Today marks the beginning of my 24th year of life, or would it be 25th? I’m not sure I’ve never been good at math. To put it more simply, today I turned 24. I received birthday wishes from afar. With the exception of my dad, who took me out to a Japanese Steak House, more on that in a minute. From the night before I could tell it was going to be a quiet birthday.
I started off the day waking up groggy from six hours of sleep. I had gone to a Braves game the night before. We left at the end of the seventh inning after the Braves were up 6-0, and I spent the rest of the night surfing the net in hopes of conversation. Disappointed by the lack of conversation, I started browsing for churches in hoping of both enriching my spiritual life and making new friends. I found one and decided that if I woke up in time I’d go.
(Side Note) It is surprising to most of my friends that I have this affinity for Jesus, but I do honestly love God even though I am in no way a typical Christian, nor do I pretend to be. I loosely, label myself a Christian and will not give spiritual advice because my relationships with the church and with God are my own. I know that if I ever have a readership certain people will be frustrated and upset about the way I live my life because it’s not according to their biblical principles. I am generally an honest person, ask me a question and I’ll answer honestly even if my answer isn’t necessarily what you want to hear, barring it doesn’t have some sort of conflict of interest for me (life or death, exposing a secret, that sort of thing). So to cover my basis, the way I live my life is in no way a reflection of the Christian church, nor do I see myself as a reflection of God. This is another point of contention I have with the Christian church. Regardless, I like God, Jesus and most of the principles of Christianity; I also like to spiritually enrich my life, so going to church is something I enjoy doing most Saturdays or Sundays. Either way point is please don’t be offended. Rant over.
Back to the point, I found myself at a Church that advertised to have a contemporary worship service “like you’ve never seen before”. Intrigued and with the help of a 9:45 am text message from my brother, I woke up without a hitch. I got dressed kissed my dad good bye and headed to the 10:45 service. They didn’t live up to their advertising promise. I had seen worship like this before, people barely singing, ushers seating people during prayer, and not a single greeter welcoming me, by the time all the song and dance was over I was ready to leave. I didn’t want to miss out on the sermon though because that was part of the reason I was there. Thankfully, I didn’t leave because the pastor was hilarious. I laughed out loud, it was the redeeming factor that this particular church needed for me to return. He joked about the south, secular life, and he was a friendly person. I left with a sense of enlightenment. Okay not really, but I did feel marginally better. My mood spiked a little and I was around people; it was a welcome change.
Upon my return to casa de Podunk, around noon-ish, my dad was insisting that he take me for my birthday dinner (please note the time). We went to a hibachi grill around the corner, and I successfully made eye contact with an attractive bus boy. He kept looking over throughout the course of my meal. This guy could not take his eyes off of me. Some girls would be freaked out by it, but I was happy to have an admirer. It was a great birthday present. Every time I saw him he would look in my direction and smile, even my dad noticed that I had a fan. Hindsight being 20-20, I wish I had written my phone number on a napkin or the chopstick paper. I’ll probably go back there with a sushi craving sometime next week, hoping that I can dispel the myth about Asians.
We returned home stuffed on Sushi and Hibachi, my dad fell asleep watching scary movies, while I refreshed Facebook on five-minute intervals hoping for new birthday wishes. Although my birthday wishes were aplenty, my buzz had worn off. Down on my luck, and consumed by cabin fever I decided that I had to get out of the House of Solitude, drive, find somewhere to go. I drove down the main road into the next town hoping that since I’m in the middle of red-blooded America I’d be able to find an independent coffee chain. But it looks as though Starbucks has left no stone unturned in its world takeover.
(Detracting Side note) I like Starbucks don’t get me wrong, I worked for them several times throughout college, always leaving when a better opportunity came along. They are a good company. Well, at least Howard Schultz is a good guy; he has a good business model and seems to care both about his costumers and employees. I equate Starbucks to socialism; it’s a good idea in theory but in practice people always seems to screw it up. (Rant over)
After driving through three cities, possibly four and unable to find a small quiet coffee shop, preferably one with free wi-fi, I’ve decided that none exist. (I of course found out later that this isn’t true but I haven’t found one that answers its phone, yet). I ended up back in Podunk, at the Starbucks around the corner from my house. Unaware of what to do with life I ended up typing entry number 1, 2, and the beginning of 3. I was kicked out at closing time and drove back home feeling remarkably better. It lead me to one conclusion, the only way to keep myself from going absolutely bat-shit crazy I must write. So for better or for worst this project was born, and for better or worst I have come to accept that this is where I am for now.
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