Easter Weekend in Michigan

I left East Stroudsburg around 7am on Good Friday to head west on I-80 with the destination of Ann Arbor, MI. I was on I-80 for about 6 hours until I reached Toledo, OH, where I finally departed from that excessively dull interstate for I-475, followed by I-75 and Route 23 North. I took exit 41 for Plymouth Road and made my way to the Sweetwater Coffee House to meet Heather. I of course greeted her with my neon orange shoes so she couldn't miss me sauntering over to her car.
We chatted for about an hour and I chose to sip on a chocolate cappuccino, which is ironic given that I don't like hot beverages. I figured that now that I'm 24, I should be more open to new beverages. We both laughed over the fact that Heather doesn't even like coffee, but she got me to drink a coffee product without even trying.

Following our chat, we drove to her apartment so I could drop my things off. We then ventured to the Faber Piano Institute, where she works, and then went on to Potbelly's for dinner. I chose the chicken cheddar sandwich, while Heather had the Wreck. Her boyfriend, Luke, met up with us for dinner, and then we went to the Good Friday service at the Fellowship Bible Church. Heather introduced me to the pastor, assistant pastor, and a handful of friends before we all went out to Biggby Coffee. I chose to have a mocha latte, another surprise for the evening. Once Biggby closed, Heather, Luke, and I went to downtown Ann Arbor so that I could get the night tour of the University of Michigan. We wandered past the M Den, Michigan Theater, and I chose to be spiteful and step on the Diag. We then went to NYPD for pizza before heading home to sleep since it was almost 1am.

The next morning, we went to The Broken Egg for brunch. I went with the cinnamon french toast and a glass of milk. After brunch, we drove around Ann Arbor in search of parking. We were confused about why there was such an influx of people to downtown until we realized that April 7th was the first day of Hash Bash, the weeklong marijuana festival held every year. We made our way to the M Den for a quick bit of shopping, where I learned that the colors for U of M are blue and MAIZE, not blue and yellow. I opted to buy a shirt that says, Geh' Blau!, which means "Go Blue" in German.

In order to avoid the chaos of downtown and the sweet smell of Mary Jane, we chose to drive up to Frankenmuth, MI. This little town is known as the Little Bavaria of Michigan, so I felt right at home with the timber buildings and polka music. Our first stop was Bronner's Christmas Store, which is the largest Christmas store in the world. Heather and I found some ornaments to buy, but Luke kept liking the ornaments that cost $18, so he skipped purchasing any. We then went to the Leather Shop and went into the gift shop of the Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn. I had a fun chat with one of the women working in the leather shop. We somehow determined that she was on work release from the insane asylum and that I should only shoplift if she could catch me because she would get $20 out of the deal. We then wandered up the street to the Cheese Haus and Fudge Kitchen. Our last stop was the Lager Mill so that Luke and I could pick up some beer. He suggested that I get Two Hearted Ale, which is what I chose.
Soon Luke drove us all to Sidetrack Bar and Grill in Ypsilanti, MI. To live up to its name, a train barreled past the window that our table was next too. It really caught me off guard, actually. I opted for a bacon cheeseburger and a local beer, which was delicious. As an appetizer, Luke and Heather ordered beer-battered pickles. We really enjoyed ourselves, but didn't stay out late so that Heather could try and sleep since her back was acting up a bit.
The next morning, I drove to Portage, MI, to spend Easter with my great aunt and uncle. I hadn't seen them in about two years and figured it would be silly to not drive the extra hour and a half to visit them while in Michigan. I arrived around 9am and my Aunt Jan greeted me with a big hug at the door. She asked how the drive was and showed me some pictures of my great grandparents. When Uncle Archie got home, they both asked about my degree and Uncle Archie wrote the name of it down so that he could research it more later. After chatting for about an hour, Uncle Archie drove us to the First United Methodist Church in Kalamazoo. Since we were early, he gave me the grand tour of the new wing of the church, complete with elevator and mini movie theater. After the tour, we chatted with some of the other church members before heading to the sanctuary for the service. The pastor spoke on Acts 10:34-43, which was the speech Peter gave at Cornelius' house.

Following the service, we drove around Kalamazoo and Western Michigan campus to check out the engineering buildings and solar panels set up by the auditorium. They then treated me to a prime rib lunch at the Great Lakes Shipping Company. After lunch, we went back to their house in Portage. Aunt Jan told me a bit about my grandmother over a dessert of lemonade pie and milk. They both also gave me some travel tips and Aunt Jan had me look at some more pictures from my great grandfather's 80th birthday party. They shared about their kids and grandkids, and we had a good laugh over the fact that Aunt Jan didn't really want to have her picture taken, though she eventually agreed.

