mDale.com v2

Ramblings

Well, I’ve settled into the second week of classes here at Focus on the Family Institute (FFI). Today we received our practicum assignments. I will be a part of the Public Policy department at Focus. I’m looking forward to getting back in touch with current events, and can’t wait to start work tomorrow! I’ve spent quite a bit of time this evening putting together a list of useful websites for current events. Check out some of these links here.

In addition to my classes at FFI, there have been lots of things to do. On Saturday, I had the privilege of hiking to the top of Gray’s and Torrey’s peaks. These two mountains are located to the West of Denver on I-70, and are both over 14,000 ft. tall. I went hiking with about 40 institute students and three staff members. Alex, the leader of the group, took four of us up the Kelso Ridge route. This climb is a combination class 3/4, which means that it is anywhere from a scramble over boulders to a semi-technical climb. At one point in the climb, we had to traverse a knife-edge ridge with a 1,000 ft. drop on either side. I felt a little vertigo! Check out the photos from the hike here.

In addition to the photos from the hike, I’ve also added a photo from my apartment. Check out the apartment photo here (there will be more photos when I get around to it). As an added bonus, I wanted to share a link to the Google Map of my apartment. Check that out here. You can see the roof of my apartment!

All in all, I’m having a great time (and it’s only the 2nd week!).

My busy life…

I’ve had a really crazy week. Starting last Saturday, I went up to JoshuaFest in Quincy, CA. Basically, it is a Christian-rock festival with more alternative/punk/hardcore/indie bands than some of its larger counterparts (e.g. Spirit West Coast). I went with my friend Danielle, and we had a great time. Check out the new photo album here. I heard a band called Hawthorne who were pretty good. I picked up one of their EP’s and am enjoying it. We also heard a really funny band called Atherton. They classified themselves (or at least the person selling their merchandise classified them) as “power-pop,” but it sounded more like hardcore to me. Lots of screaming and jumping around. One of the guitarists split his pants halfway through the set, and calmed down considerable. He played the rest of the set with his legs together. Overall JoshuaFest was a great festival and I would certainly recommend it to anyone into alternative/indie/punk/hardcore music.

We got back super late after the show, so I slept in until 10:00 AM on Sunday. I then proceeded to finish up a mystery novel (which took a few hours) and lounge around the house until 2:00 PM. I had to finish up some stuff at the office, so I didn’t get home until dinnertime and didn’t start packing for Colorado until 7:00 that night (which was a bad idea). I stayed up altogether too late, and got up at 5:00 the next morning. Dad made pancakes while I finished packing, and I hit the road by 6:30 AM.

I drove.

15 hours later I stopped driving. I spent the night in a motel in Green River, WY and managed to rest up for the final leg of the journey. I made it to Colorado Springs and the Focus on the Family Institute at 2:30 that afternoon. All-in-all I logged about 1,300 miles. To check out a few pictures of the drive (from my driving perspective) click here!

I’m going to get to bed now, but I’ll be posting in the next week or so about my experiences here in Colorado Springs. For those of you who want to get in touch with me (and don’t already have my new contact info), you can still email me or call my cell number (it still has an 805 area code).