Miscellaneous Things To Catch You Up On

I apologize to TWC's regular readers for not posting in over a week and a half. I'm also glad to see that there have been many new readers to TWC as well as people reading past/archived posts. Rest assured, I do have some thoughts brewing in this head of mine - i've been processing life events, examining Scripture, revisiting points along my journey so far - things I'll share with you when I can find/make the time to sit down to articulate them into a blog post or essay.

That's not going to happen at this very moment so I thought I'd write to you to catch you up on a few things that's been going on in my world since I've gotten back from San Francisco (my last post) . . . .

First of all, I'm so embarrassed that I totally thought I actually saw the Golden Gate Bridge! LOL, it turned out to be the Bay Bridge. Hehe, good thing I can laugh at myself, otherwise I'd go hide under a rock . . . or a bridge (- i won't even try to say which bridge i'd hide under!). Anyway, I'm determined to see the Golden Gate Bridge with my own eyes so I'm going back up to San Francisco during the Labor Day Weekend at the beginning of September and hopefully see alot more of SF - including Alcatraz and anything else this tourist needs to/should see. I'd like to see the Gay & Lesbian Center in SF too to compare it with what i've seen here in Southern California. It'd be good to get some good insights for Catalyst. I'll be going up and meeting up with friends - i'd also love to meet any TWC readers in the Bay area. Email me (see left column) if you'd like to connect!

I'm settling in at the new job. There are good days and there are not as good days - but i'm still in a mode of wanting to do well at it. I want to prove my potential. I'm excited that I've got the opportunity to plan a couple of events! I'm really excited about the benefits package that I get. Apparently, massages are covered by my health insurance! A co-worker of mine goes to a place that accepts the insurance and so the co-pay is only $5 for an hour long massage. Score! I'm sooo going to be using that! The other kewl thing is my car insurance. Through my previous insurance with Allstate, I was paying $102 per month for only liability insurance. With my new insurance, I'll be paying $59 for full coverage. The kicker is that it also includes unlimited towing service - any where for any distance for any number of times in a year. I'm thankful, Lord!

So what else has been going on in my world? Hmm . . . .

I've become a member of a Toastmasters club. If you've never heard of them, they are an internationally recognized public speaking organization. The club really helps a person develop his or her oral communication skills. I like public speaking and i've always wanted to compete in speech contests again. I had done a few in high school and I loved it! I was even my university's student graduation speaker. Anyway, in Toastmasters, the first level of achievement is called Competent Communicator (CC) and a person earns that by delivering 10 speeches - each one focussing on a particular skill. I delivered my speech #1 last Saturday and the feedback that I received was that I did extremely well. I'm looking forward to doing more speeches!

Last Sunday, a friend of mine invited me to go with he and his family to the Hollywood Bowl to see the "Sound of Music". I had never seen the movie before (I never gave it a chance) because I only recently discovered an interest in musicals, plays, and other kinds of live entertainment. I had such a good time! There was four of us and we had what they called 'box seats' which was the second closest section nearest the stage. Before the program begins, everyone eats dinner. Many people bring food - others order food from waiters/servers. It was weird and kewl because it was kind of like a combination auditorium-restaurant-concert hall. So we shared a wonderfully prepared dinner that my friend's mom made, then we saw a program filled with incredible singing and awesome music from an orchestra. I was surprised to see John Sneider sing and play the role of the "Austrian" father/Captain. Fun times!

What else has been going on? Hmm . . . . Oh yeah, here are a few things:

For a time, I was slacking off on my exercise so I'm back to regularly doing some sort of exercise - running, walking, gym or bike riding.

I'm trying to eat healthier too (sort of).

I've been going to a Bible study on faith & sexuality which I may be posting my thoughts about later.

I'm in discussion about teaching HTML classes at the gay & lesbian center here in Long Beach to teach people how to build their own Web site. I'll also teach classes on how to start a blog. With these classes, I'd like to empower people to tell their own personal stories. Once I help them create their sites, I'll link them together at Catalyst's Web site and teach them to build a sense of community via these awesome media vehicles/personal outlets.

I'm kinda seeing a guy. We've gone out together a few times and we're getting to know each other. We're both on the same page - we both want to take things slow. We haven't defined anything yet. I like him. The kewl thing is that the interest in each other is mutual. We'll see how things progress . . . . =)

I'm excited to be invited over for dinner tomorrow night (Friday) at my pastor's home. Last month, I had him and his new partner over for dinner and I cooked chicken adobo (every day common Filipino dish) for them. This time, they are going to cook for me! =)

In September, one of the local inclusive church's here in Long Beach is having a day-long conference and I'll be teaching a session (twice to different groups) on what I call "relational evangelism" or "oikos evangelism". It's about living out the Great Commission organically as a lifestyle of faith and Kingdom values rather than just trying to "evangelize" people. I'm excited to do this and I consider it an honor and privilege to be asked to share these things with this church.

The other news that I thought was worth sharing (in terms of worlds colliding) is that recently i've been extremely pissed off at one particular friend --> acquaintance because he professes to be a believer in Christ and yet he has been sexually promiscuous knowing that he's also HIV positive. And he's not telling the people he's with. That is SO not cool.

Anyway, that's all for now. This post was more of the reporting-in/catch-you-up kind of thing. I'll write another post that is more insightful and thoughtful about things I've been thinking about. Stay tuned!