A better day

So after a crazy and not so fun yesterday, today was so much better. I take so many things for granted, including the fact that I'm 100% joyed and 99% happy all the time. God never promised us happiness, but a fruit of the spirit is joy. Today was a little less stressful and looking up. Avis did upgrade me to a mustang convertible :) My co-workers and I went to Japanese tonight and we had fun.

I have really good friends

Thank-you Lord for giving me some awesome friends, well, for the most part, jk. I believe between voicemails, texts, and emails, facebooks, banner in the sky, and messages, well there had to be about 50zillion of them. This made me feel so good and cared for. Thank-you.

I got out of the office about 8 o'clock and very frustrated. It seems that all of the years of not being stressed have now added up and are trying compound into a few weeks. This job is going to kill me. I know it will get better, but for now, I just work all the time, and it's still hard to stay on top of my game. I ended the day with a bad attitude and wanted to throw a printer out the building :)

It's 9 o'clock and I'm going to order a papa johns pizza, eat, and go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day.

What a blessing

I never really thank God for allowing me to be born into this country. What a blessing we have, to live in a country like the United States that is free and open.

Today is Good Friday, thank-you Jesus for dying on a jagged and rugged cross to pave a way for our sins to be forgiven. Thank-you for forgiving us.

Lately, I have learned that when you get away from your day-to-day, you do start to see things differently. I see my friends differently. I miss them. I miss my family, I think about my lil sister and all the games I've missed because I live on the other side of the state. People are a blessing to us, we should treat them as so.

I want my life to be counted as a blessing to people. I want to give more than just money away, I want to give my time and attention as well.

A man that was sitting beside me on the plane today was a blessing to me, I hope I was to him. We slept for the first 30 minutes, then woke up, and had an interesting conversation that spanned from Obama, Clinton, and spun back around to Jesus. It was a blessing to spend my time on a plane talking to a man that was 75 years old. I initially wanted to sleep, but I'm glad I woke up and spent the time. God has many blessings for us, they aren't always in the form of a $check$.

Tandem bike, sushi, zoo, San Diego

San Diego Weekend

So my friend Sam drove down from LA for the weekend. This was the first time I have really got a chance to enjoy the beautiful city I am about to be living. I had a fun plan for Saturday but had a few hiccups. The original plan was for a few hours of kayaking on the bay, then hit up the zoo, the finishes off with some sushi, pool, chillin out. Sam's alternator died on her drive down so we spent some time getting a new one purchased and replaced, and all was well. We ended up spending the day renting a tandem bike, which was ABSOLUTELY hilarious. If you have never done this, you must do it. You totally have to trust the person in front because they are steering, you are only doing the leg work in the back. What a great way to relate to our relationship with God. We are basically on the same team, He is ultimately steering our lives in His sovereignty, but we are still doing legwork in the process by following the commands He has given us through the Bible. Well back to the tandem bike, I chose to be the driver because we all know girls can't drive :) It was so fun, we peddled for about 1.5 hours and then Sam wanted to steer. So we went back to the shop, adjusted the seat to shawty status and off we went. It was SO tough to try and remain calm and not steer. She ended up getting the hang and was a decent driver. Okay, an okay driver. We turned the bikes in, thanked JP for his help, and hit up a restaurant on the ocean and had a fruity drink.

We finished off the day with a relaxing time at the pool to relax and then hit up some Sushi at RA in downtown San Diego's Gas Lamp District.

Today, we set-off for the San Diego Zoo, and it was SO SO SO SO awesome. The pictures can confirm.

I will finish off by saying that friends are so important and my friend Lee wrote a post about being lonely and the value of friends. He was so right. We need people to be around and converse with, laugh with, okay occasionally make fun of :)

Friends are a blessing.

Random 08 Pictures

The office

So instead of flying back this weekend to SC, I decided to stay and get a lot of work done. The flight is VERY long back to SC and by the time I get back, it's time to leave again. Either way, this is the view outside my hotel room and below. Pretty awesome.

You realize how important friends are when you move out your "zone," that's for sure. A friend is coming in tomorrow to visit and I'm taking a break from work and going to the zoo! I have heard for YEARS about the San Diego Zoo but have never actually gone. These animals better be doing some crazy tricks for the prices they charge :)

I'm Sorry Ed

So working in San Diego has been...intense. I have been working 10-12 hour days and it has been non-stop. One thing I can say is, it is NOT boring. I will confess that I'm a little stretched and it's not the easy life, that's for sure. I think it will be worth it and I'm up for a challenge. :)

The reason for the nice at&t image is that well, let me tell you a story about my friend Ed Edwards. He gives me crap every time we talk on the phone because I burn up his minutes. He is on the other network, and I am on at&t. I recently got another network, verizon, phone from my company, but sent it back. I am going to keep my at&t phone and they just released an unlimited plan, yes, I signed up :) Forgive me Ed.

My Friends

So my friends threw Rhett and I a going away party tonight.  Rhett is moving to Charlotte and I am headed out to San Diego.  Pretty much, my friends are awesome.  It's pretty neat that at least one time per day, at least one of my friends pushes me to be a closer follower of Jesus.  I have learned that I often take this for granted, and wonder what I would do if I did not always have encouraging words into my life.  Friends are so important in this life, what are your friends pushing you to do? 

T brock

I just want to say that Tavaras is hilarious and awesome. Once he
decides on one girl, she will be very happy.

Christian Dating

I know people laugh when I write blogs about dating, mainly because I'm single. :) But c'mon, Jesus was single, Paul was single, well some say he might have been married at some point, but he was single when he wrote most of the New Testament.

