Another weekend closes down. I am entering this post after finishing up a good 7 hours of being at work staring at the project that won’t build itself. Not all of this time has been spent on programming. I am still in a mental fog from sleep hunger and whatever else is stifling my ability to think clearly. I did get a significant piece of this project figured out tonight, so I will be glad to share that with the client in the morning. Finally, after about 3 hours of stare time, my mind kicked in gear and I actually solved a logic problem. Finally.

I need to go home, so I’ll try to be short.

The weekend was a good one, although, again, I am sleep-starved and I was dealing with some physical discomfort throughout it.

Friday night I went with my friend Sally to Dirty Bourbon for about 5 hours of dancing since the Rascal Flatts opportunity fell through. It turns out that was an okay situation. It rained Friday night enough to cancel the concert at the Hard Rock Amphitheater. It was kind of funny because Nathan Dean, one of the band leaders of two groups playing Friday night kept cracking on the fact all the people were at DB because the concert was rained out. Good music, good dancing, good exercise.

Saturday, I got up and went to see a nieces soccer game because she was playing somewhat in my area of town, and I had the time. Fun time, love seeing them kids, and after an hour, it was done.

For early afternoon, an old college friend named Tom Goodwin was in town, visiting from Denver. He and a friend were taking a four day, four course golf excursion in southern Colorado and around Albuquerque. He and my old chum Chris and Tom’s roadie buddy Joe played Sandia Casino’s course before I met them for a nice lunch out on the patio by the golf course clubhouse. We all chatted for an hour and some. Tom looked great, and it was a lovely day to be sitting outside- cool, slightly breezy, the sky covered by patchy clouds for most of the visit.

After lunch, I went home and napped for a short time before I carpooled with Sally and another Albuquerque Dance Club member to a dance held up in Santa Fe Saturday night. The event was enjoyable. A local teacher taught a basic Rumba progression for an opening class, and then I ended up seeing a lot of friends and dancing with a lot of folks. The event was well attended. After the dance, with our ride mate jumping into someone else’s car to get home, Sally and I stopped at the Village Inn on Cerrillos Road to refuel before the drive home, and split a Denver omelette and this apple raspberry crumble dessert. We talked about the night, people at the dance, some mutual friends in the club, and just life in general. The road home was uneventful, checkered with talk about men and women and roles and the irony of the wide-scale practice of machismo in heavily-Catholic and a largely matriarchal Hispanic culture, and the falseness of male maturity feigned by machismo, and how equally the crisis in Anglo masculine escapism is underscored by video game culture, and how exploits in gaming become valued as highly as real experience sans risks and responsibilities faced by real life decision making.

I appreciated that talk in particular, because we both agreed that men set the tone for life in the home, and that a woman responds to a man who demonstrates he will fight for her and their family. This point was pinged earlier in the day in the Bible when I read I Samuel 4:9 and saw there in Scripture the direct allusion I have felt was there all along.

“Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!”

Part of being a man is possessing a willingness to fight for what you value and love. A great reminder.

Today was a long day at church. Not only did I help set up for children’s church, but I was pulled away to drive a van to pick up and to take home some of our visitors from a woman’s halfway house before and after church. Sagebrush Highland is growing, but the church is struggling in the volunteer ranks, as I have been approached to be involved in service in about every area of the church besides the band. I think the people are in the church who could volunteer, but we’re just not getting them involved fast enough. I know Pastor Tony has his hands so full running the campus, but our loss of an administrative pastor is being felt we are going through our struggles assimilating and involving new people in the service areas in the church. It will happen- we just need to organize better with who we have now, I think. I also think a number of the mother ship members who came to Sagebrush Highland to help it get off the ground have finished their year commitment and have gone on or back to other campuses, and that has affected the volunteer pool. Time will sort things out, still. God is working in this campus. And to our joy, next Sunday the church celebrates its one year birthday. This is neat to witness.

After church, I was so overjoyed to be invited to join Thearith and Daing at their house for spring rolls for lunch. Daing and Thearith make these dishes all from scratch, the old school way, and the spring rolls are such healthy items to eat. We were joined by Gwen, a member of the dance club who has joined us at Sagebrush Highland, and a friend of hers she brought over.

Lunch was awesome, and then I came here to work.

When I got to the office, Chris, a manager I know from next door at Gold Street Caffe, was out in back of the cafe checking his phone and taking a break, and upon seeing me and hearing about my upcoming ordeal in the evening, he invited me over to the cafe to pick up a coffee before it closed in nine minutes, at four. I said “Sure.” Little did I know that dropping in to pick up that coffee, he made me my beloved raspberry mocha to get me going- and dropped it to me on the house.

That little gesture meant a lot, and made me feel cared about. Thanks, Chris!

7 and a half hours later, I am fried, and I need to go home. I’ll have to get up early tomorrow to go over our small group Bible study material for tomorrow night.

At church today, Todd covered the book of Ruth in his series. He made some great observations I loved. Ruth chose faithfulness over pity. Don’t let your grief go to pity. Love others. Serve others. And realize how blessed you are. On men, he pointed out that a strong man, like Boaz, will look out for the security and safety of his beloved first. A strong man aspires to be a person of integrity, not a person of importance. He reminds men that a mature guy strives to protect, provide for, and to pursue purity in his woman’s world, honoring her as he strives to build her up. I love that picture of how the mature man approaches his beloved. With an aim to build her up as he strives to surround her world with a buffer by his strength and servanthood. Lord, help us guys to become better men, strong in you, and strong for them, when we are with them.

Lord, it’s been a great weekend anyways. Thank you.

10 minutes until tomorrow.