joedonahue.org

It all began last Friday, by waking up at 3:30am and driving to the airport for some Holiday travel. The flights themselves were non-eventful, which is good news as far as flights go, but we were delayed on our flight to DC so we missed our flight to Boston and had to wait an hour for the next one. It was only sad because my uncle at this time was driving around the terminal at Logan so he wouldn’t have to pay for parking. Eventually we got there and traveled to Maine, being greeted by my Nana with a fresh pot of Fish Chowder. It was immediately real good to be back in New England.
Then my wife and my siblings and I went to blockbuster to get a movie. I don’t know if the four Donahue kids have ever been out together on a journey like that, but it was pretty great. Ed has a beard that makes me look like Dave or Andy, so everyone at blockbuster was amused to see this strange group of people invade their store.
Pete and Amara VanAmburg stopped over, and we spent an hour or two catching up and listening to Jethro Tull. Pete had never really listened to them before, so it was necessary. It was awesome to see them again, and I told Pete that all I need to hear in order to move back to New England is that he needs a drummer. Serious. Ken Driscoll was scheduled to come over, but it turns out he hurt his back the night before and couldn’t make it – We missed you bro!
Christmas eve was a blast, and it was all my parents house and it was out of control. We spent most of our time with Aunt Mary, Uncle Chris, and their twins Abe and Sophie. They are the coolest, and I will get pics up right quick. Abe looks like a miniature Pete VanAmburg to me (You may recognize that name from his hit Devastatin’ Dave, Turntable Slave).

When it came time to open presents I was beckoned aside and in great fear was ordered to don a Santa Claus outfit. Julie got it on film and the video itself wont make it on here but I am sure a few stills from it will. About halfway through I was so hot I had to take off the beard and hat and Abe exclaimed “It’s not Santa! It’s cousin Joe!” I felt so bad, I hadn’t thought about their reaction to it. My bad.
Christmas day was nonstop. It was a blast, but it started about 6am at my house, followed by Julie’s parents house by 9. Morning Service in Lisbon Falls at 11 and a party at Julie’s Aunt’s house at 2. We left at 4 to be up to another party in Strong by 5, and sometime after 9 we made it safely back to Sabattus. We met up with her cousin Kaylene and husband Matt Bacon, and it was good to see them and everyone else from the family as well.
::whew:: Monday was spent STILL shopping, only this time for ourselves. The Gap Outlet in Freeport is an old friend that we spent some time with, and we had lunch at Panera in South Portland followed by the purchasing of a jacket I have been wanting for a number of years now from Men’s Wearhouse. Thanks to my Mom for helping to make that happen! Tuesday was spent running around and finally making it back home to Kansas City by 11pm.

Its that special time in a young music major’s life when one realizes that the practice rooms in Cove are either full or crap. Chances are, probably both. It is a time when one decides “The school is unable to help me practice, so I shall take matters into my own hands.” If I was a music major, I would be fine, since I have a Yamaha Motif ES 8 to keep me company. Others, like my sister, do not have such luxuries. So we just spent some time at Guitar Center looking at the latest and greatest keyboards to see what she might want to buy.

Today’s matter concerns only a few notables, labeled by me to be “Digital Pianos,” “Keyboards,” and “Workstations.” Workstations are also known as “Good great why on earth would you ever want to do something like that there are so many lights and buttons I think I am going to pass out?!?” (Please note the inflection of the last statement, to be read in the form of “I’m Ron Burgundy?”)

Needless to say, digital pianos are just that…no more no less. Keyboards are more than digital pianos…they have more sounds, but only sounds. Workstations can create majestic symphonies or be used to detect pulsars and other signals which may indicate alien life. Needless to say, the workstation looks great, but next to the extra features of a workstation, you want to go for a workstation.

Nevertheless, (Everthemore??) my Motif ES 8 still ranks as one of the most ridiculous pieces of hardware on the planet. Could be why I am one of Guitar Center’s top 5% customers, even though I’ve only shopped there twice. Anyway, at some point I want to buy a 12 string guitar.

The End.

Last evening’s meal was brought to us courtesy of The Honeybaked Ham Store. NPH gave us the hook up, and it was well spent. I will also be eating ham day and night until I make it home for Christmas. Which, fortunately, is only days away!
It was nice to have Shawn and Andy over also, because we haven’t met since before Turkey Day. Finals has a way of doing that to you.
I also forgot to mention that our apartment complex was home to a crime scene Sunday night. Brad and I noticed a flock of police cars outside of our apartment building that night, and the next morning Julie and I learned that it was a triple shooting!! It didn’t sound like anyone was killed, but it was still a little scary to think it was right in our own quiet little corner of the world.
Here’s to you, Kansas City.

