I was just working on one of the best posts ever when Safari did that thing it's been doing lately where it randomly quits without warning. To make things worse, the recover post button didn't work this time. So now, the brilliant post will be replaced with a much less exciting one.

I'm at the library using their wireless connection. I was telling you in detail about the table next to mine, but now it won't be in so much detail. There is a dad helping his three blonde-haired-blue-eyed kids with their homework. Two of them appear to be really quite studious, but the other has been throwing tantrums. They are finally having some success, though, in fact, the dad just celebrated by putting his arms in the air and library-yelling "Fantastic!!" The studious boy with glasses whispered, "Daddy....daddy.....I think you need to be quiet in the library."

A rather loud girl who was absent on Friday was back yesterday. “Welcome back!” I said enthusiastically. “Aww, you missed me?” she asked. “Of course I did. When you’re absent, it feels like 5 people are absent.” “Gee, thanks, I feel special.” A few moments later, the smart girl who sits in the back quietly said to me, “Mister, I don’t think that was supposed to be a compliment” I said, “Shhhhh...we won’t tell her.” We smiled at each other with the type of smile that comes when two people know something that no one else caught on to, and class continued.

My white dress shirt has neon yellow spots in the armpits. The kids finally noticed them yesterday. They spent the whole class snickering, and I felt incredibly self-conscious. When the fifth kid yelled, “Mister! You have yellow stuff in your armpits!” I decided I needed to proudly own up to it. “I know I do.” “Well what is it? Armpit juice?!?” “You would think thats what it is, but it's actually not. You wanna know what it is? I’ll tell you. My wife and I were going to a friend’s wedding, and I was running a little low on deodorant.” (Whenever you tell stories like this, the classroom gets more silent than you would have ever thought possible.) “So, to be on the safe side, for some extra coverage, I decided it would be a good idea to spray some of my cologne in my armpits. Well, it stained my shirt, and there you have it. It wasn’t such a good idea after all.” They laughed at me. Actually, they laughed with me.

I gave a math test today. There was a problem dealing with the gas mileage of my Accord and my wife's Corolla. (The first funny thing is that most of the kids read the problem and thought my wife's name was Corolla.) One boy completed the problem and then wrote next to his work, "Question: Do you really have an Accord?" I wrote "Yes," but not wanting to mislead him into thinking I am cool, I continued, "but it's a 1986 Accord."

This is the point I was waiting to reach, the point where I can see some humor in my day. The first four months were miserable, so miserable that I couldn’t even find the stories to tell. I was too overwhelmed with it all to find the beauty in the small things. There was no joy. In my first few months I remember being bothered that I could never smile at school. But, as you can see by the amount of stories I've been sharing, things are improving. In fact, the past two weeks were -- on the whole -- good ones. Two in a row! That's never happened! AND yesterday and today were both decent as well, so we're going on three in a row! Unbelieveable! AAAND, yesterday, there were moments where I said to myself, "I like teaching," and even "I like teaching HERE." WHAAAAT?!? This is groundbreaking!

The dad who is helping his daughter with math homework said, "Ok, let's do a problem of our own...think of a crazy number...umm...uhh...fooortyyyy......four....yeah, forty-four!" Real crazy, dad.

I would like to apologize for the grammatical errors in my posts lately. I guess I'm always rushed whenever I get the chance to post. Sorry, also, for the length. Nobody likes long blog posts, but I've got a lot to say and not many chances to say it. Despite all this, I'm hoping these lengthy-mistake-ridden-posts will serve as a good starting point for my memoirs.

So we have a Netflix account. It's a terrible idea, mostly due to the fact that I'm a narcoleptic, and it's getting worse than ever. Granted, I didn't mind falling asleep during Erica's choice: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (which, incidentally, Jared Cheek saw in the THEATER, so I don't feel like so much of a dork after all). But last night we sat down to watch the long-awaited Grizzly Man. I was so exciting, and I was loving the first half hour, but I just could NOT make it. So now I have to watch it tonight, which throws off our whole viewing schedule, as I was hoping to get certain movies for the weekend. (Yes, Andy, I do realize this wouldn't be such a problem if I would have just come over and watched it with you the other week.) I'm 22 years old. Should I really need 8+ hours of sleep every single night in order to be coherent and awake at other times of the day?

Allow me to delve into some spiritual thoughts now.

Romans 12:1,2 says Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

These are exciting verses for us humans, because after 11 chapters of theology, we finally get to the application, that tangible stuff we've been craving. Now we know what we need to DO to be good Christians. Now we can add some things to our checklist, now we can see how we measure up. But Paul knows we've just been giving grace lip service and we've been just waiting and waiting to switch back to our legalistic works mentality. So when he starts to give us things to DO, he places a nice little prepositional phrase in there that is so easy to overlook, but so important. Remembering the previous 11 chapters, Paul tells us to do these things --in view of God's mercy--. I think this means two things. First of all, God's mercy should be our motivation and inspiration to do these things. It's not because we have to; it's not a burden we're forced to take on, because just as John says in his first epistle: "His commands are not burdensome." In view of God's mercy, offering our bodies becomes a joy and a delight. Second of all, once we start doing these tangible things, we must constantly come back to God's mercy, keeping it in view. I think of it as a cycle: Because of our gratitude for God's mercy, we offer our bodies as living sacrifices. But because we're human, we'll screw it up. This brings us back to God's mercy, which inspires us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices again. And on and on we go. I like this thought; but often we're so anxious to know what we need to DO to be a good Christian, that we jump to the command and forget the preceeding prepositional phrase.

Later in chapter 12, Paul tells us to "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." The topic of mourning has been a soapbox of mine lately, so this jumped out at me the other night. Paul tells us the "mourn with those who mourn" rather than "comfort those who mourn." This is an important distinction, I think, although when we mourn with those who mourn, I think we really are comforting those who mourn, probably in the most effective way possible. But before I preach about mourning with those who mourn, I must admit it is just as difficult if not moreso to rejoice with those who rejoice. We're often so self-absorbed that we can't take the time to get excited with others. That's a tragic thing. When we are truly loving others, it will be a natural thing to get excited when they're excited.

That's all for now, but one last thing:

If you want a CD, it would help me out financially to send me a padded envelope with 2 dollars or so. Then I'll send the CD back to you. But, I'm an idealist who believes in free music, so if you don't want to do that, I'll spend the money on envelopes and postage.

Thank you for reading. It truly is an honor to have you interested in my life.