Thunder and Fidelity

Last night was Thunder Over Louisville. A group of us went to Sarah and Aarons to hang out then walk to the top of a hill to watch the fireworks. Once upon a time before King Fish ($160/person indoor seating), Buckheads, Rocky's, Hooters, and crowds of 250,000 (1 side of the river) Thunder was amazing. Of course being 9 probably had something to do with the excitement. I remember half the fun I had was moving the rocks around and finding two good size flat rocks to make the seat and back to a chair for optimal viewing. Well those rocks are gone.... sorta. They're underneath King Fish now. You can pay $5-10 to bring a lawn chair and sit in their parking lot. Sweet deal! Of course you have to beat the other 10000 people willing to drop 40 bucks so their family can have a good view. In the Jr/Sr high school days the "flood wall" was the seating of choice. Nick typically lead this adventure of getting to the wall around 12 hours before the fireworks would start to insure a good location. Typically time was spent trying not to let stuff slide down the hill, throwing a football or frisbee (still a frisbee at this point because ultimate had not really been discovered so "disc" was not in use), and on occasion having your shoes taken while you were in a tent. It was usually a pretty good time. Couples reigned supreme when the sun started to set, huddled up in blankets (still trying not to slide down the hill). Coupled up, things were good, otherwise a little lonely. I'm not bitter..... haha.
Back to last night. Ben brought a couple of friends and those poor guys saw Thunder from quite a distance so it basically looked like small bursts of light on a huge horizon. You HAVE to watch it at the waterfront or the effect is just not there. The night was great and consisted of a lot of laughs and a few ridiculous games, but the fireworks were by no means the high point. Maybe next year. My mom had a State Police pass and watched it from the ramp onto the second street bridge, looked like it was her own personal show from what she said. Her luck is beyond good.

Fidelity. I think this word has lost its meaning. Divorce rates are sitting around %50 which is just crazy. What sparked this thought was a Women's Health magazine. When I got home last night this magazine was sitting on the couch, there was nothing on so I started to skim through it. I came across an article that was "A Husband's Confession". I was intrigued so I read it. His confession..... he had been faithful to his wife for 23 years. What !?!?!? That is what you are SUPPOSED to do. It was basically a whole article about how men are constantly on the prowl and that you are looked at as less of a man (in other men's eyes) if you stay faithful to one woman. Is this crazy? I can see college students getting on a guy for not taking advantage of a drunk girl at a party (by no means approve of this), but married men discussing that you are not a man if you haven't given in to the temptation of being with another woman. Where are we going as a society? I was just blown away by this whole idea. I am a Christian and I believe in a lot of ideals that seem old fashioned or just plain dumb to a lot of the general public but I thought that maybe society as a whole still had some value to fidelity. I challenge that you are MORE of a man for remaining faithful. Is it not incredibly more difficult to resist temptation than to give in? If temptation were hard it wouldn't be a temptation. Is being a man of your word an honorable quality? I think so. Isn't protecting the honor of another and having complete respect and love for someone more challenging than using someone for personal pleasure. Typically manhood is measured by how difficult of a task you can complete, so why is the easy road honored in this situation. I'm convinced that anyone could have access to sex anytime they want assuming their expectations are low enough so how is this better than managing an intimate relationship that last. I don't think it is. I think I'll go against the grain.

Catch up

So it's been a while since I've written anything on here. Quick overview of the last month or so. I got mono. Not fun. The only thing I've ever really heard about mono is that it makes you tired. Apparently everyone forgets the part where you feel like you are going to die. I was sick, fever, chills, constant headache, so much pressure in my abdomen that small swallows of water made feel like I was going to throw up. It was brutal for about 5 days then it started to calm down. I still have the pressure in my abdomen (this could be because I might have a kidney infection, test results should be in on Monday) especially when I exert myself. That means no working out lately which is pretty hard for me. In the middle of being sick I got dumped which is always nice when you have plenty of time to sit and think because you aren't working because you have mono. A couple of weeks of feeling awful in multiple ways. I've recovered for the most part from sickness and heartache so that is good. Oh, small side note, I haven't been tired at all really, in fact I've woken up the last few mornings at 7:05 which is pretty early considering I go to bed around 2 AM and normally sleep til 10:30.

I managed to go hiking with a Andrew and Adam at Clifty Falls which was a good time. I don't think we could have picked a better day even if we were given a 10 year forecast. The falls were all flowing because of all the recent rain, it was about 70 and sunny so even I, the sweatiest person alive, didn't really sweat all that much which was great. We hiked for about 6 hours with an hour break in the middle. Made for a great Sunday. I'm hoping that when Adam returns from Africa that we can maybe do a 2 or 3 day hike at some point. I'll probably invest in some boots if that's the case because I don't think the running shoes would be too good for multiple day hikes.

I just signed up for the CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) exam which I will take the first part of June. I hoping that it will lead to some full time employment. Hope it leads to something because it was expensive. Thanks tax return! I'm also tossing around the idea of applying to the Indiana State Police. My dad was telling me that he thinks I would be good for the ERT (Emergency Response Team). It'd be pretty sweet to go around with an MP5 and body armor kicking down doors and making drug bust and what not. I'm a much better shot with a rifle than with anything else so maybe being a sniper would be a better bet. Who knows? On the flip side of potentially shooting people I'm looking into teaching. I don't know what I'd teach, health and PE would be the easiest transition for me, but I think I'd like being history teacher too. And then there is coaching. I would love to coach just about anything, wrestling specifically. And I figure I'm going to go ahead and fill out the application for the Peace Corps. and see what happens a year down the road. Maybe someone will pay off all my loans and I won't have that financial burden to worry about.....

That's a lot about me so I need to put something on here not entirely about me. John McCain, Republican candidate for the Presidency, was a POW during Vietnam. Probably everyone knows this, or at least anyone who's paying attention. He even managed some humor after being released, "They don't put chocolates on your pillow at Hanoi", in reference to the somewhat sick nickname of the POW camp in Hanoi, the "Hanoi Hilton". 32 months of torture and near starvation and to still have your mind is amazing. I think this man has a quality that no recent candidate has had, Republican or Democrat, that he has sacrificed as much as you possibly can for your country with the exception of you life. He suffered for his country and still loves it and now is running to be the leader of it. He's been criticized by the very conservative as too liberal but I think when compared to the alternative of a crazy withdrawal from Iraq that will lead to disaster and socialized medicine, he can't be beat. I don't get into politics very often but I feel pretty strong about this particular presidential election so that's my piece.