Nate the Great

A couple of weeks ago, Josh and I had a date night with some of my co-workers.  To give you some background on my job,  I work for a wonderful place called The Wood Connection.  I started working there about six months ago and it has been such a blessing.  Even though it's not what I pictured myself doing after getting a degree in Broadcast Journalism, I am so happy there and for the time being, I know it's where I belong.  I love what I do and I work with wonderful people. 

One of those wonderful individuals is Nate - also known as Nate the Great.  I can't think of a better nickname for him.  He really is one of the greatest guys I know.

Nate is 32 years old and autistic and has the best attitude about life.  It's impossible to be around Nate and be in a bad mood.  He always puts a smile on my face and is a joy to be around.

For the past few months, Nate has been wanting to go on a "date" with some of the girls at work.   Per Nate's request, a few weeks ago we all went to dinner at Hire's, bowling at his favorite bowling alley, Sue & Rich and got his favorite ice cream from Nielsen's Frozen Custard.  We had a blast.  I took my camera to capture the fun.

 Nate asked me to take a picture every time he got a spare so that he could see how happy he was. 

He told me he was so good at bowling because he took a bowling class in March of 1993.  He has a GREAT memory!

Also, please take note of his Biff shirt!  haha!  I love it!

Another fun thing you should know about Nate is that he LOVES to have his face painted.  I think he has it painted at least once a week.  He brought his very own face paint so that we could paint his face.

He had Rachel paint his bowling score on one cheek...

Then he asked Lieca to paint his nose blue.

He had me paint his favorite NFL team's name on his forehead

He also had me paint a "5" on his cheek because that's his favorite number.

The girls with Nate the Great

As you can tell, Nate really is Great! 

One of the highlights of my day is saying "hi" to Nate when he gets to work.  Whenever I say, "Hi Nate.  How are you?" he says, "I'm great!  I'm happy."  He says that every time.  

I want to be a little more like Nate.