Three Days, Two Concerts

This week I went to the first concert I've ever actually paid for. The two main bands were Switchfoot and Goo Goo Dolls. I know both of the bands well enough to have thought, "Yea, I will quite enjoy this experience." I had fun, but the next time I pay $45 to see a concert, I'm going to make sure it's a band that I really reallly want to see because the most entertaining part of the evening for me was watching two guys make complete fools out of themselves trying to impress a couple of girls who were sitting in our row. Always love a crash and burn! We all have them. It was really cool though, one of the girls that came in our group, Taylor Saalfeld, won a guitar from the opening band Green River Ordinance (not a big name, but she won a guitar!)

The second concert of the weekend was free through Rockhurst. The headliner was Phil Vassar. Now, I'm a country fan, but at first I was thinking, "Phil Vassar...okay, you guys got the right genre this year, but...Phil Vassar?" Did I ever eat my words on this one. Phil Vassar puts on a great show. I knew enough of his songs to be able to sing along with at least a handful of them, and he just emits energy to the crowd that gets everybody going. One of the openers was also particularly impressive. Twin brothers who just graduated high school are touring together, and their band is very good. This concert was, in my opinion, way better than the one I paid for. Way to go, Phil!

Overall, a great way to spend the first weekend after getting back into the swing of a new school year. Now...Sunday afternoon...I guess I should study : (

ADG National Convention - KCMO

This year, Alpha Delta Gamma held its National Convention in Kansas City. It worked out perfectly for me because I spent the entire summer here and so I nixed any travel costs that I would have had if I had come from Arvada for the event.

My first role during the convention was a group presentation in front of the entire national fraternity, including most of the National Executive Board. At first, I was really worried about the presentation because I found out that I had a speaking part only a week before the seminar was supposed to take place; however, with the help of the other guys who were giving the presentation, I was able to pull it all together, and I got a lot of positive feedback from some of the guys from across the nation.

The climax of the week was when our chapter, Zeta Chapter, was awarded Chapter of the Year. We all worked really hard this past year, not that being best chapter in the nation was what was driving us, but it was very rewarding to know that all of the improvements we had made as a chapter had been recognized. It was a really exciting week, and I made a handful of new friends. The only downfall of having the convention in Kansas City was that I wasn't staying at the hotel with everyone; I would have liked that because then I could have spent more time with my fraternity brothers from across the United States. Ad Dei Gloriam.

New House Coming Together

I spent my first night in my new house this past Wednesday. This has been a typical move - take stuff form the old place, dump it at the new place. Slowly, very slowly, things were starting to get organized and we were settling in. I put u pa rod in my closet to hang all of my clothes; scored a free bed; attempted to put a shelf on top of the rod of clothes, but the bracket popped out of the wall so that project failed. Despite this minor setback, I can now see the floor in my room, and I can maneuver my way around without too much hassle. I also got a couple of my pictures framed and hung on the wall which puts somewhat of a finishing touch on the place.

The main project that had been seemingly overwhelming was the living room. My roommate Josh and I worked on it for really only about an hour or so before we found the setup that we decided would work best. You can actually walk freely through the living room to the dining room without performing any gymnastics or breaking your neck. Oh, the simple things we take for granted. Speaking of taking things for granted, I took my first warm shower in the place today. The past few days the shower had been pretty chilly, which I don't mind all that much, but a warm shower in the morning is always nice.

As fond as I am of the new place - it makes me really proud that I've been able to work my way into being able to afford a place of my own - my real home will always be in Colorado. This is my home away from home, temporarily. Nothing will ever compare to a drawn-out gaze to the west while the sun sets over the majestic Rocky Mountains. Luckily, I have breath-taking photos of my favorite place to go on vacation; well not necessarily the exact spot, but camping in the mountains always gets it done for me. Kind of got side-tracked a little bit there, but the main thing I'm getting at is that my house in Kansas City is feeling like another home, and I'm really excited for all of the great memories that are in store for Josh, Nate, and I this upcoming year.

Quality Time

I went home last weekend and just simply had the time of my life. The fun started Thursday morning when I went to my aunt and uncle's house to help put together food trays for my cousin's wedding. Great family bonding time. Not to mention joining the "Ooga Booga Tribe." If you really want to know, you can ask me. We proceeded to the reception hall to decorate for the post-wedding festivities.

The next day, I went to a place called Heritage Square where some of my cousins and I rode the Alpine Slide. I relate it to summer bobsledding. Later that evening, my parents hosted the "Uninvited Party" for everyone who was not involved in the rehearsal dinner. It was really awesome. In addition to catching up with some friends who I had not seen in a long time, I pitched wiffle balls to my younger cousins for about an hour. After that, they decided that they were tired of me playing pitcher and they wanted me to be a horse instead. It was a short-lived ride. What can I say? I was worn out from them hitting over 750 home runs on me in our front yard. Again, I'll tell you how the numbers work out if you ask.

Also, on Friday afternoon, I went to my grandma's house and we picked cherries to make a cherry crisp for the misfit party. After the crisp was finished, there was still leftover cherry juice and my aunt taught me how to make cherry syrup. I won't go into details, but the pancakes I had the next morning were quite delicious.

On to the big day. The wedding was, well...quick and painless I guess. Now on to the reception! The Langfield family knows how to do wedding receptions. Did someone say, "Sausage sandwiches!?" Oh and I don't like to brag, but I burned up the dance floor like it was nobody's business. Lemonade and ice water became the fuel for my stylish dancing boots.

