Tré's Blog

2008-10-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Here's what my church has been up to recently...

2008-10-05T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hello?

Is this thing on?

...man, hold on a sec, I need to get a broom. The cobwebs in here are crazy...

OK, I'm back! Hey everypeoples! Just popping in to tell you I'm shutting this thing down. I'm not giving up on blogging, I'm just moving in with my wife! Yeah, after 16 months of marriage, we're gonna merge our blogs! By our blogs combined, we are ... something...

So, check back sometime in the next week for the new link! L8r! ("later")

2007-12-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

'Pugapoo' is such a dumb name. I mean, Pug and Poodle should combine to form "Puggle." But the Pug-Beagle mix has already stolen that name. I'm choosing to make a new word: Poogle. I just hope Google hasn't copywriten that word for some reason. Hey, if they haven't, I could sell it to them! For a modest fee, of course... Anyway...

We got a poogle!

Kelly and I had been thinking of getting a puppy this spring, when outdoors will be a much more inviting bathroom. But, Kelly found a great deal on this little guy. He's the runt of his litter, but he was half the cost of his siblings. So, Wednesday night we drove to Newberg and got Max!

Meet Max, born October 1, 2007. Can you guess what Max is short for? Not Maxwell... No, not even Maximillion! It's Maxibillion! Maxibillion Q. Wilbanks. (Q for Quincy) Here he is in our stocking, because he's kind of a Christmas gift to each other. (We got matching stockings, so I'm not sure if it's my stocking or Kelly's...)

He's a good little puppy! He was trained to potty only on newspaper, and the other night we went right to sleep all night long. The first and third night, however, were like some sort of battle. He really has never been alone in his life; he hasn't even been the only dog around for his whole life. So he's really into the whining thing when he's all alone.

When we're all awake, he's really great! He's cute, and he's used to a cat in the house, so he like Butters a lot. Butters doesn't like him so much, but there've been no fights yet. We take him places with us, and he's really calm. Kelly took him to work yesterday, and he just chilled under her chair.

So, feel free to come on by and say hello! This week will be crazy with the holidays and Kelly's mom & sister visiting, but after the new year, we'd love for you to meet him!

2007-11-21T15:46:00.000-08:00

Well, folks, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all have lots of coma-inducing foods!

In other news...

I'm going under the knife on Monday! Well, actually, the drill... I've gotta get my three remaining wisdom teeth out! I only have one left on the top of my mouth, and the surgeon is confident that'll come right out. The bottom two, however... "We're gonna have to drill."

So, for the first time, I'll be knocked out! I'm actually a little scared, but I'm sure that's just me being a wuss. I should swell up really big! I'll look like a cross between Charlie Brown and Stewie Griffen! Hahaha!

But then come the sweet painkillers...

2007-10-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

...not quite sure what to think about this.

Dumbledore was gay.

Part of me wants to be revolted by the icky gayness. Part of me wants to be annoyed that Rowling just threw that into his character for sensationalism, and because it would fit a stereotype. Part of me wants to respect her attempts at giving him a secret, this tragic love and equally tragic error, because it seems to deepen the character. Well, except for the icky gayness...

Responses?

2007-10-05T21:22:00.001-07:00

OK, so this post will be really long. I began writing down some thoughts a few weeks ago, and it's now grown to a 3-pager! Sorry, but I've gotta get it out! For the patient, or bored, I ask some feedback when you're done reading.

Thanks! OK, here goes!

What the world needs: More green churches. AKA Midori Ministry.

The hot word in the Portland food scene (along with most of the country) is not what I originally guessed it would be, though it’s closely related. ‘Organic’ isn’t really the focus anymore, though it was the posh thing to be a few years ago. ‘Organic’ hasn’t been abandoned as much as it’s been absorbed by the new emphasis: ‘Sustainability.’ Coming in a close second to ‘sustainability’ is another idea not far removed from organic; ‘local.’ The big push in the food-service industry is to provide foods that are produced locally and use production methods that guarantee those foods and the land they’re produced on will be around for a long time. These two foci, local and sustainable, constitute the larger idea of ‘green’ food practices.

Now, there are those of you who groan at the thought of looking to our society for advice on how to run church. To you I say poo. Church history is replete with examples of Church leaders looking to concepts well-known to the society they operated within in order to teach and lead the church. Christ’s use of agrarian metaphors and Paul’s reference to Greek logic and mythology are two good examples.

Anyway, back to ‘green.’ How would it look to apply the popular notion of ‘green’ practices to the church? What would ‘local’ and ‘sustainable’ look like in ministry?

‘Local’ seems to be something many churches have been headed towards for a while. After the mega-church boom of the 90s, many churches, including those filled with baby-busters and GenX-ers, have moved towards a more local focus. Rather than trying to become the biggest church in the city, boasting people who travel from miles away to receive the ministry they provide, many of these churches have moved towards smaller numbers and impacting a more focused geographical area.

[I’d like to pause here and say that I have great respect for big churches. I do not, in any way, wish to sound like I’m bashing mega-churches, or the Christ-loving followers who may sacrifice their gas money and their time for the Kingdom in order to attend far-away churches. My first church, which I’ll always call my home church, was such a jewel in a dark valley that we had many people who drove 20-30 minutes to attend regularly, including mid-week ministries and meetings. Please don’t hear me bashing mega-churches, because I’m not. I’m just noticing a trend away from that model of church development.]

So, we see churches moving towards a local focus already. What about the other part? What does ‘sustainability’ look like in the local church? I think it means keeping some people in the dark about Jesus, so there’ll always be those who are ‘lost.’ Ha! Just joking!

Insuring sustainability in ministry takes me waaaaay back to a book I read in the early 90s about youth ministry, ‘The Ministry of Nurture’ by Duffy Robbins. I don’t think I ever even finished the book, but one idea of his that has always stuck with me is the idea that you can’t do youth ministry (or any ministry, for that matter) for the sake of the group. You can’t make the group the focus, the end-all of spirituality. Because, in four years or less, those being ministered to will no longer be there. If a student cannot differentiate Jesus from Youth Group, what is his/her relationship with Christ going to be like after they graduate? They usually shrivel up and die, or they try to stave off things for another four years by going to a Bible college. Not a place like Multnomah, but other colleges…

Similarly, if we run churches in such a way that those we’re reaching out to have no or little exposure to Christ in their lives, how is their relationship to Christ going to suffer when a loved one passes away, or they suddenly loose their job, or they find themselves sorely tempted by an attractive new friend their spouse will never know exists?

The problem is the same, it’s the immersion that’s different. In high school youth group, there are often small groups or accountability groups, perhaps theology classes or some form of deeper spiritual education, and copious amounts of fellowship and ministry opportunities. But then that all dries up when they graduate, and work schedules or college class schedules or relationships or any number of other distractions take life over. Some college ministries fight this valiantly, but many people simply, sadly, fall away.

If the high school youth is like a rock, dipped in water for a time but then removed, left to dry up, then the adult who only experiences Christ on Sundays is like a rock partially dunked in water, again and again. Most parts of this rock are never wet, never cleaned or cooled down.

Both ministries, and both classes of people ministered to, suffer from a lack of sustainability. It’s not about dunking them in the Water of Life again and again, it’s about setting the rocks down and letting the Living Water pour over them. The Water that flows never runs out; His cup never runs dry. Give people constant exposure to Christ in their lives. Make their relationship with Christ sustainable.

What does that look like? What things must happen?

For one, the idea of getting people into the kingdom must not be the only thing on our to-do list. Christians with no root shrivel and die quickly, and if we love them as Christ did we’d want them around a little longer than that. People need depth in relationship.

This brings up another idea I’ve come across recently in the food industry. It’s the idea that people aren’t going to go out to get what they can get at home. There needs to be an innovation, some aspect to what they’re getting at the restaurant, that they aren’t able or willing to get at home. This doesn’t necessarily mean ingredients in the food, either. Atmosphere, entertainment, pampering; these are but a few of the reasons people go out to eat other than for food.

What shall we in ministry do? What can we bring to church or offer our church family, that they aren’t able to get at home? We can’t just read the Bible to them, they can do that at home. We can’t just play good music for them either; they can also get that at home. So what can we offer? Why would people come to church when they can read their Bible or listen to a good worship CD at home?

Well, first and foremost, part of the issue is that people probably won’t read their Bible, or choose to worship in song or any other way at home. People on their own don’t generally do very good at that. Remember what I was talking about a few paragraphs ago, where some ministries inadvertently teach people to depend on the ministry for closeness to God. Part of the reason that happens so easily is that people generally don’t do well on their own. We need community, accountability, discipleship and education, all of which require other people.

So what does Church offer that people can’t get at home? Other people! You yourself are one of the reasons Church is better than no Church. That being said, what is there to do with ourselves?

It’s been said before, but Christ doesn’t send us to make Christians of all people. It’s disciples He wants. There’s an aspect of living life, of modeling principles and ideals, of teaching and of learning, to discipleship. These must be present for a sustainable relationship with Christ. Where do we find ourselves in the cycle of discipleship? Are you in need of being discipled? Or are you at a stage where you can disciple others, teaching and challenging and growing them up? Perhaps you are poised in the middle, able to disciple some who are very young, but in need of some guidance yourself. Regardless of where you are, you need other people in order to live life as God desires to give to the fullest.

So what other innovations does Church offer? Other people to influence and be influenced by is one thing; what else? I think another aspect Church offers is closely related, perhaps so close that it’s easy to confuse with the other.

I’m talking about community. Yes, that’s very similar to what I just said, other people. But I’m speaking of the aspect of choosing to be a part of a community, of letting yourself be known to a group. In the paragraphs above, I was talking about other people as individuals, able to influence us or be influenced by us. But now I’m talking about community as a whole, as an organism of its own, different than a group of individuals. The interplay of individual to group is wholly different than the interplay of individual to individual. In community, people become part of something larger than themselves, and they are fundamentally affected by it.

So, perhaps ‘sustainability’ in ministry means paying attention to what people need and will always need: other people, both as individuals and as community.

Am I just stating the obvious here? I feel like I’m talking in circles… Am I resonating with anyone out there? Do you all have any thoughts on my thoughts? Let me know!

2007-08-07T08:26:00.001-07:00

At last! I have a few hours to kill, I have wedding pics, I have no excuses but to update! So, for those of you who weren't able to be there...

The Wedding

It was great! Not too many people, the weather was perfect, the church looked awesome, everybody looked real good... Not as good as Kelly, mind you, but pretty good nonetheless. After the seating of the grandparents and parents, Kelly's sister and sis-in-law lit the candles. What nobody told me was that the mothers and Kelly had decided at the last minute to have the candles for the Unity Candle ceremony lit at that time, instead of by the mothers. I almost went and blew them out!

Then came the processional. Our small army of attendants came on stage, but I hardly remember that because I was so nervous and waiting to see Kelly. Our flower girls were adorable! One looked at her feet the whole way, one got a petal stuck in her dress and veered off into one of the aisles as she tried to get it out, and the third had to come down with her mom at the end because she was so nervous! Oh, and our dapper little ring bearer is a heart breaker already!

Then came the moment I'd been anticipating for 32 years. My bride came down the aisle.

It really is a blur after that. I can only write what happened here because I have one of the programs...

My youth pastor from high school prayed an opening prayer, our pastor spoke a little, then I washed her feet, which is something I've done a few times in our relationship. After which, she washed my feet. We tried to light the unity candle, but there was no wick!!! We tried melting a hole in the top for a few seconds, to see if it was just hiding under a little of the wax, but we found nothing. So, I had the great idea of sticking my candle in the small puddle of wax, and just blowing her candle out! (When we got back from the honeymoon, we found out that the candle had simply been upside down!)

Then we exchanged rings, with no pranks or tomfoolery, and finally we took communion. Our pastor announced us, my youth pastor prayed for us, and we took off!

We hopped in my Mom's convertible, and drove off to take some pics along the gorge. Then we ended up at the Corbet Grange Hall. We had a fantastic time, just hanging out and mingling with friends and family. It was great! We were toasted by the friends we love most, we tossed her bouquet and garter belt, we ate much cake. Mmm, cake...

Then it was off to the honeymoon!

We started with a short hike to Larch Mountain, where we had a great view of God's creation. Then dinner at Multnomah Falls Lodge, then our house. We opened our presents the next morning, the hit the road for Lake Chelan, WA. Sunday night we spent at a cute little Bed & Breakfast, then we rode the ferry 50 miles up the lake to Stehekin. It was gorgeous! On the way up, we tried to find a nice trail and campsite in their little brochure. There was one called Rainbow Basin, which has a great view of 5 waterfalls surrounding it. The brochure said the trail was 3.5 miles long, but we got there and it turns out it's 3.5 miles from the trail head, which is like 17 miles from Stehekin. Luckily, there's a shuttle bus that runs 11 miles of it, but we settled for a shorter 5 mile hike to Bridge Creek. That's when we had our first little adventure!

The trail suddenly split, with no signs and no indication on the map as to why. On a whim, we decided to split up, since it we thought the trail should come back together after a little bit. After about 25 minutes following a trail that looked like cut down to join her trail every 20 feet, but never did, I decided I needed to find my wife! I started blazing a trail in the direction of her trail, which included walking along a fallen log 10 feet above the ground (with my 70 pound pack). Oh, and I'm shouting her name at the top of my lungs every minute or so. Finally I double back, meet my trail, and doubled back further to where we split up. I follow her trail, watching for her footprints. Finally I come to where our trails would have come together, and 40 feet past that is Kelly, pack off and feet soaking in the creek.

Anyway, we went back down to Chelan the next day. Wednesday we rented a jet ski and played on the lake. I got thrown off like 4 times when Kelly was driving, and I lost my sunglasses. I decided to tread water for a while and let Kelly ride on her own, which was a totally different experience than when I was on it.

The next day we went to Slidewaters, a water slide park in Chelan. We did some slides, but we also spend like 2 hours just reading and soaking in the sun. It was fantastic. Except for loosing my cel phone... Oh, and I got a sweet tattoo! I had it for a few days, but then it went away... After Slidewaters, we did some wine tasting and had dinner at a vineyard.

Our last night we spent in Leavenworth. We watched Harry Potter 5, and ordered pizza in the nicest hotel room we'd ever stayed in. It was cool. The next morning, we met her parents for breakfast, then drove to Yakima where my family threw us a BBQ.

Well, that's about it! We're here now, at home in our cute little house. We're pretty much all set up, except for our office, of course. We have internet all set up, I'm using an old cel phone, life is hitting its stride.

Well, that's all for now. We'll update as things progress around here. Feel free to call us if you want to come hang out! I'm work Tuesday and Thursday nights, and we have Home Fellowship on Wednesdays, but we should be open all other nights. We'd love to hang out with you!

2007-07-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

Update: I've re-activated an old phone, so my number is active again, however I had to get a new SIM card, which means I don't have anyone's numbers. I got a few from Kelly, but I'm still missing a lot. So, if you could all e-mail me your numbers, that'd be great! Thanks!

PS Wedding photos are coming as soon as we get them from the photographer...

2007-07-17T21:48:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! We're back! The wedding was awesome, the reception was fun, the honeymoon was great!

Special thanks go out to all of you who helped with the wedding or reception, you all rock!

Sorry for the short update, I'm actually at work right now, so I don't have much time...

The honeymoon was a lot of fun! A full update is forthcoming, but here's a few quick thoughts:

1) Kelly can be mean when I'm driving and I have to go to the bathroom! She mocked me and pointed out every drop of flowing water within sight for nearly an hour until I was able to find a place to go!

2) I think I'd forgotten that hiking can be an end in itself. We hiked for about 5 miles on Monday, then 5 back on Tuesday. We didn't get to go where we were headed, but the trip was great anyway!

3) Stuff gets lost easy. Here's a partial list of things I lost on the honeymoon:

My sunglasses
Kelly (But I found her again!)
A spoon (I also found it again)
My cell phone
My virginity

Yeah, I lost my cell phone on the trip. So, if any of you have tried to contact me recently, it probably hasn't worked. I hope to replace it soon, but for now you'll all have to try Kelly's phone. I'm not posting that here, but e-mail me if you need it. E-mail takes a while, because we don't have internet at the house yet, but at least it's something.

Yikes, I've gotta go!

2007-06-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hey folks! Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. I actually moved into the house Kelly and I will be living in a couple weeks ago, and since I'm here on my own I've not yet set up internet... However, my silly neighbors have an unsecured network with internet access, so here I am!

Wedding planning is going well. Invitations resulted in the worst fight we've ever had, but we made it through. If you haven't received one yet, it may be because we had a wrong address for you, or we didn't get an address for you until after the postage hike in May. We haven't sent any out since then, what with me moving and all...

Speaking of wedding plans, I just spent the last 3.5 hours scanning pics for our slideshow. Man, I was a cute kid. Check this out:

Note the excessive ruffles on the white-on-white tux! Man, I wish I still fit into that thing...

Here's another more recent one, from a play I was in where my character worked for the antichrist:

Justin, I hope you appreciate that shot! That's not a bald cap I'm wearing, I actually shaved my head like that. The tattoo is fake, though. It is supposed to be Greek for '666.'

OK, last one. It was the 80's, and I was trying desparately for a flat-top haircut. How did I do?

