3-in-1 post on another wedding weekend
This past weekend I had the immense joy, pleasure, and blessing of spending time with some of my beloved brothers as we journeyed to a sister’s wedding. Jon and I flew from opposite coasts to Dallas where we met Colby for a 5 hour drive South to La’s wedding in Kerrville, TX. The following events, thoughts, and pictures are products of this heavenly weekend.
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Post 1 - “brothers”
Many people would dread a five hour drive through vast nothingness of Texas, but I can think of no place I’d rather have been than in Skylar for those hundreds of southbound miles. The drive was filled with fruitful, edifying conversation from start to finish. Imagine if you got to spend hours upon hours in a car with people you’d intentionally done life with for over half a decade (I know, some of you scoff at my mere 5 year reference, but give me a break, I’m young). People who simply being in their presence is literally encouraging to your spirit. People whose needs you’d gladly do anything in your power to meet. People who (and I thought about this before I said it; it’s not just for effect) you’d die for if it came down to it. I’m talking Jonathan and David stuff here. Much more than coming in town for a wedding (sorry La) this weekend was about a reunion of brothers. Of course, we probably wouldn’t have come in without the wedding, so it works out I guess. And without the wedding reception, we certainly wouldn’t have come across the gem pictured above: a mini-Stonehenge right in the hill country of Texas. We were so overjoyed, we jumped.
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Post 2 - “being mentally where I am physically”
I’ve been meaning to post something about this for a while, and after some edifying conversations this past weekend I feel all thought-up and ready for it. Don’t set your expectations high though, it’s nothing new. Every person under the age of 25 (and arguably every person, period) is longing for what’s to come. I’m not talking about the Second Coming (though many are longing for that, myself included), I’m talking about what’s next on Earth. You know it, you’ve heard it before: Elementary>> Jr. High>> High School>> College>> Job>> Marriage>> Kids>> Retirement>> Grandkids. [Note: ">>" are to be read "can't wait until they are in/get/have"].
Not long after I showed up in Philly and decided that it wasn’t quite what I expected, I started thinking about and longing for whatever was next. About 5 seconds later the Holy Spirit was like, “no sir, you go ahead and be content where you are and stop thinking about tomorrow.” I know Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow, and I’m really not. I’m just not being content and satisfied where He’s got me now. I really think the believer who is able to really “be where they’re at” is the one who is going to make a real big difference in the world around them. There is something to be said about people who have truly learned what it means to be content in all circumstances. I want, through the grace of Jesus, to be one of those people. I want to really invest in the community I’m in, whether that be four years in College Station, a weekend visit to TX, a four month stint in Philly, or whatever. I really tend to romanticize things to come, when in reality, they’re just as mundane as the present. Life is lived in the mundane. Community happens in the mundane. I love the brothers from Post 1 because of 5 years of mundane. Jesus, let me live as you did, eyes fixed on the Father and through that radically impacting every single place you went.
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Post 3 - “pictures from a wedding weekend”
Jon and Colby fought for the back seat. They’re so holy.
La, the beautiful bride, with Trevor, the tall husband. My sincerest blessings.
We stopped by Waco on our way back, where we found Jessie. We were so overjoyed, we jumped (read: “karate kicked your face!”)
A girl saw us taking these and thought we were in a band. A band who sets their camera to take pictures of themselves. Who wouldn’t?
This was a failed attempt at a three-high. We succeeded (on grass) later in the day though, with Jessie on bottom, me in the middle, and Ashley Goad on top. It was the one time all weekend the camera was in the car…
Philly people have no idea about that right there.
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When I got back to the office this morning one of my co-workers asked me what I did all weekend. I told her I spent the entirety of my time being awesome. I wasn’t lying. So thank you Jesus for this weekend. Thank you Jon, Colby, and Jessie for letting me be a part of your lives. Thanks Antioch for the encouraging hour and half on Sunday morning. I needed all of it. And thank you for reading all the way down here.
When D.O. misses Ashton and Hayden and Anson
There are probably 10 things I like about public transportation (more on that later; also, I know it’d be a nicer read to say a hundred things, but let’s be realistic). Perhaps my favorite thing is seeing little kids get on with their parents. They’re usually pretty excited about getting on the bus, and they’re all bundled up like Ralph in the Christmas Story… I don’t know how anybody could see such a sight without smiling.
