Our Labor

On this wonderful Labor Day I thought I would recap some of the labor that Lauren and I have performed over the last few years and a few of the oppurtunities our laboring has provided us over the years (I will try to refrain from using the word labor for the rest of the post, but you get the emphasis on this LABOR day....last one, I promise).
I started working for the Oklahoma State athletic department when I was a sophomore in the media relations department. I have never had any interest in making a career out of media relations, but being around OSU athletics was a dream. I also had inherited a decent set of writing and communications skills to be able to keep up with this job.

As I got into my job it turned out to be my technical skills that were more utilized. Since 2007 I have been on the sideline for nearly every mens and womens basketball game and in the press box for every football game taking stats. Along with doing stats I also publicized the two-time Big 12 Champion OSU equestrian team.

The stats portion of my job allowed me to sit on press row for one of the greatest OSU vs. OU games in the Big 12 tournament ever. I was sitting about two feet away from Travis Ford as I watched James Anderson dismantle a highly touted Sooner team and see Blake Griffin cry (not sure if this actually happened, but the way I remember it there were tears).

I was also able to travel to Dayton, OH that same year with our mens team to watch them take on Tennessee in the 1st round of the NCAA tournament and watch the #1 seed, Pittsburgh, squeak by the Cowboys in the second round. The day before this game I got to witness one of the coolest sporting memories of all time......

I was standing in the locker room right after practice and hear Coach Ford come in and all he said was, "Eyes up here" in a sharp tone. As we all looked to the front of the room legendary coach Rick Pitino walked in and deleveried one of the most convincing motivational speeches I have ever witnessed. Coach Pitino used to be Travis Ford's coach at Kentucky.

Anyway, through this job I was able to swing Lauren a job working at facilities in the athletic department. This has given her opportunities to work with tons of other teams as well as meet people like Kirk Herbstreet (and the rest of the Game Day crew but he was the only notable one to her....wonder why?), Garth Brooks, Thurman Thomas, the whole KU basketball team, and Kevin Durant. Some of the other people I have gotten to meet through the athletic department job: Boone Pickens, Thurman Thomas, Garth Brooks, Kirk Herbstreet, Roger Staubach, Brent Mustburger, Bill Self, Eddie Sutton, Danny Manning, Danny Ainge, James Anderson, Zac Robinson, Jesse Palmer, Erin Andrews, Ugga (Georgia mascot).....to name a few.

Since the crazy days of college I have finally settled down into a normal job.....kind of. I now work at American Airlines. This job has not only made it much easier to sustain a long distance relationship, but also see my family (who live about 16 hours away from Dallas) quite often. It has allowed Lauren and I to visit New York City, Destin, Napa Valley, San Fransciso, Las Vegas, Ohio multiple times, Beaver Lake, and Washington D.C. all since January.

We are very fortunate for our jobs......