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| I think that's actually the title for an MTV show. But it's a great tagline for... anything in your life. Endeavor to make each day better than the day before. Tomorrow will be better than today. 07 will kick 06's butt [it... it's actually done that already for me, and we're only in April] and 2008 will rock '07's socks off.
Let's see. Last update was Saturday. Sunday was Easter service. Pretty cool. Talked about Jesus's scourging, time in the garden, betrayal, death, and of course - resurrection. Then we came home and hung out. Ate ham. Good stuff.
Monday I worked with Caleb and I made some good money. On my home the Hare's invited me to go see Mrs. Hare's side of the family. So I went, ate, had a good time. Her whole family like tried to intimidate me by appearing aloof and withdrawn by sitting in the other room. Which... I found hilarious.
Tuesday I worked with... Joseph? Yes, Joseph. 'Cause we blew through it like speed demons. He got me extremely motivated and I knocked out some windows like... fast. We got off work early and went to the Hare's so Joseph could meet Juan and Eric, these two adorable 4 and 5 year olds. So we played with them at the park and then wound up staying at the Hare's until 10. Mrs. Hare offered us pizza. How could we refuse? We had to stay. *laughs* You all have *no* idea how weird somethings are for me and just... totally out of my comfort zone.
Wednesday I think I worked with Eddie. Which was good 'cause I haven't talked with him in a while. Got out on time/a little early and I went to Nigel and Amanda's youth group and hung out and then Nigel and the Hare's and I went to Starbucks afterwards. Fun stuff. I like all those conversations. =)
Thursday was... I have no idea. It's honestly like a blank space that just says "day before Prom".
Friday was funny because I had to work, but since I was only working half a day, I was going to follow the van with my car. But the job was in Schertz. Which means instead of waking up at 5:45, I can get up at like 7:40. Well, long story short I didn't leave my house until 10:00. The guys were super-late getting to the job site for various reasons. So I work for 2 or 3 hours and head back home. Me and dad are working on the Chevelle. We had... actually a lot to do. Switching wheels/tires, installing a new alternator, painting the differential cap and replacing the fluid, cleaning the windows... a few other things. It was crazy. It wound up with me getting ready in like... half an hour. It was amazing. I showered, shaved, brushed my teeth, put on deodorant and special AXE spray [Essence > others], and got dressed [which... in a tuxedo is like an accomplishment by itself] and we took off in the Chevelle to drop of Noah, pick up Amanda and go to Prom.
Prom was... in one word: Rowdy. And if I used more words, I'd write an essay on it. Kinda like I did with D'Nae this afternoon. *laughs* I really don't want to get into it, but there were a few rough patches [not for me personally, just... because people close to me to were going through some negative stuff in places] but for the vast majority of the time it was just totally awesome. Like, really good. We had to leave a bit early to get Amanda home on time, but the ride home was... I don't know what the word is for that feeling. It was good. It rained, the Chevelle's engine was loud, it was lightning'ing [real word!], and we got to talk for a little bit.
Mmm. After we dropped Amanda off at her house, I went to IHOP with Nigel, Claire, and Heather. Brian showed up later. I just want to say one thing for you kids out there: Be very very careful at night time. The old fogies can tell you it's dangerous with drunk people running around and *you* may never see them, but they're out there. And a few of us ran into a few of them last night. It's... just not "safe", eh? So be careful when you drive at night.
Then me and Nigel stayed up talking for a while at his house and we crashed like... 3 or so. Which isn't *that* late, but when your whole night has been completely and totally physically and emotionally exhausting it feels much much later than it is.
I slept till 12:40 this morning. It was glorious, except for Nigel's crappy upper bunk. Gah, my back. Mmm. Yeah, so I hung out for a while. Guided Nigel to a victory over Joseph in Supreme Commander. Wrote D'Nae a huge email. Worked out details with Joe about Freddie's party tonight and returning our formal wear to the Men's Wearhouse. Went with Nigel to church at CBC. Got drafted as a communion server dude. I've never been in the main/new building until today. Of course, "new" to me... is like 3 or 4 years old. During youth group Nigel was a table leader and I actually took a stroll down memory lane because the youth meet in the old sanctuary, which is where we used to do P.E. I went in the old CBC Homeschool group class rooms. Sat down in the room I used to take art lessons in. Thought about all the time I spent in those rooms, with those people. Annie, Cherie, Desiree, Marin, Nigel... it was old school. I greatly enjoyed it. Not so much because that was a good period of my life, but ... it's good to remember who you were, what you did, where you came from. Good to remember and see how things have changed.
