strange dreams

for a couple nights this week i have had a rather strange dream. now, the dream wasnt the exact same both nights, but it did revolve around the same topic: going back to school.

i dont mean going back in august to continue teaching, but rather, quiting my job and going back to college full time. these have been really strange dreams for me, because ive been out of college for over six years now. the dreams have gone like this: i am back at dordt, and for some reason i have decided to give college a second go-round. i am unpacking in a dorm room (for one dream i was just a regular student, but for the other i was going back to my position as a r.a., or c.a.) and seeing a few people i remembered from college and kind of telling them 'yup, looks like im back for a few more years!'. i dont have any desire to go back to school, let alone full-time, but for some reason these dreams have made me wake up incredibly happy and disappointed. i get a joyful feeling from the dream and the excitement of the life lived in the dream, but then i am disappointed when i wake up to realize that im back in my crappy old bedroom in the same place i was when i went to sleep.

i guess im not entirely sure how to process these dreams. im wondering if its just a sense of nostalgia on my part, or if its just boredom with where i am now, or if its something bigger.

i may have to ponder on this one for a while...

the artist

my nephew is a budding artist. he is able to express his feelings and emotions through the classy world of fine art. his mode of choice is through the lens of a camera. behold, to the left, his first masterpiece. it is called: 'dads butt'.

i think he has a bright future ahead of him...

a wedding

about a week and a half ago a friend of mine got married. the day before the wedding i got a call from ali asking me if i would mind picking her up for the wedding. and boy, am i glad she called!!! i am currently in total summer mode, which means that days and dates are meaningless to me- every day is saturday! i am thankful that she called, because if she hadnt i would have totally forgotten about the wedding! it probably would have been five or six days later and i would have been like 'huh, i wonder when that wedding is?' and i would have totally missed it!

anyway, it was a really good time and we had a lot of fun. it was also cool because the church they got married in was the church that my dad grew up in! oh what a small world...

a fun day out

last week i got to hang out with some of my kids. the 'why' of this story is far too complicated, so ill just skip that part.

i picked them up and the four of us went mini golfing. it was alot of fun- those guys are a blast to be around. of course we followed the standard rules of mini golfing: you may not use real names while on the course. i didnt make up the rules, i just live by them (actually, i think i did make that one up...). after a good 18, we walked over the the ice cream shop. i told the boys that they could get whatever they wanted- cub decided that meant he could get three scoops on his cone. the end result was about the size of his head! but, ever the trooper, he worked his way through the whole thing. at the ice cream shop there is a chess board, so we decided to play checkers (much cooler than chess), and we even played a few games with 'calvin ball' rules (if you are familiar with 'calvin and hobbes' you should get that reference...) we had a great time. afterward we went to go see the movie 'surfs up' and really enjoyed it. by the time it was done, the kids had to be heading home (they had little league games to get to, after all). it was a very fun time, and a great chance to see some of the kids over the summer. i will be doing it again soon with another set of kids. im looking forward to it.

time with the kids

last weekend i was still in michigan, and i got to spend some more time with my sisters kids. i went over there in the afternoon when the kids were still sleeping because my sister wanted to learn how to set up her own blog (i would link to it, but i think she wants to keep it quite for now...). after we got that rolling, the kids started waking up and i had a chance to play with them. they are getting so big! i only get to see them once a month or so, and sometimes i forget how much they grow over that time! jackson started vacation bible school that week, and was having a great time at it. mhy sister said he got even more into it as the week went on.

best laid plans...

its summer time!!! ive been done with work for about a week and a half and it has been great! i seem to be back to my old ways already (staying up late, sleeping in late...), but other than that this summer has been anything but ordinary. my plans for (temporary) employment didnt quite pan out, a close friend had a big life change which lead to me heading up to michigan to be a good supportive friend, and a few other crazy type things too. im not complaining, its been good, just not what i was expecting.

adams visit (friday)

friday morning came up fast on us (i guess thats what happens when you go to bed around 2:30am), but we headed out and adam came with me to school. he had a storytelling gig that night, and we was going to be doing some new material. i offered him the chance to practice in front of a real audience, and he took it! so all morning my students got to sit back and enjoy the storytelling stylings of good ol' adam. and boy, did they love it!!! the kids really enjoyed it and adam felt better after being able to perform the new stuff a bit.

