| I'm looking for my Chocolate Bunny |

Someone at my job has kidnapped my dear chocolate bunny!!! It was given to me by a good friend of mine, who lives in France! I am on the case and shall update as I learn anything!

[ the joys of morning ]

Unfortunately for me, I have the obligation of working tuesday nights until 10:30 and wednesday mornings at 9:00. What that usually means is that I get to get home about 12am and I need to get up at about 7am. The problem is that since I bike home, it takes me about an hour and a half to two hours to get to sleep.

This morning I realized the joy of a good shower. I went to bed about 2:15am last night, and I woke up at 7:15am. I woke up and went to the bathroom to shower and discovered the joy of having great water pressure! I was afraid, cause the bathroom seemed kinda old, but it was amazing. It was like having a little massage in my shower. I think I appreciate it most, cause I come from a home that had really bad water pressure.

So, even though I'm tired, and I left my lunch in the fridge, I shall say, in the words of my favorite sacred heart doctor (Dr. Cox): "Oh, it's going to be a great daaaaaaaaay!!!!" (replete with irish accent and all).

I'm out...

| gratefulness |

Today was such a fun time at work. I got to play the pencil breaking game at work with Jeremiah. That was really interesting. I broke 5 of his pencils... HAHA

Other than that, there isn't a lot to say. 

I did want to mention that I think God has blessed me greatly with good housemates. I usually get home really late on tuesday nights, which means that I get to bed really late. I got home tonight about 12:15. I needed to do some laundry and I needed to make some lunch. It was really awesome that when I got home, I was greeted by ollie, who proceeded to tell me that there was left over dinner that was made, which was in the fridge. Instant lunch for tomorrow!

I feel so blessed by that. 

I'm out...

| gotta love the "holidays" |

Today has been quite the lazy day.

I woke up and watched "Smart People". I bought this movie on sunday, when I went to dimple records with Alicia from my Bible study (the one I attend, not one of the ones I lead). This, of course, was one of the random movie purchases that I like to make, even though I haven't seen the movie. I haven't had too many disappointments with those however, and this one was not an exception to the rule. It was a pretty good movie. I was surprised a bit, because even though I had heard a few good things about it, I was a bit afraid of such an indie sounding movie. Turns out, I love ellen page outside of Juno as well! Thomas Hayden Church is actually quite an interesting actor. 

So, for lunch I went to a chinese restaurant with the housies. It was a pretty good place to eat it turns out. Ollie, Alf, and I had general chicken, which was quite good. We rode our bikes there, and I wouldn't be able to tell anyone how I got there, cause there were so many turns and switches of streeets. It was good times to be able to bike ride with Ollie and Tim though...

Interesting story about this trip to the Chinese food restaurant. We are locking up our bikes and moving towards the door, and we're approached by this homeless woman who was standing outside of the door. She asks us if we have any cash, and after searching our wallets and pockets, we realize that we don't have any cash on us. She proceeds to ask us if we could buy her a box of some pork chow mein. We tell her that we might be able to do that once we've gotten our lunch. So we eat, and as I said before; things were quite good. When the waitress brought the bill, I asked her for an order of pork chow mein. We make our way out to the door, and I find our homeless friend has somehow procured a box of chow mein, however I decide that I should give her the chow mein that I purchased anyway. Apparently, this was a bad idea. She copped an attitude when I offered her the chow mein that I bought. Apparently, she had her fill of chow mein, and even when Ollie offered her the idea of taking it for later, she got adamant in denying the food.  Her attitude was really shocking, considering that I didn't have to buy her that food. However, it served as dinner for me later on. I just thought it was crazy how she asked us to get that for her specifically, as opposed to me buying her something random of the menu. 

God rewards those who try to do for the least of us. (that's what I tell myself to feel better about such things.)

Anyways, later on I capitalized on my great idea for our mechanical garage door opener. I set the codes and I mounted it on the outside of our house. We now don't have to worry about how we can open the door from the outside, so we can use it as the main entrance of the house, and....! We don't each have to get a silly clicker. We all have the code and with one piece of equipment, we can get into the house. 

