day 039. [relationships]

Today was a day full of just being around people and growing in our relationships. Be it my relationship between my youth pastor and me, my relationship with my pastor and his wife along with others, and even my relationship with a few of my friends from the youth group.

I was going to start today by going to the gym with my friend Clair Thiel; we have an interesting relationship as to how we became friends. Maybe I'll explain it if this blog doesn't get too long, ha. I didn't feel all that great this morning though, so I passed up on the gym with her. Next time though!!

Sometime in the prevening (Big Bang Theory) I met up with my youth pastor Angel to discuss me sharing my devos on Sunday night at the youth group. It was also just a time where we got to catch up on, maybe not the whole year, part of the year from my freshman year of college. It's sad to know their moving on from little Oak Harbor, but God's got some amazing things in store for Angel, Laura, Josiah, and their little boy that's on the way. If God can use Angel to turn many hardened hearts into the soft, but passionate, hearts they are now ... I know that God will continue to use him in Pasco.

Can't believe their leaving though, man. It was seriously my freshman year of high school when I met Angel and I was this little turd that was running up and down the hallway throwing out f-bombs left and right. I was a little 15 year old that had no self-respect for myself and yet I demanded respect from others. Thanks Angel for turning me around. Actually, thanks God for using Angel to turn me around :)

Can't wait for Sunday though!

Later this evening I went over to my pastor's house. Pastor Russ and his wife Ana invited a few people over to their house tonight. It was just a time that they gave us, as young adults, to get to know each other from the church. Granted I knew who most of the people were, there were a few people that I had yet to meet just because I was gone. While there Russ and Ana were open about their relationship with each other and before each other. Brought some insight as to what it means to me to be a Christian and wanting to pursue a relationship with another person. It was cool seeing how they were comfortable to talk about some of the things they did. I am so glad that God brought this family to our church to pastor over us after Dave and Snr. Veach ended up leaving. Oh yeah! Can't forget to mention that they have the cutest kids ever!! Hopefully someday I'll be doing their braces ;)

Around the time the sun started to set I met up with a few friends out at West Beach. I love these guys so much. As in Ally, Laura, and Jordan, ha. I just love those guys. It's been good to see and hear what has happened in their lives this past year. Some AMAZING things. I'm pretty sure though that in the midst of these amazing things were some times of utter despair. But I know that they were able to get through that. I'm so proud of those guys! I'm excited to see what's in store for them this upcoming school year. I'm especially excited to see what's going to happen in Ally & Jordan's lives seeing as they'll definitely be in a new season of their young adult lives.

It was just a great day today. Oh I forgot to mention one other thing ... B-E-A-U-tiful day!! Sunny all day!

PS. Seeing as this got long, feel free to ask me how come Clair and I have an interesting relationship. I'm fine explaining why it's so interesting, haha X)

day 035. [scientific photographer]

"To the left, to the left" are the two necklaces my dad bought me. Well, they were two separate necklaces, but the charms are now on the same chain. As for where we got these, we got them from this indie website. It's just fitting that they had both a microscope (biology major) and a camera (photographer). It's truly the best of both worlds! Seriously though, getting these necklaces in the mail today was the best part of the day. Even if I did have a worship session with a few friends and then hung out for a bit with others. I have been waiting for these necklaces this past week!

As for today, it started out with me leaving Oak Harbor at 4:30 AM to drive down to Redmond to coach my old club team at 7:00 AM. Now, I thought the high school team, especially the Junior & Senior team, had practice in the afternoon during the summer because we always have the earlier practices during the year. This was the text conversation between my coach and me last night:

Me: Coach, hey, so I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be at practice tomorrow ready to coach!
Coach: Rick! That's awesome to hear that you still don't mind having to leave Oak Harbor at 4:30 AM to get here for their 7 AM practice. I'm proud of you.
Me: What!? I thought they had the later practices during the summer. I mean we always had the later practices over the summer when I was playing ...
Coach: Not on Friday's, they as a team decided to just have an early practice on Friday's and Saturday's so they have the rest of the day to do stuff.
Me: Alright ... I'll see you at 7 coach ...

Oh man, was it fun ...

Once I got home though, that was a different story. Had lunch, took a quick shower, and then headed over to the bookstore where I was able to pick up the copy of Crime and Punishment. That was awesome because today felt like Christmas. Getting the necklaces and then getting the book that I've been eyeing for awhile.

Speaking of books, I was originally going to return The Adolescent once I got my hands on Crime and Punishment, but you know what? I'm not going to do that anymore because The Adolescent has surprisingly been a good read. Quite an easy read, so I figured I might as well finish the book :)

After picking up the book I headed over to West Beach to join my friend Laura Nagel for a worship session. I also made a new friend! Katherine Limpin :) I really enjoy worship for what it is. I mean, a great message at church is awesome, that's the heart of the service, but there's something about worship, especially when you yourself do it right, that is so powerful! To me, worship really gets your heart in the right place to really hear what God has to say through the message. The way I think about worship, it's more than singing because if you do it right, you're talking to God. It's amazing. And it was a lot of fun just getting to do worship with a few people today, even if it was last minute. but hey! It's summer, so it's alright to be spontaneous!

PS. Five weeks to this blog and I'm still going! :)

day 008. [home]

Lo and behold ... The next place my friends and I went was - Oak Harbor! I'm so glad that we're here.

The initial reason why we came up to here was because I needed to get my other DSLR, ha. Long story short - ask me :)

So when we got here we first ended up playing some Mario Kart after we all took our showers, separately. I also surprised Steven by being his birthday present! It was actually a lot of fun playing Mario Kart with more than just Melanie. Although the thing is, having the TV divided into 4 parts was kind of confusing and a little different.

After that Keenan, Melanie, and I went out to 1-2-3 Thai (saw some old band-mates there) to get some lunch food because we were obviously hungry. Then I took them to a park that I grew up playing on as well as taking them on a tour around my elementary school. Memories man! It was a lot of fun just filling them in on the 5-10 year old Rick!! :D

Then we went to my middle school which happened to be right next to Blockbuster where I rented the last two discs of Glee. While at Blockbuster I also bought three movies: I Love You Beth Cooper, 500 Days of Summer, and UP! I took them on a tour of my middle school too.

If you're wondering - I didn't take them to my high school because we just went to my house seeing as my brother was going to take us out to eat. Seeing as we ate though, we were kind of still full, so we all just got dessert because the three of us weren't all that hungry from the Thai.

Afterwards, I dropped my brother off at the house so that the three of us could go out and take some pictures of the sky at West Beach. If there is one thing I miss for sure about living in Oak Harbor is that the sunsets are just amazing. I then decided to go visit a friend on a surprise visit :)

I haven't seen Kristen since Christmas break, so it was a lot of fun getting to see her and just catching up for that little bit we were there. I'll definitely be needing to catch up with her when I'm home for the summer ... for good!

Now the three of us are catching me up on episodes 9-13 of Glee!! YIPEE!!