Israel!: A long over due, but quick update on current events and the past year.

I apologize for failing to update the blog with any sort of regularity. As I have mentioned before I am not a writer and I normally don't enjoy the process, nor am I any good at it. This is part of the reason I haven't updated, I'm also partly just to lazy to sit down and right. I appreciate your patience.

ISRAEL

I'll start with my most recent news first. In less than 24 hours I leave for Israel. I'll accompany my mother and 50+ other musicians on a missions trip through Israel.  I would ask for prayer over these 10 days for safe travel for all as well as a successful and meaningful trip. Pray for me to be engaged and to be a blessing with all I come in contact with.  I feel a heavy spirit heading into the trip and  I am not entirely sure as to why, but if nothing else getting to spend 10 days in Israel with my mother is enough.  Maybe it's the weight of taking my father's place, maybe it's something else.

Let me back track a little bit to explain how I ended up on the trip.  My parents went to Brazil last year with the same organization, Global Missions Project, and they had a great time. When they saw an opportunity to head to Israel with the same group they jumped on it, especially since they had both always wanted to go to Israel, it was a dream opportunity for them. When my father passed away in February (more on that later) my mother asked me to take his spot on the trip and to be apart of the orchestra that was put together, I obviously couldn't refuse. I'll give an update on my trip upon my return with pictures and details...eventually. No promises on exactly when ;-).

My Father

Now onto more life updates, if you didn't know, as mentioned above, my father passed away in February. He died from complications that stemmed from a house fire at my parents place in Phoenix. The grieving process is still very real. My mother, siblings, and cousin are now back into the house and have been for a couple months now. Much was lost to the fire, yet my family and I were able to be together with my father when he finally passed. It was a difficult time, but we were all together. I cannot express how grateful I am for my family, each and every one of them, much love indeed. We had to public ceremonies, one in Arizona and one in Virginia. Both were well attended and a testament to my father's character. He was not a perfect man by any means, but there was much good that he shared with many people all over the world.  We had one more private ceremony to bury his body in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. It was a powerful and moving ceremony that no one present can ever forget. I loved my father dearly and I miss him daily.

Work/School

As you might imagine, my father's death has shaped much of my life since that point and it very much permeates everything so I'll move on for now and reference back to it. In December of 2013, I quit my job at the dealership. Long story short, it was not a good fit for me. While the timing was completely impromptu the decision was not as last November I applied to and got accepted in to Old Dominion University's graduate program to pursue my Master's in Music Education.  The school is close to where I am in Virginia. It was a long time coming and I'm very glad to have gotten back into music. In many ways God had his hand in the decision. First, I sent in my application on a whim and did the whole submission process, including my GRE, in just over two weeks last October. Second, the timing worked out great as the previous year could be used to establish in state status and cut my tuition by nearly half. Lastly, although it's very much a public setting and nothing at all like Wheaton, there are still relationships I can lean on to seek Godly wisdom. 

This became especially important when my father passed away. I ended up missing about a month of school all totaled. My teachers were patient with me and have allowed me to play catch up. It helped I think that my father had such close ties to the music faculty at ODU from his days at the Governor's School for the Arts. While I'm still finishing some of the work from the previous semester, at this moment I have a 4.0. I'm not entirely sure how that's possible, nor am I bragging. It will take some effort to maintain it as this semester, just as any season in life, brings new challenges. The biggest commitment has been as a Graduate Assistant to the Monarch Marching Band. I haven't been involved with a marching band since my student teaching, so this is providing a great refresher course. It's also nice not having to march :-). I've also started working on campus running live/recorded audio for the recital hall on campus. It's minimum wage and only just a few hours, but it's work I enjoy and more experience to add to the resumé. That being said, it desperately makes me miss Wheaton. I was spoiled there with how logical and efficient the setup there was. My boss here at ODU is new to the school and attempting to get things back on track, but as with anything it's a process and administrative reasons don't always make it easy. Other than that I have work for 4 classes as well as 2 other ensembles. It's a busy life but I've enjoyed it for the most part.

Maybe the most difficult part of my return to college has been the desire to call my father and have discussions about what I'm learning in school or ask for advice on certain matters. The desire normally happens a couple of times a week and occasionally ends in tears. I remember seeing my dad cry years after his parents had passed away and wonder to myself why, now I understand. I miss my dad. 

