Edward: this is an invitation from the queen, to the duchess, to play croquet.

 

Nigel: oh, i see. it's an invitation from the queen, to play croquet, to the duchess.

 

Edward: yes, you see, it's an invitation to the duchess, from the queen, to play croquet.

 

Nigel: oh, you mean an invitation to play croquet, to the duchess, from the queen.

 

Edward: well. i wouldn't 've put it quite like that, but...it'll have to do, i suppose.

 

Nigel: very well.

 

 

 

[ah, the joy of prepositional phrases]

i hate fluorescent lights.

not all lights are created equal.
when God said, "let there be light," He meant natural, warm, incandescent light.

fluorescents light the dark corners of hell.

a few weeks ago, i went to indiana for business.
we drove there. 14 hours.

the next week, i went to illinois, on business. i flew there.
the job involved driving a rental ALL OVER ILLINOIS. 40 or so hours.

the next weekend, i went to see brandon before he left for seminary.
jonesboro: little over 2 hours.

i also took a trip to kentucky to celebrate 4th of july with canadians.
ekron: 5 hours.

two weeks ago, i went to florida on business. i was supposed to fly,
but then they made me drive.
sarasota: 15 hours.

last week i went home.
it's a 10 hour drive.

on the way back from home, i had to bring a car to nashville from
jackson that day...complicated story, but the grand total for the
drive back from home was:
17 hours.

if you just take the times listed above...and you double the ones that
involved a return trip...

it's 139 hours.

in the car.

driving.

in the past...oh...6 weeks or so.

that's over 5 and a half DAYS. as in: 24 hour periods.
it's 17 work days.
3 and a half work weeks.
8,340 minutes.

perhaps this explains why last month's phone bill listed me at over
4300 minutes (72 hours).

i guess i was lonely.

i hate stagnation.

i hate treadmills. you run and run and run and run and the scenery never changes.

sometimes life feels like that. you know what i mean. you wake up one morning, look around, and it hits you. this scenery never changes. you've been doing the same old same old for who knows how many years running. and you're not satisfied with it.

the grass is always greener.

this is why, i believe, we idolize and sanitize the past. the past is always better to us now, because the past was different. rarely was it actually better.

this also explains why we are so anxious for the "next things" in life to happen. like right now, i'm ready for the summer to be over. it's a stupid thing to wish for, actually. i have zero effect on the speed with which the summer's end gets here, yet for some reason i feel it necessary to comment on how i am "ready for it to be over." it's senseless, really. why not just enjoy the summer?

not that i don't, mind you. i like a summer as much as the next guy. my point is, part of me wishes the summer was over and the semester was here, and when it is, that same part of me will wish the summer had never ended.

the grass is always greener before or after today.

but you know what? it isn't true. life is not a treadmill.

it's an ocean.

sure, you can run all day and the scenery will never change. and that's incredibly frustrating. but that's merely the psychological disadvantage to living in a ocean. it does not change the fact--the fact--that you did, indeed, travel.

all you lack is a point of reference. a buoy. land. something that is fixed, that can assure you that you are traveling in some direction.

whether or not it's the right direction is an entirely different conversation.

i'm beginning to realize, i think, that it's not so much a lack of buoys, it's that i don't pay attention to the ones i pass on a regular basis.

the grass is never green until you stop comparing it to another yard.

thanks, God, for buoys.

so i went to florida and stared at women in bikinis through a viewfinder all week.

and i sunburned.

 

then i came back to school and moved off campus.

and now i'm peeling.

 

tomorrow i go home to visit for a few days.

then, perhaps, i'll tan.

 

and somehow, through it all, God is very, very good.