So I was listening to Mark Driscoll's sermon on Christian Dating. He made a point that I find myself talking about a lot with people lately. Mainly to girls, listen, if a guy asks you on a date, it's a date, it is not marriage, it is not engagement, it is a DATE. It is only good for one night. If you go out, and hate it, don't go back out, and be honest and tell the guy no. Don't try an appease him, or don't try and feel like you have to go out a few times and think it will be like people describe beer to me, "keep drinking, you will end up liking it." No, I did not like the first one I had and I probably will not if I keep drinking it. We Christians takes dating WAY too serious. IT IS A DATE. If you are a girl, look at the bright side, this is a FREE MEAL! If the guys sucks, hey, you still get a free meal and you can check one guy off the list as NOT for you, you only have 48394839u548753 more :)

Girls, wait on a guy who will ask you out to your face or at least on the phone. Don't settle for a guy who asks you out on facebook, that's cheap. I probably offended a few people, sorry. Wait for a guy who has enough balls to take a chance and ask you out. A friend of mine recently got asked out by a guy at a bar. I watched it happen. I met the guy, he was clearly drunk. She walked away so excited about being asked out. I was like, WHAT! The guy was drunk. I told her that she was worth way more than that. She said that no guy had ever asked her out point blank. That is sad! Step up dudes and put it down. If you think the girl is worth it, sacrifice your pride, ask her out, if she says no, you can rest and know that, hey, you tried. Move on.

I think the main reason someone might be happy that a drunk guy ask them out is they really don't know their worth. If you are a believer, meaning you love Jesus, you should know that you are not just some girl, you are a child of the King of Kings, you are daughter of the ruler of the universe, and He thought enough of you to die for you. He knows you are worth something. You should too. Prove it to Him by waiting on a guy who loves Jesus, show you the love of Jesus by the way he treats and pursues you.

Dating in itself can be tough, that's why it is dating. :)

One thing I will say about San Diego, on a side note. There are so many things to do, Tavaras and I discussed that if you cannot come up with a cool date in San Diego, you have issues.

San Diego Pictures

San Diego and LA with T Brock

Tavaras is awesome, Stereotypes are not

A Personal God

So as I have stated, it is official, I am moving to San Diego. This is still a little surreal to me and nothing that I ever would have really planned. The neat thing is, God has always dealt with me in this really cool way. Any huge decision I have had to make, He always encourages me into it and just makes it so clear for me to know which way to go. You still 2nd guess a little because we lack so much faith, but then He always gives me this huge confirmation after the decisions are made, YES Justin, this is what I want for you, and I'll keep sending you things over and over to make sure you know. I really trust that when the time comes for me to spend some money on a rock and commit to one girl, it's going to be much the same way. Sure, Mary Addison will be in college, but you can still hope.

I started working my butt off this week, and put a lot of hours in. There is no such thing as a free lunch. I am going to be working so much out here, and I know that going into it. I have already had so many things just confirm that this is where God wants me to be. This is one of the biggest blessings I have ever gotten. It is definitely on the top 5. I sat down at dinner the other night with Tavaras and we prayed and for once in a LONG time, I think my prayer actually meant something to me. I thanked God for food, and for having good friends, and just His blessings. I think when God interacts with you and you know He is a personal God, it humbles you and you understand what a blessing we really have in Jesus, and our freedom etc. Everyday this week, I would find out just one more thing that would confirm the reason I am going so far across the country, completely on the other side of the US from my family and friends. God has something for me here, and He did a lot to get me here. I seriously could never have guessed in a million years that I would be in this place right now.

I am staying over this weekend to try and scope out some places to live. I never thought I would be thinking, "where should I live? ...on the beach....downtown....or maybe a little ways out..."...it's so crazy to drive around San Diego and really realize that I am moving. Tavaras and I took off from San Diego on Friday night to head up to LA to meet some of my college friends, Samantha Hoit, Ashlyn Bishop, Brandi Roe, and hopefully Brian Fellers if I can find him. We spent the day hiking Runyon Canyon. Talk about awesome! I did also confirm that brother do hike, T-Brock was seen there. We then set off to eat some good sushi down in Santa Monica with Samantha and Liz Lewis, another friend from college. Very good. Now T-Brock and I just checked into the hotel just north of LA and are going to meet the crew for some Tapas tonight in LA. We will head back down to San Diego tomorrow to scope out some more places to live.

I think I am only slightly beginning to understand what a blessing is and that we have it made as followers of Jesus, we have the God of the Universe who individually cares about us. Universe (One Spoken Sentence) Uni=one. Verse=spoken sentence. Pretty sweet.

Interestin' Day

Well, I woke up this morning and made my way with Tbrock to Columbia. We went to Chris and Kristie's shower, had fun, then headed from Columbia to Atlanta, well almost.

My tire blew out on the Rover and I found a surprise. I have no jack. So we waited a long time for some people to show up with a jack, needless to say we missed our flight and Tavaras' first voyage was canceled. We are booked for first thing tomorrow!

Diego Bound w/ T Bock

So I am heading out to San Diego for the week for work. I just found out yesterday that I was going and Tavaras got wind of it. He has the week off so he will join me for the week. Tavaras has never flown before and did confirm in his words that "brothers do fly." In many cases, Tavaras has made the point that there are "a lot of things that brothers don't do, like sky-dive, hike, swim with sea creatures etc." It was good confirmation from Tavaras that he will be okay with flying. This will be a good chance for me to visit the area and get a feel for it a little more and also to hang out with T-brock.

