pedro negro

Working on a websites

I am working on a website and i am going completely nuts. I have done design in Deamweaver, blogs and a few other formats but for whatever reason this online thing that I am trying to use is driving me so insane.  I am about to lose it and I need to share.  Thank you for listening.

Getting older

I have realized that as I have become older the down time I need to myself in between friends is more and more.  I used to spend all of my free time with someone around, now I would go crazy.  I need hours to myself or relaxing with Lauren before I feel I have enough energy to spend that with someone else.  Does everyone get this way? Why do we do this?

Along the same lines...

In my times of reflection and thought I am often so thankful for many of the things in my life that are constants.  My family, always a phone call away to help with anything.  My wife, the anchor in my life of love, support, encouragement and most of all friendship.  I have been so burdened lately with troubles that I have heard about in a few different marriages.  It breaks my heart that so many young people struggle with marriage.  Marriage should be the joining of two best friends for a long life of love and support, "through sickness and heath, richer or poorer, for as long as you both should live."  I know that this is somewhat cheesy or cliche but it's true.  Marriage is so much more than the certificate, it is not a piece of paper, anyone can get that and it means nothing, but marriage is the bond that you have with only one person that is so special nothing should be able to tear it apart.  The problem with this is when we allow ourselves to begin forming bonds with people of the opposite sex other than your spouse.  It is one thing to have friends, I have many "girlfriends" but I do not talk to them about certain things that should be talked about only with guy friends in the right context and setting.  If not these talks begin to form the special bond, I am sure that this sounds crazy and it is, but husbands and wives do not wake up one morning and cheat on their spouse, it takes weeks and months of talking to someone of the opposite sex about personal things in your life when you should not be.  Next thing you know you are justifying your action because "he or she understands you better" and you never would have allowed this to happen but it "just happened."  It didn't "just happen" you spent the last three months making sure that it was going to happen.  

Sorry for the rant but it really makes me sick seeing the state of marriage today.  

Kids listen up!

• Date for a long time, get to know them, the family, friends, through all seasons of life
• If your friends don't like who you are dating that is usually a good sign that it's not good
• Don't rush to get married so you can have sex. Bad idea. The sex will not hold a marriage together for long at all.
• If you are not marrying your best friend, keep looking, you will grow to hate one another with all the little things you are unwilling to put up with.
• "Don't let the sun go down on your anger" do not let anger fester in your heart, it will get bigger and bigger until it consumes you
• "You can only love those around you as good as you can love you wife."  Use that as a gauge for your life it really helps.

I'm not an expert or have all the answers by any means but I love my wife, were happy, we get along and today was better than yesterday and it has been like that for the last 7 years.

"win her heart everyday" best marriage advise I ever received.

...cont.

The Appleseed Cast has been the soundtrack to my Grizzly winter

Cold today

Today is is currently 25 degrees and with the 20 mile and hour winds, the weather channel is telling me it feels like 11 outside.  I would say that's just about right.  Every year when the weather changes and winter really sets in my mood changes to meet the cold weather outside. Not sure why I feel the need to hibernate with the bears and crawl inside myself and reflect on the year.  Is it the cold weather, the end to another year?  I turned 30 last week and I have been thinking about what that means and where I am at with my life, where I am going, what I am working towards.  I have so many amazing friends in my life, a family that is always willing to help out and support me and a wife that is the most amazing person in my life.  She is my best friend and supports me through everything I love her with all that I have.  What to do? Where to go? So many questions. 

Perhaps I just need a warm safe cave to spend this winter and wake up fresh and hungry for life?

 


   

May 26 2009

Lauren and I have been married for three years and it has been the best years of my life. 

Last night we had an amazing dinner at Belly Timber came home and watched a couple episodes of a DVD and went to bed.  If we never did anything else besides hung out at the house and watched television on DVD I would be happy.  Thank you Lauren for all the wonderful years together.  

In October we will have been together for seven years, this blows my mind.

