I took a moment to care about fashion

I have never complimented a dude on his fashion

First of all let me say I am STILL doing new things regularly…I have just been slack with the blogging part of it. I will play catch up in the next few days.

OK, last Sunday afternoon I went to the Greensboro College Womens basketball game (Go Pride!). They dominated.

At halftime I walked out to my car to put my coat up (it was really hot in the gym). On the way back I walked by a 6’4″ guy who had a very Jamaican look to him.

I stopped, said “Hi, that jacket is really cool”

He thanked me.

Then I went one step further then I ever planned on going in talking fashion…

“Where did you get it?”

OK ladies, THIS is not a question guys toss around the locker room or basketball court. It doesn’t occur to me to ask this question in everyday life. Honestly, 4 days later, I can’t even remember what that jacket looked like. I didn’t really care about the jacket…I REALLY didn’t care where he got it from.

He mumbled something about it being a gift…it was awkward. The tone of his response confirmed this is simply NOT something guys do.

Bill

I’ve never introduced Nolan to a homeless man.

Nolan, meet Bill. Bill, this is my son, Nolan. He wanted to meet you.

It went something like that. We were on our way to The Rush when we had to stop to pick up some headphones. As I got Nolan out of the car he started yelling, in the 3-year-old “I have no understanding of awkward” voice, “Who is THAT man?! Who is THAT man?”

Of course, that man was a homeless guy about 5 feet away from our car. He was picking up trash in front of the Walgreens, just to be nice. That’s when my little loud-talker saw him & started describing him to me.

After getting Asher out of the car I gave Nolan some $ and encouraged him to share it with the gentleman. We walked up and introduced ourselves, Nolan gave him a high-five & the money I gave him, and we talked for a while. Bill had been homeless for a few years now. He mentioned that he had a Masters degree in archaeology and 25 years experience working in that field before he lost his job. Bill was extremely well-spoken & friendly. He tried to talk to Nolan, but Nolan got distracted with who knows what.

When we left Walgreens our new friend was still outside. As we got in the car Nolan yelled out, “Bye Bill” before I put him in his seat.

Glaucoma

I’ve never poked my eye with a stick.

Today I had an eye exam. I wear glasses, not contacts. The thought of touching my eyeball grosses me out. In elementary school there was a kid who would put his finger to his eye and move it around. 20 years later and he will always be that guy.

I really struggle with the eye drops hitting my eye. As the nurse (is it a nurse?) is holding my head down and forcing my eye open, she encourages me by saying that its common (like twice a day) for someone to fight her so much on the drops.

Of course she continues after a second by saying, “usually they are 10 year olds”

Ouch.

Well, today I took a new step. She asked if I wanted to be tested for glaucoma while we waited for the doctor. According to her it wasn’t necessary, but we had a few minutes to kill. I think she also thought it would be funny.

So she pulls out this long plastic stick and begins to explain that it will be very close to my eye…”like” right up against it. This implies to me that it will not touch, but I am picking up on something so I come out and ask her.

“Are you planning to poke my eyeball with that thing?”

Yep.

So I take a deep breath, rub my temple, and say, “Let’s do it!”

No. I do not have glaucoma.

Jane Eyre

I’ve never read part 3 of Jane Eyre.

In my college days I was an English major. This was not a wise decision. I wanted to be a writer, and in my ignorance I thought that English was the way to go.

Nope.

Although not very practical I was able to read some really great literature. Poetry, Essays, Novels, etc. I read it all. I almost always finished.

Then there was my white whale.

Jane Eyre.

As Rochester had his secret wife, a barrier between he and Jane, so I had Mario Kart, ministry, & Kristan. Each time I began the book I would quickly make it through the first two parts, only to quit right after the failed wedding.

So, for the first time ever, I began part 3 of Jane Eyre. I am still impressed with the writing. It is an incredibly rich book. I’ll do my best, but I don’t read non-fiction well.

Not Blogged

I did a “New” today, but it’s not the sort to blog about.

Have a great Sabbath!

