Doing the Rain Dance

We are currently in the midst of severe drought in North Carolina. It's one of the worst seasons of drought in the history of the state. As I was just gazing out the window from my desk, I noticed the lack of any vegetation, especially on the trees. This is the time of year when life should be budding again, but the only thing that's green is the new grass planted outside of our apartment building. Fortunately, we have had some heavy rain over the past couple of weeks, but the drought has been so severe, we're still categorized as being in severe drought, one notch below extreme drought.

The lack of life saddens me because I have always been in love with springtime. I love the new growth and the beautiful colors that God paints across the earth. There is a beautiful dogwood tree right outside of our window, which was blooming beautifully last year but has nothing yet this year. Right next to it is a tree with dried up leaves still left over from the fall and winter. Signs of life are struggling through, however, when I see a small tree or bush on the side of the road with tiny buds reaching for life.

I worry that, despite the "green" culture that thrives in our area, the recent rain will give a false sense of security and send people back to unnecessarily washing their cars and watering their lawns. When the drought was taking a serious turn for the worse last fall, residents of a local city actually complained when they had to stop watering their lawns because the drinking water reservoir was not going to last longer than three more months. I sincerely hope that they are smarter and "greener" this spring. If the green culture here doesn't get a little more serious we won't be seeing any green at all this year.

The Madness is Near

March=College basketball. Once again we have arrived at the time of year when everyone goes crazy about their brackets and maybe their favorite team, but only if they picked their favorite team to win it all.

This year will be a little bittersweet for us. This is our last March Madness living in the middle of the infamous Duke-UNC rivalry, which makes even the basketball clueless fired up and shouting about calls he doesn't understand. By the end of the tournament, we will most likely have decided about our new home in the fall, and thus we will have a new team to cheer for. So what happens if our new team plays North Carolina in the tournament? I'd prefer not to answer that question and just hope it doesn't happen. I will, however, always have a soft spot in my heart for the Tar Heels when March Madness rolls around. We're not going to a new school for the sports anyway...

Red or Blue?

It has been an exciting couple of weeks in the Tiearney household. Last year at this time we were grasping at straws for the next step in our life, wondering what God had in store for us. This year, we are reaping the benefits of taking the time to listen to God's voice and his gentle guiding for our life.

If you remember, I applied for grad school last year with a dismal turnout. Out of the nine schools I applied at, I received no acceptance letters. It was pretty depressing. As the application season rolled around again this year, I approached it with a cautious trepidation. Melissa and I had both decided to apply for grad school this time, so there were a lot of blocks that had to fall just right. The waiting period was just as bad this year, even though I had experienced it before. Fortunately, just over a week ago I received a phone call from the University of Illinois informing me of my acceptance, which was shortly followed by an email with a full funding package offered for the school year starting in August. I was physically shaking on the phone. Not one day later, both Melissa and I received acceptance letters from Indiana University. We're both being considered for funding, so we'll have to wait a little longer before we know anything certain. That was the best weekend I'd had in months.

As the April 15 decision deadline looms closer, we are planning a trip to visit both schools and see some family and friends while we're at it. Melissa is hoping to hear from Illinois any day now so we can further plan our visit there. God has really opened the floodgates for us this year, and it's really exciting to embark on what we feel is God's call for our lives right now.

So, the big question will come down to this: Do we choose the red pill or the blue pill?

The Second Biggest Day of My Life

On May 21, 2005 I walked down the aisle towards my future wife for the biggest day of my life. I left the church as a married man to the tune of a certain theme song (and it was not Star Wars, as many people thought). Exactly three years and one day later, that theme song is returning to my life for the second biggest day in my human existence: The release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

On Thursday the first trailer was released, and if you haven't watched it yet, stop reading right now and go to www.indianajones.com and watch it. You will not only be blown away by its awesomeness, but you will get a glimpse into the man who made me the person I am today. Thanks to Indiana Jones, I discovered the world of ancient history and archaeology, which led to my interest in languages and ancient Mediterranean culture. Unfortunately, I have never been able to experience my lifelong hero/role model/icon on the big screen because I was only six when the third movie hit theaters in 1989. Thus, Indy's return to the big screen at a time of my life when I can most appreciate him is not just a big deal, it's a monumental occasion. For the first time ever, I will watch Indiana Jones in an entirely new adventure on a screen bigger than a 20-inch TV. Are you catching my excitement?? At this point it really doesn't matter whether the movie's critically acclaimed or not because I will still see it at least 3 times in the theater, including the very first midnight showing on the morning of May 22. I might have to start a savings fund for all the theater viewings and merchandise that I will be purchasing over the next few months.

