well, its been a while and the first thing i have to say is that i dont know what is going on in Hubkas life because any post that is that long enters into the realm of "i will read that later but in all actuallity i will never get around to it."

colorado is good i guess. life is going. the church is doing better than ever. bethany got a job at s. ok, just kidding. she is working at barnes and noble in the coffee part and already doing her part of the great commission in meeting people right and left. i wish i was that good at meeting people.

there is a guy in this room speaking a foreign language really loud right now and it is scaring me.

Duerkop...come on now buddy...do you really think i am going to let you get away with that last comment? I guess that Bill Bedford isnt a Christian then since the democratic party has no semblence of Christian representation or any christ like beleifs. hmmm....

Speaking of politics if anyone wants a fairly good and balanced perspective on Iraq issues (with both the left and the right and the middle and the other positions represented) check out the journal "The National Interest" it has a yellow cover. for the rest of you, igore this paragraph.

hmmm, i guess thats alli got. Bethany says hi. i say hi. i say bye.

I'm out here in good old Devils Lake North Dakota working as the best putt putt golf teacher you have ever seen at Lakewood Bible Camp. So far I have been chased by approximately seven dogs while on a run and but have been bitten by approximately zero mosquitoes. Quite a change from Minnesota. We always do one week of camp out here in ND, so we loaded the whole staff and supplies into several vans and made the trek up here to Devils Lake. Everyone is having panic attacks because their cell phone will not work and my brother is slowly starving as they provide very few vegetarian meal options in the dining hall. I guess we're really learning how to rough it.

