| I used to love Xanga because I could keep up with everyone’s lives, but now poor Xanga has been all but abandoned. I know I can’t be pointing fingers. But seriously, life has been so crazy lately. Especially the last couple weeks. Oh man. Now, I’m not so foolish as to say “I’m coming back to you with open arms, Xanga!” I totally wish it could be that way. But in the circumstances, I’m afraid it might never be the same. I’ll try to update occasionally, but unfortunately, Xanga must be pushed down the list in the coming days. I suppose I should tell some things that have happened in my life lately. It has been quite eventful. Truthfully, I never expected I would be sitting here at my house tonight typing this. I thought I would be in St. Louis by 6:00, in plenty of time to be at my good friend Dale Marion Baker’s wedding rehearsal and wedding tomorrow. Then I would drive down to Joplin, stay the night, and head down to Eureka Springs on Sunday from there. What am I doing in Eureka Springs? I’m so glad you asked. I’ll answer in just a moment. Yet, I find myself here at home for one reason, which seems to really like me a lot…my car. Yes, once again my car has taken a big dookie on my ordinary schedule. See, I get about 70 miles out of Kansas City and suddenly my car starts doing crazy stuff. Jump about 2 ½ hours later and a car pulls up to me on the side of I-70 with my dad, Dave Frazon, and Airboy. We look at my car and as it turns out I’m gonna need a new radiator and a new..uh…well, anyway, this is gonna cost me 700 dollars (for extremely cheap, and about an hour away), or a new car. Thankfully Dave has an idea that will only cost about 200 dollars (if it does work after the money has been spent). Now, I’ve actually got a really good deal on a car if I choose to buy it, but it’s in about the same condition as my current car (minus the damages from today), not to mention all the money I’ve been pumping into my car lately (almost 300 dollars in the past 3 days). So like…yeah. Pretty crazy situation. And while we are on the subject of crappy car situations, for those of you who don’t know, a couple weeks ago I came out of the store to find my car window bashed in and my stereo stolen. So thanks for that, guys. Oh yeah, they stole my CDs too. Well, not all of them. They went through the CD case and left the ones they didn’t want. Anyway, I’m really not trying to sound all mad or boo-hoo-ish or whatever. I’m just trying to get one simple point across: Next time I hear some punk teeny-bopper crying about not being able to drive or not having a car, you better have like a billion dollars ready to spend on a car, or else I’m gonna kick you in the face. In all seriousness though, owning a vehicle is extremely expensive. I’ll just leave it at that. Now, back to some happy news. Because my life doesn’t revolve around my car. If it did I probably wouldn’t own a ’94 Dodge Spirit with the grill melted/rusted off. So, earlier you asked about my trip to Eureka Springs (which will still take place, one way or another). Well, last week I got a call from Mr. Nathan Kimbrough asking if I wanted to help shoot a camp next week. Wait, not shoot like bang-bang-now-we’re-all-dead. You silly goose. Shoot with a video camera, and then edit it nicely and sell it on DVD, much like I did in Jeff City a couple months ago. In fact, I shall be doing the exact same thing in July in St. Louis. Except, I’m not looking nearly as forward to that as I am next week. Basically it’s every benefit of going to a camp, plus doing camera/editing work, and to top it all off, it’s free! Ah ha ha! It shall indeed be glorious I’m looking forward to St. Louis too. Kinda sucks though, because I’ll have to leave a day early to get home, catch up on sleep, wash everything, pack again, and wake up the next day to go to Canada. Canada should be pretty glorious too. I love doing mission work. That was the main reason I wanted to do Fusion so bad… I still do. Oh my gosh, there’s nothing I would like better. It would be incredible. However, I am sad to announce that it won’t be happening this fall as I planned. Instead, I’ll be attending the amazing…Blue River CC. Yeah, I know, not too original. But it’s free because of A+, which is exceedingly nice. And it’s a good way to get the basic credits out of the way. I don’t plan on being done after my two free years are up. I mean, you never know where God will lead, but hopefully I’ll be disciplined enough and God will bless my efforts to save the cash to go to Fusion in a year or two. I mean, money is a huge thing. And I hate going into debt. Bah! Hate it. Anyway, I’m sure God will work it all out. I just wish I knew how. You know, sometimes I just wish my life had an owner’s manual. I could just open it up to whatever I want to know about myself: marriage, career, friends, death, cars, trips, college, etc. I’m sure everyone senior and older has thought the exact same thing. Anyone younger can shut up, because you’ll never know how it truly feels until you reach this point: the point where you have to make your own decisions. The government isn’t giving you free school anymore and people expect you to just “follow your heart” when it comes to your career path. Alright, maybe not like that, but it’s basically the same bull crap. I mean, yeah, if you are living for your own self gain, then go ahead and spend your life trying to get rich, but I’m living for so much more than that. If I’m going to “follow my heart”, then I’m going to be doing whatever God wants to use me for, because that’s who my heart belongs to. And like, I know He has it all planned out, but I don’t want to do the wrong thing with my life and not reach the full potential God has for me. Not to mention marriage. I’m not one of those people who just can’t wait to be married or anything, but sometimes I wish I could just know. And just some general direction I guess. I know I should be more dependent on the Lord, and I am…I just wish I knew. I know that was a random semi-emo paragraph. But when I don’t Xanga for a while, it all just kinda comes out. Anyway, what else has happened since last time? Ah yes. Before school got out, I was in a play. Perhaps you heard of it: And Then There Were None. Holy crap, it was amazing. Basically 10 people come to this island and are killed off one by one in the order of a nursery rhyme on the wall. Since it’s already over and you will never get another chance to see it again if you missed it, I suppose I can go ahead and reveal the ending. Well, I played a nice, fatherly, humble old man. Did I mention I was the killer? Yes, I killed eight of them. One got shot by the Tammy (but not killed as it turns out). And then I came out with a noose and tried to hang Tammy, but got shot before I could, but after I had dragged her across the floor by her hair, grabbed her face, slammed her against furniture, and nearly strangled her. Oh my, it was so glorious. Honestly, it was one of my best moments on stage in my life (I say that in the most humble way possible). I’ve always wanted to play a serious role, and this was definitely it. I led the group investigation, acted as the peace keeper, died (twice), went crazy, beat up a girl, and had like a thousand monologs. Major props to Knold for doing a kick-balls job directing. And the entire cast was freakin awesome. Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do and it gave Him great pleasure. That comes from Ephesians 1:4-5. I think that is so freakin amazing. Just think about it. Well, this has definitely taken it all out of me. I probably won’t post again for another month or so. Those who read it, thank you kindly. Those who didn’t, it wouldn’t make much since to say anything to you because you aren’t reading this anyway. Good night. ~Mark |
