XANGA:

Sunday, June 13, 2004

Well it’s been quite a while I think…since I last updated this journal J OK I’m SORRY it’s been so long! But thanks to Rebecca, Katie, Claire, Lisa, Fran, Amanda, ETC!! for buggin’ me to update it! So here it goes…I know I won’t recall everything but ya gotta start somewhere!!!!

PS. I’m leaving for Romania for 3 weeks in a few hours (I know I should be sleeping) so pray for me. I’ll be back July 5^th with another long entry (hopefully)!

 

Oh before I start – quick click this and vote for Jaded Thorns EVERYDAY for the Sat. lineup – just bookmark it and vote for em…please?! Be a pal! Thanks so much! http://www.teensforlife.com/bandana/battleplmf.asp?date=06/26/2004

 

Saturday, May 21^st

I woke up around 4am to get ready to leave for the boundary waters. Prior to “waking up” I was on the phone with my friend Diana from IL. I figured – why sleep much when I’m gonna be tired anyway?! Lol I love my logic! So my dad got me up around that time and I made sure my bro got up. It’s a good thing I was already packed ‘cause my dad was pretty much ready to walk out the door…which was silly ‘cause I had no time to eat or make sure I had everything or anything! But we were late I guess so we took off. The plan was to meet my dad’s coworker on 35 at a Park and Ride and take Jerry’s jeep (my dad’s co worker) up to Grand Marais, MN where we would go canoeing and camping through Monday.

            We met Jerry around 5ish I think and took off for up north. Jerry’s a great guy. He’s not a Christian but I’ve been really praying for him for quite a while now. He obviously believes in God but I don’t know if he’s really given his life totally over to Him yet. What a difference that would be! We listened to a bunch of really old, dead bands all the way up north. It was quite interesting! We stopped at a nice place in Grand Marias (or close to that) for breakfast. I believe the place is owned by the Christian owners of Cascade Lodge. The food was great!

            After breakfast we got to the site, unloaded both of Jerry’s canoes, and took off. My dad and I were in one canoe while Jerry and my bro Jake was in the other. It was my 1^st time in one of these. I was in the front for the duration of the trip. My dad “steered” the canoe…lol. The weekend was quite rainy but I really didn’t mind it. My dad was a bit disappointed but it really wasn’t that bad. We made a few portages that day – but nothing too serious. A portage is where you have to walk through a narrow trial to get to the next lake to continue canoeing. 320 rods is about a mile I think. A rod is about 17 feet….I think. Something around there. Oh I just checked online and a rod is 16.5 feet! Oh I’m good!! Yeah! So the portages weren’t too bad the 1^st day. 92 was the longest one I think that day. We wanted to find a good campsite before it got dark and a few of the ones we wanted on the map were already taken. So we kept paddling ‘till we found a decent one. We found an ok site but there didn’t seem to be a place to “park” the canoes. So we slowly paddled up and Jerry and my dad got out and looked around. It was still raining and they decided to try the next site up.

            Well my dad hopped right into the canoe – only to CAPSIZE it – tipping it over and dunking me COMPLETELY in the 34 degree WATER! So I lived…yeah!! But now I was drenched, wearing the only sweatshirt I brought with, and knowing that I needed to change soon so I didn’t freeze to death! Lol The good thing is I didn’t have to do much for setting up camp…’cause I really couldn’t! So everyone hurried up and set up a tent and got a nice fire going. Jerry was good at the fire. We got some food going…thanks to Jerry again for cooking! That was awesome…and I was warm in no time. But I didn’t wanna do that again J

            So this journal is getting long – you can believe I slept well that night! I had a brand new Swiss Army sleeping bag! I was so warm and cozy :P

            Next day we had an awesome breakfast, broke down camp, and kept going! It was still rainy but not quite as bad. We did a lot of paddling…and the wind was pretty bad too – I think because we got up late. But it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed every minute of it!! My dad freaked out a couple times in the wind but there was nothing to worry about – we made it just fine! I carried the canoe all day this time instead of my dad. His knees and shoulders hurt a bit…but I didn’t mind carrying it at all! Jerry had to carry a pack and a canoe…so yeah…lol

            We did a couple longer portages today but still nothing too major. We just keep pressing on and enjoying the day. We finally got into the larger lake that we were aiming for and we even got the 1^st campsite available on the map! That was pretty sweet. We unloaded and my bro and I found a HUGE dead, dry log. It was nice! We fished on shore and my bro caught a big northern but it snapped the line. I caught a couple nice looking small mouth bass, and a northern. My dad caught a northern and a small mouth bass as well I believe. We let them all go though because we caught ‘em after dinner.

