Happy New Year!

 I had a bunch of vacation days left at the end of the year and they don't roll over to the following year so I took off the entire week between Christmas and New Years. I spent a majority of my time by myself, just relaxing and catching up on things and chilling out. It might sound bad but it was really nice.

All the same, I was ready for some sort of social life and this weekend was a delightful change of gears. Exhausting, but delightful. Friday night was our bi-monthly Bible study; we dug through Isaiah 55 and some interesting conversations resulted. Afterward I chatted with my friend L until she couldn't stay awake anymore (I have that effect sometimes), and then I chatted with S until 11:30. Meanwhile another of our friends was supposed to have arrived at the airport at 10:45 and we hadn't heard from her. I drove home and got online, and between S and I we managed to figure out that her flight wouldn't be coming in until after 1:45 AM. Fortunately it landed early and by 2:00 she was on center, I had helped her carry her bags to her apartment, and I could go to bed.

For New Year's Eve I had been invited by some friends in another organization to go hang out with them. The two guys who invited me said they needed company because there were half a dozen girls and just the two of them. When I got there my friend JM said, "Well, this is crazier than we thought. We just had 10 Germans show up." It turned out he was slightly off. What we had was 4 Germans (3 girls and a guy), 3 English guys, a guy and a girl from Northern Ireland, and a girl from California. Everybody else (the previously mentioned half dozen girls and two guys) was American.

We had a rollicking good international time. This crowd was crammed into an apartment that was clearly built for two. It was pretty tight when we were all standing around talking. It was even more tight when we started line dancing in the kitchen/dining area. Eventually we went up to the roof, which was slightly larger and considerably cooler. Much cooler. We had to start a fire to stay warm, which was absolutely lovely. There is something about fires that inspires fellowship and worship songs, so we had plenty of both.

All during the evening... let me back up. All of this past week, there have been fireworks. Not a lot, but every couple of minutes you would hear a bang. On New Year's Eve the fireworks started with considerable regularity about half an hour before dark. As I walked to the party fireworks were constantly exploding nearby and it was only 8:00. All during our festivities and worship we had a constant backdrop of scattered fireworks.

At 11:50 we started praying but our clocks must have been 5 minutes off (or the rest of the city wasn't very patient) and at 11:55 the whole sky went crazy. We were on a 4th story roof so we could see all of the fireworks for a considerable distance. From midnight to 12:15 or so we were surrounded by 360˚ of constant fireworks. I don't think any of them were professional shows, just thousands of different people launching massive arsenals off of their roofs. It wasn't just small fireworks either; there were lots of large, beautiful bursts.

We had a small arsenal of our own, which the guys blasted out of a homemade launcher made of Pringles cans taped together. I contributed the most dangerous stunt of the night. I attempted to launch a tin can with a firecracker but I didn't realize that it was a firecracker that would go off 4 times rather than just once. Well, the can launched all right- all over the rooftop! Fortunately it didn't hit anybody, which is somewhat amazing considering how many people we had in a small space.

The fireworks continued late into the night, as did our conversation. We finally went back down to the apartment and started cleaning up at about 2:00. As we were parting ways we discussed church. Several people said that they were planning to go to the international church at 10:00 this morning but nobody sounded very sure if they would make it. By the time I got back home and to bed it was after 3 A.M.

Contrary to my expectations, I was wide awake at 8:30.  45 minutes later I had put on a couple layers of clothing (it was chilly all weekend!) and mounted my bike. I had never ridden to this church before but I managed to find it without too much difficulty and I was plenty early. To my surprise, every single one of my friends showed up. It surprised the rest of the church too. We increased the size of the congregation by a third this morning.

The sermon was amazing. The pastor talked about how an attitude of gratitude is the soil which is necessary for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to grow. It was exactly what I needed to hear and it answered some of my unresolved questions from Friday night.

Afterward everybody wanted to go downtown for lunch. Well... I couldn't take my bike in a taxi, so I rode it downtown. Hold on, let me check the most useful site of all times, gmap-pedometer.com... Okay, from my apartment to church was 4 miles. After church I rode 6 miles into downtown to meet them at the restaurant for lunch and more fellowship.

Afterward we planned to all go to our respective homes and take a nap, then meet up at 4:30 to play some games. They went off in their taxis and I took off on my bike. Unfortunately, I get easily turned around downtown. Normally I carry a compass, but since I wasn't planning this little excursion I didn't have it along. Because it was still early afternoon the sun was mainly overhead and I wasn't sure how much to the south it would be at this time of year. It was also cloudy. So the sun wasn't much help.

Long story short, I got good and lost. I rode to the top of a hill (I didn't even know there WERE hills in this town) and then ran into a dead end. I rode partway back down, tried some side streets, rode all over the neighborhood, and ended up back in the same place. I backtracked halfway to the restaurant, launched off in a new direction, and eventually ran into the ocean. Running into the ocean had been my goal, but this was the wrong ocean. Well, okay, it's the same ocean, but the city is on a peninsula and I was on the wrong side of the peninsula.

At least I finally knew where I was, more or less. I headed homeward and was doing really well for several miles. Then, as I was about to cross a road, the idea suddenly struck me that I should turn left. I wasn't sure, but I gave it a shot. Two blocks later I ended up back in the neighborhood where my friends live. WELL.... It is a half hour ride from their neighborhood to mine, and by this point it was nearly 3:00. I was really tired. I estimate that I had biked 17 1/2 miles by that point in the day. I had actually walked a little while after getting lost because my muscles were cramping up from all of the biking. I haven't biked in months. So I called my friends (the guys, not the girls) and asked if I could crash on their floor until games started. They graciously invited me over.

They timed the napping well because the call to prayer started at about 4:15 and I don't think I could have slept through if I had tried- the mosque was just next door. Once everybody was more or less awake we played several rousing games of Catch Phrase and then Apples to Apples. That took us well into the evening. At 8:00 people were feeling hungry so they made plans to go get take-out pizza and then meet up for a movie. That's the point at which I said farewell. They can be young and cazy; I need to work tomorrow. I also needed to bike home and I didn't want to go through certain risky neighborhoods late at night.

So off I went on my last 4 miles of the day.  Unfortunately, 3 miles into the ride my bike broke. The pedals turned but the wheels didn't. It was like one of those funny motorized bikes where the bicycle moves without the pedals turning, except the opposite. It's considerably less effective that way.

I thought about making a detour and dropping the broken bicycle at S&S's apartment but I know they don't really have a good place to put it because I used to live there. So I walked the bicycle for the last mile.

So here I am, safe and sound, happy and tired. With all of the late nights and crazy bike rides I may have undone my entire week of sleeping in and taking naps, but I sure had fun doing it. I haven't been around that many college-age believers in a looong time. I realize now how much I miss that environment.

And I'm happy to be back in my apartment, ready to sign off and get some sleep. Work starts tomorrow, 8 AM, and at last I feel ready for it.

P.S. As I write this at 11:00 at night on the 1st, somebody out there is STILL shooting off fireworks!
P.P.S. I did get some video of the fireworks. I'll upload them to YouTube... sometime. Not tonight. With our internet connection it takes forever.