One

CSI Bemidji

Under the best of circumstances I would probably be considered a "domestic disaster." I let the dishes pile up in the sink, the clothes pile up in the laundry basket, and the dirt pile up on the carpet. It's not so bad that I'd be embarrassed if someone dropped by (not that they ever would), but it could be a little less messy and a little more tidy.

But today was going to be my day. By the time 10:30am had rolled around, I had:
1. Fought off the urge to unpack the golf clubs and go to the driving range,
2. Fixed the crank handle on the bedroom window
3. Gotten one load of laundry in the wash machine and one in the dryer,
4. Polished both pairs of dress shoes,
5. Taken out the trash & recycling,
6. Loaded up the dishwasher to run after the laundry was complete.

With about 45-minutes until the clothes in the dryer would be ready, I got out the vacuum cleaner to hit the living and dining rooms. I made my way around the dining table and near the kitchen without trouble and as was moving onto the living room when this occurred:

CSI: Coffee Stain Incident

As I was maneuvering between the coffee table and sofa, the cord for the vacuum cleaner hooked around my half-full coffee mug and yanked it off the table and onto the carpet. It was just like every episode of CSI that you've ever seen. The coffee splattered everywhere. In addition to the big pool on the off-white carpet, it was on the sofa, on the lamp shade, on the wall behind the sofa, on the wall across the hallway, on the closet door, under the end table... you get the idea. It looked like one of those crime scenes that Marg Helgenberger and the crew from CSI Las Vegas would roll up to and start taking photos, fingerprints, swabs, and analyzing the blood spatter pattern.

No Marg never did show up,
but a guy can fantasize can't he?

Well, vacuuming ended prematurely and the race to clean up the mess began. A half-roll of paper towels and a half-bottle of Resolve later, I think I've got things under some semblance of control. The splatter marks are gone, but it's going to take a couple more treatments on the big spill before that is back to looking semi-normal. I guess that teaches me not to fight the golfing urge on an unseasonably warm Sunday morning/afternoon. Maybe Marg is at the golf course... I better go investigate.

Stuck between a rock...

... and a hard place. The world is consumed with ego sometimes. Now granted, everyone needs to have some ego and self-esteem in their personal and professional lives to exist and thrive. You need to be proud of who you are and what you do, and be able to humbly express that to the rest of the world. You'd never be able to successfully get through a job interview or a first date without it.

But there comes a time when people need to put aside some of that ego for the good of the cause. Sometimes (ok, a lot of times) my boss is not very good at that. Quite incidentally, I'm beginning to learn architects in general are not good at this at all. Hence we come to that precarious place between the proverbial rock and the proverbial hard place. The architects refuse to copy my boss on any correspondence, whether he needs to know the information or not. So, he refuses to go to them for any information and skirts the established protocol to get what he needs. Since he skirts the protocol, they won't work with him. I think you can see the self defeating circle they've created for themselves.

Now drop the people, myself included, who are actually on the ground and trying to get things done into the middle of that circle. I need my boss to keep moving on the items he's working on to keep the project on schedule. I need the architect to keep the flow of information moving smoothly so both the Construction Manager and I can keep doing what we need to do in keeping the project on schedule. At this point it has become a pissing contest to see who's ego is bigger than the others and who gives in first. We're not quite at an impasse yet, but it is just a few blocks down the road on the right hand side of the street.

In some aspects it is just childish. When egos get in the way, things deteriorate. It happens with sports teams all the time. Just look at how many good teams Terrell Owens has ruined in his career (49ers, Eagles, Cowboys) with his enormous ego. We'll hold it together here in Bemidji and get things done right. We'll play schoolyard monitor, counselor, babysitter and mediator to the bulging egos in Houston and Iowa. I only wish that some people could be a little more flexible in their thinking and a little less driven by their egos.

Lesson time?

I'm currently advertising to hire two more employees for my management team. In all of the ads placed, it clearly states: "Phone Calls and in-person visits will not be accepted." This is Bemidji... it's a small enough town that people think they can just drop by, sit on down, and chat a while. That may work in some instances (Good afternoon Mr. Mayor), but not 10 people a day looking for jobs and an on-the-spot impromptu interview. That may seem a little harsh, but it has worked so far.