We fly out tomorrow evening so we can hit the zoo up this weekend :) Maybe Sea-world, I hope brothers go to the zoo or to see big animals.

This picture was taken at work, and for those of you who have seen the video, "it's business time."

San Diego Bound

It is official. I signed the offer letter today and I'm officially moving to San Diego, California for a few years. Thank-you to my friends out there that prayed for me while I made this decision. It's tough to leave everything you know, but after I went through everything, I realized it was good for me to jump out my zone for a few years and experience something new. I'll be moving as soon as an apartment gets set-up for me to move into. I am keeping my house in Tiger town, so don't worry, I'll be back!

Since the summer, I have wanted an Iphone. So to celebrate my new job, I reward myself with an iphone. I am going to try my best not to make this a tech idol, so far, I am trying not to love it. :)

I'll be back and forth to San Diego for the next few weeks, and then eventually move in a month or so. Keep in mind friends that San Diego has the the world's best zoo, Sea World, and lots of good beaches and places to eat. Tickets are cheap to fly out there, so I expect to see you all soon :)

Also, tomorrow is SAD day. Single Awareness Day, so if anyone wants to celebrate with me, do share. Otherwise, I'll probably hang out with Tavaras, not a girl, Rhett, not a girl, Eddie, not a girl, or some other person that is not a girl.

Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll has become one of my mentors and I don't really know the man. I don't know the man. He's a very good teacher. When your brain is primed, go watch this series on predestination. Watch all of them for that matter.

Mars Hill Church

Deal

I have now been in the bed for the 3rd day. It's amazing how much you learn to appreciate and be thankful for good health when you get sick. Some people are chronically ill and never get better, I cannot imagine.

I watched "Facing the Giants" tonight. The movie was quite amazing. It was funded by the church and everyone donated their time, talents, etc to make it happen. The movie does not have professional actors, as you will see, but it is such a good movie, you will quickly overlook. I had a few tears, I confess.

It's been a crazy past few weeks. How many books have been written on making decisions. It seems like everywhere you look, there is something written about it. I'm glad I have Jesus and although it is not always cookie cutter easy, He helps make things clearer. See, one thing I like about how God deals with me, is that, He knows I need things really really clear, because I'm really not that smart. Ray Comfort says that, in the Garden of Eden, God put Adam into deep sleep, the scripture never records waking him up. So it is possible that we men are still in some sort of weird sleep, this could help explain a lot.

Anyway, God knows that I need very clear paths, and even after clear paths, I need a little push. He has done all of that for me in the past few weeks and time will tell how this works out. I think we as Christians take ourselves too serious. I think God is so big that He could have us do 100 jobs and still be in His will.

He's not as concerned about our vocation as He is about our heart while we do it.

I thought today was Wednesday

It turns out it was Thursday all day. For some reason, I spent the day thinking it was Wednesday. I should have known because my favorite day is Jeans Friday. This is the special day at corporate America that you can wear jeans and be cool.

I wish I didn't struggle with this balance of my decisions and God's sovereignty. I guess if I really believed His Sovereign control, I would try to make wise decisions and ultimately believe that He would work all those things to good. Some people can just sit back and believe that God is going to make things happen. I believe that, to the point that I think He can put things in my life to make me get up and make things happen. Like, there is something out there that is mine, I have to go get it. Not in a selfish way, serving myself, but there is something He has out there for me to experience, I have to make moves to get there. It's really neat how we humans are, we tend to want to cling to people close to us when we go through seasons of decision. We listen a lot better during these times, we enjoy time spent with friends a little more, we eat a little slower.

Past Few Days

wow.

Holland Girl

How cute is Miss Mary Addison. I bought her a t-shirt in Holland and we thought it would be too small,but look at this lil princess.

Good Game

Writing makes me feel good. Writing in a journal does not make me feel good. It only reminds me of 2nd grade and how Ms. Coates gave me a "C" in handwriting. I want to go back to 2nd grade and plea my case. I want to explain to Ms. Coates, "see, Ms. Coates, I'm only a 2nd grader and I write with my left hand. Have you ever tried to write with your left hand? I bet not because you are right handed." I liked Ms. Coates, she was a cute woman, and one time I'm pretty sure she passed gas in class and I've remembered that ever since. I also remember Mark throwing up everyday.

There is something in each of us that desires encouragement. Before you make a big purchase, you want to read all the reviews of the product, you want to hear your friends say it is a good buy. We want our parents to really approve out mates. We want our friends to say our girlfriend is hot. I feel like lately I've had to make and are making decisions that I don't really get a big encouragement from. I'm not saying that I don't have good friends. I'm just saying that the answers really aren't as simple as buying a good car or a nice computer. I guess we want God to guide us in our decisions, we make the choices through His guidance, and then we want some encouragement from heaven that says, "good choice." Maybe during these times, God wants us to cling a little tighter and worry a little less.

Sometimes the choices we make aren't the most exciting, they aren't the most applauded. I feel like being the President of the United States would be always feeling this way. Constantly making decisions that affect/effect the WORLD and you aren't always going to have a team of people telling you, "Good job, you did the right thing."

I get older, the older I get, the more an idiot I feel. Tomorrow I will lay out my 3 year plan for my life, goals, finances, Courtney Blakely would be very proud of me.

Growing closer to the Lord only reveals to me that I am lost by myself.

