Yesterday was a good day, for the most part. After being thwarted in my attempts to get my grubby little hands on Soul Calibur 2 on Tuesday (Though I did manage to get my hands on Season 3 of The Simpsons and Season 2 of Futurama, and there was much rejoicing. Best Buy and Circuit City both claimed they’d be getting the game on the 29th (Friday). Unacceptable. Online, Ebgames promised the game would be out on the 26th (Tuesday). Calling Software, Etc. (screw linking from this point, I don’t have a connection.) they said they’d have the game on the 27th (Wednesday). So, Wednesday, during lunch, Joel, Andy, and I headed off to the Muskegon Mall (a strange oasis or normalcy/beauty in a city of strangeness and ugliness.). They had the game, and I purchased it, and was quite pleased. I also picked up the strategy guide, because I wanted the soundtrack that came with it (it is excellent!), and as a bonus, I now have a book that tells me what I should have done to not suck so much. So we headed back to work, and I was all excited to play, waxing nostalgic about the days of Soul Calibur 1 on the Dreamcast, and the rampant idiocy that it brought about. I popped the Soul Calibur 2 soundtrack in, and began ripping it… and got caught listening to Avril Lavigne in the meantime…. and ended up listening to her album 3 times. I was doing some interesting [to me, I guess] work, and got caught up in that (imagine that, so interested in what I was working on I forgot to do non-work related stuff.. craziness). So finally, it was time to go home, and I was again jazzed to play. Joel suggested dinner, and I was then jazzed to go out to dinner (Logans). After quite some time,Jplant joined us there. (before he showed up, I managed to prove myself a complete and utter yokel when an attractive server from another section came giggling to our table to ask how we were doing, only to be blocked and then practically tackled away by our server. It was odd, and I responded by staring, slack-jawed. I’ll add it to the list of “Why I am still single.” Anyway,Jplant joined us, we had good food, and then we all took off.

I made it home in time to start feeling very, very ill. (Very, Very Ill –> Everything below my neck is trying to digest itself, and everything above my neck is trying to melt itself.) I was not pleased. I cooled myself down with some cold water, and began to feel a bit better. Tried to make a phone call, but no love, and by then it was time to head off to Zeeland, for my first co-ed softball game of the season. I was excited, because I love softball. And softball with girls is even better. I headed on in to Zeeland a little early, and the game before ours (ours was to start at 9:00pm) started late, so I sat and watched for a while. Soon, some teammates showed up.

Team = Brian ->my golf partner/former young people’s leader, Cory -> My friend who is on church council, Hugh -> He and I took turns teaching Sunday School last year, Hugh’s wife Shelly, and their daughters Nicole and Lindsey, Cory’s brother and Nicole’s boyfriend Brandon, Brian and Wendy Kragt, Cory’s sister, Shawn, and Me. Very similar to our team from last year.

We warmed up for a long while, and the game finally ended, and we were set to play. We were visitors, and batted first. We scored 1 in the first inning, and held them scoreless. I ended up playing Shortstop the entire game, and it ruled. I had 1 error (a bad hop on a quick bouncer that jammed my thumb pretty good. I managed to block the ball, but they should have been out easily. The next batter (Melissa Vryhof, my friend from High School and College.), had stolen a base hit from me the previous inning (a line drive towards third that she stabbed at and got… I was not pleased. Anyway, She was up, hit a hard grounder towards 2nd, which I grabbed, ran to 2nd, and then jumped the runner and whipped it to first for a double play. It was slick. Games are 7 innings, and in the bottom of the 6th, they scored 2, to put it at 5-5. Cory dove for a shallow outfield shot, and damn near separated his shoulder again (he claimed it didn’t pop out of socket, but then later claimed that it had moved “more than it ever had before”. So he was out, and we were all quite concerned about him… But he soon was back, and feeling fine, he said. [He was a base coach for the rest of the game]. I lead off the 7th inning, and nailed a nice liner to left center, and stretched it into a double cause I’m hella fast. The next batter hit a bloop shot to short that they missed, but I couldn’t advance. The next batter hit a hard grounder to the pitcher, and I beat out the throw to 3rd (I’m hella fast). In so doing, I ripped my arm up quite well, and really tore my hamstring up again. It hurt.

Next batter popped out to 2nd, and I tagged up and scored, because they tried to pick off the guy at first, and didn’t. So that was 1 run, with 2 people still on base (1st and 2nd) The next batter hit a nice long single that scored 2. (8-5). We ended up scoring one more, to leave it at 9-5, and ended up winning 9-7. We were pleased, and it was a ton of fun.

There was just a very nerdish comment just made about pizza.. I will not repeat it.

I returned home, after another failed phone call, and met up with Swac, who had [apparently] just started playing Soul Caliber 2. I joined him, and quickly discovered that I wasn’t very good. The game rules, though, and after some time, I was doing slightly better. I recall Swac and I being fairly even when we played Soul Calibur 1 (though I’ve always been more attractive), so when we ended the evening fairly even, I was pleased. Now it’s time to start unlocking characters, and levels, and cute new outfits, etc.

I’m at Calvin right now, at a work related meeting, and for the last 3 hours, people have been arguing about whitespace. I’m longing for those 24 hours stuck in the Paris airport.

My thanks to all the comments on and off-line about my current church situation. They’ve all been helpful, in their own way… Though I’m thinking some of you now (or still) believe me to be a walking spectre of death and doom. I’ll do what I can to change that perception.. how’s that?

I just had a meeting with people, like… important people, and they were all interested in what I was saying… and I was just kinda saying stuff off the top of my head… and they all seemed to think I was smart. It was very odd. And I think now I have to make a presentation in Dallas… this is why I shouldn’t be allowed to speak.

