Planning

So, I have spent a good bit of today trying to plan my drive home. I have about 1700 miles in front of me in just shy of two weeks. Luckily, this time I'm not doing it by myself. My brother is flying out to come back with me, which should be a lot of fun.

Right now, the plan is to go from Fraser CO to St. Louis MO the first day. It's about 13 hours or so, but my neighbor's sister lives there, so free place to crash? Yes please. The next day I'm trying to arrange somewhere in Knoxville to stay. I have a few friends there that might work out, but I'm not sure about that yet. Then onto Windy Gap, via the Cherohala Skyway, which is supposed to be one of the best driving roads in the country. I'm excited for that one, because after going through Kansas and all that boringness, I will be needing some good Carolina mountain roads with all the beautiful pavement and switchbacks they have to offer. Stay with my buddy Hampton at Windy Gap for a night, then back to the 'Boro. I won't be there for long, because I'm moving back up to school as soon as possible. Classes start the 25th or something, so I'd like a few days to get settled in before that.

Any way, these are all just preliminary plans, all open to change. Any suggestions of place to go or things to see would be welcome.

Much love.


lane

Refreshment

Yesterday, I had a very refreshing conversation with a little kid half my age. The property manager here has a daughter named Ellie who comes down to the barn almost every day and helps out, goes on rides, that whole thing. Anyway, one of her friends came to ride and she was asking me how everything worked with having different groups of campers come in every week. I explained that campers came on Sundays and left on Saturdays, with groups coming and leaving all summer. She responded with, "So you get the pleasure of teaching new campers to ride every week?" I was silent for a second, floored by the truth spit at me by this 11 year old little girl that I skip over almost every second of every day.

It is so easy for me to let my job become just that, my job. Doing a similar thing everyday, all summer, I have allowed myself to fall into routine, and not examine every blessing God has put into my day, in all the small things, like a beautiful sunrise every day, and in the big things, like giving me the opportunity to reach out and touch every kid on camp. In one sentence, it was brought back to me not to things for granted, to savor every moment of every day.

I feel like God sometimes throws out these little moments and bits of wisdom to help me realize some things in life that need work, or His touch. The challenge there is to see and hear those moments and not pass over them in the day.


lane

Torrey's Peak

Yesterday, I climbed my first fourteener, Torrey's Peak. It is about an hour and a half from camp, so my friends Matt, Marayah, and I went on our day off. I have been here for over two months and haven't climbed a mountain yet, so it was time to get it done.

We left about 6:30 in the morning, and got to the trailhead a little after 8:15. The road up there was pretty intense to pull off in Matt's little Honda. It made me really miss my Jeep, we would have just walked up it no problem. As it was, it took us 20 minutes to go the two miles to the trailhead on that road. It was fun though. The hike up ended up taking a touch over 3 hours, which is pretty good to go four miles up a daggum mountain. We had lunch on top, talked with some of the folks we met up there for a while, and just generally hung out for about half an hour. There was a couple that had come all the way from Japan to climb a mountain, which is awesome. We took our time down, taking lots of pictures and whatnot. That is the danger of going places with two photographers, it takes forever to go anywhere!

It was Matt's 25th birthday, so we went and got ice cream afterwards. We were all pretty beat, so back to the house and showers were the way to go for the hour. A few of us went out to Winter Park to get sushi for Matt's birthday dinner and hang out for a bit. Got back, ate some angel food cake, watched Monty Python. All in all, I consider it an excellent day. Good times, good food, great friends, and above that, good fellowship and the chance to enjoy God's amazing world he made just for us.


lane

Think on it

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with my friend Zac that ended in him asking me a question we as Christians hear and ask all the time, but he asked from the other point of view. Instead of asking me how I was pursuing God, he asked how God was pursuing me.

That caught me off guard, and I have been thinking about it for a while now. This relationship I have with the God of the universe is an interesting thing. It isn't one in which He is running from me, and I have to try and keep up with the One who created me, but rather it is the opposite. God made me and loves me beyond all measure. He wants nothing more than to be with me and have me with Him. I am the one who keeps running away and making Him chase. In that light, Zac's question makes perfect sense.

There are so many ways and things I have to try and keep God from catching me that I use on a daily basis, my pride, self reliance, ignorance, there are too many to list. But still He pursues me, and wants to be with me. It is truly a beautiful thing that I can not fathom the depths of His love.

I still don't have a one word answer for the question, but I am beginning to realize some of the parts of it. Through friends and all those around me God reveals part of Himself, and if I only take the time and effort to recognize those parts, I will see He truly is everywhere.

