One week of Christmas break is done already! That’s not good. At all. I don’t ever want to go back. 
Though I’m not sure why. I got my grades on Thursday and I did a lot better than I thought I was going to do. I got an A in Christian Apologists. Let me rephrase that: I got an A in the most important class I will take for my undergraduate degree. Never in a million years did I think I would pull an A. Other class turned out good too. I got an A- in Spanish, a B in Microeconomics, and a B in Financial Markets (somehow). I’m on a hot streak all of a sudden. My overall GPA is up to a 3.4. I’m amazed at the grace God’s pouring out on my grades. I’m waiting for someone to tell me it’s a typo. Continue reading ‘Youth Group State Of Mind’
I’m amazed that the Shaq deal actually went through. I’m actually starting to warm up to the idea of trading away our team’s future for a shot at the present. It’s taken a couple of days, but I think I like the deal now. I still want to see him play a little before I pronounce final judgment, but I like it better now than I did a few days ago. Still, seeing him in a Miami Heat uniform is going to be weird, probably forever.
Today for me kind of sucked. Yet another of my youth group events was canceled for lack of participation. Only two kids, two of the Dowd brothers, were going to attend. I have to say that for the better part of the morning I was mad. I’m frustrated and discouraged. I feel like I’m good for nothing. Maybe a week away at UM Army is just what I need. Maybe being able to work with these kids and get to know them better will help bring them out to the stuff I plan. I don’t know. It’s worth a shot I guess.
I spent the rest of the day playing piano and watching TV. I really was in no mood to be around people after my event got canned. I did clean my room, so I guess I got something accomplished. To be honest, I’m getting sick of being in Connecticut. I would really like to get back to Tallahassee, even if it means more classes. At least then I can get back to planning events that people will show up for.
So my pick for the Home Run Derby sucked. Sosa didn’t even make it out of the first round. My pick for his opponent (Bonds) didn’t make it to the final. Miguel Tejada put on quite a show. He hit 15 in one round and 27 overall, both records. I felt bad for Lance Berkman. The home fans deserved to see him win.
Today I went shopping for hours. I had a lot of stuff to pick up, most of it for UM Army next week. I wanted to make sure I had things for all of the themes of the week. I did a little window shopping at Circuit City too. I’ve had my eye on this Samsung digital camera that’s got two lenses: one for still photography and one for videos. I’ve been considering making videos a major part of my website, but I would need a good camera first. This one is looking like more and more of a possibility.
Tonight I’ve got to call my youth group kids and let them know about tomorrow’s event. We’re going to play some mini golf in Berlin. It’s going to start at 1 PM, later than things usually start. This is good though because it’ll give the kids who are in summer school a chance to get there.
Before I even get to how today went, I would just like to let you know that I can’t currently hear out of my right ear. This has happened once before. I just have to go to the doctor. He’ll put some red goo in it and it’ll be fine. It’s just sinus crap, but I hate it. And to prove my point: 
So today was the bike and swim. It was just me, Pastor Tom, Jon and Kyle for the biking part. I thought I was going to die, no lie. I haven’t biked in probably six years. My legs were killing me. And in Florida no one needs a mountain bike (flat as a pancake) so this whole concept of changing gears was a new thing for me. But it was still fun. We took the ferry over to Rocky Hill then biked through Glastonbury, Old Wethersfield and back to the church in Wethersfield. We then went to over to a church member’s home to swim in her pool. Al Dowd and his two younger boys (not J.R. though) also came for the swim.
Continue reading ‘A Good Day For A Bike & Swim’
Today I went to Six Flags with Wethersfield UMC. It was a pretty fun trip. We had about 15 kids go and 4 adults in addition to myself and Nicole. I’ll get to the actual day there in a second. First you need to here about the trip there.
I rode up with Matt Garcia, who is the main volunteer with the youth at WUMC. He’s also a cop. So we rode in his cop car. So now I can say I’ve ridden in the back of a police car. 
But while we were on our way there we saw a pickup spin out and hit the guard rail. Well, Matt’s a cop and just like Inspector Gadget he’s always on duty. So we had to pull over and see what the deal was. After a couple minutes he came back to the car and radioed for some other cop to finish up, since he wasn’t technically on duty and had other responsibilities (namely Six Flags). But there were no other cars in the area. So we waited for about 20 minutes as Matt did the whole paperwork thing.
