Aaron Aiken Life outside of the box.

On Saturday Lindsay needed to run to work (Vida) for the morning and part of the afternoon, so mom and I paid her a visit before eventually heading down to the farmers market.

Once Lindsay finished up her last massage we all met for lunch at the Front Street Brewery.

After lunch Lindsay and mom wanted to shop. I played Mr. Taxi driver and drove them to and fro for hours upon hours, so I don’t have any exciting pictures for you to see. They seemed to have a good time, so that’s all that matters. So while they shopped I sat in the car in parking lots across Wilmington reading IT by Craig Groeschel.

Once they finished up buying everything in sight we ran home to change for our dinner reservations at the Riverboat Landing in downtown Wilmington. (I highly recommend this restaurant for dinner! Fantastic ambiance, food, and wine.)

Sunday we paid our second visit to First Baptist Church of Wilmington and thoroughly enjoyed guest speaker Dr. Lloyd Ogilvie. Following the service we took a walk on the beach :-)

It was a tad windy and cold so we didn’t last much longer than thirty minutes. But hey, it was the beach and was fantastic to be able to get there for that short amount of time!

We grabbed a bit to eat at a pizza shop outside of Wrightsville Beach and then did some more shopping (at the mall…so I made sure we were equipped with Starbucks).

The rainy weather forecast kept us inside for the night. We watched The Holiday and made chocolate cookies to have with our coffee. Pretty much awesome.

The next day, Monday, Lindsay and Mom went to the salon that Lindsay works at so that Mom could be pampered before her flight back up to PA later that afternoon. I’m sure they had a great time chatting and all that stuff before she headed out.

It was a great weekend with my awesome mother in-law and I’m glad that she was able to make it down to see our new home and town! Next I’ll have to get my awesome father in-law down…already know where we’ll go after he lands:

rjdlc:

hollywog:

ennuiprayer:

hollywog:

ennuiprayer:

hollywog:

I dont care. i want it that way. The fucked up thing about people these days is that they have this mentality like: “you’re only going to succeed if you go to school”.

I beg to differ. I don’t have to support anyone but myself. My goal is to end up in san francisco some day. and i want to have several different “touristy” jobs. Meet people, be me. I can see myself being happy that way. In fact, i’m afraid that if i go to school, don’t know what i want to be, i’ll get stuck and i won’t be happy. i’ll be miserable. If i get married and have kids, maybe someday i’ll want that. but i’m selfish and i don’t want to commit to anyone because this is my life and i want to do whatever i feel like doing. it’s hard to support a family if you’re used to enjoying the lifestyle i plan to have. So it’s official. I’m going to be happy because i’m going to do what makes me happy. :) yayyy!

It’s gorgeous outside today. We’ve had like two weeks straight of just POURING down rain. And today is sunny. :) a bit windy for my taste, but who’s being picky? :)

I’m happy today. this is a big deal.

I agree with you on the whole having to go to school to succeed. We lived in a world where that was true. Something more than a high school education was required to move forward. But at the state of our current situation, finding a job even with a degree in something is fruitless.

However, I’m an education geek. Even if you don’t plan to using a degree in something, it’s still fun (yeah, I said fun) to go to college because you get to meet a lot of new and interesting people (crap, I sound like one of those speakers that went to my high school attempting to convince me to go to school - which I did, a year and a half after I graduated). You don’t need to course out what you want to take for a career - you have what you want to do set - so why not get a degree (or just take a couple of classes) in subjects like literature, creative writing, philiosophy, art, etc. You know, degrees that really can’t get your a career (hehe, I speak from experience here).

Simply a suggestion, but I do know that course like that are pretty nifty.

Everything you say makes a lot of sense. And i’ve considered art classes. I used to have plans to go to art school and become a graphic artist. but my art’s more of a hobby now. I don’t know if i could make it a job. So if i do go to school i’m sure that’s what i’d do.

I just don’t know. I don’t feel like going to school. I just want to do things and go see people and places. It could be fun? i think. :)

Oh most definately. I say do it. I was never one who jumped into something because society wants us to do it. What I suggested was only for consideration.  However, I forgot to mention workshops could be fun to (cheaper & less time consuming, as well).

We’re not all made/ready for college (I know I wasn’t until after that year and a half) the moment our chums are going into it.

:) i appreciate your input. you make good points. who knows what i’ll end up doing. haha

I hate that a lot of business still fall by the ‘if you don’t have a degree we don’t want you’ mantra but, well depending what field you’re headed for, getting there sans degree can be rough.  Even for me as a designer every single job I came across needed a BA or better.

Along the same lines, had I not gone to college I may not be a designer.  I went in as a CS major, sucked at math, toyed with art to discover I was damn good at it.  Straight As for the first time in my life.  If I was never given the opportunity I’m sure I’d be doing something good, but no one can say if I’d be as happy as I am now. I like to think going to a liberal arts college greased the wheels, so to speak.

