I am interrupting my usually scheduled broadcasts due to… you guessed it a snow day. Nothing like a quarter inch of snow in the Ozarks. Well I got to thinking that I have already posted something on my blog on a snow day. That day however was the 10th of June in Montana. I remember that day quite well. There were 3 inches of snow on the ground and it was coming down in really big flakes. Now that was when I was working construction and it was super cold outside. Especially at 6 am. You see we would get an early start so we didn’t have to work through the heat of the day. Yeah that method really paid off. So I went and bundled up that day and we worked the whole day… actually I believe I worked overtime that day. It is funny though because now half a year later in the dead of winter with barely a skiff of snow, school has been canceled. What a difference in worlds. I would have to say that I would have rather of had that day in the summer off of work than today off of school, but being that I already worked that day and can’t change it, I will settle for being lazy all day long today. I will especially enjoy not having my three hour long class tonight.
Snow Day
Errands
Recently I have solved what to many of us can be a problem of epic proportions. That is getting stuck in a conversation with no escape route. Now there are times when you are feeling extremely patient and don’t mind a few minutes of your time being wasted. However, there are also times when you haven’t a moment to lose and you need an immediate excuse. Well you can of course throw a something specific such as well, “I have to go get my hair cut.” Ah but there is an inherent flaw with that approach, and that is that the use of such a specific excuse will undoubtedly spark a conversation regarding, what your persistent friend perceives as merely a subject change. And so after many trials and errors, I have found my go to excuse. ”I have to run some errands.” Now there mention of the word errands makes any person cringe and suddenly your friend isn’t feeling quite as jovial or friendly. And the follow up question of, “What do you have to do?” Can be easily deflected with a, “I just have to pick/drop some stuff up/off.” And you are home free, or at least free to run your errands. The perfect non-desrcript excuse. It reminds me of Ferris Bueller’s clammy hands symptom. It’s a legitimate symptom, yet requires no further questioning.
A True Politician
Well as many of you know, today was the inauguration of our new president. I didn’t have any class this morning so I took the time to watch the oath and the speech of Obama. Now I really don’t enjoy any politics and am not up to date on any of them in anyway. I really watched just so that 50 years from now when I am old and all wrinkly I can tell the youngsters in my old man voice, “I remember when the first black president was inaugurated. I was sitting in my dorm room.” Now that is an epic tale. Now I considered that plenty of reason to watch the whole speech even though I couldn’t help but think the whole time, there is so much talk and yet nothing is really being said. Little did I know that coming out of my afternoon class I was asked to be interviewed by the local news regarding todays events. I was asked multiple questions regarding real issues and policies, which I had no idea even existed in reality. But like a good politician, I gave full answers spattered with intelligent words, however, due to my lack of any knowledge of the subject, I did all of that without actually saying anything at all. Ah politics at work. The key ingredient to my fulfilling the role of a politician today was however my role as a hypocrite of condemning someone for the very action I was guilty of hours later.
A Full Stack of Stickies
I am not one to normally get into big time goal setting and hoop la of this sort. However I do feel that there are certain times when goals can be indispensable. Most of the time though I find goals that are more intriguing. Things that have a way of tying the past in with the future. One of my favorite things to do is look back on old pictures and remember what life was like at that time. It is incredible how fast your life changes from one day to the next and even exponentially more one year from the next. So this week I was working away like a responsible college student and started to get bogged down in the brain. Now I know I am bogged down when I start to forget my to do lists and have to write them out. So I reached for a pad of sticky notes and used one. I proceeded to use another couple in the day and have a convenient spot to put them all above my desk. Well I got to thinking about this pad of sticky notes. I have had it for over a year now (I believe it was a stocking stuffer last year) and I am about a quarter or a third of the way through it. So I have set the goal. This semester I am gonna burn through sticky notes, until I have used this whole stack. And when I get to that last sticky, I will stop and think back to now when I made this goal and last Christmas and fill my life with a little bit of nostalgia as this simple pad will tie the current present with the past and the future.
