On a day when I needed a laugh…

this video and pic helped me. Enjoy them both…

I’m Excited for Football Season

I am REALLY excited for football season. I’m not really a baseball fan, so usually around August 1st I begin to get excited for the season to start. I am only in one fantasy football league, so I am not that bad. But I found this clip to share with you. Though this is a CFL (Canadian Football League) clip, it’s still really funny and involves football.

Bikers Beware: An Open Letter to the Fairweather Bike Commuter

Dear Mr/Ms/Mrs I-commute-during-the-warm-season-only-bike-rider,

If you are going to ride on the road, please follow the rules of the road. I applaud your wanting to save money and the planet, but I am saddened by your lack of common sense. This includes your failure to stop at stop signals and instead blow through them, not being aware of the cars around you, and your failure to signal your turns. Also, if you are riding on the sidewalks, please know that the rules of pedestrians apply to you then. Don’t just be on the road and then off the road. Choose one and go with it! Oh, and also please wear a helmet, fool.

The Brown Kid

I Think I’m Getting Old…

I yell at kids who have no regard for other people. I hate people who don’t “follow the rules”. I laugh when I think about the good old days. I’ve been out of high school for 15 years. I have a mortgage payment, 2 cars, and a kid…and we talk about upgrading to a bigger house. I get mad on the Fourth of July when people throw their garbage from their fireworks in my dumpster. I wake up at 6:30 a.m. with ease. I take naps. I watch the news. My hair is turning gray. I don’t like a lot of the new music that comes out these days. I have a 401k (now a 200.5k). Two Words: crows feet. I refer to people as “My _____” (i.e. my lawyer, my real estate agent, my whatever-it-is-that-I-pay-them-to-do).  I hurt myself and don’t recover as quickly as I used to. If I stay up past midnight, I’m usually a wreck the next day. If I drink more than two glasses of wine, I feel sick. I drink wine. I miss all of the bad things I used to do, but I don’t do it because my body probably can’t handle it.

yeah. I’m getting old.

I’ve Come To A Realization…

Last night on American Idol, Adam Lambert killed it with this song:

This is the only song that my dad knows on guitar. Seriously, I remember going to parties with my parents, he would play guitar, and this was the only song he played. My realization that I’ve come to? This is the only “good” memory that I have of my dad. I have some daddy issues (wasn’t good enough, neglected, came from a single parent home, etc.). Cynthia pointed this out to me when I told her the story of this song and my dad. She was talking about how it was sad that I don’t really have good memories of my dad.

I wrote about it before, but man, I am glad that I learned to love and trust God as my father…

We Christians are a funny bunch of people

isn’t it funny that we Christians condemn Christian artists for not talking about Jesus enough, but when an artist who wasn’t thought to be christian talks about the Divine we claim them as our own…

Please Hang Up and Order (An Open Letter to the Cell Phone Guy/Lady)

Dear Cell Phone Guy/Lady,

Seriously? What is so important that you have to talk on the phone at full volume while you are in line and then whisper your order to me, only to return to your conversation while looking at me like you are annoyed because I am asking you to pay?

HTD (here’s the deal). If you are on the phone, step aside and finish your conversation so that the person/people behind you can order. Or better yet, hang up. It’s simple really. Otherwise, your cell phone conversation looks like a big middle finger in my face.

So here’s what I’m going to do as this continues: While you are having your conversation after you order, I am going to call your order to the barista (as required of me) only I will do it at a slightly louder volume than usual. I will also tell you how much you owe me, only again I will do this at a slightly louder (but still courteous) volume. Yes, I realize that this will annoy you, but really, isn’t this what you are doing to me and others?

So Mr/Mrs/Ms Cell Phone user, I ask this of you. Please hang up and order, or let others after you order first.

thank you,

Your Barista – The Brown Kid

I Will Not Let You Grow Old (An Open Letter to My Friends)

This was inspired by a lady I saw at Starbucks one day. I wanted to share this letter that I wrote with everybody to let you know what kind of friend I can be. I care too much about all my friends to let this happen to them, as I hope you do also. If you know the kind of person being described here, please pass this on to them. enjoy!

2/27/09

Dear Friend,

I won’t let you grow old with you believing that you are younger than you truly are. Talking and dressing like you are 40 going on 20. Eventually, it might become embarassing.

Low rise jeans with muffin tops or Abercrombie fashion on a JC Penny body. Faux hawks at 50 and puka shell chokers choking out the last bit of sense that you might have.

Front butts playing peekaboo out the bottom of camisols and beer guts in a wife beater are never sexy. Both seem to reveal denial and freshly inked tribal tattoos.

Fake tans and highlighted hair make for an interesting contrast. Not intersting like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but more like Michael Jackson and Priscilla Presley.

So it comes to this: I promise as your friend to inform you rather than embarrass you if this happens to you. I would rather inform you than allow you to become red in the face. I would hope that you do the same for me. Let us grow old and move forward rather than trying to deny the inevitable. Growing old is a rite of passage and it is for you and me.

Sincerely, Your Friend,

The Brown Kid

Snow Day(s) and the Church

Baron and I were talking about snow days before service yesterday. Here in bellingham, if you go out on a sunday and there is a foot of snow on the ground then the gas stations are still open, grocery stores and starbucks still tread on, and even little ceasars pizza still open there doors. Usually, the first people to close their doors on a sunday are the churches. Wierd, huh?

At the church I used to work for and attend, if there was even over 6 inches on the ground, they would shut down services. I wonder if maybe it was because they worry about the congregants coming in from all over the county. I began to wonder also if this is another example of the disadvantages of the “Come and See” attractional church. Not many of the congregants of that church live within a mile or two of the church.

Maybe it’s just cabin fever I am getting being holed up with Loa and Cynthia, but I wonder if you have any thoughts on this?

This would have been mine

…if I was in the 11th grade.