The Universe Wants Me Sore

I went running again today. I say again, cause I went for a very short run on Tuesday.

Just before running, I realized how stupid the thought sounded to me as I noticed that my entire goal in running today was to get my legs sore.

You see, summer soccer starts this Sunday. I generally don't get in shape before it starts, and by week 3 am in good shape. Actually, I just feel extremely sore the Monday after the first game.

But, I can't afford that this year, because on Monday, I'm involved in a golf marathon, golfing 100 holes to raise money for an orphanage in Kenya. I likely couldn't golf 5 and a half rounds of golf in one day if my legs were the most sore they would be all year, so I figured I'd run a couple of times to ease that pain.

Even worse, is that typically 1 soccer game every 2 years is moved from 6:30 until 8:00 at a lighted field. Randomly enough, that got scheduled for this week. So from 8:00 Sunday Night through the same time on Monday Night, I'm expected to play a soccer game, sleep 5 hoursish, then golf 100 holes. That will likely take up all of the 24 hours once the driving time is included between the field, home, and course.

I guess I'm just supposed to be sore for a while.

Tuesday will likely find me in a hot tub somewhere.

FOX Wins

Fox wins because they didn't broadcast the Presidential Press Conference live on their main network station. Instead, they played their normal shows and offered it on their cable networks.

Seeing as how every other network was playing it live, every news broadcast later this evening would cover it, as well as every news website, I was glad someone finally decided to allow me something else to watch.

I would likely have watched "Lie To Me" on Fox anyway if picking between the normal shows of each station, but would have watched anything a network offered that was different than the press conference.

I simply will find out everything important he said in a much quicker way by other means and never feel the need to watch these things live.

Thanks Fox.

Braiden and Habib - Part 2

Time to continue the story. If you didn't read part 1, you can find it here: Once Upon a Time

“Enhaviv, it’s great to see you,” said Coach Singleton as he outstretched his hand.

“You as well Mr. Singleton” I responded and consciously thought about gripping his hand with the proper firmness to seem confident.

“Please, don’t call me Mr. Singleton, call me Coach.” He corrected me with a smile.

Mr. Singleton had long been a member at Willowing Hills Golf Club where I work as a golf teaching assistant and for the last three years had coached the varsity boys golf team at Saint Peter of the Cross High School. They had developed quite a reputation in the state for such a small private school, partly because they had golf teams starting in the late elementary years.

“So, you’re interested in helping out with the program…” Mr. Singleton began, ushering us straight to business.

“Yeah, I heard there is an opening for the junior high golf coach and was hoping I would be a good fit to fill that role.” I began, hoping this would start a conversation. Instead, I looked up to find Mr. Singleton staring back at me with his brow slightly creased, expecting me to continue.

“I have considerable experience teaching golf to junior high aged youth, have coached many students through individual Junior Golf tournaments and have great access to teaching tools and locations through the club.

“It isn’t your experience that I question, I’ve seen you at the range, you are a great teacher.” He said leaning in.

His presence was ominous, being six foot five, even when he leaned forward my eyes met his hardened chin by nature, and the slight tilt upwards of my neck helped me to realize the stature difference we brought into the room.

“It’s well, you realize this is a private school right? I mean, this is a Catholic private school.”

He knew full well that I understood what kind of school this was. He hadn’t said this to inform me, but to question if I belong.

“I imagine there aren’t many students with the name Enhaviv here are there?” I mumbled hoping to lighten the mood. “I’m here because I already have good relationships with many of the students that attend this school, feel comfortable coaching them, and would love to be involved in the improvement of their golf games. I believe I can do this without my being Middle Eastern causing a problem.”

“I don’t think that you will cause the problem. Likely not even the students, they seem more comfortable with diversity than anyone else I know. But, the parents. I don’t know what the parents will think.”

We continued our conversation for another twenty minutes or so, discussing the expectations of the position, the time commitments, the travel schedule, and the size of the squad. But as we both left, we knew that the only inhibiting factor may be that I look different than the rest of the people here, and that I won’t be found at any of their Sunday Morning Mass celebrations.

I opened the door and walked down the empty school hallway, hearing my dress shoes click with each step, and squeak on every fifth step or so, I realized how alone I was.

“Habib?” came echoing down the corridor

“Mr. Stradquist, how is school today?” I said to Braiden. At the club we don’t use first names to the members, until they ask us to. I felt smaller now having to call an eleven year old Mr.

“It’s fine, but I’d rather be on the range with you.”

He had continued his lessons for the last week and a half and seemed more comfortable with the game of golf now.

“I believe our next lesson is Thursday right?” I asked, making small talk.

“Yeah, do you think we can hit the driver then?” He asked eagerly.

