This past Saturday one of my very close friends, Kenan, got married. I really had to step back and think about the gravity of what just happened.

Kenan and I have been good friends for a long time now. A little over nine years, actually. To say the least, we’ve been through a lot. A whole lot of good, but also some bad. We saw the first of our high school friends, John, get married a while back. And now Kenan is number two.

The reality is starting to set in. We are, in fact, getting to this age. My friends are starting to get married. And it isn’t out of the ordinary.

I’ve got a long list of thoughts queued up for processing. But in the mean time, I’m very happy for Kenan. I’ve never seen him quite so energetic and excited as at the reception. The wedding itself was fun - not overly serious, but not a joke either. A wonderful balance, to be sure.

I’m glad to have been a part of his wedding, and to have several of my close friends be a part of it as well. And let’s be honest. We all look smoking hot in our tuxes. Even Kenan.

It’s been a while since I’ve actually posted something about what’s going on in my life. So here’s a brief catch up for you.

The weekend of the 6th I drove straight through from South Florida to Indianapolis. I left at about 9am, and got in about 2am. Yes, I gained 7 hours. I’m just that good. I spent the next week working from my house in Indianapolis. Jeremy (a co-worker) came down and we went office hunting for a little while. That is still up in the air as to when that will happen, but the sooner the better.

Friday night Marcus and I watched the new Incredible Hulk. And you know what? It was good. I really enjoyed the movie, and would recommend to anyone who enjoys comic book movies. It didn’t make me want to go home sobbing because the movie was so bad like the first one did. No, this one was good. And you should probably check it out.

Saturday I went up to Upland to see my good friend Matt Voss. He’s the one that has suckered me into running for a marathon, so we thought we should suffer together for some training. So we did a good eight mile run. It didn’t go quite as smoothly as I would have liked, but I’ll be doing lots of running, which should take care of that. After that I came back to Bremen. My brothers, Kenan and I went out to Wings Etc. After that, Kenan and I saw “The Happening”. Kenan and I left quite confused. The movie simply wasn’t good. I can’t say it was terrible. It just was… predictable. And boring. Very disappointing.

Sunday I went to church, and then we had Father’s Day lunch. Both of my grandmas came over, and it was good to see them again. After that Kenan and I hung out some more. We didn’t do anything particularly exciting.

So far this week I’ve been working out my parent’s house. It’s weird to be so mobile with my job, but I do enjoy that. Also, it’s weird to be working out of my old bedroom. This used to be the place I’d go to relax, play video games, watch movies, and hang out with friends. Now I have boxes stacked up (since it’s becoming a storage place) and I’m working instead of relaxing. Very strange. Not bad. Just… strange.

Tonight Zac and I are going for a run. Then I’m going out to eat with my Granny Keck and my two little cousins. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them, and I’m definitely excited about it. They’re great :-D.

Well, that’s a sufficient update in my life. Hope you all enjoyed the wild ride that it is.

So I just got back from running. Troy and I are getting ready to do some grilling. Troy moved the charcoal and out shot a scorpion. Neither of us have ever had to deal with a scorpion, so it was a pretty hilarious incident.

I grabbed the Raid and handed it to Troy. He sprayed the crap out of that guy and eventually it stopped crawling and just laid there twitching. Needless to say, we didn’t feel like the job was yet completed. I grabbed the lighter fluid and the matches and went to work. After we were finished, his claws, tail and legs were burned off, and he was most certainly dead.

After googling around, we are convinced that he was a Florida Bark Scorpion.

Scorpions are pretty gross, I’m not going to lie. Chalk that up to a new experience for us.

This past weekend I went to Taylor for the 2008 graduation. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed my time there! But, to get into some of the overall events, here is the account of my adventures.

I flew into Ft. Wayne airport, and Justin Clupper met up with me. I had rented a car (A little Mazda 6. Sort of a chick car, but a fun car to rent). We headed down to Upland and went to the Party Palace (Brandon, Jay, Kyle and Mark’s place). Rob Bame was there as well. Justin and I headed down to Muncie to Justin Overpeck’s place. Caleb was there as well. We hung out with them for a while, and eventually headed back to the Palace. All of us hung out for a while, and eventually got to bed.

The next morning Rob, Justin and I went to Matthews to eat at the breakfast buffet that all of us had said we would do in college, but never did. It wasn’t terribly amazing. But then again, it was about four dollars, and the quality of food was at least as good as the DC’s. We decided we enjoyed it. We got back and the graduates were just about ready to leave, so we were able to start getting ready. Once we were all cleaned up, we headed to the ceremony. We had to sit in the chapel since it was indoors. At first we were a little annoyed at this, but then we came to realize it was actually quite pleasant. Rob and I escaped early to get the car and pick up Brandon’s grandparents so we could shuttle them over to the KSAC. When we got to the KSAC, there were tons of people I had forgotten were in that class. I saw so many people, and it was fantastic! I realized that I was really, really close to that graduating class, and it was so good to see so many of them again.

After that, we headed back to the Palace to pack up our stuff. We cruised over to Brandon’s parent’s house for his open house party. A lot more people came, and that was a lot of fun. Eventually Rob and I headed back to the Palace so I could go back to Indy. I really enjoyed my time with all of my TU friends, and was so proud to see them graduate.

So I headed back down to Indy. When I got there, I went over to Jenny and Rachel’s place to hang out. Her brother Jeff was there, and Becca also came over, as well as their group of friends. I didn’t really know many of them, but I had a great time hanging out with them. After that I headed back to Marcus’s and my place. It was really great to see Marcus again! And to sleep in my own bed was also pretty fantastic.

The next morning I went to church at Grace (how good it felt to be back at my home church!). After the service, the adult leader banquet (for senior high) was going on, so I got to be a part of that. I had some delicious breakfast, and got to see most of the other adult leaders (sadly I missed Beth and Brandon, but I’m sure I’ll see them very shortly after I return!). After that I headed back to the house. I went for a run after a while, and it was a beautiful day out. While Marcus was out and about, I met up with Becca to have some ice cream. I had a good time and really enjoyed our conversation. Marcus then called and so I headed back to have some dinner with him. Then we watched Charlie Wilson’s War. That turned out to be a surprisingly good movie!

Monday was Marcus’s day to watch Zane. So I got to hang out with the two of them for a while. Zane is walking like crazy now! I’m excited to get to see more of him once I get back. Eventually it was time for me to go, so I packed up my stuff. I drove up to Brandon’s (Scooter’s) place for a few hours. We hung out for a while, but then I also had to leave there. So I went to the Ft. Wayne airport, dropped off my vehicle, and met up with Justin Clupper again. We went out to eat, and then he took me back to the airport.

My flight was delayed by about an hour, which meant I landed around midnight. Troy was very kind and picked me up when I got in. We came back to the apartment, and so ended my 2008 TU Graduation weekend.

Today was the Taylor graduation for the class of 2008. I am so glad that I flew in for today. While the actual ceremony itself wasn’t all that amazing, seeing all of my friends was an incredible blessing for me.

After the ceremony, Rob, Clupper and I went over to the KSAC to see all of the graduates. I met so many parents of the students that I hadn’t ever met before. I got to relive a little bit of my college experience with those people. I got to hear about some of their plans. I got to laugh with them at least one more time.

Words can’t begin to describe how happy I am to have gone to see the TU graduation. No price tag could be placed on the joy I had in seeing all of my friends graduate and nothing could take the place of seeing them before they head off into the rest of their lives.

Life is hard, life changes. But life is also wonderful.