Holy Matrimony! We're hitched!

There are no words to describe the joy and love that comes from the weekend you get married. What a blessing it was for Hope and I to be surrounded by our closest friends and family during the most important and meaningful days/weekends of our lives. From our pizza party with the wedding party on Thursday night, to an evening of memorable speeches and toasts Friday, capped off with a picture perfect wedding and reception, the weekend was a roller coaster of emotions. There were tears of joy as I watched my gorgeous bride walk down the aisle to me with such hopeful joy and excitement. My heart was racing and doing backflips as Come Thou Fount began to play and I saw the first glimpse of Hopie in her beautiful dress. For those who missed the ceremony, my Hopie was the most stunning bride I have ever seen, more beautiful that I could have ever imagined.

I knew Hope would be crying. I knew she would be smiling so big you could hardly see her eyes. I know there would be tears and make-up and sweat : ) But I had no idea that she would so vastly exceed my expectations of how beautiful, how joyful, how vulnerable and precious she was as she walked down the aisle with her mom to take the oath of marriage.

My friend Ethan(hi buddy) noted Hope's reaction in his blog:

While trying not to sound like a cheesy biblist, I will say that Hope’s reaction to her groom was the closest resemblence I can imagine to the way I hope we react when we meet Christ in the flesh.
What if we really trust him that much?
What if he really is so good that we burst out laughing with tears?
What if we are that familiar with him?
I have never imagined my reaction being like Hope’s was to seeing Dave; so familiar to him and in awe at the same time, but I hope it is.

Now, I'm not saying that I was like Christ, standing up there...merely that Hope loves and lives with a passion that is unlike any other person I've ever met. She so perfectly illustrated that passion and the reason I fell so deeply in love with her as she walked down the aisle. I am so excited about a lifetime of those moments.

Space Shuttle? What about those bagel bites?

I know. I can't believe it either. Mankind can fly to outer space. What an amazing thing to behold. After watching a recent video clip of Louis CK on Conan, I couldn't help thinking about how our society has become to selfish and unaware of the great things that human kind has accomplished. Hope, her friend Katherine, and I went down to the beach to watch this marvel of the modern world and were pleasantly surprised to see hundreds of people out enjoying it too. However, the majority of Americans were sitting in their living rooms watching reruns of the King of Queens (a horrible show). Shameful. Look at that picture...an amazing fiery tail and a rocket on it's way to Mars or someplace ridiculously far away where you can just float around. Insanity, right? I guess the point I am trying to make is that we are so under appreciative of the amazing details of which this life is constructed. We become too worried about what TV show we might miss or if traffic is going to be bad or how long the wait at Olive Garden is going to be Friday night. Life becomes sweeter when truly enjoy the little things. Stop to look at how beautiful the Azelia's are right now. Or just feel the spring breeze blow across your face. Life is full or surpises and these are unprecendented times. It's the little things like seeing a space shuttle soar into outer space that make me realize how lucky we are to have this one lifetime to live, and more importantly to love the life we're living.

Serious.

My butt hurts. If it wasn't for this stupid economy I'd be flying a kite or tossing clumps of sand into a lake. I'm not sure if you are lucky enough to have a job where the majority of your day is spent at a desk, in front of a computer, on your ass...but it's not as awesome as it sounds. Sure, there are endless possibilities of things that can be found/learned/forgotten on the internet; and shelter from the elements is nice when it's a ba-zillion degress out of the rain is relentlessly falling from the sky. But trust me people, it ain't worth it!

Holy Crap...BEETS!

Do you even realize how crazy beets are? They pretty much stain everything they touch. I’m not exactly sure of the origin of the beet, but I am sure that ancient civilizations capitalized on this unique quality to dye things RED. I roasted some beets tonight and they are crazy delicious. Especially when drizzled with the vinegar of your choice (I used red wine because that is what I had) and a sprinkle of salt. Beets are fantastic for the digestive system, which is a plus. Seriously, if you haven’t considered eating beets you better check yourself. This amazing, but common, root vegetable provides an endless array of culinary options while giving your taste buds the ride of their lives! If you try beets this way and don’t pass out from taste overload, I’ll buy you a whole mess ‘o beets.

P.S. Buy When you buy a bunch of beets make sure the greens are attached and fresh looking…you can sauté the greens with garlic and olive oil for a side dish similar (but even better) to sautéed spinach.