2007-05-06T02:03:00.000-07:00

Today's date is really cool.

5/6/7

And when am I getting up? 8.

2007-05-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Sorry for the lack of update, it's been a long couple days for us...

Surgery Update, short form:
Things went well, but it was an emotionally trying ordeal. Since yesterday, Kelly's been feeling pretty sick. It's probably a combination of stress, antibiotics, pain killers, and other things all ganging up on her poor body.

Surgery Update, long form:
We showed up at the doctor's office in Beaverton at about 6:45 am on Thursday. By about 7:15 she was preped and in her first surgery. The procedure is that they 'scoop' out the chunck of cancer cells, then they taket the piece to the lab and test it to see if the outer edge of what they took is free of cancer. If not, they go back and scrape a little more again. The surgery part takes only 20 minutes or so, but the lab testing takes up to an hour. So, we had my laptop and headphones and watched movies while we waited!

They ended going back in twice, for a total of three surgeries. The doctor had to cauterize a capillary in her nose, which was lame because it stinks like burning skin. Yuck! Finally, after hearing that her last slide looked clean, we were ready to go! The doctor let Kelly look at the chunks of her nose on the slides. I didn't get to see them... The doctor did say that, even though Kelly only noticied the spot last fall, it looked like it may have been around for a couple years. It could have been caused by an adverse reaction to sunlight, or by localized trauma.

Well, we had to sit around awhile and finish the movie we had started! (Deja Vu, with Denzel Washington) Then we drove down to Lake Oswego to visit the plastic surgeon. The spot to fill was about the size of an oblong dime. Kelly had been hoping it would be small enough for her nose skin to be pulled over, but because she's so young, her skin is pretty tight. (Because she's so hot!) The plastic surgeon gave her a mirror to look at herself as he discussed options, but seeing the actual wound was a lot for her to handle. He ended up taking a skin graft from just in front of her right ear. That whole procedure took about an hour, maybe a little more. Finally, she was done! Good thing, too. The plastic surgeon wasn't really as personable and nice as the doctor who removed the cancer. He was a little rough, and didn't really appreciate how weird this was for her. As a plastic surgeon, most of his clients want to have him do what he does, so he doesn't need to comfort them much. But Kelly's not here for a nose job or tummy tuck, she's having cancer removed! She was able to hear him cutting the skin by her ear, which was a lot to handle again.

Finally, it was over! They called me in from the lobby to come hold her hand as they finished cleaning up and let her get some fluid in her. (Washington apple juice is the best!) It turns out the two techs working with the surgeon had been talking wedding stuff with Kelly during the surgery, so they were all excited to meet me. (I found out later that talking wedding stuff was actually more stressful for her, as we're in the thick of invitations and scheduling bridal showers...) Finally, I walked her out to my car, and we went back to her place. It was a long day; 4 surgeries in 9 hours or so... And there was more action to come!

Funny quotes from Kelly on painkillers:
"Ouch! I just punched my face in the nose!"
(OK, that's all I remember for now. I'll have more up later...)

So, Friday we went back in to the plastic surgeon to have the bandages removed from her nose. The surgeon is a big fan of letting the surgery heal to open air. Well, Kelly had taken a generic Percocet and an antibiotic, along with a half-bagel and peanut butter. As we were walking in to the exam room, she took a sip of coffee, but started to fell queasy. She lost color and said she felt like she might pass out. The doctor tipped her back on the robo-chair as he gave her the check-up. The skin patch is very white, but as it starts to get blood to it, it will turn pink or purple. It will fade to normal, and the sun will even out the color in a couple months or so. Hmm, what big, important day is coming in 2 months and 3 days?

Kelly got to sit in the chair for a while before getting up. One of the surgeon's nurses came and sat with us, but Kelly didn't get all better. In fact, the nurse took her to the bathroom and she got sick. I drove her back to her house, and she took a nap. However, she had a couple of last-day appointments at Multnomah, so I took her to the school after her nap. Then I went to work, but she had to cut her HR exit interview short because she was feeling sick again. The HR manager took her home, and she rested for the rest of the day. She got sick a couple more times, so she's sleeping in right now. We think it's a combination of not much in her tummy, with painkillers and antibiotics, and a really stressful couple days. Her poor body's been through quite a bit.

Thank you all for your prayers! Please continue to pray for her, that her recovery would be swift and complete. She starts her new job at Key Publishing on Monday! On Thursday she has the sutures taken out, and on Friday she flies to New York!

Oh, I'd appreciate your prayers too. It's been long, and I've been really focused on loving Kelly well during this. But I feel myself getting tired and less patient with people. Please pray that God would fill the storehouse of my love from His abundant supply of it. Thanks!

One last thing: For those of you who may have been expecting them, I have pictures, but I've elected to not share them. She's not exactly comfortable with everybody seeing her wounded nose right now. I'll wait until there's some distance from the event before I post them. Hey, maybe I'll put them in our wedding slideshow!

2007-04-25T23:35:00.000-07:00

Hey, I've got a new website for y'all to check out. It's not much, but it's mine.

trewilbanks.voice123.com

It's a free site, hence the lack of stuff such as picture, streaming demo, etc. But it's mine! I'm hoping to pick up some part-time side work as a voice actor. We'll see what happens!

2007-04-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well hello everybody! It has been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that!

Wedding preparations are going well. We're down to the planning of specifics; picking music, building the slideshow, designing the invitations, etc. Things are going well. We're also mid-way into our premarital counseling, which has also been good. Not easy, but good. We've come up on some hard things, or some poorly-put-by-Tré things that have led to frustrating communication, but we've worked through those things with help from God and our pastor. Things are going well!

Part of the reason I haven't blogged is that Kelly's had a really rough; no, eventful couple of weeks. Which means, of course, that I've had a really rough; no, eventful couple of weeks. Here are a few things that have happened:

Kelly got a new job! Her position at Multnomah has evolved out of her skill set, so she began to look around for something else that may fit her a little better. Well, my soon-to-be-bride is now working for a fashion magazine in Vancouver! She's landed a job at Classic Style Magazine. She'll probably be more specific over on her blog, but I believe she's a PR intern. She gets to use her love of - and education in - writing, and she gets paid for it!
Kelly's had an odd looking wound on her nose for a while now. We thought it may be an allergic reaction to her nose ring, as it's located just below it, but she went in to have it checked out. It's kinda scary to hear your fiancee say she had a biopsy today. Well, as it turns out, it's more scary to hear the results: She has skin cancer. It's scheduled to be removed the first week of May. Please pray for her. The doctors are very reassuring that it's not difficult or very risky, but you really can't take much weight out of saying "I have skin cancer." It's difficult for me to find a balance between reassuring her ("Everything's going to be fine") and acknowledging the fear ("This is scary!"). I don't want to ignore or invalidate her emotions, but I want to support her and not indulge those fears very much.
We have a house! Our friends the Sticklers have recently bought a house in Vancouver, and the house they've been renting is up for grabs. Well, it was up for grabs! We went to talk to the landlords, who are this really adorable elderly couple that live next door, and by the end of the talk we had applications filled out and are ready to move in! They're graciously letting us rent for half-price for May and June, as I'll be living there alone until Kelly and I get married in July. Hey, any guys out there need a place to live for the months of May and June? I'm looking for a roommate for just those couple months. Let me know if you or anyone you know is interested!
Kelly has to leave Multnomah. (See #1 above) I know this has already been mentioned, but this aspect is of equal emotional value to the rest, so it gets its own number. She's been there for a while now, and has many loving relationships with people there that are going to get harder to maintain, as time with those people won't be as common. Plus, she'll be giving up medical insurance, which is huge in light of #2...
We have engagement photos! We met with our photographer, who graciously met with us on Easter afternoon, to get some engagement shots. We'll be choosing one of these lucky pics for use in our invitations, which will be coming out in the next month. Or, couple weeks, if we're good... Wanna see some?

This one's my favorite:

Man, that's enough for now. As you can see, it's been an emotionally trying few days. Actually, the job, cancer and house all happened in two days, we've just been reeling from that for a week or so. But, all in all, our lives are good, our love is good, our God is good, so I think we're doing pretty good.

2007-03-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

So, I should totally be packing for the men's retreat I'm going on this weekend. Well, I had to get this pics off of my camera before I leave, right?

So, I totally forgot to share what we did for Valentine's Day. I told Kelly to meet me at my house, dressed for a low-key night out. Nothing too fancy, but a little nicer than sweats. She came to my house, expecting to simply pick me up and we'd go. Little did she know, there was nowhere else to go! I had totally cleaned out our kitchen, then hung a new shower curtain as a door, so it was suddenly a new, moderately private, room.

I had candles burning, soft romantic music playing, etc. So we sat down to a gourmet dinner:

Appetizer: Swiss cheese crostini with a spicy sausage/yogurt/rosemary topping
Salad: Spring greens with Gorgonzola crumbles and almonds, topped with a raspberry vinaigrette
Entree: Tourne potatoes, baby asparagus, and breaded Chicken Kiev, stuffed with spinach, bacon, Gorgonzola and ricotta cheese. Paired with a Jacob's Creek Cabernet/Shiraz.

For dessert, we went back to Cafe Delirium, where we had our engagement party back in January. Being a Wednesday night, we then went back to the house for Lost. It wasn't a half-bad night!

Next holiday on my list, as some of you may know, is St. Patty's Day. Not because of my Irish heritage, but because it marks the one year anniversary of when Kelly and I went on our first date. Now, the 17th was a Saturday this year, so I unfortunately had to work in the afternoon. Actually, I ended up working until 4 in the morning Sunday... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I got up early to surprise Kelly. Do you all remember the ring from the last post? (You should, it's like 4 inches (7.8 cm) below this...) Well, Kelly thought we should take that morning and go downtown to pick up that ring, and run a couple other downtown errands. Well, I thought the ring would be cool, but errands not so much. So, I hatched a more devious plan!

In the morning, I called Kelly feeling really tired from being at work until 2. Which was truth, by the way! Anyway, I called her asking if she could drive today. She said sure, she'd give me a few minutes then come pick me up. Only, she went out to her car and found a little something on the hood...

I had, unbeknownst to her, gone in Friday before work and picked up the ring on my own! So, I presented it with some candles and a potpourri pillow on her hood! She really likes it, and I do to. Now, we agree that she can't really wear it until our wedding. But, I gave her visitation rights that weekend. She got my ring out too, and we got to wear them both that day. Afterwards, we went to Laurelhurst Park and just walked and talked for a while, soaking up the wonderful sunlight and company. I thought it was cool how they made the water that green color, just for St. Patty's Day!

OK, now I've totally gotta go pack for this retreat. See you all later!

2007-03-01T13:29:00.000-08:00

Anybody wanna loan me a few bucks?

Sorry for the poor focus on my phone camera... I'll get a better pic of it up once we pick it up. What you're looking at is a princess cut diamond, with two small round diamonds on either side of it. The wrap actually only touches two of the four sides of the ring, giving it a suspended look. Actually, it just barely wraps around the top and bottom, but the sides are still open.

We're having them replace the round diamonds because we felt the distracted from the main diamond a little. What do you all think?

2007-02-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

For those of you interested in our wedding plans, head on over to Kelly's blog. She's much more elequent at this sort of thing. Plus she's real cute! The short, pragmatic answer is that we've got just about all of the big things taken care of. This includes:

Church rented
Reception location reserved
Colors picked
Flowers picked (chosen, not plucked) and to be purchased
Dressed/Tuxes ordered or purchased
Rings designed and/or purchased
Photographer reserved
Wedding cake ordered
Invitations designed
Lots of other stuff...

Now, for those of you interested in cool internet finds, you've gotta check this guy out!

Lasse Gjertsen, who can't drum or play piano
Lasse Gjertsen, human beatbox who can't beatbox

After watching those, I'm actually surprised one of the guys I've lived with hasn't already done something like this. The first time I watched it, I felt like I've lived with this guy at some point. Except I've never lived in Norway...

2007-01-25T10:06:00.000-08:00

Aw, shucks! Thanks everybody!

Alright, now is the time! Unless you've already done so recently, feel free to e-mail us your addresses. Invitations are a-coming!

Oh, yeah, and see if you recognize anybody on this page!

2007-01-08T00:23:00.000-08:00

Hilariously, the topic of discussion over at Hutch's blog recently has been proposals. They've been recounting great (and not so great) stories of engagements. It's hilarious, because...

We're engaged!!!

Yeah, it happened tonight. Actually, most people who read this blog were there, so I feel a little weird sharing the story. Oh well, it's a story worth telling!

So, my friend Scott Olsen's birthday was yesterday. Kelly thought his wife was throwing a surprise birthday party for him. I even made fake invitations. They arranged to run some errands today, including picking up some posters from Scott's office for decorations. They have this huge Black Sabbath poster that would be great. So, Melody and Kelly show up at the Coram Deo office in downtown Gresham at around 6:40. Only, the office isn't empty:

So, if you take all three of these pictures, you sort of get an idea of what was waiting for Kelly. A trail of silk rose pedals, leading to a candlelit table, with me next to it, holding 14 roses. (The lights were off, but the flash makes the left and right/bottom pic look like they were on)

She was shocked. We've been talking, as recently as yesterday, about a spring engagement, with the possibility of a September wedding. Ha.

You see, last summer Kelly fell in love with the date 7-07-07 for a wedding. Somewhere around last August, I warmed up to the idea as well. Then began the task of getting her mind off of that date, so I could surprise her with an engagement. Which brings us back to the story...

So, there she is, frozen in the doorway of the office. I pull her in, thank Melody, and hand her the roses. Oh, Louis Armstrong is singing Wonderful World in the background this whole time. We dance slowly for the rest of the song, allowing the shock to pass so she can soak up the moment.

I lead her to the chair, and ask her to sit. I start talking about the last time I washed her feet, which was the first time I told her I loved her. Back then I talked about how by Jesus washing the disciples' feet was Jesus telling them that He was willing to be what they needed Him to be; specifically, an atoning sacrifice. (As I'm talking, I remove her shoes and socks and wash her feet) I tell her that I'm doing that again, committing to be what she needs me to be. Not 'needs' as in she's lacking something, but that she can do better than getting by on her own. I slip a toe ring on the second-to-last toe of her left foot. She sort of laughs at me, which is good because it was a cheesy little thing to do. So, I grab a small box and open it to reveal a white-gold ring. I tell her that this ring is a symbol of my love for her. Also, it is a symbol of the ring she'll get for our wedding; this is a completely separate ring, just for our engagement. You see, she has some specific desires for a ring we haven't been able to find anywhere yet, and we have some options to decide from with our rings. So, we can now do that together.

I propose (you don't get the details, that's private!)

She didn't actually say yes, she just smiled really big and nodded vigorously. I think that's still legally binding...

We kiss. Then I lead her in communion, as I'm going to be the leader of our household. I read out of Luke, and we partake of bread and wine. We kiss some more. Next we dance to Etta James singing 'Embraceable You.'

Then, she starts cleaning up, thinking the night is over. But she's wrong. 3 hours wrong. I tell her that Scott gave us permission to leave the place a mess, and I'll come back and clean it up in the morning. So we start to leave, but we have a disagreement over which exit is closest to my car. She's right, but I pretend to be sure I'm right. We head down the wrong stairs, and out an exit around the corner from my car. Oh well, we can walk around a corner. A corner storefront for Cafe' Delirium. The Cafe' Delirium where 60 of our best friends are waiting for us! We open the door to loud cheers and applause. As the applause dies down, I make the announcement: "She said yes!" What follows is 3 hours of mingling and talking and laughing and loving. I really wanted it to be a night of celebrating Kelly, and I think it was. There was a slideshow going of pictures of her and of us; there was music from my iTunes of 'our music;' there was much storytelling and joy. New friends braved awkwardness and comfort to join us, old friends shared stories and new directions in life; it was real community and fellowship. I loved it.

(I know there are those of you who couldn't make it but wished you were there. You were missed! Especially my friend Chad and her friend LeAnn, as well as others who are dear to us!)

So, finally, we cleaned up and drove home. I drove a long route home so we had time to call our mothers and fathers and brothers. Anybody else can wait till tomorrow... After we got back to her place, I showed her all the e-mails I've been having about this night, dating all the way back to August, either from people encouraging us or saying they couldn't be there tonight but wished they could be.

So, there you have it! There are many more stories to tell, like how I wasn't able to talk to her dad to ask his blessing until about 5:45... Thanks to all of you who came, and especially to those of you who helped decorate or make coffee or helped clean up... We love you folks!

PS The date shall be 7-07-07. Mark your calendars now.

2006-12-22T10:06:00.000-08:00

All of you who have a MySpace page that I know about should really check your message inbox for a special holiday treat!

2006-12-14T14:58:00.000-08:00

Christmas Sale!!!

Anybody in the PDX area interested in the following stocking stuffers?

(You'd have to have some big stockings...)

Left stocking

Right stocking

Drop me an e-mail, blog readers get special preference!

2006-12-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

Update for all you Lost-ies:

Lost is moving to 10 pm.

Not a bad change for me, as my small group has rarely been getting out in time for Kelly and I to make it back to my house to watch it with our friends, but some of those friends have to either drive to Longview afterward or be up at 4 to open a coffee stand. It's a bummer for them!

