He is Risen!

Easter Sunday i usually filled with expectations for great music and worship, but for some reason I woke up viewing it like any other Sunday. That feeling left quickly as I arrived at CBCB to assist in recording the services and heard the choir specials for the day being rehearsed. There is one song that is a combination of "Christ Alone" and "The Solid Rock" that sent chills down my spine as the melodies and harmonies blended together to make a heavenly sound. The first service went fairly well as I was running the recording sound board for the first time in almost two months! My sidekick Chuckles was there to make sure I didn't botch everything up beyond repair. I decided to sit in the second service with Hickey, his "friend" and his friend's daughter. It was a different experience being in the service and singing with everyone. Both were a wonderful experience and I feel were more meaningful than my last few Easters.

After the service I drove mom and dad over to G-mom and Papa's for an Easter lunch extravaganza! We had ham, cauliflower casserole, green beans (I passed on these of course), a type of jello salad, and macaroni and cheese. For dessert we enjoyed either Mountain Dew Apple Cobbler or Buttermilk Pie. It was good, but as always at family gatherings I ate too much. We sat in the sun room talking about my job and other various topics until the UT basketball game came on TV. We watched the first half there and at halftime, we ventured over to Grandmother's to join the other side of the family and watch the second half of the game. It was so nice to see so much family in one day. It reminds me of how blessed I am to have a close family that is willing to travel to see each other on special days.

I stayed later than intended in Knoxville, but made my way out of town around 6pm. The traffic was fairly light considering it was the close of Easter weekend and that usually means lots of people traveling. I arrived in Kennesaw around 8:45 and proceeded to unpack a bit from my trips. I decided to take a break from that an watch the Lady Vols play Oral Roberts in their first game of this year's NCAA Women's Tournament. They were playing up to their usual high standards as I slowly drifted off to sleep and rested soundly until Monday began.

Mediation of the day: Psalm 33:20-21 "We wait in hope for the Lord;he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name."

A beautiful day

I woke up early on Saturday morning to take my car over to the Toyota Dealer for routine maintenance as the mileage on my car climbs due to frequent trips to Knoxville. After I dropped my car off, mom picked me up and were soon joined by dad and Amy at the ihop on Lovell Rd. for a breakfast feast. It was at this point that Amy and I realized that we had done the unthinkable: we forgot mom and dad's anniversary! Our waitress overheard our conversation and at the conclusion of our meal she brought out a chocolate chip pancake wrapped around ice cream with whipped cream and sprinkles on top as a free anniversary dessert. It was delicious, but did not make up for our error. Next year we will do something truly special.

After breakfast I went to Kohl's to get a dress shirt for Easter (and a tie to match!) and then followed Amy and mom around briefly as they too were looking for new Easter apparel. I picked my car up on our way back towards my parents' house as it was ready far earlier than predicted. I drove home for a minute or two and then met Elizabeth and Dustin at Fudrucker's to finalize some wedding business. It was really good to see them both, and I realized how much I miss hanging out with them since I've left town, etc. With a contract signed and a deposit collected, I picked mom up at the house and then we drove out to Amy's to meet up with her and Samus. We all piled in the Altima and headed downtown for some walking and potential shopping at the Mast General Store. The weather was absolutely perfect as it had been for the two previous days as well. We walked down the street to see and hear many different things. There was a street preacher barking out the truths of the Bible on the corner across from Market Square. I usually try to listen for a bit when I see this, but due to time constraints, we kept walking. Also, becasue the puggle doesn't know then meaning of the word wait (or hold on, sit still, be patient, etc...but then she wouldn't be a puggle would she?). We ventured into the Mast General Store where we were introduced to the store's mascot, an overweight pug named Jupiter. I had to chuckle to myself as I wondered if the dog was named Jupiter due to it's immense size or due to its astrology sign. I will have to just wonder as it would be rude to ask such a question. We perused around the store for several minutes, but most of my time was spent in the lower level with the hiking supplies and outdoor apparel. I showed great restraint and did not purchase anything, but believe me when I say that I wanted to purchase a lot of what I saw. After leaving the Mast General Store, we continued our walk down the sidewalk towards the Tennessee Theater in search of the bricks in the sidewalk that bore the namesake of all my grandparents. We eventually found them and then made our way back to the parking garage, stopping along the way to take some pictures for Amy's facebook page and carrying Samus over the grates in the sidewalk as she is deathly afraid of falling in.