Who does this?

I hang out at Albina Press as a lot of you are aware and I walked into the bathroom to find someone had wiped a booger on the wall next to the toilet.  Now I have seen this in most mens bathrooms at rest stops and truck stops across the country but to see it in the coffee shop that I love, I was a little surprised.  Most of the people are regulars and are in here everyday (I would like to think that the regular crowd is above that).  The shop is off the beaten path enough that you don't really get homeless people, transients and some other kind of person I would typically associate this type of behavior. 

In 2009, in a civilized, hip, coffee shop who still wipes their boogers on the bathroom wall right next to the TP?

Two Months

I am a little embarrassed about how long it had been, but enough of that.  

The weather has been great up here for the last week and after a long drawn out winter I remember why we fell in love with the Pacific NorthWest.  People move to Portland for the summer and rightfully so.   

This blog is going to be a jumble of all the ramblings that go through my head on a daily basis. 

I feel like I am so busy everyday with more on my plate than I have time to get done.  When in reality I believe that what is actually happening is that I have so many wonderful people in my life wanting to spend time together and calling me that I just run from one place to the next as the hours slip by.  The relationships that I have made in just the 8 months that we have been here are absolutely amazing.   The weather has been so conducive to sundays in the park playing bocce, brisk evening playing ping-pong at RonToms and Zach's.  Lauren is going to school again for nursing so between that and her school schedule we have night that is just us hanging out on the couch watching some TV show on DVD.  Dinners have become more and more extravagant as Lauren continues to expand her recipe book.  Church has been great for community and as we have moved into the book of John I have enjoyed the messages more and more.  

Here is something on my mind a lot.  I used to get up every morning and read the Bible and spend time in prayer but ever since I have worked at starbucks this has been pushed further and further out of my morning routine and now it is altogether gone.  I love the morning routine and I retain so much more, can concentrate ten times better than at night but with a schedule that changes every day I don't know how to get that set routine.  I beat myself up for not having it but I have been so long with out it I don't know where to begin.  I know I just need to start and stop making excuses but I find it so hard to get into routine after it has been so long with out it.  So this week I am going see if I can just spend some time each day dedicated to prayer and study even just for ten min. but hey I gotta start somewhere right?

Been so long I wonder if anyone reads this anymore? 

Oregon DMV

I am sick and I hate it.  Worse than that I needed to go to DMV and the DEQ (Oregon's smog inspection) and I was dreading it.  I went to a DMV that told me I needed to go to DEQ.  DEQ took longer to get to it than to have the inspection done.  Very helpful and told me the best DMV to go to and drove their waited about 15 min got all the paperwork done and went from Albina-DMV-DEQ-DMV-Albina in an hour and a half.  I love Oregon?

I am however still sick but I think that some amazing action movies are in store, tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches while curled up on the couch under a warm blanket.

Karate Kid

I watched Karate Kid the other day and I noticed a few things. 

1. Now days when you watch any movie (other than a Disney or Pixar) with a love story, the characters falling in love will sleep together in about four scenes after they meet.  I hate it.  

2. The male character will have sex with someone else and then have to reconcile with the female but in Karate Kid he is rude because her parents are rich.  Its a lot easier to reconcile with someone that you called rich than slept with her best friend.  

3. And finally at the end of the film when Daniel beats Johnny in spite of all the odds Johnny hands him the trophy and congratulates him.  

Here is why I am writing all this.  I find it crazy that when you look back to 1984 when Karate Kid came out society and morals seemed a lot different.  (Just a disclamier because I could be talking out of my rear but this is something that I have been thinking about after watching it.)  What I have been thinking about is does society follow the arts, cinema and music as they head downhill or as society heads downhill do the arts, cinema and music follow?  I know that this could go a million different ways and obviously there have always been times when society is worse than others and it is up for debate if we are going downhill or not.  But I am saying that we are in fact going downhill and I am coming at this from a Christian belief and background.