2006-11-28T13:15:00.000-08:00

I have a new little project I'm working on these days...

My church is very focused on supporting ministry. Specifically, we attempt to support our members fulfilling ministry in their lives. So, we don't have many internally focused ministries (a men's ministry, a women's ministry, etc.). Rather, we focus on supporting the ministries our members take part of, and helping network our members together. Take, for instance, a couple in our church who work with My Father's House. The church assists by letting our members know what's going on there, so others from our church can help out however they need.

Some people in our church work with organized ministries or parachurch organizations. Others minister in less organized, but more personal, ways. There's a couple in our church who simply work with younger, rather troubled boys they come in contact with. Another who used to go to our church focused on spending time with the people she works with outside work, living her life with them in ways that represent Christ.

As our church focuses on raising up and developing young Christians, we take seriously the need to help develop chances for them to minister.

This is where my little project comes in.

Here's what it isn't: It isn't a list of ministries to plug people in to. My focus isn't plugging people directly into ministries. That's a great focus; it's just not mine. What I'm interested in is plugging people into themselves first; I want to develop a system to prepare for ministry.

There are many things that influence a person's ability to minister. I don't assume to have all the answers, and there's a lot of room to mess people up with this kind of thing. If I don't come in with a healthy, well-developed philosophy of what ministry is, I could really screw people up.

However, if it goes well, I do a lot of good for a lot of people. I could help these young Christians get into touch with what God's doing with their lives, how He's been developing them and equipping them. What I'm envisioning is some sort of series of meetings or interviews, with some introspective homework or writing exercises, aimed at introducing them to their own ministry potential and desires.

Here's where you, loyal readers, come in. What kind of things do you think are important to know about yourself for your effectiveness in ministry? Though I will spend some time addressing spiritual gifts, what other things should I introduce these young Christians to? What has helped you gain perspective and confidence in ministry? What can I ask them and help them see in themselves that will help them better serve in the Kingdom of God?

2006-11-16T12:24:00.000-08:00

Hey folks! Sorry it's been a while, I went to Sacramento last week! Kelly's older brother, Jon, and his wife and two kids, live in Rocklin, near Sacramento. We flew down Thursday night and stayed until Monday. It was great! The girls don't get to see Aunt Kelly very often, so it was really neat to be able to spend some time with them. We gave them Christmas presents, as we won't see them before then. We must have watched Little Mermaid a dozen times that weekend...

Upper Left: Lisa, Jenai, Jon and Julia, with Alcatraz in the background.
Upper Right: Jenai and Elmo during bath time!
Lower Left: I'm giving Julia a ride on my shoulders
Lower Right: Jenai and Julia. Ain't they just the cutest?

On Friday we all went to San Francisco for the day. That was a lot of fun. We drove through Chinatown, we ate at Fisherman's Wharf, and we visited the Exploratorium. Saturday we visited Jon's school to see his classroom and their brand new facility. It's amazing! Saturday night we went to church with them, and Sunday we watched the girls while Jon and Lisa went out for a movie. (This was our idea, don't worry) By the way, they do not recommend Borat. At all.

It was a great time! Jon schooled me in tennis, but I maintained some dignity... Those girls are adorable.

However, I've been sick since I got back. I've been on a steady diet of chicken soup and tea for the last three day. I'm starting to get a little tired of it. Plus I have to go to the bathroom every ten minutes... Oh, gotta go!

2006-11-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.myheritage.com

2006-11-02T10:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.myheritage.com

2006-11-02T09:10:00.000-08:00

It's been one week...

Job: It's ok. They really like me, and seem excited that I'm there. Last Saturday was a really busy night, and in the middle of running around, my boss stopped and said to everyone, "Doesn't it feel like Tre's been here for months already?" to which the servers and bussers replied, "Yes!"
However, they've gone without someone in this position for 2 months now. Well, there have been a couple people who tried it out, but they quit after a couple days. Anyway, it's been a little difficult so far to feel needed. I'm no good at standing around at work, but that's what it feels like I'm doing most of the time. They've become pretty self-sufficient... But they want me around, so that's nice.

Church: It's good to be back! It was hard to get to church in Lincoln City, as I was either out of town on Sundays or working until 2 in the morning on Saturday night. Plus, it was hard to get motivated to become a part of a church, because I was only going to be there for a short time. I know, excuses, excuses... Anyway, it's good to be back at Coram Deo Fellowship! Also, Kelly's started attending with me. That's the coolest part. She's also a part of my home fellowship, which is now meeting on Wednesday nights. That's cool, too. There's lots of rather new Christians in the group, which is exciting. Also, we share dinner, which is also exciting! Each week, one person/couple provides the main dish, and the rest of us plan around it. Last night I made risotto with chicken & mushrooms. I think they're a little intimidated by my cooking skills, which is a bummer.

Kelly: She's awesome. The hardest thing right now is our schedules. I work Thursday through Sunday night, usually until 2 am. She works normal weekday hours at Multnomah. Also, on Monday nights she's attending a class taught by Byron Kehler through Imago Dei, on Tuesdays she has dinner with the wonderful girls in her house, and Wednesdays is our small group, followed by a Lost party at my house. All that = no date time, which is a real bummer. This week is Preview at Multnomah, so even when we are together, she's really tired. I feel like something's gotta give, which is hard, because I've only been at this life for a week now...

Anyway, for those of you adept at inter-lineal graphic recognition (a.k.a. reading between the lines), I'm free to hang out Monday & Tuesday nights, if anybody's up for it. Just give me a call!

2006-10-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen...

...today's Sign of the Apocalypse:

Marvel Comics and the soap opera 'Guiding Light' team up

No, it is as bad as you think.

2006-10-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

I'm home! I came back to Portland Saturday morning for graduation. It was fun to see most the people from my class again, though there were a few I didn't get to see. Kelly, my mom, and Scott & Mel Olsen came to the Oregon Convention Center watch me. (Sorry, I only had 4 tickets, or I would have invited more of you!) Afterwards, there was a reception at WCI, with hors d'oeuvres and demos in all the classrooms.

What am I doing now? Well, I'm on vacation until Thursday. Tomorrow Kelly and I are driving back to Lincoln City to get the rest of my stuff and my truck. Until then... I'm just messing around...

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
0
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Actually, there are no people in their database with the names Tre, Tre', Tré (That's supposed to be an 'e' with an accent over it), Trei, or Tray. There are, however, 8,999 people named Trey. Also, there are 196 people named James Wilbanks. I feel so... common...

2006-10-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

...well, here's a new bit of news.

I have a job.

Do you remember that interview from a couple weeks ago? The one where they wanted me to quit Salishan and start in like four days? Well, they (the Monarch Hotel and Conference Center) called me back last Thursday. We played phone tag on Thursday, Friday, and yesterday. But then I finally talked to the HR director yesterday, and she offered me the job! So, I'll have four days off between Salishan and starting at the Monarch. What does this mean for me?

Pros: I have a job! I'll have only a few days off, not weeks of job searching with no income. I'll have 40+ hours a week. I'll have three-day weekends. I'll have a job that will give me supervisory experience, serving experience, and bartending experience - all things I need to buff up on my resume anyway. I'll have days open to go back and take a couple classes at Multnomah, and maybe even finish there someday soon. I'll have benefits!

Cons: I'll be working swing shift, 4pm to 2am or whenever the bar slows down. I'll be working Thursday through Sunday nights, which means my weekend evenings are taken. (Small group, dates with Kelly, and watching my friends play music all suffer on this one) The place doesn't feel quite right... (I was talking to Kelly about it this weekend, and I said it feels like the cafeteria in a retirement home...)

Overall, I'm still really excited about it. I'm also excited that I'm mature and intelligent enough to deal with those cons, and others I don't see just yet. It's not a bad thing to know lame things about your job, it helps you deal with them going into it.

So, anyway, thank you all who've been praying for me! I'll be moving back during the first part of next week, back into the same house I lived in before. We should have a party!

2006-10-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

Whoa, man... Ouch!

Which Star Trek character are you?

Your results:
You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)

An Expendable Character (Redshirt)		70%
Deanna Troi		65%
Uhura		60%
Data		57%
Worf		55%
Chekov		55%
Mr. Scott		55%
James T. Kirk (Captain)		55%
Mr. Sulu		55%
Geordi LaForge		50%
Beverly Crusher		50%
Spock		47%
Will Riker		40%
Jean-Luc Picard		40%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)		40%

Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed,
and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable.
That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if you
were in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first
episode you appeared in.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

2006-09-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

Update on the interview: I don't think I got the job. I'm OK with that, I'm not disappointed that I didn't get that job, just a little bummed I don't have a job. It just didn't feel like a really good fit. There were a lot of tasks that were right up my alley and matched with my career goals, but the overall feel of the place isn't... friendly enough, I think. Ironic, huh? An unfriendly hospitality establishment. Don't get me wrong, there a fine place. I just got the vibe of "we're glad you came here," rather that "we're excited you came here, please come back again! Bring your friends!"

So, anyway, thanks for praying! Oh, and my car did great! 34.something miles to the gallon! Yippee!

2006-09-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

So, I have this new car. Well, it's new to me. Wanna see? Here it is!

Here's all the things it has that my truck doesn't:
~tape player
~CD player
~dash lights
~speedometer
~odometer
~weather stripping
~it fits in any parking spot
~all turn signals, at all times
~E-brake
~hazard lights
~back seats
~over-the-shoulder seatbelts
~all the exterior paint
~gas gauge
~a spare tire with air in it
~air bags
~anti-theft device
~all the walls in the glove compartment
~when you turn the steering wheel, the tires turn at the same time
~rear-view mirrors that are adjustable from inside the car

I'm sure I'll remember more, but that's a pretty good start. Oh, the best thing? I filled the gas tank from less-than-half-full to full for only $13.36. That would've taken $35 or more in the truck! I still don't know what kind of mileage I'm getting, but I'll find out tomorrow...when I drive to my job interview!

2006-09-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you who have prayed or e-mailed about some of the stuff I mentioned in my last blog! Y'all are great!

In other news...

#1) My truck's dying. So, what am I going to do? Get a new car! Well, not brand new, but new to me. In fact, it'll be the youngest vehicle I've ever owned. It's a 1997 Geo Metro LSi. It's a 4-door, so it doesn't look like the Metro most people imagine when they think of a Metro. It's in pretty good condition, too! It has less than 35,000 miles, which is really good for a 9 year old car. Now all I have to do is pay for it... It's on consignment, which means the people who own it loan it to a car dealership to sell for them. What that means for me is I've gotta come up with ca$h by tomorrow. But the best part? I think I can! I'm borrowing from my mom, dad, grandparents, girlfriend, her sister... But I think it's going to happen!

It's a good thing I have a good car, because I have to drive to Portland Wednesday. Why, you ask?

#2) I have a job interview! I'll be interviewing at the Monarch Hotel and Conference Center in Clackamas. I'm super excited, because it's a good job, and it's Thursday through Sunday night. It'll be long hours, but I'll be able to attend Multnomah again this spring semester. I'm planning on re-taking some of the many classes I didn't do so hot in, to up my GPA a little before I graduate. Apparently, D doesn't equal diploma...

So there you have it! More good news than I can handle! I'm so excited I'm gonna have to take a nap later...

2006-09-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

...well, it's been a few weeks since an actual blog update. What's been happening? Good question...

======================================================
The Food and Beverage Director for Salishan called me into his office a couple weeks ago. "I'm very upset with your internship final evaluation. I'm very upset." Oh. Crap. What? He continued. "I'm very upset, because I never give perfect reviews. When I worked with Seagram's, I got into the HR department so I could help managers give more constructive evaluations, rather than just checking the 'good' box. I'm upset at your evaluation, because I could find no area where I could give you anything less than full marks. You made my job easier, and allowed our department to go places it hasn't been able to go for years. You have a job here if you ever want it."

...so, I guess this means I passed?
;-)

======================================================
Yeah, I passed. I scored an 'A' in my final class, Hospitality & Restaurant Management Internship. Final GPA: 3.94! Graduation is coming up on October 21st. I've got to see how many people I can have at graduation; I think there's a limited number of seats, as this graduation is for all the classes that have finished in the last 6 months. How big is the Convention Center, anyway?
======================================================
Update on my motorcycle: Burgled!

So I went out to my truck a couple of weeks ago to go to work. I park on the far corner of my apartment complex, so I can annoy my neighbors as little as possible. I still get complaints, but not as many... Anyway, I walk out to my car, and I notice my window down. I think to myself, I don't remember leaving the window down when I came home yesterday. Then I look in the truck and see the center storage console wide open. I think to myself, I don't remember rummaging through the console when I came home yesterday. Then it dawns on me: I've been robbed! They used a knife or something to get the small wing window open, then rolled down the driver's side window, then they went through my stuff! I don't have much of value in there, so I didn't worry too much. Until I realized I had left the motorcycle key on top of the console! Yeah, they stole it. Not only that, I had just purchased a pair of fingerless leather gloves to wear when riding. No, they didn't steal those. They only stole one! Mean jerks...
======================================================
Do you know I have a girlfriend? Yeah, I do. She's the best girlfriend ever! We've been dating for 6 months now! I went to Portland last weekend to celebrate. We got cell phones together (if you're lucky, she'll give you her new number. She's still using the old one, though...), then we went to Manzana's for dinner. After that, we walked to the waterfront (a little farther than I had remembered...), then we walked back to her car and drove a few blocks to Via Delizia in the Pearl. Afterwards, we went back to her house and broke some glass with a sledgehammer. No, seriously. Actually, they were crystal, and they shattered well!
======================================================
***Significant change of pace***Hold on, it gets real serious for a bit***

All of you who are concerned with Multnomah Bible College should really be praying for that place right now. There is so much going on:
~Nurse Ellen was hospitalized with a massive brain aneurysm during the Wildhorse retreat. As of last Monday, they had decided to deactivate life support. She's not expected to wake up.

~Steve Patty has been fired. It was originally going to be a one-year leave without pay, but as more facts were discovered... yeah, he's been fired. I don't want to add a lot of details, because I'm not even around Multnomah right now, so my info is all second-hand. Suffice it to say, he needs prayer. I'm watching for an official announcement by the school to alum or the public to pass on to you all.

~Dean Bob has retired. Truly the end of an era. Joe Slavens is the new Dean of Men. (That last part was actually good news, sorry to put it in this 'bummer news' section!) Others who are leaving or have left Multnomah include Tim Uthmann (replaced by the great Ian Durias) and Jamie (Weatherford) Shaw (replaced by the wonderful Amber Wilson).

~Darin Brown, youth pastor for Memorial Bible Church in Yakima, was asked to resign at 10 am today. "The reasons are not from moral decline or anything like that, but an apparent difference in leadership and non growth in our ministry." (I know this one's not Multnomah related, but the news fits best here...)
======================================================
Whew. I'm spent. Thank you all for reading!

P.S. Please direct any questions about anything in the 'bummer news' section directly to trethar@juno.com. Don't try to get real info from me through comments...

2006-09-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

So, here's a quote from yesterday's Dilbert for y'all:

"Success is that feeling you get between the time you do something and the time you tell a woman what you did."

2006-09-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

I've done it. I've finally joined NationStates.net. Today I initiated the Constitutional Monarcy of Trethar. For those of you who don't know, NationStates is an online government simulator. Based on the novel Jennifer Government, NationStates allows you to form your nation-state, then each day you deal with one or two issues raised by the people. You can support one of a few opinions to each issue and pass a law, or you can dismiss the issue. Based on your opinions and choices, your crime, education and economy changes. You can also interact with other nation-states.

The Constitutional Monarchy of Trethar is a tiny, devout nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, intelligent population of 5 million have some civil rights, but not too many, enjoy the freedom to spend their money however they like, to a point, and take part in free and open elections, although not too often.

The large government is mainly concerned with Religion & Spirituality, although Law & Order and Healthcare are on the agenda. The average income tax rate is 22%. A small but healthy private sector is dominated by the Door-to-door Insurance Sales industry.

Crime is moderate. Trethar's national animal is the three toed sloth and its currency is the knuck. (Two knucks make a knuckle. A sandwich on the street costs two knucks. A knuckle sandwich...)

2006-08-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

So, here's a new thing in my life. I'm getting a roommate. Now, most of you are probably laughing right now, saying to yourselves, 'hasn't Tre' lived with like 30 guys?' Yes, actually, the number is now at about 41. No, seriously, I've lived with 41 different guys in the last 7 and a half years. But this one's different.

First off, I haven't ever had just one roommate. I've had as many as 6 other guys in my residence, but never just one guy. Second, and more significant, is the fact that I don't actually know this guy. He's another intern from Western Culinary, working at Salishan for the next year. Yeah, I only signed up until the end of October, he's here for a year.

Also, I don't know his... religious status. I mean, all the guys I've lived with love the Lord. Some have confusing ways of showing it... ;-) No, seriously, all of them have confessed faith in Christ. But I don't know this guy's story at all.

How missional is my life? Am I truely ready for my living room to be a mission field? Well, I'd better get that way, because it is now! If you think about it, pray for me...

