Untitled #3

It has been an interesting day.

To begin with a caveat, I am exhausted. I have been sleeping on an air mattress since Tuesday night, and have driven all over the cities the last two days. It has been good, but it is verging on a little nuts. But today took the cake.

My mom called me this morning to inform me that my uncle died last night. Mind you, this wasn't revolutionary news. He was 87, living in hospice, and when I saw him last week, he was doing quite poorly. Still, I just wasn't quite prepared. My uncle Tom was the oldest of 13 brothers and sisters on my mom's side. He was the relative I was the closest to on that side as well. We used to play golf occasionally, and he always liked it when I sang in church. He asked me to sing at his funeral during a phone call a year and a half ago. In a lot of ways, that request has been the most difficult part of this all. I am flying back to NY on Monday morning. The funeral has been scheduled for Tuesday morning in my old hometown. When all is said and done, it will simply be too much to get there.

I have spent the day on the phone with my parents who left for their month long vacation yesterday. It has been a round-robin of whether or not they should drive back and I should come down. It has continued to be exhausting.

That said, I went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time today. It was for Bri's nephew's 5th birthday. It was a little surreal. Before that, I had coffee with an old friend who moved from the cities a few weeks before I did. It was wonderful, and encouraging, and he offered me a job. In Rhode Island. A little later I stopped by the house of an old roommate and his wife offered me a job. In Minnesota. It was getting a bit more surreal.

I decided that I needed coffee. After nearly two hours spent at Dunn Bros with a good friend and quality conversation, things seemed a little more tangible.

For a quality nightcap, Bri and I decided to go see the movie Juno. I felt the need to laugh for a while. Can I say this movie was absolutely wonderful? I had high hopes. Jason Bateman, Micheal Cera, Ellen Page and written by Minneapolis' own Diablo Cody. I was not remotely dissapointed. I also must say it was the best soundtrack I have heard since Garden State. I am not joking, it was even better than Devotchka and Little Miss Sunshine.

All in all, its been a little crazy. Too much coffee and a little too much crazy. I think I should go sleep now.

One last thing, Happy New Year. (A little early)

Baby its Cold Outside

Its been awhile, I know. All I can say is, reporting on progress in Xbox games wouldn't be that interesting of a read, so I left you all in the dark.

Bri and I have been back in MN for 8 days now, celebrating Christmas with our respective families. It has been an altogether interesting/stressful/strange/happy/reflective holiday. Time spent with my family was made quite interesting by my parents preparations to travel to Texas for a month starting this coming Friday. To say the least, they were a little distracted. Dispite having to help install a new washing machine in the RV and change a few of its tires, I was able to find some time to relax and enjoy the time spent with my family.

Bri and I headed back up to the cities yesterday in a wonderful little snow storm. We avoided a nearly disasterous accident in Mankato through some divine intervention that was unbelievable. We actually hit the cement guard rail on a bridge and completely avoided damage to the car. The snow packed up on the bridge saved the car and our drive. All in all the drive took us an hour and a half longer than usual, but we managed to make it up.

I have been trying to adjust to Christmas with another family, and I am finding it incredibly exhausting. I love kids, but I am just not used to being around them. After awhile, I start to get surprisingly claustrophobic and find myself looking for the nearest exit. Good times.

It has been wonderful to see old friends while we are back, and I am looking forward to more of that starting again tomorrow. I am realizing just how much I have missed these people and what a profound influence they have on my life. It is going to be very hard to return to NY on one hand and leave them all behind. On the other hand, I am desperately looking forward to spending time with my wife again. I find that we exist in the same house here, but things are so crazy, that it is impossible to acutally enjoy the holiday together.

All that said, I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season and are enjoying time with family and friends. Bri and I will be in town through Monday morning, so give us a call if you want to get together.

Maybe if you all are lucky, I might post my new rant on why I want to stop celebrating Christmas for a couple of years to see what it is like.
You can all hope!