So I challenge the same question to those around me. How is God pursuing you?


lane

Time Flies...

I realized today that I have less than 4 weeks until the summer is over. It has flown by in such a blur I don't think I could begin to look at all the individual events that have happened.

I honestly feel like I just left North Carolina about a week ago, and yet here I am, staring straight at the end of my time out here. I'm not really a person who gets attached to places, instead I try to live as much as I can and love as much as I'm able wherever I am, but I'm not ready to leave. I have made some amazing friends, friends for life and beyond, and I will miss them dearly. I don't want to make this all about who I will miss, but that is sitting on my heart right now.

Something I am thankful for: New Summer Staff! The last two sessions have gone by with me making so many mistakes with the people entrusted to me, with so many lessons taught, learned, and failed. I have this one last chance with a group to try and put into action the things I have learned about me, and about being with and leading people. These girls(3) and guy(1) seem like awesome people so far. I have been praying for them and how our time together will work out for the past few weeks, and I am soo excited to see what happens. They all have a passion for being here, and much better attitudes than I do. I think we all have a lot to learn from each other, me especially. I know God has big works in all of us that will be played out in our lives, and I can only hope that some of that begins here and now, or continues if it has already begun.

Anyway, it's bedtime for lane. Pray for the new folks, and for attitudes and grace. I always seem to come across exactly how I don't want to, and I'm scared of that happening, so that would be nice to not come across to new folks and friends as having a very short temper and bad attitude, when I really love everything about what I'm doing.

Love. It is great.


lane

Just the Essentials

I have discovered something new since I have been in Colorado. Essential Oils.

I had no idea what they were when I first heard the term, and still have only a vague idea. From what I have been able to tell, they are oils from different plants and other things found in nature, such as peppermint, oregano, and lots of other things. The guy that turned me onto them is one of the kitchen staff here, Spencer. He swears by them, and I must say, I'm slowly being converted.

They are used as part of a natural healing regimen, instead of most medicines. The peppermint is great at clearing congestion, the oregano for flu symptoms, and a huge list of others for different ailments. These jokers are pretty potent, so you don't want to overdo it. A drop on the hands and inhaled, or mixed into a cup of tea is enough.

Today I woke up feeling like a dog's butt after he dragged it all over the carpet. Bad congestion and cough, my throat killing me, that whole thing. I wasn't surprised, since about 75% of the interns have been sick with it, so it was just a matter of time. As I lay there in my misery, Spencer dropped by to go running with one of the other guys. He pulled out his bag of tricks and did his Medicine Man thing, then was off. I'm still not totally convinced by the oils, but I will say they made me feel better. So that's one point they have on modern medicine which has done all of nothing for me today.

Anyways, just wanted to share something new and interesting with the world. Like anything, I'm taking them with a big grain of salt, but they seem to help and haven't hurt yet, so I think the essential oils are worth some further study.


lane

A conversation

I have spent a lot of my Christian life tripped up by prayer, as I think many folks are. Not caught by doing it, but rather what it is and how I do it. Until just a few weeks ago, I treated it as something that had to be done, me coming with my face in the dirt before God, trying to make penance for my sins, or asking for something, or what have you. Even my prayers of praise were like that, censored and cleaned up, me trying to bring before God what I thought He would want to hear.

Tonight, during the 15 minutes of silence on camp, all the Summer Staff and a few intern guys were hanging out, and we went off to spend that time in prayer and silence. I started off like I did so often, with apologizing to God, saying I hadn't made time to talk to Him, to do this, that, and the other thing for Him. I was feeling pretty discouraged and thinking that the time was kind of pointless.

Almost immediately after I had that thought, I realized what I was doing. Jesus is my best friend, yet there I was, treating Him like I didn't even know Him. It struck me that prayer is a conversation between us and our best and truest friend in the universe. It is not filling out a request form, or an awkward meeting between a sinner and an uncaring god, or any of the ritualistic crap that gets fed into our systems. There is no formula to God. He is only Love, and that is what He desires.

After I began to just talk to Him, telling Him what was going on in my life, what I was thankful for, and some of the things I was excited about, I began to feel His presence around me and in me. That is all the confirmation I need to show me what prayer really is. A conversation.

A conversation. It can take many forms. It can be a beautiful praise, an angry tirade, a time of reflection, a sharing of excitement and joy, a remembrance of something or someone, as pure as snow, as raw as a salt scrubbed wound, anything at all. Not a formula, but an exchange between two, or more, dear friends. God is there, and He desires the love of our hearts and all that is in them, and I feel it is a crime to hold anything back from Him.


lane

12 Months

Today as I was in the shower, a deep thought hit me. They often find me there, actually. I was struck by what a completely different place I am in now than I was just a year ago.