in the evening we headed off to the gig. it was kind of wierd because it was a junior/senior banquet. everyone was high school aged, and dressed all fancy shmancy. we sat with the two teachers who helped plan it during the meal. it was good company, and great conversation- and a welcome distraction for adam who was still a bit anxious about how the new stuff would go over.

when he got up there it was just as i suspected: a hit! all that worry for nothing. the kids warmed up to him fairly quickly, and by the time he got to the story that needed students to come up and act it out (with all the football jock types in dresses, of course), he had them eating out of his hand!

after his performance we headed home to change clothes, and we later met up with the people who had planned the event and hung out with them for the night. it was a great time and a chance to meet some new people.

orange slurpie tongues

after a late night 7-eleven run, we had a most humorous side effect.

adams visit (thursday)

what a weekend! it was quite a fun one. adam, my good friend who is now living in l.a. flew in for a visit! rex and jeffry lee stopped down as well- and a good time was had by all!

adam flew in on thursday night. it was a bit of a bother because his flight was delayed from 7:50pm to 12:10am! yikes! it was a lot later night then i was expecting. but we made the most of it. after he finally arrived we went back to my place and we were far too awake to go right to bed. so we hung out and chatted until about quarter after two. we both knew this was going to make for a pretty rough friday, but it was worth it.

in preparation for all the guests, i spent all week cleaning. it took forever to make the place look presentable. as i was cleaning i realized i was missing a few key items that would be useful for when the guests arrived. things like pillows for the second bed, a comforter for the second bed, and a door knob for the bathroom door (dont ask). so i found myself at the store and a came across an awesome transformers comforter! i know its childish, but i knew it was too cool to pass up! and i knew the guys would totally appreciate it. the picture above is of adam snuggled up in said comforter. oh, and hes wearing a cowboy hat (again, dont ask...)

work work work

here is what is so surreal about my life: ive only got 12 more days of work until the end of august. i have to work 12 days of the next 14 weeks. im not saying this to brag, im just stating how strange this is.

ok, and to brag just a little...

???

tommorrow night is going to rock!

ill fill you in later...

*update* heres what went down.

mothers day

on sunday i went with my parents to my grandmas place. all the uncles and aunts were getting together, and mom said i was invited. i was a bit reluctant at first, being the only grandkid going, but i got over it and went anyway.

it was great to see everyone again, it had been quite a while since i had seen some of my uncles and aunts. i wasnt able to make it to the family christmas party, so i missed out on the fun then. that side of the family is quite close, so i always look forward to a chance to see any of them.

in the evening tim and jill came over with all the kids and we played outside and grilled out for dinner. we gave mom her gifts (or more accurately, her gift certificates...) and had a great time being silly with the kids, and just genuinely enjoying the evening together.

i am very thankful i got to take monday off and be able to enjoy that night with the family instead of having to drive home! (the extra sleep wasnt too bad either...)

a fine cuisine

my version of culinary art

weekend hangin

last weekend i headed home for mothers day. i know im not going home for memorial weekend, so i figured id head up last weekend instead. also, i still had a day of vacation, so i took off monday and stayed up there an extra day, which is always excellent!
it was a fun filled action packed weekend. well, not really, but it was still a blast! on friday i headed to the folks place and chatted with them for a while. when jeffry lee and i finally caught up we decided to go see a movie. he wanted to see disturbia, but i was not at all interested. so we settled on 'fracture'. it was pretty good. after the flick we went to tgi fridays and had dinner. we got talking and catching up that we actually closed the place down at 2:00am! i dont think ive ever done that before! we headed down to our cars, and sat and talked for another hour! hes always got something interesting to say, and he is a really great listener, so just the conversation was enough to make it a great night.
saturday the family and i went out for breakfast. then mom and i took my niece to the mall. we got her a cute little ducky stuffed animal which she loved until we had actually paid for it, then she decided that she hated it. thats kids for ya. in the evening i met up with jeffry lee again. we went out to eat and took part again in some great conversing. for old times sake wee went over to toys r us (which i actually used to work at, but thats another story...) to check out the cool transformer toys. eventually we made our way over to the movie theater and checked out '28 weeks later'. it rules. we ended the night shooting some stick. a great time was had by all.

