(no subject)
When I do my year in review (at the end of the year or on my birthday, since they're fairly close) I usually reference my journal to remember what happened and I try to elaborate on it or condense it.
I haven't kept a very thorough journal record, lately. I figure it's time to do something for the record.
If I did my end of year recap last year starting in November, I would have been doing it around birthday time. I turned 34 this year, and for some reason that seems much older than 33. Maybe 33 feels like the cap for youth because Jesus died at 33. Maybe it feels like the cap because the next time you'll have double letters it'll be 44 and you have to gear up for the mid-life crisis, but at any rate, I'm 34 now. My life is relatively unchanged from the time I was 32. I went to Cedar Rapids this past November, the first time in a couple years. My parents have moved into the neighborhood that I would have loved to have lived in as a child, because it's where all my friends lived, but we lived east of that neighborhood. Not near the park, not near the school. East of it all, and the only way to get to school was to trudge up the street, and cut through the yards of the people that lived on Orchard Drive. There was a woman that usually hollered down at me and told me not to cut through her yard, but it was a good 15 minutes and a fair amount of sweat to go around- and if it was winter, you still sweated from exertion and it froze to you. They live there now. It was a nice walk when Emily and I went, because they're right on Cherry Hill Park, but unfortunately I had moved from the 'stuffy nose' section of last year's winter cold to the 'coughing fits' section. So my mother was convinced I was sick and untended because I coughed all night- I probably wouldn't have believed my own objections if I wasn't the one making them. My nieces are as good as grown. They're reading, and writing, and really creative and smart. It's not a surprise, but it's kind of startling when the last time I saw them they were just kind of figuring out their ABCs. And I saw my nephew (who actually is grown) and met his fiance. She seems very nice and I'm glad for him and for her. I missed most of his childhood- by no choice of my own. But by whose choice? I don't know, and I don't want to. Someone lied or is lying, and none of the options are good. Last Summer little Ari was born. I got to see a few extra pictures. He's a cute baby. It was good to be home when we came back.
December? Emily and I went to Denver and I got to visit Scum of the Earth Church. It seems like a neat community, and if we ever moved, I'm pretty sure that's where I would want to go. We got to see Erica and Karen, and had a little Christmas with them, although they had been to Lawrence in November and had done a little Christmas at the farm before they left. We caught the tail-end of them at the farm. They came while we were in Cedar Rapids, and were still there when we got back. Now Karen is Deployed, and Erica is still working in the lab, so the world turns, but that was then.
And then we got in on the end-of-year-new-ownership membership deals at the gym. An hour of CNN on the treadmill usually catches me up on the major headlines, and is just about all I can take of news anymore.
In January I was elected to the church council. It's not hard to get elected once you're nominated. There were 4 council positions open and the nominating committee only nominated 4 people, so unless over 2/3 of the congregation has a problem with you serving that's significant enough to prevent them from checking your name even though it will be a pain to find another nominee and hold another election, once you've accepted a nomination, you'll be serving. I'm the liason to the Worship Committee, which means that being elected to the council also means I am a DeFacto Worship Committee member. Good Shepherd stays pretty liturgical, so we could really just use the 'form worship' guides that get sent and it wouldn't really change much. There's usually not a lot to report about worship in council meetings, but I guess that makes it a good group to be liason to my first year while I'm still adjusting.
February was not a lot different from January, but I continue to enjoy my gym membership and I think I'm seeing some cardio results, if nothing visually noticeable. Emily and I went camping for Valentine's day and I got to use the camping Dutch Oven that she got me for Christmas. The pictures made the trip well worth it. Those photos will last a lifetime, and be a testament to our youthful recklessness. Because it was so cold outside, the water steamed at Lukewarm, so the coffee was terrible, but the chicken was good, and in the morning, I was able to get the soda bread made before waking Emily, so there was something hot to wake her to, even if it wasn't in liquid form.
Emily continued her dog training after that trip. She took a couple of weeks off in February to be home, but last year she started offering the board-and-train option and it's what most clients choose to do. Thus, a lot of time gets spent on the farm; we cannot, of course, have kennels in our apartment.
And here it is, March. Most of the church council has agreed that they would like to see the Youth Group at Good Shepherd strengthen and grow. I went to a Youth Group meeting and am continuing to become more involved in that area. Which is overseen by the Christian Education Committee. So- it follows that I'll be in those meetings as well. My Church is doing something that could be described as a rendition of the passion, but that may be overstating it. It's a dramatic reading, that includes congregational participation, and apparently has been done before and is meaningful. I'm curious. It's by an author that made probably the biggest impact in threading the Bible together as a cohesive whole for me.
Nevertheless, I'm type-cast as Judas. It started with the conniving Gypsy in 7th grade, and continued with every evil character all the way to the Prince of Darkness Himself. I'm never cast as the good guy. Maybe it's my complexion.
I'm still with CourtWatch, but I'm beginning to feel a little tired. It's all sexual battery, and murder, and people molesting kids. Yes- it's important work. But I've been doing it for a few years and I think it's beginning to wear me out a bit. I think I've become a tad too trauma-informed and I need a break to interact with healthy people. We'll see.
Right now I'm doing a stint in town while Emily's out with the training dogs. Maybe that's the wear. Being separated as much as we are. I'm in the courts part-time, so I'm home while she's out here. Though, realistically, I prefer to be home.