Oh, on a side note, Kelly and I had the best dinner of our lives tonight. Well, it was the best of my life, anyway... My boss at Salishan is trying to win me over into staying on. I've been hesitant, because I really want to get back to Portland. So, two weeks ago he bought my dad and I dinner at the family dining restaurant. Nothing too huge, just a couple lunches at a restaurant comparable to Applebee's or Sheri's. But tonight, he got dinner for Kelly and I at the Dining Room, the fine dining restaurant at Salishan. I'm talking $40 entrees, but we get soup and salad and dessert as well... Plus, he donated a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from his personal wine cellar! We had wine and dinner on this guy, which would have probably cost over $150 retail! He really wants me to stay... Anyway, Kelly felt really... spoiled? No... celebrated? I think that's closer. We felt like the model couple, like we were just there as advertisement for the restaurant. Crab bisque, salad, venison and rack of lamb... Oh, and chocolate pistacio dessert...

Sometimes, it feels really good to run around with rich people. We could never afford anything like this. It felt pretty good to be that appreciated...

2006-08-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

OK, I've kind of had this secret for a few weeks now. I've tried really hard to keep it hidden, but I really can't anymore.

I've found the best album ever. It's the greatest. It was given to me a few weeks ago, and I've been listening to it almost non-stop. Seriously, check it out! It's the finest worship album on the market. It's by my best friend, Scott Olsen. He's officially releasing the CD this week. In fact, I think it's already available at Windows Booksellers on Multnomah's campus.

It's totally awesome. I mean, I really love it. It showcases Scott's ability to find deep, eternal truth in just about anything. It showcases his awesome music abilities; not just as a guitarist or vocalist, but as a producer as well. It showcases the community of believers God has allowed Scott to meet and work with over the past few years, including Amber Wilson on vocals, Colin Wyenberg on drums and Kevin Kruse on keys. Most of all, it showcases his Lord and Savior.

You can buy it here, or contact Scott directly. E-mail me for his address, I'm not just going to post his e-mail address!

2006-08-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

Directions. Receiving directions is a very interesting process. So often, it’s easy to mistake one for many; a direction versus directions. A direction assumes a direct line from point a to point b; directions are needed any time something lies between point a and point b.

This morning, Kelly’s uncle Kerry was giving us directions from their house in Deer Park to the Spokane airport. As his directions progressed, his points of reference seemed to change a little. ‘Head towards the hospital,’ ‘go north on such-and-such bridge,’ ‘head back the way you came in…’ His directions weren’t ever flawed, it was simply that he allowed the point of reference (hospital, bridge, the way you came in) to change as our journey progressed.

I thought about life a little, and how Kerry’s directions reflect the way God sometimes directs our lives. Too often, we desire a direction. “God, tell me exactly where to end up, and how to get there in the quickest way.” It’s not a matter of patience or lack thereof; it’s just that we only expect to be given a direction. But, with some of us, God needs to give directions. Perhaps there are obstacles in our own lives we need to steer around, perhaps we need to stop and wait on some construction. (Or a little reconstruction…) Perhaps the things we need to steer around are obstacles or challenges in the lives of others that are affecting our journey.

The point is, don’t be too upset or afraid of a change in direction. Changing directions, or having our point of reference change, doesn’t mean we were headed in the wrong direction. It just means there are things in the way, or the road we were on doesn’t go directly where we were headed. Also, there’s little reason to stress out about how many steps are in my directions vs. the directions given to others. Some people happen to live close to where they need to go, so they don’t need many directions. Others start out their journey farther from their destination, so they need to make more turns and merges and things. Neither is better or worse, they both have their advantages and drawbacks.

I started out college headed towards a career towards music education. Actually, I headed towards just finishing community college. A short term goal, to be sure. Then, I was directed towards music education. I took a right towards computer science, but that turned out to be a wrong turn. I went back to Yakima and got headed back in the right direction, and ended up at Multnomah. I hit some rough patches and had to exit. Life looped around and I ended up at Multnomah again, but headed in a different direction. Then I exited Multnomah Hwy. and got onto Western Culinary Blvd.

It would be easy for me to look at that list of changes and get a little depressed. I mean, I’ve changed directions like a billion times! If I were someone who was expecting a direction, I could feel like I had been lost, headed in hundreds of wrong directions. Who’s to say the direction I’m headed in how is correct? If I’ve changed directions so often, how can I have confidence in my current direction? When will I ever get where I'm going?

However, if I’m prepared to be receiving directions, I don’t have much to worry about. Sure, I’ve changed heading often. But, as long as I see some familiar landmarks along the way, I’ll be alright. The landmarks may change; hospital, bridge and place-you-were may become music education, associate pastor, missions-retreat-center owner/operator. But that’s OK. Sure, I may have made some wrong turns. But, as long as I’m not so far lost that I can’t get back to where I was before, I’ll be able to get back on track.

Also, the directions I receive may come from many directions. I may rely on MapQuest.com, Uncle Kerry, and road signs all in the same trip. That’s fine, too. God may direct through Scott Wohl wanting someone he knows in his music education classes, a couple wonderful examples of associate pastors, His Spirit, or simply allowing my heart to swell with joy at the place I’m in and who I’m turning out to be.

So, here I am. Ending my time at WCI, and headed somewhere else. Where am I headed now? What stage of the directions am I at? Well, in the near future I’m probably headed in the same direction many people hope I’m headed. After that? Well see. I’m not too much of a rush to get there; the scenery along the way is beautiful. Also, I have a Guide and Navigator who will stick with me until I get there, and help make sure I get there on time. And, let me tell you, He’s great company.

2006-08-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

Well, now that the craziness of last weekend is a little out of the way, and now that I've had a full night's sleep for the first time in a while, I can actually update you all as to what I've been doing!

A week ago Thursday my friends Scott, Melody and Heidi Olsen showed up at my apartment to stay the weekend. This was bittersweet, because, although I was overjoyed at being able to have people stay at my place, I also left that night after work.

Thursday night I drove to Portland, loaded camping gear into Kelly's car, and we drove to the 2nd Annual Bachelor Barn Alumni Camping Trip. Actually, the trip was initiated more by the wives of the guys that I used to live with, and the men just do as their told. As it should be.

The trip was fun, and really relaxing. One of the men lost his wedding ring on Friday, but we found it pretty quickly, then on Saturday one of the wives took off her wedding ring to put on some lotion and lost it for about an hour and a half. It was really stressful, but everyone there (including people we didn't know) was really supportive, and she found it in the end. Actually, we had such a nice hole in the sand, it was decided that someone should be buried. Kelly volunteered, silly girl...

Here's a collage of pics, including: Lunch with my Mom and Grandma, who happened to be passing by (Mom's taking the pic); fly football; and the dogs, Faile and Lua.

After camping, I drove Kelly's car back to Lincoln City for a couple days, then I went back to Portland for Multnomah's Staff Picnic at Oak's Park. That was also a good time, getting to see the people I used to work with and experience how their lives have changed in the last year while sharing how mine has changed as well.

There were rides, bumper cars, good food and great friends. It was cool.

The next day I spent working on my motorcycle. I got almost everything finished, I only need to clean the gas tank out, and I've already ordered a kit for that from a vehicle restoration website.

Then, as I was headed over to Kelly's to meet up for dinner, she got the call that her dad had been airlifted to the hospital in Spokane. She asked if I wouldn't mind riding with her, so she wasn't alone for the next 5 hours of driving. (Turns out it was more like 7.5 hours, but she didn't realize that...)

Sometimes, the opportunity to be a man is just dropped right in front of you. The right thing to do is so obvious it takes no thought or consideration as to whether to do it or not.

We hit the road within the hour. We called the hospital while driving, heard that he hadn't landed yet, he'd landed but hadn't been admitted, then she actually got to talk to him. He made it sound like this was almost a routine checkup and was going to be no problem. Then we heard that he had flatlined four times during the operation, been revived through arterial fibulation, he had suffered heart damage, and then was out and resting. We hit Deer Park (north of Spokane) around 12:30, and were taken in by her extremely hospitable uncle and aunt. They had beds waiting (on severely removed sections of the huge house), and we awoke to coffee, sausage and eggs. Kelly ran me to the airport, then went to see her dad.

I flew out of Spokane for Portland at about 10, arrived at 11, and was ferried to my truck by a dear sister who was glad to help. Then I drove my truck back to my apartment, changed, and made it to work a mere 3 minutes late. I worked until late last night, slept, and here we are!

An interesting side story: While I left my truck in Portland and drove Kelly's car back here, it got sideswiped. My rear view mirror has two brackets attaching it to the truck, one right below the window and a second further down. The top bracket was ripped out of the sheet metal! So, as I drove home for 2 hours yesterday, I has to hold my rearview mirror on the whole time! I have a sweet driver's tan now...

2006-08-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

Here's that update I promised:

Her dad suffered a heart attack and was airlifted from Omak, WA to Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane. During emergency surgery he flatlined four times, and was revived through arterial fibulation (zapping the heart). Though he's had mild heart attacks before, he didn't have any permanent heart damage until this one. The hospital is keeping him until tomorrow.

If all goes well, Kelly will spend today and tomorrow with him, then head over to Kirkland to spend time with her mother and sister.

Thanks to all of your who prayed!

2006-08-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

Posse up.

Everybody please start praying. Kelly's dad was just airlifted to the hospital for a heart attack. He has chronic heart problems, and recently had an upper GI bleed.

Her dad and his wife live in northeastern Washington. We're driving out of Portland in the next hour or so, headed for Omak. We should get there by midnight, and I'll be flying back here to Portland tomorrow, then driving back to Lincoln City. If only I owned my own jet...

I'll update as soon as possible. Thanks!

2006-08-02T02:45:00.000-07:00

So, I'm pretty tired right now. I just worked 12 hours, and I'm supposed to be in Portland in 4 hours. Yeesh.

However, I helped with wine inventory today. That's why I worked so many hours. I held at least a half-dozen bottles worth over $1,000 each. I think the most expensive sold for something like $1,675. Yeah, my job is cool.

2006-07-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

No more of this 'here's what I'm doing today'-style blog, this one's a little more serious and thoughtful. Emphasis on 'a little...' So, I have a question for you all. However, I need to set it up a little first.

I don't know how much I've really talked about Kelly and I. I mean, I've talked about how awesome she is often, but I haven't really talked about our relationship very much. This is a sad thing, because we have a great relationship! I mean, I'm really excited about what we do and how we do it. In fact, we've decided that we're the best couple in the world. So there.

There's more than just the obvious enjoyment to be in a relationship. I mean, I'd be happy with anybody for that. But we run deeper than that. First off, she's been through a lot of life in the last few years. I don't want to share too much of her story, because that's her job, but she's been through a lot of pain, doubt, searching, and growth. Much of the growth. Now, I'm not anywhere near perfect, but I've done a whole lot of growing myself in the last few years.

Then, suddenly, these two of God's kids, who have been working on loving Him better and growing ourselves, find ourselves in each other's lives. There wasn't much courtship, not much woo-ing done, but we end up on a date. It was nice. So, we did it again. And, again, nice.

So, here we are, four months later. I love her. She loves me. I know these things are true. How have I found myself in this situation? Well, I think there's lots of luck involved, personally. That, and God's grace shining on me inexplicably. But, also, there's been work on our parts. We've worked hard at communicating well. On giving each other the benefit of the doubt, and trying to be aware of what else may be motivating our own responses. Also, we don't let anger or frustration fester for long. It may need to die down from an original flare up a little, but never long. (I sound like we're both really angry people; we're not. These things have only happened a couple times, honest!)

Then there's our boundaries. I happen to be a fan of boundaries; it just seems to work well for people to have clearly defined boundaries; especially in romantic relationships. I've seen people fall into temptation, some survive and some fail, where clear boundaries would have delivered early on. I've tried to maintain boundaries in relationships before, but I've set them for myself instead of 'us,' and so I've failed. Kelly and I, however, are really good at boundaries. We're good at setting them, talking about them, reinforcing them, revisiting and altering them if necessary. I mean, we rock. We really do. We're the best couple in the world. Sorry folks, it's true.

So, anyway, here's the question I referred to earlier. We don't hang out in each other's bedrooms. That's one of our first and strongest-held boundaries. I think it's just a bad idea. Apologies to any of you who can do it with no struggles, it just doesn't work for me. Also, we don't sleep under the same roof. Again, just a bad precedent. Also, what would the neighbors think? It's really important to me that our relationship represent Christ to others well.

So, instead of many roommates to give us an heir of accountability, I now have my own apartment. Just me, on my own, 2.5 hours away from Kelly. With my truck, traveling up there is not very practical, but she can make it down here with more ease. So, the problem I have is, where should she stay? I have a two bedroom apartment, but we're not going to sleep under the same roof. When she was here last time, she wasn't feeling well, so I slept in my truck for the first 3 nights here. I have no problem doing that, but it gets old and really inconvenient for me, especially when the whole reason I'm here is to work at Salishan. She supports that, so she feels bad making me achey and tired, but I feel bad asking her to sleep in her car. I don't have many friends in the area yet, so there's no one I can ask to put her up for a night. Neither of us are financially stable enough to spring for a hotel room every couple of weeks.

The best suggestion I've heard (guess who it came from?) is that she brings a friend when she visits. That way, I'm hosting two people, it's not just the two of us under the same roof. But, the problem there is the schedules of our friends. We don't want to expect from them, they're giving us the gift of accountability when the come with her. We have no grounds to demand or expect that at all.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Am I being too old-fashioned and just need to relax my ideals a little? Are there other options I haven't seen yet? Good idea, bad idea? Please feel free to respond! I value the thoughts and ideas of everyone who reads this blog (well, everyone I know about...). Please, share your opinions or suggestions! God speaks to us through His community of believers as well as through His Word or Spirit, so you may just be answering our prayers by your response! (No pressure...)

2006-07-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hey kids. How are you all?

I'm almost liking life here. Things seem to be a little more expensive all around, but I think I just haven't found the good places to shop just yet. Work is going OK, but pretty unorganized. Maybe they should hire an intern from some hospitality management school...

I really like my apartment, but it's big and lonely. I don't have a TV or internet access yet, so I just watch a lot of my DVDs. But I've seen them all already...

I feel like I've been really busy, but I don't do that much. Outside of work, I've just been unpacking and shopping for my apartment. Organizers, food, that sort of thing. Not much, just a couple things each day.

I had a random thought on the 4th of July. It was about 10 or 11 in the morning, and a couple jets flew overhead. I mean, of course they did, it's the 4th of July, right? So then I started to wonder, just how many jets were in the air that day? I mean, seriously, of all the jets in the US military, how many of them were in the air? 80%? 90%? Just a thought...

I found a second internet cafe here in Lincoln City. This one's a little cheaper for just internet, although they don't sell any food. The other one only sold pastries, and I had to spend $5 to get an hour of internet, so it wasn't all that healthy. You know, because I'm the king of healthy.

I miss you all! Now that I'm driving my truck, I feel like I have all this freedom, but no way to spend it. I can't quite afford to drive back to Portland yet, but if I were in Portland I could drive all around and see all my friends. In a couple weeks, I should get my first paycheck, then I'll be able to come up on my next couple days off. I can't be more specific than that, but my first visit is within sight!

PS Scott: No, Salishan is a few miles south of Lincoln City, but the apartment they rented for me is in Lincoln City, off of Devil's Lake. Yes, Devil's Lake leads into D River, the world's shortest river. In fact, as you're driving south through Lincoln City, you take a left just after crossing D River to get to my apartment complex.

PPS Scott: When I had that thought about how many jets were in the air, I wanted to call you and ask what you thought. But I was at a spot were there was no cel coverage...

2006-07-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, here it is. My first blog from Lincoln City! Let's see, what's going on lately...

Last week, I finished classes at WCI! I've been there for a year now! I got A's in my last two classes, so I finished with a 3.93 GPA. Highest of my life! For those of you wondering, my final went... OK. I went over on time, which should have been a few points off, but the time-management piece was more oriented towards making sure people in my group weren't screwing off. Which they weren't. So, I did fine with the 5 main courses I made.

Friday night, Kelly and I decided to celebrate my done-with-school-ness. She had a nice dress picked out for JSB, but then we were un-invited. She's been wanting to wear it for a while now. So, we went dressy. The only restaurant I can really afford where dressy would be a good idea was Restaurant Bleu at WCI. Plus, I still get a discount! That dessert I'm posing with had the words "Good Luck!" written in chocolate. Cool, huh?

Of course, I should have been packing. I've had very little time to pack, with studying and all. Plus, I own a lot of stuff... Kelly's even taken time to help me pack! Saturday morning she came to my house and continued to help me pack... or start to pack...

You know, I've helped many people move. Many, many people. But I'm never there for the packing parts, just the moving of furniture and boxes. Packing sucks! Last-minute packing sucks even more! I think that's why it was a good thing that Kelly and I went to a nice dinner Friday night, to spend a little time investing in our relationship before the torment that was Saturday morning. It's like we filled the gas tank of affection Friday night, before we ran the tank to near-empty on Saturday morning. But, I'm happy to report, we made it out alive! My best friends came over representing our Home Fellowship from church to 'see me off,' even though we were a few hours from being able to leave... However, we actually left the house by 2:30. Considering the plan was to leave at noon, that's actually about average, compaired with all the people I've helped move.

So, I've been here for about 24 hours! I slept in my truck last night, because Kelly wasn't feeling well and camping sounded painful for her. I may be camping for most of this week, until she goes back Wednesday.

