godsfreedavid

Where did Spring go?

2010-05-23T20:45:00.004-04:00

School's out. Well, we have one more week of post-planning, but you know - kiddos are finished with school and I am in the mood to relax! Craig and I, pictured below...

...are going to Jefferson City next weekend for a friend's wedding, but will take a short mini-tour of Texas the week following. Tyler, Houston, and Austin for a day or so each and lots of driving in between.

So what have I been up to lately? I know that the last post I have up is the one about Spring Break (like, you know, back in March), but hey at least I'm posting. From then till now I have been one busy beaver / wisecracking mutant mercenary. Work definitely went up a notch - we had some big-time developmental optometrists visit our school and, in addition to evaluating several of my students, revolutionized our curriculum by revolutionizing our idea of how important deficits in visual thinking can be for our kiddos. It's a big topic and I'm trying to learn as much as I can.

I've also been doing a lot of Floortime. Floortime is of course this developmentally-based play therapy (wait, I think I can't call what I do "therapy" b/c duh I'm not a therapist but you know what I mean) and I now have two beautiful kiddos in two families that I get to see a few times a week and play with. The sessions are fun in and of themselves (and good practice seeing as we do lots of Floortime at school), but my favorite part is the regular meetings I get to have with a certain Dr. Barbara Dunbar, who supervises me in a sense and is a big-time developmental psychology guru in Atlanta.

I also started a little garden and have kind of become obsessed with growing things. Houseplants inside and veggies and herbs outside, it's been really really fun and I'll put some photos up soon.

Lookout Texas, here I come!

...

I also can't not mention that this would be the time of year I would be out at Ute already, getting ready for staff and campers. Sigh. I feel it in my tummy.

Their loss. :P

The Grandest Canyon there is!

2010-04-15T22:01:00.001-04:00

Photo album up on Facebook.

Made My Day

2010-03-23T08:08:00.002-04:00

Ten Topics I Wish I Knew More About

2010-03-20T10:10:00.003-04:00

-the US "War on Drugs"
-healthcare reform
-gardening
-immigration reform
-the Middle East
-Native Americans
-geology
-public land / national parks
-car maintenence
-guitar amplifiers

Remember that time...

2010-03-15T22:23:00.002-04:00

Explosions / Floortime

2010-03-09T20:56:00.004-05:00

So I get to take this online course on this particular kind of play therapy for kids with special needs. It will start in the next few days or so and consists of about 16 hours of lecture and taped play sessions that I access online. It's really handy because I do this kind of play / work (it's called "Floortime") with kids all day at school, and I might start doing some after school as well through a group called Floortime Atlana. Also, my school is picking up the tab!

Also, I got registered for it as a woman.

Awesome.

Our Very Own Saturday

2010-03-06T18:18:00.005-05:00

The weekend babysitting job got called off today, so I had my very own Saturday to spend however I wanted. So after a minor debate on what constitutes a "short trip to the park," Craig and I went across town to the Chattahoochee. And lo and behold:

"If you don't post, I will set myself on fire."

2010-03-02T21:14:00.011-05:00

Well, it has certainly been a while since I posted now hasn't it? Yeah, the ol "Christmas List" post was getting kinda tiresome, so I figured I'd drop down some boss photos that have been taking up space on my camera since Christmas.

Christmas at Chatsworth Drive. We started the merry season proper, with many, many delicious baked goods (there was even a matrix written up at one point to make sure that each diner got the appropriate kind and amount of dessert). Bump's Christmas present? Lots and lots of treats. We eventually got up to Jefferson City, MO, with Craig's folks for Christmas Day. Bump got even more treats, made friends in the midwest, and may or may not have snapped at an 8-year-old for reasons involving meatballs.

Then January happened and Craig and I took our early Valentine's Day vacation down to Savannah! We spent what amounted to one day in Savannah... where we discovered the house we want to live in eventually... and...

...we saw lots and lots of oak trees. Savannah is beautiful. I can say that even though I got a flat tire on her streets and even though we really didn't see it like we should have (with a hip local friend to show us around!).

Took this picture at some random lunch place. This will probably become our Thank-You cards.

So the second half of our trip was the nature-y part where we went to Tybee and Skidaway! That means the beach... in winter... in puffy coats.

After playing around on the sea wall...

...we played around in the marshes...

...and marveled at the Spanish moss...

...and decided that even stinky, boring, flat marshes can be beautiful.

Christmas iTunes Shopping List!

2009-12-14T20:57:00.003-05:00

Without further ado, here is a random smattering of albums I've had in my iTunes shopping cart for a while:

1.) A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
-I know I've talked about these guys before, but they're blitzed-out loud Joy Division-y fun. They opened for Nine Inch Nails and refer to themselves as "the loudest band in Brooklyn." This is their newest album and by all accounts, really good.

2.) Portishead - Third
-This obviously came out to rave reviews, so I'm really just intrigued. I never really got into Portishead, although after listening to the old singles I feel like I should have.

3.) Danielson - A Prayer for Every Hour
-Despite Courtney's insistence Daniel Smith is awesome and his voice is not annoying. This sounds like a really ambitious idea - literally a song for every hour of the day (12 or 24 I forget?) something along the lines of some daily prayer somethingorother.

4.) Lymbyc Systym - Carved by Glaciers
-Love these guys via a band called This Will Destroy You via Explosions in the Sky. Chill cool electronic stuff that still has a good dramatic kick.

5.) Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
-I saw these guys with Nick when the opened for Mogwai... it was pretty much one of the greatest nights of my life. Everyone says this album is a little more songish (the other album is heavy, noisy, 10-minute-long bits of electronic beautiful garbage greatness that almost makes you cry)

6.) Bosque Brown - Plays Mara Lee Miller
-Saw her when she came to Tyler right after I moved there. She has a cool Appalachian voice and performed with a sparse little band and it all seemed right.

7.) Astral Projection - Dancing Galaxy
-So I was in a band in high school, the best band ever, and the lead guitarist was into techno and we heard this album... while driving to Waffle House in his car late at night... often. It's a good album. The spice extends life.

8.) Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold
-She covered "A Forest" by the Cure. She plays the autoharp. Need I say more?

9.) Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
-Heard a lot of good things by this guy. I wasn't too into Armchair Apocrypha, but I still listen to The Mysterious Production of Eggs over and over again (thanks Garrett Lathan for showing me that album!). I hear this one is a lot more abstract in the songwriting department, but still really creative and varied. Hmm.

10.) Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
-Um, to be honest, Pitchfork says it's good and I like the cover art.

Totally Lame Idea, Gonzo

2009-12-09T20:58:00.002-05:00

Let's talk about all the reasons I love this photo.

Ten Songs I Have Been Listening To

2009-11-25T19:50:00.004-05:00

1.) You Gotta Be (Des'Ree) - You know how you get obsessed with a song and want to hear it all the time, want to hear it with other people, want to hear it on the radio, want to play it on the guitar, want to record a version of it, want to put it in your mouth, want to choreograph a dance to it, etc.? Yeah that's me and this song for the last few weeks.

2.) In Bloom (Nirvana) - What key is this song it? What are the words about? What are the words? Have you seen the video? What's that all about? And why does this bring me back exactly to Dustin Hardiman's backyard, jumping on the trampoline with a Squire Stratocaster slung over my shoulder, pretending to be Kurt Cobain so strung out that he lands on his face? We so idolized that guy. This is such a good song.

3.) I Dreamed There Was A Fountain (John Mark McMillan) - This guy lives in North Carolina and is tied with two or three other folks for the coveted position of My Favorite Christian Musician. This song is off some CD that his church made to support a well-digging project they did overseas somewhere. I like the horns and the bass.

4.) You Can Close Your Eyes (Linda Ronstadt) - My folks love singing this song. I can remember them doing it when I was a kid, and when I remembered and found the song online, I couldn't stop listening to it for a few days. Classic makes-you-think-of-your-mom song.

5.) Sylvia (the Antlers) - These guys are from New York and I can't stop listening to their album Hospice. It's all really far-out rock stuff, pretty standard I guess but something about the way they space everything out, the melodies and singing and rhythms, something about it sticks out to me. I like this song because of the change in dynamic - they build things up really well and it pays off in a big way.

6.) Right Back From Where We Started From (Maxine Nightengale) - You go girl with your badass queer self. Love this song.

7.) Strong Enough (Sheryl Crow) - I'm not exactly the biggest Sheryl Crow fan, and I don't really think this is even the most well-written song she does, but the way the writing and performance and production combine makes this really memorable for me. And the lap steel solo.

8.) I Know I'll See You (A Place to Bury Strangers) - Another group of New Yorkers rocking out in ways that make me say, "I wish I'd thought of that." These guys are some of my favorite things... and that is to say, Joy Division (but a little more modern... a little). And this song, with the chorused bass, 808 snare / cymbal thingies, and piglet feedback is all my favorite things.

9.) Lovesong of the Buzzard (Iron & Wine) - I didn't love this song until I saw them live in Dallas a few years ago. He opened with it and it was really groovy. The version I've been listening to is a stripped-down one-guitar, one-voice version that must have been either a demo or a live track. It translates to one musician extremely well, and this version makes it a bit easier to try and figure it out to play myself!

10.) Shiny Happy People (REM) - Let's face it, I'm always listening to this song.

Confession #0019

2009-11-25T15:46:00.002-05:00

I hate, hate, hate pre-foamed soap. I mean, I always thought the luxurious foam was the reward you got from vigorously scrubbing, like they say you're supposed to do. But now I go to the bathroom in my favorite coffee place and / or restaurant and I'm denied the pleasure of earning my foam. Also, is it just me or does it feel like you need about ten pumps of the stuff to really have enough soap?

Nice Sweater

2009-11-14T10:16:00.001-05:00

Pocket Protector

2009-11-13T07:33:00.003-05:00

Last night as I was going to bed, I started taking all the stuff out of my pockets that had accumulated there throughout the day, and then immediately felt the need to blog about it. I know, I know, but at least you don't have to pay to read this.

1.) $.59, the change I get back when I pay for a hearty Burger King lunch. Double Cheeseburger value meal, Dr. Pepper with no ice to drink. They know me there.

2.) Charts, created to give me a semblance of understanding what my kids are doing in class all day. We consistently end up rearranging things, but it makes me feel good to at least have a plan to break.

3.) a small purple rubbery snake, a fidgity "engine helper" for one of the boys in our class. At my school, we try and let kids do whatever it takes - chewing gum, fidgiting with a squishy toy, standing up and pacing around (it's like AHOP but school, for those in the know) - to be able to stay in our world and for some reason the snake helps. But sometimes he chews on it and I have to take it away.

4.) a small red bean bag, because the bean bag activity was getting out of hand.

Andohyesofcourse...

2009-11-10T07:59:00.001-05:00

naturally.

Fall Updates Time. With Pictures of Bump.

2009-11-10T07:15:00.007-05:00

"Where are the ducks? Why hasn't daddy blogged? What's GOING ON?"

Why don't I blog anymore? Oh I do, I'm just saving it up for something important... important, like... like... oh what the hell here's a list of things that have made me happy lately:

Shrimpin! Jen took Craig and me to the coast of Georgia to spend time with her aunts and cousin. It was a beautiful trip full of exotic flora and fauna, and I can't decide if my favorite part was getting to relax on the beach or touching a shark (okay, a small one... a small one that had gotten caught in the net we were using to catch shrimp... but still!).

Visit from Mom! Craig's mom, that is. She came all the way from Jefferson City, MO, to hang out with us and take Craig shopping at IKEA. Here they are, busy in the kitchen making the best paella I've ever had. And we only spilled the expensive saffron once.

Montreat! Notice the lack of a Cross-Continental Journeyfest on this one... sad, I know. I got Craig to come along with the Presbyterians to their nesting grounds in Montreat, NC, for our church's annual retreat. I was glad to get to spend time with a lot of folks, including my old pal Bobby, with whom I share a passion for climbing trees. And looking regal.

Halloween! Which was really just another excuse to glorify that dog of dogs, Bump. Hegot dressed in his "tuxedo" and was the "butler" for all the "guests." Not to mention we ran out of candy - not just mid-evening, but MID-VISIT. We were literally turning out the porch lights as children were walking up the driveway. Fortunately, we were not egged or whatever it is they do with their cell phones and the Twitter these days.

Charlie Came! The esteemed Charles McGuire came and hung out with us over Halloween and Pride. We hit all the big ones here in Atlanta - the Flying Biscuit, Mary Mac's, the World of Coca-Cola, and of course the gift shop at the Margaret Mitchell House. It was a super fun time of getting to experience Atlanta through new eyes, and it was good to hang out with yet another charming McGuire!

