Christmas Gifts

Before hitting on the title, tonight will be the first night in nearly two weeks that I will sleep in my bed (last time was the night before the hospital visit). Since then, I've slept in or on: 3 couches in 3 cities (if you count the short nap after waking up with the pain), two beds (counting the hospital bed), and a recliner.

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and while my dad's family still needs to get together for Christmas gift-giving and such (which will be on the 9th, weather permitting) I thought I'd recap what I've gotten so far (not counting the cool scar and meds--and I've only taken one dose each of 2 of the 3 meds).

• 216 spherical magnets
• 3 t-shirts
• 3 pairs of jeans--for the first time in about a year, I have pants that will stay on without a belt
• 3 calendars for the year 2011
• 2 versions of Fluxx (Monty Python and Martian)
• 1 belt (slightly superfluous with the new jeans, but I'll hang onto it just in case)
• 1 can of Axe body spray (Now I just need to find a place to "use" it--if you know what I mean)

One more side note on the hospital visit:

I think I had a prophetic dream before going in--but it may be just a half-remembered memory of something that actually happened during my time there. I'm not sure. Either I dreamt it the night before going in--as I was waking up with the pain--or it actually happened during the post-op haze. I was sitting up in a hospital bed, retching while someone was shoving a kidney dish in my face (the same color as the one that was in my hospital room after I woke up from surgery). I'm fairly sure it was a dream from the night before, but I can't be positive.

Hospital Addendum

There's one thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's post. With how much went on the past couple days, I hope you can forgive me for mild forgetfulness. While I was scared, the only thing that was clear in my mind (other than the fear) was the beginning of Psalm 23--the King James version, even.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul

That calmed me down a lot during that terrifying couple hours between being told I'd need surgery and the surgery.

Hospital

On Friday night, after a 4-person Community-watching, ice cream-eating party, I went to bed at around midnight. I woke up promptly at 4 from sudden onset (at least, I think it was sudden) abdominal pain. After a few minutes, I staggered out to the living room to check WebMD on my computer. Since someone in Iowa City missed Anthem at the Fieldhouse because of it, I considered that it might be appendicitis. I also thought it might just be gas pain or constipation, since I had the same kind of pain a couple months before. WebMD told me to go to the doctor if the pain persisted for four hours.

After a little longer, I decided to give up on sleep and took a shower--still before 5. I took some acetaminophen and sat down to watch Sportscenter--the only thing worth watching before 7 most days. I dozed off for about an hour, waking up at 7 to the alarm I have set. Shortly after that, I got bored with Sportscenter and threw on Iron Man and started to watch. About halfway through, my roommate woke up and started watching it with me. When Iron Man ended, I put in Iron Man 2 and settled in.

The pain started to come back, so I took some more acetaminophen. Shortly after that, the pain came back, even through the meds, and it brought a little fever with it. At that point, I gave up, stopped the movie--it was only halfway through--and said I needed to go to the hospital. This was around 11.

My roommate drove me in, and parked the car while I got checked in and had my initial checkup. When the doctor said I might be there for hours, he decided to head home, and told me to call if I needed anything.

At 1:30, I was told that I'd be getting a CT scan, and that would decide if I needed an appendectomy.

Around 5, the doctor came back and told me my appendix looked slightly enlarged--not a definite surgery time, but in the gray area--and poked me to see if it hurt in the "right" places. It did, so they said they'd try to get me in that evening and take out my appendix. I felt scared, and the only contact I could actually manage was to text my roommate and ask him to get some people praying for me. I couldn't come up with words of my own to explain the situation to anyone that didn't already know I was in the hospital--not even the very simple "Appendix gone bad, need surgery, pray for me". I even had to have the doctor call my parents to let them know.

At about 7, I got wheeled through the hospital to the OR. They ran through what was happening one more time, and we went in. The last thing I remember is joking that "I'm not that paranoid" as half a dozen people crowded around the bed I was lying in, doing various things to get me ready for surgery.

My next memory is very hazy--I remember asking "Where am I?" and getting a response that made no sense whatsoever, and someone saying "1, 2, 3" as people tried to move me from one bed to another.

The first thing I remember fully is talking with the nurse at about 1am Sunday morning--she still had to say my name multiple times to get a response, though. She asked if I could get up and try to go to the bathroom, among other things that I don't remember. I couldn't go. I felt the need, but couldn't. So at around 2am, I said it was too painful to tolerate. The nurse then did an ultrasound (I think--or something similar) to see how much was in my bladder--250mL would mean I'd need a catheter. The number she read off was over 1,000. I tried desperately one last time, but just couldn't go. Catheters are not fun. It wasn't as bad as I'd imagined, but I still wish to avoid ever having that happen again.

My Sunday was mostly spent getting poked, prodded, examined, and interrogated. If none of those were happening, I was probably in the bathroom. I just needed the "help" the first time, and they were pumping me full of fluids. My phone decided to die early that morning, so I couldn't let people know I was out of surgery and okay--I barely got three numbers for a ride home in case I was released that day, and I hadn't been getting much signal anyway. My dad showed up around 10, taking time off work to come and make sure I was okay. I didn't have much pain the whole day, just a little when I had to get up to go to the bathroom. After my dad had gone to get a hotel room for the night--they decided to keep me for one more night, just to be safe--I started to feel as if my arm was being slowly crushed. Since I was going to get to go home in the morning, they just took out the IV and let me go without for the rest of the night.

I got to leave the hospital at about 1 this afternoon. My dad drove me back to my apartment, where I showered, got dressed, and grabbed things to come to Des Moines. My mom had been planning to come out and get me on Wednesday, but my dad is taking a few days off work to stay home and watch out for me while I get better, so I'm in Des Moines until Thursday, then off to see my mom's family for Christmas. After that, I assume I'll be headed back to the IC to hang out until my follow-up appointment on the 4th--which I'll need to arrange a ride to (and from). Unfortunately, I'm not supposed to lift more than 10 pounds for the next 4-6 weeks, so I shouldn't help out with setup and teardown of church--not to mention the issues of getting groceries or doing laundry. (Don't tell the doctors, but I probably will help with setup and teardown anyway--maybe not as much as I would otherwise, but at least wrapping cords)

As I look back, I wouldn't have gone into the hospital as soon if there hadn't been someone else to have appendicitis recently. So this all could have ended worse for me. As it is, it was caught early, I got into surgery quickly, I might even get government-funded insurance that would cover this (thank you, IowaCare--and Iowa taxpayers--I wasn't going to be insured until the 1st without you), and I haven't had much post-op pain. So I'd call this little adventure a success. Plus I'll have a sweet scar on my stomach to show off.

Organization fail

I've been trying to see when my grades would be posted for my first semester here, and it seems like they'll be posted when they get posted. Seriously. I've looked on Kirkwood's website, and I can find no evidence on when grades get posted. Half of my grades are up, and the other two aren't. In the two classes posted so far, I've got a 3.5 GPA--and one of those two was the only one I was even slightly worried about. So it looks like this will beat the old record for best semester GPA at college--old record set Fall 2007 at 3.58 (the first time at ISU that I was on academic probation, and right after my worst semester at 0.72). If I remember, I'll let y'all know if this semester sets a new record, and at what.

One semester down...

I finished my first semester of community college yesterday. I turned in a paper for my pseudo-philosophy class. I wrote the entire paper in about two hours, which included random breaks to get up and walk around. It would have been done sooner, but our ISP will randomly log us out from time to time, and we can only sign back in on my roommate's computer--not sure why this is. This meant that for the first couple hours that I was awake, I couldn't get online. If I can't get online, I don't like to be in front of a computer, so this caused me to put off the paper for a few hours, flirting with the possibility of procrastinating until it's too late. But I got it done with about 20 hours to spare, and could spend the rest of the day doing nothing. So now I've got until the 10th to hang out, accomplish very little, and catch up on sleep. Yay for community college starting up a week before the university.

At some point during this break I may finally have nerd day. We'll see. That would likely mean being up for over 24 hours, and I'm getting old and lame--I can barely stay up past 10 most nights.

Tired

It's been a couple days since the topic of this post happened, but it put me into a slight anti-people mood--by which I mean I wanted to be alone--as well as making me feel exhausted.

On Sunday, I told myself that it was going to happen. I was going to ask "mom" out to lunch for next week after church. During set-up and practice, I kept passing up little chances, not feeling fully confident--and at one point she got some Silly Putty out of her purse, so I was otherwise occupied for a while (yes, I'm a child).

