Wisdom of Dumbledore

I can’t believe it’s already Thursday. Life keeps rollin on. Yesterday was a fun little afternoon (it’s funny how my days don’t really seem to begin until after I get off of work. Another reason I wish I loved my job). Got to play some piano, then go looking for Rhoda who had run away. That was scary, but luckily she wasn’t gone long. By the way, Rhoda is a Seeing Eye dog for the blind lady next door. Then the wife and I had some dinner and played euchre and watched a movie. We saw The Constant Gardner. It was good, but not very uplifting.

The best thing about yesterday was probably finishing the Chamber of Secrets book on tape. I never got into the Harry Potter books until now, but they’re good. I really liked this one. Best quote (or one of them) was when Dumbledore (I’m not sure how stuff is spelled since I listen to it on tape, so sorry if things are wrong) says something about a person being known by their choices or something. Hang on I’ll find it…here we go:

"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

That’s such a good quote. Especially when you don’t like the job you’re in and struggling with who you are and what you want to do with your life. Especially in a society where people get paid millions for being able to jump high, sell high, hit hard and be attractive, and when they make stupid choices it doesn’t really matter. It’s a good quote to remember. I could go on, but I won't right now.

We’re playing frisbee tonight. It’s been awhile, so I’m looking forward to it.

What you crave

This morning I am being reminded why I only eat White Castle once every 6 months or so. I had “the crave” yesterday and there was no stopping it. It really did taste good, but now I’m paying the price. My stomach has been rumbling all morning and every time I let some gas out, I’m rolling the dice. I hate not knowing what’s going to come out until it’s too late. And since when did they start advertising their burgers as “Sliders?” That’s definitely a negative term that was invented to make fun of them. Now I see them using it in their commercials. And it's funny how eating a White Castle burger is the exact same experience as committing sin, or less specifically, doing something you know is stupid. Before you do it, you can think of nothing else and even though you have some faint memory of knowing it is wrong, you are able to find a million ways to justify doing it again. Then it's great while you're eating it and you feel pretty good. But the second you're done eating, you get that sick feeling of, "What did I just do?" Then it's nothing but regret until enough time passes that you forget what was so terrible about it in the first place. Anyways.

Yesterday church was very restorative for me. (how's that for segue?) The prayers were beautiful and I found it easy to pay attention. I hate being distracted by my own thoughts during church, and thankfully I didn’t have that problem yesterday.

Then we went to rent a movie and get some meat. Then I made my dining decision. We rented the movie “V for Vendetta.” Overall, it was a decent movie. Not near as good as its inspiration: The Count of Monte Cristo (at least the book, the movie wasn't all that great). But I enjoyed it. One thing that stood out was the excessive use of the word, “bollocks.” It was like the Wachowski brothers knew one British word and decided to use it whenever they wanted to remind us that we were in England. Ridiculous, but not bad enough to ruin the movie. So that was my evening.

Summer Nights

Another weekend come and gone. We finally got the piano moved into our house, which is really nice. It’s so much easier to practice when you can do it for little 10 minute intervals instead of having to plan an hour session. It’s freaking loud in our little house though.

Friday night we tried to get the Men’s Group going again. Third year anniversary last Friday. It was a fun night, although we never did get into a structured group. We saw pictures of camps present and past and drank some fine brew (thanks Luke!) and as often happens when a group of men get together and drink, we ended the night by beating each other. Classic games of Rock, Paper, Scissors complete with thwacks for the losing party. We even organized ourselves into teams. It was a great time.

Saturday was a fairly relaxing day. The wife and I went to a wedding. She knew the bride from when she used to work at Nordstrom’s. It was a stark contrast to our wedding, but I enjoyed it. Hard to get used to hearing Radiohead as the guests leave and watching a power point presentation in the middle of the ceremony. To each his own I guess.

That night as we were heading in, we saw the moon rising behind our house. My wife let me grab the camera and we headed out to take a few pictures. I haven’t uploaded them all, but this on is my favorite.

There are a few more up at The Rainbow Connection. (by the way, if anyone knows any good sites that gives free lessons on taking better digital pictures and such, please let me know) It was a beautiful night and I wish I could remember to take more time to just go out and find a nice spot to enjoy an evening. I really enjoy doing stuff and forget to just relax every once in a while.

Then Sunday was spent mostly with family, doing a bit of yard work, playing washers, and watching a movie with Mom. It was a great, classic summer weekend.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the day for yesterday (day after my 7 month anniversary): my wife says to me, “I’m not supposed to support you in every aspect of your life.”

Summer Camp 2006

Just finished another week of camp, and it was awesome as always. I figured that this was my 14th year in a row going to the same camp. That means that none of the Jr. High boys that I counseled this year were born when I first went to camp. Crazy. And every year always seems better than the one before it. I know that’s not true, but it seems like it. This year we had eleven JHBs, which is a record for Jon and me. That was cool to have a big group. They were a great group of guys and we only lose three next year. So hopefully they all come back next year and bring friends.

I’ve been talking about this a lot already and I seem to say it every year, but I swear camp is like one of the best weeks of the year. I feel more like myself at camp than I do pretty much anywhere else. It’s like when you’re single and looking for that one person that you can be yourself around. Single guys are always looking for the good looking gal who still fits in like one of the guys. Camp is sorta like that. Like when I’m at work, I’m definitely not myself. I just do my work and get paid and nobody really has any idea who I am. My co-workers would be shocked to see me at camp. Anyways, all this to say that it was a great week and helped remind me who I am. It’s always good to get that once a year reminder. I’ll probably post more about camp later, cause there was tons of fun stuff that happened. Actually, I probably won’t, because I’m not very good at keeping up with blogging. Anyways, here’ s the link to our camp website. Can’t wait for next year!

Saint John's Camp