The godfather, the olympics an a lot of parties

I'm going to try a new format this week. Let me know if you like it.

Watching The Godfather for the first time
Reading Velvet Elvis
Watching the Olympics
Madison's Birthday
Youth Group Reunion
Moving - Status
Work - Status



The Godfather
I saw the godfather part I and II this last week. I must say that most of the shocking twists in it weren't all that shocking at all due to all the references that people make to the movies. They were gruesome and really long, but I did enjoy them. Hopefully I'll be able to watch the third one this week.

Velvet Elvis
I was flipping through my ipod and noticed i had somehow acquired a book on 'tape' that i had heard of before, but not much beyond that. It was called 'Velvet Elvis' by Rob Bell(I think). Although after talking with a friend or two about his theology it might not be a book I would recommend to many people, love to hear the stories of people who are honestly seeking after God. That is why I loved Blue Like Jazz, and that is why i loved this book.

Watching the Olympics
First off, I wasn't all the impressed with the closing ceremonies. The opening ones were fantastic. Basically I am happy they're over. I have been glued to the tv and sick of it!! It was amazing to see all that I got to see from Michael Phelps, to Walsh/May to the 'Redeem team' and many more. However I'm pretty sure I haven't done any real exercising since the Olympics started, and watching Bolt run so fast and thinking It would take me twice as long to run 100m(at least)...yeah, time for exercise!

Madison's Party
Saturday Morning it was a beautiful day and we had a great time at Madison's party. it was the first time I had ever seen madison with her friends, and that was fun. At first she didn't like THAT much attention, but she got used to it....maybe too much! :-) Jeremy's mom made the most amazing little cupcakes I wish i took a picture of so i could post. They were amazing! They looked just like the sesame street characters! Madison loved it all!

Youth Group Reunion
Sunday we did a youth group reunion and just met up with a bunch of the people I grew up with...and we're all growing up. Real jobs, married, kids(or on the way). It was good just to catch up and to see everyone, but by the end of the day the weekend had worn me out and i was ready for bed. (this is also why i didn't post last night)

MOVING
Well as of now it looks like I'm going to try to move next weekend. My cell phone died and I haven't been able to charge it since my charger is here or there...it will be nice to have a home again.

Work
With the renovation my work is going under, my Boss and I have been sharing a corner conference room as our offices and will do so for a few more weeks. This last week my boss was on vacation, so it was just me. The first 2 days I was really productive, but come Thursday and Friday, I was getting a little lonely in the corner. It will be nice for my boss to return. So far i'm really enjoying my job.

Speaking of which....i need to shower and get to work!

Heat, moving, and defying death

Been a hot and busy week. Spent most of my time either at work, watching to Olympics and/or at Carlos and Jenn's, and packing. I am still flowndering at work trying to get things done, but i am slowly getting better. I decided to type out by day because it was getting confusing as i originally typed it. :)


Monday- Watched the Olympics and just hung out at Jenn and Carlos' house.

Tuesday- Drove up to Tony and Katie's house to see Scott and Abby before they leave for Vermont. Katie made a delicious meal(which she gave full credit to 'trader joe'). Besides that we just played a game and just hung out. It was a awesome evening.

Wednesday- Went to small group with Timothy, Carlee, Tony and Katie. It seems like a good group. Everyone made pizzas and just hung out for the night. At the end they shared prayer requests and it dawned on me how long it's been since I've prayed in a group. I've prayed alone, and with a person or two, but not in a group for a long time. It was good. Spent the night at Timothy and Carlee's house since I was already there.

Thursday- Scott and Abby came over to Carlos and Jenn's for the evening and we had some dinner and just hung out/watched the Olympics. Low key but fun night.

Friday- Got off work about 2 hours early just because I asked. My boss seems pretty cool about that as long as i get my job done. Went to buy some small rafts at Fred Meyer's then swung by to see Carlos before heading back to Puyallup to watch Phelps win his 7th Gold metal while sitting on Brooke and Jeremy's nearly finished deck.

