I sang the national anthem.

Well, I was in a group that sang it. Now as much as I would like to say that it was a solo, or even a barbershop quartet of the finest singers Maranatha has ever known, it was actually a mens chorus of about 150 people, which is pretty cool if not cooler than the previously mentioned groups.

Maranatha’s role in the event was to open the event up, by performing a couple patriotic songs, sing the national anthem, and have the ROTC do the color guard. We were pretty much responsible for the first 15 minutes of the event.

Enough with all of this talk, let’s get to the holidays.
Today is Whinnie the Pooh Day
Thursday is National Hugging Day
And my favorite upcoming holiday is on Monday which actually has two good holidays to celebrate which are…
Macintosh Computer Day
And probably one of the top 5 holidays in the year
Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

Now I have not written this post just so that you could laugh at the things a Bible college student looks foward to, I want you readers to give me some original ideas of how to celebrate Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

When we first got off the bus I was in a group of about 10 people. We were going to walk around Navy Pier and see what cool stores were around and just enjoy the afternoon. When we walked into the building we saw a stage with a guy doing a juggling show, so we stopped and watched that until it was over. We then proceeded to walk towards the end of the pier when someone noticed that their was a stained glass exhibit so we walked through that. The only thing was four of us walked through the exhibit in about two and a half minutes and the other six took much longer. When we saw them again, we told them that we would part ways because they hadn’t even made it through all of the exhibit yet. The four of us (Curtis, Vicky, Tiffany, and I) then walked to the end of the pier until we decided what to do next.

We decided that since we still had a little longer than an hour and a half left that we would walk into the downtown area and explore. After we had walked for a couple of blocks, we decided that we should find some interesting place to go into, so I point to a building that looked like it had some stores in it, so we walked through the door and there was an escalator going up. We went up the escalator and the only thing there was an elevator and a door into a parking garage. Since we did not want to go into the parking garage we got in the elevator and pushed “1”. The only problem with pushing “1” was that we went up (The other two buttons we “p” for parking and “g” for ground but we figured that out to late).

When we got out of the elevator we walked further into the city. We soon saw a huge gathering of people, so we decided to walk towards it. As we got closer to it we noticed that it was a large group of protesters, and so we were wondering what they were protesting. We walked further into the crowd and found out that they were protesting “Obamacare.”

As we were walking through the protest we were also simultaneously looking for a Starbucks. We soon spotted one and walked over to it. I ordered a Grande Peppermint Mocha and when I was pulling my wallet out, the person that had just bought a drink from the cash register next to me told my cashier that he would pay for mine too. I was very thankful for this unexpected blessing, even though I had plenty of money with me to pay for it. As he was walking out I once again was able to thank the man for his generosity.

We then started walking back towards Navy Pier. On our way back we saw a street performer that looked like he was about to fold himself into a box. Before he did though he took of his sweater and underneath he had on a bright greenish-yellow leopard spotted outfit and then did some really random things and we never actually saw him get into the box because we left because he was taking to long to get into the box.

When we met back at Navy Pier we loaded onto the bus and headed to Giordano’s which is a really good Chicago style pizza restaurant. We had some outstanding pizza took some funny pictures, then loaded up the bus to head to our next stop on tour. On the way to the next stop I watched “Up” (which if you read upside-down is “dn”). It was a pretty good movie in my opinion. Once again Pixar threw in an some stuff that only people that live in the East Bay would get. One of the places the kid liked to go was Fenton’s Ice Cream Parlor. When they mentioned that, I turned to the person that was watching it with me and said, “I have eaten at Fenton’s before and it is pretty good.” They said, “Wait, it is actually a real place?!?!” I thought this response was funny and I was able to explain that Pixar throws in subtle stuff like that in their movies that only people that have lived there would understand.

This was a pretty fun day, and if I ever have the chance to spend more time in Chicago, I would.

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That evening we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner on the eighth floor of the Macy’s building in Union Square, San Francisco. For dinner I had spicy Jamaican shrimp and rice. It was a pretty good meal, but the best part was the cheesecake we had afterwards. Now, none of us were hungry for a complete slice of cheesecake so we decided to share a piece of cheesecake while we were at the restaurant and each order a slice to go. Mmmmmmmmmmmm……………………..

The next day, July 3rd, we had the day off from summer school. That morning and early afternoon we didn’t do much except  sit and relax. At one point during the day Dad and I went to Rasputin Music in downtown berkeley and bought some cd’s. Dad picked out some “different” types of cd’s and I picked out some John Williams cd’s. That evening the Oakland East Bay Symphony had a free concert on the Richmond waterfront. It was a very fun evening of music and fireworks.

