Are You Out There?

I've been meaning to post this again for a couple of days now. I've been graced in the past few months with a few people from my past, like Janeal, Greg and Brian. Of those, I can count exactly none of them as a result of their names appearing on this list.

The closest success story I've got is that I've reconnected with Adam Bargmeyer (his name was on the list) and met (only online) his lovely wife, who was searching for his name and came across this list the last time it appeared.

I've also heard through Andrew Ledbetter that Andrew Alexander just recently got married and was as close as Vegas about the time we were packing to move from L.A. to Seattle. I have yet to connect directly with Andrew A., though. And Brad's gonna have to go on the list. I know you're still around here somewhere, Zeitner.

Andrew Eichner still used the same e-mail address, so I actually did have a way to contact him. Surprised to find out he had moved to New York. Deryk Stillwell was still in Encino and amazingly enough, married! He and Lisa said we should get together before we moved, but that didn't happen.

So, here's the updated list... Maybe they'll search for their own name and come across this list. I intend to repost it frequently so that it's always fresh on this blog. In some cases, I could find these people by calling their parents back home, or by calling my parents, but (a) what's the fun in that, (b) I'm too lazy, (c) that's too weird and (d) maybe they don't want to hear from me.. that's fine. Plus, I could also check my colleges' alumni website, but that's not entirely acurate... for instance, according to them, I am a Dr. and an Esq. and I hold a PhD in Microrobotics from MIT. (And I'd like to note that I'm now receiving mail from PLU addressed to Dr. James A. Lamb, KBE, Esq. ha!!!!)

I have but a few brief moments today, so the list will have people missing and very little info about why I'm hoping to make contact with them.

And here's some search words for Google, to get us started... Washington, Bremerton and Port Orchard and Silverdale. Tracyton Elementary School and then Fairview Jr. High School and then Olympic High School and finally Pacific Lutheran University. Family of God Lutheran Church and Silverdale Lutheran Church. Oh, and Little Caesar's Pizza! Pizza! I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention South Kitsap High School, Central Kitsap High School, Bethel Lutheran Church and Warner Bros. Online. And for search purposes, James Lamb. Oh, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ultimate TV, UltimateTV, TV Net, UTV and the WB Network. Monrovia, Pasadena, Lake Avenue Church, Los Angeles. Movie Clicks. Stuff like that.

Of course, some of you on the list might think "What the heck would I talk to you about these days?" Fair enough. For some of you, perhaps I'm just curious to hear what you're up to these day and how you've been.

In no particular order...

1. Eric McGraw - last seen probably on graduation day from high school.
2. Glenn Krauss - El Camino
3. Holly Grellier - San Francisco
4. Jamey Peterson
5. Wendy Ehrlich - Warner Bros. Online
6. Becki Brunelli - Warner Bros. Online
7. Shannon Carvey
8. Tighe and Susan Carvey - Little Caesar's Pizza
9. Marshall B. "M.B." Miller IV
10. Robin something who liked cows
11. Chris Wilkinson
12. Doug Hahn
15. Darice Good - thespian, brother is Darren Good
16. Paul Bates
19. Patty Armstrong / Patty Hoem / Patty and Hayden
20. Richard Mar
21. Jamie Anderson (The Mast)
22. Kathleen and Susan Jacot
24. Scott Kim (Warner Bros., laid off the same day as me)
26. Eric Funk (former DJ, KPLZ 101.5 STAR Seattle)
27. Carol Maakestad
28. Pastor Robert Hoem
29. Huy Nguyen

As always, I have to end noting that this is an incredibly incomplete list with Janeal and Greg as evidence.

I can't wait for Christmas

I was walking Barkley tonight, enjoying the weather. It was in the high 40s, no wind. The moon was large and the night sky speckled with clouds. I was wearing shorts and my heavy ski jacket. The air smelled of pine trees and made me think of cabins in the woods. A song I've loved for a long time, a song that used to give me the chills every time I heard it, a song that will never grow old, came on my iPod, "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)" by Amy Grant. It was off the last Christmas album she did when she was still a Christian artist before we jumped over to sap-pop and before she realized she stunk at that any anyone who liked her Christian music was boycotting her and she came back to Christian music. The song is basically from Mary's perspective as she's travelling to Bethlehem on a cold night, asking God how He could possibly think she was up to the task of being the mother of Jesus. I didn't listen to the words as closely tonight because the song made me remember hearing it years ago when I would talk walks late at night in school. And how the weather then made me feel closer to the song, imagining what the weather might be like. I didn't walk much in L.A., and certainly not alone. When I could get out for a walk, it was with Lori, so we would talk. But I'd never hear that song while out on my own where I could think about it. And tonight I did and it got me excited for Christmas. When Christmas comes this year, it will be cold. It could rain, it could snow. We will be inside watching the weather outside, but we will be inside, toasty and warm. We may have a fire in the fireplace, we may be holding mugs of coffee or hot chocolate. Friends and family will surround us and the warm light from the room will spill out onto the dark front lawn.

