Yesterday's schedule

7:30am - 8:30am: Presentation for Bemidji Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors

8:30am - 9:30am: City of Bemidji Department Head Weekly Meeting

10:00am - 12:30pm: Construction Progress Meeting & Walk-around with Architect and City Manager

1:00pm - 2:00pm: Corporate Programming Conference Call

2:00pm - 3:00pm: Retrieve voice mails & emails, return pertinent calls and messages, try to start editing job descriptions for publication (this will be the first time I sit at my desk all day)

3:00pm - 5:30pm: Public Art Committee Meeting on Hanging Art piece + tour of the facility

5:30pm - 7:00pm: Return to office to answer phone/email messages... finish job descriptions

7:00pm - 8:00pm: Answer remaining emails on Blackberry while eating dinner at Sparkling Waters Restaurant (this will be the first time I've eaten all day)

8:00pm: Crash on couch, fall asleep

11:00pm: Wake up, set timer on coffee pot for Wednesday, go to bed.

One more reason to love Bemidji

This is the Keg N' Cork Pub, located at 310 Beltrami Avenue here in Bemidji. It's a nice little pub, kind of old, but they serve a good lunch and a cold draft.

This is Brigid's Cross Irish Pub and Restaurant located at 317 Beltrami Avenue here in Bemidji. It's a little more on the Irish side, with more traditional Irish servings (Shepherd's Pie!) and either Irish music or European Soccer in the background.

Every St. Patrick's Day, including yesterday, Bemidji holds the "World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade." This year it started at the Keg N' Cork and ended at Brigid's Cross... a tremendously long jaunt of nearly 100 feet between the two Irish establishments. Last year, the parade started at Brigid's and ended at the Keg N' Cork.

You have to love a city coming together, closing off a city block, and turning out to see a parade that lasts all of 100 feet. Not quite like celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Boston, but the spirit of the participants are no less enthusiastic.

Out of Hibernation

Out of hibernation, just like this fellow

If you're still out there, you are probably surprised to find something new up here. I don't blame you. What used to be a semi-active corner of the internets slowly became a dusty corner with cobwebs, seemingly abandoned.

In the heyday of "The Essence of Bobness," you could find quippy writing, a laugh or two, and a healthy slice of honesty about life in general and mine in specific. I used this place, much to the chagrin of my readers I'm sure, as a bit of group therapy to get through some awful tough stretches back on the west coast. My life sucked, my job sucked even harder, and the people I worked with royally sucked. But you took it all in stride, offered up yourselves as cheap, but caring therapists, and kept encouraging me to find a light at the end of the tunnel, to pull myself up from my bootstraps, and struggle on until things got better.

Well, things did get better... and I didn't keep writing to share that with you. I feel guilty about that. Maybe I was subconsciously trying to keep them all to myself, afraid that having not had many triumphs that if I gave them away there wouldn't be any more to come. Not really fair on my part. If you made the trek over to Facebook, you kind of know how things are now. Single sentence updates, sort of Bobness cliff notes if you are old enough to remember them from high school.

A quiet Saturday has drawn me back here... hopefully for more than just a once a month visit. Life here in the Great White (and melting) North has been everything I'd hoped it would be. Everyday is a new adventure, staring down the enormity of the task at hand, focusing on what needs to get done immediately, and prioritizing the rest. I can't say for certain how often I'll keep updating this blog, or how entertaining or enlightening it will be, but I'm going to give it a shot. As Blottie keeps on writing, there is a difference between Facebook and Blogger that I somehow lost in the increasingly quickening pace that life has become for me. It's kind of ironic that things got faster by moving to a slower, smaller place.

But let me fill in the gaps for you. The people here are great. Everyone knows just about everyone else, but more importantly they care about each other. When you ask "How are you doing" you actually get an answer, not just a response. If someone needs a little bit of help, people pitch in, roll up there sleeves, and pick them up. Kind of like the little community we've got going on here. I've been able to stop taking all of my medications. The blood pressure is back down where it is naturally supposed to be, and I don't get the panic attacks that were so ever present back in California. Some days are rougher than others, but the worst day here has probably been better than the best day back there.

I love my job again. While I'll never be a morning person, I don't mind getting up at 5:30 in the morning to be at work by 7:30. I don't watch the clock for 5:01pm to flee my workplace, and more times than not work well past 6:00pm. Some of that is because there is so much to do, but it is mostly because what I do matters again. It matters to the people here in Bemidji, to the people I work for and with, and it matters to me. I'm not just going through the motions, dreading the next minute, hour, or day like I did months ago. The calendar shows I've only been gone from that for three months, but it seems like a lifetime ago.