We stopped briefly off at G-mom and Papa's to say hi and let them visit with the puggle. Then we made our way back to our respective homes to do various tasks. Mine included laundry, picking up stuff at Walgreens and then making a traditional trip to McKay's. I had some CD's to sell back and was curious to see what new treasures had come in. I was tempted to purchase a book on the Golden Age of Advertising featuring page after page of ads from the 50's and 60's, but I realized that no one ever comes to my apartment so why would I need a good coffee table book for people to look through? I passed on the book this time, but if it is there next time I go, I will probably not be able to refrain. I made my way back home and waited there for a bit grabbing some food and awaiting a phone call from Hickey to let me know when I could begin helping his "friend" move. I eventually made my way back over to Amy's around 7:30 to play some Wii Sports with Amy, Laura, and Jon. It was such fun, and every time I play I realize more and more that I will eventually have to buy my own Wii so I can play whenever I want. We played a variety of games until 10:15 when Hickey called to say he needed my help moving the big stuff.

I drove down to the "friend's" apartment which was conveniently located on Pleasant Ridge not far from Amy and Jon's house. We loaded up several large pieces into Hickey's truck and prepared for a trip out to John Sevier Hwy to unload it's contents. I rode there with Hickey's "friend" and was introduced along the way to a group called Rehab. They are basically a mix of Papa Roach, P.O.D., and Linkin Park. I loved several of the songs and will undoubtedly purchase the album sometime soon. We arrived at our destination and unloaded everything without any major problems. There were some tight spaces to carry things through the halls, but with Hickey and my vast moving experiences we handled it quite well. We dropped Hickey's truck off and realized we were hungry so we next found ourselves at the ihop on Merchant's Dr. I never thought I would be going to eat at an ihop twice in one day, but it was well worth it. Hickey and I spent the majority of our time making his friend laugh uncontrollably. We also were surprised when we saw Clay, Amber, and another friend of theirs walk in to sit at the table next to us. We told jokes, were way too loud, and probably annoyed the staff at times, but when you are at ihop at 1:30am what do you expect? We departed from there and I went home to crash. It was the first time in a while (with the exception of my Charleston trip) that I have been up past 2am. I must now sleep to be awake to fully experience Easter Sunday!

Meditation of the day: Psalm 27:7 "Hear my voice when I call, O Lord; be merciful to me and answer me:

Back home

I was the first one to awaken this morning around 7am and decided rather than get up and get ready, I would read some more on the book I'm going through: "The Red Sea Rules". I read on this until Chan finally woke up and began typing his blog from the previous day. We woke Hickey up in the most effective method that I have found. We squirted him in the face with a squirt gun until he moved! I will have video clips of this event posted on Myspace a little later this week. We kind of watched TV and just hung out in the room until we realized that it was drawing near to the time we would have to check out. We rushed to shower (separately of course) and get things packed back up to check out at the appropriate time. We loaded up the Xterra and decided to drive for an hour and then stop an eat to watch part of the UT basketball game. We drove until noon and then made the decision to try and find the game on the radio and keep driving so we would make it back to Knoxville before the 5:00 traffic rush. We stopped off somewhere in South Carolina at Marice's BBQ for lunch after we bought gas for the remainder of the trip. We chose this restaurant based on a billboard we saw on the interstate. It read: "Maurice's BBQ. Our BBQ will make you happy!" That seemed like a bold statement to make concerning our local love of Buddy's, but we decided to try it before we judged. It was delicious and since we were starving by this point, I guess you could say that we were happy. So it wasn't false advertising, in our case at least. We continued on the road and arrived in Knoxville around 4:45pm to find no real traffic problems due to the holiday weekend. We stopped at Chan's house to pick up my car and loaded up Hickey's junk and my junk and we headed to Hickey's house as the last destination on our journey. We decided to take Northshore Dr. since it was such good weather for driving. We arrived at the dreaded roundabout they have recently installed at the intersection of Northshore and Concord to be pleasantly surprised that they have added a yield bypass for those turning right onto Concord Rd. This is amazingly good so people who just want to turn right don't have to traverse through the roundabout and possibly get hit by those who can't figure out how to navigate such an uncommon road obstacle. I dropped Hickey off at his house where his dad was mowing the lawn and his mom was brushing Sky, their collie.

I arrived back at my parents house just in time to hop in the car and go to the Tuckers for dinner. We had BBQ chicken, beans, and corn for the main course, and then Jon brought home an Easter basket from someone at his dad's work for dessert. Jon and I watched parts of the Vanderbilt basketball game and then ended up watching John Adams, a new mini-series on HBO. It was chalked full of stars and was very engaging from the start. We watched the first entire episode and then it was time to return to Le Chateau de Taylor for the duration of the evening. I decided to pass on Applebee's seeing as how I was very tired from the day's travels and I had a full day planned for tomorrow so I needed to get some much needed rest.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 37:23-24

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him."

