AUTHOR: Brad DATE: 7/30/2003 10:38:00 PM ----- BODY: Registration Observation

I had to leave work for a little bit yesterday so that I could run over the the nearby DMV to get my car registered in the state of Kansas. The new tags on my car marked the last change needed to become a full-fledged Kansas citizen, sadly shedding myself of my Iowa roots. What transpired during the course of my visit the Department of Motor Vehicles really left me in a state of dismay. The place was very chaotic as the employees tried their best to hurry people through the process. Not many smiles were exchanged between the workers and customers, but they were overly kind and accommodating to me. It didn't take me long to figure out why. Most of the people in the place were dressed in regular shorts and a t-shirt. They had regular cars that the average person might drive. I, on the otherhand, was dressed in my usual dress clothes and tie that I wear to work everyday. I also drive a luxury car. Once I noticed what was going on, I started picking up on every detail of what was going on around me. I left the place feeling uncomfortable with who I was and slightly irritated at what others had perceived me as. Today was a very sad display of how preconceived notions held by others really do affect day to day lives. Yesrday, I was treated with higher regard than others and I was flat out embarassed. -------- AUTHOR: Brad DATE: 7/20/2003 11:02:00 PM ----- BODY: Entertainment Recommendations

There are a few things I would like to pass on to others reading this. Movies: 28 Days Later is a great horror flick and it comes highly recommended to those who are interested in watching some tense, disturbing film. It is done very well, but it is almost too disturbing at times. Remember the queezy feeling you got seeing Jared Leto's arm in Requiem For a Dream? You'll definitely feel that way again multiple times during 28 Days Later. This isn't your teeny bopper scary movie a la Scream. Music: For the past couple weeks it seems like I have not been able to get two CDs out of my player. One is Sumday by Grandaddy and the other is Phantom Power by Super Furry Animals. SFA has really outdone themselves this time around and their new album, in my opinion, is the first great album to come out so far this year. Video Games: NCAA College Football 2004 just flat out amazes me. There really isn't any aspect of college football that has been left out. It's realistic and a blast to play. Internet: Ok, a friend passed this on to me and it absolutely cracks me up. There's this chubby kid who filmed himself pretending to fight Star Wars-style and it's somehow gotten onto the internet. Well, as if that isn't funny enough, people have made their own creations using the fight scenes. There's a Terminator knockoff, a Star Wars knockoff, and a Braveheart knockoff. My favorite, though, is the Matrix knockoff -------- AUTHOR: Brad DATE: 7/17/2003 10:07:00 PM ----- BODY: The Big Two-Three

Yesterday was my birthday which was a new experience for me altogether. This was my first birthday in my 23 years of existance that I was left without the company of family or close friends. To be honest, it was kind of lonely, in a way. Every year I turn older I go through a sort of phase where it bothers me that I'm aging. I swear I have a mini aging crisis for every year that passes with me. I even ended up buying my own birthday cake at a local Hy-Vee so I could eat it by myself in front of a TV. Last night, however, I was joined by about seven co-workers and we all ate and drank for free all night at a bar. All in all, I believe the whole thing was as good as it could have possibly been. I even got phone calls from friends I never would have expected in a million years. Gotta love surprises like that. -------- AUTHOR: Brad DATE: 7/01/2003 11:39:00 PM ----- BODY: Lives In My Hands

Today was the first day that I fully realized how much people's lives really do rely on my work. Today, I had two nurses pull a no call/no show on our most critical client. A no call/no show is when a nurse not only doesn't even bother to show up, but they don't even bother to call and let us know they can't make it. This caused a huge problem because the client is new for us and is literally teetering on life and death everyday. In fact, he was just sent to the hospital last week because he wasn't quite ready to be cared for at home. Because of the circumstances today, a lot of the pressure was placed on me because I am in charge of homecare. As I frantically tried to track our missing nurse while attempting to discover a replacement at the last minute, it really hit me just how much my performace as a recruiter would affect this human being's life. I felt horrible about the situation. I felt horrible for the family to have to go through such stress after depending on us, and I felt horrible because a child would have to go to the emergency room or even possibly die because of what was happening. Today wasn't about growing sales or recruiting nurses. Today was about maintaining lives. They say that it is normal for a recruiter for this company to cry three or four times from all the stress that is placed on you, and I can see how that statistic could ring true. After work, my boss took me out to eat. He told me a story about what keeps him doing what he does. His second week with the company, he got a call while on-call one night from a man who was a quadrapelegic. The disabled man's nurse had not shown up to take care of him and it was obvious she wasn't going to come for the night. My boss was stuck trying to call everyone in his roster by himself to take care of the guy. No one was able to do it. After a while, my boss was freaking out because if no one was able to take care of him, the state would come and take his daughter away and place him in the hospital. My boss called the guy back and explained that he couldn't find anyone but was still going to try. He also admitted that he was scared because he knew there was a good chance he wouldn't get a nurse to help him. The disabled man explained his story to my boss. The man was going to a bar one night and there was a guy outside that had a dog. The owner said to watch out because the dog would bite. The man told the owner it was okay and went to pet the dog anyway. The owner took that as a sign of disrespect. As the man left the bar that night, the owner of the dog beat the man with a pool stick, rendering him without feeling in any of his limbs. Two weeks later, his wife committed suicide because she couldn't deal with the state her husband was in. He was left to take care of his daughter by himself as a quadrapelegic...all because he decided to pet a dog. This man, after everything he had been through, told my boss that he should have no reason to be scared. The disabled man, who by now was covered in his own urine and feces, explained that if you have faith you have no reason to be scared. He told my boss to not give up and someone would come to take care of him. The first person my boss called after that agreed to take care of the disabled man. If that isn't inspiration then I don't know what is. --------