davejenbarnes

I’m taking some computer time this morning. David is at a band clinic for CPMS’s top band and in a little while I will be helping some friends move from their apartment to a new house that they bought yesterday. Packing up is tough to do. This is the first time I have packed my belongings with the philosophy that one day all this stuff will exist no more and that it all belongs to God.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. -Revelation 21:1, NIV

God has just loaned us all this stuff, most of which we really don’t need. And here I am laboring over every little trinket to move it up the hill 100 ft. That really puts packing into perspective and makes me want to drop a lot of it off at the 3 dumpsters we’ll pass on the way to the “new” apartment.

Besides packing, we have been thoroughly entertained by the cats these past few days. They especially like the tunnels created between boxes when we re-arranged the livingroom. We moved the furniture around to make more room for empty boxes so we could grab something and put it in a box (sloppy packing, but it is a rushed job afterall) … the cats like jumping in those boxes! I have a few pictures, but I have already packed the smartcard cable. The pictures will come a little later, then.

Wow, a half hour on the computer really isn’t a lot of time.

Yes, folks, that’s right! We’re moving… so if we disappear from the blog and emails for awhile it’s cuz we’re a’packing!

The move is tenatively scheduled for Feb 3-4!

That’s seven days!

I am so excited! Woah, I need to go pack!

At this moment, what is your favorite…

1. …song? Majesty by Delirious?.

2. …food? mmm…. tough one…. I’m going to have to admit my weakness here and stick to the Nori Maki. Japanese rice crackers wrapped in seaweed… Seaweed could be a close second to the favorites right now.

3. …tv show? This is an ever-changing one… right now, it’s Farscape, on the SCIFI channel. David and I became addicted to the series in its first year and have missed the following two and a half years. It is now in its fourth and final season and we have missed nearly all of them… so the reruns are not reruns to us, so we record them faithfully on the DVR.

4. …scent? Ok, promise not to laugh. I love the way Secret SHEER DRY Pear Illusion deodorant smells.

5. …quote? I am not a collector or lover of quotes.

Our new Floorplan!
First of all, we love our apartment complex. Anyone looking for a place to live in North Austin, you HAVE TO LIVE HERE. It rocks! Nothing about it is lacking or not good enough. So… we’ve been thinking about expanding our family… but are uncomfortable with the idea of bringing a baby into our one-bedroom-apartment-way-of-living. Knowing we have some time, we thought we’d get a head start on the apartment hunt, but we’d keep it close to home and start by looking at our own apartment complex… afterall, we’ve had the one bedroom experience and back in the day, we never even looked at the two bedroom apartments. So we walk in the office and are greeted by Greg. He’s been here as long as we have, so we kinda know him and after some small talk we get to business. He knows we love Spraddle Creek and he knows we have good friends who live here as well, so it caught his attention to say that we were needing to move… …into a bigger apartment. It just so happens that they are having a great deal, nay, an unbelieveable deal, on the B2 floor plan… but we’re not moving for quite a while and we’re sad to hear that the astounding price is … well, astounding and therefore also temporary. What can we do? We pay a deposit, submit our “moving out” notice, and have our names on a waiting list for the first available. Now this means that we will get any open floorplan before someone off the street will get it (since we already live here) AND we’ll get it for the astounding price! Our rent is going down by a lot. The red car still gets a garage! We’re so … thank you God! We’re so happy!

David and I went to see Big Fish with our friends, the Millers, last night. From the trailer (preview, for those less technical) I didn’t understand what the movie would be like. I had a hard time getting the narration and pictures to line up, so I was curious to see it. That movie … Big Fish … made me laugh and cry and cry and cry some more; I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I got to thinking, though, after the tears dried up. God left us stories, too. Those of us who’ve heard them a thousand times sometimes harden our hearts to them, just like the son in that movie did with the stories his father told over and over. I’ve missed out on so much of God’s love by not listening to His stories which He collected for us in His holy Bible just because I’ve already heard them before. It’s full of “big fish” stories and unbelieveable tales. I have a new desire to discover all of God’s “big fish” stories and tell them to everyone I come across.

Church this morning hinted at the same thing. In his sermon this morning, pastor Tim Hawks touches on the amazement we could/should have with Jesus Christ.

The movie was an inspiration. See it… and if you’re affected by emotional scenes, take some tissues. The sermon was inspired. Listen… and if you want to know the stories of God, find a Bible and start reading.

Today I am surfing during my lunch hour, but with being self-employed, no one can stop me… eh-eh… but today I put on some music. It has been awhile since listening to my favorite clarinet CD on the first piece, Sonata in E-flat Major for clarinet and piano, op. 167 by Saint-Saens (which is four tracks long… it’s a sonata afterall) and I must tell you that Paul Meyers is one of my favorite clarinetists … after Larry Combs, of course! His interpretations of the pieces are superb. Wow… and the Saint-Saens … so beautiful! Now that the blue car has a CD player (thanks to the kind donation from the red car, which worked perfectly since they’re the same make) I can listen as I drive to my appointments.

I have been toying with the idea of putting together a recital for my students, but with all the web design I have been doing lately, I really have not practiced much at home. Part of my hesitation is not knowing a pianist. If I did do a recital, however, I would want to play the Saint-Saens, something by Carl Maria von Weber, and maybe something I played in the early years of my undergrad like a Tarantella or something fun and dance-ish. My studio is 90% middle schoolers; I wouldn’t want to bore them to death! It wouldn’t be something I would stress over as I have been very good about cutting stress out of my life. I would still have fear, though. Fear of playing for people. Its funny that the easiest thing in the world for me to do is also the source of my biggest fear. To challenge that fear on a daily basis has not done much for my musicality… only for my personalilty… you wouldn’t believe how outgoing I am when I teach! Speaking of which, I do have more lessons coming up and I will need to be leaving shortly to make them in time. (I allow 30 minutes for a 15 minute drive; that’s how I cut most of the stress out of my life.) If you ever have the time to enjoy some good clarinet playing, by all means do.

HAHA… I just looked at the tracker after I reset it and I had one visitor from google who had done this search and my site, well, the old one, came up #1. HAHA