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Bittersweet

July 25, 2012

Hey,There seems to be a recurring theme. Unfortunately it’s not the most pleasant thing to deal with… Death.Last week at the midnight showing for the premiere of the highly anticipated Batman movie, about 20 minutes into the film a gunman opened fire in a theater in Aurora Colorado.12 people died. Countless others left injured and dealing with this mess they now call life. It is sad. There is even a story of a young woman named Jessica, who in June escaped a shooting in a Toronto mall. Narrowly escaping death she lived to see another day… but who would’ve thought that a little over one month later her time would be up. I hope and pray that she and the 11 others who were killed were saved before taking their last breath. I also pray that everyone else now having stared death in the face searches for the Truth and finds it.Yes, I even pray that the person that caused these people to meet their maker finds the Truth.Only God.JJ’s grandmother has cancer. That is one of the reasons I have asked for prayers in his direction. Yesterday the doctors told JJ and his family that she has stage IV cancer. His mom (who recently had a heart attack) and JJ are the two main people there for his grandmother during this time.Maryia’s best friend, Jackie… well her grandfather also has stage IV cancer. Hence the request of prayers in that direction as well.I just wish we could do more for ~~the people we care about~~ everyone.As if that weren’t enough…I received a few texts last night and that was followed by a missed phone call. For me, this is a little uncommon. People generally get a hold of me when they need to and usually it doesn’t happen in bunches.I called Jeff back and he let me know of some tragic news. One of my friends from LifeLock has died. Aaron Saunders.Those who knew Aaron would call him quiet and maybe even a bit of a loner. From my time that I was able to spend with him I enjoyed our friendship. We first met in 2008 and have been friends ever since. He started at LifeLock as a Temp but I was the person who was assigned to train and show him the ropes after he had been hired on full-time. He wasn’t very old, only in his 30s.Over time I became his main go-to person both when I was on his team and even later after I had moved elsewhere within the company. We forged a friendship and learned a lot about each other.I remember how he would tell me about his great travels while he was in the service. Times he spent in Russia at old abandoned camps, walking miles and miles from post-to post that he was stationed at. He even got to a point where he taught me some of his games that he liked to play. One of them that I can remember the name to is called GO. It’s actually a pretty fun game, and I probably would have bought pieces to the game had it not cost so much.Before I left LifeLock and even on my final email to my manager I praised Aaron for his hard-working attitude and his ability to get things done. I strongly recommended them to consider hiring Aaron in Partner Operations. Unfortunately my suggestion was never seriously considered. Well before that I had spoken to Aaron and coached him on job specifics, things to improve upon and other traits in hopes of making him the best candidate for a position in the department. They however selected Amanda- still a good pick and a friend of mine.. but I felt like perhaps a missed opportunity.I had spoken to him before of my beliefs but in a nut shell he didn’t want much to do with God (is the impression that I got from him). I had once in my pursuit of trying to get him to go to church told him that I would go to a strip club (a place that he and a mutual friend would occasionally talk of going to) in exchange for him trying out my church for just a few weeks (or even just once). He initially accepted my offer, but later declined.But hey me and Aaron, we were alike despite our differences. From the simplest things of driving to work in the morning.. (our schedules were identical & every day I would see his green Honda driving to work) and honking the horn to say good morning, to even when we would go home at the end of the day (we lived near each other and would take the same route everyday)He ended up quitting LifeLock a couple months ago after getting fed up with some of the changes that were going on in my old department. After having a tough time finding some work, he finally found an office job that would provide the income he needed.After not showing up for work for a few days the cops were called and they went to his apartment. They found Aaron sitting on a chair. He had been dead for a few days (and had gone unnoticed). Oh my friend, where has the time gone?I always say that death is bittersweet if you know where the person is going (or at least believe that you know). His death given what I know, is bitter with no sign of sweet. I hope and pray that I’m wrong.RIP Aaron Saunders.just Pray

An Answer

July 18, 2012

Let me start this off by saying, we don’t always get the answer we want.

