It's Alright

So i just opened up www.pandora.com and type in BEATLES and what comes on as the first Beatles song it finds me? Here Come's The Sun which happens to be one of my, if not my very, favorite Beatles song. Anyway, today was CRAZY hot here...just like the last few days have been...not my favorite in the world but I live on I suppose. At least in Ventura in the later afternoon/early evening it was clouding up. Hopefully that means things will be cooler. I should have gone to the beach tonight. Would have been much cooler. Oh well, I had pizza instead and watched some WEST WING episodes with the parents and Skipper. Then I wandered around outside and then finally made my way up here and to the computer. Exciting, yes I know. I think next I'm going to go look at boats 'cause I really have been feeling the urge to get one and get out on the water. I just miss it and it is SO relaxing and I could use a little more recreation in my life I think. In fact, with that said, it's time to go look at boats!

mmmm bbq

Tonight I bbq'd a steak for dinner with bbq'd baked potatoes and peas with onions mixed in. It turned out really yummy. Oh yea, we had french bread on the side too. So Brian, Christy, and I enjoyed our feast and almost finished all the food, but not quite. It was a huge steak so I would have been really surprised if we had finished it. After dinner we cleaned the house some before heading to the harbor where we got ice cream and wandered around. We all had fun catching the sunset, watching the boats, and picking on each other. Then we came back to the house and I did laundry and I'm not sure what the others did. Now we are sitting here watching Iron Chef: America....the greatest show on the Food Network. My brother watched it with me last week and got hooked and I think Christy will be hooked after tonight. Only ten minutes into it and she is raving about it lol. I think I will go to bed as soon as the show is over as I'm pretty tired. I'm drinking lemonade as we watch. Could life be any better? Well possibly, but I'm not complaining at all! :)

Ramblings on a Thursday night...

So I'm told that I don't post on here that much...well that is probably true. I forget quite often that I have a blog and when I do remember...I don't know what to say. The whole blogging phenomenon is interesting to me...millions of people write about the daily lives and personal thoughts for anyone to read. Maybe it is the whole reality tv thing transfering over to the web...where every person can have their own little reality whatever and they can show off their lives...I'm not sure. Anyway, it was a busy week. I reworked the website for work and have been working on continuing to update DAPs and make it better. My staff is growing and they are great. I couldn't ask for better. Anyway, now that I have posted again on the dilapidated blog...I'm going to watch some West Wing and then go to bed!

Sunsets

So for the last two nights I've gone over to Ventura Harbor to watch the sunset...it happens right around 8 o clock and I've gotten there around seven thirty and just wandered around enjoying the boats, the ocean, and the birds. Last night was pretty but tonight was absolutely stunning. For some reason there were more colors in the sky...it was also a bit cooler. There were also more boats coming into the harbor too so that made it more fun to watch. My favorite to watach was two boys on a little sailboat that were sailing around the harbor. The boat is about the size of mine (around 8 feet) and they were just going back and fourth around the harbor and then came out near the entrance when the sun was going down. It really makes me want to get back on the water. I love feeling the boat slicing through the water, feeling the wind pushing you along and trying to take control, and reading both of those powerful forces and using their power to push where I want to go. Sometimes it doesn't work out as well as others but it's the adventure of it all that makes it so great. I think the risk of the ocean overpowering the boat adds to that sense of adventure too. When I was in high school, my best friend Seth and I always talked about building a sailboat of wood and taking it on a grand cruise...we never got around to it...but I think it is something I'd still like to do. I even have the plans picked out...just have to get on it. It seems that the ocean is the one place where you can get away from the modern world and just go...I love it.

Pirates of the Caribbean...Midnight Showing and More!

Went and saw a midnight showing of Pirates of the Caribbean tonight. It was a pretty good flick. I don't think it will be ruled as a home run until the third movie comes out in which case it'll end up being a great movie aka another Empire Strikes Back or....a medium one...Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Both are very good movies but one is just a double and one is a home run. :) I won't say anything else about the movie as I don't want to spoil it for anyone. It was a blast though. We showed up and one of my baristas from Starbucks was there and had us get in line with her, her boyfriend, and his sister. They are great people and we played card games while waiting. It was fun to hang out with them in a non-work environment.

I also got to see a TON of my old students from when I was working at Community Presbyterian Church. All of them were middle schoolers when I was working there and now they are way into high school with some already graduated. The ones tonight however were Sophomores to Seniors. They were a BLAST and I talked to them in the theater for about a half hour. It's fun to see them grow up and see where they go in life. I think it is one of the most rewarding parts of working with them.

Anyway, with that said, I'm off to bed. Thanks everyone who helped make it a great night!

ps. I DO NOT like how they used a rendition of Cinderella's Castle for the new Walt Disney Pictures logo! Go back to the traditional Buena Vista one or use Sleeping Beauty Castle from Disneyland!

Starbucks

So I bring my computer into Ventura and spend most afternoons working at Starbucks where I meet the most amazing and interesting people. There is Isaac, the manager of Starbucks. Isaac is probably 26, and is one of the happiest people I've ever encountered. Even on his rough days, he has a joke to make about his situation. Reeta, an ex marine and aspiring manager is an extremely hard worker who just can't not let her personality shine through. She is extremely driven but also can take a moment to stop and say hi to someone, go play with a baby, or come chat for a few minutes and pretend to be interested in whatever I'm working on. The newest worker is Sierra who just started a few weeks ago and is an extremely hard worker and one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. She also loves Disneyland so that is a perk. She is young and excited about life and not jaded in the slightest and is just a breath of fresh air when she walks into the store. There are others in the store too who all have their own little quirks and personality but they all create a family feel in this store. It always amazes me how a group of people from so many different walks of life can come together and love each other so effectively in a store and when I used to work in the traditional church, that was something that was a failure point regularly. What's the difference? Could it be perhaps that the workers at Starbucks know how to love better now than members of a church?