The Week That Was
Monday: Driving day. Take the 41 to the 99 to the I-5 to the 57 to the 71 to the 91 to the I-15 and you're there! With a stop in Bakersfield that's just about 6 1/2 hours. We also stopped in Oceanside only to find out that we were less than 5 minutes from the hotel. Live and learn.
Got to our room in time to see Fresno State cough up a win in Game 1. Rats!
Tuesday: Sea World. The first indication that this might not be the vacation to end all vacations came about 3:30 PM. James looked up at me and asked, "Daddy, later today are we going to do anything fun??"
Shamu was cool.
Forgot to reapply and got sunburned. Live and learn.
Got back to the hotel in time to see Fresno State dominate in Game 2. Yay!
Wednesday: San Diego Zoo. The zoo is big. Really, really big. I mean, I don't think you truly understand how mindbogglingly huge this thing is. We saw, like, a fifth of it. Maybe. James loved the reptiles and yelling "Hi! Hi!" to people as we rode the tram.
Got home (on purpose) in time to watch all of Game 3 of the CWS. It was a drag not being in Fresno when the Dogs won the National Championship. There was nobody to hoot with. We did see a guy at breakfast one day wearing a Georgia State cap, but we took the high road and chose to smile politely.
Thursday: Legoland. Legoland is...well...how does one say this? Okay. Legoland is boring. Granted, a lot of things were closed, but what was open was just pretty boring. There were a lot of things made of legos. And that was pretty much that.
Friday: Wall-E/PetCo Park. Wall-E is a great movie. Great as in "classic." Run, do not walk, to see Wall-E.
Petco Park is very nice. There were almost too many fan amenities. TV's everywhere, to the point of distraction. The game was fun. Steve Garvey threw out the first pitch. Retro 1978 uniforms were worn...and for you non-baseball fans out there, you haven't lived until you've seen a '78 Padres uni. The Mariners looked somewhat less hideous. The key element of the game was the 18 men that Seattle left on base. 18. Now, I'm no mathematician (wait...), but that comes out to two guys left on base on average every inning. And they still won! Remarkably bad baseball. But what do you expect when the worst team in the AL plays the worst team in the NL? 
Saturday: Angels/Dodgers. Yes. I was there. If there is anything worse than watching your favorite team lose to one of your least favorite teams, it's watching your favorite team give up NO HITS and STILL LOSE!
On the plus side, we were in foul ball territory. A guy in the row in front of us caught one. The guy in the seat in front of me dropped one over the edge. And another guy stole one right out of my hands after it caromed off the facade behind us.
We also got to see a bunch of old Dodgers. These were guys I grew up booing like crazy. We saw Steve Garvey for the second consecutive day. Also Bill Russell, Jerry Reuss, Bob Welch, and lots more. Oh yeah, and Tommy Lasorda. I didn't boo, but only because I was clad in red and had a family to think of.
Sunday: Driving day. We were very glad to get home. Suffice it to say that James was not on his best behavior during this trip. So the general feeling upon return was, "Well, we did that." In the future we may look back on this week fondly. But I kind of doubt it.
Live and learn.
Tagged!
It says a lot about how much respect I have for my friend, Jim, that I respond to his tag. That's not to say, of course, that if you fail to respond to MY tag that I will think you don't respect ME.
Or something. Anyway:
A. Attached or Single: Attached.
B. Best Friend: Lisa. It says so right there on that sign she displays for 6 months out of the year: "Happiness is being married to your best friend." She puts it up every year after the final out of the World Series. Then, on Opening Day, she takes it down and displays the one that says "We interrupt this marriage to bring you baseball season." Funny girl.
