I lost an old friend this week, some of you may have heard me talk about Brittany. I met Brittany when she was 14 and I was 15. It’s amazing that ten years have gone by since we’ve worked together and with each passing day, my memory starts to fade in that time of my life. But isn’t it amazing that when you really work your mind, those memories start creeping back?

As you’ve probably read in one of my older posts, Donatos was my first "real" job (you can read that post here). For some reason, I had my heart set on working at Target across the street. But Tonya, the assistant manager at Donatos, had something about her that just made me want to work at Donatos.

I have a firm belief that God works in all things. Perhaps He had a reason for me to work at Donatos and not Target. The crazy thing is that in each stage of my life, there have been people in my life who have made a significant difference and were always there when I needed them. I am so thankful that God brought me to that first job, we were family, and I LOVED it.

I told Brittany’s mom, Kathy, that I had some fun memories of Brittany and I, but that biggest thing that stood out was how well she loved me. Since Brittany and I were the youngest on the crew, we almost always worked together. Sometimes we would both work the front counter together, sometimes she’d work the front while I worked the drive-thru, other times we would clean the dining room together, or just hang out in the party room folding pizza boxes.

Some of my most favorite memories are the times when it was slow and we’d go out back, she’d smoke a cigarette and we would just sit there and talk. It was like a family affair at Donatos because Brittany, her mom, brother, and sister-in-law all worked there and they made me feel like I was part of the family.

I remember the early morning staff meetings where we’d meet in the party room, watch training videos, and Britt would sit on my lap as we’d watch them. I remember the slow times where we would talk about anything and everything while cleaning the dining room. I remember how excited she’d get about her little niece. I remember how much she hated anchovies, and after making a pizza with anchovies, I’d wipe the slime off on her shirt (yes, I was such a gentleman back then). I remember working on Christmas Eve and I brought in my CD player and she’d sing along. I’d remember us running over to Wendy’s to do a food-swap with the employees and bringing back our dinner and sitting back in the prep room with the staff hanging out. I remember the times we had to come in early and remove the conveyor belt from the oven and clean it. I remember the times she’d have me grab something from the walk-in refrigerator and lock me in.

But the biggest memory of my time at Donatos came at a painful time in my life. It was a beautiful day, I even think it was the last day of school. My mom had picked me up from school and as we sat at the stoplight in front of North Central she said, "Kiel, I’m moving to Florida." Okay…. "When?" I asked. "Tomorrow."

I tried to stay strong for my mom, but as soon as we got home, I walked on the Monon Trail straight to Donatos. I walked in the front door, through the kitchen, out the back door and just started crying my eyes out. I walked back in, found Brittany’s mom, Kathy, and just started crying in her arms. Brittany was there to console me too.

That summer was one of difficulty, but one where I felt loved. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had developed an anxiety/panic attack disorder. There would be moments when I’d feel a rush fly over my body and I’d feel the need to go throw-up in the bathroom. I had originally thought it was an allergic reaction to the ingredients and I decided that it was time for me to move on from Donatos.

After moving across the street to Marsh, I slowly began to lose touch with Brittany and Kathy. They’d occasionally come by the store to shop and I’d occasionally go to Donatos to see them. But you know how life is, we drifted apart. At first I wouldn’t see them for weeks, then months, and then years… ten years in fact.

Over the past few years I had been trying to reconnect with Brittany, looking for her on MySpace and Facebook. She never really was into those type of things, but I had a hope that someday she might want to reconnect with old friends and create a profile.

About a week-and-a-half ago I finally found her on MySpace. She hadn’t logged on in a while, but I thought if I sent her a message through the system, that they would notify her through e-mail. I thought to myself, "Hey God, maybe this is a great chance to reconnect and be a part of each other’s lives again!"

But I was disheartened on Wednesday when I logged into MySpace to see that she still hadn’t read my message. I had moved on to my other tasks of the day and eventually made my way to the obituaries on The Indianapolis Star web site. As my eyes scrolled through the names, one stood out… it was hers.

