I am a mountain-biking marvel

I hit the trails yesterday with my mountain-biking dad (some people take up golf when they retire; not my pops, nosirree. He takes up rocks and dirt and disc brakes and full-suspension systems). I'm a road cyclist who has made only the occasional foray off said road. It's always been fun, but the thing is, mountain biking requires SKILLS not actually necessary for road riding. I don't know who you've asked, but chances are those in the know could tell you that I like most sports but that I have more heart than innate talent or, say, hand-eye coordination. Point being, I have spent more time off the bike than necessarily on it in my previous mountain biking excursions. I have always had a great time and I really have loved it -- bikes plus trees and flowers and all that sort of thing.

However: THIS time, something clicked. I was bobbing, weaving, juking boulders, jumping ditches, and navigating steep, rocky descents with ease. I have learned to keep my weight way back, relax, and not brake unless I need to, in which case I feather the front one and put a little more pressure on the back one, unless I feel my back wheel start to skid in which case I ease up, etc, etc. I started screaming, "I am a mountain biking marvel!" and I forced Pops to agree with me. I rode a bunch of stuff he told me to walk. At one point, where he had told me to walk, and where he NEVER rides, he assured me, I ignored him as usual. I was halfway through it when I did take an unfortunate spill off the side of a cliff, but I landed on a grassy knoll and all was well. Pops made sure to point to all the rocky places I COULD have fallen, but he kept missing the point that that was not where I HAD fallen. Why bring up what could have been? I say.

Now it rained last night, and tragically, the trails are closed. But they might be open in two more days, at which time I will again instruct them as to who owns them and their mother.

sleeping in

For some reason, I can't get over the fact that I get to SLEEP IN right now. I forgot what it was like. In college, I never had early classes, and so I did my fair share of sleeping in. In law school, there were at least some days when I could sleep. But since I started working, they expect you to actually get there by like 9 or even 8. And if you have to get there by 9, you actually have to get up BEFORE 9. I have tested this out a lot of times, isolating the variables, and believe me, it's true. Anyway, then at some point I took up cycling and so I would start riding on Saturday mornings by 8 or 9. Strangely enough, I didn't mind getting up for that. Then on Sundays I go to church (not early, but still not late enough to just sleep until I wake up.) The result has been that I haven't truly slept in for years. To those farmer people and people who commute really far or people who get up really early for some other reason and who think that getting up at 7 IS sleeping in, to you I say, that is sad and I'm glad I'm not you. I also say that soon I will be you, but perhaps let's not dwell on that. Back to sleeping in, I really recommend it. Today I got up at 12 noon. Yesterday my mom brought me breakfast in bed at the ripe hour of 11 a.m. Take that.

mindless pointless stuff I must share

The other day as a result of reading some posts about dentists and dental work and stuff I was thinking that it would be cool if we were like sharks and we got new rows of teeth when the old ones wore out, or just had multiple rows of teeth, or whatever it is that sharks have. Then we wouldn't need the dentist. A whole profession, poof. But actually, would we need him/her even more because we would have more teeth?? I bet that at least we wouldn't need nearly so many dentures and such, and that if a tooth was bad, we would just get it pulled out. And we would only need to get the first row whitened. It's an interesting line of thought that I plan to pursue when I have more time.

Anyway, I finally went to the dentist after no dental care for 2. 5 years, and even 2.5 years ago, my mouth wasn't completely tip-top. So during the x-rays and such I got a little worried about the verdict. Not because I fear dental work, but because I am paying cash for this and also I have limited time. However, for me, a decay-prone individual, I considered the damage minimal: one root canal and three fillings. I've had the root canal and the three fillings already, and now I'm just waiting for my permanent, tooth-colored crown. In the meantime I have a crazy sexy silver crown and I try to smile widely to show it off as often as possible. After I came home from my 9:00 a.m. dentist appointment today, I went back to bed until 12:45 p.m. It is really quite amazing, this no work thing. Only two more weeks, though, so I gotta live it up.

