time to sleeeeeep...

Today was a long day- but just work then tutoring. Tomorrow will also be long- work, our first volleyball game, then more tutoring. Time for some zzz's.

another update

I just realized I haven't done an insight or personal development blog in awhile. I'll have to do that soon.

I've been able to see more out of town friends recently. Kelsey was in town from Grand Rapids, so I got to hang out with her and Lois for awhile. We ate at Potbelly's (so good!) and Lesley randomly came in with one of her friends, so I got to talk to her for a bit too. It's always good to see Kelsey. I consider her one of my heroes. Her life up to this point has been very atypical and she's always up for the next adventure life is going to take her. She's done a lot already.

Tiffanie and Gabe were also in town for an extended weekend. I went up to Zion to hang out with them at this big family picnic. It was fun.

Even though it was Memorial Day, I started working for threadless again for their new sale. I've really been starting new jobs recently on weird days. Threadless on Memorial Day. CNSCCC on Easter. What can you do?

Last night, I got to hang out with Owen (another Cornell friend) and meet his girlfriend, Rissa. Owen's always been a cool dude and Rissa is very sweet. I actually had to ditch them for a couple hours to meet up with Matiss and see Erica perform at the Hot House- which was awesome. But afterwards, I met up with them again to go to a bar in Oak Park with Peter, and meet up with David and Ashley. It was like a mini-Cornell reunion!

Coming up...tutoring Steph again tomorrow. Her algebra final is Thursday! Please pray that she does well. Also first game in our summer volleyball league is this Wednesday. Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!

blessings

pretty awesome weekend

Saturday night I got to see my friend, Ben, display his photos in a gallery. His first time doing that. Afterwards, I met up with Kelsey and Lois- two friends I met at Cornell. It had been several months since I saw Lois and quite a bit longer since I saw Kelsey. Such wonderful people to hang out with. The kind of people where friendship picks up right where it left off.

For some reason, I could not sleep last night at all. I got maybe 3 hours of sleep before church this morning. It was my first Sunday as the full time youth pastor. I went to help the kindergardeners' Chinese class as usual, then got donuts and oj for my youth group bible study. It was also the first time I led worship songs for them. It was the first time and there lots of people wandering around so I didn't overdo it. But it still went well. CNSCCC is celebrating 30 years so we had everyone take photos for a new church directory.

After that was another algebra tutoring session with Steph. Then I went to my folks place for dinner. I found out that my uncle was involved in this crazy incident in a forest preserve. Now.....sleeeep!!!! I'm so tired.

blessings

ugggghhh

Not really feeling too well. And I've got youth group tonight too. Praying for the Lord to make me feel better. We're continuing our study of Ephesians. But before that, we're playing sardines! Can't believe I haven't done that yet with them.

I finally saw The Protector- Tony Jaa's 2nd film release in the U.S. The story treatment is pretty good, building a story on a specific group of people in Thai history. The actual plot though is a bit weak. It had incredible action in it, but the movie was too much based on that. Still, Jaa accomplished one of his main goals in raising the bar with action/martial arts. He has a fight scene against a capoeira guy, followed by a wushu guy. In his fight scene with the x-gamers he does a back handspring onto a ledge, walks along it on his hands, then flips off it. And then there's the 4-minute shot fight scene in the casino. Amazing.

Normal visit, cont'd

Yep, I'm a little overdue for this continuation of my last blog. A week and a half ago I made a visit to see some friends for a couple reasons. 1) It was Jill's birthday so I thought I'd surprise her. And 2) It was the last Monday night (supposedly!) that Molly would perform at NV Lounge before going to CO for LT this summer, so I thought I'd go see her do that.

So I guess I didn't surprise Jill because she knew I was coming, but I did trick her with when I was coming. She had to close at Starbucks on her birthday (Sunday) and then open the next morning. Lame. I told her I would get there on Monday then and take her out to eat for dinner. I ended up on the road later than planned (as usual), but eventually made it to Starbucks with Molly to surprise Jill.

Monday was a lot of down time. Basically, I was just waiting around to take Jill out to dinner. I ended up making it to both Jill's and Tracy's Starbucks, then went to Panera for awhile. After Jill was off work we went to her place to chill, then Molly met us before going to Ned Kelly's for dinner, which is a decent steakhouse.

After that- more down time until NV Lounge. I eventually ended up back at the guys' house with Molly and met a few more people, including Gina and Katie. We were going over different songs to do that night, and glanced over More Than Words by Extreme. Before you know it, Molly was singing it and I was accompaning her on guitar.

NV Lounge was a good time because there were a lot of cool people there. I finally met Chris Pond, who didn't show up last time I was out there. I also met Katie and Meagan out there. David, Amber, Katie, Nate, and more people made it out that night (sorry I can't remember everyone's names!) Tracy performed (after much pleading ahead of time by me). Chris did some songs. Molly did some songs (including More Than Words). Then they closed at 1. Lame. But it was still a lot of fun.