I was in disbelief, shock. I read through the obituary time and again, but there was her mother’s name, and her brother’s name. My friend, who I really wanted to see, had passed away that Sunday.

It was a little difficult for me to walk into the funeral home and see her mom, who had been like a mother to me when I worked at Donatos. But when our eyes met, we immediately recognized each other and I embraced her in an all-familiar hug. It turns out that all these years that we’ve been apart, we’ve been wondering about each other. Brittany had been wondering what I had been up to, as did Kathy. Even in the hustle and bustle of the past 10 years, I had still wondered about them.

I’m going to miss my friend Brittany and I continue to pray for her mother, Kathy. As I sat through the funeral they read 1 Corinthians 13. One word that stuck out to me during the whole funeral was the word "love." Brittany had shown me love, Kathy had shown me love, and I hope that my presence there let Kathy know that I love her very much. She has a special place in my heart.

I say all that to say this, never stop loving people. I know I talked a little bit about myself in this post, but that’s because in the midst of what I was going through, Brittany and her mother were loving me through it all. If you’re a Christian, you are commanded to love others, even more so than you are to love yourself. If you’re not a Christian, loving someone could make a tremendous impact on someone else’s life. They may not remember a whole lot about you in the years that pass, but they will remember how well you loved.

So with that, I am so thankful for the love that Brittany has shown me and I hope that Kathy knows that I will be there when she needs me… just like she was there when I needed her. I thank God for allowing Brittany to be a part of my life.

This video was taken from a local television station’s Christmas special and was filmed at the ArtsGarden in Circle Centre Mall. For reasons I can’t recall, I didn’t take part in the filming, although I was on location while they were doing it. I did, however, come back on another day and perform with the guys during a busy shopping day. I would post video of that day, but our cameraman had a hard time keeping the camera steady… thanks Uncle Larry! Ha ha!

This memory sticks out to me for a couple of reasons. One, it took place about a year after Circle Centre first opened… and for some reason, I thought that Circle Centre was the greatest thing around. Second, and most importantly, it’s time I got to spend with my Dad. I also really enjoyed hanging around these guys, it was a great time!

So having said all that, enjoy!

The drive was pretty uneventful, as we had made the trip over a month ago to go see the Cincinnati Zoo. We listened to some good music, Betsy and Faith took cat naps for part of the journey and it looked like we were on schedule.

Betsy’s friend had warned us that we might run into traffic in Cincinnati, as the part of town we had to go through was notorious for crappy traffic, but we totally didn’t expect what was about to happen.

About six miles from our destination, tummies grumbling and needing to go to the bathroom after a two-hour car ride, we came to a standstill on I-275. Now when I say standstill, I don’t mean that traffic slowly inched its way along. No, it was not moving AT ALL.

People started turning their cars off in order to save gas. Jordan and I got out to investigate. It was actually quite humorous, as it reminded me of R.E.M.’s music video for "Everybody Hurts" when, during a traffic jam, everyone gets out of the cars on the interstate and just start walking around and talking to eachother. Sadly, because of the way the median is structured on this stretch of highway, there was no way that we could simply hop on the westbound lane and drive away. There was a "turnaound" about a mile down the road, you know, the kind that you’re not supposed to use, but people do anyway. A few people took that option, but most people opted to stay in traffic, hoping and praying that it would move again.

While sitting on the middle of the interstate, I had visions. I had visions of everyone getting out of their car and having a giant dance party. I opened up all the doors and started blasting "I’ve Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, but sadly, the idea never caught on. So after about 45 minutes of sitting in the middle of the highway and people who almost died of having to pee so bad, we finally got moving.