Freddie's party was a blast. I was the Serial Killer and I won a Mafia game. It was... great fun. Steve and I really hit it up. We made up some funny stuff. Happy Birthday Frankie. I know you were 17 back in February. But your April party was lots of fun. Hahahaha. Poor kid had to wait 2 months.
And... now I'm back here. It's been a crazy, full tilt week. I'm hoping to relax tomorrow. Sleep in. Lay about the house. Call a few friends. That kind of stuff.
You are my brothers and my sisters - old or young, friends for 20 years or met with in the past one year. If we're not on speaking terms, I wish we were. If I've offended you I didn't mean to. If we haven't talked in a while, I hope we can catch up soon. I love each and every one of you, even if I don't act like it sometimes.
Awards go out as follows:
Monday - Caleb, for being a cool worker, and for being at 10% to let me make 20% on 700 bucks. Heck yes.
Tuesday - Joseph, for being a good sport about staying at the Hare's house so late. And to Mrs. Hare for making us stay for dinner. It was good.
Wednesday - Eddie for the day at work and Amanda for good talking.
Thursday - Megan. For kicking my butt when I needed it.
Friday - Amanda. For... everything. The spirited dancing, the crying, the talking, the looking awesome together in pictures, and for the ride home.
Saturday - Nigel. Because we rock. We won at SupCom, we served up communion, and we rocked Frankie's party.
For the whole week - My parents. For being cool with how much time I spend away from the house working, being with my girlfriend, and just flat out partying. For trusting me and for helping me when I need it. And for fixing that car so it looked so great for Prom night.
Jehovah Shalom, God of Peace - nothing missing, lacking or broken.
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| Man I love music. It seems like I'm always finding more artists and bands that keep producing more music. Millions of songs and hundreds of styles and genres.
I wonder if anyone wonders how the old folks used to do it. Your average Roman citizen never heard of Disciple, Michael W. Smith, Britney Spears, Metallica or Elvis Presley. Kind of odd how technology changes our lives in ways we may never realize.
I love listening to most genres of music, but one thing I like doing is listening to secular music. It's... it's like audio-people watching. You know where on the occasion, some of us odd people will take walks or sit down in a park and observe people and their behavior? It's like that, but in audio form. I keep tabs on the world and what it's thinking. See how they act when something happens. Maybe think about what they should have done instead. Or, as I've been noticing, it's amazing to see how often wordly people will enact biblical principles and not even realize it. Or sometimes I just laugh. Next 2 You is a Buckcherry song about this guy who seems to fall in love with a very honorable young woman who won't ever compromise her standards and it's driving him crazy. It makes me smile watching simple nonconformity force the other man to conform to her ways. If she never sleeps with him, he has no choice [we're assuming that he really does love her] but to marry her and stick to her in order to get what he wanted the whole time.
^_^
Mmm. I go longer without updating more and more. I wonder how long it'll be before I just... don't do it anymore. I have a list of Xangas and tend to read... most of them. Comment on very few. *shrugs* I've been busy doing real life stuff instead of spending time MySpacing or Xanga'ing. Which... lol... is way better.
God's really been blessing me through work lately. Kelly talked to me a few weeks back about some of the older guys leaving and wanting me to train me on being Crew Chief [which essentially means that of the two people that go out, one has to be in charge and the other is just a worker. Usually I'm the "worker".] - and there's a lot more things you need to know about customer interaction, pricing, and what to do when X happens. Workers just... work. But he mentioned upselling and a few points on that... and since then I think I've upsold $1250 worth of work in... a week. That basically means that while I was there, I sold the customer to do more than what we originally showed up to do. A lot of that is just that the customer doesn't know what else we do. We're Window Gang. Who would know that by that title, that we pressure wash roofs, houses, decks, driveways. Clean out gutters and gutter facings. Seal decks, driveways, and patios. And not just pressure wash, but throw down strong chemicals on those hard surfaces. We clean out dryer vents. We sweep chimneys. Seriously. How does Window Gang = Chimney Sweeping?
