2000   1999   1998 & my David Letterman Trip!   About me
Well as you may or may not know, I went on a ski trip from March 29-April 3, 2000. I went to Winter Park, Colorado by way of Denver by way of Atlanta. Winter Park is a really cool (no pun intended) little ski villiage, and Denver is really neat too. The whole trip was lots of fun, but the best part was new friends! I had been planning on going, and had already decided to go that week when I found out that a group from Alabama's RUF was going to be out there for spring break. So I went ahead and bought the plane tickets, booked a room, skis, a car, the works and started waiting for the day I would board that plane! I never did find anyone to go with me, but I had a great time anyway. Getting to see and hang out with Billy, Camille, Will, Jamie, Grant, and Katie again plus meet a couple of dozen more new friends was great. I hope to keep in touch with some of these guys and gals and maybe hit the slopes with them again in a year or two. I have one picture of the group here if you want to check it out. Maybe I will put up some of my pictures of the mountians as well. It is so beautiful out there, I really hope I get to go back soon.

Here is a definite sign that I am getting old, my 10-year High School reunion was a couple of weeks ago! I finally decided (with much coersion) that I would go, and I am really glad that I did. It was a lot of fun and it was wonderful to see so many old friends again. Check out the pictures I have posted from it here.

2000   1999   1998 & my David Letterman Trip!   About me
Well, I guess the biggest recent news is that my two best friends are leaving Alex City! :( Preston & Pam are heading off to Birmingham. I am sure going to miss them, but I am happy for them at the same time. I know I will still see a lot of them and that this move is the right for them. I am sure they will be very happy living and working up there and I wish them the best of luck!

You might have heard about all the shaking up at Russell, but for anyone wondering, I still have a job. I am now in the Russell Athletic strategic business unit of Russell Corp, but the biggest changes with that were moving across the room and us not having to support as much when we are on call!

I of course miss Alabama football, but we had a good year, and are getting a good recruiting class. Basketball is not too bad, either. Next fall in Tuscaloosa is going to be a good one! I do miss T-town a lot. I hope to go spend a day or so over there soon.

What I would really love to do is to go skiing again like I did this time last year! You can't beat the Rockies in the winter! Speaking of snow, I almost got stuck in a snow storm over New Years in West Virginia/Ohio. I went on a really fun trip with my friends Kelly and Leah from RPBC, and we were pretty close to seeing a blizzard! We did get enough snow to be cool without having any really bad travel conditions. And you know what, you can meet some really cool people at weddings! ;) So now you can add another road trip to my list (at the bottom). We went up through Knoxville, on to Lexington and hung a right over to Huntington, WV. Then we went up the river to Gallipolis, OH and Point Pleasant, WV. We made a side trip to Charleston, WV and that was pretty cool too.

2000   1999   1998 & my David Letterman Trip!   About me.
For those of you who want to know about my trip to NY, NY in October, read on:
Preston and I took off to New York on a Wednesday and landed back in Atlanta before Wednesday was over! The main reason for going was to see David Letterman (and we got really cheap plane tickets!) We had a good time walking around and exploring Midtown Manhattan - we went to the top of the Empire State Building, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Central Park, Grand Central Station, Times Square, Macys, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, Trump Tower and of course the home of the Late Show: The Ed Sullivan Theater! We walked all of Broadway from Central Park to the Empire State Building - that alone is 25 blocks! The Letterman show was fun, but as Dave admitted to us before hand: "Tonight's show really sucks!" The guests were pretty funny, but they stuck us on the very end of the row well out of any camera shots. At least we were close, we were on the 4th row, right by the red-headed announcer guy. The guy in the audience that was wearing the Yankee's uniform that they showed and talked about for a couple of minutes was on the second row right in front of us. The best part about the trip to me was the flying! That was really my first time to fly, and it was great. I loved the view flying out of Atlanta at dawn. The view of the clouds and also of sunrise were incredible! The flight that night out of New York was incredible too - we circled around for a real good view of Manhattan. I could pick out the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center, the Chrysler Building, Central Park, the bridges, even Times Square! The whole flight we were passing over millions of tiny dots of light all bunched up into tight little patches - Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC. I am really tired today - we were up from 4am Wed until after 2am Thur. I talked to my old RUF buddy Fran while I was up there, but she was very busy with work and couldn't get away. The whole trip was really great, and I can't wait to go again - maybe next time I'll get to see Fran while I'm there.

