In my head...: June 2006

6.24.2006

Home again

Well, the time is finally upon us. My brother, Nathan, and I officially have one hour left of 21-year-old-ism. I'm home right now, and it is good. I've gotten a chance to relax and hang with my family...eat good food, play some Mario Party on Game Cube with Nathan and little sister Becca, and go for a bike ride. Oh, yeah, so since my bike got stolen sometime over the course of being in Europe last month, my parents got me another one for my birthday. Getting it was pretty fun...we started off looking for a good one at Wal-Mart, and when I was trying one out by riding slowly down one of the back aisles, I got firmly told by one of the employees that I wasn't to ride the bike in the store. I guess I can understand, but for some reason, that really made me mad. How are you supposed to know if you're gonna like a bike unless you ride it? So Mom reminded me that we have an actual bike shop in Iowa Falls, so we decided to check it out. Maybe that was me being immature, but I really didn't want a bike from Wal-Mart after being told off by that guy. Anywayz, we checked out the bike shop, and after telling him the price range, the guy told us he didn't have any new bikes that cheap. But he had some used ones we could look at...so we looked at them, and he showed me one that he had just got in, and it was perfect! He let me take it out back and ride it around, and I liked it a lot. So he finished fixing it up that afternoon and we picked it up once it was done. Then I took about a four mile ride this evening...it felt good to be on the road again. It's an older road bike, but it's still in good shape. I'm excited about it. :)

Well, off to bed soon, then church with my family tomorrow morning. My younger brother, Matt, was coming home tomorrow, but our schedules collide, and he doesn't get off til 7:30, so he won't get here til at least 8:45. And I have to go back to Dordt before that so I can be back for Dordt Discovery Days. So that's a bummer that I don't get to see him, but we'll catch up some other time. I am looking forward to helping Dr. D with his class on some of the music programs you can do in the Mac lab during Discover Days. Should be good.

# posted by Josh @ 11:03 PM 3 comments

6.21.2006

Two weeks running...

So here's a taste of my life from the last two weeks. Almost exactly 2 weeks ago, Jonathan Schmidt and I left Sioux Center in his truck, heading for...De Motte, Indiana. We were there to see two of the awesomest people ever -- Derek Bos and Anna Hubers -- get married. I was an usher in the wedding and had a fantastic time seeing them running around trying to get everything ready and to meet all the relatives and friends that he's talked about for the last two years that we've roomed together at Dordt. There's just something absolutely glorious about seeing people that you know love each other dearly promise to spend the rest of their lives together -- no matter what happens. B-e-a-utiful. So Jon and I spent a couple days up there, helping with some decorating, exploring the odd (but fun) sand dunes that were beside the church, and hanging out with Dan Hummel (my fellow usher) Mike Elders, Ginelle Bakker, Mallory Ooms, and a lot of other people. And after Dan read a touching poem at the reception about how much Derek and Anna love each other (using an acrostic poem that spelled out CANADA), we ate a lot more food, finished talking, and got ready to leave. Anna and Derek took off fairly quickly after it was all over so they could go on their honeymoon (which Derek would tell NO ONE where they were going). Just like Derek. Good times.

So Jon and I left on Saturday (the 10th) to come home, and we listened to Under the Overpass, a book on tape by Mike Yankoski. If you get a chance to listen and/or read it, I would greatly recommend it. It talks about two guys (Mike and his friend Sam) who lived as homeless people for five months in the streets of 6 U.S. cities: Denver, Washington D.C., Portland, San Franscico, Phoenix, and San Diego...by their own choice. They gave up family and school and jobs to go on this journey to see their faith come alive and experience what homeless people do on the streets. It's really amazing. To read an excerpt, go to this website. It's worth it.

http://www.undertheoverpass.com/book_excerpt.aspx?ISBN=1590524020

So Jon and I stopped by my house on the way home for a bite to eat and to say hi to my family. Then we made it back to Sioux Center before midnight. Otherwise...I have:

~Played sand volleyball with fellow Dordtians (twice!)
~Bonded with roommates (through our lovely X-Box and even lovier Halo)
~Discovered the names of 3 Hy-Vee Breakfast regulars that Tom Dykstra and talked to a lot over the past year (since we were regulars, too -- Les, Lawren, and Wilber)
~Hung out with some of my youth group kids at a Sioux Center vs. Unity baseball game --and met and talked with more of their friends (there are some pretty cool high schoolers around here!!)
~Played tennis with Andrea - and we're getting better!! Still not great...but getting better.
~Watched friends play an intense soccer game that they lost 3-2...but it was a good game.
~Went to a bonfire behind the BJ with the other summer Sioux Center people where we had s'mores and frisbee and talking and guitar and singing. Tons of fun!
~Went to lunch with Luke, Fish, and Titus (youth groupies) at Pizza Ranch where I proved that I can outeat Fish. I paid for it the rest of the day...but I outate them all. Ha.
~Suggested that this lunch thing be a weekly occurance. Met with positive reactions. Yes!
~Got a new phone, which I just tried to activate, only to find out that I have to go to the store in Le Mars to activate it because it's being stupid. Arg!

And then I'm going tonight to dinner at the Duitmans with Nathanael and Krystal. That's gonna be good. Yeah, so that's me over the last couple weeks. I'm sure there's other stuff I've forgotten to put in, too, like going to the Crossing in Sioux Falls, and reading 3 Harry Potter books. And I'm going home this weekend for my birthday, which will be the first one I've been home for in the last couple years. Oh, yeah, and I saw Derek yesterday and discovered that he and Anna were at Lake Tahoe for the last few weeks. Okay that's it. Szervusz!

# posted by Josh @ 5:26 PM 3 comments