Vacation recap (cont)
Now that at least a few people got all good and riled up over my "company of two charming young ladies" comment, I guess I'll surprise nobody by saying that the two girls were my cousins, ages 11 and 9, daughters of my dad's younger bro.
I hadn't seen Melissa, the older one, since she was a baby, and I don't remember ever meeting Melody (the younger). It was quite an interesting experience to spend the afternoon with them, especially since I had no prior notice from my parents that my relatives were coming over. Here I was thinking that I'd spend the 3rd-to-last day of my vacation quietly, doing some reading and maybe practicing some guitar, then these two elementary and middle-school balls of energy come flying into my room and promptly begin jumping on my bed, throwing my mini-basketball at my mini-hoop (and bouncing off other things in the room, like my stereo and picture frames), and talking my ear off.
The funny thing about young girls who like to talk a lot is that in their many stories, they assume that the listener (me) knows who all of their friends are and tell their stories in great detail, including who-said-what-but-didn't-really-mean-it-because-she-did-something-to-someone-else... I literally got tired trying to keep up with the rapid topic shifts (ranging from cool roller-coasters to the first week of school to basketball... surprisingly, Melissa knows quite a bit about hoops because her dad - my uncle - is a Lakers fan), while playing mini-basketball with them and trying to avoid getting hit by their play-fighting... because of our age difference I think they probably see me more as an uncle rather than as a cousin, since I'm like an adult to them (whoah... I'm an adult to some people)... I couldn't help but notice a small smirk on the faces of my uncle and aunt as they left their kids in my company for the afternoon while they went to play mahjong with my grandparents. Haha... my uncle's always struck me as a pretty mellow guy, so it's somewhat amusing to think of him being daddy to these girls. It was a fun and active afternoon... my friends sometimes joke with me that they can see me being the head of a family with all daughters... well, if that unlikely scenario comes to pass, I'll have to start training now to build up my energy level to keep up.
2nd blog topic: back to work
Surprisingly, by Memorial Day I found myself sorta looking forward to getting back to the office. While I greatly enjoyed the time off of spending time with friends, recreating, sleeping in, and eating good food, by the end of vacation I was ready to do some work - problem-solving, utilizing creativity in design, and so on so forth. It was a hecka busy week last week trying to get caught up again, but it felt good being productive.
3rd blog topic: Youth Retreat
Spent this past weekend in Costanoa, a coastside resort along Highway 1 between Pescadero and Santa Cruz, with the youth group at my church for the pre-school year retreat. We stayed in canvas cabins - sorta like permanent tents with cheap mattresses and a light bulb.
Random thoughts from the weekend:
- Highway 1 is a real gorgeous drive in the daytime. You have the ocean with its various hues of blue on one side, and rolling hills on the other. Too bad I needed my wagon's space or I'd definitely have borrowed Dad's Infiniti G35 for the occasion.
- One of my favorite things about retreat places is that they tend to have much clearer skies than the Bay Area proper, and thus you can see stars. Here, I was able to see more stars in the sky since the last time I was in Yosemite. Plenty of shooting stars too. There's nothing like stargazing to remind you how small and insignificant you really are in the grand scheme of things, when you consider just how far away those stars are, how big they are, how bright they are - and you can't help but marvel at the handiwork of a Creator who put those stars in their place. And even more special, even though us humans are tiny ants in comparison to the cosmos, God still cares for every single one of us. Blows my mind every day.
- Focus of the weekend for the youth group was understanding the meaning of true fellowship. As Dave Fong, my former staffworker from AACF in Berkeley used to say, "It drives me nuts when Christians get together to hang out, watch TV, or eat, and call it fellowship." The nature of Christian fellowship is that it is purposeful - one of the unique characteristics and privileges of being a believer is the opportunity to be sharpened, be encouraged, be rebuked, be taught, be prayed for, and so on with other believers, as well as sharpening, encouraging, rebuking, teaching, praying for others. There's absolutely nothing wrong with getting together to hang out and have fun, but true fellowship amongst believers points to God - because in the end it's about Him and not about us. One encouraging thing I saw from the weekend was that I think some of the youth were starting to understand that true fellowship is not a "boring necessity" but it is something that leads to spiritual growth and is fun to boot.
- Had a sweet time of worship and prayer on Saturday night. We prayed for school, the church, the nation, the world, and the youth group, that God would move in each of these areas of our lives... then had a spontaneous time of worship where I basically just sat there with a guitar and a songlist, and let the Holy Spirit choose which songs he wanted us to sing. While it was cool to see young people singing loudly and on their knees, it was even more encouraging to wake up the next morning and see several of them spending time quietly in God's presence - because that's really what it's all about - not the mountaintop emotional high, but loving God and being obedient to Him on daily basis. I hope and pray that they really learn that lesson well. It's a lesson I wish I had learned when I was in high school.