Today as I rode the bus I thought about how awesome it would be to have the Hendrick boys rolling with me. I think it’d be a first for them. Anson would probably make really smart observations about Philly accompanied by intelligent questions that I wouldn’t know the answers to. Hayden would be at the back of the bus where it’s a slightly elevated and he’d have at least three new friends by the time we got off at Westmoreland. Ashton would spend his time being precious and the old lady who starts talking (to nobody) immediately as she boards at Susquehanna would tell me stories about when her kid was his age…
Unfortunately, I have yet to muster up the courage to take pictures on the bus, so we’re left with a(nother) picture of me at the Liberty Bell, thinking about my friends from College Station.
Boys, I miss you guys a lot. I miss jumping on the trampoline and playing Guitar Hero and just hanging out. Ask your mom about that bell I’m standing in front of in the picture… she’ll know all about it. Love you!
[Note: if all this seems absolutely weird and troublesome, please refer to one of Ashton's recent works of art for clarity. I felt it only fair to create some art of my own in response.]
my trip, my friend, and my pictures
After a long week of not very hard work, I decided to treat myself to a day of extremely touristy activities here in Philadelphia. So Saturday morning I threw some essentials in my messenger bag, strung my camera (thank you parents!!!) around my neck and walked approximately 1.6 miles down to Independence Historical National Park, home of the Liberty Bell (pictured above… behind my head…). I looked more touristy than I ever have in my life.
There was a time when the thought of being perceived as a tourist or a clearly-not-from-around-here guy would have made me cringe. You know that feeling: you go on a trip with your youth group and you’re in a cool new city (or at Six Flags) and you’re walking around with a group of 50 loud people all wearing the same shirt you are… Yeah, you know it. However for this trip, I embraced that feeling.
If you don’t believe me, please go back and look at that picture again. The only other people getting their picture taken standing next to the bell are little kids. Kids who don’t even have to stand to the side of the bell because they are short enough that the bell can be seen over them. Meanwhile, I’m taking a picture of myself, with a big fancy camera, while the park ranger was asking me if I wanted her to take it for me. I politely declined as I basked in the awkwardness of the moment.
After joining the ranks of Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama by taking my picture with the Liberty Bell — which, if you haven’t seen it in person before, really is pretty lame — I went on to take a tour of Independence Hall where I had the pleasure of taking a tour led by Larry, the baddest park ranger the NPS has ever seen. Larry taught me all about the two rooms on the bottom floor of Independence Hall, and he taught the rest of the group about the upstairs room, but I was slow getting up there because I, being the Grade-A tourist I am, was still downstairs taking pictures.
There is much, much more to the story of my adventures in historic-land, but in the interest of not abusing your time or boring you, I’ll leave it at that. If you’d like to see more pictures from my touristy endeavors, I added them to my Philly set on my flickr site. Please feel free to check them out, and pretend like Larry’s reading the captions beneath the pictures. It’ll make your visit more enjoyable, I promise. And you won’t have to worry about seeing repeats of me and the Bell or of Larry, as these pictures are odfm exclusives. Only my faithful readers are treated with the luxury of viewing these portraits. Now you’ve got bragging rights.
mom, look what I made (vol. 2)
For this installment of “Mom, look what I made!” I’m going to show you some of the things that can happen when photography and design collide. Some of the pieces below (this is turning into an art gallery) are nothing more than pictures framed in a eye-catching way. Others are manipulations of photographs. I’m confident that you’ll be able to tell the difference between the two. I took all the pictures displayed*, and after playing with them in GIMP for a while, they came out looking like this. Click on any image to enlarge it, and I hope you enjoy.
*I did not take the pictures of Kent or Jon in the Luther Street masterpiece. I’d have told you that sooner, but I didn’t want to abuse my parenthetical asides… which I so often do.
for your enjoyment
As I mentioned in my first impressions post, there is lots of trash here in Philly. Lots of it gets picked up by the trash people, and lots of it hangs out on the streets. This picture should give you an idea of what I’m talking about. But my reasoning for this post wasn’t to talk about trash or pictures of trash, but rather to talk about (or refer you to) pictures of things that aren’t trash.
This weekend I went on a long walk around my neighborhood and took pictures of things I saw. I’ve posted some of them on my flickr site, and I welcome you to go take a look at the things I’m seeing and how I’m seeing them. It’s complete with murals, cool walls, doors, churches, and some other stuff. I only put about 20 up, and there will certainly be more added in the not too distant future.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to again thank you for all the phone calls, texts, facebook messages, and blog comments. You guys are great. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but the past two posts have brought in double digit comments. Thank you Andy for helping me get there with less than 10 commenters.