Yet another strange tale from Western Montana...  Raise your hand if this has happened to you.  You receive an e-mail inviting you to a departmental bbq an hour north at a professor's cabin on a lake (you Minnesota people can already relate, sorta).  It is a gathering of the history faculty, yes, but the invitation was to all the graduate students, and you happen to be one of them (I already hear many of you mumbling that you can't relate to the situation).  So early one Sunday, around eleven in the morning, you trek through your town in order to find the highway that goes north, but somehow you end up on I-90 trying to figure out where the heck highway 93 disappeared to while you were driving.  After years of disappointing situations, you've learned to doubt yourself all too often and end up stopped at a gas station several miles down the interstate to discover that you were indeed on the right track.  One in a million, I'm sure.  So finally you journey northward through towering mountain vallies surrounded by dendric sentinals all out of line, until you break out of the valley to find you are face to face with something of myth, something you had seen only in your imagination...  If Moria is burnied 'neath any part of this earth, it is below the Mission Mountains of Western Montana.  You're shocked by the sight, especially being not unfamiliar with mountains (you live in the middle of a mountain valley).  But, owing to the fact that your confusing jaunt through town put you nearly an hour behind schedule, you press on without taking any pictures.  Once again you are stunned, but this time not by mountains, but by a lake like none you've ever seen in the west.  But this is only the beginning of the story.
You arrive at the professor's cabin to discover that you know not a soul there.  That you were somewhat expecting.  But it turns out, you are the only graduate student.  There are two eight-year-old girls running and screaming as though a building is constantly on fire.  There is a young fellow, not yet thirty, and his wife who is due in two days, and surely looks the part.  There is a lesbian couple in their thirties, and one of their mothers is there, obviously the age of a grandmother.  Their is an African couple there.  I mean an actual African couple, no hyphenated American anywhere to be seen.  There is a middle-aged chain smoker with her puppy along, and you talk to her more than anyone else besides the professor and his wife who are grandparents, and halfway through the afternoon you notice the professor is missing his left ring finger at the second knuckle.  Do you feel out of place.  Of course, but that's something you're used to.  This is a new kind of out of place, especially when you go for a boat ride, citing the fact that you hate boats, lakes, and most anything to do with water that is deeper than you are tall.  In the boat ride is chainsmoker and woman's best friend, the professor's wife (we ought to call her Marianne, and I do wonder what would have happened if I was shipwrecked with this crew), the lesbian's mom, and the two eight-year-olds, all females, and you happen to be male (just try to relate, k?)  You have little you want to talk about because you spend your days stuck in your apartment reading old textbooks or going to the movies and being dragged to A Cinderella Story, something that made you turn red at the ticket counter when you paid full price for nobody but you.  You try to drink a Kokanee because your brother raved about the Canadian beer, but you can't even down half of it it tastes so terrible.  The brats are good, the people are pleasant, and you're not sad you came, but my, you haven't felt so queer (taking an original meaning of this word, not to be confused with anybody else that was there) in a long time, so you go home sometime before the last and first people left, driving through mountain rainstorms with your windows down without caring because it does cool things off and you probably got a sunburn while out on the lake.  Does it even sound remotely familiar?  Me neither.  Oh, and until I get at least one complaint about my blogs, I refuse to quite posting because, for some odd reason, other people say they like them.  Either assisinate those people, or give me the verbal boot. 
Marty, I apologize for lacking interest in your football whatever thingie.  Start a fantasy banjo league, and I'm there.
Gabe, congrats on the dread of many men but the hope of some, being smack dab in the middle of girls galore.  Someday when I have some time, I'll tell you why it's a near scientific fact why my children will be female.  It's really kinda interesting.  I'd be terrible with boys anyway.  Like I'm gonna go play catch.
Brad, so you're a fan of Catch-22?  I hated that book and never finished it, but maybe a more mature mind needs to get into it.  I'll have Bacheldor read it and get back to me.  Well, to follow-up your response to gazebo night, did we do it a second time or am I just making things up?  I thought there was a repeat, but I also think that Iraq used sarin gas on the Kurds proving they had chemical weapons, so my memory could be off on some things.
Lynnea, maybe those girls had a similar experience to my last canoe ride.  My youth pastor, Ben Archer's older brother, sent me and another young fellow out in what he called the "safe canoe" since I repeatedly stated I was scared of drowning (some people say scared of water, but I know what I'm really afraid of).  So we paddled for over a hundred yards until the canoe began to sway back and forth.  As it began to tip over, I remembered how far we were from shore, and it struck me that I was going to drown since I knew I couldn't swim that far.  My head went under the water and suddenly I was floating again.  I had a lifejacket on.  I literally thought I was going to die out there, but I didn't make any noise like those girls (I sorta keep to myself).  And I found out that we didn't get the safe canoe; my wonderful youth pastor had intentionally given us the tippy canoe (Duerk, sing it with me, tippacanoe and tyler... Wllliam Henry Harrison, I know) and was amazed at how far we got before it capsized on us.  Evil youth pastors. 
To former 2nd Easters - this is something that came back to me recently:  Hallball!  Woah, I know.  Was there any rule besides get it past the other two guys?  Trying to capture the olympic feel of those days. 
Hope all is well for everyone.  My college memoir collection is presently on page 88, nearly halfway through first semester sophmore year.  We'll see where we get.  Bye.

anyone who wants to be in a fantasy football leage here it is....

league number=198759.
league password = crown
league name = crownies who can't let go

lets not end the most sacred of crown traditions.

 I got great news!  I just found out yesterday that although I am a very masculine person and pride myself on my ability to hold back tears, I am not very good about producing male offspring.  I suppose you can see where this is going. I am going to have 2 Girls!!! WOW! They are both doing extremely well and are the most active kids in the world. (I have not actually had them, but I have seen them on the ultrasound and they never stop moving) I just wanted to give a quick update.  As always I miss you guys very much.  Chris, I will continue to pray for your ministry.  I think that they have the right man for a tough job.  My daughters will be born around Thanksgiving, so if any of you are in the area and want to see what is sure to be the most beautiful twins in the world.  Come on over.

   In Christ,
            Gabe
 

Hello everyone!  Thought I would check in to let everyone know that Kate and I are alive and well.  We just returned from a great weekend with our youth group at SonShine.  I was able to spend the hours of 3-4 AM on Friday night/Saturday morning in the back of a Cop car (don't ask) and the music was great.  We are really enjoying our time up North (even though it is a Methodist Church).
I am going to be in the Cities the 30 and 31 of this month, if anyone wants to go to a Red Sox game let me know.  I am looking for someone to go with.  I think that it would be good times! 

