because I get really dirty at work.
Before I went to shower I sat in the office to take off my shoes and socks and check on ogame. Then Joy comes in to let me know that I left the can on the counter-top. She let me know why it was important to her that I didn't do those types of things, and told me it wasn't a big deal... just something she wanted to say real quick. She also said she had taken care of it. I was playful with her and tried to make a couple of jokes out of all of her insanity, and she received them fairly well. She keeps trying to get me to keep a perfectly clean house, and I keep wondering why she doesn't just clean up after me if it really isn't a big deal like she claims.
A little later I thought I'd play with her some more since she was in a decent mood for it. So, I stroll mischieviously back into the living room and ask Joy if she knows what is really gross... like even more gross than a can of soup on the counter. She throws out a guess or two of things that I do, and then it hits her.
She somehow realizes that wen I was getting into the shower I noticed some shower hair (which is definately a chick thing.) I've never said anything about this before, but since Joy loves to play this game of reminding me of every little thing that I leave about the apartment... I thought I'd join in on the fun!!
She had some sort of reaction. She was totally shocked with me, but also thought the whole situation was kinda fun for some reason. So, after sitting there laughing for a few seconds she gets a notion in her head and hops up out of her chair and goes into the bathroom before I get there. Then she takes out the hairball, throws it away, and says "thereya go baby" with a big smile. Then a minute or so later she comes back to playfully add, "I just want you to take a note of how I handle it when you tell me about something that I left laying around"
I forget how I responded to that, and I am not even positive that I did respond. What I do know is that after a few minutes of showering Joy came back to tell me something else.
"Baby. I love you."
Oh?
"Just came in to tell you I love you!"
Why is that, dear?
"Well, I realized that I leave my shoes around a lot, and you never say anything to me about that."
Well, after three to four months of being on the sort aisle I seem to have moved up into the ranks of the experienced and well established. There are a few sorters who have been here much longer than me still, but I am just about on par with them in terms of speed and ability now.
One bit of evidence for that is my consistant assignment to the lottery ticket trucks; other pieces of eveidence came weeks and months ago when I was regularly assigned to sort the air unload and the metro unload. You have to really know your stuff well and sort quickly to do those, because you get a lot more packages that go out of state on those two.
The final piece of evidence came last night. I had to sort the Dell truck. Now, there are trucks that an unloader can unload more quickly than the Dell truck, and there are also trucks that have heavier, regular packages (Bowflex truck... Office Depot truck with its 52lb boxes of printer paper) but the Dell truck is the worst combination of all things difficult and annoying to sort.
The Dell truck is usually one of the longest trucks. It is full of a range of different size and weight packages, but typically they are between thirty-something and fifty-something pounds. So, they are heavy like the Bowflex truck and the Office Depot truck. Adding to the misery they are also easy for an unloader to unload onto you very quickly. The way in which the Dell guys load their computers into this truck makes it one of the easiest trucks to unload quickly. Light and small stuff on top with the biggest stuff on the bottom. So, most things can be taken off of this one layer of boxes that are actually on the floor. This layer is at the same level as the conveyor belt though, so an unloader can just slide most of the packages onto the conveyor belt without actually lifting the box.
So, this truck comes at you quickly and many of them are heavy. The Office Depot truck has both of those qualities too though. What sets the Dell truck apart is that the boxes are big. You get these boxes that have a desktop computer and a monitor in them and they weigh 50+ pounds, which wouldn't be that big of a deal, but you can hardly get your arms around them. That is what makes this a big pain in the butt. You're basically wrestling with these big packages that take extra time to manouver onto the proper belts behind you.
Oh, and it is special because it is the last truck that I hadn't done all by myself before.
So, now I feel very accomplished as a UPS sorter. I've sorted every kind of truck that there is. I've done all of them all by myself at least once before, and I've managed to do them all without being blown out or having to stop the unloader or the belt.
Time to get a new job, I guess.
I haven't been writing all that much here, and perhaps some will wonder why there is this big gap in my writing. So, I thought I'd write to answer that and put an end to the growing gap.
I have certainly had a lot to write about lately, but the things that I've had to write about are actually what stand in the way of my writing. My mind has been so occupied with things that I do not want to write about that I haven't really had much time or space in my mind for blogging.
Some of the things that are happening are too mundane for blogging -- such as working at UPS, practicing for tests and quizes, reading, and studying.
There is also some new and exciting stuff going on that I'd really love to blog about, but I haven't written a word about any of it, because I feel sensitive about criticism, condemnation, and negativity. I have let people in my life know about some of these things over the phone, but that has generally resulted in the three things that I really don't want right now. So, I've decided I wouldn't blog about all these things.
There are still other things I'd like to write about that are private. I think that they are interesting, and they are new and eventful things to journal, but I don't think that this is the place. Finally, there is also Ogame. This doesn't take up all that much of my time or thought, but it is something that is going on right now and I don't feel like writing any more about it than I already have.
So, until my life changes and goes back to where it was or I feel less sensitive to criticism and negativity I will probably not be writing nearly as much as I had planned when I began blogging. I'll still try to come back now and again to write when I can, but I have to admit that I find it difficult to write lately because of the criticism that I feel in my life. It seems to have a deep impact, and I think I've even internalized it to the point where I criticize myself before I even take action on some things.
