home from namps, to the Euge

Got home from nampa yesterday and drove down to eugene with elizabeth to hang out with my sister. It's been really a great time so far. Yesterday, when we arrived, we went to dinner at Cosmo's Pizza with my sister's boyfriend, Charles, which was really good. Then we watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium which I fell asleep almost through the entire movie, but Elizabeth said it was pretty good.

Then today we slept in and then went to the Duck Stop, where my sister is a barista. We got some coffee and came back to her apartment and watched Once. When she got off work we went and painted some things at Brush-Fire. Elizabeth and I painted a sugar jar and Karlin painted a flower pot. Then we came back and my sister and elizabeth made some vegetarian biscuits and gravy, and it was so yum. Now me and elizabeth are heading back home.

heading home

Today's my last full day in Namps. It's been a blast getting to be here and hang out with my good friends. Though I'm sad to leave these peeps, I'm really excited to get home and see my best friend, Elizabeth, because I've really missed her, and she's beautiful!

Here's the run down on what I've been up to...

Drove here with Chris and Reed on Monday.
Went to Wendy's with the Red, and then taco bell with reed, chris and kylee, then watched a movie that was too long.
Slept alright...
Woke up and started watching a movie but turned it off to get some bacon, egg and cheese biscuits at McDonald's. (breakfast is the only thing I will get there)
Went to the Dex with Reed and Chris at lunch time and got to see, Matt, Dax, Jared, Ian, Joey, Tommy, Joe, etc...
Went to the Rec. Center to play basketball with Tommy, Matt and Chris.
Came back, took a shower and took a nap while watching the Royal Tenenbaum's, which really is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Went to Outback for dinner with the Red, Chris and Ryan Cork.
Finished the Royal Tenenbaum's
Went to the library to see Roland, but also saw Brittan and Trenton
Went to see Bieds, Nate, Seth and Blaine, hung out and talked to those guys for a good while.
Tried to impress Jesse Hyslop with some chemistry knowledge, but of course he was not impressed and only looked up from his computer game once when we were talking.
Went to sleep and slept a lot better than the first night.
Woke up early and went to breakfast with Chris and Kenton. Kenton was going to pay for it but someone picked up our tab. It was awesome.
Went to Chapel, went to the Flying M with chris, reed and kylee. Caleb was working.
Went to the Dex and saw Zach
Currently at the Apt. blogging with reed and about to help Chris memorize his play lines.
Later tonight is TimeOut and a good guy, Alex, is speaking.


Dialogue from the best moment of the entire trip...

Chris: "Hey Caleb, guess what I had for breakfast this morning"
Caleb: "Umm..., ..., ..., should I know this?"
Chris: "Bran hotcakes."
Caleb: (Caleb steps back, lifting his head high) "oomph"

where did Saturday go?

So, I've been working on Saturdays now for 9 months. I've missed two Saturdays in that time, one when I was sick and one for my Grandma's funeral. What I'm trying to say here is, I have no idea what the heck Saturday is anymore. When I think back to pre-nine months ago I remember sleeping in, getting up, staying lazy, or doing something fun. Now, it's get up at 6:45, leave the house at 7:30, start work at 8, get off at 4:30. Basically working on Saturday's sucks. Not only is your Saturday gone, but your Friday night is gone also. I'm in bed Friday nights at like 11:00! Oh brother... The good news here is that right about the time Elizabeth and I get married, I won't have to work Saturdays anymore and I will have a real weekend for a change! Some of my favorite Saturday memories are of waking up early to go fishing or hunting, or just out to breakfast. The best thing about waking up early and going to breakfast when I was younger was that afterwards I, when my dad and I came home, would go back to sleep, or help him wash the car.

explanation

When I decided to make a blog it was just for the reason of keeping journal, more or less. I decided on the title, "a piece of the community" because it explains who I am. I am a part, a portion, a fragment, a piece, just like everyone else.
A piece of what?
I am a piece of a neighborhood, a body, a populace, a community, just like everyone else. To realize that you are a piece of the community is important because than you can become a relevant, piece of the community. As a follower of Christ I have found it absolutely beautiful to be a piece of the community. It's what we're called to do as His Body and I've really been able to realize this as of late.

The command to put others before yourself seems pretty straight forward. So why don't we do it more often? I've began contemplating this in the last couple weeks and it's been beautiful. Before I started thinking about this I was a guy who would help others, but make sure I wasn't getting in over my head, meaning, I would look out for myself, making sure the act of helping others didn't consume me, so I would still have time for myself. I want to change and give myself completely to others, not looking out for myself, but allowing God to look after me. I think it starts with faith that the Lord will protect you and use you, then you can truly help people.

Well I need to sleep, gotta work in 6 hours.

p.s. I think I just realized while writing this that I would really love to be a missionary.

the way things should be?

So I'm at school right now in nutrition class and learning about numerous benefits to coffee and caffeine. It's pretty impressive actually; reduces risk of Parkinson's disease, relieves headaches, helps the body burn fat, blunts the perception of pain, increases endurance, etc...

So this is my first post. I'm not sure what kinds of things I'm going to write on here, I'll probably just use it for things I'm thinking about and things I've been doing, like everyone else.

This first post I will use to explain the book I'm going to write, someday. This book is going to be somewhat like a Chicken Soup for the Soul. It's going to contain stories from people that tell "perfect experiences" or experiences they had that made them feel really good, and maybe made them say something like, "man, this is how things should be." For example, at the rescue mission a month ago, two girls from church Amanda and Joanna sat down next to an older (probably 60's) homeless man who was wearing a hat. Joanna has pink hair and this guy noticed it. "Does your friend dye her hair?" he said to Amanda. "Oh, nope! It's natural," joked Amanda. "Oh, well I dye mine," he stated. Now, Elizabeth and I were sitting right behind this guy and though he was wearing a hat we could see that his hair was dark brown and gray around the back and sides. "Really? Amanda replied, what color do you dye it?" The man said, "red." As Amanda and Joanna were kind of laughing and just going along with it the man proceeded to remove his hat showing that he did indeed dye his hair and it was very red, on the top. "OH WOW! YOU REALLY DO!" shouted Amanda, and the three of them started to laugh.

It was awesome, and so unexpected! Here is an older guy who I thought maybe wouldn't understand why people dye their hair or might think it was stupid, then revealed he died his too. Everyone had a big smile on their face and felt good afterwards.

This is the type of story I'm looking for for my book. I have a couple other stories too that I will use, but I would like to have 365 different stories by different people. If you have any and would like to have them in the book you can send 'em to me. wjohnson@pdx.edu

Thanks guys.