What a day to appreciate.

today. i went on an incredible adventure. kayaking. in the vast ocean. i went home with my roommate baxley this weekend. she lives in panama city. aka shes got connections with the pacific. doy. me, her, and another friend went kayaking to some islands. across the bay. goose bay, to be exact. however we didnt see much geese. none actually. maybe they should think about renaming it. when we pulled our kayaks onto the island, we stepped in a lot of mud. and when i say a lot, it went up to our knees. i tried running but i didnt get anywhere. we trail blazed. and saw fish bones. and rope, in which we made bracelets out of. then we traveled back across. and now we are eating chips and salsa. mmm.

things i saw on my adventure:
barnacles.
sea snails.
sailboats aka fellow seamen.
lots of dry seaweed.
manta rays.
oysters.
fish bones.
a dead crab.

ide say it was a pretty good day.

God bless sailor leo. i saw this on a sign last week.

'where are you christmas?' me and baxley just got through listening to that song. aka the celine dion version. doy.

Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it's flat and immense
And the heat is intense
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home

i saw a book today at barnes and noble. i think i will go back and get it. it would teach me a lot of things. things that people used to do back in the old days. 101 things to be exact. like how to make a fire with only sticks. which ive always attempted doing. and mounting and dismounting a horse. and how to build a canoe. and how to act at a medieval banquet. and how to defend a castle. The time has come to reacquaint myself with the past.

im going to start using a barometer to measure my success.

ps 104 days til summer.

The story of my title is brought to you in part by my good friend Eric. He lives in TN. This christmas I gave humbly gave him a Dwight Shrute squishy head. It is now in the hands of Gumby, standing proudly on his dashboard.

Methuselah lived 968 years.

How is your left hand writing going? Im glad you asked. My ambidextrous writing is going very well.

The Australia open comes on tonight. 8pm to 5am. Ha. I guess I wont be watching the whole thing. I want to play tennis so bad.

I am going to be coaching an ‘upward basketball’ team with the church down the road that everybody goes to. I am so excited. I am going to have little ones. Also the pastor and his wife ‘adopted’ me into their family. Members from the church ‘adopt’ students from BCF. I basically have a roll in the church now. I am in the pastors family. Ha. AND im going to be helping the wife lead her little kids class on Sunday nights. A new beginning.

Curiosity= passion for exploration.

I bought a potato sack from an antique store and hung it on my wall. Its basically awesome!

CANOEING is to POPSICLE STICK as LED ZEPPELIN is to:
A. Luke skywalkers life saber
B. Dora the explorer or
C. the king of Iceland.

NO CHEAT SHEETS. NO PHONING A FRIEND. DUH.

this exact date last year i was posting my first post. january 23, 2008. i was a new one. an unexperienced blogger if you will. but now....noooooooow, im experienced. it took a lot to get here.

i remember i was at UCF (mtn brook) when rachael jones and heather talked me into getting one. i was sucked right in and didnt even know it. (please refer to my first and older posts).

its nearly 12:00 and im so ready to sleep. my roommate went home this weekend. aka its very quiet in my room. its nice. and lonely at times.

happy blogger birthday to me!

ps 109 days til summer.

last night me and my roommate baxley hung christmas lights. everywhere, literally. on the wall. on the ceiling. it looks incredible.

this morning:

alarm clock. snooze. alarm clock. snooze. shower. warm. mousse. makeup. blue dress. coffee maker. splenda. internet. overthe rhine.com. music. christmas lights: on. coffee: ready. music: playing. morning: perfect.

lets review.

christmas lights= on.
coffee= ready.
music= playing.
morning= perfect.

FISHING POLE is to HUNT as BIKE is to:

A. shark
B. mermaids
C. mittens

no cheat sheets. no phoning a friend. your on your own kids.

110 days til summer.

