Service at SFX Merits Relaxation

This past weekend, I went to do service across the street at the old St. Francis Xavier School. The building is old and run-down. The playground area wasn't much better. It seemed that it had missed its appointment for routine maintenance by a couple of years. The foliage made it look like a jungle out there. Unfortunately, there were only eight guys that showed up to take on the task, so it took a lot longer than we should have been there, but it was a really a great time to go out there and work with the guys that did show up. I'm going to work there again this coming Saturday for a few hours in the morning. I'm a fan of the physical labor. I don't know why, but it does make me feel a lot more productive doing physical labor. I can feel it through my entire body. Having said that, the rest of my day was planned out for me.

After the long day out in the sun, my roommate and I came home, cooked lunch (pasta and meatballs, YUM!) and then we started watching a football game together...then I woke up. We had both fallen asleep on our respective couches for two and a half hours. We watched the end of the game and then got ready for the evening.

We went out with a large group to Spin! Pizza down near the Plaza. That was a really great time. Reasonably priced food, great service, great company with friends. After Spin! I came back and watched a movie with another group of people. Jurassic Park. Classic.

A Langfield Weekend

I got to go home for fall break. Fall break is a great opportunity for students to take a breather in the middle of the semester, catch up on sleep, kick their feet up...not so when I go back home to the life of the Langfields. To start, my mom had a family emergency and had to go to Canada for three days; in result, I had to play soccer mom for the week, taking my younger siblings to school, picking them up, taking them to practices and games. And I thought I would get to catch up on sleep.

I got to spend some quality time with every one of my family members though. Some racquetball with my oldest brother, Buffalo Wild Wings and the Avalanche game with both of my older brothers (Avs won 4-3 in OT), bowling with four of the five of my siblings. I got to see my youngest brother's volleyball games, my younger sister's soccer game (she scored the one and only goal), and my brother, who is the senior QB, I got to see his football game. As far as time with my parents, I got to sit back and have some great conversations with both of them. I love all of my family so much.

Highlight of the weekend. My family was invited to a wedding. It was on Saturday night and that was the only night that I was going to be able to hang out with a couple of friends from high school. At first I wasn't going to go - in fact I missed the wedding itself. My dad called later in the evening and told us to come down to the reception. We came from Buffalo Wild Wings (twice in one week, awesome) so I was dressed in jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes, and my infamous, extremely faded Justin Boots hat. At first it was a little uncomfortable, but once the music started playing and we got to dancing, it didn't matter. I burned up the dance floor once again, and got to dance with some very pretty girls in the process.

I can't wait to go back home again. Six more weeks until I get a whole week off for Thanksgiving. Hopefully, I'll actually get some sleep this time...

Speedway and Homecoming

This weekend was...full, to say the least. It all began with making fifteen breakfast burritos at 12:30am on Saturday. A group of guys went out to the Kansas Speedway, meeting in the parking lot at 6:00am and I thought that it would be a good use of some of the 60 eggs that my mom bought for me at Costco over family weekend. We clocked into work at 7:00am. The real work didn't start until about 11:00am, but who's keeping track right? Until then, there was some napping and studying for midterm exams that were coming up. We spent the rest of the day running up and down the stairs of the grandstand in the midst of tens of thousands of NASCAR fans. Side note, great atmosphere out at those events. I'm not a particular fan of NASCAR, but the fans are great and it was really cool that they had someone lead a prayer before the National Anthem. I have never seen that at any other sporting event, and honestly, that ought to be the way everyone does it. Sunday was rinse, dry, repeat as far as the speedway goes.

Back track to Saturday after we got back from the fundraiser. As if the day hadn't already been long enough, I decided to go to the homecoming dance. Great idea, right? You're only young once, and even though it was a long, hard day at the fundraiser, I could not pass up the opportunity to show off my white boy moves. It was a great way to get my mind off of my recent break-up. No need to delve into that though. I had a terrific time at homecoming (although the DJ could have played at least one other genre of music besides hip hop). I don't mind hip hop, I'll dance to it all night long; and I did, but for goodness sake switch it up a little bit please. Besides, I'm into my country music, and all I asked for was one country song and I would have been satisfied, but she never gave it to me. It wasn't until a group broke out into Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" that I got my fix for the evening. The next day was long and tiring, running food and drinks to the fans at the speedway, but I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Family Weekend

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long long time. My little sister and brother have never been out to Kansas City, and neither of my parents have seen my new house. My dad was not able to come out for the weekend because my other younger brother had a big football game. (It's his senior year, and I can't wait to go home in 10 days and see him play!) There was so many things that I wanted to share with the three that did come that I was just overwhelmed with who I should introduce them to, what I should show them, where I should take them...and with so little time!

First things first. Once my family got all of their stuff into my house, we went to Costco. I never thought I would get so excited about grocery shopping! I think we may have gone a little overboard though because now there is limited space in the fridge and the freezer - five dozen eggs gives you an idea. My roommates and I will be making omelets this week. We attended the Rockhurst soccer game on Friday night and after many other activities from the evening, we returned to my house for the night. Oh, but the day was not over. The furniture in the house was not "feng shui." So, at 12:30am my mom and I rearranged the furniture. I had to text my roommates to make sure they didn't come home and call the cops! "Don't be alarmed, nothing is stolen guys; it's just in a different place." Jokes about the eggs and the rearranged furniture flew around all weekend long.

