nate's blog: November 1, 2009

Hey there, hi there and hello there to one and all. What a wonderfully relaxing weekend it has been in the 70 degree weather down here:) This week there is a happy anniversary wish going out to Byron and MarJoan, congrats!

Aflac is still going strong week in and week out. Our PIC team is still very much the go-to for the whole department and at times, I think we do such a good job that we get many-a-thing that is not in our scope ... good thing that we operate under the "One Team One Dream" motto:) I am pretty excited about tomorrow as we're having the first ever "Dumb Letter Fair." At Aflac, we mail our customers a lot of letters, some of which we believe are completely unnecessary. This year along our team has identified 3 letters that we've cut off saving the company >$560K ... just imagine how many we're going to be able to get tomorrow when the entire production floor gets to help us identify the dumb ones;) I love coming up with new ways to save some money, this will be fun!

Now this week was just madness for my Emory endeavor. Last Sunday I was up on campus for a group project, which was followed by classes on Monday/Wednesday nights. Friday evening Jenny and I got all dressed up for the Evening MBA holiday gathering at a bar house in Atlanta, which was a great time to just chill and not worry about work or school. O yes, and then we drove back Friday night so Jenny could go to work the next day and I could drive back up for some more group study time. Five trips up and back to Atlanta in seven, good thing the Honda is getting about 35 mpg:) I can't complain though because I am learning a great deal and my team is pretty much awesome, so it's going to be sad to say farewell in the next couple of weeks as we switch groups.

This week was pretty fun on the volunteer front as well. Thursday the United Way Executive Director invited me to his bi-monthly board of directors meeting to recognize the efforts for the Live United Youth camp, and they gave me a sweet Live United sweatshirt;) Even more special this week though was at the exec council meeting for the Literacy Alliance. After less than two years on the board, they have asked me to be the Chairman of the Literacy Alliance for 2010 ... what an honor! Although I will need a great deal of help and have a lot to learn, I am very excited about the opportunity to reshape the board and truly get all the members engaged. We should have a great year to look forward to with new board members and new ideas to showcase the great impact we're having on the community.

The weekend was just icing on the cake to a wonderful week. Last night we ventured out on the town with some pals from work and today was a time to chillax. I think after today I am about 87% done with my Christmas shopping, which is ridiculously awesome. Jenny and I also took Caden for a walk around Flat Rock park and played a lot of fetch; hope you enjoy the pics:) I also figured out that Netflix is awesome because we can now download movies straight from the internet onto the PS3, which we did and watched STOMP live ... fantacular!