10 thoughts to start off the weekend

Today is Saturday, and I have NOTHING planned. Absolutely nothing. I love this feeling! For the first time in a long while I get to sit at home, read, listen to some music, and slow down. This should be an everyday occurrence but it’s not. I’m just going to have to savor every bit of this…nothingness.

Sleeping in a mummy sleeping bag is fun…to a certain extent. The fun of being wrapped up nice and warm pretty much ends when the phone goes off and you roll off the bed trying to reach the phone. Then you’re just struggling to get yourself out of the mummy bag and of course, that’s when the zipper chooses to fail. Nothing starts a Saturday quite like laying face down on the ground at 8am trying to explain to a frantic dad that you’re not their son Mandeep.

Don’t go to the post office on a Saturday. The 8am-2pm slot that they are open invites every man and woman between the ages of 18-65 that hold a regular day job to show up. We’re talking a line of cars similar in length to the in-n-out drive-thru at noon. And don’t expect the line inside the post office to be any better. I’ve seen better organized lines at the DMV.

Wait at least 15 minutes after the fire dept. leaves your house before lighting up candles (safely). Nothing says “hello I’m an idiot” quite like having the fire truck make a u-turn before it returns to the firehouse.

I’m never starting a batch of corned beef after 8pm on a weekday again. EVER.

Men should never wear skinny jeans. There are no exceptions. If your jeans are tight enough for someone to be able to visibly count the change in your pockets, SEEK HELP.

Is peanut butter safe to leave out? I know it says to refrigerate after opening but cold peanut butter is so hard to spread!!

The first thing you make at home after an epic cooking fail (i.e. wed night) should be small. A piece of toast and some jam. Perhaps a turkey and broccoli hot-pocket. Don’t overdo it. Learn from your mistakes and move on.

I love having a Target on the way home. It’s seriously SO convenient.

And finally, on a more serious note, please remember to pray for the earthquake victims in Chile. More than any time in recent history, we realized that our destiny is not of our choosing. We do not expect nor do we understand the natural disasters that may be around the next corner. After the recent earthquake in Haiti, it seem as though the world came together to provide help and aid to a crippled nation. It feels as though people from everywhere rose to the occasion, but every time we think we’ve measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. Please pray for the people in Chile.

olympic frustrations

Being a viewer on the west coast, I thought, FINALLY! I can watch the Winter Olympics live! Since the Olympics are in Vancouver I was stoke to be able to share the same time zone as the games, giving me the grand opportunity to watch curling and women’s ice hockey without having to wake up at 4am for a match. Of course NBC, doing the most logical thing, set the programming so that if you’re a U.S. viewer, you can watch the games live… unless you live on the west coast. So we get to see curling on a delay, while folks in Greenland can view live. Great. I don’t get how east coast and Midwest folks get better and more timely coverage of the Olympics than the west coast folks. Do people in the east and Midwest really want to see MORE snow and winter?? As if the last 3 straight snow-days weren’t enough, now they’re stuck indoors watching cross-country skiing.

Kudos to Canada for beating Slovakia 18-0 last week…19 shots on goal and they score 18…nice. Although I’d hate to be the one person that missed the shot…

Curling athletes look to be the least physically fit athletes in these games…I think my dreams of being an Olympian can finally come true. If I start practicing now sliding rocks around the backyard…perhaps by the 2022 games I can compete.

I like how the NBA all-stars game in Dallas got snow, yet the winter games in Vancouver didn’t.

You think I could rock the argyle pants the Norwegian curling team has this year?

It’s funny how there were several skiing events that were postponed due to bad weather. It’s the WINTER Olympics. Isn’t bad / inclement weather pretty much a given? I always thought they’d postpone those events when the sun comes out and melts everything…but then again, what do I know…

I wonder how professional athletes feel about wearing make-up during competition? I’m assuming more have to these days now that there’s Olympic broadcast in HD and stuff?

But seriously…good luck to all the athletes competing in the games…even the “foreigners” that NBC doesn’t like to show on TV.