Pink Sprinkle Cookies & Danny Trejo

OK, today was supposed to be a physical “something new”. Fortunately I was interrupted half-way & before I had the chance to complete the activity a new “New” took shape. This could not have played out any better…

I’m at Panera getting some work done. As I prepare to leave I remember that Kristan wanted a Cinnamon Crunch bagel. I walk up to the counter where a “reasonably attractive, but not in the ballpark as my wife attractive” blonde girl, about 19 or 20, walks up to take my order. As she prepares the bagel I notice that Panera has bags of valentines cookies available for sale.

They are girly. They look like this.

It hits me.

When the girl returns I purchase the cookies. Then, I ask her if she will do me a favor.

My body language must have been communicating that was about to ask her out. She had “that” look…the one that Kristan gave me the first time I asked her out. The look that, come to think of it, EVERY girl gave me when I asked them out.

So I quickly cover, saying, “No no, these aren’t for you…” (Incredibly awkward start to my Something New)

I continue, “Would you please give these to the next person who comes in?”

She relaxes and replies by saying how sweet of a gesture that is.

Unfortunately, I’ve done something like this before (In the Starbucks drive-thru I will routinely buy a 5$ gift card for the next person to come through – I encourage you to do the same. It’s 5 bucks but it will make someone’s day) so I knew I needed to spruce this one up a bit…take it to the NEXT level.

So I say to the girl, “When you give it to them would you also give them a message?”

(That look comes back on her face)

So I tell her what I want to say, in absolute deadpan w/o the hint of joking. I ask her to say:

“Someone thinks you are wonderful”

She laughs. I stand there. No smile. Nothing. She makes another funny look and agrees to the request.

It gets better…

As I am walking out the door I see the soon-to-be touched next customer. It could not have been any better. The best description I have of this guy is, and I can not emphasize enough how awesome this is, a bald Danny Trejo.

This was an intimidating guy. Not to judge a book by its cover but he just looked tough and mean.

The thought of that tiny, 19-year-old blonde girl giving him those cookies and telling him that, “someone thinks you’re wonderful” made me bust out laughing as I passed by him at the door.

Needless to say I took off before he could possibly find out that I am, in fact, the one who thinks he is wonderful.

Quran

I’ve never read the Quran.

I added this one to my list today (Yes, I have a Something New list…it’s about 100 things long right now), and it just worked out. Honestly it’s surprising that I have never even glanced at the Quran before.

So I read the first two chapters. The second chapter gave an extremely brief synopsis of the creation, fall of man, & the exodus from Egypt. I don’t know if there is more elaboration in later chapters, but the first two books of the Torah were reduced to only a brief mention in the Quran.

I don’t know exactly what I expected.

Transition: On day 2 my “New thing” was to set up an account on habit forge. The habit I chose to be held accountable with was a daily reading of a chapter in Genesis (a separate reading from study/message prep time). Anyway, it has been extremely productive. In fact, I’ve been productive on a number of discipline fronts in the last couple of months:
- regular workouts
- basketball twice a week (more exercise)
- daily flossing
- daily blogging
- reading the Bible every day

There are a few options for my next habit on habitforge.com. My recent success stories inspire a lot of hope!

Teeth Whitening (may cause sensitivity along the gum line and in the soul)

I’ve never whitened my teeth.

This one is a little tough to write. The whole, “Something New Each Day” thing was/is meant to be more adventurous than embarrassing. However, todays “New” was definitely more of the latter.

So about a week ago Kristan uploaded some pictures on facebook. When I start scrolling through them I noticed, well, I don’t exactly have the whitest of smiles.

Ouch. That’s really hard to admit. Pride folks.

Anyway, this was kind of a new revelation for me. I just don’t pay much attention to how I look – Kristan cuts my hair, I go a week without shaving sometimes, & most of my clothes are at least from my college years (I have an Abercrombie shirt from 1997 that is still in my regular rotation). So, yea, I know I don’t dress well, etc; but there is something about having less than “good” (not even perfect) looking teeth that really bothers me.