Charleston, my kind of place.

I woke up around 7:30 to the sounds of the ocean waves crashing into the sand and the sea-gulls singing (if you can call it that) to greet the new day. I was still feeling tired, but that was to be expected after going to bed around 3am. I grabbed a quick shower and then moved a chair out to the balcony to do some reading and start the day off on the right foot. Chan and I decided that we should wake up Hickey by 8:30 so we could begin the travels for the day by 10. I gave the first attempt at stirring him by taking two of the hotel pillows and repeatedly hitting him with them for about 10 seconds solid. Surprisingly, this did nothing to move him towards consciousness. Chan then shook him and he finally came out of his coma. Chan and I left Hickey to begin his process of getting ready for the day and went to Walmart in search of IBC Root Beer bottles, a squirt gun, and a thumb drive. Let me explain: The bottles for placing a letter I have written inside to put out to sea, the squirt gun to wake Hickey up the next morning, and the thumb drive to transfer Chan's blog to my laptop so we could post it online as his laptop was not allowing internet access for some reason. We found only the thumb drive at Walmart (which is the least well stocked store I have been to) so we gathered the remainder of our items at the local Piggly Wiggly. We returned to the hotel and wasted a little more time, posting blogs, and packing bags before hopping in the car to drive to downtown Charleston.

We first stopped off at the Goodwill store in an attempt to find some obscure yet priceless t-shirt that would help us remember this fateful trip. We navigated our way fairly easily, only relying on the GPS to direct us when we weren't sure if we were heading in the wrong direction (so all the time). We parked and walked for just a bit until we came to our destination for lunch: A.W. Shucks. I had the Crab Cake and Stuffed Shrimp combo. It is a 5 oz. Crab Cake with 2 jumbo shrimp stuffed with crab meat and wrapped in bacon. It also came with a baked potato and hush puppies (which I found out is Hickey's favorite food group). After we ate and purchased shirts to commemorate our meal, we walked through the straw market to see what hidden treasures might be found. I purchase a new ring and Hickey and Chan bought various gifts for several people back in Knoxville. We then dropped Hickey off, on a street corner, so he could find the Quicksilver shop to buy some things for Clay and himself. Hickey was our driver while we were driving anywhere except to and from Knoxville, so when he got out of the driver's seat guess who stepped in to keep the party moving. That's right, me! This was an unexpected occurrence as I do not like to drive anything larger than my Toyota Camry. I was a good sport though and did quite well, hitting no buildings and running over no pedestrians. After that we drove around for a while and visited yet another thrift store to try and find the perfect shirts to capture the memories of our trip. Once again we struck out. We drove around for a short while before deciding to return to the hotel to chill for a bit and Chan wanted to try and catch up on some sleep (as he went to bed around 3am and got up around 6 am). He was extremely successful as you can see by the picture shown here.

While Chan was slipping deeper into his coma of recovery, Hickey and I walked down to a surf shop on the street corner near our hotel. We found what we thought we would; lots of cool stuff at really high prices. We walked down to the end of the pier and sat, talking for about an hour about life, love, and purpose. It was really good to get the last of this stuff off my chest and it was even better to share it with such a close friend. Hickey and I got tired of just sitting so we began walking down the beach towards the beach house where the college department at CBCB stays during the summer. We soon became inspired to go further at a faster pace and began running on the hard part of the beach to avoid slipping in the sand. We ran for about a mile and then slowed to a walking pace. We began collecting seashells for no reason. It just seemed like there would be some purpose if we kept at it. We walked for another mile or so and soon found ourselves at the end of the beach. We took some wonderful pictures that I will be able to show you sometime or if you want to you can log on to Facebook or Myspace and view the album there after I get back to GA. We also stumbled upon a seashell that was broken into many smaller pieces, but every piece was still right there in the same spot and in the correct formation. I thought about this for a while, and then it hit me. Even though things or people in life are broken, it doesn't mean that all the pieces aren't there to be put back together and that others can help you see the pieces you miss. This was very comforting to me and I knew that this was the first lesson that God was teaching me on this trip. We slowly made our way back towards the hotel and arrived back at our room approximately 4 hours after we left. We all piled into the Xterra and were driving around in search of a place to eat dinner. We pulled into Melvin's BBQ restaurant only to find that closed in 15 minutes. We continued driving until we finally found ourselves at Charleston Crab House. While there I realized that Hickey really doesn't like seafood (Amy you're not alone!) as he ordered a chicken sandwich. I ordered the Coconut Shrimp with French fries. They were delicious, but I was unable to finish them as I ate 3 hush puppies and drank 4 glasses of sweet tea before I really got into my meal. The staff at the restaurant was extremely nice and were very adamant about getting everything exactly right. We opted not to get shirts from there due to the fact that it would mean our entire selection of t-shirts in our wardrobe would consist of 60% shirt from restaurants. (not that that's bad or that that is an accurate percentage, but you get the general idea). We decided to hold off on ice cream until tomrrow seeing as how we couldn't eat anything else. We then went for a short walk on the beach to finish putting some things to rest for now by placing a letter in a bottle and then throwing it out to sea. This was a good release for me and a way to allow God to take this burden from me and to place it in His hands for His time. We relaxed for the remainder of the evening at the hotel watching NCAA basketball games and drifting in and out of sleep. The last sounds I heard were the gentle breeze and the rhythmic crashing of waves on the beach just a few yards away.

