Time to Dust Off the Mess Kit

whats a mess kit?

hey y'all, its been a while since I've posted a real post so here we go.

recently i have been planning my very first camping trip of 2008! at first i wanted to go to the Linville Falls Campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway. its been many many years since i have been to linville falls and i wanted to go back. i also knew that the surrounding area has awesome mountain vistas because of Linville Gorge (like Wiseman's View - highly recommended). i am a sucker for sweet views, especially if it faces west for the sunset. in trying to call the park ahead of time, i was not having much luck. i then called the blue ridge parkway people and they told me that the BRP no longer offers winter camping because of funding cuts. the campgrounds are open from May to October, a mere half of the year. its really pathetic that places like this cant be open year round.

so that option was out. but, deterred not, i kept on the search for a good place to camp. my father and i remembered Stone Mountain State Park (not the one in Georgia) in the northwest corner of the Tar Heel State and thought it might be a good place to start out.

stone mountain is essentially a mountain with a big bald spot. and by bald i mean stone. and by spot i mean face. the park is full of the mountain laurel (short name, short leaf) and the rhododendron (long name, long leaf)* as are many locations in the blue ridge region. i remember really enjoying this location in the past so i don't think i will be disappointed on my first trip out.

this is the fun part. you are most certainly invited to come with me. i would actually LOVE for you to come with me.

i don't care if you are in the triangle, the triad, the QC, the blue grass, the bean town, the grand strand, the black burg or the state in which everything is bigger, i want to go camping with you. shoot, i just want to see you, but camping with is much more fun than just seeing.

SPECIFICS

when: February 22-24 (ill probably take a half or quarter day Friday to go up and be there in plenty of time to set stuff up. you could come with or meet me up there)

where: Stone Mountain State Park

price: $15 per night per group (so it will be $30 split amongst all who go) plus money for food (which will depend on # of people going) and gas money. the more people come, the less you'll have to pay

accommodations: water and restrooms very close to campsite. there should not be many people there in late Feb so we should be able to get whichever site we want. each site has a fire pit and a picnic table.

campfire: the burn ban that was around in the fall has been lifted - fire away!

stuff to do: tons of it. i personally plan on hiking a good deal. maybe making a hot mid-hike lunch on top of the mountain or at the waterfall, depending on time. there are also some historic sites around that i wouldn't mind checking out, if only briefly. the blue ridge parkway is not far away either. i plan on taking a picture or two and generally enjoying the experience.

if you're thinking of going, i would suggest you check out the park's website. its got all the info.


again, i would love to go camping with you. don't make me go by myself.

until next time - holler


Junk of the Day: Welch's Apple Cranberry Juice

the vending machine at work has these (for some odd reason) and they are the perfect lunchtime beverage. i don't know if local grocery stores carry them or not, but talk about sweet nectar!

Nah Son of the Day: Vocal Heidi

Heidi is our cat that we have had for many years here at the Sechler residence and in the past few months she has learned that she can use her vocal cords often like we do. she has learned to meow incessantly when someone is in the kitchen cooking because it's meal time. she also will yell and scream (in felineese of course) for seemingly no reason when she gets worked up or excited about something. the funny part is that she has no sense of inflection when she gets vocal. for example, she could be all riled up because she hasn't gotten her food yet and will let out this long, low meow that sounds like excruciating sorrow. maybe its one of those things you have to be there for but its definitely interesting.

Blig of the Day: Chopping Wood

We have big transmission power lines running through our back yard and we had two trees that Duke Power had deemed to be in the Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins anyone?) or something like that and they needed to be cut down. so they came and cut them down but they would only chip up the branches. so we were left with two trees worth of trunk to do whatever we would like with. we do not use our fire place and i don't know of anyone around who does. IF YOU WANT SOME, LET ME KNOW. but i have had fun chopping it. its harder than it looks and it hurts the back but its so satisfying when you hit one just right. also, this will give me firewood that i don't have to pay for or scavenge for when i go camping. fun stuff.

* this is different than what i told one of you fairly recently. feel free to rag me about it because i was totally wrong. i am, in fact, an idiot.

amen yo

When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there; who made an end of all my sin.

a beginning and an end

John 9

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. 7"Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

This was the passage today that the preacher at Elevation Church in Charlotte spoke on. During the course of his sermon, the Lord was convicting me of something that has been on my mind for the past 6 months. These are the main points that got me thinking about it.

- the disciples asked why. even though Jesus answered ("neither"), He cares not for the why. He cares about the what. the pastor gave the example of someone in the midst of some hardship in their life asking the Lord why they were there; why they were put there. he said that we should not "live in the why" but rather ask "what" of the Lord. "What is it that you are trying to tell me through this event, Lord?" "What should I be learning here?" "What is your overall purpose for me in this time?" It is here, in these questions, where we begin to understand God's purposes and, in doing so, move on from our times of hardship.

