I drove, and drove, and drove, and drove

I hung out at Snider for lunch today, then after I went over to my friends house to make sure my COMM final was sent. It was a video final actually, pretty simple stuff. I just hope it was sent okay. eeesh. I hung out with Ryan a bit after and we tried to think of some lyrics to an upcoming song.

Then I played Tennis with my friend Zach. It was raining all day today, but that didn't stop us. It should have, but we played Tennis in the rain. It created a new type of challenge, you don't usually run into with the sport. It was fun, we were soaked.

Today was the last regular Young Life of the semester. We have one more on the 14th, but it is at the Wizzards game (Fort Wayne's baseball team). Immideatly following the game we are having a HUGE watter balloon fight. It is going to be amazing, I just hope we have good weather. I had much fun at the last club, and dipped out a little bit early so that I could make it to my friends house without being too incredibly late.

Sara is the one in the middle

So I drove, and drove, and drove. I listened to my GPS system in my phone, and well, let's just say that Verizon's system may be a little bit flawed. It works really good when you are in a city situation, but other than that, roads need to be updated and things of that sort. It took me like 5 1/2 hours to get there, and it shouldn't be more than a 3hr45min drive. What ev though. I made it happen. :-/

I took a test, tanned, and watched a bat

This morning I took my last Psychology exam. I know one thing, I felt confident on it. I finished it in under 30 minutes, which is about 15-30 minutes than usual. That could be a really good thing, or not so good. I guess I will find out when the test is graded. I do know this though, last night I didn't sleep a wink. And if I actually did get some sleep, that is all it was....a wink. I think because I am constantly thinking about the Arizona trip and my final, I just had too much going on in my brain, and it just kind of raises my stress level. When the stress level raises, I function differently. M/S does not like stress. I am so super tired tonight though, I think I should sleep. This post is coming from my parents computer because mine is in the computer hospital. But I assure anyone that I can post just as successfully on their computer as mine. :-)

I went tanning again today. That would make it tanning experience # 3, and it was for sure a "special one." I sure didn't have a chance of falling asleep in this tanning bed, or closet whatever you wanna call it.

This is the top of the tanning bed/closet/whatever machine. I know it is a little unclear, but there was really low light in there. So, this thing is pretty cool, and maybe not uncommon, but it was new to me. You get in there, close yourself in, and crank up the lights. You just stand there, and get your tan on. LOL. it was kind of awkyard, but cool at the same time. I am fairly PINK but, Abby (girl at tanning salon) assured me it would turn into a nice base tan. ;-)

My friend took me out to eat today at Applebee's. It was good to talk with him, and I got to hear from his heart a little bit. His father is a good man, and lives in my neighborhood. As I was driving home, he yelled at me and I turned around. He gave me a lot of encouragement, and a nice reminder in who I really serve. Mark 9:23 and Mark 11:24.

Good NIGHT, it really was too. I watched Bat Man Begins, and remembered how sweet of a movie it is. NIGHT, for real.

I Went to work, studied, and changed oil

Yes, I was up at work 6:30 this morning. I threw some Fert on the grass and booked out of there at 10:30 on the dot to go to school and finish studying for the Final Exam in Psychology. I feel prepared and ready to go.

When I got done studying I went and got some Oil and a filter and waited for Tony (friend) to get home from work. When he did, he helped me change my oil and we ran into some problems. urghhh, the screw/bolt whatever was on the oil pan so tightly, it wouldn't come lose. Well, it got stripped and I had to run it to the last place that did my oil for me. I was kind of short with this guy on the phone, and when I went in, I said right away, "hey man, I am so sorry I got an attitude with you. That was wrong of me, and I was just frustrated and decided to take it out on you." He thanked me and assured me it was okay, then he worked on getting that BOLT off for 43 minutes. As soon as my car got jacked up, this lady and 3 gentlemen came in. We talked and enjoyed each other for a long time. It was neat.If you have ever seen the Jack Nicholson movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" well, these guys reminded me of some of the characters in that movie. They were all very sweet hearted and high functioning, but all had different degrees of personality disorders. The guy with the red and white striped shirt reminded me of Martini played by Danny DeVito. He was a sweet sounding man who always had a smile on his face. You can see a great clip HERE just go to the part playing at 2:38 (he steals a cigg) and; "if you have not seen the movie," you will understand what I am talking about. Anyways, it was so nice to hang out with those guys, and I felt blessed. I forgot all of their names, and where the lady was from. She goes to IPFW though, I think maybe it starts with a K...but I suck at remembering.

