I took today as a sort of personal day. No, I wasn't supposed to work or anything; The shop is closed on Sunday. I just decided that my time was just as important as anyone else's. Therefore, I took the day to sleep in and go spend some time with a couple friends.

I went to Lafayette to eat lunch with my best friend and his fiance. We had fun and got to catch up a little bit on things. After I got done there, I went to the mall to see about getting some new work shoes for one of the guys at the shop. When I found out that "The Finish Line" sucks and that nobody else had what I was looking for, I decided to go do a little shopping for myself.

I ended up at "Barnes & Noble" to look at books about management and motivating staff. The book is titled "151 Quick Ideas to Inspire Your Staff", ISBN #1-56414-829-7. It looks to be something that I should get some good use out of, but I'm really hoping that their ideas work. The bullets under the title say, "Attract the Best and Keep Them", "Build an Eager, Willing, and Driven Team", and "Get Them to Do What You Want because They Want to Do It."

So after I left the bookstore, I headed next door to Best Buy and spent a little time just looking around. I ended up back at the mobile electronics section, where I picked up a Garmin eTrex Legend. I've always wanted a GPS device, and I decided that since I had a little extra money stashed away that I'd go ahead and get one. This is a fairly basic unit that doesn't do a whole lot of fancy stuff, but it does some, and it gives me the information I would need. After I got the thing back to my car, I fought with it to acquire a signal. When I finaly realized that the big parking lot light that towered over my car was blocking any decent signals, I moved to another parking lot and set the unit on my dashboard while I flipped through the manual. Finally, the thing acquired a signal and I was on my way.

From there, I ended up on the Jasper/White county line, on a gravel road, where I stopped at a house that was perfectly round. I spent a little time there, meeting up with another good friend, obtaining a tour of the house that was in progress, and just socializing with her for a little bit. From there, I made my way back to Rensselaer, stopped at the car wash, and got my car cleaned up.

After I got my car washed, I headed back home, did my laundry, then headed back to town for a little bit with Dad. We got back home, which is where I was at the start of this entry. It's actually been about half an hour or so since I started writing this thing, thanks to "Boss Lady" calling, as well as "Friend Dude" calling.

All in all, today was a good day and it gave me that personal time I've been needing for a while. Here in a couple weeks I'll be taking a week of my vacation time to "house-sit" for my sister (MSL) and her husband while they're on their anniversary vacation. Just before that, I'll be getting dressed up to go to my best friend's wedding.

The first chapter in this book can relate to personal time though: If you wait to have time, you'll never get around to it. I'm not waiting.