- the blind man had most assuredly heard of Jesus. he also probably knew that one of the main things that Jesus did was work miracles, including healing blind people. so this guy could probably overhear the conversation between Jesus and his disciples where Jesus says in verse 3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." the blind man had to have known that Jesus was talking about him. he had to have been able to hear Jesus' footsteps coming towards him. he had heard of the miraculous healing that Jesus was capable of with just a single touch. how excited he must have been! it is then when he hears Jesus, God Himself in the flesh, hock (hauk?) a loogie and spit it right at his feet. what? Jesus probably had to spit multiple times in order to get enough moisture to make mud. he then puts this mud on the blind mans eyes. how humiliating! here we have a blind man from birth, begging on the street, deemed unclean by society and the son of God, his only hope puts mud made from spit on his eyes. he must have been really confused. Jesus then tells him, to go wash in the pool. there is no "Your faith has healed you" or "Go and tell others of what you have witnessed here." there is simply "go wash in the pool." thats it. thats all he gets. what else is there for him to do but to follow the orders of the Christ? he does and is healed.

the point of that interpretation of the story is that in being healed by Jesus, things often get worse, sometimes much worse, before they get better. if we are to accept healing, forgiveness, cleansing and the grace offered us by Jesus Christ, we must understand and accept the pain, suffering, withdrawal and awkwardness that comes with dying to ourselves and to our own motivations.

whew... thats hard to do aint it? things WILL get worse before they get better. no one likes hardship. it is rare that people would volunteer hardship to come their way. but if we as followers of Christ are to accept His grace, we must be ready to go to battle with our old selves. we must be ready and willing to face hardship head on.

onward to battle

New Year's Resolutions

welcome to 2008 everyone! we here at it's the experience... would like to wish you and yours the very best of new years. may it be filled with all that you dream of -- or maybe everything feasible that you dream of. well maybe not "filled" either because then the entire year would be only a dream. there would be no hardship, and we know that we learn from hardship. ok, ok... may this year be sprinkled with all that you dream of. wait... if all that you dream of is sprinkled throughout this year, what will i wish you for 2009? "Happy New Year! Hope you don't die!" but that doesn't really work. i'll just say "Good Luck in 2008!" or you could just rely on fortune cookies from Chinese restaurants like the one i got yesterday which said "You will make a change for the better within the year." now that's easy enough to achieve. enough with the funny stuff.

as this is the first full week of 2008, i would like to share with you my new years resolutions. these resolutions are blogworthy because this will mark the first time that i am actually resolving to keep these resolutions. so i guess that's my first resolution... we will see if i can keep it.

one way that i have chosen to help myself keep these resolutions is to make them quantitative. for example, i will do so and so x number of times over a given time period. this way it will be very clear when i am succeeding and failing at keeping my resolutions. with that said, ladies and gentlemen, my new years resolutions, in no particular order.

- - Resolution: Exercise

raise your hand if you've made this resolution before. i would guess that this is probably the most popular new years resolution in our country. so, yes i have joined the bandwagon, but i hope not to fall off of the turnip cart. i would also say that this resolution is the most commonly broken resolution in our country. therefore, in order for me (someone who is not, by nature, particularly athletic) to keep this resolution, i need incentive -- a reason to keep going and a reason to not quit. i have joined a gym, so my incentive will be to not give them my money for no reason. simple enough right? for me it will be because i have become very organized (ok... anal) when it comes to money. but that's not all; there needs to be a quantitative aspect to this, remember? i will either go to the gym every other day (alternating MWFSun and TTSat; 366 leap year days/2 = 183 times in 2008) or three times a business week (MWF; 52 weeks x 3 = 156 times in 2008). i do not yet know which will work out better for my schedule. i started on this past Thursday and went again on Monday. i did give blood on Saturday so that threw a kink in things right at the beginning. already making excuses...

for me this resolution is not totally about weight or body image or the self-esteem related to those, but it is also about my general health. my eating and lifestyle habits in college most assuredly took me down the path of taking years off of my life, and if i would like to stop the subtraction of life, habits need to change and change sooner rather than later. my job now is, like many others, completely and totally sedentary, with the only opportunity to burn calories during the day coming from taking the one flight of stairs in the morning rather than the elevator. so if i am going to accomplish this goal, it is going to come during those times that i am at the gym. so now you can all ask me "dude, have you been working out?" and i'll reply "cheah brah!" i wont really reply that way. i might though. not really. but, seriously.

- - Resolution: Pray More

it is said that the easiest way to embarrass a Christian is to ask them about their prayer life. it is also the easiest way to make a Christian feel like a bad Christian. personally, i have slumped into a time in my life (and have been here for some time) where i am content to know and believe that God, through Jesus' death on the Cross, has counted my sin that i have committed, am committing and will commit in this life as null and void, and i need not worry about those other things in the Christian lifestyle because the ultimate goal has been taken care of. that mindset is more of a subconscious one than a conscious one but the fact remains that i have let prayer and other aspects of Christian life slide. i seek to remedy that in this new year. my plan is to keep a prayer journal every night. considering that i just bought the middle school style binder i will use as the journal yesterday, i haven't been doing too well thus far. however, the year is young and i have one specific thing to pray about that a friend told me of today. my ultimate goal in this is to use this journal as a motivation to converse with the Lord more, and by doing so, foster a better relationship with the Lord.

