Random

Okay, I wanted to randomly do this, since it’s been a while and not that I’m bored or anything (although I should be asleep right now). Credit to my good friend Andie for the idea long ago:

1. Open up the music player on your computer.
2. Set it to play your entire music collection.
3. Hit the shuffle command.
4. Tell us the title of the next ten songs that show up (with their musicians), no matter how embarrassing. That’s right, no skipping that Carpenters tune that will totally destroy your hip credibility. It’s time for total musical honesty.

Jeromey’s List – 2-06:

1. Dave Matthews Band – #40 (Listener Supported)
2. Aerosmith – What It Takes
3. Outkast – Pink Blue
4. Spearhead – Bomb the World (Armageddon Version)
5. Metallica – Unforgiven II
6. Dave Matthews Band – Rhyme & Reason (Live at Red Rocks ’95)
7. Police – Once Upon a Daydream
8. Collective Soul – Counting the Days
9. Dave Matthews Band – #40 (Live in Chicago – I kid you not!!!)
10. Kenny Chesney – Young

Happy Valentine’s Day to all! Today turned out to be a great day, Bethany and I had a really nice evening. One story I thought would be funny to share:

Originally I had hoped to make Bethany’s valentine. I had the construction paper, the glitter pens, the sweetheart candy – the works, but these last few days have been so busy that I wasn’t able to find the time to do it. I finally accepted that I needed to go buy the card, so during lunch today I braved my way into the local Hallmark store. It was a total zoo in there! I walk in, go to the right where the Valentine’s Day card racks are, and it’s completely surrounded by 15 guys and like 2 girls! There was a line to even get to look at the cards! Talk about crazy! Then while we’re there one guy said loudly, "Well I’m glad to know I’m not the only one that waited until the last minute!"

True, true…

Another weekend comes to an end – one that was definitely all over the place and work a recap…

With all of the build-up from my last post, it turns out that we didn’t go snowboarding on Saturday. As it turns out, the traffic on I-70 was horrible, a semi stalled on the west bound lanes, reducing traffic on that side to one lane! Combined with everyone setting out for weekend skiing, the roads were a nightmare. It took us 2 hours to go 20 miles, and we still had 20 more to go when we decided to turn around. Snowboarding is postponed until next weekend, which is probably a blessing in disguise. I’ve deferred my embarrassment for one more week, and now I have some more time to build up muscles in my butt for all the bruising it’s going to get.

Bethany and I came back to Fort Collins a littler earlier than planned and I managed to make it to church in time to play with the choir. This is the first time I’ve drummed since the day of the funeral, and while I had to knock some rust off, it was a good release.

Sunday was definitely a different change of pace. Earlier in the week I was hoping I could go visit my good friend and my God-daughter Sunday, but as the week progressed and work piled up I knew Sunday was going to be a work-day. The NCSC’s newsletter is due this week and I needed to begin laying it out, along with the pile of school work that I’ve put off for the whole week. I managed to make a sizable dent in both of them and was feeling pretty proud of myself leading into the evening. Then I logged onto my on-line class to see if I can look ahead to next week, when I saw a critical announcement I missed:

"Your first exam will be this weekend, and can be taken any time between Friday 6am and Sunday 11pm"

Considering it was 9:55pm Sunday night I panicked a little, then proceeded to take my test. Two hours later (and it looks like the "11pm date" was a start date rather than a due date), I came to the realization that I need to take school a little more seriously. With these on-line classes it’s easy to just push things off to the weekends, but it doesn’t mean I can completely forget about school between Monday and Friday. Hindsight being 20-20, I should have just Christmas-treed the test and get kicked in the groin – it would have hurt less and my score actually may have been better!

So now feeling a little humbled, but also inspired I am ready for my long and busy week!

It’s Friday night, and I need to be up in about six hours, but I thought I would make a brief post while I had the chance. I need some prayers right now because on Saturday morning I’ll be hitting the slopes for the first time in four years. Not only will I be on a Colorado mountain in winter time, I will be taking on snowboarding for the first time! Bethany’s mom graciously gave me a Christmas present of a snowboarding trip, but this weekend Bethany and I are taking her mom up on that offer.

