Harder Getting Out Than Getting In (Adventures in Being Trapped)

First, I would just like to point out that nothing illegal happened.

Also, I know what it feels like to be one of America's Dumbest Criminals.

For the record, sometimes things happen that aren't planned out and there's nothing you can do but call for help.

The other day, my friend Ellie and I ventured out to our university's maintenance building. We were looking for some goods that were being thrown away after being replaced from the dorms and were hoping to hit some sort of second-hand jackpot. The physical plant compound consists of three old and abandoned warehouses surrounded completely by a six-foot tall fence with barbed wire gracing the top, daring any thieves to climb over. Since the gate was open, we simply drove in.

At the back of the compound is the greatest junkyard for decorating an empty house possible. Park benches were stacked against a wall, music stands with the school's name spray-painted lay piled in a bundle, a few chairs were strewn here and there and then, we saw the prize.

A personal hobby of mine is shopping cart wrangling. There's just something in grabbing a shopping cart that been left alone and taking it home with me to a better home that just brings satisfaction to life. Not stealing, my friends. Liberation. Giving the cart a better life. So when we saw the shopping carts sitting all alone, we knew we had to take them home and keep them safe. After all there are shopping cart kidnappers everywhere. Luckily, Ellie's SUV was big enough to hold an entire herd of carts, so we packed them and our other discoveries in and headed towards the exit.

Except that we could no longer leave. As we were debating on how to best fit everything into the car, the workers must not have realized that we were in the back of the compound and left for home. And locked the gate behind them.

Freedom can be so far away.

Claustrophobia began setting in a few seconds after the realization hit us. While I have always imagined cool places to be locked in for the night, i.e. libraries, museums, aquariums and zoos, junkyards have never been on my list. Too creepy.

We drive around looking for someone to be left working behind in the compound. Nothing. Search for another exit. Nothing. They should have called this place Alcatraz for it's unattaintable access to freedom. After talking about perhaps pulling a Fast and the Furious move and simply busting through the fence, we scratch that idea and call defeat.

We have to call Campus Safety.

Campus Safety. The security team at our university. The people who tend to destroy all fun activities at school with their appearance and who's parking tickets on my car are the bane of my existence. They are also one step below mall cops.

Calling Campus Safety is about as much torture as a person can receive. It's admitting that they have some importance in life and giving an ego-boost to their already gargantuan self-reputation.

Ellie starts the phone conversation like this: "I'll bet you've never heard this one before...". After her retelling of the details, the other line is dead silent. Finally, "Umm...wait...so you're telling us you're trying to break out...?"

Exactly.

So, after trying to figure out who possesses the keys for our prison, 45 minutes after our call for help, Campus Safety drives up and an "officer" walks up to the gate with a certain pompous swagger that all security guards have and grins at us.

"This is one for the books," he grins as he unlocks the gate and sends us into freedom.

At least they failed to notice our shopping cart herd coming out with us.

Devastation

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." C.S. Lewis

The tornadoes came and destroyed our city

185 homes completely devastated

We went yesterday to try and help pick up the pieces

Fallen trees were cut and taken to be burned

Food and water were distributed to those who needed it

Undamaged items were salvaged from demolished houses

We couldn’t get much though because the insurance companies have yet to come out and assess the damage

Midge's House

I went over to help Midge salvage her house but spent most of the time hugging her and listening to how she survived

Although I had taken a crisis intervention class for this very reason, I hated that I actually had to use it

She’s still in survival mode but the exhaustion and mourning is starting to set in

Aerial view of the neighborhood

Pain is mixed into the air as much as the smoke is from the burn piles

Everywhere there’s brokenness

But as we hauled trees away, more hands came to join us

Men and women from the community brought their chainsaws to help us

Churches and businesses made more than enough food for us and even passed out sunscreen

Neighbors emptied out their spare bedrooms for other families to join them in their homes

Friendships were made and healing started to grow

Through the sweat, laughter emerged.