Quotes from the meeting

• There’s a high street value for bibles. It goes crack, then extacy, then bibles.
• Well, people are more likely to enjoy [a particular Bible translation owned by a business one of the guys here works for.] after they’ve smoked some crack.
• Do you have some sort of plastic guard on your keyboard to block all that sarcasm dripping from your mouth?

I woke up this morning with a sizable (2 – 2.5 inch) cut on my forehead. As far as I can recall, it was not there when I went to bed last night. There are no sharp objects near or on my bed, with the possible exception of the nightstand , which has rounded corners. So my question is: Where did this cut come from?

I named it M*A*S*H cause it starts out funny, and ends all serious.

I’ll begin at the top: At softball practice last Thursday (by the way, I had the 1st softball practice for my church co-ed team. Woo Softball. While practicing, I re-injured a pulled right hamstring, and it was really sore the next day.)… Anyway, At softball practice last Thursday, I was approached and addressed as “Hey, Deacon” by 2 guys on the team. I found this odd. Cory, a friend of mine from church, also talked to me a bit about how his experience on church council had helped him out.

Flashback

Right before I left for Europe, Cory had pulled me aside after church and mentioned that council was looking for some candidates for deacon, and my name had come up, and he wanted to know if I was open to talking about it. I said it sounded like something I might be interested in, at least certainly worth considering, and I’d like to talk about it. The next week I left for Europe. While I was gone, Cory left a message on my machine mentioning that he wanted to talk to me about it. When I got back from Europe, I hung out with Cory and Brian Van Hoven (my old Young People’s leader, and current golf partner), after golf one Tuesday, and a quick conversation went something like this:

Ron: Sorry I didn’t return your call. I left for Europe a few days before the message arrived. It was about the Deacon thing, right?
Cory: Yeah, I forgot, you talked about your trip, but it completely slipped my mind.
Ron: So it’s a bit late now.. yeah..
Cory: Don’t worry about it, it’s not a big deal. Not a problem.

I’m paraphrasing, cause I don’t remember the exact conversation. The effect was this: I believed I had waited too long to say yes, so I was off the list. He believed I had said okay, and all was fine, and I was on the list.

Back to last Thursday

“Hello, Deacon”… wait a minute… I hadn’t been at my church that Sunday, as Robb and I had gone to Mars Hill… so.. um.. I might have been elected Deacon, and I didn’t even know about it. Then I was asked if I was interested in teaching Sunday School again this year, and I said I’d have to think about it, as I was kinda looking around at churches and wasn’t sure what all was going on with me. The asker completely understood. (I’ve had conversations with others who share similar concerns about the current situation.

Abstract

For the last year or so, I’ve been less than impressed/pleased with my church, most notably the message. I just haven’t felt like I’ve learned anything, been challenged by anything, or been touched by anything. The messages all seemed like very simplistic ideas that I’d been taught repeatedly in High School [Rarely did they even jump to the college level.] For the past number of months, Id been reading passages out of the Bible during the sermon, tuning in to the message when each new point was introduced. I’d learned fairly well during High School and College how to pay attention to two things at once by doing homework for one class while in another. I seem to do better when doing two things at once. That’s why I work better when I’m also napping, in case you were wondering. Anyway, I was leaving the Church feeling as though I’d gained nothing, and it was very rare that I’d ever felt really touched by something in the service (Though I was frequently hit by things I read. I read through Ecclesiastes a number of times, and read Romans very closely. I’m currently going through Acts.). Add this frustration to the fact that my church is about 30 minutes away, and that there are zero, count them, zero girls (or even guys) my age, and single, that go to my church, and you start to see my reasons for deciding I should perhaps start looking around at other churches to see if there is something else out there that I would be better off going to. (Hence my going to Mars Hill with Robb.)

Flash back to Thursday

Wait a minutes… If I’m a deacon, I’m committed to 3 years at the church. I’m guessing they’d also frown on me visiting other churches every week (You need someone to pass the offering plates around, right?) Hrm.. no sir, this isn’t good. I had planned on writing a letter to the president of church council to voice my concerns about Sunday worship, and the minister, etc.., but had no set time table. If I was indeed elected deacon, I’m going to have to have this talk asap. I resolved to talk to him today [well, Sunday, the 24th.. this prolly won't get done until tomorrow.].

Flash to Sunday

For the first time in about a year, I showed up for church on time. Way to go me! The service begins, and all is going well. I tear through the bulletin and see the line “Following people are up for the office of Deacon: blah blah blah Ron Veenstra, blah blah blah. Okay, so I haven’t been elected Deacon yet. That’s a start. This wouldn’t be a big deal. I’ll explain where I’m at to the prez, and all will be okay, Then the title of today’s message is put on the screen: Love Your Church. The message likened those who left the church they were a member at in order to find one “more to their liking” to spouses who left their partner in order to be with someone else. Hrm.. This was going to make my conversation a bit more awkward. The sermon went on, and was quite good, I must say. There were a few things I disagreed with, but that’s fine. It was finally something of substance, and it was real. [It's also hard to ignore the fact that it was exactly what I was currently dealing with. A skeptic could say that we've just been losing a lot of members, and so this sermon was inevitable, but I'm quite sure God wanted me to hear this. Not that God's demanding I stay here, I don't know for sure what God wants. But God wanted me to think about it, and take the decision seriously. That's certain. Anyway, the sermon continues, explaining that it is our responsibility to "be the church" in order to make the church what we want it to be, and what we believe it ought to be. Suddenly my "this church isn't what I need" argument seemed to be losing steam. A small item in the sermon mentioned that Sunday was a day of rest and worship, and certain members of the congregation shouldn't be bogged down with hundreds of requests and concerns and questions that take away from their worship experience. Those kinds of things can wait until Monday morning. So Crap! I can't even have the conversation today anyway. The sermon ends, and like I said, I was pleased, because the sermon did touch me, it did challenge me, and it did teach me. It didn't make up for the past year, but it certainly gave me things to talk about.