I’ve been nervous about this all week. The last time I was on the slopes, it wasn’t pretty. I have skied about a half-dozen times in my life, and I’ve gotten to be OK at this sport I"m at the point where I am no longer challenged by the bunny slopes, but when I go on to do some Blue runs I get my ass kicked. The last time I went skiing I volunteered to help lead our church’s skiing retreat. I made my 10th run down the easy runs when a few of the teens and our Youth Minister asked me to join them on a run. I told them that I wasn’t very good, I might slow them down.

"Don’t worry about it," the youth minister said, "This is an easy run. It’s not very steep and it levels out for a while." So I took them up on their invitation and went skiing. What followed was one of the most embarrassing hours of my life. I got off the lift and almost immediately I kept falling. I kept going too fast and wasn’t able to stop, which led me to taking tumbles. Then I came to a pretty close encounter with a tree when I decided that I had enough – I took my skis off, and started the humbling walk to the bottom of the mountain.

Now, four years later, I’m going the plunge again – this time doing the snowboard. Hopefully this will be equalizer. Bethany and her mom are avid skiers, but this will be her mom’s first time on the board, for Bethany her third. This is a little comforting, but I’m still pretty nervous. I should be in better shape to be attempting my first snowboard run, I’ve heard about how my butt is going to get killed by the time I’m done, and that I’m just going to fall over and over again. Still, this is going to be a lot of fun. It’s a new experience and after tomorrow I’ll get to say that I’ve tried snow boarding. Who knows, I might end up doing really awesome at it…

So tonight I’m praying for patience, persistence, good health and an ice pack ready for me tomorrow night. Wish me luck!

"If you beat up the hooker after you sleep with her, you’ll get your money back!" -Amanda as we were driving the streets of Philly, looking for a paint shop so Andie will stop following us.

I got into Philly safely this morning. The over-night flight was a bit hard, but much better than my original 6am flight (meaning that I would have to leave my house at 3am). I rolled into the place that I am staying (coincidentally called "Jeremy House") at 6am and after a bit of location confusion, I managed to get in and get some sleep… I am partially rested this morning, but am ready for a few long days of good meetings, hard work and fun times.

For those who don’t live close to me or haven’t seen me in the last few weeks, you may be surprised to know that I shaved my goatee after the Broncos loss last weekend. After 5+ years of having the goatee, it’s been a bit of adjustment for both myself and people around me. To top it off I also cut my hair pretty short last weekend (it’s been growing pretty long for almost three months), so it’s been a bit of a change.

Right now the jury is still out about whether or not I keep. I have committed to keeping myself clean-shaven at least until the Super Bowl, but right now I’m leaning to going a bit longer.

What triggered this thought was last night on the plane when I ordered my drink. My drink of choice in the error is a tomato juice, but with the goatee I used to cringe whenever drinking it. The juice is so thick that more ends up on the goatee than in my mouth, and the little cocktail napkin they give you does no good… But last night was a completely different story – I barely had to use the napkin at all! It was awesome!

Which leads me to want to create a Pro’s & Cons list about not having goatee and being clean shaven:

Pro’s

• Don’t have to worry about trimming it and getting all shaggy
• No random hair ends up in the mouth
• Easier to kiss with a smooth face (I think Bethany appreciates it too)
• People say I look younger
• Orange juice with pulp is drinkable
• The little cocktail napkin on the plane is enough for the tomato juice

Cons

• The shape of my face has lost definition – it feels rounder
• I can no longer stroke the goatee when pondering things

Does anyone else have any pro’s or con’s? I would appreciate any suggestions you may have. I’ll post a picture of myself later on…

I’ll also break out the camera later today to show you some pictures of Philly. We’re not going to see much in terms of sights, but the places we’re staying and meeting at are beautiful!