Please Pigeon-hole Me

Job follow-up
A few weeks ago I applied for a teller position at Wachovia Bank in Columbia. I found out about the job through a friend and a reference at church. The reference from church works in the Wachovia regional office and told me to send him his resume. I enjoy my job now and would not make significantly more working for Wachovia but I choose to apply because of the consistent and amazing hours (40 hours in 5 days + bank holidays off-I have never worked with such convenience) and because I enjoy a new opportunities and variety.
I followed up with my resume on Wednesday and on Friday I received an email indicating that a recruiter would be calling me in the next two weeks. I will enjoy my current job if I do not get this bank position, but because I have invested time and mental energy into applying, my excitement is growing and I hope very much to get this new job.

Yard sale
On Saturday morning Kaytlin and I went to a number of yard sales in Columbia in search of various items. We had a lot of fun and I found a dresser. This may not seem exciting, but I have been without a dresser ever since I moved into my house in January. The thrift stores continued to let me down in terms of quality and economy, so the new dresser is quite the highlight. (I feel kind of like an old person talking about yard sale hunting and buying a dresser…keep reading for potential redemption)

Chinese Medicine
If my yard sale account pigeon-holed me in the “old person camp,” you may now relocate me to the “liberal-new age camp.” In my quest for health and fitness knowledge so that I may live a rich life, I have ventured into the arena of Chinese medicine. I have learned about everything that terrifies puritan WASPs across the nation: yoga, herbalism, acupuncture, and balancing your diet. Ha. Dietary trends first drew me to Eastern medical theory, but I have uncovered a wealth of knowledge. I will save you the boring details, but each day I implement increasing elements of this new health regimen in my life. By the end of the summer I hope to live the healthiest lifestyle I have experienced thus far.

Gab and Flab

WI
I went to Wisconsin for five days with Kaytlin to attend her friends wedding and Daniel’s (her brother) graduation party. Memorable moments from the weekend include using the enormous fire pit Kaytlin’s mother made, attending an outdoor wedding when it is 55 degrees and raining, making 10+ pounds of pasta salad, beating Natalie’s Wii Fit soccer score, and going to a wine bar with Kaytlin and her mom. I enjoyed my time with Kaytlin very much as well. It is exciting to see how she has grown from the life in which she grew up, just as I have, and that we can share similar growth experiences. There is a tentative plan to go back to WI in July for a family wedding, but I will try to bring as much of the warm weather from Columbia on that trip as I can.

The Factory’s Failure
Three weeks ago, I joined an amazing gym. I rode my bike there after work, since it is only 6 blocks from my house. It had all the equipment I needed, the ‘gym’ atmosphere that I love and was very inexpensive. It worked out to be 50% less expensive that driving to CIU 4 times a week to use their less equipped fitness center. I have been going regularly…until last week. I woke up on Thursday with an email in my Inbox informing that The Factory (my gym) had closed down due to leasing issues with the City of Columbia. I am looking for a new gym, disheartened by my options, while filling out a form for the SC department of consumer affairs to get my money back. Alas, welcome to life.

Graduation+2

I graduated college (again) two weeks ago yesterday. Frequently, the question arose, “what does it feel like to be done with school” and I have spent much time attempting to formulate an answer. It boils down to three words:

Routine:
My schedule, although hectic, maintained order throughout my CIU experience and evolved into a consistent routine by this previous semester. With the onset of summer, I have spent much of my mental energy disciplining a new way to live my life. Reading, working, lifting weights, praying, and socializing have found new places in my day. Now each of these pieces fit together much differently than they did three weeks ago. I hope to continue to solidify a lifestyle which fosters rich experiences and purposefulness.

Time:
I cannot recall the last time I had so much unscheduled time. I work right around full-time hours but “full time” makes up about 50% fewer responsibilities than I have had at any time in the past 6 years. From the age of 15 I have always had work + school or worked two jobs. Even on schools breaks I was doing classwork, preparing for CLEP exams, or raising support for CRU. I have made it a point not to over-obligate myself (although easy to do) so that I can live life richly and take this season to rest in a special way.