East Coast E

Thanksgiving break finds Bri and I in CT. After a completely not thrilling drive through mist, fog and annoyingly large amounts of traffic, we arrived in New Haven 6 hours after we left Ithaca. I am thinking that it would be an amazingly beautiful drive on a sunny fall day in early October, so I hold out hope for another chance at it.
We are spending the holiday with Bri's family at her sister's house. This marks my first real experience with the new in-laws on a major holiday. So far, so good. I got a mini tour of Yale today and realized that just because Ithaca and New Haven house Ivy League schools does not mean they are similar towns. It is hard to put into terms the differences of the towns, but they are definitely there. Other high points of the day included the first time I have seen the Atlantic Ocean from something other than an airplane in my life and eating a cheeseburger from the restaurant where the American burger originated in 1895.
We haven't really planned our return yet, but we will probably be here for another couple of days.
Hope you all have a enjoyable and blessed Thanksgiving.

Arcade Fire on ACL Pt. 2

After seeing Arcade Fire last night, I was reminded again of how amazing the new wave of indie rock is. Over the past couple years I have heard firsthand reviews of the incredible event that is Arcade Fire live, but until last night, I had only seen short clips of their shows. The setlist was about an hour long, and they featured songs from both their new album Neon Bible and their previous album Funeral. The band consisted of ten people last night and the best part was that only two of the ten played the same instrument for whole show. Win (the lead vocalist) played acoustic guitar, electric, bass, and mandolin. Regine (the only permanent female member of the band) played keys, organ, acordian, drums and my favorite, the hurdy gurdy. The two guys, providing the wind section, played trumpet, euphonium, clarinet, french horn, bass saxophone and unbelievably, a bass clarinet.
The incredible amount of instrumentation added to the high energy of the show. It is a rare event to see a group perform that seems so genuinely excited to have the oportunity to make music together. They seemed to be completely in their element on stage and loving every minute of it. It was an impressive reminder of how cool live music can be.

Arcade Fire on ACL

For anyone who has the slightest interest in indie rock, check out Austin City Limits on Saturday night. They will be featuring a full hour of the Arcade Fire, and based on a couple early clips from the show, it looks amazing.
If you don't know, Austin City Limits is a music show that has aired on PBS since forever pretty much. They do a very brilliant job of capturing some amazing bands in live performances and also interspacing interviews with band members throughout the show. You can check the PBS website for showtimes. And you can also see clips from Wilco's performance last week.

Hvarf/Heim

I picked up the new Sigur Ros double EP Hvarf/Heim this afternoon. It is glorious. Hvarf consists of 5 previously unreleased studio tracks from the last 10 years or so. Most of it I have heard via live bootlegs and leaked studio tracks, but it is nice to finally hear a polished/finished version of them. Heim contains 6 rare live acoustic versions of tracks that have very seldomly been performed by the band. The first track is the first ever live performance of Acoustic #3 from the album ( ). For those of you who don't know, this was the bridal processional from our wedding this past summer.
I have listened through the albums twice already that it has been wonderful. I highly recommend it for anyone with a love for Sigur Ros.

Ithaca, NY 10 sq Miles Surrounded by Reality

Bri and I have begun to keep a running list of things you will only see in Ithaca or maybe another country. At Bri's insistance, here they are for your enjoyment.

The Toyota Corrolla Wagon in front of you at the downtown stop light has 4 goats in the back.

The street musician playing for money at the downtown commons is a classical harpist.

While on a walk through town, you encounter a 20 piece bluegrass band teaching square dancing lessons to a bunch of college students.

The customers in front of you at Starbucks are the local Buddhist Monks getting their morning coffee.

We are guessing this will probably be an ongoing list. So, stay tuned for more updates.

Prayer

I just found out that my Mom is going to have surgery next week to have a lump removed. I think this is the second or third time she has had this procedure done in the last fifteen or so years. Part of me is not worried, it kinda seems like a routine now, but another part of me is pretty freaked out. None of this is helped by the fact that my next door neighbor from growing up died two weeks ago from brain cancer. She had cancer four different times in her life, and the final cancer was diagnosed less than a month before she passed away. All this is to say, I might not be in the best place right now to deal with the possibility of my Mom having cancer.

In other not so uplifting news, I just talked to my sister for the first time in a couple weeks and my nephew is not doing well. He is becoming very violent and incredibly hard to control and I think my sister is reaching/past the end of her rope. The latest line of thining on her part is that Tristan may be Bi-Polar. His biological father was never diagnosed, but it is suspected that he could have been. Tristan's father committed suicide less than a year after Tristan was born. So, now my sister is pursuing any route that could lead to helping Tristan and finding some answers. The problem is that there are very few avenues left for her in North West Iowa. So, if any of you have any bright ideas regarding the treatment of Autism or developmental disorders in children in general, let me know.

