New working hours

Well, I just wanted to write a little note to let you all know about my new hours at work. As most of you know, for the last 3 months I've been working overnights and it's been a pretty hard time for me. Before this I would have told you that working nights is the best thing for me. Well, I don't know if it's that I'm a little older or that I now have things that I like to do during the day, but it was the hardest thing for me to do these overnights. I would leave the house usually around 8 PM and not get back until between 7 and 8 the next morning. I found that the hardest thing about it was wanting to spend more time with Jennifer and not wanting to leave just a few hours after she got home.

But anyway those nights are over now and I'm back onto days now. Or should I say early mornings. Now, I'm not really a morning person at all, but if it means I get to stay home and sleep in my bed at night, I'm all for it right now. I do have to leave pretty early in the morning, but it's not really too bad. I have to leave at 5 AM now. With the switch back to mornings they put me back down to only working about 20-25 hours again. With me working 4 or 5 hours a day. This made no sense to me because I felt my bus commuting time shouldn't be equal to or greater than the time I spend at work. So, I've worked it out with them that I now work 3 eight hour days a week. So, I'm working the same hours but I don't have to be there 5 days a week. They weren't too sure about this, but have gone along with it for now. They said they'd have to keep track of the store needing the shelving time before we open on the other 2 days. But I think it should work out fine. So, I start my new schedule today and I'm really looking forward to it. Not really the getting up and 3:30 or 4 but the being able to spend more time at home doing things I care more about.

Oh and the other reason I wanted to work fewer days is to spend more time on my writing. So, you may see some additions to the site. Who knows. I may even start updating you on the comings and goings of our lives out here in Oregon. I'll keep you all updated.

Speak Lord

Well, as I promised a while ago when I decided to change my blog, I'm finally going to post some of my work up here. This is something I wrote recently. I really would like to know what people think about this. You can either post it in the comments or email me. Thanks.

Speak Lord

Geoffrey D. Shafer
10-28-07

So many times I get so caught up in
The hustle and bustle of life.
Things move to fast for me to comprehend
Just what's going on around me.
I find myself lost in a world I don't know
Wondering how I ended up here.
But I can't hear a thing for all the noise
Drowns out the silence I long for.

So I close all the doors on the noise of the world
Just to hear your sweet low voice calling me.

Speak Lord for your servant is listening.
Speak Lord for your servant is listening.

I find it hard to block out everything
To hear my Savior's call.
He's not in the noise that closes me in.
He's no in the action that I see.
I long for that quiet and faraway place
Where I can focus and listen.
Lord show me how to get to that cave
So I can hear you whispering.

So I close all the doors on the noise of the world
Just to hear your sweet low voice calling me.

Speak Lord for your servant is listening.
Speak Lord for your servant is listening.

Is there a place left in this world
Where I can find peace?
Is there a place where I can stop
And talk with my Lord?
Lord lead me to that quiet place
So I can be with you.
Show me a way to block out the noise
That overwhelms me.

So I close all the doors on the noise of the world
Just to hear your sweet low voice calling me.

Speak Lord for your servant is listening.
Speak Lord for your servant is listening.

It's been over a month since I've last posted anything. I'm sorry about the delay. Things have been a little crazy around here. For the most part things are OK, or getting there, but it still feels like a lot of this is up in the air. Oh, well. Through all of this I have found a new closeness to God and new levels of trust in Him. Through some of the darkest times in these past few months, I've felt the reassuring hand of God working in my life. And through it all, I've known that things were going to turn out fine. But that's not really what I wanted to talk about here. So, I'll move on...

As most of you probably know, tomorrow is my 27th birthday. Most of you are probably saying that this shouldn't bother me. I'm still young. But it does bother me. It's been eating at me most of this week. I'm not sure why, but I feel a whole lot older the 27, but at the same time can't believe that I'm 27. I know it's not a milestone year like 30 or 20 or 25, but for some reason it has really affected me. I find myself dreading tomorrow. I know that it won't change anything, but it feels like it will. I've already gone through my quarter life crisis at 25. I've already thrown my life in the air to see where it lands by quitting jobs and ended up right back where I started. As I said at the beginning of this blog, I feel closer to God than I have in a long time. But for some reason. This one day really bothers me.

I think part of it has to do with being closer to the age where I need to know what's happening in my life. At least this is how I feel. It seems that most people my age seem to have most things figured out. You've settled into a career. You're starting your family. For the most part you know where you're life is going. I don't have anything figured out. I don't have a career. Kids seem so distant to me right now. Life seems so up in the air for me. Jennifer has a career. Our friends are having kids like crazy. It feels like time has slipped away from me and I don't know what happened. My whole life I've had these huge dreams of what I was going to do with my life. Very rarely have they involved a steady and normal career. And until I met Jennifer they didn't usually involve kids and a family. 

