home on the mountain range

ah mountains. mountains mountains mountains mountains. my friends i am a mountain man by nature. my spirit connects with mountains. not beach so much, unless mountains are nearbythen maybe the mountains would be magnified by the beach.

i've only been one place where mountains and beaches are within a few miles of eachother...santa barbara, CA. home. i knew it should be home as soon as we pulled in on the 1 at sunrise. too bad the yuppies got a hold of it and drove the prices up.

my point is; please stop. i am asking you to please, stop mentioning mountains, and rivers, and deer, and elk, and trees, and canyons, and snow, and sunsets, and antelope, and hiking, and bighorn sheep. i have never been so conscious of how far these things are from me. mind you, a river does run through fort worth and the sun does set here, however, in experience they are hardly comparable to real rivers and sunsets. so please do not speak of these things.

i am afraid of watching the movie "into the wild." i saw the trailer for it and that was enough. i'd probably forsake everything i'm doing here for fresh mountain air and aspen trees.

then again, perhaps for that reason i should watch the movie.

in an odd way i feel better when i think fort worth as my egypt and school as my bondage. though i believe i will look back on it as a sweet time.

i just wish it had a beautiful setting complete with virtually untouched wilderness and marmots.

have you ever heard a marmot? the noise they make is freakish. if they don't know you're around they'll call to each other. about every 30 seconds one will emit a single, extremely high-pitched beeping/squeaking sound like sonar to the max. it's most impressive around alpine lakes when the sound echoes and off of the surrounding rock faces.

some serious mountain-dwelling-time will soon be necessary if i'm gonna maintain mental homeostasis.

if anyone wants to camp and hike south colony lakes (THE most beautiful place i've ever been) this summer hit me up.

decisions

i'm about to be very honest with those of you who read this blog. you will read thoughts that i have not fully voiced to any one, or even mentioned to most everyone. don't worry, it's not too controversial outside of my own mind, but it's something i'm taking seriously. i'll probably get defensive against my own arguments...because i'm weird. this disclaimer being given, i'll plunge right in.

i am seriously considering moving back to college station for the remainder of my seminary education.

i would join living hope again, get plugged back in and live life alongside the people there. most of my closest friends are still in cs, and when i visit, the church body still feels like family. i learned a great deal from the people there the first go-round; things that i hold as fundamental to a solid church founded on the right principles. looking at the discipleship potential alone i get excited! The depth and number of incredible men there is just unfair!! and the opportunity to serve is huge! so admittedly, there are some selfish motives...if you can call a desire for discipleship, and incredible fellowship, and service opportunities, selfish.

so what would i do for school? well, that's how this all came about. both my good friend chad and my sister have spoken to men in leadership about my time in fort worth (which has not been terrible by the way,) and each time they asked if i would consider moving back and commuting to the houston campus with them once a week.

why the houston campus is a good idea:

the faculty is top-notch in houston just as it is in fort worth

i would be granted a few more degrees separation between seminary life and real life
the atmosphere at the houston campus is reported to be less...weird
i could get involved in a place that i know will teach me practical skills in ministry while doing school
do i already sound convinced??

ok, so the things that are holding me back:
the grass is always greener on the other side
am i running from something?
am i really being selfish by looking out for what is best for me?

for some reason i'm afraid of being accused of "church shopping." you know, looking for those things that matter most to me, and moving from church to church until i find them. i suppose i am a bit, but what i'm looking for is much deeper than the average church shopper. and i'm in a period of learning, soaking up knowledge any way i can until i break out on my own into the world, right? (and don't you dare accuse me of only caring about head knowledge, this whole thing is revolving around the heart. besides, head knowledge is truly important to christians and i'm appalled by people who don't think so.)

I think i'm running not so much from something but to something. i can stick it out here and do alright. heck, i could do well, but i just can't shake the idea of taking advantage of the resources in cs while i am able. once done with seminary i will be off and running who knows where. shouldn't i have as solid a foundation as possible??

and i'm pretty sure the grass may actually BE greener on the other side, since i've been there.

any insight would be much appreciated; prayer even more so.

ripsticks and cowboy hats

Today I crossed one more goal off my very lofty and lengthy "dominick's life to-do list."

I learned how to ride a ripstick.

