So I'm sitting in graduation right now. As normal tha Army squeezes 10 minutes into 2 hours. How anything ever gets done I'll never know. I'll be home in about 29 hours and counting. I can't wait.
I'm closing in on the end of my stay here. I'm certainly not gonna miss this place. I've got a few pictures from Boston that I'll post soon. I gotta keep you coming back for more.
I'd like to give you a few quotes from unChristian, but that will have to come later. The premise of the book is that Christianity has an image problem. When you mention the word Christain most people's negative perceptions are hypocrtical and antigay. Whether that's true or not that's the preception that we have with what the Barna Group calls "outsiders." It taints people's view of Christian and Christianity. Do you think Charles Barkley has an unChristian view of Christianity?
Happy Valentines Day folks. I don't get to spend it with my first love, I do however get to spend it with my second love the Mountaineers. They're currently beating Rutgers, but the game's not over yet. I went to class at 7am today and left at 7:30pm tonight. That's a long day. Especially when you're looking at document reference numbers.
I took a couple of pictures the other day of Jefferson's car so that you guys can get the full affect from My Crazy Day. Now don't get me wrong I'm not knocking Jefferson's car. It's just that this isn't the most ideal vehicle to travel through NYC. I'd prefer maybe a black Lincoln with tinted windows and a driver named Charlie. You know something classy.
I'm considering going to see The Blue Man Group. They perform regularly in Boston and it looks like I may get a day or two off. I'll probably just go by myself, but if any one wants to come up here and go with me let me know. I'd kinda like to just go and explore the city a little bit. I think it'd be fun.
I'm almost half way through my time up here and I'm looking forward to getting back home. It'll sure be nice to sleep in my bed again. Karyn might be completely moved in by then though so I might be staying with my parents for a few weeks before we get married.
One more thing for the 4 people who actually read this. I've been rolling around Galatians 4:8-11. Any thoughts? Specifically "not that you know God, but the God knows you." I love it and don't fully understand it at the same time. Use the comments folks.
So I think that I've finally lighted somewhere when it comes to this car search. I've been changing my mind every 5 seconds. I really want to go with a 5 door Subaru Impreza (it's a wagon basically). It's got all wheel drive, and it gets reasonable gas mileage. I'm a little fickle when it come to stuff like this, so I'm looking for a little feed back. Take a look and tell me what you think.
For all you creative folks out there you may want to check out this great blog. John Chandler has encouraged me to become more creative. For me that means getting a handle on all the things I've got going on simultaneously. Check it out.
Everytime that I talk to Karyn she reminds me that it's only 47 more days (or whatever the count may by on the day) until she becomes Mrs Chip Bennett. She is very excited, and so am I. I would have to admit though I'm much more excited to be married than to get married. The getting married part comes with choosing colors, wedding favors, and menu's. How should we decorate this? Who's going to do that? It's alot of planning for one day. I'm proud to say that I've been involved in plenty of those desicions. I'm happier to say that Karyn has been wonderful and taken care of most of the things I could care less about. The part of the wedding planning that I care most about however is the honeymoon.
We've been blessed with a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. When we were in the decision making process and Mexico came up I knew that any resort area that we went to in Mexico was likely to be surronded by poverty. I didn't like the thought of being the rich American that spends more on a plane ticket to get there than some people make in a year. So I started researching and found an organization called CompassioNetImpact ran by a guy named Ric Lehman. I got in touch with him and asked if we could connect with the things that he was doing while we were down there. He was more than willing to help us out. So while we're enjoying our honeymoon we're also going to get a chance to jump in and get a little dirty helping with Ric's minstry. We're not sure exactly what we'll be doing because we'll see what the needs for the day are and just kinda jump in. When I first started searching for an organization that works with the poverty stricken in the area I wasn't looking for a Christain organization. It makes me happy however that people doing good in world are driven by the love of Christ.
At our reception Karyn and I plan on taking up donations that we would give directly to Ric and his ministry. If you want to give and aren't going to be at our reception get in touch with me and we'll work something out.
You can check out some of Ric photo's of Puero Vallarta here.
So it's about 10 degrees here and the wind is howling. I hear it's
cold in WV too. I spent the Lord's day learning about Basic Allowance
for Quarters. Gotta love the military. Oh well it could be much
worse, I could be spending a year in Iraq instead of a month in
Boston.
I wish I could have been at youth tonight, but I can rest easy knowing
things went well. See you folks later, I think the guy in the room
next to me is done with his 30 minute shower.
-I'm listening to the Robbie Seay Band, thank you Relevant
-So I'm starting to get into a routine here. Alarm goes off at 6am.....I fight it for a while, heave myself out of bed and get ready for the most boring day of my life. No kidding I'm incredibly bored. I think it may not stay this way but I know literally more than the instructor. Doesn't motivate me to do much more than surf the internet mindlessly, which by the way is getting very old. Luckily I brought several books with me that I've been reading in the evenings. Another post coming about unChristian soon. I also have a couple of "sex" books too. I am getting married in about 50 days.
