first day of summer is Aug. 2nd in my calendar

it's been 2 years, so i figured i'd write something new.

thanks to the wonderfully available Weekend Accelerated Bachelor's of Science in Nursing program at Dominican College in Orangeburg, NY, I have yet to fully experience the wonders of summer. got a taste of it today grabbing a cup of coffee from the local bagel shop across the street when the sun pelted me in the face and all I could do was stop and embrace the damaging UV rays that, at the same time, fed me the vital Vitamin D that my skin needs to absorb calcium (aaaaargh, it always comes back to nursing).

anyway, one more psychiatric nursing final tomorrow, followed by 5 weeks of lovely summer, a trip to see Yanks-Sox at the new house with the classmates, opening day at the U.S. Tennis Open, more weekends spent with my roommate while ending it all in the most romantic city in the world (or so they say), Paris!

one last time

i must admit, i will miss the singles ministry. i really will. it's been a huge part of me, not just my my spiritual development, but my development as a person. it was a really nice send off on friday when maia and i led worship. thanks to ate lita for constantly approaching us to be prayer leaders, i have no clue why i was so hesitant.

i enjoyed bi-reffing with maia and really tried to understand God's word for sunday. i even talked to father paul several times to get clarification on the readings...but friday, i could really feel the Holy Spirit moving in the room. i hope and pray that current and future singles continue to let go and let God...not just at a Singles Encounter or at a LSS, but even at Friday worship.

do not be afraid to express how much you love God, don't be tentative and afraid to cry out to the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire or to sing your heart out, do not be afraid to lift up your arms and reach out to Him. you are the future of the singles ministry, so i pray you take advantage of Friday worships to strengthen your faith.

maybe soon there will be a separate ministry for married couples who are not too ready to join the adults and take a Marraige Encounter...we can call it the Mingles Ministry? =)

thank you, singles ministry, you have served us well and i hope i did the same for you.

Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't lose!

I know that the 3 or 4 of you that read this blog aren't really into TV or sports for that matter, but if anyone comes across this and you, a) loves sports and b) love dramas that deal with teenage angst, you should check out Friday Night Lights.

On a tip from my buddy Nicolo, I'm through 4 discs of the Season 1 DVD set. As my writer-idol Bill Simmons puts it, "It's the best sports-related show ever made."

Combine the story of a town whose sole identity revolves around their high school football team, the teenage angst from The O.C., brilliantly developed characters (such as the lovable loser backup quarterback, always a crowd favorite), compelling plot lines (which includes the football player-cheerleader versus everybody-else theme, a quadrapoligic rugby team on their way to the Beijing Paralymics, an awesome episode examining the stereotypical, super athletic black athelete and their more cerebral white counterparts that just oozes with racial tension and teenage celibacy) and, on top of that, excellent acting and you've got the elements of high drama.

Riggs, Street & The Smash

Lyla Garrity

Reading Sports Guy's article about FNL, it's sad to think that this show will ultimately face the ax due to the writer's strike and/or lackluster ratings. Both are unacceptable reasons to cancel a show, but NBC hurt itself by airing this show on difficult nights (who watches TV on Friday nights?). They'd be losing a gem of a show. I'm not even a huge football fan. I'd even rank it 3rd or 4th on the "watchability scale" behind baseball, basketball and/or tennis.

Please support this show. Netflix the first season or better yet, buy the DVD set. Or even if you're not a sports fan, it's worth it.

All this makes this show my newest, favoritest (it's a word) show of the early year...that is, until Lost comes back this Thursday!

We have to go back, Kate!

Up Next: my iiinteresting first day of Intro to Chemistry at Bergen Community College.

The Library...

The predecessor to the internet, Google and pretty much any other search engine out there, today's libraries still offer a wealth of information for the dwindling number of denizens of the town, city, municipality or borough they serve, albeit obtaining said information can be quite the meticulous task. Remember the Card Catalog? Thank God for Google.

Outside of the 3-4 books that I've borrowed from the Bergenfield Public Library last year, I've found that the library can serve in alternate ways, namely...it can populate my iPod Playlist! I went to the library with Maia last week and to my surprise, Bergenfield's Public Library had quite an extensive collection of CD's! Not only can I borrow up to 50 items (books, CD's), but I could easily burn or "rip" these CD's onto iTunes, providing the CD doesn't have some sort of built-in, anti-ripping software.

And because you are a citizen of your town and simply by signing up for a library card, it's all FREE! And for once in my life, I'm getting FREE MUSIC LEGALLY!

In the words of Peter Griffin, "Freakin' Sweet!"

So the past couple of times I went to the library, I was able to pick up those albums that I've always wanted, but couldn't necessarily warrant purchase, or past CD's I've had that got scratched or lost.

Here's a brief list of what I picked up:

• Beastie Boys - Solid Gold Hits
• The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
• Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesounds
• Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming
• The Killers - Hot Fuss
• Motion City Soundtrack - Commit This to Memory
• Panic! At the Disco - A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
• Matisyahu - Youth
• Eminem - Curtain Call
• Jason Mraz - Mr. A-Z
• Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
• Franz Ferdinand - Self-Titled
• Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
• jLo - On the 6
• Five for Fighting - The Battle for Everything
  

Pretty damn good list. Even if jLo and Kelly Clarkson are on it. Not to mention I picked up some obscure stuff like a collection of Pure Funk music that's pretty awesome.

Thus concludes this public service announcement -
Patronize your local libraries. They have good, free stuff.

Monumental Year. Like....3-0...monumental.

Yeah yeah, I'm back on the world wide web. It's become one of my New Year's resolutions to somewhat document my-so-called-life, for several reasons:

1. It was either this or join Facebook. I'll pass on the latter.
   
2. I miss having an outlet to do creative writing, so I'll try to do so at least once a week.
3. Writing on this thing gives me a form of release or expression or whatever.
4. I have a pretty terrible memory when it comes to stuff that I should remember, but my memory is uncanny when it comes to the mundane details. So here's an attempt to capture the important stuff...
   
5. It appears 2008 will be one of the best years of my life!

I'll be turning 30 in *crap* 8 days. Where the heck did my 20s go? I swear I remember turning 20...and 25...but the last 5 years were a fricking blur. Sometimes I think that I'm in too much of a rush to grow up, that I think that one day I'll regret that I've missed out on some of the things on my "To Do Before I Turn 30" list. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely looking forward to starting my new life with Maia, but the other day I was talking to my sister Mel about it and I told her that all the jokes that I make about turning 30 was just a way for me to hide the fact that I'm quasi-depressed that I'm leaving my 20s behind and that I'm becoming "old".

After I said that, Mel was like, "Oh my God, are you crying?" and sure enough, I was wiping away some watery substance from the side of my eyes. I was like "No, I'm tearing, guys don't cry." hahaha man that was so embarassing, but hey, I guess I gotta face reality. And some of my co-workers were all like, "Wow, you look so young" (too bad I wear a surgical cap at work, otherwise, they'd see how old I really look) or "Don't worry, the 30s is the new 20s" blah blah blah but man, seriously...as positive as I try to be about everything, this is definitely a difficult pill to swallow.

One thing's for sure: As much as I think I'm in control, God is definitely at the helm, not me. And I say this because looking back 2, 3 or even 5 years ago, I never would have assumed that I'd be where I am today. The best laid plans never really pan out, no matter how much effort you try to make things come to fruition.

Man, writing in this thing really is cathartic. I'm feeling better already.

Til next time, I'll try to come up with more interesting things to talk about...until then, Happy New Year and here's to 2008, the best year yet!