I was slightly distracted during worship and church, and then during tear-down, I kept looking over in her direction. About halfway through tear-down, I got a moment to talk to her, and I asked her if she wanted to have lunch next week. She thought about it for a while, then said she was going back to Ames to be with family and see the Christmas production at C-stone. Since I don't think well on my feet, I didn't follow up with another option, and the conversation just stopped there.

This put me into a slight depression--just to the point where I didn't want to be around others for a couple days--partly because she said no, but probably mostly because the act of asking a woman out is foreign to me--and therefore, very draining. I've asked out a grand total of two women in my lifetime--and they both said no. All my past relationships started the other way, with the woman coming to me--and after those women found out why I don't talk much, the relationships ended.

After church, I was part of a group of four guys that put up Christmas lights at the "Green House", but that was most of my interaction with others--and I did that was because I had agreed to do that before church. I'm still not fully over the tired/anti-people mood, but it's getting better.

And on the positive side, she didn't just turn me down immediately. She did have to think about it, so perhaps I just need to find a better time. My mom turned down my dad at first, too--but maybe I shouldn't use that as an example....

Basketball season

I know, basketball has been happening for a few weeks now, but here's some things I'd like to see in basketball sometime soon:

1. Raise the rim -- it's too easy for these giants to dunk, and dunking (to me) is the epitome of crappy playing. If it only takes jumping one foot into the air to dunk, the rim is too low--I could do that when I weighed 300 pounds
2. Lose the phrase "Diaper Dandy" -- I don't know when they started calling star freshmen this, but it's annoying. However, I fear the only way it will go away is if there's a player who happens to be incontinent, and sues after being called a "diaper dandy"
3. Teach players to play defense in the NBA -- how does scoring increase by 50% when they only play a 20% longer game, unless they no longer play defense? (I'm a big fan of defensive contests in all sports, which is part of the reason I don't like basketball) You may say that players are just better, but shouldn't defensive skills increase too?
4. De-value the dunk -- again, I hate dunking. It shouldn't be worth the same as shooting from 10 feet away
5. Less timeouts per team and/or harsher penalties (more free throws, free throws plus possession, eject players for fewer fouls, let the team that was fouled choose who takes the free throws, etc.) for high numbers of fouls late in the game -- the end of the game takes far too long. Foul, free throws, timeout, shoot, foul, free throws, timeout, shoot, etc.... And while on this subject, why does taking a timeout move the ball halfway down the court? I've never understood that

For those that are wondering, no I don't really watch basketball anymore. I was too traumatized when the Bulls broke up. They still could've been good without Jordan.

Anyway, I've got Spanish soon, so I should end this post.

Disappointment

I don't think I've mentioned this on here before (and since I read through this entire blog from beginning to end a few days ago, I'm confident in this postulation), but I've been thinking about getting a tattoo for a while now. I've got some ideas of how I want it to look, but nothing is set in stone yet. One of the big things I've wanted is for it to be part blacklight tattoo. (I could go more into the thought process behind the design later if y'all want, but I'll just skip that for now--it's a bit nerdy)

A few minutes ago, I decided to see where I could go to get a blacklight tattoo--thinking there would be a place in Iowa City. I was wrong. I'd have to travel 30 miles (if Google Maps is up-to-date on which tattoo parlors do blacklight tattoos). So sadly, I may have to either wait a while or get a ride from someone else....or get better information on the subject. Luckily, I don't have it completely designed yet anyway.

Wait, what?

Last night, I was hanging out with some guys, and this blog came up in conversation. It was slightly jarring to me, as it always is when I learn about someone else that reads this. I don't know why, but it makes me uncomfortable to learn that people actually read this. When I already know that somebody reads my blog, I'm okay talking about it with them, but when somebody tells me for the first time that they read this, I'm suddenly nervous--especially when they tell me they heard about it from someone else that I wasn't aware of that actually reads this. So here's a little proposal. Let's get all of my discomfort out quickly. If you haven't told me that you read this--in person or by commenting--please let me know soon. I'll be really uncomfortable for a bit, but I'll survive.

Maybe it makes me uncomfortable because this blog started with an intended audience of one--a friend that wanted to know what I was up to over the summer while he was overseas--and eventually turned into more of a journal and source of emotional release for myself. Maybe it's partially from the fact that one of the guys last night threatened to use this PUBLIC blog as a way to blackmail me.....gotta love the people I hang out with.

On an unrelated note, I've lately gotten mildly addicted to this game called Minecraft. If you haven't heard of it, you probably shouldn't watch these videos. (Just a warning--these videos have caused many people to become addicted. Also, episode 17 has a fair bit of swearing) The graphics aren't very good, but the game is really fun. The guys and I last night were talking about some of the things we've done in-game, and I mentioned that I've posted some screenshots online. Some people have done some crazy things.

Women's Retreat

Today was the women's retreat. Up early, setting up, in order to sit around for 7 hours doing very little. There were two other guys there--my roommate and James--so it wasn't as awkward as it could have been. Really, it didn't seem awkward at all. I spent most of the time listening to my iPod--and playing games. My roommate was editing audio from Anthem--and later started watching a movie--and James was working on a new Anthem song. So none of us heard much of what went on. This did make for some interesting moments. Like when the speaker walked in front of the speakers and there was some bad feedback--and my roommate didn't notice because of his headphones. Or when the women all went into the back to make a circle, and all three of us stopped what we were doing, utterly confused--until we figured out what was going on, and went back to normal. Related to the last one, my roommate was watching X-men Origins: Wolverine on his computer--which happened to be between the three of us and the circle. So, even though two of us couldn't hear the movie, we were all staring in that direction. I don't think the ladies noticed, though. The last strange moment came near the end, when none of us were paying great attention, and we weren't sure when it was time for us to get back to doing stuff.

In a side note, I got to do lyrics for the first time today. We only had two tech people--myself and my roommate--and the other had to run sound, so I was on lyrics and lights--but dealing with minor problems forced me to forgo lights entirely, and just leave houselights on (I think the only one that noticed was "mom").

All in all, it was fun--even though seeing half of X-men Origins with no sound meant that I had to see it in full after I got back home.

Iowa City Anthem

This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here.
HUGE SUCCESS.
It's hard to overstate
my satisfaction.

Sorry, I felt that the opening lyrics to "Still Alive" applied here (and I've had them stuck in my head for the past few days).

Anyway, Anthem started at 5 on Monday for me. That's when I arrived to help with setup. After the first 4 hours, I was starting to crash. I got a second wind and was able to help out until midnight, which was time for people to head home. My roommate had to finish getting recording capability, so I got a ride home from "mom". We were both exhausted, so I don't remember much of the conversation, but it was hilarious at the time. At one point, I told her that she sounded drunk. I also said it felt like the car was leaning to the left. She was wondering about that, and I almost said "Maybe I just want to be close to you." Luckily, I was awake enough to figure that that was a bad time to ask her out. You really want to be fully awake for important decisions.

The next day, it was a day off--from setup, at least. I was still really tired, and I either fell asleep (and woke up) without noticing it, or I started hallucinating. I was positive that my roommate turned on his Playstation, but it wasn't on later, and he was only home for a very brief period--and he doesn't remember turning the Playstation on.

Yesterday (Anthem Day), I had a test at noon. I rushed through it so I could get to final setup--which also started at noon. The test took 12 minutes, and I walked over to Third Base in 30 minutes (Google Maps said it was a 37 minute walk--I was in a hurry). There wasn't a whole lot left to do, so there was a lot of hanging out with the other tech people. Mark Arant had brought his skateboard, so there was a lot of people riding it around in the bar and jumping off stuff and falling down. (I only watched this)

Later, one of the guys was at the pool table, trying to hit as many cushions as he could in a single shot. He kept getting 5, and another guy wanted to try. He really laid into it, and the cue ball hit one cushion, then bounced into the air--and off my forehead. It hurt. After a little bit, I was feeling okay, so I went over to worry "mom". Her reaction was to try and hi-five the guy that had hit the cue ball, but he left her hanging. Side note: I've got a lump from that shot, and every time I feel it, I laugh.

Anthem was awesome. Seeing the bar packed wall-to-wall with people, hands raised, worshipping God. Watching about half a dozen people with cameras running around, getting good shots of the band and the crowd--as well as dozens of camera phones and iPods. Seeing two guys called up from the crowd to sing. Losing my voice. Who could ask for more?

After Anthem, Mark took us out for dinner--tech/worship team's second dinner that night.

We tore down this morning so that we wouldn't be up until 3 last night. So in the past 72 hours, I've spent over 20 in a bar. Now I can rest until 6 tomorrow morning--then it's time to setup for the women's retreat.

Busy-ness

A warning before I get into this post: I'm going to hit a lot of topics here. There's a lot going on.