Just Rest a little easier

I don't think I've ever really struggled through a big decision. The big things in my life, it seems as though the Lord has really just made those choices really clear and the path was layed out almost like an idiot would know which path to choose, maybe God knows me really well. I want to say I completely trust Him in everything, but I know that would be a stretch. In the process of making big decisions sometimes, it seems like I struggle, like most people, with this idea that ..."can I really mess up what God wants to do with me in this life?" ...it's just part of the way I think. I just don't want to get in the way of what He has for me and don't want to take any big decision lightly. I have this book, "A Year with C.S. Lewis" that I sometime read right before bed. This guy was a genius and most of his stuff is too hard for me to read. But, he's been in the grave for a long time and men/women still learn so much through his life and writings. His life really counted for something eternal and the fruit of his life is still going.

I think back on decisions I've made in the past year and can get in this crazy mode of thinking that I really screwed things up or maybe didn't do things right. I want to believe that God is supreme and His grace can cover any stupid decision I make and He can always make good on what I've made bad. I read tonight in the book that reality is never really what we thought it would be. He talked about the planets and how they all have different atmospheres, almost all have different number of moons etc. He loves Christianity because there is no way anyone could just come up with a story this good. An eternal God would create people, people would sin, an Eternal God would send an only Son into a crappy world to die a brutal death, and we selfish and self-serving lost people could find God again. I love this idea of we get to give God all of our sinful things and He gives us His son and eternity when we die. We can live in hope knowing that one day this world will pass away and we don't have to live for the day to day things of this world. It seems that when I start to think about eternity, these "big decisions" in life start to shrink a tad and don't matter as much. The day to day really only matters if it effects the day to day in eternity.

I didn't go to church much as a kid, but when we did go, they would alway do prayer request publicly in church. People would speak out things they needed prayer for. Some people would raise their hands for "unspoken" prayer requests. I'm going to write a book one day, I think I shall call it "Spare Prayers" and if you happen to have any of those, please share them for me. I need to make some big choices soon and want to know I'm walking in the right direction.

Was I sleeping?

I woke up and had the saddest thought yesterday. I got in from Connecticut about 3:30AM on Thursday morning after my plane from Detroit was canceled. I have never seen SC road that bad. Anyway. I slept in until about 11:00AM and the first thing I thought as I sprang up from my sleep, "crap, what time is check-out." This is how you know, you have been on the road traveling quite a lot. Sad.

We went out tonight for T-brock's Birthday. After our fun outting, I decided to drive up and stay at Ed and Julie's. Ed and I are going skiing tomorrow so this would be easier, and I like to hear Julie tell me about the girls I should be and should not be dating, it's gotten so fun over the years. I can always count on her to provide me good honest solid truth. As I rounded in front of Ed's house, I just looked at it, and thought, this is a really nice house. It made me think of pulling up to his parents house in high school. Not that the houses looked similar, but that it was just going to Ed's house. It dawned on me that we are straight up adults. Let me think of the things that I did today that are extremely adult.

1. Typed in a security code to get into my house
2. Talked stocks with a guy I work with.
3. Logged into my 401k and saw that it has lost about 2gs in the past month.
4. Got excited about the dropping interest rates and how good it would be to refinance.
5. Looked at the boxes of baby stuff in Ed's spare bedroom and can actually look forward to having kids. Well, I need a wife first. Well, I guess I need a girlfriend before that. I'll work on these things.

Anyway, I just get hammered every year in my mind that this life is going to quickly and I feel like I'm not capturing everything I need to capture. There are so many opportunities all over the place lately and I just don't know which ones to say 'yes' to and which ones to say 'no.'

I cannot waste anything. I am the guy that will beat the ketchup against the wall to make sure every single bit comes out. I eat all of the food on my plate, which is starting to show.

This life is full of things to do, I just want to make sure that I do the most fruitful things. I guess everyone wants that. I'd like to make a few kids too. Okay, so maybe I have mentioned that twice now in my writings, one thing at a time, one thing at a time.

Dear Nice Samsung Employee

Well I must be the first to admit. Something, could possibly be wrong with me. Let me explain. I have been working in the Northeast for going on two weeks. I was originally scheduled for a few days, but ended up staying to make sure everything was completed. Well about day 2 or 3, my Samsung A727 decided to restart, then, well, it never started back up. I am a cell phone guy. I use my cell phone sometimes more than you could possibly imagine. For work, I talk on it all day. For personal, I talk on it a lot. When you travel, it's really the only way to stay in touch with friends and feel like you are home. The bad thing about my cell phone dying was that 1/2 my numbers are now gone. Only 1/2 because Att&t uses SIM CARDS, praise Jesus. Verizon does not do this, so if you drop your cell phone in the toilet, for the most part, you are done. With Att&t, you can pull the SIM out and use it in another phone. Well my good news is, I have so many friends in the phone that the SIM would not hold all of them, so 1/2 were on the phone. I also had all my pictures from Europe,texts, and videos from so many places. So here is what I did.

I called Samsung and they tell me the phone is still under warranty. They send me a shipping label and ask for me to send the phone in for repair. This is the part I am somewhat amused and ashamed at myself. Well, I REALLY REALLY want the data out of that phone, well. So, um, I bought a card, and wrote the Samsung repair person in Plano, TX a nice note. The card had a nice array of wildflowers on it. This is what it sounded like.

Dear Nice Samsung Employee,

I really really hope you can get the phone number and files out of my phone. It contains a lot of special things and I am hoping you can do it. Thanks so much for doing it or at least trying.

John 1:1.
thanks,
Justin Tanner

I also inserted some $$$$$ into it. I hear that helps move things along in this world. I will let you know how this works for me in 7-14 days.

On another note, I did take some spare time during the weekend to visit my movie star friend Jonathan Dickson in New York City. I hit the train from Stamford, CT to New York, then the subway straight to Times Square. We toured around, saw the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, China Town, Little Italy, and random other sites. We hit up the movies, "The Orphanage", then went to eat some bbq and sing-a-long at Brother Jimmy's. I was quite surprised how good it was.

