Anything I can think of

What I'm Thinkin'

2009-01-05T20:16:00.002-05:00

Okay, here's what I'm thinking. I have been sitting at work for several hours without a call rolling in and have been discussing music and some of the best times for music. One thing that I stated that the 90's was one of the best times for rock, alternative/grunge. Then that led me to think of the recent Christmas gig I played at our youth groups' Christmas party. Now, the party was them playing bingo and us playing very softly in the back. The time we did get to rock out was when everyone was leaving. Fun nonetheless. Now back to what I was thinking. It came to my attention that there needed to be some version of a cover band for the great 90's music. This is a cheesy idea but couldn't help but think that I would go and see a 90's cover band. This idea has not been fleshed out entirely but everyone should get the feel for what I'm saying.

So you few that rocked out with me over Christmas, how 'bout it?

I Need A Hobby

2008-11-17T19:48:00.002-05:00

I have realized over the last few days that I do not have a 'hobby' of any kind. My job can be, at times, stressful. I run 2-3 times per week, weather and family obligations permitting. I enjoy playing guitar and scrubbin' a few tunes off. There are times that I need something to assist in my mental health. Running and playing music are not that consistent. Also, I wanted to see what others do to 'check out' for a small time. Now, alcohol and illicit drug use is not an option. Now that I think about it, so is risk taking behavior that has the potential of being in contact with our fine law enforcement officers. So I pose a request for suggestions of potential hobbies that I can get involved in. Here are some guidelines for all who make suggestions:

1. Can't be an everyday thing
2. Don't want to travel too far
3. Elijah, 20 months
4. Julie is pregnant with our next dependent bundle of joy, due in April
5. Enjoy sports and outdoor activities

Well, this blog is not that popular so my expectations are pretty low. However, I am curious if anyone will make a comment and respond to my request.

Until next time, peace.

There is a season....

2008-10-30T14:03:00.004-04:00

Julie and I moved to Virginia three years from ATL, GA because we wanted to be closer to family and felt a leading for ministry overseas. Fast forward to three years later, we have a great home, a 20 month old boy genius, and another one on the way. Now, that I have begun to settle into a career and have a growing family it is difficult, at times, to follow God's leading to be involved in overseas work. There are times when I feel overwhelmed at the mere thought of being in a developing country, not a developed country, with my family. And with no definitive plan in place it makes it even more of a struggle to uproot those who I hold most dear to a culture that I know little about.

We know that in the near future we will be moving somewhere in North Africa. I have had the opportunity to visit Tunisia and Morocco and enjoyed my experience each trip. The experiences, culture, people were all intoxicating. I remember thinking that I could find myself living here for an extended period of time, in each of the two countries. Each of these trips however were stays of only a week. A short enough time to get your feet wet but not quite long enough to fully take in the magnitude of adjusting to a new culture.

Yesterday, we sent out our first letters informing family and friends of out intentions in the upcoming months. Although, I feel that I can never be fully prepared or ready, moving forward is the only thing I know to do. If we continue to talk and wait, then we can possibly talk and wait until our children are grown and I retire from my current position. No, going forward feels right and I feel compelled to do so. We will see what happens in the next few weeks to months.

Can I have your Blessing, Pt. 2

2007-09-24T12:49:00.000-04:00

My mom called me over the weekend to let me know that Bob proposed. I never did call him back to tell him my thoughts. After weeks of thinking about this, although not over analyzing, I came to the conclusion that my mother is a grown woman and can make her own decisions. Besides she is going to do what she wants or rather what she feels is right for her. Bob and mom went to Myrtle Beach, SC and apparently Bob spent no expense. He took my mom for a night at the Dixie Stampede, where you eat with no silverware and watch people do horse tricks. What a very extravagant night.

So, my mother is going to get married for the 3rd time. I've read and heard that you have a 60% chance of splitting up when it is your 2nd message and a greater chance on your 3rd. Also, I just saw where men gain an average of 5 pounds the first year of marriage and women 7. I guess what I'm trying to say is Bob and Mom have a 30% of staying married and gaining wait during the process. The odds do not look good. Either way, I do wish her the best.

756

2007-08-08T14:11:00.000-04:00

It has been done! The most coveted and monumental, as I see it, record in sports has been broken. I have heard the masses on sports radio and read as much in the printed press and the back and forth opinions on Bonds himself. The way I see it...sports enhancing drugs or not, he has surpassed Hammerin' Hank Aaron for the sole possessor of the home run crown. This is a great milestone, and one that deserves to be mentioned. So where were you when the record was broken? Me, I was assessing a delusional and paranoid 72 year old woman at a local Sheriffs Office.