I read later that there was a four car chain crash that happened at the upcoming off-ramp which caused us to be stuck there so long. Apparently in Cincinnati, when one person crashes, everyone else feels like they have to join in… it must be an Ohio thing. We finally made it to our exit and ran into Wendy’s to grab a quick bite before the concert, I literally finished eating my meal as we walked up to the venue.

Fortunately we only missed an opening song or two, so I was not bummed. The concert venue is actually an old Discovery Zone that the church behind it bought and converted it into a student ministries/concert venue. Aside from people moving around so much (standing room only), I really enjoyed the place.

Leeland, Brandon Heath, and Francesca played great. They intermingled their sets, so that you got to hear everyone and didn’t get tired of one act waiting for the next one to come up. I think the one part of the concert that I really enjoyed was the part that didn’t involve music at all. They talked about a program called "Food For The Hungry" which goes into impoverished areas in the world and actually works with the people to come up with tangible solutions, not dictating what the locals should do, but listening to their ideas and partnering with them.

For example, some money went to buy seeds so that people in Cambodia could plant a field full of cucumbers. There’s really so much to this organization, that I’m actually going to write about it in another post (I’m going to sponsor a child with Food for the Hungry). So I’ll be sure to update all of you on how to get involved.

Anyway, suffice to say, it was a great concert, well worth the two-hour drive. We got stuck in traffic thinking we’d never make it to the concert, but fortunately we did and had a great time. I’ll leave all of you with this music video of Leeland’s "Follow You," with footage of their trip to Cambodia with Food for the Hungry. Enjoy!

A man’s first car is a rite of passage, a symbol of pride. For Eric Foreman of "That 70’s Show," he got a Vista Cruiser. For me? It was a 1988 Plymouth Reliant K Station Wagon. I’ve never been a big "car guy," but I do have fond memories of each vehicle I’ve owned. So I will try to tell you about each one, the first is the Reliant K Station Wagon.

Yes my friends, this is my first car and I can vaguely remember the day we got it. I remember there was a little snow on the ground (as evidenced by this picture). I don’t remember if I was excited about this purchase, unexcited, or impartial. I think part of my rationale was that "beggars can’t be choosers," and that I would have to go with whatever my Dad bought me.

It’s funny how someone can take so much pride in their first car. Yes, I had the fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror. Yes, I installed an after-market CD player and box speakers that sat in the back (covered with an afghan). But it was my first car, it allowed me to leave the comfort of the 46240 zip code and explore. In fact, I think one of the first places I went to was Donatos up on Range Line Road in Carmel to visit my old manager, Kathy. I would even drive all the way up to Greyhound Pass (which seemed far for me) to grab some White Castle. Ahh… those were the days.

The car itself was in pretty good shape, except for the torn headliner and the air conditioning didn’t work. It had a bench seat in the front and in the back, with the back seat able to fold down. The car had it’s factory radio, but I took that out and put in a Sony Xplod CDX-4000 along with two tweeter speakers in the front dash. I think I was most excited about the stereo. It wasn’t the best on the market, but I could program in the station names and if the CDs I played had CD-Text enabled, it would show the song/artist playing. For a small car, it actually sounded pretty good without needing an amp.

Instead of replacing the speakers in the back, I unwired them and put two 12" MTX box speakers back there. They fit well behind the back seat and I put one of my great-grandma’s afghans to cover them… corny, I know. But you know what? That afghan actually fit in with the vehicles colors!

My First Accident

You’re probably wondering about my first accident. It’s actually kind of funny that I can remember a lot about that night. I was coming home from my friend Rick’s house and was approaching the 75th and College Avenue intersection. It was raining and appropriately, Dido’s "Thank You" was playing on my radio… well, it was either DIdo or Enya’s "Orinoco Flow," something stupid like that. The stop light was flashing red for me, I looked both ways, but as soon as I drove into the intersection, this truck comes barreling into the intersection and smashed into a tree. My heart was pounding as I pulled over, the truck was smoking and I called out to the guy to ask if he was alright. "My truck is f**king totaled, and you’re asking if I’m alright?!"