Service is over, and we're meeting in the narthax. I'm talking to Brian, who knows my thoughts, and knew that I was kinda looking around. He mentioned I ought to talk to Cory, cause Cory seemed confused why my name would be on the list if I was planning on leaving... and I was still a little confused (though not so much) why my name was on the list in the first place. I also had to talk to the president of council... even though the sermon said I wasn't supposed to, I figured it was important. The three of us ended up having long, open discussion on everything. I haven't had a worthwhile conversation about my spiritual walk since... Probably since I would talk to my Dad when he was driving me to and from Calvin back my Sophomore year. Anyway, I raised my concerns, and they understood me, and understood what I was going through, and shared their concerns as well. We talked for a long while, and I'm not going to get into what all was said, cause it's none of your business, but essentially, theirs a lot of things I need to figure out, and a lot of things that I have to just leave up to God. That's particularly hard for me, cause I don't know how to do that, and I'm never sure what is going to happen. I don't like not being in control. The only thing I can really remember leaving up to God was my job after college. My "dream job" had vanished, as the company went belly-up (I say dream job, but much of the time, I didn't like it that much. I recognized that I was getting paid a lot to do some kewl stuff. But at the end of the day, I couldn't explain why I was bettering the world by my existence.) Anyway, I told my Dad I wanted to work in the church, or ministry somehow. My Dad did some searching, and got me in touch with a number of people. And just randomly, I asked Joel at school once if there were any openings at Gospelcom (Joel had been in my internship class, and so we had shared our experiences at our jobs... me at Everything and him at Gospelcom. ) He got me in touch with JR, and JR called me up a few days later, was super willing to work with my schedule (Something Smiths was completely unwilling to do, so I hung up on them... .the guy on the phone was rude to me too. I don't care for that.), and everything just seemed to work out perfectly. I look back now and can say "God made this all happen" but I have no clue how I went about "leaving it up to God"... I've tried to leave finding my future wife up to God, but I got no clue how to do that.. I just do what I think I should, and when I find what looks perfect, I latch on, until the courts tell me I'm not allowed to be within 500 yards of her anymore. Doesn't seem to be working thus far.

Aside: I was told that my ex-girlfriend Julie is now engaged, and I feel very strange about the whole thing. I wish her well, I guess, in as much as I don't wish her any specific harm. But I can't help but wonder: Why does she get to be engaged? Seems she and I were both just as interested in finding someone and getting married, but here I sit alone, dreaming dreams that may never come true, and she's engaged. It's all very frustrating. End of Aside.

So the election is next week, and my name is still on the list. Something that was told to me that made a lot of sense was this: While you're here, be fully here. Give it your all. If in time you still don't feel this is where you are supposed to be, then you can deal with it. But not doing anything about it doesn't solve anything. So I think I might teach Sunday School again this year again. And we'll see what happens with the whole Deacon election thing. I can't say for sure if I want to be picked or not. (they pick names out of a hat, I think. It used to be voted on, but for some reason they changed it. I don't care for the hat picking thing, but whatever.) I think I might start heading off other places for evening services, or finding some bible study or something. I'm going to try to get back into the habit of doing devotions. I've fallen out of the habit.. which is pathetic, considering I work on the Bible every day. On of the things for BG3 is going to be a Daily Bible reading... even if it's just for me, it's going to be there.

I feel like I've just been drifting through a lot of things that last year or so. Church is a major example.. I would show up, and really just look forward to hanging out with the Veldhof's afterwards. I learned more in Sunday School than I did in the services. It's time I put more thought into what it is I'm doing, and why I'm doing it. I was given a book by the president of council, and after I read through it, I'm going to write a letter to council, and to the minister, explaining where I'm at, and what I'm looking for at Bethel, what I see currently lacking, (and prolly what I see it doing well), and what things I think I can do, and we as a congregation can do to make it better. I am also going to talk to my Dad, which I should have done a long time ago... but I guess it's one of those things where you hate to admit you don't really know what your doing to your parents. You'd like for them to think your doing so well, and have got things pretty well figured out... I dunno. Pride gets in the way of a lot of things I guess.

A lot of words up there... Here's what's left for me: I have to accept the fact that some of the problems I have with my current church are not going to be fixed in the next year, or even 5 years. Hordes of single girls are not going to suddenly appear at my church. Groups of people my age, period, aren't going to show up overnight. My Dad is not going to return to provide the sermons I've grown up with and [quite frankly] really, really miss. I’ve got to figure out where I belong, and what I should be doing. When it comes to church stuff, I’ve never done that before. So this is all very new for me, and advice or prayers you might have to give would be most appreciated.

A few unrelated notes:

• Mandace zinged me this past Saturday so well, and so out of the blue, that I was left speechless for a good 5 minutes. I was impressed, in that “Damnit” kind of way.
• This week is a wonderful week for nerds everywhere.
• I’ve written a list of things I must do (i.e. a “Todo list”) before I turn 25. If you can think of something you think ought to be on there, let me know. Items range from “clean my desk” to “read Harry Potter 5″ to “Figure out what I’m doing for retirement”.
• I’ve begun keeping track of my Max and Ermas visits (Date, Cost, Server). This information might be used when I set up my budget (It’s on the list). Or it might just be for fun.

Sleepy time.