            The next day we took off a little bit earlier so the water wouldn’t be as rough. This is Monday now…the day we head home. We took one big portage this time – about 320 rods…or 1 mile. I carried the canoe J Tough guy eh?! Lol The trip was awesome. We fished until we got back to shore. Then we drove to Grandma’s to get something to eat. On the way there we drove by some kids…that turned out to be seniors from my old h.s.! They were on their sr. trip! So my dad shouted out the window at them (really embarrassed my bro I guess)! Lol That was great!

            I really had a blast. I know everyone did on that trip. Thanks again Dad and Jerry!

So that was through Monday, May 24^th.

 

Tuesday, May 25^th, 2004

I went back to work today, only to get harassed by my boss for not catching any Walleye! Lol! He’s a great guy. Later after work I met a friend – Jessica. We hung out and watched Shrek 2. It was hilarious! I have to see it again! Then we hung out in Stillwater for a while and walked around in the park near the river. It was pretty fun.

 

Thursday, May 27^th, 2004

I took the day off work today to start tearing off 2 layers of shingles on my grandpa’s roof. My dad, my cousin Dan (the former Gopher kicker) and my uncle Norman also helped. It was pretty grueling work because we had to tear off the nailed down shingles, throw them over the roof, then drag the tarps with the heavy shingles on it to the dumpster. It’s really harder than it sounds. So that was most of my day. It was probably the hardest part of the whole shingling process. My grandpa took us out to dinner I think afterwards. That was nice of him!

 

Friday, May 28th, 2004

I worked for a little while today. I left a little early though so I could make Karin’s graduation at the UofMN – in the same building where CSF holds our Wed. night youth group during school. It was nice to see her again! My friend Amy sang for the graduation. My friend Heather also came! It was really fun!! Then I booked it over to Meadow Creek to see most of the graduation there. I’m glad I went because I got to see a lot of my old friends from high school. I never got a chance to get over to talk to Bobby and Jamie though…bummer….

 

Saturday, May 29^th, 2004

Well my bro, my dad, Dan and I spent most of the day shingling my grandpa’s roof. It was all rainy outside so it made for a so-so day. But we got a lot of tedious stuff done like getting around the chimney. We did some on Sunday as well. My friend Ali’s mom died…I guess it was coming…but it was still unsure if she was going to make it or not. So my prayers go out to her and her family. I hope I can go to the funeral but it’s so far away…

In the evening I chilled with Katie!! We saw Shrek 2 AGAIN! Wow…love it! Then we chilled at my place for a while and watched another movie! lol

 

Sunday, May 30th, 2004

I went to church, then went to “The Day After Tomorrow” with Karl and Caleb…I’m sorry (ok I’m not) but every time we were “supposed” to get sad we just cracked up! It was great! After that I went to see some Indy 500 at Heather’s.

 

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

I took the day off work today again to help my friend TJ and her family move from Maple Plain (far away) to Brooklyn Park (closer…near work). They moved from a 4 bedroom appt. to a 2 bedroom…and they had LOTS of stuff. It was me, TJ, her hubby Chip, her daughters and their boyfriends (her youngest one Jessica worked at DRC once with her mom), Chip’s friend, and me. I think we had a pretty good group…aside from the fact that Jess, her mom, and me were the only non-smokers…and her mom has a sore neck, Jess is young…which pretty much makes me the only “fully winded and probably most energetic” person there! Lol but it was great! We made like 3-4 trips though back and forth. That took a lot of time…but I really enjoyed it. TJ has a cool family!

 

Wednesday, June 2^nd, 2004

I got up really early and went over to help TJ and Chip take one more trip over to their old place and load the truck up one last time. It was just me and Chip pretty much. We got it done pretty fast though. I brought Jessica some Christian CDs (like Pillar and Joy Williams) since her mom was telling me that she liked that stuff. Then I went to work!!

 

Wednesday, June 3^rd, 2004

I worked, then went to youth group at MC to play keyboard for the worship team. That was fun! Enough said!!

 

Thursday, June 4^th, 2004

I think today after work I chilled with Al and my sister Ariel. We went to Dairy Queen and ran into Mitch, Megan, Carl, Chuck, etc…that was fun. Al also gave me a HOM chair! It’s sweet!

 

Friday, June 4^th, 2004

I worked…then hung out with Heather to see Shrek 2! It was funnier than the 1^st time I saw it!

 

 

Some Day….

I know I spent a night with Jake Larson and Big Al. It was tight. We chilled at my place and watched movies, and hung out, and chilled in my room on the computer, and swung swords around…drove around…chilled out more…yep…fun night! Oh pizza and Dew too!