Joe and I were discussing yesterday about how Joe’s work day is fairly, …. predictable. He pretty much knows before he gets to the office what he will be doing that day. Me, on the other hand, I could go to work and sit in the office writing reports/progress notes all day or I could be running all over the city doing various tasks… Both types of jobs have their advantages and disadvantages I suppose…

Anyway, today was a NONcrisis, sit-in-the-office-looking-up-recipes-for-pea-soup-to-get-rid-of-the-leftover-ham-from-TND day. Kinda fun. I’ve found that the people I work with become a little more lax on the holidays. I don’t get as many calls from people saying that they hate me and I’m ruining their lives as I usually do (although not all the people I work with think of me that way)… Especially when they know that you have presents to give them. It’s fun playing Santa.

Like my coworker Michelle says:

I’m Out Like a Scout on a New Route

The blogging community is an extremely interesting one. I am going to start putting links on here to other people’s blogs, because they are far more interesting than mine. Take for example, this entry from a friend up in the art department here. This is serious blogging. I am much more into the technology side of bulding and maintaining a website than the content side. Nonetheless, I suppose that after I get out of Seminary I will be more apt to publish serious things on here, but as of right now the little time that my brain allows me to think critically is spent on my papers for class.
Anywho, Julie and I finished up Christmas shopping Saturday morning, and sent the gifts home so we don’t have to worry about them on the plane. In the evening we went over to the Ardrey for continued discussion of the ‘multiplication’ of our small group early next year, as well as some long-awaited Ardrey Chili and the train game. It’s technically called Ticket to Ride, but we just call it the train game now.
Sunday was the children’s musical at Church, but Dave, Andy, Sherwin and I did a few songs in the beginning as well as a song from the Relient K Christmas CD. It was a blast – the drumset was torn down so I used all the auxillary percussion instruments I could find. The musical was fun, and in the evening Brad came over for pot roast. It was a great time of talking about this past semester and the semester ahead, as well as life and love and why. I also confessed to Brad my God-mandated task to recruit fresh pastors for the Maine district, and I am pretty sure he’ll come. The conversation sparked a renewed sense of longing for Vacationland, and in the few minutes of devotional time I had last night I found this,

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But a longing fulfilled is the tree of life.

And now I just need to figure out what that means.
Peace out.

Julie and I began having a dicussion on people’s birthdays this morning, and I had noticed from facebook that Jon Ardrey’s birthday is coming up. So I said “Jonathon Ardrey’s birthday is the 19th.”
Julie’s response: “For a minute I thought you meant Ryan, and I was going to say no, his birthday is July 31st.”
Ardrey’s, we salute you.

Today is a Friday, and I am going home at 4:30. To some, that may not be such a big deal, but I am quite excited about it. Also, we are hoping to go to The Ardrey tonight.
For lunch, a bunch of us went to Smokin’ Joes, where I engaged with a burnt ends sandwich. Let’s just say that I was one of the few members of the Clean Plate Club. It was real good.
And some of my grades are in!

Needless to say, I’m hoping that my Anthropology grade goes up. Greek was a little rough, and I doubt that my final improved much upon that grade. I am wicked stoked about a B in Systematic though, I thought that would be my worst class.

Hey Everybody,

Don’t forget to drop by The Ardrey tommorow night for a fun time with The Ardrey In-laws.

Or the Ardrey Parents (depending upon which Ardrey you are referencing)

Sometime around 4:07 yesterday I lost all motivation for the rest of the semester. ~Darren

Yeah that describes this weekend sufficiently. If you have any questions, let me know.

Well, OK. Saturday brought with sleeping in for a little bit, as well as going back to the gym for the first time in almost 6 weeks. I’m still feeling it, but it was really nice. Once finals are over I hope to spend some more time there. The worship team for Southwood got together for practice, and it was awesome to have Sherwin back. He’s been gone so long that Julie even asked me recently “Is Sherwin still coming to Church?” Way to leave the rhythym section hanging, bro.
This was followed by a trip to Ward Parkway AMC for Chronicles of Narnia. Oh man, was it good.

This movie has unreserved, direct, nearly-quoted-from-the-bible references to Christianity. My favorite scenes were those where Aslan would breathe on the frozen victims of the ice queen and thaw them, bringing them back to life. In Greek and Hebrew the word for breath is the same word for spirit, and the imagery and special effects used in this movie are demonstrating the Spirit of God which gives new life.Church was a great celebration of the Christmas season, and following it we had our small group’s white elephant gift exchange. This time around we nearly went home with a Urinal, currently in the possession of our Youth Pastor, which has a piece of paper attached to it which reads “Holy Potty” (A play on our Pastor’s proclamation of Christian joy as ‘Holy Party’). Needless to say, we were not about to drive home with the Holy Potty, and I traded it for the gift which we brought.

And I brought two new tires for my car. I heard it might snow again this week so we’ll see if I get a chance to put them to the test.