Molly’s birthday was on the 9th. I got her a round trip plane ticket to Nashville to visit our friend Emily. I also took her out to Red Lobster (we had a gift card) and got her the movie Stardust, since she kept getting it on Netflix and borrowing it from the library all the time.

Molly and I went to two baseball games. The first had a pretty spectacular fireworks show afterward. It was after this game that we got the idea of collecting Pepsi caps for their PepsiStuff points. We collected enough that night so I was able to get Led Zeppelin III and enter a couple contests. We did the same thing after the second game, but collected non-Pepsi caps as well, since some people at Molly’s work are collecting bottle caps in order to get a grant for someone’s chemotherapy.

Molly has been to seven Indians games this year and they won each of them. She’s definitely good luck.

I made dinner for our small group on Sunday. This consisted of 16 deli sandwiches, chips, Hawaiian Punch, and a cake. Ok, so I only really made the sandwiches and cake. But the sandwiches weren’t just ham and cheese. I used a variety of meats (honey ham, cooked turkey, pastrami, roasted chicken, and peppercorn turkey), cheese (pepper jack, sharp cheddar, swiss, and provolone), and bread (italian and multigrain). They also had lettuce, tomato, and Dijonnaise and/or light mayonnaise. I don’t think any two sandwiches were the same. There weren’t as many people at small group as I expected, so we had some leftovers for the next couple of days. That was ok, though; I really enjoyed eating them!

Last night, I taught my final Bible class of the summer session. It’s been an interesting experience, but I’m not so sure I want to do it again anytime soon.

Some deadlines at work have resulted in my colleagues and I being called to put in overtime for (potentially) the next six weeks. I wasn’t too happy to hear that when we were first told, but after talking with Molly, praying, and gaining some perspective, I calmed down. Four days into it and it hasn’t been too bad so far. To tell the whole of it, I think that we won’t have to do overtime for the full six weeks. Things seem to be progressing fairly rapidly.

This weekend, Molly and I are going to Pennsylvania to visit my family. I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m fortunate enough to work for a company that emphasizes community service and changing lives for the better. Yesterday, a couple co-workers and I took advantage of this company quality and spent the day with Habitat for Humanity instead of in the office.

We helped with the building of a house for a 4 person family in Oberlin. I carried boards, cut the bottoms of door frames with a Sawzall, installed supports for all the wall frames, and marked the tops of the frames for the roof installation.

I got some blisters and bruises; I think most of them came from the Sawzall. More positively, I got some physical activity and a sense of accomplishment from helping to build a place for a family to live.

On another note, I read in the paper recently that the Lorain County Habitat for Humanity is looking into renovating houses rather than building new ones. I think this is a great idea since there are so many cheap empty houses in the area these days.

I can still remember the first time Nicholas and I rode the kiddie coaster at Knoebel’s. We thought it was the coolest ride ever. It was a slow day at the park and we rode it over and over again.

I was probably about fifteen years old.

Since then, I’ve worked my way up to crazier rides. I preferred the metal twisting coasters over the wooden ones. This was a result of seeing a video of a wooden roller coaster collapsing on tv and the fact that part of the “thrill” of such coasters is the feeling that they might collapse at any moment.

Until recently, the last time I rode a roller coaster was in 2006. Way back then (all of two years ago), coasters were still fun.

Molly and I went to King’s Island with her mother and sister a couple weeks ago. After waiting in line for 1.5 hours, we rode Invertigo (formerly known as Face/Off). While I didn’t feel sick to my stomach, I got a really bad headache and was sweating a lot. Regardless, we went on to ride Adventure Express and The Racer.

After my third coaster ride, I decided that I didn’t want to ride any more. Not only did they make my head hurt and make me sweat, but my neck started hurting as well. While thinking about this decision, I realized that the coasters weren’t even fun for me. It wasn’t as if I wished I could continue to ride because I enjoyed the thrill.

Looking back, I can’t imagine what made roller coasters fun in the first place. I know I enjoyed them from the first ride on the kiddie coaster to five years ago on The Hulk, but I can’t recall the exciting feeling that they gave me.

My liking of roller coasters lasted approximately seven years. Not a long time, but it was nice while it lasted. The worst part about the recent development in my taste is that coasters are a great social experience. Molly and I had planned to go to Cedar Point with some friends this weekend. Now those plans are canceled.

1. Studies have found that installing red light cameras at an intersection actually increases the number of accidents.

2. The owner of the vehicle is hit with a ticket, not the person who was actually driving the vehicle.

3. Offenders aren’t notified of their offense until a month or two after they have committed the traffic violation. When receiving their ticket in the mail, most people don’t remember the circumstances surrounding the violation. This makes it an ineffective violation deterrent as well as making it near impossible for the offender to defend themselves in court should they choose to dispute the ticket.

The bottom line is that, most of the time, these devices are installed as a means for the city to make money under the guise of superior law enforcement and safety. You could call it a fickle auto tax.

For more in-depth information on the issue, check out the National Motorists Association.

A common theme in Indie media is the instant profound relationship.

Example: Boy bumps into Girl. Rather than say “Sorry” and move on, he engages her in conversation. Completely open with one another and holding back none of their quirks, they explore who they really are and help each other deal with the realities of life.

I tend to like movies like this (e.g. Garden State, Donnie Darko, In The Land of Women, and Elizabethtown). When I see a movie like that, it makes me want to be a lot more open and honest with people.

But does the instant profound relationship ever happen in real life?

I mean, I can see one person trying to initiate it, but how likely is it that the random other person will reciprocate this soul-baring attitude?

Locally owned coffee shops. That is the only place I can see something like this happening. Simply because that is where people who would try this sort of thing would hang out and have the most likely chance of having that random other person be willing to engage in a deep personal conversation with the initiator. Then again, the other person probably isn’t so random since this venue is more conducive to such an encounter occurring.

Yet, even if two people seem to be having one of these instant profound relationships, I find it hard to believe in the innocence of it. One or both parties is pretending to be deep or trying too hard. It isn’t real.

Maybe I’m just cynical.