I hear you're doing well these days. in The eye of every storm

Here’s something pretty incredible: I’m typing this entry somewhere over the middle of nowhere Texas, 40,000 feet in the air. I have a window seat, and I’m putting together the puzzle pieces of fields, networking the connected mazes of roadways, and watching the landscape change from deeper prairie greens to the brown sands of desert. My fiance’ is next to me, reading Lamb by Christopher Moore, and all is right in the world.

Oh yeah. I’m getting married this year. You’re invited.

Currently, we are on a date. It was a surprise date of the last minute kind, and I told her last week we were going somewhere, teasing her with snippets of information that may or may not have been correct. After arriving at Love Field this morning she discovered our destination: Las Vegas, just for the night.

Las Vegas is different for me than most people. It’s sort of where my new life began. I lived there once, and started working for an amazing Company loading luggage on airplanes. I loved that job despite the hot sun and the cold nights. “Bags don’t complain,” was something we often told each other. We were rough necks, sweaty and dirty and smelling of jet fuel, always under the auspicious eyes of passengers, the fascination focal point of children glued to the window.

Of course, I moved from Vegas, went on to work for US Airways, wound up in Florida, which ended badly. You guys know this from that other place Open Diary. Then I went on to hike the Florida Trail and the Appalachian trail and blah blah blah and wound up in Texas, working for the same Company I started loading baggage for eight years ago. Funny how it comes full circle.

So that’s what Vegas means to me. It’s a homecoming, and a measuring stick to how far I’ve come, how much better of a person I’ve become. I went from a cocaine addicted emotional wreck of a war veteran making eight dollars an hour to a pretty damn good person, and doing nice things and helping people when I can. I know longer measure my income in terms of hours. Last year I made over $55,000, a number that doesn’t even seem real to me. I have the best fiance in the world, an amazing basset hound named Dr. John Watson and a cat named Tater Tot.

And currently I’m on a date, somewhere over Lubbock, taking a free ride on the company jet.

Seriously. Some of you have been wondering what I’ve been up to over the last couple of years. I’ve been living my life instead of writing about it and it has been wonderful. I am without a single doubt the luckiest person alive on this planet, so blessed and so fortunate in so many ways.

This little old ramp agent loading luggage pretty much helps run Southwest Airlines now. If that’s not a success story, I’m not sure what is. Thanks for reading. I’ve missed you guys. Let’s start new adventures together.