acts.1.eight

anyone in grand forks tomorrow night that wants to come and see me or hear me speak, here’s the details:

UND InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
1st Large Group of the Year!
8 pm in the Red River Room

i’ll be giving a quick introduction to what intervarsity is, and then sharing a quick message to encourage everyone as the new school year gets under way.  for anyone not able to make it, i’ll probably be typing up a post on here in the next couple of days that will give the same basic message.

i really hope to see many of your smiling faces in the crowd thursday night!

two peices of good news that have been confirmed this week.  i didn’t want to say too much to too many people before i got the details ironed out.  now i feel comfortable informing the world.  or at least the fraction of a percentage of the people in the world that come here from time to time.

first news.  i got a message last week from an old intervarsity friend.  seems the und chapter was getting down to the wire with finding their first large group speaker for the year and they were wondering what my availability would be.  i checked my schedule, rearranged some vacation time and made it work.  i met with george, the area director this week, and we will be riding to grand forks together next thursday night.  i am so excited!  i spoke at und one other time, nearly 3 years ago (crazy how time goes by…) and this will be my first time doing anything significant on campus since the spring of 2007 when i appeared on a discussion pannel at msum.  i don’t think it’s likely that i’ll ever be back on campus full time, but if i can do some volunteering with stuff like this from time to time, i would be happy.  so if any of you out there will be in grand forks next thursday night at 8:00 pm, you should come check it out.  i don’t know the location yet, but i can let you know when it’s all finalized.

second news.  we had a fun in the sun day at work this week.  i was sitting out front hanging out with some students and enjoying a hot dog when two of the higher ups came back from lunch and approached me with a question.  i knew that they were going to ask me to do more work (they joke that i have many slahes behind my current job title), which i rarely say no to, but i have been increasingly reluctant and frustrated when i say yes.  the question this time:  would i be willing to teach a class.  my immediate reaction:  absolutely.  it is one of the few extra duties i have been asked to do in which i actually have some formal training.  in fact, i had been tempted in the past to ask if it was a possibility for me.  i will be teaching your basic skills-type/welcome to college class to first-quarter students.  because my job involves high concern for attendance and academic progress, this will be a good way for me to make initial contacts with students and also be the one to make sure they understand the importance of our policies and practices.  it should also go a long way in helping me figure out if my future in higher ed involves time in the classroom, or time strictly in administration.  so beginning in october, you can add a slash to my job title: /instructor.

i have mentioned in the past that my favorite new musical discovery in the year 2007 was the handsome furs.  their live show at the aquarium was one of the best, not just of last year, but that i’ve seen in my lifetime.  this week, the handsome furs made their return to fargo and it was every bit as good as the year before.

there are not many touring bands that come through fargo that i would make a special point to catch, but this band is one.  when i saw them last year, i had just been introduced to them.  a side project of dan boeckner of the band wolf parade, another band i fell in love with in 2007, they were a fairly new band.  boeckner is joined in the band by his wife, alexei perry, and it was obvious that he was far more a veteran of the live performance.  she was good at what she did, just not much of a performer.

fast forward to this year… she clearly has become more comfortable performer.  she danced and played to the crowd and it only enhanced what was already a great show.  his voice is certainly one of my favorites.  they played a lot of new material, which i am excited to pick up once it is released this fall.  but they also played a good selection of material off of their first cd, plague park.  their two song encore included two of my favorite tracks and i was so pumped that they finished the set with “sing! captain.” the only disappointment is that the recorded versions of their songs don’t quite hold a candle to the live performance.  so listening to the cd only makes me wish i could see them live again.  maybe they will be back in another year’s time.

check them out if you get a chance.  handsome furs.

i have had this post floating around inside of me for awhile now.  just was not sure i wanted to write it.  but here i sit, putting it out there.

it’s not news, nor should it come as any surprise to anyone who reads this, but i am at the age where people around me are getting married.  to some extent, it goes in cycles.  some years the numbers are down, only to see the next year jam packed with weddings.  i’m not the “always a groomsman, never a groom” type.  i have been in a handful of weddings, but not so many that i am getting sick of it.  my roles have even varied.  in 2008, i will be playing the usher (or junior varsity) role in one wedding and reading scripture in another.  not bad.  i can only think of two other weddings that i will be, or have already, attended.  four in a year is not bad.  add to that the destination wedding that i will not be flying out too, and the early spring wedding i couldn’t attend due to lots of snow on a weekend i had gunnar and the number is up to six. and lastly, a couple more friends recently decided to make it official and changed their facebook statuses to engaged.

it kinda bums me out, to be honest.  and i am not the type that fears being alone forever.  i am not worried that i need to be married by a certain age.  i guess at this point it is just a frustration with the timing of it all.  not so much that it’s not happening for me even, but that it’s happening earlier for everyone else.

particularly since i have been in fargo, i have been the eldest in my group of friends.  as a result, the majority of weddings i have attended or have been in involved people that are younger than me.  the two guys i hang out with most often right now, both married.

the point is that i’m jealous.

i realize marriage is not all rainbows and ice cream.  it takes work and i see that in the married couples around me.  but i also get small glimpses into the concept of family any time gunnar comes.  and it only serves to magnify in me the want to come home to something more than an quiet apartment.

here’s the concern that has been growing in me lately… i am an independent person.  and i am more independent by the day.  living alone will do that to you.  i do not need anyone for the majority of my life’s needs.  to some extent, i grow in preference to not have someone.  right now, i come and go as i please.  if the boys want to hang, i am rarely unavailable.  i answer to fewer people and i enjoy that freedom.  probably to the point that any hint of insecurity or neediness from any girl i am interested in makes me want to quickly head in the opposite direction.

i have complained to some that it is a lack of options that holds me back.  this is probably not true.  i have plenty of quality women around me.  i am in enough social settings where there are “new and interesting” people that it’s not for lack of selection.  i have even tried the online dating thing which introduced me to some really great girls.  but is it possible that i have started to go too far down the road of singlemindedness that i cannot go back to the idea of partnership?

i don’t realy have a plan for wrapping this post up.  i’m not making a plea for people to encourage me as i wait and i am not making a plea for people to start setting me up on dates.  this was moreso just something i needed to get off my chest.