TUESDAY

Well, today is a new day, cold as hell outside, but the sun shines today in a cloudless sky, so I am sure it will warm right up...  quickly.  Shame I have to work through it all though.  Work is going okay, we have a bunch of big-wigs up there now, as they want to convert it to a 'regional training store'.  So all the managers there are being assessed and evaluated, retested, and signed off.  I mostly work drive and clean what I can.

Was at the Post Office last night, so my neck hurts...  A shame but its warm.  Courtney asked how come I don't move to Arizona, where there are many jobs and surely would be an easier life.  And though I would love to take that offer up, I am not prepared, at all, for another move, not at this time anyway.  North Carolina is good, jobs are plentiful, and school is good too...  Once general education is done with, I can move on up.  Today, after work, I come back here to take the writing portion of my test...  Honestly not looking forward to it too much, but I am looking forward to it being completed.... satisfactory. 

SUNDAY

I can clearly see this is a highly religious place, people give me literature and cards about God, the church, Jesus, salvation, sin, etc. all the time.  Its kind of crazy.  Last Thursday, one lady gave me a church card, and asked if I wanted to go to church, so I said sure (why not?).  So, sunday she picked me up and took me to her church, Bethel World Outreach Church.  The entire congregation, which was based in a storefront, was from either africa or the Caribbean, which was interesting, but kind of cool.  Naturally it was loud and a lot of songs, but the message was good.  It definately was not your typical Lutheran Church, which I had grown up in and fallen away from.  None the less, it was interesting and a bit fun.  Church can be tolorable if you do something besides just sit there and recite idoly verses, prayers and songs in a monotone voice.

The message of the day, or rather what I got out of it, was about crabs.  When you go to cook crabs, you throw a few in the pot.  And all the crabs are in there, and usually one tries to fight its way out, and climb over and escape, only to be hooked by the claws of another crab and pulled back into the pot.  The message was that we should be like that crab.  We are constantly surrounded by other crabs with no will to improve or be better, but, we know we must move up and climb out of our situations, so we should be like that crab, and try to climb out, which is not an easy task.  And when we move up, and get out of our bad, negative situations, we should also watch out for those other crabs at the bottom of the pot, who will try and pull you back down and keep you down.  I thought it was an interesting message.

MONDAY

Monday was a mess.  It rained all my weekend (which I had off work Saturday and Sunday during the day), so  I was disappointed that I could not do what I wanted to do for a change.  Plus, I had to sleep at the Post Office all night for the last few days, as it is ungodly cold and storming.  The post office is not built for people sleeping in it, and thus horribly uncomfortable.  The Rock is much better.  Then, I went to work, which was equally as bad.  Not because it was busy or anything, but rather because all the managers were in a bad mood on account of the big wigs being there...  you could smell the negativity in the air, and it is contagious.  So, getting off of work, I did find some relief here at the CATO Campus.  But most importantly, SumSum called from a pre-determined payphone location, and we talked for a good hour and a half, and that calmed me down quite a bit. 

Sometimes her voice helps, just her voice, to hear and listen to.  Things are not at all easy, or really fun, but I try to stay positive, and when I cannot be positive, it is great to know I have a girl who can cheer me up, even under such extreme situations.  So, I am quite thankful and happy for that fact.

TUESDAY

I realized today, I forgot to bring my battery charger for my camera and the cord thing to hook it up to the computer.  Damn, or I would have posted some pictures here of me as of late, and my lovely camp ground.  On warm, dry nights I sleep outside, in the woods. 

Here in North Carolina, apparently, they have massive bolders and rocks just lying about,  one of which is long, relatively flat, and is where I sleep.  Likewise, the little rock-henge formation around my area, is in a 'C' shape, so I can build a fire, and stay relatively warm at night, as the heat radiates off the rocks.  I build a wooden log fence around the entire area, as it is 'mine'.  For now at least.  It keeps out the deer, which used to have a habit of running through my area in the wee hours of the morning.  On a positive note, dispite cold nights, I see the sunrise each and every morning now, which is really comforting, and you can feel its heat everyday as it warms everything up, even in the first hour after sunrise...  Its usually at that time, when I sigh, and tell myself that 'everthing will be alright'  And it is.