Saturday- With rafts and oars and enough gear that made Adam comment he felt like he was going camping for 4 hours, we (and Matt) went to go conquor the Puyallup River. We were just in these little tiny rafts that we got for 20 bucks, but at the time they seemed perfect. After taking about 30 minutes to actually get to the river, we flew down the river. Roughly 1/2 mile down the river Adam and Matt flip(losing virtually everything they brought. Matt swam down river trying to recover as much as he could, while Adam held on to a small tree doing what he described as "clinging on for dear life like something you see on Rescue 911". We lost 1 boat, 4 oars, 2 flip flops, 1 t-shirt, 1 gallon unopened water, and a lot of dignity. Everyone made it out okay, and we just walked the 1/2 mile on the levy road dragging our rafts in defeat. We ended up going to the Orting city fair, or whatever it really was, but they had the whole downtown area blocked off for it. It was a pretty rough morning.

Sunday- Packing, cleaning, Packing, preparing to move to Seattle(Ballard). That's what i did the rest of Saturday and Sunday. Then i found out it could be 2 weeks before I could move into my room. There are other rooms that are available, but they are half the size, so I just moved 1 truckload of things that are not my high priced items like my camera or computer and then just came to jenn and carlos' place because i can't really move in yet. It is frustrating, because i did take 2 days off work to move, and now i have to wait another 2 weeks. I guess I will just have to use my labor day weekend to move instead of using it to play like i had hoped. :( Such is life.

Adjusting

Well I have worked at TTM now for 2 weeks officially. I have had a good feel for the company now and i think i'm going to like working here. Now i don't say this just because i know some of you are really concerned about me getting a good job, or the fact that the ladies at my work somehow found my blog. (Nicole if you're reading this, I'm going to steal your chair when you're not looking). I think i'm going to like this job because my boss cares about me and my company cares for it's employees.

At Holland America, my boss cared about me, but couldn't do anything about doing anything about it because the company doesn't care about it's employees. The exact opposite was true at the CPA firm. They cared about their employees, but didn't care about me. I am really excited to have both at my company. My boss also seems to be extremely intelligent (albeit extremely sarcastic). We get along really well. I feel like i have a lot i can learn from her.

Last week i spent some time with justin and suzanne and we played tennis, and they fed me a nice dinner of fajitas, then spent the rest of the week doing our monthly close and staying at Timothy and Carlee's. They were really good hosts. :-) This week i'm going to be staying at Carlos and jenn's in west seattle, and hopefully i'll be moving to ballard with matt starting this saturday.

Workin Man

So my first week of work was not too bad. I must admit it is quite an adjustment working a 40 hour work week after being unemployed for 3 1/2 months. This next week is our full week of close, so I will see what it really is like when there is a deadline, but I think that I will like this job.

Currently I am couchsurfing at a number of places until i move to Ballard with my buddy Matt Gebheart. Next weekend I'll be returning to Puyallup and then I should be moving from the 16th-19th of August. What I just realized is that I'll be back the following weekend as well for Madison's birthday party. So basically every weekend in August I will be around in Puyallup, but at the same time i'm going to be needing to find a church, so it'd be good to be in Seattle on a weekend when i can.

I think I'll post my blog on Sundays and possibly other random times as well.

On a mission

Currently it looks like I will not be able to do all the things I had hoped, but that's fine. Last night Brooke and Jeremy invited me and adam over for an outdoor movie night. It was a perfect night outside for it!

Today I'm going to Fremont looking for a place to live. It appears I do have options, although living alone wasn't one i wanted to consider. We shall see what today brings. :-)

Employed!

After 3 months of being unemployed and 2 months of actually looking for a job, I was offered my first job! The only part that perplexes me: It's in Fremont. I was really praying about if this is where I'm supposed to be and for them to not offer it to me if God didn't want me there. Long story short: They offered me a job. The company is a startup wireless company called TTM. All in all it looks like a good job with room to grow.

Although I'm nervous about where I'd go to church and where I'd live, God will take care of the details. I officially start Monday with my orientation, but they said they'd give me a few days to move into a place. So my last week(ish) of irresponsibillity is upon me! Here's my list of things I want to do before I start working, so let me know if you want to join in on anything!

