So much to say..so much to say..so much to say

What a few days. I'm not sure I will remember it all so expect in the next couple posts: "Oh and by the way, I forgot to mention...".

I finally made it back to play at Romeoville campus this last weekend. It was the first time back. Although there wasn't the same trepidation I felt before that C the J a few weeks ago, I still had some strange butterflies floating around. It felt like things were a little "rusty" to me. Not really regarding playing the guitar but more about just being present up on the CCC stage. You see, I wasn't sure that I would be back up there ever again. Yet there I be. I pretty much just kept to playing and not doing any conscious leading. It was more about getting my bearings back. I have to admit, at least on Saturday, it was an inner struggle to get back "on". I hung in there though. I know God wanted me there that weekend and I followed His lead. It could be that part of the "off-ness" about Saturday is that we had a Pony League baseball game mixed in the middle of it all. So, I rehearsed until 2:15 then made it to the game (the game was at the ball park that was literally 2 minutes from the CAC).

The game went quick. We lost 6-4. Yeah, low scoring that was dominated by pitching from both sides. But, yet again, it was defense that made the difference. We had one inning with some boneheaded defensive plays that cost us 4 runs. Yep, we could have won this one too. Alec finally got his hit. He has been really hitting the ball well the first two games - just to people. He does take walks though. So, his On-Base -Percentage is definitely up there. That's a good thing for a #1 or #2 hitter who is very quick on the base path. Our game today was cancelled due to cold weather and rain. Good thing since he sprained his ankle yesterday. Our next scheduled game is Friday, he should be fine for then.

Oh, but I digress! After Saturday, Sunday ended up being much better. The gig was with the choir and that made it even more exciting. I think that by 11am service, I felt back in some kind of form. I need to be. On the weekend of the 17th I am worship leading. I will be ready then.

Speaking of worship leading, I am taking the reigns at River Valley Church this Sunday. That should be exciting. I will be leading with members of their band playing all the songs that I know (2 of them will be new to their group). I am really looking forward to it. Practice is tomorrow. Mind you, this isn't a paid gig. I was asked by their pastor and I accepted. Just because...

This morning I had an interview with a guy from Admiral Heating. It went quite well. He is a very nice person and I enjoyed it very much. We met at the Butterfield Restaurant in Wheaton. A funny story about that one too: we initially were going to connect at a place in Elmhurst but then changed it to the Atlanta Bread Factory in Naperville. Well, I got there 5 minutes early (6:55). I called him to let him know I was there. He said he was almost there. Yeah, here it comes: he calls me at 7pm and ended up going to that first place in Elmhurst. He quickly realized his mistake and called. So we connnected at Butterfields. Been some strange interview experiences lately!

By the way, I stopped at the Yellow Box today. Yeah, the place I swore I wouldn't return to in a LONG time, I visited. Actually I connected with Bill to get him started on the new givingbacktoGod website. However, as should have been expected, I ended up being there for a couple hours catching up with everyone. It was good actually. I feel better about it. I also got to have the Ground Level Cafe's Soy Mocha. It just isn't the same anywhere else. That was a win. Thanks to Lupe who treated!!

And that's all I have to say about that...

Is American Idol STILL ON?? Yawn...

dis and dat

Good defense always makes the difference. Our Romeoville Cubs won 15-6 yesterday! Yeah, we got on them a little bit regarding the shoddy defense from the game before. Although there still are things to work on (particularly accurate throwing), we played much better. We have 4 really good pitchers; we can hit good; defense is the difference. Let's see how it goes on Saturday.

I think that we all have googled our names at one point. After seeing a TV show about that I did it again a couple days ago. Two real cool things stood out. They weren't people names though.

