Squeezing out the Fun

First of all, one of the greatest memories of spontaneity of all time. There were a bunch of Christmas decorations sitting in the Fishbowl for a few days that hadn't been put up yet. I was talking with a friend and we both had that tone of, "It would be awesome if...but we're not actually going to do it" but WE DID! We took the initiative and got a group of people together right then and there and decorated the Fishbowl with Christmas music blaring the entire time. Really got me and everyone in attendance into the spirit of the season.

Yet another fantastic weekend full of great memories. Thursday was one of the most exciting basketball games I have ever been to. I arrived at the beginning of the second half to find our Hawks down 23-20. Not a very active first half. The second half enthusiasm picked up quick as I joined a small group in the Hawks Nest. I inspired some excitement in the small crowd, and we brought the noise! The last few minutes looked bleak, as the Hawks fell behind by 10, but they came back and forced the game into overtime. It took two overtimes to decide the victor - unfortunately, Rockhurst was not quite able to pull it off, but played a great game.

On Saturday morning, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some body paint...one thing led to another and...six of us lathered ourselves up, spelling out H-A-W-K-S-! We ran over to the Field House from my house about two blocks away. It was freezing! Once again, the Hawks were handed a disappointing loss, but it was so much fun being there with friends to support the guys.

Sunday. Football. David Wallisch and I scored some sweet tickets to the Chiefs v. Broncos game. Twenty six rows up from the field. Thank you, Chris Clark, O-lineman for the Broncos. Again, a disappointing loss, but I had a ton of fun with my friend David at the game. Happy Birthday, David!

Monday. (Side note, I have been blessed with such abundance). I woke up at 11 o'clock with every intention of studying for finals; however, I rolled over in my sheets and slept until noon. That pretty much set the tone for the remainder of the day. After I woke up for the second time, I watched a couple of hours of television. I shut off the TV, got my sorry behind off of the couch, having it in my mind that now I should study...three steps later the futon started calling my name. Quite irresistible. I may have fallen asleep, to be honest I can't really remember for sure. Well, I came to again and decided again that it was time that I should probably buckle down...or go for a mind-clearing bike ride to Loose Park. I weighed my options and the bike ride won out. Just what the doctor ordered. I sat underneath what has become my favorite tree at the park. After a while of thinking, I did something that I hadn't done in a while...I started climbing. I climbed pretty high. It was really cool to see the rest of the park from a whole new level. I climbed out onto limbs a little ways too, which was really uncomfortable, but so exhilarating. It was the perfect summit to my unplanned personal day off.

Whew! Tuesday. On Tuesday, in addition to finally getting some studying done, I went over to David's house. I got the honor of joining David for a very special occasion. David has served at St. James Food Pantry and Community Kitchen, which serves over 250 meals every night, every Wednesday for the past 2 1/2 years. For his 21st birthday, David started a fundraiser for St. James in which he was looking for 100 people to donate $21 each for $2,100. Also, he spent almost the whole day baking over 250 cupcakes for the less fortunate who find themselves at St. James on Wednesday. Shout out to you, David! Inspiring. By the way, if you feel moved to donate at all, you can find more information on his website, davidwallisch.com.

I cannot thank God enough for all of the blessings in my life. Prayers for all of those who are less fortunate during this Christmas season, especially all of those who count on and run St. James Place.

Thanksgiving Break

Supposed to be relaxing. Not really the case. Life at home certainly does not stop upon my arrival - not that I expect it to. It is a bit overwhelming when I come home for a break and quite frankly do not get the rest I needed to come back ready to go. For the record, I enjoy being home. I'm just at a point where it is not a place that I can handle for a long period of time. That's life. Anyway, on top of the chaos that is the Langfield household, I had tons of work to do in regards to school and my fraternity. I won't spend a lot of time with details, the fact of the matter is that break was not as stress-relieving as I would have hoped for.

On a positive note, Thanksgiving dinner was as good as ever. We went to my aunt's house and the Italian side shown through like never before. We started with an "appetizer" of pasta, meatballs and sausage (2 servings). Then we had the traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, etc. (2 servings). I had just sat down on the couch to stretch out when a noise carried from the outside. I'll get straight to it. Five accordions came into the house blaring a mix of Italian music and Christmas music. It was incredible! Everyone got up out of their seats to witness the awesome entertainment. I even went up and danced with my godmother for a song.

Saturday rolled around, and my family stayed true to a 20-year-old tradition of the annual Christmas tree hunt. Up at 6:30am, we drove up to Fraser, CO which is just outside of Winter Park and began the search. This was one of our most time-efficient hunts that I can remember. We got there at 10:30am and had two trees loaded on the tops of the cars before 1 o'clock. My dad was really pleased because us boys did a lot of the work cutting the trees down and dragging them back down the mountain to the parking lot. It was a really great last day at home. So many memories from years past. I pray that one day I can either carry on a tradition from my childhood or develop new traditions for my kids to look back on and cherish.