And Pray.

A Year

One year ago this week, I turned in my two weeks notice at Bethel. It is odd/eeire/cool/exciting/scary/etc. to see how much impact one single decision can have on life. In the last year I have been unemployed for a total of 5 months. I had my first employment in a field that I truly wanted to work in (Crosswinds Chruch). I had what could arguably be my least favorite job yet (Dunn Bros.). I got engaged. I got married. I moved 1000 miles.

I remember being scared and excited when I finally decided to quit at Bethel. I knew it would mean a huge change in my life. In a way, I saw it as a catagorical shift in thinking and my approach to life. The last year has been amazing. The last year has been extremely difficult. To be honest, I can't remember any other year in my life that has hand in hand been as rewarding and as trying. The stress of trying to find a job, twice. Planning a wedding, planning a move. Some days I feel like I am still trying to recover from it all.

Bri and I had a conversation when I quit, I said that someday I would realize all the benefits to working at Bethel that I couldn't see at the end. I readily admit that I miss the paycheck. As little as it was, it is still more than I have been able to find since. But more than that, I miss the people. I miss students, I miss coworkers and I miss the people of Bethel. I miss conversations about life that were meaningful and thoughtful. I do not miss my office! (Or the presidents office).

I hope the next year is as good, and maybe a little less trying. I think that may be asking a lot. Ithaca is beginning to feel like home most days. On the good days, it seems like a pretty amazing place to live. On the other hand, on the bad days, it seems like the worst place in the world, and all the beauty of nature cannot change how much it drives me nuts.

Ithaca Falls

Bri and I paid a visit to Ithaca falls last Sunday. It is located about a mile North East of our house. The falls are a part of the gorge that flows out of the lake on the North end of Cornell's campus. This is the biggest waterfall I have seen in my life, in regards to the amount of water that flows over it. Enjoy some pictures!

Back in NY

After a whirlwind visit to MN, Bri and I are back in NY. It was great to be home, but it was way too short. Luckily, we got to see a number of our friends and spend time with my folks and Bri's Dad.
I have decided though, that I am ok with not flying again for a while. Not that anything bad happened over the trip, I just find the entire experience of flying unenjoyable. Part of the problem is that I am too tall, but the other part, is that I just plain get bored. That being said, I did read two books over the weekend on the flights. The first was Stephen Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You)" and the second was Russell Rathbun's "Post-Rapture Radio." It was my second reading of Radio, and I was once again really impressed. If I get super motivated, I will write a slightly more in depth review of the book. "America" was kind of like reading a really long episode of "The Colbert Report" the only problem being, it just isn't as good.

Anyways, thanks to everyone who found the time to hang out with us, and for those of you that missed us, hopefully we can see you at Christmas.

Some Music for Your Viewing Pleasure.

Caveat: I don't normally spend hours a day looking for videos on the web, but I have stumbled across some pretty quality stuff over the last couple days and I thought I would share it. Also, I apologize for my inability to post hyperlinks in the blog, but everytime I post, blogger kills the link. So, copy and paste your way to joy.

Let's start with a Sufjan Video I probably should have found several months ago, but I am slow. The definite bonus here, a new song that I had never heard before: The Lakes of Canada. It is pretty hard to beat Sufjan, a banjo and a rooftop.
http://asthmatickitty.com/news.php?newsID=169

Now for something completely different. The Arcade Fire never does exactly what you expect, but this came out of no where. It is a pretty sweet idea using one of my favorite songs from "Neon Bible."
http://beonlineb.com/click_around.html

Beirut is a fairly new act in in indie scene. Their first album, "Gulag Orkestar," was stunning, especially considering it was made by a 19 year old. With a new album just released, Beirut has lived up to their potential. Here is a video of Beirut with Grizzly Bear.
http://flyingclubcup.com/spip.php?article6