On a somewhat different note... I would like to ask for your prayers.  The youth group I am working with is filled with students who need the Lord.  There are about 30 students and about 29 of them come from broken homes ( I am not joking).  Three students have parents that are in jail for meth labs in thier homes, One student is on house arrest because of naughty behavior, One student has had an abortion, Half are into drugs, and the list goes on.  All that being said, they are great kids who are excited about youth group.  Not as excited about God but we will take what we can get right now.  Please pray that I would know how to meet the needs of these students and that their hearts would be opened to the Love of Jesus Christ.  I will keep you posted.

Thanks for your prayers!
Chris Folkestad

In case anyone cares:
Chris and Katie Folkestad
PO Box 246
Menahga, MN 56464
(home) 218-564-4168
(Cell) 218-639-5904
chrisfolkestad@rocketmail.com

Fell asleep on the water trampoline for two hours and am now severely burned. I feel as though I have been placed in a fruit dehydrator; every ounce of moisture has been sucked out of my body to the point that I even lost my voice. Such are the hazards of my occupation, I guess.
 
Two junior high girls capsized their canoe in the middle of the lake and began screaming so loudly it seemed as though they were drowning. They weren't because the wise waterfront director had made them wear lifejackets. It turns out they were simply being over-dramatic and took the opportunity to play the "damsel in distress" role. I'm glad I was never like that.
 
A boy stood up on the paddleboat while out on the lake (breaking a primary rule of the beach) and I yelled at him. Later I found out that his father is in prison (has been for five years), will be there for another nine years and his mother is dead. Would I have yelled at him had I known that? Does a rough "home life" excuse bad behavior? How is one supposed to put any weight on something as trivial as standing in a boat when his life had fallen apart years ago? Where is the balance between discipline and showing love to a boy to whom love is completely foreign?
 
"Kids keep asking me if they can go on 'that jumpy thing.' I hate that. It's a water trampoline, call it a water trampoline or you can't go on it." -Krista
 
And so concludes another week at the beach.

