Greatful

The beautiful sights of San Francisco. That is a photo of me taking it all in while I was on my road trip a week and a half ago. You know, the one that I never wrote about. It was super awesome. The only thing that I felt I needed to do was to go to Fisherman's Wharf and get some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Mission accomplished.

We drove up on Friday, spent most of the day Saturday in Golden Gate park, eating chowder, and shopping at my new favorite store - H&M. I forgot to take my church clothes with me as I left my house, so while in Frisco I had to buy a pair of slacks, shirt and a tie (my church shoes were in my duffle bag).

We went to the Stanford singles ward on Sunday morning and then drove home down the coast with a brief stop in Santa Cruz for a ride on the roller coaster at the beach spiritual experience. We topped it off with dinner at In 'n Out.

I'm greatful for road trips.


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So I was driving home from work today and traffic started to slow down. It got slower and slower until finally it came to a stop. This is not unusual for the freeways of L.A., but we sat at a dead stop for quite some time. I tuned into the L.A. traffic channel on XM radio to find out what was up. Sure enough, there was an accidents blocking the HOV, #1 and #2 lanes. In other words, "a doozey." I switched off the radio and plugged in my mp3 player to listen to some music that I could sing along to and, perhaps, entertain other drivers near me as they gazed into my car and tried to imagine what I was singing and/or how bad it sounded.

We inched along, literally, for about 20 minutes. In that time I think we covered a total distance of about 250 yards. And then I could see it, the accident. Or at least what was left of it. Most of the cars had been towed away, and the ambulance ahd already taken off with the people in it. All I could see was the last remaining vehicle that was involved. It was amazing. Outside of a junkyard, I have never seen a car that badly mangled. It was completely unrecognizable - and I'm kind of a car guy, so I recognize most cars on the road. And it was in the lane that I was driving in.

I wonder what would have happened if I had left work five minutes earlier today. I would have been in that lane (the carpool lane). I would have been passing that spot at roughly the same time as the accident occured. I potentially could have been the person that got carried away on a stretcher to the hospital - or worse. It was kind of a sobering thought.

I'm greatful that I was busy and a little late leaving work today.


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I had someone come in my office today to talk to me about some work that I need them to do for me. It's a little more than what she is used to doing on other projects, but this project is really in trouble and needs a little TLC. We chatted for a bit, and she started asking me about what it was like only working part time (side note: I only work part time right now because I'm starting my own business. I quit my job, but they begged me to stay on part time until I get a replacement trained. Yeah, it's the coolest thing EVER.)

We got to talking about who was going to replace me, and I made a comment about how so-and-so should have my job because everyone likes him and everyone hates me at this point for pushing them so hard. She dismissed my statement, and said, "nah, everybody likes you. Brandon is just kind of a jerk, so that's why he says the things he does. You've done a really good job with this project."

That meant a lot to me. She's been one that I've often been at odds with over the particulars of the project, so for her to say that I've done a good job really made me feel good. Not enough to keep on working there, but good nonetheless. :P

I'm greatful for compliments.