A year ago, I was in a place where I didn't know anyone, had no friend or family support of what I was doing, had abandoned my life as I knew it, for the most part turned my back on God, and was generally unhappy with where I was, what I was doing, and who I was with.

Now, I am almost at the polar opposite of that. I still didn't know hardly anyone when I got here, but I have already gotten to know people and have built some lasting relationships with them in just the few weeks I've been here. Everyone I have told, be it friends, family, acquaintances, or complete strangers has been very excited for what I'm doing. Instead of turning away from what I love, I have followed it and it has led me to Colorado, where I spend my days being the best dang cowboy I can be. I feel closer to God than I ever have in my life and I feel like I'm where He wants me to be right now. I couldn't be happier with anything that I am doing. I love my work, I love the people I live with and the people I live with, and have a much better outlook on life, no matter my circumstances.

I can feel and see love everywhere. God is love, and He is everywhere, in all things. Turning back to him and following what I feel His path for me to be on is has made me know that love again. It is something I didn't realize what I was living without until I had it back, and definitely didn't realize how much I missed it.

In the words of a good friend of mine, always remember "You are loved!"


lane

Sometimes...

Sometime, stuff just doesn't work out quite how it was planned. That's actually pretty much the story of me. For example, this morning.

We were going to try and do a dry run of a morning ride, doing it as close as possible to what we would encounter once campers arrive. We picked up the Summer Staff at 4:30 AM to feed, catch, and saddle all the horses. That actually went pretty well, but as soon as people showed up to ride, everything went south pretty quickly. Not having enough riders, but still wanting to take all the horses to simulate a full ride of campers, we decided to pony, or tie them to us and drag, our extra horses. After about 30 feet on the trail, I could tell it would be rough, but we pressed on anyways.

I don't really want to type it all, but suffice it to say that in three years of leading trail rides, this was hands down the worst ride I have ever been a part of. I got pulled off my horse two different times, one wrangler got clotheslined off and possibly bruised her ribs, another wrangler's saddle began to fall off and he bailed out into a tree, resulting in a broken saddle. Almost everything that could have gone wrong did.

But, as bad as it was, there was some good that came out of it. We learned who some our rock solid horses were, we learned what not to do, and having the worst ride ever now will make me appreciate every ride that goes somewhat well.

It's kinda funny, in a way. God over and over shows me things this way. I tend to be very stubborn and ignore the signs when I don't like the lesson being presented to me. Instead of taking the easy way and learning things without shooting myself in the foot, I tend to take the hardest route possible. I feel like God tries to guide me, but then I ignore it, so He sends whatever I have built up around me crashing into a fiery mess. After my best laid plans fall at my feet, God shows me how far off what I had planned was from what He has for me and how much better His plan is than mine. I'm slowly learning to listen to that quiet voice and nudge I feel and hear if I let myself.


lane

Sick Horse

I have spent the past few hours down at the barn with one of my horses, Palabra.

He was running a high fever, extremely rapid heartbeat(up to 80 bpm at one point), and was extremely dehydrated. After some time in the sick pen, his heartbeat came down and he drank some water, both good things. His fever is still pretty high, just a touch over 102 at last check. We shot him some penicillin and left him food and water, so hopefully morning will bring better news. Now I'm off to bed, gotta feed and check him early tomorrow morning.

Night all.


lane

Finally here!!

Finally! After four (I think) days of traveling out West, I got to Crooked Creek Ranch. It was a great drive, the only part that sucked was the last 100 or so miles of Kansas. Straight, flat, and boring.

Thank you so much to everybody who was praying for me, I got out without a single mishap or incident, which is a big deal for me. Also, please be praying for a few friends of mine going through some family losses. I love y'all and am praying for you.

More later.


lane

Kansas City!

Just got into Kansas City a few hours. Not a bad place from what I've seen. Pretty cool, the Cabelas in Kansas City is right across the street from the hotel, I went and killed a little time there earlier. I found a pretty sweet Marlin lever action there, I may try and pick it up on the way back if it's still there.

The drive wasn't that bad. I drove about 15 hours yesterday and got to the lake house where I was meeting my friend Harrison and his girlfriend's family. Real fun, we got to go out on the lake for several hours today. I jumped off a cliff and got some solid sunburn. Take the good with the bad, I guess. Today's drive was just a shade under three hours, so nothing compared to what I already did.

Still planning on hiking Pike's Peak the day after tomorrow, then on to Crooked Creek!!

