Late February 2014

Greetings:

I have been away for a while, away from blogging that is.  A lot has happened since my last real post.  I hope the “summer of ‘93” was enough to hold you over.  Not my best work, but it was fun to reminisce.

 Okay. Since the summer of ’13 has come and gone, we have endured a 9 week lockdown, I got a new ‘cellie’, I got a new job, and I am currently awaiting a new cell assignment.  My new job, a very much awaited answered prayer, is in the library.  It’s actually in the library.  I work most of the day and am gone from the pod for most of the day which is a big change from the doing nothing that I had been used to.  I keep the shelves nice and organized, and I check the books out and in on the computer in an ACCESS program.  I get to create Excel spreadsheets and forms.  It really feels somewhat normal.  Not the hardest job I’ve ever had.  But I sure can’t wait to get here in the mornings and sometimes don’t want to leave when it’s time to go home.  Oh well, that’s good I suppose.  Thank you for all the prayers regarding my “job search”.  I know there were a lot put up for me.

Today’s song has to be “Spoon Man” by Soundgarden.  I don’t know the album or even how new it may be, but it’s been stuck in my head ever since the first time I heard it a month or so ago.  And while I’m thinking of it, go ahead and put Led Zepplin’s “Good Times Bad Times” on your playlist too.  Always a favorite and every time I hear it on the American Hustle preview it makes me miss Buford.  Good times indeed.

I know this probably won’t get posted until after the Super Bowl, but how ‘bout them Broncos!   If you were able to watch “The Book of Manning” on ESPN a few months back, or were able to read the Sports Illustrated article naming Peyton Sportsman of the Year and could come away from that still not a fan, then you might need to seek some form of mental evaluation.  An all around great person. I wish him the best.

February 2014

Continuing to the end of - The Summer of 1993

 The most important lesson I learned that summer is how much can change when you’re gone.  See, when I left home that summer, home was in Bolivar.  Home was 3 brothers, mom, & dad, familiar friends, and familiar church.  But when it was time to come home, home was moving.  I returned from Georgia to go to basketball camp with Chester County, not Bolivar.  I came back & lived with Pops & Meenaw, not mom and dad.  And in November when mom & dad finally did move to Henderson, it was with only 2 brothers because Rob was in college.  Home had relocated.  New friends.  New church.  New life.

 I learned a lot of lessons in the summer of ’93.  But learning to adapt and grow with your surroundings no matter who or what they are, and surviving, is the one I continue to use today.  And the lesson about how much can change while you’re gone, well, I guess I’ll look forward to learning that one again one day.

January 2014

Continuing the summer of 1993

Speaking of the ladies, I learned that if you go to the movies and then to her house to hang out, no matter how much you thought you liked her, if her breath is that bad, it’s something you can never get over.  #last date with that girl.

I learned to really appreciate foods.  Asian. Mexican….. Several foods I had never experienced graced my palate that summer.  I had my first Reuben, my first positive cauliflower experience.  I was introduced to Dale’s marinade.  Memorable stuff indeed. 

Perhaps the biggest learning experience that summer was the church camp that Corrie & I attended with Union Baptist.  First of all, it was held at                           where Jimmy and Tammy Faye Baker ministry had been.  Amazing and amazingly large.  We got a charter bus ride there & then stayed in a hotel-type setting right there on the property.  The week was planned out with services & activities that were enough to keep any 15-year-old more than entertained.  There I learned that if you’re blonde and tan and very good at beach volleyball, then everybody will think you are from California, and that’s okay.

 I learned the art of the business transaction.  See this was a camp where food was provided, but it did not meet the standards of my newly fanciful palate.  Lucky for me UD had given Corrie & myself $20 each before we left.  You could buy a large pizza for about $10 at night in a mall type area.  I would sell slices for $2 each and make my money back leaving me with 3 slices to myself for the low, low price of $0.  Corrie came back home with $20.  I had 5 cents to my name, but I had eaten pizza all week and she had eaten bland cafeteria food.  I think I came out ahead.  That was an amazing week.  From Steven Curtis Chapman’s “This Is the Great Adventure” kicking off every service, to Rufus P. Tinkle, to Josh constantly calling me “Buddy”, to thinking Jonah & Shandan were the two coolest names I had ever heard…. I’ll never forget church camp of ’93.