Monday, January 28, 2008

Multi-Tasking... Mik Style...

Work today stunk... it was lousy. Such is life for a Monday. We all have blah days and today was my turn. Just a busy day, that's all. The fun began when I was done with work for the day. My goal was to go home and kick back and then spend some time chatting up my gal pal... I left work at six and wanted to get home and after getting some dinner, chat with my best girl sometime around eight. But of course, between point A and point B, there was just a few things to be done... namely:
Getting a text message from Terri telling me that Lou is having a very tough time moving around. Lou can't really do much because she put on so much fluid weight, that it's hard for her to do much of anything. That is NOT Lou... anyway, I went to a few places and picked up some things to help Lou including a patient transfer board. Plus a couple things to help Terri. Terri has it the hardest because if Lou falters, it's Terri that's the only one there to try and help... that's what is so difficult. But Lou goes to see the doctor on Friday and I hope she'll give them a piece of her mind about not being more aggressive on removing the fluid. She may end up on dialysis because of how non-aggressive they've been with her... grrrrr.... anyway, Lou looked a little better when I saw her. She was happy when I showed up. Terri then asked if I could take a quick peek at her toilet because it was running. She had this look of defeat. I didn't want to, but I went to look at the toilet and saw it was something very very simple. So I fixed it, and got the biggest hug of gratitude from Terri... that was nice. She figured she'd strike while the iron was hot and was telling me that her cell phone charger was not working... So, we got that taken care of and I just wanted to go home and eat like a moose... So I went to go get something to eat (Chinese take-out), and knew it would take about ten minutes or so for the food to be ready... I looked a couple of doors down from the Chinese restaurant and there was a hair care place that was running a special... haircuts for five bucks. I placed my order for the food (boneless almond chicken...mmmm) and said I'd be right back and walked over to the hair care place. There was no waiting at all, so I signed in, sat down, and got my hair cut nice and short. I paid my five bucks (tipping the lady of course), walked back over to pick up my dinner, and drove home. I chowed down on dinner when I got there and by the time I finished drinking my diet peach iced tea, it was eight o'clock. Talked to the gal pal for a couple of hours... my day went from crappy to happy...

Monday, January 21, 2008

For College Football Fans... A Simple Observation...

The Previous Sign To Signify Choking:










The NEW Sign To Signify Choking:

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Rockin' At The Creek...








Hi folks,
Was perusing through you tube and found some highlights from my church and thought I'd throw them on here. The first one is from Easter and highlights some of the baptisms we had at the church and is set to the song "I Am Free" from Newsboys. The other is from our Christmas service this year. It's the Audio Adrenaline version of "Little Drummer Boy" which rocks hard as it is... but the band at church put their own spin on it to make it rock even harder... Safe to say, my church is not my parents church by any means at all. But it's not trying to be. It is geared toward unchurched and spiritually restless people. That's how my heart was reached. I didn't want to have a relationship with God or be a Christ-follower. Well, I guess God had other ideas... for which I'm eternally grateful... y'all have a great day, okay?

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Perspective...





Well, just wanted to say hey and hope you all have a great weekend... Just taking a little time to think about the gal pal and give thanks that she's crazy about me... These pics were from Christmas. It's funny, they say that God works in mysterious ways. I'm living proof of that. In the past, I used to hate having my picture taken. Didn't want anything to do with them. My girlfriends of the past very seldom got me to take any kind of photos. I hated to look at myself. I didn't mind looking at anyone else, but I grew up as a guy suffering from depression and self loathing. Even after getting my poop in a group and turning my life around... It didn't matter... I didn't like taking them. More often than not, I wouldn't. Not till now. Now I am a big goof ball who wants to take pictures with my gal pal. It is so funny how God works. All those years with only a few pictures. And now, every time I go see the gal pal, I AM THE ONE who tells her to break out the camera to get some pics of us... Anyone who knows me, knows that I am anything BUT vain... I still struggle with looking in the mirror when I get ready for work every morning. But I don't hate myself anymore. I know and believe that God doesn't make junk. So I choose to break out of my comfort zone and do things like take pictures to document how happy I've become. And I write about it to serve as a reminder that no matter how rough life can get, it will only suck some of the time and it's up to me to decide how I'm going to face up to those adversities... and when to let go of them because those faces in the pictures prove beyond a reasonable doubt that God does live and that life was meant to be lived. And not to be taken for granted... but to be treasured and appreciated. Because no matter how bad I think I have it, someone has it worse... much worse. So I try to keep a grateful heart... and to enjoy life as it comes... and with faith in God and the love of my gal pal, I'm enjoying it so much more than I ever thought humanly possible...

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Lookin' Back, Lookin' Ahead...

Howdy folks,
Well it's been a while since I've written. That's because my schedule has been pretty silly and insane... busy as all get out. But I wanted to drop a line to you all to wish you a happy and safe and prosperous 2008... For me, 2007 had a lot of low points. Friends that had passed away... some expected, some not. My sisters have been battling hard for their health and it hasn't gone as well as they had hoped. Terri is facing chemo and radiation indefinitely. Lou went back to the hospital and the nursing home for a the last month or so after only two weeks out of rehab. But again, she is hoping to be released from the nursing home this Saturday... I had some problems with the TV sports station that I worked for... it would've been easy to get mad and rip on people, but that wouldn't have served any good purpose. I had to believe that good would come from it... and it has... I'm working with a friend of mine on a sports website called
www.toledosportsradio.com that is still in it's infant stages. But we're doing a weekly sports show and plenty of high school basketball games online. Some audio... some audio and video... but it's been a great amount of fun and we're starting to make strides in the Toledo area... Not looking to become stars... just want to make a few bucks and have some fun. Meanwhile, the biggest positive to come out of 2007 was the relationship with my better half... my gal pal... She is so humble and easy going. She is so gentle and understanding with me. She let's me be myself. And I let her be herself... and we both thrive in that enviornment and have prospered tremendously as a result. God gets all the credit and glory as I have been blessed by her. She is simply amazing. I could try to put words together to describe her and the effect she has had on my life. But the words would never do her justice. She doesn't seek to be noticed or draw any attention to herself. She just conducts herself as a wonderful and awesome Christian woman who has changed my life for the (much) better. I praise God every day for her... My biggest hope for 2008 is that our love continues to grow like it has and that I continue to grow in my faith and not just talk about it. But rather, live my faith... to be a better Christian and to help others in my community and my gal pal's community as well... I look forward to 2008 with a sense of optimism and hope... I also look forward to keeping in touch with all of you... thanks for being a friend to me, even if I didn't always hold up my end of the bargain. I hope that I will improve on that as we dip our tootsies deeper into the sea of 2008...