Hills

     I peeled my eyes open this morning to find Anna standing in the hallway inquiring if I'd run with her. I remember asking, "Am I going to slow you down if I'm sore?" She replied in the negative. So I arose and put on my new Saucony running shoes and began stretching in the entry. 

     As we hit the road, Anna asked, "hills or no hills?" I was indifferent and gave a noncommittal reply. She insisted I decide. "Hills."

     We ran three miles and were home in a decent thirty minutes. Running is always worse during my experience than in my memory, but this morning's run seemed particularly bearable. Maybe the shoes are magic....

     Other accomplishments for today include replacing the headlights and fog lights on my Passat, replacing the fuse for the fog lights so they work, shopping with Sara and Mom at Blick Art Materials, Loft, and REI. As always REI is full of good stuff, but I did not buy anything. I saw some Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultras in a new color. I might get them after a little while. Also, REI is having its used gear sale on December 31st. Stopping at the art store rekindled my thoughts concerning journaling more; I'd like to write more about my experiences. Finally, we stopped by Five Guys for a some fries, and now I'm home.

John

P.S. Gotta think of what I want from Mom for Christmas....

Full Days

We are all having a great time here in Sacramento. On our free day we had a good time in the solar heated pool. Solar heated means Un-heated. After swimming and registering for the conference we decided that we wanted to do a little shopping. It was actually the guys, excluding James, whose idea it was to go in the first place. That evening we kicked off the conference with an evening session. Today was our first day, and we've only got one and a half more days of conference left but it seems like it's only begun. I'm singing in the student choir with the illustrious Mr. Fox as the director. The sky is beautiful and clear despite the wildfires throughout California.

John

Post Script

Wow wow wow! What an amazing trip. I had the time of my life; and what a great group to have it with. We did so much, and in doing so much we also did so little. Everything from horseback riding, a jet boat trip, rock climbing bare foot, and soccer on the beach. We played board games and billiards, watched a couple of movies and ran and walked up and down the beach. We went out to dinner and ice cream, we also made some masterpieces of our own. I had some awesome times of personal devotion on the beach, as well as being able to be a blessing through song to the small congregation of believers there in Coquille. The sun set proclaimed the glory of God and all the skies declared it so, singing their silent praises to their maker. We didn't have a single day of bad weather, despite a little cold temperature one day, and I even managed to get a little sun burned. I'm an amateur when it comes to pranks but that didn't stop me from trying to harass our sponsors. We even ended up flinging bananas and shrimp around one night when things began to come loose. I took ton of pictures, I think my camera was finally glad to be put to good use. On the way back, we stopped at the Woodburn outlet mall and I ended up buying something in almost every store I went into. All in all, it was a perfect trip.

John

Senior Trip Prologue

It grows ever closer, like the sharks circling in the dirty water. I volunteered to make the menu for the trip, partly because I wanted to help, mainly because I wanted to decide what we eat and when we eat it. I would say that I'm pretty magnanimous. I went to Costco with Mom today and got most of our groceries, and I might add that they were considerable cheaper than we had even planned for. As far as money goes, we are way in the green up to this point. I'll make a few mores stops tomorrow at WinCo and Thriftway and then the food aspect will be all set to jet.

Good close this evening at Starbucks; we got out about 20 minutes early.

John

What Can Can I Say Of A Day In This Life?

This week has been kind of slow motion so far. It's not that nothing has happened, it just seems like that. Last night we went out handing out fliers for NBT this summer. Hannah Schlagel, Elizabeth, Kevin, and I went with Pastor; afterwards, he took us to Starbucks. We were officially labeled his "eager beaver" team. We drove around handing out fliers to any young person we saw, or to any house that had any indication that there were children or teens taking up residence. I'm sure some of them thought that we were weird, but that was kind of the point.

Today I did stuff. We went to Bridgeport Village and I stopped into the J. Crew; I saw a couple of things that interested me but I didn't end up taking any of them with me. That completed, we made a stop at Union Gospel Mission before getting supplies for the Singspiration at Costco. When we got home I read two Spider-man comics.

John

P.S. I just want to say thank you to all my readers, and let's continue to be cordial to eachother.

P.S.S. There is Frisbee on Saturday, let's all come have a fun time being pwned by me.

Oot an' Aboot

Last night we played Ultimate in the parking lot. There were only eight of us but we still had a lot of fun. Even though it was getting toward evening, the air was still really hot and humid and whenever stopped moving I could feel myself burning up all over. We didn't just end up playing one game though. Because of the people that were playing and the difference in skill present we switched up the teams a couple of times and played five or six games. My favorite game was the last game. Bye then we were down to six players. Anna, Danielle, I were on a team verses Shauna, Erin, and Nareda DeCleene. The DeCleenes were good and had previous frisbee experience but on the last game we didn't let them score once. The moved the frisbee a lot and got close the end zone quite a few times but couldn't quite make it all the way. We ended at nine o'clock 7 to 0. We all had fun and and everyone got a chance to be on a winning team.