Well, shower time now. It's been a few days. Holla!


lane

Road Trippin

I think I finally have my route planned out. For those who don't know, I'm working this summer at a Young Life camp in Colorado as a horse intern. Meaning somebody both thought that I would be competent leading people and being in charge of 45 horses, and that I would be able to keep from hurting myself and others with minimal supervision for an entire summer.

I'm leaving first thing Tuesday morning and driving to stay with a friend that lives just outside Kansas City. I'm gonna hang out with him for a bit, then meet up with my buddy Zach on Wednesday the 13th. Staying again in KC that night, then we are convoying to Colorado! Gonna camp the night of the 14th, hopefully at or near Pike's Peak. We decided to hike the Peak on the 15th, 14,110 feet high. Most likely taking the Barr Trail, 13 miles with 7400 feet of elevation change, the greatest of any of the 54 fourteeners in Colorado (via Wikipedia). Hopefully roll back down that, then camp again that night. Finally, arise to a brilliant day on the 16th, where Zach and I part ways and I drive the 3 or so hours left to get to Crooked Creek! Wooo!

Also, a few people have promised letters, and it would make me happy to have that happen. So here is my end of the bargain, my address. Just put my name at the top, and send whatever love you want to on to me!
P.O. Box 250
3000 County Rd 517
Fraser, CO 80442-0250


lane

Guess what it is?

It's Mother's Day! Go hug your Mom, bring her a glass of sweet tea, something like that. She does sstuff the entire year for you, so I guess one day is a fair trade for all of the rest of us non-moms.

Anyway, I went out last night with a few friends in the Boro. We went to see my friend Mandie sing with her dad's band, a Beatles tribute group. It was real fun, they played for way longer than I expected. They were on from like 10ish until after 2 sometime. Afterwards, everybody got to experience a Greensboro institution, Herbie's. Picture your regular diner, with dope greasy food, open 24 hours, now add a few halves of old VW bugs tacked on the walls and Voila! Herbie's Diner.

All in all, a very fun night. A bit of a long one, followed up by not enough sleep and church in the morning(which was a good service, glad I went) so now I'm a wee bit tired. Maybe a nap afternoon? Who knows?


lane

Forward

You make all things new

You make all things good

I will follow You forward

Wow

OK, I have been trying to write something for like a week, but just haven't been able to find the time.

Last week was completely insane, this week is slightly less nuts. I have some stuff this week, but it's mostly exam review instead of mad papers and projects. Anyways, the reduced workload let me take advantage of the ridiculous weather we have had for the past few days.

On Sunday, Josh, two friends from church, and I went to a place called Twisted Falls. If you have been there, you know how sweet it is. If not, the get jealous, cuz it's amazing. We spent all afternoon jumping off the falls into water that was surprisingly not ice. Everybody had a blast, except one girl who didn't have much to eat that day, then passed out in my backseat on the way back. It's all good, she woke up, everybody ate pizza, no permanent harm done. As always, I held up my end of the bargain by getting hurt. I got it out of the way early by diving into a foot of water headfirst to rescue a floating shoe. River-1, Lane's shins-0.

This week, eye doctor today, last class tomorrow, then final exam prep and Windy Gap this weekend. Gonna be great! Then exams start, and that's gonna kinda suck. Have a great rest of the week!


lane

Dilemma

It is officially the second day of the busiest week of the semester. All the work that has been assigned all semester is crashing down in a glorious cacophony of due dates, all back to back with each other, like a roving Roman Phalanx of schoolwork, intent on breaking any student's will that is foolish enough to stand up against it.

Anyway, I have at least three, maybe more, papers due basically tomorrow. Do I write them all well, requiring me to be awake until some ungodly hour? Or do I concentrate my efforts on the one that will make a difference in my grade, and just eke by on the ones my professors will barely glace at, much less read? I think I will go with option B, just for the sake of my sanity.

Best of luck to those of you that I know are in a similar position as myself, which would be 93% of the college students in America. And to the 7% that don't have mad work, enjoy it, but not too much. Because one of the stressed folks will see you having fun and snap, strangling you with the power cord to his laptop.


lane

National Championship!

Ring, Ring. "Hey Travis, what's up?"
"Dude, you want to go to Chapel Hill to watch the game on Franklin Street tonight?"
"...Sure. Call me when you're at my place. I'll see you in a few."

Two friends, Travis and Duni, and I all decided to go watch the National Championship game in Chapel Hill, then throw it down on Franklin Street afterwards. It was absolutely nuts. The game was sweet to watch, but that was literally nothing compared to the aftermath.

