Cliffhangers Part 3

***Congratulations to my good friend Dan "Danzo" VanWinkle for solving the mystery of Cliffhanger Part 2. Google skills galore!***

"This job is yours contingent upon your references checking out." Venkat's voice, clouded in his thick middle-eastern accent, stated.
"That shouldn't be a problem", I said. I just had an FBI background check a year ago to become the chaplain at the Sherriff's department, and before that when I worked with federal grant money."
"That's good", he smiled. "I'd like you to attend several meetings today. "Is your schedule clear?"
"Yes." I eagerly answered, ready to become a company man.
"Very good." And Venkat began to give directions and times to my meetings.

I walked out and met my ride. My wife, brother in-law, his wife and my wife's step mom all were piled in the SUV. I climbed in and was grateful the heater was running. One thing I learned about Colorado Springs is that the weather changes quick, but it changes back just as quick. It was now beginning to snow and clouds were filling the late morning sky.

I began to think about the job, the changes and the adventure that the next months would bring. The job was one I was familiar with. In fact the old addage of it's not what you know but who proved to mean jack in this case. I tried networking my butt off to get even an interview, and while I had some nice conversations with old friends and friends of friends, oddly enough I found this job on the internet. Maybe what you know has something to do with it... or maybe I'm just fortunate.

My new job is going to start the first week in January. I'll finish here on December 28th. I'm going to be working for UCCS (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs) and the SBDC (Small Business Development Center). It will be almost exactly like the job I had in Tulsa working for the Native American Business Development Center, only I won't be required to limit services to only Native Americans and other minority groups. Well, that and roughtly a 40% increase in pay, 22 days vacation, 15 sick days, 10 holidays and I'm back to having my weekends off. Did I mention a retirement plan where I invest 5% and they give 10%?

The rest of my time in Colorado Springs was spent visiting with my wife's family and looking for houses with a realtor, who honest to God is the exact duplicate (doppelganger) of Joe Rogan.

(the actual Joe, not my realtor)

I even asked him if anyone ever told him he looked like Joe, he said "I wondered when you were going to ask. I get that all the time. I even got asked for an autograph last week." he laughed. If I ever had a need for a camera... which I left at the house. DOH! Next time I'll geta pic with him for this blog.

Things were working out quick, fast and in a hurry. My only hold up was how to break the news back home in Pleasantville. How would my boss take the news? I could see it going well, fair or just plain bad. I mentally played out every move, counter move and counter-counter move of the conversation. I've seen and heard about resignations from churches going horribly wrong and I had concern that I would be one of those horror stories that's whispered about around the water cooler of churches across America.

Then yesterday, I walked in to his office for our bi-monthly meeting, sat down in the chair and reached for air as I prepared to recite my resignation speech to him. My chest tightened and I tried to control my nerves. But the question kept banging through my head, "How was he going to react."

Come back next time for Part 4 of Cliffhangers.