No no, not the movie (although I am Italian). I am so blessed and honored to say right now that I've been asked to be my friends Jared and Meredith's baby's Godfather. I was so excited when they asked me tonight if I would do it. Jared and Meredith have been my family while down at school. I stay with them one night during the week (every quarter so far), I've been the third wheel so many times at meals with them (and have never felt like a third wheel), and now I get to share in being part of their daughter's life in an active way. I am so blessed to know them. Jared's been like a brother to me and Meredith like a sister-in-law (only because if I said sister it might start getting weird, haha). I remember when I told Meredith that I struggled for the first time (because I wanted Jared to be able to be honest with her and not have to feel like he was being dishonest in ANY way) she told me I was still her favorite of Jared's seminary friends (something she told me frequently prior) and she loved me no matter what (she's so cute, I freaking love this couple if you can't tell). Margaret "Maggie" Elise... my goddaughter, that's crazy. MY goddaughter. I am a blessed man.

Today was seriously a great day. I can't even describe it. It's not like I did anything too particularly exciting.. well, I did do some fun stuff, but it was just a good day in the fullest sense of the word "good." Today I hung out with my buddies Jay and Greg and they are awesome guys. Greg knows about all my junk (literally, ALL my junk, he's an awesome guy) and Jay's also a good friend (doesn't know my stuff, but simply because it has never really come up). They're both friends of mine from seminary. Anyway, I'll start with this morning...

This morning I woke up and was feeling kind of down. I don't know why... it was just one of those down mornings. I wasn't feeling very good about myself, had low self-confidence, was having a poor self-image, you know, all the stuff with feeling "down." I almost talked myself out of going up to hang out with the guys. I was in the shower getting ready because I knew if I was going to go I would need to at least start getting ready and I almost talked myself out of it... Then something just kind of clicked. I was like, "Andrew, why on earth are you letting these lies take over?" For example, I was telling myself, "Oh, they just invited me to be nice" or "They don't really want to hang out with me" and all those stupid lies I have to fight and I just said "no." We all know where lies come from so I cast them out in the name of Jesus and said I was going to go and have a good time. It might be work for me even just to get the motivation to go, but I had to do it. When I was done getting ready low and behold Greg had left me a voice-mail to make sure I was still coming and to let me know what time they were leaving my buddy Jay's place. Duh... of course they wanted me around, I'm their friend, haha. It seems silly now, but those are seriously the thoughts that go through my head.

I get there half an hour later (I live south of Akron, Jay lives just south of Cleveland), we finish watching the episode of Scrubs that was on, and then we head on up to the West Side of Cleveland to go the Great Lakes Brewing Company. I'm not a hardcore drinker, but I know that these guys really enjoy this place and I've heard they have awesome food so I figured it would be a good time. We go and it was great. Jay's friend George met up with us there. He was a real good guy too (he was from the church that Jay's associate pastor at). I did drink probably a little bit much... I wasn't drunk or anything, but I am a lightweight so I was definitely feeling a little "happy" if you know what I mean, haha. So we walked around the West Side Market (which is wonderful!) to kind of walk it off a bit. Then drove back and on the way home stopped and got some ice cream near where Jay lives. Then after we just kind of hung out and played Guitar Hero for a bit. It's not like the conversation was deep or anything or that we did anything too significant, but it was just good. I didn't feel out of place at all. They did talk about football, but I do know a thing or two so I can contribute every now and then. Plus I know that "I don't give a damn about the whole state of Michigan because I'm from O-HI-O" so that's always a unifying factor for all OSU fans, haha. It was just good. I can't explain what it was, it was just good. Like talking trash to my buddy Greg and having him put me in a sleeper hold until I tap submission... or eating WAY too much food... or just hanging out and being guys... it was just good.

This definitely changed my perspective from this morning. I was feeling so down and disconnected and this really helped put my mind back on track. I feel confident in who I am and even more confident in finishing up some stuff I need to get done before school starts next week. This was just overall a good day. You can check out the links to see what all I did...

http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/
http://www.westsidemarket.org/
http://www.honeyhuticecream.com/