Two Truths and a Lie

Again, there will be two true stories and one lie contained in this post. Sometime in the mid-week, I will go ahead and reveal one of the true stories. Let's hope you don't pick that as the lie.


Story 1:

Every morning I drive from my apartment to a park and ride parking lot. When I get there I hope on the train that takes me to the place where I take the bar preperation class. This is fun because public transportation affords ample opportunities to meet and watch interesting people. This week, I think that I did a little of the watching and a little of the meeting too.

The meeting came on the trip back on Monday. I was sitting there listening to my ipod music player when three young boys asked me how much I would pay for a little dvd player they had. From there prior conversation it seemed that the item was hot. I told them that I wouldn't pay more than a hundred for it if I was in the market. They said they would sell it for $200. I'm not sure what they didn't understand about my price. Whatever, they then said they would just go and sell it at a pawn shop.

Then I saw an interesting guy on the way to the class later that week. The guy, apparently, liked the music he was listening to. Not only was he singing along but he was dancing and playing the drums against the window on the train. Not so much entertaining as it was boring.


Story 2:

This week I went swimming in the pool at my apartment. There is a group of teens/young adults who like to use the pool in the very late hours of the evening. Since my apartment has a pool view (it is across the creek from the pool), I can usually hear the people going in and out of the pool area. It annoys me that they go out there so late, so I decided that I would go swimming too. Just to ruin their fun a little bit.

I put on my swimsuit and went on over. They didn't seem to be as casual once an outsider was there doing laps in the pool. Actually, it didn't take too long before a few of them decided to leave. The others didn't take to much longer to follow them out of the pool area.

Then later in the week a memo came from the management asking people not to swim in the pool after posted hours. I haven't heard or seen this group out there since.


Story 3:

I went out to the baseball game to watch the Rangers kick a little White Sox ass. Unfortunately, one person in our group didn't make it there until it was a little bit later. It was the second inning or so before he arrived. Since we picked up the tickets at will call, we had to go out and meet him when he arrived. He telephoned to say that he was parking and would get there in a few minutes.

One of my friends went with me to meet him. Since we had a couple minutes we decided to get our dinner and a beer. I decided that I would get the big nachos with all the great toppings. Then I got a Miller Lite to drink. As we waited, we ate our food on the little tables and benches that is near the exterior fence.

I guess that for some reason the guy had to go back to his car after he almost met us. However, he didn't call us to let us know that he was walking all the way back to his car. During this extra time there was a homerun and a great play that we missed as we sat and ate nachos and drank beer.

Alas.

Every week I will reveal the truth of one of the three stories. This week I must admit that story two is true! It's a little embarrasing, but I did drink a beer right before I went over to church. Since it is a megachurch, I very well could have gone to the church and got a coffee at their coffee shop. But that would not be nearly as much fun, now would it?

This is the first post to follow my new formatting change. I hope that it works out!

Story 1:

On Thursday I went to an event at the Dallas arboretum with a friend. I haven't ever been to the arboretum before, so I was really excited to get to go. The event was a really neat pops type band that played everything from Biance to Elton John to Outkast! We got to sit on the lawn, see all the vegetation, and look out on the lake while drinking wine and eating yummy strawberries!

The interesting thing, is that before the show we went to eat at this Mexican food restaurant where they always have a live band on Thursday through Saturday. The band was playing their music and let these two young girls play maracas. I would guess that the girls were about five or six years old. They were so cute! One of the girls didn't want to sing into the microphone when the singer would hand it to them to sing the chorus.

The problem was that I became more entertained by the band at the Mexican restaurant than I was with my food. I didn't end up eating much food, and I certainly wasn't full after eating a few strawberries. This meant that after the music at the arboretum was finished, we decided to run by the Sonic on the way back home.

By this point it was a little after nine, so the sun had completely set. However, the moon was bright enough that you couldn't hide yourself very well. As we were driving around the parking lot, I noticed that in one of the cars parked at the back two people were really going at it. As we approached the car it became clear that they were having a lot more fun than you're supposed to have at a Sonic's parking lot. We left...

Story 2:

After witnessing that event on Thursday, I decided that it was high time to get myself to Church. I go to church every time that I go home to visit family, and I go a few times on my own here in Dallas. However, I haven't been able to go with the frequency that I really would like to go.

Today I went to church after finishing a bar review class. However, being the heathen sort of a person I am, I realized that I had about an hour to spare before I went to church. Instead of going and browsing the church bookstore and grabbing a coffee in their coffee shop (yes, it's a mega-church); I stopped at a sports bar and grabbed a beer. I was good and went for the 16 ounce draft instead of the 25 ounce beer!

Anyhow, I went to church and remembered part of why I don't get to church nearly as often as I like. I start to feel lonely when I'm at church in Dallas. When I was growing up, church was always a family experience with a lot of friends and family always meeting at church. During college, church was always with friends and people who I cared about and loved. Now I go to a huge church where I don't know anyone. I love the pastor of the church and really connect with the sermons, but I feel completely alone when I'm there. I mean, I love the experience because I do connect, and I think the people are nice, but I just don't know any of the people at this point. They have home teams and singles classes that I could join in with, but I haven't had enough free time to do that. Now that I'm out of law school, I think that I might start to do some of those activities.

The service was really nice. The title was "Go" and it was based on Matthew 28, which is the chapter that has the Great Commission. Of course, this is where you are told to go out and spread the gospel. The sermon started with a video of the pastor and two of the younger pastors meeting a missionary in Belize. They traveled through Belize into the jungle to spend a few days with some of the tribal people. The first night they ate Iguana! Then the second night they had roasted rat! It was fun to watch them spend time with people who care so much about building churches and spreading the good news.

