Welcome to my blog! I’m horrible at updating it, but when I do, rest assured its good stuff! Also, be sure to swing by the /inthekitchen section for some great recipes. Leave comments if you try them and make some suggestions if you have your own good ones.
Posted in Uncategorized
For those who may not be aware, on Monday, January 3rd, my time at KXOJ and Stephens Media Group came to an end. It was a bittersweet moment in that it was an ending I had been looking towards for several months, but I had hoped it would be under my own terms and not theirs.
Last April I was contacted by a record label in Nashville, who had gotten my name from a former co-worker. At that time, I was quite happy with my current job status and had no interest in the position they were asking I apply for, but when you are “head-hunted” (as my ego likes to imagine it was), you follow through and see what they have to offer, regardless of your personal interest. To make a long story short, I went through a series of interviews and even was flown out to meet with staff, a few of the artists, and the CFO of the company. In then end, I lost out on the job to an internal candidate, but the experience made me no longer satisfied with my job. I began officially job hunting shortly thereafter and started submitting my name any chance I got.
As my wedding was approaching I decided to hold off on any further job searching since many of the jobs would take me out of state, but soon after married life settled, I began to look again. Finding little of interest available, I had hopes for the new year. Stats show the greatest number of lay-offs, firings, and “restructuring” happens in January so my hope was I could take advantage of a newly opened position. Unfortunately I was one of those displaced.
So now I find myself still searching for a job as I had planned, but with different motivations and time frames. My wife and I are doing well, and I truly believe this is for the best, but prayers are always appreciated. And if you know of any jobs in broadcast media, promotions, marketing, or event planning, please let me know or feel free to pass along my resume yourself. You can find it in the above menu or by clicking on /resume.
I hope the new year finds you all healthy, prosperous, and blessed. Here’s to a new year of great things!
Posted in job, life in general
Got the urge to blog, so before it passed, I wanted to write something down.
So, the wedding was a success! I’m now the proud husband and father of a new wife and step-daughter. Our ceremony was beyond awesome and we couldn’t have asked for a better day. The wedding took place at the Tulsa Rose Gardens and with an outdoor wedding in Oklahoma, you just never know if the weather will cooperate. But the sun shone, the rain stayed away, and the wind was only mildly a problem during some of the pictures.
We’re still working on uploading pictures to our facebook pages, but for now you can see a few on our photographer’s website, ALCreative.blogspot.com. She did a great job and we have some more awesome pictures we’ll try to upload soon!
Everyone has been asking me, “How’s married life?” and I usually respond with a chuckle, “So far, so good” but the truth is, I haven’t noticed much of a difference. When talking to Alicia today, I realized that it’s because it’s such a natural fit. I know its only been a few weeks into the marriage, but nothing has felt like it just doesn’t belong. Of course it’s taken some getting used to having someone else in the same bed (she lays diagonally and I apparently have hot breath), and my mornings usually start with the sound of a hair dryer instead of a natural awakening, but I can’t make one complaint. I love getting to take Emily to school almost every morning, and I love that my wife makes me lunch on most occasions. I’m excited for the many years to come.
Oh! And I got to check off #19, Get Married from my Life List!
Posted in family, life in general, marriage, weather
Back from our Mexican honeymoon and paradise was great, but being out of the country for a week with no phone; here are a few things you may have missed:
Just landed. Not even out of the jetway and already feel the humidity. 10/4 11:15a
Leaving the airport and saw a man trimming grass. I wonder if he was American… 10/4 12:15p
First dinner at resort: candlelight meal at a French Restaurant. Stayed away from escargot this time but maybe later… 10/4 7:24p
Day 2 begins. Had breakfast on the balcony of our room. Gonna be a beautiful day! {pic} 10/5 8:16a
Getting a couples massage! A little overpriced but its our honeymoon. Needs to be done! 10/5 1:36p
Massage was great. Whispering in my ear, “hows the pressure” in a latino accent was a little creepy though. 10/5 6:02p
Room service delivered to our room and didn’t even have to put on pants! {Pic} 10/5 10:50p
Just got back from a snorkeling trip off a beautiful island. Amazing! And met a cool British couple on the boat over. We made friends. 10/6 7:35p
Day 3. Busy day yesterday so relaxation today. Started it with breakfast in bed 
10/7 8:12a
Literally drinking out of a coconut right now. I love paradise! 10/7 12:28p
Got lots of sun today relaxing by the beach and pool! Just lightly toasted 10/7 4:42p
More restaurants than there are days. Having 2 dinners tonight 10/7 5:45p
Stuffed to the rafters; sushi, lobster, ice cream and more! Time for a show! 10/7 8:36p
Wow! Michael Jackson tribute show was amazing! Danced like the king himself! 10/7 10:45p
Alicia got whiplash from all the stop/go, jerky movements but it was well worth it. Jet skis are awesome! 10/8 11:39a
Did some great activities today! Parasailing, jet ski, and took a boat out around a shipwreck. So cool! 10/8 12:30p
Last night at the resort. Hitting up our favorite restaurant again. Chez Isabelle! 10/8 7:02p
Feel like we should go all out on our last night but really just want to go bed. Exhausted! 10/8 9:55p
Last morning! Ordered breakfast to have on the balcony again. I could do that every day! 10/9 7:38a
Got in a little beach time one last time before we leave. What a relaxing trip! 10/9 11:24a
Goodbye paradise 
10/9 1:14p
You can view more of my pics at http://facebook.com/wageradio
Well, the secrets out and if you haven’t heard, I’ve recently gotten engaged to the most beautiful, perfect, godly woman, Alicia.