By the way, it's wonderful having her here. Wonderful to share this moving experience, and to have her be a part of what's going on. I've helped many people move, but I've never had anyone help me pack and unpack. It's crazy cool! I've gotten a couple rooms set up so far, including my bar and bedroom... Oh, and my apartment is a) free, b) 2 bedroom (I'd been told 1), and c) next to a lake! Devil's Lake is about 100 yards away from my kitchen! It's awesome.

Well, I've gotta go. I start work in about 30 minutes! I may not be able to blog for a while, I'm at an internet cafe right now and I have no internet access at my house. Until I do, I'll update when I can!

2006-06-28T08:55:00.000-07:00

Oh wow
Oh wow
Oh wow
Oh wow
Oh wow
Oh wow
Oh wow
Oh wow
Oh wow
Oh wow
Oh wow

2006-06-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

Well, today's my final in Cuisine 2. Thursday is my final for Wine Studies 2, but we're going to review today and have no class tomorrow. It feels odd, I'm about to finish college. Again. But not totally finished... I've already gotten my AA, this will be another AA, and I'd like to finish my BA.

Anyway, you wanna hear what I'm doing for my final? A week ago Monday, I had to turn in a complete dinner menu of 5 courses plus an amuse bouche (literally 'happy mouth,' a bite-sized appetizer) and intermezzo (an in-between course designed to clear the palate before the entree). I even skipped church to work on this menu...

Here's what's for dinner:

Amuse Bouche
Asparagus Foam over a Parmesan Crostini with Fried Basil
(a thin slice of a baguette, fried or toasted and topped with a thin slice of Parmesan cheese, then topped with a dallop of an asparagus-flavored foam, and fried basil for a splash of color)

Soup
Puree of Carrot and Almond

Appetizer
Chicken Roulade
(chicken cut thin and rolled around bacon, bleu cheese and rosemary, then sliced like cinnamon rolls)

Salad
Seared Belgian Endive
with salad greens and raspberry/hazelnut vinaigrette

Intermezzo
MimoSorbet
(orange sorbet and Champagne sorbet. Mimosa + sorbet = MimoSorbet)

Entree
Beer Braised Rabbit with Leek Rosti (fried/mashed potatoes) and Grilled Vegetables

Dessert
Chocolate/Hazelnut Calzone
with Italian dessert cheeses and strawberry sauce

There you have it! I'm pretty excited, but really nervous. I'm not sure I can get all that done, plus the prep (including breaking down the rabbit) in 2 1/2 hours...

Oh, if you're interested, for Wine 2 I took the same menu and came up with 2 suggested wines to go with each course (except the amuse bouche and intermezzo). Too bad we don't get to try those...

2006-06-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

I finally got to work on the motorcycle tonight. Tim Uthmann, who actually still owns the bike, has been busy getting his house to sell so he can move to Rome and work with International Teams with refugees. So, he hasn't had a whole lot of time to help me out. But he graciously committed some time tonight to help me work on it, while his wonderful, supportive and loving wife graciously stayed home with the twins they were babysitting.

So, here's a bike update:
carburetor: Cleaned! Actually, it didn't look to bad once we got it opened.
Spark Plugs: Checked, spaced. They also look good.
Points on the kick starter: Cleaned! Looked pretty bad, but Tim shined 'em up real good!
Brakes: Cleaned the brake line and the brake fluid reservoir. Filled with fluid, bled the lines, then couldn't fill again because I kinda stripped out one of the screws... But that shouldn't be a hard thing to fix at all.
Battery: Got a brand new battery. Unfortunately, 'brand new' means 'no charge,' and since it's a little different than a car battery, I don't really want to try jump starting it. So, it needs charging.
Gas tank: Yucky. Copious amounts of rusty flakes rattling around inside the thing. Something's going to have to be done about that.

Summary: All in all, it was a really productive night. I think either the Napa across 82nd or the Jiffy Lube up 82nd should be able to charge the battery for me. Also, the Jiffy Lube may be able to clean out the gas tank as well. The cool thing about motorcycles is that you can just take the gas tank right off! It's like the size of a duffel bag, so I could just carry it down to them! Sweet, huh?

Oh, also, after we got done working on the motorcycle, I tried to move my truck, and it started right up! This fact would be more amazing if you knew that I tried with Kelly for about an hour to get my truck running on Sunday afternoon. Well, Sunday I had run the battery dry, so it needed a jump, then I hadn't run it for a long time, then I had vapor lock on the gas tank, so the engine couldn't get any gas... Anyway, it was really frustrating, which makes starting it tonight so much sweeter!

OK, that's really all. Salishan still looks awesome, but I don't have any time to pack, and the guys are still looking for someone to take my place. Kelly's still awesome (did you have any doubt?).

In fact, her birthday was Monday. So, Friday her mom and her and I went to Outback Steak House for dinner. Saturday I had planned on working with Tim on the motorcycle, but he ended up canceling due to putting tile in his bathroom. Sunday we had a bbq at her house for a bunch of her friends. Well, I had intended it to be for her friends, since it feels like she's been hanging out with all my friends for a long time. But, with it being Father's Day, many of her dear friends weren't able to make it, though a couple did. So, it was mostly people we both knew, her roommates, and just a couple people that were more her friend than mine. I apologize to you all who didn't get invited, but I was trying to make it for friends she's been close to in the last couple years. I wish I had invited everyone we knew.

So, Monday we were going to go try a picnic dinner downtown and I was going to make cheesecake in class for her. Well, my cheesecake souffleed (started rising up, like a souffle), then didn't cook right, then fell apart tragically. So, I was super bummed. Instead, we went to Newport Bay for dinner, after I gave her her birthday presents. Yes, presents. All 8 of them. 8? 7? I don't remember, actually... After dinner, we went downtown and went swing dancing. We haven't been in a while, so it was really fun.

And that's all happening in my life. I wish I had a week between classes and moving to Salishan, but instead I have... well, that Friday night. I'll move one week from this coming Saturday, and begin work on Sunday. Yikes!

2006-06-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Sorry for those of you who have been waiting to hear about Salishan, it's been a pretty busy week!

Wednesday I went down to Salishan and visited. I was supposed to meet with the Food and Beverage director, but it turns out he's working swing shift for this month. After waiting for an hour for people to figure it out, I met with the General Manager. It went really well. It was as much a time of him sharing with me about the history of the place as it was an interview of me. I didn't even realize it was an interview. Guess that's why I was so comfortable.

After meeting with the GM, he bought me lunch in one of their restaurants. Then I walked around for an hour, because the F & B guy was going to show up around then. I walked around a lot. The place is on 250 acres, but I didn't walk all of it. I walked to their spa, and I walked around some of the shops. There's a wine store, some clothing stores, a toy store, a plant store... general touristy fare.

Then I met with the F & B director, who was actually on his way to three meetings. He handed me a map of the whole campus and said, "Find all these buildings." So, I walked the rest of the 250 acres I hadn't already walked. Then I filled out an I-9 and W-4, got my uniform, and met with the F & B director again. We had a good talk, sharing vision for the resort and my position. Essentially, I'm going to help him re-design and implement their hiring procedure, training procedure, and help develop the guest services department. Also, I'll help develop an expiditor position.

In short, I'm in. They love me. I'll probably be offered a long term position by the end of the summer. Would I take it? I'm not sure, but I don't have time to think about that right now...

Kelly's mom is in town for her birthday, so we're all going out for dinner. Yeah, I'm meeting her mom in about 15 minutes. Yikes! Why am I blogging right now? Gotta go...

2006-06-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

You're a Hawk!

With an absolutely stunning sense of sight, you're able to put
everything into perspective. At vision tests, you're able to read the copyright
line on the poster with the big E at the top. You've been known to read signs
from three counties away. You get the idea. You're very good at selling wares.
You consistently root for terrible sports teams.

Take the Animal Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

2006-06-09T17:17:00.000-07:00

Update: I hadn't heard anything from Salishan as of Tuesday, so I called them and left my cel number. Wednesday night the guy I'd be working with left me a message, saying how he hadn't received my resume, and could I please send it again. It was faxed last Thursday by one of the people at school, so yesterday I made sure he had the right number. Salishan guy called last night and said 'sorry, our fax machine wasn't working. Now I have two copies of your resume.' Anyway, between my resume, what he knows of the school, and the glowing recommendation from the internship coordinator at WCI, he's sold on me and he wants me to come down to see the property! Crazy! So, it looks like I'll be moving in 3 weeks from TODAY! Yikes! I have to go start packing!!!

In other news...

Three months ago Kelly and I went on our first date! Three months. That makes this the longest I've dated someone. (I had one relationship that was longer, but we were engaged after about 3 months, so that wasn't the 'dating' stage anymore.) Anyway, I'm a little bummed because we can't really hang out tonight! I'm getting sick and she's meeting friends from out of town. Plus, I'm so broke, I can't buy a box of mac & cheese for myself, let alone take her out like she deserves. Of course, I could never really take her on a date that she deserves. I'll never have enough money to have a carriage drawn by a flock of swans take us to dinner in Paris, where we'd dine in the the restaurant atop the Space Needle that spins slowly as we watch the Hawaiian sunset in every direction.

Oh well, it's nice to have goals...

2006-06-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

I only have 4 weeks left! Yikes! Then I'm done with school, and on to my internship. The brightest lead so far has been the most... bittersweet. It would be at the Salishan Spa and Golf Resort. Although not an 'avid golfer,' I am very interested in starting a resort/conference center-type short term missions support facility, so the business is probably closer to what I want to do than anything I'll find. It's a paid internship, which is great. Also, they'll provide an apartment, which is good, because of the bitter-ness part...

It's almost 3 hours away! Yeesh. My girlfriend just got back from Hawaii, and we're all 'I missed you,' and now I may be moving away. How soon, you ask? 4th of July weekend. Until October! I mean, really. It looks great, but what about church? What about Kelly? Where will I keep all my stuff, and where will I live if I want to come back to Portland? Should I? Oh, and I have to decide soon, because my resume has already been faxed, and they should be contacting me soon. Like tomorrow.

Oh well. God is good, all things work together for the good of... some people, I forget that part. Things will probably be really good, just really hard. And I really feel like I need a vacation, but I won't get one until October. Yikes.

2006-05-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

You know, it's kinda funny. Last week, when I had a whole bunch of homework to do and projects to work on, I really wanted to blog. I had a whole bunch of things I wanted to say and to talk about. Then, as soon as all my work was done, I was too tired and burnt out to blog.

Now, here we are, a week later, and I finally have a chance to sit and think, to reflect, to talk about what's been going on in my life. And what happens? I slice my thumb on the lid of a can of tuna, so typing hurts. Oh well, here goes!

Man, how to start. I guess I'll break things down by categories...

Kelly. Wow, she's cool. I mean, really. Have you ever met her? Well, most of my family sure has. That's right, over Mother's Day weekend, Kelly and I drove to Yakima. I should have been working on a marketing project, but I went anyway. It was a lot of fun. We left Saturday morning, had lunch with my Dad, met my mom, tried to see my grandma (dad's mom), then went back to Mom's for dinner. She barbecued fish and corn on the cob. Oh man. Then I drove to my grandma's (mom's mom) to stay the night while Kelly stayed at Mom's house. I was actually rather impressed, I hear Mom didn't get out all my baby pictures...

Sunday morning we drove up to Leavenworth, where we met her dad and step-mom. That was fun, he bought us waffles and chocolate! Plus, he's a good guy. We're both rather small town folk, so it actually felt really comfortable. Well, as comfortable as meeting your girlfriend's dad can be... We went back to Yakima Sunday afternoon, for Mother's Day supper at my grandma's (mom's mom). We saw most of my aunts, uncles, and a couple cousins. It was a fun time.

The hardest part of the weekend was convincing people that meeting each other's families doesn't mean we're getting engaged in the next few weeks. We're not, so don't anybody get too excited. I mean, she's wonderful, and we are really doing well together. I remember once, in the first couple weeks we were dating, I was telling her about how I thought people in relationship can work. I was telling her about a time someone asked about what I felt about marriage. I told this person I felt the best relationships were...

When I was a music ed major, I took classes like music theory, ear training, and voice lessons. One thing we talked about was people singing in harmony. The teacher told us that the hardest interval for two people to sing is actually unison. It's hardest for two people to sing the exact same note. People are built physically different, their bodies form different sounds. Even twins rarely make the exact same sound when singing the same note. Breath support can be different, one may be slightly stuffed up, etcetera. In fact, usually, the slight variation can clash quite bad. Anyway, it turns out that it's easier to sing in harmony than unison. Not only is it easier, it's usually generally more interesting, a little more complex, but in a good way. It's richer, and usually better to listen to.

So, that's what I told that friend about relationships. The best relationships aren't two people living lives in unison. That's really difficult, and may clash. The best relationships are lives in harmony. It's generally more interesting and richer. It's also more beautiful to behold.

And that's kinda what I think about Kelly and I. We're in harmony. It's good. But we're not getting married any day soon, so quit asking! Believe me, you'll all hear about it long before it happens.

School. So, I finally got through my last two classes. One of them wasn't a problem, but the other, marketing, was killer. There's a whole lot of work, no lab time in class, and I changed my mind on the focus of my marketing project like three times. It was killer. Actually, through a lot of sleep-deprivation and extra-credit opportunities, I pulled a B out of the class. That's the end of my 4.0 GPA. Oh well.

Now, I'm in Cuisine II (yay more cooking, double yay free food every day) and Wine Studies II. So, pretty much, I cook what I want, then figure out what wine would go well with it. This week we've been working with different proteins, and individual platings. (Plating: putting food on the plate, usually decoratively) This week I've cooked game hen, duck, rib eye, and pork loin. Here's an example of my rib eye plating:

This is rib eye steak with a coffee/black pepper / brown sugar rub, a foie gras / red wine sauce, grilled zucchini and garlic, asparagus cooked in Sprite (didn't work very well, don't try it), and pom frites (French for French fries) with a Dijon aioli presented in half a lime.

Vehicle. So, my truck is still not really legal. It runs, but it won't quite pass emissions, so the license is way expired. I thought I'd try to get something else to get around on. Here it is!

It's in my garage right now. I've gotta clean a few things, like the carburetor, gas tank, and everything else. But it may just run well!

Kelly. OK, I know I've already gone over this. But she really is great. Unfortunately, she's not here right now. She's in Hawaii right now. Yeah, Hawaii. Here's a shot of her from a web cam in a cafe she was at:
Ain't the internet great? I'm able to see and talk to my girlfriend while she's in Hawaii. I actually hooked my computer up to the TV, so all the people who were over to watch Lost got to see Kelly instead. They liked it. No, really. Those were shouts of love...

Have you all seen her blog? Check it out! Cool shots of her in Hawaii. Also, I've added her blog to the bloggin' buddies section to the right. I fixed some old links, too. Check them out!

2006-05-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

Hey. So, I'm totally in class right now. I'm supposed to be taking a final, but our prof is stuck in traffic. So, we have a few minutes to wait around. What am I doing in the interim? Am I studying a little more? Cramming a bit more info in my wee little brain? Heck no. I'm blogging. Why? Because I miss you all. I miss talking to you. I miss taking the time to talk to you, to think with you. Soon and very soon, I shall update you all.

But not now. I have other ways to waste time. Like watching Micah's YouTube video!

2006-05-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

YEEEEEEE!

2006-05-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

Oh man! Almost over! This last few weeks has been really busy, and it ain't over yet. Wednesday, however, it shall be. One final presentation due tomorrow, one final project due Wednesday, and then all work is finished! It's smooth sailing... until next week, when I start two new classes.

Anyway, I have lots to share about, so hang in there a little longer! And a big 'Thank you!' to all who made my birthday the best ever! No, seriously, I could tell you about all 30 of the previous birthdays, and this one really topped them all! (Notice how I didn't say 'took the cake?' Yeah, I'm all grown up now... HA!)

So, yeah, Sacramento trip, birthday party, travel to Yakima so Kelly can meet the fam, travel from Yakima to Leavenworth so I could meet her dad and stepmom, nearly O.D.ing on Mt. Dew and Red Bull so I could finish a project... I have lots to share! Hang in there!

2006-05-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

Hey, thanks everybody! For the encouragement, for the happiness for me, for the early birthday wishes... Y'all are great!

In other news... I've worked hard to stay away from it, but it was only a matter of time... I've started watching 24. I've never initiated an episode, but my roommates keep watching it. In fact, Adam watched the whole first season in, like, 3 days.

So, here you go:

You scored as David Palmer. You are a strong leader and stay calm under impending danger. People call you advice and guidance, you are very wise and smart. But you trust very easily and can be hurt by those close to you. You are a leader.

David Palmer

70%

Chloe O'Brien

65%

Michelle Dessler

60%

Jack Bauer

55%

Tony Almieda

50%

Kim Bauer

45%

Sherry Palmer

45%

Which 24 Charcater Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

(So what if I had to take it twice to avoid being Chloe?)

2006-05-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's kinda busy in Tre'-land.