Sometimes, you need it spelled out in pictures.

2009-10-12T15:41:00.002-04:00

Click on it for a bigger image. Because I know y'all were wondering.

So It's Fall, and You Know What That Means

2009-09-23T21:42:00.006-04:00

If you aren't aware, northern Georgia just went through some pretty devastating floods. School was closed for one day, but other than that and a few drips in through the ceiling, we're all doing okay. Except for the random earthworms that I find crawling around on the basement carpet? Weird. Anyways, just thought I'd let you know what has been going on around here.

This is what the Chattahoochee is supposed to look like. I took a little excursion there the other day and got the best rock-hopping I've had in a while. Superb.

Bump made a new friend named Dups. She is almost the exact same coloration as Bump and her person Whitney is a dear. They brought over a killer dessert cookbook that made me want to make cupcakes.

Also, who knew they made this? It made our little house that much cozier.

Lordy we've been playing lots of SCRABBLE around here. It has resulted in several shouting matches. I can't help it if ag is a word, Craig. Love you. And speaking of Craig... here he is making Bump get all crazy for pretzels. Ignore the loud TV in the background. So You Think You Can Dance was happening in the background.

"I have overcome the world..."

2009-09-11T08:05:00.001-04:00

My Favorite Issue of the Week

2009-09-07T11:41:00.003-04:00

Things I've Learned:

2009-09-06T22:55:00.004-04:00

There are two sides to every story.

If you're lucky.

Visualize!

2009-09-05T15:21:00.003-04:00

Posted some photos to Facebook, some of which have appeared here before. I also posted a little badge with my FB pics right... over... there... to the right. Check it out!

Also, why is this so incredibly awesome? Tony Hawke and Robert Smith of the Cure:

My Life in Bullet Points, episode 5,000,000

2009-09-04T08:01:00.004-04:00

-Last night, I watched a full episode of Lost for the first time. And by "a," I mean "five."

-It was a full moon last night and I could see it through the trees when it was still early in the night. It felt for a brief second like I was in a Heart video.My

-The ever-unfolding saga of kindergarten continues to baffle me. I got farted on TWICE yesterday.

-My play starts today! I play the best friend of a Texan ruffian who does and says a whole number of unseemly things onstage. Things my mom would be proud of. It runs the next three weekends in Norcross. Holler if you're interested in coming out!

-Getting paid only once a month is starting to make life... how shall we say... rather Ramen noodle-y?

-I'm running out of sugar for my morning coffee and it made me really sad this morning because I am convinced that I will forget to buy more for a long, long time, and that means no sugar in my coffee in the morning and that is not good.

-I forgot to put out the recycling this week. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but last week we kinda had a big housewarming party and kinda ended up with a lot of, um, recyclables.

-The walls in here are a lovely tipi (with I's) color. Remind me to post pictures of the house now that we've moved in (i.e. not just pictures of the pink sink... heh heh pink sink... heh).

-THE PLAYSTATION CONTROLLER BROKE. sigh.

Man, is it raining outside.

2009-08-28T07:55:00.005-04:00

Like full-on torrential downpour. It makes me a little jumpy because, well, for the past seven years of my life, my livelihood has been dependent on weather you can go outside in. But this is no longer necessarily the case, for better or for worse...

--holy shite it just lightninged a lot--

...unless of course recess gets canceled, in which case we all promptly swallow cyanide and lay down in rows dressed in white sneakers.

--aaw, Bump just peeked his head out the doggie door!--

The one thing that does make me a little nervous about the rain is the possibility that our sunroom, itself laden with DIY charm, might flood like it has every time it rains (resulting in puddles that come and go mysteriously, infuriating the dog who then has to deal with all manner of insulting insinuation). The landlord got it fixed, but I still have my doubts.

Coffee and Elmer's Glue

2009-08-27T08:07:00.004-04:00

For my Sky Ranch friends, you know that pit-in-your-stomach feeling when you have (get) to teach a new class for the first time - wondering if you'll forget something important, hoping you have all the right supplies, compulsively checking your pants zipper? Yeah I've got that a little bit. Even though I learned all the OE classes a few years back (amid loud accolades from Grandpa), I could recognize this feeling anywhere.

Today, the head teacher is out and Ryan and I (the assistant teachers) are running Kindergarten. Running. Kindergarten. With a little help from the big guns, of course, but still. We've got beans, Play-Doh, and hand sanitizer... and nerves of steel. Wish me luck!

The ninos... they're wearing me out!

2009-08-19T07:30:00.004-04:00

After a week of planning and setting up the room, I had pretty much convinced myself that I was prepared for the students to get here. For those of you who don't know, I just recently began my new job as an assistant teacher in the 5- and 6-year-old classroom at a small private school here in Decatur. The easel was hung like 6 inches off the floor, the carpet with shapes on it was stretched out and crumb-free, and I even got to fiddle around with making spreadsheets (my oh-so-favorite thing).

And then they came! Not all at once - we had a day where each of the seven students visited their new classroom with their parents to kinda get the feel of the place. They were of course wonderful and charming and beautiful, and I started to feel like this was gonna be a smooth ride... but then, after a weekend day trip to Asheville to see this cute girl, they all came at once and I got to experience the wonderful hillarity that is seven 6-year-olds in one room.

It wore me out! I'm still tired! But in the best way possible... I'm sure eventually, we'll get to see the tantrums and the ugliness, but for now, they're all so excited to be there - the tiredness just comes from trying to keep up, letting them lead you by the hand and point out the wonders of their little world.

And yes, I finally got all the Play-Doh out of my shoes.

Remember...

2009-08-12T07:54:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you're the gas pump, and sometimes you're the gigantic praying mantis on the gas pump. Seriously, it was as long as my hand.

Shelving Woes

2009-08-09T21:42:00.004-04:00

I was so excited.

So we're just almost about gonna be finished moving in here, and it turns out that the bookshelf I contributed to our literary lounge was a little overloaded with books (they were hanging out all over the place) and even then I couldn't fit all the ones I wanted out. So we set about looking for a bookshelf. Figuring that we shouldn't pay anything like real money on a bookshelf, we hit up the thrift stores and Goodwills, but eventually, after a casual remark to my mom, I found the perfect one all disassembled in my parents' basement. Score.

It's a gorgeous bookshelf - we had it in the loft in the house I grew up in, and have made many a-pillow fort tucking a blanket under its many weighty tomes. And the best part was that it was really BIG - we wouldn't have any problems putting out all the books / knicknacky crap we wanted.

So I drove it over and started assembling. I should have known something was wrong when I snapped off a large piece of the particleboard corner when I was putting in one of the pegs, but I kept going, shooting the occasional screw or nail through just to get it all together. Sure, the top and bottom boards didn't quite fit together, and sure it kinda wobbled on itself, but it was a really pretty bookcase. When I finally had the whole thing up against the wall, it was a gorgeous piece of furniture. The shelves all spaced apart perfectly, I reached down and lugged up my first row of carefully-arranged books and set them on the top shelf.

Four ironic slamming noises later, all I had left was what you see above.

I might try again in a few weeks, this time with wood glue and reckless screwdrivery.

Things that make you go hmmm...

2009-08-06T15:46:00.003-04:00

New House Tour

2009-08-05T09:04:00.004-04:00

Okay internet friends, here's a quick little tour of the new house! As always, Blogger did weird things uploading the photos, so they're kinda in reverse order of what I intended, but you still get the idea.

Let's start with the smallest view possible of the backyard. Here's what Bump sees as he exits the living room onto our teeny patio:

Next I'll go ahead and show you the scary, scary basement / massive storage space (again, the order is random but I don't feel like wrestling with Blogger right now). It leaks a little bit and I suspect a vampire might live down there, but it's huge and there's a built-in work table complete with peg board and pegs:

You get to the scary basement from the music room. When we first moved in, this room was horrible - the previous tenants apparently had a stinky dog who pooped everywhere, and seeing as this room is the only carpeted one, it got the worst of the action. But we got it cleaned and it's gonna be a killer music / party / video games room:

Now, a random picture of the hole in the ceiling in the bedroom closet (and the green grass grows all around all around...) through which the zombies will enter my bedroom and kill me:

We have a pink bathroom that we declared Jen's:

Here is the stairwell that heads up to the bedrooms and down to the music room. The pink bathroom is off to the right. Please notice the exquisite railing that looks like it used to be outside. I'm thinking lead paint:

And the best room of the house, the sunny living room! It was (very obviously, at some points) an add-on to the rest of the house, and it's got some wonky construction stuff going on, but it's huge and sunny and that's where I am right now (and there's Jen!):

Back up from the living room to the kitchen, which Craig expertly assembled. We've already been cooking up a storm, but as of recent, the dishwasher decided to die. This is a big deal for those of us who haven't had a dishwasher in upwards of five years:

One more small step back from the kitchen and you get to the next super cool room, but on your way you pass the "fireplace:"

And by "super cool room," I of course mean the literary lounge! With stuff on the walls, the paint isn't actually all that bad. I have my little bookshelf up to the right, but there is a whole 'nother blog post about the stupid bookshelf that ruined my life coming soon:

And there we have it, folks, the new place! Obviously in all these pictures we are still moving in and such, but it's coming together really well - most of the rooms are closer to done now, but we have a list a mile long of things to get to officially finish. Until then!

Shameless

2009-08-01T14:10:00.004-04:00

I have almost completely moved in! For those of you who know how much I hate moving, this is a big event and should be celebrated with checks mailed to my address, available upon request. As of yet, we don't have internet service at the new place and I am already fed up with Comcast, Atlanta's internet / cable provider. We should be getting full service in the next few days or so, but until then I'll tide you over with pictures of my dog dressed up in a tuxedo.

...insert fart joke here

2009-07-27T16:58:00.005-04:00

Whirlwindy around here...

Let me proudly announce that my beautiful sister Jessica Leigh has married the man of her dreams, a certain James Christopher McCurdy. They're a lovely couple and I couldn't be more proud. The festivities commenced this past Saturday and it was a beautiful time. We had tons of family from out of town, which meant a house full of giggly sisters and cousins. And a quote board, which included such gems as:

-"I have to poop but I can't because I just got my nails done."
-"Quit jerkin' my firkin!"
-"Urethra! [said, perhaps, in a bathtub full of water?]"
-"My boobs are blessed."

For the ceremony, Chris' older brother and I wrote a song for the two of them about being big brothers. It went over really well and I'll try and get a copy up here soon. And pictures, once they get developed and interneticized. Meanwhile, it's more lugging things around from house to house as the quaint little palace on Chatsworth Drive takes form.

Getting a Move On

2009-07-18T09:38:00.003-04:00

So I'm in the process of moving into the new house. I promise to take my camera today to snap some photos of the places, so you should have a visual image soon. The stress part is that I have family coming into town this weekend to be at my sister's wedding (oh yeah, so um for those of you who don't know, little Jessica Leigh Lankford is marrying James Christopher McCurdy next weekend... they grow up so fast or something like that... anyways it doesn't mean I can't burp in her face still), and so I'm trying to be out of my folks' place in time to give the fam some room.

And everybody knows just how much I loooove moving. You know how it is, all the lifting and things breaking and reminders of how much unnecessary crap you have (although I'll admit I threw away a lot of junk this go-around... the pile in the back of my house in Tyler was obscene, and it would take a Marvel superhero to lug my trash can out to the street corner). Then there's the day or so of living in the house, sleeping on a mattress with no sheets because you can't find the bedding, going to bed in the dark because the power still isn't on, not flushing, you know that kinda thing. Also the lack of internet: problematic. And don't get me started on the trauma to the dog - new places are hard enough to get, at least this time I can let him stay at my parents' until everything at the house is a little more set up, minimizing the anxiety-poop-inducing chaos. Thank God we have hardwood floors.

Okay, enough complaining - time to pack!

TDYFBCOE fin: Epilogue

2009-07-17T07:56:00.007-04:00

...and thus the Ten Days of Yay for Blogging Excellence were completed and it was good, very good. And everyone ate a bowl of ice cream and fell asleep watching TV.

So ten days of blogging every day has reminded me that blogging is not difficult and there is absolutely no reason I shouldn't be able to write something slightly more frequently than once a month. Hopefully this means more content, but really what I think I'm going for is forcing myself to write / practice writing more. I know that the only way to get better at something is to practice, and if I can throw in just enough pictures of my dog, maybe someone else will enjoy it as well.

oh, dagnabbit.

