He Said, She Said: Not That Cute

He Said: So what's her story? Is she single?

She Said: She's going through a divorce. You don't want her! She's not that cute. (stated judgmentally like any woman would)

He Said: Yeah well clearly all the other options that I have available to me are much better than approaching her.

Is it just me or are there layers upon layers of irony here.......

Two Way With Kirsten

Funny that SHE was the one that brain locked after saying that, not ME! Never the less, we still cranked out 23 points. Thanks Kirsten for a great jump and thanks Tuna for the video!

Split Decision

These kids, don't go easy on them.

I spent a good bit of time yesterday at TCH checking in on the kids. Yesterday was one of those days where I show up and only get to see a couple of kids because the first couple take most of your time. Seems like some times you walk in a room and connect with a kid or a family and the next thing you know, an hour has passed.

Well, I walk into one of the rooms and hit it off with one of the families. We talked a lot about the foundation and it meant a lot to hear one of the fathers express just how much he appreciates what we do and how much we give. It's nice when they get it and allow us to be their partners going through this. The father and I have a lot in common from the business world and actually know some of the same people. Turns out I actually interrupted them in the middle of a game and they have their X Box 360 fired up.

It's on.

The kid suggests that we play a game and says put in Halo.

It's on.

First game is on Midship. I jump out to a quick lead of 3 or 4 to 1 and I have to pause and consider, "George, come one, don't take apart the kid, he is sick, he has cancer." I could not have been more wrong. Although he was cool about the early lead and gave me my props for getting the jump on him, before you know it, this kid has got a shotgun and he is coming for me. final score 9 to 8. The second game I had him blanked at 4 to 0 until he starts taking me apart with a sniper and in the end, I give up a 3 point lead to lose 12 to 10. Good kid, good sportsmanship.

Work has continued to be really, really busy and the week really passed quickly. At the end of the day I think I got my deals done and did some good work. To my surprise several people in my group are really gonna make a trip to Vegas together. As loose as the lips are in the group and how much they discuss their personal stuff, there is no way I would even consider going. I could never be myself, and if I were, all of my business would be out there.....umm....nothankyou! Also certainly worth mentioning this week was a really fun dinner with Jennifer, Marcey with Christa and her new guy joining us. Good food and good company.

Today I jumped with Doc Rocks again. Five jumps with the team, one two way jump with Kirsten and one solo hop and pop from 10K. Solid day. This time around Doc Rocks was Shari, Kirsten (player/coach), and Dave with Tuna doing video. The team had fairly solid jumps and Kirsten did a great job of coaching us - we even had a couple easy block moves in there. Mike really wanted me to consider talking to him about a team that he might form but I might have found my home with Doc Rocks for next season doing four way. Kirsten and Shari really want me and the three of us would be solid as a base. Kirsten pulled me aside at the end of the day after we had a rocking two way jump to discuss next year. There were a lot of people asking what I wanted to do for next year given that nationals is in a couple weeks. We will see. Looks like I might be the rookie draft pick that goes in the first round. I will have to post some of the video from today at some point this week - probably the video from my jump with Kirsten.

Heard from Dolly today and it really made me feel good to hear her voice. I wish nothing but the best for that family.

Mr Bubbles

Questions and Answers

Maybe it's just conversation but people seem to ask me, "How are you" or "So what's new" with the expectation that I should have some wonderful answer or maybe this is just how I see it. Nothing at all odd about this. I really don't have much of an answer and I guess it's a sincere compliment to think that people would really expect a great story or even care. Sorry. I really don't have one for ya. Maybe if you have never met me I can entertain you for a while but there is not a lot that changes with me. Every time somebody asks that in casual conversation I find myself more stumped than anything.

I don't like to talk about myself a lot.......meh. It is what it is.

So what is new with me? Anything new in my world? I suppose not and that is ok when people ask those questions. Ordinary question. Average answer. I guess this is just an odd trigger for me maybe that causes me to pause and look in the mirror for a moment. I should have something interesting to offer that is new or informative about me but it just stumps me.

I wish that I could have those new experiences like we all remember the first day of school, meeting the last person that you dated, or the joys of playing the summer away as a kid. Maybe it's just age catching up but life in general should be as special now or at least those experiences should be there. I think they are there and it is up to me to uncover them. I never wanted to stumble through life, I have always wanted to LIVE it.

I think part of living it must be acknowledging it and having things to offer to others. Gotta work on that.

Now if I could only get used to people asking me, "So are you still working at Calpine? What is going on over there?" That tape has been played to death.

A lot has happened this week but I have not had a lot of energy to archive it all here. I suppose losing Danni took a lot of energy and life out of me. I find myself thinking about Dolly and David and everything that they have been through. How do you go on? How could life ever be the same? So beautiful. So full of life. So dear. She will forever be with me just as Christoper is with me.