Now I will wait and watch A-Rod as he climbs the home run ladder to see how close he gets to dethrone Mr. Bonds.

Can I have your blessing?

2007-08-07T13:12:00.000-04:00

My mother's boyfriend calls me yesterday evening and leaves a message. I think maybe it has something to do with a problem with one of his kids. I frequently get questions from people due to working in the mental health field. I call him back this morning and he starts out by saying that this is awkward. Instantly I knew why he wanted to talk to me. He is going to ask for my permission or blessing, per my mom's request, to marry her. Damn it. Was my first thought and then I told my wife "what the hell?" My mom wants to get married again!? Talk about awkward. Can you get more awkward than that? Maybe you can but it would be a situation where people talk about their dreams of being naked and standing in the middle of town with everyone watching you as they go by. Yeah, that would be awkward. I told him that I would call him back and let him know after I thought about it. This would be #3 for Vickie.

"I must have been dreaming" by Bill Clark

2007-07-10T20:37:00.000-04:00

I just read my brother's last two entries for his blog. He has posted an original song my dad wrote and John remastered with his friend, Chad Shuping. If you all have time I recommend you take the few minutes and give the song a listen...hilarious. I will try and post it here soon.

July 4

2007-07-09T16:09:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone's 4th of July went well. My 4th had a very interesting twist. The night before I was working late and came home in the wee hours of the morning. Needless to say I woke up late in the morning, which was too early, and went for a run. So I came home, waited longer than I needed to to shower, and began to prep the day's cookout. By the time I started cooking, it was around 6 or 7pm.

When I had put everything on the grill. Julie, Elijah, and myself were sitting on the back deck. For dramatic effect, I had on jeans and a t-shirt with the sleeves cut out. My hair was wet and had the slicked back look along with my bare feet. We are all sitting outside enjoying the evening when our next door neighbor's teenage friends, who in my opinion are without jobs and on the scope of becoming alcoholics, lit some Blackcat fireworks and threw them off their back deck. Now these respectful and model citizens of Frederick County, Virginia have all or will finish High School. However, without looking or consideration for others proceeded to exemplify a stand up act by lighting and throwing these, illegal fireworks in VA, off their back deck.

When this happened, as you can imagine, it made a very startling and loud noise. And yes, it scared the baby. He did begin to wail and scream and cry. Here comes my 4th twist. I instantly became enraged due to the act that was committed next door. I immediately get up and ask for whoever set off the fireworks that I wanted to talk to them. So as I was saying this, everyone next door went inside. Now it gets cheesy...because in my mind I stated the phrase "aww hell no!" I went inside put on my flip flops a.k.a. thongs. and went next door and knocked on the door. A squirrelly fellow, with his hat sideways and wearing glasses came to the door. I said I want to talk to whoever set off the fireworks. He attempted to calm me down, which again made me even more upset. I wanted to slap his glasses off and push his face in and proceed inside and give the culprit a piece of my mind. What happened was our teenage neighbor's mom, came to the door. I proceeded to explain that I was extremely upset and did not appreciate what had transpired.

So there! I told them. I tried to make my 6'1" frame bigger than it was. Pushed out my chest and added a frown to the equation. Then I went home. I learned that I had embarrassed my wife by her telling me that I wish you didn't just act. The funny thing was I got so mad I began to shake and I could tell my voice was also shaky when I went next door. My inflated persona of my self was beginning to deflate. The more I listened to Julie the more I feel that I overreacted and then began to over analyze my reaction. So I then proceeded outside apologized to some teenage girl, who when she smiled looked like an Amtrak train could ride on her braces, and then later to the mother. All of this came from the fireworks that scared by kid. There was some underlying anger from work but my insanity/anger was quite intense. Then I realized that I do not want to become some crazy father that goes nuts every time my son is picked on or he doesn't get enough playing time in a game. Nor do I want to be the loud mouth dad in the stands that yells "move your butt" or "get the rebound" or any other phrase that pushes the triple digit mark for decibels.

So there you have my July 4th story.

The world of blogging

2007-06-12T16:18:00.000-04:00

I have just verified my blog site with Google. I thought that I was somewhat knowledgeable about computers, the internet, blah blah blah, but in trying to find stats for my blog has been cumbersome. I searched through blogspot for stats only to find that I had to verify my site with Google to acquire those stats. So after an hour passed and reading over and over again Google's process to verify my site, only so people can search and find my blog, I have, hopefully, achieved what I set out to do. The blogging world is gigantic and can be difficult to wade through all of the things you can do. I think my next task will be learning how to edit HTML and possibly creating or at least editing my own template. However, the only time I get to play with my blog site is when I am at work. If anyone out there, if you are lucky enough to read my posts, let me know of any good tips for templates or sites that can help you learn how to edit and create templates.

