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.

Jean Claude had a heart

…even when he was young.

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

So Much to Talk About!!!

I am getting into a really bad habit of not being here on my blog…I apologize.

-Since I’ve been gone, the economy has gone to the birds and now we wait to see which presidential candidate will lead us back. I know who I am voting for.

-I’ve found out what self chosen pain feels like. I started a “boot camp” class to shed a few pounds before baby pai gets here. My body is so sore that it hurts to try to even sit in a chair. I can feel my lats while I type, and also it takes a deep breath to muster up the strength to stand up again.

-I’ve been trying to find out what “sabbath” looks like. This idea of resting is interesting to me, because is it simply laziness or a requirement of living. To all my church friends out there reading this, I challenge all of us to take a lot of this as the “busy” season is coming for us that are the holidays.

-I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately. Some of my favorites are:

Sean Hayes, Otis Redding, Vampire Weekend, Kelly Joe Phelps, David Bazzan, Bill Withers, and Amos Lee.

-Baby Pai is coming along nicely. She likes to do somersaults in Cynthia’s belly and really seems to react to spicy food. Cynthia’s ankles are getting big and she seems to be grumpy and tired. Can you blame her though? She’s married to me and she’s pregnant. I’d be grumpy also.

Life is getting kind of crazy around the Pai household. Work, Baby, and Remodeling house stuff. That is my life. How is your life?

Regarding Community

The idea of community is wierd. What is community really? Is it the place that you live in? Or is it the company that you keep around you? We have a strange community emerging within the last five years or so with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and even as you read this blog entry we are engaging in some sort of faux community.

We have our home community in which we live in a neighborhood. This is our direct community. Sometimes we try to block out this community by building fences around our homes, to which only those who are invited may enter. This home community is quite tricky, because none of us truly want to invite others into our lives usually. Sometimes I find myself inside of my home with the blinds drawn and the lights off so that nobody thinks I am home. We seclude ourselves so that we never have to speak to others, but really we are missing out on the community that we crave.

We also have our work community (neighborhood) in which we go and punch the clock. Sometimes we get so caught up in how much our job sucks that we forget the impact that we might have on people. Sometimes when working at the church, I feel like a jukebox playing the songs that people like or dislike. I feel like I am there to play the hits, but then something changes. I see somebody standing and truly worshipping. Those are the moments that my work community is at its best: when I’ve led somebody to a place of happiness, or they are touched by Jesus. The same thing happens when I work at starbucks. Sometimes I see people who are regulars coming in as I am leaving and they say things like, “you can’t leave, who will make my drink for me?” Though they may not be complimenting me, I feel that I am touching their lives in some way. Though I leave somedays hating people more than one man should, I know that Jesus loves them even more than I hate them.

I think this is the purpose of community. True community is the effect that you have on other people’s lives. Whether you are living around them, serving them at your job, or even seeing them on the same bus everyday, true community is formed when they notice you aren’t there anymore. When people start to miss you, then you know that you have formed community.

The Ultimate in Whatcom County Dating

If you are married, you know the importance of “Date Night”. It’s a night to get out and away from home to connect with your significant other. Last night I went to the Ultimate Date here in Whatcom County, Washington. Cynthia and I were “lucky” enough to get tickets to the Lynden Fair to watch the hottest ticket in town. Randy Travis? no. Chicago? no again. Though both of those shows are really going on this week here in our little section of the United States, the hottest ticket in town every year is the demolition derby. Yep. You read right!

So we had an evening filled with Fair Food and smashed up cars. Break out your John Deere Hats and “Git-R-Done” t-shirts, because here are some pics for you (Incidently, this first pic is the first pic of Daddy with his baby pai…it’s a family pic of sorts):

All in all it was a fun night. Cynthia and I had a great time. Cars were smashed. Fords and Chevy’s were rivaled. All was right in this neck of the woods.

Mi Vida Loca

Lately, my life has been a little nuts, thus why the sporadic blog entries. To catch you up to speed, here are some of the things I’ve been planning and doing and trying to do:

- Cynthia is 4.5 months along. She is getting more and more adorable. She can’t sleep some of the time because she has to sleep on her side. That means she wakes up with me at 4:30 in the morning when I am working at starbucks. Sorry. We find out if it is a boy or girl on August 22nd (the same day we go see Amos Lee in Vancouver!)

