Filed under: Ordinary Life
Hope you all had a good thanksgiving week. For me, last week felt like a month. It started last Sunday with mixing for both services, something I rarely do anymore. It was good to be back in the saddle.
Then Monday through Wednesday was just a blur. It felt like everything was suddenly late and there wasn’t enough time to do any of it. But, I made it through to Thursday and suddenly everything was okay again.
The Thanksgiving service at Calvary was really good with lots of people sharing their testimonies of God’s goodness and faithfulness in their lives. It was nice to hear from Pastor Dave as well. Spent the rest of the day up at the in-laws in Whittier. My parents and sister joined in, too. It turned out to be a great day. We played a fun trivia game, taboo and croquet and had plenty of good food to go around.
Then we got up at 3:30 am on black Friday and hit the stores. Got some amazing deals. It was worth it and it was fun to see the crazed look in people’s eyes as they frantically searched for the next great bargain.
Saturday I decided to finally tackle some projects at home. Big mistake. I went to replace the leaky valve for the hot water on our washer. Got the water turned off, found out I had the wrong type of replacement valve, went to the store and got the right valve, came back and installed it, went to turn the water back on…. and nothing. Turns out the main shut-off valve broke, so we had to call our HOA who referred us to a plumbing service who came out, cut apart the old pipe and inserted a whole new valve in the line. It felt good to finally take a nice hot shower that afternoon.
Sunday was a nice wrap up to a full week. Just one service in the morning, lunch with the in-laws, watching football in the afternoon, dinner with my folks, basketball in the evening. Plus, I was able to pick up an old LCD monitor from my dad – so now I can use my busted laptop at home.
I just hope my beautiful wife feels better soon. She ate something funny last night and she’s called in sick for work. I’ll stop typing now and see if she needs anything.
Filed under: Ordinary Life
So last week my Dell laptop croaked. Leslie sat down to check her email and she said the screen suddenly went black. No blue screen of death. No frozen programs. Just black nothingness. I brought it into work on Friday and Bill, our resident PC genius, looked it over for me. It turns out that the display died, but the rest of it’s fine. So, at least no files were lost.
However, it’s not worth it to fix the screen. That means I need a new computer.
Do I go with another PC laptop? Do I try to figure out a way to get an Apple laptop? I’m following up on some leads for used Apples right now. I need it to be fairly new with the Intel chip so I can still run PC stuff easily. I also can’t stand the new glossy screen they’re putting on everything. The matte finish is so much more accurate for colors. So many decisions and no money for anything.
Filed under: Ordinary Life
My beautiful wife Leslie planned a little night on the town for us back on Wednesday. She loves to go to LA. She loves Johnny Rzeznik from the Goo Goo dolls even more though. He’s a judge on the Next Great American Band. So, we went to a taping at CBS studios. The show is on Friday nights on Fox and it’s from the creators of American Idol. It’s been fun watching the real variety of bands, compared to the pop sameness of Idol. We also ran into a friend from Calvary, Kevin Tison, who plays piano for worship on occasion. He was friends with the trombone player for Denver and the Mile High Orchestra, one of the better bands in the contest. It was a great show and it was interesting to see how they do all of the crowd prep and reshoot all of the mistakes since it’s not live on the air.
After the taping, we walked around The Grove and then drove to Pink’s. This place is classic LA. It was started “out in the country” and is now right in the middle of everything at Melrose and La Brea. I had the Huell Howser Dog and it was really good. Afterwards we went to Pinkberry. It was interesting, but I still like Golden Spoon better.
The best part about the night was really the fact that it was just away from it all. It took almost two hours to get there and it gave Leslie and I some time to really talk about life. We seem to have some of our best conversations stuck going North on the 5 ; )
So, where do you like to go to get away from everything and just take a break?
Filed under: Extraordinary Life
I haven’t posted anything for awhile. It’s not that I haven’t had anything to write about. I’ve just been reluctant to say what’s really been on my heart and I’ve been pondering whether a blog is really the place to ponder deeper things…
You ever go through those periods in your life where no matter how relatively good things are, you wish they were different. Not necessarily better, but definitely different. I’m not who I want to be. I’m not where I want to be. I don’t have the things I want to have. I don’t have the kinds of friendships I want to have. I don’t do what I want to do. I don’t feel like I want to feel. I’m not depressed or despondent or anything like that. I’m just not feeling satisfied. Maybe that’s a good thing. I feel like my faith is being stretched beyond where it feels comfortable. It feels like there are mountains standing in my way and I can’t see past them right now.
I wish I knew how to play the guitar. I wish I could be in better shape. I wish I had more money. I wish I was a better friend. I wish my prayers were answered more quickly. I wish I had the vulnerability or courage to write about what I really, really wish for.
I hope I can find satisfaction and peace in the here and now and not get stuck in the longing and wishing for the things that seem forever just beyond my grasp. I hope that I can recognize the blessings I already have. But, I also hope that I don’t give up and become complacent with the easily attainable. I want the kind of change in my life that is only possible because God provides it. May I have the faith it takes to move the mountains.
