We be cr-azy. If you are a consistent follower of this blog, you will have noticed there was no post last week. Last Wednesday was rather unique. I was given the opportunity to play cajon in the main chapel for the Day of Prayer, a day devoted to prayer. A small band of us led worship for the Biola community, a concept I often take for granted. We were leading our fellow believers in worship to our omnipresent, all-loving God, the Creator of the wind, of emotion, of honesty. Absolutely incredible. Following chapel, I headed to Downtown Disney with Ms. Morgan McGannon to eat lunch with her mom and brother at the famed Rainforest Cafe. This was nothing short of a riot as we experienced Kat, uncooked chicken, and an adventure through a cave to discover the facilities. Following an incredible ice-cream cone from Häagen-Dazs, we ventured through the extravagant hotel that is the Grand Californian; the place is marvelous. After some goodbyes, I headed to Wingstop with some old pals from yesteryear: Mr. Michael Warnecke, Mr. Ben Jacuk, Mr. Ben Coulton, and Mr. Scott Gamelson. We completely obliterated a table-full of wings and felt a good amount of sickness following. Nothing but good times, soo good to chill with the dudes again, felt like freshman year. This is the crew that JAMMED at the Ashley Tisdale concert. And Black Star Canyon. And many many other adventures. Miss those days big.
A picture was taken last Wednesday though, here it is:
Now, THIS Wednesday throws everything for a loop, because it's MISSION'S CONFERENCE. Now, what's so funny and ironic is that EVERY Mission's Conference is SURROUNDED by CRAZY things. Crazy crazy stuff always tends to go down around the conferences here at Biola. Don't understand why, perhaps never will. Here's links the the last 3 years:
2012: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2012/03/paint.html
2011: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2011/03/shack.html
2010: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2010/03/patty.html
This year is no exception. It's been straight nutty over here, but it's been immensely important and growing. SO many great conversations as of late, so many great examples of God's provision through difficult circumstances, incredible circumstances, friendships, relationships, education, creativity, LIFE.
Also, one of the BIG projects this last week was the Mission's Conference Promo:
This video? Quite the wild experience. I will never for as long as live forget the experience of filming this piece of work. We chose to film it in the Tropicana pool, the pool in my former living environment, a pool that is not heated, a pool that has been sitting through the winter undisturbed. Folks, this pool was COLD. We filmed for two nights and it was absolutely frigid, even while wearing full wetsuits. It's hard to explain how cold it was and I honestly don't know why it was. The way I've described it is: the pacific ocean is really cold. But what happens is you, especially while surfing or boogie-boarding or whatever, moving around and there's lots of energy in you and your body and the air and everywhere. There is an adrenaline while in the ocean that keeps you warm. So, in the ocean, it's freezing, you numb up, and then it's a blast. In the Trop pool, there was no energy, it was at a standstill. There was no surfing, it was at a standstill. We numbed up and it HURT. It was unreal, but hey, we got the shots, and the video turned out sweet. Oh, also, it's very hard to hold your breath while under freezing water. 1 second feels like 30 seconds. And then, when you put a bed sheet over your head, the intensity grows. Filming this bad boy was a BEAST. Turned out well. Mr. Cody Ramaekers and Mr. Frank Maldonado joined me in this shenagian. It's a picture of us after we wrapped.
It was so cold. I can't get over it.
Here's some tweets from last week:
LASTLY: My good friend Mr. Patrick Greene married Ms. Alex formerly known as Casey this weekend! This was the first wedding I have attended in which a good friend has been the one exchanging vows. I've been to a lot of weddings in my day but I've never been so excited and so curious on what this wedding would be like.
Okay, I have a story (if you are Patrick or Alex or anyone else at the wedding and you didn't know about this, sorry). I received the invitation a long long time ago. I read it once, didn't look at it again. The ceremony was at 5 in the evening on the 8th of March, 2013 in Camarillo, CA. I told my date, Ms. Morgan McGannon, we would leave at 2:45pm so we would have an hour of wiggle room in case of traffic. At about 2:40pm, I go to look at the address so I could get directions. I look at the invitation: "Ceremony begins at 4 PM." 4 PM?!?! Not 5?! NOOOOO! We leave immediately because if there was absolutely no traffic, we would make it just barely. There was traffic though. A lot of it. So we pull up, walk in. The ceremony had already ended. BOO! BUT, the reception hadn't started, we arrived right in the middle, so nobody knew! Well, maybe not.
So, we missed the ceremony. The worst.
The reception though? FANTASTIC. There were so many of my high school friends there, some of which I haven't seen in four years. It was so good to catch up and relive the "glory days," seein' our bro Pat get married. Super surreal. Ms. Morgan McGannon was a dancing queen, the dance floor was poppin'. There was even a mosh pit of sorts, we were tearin' it up. Such a good night. Can't believe Pat and Alex are married, we're getting older; old, old, older.
Here's some other random events/videos:
WOW. What a post. Certainly was not expecting that. Super dig. Super dug.
Have a pleasant week. Take some time to smell the roses. They're beautiful. And they smell great.
