Slow Week

Its been pretty slow this past week. Last Monday I went to Conway, AR for a job with a guy who just got promoted. The way Halliburton works is, when you hire on you are in training until an arbitrary time has passed until you "break out". I am still in this training period. To "break out as an engineer" you have to accompany other engineers on thier jobs, basically learning everything about how to do W&P in the oil field. Once they are satisfied that you can do a job by yourself (usually you convince one of the guys to let you run it and they supervise) you do a presentation back at the base and then you are "broken out". Distinct advantages come from this:

1)7% raise in salary...i mean, who wouldnt want almost 10% more money per year
2)A bonus right then and there
3)Eligibility for bonus on job tickets......basically whatever we charged the client, I get 1.5% of it as bonus. Usualy we charge 30-40k for jobs, so thats almost 600-700 more dollars in my pocket per job on average. Not too shabby.

Anyway, it was this guys first one by himself after the break out. He was nervous, as im sure i am going to be. It hits you that you are solely in charge of a couple million dollars worth of equipment, 4-5 personnel, and have to get said equipment and people across the country sometimes. This was a pretty simple job and should have taken about 7 hours to do. Because he was double checking everything, and we had some tool failures, the job took around 15. I wasnt complaining, I went on days off last Wednesday and that meant that we would be getting back right when I go off so I didnt have to do anything else. It supoposedly takes about a year to break out ao Im expecting to do it around March or April next year. Im supposed to do a 6-month presentation in Nov to show what I have learned, and I get a bonus for that as well.

So Im finally spending a set of days off in Lafayette. I still dont know anyone here as of course im on the road so much. One guy I went to Bama with also works for HAL down here but he is in training in Mississippi currently. I never knew how hard it is to meet people, when you dont know anybody anyway. All the folks I work with are 30+ and married, plus they spend so much time on the road as well its hard to organize anything.

About a month ago on my way home from work I saw kids playing lacrosse next to this high school. I stopped and introduced myself and asked if they could use any help. So I am now a coach of the Lafayette High Lions Lacrosse team. I'm really enjoying it.

Observations from said endevour:

1)I'm really glad I stopped and talked to them, not only does it get me out of the house but i get to stay around the sport I spent all of college playing and coaching. I thought moving down here i was going to be removed from it cause its still new here.

2)These kids try harded than college kids. Idk if its because thier parents are watching or what, but they really give 100%

3)You cant talk to these kids like college kids....you could joke around and play with college guys but these kids call me sir and stuff so its best I just act like an adult haha.

4) Parents are really involved. This is an awesome part I wasnt ready for. Parents asking me what thier kid can do to improve, asking me to explain a concept to them so they can reinforce said scheme at home. Having parental support is a must for a growing sport down here.

I'm really excited to take these kids to see LSU and Bama play in Feb in Baton Rouge down here. Most of these kids are LSU fans so they give me some ribbing but I know Bama Lax is going to destroy LSU and I kinda selfishly want these kids to see it haha. Plus I want them to see what exactly I've been teaching them performed at a higher level. Darby told me that Bama won its first fall game vs Georgia State 20-3 or something like that, so I'm really pumped for them this year....maybe this is the year they make it to ATL for the SELC playoffs. If your unfamiliar with lacrosse, just check out MCLA.us. That is our league website and you can check all 200 teams or if your just interested in Bama go to tidelax.ialax.com