KP and li'l T invade Southtown

Ello my leettle frienz...Iz beeen a hwiulll...

I was seriously considering doing some sort of year in review type deal here, but I think that may come later. in the meantime I shall relate to you my southtown experience thus far.

I finished my last exam Monday morning, the exam started at 8, stupid early when you can sleep till 2:20pm and still beat the prof to class. 2:25 if hes lazy. Its ESPECIALLY early if you have been studying all night. Thats why at 12:10 I gave up trying to discover what text book I should even be studying from, understanding that a good night sleep was my only hope. So I wrote a bunch of words on some lined paper (good for 65% minimum by my estimate), handed that sucker in and hit the road with little bro TAL and cousin Eric. 95okm, 9 and a half hours, 2 stops to..water the grass..one gas station and a lot of strange music later.....LETHBRIDGE. Ho ya.

Tal is missing school to come on this road trip with me, Merry Christmas tal! Awesome time so far. We went to bed pretty quick Monday night. On Tuesday Tal and I went over to Claire's parents place, they live real close to my aunt and uncles. They have a chair seat fastened to a zipline at their place, we were playing on that. You gotta get on at the bottom and get a tow to the top via rope thingy, and then your personal tow truck lets you go and its all fun and games...Til Tal decides hes gonna give me a tow back DOWN too. You come to a fairly abrupt end at normal speeds. I nearly flew out of the chair and did a back flip after tals surprise gift, lol. I tried to return the thanks, but he tossed off the rope before I could let 'im rip. HE conceded to a "mild" helper from me on his next go around, which was actually pretty mild I suppose. For him, anyway, it was a lot rougher on me. Its a long rope and in the process of pulling him back down, I managed to get it wrapped around my foot. So I let him go and was watching with slight satisfaction at the predicted result of his extra momentum. And then I saw the rope around my leg. This was the thought process.

Crap......crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAP

........ouch

........boy am I cool......

I went for a ride myself and though it was certainly not the smoothest thing I have done, it didn't hurt for long and everyone laughed about it. Which is the ultimate purpose for pain. Others amusement.

Our cousin Elya had been in Europe for the last week and a half and was coming home that night, but before we picked her up, we grabbed a pool table that my aunt and uncle are taking care of for like 7 years for some friends. That was fine. I had NO Idea slate could be so heavy. Thats the stuff under the lush, happy, green felt on the pool table. If someone dropped that on your head from 6 inches, you would be lucky if you didn't die. I am serious. If you drop that on your foot you can forget about walking. Thats right, your days of picking lint from between your toes are OVER! Heavy stuff. Yikes.

We went to Superstore before picking Elya up from school. I don't know what makes Lethbridges so much more special that they are entitled to a Grey superstore. With nice metal plating. As opposed to the Big Green Lego thing everyone loves to shop at. It was sooo much nicer, and twice as big as the GP SS. which says a lot. They had automated checkouts there. My first experience with those strage pieces of technology. I was impressed with it right up until we decided that actually we didn't need bags for our stuff. This is where we cancelled the chackout to start over and waited 8 minutes before the superstore staff came and worked some strage voodoo tech magic. After this we were able to start again. It went fine this time, quite interesting those, machines. They even talk! As we left it said, with that prerecorded, auto playback accent: "Thank you for shopping at the real canadian superstore" right. Where we replace real people with real technology that causes real migranes. But thats okay, we have migrane relief products in isle forty-two. For real!

So Elya came back and FREAKED when she saw Tal and I. Its the Penner thing to do really. Doesn't matter if its been one week or three years since you seen em last, if they see you when they don't expect you, look out, your gonna get smothered. or Screamed at. Usually both. I swear someones gonna die one of these days, but I can think of worse ways to die. Like being blown away and never found again. It is SO windy in lethbridge. The town just passed a bylaw saying that all pets and small children must be on a leash when outside. Because they may blow away. It happens. Just today I saw a poodle pinned against the west wall of a building from the crazy east wind. 8 feet up, legs kicking, going nowhere. If you are ever in southern alberta and you think you see a tumbleweed in the distance, look closer, it could very well be someones 2 year old. Frisbees are outlawed because they become deadly projectiles within the first 4 seconds of flight. Noone buys them anyway, they are good for a throw and you never see them again. The upside is that when a shinook comes in from the south, you can fold letters into paper airplanes, tossem over your shoulder and they should reach Calgary within the hour. Its stupid, we saw the MacDonalds sign teetering precariously in the relatively mild wind today, lights flickering and everything. For realz here, vehicles have actually been tipped over because of the wind in this town, and being up on two wheels is not unusual. This only really occurs in the Valley, with really big trucks that are empty, or stupid camp goers who strap their rowboat onto the top of their SUV on its side. NASA could use the valley as a wind tunnel to test the aerodynamics of their shuttles. Anything smaller vehicle would end up as a demolished vehicle on some farmers back 40. Hey maybe that explains them all......

We woke up today and went biking to one of the EB Games here to check it out. Not so bad not so bad. I almost missed the nerd banter that goes on between employees and customers and such. I really have walked away from that whole universe with minor exception, which leaves me remembering the good old gaming days, but not really missing them in the least. MAN have I grown up this last year. I think. Sure feels that way in a lot of ways. I mean things happen, situations change and you realize...man. Things gotta change. And you maybe even knew all along it would happen, or had to happen, but trying to make those changes can be like trying to force yourself to be something you aren't at times. I played video games. a lot. by myself. I knew that would not always be. But to quit cold turkey was too great a departure from who I was for no clear purpose other than this ideal that I should not waste so much time on something that I really did not see to be a waste. IT MADE NO SENSE at the time, what is the point? So I kept playing. God worked in me slowly, showing me that yes it is ultimately a waste of time, still allowing me to do my thing for my own contrived reasons. In September of last year, I had reached a point where upon evaluating my life circumstance, there was no longer any point for me to play video games when alone. It benefitted me in no way, in no way made me into the person I wished to become.