I FINALLY got everything taken care of, and got a new rim for only 20 buck$! I was pumped, because now my car doesn't vibrate like crazy when you get up to speed. YESSSS!!!!

I have my last/final exam in Psychology tomorrow 8:00AM, I feel ready for it.

NIGHT!

Go with the flow, let the music make you-You gotta go where the music takes you ~Ari Gold

~Important Prayer request~
Not that a "humble" prayer request can be more or less important to the Big Guy, but to my mother and aunts and uncles this may be (as well as me, i'm just not as closely connected to it). On Saturday morning (yesterday) my grandmother (mom's mom) fell out of her bed at night and hit her face/neck on her night stand. My grandma has an early stage of parkinson's disease and because of that disorder, she is on several medications to help with the tremors as well as other nasty effects. Well, these drugs cause her to have very real and vibrant dreams. In this one she said she remembered running and had to take a corner very quickly, when she took the corner in the dream, she did it physically in her bed. This caused her to fall right off her bed and into her night stand. She is in the hospital because the fall jarred her neck so much it caused swelling in her upper spinal cord. Her hands and wrists have locked up, and she can not walk right now. She is in the hospital, and the doctors have decided to wait until Wednesday to see if the swelling will go down. If it has not subsided by Wednesday, they will go in for a surgery to try to relieve some of it manually. The her prognosis is unclear and it is very frightening to my Grandpa and her children. My grandpa is really struggling right now, and my prayer request is that he is calmed by the Holy Spirit. For my grandma of course God's will is of utmost importance. My request is that she be healed and return to her health before this incident. I will post her updates as they come.

What a great sermon today at Pathway. The new segment we are getting to is called Extreme Makeover Family Edition and we had a guest speaker come and give the sermon today. A lot of the talk was directed towards couples and parents in families, but still a lot of good information to walk away with. He gave this one example that really stuck out in my mind. He told a story about when he was younger and his sister-in-law called and he picked up. She asked to talk to his dad, and continued to inform of some very devastating information. She called to say that his brother (his fathers son, her husband) had died in a plane crash. This speaker said one thing that really stuck out in my mind. He said he remembered his father saying on the phone to his sister-in-law, "well now is the time to really show our faith." This man was not a pastor, he was an engineer. BUT, he was a man of God, and a great father figure. That is what I seek, and strive for. I hope that story wasn't confusing with all the sister's brother mother, father's in-law (non-sense) what have you. :-) It was a great story and example of a Godly creating an opportunity to show the deep seeded love and trust of Christ we (believers) must all reach for.

I went back for tan time # 2 @ Club Tan. I am burnt......... I went for 8 minutes in the level 4 tanning bed. I think I should have stuck to the level 3 bed a little longer. BUT OHH WELL.

God is good, good is God. I want to leave this POST with a funny picture that my friend Scott sent me. I really got a crack out of it, hopefully along with all the others I forwarded it to.These men are installing bollards to stop cars parking on the pavement
outside an Irish sports bar. They are cleaning up at the end of the day.

How long do you think it will be before they realize?

Collateral was also very good tonight. NIGHT!

'm about to lose control and I think I like it

I am not about to lose control, but I have been listening to a new station on the radio called VIBE 106.3 which wouldn't typically be a radio station that I would listen to. BUT, for some reason or another I find myself on that station more and more often. Michael Jackson, Prince, Will Smith (old school), Madonna and others are regulars on the station. I just get to jamming, and my head starts bobbing and I just really enjoy myself singing stupid songs.

I go to work this morning at 6:30AM on the dot. I open up the building and deactivate the alarm system. Then I got to work, putting edges on the mulch beds and things of that sort. John (facility manager) and I got everything around for the volunteers that were suppose to show up at 8:00. Well some did in fact show up, but hardly in hoards like I was hoping. The good news was that one super nice and attractive chicka showed up, I was in a small group with her a long time ago. It was nice to get to work near her when I had the chance, she is a real sweet heart, a teacher too, not that-that does or doesn't have anything to do with the sweetness of her heart (does that make sense?).I loaded many wheel barrels of mulch and spread it and evened it and tossed it and and pretty much swam in mulch all day. It was a nice reminder of when I use to work for Vision Scapes (Lawn & Landscaping company I use to work for). Man, I worked my butt off for that company, and loved it. They do a really good job too.