Once I had been around for about nine hours, I made my way back to Ann Arbor for a late dinner with Heather and Luke. We went to Pizza House since Paesano was closed for the evening. We got the cheese breadsticks for an appetizer and a half cheese/half pepperoni pizza as our main course. We discussed music over our meal and then went back to Luke's so he could show me his Wolverine claws that he made for Halloween last year. Heather and I then went back to her place to watch an episode of Band of Brothers before sleeping.
I left Heather's around 7am on Monday morning to take the scenic route back to East Stroudsburg. To avoid the toll on I-80, I took a side trip along Route 2, which is part of the Lake Erie Circle Trail.
After transferring onto a few different roads, I found myself on the outskirts of Cleveland. I headed the back way to Youngstown, OH, before hopping onto I-80 east for my 300 mile haul back to the Burg. All in all, it was a very pleasant weekend.

Sayre: The Blackhole of the Universe

Today I woke up to a voicemail from my brother saying, "Good morning! I've had coffee and chocolate covered espresso beans so I'm wide awake!" Or at least something to that effect. So I called him back and after a brief discussion, I decided to drive up to the blackhole of the universe to spend the day with Nick.

The drive was quite interesting because of the extreme wind gusts that I kept encountering. It was another one of those days that if I wore baggie clothes outside, I would most likely float away. Due to the wind, I had to keep a firm grip on the wheel so I didn't veer sideways, and I had to be on alert for other vehicles that were not as good at maintaining control along the highway. I stopped for gas in Gouldsboro, which might seem dull until you realize the name of the station is "On the Run." I was highly amused by this, of course.
I continued on north and soon found myself traveling along the Southern Tier Expressway. Exits off the stretch I was on led to Appalachin, which is where the FBI busted the mob years ago, and Tioga Downs. I thought it was quite sad to see the parking lot packed full of cars on a Monday. Is there seriously nothing better to do but gamble in these parts? Well I guess that's better than running a meth lab, but still, some need to find a better way to fill their days.

I finally made it to Sayre around 1pm and took a little tour of town before going to Nick's house. I ventured past the Guthrie clinic, the movie theater, and Son's of Italy lodge, along with the local bakery. Once I met up with Nick, we ventured to Elmira for lunch at Olive Garden. I was greatly amused by the names of the towns on the exit signs, such as Jerusalem Hills and Horseheads. We got to Olive Garden a little before 2pm and we had a very pleasant waitress who throughly enjoyed our humor. I ate numerous breadsticks and some ravioli for lunch, while Nick had the parmesan crusted steak. After meeting with a customer in Elmira, Nick's roommate also joined us for lunch. He was sharing a bit about his wedding plans, along with work.

After talking for about an hour, we parted ways. Nick and I headed back to Sayre, but detoured to Athens so that he could show me the parsonage connected to the church he goes to because that's where he plans on moving in May. On our drive, we went through a yellow light, which again might seem uneventful, but Nick referred to it as "squeezing the lemon" and I found this hilarious. As we got closer to the parsonage, the roads became hard-packed dirt. We came across a woman and a large bird, which prompted Nick to say, "Welcome to the country where we walk our birds." I enjoyed the tour of the parsonage and got a peek inside the church as well. We soon made our way back to Sayre and I decided to move on to my parents house for dinner. All in all, it was a very good day, and lots of fun.

God's Not Dead Tour

Yesterday I went to the Pecksville Assembly of God in Blakely, PA, with Chrissy to go see the God's Not Dead Tour concert. The bands featured during this concert included Anthem Lights, Abandon, The City Harmonic, and The Newsboys. There was also a speaker, Bob Lenz, and we learned about different organizations including Compassion International and I Am Second. We were blessed with very good seats when the usher misunderstood what our tickets said and placed us in the second row right next to the stage. It wasn't until later that I realized that we weren't in the correct section, but I viewed it as like getting bumped up to first class from economy class on an airplane.
The first two bands to play were Anthem Lights and Abandon. We determined that Anthem Lights was the Christian version of a boy band, but they were still very entertaining. Abandon was also quite good and apparently they are from Texas. I was super excited to see The City Harmonic perform. They played "It Feels Like Home," "Yours," "Mountaintop," and "Manifesto." I think "Manifesto" was my favorite of their performances because I love the piano section, along with the fact that they sing the Lord's Prayer towards the end of the song.