I watched it at my friend Charles' house, and immediately afterwards, we all jumped in cars to ride to another guy's place right on Franklin. We then ran to where everything was starting up and soon found ourselves surrounded by what the news later reported as around 50,000 rabid UNC fans. Me and Charles ran a bit, to Franklin and Columbia, where we pulled out newspapers and started the first of many bonfires in the street. After jumping over that and watching all kinds of unlikely things fuel it, from a Mountain Hardwear shell, to shoes, to a wooden stake, to shirts and I think some pants, we(about 6 of us) started pushing through the crowd and jumping over all the fires. We got over almost all of them twice. After that, we watched some folks break down the street signs by climbing on them, then light a shirt on fire and throw the flaming shirt into the crowd. Needless to say, the guy that did that was summarily thrown to the ground and cuffed as soon as he got of the telephone pole.

We stayed on Franklin for a while, probably a little over an hour in all, then started hiking back to Charles place. After a while, I met back up with Travis and Duni and we started heading back to Boone. We didn't get back until 5:30 AM, where I was able to pull out about an hour of sleep before getting up for my 8AM class. Add that with the maybe hour and a half I was able to steal while laying in the back of Duni's car and you come up with one very tired Lane. Extremely satisfied with the trip, but tired as nobody's business. The estimated total cost of damages last night in Chaple Hill is somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000. Basically, I'm extremely happy to have spent last night in the absolutely most insane place in the country at the time.

Word. My body craves sleep. Latas.


lane

Bits and Pieces

I have the pleasure of hunting for yet another random part for my car today. I decided to teach a friend of mine how to drive a manual the other day, and as always, something got broken. Let that be a lesson for all of you, never teach someone to drive on your own car. Use somebody else's, or make them agree to replace the parts they break on it before starting. Oh well, it's a small piece, but I kinda staring to get tired of playing that game.

I am almost done with school for the semester! It's really weird, the time went so fast, but I only have a little over six weeks left before hte summer, and Colorado. I need to register for classes, which is tough, because I don't have an advisor yet. Well, that's my mission for Monday! This weekend is another fun trip to Windy Gap! I hope everyone has a great weekend!


lane

Love

I have been having a hard time with some stuff recently, mostly being caught off guard by random things and then spinning into a a cycle of bad thoughts and bad memories. I talked to a good friend of mine, Josh, and he had some good words for me.

Basically, I see, hear, or smell something that comes out of nowhere and puts me in a tailspin. To try and beat this, I have spent the past few months building a shell around myself. The theory being that if I protect myself from everything outside me, and don't let anything or anyone come inside, nothing can hurt me. That works, to an extent, but has a very heavy price. The price of that is that I'm not really living, just existing. Turning myself into a fort is a short term solution with some long term costs I have begun to realize, and decided I can't accept.

What Josh reminded me of is that this world was built of love. His words to me were when I start spinning, rather than throwing up my walls, which does nothing but trap me with my thoughts and demons, to give thanks and blessing to God, for the love He has for me, and to ask His blessing on the reasons for the spin.

It's a long process of tearing down and opening up, but it's nothing I can't do with His help. His love surrounds me and heals me. This seemingly elementary thing is something I had let myself bury and deny.

It's been a long day, and this is what I'm left reflecting on tonight.


lane

Pub?

I was just watching a show on the History Channel about Einstein and his Theory of Relativity, and it set me thinking.

Right at the end of the show, a montage of pictures of Einstein came up and there was one picture that struck me. It made me really want to hang out with him. Think about it, I bet Einstein would be real stinkin cool to chill with. I'd love to go to a pub with him, I bet it would be awesome.


lane

Road Rash FTL

Here is the scene, Lane on his brakeless fixed gear, riding down a hill that dead ends into a busy 4 lane road, without a care in the world. He is hopping his bike, to scrub speed and avoid losing control.

Suddenly, his fixed gear begins to freewheel. For those of you who have ridden fixed, this is the worst thing that can possibly happen. In a surge of adrenaline, our hero looks back to see his chain off the rear cog, happily spinning away on just an axle.

Remaining calm, he evaluates his options; try to make the turn at the bottom of the hill and coast to safety up a gentle hill, or bomb down the hill into said busy intersection with no control of the bike. Clearly, it's no contest in favor of trying to make the turn. He takes a deep breath and goes for the turn. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be and he was unable to turn as tightly as needed. A curb found its way directly in his path, which causes a whole sequence of events involving alot of sliding, flipping, rolling, even a bit of bouncing, culminating in a lack of forearm skin and a set of slightly bent Nitto HB4005 bullhorn bars.