Maybe it's all a part of that thing that happens when you move into a new place / job / whatever, but I've got an itchy case of "Idealistic Self-Imagining For The Future," the thing that happens when you get a good idea about what your life needs to look like but then usually ends up 90% wrong. Now, 90% wrong is 10% right (amIrightoramIright?), so it's not really a negative thing, but it can be disappointing if you don't identify it and celebrate the right things in the right proportion. This go-around has me thinking that come a few months, I'll be doing things like:

-gardening

-housebreaking a new puppy

-recording tripped-out folk music

-joining the Session at church

-riding my bike (let's be honest, I haven't had a bike in years. NON-HIP!)

-cooking my own food most of the time

-blogging regularly

Now, of these, the cooking and the blogging are the most hopeful, with the music coming in a solid third place. Let's just seal this post up like a little time capsule and find out in a few months, shall we? In the meantime, I'm gonna go put some ointment on the wicked case of laptop legs I got while pimping out my Google Reader.

TDYFBCOE 10: Things I Wish I Got to Say More Often

2009-07-14T23:12:00.003-04:00

1.) Shut your pie-hole.

2.) Two... well, it's no three.

3.) Don't do anything the author of Leviticus wouldn't do!

TDYFBCOE 9: Photoupdatefest

2009-07-14T09:29:00.009-04:00

Let's take a few random photos from my life (that I still haven't published to Facebook) and see what we can learn:

I forgot to post several important pictures from Scotland... including the ones at the end of the trip when we all acted like a bunch of fruit loops at this castle outside Ft. William. Or wait, maybe it was Fort William? I dunno. This photo was the best.

Earlier in the trip, I had the best darn macaroni and cheese in my life. Martha, you remember that?

Holy matrimony Batman! This guy is about to be my brother-in-law! In like 11 days!

Then at one point Craig and I drove to Chattanooga, TN to visit with some friends and check out this mutant pretzel we found!

We also enjoyed delicious sno-cones in rainbow colors. Although in the time it took to remove my camera from its case and turn it on, the sno-cones had reduced in size by like 3 inches. It was warm.

And of course I told you all about how I drove on out to Colorado. I had to stop in my Braum's to get a milkshake, had to take a picture, had to pinch my nose because Dalhart smells like cow.

And at camp, I got to see a great group of wonderful old friends. Also, along the way I may or may not have listened to an audiobook version of a popular teenage romance series involving vampires. And then I may or may not have developed a theory about all the wranglers, most notably this one pictured above, at Sky Ranch and their brute strength / mesmerizing good looks. Things that make you go hmmm...

TDYFBCOE 8: Word of the Day

2009-07-13T21:24:00.003-04:00

As taught to me by one of the teenage helpers at camp:

baby net (n) - the mesh undergarment sewn into male swimwear. "Dude, it was uncomfortable so I cut out the baby net on these swim trunks."

TDYFBCOE 7: Things I Don't Do Enough Anymore

2009-07-12T13:28:00.009-04:00

1.) Sneak into movies. I used to do this all the time in high school and even a little in college. Do I feel bad about it? Absolutely not... movie tickets are expensive and everyone gets paid the same if I'm there or not. If I were to ever get caught (which I haven't ever), I'd gladly leave, but chances are the minimum-wagers who work there couldn't give a rip whether or not I see Year One on the same ticket as The Hangover.

2.) Sticky-note parking lot offenders. I haven't kept sticky notes in my car in a long time, which is sad because it's the perfect way to release all that pent-up passive aggressive road rage. Shiny truck parked in three spaces? Let's leave them a little sticky note on the door handle that says, "Congratulations! You were able to take up THREE SPACES when everyone else only took up one!" Bumper-sticker offenders are even better, responding to jerkface bumper-stickers (i.e. Confederate flags).

3.) Stay up all night. Dude, remember the Nightwatch back at the Red River offices? Totally clutch. We learned a whole lot, didn't we? For the uninitiated, in college I was a part of a group of crazy folks who stayed up every Friday night praying and singing in a delirious way for the church and the city of Austin in particular. There was lots of crazy Cyndi Lauper covers, illustrations of soda dispensers, and almost shaman-like dancing. These are a few of my favorite things.

4.) Swing on rope swings. In Austin, when I was taking care of my little 7-year-old pal Dylan (who must be 11 now... sheesh...), we must have discovered every single rope swing in the city. Nothing more fun / responsible than putting one's entire weight onto an old rope tied to an old tree and launching oneself into a murky body of water, the bottom of which you haven't checked. I'm a professional, folks.

TDYFBCOE 6: Oh! No!

2009-07-12T09:46:00.003-04:00

So sorry, my dear and devoted readers... I lapsed exactly one day on my Ten Day Yay For Blogging Challenge of Excellence! and I couldn't be more ashamed. I also couldn't have a better excuse: Craig got a day off from theology camp (I can hear his voice right now, "It's an institute, not a camp!") and so we spent the day together. On the list of things we did was signing the "big lease" and getting keys to the super cool new house that Craig, Jen, and I will call home.

It's a terrific house... a four-bedroom split-level with loads of random nooks and crannies, a gigantic added-on sunroom right off the kitchen (with, as we discovered, enormous windows that all open up to the big ol' backyard), a big green living room that I think we're gonna use as a library, and an entire 'nother house's worth of storage space.

And the best part of all? A doggie-door to the back yard for Bump!

TDYFBCOE 5: Day Camps in the News!

2009-07-10T08:17:00.006-04:00

Have you heard about the private pool in PA that kicked out almost 60 kids who were visiting with their day camp? The statement goes something like "the kids would change the complexion and atmosphere of the club," as reported here and lots of other places (google: The Valley Club or Huntingdon, PA). Apparently a day camp called Creative Steps had paid the private club memberships for their campers (mostly black and Hispanic children) with the intent of using the facility as their pool. When Creative Steps showed up, they were denied entrance and their membership dues were revoked.

How it happened is the subject of some debate..

John Duesler Jr., the Valley Club president, claimed that the rejection was for purely logistical reasons, namely that when they offered the 60 memberships, they didn't realize that having that many swimmers arrive at once would max out the pool's capacity. Of course, Duesler is the one who released the above statement about "complexion," which is hopefully just an ironic syntactical mistake (!).

Althea Wright, the executive director of Creative Steps, reports that the real reason for her group's expulsion is much more insidious and brings up an interesting issue. She observed white families pulling their children out of the pool as Creative Steps entered and overheard the much-reported "what are these black kids doing here?" coming from a white mother as she snatched her children from the waters.

I work at a day camp, and although we thankfully use people's private, back-yard pools (we only have at most 10 kids at a time... and these kids would not have fun in the noisy, chaotic sensory environment created by your typical neighborhood pool), I get what is at stake here. I understand the need to keep a pool environment safe and I get that 60 patrons entering the pool (even with adequate supervision, which I assume was present) would present a logistical challenge to the pool staff, regardless of the race of said patrons. However, my question to the pool staff, before we even consider the issues of race and socioeconomic status, is, "didn't you think of that before?" I know how this stuff works - a day camp calls around, looking for a classy, safe pool to use and talks to somebody in charge about membership. The camp then schedules a day and time(s) to visit the pool, informing the management of the anticipated numbers. Then the pool, who is being paid to provide a service, handles whatever staff accommodations that are needed. The group visits, has fun, and leaves. Everyone is happy - kids got to play, the pool got increased revenues.

The talk of "logistical difficulty" should be read as "poor planning" on the pool's part, and one can only speculate about the mindset that accepted the almost $2,000 in membership fees easily but then didn't consider the actual experience of the guests paying the money (sound familiar to anyone?). And the actual experience is pretty frustrating: it was a 40 minute drive out to the club. Do you know what it would be like to caravan 60 children from an inner-city day camp location to the 'burbs only to be turned away after moments of swimming?

The importance of race as a factor is impossible to ignore. Intuitively, we can imagine the scenario being different if it was 60 white kids in designer swimsuits. But now we have the statements that can't be taken back - terms like "complexion" and "those black kids." Anyone else get upset when "black" is used as a vocabulary word? "These kids came to the pool today," is a vastly different sentence, apparently, than "These black kids came to the pool today." Now, I understand that the pool management can't control the reactions and prejudices of their guests, and that the management's official position is that it "deplores discrimination in any form, as evidenced by our multi-ethnic and diverse membership," as explained in an unsigned statement on their website, but what troubles me most is the children's individual experiences.

A group of black and Hispanic kids got turned away from a pool while the white families got to stay. What does that look like to a child in Creative Steps? There are quotes out there, reports of children asking "am I too black to go to the pool?" and things like that, and while those things may or may not have actually been said, that's the kind of damage that is being done. And not just to the Creative Steps kids either - think about how this warps the perception of the white children who got to stay! Minority kids are now scary, troublesome, and cause my fun to end. And you can get rid of them by talking to the folks in charge. That's the message they're getting and that's that prejudice that they will be victims of for quite a while, God forbid.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out - the NAACP and PA senator Arlen Spector have gotten involved and it's been strongly suggested that the pool invite Creative Steps back, but it seems like this Althea Wright has got her head on straight and will be doing whatever she can to make this right for her kids.

Yay for camp!

TDYFBCOE 4: Sound and Vision

2009-07-09T19:10:00.004-04:00

Selections from "I Have Been Obsessed," a playlist on my iPod that consists of all those songs that have some kind of specific memory or time period associated with them. They were the songs that I would played on repeat when nobody was in the car with me.

1.) Treasure, by The Cure: Wild Mood Swings was actually one of the first Cure albums I ever got (since I only got into them in 1997, you can't really blame me... although I never really got the Cure-fan hatred thing for this album), and Treasure was the one I would set the CD player on repeat for. It helped me through blah blah blah break-ups blah blah blah but not because I seriously imagined myself (or the significant other) dead, just because it was sad and I was sad. "It's better to forget than to remember me and cry" was written on my bedroom wall in pencil. I know, gag.

2.) Regret, by New Order: back in 1999, I randomly bought a home-made cassette mix tape at the thrift store. In addition to b-side Smashing Pumpkins and Widespread Panic, this song was on it and I quickly got hooked. It makes me think of my first car - this amazing Dodge caravan with a tape player. Later, when I discovered that like every indie band ever has covered this song, I felt somewhat superior.

3.) Runaway Train, by Soul Asylum: This was also on the cassette tape. It was apparently a very important tape, how random. Anyways, I associate this song with my good friend Pam who at one point led youth group and introduced me to my love of recovery communities. God bless you Pam.

4.) Thirty-Three, by the Smashing Pumpkins: remember this song? It was off some Batman soundtrack I think (fear), but it was one of the first mp3's I ever downloaded from Napster or whatever we did in high school. I loved it and frequently fantasized about covering it with the band I was in (anyone who remembers, wouldn't that have been so great?). I have since obtained it legally. Not that Billy Corgan gives a good gosh darn.

5.) Psalm of Solstice, by Malcolm Dalglesh and the Oolites: This is the first track off of Hymnody of Earth and it's pretty awesome - a song about winter solstice sung in Latin and English and accompanied by hammered dulcimer and bodhran. My uncle gave the album to me one summer when I visited him before going out to camp.

6.) State of Grace, by Books Died On: Seriously this is the best song ever written and it makes it onto like every playlist I make. Everyone who has ever done dishes at Ute Trail between 2005 and 2009 has heard this song.

7.) When It Doesn't Come Easy, by Patty Griffin: Everyone should just listen to Patty Griffin. I make that statement (in a very self-important voice) at least once a week. And seriously, when does it ever come easy? This was on a CD my pal Clark gave out at his wedding and I listened to it all over the end of college.

8.) The Trapeze Swinger, by Iron & Wine: My friend Tim recommended this one to me and I sorta latched on. It reminds me a bunch of him and / or 2006 and 2007ish.

9.) I Am the Deep Blue Sea, by Mark Mathis: His We Both Was Young album came out just two or so years ago and this song just got me all kinds of moved. I've played it at coffee shops, played it for friends, and Nick and I even thought about covering it once. It for sure reminds me of Tyler and rainy Saturdays and doughnuts and all the fun long-distance things that happened out of there.

10.) Let It Dive, by ...And They Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead: I listened to this today randomly and realized that it will forever be the song that reminds me of moving out of Tyler back east. I don't necessarily think the sentiment is really all that accurate, but I played it like a milliong times this past winter. I'm glad I'm here but it makes me remember the sadness of leaving Texas.

