Day 6

Today was off to a good morning. I woke up to find my mom watching Dexter again at 8 something in the A.M. I had a bowl of Rice Krispies, and after listening intently to the snap, crackle, and pop, I've realized that I just don't think they're talking to me.

I left my house around 10:00 and ventured over to my grandma's, where I met up with her and then the two of us did some shopping. While I should be buying school books, I spent the time endowing for the autumn weather and some clothes to counter it. Good bargain shopping as always, got a coat I really liked. I'm excited to wear it, and no, I'm not gay.

Went home, put some stuff for sale on eBay, vagabonded around my room and filled time until I worked yet again, only a closing shift tonight. The night ended at some time spent at my friend Melissa's house. I do extol the time I spend there, no matter what the night serves.These late nights are shaping me into the man I need to be. Lack of sleep = growth of character.

- New Fall Coat -

Day 5

I love to be able to sleep in. I hate when sleeping in ends in awakening before I would be eating lunch. It's a feeling that the morning has been stolen from your day. You are thrust into the action of the afternoon and beyond. Nonetheless, I needed it. Sleep is an escape, in many forms.

More work. Nothing out of the ordinary, just an orthodox routine that I follow when the day calls for it (this tends to be every day). I was probably still on the fact that my morning had evaporated into the time spectrum and I couldn't believe how fast the day was going. After thinking about this and when I'm gonna buy my college supplies, I pushed it aside.

After work I made the trip to my grandmother's house, where my family got together to celebrate my dad's 49th birthday. He's 49. Half of 98. Over double my age. If our lives are like tape measures, and you roll out the yellow steel to the inch mark that indicates your date, it's a sight to see when you realize how small we as humans truly are. Try this. Take out a tape measure. If you are my age (22), roll it out to the 100 inch mark, and then subtract your age from 100. What you will have left (78 inches), is your life. That is how much time you have left. Play with the 22 inches that you sucked back into the tool a bit, and see, that even though 22 inches measures out to be a lot of yellow metal, just like that, its gone. It gets sucked instantly back into the steel vortex where it's held. That's how our lives are. Just like that, we are here. I look at the 78 inches left on my reel, and realize two things.
1.) This is all under the impression that I live till I'm 100, so if I die younger, my distance would even be shorter.
2.) Live your life. No time for the dilly dally of a dilatory life.
Good times, good cake, good food, and good drinks. I love these people. In the realm of reality, all of our tape measures have been built in the master construction of our family. Our life. No one can ever tear that constructed art down. Ever.

- Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, Me, Shelby, Mom, Ethan -

Day 4

So at 8:00am I'm doing daycare duty. I don't typically work the playroom at my fitness center, but I took someone's shift this morning, and I've needed an early morning wake up to prep for the looming school year. I end up watching my boss' two boys. In the next 3 hours, I'm out of breath, I'm sweaty, I'm bruised, and I'm picking up a thousand pieces of Play-dough, but I'm happy. Watching kids is such a window of the mind to experience a beta version of parenting. You have to get to their level. You have to be willing to look like a dork to the public eye, and become whatever the kid wants you to. Parenting, though still down my road in life, will be something I'll happily accept.

I sped out of work and grabbed lunch downtown with my dad and his business partner John at the Sundance Grill,  a great little cafe / diner with the urban Grand Rapids feel. I got scrambled eggs with crab meat and it was delicious. My dad is great, and so is John, and for an hour, the three of us just talked, exchanged stories, and ate our lunch. I love those two guys. I really do.

Back to the fitness center, for my sanctioned shift at the desk. Typical work day, file papers, clean the gym, create new promotions and ideas, you get the picture. I grabbed a massage after I left due to an inflamed muscle in my back that was resembling a mound growing out of my back.

Once home, me and my friend Melissa grabbed some salad and salmon, and I'd be lying if i said it wasn't great. The rest of the night was spent with me and her talking, watching old videos from my high school days, Curb Your Enthusiasm (one of the funniest shows I've ever seen), and staying up until the sun comes up. Okay.....maybe she's not just a friend.

- Playdough mess in the playroom. I made the dog -

Day 3

A day off. I like these days. It's like a mini-holiday, I get to catch up with my life, fill in the cracks, paint the edges, that sort of feeling. I'm truly thankful I'm able to work part-time. I've never been a man who can be married to work.

I don't know want to sit here and tell you I did anything exuberantly exciting, since it was a day off, and I like a good day off to just hang out with myself, whether that's wrestle with my little brother, play video games, work out, or clean out my itunes library. All of these are just great feelings. It's like hitting a refresh button on your life. Actually, it was the first day I've worked out in awhile. I've fallen behind on that routine. There's something about it that feels good, in the sense that you're able to vent and burn off stress without really feeling it. Some men prefer to drink, others may scream into a wad of cotton, or feel the need to brawl, but I've always been in the category of exhaling emotion through working out. It works.

Tonight I got to have dinner with a great friend of mine, Steve Moerdyk. Steve and I have been great friends since high school, particularly junior year of high school and beyond. We worked on landscaping jobs together, took several of the same classes in high school, and then continued to enjoy the good life through college. We sat over plates of orange chicken tonight and just caught up with each other, and filled in the cracks and painted the edges of our own lives with each other. I'm very blessed to have someone I can look up to and heed, and Steve has done a knockout job at being that friend for me. Time is still moving forward with that.

- Steve Moerdyk-

 

Day 2

Slept in. I needed it. Bad. Thankfully I woke up just in time to realize there was a Sunday dinner at grandma's that was waiting for me.

My grandma made a great meal. Grade A food all around. It's one of those meals where you don't even realize what you are eating; there's such a combination of food in everything. I think one of the options was a shell with bacon turkey and ham wrapped in it that was blanketed by a mixture of cheese sauces. I honestly don't know, and I care not to. It ruins the appreciation. Good dinner, good time spent with my grandparents and my sister.

I went and saw the film "the Tree of Life". wow. I have never seen a movie like this before. It's a non-narrative film, meaning it just branches off (no pun intended) into log segments of shots of nature, the sky, earth, animals; all of which pertain to life, how beautiful we have the capacity to be, and how easily we can be tainted. The whole time I was just constantly thinking about my life, to the point where I realized I wasn't even watching the movie, but just thinking. It was like a cinematic psychiatrist. The ending showcases what Heaven may look like for the person who may not get there, and it just.....wow. Go see it. It was $4.00.

Finished off the night at T.G.I. Friday's, a franchised restaurant that puts the "thank God" in the leaving of the establishment, not the entry. Met with one of my best friends Melissa, and her sister Mandy and friend Kelsey. We talked, caught up, all while I couldn't stop thinking about the Tree of Life. Just couldn't grasp the idea that free will is actually free. No government agency, no pope, no business can tax or refund that. It's free. It's free will. Thank you God.

-Tree of Life Poster-

Day 1

Here's to the next 365 days.

Days. Moments. Memories. Fragments of life.

Last week I was able to catch up to with a great friend of mine, (this is you Ty), and was inspired to capture my life with a brief paragraph or two along with a picture, something Ty has done for the last 200+ days.
It's going to be arduous, but I'm going to do it.

No reason. No goal. No reward. Just keepsake. I can look back after a year and see where I've gone, who I've met, and what I've done.

This will be updated in the style of the morning after. Every morning will be a new post from the previous day. With my night owl lifestyle, finishing out the day on a blog is a remonstrance. Tomorrow morning, what I did today will be palpable. Finally, all of the pictures on here, unless specified, are capture using my cellphone. (thank you Android).

Here's to the future.

-View from my house to the west-