to erica and i, they are known as "slow starts," and there is nothing better. waking up whenever your body and the sunlight shining through your bedroom window tells you to wake up. putting on a pot of coffee. putting on some nice morning music. eating breakfast. reading a good book. that's exactly what i did this morning. my only regret is that my home has no window seat, breakfast nook, or screened in porch.

im a little embarrassed to admit that, if my memory is correct, i have never read the gospel of john in its entirety. i decided it was about time i do so and i read the first chapter this morning. i love the way the first chapter is written. it's very mysterious. there's a tinge of tense excitement giving you the feeling that something very huge, something that will change the course of history and the destiny of man, is about to happen. jesus quietly arrives on the scene after john does his thing and word begins to spread like wildfire among the disciples. "it's time!" they drop everything in excitement and go to see for themselves. it makes me wish i was around back then.

my parents are away for the week. the best part about having the house to myself is that i get to put on the air conditioning. my mom refuses to use the AC until the heat of july. then she finally caves in and turns the thermostat down to a refreshing 80 degrees. and the woman has catlike senses, too...some nights i'll sneak out of my pool-of-sweat-bed to inch the thermostat down just a degree or so, and the woman suddenly wakes up from her deep sleep and comes marching out to return it to the proper temperature, and i go back to my room pouting. on weeks like these, i do my best to remember to turn the air off before leaving the house, but so far i havent remembered. mom and dad may have a surprise waiting for them on the next electric bill, and i'll probably have to start working a second job.

i havent mentioned the "band" i've been rocking with lately. it's one more committment i could do without this summer, but i've found that taking the time to play my bass keeps me sane. wes - erica's brother - is playing guitar. two sweethearts named kyle and stan and playing drums and singing, respectively. kyle and stan are two thirds of a jazz trio (kyle on piano and stan on vocals). these kids are incredible. kyle is quite the jazzer and has committed himself to never playing a straight pattern on beats 2 and 4. it makes things interesting. stan has a jazz voice straight out of the rat pack. in all likelihood, you'll hear these two if you come to my reception next summer. so yeah, we've been making some music which has been fun. we're supposed to be playing a show on saturday, but we only have 1 and a half songs written. we'll see. we want to make buttons for all the little emo kids to eat up and make us rich. if you have a good name for our band, please let us know so that we can get a large line of merch made. jared - we play records in the background of some of the stuff. we have a jfk documentary that is really cool, and a record with speeches and interviews from 6 different presidents. it's fun.

ok bye.