 

Another Day…

One of the other days I hung out with Karl at his place. I think it was a while back but hey…at least I’m mentioning it! It was fun chillin’ with him and catching up.

 

Saturday, June 5th, 2004

I woke up late…yeah…then went to some open houses like Jamie’s (really fun too) and Craig’s…(that one might have been Sunday?) then I played keyboard for Xtreme Xperience (a youth rally) at my church outside. It was ok. Then I got lost trying to find Justina’s open house…I didn’t make it…sniff…but I did go to Heidi’s! That was pretty fun. Congrats again Heidi!

 

Same thing goes for Sunday but I forget where I went or what I did!

 

Another night this past week…

I was online with Amber, Becca, Lisa, and Sarah…lots of online chatting! Good times!!! Oh and Sarah forgot to turn off her webcam…

 

Sunday or Monday, June 6^th - 7^th, 2004

- We finally finished roofing my grandpa’s roof!! That’s good news!!

 

Tuesday, June 8^th, 2004

After work I met Karl at my frat and gave him a brief tour of the campus. He’s taking a summer Economics class so I let him use my bike and park his car in my frat this summer while he’s taking the class in Blegen (West bank). It was nice to catch up with him as well! That was a great day!

 

 

Thursday, June 10^th, 2004

Today I slept in a little longer than what I had planned but I still made it to work on time! How about that?! Work was pretty fun today if you can call work fun! Lol! We recycled a ton of garbage that I “organized” a couple months ago…wow that was really worth it J Um after that we “helped” the full timers with their scanning. I helped Marina obviously since I always do! I even started scanning myself when she was busy with other stuff (they all keep forgetting that I know how to scan…and I’m fast…lol). Well around 1:45 (15 min. before break) all the computers froze! Turns out there was a virus that got into the system and all the computers in the building – and Plymouth too…stopped working. So they eventually sent home the temps (with pay of course). I hung around for the next shift and got some cards from my car. We played some games for a few hours until they got things up and running again. I taught Sergio (who never played with cards before or something) how to play speed! Lol

I ran the scanning machine for a while – then Darcie figured out (or Khu showed her most likely) how to text my computer with MS Dos Promt…I didn’t know you could do that! So that was fun. I even lost track of time while scanning and stuff and left work a little late J But that’s ok…

I got home tonight and hung out a little bit. I talked online with some close friends and said goodbye to some since I won’t be seeing them until I get back from Romania on the 5^th of July.

I watched part of Miracle with my dad and my bro Jake until I called Kaila and talked with her for a while on the phone. I broke out laughing with her when I told her my strange obsessions with Swiss Army and Pillar (but Swiss Army was funny)!! lol

Well that was my exciting day! I went to Walmart around 1am to hang out by myself and look around. Then I went to Walgreens…don’t ask why!

Hey EVERYONE! Do me a favor and vote for Jaded Thorns TODAY before MIDNIGHT! The link is:

And vote for Jaded Thorns for the Sat. lineup – it’s important!!

God bless,

Micah

- Micah 6:8

 

Friday, June 11^th, 2004

I woke up bright and early this morning to help my co worker Jamey move into his new apartment. He was previously living with the 2^nd shift lead. I got to DRC around 8:30am (my work). Jamey picked me up and we went over to get the Penske truck. It was the longest one they had around. We went to St. Michael’s and loaded everything up. It only took a couple hours with us both working. Most of the stuff was weights and workout equipment. I can see why he wanted to leave…drugs being quite prevalent in the area…enough said.

He was gonna drop me off at DRC after loading everything but I knew he needed help unloading and we spent a couple more hours doing just that…right through the patio door on the 1^st floor! Praise God for that!

I got to work around 1pm and worked for about 4 hours. I said all my goodbyes to the temps…knowing that I probably wouldn’t see most of them when I got back since they will be going home soon because of the lack of work over the summer…but Darcie at 2^nd shift said she still wanted to hang out over the summer so I guess we’ll see how that goes.

After work I went to LaCasita to have dinner w/ my family and Grandpa and my aunt Pam. That was fun. My sisters and I talked a LOT so that was pretty sweet. Just keep praying for my grandpa. He has lung cancer I guess and it would be nice for that to be healed!

After dinner I ran a few errands and ran into Mr. and Mrs. Hosking at Target and also Mr. and Mrs. Rudzitis on my way out! That was fun. Then I went to Ashley’s and picked her up and took her to Al’s where we chilled out, listened to the new Pillar album (I gave it to him for his bday) and went to eat at TGI Fridays!!! Then we chilled at Ash’s house for a while before I went home. It was a good day! Only one more full day left at home before Romania…goodnight!