I'm going to end it there for now. Maybe this will kickstart my desire to write more, history doesn't indicate so, but you never know.

Take care and God bless.

So, what have you been up to for the past 6 months

Hey world, this is Gabe, remember me? I'm the guy who hasn't really updated in a long long time.

So what have I been doing since the last post? Unfortunately not too much. I'd love for my life to have been too busy to update, it's more so that there hasn't been much to update about. I'm still working as a salesman and have had my ups and downs with that and I'm still looking for a teaching job.

I guess I'll give snapshots of each month starting with November. The things I remember most about November are canoeing with my brother, Thanksgiving dinner with the Dewey's, selling 10 cars, and of course the Redskins destroying the cowboys on Thanksgiving day.  Getting to 10 cars was a big bonus for me at work and what I thought was a sign of good things to come. It got the attention of a lot of people at work and helped put some cash in my pocket. Unfortunately, I don't remember a whole lot else from the month.

December got me off to a solid start at work, I sold 6 cars in my first two weeks and was looking good going forward, but then I got the flu. It was my first experience with the flu and it wasn't pleasant. I was in bed for four days, I did try to go into work on day three but used up all my energy making it through the morning meeting and went home again.  It was extremely frustrating given the "role" I was on at work. After I recovered from the flu I couldn't sell a thing for the rest of the month. The week after Christmas is supposed to be the busiest time of the year and I didn't sell a thing. That was rough. Christmas itself was a delight. I had three days off in a row which was the weirdest thing ever. Not including the illness I normally only get 1 day off a week. That being said I had no idea what to do with myself. I mostly just rested since I was kinda still getting over the flu. Oh, I actually did go see The Last Bison in concert with some friends. A night of Christmas Carols and originals. The Last Bison are a local band that's getting big on the national scene, they're definitely worth checking out.

Christmas day itself was weird though. If you don't mind me getting real for a minute here. I had planned to spend time with my brother and his family before heading to Fort Monroe to have dinner with the Dewey's.  However, when I woke up that morning I had this internal battle of not wanting to do anything. Every step of the process from getting out of bed to getting ready and getting in the car was a struggle. Initially I wasn't sure why, but the more I thought about it I realized it was because I was being selfish. I make no pretense that  I generally don't get excited for Christmas and that I don't do the whole presents thing, but I was dealing with some real inner frustration. That being said I did follow through with my plans and was very happy to do so. It was nice to be spend time with family and create some memories.

On to January. I ended up working on the 1st because I was told if we sold a car on the 1st it would essentially count as 2 units and could count towards either December or January. Well, I sold one and it allowed me to reach my bonus for December which definitely helped. Shortly after that though they changed our pay plan at work for the new year and made it more difficult to get the bonuses. Previously if I sold 8 cars I would get a $500 bonus and if I sold 10 cars I would get a 5% bonus on my commissions. This means that if I sold 10 cars with an average gross of $1000 I would normally make $250 per car, but with the bonus I would make $300 per car. Multiply that times ten and it goes from $2500 to $3000. Anyway, they changed the bonuses from that to $1500 for selling 10 cars and the extra 5% for selling 12 cars. All that being said I sold 6 cars in January. Add that to the fact that the Redskins lost in the playoffs and RG3 tore his ACL and equates to a rough month.

February wasn't much better. I ended up getting pretty darn bitter in February actually. It is supposedly the slowest month in the car business and it was my slowest month so far. There were a string of days in there that I was seconds from quitting, or at least I felt like it. I did get my hopes of for a little while though as a job at St. Mary's International School opened up. It was pretty much the exact job I wanted. I sent in a CV and a cover letter with references and all and still haven't heard back. It's been over a month so I'm not really holding my breath. It was a nice thought for a little while though. One other thing the winter months brought was an interesting new friendship. Robbie, my friend who got me the job at the dealership, introduced me to his good friend Thomas. All three of us were/are at the transition point in our lives and it was nice to have some people to identify with in my frustration with my current situation. That being said, Thomas was a little further in his transition than either Robbie or I and has since started that transition. Robbie and I are still waiting for it.