• The first is that there is an American town out there with my last name: Germann, Arizona! It is east of Phoenix near Chandler. Apparently it is real small but there is also a road of the same name that runs through Chandler. I do have some friends from Phoenix. They should check it out next time they go there. I wonder if it is one of those one-gas station towns with a general store. Or, do they have a Starbucks?
• This is my favorite one. There is a line of bass guitars made, apparently, in Germany (surprise): "Germann Basses"! Man, one day I HAVE to see if I can order one! It would be way cool. They make a lot of custom basses. Here is the My Space link:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=185348566

Americana

First of all, get this straight, I am a rocker through and through. However, I have this strange fondness for bluegrass and americana music (NOT country - there IS a difference). I do like playing the banjo. One of my most favorite movies of all time is O Brother Where Art Thou. I have the CD too and it is great! So, tonight, surfing around the net (which I don't get to do too often) I hit upon this cool americana duo out of Morganstown, West Virginia called the Weedhawks. The videos on You Tube are hilarious (because they are so amateurish; just search on You Tube, they have a number of them), so are some of their songs if you listen to the lyrics. If you aren't into this stuff, it won't be interesting but here is the myspace site:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=213129383

The violinist, Ruby Jean, has her own site with some cool stuff too. The link is on the site.

Ok, it is getting late. Maybe I am just delirious. Or, maybe I am not...

Offensive Defense

First game of the season and we were a bit rusty. We lost to the Darien Yankees 16-9. The game was suspended due to darkness after 4-1/2 innings. That consituted a complete game. Too bad because we were taking advantage of some of their gaffes and coming back in that 5th inning. The main story about what killed us was all about defense. We didn't do too well. It's funny but the bigger thing we were worried about, the kids being out of position, wasn't really the problem. It was very simple fundamentals: catch the ball cleanly and throw the ball accurately. We are going to have to work on that hard over the next couple weeks. There is a home game at the A. Vito Martinez middle school field on 135th this Wednesday then another on Saturday afternoon at Romeoville Century Park. Let's hope they figure out the defense by then. Our hitting was good; so was our pitching - not stellar but average. We did have a costly baserunning error. We just taught this the day before: before going for that second base on a hit, pick up your 3rd base coach (me). I was giving him the stop sign but he never looked and was easily tagged out at 2nd. Kids. But you know what, how many times do we see it even in the pros.

Alec was 0-2 with a walk and a run scored. Those two outs were hard hit balls though. They just went to someone. I think he will be fine. Keep hitting like that and good things will happen. He did pitch an inning and a half. We took him out in his second inning. The other team did hit the ball well but a few defensive lapses kept that inning going for a while. When Alec was in center field he did make one stellar assist in getting to a ball that was a hit and throwing out the kid trying to stretch it into a double. He is so good out there: gets to the ball quick and has a good arm. He plays a great center field. We are also going to see about him at shortstop in addition to the other positions of pitching and 1st base. Oh, and by the way, the kids voted him and one other kid as the team captains. How about that!

It was only the first game. Let's get better next time.

Have A Nice Day

Ahhhhhh, today I got to sit out in our back yard and just strum ye ole' guitar. Nice to have the nice weather to do it! Just sitting back there and rockin'. Free serenade for the neighborhood, no problem!

Pony baseball starts tomorrow. I'll get the link here as soon as they get it up and going (only one day to figure it out!). Our manager, Lenny, has been hit with a different work schedule. So, it looks like, at least for the upcoming weekday games, I will managing for a while. It's not what I signed up for but it will be fine. I do have another coach who I have also been with for several years (in fact he used to manage and I coached for our kids younger teams). Oh well, trial by fire. Let you know how this temporary, rookie, manager does after tomorrow's game!

On May 4th I was asked to worship lead at River Valley Community Church in Aurora. I went there today. It is more of a cafe style: everybody sits at tables. I'd say maybe 100 people were there. The sermon was real good. It will be a welcome challenge for me; but, I am up for it!

Another large financial challenge hit us the other day. Man, are we getting hit the last month and a half or so. Got to keep the faith and hang in there. Keep making lemonade (I am starting to get tired of lemonade, though!). No more news yet on the job front. I will probably have at least one interview this week (maybe more). I feel that a job opportunity is going to come up within a couple weeks. Don't know where or when yet - for all I know it is right in front of me; for all I know, it isn't here yet.

Have a nice day...