I ended up sticking around all day on Tuesday, which meant a bunch of time at Panera again! I almost got to hang out with Leslie but she was uberbusy. I picked up Gina and a couple other ISU students for a Cornerstone home group BBQ at the Pastor Mike and Michelle's house, where Molly has been staying the past few months. Good times, but I had to leave early so I could actually get back to Chicago at a decent time.

in Normal

Visiting some friends in Bloomington/Normal now. Killing some time at Panera. Trying to update my blog and start another one for my youth group. Yesterday was a long day. Went to church where I sat in on Chinese class with the kindergarteners, then had bible study with the youth. Hung out a bit with Elisabeth and Stephanie. Then went home really quick to get my things together for coming here.

I met with Molly at Fazoli's where she was having a pretty deep conversation with her friend, Karen. After awhile, we parted ways so Molly and I could surprise Jill with a mini-birthday cake while she was at work. We decided to meet up after she was done closing. So Molly took me to the guys' house where I'd be staying to drop my stuff off. Then we picked up Jill and decided to drive out to the lake and look up at the stars. Molly has a convertible, too, so during the drive, Jill and I were able to gaze up at the stars. I'd never done that before and it was pretty awesome. So was hanging out at the lake because it had been awhile since I went to a more natural place and looked up at the beautiful night sky. I needed to be reminded more often how big God and His creation is and how small I am...

blessings

Molly and Tracy come to visit

I was tired as heck on Monday. Drove back on Monday morning after a late night hanging out with friends in Iowa. But part of the reason for driving back on Monday and NOT after Tuesday night (ahem...Ellen!) was to hang out with Molly and Tracy and see their friend, Leslie, perform in Lincoln Park. We attended a short showcase of around 25 ISU theatre majors. It was quite a show. There are certainly a lot of talented people there.

Like I said, I was tired! So when Molly and Tracy called to say they were in the city, I was asleep. But I got myself up quickly and took the Fullerton bus to the theater. I was able to catch the bus right away which almost never happens when I'm in a hurry. I met them at a thrift store about a block down on Lincoln, and then we ate dinner at a nice bar grill across the street from the theater. Then we saw the ISU students perform, which like I said, was amazing! Just before the show, we happened to find seats in front of Leslie's family so we got to chat with them a bit. Afterwards, I finally got to meet the woman herself. The reason I had visitors on a Monday night.



Leslie got a ride back to ISU with some other friends so I got to hang out with Molly and Tracy a bit longer. We went to an hispanic bar in Logan Square where they have salsa dancing on Monday nights. I had never been in there before so I didn't quite know what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. Some dude from Europe asked Molly to dance a few times. I showed Molly and Tracy all the 2 moves that I know. Matt stopped by for a minute. Not a bad night for missing $2 burgers!

I'm not used to people visiting me in Chicago at all! Lots has been happening this past year. And now, I hopefully get to hang out with Ashley this weekend.

weekend in Iowa

So I finally got to visit some friends in Iowa again. It's been several months, especially if you don't include my "stopping by on the way home from the twin cities" back in December. I arrived early afternoon on Saturday and got to hang out with Lori, Amanda, and her son Jacob at Coldstone. I was hoping Ellen would be working at the time but she was out on a retreat this past weekend. Afterwards, I had a long, boring time to kill before going to the last night of the Glory Days conference the Midwest Prayer Center was holding but I just hung out and read some books. That night I went to the conference, which was held at River of Life church.

On Sunday morning, some of Amber's cats were playing around a little too hard and one of them broke the window screen and fell out the window!!! I tell ya, it was not a good day. By the time Amber realized what happened her cat, Justice, was already gone hiding somewhere. So we didn't quite make it to church that morning. If you know Amber at all, you know that her cats are very important to her, so it was a very emotional time for her. But I'm happy to say that Justice returned home late that night.

Angie and Robyn decided to come by later that morning, and he walked around the neighborhood a bit to look for Justice and talk to some neighbors. Then we ate at Cici's Pizza, a pizza buffet place and it was packed! Not too bad though for a pizza buffet. Afterwards, we went back to Amber's place and then finally got in touch with Sara. I stopped by to hang out with her and her brother, Patrick, before meeting up with Amanda and Jacob to visit Cornell again. They had a music/art benefit for Darfur refugees. It was pretty fun. And I got to meet up with Brandon and Catherine Quehl-Engel again.

I went to hang out with Sara and Patrick again that night and I got to have a long talk with Sara, which was great, because I don't get to see her or talk to her that much. I finally went back to Amber's at 1am, where her and Kara were patiently waiting to hang out! Then on Monday morning, it was back to Chicago. Pretty fun weekend.