First of all, apparently, busyness is actually a word. Whatever. I'm still leaving the hyphen in the title.

Anyway, Anthem is in 3 days. It's going to be awesome, so you should make an effort to attend. Packing out a bar with people singing praises to God for 2+ hours. What could be cooler/more important than that?

On a related note, nearly everything seems to remind me of worship songs these days. I figure this is a good "problem" to have. I wonder a little if the neighbors can hear me while I'm singing in the shower...... Well, if they can, they can.

Following up on the last post, when I found out about the rumor going around, I hadn't seriously thought about "mom" as anything but a friend. But after a few days' thought, I realize that I feel very comfortable around her, which is rare for me--women just make me uncomfortable, unless they're already taken. Maybe I should go for it. One concern of mine is that I fall for women quickly--at least, prior experience tells me that. This may be a good opportunity for growth--as well as a chance to get to know a very Godly woman.

This weekend was fun. A visit from a cool couple from Ames--so now the two people I had most wanted to see at the Ames Anthem (neither of which were able to make it--sorry people I saw there, I DO have favorites) have visited Veritas. This weekend was a good weekend to visit--the first ever baptisms at Veritas Church were today. Can you hold back tears seeing 9 people--including two international students--baptized in a community center pool? I know I can't. That was a great way to end a service.

Next weekend could be interesting. The women's retreat is on Saturday, and my roommate and I have been asked to do tech for it. So, it'll be the two of us (and maybe the drummer/creative arts director) in a room full of women. It could be awkward, enlightening, or both. If I remember to write, I'll let y'all know.

Why can't life be simple?

Yesterday, I was meeting with one of the guys from my connection group (we meet one-on-one with someone else from the group every week). One thing we talked about was a rumor going around the tech/worship team. They've been talking about a "relationship" that has been developing between myself and the tech team's "mom". I just see it as a friendship, but the guys see potential for more--to the point where the phrase "When are you going to ask her out?" came up. Okay, I've thought about it before, but I've also thought about putting on rollerblades and hockey pads and being towed behind a car and into a telephone pole.

Anyway, my first impulse upon hearing this was to avoid her and end the friendship. How messed up is that? I almost didn't talk to her at all last night. Then I decided I was being stupid for acting like that because of what other people were saying. I shouldn't act differently just because some people think there's more going on than I do.

In a mildly related note, I've managed to hurt myself during Salt tear-down again. In case you've forgotten or never read about the last time, here's the post. We were putting everything away in the storage unit when my grip on the sub case slipped, and I dropped it on my toes. I somehow managed to keep from screaming, and was able to help finish putting things away. Unfortunately, I nearly blacked out while the other guys were putting the last few things away in the office--so they were somewhat far away. I think if I had eaten more recently, I would have thrown up.

Of course, I still walked to and from class today. Pain's not going to stop me that easily.

My right big toe took the worst of it. Anyone with a weak stomach may not want to look lower, because I took a picture of the damage. Don't worry, it looks worse than it is. Blood will do that.

First Iowa City Salt Company Retreat

The retreat was this weekend. My head is hurting pretty badly right now, so this won't be a long post. I'm not sure if it's from caffeine withdrawal (I kinda doubt it, drinking Mountain Dew hasn't helped), dehydration (I doubt this for reasons that I won't mention here) or as a result of the football game (maybe--I might have sustained a mild concussion). Maybe it's something else, I don't know.

Some cool things that happened:

• Learning the truth about Sleep Number beds (their commercials make them seem much cooler than they are--you can't tell what number it's on without changing it, and even then you can't tell until you stop changing) They're just air mattresses
• Singing Happy Birthday to one of the pastors on Friday night
• Repeating my reason for sleeping in a chair instead of a bed to about a dozen people (I won't share a bed unless there's a ring)
• Having a quiet time with the Father while riding in the trunk on the way back from IHOP at 1:30 in the morning (I may be weird, but I liked riding in the trunk)
• Playing football with 23 other guys--including one international student who was learning the rules as he played (I heard later that he said "If everyone was like the people at Salt, the world would be much better" and almost cried)
• Getting hit in the mouth by a pastor (during the aforementioned football game, and not the pastor that celebrated his birthday on the retreat)
• Running lights from two boards simultaneously (I would have liked to have at least three hands for this, but I'm excited about getting ready for Anthem--which is just 10 days away now)
• Hearing about multiple people coming to know the Son (at least two this weekend, making at least 3 in the past week!)
• Paul Sabino speaking

Matthew 20:16

Last night at Salt, Mark was talking about Mark 10:35-45. For those that don't know these verses off the top of your head and are too lazy to look them up online, this is where James and John, the sons of Zebedee, ask to sit at the right and left hand of the Son. I'm not sure if he referenced the passage directly, or if my mind just slipped in that direction, but I was reminded of Matthew 20:16.


“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”


I think this is a slightly dangerous verse for me. I'm concerned that I take this to heart and try to be last just so that I can be first. This went along well with what my connection group talked about on Monday--Mark 7:20-22, which is about what makes a man clean or unclean. We talked about our less obvious sins, and one I realized was my pride. I work hard at hiding my bad side by helping out as much as I can.


After the service, I sat down to pray about it. I was going to get up and leave before tear-down, but when I stopped praying, there was a crowd of people around me, effectively blocking my exit. A little later, I was walking around, and ran into one of my connection group's leaders. We talked for a bit, and he prayed for me, so I was there until tear-down began.


As I thought about it during tear-down, I realized that's only part of why I help out so much. I also help out because I love it. I love helping out, plus I get to hang out with some cool people. Yes, it feeds my pride issues, but that's just something I need to work on. I can't just run away when God gives me an opportunity to grow in Him.

Another new experience at Salt

We're lucky here in Iowa City. You never know what will go wrong with tech. Maybe there will be confusion, and the set-up team will have to go without breakfast (that was a long morning). Maybe things will be forgotten in the storage unit. Maybe the storage unit door will come off the track. And then there's last night.

During practice, the light board's power input jack decided to fail, so we were forced to have minimal lighting that nobody could control. Then later, the surge protector on the power strip that the sound board was plugged into started tripping, so there was a scramble to plug some of the stuff in across the room.

Everything was going okay when opening worship started. However, about halfway through the opening set, the sound cut out. Luckily, the Holy Spirit wouldn't let us down, and the crowd never missed a beat, getting ahead of the band for a couple seconds. After some quick work by our drummer and my roommate, they got all the instruments working again, and the rest of the night went without a hitch.

That's why we're so lucky here. Everything that can go wrong with tech might actually happen, but we still have all we need for a great night.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. To update everyone on this post, my foot is still swollen, but still no pain. That's right, my foot has been swollen for three weeks without pain. Weird, huh?

Impromptu Family Weekend

This past weekend seems to have been family weekend at Veritas. 3 of the 5 band members' parents were in town, my dad was in town, my roommate's dad came down for church, the two band members who finally got their first day off from being in the band were with family--one here, one visiting them--and there was at least one other pair of parents--other than the usual families that come every week--at church on Sunday.

However, the "family weekend" is just a side note for this post. The main part of this post is in regards to tech for the service. It didn't start off very well. Shortly after arriving at the hotel and beginning set-up, the light people--which includes myself--noticed that two of the six light stands had been forgotten at the storage building. About an hour--and one text and one phone call--later, the other two light stands arrived. Setup went for the light people from then on.

The CG team--in charge of the projector and the "cheater screen" for lyrics--had their own problems with set-up. The room was oriented differently--we're still trying to find the "best" set-up for chairs and the stage--and the projector had to be really close to the screen, so they had to zoom in a lot.

Other than that, set-up was a breeze, and practice could begin. Around the hour-forty mark, one of the singers suggested that we needed a keyboard (it was an acoustic set--djembe, two acoustic guitars, a stand-up bass, and an electric guitar). Luckily, they had accidentally packed the keyboard that morning. However, this caused a couple minutes of delay to set it up and do sound check. Also, we had only 5 people on stage! No problem, we'll just have the djembe player also play the keyboard--sometimes both at once.

Things continued on with near constant tweaks on how to play the individual songs. The lights decided to stop listening to the light board at one point, causing confusion as to what was wrong and how to fix it--it fixed itself, and we still don't know what went wrong.

Around 10, the pastor that was speaking showed up with what he wanted to be projected on the screen during his message. This soon presented another problem. Because they had to zoom way in to get readable lyrics, the message slides wouldn't fit on the screen. The band was also still working on how to best play the songs.

At 10:15, the doors opened for people to come in and sit down. The screen problem was still being addressed, but the band had settled their discussion--mostly because there was no more time to practice.