2 kings chapter 7:1-11. read it. before you read this post.

maybe we are wondering why the world is the way it is? why are the people acting the way they are acting? why did people vote for obama? its because of one reason. they are LOST. they are DYING. they are living in SIN.

however why don’t we ask the same thing…to ourselves…why are the lost acting in such a way? why are WE acting in such a way…? we are dying as well. we are also living in sin. why don’t we take a look at our flesh? its bc ‘we are christians. we are better than them.’ NO. we are such a selfish people. the lepers in the story were eating more than have in there entire life! …soon after that they said ‘we aren’t doing what is right! this is a day of good news and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! so they went back to the palace and told the people.’ what an incredible example of how we should live everyday! i am currently wearing jeans, a nice warm sweater, boots, and mittens. i am so rich! we are so rich friends. there are poor homeless starving people on this freezing day who, didn’t forget their coat, they don’t HAVE a coat. They don’t HAVE food. and maybe they don’t have JESUS. we need do be like the lepers and get up off our butts and go TELL! everyone.

so lets cast ourselves into the darkness! its uncomfortable. its ESSENTIAL.

we have to DARE to make the uncomfortable comfortable.

how big is our comfort zone? well, how LOST are the people outside of it?

we have to DARE to follow our unseen source. aka JESUS CHRIST.

we will DARE to share our ABUNDANT blessings. he WANTS us to.

lets go. lets go tell people. help people. take care of people. encourage people. lets be convicted. forgive us oh Lord for our laziness. and snobbishness. ‘we are keeping the GOOD NEWS to ourselves.

i am currently listening to this song. ive listened to it 6 times in a row now. my roommate is laughing at me. aka ive been dancing to it since the first time i played it.

Keith Green: You Put This Love in My Heart.

I found it hard to believe
Someone like you cared for me
You put this love in my heart

I tried but could not refuse
You gave me no time to choose
You put this love in my heart

I want to know where the bad feelings go
When I'm depressed and I get down so low
And then I see you coming to me and it's alright

I want to tell you right now
I'm not afraid to say how
You put this love in my heart

There are sometimes when I doubt
But you always find me out
You put this love in my heart

Cause when I see all that you've done for me
It's hard to doubt, I just have to believe
Cause you followed and proved it all of your life

Well I know
the loneliness I had before
Is gone now
I'll never feel it anymore

Cause your love has released me
From all that's in my past
And I know I can believe you
When you say I'll never be forsaken
Your love is gonna last

There's so much more I should say
If I could just find a way
You put this love in my heart

Is all this real or a dream
I feel so good I could scream
You put this love in my heart

I want to know where the bad feelings go
When I'm depressed and I get down so low
And then I see you coming to me and it's alright

You put this love in my heart

You put this love in my heart

You put this love in my heart

ps 112 days til summer.

im all moved into my humble abode at school. things i hung up in my room: slow children at play sign. a cool 5 piece picture frame. an old painting i did at shades mtn. a vintage iron candle holder. and on each side of that, african squared plates (one has an elephant, the other a giraffe). a patch-eyed bird picture. big-bulbed satin lights. a huge picture from about 1950-its potato sack material with yarn-embroided flowers. a cross. my hippy mittens. a coloring-book picture of an indian. 9 pictures hung up by paper clips and strung by himp. and a poloroid picture.

i feel so lonely without my mandolin. i am mandolinless.

try to say 'irish wrist watch' fast.

ps this is my 113th blog post. i have 113 days til summer. weird.

i had the privelidge of watching my best friend try on wedding dresses today. i couldnt stop smiling. she is so beautiful. it was bittersweet. actually, just sweet.

rachel was taking pictures of me and ann marie last night...she adjusted the shutter speed to where it was open for a long time...she told me and ree to move our arms around...the end results? well, me and ree had nubs.

confession. i have new favorite songs each week. i try not to. but i cant help it. i mean, i do have my top 5 favorites, sort of, but for some reason i have different favorites from week to week.

i think my cat is searching for treasure. or something. shes climbing and digging through all the pillows on my bed. like shes looking for something. maybe her lost kit kat bar. or maybe her dental floss. or her favorite chili recipe. or the beetle she was playing with earlier. or...oooorrrr her magical spacesuit. y-yep. she found it.

there are paper snowflakes hanging directly above my head. i hung them a while back. speaking of which, it should probably just snow. its like 25 degrees out. it just needs to go ahead and snow. tonight. duh.

i played golden eye 007 last night. which lead to me almost peeing in my pants. me and lindsey grefseng used to play that game for hours at a time. its such an intense game. i dont think its good for my heart. however non-cooked noodles are.

