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?