the life of a procrastinator

I've always heard that ignorance is bliss....I would have to say from experience that so is the procrastinator mentality.

It's the same mindset that fuels the disorganized soul's constant state of mess as well.

Just recently during my summer sabatical from the life of teaching high school students, I have made a very strong effort to organize my life, my teaching, everything really. It all started in the garage and radiated like a cancer through my house and my life. I discovered new worlds as I cleaned out old cabinets and closets. I found trinkets from my childhood that reminded me of a past life. I cleaned and cleaned, making order out of chaos and forming new places to keep the things I use on a daily basis instead of things that I will never use again.

In this process I probably "stored" some very important USB and Firewire cables that help me run recording hardware on my computer so that they can never be found again. It's funny. When my life was in disorder, I knew where everything important was. All I had to do was reconstruct the last event in my mind that I used said object, and, oala! I knew where I could find it. Now that things are "in their place", I'm at a complete loss.

So here's to progress, organization, doing things on time, and everything else "Type-A" that fights the natural order of entropy.

The smell of a wet dog...part 2

It seems every time you hear about a match-making service or watch one of those old "Love Connection" game shows on the Game Show Network, that people always claim "long walks on the beach" as one of their main interests. Seriously though....who doesn't like walking on the beach at sunset?

For the last night of our vacation at Fripp island, we took the dogs and headed down to the sandy strip for some fun in that perfect time between sunlight and moonlight. There were more people there that night than on the previous nights and we had to leave the dogs on the leash for a while. Other people were walking as their kids rode ahead on rusty beach house bikes, then stopping, looking back, and waiting for mom and dad to catch up.

A group of people down towards the inlet was trying to fly a very large power kite...you know...the kind that you use for kite surfing or for use with a mountain board or 3 wheeled kite luge. They kept having problems with it and it would go down hard into the sand. Jack and Camden watched it for a while trying to figure out what it was, but then they finally turned their attention to the bare strip of beach in front of them with no walkers, bikers, or wave watchers. They turned back to look at me as if to question whether the leashes would be coming off soon.

As soon as I unhooked their tethers, the dogs took off like it was one of those posh greyhound races where people bet while sipping mint julips. Jack really does run like the wind.

Jack ended up finding this shecrab on the beach trying to bury herself and lay a load of eggs. He would get close and sniff her out, then she would snap her claws as quick as a ninja at his nose and he would jump back before trying to sniff her again. He began to enjoy the game and soon started to fake a paw fight with her. She really didn't enjoy the idea of a 60 lb dog crushing her and her future progeny, so she dug deep and disappeared.










Between watching the dogs, walking with my wife, and enjoying the picturesque scene at the eastern edge of America, it was one of the more memorable nights I've had in a long time.

bumped, bruised, and happy

When I was a kid I always used to come home with some fresh scrape or cut after riding my bike or playing in the woods until sundown. A nice shower, a good home-cooked meal, and one good night's sleep later and the injury became a battle wound that I was proud of and that I could tell the story of how it happened for ages to come.

Then I calmed down in life and became more careful...I guess it's a sign of maturing, but I almost forgot what it felt like to get scraped up when I was out exploring and adventuring. It probably also meant that I began to stop pushing my limits...I began to take the safest way out of every situation and found a comfort zone that I was eager to stay within.

This past week in the surf at Fripp island has produced many a scrape, bruise, muscle pull, and general body thrashing of the funnest kind. I walk out of the water each day watching myself bleed from a new spot because the rough edges of the rental board catches my foot as I pop up on a wave. I even got snagged by a jellyfish today on my left forearm. I have to say that the pain feels good. I feel like I earned each ride today and that, at the end of the day, each bump and bruise was a medal of happiness that will remind me tonight of how I caught myself living again today.

Why the buzz?...

You've seen the movies, you've heard the beach boys, you may have even been to a surf shop or two and seen those expensive pieces of fiberglassed foam painted in a rainbow of colors.

As a kid those surfboards always sucked me in like a tractor beam. I was drawn to them almost the same way I was drawn to guitars in a guitar shop...but I didn't live at the beach, so..."out of sight, out of mind" right?

Just recently my adventurous spirit has gotten the best of me and I've been trying to experience those things I've always wanted to, but never had the chance.

I have to say, with experience now, that surfing is possibly the most fun thing I've ever done.

When you see that wall of water rising up before you, capable of smashing you into the sand below, it normally brings a feeling over you that can best be expressed by "oh crap" or "yeeehhhhh.....doh!" But with this 9' board, I can blend with that wall of water...matching my intent with that of the wave, so that what results is a beautiful display of power and grace....supple strength...yielding intensity.

If you can't know what I'm talking about because you've never tried...please make some time to try this addictive hobby.

For those of you who have already experienced this, please...for the love of God, keep surfing.

"hang loose"
jeff

drop in...ride it out...feeling the flow

So today I lived out a dream that I've had since childhood. It actually kind of happened randomly too, which made it even sweeter. I ended up leaving my bathing suit at home accidently yesterday as kelley and I drove down to Fripp island.

This morning while everone else went out to the beach, Mrs. Bateman and I ran a couple of errands....including getting me a new bathing suit. At the surf shop that is close to Fripp, they ended up renting surf boards for pretty cheap and I rented one for the next week.

As Mrs. B and I walked out onto the beach...her carrying the surfboard over her head...Patrick, Kelley, and Erin just cracked up...well actually Patrick threw up a "rock on" hand and an afternoon of longboard surfing ensued.

Most of our time was spent wiping out, but each of us caught a handfull of waves that we rode in all the way. It's such an amazing feeling dropping in even on a small wave, standing up on the board, and feeling the surge of the ocean as it meets the shore push you along for a 10 second ride.

It's almost like the brief meeting of wave and land issues forth a surge of energy that we can tap into for a short time and witness a pure moment in time that will never happen again.

It's raining babies...

This is my friend Jacob Moody (married to the amazing Kelly Moody) and their son Micah Lee Moody.

So life cycles in such an amazing fashion.

when you're young, you watch as all your friends have teeth coming in...then a short while later, you compare each other's battle wounds as teeth begin to wiggle and fall out.

During the teenage years, you hear horror stories about how your friends are getting hair in really weird places...and then it happens to you.

After high school you begin to think of your own choices in the context of your friends' choices in college or job after graduation.

Once college is done, you start to hear of people getting married all around you.

Mid 40's hit and we get phone calls from buddies that just bought Corvettes or Harleys or that have just taken up surfing.

70's and 80's come around and we start to get those dreaded phone calls that our roommate from college just passed away or that Sue Johnson down the hall in the elderly care facility just got taken to the hospital complaining of sharp chest pains.


Right now I'm finding myself in the life stage where all my close friends are at the fruitful point..ushering in the next generation. It's a beautiful picture of life and the constant drive to move forward into the future.

Still though, you have to cringe a little when you think of the world we're bringing them into. My prayer for my friends (and soon myself hopefully) is that we'll be patient and kind but steadfast in our approachability, principle, and faith. That we can be examples that God would have us to be and point our children towards His truth.

The calm before the......

Storm is marching on the horizon

Droves of adolescents in eager and bittersweet paradox

A dread of assignment but even thicker boredom with that loneliness that is summer

So I'll vacate to the shore for a week of calm before the...

...kids.