My good friend Pat Dewenter and I went to a coffee shop in Centerville today. The young girl behind the counter looked familiar, and as of now I don't remember her name. She asked me, "Do you go to Springboro?" I said yes, told her she looked familiar, and then it hit me: she'd dropped out. No one ever heard from her again. She had been rumored to be messing around and kind of got the bad end of the dirty stick. As we talked I learned she didn't drop out; she had to work full-time to support herself, so she started taking online classes. She worked six hours a day, seven days a week at the coffee shop. We talked for some time, and she kept pushing deeper into conversation. I got pulled away, said, "See you later," and Pat and I drank our coffees.

Driving home in the Jeep, through the blizzard of rain, I suddenly realized how desperate she had been, and it all washed over me. It was so obvious! She was lonely and stressed; working full time, having been cut-off from her few friends at the high school (most of whom apparently turned against her), she was left alone and wigged-out, wanting just someone to like her, someone to talk with her, someone to be a friend. I wondered, "How did I miss this until it was too late?" My heart flooded - and now floods - with compassion. I just wish I could re:wind time and go back, stay at the counter, talk with her - no one else was ordering. The timing was perfect, almost pre-arranged.

It is times like these that I wish we were created with built-in systems to read other peoples' emotions. It would make things so much simpler.

So far my day has been spent talking to people online, visiting www.theooze.com, and reading the Word on the Street. I am very excited about this week. Not only do I have 3 hours of total schooltime in the next week, I don't have to get up early AT ALL, and I've been given lots of time to read and write; as I am writing, I just finished chapter 18 of 36 Hours, so only 18 to go!

This is by far the biggest piece of work I've ever set my mind down to. When I finish it, I will truly celebrate with a trip to Fudd-Ruckers or something of that holy nature. I have been in the writing process ever since April 23, 2004. I hope to finish it in under a year. My passion for it is an off-and-on kind of thing, so who knows? Sometimes I'll whop out three chapters in two days, then spend three weeks without touching it. I am so indecisive.

I have finished all the Emergent YS books Mike has let me borrowed, and am taking a break from Emergent YS for now. I have some Dallas Willard to explore, as well as my current, the Word on the Street. Check it out. It is very beautiful, and very controversial. I have also been writing, responding, conversing at The Ooze. After reading Spencer Burke's book, Making Sense of Church, I joined, and have several topics rolling. It is very cool.

Right now my heart is on the victims of the tsunami. Last night I was thinking about how I never really sat down and just prayed for all those suffering the effects of our geologically wild planet. Since I'm not really experiencing it, it doesn't really mean a lot to me. But I wondered how I would feel if Springboro, Ohio were to get flooded with forty feet of water, all of my family and friends either dead or disconnected, to hear that Christians other places weren't even praying. So I started praying. Lift them up sometime.

My eventful weekend

I spent Friday burning incense, listening to music, and contemplating life. I missed out on 412's run to see a movie, but with no dollars in my pocket, there's no way around that. So instead Ams and I went over to Ashlie's house where we watched a movie called Donnie Darko - it was really good, and for me, emotionally disturbing. I had a hard time sleeping, and Saturday I wrestled with thoughts of my own life stemming from one of the scenes.

Karen let me off work an hour early. Lee and I laughed and joked around, until Lee left with Bryon for some Chick-fil-a. I just wanted to go home and relax. Through a weird twist and turn of events, I ended up at Ashlie's again, watching Shaun of the Dead. Pretty funny stuff. I munched on some fiber popcorn and a pop-tart, my exquisite dinner. Her mom made beer bread and it tasted so good.

I experienced God during worship this morning, then my friend and I excavated some discounted China Cottage in Centerville. We built airplane and helicopter models at home, browsed 1/2 Price and Borders, and he let me have two burnt copies of Charlie Mars. Now Ams and I are about to go over to Ashlie's for another movie, Fight Club. She has a big screen, in case you were wondering.

I got off work an hour early. How cool is that? I shall be spending the rest of the night relaxing, burning incense, listening to Straylight Run, writing and watching a British comedy (Shaun of the Dead) while eating fiber popcorn (it is actually quite good). My work on 36 Hours is slow and choppy, but it's coming along. I have finished the first third of the book and am working on the second third. I have put the prologue up on the actual 36 Hours website (I really am that cool). It's really short. Give it a peek.

prologue to 36 Hours

Rumor has it an arctic blast is coming down from the northeast, and a large warm front cradled with rain is coming up from the southwest. When the two collide, they are to stall above Springboro, and either we get drenched in massive flooding rains, or 30 inches of snow. Hasn't the weather been crazy lately? First the blizzard that topped records for December, then a tsunami taking 140,000 lives (that really sucks), lots of flooding to the north, where they lost electricity, and now we might be getting an even bigger blizzard.

If I were one of those End-Times junkies I'd be screaming, "Repent and be baptized!"

But I'm not. This is just interesting.

School is back and it isn't very fun. It is torture to have to sit through all those classes (especially Algebra). I waste my time contemplating the mundane and so I find it difficult to score well on tests. I don't know why I am telling you this, except I don't really have much to say. We did redo the downstair's computer from a Win98 to a DellXP, which is really nice. My parents are out at Applebee's, and upon their return, my father will plug internet into my own room.

I have spent a lot of time contemplating the reasons Jesus actually came to earth. We all say he came mainly to forgive us from our sins, but I don't think that's it. I know it's major (duh), but that's not it. He came for two things: to create a new community, and restore our lives - real life - to us. I am really exploring this in my free time and it is actually some really interesting stuff. If anyone has anything to say on that, I'd like it.

Last Thursday we opened gifts with my dad's side of the family. At your family reunions, when someone gets cash or a check, does someone always say, "Let me check that out," or, "pass those gifts around," or something like that, and then everyone laughs? It always happens. My cousin gets a check, someone says, "Let me see what you got..." and then everybody starts laughing really hard. But I don't think they're really laughing. I think it's just to be politically correct. The joke isn't funny at all. I don't know why they do it every time. This year I didn't crack a smile, I just looked at the attempted-jokester with a lazy eye.

So this is the first post of 2005. In other words, happy New Year. May your dreams and wishes and new year's resolutions not be met with failure and stagnation. I spent this 'holiday' of sorts celebrating with the legendary Chris, Pat, Pat and Lee at Shelby's house. We drank root beer to celebrate the new year, then loaded up, drove home, and plan on a very enjoyable evening playing my two new games and watching a movie.

The two new games is a Battlefield-like Star Wars game called Battleground Star Wars. The other is a Black Hawk Down game where you get to shoot up the Somalis in Magadishu. Both are very cool. The movie, hailed as stupid and ingenius at the same time, is the infamous Napoleon Bonaparte... I mean, Napoleon Dynamite. How foolish of me.

Happy New Year.