The next day, July 4th, we went to the Alameda Fourth of July Parade. I can’t say that I actually watched it because I was texting some friends the entire time. That evening we went to Jack London Square in Oakland for fireworks. As I look back I think that Fourth of July was our day where we did the least amount of celebrating.

On Sunday, July 5, we went to the morning service at Calvary but we went to the evening service at Hamilton Square because the summer travel team from Maranatha, the Messengers, was going to be there. After the service their was a fellowship time with cupcakes and other good food. While at the fellowship time we made plans for Monday.

On Monday I took the group on a tour of San Francisco. We started at about 11 o’clock and headed up to Twin Peaks. It was a little windy at the top but still had a very nice view that day. From Twin Peaks we headed to the Golded Gate Bridge. Although I got a little lost while on my way I ended up on the exact street I wanted to be on by making a few lucky guesses. The Maranatha van was able to find a parking spot pretty quick, but it took me about 20 minutes to find a spot. Once I found a spot we spent about an hour walking out on the bridge and in the gift shop. From there we went across the bridge and up into the Marin Headlands for a fantastic view of the city. While up there a few of the guys decide to go on the trail down the side of the mountain so we had to wait for them to climb back up so that we could head over to Fisherman’s Wharf for lunch. When we got there we went to Boudin’s Bakery and had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Mmmmmmm……… After that we went down to Ghirardeli Square and got our free piece of chocolate then down to Pier 39.

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After a busy day of touring we all headed over to my house for a dinner that Mom and Dad had prepared. After dinner we went up to Indian Rock for one last amazing view of the city. After that we came back to the house and had It’s It Ice Cream and watched a movie. By the end of the day everybody was tired and sunburned, but we had a lot of fun.

Well that is the highlights of the partying. There was actually more party time the next couple of days but I won’t blog about those at this time.

Where has this semester gone? It seems like I was just home for Cristmas and now I am getting ready to go home for the summer. I am not sure that I like that idea. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited to be going home, but I will also miss all of my friends. Unfortunately this is not like Christmas, it will not be a short three week break. It is going to be almost four months long.

There will be some good parts to to the summer though. I plan on returning to McDonalds to serve “food” to our loyal custormers every day. I am also going to take a couple of online classes this summer, so I should be pretty busy most days between work, school, and sleep

Although in my mind summer seems like it will be pretty long, it will probably fly by as quick as this semester has flown by. Before I know it, I will be back on campus having a great time with my friends again.

For my readers that live within a couple hours (or days for all I care) of San Francisco, it would be nice to see you during the summer, so you should come visit sometime this summer.

Until next time, I will try to jump off the bullet and call some of you sometime so we can chat. Sorry to those of you who thought this post would be about Superman.

- Dash

Along with the concerts, we also had time to do some fun stuff on tour too (Actually it was all fun). We spent time at Virginia Beach, two historic battlefields, Fredricksburg and Gettysburg, we stopped in Hershey, and we were in Washington, D.C. for four hours. When we were in D.C. everyone split into different groups based on what they wanted to do. I was with three other people who wanted to see all the different memorials and monuments. They are all so well designed and moving.

I have a bunch of fun stories about band tour. Sometime maybe I will have the time to tell most of them to you.

Until then,

Dash

Last semester I was able to take a course online, and Maranatha is really trying to push their online education so they interviewed me and another person about our experiences. Here is the link to the article. http://www.mbbc.edu/page.aspx?m=3657

Now, anyone that knows me, should not have any trouble knowing that I am from San Francisco. This is one fact that I am never ashamed to tell anyone. Sometimes maybe I talk about San Francisco too much.

Everyone knows that “Home is where the heart is.” As I was thinking about where my heart was, I realized that it was not in San Francisco, not in California, not west of the Rockies, and not west of the Mississippi. Where does my heart lie right now?

My heart is in Watertown, Wisconsin!!

I could not think of anywhere else I would rather be right now. Whether or not the temperature is below freezing, I love it here. Sure there is not a whole lot of entertainment in Watertown. But this little has city has something that nowhere else in the world has. What is it that Watertown contains?

Watertown, Wisconsin for the the next fourish years, is home to me and my friends.

I have been blessed with some wonderful friends here at college. Sometimes I wonder how we all became friends, because we have eight VERY different personalities, yet we all get along amazingly well. Our personalities are as different as the places we came from: West Coast, East Coast, Midwest, South, etc.

Despite our difference in chunky or creamy peanut butter, soda or pop, or anything else, there is one thing that we all do have in common, we all desire to serve God. Any person that has been through any form of Christian education realizes that there are people that go through it without a genuine desire to serve God.

Every day I thank God for the friends he has given to me at college, and I can’t wait to see how He uses each one of us to fulfill his plan!!