After a few minutes, he calmed down and the police and fire department came. My Dad came out to help me deal with being in my first "accident." I don’t remember exactly what the outcome of that accident was, I can’t remember if I was claimed at-fault or not.

I can’t remember if I had any other accidents in that car. I do remember trying to back the car into the garage and the passenger-side mirror ripped off… which sent me to my first experience with a junk yard to find a new mirror, ha ha!

The Car’s Demise

It’s been probably eight years since I’ve had this car and I remember its share of problems. I’m almost positive that this was the car that had problems with the fan belt. I would be driving home from Ivy Tech and I’d be stopped at the intersection of 38th and Meridian Street with the fan belt squealing. It’s always fun to have a pedestrian let you know what the problem with your car is.

But the car’s ultimate demise was a cracked radiator or something like that… shows how long it’s been. But it was a good first car, one that I wasn’t too worried about wrecking. Aside from the mirror coming off, the car body was still in good shape when we donated it to Goodwill.

 So long 1988 Plymouth Reliant K Station Wagon… you were an excellent first car.

Birthdays haven’t been a big deal to me since I was a child. Growing up I remember how we used to make everyone’s birthday a big deal. Often times we’d get together at my grandparents’ house the weekend following our birthday and have cake and ice cream… and if we were really lucky, we’d have an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen! My family always made sure people felt special on their birthday.

Now that I’m grown up, I just see my birthday as another day and I’m pretty content with that. It’s on this day that I just reflect at how much I’ve grown, how far God has taken me, and how thankful I am to have the friends and family I do… this year is no exception.

For the first time in memory, my friends are planning something for me tonight. Tonight is supposed to be a surprise, and while I’m not a big fan of surprises, I am extremely thankful (and excited) that I have people in my life who want to do something for me to help make the day special. So to Stephanie, Chad, Faith, Betsy, and Andrew, thank you so much for being great friends. And Serena, thank you for being so awesome to bake an awesome treat for my birthday!

Well, I thought I’d give you all a little treat. That video from my sixth birthday that I talked about at the beginning of the post? Yeah, you can watch it. You might enjoy seeing little me trying to blow out candles.

I was most excited about today because I haven’t seen Uncle Leroy since Christmas 2007. So I headed up to Tipton and met up with my Dad and Sharon for Easter Mass. After Mass we heading back down to Indianapolis and had lunch at Steak n’ Shake before preparing the easter egg hunt.

It was fun hiding the Easter eggs. Dad mostly just walked across the yard and dropped eggs everywhere, he didn’t even try to hide them! So I found some creative ways of doing that.

I just loved watching the kids being so excited about doing an Easter egg hunt. Here’s a video and some pictures, I hope you enjoy!

“I was just outside jumping up and down, playing with sticks, and doing a thorough ‘marking’ of the perimeter of the Kinnaman estate when I noticed my compatriot Patches was missing,” Einstein said.

Patches began “working” for the Kinnaman Department of Homeland Security sometime around 1998. Nursing injuries from a previous tour of duty (getting his rear paw stepped on repeatedly), Patches came with a bandage around his hind foot, earning him his famous name.

As a young private in the department, Patches trained under Major Doodles Elwood Kinnaman. His rigorous training included learning how to climb trees without front claws, catching chipmunks, and guarding the homestead from the neighborhood raccoon affectionately known as “El Bandito.”

When Major Doodles died in battle, Patches was promoted to the position of Major serving alongside Colonel Hyden Vulcan. However, due to Colonel Hyden’s health complications, Major Patches took over as Colonel for the Kinnaman Department of Homeland Security shortly after Hyden’s death in 2007.