The next two days were much slower. Went swimming a couple of times. I also went to a "Bazaar" and the coolest thing there was the velcro jump inflatable. The sign said no flipping but who are they kidding? Everyone wants to see somebody do it. So I took one for the team and gave the people what they wanted.

Sunday night was my final night with my family. We went to Old Chicago for dinner. Simple. Pizza. Delicious. So many wonderful memories all in a few short days. I could go on forever. Life is sooooo good!!!

Great Friends

Ok, so Tuesday at work was the first time in a long time that I got really down because of a problem that I have had with my back since I was a sophomore in high school. I started working at 8 0'clock and by 8:20 my back was already making me very uncomfortable. I sat there just thinking about it for a couple of minutes and then forced myself to ignore the pain for the rest of the day - barring all of the popping and cracking throughout the day.


Most every day, I experience mild to medium discomfort in my back, mainly due to a degenerated disc between my Lumbosacral joint which is where the lumbar spine meets the sacrum. In addition to the degenerated disc, I also have a mild case of spondylolisthesis...

Jumping to a completely different topic, I had an incident occur on Tuesday. The reasons why it happened to me I do not know for sure. It honestly felt like God had taken over - my body, my emotions, everything. I lost control and I tried to take it back but there was something more powerful in control. He wasn't hurting me, even though I was crying and rolling on the floor uncontrollably. I am still in the process of trying to figure out all of the reasons that this happened, but one thing that I do know for certain as a result of that night is that I have been blessed with incredible friends. The two from the night are David Wallisch and David Skelton. Those two stayed with me even though it all started in the middle of the night at around 2am and we didn't get back to bed until around 6am. Either one - or both - could have just told me to get a hold of myself and gone to bed, but they helped me through without any hesitation whatsoever. It's cliche, but those are really the most true; great friends are hard to find. I am so lucky to have these two incredible men as my friends. I wish I could put into words how much I appreciate them.

Some Perspective

Wow! So many awesome things happened this week. To start off the weekend, I got to go see Annie on Friday. We went to a drive-in movie without knowing what movies were playing...we saw Twilight Eclipse - the second movie was Letters to Julia, we left because it was getting really late. Twilight wasn't bad. I didn't really know what was happening because I have never seen the other two. But it was so much fun. Good company makes for a good time no matter where you go.

The next awesome event took place on Tuesday. A Tuesday of all days! It started off, well as all Tuesdays start...suck. Work. What else can I say? But things started looking up when my boss asked me to sharpen the tools in the garage. Well, I bought a machete on my service trip to Belize over spring break and...well it was the perfect opportunity. So I rushed to my townhouse and sharpened it at work. This gets better. When I got home from work, my roommate David Skelton and I found a snake in our living room. How do you get rid of a snake in your living room? Well, if you just sharpened a machete that same day, you take matters into your own hands and cut its head off. I followed these instructions, and I highly recommend them. The results are incredible!

I ended the work week with a task given to me by my boss to cut out a huge bush. He gave me a pair of loppers. All of the branches were intertwined and just a complete mess. I started cutting at the branches and it was taking forever. I wasn't making any progress. Then the thought entered my head..."If only I had a machete that I had sharpened on Monday; that would just make this whole thing so much easier. Oh, wait!" I sped off down to my house to retrieve my machete and, long story short, it took me five minutes to have the entire thing taken out. What a great buy!

This whole week has really put things into perspective for me. My life has been so blessed. I talked to Annie about a mentally handicapped girl she worked with. The girl is 19 and is just learning how to read and write. Annie told me how excited the girl was that she was finally learning how to read. I take for granted every day my ability to read and write; sometimes I even complain about having to read for school. This helped me realize how lucky I am to have grown up in an environment where I was able to get a great education. I could fill hundreds of pages with all of the other blessings which I take for granted every day. I am so thankful for the life that I have been given!

New Experience

Last weekend, I was given the great opportunity of working on a guy's roof. I know him from work and he asked a few other guys that I work with to help him. I knew that I needed the money (after all, I just got the key to my house yesterday which cost me first month's rent of $250). Anyway, he offered a pretty penny for the work - almost twice what I get paid at my regular job - so there was no way that I was going to turn it down.

Friday, I realized after the weekend was out, ended up being the hardest day. The sun was high and hot; the humidity kicking my butt. The work that I did that day was the most physically demanding as well. I helped tear off two layers of shingles. The first layer came off with relative ease, and we had removed it all within a few hours. The second layer, however, was a completely different story. It took us the remainder of the day, plus another 3 hours the following day to remove the second layer from the roof. I'm not going to complain because the hours that I ended up working paid off big time, but if the guys that had laid the second layer of shingles had actually done their job by taking off the first layer before laying the new layer, we may have completely finished the roof during the weekend.

After our second day of work, the guy asked the four of us if we wanted to come back on Sunday. He said there was a lot of work yet to do and he could really use our help, but he understood if we wanted a day off before going back to work on Monday. I was all over it. The other three were more hesitant. I showed up to his house alone Sunday morning and, as it turned out, the other three guys missed the wrong day. A morning storm kept the rest of the day relatively cool; the work was a lot less physically demanding as we basically just nailed down boards of plywood all day; and breaks were numerous. In addition to all of that, he fed me lunch and dinner. Score for the college kid who's paying for his own groceries!

While the money I made from this opportunity was more than I could have asked for, the new experience that I gained was priceless. I learned things this past weekend that I will carry on to when I own my own home (God-willing). I am no expert roofer by any means, but at least now I have some basic knowledge of the steps that need to be taken in order to fix a roof if ever the necessity arises (God forbid).