“I’ll do you one better. If you hit the 7-iron well, we will both hit the driver, and we will play a couple of holes.”

I knew this would entice him as I had not allowed him to do anything but hit the 7-iron and putt so far.

“I can’t wait.” He shouted as he ran towards the other end of the hallway “See you t-h—e---r----e.”

Fine, I'll Do It

My brain is too fried to do it tonight, so I'll just foreshadow tomorrow instead...

I'll write a second part to the Braiden/Habib golf story tomorrow.

I haven't decided what will happen yet, but have an idea or two if I don't think of any I like better.

So let the anticipation build, at least for the three or four of you have asked me when I'll write the next part...

Box Elder Season

I was going to try and think of something fun to write.

As i gazed around the room I saw a box elder bug crawling up a piece of drywall that is awaiting its trip upstairs.

Instead of continuing a line of fruitless thought, I will be going to rid our living room of this bug.

I don't like box elder season.

Gathering Ideas about Tongue

I'll be preaching a message about taming our tongues in a few weeks.

Was curious if anyone had examples of the following kinds:

Things that are hard to say, but that we should, or when we should

Things that are hard not to say, though we shouldn't say them


Any examples would be awesome, thanks.

Bertolli

Many of their easy made pasta creations are wonderful.

We had the chicken and penne one tonight, it was maybe the third or fourth different variety we have tried.

If you hate cooking, and like eating what you start making within 11 minutes, these pastas are for you.

Little Nugget

I'm happy to have spent part of Haley Marie Kemper's Birthday with her. She was born at 3:51 a.m. weighing in at 5 pounds, 15.6 ounces. The girls are all doing fine, though Jason is occasionally beating himself over the habit formed the last nine months of saying "the baby" as he still finds himself saying that at times.

Jenny seemed to stick with "peanut" while my name of choice was "nugget."

I look forward to getting to know this girl as she grows and am ecstatic to know that she will grow with so much love and support around her.

Congratulations Kempers.

1st Person Narratives

I gave only my second sermon ever in the 1st person narrative format tonight. It went exponentially better than the first.

I maybe have enough confidence to try one in front of an audience that isn't just a preaching class now, but we'll have to wait and see when that might happen.

I don't know what circumstances would need to line up for me to decide that is the best way to tell a particular Biblical story, but am convinced I'll do it sometime.

More Weeks Like That

I had three days where I played 18 (or more on 1 occasion) holes of golf. It shows on my face that I've been in the sun.

In 7 days, I witnessed 16 baptisms, one of which was my brother's. Our house got bigger this week, at least in perspective as our roommate moved out and the clutter redistributed itself (with our help) today.

Date night on a Sunday night to see a movie.

I need more weeks like that.

42 Strokes

This isn't the number of strokes I took today.

It isn't the number of putts.

It is the number of strokes difference between my score and that of my neighbor. He didn't have a good day on the course. I recorded 2 birdies and 4 or so pars. He recorded 2 10s and 4 11s.

I think I had more fun than him, but he got more play for his money than I did.

42 strokes. I could have played another 9 holes with that many.

Spring is Here

Well, at least for the last couple of days. Yesterday had 18 holes of golf. Today saw the grill cleaned and used, and tomorrow has 18 holes of morning golf.

One of these days, I'll get adequate at golf yet.

Once Upon a Time

Here is what we have to work with:

Character Names:
Braiden
Habib

Plot Suggestions:
Habib teaching young Braiden to play golf

Subplot options:
Clubs that break without hitting anything
Losing clubs in ponds

This ended up needing to be longer than I wanted to write tonight, so I’ll continue it at some point. But here is the beginning anyway.

Scratch the Manners

“You’re 2:00 lesson is here” my co-worker said teasingly. He knew I wasn’t looking forward to this lesson.

It didn’t take me long before I saw Braiden walk into the clubhouse, his father walking behind him talking on the blue tooth device that might as well be implanted within his ear.

Braiden had been raised with privilege. Unfortunately he had not been raised with manners. He watched a friend playing a Tiger Woods video game a few weeks ago and started to bug his dad to teach him how to play golf. Though his dad didn’t play golf. Don’t get me wrong, his dad, John Stradquist, owned clubs and wandered around the course swinging them at golf balls, but his demeanor showed anything but play.

I expected Braiden to be the same. I’m used to seeing young rich kids try their new activity for the week, and when it doesn’t come easy, they quit.

“Why is it they get all the best equipment?” I muttered back to Jimmy as I headed to pick up Braiden’s clubs from the locker room. “He won’t even carry them himself.”

As we made our way to the driving range, I handed Braiden his 7-iron. He took it from my hands, squeezed his hands around the shaft turning his knuckles white, and swung at the ball he had placed on the tee in front of himself.