Finally, a missed reason to visit NYC. This is a trailer for Sigur Ros' movie "Heima." The film was released last night in NYC and will be realsed on DVD in a month. The best part, they will be releasing a double EP along with the film which will include previously unreleased tracks and rare acoustic versions of some previously released work. The most exciting for me, an acoustic version of "Untitled #3" from the album "( )", which, as some of you know, was the processional for my wedding earlier this year. Enjoy some footage of one of the most amazing bands in the world.
http://emichrysalis.co.uk/sigurros/heima/film/heima_trailer.html

Hope these bring some joy to your day.
Blessings

What I'm Listening To

Time to switch it up a bit. I can't say my music horizon has been infinitely widened since leaving the cities, but some new material has found its way to my ears. Tom Waits continues to bow me away on a regular basis. Having only found his music in the last year, I am still working my way through his massive back catalog. My most recent finds, his cover of "Somewhere" from "West Side Story." Instrumentally, it is a pretty traditional, straight-forward take on the song. Vocally, however, is anything but traditional, Waits' rough, gravelly crooning brings a whole new element to the love song. I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on it.

In other exciting music news, Peter & the Wolf has released a new EP. For those of you not familiar, Peter & the Wolf is the name of Red Hunter's band of pieced together musicians from Austin, TX. "The Ivori Palms" was recorded while Red was living as a vagabond in Canada and recorded on a four track. I have yet to hear the whole thing, but the tracks I have heard are wonderful. It is a bit of a step aside from the country/folk of "Lightness," but it is by no means a misstep. It is more experiemental, varied in instrumentation and it has slightly more layered vocals. If you ever get the chance to hear any of their work, do it. You won't be dissapointed.

One of these days I will post the tracks from my first Ithaca mix.

Sidenote: Bri and I will be in MN from next Thursday night through Sunday morning for a wedding (the 11-14). We are attempting to find a time to get together with a group of people, but are still not exactly sure if it will be Thursday after we get in, or at another time. Let me know if you are going to be around and want to get together.

Cascadilla Creek

Being that I have been unemployed for about two months now, I am getting a little stir crazy in the apartment. So, I have been trying to make an extra effort to get out of the house while the weather is still decent. Over the weekend I got out in the evening to walk around the neighborhood and smoke my pipe. Ithaca is an incredibly quiet place at night and very peaceful to walk around.
Yesterday I decided to go for a bit longer walk. I thought I would follow the creek that runs through town a block south of our house. The creek runs east-west through town and is pretty much a cement drainage ditch through the city. The fun starts at the base of the Cornell hill though, the creek comes out of a gorge that forms the southern end of the Cornell campus. I hiked the mile or so up the gorge to where the path ends in a stairwell that leads to the Cornell/Collegetown bridge. It was funny to realize that several of the people I passed on the trail were actually walking to their classes from town. It is funny to see a guy dressed in business casual, rocking to his ipod, and carrying a briefcase walking through what feels like the middle of nowhere. Anyways, here are some pictures I took. Enjoy

As Promised...An Update

I think I am starting to get used to this place. I know, scary thought. I will admit that I stop in my tracks at the absurdity at times, but more often, I just stop, nod my head and realize, it's just Ithaca.
For instance, I went to an informal get together/informational meeting for the Vineyard Church's worship team a little while back. The email that I recieved with the information about the meeting said that there would be lunch, featuring vegan, organic, gluten free chili. Now don't get me wrong, I have no problem with being health concious and all, but this is verging on the absurd. Needless to say, I ate ahead of time. The meeting was pretty much a bust as well, it looks like I won't be playing at the Vineyard church any time soon.
Speaking of church, Bri and I branched out and tried a new one. We attended the Tabernacle Baptist church a few blocks up the road from our house. After checking out the website, we really didn't have that great of an idea of what we were getting ourselves into, but we wanted to check out a church that was within walking distance. I will say that I enjoyed the fact that the hymn book was the good old Chapel Hymnal that I spent so many wonderful hours with in Hymnology, Theory, Instrumentation, and who knows how many other music classes at Bethel. For those of you wondering at this point, no, this was not a BGC church. I am pretty sure if this congregation encountered a BGC church, they would cry heathen. Never before have I heard the term Fundamentalism thrown around as a badge of honor in quite the way they did. Also, I have never before heard a church's constitution quoted as justification for a sermon point. The plus side of going, we no longer have to wonder if we should check it out again.