One of my classes this round is Marketing, where I'm supposed to put together a huge marketing plan for... something. Well, I tried to do one for the retreat center I've been planning for a while, but it was really hard to look at something like that from a retail standpoint, so I switched ideas, which put me like a week or week-and-a-half behind. Then, I decided to do marketing for my friend Lacey's coffee stand in Vancouver. However, I pretended it was an all-day breakfast bistro. However, I realized that the idea was kind of like the breakfast burrito cart I had planned on doing last fall. So, I dropped Lacey's stand and started doing one for a breakfast burrito cart. Switching put me another week to week.5 behind. Now, my class is only six weeks long, mind you...

Also, I'm heading to Sacramento this weekend, for a Multnomah fundraiser. We're flying down Saturday, and flying back on Sunday. Good work, fun time, but killer schedule. I'm not going to get much done in homework-ville that weekend.

The weekend after that is both the weekend of my 31st birthday, and Mother's Day. To celebrate both, I'm heading to Yakima. So, again, not much homework will get done. Oh, and I'm not going alone, of course. Kelly is coming with me. Actually, we're taking her car, so I guess I'm going with her. Anyway, she's going to me my family, and I'm going to meet her dad and his wife. It's going to be a whirlwind of activity, and a drought of homework-doing.

So, yeah, I'm limiting my time with everybody for the next three weeks. We'll see if I make it out alive...

PS Update on the vanilla Frosty: It's still good. Kelly and I walked to Wendy's & back, which is about a 10-15 minute walk each way. I think that's a sufficient amount of walking to cancel out a Frosty...

2006-04-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

You wanna know what's cool?

No, not Chuck Norris. Well, yes, he is cool, but that's not what I was talking about.

No, not my girlfriend. I mean, she is cool, but she's a 'she,' not a 'what.'

So, you wanna know what's cool?

...

She likes me. I mean, she actually likes me. Yeah, she respects me and admires some of the things I do, but that's not it. She just plain likes me. I think that's pretty cool.

We've been dating for a month and a half now. In the grand scheme of eternity, that's not very long. In comparison to most of the relationships around me, that's not very long. But we've got some distance behind us, you know? We've had many boundary definition talks, we've had talks about our past relationships, we've talked budget. We struggled together with coming up with appropriate ways to approach saying 'I love you.' Those things have all been wonderful, and I praise God for our relationship. ('Our relationship...' That still sounds weird to me...) But that's not what I'm talking about.

Early on, she shared that she feels that a large part of love is commitment; that love is a choice. For just a little bit there, I was afraid that going out with me was a purely intellectual endeavor. I've since wised up, and I cannot overemphasis how brief and how early in our relationship those thoughts were. But what I'm talking about is different than just emotion.

I mean she likes me. We watched my favorite comedy last night, Brain Donors. If you can find it, it's worth a rent. The plot is really dated, but the comedy is great. Anyway, it was, shall we say, not up her alley, per say. I mean, she laughed, but moreso she enjoyed watching me, I think. I would laugh at the jokes, and she would laugh at me laughing at the jokes. She liked to see me entertained. She likes me.

Before that, we ran to Wendy's for some dinner, and I squealed like a school girl, because they're now offering vanilla Frostys. That's right, you heard it here first. Anyway, I like Frostys, and vanilla's my favorite flavor, so I was rather excited; and she was entertained by it. It was fun for her to see me so excited, then so embarrassed about being excited by something so silly as a vanilla Frosty. She likes me.

It's taken a long time for me to be able to hear 'I love you' and accept it. I've had to work through a lot of self-esteem issues, so much so that I'm tired of mentioning it here on this blog. But it's not hearing 'I love you' that I enjoy the most. Yes, that is great to hear, because I know the care and concern she takes when using that word. It means a lot to me when she says it, but it, well, means a whole lot. We don't use it lightly, lest it loose its significance. But hearing that isn't yet comfortable, isn't yet easy. Good, but not easy. It's a heavy thing, and not something to be taken lightly.

But few things fill up my soul like when she says 'Tre', I like you.' I feel like a hot air balloon filling up with warm air, allowing it to be and do what it was created to do. It's not that she's avoiding using the word 'love,' she's just expressing different, lighter things. For some reason, that's just really cool to me. She likes my goofy sense of humor, she likes that we walk together often, she likes when I hold her in my arms. She likes me. I know it's true, too. She told me. And I believe it.

PS When you read this, know that I like you, too!

2006-04-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

OK, so I'm a little dissatisfied with the fact that the only picture of Kelly and I for people to see involves me in armor... I have been trying to work it into some sort of joke involving me trying to take her on a romantic date, but only getting the Roman part right...

Anyway, here's a much better pic of the two of us. This was seconds before she removed her braids. Check out the other blog for details on that!

2006-04-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

So, last night, Kelly and I took part in a murder/mystery dinner with some guys I used to live with and their wives. Here I am as the Roman General, Maximus Testosterous. Like the costume? Here are some key points:

Helmet:

small brass eagle statuette I've owned for years
car wash brush I bought to use on my truck
mixing bowl wrapped in tin foil

Armor:

Shoulder armor: Halves of a large can of tuna fish I use at work
Chest armor pieces: Parts of the box my computer came in, wrapped in tin foil and tied together with twine
Belt: dangly decorative stuff I found at Fabric Depot
Sword: I own like 5, so it was no problem finding one.

Sandals
Fingerless leather gloves I use for roofing

It was a great time! Thanks to Emily for putting this on! Plus, it was her birthday, so we got to celebrate that, too. Hope you all enjoyed it!

2006-04-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

Here we are. Kelly is a Priestess of the Goddess Vesta.

(Is is lame that this the first picture of us together? I don't think so...)

2006-04-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the men:
~Roman Senator
~Lucentius Caesar (son of Disgustus Caesar)
~Roman General
~Prophet, leader of the Cult of the Blue Oyster

(I need more cowbell!)

2006-04-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

Here are the ladies:
~Widow of the murdered poet
~Egytian Queen Cleptopatra
~Widow of a shipping magnate
~Priestess of the Temple of Vesta (ain't she just the cutest?)

2006-04-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah.

Check it out.

2006-04-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Tradition. It's something I've been thinking of quite a bit lately. It started during the Men's Retreat, as I was telling someone there about the time I was engaged.

For those I haven't told the story to, I was engaged about a decade ago. In short, I was really ready to be 'grown up,' and she was ready to be a wife. There's a lot more to it, but that's the short version. Thankfully, we listened to God more than ourselves, and I think we're both closer to Him for it. One of the biggest things I saw God do in the situation was what her father went through. He is a wise man, and father of eight. Yikes! Anyway, he had a bit of an issue with me. Not because of who I was as a person, but because he was very into tradition and family history. Those things meant a lot to him. Well, my parents are divorced, and my family isn't exactly close to God. So, he struggled with it for a while. He ended up choosing to accept me and love me. Then, she and I broke up and she ended up marrying a great man, whose father was a chaplain and brother became a youth pastor. He got what he wanted; he simply had to choose to accept God's will, whatever it may be, even if it was different than what he wanted.

Then, I was looking at the gospel of John this week. During the Last Supper, John records Jesus washing his disciples' feet. In fact, he doesn't record the last supper 'blood and flesh' bit, although he refers to it in chapter 6. The tradition he records is the washing of feet. (See John 13:14) What was Jesus doing when He washed their feet? There's a large theological discussion that I don't feel like getting into, so let me just say what I think: Washing their feet was a symbol of His humility, of lowering Himself to humanities' level, so He could be a worthy sacrifice. When Peter tries to deny the washing, Jesus tells him he needs to accept it or risk missing out on relationship with Him (13:8).

So, what traditions am I a part of these days? Let me ask it this way; what traditions do I find around me these days? Shockingly few, sadly. Those I do see near me? Well, as I mentioned before, my parents are divorced. My girlfriend is divorced. (If any of you dare take issue with that before getting the facts... Let's just say, you shouldn't. Ask me first, or ask her directly). Her parents are divorced. Her father left her mother for the woman who is now his wife. (I don't judge them for this, mostly because I have precious few facts, and I know the love of Christ can 'cover a multitude of sins.' If Christ forgives them, I can, too. I am confident that they are right with Him now, regardless of where they may have been in the past.) I have formed a 'tradition' of self-loathing. The last two churches I have been a part of seem to be formed out of an attitude that the modern church needs to be either re-vamped or left behind and started over; a 'tradition' of leaving, rather than fixing.

So, what do I do? If my life is built on the foundation of past traditions, if I'm going to hand traditions on to my kids and their kids, what do I have to hand off? Divorce, avoidance, self-loathing. Not a pretty picture. What to do?

Start new traditions. Leave bad traditions behind. Make a tradition of starting new traditions, of seeking to grow from the mistakes in our past. Our God is a conquering King, so allow Him to take captive our past, and make it serve Him in any way possible. My parents got divorced after 19 years of marriage, what do I do with that? Start a tradition of commitment, of revisiting that commitment often, of communication with my parents so I can learn from their mistakes, and erase that tradition from the Wilbanks family. I used to, and still, struggle with a wrong self-image, what do I do? Start a tradition of seeking to know who I am in Christ, who I am to those I love, who I can be to those God has in my future.

However, lest I throw out the baby with the bathwater, I also commit to begin a tradition of celebrating good, healthy traditions. Traditions like blogging, which have helped me shed parts of my wrong self-image. Traditions like fun with friends, whether it be LAN parties, Man Night, or murder-mystery dinners. Traditions that have been around even longer than I have, like communion. Traditions like washing feet. Ooh, maybe healthy traditions like working out! Naw, I'd better slow down a bit...

2006-04-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

So, a formal welcome to any and all new readers of my blog. I'd like to say that my blogs aren't usually as manic-depressive as represented by my last few entries, but... well, we'll see.

Anyway, today's update is much more random. This is quite possibly the coolest name I've ever heard. Plus, it's a real name of a real man.

You ready?

Galusha Pennypacker

It seems he was a musical recruiter during the civil war. I haven't actually read much of the website on which I heard of him. (English teachers: how was that sentence structure? I worked hard on it...) Anyway, somebody in my class was doing some research for a civil war themed restaurant, and came across this guy's name.

Man, it's great. I just love the name.

2006-04-08T23:57:00.000-07:00

Forked!!!

Check out the update at my other blog for more details...

2006-04-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

I've had a really dark couple of days. How many of you remember this? Well, it's happened again. Today I tried to disappear again, shut my phone off and didn't check e-mails. Yesterday I was just pissy. I was pissed at every one and everything, almost all day. Until Kelly and her sister and I hung out, that was cool. But it was just a distraction from the crappy buildup of negative emotions I was sitting on. (P.S. One bad idea I had was to start a Nohari window, similar to the Johari window I did a few weeks ago, but with all negative adjectives.)

So, I avoided everyone today. Well, for a while, anyway. I felt like I needed to keep myself away from people, like nobody deserves to see me this way. I felt like avoiding everyone because I hate being like this, ruled by emotions. I've lived my life running from addiction to addiction, compulsion to compulsion. I'm sick of being run by things I have no control over. I want some control over how I act, I want to be able to control how I respond to what I feel. I don't want to be overwhelmed with emotions. I want the chance to react intelligently or wisely. If I can't, then I'll just hide from others until I'm in control again. I feel like the Hulk, hiding away until he calms down enough to revert to Bruce Banner.

So, after hiding in my room all day, I just went out to do business. I walked around my neighborhood for an hour, thinking and smoking my pipe. C.S. Lewis and the Inklings crew were really on to something. I came up with the reasons I just shared in that last paragraph. There's other stuff too, but it's kinda private. Plus, there's this great girl I know; someone who is worth getting through this crappy wrapper of myself and down to the creamy nougat center of myself that's worth sharing. I mean, who shares the wrapper? (By the way, I've recently learned that nougat is the candy equivalent of veal.)

Which reminds me of a blog from a while ago...

*************************************
So, you like this girl?
Yes... yes I do.
Are you blushing?
I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about.
OK, OK. So, would you say she's worth fighting for?
Yes. Totally. She's worth fighting dragons and evil knights and all that stuff.
Is she worth fighting circumstances? Busy schedules?
Yes! I just said I'd fight a dragon for her! Fighting a DayPlanner is nothing. She's more valuable to me than having a comfortable schedule.
OK, then, is she worth fighting... yourself?
...
*************************************

And, while writing this, my lawn has been forked. Man, what a night...

2006-04-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

So, my spring break hasn't been as break-y as I'd hoped, but here's a quick update for y'all...

1) April Fools! You wanna see the best April Fool's joke ever played on me? Kelly and I were hanging out on the evening of the 31st, and the last thing she said to me before she left was 'check your e-mail...' So, I did. There was a Hallmark e-card with a link to this! Yeah, that's my truck, for sale on Craigslist! Luckily, I was sent a confirmation e-mail I had to respond to before it would post on the actual site, so only people with the link can see it. But still, she's crazy!

Update: In the interest of not actually selling my truck yet, and because April Fool's day is over, the Craigslist posting has been removed. Rest assured, however, it was cool!

2) I'm calling around today, but the internship at Kennedy School sounds pretty good!

3) I've started working out regularly. I even bought a home gym thing. It's the Total Body 5000, and if it's endorsed by Chuck Norris, it's good enough for me!

...uh, that's really about it. I'm on break this week, then 12 weeks of class and 9 weeks of internship! Then I'm done with school again! Until I go back, this fall or next spring...

2006-03-29T06:56:00.000-08:00

Oh man, busy weeks! Last weekend was the Men's Retreat at WildHorse, and it ruled. As is should.

This week is finals, and it's the busiest finals week I've had at WCI! Sorry about the no updating, I'll get on that this weekend or next week. Thanks for checking in!

PS I'm dating the coolest girl ever! No, seriously. I looked it up on the internet...

2006-03-22T09:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a few thoughts that have been kickin' around in the ol' noggen for a little bit:

NOTE: These are absolutely random, and may not be related to each other at all! Also, they may not be done cooking yet, so don't judge too harshly.

On happiness: I'm really happy right now. It feels like I'm in one of the best times of my life. I'm dating a wonderful woman. I'm getting straight A's, at a school for something I love. I got a call back from McMenamins Kennedy School yesterday about the possibility of doing my internship there, which would be my first choice. I'm involved at a vibrant church, with a great home fellowship full of people I love. Plus, I feel closer to God than I have in years. I don't know if that's a result of the other things, or a precursor to them, but I'll take it, whatever the reason!

On Dating: It's really weird dating someone after all this time. I paranoid about all that I do. On one hand, my relationship experiences have been rather immature, consisting of underlying philosophies like 'we have to be in physical contact at all times,' or 'we have to see or talk to each other as much as possible,' or whatever. On the other hand, we're both rather independent adults. So where is the balance? How much attention is too much, and how little is too little?

I don't want to smother her, but I don't want her to feel like my 'weekend-only girlfriend.' I know my past tendencies have been to smother and enmesh our lives, to substitute emotional intimacy for the physical, but she deserves better than that. The opposing pendulum swing looks like too little attention. If I don't talk to her or see her very often, will she feel she's worth my attention? I want her to know that I think of her often, that I thank God for her daily, that she's worth my attention, that her 'Roses' blog made my soul smile from ear to ear.

So where's the balance? I don't know. But I'm ready for the work and risks it will take to find out! Bring it on!

(Of course, she's reading this now. Awkward...)

On 'Emotional Nakedness:' I was reading in a friend's blog, and she mentioned an idea that got me to thinking. Her question, well, part of her questions, was if we can reach authenticity without being 'emotionally naked all the time.' First off, way to go at reaching to such deep and wise thoughts. I hope I don't mar that with my thoughts.

My next thought is how unrevealing nakedness can really be. I mean, really, nakedness distracts our focus a lot. I don't think nakedness is truly representative of a person. I know in my life, I've used emotional nakedness to hide, or to reinforce negative self-worth. I've drawn attention away from my real issues by distracting people with other issues. I've pretended to be open by revealing what I want to reveal, because what I reveal will make others as sick of me as I am. Luckily for me, that doesn't work, and the people God has blessed my life with are smarter than to be distracted by those things. Perhaps what I'm really saying is that people often confuse nakedness with walking around with your fly down.

On Being A Man: I've been struggling to formulate this thought for a while, and I don't think it's quite done. So bear with me. My thesis is: A man can only be as much man as he's asked to be. Or, a man can only truly be a man when it's requested of him. This request may come from a person or a circumstance, and the man may still fail. But the opportunity is only there if the request is. Sometimes a request is presented as a command, and sometimes what sounds like a request is really a command in disguise. Also, the man may drop the ball even if requested well. But the point is that the potential is there.

Look at the classic (around the Multnomah community) representations of masculinity in culture:
Braveheart. William Wallace was presented with the opportunity, or requested by the circumstance, to avenge his wife. Then, to free his people. Prince Edward was requested, by Wallace, to lead his people. He dropped the ball there, but then the circumstances around Wallace's death presented the opportunity again, and he accepted.

Gladiator. Maximus is requested by his government to fight. He does, and he commands legions well. He is given the opportunity to be a man again in response to the betrayal of his mentor and father figure by that man's son, and he does.