The affair is over. To anyone I ever told "I'm a native Southern Californian accidentally born in Seattle," I apologize. It was a lie. It's like that period of time when I thought Lowes was better than Home Depot. I fell in love with a place I could not afford to enjoy. Only now that I don't live there will I be able to enjoy it again. Trips to Disneyland will be more magical, traffic will the minor inconvenience while getting between destinations, not the norm of life. The heat, the smog, the pouring rain, it'll all be something I won't be able to see again through the palm trees. We'll say "I miss the area." and then we'll fly home and say "Nah, I don't miss it." Maybe someday, San Diego. But I can't imagine ever calling Los Angeles home again. It has a beauty, a hope, a promise, but it's better seen on the silver screen than lived by the general masses who inhabit it.

This is home.

Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

Marley & Me was a really enjoyable read. In some ways, I am envious that this guy wrote this book and is now making all kinds of money just because he journaled about his life in such a way that he was later able to put it all down together, cohesively and make a nice little story. I think to myself "I could do that." But I didn't keep a good journal of my time with Barkley, or even my time with Rachel, for that matter. On the other hand, I've not had nearly the interesting journey that this guy had. Nor can I write as well as he did. It was non-fiction but I wonder how much leeway there really is.

From the subtitle, you expect to really hear about an awful dog, but this really doesn't turn out to be the case. Marley is obviously far from the world's worst dog and I've heard enough stories second- and third-hand to know this. Even the author, when writing a farewell piece after the dog's death at the end of the book (hope I didn't spoil it for you) in his newspaper column admits as much in talking about the responses he got from others disputing the title of world's worst dog.

In addition to a nice read, I enjoyed the book because it was so relevant. Marley was a Golden Retriever and if you know me, I have a retriever of my own. Entirely black, she looks like a Black Lab, but in reality, as I always tell people, she's "half golden retriever, half great dane, half stupid." I've learned a lot more about the dog we share our lives with, I've become a lot more sympathetic to her way of being and I'm come to some realizations.

Moving down here, it's been my goal to walk with her regularly. If the average has been every-other-night, then she should have gotten to take a walk with me tonight. Sadly, it did not work out this way. But I'm realizing that a lot of her energy -- what we find so annoying when she always jumps on us -- is because she's not getting enough exercise, she's not getting it out of her system. It's also because she doesn't get to spend enough time with us, so each time she gets to see us, she's really excited. So, I need to get the fence done and make sure it's secure so she can spend more time outside. Our old neighbors told us that the only time she would bark was when we were home and ignoring her, that if we were gone, she was perfectly quiet while she was outside. This is a big concern for us, living in a homeowner's association with some pretty rigid standards.

I also realized that we've had it pretty lucky. On one hand, she's never been allowed free roam of the house, because she's so large. She's been crated or at least tethered when she was indoors, limiting her range of motion. So she hasn't eating all nature of toys, couch cusions, etc. But on the other hand, she can be pretty lonely and she will sometimes cry when left in her kennel. So we've been trying to spend more time downstairs with her out of her kennel. I'm not sure yet how much calmer she's getting, but I expect that she will over time as she's allowed to be out of her kennel more. She's being nicer to the cats and they seem to be getting less afraid of her, either simply moving to where she can't reach them, or fighting back if she gets too nosy.

In the early years after she had gotten larger, we were really frustrated over her excitement because of the force she could exert with her large size. On more than one occasion her happiness to see the baby resulted in the baby getting smacked down with a paw, whipped hard by the flurry of tail, even knocked by a shaking ear, or knocked over as the dog passed by her. Rachel's never taken it personally and handled it well, but we ended up having to limit how much time the baby could spend with the dog and in what context. Now more controlled visits are allowing the dog to experience the baby, but often with the cage between them. Over time they'll probably be able to once again share space, supervised, without too much fear for the toddler. One thing's for certain, Barkley would never do anything intentionally to hurt the child, that's pretty obvious in the way she acts around the baby, far gentler than she does with us. Even as adults, Barkley's paws, tail and ears are a force to be reconned with.

But Barkley's continued exuberence was really a source of stress for us. Our friends all said "By the time she's one, she'll have calmed down." One came and went with no discernable change and our friends swore to us "By the time she's two, she'll have calmed down." as if they had never told us about it coming the year before. We stopped telling them about the dog stress, but had we not, I'm sure they would have said "By the time she's three, she'll have calmed down." But the book told me something no one else had, golden retrievers have a long puppyhood, about three years. With that in mind, perhaps by August we can see a dramatic change, although we have seen smaller changes already.