Rich
Making my own routine with the large degree of unscheduled time blesses me to invest in things which I benefit my growth as a person. I have immersed myself in literature from classic philosophers and theologians (i.e. Aristotle and Augustine). I have taken advantage of the city I live in (two beach trips, local restaurant specials, and free city attractions-the like Philharmonic). I have also evaluated and adjusted my social relationships (more intentional time with some people, more social time with others, and less time overall with a few). I am excited to continue to do these things with the hope of a rich summer ahead.

Milk it for all its worth

Today I saw an advertisement that encouraged Americans to eat 3-4 servings of milk and dairy a day to stay healthy. "Hm...sounds good," you might say. "I do need the protein and calcium," you might add. "I have been wanting to eat better," you assert. The problem is that such advertising is a perfect example of Americans being duped by media into obesity. Let me illustrate:

1 cup of Milk: 23% of you daily saturated fat needs
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese: 69% of your daily saturated fat needs
1/2 cup American cheese: 48% of your daily saturated fat needs.

This means that if you eat three servings of dairy each day, you will have consumed 140% of your daily saturated fat needs. This is not including any other food!

We are killing our bodies because we fail to take responsibility for our bodies and knowing what we eat.

Say What?!

President Bush made some interesting remarks regarding the terrorist attack on the US embassy in Yemen...





especially in light of the fact that the Iraq war has resulted in 87,000-95,000* civilian casualties since the Bush administration began to occupy the nation.


*http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

"Will Work for Food" - The Sandman

"You are a sinner. The world is broken." Inordinate amounts of time are spent preaching this message or evangelizing with this tired concept. Certainly these statements are true and once reverberated against the cadence of culture's battle drum. As the modern project plodded along Darwinian dreamers hoped for the day that all would be better than the days prior. morning these dreamers awoke to the nightmare of reality. Only the sandman fulfilled his obligation, unlike people and the world who were supposed to be getting better-“evolving”.
By the 70's the sandman was tired of working too. The dream could no longer linger in the brash daylight of reality. In this dawn of reality, a hopeless generation was raised by.
'The world is not good-you do not have it all together!' was the message proclaimed from evangelist platforms in an attempt to awaken the culture from their modernist wonderland. The coffee is on and the culture has awakened. The church hasn’t heard them rustling and has missed their departure.
Suicide is up, divorce is up, hate crimes are up, gang activity is up, and the culture is fully aware. In response to the brokenness of the world, witchcraft, Buddhism, Hinduism, and spirituality are correspondingly on the rise as people try to find something that will fix them.
The church no longer needs to convince the world that all is lost. Everyone knows it. Churches are still using the same old platform, while culture begs for an answer to its heartache. 'Who will save us? Is there hope? Where are the answers?' the world cries out.
People are no longer asking, 'When will the world fix itself?' They want to know if there is anything to fix themselves. Christians need to stop talking and listen to the question culture is actually asking. We have the answer.

Dog-sitting

A reference was made to accountability partners in class a few days ago. Context for the subject is not relevant, it is the concept that rocked my mental faculties. Why do we have accountability partners? Conceptually I understand why. Biblical basis for individuals to speak truth into our lives and help us avoid sin is not contrived through hermeneutical gymnastics. I want to know why the office of accountability partner even exists.

Our culture is certainly individualistic and anti-community. Until this moment I had failed to see that extent. We have reached a point where we lack fundamental relationships where we can share our lives with people allowing mutual investment. Now, we must assign an individual a title, carve out weekly or monthly sessions, and arrange times to satisfy each others need to have ‘heart to heart’ discussions! It reminds me of getting rid of our children, and inviting someone’s dog to come over and urinate on our floor once a month so we can feel like we caretakers of our home.

True community-I bemoan our impersonation of you.