The service went off without a hitch. God showed up at the right time, and all the problems were solved. If I hadn't been there for practice, I wouldn't have noticed anything wrong--or even that one of the band members was playing two instruments at once.

Favorite Things about Veritas

Lately, I keep noticing that I've been saying "That's one of the things I love about Veritas" a lot lately. I feel that these things need to be shared in handy-dandy list form, so here we go.

1. Veritas is "small" so it feels a lot like a family--sorry, C-stone, 2000 people may be a little too big.
2. Veritas is church in a trailer. This means we're not focused on having the biggest, fanciest building, but on the people.
3. The staff is small. There's no big, complicated hierarchy to figure out. Officially, the staff is 6 people. They delegate as much as they need to, but you'll see them helping out any way they can--I know at least one of them has pulled all-nighters trying to organize things.
4. Veritas is very well organized. Children's ministry and welcome team are organized (essentially) for the next year, and tech is a week ahead, so you know where you're assigned every week.
5. Veritas is church in a trailer. Yes, I know I mentioned that already, but another bonus of it is the fun we get to have setting up and tearing down--joking around at 5:30 in the morning because someone is late, trying to figure out the "perfect" trailer pack job, trying to beat the record for fastest tear down and load-out (and we've broken it every week--1:06 pm this past week), wondering what it'll be like when the snow starts to fly, eating taffy and cake for breakfast (with water in Budweiser cups), etc.
6. Tech/setup/teardown crew is like a family within a family. We've got our "mom",  and the rest of us are basically teenagers. We goof around, push ourselves (and each other) to work harder and faster, and then tease our "mom" when she worries about us getting hurt.
7. The pastors are just regular guys. Combined, they help out with setup and teardown every week--many times both of them help.
8. Weekly game nights/afternoons. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, those of you in back in Ames should totally come visit. Every weekend. For the next 3 months. Or whatever.

Anyway, I need to sleep. I've got a Spanish quiz in nine and a half hours.

P.S. Ames-ers, you should come to Veritas this weekend. I miss you.

Pain is a Quitter

So, I probably should have posted this earlier, but I kept putting it off. You'll see why I say this post has come late soon. To start with, my Facebook status on Wednesday night was (Kalk) "may have to wear socks for the next couple days......in a row........I just had to try to get a running start and fly up those stairs. But at least it's awkwardly swollen." That might not make a whole lot of sense now, so I'll fill you in.

This past week (and the next two weeks), Salt was kicked out of the Blue Moose and into Third Base--aka The Fieldhouse--another bar owned by the same people, and in the same general area. The stage area in this bar was downstairs--this fact becomes important later in the story--and it has two bar serving areas there (so we even had one or two bartenders working at Salt--with the sound/tech booth in one of the bars). Anyway, the men's room was down a few stairs and a long hallway from where we were having Salt. About 7:50, I went to the men's room, and decided to get a running start at those stairs so I could go up them in a hurry. Big mistake. When I put my left foot on the first step, I didn't get far enough onto it, so when I put my full weight on that foot, it slipped off, twisting my ankle and banging my right knee on one of the higher steps. Being me, I didn't tell anyone and continued about my business through the worship, the message, and the closing worship.

Then came load-out. As you may recall from earlier in the post, the place we were having Salt was a floor below street level. This meant we had to haul everything upstairs to get it into the trailer. I was doing okay until the big case had to come upstairs--one that we had to have FOUR guys on. I was one of the upstairs guys, which means my job was help lift the wheels above the next step while the bottom guys shoved as hard as they could. Many times, it was hard for the upstairs guys to get our feet out of the way before the shove from below. Near the top, my grip slipped, and I dropped the case on my left foot. That stopped me. I paused for a bit to collect myself, then soldiered on until the case was upstairs. At that point, I bit down on my arm to muffle the scream.

I kept going, helping load everything into the trailer, then from the trailer into the storage unit. When I got home, I took off my shoes and socks (because I hate wearing them) and saw that my foot had a huge lump on it--which was in a fat line. Apparently, the slight compression from wearing socks helped a lot, because I couldn't stand the pain after taking off the socks, so I slept with socks on Wednesday night.

Thursday morning was bad, because you can't wear socks in the shower. Then I had a decision to make. Walk a total of five miles just to go to Spanish class, or miss the test review? I decided to go to class, but I took my acetaminophen just in case. It was hard. By the time I got there, I was thinking I might have to call my roommate for a ride home after class--his first class started two and a half hours after mine ended. However, the pain lessened as the class went on, and I went ahead and tried to walk home. There was no pain. I soon started joking that my foot had given up on trying to get pity from me, and walked faster. I got home and took off my socks. No pain, but still swollen.

As I write this, it's still swollen a little bit, but no pain. It only hurts when I put pressure on the swelling, or if I rotate it from normal. And that's the story of how pain is a quitter. Or maybe I'm just insanely stubborn. You decide. (There's a poll up, if you want to let me know your opinion on that.....or there's always comments)

Creativity

Normally, I'm not a creative person. I'm a go-with-the-flow type guy. But every few weeks, I go on a bit of a creative kick. Sometimes it's "I want to write" or "I want to 'draw'". Right now, I'm on a bit of a photography kick. By most people's standards, I haven't really taken a lot of pictures on this kick, but for me, I have. I wouldn't say I'm good at any of these art forms. I would say that, at best, I dabble, and at worst, I waste time and energy, but I've got those things in abundance, so whatever.

Today, while sitting in English class, I got the urge to take some pics of the interplay between light and shadow in the room. So I did.

Then on the way home, I saw some beautiful clouds. Of course, I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to take a picture, and some woman laughed at me. Like I care.

In mostly unrelated news, my English class doesn't meet on Thursday, so I'm done at 11 that day.

Easy like Sunday morning?

Here at Veritas, the phrase "easy like Sunday morning" is an oxymoron. When you've got college-age people going to bed at 9 on a Saturday, you know Sunday morning has to be intense.

As I type this, I've been awake for nearly 12 hours, and it's a quarter to four. Sunday starts off with a shower and getting ready at four in the morning for load-up at 5:30. When everything was loaded, we headed to church-tel Vetro (as someone called it this morning) and arrived at about 6. Set-up was the next hour, and then band practice at 7. I didn't have much to do after set-up, so I was just hanging out. When church started, I had to leave, because this was my first week doing children's ministry. I got to wear a name tag on a lanyard and everything. I wasn't fully comfortable, but hopefully I'll get better next time.

Anyway, I'm sleepy. I may take a nap soon... or I'll procrastinate on that and just play games on my computer.

Are you sure this is a good idea?

Tonight was another Salt in a bar, and somehow, I'm now on the tech team. Before I get to that, I should take you back to Monday. It all started before connection group. I got a call asking if I could help out with the tech team so that burnout wouldn't come as quickly for them, and I said yes. Then yesterday, after my English class began, I got a text asking if I could be at the offices to load up for Salt set-up at 5:30, or the Blue Moose for set-up at 6:00. My class ended at 5, so I said I couldn't make it--though that was mostly an excuse because I suddenly felt hungry. After a little thinking about my motives and the situation, I sent another response saying I'd try to make the Moose.

-----I'm going to break into an unrelated story for a sec, please bear with me-----

Since my English class is two hours on Tuesdays, my teacher lets us have a break about an hour in. Near the end of the break yesterday, one guy asked if the lights could be turned on (my teacher, believed by much of the class to teach while high, always has the lights off) because he was really tired. After a short conversation, my teacher suggested that he just go to sleep, and began to talk about the artistic nature of sending someone to sleep in class. Don't you wish you were in that class?

-----End English class randomness-----

Anyway, I checked the map on my iPod to see how long it would take to walk, and saw that it would only take about 40 minutes, so I figured I'd stop by Mesa Pizza for a slice before going to the Moose, since it's about two blocks away. After the walk--and dinner--I hung out outside the Moose until other people got there, then helped with set-up.

Today, after classes, I was feeling tired, and I kinda wanted something I had bought the night before--Smirnoff Blueberry Lemonade (which I don't like quite as much as the Mike's Hard Lemonade I had about a week ago, but it's still good)--so I mixed a bottle of that with a 24-ounce bottle of Mountain Dew--luckily I had a Nalgene bottle that was just big enough to contain the 36 ounces of liquid these made (and I liked this concoction as much as the Mike's). Yes, I had a drink before Salt--and another one afterwards, while writing this post--but I finished the drink before finishing the post, and this one had no Dew mixed in.

...So, back to the story about Salt. I went early to help in any way I could. When it became time for final practice, I was told that I'd be helping with lights--even to the point of running them for a song or two. This led to a discussion on running the lights, and I was thrown in to try it out. I was worried, mostly because I tend to get really into worship, and didn't want to risk breaking anything, so I wrote a note on the back of my hand saying "Note to self Back up if need to rock".