I've been sorting for a few months now, and I pretty much have the hang of the job. The supervisors and management are leaving me alone about the petty things, and the other day I was even congratulated because I was really close to hitting this big arbitrary benchmark number for speed for the whole night. That was kind of cool, because I hadn't really thought of myself as a fast sorter.
The reason I did so well that night is partly due to the fact that I was sorting the lottery truck. This isn't a name that we call the truck at work or anything. It's just how I think of it. See... I ask a ton of questions to pretty much anyone who answers. I also read the return address labels of a good number of packages -- if they come in a big group.
Well, the lottery truck has recently caught my interest, because I noticed that when the truck pulls up to the bay and is opened the supervisors will have two pairs of guys go to the truck and unload and sort it. It doesn't matter what those guys were doing beforehand. Everything gets dropped to go and sort this truck. No other truck seems to get the priority that this truck has, and I had never had the "priveledge" of sorting the truck until recently. (Though I obviously had loaded many of the boxes that come out of it when I was a loader.) So, all those things culminated in catching my attention.
I looked at the box. I looked at the return address. I asked questions. Now I know that these little 15-25 pound boxes and the 50-60lb bags that go with them are full of Florida Lottery tickets.
This past week this has been my favorite truck to sort too. I wear gloves to work to keep my hands from getting messed up, and that really has its advantages from time to time. With this truck, there are a couple hundred of these mesh bags that are really heavy, have somewhat sharp ends, and don't feel good to touch or grab at all. So most people who sort them go a little slower when handling the bags. I've got the gloves though so I just toss them up on the belts without a problem. Also, the little boxes are just narrow enough so that I can palm them. So, with those I am looking at all the bozes at once, using both my hands and just flying through the flow of packages.
The supervisor noticed that I went fast and kind of enjoyed doing this truck so now I am always one of the guys to do it. I never get blown out on this truck, and sometimes I can even sort two unloaders by myself. I like knowing that I am sorting two people's flow at once. That really kinda makes me feel cool. Also, I go so fast when I do this truck that the supervisors have been looking the other way when I throw the boxes, because what I do is palm a box in either hand, pick it up, and then throw it up onto a belt. You're not supposed to throw or even toss any packages, but these are lottery tickets. They are packaged like bricks and no one has ever seen one pop open before. At the end of the night I like knowing that I am essentially handling all of the lottery tickets sold in Florida and parts of South Georgia in one night.
So, yeah, that is a fun thought.
Other things that were neat to realize... the place where all these tickets is just up the road from UPS Orlando HUB; Every week the Florida lottory goes through 3-4 full semi trailers of lottery tickets.
Man, this makes me wish I really knew the exact weight of these ticket boxes, because then I could better estimate how many tons I am handling each hour that I do these trucks. For some trucks we've been able to estimate that we do from 6 to 10 tons in an hour.
I just returned from visiting New Tribes Missions' World Headquarters in Sanford, Florida with four other guys from my missions class. It is such a fantastic place that I want to write about the place first and then what the mission agency is all about. Then later this week -- Friday or Saturday -- I want to take Joy up there to see it and maybe even get some people to tell her all about New Tribes.
New Tribes Mission is a mission agency that focuses on reaching the world one peoplegroup at a time. Instead of seeing mission work geographically, the people at New Tribes recognize that each people group will have great differences from the other peoplegroups living nearby each other or even within the same village, town, or city.
I guess the best way to share more about their goals, purpose, etc is to send you to their website.
One of the most fantastic things about my visit to their world headquarters was their facility and location. During my drive through Sanford I was reminded of my childhood by the town. It is an "old Florida" town much like where I grew up (before the more recent development there.) At the end of my drive I needed to take a right onto First Street and head into the small and cozy downtown area of Sanford. After driving through the downtown area I drove along an expansive lake, which is actually a part of the St. Johns River. Then I pulled up to the complex which reminded me of a military base (MacDill Air Force Base in particular;) a tropical resort; and waterfront areas of San Fransisco all at the same time. There was a reason for all of this.
The NTM World Headquarters was purchased back in the early seventies, but before they acquired the property it had been owned by the New York Giants as a spring training facility, and the Sanford Naval Academy for boys. However, the grounds were originally developed as a lavish resort that was without peer in the Central Florida area at the time of construction. I was happy to find all that out from Danny, because it affirmed my initial feelings about the place.
The main building of the complex was the old hotel. It was a grand hotel in the early, turn of the century style -- like buildings I've seen in San Fransisco. It was really open and airy, and well... just awe inspiring.
OK, now more about what this organization does. It primarily serves as a support organization in my mind. First it supports people who want to be missionaries by providing training for them and equipping them with many of the things they need to know and be able to do before they go out into the world to witness to unreached people. It also brings these types of people together so that they can go as a small group. A group of 4-5 can be better than just one or two people going because they can support each other, keep each other company, etc.
Then NTM supports you when you are ready to go to whereever it is that you want to go. It helps with dealing with foreign governments, travel, and getting you settled. Then when it comes time for you to figure out the language of the peoplegroup they give you more aid.
I am probably only scratching the surface here, so I will make this more general. Basically, NTM supports people who want to spend 20 or more years doing missionary work abroad with peoples who have never heard the Christian message, or have not in over 100years and currently do not have a translation of the Bible.