Work, Home and Play

It has been a long time since I have written to you all. Last time was mid-March when I started my new job at UnumProvident.

WORK
I am enjoying my job and have caught on rather quickly to the products and processes of the Voluntary Workplace Benefits aspect of insurance. The people I work with in the office are great, and I am lucky to have good people to work with out in the field as well. The account managers and enrollment firms I work with the most are in Florida.

My better half of UnumProvident, Stacy, is constantly making great strides at work. She recently had the opportunity to hire two managing writers who will report to her and, in turn, Stacy was promoted to Public Relations Director in Corporate Marketing. It is pretty cool to see the name "Stacy Gray" on documents that are viewed by UnumProvident's 12,000+ employees and many others.

HOME
It is hard to believe we have been back in Chattanooga for almost a year. We moved back here on August 3, 2001. We are getting a lot of pleasure from our home and all the fun projects we have inside and out.

PLAY
Stacy and I have taken two trips this spring/summer. We spent four days in May in New Orleans with another couple/friends. It was the first time down there for us and we made the most of it!

We spent the first couple of weeks of July in the mid-Atlantic/northeastern states. We were in Philadelphia for the Fourth of July and stayed two more days seeing the sights there. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a must see.

We then made our way to Boston. We walked the famous Freedom Trail through the city and saw a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, where we happened upon a dear old friend who we did not expect to see there! We also spent a good amount of time in Cambridge, home to Harvard University.

We stopped in Providence, RI for a day. Rhode Island is a nice state. It had more scenery than I would have thought. We stayed in New Haven, CT, and visited shops and toured the campus of Yale. We were quite scholarly on this trip.

We made our way to New York City and stayed in the Theatre District / Times Square. Our hotel was in the building above the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home of David Letterman.
Sadly we visited the WTC site. There were not many dry eyes down there as many visitors looked into the massive hole. I am very glad that I went down to lower Manhattan to pay respects. All the stuff you see on TV it is so much more somber and eye opening in person. We even visited the hospital St Vincent's where some of the injured and victims went. This was the area where all those missing signs were posted. Sadly, hundreds of them are still there and have been enshrined in a glass case.

We did have a good time in NYC. We took in a Broadway play, The Graduate, starring Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone. It was a well-done adaptation of the movie. And Times Square at night nothing like it in the world.

We finished up in Washington DC. We sat at the bottom of the Washington Monument at midnight and looked out over the Great Mall, seeing the glowing Capitol Building and the Lincoln Memorial in the near distance. It was awesome. There may have been five other people up there at that time, not counting the two National Parks guards.

Well, I could go on and on. We were very excited about everything we were fortunate enough to see and do. Oh, and we drove 2,398 miles total.

That's all for now. Thanks for keeping in touch and reading up on our recent experiences!
Hope all is well

Quick shout out

Long time since I last wrote. I have been hard at work at my new career path at UnumProvident Corporation. I am really hvaing a good time. My coworkers are my friends and that is very helpful.

Our house projects are going well. We have finished up our living room and are heading into other rooms. The kitchen is nearly done. A friend, Steve, and I tiled the kitchen floor this past weekend. It really looks good.

Stacy and I are doing well. Just wanted to send a quick shout to everyone

New Job

Well, it has been an unusual couple of weeks since Stacy and I returned from our vacation and cheering on the Chattanooga Mocs in Charleston, S.C. I came down with a really bad cold/flu with a hint of bronchitis last week and spent most of my hours in bed trying to get some rest and overdosing on medication and basketball conference tournaments. This past week I have dealt with some robust sinus reactions.

Guess since I am a househusband I do not have to report sick days, however, that is coming to a change.

I confirmed on Friday, March 8 that I will begin a new interesting chapter in my professional life with UnumProvident Corporation, the world leader in income protection. Chattanooga is UnumProvident's headquarters and is listed at 198 in the Fortune 500 and was ranked by Fortune as one of America's Most Admired Companies.

I will be a consultant in the voluntary workplace benefits organization. I had a great interview several weeks ago and along with great resources and references, I landed the position.
My job description includes:

-Conduct broker education of voluntary benefits products and process flows
-Serve as operational business flow advocate for field representatives
-Develop and deliver proposals
-Implement sold business to ensure successful acquisition and maintenance
-Ensure continuous improvement of relationships with brokers and field representatives

During the past several months while I was working on remodeling projects in our house I was going on selected interviews hoping to find the right position that would fit my goals.
Having the opportunity to work at UnumProvident is a great one. Everyone I talk to loves working there. The hours are reasonable, the pay is good, and the benefits are better than most can provide. Another great benefit is that Stacy and I will be working in the same building downtown and we can car pool! They also have good green beans and corn in the cafeteria. :-)

My first day at UnumProvident is Monday, March 18.

New email

I hope you are having a good day and life is treating you well.

In the fall of 1995, I jumped on the Internet chuck wagon and AOL with ERIK237 at aol.com. It is hard to believe I have had that address for almost seven years, but AOL keeps getting bigger, more of a hassle and slower even with our handy cable modem, so I am letting her go.

Stacy and I have personal domain names now and have begun work on personal websites and web-based email that we can also use through other email software.

So as of the first of March, our AOL account will become dormant, but AOL Time Warner will still take over the world.

Our new email addresses are:
erik at graystation.com
stacy at graystation.com

These email addresses are active, so please begin the transition of using it now.

We are going on vacation and heading to Charleston, S.C. Wednesday to cheer on UTC in the Southern Conference Tournament. The Mocs are a No. 2 seed and the Lady Mocs are the No. 1 seed. Seafood, sights, sodas and hoops are waiting.

My other alma mater, Xavier, is 20-5, No. 24 in the country and has clinched the Atlantic 10 West Championship. I don't think I will be making it to Philly for the Atlantic 10 Tournament though. Go Musketeers!

Well, that's it!

Aunt and Uncle

It's official ... I am Uncle Erik!

Michael Connor Miller (goes by Connor) was born Wednesday, January 16, at 3 p.m. to Stacy's younger sister, Amanda, and her husband Eric.

Connor weighed nine pounds even, has dark hair (and a lot of it), dark eyes and pudgy hands and feet. He is healthy and doing well getting used to the world.

Amanda was admitted to East Ridge Hospital on Tuesday morning and had contractions throughout the day. The doctor said it wasn't time yet and gave her something to help her sleep through Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, they resumed inducing her labor.

At noon Wednesday, Amanda's husband, Stacy, her mom and dad began helping her push during contractions. I was told it was intense. She worked very hard for the next hour but the baby did not move much, so the doctor advised a C-section. We are not surprised at this now that we know how big Connor is!

Amanda will be in the hospital at least through Saturday beginning the recovery from her surgery. We are all extremely proud of her ... she stayed so strong through it all.

New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year!

Stacy and I have had a great holiday season and hope you all have had the same.
Here's to a great, safe and successful 2002!