Starbucks Shinanigans Make Me Laugh

I was on bar last night at work when a younger gal came in and ordered a Strawberry Banana Smoothie. After receiving her drink and having a seat with her boyfriend, she immediately came back up to the register and exclaimed in a repulsive manner, "Yeah, umm...This drink is disgusting!" I chuckled a bit to myself as I mentally asked, "Did she really say that?" I asked her in a sad, kiddingly tone, "Why are you calling something that I poured my heart and soul into making, disgusting?" She didn't really catch on and responded with, "Because it is! Yeah, I thought it was going to taste a lot better than this! Can you make me another drink!" I think I actually laughed out loud to her response and said, "Yeah, sure. What would ya like?"

After we made her another drink and she sat down, I looked over at my co-workers and asked, "Did that really happen?" "Uh...yeah!" they remarked. Laughing through it all, I was more dumbfounded than offended. It was definately the most funny moment of the evening.

The Art of Weaving

Life is full of re-adjusting one's perspective. I've found that this has been a common theme for my life these past few weeks. One major area has been loving and accepting people in spite of frustrations. (This includes all areas of my life and is not referring to one particular event, more importantly not one specific person).

One word that I continuously hear God whispering to me, in regards to relationships, is "patience." This led me to question the line(s) between "having patience for people," "holding people accountable," "judging someone's actions," and "how to react in the midst of disappointment." Then, looking in the mirror, evaluate at my own actions; do I keep my promises? I understand that God's love, forgiveness, and patience is key. On the other hand, I've always been someone to say, "Hey...that's not right." But when should we excercise these two [different??] views? Also, if God's timing is perfect, should we really be disappointed with people? Should we accept circumstances as God's timing/plan instead of someone letting us down? View of a bigger picture? Yes! But I couldn't really find these comparisons in the Bible. I know that God wants us to love Him and show His love to others; but people aren't perfect (actually I'm referring to myself), in which reveals my struggle. I don't know the answers to these questions. So I guess I am writing this for participation reasons. Participation, in hope that you apply these questions to your own life, or leave feedback for me to apply to mine. Thanks for reading =)

Post Script:
I want to have faith in and love people, but more importantly, God. It's like a dance...listening to God's direction while weaving this with, or applying it to, other relationships.

"Baby Come Back..."

Last week, believe it or not was awesome! I had a real peace about the bike being gone. However, these past few days, I've been havin a real hard time with that fact. I understand that it's all just "stuff," but it's just difficult knowing that an "escape" or "hobby" of mine was taken from me. Bikes always turn my head, literally. And now I also think, "What if that one's mine." I love riding and I miss it sooooo much. Dang, I just have to keep forcing myself to think that I just can't ride for a long time for whatever reason. Anyway, it's been on my mind and again I miss riding soooo much. "Baby Come Back"

Wisdom Please...(sorry for the similar theme)

The day after my bike was stolen, I filed a report with security at my apartment complex. After completing the report, the security guard said, "Huh, that's interesting...two days ago a tenant called in reporting he had seen someone tampering with his motorcycle late at night." "Are you serious?!" I responded. "Why didn't you warn or notify tenants who have motorcycles about that?" "Well, if we notified tenants of every report we received, you'd have 20 messages per day on your door." "Well I'd rather have 20 messages on my door, than a stolen vehicle." "Yeah...well..."

I'm not just saying this because of the whole hindsight 20/20 thing, but if security notified me that people were checking out or tampering with motorcycles on the premises, I wouldn't have taken any chances with it and kept my bike garaged at a friend's house or in storage until security did something about the problem.

This is what's frustrating about the whole thing: the incident would have been prevented if security notified motorcyclists that people were checking out bikes. So who's at fault? The thieves yes, but is security also liable for it, since they knew about it? I'm struggling with the correct action to take about it all. I've considered mediation to resolve security's notifying tenants of suspicious activity, to create an awareness. An extreme consideration is having the complex pay for part of the damage. This action however would initiate a wide range of problems, which is heartache I would rather avoid. This has been my thought struggle this week. I think I'm only going to voice my frustration to the office manager in person and to the complex owner in a letter, so that possibly an incident in the future like this could be prevented.

Crazy

So last Sunday night after all its events had unfolded, I wrote about a peace that I felt. I got a really strong feeling that it was to prevent something from happening; in particular a ride that I was going to take with my friend to Half Moon Bay the following Friday. I've learned to just "go with" that gut feeling no matter how crazy it sounds, but it didn't occur until after Sunday night. The crazy thing about it is when I told my friend about that feeling, she replied with, "Wow, I actually had a dream before Sunday that we were taking this trip in a car...and I hardly ever remember any of my dreams." That kinda tripped me out a bit, whatever it meant...I still know that nothing could have been prevented...so I thought...

