Dear Blog, I have not forgotten you. I apologize for my ever problematic absences! I have been living life here in Troy, I haven't taken pictures though!

But quick update: I've moved and I'm living with a couple of great guys north of Troy. We live in a house out at the edge of the woods! It is a great situation in most ways. (We don't have internet yet though!)

I'm working hard at the job, still enjoying it for the most part! I am looking for a new car... which is a post of it's own.

But I'll update again soon, and I'll try to have pictures.

So here was today for me: Slept in too late, went to the NOON service at Kensington Troy- it still amazes me that there is a noon service! Got myself a toffee coffee frappe and went into the service, actually sat with my supervisor/boss, Karl. Great service- the series is called "Things they never told you about ____" This week was "God", revealing common myths about God, it was really a great service. Lots to learn. Then Karl took me around Detroit, he told me I was going to have a "real cultural lunch experience", and he was right. Sort of.

We went to 2 coney island places, in order to decide which was best. The first was American Coney Island, the second (next door) was Lafayette Coney Island. Both were very good! I was impressed, however, Lafayette did have a heartier chili and I would say it was the better dog. But both places were famous to some extent- apparently the new Detroit cop show (Detroit 1-8-7) was filmed (partially) in American Coney Island- I was impressed! The other place, Lafayette, had been visited by Man Vs. Food! There was a picture of the guy and everything! (the second had also been visited by various political dignitaries who interest me far less, haha).

So then we were on to the Detroit Institute of Art. I love art museums and had been to this one before, but it was great going with Karl, who it turns out actually took classes through Wayne State at the Institute itself. He is quite the art historian. But we spent some time there before moving on and driving around Detroit a little, he was attempting to help me understand the area (which didn't work).

So then back to Troy, where I went to Kroger and got some dinner stuff- Italian hard-crusted bread, marbled cheddar cheese and some red grapes- it was a feast! Anyway, I felt very artistic. So to end the night I watched Sherlock Holmes, which has become one of my recent favorites. Next is some reading then to bed. But that isn't even why I was going to make a post.

I am really looking forward to having a place of my own. So that I can do things like have an art area set up- my easel, some paints and a drop cloth. Having a big comfy chair to sit in and read... I'm excited for it. Also singing loudly. Anyway, I am looking forward to that. This is all that my post was really meant to be. Goodnight!

New job, new life

I am in Troy now, living with a couple whose kids have all left the house and who very charitably offered their home to me. I'm going to live here for a short time while I find an apartment and possibly a roommate. I'm liking the job, there is something amazingly satisfying about doing the thing I went to college for! And the people I work with are great as well. I "moved in" on Monday night, and have been here for just about a week.


Troy and the surrounding area seems very nice! I'm liking it here, but (as expected) it is tough starting over in a new place. It always is- for sure! I'm excited for the day that I have a group of friends here with whom I can do stuff. That day will come soon enough!

Here are a couple pictures of my cubicle on the 3rd floor at Kensington Community Church:


The "Fall Fest" poster design there is my first design series- it was originally a folding mailer, but was easily changed into a 11x17 for around the church. I had someone tell me that the stuff I design (which goes out to all 6? of Kensington's campuses-5 of them mobile) will be seen by roughly 5000 kids per week. Isn't that ridiculous?! Awesome though.

So, my office/cubicle needs some decoration, I'm working on that. But I'm pretty excited about it all.

Also, on my second day of work, I got rear-ended by a van, while at a stop waiting for traffic, roughly 50 feet from my destination. This was the damage:

Sad day, huh? Truthfully, it isn't a huge deal. Could have been a lot worse.

In other news- with the new job coming, I decided to get an eye appointment and some new glasses- a LONG time overdue! I also got some new clothes, which make me feel very artsy. Observe:







Pretty excited for things to come.
God has been so good.

For real this time.

I stand (figuratively) before you with an announcement. As of this morning, I have accepted an awesome job as Student Ministries Designer at Kensington Community Church in Troy, MI. And I'm pretty excited about it! I have been praying, along with much of my family, that something perfect would come along, and here it is! God has really come through! I don't know when I start yet, but it will be amazing. I have my own cubicle! I'll also be either sharing an apartment with someone else from the church or getting one of my own- but it is a for real career! If you want more details, let me know!