But just talking to the customer, telling them "Hey, your driveways is heck of a dirty and I can make it look like new... and you're selling your house, you might like to make it look like new."
The point is that I keep 10% of that upsell. So upselling is good. =)
Let's see. You ever run into something that's really deep? Emotional, spiritual, but on the actual physical detail side you can't explain jack? It's like knowing the world is going to end and you don't know how or why. Just that it is. But then if you told anyone, no one would believe you. Yeah, like that. Being with Amanda recently is like that. If I was to just tell you, yeah we talked on the phone for X amount of minutes, took a few pictures, and saw each other a few times last week, it wouldn't... mmm. It just doesn't *sound* as awesome as it *is*.
Joseph had a movie night for Julie since she's back for... I dunno how long. A different crowd that usual at our house, but it was still fun. I haven't seen the Mask of Zorro in a long time. Mmm. And I think we have left over pizza. That is always good. So we all hung out and had a good time watching the movie and talking. Well at least I had fun watching the movie and talking. I don't know if everyone else thought it was great or not.
I got to sleep in this morning. So I'm doing good. I need to read more.
Have a good one.
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| Normal people knock on doors before going through them. Maybe even ring the doorbell if they're the more formal kind. Not Luke Macias. He just opens the door and strides through.
Back up half a minute.
Caleb gets a phone call. Talks for a minute. Then hangs up. Luke said he would be here [at the lock-in] a while ago and it seems like he should have been here already. So I ask Caleb, "When's Luke gonna be here?" Caleb replies, "He should be here in like 2 seconds." Mentally, my mind jumped. If Luke just called, he would still be on his way, even if he was just down the street. Meaning he couldn't be here in 2 seconds. So I count it out on my fingers. One, two. *BAM* The door busts open and in strides Luke.
We all died laughing. It was hilarious.
That party was pretty rock'n. Those two rascals did decently for having so many people and so much food and being so young and not ever doing it before. While some of the more astute party-goers noticed a difference in the program between a standard Andrew-planned party and this event, most enjoyed themselves - which was the entire point. Nigel turns 18 on Wednesday. That seems... wrong somehow. It just... doesn't sit right. Joseph's 18, Amanda's 18, Anna's 18. Nigel's almost 18. Mmm. Just doesn't seem right somehow. =p
But yes, outstanding event. It was probably the most untraditional party I've ever been to. What with the splitting up at 9, the people showing up at or after 10, leaving at 2:00, staying until 7PM the next day. Taking pictures based on alphabetizing our middle names. Two of the most amazing entrances to my house - ever... within... half an hour. Luke's entrance was impeccable, and Amanda's was most surprising.
Today was crazy. I was on the fully extended 24 foot ladder, scrubbing gutter facings with a purple-soaked rag. Occasionally the flesh-burning chemical would creep down my arm. My right arm now carries a light burn. Mmm. Such fun cleaning metal 25 feet in the air, standing on a metal ladder on top of a small hill in the middle of a thunderstorm. My job *rocks* Haha. But at least I finally got a good day's pay out of working late. Recently it seems I'll work all day or most of a day and make almost jack. Not fun. I love the rain, and I loved working in it today but... well, I guess it's in your attitude.
I haven't had a chance to get all philosophical [at least on Xanga... I've been on my phone a *ton*] yet, but I'm sure I'll do that... sometime when I find time. But on Thursday night I went to go talk with Amanda's parents about courting her. Which turned out quite successful. I occasionally stop and say it out loud - "I have a girlfriend". I'm... so not used to it. So there's probably lots of weird spiritual principles and thoughts to come out of that situation. Oh hey, like this one:
Everything seems to be happening at the same time. It's like for a long time, you sow, and sow, and sow. You water, you make sure your seeds get sunshine and nothing happens. Which is ok with you. Because you were sowing just to sow, because He said so. Now they say you will see "results". Which you will. But results or the harvest - for yourself - is not the point. The giving is. But sometimes it seems like you sow forever and nothing happens. Then, in a split second, it all changes. Who I am, where I stand with people, and what I own is vastly differently last week to a few weeks from now. It feels like the world turned upside down and God saw and said it was good. I'm just trying to figure it out. I'm going to be buying a car pretty soon [the sooner the better], I'm going to be talking to my boss about the company, I'm going to prom with my ... well, girlfriend, and I think I'm getting a new phone. God's pulling our whole family away from doing something we've always done, into doing something new. It's like... you just give it a few months, and I'll be almost a completely different person.
