Wednesday, Lost Wages

When I am able to drive somewhere in Las Vegas without calling Kyung, it will be time for me to leave *.

My trip here is almost over. Today I did lunch with James Counts and Kyung and another guy helping James move named Darrell. Jill and I hung out after that a bit at Jamba Juice where she told me her take on the world and culture and how she wants to be the next Connie Chung. Very interesting stuff. Then I did dinner with the Lovgrens which was a blast. Mm, I probably should have taken some pictures. Oh well, next time.

It looks like all the people who moved here from San Diego are doing well. I am pretty encouraged at how people have really settled in. It's good to know that they are being taken care of.

No real progress today on the whole "what to do with my life" situation. I think about it pretty much every day but it doesn't get much clearer. Jill is pretty convinced that God always makes things clear, but I'm not so sure. I tend to think that God will make me figure out things the hard way.

All in all, visiting friends and stuff has been pretty economical. I've paid for maybe one meal for almost this whole week, haha. Okay, Kyung is calling me a night-owl. Tomorrow, it's back to Diego.

Tuesday in Vegas, Baby, Vegas

Today I did lunch with Jenn Graves at a Souplantation rip-off named Sweet Tomatoes or something like that. It was nice. They even had the to-die-for blueberry muffins. Sometime after that I went on a long trek to try to get discount tickets to Mamma Mia, but to no avail. I guess they don't have 10pm shows on Tuesday nights. Oh well, it was a nice walk.

I joined the Counts' bible-talk which was a lot of fun. Aisha, Kobi, Jaxon and Jeric were hanging out watching TV when I got there, and when Jaxon saw me, he said hello, then turned to Aisha and said, "This is my friend Victor." And to that Aisha says, "He's MY friend too." So funny! Afterwards Jaxon asks me, "Can you come over to my house, right now?" and of course I couldn't resist. We went managed to get ourselves to Dairy Queen and have a little treat before I dropped him off at home. Fun fun!

Jenn and I had a discussion about the whole idea of how I feel kind of torn between the idea of just hanging out with people I like to hang out with, versus...well, I don't know. I guess the opposite is doing what I am doing now -- staying in San Diego where I don't really feel that close to people. That's of course an over-generalization. There are plenty of people in San Diego I feel close to, it's just that most of them are married, and there are hurdles associated with that.

Consider this idea: I want to spend time with the people with whom my love is most effective. And then consider this idea: I want to spend time with the people who are the easiest for me to love.

One statement certainly tends to stir more indignation in people than the other. The question is, isn't it the same statement? I've thought a lot over the last weeks about the idea that friendship is equivalent to investing in people. And, I really enjoy the idea of spending time with the people with whom I genuinely like spending time. I just can't help but think that that attitude creates cliques. I guess it is a matter of drawing line somewhere in between. I think I have a hard time figuring out where that line is.

Some scriptures that come to mind:

Luke 6:32 - "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even `sinners' love those who love them."

John 21:20-22 - "Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is going to betray you?") When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me."

Monday in Las Vegas

Kyung, Jenn

Doug

Okay, here goes.

I've decided to actually start a real blog. I am inspired by a discussion with Scott Campbell about how he decided to go ahead and create a daily cartoon for his company's website. Cool idea. I especially admired his comment about not caring if it was funny and stuff. I guess you have to practice anything if you're going to get good at it.

Anyway, I'm in Las Vegas, I've been hanging out here with all of the San Diego refugees escaping joblessness and outrageous housing prices. It's been tons of fun. Saturday was Doug and Mae's birthday party, which was kind of a west region reunion for me. My date Jill made me dance; I was reluctant at first but it was a good push and I had a good time. Actually I was a little sore later that night. I guess I don't use my dancing muscles very often.

Sunday, church was good; there was a great testimony from a woman and her step-father, focused on forgiveness. It was quite moving. Ish shared some scriptures continuing along that line. Overall I was impressed with the sincerity of the speakers and the heart shown by everyone. Ish seems to improve a lot every time I hear him speak also. And of course he is as expressive as ever. After church I spent time with the Trianas. They fed me well and I afterwards I took a little power nap. Ben is huge now, but he wasn't feeling well; Sophia was teasing her sister Sonia and had to get ... disciplined; Sonia was trying to be a little rascal too. Cutest kids. I was going to try to make the second service in the afternoon but the Trianas live so far out in the boonies, by the time we got there everyone was gone.

Today I spent time with James Counts, did the usual computer tech stuff, finished up his game of Go Fish with Kobi. He's getting huge too. Hard to believe he's in kindergarten.

I did dinner with Catherine Vizcarra too, and her boyfriend Bob. He seems like a really nice guy; certainly different than what I pictured. Well, I guess I don't know what I pictured. Anyway, it was great to catch up and laugh and get filled in on new stuff in her life. Sounds like her church involvement is going well, and her relationships with her family members are going much better.

Well that's a lot of facts. This blog thing will take some getting used to. Maybe I'll get to my other ideas tomorrow. Here are some more pictures on Ofoto.