I Have a Fear...

Actually two fears: one started as a small child, one has developed over time. The first is understandable, the second is weird. When I was about four years old I was playing soccer in my parent’s backyard. I was running to get the ball when I tripped into a small hole. It turns out that hole was FILLED with yellow jackets. Dozens of them swarmed around my head. They were in my shoes, under my shirt, crawling in my ears. I started SCREAMING at the top of my lungs. Not a yell, not a cry, but a SCREAM. My neighbor came first, then my dad. I remember him ripping off my shirt and they were crawling all over me. I don't know how many times I was stung, but it had to have been at least 40. Over the years, the fear has subsided quite a bit, but I still get taken a back when bee's come at me out of nowhere. My goal is to wipe out an entire bees nest someday. Call it sweet, sweet revenge.

Now for the second fear. I must start by apologizing. This might offend some of my more politically correct friends. I have a deep and seething fear of midgets. There: I said it. It's out in the open. If I ever run for president, you can take this blog and use it against me. For some reason, they scare me. My mom, friends, and everyone in between tell me this is "mean." I understand. But that doesn't make the fear go away. It all started with a dream some years ago that I was being attacked in my sleep by a midget with large knives. It got worse after watching the movie Chucky. Ever since then, it's been bad. I hope you'll forgive me.

Meet a Friend...

Her name is Zoka. We started dating two years ago - right at the beginning of finals week. My friend Kyle (who is a barista) introduced me to her. At first I was skeptical: another beautiful babe in a sea of thousands. But she was different. Zoka (which if you haven’t guessed by now is a coffee shop) has the best coffee I've ever had. I love their drip, espresso, lattes, mochas, and everything in between. Their pastries, sandwiches, and salads are hand-made at the store. The atmosphere is great with brown leather chairs, mahogany bookshelves, and free wi-fi. Zoka has three locations: University District, Green Lake, and Snoqualmie. I prefer the Green Lake location because it's closer to my house on Queen Anne, but all of them have the same great-tasting coffee. One word of warning though: be prepared to take your coffee to go. It appears Zoka is cheating on me and has hundreds of friends. She always seems to be jam-packed with people. I guess that makes her a coffee whore?

Sarah...Who?

Buzz, buzz, buzz. I hear my cell phone vibrating next to me. In a confused motion, I open my phone to see a text message from my best friend who lives in Little Rock. It says "McCain chooses Gov. Palin." The first thought that goes through my head is "who the heck is Governor Palin?" I scratch my head and spent several minutes racking my brain. Eventually, I remembered her as Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska (we talked about her briefly during one of my political science classes). After flipping on CNN and watching her speech, I spent the entire day thinking about the decision. Here is my initial reaction. It seems funny to me people are already saying how "good, bad, or somewhere in between" this choice is. I really think it’s too early to tell. This could be an amazing move by McCain or it could be one that spells the end of his run for President. She is such an unknown. She could be just what McCain needs to energize his base or single-handedly destroy McCain's argument for needing experience to be in the White House. What do you think?

I Feel Like a Kid

Of my four years in college, I spent three-and-a-half of them working for a news station in Seattle called KOMO. In addition, I spent more than two-and-a-half years working on-campus for the Student Union Board. STUB, as its called, has a budget of well over 100-thousand dollars and plans a few big on-campus events each year. This in addition to majoring in Political Science and minoring in Communications. Basically, I had an amazing time in college, but was busy ALL the time.

Enter the Summer of 2008. I finished school, quit my job, and headed out on a jet plane to three countries in the middle east (Israel, Egypt, and Jordan), traveled to several weddings across the country, volunteered at a camp in Canada, and will soon be going to my family's cabin at Priest Lake, Idaho. Bascially what I've learned through these experiences is: I feel like a kid again. I spent the summer jumping off cliffs and waterfalls. I spent the summer in deep conversation with people from around the world about faith, politics, and life. I went kayaking, read books, watched the Democratic National Convention. I followed in the footsteps of Jesus, watched 4th of July fireworks by boat, and slept in. This has been the most amazing summer of my life. I'm not sure what comes next. But I know this. It's going to be awesome! Here are a few of my favorite pictures. The first one is me overlooking the old city of Jerusalem, Israel. The second one is me in front of the famous Sphynx outside Cairo, Egypt. The third and fourth pictures are of my friends from SummerStaff at Malibu. The fifth and sixth pictures are of me sliding down a HUGE waterfall.

Favorite Place On Earth

I admit I am not the most extensive of world travelers. But having been to several countries on four continents, I have concluded my favorite place in the world is in our own back yard. It's called Malibu Club: a Christian camp located in British Columbia, Canada on the Princess Louisa Inlet. I first went there as a sophomore in high school. I've been back several times since including my most recent trip a few weeks ago where I worked on SummerStaff for a month. SummerStaff is made up of a bunch of college students (or recently graduated kids like me) who give up a month of their summer to volunteer at camp. In fact, we had to PAY to go there to work. Most of the people have jobs like driving $60,000 wakeboard boats or taking kids out on sail boats. But I had a behind-the-scenes job and loved every minute of it. I ended up working on maintenance where I did everything from make bunk beds, to fix sewer lines, to unload cargo. Malibu is only accessible by boat or sea-plane. In fact, the 400 or so campers that come each week (as well as the 150 or so support staff) arrive on a huge boat called the Malibu Princess. It's been rated one of the top yachting destinations in the world. Take a look at some of the pictures and you'll see why. It's beautiful. Mountains jet up 8-thousand feet out of the water. There are dozens of waterfalls within a five minute boat ride of camp and the scenery is beautiful rain or shine.

Football Season...Here I Come

Today marks the begining of college football. Right now I'm watching the Huskies take on Oregon in Eugene. The Dawgs are down by 7 right now, but it's only the first quarter. Go Huskies!

I'm Back..At Least For a While

By e-mail, by phone, by text. Everyone seems to be asking me what happend to my daily blogging? Well the answer: I went to Canada for three and a half weeks and did not have internet access. After that, I came home to Seattle for two weeks and found myself unmotivated to blog. But after a long break, I am back..at least for now. So, welcome back my friends.