Woah, way new posting page.  Anyway, I am ditching the idea that anybody cares that I post too often and just give you, as always, a quick update.  Since I last wrote, I did ask a girl out to dinner, but it was not one of my neighbors downstairs, but a Math grad student that I danced with at a bar downtown.  But that's part of the second story (like where I live, the second story... I'm a -Josh insert politically incorrect word here-).  Maybe it was a bad omen to begin with, but when I tried to open my door to let the two girls from downstairs into my apartment, my door was instead held closed from the outside.  The girls were screaming about a giant moth, and I laughed and said I would be fine, so I opened the door and found myself not far from the creature that hatched ina bird's nest but had a butterfly for a father.  This thing was bird-sized.  I didn't want to smash it because it would've made a giant mess to clean up, so I ventured as near as I could towards it and nudged it with my sandal.  It flew off.  So I took all the ingrediants downstairs and helped the two girls make tacos, although their cullinary incompetance far exceeded my own.  It took the both of them to drain the hamburger.  Kari asked us, after making her own hard-shelled taco, "How do you make a soft shell?"  How can you have lived in the United States for more than two consecutive months without making or at least understanding the workings of the enigmatic soft-shell taco?!  Of course I made a fool of myself for not understanding their use of the the initials IP for the misdemeanor crime of being in possession of alcohol in public, or as a minor, I can't tell which.  I'm sorry my friends aren't attempting to drink under age or in public.  So much for this being short.  Another thing struck me while I was cooking dinner with these two Nursing majors; Amanda shared an uncanny resemblance with my last girlfriend.  And that's about the time her boyfriend showed up.  I left not long after dinner, but the girls said they wanted to do it again, but this time they wanted to buy the food and do the cooking.  I said that would be fine, but I can't say that I'm as excited about it on this side of the last dinner.
So I was at my apartment, minding my own business, when I was absconded by a young lady, her sister and brother-in-law to hit dinner and then I was told bowling.  Dinner was at Applebee's, and bowling was exchanged for dancing at a bar downtown.  Erin is the young lady, and though I can't say I've clicked with her socially, she at least takes me to do things that I would not do otherwise.  So I walked into a country-western type bar with a bluegrass/swing band playing in my New Balance running shoes, shorts, my 2nd East T-shirt with a wonderful Bible verse on the back, and my Ron Jon's visor.  Just ask me if I felt out of place.  I danced with three different girls, one who was married, but I got a bit impetuous during my second dance with Tiffany and asked her to dinner.  Stupid stupid stupid.  Now I understand.  You wait until the third dance to ask a nice girl to dinner the next night.  Or not.  She didn't say no, but she had a sort of deer in the headlights look that only magnified the fact that I was dancing crummy and she was probably bored.  Tiffany is a Mathematics grad student here going into her second year, and I am still very interested in what she would have to say about grad school here in general.  I mean, she's a tall, terribly thin yet wonderfully cute girl, but I really was pretty interested in a good grad school conversation above anything else, but I get stupid when I get up in the morning, so it lasts through the day, and it manifests itself most poignantly when I'm dancing with a nice Christian girl that could have been four or five years older than me.  You'd think it strange that I just happened to meet a nice Christian girl at a bar, but she knew Erin, the girl who took me, who I met through the church here in town.  I might see her tomorrow night if I get up the courage to venture out again.  So I'm cursed to eternally scare off nice girls.  Who needs a boulder to roll up a hill forever when you can just walk up to a girl and make her suddenly remember that she was going camping the next day, even though when you asked her what she was doing she had said "nothing"?  I'm betting with our numbers we could storm Crown and take it back over, kinda like a coup, and then we'd never have to try to meet new people ever again.  I'll take Bjerkas's place.  You pick your own target to kick out.  We'll sychronize our watches and use the shock and awe method that got us so quickly into Iraq.  See, then we'll never leave.  Oooh.  Sorry Duerk.  I'm still voting for the man, but I still say we'd better get used to the idea that we're on the losing side.  Hope this gives you an idea of life right now at this very moment.  I promise to never again post twice in a row unless it's an emergency.  Ciao.

