I didn’t think so. 

I shouldn’t have neglected you. 

Can you ever forgive me?

We’re hoping the price is right enough for us to be able to afford it–otherwise it’s back to staring at our gym membership keyring cards every time we go to drive somewhere. And we all know that doesn’t help us get in shape.

We don’t have that much to spend–really we don’t have ANY to spend, but for our health and fitness, we figure we can cut back on a bunch of things and try to find about $500-$650 a month to make this work.

That’s not alot of money when you’re looking at two people. But, god-willingly it will be enough.

I’ll make sure to post an update after our consultations and let you know whats up. In the meantime…

Anyone had any experience with personal trainers? What did you think?

It’s an interesting time, to say the least. I’ve heard prayer requests ranging from “my daughter has cancer” to “I just want to praise God my pap smear came back clear”(spoken from a woman who had decided to inform the entire church of her annual obgyn visit). It can get a little crazy sometimes, especially when you start comparing them–which is what I tend to do.

There are some Sundays I feel people try to one-up each other with prayer request severity. “I’ll see your neighbor with the broken leg and raise you my cousin’s car accident.”  ”Oh yeah, I’ll see that and raise you my grandma dying” “Well, today is the anniversary of my mom’s death AND my cousin’s boyfriend just came down with dysentery, so take that!” Ok, so maybe I made that last one up, but you get the idea.

Problem is, while it’s funny to watch, it also happens to paralyze me when it comes to raising my hand for my own prayer requests.

The first time it happened was about 8 months ago. I had been feeling sick, but forced myself to go to church because I hadn’t been in a while.

Prayer Request time came around, and I got ready to raise my hand. Then it happened.

Before I stretch my arm to the ceiling and declare myself sick, someone else raised their hand and was called on. Their neighbor had cancer.

Right after that request, someone else raised their hand and spoke about how their father was about to have some kind of heart surgery.

After that, there was a death in the family.

My heart sunk. There was no way I could raise my hand now. What would I say? “Yes, I’ve had a bit of a cold for the past couple of days, I’d just like prayer to feel better.” 

I could envision it now: “God, please help John Doe get through his life threatening heart surgery. Please be with Jane Doe as she deals with this breast cancer. Oh, and help Nick feel better from his man-cold.”

I would be a laughing stock. No way my prayer request would ever match up to the severity of cancer or heart surgery. So I kept quiet.

And while I know God does not look at prayer requests that way, I can’t help but feel a little inadaquate. I start comparing my prayer requests to everyone else’s, and when I judge mine to be less severe, I stay silent, almost as if God would rather not hear about it.

“Don’t worry about me God! Deal with the heart surgery and the cancer–I’ll be ok” 

Thankfully, that’s not how God works. He doesn’t sit there in Heaven ranking our prayer requests by how bad they sound, and then doling out answers to them in order of severity. If He did, I think we’d ALL be in trouble, cause there are some really desperate and needy people in the world. But there I go again, comparing prayer requests!

And so I have to remind myself of that every once in a while, and send up my prayer request even if I don’t think it will ‘measure up’ to everyone else’s.

Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever felt like you had an inadequate  prayer request? What did you do about it?

To me you’re not reading any books, that means the only thing left to influence who you will become is the people you meet.

Since I’m in a “service” industry, I tend to meet a lot of people. And whether I want them to or not, each person will change me–for better or for worse. Hopefully it’s for the better. I don’t think anyone wants to meet people who will change them for the worse.

But I know I will. Between now and five years from now, I’m sure I’ll meet people who are annoying, argumentative, rude, cynical, close-minded, who know just which of my buttons to push to really turn me ugly. And there is nothing I can really do about it.

Sure, I could try to shelter myself from those people, but in doing so I would also be sheltering myself from people who would influence/change me in a good way. Isolation is not the answer.

What I can do however, is minimize the effect those people have on me.

And how will I do that?

By becoming more of who I am through a method I can control rather than through a method that I can’t control.

Through reading books.

Through reading books I know will inspire me to live better, love better, be better. Choosing to read books that will challenge me and push me out of my comfort zone, books that will help to teach me skills and knowledge I have yet to learn.

From DIY home improvement books to inspirational and business best sellers, from blogs about gourmet cooking to news articles about the latest tech toys, I resolve to watching tv less and reading more. To putting down the remote and picking up my Kindle.

All that is left is to gather up the books and reading.

What’s one book you found invaluable to who you are becoming?

I’m a messy person.

There are dishes in the sink from 4 days ago. There’s dirty laundry on the floor, and clean laundry piled on our dining table. My xbox games look like they’re taking over our entertainment center. The bathroom sink is covered in a combination of facial hair, cat hair, toothpaste and mouthwash stains. Our coffee tables has the remnants of a few fast food meals. And theres a pile of old mail on our kitchen island that looks like the beginning of a Horders episode.

