Emergency Broadcast: My Kinda Party

In a direct contrast to my last post, I am writing one more blog before marriage.

Mainly because I feel it would be a shame for my Bachelor party to go unblogged about :)

As it was presented to me. I will go in phases..

Phase 1-The day's weather was not inclined (what with the tornado watches and all) to tennis activity. We decided to play Settlers of Catan. I LOVE this game, and in my mind it was a brilliant substitute. I lost (as I usually do) but it was very reminiscent of the times of olde. (Chase ended up winning)

At the end of this, some of the guys continually mentioned getting me on a plane. About 80% of me was certain this was a joke...That percentage lowered as the night went on.

Phase 2- Dinner. Also very reminiscent of what I miss about NoVa. We go out, have a meal, and just commune together as a group of great friends. It was an air of celebration...Great times.

Also more plane comments...

Phase 3-On the way to the next mystery destination, the plane discussion was now in full swing. It is mentioned that I am definitely getting on a plane and going somewhere, and we begin to drive towards Dulles International....INTERESTING. I was questioning my next move. Do I open the door and roll out of a moving vehicle movie style? Do I take the less dramatic, but more sensible route and just run away as soon as we stop? Are my friends really THIS crazy? Needless to say I wasn't in full freak out mode, but definitely on my toes as to what the heck was about to happen...lol.

We pass the airport and continue on to a lasertag place that just happened to be near Dulles (at this point I am laughing hysterically on the inside...brilliant planning on their part) We play both laser tag, and another one of my favorite activities of all time...DDR. It was pretty amazing.


As we leave, I am convinced that the night is over. Instead I was informed that there is a phase 4...(I believe it's 11pm at this point)...On onwards we go

Phase 4- We return to the place we had dinner to discover (well, atleast I discovered) that karaoke was taking place. SO happy....I love karaoke! What happened in this phase is probably best kept out of the public spotlight...:) People who never go up on stage went up for my sake, sang songs that were pretty funny, and really stuck in there way past multiple people's bedtimes for the sake of the bachelor party...Certain people have video of this phase...I'm curious how it turned out..lol.

When we leave, I congratulate the guys, thank them for an awesome evening (about 1:30am) -only to be informed there is another phase! The Omega phase (I love the title of this...)

Omega Phase- We return to our starting point (Thomas's house) and I am last to arrive...the guys are huddled up and I'm sort of shuffled to the center of the circle...little nervous...lol. Someone throws a jacket over my head, lots of shouting and pushing, I am hustled up the driveway a little, and the guys were like "we just wanted to do that to make things a little exciting, (I'm laughing and smiling as I type this) but were going to end tonight by praying for you and Jen." so the guys gather around, place a hand, and just pray. Pray for strength, leadership, humility to God, etc....I was SO thankful for all of it. I haven't done the night justice in this blog, but I will never forget it.

The entire night was a huge reflection of the love God has for me. The people He has placed in my life I am quite convinced are the best people on the planet. I could not have asked for a better bachelor party.

Updates

So it has been awhile since my last post...which is sad because I learned since starting this thing that I love to write. On to updating the reader with recent happenings of life....

1. Wedding planning is going very well...I think? Lots of amazing advise from recently married couples helps alot.

2. God has answered many prayers lately....I'm very thankful. I have tried to include the phrase "if its your will" to all my requests...I feel alot of people get upset when prayers are not answered when it may just simply not be the best thing for them...

3. I still miss northern VA...(I may mention this every post) but it has gotten alot easier lately. Good people in my life helps with that!

4. This Christmas season is much better then last for me. I still don't like a majority of Christmas movies though....I love everything else about Christmas, but the movies for some reason are completely uninteresting to me.

Speaking of, I will more then likely be shopping on xmas eve....why you may ask? Because it's fun....I love the pressure and chaos of waiting until the LAST day...:)

5. I don't think I have cared as little about football as I have this season...Which is odd because I used to be really into it.

6. I have recently been wondering how much of the bible is lost in translation. I'm sure nothing God would want us as English speakers to know....but, I have always felt the bible is worded awkwardly in the English language and wonder the beauty of it's original word construction.

7. Video games have been fading fast in my life sadly....its gone from any game I can sit down and enjoy, to I can only play games that take years to develop and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to make. One such genre of video games I really really enjoy is car racing simulators, I love them, Look forward to their release dates, and research them before they launch. One such game that recently hit the shelves is Gran Turismo 5...The game does have its flaws but I am overall impressed! Maybe I'll do a few video game review blogs...

8. Why is it that everytime I tag God in my blogs, blogger forces it to be a lowercase G?...I am not a fan.

Anyhoo that is about it...MERYY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!

Influences-Work

So as probably alot of you know, I (somewhat) recently started a new position with the company I work for, Genesis Fiber Optics.

It has been a ride to say the least, but I LOVE it nonetheless!