I have a dinner date with my downstairs neighbors this Thursday. Oh, is that what came out first? I'm glad those girls didn't own a paper plate, because it was on returning their cookie plate that I was thus invited to enjoy a dinner with them the day after tomorrow. The funny thing is they wanted to cook, even though they seem to have no pretense for such an endevour, and I offered to cook, and they instead had me bring a dessert. The blonde young lady was given the surname Amanda, and the other one besides Kari (I was informed about the spelling) is named something that starts with an M and ends with an "a" sound, I think it's Mariah, but it doesn't matter, I may actually get to see people now.
Yesterday I worked my first temp job, a general labor position in which I removed shingles from a front yard into a trailer and pick-up truck, then proceeded to the city dump ("what an interesting smell you found"- Duerk, you know what I mean) to get rid of them amid the hussle of city garabage trucks and other private suits. I worked with Mike, a middle-aged smoker that seemed uninterested in conversation, and some other guy that was a dead-ringer for Jack Black. I turned down another general labor job since I signed up for office temping, and especially since I get paid two-dollars an hour less doing the same sort of job I was doing with carpentry. The funny thing was that I got paid for four hours of work, seven dollars an hour, but I had already been to Quizno's that day (let's say an even five dollars, even though it was only four something), and then I had to go to Wal-Mart for bug spray (evidently my screens on my living room window don't screen out gnats, though the screens keep them in well enough), tennis balls (the University of Montana fitness center has a summer membership fee of $81, and I figure I can get a lot of tennis balls for that much money with about the same guarentee of fitness), and an ironing board (I do actually want to work in an office-type enviroment), paying nearly seventeen dollars, so during the day I spent twenty-two dollars and made twenty-eight minus taxes. It seems rather stupid to me, in general. I stay home, I don't spend money, I don't make money. I go out, and see what happens?
So I had the pleasure of seeing the SYG boys here this weekend. What a bunch. J.D. found a "nice little book store" that is actually the largest bookstore and movie place in town. I walked home from the Benson's (where Robbie, Julianne and Aaron were staying) about one in the morning, seeing two different thunderstorms flashing on opposite sides of the city, gleaming stars above me, and the cool air of a dry fifty-some degrees. On the way home, I started to wonder if I was going to be mauled by a bear, so I started jogging. That lasted about three blocks. I got home safely, in case you were wondering.
Marty, thanks for the words of encouragement. I do actually need stuff like that sometimes. It gets kinda quiet around here when you're not returning cookie plates or entertaining old roommates and their girlfriends and Aaron. Guitar it up. Hey, if they're looking for somebody with some banjo experience... I can commute.
Lynnea, was Dr. Ratledge wearing his beret, or his pink coat, or anything of the sort? I miss weird professors. Dr. Ratledge would be their king! Congradulate Tyler for me, though I may leave something of the sort as a message on Krista's phone. This way, one bird with two stones.
Gabe, though we never went, I had my experiences with Luke and Scott and Folksted hitting the Golden Tee. I once bruised my palm rather severely playing. Play well for me. There isn't a BW3's for five hundred miles, I'm sure.
Batch, you.... hey Miller was just here. We could have had a reunion, and brought too much stuff, and lived on top of each other again. That'd be just great. And then I'd leave you for another beautiful blond roomate. Say hi to that kid for me if you see Mr. Schofield. And I'd be a nanny if I wasn't scared of kids. They're either breakable, or breakingotherthingsable. It's not until you can vote that you stop destroying the world except politically and enviromentally. Would you hire me to watch your kid? I thought so. Oh, and Miller pulled that "God lives in (insert your messed up state here)" when he was here, so either God lives in two places at once, or one of you is lying. It's like you're saying God is everywhere. I will never get sick of waking up with Mountains to the west, and the east, and the north, and, oh, I'm in the mountains. Just seeing your name makes me want to hear you say "fricker!" or "Scotty McJohnsonpants". So maybe I miss you. My number's on the blogger somewhere a while ago. Give me a call if you want.
Josh, like seriously, when you have some minutes to kill, I don't have a job and I doubt my social life is taking off like I'd want it to, so just press those pretty little buttons on your cell phone and say hey. Just because you know everything that's happening in my life doesn't mean the converse is true. Or is that the inverse? I know, it's the multiverse. Traverse. Blank-verse. Yeah, that's dumb. Write yourself a note on your hand or something. If you don't call soon, I may be engaged next time we talk, and we both know that's about a million years away.
Brad, you been reading The Republic? I just finished it last week. I loved it. Didn't exactly agree about the producing or disposing of children, or his theory of art, and the final section on the afterlife was pretty hard to follow, but overall I found myself eating it up. Kinda sad reading this "Yes I have noticed that excessive emphasis on athletics produces an excessively uncivilized type, while a purely literary training leaves men indecently soft." Woops. This is great, and too true: "There are two things that can ruin and corrupt the rest of our workers...Wealth and poverty." Great stuff.
Question for all: Do the words Gazeebo night ring a bell? If you were there, say something, for I am trying to put together the list of people that were there. If Cinnamon ice cream sounds familiar, let me know, because I think I don't have a complete list. On that note, for all, what was your favorite memory of college? It's a toughy, but I think it's a good question to get some posts that may well entertain and connect us further (what a distance). Maybe not. Who knows? Hopefully I'll have something interesting to say on the other side of Thursday. Keep blogging.