This morning I had a dream that I was grocery shopping. It took forever.. I just kept walking from aisle to aisle, never finding anything that I really wanted, but occasionally picking up items I thought might be good, only to return them to the shelf, and push the cart onward. It was one of the most boring dreams I’ve had in years. After what seemed like hours, I came to the toy aisle (the store looked a lot like the Rivertown Meijer, so I’m assuming it was there, or its equivalent in my fictional dream universe.). In the toy aisle, I ran across a shelf filled with twin-packs of the original Transformers, and I was overjoyed. Soon Andy (who appeared out of nowhere) and I were searching through the choices. Each box had two Transformers, and they had different combinations, so we were searching for specific matches. I ended up with 3 boxes: Soundwave and Shockwave, Megatron and I don’t recall who he was with, and Optimus Prime without any second item. [I also distinctly recall seeing: Blaster in many of the boxes.] Anyway, when I found Megatron, and was all excited about it, a big booming voice said [from nowhere]:

Then I woke up. I remember when I used to dream about girls… My subconscious sucks.

Yesterday, Swac and I were going to meet Adam at Egypt Valley to bike the trails there. Swac had mentioned that some of the trails were a little dangerous, and recommended I get a helmet. [I've always considered helmets pretty girly.] So we loaded up Swac’s car, with his bike on his roof rack (it only has room for one bike) and my bike on my trunk-latching rack, and we hopped in the car and headed off to Galyans, where Swac works. At Rivertown, Galyans is two floors, with a two-story parking lot right in front. We swung through, and decided to park in the lower parking lot. We turn to go to the lower parking lot, underneath the 2nd story…

The sounds that followed were made by us, and are not to be repeated. Turns out that Matt’s bike, which sat on top of his car, was a bit too tall for the entrance to the parking lot. It ripped the entire roof rack right off his car, tearing up one of his window frames in the process. His bike appeared in relatively good shape, with some noticeable damage to the front (where it collided with the overhang, I’m assuming), and the bike rack was pretty mangled. We quickly gathered up the pieces, and tossed them into the car, as other people were waiting to exit. Never mind the fact that there was plenty of room for them to exit, and we were off to the side, they continued to sit there looking impatient. People are f‘ing stupid (PAFS) [You'll note that I'm now using more abbreviations and acronyms. Try to keep up.] So we got the remains into the car, set his bike up on my bike rack in the back of the car, and did our best to fix up the window.

We headed in to Galyans, and I found a helmet, and some 1337 biking gloves, and were on our way to Egypt Valley. After some time, we made it there, and met up with Adam. The trails were quite kewl, though the abundance of sand cause me a number of problems [of the "I can't go forward or steer anymore" variety]. I was taking it slow, as I didn’t want to kill myself quite yet (I need something to do on my 25th birthday), but it was a lot of fun. I was feeling a bit more confident about my skills when we entered the 3rd section (I think there are 4 sections, I’m pretty sketchy on all the details). The thirds section starts at the base of a loose gravel hill, and takes a sharp right. Swac warned us it was a bit tricky. I was going last, and we gave each other decent following distances. When I turned to enter the sections (going at a fairly good clip) I caught some sand or something, but I lost all control, and then my bike struck some sort of obstruction (rock, root, or hill) and stopped instantly. My body did not stop, and I went flying over the handlebars, and into a bush. I was pleased that I had landed in a more or less padded area of the earth, and since I didn’t really injure myself at all, I’ve decided the entire incident was “hella kewl”. I got back on, headed off, and caught up with the guys after a while. [well... they stopped for me... frequently]. Anyway, yeah, biking was fun, and Adam’s new bike looks pretty nice.

Just a few quick things:

Swac!

Swac is back from his trip to Maryland, and there was much rejoicing. He even got me a gift. He rules. To celebrate his return, he and I went out for a bike ride… [dramatic segue]

My Worst Fear

Swac and I were biking, and moving along just fine, about 3/4ths of the way through our trip, lamenting the fact that we were just passed by a couple on a tandem recumbent bike, when a bug flew into my eye. This has happened a few times while biking (each time causing me to vow that I’ll “never go out biking again without sunglasses on.”), and while annoying, it’s never caused serious problems. I rub my eye a little, tear up a bit, the bug gets knocked out, and then I’m fine. Well this time it didn’t work that way. The bug got caught underneath the eye,a nd started going behind the eye, and it was really starting to hurt. We finally pulled off to the side, and I flushed my eye with my water for a while, but still no love. Meanwhile, I was going fairly blind in that eye. things in the very middle where somewhat clear, while everything else was blurry and unintelligible. The more I messed with the eye, the worse it hurts, and the worse my vision got. I realized there was little more I could do out there, so we raced home (literally raced.. it was fun), and I headed to the bathroom to fix my eye.

Now if you’re here, you probably know me (or you’re looking for “Pictures of Lasagna” or “How to make homemade pr0n“… if you’re the latter, please stop coming here, it’s kinda freaking me out.), and you probably know of my intense fear, queasiness, and disgust for matters dealing with the eye, i.e. Eye poking, close-ups of the eye, any sort of sharp object traveling near the eye, etc.. I think eyes are beautiful windows to the soul and all that, but they really creep me out. Now I’d shoot myself before I let someone else touch my eye, so I had to go in by myself, and try to work this bug out of my eye, and it took quite some work. Sven and Swac stood by offering suggestions, while I used a wet Q-tip to work around the eyeball… Even talking about it now makes me want to throw up. Anyway, after some work, I found the bug, [It was way down on the bottom of the eye.) and I worked it back up, and got it out. At that point, I was sufficiently grossed/freaked out, and I wanted nothing more than to stab myself in the face and focus on something else for a while.... But after a while, my eye still hurt, and my vision was still significantly impaired, and my eye was still twitching like crazy. I took a close look at my eye, and it looked like the left side of the eye was really puffy and torn up a bit. This freaked me out a lot. I had Robb take a look, and he said it just looked bloodshot, but not damaged at all. That calmed me slightly (at that point, I was panicking.), but looking at it again, it still looked pretty messed up to me. After a few more minutes of "waiting it out", it was no better, so I went back in with a Q-tip, and found some nasty crap stuck to the far left side of my eye, and worked that out. With that out, my eye felt much better, but I was so throughly disgusted I considered popping the eye out anyway because of the bad memories attached to the experience. My my vision restored, I returned to my room...[less dramatic segue]

