sickness

I'm sick.
That runny nose-coughing up stuff-sore throat-sneezing-achy joints-headache feeling.
Ugh.
I get sick for about 1 week each year and it just fades away.
But being sick is not always a bad thing because it reminds me to be thankful for the the other 51 weeks of the year when I can smell and my voice does not sound like I am going through puberty.

stuff

i


A lot has happened in 2010 already. Was Christmas already over 1 month ago?

Bekah continues to get closer and closer to having the baby...our baby room is all ready to go and she is getting to the point that she is expressing her hopes to have the baby soon as she deals with swollen ankles, back pain, and a baby that can really throw some punches in there.
Yea, I am glad to be a dude.

Speaking of babies, my new nephew Garrison Wayne was born January 25th (see 1st and 4th pictures) with an impressive head of hair that is already showing some great mohawk-like style. Garrison makes me an uncle of 10, which I love in my pursuit to be "that crazy uncle" who is always chasing his nephews and nieces around...even though some of them are getting so big those piggy-back rides are getting a little tough.

We enjoyed our weekend get-a-way to the Milwaukee area staying at a bed and breakfast (pic 2), finding some great independent coffee shops (pic 3) as I became hooked on The Lord of the Rings book. Much better than the movie.
At the bed and breakfast the owner was a former Methodist minister who left the ministry to become a psychotherapist with books in his library with titles of "Marx and the Bible" and "Radical Feminism in the Bible." Interesting titles as I would have loved to visit with him about his experiences and the choice of his books, but we kept things "small talk" at the breakfast table and never went deep.
I feel often that I would love to "go deep" with people about there thoughts of God, but people seem to hold fast to the "rule" that we are not to talk about politics or religion as they are so charged, which reminds me of the importance of praying for opportunities to visit with people and also boldness to act on them.

Kansas State University basketball team beat the #1 team in the country and then lost to a team that was not ranked at all.

Lately I have been reading the book "Counterfeit Gods" by Timothy Keller. Fascinating book that points out the foolishness of finding our satisfaction in anything else but God as he exposes the unfulfillment in money, power, politics, and materialism. As CS Lewis said it, we are a machine that runs on God.

The other day I asked a friend what he thought about raising a child in today's society with all of its troubles and his answer was that every generation asked the same question as they became ready for parenthood. I found strange comfort in that.

People always ask me what I think about being a dad. To be honest, I don't know, but I think it is like getting married. You just have to trust the Lord and jump in with all of your might.

bad CTA day

When the weather gets bad I tend to appreciate riding our public transportation, the CTA (Chicago Transit Association) as I still get to work the same time if it is sunny, raining, or snowing while several of my coworkers get stuck in traffic as their cars add more salt to the underside of their cars.
But today was a bad CTA day.
As I was transferring trains I was headed towards the stairs to go down to the subway on the right side of the stairs. In front of me was a large woman who was going down on the left side of the stairs who did not see or hear me behind her as at the last second she decided to grab the right railing cutting me off as I squeezed past her muttering an "excuse me". Turns out she was deaf and I really scared her, to which I felt bad for. Not only was she deaf, but she was also violent as she yelled out phrases I wasn't able to understand and hit me a couple times in the left shoulder thus surprising me in return. I found that I was not going to get anywhere trying to explain to her what happened and did not want to get hit anymore so I continued down the stairs as she continued to yell at me. Luckily I was able to quickly jump on the train in the subway escaping more of her verbal and physical assaults.
I really do feel bad that there is some woman out in Chicago who thinks that some young punk tried to take her out, so if you stumble across this blog please accept my apologies.

On the way home I realized once I entered the train that I only had my right glove knowing that I also had the left glove which is sitting all alone on a platform. And I really liked those gloves. What do you do with one right glove?

All in all, I did get to work and back, but hopefully tomorrow I keep all my gloves and avoid any contact.

quiet mornings

I need more of these kind of Saturday mornings as I sit upstairs in a bed and breakfast in a small Wisconsin town full from a great breakfast with a warm cup of coffee and absolutely no plans but to hang out with my wife and read more of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. One of the most amazing thing about our last get-away before the baby is how quiet it is compared to Chicago. You know, that kind of quietness in which you can hear the white noise of blood flowing past your ears. The kind of quietness that leaves you alone in your thoughts...