Continue reading ‘Six Flags’
Last night I saw Spider-Man 2. That was one awesome movie. I didn’t think I would ever see a super hero movie that would top X-men 2, but there it is. I’m not too excited about Spider-Man 3 because of the impending villain (won’t say anymore for those of you who haven’t seen it). There were a number of things that surprised me, including just how much takes place without Spider-Man wearing a mask, but I guess that happened a lot in the comics too. I saw it with Kristin Bialy and Sarah Wilson and another girl that I don’t know. I was impressed; it lived up to the hype.
I am so sleepy this morning. I’m getting ready to spend the whole day at Six Flags with the kids from Wethersfield UMC. I still don’t know if I’m supposed to be teaching a devotional today or not. I have one prepared though, just in case. Nicole will be there to help me, but she was traveling all night and will be running on basically zero sleep. I hope she doesn’t kill herself running around like this.
So I was wrong. We did grill yesterday. Steak is good. 
Today I got up at 6:30 AM to go to a UM Army training meeting. It was time well spent, since I had no idea what I was going to be doing there. Although, to be honest, I still don’t really know what I’m doing. Now I know who I’m doing it with though, and some of the details that I would not have known otherwise. There’s another training deal this Thursday so I’m confident that I’ll eventually get all the information that I need.
Last night I looked at my cell phone and saw that I had a voice message. Turns out I had received it on Saturday but because I live in the middle of nowhere it took a day for my phone to realize it. It was a message from Lauren Johnson, who is currently in Colorado as an Eagle Lake counselor. She thanked me for sending her a postcard from Italy. It was great to hear from her; I wish I could have talked to her. There needs to be a cell phone tower in Marlborough.
Today I have to make wise decisions about what it is that I want to do. I finished the first part of Daws yesterday (yes, only the first part; I’m a slow reader) and I’d like to continue. But I also want to finish the Bible study that Dave gave me. I need to finalize the plans for tomorrow’s youth trip to Six Flags, and I should probably also look into what I’m going to be talking about for the bike and swim trip this Thursday. And there’s the possibility that Kristin Bialy and I (and possibly others, who knows) will be seeing Spider-Man 2 sometime tonight. So all of that means that I’ve got a busy day ahead of me.
Another piece of the dream died today. Team Win is now a mere twosome. Sweet Joe left on Saturday. Today Will also bowed out. Now it is only Scott and I who remain, and I’m not sure if even we will be living together come the fall. You see, I don’t want to live in McCollum if I don’t know the other three guys I’m living with. It’s not like a freshman dorm where you might get roommates who aren’t ever there (therefore doing their craziness elsewhere). People move into McCollum to make it their home. They come home and they stay home. I will be Scottie’s roommate if we live in a double somewhere else. I have been told that Rogers might be a possibility (though it is a grad student dorm). I would even be willing to live in a single (though I don’t know what Scott would do then). I’m going to call tomorrow to see just what the story is. I am almost positive that I will be living on campus; now it’s just a question of where.
Continue reading ‘Team Win Is Losing’
Now, as much as I have enjoyed this whole slow day thing, it’s getting a little old. Yesterday was spent doing errands. Last night and today have been spent working on my Europe photo album (I’ve finished Paris, which leaves me with only 6 1/2 weeks of photos left).
It looks like my church will only be able to attend two days of Soul Fest rather than the entire weekend because of the cost. I’m not sure what that means for my Soul Fest experience, whether I’ll have to ride up with them or not. I might make the case that if I’m already there I can meet the crew at the gate at a certain time, give them their wristbands, and give them directions on what to do from there. I’m not sure if Pastor Tom will buy that, but it’s worth a try.
Tomorrow I have a doctor’s appointment with my neurologist (that’s my seizure doctor). I’ve been off my medicine since February, so this is my first appointment with her since then. She’s going to tell me if I can drive or not. Be praying for me, that she finds that nothing is wrong and that she says that I can drive. It’s going to be a long difficult summer if either of those don’t go through.