Fantasy Football Draft

Sven and I were involved in a “live” (i.e. non-automatic) NFL Fantasy Football draft last night. Our friends from the Illinois area met up together at Josh’s place, and Sven and I were at my place, and we were connected via an instant messenger, and took turns picking players. We had to wait on Al, who was at a Sox game, so it took a while (9:00pm – 12:00am), but it was a lot of fun, I thought. I also ended up with a pretty nice team:

Qb: Rich Gannon
WR: Tory Holt
WR: Peerless Price
WR: Amani Toomer
RB: Priest Holmes
RB: Shaun Alexander
TE: Randy McMicheal
D: Steelers
K:Jay Feely

So I’m looking forward to that. I’ve got another league I’m in, so I’m hoping I don’t suck too bad in both of them.. With that done, I went to bed…[another segue]

Stupid eye

I woke up, and my eye hurt like hell. I went to the bathroom, and looked in the mirror. My eye looked a little something like this. [I say "a little something" cause it really looked like this, but the flash seemed to take away all the impressiveness of the thing, so I had to do some "creative additions" to illicit the necessary sympathy. What? Like you've never played up something for pity. Shut up. Anyway, the eye is still puffy, but not as bad, but it itches a lot. And now I have to go to the last regular golf league outing of the year! [and there was much rejoicing, cause IRFSAG.]

So it’s been a little while, and while very little of significance has happened, I bet I’m still going to ramble for quite some time. Are you ready for it? I doubt it…

Bowling

We had our work picnic a while back, and contrary to what some people may say, I was able to live up to my smack talk.

Golf

Another week, another pathetic attempt to be a golfer… ISAG.

Biking

In the past few weeks, I’ve been biking quite a bit. When I have a free hour (which isn’t all that often, really, but it happens) I hop on to Kent Trails by my house, and take that to the end and back (about 11 Miles total, I believe). I headed out to Easttown to bike near Reeds Lake with Adam andJplant again this past Thursday. It was good fun, and I can feel myself getting in better shape, and being able to last longer on the thing.. I really need a pair of gloves and a helmet though.

Finding Nemo

Kristin and I headed out Thursday night (after biking) to see Finding Nemo. I’m a fan of all the Pixar movies, and this one did not disappoint. The animation was clean and impressive, the story was cute, and while fairly predictable, it was still entertaining. Plus, since a lot of how much you enjoy a movie is based on who ya saw it with, hanging out with Kris while seeing it undoubtedly helped it a lot. The lines/situations/things we find funny are quite similar, and you feel more at ease laughing hard at something when someone else is too. Anyway, a find movie, and I’m glad I saw it.

Cabin Boy

I had never seen the movie Cabin Boy, but I was a big fan of Chris Elliot, especially in Get a Life. So when I saw the movie on sale for $6 at Meijer, I figured I’d give it a shot. Robb and I watched it… To say it did not live up to my fairly low expectations would be a kind way of putting it. To say it sucked complete ass would be slightly less kind, but likely more accurate. It failed to be “so bad that it’s good”, but it also failed to “not completely suck.” Sadly, because of Going Overboard, it even fails to be the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Redeeming feature? David Letterman was in it.

Beach

We went to the beach on Friday to join Brian and his wife for lunch where they were vacationing. On the way there we passed what appeared to be my old roommate, Adam. This seemed odd to me, as he lives out by Detroit. So I called Sven, to get Adam’s cell phone number. Sven hooked me up, and I called the number, and a woman answered. Since I’m quite good and thinking fast, and quite good at talking on the phone, the conversation went something like this:

Ron: Hi… is this Adam…or Beth?
Beth: This is Beth…
Ron: Okay.. are you guys out in Grand Haven right now?
Beth: I’m not.. Adam is currently in Grand Haven for work, but I’m back in Livonia…. Who is this!?
Ron: Um.. Oh! Sorry, this is Ron. I thought I saw Adam driving in Grand Haven, so I was trying to get a hold of him.

So Beth gave me his work cell number, and I called Adam, and we talked for a while. I reprimanded him a number of times for not getting a hold of us while he was in town, and he seemed somewhat apologetic, though not nearly enough. Anyway, it was kewl seeing him.

We get to the beach, have some food, and watch a fairly clueless [but attractive, and therefore more or less forgivable] girl repeatedly set of the alarm on her mom’s car, which she didn’t have the keys for, and therefore couldn’t turn off. Valiant attempts by various members of our team to help her proved fruitless.

We tossed the Frisbee around on the beach for a while, and the sand was very, very hot. The bottoms of my toes are currently still covered with blisters. The presence of many, many attractive girls made me realize that I shouldn’t go to the beach, because it just depresses me. Pretty girls with guys that are obviously wangs just pisses me off, and it seems to be an inevitable reality… No matter how seemingly smart the girl is, she seems content to attach herself to a dipshit. The ostrich solution seems like my only valid choice at this point.

Haircut

I was cutting my hair last week, and I had pretty much finished, and it looked fine… pretty much the same cut I’ve had for the last 6 months or so… I was straightening out the neckline when I slipped a bit, and completely shaved off a sections of hair on the back of my hair at about ear height. This was not good. In order to “fix” the problem, I had to cut my hair quite, quite short everywhere but the top. I thought it turned out good enough. A big thanks to Joel for pointing out the similarities between me and an Army recruiter. (You bastard.)

