Ridin' the storm out!

I've seen plenty of tornadic weather in my life, and blizzards galore. But I finally experienced my first hurricane. Hurricane Ivan came through last fall and they called of school at RTS, but it didn't rain one drop in Jackson from that one. Hurricane Katrina, however, began doing its own thing early last week and building up more steam than originally predicted in the Gulf of Mexico. And, while most previously hurricanes since I got here have gone east of Jackson, Katrina decided otherwise. She came up through New Orleans and passed maybe 60 miles east of Jackson. Which, for those of you who don't know, is plenty close to the eye to give us a good taste.

It was raining already Monday morning when I woke up. And blowing. Our part of town lost power at 11:15 or so. And, did I mention that is was blowing? I've not heard how much rain we got, but my friends tell me it was officially "a lot." And the wind was pretty consistent around 30 to 40mph, I think, with good gusts into the 60s. I'm used to blizzards on the wide open prairies, but this was nice.

I like bad weather. My family knows that. My friends back home know that. And my friends in Jackson are beginning to know that. They convinced me to not drive around anymore than the one trip I did to WalMart. So I had fun. It rained. It blew. We had 10 to 12 people in our apartment most of the day. We played games and read by candlelight. We grilled. We got annoyed at having that many people in a small space that long. You know, the normal. A three of us stayed up all night talking...I thought a fitting way to ride out a hurricane.

That was all the fun stuff. The next morning, my roommate woke me up by saying, "We going to be without power for a week. My parents have power and we're going there. Grab some stuff." And now I'm finally understanding that I've gone through a natural disaster. I got displaced. We could have stayed in our apartment - we were safe - but we didn't have electricity or water. The biggest loss being no AC! But I got displaced. I grabbed some stuff, and I don't know how long I'll be gone from my apartment. We won't have school again until we have power, obviously. And, officially, "there is no way to know how long we will be without power."

But I feel pretty blessed. Sure, I don't know when I'll get back to my apartment, but I CAN go anytime. I've now watched video of people getting rescued from their roofs via helicopter. Judging by the floodwaters up to the shingles, the chance of those people EVER getting back into their houses are pretty slim. I'm in a house with AC, food, INTERNET (amen!), friends, and a good family to house us.

And about that severe weather stuff? I still like it. I feel bad for the people who have bore the brunt of this storm, but I still have no choice but to stand in awe of the hand of God. I walked around some during the storm yesterday...to get pelted in the face with rain and see winds that are strong enough to toss large branches out of large trees or uproot aged tress that crush the walls of a house and crumble storage sheds...I have no response but to stand in awe.

Something New

So I just got back into my apartment a couple of weeks ago. I was kindly ask to temporarily move out so that we could get a new paint job, carpet, countertops, kitchen floor and the like. Frankly, I was a bit annoyed by having to move out of my place for two weeks. I mean, don’t people know how hard it is to clean up the mess I keep in my room?! And to just move it all less than 100 feet only to move it all back in 14 days seemed a little pointless.

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Many of my friends and neighbors asked if I was excited to have my apartment refurbished. It was hard to answer people with my annoyance when they had more joy in my apartment being remodeled than I did. But, as the last person out of my "old" apartment, I saw more of the work I was "forced" to do than the joy of the newness.

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Anyway, during the remodeling process I checked out the apartment almost nightly just to see what had been accomplished that day. There still wasn’t much enjoyment on my part…I was just checking to see if they would be done when they said they would be. They were pretty close on the timing, and after sweating up another storm to move everything back to my original apartment, I left my room a mess and started organizing the living room.

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Every day, it seemed, I would end up at the furniture warehouse grabbing a couch or a lamp or something. Before long, the living room started to look pretty nice. A nice couch or two, a kick-butt table, a dartboard, and some "guy" décor…a splattering of license plates and a wooden duck. And my attitude started to change. The new paint, carpet and flooring took on a whole new light. I began to be proud of my new apartment. It hit me one night, "Man, I have REALLY done a nice job with this place."

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And then it really struck me…how shallow am I to think that *I* have done all this? The carpet? Not me. The paint? Not me. The flooring? Not me. The clean sinks and bathtubs? Not me. Yet within a few days, I took credit for the whole thing being made anew. It’s kind of like what we try to do with God’s grace to us.

A Bald Joe

Last night we were out celebrating my roommate's acing of his Greek exam and there was this stud singer/songwriter (Joe Rohan) there with his acoustic guitar (and a shaved head...an interesting combo.) After giving him some extra cash for his CDs, I was happy to scour through the sleeves and check out who produced, who played what, etc. I looked through his thanks, and his first shout out was to "the Good Lord above." Cool. His other CD gave a full sentence of thanks. Double cool.

I'd say I heard two thirds of Joe Rohan's three-hour set, and he never mentioned God from stage. He wasn't singing "Christian" songs, just songs about life and love - your typical stuff. Was I disappointed that he didn't hit up a "Christian" message from the stage or break out in praise songs? No, not at all.

I, of course, don't know the genuineness of this guy's Christianity. But then again, how many hearts can I actually decipher anyway? I respect someone for doing what he or she is gifted at, and for doing it well. He was using his God-given gifts well by simply DOING them well and that praises God. The guy could play guitar well, he could write songs that have more than three chords, and he could sing on key. I'm not calling Joe Rohan a musical superstar, but his stuff was original, memorable, and simply well done. Rockin.

Welcome to my freak show!

Phew, it's good to finally get this thing going. I meant to start a blog a few months ago, but things came up...like temporarily moving and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004. So now it looks like I'm copying a handful of friends who have blogs, while in reality I'm only copying one friend. Anyway. You win some, you lose some.

So I am now part of a tight-knit community of ten bazillion bloggers...cool. What makes mine worth reading? Frankly, me. I guess I hope my blogs will be worth reading no matter if you know me or not, but my blog will be an expression of me. Seems basic, I know, but that thought really fits with where I am right now.

I've been busy learning about myself in a new environment for the past year, an environment and culture with many differences from the one in which I grew up. After pounding my head against a wall for most of that year trying to make myself fit in with my new environment, I have finally realized to simply be the person who God created me to be and let that person fit into my new environment. I hope that by now, I can understand myself better by knowing in what areas I have been gifted and in what areas I have NOT been gifted. In retrospect, how elementary!

So what will my blog be about? Whatever. Really, it will be about whatever is going through my mind. I have few agendas, although you'll see I have themes. I often feel I have few answers, although I'll have plenty of questions. And I hope you have thoughts, questions, and even "answers" for me and the others who happen to be reading. What's going on in my head has always been as open as you care to make it, so get as involved as you care to be. I don't expect to be understood perfectly all the time, and I know even my good intentions can turn out bad results. But I hope to grab life by the horns and persevere to finish the race laid out before me.

As a man I admire once wrote, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

...don't be a stranger