2006- A Brief Pictorial Recap

The Verdict is In...

I heard from the recruitor today,prior to my 11am interview. Unfortunately, she reported that the position I was interviewing for was already filled. She said that they had interviewed someone else and there was a 99% chance that they would accept the position. Should I cling to that 1% chance that I still might get the job? I can't do that. I have to resolve that I didn't get the job.


Of course I am disappointed.

Christmas Day, 2006

Holiday Greetings!

Merry Christmas from Dixie!!!

Love,
Billy Bob Johnson & Keisha Lorraine

Christmas Morning...

From my perspective:

When I was a kid, Christmas morning went like this: one of us kids would wake up and then they'd wake up the other kids. We'd all get together and go to Mom and Dad's room to wake them up, too. Mom would keep us all contained in the kitchen, while Dad would call the grandparents. We weren't allowed to see our gifts until all of the grandparents were in our house. Unfortunately, one set of grandparents lived about 30 minutes away. So, Mom and Dad would keep us corralled in the kitchen, just inches away from the paradise that Santa had set up in our den. After what seemed like hours, all of the grandparents were accounted for. At this point, Dad would say "Let me go see if Santa Claus came" and he'd tip-toe down the hall and take a look into the den. From there he'd shout: "He came, he came!" and that was our green flag that it was ok to cross the boundary lines that were previously set.

The same year, from my Dad's perspective:

We had supper with Harriet's side of the family, followed by a three hour long gift-opening marathon! The kids looked tired, but Harriet insisted that we take them to the candle light service at church. We finally got back home around midnight and got the kids to bed fairly easily. Once we were sure that they were asleep, I went next door to the VanDyke's to retrieve all of the Santa gifts from their basement. We had stored everything in their basement and the plan was that they would leave the basement door unlocked. In their haste to leave town, the VanDyke's had forgotten the plan. I ended up having to break a window to gain entry. Thank God this was in the days before home alram systems! Once I got into their basement, it only took about twenty trips to get everything back to our house, and by 2am we were ready to start setting up the toys. We drank spiked eggnog as we unpacked all of the boxes. Harriet filled the Christmas stockings as I tried to assemble an electric train set- the directions were in Chinese, so I wasn't having much luck. After a few hours, the train was complete and it was time to move on to the rest of the gifts. We made 3 piles- one for each of the boys. As the sun began to rise, we finished off the last of the eggnog and groggily tip-toed past the boy's rooms and pored ourselves in the bed. My eyes weren't even closed before the kids were awake and ready to go. I made the calls to the grandparents as Harriet made a pot of coffee. It's a shame they didn't have RedBull back then! We needed all of the caffeine we could get to stay awake and try to not appear too drunk when the grandparents arrived. Luckily my parents lived across town, so by the time they arrived we had had a couple of cups of joe and brushed our teeth and no one would've ever guessed that we'd pulled an all night drinking binge while we assembled the Santa Clause gifts. Just before it was time for the kids to see their gifts, I remembered the eggnog glasses and the ashtrays on the coffee table. The grandparents were strictly Southern Baptist and they would not have approved, so I made up an excuse that I needed to go see if Santa had come. I snuck into the den and stashed the glasses & ashtray under the sofa. I scanned the room to make sure there was no evidence of the previous night's drunkfest and when I was satisfied, I announced "He came, he came" and the family piled into the den.

Merry Christmas!

King's New Toy

Christmas in East Point!

My neighbors pulled out all the stops this year! Here are some holiday pictures from all around my little corner of the world~~~ enjoy!

A Few More...

Breaking News...

I applied for a job a few months ago. I'm sure you'll remember me talking about it here on my Blog. I have no complaints with my current job. I love the people that I work with, and the people that I work for. The only reason that I applied for a new job is because it was such a great opportunity and one that I couldn't pass by. So when I saw the ad posted on Monster I decided to give it a try. What would it hurt to throw my hat into the ring?

So, it's been a few months since I applied. I didn't get any response. I had all but given up on this job. It's been so long since I applied, I

figured that they weren't interested in me. As luck would have it, the Vice President of Human Resources for the company attended our year end Manager's meeting. I got word a week earlier that she would be there, so I had time to prepare. Ususally at these meetings I discuss upcoming events: employee anniversaries, review dates, advertising promotions, etc. But since I was aware that a secret guest from our corporate office would be attending, I decided to focus on talking about catering sales. I created charts, graphs and spreadsheets comparing 2005 catering sales to 2006 catering sales. It was impressive. Here is a summary: in 2005 I had $38,936.86 in catering sales. In 2006, I sold $73,869.44! Sales increased by 200%!

I don't know if the HR lady passed this info back to corporate or not. But... within 24 hours my phone was ringing and I'm happy to finally annouce that an interview for the national director of catering position is set for next Wednesday. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.. this is big... this could be huge!! This could be everything I've worked my ass off for for so long! I know I'm capable and I believe that I deserve this. After working 70 hours a week for the past few years, I feel as though I've earned it. I just hope I can convey my confidence to the ones that make the decisions! Wish me luck!!! I'll keep you posted!

Dear Santa...

Mom found this letter that I wrote to Santa Clause when I was a kid. I especially love the last lines: "My name is Brian. My last name is Burnett. I like toys."


And don't you forget it, Mr. Clause!

It's Raining Cookware!!!

I got three more pieces of Calphalon this week for doing a cooking demo!

















