Hoo baby!

Well. Quite a weekend; and it didn't even feel like a weekend! More like a nice long timeless stay in Akron where I wasn't real concerned with the imminent return home. Having a paid day off Monday helped :-)

As cryptically indicated in my previous post, I drove home from Chicago Wednesday. A good drive. Worked Thursday and Friday, still trying to catch up on all the regular duties that had accumulated in my absence. Thursday night I spent about four hours remixing "Trav'ling Far Into the Night." I mixed at a deeper level than I think I ever have before, listening through 3 different sets of speakers, building it up track by track, and FINALLY, exhiliratingly, getting a kick drum sound that rivals a professional recording. Ahhhhhhhh :-) :-)

Friday I worked fast, got the hours past, and soon happily headed back to Akron down the familiar freeway. It was a chilly, rainy and darkening drive, but I had plenty of sunshine in my heart (*groan*), and dug into Nordic Roots 2, reading the CD booklet as I listened and learning a lot about the Scandanavian folk revival of the 90's and the instruments, musicians and traditions of this cool corner of the world music scene. I pulled up to the Hoffmans a little after 5 and furrowed my brows at the dark house and vacuous driveway. Heh, I would have gone in anyway, but a kind note taped to the door assured me that I could come on in to the house while they were all at the gym. And of course, rather than unload without my helpers I played Stephen's drums and waited for my hosts to arrive :-P They finally got there, we unloaded and milled around, and when Mike got home we all piled into the sedan and headed to a deluxe dinner at The Macaroni Grill, courtesy of a gift certificate the Hoffmans had received. We weren't the only ones wanting to eat at said restaurant, and ended up not getting seated 'till about 8:20. During which interminable wait we were sitting right in front of the open kitchen, watching the lavish dishes being prepared fragrantly before us :-( I much appreciated Mrs. H asking a waitress to get me some bread and olive oil to bring me out of my low blood sugar stupor. It was a fun time sitting there at the table with all the Hoff-meisters, talking, joking, writing profundities on the tablecloth, drinking copious amounts of Dr.Pepper, and feeling honored to be a part of their family. After dinner and frenzied shifting of plans over the phone, we ended up all driving home and then Mike, Steve and I drove back to the same area to see "Narnia" at the theater. I was glad to finally see the much-trumpeted movie, and it was certainly enjoyable, but it didn't grip the depths of my soul as I sort of expected. Liam Neeson's voice was terrible for Aslan, IMSNHO. I'm waiting to see it again, to form more reasonable opinions of it.

That night Steve and I hung around for a long time playing guitar, doing AIM, writing, and talking. Eventually we tried to be good boys and shut the light off and get some sleep, but we laid wide awake and talked till 6am! At which horrendous hour of quiet darkness I took some calcium and B vitamins and Steve took some chips and salsa. Mom #2's witch doctor medicine put me to sleep in about 15 minutes, and I slept till 11. Pretty odd night, but good talkin', and good times with Steve-O.

Saturday I showered, ate the breakfast Mrs. H cooked up for me, and zipped over to the Turners. I was spending that night with them since the Hoffman's New Years plans precluded use of their house for lodging. Turns out they were all going down to visit some land they were about to buy, so I tagged along for the day. We had a nice drive down (about 1.5 hours) despite pretty muchly deplorable weather. I DJ'd an eclectic sampling of music from my CD collection and got to hear sweet stories about the Turners' tenure in Brazil. We ended up spending almost 3 hours at the land with the Hendricksons, exploring the "Trailer Park", walking up Turner Mountain, surveying Camp Greenlakes, and generally just chillin' it out in Johnland :-D [Various names proposed the following day at lunch]. The land is quite cool, and looks to be loaded with deer on the big ridge behind the lake and trailer and unfinished house.