Today we had a Staff outing to the Allen Premier Outlets. Rachel, Claudia, Anna, and I are close to the only staff people left here at the Ministry Center, so we four went together. We stopped in at a couple places including: Ralph Lauren Polo, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, as well as Eddie Bauer, Fossil, and J. Crew. While at Eddie Bauer I could feel familial ties being awakened inside of me and I saw a couple of things that I liked. I ended up just getting a nice t-shirt with a fish on it. At Fossil I was looking for a belt and a wallet, and that's exactly what I ended up getting. At my last stop, J. Crew, I didn't find the sweatshirt I was hoping that they would have but I got a new navy and green striped tie for a good price. After we left the outlets, we all stopped at Costco. I love Costco. Sam's Club and Walmart just don't compare with Costco. We stopped there just to look around and have lunch (at three thirty). While there we couldn't pass up walking around and getting all the samples though. When we left Costco I realized I didn't have my Camelbak bottle and that I had probably left it at one of the stores we went to at the outlets. I called Eddie Bauer and Tommy Hilfiger to see if they had found it in the fitting room areas, but neither had. After thinking about it for a while I realized that I had left it at Tommy Hilfiger. We weren't too far away, so we drove back, but they didn't have it. Someone must have thought it looked cool and taken it. The good news is that they are on sale at REI and I'm going to get two new ones when I get home.

I only have couple days left here in Dallas. Anna and I are flying back home on Tuesday and right after that we are going to the beach. I can't wait to get home so I can all the stuff that I need to do.

John

Finally Having Fun

Well, I had a crazy weekend, but nothing a party guy like me couldn't handle. I started it all off on Thursday by heading down and helping out at the senior car wash. I helped the whole time from 10 until 4 and we raised over 400 dollars. I specialize in cleaning wheels.

On Friday I did normal stuff most of the day, including taking down a big Oak tree in our backyard, but ended it all off well by heading down to REI and J. Crew. I love to spend money and this time I came home with a new shirt from J. Crew and climbing harness from REI. Looking forward to accruing all the gear I need to go climbing.

Saturday was great day, starting at church getting the ground there ready to have new bark dust laid down for Easter. Evan, James, and I devoted our time to removing two large flax plants. By the time we were done all that was left was two craters and a big mess. Upon completion of our duties we headed straight over to Southridge were we commenced an the most amazing Ultimate Frisbee game I have been to in a while. My team ending coming back from 7 to 14 to win the game. We scored 8 points in a row. After frisbee, we played football but I was having a hard time getting into the game. It didn't rain on us while we played frisbee but for the last hour of football the heavens opened up and all manner of things began to fall from the sky. Thoroughly soaked, Evan and I headed home to get ready to go out to Red Robin with Kevin, Hannah, and Katey. Hilarity ensued while we spent two hours at the restaurant. The word 'Fun' does not do justice to what all happened there while we inhabited the premises.

Sunday was mostly normal for me, starting in the morning waking up. Next I went to church and then came home. After lunch I rode my bike to Barnes & Nobles and spent some time there with Luke. That finished, I rode on home and got ready for evening church. After church, Mom and I went to get James, he had gone to the zoo with some friends for a birthday. Driving my car was great, especially since it was night and the bad drivers are few and far between. When I arrived safely home I went to bed.

Today was a good day too. After waking up and all that shenanigans, I did school, which comprised sitting on the couch reading textbooks and practicing my piano. Then Evan and I went out for a little shopping. I can't tell you where we went because while we were out we stopped and bought Anna's birthday present. After that we went to REI and I bought another pair of Smartwool running socks(the most comfortable socks ever). I have had a gift card so I couldn't resist. After dinner we were going to go see Shooter but I couldn't because I'm only 17 and it's rated R. Now I'm here at the end of the day. Now I'm gone.

Snowboarding on Thursday. Texas in 8 days.

John

Steve Llyod, Christopher Lloyd, and Pink Floyd and What They Have in Common

Alright, I confess, Steve Lloyd, Christopher Lloyd, Pink Floyd have next to nothing common. But I'm sure that the title made you think.

Turning now to real life. I went to Lloyd Center today with Anna, Evan, and Sara. The main reason we went was that Evan wanted to go to Aeropostale to get some black polos but I went along anyway. I like Aeropostale and you never know what you might find at the mall for the upcoming Christmas season; so I went along. The ride across town was enjoyable, sort of. It was raining heavily all afternoon, which I like, and the traffic was heavy so the going was steady but we had to slow down a little bit heading into downtown. At Aeropostale I got a long sleeved polo but that was it. I really wanted to go to J. Crew but Lloyd Center doesn't have one; can you believe the outrage. I had actually never been inside Lloyd Center before today and I'm not really impressed; personally I like Washington Square better. When everyone had finished their shopping we went back to the car and I drove home. Pretty exciting huh? It was raining again on the way home but it was more on and off.

On Tuesday we didn't want to deal with any of the little Halloween creatures that inherently show up at your door on October 31st for some reason, so we decided that we would stop Evan's Starbucks and take a picture of him in his Halloween get-up. After ordering a Cappuccino we drove to the mall in the gail force winds to see if we could accomplish some pre-emptive Christmas shopping. I had a pretty good time despite all the little Supermans and Grim Reapers. I visited the Oakleys store and the Helly Hansen, but my favorite store is definitely J.Crew. We picked up Evan from work after closing then went home. What fun.

John