Many things were destroyed Wednesday

But yesterday, community was created

"The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends. It should be a place where each individual's dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the respect and affection of his neighbors. It should be a place where each of us can find the satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member of the community of man. This is what man sought at the dawn of civilization. It is what we seek today."

Lyndon B. Johnson

Thoughts...

Tests, Papers, Getting to class

Due dates, Presentations, Finals

Engagements, summer jobs, weddings

End of the year parties, swimming, hiking

Movies, sunny days, laughter

But the only thing I can think about right now

Is how am I going to convince one health director who looks like a turkey

That I'm healthy enough to go to Thailand?

I just want to go

Adventures Throughout The Internet

It's been raining for two days. My roommate and I haven't done anything but read books, draw and watch a movie every now and then.

It's been absolutely beautiful.

Here's some other beautiful things:

The Candy Shop from Whitestone Motion Pictures on Vimeo.

One of the most intense/beautifully made videos you'll ever see.

Then you'll be inspired to change the world

(Also check out the soundtrack!)

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square hole. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

--Apple Inc.

Looking at this blog makes me want to get married

Inheritance by Graham Cooke

"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

--G.K. Chesterton

Drops like Stars by Rob Bell

Tiger Rising by Kate Dicamillo

More crazy cool things that you can fin online: bit.ly/creativeinternet

You Gotta Fight For What You Want (Adventures With Rabies)

Today, I'm walking down an alleyway on my way to class because, as usual, I'm late. Then, I happened to spot my buddy Tempest next to a dumpster holding a yardstick and a pack of chewing gum. She's looking down at a metal grate on the ground which covers a sewer underneath.

"Whatcha doing Temp?" I greet Tempest but she's got a look of sheer determination on her face.

"Pooks, I'm gonna be rich! I just gotta find a way to get those quarters out!" She then points through the grate to show me two shiny quarters teasing us a few feet underneath us.

At this time, History of Modern Latin America has been forgotten. There's a chance of us getting rich here and I'm talking Washingtons here.

We start working with the drive of diamond miners as we lower the yardstick with a giant wad of citrus gum stuck on the end into the sewer but each time we come up empty: our hands are too big to fit through the holes and we're only a few inches too short. "A stick! A stick! Get me a stick!" I run to try and find a good stick to lengthened our yardstick. The first one is too thick to fit through the holes so I try to find another.

At this time, some of the administrators of my university enter the alley, finished with a meeting. They see us cheering and groaning as we get closer and closer to our prize and shake their heads at the street urchins who will do so much to get a few cents. "Oh the lengths some of those kids will go to pocket a few cents," is what I'm sure they were all thinking at the moment. They just don't understand.

It's at this time when I realize that I have a class I'm supposed to be sitting in right now. I make Tempest promise me to update me on her status and head towards caudillos and socialist parties.

About ten minutes later, I receive a text from Temp:

"Found a thinner stick and taped it [onto the yardstick]...when I went for the second one, a raccoon popped its head and stared me down."

Unfortunately, our get rich quick days were ended by the master bandit himself. And you wondered were all the change thrown into fountains went.

God's Just Having Disco Night At The Bowling Alley

There's a storm raging outside tonight

Bright flashes of light, loud rumblings of thunder and shuddering as the house quivers under the torment of beating water

Tonight, I'm doing homework by flashlight

Not because the power went out but because it's too beautiful of a storm to ignore

The Donut Theory

I had an adventure this weekend as I spent the weekend helping out with a youth group retreat. Earlier in the year, I was given the phenomenal opportunity to work with a ministry that works disciple now weekends all across the southeast and these weekends have been by far the greatest part of my week.

I mean, who doesn't love staying up until 3 am with middle and high schoolers as we talk about the two greatest subjects in the universe?:

Jesus and Justin Bieber

Also, I feel compelled to inform you of the greatest piece of advice ever bequeathed upon me, given to me by a fellow leader:

"The man of your dreams should be like a donut: sweet, hot and holy."

Currently listening to: "Like A Lion" by David Crowder* Band