How Bizare, How Bizarre

Today was a day I had two interviews. Wow. Here is the story. They both were in Lansing - literally within blocks of each other. They both related to what I used to do: one was a project management position at a general contractor - the other was an inside sales engineer at a supplier I used to deal with in the "old days". Honestly, I came real close to cancelling these but I did it for the practice, really for me. The first one, at a general contractor, was at 10am. The second one was at 1pm. Ok, so check this out:

I get to the general contractor's office at about 5 minutes early - standard protocol. The door is locked! It is kind of a small place. I knock on the door and no one answers. I called there and a voicemail comes up. I said I was there at the door but was going to leave. Naturally, I wasn't happy. Fortunately I had another interview otherwise that long drive was for nothing. So, at about 10:10 that company calls back: "sorry, we were all in a meeting upstairs - can you still come in?" Being the nice guy I was, I turned around and came back. The door was unlocked but no one was in the lobby. Ok, no problem. I waited...and waited...and waited. About 25 minutes later I pretty much decided that this place wasn't worth my time. So, I left. That was quite ignorant and disrespectful of them. I probably wasn't going to be there anyway but even if I did really want the job, no way I would work for someone like this. Naturally I let the recruiter know. Then the company calls back again! I didn't answer. They wanted me to call back so I could reschedule. Uh, huh, sure I will - NOT! I then had to hang around for almost 3 hours for the next one. That one went ok but it was like stepping into a time warp. It was like really stepping back into my past over 6 years ago. I didn't like it and didn't feel comfortable. I did see a former co-worker from Kroeschell there, however. That was kind of cool.

My conclusion from today is this: I am not destined to go back to what I used to do. No matter what else comes up, I really believe that isn't the place. It was 15 years of my life but no more. I have to admit too, I was spoiled at CCC. When you are in an environment where you know you belong it becomes hard now to find a substitute. I am not saying that nothing will be found. I know God has the next thing for me set but I know that the contracting/engineering field isn't it. Meanwhile we move on.

But, that interview debacle was bizarre...

B-Day

Today was a good birthday. The gig went well last night. A couple of songs were funny in that I forgot some parts to the songs (one of their originals was new and therefore I had no recording!). Here and there Roger or Pete would have to call out a chord or two or slow me down when starting a song. It was rather funny. However, I can fake it with the best of them: when in doubt, just get the key and solo along. I only had to do it a couple times but overall I was fine. It was a blast. I got to bed by 3am (with NO smell of cigarette smoke! Yay!).

However, this morning I was awakened at 9am for a birthday breakfast. We had a good one at Crispy Waffle (along with a couple cups of coffee!). It is always a great time when the four of us get together for a meal. We just connect so well as a family in that setting. Today was no different. I loved it.

Church at Romeoville went well. It has been much better since that C the J Tuesday. I can sing now! Yes, I have now left the "me" thoughts and have instead centered around "God and neighbor" thoughts! Interesting that the message today mirrored that: loving God and your neighbor. I believe I am on the verge of some other revelation that God must be telling me. Stay tuned.

Not much more to say about the day: the afternoon was spent watching the Cubs game then getting a brief nap afterward. We all did have dinner, with my mom and dad, at this great restaurant called Gordon Bierisch in the Bolingbrook Promenade. It was a new place to visit and that is what I wanted for my birthday dinner. A great place. Check it out if you haven't been there before. Their beer from the local microbrewery was fantastic. The food was even better. Great atmosphere.

After coming home, having a birthday cake, and settling down to catch up on some recorded shows, I am ready for bed. I do have more to say but it needs to wait until tomorrow...

Beacons of Light

As I was changing strings on one of my guitars something occured to me that I have to share. Don't worry, this is brief! I want to remind anyone who is reading this that if you want to head out to the gig I will be jamming at tomorrow night, to plan on it! I am filling in for Greg in his band Reignman. It is at Leo's Bar and Grille by 135th and Rt. 53 in Romeoville. Here is the link to their site for more info:

http://www.reignmanrocks.com/

Ok, so that wasn't it that hit me in the head. What I was thinking was how grateful I am for the guys in that band to ask me to sit in. When I was asked, that was still a relatively dark period in my life. It was only a couple weeks after being let go. I really stopped playing guitar for a while (except for lessons). That call was like a light that shined in my soul and brought me back. However, here is what is so interesting. Although it was a dark period, it wasn't entirely an unhappy time. You see, there were numerous beacons of light that shined then. Many of them are you who are reading. Many are just those people who called to offer support, encouragement, help - you name it. I think that God needed me to be in that darkness to see and feel those beacons of light. I always knew they were there. However, I believe that God needed me to know more. I don't know if I can explain it any more than that (how to explain a feeling?). Just like beacons of light can be seen and felt so much easier in the ambient darkness, the love of all the community of friends and family, those who know Christ (and, yes, even some who still need to find Him) , were seen and felt by myself and my family. I will always be thankful for that.

