A little overhaul on everything

So, new year's eve 2004 was spent in West Unity, Ohio. I left about a half hour early to meet Drew in Ft. Wayne because Tracy's boyfriend came to our house and I didn't want it to be awkward for her, so I left... Met Drew in Ft. Wayne and we went to Ohio. It was good to get to talk with him for a while. He just purchased a new puppy dog. It's a weener dog. It's 3 weeks old and as cute as you could imagine. His name is Banks. His godparents are Earnie and Tyra Banks. He can't pick old banksy up for several more weeks though cause he's gotta stay with his mommy for a certain amount of time. Drew is moving back to Evansville at the end of January, which is kinda sad, but I hope that the next 6 months for him are all that he wants them to be and that they allow him to make his next life move. But before he goes, he's staying around Taylor for a few weeks cause Blom's coming to visit for a few weeks before he goes back to school as well. So, im sure the two of them will be doing their best to distract us diligent students from our rigorous daily academic regimen. You wont have to work too hard on me guys, it's J-Term. PS: If you're a Taylor student looking to move off-campus (and are male) for next semester, let me know, cause Drew's gonna vacate a spot in Briarwood and would rather not pay the rent when he's not living there.

So, back to the trip to Ohio. We drove through two toll booths on our way. Both times we expressed our new year's greetings to the toll booth workers (aka: 'Happy New Year!'). Drew even rolled down his window to tell a few other toll booth workers standing on the side of the road as well. We were greeting with stone walls or looks of disgust. Looks like 04 was weighing down too much on the toll booth workers of the world to enjoy the coming of the new year. Got to Ohio around 7 and Noah put us to work. I mean serious work. I think he forgot that we weren't getting paid for this or something cause he had us slaving away in the church kitchen for a good hour and a half making various foods like salsa and icing that evidently had to be thick enough to mortar bricks. It was hard work, needless to say. And then the kids started coming. I'd say there were about 30 of them. Drew and I spent the rest of the night doing all the things that chaperones do (eating food, walking around, sitting, standing on the wall watching the kiddies play ball) and basically providing the safest and most secure good time that could possibly be had. Needless to say, Noah's pretty lucky that he's got such good friends like us who volunteer our time and our high level of expertise at these kinds of things. Oh to be in highschool again.... We played some knockout, dodgeball, euchre, mau, and scrabble. Noah's got some pretty interesting kids in his youthgroup. They were pretty enjoyable to be around for the most part, except for a middle school kid who kept repeating the same line in a current television commercial over and over the whole night. That got old real quick. If I end up out in Ohio this summer, I'll look foreword to hangin out with all of them. 7am rolled around and I sucked down a cup of coffee and we hit the road back to Indiana. I do thoroughly enjoy staying up all night. I'm happy to say that the toll booth workers on the way back were quick to return our new year's greeting with a smile and a greeting of their own. So, here's hoping that 05 treats them better than 04 seemed to have.
New Year's resolutions? Drew and I talked about it on the way home. His was 'a little overhaul on everything' I loved it! One of the things he talked about sounded like a good idea to me. A media fast. Turn off the TV, don't listen to the radio, don't check CNN.com, don't read the newspapers, etc. How much of our opinions on things going on around us are determined by what everyone else tells us we should think? Let's get rid of all the spin people. Everything's so politicized, dramatized, overhyped. See what ends up being important to you when you're left to decide on your own how to interact with the events in our world. Drew's gonna try to do it before baseball season. I'll hope I can try it sometime before I die.