Ah the first blog. What shall I write about? Shall I tackle the economy? What about war? Perhaps I will gossip about the scandals in the entertainment industry (I think not). Or maybe I should talk about how I am eating ice cream directly over my keyboard, a highly risky endeavor. Banana-flavored ice cream with chocolate chunks in it, actually. I have found that I am the only person in this household who enjoys that heavenly combination. It works out nicely that way. I don't have to share.
I believe I will start out with some reflections from my life and the many changes that have sent my head and heart swirling in all sorts of directions. Before I do that, however, a brief explanation for those of you who are wondering about the change in location for my blog and the new moniker. I have been dissatisfied with the old blog location, both because of irritating sometimes offensive ads, and because the general format just didn't seem to flow well for me. So I'm trying Blogger out. As far as the new moniker, well, newtnukem generated so many questions about it's meaning that I got tired of explaining. It really had no meaning, ultimately. Basically it was an old nickname given to me by a drunk guy for reasons unknown to me. Thehappyhandyman suits me well, considering my job (although I must confess, happiness is sometimes elusive). I do need to give credit where credit is due though, and thank my good friend Kelsey, who coined the phrase one day as she heard me whistling and traipsing around the house. Ok then. On with the show.
It's been almost two months since I moved back home from New Orleans. I've been asked on numerous occasions if I miss it, and to be honest that can be a loaded question. I spent a year living and working in the Crescent City, and it not take long for me to feel like I had a new home. I had a good core group of friends there, friends that were difficult to leave behind. I miss them dearly. I miss taking walks along the Riverwalk in the French Quarter, I miss running alongside Lake Ponchartain, I miss the gigantic and gorgeous trees of Audubon Park; I miss walking down to the Uptown Meat Market in Central City to get wings for lunch. I miss working in the St. Roch community and scratching my head with Ben over ridiculous plumbing problems, weekends at the Richter's, sitting on the dirty floor of Preservation Hall listening to jazz while sweating profusely, going out for drinks with T and J after a long week of coordinating ridiculous volunteers, morning meetings cutting it up and laughing hysterically at the antics of the team, trying to figure out what new hand signal Tre is going to use to tell me that the song is ending in the next measure and I need to stop playing, taking my little friends from church to the park on Sunday afternoons, getting a headache from the chaos that was my junior high youth group that I helped with riot control, sitting with the Mission Year interns in their air conditioning and observing their chaos while forgetting temporarily about mine. I miss walking back from taking a shower, looking around at the barren industrial neighborhood in Desire Street and being unable and unwilling to shake off the overwhelming sense of affection for the beautiful ugliness of my home and an awe that God had seen fit to place me in such a place.
So yes, I suppose my answer is that I do miss New Orleans. And yet, it was time to move on. Had I tried to drag it out any longer, I would have been making myself miserable. God was calling me back home, and it was a lesson in humility to understand and obey that call. I don't regret a thing, and I am trying to live my life one day at a time once again, struggling as usual to hear and obey what the Lord is speaking to me. Just trying to be a simple happyhandyman you could say. I've been keeping myself busy learning all sorts of things about remodeling, from painting to flooring to drywall to carpentry to electrical and everything in between. I drive to State College every other weekend or so to bang on the drums for some friends in a church there. I've started a youth group called "Stirred," and have even been preaching every now and then in my home church. I've entered a new phase in my life, and the challenges that come up are both new and refreshing. I am humbled that God has seen fit to do the things that He has with me, and I can only guess what He has yet in store for me.