I “Workout”
Well now I know I didn’t make any New Year’s resolution to work out but for some reason I felt that it would probably be a good idea to preform some sort of resemblance to a “workout.” So now I wake up early three times a week and do what I call a “workout.” Now given my history of sports, including summer workouts in my high school football days that would legitimately kill me today (technically you pass out before you die, at least that is what my coaches always said, but I for sure wouldn’t be able to walk for a week) what I do isn’t really working out. Two of the days I wake up and do yoga for about 20 minutes. I love it. It makes me feel good. I don’t even break a sweat and then I can say with pride the rest of the day that I “worked out.” Well on the last day of “working out” I decided I would run a little and then do yoga. I decided a mile was plenty for me so I started out. Well ten minutes later I finished and then I headed for the trash. Now I didn’t in fact lose my dinner from the previous night, but it was quite the scare. The truth is, I am not in shape. So I thought about how to reform my “workouts” to remedy this problem and I came up with a great solution. Next week when I run, I am gonna run for 10 minutes and I think 1/2 mile in that time will be plenty. What can I say the Lord has called me to ministry and I want to follow that call mentally, spiritually, socially and I think this is a great step physically. It would be a shame to lose the early progress I have made on my Pentecostal Pulpit Pusher.
Bringing it back
The start of the New Year always somehow has a way of bringing you back to the basics of life. I guess you re-contemplate everything from the ground up. Well after a lot of this deep contemplation, I didn’t really come up with much. But I have gone back to the basics in a few ways. I have returned to school and am going to all of my new classes for the first time. This is always exciting, the prospect of a new subject, new people and so on and so forth. I am also back in the dorm room, which takes a day or two to adjust to being back. The hardest part of adjusting is coming into the room late at night when my roommate is asleep and having to get ready for bed in the dark. When I left last semester I had this down to a science, but the break has caused me to lose some of my nimbleness (not to be confused with gracefulness, of which I have never had any). Point and case, last night when I came in and the lights were off, I ran into every piece of furniture, tripped on multiple sets of shoes and knocked over a pile of books. So I have some adjusting to do. However, the most basic component that has been present so far this year was one of my great loves about 8 years ago. That is going as long as possible without taking a shower. Now this has in theory happened by accident, but already this year I have gone two 48 hour stretches without a shower. Now if we do the math and assume this will continue for the remainder of the year, that means I will go over 100 days this year without showering. You have got to love that.
I Have Resolved
I have never made a New Year’s resolution… ever. This year I didn’t really plan on making one either. I have kicked around several ideas though. Normally it involves ideas like, I am going to work out or eat less soft serve from the ice cream machine in the caf. But I have never been willing to make those a resolution because I figure, what is the point in lying to myself. Plus then there is the added, but totally unnecessary, guilt that I will have when I hit the snooze button instead of getting up to work out or when I am eating that incredibly large ice cream cone that I have been able to skillfully craft only through countless times of practice. So I figure, what is the point. But at the end of this fall I realized that I really wanted to start to blog again. Before I did it a lot out of my own boredom and whether anyone was entertained by it I have no idea, but I was. What can I say, I thought I was clever and witty. But this fall when my brothers moved I realized how convenient of a channel of communication this blog really can be and that it would be foolish not to utilize. I never felt that I had time at school to sit down and write. So this year’s resolution is that I will blog at least once a week. I am hoping to find a specific time during the week that is convenient when I get into a rhythm back at school. I have retooled the format and changed the name. I doubt that I will be as “clever” or ridiculous as I have been in the past, but it is still me writing and hopefully my words will be of some value. So here is to you, the supposed reader… May 2009 be a wonderful year, and may we all be successful in our New Year’s Resolutions, and may I never feel guilty for not working out or eating a giant ice cream cone.