Alicia and I met a little over a year ago on the dating site, match.com. I had been in Tulsa not quite a year and still had very few friends, let alone any relationships. I was very weary of trying online dating, but on the recommendation of a few friends, I decided it wouldn’t hurt. After only a few days on the site, I was linked to Alicia. She was one of the first people I communicated with and the only one I ever went on a date with. While I think she first contacted me, she’ll argue it was me who first contacted her. We both must have liked what we saw, however, because after only a couple weeks into my 6 month subscription, I cancelled my membership. After a few weeks, I was introduced to her daughter and began to become a part of their family.
We dated for a little more than a year before I popped the question. We’ve had an amazing year since we’ve started dating and I look forward to an amazing life together. For more on our story and proposal, you can visit our new blog, http://waggonerfam.com.
One of the many reasons I love Alicia is that she pushes me to go far beyond what I’ve ever believed in myself to do. The most recent example of this is the Sprint Triathalon we both completed last Saturday. A few months ago she helped to encourage me to start going to the gym. Soon after that we got the crazy idea in our head that we should work toward something. And why not start big? We began training for the OCCC Super Sprint Triathalon about 3 months ago. It consisted of a 500 meter swim, followed by a 14 mile bike ride and finishing with a 5k run (3.1 miles).
With all the training we did, I still felt unprepared when the day of the race came. I still wasn’t comfortable with my breathing during the swim and the fastest time I had completed 500m was around 18 minutes. I still wasn’t too worried about the biking part, but for the past several weeks I had been dealing with shin splints while I ran so this made me nervous as well.
I jumped in the pool and began my race. All of our training had been in a 25m pool and this was a 50m pool so I wasn’t sure how that would affect me. I managed to finish in just over 15 minutes but was very tired already and only had one leg of the race completed. Alicia and I moved on to the transition area and began our biking. The wind seemed to be pretty strong so we took it slow for the first couple miles. Plus, we were still kind of recouperating from our swim. The 14 mile bike ride actually conisisted of two 7 mile loops so for half of the loop we were fighting the wind and the other half coasting on it. We weren’t allowed to ride side by side so I kept about 10 feet behind Alicia. We completed the first loop and stopped for a very quick water break. Soon after we got back to it though, I noticed my pedal wobbling a little. After a few more yards, it fell completely off. I tried calling out to Alicia but between the distance and the wind, she wasn’t able to hear me. I walked back a few blocks hoping to find my bolt that had come loose but had no success. I tried pounding it back on but that only lasted me about 15 feet. As I sat on the side of the road worried I wouldn’t be able to complete my race, I noticed a lady half a block off the course having a garage sale. I ran up to her garage and exclaimed my predicament. She replied that her husband wasn’t home but graciously allowed me to go through his tool boxes and take anything I needed. Thankfully, I was able to find a bolt that, while not quite large enough, was barely big enough to tighten onto the end and hold my pedal in place. It did end up falling off again, but it was as I was turning back in to the transition area.
I was disappointed of course, mainly because I knew the bike element was my strongest part of the race. I also knew I had a faster pace during the second half of that leg. When I was able to get back on the road, I was in last place, and while I was able to pass a couple people before I finished, it still didn’t make me feel good to know how far behind I finished.
I stayed positive though and finished out my race. I didn’t experience any shin splints, although the last mile of the run gave me a pretty bad cramp in my thigh. My goal was to finish under 2 hours and my official time was 2:21:20 which included my 30 minute “layover”. All in all I was pretty satisfied and if I can convince some loved ones to participate with me next year, I would consider doing it again!