But I've missed all of you. I've missed reading RC's crazy and funny stories and writing. (By the way, if you haven't bought her book yet you better hop to it before she becomes a mega-star and forgets us). I've missed Leah and her talented writing. Even though she keeps poking me at all hours of the day and night, I've missed Kylie and her tales from down under. I've missed chatting online with Megarific. I've missed the on again, off again, I'm blogging, I'm not blogging, I'm leaving Facebook, I'm coming back to Facebook of Suzanne. (Honey, I'm so sorry about your loss... I hope you find some peace in your memories of your brother Gary). And Cece, MerelyMe, and on and on and on.

I'm pouring a lot of my creativity into my work, expanding my horizons and doing things I never thought I'd ever be doing. So don't expect much of that here. But like a few other goals I've set for myself, I'm committed to writing here more and catching up with all of your blogs when time allows and tiredness relents. Thanks for helping me survive a very difficult stretch in my life. Words can not fully relay how much it means to me. You were, and are, the friends and companions I didn't have by my side physically. But you were always just an internet connection away.

Now on with life, with much brighter minutes, hours, weeks, and years ahead. I hope you'll stick around and share them with me.

Because Annie asked...

Yesterday Annie asked on Facebook... "did your blog die?"

Well, the answer to that is not really. Work has not only kept me busy, but very content as well. I guess I used my blog for the past year + to blow off steam and bitch about things. Somehow it doesn't really seem all that fair that the 10 faithful readers haven't been able to share in the good things as well.

Last night, again on Facebook, I posted the status update, "Today is one of those days I feel very fortunate and thankful." Having spent the past three days at our corporate meetings, I was struck by how lucky I am right now. I'm working with a great company and people whom I like and respect. Spread out all over the country, they are a great group and I can't wait to get together with them again in either July or August. I'm working in a wonderful little town on a fantastic project. It's a place I can see myself spending the second half of my life. I'm fulfilling one of my career goals of opening my own building. It's something I've always wanted to do and I get to do it in a place I want to live with a company with which I truly enjoy being involved. I've been able to stop hanging out with biggsy, and would suspect that once I finally get to see a doctor up here that I'll probably find out that my blood pressure has dropped back to an average level.

So, this blog isn't dead. But I won't be posting as frequently as I once did... especially until after the new building opens in October. I haven't been keeping up with your blogs either... for which I do apologize. With a winter storm rolling in this weekend, it looks like I'll be staying in and catching up. If you're a Facebook friend, I'll see you over there. If you're not, why the heck aren't you? Click here and befriend me!

A dispatch from the Great White North

Yes, I know I've been a very bad blogger. But on a Friday night, with a few flurries flying through the air and a few Fat Tire's in my system it seems like a good time to take you on a little tour. Chances are pretty good there will be a more personal post coming later this week, but for now you'll have to settle for the tour. All of these photos were taken this morning...


Here's an exterior photo. No, the top part of the roof is not going to stay purple. That's just insulation. It will be enclosed in the spring.


Another exterior shot... this one from the shoreline of Lake Bemidji. The convention center portion of the building is closest, with the arena behind it.


Here's an interior shot of what will eventually become the Administrative Office suite. My office will occupy the second window from the right. It will have a nice view of the spacious parking lot and Lake Bemidji will be off to the right.


This will eventually become one of the permanent concession stands. The conduit that you see arising from the ground are for power, water, and the beer lines from the keg coolers. There will be three permanent stands on the concourse level with more on the club/suite level in addition to portable carts.


Here's a shot from the west end of the arena showing the entire arena bowl. The permanent seating concrete has been cast. The 25 suites and press box are starting to be constructed. It will be about 50 feet from the low steel to the arena floor when finished. The load capacity will be over 100,000 pounds so we can do a majority of touring concerts. As you can see, there is no concrete on the arena floor yet. Once major construction has concluded in this area, the chilling pipes for the floor will be installed and the concrete will be poured for the ice rink floor.


Another view from the arena floor... this one of workers making progress on the suite/club level.


This is a photo of the area dedicated to Bemidji State. There will be individual locker rooms dedicated to both the men's and women's hockey teams as well as four visiting team locker rooms for tournaments.


This is the Convention Center Ballroom. It is approximately 10,000 square feet and will be divisible into three separate meeting spaces. Once the heavy ground work is completed, there will be thermal floor heating installed into the entire Convention Center space.

These will be the four meeting rooms in the Convention Center. With portable walls, these four rooms will be capable of being combined into two large meeting rooms. The windows you see look directly to Lake Bemidji. It will arguably be one of the most scenic meeting spaces in the entire Midwest U.S.


Last photo for this tour... Fish houses are springing up all over Lake Bemidji. The ice is thick enough in most places to support the weight of vehicles as you can see. Eventually by the time January 1st rolls around the lake will look like its own separate village.

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed this quick tour.