BONUS.) I Can't Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt, Fields of Gold by Sting, Forever Lost by God Is An Astronaut, Black by Pearl Jam, and One Voice by the Wailin' Jennys: these were all pretty important background songs as well, each with their own times and images.

Anyone else do this? What songs do it for you?

TDYFBCOE 3.75: Here Comes the Pee, Indeed

2009-07-08T21:50:00.002-04:00

This is what a poopy sugar glider is. I'll go ahead and say you really shouldn't watch this.

Told ya.

TDYFBCOE 3.5: Slip-N-Slaughter

2009-07-08T21:08:00.003-04:00

I forgot to mention Monday that one of the pools we use was out of commission and so we played on a slip-n-slide instead.

Let's just say it made me get all high-engine.

TDYFBCOE 3: I Am a Man.

2009-07-08T07:16:00.006-04:00

I was reading digg.com, which I do a lot of. It's fun or whatever and it's a good way to check out content from websites I normally wouldn't check out. This article about “14 Basic Skills All Men Should Possess,” while of course seeming wonky at first, caught my attention and so I read it. The following is a take on whether or not I possess the 14 invaluable skills that every guy should possess...

1.) Drive a stick shift: My uncle Bob taught me to drive a stick-shift on my grandpa Dick’s big ol’ red truck and I really impressed him by reversing out of a ditch on my first try. Since then, I honed my stick-driving skills on my bud Dave’s truck and the various stick-shifted things around Ute Trail Ranch. It does make me feel extremely cool.

2.) Hook up an entertainment center: I mean, I bet I could figure it out – I haven’t ever really owned anything you’d call an “entertainment center,” but I helped out enough at Hope 242 and their weekly sound-system-set-up-a-thon that I feel I could figure it out. Especially if people were watching.

3.) Fix a toilet: Without any gender restrictions, this is something that anyone who regularly uses one should be able to do. Duh, Ute Trail helped this one really develop, and also taught me that girls do, in fact, poo. I also learned that 99% of the time that someone “tried my hardest but couldn’t fix it,” you just need to really work the plunger. Like you mean it. Like you’re pushing poo down a pipe.

4.) Navigate a map and use GPS: Okay, so I can use a map (thanks again, Ute Trail guide team training) and actually prefer to use it over the GPS. The recent trip to Scotland and the chaos that ensued from people not knowing where they were going because they didn’t have a GPS really convinced me that those things are kinda annoying. Plus, Matt, the old guy voice that you thought was so funny – I have to confess that it was extremely irritating. I’m sorry, I love you but it was.

5.) Change the oil: Yeah I have to admit that the way I change my car’s oil is to take it to the oil change place. I could probably figure it out, but you know whatever.

6.) Balance a checkbook: Um, I use online banking? Fearfully, sure, but I haven’t really had any problems with it so far. I kept a paper record of my checking account activity in college and it wasn’t exactly brain science (or changing the oil in my car). And why this was put in any kind of gender-restricted category is beyond me.

7.) Cook the perfect steak: So I’ve grilled before and I may soon end up being the one in my house who does the grilling (right?), but I’ve never really had the passion for it that the guys on King of the Hill do. And if I’m being honest, I prefer grilling stuff other than steaks. My dad taught me how to grill salmon really well, and thanks to Ute I can grill 150 chicken breasts, but steaks are wither much easier or much harder than I’m imagining.

8.) Swim the breaststroke: Really? Every man must have this skill? Whatever. I can breaststroke. Although apparently not good enough to pass my swim instruction course… boo.

9.) Write effectively: Well I certainly think I can do this one.

10.) Dress for the occasion: I do not possess this skill. I shop at thrift stores, and only own a suit because my dad took me shopping for it. However, this may soon change as I continue to hang out with the studly best-dressed Craig Henry. I do like hats, though. Weird hats and I also like jeans that fit well.

11.) Sew a button: I can do this. I never have, but really is it that hard? I hope not, because I definitely don’t want to be the guy wandering around asking people to sew my button back on. Now, I’ll also admit that I have resorted to using a safety pin to keep my pants up, but that was a long time ago and I’m not proud.

12.) Do laundry properly: I never figured out what makes this so complicated. But then again, most of my clothes are really really old and therefore don’t change sizes or colors. One time I made a pen explode in the wash all over my favorite – and I mean all of my favorite – shirts. It was my favorite shirts load. But now I’m paranoid that should the need arise to do anyone else’s laundry, I’ll screw something up.

13.) Handle roadside emergencies: As my pal Nick can attest to, I can change a flat in the rain on a muddy country road. Check. And I can jump a battery, but I still get scared I’m going to somehow electrocute myself. I get all jumpy and weird like I’m holding a poopy sugar glider.

14.) Build a fire: Pshaw, of course. Thanks Native Americans class. I love building fires. I keep a fire source of some kind handy at all times, and have yet to ever give up on a fire.

TDYFBCOE 2: I Didn't Know They Had Those Here!

2009-07-07T22:12:00.005-04:00

Today, in the drain, we found a water scorpion:

Used to find these all the time in Tyler (aaw) and it was kinda embarassing that I was surprised to find one in Georgia. Thing is, we found it in the pool, and there wasn't a pond anywhere near. How did it get there? Mystery.

In case you haven't heard, they are called water scorpions because of their strong front legs, that they use to snag buggies while hanging upside down in the water, breathing through their tubey-bums.

TDYFBCOE1: Frogs in the Pool!

2009-07-06T23:05:00.005-04:00

So my job consists of mostly playing with children in the pool. I'm a lifeguard, and so at the day camp I work at, I get the pleasure of supervising the daily pool time each group participates in. Officially, I suppose the only real responsibility I have is, um, guarding lives, but I try to have fun with it. Most of the time, I'm in the water goofing off and trying to do some semblance of unlicensed therapy or whatever. It usually looks like instigating cannonball contests (which helps with motor planning and stimulates the vestibular and proprioceptive systems, integrating visual and vestibular input while monitoring praxis and blah blah blah see? I know what I'm doing!), belly flop contests (which is downright funny) and occasionally daring to start a game of Sharks and Minnows or Marco Polo (read: chaos).

Today I helped a little guy "jump" into the pool from a sitting position (it still counts) and then got him to do some good back-and-forth with me while going underwater, which I think was a big step for him. I realized again what a wonder our nervous systems are: we are somehow able to do the millions of calculus equations that enable us to do something as simple as jump in a pool intuitively. Measuring how far away from the wall we need to jump, using just the right amount of leg strength coupled with abdominal and other muscles working together to keep us upright, then managing to know which way is up (think about it: there is something in our brains which can measure the earth's magnetic field... how else do we almost always know what up is?) and coordinating our breathing, usually an involuntary action, with the position of our little mouths in respect to the waterline. It's wild. And we take it all for granted!

Think of all the million things you are passively noticing right now: the temperature of the room / the temperature of your body (need to turn on the AC? how did you know that?), the position of your back and head that allows you to stay upright, the amount of light available to be reading this, the dozen or so noises going on in the background (the unimportant ones: clocks ticking, bugs humming, dogs snoring; the important ones like lovers' voices, TV shows, the dings and beeps on the computer). And we are able to synthesize all that into a coherent model of the reality around us, prioritizing what is relevant sensory input to what is background... and then we can somehow manipulate that environment in predictable ways... remarkable.

Anyways, while I was at the pool, things were getting a little boring and so I asked a kid to check the drain skimmer thing for frogs, explaining that sometimes they get trapped in there. I hadn't seen any frogs at this particular pool in the past, so you can imagine my surprise when we found four of them in the drain, all climbing on each other's back trying to get somewhere else. Oh it was such delicious pandemonium - four frogs, all but one of them escaping into the pool, swimming around as our most compassionate young camper swam after them - "gentle!" - and delivered them to freedom while the others watched in rambunctious fascination. Of course it was startling, but I was so surprised at how calm the kids were about these little amphibians. You think, "four frogs in a pool of five-year-olds" and the movie scenes of running and screaming flip by, but these kids had no idea that it was supposed to be so odd or surprising. To them, it was just another case of something unexpected hiding someplace you wouldn't have predicted.

In the end, the frogs were set free with minimum injury and the kids kept playing around, jumping in, flipping around, splashing, trying to talk to each other underwater, giving themselves mohawks and seeing who could make the biggest splash. We had the normal epic struggles getting them to dry off and put their shoes on, the normal shouting matches over who gets to sit up front, and the normal zen-like silence in the van on the way back, the music on the radio lulling their tired little bodies into trances as they watched the cars fly by us on the interstate.

So now I'm going to go ahead and drag the aforementioned snoring dog to bed and get ready for another fun day at the pool tomorrow (trying to edit this quickly so I can push "publish" before tomorrow... thus fulfilling the TDYFBCOE). That silent, primal pull to get prone and close my eyes is far more important right now than almost anything.

Almost anyone.

Ten-Day Yay for Blogging Challenge of Excellence! (or: Quantity over Quality)

2009-07-05T17:19:00.004-04:00

Okay, so I obviously have gotten pretty lazy over the past few months with the blogging thing, so I think I'm going to try something I call the Ten-Day Yay for Blogging Challenge of Excellence (TDYFBCOE)!

I hereby commit to blog every day for the next ten days, even if it's dumb. Anyone wanna join?

I went up to the high mountains.

2009-07-04T22:31:00.009-04:00

You have to close one eye.

…

Driving from Amarillo to Raton is the dullest part of the trip, I always say, but it really is beautiful in its own way. Railroad tracks, power lines, wind-power turbines, and the mesas that make electric the unspoken threat of mountains… and more mountains…

After Raton, you start climbing and the geography really starts to happen. Every several minutes, you are tempted to pull over and snap photos. But here’s the thing – most of us have taken enough mountain pictures to realize that the camera can’t ever really get it. It’s all too big, too 3-D, and a huge part of what you’re really seeing can’t be shown on a little camera screen anyway. It’s the grandeur, the perspective that makes it so breathtaking when, where there should be clouds, there are mountains.

So, to keep myself from crashing in traffic and wasting space on my memory card, I always try to take a deep breath, pause a second, and close one eye. With one eye closed, you get a better, more realistic 2-D idea of what you’d be capturing and it’s a good way to know if the view is something worth capturing.

Most of the time, it isn’t. Don’t get me wrong – it’s beautiful and majestic and soul-stirring, but it also isn’t really meant to be retained. You might as well just buy a postcard or a calendar. I decided a few years back to be okay with that… I have my memories and that’s enough.

You just have to be there when you’re there (keeping an eye on the road, of course), and trust your memories when you’re not.…

It’s also nice to be back at camp.

Trans-Atlantic Journeyfest 2009!

2009-06-04T11:45:00.004-04:00

That's right folks, just when you thought I was being boring and not traveling... Journeyfest 2009! This one's trans-Atlantic, as I will be traveling to Scotland for ten days with some lovely Presbyterians from Norcross. We have a super-fun itinerary that will have us in some big towns, little towns, forts, lochs, and something involving the devil's crack.

I still wonder how much internet I'll have, but I will be taking gobs of pictures so eventually you'll know all about it. I'm also trying to keep a travel journal and may just end up scanning it here for your pleasure.

I leave Friday, June 5th and come back Sunday the 14th. Until then!

Everybody's Got One

2009-06-02T21:51:00.003-04:00

My Dad Sent Me This

2009-05-23T14:33:00.004-04:00

It's been funnny for several days around here.

Rad

2009-05-23T13:29:00.002-04:00

This website is pretty neat. Randomness, brain-teasers, and it's pretty. Enjoy.

http://www.futilitycloset.com/

What's Going On? Big Fat Updatefest!

2009-05-22T16:49:00.004-04:00

Okay! It's just about summertime, and I've got lots going on, a lot about to go on, and lots that has already gone on that's worth mentioning. I realize that the last few months have seen sparse updates from me, so here we go, Big Fat Updatefest!

-December 2008: Sky Ranch laid me off. Apparently, summer camp enrollment was down low enough that they had to start laying people off (in other departments, of course). And apparently my position was more expendable than I thought (prolly because of the big bucks they were paying me). So there I am, going through the 'getting fired' scenario I had imagined several dozen times before (it involved a lot fewer velociraptors in real life).

I'm just now allowing myself to be really bummed about it. In the months immediately following, I was too focused on what I should do next to really process the layoff and my time at Sky Ranch, but now that things are a little less chaotic, I've been able to really think about what all that meant to me. I'll probably have to make another post about the specifics, but in short: 1.) having a job is great and 2.) there are people who promise, and there are people who deliver. Bam!