"What's a ripstick?" you ask. Well, just reference the picture at the top of the blog. I'm sure you've seen the local twelve and thirteen year old boys shredding up your neighborhood streets on them. And I'm certain that the glint off their shiny clear coat has caught your eye in toys-r-us more than once. I was lucky enough to borrow one for the week from chandler, a freshman dude in my church's youth group. It's rad. Candy apple red just like the picture.

And yes, it only has two wheels. I'm pretty sure we got the technology from Area 51, probably martian.

I had an hour to kill this afternoon in between work and a take home test, and the weather was perfect. So I cruised that baby up and down my side-walk. Killer.

Ok, on a serious note I saw a guy today wearing a cowboy hat. "Big deal" you say, "You live in Fort

Worth." True.

The thing is, this guy was my height...in other words, not very tall. And he looked ridiculous in the cowboy hat because of his height. This is not the first time I've considered the height to cowboy hat ratio, but it confirmed my personal conviction; short dudes should not wear cowboy hats. We don't make cool looking cowboys even if we do have handle bar mustaches.

If you're not an actual cowboy you need to be tall to pull off the cowboy hat...or really stout...or mexican.

This guy was none of the above and neither am I, except in the middle of summer.

I have decided that if I were living back in the olden days when cowboy hats were less fashionable and more functional I would have been ok. Though, I probably would have opted for a hat more the style of Russell Crowes in 3:10 to Yuma; short brim, lower crown. You have to be a bad-a to pull that one off, so I most likely would have killed numerous men to get away with wearing it.

planned...attempted...and thwarted

This morning I had a great idea; I was going to begin a documentary of my typical week. I would carry my camera around and take pictures of all the things I do, then post them on the orange peel and document things. It all started off well, I got some great photos of my oatmeal and coffee. I considered photographing myself while shaving and then decided it would be weird.

Off I drove to work to take some great pictures of the Riley Center and of my co-worker rudy and I goofing around.

Maybe I could have captured some interesting guests too? Who knows, it would be an adventure.

So I pulled up to work and took a good snapshot of the Riley Center, then of myself walking up to the huge tinted window outside. Next I would photo the front desk. But no! I couldn't take one of the front desk because my memory was full!!! Never fear, I could delete a few pics right? Right.

I entered the office with the plan to delete the old or crummy pictures and then get some good ones throughout the day. As soon as I walked in though, much to my dismay, I was confronted by 40 registration cards.

That meant I was going to check in 40 guests that afternoon.

No worries, Rudy would be there to help me out. What's that you say? Rudy is out sick today? And I'm going to check in all 40 guests by myself? And they're all coming within an hour and a half of each other?

(40 guests is a LOT by the way)

As you can imagine I lost any desire to fool around with my digital camera. I was far too busy dreading the next eight hours of my life alone and up against a small army of middle aged men in a hurry.

At the end of the day I had survived the onslaught with little more than tense shoulders and a mild headache, though my brain was too dead to deal with the camera. No more pictures today.

Why am I explaining all of this? I don't know. I was going to put up the pictures I did take and press on, but my camera just ran out of batteries and I have no more double A's. Nuts. At some point this week I'll get some batteries and begin the documentary.

At the moment I'm recuperating. Recuperating means I can't do any school work.

So i'm recuperating and blogging.

george macdonald and other things...

I'm going to recommend an author to you. You may not have ever heard of him but I guarantee that you have benefited from his influence in countless ways. His name is George MacDonald, he has a killer beard, and the only book of his I have ever read is The Curate's Awakening. Other writers through whom we have unknowingly been acquainted with MacDonald are the likes of Francis Schaeffer, C.S. Lewis, and J.R. Tolkein. Lewis wrote a book on MacDonald aptly named, George MacDonald. McD's thoughts of God are clearly some of the highest I've read, certainly among the genre of fiction. I'm not knocking any of the others, I'm simply telling how great it is to read his writing. So if you're looking for the next book or author, he comes highly recommended.