Tonight was Dave Church, and it was very nice and encouraging. It was an evening of prayer, for the people there. It was nice because we got to talk through our current struggles and prayer requests. Then, as a group we prayed for each other. Very humbling to have other people pray for you right in front of you. Especially when they connect to you in prayer. I have felt this happen many times when the person praying for you is sincerely caring about you and your struggle. Rachel (daves daughter) and Gavin (another couples son) took a very cute picture for me tonight.Gavin is such a little cutie. He is super smart for just hardly being 2 years old. I always love Dave Church. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us as a body of believers and people who believe in a common goal. LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE!

I am so excited, I just can't hide it

I had a good day today. I worked at Pathway & then worked a little bit more, and then went home and decided I needed to get a "base tan" in the white areas of my body before I go off to Arizona, the land of much sun. So when I went to the bank to get some ca$h I asked my friend Lydia who just so happens to be a teller at my bank where a good place to go tanning would be. She said I needed to go to CLUB TAN, so I went.Club tan was a pretty HIP place. I had to have the girl at the front desk explain in great detail what exactly I needed to do to get a good base tan before I went off to Arizona. She explained it to me and I spent entirely too much money on a tan plan, and some tanning oil...which is apparently extremely important to the tanning process now a days. ;-) Then, I climbed into this thing that looked like it was out of the future. I use to go tanning when I was in High School, but I swear it never looked like this.I thought it was going to maybe rotate me and put me on a broil while I was in there. And besides the main stream Hip Hop music blairing in my ears, it was a pretty relaxing time. I look forward to it again on Sunday.

OK, so I get home and talk to my budy Mike who lives in Phoenix. He said he would pick me up from the camp and take me to the airport when I have to leave on the 13th, but he said that he wishes I could have come early so I could have stayed with him and Kaitlyn for a while. So I thought about it, and then made a phone call to American Air Lines. Budda Bing, Budda Boom! I am now leaving on the 20th instead of the 23rd so I can spend some time with Mike before I go off to the camp. It is going to be so sweet! We are going to go fishing on his boat, and just do cool hanging out stuff. The last time I got to see him was on New Years of 2007. Man, I love this guy, and I miss him like crazy too. It will be such a good time for me to get to see him.Mike is all the way to the left, and this picture was taken at the Hoover Dam. We always have so much fun when we are together. I can't wait till the 20th now. I mean I was already super duper pumped to go to this camp, and now I am super duper pumped to go see mike, then go to this amazing heart changing camp. This is going to be a supreme month. I am going to try to BLOG every amazing moment of it too. To have a hard copy of my memories is such a nice thing to have. Okie Dokie, I am off to beddy because tomorrow I have an early start and a long day of work. ohh SNAP, I am totally stoked!

my pledge: Learn to throw a frisbee better.

Today, I got a chance to hang out/babysit two of my little cousins. I got quite a chuckle out of them. So much life, energy, and giggles. I fit right in, like always.

So, I did my group speech in my COMM class today. I think we did a really good job. I of course, made most of what I said up right at the moment. This seems to be a reoccurring event with my speeches. But, like I said, I think we did a really good job "comparatively anyways."

I learned something very important today, you can totally run off a painful side ache. It is painful for a while, but it eventually goes away. I took Reggie and Umar to play Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of the other guys from Young Life. It was super fun, and once we got the hang of it, it only got better. It is seriously fun as heck. I am not usually a real physical person, ya know, not too competitive, but this brought out a new side to me. I wanted to do good, which drove me to run hard and ignore the pain jolting from an intense side ache. Like I said though, you can totally run it off. The guys had a good time though, and that made me have a good time.

There was one thing that was kind of sketchy though. I kept pushing it to the limit, like I said I am not super physical anymore, well nothing more than working at Pathway. I kept seeing stars though, and getting a little bit light headed. I just brushed it off, and it went away. I remember it happening 3 times though. And I am just going to be aware of it.

I am going to sleep real good tonight. YESSSS!