finally, its all mine!!!

after almost four and a half years, this beautiful stallion is finally all mine!!! i unfortunately got a car loan all those years ago that restricted how quickly i could pay it off. i wasnt allowed to pay it off early, or i would face a couple hundred dollar fine.
well, the restriction was lifted today- so right after work i raced down to the bank and wrote my last check for the car! i am very excited to finally have it payed off- now if i could just get rid of those pesky credit card bills...

looking ahead

i get to go see these three this weekend! i cant wait!

free comic book day!

after going out for breakfast with ken, we went to go see spiderman 3 (a second time for me). on the way back we were talking about the movie and about the comic books that the characters are based on, and then it hit me! i had almost totally forgotten! saturday was free comic book day!!! i brought it up to ken and he was in, so we headed over to the local comic shop (a first for ken), and checked out what free stuff was there for the taking. after milling around for a bit we found the free stuff and grabbed as much as we wanted! oh, how i love free stuff! ken enjoyed flipping through a few issues on the shelves and seeing what his favorite superheroes were up to these days. we each grabbed about 10 free comics (i bought a copy of wizard and a tpb i had never heard of) and headed out. i dont know if ken will read the books, but it was really fun to share the comic book store experience with someone. now that i think of it, i think that may be a first for me- bringing someone with me to the comic shop.

thank you free comic book day, for bringing people together!

a very fun bad choice

thurday i was chilling at home after work. i had just finished dinner and the phone rang. it was a friend i havent really kept in touch with lately. i saw him the night earlier, but otherwise it had been about a year and a half since we last saw each other.

he calls me up and presents me with a question: "we have an extra ticket to see a midnight showing of spiderman 3. are you in?"

here is the problem: i am an adult with a full time job, i have many responsibilities and am accountable for doing a good job at work. and i really like my sleep. if i were to go, i would not be home untill 3:00am, there by destroying any chance of having a good day at work. i had also already made plans to go and see the movie with another friend on saturday. there was really no reason for me to accept the offer, it would be foolish, irresponsible, and childish.

which is exactly why i said yes! we ended up having a great time, i met up with him and a few of his friends i had never met at bw3 before the movie. we hung out for an hour and talked, i got to know them and we had some good laughs as well. we went to see the movie (which i talk about here), and i finally got to bed around 3:30am. oops! amazingly enough though, friday went just fine, i didnt feel any more tired than usual. so, the only side effect of going was a great time and a chance to meet some new people. not to bad, huh?

dark before the light

this winter was a rough one. not necessarily the weather, it was actually a fairly mild winter, except for about a week there where we had a huge blizzard of snow (and two canceled days of school!!!). the truth of the matter is that it was a rough winter for me personally. im not entirely sure why, but the dark months of winter were also dark months for me. nothing really bad happened or anything, life went on as usual. work was good, family was good, church was good, but i wasnt. as darkness creeped in earlier and earlier each night, i was feeling a sense of depression creep in on me.
i cant recall any particular day or event that triggered it, but i was definitely withdrawing from those around me. after work i would head home and try to think of a good reason to call someone to hang out, or just to get out of the house. as time went on i found less and less reasons to make the effort. so i didnt. passing on invites from friends became more and more common. i think some of them just stopped inviting me at all to do stuff.
i know this is a lot more candid than i usually am with this blog, but its something that i want to acknowledge. about two weeks ago things mysteriously changed, the fog went away. ive been rediscovering my life. work has taken on a renewed enjoyment for me, ive gone out more nights than ive stayed in this week (which hasnt been the case for about 8 months), and i have been reconnecting with old friends. ive even been working on getting healthy again. i dont know what brought about the change, but i am very thankful that it happened, and i look forward to finding joy again!

dearth

i havent updated in a while. sorry about that, i guess i just havent had much to say lately. hopefully that will change soon. starting today!