Here I am six months later still in Texas, still in Fort Worth, still in seminary. Some of you may know that at certain intervals throughout those months I was about ready to throw in the towel and cruise back to Colorado. Or maybe I'd be better understood by saying that at certain intervals I considered staying in seminary. Well, I didn't act on the impulse to leave no matter how it lingered, and I am glad for it. I believe I've been comforted about where I am. It's a good place for me to be no matter how convinced I am at times that it's a bad place for me to be. The Lord has seen fit to strip me of nearly everything I clung to as desirable and pleasing; mountains, close friends, money, a church I completely agree with, and yes, ministry. Odd that he would strip me of ministry isn't it? None of these are bad in themselves and in fact I would say that most are good most, if not all, of the time. So why strip me of them? Because as I said a few sentences ago, I CLUNG to them. Not that I am entirely free and not that I ever will be ENTIRELY free while on earth, but I am less needy and more open to what He has for me now. It is good that I am here, though I can think of two dozen other places I would rather be. Though if I truly would rather be in those places why wouldn't I be, since I am as free as I wish to do so? I suppose I'm truly not that free because my desire has become to do what God wishes of me to do, and I have come to believe that means seminary, which happens to have ended up in Fort Worth. And throughout seminary I will learn what it means to do His will, which most likely will be through ministering to others through the love of the Jesus of the New Testament.

I have learned to be content.

It feels right. I pray that it continues because through contentment in God I can endure anything, right? How much better used will I be if I can work anywhere under any circumstance? (believe me I want to be used in a beautiful, interesting place, but you know what i mean)

The real reason I had not posted in three months; I had no idea what was goin on.

oh blog.

Alright, it has been nearly three months since my last blog. Why, you ask?

I guess I just didn't feel like it.

Plus I was busy during november and december, and so much time had passed by christmas that I figured no one would continue to check if i added any posts. Maybe I was wrong. So I've been contemplating a return to the blog...only I felt I needed to change a few things. You know how it is. So here I am under the new title, "orang peel." I like the title because it lacks any significance. Not that my posts will change in depth or significance (since I am too deep to avoid my own massively deep depth,) ( I'm kidding by the way.) (No I'm not.)

For my first post in three months I've decided to compile a list of things I've always wanted.

List of Things I've Always Wanted:
dreadlocks
a tattoo/multiple tattoos
a big beard
a motorcycle
a muscle car
a dog...i've had a few of these but i really want one again
real art in my house
personal theme music
soundtrack to life
a crazy asian friend that i can refer to as "crasian"
diabetes
that last one wasn't funny. people actually suffer from diabetes.

Ok, that's all I can think of. You probably expected super-spiritual things like the gift of prophecy or incredible exegetical skills. Maybe I'll put together my nerd seminary student list later...

It feels good to ease back into the blog. I am full of thoughts that follow themes that are far too large for me to grasp. I plan on expressing them here, yet if I were to express them now they would be half-baked at best. Maybe I'll begin tomorrow.

I am vibrating from the latest cup of coffee. I heard that starbucks (yes I drink starbucks but don't worry, only their fair trade) burns their beans to release more caffeine so that their coffee is more addictive. But that makes no sense because darker roast coffees are less caffeinated than light roast due to the longer roasting process. There you go, I just slammed that hypothesis. I'm calling my mom, she's the one that insists on the sinister bean burning conspiracy. In my opinion, Starbucks just loads their coffee with twice the amount of grinds as the average coffee drinker would. Hence, the excessively bold cup of joe. Why? Who knows and who cares. if you don't like it then don't drink it. I did have possibly one of the best cups of coffee of my life this morning. It was at this little place called...i don't remember what it was called, but I had the Italian roast. After the first test sip I had no desire to use any sugar and certainly no cream. Yes, it was nearly the perfect cup and I drank it like it was going out of style. I think God is calling me to open a kick ass coffee shop somewhere surrounded by big blue mountains and crystal clear rivers. Right, God?

Enough about coffee. I just spent the last five hours working on a research paper. I'm freaking wired and the writing juices are flowing. I guess I need some recreational writing time to come down from my intellectual high. Mentally I'm done with this paper, which is unfortunate because I have about two more pages to write. I'm already excited about my NEXT research paper due in less than two weeks which I have yet to begin. Don't worry, I'll spare you the topic and details since it would probably bore a normal person.

Let's see what else...I may have decided on a church! I have attended bear creek community church the last two sundays and it just might fit. It's in the latter-middle phases of church planting. Not that I have a sound basis for that estimate, but it seems about right to me. They are a decent sized congregation at this point (40-ish?) and they're at the end of the planning phase for their building. So, plenty of opportunity to get involved, learn, and teach.

Question: Should I revert back to the green background or stick with the funky maroon/burgundy? I don't think my computer screen accurately represents colors, it's pretty old. I trust your judgment.

Ok, that is all.