I think part of it is the conflicting voices in my head. One says I should give up my dreams and just settle for what I have now. One says not to give up the dreams. Not to forget the things I have now, but to look instead to the dreams that God has given me. The talents that I have. The ideas being planted in my head.

I think the thing that's getting me the most about this birthday is that it's bringing both voices out louder. And with all this screaming in my head it seems hard to concentrate on anything else.

Well, anyway... If you read all of that, I thank you. I don't know if any of it made sense. It's really early or late or however you want to look at it, and sleep has been hard with the voices and all.

As I end this post, I don't want anyone to worry about me. I didn't write these things up here to cause you to worry. I just needed a place to get these things out. Hopefully tomorrow will come and go soon. Maybe my mind will calm down a little after that.

Thanks...

~gs/the walking zombie/the 27 year old who knows nothing but that God is good

Changes to blog

Well. You've probably already noticed one of the changes. I don't know why, but I just like this one better. There will also be other changes to my blog. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I don't feel that it will be the same no matter what. I'll probably still post on here from time to time. But it will not be a day by day account of my life. I can only post that I got up, went to work, came home, eat and slept so many times before it gets a little boring. I will still post things on here from time to time. But probably not everyday and probably not about the comings and goings of my life.

I have several things I'm thinking about doing with this space. One of the is an outlet for creative writing. I don't know how that one will pan out, but we'll have to wait and see. I just wanted to let anyone who does read this not to expect too much out of me on here. I just don't seem to have it in me to do this kind of day to day life reporting. Or, at least, don't have interesting things to write about from day to day.

Well, now that I've said my peace I'll be off and out for a while.

~gs

Weekend With The Coles

Jennifer's parents flew in this weekend to see us in our new home. We picked them up at PDX on Saturday and took them back to our apartment to show them our new place. Then we headed out to a car show in the area.

Then after some fun with the bus system and some broken down buses, we made it back to our place. By then it was getting late. Especially for the Coles who were still on CST. We took them back to there hotel and grab some dinner at the Black Bear Diner. It's a great place to eat, and also right next to the closest hotel.

Sunday morning I could not seem to get up. So, Jennifer went with her parents to Portland First Church Of The Nazarene. One of Jennifer's mom friends is the pastor's wife here. We thought it would nice to go there because of the connection. But the pastor is in the middle of a three mont sabbatical that ends in a few weeks. Jennifer said that the service was nice and that even with the pastor and his wife gone the Nazarene web still holds strong. They met a few people that they knew anyway.

Then they came home and changed and picked me up and we headed down the the Oregon Zoo. We had a great time and some some great animals. We actually saw some that we didn't see the last time we went because it was a lot cooler and cloudy so more of them were out in the open.

After that we came back to Beaverton with the hopes of going out to Borders. But the bus that goes out there doesn't run after 7 or so. So, we just walked down to Burgerville for some dinner. I have to say I was impressed by the quality of food. I don't think I've ever actually ate at one before, but I really liked it. I even ate a Walla Walla Sweet Onion Ring for my dad. It was really good.

Well, that's all the adventures for so far. I'll update again in the next few days as things happen.

Some Pictures from a Weekend with the Coles

Steve at the car show

Cheryl at the car show

Can I have me treat from Sampson yet?

Are bald eagles really bald?

The Cole Exhibit at the zoo

Here grizzly, grizzly...

Here's to Walla Walla

So, Long Time, No Update

Well, it's been awhile since I last updated you all. So, I thought I'd say a few words. Work is going good. My schedule is now Monday to Friday 6:30-1 or 2. I like this because it gives me the weekends off. The main reason I have this schedule now is that I can't get to work until at least 7 on Saturdays and they didn't like that very much. So, we switched it up. Also this will give me the weekends to spend with Jennifer, seeing as those are her days off too. She is supposed to start work sometime this next week, but has to wait for the paper work to be done, so probably not till Tuesday or Wednesday.

Jennifer and I tried to make it in to get our Oregon Driver's License on Friday, but we didn't have the right papers to show our residency here so we will try to make it back in tomorrow after I get off work, if Jennifer doesn't work. We'll have to wait and see.

Then the big news that everyone is talking about is that Harry Potter 7 came out. I wanted to go out to the midnight release, but there was no way we would have made it back home, so we made the trip out to Border's Saturday morning to pick it up. I haven't read that much yet. Unfortunately I have to sleep sometimes. If I had been able to get it Friday night I would have stayed up reading it, but I can't do that now. Maybe tonight, but we'll have to see about that.

This morning Jennifer and I got up and went to church for the first time while here in Portland. We took a short bus ride over to St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church here in Beaverton. We neither one really felt at home in this church though and are not too sure if we will go back. But oh well. We knew it wouldn't be easy to find a new church. We have several more that we'll try though. We'll keep you updated on the church search.

I think that's it for now.