Until yesterday. I was out of the office for a portion of the morning/afternoon doing "Listening Lunches" for the Bemidji Youth Advisory Commission at the local High School. I enjoy talking about the Event Center and they were a willing audience so I did three sessions for about a total of 60 students. While I was gone, an enthusiastic job applicant, let's call him Little Caesar, stopped by to drop off his resume. If he had left it up stairs with the receptionist I would have been totally cool with that.

But no... in addition to the resume he brought two medium sized pizzas and used my post it notes (which he would have had to pick up off my desk) to leave the message: "Enjoy the Pizza, Little Caesar". Obviously this was a bribe to win my favor. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, it is not the way to get a job on so many different levels.

1. He did not follow directions by showing up. What does that say about what kind of employee he would be if he's already blown the first directive for the position?
2. He brought two pizzas. Does he think I eat two medium pizzas in one sitting, especially for lunch? Is he saying I'm fat and need two pizzas to satiate my cravings?
3. He brought cheap, crappy pizza. If Little Caesar had brought Dave's or Keith's pizza, it would not have been any more acceptable but at least it would have shown he has good taste.

Well, at least the guys next door at the Fire Department enjoyed the surprise for lunch. But here's the question.... Do I let the kid know he royally screwed up by not following directions or do I let it slide and let him get the standard "Thanks for applying" form letter as everyone else at the end of the job search? This could be a good learning opportunity for the college-aged young man. But do I have the time or motivation to be a personal life coach for this lad?

Any thoughts???

Habits

We all have certain habits we'd like to get out of our lives. Whether they be something as simple as nervously twirling hair or constantly tapping a pen during a particularly boring meeting, I'm sure we all try to stop doing these unconscious things but occasionally fall "off the wagon" and slip.

The last couple of days I've fallen off of a few wagons. It's amazing how one slip can lead to other slips in other areas. All of the sudden you are careening downhill faster than Lindsey Vonn on an Olympic ski run. Just like a skier sometimes you make it to the bottom safely, and sometimes you don't. Or sometimes, like yesterday, you end up somewhere in between... not completely unscathed but not totally wrecked.

Fortunately, when you land here in Bemidji it's a lot softer and a more comfortable environment than my last stop. Here you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back in the race. Back there, you get kicked while your down and have manure piled on to make sure you don't get up without the stench to remind you.

So the sun rose today, with all of the junk of the past two days forgotten. Time to look forward again and not behind on the faults and failures. There is too much work to do, and too many positive things right now to wallow amongst the negatives which will always be there. Some things I can't control or change, so I'll set them aside. The returning hurt and disappointment will fade back into its corner of my mind, replaced by the here and now.

The show must go on...

Because Leah asked

Bemidji is a city with a rich history of supporting the arts. From the Sculpture Walk to local summer theatre, our little town in Northern Minnesota actively participates in promoting, funding, and taking pride in the arts and cultural community. My favorite (other than Paul & Babe) is Niimi, a Native American PowWow dancer.

Construction of the Bemidji Regional Event Center is partially funded by a $20-million bonding bill from the State of Minnesota. As a part of that bill, 1% ($200,000) must be dedicated to public art for the facility. Before I arrived on the scene, a committee of local leaders and the art community was formed to determine how best to utilize this funding. The two projects that were included in the project were a terrazzo flooring for the Arena hallways which depicts life in Northern Minnesota and a hanging art piece for the main Arena lobby.

It is hard to make out the detail from this photo, but this is the floor pattern for the arena concourse. Lakes, rivers, and streams are represented on the lower portion... earthy fall colors and leaves dominate the middle portion, and it transitions into the landscape of trees eventually ending on the upper right with rich reds, pinks, and violets of a setting sun over the horizon. Laid into the terrazzo as it is poured will be brass accents in the shapes of the various fish, wildlife and birds that inhabit the region. Below you can see sample tiles of the blues, browns, yellows and reds that will be used in the project.