my next thing doesn't start until April 7

So take that. It is so weird, this feeling of not having to do anything at a certain time for four weeks. I have a lot to do, but I can do it on my own schedule. On Monday I slept until 12:00 noon. That felt so good, on Tuesday I slept until 12:30 p.m. Whew. The next day I got up at 10:30 a.m., but I didn't get to sleep until 4 a.m. Moving day. I don't really live anywhere now for awhile. It's fun. Now I'm staying with my brother and his wife and three kids. Tonight is my nephew's birthday so I bought a Sponge Bob pinata and hung it from the chandelier. Update, a few days later: Bob took quite a beating. Birthday boy nephew just turned 14 . After letting the smaller two kids take a few token swings, he basically bludgeoned unfortunate SB to death with his bare fists, no blindfold. It wasn't really a traditional pinata situation, except for the fact that two of the kids ended up crying because they each got less candy than the other one. Anyway, back to me -- I like this not having to get up at a certain time thing. I could get used to it. But I better not, because starting April 7, I'll be getting up at 600 or 6:30 a.m. (also known as the middle of the night) for awhile.

last day at work!! woohooo!!!!

Woooooohoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last day at work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited. I still have work to do today, but anyway at noon they're having a luncheon thing for me at a yummy Italian restaurant. I um think they're giving me a present and I hope I know what it is, but I'm not gonna jinx myself by typing it here. I hope it's what I think it is.

No one at work even knows I have a blog so it's OK that I write about this stuff here.....I feel a little bit weird about the lunch because at these things, my boss, who is a really nice and good guy, usually makes a speech about how great the person was, etc, etc. And although my boss is a good friend outside of work (I'm good friends with his son too, who is my age), our working relationship was sometimes strange. And strained. Our personalities are rather different and he was....eccentric. He would often forget that I'd told him something and therefore he'd feel like he was uninformed about something when really I'd told him already. He also has a hard time making divisions between our duties -- he would often want all of us to know about all aspects of Project X, so we would sometimes have to duplicate duties/knowledge, which seemed like a waste of time. For my part, I didn't really put my whole heart and soul into this job in certain ways. I feel bad about that. I could have worked harder at some points and so it will be embarrassing to me if he says how great I was when secretly I don't think he thinks I was THAT great and secretly we both know that I feel like certain things could have been run somewhat differently. In any case, on the whole, he's actually a great boss so I should stop blogging and finish the stuff I gotta finish. Don't worry, I'll update you on whether I got the thing that I think I might be getting.

PS Are blogs supposed to be funny and interesting? Or is it more like you're just supposed to spew out whatever random, boring thoughts you've had most recently? I think it's the latter. Phew.

attempt to explain leaving! moving! and selling all my stuff!

I keep wanting to post about this, and then I decide not to because it's such a big thing that it can't be addressed in a blog post. But then it's all I think about lately, and I don't really feel like updating you lucky people with a bunch of stuff that seems frivolous in comparison. Maybe once I post about this I can go back to being frivolous again. I'm selling or giving away all my possessions, including my house. I'm leaving my job and I'm going into the ministry, a homeless, itinerant ministry as close as possible to the way that Jesus and his disciples lived in the New Testament. They left all and followed him, receiving no salary, having no home. Leaving the "cares of life" behind, I'll travel around, staying in one place for about a year (but moving among and staying with different people in our faith -- a different home every two-three days or so) with another, more senior (female) minister. For the rest of my life. Pretty non-frivolous, no?

I have felt called to do this since I was 13 years old and fought it with every fiber of my being, for about 14 years. Finally I came around about 5 years ago and have since been in the process of paying off my law school loans and enjoying the peace, joy, and happiness that has come with submitting to God's plan for my life. One of my aunts jokingly asked me if I have to vote Republican now.....the answer is most emphatically no. :-) NTTAWWT...well, I mean, arguments could be made that there is, but let's not go into that here.

I know most people don't understand what I'm doing, and to many it seems crazy and ridiculous and frightening and foolish and whatever else, but it is very real to me. We do it this way because that's the way Jesus did it. One of the many reasons that this way works perfectly is there's no organization, or outside funding, or structure, or collection plate, or buildings to maintain. I've grown up knowing ministers like this, carrying the gospel this way, my whole life, so it's not new or strange to me as a concept...but doing it myself is, of course, a whole different thing.

I've done a bunch of other stuff, done whatever I've wanted to, been a student, a lawyer, a traveling person with no job, and stuff in between. Some of that time, I've been miserable. All of that time, I've been unsettled. But the life I have within now and the lasting peace and joy I've known since making this decision (about five years ago) is something that cannot be denied. It is the right thing to do, it's my calling, it's what gives me peace and meaning, and it's the only path I want because it's the path for me. So there you go. If ya got questions, feel free to ask 'em.