The Blog of a Lifetime

I just recounted my past week for Jess, to explain how I don't even eat, sleep or brush my teeth consistently, let alone have regular devotions. Since I made myself recall it all, I'll put it down here, and as much before and after as I can remember.


Monday 7/7 - The first full day that Mom, Dad, Daniel and Daisy were home from Kentucky. I was supposed to help clean up the house that night, but I found a SWEET guitar on craigslist in the afternoon, so I drove out to Mt. Oliver and bought it before dinner. After cleaning up for several hours that night, Daniel and I headed to the Harvey's for Justin's general-purpose birthday gathering. Whereat we spent the night. Great times with this summers' group of people: Daniel, Justin, Tim, Betsy, Katie & Rebekah C, Rebekah B, Jess, DK, Quinlisks, Chelsea, Schuchs, and others I'm sure. We also had some Allisons there, and Janelle McCombie from Indiana, which was sweet.

Tuesday 7/8 - GROW! It was Nick's birthday, so several of us gathered at the snow cone stand before GROW, and Betsy brought a cake. Then after the meeting we congregated at the Schuch's house for a late night pizza party for Nick. I had to peel myself away around midnight to go home and sleep.

Wednesday 7/9 - Domenica had free tickets to the Pirates-Astros game, so I headed to PNC Park after a brief stop at home and met Nate, Sarah, Anna B, Domenica and the Graham Brothers at the Clemente statue. It was a PERFECT night, and though the Bucs let themselves loose, it was fun to sit and talk and enjoy the sights.

Thursday 7/10 - The hits just kept coming. Thursday I drove straight to the Rutmans' after work for dinner and a trip to Monroeville with Nate Dogg to check out a guitar. We also hit up the Guitar Center out there, and hit some traffic on the way back. Then back to my house where I soldered up a busted speaker while Daniel and Justin put together a 2-person cow suit and Tim Whitbeck watched in amusement. Good man-times after that, sitting around in the back yard talking and enjoying the benefits of our age.

Friday 7/11 - Friday morning I packed for the next 4 days or so, and headed out. I went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and got free food because of the cow shirt I made the night before (Did I mention Friday was Dress Like A Cow Day?). Work finished up splendidly (thank you Lord, and friends for praying), and I headed to the Harveys. Some hecticity, ending up at C-F-A for dinner (more free food!) with great GROW folks, and back to the Harvey's for the dub feat -- double feature movie night. I loved Luther, but wasn't feeling Amazing Grace, so I crashed on the floor at about 11pm. One of the best decisions of the weekend.

Saturday 7/12 - Up at 7:30 and drove to Akron. Hung around, helped the Tumino's set up for Chad and Abbey's grad party, made a Dr.P run :-), grad partied, frisbeed, grad party tear-downed, showered at the T's, and went to Dave Potter's for his graduation/21st birthday party. I finally crashed in the Tumino's living room at about 1:30 as everybody sat around and watched Looney Tunes. Looking back, Saturday felt more like 4 days, not 1. Four good days.


Sunday 7/13 - Church (hooray for Jason Reyes and the Stewarts!), Chipotle take-out to the Allisons, and then the rest of the afternoon there hanging out with a big group of Akronites. I ended up in a group around the piano, playing and singing worship songs for something like 3 hours. Eventually we left there and hung around at the Tuminos for a few more hours eating dinner and playing grand rounds of knock-out. Departure: ~9pm. Harveys: 12:15am. Whereat I spent the night.


Monday 7/14 - I actually just came home after work Monday. Grandma Sweetie and Aunt Diane were spending the night on their way home from visiting Kristin, so we all ate dinner out on the patio and went to Handel's to satisfy Grandma's insatiable love of ice-cream. I was dead tired, but Mom had to drag me away from the synth at 10:30. I had discovered that everything I'd played around with till then was just side "A" out of TWO banks of presets!


Tuesday 7/15 - Another GROW day. Justin, Daniel, Betsy and I congregated at the snow cone stand beforehand, and I got a steak & egg hoagie from a sweet local place near our property. We did sword drills for a starter game, and I got to stop and pick out prizes at the dollar store on the way :-D Slept out on the deck again after taking the garbage out. Haven't slept in or on my own bed in... a month? Something like that.

Wednesday 7/16 - Don't remember! Other than the money I made, this day is lost to me. I do know that during this whole week, work was excellent. Something clicked (i.e. God worked), and I was able to simultaneously understand and take ownership of much more of what's going on.

