Home...

I'm home, home, home at last. I have two homes now and I've been to both in the same day...thnak you Wright Brothers. No news yet as to where I'll be headed next, but for now I'll be lucky enough to be home for New Years!

top chirstmas songs and other newsworth events

Ok, so check this song out...it's called "Fairytale of New York" and it's a little depressing if you pay attention to the lyrics, but as a song, it kinda grows on you...it's actually a huge Christmas song over here in the UK: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-9040517239704722939&q=Pogues+%2B+fairytale+of+new+york.

One other link...check this out (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6188775.stm) this Indian Athlete failed a gender test!!! WHAT!!!!! how do you fail that??? i don't understand. And what could the test consist of other than...ok, you can imagine. The best part is that "she" only got a silver medal, ahahahahaha. I'm sorry, this is probably really insensitive of me, but c'mon i just couldn't resist.

Christmas Shopping Fun

Ok, so I've posted this on facebook, but for those of you who don't have it (i.e. J, lol) here it is:

So i just heard the most brilliant christmas shopping method/game ever. What you do is get the number for a shopping channel (one or more than one, it doesn't matter) and then you call them up and order whatever is on the screen at that moment. Here's the cool part - you order WITHOUT having the channel on...so it's kind of a gamble as to who gets what...and it could be expensive, but talk about a way to get stuff for people that you have no idea of how to buy for!! Happy Shopping!

oh...and this too. We MUST start using the slang term "legend"...as in..."aw man, that was an absolutely legend party" (said one of my welsh coworkers). There's some other good slang, but one thing at a time...

Moments

So…it’s been a little while since I’ve had an up to date post, but….now I’ve moved hotels and have internet…this hotel is even more out of the way than the last one, but it’s a little nicer – bigger room, internet, more tv channels, better toast at breakfast…and way better jelly for said toast, don’t even get me started. Oh, and I’m finally getting to use the slingbox (let’s me watch tv from back in GA)…you may not think it’s a big deal, but I paid a lot to get it installed, and now I’m just happy to use it finally.

Anyways, to the point of this post…I was riding back from London this past Sunday after another cool weekend in London – stayed with March, and for those of you who don’t know him…he’s awesome, and a vicar (i.e. a priest in the Church of England…I know him though all you peps back in Chi-town). It works out really nice know people all over, it definitely helps getting around. We (Veebs, Reon, and I) stayed with him weekend before last…so the church he works at…the church that started alpha….freakin awesome!!! (oh before I forget, Reon is the best tour guide ever, mad props to my spikey-haired Brittish-ago-ama friend…combo of, oh nm, I’m not going to explain it to you…but seriously, thanks Reon.) So this church…HTB – Holy Trinity Brompton, where, yes, Tim Hughes lead worship. What can I say…you are all jealous and you know it. There I said it.

So it was (what is that like the 5th “so” I’ve used??...oh, speaking of annoying habbits…thanks a lot P for telling me about Nick’s habit of calling things “guy” instead of something like “one”; as in “look at this guy,” or “what do you think about that guy” …I can’t stop doing it…ugh, it’s pretty annoying, but I remember you when I do it and laugh) so I was coming back from my second weekend in London, riding on the train, reading a book – I’m not telling you which book b/c it’s a book that I’ve bought more than one copy for some lucky person back home…so I can’t tell you what it is. Anyway, I was reading this book, and suddenly…it happened…I had a moment. Have you ever had “a moment”…it’s tough to explain, and I haven’t had many, in fact I could probably count them on my hand, but it’s one of those perfect moments where, even if it’s only for a second, life is perfect. It’s as if God Himself is sitting right next to you and everything is right with the world. In these moments, anything is possible…and your wildest dreams and wishes could come true. It was like I was a little kid again just lying in the grass with my dog on a summer’s evening, where I had no responsibilities and absolutely nothing to do…but I could do anything.

Dunno why, but these moments happen most often when I’m on a trip somewhere…traveling at night, like when you were young and would go on long overnight bus rides for a field trip or something. All you friends were around you, but you were the only one awake and could just sit there and stare out the window and dream…maybe I’m the only one that did this…I think that I loved trips so much b/c you could just roll the window down and hear nothing but the wind go by…and imagine yourself going anywhere…being anyone…doing anything. I guess this is why I love just going for drives too…

I still dream…
Wondering, waiting, creating…
Creating worlds of possibilities…
Of what it means to be me…
Of what could be…and of what is

I still dream…
Of flying high
With the wind in my face
And the sun on my skin
And every step…a new chance to begin

But I always come back to this place
This place of wondering and questioning…
Wondering why you put these dreams in my head
Questioning what good are dreams in the face of the world outside
In the face of “reality”
In the face of…me.
And yet…
And yet, a small voice.
A whisper…whispers
What if…

What if “reality” isn’t…
What if dreams can come true
What if my dreams are your dreams
And what if the world can change
And what if anything is possible…

Oh, I still dream…
I dream of what’s next
Of what God has yet to teach me and of what I have yet to learn
I dream of you…
And of what we’ll someday do, and where we’ll someday go
And of how much I have left to grow.
And I beg God for more patience and grace.

He just smiles…

I still dream…
And nothing can take that from me.


I thank God for these moments…they’re usually gone as soon as they come, but they did come. And I pray that you have a “moment” today…even if only for a moment.