Overall, not a bad break. Like I said, quite stressful with all of the work that I had to do, but I was still able to make a lot of great memories, spend quality time with old friends and family, and I started learning a new song on the piano. Two more weeks back at school and then I'll be right back at home - hopefully with a lot less on my plate.

Home Never Changes

Ah! I am home again for Thanksgiving Break. A whole ten days. It's interesting how my perspective has changed over the past couple of years. I wanted to be out on my own; I still want and enjoy that, but I so look forward to being home. I have such a different life here. My friends are different. I try to be the same person that I have developed into at school because I like that "me" better than what I was before I got into college. Anyway, as my family all grows older, everyone is going about doing their own thing more and more, but one thing has always been the same: CHAOS!!!

I laugh at it because it's nostalgic. I cannot remember a time growing up when things weren't crazy at my house. There were numerous times that my parents had to get together on a Friday night because they had six kids all playing on different athletic teams, in all corners of the state of Colorado, and so they had to plan out rides for all of us the night before so that everybody was covered. God bless them! This weekend, we celebrated both my younger brother, Zach's birthday (18), as well as my younger brother, David (11). I got home Friday night, and it was party central on Saturday evening and then Monday afternoon. The most involvement I had between the two parties was the honor of being the referee for the championship basketball game between my brother and his friend and my sister and her friend. What an honor it was! I have to say though, by 3 o'clock, I was toast. I stepped away from all of the insanely energetic 11-year-olds and took a nap on the couch. Once again, God bless my Mom, she stuck it out for the entire party.

One thing that I am coming to realize, and really having a difficult time with, is what is going to happen after I graduate from college? Will I end up back in Colorado? I want to for a wide array of reasons: my family, my memories are all here, the mountains my favorite place in the entire world (which includes many more memories), I could go on. Having said that, what if there's more out there for me? I want to travel. I want to see other parts of this great world while I'm young. I don't want to wait until I'm an old retired person (no offense, I have great respect for my elders). I love my home in Colorado, and it will always and forever be my one true home; but I don't want to restrict myself to such limited exposure. I want to see what the rest of the world has to offer to Justin Langfield; and what Justin Langfield has to offer to the rest of the world. I only used third person for affect, I'm not really one of those big-headed, narcissitic "bros" who always refers to themselves as if they are talking about a really awesome friend of theirs, whose sheer awesomeness is far beyond being described by such unworthy pronouns as "I."

Beside the point. I really love being home. So it will always be to me. But the world is a big place, and I'm not about to sit around and have my experiences be limited to a 50-mile radius...yet. I want to experience the world as much as I can before I settle down with a wife and kids (God-willing). And if I end up in the same area in which I was raised, fantastic; but if that's not the case, I will follow wherever it is that God wants me to go. He will never ask me to do anything or go anywhere, that He, himself, did not do or go. Also, a good time for a reference to the "Footprints" prayer. If you don't know it, look it up. Good stuff.

Side note: Downloaded a new song to learn on the piano. I've had a ton of time to practice this week and it has been fantastic. Also, schooled some of my 11-year-old brother's friends in a round of billiards. Nothing like a self-esteem boost!!!

5120 Brunch, Swing Dancing

My housemates and I had our first official brunch on Saturday. Yes, it was at 1:15 in the afternoon, but that's why they call it brunch, right? It reminded me of home. Every Sunday growing up, my dad would cook up a big breakfast for my whole family. I have helped him a couple of times and cooking for eight people is not easy. Three people is a little more reasonable. I will consider it training for when, God-willing, I have to provide meals for my family.

Now, as cool as it was to get a taste of home (yea, pun intended) the true highlight of the weekend was this. At 2:30 in the morning on Saturday, Nate and I were up together watching the last 45 minutes of Pretty Woman, eating spoonfuls of cookie dough when the idea hit me. I said to Nate that we should both get dates and take them to a dance hall. We both had someone in mind. Unfortunately, I did not have any way of contacting mine outside of sending a message over Facebook. So, at 2:30 in the morning, I sent my offer and then went on to be quite restless throughout the rest of the night.

Pleasantly surprised, I received a text message later that afternoon with a positive response. I'll give you a picture: my face, I smiled, nothing outrageous; on the inside...I wish I was better with words so that I could think of a worthy analogy to describe how excited I was that she wanted to come. Although I hadn't spent very much time with her before last night, Kelsey Carver is a really awesome girl. It was certainly an honor for me to have her come.