Following The City Harmonic, Bob Lenz spoke. He was very entertaining, especially when he joked about if they made Bambi Part 3: Bambi Kills Thumper. The point of his message was about how we all have a purpose in life, even when it seems like people don't want us or appreciate us. Also, no matter what our past circumstances, if we accept Jesus into our hearts and repent, we will be forgiven. His slogan was, "If the world says no way, we say Yahweh." This was followed by a brief 15 minute intermission before The Newsboys. During intermission, I browsed the Compassion International table, along with the merchandise from the bands performing.
We were a little late getting back to our seats, so Chrissy and I had to crawl across the row of chairs since everybody was on their feet for The Newsboys. They put on a really good show, playing both old and new songs. The lead singer joked that we should sway back in forth during one song and then said it looked like a gospel choir in a land of white people. He also spoke about growing up in D.C. the youngest of 9 to a preacher who apparently took the command "to be fruitful and multiply" very seriously (his words, not mine). They closed with the song "God's Not Dead," which was quite fitting given the name of their tour, which I don't believe should be considered a world tour, considering all of the cities visited were in the United States, except for one trip into Canada.

After the concert, we browsed the tables for another brief couple of minutes. I bought a small The City Harmonic poster so that I could have the band sign it and Chrissy also got my picture with the band. All in all it was a good night of music that we followed up with a trip to Perkins for some french toast before going home. If you'd like to see some of the concert, click the link for God's Not Dead Tour.

Spruce Lake Retreat

This past weekend I went with my young adult Bible study group to the Spruce Lake Retreat Center in Canadensis, PA. It was a great weekend all around, with much fun had by all.
We arrived at Spruce Lake around 9:45pm on Friday and unloaded the vans in order to get situated in our cabin. Once we were all settled, we played a couple rounds of Loaded Questions in order to get acquainted with one another. During this time, we also ate some soft pretzels as a late night snack before dispersing for bed.
The next morning we had breakfast burritos made by Wes, Roshelle, and Karl, which were delicious. Breakfast was then followed by worship in music and then a teaching on 1 Corinthians 1:30 by Jim. The teaching focused on how we need to have our lives centered on Christ and that we are given new life through Him. Also, we can never gain righteousness on our own, only through Jesus. We then had about 15 minutes of prayer before Jim's second teaching, which focused upon sanctification. He taught that sanctification is two-fold: first we are sanctified (set apart) when we first believe, and then God continually sanctifies us throughout the course of our lives. This is because of the indwelling sin that we have in us. It's dead, but still present. We are no longer slaves to sin, but that desire in our nature still exists and is only dampened through God's sanctifying of our souls. We cannot and should not try to reform ourselves, for this is God's job. It involves the painful death of our sins in order to enjoy the joy of God. If we refuse to let go of our idols, our joy will be limited.

Following Jim's teaching, we enjoyed some relaxation outside on the swings that were built around the fire pit. Some people read, others chatted, and a couple played guitar. We then enjoyed chili for lunch before tackling the hike, aka Powerstroke 5000. The view was fantastic once we reached the top, and the weather was gorgeous. Soon we all headed back down to the cabin for some round-robin ping pong, followed by some head to head games to 7. Schulte crushed us all by winning almost 20 games in a row before dinner. Dinner consisted of angel hair pasta and a meat sauce that Heather made using the recipe of an Italian woman from Staten Island.

Following dinner, we watched a documentary entitled Catfish. This was about the influence of social media and how some can use it to deceive others. A man from NYC had developed a close bond with this family in Michigan, but he soon discovered that the majority of it was a scam set up by a woman who was just desperate for attention. Our discussion afterwards confronted whether or not this was real and also made us question how we interact with others using social media. It definitely makes you question how honest people are being, but even in person, people can lie to you. We all enjoyed some icecream during our discussion, followed by a jam session that included vocals, guitar, a drum, along with an assortment of household items such as a cheese grater, pots and pans, wooden spoons, a cooler, and a pink lemonade container. I then went outside to enjoy the campfire for a while before coming back inside to take notes on an audio book while others either read or played Scrabble. There was a bit of a dispute over whether "gorer" was a word before I decided to get some sleep.
This morning for breakfast we had bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on bagels. After breakfast, Mark taught on the importance of having our identity in Christ and how when that is our focus, our actions are more likely to mirror Jesus. We must always remember that we are already children of God and then we will slowly have His ways manifest in us and flow out on a daily basis.
I chose to relax outside and listen to more of my book and take notes. I was definitely noticing some contradictions between the author and Scripture and between the author's own comments, which makes me leery. Heather was engrossed by The Hunger Games, while others played Perudo. I got in on the action for one round before going to relax on a swing while watching our chicken lunch roast over the fire. Lunch of chicken burritos soon followed before it was time for us to start packing up all of our belongings. We took one last group photo before everybody departed in the vans and I drove myself back to Stroudsburg.