My collection is almost complete!

Family Christmas

My family got together last night for our annual Christmas celebration at Aunt Jane & Uncle Hub's house in Fayetteville. It was sad that after spending 35 Christmases here, this will be the last. Jane and Hub have put their house up for sale and they are building a new home in a retirement village nearby. The new home will be completed in June.

It was good to see all of the family, especially Mary Catherine's kids. Benjamin is in the Navy, Catherine is a junior at Georgia Southern, Chandler just turned 17 got his first car, and William goes to school in Oregon. They are all home for the holidays now- it's rare that we get to see them all at the same time. They grow up so fast!!! I love this family picture-- just wish that Jim and his kids could've been there to make the photo complete.

Here are a few more pics from last night:

My Goofy Son, King

Memories of Granddaddy

Yesterday was my grandfather's birthday. If he were still alive, he would be 101 years old!

Granddaddy was a tough old bird. He had a gruff exterior; a tough-macho type. What most people didn't know was that deep down he was a teddy bear. He was the most sentimental man I've ever met. If he believed in something, he was behind it 100% and everyone knew it. He had his convictions and a deeply rooted love for his family.

Growing up, we spent almost every weekend with my grandparents. Granddaddy was always an early riser; Mommo liked to sleep in as late as possible. So, it was always his responsability to feed us breakfast. His famous "milk toast" is something that I still hunger for every now and then! Every Saturday morning we would all load up into his car and head to Forest Park to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables at the Farmer's Market. We would buy crates of produce and take it all back to their home in Decatur. Granddaddy would spend most of his day squeezing oranges so that we would all have fresh orange juice for Sunday morning's breakfast.

Another Saturday ritual was our weekly trip to Lionel Leisure City. LLC was the equivelant to today's "Toys R Us". Granddaddy would give us each $10 and we could buy anything we wanted with that money. Joel and Jim usually got a football, baseball bat, a game, a model car or something. I would get a shopping cart and fill it up. I didn't care if they were good toys or not- I always went for quantity! I could get a page of stickers for a quarter, gumballs for a nickel, etc. In our eyes, Granddaddy was Santa Clause!

I had piano lessons at Mrs. Joneses house every week at 3:00pm. It was Granddaddy's duty to pick me up when the lesson was over at 4:00pm. If I wasn't outside standing by the mailbox at 4pm sharp, Granddaddy would start honking his horn. Eventually, Mrs. Jones started cutting my lessons a little short, just so she could avoid the emarrassing scene that he would create in her driveway. Forty five minutes into my session, she'd always say something like "Well, let's wrap this up before your grandfather gets here!".

Granddaddy died about 15 years ago, after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease. His last few years were hard to witness. He lost about 150 pounds throughout his illness and didn't recognize any of us when we came to visit. He'd sit in his wheelchair and cry because he recognized us, but couldn't put a name to the faces. It was heartbreaking to see this once powerful man reduced to this. It was such a relief when he finally passed away.

I try not to remember those last years if I can help it. I prefer to picture him as the man that would run out in to the streets with us a midnight on New Year's Eve, banging a pot with a wooden spoon and encouraging us to make as much noise as possible. Or the man that would get us up at 5:00am to take us fishing. He was the man that taught us to use tools and helped us build our own pairs of stilts and shoeracks for our closets. He taught us all of the important life lessons that we would need to get through life: the value of money, the importance of family, and how to put a worm on a fishing hook!

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas, Granddaddy! I can't imagine how I would've turned out without your influence!

Milkbone Fantasy...

Lucy and Lady visited Santa Clause this past weekend. They were good girls and I'm sure Santa will bring them everything they asked for!

Today is December 12th. Speaking of fantasies, I've always wished that my birthday was December 12th. I remember having a childhood friend named Billy, whose birthday was the 12th. I really liked Billy and wanted to be like him in every way. I figured that if I had been born on the same day, I would be more like him. That was 35 years ago. I wonder what ever happened to Billy-- did his 12/12 birthday ever elevate him to the greatness that I imagined? I'll probably never know. Hmmm.

Yes, Virginia...

A famous letter from Virgina O'Hanlon to the editorial of The New York Sun, first printed in 1897.


Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon



Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.



Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.



Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.



You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Update

Someone named Anonymous posted the following comment:

"Anonymous said...
I'm out searching for comments on dynovite and run across your blog from August 2006. After reading thru September 2005 (before I realised that the 'Cathy' story is from August 2006) and then reading thru September 2006... I have to know!Did she contact you? Where is Cathy? "

To answer your questions, Anonymous:

• Don't invest in Dynovite-- it's not the miracle that it's advertised to be. The ad says that dogs love it-- mine didn't. I had to disguise it with canned food and flax seed oil to get her to eat it. I fed it to her for 90 days and never saw any improvement.
• OK, about Cathy--- not a word. She didn't ever contact me. I was invited to a reunion that I knew she was attending, but I didn't go. I didn't want to ambush her after 20 years, especially when I had extended the olive branch and she didn't respond. Who knows, maybe her brother didn't pass on my message or my contact info to her. Maybe he did and it was too much for her to handle. Maybe she just didn't want to reunite, preferring to keep the memories of her teenage romance entact, with no updates. I'm resolved in the fact that our paths may never cross again, and I won't pursue it. Maybe I don't need an update or a reunion either. Maybe I can just remember the good old days and keep those happy memories from the past, too.