Pictures coming soon!
Posted in family, life in general, pictures, sports, websites
Wow, has it really been January since my last blog post? That can’t be right. I KNOW I’ve done some blogging since then. Ok, so maybe I’ve neglected it just a tad. I did shoot another vidcast but forgot to upload it. Here’s the link – since my video subscription expires in about a week, I’ll have to link to vids from now on. I forgot that you have to pay wordpress $60/year to be able to embed video. No Thanks.
Ok, so the title. Many of you may follow my twitter feed (as seen on the right) and if you don’t, you should. Especially since I apparently only blog every 4 months. I’ve had some cool stuff happening over the last several days that I most definitely would have tweeted about except for one thing… I can’t. I’m sworn to secrecy. That all should be lifted in the next week or so, so check back to this blog when I reveal my list of “Things I would have tweeted.”
Posted in job, life in general, vidcast
I heard today that the average high across the country was 35 degrees. So I’m not the only one suffering from the cold. Last week many areas were slammed by one of the biggest blizzards in recent history. And it fell at a time when many people were trying to take to the roads. Us included.
Alicia, my sister, Kristen and I left Tulsa around 4pm on Christmas Eve and by that time, the roads had begun getting pretty glad. Thanks to a coworker of Alicia’s who overheard us worrying about the travel conditions, we were able to borrow a 4-wheel drive Jeep. Travel started pretty slow but picked up once we hit the Missouri border. Once we hit KC, we were traveling at near-normal speeds and then we hit St. Joseph. Going 65mph, we passed a sign that said the road was closed ahead. We were shocked. Things seemed to be getting better and we discover there’s a 30 mile stretch of Interstate preventing us from getting home on Christmas Eve.
We pulled off the road into a Days Inn an got a room for the night, hoping to get on the road early in the morning. We called the Missouri Department of Transportation and checked on the road conditions early the next morning and everything was still shut down. The interstate south of us was also closed so we were stuck. We kept checking MoDOT throughout the day but there was still no change. So that was my Christmas. Stuck in a Days Inn off the interstate. We had lunch at Denny’s, dinner at IHOP and were even able to find a Walgreens open to get some snacks and make-shift sleds!
We finally made it out Saturday morning and up to Omaha. Had some good time with the family and made it back safely. Despite the fact that it was Christmas, we really did make the most of it and it won’t be a Christmas we’ll soon forget.
I went to lunch with my buddy Jason last week and wanted to blog about a small experience I had afterwards. As I was pulling back into work, there was a man who appeared to be homeless. I was toting my left-over Meatball Hero sandwich from Hideaway Pizza which I had been looking forward to getting all week. As I passed him, I thought, “You should give your leftovers to him.” And when I felt that gentle nagging in my heart to help someone in need, I did what most people would do. I ignored it. I passed him by, went through the parking gate and proceeded to find a spot. I couldn’t escape the feeling this time, however, and knew God was telling me to seize this opportunity, so despite my efforts to be selfish, I turned around and went back out the gate.
I pulled up near him and saw he was digging through his backpack. With a beer in his hand, I could see he had food in his backpack. I tried to use this as an excuse to just keep driving, but the tug at my heart did not let up. I hollared out and told him I had a sandwich. I don’t know what kind of response I was expecting; maybe cries of jubilation, maybe a firm handshake and overwhelming gratitude. But I can tell you the response I didn’t expect was this: “Where’s it from?” I just wanted to yell at him, “Does it matter!? It’s food!” and speed off, but I simply responded to his question and told him it was leftover from lunch and he would probably enjoy it more than I would. His cynicism quickly turned to gratitude and I began to get the response I had assumed from the beginning. He thanked me with a smile on his face and told me to have a merry Christmas and that was the end of our interaction.
As soon as I pulled away, a verse we’re all familiar with immediately came to mind. “Peace on earth, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14) It’s a verse we always hear around this time of year, because its a part of the Christmas story, but how different would our lives be if we lived out that philosophy every day?
One of the greatest experiences I’ve ever been privileged to be a part of was traveling down to New Orleans after Katrina to help a few families restart. While I haven’t been on any missions trips since, it’s definitely something I want to do again. But one thing many of us forget is its not just third world nations that need help or natural disaster survivors that need rebuilding.