Bike Was Stolen Today

Tonight (Sunday) my bike was stolen. I came inside at 9:40pm to watch Back To The Future II with a friend and roommate and went back outside at 11:30pm to find my bike had been stolen. I'm doing alright with it for now...I guess you could say that I have a "peace" about it; but there are a couple of things that make me angry about the whole thing.

1) To me, stealing is the lowest form of gut-less-ness that someone can stoop down to. Planning, hiding and taking something from another person is completely cowardice...seriously, what is that?

2) I was away from the bike for less than two hours. That's not really a "Hey let's cruise around the neighborhood to see what shmuck's stuff we can steal;" it's more of an, "Ok he just left his bike out and we know that he'll be back to take his friend home, there are patrolling security guards, and residents living 15 feet away from the parking space are still up and have their lights on and windows open, so let's make this quick and quiet guys." It really creeps me out that people are capable of a stalker-like mind set. What the crap? Have you been watching me or what? This made me think that there's pretty much nothing that I could have done in order to prevent this from happening. It would have been stolen sooner or later, especially when people are that thorough.

3) I've worked hard for my stuff. And seriously, if you want something like that sooo much, why don't ya get up off it, and freakin' get a job so you can "get your own bag." Honestly, guys like that need to grow some, be a man, and start being responsible. It's like we're back in elementary school, taking lunch money from other kids...ugh...grow up.

4) I'm paying off a bike that someone else is riding?! Yeah...I don't get that one. Shouldn't they be punished for stealing instead of my paying off the stolen item for them? It's kinda like buying something for a thief...with monthly payments..."awesome."

All this being said, the ultimate thing that I keep thinking about is how sick people have become. And seriously, stealing something like that??...on a Sunday??...ugh! I know that God has his reasons for letting things happen. And shoot, maybe it was stolen to prevent me from being in a bad accident. . . I really don't know. But all I can do is trust in God's plan for me...whatever that may be. All this stuff is gonna burn anyway. And I have no interest in a thief ruining one moment of my life. Sorry, but they're not really worthy of that kind of control. I've accepted that it's gone, it's just the beginning of another chapter in my life, that's all. Like I've said before, it's ok to have toys in life (to have fun), but it's not ok to let them control the owner or change him/her. I wish I had answers to this whole thing. I wish that that bike was recovered and whoever stole it be punished. But in all honesty, someone much bigger is the judge. And more importantly, it's God's plan...not mine. So all I can do is "Continue in Him," and not let recovering some "thing" become an obsession.

I'm learning more and more each day that this life contains so much more than the tiny-little box we try to fit it in. I actually feel sorry for the people that stole my bike. I feel sorry that they're not living joyfully. I feel sorry that they don't know how to bring joy to others, only heartache. What kind of a life is that? A life that deserves prayer more than anything. I'll welcome prayer too. Everyday is full of challenges and the repetitive need to forgive.

Adventurer

Yesterday (Sunday) was my first day back to Skyline for a long time. I just wanna say that I love mountain biking! It brings out a side of me that doesn't come out in San Jose that much: care-free, adventurous, happy, and daring. There's just something about the "unknown" of adventure that excites me. I come alive out there and when I just let go and not worry it seems like God says, "Welcome back." Every time I bike up there, I always find something that makes me say, "Wow! God you're good." It makes me hope that someday I could share this with someone, which would be one of the greatest gifts.

The picture is of my favorite trail called Hawk Trail. It's made of a lot of dirt mounds that can effectively launch a biker pretty high in the air. Midway through I questioned its power, "That all you got, Hawk?!" I exclaimed. Three seconds later I mis-landed a high jump and could tell that I was going to end up on the dirt. I was a really smooth fall...one of those slow motion kinds where I could think through how to fall. No open wounds or bruises, which might have been due to my wearing launch pads during the trip. I got up and chuckled out loud, "Alright . . . nice . . . yeah, ok." I got my kicks and slowed down a little after that. Good times.

So...being my first day back, ATF I realized that I was over-ambitious in planning my trip. I was determined to bike to a particular secluded meadow at the end of the west trails that I've been to before. When I got there, I found that the short green grass grew into tall dry grass over the months, and was far from inviting for a place to sit and read. I took a little break none-the-less.

Biking there, just about wiped out my energy supply. On the way back up the trail, I walked most of the way. I don't think I've ever been that drained of energy. You know you're not looking too good when you're depending on your water to give you strength. I wanted to bike back along the trail to my car just to say, "I did it." But realistically, all that seemed to matter was simply, "getting back." I made it to the farthest north trail entrance along HWY 9 and decided to bike the rest of way along the highway. I wish I had more energy to bike the trail back, because I wasn't done having fun yet. But maybe next time I'll pack a lunch, and definately be in better shape. Good stuff and I can't wait to do it again!