when in Rome

I'm helping Bethany lead a small group for church. sign-ups started today, lasting through the beginning of February. it's a small group that aims to help a local charity organization. the whole acting out your faith thing.

certainly hope I'm ready to put my money where my mouth is. I'd rather not put my foot where my mouth is.

I'm gettin hitched

I proposed to Beff over Christmas, the Sunday before Christmas in fact.

so I finally get to marry her in 6 months.

words can't describe my joy at this. so I won't try.

waiting for the day to start

I haven't blogged in a while because I'm frantically trying to restore balance to my life. it's working, albeit slowly. and I still need a roommate.

I went to a ren faire over the weekend with my beloved and her friend. I'm such a huge nerd, because I enjoyed the heck out of it.

and the allure of riches is a retardedly huge pull in the states. I'm beyond broke and I'm still wishing I had more money so I could buy this and that. rich young ruler, no kidding...my kingdom is the little niche of nothing I've carved for myself and I'm trying to protect it at all costs. foolishness.

delay

I've had a lot going on, and as such it's been hard to stay on top of everything. I saw "Catch Me If You Can" the musical, and it was far and away better than I expected (I expected to be out of there by intermission).

and I love my girl dearly, so much it hurts. you all needed to know that whether you needed to know it or not.

kthnxbai

high speed chase

Beth and I were driving home (technically speaking I was driving and she was riding) tonight from a trip into Redmond. our last stop was at Safeway, and, having loaded up the groceries, I proceeded out of the parking lot and onto the main arterial that would take us back into Kirkland. 5 blocks into our trip I noticed the car behind us had a lightbar and was obnoxiously close to my bumper. "hey pal, if you want to climb up my tailpipe be my guest. I'm already going 5 over." I kinda wish I had actually said that out loud. instead, I mention to B that there was a cop following us.

she commented that I was doing nothing wrong (something I was already well aware of). confident in my innocence of anything I continued. the jerkoff cop up my tailpipe backed off a bit, but kept following me. I turned down the first sidestreet to B's place, and J. Off Cop followed us. again, supremely confident that I had neither been speeding nor been guilty of any other moving violation, and also confident that for whatever asinine reason Mr. Nothing-Better-To-Do-Than-Follow-People-Until-They-Screw-Up Cop was going to pull me over, I powered on down to the next side street, the one that B's place was on. I made it through the roundabout and just got onto the street (2 blocks from B's door) when he flipped his lights on. "are you serious." that was B. I don't think I said anything.

so I pull off, and Officer Make-Up-A-Crime-For-Me came up to the window. "evening officer." "how're you folks doing? just you two in the car? (duh) you visiting from Oregon? (dad's car still, thanks)"

"your taillight is out."


oh.

Beff and I went on a hike

to Rattlesnake Ledge. it was great.

what was even cooler was I had my phone with me recording our trip. then I made it a map.


View Rattlesnake Ledge in a larger map

cool huh? I love Google stuff.

a quick one

went on a date with my wonderful girl tonight. it was fantabulous.

work is....less than desirable right now. pretty sure I'm hoping on the next job that's even comparable in wages. too much frustration, too much aggravation, too much annoyance. such is life I suppose, but I certainly don't see any reason to willfully subject myself when options exist.

oh, and I watched the video of the girl who died in the Iran protests. horrific. I shouldn't have, I'll probably have sad dreams now, but...I dunno what it is about human nature that must watch others' suffering. perhaps it is our desire to identify and to a subconscious extent empathize with others. perhaps it's a sadistic side. perhaps the sadistic side is itself a way of empathizing with pain.

whatever it is, I am so very deeply saddened by the violence. I know that such violence is "more common" in the Middle East, but clinical depression could be more common over there and I'd still be sad. I'm saddened. and I'm realizing I'm not praying near hard enough. I sincerely pray that the scheduled protest will be peaceful and not marked by violence or the emergence of new martyrs.