As I watched the video, I started to think about how much I've wasted my time with law school. Why am I not out there doing something like that? When I was in high school my dream was to become a pastor of a church. Then life sort of led me to Dallas instead of a small Christian school. Then I started to think about going to law school, and I've ended up where I am now. It started to make me a little sad when I watched their passion.

However, I quickly changed my mind when I really thought about it. I'm blessed with the opportunity I have to help people here in America who are coming from far and wide to find comfort, care, and shelter. How could you find a better place to show love, care and support. The sort of thing that people take note of and want to know better? I mean, the head pastor and the two other guys were having a round table sort of discussion about the Great Commission and they made a good point. Preaching the gospel and leading people to Christ doesn't mean you have to walk up to strangers and tell them that they are going to hell if they don't accept Christ. What it means is that you plant seeds and you build relationships. That is the activity we are called to do. When the time is right, Christ will work through that or through you or through the church to fulfill the commission.

Story 3:

Finally, this week I went on about four runs around the lake. It was nice because I really was able to get some good work outs in. However, I was freaked out by one couple that I saw out at the lake. Now, couples at the lake don't normally bother me because it's a romantic and fun sort of location. You can lay on blankets out there together, walk, play Frisbee, run, bike, etc. What's not to love about the park if you're a couple?

I run about 2 miles out and then I turn around to return. At the turning around point I saw a couple making out by the car. They weren't in the car or anything but groping all over each other and doing everything they shouldn't be doing. I turned around soon after passing them. I would imagine, if they noticed, they thought I was turning around for a second look at their mini-porn display.

What's weird is that when I was nearing the end of my run I saw them again. It was like an unlucky deja vu, but a really weird one. They were standing outside the car making out again. This time they had a little more privacy so I guess the figured they could take a few more liberties. Her leg was sort of wrapped around the guy and he had his hands places they shouldn't be when you're outside. Sure enough, they noticed me running by again.

Now I've got to make it clear that I didn't follow them anywhere. At some point they drove away from where they originally were and took a road that goes back towards where I finish my run. The roads and the running/biking paths don't follow the same route, so I don't think either of us saw each other when we were moving. They did notice me when they were passionately embraced though.


Ok, those are the three stories. One is a lie...

With the change in my daily schedule and new responsibilities that go beyond mere working into the realm of having ethical responsibilities, I've had to reconsider the method in which I blog. Over at Singing Loudly I posted about what to expect on that site.

Of course, this is a very different animal, so I had to think about what I wanted to do. I considered the possibility of scraping this in its entirety, because I'd like to be more consistent. I decided against that because I do like the idea of this blog, and I enjoy writing it. However, I think that I can both make it easier on myself and better.

First, since I'm going to be working in a profession which mandates additional duties on those who are licensed to practice (in addition to some duties on students, clerks, etc), I am going to protect myself by never posting anything (be it truth or lie) about my work. This includes posts referencing co-workers, my own attitudes about the people, the silly tumble down the stairs I might make, and most importantly clients. I just can't do anything that is specific about work.

Second, I think that to provide more consistency and to better serve the purpose of this blog I'm going to make it a consistent twice a week blog. On the weekends, I will post a long post that will contain three items. Two of the stories will be truths while one will be a lie. This will make it easier for anyone reading to be able to guess which is the lie. Furthermore, I will better be able to remember how many lies I've posted.

Finally, at some point during the week I will post a "Lie Detector" sort of post. In it I will tell one of the Truths so that it will narrow the possible lies down to one or the other.

This is the best way I can foresee having the time and dedication to making this successful while still being able to juggle work and other responsibilities. I actually think it's a better format than what I'm currently doing as it more closely resembles the two truths and a lie game.

On Monday I will begin my classes for bar preparation, so I called my friend to have a Fun Day Wednesday. He came over to my place (most of my friends have seen my new apartment!) and said hi to my super cat. Then we went off on a drive to eat at Red Robin.

The problem with all of this is that I didn't really know where it was located. I ended up finding it after driving far enough away from my apartment. It seriously took like 20 minutes to get there. We got there and ordered one of their wonderful onion ring towers. Yum! It was greasy goodness...

After the lunch we went back to my apartment to play some XBox. We were going to try to play "The Simpsons Hit and Run" but realized that the multiplayer mode isn't dual screen or anything. So I decided that we should play Halo for a little while. We ended up playing it a lot longer than we should have, because I had to leave and meet my Aunt and Uncle.

After only three hours of digestion, it was time to meet family for dinner at a Mexican food restaurant. Yack!

My belly isn't pleased with me. Fun Day Wednesday rules!

The other day there was quite a bit of rain, so I had a collection of water puddled in the seat on my balcony. My balcony isn't covered by anything and this chair is one of those camping fold up chairs. Once the water evaporates it leaves a ring of dirt. I didn't want to deal with this again, so I went outside to dump the water. My balcony is set up so that the floor is solid, so I decided to just let the water go over the side. Well, I didn't really think about the fact that the wind would bring some of it back towards the building. It was just a fraction of a second before I heard water splashing on the balconies below. It was only a few seconds before I heard the cat lady open her apartment door. Uh...

Needless to say, I ran back into my apartment and shut the door pretty quick. Unfortunately the weather was cool enough that none of the water evaporated. Ugh.

It's weird when you spend all your weekend studying for a final and can't remember anything that you really studied. Most law school exams are open book, open notes, open outlines, so if you are quick with finding things in you're outline and understand how to play with the material you can do fine. The test that I have today is not open anything besides the Code book. In the code book you can only have minor notations; i.e. you can't copy your entire outline into the book.

How am I going to pass the test when I can't remember anything that I've been trying to study this weekend?