Thursday 7/17 - When it was my turn to answer my own question around the fire Thursday night, I had a tough time picking a highlight for the day. They took me out to lunch for my birthday, and Olive Garden was REALLY good... but that wasn't the highlight. Being really hot and sweaty and getting a guava snow cone from Nick's stand was wonderful... but not the highlight. Daniel and Justin bought a bunch of deluxe food and we cooked dinner at the property as we sipped ice cold Dr.P's and IBC root beers, and then a bunch of people came at 8:30 and we talked and I played some of my songs... and ultimately maybe that was the true highlight. But the one that had me wiggin' out with excitement and disbelief was tucked in the middle. I saw some guitar effects listed on craigslist, did some brief research, and immediately called the number listed. He'd had all kinds of people calling about them, but if I could meet him soon, he'd give me all 4 I wanted, for the price of two! So I freaked out, finished up a bunch of work stuff, and headed down 51 to meet him at the Goodwill store. He had the reverb, EQ, chorus and Scholz Rockman, all for $150, and they looked SWEET. But the highlight was talking after the sale-- he has a studio in Carnegie, and buys and sells all kinds of instruments, and invited me to come hang out anytime. I haven't had a free evening yet to take him up on that, but I 100% plan on doing so. My first Pittsburgh music connection had me trippin' along as I drove off towards the snow cone stand. We'll see what comes of it!

Friday 7/18 - I'm 24! Earl was gone, so I ran the hot end for the day. It was about the same as the days at youth camp-- running around, tending to this and that-- which was sweet. Care group that night, and a followup bonfire at the Quinlisk's with leftovers from Thursday. Fell asleep wrapped in a groundcloth, and got all bit up by some bugs.

Saturday 7/19 - Slept in till 11, and hung out in the living room playing my synth while Mom cooked. Breakfast plans got scrapped, but we had lunch after Dad got back from mowing at the property, and not long afterward we all headed out (in one car! Together!) to the Calvetti's for Rochelle's surprise birthday party. Good times hanging out with the kids. That night I recorded some jams with my synth, but of course, since I was recording, and not jamming, it didn't relaly flow, and most of it sucked. Funny how that little red "R" button kills all inspiration, eh? :-/ Nick slept over that night.

Sunday 7/20 - Went to church at 10, and sat with the Caprios and Wes. The Stewarts were in from Akron, and Randy's sermon was great. After some hecticity, 9 of us ended up meeting at Wendy's, grabbing some lunch, and heading to the Youghiogheny River Outfitters to canoe down the river. Abbey was in town for the day! We got rained out right before heading out, and after playing frisbee in the downpour for an hour, we packed it up, Abbey headed for Maryland, and we headed back. Sad maybe, but we still had fun :-P That afternoon was SWEET! Instead of buying some overpriced undergood-tasting food at some restaurant, our group headed to the Caprios, where we all made dinner. Betsy and I did some shopping and got materials for chicken terriyaki and stir fry. I directed the operation (and cleaned under the leaking garbage disposal :-/ ), and we ended up sitting out on the back deck eating some pretty good food, talking, and feeling pretty cool :-) That evening we walked to a little field nearby and played frisbee for hours. A perfect summer day I will not soon forget.

Monday 7/21 - The GROW girls made dinner for all the guys... and then sent us out as 3 teams on a **video scavenger hunt**!! Coffee with mayo... singing happy birthday to strangers... calisthenics in the pouring rain... ring around the rosie in Wal-Mart... the list could go on and on :-) We're not sure if the video evidence has been destroyed yet, but our agents are working on clearing the record :-P

Tuesday 7/22 - A slightly less great day of work, but I can't complain, and it was my fault anyway. The Allisons have been in town since Sunday night, so we all congregated at my house for dinner with the fam. Then off to GROW, which was great. I ran across Hebrews 10:32 and on, which really hit home with where our discussion group was at from John Piper's book. Quite remarkable. Then we watched Newsies at the Quinlisks -- a time expenditure which I 70% regret -- and Justin and I repaired to the Harvey abode for sleep.

Let's just say I woke up this morning feeling as tired as you would feel at 3am after an exhausting day of work and a long busy evening. I think that means I'm exactly 1 day behind on sleep, but I can't think of a day I'm willing to give up, and the schedule marches on like a banshee, so on I go. I'm honestly not sure how this will come out, but so far I haven't gotten sick, and I'm doing well at work, so we'll see. Tonight I am fervently hoping that, in the moment, I don't disregard my plans to leave promptly from worship practice and go home and sleep. Which brings up that tonight we're setting up the NEW SOUND BOARD (which is why I'm going), and I'm stoked for it!

This is a monster post, and I'm so hungry my intestines are digesting themselves, but HA! I have finished it, it is done, and I shall call it my squishy, and it shall be my squishy. Time to make like a hungry boy and fly to Chick-Fil-A!

--JPB