-January / February 2009: Went to a wedding that changed my life, and then began the process of moving out of Tyler. My first plan was to move to Asheville, NC and teach special education, and so I applied for jobs (sometimes really random jobs - chocolateer... Oompa Loompa... for example) and checked out places to live in that super cool town. BUT somewhere around February a few things happened -

a.) I finished my substitute teaching certification class only to find that they have stopped hiring substitute teachers in the county I wanted to work in!

b.) My good old pal Clay asked me to work for him in the summer, and

c.) aforementioned life-change made it very difficult to leave Atlanta (I know, cryptic, right? Email me and I'll tell you ALL about it).

So I decided to stay in Atlanta. I've been living with the folks up in Duluth and will be through the summer. Bump loves it here (my mother is a tad forgetful at times which = multiple feedings for the small yellow dog!)

-March / April 2009: To tide me over while I was looking for jobs, I picked up a few hours lifeguarding at the pool just around the corner and it's been fun. Meanwhile, I applied all over the place for a teaching / therapeutic recreation job and substituted with Clay while helping him build "The Treehouse," the ropes-course structure I'll run all summer. Watched a lot of the Simpsons with Craig and ate a lot of ice cream.

-May 2009: I GOT A TEACHING JOB FOR THE FALL! I'll be working as an assistant instructor for the 5 and 6-year-old classroom at The Hirsch Academy. I had applied to work there earlier, and even though initially they didn't have a position for me, things changed and here we are! They enrolled me in a short online course about the particular kinds of therapy they do (Floortime, if you've heard of it), and I've been showing up a little here and there to substitute and be in on teacher meetings. Can't wait for this one to start!

I'm also in a play at this cool community theater operation, Lionheart Theater Company, in a production of a locally-written play called TLC. I really have enjoyed getting back into the whole theaternthing and want to do more acting in the future.

-June 2009: I'll be doing a few things that are all super cool. June 5 - 14th, I'll be in Scotland with my church on a hiking [/ drinking] extravaganza. Plenty of pictures and stories to follow, I'm sure. As soon as I get back, I'll begin the summer camp work with Clay, lifeguarding and leading ropes-course activities. Clay and I are also going to be developing an overnight camp program as well, so that should be fun. I'll also start picking up some hours with my new personal social skills therapy client (aka little brother), which consists of hanging out with a 13-year-old boy with learning delays and doing fun stuff like bowling, fishing, and figuring gratuity in one's head. It's a cool gig and I may even be able to pick up a few clients more if my schedule allows.

That's right - I have clients.

-July / August 2009: Finishing camp, starting school, and moving to Decatur. Should I try and make a trip out to Ute Trail? I'm sure by then the grease trap will need cleaning and God knows that's a service I provide. Sigh...

Okay. Phew that felt good to get down. So that's what I've been up to. It's weird being back in Atlanta - for years now I've said to myself that when / if I move out of Texas, it will be to go to someplace new. And so at first it was a little hard to not feel like Atlanta was a compromise of sorts... but now I realize what a great thing I've got here (in friends, family, church, work, and general awesomeness) and am content in discovering the newest, nextest part of my journey here in the red clay and pine needles. I've always been convinced that life isn't merely a set of cycles, us returning to the same places we've always been before, but rather more like a potter's wheel - even if we find ourselves in similar circumstances, we are different every time blink our eyes.

I'll keep you updated!

DL

PS I also Twitter, but then again you already knew that.

Compulsive post:

2009-05-13T21:53:00.009-04:00

Aren't these Flannery O'Connor cover pages beautiful? I think so.

This is my dear friend Sarah. This is not photoshopped. I repeat, NOT photoshopped.

Also, this is so vile but somehow I have found like LOTS of pictures of people mid-puke on the internet lately.

20 of My Favorite Things

2009-04-17T17:23:00.004-04:00

(in no particular order... I've probably mentioned these before, but I haven't blogged in a while and just needed to get something down. Hope you enjoy - let's see yours!)

1.) small dogs

2.) lane swimmers

3.) slow-paced car blinkers

4.) having perfect change

5.) wisteria

6.) Wikipedia

7.) Burger King double cheeseburgers

8.) NPR

9.) instrumental rock

10.) vests

11.) when it takes 15 minutes to get there

12.) leaving the backdoor open

13.) cake for breakfast

14.) the Simpsons

15.) jeans that fit really well

16.) journaling

17.) whole milk

18.) mutant powers

19.) library books

20.) boulders

Let's make lists...

2009-04-02T12:08:00.003-04:00

Jen makes lists and I am jealous of how cool she is (everyone who shares this sentiment, raise your hand), so I want to make lists. Let's make a list of the lists I want to make...

1.) Something music related - favorite artists / albums / songs? Songs that remind me of a particular time or place or person?

2.) The coffee shops I have loved.

3.) Words I misuse / overuse.

4.) Things people make fun of me for.

5.) Important books.

6.) Biblical characters I like.

7.) Irrational fears.

8.) Things that make me happy that are smaller than a bread box.

9.) Wikipedia articles I have viewed recently.

10.) Places to be outside in.

Just a thought. Any ideas? Anyone want to join me in publishing lots of random lists? And I don't mean like Facebook surveys (I do those from time to time, but have tried not to post the stupider ones on this thing), I mean like bona fide lists. Lemme know.

Digging in!

2009-04-01T22:49:00.003-04:00

Living back in Atlanta is going really well. I'll start by telling you that I am in a room with two people I love very much... and they are earnestly discussing The Real World. And oppression. And Craig just dumped an entire hamperful of clean laundry on me. And how do I respond? By matching his socks. That's just what kind of saint I am.

I worked all day today. I was up and at the pool early (7:30am) and sweated myself through the CPR recertification...

[for those who care about this kinda thing, WMI, the agency through whom I got my current CPR cert, was extremely laid-back in the way they did basic life support - "Basically if they need air, put air in there, and if they need circulation, do what you can to push some blood around. Chances are if they stopped breathing and beating, they will die anyway, but you might as well distend their belly and break some ribs if it makes you feel better." So anyhow, when I learned the official Red Cross way, I was already a little biased and didn't exactly exert myself at memorizing the specific placement of your two or three fingers in relationship to the unconscious / non-breathing / non-beating child's nipples, etc. etc.]

...but passed. After a lazy afternoon, the highlight of which was a whopping 11 people in the pool at once, I drove over to my employer friend Clay, who payed me to add up his receipts for tax purposes.

My teeth are hurting again - somehow my gums decided to rebel against one particular wisdom tooth, and I accidentally slept with my mouth open last night, so it was kinda a painful day.

Also, should I go to grad school? How about to become an occupational therapist? What if that involves basically re-going to college because, um, I didn't take a single science class at Texas?

Geez, The Real World is really, really bad. This is so lame. Like, painful. How does this happen? Oh well. I just nearly choked on my spit.

um,... and... I love whupped cream.

Mogwai is coming to Asheville 4/23

2009-03-08T20:45:00.003-04:00

Anyone wanna come with?

At Long Last!

2009-03-05T13:01:00.004-05:00

I could understand that this news may be a bigger deal than just something you post on your blog, so beg pardon if you, dear reader, feel slighted by the impersonal delivery, but I have good news...

I have a job! Kinda. Well, I have work, and the prospects for more work. In two weeks, I'll start lifeguarding at the county aquatic center around the block from my folks, and I've also got a tiny little construction job for the next couple of weeks or so. I'm excited about lifeguarding because, hey, it'll be fun, but more than that, I'll be able to work on my chops a little, get paid regularly, and have access to (discounted!) certifications that may be helpful in the future... namely getting my Water Safety Instructor cert.

The WSI is good news because this summer I will be working with Clay at his summer camp as the pool guy! Er, um, the Aquatic Therapy Supervisor, or whatever we decide to call it. Anyways, the summer camp job will be really cool - lifeguarding / swimming with niños in the afternoons and doing some ropes course work a couple of mornings a week (the construction job I mentioned is building said ropes course... jokes anyone?). I worked with Clay all throughout high school and really like what he's into. And as an added bonus, he's talking me up with a cool little private school in Decatur for possibly teaching next year with them.

So... some of you may be thinking, "What about Asheville?"

Well, it looks like Asheville is not in the stars for right now. The substitute teaching I was working toward fell through (the county is not hiring new subs until next school year...) and all of the positions I have tried to interview for have all fallen through. I figured I could keep holding out for the right thing there, or start walking through doors here and see where the pieces fall. I still would love to live in Asheville at some point, but it's taken its place back on the list in favor of actual employment. So, for my vast Asheville readership (hi Jackie, Lauren, Carrie!), sorry, but I will not be living in the same town as you... for a while at least.

And to my multitudes of Atlanta readers, come to West Gwinnett Aquatic Center and I'll guard your life!

And for my unemployed friends, my thoughts and prayers are with you - what you're doing is exactly what you need to be doing. It's rough out there, but keep at it. I'll keep my eyes peeled for you!

Now where is that whistle...?

A day in the life / yay for economy.

2009-02-10T14:49:00.003-05:00

What does it look like to be 25, unemployed, and have the kind of credentials that would make a camp director salivate? Well, my friends, let's take a look at the kinds of jobs I applied for today. Let's also keep in mind that I am apparently having a bizarre allergy catastrophe, and so I may decide later that this post needs to come down re: all those stories you hear about companies researching you and reading your blogs, Facebook page, etc.

[This just in: godsfreedavid (complete with obnoxious un-capitalization) is Google's 8th result if you search for my name. My Facebook page is #3. #1 is some other guy with my name who calls himself a "scriptorium" and hosts something called "The Voice of Evangelism"]

Without further ado, here's what I applied for today and then / how I found out about it.

-a direct-care provider for developmentally disabled adults! / thank you Craigslist.
-a position as a traveling school-assembly-slash-after-school children's science instructor! / random searching for Asheville experiential education, science education, etc.
-a chocolate maker! at this chocolate place with a suggestive name / I saw an ad on Craigslist a month ago and figured I'd search around for it again, and lo and behold!
-an art teacher for hospitalized children / internet search again.

And that's just today. I have a few positions I'm looking really looking forward to hearing from, mostly teaching but there's one that would be a great fit - directing some outdoor recreation programs.

And in the meantime, in case you haven't heard, I'll be traveling back to Tyler this Sunday to pack up the house.

Oh how I love driving large vehicles.

The 25 Commandments of David

2009-02-02T13:13:00.011-05:00

I've seen a startling number of these things floating around Facebook these days, so I figured it was my turn. Kevin Mann was the one who officially pushed me over the edge, for the record. And, in typical over-achiever style, I have opted for the genre of "Commandments" to best present you, my humble readers, with 25 Things About Me. If I tagged you, it's because I thought you'd like this - don't worry about needing to do it yourself (although all the cool kids are doing it). Without further ado, here are my 25 Commandments:

1. Always save room for dessert. I do love me some dessert. I tend to eat like a bird, and this sometimes embarrasses me in public eating situations, but even if I’m too embarrassed to actually order it, I always save room for dessert.

2. Use the restroom at whatever restaurant you eat at. A friend of mine brought this up back in high school, but for whatever reason (I suspect genetics are involved – my family tried a little experiment this Christmas that was very enlightening) I will always use the restroom whenever I go out to eat. It’s just a nice little break and you get to potentially read interesting things people have written on the walls!

3. Don’t hold your toots. That’s right – for this particular medium, I’m saying “toots.” I have theories about people who hold their toots and the constitution of whole political parties, but I won’t go into them here.

4. Smell like something. Once, on a backpacking trip, I was told that after five days without deodorant, my pitters still didn’t smell bad. Which is awesome because now I don’t have to buy deodorant. But I still like to smell good – my sisters got me this stellar cologne for Christmas last year and, yes, sometimes I wear patchouli oil. But sometimes I wear peppermint oil because Alan said it calmed you down.

5. Play musical instruments. I play a few here and there and it’s a really impressive thing for people to find out about you. And, um, you can express yourself creatively.

6. Don’t pay money for shoes. At least try not to. I went I think three years in high school / college not buying shoes, but rather finding them or taking them out of the trash (Rodney Lewis). At any rate, I don’t like spending money on shoes. I mean, I will if I have to (hiking, etc.) but I’d rather find some at Goodwill or Wal-Mart or whatever and only pay $10. Or, preferably, $5.

