You too and stuff. Take luck and care. Take good care of the luck you may have. Care for the good taking of the luck you may have when you...

what a couple of days...
so if there were a theme for the past week or so it would have to revolve around a brian regan joke about saying the right thing at the right time. or the right thing at the wrong time. or just not being able to say anything right at all. the point of the joke is that 'you too' doesn't really work all the time, and we use it at weird times. for example, the waitress says 'enjoy your meal' and you reply 'you too'. yeah, doesn't really work well. or when the lady taking your ticket at the airport say 'have a nice flight' and you respond 'you too'. anyways, this has been in the back of my mind all week.

on friday i went down to san diego to visit with two of mi amigos before they move up north. anyways, we're hanging out and i realize there's nothing really to say as a parting comment to someone who is moving. the best i came up with was 'have a good move'. needless to say we had pretty decent laugh over that one. but overall the visit was pretty fun. not as bad as it could be for hanging out with two couples. at least they know i'm trying. i guess that's the key to not getting harassed about being single. that, and pointing out freedoms that the others don't have, like driving four hours at a minutes notice to see some friends. oh yeah, it was cool having a ride that everyone was looking forward to hopping in to. never happened before. i've never been the guy that everyone wants to ride with (with the exception of white trash bowling rush events in college). kind of a good feeling. that, and futuremom actually said i seemed more mature driving something decent. guess that's a compliment. regardless, it was hard to say i had a 'good' time because i was saying good-bye to some friends that i'm going to miss dearly. but, i was glad i went to see them.

sidenote on helping them move: we had six guys, and two girls who are all recently out of college and have moved a bunch as of late, and one older guy who made the entire move take hours more than it should. if you're not going to help, don't show up. it really put a bad taint to the weekend and stressed out my friends who are moving, and put their schedule back enough where they could not spend time with their family before they left. moving nazis are not cool.

so easter and monday were pretty uneventful. had a date monday night that had nothing noteworthy happen. oh wait, i picked up a book that i have been wanting to read on how people that have never been to church view christians. pretty cool. it's called 'blue like jazz'. i bought it for the concept of the title alone. the guy never liked jazz until he was around people that loved it. same thing with him and christ, he never really liked christians until he was really around them. interesting perspective to come from. more book updates to come soon. back to the point though, what do you say at the end of date that isn't really good or bad? thanks for the date?

so yesterday i'm not feeling to hot (sinuses) and i'm supposed to take some of the high schoolers on a hike. problem is, everyone is out of town or not answering the phone. so i manage to get a small group together to go enjoy rocky peak overlooking simi valley. (pix up as soon as i find my usb cable) anyways, i was kind of distracted because i had one of those phone calls that adds to my list of why we need a church secretary. this lady calls up asking us how much to charge for using our building for a memorial service. i don't have a clue what to say, because i can't imagine us actually charging somebody for that, but i need to check and make sure. our preacher is on vacation so i call a few others, and get it cleared that we aren't going to charge, and we can arrange for someone to speak for the memorial service. so i call her back and let her know we aren't going to charge, we have a possible speaker, and we can provide finger foods if necessary. she thanks us, and tells about how other churches would not let her have services there either due to cost, or the fact that it was a memorial and there wasn't going to be a body or ashes. i was somewhat upset that people would say that, but i was more relieved, and blessed that she had called us and we had a chance to serve.

so fwd to this morning and me going to my first funeral service. i've know people that have passed away before, but i'm not really the type to go to a funeral service. i'm a move on kind of guy. i don't have anything against funerals, it's just not something that i'm excited to go to. which leads to my point. what do you say at a funeral to the people in the audience? good to see you? i'm glad you're here? yeah, kinda funny in a serious way, but talk about some awkward situations today, and not the kind that i regularly enjoy. what am i supposed to say to the family? i'm glad to be here... i'm happy to help? no, i don't wish this on them, i'm doing this because it needs to be done. but seriously, what are you supposed to say?

so today i had a guy walk in to my office, about 45 or so and punk rock as can be, backpack in hand. he knows my name, but never in our hour and a half discussion gave specific details as to how. so if anyone sent this guy as a prank, it succeeded. i seriously was talking to him wondering who had the cameras hidden. he was pretty cool, knew his scripture and stuff. just wanted to talk, no food or money, just some ears to hear what was on his heart. i told him to stop by whenever.

about the hidden camera thing though, it's gotta be lame to be one of the first people on a hidden camera show, because you have no idea what the show is. something totally off the wall happens, then out of nowhere some guy with a camera comes running up saying 'you've been befuddled!' or something like that and you're supposed to act like you now know what is going on. lame. what are you supposed to say there? thanks for pranking me?

oh yeah, nursegirl called me up wanting to go grab a bite in the next few days. there's another one... so how's life been since you broke up with me?

on a really positive note: we had some awesome breakthroughs in the youth group in the past few days. last week we had one of our quieter kids speak up and make some bold statements about that fact that not everyone in the group is best friends, and called the other kids on the carpet about it. we decided it was my responsibility to focus on equipping them to minister to their friends and respect and love each other as christians, instead of trying to make them into best friends. it may sound simple, but that's a pretty big break from traditional youth ministry, that focuses on building the group together, vs encouraging the kiddos to go out and build relationships. pretty cool coming from a 9th grader.

one of my tenth graders started asking questions and showing interest in a christian colleges. may not sound like a big deal, but i'm still glowing.

and finally, one of my best friends, ketchupburger, was in town visiting his family and managed to sneak out (literally, long story) to come and visit the other day. it's awesome to see someone who has been repressed their whole lives rise up and take control and make decisions for himself. he's talking about softball, and not being satisfied with his job, and i'm fighting back tears because it's the first time he's known what direction he is going to go w/o the prodding of his mother. it's like watching a zoo animal go into the wild. can't wait for his first big kill.

well, as i tell my friends... one love, one heart.