For one, she really enjoys walking. Even more, she enjoys running, something I've been able to start doing a little more as my body has gotten used to walking regularly for exercise. For two, we can already see improvement in her behavior when she's out. For three, she's being less of a pinhead after she goes outside to do her business. She will still paw the window from time to time, but it's far less frenetic, far less frequent, and happily that leaves me with far fewer paw prints to clean off the back window.

Thanks to this book, which I would not have read if it were not for my little book club thing, I have more insight to my own pet, insight which will no doubt help both she and I to better enjoy each other's companionship and lead to a better life for her.

The book still tops the chart for this week, so my next book purchase is undecided. I will probably pick something up tomorrow at Barnes and Noble from their best-seller section. I'm really hoping the current #2 doesn't make it to #1.

The Book Report

Ok, a new week is just about to begin and I believe "Marley and Me" is still at the top of the charts. This might be a good time to solidify the rules to my little experiment. The whole goal is to (a) learn new things, (b) be exposed to things I would not otherwise be exposed to, (c) stay a little more current - without having to do any work myself.

1. To that end, I will let others dictate what I read - if there is a new #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for Nonfiction Hardcover, I must purchase and read it from cover to cover, regardless of the subject matter.



2. In the event that the same title remains at the top of the chart for more than one week, I may, at my discretion, choose from the top seller in any other chart (other NYTimes lists, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.)



3. I post -- in a timely manner -- my thoughts on the book. I may post while reading, but certainly, at the end, I must post again.



4. I may add other books to the reading list for no reason other than (a) they were laying around the house or (b) they looked interesting or (c) they were recommended by a friend, family member or colleague.

Happy Friday

I need a laptop. I'm not updating my blog or Rachel's blog enough. I finished Marley and Me and now need to write about that. But as it stands, I only have three minutes until work starts. I rushed through my morning routine to go and get coffee and they were so quick at the Starbucks that I was to my off-ramp at the time I've typically been starting up the car at the house. It is so nice having such a short drive to work. Not sure why it takes so much longer in the evenings, unless it's simply that I don't leave work on time and then try to find alternatives with less traffic.

Speaking of traffic, I'm itching to start a Seattle blog similar to my L.A. blog. Sadly, I don't have the kind of time I did before, though, so I don't know when I'd edit it. Lunch? Maybe a little. This is my first week on the job and I've been having lunch with the boss every day. They have a great break room here with a place where you can buy simple foods and then an outside eating area surrounded by tree. It's really nice.

And now it's 8 am and I must shift into work mode. Hope everyone has a good Friday and a good weekend.

New Day

I was planning to write about how I enjoyed the rain and unlike many, I found joy in it where many found sorrow. And then the rain cleared and suddenly, there was this vibrant rainbow in the sky, brighter than I'd ever seen. The photo doesn't capture it, but it was actually so bright that there was a faint reflection of it, a mirror image, to its left.

Today was the first day of my new job. It was energizing, exciting, but at the same time a little sad. It's all the things I wanted for Lake Avenue Church, all the things I wish I could have done for Lake Ave. I guess it wasn't meant to be, I wasn't called to do that. But at the same time, all along, I had that glimpse. Like Nicholas Cage in one of my favorite movies, "The Family Man," I saw the glimpse. I knew the potential that no one else apparently was willing to see. So that dream is slowly dying with me. Granted, I have every confidence that LAC can still be great, but it won't be on my watch. (Uh guys, I've now been gone an entire month and am still listed as being on staff.)

The new job will start off slow. Not sure when I'll get a computer to actually work on, but I read all of the available training material today. I don't know if I should bring a book tomorrow, or lug in my own desktop just to see if I can get online. Sure wish I had bought a laptop.

It is good to be working again and the commute will be one I can do without even thinking about it. Took me 18 minutes today to get there and even less to get home. Gotta love it.

Life is Good

I am really enjoying living here. I've been walking the dog pretty regularly, enjoying listening to my iPod. I've found a church that I really like the speaker at. However, it's not our final church, so I've been going to it on Saturday nights because the series is really amazing, on leadership. Once I've heard part four next week, I want to summarize it here. But something I liked about tonight was the idea that everyone who's in our life is there for a reason, and either they are ultimately to influence us or we are to influence them. I also started my plan tonight of reading the #1's from the New York Non-Fiction Bestseller list. Borders lost my business; their new kiosk lists them alphabetically instead of by ranking, so I went to Barnes and Noble and signed up for their frequent buyer card. This is somewhat rambling tonight. We'll try another church in the morning. The one we went to last week we left after an hour and they hadn't even gotten to the sermon yet and it was way too uncomfortable for us. On Monday I start a job at World Vision. It's a temp. job, but it could lead to permanent work. The house is really getting close to settled, just a few more boxes to unpack and then a lot of stuff to start hanging on the walls.