Category: I’m Just Sayin

Over the past year and a half I have lived completely by myself. No roommates, relatively quiet neighbors and in my own house. It was bliss – for the most part – or was it?

I remember sitting on the couch and luxuriating in the quiet solitude after a long night DJing a wedding. Or cooking a big dinner and vegging out on the couch and watching movies pretty much anytime I wanted. I loved those times, but it sure is nice to be around people again.

For a while I had a few nightmare roommates and I thought that living by myself was my only option, but I realize now that living with the right people is such a blessing.

Chris and Joleen are two of the most fun people I know and we get along really well. It has been a delight to watch their 2 1/2 year old son go through potty training and to watch his parents be patient and deal with the antics of a kiddo.

One thing for sure is that I’ve become a little less selfish with my time and I no longer feel the need to have “Me” time. I actually look forward to going home and spending time with the Wilson’s and I have to force myself sometimes to go to bed or else we’d all stay up until midnight every night.

These last two months have been challenging in that all of my stuff is located in three different places and I’ve been living out of a laundry basket with just a handful of my clothes. I don’t have my own refrigerator or kitchen for that matter and I don’t get to watch exactly what I want to watch on TV. These are things that I thought I couldn’t live without and while I still miss these conveniences, I am perfectly content to live without them since I get the bonus of living with good friends. In other words, it’s a nice trade-off. Relationships are much more important than material things or favorite television shows. I think for a while I had forgotten about that.

Over the last few months I’ve grown a great deal and while I don’t know what the future holds, I plan to be sure to invest more time in people and less time in myself.

A big thanks to the Wilson’s… and to God for leading my life in this direction and knowing always what is best for me.

It’s been a while since I updated Posted Note. I don’t update as frequently as I used to because I’m always updating Facebook, but… I think that this site has been a place for me to catalogue my life and hopefully one day I can look back here and see that I have grown over the years. I hope my children can read this site and possibly my future wife and be proud of me for my accomplishments despite some minor setbacks and unfortunate limitations – limitations that I put on myself.

Currently I’m working for Denton Bible Church as a part-time Youth Pastor and Creative Arts Director in the Student Ministries. It’s awesome and challenging in ways I never dreamed and that is the part I love and hate the most.

I think human nature is to gravitate towards things that come easy for us – and if not human nature, definitely my nature. I don’t like having to call out to God for help. I want to do it all myself – or rather that used to be me. I was so independent, I wanted all the credit and glory and was even willing to accept the fallout if there was a problem. How immature. Now I realize that asking for help is a sign of maturity. Reaching out to God and friends and family when in need is what we are supposed to do. People like to feel needed – I’ve decided I like being helped.

I’ve got to bounce for now, but I want to say thanks to all the friends that read Posted Note and drop me notes of encouragement or have open debates in my comments section. It blesses me to see that we can respect each other’s beliefs and decisions and at the same time try to better understand them and in the end maybe better understand ourselves.

Much Love.

Lately I’ve been so busy that I rarely have time to update this site. I like to journal here so I can look back over the years and see what has happened in my life. Where I was at 5 years ago and compare it to where I am at today.

What I can say is most significant is that 5 years ago I was working at Texas Instruments and now I’m working for Denton Bible Church in Denton, DJing with my business http://www.soundandshow.com and working doing web and graphic design. All three of these jobs pay what my 1 job at Texas Instruments paid – if I really work hard, but it does not provide the insurance and the security that the TI job did. It also is not boring like the TI job was.

Today I am painting my house that is currently up for sale and hopefully in a month from now I’ll be blogging that it has sold, because it is putting me in a serious financial bind.

For those of you who don’t frequent Posted Note often then you may have missed the dramatic crisis that transpired here just 9 days ago.

In a moment of panic I put all my stuff up for sale and sent out an email asking about 50 friends for help. Within 48 hours I had raised close to $2000 – I nice dent in the $6000 that I needed to raise so my house would not foreclose.

Over the next few days there was an outpouring of love, prayers and generosity from family and friends and believe it or not, I raised $6000. Most of that was in new business that came as a direct result of my cry for help. But some of which came from friends and a big chunk from family and a few items of furniture that I sold.

It took me the last year and a half to get into this final situation. Problems with debt don’t normally happen over night and after being laid off January 2009 I have managed to earn a lot of money and lose a lot of money in various investments, clients who didn’t pay and just poor decisions.

What I’ve realized is that you have to be vigilant when it comes to funds. Being giving is nice, but it’s a mistake when you aren’t taking care of your own responsibilities. Just because one month you are flush with cash and you have jobs galore lined up does not mean that those jobs won’t fall through or that unforseen expenses won’t pop up like a ravenous mouse and devour all your cheddar.

So to those of you that prayed and donated and purchased and hired – I cannot begin to thank you enough. You made a seemingly insurmountable situation nothing more than a mole hill. I’m extremely grateful and please know that I am here if you need me. (But please hold those needs until July so I can get caught up on all this work that I just got!)