Hartford to Jersey to New York to Stamford

So the path has been fun this week.  I flew up to Connecticut and have been working.  My mom finally flew in from Amsterdam and I surprised her last night in Newark, as her plane was canceled and had to get a hotel for the night.  Too bad that when I got there, she was already coming back from dinner.  She was happy to be home and didn't hurl on the plane, so she was in good shape.  I saw her off this morning from Jersey at the butt crack of dawn and then drove up to Stamford for the day.  I am on call with work, meaning that if something bad happens, I work, so far so good. 

I am now in the 4th hotel of the week, this one is pretty cool.  I had no idea Stamford was such a pretty city.  I have sea gulls and all sorts of other animals flying outside my window.  The room has a nice balcony overlooking a small river.  The violent man in me is watching the birds play just above a waterfall as they try to pluck fish about to go over the falls.  I am so hoping one of them slips and goes into the water.  Ahh c'mon, they have wings, they can fly. 

Today I will meet Billy Rogers, Nicole Cariri, and Billy's boo Meg for some ice-skating I hope.  I did notice a PF Changs and Kona Grill right near my hotel, this very much excites me. 

I was driving today and paying a crazily high amount of money to drive on the fine roads of NY and NJ and just started to think of how good God is.  It is so cliche to say, but I realized just now that I should always think of God's goodness in a new way.  I have never needed anything that He hasn't provided.  No matter what was supposed to happen and didn't, well God always made those paths straight.  I am healthy, happy, and He's given me a cool job to see a lot of the world, friends that are for the most part, cool.  A family that is very strange like myself :)  But they are great and I love them.

Today is Ed Edwards birthday and his little girl is getting dedicated today at church :)  Say a little prayer for them :) 

Connecticut

So, I've been working in Connecticut this week.  Every now and then, I like to confess something on my blog.  The thing I must confess this week is...well I forgot to pack socks.  I have worn the same pair of socks since Monday, it is now Thursday night.  I think this is the most disgusting thing I have done in 2008, possibly 2007, or maybe ever.  No, not ever.  

I did go buy some socks tonight, so I'm going to be fresh and clean tomorrow. 

The good news is, I did pack enough boxers. 

Bad news is...my phone broke tonight and will not turn on. 

Good news is, I might go visit New York City tomorrow.  :)  With Clean Socks.  I'm going to name my next dog that, "CleanSocks". 

State-Side in 2008

Well I am officially back in the US. I got back just in time to go to Rachel and Brandon Loftus' wedding! It was a small and fun wedding to be at. She is one of the coolest girls I know and she hooked up with a pretty smooth fella, always good to see.


My mom and I successfully made it through Paris for one day and I recovered from some of the frustration the night before being lost for 2 hours. We ended up paying a taxi to lead us to the Hilton, well worth the 8 Euros. We woke up, went to the Eiffel tower, took a few pictures, walked around, and said we were done with France for possibly, forever :)

I got back to Amsterdam, packed up, and left my mom who still has not come back. She has had me change her plane ticket two times now, I think she likes it over there :)

It was fun hanging out with my mom and just relaxing. She is very easy going and anywhere we went, she was happy. I like that quality in people. We had a good time everywhere we went, well minus Paris :) Although, the Paris Hilton was very nice :)

Our trip was very fun, it has definitely opened my eyes to travel even more. I travel domestically every week, but now I want to travel a little more internationally. The whole work thing kinda cramps that style a little bit. The Europeans we met, were some of the nicest people, and very open to meeting new people.

We also had our annual New Year's Eve party. The numbers were down this year, mainly because of the Peach Bowl, but we still had about 40 people and had the most successful dance party yet, which consists of about 5 people consistently dancing, and as many as 10 at one time, sad.

2008, I am hoping is going to be a year of being a little more on the ball. I am going to try to put a little more structure about my own hectic life. This mainly means, tracking every penny I spend, becoming a cheapskate, developing new friendships outside my usual group, and building up some recording equipment to continue to pursue voice-overs. I might even buy a mac once I save the pennies.

Happy New Year!

Paris, France

So I'm a little frustrated. It takes a LOT for me to get frustrated, I am fairly easy going. But, if you put me in a car, crazy traffic, no map, in a strange city, this could be a bad recipe. My mom and I decided on a whim to leave Antwerp, Belgium today and head for Paris, France. It was SUPPOSED to be a 3 hour drive and pretty easy. The problem started when we realized our gps didn't have the France map loaded. This was a small problem, I thought, at the time. Once we got into Paris, I realized how bad I needed that GPS. There are no really good road signs, they are mostly on the sides of buildings and NOT easily seen. Man I have never been so frustrated in my life. After two hours of being lost and speaking to people who knew NO english and I of course, know, NO FRENCH, we flagged down a taxi and paid him to guide us the Hilton.

We finally made it to the Hilton, super nice, but of course I booked the wrong one. I booked the wrong one because I was booking it while parked on the side of the road on a slow internet connection with my blinkers on. This was right before I took a wrong turn and went on the tram line, which is basically like driving on the wrong side of the road in England.

All and all, I'll stop complaining and be glad I am blessed with some travel time. I am staying at the Paris Hilton, no pun intended :)

The King of Hilton,

 



This is everyone woman's Christmas present. Okay, maybe not, but the robe felt good :) Paris would have been here, but she couldn't make it.