1) Drive In movie (Auburn - likely Friday)
2) Float down the Puyallup River (likely Saturday/Sunday)
3) Miniature Golf (Anytime, anyplace)
4) Day Hike (Anytime, anyplace)
5) Bon Fire (Anytime, anyplace)

Oh, and I've been convinced I need to Blog more, so I will try to blog weekly at the very least. My Gmail and Facebook status will be the title of my recent blog, so you will know when it's been updated.

The wrong question

I went mountain biking this weekend with some bellingham buddies. I got my butt kicked. On top of the 90+ degree weather and being in awful shape, we had a bike break down and someone was going to have to go down the mountain on foot. After making it up most of the mountain, i decided that I wasn't going to make it. I pulled back and decided to be the one to walk. It was a rough day.

8 hours after they proceeded, I met up with them at the bottom of the mountain. Nothing seemed to go right for me. Too hot, not enough water, the gatorade i buried under rocks at the trail head was washed away by the river which rose about a foot that day due to the extreme heat, and of course when i get to bellingham I noticed my keys were missing.

Of course the 7 hours waiting were dreary with the mosquito's and heat and of course the fatigue of having hiked all day. It was good to be outside nonetheless. The beauty of the outdoors and the forced alone time started stirring something in me that helped me to change my perspective.

I had been asking God what I'm supposed to do with my life. What am i supposed to be? An accountant? Missionary? Something else? I'm not sure. Why am I asking? Not sure of that either. I have never known the answer to that question, so I don't know why i need to know the answer now. The right question is what do I want to accomplish with my life?

God also pointed out yesterday that I've been grasping on tightly to some of the promises He has made to me....as if i have the power to accomplish them on my own. Instead God just wants us to enjoy the life we have been given and worship Him along the way.

Realizing how thirsty I was that night I decided I want to do more with giving water to those without. It's one of those luxuries that we all take for granted when we have it and forget about others without. I don't know what i'm going to do yet, but considering how little it costs to do so much, I am going to seek out what I can do.

Weathered Tree

Verse 1:
Weathered tree
It's leaves all scattered
It's branches seem
So tired and battered
Winter's here
The sky's turned gray
The bright frontier
Is gone 'til May

Chorus:
My leaves all decompose
I slowly am exposed
The wind and rain appear
It's here to stay i fear

Verse 2:
The birds are gone
The skies are bare
Of morning songs
They used to share
They will return
Again in spring
So why be concerned
About these things?

Chorus:
My leaves all decompose
I slowly am exposed
The wind and rain appear
It's here to stay i fear

Bridge:
But the wind and the rain have songs to sing themselves
They must praise their God above with everything as well
Though they are ferocious,
Though they are relentless,
And unpredictable,
They continue pressing,
And addressing
Their God as they're able

Verse 3:
The ground will thaw
My branches will bloom
Singing their song
In colorful tunes
Until then
I'll stand my ground
Hearing the wind
Make glorious sounds.

A change of direction

I started working for a small CPA firm in December. They are really nice people and they take really good care of their employees. My old job offered 5k more per year when i took this job, but I quit my other job anyways because this job seemed like it would be a great opportunity.

They did very little training because small firms do not have the capacity of training to the degree that big frims do. They threw me right in with everything and I had a rough time learning from the start. Eventually i caught on and I learned how to manuver through the software fairly fluidly and then i got a few big projects that were tremendously large. Still no training.

Hours got long and soon my days began at 4:55am to arrive at work at 6am and i would leave work around 7-8pm. Of course to get up so early i had to go to bed around 9-10pm. This was my day Monday thru Saturday...and on the occational Sunday i'd throw in a few hours.

Not being trained and having high expectations of me in the workload added stress on me. My heart started to sieze up on occaation. It would cramp and i couldn't inhale for 3-5 seconds. This happened about every other week, but it became more frequent. Last week It happened twice in a day and i went to the hospital.

I arrived at the hospital just before 6pm and waited until 11:30 to get in. I waited and waited in the ER until i finally was able to leave at 2am. They said my tests showed that I was in "Pristine condition" but due to my stress i should take a few days off work.

I didn't.

I kept loyal to my work because when i was hired I was told that they would take care of me. Not to mention the sermon at church that sunday was about serving your boss and being loyal to your work so that through your work Christ might shine.