In adventuring news, Bri and I took a trip up the east side of the lake last week Sunday. Now if you recall my review of the west side of the lake, you will remember it is filled with vineyards and tourist stops. Not so much on the east side. It is primarily farming country until you reach Aurora about 30 miles north of Ithaca. Home of Wells College (as in Wells Fargo), Aurora is a pretty quaint New England town. I would definitely enjoy spending time there in the future. Past Aurora, we just kept going and found ourselves at the North end of the Lake.
We decided to venture into Seneca Falls. For those of you who aren't intimately educated with all the history and geography of Upstate NY, Seneca Falls was the home of the great women's rights convention of 1848 (thank you wikipedia). It is considered by some to be the birthplace of feminism. Now don't get me wrong, that is cool and all, but my favorite Seneca Falls fact is that it was the filming location for my favorite Christmas movie of all time, "It's a Wonderful Life." Sadly, in our travels around town, I didn't recognize anything from the movie, but we did get to see the city park named after the 1848 convention.
Upon leaving Seneca Falls, we took an out of the way path back down to Ithaca and got to see a lot of the little towns along the way. It is eerily similar to driving through southwest MN or NW Iowa. Corn, soybeans and lots of little farmhouses. Good times.
I will end here for now. I have some pictures to add from a walk I just took up Cascadilla Creek, but I will make you all anxiously await those.

My Nephew

A lot of you had the chance to meet my nephew Tristan at the wedding in June. If you need a reminder, he was the one holding my hand at the front of the church and walking around from time to time. Tristan has been through a lot in life so far. He has been diagnosed ADHD, and has had many of his developmental issues blamed on a fairly mysterious virus that attacked his brain when he was very young.
Tristan began hallucinating on Tuesday and after being taken to the ER, he was transferred to a children's hospital in Des Moines, IA. Most of us thought it was a symptom of new medication that he had been placed on to help counteract his ADHD, but the docters thought it wasn't related. After several days of observation at the children's hospital, Tristan has been diagnosed with a Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Tristan's particular disorder is autism, a specific PDD. This combined with the lingering affects of the virus make it difficult for doctors to know how to treat him. They think that when the virus attacked his brain, it caused it to rewire to compensate, thus he reacts to medication in ways that most people wouldn't. In the little bit of research that Bri has done tonight, it looks as though the Autism itself could be a result of the virus as well.
Long story short, this is kinda scary. On the plus side, we finally have an answer to many of the difficulties that Tristan has faced so far, on the down side, this is a diagnosis that isn't really easily treatable. I am not really sure where that leaves us now, but I thought I would share this with you all so you can keep him in your prayers.
I apologize for my lack of updates lately, there are some things I will try to get up in the next few days.
As a short update, I still don't have a job, but there have been some improvements. Bri and I have our plane tickets to return to MN the 11-14 of October. We will be pretty busy, but there should be at least one time during the weekend when we will try to get a group together at Barley John's.

The BQE

For anyone who really knows me, it is understood that I have basically no desire to go to New York City. Only a couple reasons have come to mind that have made me remotely interested in making the now much shorter trek down to that frightening. Mainly those have been the chace to see a taping of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. The fact that Colbert is going to be at Cornell later this fall made me think that I might be able to rid myself of any reason to ever visit the city. That was before I decided to visit the Asthmatic Kitty website to see what Sufjan Stevens is up to these days. Lo and behold, I find out that he is doing a three night concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Now, this is not just some regular, run of the mill Sufjan concert, which would be something in and of itself, no, this is a performance of an avant garde, slightly programatic, I am not quite sure, nor is anyone else, how to describe it piece. I mean, c'mon, it includes video and pictures of Brooklyn, Queens and a freeway accompanied by music composed based on those places. I know many people are sick of Sufjan and think he has got a little full of himself, but I am transfixed. The fact that he describes the piece as being somewhere between Impressionist, Copeland or John Williams increases my interest exponentially.
So, maybe it is good I am poor. That way my excuse is made easy. I can't afford to go, thus, my greatest motivation to ever visit the city is negated by the fact that I need a job.