If you know me, you know that I get excited about movies, but no other movie has caused such excitement, and no other movie may cause such excitement again. I will be the guy who always brings a lightsaber or wears elf ears to his favorite movies when I don the fedora and strap on the whip for the return of the greatest adventure hero in movie history and the second biggest day of my life.

Some Important Rules for Your Local Coffee Shop

All of us enjoy spending time in our favorite, comfortable coffee shop. Some of us spend much more time there than we ever thought or imagined. In my time working as a barista I have developed a short list of important points of etiquette when waiting in line and ordering from your local coffee shop. These "rules" will make your barista much happier as well as everyone else in the coffee shop. So, here it goes in no particular order:

1. Never stand in front of the counter or register as if you're ready to order but are actually just wanting to talk to your friend. Save your conversation for after you order. Your barista will appreciate not having to yell at you to get your attention, and everyone piling up behind you in line won't grab you by the hair and yank you out the door.

2. Don't try to order and talk on your cell phone at the same time. You will probably end up with the wrong drink (perhaps even on purpose...) without even realizing it, and your barista will be very frustrated. Plus, openly talking on your cell phone in a very public place is just rude anyway.

3. Don't ever order "just" a latte. You are, however, allowed to order "just" a coffee. If you realized how much more time and effort goes into making a latte compared to a coffee, you would feel the same way. If you must order "just" a latte, make absolutely sure that you never order "just" a latte with a flavor shot. That requires even more time and effort from your barista. Please, just show each drink the honor and respect it deserves and understand that a lot goes on to prepare your drink while you're talking on your cell phone and chatting with your friends.

4. Avoid using Starbucks language. Thanks to Starbucks, the coffee industry has been forced into conforming to grande's and venti's. If at a loss for your local coffee shop terminology, you are always safe just saying small, medium, or large. It works every time.

5. Most importantly, be friendly. Your barista probably wakes up at the earliest hours of the morning and makes the extra effort to be friendly to you, so engage him or her in conversation. Whether it's about the dog or your snotty neighbor, people's stories are what makes being a barista so fun.

These five basic rules will transform your coffee shop experience. You will be amazed at how much happier everyone is, and especially, how much better your coffee tastes!

Summer Weddings: The Sequel

Weddings come in bunches. The summer we got married we attended or were a part of 6 other weddings. It seems that everyone's brother/mother/cousin/friend/estranged relative decides to get married at the same time. When we got married, it wasn't too bad because we lived in decent driving distance from most of the weddings (except for one specific wedding that was halfway across the country and in the hottest sanctuary ever...and there were two 15-minute plus "sermonettes"). Plus, we could regift some of our trove of newly acquired items and save some money on wedding gifts. Overall, that summer was a bit exhausting but fun nonetheless.

Here I am now sitting in a similar position for this upcoming summer. Well, not quite similar. This year, we have three weddings to attend, plus at least one other that we will only attend in spirit because of another wedding scheduled on the same day. There will also be little to no driving this year because of the one thousand mile difference between us and all the weddings. I also managed to make it into all of the weddings this year including the one I can't attend. Craziness! I am incredibly honored and really excited to be a part of all these weddings, but I've decided either there's a mass conspiracy to bring us out of the hinterlands of the deep south or the reception halls are manipulating the market so that they fill up their schedules. I've also decided that I just need to purchase an airplane and set up a bedroom in it. Unfortunately, I usually fly Southwest so I'd end up with a suite over the engines next to complete strangers because I got a "C" boarding pass.

Happy Wedding Planning Friends and Family! I look forward to seeing you all.