Where did this come from, what happened to Lethbridge?

Oh well, I'll roll with it. Its what I do :) So I guess here my thought for the day, derived from my experience of this last year and beyond. IF you know things are going to have to change in your life, or you want things to change in your life, do not seek to make those changes, because if the changes aren't made, you will be frustrated with yourself. I don't think there is a single person out there who has not been frustrated at their own inablity to bring about certain changes in who they are. The best way to avoid this is to pray with patience and commitment to God, requesting he transorm you from the inside out. This is beneficial in sooooooo many ways.

1. It requires us to relenquish control over our lives, let go of what we think is best for us.

2. It requires us to humble ourselves before God and aknowledge his ultimate goodness and our total unworthiness of his holiness.

3. It requires repentance

4. It requires that we trust Gods ways and words as being best for us and others, as being life.

5. It requires us to STOP our efforts to change ourselves and to JUST BE STILL in his hands. This is one of the hardest things to learn I think. Just be still in his hands. Also one of the best things to learn.

6. It requires all of these things over and over again.

And it is oh so good. To see yourself being changed and trasformed in every aspect of life. And to know that it was absolutely nothing you did that brought that about. Nothing. Not church, not singing, not doing good, not being there for your friends. The only thing you did was ask. And God gave. All those things mentioned before hand may be a part of the asking process, of you living out your request to god, but they do not change you. God changes you, and it is entirely in his power to do so and entirely out of ours.

The more I understand this, the more I enter into Gods rest. Understanding that I am unorganized for example (changing is not only about "spiritual" matters, it is wholistic, it is spiritual formation into the person of Christ. Perfect in every way. Its you becoming perfect.), if I try to become organized through my methods (God knows I have tried and failed so horribly he must have fallen off the throne in laughter) it simply will not happen. Ask my mom.
BUT!!! If I understand that I am not organized, and that it is WELL within Gods power to help me be organized, then I can rest in the knowledge that God is good and I don't have to worry about it. It will come. Through trials, yes, through hardship, yes, through failure, absolutely. But he who has started a good work in me is faithful to continue it and not abandon me to my hectic schedule and missing car keys. He will bring me though and I will be better organized for it.

AND what is worth even more that me being organized is the time I have spent with God along the way. That is what we will be doing for all eternity, get your practice in now.

And can you tell its late? lol

So back to Lethbridge. After EB Games we hit the dollar store where HOLY SMOKES.....50% off everything in store. Now this is the sort of stuff Girls dream about. you know, sales and shopping and friends and fasion and ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh. ya. (I might get flak for that) and in any other store we would have been like. SALE? eeeeew gross. Ok not really at all. ANYWAY 50% off at the dollar store is like finding a bargain bin you can walk into. And go nutz. And I did. 72.80 worth of nutz. 50% off = 36 bucks worth of hammers, rubber gloves, bubble wrap, cat5 cords, tickets, and who knows what else I bought. Stuff for camp, stuff for dad, stuff for me, stuff for everyone!

So then I had to bike home with 3 huge dollar store bags. Eric told me I looked like a hobo. I told him he looked like someone hanging out with a hobo. (burn!) Then we came home and went to MONGOLIE GRILL. We were on our way to King of trade when I was approached and quereyed by a native man as to why my younger brother was running down the street. I answered appropriately. He then told me to get him to stop and to get off his street. We were on the sidewalk. And he was drunk. So I said we would cross at the next crosswalk. This was unnacceptable and our new best freind demanded we cross now. So we did. He wasn't exactly making our stay on his "street" very pleasuable so we tok our business elsewhere. Oh yeah, I kinda cut somebody off yesterday, totally harmless and a complete accident, not a close call at all, not a big deal in any way. I pulled up and parked and he stopped his car and delayed traffic behind him so he could roll down his window, lean over, and show me that he had a problem with his hand. It was so strange, it was like no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't bend his middle knuckle! Every other finger was fine, but his middle one just stood straight up! I felt so sad for the man! He'll never be able to play guitar with his hand like that! I knew I didn't have any change to toss his way, so I just gave him my trademark thumbs up and grinned as much as I could in his direction. He just kept waving his deformed hand at me and then drove off. I hope I somehow was an encouragement to him, I think he needed it. Totally forgot about that. Anyway. went to BOOSTER JUICE and I saw an old family friend Keisha there. Sooo good to see her again. Wow has she grown up. Crazy. So cool.

And so here I am in Lethbridge still. Its really late. I have wanted to update this blog for so long, and I have attempted on numerous occasions and something has always kept me from getting it done. A few cases of the " I GOT NOTHINGS" a few that were written just a bit too late and after 2 paragraphs were totally nothing but incoherent blathering on (kinda like now!) and once I was on a rool till my wandering toe found the powerbar. That....was not fun. Everyones done it once, you know how it feels. If you haven't done it yet, it consoles me to know that one day you will. I am laughing at you on the inside.

God Bless, goodnight.

I haven't had a toaster strudel in years