21

Well I'm 21 now. I don't feel any older, but I definitely feel cooler =P

I'm looking forward to this birthday. I know I shouldn't have high expectations, but I have a feeling it's going to be great. I'm not doing the "go to Vegas and get blasted" experience. I'm going to be focusing more on enjoying the people I have in my life to celebrate this mile-stone. I guess I'm officially an adult now, no more excuses.

One thing I hope that I don't do is neglect the people younger than me now that I'm "older." I know there's now certain things I can do that they can't, but I need to be respectful of that and not hurt the relationships in my life. At the same time though, I also need to set aside time for me to just experience the fun of being old-young. I'm sure it's going to be great.

As I type this, it's nearly 90 degrees in my house. I have no idea why the hell my parents don't let us turn on the AC at night.

On Friday I went to San Diego with Jem and Huan to visit Abby. It was a nice little road trip that I've been wanting to do for awhile, and it was great telling Huan and Jem stories and jokes on the way (Purple Passion Word, and The Pink Gorilla). We left Friday morning and came back Friday night, and we were still able to do so much. When we got there, we hooked up with Abby in Chula Vista and also picked up Jake. After that, we went to Santanas, and I got the best Carne Asada Fries I've ever had in my life. The fries were so good, I got an extra order to take home later that night. After the fries, we went to the beach. I had always wanted to check out a San Diego beach to tell the difference between theirs and ours back home. The only difference I could really tell was that the sand was much softer and cleaner. Next we went to the San Diego Fair and walked around for a bit. We got to ride some nasty fair rides whose only excitement factor is how close it comes to making you puke. We capped the fair off with a show from Switchfoot.

This show was actually pretty good considering I had never heard Switchfoot's music before. I guess it just reminds me of how much I enjoy live music. I had never been to a REAL show before I was 18, and ever since then, I have been going to concerts non-stop. My mom says it's bad for my hearing, but psh, I don't care. It's fun dammit =)

The show actually inspired me to write a song. I think it would be cool to write a song about accepting other people's religions. I betcha I could get it on the Billboard Top 100 ;)

On the way back from the fair, a nice car pulled up next to us. The car was a SUV with big spinners. The gentleman rolled down his window, stuck his bald-tatooed head outside his car and said, "Where's Dairy Queen?!" I turned to him, in the passenger seat, and incredulously said, "I don't know if there's a Dairy Queen around here. Again he repeated, "Where Dairy Queen?" very Neanderthal-like. I turned back to him and complimented the spinners on his car. He seemed confused and looked out his window at the tires. Sure enough, there were those spinners...still spinning. He turned back to me and said, "Oh there are spinners. Yeah this isn't even my car." (figures). He seemed to forget what he was asking, and I told him goodluck finding a Dairy Queen, and we drove off. On the way back, everyone in the car seemed to be shooken up about the incident, and Jem said that she thinks I saved us from being shot at. The way I see it, is that I gave the guy a compliment, which had a different affect other than intended, but he saw me as a standup guy and didn't really do anything after that. If his intentions were to hurt us, (and that's just a maybe) I feel that compliments go a long way in bringing people together. If you ignore a situation (almost any situation) it's bound to get worse.

I really enjoyed the first reading for this week's Eucharist. It really stood out to me because of the death that I have experienced in my life, and how to cope with it. A lot of people blame God for their friends or family members for dying, or ask why didn't God do something to stop it. We have a loving God, not a malevolent God, and I feel that a lot of people lose sight of that sometimes. I use this quote from this week's reading and from the book of Wisdom to help me remember that our God is a loving God.

Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24

"God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.
For he fashioned all things that they might have being;
and the creatures of the world are wholesome,
and there is not a destructive drug among them
nor any domain of the netherworld on earth,
for justice is undying.
For God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made him.
But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
and they who belong to his company experience it."