A Valentine Miracle

Our scene opens as Andrew is looking out his living room window, a winsome smile ever slightly perched upon his countenance. It seems he is remembering something, something a little sad, a little happy, and very true. The screen shimmers around the edges as we are taken back in time to that special place...

The two high-school boys are in Mark's basement, trying to play along to the Smashing Pumpkins "Gish" album. Mark takes a break from wailing on the J.B. Player and looks over at his friend.

"Andy," he says "I just don't know what to do."

Mark," his friend replies "I have an idea."

Mark's face lights up as Andy unleashes his plan. "You are dating Betty* who is terrifingly obsessed with you, but you don't like her. Why are you with her again?"

"I had a dream that we were dating and I thought it was a vision."

"Oh, that's right. Anyway, you don't really like her. You're in love with Sally*. You can't just dump Betty because..."

"We have to go to the Valentine's Dance. On Feb 12."

"That's right. So here's my idea. Take Betty to the dance on the 12th, then dump her on the 13th, then give Sally a dozen roses on the 14th. It's a perfect plan."

"It IS a perfect plan," Mark realizes aloud.

"It's a perfect plan," both boys verbally agree again, at the same time. Aloud.

Epilogue:

Mark listened well, took into account Andy's obvious wisdom in the ways of both women and timing, and finally acted on his advice.

As you can well imagine, both girls were thrilled with the turn of events and everyone was happy.** It was a Valentine Miracle.

*Names have been changed to protect the people involved.
**So has the outcome.

Clearing my head.

Man, I really should be going to bed, this single-parenting thing is crazy exhausting. For some reason I just feel like I need to type a little bit tonight. I think I need to clear my head so I can get to sleep. Some things I'm thinking about.

- The girls and I bought some new goldfish the other day. Two orange ones and one grey one. They love to just look at them and talk to them. It's great.

- My wife is really into local, organic foods, dairies, etc... She discovered the Hatcher Family Dairy. Their Chocolate Milk is one of the best things I've ever tasted. I can't stop. I'm addicted. (CLICK HERE) I keep meaning to tell Todd about it, because for some reason I think he'll really love it.

- I've gotten a lot of emails from folks who just found me through last weekend's Caedmon's shows. Thanks for saying hey and coming by. I hope you stick around.

- Super Text Twist is still a freaking awesome game, and I'm still not ashamed to say I'm really good at it.

- I love this picture of my daughter Sadie.


- I came up with an idea for a podcast series. It may possibly go down in flames during production, or it could be brilliant. Either way, it will be interesting. I'll keep you posted.

- I have a lot of thoughts about Ron Paul and the mainstream media that royally screwed him (and us) over, but that will be another post.

- The Writer's Strike is over. I need more of The Office. Hurry.

- I have a friend who told me tonight he's never read a novel. I want to get him Ender's Game. I think that would be a great entrance to reading. Thoughts?

- I'm really tired and should go to bed.

I remembered (www.963coffee.com)

Here's what I wanted to tell you yesterday...

My wife has recently discovered a love for coffee. Something about two little kids and needing caffeine, I don't quite understand it... She found 963 Coffee, which, according to her, is both delicious and really good for the farmers. All the coffee comes from different places in the world, places where an honest business can bring in a lot of much-needed money to help with health care, schooling and general well-being. 963 takes great care to treat the growers well, instilling growth in hurting communities around the globe.

Here's a blurb from their website...

"963 Coffee is freshly-roasted specialty coffee unlike the majority of coffee that sits on shelves for almost a year. This means you're getting an amazing cup of organic Arabica coffee every time you brew a pot.

We also believe our coffee should provide a fair wage for the farmers who work hard to harvest it. Because of your choice to purchase 963 Coffee, farmers can put their kids in school, put food on the table for their families, and afford health care. Every bag - every cup - of 963 Coffee is making a lasting impact with coffee farming families around the world."

Through their website you can support Blood:Water Mission, a wonderful organization run by some good friends of mine. Blood:Water works with African communities to build fresh-water wells in the poorest of areas. An amazing work.

963 also helps with fund-raising for other organizations. For instance, you can CLICK HERE, place your order from this page, and a portion of the proceeds will go to California kids raise money to go to YoungLife camp. A good buddy of mine is hoping this will make a difference for kids who could use a week in a new setting, a week where God might be able to be heard a bit more clearly.

For ten bucks, try a bag out, do some good, and I hope you like it and end up drinking their coffee exclusively. If you have to drink coffee, that is.

much better

Yeah, Saturday's show was better. In fact, I'll say it was pretty great. We added a tune, totaling 24, I think. LONG show. But fun. Thanks so much to all the Colorado folks who made it out. They were the most excited crowd yet. "Two Weeks in Africa" got everybody to their feet, which was a great experience. Songs I write don't usually do that!!

I'm home now, we've got two weeks until the next Caedmon's show, a little over a week until my Birthday show here in Nashville. Alison is going to Chicago with family for a few days tomorrow, so it'll just be me and the girls until Friday. I'm a little nervous, I won't lie. But it will be fun. I'm cramming today to get everything done since I know the rest of the week I'll be sort of AWOL from work stuff.

I feel like I had something else to tell you, but I can't remember right now, so I'll post again in a few if I think of it.

Comedy of Errors

I'm sitting in a comfortable Denver hotel room, listening to Andy Gullahorn's new record, and occasionally watching this great youtube clip Alison sent me last night. (Mom, you'll like that one. Click on it.)

We played last night at Derek's brother's church in Lincoln, NE. I won't lie to you, people, I'm an honest man. Last night was kind of rough. It was a comedy of errors, my pedalboard broke (a cable shorted out - I discovered today), Cliff forgot a bunch of words, I had a CAPO break!, and everybody had at least one "where are we?" moment.

I think sometimes those sorts of things can make for a fun show, though, if everybody's having a good time. The crowd was great and gracious and I think a good time was had. That said, tonight will be a better show. I am very sure of this.

The best part of the show, though, was only seen (to my knowledge) by me and me alone. Josh stood up from his organ, took a swig of Red Bull and stepped off of his riser. The thing is, he thought there was more riser there. He fell so wonderfully completely, splashing Red Bull straight in his face while his hair flew out like a parachute. I almost passed out from laughing. Tall, lanky people falling is good comedy.

After the Caedmon's show, Ben Davy drove me over to Grace Chapel, a place I had played about a year ago. I got to sing some more songs to about 50 or 60 late night owls and it was really a wonderful time. What an honor it is to get to come to some other city and have people devote five or six hours to hearing me and my friends play songs. It's not fair, but I won't complain. Thanks again and again to all you who took the trek over for that second set.

At shows I usually tell people to buy my cd's so I can go get diapers for the girls, and usually this is true. Today, though, there is an Old Navy across the corner from where we're playing, and they're having a half-off sale on little kid's clothes. So if you bought a cd last night, that cash went straight to Old Navy for some 3T and 18month clothes for the girls. Just trying to stay honest.

Of course, since I'm a guy trying to guess what would be cute on a little girl, I got an itemized receipt.