Thanksgiving in DC

I finally have a bit of a chance to talk about our vacation to DC at Thanksgiving. It already feels like forever ago, but we had a great time and took lots of great pictures. We went to a lot of museums and walked everywhere. Our first night there we got a great picture of the Washington monument right at dusk. We went to a couple Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery of Art, and the International Spy Museum. The Spy Museum was definitely worth the price of admission, especially because it was the only museum in DC we had to pay for. We spent a good portion of the day after Thanksgiving doing a walking tour of the monuments. The monuments were impressive, but the wind and cold were a bit disheartening.

We ate at lots of great little local restaurants which had been suggested by my neighbors at the John Edwards campaign, so we were able to get a feel for the hip places to hang out in DC. I think we saw just about everything you can see in a 3 day trip, and we were pretty exhausted when we got back late on Sunday night. Fortunately, the return trip was made somewhat more enjoyable by a stop at two of our all-time favorite stores: Ikea and H&M. Overall, we had a great time and really enjoyed a little break together even though it involved pain in our legs and feet for the next three days.

It's finally over!

Tomorrow is the last day of the semester. It's about time too. For perhaps the first time in my life I am completely burnt out on school. Normally I would be excited to go back to class in January, but right now that is the least appealing option. Really I just need a break to refresh, rejuvenate and spend time with family and friends. It's been a really long 3 1/2 months, and I'm really looking forward to seeing as many people as possible over Christmas. If you're curious about our DC Thanksgiving trip, never fear, I will post some pictures soon. Unfortunately, that last day of the semester means there are still finals left. So, I really shouldn't be spending the time to write this blog except that it keeps me from studying for those said finals.

P.S. If it wasn't already clear that we needed to move back closer to home next year, God just keeps on inspiring people who are close to us to get engaged and get married next summer. It's like He's saying, "if you don't move, you're going to pay out the wazoo for plane tickets!"

Thanks for the Memories

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I have been reflecting on past Thanksgiving memories and how much they have made me appreciate Thanksgiving as a holiday. So, in honor of endless turkey and stuffing, I present my favorite Thanksgiving memories:

-H. family Thanksgivings which involved the opening of "plesents," receiving boxes, not the things inside the boxes, that were just what we always wanted, playing lots of video games, and reading knock-knock jokes at 3 AM in sleeping bags on the living room floor

-Family trips to various places when my sister and I were older and we didn't get everyone together as often. I particularly remember eating clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl for Thanksgiving dinner in San Francisco

-Who can forget Holer Thanksgiving in Taylor Hall? I don't think I need to say any more.

-Staying up until 4 AM the night before Thanksgiving playing KOTOR at my cousin's house

-Discovering the true meaning of a big family Thanksgiving when I started dating my wife and attending her family Thanksgiving celebrations.

-Sitting in a tree stand and taking pictures of deer because I don't have a gun license

-Going to D.C. this year with my wife for a long weekend and much needed vacation

I may not have had a "traditional" big family Thanksgiving for most of my life, but I'm glad for the Thanksgiving experiences I have had because they've made me appreciate and be thankful for not only family but life in general. I hope you all will appreciate Thanksgiving in whatever way you celebrate this year.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Boring Baseball

I think I may be starting to understand why so many people find baseball so boring. It's hard to be into a sport where the penultimate competition is completely lopsided and uninteresting. It wouldn't be so bad if that was an occasional occurrence, but the World Series for the last 3 or 4 years has been a death march of 4-0 or 4-1 series victories. I was really hoping that this year would be the year of breaking that trend, but I was disappointed once again. The World Series was a complete waste of my time and completely uninspiring. I didn't even care who won; I just wanted a fun series to watch.

What's even worse is that the playoffs leading up to the big show were equally uninspiring. The only series worth watching was Cleveland and Boston. And the networks wonder why no one tunes in for the baseball playoffs. They're about as exciting as watching paint dry. No amount of Dane Cook and "There's only one October" could salvage the postseason this year. Good riddance 2007.

The Fair is a Veritable Smorgasbord

This weekend Melissa and I went to the North Carolina State Fair. Before this state fair experience, I had been to the Wisconsin State Fair and Melissa had never been to any state fair. As I expected, the fair was for the most part the same fair that is in every state.

Lots of really unhealthy, but really tasty food. And some animals and mullets.