But you’ll never see any of this.

Because if you ever call us one night and say you’re on your way over and you’ll be here in 15 minutes, Megan and I suddenly develop super speed not even the Flash can compete with. And 11.5 minutes later, when we answer the door sweaty and out of breath, I promise we weren’t finishing up a quickie–we were making our place spotless and awesome for you, our guest.

And the first thing you’ll comment on is how our place always looks so perfect, while we ask you to mind the mess.

Crazy, right? But I know we can’t be the only ones that do the cleaning dash whenever someone calls unexpectedly and says they’re stopping by.

But I do think we may be the only ones who invite people over a couple times a week to force ourselves to clean our house.

I’m not sure why we don’t clean up regularly. We just don’t.We’re too busy. We’re too lazy. We’re hardly ever home, We’re home so often the mess blends into the background. Pick your excuse-any excuse-we don’t care.

For whatever reason, we just don’t clean regularly. We tried setting up a cleaning schedule “We’ll clean on Mondays, since it’s our day off from work” Yeah, we did that once. Why? Because it’s our day off from work! Who wants to clean then? Not me.

But you’ll never see place a mess. Because even though we don’t clean on a regular basis, when we do clean, man do we clean!

Come over and you’d swear we were allergic to dust and dirt and grime and filth, because you won’t find any of it in our home.

Keep that in mind if we ever invite you over. Yes, we may really want to hang out with you, but what we want even more is a clean house.

(ha ha, get it? The first question for OQM is what you think of it!)

On that subject, while visiting a blog I frequent, I came across a really great article by Jason Locy, the co-author of  Veneer: Living Deeply in a Surface Society, a book which I have yet to read(though it’s on my list!) but that I’ve heard a lot of great things about. The article is entitled My Take: On Adoption, Christians should put up for shut up. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Where is the leak?!?! I kept yelling to my cat.  She didn’t know either–she sat on top of the oven watching my misery.

Finally I found it–and it turns out it wasn’t a leak at all. The nob on the gas oven was turned on, so gas was escaping through the pilot hole, on ALL FOUR BURNERS! Sigh. It’s almost stupid how simple some problems are to fix. I won’t even go into how I didn’t know burner covers even existed(til  i found them THREE hours later) so after everything was reconnected the oven STILL wouldn’t light until I put those bad boys back on.

But it’s fixed now. All is well in the Clark household. And I didn’t even need to call anyone for help. Now THATS a feeling of accomplishment. You see, I am totally not a handy person. I never have been. In highschool when all the guys were building things in shop, or learning how to put a car engine together, I was the guy mastering Mortal Kombat and trying to find the hidden warp zones in Mario Bros(which I’m happy to report that I found, and have since moved on to unlocking all the characters in Castle Crashers on the Xbox 360)

For years I put off learning how to do simple weekend home improvement projects, citing I was helping to destroy America’s economy by not hiring someone to do the work for me. Alas, those days are over.

Now that I’m a homeowner(and for months before we actually bought a place) I became fixated on the DIY channel. I’d search the internet for hours learning everything I could about home improvement(skipping anything that had to do with more than basic level electrical work as it gave me flashback to 11th grade electronics class)

And I’ve learned alot. WAY more than I ever thought I would. And with that knowledge comes something else–a sense of accomplishment and pride every time I get to put that knowledge to use. Like tonight, whenever I walk into my kitchen and see light reflected off the newly installed gas oven.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to google “dishwasher installation”…

What’s more scary is that in one week I’ll live across the street from LA Fitness–the gym I’ve been a member of now for over and a year and have only gone a handful of times. 1 week from now, I’ll have no more excuses as I why I can’t go to the gym. I need to update my ipod with some fresh gym music. Maybe something like “Tik Tok” by Kesha.

Anyone have any suggestions?

And please, no comments on how the first 5 songs are like an 80s/90s rock band 2 throw back.

Things start to slow down a bit starting with song 16, and of course I have to include #22 in every mix I have. Well, that and “Grief and Sorrow” by Toshiro Masuda.