With that – you can probably already guessed the answer that I am talking about. I am talking about a job that I have been waiting to hear about.

A little over a week ago I contacted the company and asked them the status. They let me know they made an offer to another person. However they also let me know if that person did not accept the job, they wanted to give me the opportunity & offer me the job.

That is a nice way to slap someone in the face – yet tell them you love them.

I asked this company exactly what I could have done better. The response I received was this: nothing. The HR representative let me know that I was very well liked. The CEO said that I was very well spoken, knowledgeable and likely to get along with anyone I would work with. They also felt that I had a great understanding of the job, the duties and overall a very strong interview.

I tried to get down to the nitty-gritty. I asked her what I could have done better.

She let me know that my interview was so good they nearly offered the job to me… But given the fact that they couldn’t hire two people it was more of a coin toss than anything. It ended up coming down to this: I came across in my first few seconds during the panel interview as soft spoken.

I thanked her for her feedback. I went over every topic, every scoring that I received. She read me comments and feedback from everyone. They like me. Just not enough to hire me.

I know that God must have something better in store for me. Even if it’s just flipping burgers, I am sure that the larger plan/wider view in life is more important & has more meaning. It’s just not always easy to keep that perspective.

I’m not saying that I think I will be flipping burgers, I’m just saying that I tend to feel a little more downtrodden after another successful, yet failed interview.

What can you do?

In other news… It is less than a month until the wedding.

Keep in your prayers: Joey, JJ, Orien, Ralph, Jackie, Roy & Ben. Also feel free to keep my brother and Kris, as well as my parents and Maryia’s family in your prayers too. Nearly everyone I can think of is going through something now that isn’t so pleasant.

What really is left to say except…

just Pray

Where has the time gone?

July 9, 2012

Where is the time gone?

Things have been fairly busy as of late. Last week I applied at a engineering firm for a administrative assistant position. I’m not sure how it went. The people seem nice, but I can never really tell how interviews have went. There have been times in my past where I have thought that I would receive a job offer – and didn’t. Yet, there are other times when I thought that I would not be a candidate – but was offered the job. I have learned that you shouldn’t expect to land a job, but also don’t expect that you crashed and burned either. You just never know. So yes, I am serious when I say that I have no clue.

I asked them when I should know and they told me that I should know this week. They even told me that they should know by Friday of this past week. If I don’t hear anything from them by tomorrow, I am going to call them. I would hope anyway that they will give me the courtesy to let me know either way. This job interview wasn’t around the corner. I drove some 75+ miles each way… it was a haul.

If you are wondering where the job interview was, it was located in Santa Barbra. Beautiful country I must admit. I have been trying to pray and know that I have landed the job – but that is something that I struggle with. If I only had the faith of a mustard seed.

In other news, we took a stroll along the coast last weekend. We randomly stopped in for an open house while in Malibu. This house had amazing views. This house felt like it was worth a lot. It was the $9 million house, yes you read that correctly. 9 million. I can safely say that I’ve never been in a house worth quite as much as that one. Below you will see a picture of the view from their deck.

Nice right? That is a view that I could wake up to every day and not get tired of seeing.

Anyway, when we were done dreaming… We went to look around the Hollywood area. Ha ha… We ended up going to Griffith Park. It was just as nice and with just as amazing views as I remember it. Here is a picture:

That picture is from the Griffith Observatory tower overlooking part of the city at sunset. If you don’t like that picture I have one more to share with you which might do the trick. We stayed in the area until after dark. Then the views of the city at night – were nothing short of amazing.

The City of Angels… & yes, that is the moon. It was big, bright and beautiful.

Anyway there are other photos that I would like to share with you on this post but, I won’t. Instead feel free to click through the photos on the right side of the blog. These are pictures uploaded from my phone to my Flickr account. At times you will find that I take some… Random pictures. But, that’s just who I am.

This is all of the update I have for today.

Until next time

just Pray.