I'm very proud...

I am now off to peruse the internet and listen to my favorite talk radio show. Dr. Laura Schlessinger. She really keeps it real!

I'm out...

| new beginnings (once again?) |

This has been a time of rebirth for me lately...

This past week, I've been in the process of moving. My new household and I are relocating to a little house that's not too far from where they were living last year. We had to move because there are now 5 of us, and we were crammed into a little 2 bedroom place. We're now in a 3 bedroom place that seems like it could have a good amount of room for us. It's a pretty nice place actually, and the main draw is the instant community that is here for us to join into. There is a family of IV staffers, that is across the street, and they're good friends with josh and alf. The friendships between them equates to instant friendship for everyone in the house. There's also people from my new Bible study that are close by. Niel lives right up the street, and Steve and Alyssa live down the street. Heather lives right across the street. It's a good place to be. 

I've also been going to a new church, gateway fellowship. The teaching is pretty good, I like the pastor. The big seller of this place is that is has a great post college/college student ministry group going. We all meet up once a month to hangout and praise together. I've been quick to give into my feelings of tiredness, and just walking away from the opportunities to get together with people, but I've recently began to think of things more as network opportunities than as a way that I can be burnt out from the week. 

The opportunities to see how people are growing without me in davis has really been encouraging. I had a hard time with the idea of even leaving the fellowship at the end of last year. God promised me that I didn't have to be around for Him to have the fellowship grow crazily (I do know that He doesn't need me singlehandedly anywhere). It has been great to hear about how things are going so great for people. I did extend some challenges to people before I left, and it seems that God has really been pushing them to open themselves and their influences around them to lots of people. 

It seems that also, there has been new beginnings for relationships that I thought were dead. A couple of years ago, I had a falling out with a friend of mine. I thought that she was taking my friendship with her for granted. I felt like I was putting in a great amount of work with her, just to be met with negativity and non-effort on her part. My answer to that was to just cut her out of my life. I didn't want to be a burden to anyone who didn't want me around them. It was kinda catching up with me as of late, and tonight I decided to just catch her on facebook chat. Part of me didn't want to bother her, but I felt like I should use this chance to be able to apologize for how I wrote her off, even though I felt like I was on the losing end of the friendship in the first place. I realized that I wasn't responding in the best way to her, and to the way that I felt I was being treated. The best idea was to be able to let someone know how their actions were making me feel. I just ran away from things and allowed myself to become calloused to her. After a few years, I can say that God has put it on both of our hearts to reconcile with each other. We had a great convo, which included sorries on both sides. We're now willing to move forward and try to repair the friendship that we once had. 

God is putting me in a season of brand new. I'm being given the opportunity to start new in a lot of different ways. I want to be able to answer the call to serve Him, while I'm in uncomfortable situations. I'm glad that I've been able to see how He's responded to my efforts so far, but I know that I have a lot further to go. This includes making a bigger attempt to be part of the community that is coming together around me. It's exciting, but it will be tiring too. I'm looking forward to it. 

| thank goodness it's friday? |

Today had to be one of the most random, crazy days ever. When I woke up, I thought it would be the best day ever, seeing that it's Friday. However, I would come to find that it would be a FRIDAY FROM HELL... (cue scary movie music).

So, I leave my house, in a reasonable time to be able to light rail over to the Amtrak station. So I thought. I had spent the night before taking the rack off of the back of my bike. Along with these adjustments, I had to take my back wheel off, and disconnect the brake cable, so that I could take the final piece of the rack off. I spent a long time making sure that things were right before I went to bed. So it was to my great surprise, that only about a third of the way into my trek, I couldn't pedal my bike along. For some reason, the back tire was rubbing against the frame, so it wouldn't move. I had to carry my bike all the way back to my house (7 blocks or so, thank goodness I have a light bike). From the minute that I got back to my place, and found that the door was locked, I knew this would be a crazy day.