Antwerp, Belgium

 

 

 

 

So my mom and I left Amsterdam today for Antwerp, Belgium. It was a short 1.5 hour drive south. We arrived and immediately parked the car and headed for the hotel. Since I stay in Hilton family hotels with my job, I had plenty of points to stay here in Antwerp. During the check-in process, the kind man, Steven, at the desk informed me that I had been upgraded to the Business Executive Suite. Sweet! This has a view of the church you see in the pictures, Cathedral of Our Lady. It is gorgeous. We had dinner at a nice place just in the square below our hotel.

Tomorrow we will tour around Antwerp (the world capital of diamonds.) Well, then we will head back to Amsterdam for Christmas with friends there.

Luca Jacobus Blommestein

My new nephew with me, then with his grandma :)

A new nephew

So my sister had a baby! After about 3 days in labor, she finally had a C section, which in Dutch is a funny word.

His name is Luca Jacobus Blommestein and he was just over 8lbs. So we have had a busy past few days at the hospital, but my sister and Luca are doing well. She is very happy.

I really have enjoyed the culture here. It's so neat all the different traditions the Dutch have. We ate cookies with sprinkles when Luca was born, and I explained to them our tradition of the father giving cigars to all the men who come visit. So we smoke some FAT cigars the other night, man.

The culture here is very personal, everyone enjoys talking to each other a lot and kissing a lot, which is quite funny still to me. I am daily getting used to it.

I am going to make a habit of traveling more from now on, I would rather travel somewhere cool than spend money on stupid stuff any day. My mom and I thought it would be neat to not do Christmas presents and just start traveling every Christmas, we'll see.

I will hopefully upload baby pictures soon. He's cute.

I really like the Dutch

It's pretty neat being here in Amsterdam and being apart of the culture. Since my sister "lives" here, she has a whole network of friends that have come over. They take me out and show me the places to go and not go, it's pretty neat that most of them are so genuine and caring. My sister has a friend that rubs her feet and really cares for her. I think that is one of the best qualities anyone could have, just being a servant and being empathetic for people and always naturally looking to the needs of others. When I see people that are not believers doing these things, I sometimes hesitate (many times don't) to explain to them that this is gift from God. My grandma was the same type of person, always looking around for the needs of others and desiring to serve you in some way, I think it has become the number one on the list I want in a wife. Well, at least it better be in there somewhere!

Today my sister did not want me to spend my time at the hospital, so she sent a friend, Bart, over to take me out around the town to show me sights, etc. It was really fun to just walk around and freeze my arse off. After a day of sightseeing, I went to the hospital to visit my sister Tina, then some friends brought some Indonesian food in. It was the hottest food I have eaten yet, but pretty good!

My sister is still in lots of pain and no baby yet, the due date is the 20th I do believe and they will give her a day or so to see what happens. I left the hospital to pick to drive again in Amsterdam, it is much easier to drive at night, much easier.

Came back to the hospital, picked up my mom, Wouter, and his sister Laura. Dropped my mom off, then went to a local bar with Wouter and Laura. This was the smallest bar I have ever seen, they call it a Cafe. It was so nice, and Carrie Turner, if you are reading this, I had them jamming some Josh Turner on the big screen, I took a video, it was so funny to see the Dutch enjoying Josh. The bartender said that he really liked him. I will have to post the video soon.

Tomorrow we shall wait on the baby!

And the whole culture of kissing when you meet and say goodbye, I'm bringing that back to the US. I like this whole kissing thing.

Wow, talk about an interesting day

Me, my mom, and my sister Tina, along with her two friends Eric and Tahnee toured the city today.  It was so fun to eat and shop in local culture, we took a boat cruise through the canals and it was so romantic, well, if i would have had a honey with me, but it was still fun.  We actually boated by the house we are staying in because it is in the nicest part of town.  So cool.

We had some good food all day long, and had some EXCELLENT chinese food tonight.  We led into our dinner by visiting the Red Light District.  Wow, I can't even describe what type of place this is.  I wanted to visit to see hot chicks, jk, I really wanted to experience the entire culture and this was a part of it.  It was sad walking through there, literally girls in windows almost naked just like caged animals.  Guys walk by and pick the one they want, pay, then go in and play checkers.  We walked through the "Mall" which was like a shopping mall except it was all women just standing out in the open, waiting for you to come in.  There is a verse in Proverbs that talks about men being devoured by these women, but I was with my mom and pregnant sister, no worries :)  But all and all, it was an experience and quite a little crazy.

We ended the night eating the chinese also located in the Red Light District. 

We spent the rest of the night with some wine and cheese :) I learned a lot abou the history of the city and we talked a lot about the differences in our cultures, I just luv it. 

Interesting Days in Amsterdam

So I have learned that Amsterdam has many more bikes than I thought. EVERYONE rides a bike, it doesn't matter who you are, how much money, you ride a bike over here at some point.

The funny thing is, all of the bikes are OLD SCHOOL. If you have a mountain bike, they say it will get stolen, I might have said that already, but I still think it's cool.

We went to an open market today and bought some food. I had a piece of raw herring, so good. It was a bit different to just eat a raw fish, but it was really good. We walked on the beach for a little while and yes, it is FREEZING here.

I am staying at a friend of my sister's tonight. She was super nice and let us live at her apartment while she is in Thailand. It is right on the canals in Amsterdam, so out my window I have boats etc, so cool.

Another cool thing is how cheap wine is over here. You can get a really good bottle of wine for about 3 Euros. We had some of the best cheese today too, mmmmmmm, I might get fatter.