7. Treat the dog like a little gentleman. My boy Bump is the loveliest Chihuahua you have ever met. He is a regular gentleman, very charming, polite, and engaging. Except when he anger-poops in the music room. He isn’t much for “tricks,” and if you throw a ball in the back yard, he’ll look at you as though to say, “Why did you do that? Now you have to walk all the way over there and get it.” But he has mastered the art of “Hey Bump!,” “Get off that!,” “Cut it out!,” and singing along to the recorder…

8. Get random credentials. Lifeguard certification, ropes-course certs, medical training, wilderness medical training, knot-tying workshops, bird-handling experience, substitute teaching accreditation in Texas and N. Carolina, boating license, 15 Passenger Van Anti-Roll Training, cake-decorating? Sure. You never know when it’ll be handy.

9. Wear shirts with birds of prey on them. I helped out at this outdoor education thing and there was Doris the Bird Lady, and she needed volunteers to handle her birds. And so a few of us did, and she gave us shirts! Mine has 13 Birds of Prey on it and it’s my favorite! Can you find them all?

10. Travel as much as you can. I like road trips. They haven’t been as long as my Austin – Atlanta days, but a good day or two on the road is a great thing. Just drink lots of water. And don’t run out of gas.

11. Get tattoos. I have two of them: a big circle on my back and a bucket on my chest. They have deep, intense, spiritual meanings that I’d love to tell you about.

12. Use condiments in moderation. Yeah, I don’t usually use condiments. Ketchup I use mainly on meatloaf and hamburgers, but I don’t really eat hamburgers. And I do like a good mustard on… well I can’t think of what. The two exceptions are Tony’s Cajun Seasoning (on everything… on Ramen… on most soups for that matter), and this orange stuff they give you at Falafel King in Decatur.

13. Become acquainted with the outdoors. I have had a job having to do with the outdoors since 8th grade. I really like the idea of using outside as a tool for teaching, therapy, counseling, and ministry, and would like to continue doing so (!) in the future. I’m not particularly into any one outdoor activity – climbing or kayaking or whatever – I just like being outside, being in something bigger than myself.

14. Visit the cemetery on your birthday. Yeah it’s kinda morbid but I do it. In theory, it gives me perspective. In reality, it makes for a nice thing to put on lists like this.

15. Have lofty ideals. Aah, rules and expectations. It’s how I order my life. Not in a weird prescriptive or oppressive way, but I tend to think in ideals and “the way it should be,” so as to make sense of the way it actually is.

16. Have conflicts. But be aware that you are not the only one.

17. …(leave some answers blank)

18. Let God be Himself around you. Some of you guys may or may not believe in God, but I figure if He’s real, He probably gets annoyed by all the stupid ways we try to re-make Him in our own image, according to our own opinions. My goal / sermon is to humbly learn what He’s like and then order my life in a way that thanks Him best.

19. Listen to NPR. My mutant power is that I can always find the NPR station in a new place within a short period of time. I love NPR and almost everything about it, and will always be impressed if you mention it in casual conversation. Stuff White People Like #96.

20. Listen to the Cure. I do.

21. Read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton and A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck. These two books are so great, so formative. I read them both for school (Pigs is written for middle-schoolers, but you should go ahead and read it) and they never left me. I consider them mandatory reading for anyone who wants to get to know me (I know, that’s kind of vain, but this is my list).

22. Know the color wheel. For the love… it shocked me when I realized a few years ago that peers of mine didn’t understand the rudimentary basics of the color wheel – which two primary colors make which secondary color, which colors are opposites, etc. etc. I feel like balance is a huge part of my aesthetic outlook on life and where the hell would I be when there isn’t purple paint if I didn’t know that red and blue can make magical hues together?

23. Grammar was made for man, not man for grammar! I love grammar and words and all that nerdy stuff, but somewhere along the line I was infected with this very social-constructionist view of grammar (oh yes, it was the Old-Testament-themed grammar class I took in college where our instructor had invented and was advocating what he called “Exodus Grammar: an Escape from the Bondage of Prescriptionist Grammatical Modes”) and I always play the devil’s advocate in those discussion about where the prepositions should be at.

24. Do laundry every once and a while. I mean, pants aren’t really dirty unless you’ve gotten into something, right? Never underestimate the power of an iron and a dryer sheet.

25. Trust your intuition. The trouble it gets you into will be uniquely yours.

The Second Time In My Life I've Ever Called 911

2009-01-21T10:05:00.003-05:00

I can't believe I haven't told you this yet. This may really disturb some of you. Okay - so I got back into Tyler the beginning of January and decided to pack up a little and stage the job search from Atlanta. You know, for the hell of it. And that meant a long car ride with the dog lying vertically in the sear next to me.

And the long car ride meant Louisiana and finding things to pass the time.

After exhausting my podcasts-listening-to abilities, I began the long calling of people back, and had some fairly intense conversations. Involving lava lamps and the Holy Spirit. And so anyways, I hang up with my friend Rachel with the intent of getting gas somewhere, and promptly run out of gas.

On the interstate.

In the middle of Louisiana.

Do I know where I am? Have I been paying attention to the exit numbers or mileage? Am I even really sure I'm still in Louisiana? No. Do I feel like a dork? Yes.

So what do you do? I called my parents, and eventually - after being assured by a kind operator that this was the right thing to do - called 911. Thing is, the operator said he couldn't help me if I didn't know where I was. And I mean, I had no idea. The closest we could figure out, I was somewhere in 100 miles east of one city and west of another, but that didn't really help. I guess I just expected that he had a magical satellite pinpointy thing that would show where I was. I guess I just expected a little triangulation. But no. So I had to do triangulation the old fashioned way....

Before pulling over, I had crossed under a bridge. It didn't have a sign on it or anything, and it certainly didn't look like a very residential kind of road, but I figured it was the safer alternative to flagging someone down. So I hopped up and sure enough, after two minutes of walking, I found a house. A house with a very large dog who came snarling and frothing at me but then fell on her back in the "I need a belly rub" position moments before I thought she was going to tear my face off.

Her owner came out shortly to see what his dog was carrying on about. I guess I was expecting the kind of person you see on the weather channel, but he was surprisingly young, polite, and helpful. He said I wouldn't believe the people who break down around here and that I was lucky to find him - he is the only house for a while. He grabbed the 5-gallon gas can that he had handy and opened up his huge truck to let me in. Oops! Let me move the large hunting rifle and gallon-size containers of rum (whatevs, man). And he drove me back to my car and even waved the traffic out of the right lane while I filled up.

The whole thing put me back like maybe 30 minutes at most, and I got a pretty neat story out of it. But it's really rather embarrassing - who runs out of gas on the highway? And so that's why I write about it here.

If you're wondering, the first time I called 911 was when I drove by a telephone pole on which something violently exploded. I felt responsible in the good way.

Insert Sentimentality: I'm Going to Miss This.

2009-01-16T17:52:00.004-05:00

Life = Wasteland?

2009-01-09T10:20:00.004-05:00

No, of course not. It's just that... well, let me tell you a little story.

In December, I got laid off. Most of you know this because we've talked in person or you've kept up with the Twitter or the Lord revealed it to you in a dream for intercessory purposes. It was as good as those things can go - basically the economy being what it is, Sky Ranch couldn't afford to keep several positions, and one of those was mine. It was a surprise (but-not-surprising) end to a wonderful three years of full-time employment and seven summers out at Ute Trail Ranch.

Right after it happened, I spent a little time getting job things together, but then set out on the previously mentioned vacationstravaganza, so it's only in the past few days that I have really been able to do the kind of work I want to do toward getting a job. And I have decided to focus this job search in two ways: I want to work with special needs children and I want to live in Asheville, NC.

The best thing I could think of would be to teach special education in a school setting, but I may need to get a little more creative before that can happen. I am hoping to be set up with a job of some kind in Asheville before too long, and I am currently staying with my folks in Atlanta, GA just to be a little closer for interviews / apartment hunts / etc. My goal would be to stay here until I get something, get back to Tyler, start moving, and get working. Hopefully this won't take more than a month total. In the meantime, I'm trying to make good choices about where to be, how to spend time, how to not tax my parents' hospitality / not be a total loser, and I have the feeling that the "my life is a wasteland" feeling may start to creep up before too long.

I say all this to keep you, my loyal readership, up to date, but also to ask for prayer and support. I know God has something great for me, to prosper me, and I feel like he's given me the cosmic wink with regard to Asheville and teaching, I just don't know how it works out in the meantime. If you think of it, say a little prayer that I'd be able to be efficient and honorable in all this, and I'll continue to keep y'all updated as the new thing rises up!

Hawaii! Christmas! New Year's! and a Wedding!

2009-01-05T21:14:00.005-05:00

Alrighty, people. I am finally back in Tyler after a very eventful couple of weeks celebrating the holidays. It was a great time, and it's weird to realize that I have been away from home for almost three whole weeks. That's three whole weeks that my beautiful friends have cared for my dog, three whole weeks in various counties where you can buy beer, and three whole weeks from what I've called normal for the past three years...

Item 1: Hawaii.

My exceedingly generous father took the family for a vacation week in Hawaii! It was absolutely phenomenal, probably the most relaxing experience I have had in a while. And for a guy whose shoulders haven't seen the sun in years, it was a good reunion with sand and sun. Here is the facebook photo album I made, if you wanna see more photos.

Item 2: Christmas.

Christmas was festive. We got back from Hawaii in time to finish up the last-minute shopping and then do all the usual tree decorating, gingerbread house making, and wrapping paper decimating after a great Christmas service at the ol' home church. After Christmas, I actually got quite sick, but it was brief enough to let me continue on to the next leg of the journey...

Item 3: New Year's / Wedding.

My dear friend Allison got married to one of the sweetest, most servant-hearted men I have ever met. I went and visited them in Kansas City, where we counted down into 2009 in style. Unfortunately, Allison got really sick at just about midnight, but was plenty well by the time she had to get all prettied up and tie the knot a few days later. Meanwhile, I latched onto my friend Craig and he tolerated me tagging along, meeting all his (and Allison's) friends and really making a beautiful weekend of it all.

And now I'm back in Tyler, and (in case you haven't heard) trying as hard as I can to find a job (that's an email-me-about-it topic). I've got a few ideas, and a few leads, but I won't ruin anything by perpetuating it out on the internet. For now!

The Day Of Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T18:05:00.007-05:00

...is currently still happening. It's going pretty well, and you can tell this because I have time to blog, with pictures, in the middle of the day mid-activity. Without further ado:

So, as you can see, the day has basically been awesome. And yes we did pray and talk about the things we were thankful for. Since the taking of the last picture (isn't that creepy? really?), we have watched basketball (team sports again) and played Boggle (not a team sport). Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Day Before Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T12:03:00.004-05:00

It involved team / organized sports.

After my last post, the one with the list of things that cause me grief, the one that involved the organized sports, I got a number of comments about my athleticism. I thought the entry about the catfish and even the one about Hamburgular were far more funny, but hey what do I know?

Anyway, so even if nobody else was thinking about it (read: highly probable), it was with a certain degree of irony that I (gladly) attended our super-fun Day Before Thanksgiving Two-Hand Touch Football Game. I brought Bump and a book. Bump and I thoroughly enjoyed it, Bump getting to meet and sniff the hind parts of Amy's adorable chihuahua Sandy, and me getting to finally get around to reading Running With Scissors.

My boss Mike was there too with his kids, all of whom did an admirable job walking Bump around when all I wanted to do was sit there and watch my friends - my sweatpant-clad friends - throw balls at each other in a dizzying display of innate knowledge about the rules of games that somehow I was too busy doing my homework to learn. It was pretty great watching Bump work his wonders on the little guys, getting yanked around and picked up and stepped on. He was in such high spirits that the he even chose to forgo his standard passive-aggressive peeing on the children's' clothing! This is a move he perfected when we would hang out with my little undeniable ball of fun a few years back...

It reminded me of hanging out in Austin with Dylan and Bump, carting the two ridiculous of them around to all the even more ridiculous parts of that town. I briefly missed the exhilarating sense of responsibility / getting stared at by strangers, and then looked around and realized that being here is just fine.

Injection of quote:

2008-11-18T19:41:00.003-05:00

"Every stately oak was once a nut who held his ground."

Oh Dear God

2008-11-11T21:03:00.005-05:00

I'm watching this TV special on space travel and they discussed the dangers involved in a particular type of space station. They pose that you could theoretically have a satellite in space that is actually tethered to the earth by a huge, crazy strong cable. Like a big kite.

But what if the kite's string snapped?