Providing My Navigation Skills in New York

After awaking at 4:30am yesterday, Rhi and I ventured onto I-80 towards Hoboken, NJ, around 5:15am. We apparently picked the wrong radio station to listen to because the female DJ informed us that January 23 is considered the most depressing day of the year based upon how far away from Christmas it is and how much money people owe due to the previous Christmas. We parked at the Hoboken Terminal in order to catch the PATH to Penn Station. On the train, some woman chatted us up and we found out that she had gotten engaged over the weekend and was in her own little world since she is still so excited. At Penn Station, we got tickets for the LIRR to Great Neck, Long Island, for Rhi's first job interview. The train ride went smoothly and we determined that when the vents got turned off and everything was quiet, it made it seem like the train had narcolepsy.
After arriving at Great Neck Plaza, we had to wander along the sidewalks of Great Neck, which weren't always shoveled making walking difficult for Rhi in her heels, and made our way to the Equinox Fitness Center on East Shore Drive. I sat in the lobby and read while Rhi filled out her application and had her interview. The place was gorgeous, but I was a bit confused as to why the pool was on the 3rd floor of the building. Overall, the interview went well and Rhi will be having a follow-up interview next Monday.
I thankfully found us an easier way back to the train station that didn't involve a windy road that ventured up a giant hill with blind curves. Instead, we found cool old churches on our route, one of which had a fallout shelter in the basement. As we sat on the benches at the train station, we saw a man dressed like Inspector Gadget and were surrounded by a bunch of pigeons that looked strung out on cocaine or something. Rhi thought the deranged pigeons probably carried the plague because she considers pigeons to be flying rats.
Once we got back to Penn Station, we made a beeline for the Starbucks because we were both exhausted already and it wasn't even noon. We discovered that our Starbucks names happen to be "Rori" and "Kyla" since that was what the barista wrote on our cups. Soon we were hopping on the E train to 53rd and Lexington so that we could find the next Equinox Gym for Rhi's second job interview. Before the interview, we killed time at Barnes & Noble. The second interview went equally well, so we ventured to Murphy's pub for a celebratory beer and food since we were both famished. The bartender seemed to be amused by us and we were amused by her Irish accent. I enjoyed my chicken sandwich and watching soccer while at Murphy's. After eating, we went back to Barnes & Noble before taking the E train to Penn Station and hopping the PATH back to Hoboken. Following a nap in a mall parking lot, we finally made it back to the Burg to fall asleep for the rest of the night.

Acting Like Kids in a Candy Store

It seems like most people loathe the snow in the northeast, but I feel like it must be embraced. There are many ways to still have a good time on a snow-filled day. For example, Rhi and I decided to take a random road trip up to Wawayanda, NY, whilst doing errands. On our adventure, we were following a snowplow that seemed to take his job to the extreme. Not only was the plow clearing snow from the road, but it had an extended plow that got the side of the road and any small trees and bushes lining the road. We inevitably got super hungry, so we decided to swing by the Milford Diner. In true stylish fashion, we slid sideways into the parking lot (which was adjacent to a car insurance company...how ironic) because who doesn't like drifting on a snow day? We had a lovely meal of chicken parm subs and determined that the term "menopause" should have a much more basic definition like, "No more period; Just mood swings and osteoporosis."

We started back towards the Burg, but got sidetracked by Country Kettle. Rhi and I both had seen commercials on tv and wanted to know if they really had literal barrels full of candy. It was a last minute decision, which could be sensed by our drifting sideways into the parking lot before we made our way inside. To our delight, there are literally barrels of candy within Country Kettle, so we each decided to get a sack full since we were giddy like kids in a candy store. Our final stop for our adventure was ESU, which has some lovely parking lots for drifting/donuts. All in all, it has been a fantastic day in the snow! We plan on finishing out our day by going and watching Haywire at the Stroud Theater. Hopefully nobody will steal one of our tires like that one time I went with friends 4 years ago...

Pocono Summit

My typical Thursday night involves trekking to Pocono Summit for a friendly game of indoor soccer. It's a good way to slowly get back into shape and blow off some steam from the week. Tonight was no different, but definitely more intense and energizing. Nothing like a ball to the face and getting thrown into a wall accidentally to tire me out and make my whole body ache so I can fall asleep faster tonight...