50 beans | Caffeine Fast: Day 1

Wow…this is gonna be tougher than I thought it’d be. I’ve decided to give up caffeine for lent. There’s 46 days till Easter (40 excluding the 6 Sundays). I’ve given up coffee before (as many of you are aware/have been on the receiving end of some possible frustration ventings :P ), but never really all caffeine, so this will be a new and different challenge for sure. I imagine the sheer difficulty of giving up caffeine would be almost equivalent to that of giving up some other essential functions, such as going to the bathroom or something like that. I hope this will challenge me to be more faithful in prayer and more reliant on God to carry me through the day. Today there's already been temptations everywhere in the form of coffee, tea, and peanut m&m's. Hopefully day 2 will be easier. :)

the best adventures are...

Over the years I've done some pretty weird and often stupid stuff. It’s definitely experiences like these that you'll remember 10-20 years down the line; the laughs, the tears, and of course, the fond memories. I've come to realize that it's the spontaneous ones that come to be the most memorable. Perhaps it's the adrenaline coursing through you as you try to hobble together last second decisions and iron out 11th hour details. Perhaps it's the sudden realization half-way through the car-ride that you forgot the GPS, or one of your passengers. I love that "oh crap" feeling...sure it sucks when it happens to you at first, but it's the way you come out of those situations that make it adventurous.

Sometimes it's the tale of how an adventure got concocted that will start the snowball that eventually rolls into a funny “when I was your age” story 15 years down the line. Our South Africa trip was cooked up in the last 10 minutes of sunday school last summer. That spring break roadtrip was hatched on the last day of finals during cram-session study breaks. The east coast backpack adventure was born on the back of a napkin at Black Bear Diner in late May. And of course the P-town roadtrip was the result of what happens when you mix 4 people, a late night of phone calls / random text messages, and a 2lb bag of peanut m&m's. Through all the miscommunications and the off-the-cuff changes, you manage to lose your way and find yourself with a different and far better adventure than you started off anticipating.

It’s funny, after every random adventure I embark on, it seems there’s always a flurry of memories to keep me entertained. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that pounding in my chest when we got dropped off the bus on Broad Street in North Philly at 12:30am; or that, let’s just call it an uneasy feeling, walking by that concert in the park on bear week in P-town; or even the 4.5 hrs of banjo music blasting through the car on the drive home (even though the rental had XM radio). And of course, I will never forget that brisk walk back across the border after the “conversation” we had with those hombres in TJ (btw, never leave $$ on the table… hand it to your waiter). These small adventures are the ones ingrained in my memory years from now.

Through all the random roadtrips and journeys, it’s amazing to see how much fun you have when you just set off with no real clue of what you’re doing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to plan some stuff out so you don’t find yourself on the side of the road at 2am with 3 friends, no car keys, and a guy in the trunk. Try explaining that one to the cop standing at the driver’s side window. But you know, I must say though, the best adventures are the unexpected.

superbowl thoughts...

The Who? Really? Did queen Latifah and Carrie Underwood both turn down the gig after singing to open the game? Does anyone under the age of 50 still even remember them? They might as well bring out the Monkees for a post game performance.

Ok e-trade…talking babies are a little creepy.

Enough with the roman numerals already… they got Arabic numbers on the back of the jerseys and on the scoreboard…I think it’s safe to assume that we can use the same format for the logo? All other sporting events are using the new and improved numbering system (i.e. 2009 World Series, 2009 NBA finals, etc.).

Dude NBC…even Jay Leno’s doing ads for Letterman…time to get back on the ball.

An onside kick to start off the III-rd quarter? That was ballsy…and I have to say…incredibly stupid. Yes, they got the ball and won the game so now the coach will be praised for pulling off a “brilliant” play. But seriously, why risk it when you’re only down IV pts with XXX minutes of playing time left? That’s about par with Belichick’s gamble on IVth and II.

Here’s a fact that may only interest me…since Superbowl 39 (that’s right, I’m a rebel) the team wearing the white jersey is 6-0.

And finally, congrats to the city and people of New Orleans (who I’m sure are pretty much gonna be celebrating till june). This is definitely a feel good, come from behind story (after all their season started off XIII-0…who would’ve thought?). But seriously, I’m excited for the city. First Superbowl ever and they bring home the Lombardi Trophy. That’s definitely notable. Congrats :D

Now that football season’s officially over, I can sit back and watch Villanova win its first national championship since MCMLXXXV.