I got to run the lights during the closing worship, and nothing was broken or detonated, so I'd call it a success, which shows you how low my threshold of success is.

Things learned from MMP

This morning was MMP, and I learned a few things because of it.

1.  It's getting to be dark at 5:30 in the morning.
2. This week isn't starting off well. My teams went 0-5 over the weekend, I forgot about the homework due today, and I left my biology lab notebook in my apartment. Yet I can still go to MMP with a smile on my face, a spring in my step and a song in my heart. This is because I have the most important thing in the world. That's right, I got my MacBook Pro. Just kidding, the most important thing in the world is the one true King. I did, however, get my MacBook Pro today.
3. There's a roundabout on the corner of Summit Street and College Street. I found that on the way from MMP to classes.
4. I shouldn't sing the first song that comes into my head when I get up before the sun. It can only lead to singing Lion King songs all day.

Well, that's all I got for this post. I need to finish setting this bad boy up.

One of this world's great evils

....is package tracking. As stated in my last post, I've ordered a Macbook Pro and an iPod touch. Apple was kind enough to allow me links to Fedex so I can track them as they head here. Of course, the first thing I did was to check Google Maps to see what it would say--both are being shipped from China. The driving directions included a jet ski and two kayaks, and said it would take 37 days.

Anyway, I'm reminded of an old xkcd comic by how I'm acting in regards to these packages. For those that don't remember it, here the comic I'm talking about:

By the way, they got to Anchorage, Alaska earlier this afternoon. I think it'll only be a couple days before they get here.

So it begins

Well, it's official. Sunday was the first Veritas Church! It was a good time, lots of great people there, and for one of the songs, there were two people playing in the worship band that had played at the first Cornerstone! There were around 300 people there, but some of those were visiting from Ames. Speaking of people visiting from Ames....hint, hint....I miss you all. I'm excited to see what God is doing here, and I can't wait for Salt tomorrow and the second official Veritas on Sunday.

Another thing that just started was connection group. The group I'm in had it's first meeting last Monday, but there were only 5 people there--and that's if you count the wife of one of the leaders--and we all knew each other already. Besides that, all we did was play card games--Mao and Killer Bunnies--and eat Pokey Stix. Last night, we had a new guy--the leader's wife was gone, so still only 5 people--and we actually opened our bibles this time. It was a good night. We'll see if it gets bigger for next week, or stays at 5. Either way, it's a good group (hopefully making the group larger won't make that statement untrue).

Also, I'm going to finally get a computer again. I ordered it yesterday between MMP and classes. It's a MacBook Pro--only the 13", as I have a limit on my debit card, and I don't care about the size. I'll also get an iPod Touch to go with it. That may or may not be a good idea--especially since I know there's a Cash Cab app. We'll see how it works out.

Impulse Buy

I recently bought a poster online. I HAD to have it. I could not not have it, though I was only looking around for probable purchases at the time. See, I've been looking to buy a periodic table poster for a while--I am a chemistry major, you know. There was one I had seen a long time back that I really liked, but I could not for the life of me find it, so I was constantly disappointed with the selection.

Well, on the 31st of August, I finally found it again. I bought it within a few minutes, even though the shipping cost nearly as much as the poster itself. The poster cost 4.99 British Pounds, and the shipping was 4.50--which adds up to about $15 US. That's right, it has to be shipped across the pond, as they say over there. With the time it took to pay--using Paypal without immediate payment and changing dollars for pounds--and shipping, it should arrive around Saturday, maybe later.

In case you're wondering what this poster that I just could not resist looks like, here's an image from the website:

It's the periodic table superimposed on a spiral galaxy, with the elements on the arm. It measures about 33" by 23.5". I like it because it's a different way to view the table, and it links back to the universe and the stars, where larger natural elements are formed. Now I just have to find a regular periodic table poster that I like......

Home from Job Interview

As I've mentioned in the last two posts, I had a job interview at Hy-Vee today. Following my normal pattern, I was 20 minutes early, so I had to wait. It didn't last very long, but I think it went well. I'll find out Monday.

The big story was getting home. While I was having the interview, a couple people from the IC TSC walked by. After my interview was over, I went over to the register they were going through. We talked for a little bit, and left the store. We were going to go our separate ways, but it was pouring rain. Unfortunately, they filled up the cab of the orange pickup they had taken, so I had to ride in the bed--complete with white camper top. After a few seconds, I got a call. They needed directions to my place. So there I was, riding in the back of a pickup, giving directions via cell phone. How do I find myself in these kinds of situations?

I may be very busy in the near future

My future is starting to look busy. One thing that has eased is that my first test was moved back--this Friday instead of this Thursday--so it's no longer the morning after Salt. The things that are picking up, however, are numerous.

The first is an opportunity. I've got an interview on Thursday for a cashier position at the Hy-Vee just north of my apartment. If it works out, it will probably eat up at least 12 hours of my week, but I'll have a little extra money, and (so far) I have too much time on my hands anyway.

Another is school, naturally. Tests are beginning to appear on the horizon, and homework will likely get more difficult and time-consuming as the semester wears on. October 1 will not be my one of my favorite days this year--at least, probably not. I've got two tests that day. Back-to-back. Before noon. On a Friday.

The rest have to do with Veritas. While "spying" on the IC TSC Leader's Retreat, I signed up for the children's ministry and welcome team for Veritas. Now, these will only take up a few hours when I'm scheduled, and I'll probably only be scheduled to help out with these every other week (when you add them together). I know which will be my first week on the welcome team (unless someone needs/wants to switch), but the children's ministry hasn't been figured out yet--probably because they want to do background checks to make sure we're not child molestors--but there's less than two weeks left before the kick-off. Oh well, those don't take too long.

The Apartment

I just realized that I've never described the apartment on here. That needs to change, and it needs to change now. We'll start with something that some of you may recognize:

No going upstairs for us: bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living room all are on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms are on the left-hand side (going in), for these are the only ones to have windows.

For those of you that didn't notice, that's a fairly close resemblance to Bag End, as described at the beginning of The Hobbit--and I did copy as much of that description as applies. But anyway, let me show you how it looks. That's right, for the first time ever, there are PICTURES on this blog! We'll start with the door to the apartment.

Yes, the quality of that one isn't the greatest, sorry.

Let's move on in the tour. Next is the view with the door open, down the hall. And yes, those are rope lights along the ceiling.

Now for two views of the living room. The first is from the front door, second is from the hall. 10 points to the first person to correctly identify how many Bibles are on the table in these pictures.

Next, let's walk down the hall to opening of three passages. The left door opens to my room, the middle door leads to my roommate's room--which goes to the left right after the door, so I count it as being on the left side of the hallway--and the right door is the bathroom which, until recently, had tar footprints in the shower--many thanks to his mom for letting us borrow some Goo Gone. We will not, however, show any of these rooms today.

Now let's turn around and see the back of the door, complete with Planet Earth calendar and mailbox key.

And we'll take a left into the kitchen. It's hard for both of us to work together at putting groceries away, since the fridge and freezer doors open towards us (from this angle).

Well, that's our place. You can come visit, if you like. However, if you visit on a weekday or a Sunday, one (or both) of us will likely not be there. So call first.

In unrelated news, I've got a job interview at the Hy-Vee that's about 3 blocks away from here, so I'm excited--and a little nervous. It's at 5:30pm on Thursday, so I'll have to go almost straight from classes--I will be able to swing by the apartment and change, luckily.

Church in a Bar

That's right, in case you haven't heard it the past 1,000 times it's been said, last night was the Iowa City Salt Company Kick-off in the Blue Moose. It was awesome. We started out with 75 chairs plus some bar stools, and a bench on the wall for seating. That quickly filled up, so more chairs were brought out. Those filled up. There were people standing, or sitting on steps by the end. I've heard a count of 210--and I think only about a third were part of the church plant or visitors from Ames TSC. I had thought that we wouldn't have very many attendees, but I'm glad I was wrong. I guess I've just been meeting the wrong people.

I was sitting in front of the sound and light boards, so I could see much of the crowd in front of me. I could see as people from Iowa City stood--before a lot of us yahoos from Ames--during the closing worship. I stood in awe of God's work as raised hands peppered the room. I temporarily lost the ability to speak from the worship. In short, it was amazing. And once again, I'm reminding myself "Never doubt that God will come through".

I can't wait to see what he does there next week.

