Officially Mature -- Christmas Cards
11-21-06, 12:47 PM

I always wondered when it was going to happen but didn�t expect it to be so soon.

�Excuse me, didn�t you used to live in XYZ, Colorado?�

Turning towards the person, I immediately recognized the face but stumbled upon the name beginning with a �B�. �Yes, aren�t you Brent or Bert?� He was an unforgettable character who stood-out among the hard-drinking, pot-smoking, outdoor-loving, ski addicts and snowboard punks, not because of his sculpted 6� 2� athletic frame but because he didn�t drink, take drugs nor a bragging, obnoxious trust-funder. Mostly, I remember this guy because of his earthiness and was oddly, unsettled because of unselfishness. I felt odd in my suspicion of his �niceness�. What is his motive? He has to have one

�I�m Brent. I recognized you earlier from your haircut.�

I laughed because I knew exactly what he meant by that phrase because his former boss and I appear identical in stature, a whopping 5� 5� to 5� 6� with nearly the same haircut. I introduced him to Karen and we exchanged phone numbers as it would be good just to have a drink and expand are friendship circles in our newly adopted city.

The big Ohio State � Michigan game was Saturday. �Karen, you just need to let me have this day. I need to watch the game at a bar, drink and eat bar-food. I need �guy conversation� and beer while watching a game.� A big, bacon cheddar burger is something I haven�t eaten in months. Six hours of drinking later, I had my fill of guy-time and bar life.

One of the reasons we moved to Flagstaff was the close proximity to places of interests such as Walnut Canyon National Monument, a national forest where the ancient cliff-dwellers once lived 700 years ago. Both of us were surprised the national park was only 5.5 miles down a dirt road from our house, hence we made this our long run as part of our training schedule. Although the hilly, dirt road/trail was somewhat challenging, the journey was worth it once we saw how these ancient people carved their homes into the cliffs. Protection benefits aside, I�m sure the reason they moved out of their cliff-side condos only after a 100 years was due to attrition of from children and adults accidentally falling from the ledges while playing or the daily, 200 foot climbs to retrieve drinking water and fire wood.

A week ago, Karen broke-down and panicked as a result of not having a job and the difficult prospects of job searching in a small community as well as giving-up her ideal job. Trying re-assure her that it is just a matter of time and reminding her she has only moved here a week and half ago, I introduced her to the job search boards, wrote her cover letters and resumes and her posted resumes. Certainly, she could have down this but she grew frustrated at the process from not knowing the in-and-outs of these sites as I have. Also, she seems to have an instant gratification need as she became disgruntled at the available posted jobs and jumped to generalized conclusions that there aren�t jobs in her field. Sympathetic to her cries, I tried to adjust her expectations and widen her job search to other careers and introduced other non-traditional methods to networking and a job-search. I suppose there is a little resentment on her part because every night I return home extremely happy with my new place of employment and city.

Luckily, we qualified for a decent home loan amount which lessened our fears that we would have to live in a �rough edge of town�. Quite the contrary, since we don�t have nor plan to have any children (and she has a considerable amount for a down-payment), we could afford to purchase a new, semi-custom built home with arts and craft architecture in a desirable neighborhood. However, the justification for such a home for only two people doesn�t seem to merit the cost. At least our home search began which lead to much discussion of what we value in a home design and layout. We�re dreaming about possibilities � at least the dreams are free.

Since being engaged, I seemed to have begun to notice a lot more women looking attractive to me and being attracted to them. I hope this is a normal process as we are to discuss wedding plans over the Thanksgiving holiday. With magazines, travel guides and eloping books, we plan a long day of cooking and discussions by the fire.

Hopefully, we�ll snap a few pictures of our first holiday with our new, slightly used digital camera. I�m pretty excited about this gift because I never have taken many pictures involving my life. From high school forward, it is as if I never existed. We also invested in a HP printer especially designed for photograph printing which, most likely, will produce our Christmas card photos.

Oh yea, another first, mailing Christmas cards. Karen bought two sets of cards to send to family and friends. As a single guy, I never mailed cards but my status changed to a �couple� so I suppose this is a step towards showing others now I�m officially mature.

Yesterday - Tomorrow