Dublin story...finally

Ok, so I’m finally getting around to writing about my trip to Dublin – it’s been a busy at work…ok not really, but I have had to write up a report and send into my manager back there in Chicago and people keep moving us from office space to office space, anyways, here’s my story about Ireland.

First off, this only works if you pretend to hear me talking with a fake Irish accent. So, I booked my ticket with this website lastminute.com. At fist glance the website looked nice enough and so I booked a trip on a local airline and a stay in a decent hotel (like a 3 star)…then the fun started. I got an email a few days later telling me that they had to drop my hotel reservation and rebook me into a 2 star hotel…needless to say, I was pretty ticked off. More than anything, it was the fact that they booked me in a lower hotel class and didn’t even offer any sort of compensation – so I wrote them a nasty email telling them that “in my experience, the customer is number one” (you know, all that crap)…they replied that they were sorry for the inconvenience and were going to refund some of my money. *note to self, write more nasty emails*. The next day I then headed off to the airport at about 4 in the morning…you see, the town I’m in is so out in the Welsh countryside that the closest airport of any size was like 2 ½ hrs away. So I get on my flight and land safely…ok, I’m using the term “safely” here pretty liberally – by “safe” I mean that we landed…it was the roughest landing I’ve ever experienced and let’s all be happy that nothing fell of the plane (is there a community college for pilots…perhaps online courses??).

After I landed, I got to ride on one of those double-decker busses, which was pretty awesome. Once I got to the center of town (which has this really huge spike in the middle…not sure of the purpose, other than to help drunk people, and lost tourists, find their way) I went searching for my hotel. I started off down the river, walking away from the town center…and kept walking….still walking…hmm, this looks kinda like a ghetto…yeah, definitely a ghetto…if I have to take off running, can I run faster if I jack my backpack up higher??....ah, finally, my hotel. It looks ok from the outside – nice little pub at the bottom and all, so I went into the bar (yes, I had to check in at the bar…this should have been my first clue)…but the room wasn’t ready yet. Back to town.

My fist stop was Trinity College, which is pretty impressive, and a little weird b/c I kept wondering if there was any relation to the one in Deerfield. Then I set off toward the Guinness brewery, but got hungry on the way and ate at a traditional Irish restaurant…Quiznos...dunno if you’ve heard of it. Anyway, on to the brewery…needless to say, it was awesome!!!!! I even learned to pour the “perfect pint” (and I have a certificate to prove it), got some free beer (well, free with price of admission), and got to learn about my favorite beer. It was glorious. Fun fact…Arthur Guinness (the guy who invented it) was brilliant – he secured the lease for the St. James Gate Brewery (i.e. Guinness brewery) back in the late 1700’s for a 9000 yr lease at like 45 pounds a month…”ultimate rent control…brilliant!!” There is also this cool bar at the top/end of the tour where you have a great view of Dublin.

After the brewery I decided to go back to my hotel and check in (and drop off the load of souvenirs I had procured so far. Stopped at Christ Church on the way…lovely. Speaking of lovely…as I said on facebook, I think I’m in love with the women of Ireland…well, ok, their accents anyway….brilliant!!. Yeah, so I checked into my hostel…hotel…nope, definitely a glorified hostel. I at least had my own bed and toilet, but that’s about it, it was basically a closet with a bathroom. Not cool, especially when I’m paying like 60 pounds for the room (this is like 100-120 bucks) – yeah, I know!! Needless, to say ,I wasn’t too happy…my trip to Dublin (Guinness mission accomplished) had now become a quest for a better hotel! The search began…I quickly discovered that every hotel in Dublin was booked for the night…got a nice walking tour of Dublin though, cool city…saw lots of cool stuff, and met a bunch of hotel desk people.. My search finally brought me to the end of the tourist part of Dublin (at the end of this pedestrian walking shopping area – very nice)…so a few blocks past this shopping area, I see a small sign for a hotel (as a side note, the street I’m on looks like nothing but condos) called Copper Jack’s or something. This being my last resort, I go in and ask for a room and the attendant says that the only thing they have is next door; I’m so happy that I found something that I don’t care if it’s back across town. So we go and see the room and (please see pics – this is my 2nd hotel room) and it’s amazing, esp for only like 40 euros more than my original room. I took the room! Then I went back to my original hotel (yeah, by this point, I’m pretty experienced at getting around Dublin, lol) and come back. Oh, as a side story, on my way back to my 1st hotel (which as I mentioned, is kinda in the ghetto) this van slows as it approaches me and then pulls over really fast – now I’m ready to fight at this point, but it turns out he was some lost tourist and needed directions…not as exciting is it…so let’s pretend that it was kidnappers/muggers/terrorists and I fought them off – yeah, I know, some people would call me a hero…some call me a space cowboy, some call me a gangster of love…some call me Morice ‘casue I speak on the pompatous of love…so yeah, I'm walking back to my (new) hotel and I see this line of people out the door for, what looks like a regular apartment. Only, not many apartments I know have huge bouncers outside (unless it's to keep out Jehovah's witnesses and sales people). So, it turns out there is some really popular underground night club under my hotel...pretty cool. And no, unfortunately, I didn't go in (left my "clubbin" apparel in Tenby, of all places, haha). Fortunately, I couldn't hear it from my room...

So…anyway, a very long story short – I found a great hotel room, got a great tour of Dublin, found a secret night club, and spent as much as if I’d just booked the trip myself instead of using one of those travel websites...but had fun! :-)