poco a poco

I visited my friend Matt Keiser in February. Currently he's studying Spanish in Costa Rica. So after some good but busy weeks of directing retreats at Hebron, I hopped on a plane in February and took a little R&R in a foreign country. The week consisted of free Spanish classes, exploring San Jose, avoiding dog poo, admiring the mountains, Gracias a Dios' from Flora and spending time with a special guy.

I was pleased to see that latino culture has its own version of one of my very favorite passtime activities (speaking Chinglish): SPANGLISH! If any of you have some good examples of such "ishes" please do share. Its out there and deserves to be shared for the enjoyment of native speakers. Seriously though, it was fun to finally have an opportunity that forced me to put into use the four years of high school spanish. I'm a far cry from good by any means and haven't been a student for a few years now but it was good to try. I think the last time I'd traveled was back in '04 so I was overdue. It is amazing how simple and common world travel is for we Americans. I am so thankful. The most scary part of traveling for me is usually coming back to the US and going through customs. American customs officers are some of the most intimidating people I have ever encountered and I have a USA passport.
Speaking of world travel, I'm heading to Virginia in two weeks, which can seem like another world. Just joshin. I'm going down to play in an alumni soccer game. Guess I'll be considered one of the "old" people sucking wind. Thus, I'm concluding this post to go for a run and work on my sweet skills. All for now! Thanks for checking in and making it this far in random thoughts by k-dra

uh.. long time no blog

Yeah. Updating the blog just doesn't happen real often. In part that can be blamed on this little problem I had with motivation. Basically, I didn't have much. Was it that tough to get back into the swing after a vaca to Costa Rica (an entry and pictoral show shall follow), or just the winter blahs? What ever the case, its getting better - thanks to prayer - and this nice-er weather sure does help. So does the fact that I have a sweet occupation that I get to occassionally use nail guns (or at least hold them for others who are using them and pretend I actually used it when in fact, I didn't), wire cutters, swagers, tulle, velum paper, tea pots, toilet plungers and the ever popular ice cream scooper!

Or, could it be that its a grave sin for me to use the internet. Oh my crap... don't get me started. I'd be interested in hearing people's views on "gray areas" and fuzzy lines of moral standards. :) Without delving into too much dirt there, let's just say k-dra is in the market for laptop shopping. What do you recommend?

Its too late already and I have a long day tomorrow that I'm only half ready for. Where'd that motivation get to?...