Hey posters...ha ha...that is really close to, but not quite, posers... he he....i'm a retard. Well...my old computer decided to fart out on me and so I had to get a beautiful new (new to me :) laptop! I'm very thankful, it was my graduation money...kind of an oxy-moron but eh, who's counting. But...I lost the link to this safe-haven and couldn't find my way back. But...then one day, thar she blows! I found it...and I'm back...blowing smoke with the rest of ya'll! Well...wow...life has been just a tad out of control for me in the past months. I don't like that feeling...not healthy for me. My first two months out here in oregon were lonely, boring, and slow. The second two months have been a whirlwind, I'm leaving one thing a little late for the next, forgetting to eat, not getting my sleep. I'm a nimcompoop...i've got to grow up! My room's a hole, my desk is a hole...my life is a hole. Hey, I'm beginning sound like Hubka! he he...not funny? So yeah...I'm enjoying this season and flavor of life...I'm learning a lot and have plenty of things to learn and develop. What are the odds of that? I thought I was sweet!
My parentals came out and visited last week, that was really cool. They were way low-maintenance which was nice. They did their own thing while I worked and then we went to Chinatown in portland (p-town if you wanna be down wit' yo bad self) and then to the beach!
I get to go jump off of high places tomorrow (cliff-jumping for the lay person). That is very exciting, foolish, dastardly (no, it is not dastardly, but the amount of time since I've used a big word was like out of control, so tough luck that it doesn't fit. I just had to say it!) It'll be fun--if you call middle school girls jumping off of higher places that you would walk to, let alone jump from, fun!

Well...I'm enjoying reading about what God is doing with such a cool group of people. His hand has been on us from before we even met and we have received affirmation after affirmation that 'something is special about that class.' I must agree...and doggone it, this blog proves it! (Aside from the class of 1954, we are the only alumni blog Crown has!)

I got glasses yesterday...ahh...my life is complete! I'm trying to be like Lynnea and pull off multiple looks) I hope they make me look smart, gifted, buoyant, creative, wonderful, sympathetic, compassionate, capable, fit, friendly, humorous--but not like stupid, technologically adept, homosexually inept, spiritual--but not like pious, influential...and a few others. You might laugh, but as the old adage goes, if you aim at nothing you will always hit it! You gotta have goals in life. You'll have to tell me sometime if you ever see my glasses if I've accomplished my goal.
Thanks for your time, come again, I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

Josh

Hey everyone, I just found ths blog thing out. I got an email from Lynnea today...thank you Lynnea...so i thought i would drop a quick hello bomb. I miss chillin' with you guys. You don't realize how good you have it until its not in your face anymore. I miss you all.
I hate waiting for a job. I know God will provide, but i an impatient punk that has a hard time waiting. I know there is a job out there for me and that in His timing it will be sweet, but it still isn't easy. Anyways, that is where i am at. I love being in Colorado, probably because this is where God lives. :) I will never get sick of waking up and seeing the mountains off to the west...a glorious sight. Kristin is moving out to colorado to nanny in August...i am telling you guys, if you want to get a sweet job with all the lavished goodness, become a nanny. this past weekend Kristin and I went to visit the families that were interested in her and I was blown away. She was talking with families that the parents were Doctors, Lawyers, Vice-Presidents and even a CEO that owned his own private Jet. I am telling you guys, be a nanny. One family offered to pay for an apartment for her to live in and the apartment was sweet...hard wood floors, downtown Denver, vaulted ceilings, etc... So anyways, life is good as a nanny. :) (Funny quote, im using it) Yep, thats whats going on...

God bless,
Batch

Tomorrow is the first official office day for me at Hope Church. It is really weird to hear people call me Pastor Gabe. I am very excited and a little nervous. If this does not work out then I just wasted four years of my life and over $60,000. I moved into my new house (the church parsonage) last week and Jessica and myself have been busy trying to get everything organized since. The house is so awesome and if any of you are ever in the neighborhood you are welcome to stop by for a chat. There is also a bw3's only a block away, but I have yet to find out if it has in its building the coveted GOLDEN TEE. I also found out some other very interesting information. Having a baby is expensive. I don't have my kids yet, but I have been looking into the cost of the hospital alone and I am in shock. Let's just say that when we all first came to Crown we spent a certain amount for a year of school. Well if I took out a loan for four years at Crown for the full price I could have almost substituted four years of school for four babies. They should have federal loans for expecting families!
I read a good book recently for the second time. We all had to read it for evangelism class. (Does it really count as a book you read if you were required to read it for a class?) It is the "Master Plan of Evangelism". It is so simply, but it was such a good reminder of what I am here for if I take the name of a Christian. If you have time I would recommend to read it again. Here is one great quote: "There is no place in the Kingdom of God for a slacker..."
I miss you all very much and I am glad to here that most others are having a hard time as I am of letting go of the Crown years. I am so thankful to be able to read about all your lives. Please post any prayer requests, because I would love to be praying for you all. And if you are reading this and you have not written in at least 2 weeks, then blog it up.

