Friday Night Highlights

It's Friday. Finally. There's something about arriving at Friday night after a long week of work. Since joining the working world, brief though my experience may be, I have discovered a tendency I never before noticed in the stressful-yet-sporadic and largely free college years. It is the tendency, nay the necessity, of rest. The exhaustive drudgery that repetitive work can sometimes be, though it may not initially appear physically or mentally taxing, is remarkable--leaving one all but incapable of involved activity at the end of a long work week. I won't even mention the ridiculous emotional effects of dealing with people in customer service. Courtney (who's finally back on Monday by the by) will testify, she discovered this with me and unfortunately received the effects of this as I first encountered it. Granted, a person's emotional response to this exhaustion is largely a choice, but I think it was Bing Crosby who said in "White Christmas" as he's trying to help Dean Jagger's character cope with retirement, "There's something to be said for leisure." Admittedly, it's not as bad as it was during the first few months after I started. Maybe I've learned to deal with it. Maybe I've just adjusted. Maybe I've reached a point of comfortability with working full time. Maybe I know I won't have to much longer and there's a light at the end of this short tunnel, haha. But i still find myself eager to get off work on Friday, get in a quick work out, eat, shower, and finally relax in limited company, awaiting a full night's sleep, without having to anticipate waking to an alarm at 5:30 and repeating the daily grind while operating on too much coffee, dealing with frustrated and difficult people who often have no regard for your humanity, and trying not to watch the clock as it slowly ticks off each second of your eight-hour work day. Haha, OK, that's a little melodramatic, but I couldn't resist. All this to say, It's here, and I am, so I will. Thank God for weekends.

Aging Thoughts

My good friend and roommate, Heather, reminded me that i am long overdue for a posting. She's right. So today, having just acquired my new Macbook Pro (hehehehe...) I've decided the time is right.

First of all... I have in my possession two Kansas City Royals tickets for the game in KC this Saturday night, with free parking tickets, seats behind home plate i'm told, and I am unable to attend... they're burning a hole in my pocket! If anyone has any ideas for me, don't hesitate to let me know.

Now... I'm turning twenty-three on Monday and I have to say this is the first birthday I can remember that I'm not looking forward to as much. Seems a bit early i know. It's not as though I've necessarily reached a quarter-life crisis or anything ridiculous yet, though I'm not exactly dancing with mindless glee at the thought of it. Come to think of it, It's not as though I'm not in an exciting time of life either with loads of things to look forward to in the coming months and years (heretofore please excuse the double negatives and phrases ending in prepositions). I don't know... maybe it's just the physical things. I can't seem to stomach spicey foods like I used to. Even too much deviation from my usual, healty, diet routine leaves things more uncomfortable than what used to be. My vision seems more inconsistent, sometimes blurry, taking longer to adjust in light, and I've always had impeccable vision. I'm growing more unsightly hair in various orifices and on surfaces, particularly my nose, neck, and back, then I ever have--OK, too much info.?, my apologies, I am trying to convey the source and depth of my aging angst. haha. Anyway, it's the things I can't control. The things that can only, inevitably, worsen with time. Granted, I will have to get over it eventually or I'm in for a potentially long, difficult series of deteriorations. And so, I will make every effort this year to remember the things to look foward to, as vague and indefinite as they may seem, the blessings I possess now as a healthy, twenty-three-year-old young man who is close to a family which dearly loves him, whose girlfriend of more than a year is about to return from a five-month stint in Australia, who is on the brink of a big move to Winfield/Chicago, an amazing opportunity at a distinguished graduate school, and the God-only-knows' to follow--not only 'knows' but 'controls'.

It Begins...

The time is right. The course of events have come to this. All the pieces have come together. The world is now made ready for exposure to the life and mind of Levi--scary thought I know.

My job...

I work in customer service for the time being--a bank teller--though I hardly consider myself cut out to be a banker. Still, I have been at it for more than a year and I have learned a lot in the process. And, mostly about people. People are ridiculous. Greedy, selfish, self-righteous, money-grubbing, inconsiderate, easily-angered, impatient, etc... and I chief among them. This has not been my first realization of this, of course. But I was realizing the other day, that my expectations for human interactions, in virtually any public circumstance, have been horribly tainted by a pervasive pessimism. I'm doing my darnedest not to become a cynic here on these terms. It has caused me realize how much I don't love people in general. How much that must be God in me. And, how much that that will only come as I learn to genuinely love God... I have a feeling that will take some serious time.