The NC fair, however, was unusual in a few notable ways. First of all, NC is the South. Anytime you do anything in the South, you are bound to encounter all shapes, sizes, and personalities of rednecks. I understand that Illinois and Indiana have their fair share of rednecks, but nothing is quite like a southern redneck. They are beyond accurate description and are only fully appreciated when observed.

The other notable aspect of the NC state fair was the benches and benches full of cured tobacco. I'm not sure if this is peculiar to North Carolina or if it's something peculiar to the South in general, but it was a very new and unusual experience for me. And, if benches full of drying tobacco was not enough for you, the fair generously provided homemade spittoons at the end of each bench. Each seemed to be made from whatever tin can was lying nearby. The friends we were with strongly recommended not picking up a leaf and giving it a chew unless we really wanted quite the buzz. I think I was in too great a state of shock to even process why anyone would want to pick up a leaf and chew on it. Definitely a highlight/favorite story from the fair this year.

I did actually try a fried Snickers this year, and it was better than I expected, but I kind of felt like I was eating a corn dog with powdered sugar on it and melted chocolate inside. Strange.

Carolina BBQ

If anyone ever needs a reason to move to North Carolina, one only needs to look to the savory flavor of an authentic Carolina-styled barbecue. Carolina barbecue is not just your average backyard shindig: it's a full-fledged lifestyle. We have been to several barbecues in the past few weeks, and I have come to the conclusion that nothing beats the aroma and flavor of a nice vinegar-based pig pickin'. There's no need for all that thick and heavy western style barbecue sauce that overwhelms your taste buds and sends them into sugary sweet overload.

A little tang.

A little zest.

A little kick.

There's nothing overwhelming or heavy about North Carolina barbecue sauce. In fact, it's just perfect.

But a vinegar-based sauce??? Slightly sickening perhaps, but only for the uninitiated. What's more disgusting is the amount of pig on my plate. Trust me, there have been studies done about this (in fact, my wife just informed me of a man who traveled around the country on a barbecue quest, only to conclude that Carolina barbecue is in fact the best).

Fortunately, Carolina barbecue, in all its tangy goodness, compensates for North Carolina's many severe shortcomings. But that's another topic for another day.

That Guy

I've become something I never thought I would be. I'm that guy who knows everyone everywhere he goes. You know the type. At the bank, the grocery store, the mall, the gas station, there's always a familiar face waving a friendly hand. For those of you who have known me for a long time, you know that this is very uncharacteristic of me. I have never been one to go out of my way to talk to people I don't know or even people I do know somewhat. Being a barista, however, has totally changed that. Every day that I go out in public, I see someone who is either a regular at the coffee shop or at least partially regular. Most of the time the interactions are relatively harmless; a simple "hello, how are you?" On increasingly regular occasions, however, the interactions are very friendly and sometimes even go beyond the surface level questions. On the other hand, there are some encounters that are just completely and incredibly awkward. I've been grocery shopping and I see a customer and they say, "oh, what are you doing here?" Well, I thought I was grocery shopping, but does it look like I'm doing something else? My personal favorites are the interactions where I have no clue what the person's name is but I can spout off that they usually order a skinny sugar-free vanilla latte with an extra shot. "Oh yeah, you're the person who orders that drink. What was your name again?" Melissa is quite amused by my newfound network of social contacts, and I have to say that I do in fact enjoy knowing people everywhere I go. There is something rewarding and fulfilling about being "that guy."

The Cubs

I really wanted to give them a chance to win over my heart. I opened myself up to them and all I received was heartbreak and anger. Unfortunately, after this baseball season, the Chicago Cubs will never ever again hold an opportunity to win my affections. Everything about this season was working perfectly until the Cubs started winning a few games in a row and then climbing in the standings. My beloved Brew Crew was finally getting their shot at a division title and maybe even the playoffs. But the Cubs ruined all of that. In two short months, the Cubs were now the hot team with the division lead, and I was left by the wayside questioning my own existence and how the tide could change so quickly. I'm sorry, most of my family, but there is no way I can ever root for the Cubs again. The Chicago Cubs are dead to me. They've plucked out my heart and not only mashed it to little bits but then reconstructed it and mashed it into little bits again. Needless to say, I will be heartlessly rooting against the Cubs, if they make the playoffs, with a gaping hole in my chest where my heart was so cruelly ripped out. I guess I won't be so quick to lay it all out in my next relationship.