It's Getting Serious

Well, I'm trying to be a more serious student, and get into good habits, so I've created a grade tracker to keep track of what I still need to do to get certain grades--essentially a "if I stopped doing anything right now, what would my grades be" spreadsheet. You can view it by clicking this link. I can't put my English class up because it doesn't really have a grade system. And if you're paying attention, the Biology class doesn't add up. That's because the lowest test grade is dropped, so only four will count. Also, the labs and class assignments are set up so that we can miss three without it counting against us--only extra credit if we do more.

Anyway, it's less than 5 hours until the First Iowa City Salt Company at the Blue Moose! I'll be there nice and early to help out in any way I can. Unfortunately for my roommate, he'll be there a lot earlier than I will. He left the apartment this morning at 8:30 to go to class, and he won't get back until after Salt, while I left at 10, got back at 2, and will leave for Salt at around 6:30. I even got my Spanish homework done before creating the grade tracker mentioned above--and it's only about a quarter after 3 now. At least he's only got two classes tomorrow, starting at 1:30. U of I class times are weird--they start on the half hour instead of the hour. Kirkwood class times are normal, except that they might start as early as 7--though none of mine start before 10.

Resolution

Okay, I've got a new resolution--never buy books until AFTER classes start. Apparently, 3 out of the 4 books I bought for the classes I had today were listed incorrectly. I actually needed books with a similar, but slightly different, title--except in the case of the Spanish, where I needed to buy a packet that included the book, not just the book. I'm so glad the bookstore was clear on which books were needed. I can't even do the homework that's due tomorrow in my Spanish class because of it. Hopefully, the instructor will be understanding.

Anyway, it looks like tomorrow, I have to go back and return half of my books and get the right ones, and I still haven't said anything about the bus pass. So if you see me tonight or tomorrow and I seem upset, that's why.

Bookstore

So, yesterday, I bought books--$530 worth of books and a new backpack. For 4 classes. All intro level. Sigh. Oh well, that's what I get for screwing around for 5 years at ISU. And hey, I'm taking a third foreign language. I had also meant to buy a bus pass but I forgot. So I went back today for a bus pass, and ended up buying a notebook with a Kirkwood pseudo-seal on the front of it.

When I went out to catch the bus back to downtown--there's no direct route from there to here--the bus refused my pass, saying it was expired. The bus driver told me that it wasn't just my pass, and Kirkwood had gotten some bad passes or something, and he let me ride the bus anyway. Therefore, I decided to walk back home from downtown. I had intended to register to vote, but it can wait a few more days.

On a completely unrelated note, I've added some countdowns to this blog, so those of you who view on Google Reader may want to check out the actual blog just this once. The first is on the top, counting down until the first Iowa City Salt Company. *cue fanfare* Less than 5 days from now, the Blue Moose will have a few dozen believers taking over the back room. The other two are at the bottom of the blog, counting down to the start of the Dallas Cowboys season and the Colorado Avalanche season--my two favorite sports teams.

Leaders' Retreat

I know I'm not a leader, but I got to go on the IC Salt Company Leaders' Retreat this week. Why? Because at the church potluck in the park on Sunday, I asked if any help was needed for setup and tear down every week, and was told I could start tomorrow.

So that's how I found myself signed up to go to Muscatine and help with the Leaders' Retreat. I got up at 6 on Monday, since we had to meet at the offices at 8.

I learned a little about how to set up and tear down, and I got to hang out with 25 people who are following hard after God. How can that not be a good 24 hours? Oh, and the house the guys stayed at had a Foosball table, a ping-pong table, a volleyball net, and a trampoline. A good time was had by all.

I feel like a traitor

I got a new pair of flip-flops today. I had to. My last pair was ruined 6 days ago because of a combination of road tar, blistering temperatures, and laundry. Long story short, I was on my way back from doing laundry and I saw that they were re-tarring the street my apartment is on--and I was on the wrong side! I had a choice: either cross and risk ruining my flip-flops, or go about 3 blocks out of my way to go around. Of course, because of the heat, I chose to cross. After one step in the tar, my flip-flops ripped off my feet, and I was essentially walking barefoot across the tar--so now there's tar in the shower.

Anyway, I had had those flip-flops since I started college--in 2004! They had lasted for 6 years, and Iowa City killed them. But that's not why I feel like a traitor--not completely, anyway. My new ones are Hawkeye flip-flops. I feel like a traitor against my family because of that. But I gotta fit in--at least a little.

Ames has spoiled me

Ames has spoiled me in lots of ways, but the way this post is concerned with is the bus system. You go to Cyride's website and you get a full map of Ames with all the bus routes on it. When you want to plan a bus trip in the IC, you have to download about a dozen PDFs, and open 7 or 8 pages. See, there are two bus systems here. One is called "Cambus" and is basically U of I buses. There are about 6 Cambus routes, and you have to open a page to see where each one goes, with a map that shows some of the surrounding area. Then there's Iowa City Transit, where you have to download a PDF for each route you want to view--there are about 12 of them. Even with all that downloading, the maps only show the streets the buses actually travel on--if it goes in a big loop, the streets in the middle of the loop aren't even shown--so you almost have to open Google Maps to figure out where the bus route is in relation to where you are. And in case you're wondering, they don't have a convenient map at bus shelters here. I guess they assume if you're at a bus stop, you know where you need to go.

However, you can have it email which buses to take and from where to get where you're going, but I'd rather just be able to look at a well-designed map and go. I guess that's too much to expect.

In unrelated news, I'm sleeping a lot better here than I had been the last couple weeks in Ames. I don't know if it's because the stress over not wanting to leave has gone, or something else, but I'll take it.

Well, I'm back

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, but there have been some difficulties. The first was moving, of course. 3 days of packing and unpacking, loading and unloading. But here I am, in Iowa City.

The next complication (and the largest) was keys. When we moved in, we were told the lock was broken and someone would be out to fix the lock that night. That was Sunday. Yesterday, my roommate told me that he would wait to move the rest of his stuff in until we could lock the door. Of course, that was the expensive stuff, including his computer--in case you've forgotten or never knew, mine is a large paperweight. Today, we finally got keys, so he brought some more of his stuff.

Now, I could almost say that he isn't my roommate yet. He hasn't spent the night here, he's just storing stuff. He's still working back at home, and will be for the rest of this week. After that, he's going to Canada with some friends, so I've got the place to myself for two weeks.

In other news, on Friday night, my dad and I went to see The Fab Four. They're a Beatles tribute band, so the crowd was mostly two age groups--middle-aged and college-aged. It was good, but they didn't play any of my four favorite Beatles songs--Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand; I've Just Seen A Face; When I'm Sixty-Four; and Something--which made me a little sad. I understand the first one very well, but the other three are iffy.

Tomorrow, I'm going to finally leave the apartment. I've been too nervous to leave when I can't lock the door from the outside.

Dear Ames,

By the time you read this, I will have already left. I'm leaving you for Iowa City. I'm going to miss you--your beautiful parks, your quaint little downtown, and of course your residents. You've been very good to me these past....how long has it been? Six years? Wow. You've been very good to me these past six years, and we had some good times--the surprise guncotton explosion during a chem club show, watching the swans and geese by the lake, playing Super Smash Brothers on the screen in 1002 Gilman, walking to the mall and back just because I could....the list goes on and on. However, these times have come to an end. I am participating in a church plant in Iowa City. I will try to make it back and visit, but I can't make any promises.

You will always feel like home to me, but I can't stay any longer. My lease ran out the moment this post went live, and the long period of homelessness has begun. I don't know how much you'll miss me, but I'll think about you often, Ames.

Farewell, wherever you fare, till your eyries receive you at the journey's end.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

So, since everything else in my life is changing, I thought the blog should change as well. There's a new look, and a new title. The title was changed yesterday, and is a reference to the verse just below it--1 Corinthians 9:24. Many months ago, in connection group, the leaders asked us to make short-term and long-term goals for ourselves in our walks with God. I couldn't think of anything long-term except for the second half of that verse. Run in such a way as to get the prize. I realize that I haven't done a whole lot of that. I've been running in such a way as to end up in the middle of the pack. This needs to change.

On a semi-related note, I'm really excited to be a church family in Iowa City, but I'm very reluctant to leave Ames. I feel like I've said this about a thousand times in the past two weeks, but it still holds true, and it's even getting stronger as the date approaches. Maybe part of it is that I couldn't attend the big send-off bash because I had to work. Oh well, such is life in this world.

There goes that dream

Last night, I was talking with a friend, and he joked about how much I love prime numbers, and how I should marry them. I responded by saying I should instead find a girl whose birth date is entirely prime numbers--month, day and year. After thinking about that for a little while, this proves to be very limiting.