Eventually we bundled back into our cars, cranked the heat, and tried to dry away the chill and wetness of our rainy explorations. Quite a rainy drive home, and I began to despair of the planned evening of wandering around downtown at "First Night Akron." Mercifully, though, the rain let up about when we got back to the Turners, and as Rebekah, Stephen, Adam Hendrickson and I walked around that night we were but lightly spattered with spit from the sky. The evening was great fun. The group seemed to bring out the best in eachother--Rebekah was happy, I was not too stupid, and Adam and Stephen were hangoutable without being banal. Indeed, the venerable Bekster veritably skipped as we neared the skating rink. Yes, we got to ice skate--for more than an hour! I haven't skated in years, and once I got over my initial wobbliness and got used to my dull right skate blade, it was a blast. And as we coasted around the oval of ice and the music played from the single garbage-bag-covered speaker, the 10:30 kids fireworks went off, popping in the night sky above the buildings of downtown Akron. Good times :-)

At about 11pm Steve headed off to his Grandma's apartment for the night and Bek, Adam and I drove to the Hendricksons, joining their family, the T parents, and DT to ring in the new year. After getting tugged around the house by Josh H, my new little buddy, I chilled on the floor with him while we went around and shared something God was showing us that we wanted to take into this new year. It was good to hear what God was doing in different people, and to contemplate what He would continue to do in the year ahead. When the big ball dropped in New York we cracked the bubbly and hung out in a celebratory mood till about 1am. Quite a long day, and utterly different than any other day I've had in Akron so far. David lent me his guitar, and I played myself to sleep that night in the big chair downstairs, eventually rousing myself enough to brush my teeth and call Jack (their awesome dog) downstairs for a comfortable night of sinking sleep.

Church Sunday was good. Good to sing and worship with some great songs, good to hear Pastor Jim refresh the message of the Gospel and the wonder of grace, and good to catch up with friends. I also had an idea of something to share during worship, regarding God being already on the throne surrounded with worship when we "start up" our morning service. I wasn't sure if it would work to share it, but when the second song about "the throne" came up, I figured God was telling me something :-) I've been praying for a long time for God to speak to me like that, and give me things to share, so it was cool to have something to say.

After church I hung out for awhile and then headed back to the Turners for lunch at their invitation. Their oldest son Mike and his wife Katie were there as well, and it was nice to get to know them better. Lunch was delish and then we sat around and proposed names for the land. Finally, after paring down the list by voting, we ended up downstairs watching the Browns game. Being the incredibly dedicated Pittsburgh fan that I am, I soon found myself cheering for the Browns :-P Chad came to the door 'round about halftime and invited all interested parties to join the Tuminos and Mallinacks on a walk about the neighborhood. So Rebekah saddled up Jack and the three of us joined the crew. We ended up meandering down to the park and playing frisbee, and Brian, Nick and Alex Morgan randomly happened to be in the neighborhood and stopped by and tossed disc for awhile, and it was fun. Good to throw and catch a frisbee again. Jack is way cool, too. He probably weighs about as much as I do, and his head's bigger than mine, but he's so friendly and mild-mannered, he's a bit like a cat. 'Cept when he pushes up against you he almost knocks you down :-P

After walking around and standing around for a long time, Bek Jack and I headed back to the house. Then to fulfil my obligations to Jess. For stealing her flowers last time I was in Akron I was bound to procure and hand delivere a dozen yellow roses to her house. She had forgotten about it, so the surprise went as planned, and the roses were well received. Plus, Jess had lost her voice, and sounded like a 50-year-old Pittsburgher who had been chain smoking for 30 years! Cracked me up every time she said something :-)

So eventually, around 6 o'clock or something, I headed back to the Hoffman's, my regular home in Akron. Oooh, and I was so proud: I didn't even have to ask anybody how to get from the Turners to the Hoffmans! And I even took a different way than I had gone before, and knew how to do it! :-) Yay for understanding geography a bit. The Hoffmans were watching movies that day, so I heated up my Macaroni Grill leftovers, sipped some poor man's Bailey's, and endured as much "First Daughter" as I could. Finally I retreated upstairs and played guitar and talked to Mrs. Hoffman about the dance ministry and the legal ups and downs of non-profit organizations. I was feeling quite tired, and at about 9 o'clock I camped out under a blanket on the couch and watched "The Interpreter" with the guys. Contrary to my expectations, it was a pretty good movie. Then to bed like a clod, knowing the following day held the first PURE BOSS PRACTICE of the new year.