Meditation for the day: Jeremiah 24:4-7

"Then the word of the LORD came to me: "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart."

I can see the ocean!

The day started out pretty normal as my alarm clock screamed in an attempt to wake me up. It was unsuccessful at first, but finally on the third try I got up. I scrambled around getting ready for work and getting last minute things together for the trip. Work was kind of a waste as I only got a few things done before my meeting with the owners of Sparkfly. I did, however, get a chance to meet with Dave and sift through the pile of requests to avoid any additional build-up of work while I am gone to Charleston. We met with the owners of Sparkfly to discuss some more in-depth involvement we could do to promote each other and grow our businesses. My involvement in the meeting was only supposed to be introductions and a quick over view of their company and our history with them. Unfortunately it was much more than that. I ended up staying for the entire meeting which lasted about an hour and a half! This put me that much behind schedule in my departure for Knoxville to meet up with Hickey and Chan to begin our journey. I rapidly ran back to the apartment, changed, and then hit the road in the downpour that had begun when I left work. I was making pretty good time and thought I might be able to make up some of my deficit and we wouldn’t have to leave so late. I thought that until I got just outside Chattanooga. That is when the traffic on the interstate stopped. Not crawled slowly or slowed down. It just stopped dead. I found out after going about 2 miles in 45 minutes, that they had shut down the entire north bound side of I-75. They opened it up just before I was forced to exit and try to navigate my way to Knoxville by way of back roads. I followed the road side assistance vehicles until they moved aside and let everyone get back to a normal speed instead of following them like a pace car at 20 mph. I finally made it into Knoxville at 5:00pm which means that it took about 4 hours to get up here instead of the usual 2 hours 45 minutes.

Once I arrived in Knoxville I drove to Chan’s house where we unloaded his car from a trip to MaKay’s and we loaded my stuff. We hit the road, but not to Charleston. We first made a stop off at the Great American Steak & Buffet (or GASB to the veterans of this establishment). We ate dinner with one of Hickey’s friends and then we hit the road for real this time. The weather was good to begin with, but we soon found ourselves being blown around on the interstate and hammered with lots of rain. (perhaps I could bottle some of this and give it to my fellow Georgians to do my part in bringing an end to the drought). We spent the first three hours of our trip listening to “Under Pressure” by Queen featuring David Bowie. Chan and I also spent some time talking about life, love, and loss. (Hickey was passed out asleep for this so he missed out). The rest of the tip was hit or miss on the rain. It was either nothing at all or a mini typhoon surrounding our vehicle. We rolled in to Charleston at 12:51am and it was very, very windy. It also was raining and there were no places within a mile of the hotel to park so we ran and only got mildly soaked. We got into our room and Hickey discovered a strange beeping noise that instantly drove him insane. He wouldn’t let it rest so he went down to the front desk to have them check it out. They responded rather quickly (no doubt due to Hickey’s distressed expression on his face) and sent security up to investigate. They discovered it was nothing more than the alarm clock in the room next door and promptly deactivated it. Problem solved, case closed. Hickey and I were very impressed with Chan's hair and uncanny resemblance to Noah from the Old Testament. (see picture for proof). We decided to crash for the night so we could be refreshed for the morning.

I can almost smell the ocean...