- I’ve been trying to be outside as much as possible. A lot of my work for RCC I’ve been doing at my local starbucks up the road. Really, outside at Barkley Square they have an amazing soundtrack playing. I heard Lucy in the Sky…, Maggie May, and Tiny Dancer all in the same hour! Later they played Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. If you live in the bellingham area, you could probably find me sitting outside working here.

-Speaking of work, I’ve been working a lot these days! I work at RCC (25 hours), Starbucks (20+ hours), Give Guitar Lessons (3-5 hours), and mow our lawn for money from our condo association. I work about 50+ hours regularly. Maybe I am more in ministry than I realize, because don’t all people in ministry work this much?

- I’ve been recording a CD fueled by Burger King (I feel another diet coming on!). I’m really kind of gun shy about it. I like it, but that doesn’t mean other people are going to like it. So my question is why should I play out? When I get it done, I’ll put some tracks on my music MySpace to give you guys a listen. My friend Chris Cochran is helping me with it. He’s amazing really. I swear, all of my friends are so talented. I just wish that it would rub off on me. Chris is moving to Hillsboro, Oregon. He is working in the school district with Kids with Behavioral Disorders. I’m going to be sad when he leaves.

- Cynthia has a birthday coming up on the 13th. I really suck at this, because ”an evening of good loving” doesn’t count as a gift. I think that I disappoint her every year. Hopefully this year’s gifts will be fun for her. (cross your fingers!)

-I’m thinking of doing an “Evening of the Arts” at RCC in November. I don’t know totally what this will look like, but I think it will be awesome.

That’s about it on my end of things.

My Blogroll: J (all photographers)

Something that I really admire is photography. I love the art of photography and the idea of the story that a single image can tell. Strangely, all of the J’s in my blogroll are all photographers. Here you go…

James Taylor – James and I are partners at St. Arbucks. James is a photographer. I’ve talked about him before, but you should check out his work again.

Jewels Harrell – Jewels is great. Her pictures tell wonderful stories and capture beautiful moments.

Josh Durias – Josh is another partner that I’ve talked about. He is doing really cool things with his photography. Really rich and deep colors. I am a fan.

Josh Longbrake - Joshua Longbrake is a student at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle. His pictures contain a lot of imagination.

Seriously, Check all of these people out. Comment and tell them that the Brown Kid sent you. Maybe they’ll take my picture…hmmm?

The Brown Kid Still Works at Starbucks!

There were a few closures in Washington, but none of the Bellingham Stores were on “The List”. Click here if you want to see what stores were closed. At a quick glance, I think the most starbucks closed were in Texas. Don’t fret though. As far as we know, Uncle Howie takes care of his employees. The workers are supposed to find work at the Starbucks across the street.

My Blogroll A-C

I just wanted to introduce you all to my friends in my blogroll. I hate when I go to blogs and I don’t know who they are. Now you will know some of them. Please visit them and say hello.

Aaron Nelson – Photographer, Phormer Starbucks Partner, and Phriend of mine. I hope he plays the trumpet still. He was good at that.

Alan Hirsch – Have you read “Shaping of Things to Come”? It is pretty interesting. This is his blog. Now you can get in his mind whenever he posts something!

Baron Miller – This is our pastor at Roosevelt Community Church. He posts on his sermons and attempts to draw conversation out of people. Sometimes it works.

Big Skye’s Country – Chess Player, Interesting blogger, Lover of Jesus, and they dress up as a bear. Any questions?

Blending Worship – Mandy Thompson lives out in New England. She is a worship leader. This is her worship blog. I like it. It makes me think.

Brad Hauge – This fool never posts anymore. He put an RSS feed on his site for me, then he never fed into it ever again. he is still my friend. I love him.

Cameron Garcia – The “Man of Many Thoughts”. Cameron discusses his journey in becoming a pastor and the “wonderful” things that come along with it.

CEC Worship – A great worship resource and finder of funny YouTube clips.

CHauncy Handy – Former Youth Kid turned friend. Chauncy has great things to say.

Chris Knox – Friend. Sporadic blogger. The Best. Seriously, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie just named one of their kids after him. Knox, you rule.

…more to come tomorrow