That just about brings us to the present, or at least this month. This month got off to an encouraging start as I made more money in the first two weeks than I did in all of February. It's nice not being broke.  As we speak I'm sitting at 7.5 units for the month and have a couple deals working. I'm hoping I'll at least get to 10, maybe even 12 with the end of the month coming next week.  Aside from car sales, March has also brought new ideas of what to do for the future. At the moment I'm leaning toward, or at least strongly considering going back to school, at least part time, next year.  I could get a masters in Music Ed. from ODU and still do some kind of part time work (likely not at the dealership), maybe in substitute teaching and private lessons. I'm still in the info gathering stage but will need to get the ball rolling on that soon if that is what I end up doing.

I'm also keeping an eye out for teaching positions here, there, and everywhe.....well, not everywhere, but I am actively looking.

That's all for the past few months.

Until next time, peace out!

A day in the life of a car salesman.

First off, I just want to say that I never imagined I would ever have this perspective, that being one of a car salesman. As I sit at my desk in my room listening to Eldar I'm asking myself, "How did I end up here?" But that's not what this post is about.

This is about what it's like to sell cars. There's a lot to suss out here so I'll start off with the daily routine.

Routine
So the overall schedule goes like this: we alternate daily shifts from 9-4 and 2-9 Monday through Friday and everyone has to work 9-6 on Saturdays. We also have three sales meetings a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 830. The salesman are split into two different teams (as evidenced by the 9-4 shift and the 2-9 shift) and these teams switch schedules every week. For example, today I'm working the 2-9 shift and next Wednesday I'll work the 9-4 shift. Does that all make sense? Good, now on to the day to day.

Beach Ford functions on what's called an up system which is designed to keep the competition between the salesman to a minimum. We have 3 people up front at all times waiting for customers as they come on the lot. Whoever is first gets to go out and greet the customer. After they begin working with the customer they "go down" and whoever was number two is now number one. Still with me? Good.

So the list rotates one spot every day so even though I started at the bottom, I move up on the list everyday until I'm the first person "up" on the day, then the next day I go down again.

When I'm not one of the three people up I have other things going on. We have a daily list of "to-dos" which are mostly follow-ups with customers ranging anywhere from 1 day to 3 years (yes I had to do a 3 year follow up for someone it ends up who didn't even buy the car from us that I was calling about). Some to-dos are easy, others are annoying. It's a little weird calling people you've never met and wishing them happy birthday, but it's customer care. Anyway, I just got distracted by a customer call and don't remember where I was going with any of this.....AHH that's right so once you get through all of your to-dos I'll either work on finding a vehicle for a customer which can take a long long time. I could explain more, but this section has rambled on long enough. On to the customers!

Customers
Customers, clients, suckers, it always feels weird to refer to the people buying the cars as either clients or customers because I've never thought of people in that context. For the record I don't, and have never,  referred to or ever thought of a customer or anyone as a sucker. Which brings me to my next subpoint and a little exercise.

When you think of car salesman what comes to mind? Sleazy, underhanded, sneaky, coniving, untrustworthy, only cares about the sale. The list is probably longer but there is no denying that there is a stigma attached to car salesman and it's something I now face every day.  Do any of the afformentioned adjectives describe me? I'm not perfect and not every customer makes these assumptions but it's still in my mind each time I go out to greet a customer. Whenever I approach a customer I always say a little prayer to myself, "Please, just give me a chance." Example:

One day a few weeks ago a couple pulled up and parked in front of the dealership. They got out of their car and headed over to check out one of Ford's new cars, the C-Max Hybrid. Nicknamed the "Prius killer" it's something Ford and me personally, are pretty excited about. I walk over there and introduce myself, "Welcome to Beach Ford, my name is Gabe, is this your first time to the dealership?" Harmless, right? " They respond with, "We had heard about the C-Max and wanted to check it out. Does this one come with the foot wave opening the trunk?" So far so good...kind of. As a salesman you really would like some actual back and forth communication, rather, as a person you'd like to be acknowledged when you ask a question anyway, moving on. "This model does not have that feature but it's a pretty exciting car, have you familiarized yourself with the vehicle online." Customer, "We just wanted to see it, might be interested in the future, but not this model." They start making  their way to their own car. Me, "If you give me some more information about..." Customer, "No, I'd rather not give out my phone number, I don't want to be hassled all the time. Me, "Well, if you give me..." Customer, "No, I tell you what, why don't you give me your card and I'll call you." I hand over the card and thank them for stopping by.

