Review: The Way We Get By

One of my favorite parts about Netflix is the ability to watch documentaries and movies that I might not have even known about before. One of the recommendations they showed me was a documentary called “The Way We Get By“. 

This documentary is a look at a group of men and women that volunteer at a small airport and greet American servicemen and servicewomen as they return from serving over in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also say goodbye to them as they leave to serve.

If the documentary simply followed them as they did the service, it probably would have been compelling.

But, it also follows them outside of the airport as they deal with the ups and downs of their lives — one man’s decision to sell his house and his property after it has become overrun with pets and stuff; another saying goodbye to her grandchildren as they go off to serve; and one saying farewell to his dog. 

If you’re on Netflix, I would highly recommend watching this (its available for instant viewing or you can add it to your queue).

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=fluzbyshomepage&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B002QBL2NU&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

#FollowFriday – John Haydon (@johnhaydon) #FF

I’ve never liked the idea of the #FF tweets filled with a list of names, so following someone else’s lead I’m going to do some posts that give more detail about why you should follow someone instead. 

@JohnHaydon – I can’t remember when I started following John Haydon. It seems like I’ve been following him since I started getting active on Twitter over a year ago. 

Why you should follow John Haydon – 

1. If you’re looking for ways to use WordPress, you should follow John Haydon. He’s a bit of a Headway nut, but he’s always posting and talking about great tips to get the most out of WordPress. John and a bunch of other smart folks even set up a program to help people Start Blogging Today. (affiliate link) 
2. If you’re involved in social media marketing for a non-profit, you should follow John Haydon. In January, John put together a series of really helpful posts about social media marketing / blogging. He put all the posts together in an ebook for Communist Paratroopers. 
3. If you do marketing for a small or medium business, you should follow John Haydon. While any business could use John’s tips, they are especially useful for people with limited resources and limited budgets. 

One of the things I really like about John, is that he’s not afraid to show his personality in his tweets. It’s not just all about marketing, social media, or WordPress. It’s often about his son, his music, or even poop. 

Why am I not sad?

The other day, I was reading a blog post from a friend of mine. She's going through some stuff and mentioned how she was curled up on her floor crying a few nights ago. As I was thinking about it, it caused me to have a bit of introspection about why that's not me. 

Right now, my life is in a bit of shambles. I've been wanting to leave my current job for over year and actively job searching for several months. I've had some great interviews (at least in my opinion) but no job offers. Last weekend, I decided to take a leave of absence from work for a couple of weeks to deal with a health flare up. I haven't had a real date in probably 8 months and no real prospects of anything like that happening in the near future. 

Even with all that, I'm not depressed. I'm not happy, but I'm not sad or depressed. 

I think part of what's going on is that I truly have felt the past couple of months like something is in the works. There are two things that frequently run through my head – patience and the serenity prayer. Patience has never been a strong trait, but I really feel like that's what I'm supposed to be learning right now. 

In about a week, I'm heading to Salt Lake City. All of the Checketts family will be in the same place at one time, and I will be there as well. I'm so looking forward to this trip, I can't put it into words. Part of my mission on this trip, along with enjoying the Checketts family and my time with them, is to make a decision one way or the other on whether to move to Utah or stay in the Bay Area. It's something that's been looming over my head and in my brain for about a year now.