So what do you do when you realize that you've wasted the last 5 years of your life and the person you believed in more than anything in the world doesn't believe in you at all? No, I'm serious....someone tell me what you do...because I never really had room in my understanding of the world for this....

More updates on the last week to come later....sorry for my absence...

I realize it's fairly unusual to already know at 2:00 in the afternoon that you're headed toward an all-nighter, but unfortunately that's where we are today. My 383 paper's due tomorrow, and I've still got to read the book and select a topic before I can even begin writing. It's not so bad, though...at least I won't be surprised at burning the midnight oil this time. So basically the agenda for the day involves running a ton of errands this afternoon, heading over to the office for a couple hours to do work there, and then settling in after dinner for an intense evening with Joseph Conrad. Highlights of the past couple days follow:

1) Miraculously regaining power in the Dwelling yesterday morning!! And, of course, there's a story. You see, after being up until about four o'clock on Sunday night, I was supposed to get up in time for morning prayers at 9am with Andrew. But when the alarm went off around 8:30, I decided that I would just pray in bed this time, so I rolled back over. A few minutes later, when the overhead light in my room suddenly came on, I figured it was Andrew trying to get me out of bed on time. Then I quickly remembered that we weren't supposed to have lights here in the Dwelling, so I jumped out of bed and began the celebrations. That morning, I definitely 'danced my dance'!!

2) Moving the two huge trees that fell on the playground during the storm from the church yard to the front sidewalk. Although Will & Brian and I weren't all that excited that no one else was able to come by to help out, I did get to have a great conversation with Gary Robbins about Princeton and other seminaries, so it was all good!

3) Enjoying the deep wisdom of 'King of the Hill' with the guys over our spaghetti dinner.

4) Having a wonderful discussion, at our Enemy of Apathy group last night, about the death penalty, and the social, economic and theological issues which lie behind the church's treatment of it.

5) Learning, while perusing the 'Christian Inspiration' section of Barnes & Noble with Sara, that God wants me to have both lasting relationships and amazing sex!!

6) And finally.....realizing this morning that apparently EVERYBODY knows about our *stroll* down the Lawn in the middle of Hurricane Isabel . . .

Well, hello there, and welcome to my world! Please come back...it makes me sad to think that I'll go through all this work and no one will be there read about it. :) In any event, after a pretty wild weekend, which involved streaking the lawn with Gampy Lee in the middle of Hurricane Isabel, witnessing the unimpressiveness of Princeton-at-Wise and the awesomeness of Drew Theological Seminary, having lunch at an amazing Irish pub in Times Square called O'Lunney's, and paying something like a thousand dollars to drive through six miles of Deleware, it occurred to me that sharing my random adventures with the world could be kind of exciting.

As I'm sure you know, I probably won't actually manage to find much time to write here, but perhaps it will suffice for the entire week to share with you our current activities. Youth group was great tonight...we had sixteen youth there and joined the adult Bible study for dinner...I'm really pumped about the fall, and everything we've got going on right now. I know that god is going to continue to use the talent and passion of these young people to bless our church and community! Afterward, I had an amazing conversation with Gary Bibb about everything from my crazy theology and his experience of doing all the plumbing work at his apartments to our solutions to problems in public education and welfare re-authorization. As I was leaving the church around 10:30, Chris called and we ended up talking for two hours. It's awesome that we're getting along a little better...I'm stoked that i get to be a part of everything that's going on in her life right now! When I finally got in, Andrew and Brian and I headed down to Little John's for second dinner (of course) and then I had the pleasure of introducing them to Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin. So now we're all in the office at the Foundation (our new home until the Dwelling finally regains power!) glorying in some Ring of Fire and I Walk the Line action! Hopefully I'll sleep sometime tonight....but, eh, it is for the weak, after all . . .