6 days.

almost done

my time here in concord is just about over.

i quit my job two weeks ago, i just found out today that i passed my EMT certification test (woohoo!), and i will be leaving saturday for san diego.

time just flew by up here! i can't believe all that has taken place, but i am so glad it did because i'm getting married! i've been so anxious to start a new life with my beautiful wife.

so soon!
just 17 more days!

half way through

work and school are halfway over.
i got a big midterm covering 18 chapters this wednesday and i'm working 25 hours a week selling office supplies.

yesterday at work, i called a customer a patient.
yes, my mind has been a bit jumbled lately.
needless to say, i'm looking forward to getting married here in just 61 days! whoo!

laura had a wedding shower labor day weekend and got all kinds of goodies. new hiking boots from REI, a gold heart pendant from my mother, and tons of house hold supplies. getting married is great! single life is for the birds.

take care now.

work and school

so, i am back in school.
i am taking a 8 week long EMT-Basic course that will certify me to work on an ambulance doing transport or in a hospital doing ER-tech stuff.

i also got a part-time job at staples. yes yes, i know, james working at staples?!
it's quite humbling as that all three of my managers, including the store manager, are younger than me. but, i am grateful for the job and it helps put some extra cash in my wallet and keeps me busy.

that's all for now.

engaged

I wanted the proposal to be a adventure, not just a one day or half day event. So it started off in San Diego when I surprised Laura with an itinerary out to CA when I was there. We relived a lot of old memories including a failed hot air balloon ride due to weather and created some new ones. After flying back to Orlando, I started to re-create our first few dates. Laura of course new that something was up but had no idea when I was going to propose. So yesterday, I gave her red roses with journal entries on them on the hour every hour about our relationship from our pre-dating days to present. By the time dinner rolled around (i made her the same meal i made for her on our first date), she had a dozen roses! I then blind-folded her and drove to a lake where we had our first date. We went kayaking on our first date on a lake and we came across a private dock that we hung out on for about 3 hours talking and goofing around. Well, I found that same dock and asked the owner if I could propose on it. He agreed. So I walked Laura all the way to the end of the dock and had dessert set up with another dozen roses with more journal entries from this last month. I had Laura read them and they were mostly about me buying the ring and how nervous I was. Well the last journal entry was from the night before the proposal and it read something about how I couldn't believe that in 24 hours I was going to ask Laura to be my wife. By this point, I was already crying. After she finished reading it, I stood up, pulled her off the bench, got on one knee and asked her to marry me. As you can see in the pics, Laura started crying too! It was such a special moment for both of us!!!!! I had poor Laura walking on pins and needles all week! And it was very emotional for me too as I spent a few hours reading through old journals compiling my thoughts about Laura through the years!!!

"the big day"

I know right, this is where I write a personal commentary on the current presidential campaign. It seems like every nominal blog around the internet has something to say, either satirical or respectful.

I don’t want to go on a rant about the flaws of American democracy or the circus each political party is putting on to show off its candidate and bring down the other. But, because the internet permits me to have a voice I otherwise wouldn’t, I do want to leave you (my American Christian readers) with a few quotes from some Christian professors, authors, and activists that I hope will evoke some extra thought in your mind before casting your vote, if you choose to do so.


“Don’t let anyone make you think that God chose America to be a messianic force and to be the policeman of the world.”
-MLK - 1967, “Why I am opposed to the War in Vietnam”

“If you’re talking the talk but not walking the walk when you go to speak to the government, you’re only lobbying. When you do both, you’re witnessing to the state.”
-John Howard Yoder

“There’s nothing more important in American politics than being able to hold people to truthfulness, and the reason that American politicians are afraid of telling us the truth is because the American people don’t want to know it. Do we want to know that we’re the richest people in the world, raping the rest of the world [so] that we can remain rich? Do we want to know that Iraqi war really is about cheap oil? Do you really want to know that? Do you really want to be told that, ‘Look, America is a racist country, and the terms keep getting changed to hide that from ourselves?’ Let an American politician run saying, ‘I’m ready to tell you the truth. Are you ready to vote for me?’ Let the church of God be that people that are ready to hold people to the truth, and then you will be the most political people in the world. Do that.”
-Stanley Hauerwas, 29 June 2008 @ Renovatus Church in Charlotte. NC

“We vote every day with our lives. We vote every day with our feet, our hands, our lips and our wallets. We vote for the poor. We vote for the peacemakers. We vote for the marginalized, the oppressed--the most vulnerable of our society. Ultimate change does not just happen one day every four years.”
-Shane Claiborne, “Jesus For President”

october

yes yes, as my friend alli graciously reminded me, september is gone and october has come. back in concord, california, you know cotober has come because of the cooling temperature, the smell of fireplaces, and the ever increasing excitement of halloween. but out here in thailand, there is hardly a mark showing the change in season. sure sure, the weather drops from 85-95 to 80-90 at peak hour of the day, and yes, it does start to rain less. but it's just not quite the same out here in the jungle.

in other news, vince and i have decided to fight our cockroach problem. yes, i know it's gross, but thailand is home to the largest amount of cockroach species in the world. so far we've stumbled across hissing cockroaches, flying cockroaches, and just plain ugly cockroaches. well we've had enough of these little suckers, we're on the offenisve.

we devised a trap consisting of a 2 gallon size bucket, lined with petroluem jelly, that has tasty treats laying in the middle (they love gum and mentos!), with a cardboard ramp leading up to the lip of the bucket. the idea is to lure them in with the food and make it to slick to climb out with the petroleum jelly. i've had my trap going for two nights now and have caught 7 cockroaches. vince had his out for one night and has caught 4. we're doing good so far team--let's keep up the good work.

exciting stuff going on out here in chiang mai.
stay tuned for more.