No I have not disappeared into a black hole

So....I am attempting to post something exciting in attempts to please Aaron and Matt's claims of boring posts. No guarantees though.
The most exciting news I have to tell everyone is that for those of you in Birmingham, you are invited to my house for dinner on Tuesday, March 26th. Yes, that is right, I have not disappeared into a black hole or a bottomless pit. I am alive and in order to rekindle all of my friendships that have been put on hold, you are invited to my house to enjoy some good food (hopefully). So you better come!! That is all I will say about that.
Um, let's see, something entertaining....nothing is coming to mind. I will get back to everyone on that. I hope all is well. I miss everyone dearly and you are all in my prayers. When is our next big family reunion? We are slowly running out of weddings to use as our reunions. Either people need to keep getting engaged or we need to figure out another way to gather :)

MIKE'S MY MONEY AND I WANT HIM NOW!!!

Don't think about the meaning of that title too deeply, it just gets creepy. Well there's not really much going on in my life, I'm working at starbucks and fox, and waiting for this other job at Fox to open up so I can stop editing and start producing... "Wait Aaron" you might say "isn't this the same situation you've been in for 2 months now... and yes yes it is. "Then why?" you might ask "are you updating a blog with pointless information reiterating facts we already know?" There is only one answer to this question... I can not stand for Matt Francisco to be dissappointed in me, and lets face it, neither can you, so get on the ball and start updating with your slightly more interesting posts. :) .....Big gulps huh.....welp see ya later





I would also like to point out that I have not waked matt in such a disturbing fashion for some time now.

It's My Money and I Want It NOW!!!

It seems that the initial flurry of activity on Thirty Travelers has slowed to a saddening crawl. I, for one, as a full-blooded male who admittedly checks this site at an average of 3.14159 times per day to learn of the glorious tales of his compatriots, am terribly disappointed in each and every one of you… except Elaine, who posts like a champ… and Erin, because she wrote me a fairy tale in which John is an evil centaur.

I’ve got a little bit of news to report, so I figured I’d use Thirty Travelers to broadcast it out to the nations. Let's see if you guys can spread this as fast as the gospel. If it takes you more than 2008 years, I’m going to be rather upset… Well, today I was offered a position as a Campus Minister for Campus Outreach Birmingham, the same crew I spent my summers with the past two years. I’m pretty stoked, but I could certainly use your prayers as I beg God for discernment as to whether or not I should accept.

When they pitched me the idea, they told me that not only would I be a campus minister somewhere (which, in all likelihood, will be at Samford- which would be almost laughably awesome), I would also be able to take two seminary classes a semester (at Beeson perhaps? (cough) John? Will? Et al?), I would have some freedom to write, and I would serve as a “trainer of worship leaders” for campuses across the southeast. All of that seems incredibly intimidating, but freakin’ exciting. It incorporates, like, everything that generally gets me amp'd up about life. It sounds almost too good to be real. Please pray that my excitement won't lead me to impulsiveness. I've been making strangely grown-up decisions recently, like purchasing a 2004 Toyota Corolla to replace the Trooper... whose brakes cut out while I was driving on 280.

Elsewhere about the Magic City- Warden is rockin’ his motorcycle-scooter and dominating PT school; Pat seems to have nothing to do at work and so gets me substitute teaching jobs; Sarah makes a heavenly Devil’s Food/Kahlua cake; Elaine is rocking our worlds with Family Dinners every Tuesday night; Parks is loving the Apple Store and is headed to Brazil with his girlfriend Kathryn for two weeks this summer; Aaron is… well, Aaron... only now people at Starbuck’s and Fox have to deal with him too, instead of just me... who experienced a string of five or six days where I was woken up (either having just fallen asleep or about to wake up) to Aaron's semi-naked body hovering above me; Brian is shakingly-excited to do stuff so nerdy I have a hard time listening to him explain it; Keith is whipping Ryan and I into shape to run this half-marathon and getting ready to share a bed/home/life with a wonderful girl; Money is moving in with Bonham (in Birmingham!); Cliff is waiting to hear back from Regions and going to exhibit all of his musical talents with me on Tuesday nights in Harry's at Campus Outreach meeting; Emily is engaged; Amanda Howes loves Children’s Hospital; and Jamie is... well, my friend, and it’s about damn time. Much love from 1701.

P.S. If you haven't seen There Will Be Blood or No Country For Old Men, what the hell are you waiting for? What!? And you haven't listened to The Triceratops!? I may put you before the Birmingham Contingent of the Thirty Travelers Convention to see if you can be excommunicated.

Lastly, my friend Comastro, who is student teaching for high school in Keystone, Colorado is using my song "Sail On, Sweet Enola Gay" to open discussion on Hiroshima (insert ashamed laughter).

if i were french or native american i'd be offended right about now.

or maybe i am anyways...

an interesting little tid bit from Romney's withdrawal speech today. anyone else confused?

"As I said to you last year, conservative principles are needed now more than ever. We face a new generation of challenges, challenges which threaten our prosperity, our security and our future. I am convinced that unless America changes course, we will become the France of the 21st century—still a great nation, but no longer the leader of the world, no longer the superpower. And to me, that is unthinkable. Simon Peres, in a visit to Boston, was asked what he thought about the war in Iraq. “First,” he said, “I must put something in context. America is unique in the history of the world. In the history of the world, whenever there has been conflict, the nation that wins takes land from the nation that loses. One nation in history, and this during the last century, laid down hundreds of thousands of lives and took no land. No land from Germany, no land from Japan, no land from Korea. America is unique in the sacrifice it has made for liberty, for itself and for freedom loving people around the world.” The best ally peace has ever known, and will ever know, is a strong America!"

