Leading Off - This has been a surprisingly slow week for me considering it’s the first week of classes and all of the students have just returned. I haven’t yet been on campus with the exception of last night’s Nav Night. That’s probably not a good thing.
So, Who’s At Fault? - To give a brief update on the whole car situation, I received good news from my insurance company. The adjuster agreed with me that the accident was the woman’s fault. I mean, after all, she hit me. This is a particularly interesting development since I was the one who received the citation. I bet the woman is pretty confused, probably angry too. I was very thankful. The bill to get my car fixed and to pay the deductible to get her car fixed would have been a very large bill for me. As it is I’m just stuck with a citation that’ll cost around $120. That’s not fun, but it could have been much worse.
My car has been in the shop since Wednesday and should be done this afternoon. I’ve been driving around town in a Dodge Caliber for the past couple of days and it’s just not the same. I’m such a big fan of my car and can’t wait to get it back.
In a related story, I’m starting to take a different way to work because making that same turn that I got hit on has been messing with my head. It doesn’t take any longer; it’s just different roads. But it makes all the difference in the world.
Quote of the Day #1: “Touchdown! And the plane wins! Thirty-five to nothing!” — the passenger sitting next to me on my flight from Tallahassee to Atlanta as the plane hit the ground, spoken at the top of his lungs (this after talking my ear off about everything and nothing the entire flight)
Quote of the Day #2: “Ladies and gentlemen, a woman in the main cabin is missing… her black purse.” — the main flight attendant on my flight from Atlanta to Hartford right as we were preparing to land, whose pause between thoughts was unnaturally long and stole the collective breaths of the entire plane
An Overdue Christmas Summary - Right, so this isn’t a timely piece, but I just want to say that my break in Connecticut was fantastic. I was a real homebody. I probably left the house five times the entire time I was home. Even when I hung out with Josh Kelley it was at my house. (Josh, by the way, owned me in ever card game we played. That’s a true reversal of fortune considering the last time we played I couldn’t be stopped.) While around the house, when not with my parents or trying to fix my awful laptop, I read Don Miller’s To Own a Dragon and loved it. I recommend it to anyone, especially men, even if they did have a father when growing up. It’s more about finding someone to mentor you, what it looks like to let them lead you and letting God father you than anything else.
My sister Alison was usually either at work, fake studying for her Physics test or just out and about so I didn’t see her as much as my parents. I did enjoy watching UT play Iowa with her. And I love the fact that she hates Texas A&M after one semester at school. That’s the way it should be.
I think my favorite Christmas gift was one that I gave. Is that bad? I gave my dad the DVD of the 2003 Simon & Garfunkel reunion tour. I had picked it out remembering that my mom and dad were mulling over going to the show in person when it came to Connecticut. Sadly the show was $200 per ticket, so they chose not to go. Now, I’m a fan and all; I grew up listening to them with my dad. But I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did. They’re still very good even at the age of 60ish. Their backup band was stellar. The whole show was great. I’m thinking about downloading the audio off of iTunes. If you’re at all a fan, and that’s unlikely since I only have a half dozen readers, then I encourage you to check it out.
A New Character Flaw - I’ve never considered myself to be a person who gossiped or who told stories about other people. In fact I think that’s the one type of person I judge most often. I just can’t stand when people talk about people behind their backs or, worse than that, when they talk about people when the person in question is right there. My problem in the past was always that I made up stuff about me to make myself look better. So imagine my shock when I am told by a person I know, in no uncertain terms and with an aggression I didn’t know they possessed, that I need to stop talking about them behind their back.
I must admit, I don’t remember exactly what I said at the time, though I can imagine saying something since it loosely involved my roommate situation. I apologized, sort of. It was one of those “I don’t remember doing it but if I offended you then I’m sorry” sort of apologies, which isn’t heartfelt at all and really is meant to end the encounter more than anything else. I’m left wondering if I’ve become the person I hate the most. And I’m wondering how I got to this place. Do I do this a lot? And not just with this person, but with a lot of people? How often do we sit down and evaluate the words we speak on any given day and ask if they were edifying to all parties involved, those spoken to and those spoken about? I don’t think I ever do, but I’m starting to think I need to do it.
It’s Great to be a Florida Gator - (And, just to clarify, it’s still great not being one.) I’m pretty disgusted that I live in a world where the Gators are football and basketball champions at the same time. I had a party for the game at my house where we had some people wanting OSU to win because they weren’t UF and some people wanting UF to win because at least they were a team from the same state. We had one true Gator, Mr. Derek Guffin. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I still don’t really believe it. Put it on the big board Colbert, college sports are officially dead to me.
The defeat of OSU forced me to destroy a Facebook group I had made the week before entitled Ohio State: Beating FSU’s Rivals in BCS National Championship Games Since 2002. I was so proud of that group too. It’s rare that I have an idea that has a chance of being universally accepted and hasn’t already been thought of by someone else.
Two Random Bits of Sports News - First, no man is worth $250 million over five years, not even Beckham. Second, if the Heat sign Chris Webber I might officially become a Magic fan. That is all.
iPhone - I can’t adequately describe to you how awesome this thing is. Go here and check it out for yourself. Even if it costs $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8 GB model (those are probably the prices without a service plan, so don’t expect to actually pay quite that much) I will have to fight the urge to not buy one the day it’s available. Why did I not see how amazing Apple was before?
I’m Such a Sucker - I had no intention of going on this year’s Nav ski trip for a number of reasons. First, none of my closest friends were going. Aaron, Jacob, my roommates, James, Kyle, and Rob were all either choosing not to go or just unable to attend. I don’t really have a freshman that I’m trying to make an impression on either, so that wasn’t part of the equation. Remember also that I never had any intention of skiing, even if the weather forecast wasn’t predicting temperatures in the 50s and rain. So my fear was that I’d go, not really do that much and, worst of all, waste my only day off between now and Memorial Day (excluding when I go to my cousin’s wedding in March, of course). And I really thought I had a good plan for what to do each day of this weekend.
So Dave gets up and gives his message last night and it’s pretty much exactly where I’m at spiritually. And, like any good salesman, he says that the rest of his product lies just inside and all I have to do is commit to a purchase. In other words, if I go on the ski trip I get more of the message that’s impacting my heart. So, of course, I signed up. I come to find that one of my roommates also is a sucker and signed up at the last minute too, so at least we’ll be suckers together.
But now in all seriousness Dave did make an additional good point when I sat down with him at the end of the night. We, as a ministry, only do one large event a month. If I keep saying I’m here to invest in students, and this ministry is the vehicle I want to use in order to make that happen, then I should probably seriously consider each event as a means to that end.
Do me a favor. Pray that everyone would be safe on the way up and back, and while skiing if there’s any skiing to be done. Pray too that we’ll grow closer to each other, since that’s really the reason we’re going. I look forward to telling you all about it.
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