The other Public Art project is a hanging art piece for the Arena lobby, which you can see from the artist's rendering below:

This would be the view as you enter the Arena doors. As you remember (or may not remember), Bemidji is derived from an Ojibwe term, Bemidjigamaag, meaning "lake with cross waters." The cross waters are well represented in these two sets of waves. Each set will consist of three waves which will be 24 feet long and be suspended at a height of about 16 feet above the floor. The material used to form the waves will be translucent but have some space age properties that allow it to reflect and refract light. As you can see, the colors will be those of the water, but will gradually transition as both the down-lighting and natural ambient light change or the viewer alters their viewpoint. If it does what the artist says it will do it's going to be really cool. If there is any of the dedicated public art money left after these two projects, a hanging art piece for the Convention Center lobby is being considered.

There will be other opportunities for local artists to temporarily display their artwork within both the Convention Center and Arena sides of the building. That's it.... another slice of life from a small town in Northern Minnesota.

Yesterday's schedule

7:30am - 8:30am: Presentation for Bemidji Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors

8:30am - 9:30am: City of Bemidji Department Head Weekly Meeting

10:00am - 12:30pm: Construction Progress Meeting & Walk-around with Architect and City Manager

1:00pm - 2:00pm: Corporate Programming Conference Call

2:00pm - 3:00pm: Retrieve voice mails & emails, return pertinent calls and messages, try to start editing job descriptions for publication (this will be the first time I sit at my desk all day)

3:00pm - 5:30pm: Public Art Committee Meeting on Hanging Art piece + tour of the facility

5:30pm - 7:00pm: Return to office to answer phone/email messages... finish job descriptions

7:00pm - 8:00pm: Answer remaining emails on Blackberry while eating dinner at Sparkling Waters Restaurant (this will be the first time I've eaten all day)

8:00pm: Crash on couch, fall asleep

11:00pm: Wake up, set timer on coffee pot for Wednesday, go to bed.

One more reason to love Bemidji

This is the Keg N' Cork Pub, located at 310 Beltrami Avenue here in Bemidji. It's a nice little pub, kind of old, but they serve a good lunch and a cold draft.

This is Brigid's Cross Irish Pub and Restaurant located at 317 Beltrami Avenue here in Bemidji. It's a little more on the Irish side, with more traditional Irish servings (Shepherd's Pie!) and either Irish music or European Soccer in the background.

Every St. Patrick's Day, including yesterday, Bemidji holds the "World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade." This year it started at the Keg N' Cork and ended at Brigid's Cross... a tremendously long jaunt of nearly 100 feet between the two Irish establishments. Last year, the parade started at Brigid's and ended at the Keg N' Cork.

You have to love a city coming together, closing off a city block, and turning out to see a parade that lasts all of 100 feet. Not quite like celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Boston, but the spirit of the participants are no less enthusiastic.

Out of Hibernation

Out of hibernation, just like this fellow

If you're still out there, you are probably surprised to find something new up here. I don't blame you. What used to be a semi-active corner of the internets slowly became a dusty corner with cobwebs, seemingly abandoned.

In the heyday of "The Essence of Bobness," you could find quippy writing, a laugh or two, and a healthy slice of honesty about life in general and mine in specific. I used this place, much to the chagrin of my readers I'm sure, as a bit of group therapy to get through some awful tough stretches back on the west coast. My life sucked, my job sucked even harder, and the people I worked with royally sucked. But you took it all in stride, offered up yourselves as cheap, but caring therapists, and kept encouraging me to find a light at the end of the tunnel, to pull myself up from my bootstraps, and struggle on until things got better.

Well, things did get better... and I didn't keep writing to share that with you. I feel guilty about that. Maybe I was subconsciously trying to keep them all to myself, afraid that having not had many triumphs that if I gave them away there wouldn't be any more to come. Not really fair on my part. If you made the trek over to Facebook, you kind of know how things are now. Single sentence updates, sort of Bobness cliff notes if you are old enough to remember them from high school.

