Enlightened

First things first:
My leg is feeling better each day. I'm still limping around on crutches (for this week and then I'll be done with them). I hobbled around with them most of the day Saturday, walking from my place to my D&D game, then to work for about an hour, then home. It hurts on some hills, but the flat ground is fine. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I'll be up to 100% strength.
OH YEAH! After I wrote my last post, I went to the E.R. because the pain built more and more throughout the day. They did an X-ray, and discovered that I had dislocated my knee. So much for me faking it, I had documented and photograph proof! The Doc popped me back into place, and I immediately felt better. Now it's just the slow road to recovery.

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I'm in RADIO!!!!!! And not just that, but it's a permanent move! HUZZAH!
It seems, my injury expedited my move. Their story is, that I was moving anyway, and they didn't want me to have to walk up and down stairs every time I had to get to my desk. But I know that's a lie, because they didn't care the day it happend, or the day after until I complained to a couple of different people. The TRUTH is, that they got pressure from my Air Force chain of command to move me to radio, and used my injury to not get it rubbed in their faces.
So I'm doing a daily radio show from noon to 3pm M-F. The entire country of South Korea gets to hear me, so I'll have to brush the dust off my DJ skills pretty quickly.

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ENLIGHTENMENT!
I believe the Lord spoke to me yesterday. Actually, looking back, I believe He was trying to communicate to me all weekend starting Friday, but I wasn't listening. So Sunday, I got the message loud and clear, and the message was, I haven't been focusing on the right things. I've put work ahead of family. I have neglected my friends, parents, and even my fiancee.
I can't count the number of nights Vanessa spent alone while I stayed late at work, or putting schoolwork together...or the number of times she went to bed alone because I had to unwind from the stressful day I just returned from, again! I used to be in regular contact with my parents, through email or phone calls, but even lately, work has gotten in the way of that, and I've slacked off. I haven't spoken to some of my best friends since before I joined the Air Force, and even the ones I have been in contact with only get an email once every 6-8 months apart.

Here's how I got the message: First, I got hurt, to tell me to slow down. Then I moved to radio. But I didn't notice, because I was still so focused on how I was supposed to do the news job while broken, and how I'd get to me shoots. I wasn't listening. Then Saturday, I went to my D&D game (I saw my HQ Commander there, and we spoke for a minute in passing, and he told me to take it easy) and AS SOON AS THE GAME ENDED, I wet back to work to get a project done. I finished up the project, and started worrying about my last news project. I left, telling myself I'd come in Sunday. I still wasn't listening. Then Sunday, I woke up around noon - after passing out around 2am - and too late to go to church service. So, I popped in my DVD of "Scrubs" season 4 and started watching. I watched the whole thing. There's a message of "Change Happens" throughout that season, but I wasn't listening, AGAIN! Vanessa called, and talked to me about some wedding stuff she'd taken care of since she's in KS anyway. She did things I was supposed to do, and did it without telling me, or asking me. She just did it because she knew I couldn't. And still, I couldn't hear what God was trying to tell me! Finally, I ordered dinner, and put in my "Click" DVD. As movies do, it made me laugh, and made m feel empathetic for the characters (I even cried a few times...watch it and try to guess when). BUT, once the movie ended, I walked outside, and it hit me! BAM, like a bolt of Holy Lightning! I understood that God was talking to me, and had been all this time, telling me that I was paying too much attention to work, and not enough to the people that mean the most to me. Afterall, jobs come and go, I'll leave AFN Korea, but my family will always be with me. AFN doesn't love me like they do, and if I never return to AFN, it will go on. But if something takes me from my family, I'm irreplacible, and it will leave a hole.
So, I got the message LOUD AND CLEAR! It's not like he shouted in my head, but I went outside and wept for ten minutes, all the while thanking God for the message and promising to change. I then had to go inside and call my parents, still sobbing. I know I worried them with all the "I Love You's" because I've told them messages like that mean something's wrong. Anyway, I had to convince them that this was a good call, and eventually they believed me. So we talked, and talked, then we BS'ed.
I got a call from Vanessa later that night, and I had to tell her the same thing. That no more was I going to let work keep me. No more would I spend hours overtime doing "the job" unless it's the exception, and not the rule.

From this day forward, I'm not a machine, I'm a person again. I'm a family man (it felt really good to type that just now). I have responsibilities higher than orders. I will still do my job, and do my best, but no more letting my work consume my life. I will focus on my family, dn the time I have left with them. I will call my parents and tell them I Love them, and thank them for doing a great job helping me become who I am, and that I'm proud to be their son. I will call Vanessa and talk about anything, random things, just to hear her voice, and make he laugh. I will express Love to her in ALL the Love Languages, not just mine or hers. And, if and when we have children, I will make tents out of couches and sheets, I will play cops and robbers AND be the robber, I will build a treehouse, and actually sleep in it with them, I will help them with their homework (even if it means I have to study up on the subject beforehand), and I will pu ttheir paintings and drawings on my wall at work right next to the photos of my parents and my bride!
Thank you Lord! Thank you for helping me to see all this!
For the rest of you, I'm sorry I have neglected you in some way or another. I'll do my best to make sure it never happens again. If you see it start to happen again, PLEASE remind me about this life-changing event, and have me re-read this post!!!!!!!!
I Love You all in your own special ways.

PS - watch "Click."