Breakfast

This entire week I've woken up to see my roommate eating a beautiful home cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast. This made me look at my otherwise beloved breakfast of Cap'n Crunch with a certain amount of contempt. So what did I do? I went out and blew my textbook money on frozen sausages and hashbrowns... I am such a whore.

blue grass

well i'm back in the blue grass state, really it should be called the cold, wet, and dreary state but i suppose that would not inspire tourism. honestly it's great being back though, and i've already run into/ gotten big hugs from most of my crew.

i watched Dr. Mohler on Larry King today. i thought he did really well. really he was in a tough position, but he handled it well. it's a tough issue. i do wish we as Christ followers would be known for our love more than for what we are against. certainly standing up for our beliefs is important, but it can be difficult without coming across like a big jerk.

well i am going to try to find a ride to Wal-Mart. i need some Cap'n Crunch.

xLHCx

Well yesterday I traveled to the charming, spring break get away Lake Havasu City to do some Boyce recruiting. This is actually a quite a long way to travel. If everyone one gets their Arizona atlas out they would notice that LHC is just about on the California border. Towards the eastern New Mexico border are three cities: Payson, Snowflake, and Show Low. These three cities make and imaginary triangle. With the assistance of an magnifying glass you might be able to locate the microscopic community of Heber/Overgaard in the center of the said triangle. It takes about five and a half hours to drive to LHC one way, and in a daring feat of insanity we decided to go there and back in one day.

The recruiting was pretty much a smashing success. When recruiting for Boyce College the real trick is finding people who don't respond violently when you ask them if they are interested in going into the ministry. Most people find the idea of devoting one's life to God incredibly offensive. But as soon as they told us in our Big Ten meeting to think of churches in our home state to hit up over Christmas break one church instantly came to mind: Calvary Baptist, LHC. I met these kids over the summer at Arizona Southern Baptist youth events such as Make Waves (waterpark + youth rally) and ZONA YUTH KAMP (held in Point Loma, California). Well basically its a huge youth mostly made up of hardcore kids that besides really knowing how to cut a two-step in a pit are also pretty hardcore for Christ. Basically every other kid I talked to wanted to go into some kind of ministry, mostly youth ministry, not surprising since they have one of the most amazing youth groups I have ever seen.

Well this may come as surprise to most of you but London Bridge, yes the one of nursery rhyme fame, actually resides in Lake Havasu City. Don't ask me how or why they imported the bridge from merry old England all the way to Arizona, but the fact is it makes a pretty good tourist trap. Yep, Arizona has more then just the Grand Canyon to make tourists pull over and spend their money. In fact we also have the Petrified Forest, Meteor Crater, the Painted Desert, and represent one fourth of Four Corners. But expect to see some pretty sweet shots of the bridge pretty soon on my facebook. Well I'll be back in Kentucky in less then a week.

Small Towns and Quasi-Terminal Diseases

Well I'm finally seem to be overcoming this cold that has made the last five days an agonizing blur. Being sick isn't very fun. Definitely the worst combination of ailments is a cold with sleep depravation and insomnia.

Last week, before the being bed ridden thing, I had the pleasure of having a small bonfire with my friends. Take it from me, there is no better way to enjoy living in the middle of a national forest than burning a small part of it. It really was a small fire, only 10-12 foot flames. As far as bonfires out in the woods go, that's pretty tame. Every time it would start to die down my old Mustang's Golf teammate Joe Costello would disappear into the woods with his dually truck and come back dragging another dead pine tree. I think we ended up burning 3-4 dead pine trees. That actually is good for the forest, because dead underbrush and such can cause really serious forest fires. Mostly I got to catch up with one of my best buddies from high school, Nathaniel Lail, who is now going to the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

It was an educational experience in the fact I learned a Sobe bottle once drained of its nourishing energy drink can be filled with gasoline and placed in side the bonfire with the cap on tight. As the gasoline begins to boil the pressure inside the bottle begins to sharply increase until the cap pops off. Subsequently the gasoline is propelled 20-30 feet straight into the air, which is ignited by the surrounding fire, creating a pillar of fire similar to the one mentioned in the Old Testament. Imagine if you will something to the effect of a large clearing in the woods. Picture the soft glow of the fire surrounded by complete darkness. Then for one glorious instant the entire clearing is illuminated by a towering burst of flame. That's what we do in small towns to entertain ourselves.

Yesterday I played a game of Star Wars Monopoly with my buddy Darrick that lasted over four hours . Yeah, after you've been playing Monopoly that long things get a little crazy. I mean after we sent three other players out of the game Darrick and I were sitting around with approximately 5,000 in cash a piece, and cities (hotels in regular Monopoly) on every property that can be improved. (I know you Monopoly purists out there are wondering how every property could have a hotel when there is only 12 hotels, well we were playing by house rules and uses houses to represent hotels once we ran out.)

