Now I’ve been to my third “major” concert and BOY was it a winner! Yesterday (after finishing up a hectic, tho short, shift at the helpdesk) I met Beth and headed to Detroit’s DTE Energy Music Theatre to take in a Coldplay concert. Despite a slightly delayed start and the sudden realization that we actually lost an hour traveling to Michigan we made it in good time to land a 4th row parking spot (that’s right, 4 rows and then the main gates) and get seats a little to the right of the stage. Even being a bit of a fanatic, I’m still on a college budget so I had the cheaper tickets for “lawn seating.” As it turns out what was left of Hurricane Katrina was making it’s way across central Ohio that very evening and we ended up getting caught up in a few showers. Luckily by the time Coldplay hit the stage the rain had turned to spritsing and we didn’t need more than our parkas to stay warm. Oh yeah, and an… interesting group named Rilo Kiley opened for them. I listened some and talked with Beth more Then a lil after 9 the fun finally began. I must say, there’s just something about live concerts that just makes the music so much more enjoyable! It’s definitely the crowd atmosphere where you can sing along without fear, and the lights and video are helpful for sure, but when you have talented musician on stage it’s just hard to beat! A scattering of stories by Chris Martin were also quite entertaining! So despite slip-ups on The Scientist and a few showers, MAN was the music good!! YAY for singing along to Kingdom Come with Beth and Coldplay! The trip home was late, but fortunately uneventful and we arrived back in Goshen safe and sound at 3 AM… just enough time to sleep before my 9 o’clock, lol

Well, suffice to say that my part-time class schedule isn’t killing me quite yet. Not that I plan on slacking off ALL the time but until I can get an internship rolling I’ve found ways of keeping myself busy. Among them working at the helpdesk, choir, hanging out at my house some, and above all being with Beth as MUCH as possible!! So in honor of being able to hang out at Beth’s house (Hymnal) and by popular demand from my parents I recently added “virtual tours” of both my home (East Hall) and my favorite hangout (Hymnal House)! So if you check out the photos with these you not only get pictures, but floor plans so you can see where in the house the pictures were taken. Fancy eh?Speaking of hanging out with Beth, tomorrow she has class from 9:30 till 1:30… straight! Then the fun begins as we hit the road for Detroit where we have tickets to see none other than Coldplay! Talk about some exciting times. Oh yeah, check out the venue too, it’s pretty nifty looking. Alrighty, till next time all.

School again… woot … hehheh. Yeah, it’s official, I’ve now moved in to East Hall here at Goshen. Moving in to a place is always a lil crazy but especially when I ended up with WAY more boxes than I expected and when the furniture does NOT offer as much storage as I would have hoped. So it goes. Regardless, I think things in my room have finally settled down a lil at least which is real nice. The other 11 in my house are now all here too, let the fun begin. On a slightly related note, the photos from the photo gallery are now officially being served from my bathroom lol, I know, it may SOUND odd, but really, who can complain about internet access as you… um… sit and relax I’ll try to get a photo of our setup online here pretty soon.

On a completely unrelated note, if you haven’t visited World Jump Day yet, well what are you waiting for?? Always good to support a good cause, right?

It’s crazy how fast some events sneak up on you! Today is my last day in Colorado already. Beth and family arrived last night!! So that means that along with an optometrist appointment and packing and being with my family I ALSO get to hang out with Beth! I should be able to fit in the rest of my last minute packing between watching Crash, scoring a free iTMS song from Gap and enjoying Indian food right? The Days are Just Packed indeed!

Unfortunately this exciting hubbub was marred two days ago by a minor (or not so minor, I’m not 100% sure yet) disaster in computer land. Over the course of the day my computer had started acting sluggish from time to time. Nothing stopped working at first until late in the evening when things took a definite turn for the worse. It seems my second hard drive has gone kaput! So while I still have a functioning computer all of my music, movies, games, and digital art created over the years are suddenly gone. Talk about another source of stress in my life! Luckily I have the most important things (namely my digital gallery) backed up at school but I haven’t been able to bring the poor drive back to life with any home-grown remedy yet. Now I think I’m going to have to decide if I want to plop down the big cash and get my files professionally recovered or not… blech! Well, enough for now, it’s time to get ready for my busy day. Goshen College… here I come!

