Stardate: -316472.53

June is such a beautiful month in Oregon. I love the long hours of daylight, the mild heat during the day, and how the temperature drops when the sun goes down. I love the lack of humidity compared to where I was at this time last year (see Link below).

I love that I don't have to worry about hurricane warnings. I love the way the Willamette river can look blue and green at the same time. I love how when the sun comes up in the morning, I forget about the darkness of night and whatever happened the day before. I love how the sun reflects off the dew on everything green, and makes the world look like a new place.

I love that I get to work outside. That I have the luxury of biking. That I don't depend on an AC unit to keep me cool.

I love how it all speaks of God's stance toward the world. How He's unfazed by what appears to be going dreadfully wrong. Of how His mercies are new every morning, just like the sunrise. Of how it seems to me that He's walking around in His creation, not confined to some divine office cubicle or government building.

In fact, I think if we were to look for Him, we would find Him not in the places we most associate with Him, but in places like the sunrise.

Stardate: -316464.8

I won't say a whole lot in this post. I apologize to my faithful readers that it has been so long. Most of you know something about the extenuating circumstances of my life, one of the lesser effects of which was limited internet access during the last couple silent weeks.

However, I will say that:

I have worked many games the last two weeks, in addition to about 20 hours a week for Lockwood Research, the company that my roommate J.C. has been an independent contractor for.

I attended a group interview at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, which was quickly followed by a letter of acceptance into the program that I applied for, M.A. in Theological Studies. Class starts the first week of September, and I'll be commuting (hopefully carpooling with other students) one day a week. I also learned from my parents that they have money set aside for my schooling which will probably add up to about half of my tuition cost for the entire degree.

I'm having the brakes on my car repaired today, so I'm going to walk down to Les Schwab in a few minutes to pick it up.

I'm thinking about blogging several times a week now to help with regularity in posting. Perhaps I'll just blog on certain days. In any event, expect more posts to come.

Stardate: -316417.97

All my good intentions to blog, and still it has been two weeks. I guess that goes to show you, good intentions don't necessarily get you anywhere in life. (See link below.)

At any rate, I did have a very busy week in there, helping my uncle fix up my late Grandma's second house, which we have been trying to make market-ready so we can sell it. My contribution was primarily painting, and many hours of it. I tolerate painting more than most types of work that I would classify manual labor, but still don't enjoy it very much. Nevertheless, it's good to make some money during the two-week break after baseball season.

Deja vu yesterday: drove to Harrisburg for a game that didn't happen because there were no teams there. Annoying, but did get paid for virtually nothing.

I also went to Portland last weekend with my friend Bethany, to visit my friend Jenae who just graduated from Life and moved back to Oregon. Certainly a unique individual. We walked around downtown Portland, hiked in a forest, and saw the Gravitram at OMSI (easily one of my most favorite things ever). The weekend before that, I invited Amanda to come for Bethany's first look at the Oregon Coast, which was an experience that Bethany won't soon forget.

Now I have to get ready for work...my first training with Lockwood, the research company that J.C. is an independent contractor for. They'd like to fit me into the schedule, at least for the next couple weeks.

Until the next time I overcome my procrastination...