They weren't inadvertently rude or anything, but all I wanted to do was help. Basically, they wouldn't let me do my job. If they would have let me finish my sentence I would have said, "If you give me your email address I'll email you once to find out what you're looking for in the C-Max and one more email to let you know when we get that vehicle in. Other than that you won't be bothered." Again, I get it, there are salesman who are incredibly sneaky and will do what ever they can to make a deal. But all I wanted to do was help. Not every customer is like that, but enough to make it frustrating. For what it's worth it was nice to have one customer say, "It's nice to meet an honest car salesman." Anyway. it can be very frustrating, but that's life.

Colleagues
This has been one of the more contrasted part of the jobs. Somedays everything is great, others not so much. The people make the environment, and for the most part everyone is nice, but theres always this underlying tension. In some cases they can be surprisingly helpful and polite and in other situations they are crude and vulgar. It's especially contrasted in front of customers, of course. Anyway, it can be tiresome being the new guy trying to "fit in" without engaging in any of the crude  or extremely inappropriate comments that are made. Another thing is the language. After working at a Christian school in Tokyo where I'm pretty sure I had the foulest mouth around (relatively speaking), I wasn't quite prepared for the tone of the conversation that goes on with no customers around. I realize I'm not working in a Christian environment and that people are free to do and say as they please. But it's difficult for me to be the one who is trying not to swear because it rubs off on me and comes out when I'm not at work (ask my roommates during a Redskins game). Anyway, it's a frustration I'm trying to deal with. There are some cool people I work with, but only a few I would probably ever consider spending any time outside of the dealership with. It's a weird juxtaposition because I'm not there to develop any friendships, it's a job, but I am spending a ton of time there and am getting to know people because of proximity. All that being said, while there are some people I have a good deal of respect for, it's not the place I'd go to make friends.

Overall impression
So far it's been a mixed bag.  I have people telling me I have all the potential in the world and could be one of the top 3 salesman at the dealership, but as it is I haven't sold anything in about 2 weeks. It's frustrating going to work everyday and basically not being able to do your job. On top of that I am spending a lot of time at the dealership trying to figure out a balance between my work life and my personal life. That has been a huuuge issue so far. I'm not playing as much as I'd like, I haven't seen anyone except my roommates and the Grice's in weeks, and it basically just feels like it's not me.  One thing that just hit me was that in Japan, as contrasted to working at Beach Ford, I was working with people I'd consider friends. I feel like I'm struggling to trust anyone at the dealership. Everyone has advice, but everyone also has an agenda. I don't like being taken advantage of and I'm always concerned about what is in peoples (especially customers) best interest. If someone doesn't want to buy the car then they shouldn't buy it, I shouldn't force them into something they don't want.

*deep breath*

So there are struggles of course as there are with any job. I'm too knew at this position to really give an honest opinion of what it is actually like. I know that my view of the job will evolve over the next few months, especially if I start becoming mor successful. Right now I'm in a difficult place for multiple reasons, not just the job, but everything is going to appear a little tainted as a result. Such is life. I'll close with a quote from The Roots that's been playing a lot in my head recently:

"Dear God, I'm trying hard to reach you. Dear God, I see your face in all I do. Sometimes it's so hard to believe in. But God, I know you have your reasons." - from the song, "Dear God 2.0" of the album How I Got Over. (This album is amazing by the way. It's raw, real, very well done and well worth your time)

More on the new Job(s)

This past week, I completed my first full week at Beach Ford as a sales consultant, even though I haven't started selling cars yet. So far it has been all sales training. I had a couple of days on the computer taking certification/qualification tests and then last Wednesday I started a training class put on by AutoMax.  It was an interesting course which I got a lot of good advice, had a decent amount of reinforcement for various procedures, and did some slight wrestling with the moral ambiguity of my new career.

It's the quasi-elephant in the room as well as the slight hesitation that every one gets when I tell them what I'm doing now.  As a car sales consultant, one thing that has given me comfort about the job is that, I'm there to make sure people get what they need in a vehicle.  We've all heard stories of people buying things in excess of what the need because it's what they want, heck, my iPad was a purchase of want and nothing close to need.  I still don't need it. Now, as I mentioned before I'm there to help car buyers truly figure out what it is will fit them and there needs and not to sell them something they'll get no value out of.  The AutoMax trainer was asked in class if he ever felt guilty for selling anyone a vehicle they don't need or they couldn't afford, and he said no, because he never has.  Through credit checks and getting to know people (which he was very good at) he would refuse to sell certain vehicles to people because it would put them in a bad place financially or wouldn't be what they needed.  That's the standard I want to hold myself to in this job.  I'm not sleazy or underhanded, and I try to make wise decisions based on the situation.  Basically what I'm trying to say is that I know what the stereo-typical car salesman is, and I don't want that to be me.