Under his watch, the Kinnaman estate stayed chipmunk-free and mouse-free. Just months before his disappearance, Patches granted an interview with this very news outlet in which he detailed one of his proudest moments:

“There was one particular time when the Major Doodles and I were guarding the Kinnaman compound. We noticed that our food kept getting eaten, night after night. So Major Doodles and I planned a stake-out. I was just a young private, scared out of my nine lives. Major Doodles took the rear, sitting in Master Kinnaman’s favorite patio chair, while I sat on the roof of the dog house waiting for the perps to show up. All of the sudden, this big fat momma raccoon shows up and tries to take our food, so we just jumped out of her and scared the crap out of that raccoon. We laughed so hard we felt like one of the LOLcatz. Afterwards we drank some warm milk and had the best cat nap this side of heaven.”

Colonel Patches will be fondly remembered, he used up every last one of his nine lives in his final days. In the summer months he would do a security check of the shed while Master Kinnaman would be mowing the lawn and end up getting locked-in until his absence was noticed.

In his final days Patches enjoyed nothing more than sitting on the back porch with Masters Kreig and Eric, taking in the second-hand smoke of Marlboros while having his belly rubbed.

Colonel Patches is survived by his Masters: Ron, Micah, Kreig, Kiel and Eric Kinnaman. Step-brothers include Einstein the Dog, Spot the Turtle, Isaac the Parrot, Milo Tiel, and Petey the Dumb Dog. Cousins include Cheese, Crackers, and Precious. He was also well loved by GrandDad’s bird, Willie Hicks.

He is preceded in death by Hyden Vulcan Kinnaman, Doodles Elwood Kinnaman, and Clyde the Lovebird.

Memorial contributions can be made in Patches memory to the “Felines for the Ethical Treatment of Mice” foundation.

• Sunday they had Math and needed to solve a story problem for a special prize.
• Monday was History class where we recorded a video for them recalling some of our favorite moments over the past several months.
• Tuesday was Art class where we gave them an awesome picture of us three guys for their desks… which according to them, they cannot put on their desks since the frames say “Hugs and Kisses”… please…
• Wednesday was Music class where us guys (well, mostly Andrew) wrote them a song to the tune of “Move Along” by the All-American Rejects. We then played Rockband while Andrew mixed our vocals with the karaoke track. Ha ha!
• Thursday was English class where Andrew and Chad wrote poems for the girls, I wasn’t in the mood.
• Friday was Gym class and we took the girls cosmic skating followed by “Ghetto Putt-Putt.”

This leads us to Saturday, the culmination of the week where the girls were being a little bit sketchy about the plans. Finally we received a text that said, “Meet at Chad’s by 6:30.” We all arrived at Chad’s thinking, “okay, this is nice, the ladies will pick us up and take us out to dinner.” Nope! Instead we got an e-mail, “Gentlemen, In preparation of this evening we thought it would be appropriate to reflect on our friendship Your journey will begin under your feet as you entered your present location. Enjoy your journey, The Ladies.”

This clue seemed pretty obvious to me, as I was standing on the doormat. Voila! Clue number one! The first clue mentioned the following, “Till the one day when the ladies met the fellas. Do you remember that very awesome day? Here you will find your first clue of the evening in Kiel’s special place.”

Okay, now first of all, I don’t have a “special place” and the other guys were perplexed as to why I wouldn’t know where my special place was. I sent Betsy a text for further clarification. The only place we could think of was church, so we were headed on the first leg of our journey!

Chad ponders, “Where is Kiel’s ’special place?’”	So we packed up the car and headed north to Church!

Upon arriving at church we figured that through some connections, the girls might’ve gotten a key to my office. So we went up there, saw the door was unlocked, and unlocked the door to my office… nothing. So I figured the only place they could’ve placed the clue was in the employee workroom. I would not classify this as my special place, but we went downstairs and sure enough, there was another clue along with a CD in my mailbox.

We were supposed to sing the next clue to the tune of All-American Rejects’ song, “Move Along,” instead we just skimmed through it. Here’s an excerpt, “Here we go… And all holding on real tight. Move along, down the hill gotta dodge those trees. And all resting afterwards, chillin’ out, sitting down on the prayer bench. Here we go!” There was only one place this could be, since we had only been sledding once this season and it was at Northview Christian Life Church down the street (because they have some awesome hills).