Then you would have a huge, flaming steel cable three times as long as the equator falling to earth. And spanking you big time. Add that to the list of irrational fears / things that cause me anxiety:

1. driving off with the gas nozzle still in the gas tank

2. those catfish that crawl up your you-know-what

3. murderers / zombies (somehow, in my imagination, they always look like the Hamburglar) hiding behind my shower curtain

4. cans of biscuits that pop

5. internet banking (eek! I owe how much? and I was supposed to know this by checking my email?)

6. organized sports

7. having the trash can out at the street corner on the wrong day

8. Wednesdays

9. not blogging enough

10. fiery space-station cable spankings!

Chill out

2008-11-03T20:57:00.003-05:00

I promise I'm listening to / reading different stuff, so those of you who were concerned with my Deerhunter obsession / reading level, don't be. Updates soon. It involves the Cure and a lion.

Montreat '08!

2008-10-26T19:02:00.010-04:00

aka, "Moderately Cross-Continental Journeyfest 2008."

[insert long-winded apology for not posting in a long time here]

Whew! Now that that's over, let me tell you about the wonderous trip I took a few weeks ago... My church back in Atlanta goes on a retreat every October to Montreat, North Carolina, which is near Asheville. It was great! I started with an early-morning flight into Atlanta and then spent a night before taking a nice, long drive:

I traveled with my lovely sister and her bf Chris, and along the way, we ran into... GOATS ON THE ROOF!!

It's this funny little store on 985 that had, among other things, funny signs, goat-feeding devices, and Wickles:

And once we got there, we stayed at our regular house with all our church friends. The house is really cool, this tricked-for-retreat-guests old lodge that is actually pretty difficult to get a good picture of:

It was a squarely good time, with Bunko and Thousand Villages and Dulcimers and all the trimmings. The only sad thing was that it was over so soon!

/shameless

2008-09-29T21:57:00.002-04:00

...sigh... if anyone wants to indulge my vanity, I have a "Followers" box at the bottom... let's just say I plan on living forever and you'll be on my good side.

Quick lil' shoutout:

2008-09-22T22:12:00.004-04:00

1.) All the new School Programs staff / Legacy Fellows - you guys are SO GREAT! Wonderfully enthusiastic, helpful, smart, and funny... you folks are going to make this a very memorable year.

2.) Lyndsey! Wonderful job with the staff training. I can't say this enough, but I'll stop with that.

3.) BUMP!

Yay for fun!

The Putting Out of Fires

2008-09-17T22:21:00.015-04:00

Wednesday. It's my least favorite day of the week, I'll be honest. At work it's the day when we have schools come onto camp while simultaneously saying goodbye to schools that have been there since Monday. Lots of luggage slinging, lots of people you have to (get to) smile at, and lots of logistical problems. Not a lot of people available to help.

Today was a unique Wednesday in that we actually had a lot of people there to help, and help they did. Every other minute someone was asking me, "Is there anything that I can do to help?" which was great.

So here's a play-by-play, for those who are interested:

-Are there enough trailers? Yes! Oh! But wait, that one has a flat. So does that one. But that one won't lower properly... but eventually we got enough, after a tire change by our brilliant Fleet Manager, whose name is kinda funny.
-The schools are coming! The schools are coming! And the luggage came separately, which could have become a problem if all the new staff weren't AWESOME and helped out immensely and with smiles.
-The lead teachers for the schools coming in are teaching for the school that's going out! Aah! But hey there are people who can handle that until our staff are ready to go. Very nice.
-Wait, what is that? You need golf carts? For your school staff? We only have so many... and what? That one we gave you is low on power and won't get you up the hill? Um... lemme find one...
-Your cabin has a funny smell? Well I suppose I can move you into the one next door.
-You want a fridge in your cabin? I think we've got one somewhere.
-You want two fridges in your cabin? Be right back.
-You want folding chairs in your cabin? I know where some are.
-You want a coffee pot in there, too? Yes. Ma'am.
-One of my staff got lost and I had no idea how to get him to where he needed to be. This was of course in class. I found him later and we laughed about it.
-Things on the schedule have changed? I don't have to teach, I can actually be free to fix problems? GREAT.
-Things on the schedule have changed? I have to wait half an hour to make an announcement to twelve fifth-graders? Nice.
-The air compressor broke? I think remarkably that Todd just brought a new one in...
-The water slides, they tend to get crowded. But we employ amazing people who volunteer to lifeguard even though they had a free afternoon / didn't have to work that night. Very impressive, these co-workers are.
-You need the gate radio? Oh boy. You don't know how to use the gate radio? Um, just pretend. Imagination-answer-the-radio. Until Drew gets done lifeguarding. Love me that Drew.
-Wait, let me get this straight - the school doesn't want their students to go horseback riding? I'll talk to the wranglers and see what they can do.

And then I went home, where I drank some coffee, ate some dinner, and blogged about it.

And here we are.

PS I went and saw Mogwai!

2008-09-17T22:21:00.014-04:00

That's what all my pictures basically looked like. My ears still hurt just a little. The following is a short video section of their new song, "Batcat," off an EP of the same name. Delicious.

EDIT: I don't think that's the clip I meant to upload. The other one was bigger. That's not "Batcat."

I Am SO Vindicated!

2008-09-07T16:34:00.003-04:00

Dave Lockett! If a frog can be in there, what about a...

...pony?

WARNING: The preceding image has a letter "F" in it, which may or may not stand for a cuss word.

Whoa boy...

2008-09-06T15:36:00.005-04:00

According to NBC:

Pastor David Allison said he didn't put up the sign to draw attention to the church.

"We didn't intend to get into all this, but it's become a bigger thing," Allison said.

Well, oops!

A Little More Than A Year Too Late...

2008-08-21T13:20:00.002-04:00

You can now obsessively track my every thinkings and doings on Twitter. Or just keep coming here (look over there to the right, blogspotters!). You should make one too and together we'll be just so damn funny it will take over the world!

There Are Things I'll Miss While I'm Gone

2008-08-16T09:13:00.004-04:00

I Wish

2008-08-09T18:02:00.003-04:00

Crank this. I love this band and I don't care who knows it.

This Will Destroy You - "The World is Our _____" live in Seattle, WA at the Paradox Theater 8/5/6.

My Life is Complete.

2008-07-16T22:49:00.002-04:00

PS Adam and Aimey both started blogs. I hope they don't suck.

The Best Part of the Day

2008-07-05T09:34:00.003-04:00

Here at camp we are fifteen miles away from a little town called Lake City, which hosts a rather extravagant Fourth of July celebration each year. We took all the guests we had in camp, packed a dinner, and fifteen-passenger-vanned on into town for a street-dancing, ice-cream-eating, fireworking good time. It was really great. But I must say, my favorite part was the van ride home, in which I drive half a dozen or so of our staff back to camp and inflict my musical selections on them.

The night started with a little "El Shaddai," but then moved into a Green Day song before I put on a song that I had been dying to share with them. And, sure enough, after a verse and a chorus, I had almost everyone in the van singing:

Today I'll buy some toothpaste
And then just maybe we can start to kiss
Appropriately, of course
Because mono has gotten the best of us before...

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

2008-06-18T08:55:00.004-04:00

Yes, that's an industrial-sized tub of mayonnaise, chopped onions, and hard-boiled egg crumbles. If you ever want to thoroughly tax my grossness limits, leave these in a pile around the kitchen for me to stumble upon as I search for serving platters.

Funny thing is, I absolutely loved the potato salad that got made from all this.

Another of my new favorite things:

Our ropes course has seen a lot more action this year... actually I forgot to write down yesterday's participant numbers in the rope log, hang on... due to the five quadrillion family camp guests we can apparently fit on the property comfortably. And I like it. Granted, I usually outsource that actual belaying (what with the straining of the neck and the looking straight up into the sun and the potentially it being slightly more your fault if someone connects with the ground), so maybe my perspective is a little skewed, but it makes for some funny and/or touching moments.

Things at camp are super busy - busier than I can remember it being. Which I would like to say is super great, the more the merrier... but more people (and not necessarily more staff) can be a challenge.

But if anyone's keeping score, I'm still having fun.

The Lovely Ladies

2008-06-07T16:47:00.002-04:00

I'm trying to get up the nerve to ask them to prom. My life is going well.

The more things change...

2008-05-31T16:35:00.003-04:00

Ooh... from the vault, I discovered a blog post from 2004 that I wrote but never published. Thus my blog's b-side album begins...

Week 0: Guide training

Route: Powderhorn Lakes / Cannibal Plateau / Devil’s Creek
Team: Doug, Lauren, Chappy (didn’t go because he got sick), Matt, Allison, Dan A, and Jill

Heheh this is funny – the closest citywithaWalMart is this little town about 45 minutes away named Gunnison. In Gunnison, the cool hangout is this great little coffee place called the Bean, a longtime favorite for staff at the Rock at Ute Trail Ranch. So here we are, about ten of us crammed into this little shop, paying each other absolutely no attention, doing all the coffee-shop-type-stuff that we have been deprived of for so long. Type type type, read read read, talk talk talk (on the cell phone because you CAN get service in Gunnison) and sip sip sip coffee. I haven’t checked to see if they have Mate’ yet.

So as a guide at the Rock, the very last part of my training is the two or so weeks between when I arrive and when kiddos come in. We do various things – going over map and compass stuff, having a knot-tying party, walking through procedures for when kids come in and take off, Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI) training…

[huge diversion: So one of the things we are told to do when examining a patient out in the field, in order to make sure that we haven’t missed any injuries that they somehow forgot about, involves asking the often-quoted-out-of-context question, “Is there any reason I need to check your genitalia?” snicker snicker. Well, on trail this week we decided that it would be really hilarious if, during a simulation or something, the person playing the victim answered, “Yes – I have a ginormous wedgie!” We even began development of a new piece of medical gear that should come in our med packs – the Wedgiehorn (get it? Like a shoehorn? Yuk yuk yuk!)]

…but my favorite part of training is when we actually go on a backpacking trip exactly like one of the trips we would take kids on. We split up the guide staff into two ten-person teams and head out to build up team unity, spend time with Yahweh, make friends and get vulnerable as a staff, and get training for what a week with kids would look like.

Oh, using that phrase reminded me that I wanted to start a Ute Trail Ranch glossary. Here are the first few entries:

What that looks like – a phrase used to describe the practical outworking of a theoretical or hypothetical proposition. “What would it look like for you to let God introduce some more discipline into your life? Well, it would probably look like me getting up early in the morning for a forty-five minute que-tee before breakfast.”

Sketchy – describes a person or, more commonly, a situation that is or could possibly become compromising. Used especially of situations involving an existing or implied romantic relationship between two staff members. “Did you see the way Bill was trying to interdigitate with Suzie? Way sketchy.”

Junk – a.) emotional, spiritual, psychological, relational, or occasionally even physical problems that affect one’s relationship with God. Often used as a euphamism to avoid embarassing vulnerability in front of groups. “Hey could you guys pray for me? God’s really working through some intense junk in my life.” b.) the make genitalia. “Forrest got hit in the junk with a snowball!”

Schmak – another word for junk, or, in a more general sense, stuff. “Heyy-aah… could you get your schmak out of the lodge?”

August 9th – the first day after camp ends, usually used in reference to the lifting of the no-dating policy for staff at the Rock at Ute Trail Ranch. “Hey you two, save that for August 9th!”

Que-tee (QT) – short for "quiet time," the unspoken mandatory currency of spirituality at the Rock at Ute Trail Ranch. Usually a 30min-1hr time period before breakfast designated for Scripture reading, prayer, or silent meditation. Most Ute Trail staff have their que-tees in the lodge, in close proximity to each other, but do not acknowledge the presence of the other 21 staff members in there with them. “Hey, how did your que-tee go this morning? It went well – I think I have the best que-tees when it is the hardest to wake up.”

Jankey – in a state of malfunction or disrepair. “The Hoby’s all jankey today. Yeah the can opener is pretty janked up too.”

Awkward! – the exclamation commonly employed in situations that make one or more of the parties involved feel discomfort due to social or emotional pressure. “Hey Suzie, I saw you praying the other day and I just want you to know that I really love your relationship with God. AWKWARD!” note: almost any use of the word “love” with a staff member of the opposite sex as the direct object merits the shouting of this word almost instantly

Interdigitation – when holding hands (usually when praying), the lacing together of fingers as opposed to merely the cupping of hands. “Allison attempted the Lingering Cold Clammy Interdigitated Triple Squeeze after dinner, but I cut her off after the second squeeze. That’s something I want to save for my wife when I get married”

Just imagine that they are in alphabetical order and used a lot in a young upper class Christian community.

