Today I went Kayaking with Kelli, Austen (both fellow baristas) and Mark (a guy who comes to our store a lot). And it. was. awesome. Guys! I can go KAYAKING in the middle of the city I live in! It’s AWESOME.

Then I went to First Thursday with my community group. Which was also amazing. Music, food, and art vendors all out on South Congress. The. Bomb.

Now I’m home eating cherries.

Success.

I love this city.

So.

So.

Much.

Though, I get to be in Houston this weekend! See y’all soon!

Preeeety Crehhsy

Redesign!

Bam.

This is what happens when I’m bored in my media business law class. ha.

Anyway, life is happening, guys! A.J. graduates next weekend! Graduates from HIGH SCHOOL. Which means he’s going to COLLEGE! In BOSTON! It’s crazy.

When did we all get so old?!

Molly and Joey are getting married. Mitanjeli and Jordan are getting married. Nick is going to junior high! (He’s doing drumline. He’s going to be so cool. haha.) I have a job. I have an apartment. When did I become so old?

So yeah.

Life is preeeeeety crehssy right now. In such a good way.

(and yes, Google Chat is a thing of beauty)

This weekend my family is coming up for Memorial Day. We’re going to Ink’s Lake, which will be great. Next weekend I’m going to Houston for AJ’s graduation (and I get to see Liz in real life! Don’t get me wrong, google chat it the bomb. but yeah.)

So that’s the next few weeks.

What’s going on with you?!

Bright Summer Skies

This is what I’m looking forward to. I want water, I want light.

I’m on my lunch break right now, drinking my pretentious Starbucks drink (venti soy chai with two shots, because I can.) and thinking about this summer. It will be amazing, I’m sure. I fully expect people to roadtrip to Austin whenever they get the chance!

Also, I want to go camping on the beach. It’s really weird that I don’t live an hour and a half from a beach anymore.

So, I signed up for classes next quarter (which starts halfway through July) and in a fit of excitement signed up for three classes (twelve hours!) on tuesday and one from 1-5 on thursday. So I’m pretty much going to die, or it’s going to be wonderful because I’ll be able to do things on long weekends. I’m going to have four day weekends EVERY weekend! Also, it will help my schedule to be more open for work, which is good cause I need the money!

Also, I’ll be in Houston Saturday night and Sunday! I’m excited. I haven’t seen my whole family in FOUR EVS. Yes. Four.

Anyway, I’m quite looking forward to the summer months.

BRING IT ON.

Disney Revival

I seem to be undergoing a Disney movie revival. This morning I watched The Lion King and just about had a heart attack of gladness. I almost forgot how utterly wonderful that movie is.

This evening Nathan and I watched Tangled and it was great.

Next in the queue? The Emperor’s New Groove, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, and Bambi.

I’m telling you! Disney Renaissance! Or revival. Or something.

(in other news, I’ve been listening to Two Lefts and Mmhmm by Relient K lately. And they’re still great.)

We Could Steal Time

So much is happening right now! I can’t believe that we’re playing at the BAFBC dnow in a week! It seems like it was two months away only yesterday!

Starbucks is going great. I still love it. Free coffee. Free food. Amazing people. Actually having a job. It’s the bomb.

Taylor visited last weekend and a great time was had by all! Saturday was seriously one of the best days of my life. Taylor, Nathan, Riley, Bethany (a friend from Ai here) and I all drove downtown and painted a piano together on a hill overlooking Austin’s beautiful skyline as the sun was setting (there are pictures on FB!) It was just SUCH an amazing, beautiful, joyous time. It was like breathing deeply after weeks of short, shallow breaths.

A week of two before that I went to see Jenny & Tyler again in Waco with Allison and Maritz Bitz, which was a blast. After the concert, we visited this amazing coffee shop called Common Grounds (I think) and it was beautiful and the coffee was great.

Between those two events, I was in Houston for almost a week to stay with my brothers (mostly Nick) while my parents spent their 25th anniversary in northern California. I’m pretty jealous that they got to go, but it was great seeing everybody back in Htown, AND getting to play Sunday morning with Kevo, Katie, Andrew, and Mr. Bill was a blast. PLUS, Mel, Liz and I went of a photo excursion to do a double-exposure experiment with color film that turned out pretty cool.

Anyway, Gungor concert on Sunday and I’m PUMPED.

Also, dnow in a week! And I’m SUPER PUMPED.

