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tightywhite81
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Name: Greg
Birthday: 8/12/1981
Gender: Male
Interests: The arts; film, theatre, poetry, drawing, music, and literature.
Industry: Media
Message: message me
Member Since:
2/6/2005
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| Christmas was nice this year. Busy though. I've been spending every moment with either family or Travis and Bill. On Christmas morning about 3 am I felt impressed to pray for some of my friends. As each face passed through my mind, I felt a powerful rush of emotion. It was as though my heart was being ripped in two. But I also felt like God was using this experience to bring me closer to Him. It reminded me that He allowed Himself to be broken for us, not just in the physical sense, but emotionally as well. Like when Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus. It was also like God was reminding me to be broken daily for these people that He's placed on my heart. Quite a Christmas gift. | | |
| Wow, I cannot believe the ridiculous gaps in my xanga postings. I haven't even done enough posting to say that I'm "punctuating life's highlights" because an awful lot of crap has happened since I posted last Easter. The biggest happening being my homecoming from PNG. A great adventure it was and happy am I to have lived it. A part of my heart is still there, however, making home not quite as homey as it was when I left a year ago. In a way, my return home reminds me a bit of "Return to Oz," the not-so-classic sequel to the ultimate classic "Wizard of Oz" in which Dorothy returns to Oz (hence the title) only to find it a vastly altered place from the beautiful, glimmering land it once was. Only in my experience, it's not the surroundings that have changed, but myself and my place in my own hometown. My community seems to have evaporated a lot in a year. By community, I simply mean the close, intimate web of friends and family that make home home. My brother is now married, which naturally changes things, most obviously our hangout time. I've gotten to hang out with him only once in the past five months just the two of us. It has also changed my living situation, as I now find myself relocated back to my parents' house, in the room I occupied during my high school years. Friends have moved away or moved on, leaving me feeling just kind of lonely. I think a lot of my sadness comes from this sense of isolation, but I have to also factor in the annual blue cloud that moves in with the first cold front and the rolling-back of the clocks. Don't know why, but the onset of fall has always got me down a bit. All this to say, it has been a season of change and adjustment to say the least.
There's a lot I could document about the happenings in PNG and my trip home through Australia, but it would be an exhausting and bloated piece of work, and to be frank, I just don't have the energy to put it here. That's what journals are for and I'm content to leave it there rather than posting it online. Besides, what could I express? How could I sum up an 8-month odyssey and convey an ounce of what it really means to me? No, something like that is best left to live in the mind where it belongs. At least until I understand the entirety of the experience myself. Then I can write a novel or something. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. For now I will state that it was an amazing experience that has changed me in ways I'm sure I don't yet grasp.
On to less philosophical arenas. I scored a new job in September. After working at Penn Square's Starbucks for the summer, I was informed by a friend that Tate Publishing, the company I applied for last year, was in search of an illustrator. I put together a portfolio, set up an interview, and was hired before I even knew what hit me. It was definitely a gift from God. Just weeks before the job materialized, I was about to freak out. I felt like my life wasn't moving forward at all. I wasn't experienced enough to be a graphic artist and I wasn't financially or geographically in a position to pursue film aggressively. I tried applying for some graphic design courses at UCO, only to find that all the appropriate courses were full. I was in my room trying to apply online when I made this discovery. I hurled the UCO schedule book across the room and yelled at God "What am I supposed to do?!" I'm now illustrating children's books at an amazing company that I love, building up a portfolio, gaining experience, and earning wages. I suppose God knew what He was doing after all. Now if I can just learn to trust Him with the other aspects of my life. | | |
|  | Currently Watching
Cars (Widescreen Edition)
By Mario Andretti, Jack Angel, Michael Patrick Bell, Susan Blu, Rodger Bumpass, George Carlin, Bob Costas, Jennifer Darling, Paul Dooley, Paul Eiding, Dave Foley, Teresa Ganzel, John Goodman, Katherine Helmond, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Keaton, Richard Kind, Jay Leno, Jenifer Lewis, Sherry Lynn
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It's kind of strange going back through my xanga posts. I just ran across my Easter Break post from a year ago. At that point in my life I was trying to survive the end of my senior year and working on my first film set. Now I'm looking back almost an entire year later and my life is in a very different place. I'm sitting in "Buttercup Bungalow" (I know, the name has to go) at the end of Easter 2007. Well, I say the end, but Easter actually ended for me 48 minutes ago. That's really not the point though, if there is a point to be found in this post. The point is, I spent this Easter in Mt. Hagen, Papua New Guinea. I went with one of the younger families to town for the extended weekend. We went to a place called House Pororman (House "Friend" in one of the 846 talkplace languages) and walked down a river to a waterfall. On Saturday I crashed the birthday party of these two three-year-old twins. It was kind of an awkward day because I was just sort of tagging along the entire time without a purpose, floating around like the Forest Gump feather. We spent a lot of Saturday and this afternoon at the Highlander, Mt. Hagen's premier resort, (though we were actually staying at a missionary guest flat). I ate well and saw some contestants for some Discovery Channel reality show called Last Man Standing. Apparently they're shooting the show all the way through August, playing sports in locations all over the world. I don't know what brought them to Mt. Hagen, though.
So that was my Easter Break this year. I still have tomorrow off, and Tuesday I'll be back in Hagen for Teacher Shopping Day. Guess I'm living the dream. The weird thing about reviewing my old xanga posts is realizing that, even with all of the things that have happened and changed over the past year, my life is about to go back to the same status as last year. I'll be back in my parents' home trying to find a job. I've already got a lead, and will be calling my job personnel lady tomorrow about a graphic design job. So hopefully I'll have something to come home to. After the job-hunting hell of last summer, I don't know what to expect this time around.
I don't know what it's going to be like going back to all of that. I'm really not looking forward to it at all. I know I have to get a job to start supporting myself financially, but after seeing so much more of the world, experiencing ultimate independence, and really living life to the fullest, the thought of going back to Oklahoma to apply for a desk job sounds dull. Who knows what my Easter Break will look like one year from now? | | |
| Okay, so it's high time I finally posted again. This xanga is practically useless, but I do not care. I'm bored tonight and this will pass the time. It's been weird how much has changed over the last several months. So many people have come in and out of my life in such a short time. It's kind of sad, but at the same time, I think it's good for me. I'm realizing that change doesn't kill me.
Elections are coming up and the people around here are starting to lose it. One of the empty houses was broken into the other night, and we had a Crisis Management meeting last night to go over emergency policies, should we have to evacuate. It was weird hearing people ask questions like, "Could a plane land on the highway if the airport road is blocked off?" (which, apparently it can if we cut the powerlines). But yeah, I suppose elections bring out the worst in the highlanders. I think people here have a tendancy to get really opportunistic at the first sign of trouble. I just hope that which ever corrupt politician gets elected is at least a crumb less corrupt than his fellow candidates. Who ever wins, I doubt it will effect the lives of the people around here. In a nation below third world status and termed "Un-developing," I think it would take a serious shake up to make any real differences.
I'm useless tonight. What happened to my spark? | | |
| Well, I finally have internet at my house. It feels kind of strange to be suddenly connected to the whole world again. I don't have a lot to say at the moment, but I wanted to mark this special occasion with a xanga post. I'm going to town tomorrow to shop for the next month's food supply, so I have to start making a grocery list before I go to bed. | | |
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