1. Eye of the Tiger by Journey
2. Carry on My Wayward Son by Kansas
3. Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi
4. Hungry like the Wolf by Duran Duran
5. White Wedding (part 1) by Billy Idol
6. Switch by Will Smith
7. Feel Good Inc. by The Gorillaz
8. Somebody Told Me by The Killers
9. Beat It by Fall Out Boy (and John Mayer)
10. Keeps Getting better by Christina Aguilera
11. Just Dance by Lady Gaga
12. Untouched by The Veronicas
13. Numb/Encore by Linkin Park/ Jay Z
14. What the World Needs by Casting Crowns
15. What Life Would Be Like by Big Daddy Weave
16. Red Light by David Nail
17. The Motions by Matthew West
18. East to West by Casting Crowns
19. Slow Fade by Casting Crowns
20. Mighty to Save by Hillsong United
21. Then by Brad Paisley
22. Come What May by Moulin Rouge

Any comments? Any songs you feel I should add/take away? i’m all ears…

Me: Your total is $10.60
Kid:(blank confused stare)
Me: Is everything ok?
Kid: I only have $10.
Me: I’m sorry.
Kid:(another blank stare)
Me: Which one did you want to put back?
Kid: (another blank stare) I only have $10
(At this point I’m trying to figure out if the kid is retarded, or hoping i’ll let him slide on the sixty cents. He;s old enough to know about tax, but just doesn’t seem to care)
Random guy 4 people behind the kid: Here, I’ve got an extra dollar you can use.
(the kid give me the extra dollar and I ring it up and give him the change. The kid prompty grabs his bag and leaves, not even stopping to offer the random guy his change)

This may be very mean of me to say, but I abhor both parties in this situation. One, the kid needs to learn if they’re going to buy something, they need to consider the fact that the government taxes things, and buy appropriately. Two, people who think they’re being ‘nice’ by offering kids the extra money to cover tax are NOT being nice. They’re teaching kids early on that if they don’t have enough money for stuff, people will just give it to them. No working hard, no learning the value of money. Nope. Just stand in line and make people wait long enough, and since you’re just a kid, someone will eventually get tired of waiting and front any amount of money you need.

You may think I’m being melo-dramatic, but this is just the most recent example of this I’ve seen. In the past I’ve seen people give kids as much as $18!! What the crap? People will give $18 to some stupid little kid but cuss out and hang up on the the fire/police/charity organization when they call asking for some help?

Whats become of this world?!?!?!

Caramel Covered Cheetos

2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup margarine – yes, for this one you must use margarine
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 – 21 oz. pkg. Cheetos® – crunchy kind

Mix sugar, margarine and corn syrup in pan. Bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and add soda. Stir until light in color and foamy. Spray a roasting pan (deep 10 x 14) with Pam. Put Cheetos® in pan. Pour the mixture over Cheetos® and stir, coating each piece. Place in oven at 250 degrees. Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. Immediately, pour onto wax paper, or cookie sheets, sprayed with Pam. (This is the hard part.) VERY QUICKLY spread out as thin as possible. If not quick and spread out as thin as possible, you will get a big hard glob. After about 5 minutes, pull/break these apart even more and loosen them from the wax paper. If you don’t, you’ll have wax paper stuck to them when you go to eat them.

You will regret it if you don’t double the batch as guests are going to demand MORE! You can bake batches together and add an extra 20 minutes to bake time. I do them separately because of having to work so quickly to keep them apart at the end. The one batch can almost get too hard while working with the other batch.

I love how music(in general) has that ability. How it can draw you inside of it and stir up so many emotions, some of which you didn’t know existed, or thought were long dead.

One minute you can be happy and carefree, but listen to the wrong song and your emotions can do a 180 quicker than you thought possible. They say your sense of smell is the greatest sense that can recall a memory, but for me I think it may be my sense of sound.

I can listen to a song I haven’t heard in years and remember every word, and be able to recall certain people, places, or things in my life that I’ve associated with that song. Not only that, but lyrics in songs I’ve never heard before cause instant recollections of the same, causing me to associate the two together.

Anyways(the above was a HUGE rabbit trail), back on track to my girl Regina. Her song Samson(which I must say I fell in love with before the rest of America caught on) is awesome. Read the lyrics here and think about what the song means to you before reading my thoughts.

I believe that it’s NOT about the biblical Samson(as stated in the beginning lines “history books forgot about us and the bible didn’t mention us”), though there are many references to him. It’s about a very strong relationship that two people used to have together, but now it’s a very one-sided love. One could even make the argument that the change in their relationship came because the couple couldn’t find true love past their own lust, and the act of sleeping together was an analogy to the biblical story of Delilah cutting off the hair of Sampson. It was their sleeping together which changed him from the man she fell in love with to a shadow of his former self.

She recounts romantic gestures of before he changed(such as being underneath the stars) but then turns it around and scientifically dismisses it as nothing special.

The listener realizes that their relationship isn’t what it used to be, when she makes the comment that they “couldn’t bring the columns down” and that they “couldn’t destroy a single one”. Those columns represent the things in their relationship that were against them, difficulties that they couldn’t overcome and still weigh heavy in their lives.

She’s writing him a letter, telling him that she wants/needs to leave him, but won’t/can’t because of her connection with him, and for that she can no longer live the life she wants to, and he has become her “sweetest downfall”.

Have you ever been in a relationship like this? Where you would consider the line “you are my sweetest downfall” as an accurate description of your significant other? Tell me about it.