Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Happy spring. Okay, it's not actually spring yet, but it arrives at 5:07 PM MDT Tuesday. I wish that meant that we were mandated to have spring-like weather from now until we leave, but alas, I'm sure that's not going to be the case.

If you couldn't tell by the tone of that opening paragraph, winter came back with a vengeance today, reminding us that she's not quite through with us yet. -3 this morning, and it just kept dropping. At one point, it was -14 with the windchill. Fantastic. It's quite nice now, though--too little, too late, I'm afraid. The sun came out at about 4:30, and warmed it up above zero. Tomorrow's supposed to be plus-10, so here's hoping.

It's always interesting to write with no script or preconceived ideas of what I'm going to say. For example, I just wrote a whole section, and realized that it belonged at the bottom, so now I have this sort of weird thing going on where I've written the top and bottom of the posting, but not the middle. As Mr. Lunt would say, "There's something missing in my middle, and it's hard to ignore." Of course, I could get around this by simply walking away from the computer and publishing, but that just wouldn't be much fun now, would it? No, it wouldn't. So I'm going to write some more, and then get to that last part. Not sure why I just wrote all that, actually. Just go with it, man.

What happened today? Woke up with the boy and took care of the bottle. No milk in the house (we always forget to check on Saturdays, since the grocery store isn't open on Sundays and that seems to be the day we always run out), so it was yogurt for breakfast, and some toast. Changed some diapers, then headed off to school for a meeting with a project group. Still not a fan of the group project, but I will put my head down and bear it, because hey, there are only 8 classes left. After that, ran some errands, including paying almost $500 worth of electricity and pad rental bills that were stacked up since November. Not my issue; our invoices come from the college, and they seem to be sending the monthly statements out on a quarterly basis, which is great month-to-month, but really sucks when they actually get around to mailing them to you. Efficiency, I'm afraid, is not their strong suit.

Anyway. Lunch at home with the fam; the boy was in a good mood (his top left canine is cutting through; we can see the very tip of the tooth now, so we hope this is the end of teething mood), and he actually wanted to play, which is always fun. Today's game: basketball, with hoop being held by mom. Slam dunks and over-the-top affirmation abounded.

After that, back to school to the student coffee shop. They often have random movies playing, but today was special. On the screen was the 1989 classic: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (link is to IMDB, for those of you who are unfortunate enough to not have seen it). I don't know about you, but I can hear the line, "Bill S. Preson, esquire" thousands of times before I'm sick of it. Oh man, such a good movie. In the midst of that, I managed to get some school work done, surprisingly.

Back home, a trip around town with the boy (to get the milk, among other things) while mom cleaned the floors--tough to do with a mobile toddler in the house. Home, dinner, bath time, evening bottle, Theo to bed, wife to the weekly Monday Night Worship event, Mark to computer to look up all the musical instruments he wants to buy with no money. I will soon, however, have income, and when I do, watch out, ebay. When Steph gets home, it's more Battlestar Galactica (we're almost through season 1) and some nachos. A perfect night.

And now, without any sort of appropriate segue, the stuff I wrote before, but wanted to put at the end. Why must I be a picky writer?

I'm not feeling particularly philosophical tonight, but I do have one new life philosophy to share with all of you, and who knows, maybe you'll be inspired. Or something. You're bound to have a reaction. Hopefully.

The other day, I was sitting around thinking about things that might or might not be (with regard to things such as future employment, living situation, and further education), and I realized that there are a lot of things in my life that I say, "One day, I'm going to...." Fill in the blanks at the end with anything, really; it's all the same.

But you know what? It's time to stop saying "one day" and start making that one day today. For example, I've always said, "One day, I'm going to learn to play the violin." When we were over at our friends' house a couple Sundays ago, I noticed that she had a violin. She told me that she had always wanted to learn to play, and so her husband went on ebay and bought her a violin.

I was stunned. I always thought that things like learning to play the violin would be expensive, but with the advent of the internet and especially sites like ebay, things aren't so out-of-reach anymore. In fact, there are some pretty good violins right now going for about $50. A small price to pay for the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, don't you think? And a complete annihilation of any excuse I might have had.

And so I've developed a new life philosophy: no more saying, "one day." No more sitting around and blaming others for the fact that I haven't done something I wanted to do. To learn to play the violin is in my hands, and nobody else's (although yes, financial decisions are a two-person matter, and I have a family that comes first; I'm not trying to imply otherwise), and if it's possible to learn, then I need to stop living in the land of what if and making it a reality. Gosh.

Here come some broad generalizations. These may or may not apply to you; don't think that just because I'm saying them means that they're somehow normative for all members of the species. I'm just making some observations. What I think is that many of us really do live our lives in a way that makes it seem like we're powerless to change our situations. But it's not really true. To a certain extent, we can always change our lot in life. Sometimes it takes a lot more effort, but I think it's always worth it. I think that too many of us are living lives full of "what if's" and unrequited dreams, and it's really a terrible place to be.

Maybe you're like me, and you've always wanted to do something, learn some new skill, take a certain vacation, run a marathon; the list is endless and the choices myriad, but the point is the same. Can I encourage you tonight to decide that you're going to take a step toward something you've always wanted? Trust God to provide your deepest, most hidden desires. After all, isn't He a God who wants good things for us? Didn't Jesus say that He came to give us life abundantly? I think so. And I think it's not too much to ask God to meet your dreams; He gave them to you, after all. Abundant life isn't for the sweet hereafter; it's for right now, too.

I have to admit some inspiration for this came from reading Jane's blog, and her amazing "101 things to do in the next 1001 days." Inspiring (Jane, how are you doing on those? I looked for an update, but alas, I haven't been keeping up with you regularly). And it makes me want to make a similar list. It's time to stop living like a victim and taking charge of things.

That's the philosophy component for this evening; I hope you liked it. Coming up later this week, a few comments on 24, a new Theo blog posting, and perhaps, just perhaps, an exciting announcement regarding the future. I'd tell you now, but I'm going to play it close to the vest until I clear a few more hurdles. It's exciting, though.

See you as the week goes on.