A quiet Saturday has drawn me back here... hopefully for more than just a once a month visit. Life here in the Great White (and melting) North has been everything I'd hoped it would be. Everyday is a new adventure, staring down the enormity of the task at hand, focusing on what needs to get done immediately, and prioritizing the rest. I can't say for certain how often I'll keep updating this blog, or how entertaining or enlightening it will be, but I'm going to give it a shot. As Blottie keeps on writing, there is a difference between Facebook and Blogger that I somehow lost in the increasingly quickening pace that life has become for me. It's kind of ironic that things got faster by moving to a slower, smaller place.

But let me fill in the gaps for you. The people here are great. Everyone knows just about everyone else, but more importantly they care about each other. When you ask "How are you doing" you actually get an answer, not just a response. If someone needs a little bit of help, people pitch in, roll up there sleeves, and pick them up. Kind of like the little community we've got going on here. I've been able to stop taking all of my medications. The blood pressure is back down where it is naturally supposed to be, and I don't get the panic attacks that were so ever present back in California. Some days are rougher than others, but the worst day here has probably been better than the best day back there.

I love my job again. While I'll never be a morning person, I don't mind getting up at 5:30 in the morning to be at work by 7:30. I don't watch the clock for 5:01pm to flee my workplace, and more times than not work well past 6:00pm. Some of that is because there is so much to do, but it is mostly because what I do matters again. It matters to the people here in Bemidji, to the people I work for and with, and it matters to me. I'm not just going through the motions, dreading the next minute, hour, or day like I did months ago. The calendar shows I've only been gone from that for three months, but it seems like a lifetime ago.

But I've missed all of you. I've missed reading RC's crazy and funny stories and writing. (By the way, if you haven't bought her book yet you better hop to it before she becomes a mega-star and forgets us). I've missed Leah and her talented writing. Even though she keeps poking me at all hours of the day and night, I've missed Kylie and her tales from down under. I've missed chatting online with Megarific. I've missed the on again, off again, I'm blogging, I'm not blogging, I'm leaving Facebook, I'm coming back to Facebook of Suzanne. (Honey, I'm so sorry about your loss... I hope you find some peace in your memories of your brother Gary). And Cece, MerelyMe, and on and on and on.

I'm pouring a lot of my creativity into my work, expanding my horizons and doing things I never thought I'd ever be doing. So don't expect much of that here. But like a few other goals I've set for myself, I'm committed to writing here more and catching up with all of your blogs when time allows and tiredness relents. Thanks for helping me survive a very difficult stretch in my life. Words can not fully relay how much it means to me. You were, and are, the friends and companions I didn't have by my side physically. But you were always just an internet connection away.

Now on with life, with much brighter minutes, hours, weeks, and years ahead. I hope you'll stick around and share them with me.

Because Annie asked...

Yesterday Annie asked on Facebook... "did your blog die?"

Well, the answer to that is not really. Work has not only kept me busy, but very content as well. I guess I used my blog for the past year + to blow off steam and bitch about things. Somehow it doesn't really seem all that fair that the 10 faithful readers haven't been able to share in the good things as well.

Last night, again on Facebook, I posted the status update, "Today is one of those days I feel very fortunate and thankful." Having spent the past three days at our corporate meetings, I was struck by how lucky I am right now. I'm working with a great company and people whom I like and respect. Spread out all over the country, they are a great group and I can't wait to get together with them again in either July or August. I'm working in a wonderful little town on a fantastic project. It's a place I can see myself spending the second half of my life. I'm fulfilling one of my career goals of opening my own building. It's something I've always wanted to do and I get to do it in a place I want to live with a company with which I truly enjoy being involved. I've been able to stop hanging out with biggsy, and would suspect that once I finally get to see a doctor up here that I'll probably find out that my blood pressure has dropped back to an average level.

So, this blog isn't dead. But I won't be posting as frequently as I once did... especially until after the new building opens in October. I haven't been keeping up with your blogs either... for which I do apologize. With a winter storm rolling in this weekend, it looks like I'll be staying in and catching up. If you're a Facebook friend, I'll see you over there. If you're not, why the heck aren't you? Click here and befriend me!