ROASTED BEETS

1 bunch of beets (trim stems to leave only about 1 inch—reserve greens for later)

½ cup water

Vinegar (balsamic, red wine, rice wine, anything you want)

Big pinch of salt

Drizzle of olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim and wash beets. Toss them in a baking dish. Pour in water, drizzle beets with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt. Cover tightly with aluminium foil. Bake for 1 to 1 ½ hours depending on size of beets (cut the huge ones in half). Remove from oven and let rest for 15 mintues. Peel skin, slice ‘em up, drizzle with vinegar and more salt if you want and enjoy!

If you are going to eat them later it is best to leave the skin on until you’re ready. They will keep in a covered dish or Tupperware for about a week.

So…I hope you will take my advice and enjoy the bountiful harvest of our beautiful Earth. Beets not only taste great, but they are soooo good for you…and if you eat enough your poop will turn red. Which is awesome.

Big gulps, huh? Welp, see ya later.

Sometimes, no matter how in touch you may think you are, things hit you by surprise. Getting dumped by the girl you love, losing your job just when you think you are about to get ahead, or even the phone ringing just after you sat down to watch your favorite television show. Life is funny like that. God has a sense of humor...even though most of the time is does not seem that funny to us.

I can't tell you how many times I get blindsided. Maybe I'm naive. Maybe I'm over confidant. Maybe I'm just blind to what's going on around me. Who knows. One thing is for sure in this life: we only have a limited amount of time to make an impression on somebody and we only have a limited amount of time on this Earth. You never know when you are going to miss your last chance or when the straw is going to fall that breaks the camel's back.

When you do face a situation like this; and believe me, you will, there are about a ba-zillion different ways you can handle it. I'm a mover and a shaker. I'm efficient. I want to make a list of problems with a corresponding list of solutions and I want to start the fixing immediately. Others are more emotionally driven. Time is key here. Processing must take place. Rome was not built in a day.

Both tactical approaches (or non-tactical) are equally respectable and equally suitable to resolve a conflict, a heartbreak, an unanswered question. The real challenge is to reconcile the two approaches and find a way to cater to both sides. Some call it compromise. Some call it giving in. I call it neither. Because the final verdict is going to be (ideally) something that pleases both parties...thus it makes sense that neither should sacrifice their preferred method of coping or resolution. The "make-everyone-happy" approach may be a product of the post-modern world we live in, but when it comes to relationships and conflict it just might be the ideal approach. Without it, one side of the conflict is going to feel cheated, and this will carry over in the form of bitterness or negative presumptions. And who wants that, right?

My point is...conflict is like Burger King. You can 'have it your way'. And the sooner we realize this the sooner our problems will vanish, and arguments will turn into conversation, and anger will turn into delight, and the thin line between love and hate will vanish, because hatred will have walked calmly, quietly, and peacefully out the door. Love always finds a way. It always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres...love never fails. Don't hesitate to change, there is an exception to every rule.

I love you. Goodnight.

You know, I still can’t decide between the two. Fireflies or Lightning Bugs? Essentially, they are the same thing. Who the heck decided they could give a tiny flying bug two different names? I remember growing up my family would go on summer vacation to the mountains in North Carolina. We would stay with five or six other families from the great state of Florida at a place called Hallcrest. We called it Furry’s. It was the kind of place that smelled like bacon and mothballs, had a big table with a lazy susan for meals, a dinner bell out front, and far too many sets of Uno found just about anywhere you could sit down, most of which were incomplete and bent in every which way. Each night after dinner the old folks would sit on the front porch and watch us kids playing out in the yard overlooking the valley. During the day I could usually be found throwing rocks at something. But at night, all attention was given to the hunt and capture of the…achem, “glowing bugs.” There was no stopping me. One year were brought Chelsea, our Golden Retriever. She was a great dog. When I was about 3 years old I fell off Chelsea and busted the side of my head on the bricks around our fireplace at home. I still have a pretty sweet scar. Chelsea loved North Carolina and loved those little glowing bugs almost as much as I did. She would run around the yard and into the woods and gobble them up. She would grin, and even though it was dark, you could see her glowing teeth stained by the guts of her after dinner snacks. She didn’t care if they were called Fireflies or Lightning Bugs or Little Glowing-Flying Insects…or if they tasted like cat poop. She liked that anyway.

There are things in this world that twinkle or glow or stand out. And no matter what we call them, there is no denying it…we engross ourselves with them. We can’t stop thinking about them. We gobble them up.

I am going to attempt, through this blog, to postulate whether or not we can come to a definite conclusion about anything on this Earth. You will become privy to my honest opinion, some hypothetical guestimates, a bit of devil’s advocacy, and a whole lot of random information. Odds are I will digress immensely from this initial proclamation of intent, but isn’t that what life is all about? Heading in one direction only to be lured away by something bigger and brighter or with more promise and possibility?