Chickity check yourself before you wreck yourself

My parents and youngest sister Deborah are gone this week, getting Deborah settled in to be a freshman at Calvin College. It's been harder for me than I thought, partially, I think, because I'm imagining Deborah doing all the fun, go-to-college things while I'm realizing that I will never do those things again. Dordt starts classes tomorrow and I won't be there. It's not a devastating reality to me. But it is a strange one.

Watched part of a movie last night titled Lightspeed. It's a comic book movie, the character created by Stan Lee, whose successes include Spiderman. His successes do not include Lightspeed. It's not so much a bad movie as it is a dreadfully boring movie. Goodness knows I've loved me some bad movies, but boring movies are the worst. Especially when I'm slightly buzzed and irritatingly impatient.

It's also been four and a half months since I've graduated, and though I've found good employment, I have made no further attempts to figure out what's happening after this year with me. I think I still want to go overseas and teach, or something of that nature. At least I think I think I do. But my motivation to get that ball rolling is nonexistent. Possibly I'm impeded by limited Internet access, but I don't really think that's it. Perhaps the fact that I'm making money right now is coaxing me into a complacency with what I do, even though I'm sure I don't want to do this for more than a year. I think I'm also a little afraid to simply pick up and leave for a year, since I've invested a lot of time, work, and love into people and projects here in this country. But when I hear about things going on elsewhere my heart burns to be a part of an experience like that. Dunno. Despite it's being Scriptural, the idea that "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" seems rather cliche. For me, I think it's more that my spirit wants to be willing, but my flesh is lazy.

I wish there was a farmer's market close to my house. I would buy fresh produce weekly, pile it all into the basket on the front of my bike, and ride back home smiling merrily. If I had a bike.

This post has been brought to you by my stream-0f-conscious thought process. My apologies.

We could be so good together...

This post is titled in honor of Reid's mother, who loves The Doors. I've been listening to Alice Cooper's radio show on weekday evenings, which he broadcasts out of Phoenix, and I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan. Still don't like his music, but I like his style.

So, big news in my life #1: Melvin died this past Sunday, an event which I anticipated as I was watching him the night he took a turn for the worse. Those of us who worked for him and, I believe, his family as well were ready for him to go, since his last month of existence had become pretty miserable for him and, to be honest, fairly miserable for us, too. He was a solid, albeit somewhat stereotypical Christian, and I'm sure he's having a much better time these days. This also means that I get to sleep at night, which is great!

Big news #2: Started my tutoring job this week. It's a good job and I like the kids I'm working with, but it's also stressful beyond all reason as they've dumped about 10 students on me to work with for 6 hours a day, each of them needing a fair amount of personal attention. Once I get used to the system, I'm sure things will get easier, but for now I'm really savoring the time I have in which I am not working.

Big news #3: Went out for teppan yaki the other night, which is the Japanese dining experience in which they have a flat skillet-type surface on which they cook your food right in front of you, with lots of juggling of knives and spatulas and several fire explosions. It was pretty awesome. You should try it sometime.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick peaches. I'm pumped for that because I love peaches. And picking.

I miss people that I don't see every day. Namely almost all of you that read this.