http://asthmatickitty.com/news.php?newsID=203

Welcome to September

I am a little late on this one, but apparantly summer ended a few days ago. I can't say the Labor Day weekend was terribly exciting. Bri and I did drive up the west side of the lake on Saturday. We decided to stop at Sheldrake Point Winery. We picked up a bottle of their dry Riesling the first week we were out here and it was fairly impressive. They have a nice bistro at the winery, so we stayed for lunch. I am proud/ashamed to say that I ate my first salad in over 3 years and I kind of liked it. I also had an organic bbq pulled chicked sandwich and a flight of red wine. All in all I was really impressed with the food and the wine.
That was pretty much the story of the weekend. Summer just kinda snuck out the door when no one was looking. I guess when you get married and move a 1000 miles, you kinda lose track of how much time is going by. It is also strange to realize that even though I am no longer taking classes or working at Bethel, my life is still directly affected by a new school year. Bri is in the full swing of classes and this quiet, peaceful town has been invaded by a huge number of undergrads who don't really pay attention to where they are walking. I am not kidding, every time I drive Bri to class I nearly hit one of them, it's kind of incredible.
I am still job searching and not coming up with much. I applied for a custodial position at Cornell this week. It was a little odd realizing that I am absurdly overqualified for what they are looking for, but oh well.
Tonight will be spent mini-golfing with the church small group. Hopefully it treats me better than disc. I lost my 2nd to last driver during a round on Saturday night, thus, disc may be going on an extended hiatus till next spring when I have some money to get some new drivers.

Ithaca Brew Fest

I need a job so that I can earn money so that I can spend it and go to this.

http://www.ithacabrewfest.com/

Taughannock and the Western Lake Drive.

I decided I needed a change of pace today. After a couple weeks of sitting in the apartment job searching, playing video games, watching tv and generally being bored, I decided to go outside. I headed west out of Ithaca on HWY 89 and made my way to Taughannock Falls State Park. Being the cheap, make that poor, man that I am, I bypassed paid entry and made my way to the scenic drives around the park. After finding a place to park at the far south end of the falls, I started hiking the gorge rim trail. To say this area is beautiful is a complete understatement.
















Just a hundred feet down the path I found a bridge overlooking one of the smaller falls leading up to Taughannock.



















The gorge rim trail was pretty sweet. I only saw one other person in the hour I was walking, and it was incredibly peaceful. Here are some other views from the trail.






















The best view of the falls came from the opposite side of the gorge. After my hike along the eastern rim, I drove back along the western rim to take a few pictures of the actual falls.




























































After leaving Taughannock, I decided to continue further north west along the side of the lake. In approximately 20 miles of driving I saw 5 wineries, a cidery and a creamery. On my way back to Ithaca I decided to stop at the Bell Weather Cidery. I felt a little pathetic as the other people there were younger married couples and I was by myself. That being said, for a buck I was able to sample 7 of their different ciders. Everything from sparkling, to cherry, to a black currant. I ended up leaving with a semi-dry Heritage that I am hoping Brianna will like.

All in all, it was a good day.

Where exactly do I live?

Brianna and I are beginning to seriously wonder if we moved to Seattle rather than upstate NY. Maybe it is the fact that we have lived in MN our whole lives, but seriously, it hasn't hit 80 in over a week and it has rained almost every day. The forcast keeps giving me hope that I will see some sunlight, but it only really lasts for a couple minutes. Here's to hoping this weekend will be better.

Job Searching

I hate looking for jobs. Plain and simple, no excuses, it ranks up there with my least favorite things in life. I have yet to hear back from the coffee shop down the street, although I did notice they reposted their job openings on Craigslist today.
The biggest problem with the whole finding a job thing is that I have no clue what I want to do. Ok, I take that back, I know what I want to do, there just aren't any job openings doing it. That aside, I have been a mechanic, a carpenter and a janitor. All things considered, those weren't bad jobs and I even enjoyed them at times, but try as I might there are really any jobs that I can find out here that fit into those categories. So here is the question: do I go into retail? I ask, because it scares and annoys me. I don't know if I can handle retail. It is like the scary thing I never really contemplated until this point in life, but I am starting to get desparate here.
The problem with considering retail is, where do you even start? Should I go with the flow and try to be one of the crazy used car salesmen that I keep seeing in TV commercials? Ok, won't even go there. Book stores are cool, but my wife kinda has that one under wraps. Guitar shops are hard to come by. Kohls is hiring, but once again, scary.
I am at a loss. Apparantly I should have gone into sales or business or something cause there sure doesn't seem to be any job postings looking for a Music/Theology grad. If only I could get paid for sitting around and talking about music and discussing theology, that would be great. Now that I think about it, aside from scrubbing a couple toilets, that's about all I ever did at Bethel. Funny how that works.