All right folks, another two days of Wilderness Medical Institute (WMI) training, a day off, and the dreaded kayak training day, and I will be serving kids either on trail or in camp! Can’t wait. Please continue to pray for our efficacy in equipping the church of the future with the gifts, skills, attitudes, healing, and confidence that it takes to love God and serve his people. Thanks and God bless!

Ah, 21-year-old David, if only you could meet 25-year-old David... you would probably be sooo disappointed...

The Drive to Colorado

2008-05-24T15:13:00.008-04:00

(this part is a secret... that's why the parentheses and lower-case letters...

the first thirty minutes I cried because I missed my dog. I miss you Bumpers. Please, for the love of God, STOP POOPING IN THE ROBINSON'S HOUSE!)

The trip out here was phenomenal... if you are new to my life's geographic patterns, I have spent my summers in Colorado working for summer camp for the last several years, which means a dramatic shift in community, workload, metabolism, and bandwidth accessibility. I love it out here, and it gets different each summer, but it certainly comes with its number of small inconveniences. Not the least of which is the drive out here...

It was a fun trip and all - I even made really great time (17 hours, about 950 miles). There were several sketchy moments what with the staying awake and all (have I mentioned that between Amarillo and Raton is the most godforsakenly boring stretch of highway ever paved? oh, but there's a volcano...)

Anyways, I purchased two books on DVD and made lots of phone calls / text messages. And drank a 5-Hour-Energy that I'm pretty sure made me hallucinate, despite urgings form my friend that it was the tamest of the energy drinks ("it's more like a sip!").

But here I am! Colorado! And I shall update here as much as I have time to. Hope you all are doing well too.

In case you lose things, too.

2008-05-19T09:54:00.012-04:00

Yes, yes I'm in Colorado for the summer, but before I tell you about all that, let me tell you what happened last week at work. I had brought my cell to work because I needed to make an important call during the day. I put it on my desk so I wouldn't forget it, but when it came time to make the call, it had disappeared! I figured I had placed it back into my car, which Nick had borrowed to take the GRE (yay!), and that I'd find it tomorrow. But tomorrow came and the phone was not in my car. As panic set in, I took a second look at my desk...

Hope you enjoyed all that. Sorry if it's a little small and all. Colorado posts coming soon!

Things I keep in my bedside table...

2008-05-09T22:26:00.003-04:00

Mike's fascinating question made me want to list this stuff out, because it's just plain interesting what people put in their bedside tables.

In / on my bedside table, currently, you might find:

-my lamp, alarm clock, and phone... boring
-crossword puzzles, cryptograms, Sudoku, other books, and ample writing supplies
-a journal whose purpose is specifically to be the journal in the bedside table
-an empty popcorn bowl and empty water glasses
-peanut butter and Ritz
-cough drops
-all the documentation and cords for the iPod
-green yarn for stringing Native American nametags or hanging luggage trailer signs
-a spare t-shirt and pair of socks (I think I used this particular table once for clothing storage)
-ah! my nametag for work! yeah!

I think it says a lot about me.

Attention, Attention:

2008-05-05T22:59:00.003-04:00

I made this girl throw up today.

Weekend Craziness

2008-04-28T14:32:00.005-04:00

I suddenly realized the other day that my weekends between now and when I leave to go to Colorado are quite finite...

Last weekend, I had the exquisite pleasure of playing some music with the wonderful Thunder. It was a fun all-day series of concerts. Most of the other bands were this screamy hardcore stuff (which was bad when it was bad, good when it was good), and then we got up there and Thunder rapped, Nick danced, and all our bestest friends (except Shannon!) were there taking photos they posted on Facebook almost instantly. It was loads of fun, but the day after I ended up sleeping all day.

This weekend, a few of us went up and visited Rachel's folks' place in Dallas. As usual, it was ridiculous fun. The Rhea's are extremely hospitable and they just have a lot of entertaining things around them (being in Dallas and all). The most fun was the hot tub... aah sitting in the hot tub, yelling at Bump to quit hunching Djorge!'s face. We got back last night and I took today and tomorrow off from work.

And next weekend, I am travelling to Austin again and playing some music for my good pal Derek. He is leading a retreat for his church's youth and graciously asked me to provide some worship tunes. It should be pretty great - I'm excited to be able to see him in action.

And then I have exactly one weekend without plans - I'll probably spend it packing - before I'm free to pack up the wagon and head west.

Just thought I'd let y'all know!

Somebody's wonderful idea:

2008-04-25T17:39:00.003-04:00

Why didn't I think of this?

Happy Birthday Robert Smith!

2008-04-21T19:42:00.002-04:00

You're 49 years old and surely you read my blog! Yay!

I'm this funny in real life!

2008-04-21T19:36:00.003-04:00

Today, as Nick and I were leaving work, I had to slow down because one of the neighbor's roosters was out in the middle of the road. The hens had all either made it all the way across the street or were still in the yard.

And I thought to myself, "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

High Strung

2008-04-20T13:38:00.008-04:00

Somehow, without visiting the Robby's house, Bump got the fleas over the past week. It's not all that bad, and I just finished giving him a flea bath so hopefully they will all! die! soon, but when Bump has fleas, he ends up spending most of his time up and scratching. Not sleeping. And so he gets a little weird...

One of my favorite methods of terrifying the dog / spicing up my life is to sit perfectly still, watching TV or reading the internets or whatever, and wait until he starts staring at me or near me – he needs to be looking at my face. Then, out of nowhere, I gasp loud and long, causing his already distended eyeballs to literally pop out of his head and hang there by the optic nerves. Then, once he sucks ‘em back in, he gets so offended at what just happened that he pounces my face and does this weird thing where his hindparts are standing up but his forelimbs are laying down. It’s cute. He’s cute.

Then he usually needs to go potty outside.

Speaking of potty outside, it's been a veritable renaissance of blog creation around the old office. Of all the blogs created so far, this one has been written by the best-looking Tennessee'an that I know (who has a blog. that I read.).

Nuts!

2008-04-14T20:16:00.004-04:00

Pecans, that it. Just the shells, though. For more nuttiness, read Justin's blog.

We're going with "Thunder and the Thighs"

2008-04-12T23:28:00.004-04:00

I practiced all day with Thunder and his crew of very talented musicians. It was fun. And now my fingers hurt, because apparently I really don't play guitar enough.

UPDATE: It turns out that we're playing at a show headlined by none other than Seventh Day Slumber... repeat after me, "ooh..." "aah..."

And Shannon has joined the... something.... what's the word? Oh well. Check it out.

What the hell does "anele" really mean, anyways?

2008-04-10T23:53:00.003-04:00

Tonight, I had the pleasure and honor of playing some worship with the little Christian school that I've been teaching with the last few days. I chose songs that I thought they would all know, which, seeing as the "last few days" are really "the last two days," or more accurately, "the last day and a half," the songs that I thought they would all know were, among others, "Lord I Lift Your Name on High," and "Amazing Grace."

But I did take one risk... you see, the majority of these students are Hispanic, and so I chose to play my favorite Spanish-language praise song, "Eres Tu." And we sang it. In Spanish.

It was awesome.

I Have Arrived

2008-04-07T15:50:00.003-04:00

Okay, so as of this morning, I am extremely cool...

I'm taking today and tomorrow off (God, please help the fish to not sully their aquariums too much), and so this morning, as I was at The Coffee Place That Shall Not Be Named, one of the baristas that I know came over and sat next to me and we talked. Her name is Queila and she and I worked out at Ute Trail together a few summers ago, and she's like so cute and funny and amazing and all... well then some of her other barista friends started getting off their shifts as well, and they came over and sat with us, and then more and more and all of the sudden I realize that I'm really hanging out with these people.

Which means that I have arrived.

Also, Nick and I are gonna be playing some bloc-rokkin beats with the legendary Thunder here soon. Things are looking up here, folks. Things are looking up.

My Life in Bullet Points

2008-04-06T21:40:00.007-04:00

...oh okay, they took a commercial break from the documentary about Queen Nefertiti. I guess I have time to update. Sorry for more than a month without posting! I have nothing terribly coherent to share, but here are some bullet points. Since my last post, I...

visited Austin (gasp!) for a friend's wedding. The actual wedding was in Laredo, but after driving all morning to the little town, I realized that Austin was only an hour away at most. So, I timed it out and was able to make an exactly-one-hour-long visit to Pacha, where that old lady and her old dog still hang out, apparently. I also saw Tim "Twittles" Whitley there, and we managed to both buy pints of beer that we in no way intended on finishing, and leaving them with someone who thought we were "coming right back."
saw Bryan and Rachel's new baby! Beatrice June Brown! She's so beautiful! And I held her! Without breaking her or losing any small parts! And Rachel breastfed! In public! Yeah!
had the worst experience with a school that I can remember. It was really stressful. The school came in on a Wednesday, which means that from the get-go, their visit felt rushed and awkward (on Wednesday, we pull double duty ((I said doody...)), saying goodbye to one set of schools and hello to another). The students and parent volunteers were actually great - the students were very intelligent and polite, and the parents were supremely helpful and charming (they laughed at every one of my jokes!), but the teachers that they brought were impossible to please. In short, I completely failed to make their visit pleasing, even though I was trying my hardest. At every turn, I felt like I was either making the wrong decision or being tossed around by circumstances that were out of my control. Like bathroom sinks on their lunch tables. guh.
won an award at work that included money that I promptly spent on beer. Being the body, living the story, transforming lives...
changed a flippin' tire in the rain, with the help of my surly friend Nick. That was at the beginning of March. This past Friday, that same (new) tire got a puncture in the sidewall.
recorded a really bitchin' song that involves drum loops, flutes, and Bass VI. Big surprise, eh Dave? I'll get it up on MySpace soon enough...
watched the following excellent movies: Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood... all of which created violent emotional reactions within me, every last one.
have spent more nights than I feel like counting awake and unable to fall asleep until one or two a.m. For some reason, my brain has chosen the ten-p.m.-to-midnight hour to imagine such disastrous situations as, "What Happens If Bump Gets Carried Off By A Bird Of Prey This Summer?" and "What Happens If Bump Dies And I Have To Train A New Puppy Without Bump There To Teach Her?" or "What Happens This Summer If A Camper Dies And Doug Isn't There To Ask What To Do?" and "What Happens This Summer If A Camper Gets Carried Off By A Bird Of Prey And It Is Somehow My Fault?" or "Did Someone Clean The Fish Tanks Yesterday?" "Is My Phone In My Car?" "Did I Tell The Children That Their Breakfast Got Changed From 8:07 a.m. To 8:13 a.m.?" and the ever-pressing "I Turned Up The Heat On My Water Heater Because I May Have Guests Who Want To Use Hot Water To Shower, In A Separate Shower Than The One I Take, And So There Should Probably Be More Hot Water Than What I Use Alone, But Now That Said Guest Is Only Staying One Night, Is My Water Heater Going To Overheat And Explode And Kill Use All?" That last one was actually addressed on an episode of Myth Busters. It failed to calm me.
suffered from the loss of sleep associated with above anxieties. Mostly, I've been cranky and melodramatic. Oh, and opinionated. And I haven't had time to shower much. But I did finally trim my beard. And doubled up on the teeth brushing.
continue to help play music for worship with Nick at that church in Grand Saline. It's been fun - Nick and I have gotten into a nice little pattern, and decided on a nice guitar / piano arrangement that will serve us nicely for quite a while. It's nice. I can now often be heard singing "The Old Rugged Cross," and "Nearer My God To Thee" (186 and 243 in your Hymnbooks, if you please). Today, we actually debuted a Clark Zarunbrecher song, and we played one of mine last week. Fun!
...enrolled in phone counseling with a guy who is kind of a big deal. It costs a lot of money. He sends me his newsletter. But it's time folks, it's time. I mean, as Christians, I think we all are in need of moderate to sever therapeutic intervention anyway - we're expected to love a being that we can't see? Difficulties arise... but yeah so I kinda got all my get-out-of-debt plans shoved back another year, but what the hell. I mean, what else would I spend it on, right? right?

Sorry this is kinda patched together. Over the last couple of days, I have really wanted to blog, but by the time I got around to starting to write, I had a horrible case of the "this isn't enough to blog about"-'s. But now it's been a month and it's time! And, it helps that Courtney, Lyndsey, and Mike have all started really brilliant blogs as well.

And now back to the Discovery Channel...

I have a knock-knock joke!

2008-03-02T21:19:00.002-05:00

you start...