Evil Leader

If you’re ever in a situation where you’re an evil leader or dictator, and you’ve captured two enemies that you know to be quite clever and resourceful… and you still choose not to instantly kill them, PLEASE consider either putting them in separate jail cells far away from each other, or bugging their cell, so that you can find out when and how they’re planning on breaking loose and ruining all of you best plans for world domination. Seriously, folks, it’s just common sense.

Paintball

My friend from church, Nick Wabeke is getting married (thus meaning that every male in my Young Peoples group besides me is now engaged or married). For his bachelor party, we went out paintballing this past Saturday. It was hella fun. Here’s the weird thing: I no longer felt “the Fear”. The thought of getting shot no longer frightened me, and I was thus free to go ahead and play Rambo all day. (consequently, I got shot a number of times, and some of them hurt like hell. (I also have a number of these all over my body.) Anyway, it was a ton of fun.. My favorite was the first game of capture the flag:: Center Flag. The idea is that there’s a flag in the middle, and the team that brings the flag back to their base wins. Normal “you get hit, you’re dead” rules applied. It was 5 on 5, and one of my teammates was my golf partner/old Young People’s leader, Brian Van Hoven. He suggested that a fast person could just quick run out there, grab the flag, and return it before the other team knew what was happening. I’m fast… So the whistle blows, and I just book straight out into the open. Shots are flying past me, but I continue forward. Meanwhile, my teammates are laying down suppression fire around me, so the other team can’t afford to really poke their heads out or do much of anything. I get to the flag and instantly turn and throw it back towards my goal, assuming I’d be shot momentarily (I had asked the ref if we were allowed to throw the flag, and he said so long as you weren’t dead, you could). The flag goes sailing, and lands about halfway to our base…. but I’m not dead. So I book towards the flag, while my team continues to lay down fire, and the shots continue flying past me. I grab the flag, whip around the corner (shouting out to the two teammates behind the next corner that I was coming, so as not to get fragged by them), dart around the next corner, and straight to the goal. Game over. The entire thing took about 25 exhilarating seconds, and I was pretty jazzed about the whole thing. While we were switching sides, people from the other team wanted to know why the game had ended so early, assuming that someone’s gun had malfunctioned or something. When we explained that we had won, they seemed quite surprised. Epilogue: My overconfidence from that game lead to a point blank shot in the neck, and a number of potentially deadly shots in later games [Note the large green shot right by the command center there.]

San Chez

About a year and a half ago, I requested help in planning what I wanted to be “a perfect first date” with this girl. Steve suggested San Chez. Well, my hats off to Steve, cause I finally got a chance to go there this past Saturday, and that place is really nice. Cathy and I headed off to downtown GR to try it out (Cathy had been there a few times before, and I had never been) after deciding that a few other places just weren’t what we were interested in. Walk talking, we came to the conclusion that we were on a “date”, and we both seemed to find that amusing. During the course of the meal I told her “The Story of Ron (1995-2003)“, and she was adequately amused, intrigued, and horrified (which is the appropriate response to such a story, I believe.) But as it stands now, she knows a number of things about me that no one else does, and can understand why a number of key events in the past 2 years have been especially important/painful/meaningful/heartbreaking/etc.. There’s something liberating about being able to trust someone else with that kind of information, and because of that, I shall be forever thankful for my friendship with Cathy. There is certainly no one else like her.

Misc.

I’ve been working on November Rain, and I’m making steady progress. It’s hella fun to play, I must admit. Thus far, I’ve gotten through much of the first solo (I still need to work on a few bends, and some timing, but the fingering is all there now I believe), the first section of the final solo (this solo is hella fast, and hella sweet. Each section is pretty tough, and there are [i believe] 8 sections to it. They all follow a similar pattern though, so once I get the first one down, learning the others will be slightly easier… except for 2 of them that are just so very fast that I’ll need to devote serious time to mastering them.), and all the chords, bridges, and single stringing during the verses and chorus. Maybe I’ll put a clip up to show where I’m at, but I bet I won’t.

I’ve been listening to a ton of Dashboard Confessional lately, and am more and more taken with the lyrics each time I listen. Perhaps this will just spill into a post of it’s own, but I haven’t been this into lyrics from an artist since I got into Nine Inch Nails.

I got to see Deedre the other day, and was again reminded why Greeks sailed to Troy [...for control of commercial trade routes to the east]. It was a good time, and I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to see her again sometime soon.

At the house for the past few weeks has been this puzzle. I believe once it is finished, we will all be pleased that it is over and done with.

Looks like Dave and I are headed to Dallas the beginning of September for work. That ought to be fun. I think our flight from Grand Rapids to Chicago is on the back of a particularly hyper hummingbird, or something else of equal size.

One final thing: How about them Cubs!? They had first place for a while again, and now they’re down by just half a game! I’m loving it. And with that,I am now tired, so that is all.

So I hosted another LAN party.. and this one had a plan: We were going to play Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and have the two teams set up in different rooms, so we could freely talk to our teammates without the other team overhearing. I think it worked out quite well. On hand for the fun were: Joel, Adam, BDF, Tuuker, Andy [remotely, for the first part], JHO and Dave [for the second part]. BDF, Joel, and I teamed up, and set up our computers in my bedroom, while Adam, Tuuk, then later JHo and Dave, set up in the dining room. I snapped a few pictures towards the end, but I think at this point, you’ve pretty much gotten the idea of what a LAN party looks like at my house.