So we hopped in the car, popped in the CD (which started playing the Friends theme song), and drove down to Northview. Well, we got to Northview and looked at all the benches and didn’t see anything. Now don’t ask us why we did this, but we went ahead and walked down the hill, which was quite a trek, especially in the dark. I used my camera flash as a light and we still couldn’t find a clue. So we started to trek back up the hill where Chad was determined to go back to my car and check the clue again. I got lazy and texted Betsy. “Look under the benches!” So we did…

Checking the benches….	We found it!

Ahhh, sweet victory. What did that final clue say? Something to the effect of, “So no one told you you were gonna drive all night” and “But we’re still cooking dinner and gotta stall for time.” But FINALLY, there was no other clue on this card, so we headed to Faith and Betsy’s where we knew the girls were at.

Even though they had stalled us, we apparently were still early and even though we had brought them flowers, they still made us wait in the car. But when they finally let us in, there was nice music playing, the table was set, and the smell of food was in the air. SWEET! Fortunately they had some appetizers and salad waiting for us…

Yummy bruschetta!	He likes it, “hey Mikey!”

I have to admit that I was starting to get antsy, after all I hadn’t eaten all day and just spent time trekking up and down the big hill at Northview in my dress clothes. But Chad enjoyed his salad… one leaf at a time… and the girls finally brought us some AMAZING fettuccine alfredo!

Eating one leaf at a time…	Amazing fettuccine alfredo

After dinner we had “indoor recess” which included a game of Jeopardy based on our friendship. Andrew came in first (by choosing all the highest categories), I came in second (even after answering some questions wrong), and Chad came in third. Once we finished Jeopardy, the girls sang us the songs that were on our “clue cards” (probably because we were so hungry we failed to sing them).

Well, what can you do after such an exciting day? The girls were very gracious and didn’t make us watch a chick flick (I don’t mind chick flicks) and instead we watched Traitor. It was a good movie and at the end the girls gave us a gift bag with a picture of the three of them… AWWW. I still think our “Hugs and Kisses” frames were cuter, but you know, they were very well decorated and we give them an “A” for effort.

Chad, Andrew and I have to agree that having three dates on Valentine’s Day is SO much greater than having just one. Faith, Steph, and Betsy, you three are completely awesome and the three of us guys are lucky to have you in our lives.

So yeah, that was our Valentine’s Day (or Week) adventure!

So my old boss at Marsh left me a message when I went to pick up the flowers for the girls, “Dear Kiel, how do you keep track of three girls?” Ha ha! Love you too Rita! And thanks to David and his staff for doing an awesome job on the flowers!

But honestly, these girls have been amazing friends to us, so we decided we wanted to do something in return. Instead of just doing one thing on Valentine’s Day, we decided to spread it across several days leading up to Valentine’s Day. Since they all work in the school system, we divided up each day by subject. On Sunday the girls had to go to a web site we set up and figure out a story problem, if they got it right, they received a special prize. Monday was history class where we sent them a video (you can watch that here) of some of our favorite memories from the past several months.

Tuesday was art class. And it was semi-difficult because we couldn’t really figure out what to do. So I grabbed my camera and we started taking pictures. We originally wanted to get some costumes and have our pictures “professionally” done at the Wal-Mart photo studio, but then I remember that I despised Wal-Mart and the costumes were too expensive.

We had a lot of fun taking pictures. I had the camera on “continuous shoot” mode, so the camera would actually take five shots of us at a time as opposed to one. Little did I know that Andrew was moving his head slightly with each click of the shutter. So, I decided to have fun with it and we got the following result that you see to your left.

It was good times and we wanted to share with you some of the pictures we took, so enjoy!

This was the final product…