‘life’ archive

I am going into the weekend in a couple hours, and I’m leaving behind a clean white board. That means my 27 checklists for 34 projects have been checked, and all the little loose ends that have been hanging over my head have been put in their appropriate boxes and set aside.

I’m still working to finish up the main project, which admittedly is behind schedule, but it’s basically in the troubleshooting stage, and that shouldn’t require any more lists or “don’t forget to do X when you get to step n” notes.

Ah, this feels good.

I’m taking the “Church and Gospel” membership class at my my new church on Tuesday nights, and it has been such a breath of fresh air. It’s taught by Kevin, who also happens to be doing my premarital with Courtney, and one thing he keeps mentioning is that “God is relationship”. Last night in class, we watched this video. It’s such a poignant statement of how much of the church today makes everything about sin, rather than seeing things as being about relationship.

I’m in a place right now where a number of my friendships have been strained, especially one in particular. And as things are coming to a head and God is bringing us to a place of restoration, I can’t help but realize that in the old paradigm of how I looked at the world, I would have seen this as a “sin issue” — someone must have wronged someone and it’s our job to label the sin and repent. But I don’t think that’s it at all. It’s not about sin. Heck, if anything, it’s mostly about miscommunication. God’s desire isn’t just to eliminate sin: he wants to restore relationships.

I know. You can’t believe it. I’m actually writing a blog entry. What must the world be coming to?

It’s OK, I have a good excuse, really. Well, OK, maybe I don’t. In fact, nothing profound has happened that I can think of at the moment. I just suppose it’s worth it to say, yes, I’m still here.

I’m somewhere in the three-and-a-half month range from my wedding (wow!). Courtney continues to be the most amazing person I’ve ever met, and the date can’t come soon enough. I’ve also been working this job for over three months now, and have been in Portland for just a bit less time. I finally feel like I’m hitting the rhythm of life in a new city. I know my way around pretty well, at least in the East. Downtown is still a maze to me, and since fall has hit pretty hard, I may not be able to really go exploring until next summer. We’ll see. I love it here.

So, um, leave a comment and say hi, if there’s anyone still left out there.

In the last seven days, I have worked over 75 hours and moved into a new apartment. I really don’t know what else to say beyond that. I can’t wait until we hit this deadline and I can make up the weekend and spend a day with Courtney.

Though the amazing thing is I love this job. I knew I was signing up with a start-up, and there would be some hard stretches to get things moving, but I did not know just how much I missed coding, missed the stuff I got my degree in. I just hope I can make the time to be thankful here soon. I feel like I’m holding my breath.

But now, I’m taking the night off, whatever the deadline, and spending the evening with Courtney. I hope I can do it again soon.

I spent $295 on gas last month. But Friday is my last trek westward; and this time it’s one-way only. Portland, here I come