There were a few things about this particular LAN that I think are worth mentioning. First off, I think the whole “teams in different rooms” thing was quite kewl, and quite helpful. There was one game in particular, where BDF stole a NAZI outfit, and he and I quick made a plan to sneak in the back entrance and complete the mission while Joel continued to create a diversion by rushing the front line, and screaming exasperated obscenities loud enough for the team in the other room to hear. It worked brilliantly. As the day went on, our team’s communication got even better. Hanging out in our room would’ve sounded something like this:

Joel: “Artillery incoming“
[!*BOOM*! !*BOOM*!]
Ron: “I’ve got two headed for the tank… [*Bang-Bang-Bang*] they’re dead… Footbridge!“
BDF: “I’ve got him… [*sniper shot*] Dead. I need Ammo.”
Joel: “I’m on it.“

Meanwhile, we could hear various screams from the other room that sounded something like this:

What the Fuck are you doing!?
Damnit!
What the Fuck are you doing!?
Damnit!

So… slightly less productive, I guess.

Another event that happened at least 4 times that I counted was this: There has been dynamite planted at a key position, so an engineer is sent to diffuse it. The engineer enters, crouches and begins working on it, only to have it explode at that instant. The first occurrence was quite good: I was dead, and while I was waiting to respawn I was viewing BDF’s actions. Joel was guarding a room where the Dynamite had been planted (He was not an engineer, and thus could not diffuse it) BDF rushes into the room, and that instant my scream and BDF’s just turns bright white, and all Joel sees is a giant explosion shooting out the doorway. Classic.

Another odd occurrence: One of the last maps we played, we were seconds from victory when Dave managed to kill BDF right at the ending point. When we were done, JHo asserted that their team was hindered because Dave was on their team, and he hadn’t played the game before… We reminded him that Dave had saved their team in that match, and that the addition of Dave gave them 4 people to our 3… this information seemed to be lost on JHo…

So all in all, a fun time with the LAN. I’d like to get another one (at jplant’s place) going sometime, as many people seem interested in playing again… and I’d still love to get a game that included Alan, Jonathan, Jay… maybe even a remote Peter ? I think that’d be hella kewl.

It’s 1:15. After a total of zero days, my “go to sleep on time and get a full 8 hours or so” plan has died a most painful death. A quick round-up of current and recent past events:

Tuesday

Worked from home, met up with Tim for lunch, as is the tradition on Tuesdays now. It’s funny. Tim and I have been quite good friends since 8th grade, when we started working together at Walters Gardens. Those 5 years at the greenhouse, we hung out quite a bit (i.e. pretty much every hour while we were there.) and talked about pretty much everything. It’s just been fun this past month or so to get back into that routine of seeing him frequently, and getting to have those kinds of conversations again, rather than the typical “what have you been up to the last 6 months since I saw you last?” that we were kinda stuck with much of college. Even when we worked together at Everything we didn’t get to spend that much time talking.. we were too busy working [amid the shouts and cries of Diablo 2 coming from the rooms nearby]. Anyway, we have lunch on Tuesdays, and we’re back to our High school conversations: “What the hell is wrong with women!?” and the logical offshoot -> “How can we get with women?”

Tuesday is golf league. I suck at golf recently. (I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I’ve pretty much always sucked at golf). So I decided that I’d try hard this time, and try to do well. So the first hole I was all set to get a 5. Not great, but it’s a par 4, and I almost always shoot a 7 or so, because it takes a few hits to get into the groove and I suck at golf. [< - hereafter shortened to "ISAG"]. Well I’m on the green with a short putt for 5, and I completely miss it, as the greens we really slow (they were a bit wet) and since they were quite fast last week (when it was dry) it caught me offguard… plus ISAG. So that’s a 6. Not horrible.. it’s not the usual 7, so there was some improvement… but I should have had a 5, which would have been nice. So I’m not pleased.

Hole 2, a short par 3. It’s just the tee box, a lake, and then a short fairway to the green. I usually use my 7 wood, which used to be my magic club (magic club –> The one club that could be used for almost any situation, from long fairway 2nd or 3rd shots, to difficult lies in the rough, to short shots to the green. If I had only one club (besides the putter) to golf with, this would be the club. See: 7 Wood.) On this hole, the 7 wood usually puts me a few feet past the green, or far off to the right, in the trees. You see, whenever I try to take a little off the swing, I hit it wrong,a nd it shoots out sideways either into the lake, or into the trees. When I swing away, it clears the green. I opt to just swing away most of the time. Today, since I was “trying hard”, I decided to use my 9 iron. After all, from about 120 out, that’s the correct club to use. So I line up, and swing away. I watch a giant clump of dirt chase after my ball, and catch up to it as they both splash into the water about 20 feet in front of me. Golf gets the finger. I must have swung low and gotten underneath it, or perhaps ISAG. I put a new ball down, grab the 7 Wood, and put it 5 feet past the green. “So much for trying something new,” I said. I finish with a 6.

Third Hole is another par 4, straight and clear. My drive heads straight left and finds the smallest tree to park under. When I approach I’m pleased to see it leaked through, and I have a decent enough lie to get a shot off. This shot heads straight for the center of the fairway, before veering violently left,and finding the largest tree to park under. After some searching, I find it sitting near the trunk, and have to drop. I end up with a 6. (Well on my way to a 54. Not good, but I’ve done worse.. much worse.)

Hole 4. Another short par 3. I’ve parred this hole a few times, but I usually end up in the sand on the left side of the green after my drive and end up with a 4. I’d like to get a 4. My first hit clears the sad, and is on the left side, with the bunker between me and the pin. My short chip goes long, and I’m on the other side of the green… then it just rolls right off. Another chip and I’m on the green, and I two putt for a 5. I’m thankful it’s not a 6.