New Semester

It's that time of year again when school gets in full swing and everything about life cranks up a notch. It's been forever since I've had a chance to sit down and blog because the past month has been so incredibly busy. We took a week-long trip to the Midwest to visit family and our brand new niece, Olivia. She was absolutely beautiful, and we couldn't get enough of holding her. We got to see a lot of family and friends, but ended up spending much of the trip in the car or traveling in some manner. The trip culminated in a furiously frustrating trip to the airport that resulted in missing our flight and sitting in the airport for 4 hours until the later flight. Fortunately, we got home, but much later than we ever hoped or intended. Many thanks to I-55 and the wonders of closing down entire stretches of the freeway.

It's been non-stop since we got back, and I have a feeling it will be non-stop until December. Both of us are applying for grad school this semester in addition to working and taking classes. This weekend has been a nice little break, but I'm sure it will only get harder until the end of the semester. I will try to blog as much as possible, but we'll see. No promises. The last few hours of my Labor day weekend are quickly slipping away, and I need to take advantage of all the relaxing I can.

Finally Some Harry Potter Stories

I've finally gotten around to relaxing and recapping after the Harry Potter release party at the bookstore where I work. Harry-mania is starting to die down, but I still talk to a lot of people still reading and savoring the seventh book. I, on the other hand, devoured it in two afternoons. I like to rationalize by saying I was just trying to be nice to my wife so she could read it soon, but truthfully I just couldn't put it down. I will not, however, divulge any secrets on this blog for those few of you who may still be waiting breathlessly to read the final installment.

On to more amusing things. In the few days leading up to the Friday night release, a young man (probably freshman in high school) began bribing me to give him a new Harry Potter book before anyone else. He started on Wednesday with an offer of $20, and by Friday he was up to the cash plus a Treo phone and his dad's "extra" iPhone. On Wednesday we hadn't even gotten the books delivered yet but he was sure that they were in, and he offered me money just to let him look! Oh, and it wasn't his money, it was his dad's. On Friday afternoon he set up a tent outside the bookstore with some of his friends so it looked like they had camped out. This kid was crazy! I told his dad about all his antics because I know his dad as a regular customer at the coffee shop, and he didn't seem too amused.

I ended up working the few hours before the party started and then came back around 11 to help prep and set up everything for handing out the books. I didn't have to come back but I thought it might be kind of fun just to see how crazy it would be. My wife came back with me for a while just to check out the decorations (both in the shop and on the people), and we were not disappointed. We saw several Harrys of all ages, a few Rons, one Hermione who looked like a cross between Hermione and a creature from the pits of Hell, a merperson, Mad-Eye Moody, Professor Trelawney, and the giant lady from the French school in the fourth book. The funny thing about her was that she was unnaturally tall to begin with. An instance of a costume perfect for the person. There was also a quite good Snape who had hair so greasy looking I'm pretty sure it would never wash out.

The costumes were only the tip of the iceberg. When it came time to hand out the books, people immediately congealed into a giant blob of anxious nerds. Our system for handing out pre-ordered books was no match for the amount of people gathered in the shop so we resorted to just having people come up to a table, give us their names, and we would check them off. I was one of the luck strong men to carry boxes of books to the distribution table. I made a couple trips with one box of ten books on my shoulder and another box of ten books at my waist through a crowd of people so dense I actually had to push people aside, nearly creating a domino effect throughout the whole store. I finally ended up staying by the distribution table opening boxes of books to set out to give to the customers. It was better than shoving my way through 200 people.

When it was all said and done, it only took a half hour to hand out nearly 200 books. I left the store at 1 AM on Saturday, thinking that I had just experienced something quite amazing but that I never wanted to experience anything like it again.