I’m pretty much pumped to be alive right now.

Also, did I mention one of my design professors this quarter is Marc English? He’s fo real. Google him.

.Zach

Brand New Melodies, Songs So Sweet

So, it’s been a while since I posted on here and I’m getting tired of seeing that picture of a journal on the last post. If you’re just DYING to hear from me, I have been posting much more frequently over at merereflections.org with Trey and Eric. Let’s see, what have I been up to?

Well,

I’ve been slaving over a project for my Publication Design class, and it’s been oh so delightful! Seriously. I’m getting Trey, Eric, Katie, Ryan, and Erin to write poetry for me and it’s going really well. Every time I get a poem in my inbox from one of them and read it I’m pleasantly surprised at how good it is, seriously, guys, they’re all amazing.

Nathan has settled in here in Austin, and it’s going well. Green Bay Packers and Godzilla paraphernalia have begun to pop up in our apartment, and it’s kind of funny. Austin is becoming home, which is wonderful, because it’s beautiful here. I feel more like myself, if that makes sense. Like, I don’t have to try as hard to be someone, I can just be. And it’s fine.

That said, I’ve also begun this fantastic book called Common Prayer which was compiled and written-ish by The Simple Way, of which Shane Claiborne is a part. The book is basically liturgical prayers and Bible passaged and bits of Christian history laid out so that there is some to read every day, and I must say that reading it has been really enriching. That combined with The Valley of Vision, which I just got this week, and that my missional community is reading Ephesians and you’ve got yourself a very content Zach. SRSLY, if you don’t have Valley of Vision: GET IT. Also, I’ve been keeping a rather intense prayer journal (the book regimen is def helping) and it’s making me happy. I’m FINALLY actually keeping up with a journal of some sort! It’s quite exciting.

In other news, I’m currently in the process of trying to get a job at Starbucks, which is reallllyyyy exciting. I’ve been interviewed twice, which is the normal amount of times, and am waiting to hear back about whether or not I have a job. It’s weird though, because it’s almost like God is preparing me to not get the job, because I’ve gotten two really out-of-the-blue design jobs this week. One from an admissions girl from the Ai in Houston for a graphic for her wedding, and one from a guy who was recommended to me from Michelle Sanders (bless her!) for what could possible end up being 20+ iPhone app designs and a steady stream of money over the next few months, which is AWESOME. All I can say is, God provides.

And, Hallelujah!

Now, enjoy one of my favorite photographs:

Robert Doisneau’s The Kiss

Than Ever Before

I really want to write something deep right now, but I can’t figure out how to say anything eloquently or meaningful. I want to write about heaven. I want to write about how I long for the perfection of it. How I long for it more and more than ever before. How I have a certain set of mental images, ideas and feelings associated with it that are brought about by different books, songs, and events. I want to write about the joy Revelation 19 gives me. The excitement. I want to write about how I wonder if longing for something greater is already part of the human condition, and if I would just be longing for an abstract concept if I weren’t a Christian. I want to thank God for the promise of perfection in Heaven in Him forever.

I want to write about how messed up I am. I want to write about how much of a failure I feel like sometimes. I want to write about how I was effected so much by other kids making fun of me in Junior High and Elementary School. I want to write about my struggles so that maybe you can get something meaningful out of them. I want to write to let you know that sometimes I’m more scared than ever before. I want to write about my secrets and my secret fears. I want to write about the things that make me glad I don’t talk in my sleep.

But I can’t. I just don’t know how to say those things.

I can, however, write about God’s love. God’s never-ending, perfect, awesome, unreasonable, unfathomable love. His love that brings his children into true life. His love that doesn’t make any sense. His love that us beckons further up and further in. His love that gives us reason to forgive those who have wronged us–and especially those who don’t deserve it. His love that makes it all right that I am not already perfect. I delight in my imperfection! How could God show me His love if I didn’t need it. So, I will try my hardest to be someone deserving of his love. It may not be possible, but that’s the beauty of it. The more you experience God’s love, the more you realize that there’s so much more of it to discover yet than ever before.

What Have You Been Doing Lately? Your Life Could Use Improving Greatly.

I’ve got so much on my mind right now!

