On the Brink

Monday's highlight for me was wrestling in a sumo wrestling suit, as part of a field day of sorts Deloitte held for all NY summer interns. I somehow weakly smacked the ball into the ground and got on first base with softball; got a few kicks across the field in soccer; and just stood on the sidelines for basketball. But fat man land was my forte. I crawled into a massive sumo wrestling suit and duked it out with another dude...and barely won. Notably all our team won was sumo and trivia. So I guess we could classify ourselves as a bunch of fat smart people.

Since then I have worked at Interpublic Group's office on Madison Avenue this week. Yes, that means I actually left Grand Central about 5 minutes after that massive steam pipe exploded nearby on that particular day. Overall, I enjoyed IBM better compared to this week. It's been good work, just a change of pace. I quality assessed the client's expense report system and for a proposal to a client, populated a rate card with foreign exchange rate conversions, as well as creating organizational charts and a globe graphic for the proposal. My good friend EunSun Lee has kept me company. She's also an LSU-er, and she's originally from South Korea. She introduced me to Koreatown a couple weeks ago. We went to Artisanal Bistro for NYC's "Restaurant Week" this week. Basically, overpriced fine dining places in the city lower their prices during this week to attract customers. The food was good...but the portions were miniscule. I had blue crab soup, salmon, and "berry soup" dessert.

And to light up my nights I've been working on a research paper. The one-week Internal Audit Case Studies course in presentations that I took back in May has a second part, a 16-page research paper to work on during the summer. I kind of waited to start till the beginning of last week, so I've been working a couple hours on that every night upon getting home from work. We have to do a report on each of the following 16 topics: COBOT Framework, Extensible Business Reporting Language, ISO 9000, ISO 14000, COSO Framework, CoCo Framework, Control Self Assessment, Total Quality Mangement, Six Sigma, Benchmarking, SAS 70, Reengineering, Foreign Corrupt Pratices Act, Securities Exchange Commission, Cadbury Committee, and King II Report. It is due Sunday at midnight.

For dinner this week, I made my 2 favorites! Chicken fajitas and spaghetti with ground meat and Ragu. I also interspersed a couple salads and frozen french bread pizzas for good measure. I have awakened to a bowl of the overpriced and delicious Blueberry Morning cereal every day.

My commute has been interesting this week. I catch a #1 train at 116th Street and ride that to 96th Street. There I transfer to the express, a #2 or #3, and take that to Times Square 42nd Street. Then I catch the "S" shuttle to Grand Central Station. Then I transfer to a downtown bound #6 local train and ride to 33rd street, get out and walk to Madison Avenue.

FYI, the Virgin Records megastore in Times Square is SWEET. I got 4 movies for $40: Empire of the Sun, The Matrix, The Manchurian Candidate (the real one with Frank Sinatra), and Black Hawk Down. I am still plowing through the massive 18 hours of extra material on the bonus Lord of the Rings discs. Seriously, it's taking me the whole summer to finish. I watch a half hour whenever I have time here and there.

Some favorite Biblical material this week has been Psalm 37 and some stuff in Luke. Luke 9:51-56 stands out in mind right now. A particular Samaritan village Jesus wants to minister in does not receive him into the village...at all. Not even entrance into the "village (or city) limits"! The disciples, infuriated, ask if they should call down fire from heaven to devour these heathens. "But," the Scriptures say "he turned, and rebuked them, and said, 'Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.' And they went to another village." Listen to Jesus! Though he will not compromise the Truth the Father has commanded Him to bring to lost humanity, there are ramifications. He says, in essence, "My followers! Though sometimes pain must be brought upon the rebellious for the sake of justice, I delight in mercy. I will do whatever justice requires, but the Father's love in me would much rather use the vehicle of mercy. My purpose is not to do what you are suggesting. It is just the opposite!" Jesus came to save, not destroy.

What encouragement that brings to us, His beloved! To all humanity! He waits to the last possible moment, in mercy, until he brings judgment. He wants to save every one that can be, that will allow the process of being, saved. Of course, Christ's heart is broken. They "went to another village." Though Jesus won't force Himself on us, it is a pity if He has to walk elsewhere because we pull a gun on Him when he knocks on our door.

I have been obssessed with "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol, of late. Facilitating this is the fact I'm getting married in three weeks. The wedding planning is still going, and I am anxious just to be back with my lovely Amanda Marie. I am out of my mind right now...all I want is to walk down that aisle and say, "I do." It is high time. This summer has made me so much more confident. I know we can do this. I know by God's grace we can live a wonderful life. We've survived and thrived apart, so I know that we have the resources to live together and be mature. It was about this time a year ago we both awkwardly and gleefully discussed when exactly we would be getting married and we both had in our minds...what if we got engaged this winter and got married next year? And now here we are.

Am I scared?

No.

When you're ready to commit to someone, you're teetering on the edge of a cliff. The longer you keep yourself from the person, you risk falling over yourself. Through committing, you have the other person grasp your hand, kiss you rapturously, and say, "1...2...3...let's jump into the unknown together."