Despite foreboding weather forecasts and unforeseen extra days of work my dad and I managed to bag another 14er this past weekend. Saturday after I helped dad take forms off of the footers at our new church we headed to the mountains. After supper in Buena Vista we headed up a jeep trail into a beautiful mountain valley. This trip was especially exciting because we had more wildlife sightings that I’ve had on basically any 14er hike to date! At our camp site we had a deer walk within 15 or so feet of us, saw big-horned sheep across the valley, saw a beaver in the pond just below our tent, and even heard some coyotes just after sunset. Then came the fun part. I’ve officially decided, it’s not so much the hiking that I love, it’s definitely the scenery. My GOODNESS are the views spectacular once you get above timberline! The flowers were blooming full force in the alpine meadows, there was snow on a few of the surrounding peaks, and we just could not have asked for better hiking weather. Along with the usual hiking wildlife like picas and marmots, we saw several ptarmigans and more sheep (Oh yeah, and a robin that was hanging out way up in the tundra for some reason too). So, dad and I can now cross Mt Huron off of our 14er lists. I’ll try to get some pictures from the hike online in the next little while so that you can get just a LITTLE taste of why I love being in the mountains.

Before our hike I got bored again, and we all know what happens when I get bored. Yup, crazy projects that may or may not have any practical value but sure are entertaining to me This week I had quite the variety. Mom gave me a new “car” so I did a little photo shoot in our driveway. (Isn’t Photoshop grand?) Next on the list a bit of modification to my “old” car. Earlier this year I saw a Toyota with the letters “TOY” inscribed in its break lights so that it illuminated when the breaks lit (much like the Dodge logos over the break lights of many Dodge pickups). Well, this custom lettering got me scheming… now each and every time I hit my breaks I can proudly display the Apple Logo! I know, it’s a bit excessive, but it was a fun break. I even managed to squeeze out a bit of php work and designed a website so that my housemates and I from East Hall can keep a list of what we’re bringing to school in a few days.

Now for the real excitement! Beth will be here… in MY house TOMORROW!!! . This is amazing in several respects. First, it means that summer is over because we’ll be leaving together for Goshen in like 3 days. Second, it means that our almost full year of long distance dating had finally drawn to a close! There were times when I thought I’d never see the day when that happened. Finally, it means that I will actually get to SEE Beth again, and while the cynical may say that it’s “only” been 4 weeks since I was with her last, that is PLENTY long for me!! So over the next few days Beth and her parents are scheduled to pull in and Beth and I are scheduled to pull out, hopefully with all of our belongings packed into my car… phew, wish us luck . So there is the current status of my life, hope you all enjoyed!

Nothing like a late night web surf to dig up some good dirt. I don’t quite know what to say about this stuff other than wow, what a cool, unique idea! Apparently Jason Salvon has done several pieces of “amalgamation” artwork where he takes between dozens and hundreds of photographs collected from a variety of sources and combines them to get a sort of abstract-looking, median picture as a result. I especially like this series of Special Moments. Actually I found Mr. Salvon by way of brevity, a Flickr user who made a similar set of compositions using images publicly available on Flickr and a nifty little program they wrote. They came up with some really unique results too. I especially like the Eiffel Tower one. Anywho, now I should probably hit the hay… hmmmm, 50 people see a dream?

Well it’s been a good lil while since I’ve posted an update so here we go. My multi-week blog absence was actually pretty fun. I spent a whole week up at Camp with my parents who directed Family Camp III. Yeah, I love the mountains! Hiking, rock climbing, rook, singing, and just plain were wonderful. Unfortunately Camp also has NO cell reception which is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it leads to further isolation and relaxation, a curse when people you wish were at camp aren’t and you want to talk to them (Beth comes to mind :-)). Regardless, the week was plenty of fun. Right on the tail of Camp came a family Kuhns reunion in Nebraska. While I didn’t know all of the relatives there I have a pretty cool family and it was fun to hang out with some of them too. Oh yeah, I finally got to go to that museum over I-80 which is quite well done. Finally on Sunday the 7th we got home.

Since then I’ve been relaxing around home, getting my car tuned up and read for the trip to Goshen, cleaning the house w/ G’ma Kuhns (who came back with us after the reunion), and making a profile for myself on the Goshen facebook. Tonight Natalie and Krista are stopping in on their way to Nebraska which should be pretty fun. Next on the agenda: relaxing while I can, packing because I have to, spending time w/ the family, helping mom get ready for school, hiking a few 14ers w/ dad this weekend, and counting the days till Beth gets here (the 16th!!!).

PS. yeah, and for those who pay attention to such things I finally finished adding captions to the photos from the East Coast.