Just a short update: Austin is feeling more and more like home. God is good, and, I’m learning, more in control than I give him credit for. I’m learning, if nothing else, that there is so much I don’t know and don’t fully understand about Christianity and it’s exciting and beautiful. I had a conversation with Riley today on the drive back from Houston about how there are many things that we don’t realize are such crazy gifts from God for us to enjoy (music, art, and others). That conversation had many more topics in it but it would take forever to recap.

I saw the play at Creek last night (AJ was running sound! And Callie was a lead.) And it was very funny. Glad I saw it.

I went to a small group for the Austin Stone on Thursday and it went very well. I really like almost everything about that church.

Two other people’s posts I’ve enjoyed immensely in the last week:
On Creativity and Masculinity by Adam Amberg
and
Aptin’s Feast by Sarah Clarkson (via The Rabbit Room)

Both of these posts made me want to yell “Yes! Thank you!” Adam’s because I’ve always kind of struggled with the whole america-not-viewing-art-as-masculine thing, and Sarah’s because I’ve feel very strongly about Christian community and I think her assertions at the end of her post are very correct.

What did you think about those posts? Or about this one? Or, how are you? haha.

I Have Been Turned Into A Lobster.

A very, very happy red lobster.

With this weekend coming to a close, I can’t help but be a little down. I’m afraid I’m going to get dangerously nostalgic like I did last year summer. The thing is, I’m a bit more experienced now. I now know that things will not just end like I expected them to at the end of last summer. Of course my schedule changed, and I started seeing some of my favorite people much less and some of my other favorite people much more and meeting new people, but it was all okay. I just have to remember that things change, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. God will provide.

Anyway, this weekend was so much fun.

Friday was the other Shindig guys’ (not including JM) graduation party, which was cool. I enjoyed hanging out with everyone, and it was great to celebrate the end of high school and the beginning of college for friends that I’ve known for so long and had the so many similar opportunities with over the past years. I’m not gonna lie, I’m really excited to write in all of their senior book things at church.

Prom. Prom was so much better than last year. Exponentially. It wasn’t stressful, I didn’t have to worry about the people in my group, because I pretty much trust them all. It’s very comforting to be in a group of people who you know you can trust. Liz and I went together, and it was very enjoyable! Liz, you were a great prom date! I had so much fun! Also, you looked wonderful. I picked Liz up and we both were picked up from my house by group’s bus (which we all turned into a party bus be merit of our excitement). We went to Ashley’s house for pictures. All the parents were there and I’m pretty sure we all had sore cheeks from smiling. haha. But anyway, From there we went to the Maddox’s house, where we had Carabba’s catered (and La Madeleine desserts) and then played the first two rounds of the name game.

After that we went to the Berry Center for the dance. We got there 45 minuted after it started, but were the first people dancing on the dance floor. It was legit. There was of course a coffee bar (woo!) and a chocolate fountain and there was fruit everywhere. (the theme had something to do with tropical locations…) The best part of the dance was when they played Don’t Stop Believing which melded, at the end, into I Gotta Feelin’. I was very impressed with the DJ’s skillzz. Except for the part where he played mostly rap. But otherwise, yeah. haha. Liz and I got to do a little bit of swing dancing, haha, and I did the robot some (how could I not?) and Trey even danced some! I was very impressed.

We rode to IT’z for SNAP (best idea ever) and it was much much better than Funplex. I may have ridden the spinny ride like 6 times in a row, which was great. Also, they had pizza all night, DDR (YES!), bumper car things, and lots of other fun crap. It was a great night.

I managed to get a little over an hour of sleep between then and church, and relied on a sucker infused with 200mg of caffeine to keep me awake (which it did, fairly successfully!) Molly, Andrew H, and I played In Christ Alone, Yearn, and Revelation Song, which went very well. I love playing in the college service.

After sleeping for many, many hours after that, 9am Monday we left for the Stewart Beach in Galveston, and (despite the fact that I am now sunburned as if the sand there was actually just some sort of gritty stove) it was, again, so much fun! That group of people in very fun to hang out with. We played volleyball, threw a frisbee around, swam around in the water, and ate peanuts and sunchips (which are now housed in the loudest plastic-y bag known to man). Then we ate at Yaga’s Cafe (I had a breakfast burger, which was delicious.), walked around the Strand some, and drove back home.

SUMMER = VERY YES.

WOO.

Prom.

Was. So. Amazing.

Four-hundred times more enjoyable than last year. I will post more about this weekend (probably) tomorrow night. Maybe Tuesday.

Galveston tomorrow! Wooooooo!