I had to miss the train that would get me to work on time, so that I could work on my bike, so that it would be road ready. I finally got it all together and I headed out to work. I got here about 45 minutes late, but ready to work. About an hour into the day, I was beginning to hear requests for me to try to go to another store to get some ink for one of our big machines. I called every store in our district, except for one. NONE of those stores had the ink that we needed; this was because they didn't have the same machine, or someone else had asked for their extra before I could get to it. I spent a good couple of hours trying to track down this ink, including calling hp business direct, only to find out that the sales representative for our company and region was not in her office today. :(

Then I was sent on another round of calling all the stores to find a piece for one of our black and white printers. Once again, it seemed like no one had this piece, but on the last call, I was able to procure one that we could borrow. The only thing was that the store that was willing to save us, was all the way in Roseville. As I was trying to leave, I got asked to go to the Citrus heights area, and also to Elk Grove. It was about 1pm, and today was the first day of any kind of rain since before the summer. It was a great day to be on the roads, and it took me about 6 hours to traverse all over the greater sacramento area.

the last piece of the puzzle is that i got back to work, with about 10 minutes before I had to be at the train station to catch my train, which would've been fine, cause I would bike from work to the station. As I'm walking out of the door, I realize that I haven't pulled my drawer. That would take me much longer than about 5 minutes, so I had to be stuck here, at Kinko's for the next hour and a half, to wait for the next train to come.


It's almost over....?

I'm out...

| who knew? |

People are so interesting!

It's funny how as individuals, we are prone to thinking some crazy things. We are often worried about the first impressions that we make on people. Perhaps it's our insecurities, but it seems like we're always so quick to categorize everything and everyone. I could go into a party and come away from it wondering what people thought of me and who I might have had a good connection with or not. 

The sad thing about these first impressions, is that they're just not often true. There have been so many times where I've met someone, and I thought that they were specifically one way. I've walked away from meetings with my mind made up about someone, only to spend more and more time with them, and finding that they are completely different from the way I previously viewed them. There is so much depth to people sometimes, that it's crazy. I guess I'm really quick to judge people. In our society, it's really easy to put a label on something. We have to have a name for something. It's either this, or it's that. The best of something, the worst of something. We label people...

Why is this?

One great example of this is my friend Katherine. I totally thought that when I met her, she was just this senior aged girl, who had a great chip on her shoulder. I thought that she was having issues with things, and that she kinda hated men. I felt like as I was talking near her, that she was scrutinizing me and that she was just ripping me apart in her head. She was definitely not the type of person that I would think I'd have anything in common with. I think if I would've stayed with that idea, that I would've missed out on a really good friend.  She's actually really an amazing woman! God is really putting Himself onto her and she's receiving it well. I've been quite surprised that what I originally thought was completely off.

What's really cool is that, there are people who I always think are just done with me. Or who have bad impressions of who I am, and they turn out to really not mind me. Actually, they think that I'm a cool guy. Who would've thought!? 

People are funny that way. 

I'm out...

| I will be with you |

On Thursday I decided that I would go back to Davis to check out Michael Koh speak at Intervarsity's large group. I thought it would be a while before I'd be back at Davis for a large group, but I had to come and hear this guy. He's an awesome speaker. There aren't many people that I remember giving talks, but he is definitely one that I do. He gave an awesome talk at spring conference a few years back. One of his main points was about prayer. If we really pray with all of our hearts, big things can happen. He was speaking about Exodus 3 this time. Where Moses first encounters God through the burning bush. He asks God: "Who am I?" and God tells him, "I am with you".

I really think that's applicable to me.

I was thinking the other day, I don't know what I'm doing with myself. I thought that I had made a mistake in coming to Sacramento and going to Sierra College. I didn't think that I was connecting with students at all. For some reason, I just believed that there was no way I'd feel like I was being disconnected at all if I were still in Davis. Things would just be getting started, and I'd be right in the thick of it, loving every moment of it. The truth is, I was just feeling like I didn't want to be here. However, what was awesome about that was the fact that I totally was honest with God and with Troy (my boss) from the beginning. I told him that I didn't have a heart for community college students, but that doesn't mean that I couldn't let Him grow it in me. That was a huge thing for me to remember, because it wasn't like it was some secret shame or anything. It was good! It was freeing to know that my starting line had been defined.