That wasn't too long was it? :)

...and then there were other things...

Hey there. Still here. The Cubs won their 4th in a row. Cool. The car is back and stops well. It better after shelling out that dough for brakes! That really hurt, spending money we don't really have available. Much of today was spent on the new website assisting Bryan. It originally seemed awfully quiet on the job front. That was fine, I was enjoying the time on the site. I have more to do tomorrow. I can't help but think that there is a long term opportunity with the website. I will continue to pursue that idea.

However, I did end up receiving a couple calls from people in my old field. One call I answered that might lead to an interview. The other was a message from Ed who is the president at my old company at Kroeschell that I need to return. Although that is good, I am still not sure about going back to that field. I need to proceed carefully there.

I am going to be worship leading at River Valley church in Aurora the first Sunday in May. I need to talk to them tomorrow to get more details. Should be interesting.

Meanwhile, I think that I am going to copy what Spike-TV is doing. They are running, in order, the entire Star Wars series. Since we have the DVD's here, I might do that the next handful of nights. I might not get that opportunity again.

American Idol is still on. yawn....

Lemonade For Sale: $800

Lenny is the manager of our Romeoville Pony League team. He and I get along pretty good. He works over at the rock quarry in Romeoville and has a history of being laid off from them a few times. We were laughing a couple weeks ago about this: "why does crap always seem to happen more when you are unemployed?". Since March 3rd we have been hit with a $215 fine for a speeding ticket by an unnammed member of the family; a $175 bill for a broken set of springs on our garage door; and now, this is the kicker, today we get hit with an $800 bill to fix the brakes on our Saturn car. You know the saying "when life hits you with lemons, make lemonade"? I think we need to make a big jug of lemonade! No sugar though - sugar is bad for you (especially the processed stuff). Just the lemons.

So, we don't get the car back until tomorrow afternoon. Should be interesting how we handle this. Fortunately (or, unfortunately?) no interviews in the next 24 hours, although I did have an appointment with a career counselor tomorrow. I think we can re-schedule. I do have a couple more leads today to send resumes out and am going to send a couple worship leading videos out to some churches today (assuming I can get to the post office). We got that video edited and mixed last night at my dad's studio. I think it will work fine. Also, last Friday a couple of part time opportunities were mentioned to me. Nothing confirmed as of now, but the doors are all open!

As long as it doesn't rain, I think I can make good use of my bike (except going to lessons today, that might be hard carrying the guitar! I will have my Neon back though). At least Mary has my car to get to work these couple days.

I think that after I finish all my job search stuff today, it might be time to go read the book of Job...

Cubs/Sox

Here is a funny thing I learned today. Our Pony League team is the Romeoville Cubs. We have been for a couple years now. We have kept the same core of kids for a few years now. There is one kid on our team that never liked the fact we were called the Cubs and made it known. Turns out his mom is a member of the Comiskey family! I guess that explains it! At least he has now left the dark side.