Now that at least a few people got all good and riled up over my "company of two charming young ladies" comment, I guess I'll surprise nobody by saying that the two girls were my cousins, ages 11 and 9, daughters of my dad's younger bro.
I hadn't seen Melissa, the older one, since she was a baby, and I don't remember ever meeting Melody (the younger). It was quite an interesting experience to spend the afternoon with them, especially since I had no prior notice from my parents that my relatives were coming over. Here I was thinking that I'd spend the 3rd-to-last day of my vacation quietly, doing some reading and maybe practicing some guitar, then these two elementary and middle-school balls of energy come flying into my room and promptly begin jumping on my bed, throwing my mini-basketball at my mini-hoop (and bouncing off other things in the room, like my stereo and picture frames), and talking my ear off.
The funny thing about young girls who like to talk a lot is that in their many stories, they assume that the listener (me) knows who all of their friends are and tell their stories in great detail, including who-said-what-but-didn't-really-mean-it-because-she-did-something-to-someone-else... I literally got tired trying to keep up with the rapid topic shifts (ranging from cool roller-coasters to the first week of school to basketball... surprisingly, Melissa knows quite a bit about hoops because her dad - my uncle - is a Lakers fan), while playing mini-basketball with them and trying to avoid getting hit by their play-fighting... because of our age difference I think they probably see me more as an uncle rather than as a cousin, since I'm like an adult to them (whoah... I'm an adult to some people)... I couldn't help but notice a small smirk on the faces of my uncle and aunt as they left their kids in my company for the afternoon while they went to play mahjong with my grandparents. Haha... my uncle's always struck me as a pretty mellow guy, so it's somewhat amusing to think of him being daddy to these girls. It was a fun and active afternoon... my friends sometimes joke with me that they can see me being the head of a family with all daughters... well, if that unlikely scenario comes to pass, I'll have to start training now to build up my energy level to keep up.
2nd blog topic: back to work
Surprisingly, by Memorial Day I found myself sorta looking forward to getting back to the office. While I greatly enjoyed the time off of spending time with friends, recreating, sleeping in, and eating good food, by the end of vacation I was ready to do some work - problem-solving, utilizing creativity in design, and so on so forth. It was a hecka busy week last week trying to get caught up again, but it felt good being productive.
3rd blog topic: Youth Retreat
Spent this past weekend in Costanoa, a coastside resort along Highway 1 between Pescadero and Santa Cruz, with the youth group at my church for the pre-school year retreat. We stayed in canvas cabins - sorta like permanent tents with cheap mattresses and a light bulb.
Random thoughts from the weekend:
- Highway 1 is a real gorgeous drive in the daytime. You have the ocean with its various hues of blue on one side, and rolling hills on the other. Too bad I needed my wagon's space or I'd definitely have borrowed Dad's Infiniti G35 for the occasion.
- One of my favorite things about retreat places is that they tend to have much clearer skies than the Bay Area proper, and thus you can see stars. Here, I was able to see more stars in the sky since the last time I was in Yosemite. Plenty of shooting stars too. There's nothing like stargazing to remind you how small and insignificant you really are in the grand scheme of things, when you consider just how far away those stars are, how big they are, how bright they are - and you can't help but marvel at the handiwork of a Creator who put those stars in their place. And even more special, even though us humans are tiny ants in comparison to the cosmos, God still cares for every single one of us. Blows my mind every day.
- Focus of the weekend for the youth group was understanding the meaning of true fellowship. As Dave Fong, my former staffworker from AACF in Berkeley used to say, "It drives me nuts when Christians get together to hang out, watch TV, or eat, and call it fellowship." The nature of Christian fellowship is that it is purposeful - one of the unique characteristics and privileges of being a believer is the opportunity to be sharpened, be encouraged, be rebuked, be taught, be prayed for, and so on with other believers, as well as sharpening, encouraging, rebuking, teaching, praying for others. There's absolutely nothing wrong with getting together to hang out and have fun, but true fellowship amongst believers points to God - because in the end it's about Him and not about us. One encouraging thing I saw from the weekend was that I think some of the youth were starting to understand that true fellowship is not a "boring necessity" but it is something that leads to spiritual growth and is fun to boot.
- Had a sweet time of worship and prayer on Saturday night. We prayed for school, the church, the nation, the world, and the youth group, that God would move in each of these areas of our lives... then had a spontaneous time of worship where I basically just sat there with a guitar and a songlist, and let the Holy Spirit choose which songs he wanted us to sing. While it was cool to see young people singing loudly and on their knees, it was even more encouraging to wake up the next morning and see several of them spending time quietly in God's presence - because that's really what it's all about - not the mountaintop emotional high, but loving God and being obedient to Him on daily basis. I hope and pray that they really learn that lesson well. It's a lesson I wish I had learned when I was in high school.
posted by Bob at
1:01 AM
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