This Turpentine Chaser's Got Kick!

So, I’ve come home from work feeling tired, drained emotionally, frustrated and even slightly depressed. In light of this self knowledge I did what any brilliant young mind would do. I put in “August and Everything After” by the Counting Crows and I sat down to write in my blog.

When did I write in this last? I’d better check. Wow, the internet is slow today which is only adding to my annoyance at this point. Honestly, how slow is this thing!? Ok finally, so I last updated on Sunday night. Yesterday was my day off, uneventful for the most part; I watched Mystic River and really enjoyed it. Then I went for lunch at Sammy’s (Sammy’s is a local restaurant/hang out) and ended up meeting up with some people from church. We eat together and chatted for a while. It was nice to have some human companionship on my day off, which is mostly spent in solitary confinement. After that I don’t remember much happening until I had a lengthy MSN conversation with both Michelle and Matt, although in order to be alphabetically correct I should say Matt and Michelle. That was a highlight of my day, oh yeah, I also got to watch wrestling which was also fun, well it was ok, it wasn’t the best episode I’ve ever seen, fairly predictable, but it was still entertaining.

So today, I woke up at 8:00am, which is the time I generally awake on days where I have to work. Then I turned off my alarm and woke up again at 8:37 from a fairly vivid dream, the nature of which now escapes me. In fact it escaped me as soon as I awoke and realized I was going to be late for work. I am disappointed by this; I do enjoy remembering and recounting dreams. I find them fascinating. I got to work by ten after nine, and set to work. Today was the day our senior pastor Shawn was returning to work from his two week vacation, so that caused a good buzz in the office today. I set to work preparing some stuff for our youth event this weekend, and worked on that all morning. Ok, well that’s not true. At about ten, Kyle recruited me to come and help him and Shawn clean the newly installed floor in the community centre so that the final seal could be put on it. So, I grabbed a rag, rolled up my sleeves, poured turpentine into the rag and got to scrubbing. It was quite the smell, and I didn’t think the fumes would affect me, but we were scrubbing for like half and hour in a poorly ventilated room and so I ended up getting kinda high, I’m serious. Me and Kyle especially, I was zoning out at first and then in staff meeting, everything was so funny and so ridiculous, it was honestly the fumes, Kyle and I were a mess, it was great, highlight of the day so far. It brought a whole new meaning to the song “Turpentine Chaser” by Dashboard Confessional. It’s funny cause it was in my head for most of the day after that, and I would just at random yell “This Turpentine Chaser’s got Kick!”, although I wasn’t actually yelling it, cause that would be weird and I would have to explain myself, so I was yelling it in my head, which is also weird, but these things happen I suppose. I am still feeling kinda weird and tired, but that might just be from the late night.

After lunch had staff meeting which was good fun, and then Kyle and I had a meeting with our youth event planning team. Sometimes I get frustrated with these meetings because people make things complicated and non-sensical, and I try to let it go, but today I was having real issues because people would say things, and they just wouldn’t make sense, and then they would say something else that seemed to make sense, but then they would go back to the original thing that didn’t make sense. I felt lost I guess, but I guess that’s what happens when you cram 12 teenagers in a room and try and plan something. Don’t get me wrong I love these kids; I just wasn’t into the meeting today.

I just drank a Pepsi. It was alright, I needed it. Later on tonight, I have youth. Sometimes I go into youth feeling this way, and most times I come out of it feeling pretty great, hopefully this will be the case on this evening. Tomorrow my friends Matt, Jon, and Colin are coming to visit me, I look forward to this. Maybe I am still messed up on turpentine, which sounds like Frankenstein. That was a random thought.

Ok, song of the day is indeed “Turpentine Chaser” by Dashboard Confessional. I know I just did a Dashboard song, but the irony and appropriateness and timing of this is impeccable, so I can’t pass on this opportunity. It’s a good Dashboard song, some good screaming times, you can feel his pain and his sadness on this song, maybe more on this song then the average Dashboard song, but not as much as others. It’s a good one, and it’s funny cause I was using Turpentine today and singing this song (in my head). So if you have the desire and or means, check out “Time and Time Again” by the Counting Crows, because it is actually the song of the day, or perhaps the co-song of the day. It has one of the best single lyrics ever written.

“I wanted to see you walking backwards
And get the sensation of you coming home
I wanted to see you walking away from me
Without the sensation of you leaving me alone”

Simply Amazing, Adam Duritz is an absolute genious of emotion... anyway, check out either song. Love you lots, talk to you later….The Shaolin