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My flight got in from Amarillo about an hour ago. I wasn’t expecting to get back until late this afternoon. But on a whim last night, I called Southwest Airlines and asked if they had an earlier flight. Not only would I get home before eight in the morning, my layover was in Albuquerque, not Las Vegas, which meant I’d spend an hour less traveling. I am celebrating my victory by having breakfast here at Einstein’s.

Yesterday was a wild day. I woke up early so I could stop by and see Candyce on my way to the airport. That was the only thing that went right. It seemed like every road between my house and the airport parking lot was either closed or at least under construction. As if flying wasn’t already stressful.

The airport itself was a mad house. Anytime there is a line of a hundred people at curb-side checkin, you know it’s going to be insanity inside. I said a prayer and stepped through the automatic doors. Holy shite. Nothing but lines of angry people. There were people in line to checkin luggage, in line for the bathrooms, even in line up stairs for the kiosks. They had a security guy organizing the mob of people a the kiosks upstairs. I mean, this is where I’ve never seen a line in the past five years, but yesterday you had to wait thirty minutes just to print out a boarding pass at a kiosk.

I found a Southwest kiosk in the corner without a line, so it was pretty quick for me. I found the shortest security line and made it through in less than ten minutes. I truly felt sorry for the thousands of other people at the airport, most of them whose line was so long they’d miss their flight.

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Oscar picked me up at the Amarillo airport. We pulled over at a truck stop to get something to drink. Over the intercom I heard that someone needed assistance in the electronics department. What gas station has an electronics department? On our way out the door, I heard the announcement that the showers were now closed. Dramas in the life of a trucker.

Yesterday’s event was called “Be Not Afraid,” which is cool because I wanted to talk about fear anyway. I’ve done public speaking for about six years now, and at times I’ve done more practicing than praying, then I’ll go a stretch where I pray more than I practice. That’s where I am now, and the results have been pretty awesome. I feel more confident on stage, and everything just flows.

I’ve been to a lot of youth conferences, and this one was special because people had tremendous pride in this conference. Not much happens in Amarillo, so when 1000 teenagers show up for a two-day event, everyone is excited.

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I’m still groggy from hardly any sleep last night, but I am alert as ever because my veins are pumping with anxiety. I have a home appraiser coming.;This week is going to be filled with endless hours of hard work. I think I’m going to call all of my friends and plea for help this week.

I realize I first wrote about this house almost a month ago, on March 24. I knew on that Friday that I needed to buy the house. Since then it’s been nothing but drama. I got in a bidding war last week and I backed out. The winner ended up not being able to get the money, so the house went back on the market. So I asked John to write up a new contract so I could try to buy it again. And at about three this afternoon, John told me they had accepted my offer.

I wanted to celebrate when he called me, but I am saving that party for later. A lot has to go right over the next few months for me to sell and move out of my house now and then get into that new house. But still, it was exhilarating to get that phone call.

After stopping by the Realtor’s office to pick up some paper work this afternoon, but before I could walk in the door, my friend and co-worker Donna called and asked me if I wanted playoff tickets to see the Suns and the Lakers. Adrenaline ran through my veins. My heart POUNDED. I could’ve flipped over a truck I was so excited. Looking back on the day’s events, I was more excited about the tickets than I was about the house. Apparently she’s had season tickets for a while, and she always has trouble getting rid of them. She told me that she has season tickets for next year too. The best part is that she never knew I was as Suns fan until she read about it on lifeteen.com. How cool is that?

I decided to go by the house just to take another look. It’s okay because nobody lives there so I don’t look like a stalker when I go by three times a day. Since this was the first time I got to look at the house knowing it could be mine, I bought an iced latte and sat by the backyard pool. It was such a thrill to feel the cool water over my toes as I stared up at the house. It’s such a pretty house!

While soaking my toes, I let my imagination go wild with what I wanted to do with the house. I mean, this house is going to be such a healthy outlet for my creativity. After about a half-hour of dreaming, it hit me that I still have to sell my existing house. So spent the next three hours at Lowes and Ikea. I’m conditioned to believe that you should always have a good time on Friday night, and this was as good as it gets for me.; It’s hard for anyone at either store tonight to understand what was going on inside of me.