Anyway, back to Beach Ford. Tomorrow I will start with more dealership specific training and this week I will officially start selling cars.  I must say I'm actually chomping at the bit to get out there and start meeting clients.  One of the things that excites me the most is getting to meet a wide array of people from all sorts of backgrounds. So, here's hoping all goes well with that and I'll definitely update once I sell my first car.

In my previous post I mentioned that I had accepted a position at a homeschool support organization called KEYS (Kingdom Education for Young Scholars).  My position with KEYS had me working with two different ensembles. Both ensembles were small (I had seven students between the two groups). You may notice that I am referring to the position in the past tense, this is because I've had to resign from my position at KEYS.  It was an extremely difficult decision to come to and one I didn't make lightly, but it's what was best for me.  I wasn't going to be able to work for both KEYS and Beach Ford because of scheduling issues and so this past week I formally resigned from the position at KEYS.

As I mentioned, it was an extremely difficult decision for me. I had already had two class periods with the students and had already started to fall in love with them and teaching music truly is my passion in life.  Unfortunately, my work at KEYS wasn't going to pay the bills.  It's also difficult in the sense that, I had to give up something I absolutely love for something I don't know very much about, car sales.  So, while I'm excited about my opportunity at the Ford dealership, I have had some somber moments in retrospect to KEYS. I hate that I let the kids down. I hate that I couldn't commit to them like I wanted and intended to.  I failed them, and that's something I never thought I would, or could do...

That being said, I do believe that God has continued to provide me opportunities and has guided me thus far and that the position at the dealership is where I'm meant to be.  Because of this I also have faith that the students will move on and grow in a way that I couldn't have imagined.

That's all for now.  As I mentioned, I'll post again once I sell my first car. Until next time (hopefully soon). Peace Out!

Gabe

My Summer and Beyond

First the big news, I got a job!!! You'll have to read through for more details. For now I'm going chronologically.

When I first got back to America it was in the middle of wedding season in which I was in a wedding and then went to two more the next two weeks.  I love weddings, there always fun, and I love being in weddings.

The wedding I was in above was my friends, Matthew and Kelly Grice. It was beautiful and fun. I'm not sure why it is I enjoy weddings so much, I just know that I like to have a good time and like to make sure others are having a good time.

After wedding season came the lull, a few weeks where not much happened. I got to get a little more comfortable with the place that I'm staying, going to the beach, going on a bike ride here and there, taking my friends jet ski out. I did get a chance to learn the bass lines to Thriller (the album) as well. It was a nice relaxing time, but did get boring.

Moving on, at the end of July I made a trip up to Washington D.C. where I spent the weekend with one of my best friends whom I hadn't seen for a few years and a chance to meet my namesake. The kid is cute, albeit he slobbers all over you if you give him the chance, but I guess that comes with being a baby. In D.C. we went to the DC Zoo (which is free!) and I dragged my friend to a jazz club called "Bohemian Caverns". It was a fun time.  Also while in DC, I made a pilgramage to Washington Redskins training camp in Ashburn, VA.  The event itself wasn't too exciting, we were just watching a football team practice, but I really enjoyed it.  I've always said that I'm irrational about my love of the Redskins so I don't really care what people have to say about it. Plus I got a chance to get a few signatures, no RGIII but I got the running backs and the Shanahan's (Papa Shanahan is very personable by the way, not at all what you might assume given his game face).

I came back to the Va. Beach area for about a week before I headed out to Los Angeles for some time with my family (by blood, I feel like I have a lot of family, except their not all people I'm technically related to). The family time was awesome. It had been a year since I had seen any of them, especially the my nieces and nephews.  I first got a chance to spend some time with my brother Jacob and his family in Venice. It was my first time getting to see them since he went on tour with Springsteen and my first chance to really get to spend some solid quality time with my niece, Sophia Quincy. We had a lot of fun playing and going to the beach.