So now if you search the word crap you can find me and if you search the phrase "glory hole users" you will find my brother's blog page. Happy hunting.

Well Crap!

2007-06-11T14:29:00.000-04:00

I get to work this afternoon set everything up and spill my cup of coffee on the desk. It isn't even my desk. I sit at the vacant desk until someone fills an empty position my department has. Then I will sit at another desk until the office closes at 5 o'clock. I started writing this blog with no point in mind. No direction or path where I wanted to take the 1 or 2 people, who are my brother and my wife, that read my new posts, until I started writing. My Grandma, when she would get flustered or upset, would always say some type of phrase. As kids, and as adults, my brother and I would find it funny when she had a slip of the tongue. Such as, "Aww shit" or "Damn it." I still find it amusing when she says these things. My wife, Julie, when we were dating recalled a time where she overheard my grandmother cussing at her dog one morning while giving him a bath.

Not much more to say except I had one of those moments this afternoon with my spill and then thinking my son will get to have those experiences I had. He will get to see my mother and Julie's mom, who am I kidding, he will hear and see his parents having those moments as well.

A New Revival

2007-06-04T14:38:00.000-04:00

Last night, Julie and I went to hear a speaker at our church. He is a well known evangelist in the Assembly of God denomination and had delivered an impactful sermon earlier that morning. We both had the idea of going to hear him again in the evening service. Well........we heard him. No disrespect to the speaker, but it was the same type of "revival sermon" we grew up hearing. I was disappointed. The first 30-40 minutes seemed like a not so great stand up routine followed by 2 solo song performances, by himself. Then there was the sermon or lack there of.

I do not want to sound like I am bashing merely critiquing what I heard. The message was not any different than what I was used to growing up hearing the preacher state we need a new revival, a fresh tough. We need to see miracles again. His scripture that he had lined up was good and could have expounded a very thought provoking and challenging sermon. But it was another get caught up in the emotional train ride to get "pumped up." The kicker was hearing him say at the end of the sermon his soapbox on how our president does not get any credit from the "liberal" news media for the good things he does. Mainly not allowing partial birth abortions. The other was saying that today is worse fighting the war on terror. He went as far to say that it makes Adolf Hitler seem like a Sunday School picnic. WHAT? We better stop that train right here. Without going into a whole diatribe of rebuts I will disagree, just a tad...o.k. a whole lot, with that statement.

The disappointing part of the whole evening was that we did not feel connected to anything in the service except for the worship in the beginning. I want to continue to feel and hear of relationship with God that is long lasting; that is about intimacy; that is about a life's journey; about community. However, I did take a few nuggets away from the service. It was more self introspection and reflection on my own relationship with God. And I would probably go back, if I had the time, mainly for more communion with God and fellowship with the other parishioners.

The Next Presidential Candidate

2007-05-30T14:53:00.000-04:00

Well, Fred Thompson finally made his announcement that he is throwing his hat in the ring for the next P.O.T.U.S., a.k.a. President of the United States. I counted the republican and democratic candidates that have national campaigns. The total is up to 18 now, for both parties. This does not include any independent candidates. So who else will decide to run for a few minutes in the national spotlight. I watched the movie Man of the Year, with Robin Williams, whose character, a comedian with political talk show, decides to run for president.

So the next could be anyone. My question is what do the exploratory committees do. Who are they and what kind of coin do they get for conducting their explorations? Maybe I could start my own firm that performs potential candidate explorations. I could have my own firm jingle and catchy slogan. Has anyone ever been contacted by phone or received any mailings on potential presidential hopefuls. I know I haven't. Maybe the candidates get a group rate if they go with the same firm or agency that puts together these so called exploratory committees. I can picture the ads in the House and Senate newsletters, if they have such a thing, saying "If your thinking of taking the next political step call us down here at Consultations A Plenty to conduct the probability of your next campaign, because you will always find it favorable to run the next race."

Hey, does Fred Thompson actually think he will get the nod for the Republican nominee from the voters? Apparently he does, due to the results given to him from his exploratory committee. I wish you the best Fred. Hopefully, it will not take away from your acting, where you receive small but stay with the viewer roles that has made you more of a household face.
Go get'em Fred.