To start with, there are only 5 months during the year who are prime numbers--February (2), March (3), May (5), July (7), and November (11). There are only 9 days in February (I'm not counting the 29th for reasons I'll explain later) that would be prime, 10 in November, and 11 in the each of the other three months--2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, and 31. This is 52 days out of the year.

Now for the year. I can't count February 29 because that day only appears during leap years, and those are all multiples of four. Going by XKCD, the dateable age range for me is currently 19-34. That means women who were born between 1976 and 1991 (slight simplification here, but it makes no difference). The only years that are prime numbers within that range are 1979 and 1987. This means I would have to find someone born on one of only 104 days. Somehow, I don't think that's feasible--or rational, but when has rationality ever stopped me before. I'll just have to be okay without that amazing feat. Besides, my birth date is only 2 out of 3 anyway. Darn 1986 ruined it all.

--and if you really must know, yes I did all of this figuring in my head while getting ready for bed last night. I only did a quick check on my prime number spreadsheet to make sure I was right.

We also talked about a list I made--partially as a joke--about reasons why any woman would be unlucky to marry me. It covered a piece of notebook paper, front and back--without the fact that I'm very good at seeing the bad in me, but horrible at seeing the good in me. He said I should make a list about the good, but I would not be able to make that list as long as the other, just because I see good things in me as "normal, everyone is/should be like this"--and so tend to overlook them--and the bad things are "weird, specific to me and/or people you don't want to deal with for very long". Well, there's only about 4 hours until my third-to-last shift before moving, so I should maybe think about getting ready.

Fortunes

So, this morning, I opened a bottle of Jones Soda--Green Apple, my favorite flavor--and the cap told me that "The tide of change approaches." I have no idea where that cap got its information. What change? Just because in less than a week I go from having lived in 4 individual dwellings within 3 buildings within 2 cities to 5, 4, and 3 respectively, or that I'm having a roommate for the first time in my 24+ years of life, or that I'm soon to be attending community college, or that I'll be living four times as far from Des Moines--the city that I was born in and grew up in--as I've ever lived, or that I'll be attending a church that meets in a hotel and whose college ministry meets in a bar....That's nothing. Sometimes these things are way off.

One Week

I can't believe I only have one more week of work at Wal-Mart. The most fun of the remaining shifts will have to be the 9-hour shift on Sunday. I normally don't work longer than 4 hours....plus this shift ends at 10:30--2 hours after the last bus leaves the mall. So I get to walk home at 10:30, when I'm usually nearly asleep. I also get off at 10:30 today and Monday, which is exactly when the last bus leaves the mall, so I'll probably skip out a little early those nights. That's okay, though. I've been running into extra time lately, and we can leave up to 10 minutes early without being penalized.

Update on the last post: my back is getting better--or at least it seems that way. I haven't been hurting as bad as I was Tuesday, and even yawning doesn't hurt too bad.

Just for random news, I plan to get a haircut today, so the long hair is going bye-bye. It's been a while since my hair was short.

Ouch

I'm feeling very unlucky right now. I've managed to hurt my back (I'm not sure how, it started after a day of rest off from work, and has been hurting for three days) and acetaminophen doesn't help. Some things that cause instant, horrible pain are: sudden movements; yawning; sneezing; burping; and coughing. The fun thing about that is that my body is wired to have almost all of those happen on a regular basis--only the coughing is rare. Sudden movements come from little twitches that pop up every now and again. Burping seems to come any time I've consumed anything--even water (some of you have heard my rare gift for belching with nothing but water).

The two that are the most common are the sneezing and yawning. These come from lovely traits I inherited from my dad. The sneezing comes from ACHOO Syndrome--seriously, I'm not making that up. If you don't want to click the link, it basically says that exposure to bright light can cause me to sneeze, usually (for me) multiple times in succession. So, this means going outside can be quite painful for me--at least until my back stops complaining.

The yawning is likely a symptom of sleep apnea. I'm not 100% sure I have this, but I know my dad does, and I have many of the signs--tiredness during the day, low threshold of sleep during waking hours, caffeine addiction (this is actually more like a symptom of a symptom, but I'm still listing it), high blood pressure--and many of the risk factors--family history, overweight, overbite, large neck, male--so I'm pretty sure I have it.

Well, anyway, I just used a post to whine and complain. Thanks for taking the time to feel sorry for me--even if you didn't.

Just two weeks left

....until I no longer work at the North Ames Wal-Mart. It makes me smile a little to think about it: no more directing people to the bread aisle (which nobody seems to be able to find) or to the sunblock, no more waiting half an hour (or more) for a bus so I can go home, no more getting pulled into things like cutting fabric or unloading a truck or cleaning out a cooler, no more shaving at 2:30 in the afternoon, no more finding that someone has stolen condoms or cologne (which seem to be the two most common stolen items), no more trying to find a way to waste 15 minutes or an hour on break, etc. On the other hand, I'll miss the co-workers.

Anyway, my last day will be the 29th. The next two days shall be spent cleaning and packing up with my dad, then saying good-bye to Ames. My lease ends on the 31st at midnight. My new lease will start on the 1st at 4pm.

Other than getting ready to go, there hasn't been anything new going on. I packed up my Pez dispensers, and found that they've multiplied--145 as compared with 118 when I moved in.

I've only got three more days off before my last day of work--the 18th, the 21st, and the 28th. I'm not looking forward to that 6 consecutive work days. Oh well, if I must, then I must.

Now where is that monkey, I want to shoot something!

I'm going to let you all in on one of the few things that still makes me curse up a storm. Some of you may completely understand, but I figure a lot of you will think I'm making a big deal out of nothing. The thing I'm speaking of is, of course, dryers and their usage. Let me explain.

In my building, there are only three washers and three dryers--with 30 apartments. This sometimes causes an issue where some people can't get to dryers or washers or both. Of course, this issue is made worse when you consider that the middle dryer of the three takes about 5 hours just to get your laundry to only mildly damp. Now what makes me curse is when people leave their laundry in a dryer long after it is done. This is because I'm too nice to say "You've had way too --- long to --- get your (stuff) out of the --- dryer, so I'm removing it for you" if there is still a dryer that isn't "in use", even if it is the middle one. However, then I'm forced to wait for the slowest dryer in the building, and I get frustrated by the fact that it doesn't work. I usually end up waiting for another dryer to become "free" or just taking my clothes out, still damp and hang them up around my room--usually cursing the whole time.

Anyway, as you might have guessed, this happened just today, so there's almost nowhere to sit in my apartment, as there are damp clothes everywhere.

It's been a while

I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since my last post. Anyway, I feel I should update on my life--which is basically just work and sleep now.

I've been working on the driving thing--I've now driven two different beemers. The one I've been practicing in lately is an automatic, so I'm not fighting it as much. I've even been out on the roads a little--I drove home from the last real lesson, and then I drove home from connection group last night.

Anyway, so far on the job, I've cut fabric, mixed paint, caught 30 fish (yes, I'm keeping track--14 of these were today, even), gotten fishing licenses, and unloaded a truck. And apparently, they trust me with a $2000 scanner. Oh yeah, I also got my first paycheck today! I'd frame it, but then I wouldn't be able to cash it--and it would be a waste of money anyway.

I'm unsure how to feel about the big move coming up. On the one hand, I'm excited that in 38 days I'm going to be in Iowa City, planting a church with some awesome people. On the other hand, I'm sad that in 37 days, I'll be leaving a city that I've come to know as home, and the first place I've really felt at home. I guess that's for the best, though--if I get my way now, I'll never want to leave Ames.

Today's random moment, I realized how true this is today--but with me it tends to be more true with rabbits than cats.

Day 1

Today was orientation at my new job. That's right, 7 hours of watching mind-numbing videos, listening to managers talk, and filling out forms. I'm not sure if $7.45 an hour is too much for that, or not enough.

I'll be working at the North Ames Wal-Mart as a "sales associate" in the Pets, Paper, and Household Chemical (and possibly even Hardware) Departments. My schedule for this week and the next two weeks (weeks in this case ending on Friday) is pretty simple: 4-8 pm on days starting with T, and 2-6 pm on days starting with S. Unfortunately, this does mean I'll be missing Salt for the next 3 weeks.

I'm currently still in my work clothes (navy polo and khaki slacks) except the footwear--currently wearing flip-flops. I didn't feel like changing into a shirt that I'm only going to wear for 5 hours in my apartment, and as I've mentioned before, I hate shoes.

Anyway, I also get to walk around with a box cutter. From the 15-minute safety and instruction video we had to watch for it, I would have thought it would cost more than this. I would have thought it would be at least as expensive as my DVD player was.