Franklin D Roosevelt put it great when he said “Peace, like charity, begins at home.” Jesus put it better, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” I’ve always said it this way; “‘Go into all the world’ sometimes means goign to our own back yards.”
Just a reminder this Christmas season as you hustle around to out-do each other in gifts. And a helpful reminder of what Christmas is all about from Linus: the blanket-toting evangelist.
Posted in holiday, life in general, religion
Lifelist item #31 – See U2 in concert.
- Check
Wow. So hard to describe the experience other than wow. It was one I won’t ever forget and I’ll be able to share years down the road. I’m not going to babble on and on about it, but I’ll say a few things. First off, I’ll get pictures up soon. I really didn’t take a whole lot since we weren’t super close and all I had was my phone. Once Alicia uploads them, I’ll add them to my page so just look to the right and click on the facebook logo.
So first off, we were at Memorial Stadium in Norman, OK (OU Sooners) which seats 80,000+. There were some areas blocked off, but the field was also full, so I’m going to say 80,000 is probably pretty close. It was pure insanity! But awesome. I’m including a couple of youtube clips because my words won’t do it justice. The first was my favorite moment of the show. The band played One a song that has inspired the “ONE Campaign” – a humanitarian and advocasy group. Its one of my favorite U2 songs, but what made it so incredible is Bono ending it with a solo of just he and his famous Irish Falcon Guitar of Amazing Grace. The second video is the Edge and Bono doing an acoustic version of Stuck in a Moment and You Can’t Get Out of It. Just amazing. And since you’ll notice both of these songs are a little bit more simple, I also threw in a video of them performing a dance club remix to the song I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight. This will give you an idea of the production I experienced with this show.
And here’s a link to the setlist of the evening. Each song has a video (not of the Norman concert) of the songs being played.
Click here for the recipe
First off, I made this last night for Alicia’s birthday. It’s Chicken Parmesean and it was a success! Check out my “In The Kitchen” section for the recipe.
Well, October is off to a busy, but great start. We started by going down to Dallas for the weekend to visit Six Flags Over Texas. I’d never been, and it was a blast! We got there when the park opened at 10am Saturday morning and stayed for about 4 hours. We left and grabbed lunch, then went to see downtown and visit the JKF assassination site. After a riveting explanation of the conspiracy theories by the nearby hotdog vendor, we left to head back.
Click the photo for more pics from the trip!
After a brief nap, we returned to the park in the rain around 6pm. Apparently, unless it is a downpour or there is lightening, they don’t shut down the rides. It was apparently just short of a downpour and if you can imagine going on an 85mph roller coaster and having the rain hit you in the face, it was a bit stinging. But fun nonetheless. And we decided Six Flags in the rain is waaay better! It was a long day and we finally left just before they closed the park at 10pm.
The next day, on our way back to Tulsa we stopped by IKEA. I’d never been there, and the place was HUGE! Also, it provided for some birthday gift inspiration. After 3 hours of walking, we were finally on our way back home!
Monday, MercyMe was performing at the Tulsa State Fair and my station was hosting it. It ended up being a pretty nice evening despite some early worries of rain. We were told by many fair staff members that it was the best crowd they had seen so far! I also reached my goal of trying chocolate covered bacon on a stick. My expectations were destroyed. It was bad. In my 3 visits to the fair, I made it a goal to try as many fair foods as I could [afford]. Here’s the list!
Click photo for more pics from the fair!
fried pickles
I’ve still got a busy month left with, believe it or not, FIVE more concerts, not to mention church fall carnival, a few more remotes, and possibly a trip to Omaha for my nieces birthday!
I have no real direction with this blog, so look out!
First of all, check out the life list! Number 29 – CHECK. I also threw up a recipe In the Kitchen for some delicious meatballs you might want to check out.
Secondly, I found out that Oklahoma is opening Black Bear Hunting Season on Thursday. I’ve never really been a big game hunter (other than the Big Game Hunter game at Old Chicago) but I think it’d be fun. So if anyone wants to come down to Oklahoma we could go bear-hunting! The season starts on October 1st and ends when the number of bears killed reaches 20 state-wide. I’ve got a 20-gauge shotgun at home, but assuming that wouldn’t be enough, I’d need to borrow a weapon.
So I found a great video by comedian, Steve Harvey. It really makes you think; How would we introduce Jesus to our friends? Would we shyly introduce him as an afterthought like the pesky little sibling who follows us around, or would we give him a proper introduction he deserves? Steve Harvey who has never made a name for himself as a Christian, makes some suggestions on how HE would introduce Jesus. And the crowd seems to give their opinion.
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