For whatever reason, the bike gods have been striking at me recently with all the pent up fury of a pissed off cobra whose charmer just dropped his flute. Not particularly fun, but to me it just means I need to step my game way up. Hopefully my luck turns soon.


lane

Snow Day?

For something ridiculous like the 7th time in ASU's history, all classes were cancelled today. It was pretty dang nasty out, easily the most snow I have seen in three years up here. We got between 10" and a foot of snow, starting Sunday morning and going up until very late last night, possibly this morning a wee bit.

Anyway, as one can guess I was overjoyed at the prospect of no class. Even more so since I had a midterm that was pushed back to give me a few extra days to study for it. So, naturally, rather than doing anything productive with my time, I went and played in the snow.

I spent all afternoon sledding and frolicking in a winter wonderland. Actually, I guess it was more sledding than anything else. I did watch some other people frolicking, but I was preoccupied with the hill in front of me.

It was great. I had forgotten how much fun sledding is. Aside from almost biting through my lip and possibly having whiplash, there were absolutely no ill effects. As usual, I was the only one that got hurt at all. My friends conferred and decided to get me a full body armor suit, since anytime something remotely dangerous and a group containing myself cross paths, I am invariably the only one that get hurt.

I love three day weekends. And I love surprises. So basically a surprise three day weekend is the best thing that could have happened to me today.

Oh yeah, and I had an un-birthday this weekend. It was really great, my family came up, I got to hang out with friends and all that good stuff.


lane

Best Time of the Year...Kinda

Starting tomorrow, midterm season officially begins for me. YAY!

I'm not especially looking forward to it, but I'm not real worried about it. Mostly I'm just tired of sitting in the library actually studying, and looking like I'm studying, so I decided to let the world know about it.

On an unrelated note, this weekend was pretty sweet. My brother came up to spend the weekend, which was fun. He's a pretty cool kid, and hopefully will be up here in school next year. Still waiting to hear on that though, should find out in like a week or so. We didn't do anything particularly awesome. By that, I mean I didn't make any big plans, but instead just went with whatever happened and hoped for the best. Ended up very well, we spent literally the entire day on a hunt for bamboo.

We drove to North Wilkesboro(about 40 minutes away) on a tip we got from our friendly Boone Bike employee. Brooks, my friend Sam, and I had driven around back roads for 3 hours already with no luck when he gave us directions to the mother lode. A short drive yielded enough mature bamboo to fill the back half of my Jetta, probably over 60 feet all told.

We did have a reason for all this. Sam's mountain bike has an epically large dent in the frame, so it is unrideable. Rather than buy a new frame, Sam decided to make one. With almost the strength of carbon fiber and the weight of aluminum, bamboo is the natural choice. I'll try and remember to put up a picture of it when/if he gets it done.

Well, back to it. Me no likey school!!! And by that, I mean the school work aspect of it.


lane

Off to a Good Start

Not the most auspicious start to a week I've ever had.

I was supposed to study for a test yesterday that I took today. Instead, I forgot about the test, went climbing, did nothing productive at all, and showed up to class this morning wondering why everybody had notes out and was dead silent.

I think I did OK, but it's just a terrible feeling, realizing I forgot the test.

I hope everybody had a great Valentine's Day! Later.


lane

Beef Stew

Not sure why, but I really want beef stew right now. And the sad thing is, that by the time I'm able to follow through on the making it, the desire will be gone. Dang.


lane

New House!!!

Finally, after much trials and tribulations, a house has been found! I am living with three friends of mine, and we have been looking for a place for about a month to no avail. 

This is a brand new house that has a sweet view of Grandfather Mountain, log cabin styling, all hardwood floors, vaulted ceilings upstairs, 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. It also has a 2 story deck and a creek that goes through the woods. 

I'm really excited about the house, and about the guys I'll be living with. Finding this place was really a blessing after all the difficulties we have had with finding somewhere to live. 

Well, I'll hopefully put some pictures of the place up soon. 

lane

Swim-Bike-Run

I started training today.

I am participating in a Triathalon in Raleigh at the end of April, not sure the exact dates, but I'll get back with them soon, I promise.

Anyways, the back story on this is that I have been telling myself for a few months now that I would love to do one, and I ran into a friend last week who is starting to train for one. Well, one thing led to another, and before I know it, I had volunteered to do it with her. Oops. I almost died today, on just a little 2 mile run. T minus like 3 months to get into sick nasty shape and do the dang thing.

And since I have committed to it, and I'm running it alongside an ex-cross country runner, I'm gonna be kicking the crap out of myself to do well. I get randomly competitive about some stuff, and I could see this being one of them. Hopefully I don't make a fool out of myself...