“When do I get to hit it far? I want to use the driver!” Stated more as a demand than a question.

“It isn’t worth our time to hit that club until you can hit the one you are holding well.”

He swung again, this time, hitting the ground 3 inches behind the ball and stinging his hands with the reverb of the steel shaft.

“The ball must be too far forward, I keep hitting behind it.” Braiden said as he adjusted his stance to move the ball next to his back foot.

“That isn’t the problem we need to fix, the ball is where it should be.” I muttered, hoping he would listen, but not with much intent to care.

I expected him to be gone in a two days anyway. He didn’t seem willing to put up with the demands the game of golf has.

“Who are you to tell me what I need to work on Habib?” Scowled Braiden.

I tried my best not to show my offense at the insult he clearly intended. While I may be middle eastern decent, my name is not Habib. Though he had heard me introduce myself clearly as Enhaviv, he chose to pick this name for me instead. My name had been deemed unimportant to remember, not for the day, but forever.

The rest of the lesson continued with Braiden trying to no avail to hit the ball 200 yards with his 7-iron. He didn’t care to loosen his grip or slow down his swing, though he did allow me to correct his stance and keep him from dropping his head. He started hitting the ball a little better and seemed to be improving at enough of a pace to keep him entertained for the afternoon.

Unfortunately, this meant he would be back again tomorrow.

Story Woes

I attempted a short-story involving Habib teaching Braiden to golf. It didn't turn out well on try one.

I'll attempt it again sometime tomorrow. My patience will wear thin, so it is likely that regardless of my level of satisfaction with tomorrow's trial I will post it.

Last chance to add anything to the list of things I need to include...

Tonight's Expressive Reading

I was given this text to read expressively tonight and preach on next week. Let me know if you have any fun thoughts about it.

From John 3:

²²After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. ²³Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. ²⁴(This was before John was put in prison.) ²⁵An argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew^i]">[i] over the matter of ceremonial washing. ²⁶They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him."

²⁷To this John replied, "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ^j]">[j] but am sent ahead of him.' ²⁹The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. ³⁰He must become greater; I must become less.

³¹"The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. ³²He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. ³³The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. ³⁴For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God^k]">[k] gives the Spirit without limit. ³⁵The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. ³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."^l]">[l]

Night Night

After staying up all night last night to take a friend to an early airport departure, and then making sure I was up (from nap) early enough to watch all the Master's coverage I wanted to see, I'm tired.

Story time will have to wait until next week.

Enjoy Good Friday and Easter.

Let's write a story

I'm in the mood to write a short story. I don't know what it should be about though.

Give me some ideas of what to write about. I am planning on fiction, so lets start with something that will give me some interesting room to work with when aiming to write a story.

If you can't think of a topic, a name will work. Any made up name you want and I'll write it as a character based on what comes to my head when I hear that name.

I'm excited to write a story with you.

A Full Day's Work

Put in a full day's work today. Folding clothes.

Not the "we finally did laundry and had lots of clothes to fold" kind of work.

It was the, 1800 shirts have been delivered and needed to be folded kind of work.

Was great to have help.

Was a highly repetitive adventure.

We were demanding workers, controlling our supervisor's actions with our endless music requests.

But the day ended with all the shirts folded, which means I'll spend tomorrow (Wed.) afternoon watching the par 3 tournament of the Masters instead of folding more shirts.

Holiday(ish)

Found a great holiday video. Was going to save it for Xmas, since it has those decorations but the message works with Easter.

Based on the song... "Mary Did You Know?" but much more original, and awesome.

Weeeeee!!!!!!!

It's officially Master's Week.

Though tournaments start well before now in the golf world, Master's week is like a season opener for me for 2 reasons.

First of all, it is the first major of the year, and one of the most beautifully landscaped courses I ever see on television.

Second, it actually gets close to being time to play in this snow covered land (yes, it was covered when I woke up this morning)

Yay Master's Week.

Your Choice

The last two books of the Bible I read for my own enjoyment were Leviticus and Exodus.

I can't decide what I want to read next.

Someone pick for me.

If there is a reason you pick something, let me know and it will trump a random answer, otherwise, random answer by popularity first and tie breaks by first to post choose what I decide to study out of next.

Chess Anybody?

I randomly opened the chess program on my computer two days ago.

I've probably played 15 games or so against the computer the past two days.

I forgot how intriguing chess can be. I'd love to play against real people instead though.

Anyone play chess? Preferably not play it really well unless you have a lot of patience with me trying to learn to play it well.

I'm pretty competent at certain parts of the game, but have never studied it to get good, and have never played it consistently against people who were good.

But i'd love to get good at it.