This one's for you JamminJamers

So driving on the other side of the road is not as complicated as I thought it would be...it's driving on the opposite side of the car that's kinda tricky. On my first drive home I hit the curb on the left side of the car...twice. oops. but nothing was broken or flat by the time I got home. Yesterday I ran over a construction cone...it was on the left side as well. I'm still working on my perception...

But my car is an automatic so that makes driving in five lanes of traffic, through five tolls one way (to the college I'm teaching at), and on the opposite side of the car just a little easier. I'm actually enjoying driving here. My friends say I'm becoming an aggressive driver, which is necessary if you want to survive on the road here. I feel a lot more freedom on the road....you should all come and try driving over here.

nuf about that. life here is good. it rains every afternoon...like Kristen. i made pasta on Monday for some girls I'm mentoring. It reminded me of family dinners with you all! Hope everyone's well. much love.
can

So funny thing

Hey ya'll

So one of the doctors her in Memphis asked me if I wanted to go with him on a mission trip, because I wasn't able to go to China with the other interns on account of th Hamilton wedding. OS I said yes, because he's an awesome guy and because its to Etheopia. So I have two huge prayer requests.

1) I'm at least five years younger than the second yaoungest person, and the other three people are a nurse doctor and clinic administrator, so I'm nervouse as to what I will be doing. Plus I kinda puke at the sight of blood so ya.

2) That Kris and I will be able to meet up, because I'm just kinda along for the ride with the guy who planned my trip and she's really busy with the Peace Corps. And I would feel bad if I made it all the way to Etheopia and didn't get to say hey to her.

So if ya'll could pray for that stuff it'd be cool. I miss all of ya'll alot and think you are the greatest people I've ever known.

From Ityopp'ya

Hallo family! Or as we like to say… salaam nouw beteseb.

A few things:

A) You guys are absolutely incredible. Seriously- I cannot think of a time when I've been so thankful for you all. Dang.

B) Don't ever get your phone stolen in a country whose cell phone service is controlled by a state monopoly. It's just a hassle. Good news is- I think it's all sorted out now. So if, perchance, you find yourself bored and wealthy with nothing to do- the number to call is now: 251 913 1100 68. You may think this looks familiar and that's because it's the same number I used to have. I don't understand how it works. But if you call the other number I was using, you'll get to talk to my supervisor. Nice guy, but it'll probably cause more confusion than it's worth for all parties involved.

C) Did you know that to join the EU a country has to agree to animal-welfare rules? One of these rules is that pigs, goats, and sheep can only be killed at home for personal consumption if they are stunned with a special stunning device before their throats are cut. Apparently Romania had some issues with this one. Just thought you should know.

Miss you guys! A lot! Kris

Hi.

I have an address for you all to memorize...
A-1-6 Blk A Jalan Masjid
PJU 6A Pelangi Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya
My country

it's hot here.
love to all.

 i would just like to say that i love my new birmingham family. y'all are great. and for everyone who's not here, you're missed and you are great too.  Oh yes, and here's a little tribute to "horse face."

Bangs...what a love/hate relationship

If you're a boy you can skip to the last paragraph.

I'm sure just about every girl reading this went through a stage at one time or another (for me it was second grade) where they wore their hair back in a headband everyday, put fifty bobby pins or clips in their hair, and looked in the mirror every morning to see if they still had bangs. I'm not quite sure why our mothers let us get bangs in the first place when it seems like all of us grew them back out for what seemed like yearsssss. Now, I'm not really sure how long it took to grow out those dreaded things but it seems like I have tons of pictures of me with my hair sticking up from behind the headband because my bangs weren't quite long enough to lay down....are you with me girls?

Good. So, we finally grow out our bangs and feel really cool because this is how all the fifth graders are wearing their hair (when I say we, I'm assuming some of yall went through this phase too). For a while we enjoy not having bangs...part our hair straight down the middle, giving a nice triangle shape to our forehead. (My hair was actually really big for several years....ok, it can still be really big but I didn't know how to control it back then.) But after a few years of wearing our hair slicked back in a ponytail (that's what I did through most of 6th and 7th grade) we begin to get self conscious about our big forehead and begin thinking that maybe having some bangs would make our forehead appear a bit smaller. Then we try parting the hair to the side and going for the swoop, which does make for a prettier triangle on your head. But we really want some long bangs to swoop across our forehead because that looks really cool to have hair falling in your face constantly. I tried to convince my hairdresser to cut me some for years but with no success. She claimed I'd hate them and they'd get in my way. She's probably right.

I say all of this to say, I cut myself some long bangs the other day. I don't think you can really tell...for the girls: they still tuck slightly behind my ears and I didn't really slant the cut enough. Now I'm back to waiting for them to grow out so I can cut them again...this time with a slant. So...I'll take a picture later and post it for yall to examine.

IN other news...I left AL yesterday with hopes to arrive on the other side of the world in a few hours. Unfortunately, my flight in Dallas was delayed which caused me to miss my connecting flight in LA...so the rebooked me for 24 hours later. I'm writing from the LAX Hilton. Had a real swanky breakfast and am putting a pretty penny down to write you all. So, I leave LA tonight at 11:35. From what I can see CA looks real nice, Brian. Woot.