The weekend came to an end too quickly, as time with loved ones often tends to do. My mom and my two youngest siblings began their 9-hour drive back to Denver at about 2pm CST. If I hadn't known it before, that was the moment that I knew that when it comes time for me to finally settle down and have a family of my own (God-willing) there's no way that I could ever be this far away from my true home. I watched them drive away, out of sight after one quick turn down the block. I have plenty of things I want to do before I settle down; plenty of growing, and finding out who I really am and that might take some time away from home, but when all is said and done I will remember where I came from. I don't know what God has in store for me in the next couple of years, but I definitely know in my heart that something big is coming in my life. Something is brewing that is going to change my life forever...I'll keep you updated.

TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!

All of the long weeks of planning for this dance. Calling different venues, advertising, setup, practicing a dance performance for the crowd; the entire thing came to a head last night in an epic showdown. I have never been this involved in planning for a dance before, and there is a TON of work that goes into it. Everything from where it's going to be, the dance performance, and everything in between. It is all very stressful. You can especially see the stress peaking the day of the dance. Everyone has a very short temper...I'm not personally one that let's it get to me because I feel like people are going to enjoy themselves no matter where they are or how it's set up. Everything always turns out alright in the end.

As much stress as it produced, it was all sooo worth it as I burned up the dance floor last night. We got a lot of positive critiques from the attendees - especially about the dance we performed for them. Even more stress came from this, though, as the CD that we had burned with the music that we cut for it was not working. We had to drive back to campus and get the computer on which it had been made. Once again, we pulled through the adversity of the situation and got it done and put on a good show. On that note, I was really hesitant to do the handstand, tuck-and-roll move, but in the midst of all the adrenaline I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. I'm paying for it a little bit this afternoon, hit the tile floor hard at the base of my neck, but I'm still in one piece and still walking.

After the dance was over, it was awesome to go over to a friend's house and just sit around with a small group of good company. Quiet, good conversation with a handful of great friends. It was great to have such a stress-relieving time at the dance followed up by a relaxing time to just collapse on a couch with not a care in the world.

Another successful dance. More cherished memories. Thanks again, my friends!

Challenge Air & Founders' Day

This weekend, I got the opportunity to volunteer at the downtown airport in Kansas City. There was an event there called "Challenge Air." The organization finds pilots of small private planes to volunteer to take mentally and physically handicapped kids for a flight. When they get to altitude, they even let the kids take over some of the controls! This program, even at surface level, is such an incredible idea.

There is much more to it, however. Some background as to how this organization was started: A navy pilot was going in for a landing on an aircraft carrier, and his landing gear failed. He ejected from the plane, and fell into the water safely. Unfortunately, he landed in front of a giant aircraft carrier and something on the ship struck him high on his neck, paralyzing him from the waist down. Anyone who has ever flown any kind of plane knows that there are foot pedals involved with operating the plane. This man loved to fly, and developed a way to fly a plane using only his hands. His "Can do" attitude is what inspired the idea behind Challenge Air. Challenge Air gives children who are often seen as being able to do very little for themselves the idea that they can do something as complex as flying an aircraft. In doing this, Challenge Air hopes to instill in these children that same "Can do" attitude as its founder.

I saw the faces of two kids there who were nervous and anxious before I helped load them into the plane. When they came out of that cockpit, they had an attitude about them that said, "I can do anything!" True joy in the faces of these kids...just melted my heart.

On a lighter note, my fraternity's Founders' Day was on Friday. We celebrated on Saturday by getting together for a little pigskin on Saturday at the park, and later on in the evening we had a BBQ at one of the guys' houses. Seventy-eight years of a great, and still improving organization building the ever-growing City-Walled. Ad Dei Gloriam.

Slow me down, Lord

At the beginning of this school year, I had the pleasure of meeting a new freshman student, named Frank Kane. I met him and his family on Freshman Move-In Day. We had an immediate connection because they were from Colorado (don't run into a lot of people from Colorado here at Rockhurst). I had a great opening conversation with his dad and then had to go on my way to help other freshmen moving in.



I'm going to step away briefly just to say that over the past couple of months, I have been particularly frustrated with the condition of my back. I have been dealing with back problems since I was a sophomore in high school, and things have not improved really at all since then, despite numerous doctor's visits, treatments, and countless hours of physical therapy. Nothing has provided me with any type of lasting relief.



Enter Frank Kane. Frank was born with cerebral palsy. For the most part, he has to walk around with crutches everywhere he goes. Not once have I seen his spirits affected by this. I was lucky enough to have gotten the chance to spend some one-on-one time with Frank this weekend, and we talked a little bit about each of our conditions. I was truly moved and inspired by outlook. Everyday, I take for granted the simple blessing of being able to walk, free of any dependence on anything such as crutches. Frank carries this cross everyday, and yet, he said something to me yesterday that I have been trying to convince myself of for so long; something on which he seems to have an incredible grasp. He said to me, "It could be worse."



There has been a song stuck in my head lately, "I'm in a hurry to get things done, oh I rush and rush until life's no fun. All I really gotta do is live and die, but I'm in a hurry and don't know why." I went shopping with Frank yesterday, and it took longer than I normally would have liked to have been at Price Chopper; however, I so enjoyed his company, the time spent with each other was really awesome.



He played soccer with us yesterday. And now I am left speechless as to what more I can say about him. Thank you, Frank.