So while I sit here at work, scanning pictures and listening to Journey’s Greatest Hits, you sit there at work and look at my pictures, then come back here and tell me what you think, if you feel so inclined.
I wasn’t mad before, now I am.
Ok, I just wrote a real nice clever post about how I wasn’t depressed despite what my previous post led you to believe, and then I followed it all up with a few pictures of my current living situation. It was really good. I elaborated on all the pictures, told you what I liked about the steeple across the street… man. Well then, for the first time in this history of my blogging (both blogger and wordpress combined), everything was lost. Just gone. So now I really am a little depressed, but not because I hate Philadelphia, but rather because I’m mad that you missed out on the masterpiece I’m not willing to recreate. Man. Really. I’m mad. Here are your pictures. One’s the house. One’s the view to the right, one’s the view to the left. I’m done here.
Philly: first impressions
Even as my plane descended into Philadelphia and I saw their version of a downtown skyline, my mind had still not wrapped around the fact that I was moving to this city. Now, approximately 48 hours later… it still hasn’t.
I’ve decided to make my debut Philly post one of first impressions (which I’m notoriously bad at) of the city of brotherly love. That way, in x months I can write a “final impressions” post and I can make a Venn diagram comparing the two. That’s be fun, considering I haven’t created the conjoined circle chart in centuries. (Obviously centuries is an exaggeration, I just wanted to keep the alliteration going as long as I could). So without any more useless jabber, first impressions:
House/City: When we first pulled up to the house I’m staying in I thought, “man… this is really the city”. What I mean is that it’s surrounded by one-way streets, cars parallel parked everywhere, everything is tall, and everything is crammed. There’s very little open/green space, few trees, and lots of trash. Now back to the house: It’s a row home, approximately 20 feet wide and 50 feet deep, three stories high. I’ll provide pictures soon, which reminds me of another first impression: there are countless places to take good pictures in this city. I walked in and was greeted rather aggressively by Oggy.
Dog: My first impression of my new German shepherd friend was that he was bigger than I’d imagined, and I’d imagined him pretty big. His back is taller than my crotch, which he proved when he invited himself to make my legs a tunnel. Good news though: he’s really not aggressive. He likes me.
My Room: Well, it’s was amazing. It’s not fancy, just a 12 by 12 square with a bed, desk, and a dresser, but compared to the couch I’d been sleeping on in the Station, it’s real nice. Another thing I really like about my room is that I have two windows, a front window (facing the street) and a back window…
…which faces… well, that. This is my view from the desk I sit at when I do Internet things or write in my journal.
Beauty: Though I wouldn’t consider what I’ve seen of Philly so far to be beautiful (as my co-workers seem to believe), I will say that it has one highly redeeming quality: it’s murals. They are everywhere, and though many of them make little sense, the color and life they add to the otherwise dull city blocks is truly wonderful. Again, it is only a matter of time before you will enjoy pictures of the things I’m seeing. I’m still getting my bearings. I’ll treat myself to a camera day soon.
Work: I’m writing this blog from my second morning at work. My very first impression of the place is that it’s nice, they have some really sweet video editing gear, and they all know their roles… but they aren’t sure of mine. I’m still not entirely sure what it is I’m supposed to do here (see my updating my blog at work), but I’m sure that in time everything will make more sense. It’s worth noting that earlier when I said “lots of trash”, I meant more in my work neighborhood than in my house neighborhood. They are only 3.5 miles away, but they’re pretty different, to be sure.
Public Transportation: I love it, I think it’s going to end up costing about the same as driving would, and my getting lost or missing a stop is eminent.
Friends: Well, I don’t really have any Philly friends yet (people aren’t just real nice here… again, a first impression), but I have been very blessed and encouraged by my existing friends and their emails/facebook messages/phone calls. Thank you guys a lot. That’s not a first impression. I’ve been impressed by you guys for years.
Alright. So there’s first impressions. I’m going to go ask if I’m supposed to be doing something. I don’t feel about about doing the blog though, since I’m not getting paid to be here.
goodbye Dallas (area)
I’ll not patronize you in retelling the story of how I’m moving to Philly on Monday, as you have no doubt had it on your calender since I first posted about it. However, what I will do is take this opportunity, a couple days before I leave, to explain to you what it is I’ll be doing in Philly*. We’ll call it a FAQ post. Based on some recent conversations I’ve had, it seems a FAQ post is in order.