Much like last year where I move from being a mostly worthless bum to a thrifty member of the working class.
Anyways. I hope that was enough of an update for you Caleb. I'd appreciate you all praying for me as my mind sorts through everything. Even if I had stayed home, the phone calls would be enough to throw me for a loop. Person X is dealing with Person Y, I haven't seen Z in forever so I catch her at Starbucks, Person A calls and leaves a voicemail - I still need to get back with you Bethany. It's been pretty crazy. I would write out the series of events, but it's late and I need sleep. I'm not going to get enough as it is. Well... haha, Joe's working tomorrow so I can make him drive while I nap.
Thank you Jesus.
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| Though sometimes I think man wonders who he's connected to, because the people around him look like they're floating on a completely different ocean.
I just was looking over my MySpace friends list, and realizing how long it's been since I've talked to some people. It threw into stark contrast the fact that you can't talk to everyone, all the time. To spend more time with one person is to spend less time with others. A shame, when you want to spend more time with them all.
Then I thought how... well no one is an island. I'm constantly amazed at how connected people are. Ever noticed how it seems with few exceptions, a lot of your friends and family will go through good and bad times together. Now is one of those exceptional times where everyone I know is ... somewhere different. Some are coming out of really rough times and enjoying themselves in the light. Others had been doing pretty good and getting things figured out, only to have the hammer dropped on their lives. A few were in the darkness and responded with yet more fear and blame. And then there a few people like me who, despite both good and bad times, are constantly moving on to another victory. Trust me, that's possible. I was born special, but so were you. Kicking life's butt is easy once you learn the secret.
It makes me feel so good to be so deeply connected with people. To be at the same place spiritually and emotionally. It's like the essence of life. And then I'll turn around and talk to someone who... I couldn't even begin to empathize with what's happening to them. It's so strange. It's like two places connected by a bridge, and while you turned around to do something else, that bridge burned down. You can see what's going on, but lack the power to cross over and get involved. And as I just said that, I'm seeing how that applies to a lot of different situations. Many and more are the reasons humans don't get involved. More's the pity.
You know what's really strange is the music I listen to while I'm typing all this out. You think I'd be listening to praise and worship or some catchy pop song. But no, 'tis Metallica. *laughs*
Well I'd appreciate your prayers, as always. I got a few decisions up ahead and I need His wisdom to discern what to do and the timing of several different events. Much thanks.
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| No more, the crap rolls out your mouth again.
Haven't changed, your brain is still gelatin.
Little whispers circle around your head.
Why don't you worry about yourself instead?
Who are you? Where ya been? Where ya from?
Gossip burning on the tip of your tongue.
You lie so much you believe yourself,
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself.
Holier than thou, you are.
Holier than thou, you are.
You know not.
Before you judge me, take a look at you,
Can't you find something better to do?
Point the finger, slow to understand,
Arrogance and ignorance go hand in hand.
It's not who you are, it's who you know.
Others' lives are the basis of your own.
Burn your bridges and build them back with wealth.
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself.
Holier than thou, you are.
Holier than thou, you are.
You know not.
Who the hell are you?
Holier than thou, you are.
Holier than thou, you are.
You know not.
Really kind of odd. I sat down to write because I haven't done so in a while [mostly because... it's rather pointless.] and because I wanted to get my mind off of something. I'd go into it, but... ha, I won't.
So I opened up Xanga and thought for a minute about what to say. Because all that's going on in there are principles, feelings, or parts of the small event that I was trying to get away from. So I turn on some music. Then I realize what song is next on that album and I go to play it. Then... I realize it's absolutely perfect for another situation. One of those things I've just stayed out of because it's pointless to reason with crazy, unchangeable people. Thus, instead of ever having to get involved, I can just quote that song. It's... perfect on an unbelievable level.
Funny how life can work like that. You try to find an answer for so long. Then get totally distracted. And therein, find the answer.
I'd write more, but I'd wind up saying something sooner or later that I'd rather not have said. So comment on this entry, or you won't get any more.
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