Family

2007-05-29T15:48:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend, my wife, son and I went to North Carolina for Memorial Day weekend. The first few days were fine. We spent one day with my brother and his girlfriend, who we have not met prior to now. However, our Sunday cookout is what I wanted to write about. First, my mom calls me the Thursday before our trip asking how long we plan on staying because all of the family are going to be at her house for a cookout on Sunday. My family, for some background info., are good time folk who enjoy Nascar and daily doses of family drama that are brought on by pseudo-crises situations that are created themselves. So mom is distraught on the phone because she thinks that we are not going to stay for the cookout. I assure her that we were going stay for the weekend's festivities.

Now once we get there she, for drama purposes, informs us of the new developments of who is not going to be at the cookout because they have not called her back. She stated that "I don't know if your Uncle Jim and Cathy are going to be here." "How come?" I ask. "Because they haven't called me back." Then she proceeds to let us know that my cousin, Michelle, and her fiance, Jerry, are going to make the hot dog chili. The same chili that my brother told me that in order to get rid of excess liquid, Jerry, let the chili come to the point of burning instead of draining off the liquid. The drama centered around the cookout and who is going to show and not show.

Mom's boyfriend, Bob, and his two grandchildren came. Bob, by trade, drives a wrecker for tractor trailers. He came to this year's cookout complete with pictures of some of the trucks that he has had to tow or work with. My Uncle Jim, whose 1st words to my 3 month old son was "hey fat boy!" and his wife Cathy did show with their grandson, a 15 month old baby who would have his fill of diet Mtn. Dew, Little Hugs, and other soda products. Then there was my cousin and her fiance, Jerry. Jerry did bring the hot dog chili and it tasted o.k. Once everyone arrived the conversation was awkward and it turned to Nascar and the race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Jerry would go on to pontificate on how this is a favorite track of many of the race car drivers in his smokey and raspy voice. Bob and Jim joined the discussion on favorite drivers and how they need to do today.

So not knowing much about racing I bring up the previous NCAA b-ball tournament and stated to my uncle the heartbreaking loss of his beloved Duke Blue Devils in the 1st round....awkward pause and then the answer from him "well at least I didn't call anybody when UNC lost." Hmmm, how do I respond to this? This was the question that I repeatedly asked my self several times during the cookout. My wife became quiet for much of the cookout. Everyone then moved to mom's living room to watch the race. Bob took off his shoes and socks and made himself comfortable on the couch where no one else could sit. Jeff Gordon was out of the race so he stated that he was not going to watch the race anymore and they would eventually leave a few minutes later.

My aunt Cathy, who was not able to make it, was probably involved in her love triangle with a guy who is addicted to prescription meds and her live in husband, ex-husband, now husband again. I wish I was a better writer and knew more of the goings on in my family. I could post a daily blog on the daily lives of my family.

This is the cookout that my mother so wanted us to come for. We saw family members that we said only a few words to and to hear the current deliberations of Nascar nation. Ahhh, family gatherings. What stories would go untold if we did not have them. I just hate my brother was not there to share my thoughts and experience of this Memorial Day cookout 2007.

Rambling.

2007-05-24T17:44:00.001-04:00

5/24/07. I am at my desk at work waiting for a call to come in to complete an assessment. My work is assessing individuals that are in crisis and evaluate them for a possible hospital stay. The CSB, Community Service Board, I work for covers a 5 county area. During the time, 3 months, I have been a crisis services therapist I have been challenged in so many facets of life

No matter what I have going on in my life that seems overwhelming or stressful, it fails in comparison to what the people I talk to everyday are going through. They could be decompensating and having acute psychosis, suicidal or homicidal thoughts, or attempts, or even the inability to care for themselves. It brings a new aspect to who I am, what I am doing, and what is important to me.

I am sure that this blog is going to be all the rave for days and weeks to come (sarcasm). So please let me know what experiences in your lives have challenged you to become who you are today.

30

2007-05-21T17:27:00.000-04:00

My wife suggested that I think of 30 things I am thankful for. I mention this because for the last 3 days I have struggled with the idea that I turn 30 today. So as the ever caring and thoughtful husband that I am I will think of some, maybe not 30, things I am thankful for.

1. My faith

2. Family (wife and son)

3. work

4. Ability to work

5. Health

6. Sports

7. Education

8. My country/way of life

9. Music

10. Friends

*not necessarily in order of importance

I know that these may be on the top of everyone's list of things they are thankful for but the more I think about it the more importance they really do have in my life. This is my first blog so I am not sure the length of a blog. I say that because so many thoughts come to mind to write down. Maybe for my upcoming blogs I will elaborate on my top 10.