In other news, I've been busy Nannying for my brother/sister in law in Grand Rapids. They've been trying to get a Home Daycare ( http://www.sweetpeadaycare.org/ ) set up for some time now, and it is finally coming together.

I've also recently picked up Sailing a little bit. At the end of last summer (2009), I was given a small sidewinder sailboat from a friend at camp. It needed a little cleaning up, but it is a great little boat. So my dad and I have been working together on it in our spare time, and just this Labor Day we took it out- for our 3rd time on the little lake. The wind was stronger than our first 2 encounters, and at first we were doing well, really moving across the lake, then disaster struck and we tipped over. Everything was fine, we got it righted eventually, but it was certainly an experience! I'll post pictures soon. So much has happened, I'll do what I can to be better about regular updates! More to come soon!

Okay, FINE.

So it has been a month since I updated. My bad. I've been planning on putting some pictures up, but haven't gotten around to it, I'll get to it soon though! Be ready for a sizeable update as well. I have not forgotten you, dear blog, so calm down.

Reason to celebrate

I was in Grand Rapids last weekend, spending time with my dad and brother mostly, working on "the Labyrinth"- it is a sort of experiential thing we've done at my home church for Easter- Dad and I were helping my brother set it up at his church (which was pretty cool- check out my other blog for details on that- http://natewoods.wordpress.com/)

ANYWAY- we also celebrated a little, because my niece Anna had just accepted Jesus as savior! (A pretty big deal : ) )

It was great just to see Anna! Note her cheesy smile with the cake. She also loves taking pictures, I let her take a few with my d200 (I helped her hold it, but she aimed and pushed the button)...

...I think she might be a better artist than me.

Recently my friends from around here and I decided to watch the movie Zombieland. Now, I'm not a zombie movie kind of guy generally, but I'd heard a lot of good things about this movie, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Now, we decided to have a "make your own pizza"/Zombieland night. Let me preface my opinion of the movie with this: It had a lot of profanity, a fair amount of zombie-gore and some violence. But it was HILARIOUS! And there was no sex- which is huge in my opinion. So, since the first Zombieland/pizza night was so great, we decided to make it a tradition and held our second one just the other day.

The pizza was delicious, the company was great, the movie was good- what else could you ask for?

What else can you ask for? Twinkies. That's what. If you've seen the movie, you'll get it : )

Here's to you, Tallahassee. You've got to enjoy the little things.

And one last thing... My friend Daniel has this awesome Indiana Jones-esque jacket... It is a little small, but I couldn't resist...

So I feel like kind of a chump, because it has been almost a full year since I updated this! Sorry guys! But, I'll give you a quick recap of the last year:

I graduated last may (or walked at least), then worked at Center Lake Bible Camp for the summer (my 5th summer there) as the Media Director (I did photos and video along with a little of this and that). I had a wonderful summer, and I kept in touch with a friend I'd met at SAU throughout. After the summer was over we dated for a couple months but it didn't last. So I have been substitute teaching since summer ended and haven't actually had a lot of luck getting sub jobs lately. So a couple weeks ago I worked out details with my dad (worship/comm pastor at my church) to be a "Creative Media Intern" at the church- doing a lot of different "media-oriented" things. Sadly this is an unpaid internship, but I love the experience! I'm really enjoying it. (I'm also doing a blog specifically for that- http://natewoods.wordpress.com/ follow me if you'd like!)

I've been hoping to do design/video/art stuff for a church as a career, but they're hard jobs to get, and most churches can't afford to pay a guy for that kind of thing. After getting shot down quite a few times, I decided in-church real experience would be a good idea- so the internship materialized.

So now I have the problem of having a part time internship that doesn't pay, and a part time job that doesn't pay. So I recently applied (and have been hired- paperwork on monday) at a shoe store here in town. It isn't my dream job for sure, but I can handle a job like this since I'm doing the internship- otherwise I'd be pretty ticked to do a job I could have done in high school.


So... Life is good! I'm certainly not where I want to be right now, but I'm becoming content with my situation. God has been good.