Well it appears i didn't do that either. I kept working from sunrise to sunset and beyond. Yesterday was surreal that it was over. My desk cleared. I finished my work that was there, and I was looking forward to working an 8 hour day. Secretly i hoped to go home early....however not like this.

I did a few small projects and enjoyed the low key atmosphere at work and about 9:30 my boss came to me and asked to talk with me. Lightheartedly i said "sure" and walked into the office with him and one other partner.

Without a moment of hesitation "We're going to let you go" he said with no remorse. "This is strictly a business decision. We wish you well in the future. You just haven't kept up with the learning curve."
"do you think you trained me well enough to keep up?" I asked perplexed
"We are not a training firm. We expect our employees to take charge of their own training....." and he trailed off on a long drawn out explanation of his expectations of employees that would have been better to hear upon being hired than fired.

They walked me to my desk let me gather my things and escorted me out. They will pay me out through the end of the month but will not offer COBRA or any sort of medical compensation(as they are not required being such a small company).

Being fired after devoting around 80 hours a week for so long isn't the hard part for me. It is being fired. I failed. I have never been fired. I don't think I deserved to be fired. ESPECIALLY not the DAY after tax season was over.

Now I am absolutely boggled. I didn't think that is what I would do the rest of my life, but I expected it to last at least a little longer. It turns out that most CPA firms don't need accountants as much on April 16th as they do before the 15th.

I don't know what I'm going to do. I had made plans with many of you. I had promised to get in touch with virtually all of you. Now i have time, but unfortunately circumstances have changed a bit.

Pray that God leads me where He wants me. Ask Him that nothing will go wrong with my health and that I go where He wants me and not just find the first job that opens up. I guess i have more to learn about surrendering everything to Him.

I know I don't say it enough, but I love you all more than words can describe.
His,
Joel

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

Refreshing

After a long year at Holland America in Accounting, my busy season is over. This last year has been really hard on me but i learned a lot. There have been about a dozen people who have seen me more than twice a month because i have worked so much. I write now from Honolulu, HI at my friends' house. I finally get a chance to rest and reflect and most importantly...to play.

I have done a good job seperating from work so far. I'm not sure what i'm doing this week yet, but i'm going to NOT do work and love every minute of that. I'll go for a few hikes, sit on a few beaches, and do whatever else I feel like. I am so excited. i'll post pictures later...even though i'm almost certain that nobody checks this anymore. It is nice that I have something worth writing about :-)

Pictures from Timothy and Carlee's wedding. You can order prints directly through this site (i believe they use shutterfly.com.

http://picasaweb.google.com/joeloliver/TimCarleeSWedding

let me know how easy/hard it is to get the pictures.

My pictures web site

To look at the pictures that I have updated. Click HERE Or copy and paste it the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/joeloliver/Europe

Catching up...

So I can't believe that I was in europe a month ago. I have meant to keep my blog up, but I've been working so much lately. So the last thing i want when I come home from sitting in a cubicle all day long is to sit in front of the computer any more. So I'm working on pictures, and I'm going to post some today...but the rest will come soon. My goal is to get some pics up this weekend. Check here sunday night and i'll tell you where the pics are.

The tail end of the journey

So our last day in Switzerland we borrowed the Glaser's car and drove to the alps to go bobsledding! I never knew the joys of bobsledding before! We drove just over 2 hours to basically the other side of the country! Our lunch (as is apparently typical) was just bread, meat and cheese (a sort of sandwich). It was really good! Mark and I had to borrow boots (which were barely too small) and we rode a bus up to about 1800 m (5400 feet) and hiked in the snow to the top of a mountain about 8000ft dragging bobsleds the whole way. We got to the top at 4:00, but our plan had been to be there 2 hours earlier. We didn't care.

At the tip top of the mountain was a bench that you could see the whole alps from. It was amazingly beautiful! I didn't have my camera (too fragile for such an adventure) so mark took pictures, and we ate at a restraunt up there (the building had been there nearly 200 years) then started down the mountain at about 5:00. I never thought I would go bobsledding like calvin & hobbes, but this was 20x better! We bombed down the mountain! It was amazing! However, since this winter there hasn't been too much snow, we had to walk down over 2 hours to the car. We finally made it to the car at about 8:30 but it was really fun!