Disappointing because I would have like to dance more with Kelsey, but it makes for a funny story from the evening, during the swing dance lessons we had rotating partners, so we only got to dance with our dates one out of every 15 or so ladies. In addition to that, we brought the average age of this place down to about 60. We all took it well and had a blast though.

I look forward to doing more stuff like I did this weekend. Over the past couple of years, I have developed more appreciation for the company of other people, and more of a distaste for retreating to television or movies as a source of entertainment. Game night in the near future? I hope so.

Habitat Event, Man Date, Initiation

Last Thursday, my fraternity put on its annual event to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. Thanks to all of the businesses in the Kansas City area for your generous donations to help make this a successful event. We raised over $500 for Habitat. The poker tournament was not as big of a hit as usual, but there was lots of participation in the Rootbeer Pong Tournament. We got two kegs of rootbeer donated from Fitz's and students could get unlimited rootbeer throughout the night for attending. There were tons of awesome prizes including but not limited to: a professional massage, gift cards to the plaza, and a date with one of the active members of the fraternity.

Saturday night, after I got off of work, my roommate Nate Olson and I went on a long overdue man date. A night filled with video games, good conversation is just what we both needed. Carefree.

Finally, on Sunday, the candidates that have been going through their education process for the past 8 weeks were initiated into my fraternity. It is always really exciting when new brothers fully become a member of this organization. I am a proud member of my fraternity, and the growing relationships with guys that are already in combined with the excitement of meeting and getting to know more and more people every year is really awesome for me.

Love (and Smores) Will Hold Us Together

I don't know why God chooses to bless me with such abundance, but I guess that's for Him to know and me to most likely never fully understand. I can live with that.

Friday, I got to do one of my favorite things in the world. I got to make use of the fire pit in my backyard again. We had a really good crowd come over, just enough chairs and stumps to accommodate for everyone. Once again, great company, some solid background music to set the mood, and a gorgeous fall evening. Oh! and SMORES!!! Here's one aspect of the night I was not expecting: I bought four bundles of wood that I thought, maybe we'll go through it all maybe we won't. We burned all of it! Six hour campfire!

Saturday presented another opportunity for a great memory. I went to a concert with a group of friends. Matt Maher, Addison Road, and Tenth Avenue North. The really awesome thing about a Christian rock concert in my mind (besides the fact that it was 1/3 of the price of any other concert I've ever been to) is that it was so much more personal. There is a message in their music that I can really connect with, regardless of faith. My faith certainly strengthens my belief in that message, but getting through the trials of life together with love and forgiveness, I believe, is something rooted into human nature regardless of what your religious beliefs are. I was also moved that night to begin sponsoring a child in Indonesia. I'm really excited to start this overseas relationship in which I am contributing to a change in this world. Ari Putra Dwi Ramadhan is 12 years old and lives in an area of the world that is subject to many injustices, especially for children. I'll certainly be updating on the progression of the sponsorship.

After the concert, we went to Winstead's. I have...had a bucket list item that I needed to take care of. Over the summer, I had tag-teamed the Skyscraper challenge. Tonight, I was ready to face it on my own. A little encouragement from the people around me, and I was able to pound home the tall shake. Most importantly, I didn't throw up afterwards!

Again, another incredible weekend. My blessings are countless like the stars.

Non-Stop Fun!

What a weekend! To kick it off, I was invited to the Theta Phi Alpha "Theta Phi in Disguise" dance. I was asked by someone and the idea behind it is that neither myself nor the girl whom I was asked for knew that we were going with each other. There was a part of me that really wanted to know who it was because I didn't want it to end up being someone who I didn't know very well, making for a very awkward evening; but it turned out fine. My very fine date was a good friend, Julia Krolikowski. The fun wasn't over when the music stopped either. A group of us went back to Julia's house and we all had chocolate chip pancakes. Yum!

The next morning started early as a small group of us returned to St. Francis Xavier School to do some more manual labor. Not as intense as last week as we only worked for three hours, but we still got a lot of work done. Afterward, I went to a four hour retreat for my fraternity that me and my Brother, Brian Golka put together. Attendance was less than we would have liked, but those who did come gave us a lot of positive comments on the day; so that felt really good that our plans came together and were appreciated by everyone that came.

To cap off the weekend, I went and got bricks with a couple of friends that we found on Craig's List. Fifty bricks, fifteen dollars. Why did we buy fifty bricks? Well, my backyard was lacking a fire pit. No longer is that a problem. I completely ignored any of my responsibilities, and we christened it with its first use on Sunday night. A couple hours underneath the beautiful night sky, a raging fire, good music, and good company - not a care in the world. Just what the doctor ordered. I plan on making good use of that fire pit in the future with numerous nights of hanging out with friends and eating smores!