Yup, its my brother, Matt! He's getting finished up with a semester at school on Friday and getting married on Saturday. We're all flying down to Texas for the event and I'm pretty stoked to see everyone and excited for him to get married.
The latest for me: I blogged last week! I know, its crazy. And I'm blogging again this week.
I'm also really liking my job. I've been reading a book called "Good to Great" to accompany my experience here and that has been a great supplement to my learning. I view my time here working for Utopia kind of like an unofficial internship. I know it probably lacks what a "real" internship entails, but hey, I'm still counting it toward my education.
I was able to visit some mission friends down there and rekindle those friendships. Now there's friendship fires blazing everywhere!
The banjo playing is coming along. Badger Creek better be ready for some legit foot-stompin, heart-poundin, head-bobbin bluegrass! ...come to think about it, maybe I should practice a little more.
I may have failed to mention I signed up to do an event called "The Tough Mudder." Whew. It should be pretty tough, based on the name, the videos, the photos, the commentaries, and the facts. Its a ten mile obstacle course, up and down a ski resort, and the training for it is pretty grueling (if you're truly training). I've kinda started getting in shape but I've a lot more working out to do. I'm driving out to Nor-Cal with a few of my old room-mates and a couple of friends on September 16th. It should be a monumental comradeship building opportunity, coupled with great memories. Probably a once in a life-time deal.
I've been able to spend some time at my sort-of, kind-of, brother and sister in laws's house. Brett and Ciara Richardson. Matt is marrying his little sister, and I'm Matt's brother, and Brett and Ciara are my friends...so whatever that makes us! They feed me food and I get to play with their kids, and Brett and I even planted a garden, which is coming along great, I might add. Whew, the punctuation in this paragraph has been really hard. I don't know if I got it all right! Anyways, Brett and Ciara are bomb.
Now for a tid-bit I've learned recently about optimism while reading and thinking. Optimism is a great thing to have, but you can't put a deadline on optimism. I do believe in having goals with deadlines, but the enduring anchor of an optimistic attitude will eventually break its chain if you impose a time limit on it. This does not mean live oblivious to your problems, because all the while you have got to come to grips with your current situation. "Good to Great" calls this "confronting the brutal facts." And that's what I aim to do: confront the brutal facts, control what I can control, change what needs to be changed, and don't fret too much about things outside of my control, while never losing faith in the future. Wow, more came out of this paragraph then I expected. Its funny how writing can often help you think things through and solidify it in your mind.
Farewell!
nice blog post! I think I'm going to do tough mudder! I better sign up for it soon, like this week. I also need to call and chat with you. maybe I'll do that tomorrow.
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