Disc in Ithaca: Part 1

I played my first round of disc here in Ithaca on Saturday. Thanks to my lovely wife, I found out that there is actually a course in town. Upon further research I found out that Ithaca has its own disc golf club. (discithaca.com) From their website I found out about a temporary couse on the Cornell Campus. I printed off a map of the course and headed out, interested to see what a course would look like in an area with so many trees and hills.
The course was not really what I expected. I will admit that I only played six of the holes because I got lost trying to find holes 6, 7 and 8. That being said, the course didn't really incorporate one technical shot. Every hole was long, open and did I mention, LOOOONG. After six holes I felt like my arm was ready to fall off. It might have something to do with the fact that it was the first round I had played in almost three weeks and the fact that each hole required nearly two full power drives.
The only things that were remotely technical were pin approaches when the pin was placed right on the edge of dense woods. Other than that, wide open.
All that said, I enjoyed the opportunity to get out and play again. I have met a couple of guys at church who are in to disc and I think they are going to take me out to the course at T3 in the next couple weeks. Rumor is, this is a pretty serious course, like, Kaposia/North Valley style. I will hold out hope.

Church in Ithaca

This morning was our second week at the Vineyard Church of Ithaca (http://www.ithacavineyard.org/). It is interesting that given all the different churches I have been to, before last week I had never been to a Vineyard church. The thing that struck me from the start was the welcoming nature of congregation. By the time we left the first week we had already been invited to a small group, met a girl who graduated from Bethel and another girl who knew some of our college friends. To top it all off, a girl who works in the HR department at Cornell told me she would keep and eye open for any job openings I might be interested in.
That being said, it has been reaffirmed to me what an amazing an unique opportunity we had in the Twin Cities in The House of Mercy and The Mercy Seat. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough, maybe it is out there, but for the life of me I have not been able to locate a church in this area that remotely comes close the nature of those two churches. I find myself longing for a sermon I disagree with, that makes me uncomfortable and leaves me asking questions that there are no easy answers for. It is a hard adjustment to get a Willow Creek sermon series followed by action steps for the week ahead.
It may be that I have simply stepped out of the evangelical realm for too long and just need to readjust. I admit that many times at Crosswinds I should have been forced to deal with these issues, but I was always able to get by it through the justification that it was my job. I could always look forward to going to House in the evening.
I am not sure where this leaves me at this point. I am really excited to get to know the people at the Vineyard, they seem genuinely cool and interested in getting to know us. Maybe I just have to mine the sermon archives on the House website.

Rant- Part 2

After five and half hours of waiting, and an hour of watching the cable guy get confused, I kinda have cable. Good times.

Rant

I have been waiting four and a half hours for the cable guy to come and hook up our cable. They were supposed to be here at 10. He called me at 12 to say they would be here at 1. It is now 2:20. I am bored. And annoyed. End rant.

Buttermilk Falls

I have only lived in Ithaca for two weeks but I have already been to Buttermilk Falls State Park twice. The first time was with my parents on the day they left NY to head back to Edgerton. The second was with Brianna's parents last Saturday while they were here visiting. Buttermilk Falls SP is located at the southern end of Ithaca, the entrance is right at the edge of the new development along HWY 13. This location leads to some fun visuals as you climb up the gorge. The nice view of the waterfalls going down into the valley, the hills rising up on the other side of the valley and Home Depot in the middle of the valley.
That being said, here are some pictures.

A Disclaimer

I have never written a blog before. I tried to keep a journal once, I sucked at it. That being said, I am going to attempt to make this whole blogging thing something of a routine in my life. Hopefully, this will give my friends the chance to have some semblance of an idea of what is going on in my life and allow me to try to make sense of the crazy new place I find myself in. So, here goes.