C. Cake or Pie: Cake (Angel Food...heavily frosted)
D. Day of Choice: Saturday. I enjoys the sleepin'.
E. Essential Item: Wow. DVR or iPod? Toss up.
F. Flavor of Ice Cream: Vanilla. Yeah, I know.
G. Gummy bears or Worms: Ick.
H. Hometown: Fresno, CA.
I. Indulgences: Pepsi. I drink far too much of it.
J. January or July: Ummmm...do you know me at ALL? There's no baseball in January. Plus I have to, y'know, work.
K. Kids:
L. Last Movie I saw in a Theater: The Incredible Hulk. Hulk SMASH!
M. Middle Name: James.
N. Number of Siblings: 2
O. Orange or Apples: Oranges.
P. Phobias or fears: I don't like spiders and snakes. Just channeling Indy.
Q. Quote: Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.
R. Reasons to Smile: Salvation in Jesus Christ. (I copied and pasted Jim's. But really...is there a better answer here?)
S. Season: Summer.
T. Tag 4: Swannie, Weave, Laser, and CrazyLady. The rest of you can breathe easy.
U. Unknown fact about me: I batted 1.000 in Pee Wee League Baseball. I was too tiny to have any sort of strike zone. So my coach told me to never swing, resulting in a season of walks. I disobeyed in my last plate appearance of the season and stroked a solid single.
V. Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: Oppressor.
W. Worst Habit: I am far too sedentary.
X. X-rays or Ultra-sounds: X-rays, I guess. I don't think I get this question.
Y. Your favorite food: A juicy barbecued steak.
Z. Zodiac: Scorpio.
Fabio
When you expect to be surprised by God, can it still be called a surprise?
A couple of weeks ago, we learned of a foreign exchange student from Germany named Fabio. He spent the school year in nearby Visalia but wasn't able to stay with his host family after the last day. Having already planned a trip to New York before returning home, he needed a place to live for 12 days. So God sent him to us.
I believe that there are times when we need to really be paying attention to see God's hand at work. And there are other times when we'd have to be completely blind to miss it.
The first night that Fabio stayed with us was the night of Calcfest 2008. 18 AP Calculus students descended upon Casa de Thurman for an evening of pizza, games, and very loud karaoke singing. At one point, with apparently nothing better to do, my students prevailed upon me to learn the "Soldja Boy" dance. What we won't do for our kids.
Aaaaaanyway, these wonderful, extroverted, caring young people embraced Fabio (quite literally in many of the girls' cases) and they became instant friends. Instead of worrying about what he was going to do for the 12 days he was with us...and out of school...we saw him spending every day and most evenings with a great group of kids. Even on Sundays, even though he was only with us for two of them, Fabio enjoyed spending time with our youth group. He instantly loved (as I did) our Youth Minister, Brandon, and was influenced by his teaching.
This past Sunday, after church, he went to one last party with his new friends. Afterwards, he was pretty broken up. He was to leave for New York the next day and, though incredibly grateful for the time he got to spend here, he was just so sad that he had to leave so soon. So we talked together, hugged and cried together, and ended up in his room just the three of us: he, Lisa, and me. After a time, he looked over at me and said he needed a favor. I told him, of course, anything. "I've never accepted Jesus as my savior," he said.
"Well, I guess we should take care of that, then," I told him.
And we did. The three of us. Or, I guess, the four of us.
Fabio's having a great time in New York right now, determined to save his sleeping until he gets home. Please pray for him. He's a very "American" kid and won't find a lot of fellowship in Germany. We'll keep in touch as best we can and I'll text and e-mail him through his new Bible a bit. But he is in God's hands.
He stayed with us for 12 days and we already miss him so much.
(Addendum: Through technology I could not possibly comprehend and I suspect to be of extraterrestrial origin, a picture of Fabio in front of the Statue of Liberty just appeared on my cell phone. Though there may be magiks involved, I will attempt to share it with you in the future.)
Friday: Wall-E/PetCo Park. Wall-E is a great movie. Great as in "classic." Run, do not walk, to see Wall-E.
Saturday: Angels/Dodgers. Yes. I was there. If there is anything worse than watching your favorite team lose to one of your least favorite teams, it's watching your favorite team give up NO HITS and STILL LOSE!
