Training the Abilene Way

I went to my first full blown CPE (continued education) training for accounting in Abilene on Friday and wow did it take me back to somewhere long ago maybe high school; no I'm not sure it was ever this bad. Anyway, so they sent me an email from work with the directions and asking us to please make sure we dress appropriately in business casusal since some of the community clients and other CPAs would be there. I think ok the old Ernst & Young business casual plus take it down a notch because this is after all Abilene and so I show up in Khaki Linen pants and a red Ann Taylor sleeveless blouse in my opinion dressed nice but casual. Now I should have immediately known what to expect given that the training was being held at the "WHC Ranchouse at the Expo center" that should have been a huge hint but I'm thinking ok that is just the only place to have anything at Abilene so no problem this will be a normal sophisticated business type person training. So I arrive and look around and notice that about maybe 1/10 of the people are dressed "Abilene appropriate business casual" (at least by my definition) these must be the people from the firm I work for. Now the other 9/10 are well let me try to describe it for you....how about the lady in the cowboy type jeans that I thought didn't even exist any more with the blouse (collar and all) in the colors and striped like the Texas flag including the star on the front right on the, yes you guessed it, chest area. Now to complete the outfit she needed ropers but no we don't go for that we go for the "let me pretend I'm a little big town sophisticated and put on my nice lace up docker type shoes". And of course this is all complete with the big hair and bangs just like you see in the modern western west texas movies like say Friday Night Lights. And then in walked another lady that had to be this lady's sister (in fact she came to the front after walking in late and sat by her) dressed almost exactly the same except I think her shirt had cows or pigs or something on it. Yep I'm in Abilene. And I love the guys that where there cowboy boots with nice slacks and a nice shirt; actually I worked with a guy that wore the same outfit in Austin, he was from Midland.... Now the presentor she was from Big Spring; about 1 1/2 hours from Abilene but she married an Arthur Anderson partner and lives in Dallas so she was dressed in what I pictured business casual we would all be dressed in. Anyway, it was interesting to say the least. At least the DK (the firm I work at) people are attuned to the real world and supplied coffee and breakfast snacks. Needless to say when the presenter started talking about Arthur Anderson being indicted and the big 8 and big 5 and final 4 accounting firms and pensions and ethics I wandered if 9/10 of the people in the room were thinking about going home and throwing a lasso around some cows!!!

All Tollroads now lead to Austin

And I ask you who loves paying tolls? I don't remember ever having an option for voting for all these roads they were building while I was living in Austin and while I had heard the rumors they were going to be toll roads I don't think it dawned on me what that meant. Now granted they cut time to get to places in about half but they also cut my change pile in the car down to about....well... nothing. It was kind of cool watching for the three years I lived there these well frankly high rise three or four deck overpasses go up and I am absolutely not complaining about how much faster I can get into Austin from the Northwest outskirts (Cedar Park) coming from Abilene. For that matter it used to take me FOREVER like almost an hour from my old apartment to get out to my friends the Massies house and now it can be done in 20 minutes again minus about 3 bucks but it is crazy the growth that has come with these roads. For instance my friends the Massies used to live in the country down a road where there was NOTHING but the Dell Diamond baseball field. Now I get lost going to there house because I don't recognize the WalMart, the HEB Plus, Chilis, I lost count of gas stations, the Starbucks, and yes guess what A TOLL ROAD!!! Its crazy how the little quiet peaceful sleepy town of Austin is a sprawling suburbian city now. And guess what there are at least 2 high rise condos going up downtown that is if you want to shell out about 1,450 for a one bedroom apt. a month. And if you want a house in the cute south congress or barton springs area then get ready to shell out $400k and only for about a rundown 1100 square foot tiny house. That isn't to mention the suburban sprawl of Ikea and an outlet mall and chains galore. And I thought it wouldn't grow much out west because of the lake...wrong....there is a new mall going up right around lake Travis. Come on who wants to shot when you can put on goggles and go water skiing or tubing on the lake? What happened to the local keep Austin Wierd? Seems its not turned into an all toll roads lead to Austin the city of chains and suburbian sprawl. Did I mention the suburbian sprawl?

Be Joyful Always

It was exactly one year ago when I locked the door to the dining hall and headed down the hill to my cabin. After grabbing a quick shower I headed off to Early Christian Worship with some of the other staff. I remember sitting there singing with a heavy heart knowing something was wrong and I couldn’t even label it. Just three weeks ago I got the letter from Meredith telling me Neal was giving up. My initial reaction then was no way Neal is a fighter he’s been fighting since he was a baby just hang on and we are going to have a successful kidney transplant. But after getting his best friend J.R. who was a counselor and talking to him on the phone I knew his spirit was weak and it was gnawing away at my heart. I remember hugging my friend Tammy after a late night talk and then heading off to try to catch some sleep before the all day hike I was planning on going on. But sleep was restless because there was a sickening feeling in my stomach I couldn’t explain but couldn’t ignore. J. R. left the next day to go see Neal. I drove with some others to the El Cielo trail and took off hiking. The day was a typical summer day in the mountains where the clouds build back over the mountains and is an amazing sight to watch. We had been watching these clouds balloon all day long. As we walked along the ridge to the valley we would tackle before reaching the summit (consequencely this strongly resembles the sound of music tour view) I looked out an saw some of the most amazing views of clouds billowing in over the sun and hugging the top of the mountain peaks. Many of the campers began complaining because of the steepness of the rest of the hike and as I looked out all I could think about was how they had the legs and strength to hike this and how Neal would have given anything to have EVER been able to hike this beautiful mountain. Some of my friends with me asked if I wanted a picture and even though I would normally have taken 1,000 pictures trying to capture the beauty that day I didn’t even try because I knew how impossible it was. I couldn’t get Neal out of my mind for the rest of the hike up, down, and the ride back into camp. It was like something was stirring deep inside me telling me something was up I just didn’t know what. I got back to camp and went to the kitchen to start helping get dinner ready. That is when my friend Philip called on the intercom that I had a phone call. Not thinking much about it I clicked the phone on and I heard Philip’s wife Tammy (my good friend mentioned above) saying, “Meredith we love you all” and I just knew, I knew that Neal was now looking down on those clouds instead of up into them. As I held the phone their were no words I had, Meredith had no words just tears, tears of comfort, tears knowing he was no longer in pain, and tears of intense hurt and emotional pain. The next 4 or 5 hours are now like a zombie to me and while I remember some of the things that happened it wasn’t until later that evening when the camp gathered on the deck and was singing that I looked up and saw the sun peaking out from those clouds and I felt Neal’s presence right there with us and I knew he was singing with us. Its hard to realize that was one year ago and the hurt is just as intense now as then; but I’ve learned to cope and to face life knowing that Neal’s legacy lives on. He was an amazing kid, young man, friend, brother and I miss him. So now as the count of the years begins to living without Neal I will never forget how he has inspired me and how his attitude has changed my outlook on life. In Neal’s words, “Be joyful, always, Not tomorrow, not for 10 minutes, not just at lunch, but always, always, always. Everyone has problems but life is good. Don’t waste it, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Have joy alright. Always!!”