So much so that I added “Whiten Teeth” to my list. It was an annoying procedure, causing me to drool like Hooch while waiting out the 30 minute ordeal. Thankfully a particularly funny episode of Psych kept my mind off of it. My newfound discipline of flossing should make this easier to work into the rotation. If I can get used to jamming floss into my gums I can get used to this.

There is a side concern that I had with this whole revelation….

HOW COME NO ONE EVER TOLD ME?!

Rhetorical question. Look, I get it, there are a lot of things that I don’t say to people. Stuff that everyone knows about them, but they probably don’t know about themselves. Everyone has friends that: Talk too much; talk too much about themselves; have bad breath; have body odor; has to be in charge; will never make a decision; makes inappropriate jokes that make people feel uncomfortable, etc, etc, etc.

I pretty much never say anything to those people either.

This last week I realized more than ever something thats pretty painful…I AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.

Guess what, so are YOU. There is something wrong with you that everyone knows about, we just aren’t telling you. It might be superficial, it might be something serious, but it’s there. In all likelihood you have been victimized by it relationally, and everything could have been avoided if only someone would have told you.

But we won’t tell you. We think it would hurt your feelings. It probably would. So we won’t say a word, b/c we love you too much. Unfortunately, the moment that you finally have that revelation all by yourself you know that you would prefer for someone to have loved you too much to not tell you.

The idiot who doesn’t know how to drive in the snow

I’ve never driven in snow.

Not on purpose anyway. Once, my sophomore year of college it started snowing while I was at work. I had to get back to my apartment so I gave it a try…ran up onto someone’s yard & almost hit their bird fountain.

* Side note about that snow – It was my first. It was the first time that the city I lived in actually accumulated snow. Greensboro got like a foot or so of snow & ice. Since I had never experienced this, and I had no idea how UNCG handled the situation (I’ve never checked the TV for school closings…how would I have known?) I started walking to my 8 am class the next morning. After falling a couple of times I realized I was the only soul out w/o a sled. School was obviously cancelled. I walked home to find my roommate waiting for me in the living room…laughing at my ignorance.

Anyway, today it snowed. Not near as much as they were calling for, but we got some accumulation. It really started coming down around 4:30.

Normally I hole up in the house or go for a walk, but today I forced myself to go to work at Panera as I usually do. Sure enough, by 6 or so it was really starting to stick to the ground.

As I made my way back I couldn’t see the white line on the side of the road. Most certainly I was “that” driver that all my friends complain about. It should be said that all of my friends are from the mountains, where it snows 13 months out of the year and you learn to drive in it when you are 8 years old.

So to my friends who have grown up here this is a pretty weak “Something New”, but for me there is a deeper significance.

I’ve lived here for 12 years now. I was born in Texas, but when people ask me where I’m from, the answer has become North Carolina. Like any good Carolinian, I’ve got to embrace snow driving.

After 12 years I guess it’s about time.

Flossing the Ones I want to Keep

I’ve never flossed.

Well, not regularly. I’ve flossed like I’ve eaten squash. I have done it before, but it’s never been an enjoyable experience and my mouth has felt funny afterwards.

The weirdest thing happened yesterday…

I went through my normal nighttime routine and when I went for the floss I couldn’t find it. So, I woke Kristan up and asked her where she put it! This may sound like nothing, but think about it for a second. When I have a hard time doing something or when I don’t appreciate the value of something (both of which have been true of flossing for me) & suddenly a good reason to “skip a night” comes along, I SEIZE it! The act of waking up my sleeping wife and hunting for 5 solid minutes for a piece of string to force between my teeth into my gums told me that I actually WANTED to do it. Weird. Sure enough, I’m pretty sure that after a month or so of flossing pretty much every day (if not twice a day) I have officially formed a habit. I can’t imagine skipping flossing tonight.

Interesting truth: If you ask any dentist/dental hygenist what they would take if they were stuck on a desert island, floss or a toothbrush/toothpaste – EVERY one of them would say floss. The pros know that flossing is more valuable than brushing.

So I will tell you what my friend Dusti tells me…you don’t have to floss all of your teeth, just floss the ones you want to keep!