Tuesday evening update

My mission is to be asleep before midnight tonight (a worthy goal, you must agree), so this will be quick.
Tallahassee rocked completely...I'd forgotten what it felt like to wake up after 11 am and spend half a say watching reruns, and it was everything I had hoped it would be...I'm actually getting a little misty as I think about it now. Moving on...
My little sister is getting married this Saturday, which still gives me pause, because it feels like yesterday we were 12...I could write a whole long post reflecting on how nice it would be if I were getting married this Saturday, too, but I think my energies are better spent enjoying the journey :)

Uh-oh. 11:59. I must fulfill my vow! I'll finish this later. Peace!

Fun in Tallahassee

Hooray for vacations! It's day one in a much-needed spring break in Tallahassee with my friend Jaime and his brothers. Why Tallahassee, you ask? Well, it's familiar enough that I know the place, but foreign enough that I don't have to worry about being tempted to work while I'm here. It also helps that I get to spend time with one of the funnest group of guys I've ever hung out with.
We're on hiatus & trying to figure out what to do next, so we started messing with everyoe's favorite mac program, photo booth. Here are some of our favorite results:





















I'll post pics of Something Interesting if it happens.
Peace!

Peep dis!

...So if you know anyone in the area who needs lessons, let me know...:)

This moment

I'm the kind of person who tends to get really annoyed inside whenever I hear the words, "just wait until you're older, then you're going to _____," especially if the blank in question involves some kind of negative downturn my character or a feeling about some issue is supposed to take in x number of years.
I sense a lot of this in discussions I've had about marriage, as well as in my own personal observations of where certain couples I've met are in their relationships. I do have to be honest and add the caveat that the latter probably results more from my tendency to over-analyze everything rather than any overt displays on their part.
Still, I sometimes look at the lives of people around me and I think to myself, is this what they envisioned and hoped for themselves when they pictured this stage of their life from my shoes?
Sometimes I think they would answer a yes, or even a maybe, but a lot of times, I think the answer would be no, and this makes me a little sad.

Aaron and I had a pretty long discussion about marriage and sex tonight, and I found myself at one point lamenting at the impression I get that for a lot of guys who are married, sex becomes something that divides rather than unifies. I get the sense that we as a culture have boiled the whole thing down to pretty much just a physical release that we barter and perform for and in the process lose the wonder and the phenomenal mystery that comes with the idea of two people becoming one. The wonder and mystery part is something that I'm glad is very scriptural, because I feel it deep in my core that what Stephanie and I are building together and working towards is a holy thing. Having a deep conviction is a whole lot more fun when it's built on something solid.
As I look around, though, it's a bit saddening to see how cheapened and jaded this idea has become. I'm no researcher, and I could be 100% wrong about the state of marital unity in that area in our culture, but regardless of what the numbers were, the important thing for me was the conviction I feel from my core about this area of our relationship, and that is this: I do not under any circumstances want to lose the wonder and the preciousness and the sheer mystery of what oneness means both now as a single engaged person and what it will mean as a married person.
Now, before I start getting weird comments, no, Steph and I are not experimenting in this area, nor do we intend to. For my part, I'm still getting used to the idea that we can even talk about sex now (see, I even hesitated to write that last sentence), and it'll probably be a long while before I stop getting all nervous and fidgety when the topic comes up.

Anyway, all that to say this: I don't want to wake up next to Stephanie fifteen or twenty years down the road and realize that somewhere along the line I allowed myself to lose the wonder of what it means to be on the journey with another person. Aaron put it right tonight when he said "it's easy to start well. Anyone can do that. Not many can finish well."

Right now, in this moment, I know the kind of relationship I will have with my wife when I'm 84 and she's 82 (on November 8th, 2066), and I want to make the kind of decisions now that will allow that to be possible.

It's cool to be able to dream big dreams and know that they're really possible. I'll have a whole other post later about how this ties into ministry, because these thoughts have been flowing in that direction, too, but for now, I just want it to be in writing that I intend to love my wife, both now and forever, in the best way possible, in the way of Christ and in his power.

Pack it up, pack it in

Hey gang,

Another fine work day has come to an end. Now begins all the other little to-dos that are right now lurking about waiting for me to get home. That being said, I figured I'd better put some type down now before I get home, because otherwise, you may not hear from me until well past Friday.

Updates, updates!

My .mac membership will automatically expire in less than 15 days if I don't cancel it. I kinda want to keep it, but $105 is way too much to pay for what for me right now is basically a neat-looking email service. I was thinking about hosting Steph and I's wedding site there whenever I got around to learning how too use iWeb, but with my recent acquisition of Dreamweaver I may just try to find somewhere that'll rent me some space on the web and pay 20 bucks to keep the page online (assuming that I find some of that elusive "free time" people keep on telling me about).
So, one day there will be a nifty little link to your right pointing you to what will surely be a "aww"-inspiring wedding page (you can groan now).
The moral of the story? After much thought, I have come to the conclusion that $105 is quite frankly an utterly ridiculous amount of money to pay for an email account, even if it is from Apple. You're better off saving your money to get an iPhone.

Next thing. I'm moving! I am currently moving out of my mom's house and into the apartment where, Lord willing, my future bride and I will make our home. Word!
And I just finished painting the kitchen and it looks flippin' awesome. Word!
And I plan on installing some more light fixtures and learning how to do crown molding and practicing basically how to show Stephanie that I'm one of those useful-around-the-house kind of guys, not one of the those other guys who hire guys (like who I will be) who are useful around the house and make the other guys (the aforementioned hire-ers) wish they were. Yeah. Rockin' stuff, I know.

All that said, I'm off to go eat some food and move more of my junk. ¡Hasta Luego!