Journal - 1/1/02

Tuesday, 1 January 2002

It's a new year! I had a great time at Mike and Joe's last night. People just acted crazy, and we all had a good time. We got in lots of billiards, Foosball (sp?), Jenga, and Chinese Checkers. I haven't played Chinese Checkers in years -- it was actually kind of fun. A few people danced, in a crazy sort of way, only when songs like 'Kung Foo Fighting' played or a song by Phoebe Snow or some hard club hit began to play. Anyway, we had fun. I got to bed around 3:00 am. Since Rob and Randy were there we had to celebrate New Year's in Denver, which meant we wooped-it-up for three time zones.

It's a new year. I finished the new design for this website, as you can see. Not that I think it is all that great, yet, but I had to put something up. Not going to NYC gave me the opportunity to finish it off. Now, all I need to do is tweak it -- a lot. I'm not sure about having the journal and quitetime entries with a white background. I've darkened this area a bit just because it seems too bright. I'll have to decide whether I like the dark blue background better or simply leave it like this. I think I'm going to have this color type represent my speech/talking/thoughts and simply let black be all the rest.

What will come of this new year? I wonder whether the new mayor in New York will continue the progress, at least in safety and cleanliness, that Mayor Gullianni (sp?) accomplished during his administration. I think for New Yorker's, this is an example of term limits coming back and biting them on the heel. I have this strange feeling that my three or more years in NYC may see a turn where the city is on a downward slide. I hope not.

One thing I really need to follow up on and soon is my MPI refund. I haven 't seen it yet, and I have to do something about that! (Later today, I checked my mail from yesterday, and low-and-beyond, there was the refund check. Yeah!!!!)

I don't know what this year will bring. I certainly didn't expect much of what happened last year. Life can truly be an adventure and my attitude will determine whether the adventure is positive or negative, whether I come through it a better person or not. I don't think I am much different now then I was at the beginning of 2001. I determined that seminary was my next step and moved to turn my life upside down to go NYC. Upon realizing that I wasn't able to go in August and after much angst about whether I made the right decision or not, discovering that I was much more disappointed about not going then I thought I would be was somewhat of a relief. Yes, I really did want to go! Another thing I realized is that the prospect of having cancer or some other life threatening something was not a horrific experience. I didn't worry my self to death, and I don't think it was in denial. I didn't have to face all the therapies if it had turned out to be cancer, which would have been the awful part, but I didn't dread it. I figured at this point, if I put my future in God's hands (seminary and beyond) then God would take care of the particulars. I think I learned of the "peace that surpasses all understanding."