SQ anecdote: that little girl is fearless of the water, the first time we were walking in to the water I commented to her that we should ease our way in because it was cold, to which she replied, "No, it's fine, you'll get used to it"

On my first Sunday in L.A. we had a Disneyland day.  Without disclosing too much I'll just say that we all had an awesome day. The kids loved it, we had short lines, got to watch the parade and a fireworks show and no serious tantrums! I didn't know I could have so much fun at Disneyland. Just to help contextualize it, we got stuck on the "It's a Small World" ride for 15 minutes, but being able to be there with my nieces and nephew made it worth it and I was still smiling after we got off the ride. The day ended with the fireworks show that lasted for 15 minutes and had the kids filled with oos and ahhs.

Kaya anecdote: This wasn't the first time I'd ridden this ride with Kaya, the last time was when she was 8 months old, since she couldn't do anything else we rode the ride at least 4 times, every time was new for her at that age. Nine years later and she still enjoyed the ride.

After Disneyland, I headed over to my brother Bil's house in Pasadena where I got to hang out with Kuba and Ozzie, there full names are Jakub Tosh and Oskar Winston.  Those boys are cute and fun. Kuba is all sports all the time and has a motor that does not stop.  Apparently they are allowed to run laps during break times at his school and they counted him one day in which he did 50 to 60 laps.  Ozzie is much more chill, not that he doesn't like being involved or doing stuff, he just won't create a fuss if he isn't receiving the attention. We played basketball, Wii, Uno, a game with one of the neighbor kids called "Epic", soccer and had a ton of fun. It was very much time well spent.

Kuba anecdote: We celebrated my sisters birthday while there and so of course she had a candle on her... ice cream(?) After she blew out her candle Kuba asked, "What did you wish for?" 
Tina: "I can't tell you or it won't come true" 
Kuba, "What did you wish for?" 
Tina, "If I tell you then the wish won't come true, and I want it to come true." 
Kuba, "If I guess will you tell me?"
Tina, "I guess"
Kuba, "Did you wish for a ball?"
Tina, "No"
Kuba, "Did you wish for a toy?"
Tina, "No"
Me, "Kuba, she's a grown woman, she is interested in other things."
Kuba, "Oh....well, did you wish to be younger?"
Tina, *Laughing*.......*still laughing*....."Yes, Kuba, that's what I wished for"
Unfortunately I don't think it came true :(.

As you can tell from the above anecdote, my sister came out for a few days that were well spent as well. On the 16th my brother, Quincy, helped produce the Canoga Park Art Walk that featured the work of a ton of different local artists, three different music stages, vendors selling various items from baked goods to jewelry, and a children's zone that had their own music stage and a bouncy castle. The best and maybe most amazing part is that it was all free.

Quincy painting a bus.

All in all my time in LA was great and reminded me of three things: 1) I love my family dearly, 2) I'm glad I'm not married, 3) I'm also very glad I don't have any kids.

I got back to VA last week after spending a couple of days in AZ with my parents and left again over the weekend to go to Blacksburg to visit my "cousin" Christy with our good friend Abigail. I love Christy, and I like Blacksburg, but I kinda feel like college students are the new high school students, if you know what I mean. Last week was move in week for VaTech and there were a great deal of fresh young faces around downtown Blacksburg, it made things a little hard to take seriously or something.  Christy showed us a good time for the short period we were there. So I got back from that his past Sunday.

So, now on to the news about the job.  I'm going to be a car salesman starting next week after labor day! Yes, you read that correctly, a car salesman at Beach Ford. I had a friend who works there who turned me on to the job and helped me get the job.  But it's basically fairly straight forward car sales.  The dealership is one of the top Ford dealerships in the country which I had no idea when I walked into it. (According to this site their #4!, if you squint) This is another one of those situations where I have no idea what's going on in my life and then God sees fit to bless me with a great job that I never imagined. I don't see car sales being my career choice, but it is a good chance to make some money, be in a place I love (VA), and I'm still young enough to be here for a little while and still have a career.

I have another potential job opportunity with a homeschool organization in the area called KEYS that would be teaching two bands twice a week.  Maybe the best part of it is that I might be able to do both if the schedules work out. I interviewed with both places on Tuesday.  My bands at KEYS would be pretty small, at least to start off with, but there is definitely potential for it to grow.  Most of all it would give me a chance to do what I love while still making good money.

So that brings us up to date on all that's been going on in Gabetron's world. Fair warning, I think I might do season previews for my Hokies and Redskins as my next posts if time permits.

Peace Out!