Driving on the Swiss roads at night are way more scary than driving on the swiss autobahn. The speed limits in the country are 50kph in the villages, 80kph not in the villages and 120kph on the autobahn unless otherwise noted. So their signs say like 90 then not 90. It's odd, but luckily i had it explained to me. I got the hang of it.

We left early Saturday morning; Peter drove us and samuel came. We said goodbye and hopped on our train to frankfurt. Everything went smoothly until we made it to chicago where my flight got cancelled along with half the flights from chicago last night. They were handing out cots, but they said there were 300 cots, blankets and pillows, but by the time we got to that part of the airport, the line was clearly longer than 300 people. We just went to mark's morning flight and slept by the gate using our backpacks as pillows (nicer than the waterbottle i used in Vanuatu).

About 5:30 am Mark woke up to hear that his gate changed to the other side of the airport. We walked there and got in a line that apparently had noone helping anyone, but it was by mark's flight so I was goign to try to get on the waiting list. I made it on the list...but i was #17 on the list. Somehow by God's grace, I was able to get on the flight! The night before I waited on my phone in a line for 1 hour 2 minutes and somehow my phone cut out and we had been comparing times in line (how many minutes we had been on hold) I was winning, but the girl behind me with about 10 minutes less than me somehow got through and after she was done, handed me the phone! However the soonest flight I could get a confirmation for was monday night. So to make it on the standby list was amazing! I am now at home unpacking all my souveniers and about to do laundry. It is nice to type on a keyboard where the keys don't change, and i look forward to showering in my shower.

Mark and I were talking on the way back from the airport and it turns out this was full of firsts for me. It was my first time ever:
1) going to europe
2) riding a train
3) riding a subway
4) staying in a hostel
5) traveling to a non-english speaking country
6) traveling without plans when i arrived
i'm sure there are others, but i have been traveling for close to 40 hours and i'm not with the "program".

Now my life will be full of catching up on my work, hopefully starting studying for the CPA exam and more outdoor stuff prepping my physical endurance for the next adventures to come. Thanks for your messages and prayers.

Joel

time is almost up!

todaz we walked to some ruins that were destroyed by monkeys (thats right monkeys) 500 years ago. we also walked to france. now were off to town to buy swiss chocolate. I plan on buying lots so i can share...so let me know if you want some...

iäm avoiding the inevitable truth that i must go home saturday...

Switzerland

So this has to be short because we^re going to the bar to watch a big soccer game. Todaz we drove around and saw some fun parts of the culture here. We hiked to the top of a hill with a watchtower about 3x the size of the one on seahome hill and it was glorious! There are castles everywhere, so to them it^s no big deal, but mark and i still get excited. we are sad that we leave saturdaz...maybe i can come back... The glasers are great hosts and have provided everything we have needed. I will write more later...we have a futbol game to go watch!! (Oh, and my battery is dying...i will be short my 100 pictures a day that I initially thought I would have).

playing like there is no tomorrow,
joel (and mark)

France

mark and i made it to france, and the keyboard is even more confusing! we are staying in kendras living room and having a great time! we got in saturday night around 6 on saturday and met some of her friends, and it has been fun! yesterday we went snowboarding in the french alps! there are 50 ski resorts surrounding gap! for 30 euro we got a day pass and rented a board and boots! today mark is going for a hike and i am wandering around town. tuesday we take the train for switzerland!

day ???

so we ran around today and saw a bunch of things and somehow didn't get lost once!!! tomorrow morning we leave for France...as soon as we are starting to get used to it here. I can't believe it. We had a really good time today, and i am now on my second memory card and i need to charge my battery. We look forward to see France and Kendra, but we have had such a good time with melanie and rose we hardly can leave. It seems quite normal here now and these last few days have seemed to be like weeks. It's awesome (and i'm getting used to the keyboards). There's another snorer in our room...we wake up in 5 hours. I am SO far behind in my journal and everything...it's nuts...but fun nuts. I hope we can adjust to France quickly. There's another snore'er in our room tonight...i think i'm tired enough for it not to matter. I hope i can update in france, but no promises.