Harry Potter Week

Around here the local paper is unofficially calling this week "Harry Potter Week." Each day in the paper they have some different little section having to do with Harry Potter. At the Tiearney house, however, Harry Potter week is definitely official and it's definitely in fully swing. The week began with a viewing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and it will end on Saturday with the delivery of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in my very own mailbox. Or else Amazon owes me some money. If I told you how excited I was for this book release, I guarantee you would brand me an even bigger dork than you already have from reading the title and first lines of this post. This is the first time I've been able to participate in Harry Potter buzz because I hadn't read any of the previous books before the 6th one was released. And let me tell you, there is quite the buzz. The bookshop that I recently started working at is having a full-fledged Harry Potter party with games, trivia, costume contests, and more, and I will most likely be involved somewhat in that event. It's pretty cool viewing the release from a bookseller's point of view because of the excitement that it generates (which means $$$$$) ranging all the way to hysteria.

For all of you Harry fans out there, you know what I'm talking about when I say excitement. This book is it. It's what we've been waiting for for so long. So many questions that won't be answered until Saturday. Only four more days, and it's finally here. Enjoy this week and celebrate all things Harry Potter.

Good Times, Good Friends

This past weekend my wife and I were the brief hosts of one of my best friends from college and his wife. The two of us are world-renowned road-trippers, and we decided that this trip would be no less. Within the span of two days, we drove 6 hours to Atlanta, spent just under 24 hours in the city and drove the 6 hours back. We did sleep, in case you were wondering, at a very nice hotel that was only affordable because of priceline.com. It was the first time in over a year that I had seen my friend, and it was great. I love it when you know someone so well that you can converse with each other like no time has passed. It was also great to see our wives get to know each other better.

We didn't have a lot of time in Atlanta but we definitely made the most of it. We ate at a fantastic establishment in the Buckhead community of Atlanta (where our hotel was), saw the incredible new Georgia Aquarium, and got a panoramic view of the nighttime skyline from the tallest hotel in the Southeast. It was quite the whirlwind trip. After our short stay in Atlanta, I would love to go back sometime and spend a long weekend. The aquarium was one of the best I've ever visited, the city seemed very clean (as much as any city can be), and southern charm was at its best. Above all, the trip was a great time to get away, refresh, catch up with good friends, and just have some fun. Enjoy the supplemental pics that tell the further story of our trip.

Canoeing, Communication, and Cooperation

Today my wife and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and did something we have been wanting to try for quite a while now. We live next to a large man-made lake that provides most of the drinking water for the area, and it also offers canoe and flat-bottom boat rentals. We decided to try the canoe. Neither of us had ever canoed before so we thought it would be a fun little adventure. Well, it was an adventure but it didn't start out too fun. As we pulled away from the pier, we barely got past the edge when our paddling started spinning us in circles. Somehow we got clear of the pier, but continued paddling in broad circles and going nowhere. At first it was a good laugh, but I could feel annoyance slowly creeping up on me. Fortunately, we decided to switch our places so that I was in the back, and we quickly got the hang of it from there on out. Throughout the rest of our peaceful canoe ride, we discussed the effectiveness of canoeing as part of a pre-marital counseling program. It confronts the couple with two of the major issues in marriage: teamwork and communication. If you can't get those down, you'll just end up turning in circles and shouting at each other, while everyone else watches from the shore and gives a little bit of a pity laugh. However, after today, I can safely say that we passed the canoeing test and will definitely be doing it again.

Bugs

Bugs. I hate them. Especially when they are in my living space. I never knew when I moved to North Carolina that I would see such a colorful and varied assortment of insects. My apartment is nestled in a quiet, wooded area that screams ideal at first glance. But, when summer comes, beware. The bugs literally start crawling out of the woodwork. Spiders spin their webs in my vaulted ceiling and all the way down the stairs to get to my car, house centipedes randomly pop up on my walls or underneath the shower curtain, wood roaches (palmetto bugs) occasionally find their way in, and to top it all off a real, segmented, hundred-legged centipede with nasty pincers on its butt casually made its way across the den floor last night. And yes, that's the kind that have a nasty bite. Ugh. If there is one thing that upsets my constitution, it's bugs of any shape or size. Plus, since I'm supposed to be the man of the house, it's always my job to dispatch the said insects, which usually results in an extended staring contest between me and the critter before I build enough courage to take a whack at it. I have quickly learned the importance of having a can of Raid and a flyswatter within grasping distance, and to keep relishing the thought that this is my last full summer to deal with all these crazy bugs.