What up Y’all
I’m back. Sorry it’s been a while. I just hadn’t had the motivation this month to write. But I feel that I owe it to myself as well as everyone to start back again and do this thang once a week. There are a lot of things I have been slacking off lately during this month but that should all change next month. It’s been 3 weeks since I last did a blog and I do need to talk about things that had happened or are about to happen in the future. Sit back; get your reading glasses out because this might take a while.
First thing that I should talk about is how my project is going. I mean this is the reason I wrote the blog in the first place is to write about the all the experiences in the information services department. It has been a busy three weeks. We have been working on our server backups and we wanted to do some adjusting around. We do daily backups Monday through Saturday and we end up using two tapes to back everything up. What we wanted to do is back everything up with using one tape. It makes for cleaner backups. We decided to order an external hard drive to backup files that were left on the second tape. It took some time to do a clean backup on the external hard drive but I finally managed to make a clean backup. Then I started to work on the new fixed asset system (FAS). FAS is a program that has a lit of all our updated hardware and software inventory from Elgin, Washington D.C, Field Staff, and here in New Windsor. It’s taking some time but I am on top of the ball on that. It’s a lot of data entry that needs to be done (How exciting for IS, right). Also, here at work I’ve been building up my personal DVD collection. I got quite a bit now. Along with small jobs such as going down to the warehouse and looking to see what’s going on with a particular problem, I’m just trying to keep busy here in the office.
In one more week, I will be making another trip to Elgin for the spring board meeting. This feels a little different though because I am going to go there and help out Tim and Tom whatever they need help with. There is a field staff laptop that I started to work on here in the office but I will have to finish up in Elgin. At first, I wasn’t looking forward to the trip because the following weekend is the BVS mid-year retreat. That would mean that I would have to be there for two weeks. The retreat is in Newark, IL, somewhere near Elgin. At first I didn’t want to be away from the center for two weeks, however as time goes by, I started to get my enthusiasm back and now I am ready and willing to go and look forward to go. I figured that this is my first year in BVS and I should take full advantage of doing whatever I can do to make the first year enjoyable. And time away from the apartment doing something is worth the trip anyway. I had been to Elgin in October and kicked with some of my friends over there. I had gone to DC in January and had the best time with some other unit members. I look forward to seeing the other members who I haven’t seen since orientation like Steve, Ben, Willem, Becca, and Leo. That’s going to be great. Shit, when Steve, Ben and I get back together its going to be off the charts. We’re going to have a great f****n time. That is what made me come around.
Another important thing that I want to talk about is when I do get to the BVS retreat, that is where I will let BVS know where my future plans are headed. My future plans include sticking around here in New Windsor continuing to work here with Francie in the Information Services department. Two specific reasons why I chose to do another year. First reason is that I love what I do. I love being part of the IS team. I love working on all these computers and I look forward to implementing some of my ideas that I have to make this department better. That excites me to the fullest. The second reason is that there is a chance that I can get employed here after my second year. Francie and I talk about it all the time and as much as we talk about it, I would say that my chances are looking good. We will have to work out some of the finer details right before I leave for retreat but I believe that all signs are looking good. To me this was a tough decision for me to make because I feel like I am sacrificing my social life to get a career in the field that I love. However that was the plan when I decided to come to BVS and take on the project of Information Service Technician. If I was to choose another project, which at orientation looked like the thing to do, then I would have more of a social life. I would be going out more and doing a lot more things with people around my age. It is hard to have that kind of life here at the center when most people are middle aged to senior aged people. I do enjoy their company and their presence but I also enjoy being around people my age such as my unit members. However at this point of my life, I need to start making a life for myself and that is staying here in New Windsor, and start making so serious cash doing something that I love to do. So come next year I should be an official East Coast resident with the love of the West Coast.
Last weekend, my good friends and fellow BVSer’s Dave and Maria Huber finished up their 6 months here at the center. They were in the older adult unit right before my unit and they finished up their first term. Now they are back in Indiana for month and after that they are doing another BVS project in New Mexico. This time, they are doing two years over there because that project really needs the both of them. New Mexico was looking for two great people and that is what they got. When the Huber’s came to New Windsor, I was excited because Dan McFadden, the BVS Director, informed me that there were going to be another BVS couple here at the center. When I decided to my project here at the Brethren Service Center, I was the only BVSer here at the time. The Huber’s came two weeks later and we hit it off right from the start. They had informed me that I was the identical twin of one of their nephews. I heard that all my life, that I look exactly like one’s friend. Their project was to be hosts for the Windsor and Zigler buildings. I believe hosts have the craziest schedule of us all but someone has to do it and they were good at being hosts. They showed nothing but love to everyone and did their jobs well. The Huber’s took me in and treated me like family. There were times when I felt a little home sick but they would help me with that and everything would be cool. I always knew they were leaving in February but even though I knew when they were leaving, I’m wasn’t ready for them to leave. I kept breaking down because I didn’t know what my social life was going to be like without them. They would always bring me to church, always organize game nights, Maria would give me rides to the store for groceries, Dave would always tell stories about what it was like when he grew up. Just things like that makes them who they are, wonderful cool, family-like friends who I got nothing but love for and I am going to miss them very much.
Earlier this month happened to been my six month period of being here in BVS and here in New Windsor. I didn’t go out and celebrate it or anything like that but I think this is a major accomplishment for me, especially being away from home this long and not having the urge to come back home for good. I do have the urge of coming back home to visit for a week or two but not for good. Everyone else back home are doing something with themselves. My brother and his girlfriend Courtney are looking to buy a house. My Dad is improving our home and recently bought a new motorcycle. I think that is a major change, especially since he spent a lot of time working on his old bike. But it needed to get done. My Mom got a job transfer to Selma, CA, enjoying life over there. I didn’t think I would see the day when she would move out of the area. When I left, my cousin Tony and his wife got a new place. My cousin David graduated college and had big things coming up for him. My good buddy Glenn retired again from being our church pastor and is looking forward to life with the grandchildren. My brother Todd and his girlfriend became parents to a beautiful baby girl. Another words, all people around me are doing something with there lives and I need to do something in my life, even if it is across the country.
I got some other plans coming up for the next few months. My mom is coming to see me in May. I look forward to that. Some time in the next couple of months, I will be going back to DC again. This time I will be going not just to hang out and kick it again, but for work purpose as well. This fall, BVS is having a 60th anniversary celebration here in New Windsor at the center. I talked to Glenn about showing up then and hopefully I can get some of the unit members to show up as well. Dave and Maria would love to show up, but I don’t think they would be able to. This is a huge weekend for me. These next few months should be interesting. Continue to read my blogs and I will do better job doing writing a weekly story for you all. Until the next time, Peace and Love!
JCI
BVSer, Unit 275
Information Services