Speaking of thoughts:
-I love finding random restaurants in random places. Last night Bekah and I ended up at a small Bistro that had live jazz music. Good times.
-I think people (including me) underestimate the beauty of a good book that makes tv seem boring.
-It is amazing to watch people respond to Haiti. Why is it that it takes something so horrible to unit Americans who otherwise continue to nit-pick each other about everything else?
-Speaking of Haiti, the country is buzzing about Pat Robertsons' comments about the earthquake as he inferred that the Haitians made a deal with the devil and therefore have caused the wrath of the Lord. My simple reply to Pat? Romans 11:33-34: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counselor?" Be careful Pat, as I am pretty sure you and I don't know His ways.
-The other day on the train coming home from work a young mom was on her cell phone while her young daughter was trying to get her attention. In response, the mother yelled very loudly and coldly to "shut the f*ck up!" taking all the spirit out of her daughter and causing all of us to raise our eyes from our books wanting to do something, but feeling powerless. I hate that feeling as I prayed for the small family and exited the train to transfer to another one watching my original train move on with a mom talking on a cell phone and a little girl staring out a window.

It is on these quiet mornings that I think of that little girl in her pink coat and pigtails wondering where she is at and why my childhood was drastically different.
It is on these quiet mornings I wonder about the families in Haiti.
It is on these quiet mornings I wonder why I don't have more of these quiet mornings.

that is funny

Today on my way home there was a jogger along the lakefront trail who totally biffed it real bad. Arms and legs all over the place. It was funny, really funny. Just like those 15 minutes I spent last week on youtube after I typed "treadmill accidents" in the search bar.
Why is watching the accidents of others so funny?
Yea, I don't know either.
Regardless have a safe week.

simplicity

The other day while I was riding the train to work I noticed that in my car someone had written all over one of the walls warning people not to get the H1N1 vaccine as they reported that the vaccine would either "sterelize" or "steralize" you with a web address for more information.
That is right, "sterelize" or "steralize" not sterilize.
While this is not a blog about the controversy of vaccines, but I will argue that if you are going to make this argument about the H1N1 vaccine and want to look somewhat legit you should make sure you spell the word "sterilize" correctly as you use a magic marker to write over advertisements for apartments and restaurants.
They say that most of communication is nonverbal and I agree as people don't care what you say unless they trust you as a credible person to be speaking in the first place as our society places a large value on those letters that come after your name: PhD, MS, MD, JD, DVM, BA etc.
But extending this further I find that a lot people want nothing to do with Jesus because of this or that person that claims to be following Him. They associate Christians with politicians, tv preachers asking for money, or the news articles of clergy members being caught literally with their pants down...just as affective as spelling sterilize incorrectly.
Maybe it is because I just finished the book "Blue Like Jazz" (which is an interesting read), which has challenged me of the simplicity of Jesus' message:
1) Love the Lord and His Word
2) Love others

stuff

Its cold in Chicago leading me to spend as many hibernation days in my apartment thankful for the free radiator heat making all of its clicking and hissing sounds as it emits heat. So here is random thoughts and happenings for the last few weeks:
1) I finished my first shift as a moonlighter (working without supervision) to which I was very freaked out, but comforted as I realized how faithful God is as I felt the same nervousness when starting undergrad, med school, residency, and all that entailed those stages. The shift went well...now onto more shifts and raising a child?!
2) On my way home the other day some med students were complaining about their Psych rotation and I could not stop myself from telling them that I was a Psych resident. You should have seen them backpedal trying to explain "what they really meant."
3) Later on the same trip home two drunk guys were making fun of their balding friend who was next to me on the train. They asked me what I thought about his hair (they were really drunk) and I struck up a conversation and found out that he was also a med student leading him to asking me for advice the rest of the way home. Hopefully he only remembers the good stuff I told him.
4) I ran the 5K on New Years Day, but decided to skip out on the polar bear plunging opting instead for a warm bowl of chilly at a local restaurant. While on paper this seems like a wiser decision, still I wonder if I made the right decision.
5) I taught Sunday School today, teaching middle and high schoolers can be tough as you know that they know the answer to your question even thought they just shrug their shoulders and avoid eye contact.
6) Yesterday I started and finished the book "The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music," which is about a journalist who befriends a very talented musician who struggles with mental illness leaving him on skid row playing a 2-stringed violin. A great book as I love getting wrapped up into a book and not being able to put it down.
7) Over the holiday season we enjoyed being with family and friends, but yesterday we took down all of our decorations and were amazed to see how many needles can fall off of a Christmas tree.

Happy 2010.