Day 1 Amsterdam

So we left GSP around 10:35AM on 12-11, flew to Newark, NJ, waited a few hours, then flew across the Atlantic to a nice city called Amsterdam. I was quite surprised there weren't 4 hookers waiting on me at the airport. I've come to learn that Dutch don't like the cliche thing that people come here to , well you know, and smoke weed. Apparently there are lots more things to do.

We had a great time our first day, my sister forced me and my mom to stay awake all day so we could start the trip and fight the jet lag. I did fall asleep in the car a few times just driving around the city, but nothing major. The driving here is hilarious. First, the actually drive on the correct side of the road, which is nice. 2nd, there are more bikes than you could possibly imagine. If you have anything other than a beach cruiser, it will get stolen. So don't buy a nice mountain bike unless you want to get your bike stolen. I drove last night for the first time in Amsterdam, this was very interesting and it made it even more interesting because I didn't have my glasses on. My sister's place is pretty pimp, it is very small but an awesome layout and very modern. She has a pimp tv and a computer hooked up with lots of movies :) It's fun to watch tv in English with Dutch subtitles. People also give me an interesting look when I open my mouth to speak, I'm not sure if they are wondering about my voice, my english, or my accent. Maybe it's a combo. My mom seemed to notice it as well.

We had an awesome day of eating yesterday, a tuna-melt bagel, a shot of coffee, and a nice apple juice. My dinner was some really good Indonesian food. The cool thing about Amsterdam is that there is a crazy amount of immigrants here and SO much food, basically anything you want.

It has been two days and I have not showered, so this is something I am about to take care of after I run and get some food. I will like to point out fellas, the women here are gorgeous.

We plan to tour around the city today, and take lots of pictures.

Amsterdam Hotel

So I was talking to my mom about booking a night or two in the Hilton right downtown Amsterdam.  She says, "will your points pay for the hotel?" I say, "Oh yeah, I was saving them for a honeymoon one day."

She says,

"Use them, they might take them away from you."

My mother has the utmost confidence that I will get married one day. ha.

Amsterdam

So it hasn't really set in that I leave for Amsterdam in just a few hours. I just finished packing tonight, and actually still haven't finished. My mom drove up today and saw my house for the first time, yes I forgave her. I've lived her for a few years and she is just now seeing it!

I think she has packed my lil sister into one of her bags, talk about heavy. We head out tomorrow to visit Amsterdam and to meet up with my sister who lives there and works for the UN at the Hague. This is the place where they put to trial all of the war criminals. Interesting job she has.

She is about to have a baby so we are going over there to visit with her and the baby. Our plans could change any minute because we don't really know when the baby will be here. So we plan to tour around Europe until we get the phone call :) I have never taken a super long vacation, usually only a few days here and there, so spending 3 weeks in Europe is going to be crazy. It's funny how quick you get used to always working, it was really tough to just leave for today and really leave it. I was thinking of ways I could check my email and do work, I'm going to try not to. It's tough to go from full speed working to just go and chill.

She has a friend that is going to let us crash at her apartment. She is out of the country and lives right in the city center and right on the canal, which should be super cool, talk about a blessing.

I am excited for my mom to be able to go. She is the kind of person who never will spend money on herself and always insists that everyone be taken care of before her needs, I think there is something in the Bible about that. So it's good for my mom to be taking this time and relaxing. We plan on taking lots of pictures. I do want to see the Red Light district. No, Sandy, I'm not going to get a prostitute, but I've always heard about it and want to see what it looks like. And no, I'm not going to smoke weed, well unless it's 2nd hand and I get stuck somewhere and have to breathe it in, jk.

I will post pictures soon! I hope to visit a really good church while I'm there also, we'll see how that goes.

Palm Tree

I have wanted a Palm Tree forever. I know that is the most random thing, but I really do like them. My best bud Ed found one on the internet, FOR FREE :)

I got a truck and ripped it out the ground from some really nice people down the road, threw it on the back of the truck, then planted in my yard :) With their permission of course :)

A little Update

I have actually not been on a plane in two weeks, this is a breakthrough. It seems a little odd to be honest. So it will change tomorrow, I fly out to the wonder-less state of New Jersey. Good news is, I will only be there for 1 day and a half. Bad new is, I have to wear a suit. I have worked at the same place for almost 8 years and never wore a suit, so I'm wearing a suit.

I was in Charleston this past weekend and visited East Cooper Baptist Church. Pretty awesome sermon. I also saw a ton of people that I haven't seen in a long time, well didn't get to talk to many of them, but I did get to see them in the room :)

And I leave for Amsterdam a few days after I get back from Jersey, I'm excited. Me and my moms are going to spend about 3 weeks cruising around Europe and hanging out with my sister, (who lives there). Fun times ahead.

Thanksgiving

I had a great Thanksgiving time with my family. We went to Brookgreen Gardens as usual. It is such a relaxing place to be. I got to see more animals than you could imagine, eat some really good oysters, and spend time with my wonderful family.

The USC/Clemson game was also quite awesome. It was quite cold at the game but the Tigers pulled it out of their hat, barely!