I'll post up any progress I have, mostly just to keep myself accountable. I'm actually pretty excited about it, a triathalon really appeals to me for some reason. Well, off to go be productive! Much work to do that I should have done last week!


lane

Dream Thoughts

So, you know how about 91% of the time, dreams make no sense?And then you occasionally have a more random dream topic on top of that? I had one this morning. All I remember is that I was having a conversation with someone in the dream, and I woke up right as I was saying something. My last line was,"Oh, sweet, I am Jewish. I wonder how high I can fly?"

Huh?


lane

Not Sure Why...

...But I really want another tattoo. Soon. I spent a good bit of time drawing some ideas, more refining old ideas actually, tonight. Hopefully I can at least get something started in the next few weeks. I would love that.


lane

A Formal Warning

Well, I have been given a formal warning that I need to up my blog-age output, so here it is, big fella.

I'll admit, I did get somewhat lazy for a bit and haven't written anything in a while. My bad. What all has happened in the past two-ish weeks?
1. I made the key for my Jetta into a sweet new flip key like the brand new VW's have. Pretty happy with it, until I broke it in my frozen door locks tonight. Well, time to bust out the Dremel and hack up another key.
2. I, along with two other friends of mine, embarked on a project a few days ago that will be phenomenal when it is completed. We are building, from scratch, a set of longbows. I am for real more excited about this than any project I can remember.
3. Finally getting into the rhythm of classes again. It turns out I really enjoy my Rec Management classes, and I am(seemingly, at least) doing well in them so far. Hopefully that holds out.
4. I saw Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood's new movie. If you haven't seen it, stop what you're doing and go watch it. It's really great. Plus, it educated me in a whole new way of being offensive, in a loving way, to any and all minorities around me.
5. Back to Windy Gap this weekend. I love that place, and the people there. I can't wait, we are gonna have an all star cast. Which ideally means I can get away with not doing as much work as I would have to normally, and get to ride more. That=saweet!
6. And on a not so fun note, I do have the cold that everybody and his brother has. It kinda sucks, but hopefully it will be better by this weekend. I think I have noticed a slight upturn in it today.
7. Still working on a living situation for next year. I have the people to live with, it's gonna be an absolutely sick place, now we just need a place to make wicked awesome. Shootin' for a 4 bedroom house, if you have one, please let me know. I would love to give you money each month to let me and my friends stay there.
8. Oh, and I almost forgot this one. I went climbing for the first time in a year last Tuesday. It's amazing how some skills go away physically so quickly, but mentally are still there. It was very fun, but also very frustrating when my body wouldn't let me follow through on moves I felt like I should be able to handle, and could have before I quit. Oh well, just got to keep hitting the wall, ya know?

I think that's a good short list. I'll hopefully get some more up after this weekend. Sorry about the slacking, I'll have my people look into it and figure out the reasons behind it. They will figure it out, I'm sure. I have good people.

Much love suckas


lane

Snow much around me

I realize, many of my writings hinge around, or at least involve snow. But, I mean, come on. It's snow. Therefore it's really great. And possibly my favorite form of weather, mos def my favorite form of precipitation.

Anyway, the entire state of North Carolina is covered in frozen white goodness. It has been falling since Sunday here in Boone. Even Wilmington got some snow. I think that makes for a total of 7 snowfalls for them in all of recorded history.

To me, days when it is snowing, even when I do have class don't seem like school days. They are automatically more epic. Take today for instance. Got up, went to class, got back, priced out building a new wheel for my bike, executed a project I have wanted to make happen for some time now, then went and played with dogs all afternoon.

You heard right. I went to the Boone Humane Society with a few friends and played with the pooches for most of the afternoon. For me, who has been deprived of a dog to play with for far too long, it was phenomenal. I took the most energetic pooch of all time for a nice romp in the snow and woods. Only served to further cement in my mind the need to get a dog ASAP.

And, I am trying to maybe go to Boston for Spring Break. If anybody wants to roll, get at me and we can figure this joker out. I'd love the company, and Boston is a city I would recommend to any and everyone.


lane

AHHHH!!!!

Haha, OK maybe that was a bit intense. But so is camping(intense-in tents, get it?)

But really, my night was just made. I got a call from a Work Crew friend I haven't talked to in a solid year, maybe more. I am repeatedly shown love from God that I don't expect through my friends. I am really bad about keeping in touch with people, which is sad, because when I do see them and talk to them, all I see is love.