I roused myself from renewed slumber at 11:30, finally got Steve up, and Brian called and headed over. We set up for practice in the dance room, and soon enough Brian started us out on "America Blue." Ahhhh, my friend, it was good to play! So good! And when I gave four measured clicks and we crashed in with our brand new revision of "You Were Everything," we were all three amazed at how good it sounded. It sounded pro! Philip's new bass sounded sweet too, coupled with the borrowed bass amp, and Steve enjoyed playing it. I loved playing the drums, very much enjoying the improvements that have blossomed in my playing over the past month and a half. Fills are a whole new frontier now, and I worked some sweet ones in. We worked on "Hit the Wall," which is shaping up into a sweet new song. Way catchy chorus. Good job Steve-O! Good words, too, which makes a huge difference in being able to "get in to" the song in a meaningful way. Man, band practice was sweet! Brian is getting better and better at guitar, he has an amazing new Flying V with ridiculous inlay work, and he and Steve's rapid adaptability are a joy I have found nowhere else. We got through pretty much all our songs, and though we hadn't practiced in two months, they came back pretty quickly and sounded pretty good. Ooh yeah, and we took a break around 2 o'clock and hit TACO BELL. How much better can you get, man? :-)

At 5:10 we finally finished up, Mike got home, Brian headed home, and Mike, Steve and I headed out to the AMC Theater in Cuyahoga Falls to watch "Kong" with the Tumino kids, Jason, Autumn, and the Murphy Girls. There are few additions that could make significant improvement to that crowd, so it was a blast to watch the movie with 'em, and afterwards I was delightfully surprised that everyone but Autumn was able to go to Applebee's for half-price appetizers. The movie was fantastic--a genuinely thrilling and moving celebration of classic cinema. I mean, a giant gorilla defending a beautiful lady by taking on three T-rexes?? Sweeeet, dude :-) Good stuff. And Applebee's was great, too. The Killians was exquisite, and I was wonderfully surprised to find other people initiating godly conversation besides myself. People who 6 months before had had little answer to what God was doing in their life. Truly, good times. Mikey drove us home, and due to the wetness and darkness and coldness of the night and my dragging tiredness, I made the quality decision to stay the night and drive right to work in the morning. So we lazed around, I packed my stuff up, Steve and I jammed to a sweet sad haunting little ditty I came up with, and finally I hit the sack.

Ugh. The next morning. Fuzzy and early, I packed up the last of my stuff, took the time for a shower, loaded the car in the soaked morning, and set off down the lonely road to a long day of work in the chemical plant. Warm glare of headlights and street lamps on the glistening road, warmth finally blowing at my feet as the engine heated up.. settling down into the seat and driving away from the weekend. The end-of-trip sadness lingered far longer that day than normal, kind of linked to the post following this. But as always, the sadness has passed and the memories remain, strong and wonderful. Dinner with the fam, talking with Steve, traveling with the Turners, skating in the city, ringing in the new year in a warm full livingroom of Christian friends, Sunday rolling itself out, happening as the hours trolled by, quality practice with my awesome bandmates, gripping film and godly fellowship Monday night... It was a weekend of weekends in more ways than one.

A weekend of weekends in more ways than one,
Hopefully portends of more such to come.
I work now an hour and a half from my friends,
So I'm definitely planning to come back again.
The sweet sad sorrow of driving away
Is tempered by all I remember today.

O Lord, bless this city, this family of mine,
This new home You've given for pockets of time;
These friends I have been with in working and fun..
Lord take for Your purposes all that's to come.
It's so good my heart wants to cling and control,
But Your way is best, so I loosen my hold.

Bring what You will; I will love what is brought,
Sink my joy into you, let it be what cannot

Be distraught.


Here's to God and grace, bands and brothers, movies and memories, food and friends, and all that cool stuff that's in Akron :-)

--Clear Ambassador