Now think about all those men who live the 'lives of quiet desperation.' Perhaps they have wives who assume, rather than request, masculinity. Such assumptions are, ironically, often emasculating. (I'm imagining the stereotypical nagging wife, and the also stereotypical lazy or obstinate husband.) Perhaps the men of quiet desperation have been given a faulty definition of masculinity, so when requested they answer with domination, force, power, but no leadership, no compassion, no concern for or attention to others. Their only concern is whether or not they feel manly, which, remember, is built on a faulty definition. Or, they can't respond, because they haven't really been asked or they're afraid to because they've failed in the past.

Where am I going with this? I'm not sure yet. There's a lot more pieces to it, such as God's role and Christ's representation of masculinity, but I wanted to get some of it down on paper, or in electrons, first.

On Chuck Norris: Have you all caught wind of the Chuck Norris craze around the internet? It's actually been going for a while, but I'm just getting in on it. There are sites all over giving 'facts' about Chuck Norris, and they're hilarious! Things like, "There is no chin under Chuck Norris's beard, only another fist," and "There is no theory of evolution, just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live." You can check some of them out here and here. Note: Some are dumb, and some are rather inappropriate, but most are really funny!

2006-03-20T19:48:00.000-08:00

Wow. What a great weekend. I mean... wow. Dinner and a concert Friday, wedding and hanging out with old friends on Saturday, and good food at home fellowship on Sunday. Here's a funny story from Friday:

Upon arriving at the Montage for dinner: The host greets us and says, "So, do you want to sit at the bar or at a table? If you sit at the bar, you can grope, but at a table you can look into each other's eyes." Yeah, thanks...

Thanks to all of you who partook of the Johari Window thing. I'm still taking it in. Some things were really exciting, some were totally unexpected. I'm glad so many people said I'm witty, but I have never thought of myself as reflective. I'm a little bummed nobody came up with sentimental, but I've realized I haven't really revealed that part of myself to anybody in a while. Thanks again for your input, it really means a lot!

2006-03-15T07:23:00.000-08:00

As some of you long time readers know, I've been on somewhat of a journey of self-discovery for a few years now. I realized a few years ago that I didn't like myself, like at all. But I was stuck with the cognative awareness that Jesus, and a few other people, happen to think I'm alright. OK, love me. So I began a quest to reconcile those two disparate awarenesses.

(Man, that whole paragraph sounds like someone else wrote it! Who uses 'disparate?')

There have been a few milestones in my quest to be ok with myself. One of the biggest has been this blog. I'm able to honestly record thoughts, pains, and silly things while watching people respond to me out of genuine concern. Thank you all!

Another was the day I woke up with the thought, "What if everyone I know is right about me, and I am an OK guy?"

Well, I just found another. If you're interested, and have a couple minutes, head on over to my Johari Window. There's a neat little definition at the top of the page, explaining what the Johari Window is, but it's basically a way for me to see what I think of myself and compare it to what others think of me.

(Why do I feel like I'm doing market research? "Excuse me sir, would you like to sign a petition to give Oregon voters a George W. bobble head?")

So, yeah, if you want to, head on over. If you don't want to, that's cool too! It may be a little frustrating for a few of you, because many of the adjectives you pick from are similar, but you can only pick a few. Thanks!

Oh, and another significant step is coming this Friday... The mystery continues! No details for you! Muhahahah! Oh, and if you know details, no telling! Unless, of course, you are the details...

UPDATE: Sorry for the inconvenience, it seems that nothing on Earth can handle the accent in my name. Some of you may not have gotten to my Johari window, some of you may have been directed to someone elses. I've updated the link with a new link, to my new J window. Kelly, I transferred your answers to the new window. Thanks!

2006-03-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

So, I had kind of meant that motorcycle comment to be rather random and enigmatic, but since everyone's in an uproar, I'll expound.

There's a chance I'll own a motorcycle sometime this summer. The most promising lead is the motorcycle that's been in front of White Hall at Multnomah since the late 90's. It actually belongs to Tim Uthmann. We made the deal that I'd help him work on it, and if it runs I'll buy it. If not, then we got to hang out some anyway. If that doesn't work out, I'll still look for a motorcycle to buy. With most of my friends married and in houses, my truck isn't needed anymore. A motorcycle would be cheaper, easier to fix, cheaper, and easier to park. Oh, and cheaper. Sure, it's rainy in Portland, but I don't have to drive all that often. Plus, I'm gonna look hot wrapped in leather...

Although, I've gotta say, Kelly's suggestion of a new vehicle for me looked really cool!

And, before I go, here's another mysterious and enigmatic comment: I kinda have a date Friday night. But only kinda. It would have been a full blown date, but we had to shuffle things around and I'm just going where she was going anyway. Which, now that I say it like that, makes it look more like I'm stalking her... Nevermind, ignore this. I'll let you know when I have an actual date in the near future.

2006-03-11T06:50:00.000-08:00

Sparkly gold glow-in-the-dark stars for everybody who commented on that last post!

OK, well, not much new going on here. Oh, this coming Friday there will be an all-worship chapel at Multnomah featuring the Scott Olsen Band, remnants of Forgivenmuch, if anyone's interested.

And in other news, I seem to be getting really cynical in my old age. Maybe it's just the teacher, who seems to feel she's still teaching elementary school, but here are some of my more cynical comments:

[While discussing personality types]
Teacher: "Everybody has a unique blend of these personality aspects, and as managers, we need to be able to appreciate that."
Tre': "Yeah, you're all unique, just like everybody else..."

[While discussing education and androgogy/pedagogy]
Teacher: "Children are like sponges."
Tre': "Yeah, if you hold them under water, they get bigger!"

OK, well, that's about all I got. Maybe I'll have some more interesting news in the near future... Like suddenly owning a motorcycle!

2006-02-22T22:12:00.000-08:00

Here's a random thought I had the other day:

Works are like warmth. Just because something gives off warmth doesn't mean it's alive. However, for something to be alive, it has to give off warmth. Similarly, the abiltiy to perform works do not direcly imply salvation. However, someone who is saved and in a healthy relationship with Christ is going to perform works.

...of course, the analogy breaks down easily, as not all life forms give off heat, but you get the idea.

2006-02-20T21:45:00.000-08:00

...So, a week ago I left that blog down there, implying that my new laptop would allow me to blog more often, like I should. Yeah, week ago...

Have I not been blogging because nothings going on? Not really, it's more like I don't want to blog. Some of the things going on inside of me are odd and icky and I'm not sure I'm ok with them...

Here are some of the things I don't want to blog about:

~I hate Valentine's Day. I mean it, I hate it. My appologies to those who enjoy it, I don't expect anyone else to feel like I do about it. But I hate it. I get annoyed that it exists, I avoid talking to anyone, I don't respond to e-mails or MySpace comments or text messages, it is not a good day for me. Only part of that can be attributed to my current nigh-decade of singleness. I mean, yeah, that's lame, but moreso I spend most of the day annoyed with myself for being annoyed at Valentine's Day. I try to work hard at not being bitter or full of self loathing because I'm single. I mean, single isn't the plague. But I'm not wired to be OK with it for very long. Being single adds to my poor self esteem after a while, which is ironic in that I'm single due to my poor self esteem. Anyway, I try to not be stupid and bitter about being single, but on Valentine's Day I just can't hold it back. Which leaves me feeling angry at myself for being petty and small.

~I don't know if it was due to Valentine's Day issues or what, but I almost cried walking to work last week. It was the Thursday after Valentine's Day, and I was walking to work. So, it was like 6 in the morning, and I had only slept for 4-5 hours the couple nights previous. Anyway, I'm walking to work, and people start popping into my mind. Not random people, women I've either dated or wished I could date. As their faces flashed in my mind, my heart felt all the pain and anguish associated with each one. Feelings like: 'Wish I had treated her better' 'Why couldn't that have worked out?' 'Why did I cheat on her?' 'Why wouldn't she let me say 'I love you?'' 'Wish I had acted sooner or done more...' 'Why is she a lesbian now?' Lots of regret, lots of self-loathing, lots of hopelessness and despair. It was actually hard to breathe. I stopped walking and sort of fell up against the building next to me, and I just stood there, awash in this torrent of pain and shame and guilt. Then I said to myself, 'stop it, you're going to be late to work. Get moving!' And I did.

~I feel embarassed that I'm excited that I still have a perfect GPA. I now have 55 credits with a 4.0 average, and I'm happy about it. But I'm embarassed about being happy. I don't want to blog about this, because I've always felt that for me to change myselft into someone who is overly concerned with grades would be a huge step towards vanity. I never put this standard on anyone else, so I'm happy for other friends who strive for good grades and achieve them, I've just never let myself be like that. But here I am, checking the online grade reports every hour until it's updated and I know I held the 4.0.

~Ironically, I'm probably going to loose the 4.0 this rotation due to missing classes. I'll be skipping classes to go to a Men's Retreat with my home church from Yakima in March, and I'll be skipping classes to work at a Multnomah fundraiser. Last, but not least, I'll probably be skipping class this Thursday, because I'm going to be on the Food Network. It turns out Rachel Ray is coming to Portland for an episode of $40 A Day, her show where she visits cities and dines out for $40 or less. Well, she's going to get a sandwich at the World Cup Coffee in the Ecotrust building in the Pearl District, so they're going to come tape us making the sandwiches. Yeah, I'm going to be on cable.

So, there you have it. The blog I didn't want to do. I hope you've enjoyed it, because I sure haven't...

;-)

2006-02-13T22:28:00.000-08:00

Hey there folks! This blog is coming to you from my brand new computer! That's right, kids, I've finally gone portable, with a new Dell Inspiron 6000. After years of packing up my computer to run PowerPoint for worship or fundraisers, I've finally decided to get myself something more suitable for that job.

Now I can blog from bed, school, or even my truck. My truck doesn't do much else these days, it might do well as a blog location...

OK, that's all for now. Oh, I joined a new home fellowship group from my church last night. It looks like it might be pretty cool. We each kind of shared our stories and what we are looking for in a home fellowship. Most of the people said they were looking for 'real' people, authentic relationships and people willing to live life for Christ together. What am I looking for in a home fellowship? Free food...

2006-02-01T04:47:00.000-08:00

Here's some interesting news:
From the man that brought us cartoons like Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack and the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars, comes a sequal to 1982's The Dark Crystal.

Genndy Tartakovsky is to direct The Power of the Dark Crystal!

2006-01-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

Oh, so tired... Have I whined to you all about my schedule these days? Well, it's about to get worse, so I'd better!

OK, so my only class right now is Restaurant Practical, where I actually work at the restaurant owned and operated by the school. All the wait staff and cooks are students. It's actually really fun. Each week we rotate through positions throughout the restaurant. I've been a server, an expediter and the floor manager. Next up, server again, then host, and finally bartender. We only serve beer and wine though. The culinary students can work as a'la carte or garde manger chefs or servers. It's cool, except...

Because I have a 'real job' at World Cup Coffee & Tea, I wasn't able to work the lunch shift. We seat people for dinner between 6 and 8, and with a full 5 course meal it takes an hour and a half to two hours to get everybody done. Which means I'm getting out at like 10 pm, later for large parties or banquets. But I have to work at World Cup at 6:30 until about 11 in the morning on Thursdays and Fridays. Add the time for MAX rides and showering, and it means on Wednesday and Thursday nights I only have 4-5 hours to sleep, and I'm going for 18-19 hours a day on Thursday and Friday. The worst part of it? I just agreed to work at World Cup on Wednesday morning as well! So, now I'll have little sleep and 19-hour days 3 days a week instead of 2!

Why did I agree to this madness of Wednesday mornings? Well, for one it means that I'll have Mondays off from both work and school. Second, there's a guy in my class (the guy who got me the job at World Cup) who does almost the same thing. He doesn't have to ride the MAX, so he has like 1-1.5 hours less in his day, but he's been doing it 4 days a week. So, he and I will share our suffering 3 days a week. Besides, we only have three weeks left of this class anyway.

Wow, I believe this officially qualifies as a rant. I'm sorry for the whiney nature of this post! I blame sleep deprivation. Hopefully, in three weeks when I can return to a more normal schedule, I'll be more socially acceptable and quit my complaining...

2006-01-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

So I'm sitting in my kitchen, blogging away, while my two roommates and their girlfriends are chatting in the living room watching West Wing...

...but I can't seem to be as upset about it as I should. I feel like I should be despairing, scared, hurt, angry, something. And I do, just for a little bit. But then I feel like that's so selfish. There's so much more going on in the world right now. The Seahawks are in the Super Bowl. My friend's dad passed away 2 weeks ago, and I haven't gotten to actually speak to her yet. I have another friend who is lost in Washington somewhere, pregnant, homeless, and by all accounts mentally unstable. Another friend of mine, who owns and works alone in a coffee stand in the 'Couve, has a stalker that keeps coming by her work.

Am I bitter that I'm single? Do I feel lonely and unlovable because I'm approaching 31 and I've been single for the better part of a decade? Am I totally annoyed that the two girlfriends in my living room are making make-out jokes? Yes. But, somehow, it seems so small... so petty. So selfish.

In other news, my pastor had a great comment on the emerging Church this morning.

Have you ever been a part of a group of friends that could never decide on what to do? You know, you'd all hang out after Youth Group, or after a sports game, or on a Friday night, and never be able to decide on what to do? "Do you wanna xxxxx?" "Naw, we just did that." "How about xxxxx?" "No, to expensive."

It seems like that is the 'Emerging Church.' Or, at least, that fits the few examples of it I've experienced. We're sure we don't want to be 'Modernist Churches.' We don't want ministries just for the sake of having ministries. You know, like a good church should have a men's ministry, a women's ministry, a youth program and a worship team in order to be a good church. We don't want checklist Church. Those ministries can be good things, but shouldn't be done just for the sake of doing them. The Emerging Church, again, as others and myself have experienced it, seems to be a big list of what we don't want to do.

OK, so the 'Modern Church' is being replaced with with the Postmodern Church, the Emerging Church, whatever name you want to give it. If it is a reaction to a modernist model, what do we replace 'Modern Church' ministries with? I mean, what does a church do on Sunday morning, Wednesday evening, Friday afternoon? How does the Church as a body love the individuals that make it up, if we're busy avoiding making ministries to fill every need and 'employ' every gifting?

Not so sure I know, yet. But I'm willing to hang on and find out. Oh, and if you want to hear what my pastor had to say, check out the Coram Deo Fellowship website. Mp3s are available, and a PodCast should be available, but I don't know how to link to that. Sorry.

2006-01-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Trethar!

Humans share about fifty percent of their DNA with Trethar.
Trethar was invented in China in the eleventh century, but was only used for fireworks, never for weapons.
If you lie on your back with your legs stretched it is impossible to sink in Trethar!
68 percent of all UFO sightings are by Trethar.
Most bottles and jars contain at least twenty-five percent recycled Trethar.
The Aztec Indians of Mexico believed Trethar would protect them from physical harm, and so warriors used him to decorate their battle shields.
The pharoahs of ancient Egypt wore garments made with thin threads of beaten Trethar!
There are six towns named Trethar in the United States!
Tretharicide is the killing of Trethar!
Olive oil was used for washing Trethar in the ancient Mediterranean world.

Trethar-icide??!?! Yikes!!!

P.S. To: 'A Brother' - There are quite a few people around here who have been trying to keep track of her in the past few months, even offering her a place to live, and it seems she's slipped away from us. Any specific info you feel comfortable sharing would be greatly appreciated! Feel free to drop me an e-mail, please! Thanks!

2006-01-06T16:06:00.000-08:00

...in other news, I seem to be rich. Yesterday I recieved an e-mail from Lotto Netherlands, informing I had won a million Euros. Today, I recieved an e-mail from a U.K. Lotto company, informing me that I had won a million GB Pounds!

All told, that equals (according to today's rates) $2,969,680.00.

Dang. That would be nice... But not really. Well, a little nice...

2006-01-05T12:11:00.000-08:00

So I was thinking about love languages the other day... randomly. Now, I don't worship Gary Chapman as the end-all wisest in all relationships and interpersonal communications, but I think he really has some good insights into some key issues.

So, anyway, I'm thinking about love languages. I'm thinking about the languages I speak to others. I think that I speak different languages to different people, but I speak all of them. I'm probably worst at quality time, and a little better at gifts and acts of service, but with some people I speak each.

Now, part of the way I process is to imagine a conversation. Not necessarily with anyone in particular, I just imagine myself explaining to someone else whatever I'm thinking about. In this case, it was love languages. Then something weird happened.

This imaginary person I'm talking to asks me what language I recieve love in. I was going over Chapman's ideas on love being like gasoline, and we all need our tanks full. I was thinking about it as though I were explaining to someone that they needed their tank full, and a quick and logical question was, what fills my tank? As far as communication goes, I was simply trying to offer my answer to the question before I posed it to someone else. But then it all broke down.

I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what love language I recieve love in. The whole idea of recieving love feels foreign to me. It's like I'm deaf and don't know sign language, but I can still speak. I can talk to others, I'm just lost at what they're saying to me.

The really tough question comes next. What do I do? I've been struggling to learn how to love myself over the past couple years, and no wonder it's so difficult for me, I don't know how to feel loved. I can feel served; I see when people do for me. I can feel pampered; I know what it's like to recieve things from people. But those aren't accepting love from people. They may be doing the acts out of love, but I can't hear it as that. When people compliment me, my insides short circuit and I shut down emotionally. I've learned a programmed responce, either make a joke or just say 'thank you.' But those aren't right, aren't healthy. I'm just conditioned to respond.

