24 January 2007 

What I'll Remember Most...

I've fallen in love with the band Over the Rhine, their CD Ohio has got me through the last month. Here's one of my favorites.

The saddest songs are the happiest
The hardest truths are the easiest
Put us both to the test
And tell me if you still need me
And I will swallow these words
And see if I can still believe

The biggest lies are the little ones
When the look in your eyes is the distant one
Angel or demon
You know that they can share one bed
I've laid awake so long
I've got them both inside my head

This is what I'll remember most about dying
So many moments like ghosts
Slipping through my hands in vain
You were 80% angel
10% demon
The rest was hard to explain

This American dream may be poisonous
Violence is contagious
Crowded or empty
I walk these city streets alone
Whoever brought me here
Is gonna have to take me home

This is what I'll remember most about dying
Loading these moments like a gun
Hoping to kill the pain
You were 80% angel
10% demon
The rest was hard to explain

11:22 PM | |

04 January 2007 

Road Trip!

So this past weekend I decided to road trip to St. Louis to visit friends from all over the globe congregating in the Gateway City for the 2006 Urbana Missions Conference. I got up early on Saturday and drove to Lafayette to pick up my lovely traveling companion, Ms. Jonell Smith. Then we drove 250 miles to STL, arriving at about 11:30 local time and starting out on our quest to meet up with the uber cool Ms. Jillian McDonald. Hilarity ensued. :-)




Anyway... here's some pictures. This first building is the world famous Broadway Oyster Bar, a blues bar and Cajun restaurant on Broadway Street just off downtown. It is one of my favorite places to eat in the world, the food is great, just spicy enough, and they have whole crawfish crawling all over everything. Tres Magnifique!











Here I am, confronting the crustacean that succumbed to the heat of the Oyster Bar's delicious Jambalaya. It may look like I'm a little put off or scared, but I assure you, it's just excellent acting. The crawfish really ought to be up for an Oscar, and I'm not bad either.
















Don't they say something about, why send a man to do a woman's job? Well, enter Jillian, who, in contrast to my fear and cowardice, faced the crawfish with excitement and even.... jubilation? Hmmm. Anyway, I couldn't eat the thing, but Jill didn't seem to have any problem, and before you could blink... it was no more.








After lunch on Broadway we made our way over to the new Busch stadium, it was the first time I had been to STL since they finished construction... and let me tell you, it is pret-tay. Here Jill and I pose with the voice of the Cardinals, the timeless Jack Buck.... Go crazy folks! Go crazy!


And finally here we all are, standing like a Broadway Chorus in front of the new Busch. Grade A awesome, in my personal opinion. From left to right.... Alex from California via Washington, Jillian from Aledo, TX via Norman, OK, Josh from Girard via Indianapolis, and Jonell from Plano via Lafayette. All together for the first time in human history.




















As you can see, it was a pretty fun weekend, we did a lot of other fun stuff running around St. Louis. We were able to visit Champaign friends, go to Union Station and see the most influential evangelical in America, Rick Warren, speak. (Ask me about that later, there's too much to go into here, but overall it was exactly what I expected, unimpressive.) The rest of the weekend wound into a New Years celebration in Champaign with Blake Johnson, his new lady friend Lydia, and a couple of her college roommates. It was a good time, and it was really needed for me, sometimes there's nothing like old (and new) friends to sooth a weary soul. Thanks guys!

7:57 AM | |

01 January 2007 

Don't Go Away!

I know it has been a while since I've written much regularly, but don't go away, because there will be much more for you to be reading soon, I promise. Life has taken some unexpected twists recently, and I just wasn't in the mood, nor was it appropriate, to chronicle those things here. But I think that it's time to start filling these virtual pages with words again and soon. I think a little part of me goes away when I go too long without writing, and I am hoping to get that back here soon. An update on me, I'm still in Indy, and enjoying my first couple of weeks of work. I've decided to stay here in Indy until at least May, at which time I'll figure out what else is available to me both here and in other areas of import. Mary and I broke up, and it has been a very hard couple of weeks since then, but I feel like I'm slowly starting to become more and more of my old self with each day. I still haven't found a church home here, but I've been traveling too much to do much evaluation, in the next few weeks I hope to do some real work on that. And, I am hoping to start writing regularly, just to chronicle this very strategic and transitional time in my life, and to help my friends, scattered though they may be, understand what's going on, and perhaps bless them through my words. So, Happy New Year to all you out there, this is a very symbolic one for me, a fresh start I suppose, so let's make the most of it.

1:19 PM | |