To backtrack a little, for the past oh....6 years or so I have been one of the guys in the field. (doing things like fiber repairs, inside splicing/installs/troubleshooting and so on)

Right around mid-way through my DC experience I started to hate it....like, really hate it. I didn't look forward to work, tried to come in as late as possible and leave as early as possible. I hated the company we worked for, the 24/7 on-call schedule,...pretty much everything about it. BUT, the job provided such an amazing life outside of work I told myself "it's ok if I don't LOVE my job...
I can tolerate it for what it provides."....ugh, what a mistake.

The problem with that viewpoint (as I see it now) is that eventually, doing a job you hate (no matter what it provides) kills you as a person. I've seen some scary examples of what a person can turn into after years and years of a passionless profession.

Work is one of the more influential of all my influence topics I will write about. It's what you do with most of your day, and will ultimately play one of the biggest roles of who you are as a person.

One of the things I did (and would highly advise against doing) is lie to myself about my honest views of what I did were, mixed with the false belief that I could do nothing else. I think another popular lie is to do what you hate for your family/kids/spouse Etc. I mean, not say there are crappy temporary jobs out there (there definitely are) but to realize they most certainly are temporary. (While also rejoicing that you have that temporary job.)

To work and provide for your family is not only what we are called to do as men, (if you happen to be of the gender) but also honoring to God. However, I don't believe it's in His plan to have us do this with no passion for our profession because ultimately, it leads to no passion for anything else in our lives....(I mean, it makes sense right? It's what your doing for most of your day)

God doesn't want us to be miserable
Deuteronomy 15:10
Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

What made me come to this realization of what I did and didn't love, came about by me doing something I actually enjoyed (as of now, Admin and AP/AR) and compared it to how I felt doing something I did not....Unfortunately I am rather hard-headed and if God didn't allow that opportunity for me, I would have likely kept right on going till who knows what happened....

My brother Paul (actually I am sure this is a fairly popular quote) loves to say that "if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life." Seeing people do what God has designed them for, I believe it. I know for sure God has gifted each one of us uniquely to play the part of furthering his kingdom....and doing so, brings the kind of joy every single one of us was designed to desire, not the happiness the world says you need.


1 Corinthians 12:12-13
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Affianced/Betrothed/Husband-to-be, And Other Such Fun Synonyms

SO.....Last Friday (the 15th) I asked this amazing woman Jen Catalfamo to marry me on the beach of Virginia.....And she said yes!

1-What?? Nice!
2-I am one lucky man.
3-Welp, looks like I'll be getting THAT resized.

Up to this point, as I witnessed close friends getting engaged, planning a wedding....I always wondered what thats like. Whats it like to go to marriage counseling? To make a guest list? Have a registry, start a knot page? (link to come soon!) and MANY other things involved in this amazing event. I have heard things like "This is the most stressful thing anyone will ever endure." To "It's an amazing blessing for 2 people to go through." and just about everything in between.

I feel we as people tend to over-hype many things in our life which ultimately leads to disappointment....and while I tried not to do that before our engagement, I can say for me personally, this has lived up to every ounce of anticipation I tried not to muster up :)

I LOVE planning this with my future wife (and yes, I understand some things are just not fun to do...) I love that we both want to honor God in as many ways as possible in our wedding, and show others exactly what were about as a couple.

I love that we're both about a short engagement...:)

While I'll try and not make this blog about the things I love, I will make a point that God has clearly....CLEARLY blessed me with what I do not deserve (in many areas of life) and one of my goals in life is to honor him through marriage and a family...(eventually!)

Through this process, whatever it may look like for us, I'm pretty much one excited man who has much to learn in the marriage department....:)

Investing

I went to what our church calls a "house party" recently. Basically it's what you go to to get involved in a small group.

One of the things that was mentioned/stressed was the importance of A.commitment to your group and B. Investing your time into their lives.

It made me think alot about investing my time. How important it is for me to invest wisely, and what it actually means to do so. I kind of have been all over the place recently in alot of different areas of my life and I feel I need to hone in on the importance of what it is I'm actually doing down here.

When I think about investing, I guess if I were to answer honestly the idea itself turns me off and I immediately think of a faster, more efficient way to accomplish the same goal. But when it comes down to it, I need to realize there just is no other way sometimes then slowly going through the necessary motions, and investing your time for a greater goal then what would otherwise be accomplished by going the quicker route.

I feel this is especially true for God's plans in your life. He loves to teach me patience, especially the consequences of not having any. Not waiting on him, and investing my trust and time on what He has planned rather then what I do....

I think the idea of investing is pretty unpopular for most. Why wait when you can get what you want NOW? But if you look around, generally in life not waiting is what gets you in the most trouble and is usually the worst product compared to the same thing that takes time to make (Food, relationships, any sort of creation)

I have realized lately that investing my time and trust into what God has planned for me was definitely the wise thing to do. He required some action on my part of course, but also alot of trust in the sense that if I keep looking for the right church He will provide it for me....I dunno, pretty exciting to see that happen TWICE in life now :)

A note to new Christians about investing: I think that, as with any other relationship, it takes investment of time to get to know this awesome savior. I remember how hard it was for me to understand who Christ actually was and not what I heard/assumed about Him. As you draw closer to god, God draws Closer to you. (James 4:8) and in time I got a little clearer picture what Christ-like love looked like in day to day life.