http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life_article.php?id=7620

Hmmm…I’m way too busy. :( I wish I wasn’t so busy.

Here’s an interesting meme I pulled from a friend’s blog. Since I haven’t really had a chance to write anything meaningful lately, I suppose this will be at least somewhat entertaining to read.

I AM … tired.

I WANT… to be done with my residency applications.

I HAVE … the beginnings of a small library.

I WISH I COULD … open a small ice cream shop/bookstore/discovery emporium.

I HATE … not hating sin enough in my life.

I FEAR … being alone forever.

I HEAR … the ticking of the wall clock

I SEARCH … for the Holy Grail.

I DON’T THINK … after I’m done with work.

I REALLY … enjoy my life. Even when they work me to the ground and call me names.

I REGRET … that I cherish sin in my heart far too often.

I LOVE … people.

I ACHE FOR … hurting people.

I ALWAYS CRY … when I reflect on God’s infinite grace.

I AM NOT … tall.

I DANCE … when I’m happy.

I SING … whenever I get the chance.

I NEVER … do things half-way.

I RARELY … get a true break.

I CRY WHEN I WATCH … Pixar movies.

I AM NOT ALWAYS … on time (contrary to popular belief!)

I HATE THAT … I think too much about trivial things.

I’M CONFUSED ABOUT … what I should be when I grow up.

I NEED … a hug all the time. Hugs are great! :)

I SHOULD … go to sleep instead of staying up late working on these memes.

I did this a year and a half ago…let’s see how different I am today…

==== Saturday ====

So, I’m in Maryland now. I left on Saturday afternoon, quoting the parting words of Danny and Rusty in Ocean’s 13 with my roommate as he dropped me off at the airport. 15 minutes later I was sitting at the gate, waiting for the plane to arrive. I started rereading Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace?. What a great book. About 50 pages into the book, we started boarding. I sat in a window seat near the back of the plane. Better than a middle seat.

So after takeoff, I was looking out the window and noticed that we were flying south. Considering Baltimore is north of Oklahoma City, I figured we were going to turn around once we cleared the air traffic around the airport. It was pretty neat – we flew over Moore and even the northern part of Norman. Then as we turned, I could see the highways on the east side of Oklahoma City. Taking note of the OKC skyline, I identified the medical school and hospitals where I spent the majority of the 2006-2007 school year. Then the plane banked to the right, and pretty soon I found myself staring down at I-44 on the way up to Tulsa. It was a neat sight, being able to see a road I have traveled so many times I can tell exactly how much longer I have to drive before I get home. I saw the McDonald’s near the Stroud exit, the region where the phrase “stealth mode” became a fun inside joke. It took 20 minutes to fly from Norman, where I currently live, to Tulsa, where my parents live. In fact, I followed the turnpike all the way up to the Creek Turnpike split – where I could even see my parents’ house from the plane. If I could have, I would have called my parents just to let them know I was flying overhead and that they should go outside and wave. But alas, cell phones don’t work so well in the airplane. I think people get mad or something to that effect.

Anyways, I finished reading What’s So Amazing About Grace? by the time we landed. It’s a good book to keep fresh in my mind, despite the number of times I teared up. There’s just something about imagining the unfathomable and unsearchable riches of God’s grace that makes me want to respond in worship. It stirs my heart up; grace is the message we bring to a broken and hurting world. Awesome.

My cousins picked me up at the airport, then we went back to their pastor’s house to spend the night. We stayed up pretty late playing some card games I had never heard of…Killer Bunnies and Saboteur. We didn’t quite understand the nuances of the Killer Bunnies game…all I can say is that the game was rigged. So then we played Saboteur, which we ended up playing many times. It was pretty funny, 5 grown men sitting around the table playing a random card game. We finally went to bed around 1.

==== Sunday ====

The wake-up call was at 8.30. Of course, for Central Time Zoners like me, that means the wake-up call was at 7.30. Granted, I got about 7 hours of sleep, but for a guy who no longer has to wake up early for church because services are in the evening, it was pretty brutal. A quick shower and half a cold pizza later, we were on our way to church.

Ah, Chinese church. It’s nice to know that I can go halfway across the country to a completely different place, and that the Chinese church there pretty much works the same way as the Chinese church back home. The program even looks eerily similar to the format that I’ve grown up doodling on. I forgot a pen this time though. We sang a lot of familiar songs, and even one that I hadn’t heard since I was in Chicago for Project Impact. Lots of memories.

The message was about gentleness. The pastor was explaining how gentleness as the Bible defines it differs from the way the world defines it. It actually sounded somewhat similar to some of the things John Eldridge writes about in his books. Anyways, after the morning English service we had Sunday School, where we learned about Rachel and Leah and Jacob, and the headache that comes from having more than one wife. I haven’t been to Sunday School in almost 2 years. Wow.

After Sunday School, it was time for lunch. The Lai family (my cousins and I) served lunch to a large unending crowd of hungry Chinese people. Yay for rice, tofu, and corn. Even the meals are the same! I’ve always been somewhat amused by some Chinese cultural quirks. For example, it’s perfectly natural to demand extra helpings for yourself, even with a line of 20 still waiting for food. There’s nothing wrong in inserting yourself into the crowd to fight for the last little bit of corn. There’s no need to say “please” or “thank you” – just take what you want. Hmm…actually I wonder how much of that is Chinese culture, and how much of it is East Coast culture. Perhaps I’ll find out this month. But I seem to remember that Chinese people are like that in Oklahoma too. I think it’s because there’s so many of us. :)

We played some more Saboteur, then we changed and went out to a field not too far from the church to play some outdoor games. We played a few games of ultimate frisbee. I even caught a touchdown pass. That was fun. We played a few games of wrap-football too. That was a bit more precarious, since within 15 minutes we had 2 somewhat serious injuries (my cousin’s still nursing a rather large bruise to his shin). Anyways, we must have played for a least 4 hours. A cool shower and some Chinese food later, we were talking about wedding rings and whether it was okay for the guy to buy a wedding band for himself that cost $4.50 plus shipping. It was actually $9, but there were two rings in the package. That was an amusing conversation. Anyways, after dinner we headed back to my cousin’s apartment, with a small pit stop at the grocery store so I could stock up for my stay here.

We finally went to bed around 11, and by that time we were all crazy exhausted.

I need to run off to work now, so I’ll describe my first day of work later.