2000   1999   1998 & my David Letterman Trip!   About me
Well, here is the boring stuff about me:
(F.Y.I.: The title of my web page used to be "Robert D. Blivens?") My name is actually Robert Bivin, Blivens is just how they pronounced it at my graduation from the University. Kinda stinks everybody always mispronouncing my name, but at least my first name is as easy as they come: Bob. Sometimes they call me Bullet or Bobster or Biv or S.O.B.(That's an inside joke, not what you are thinking!) or whatever, but I'm not used to hearing Robert - so don't call me that! I was born August 17, 1972, even though I look like I was born around 1980. I am also a 1996 graduate of the College of Commerce and Business Administration of the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems with a minor in Computer Science (boy that's a mouthful - maybe that's why I never say it). I am originally from Birmingham and I graduated from Huffman High School in 1990. I attended Jefferson State Community College for a while before going to Tuscaloosa (that's where UA is, in case you didn't know!). I now work in Alexander City, AL for Russell Corporation (yea the one you've been hearing about in the news!) as a Systems Analyst - (and yea I still have a job!)

In case it matters to anyone, I guess I could start by giving you a hint as to what I look like. There is a picture of me on my Pictures Page , but here is what you may or may not be able to tell from my pic: I am about 5'10" tall and about 155 pounds. My hair is somewhere between blonde and light brown, my eyes are hazel and I wear contacts. I look much younger than I am - people usually don't think I am a day over 20, when actually I am 27. By the way, I am single. I am a member of Hillabee Baptist Church here in Alexander City. I grew up going to Roebuck Park Baptist Church in Birmingham, and I still have a lot of good friends up there that I don't get to see very much. From Birmingham I went to Tuscaloosa to attend The University of Alabama. While there, I was involved pretty heavily in RUF (Reformed University Fellowship). The majority of my friends from college are ones that I met either at RUF or Campus Crusade. We had a lot of good times together. The weekly Bible studies were great, and so were Sunday nights at Billy's and the conferences. Those were some of my best times in college! And I can't forget all the times we went to TCBY or bowling after RUF or any of the many other times we just hung out! My best buddies from Hillabee here in Alex City are Brad & Katie, but they are both in college at Samford University in Birmingham. They just got engaged!! Needless to say, I don't see them or any of the RUF folks very often either. The only friends I do see a lot of (maybe too much if you ask them!) are my best friends here in Alex City: Preston and Pam. The two of them, as well as Katie are on my Pictures Page . Preston and Pam both work here at Russell with me and we hang out and do a lot of stuff together. They are really cool for a married couple!

Some people may be wondering how I found my way to Alexander City, so here goes: I was pretty much wasting time (or 'resting' as Cole would say) at Jeff State (J.C. in B'ham) not really knowing what I was going to do. I have always wanted to be a pilot, but that opportunity hasn't come about yet. So when I took an intro to computers class and found it really easy for me, I figured that that would be a good and interesting career for me to go into. I didn't declare a major until I got to Alabama, and that major was MIS. I had no idea what it was, I just knew that it wasn't computer science, (definitely too much math and stuff) but that it was a similar major with lots of focus in business. I really didn't know if I had made a good choice or not, because nobody knew what MIS was when I told them what my major was. But after a while, there were people who did know and they all said that I would be making BIG bucks! After my Junior year I worked the summer here at Russell. I worked all summer and I suppose I impressed someone, because they wanted me back when I graduated. I went from a Programmer I when I worked the summer of '95 to a Programmer/Analyst when I was hired full time in '96 and I was recently promoted to a Systems Analyst I.

I live an apartment in town and for those wondering where Alexander City is, it is on US 280 halfway between Birmingham, AL and Columbus, GA. I like hiking, backpacking and camping as well as other outdoor stuff like rappelling and climbing. I also like to play basketball and football, even though I never get to play. I do get to play softball, but I am not very good at it. I also like to ride my mtn bike. I guess what I enjoy most is just doing stuff with friends, whether that's just hanging out, going out, a road trip or watching a movie. Trouble is it doesn't seem like I ever get to do much of that anymore. I don't get to see the RPBC gang back home much anymore, or the RUF gang at Alabama. The group from Hillabee Baptist used to be a real sociable bunch, but now we've just stopped having any kind of get-togethers. Good thing Preston and Pam are around! We have had many good times either on road trips, going out to eat, just watching a movie, or whatever. Here are some of the places I've been to on recent road trips: Washington, DC, The University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN, white water rafting on the GA/SC border, Colorado, Dallas, Panama City, the Univ. of Mississippi in Oxford, MS, Tuscaloosa (of course) and many times to Atlanta, B'ham or Montgomery.