Went to Orchestra Hall last night to see the Minnesota Orchestra (go figure) and ran into none other than the infamous Dr. Ratledge. After recovering from the slight awkwardness involved in running into a professor while on a date, I talked with Dr. Ratledge about the courses I will be taking in the fall to begin my Master's program (including "Contemporary British Cinema" and "British Literature Post 1800 of the West Indies"). After listing the course names, he deemed my courses "weird" and then seemed more interested in discussing Tyler (Krista's boyfriend; he had run into them at a restaurant several weeks back). Tyler has recently been accepted to a doctoral program in Inorganic Chemistry at the U of M, has been given a full tuition waiver for five years and a $17,000 annual living stipend. Of course I am envious of his position (until I remember that he will be researching chemistry for five years), and I am glad that Dr. Ratledge has such interest in discussing him. But the most un-nerving part of the evening was having such a prominent figure of my past four years pop up out of nowhere when I had been doing such a good job at looking toward my future academic career. Now I have a tiny inkling of longing for the familiarity of professors whom I already know and who know my academic abilities and goals. Now I have to prove myself all over again to a whole set of new people. I suppose that is part of the whole process of "moving on." I kind of thought I had already done that.

So as a lot of you know I have been looking desperatly for a job, and well, just try to imagine a perfect job for me. It involves music, dealing with rock stars all day, getting to play with the nicest gear all day long, hang out with fellow musician co-workers all day, and have a wicked discount on some great gear. Sooo...Guitar Center hired me yesterday as their new sales associate selling all their pro audio gear (keyboards, musical software, electric pianos, turntables, sound equipment etc.). God sure did have this one planned out when I kept getting turned down...I almost feel like he put a lack of desire for all those crappy jobs out there in my heart so I would know for sure how great this one is. I'm pumped, ya'll. Jess and I can finally start planning our life for the next five years and start looking for a place to live. Roseville (Guitar Center) and North Branch (Jessie's new school) are both right along 35W and we can find a decent place right in the middle....Hubka, I know what you're feeling with not working...hang in there, buddy. Trust me- He's got it under control. Kurbis- Djarum Cherry: thanks. Rettler- updated your frickin' blog. Kyle- check out Snow Patrol. Great band from Sweden- you'd love em. As for the rest of you...hey.

This is just a brief update, bringing to light the ability for a gloomy evening such as my last post portrayed to be quickly dissolved by a gourmet root beer, a short walk, a cheap cigar, and some fireworks. Just in case you were wondering about my overall mental state, I'm doing quite well. This blog is simply meant to relay the news of my first visit by my neighbors downstairs. Two of the young ladies from below brought a plate of cookies, said the potted flower was cute (though I'm sure they were just being nice if Jolene or Molly are correct), and proceeded to invite me to their place "anytime", but specifically to return the plate they brought the cookies on. So ha! I'm not THAT creepy after all. The problem is that I was so overjoyed by having visitors in my home that I can't remember the other girl's name, and I had already met Carey (Kerri, Kerry?) so now I'm in trouble once again in terms of needing a whole new set of introductions. Having not seen a person I actually know in almost two weeks, it was quite shocking to realize how much I enjoyed just chatting with people I really don't even know. So now what am I supposed to do when I bring the plate back? Terri told me I need to ask them all to a movie by next Wednesday, and I'm waiting for another basketball trick from Kyle. Please, inform me. But this is brief, so I'm done. Please write something, anything. I'm afraid my last blog was the sort that scares people off of this and if I don't have some proof otherwise, I may delete it soon and try to forget that days around here sometimes touch the gloomy side of life. Let me know if you want me to say anything to the SYG boys, for they will be here the day after tomorrow. Anybody seen that movie?