Days 5 and 6

So if anyone asks, Rome is WAY different than Germany. Mark and I have both adjusted differently and slowly. If we had made it back to the hostel sooner, I would be able to write more. Basically, none of the streets are straight, and streets merge and change rapidly. So it is hardly possible to follow a map (which is mark's natural tendency) and since the streets aren't straight, aiming in a general direction doesn't really work either...and what we have found is that the worst idea is trying to do both methods at the same time.

Over the last 2 days we have been to the Vatican, seen the sistine chapel, seen a numbet of monuments (most of them were unintentional), walked, walked and walked some more. Our brief itenerary has been something like:

Woke up,
walked towards the vatican
got lost
ate gelato
walked toward the vatican
got lost
walked towards the vatican
got lost
found the vatican
waited in line
looked for the sistine chapel
waited in a line
it closed
ate gelato
decided to walk to the spanish steps (25-30 minutes in theory walk)
got lost
found the spanish steps, met up with melanie and found a hole in the wall restraunt and it was the most amazing restaraunt EVER!!! I would eat there every day if i could.
parted ways with melanie
walked to the part (without getting lost)
got lost
got on a bus that said would bring us where we wanted to go
1 1/2 hours later arrived close to where we wanted to go.
got lost
found where we were
got lost
found the plaza
walked around and gathered food at small shops for dinner
met some of melanie's friends (a porta rican, norwegian, an italian, and 2 americans)
Cooked dinner and hung out
ate gelato
walked to the bus (it brought us where we wanted to go...such a surprise!!)
Went to bed

Today:
I slept well because our snoring friend checked oout.
Woke up and walked to the subway
barely squeezed onto the subway(no joke)
stood in a line about 1-2 miles long
made it into the vatican]
walked around for a couple hours seeing just a few things (really crowded)
got busted for trying to take a picture of the sistine chapel
left the vatican at 1:30.
tried to make it to the pantheon
got lost
found piazza navona (2 blocks away from the pantheon)
got lost
found the piazza navona
got lost
found the piazza navona
got lost
found the pantheon
walked around with melanie and her friend rose
found a restaraunt and ate lasagnae!!! (amazing!!!)
walked around
ate gelato
Rose showed us around and gave us a city tour. She is a jewish italian and knew a TON of stuff. Mark and I were impressed with her random knowledge.
Played frisbee in front of the colloseum
Ate pizza in the jewish ghetto
walked around
parted ways
got lost
found the piazza venezia
got lost
found the colloseum
my camera battery died
almost got mugged by the italian police
got lost
walked aimlessly talking about what we would have done differently
got more lost in the process
found termini (train station)
made it to our hostel
updating my blog while mark is getting into bed

Tomorrow
8am colloseum (inside)
10am leave for the catacombs with melanie
2pm meet up with rose
???

All i can say is that things are different here. I haven't really even had time to update my blog. Needelss to say if you come to rome, DO AS THE ROMANS!!! Otherwise you will get stresseed out! The romans are laid back, but sound intense.

I have enjoyed myself, but if you come here, you need to do 1 of 2 things. 1
1) Read and memorize the map before you come.
2) RELAX, walk aimlessly(you will anyways) and JUST ENJOY IT!

Sometimes we find ourselves walking intensely past giant monuments that are amazing just to get to another place. The best thing is just to enjoy where you are. Okay, i'm tired. I hope to explain more later. We shall see, for tomorrow is another adventure...

(OH, and although gelato is good, it's expensive...the best gelato i've ever had is still the gelato I had in Tonga)

sleep...

As i lay in my room with 11 other people asleep, i am very tired and cranky because there is one guy who is snoring louder than i thought was humanly possible. i slept less than 2 hours and of course being a hostel, customer service isnt the best. i am tired and frustrated that mark and i are paying $50us per night...i think mark is sleeping through this though...not sure how. I had my ipod on as loud as it gets and i can hear him faintly over my ipod. i seriously think he is snoring about 70 decibles. i am now going t otry talking to the guy at the counter again...pray that i get sleep tonight.