-Speaking of getting married holy crap I'm getting married. It's been great planning and working through all of this stuff with Karyn, but I'm ready to move on and I know Karyn is too. It's taught us so much about how each other deal with finances, pressure, family, etc.
-So our accomodations aren't the best, but I've been in worse. I took a few pictures for you guys so you can get the full experience.
-The Mountaineers continue to kill me. Last night they lost to Pitt. Pitt people. Of all people beat Pitt. To top it off it was a last second 3 to give them a 1 point victory. Don't let them shoot the 3. I repeat don't let them shoot the 3. I was so upset I forgot to watch Lost, the only show on TV I don't miss. I think I'm gonna have read the summary to get caught up. That just makes me even more upset with them. I'm gonna have to stop watch when my health starts to fail or I'll die watching a mountaineer game. I'd much rather die in a pistol duel.
-I'm done for tonight folks. If you have anything to keep me entertained pass it along. I'm literally dieing of boredom.
-I'm listening to the Avett Brothers, thank you Micah.
-I need to post from something other than my phone. This is getting old.
-I threw out an invitation to Amy of welcometoamyville.blogspot.com
for lunch or coffee (that's assuming the slave drivers give us a day
off). Who better to make a guest appearance right? Even if she
copletely snubs me you should check her out. Maybe buy a
painting......tell her I sent you.
-I'm missing being home. Especially Karyn who has to plan this
wedding without me. She's been great. I also miss all the kids (and
leaders/friends). Maybe I'll try to get a video out to you guys for
the weekend.
-I'm reading a great book, unChristian. I'll post some insights soon.
Well I'm two days into my stay at Deven's. It's pretty relaxed, which
I like. In class today I IMed Micah a little. Looked up the bar that
Cheers was based off of (I wanna go there bad), and looked at used
cars. Which leads me to my next subject.
So my Explorer is shot. I'm in the market for a new vehicle. Any suggestions?
-I saw a grown woman picking the crust off of her bread. Who does
that? What kind of person do you think she is just from that
observation?
-I'm off to bed folks. Catch you later.
PS I can't get this row thing off, doing this on my phone.
row
I left Buckhannon at 6:30 this morning, to catch a ride with Jefferson. Jefferson and I work in the same office and we are both going to Fort Deven's, MA for a month long school that we both have to attend. I probably would have drove myself up, but about a week and a half ago I was abusing my Explorer and blew the transfer case. Many of the people who know my Explorer think "It's a good thing that he's not driving himself up in that thing." Too which I take great offense. But if you saw what we rode up in you may sing a different tune. When I met Jefferson this morning he was in his 1992 Dodge Shadow. No radio......I miss my Explorer.
In any case we start heading north east. I'm a passenger right? That should mean that navigating is not my responsibility. I'm napping, reading, picking my nose. You know completely zoning out. I ask where we are and Jefferson isn't quite sure. I see a bunch of cars with New Jersey plates, but he doesn't remember crossing the state line. I just assume that Jersey sucks so much that they all go to PA for the weekend. Well long story short somehow we get into New Jersey and we don't realize it. I start actually paying attention to where we are headed because Jefferson doesn't seem to know where we are. The plan was to take I-287 to skirt New York City, because who wants to drive right through the city right?
I'm still looking for I-287 when I look up and notice the skyline. It looks a little like NYC, but I've never been there, what do I know. Then I look in the bay, and notice the statue of liberty, and we can't turn around. I start looking at the map a little harder and I realize we are driving right thru the city. Holy crap!!! I get turned around in Elkins sometimes, NYC kinda has me worried. To sum my adventure we go thru the Holland Tunnel, under the Hudson River right into downtown Manhattan.
Now I should clue you in a little more on Jefferson. He's from Braxton county. He told me they had 5 stop lights in the entire county. On the way up Jefferson is talking about how he hates driving in the city. In fact while 
we're driving thru Manhattan he keeps saying, "This is worse than Iraq." and "Make sure your doors are locked."
I took over the navigation and drove us right thru China town, down back alley's, thru Queens (not the one just up the Tallmansville Rd), the Bronx and out of the city (no kidding). So my first experience with NYC was navigating thru the city with a guy from Braxton county in a 1992 Dodge Shadow, with no radio. Plenty of memories.
You can view all my pictures here. Enjoy....more to come later.
Well I look at my last post and it's been 2 1/2 years since I last posted. My only excuse is that I don't really care. However I have decided that while I'm in beautiful Fort Devens, MA that I'd tried to keep everyone in the loop of what's new with me, since I'm sure that everyone is on the edge of their seats. Tonight I'm in Sturbridge, MA and tomorrow I'll head to Deven's. What a fun way to watch the super bowl huh?
I had a pretty eventful trip up here today, but more about that later. Leave some comments folks, let me know you're out there.