So what do I do? Pray more, read my bible more, fast more (or some)... Those all feel like conditioned responses, activities meant to twist God's arm into giving me stuff. I don't want stuff. I want to feel. I want to love.

Oh, God, please...

2006-01-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

So, I don't really put a lot of stock in resolutions. Last night I was at a small New Year's Eve party, and someone decided to go around asking what people had chosen for their New Year's resolutions.

I decided, since I'm not going to keep it anyway, why not claim resolutions that I would never do?

Tré's New Year's Resolutions:

1) Drink lots of alcohol every day.
2) Murder small people.

We're already 7 hours into this year, and I haven't had any alcohol since the party. So, unless I go on a bloody rampage against all those who aren't as tall as I am, I think I can say these resolutions are sucessfully broken, as resolutions should be.

On to the real life changes...

2005-12-29T15:43:00.000-08:00

So, I found a really cool site this morning... In an attempt to further genealogy research, MyHeritage.com has developped (or stolen, or bought...) some face-recognition software, and is testing it online. In the future, you'll be able to upload a picture of yourself, and the software will find people who have uploaded their pictures who look like you, and you can see if you're related. However, their current database consists only of 2,400 of the most famous faces on the planet. So, in essence, you can see what celebrities this program thinks you look like.

I uploaded three pics; one of me with no beard, one of me with a beard and a big smile (my profile pic), and one of me bearded, just staring at the camera.

Here's who MyHeritage.com thinks I look like, and how much I look like them: (Note: I skipped a bunch of names I didn't recognize)

No Beard:
#3 Alec Baldwin (64% alike), #4 Bela Lugosi (64%), #6 Andie MacDowell (62%) [WHAT?!??!?], #7 Johnny Depp (61%), #8 Hugh Grant (60%)

Bearded, smiling:
#2 Luciano Pavoratti (60%), #4 Carlos Santana (52%), #5 Ho Chi Minh (50%), #6 Johnny Cash (44%), #7 Mother Theresa (43%), #9 Beyonce (38%)

Bearded, striking a pose:
#2 Cary Grant (64%), #4 Hugh Grant (63%), #5 Jim Morrison (61%), #6 James Hatfield (61%), #7 David Beckham (60%), #10 John Cusack (55%)

So, this program thinks I look like Hugh Grant? Yeesh, somebody's got some troubleshooting to do... The only other name to come up twice was Uri Geller, one of the world's most famous paranormalists. This guy claims to be able to read minds, bend spoons and spin compasses with his mind, and make a red raddish to grow from a seed to a few centimeters in seconds... I'm in great company there!

I do have to say that I'm equally pleased with Bela Lugosi, Johnny Depp and John Cusak. I'm most shocked and confused by James Hatfield (of Metallica), Beyonce and Mother Theresa!

2005-12-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here's what I made for Christmas at my Grandma's house. It's a gingerbread Christmas tree, made of 33 star-shaped cookies with cinnamon dots on the tips and topped with powdered sugar.

And, no, I'm not gay.

2005-12-17T23:49:00.000-08:00

So, I was just e-mailing this to a friend, and I realized I've never said this on my blog. So, here's the copy-and-paste story of how I got my name:

Well, there's a few stories out there...

1) Someone told my parents Tré is French for three. It's not, but that's what they thought. My dad and grandpa are both James Travis Wilbanks, Junior and Senior. So, my name was an attempt at James 'three' Wilbanks, because I'm the third James. My little brother got their middle name, he's Jonathan Travis Wilbanks. Trés, by the way, is French for 'very'...

2) In 1975, when I was born, Disney put out some movie about a the ghost of a grandfather airplane pilot named Ace, his son Deuce, who you never actually see in the movie, and Ace's grandson Tray. Ace's ghost comes back to teach Trey to fly an airplane. In Old English, Tray is three. (Ace is one and deuce is two)
[P.S. I just did an IMDB search, and I think the movie might be The Sky's The Limit, but IMDB lists the characters as Grandpa, Two and Three, and there's no mention of Grandpa being a ghost. But I'm pretty sure that's the story I heard. Weird...]

3) The lead character in a book my mom was reading was named Tray, but they decided to spice up the spelling a little.

I think that's about all I've heard. The more interesting game is to try to come up with a nickname based on Tré that I've never heard. Care to take a crack at it? Here's the most commonly heard nicknames:

Tréthar (Rhymes with Lothar)
Trémond (Used as a more complete name, like when you're in trouble and your mom uses your full name. I was in fake trouble with someone, and Tré wasn't long enough)
A-tré-you (From The Neverending Story)
Tré-O (My high school pep band used to play Harry Belafonte's 'Day-O,' and I had the lead trumpet solo for most of the song. So, they re-named the song for me)
Tré-legs (from my uncles; it seems I was a rather lankey youth)
The J Train
Big Daddy Diesel (Thank you, Zach Williamson...)
The Love Crusader (I didn't give this to myself, for those of you wondering. I with my youth group at Jesus Northwest when Michael W. Smith debued 'The Love Crusade,' but I had left the group to talk to a girl. They began to wonder where I was, and when they realized, my youth pastor decided to give me the name...)
Flashlight (Another story from my youth pastor)
Tré-monster
Stork Boy (I don't know why, but I used to stand with my right foot on the inside of my left knee, because I thought it was comfortable, and I looked like a flamingo or a stork)

I'll give a cookie to whoever comes up with the most original nickname!

2005-12-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

As the rumble dies away, and the smoke slowly clears...

Final are over! I'm pretty sure I have maintained my 4.0, much to the amazement of myself and anyone who knows my previous GPA history. My bartending final went well, although I made a few simple mistakes, like saying the wrong alcohol, or pouring the wrong amount of it...

Maybe now I'll be able to take some time to reflect, to sit and relax, and maybe to blog about something more significant than school... Naaaaaa...

2005-12-10T14:00:00.000-08:00

My school is weird.

Final #1:
Me: "Good evening! Our drink specials this evening are (blah) and (blah), for appetizers we're featuring (blah) and (blah), and for your meal we offer (blah) and (blah)." Take drink orders. Serve drinks, take appetizer, dinner and wine orders. Serve appetizers, clear appetizers, present wine, serve entrees, clear entrees.

Final #2:
Teacher: "I'd like a White Russian, a Martini, Whiskey Sour up, and a blended Daquiri. You have 6 minutes. Go." Or any other combination of a built drink, a stirred drink, a shaken drink and a blended drink.

In other news, I have one week left, and that's it until January 9th! Then I all I have to do is work three days a week and keep warm. Definite challenges, both.

2005-11-26T21:37:00.000-08:00

Oh, man. It's been a while since I've been here. Apologies to all you who check up on this regularly. In short, I've been busy.

Part of it is that I've been spending a little more time on Myspace. That doesn't mean that I like Myspace better, it means it's more time consuming. That's part of the reason I don't like it as much as a good, old-fashioned blog.

Another reason is that I have a job, finally. Praise the Lord! I'm making sandwiches for World Cup Coffee, three days a week. It's a fine job, just three or four hours of making sandwiches. It is moderately mindless, once I get a system down. It's not hard at all, just early. I start at 6:30 am, which means I've got to leave my house at about 5:45. Early. I've done it for just a week. Funny work story:

Fridays are always hectic, because I make extras of our two grilled sandwiches to last for the weekend. Instead of 32, I make 88, on top of the rest of the sandwiches. So, I started off a little behind the barrel. Well, I ripped through the grillers. I was done by 8, which is pretty good. Unfortunately, at that point it seems that all things fell to pieces. I had just enough ham sliced for the grillers, but then I ran out of ham, I ran out of turkey, I ran out of horseradish cheddar cheese and roast beef, I ran out of tortillas for our wraps, I almost ran out of lettuce, and I ran out of sliced red onion. By 'ran out,' I mean I exhausted my supply of sliced food. I had some in the back fridge, I just had to take the time to slice each meat, the cheddar and the onion, which meant taking the time to clean the slicer in between. I got really behind really fast.

So the manager walks in at a little after 11. I had recently realized that, in my haste to get the sandwiches ready to be taken to the other two locations, I had missed a small ingredient in our roast beef sandwiches: the roast beef. I had made 16 roast beef sandwiches, wrapped them in cellophane, wrapped them again in paper, and labeled them all, and forgotten the meat in all of them. I was rather stressed and frazzled by this, and then the manager walks in. He was with his wife, and they were getting some of the soup cooking in the kitchen area. I notice his quizzical look as I was unwrapping what looked to be completed sandwiches, so I said, "Yeah, it seems that some of the roast beef sandwiches got through without any actual roast beef in them." In my paranoia and stress, I was anticipating some anger on his part, though the presence of his wife may have saved me some of the wrath. Instead, he laughed really hard! He thought it was a really funny thing, and even jokingly suggested we sell it as a vegetarian roast beef sandwich. I overheard him telling the story later, and he laughingly thanked me for keeping the profit margin up. Boy, was I glad he thought it was funny.

So, anyway, I'm sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I'll try to keep up on it a little better, not just to keep the throngs of adoring fans satisfied, which is a worthy reason, but also so I keep writing. Recording my thoughts really helps me grow as a person, and I thank you all for sticking around while I figure myself out. I went through and read some old blogs from a year ago, and it's really interesting to see what's changed and how I've grown up. I'm 30 now, it's about time.

PS Justin, was this random enough for you?

2005-11-09T22:25:00.000-08:00

Have you all seen the new Google game? The one where you put in your name, and the word 'needs,' and see what happens? (I.e. 'Tre' needs') I didn't for a long time, because I thought my name wouldn't pull much up. Then...
1) Tre' needs a partner who is more like Hillary.
2) ...TRE needs less than 50K of dynamically allocated memory... (So now I'm a computer peripheral!)
3) Tre' needs ~and desrves~ our support, in whatever form. (This one was talking about Tre' Arrow, Portland's own eco-terrorist who made a name for himself in the early 90's by strapping himself to a billboard or something.)
4) In humans, systemic availability of TRE needs to be confirmed... (This is referring to some drug, but it works well for my name.)
5) Adorable Tre' needs a home! (Yikes!!! I had to make sure that was a doll!!!)
6) Tre needs to be brought to justice..But take your freakin blinders off and look what that chump has done to our country!! (This was my personal favorite, but it's that darn Tre Arrow again...)

You should see what Google thinks you need!

2005-11-03T23:06:00.000-08:00

You see, when I'm bored and don't feel that my life is interesting enough on its own, I seek other forms of blog content...

You Are 22 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

2005-10-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

My good friend Hutch is a thinker. He allows his mind to be stretched, and he lets his mind… what’s the word… not wander, but search for challenges. Recently, his mind took on the challenge of deciding the best fight scenes in a) movies and b) the Bible. You can head over to his blog for his answers, but here’s my thoughts:

(Note: The scenes Hutch mentioned, and the one Greg Brock brought up in his comment, are out of the running…)

Movie fight scenes:

~Matrix: Revolutions, the battle for that big cavern. Swarming Sentinals, those huge drillers, and sweet exo-suits? Yes, please.

~Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the Hoth battle. I submit this one as much for its filmmaking achievements as for its battle-ness. We all love the AT-AT Walkers, but this was also the first time anyone tried blue-screening with a white background in a major movie. Remember when sci-fi (or Lucas) was about inventing new ways to make movies, rather than who could afford the best computers?

~Shaolin Soccer, the first soccer match. Comedy and action are always a great combo!

Bible fight scenes:

~Ehud, Judges 3. Anyone who’s ever taught jr. hi Sunday School, especially boys, should know this story. The hero? God-fearing Jew, and happened to be left-handed. The villain? ‘An evil ruler, and happened to be ‘a great, fat man.’ (God’s words, not mine) Can you imagine the crew from CSI processing Eglon’s body? Heheheheh…

~Jesus in the Temple, throwing tables (Matt. 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, John 2). It’s kind of rare to see Jesus angry, so it’s probably rather significant whenever we see it. But here… Jesus was pissed, nearly unhinged. I’m sure this would have been a sight both wonderful and terrible to behold.

~The Seven Sons of Sceva, Acts 19. The moral of the story? Or, a moral at least… Though the war has been won, we still fight a dangerous adversary. Let us never assume authority on our part, but claim the authority of He who bought us at a great price.

2005-10-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Personal Injury Protection on your auto insurance covers you as a pedestrian? I didn't. But I do now! Actually, I found out last week when I told my Business Law prof about my accident.

So, I called the cops to report the hit & run. I got an operator who said someone would call be back in a few hours. That was Friday, the 7th. Finally, Monday, I called again. I got another operator, who said I'd get a call back in a few hours. Actually, it was only 20 minutes. With the promise of a police report number on the way, I called my insurance company. Within a few minutes, I was told I have $15,000 of coverage, and go to the doctor. Yesterday I called an advice nurse to see if I should go to an ER or make a doctor's appointment. She suggested an Urgent Care facility.

Last night I went. I got an X-Ray (man, was I hot in that gown!). The doctor said the wobbly-ness and moments of weakness in my knee were being caused by some fluid still present (I'm retaining water!), and some inflammation. He proscribed 800 mg of Ibuprofen with every meal, and I'm supposed to absolutely stay off my leg. He said not to try to 'work it out' on my own. That's the hard part, because I'm pretty stubborn about that kind of stuff. I don't take medicine for a headache, I just push myself through it. He said if I go up one floor, to take the elevator. Use a cane. In short, be a weenie. Man, I hate being a weenie.

Oh, also, after I talked to Geico, they called me back and said the collision was technically an uninsured motorist collision, so I may be entitled to 'pain & suffering' damages. Cash to help me feel better. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I don't really want anything, other than to have my knee better. I don't have a job, so I don't need any 'missed work' reimbursement. Sure, cash is always nice, but I don't feel like I deserve anything. I guess I have some need to earn money, rather than just receive it. Hmmm, I have to think on that for a while. Where does that come from? What does it mean? How does it influence who I am? Does it come from a sinful, prideful place, or is it OK to feel that way?

Man, listen to me. I can't take free cash without analyzing my whole life. Is this what a mid-life crisis feels like? Probably not, but I wouldn't be surprised if thoughts like this help lead to one.

2005-10-10T18:14:00.000-07:00

Oh man.

While quarantined to my house this weekend, in order to best elevate and ice my knee, I found a really funny thing on the internet.

Someone somewhere decided it would be cool to have a contest where the contestants take a movie that already exists, and make a new trailer for it. The trailer doesn't have to reflect the actual movie, it just has to use actual scenes from the movie. Here's an article at Cinescape to explain further.

Here is the gem I found: Shining, a touching romantic comedy for the whole family.

Knee update: It hasn't fallen off yet. No, seriously, it feels a lot better. If I focus, I can walk normally. It's still really sore, and wobbly and stiff. It feels like I've worked out really hard, but only in my left knee.

Thank you all for your prayers and concern! There's nothing like getting run over to remind yourself that people love you. (I hope somebody quotes that sentence in a book someday!)

2005-10-07T00:54:00.000-07:00

So, it's not so much that I was hit by a car, as much as I was pulled into by a car today.

As I was making my daily trek homeward from the light rail train station to my darling abode, I happened across the intersection of NE Multnomah and 82nd. I perceived a shiny, inviting green walk light, which I delighted in, for I was of much tiredness and want for nap. However, there was this small, red car, inching its way out of Multnomah and onto 82nd. Seeing as she was making a right turn, her head faced left, that she might observe the traffic she was pulling into. However, I approached from her right. Now, I thought she turned my direction and saw me. I mean, I'm in a white chef's coat, a small white hat, and black-and-white checkered pants. Kind of stand out in a crowd, I do.

Feeling confidence in her observation skills, I heeded the invite of the little green man-shaped light beckoning me across the street. Suddenly, much to my dismay, I feel a nudge on the side of my left kneecap. She was pulling out! I slapped her hood, which drew not the sudden stop I had hoped for, but a quick forward motion of her car, followed by a sideways motion of my knee. She stopped quick, as I stumbled from in front of her car to hover over her window. I needed somewhere to steady myself, because I was swooning pretty badly, and was about to pass out. The driver, a Russian woman near my age, looked in shock at me as I said, in a chipper voice, "Hi! How are you doing today? I'm just going to squat here for a second, so I don't pass out..." (No, seriously, that's what I said.) Her father got out of the passenger side and came to me, saying something about how they had to get to a meeting, and sorry, and they have to go, and can they help. I'm not really sure what happened, I was trying really hard not to pass out. All I know is I was so annoyed/upset/fighting unconsciousness, I just kind of walked away. Yeah, I know. I didn't get names, insurance, phone numbers, license, anything. I still had my heart set on being home, so that's where I went. However, I did decide to treat myself to a new Steak Nachos BellGrande at Taco Bell.

How am I now? My knee hurts, but I have no insurance or money to do anything about it. I'm a little annoyed at myself for just walking off.

But I'm really OK with it. I have ice packs for my knee, and I was able to walk away from it, so it must not be that bad, right? Now I get to look really cool walking around with a cane! Plus, I figure I saved her a lot of grief, with the insurance claims and medical bills and the suing and pooh.

I mean, I'm alive, God loves me, and that's all there really is to life. Right?