"Yeah, mind-bottling. You know, when things are so crazy it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle? "

and now we begin the time of year that the cuz and i call lent. it's the month or so between the end of football season and the start of baseball that we give up sportscenter. i might watch some in march to get an idea of who to pull for in march madness, but in all practicality, sportscenter is pretty useless right now. unless of course you are one of both people that watch wnba highlights. anyways, if you have any movie suggestions for us to catch up on this would be a great time to post them. it's also a good time to read a book, redesign a blog, weave baskets or wash your car.

superbowl.
considering it was between two teams that i can't stand (actually, i just can't stand eli manning) i was pretty stoked about this year's super bowl. it was tough to decide who to root against this year. on one hand, i can't stand anything boston, and i really didn't want their fans to have a perfect season that i would have to hear about forever. on the other hand, eli is a swear word to chargers fans, and the thought of him winning a super bowl on his first shot was not that appealing. in the end though, the thought of 18-1 trumped everything else. i'm very excited that they came so close to perfection only to fall apart at the end. i'm already planning on going to the chargers-pats game next season to watch a healthy chargers lineup dominate the pats. and as soon as he signs his contract, i'm getting a hold of a baby blue cromartie jersey.

nothing.
like many people, i've become conditioned to respond to the 'what's going on' question with a simple 'not much'. i was thinking about this a lot this past weekend, and how that is a total lie in my life. on any given sunday i have short conversations with at least 50 people, and this past sunday i caught myself saying 'not much' more often then i would like to admit. while i don't necessarily want to bore people with every mundane detail of my life, i should never have to resort to 'nothing' as a response to an invite into conversation. more importantly, i don't really want to live a 'nothing much' life. if someone is going to ask, i should be able to muser up something interesting to share. why not? am i becoming so busy that i simply don't have time to share? no. am i really offended that someone is asking about me? no. my best guess is that on some level i want to keep things on surface level so that they will stay on surface level conversation as well. it's like i'm purposefully trying to avoid contact. this is not a good thing. and i'm not saying that just because of my job, i really think this is something that represents a much larger cultural problem. we want to keep things on the surface. we want easy to clean, easy to fix, easy bake relationships with people. we don't want to know how the homeless guy is doing, we don't want to ear the story from the divorcee, we don't want to hear about that person's ex, because it forces us to take the focus off of ourselves and care about something outside of our little circles. i can't think of anything more contrasting to how Jesus operated than 'not much'.

so in honor of that last little rant, here's all the stuff that i have to choose from the next time someone asks 'what's going on?'
i'm getting back itnto gym mode.
my sister is graduating in may, and i'm relly excited to head out to abilene for that.
we're looking for an intern for this summer.
still finishing up the merry christmas madness video.
our calendar for the next few months should be up and posted sometime this week.
i just finished writing the drum parts to two of my songs.
i have a huge painting that i'm working on for my friends' youth group.
i'm also working on a logo for another church.
the presidential race is actually getting somewhat interesting with super tuesday tomorrow.
my website is still a few weeks from being up and running, but i'm already getting stoked about it.
a bunch of shops around here are having sales on snowboards which means i might be able to sneak a run in with a new board in the next few months.
i've been going back and re-reading a bunch of books that really shaped me a few years ago. this list includes: velvet elvis, blue like jazz, wild at heart, and how to win friends and influence people.

jack.
do yourself a favor and buy the new jack johnson album, 'sleep through static'. buy a copy for a friend too. it'll give you something to talk about.

one love, one heart.