We'll see what April holds.
-Claven
I haven't kept a very thorough journal record, lately. I figure it's time to do something for the record.
If I did my end of year recap last year starting in November, I would have been doing it around birthday time. I turned 34 this year, and for some reason that seems much older than 33. Maybe 33 feels like the cap for youth because Jesus died at 33. Maybe it feels like the cap because the next time you'll have double letters it'll be 44 and you have to gear up for the mid-life crisis, but at any rate, I'm 34 now. My life is relatively unchanged from the time I was 32. I went to Cedar Rapids this past November, the first time in a couple years. My parents have moved into the neighborhood that I would have loved to have lived in as a child, because it's where all my friends lived, but we lived east of that neighborhood. Not near the park, not near the school. East of it all, and the only way to get to school was to trudge up the street, and cut through the yards of the people that lived on Orchard Drive. There was a woman that usually hollered down at me and told me not to cut through her yard, but it was a good 15 minutes and a fair amount of sweat to go around- and if it was winter, you still sweated from exertion and it froze to you. They live there now. It was a nice walk when Emily and I went, because they're right on Cherry Hill Park, but unfortunately I had moved from the 'stuffy nose' section of last year's winter cold to the 'coughing fits' section. So my mother was convinced I was sick and untended because I coughed all night- I probably wouldn't have believed my own objections if I wasn't the one making them. My nieces are as good as grown. They're reading, and writing, and really creative and smart. It's not a surprise, but it's kind of startling when the last time I saw them they were just kind of figuring out their ABCs. And I saw my nephew (who actually is grown) and met his fiance. She seems very nice and I'm glad for him and for her. I missed most of his childhood- by no choice of my own. But by whose choice? I don't know, and I don't want to. Someone lied or is lying, and none of the options are good. Last Summer little Ari was born. I got to see a few extra pictures. He's a cute baby. It was good to be home when we came back.
December? Emily and I went to Denver and I got to visit Scum of the Earth Church. It seems like a neat community, and if we ever moved, I'm pretty sure that's where I would want to go. We got to see Erica and Karen, and had a little Christmas with them, although they had been to Lawrence in November and had done a little Christmas at the farm before they left. We caught the tail-end of them at the farm. They came while we were in Cedar Rapids, and were still there when we got back. Now Karen is Deployed, and Erica is still working in the lab, so the world turns, but that was then.
And then we got in on the end-of-year-new-ownership membership deals at the gym. An hour of CNN on the treadmill usually catches me up on the major headlines, and is just about all I can take of news anymore.
In January I was elected to the church council. It's not hard to get elected once you're nominated. There were 4 council positions open and the nominating committee only nominated 4 people, so unless over 2/3 of the congregation has a problem with you serving that's significant enough to prevent them from checking your name even though it will be a pain to find another nominee and hold another election, once you've accepted a nomination, you'll be serving. I'm the liason to the Worship Committee, which means that being elected to the council also means I am a DeFacto Worship Committee member. Good Shepherd stays pretty liturgical, so we could really just use the 'form worship' guides that get sent and it wouldn't really change much. There's usually not a lot to report about worship in council meetings, but I guess that makes it a good group to be liason to my first year while I'm still adjusting.
February was not a lot different from January, but I continue to enjoy my gym membership and I think I'm seeing some cardio results, if nothing visually noticeable. Emily and I went camping for Valentine's day and I got to use the camping Dutch Oven that she got me for Christmas. The pictures made the trip well worth it. Those photos will last a lifetime, and be a testament to our youthful recklessness. Because it was so cold outside, the water steamed at Lukewarm, so the coffee was terrible, but the chicken was good, and in the morning, I was able to get the soda bread made before waking Emily, so there was something hot to wake her to, even if it wasn't in liquid form.
Emily continued her dog training after that trip. She took a couple of weeks off in February to be home, but last year she started offering the board-and-train option and it's what most clients choose to do. Thus, a lot of time gets spent on the farm; we cannot, of course, have kennels in our apartment.
And here it is, March. Most of the church council has agreed that they would like to see the Youth Group at Good Shepherd strengthen and grow. I went to a Youth Group meeting and am continuing to become more involved in that area. Which is overseen by the Christian Education Committee. So- it follows that I'll be in those meetings as well. My Church is doing something that could be described as a rendition of the passion, but that may be overstating it. It's a dramatic reading, that includes congregational participation, and apparently has been done before and is meaningful. I'm curious. It's by an author that made probably the biggest impact in threading the Bible together as a cohesive whole for me.
Nevertheless, I'm type-cast as Judas. It started with the conniving Gypsy in 7th grade, and continued with every evil character all the way to the Prince of Darkness Himself. I'm never cast as the good guy. Maybe it's my complexion.
I'm still with CourtWatch, but I'm beginning to feel a little tired. It's all sexual battery, and murder, and people molesting kids. Yes- it's important work. But I've been doing it for a few years and I think it's beginning to wear me out a bit. I think I've become a tad too trauma-informed and I need a break to interact with healthy people. We'll see.
Right now I'm doing a stint in town while Emily's out with the training dogs. Maybe that's the wear. Being separated as much as we are. I'm in the courts part-time, so I'm home while she's out here. Though, realistically, I prefer to be home.
We'll see what April holds.
-Claven