I'm also lucky enough to have the locker that is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. Of course, this means I want to get that book even more now.

I am job

Looks like I'm going to be working soon. Tuesday, I go in for the final step, which is giving them the full information so they can run a background check, and a drug test. From what the guy said, this should take about a week or two, maybe less, but I don't believe I have anything that would cause me to not get this job.

It'll be a little job at the north Wal-Mart on the sales floor.

(and if you're wondering about the rent for June, my dad was willing--and able--to float me some money)

I feel bad that I doubted the words of Jeremiah 29:11. I'm also incredibly excited.

On an unrelated topic, I won't be in Ames for the next few days. I'm heading up to Sioux City with my mom for the weekend.

Time has run out

So, my birthday is in just under a week--it's Monday--and all I want to do for my birthday is avoid people. As I said in a post earlier this month, I don't like parties that center around me.

But that's not the big thing. The big thing is money. I have about $50 to my name--and about half of that is going to buy groceries tomorrow. Rent is due on the first, but if I pay before the 6th, I don't have to pay a late fee--would be a $40 fee on the $410 rent. That still means I almost needed to get a full time job starting yesterday to pay it without a fee.

That makes me want to just stay at home feeling sorry for myself, or if I have a job by then, to work all day. And the American part of me--you know, the "if I can't make it on my own, I shouldn't make it" part--abhors the thought of being a sort of charity case, so I have been extremely reluctant to ask for help, and I'm having a hard time not simply deleting this post before publishing it.

All this combines to make my birthday something that I don't want to celebrate. It might even be my worst birthday ever. We'll have to wait and see if it tops my 17th--waking up early on a Saturday, putting on nice clothes, passing by protesters, walking across a stage in front of thousands of people, then going home to a "party" when all I wanted to do was nap.

The Animatrix

In case you've been waiting to find out about the Animatrix since I posted this morning, no it's not as bad as people make it out to be. It's much worse. When I went to watch it, I expected from hearing what others said that it would be bad enough where no one would buy it unless it were offered as a set with the other three Matrix films. My expectations were still too high.

If you can ignore the occasional robot POV shot of a guy getting his head crushed--complete with his brain being squeezed out of his skull toward camera--the frequent scenes that are sometimes borderline, sometimes out-and-out pornographic and the poor (at best) animation, it's still a horrible movie. Okay, if you watch parts 2 & 3, you can get a little more background information on the war, but you have to get through all the problems I mentioned already and you don't really learn much, you just get to actually see it.

I will not be watching it again. Now before you get all "your standard for movies may be too high", let me tell you this. I LOVE Godzilla movies--the Japanese ones, not the one set in New York, that one is NOT a Godzilla movie. I like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, even though there's no real battle scene, the first 10 minutes are almost completely in Klingon and Vulcan, the first 100 seconds is just a black screen with music, and there's a 5-minute scene of flying around the Enterprise with no dialogue. I've also tried multiple times to watch the Star Wars Holiday Special, but failed because I couldn't breathe from laughing too hard--I've only made it about a fifth of the way through.

Good Weekend

I had an awesome weekend. Firstly, and most insignificantly, I saw Iron Man 2 last night. That makes 4 out of the last 5 films I've seen in theaters (not counting the dollar theater, or IMAX films) sequels--Iron Man 2, X2, Star Wars Episode II, and Matrix Reloaded, with the non-sequel being Timeline. As you may have guessed, I don't go to theaters much. After the movie, I stopped in at Target to refill my phone--and waste some time since the bus wouldn't be coming for an hour, since it was the last Blue North of the night--and I saw that I could get all three Matrix films (plus the Animatrix) for $10. Who could pass up on that, unless you already had the films? Not me.

Secondly, and still only mildly important, I've reached my weight goal. That's right, when I stepped on the scale on Saturday, I saw 199. However, with my height I'm still obese according to BMI guidelines (yes, I know BMI is very hard to go by...I've sent an angry email after reading about a study saying that most High School football players are obese that only used BMI). I'm still about 45 pounds away from a "healthy" weight by their guidelines. Now, just because I've reached MY first goal does not mean I'm going to try to stay at this weight. I intend to keep going and see how low I can go. And with 91 pounds lost already, who knows how far this will continue?

Anyway, most importantly, I got a job. Okay, it was only for a day, but it was $11 an hour to stand around, tell kids when they could/could not get on the inflatable structures, and have parents make me feel like the biggest jerk in the world when I wouldn't let their precious little one break the rules. Oh, and getting a mild sunburn on my face and neck, which seems to have already healed (told you my body heals fast). That's one of the two downsides to that job--the other was I hurt my shoulder a little while celebrating.

Anyway, I've already watched 2 of the three Matrix films since getting home after Iron Man, and I intend to watch the third, and maybe even see if the Animatrix is as bad as people make it out to be.

Oh Well

Buying groceries today, I noticed that on the meat I buy for sandwiches, it says to use within a week of opening. I tend to take about 3 weeks to go through a package (I have two open at once, and I use 1/16 of a package for each sandwich). Oops. I wondered if I should change my habits with this for a little bit, but decided not to worry about it. I haven't gotten sick from it yet, and it's not like I'm going with this philosophy.

I think this may be a good reason for me to not have kids--it's kind of a "hey, it hasn't killed them yet, let them keep playing in the street" strategy. We can add that to the list.....what all is on that list, anyway? I know some of the people that read this know a few reasons.....

The city is emptying

...and I'm not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I'm glad that very few people will be around for my birthday, but on the other hand, I won't see most of these people for a long time--possibly never again.

I'm glad about no on being around for my birthday because I hate gatherings centered around me. I don't like being the center of attention--it's very uncomfortable. It also makes my standard party-leaving very hard. If you have been to a gathering with me, you may have noticed that at some point during the evening, I'm simply not there anymore. I'm awkward when it comes to good-byes, so I leave by one of two methods--stay until everyone else is leaving, or disappear. You can't disappear when you're the center of attention, so I'd be forced to stay until the end, which sometimes ends up with awkward moments. Besides, I haven't had a birthday party--other than family get-togethers where it's also the "birthday" of two of my cousins--since 5th grade, and I'm not eager to change that.

However, it is upsetting that people are leaving. My friends seem to be all scattering to the four winds. Some won't be back until Fall--which is precisely when I'm leaving--and some won't be back until Spring. I might not see a lot of these people ever again, and that makes me sad. But that's what happens when you follow God--momentary sadness followed by eternal joy. I am excited for Iowa City, and starting up a church with a bunch of cool people.

Iowa City Retreat

So, it's been almost a week, and I haven't posted about the retreat yet. Well, that's about to change. Here are a few of the highlights:

Always find out what's in a box before you decide to carry it through the hotel lobby. We were down to two boxes left--plus the cart-load--and we didn't want to have to make another trip just for two boxes, so the two of us that weren't pushing the cart decided we could get them. When we got everything up to the room where we were having the sessions, we found out that I had carried one of the subs--and wall-sat with it in the elevator because I didn't want to set it down--and the bass player had carried the mixing board. Nothing like finding out that you've just carried thousands of dollars of equipment to make you glad you didn't find out what it was by the sound it makes when you drop it.

40 people worshiping to 2 guitars and a djembe can be as good as over 1,000 people rocking out at Anthem. Yes, for the Saturday morning worship, we only had 3 people in the worship "band". For the Friday night worship, we had 2 guitars, a bass, a djembe, and an extra vocalist. It seems more personal when there's room to spread out during worship--and I think I may be getting too old for front-row-during-Anthem style worship.

Salt in a bar is going to be fun. I know, you're jealous, but you can come visit and experience Salt in a bar if you want. It's a nice little place with a moose in the bar itself--I'm not sure if it's plastic or an actual taxidermied moose. Besides, worshiping God while people in the next room are drinking beer? How can God NOT use that to bring people into his kingdom?

Here's a conversation that I've had many times this past week. Me: "I don't like Iowa City." Other person: "Why not? I love Iowa City." Me: "It's too big for me." Other person: "Wait. Aren't you from Des Moines?" Me: "Yeah, and I hate Des Moines too."

Hotel beds are too soft. I've gotten used to futons and dorm room beds. I can't sleep on big, fluffy mattresses. I need to feel the random springs or bars digging into me.

I almost forgot the big one. We don't know the name of the church yet. It might be "Cornerstone Church of Iowa City", but it might not. We discussed possible other names, and I think we ended up having over half a dozen suggestions, with "Anthem Church" being the most popular.

Well, that's all I can remember, so I'll now go rest my poor, poor handses. (Another reason I shouldn't be up against the stage during Anthem--I tend to pound my fists, and now my knuckles are all bruised)