Micah

- Micah 6:8

ps. Go Jaded Thorns!

 

6/12/04

The day before my Romania trip and still packed full of exciting events!! I actually slept in until about 1pm. Then I forced myself up and figured out which open houses I was going to visit. I wanted to go to my friend Marni’s as well but I didn’t know what time it was and none of my friends seemed to know.

            I took a shower, got dressed, made a mental note of what I still needed for Romania and then took Al and my bro to Jon Brown’s open house. It was pretty fun. JB is awesome! He showed us his drum set and my bro showed him up. But it was pretty funny seeing Jon beat on his drums! It rocked! Heather, Jake Vetter, Caleb, and a couple other friends were there as well.

After JB’s open house I dropped Al and my bro off and I went to Northwestern Book Store to give them the rest of my Pillar promo. I hope they do something with it!!! The cashier guy Joe knew me. To be honest, I know I know him…but I just can’t put my finger on it…and I feel horrible…my brain is going. He graduated this year…but gosh where is he from?! I know he has something to do with school but I’m lost….

Then I went to Maria Jollie’s open house. I hung out w/ my frat bro David (Maria’s brother) and Ryan and a couple other guys. It was fun. Ryan called Marni on my cell phone to see what time her open house was (she doesn’t like him so he didn’t tell them who called) and then I ended up talking to her for a couple min…(I missed the open house…oh well)!

After that I went to REI for a couple min. then went to Gander Mountain and got maybe 2 things out of that! Lol!! Then I went to my friend Josh’s open house. I said hi to Josh about 20 min. after getting there. He, my friend Adam, and most of the other guys were outside smoking cigars (I know…weird…haha) so I chilled with his sister Heather and my buddies Karin and Amy! It was great!!! As I was leaving Karin chucked a couple of water balloons at me and got my shirt completely soaked! Way to go Karin!

            After the open houses I went to Kohls for a couple min. and picked up some American T-shirts and stuff for the friends I’ll make in Romania. I also got a couple links removed from my watch so it would fit better. Then I went outside to see the most beautiful clouds ever! It was really amazing. You would’ve had to have been there to fully comprehend it. I just stared at the big, puffy, cumulus clouds on the right and left, as the colors of pink, orange, and yellow blended together so marvelously. Then in the very center were some stratus clouds and a few cumulus clouds, bubbling in the center. There appeared lightning every few seconds…sporadically…giving the entire painting a breathtaking touch. I just stood in wonder as the entire work of art slowly made its way north towards me.

I headed home, only to stop at Cub for a few quick items. As I got in my car the sky had turned dark and lightning appeared more spasmodically.

I got home and started to finish (or begin to) pack. As the night wore on, and as I approached the end of my packing, I went to my dresser to grab my passport…only to discover that it wasn’t there! As most people know, I didn’t freak out but rather took my time looking for it. I didn’t even rush. But after about 30 min. later with no luck I started praying 10 times more fervently than before and then realized the rest of my family was asleep! My friend Ashley called me and I told her my dilemma. She hung up and surprised me by driving to my house! She helped me look for it and I finally woke my parents to break the news. After talking it out with them (praise God for parents like mine) I went down to check my printer/scanner/copier and sure enough, it was under the lid where I previously made copies of my passport some weeks back. Praise God I found it!!!!

So I was now behind schedule but I still pressed on. My little sister Ariel chilled with Ash and me for a while before going back to bed. Ashley decided to stay here until around 3am…that was pretty nice of her. I’m glad I have friends like that to keep me company and encourage me…and even surprise me by showing up and helping me pack and find my passport! :D Becca from NM also called me to see how I was doing! I can’t wait to see ya in Dec.!!!  Thanks again for the call J

 

Now I’m just finishing up my long journal entry as you can see. I know I missed some stuff on here from the past few weeks so if you remember something that I didn’t mention, email me the date and what we did and I’ll stick it on here when I get back July 5^th.

 

Until then – I probably won’t be able to post an online journal everyday until I get home. But I’ll be sure to make a regular journal of my trip. Prayers are always needed! Thanks so much and God bless!!

 

And VOTE for JADED THORNS (everyday)! Do it for me! The link again is http://www.teensforlife.com/bandana/battleplmf.asp?date=06/26/2004  Thanks again!

 

Micah

- Micah 6:8

PS. 2 more things! HAPPY B-DAY to Becca on the 14th!!!!!!! Big hugs!!! Also BUY THE NEW PILLAR ALBUM ON THE 15th!!! ("Where Do We Go From Here")!!  Just so you know...it ROCKS!