Finals are over and Christmas break has come. I'm going home later today, but first I will celebrate Scotty's Birthday and mourn over the loss of a great roommate for one semester. Matt Brady, off to Oxford, may the world outside of the US be kind to you.

I'm not going to write anything profound or inspirational here. In fact, I have recently come to the conclusion that Xanga is not exciting for me anymore. How long that will last, I do not know. But if you want to here all that razzle dazzle come from my lips or simply desire to know about what goes on in my life then seek me out and I will tell, but not through Xanga.

HUTAL

I had another awesome weekend. I love going to school at APU and I love the people here. On Friday night I got to go to a play in Hollywood called "The Boys Next Door" with my Intro to Lit class. The play was amazing and I loved the set up they had. It was a small theatre so you were up close and personal with the actors. It felt like you were a part of the play. The whole night was fun as well just hanging out with people from the class. I got home in time to go to a little bit of Jean's birthday party. Everyone was pretty sleeping when I got there so there wasn't too much excitement.

I got up early (11:00) on Saturday and went swimming at Citrus. I wanted to get some laps in before I play in my Alumni Water Polo game over Thanksgiving. I studied in the afternoon and then went to Scotty and Jason's show on Adam's field after the football game. I got to see a little of the football game, which was surprisingly close. The concert was good and it was followed by coffee and tea time at the Ghoo house. Caleb and Shea both came over last night after that for a little sleepover and that is what I've been doing since then. I have a Man Choir concert tonight and I have to leave really soon so I'm gonna go get ready.

I have had a really sweet week and this weekend brought it all together. We had "family dinner" at our home last night. It is something that we started last year where a bunch of us meet somewhere every friday night for dinner and just bring some food to eat. We had the priveledge of hosting it last night at our place, which is the first time that we have ever had people over. It was a really good turn out and an awesome time. We had a poetry reading and a bunch of other fun occurences. Matt's family also was in town for his birthday and they also provided a fun time.

This morning I went hiking with a couple buddies up Mt. Baldy. The hike was much more exciting than I had anticipated. We made it to the summit, which was 10,064 ft, and had lunch. I had a really good time doing that, it is such a good way to hang out with the guys. I came home in time to play a little game of Ultimate with Matt, his siblings (Josh, Hannah, Amanda), and Anna. The excitement of a dance party came next. The Ghoo house hosted a HUGE dance party. Their house was packed to the max with people, a lot of whom I did not know. I had a good time dancing for a while, but my legs were a little tired from my trek in the morning.

Tomorrow we are having an Ultimate Frisbee tournament here at APU. It is going to be right outside my apartment and I'm really excited for it. We won our tournament last week at San Diego State and hopefully we can do the same here. The competition is going to be a little tougher tomorrow however, but I think that our team is up to the challenge.

Despite having an awesome week and ever better weekend, I'm still here at home and feeling a littled disconnected and out of the loop. All of my roommates now have some sort of a relationship with a woman right now. Some are a lot farther along in their relationships and some are just beginning. I'm happy for all of them and their girls are all terrific for them. But that leaves me as the solo bachelor of Azusa Gardens Apartment 120. They all do stuff with their women and sometimes they group together and do stuff and it kind of makes me feel intrusive. I'm the odd man out and three is a crowd. It is not too bad of a situation, nothing I can't work through. I just get these feelings of lonliness sometimes. Lonely that I don't have a special someone to love and lonely that I have to share my roommates love and time with others. Oh man, look at my sad pathetic soul Lord and take pity on me.

I don't understand how people can talk soo much!

Currently Reading Godric : A Novel By Frederick Buechner see related

Be an extreme in a world of mediocrity.

It seems that there are a billion things happening in my life right now, but I think they are only occuring in my mind. I just have a lot of different thoughts about stuff I'm doing, stuff I want to do, stuff that other people are doing, and the usually stuff about life and God but to the extreme. I'm already excited for this weekend and it is only Monday. I have a paper due tomorrow and then an Anatomy Practical in the evening. On Wednesday I have the Anatomy lecture exam and on Friday I have a Microbiology exam. I'm not too disappointed that I have a lot of tests this week, it is just that I want to do well on all of them, which means I have to put a lot more studying into them.

This weekend is going to be fun, which is why i'm looking forward to Friday. We have our first Ultimate tournament at SDSU, so I'm going to go down and stay at my friends house and hang out there after the tournament until our Man Choir concert on Sunday evening in San Diego. All of my weekends in November are going to be fun. The weekend after that we have a Ultimate tournament here at APU so we will, hopefully, have lots of fans to come out and watch us. The week after that we have another Ultimate tournament in San Diego at UCSD and so i'm going to have another long weekend at another friend's house in La Jolla. We are already planning that weekend out with surfing, cliff jumping, and racquetball all on the agenda. The weekend after that is Thanksgiving. My brother Philip and his wife Hannah are coming down from Seattle and we are having our Alumni Water Polo Game that weekend, so my brothers and I get to compete in that together.

I'm excited about life and all the stuff that is going on. I often wish I could figure out all the stuff that I don't understand. There are so many confusing things in life and not always a clear black and white answer to everything. That is what makes everything keep going and I think that is what makes me happy as well.

Undo our snarl of false and true.      ~Fredrick Buechner

Currently Reading In Praise of Slowness : Challenging the Cult of Speed (Insight) By Carl Honore see related

I'm excited about a lot of stuff that is going on in the next two weeks. My cousin is visiting APU this weekend so that his experience here can help him decide what college he wants to attend next year. Andrew is a really cool kid and I hope that he does decide to come here. So this weekend might involve some time being spent with him. I also have a concert this Sunday, which I am excited about because it is our first real concert this year. I am not excited about having two huge tests on Monday and having to find time to do all this fun stuff and also get in the studying that I need to.

Next weekend has a lot of possibilities to it. One of them may be that I get called to go to Louisiana with the Red Cross, which I would totally jump all over. If that happened I would be gone for a week. Another possibility, if I don't get called, would have me riding the waves of Baja, Mexico. A group of my friends here at APU have a biannual surfing trip in Mexico. Last semester was my first time doing it and it was awesome. The final possibility for next weekend may be an Ultimate tournament here at APU and I nice relaxing weekend. All three would be amazing, so you can expect to find me in good spirits this week.

I also encourage eveyone to join the Slowness Movement and challenge the cult of speed.