Red-Eye strikes again

I chose to fly a red-eye Thursday night back home because I kinda wanted to get back and take a long nap before festivities of the weekend started.  I have to admit that red-eyes are not my favorite anymore, well probably never were.  I had a particularly bad attitude for a few moments last night.  I had to choose an airline that I do NOT like to fly and one that I do NOT have frequent flyer status on, I will tell you that it sounds much like US SCARE :) 

They did not have enough room for my pack, so I had to stuff it under my seat.  This doesn't work when you are over 6' tall and especially doesn't work when you are in the middle seat.  I really didn't think I was going to be able to make it.  I get very claustrophobic and I felt like I wanted to crawl out my skin.  The guy beside me had the arm rest up and half his belly was hanging in my seat, not to mention his hand was chillin on my arm.  I slowly tried to push the arm rest down while he was sleeping.  Time-out, this woman beside me as I'm typing in the airport, just stood up right beside me, said to her 5 year-old son "mama's underwear is showing." She then goes to straighten herself out.  So back to the sleeping giant beside me.  I know people come in all different shapes and sizes and I probably shouldn't be complaining but it seriously about drove me nuts that he was all in my space and sleeping like a rock.  I kept telling myself that he probably had some medical condition that made him spill over into my seat and this is the only thing that made me feel better about being mad at him.  I sound like a 5 year-old.  I did eventually knock out for almost the entire flight so it worked out. 

On a happier and less-complaining note, it was a good few days in San Diego and the weather was quite awesome. 

Well I am sitting in Charlotte airport and they have a JAMBA JUICE now.  You should try it next time you see one, all natural, so GOOD. 

A week in Cali

This has been a good week in California. I flew out on Sunday morning which wasn't so fun. But, it has turned out to be a good trip. I spent a few days in Anaheim, Ca. Which, I might point out, is where Disney Land is. My hotel is right across the street from it, and no, I have not visited. I headed over to Hollywood last night and met up with a friend I haven't seen in years, an aspiring actress :) I actually took her to a Neutrogena audition. Hollywood is actually a dirty city, which is funny because it is portrayed as glamorous on tv. We did have a an awesome dinner at the Geisha House. It was a modern sushi/Japanese restaurant. It was very hip and cool.

We left dinner and went to a comedy improv show over at Upright Citizens Brigade. It was pretty funny.

I had one more meeting tonight in Anaheim and went well and head out tomorrow for two days in San Diego, then back home!

Seeker-Sensitive Movement

The Goodness of God

I'll just be honest. I think I take the goodness of God for granted on a regular basis. I'll be honest and confess a feminine thing I do, I SAVE EVERYTHING. If you have given me something, I save it. I have pretty much every note anyone has ever written to me. Back home, I have a green tub with stuff from high school. In my room now, I have a place where I put all my notes, letters, etc. I've gotten better over the years, but for the most part, I save everything, down to the notes that might have 5 words on them. What in the world? Am I the only one who does this? Occasionally, I'll go through them. It's important to not live in the past, but sometimes to really know where you are, you have to look back at the paths you've been. There is something about doing this that humbles me. I don't know what it is, but it's this weird feeling that usually ends up stirring my soul to love God more. I get the same feeling when I go visit my family after not seeing them for a while.

I think if you look back on your past, you have to see that God has always taken care of you. I don't care about the outcome, maybe you didn't get the job you wanted, maybe you didn't get the girl, it doesn't matter, I think you always realize that God has taken care of you. I can look at all the stupid things I have done in my past and I always can see that God's hand has always guided me back to where I needed to be. This I often take for granted.

I loved the line in The Chronicles of Narnia where they said of Aslan, "He's not a tame lion." Then the reply was, "No, but he's good." Man our God is a lion. Jesus is a lion. Man I sometimes don't want to see Jesus as a lion. It's a lot easier in America to see Him as a nice lil lamb that wouldn't hurt a soul.

Read this passage from Revelation. This should bring chills to your spine. He's good.

"I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns... He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. 'He will rule them with an iron scepter.' He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." (Rev. 19:11-16, NIV).

Clean

I have cleaned so much this weekend. What in the world is wrong with me. I really think I have been taken over by someone else. Ed came and got his boat today and I thought, hmm, the garage is dirty. For hours, I took every single thing out of it, cleaned it, swept, used the blower, and now I can park the Rover in there and can actually see the floor. I even have room for my dirtbike to live beside the Rover. I finished staining the table I bought also. I went metro and painted the legs black and stained the top a maple brown. I think it turned out quite well.

Go pick up Josh Turner's new cd, it's COUNTRY. I like it. I sing background vocals on it, NOT.

I'm officially domesticating.

The Older I Get

I am a grown-up. There is a big part of me that just hasn't really accepted this idea.




I understand...
I have a job
I work hard
I have a house
I clean (naked)
I have a church, I love.

I just still feel like I still have so much growing up to do. I can't get over this idea that I'm waiting on the next thing and I struggle with settling down, but it is getting easier. I tend to take a long time to make decisions that really matter. I know everyone isn't like this, I hear about people dating for two months and getting engaged. I'm not downing that or saying negative things, but in my mind, I can't understand it. I need time, data, information, points of reference, situational experience. We always deal with decisions, but it seems like as we get older, the decisions and choices get tougher and deeper. They have bigger consequences. I struggle with this idea that maybe I don't trust God as much as I think or profess that I do. Maybe people that make quick decisions know more. I feel like I'm going to miss something somewhere in my process of trying to "figure." Man I love to figure. I love to open spreadsheets and figure costs, I love to watch planes get jacked up on the runway and figure out how they back them up so quickly. I like to figure out how these ladies on these planes are going to get their big honkin bags in the overhead bin. They always do.

I have been hanging out with people a lot lately and really talking about life. This has helped me a lot to discuss deep things with people around me and share struggles and success. I'm pretty good at masking sometimes and I hate it. A friend asked me today if I read my Bible today, I told him no. I thanked him for encouraging me.

It's about 11:30 and I have been flying all over the place today and I am beat, babbling, and probably not making sense at this point. I hope to start flying lessons as soon as I save up enough pennies, so be on the lookout :)

God has blessed me. Amen!