A New Post...Finally

Reading over my few past posts from what seems like years ago, I realize how much I expected my life to change. And that it has. I recently graduated from grad school, a reality that has yet to take hold. I took a job with Archer Daniels Midland, a company that has blown me away after just one week of employment. I've moved out of the house I'd been in for well over three years, and threw almost as much stuff away as I packed. And I'm living in a hotel for seven weeks while I go through the ADM training program, visiting exciting towns in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana. Oh yeah, and freezing.

Ever heard of ADM? I realized that few people actually know anything about them when I started talking about this job. But literally everyone in this nation has some ADM products in their possession. Believe me? Well, let's see....do you like soft drinks? Ever read the ingredients? High fructose corn syrup? Likely an ADM product. Oreo cookies? ADM's black cocoa. Eat chicken, pork, or beef? Those animals were probably fed with ADM soy meal or special feed ingredients that help growth. Listerine? Made with ethanol, the same stuff that makes bio-diesel products. Vodka and other liquors? Might be ADM ethanol as well. Hair gel or Bath and Body Works lotion? Both contain ethanol. Chewing gum? Dextrose, sucrose, sorbitol and other ingredients all come from corn. Flour goes into Sara Lee and General Mills products, among others. We sell oil to Burger King, Chick-Fil-A, KFC, A&W, Long John Silvers, Taco Bell and others for frying, and also provide the private label vegetable oil brands to Walmart, Kroger and other grocery stores. The exhaustive list of ADM's products is phenomenal, so I'll just stop there. So, along with the excitement about the new job comes the feeling of horror when I realize how much I have to learn. I wonder if I can pick it all up...but I'm sure I'll be just fine. At least I'll keep telling myself that.

Well, I have a lot more time on my hands these days...so I'm finally going to read Mere Christianity all the way through. I'm only a few chapters through it, but C.S. Lewis has a lot of good things to say. More on that to come, I'm sure. Blogging will give me something to do on, ahem, Friday nights. For now, it's bedtime.