I finally sucked it up and got the house painted this week. All said, I am glad that I had the work done and I think they did a pretty good job. They painted the shutters, windows, and all of the iron work outside the house and although it did not look bad, the improvement is really noticeable. That is the last time I hope to paint the house for a long time.

Barrington was in town again this week and I got a chance to spend a good bit of time with him, Juan and Holly. They all came in on Tuesday and I was able to meet them for a moment that afternoon. Barrington was awarded the key to the city by the Mayor at the City Council meeting. It is amazing what this guy is achieving. I caught up to them again on Thursday and it became clear very quickly that they were very interested in what I could do for them. I hope that I can do a lot but I think that most of what I can do is putting them in front of the right people. I am very fortunate in that I have connections to many people of influence - hopefully this will come through. At the end of they day they really need an angel investor so they can hire staff and fund G&A for the foundation.

Rene headed off to college. I remember when he was born.

Bartender

Bartender please
Fill my glass for me
With the wine you gave Jesus
That set him free
After three days in the ground.


I have so much to say. This week has just crushed me.

Daniela

Five Days, Five Minutes

This week felt like five minutes more so than five days. It just blew by mostly because I was so busy at work. I never had a moment to breath seems like. I thought I would only be spending a couple days on the Constellation deal but that one transaction monopolized my entire week. Fairly frustrating to try to get to other things when one deal keeps coming back again and again. I totally left SPS hanging but I suppose it had to be that way. I only have so many hours in the day. Totally did not help when I stayed until 7:30 on a Friday only to have FEA crap out on me. Gotta hit it hard next week.

Tomorrow will be church and my favorite brunch spot after. I have not been to Catalan in quite a while for brunch so that should be fun (of course with my Sunday New York Times). I will probably sneak over to TCH and check on the kids at some point as well.

What else am I up to this weekend? Bet ya could never guess.

Astros

Some R&R On The Way

OK, so after making my reservations today, I am actually starting to get excited about my trip to SoCal end of next month. It is starting to become real. At this point it looks like the itinerary will be:

Fly into San Diego Wed. morning
Spend the balance of the day skydiving in Perris Valley
Stay somewhere local, possibly with a friend/co-worker
Head over to Elsinore to skydive on Thursday
Go to La Jolla Thursday night and stay at Tower 23
Check in at the Hotel Solamar in San Diego Friday and check out the city until that evening
Friday night - Dave Matthews Band in Chula Vista at the Coors Amphitheater
Skydive in San Diego Saturday and do it up in the city Saturday night

This will be a much needed vacation for sure.

Truly a Sad Day

3 is and always will be greater than 25.

You will always be my hometown Hero. Nothing will ever eclipse that.

No Longer A 50738

Now I am B 30176.

This past weekend was my first weekend with my B License and the rewards continued......and maybe a bit more respect was gained also. My intention on Saturday was to do two hop and pops from 10,000 feet to get in a lot of canopy time and I was able to do that. In addition Tom offered me two one on one coach jumps basically free which was awesome. Not only did I learn a lot, I held my own also.

Sunday was my first day with Doc Rocks - I think the team will be Val, Shari, Wendy and myself. It will be interesting to see where this four way team goes from here. I have to say that day one exceeded my expectations over the five jumps we got in and I also had a good time with the group. I also sneaked in another hop and pop from altitude - clearly those are becoming my secret personal passion. Being up there for 10 minutes carving around clouds and spiraling around is the most relaxing and amazing part of my day when I get to do that.

146 jumps and counting.

Again my heart kinda stopped tonight. I was headed to dinner this evening and as I was pulling into the parking lot I thought I saw her car. If I had been pulled over I don't think I could have passed a sobriety test because I was so dumbfounded. Why does that still happen? It's been almost 4 years now and I still get that feeling. It is still a part of me. I think I have moved on but something is still there that just kills me.

Confirmed

I just found out that I did not get the job over at CitiGroup. Yeah I suppose it sucks but I do know that things happen for a reason. Looks like they found somebody that wanted to do structuring and only that forever and a day - in the end that is good for them.

I am still left thinking that my patience will win out and ultimately put me exactly where I want to be. I will continue to be selective.

Just Another Week

Tired..... This week is wearing me down. We have Paradigm in for training this week and it has been two days of all day classes. On top of that, I have not had much luck getting a deal out of the door. Frustrating.

Seems like sleep is at a premium also.

I finally got a call back from Citi. Although we have only traded voice mails, the tone of the messages has not been too encouraging. Of course you never know until it's all said and done, but I have to think they might have chosen somebody else.

Just another week. Let's see what the rest of the week brings.