The new Star Wars edition offers some interesting alternative rules. For instance, double one's mean you can move to any space on the board, and double two's mean that you instantly collect two hundred dollars. Role boxcars and you can "duel" someone to steal one of their properties.

In the end we called it draw, mostly because there was no end in site. By this point the rules were being bent on a turn to turn basis. For instance:

Me: "You hit Alderan, with a city that's 1,400 credits."
Darrick: "I'll role you for it."
Me: "Role you for it?"
Darrick: "If I beat you, I don't have to pay."
Me: "What do I get if I win"
Darrick: "nothing"
(slight pause while me sleep deprived brain tries to figure that out)
Me: "ok"
(we role, I win)
Darrick: "That didn't count!"
(we role again, this time Darrick wins)
Darrick: "Yes, I don't have to pay."

I ended up buying the Star Wars equivalent of the railroads from Darrick for 5,000 credits, in anyone has ever bought all four railroads for more let me know about it, because until then I'm counting it as a world record for most expensive railroads in a game of Monopoly.

This trendy little picture was snapped on Christmas Day.

Boxing Day

Thanks to gift cards and gift returns, the day after Christmas is quickly surpassing the day after Thanksgiving as the number one shopping day of the year. Rather than just staying home and complaining about commercialism, my family decided to do our part and help contribute to the overcrowded malls and general hustle and bustle of the post holiday season.

The stylishly swank Chandler Fashion Mall (which is the nicest shopping mall I've ever been to, in Arizona, California, Kentucky or otherwise) was so packed, it was almost to the point of being ridiculous. I mean there was a line just to look at the directory. But there something amazing about seeing so many people in one place, even if most of them were upper class, materialistic sluts. (Indeed the warm Arizona climate inspires a low level of modesty that isn't found in Kentucky, but an eighty degree Boxing Day is quite pleasant.)

Paul and I did our best to make John Letoto happy and both found some pants at Banana (some chino slacks for myself, and jeans for my brother.) In a brilliant example of how what I do in moderation my little brother does in excess, David bought a pair of high fashion jeans that cost more than my last two pairs of jeans combined.

But the superficial satisfaction of new material possession pales in the comparison of indulging in the culinary ecstasy of In'n'Out Burger. Oh if there is something I missed about Arizona other than the pleasant temperatures, star filled skies, friends and family, and the mountain air, it was definitely In'n'Out. I could devote a couple of more paragraphs to the subject of this wonderful restaurant, but I'm afraid it would just cause my east coast brethren to fall into the sin of coveting living where the best fast food place on earth exists. Suffice it to say, after a long day of shopping sitting down with my family to a dbl. cheeseburger, freshly made fries, and strawberry shake was a tremendous blessing.

Happy Holidays

Well it is Christmas Eve's eve, which is my favorite Eve's eve of the year. In my family we we each get to open a present on Christmas Eve, so it is almost anticipated as the big itself.
I have seen The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe four times now, an all time record for me when it comes to seeing movies in the theater. I thought they did a pretty decent job but I have a few mild discrepancies, but they are not worth going into here.
I hope everyone this Christmas Season spends some time contemplating how Jesus came to earth in the form of a helpless infant. Really the concept of All Mighty God dwelling in the body of a baby is so incredible, is not surprising that so many people scoff and refuse to believe. But in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful things in human history.
Well my profound apologies to all of my dear friends that I could not afford to get presents. I only have my dearest love and devotion, which you may freely have. (I know, that's total crap, but I mean it)

Well I had just finished typing a very intelligent and intriguing blog when I flipped the off switch on the surge bar,... that sucked...

Friday I traveled to the wonderful city of Flagstaff with some dear friends and watched the one and only Tad Klein, play a small show at a Christian bookstore. It was quite nostalgic for me, Tad wrote those songs over the past three years and I performed and recorded many of them with him over the year. After the show Mrs. Klein had the generosity to take everyone out to Cracker Barrel, which in my opinion is a fine eating establishment.


The following day the Butterworths/Gildersleeves had their annual Christmas party. I made out like a bandit with one of the best white elephant gifts, (that's right, ... like a bandit) and I filled my stomach filled with my Aunt Karen's immaculate fudge and peanut brittle. Last time a checked, fudge is good.

Christmas Break

Well I returned to the town of my youth only to discover that I had been forgotten. Or perhaps, more accurately, no one really knew me in the first place. In either case, my four month absence has seemed to have very little impact on the community of Heber/Overgaard, which has proved quite content to go about its affairs without me here. I feel like the loose Jenga block that is easy to pull out.

Nevertheless, being home is quite a relief. Honestly, I haven't had this much sleep or food in a long time. College has a way of stealing youth and energy from a person. It is the metamorphasis that turns children into boring adults. Only a semester into it and I left my highschool self somewhere between AZ and KY. I guess he's probally in Oklahoma somewhere.