so im obviously looking for a new mandolin. i went into 'fretted instraments' yesterday. i walked in, and started looking...when an old man with a sweet beard came around the corner and said, "can i help you?" i said, "well im looking for a good less-expensive madolin..." and he picked up one and said try this one...immediately after he said this, old bearded man number two said, "come o'er herr 'n sit 'n show us whatcha got!" i said "ohhhh nooo i dont 'got' anything. i can hardly play one full song...im not that good!" he replied (with a huge grin on his face) " oh thas whut e'rybody says!" in walks old bearded man number 3...he sat. then i sat. i played. they starred. i said..."see?? i told you im learning!" they complimented my playing. and then laughed. he began to tell me where i could get free lessons and when all the good bluegrass festivals are...and where they are...and what time they are...and so on. he talked for about 20 minutes. this was a fun awkward bearded experience.

yes. the birth of my mandolin. december 2007. i remember it like it was yesterday. christmas eve night...............................oh sorry. flashback. im having flashbacks. anyways, christmas eve night...i unwrapped it with much excitement. i couldnt play a note. i rushed downstairs. put in "Bert Casey Intorduction to Mandolin. For Beginners." and started learning the basics. it was my new best friend. first song: yankee doodle. second: oh suzanna. third: crippled creek. three songs! i couldnt believe it. i played those three til my fingers were bleeding. (for affect). i also played those three songs til my family nearly hated me. i dressed like a hippy, got my blue old school suit case, and wrapped that thing on my back. and hit the road... in the house, of course............................im so sorry for the flashbacks. they seem to be...........more........frequent. (confused look while reading that). well, ill just go ahead and say it, i got home for thanksgiving break...and...and...sniff sniff...it was broken. i dont know how in the world it happened. i dont like to talk about it. so anyway, it lived long and prospered much. aka a year. with its dying breath it said ".......G-Choooooorrrrrrd..." on that note, im currently writing a eulogy for my deceased mandolin. i shall do my best to put its worth into a song. or something.

This post is to my best friend Brittani Sampson. Which will soon be Brittani bailey. She sent me a picture message this weekend of her hand/ring asking me if I would be her maid of honor. I nearly started crying out of pure joy for my best friend. It happened at the top of a ski slope in Montana when Tim asked to have her hand. And her life along with it. She accepted. My best friend is getting married.

I remember like it was yesterday when I met her. It was at Shades Mountain Christian School. We were in the same class in 4th grade. That’s when it all started. Aka us having many adventures. And us getting in trouble all the time. Mrs. Martin was our teacher. Francis Martin. She had to put up with us. Those were the days when we would connect our desks with ‘bridges’ made out of paper. And when we would flick things with spoons during lunch, occasionally hitting teachers. We would innocently pass notes during social studies with Mrs. Sheridan. Poor lady. Poor us, for being separated all the time. Then, beginner band, every squeak that came from our clarinets led to uncontrollable laughter. High school. The more mature days. Or should I say the opposite? I think so. ‘Dumb math’ with Mrs. Tippins. Aka us throwing things out the window and torturing bugs by smashing then in our math books. Bible class with Quinn Hill. Aka us putting jacket fuzz on Brittany Moore’s head. Mrs. Laatsch’s math class. we had A’s but I don’t know how. Then, theeeennn, good ole Bette Brasher. One of my favorite classes. Enough said. On the weekends, we would spend all of our time going and going and going. We would never stop. Whether we would be rollerblading, making things (we always made things), playing Nintendo (aka Mario party and cruising USA), swimming, going to galleria fun country, running errands with Mrs. Sampson, playing with legos (which would always turn into us eating them, throwing them, and sleeping on them), jumping on the trampoline with 20 balls, or sleeping in round inner tubes on the same bed. We always made sure we were never bored. We would only get a few hours of sleep, then, we would wake up and start it all over again. We were best friends. We knew friendship. So much so that even when we were just sitting downstairs by ourselves doing nothing, peeing in our pants was always the result. We were always laughing. I wish I could sit here and write every memory I have with her, but unfortunately, I don’t have enough time in the world. So just believe me when I say that we have so many fun memories that I will treasure. I count them as blessings. I count Brittani Sampson as a blessing. I love her.

‘If I had a dime for every time you made me smile, Ide be rich in which I could buy the world.’
-Sampson

Its not like she died or anything, I just wanted to write this to her before she gets married.