2 days until Peru =D

Well on Monday I will be flying to LA to meet up with the team that I will be going down to Peru with. For those of you I haven't talked to, I am going on a 5 week missions trip to Lima, Peru with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. I am really looking forward to it (although I am still not packed yet).

But anyways, if you would like to follow what is going on there will be periodic journal updates (and I think pictures as well) posted on www.globalurbantrek.org under the "Peru" link. So feel free to check that out. Anyways, I appreciate all of your prayers and look forward to being in Peru for the next five weeks. Tata =D

the man next door....

So I got attacked by the hair-eating-lawnmower today. During my time of mourning this afternoon, my loss was so great that I felt I needed to express my loss in the form of a song. If you would like to listen to a poorly recorded and intentionally poorly sung version of it, here ya go... the lyrics are below.

Ok I got the mp3 to work finally. Somehow geocities doesn't allow outside links for the mp3 I had uploaded. So you have to go to this temporary page and then you can play it.

The Man Next Door

Last Tuesday started off like any other
Went to work and then came home
But when I got out of my car
I was attacked by the most fearsome of beasts
See the man next door was trimming his lawn
And he sicked his lawnmower on me
It went straight for my head
And took all my hair clean off

So in righteous self-defense I attacked him right back
Gave him a black eye or two
And then took a buzzer to his head
And left him as bald as I

Now unfortunately he had a cell phone
Called 911 right quick
I tried to explain, but ol’ sheriff Blane
Would have none o’ my lip
He said I was delusional
And had gotten a haircut that day
But in a saddened state at the loss of my hair
I attacked my very innocent neighbor

He said in a rage I attacked the man next door
Gave him a black eye or two
And then took a buzzer to his head
And left him as bald as I

Now the moral of this story
Is that when you get your hairs cut
Make sure your neighbors aren’t out trimmin the lawn
Or the men in white coats will come find you

this present darkness....

If you have not read "This Present Darkness" by Frank Peretti, well, you should. This is probably one of my favorite books ever. I am reading through it again when I don't have anything to do at work. I think what strikes me about this book is just the shear power of it. The intensity of how he describes things is just above almost every other book I have ever read. Even at work where there are other people around and it is extremely bright, I can't help but get a little scared.

If you haven't read the book I will attempt to not spoil it. But in one of the parts I just read, the legions of demons (no rhyhm intended) are attacking two people in force. They both handle the situations very differently, but just the intensity of the darkness and the opression that Peretti brings into the book... I usually feel pretty safe at work, but I started reading through that part and it was honestly like the walls were closing in a little bit and the lights got a little dimmer.

At the same time though, the sections about the angels give me goosebumps. After reading about the mighty warriors and their desire to fight, I am left with a longing to just leap into the spiritual realm and kick some demon butt.

Every time I read this book, it just seems more and more powerful in its message. I have a hard time putting it down - though occasionally not putting it down late at night has been a bad call lol.

Anyways, I am going to go back to reading now.

The Can Strikes Back...

So last night I was helping my mom finish making dinner - taco salad. She needed me to cut up the black olives to throw in there. So I was cutting up olives and then the unthinkable happened... I must have slammed the can down a little bit hard and pissed it off, because it suddenly sprouted a little sharp pokey thing that stabbed my finger the next time I reached in the can! Needless to say, the next episode will be The Revenge of the Ninja, where the can is thrown into the endless pit that is the trash can - to be crushed into oblivion for all time.

something to do with the date?...06-06-2006

So I meant to post this last night but it was way too hot upstairs where the computer is, so I went downstairs and watched Firefly instead. But this is a recount of my day, and you can decide whether to attribute it to the date or not.

It started out fairly simply with me running out of shampoo. I had to use some of the other stuff in the shower, which is unfortunately rather smelly.

Then I went to work and did absolutely all morning because all of my bosses were busy trying to fix a very unusual problem that sort of cropped up overnight and they couldn't figure out why it had worked the day before and then just stopped. So all that to say they were too busy with other things to have time to find stuff for me to do.

Also unfortunately, Caleb just happened to be sick and not come to work yesterday, so I didn't even have anyone to entertain me when I was bored.

This is where the wierd stuff starts...

So then I went to lunch, and was planning on going to McDonalds. But on my way there I swear it was like a demon convinced me to go to Taco Bell instead. I was going straight to McDonalds and then my hands were totally like..."Nope! U-turn!!" and straight back to Taco Bell. I was still planning on getting something cheap, but somehow managed to spend like 5 bucks instead of the 2-3 I was planning.

So then I went back to work and messed around with a 4-Dimensional Rubik's cube for a while. That was crazy. But I swear someone was looking over my shoulder the whole time.

So then I went home and played guitar for a while, but the darkness of the basement seemed to creep in on me. It was wierd. It was like the brightness of my music was the only thing keeping the shadows at bay.

When it was time for the whole family to go to see a movie I was relieved to get out of the basement. We went all to Elvis to see Inside Man. We sat there in the dark and waited. Finally, 10 minutes after it was supposed to start the film started to roll. And then 5 minutes later stopped rolling. There was some strange screaming from the back that on a normal day might have sounded like cussing, but today sounded like creatures from the deep come to torment us. After another 20 minutes they finally came out and told us that the film had come unfed and for some strange reason yet unkown to them, their mechanic guy had dissapeared. So we got free passes and left the theatre.

Since we were already up north we tried to visit my mom's parents. They were mysteriously not at home either.

When we finally got back to our house it was like everything was just wrong. My mom was reading into things too much and was grumpy and my dad was strangely silent and didn't want to watch Firefly with me. Everything was in turmoil. I retreated to the basement to watch Firefly, and again my thought process was tormented into choosing a different episode to watch than I had initially intended. As I watched I felt alone in the dark. And there seemed to be an extraordinary amount of the little DVD bugs where it stops for a brief second and you aren't sure whether you really just saw what you think you did.

Finally when it was around 10:30 it was cool enough upstairs to try to get some sleep I got ready for bed. I walked into my room where there was not a light on. The shadows seemingly groped at me as I walked to my bed. I laid down but had only closed my eyes for a brief moment when suddenly... I fell asleep.

Now comes the moment of truth. Was this just absolute paranoia, actual strange things happening because of the day, or just a skillfully written over-dramatization of my day =D

If you answered the last, you win! I don't know what you win, just something - not from me. Yeah I really had a pretty average day. The only abnormal thing that happened was that the movie broke at the theatre. I just firgure I should write something about the date and how absolutely nothing happened lol.