Life and Times in Texas

For those of you who don't know...well, whatever, has anybody read this site yet?

Let me start over.

The weirdest thing has started to happen! I'm starting to actually enjoy life here in Texas! Well maybe not exactly. Te revise, I'm really really looking forward to what life has for me next here in Texas! Which has never really happened before. Let me try to explain without going into a complete history of my life.

Ever since my family moved down here from Indiana in 2002, I've had a constant battle deciding where I belong. My first stint here was for about 8 months before I went back up to indy for college. After that, I would be down here for Christmas and maybe summer break, but for about 6 years I was still living my life and enjoying it in Indiana. God closed many and very many doors in Anderson after graduation time, and circumstances forced my to move back here in the summer of 2008.

So there I was, back in the good ol' Republic of Texas. Every other time I've been here i've had the mindset of being here short-term then heading back north. I had a mentality of not living here, just visiting. Always going back. I was never here. This place was never my 'home' though it was where my house sits. This place was never mine.

I always had temporary residence (at my parents' place), temporary church (again, my parents') temporary jobs (hourly minimum wage- going nowhere types), and even temporary friends (the ones I would sorta/kinda hang out with once or twice). I knew when I first moved back here that this needed to change. I needed to make this place my own; to find where I belong, as cheesy as that sounds.

It's taken almost two years, but some things are starting to click a little bit. It took me getting fired from another one of those 'temporary' jobs to make me realize that I was being distracted by so many little things that I was missing out on what's really in store for me here. The funny things is, I still don't have that many friends yet, though I've gathered in a rather large amount of, shall we say, acquaintances? Sure. it takes some time. It's not as easy as in college, that's for sure.

AND! I'm still in my temporary residence , too. I do have a job interview in the near future, too. For a much much better job. But for the time being I'm content. This Guinea-Bissau trip is what I'm focusing on right now. And I've realized one thing that over these two years has become mine: my faith.

My faith is mine. My relationship with God is my own. It is no longer a reverberation or a simpler copy of my parents'. Again, I won't go into too many details right now, but as I use the lenses of hindsight on my life here in Texas, I can see how much closer I have grown to God. It floors me how simple it is sometimes. I'll get more into that later. God is awesome and He continues to floor me every single day.

I'm sure i big part of my growth has been my involvement in my church. Mine. Not temporary, NOT my parents' (though I didn't find this church on my own, a friend invited me...so I have to give her credit for that).

But it's a place that is all mine. Where I've begun to put down some roots, so to speak. I've gotten involved and let other get involved with me. I've poured my heart out to some folks and have had opportunity after opportunity to learn and grow. I look forward to it every single week.

So we'll see what happens, as I always say. It will take some time, but I see so much potential in the near future. God has shown me what I'm supposed to do, in his delightful way, and He's comforting and encouraging me all along. So I'm excited, and instead of being so bored and lonely much of the time, I'm beginning to experience some joy and contentment.

Wahoo! well that's enough for now. I realized that I don't care if anybody reads this crap. It's good to get out. Getting my thoughts down.

'til next time, you guys....

Is this what the kidz do these days?

Ok, so I've started some blogs. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while now. Back in the day I used to keep a Xanga site going, posting pictures and stuff. I stopped about halfway through my freshamn year in college, when facebook was invented and it was a better way to waste time on these interwebs. And well, college was full of better things on which to focus my energies. Like girls. Kidding! (not kidding?)

Anyhoo, I've got several of these things started, the main one I will be focusing on is called "Call of the Cashew Coast," in which is about my upcoming trip to Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. More details over there.

Another one, "Sleeping Giant" is where I'll post things like song lyrics and some of my own recordings. In order for that not to become a complete mess, I'm only posting songs that are basically completed with a decent recording for your listening pleasure. If you'd like to hear all my rough acoustic demos recorded on cassette tape, head over to myspace, i guess. But we all know myspace is for cads and scallywags! I'll try to make this site much, much betters.

Thirdly, or something, I have one called "Heroes in Tennis Shoes" whic wil be my rantings and raving about all things sports. So avoid that one if you don't like sports. I'm not sure what my points will be, but we'll just find out together now, won't we? Who am i talking to anyway?

Lastly, this one right here that you are reading will be kind of my 'whatever' page. More personal stuff I suppose. We'll see. Granted I'm mostly doing this for my own benefit. I've never been good at keeping a journal or anything like that, but I might be able to do this blog thing. If anyone actually reads this, I'll be more than pleased.

Peace.