- - Resolution: Read

ok so i hate reading. it is something that my dad always told me i needed to do more of, something that i rarely did in college (schoolwork or leisure) and, unfortunately, something that puts me right to sleep. i mean i am lucky to get through 5 pages. no joke. but because i haven't really read for fun (except when i read Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth in middle school), i don't know for sure that my dislike of reading is independent of the subject matter of the reading material (aka, if i read something i am interested in, will i be able to stay awake long enough to enjoy it?). what better way to test this theory than with my Christmas present from my aunt and uncle: Wes Miller's The Road to Blue Heaven. i didn't ask for this gift but i thought it was a good one. for those of you who don't know, the book is a week by week journal entry-style account of his senior year (2006-2007) in the Carolina Blue & White (capitalized for importance). Adam Lucas, the guy who writes all the really good post-game articles on TarHeelBlue.com, collaborated with Wes to help him hone his thoughts. quantitatively for this resolution, i am planning to underachieve. this way, if i reach my goal, i will still feel good. the goal is to read two whole books this year. some of you read two books a month and are thinking that this is hardly a goal, but i am starting from nothing. gotta start somewhere right?

- - Resolution: Camp

i am so freaking excited about this one. the last time i went camping was in the fall of 2006 to Hanging Rock State Park. that is over a year without camping. before that, the last time i went camping was on spring break 2004 in Destin, FL at Henderson Beach State Park. that was over two years without camping. you have to understand that i was used to going once every month in high school. needless to say i heart camping. i am going to go camping at least six (6) times this year. that is once every two months for you math majors out there. i have resolved to go by myself if i cannot get anyone to go with me, which has been a problem in the past. i would love for you to come with me. all you have to do is let me know. my first camping trip of 2008 will take place in the month of February, probably the 22nd-24th (we play Wake Forest at 7:30PM that Sunday - you'll be back in plenty of time). i do not know yet where i would like to go, but it will most likely be somewhere in the mountains... probably near the Boone area. i like it up there, but over the course of the year, i do hope to go somewhere that i haven't been before. as always, any suggestion, and more importantly, your company is very welcome.

i also have some things that are not quite resolutions (because i cannot yet come up with quantitative goals for them) but are still things that i want to accomplish in this, the two thousand and eighth year of our Lord.

- - Quasi-Resolution: Move Out

this is also something that i am very excited about. what excites me is the idea of being responsible for my own place. most people see rent and utilities as a burden, but the idea of being self sufficient enough to pay for those bills without any help from parents or loans is exciting to me. i am sure that excitement will wear off after a while but i will still have my own place. also, i dislike doing chores like vacuuming, dusting and washing dishes (what? you don't have a dishwasher? what do you, like, live in the 70's? yes). i wouldn't mind doing them so much if i were cleaning up something that was my own; like my own dishes or my own carpet. you know what i mean? anyway, i don't know when this will be. it will largely depend on what happens with my job. we'll see...

- - Quasi-Resolution: Serve

i detailed my thoughts on service and community service in my last post so i wont elaborate anymore here. i am, though, still feeling the tug of service and i need to look into some volunteer work. i did let the people at my church planning the annual ASP trip that i would love to go with them. but that's not until this summer. there's a lot of time between then and now.

- - Quasi-Resolution: Maintain Newfound Organizational Skills

yeah, i am surprised at myself. i am very organized now. well not very, but rather organized. when i came home from ASP in august, i wanted to rearrange my room and repaint it. so i did, and in the process i realized that i wasn't just taking furniture out and putting it back in in a different location or painting the walls a different color, i was making the room, that i had lived in for about 18 years, for the first time, my own. i had never changed the way my parents had set the room up or the color that the previous owners of the house (pre-1984) painted my walls. for the first time, i took pride in my room. that means that i am now less likely to clutter it up with half-dirty clothes*, random papers or other stuff. i have devised a system for keeping clothes organized and i have also put pictures on the wall, something i didn't do before. i have also become really organized with my money. i even invested in Quicken to help me do this. i am confident in my ability to mix saving money, paying off bills, and keeping money to spend for myself. it's a pretty good feeling, but i do understand that this is easy to do while living at home and not paying for rent or food. my goal is to at least maintain this level of organization so that when the time comes that money becomes short, i will have the skills i need to manage it.

and those are my new years resolutions. sorry for the long-windedness.

Blig of the Day: The AT&T Sven Commercial

i thoroughly enjoy this commercial. probably because it features a foreign accent and incorrect English in said accent. you really cant go wrong when you put those together. i like!

Warm Fuzzy of the Day: Blog Feedback

ok so not too warm and fuzzy. recently two of you have asked me when my next post was going to be and two others of you have complimented me on my posts, something i definitely wasn't expecting. so thanks. seriously.


*you know, the clothes that you've worn once but have no good reason why you can't wear them again, because lets face it, no one can tell as long as you wait a few days until you wear it again. might also be seen by some optimists as half-clean clothes.