48 Hours

The last 48 hours have been a whirlwind of activity. It started with C the J and continues into now. There is much so I am going to summarize quickly. The best way for me to go through this is to give it in chronological order. I think yesterday was the best day I had since being let go. It continues into today. Can you believe it has been 1 month today?
Many of you in the music ministry might have got my email about my address change and to say good bye (sorry it took a month). Well, you got to love networking in the church! There have been many awesome offers to help out. A number of resumes were sent. Contact numbers were given (I called them all). The best part was really hearing from everyone. It was soooo cool! I love our music ministry! Seriously, I never had an inbox so full from one day like yesterday (and today)! Besides that some other things transpired.
I did get declined from Enterprise Rent a Car. It was actually funny. I never seriously thought it would go through. I might have a little fun with it and re-submit to see what happens. Maybe give some different answers on their application! It would be hilarious if they "accepted" me!
I did get an interview scheduled with a construction company for construction management. It's in two weeks and out in Lansing. Might be a bit too far but we'll see.
I have a music teaching company wanting me to be part of their team. It isn't as awesome as it sounds. I'll check it out though.
Let's see, what else. Oh, there is an awesome performance art idea that John McDavitt and I have been tossing around the last couple weeks. Last night I met with the father of one of my long time students, Carl Peterson. He promotes and books entertainment. It would take too long to go into all the details but suffice it to say that the performance art idea is very intriguing to him and, strangely enough, may tie in nicely with some stuff he has been going over with Renea Taylor. Yep, God is working here. There are too many dots that continue to connect with that idea. I am definitely staying on it. It is a long range goal but exciting nonetheless.
Also as an amusing note, I was freaking myself out after lessons last night when I was going over with some people how to make the HVAC systems more efficient at the Arts Center. It's been over six years and yet, it is another thing that is like riding a bike.
Then comes today. There have been a lot of things happening. The resume requests still are coming (thank you!!); I am hooking up tomorrow with a pastor at a church in Aurora. I'm not sure where it will go but should be cool nonetheless. Between yesterday and today I have been in communication with the Community Career Center in Naperville. We will do some career counseling soon. I am also going to be talking to someone at Liberty Mutual about a job. I don't know if it is within my gift zone but I will find out (thanks to David Girdwood for that connect). I also had a recruiter call me today from Volt. Maybe they can help too. There is so much more but it will have to wait for another day.
I hope this wasn't too boring. Suffice it to say God is at work a lot. I only need to follow His lead through all this. Remember I have no offers yet and only one interview scheduled. However, I believe that somewhere through this flurry of activity the answer will reveal itself. Stay tuned. I have to go work on the Reignman music for next week. Later y'all.

Things and Other Things

It was fun at C the J last night. The energy level was high. It actually was feeling like 11am on Sunday! It was weird for me to be there. On my own, I might still have not done it. However, I am purely following God's lead. When the worship time started it was like riding a bike, you just fall right into what is normal and right. I understood that it was Cindy O'Donnell's vocal audition - I think that she passed with flying colors! We did get the video done, many thanks to Greg for that. I haven't seen the final product yet. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow morning. I need to get that out. It's kind of a strange thing: I want the video to be good, yet I kind of don't want it to work. Yeah, weird, but has any of this stuff the last month made any sense?

I'm opening the networking thing up a bit more today on a couple of fronts. Let's see what happens. I've always thought that is the best source. And yes, I am still investigating some things to do on my own.

I think I said in the last post that I will be participating in handling the new website with Bryan and Greg at Romeoville (http://www.givingbacktogod.com/). It's a shame that I won't have the time anymore (by not being on staff) because the website works really, really well in the new model - no matter how big or small your campus. The site is like a grocery store: you can pick and choose what aisles you want to use. Not everyone will need to pick the same aisles (for example, large locations might want to use the availablity collecting feature while small ones wouldn't need it). However, the sharing component is huge. Imagine how much better it could be when one location might, for example, upload a chart and mp3 of a song that another location could use from on another date. Sharing cue sheets if need be. Sharing important information between musicians and vocalists. There is one great component that will help Worship Leaders in their preparation for a service. Musicians/vocalists/tech have a easier ability to look at several locations to serve using one site. Now think bigger, imagine this same idea extending to startup New Thing churches. What an awesome tool to help out. Later, they can keep it or do their own thing. But the resources can be endless. Then, as if this wasn't enough, extend that further out to include small groups, kids, students, monkeys, etc... I could go on but you get the idea.

Too bad, what a miss. The problem is that you need someone to manage it on the front end. Bryan can't, he has a regular job and a big enough job working on the background stuff with the site. I could and would but, I will have another job soon. I'm not sure how that can work with whatever time commitment challenges I might have. However, I do think that this thing could be marketed out there in the world. I need to see how we can do that. It could be cool. At least Romeoville will have the benefits. It's good to see this working at least somewhere.