5th Hole. I f’ing hate this hole. the first 100 yards are lined on both sides with thick trees. My drive ends up clearing the trees on the left, and I’m on the next fairway over. I proceed to shank the next 3 wood shot (shank you very much), and then squib the next 2 iron shots needed to get back onto the right fairway (there’s a line of trees around the green as well, and so you have to get back on the fairway if you want to make it to the green.). I continue to chip short, then 2 putt for a 8. I’m falling apart at this point, and am trying to remember why I golf at all.

Hole Six. This hole gets the finger. There’s a long lake on the left side. I hit to the left. I’m boned. My drive hits the toe, and I bounce and skip into a nearby ditch, that just happens to be filled with water this week. Damnit. I drop.. Hitting 3, I launch a nice iron shot that seems to be fading a bit left… still fading… still f—, I see it bounce up once, then disappear. Lakes get the finger. I was aiming pretty far right, but it sliced a bit, and ISAG. I drop by the lake, on the path it bounced in. Hitting 5, I set up a nice 7 iron shot. It flies gracefully forward… for about 20 feet, then sinks with a disheartening “Sploosh!”. I grab my golf bag, turn to the guy I was partnering against, and say “Well, I’m done.” I began walking to the next hole, where I knew there was a pop machine.

Pop Machine. I had change all set, cause I knew I was going to want something to drink. I tossed in 4 quarters and 3 dimes, and pressed the Lemonade button, and got nothing… I look at the screen, and it said I needed $1.25, and so far I had put in 75 cents. I punched the pop machine… then I punched it again… Dejected, I found a dollar bill, and bought my lemonade for $1.75. Pop machine gets the finger.

My next drive went under a small pine tree. I dropped, and ended up with a 7. The next hole I had a gorgeous drive, then the second hit was the perfect distance, only it faded left, right into the sand. My blast out shot with the wedge blasted it… about 100 yards past into the other fairway. The return chip cleared the green, and then I shipped and two putted. Fuck golf. The final hole I ended with an 8, and I had to drop once more because of a tree. I just laughed, and left before they could tell me how awful my score was. (don’t figure it out and post it as a comment, cause then I’d have to beat your ugly face in.)

Pickwick at night was a lot of fun. A small group, with just Joel, Adam, Alan, and myself most of the time. The topics of the day included: The appropriate political system that ought to be created as part of the rebuilding of Iraq, possible and preferable actions the United States could take concerning the current Liberia situation, and which type of wines to serve that would best compliment a lightly lemon-marinated sailfish…. or it might have just been a lot of dick jokes and us ranting about how certain people and companies completely suck ass. Oh yeah, and I’m a knuckle-dragging cretin for not changing my own oil.

Wednesday

Wednesday was work at work day. It was fine, and once again I got a ton accomplished. This week has been great for getting things accomplished. Problem being that every 1 thing I get finished introduces 2 more things I’ll have to do. How will I catch up? Simple. Work faster! The math has to be in my favor. I got my new earphones (that’s where I was driving [well, to UPS] in the rain), and they rule (although my ears still feel like they’re being violated… I think I just need to get used to them.

While at work, Stacey showed up, and she and I had worked together on a number of things last summer (Bible Gateway related), and had sat right next to each other in a 3 person cube for much of the summer as well. Her quote when I walked toward her: “Oh, Ron. I completely forgot about you!” Joel and Jay began to laugh, and were still laughing as I made some comment about killing myself, and dragged myself back to my cube. This is the kind of impression I make on the ladies, you see…

After work, Joel came over, and he and I, and Mandace and Swac headed out to Max and Ermas for dinner. It was good stuff. As we were leaving, a bus load of cute girls (we’re talking at least 15-20 girls) showed up. Sigh. Also, our hostess, Caitlin, asked if we’d ever been there before, or if there was any special occasion. I was not impressed. Oh, and if you’re ever planting apple trees, just plant them in straight, parallel rows. It’s a lot easier that way. Splurge and buy 10 more seeds you cheap bastard.

We headed back and watched Punch Drunk Love, which I had bought last week. That movie is great.

Thursday

Today was Thursday. I worked from home, then Swac and I biked Kent trail for a while, which was hella fun. We also charted out a mile around Ramblewood, so when I finally get the urge to run, I know where to run now. We’ll see if that ever happens (“All signs point to no”). After than, Swac, Mandace, and I met up with Sven and Julie at this new Chicago Style Pizza place across the street from Max and Ermas. The pizza was excellent, and our waitress was pretty cute, and friendly So I left my phone number on the receipt for her. I’m assuming she won’t call, but if it at least flattered her a little, then I feel good about it. Plus there’s the hope that if little by little I become capable of going out of my comfort zone a little bit to try to attract a girls attention, then perhaps at some point I’ll catch the right girls eye, and she won’t just disappear on me for no reason. After pizza, we went to Meijer, and I spent over a hundred dollars on supplies, and lots of unnecessary items. The next few weeks ought to be interesting.

I spent a lot of time today learning the first part of the final November Rain solo. It’s pretty hard, but it no longer seems impossible. I just have to work a lot at it, and eventually, I’ll get a pretty close version of it that I can rattle off without having to play at half speed. My hats off to Slash for being really, really good.

It’s now 2:45. I’m an idiot. Before I end, many thanks to those who offered their suggestions, both on this site and elsewhere, concerning my recent malaise. Your concern and your willingness to help me out are greatly appreciate. I have a few ideas to make my life a bit more interesting for a while, or at least to shake up the routine a bit, and I find myself once again looking to the coming days with a feeling of excitement. I like that. There are some things in this world that you just can’t control, and even when you think you understand them, they just baffle you again. I guess you can either try to roll with it, or let it sink you… I’m not the world’s greatest speaker, but perhaps I can get my message across with the words of timeless song: “It was the heat of the moment, telling me what your heart meant…”