Today time passed quite slow as I suspected it would. All I could think about was what I had to pack and what I thought I would forget to pack. I spent the first part of the day going through some tutorials online to expand my knowledge of Photoshop and how to make files from there work better in InDesign. I also got 2 more requests for donations and sponsorships to add to my large stack of things to get approval/denial from Dave. I went back to my apartment during lunch and began the packing process. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but at least there was some visible progress made. I finished out the day at work talking breifly with Dave and Chris about what flyers I will be producing and what flyers I will be designing layouts only. Basically it boils down to what is a more valuable use of my time: flyer production or customer database management. Obviously the second is the more important seeing as how we can have the best sales pieces in the world, but if they aren't getting to the right people they are a waste of time and money. So....the 7 pages of the back-to-school flyer I have worked on for the past 2 days are no longer my responsibility. That is both slightly frustrating and slightly relieving as I wasn't really looking forward to tracking down 16 pages worth of high-res images. I wrapped up a few loose ends that I could do before tomorrow.

I went home and began furiously packing. I realized that I was actually packing for 2 trips. First for Charleston, and then for my 2 day layover in Knoxville for Easter weekend. This complicated things a little as I decided that packing for both trips at the same time was a faster way to work. I was wrong. I only succeeded in confusing myself and delaying any real progress. Once I got things sorted out, I loaded up my bags with clothes and supplies for my trips. I then prepped my laptop to take with me, freeing up disk space to hold music and photos we take on our adventure. I am almost like a young child on Christmas morning, waiting in anticipation of the onset of the next day where new adventures await me and my friends. I hope that we find an answer to our email seeking an interview with the owners of Camp Tunawanda, the film location for the movie Happy Campers. I suppose I ought to get more sleep tonight so I will be more alert to drive to Knoxville in the severe storms predicted to follow me on the road tomorrow. I will try and keep posting each day on my trip to keep you up to date on our adventures. For now I'll leave you with the meditation for the day.

Meditation for the day: I am hoping to hear God's voice speaking to my heart on this trip. I have had a hard time lately trying to decide where to start picking up the pieces. Pray that I meet with the Almighty staring at the vast sky littered with stars at night on the beach were I hope to find solitude and comfort.

1 Kings 19:11-13

"The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

The luck of the Irish

I started off today actually remembering to wear my green dress shirt to work today. I usually forget things like that, but I figured being the new guy in the office if I neglected to participate in this festive day, I would surely be red all over from the ferocious pinching I would receive. The office was relatively quiet today as Dave, Vickie, and Stacy were all off work for various reasons. I got about 4 pages done on the back to school flyer which was 2 more than I planned this week. I have decided to not focus solely on that flyer every day, but instead spread it out so I can still get other things done. Its not like there is a huge rush for this to be finished as it won't be printed until June. The day passed relatively quickly, which is good. I figured it might drag on as I am not really focused on work, but instead longing to be walking on the beach at night in Charleston with two of my best friends.

After work ended I went back to the apartment to do some things (aka laundry) to begin getting ready for Charleston. I was able to do more than I thought before I had to leave to go over to Stacy's. I drove to Stacy's and met her and her two friends, Kristy and Stephanie, who were visiting from Miami. I followed them to Marietta Square, which is similar to Knoxville's Market Square, but it was much bigger. We were expecting a large crowd to be present to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but it really wasn't very busy. We were able to easily find parking and then walked to Hemingway's Bar and Grille where we met Tausha (from the School Box) and another Stephanie (one of Stacy's friends from Smyrna, GA). It was an interesting blend of food available on the menu. They had traditional bar food, but also had several tropical themed dishes. This was no doubt in honor of where Ernest Hemingway lived for a portion of his life. I ordered the jerk wings. They were very peppery, but not too greasy and had quite a bit of meat on the bones. We got to listen to a variety of music while there was Monday night trivia going on in the background. We heard everything from Outkasts' "I'm Sorry Miss Jackson" to Kiss' "Detroit Rock City". I was hoping to sample some green beer jst to say I had the experience, but they ran out before we got around to ordering it. Oh well, perhaps it was for the best (I can't imagine it would taste good). It got to be close to 11:30 and Tausha and I decided that since we had to be at work at 8am the next morning we were calling it a night. I followed Tausha back to I-75 and then found my own way home. It isn't really as bad to drive around the metro Atlanta area as people think. I got home and did a few things then fell victim to sleep deprivation and called it a night.

Mediation for the day (In preparation for being on the beach at night looking at the vast sky filled with stars and realizing how small we really are): 1 Chronicles 4:40 "They found rich, good pasture, and the land was spacious, peaceful and quiet."