I drove my loaded Honda Element to Candyce’s house for our Friday night date. By this time, it was already late, so we just ate chips and salsa and talked about the new house. Then we hopped in the car and drove over to walk around the neighborhood. She and I both are being reserved because it’s not ours YET, but we decided it was okay to talk like it was.

Now here I am at my old house. It’s late. It’s been a crazy day. I have an early flight to Texas in the morning, so I’m going to stop here.

I spent a couple hours last night laying in my hammock in my backyard, reading in a John Grisham’s book, “The Rainmaker.” It was the perfect temperature, the perfect setting. I worked so hard on redoing the landscape of my backyard, and somehow I’ve forgot to enjoy it. So I made a point tonight to come home and do the same.

I’ve plowed through a couple hundred pages of in the past two days. It’s so rewarding to read a book. I don’t regret not reading through high school and college, because my textbooks wore me out. But I do wish I would’ve started carrying more novels on the plane with me over the past few years.

I’m still trying to understand what it means to grow up. Everyday, I look in the mirror realizing that I am aging. I am okay with aging; because I always try to make the most of each day, and once a day is done, you have no choice but to go to bed. Wake up the next morning. Do it again. That is how aging happens.;

A reporter for a Phoenix newspaper spent the past two weeks hiking from the bottom of the East Valley to the top. In his final column about his journey, he reminded readers that you will never appreciate life if you don’t slow down to appreciate it. I guess when you walked for a hundred or so miles over two weeks, you learn that sometimes you can’t hurry everywhere.

Laying in my hammock and reading for the past two days have allowed me to savor life. I love the birds, the aromas of the orange blossoms. It’s wonderful.; I have such a wonderful laziness all over me right now. I’m not tired, but just beautifully relaxed.

I’ve spent most of the past two days with Candyce’s family. Yesterday afternoon, the girls went shopping for wedding dresses while us guys played miniature golf. And last night and tonight we spent at the Grandparent’s house about a half hour from here. It’s been a rewarding but long weekend. I don’t know if I am rested enough to actually go to work tomorrow.

It’s bizarre, really. I am still healing from traveling so excessively over the past five years. I savor weekends so much. I absolutely love weekends. So even though I am sleepy right now, it’s nothing like getting back after ten hours of traveling across the country.

I’ve spent most of this week trying to buy a house. I’m disappointed because at the same time that I put in my offer on the house, there were two other people who put in an offer as well. This is bizarre because the home has sat on the market for six months, and then on the day I decide to go for it, I end up in a bidding war in a buyer’s market. What’s going on?

I just received a counter-offer about an hour ago, and I don’ t know if I’m going to go for it. I mean, I just don’t know if it is worth it. I know at this price it is still a deal, but not nearly the deal I was expecting. This changes all of the financial math that made the other risks worth taking. It’s nuts.

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Tonight at St. Tim’s we had Veneration of the Cross. I only live a five blocks from the church, but I drove because I was late. I ended up driving five blocks there, found no parking space, and then drove three blocks back before I found a place to park. There were at least 2000 people at church. It was crazy.

Tonight’s service was too long, too melodramatic. I had already spent most of the day in prayer, so sitting through another two hours was tedious. But that’s okay. I know that for many people at the church, it was soul-stirring experience.

I learned a long time ago that I can’t expect God to work through my emotions. Emotions come and go. I’m at a point now where I don’t judge the worth of a spiritual exercise based on “what I get out of of it.”; I mean really, what is that? Is that the temporary satisfaction I get from an experience? There are church-things that I’ve experienced that I wasn’t satisfied with at the time. But I appreciate them in hindsight.

Candyce’s family invited me to their Seder Supper on Holy Thursday. I never would of expected from something that sloppy would have such a lasting impact on me. I mean, we used plastic cups and plates. We sat at a rickety patio table outside next to a roaring air conditioning unit. The little kids bumped the table at least six times, spilling everyone’s grape juice on the white paper tablecloth. It was a mess!

All I wanted to do was to dive back into the house and watch the Suns game. But here I am three days later, and I can’t shake from my mind the reality of the pain and slavery of the Jewish people. There was one line that explained that we kept one chair at the table open for our brother who was still in slavery.

So all day today, I’ve been thinking about that brother in slavery.