Articles categorized ‘Freetime’

Oh my goodness.

Darla and I had a fantastic time in New Jersey last week. We stayed with my sister-in-law’s family, visited New York, spent time at the beach, and rested a lot. It was great.

Everyone talks down about New Jersey. I don’t know why; it’s so beautiful. Check out the gallery of photos we took. (Warning: 235 photos could take a long time to view)

We stayed in a beachhouse for most of the time. Check out this short video that I made, using 15-second clips from my cell phone.

It’s been difficult to get the time to write lately, so I take pictures instead. I did not, however, take any of these pictures.

Furious D was in town. It was probably his last time he’ll visit here before he moves out here. you heard me right.

Anyway, we had lots of fun going to a wedding and camping in Flagstaff. We visited two lakes, Lake Mary and Mormon Lake, which by the way is false advertising. There were no mormons in, on or around the lake. Furious D also got creative and we took some portraits in the woods near Lake Mary. All-in-all, it was a good trip highlighted by me getting stung by a bee. nothing could have capped it off any better.

my work gave away tickets to see the nutcracker at chandler center for the arts, so i decided to take darla. at first they gave me two tickets for odd-numbered seats. they told me that the seats would be together. i'm glad i didn't believe them. they ended up giving me 3 seats for the two of us… whatever.

anyway, we went. as i'm sure anyone that has seen this ballet can attest, it was weird. here's my interpretation of what happened:

okay, we start off with a big group of people carrying presents over to someone's house. they're followed by this weird guy, i think it was the mask guy from phantom of the opera. so they get to the house, where there's a christmas party going on and they dance and play for a bit. i've never been to a christmas party like that. they didn't play pool or exchange bizarre gifts. although, the girl that lived in the house got a white nutcracker doll. one of the boys, who i'll nickname 'jerkboy', tried to take it and ended up breaking it. the phantom guy was some sort of magician and he put it back together using magic. after this lloooonngg party, the kids get tired and the families leave. that phantom guy is the last one to leave. he's kinda creepy. he was hitting on all the women during the party. anyway, he leaves and the family goes to bed. the girl comes back downstairs to look at her nutcracker which she left under the christmas tree. six mice came out and scared her and then the phantom guy came back out to some scary music. she fell asleep and when she woke up, we were in scene two.

she woke up to a fight between her now fullgrown nutcracker doll and his comrades against the mighty mice people and their king. there was some loud cannonfire and in the end, the nutcracker's guys won. they caught the mouse king in a big mousetrap. so the phantom guy comes back out and unmasks the nutcracker who is a boy that the girl falls in love with. they end up hanging out for the rest of the movie ballet. the rest was just a lot of dancing. the best part was when the russians came out and danced in the palace. i can't even describe how cool it was. i was impressed.

the girl woke up at the end, so it was kinda like that movie… i can't remember the name.

darla and i were in san diego this past weekend. it's hard to believe that this time last year we were getting married. there are lots of photos in the gallery. this one is my favorite.

i'm trying to figure out why i'm so tired. it's not that difficult.

yesterday, i woke up at 7:30. i went to work at 9am. i left work at 6pm and went directly to fbc tempe to practice for some ¹ women's celebration thing. i left the practice at 9:15 and got home at 9:30. i had just enough energy to eat dinner, talk to darla for a few minutes and then crash in bed.

this, unfortunately is a typical day. i have so much stuff going on - work, the new house, favors for people, etc - that i don't have time to relax. it's getting to the point where i have to almost schedule time for myself. how sick is that…

after this women's celebration is over, i'm not going to do another thing until my house is finished. it's ridiculous that i don't even have time to do the things that i want to do.

¹ i know. i said i wouldn't do that again, but kristen asked me to do it. she needed my help.

darla and i visited a new church yet again on sunday. we've been trying for a few months now to figure out where we fit in. i think we're getting closer.

the teacher talked about making the most of time. i'll admit that when he started talking about this, my ears perked up. i immediately recognized that i don't make the most of my time. so i listened diligently.

he had a few points that he made about time such as:

- there is cumulative value in spending small amounts of time on something over a long period.

that's the hardest thing for me. i know that i should steadily spend time on something or another, but i lose focus. it's probably because of his second point:

- there are rarely any consequences for neglecting a single installment of time in any particular arena of life.

if i miss one quiet time or one day of working out, it doesn't mean much to me because i tell myself that i can do it the next day, or catch up later. but it all adds up. if i miss one day now, my chances of missing another day later greatly increase.

this next point blew me away.

- there is no cumulative value in the urgent things that we allow to interfere with what's most important.

if i have to work late one day and it interrupts something that i do every night, i miss out on value for my time. sure, being at work is important too, but it can't be more important than spending time with darla, or spending time with friends, etc.

the teacher used a passage in ephesians as his only scripture.

5:15-20 - “be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. instead, be filled with the Spirit. speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

and then i realized something. everytime i had read this passage, i thought it had something to do with not getting drunk. that's not it at all. it's instructions on how to use time, and getting drunk is an example of a waste of time.

and so i looked at my life. i remembered the time spent at gordy's house playing video games, making fun of jesse, and talking about useless crap. that's not what we were made to do.

and then i got a vision of what it would look like if we all caught on to this passage of scripture. i'm a long way away from being at that point. but i'm ready to try.

scanning through the small group of tourists i spotted her. it was almost as if i expected to see her there. i leaned over to darla and casually made notice of her signature bag of tricks. as the lady walked by, she gave me a long look.

it was then that she almost shouted to me, “you look like chris.”

startled, i replied, “excuse me?”

“you look just like chris capuano,” she replied, continuing on her trek.

not knowing how to respond, i mumbled some affirmation. i knew what she meant. maybe i did look like chris a little.

but one thing was for certain, i had been involved in a conversation with “flag lady.”

well. it's over. i don't know what draws me to want to get involved with everything worship. i could say no. i guess i thought it would be different. the service went well, but there was something missing. maybe it was a plan. maybe it was a little thing we call “rock and roll”.

i stumbled across a few pictures that made me want to reminisce. These two photos are very tightly knit together, though anyone outside of the situation would probably not recognize it. I guess a lot of things are that way in our group. Lots of inside jokes, lots of one liners from TV shows, lots of obscure references to music.

anyway, on to the pictures:
bees     climbing

so, the game has been getting a lot better. i finally figured out what i was doing wrong.

i've spent some serious time playing the game (i'm over 16 hours in already). and i'm liking this game almost more than any other final fantasy game - my favorites being v and vi (of course).

i don't really know what else i can write about. my body has been crapping out on me lately. i've been getting migraines far too frequently and i'm going to have head back to the doc to have him get me some more meds for my stomach.

i'm just enjoying life.