It's raining in Baltimore... No one's around...and I don't have nothin' to say. I miss you; I guess that I should. Kyle, Marty, Bubna, Brad, you know what I mean. Something hit me tonight and my heart feels like my window, covered in raindrops running at random, tattered by the windy torrents outside and cheerless as the gray sky beyond. Maybe it's the O3 talking. Ever wonder if your life is a endless band of cliches that you yourself have preached so fervently against but could not help falling into? It's all a lot of oysters, and no pearls. So true. Do I really know what I want? I think so. Does anyone? Maybe this year will be better than the last. Is it wrong to share the darkest parts of your soul when you wonder if anyone else is so dark as you? I realize second-person writing isn't the best medium and should be used more carefully, but my present state does little to withhold my written soliloquy. Is the darkness so evil that it could only lead to a cave that tears through the earth to Gehenna itself, or is it a period of rest like the night, showered with the pinpoints of shimmering stars and the cold light of the moon letting the weariness of the daylight be forgetten in dreams and relived in nightmares? But I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong. Ever wonder if you really don't deserve anybody, and that questions why you have even the smallest pieces of some trapped deep in your heart? Maybe Duerkop was right and I jinxed(?) the blogger by being excited people were writing. The answers we find are never what we had in mind. You don't talk of dreams, I won't mention tomorrow, we won't make those promises that we can't keep. Ever felt like somebody poked a hole in the bottom of funny and it all drained out in a few sad seconds? I don't have to answer any of these questions. I come home in the evening; sit in my chair. Did Jesus mean yourself when he said "Love your enemy?" Is there a greater enemy of your own soul? Don't think I'm really this messed up. It's just a hard night and this seems like a good way to deal with it. Do you ever wish the night would come quicker? I used to think that the only holidays that sucked because you were alone were Christmas and New Years and Valentine's Day, but it seems even Indepedence Day cries out to be spent with people, for everybody is with others it seems. The mist of the morning -that's what we're walking through. I don't think anyone will get a kick out of this, but I don't think I've conveyed myself so clearly in writing for a long time. The hard times of life are like starting blocks that we can push off of into joy. It shows that life is not just hard times, and that joy is not reached without something joyless to push off of. The chair I'm sitting in is falling apart. Do you think it is a foreshadow of greater things to come, or nothing more than proof that with time, most things fall apart? Well, now the blogger is simply begging someone to put together a coherent recollection of their day or some exciting news, and this contains neither. I'll simply leave you with a couple good quotes of Plato that should raise your eyebrows at our present political situation (no offense intended, Duerkop): "The more closely I studied the politicians and the laws and customs of the day, and the older I grew, the more difficult it seemed to me to govern rightly. Nothing could be done without trustworthy friends and supporters; and these were not easy to come by in an age which had abandoned its traditional moral code but found it impossibly difficult to create a new one. At the same time law and morality were deteriorating at an alarming rate, with the result that though I had been full of eagerness for a political career, the sight of all this chaos made me giddy, and though I never stopped thinking of how things might be improved and the constitution reformed, I postponed action, waiting for a favourable opportunity. Finally I came to the conclusion that all existing states were badly governed, and that their constitutions were incapable of reform without drastic treatment and a great deal of good luck. I was forced, in fact, to the belief that the only hope of finding justice for society or for the individual lay in true philosophy, and that mankindwill have no respite from the trouble until either real philosophers gain political power or politicians become by some miracle true philosophers." Long quote. Here's a better, shorter one: "In a city of good men there might well be as much a competition to avoid power as there now is to get it..." As always, I apologize for myself. I hope it's not raining in Baltimore where you are.