I mean, there I was, sitting in my apartment, kinda just farting around, halfheartedly trying to arrange things in a way that wouldn't drive me nuts when I felt my leg start buzzing. I looked down and saw a name lighting up my screen I hadn't seen in I don't even know how long. None but my buddy Erika. So we talked for a bit, caught up some, pretty much just spread some of the love around. Perfect timing, too. I was feeling a little down, not sure why, but I was in a tiny funk. Not anymore. Man, I can't even say how excited I am right now. I gotta go do something, or no sleep will happen tonight.

Much love.


lane

Kind of a strange feeling

It still hasn't sunk in yet. I start classes again tomorrow! I haven't been in a classroom in over 8 months and now I have less than 16 hours until I go back.

I spent the weekend moving into my new apartment. I like it, it's an old firehouse that got turned into a duplex. There are supposed to be 4 people here, but as of now it's just me downstairs and my friend Brandon upstairs. I have alot of space, so that's pretty nice. It is a tad sparse however, since the only stuff in here is what I brought up of my own things. All good, I like it, it's been good to me so far, and it is about as close to campus as I can get. I mean, I can see the library from my parking lot.

Most of all, I'm just glad to be back in Boone. I have been blessed with some great friends here, and I am only meeting more everyday. It's good to be back. Have I mentioned that yet?

Well, if you haven't started classes yet, good luck whenever you do. And if you have, I am so sorry. Latas, y'all!


lane

A new discovery

So, I'm not on my computer right now because I'm back in the Boro at the moment, so this site isn't bookmarked. I wanted to write something, but didn't feel like typing out my entire address, so I just Googled "Sunshine and midgets", and discovered I am the number one Google result for anyone trying to research both midgets and sunshine.

Anyways, I'm back in Greensboro for a few days, which kinda stinks. I'm back to get some stuff on my car fixed, so I don't have my car or my bike(left it in Boone when I went up), and pretty much everybody has already gone back to where they belong.

The upside(there always is one) is that I have some time to myself to draw and do all that sort of thing I don't make time for very much, and I have one last chance to rest before the semester starts up on Monday. That will be strange, returning from 8 months of working and hanging out, going back to a regimented schedule of filling my brain with structured information. I hope my poor little cranium can handle it.

Best of luck to everybody starting school back, I hope yalls semesters go phenomenally! Later, suckas!


lane

One down

OK, I'm not actually going in order but that's fine.

I knocked out item #3 today. My friend Jess taught me how to knit and I promptly mangled a hat. I stopped after a few rows because it was big enough for two of my heads. Oops, but live and learn I guess.

Just wanted to get that out. I'm off to try and do a better attempt. Wish me luck!


lane

2009...A Space Odyssey

The first day of 2009 draws to a close and I am somewhat tempted to make a few resolutions. I never do these, and generally look down a little bit on the idea of a "New Year's Resolution". However, there are a few things I have been too lazy to do, and this is as good a time as any to make myself do them.

I want to teach myself several skills I don't have and feel like are necessary to being a better me (feel free to laugh at that, I am.) So, here are some of the things I want to learn, starting with one and working down the list, hopefully only taking a week or two at most for each thing.

1. I want to learn how to not type like a 4 year old and be able to type complete sentences with all my fingers and without having to watch my keyboard. Why? Because I have been typing for like 12 years and haven't progressed at all since third grade.

2. Lockpicking. You just never know when you will need this skill.

3. Knitting. I have short hair, I tend to hang out in cold climates. Therefore, my head needs to stay warm. What better way than by building my own hats?

4. Learn to draw something that looks alive. I have been working on inanimate stuff for a few months now and can make a pretty passable attempt at it, but anything that is alive just looks god-awful when I try and put pencil to paper. I'd really like to be able to do this one.

5. Learn to weld. Again, just like lockpicking, you never know when you could need this. A very handy skill to have, in my opinion.

6. Public speaking. OK, maybe this will go over badly, but I'm terrible at it to begin with, so it can't hurt , right?

7. Skiing. I live less than 18 miles from at least three different ski mountains, and I have been skiing all of one time in my entire life. Seems kinda silly to me. Plus I want to be able to go out West with my friends at some point, cuz it sounds like the most fun thing ever.

That's all that springs into the brain at the moment but not all I want to learn. Try and get better everyday, ya know?

Also, it struck me how much I have been blessed this past year. I did alot in 2008 I hadn't ever done before, some of it was not very wise, but I would do it all again exactly the same way. I feel like I have had lessons at every turn that it would have otherwise taken years for God to show me if I had continued in my habitual day-to-day.So, thanks for that, Father. It has been a great year, maybe the best yet, and I have nothing but the highest hopes for this little ole 2009.


lane