Happy Anniversary!

Today is my 1 year anniversary at my new job. It’s been quite a year. Lots of up, and then more recently, a down.

I’m flying to Denver right now, and tried to catch up on writing a little. As I was going through my files, I found my job offers from my present company. And I started laughing.

When this company offered me a job, I turned it down flat. They came back, offered again. (They had been talking to me for some months.) Finally, on the third offer, I decided to accept. And, then I realized…they had not converted the offer to a pdf file.

I could not resist. You guessed it…I jacked with the offer. To a huge degree of excess. I added several zeros onto every figure, and upped my vacation to 25 weeks a year, added some other perks. I signed the offer, converted it to a pdf, and sent it to my boss, with a quick e-mail: “Here it is finally! Glad we agreed and I look forward to working with you. Please forward to HR asap for processing so I might give notice.”

He did.

The next day, HR called him. And he called me.

Janie, I think we may have made a mistake on the offer letter.

Seriously? Want to retract it? I’m good with that.

No! We want you to go to work with us, but I think HR messed up when they typed it up..there are some typos. HR called me and they’re all upset.

I think he was having a heart attack. I had to confess.

Dude. It’s a rule, though most likely unwritten. Documents such as that need to be in read only form or pdf form so people can’t change them.

He cracked up. HR thought it was funny. The partners of the company found it hilarious.

The firm now pdf’s…everything.

For The Love Of A Brother

It was a little exciting in the Sounding Forth and Fiberhawk households yesterday. I got a call from my Brother Scott about 10:30 a.m. yesterday.

Hey, Sis. I’m heading to Odessa to the cardiologist, Dr. Raja Naidu.
What?
Yup. I think I may have had a heart attack this morning at work.

When I can breathe, I tell him: Don't do this s**t to me, Scott. If you die on me, I'll freakin' kill you. Seriously.

I know, I am a serious encourager, aren't I? (You always want me around when things are serious - I will remind you just HOW serious.) We laugh, but inside, I am starting to Freak. Out. In. The. Coolest. Way. Possible. I can't breathe. We lost one brother to cancer, not ready to lose Scott, too. He will be 50 this year. He’s fit as a fiddle. Doesn’t drink. Eats anything he wants. Goes 90 mph like someone else y’all know all the time. Doesn’t smoke. Oh, wait. He does smoke. Seriously. Time to ask for help. I get on the prayer e-mail chain.

This morning while at work, Scott had an episode and may have experienced a heart attack. He went straight to the hospital at Big Spring, and they saw something on his EKG that looked suspicious, and wanted to admit and keep him. Scott and Lisa decided to go another route and went to their local physician, who referred them to a cardiologist in Odessa. Scott and Lisa went straight to that cardiologist, who got them in immediately for an examination. The cardiologist has now scheduled an angiogram at 4pm this afternoon. If everything goes well, Scott will get to come home.

Scott seems to be fine, and I’ll be heading over to Odessa to be there before the procedure. Scott and Lisa have 2 sons in high school, 1 in college, and 1 sweet grandchild - all of whom need their dad and grandpa healthy and in his usual 90 mph mode! (Besides that, we still have some competitive sibling rivalry going on - Scott’s not yet beat my shooting score! ;) ) Just wanted to let y’all know and to ask for your prayers for Scott and our family. I’ll update you as I know more.

At 3:45 p.m., we’re with Scott in the pre-surgery room, cracking jokes, having fun. At 4:15 p.m., the nurses take him to the cath lab. Twenty minutes or so later, Dr. Naidu comes to get us, and shows us the angiogram results. We can see Scott laughing with the nurses in the cath lab.
Scott says this is how it went down in the cath lab.

Dr. Naidu asked Scott: What do you eat? Scott : Anything that’s put before me, I’m not picky. Greasy hamburgers, anything. Doctor: Do you smoke? Scott: Yes, about a pack a day. For the last 30 years.

The results? 100% CLEAR. I kid you not. I saw the scan myself, it looks marvelous. We don’t know what caused the episode, so that may remain a mystery. Stress? Muscle spasm? Anyway, Scott was released to go back to work today.

And me? I am so very thankful. I love that brother of mine. And he can beat me shooting anytime. Yeah, well, anytime he thinks he’s big enough. Heh.