I feel like God has really been with me these past couple of weeks. Working in Davis and making deliveries to campus, right when the school year is starting was not weird at all. Generally, NSO is my favorite time around campus. I love helping freshmen move in and helping them with things their first week of being college students. I loved helping to get people plugged in with stuff through IV. However, I was a little nostalgic when I would see lots of the preparation. I knew that this was not the place for me anymore. I wasn't too sad about things at all. I thought it'd be kinda painful, but it wasn't. Going to the first large group, it was amazing that I was able to see the fellowship, and where God was bringing it, and not be sad that I wasn't part of the movement. I was proud that I was part of the legacy of this place and these people that I'd loved were growing and going strong. Before the end of last year, God told me that I wasn't needed there. He was telling me how He had things under control and that it was ok for me to move on. I saw that on Thursday.

I am also seeing how He's with me at Sierra. Bible studies have been going pretty well. The interest in things is also way up! We've had about 80 people sign up with interest in the Bible studies and have consistently had about 16 people coming to the studies. It's really awesome, and God has been right in the middle of all of that. Today we had a general get together. It was just what we needed. I feel like a lot of the students have been wondering what we were going to do outside of Bible study. A good number of them came out today, we had a dessert potluck, and we played some games. It was just good fun. I have to make sure that we get more of those kinds of times together, cause that's what cements a great community.

I really am thankful that i've gotten the chance to see God walk beside me as I'm trying to test the waters as a campus minister. Sierra College is not UC Davis, but that's an awesome thing. I'm really feeling as the weeks go on, that I'm a Wolverine now, and not so much an Aggie. Sierra is becoming my school, and these students are really becoming my heart.

I'm out...

| RE:definition |

A large part of my transition to the city of Sacramento has been through my commuting. I did not want to drive my car so much, partly because gas is REALLY expensive, partly because I just knew it'd be better for me and for the environment. 

My great idea, for when I got settled, was to learn how to get around on the bus/light rail. I had an idea that I would begin to take the Amtrak to work everyday (the transition to Sacramento has also included being willing to continue working in Davis). I am literally between the two places, but I am also both places mixed. I wanted to use the car like a sacramento resident, generally to get to Sierra, and in town, I wanted to get to use a bike to get around. 

Mr. Oliver Wong had a mishap about a week and a half ago, when he had a bike stolen. The bike that he lost was a really good one too. It was kind of a sad occurrence. He got a REALLY nice gift, as Alf decided that he would give Ollie some money to get a new bike. Ollie (who is really still trying to make the dream of Oakland come true) made the decision to really use the money and bless all of us. He decided that, instead of getting one really nice replacement bike, that he would get a bunch of bikes that are pretty good, for everyone in the house.  So, (being included in the gift receiving) I have a bike again. (my old bike was stolen in bits and pieces). Being reunited with two-wheeled transportation has been a dream for me. I've been able to get around again, without the use of my car. 

I've been able to successfully navigate my way around the greater sacramento area, through use of my trusty schwinn, and the bus/lightrail systems. I use the lightrail and amtrak to get to Davis when I have to work, and I've even figured out the light rail/ placer county bus system to get to Sierra on days when I'm able to be on campus. Both are delightful trips! I'm able to get around pretty efficiently, and see lots of the city. I've even begun to bike to Bible study! What I've found out through all of this, is that the public transportation system here is really good! (I teased Ollie about his ravings when he first got here, but I am now seeing the light).

Amtrak, as I have never known before, is very awesome! I didn't know the amounts of options that they offer. I've been surviving on a ten-ride pass between Davis and Sacramento. I found out, only today, that they offer transfers between themselves and some of the local transportation system. This saves me at least 2 dollars a day! If I'm really clever, I'm sure that I can even get them to save me 4 dollars a day! 

I've become a bike commuter! I love getting on my schwinn and taking myself to random places, knowing that I'm making strides (or pedal strokes) to getting healthier, and I'm transporting without making emissions! Coupled with busses/trains, it's a great way to get around.

Yay for Bikes!