Who is your internship with? A group (and I use group in the place of company because of its size) called Another World is Possible. They make and sell CD/DVD media kits dealing with topics of war, poverty, and creation. They are in cahoots with The Simple Way, and if either of those groups sound familiar, it’s probably because you read a book called The Irresistible Revolution.
What will you be doing? I’m going to work some marketing magic for AWIP. My time will be filled by doing things such as upkeeping and updating websites, talking with clients, marketing AWIP and Potter Street Records, PR stuff, and other internly duties.
Where will you live? Great question. I’ve known the answer to this for a while but I’ve refrained from making it known the the entirety of odfm’s readership until now. Long story short, Father was extremely faithful in meeting my need for housing. I emailed a church up there my need, and within a week the need was met. A lovely couple said they were willing to help me out for the entire duration of my internship. More on that later, pending their willingness to be made instant celebrities via odfm’s endorsement. The moral of the story: praise the Lord for his provision.
Are you driving or flying? I’m flying. I decided to leave Skylar here in Texas and I’ll be utilizing Philly’s public transit system. I figure, if you’re gonna live in the Northeast, you might as well do it up right.
How long will you be there? The internship is a four month gig. By that point, I assume AWIP will have decided if they like me, and I’ll have decided if I like them, and we’ll take it from there. But for now, it’s four months.
Are you excited? Yes. Though I’m not bursting-at-the-seams-excited like I would be if I were going to a Andrew Peterson Christmas show, I am excited. It’ll be good to get out and do something new.
Why did you open a post entirely about Philadelphia with a picture of the Dallas skyline? Because I took that picture the other day and I’m kinda proud of it. I wanted to share it with you, my beloved readers. Feel free to click on it to see the (near) life-sized edition.
Are you going to cease to be a Cowboys/Mavs fan amongst the pressure applied by all the Eagles/Sixers fans up there? No. That’s a rude question. I can’t believe you have the audacity to even ask.
If you ever do a FAQ post on your blog, what will the last question be? You know, it’ll probably be this one.
So there’s that. If you have questions that I’ve failed to answer here, feel free to ask. I may not answer, but you’re welcome to ask. In the next few days you should be expecting some sort of a I-made-it-here-alright post. Until then, Godspeed.
*The information given above is highly speculative. Any or all of it (save the housing bit) is subject to change throughout the next four months. I really don’t know what I’m getting myself into, and I’m okay with that.
I’m back, like a season premier…
If you didn’t catch it from the previous post, I’ve spent the past few days skiing in the Colorado Rocky Mountains (High). I took a few pictures, which you can see over on my flickr page. I flew back to a balmy Dallas this afternoon, and during my flight I realized that it was January 1st. This brought to mind thoughts of all kinds, some of which will be made accessible to you in the following paragraphs. Before I go into some thoughts, I’ll warm you up with this one: I’m aware my absence didn’t cause a great discrepancy in the consistency of odfm’s post output as the two most recent post titles would lead you to believe. Nobody cares, but I had to get that out.
As you’ve surfed the web over the past week, you’ve inevitably come across “best/worst of 2007″ lists or “year in reviews”… things of that nature. Well I’m either not clever enough or not in the mood to produce such a list of my own. However, I can offer you this: I think (at least right now… I’ll probably change my mind by next year) that New Year’s is dumb. I’m sure I’ve got lots of trivial reasons as to why I think that, but perhaps the only useful opinion is this: I think the goings on that often accompany New Year’s are pretty fake. So many of the resolutions and other pseudo-promises we make ourselves this time of year never come to fruition. We pray all thankful-like for the past year and immediately ask for blessings on the year to come…
Here’s what it is: I hate all things fake, and I’m quick to say that people aren’t sincere in, well, lots of things. So really the problem is with me. I hate lots of things really. Again, a problem. Well since I’m such a hater, I’m going to go out with a short list (the very kind I said I wasn’t going to offer just moments ago). Things I love, in no particular order, and to go with the theme, they’ll be things from ‘07.
- Thursday nights in College Station (hope group, Office, Scrubs… amen)
- My families (blood fam, REI fam, the Hendricks, the Luther boys)
- IHOP (the pancake one, not the prayer one… sorry Jessie)
- iWitness
- Cavittville (and the walks thereabout)
- Blog comments (no link necessary… you know it)
- Ice cream
- Andrew Peterson
Ok, I’m done. I hope you aren’t depressed, and I really hope you don’t think I’m depressed. I’m not. Just go look at those pictures I took. That’ll cheer you up. Well… happy new years… or something.