What I’m really trying to get at here is that regardless of what decision you make and where you choose to go, be sure you’re always open to learning and new experiences.  Don’t be afraid of the journey or the unknown, every new thing you encounter will teach you something, and every new lesson should be as welcome as the last.  As long as you seek out new knowledge and experiences, whether it be through an institution or otherwise, you’ll make it out alive.

I’ve said this exact same thing ever since graduating high school (2005) and plan to continue saying it. I refuse to pay thousands of dollars to an institution unless I know for certain what I want to study and make a career out of. In my personal opinion it is good to take it slow. Don’t feel rushed to pick a college right out of high school and feel pressured to have your entire life mapped and ready to go. You won’t. it is impossible. You hardly know yourself when you graduate from high school, so some time away from the usual friends and class schedules is good for the soul. Helps you to find you and what you really want to be when you grow up (or atleast get on that path).

Next June, 2010, will be my 5 year high school class reunion. already. in that time I have not once seriously considered going back to college. But, in that time I have started and stopped flight school, held six jobs, married my high school sweet heart, and moved 500 miles away from where i grew up. That’s a lot in 5 years and I have learned A TON about myself and I can say for certain that I would not have had the same experiences if I had went to a university right out of high school.

After saying that though, recently I have been giving thought to furthering my education; and only because the field I want to build a career in eventually requires a related degree.

So my advice: take it slow. Get to know the true you and then figure out if you need a degree to do what it is you feel called to do.

Thus ends the first evening with the coolest mother in-law ever visiting with us for the weekend! Had a great night showing her the town and our new home. We were also able to treat her to her first ever Hulu experience :-)

After coffee at Port City Java we came back home and Skyped with Lindsay’s dad and grandma (back in PA). Was pretty cool to have mom on the other end of the conversation at our place.

Mom also noticed the ‘gift’ I purchased for her: hand towels in the guest bathroom with her first initial :-) I know, I know, so thoughtful.

Moving away from where you grew up for 20 some odd years means a lot of things, and among the laundry list is finding a new Church to attend and become a part of. To be honest, Lindsay and I do not enjoy this process one single bit. We didn’t exactly land at a good church after we were married, so we have a bad taste in our mouths with the whole find a new church process…

BUT, today we gave First Baptist Church in downtown Wilmington, NC our attention and I have to say, Thank you Lord for allowing the first church we visited to be a pleasurable experience. As you can see from the picture above, the building itself is a fantastic piece of architecture. This is not at all something that is important to us, but it’s just so darn awesome and old!

The first person we ran into was one of the deacons who was holding the door open for folks who wanted to go in the side entrance. His name was Lou, and the first thing he said to me was awesome:

“You know, you really should be holding your wife’s other hand,” he said, motioning to her left hand. “That way, whenever a horse and carriage go by she won’t get dirty.” He laughed and I just smiled.

“Thanks, Lou,” I said, reading his name tag, “good tip to keep in mind!”

He asked if we were new and gave us the low down on how many doors their were in the building (44) and that we could go in any one that we wanted. He recommended entering the sanctuary from the back so we could get a good perspective of the building. We thanked him very much for his time and walked up the side of the building to the front entrance. While walking away I switched sides and held Lindsay’s left hand, to protect her from the dirt kicked up from the horses passing by on the street (there were, of course, none going by).

The service we attended was the “Journey” service, their contemporary service. The next service is the traditional service. I’m not to picky on the style of worship, but it was what I was used to from the church I grew up in up in Harrisburg, PA. I’m more concerned with the actual sermon that is given and I was impressed, or at least relieved. We were not fed gobble-guk that made me feel empty at the conclusion, nor were we given a sob story of a message that would make one want to crawl under the pew and go to sleep. Dr. Mike Queen (the Senior Pastor) gave a fantastic message from Genesis 45 (Joseph meeting his brothers in Egypt) and taught us what we could learn from how Joseph treated his brothers (with Love instead of hate, or revenge). It was a good message that was challenging and insightful.

After the service, visiting guests were invited to meet some of the staff in the “Media” room. Lindsay and I made our way up the right side of the sanctuary and through and old door that led to a large hallway and on our left was the media room.

There we were able to meet Jayne, Minister of Pastoral Care, Janet, one of the deaconesses, and Pastor Mike Queen and his wife, Bobbi. Everyone was very welcoming of Lindsay and I. It was great to meet Pastor Mike and his wife and talk with them for a few minutes. Once we finished there, Jayne showed us where the young adult class met every Sunday morning at 10:10. We thanked her for showing us this as we are both very anxious to connect with folks our age.

Overall we had a fantastic first Sunday and look forward to attending through to the end of this year and meeting the folks that we are supposed to meet!