something different...

well, today, at the urging of my gf... i did something different. this afternoon i had a conversation with ginger, and the topic was brought up that i don't seem to do too many things outside of work stuff. i guess she's somewhat right. she said, "if your not doing something work-related, you are planning or studying, or at ronnie's doing something." basically she was telling me that i needed to get out more. see things. do something. something different.

to be honest.. i kinda got a little offended. i was thinking to myself, "i didn't come here to go sightsee or to do 'different things!' i came here to be a missionary! i then went on to tell her that i don't really like going out and doing things by myself. i don't know why, i just don't. i feel weird. like a loner. i could tell that ginger was getting a little frustrated bc i wasn't getting her point. she just was suggesting that maybe i should try and do some new and fun things, not get so bogged down with things, don't be bored in my house. but i took it as, 'my gf is telling me that im boring and i pretty much suck at life bc all i do is work stuff and for fun im always with the same one friend that i have here.'

after thinking about all of this, i figured i should do something...different. i was planning on going to the mall (to the grocery store) and picking up a few things, so i thought i would take a book and just read in the food court for a bit.

and that's what i did... but what's weird about this... is i don't read. i mean outside of the bible and articles on espn.com or goazcats, i don't read. period. i don't know, i've never been much of a reader. but i remember before coming to ecuador while i was at fpo (my training) a speaker challenged us by saying, "who you are 15 years from now is going to be determined by the friends you have and the books you read." i immediately thought, "crap. i hate reading." so i guess since then i've wanted to start reading a little more.

anyways.. someone from the last team i was worked with gave me this book entitled, 'the living church,' one in which i've been meaning to get into for the past couple of weeks. so i took it with me. upon getting to the mall, i'm not sure what happened, but something really really weird happened. i mean, me reading is pretty weird. but.. i for some reason had the urge to drink...coffee. this should shock my mom and the rest of my family, bc i hate coffee. i don't drink it. ever. outside of a few courtesy sips i drank last weekend at a bible study, i can remember the last time i had coffee. it was may of 2006, and my friend and i were up late studying (cramming) for finals, and she made me/us some coffee. it was absolutely disgusting. she even put a bunch of sugar and all that creamy stuff, but it still wasn't drinkable for me...

..but i figured that's what ppl do when they read books, they drink coffee. i had no idea which kind to get, so i thought getting a cold one would be best, kinda ease into the whole coffee drinking thing... i think i ended up getting like an oreo cappuccino or something. it wasn't all that bad.

i love the mall i went to. it sets on the base of a volcano and overlooks the valley of quito. it's a breathtaking view. so there i was with my oreo cappuccino and my book, to the outside eye, looking like i've done this a 1,000 times. so i went to find a seat, one preferably facing out to the view. the only problem is, (here's one of my qwirks) is that i don't like sitting with my back to ppl. is that weird? i think i've become more aware of this since moving to ecuador. i'm always cautious about where i sit, and where i stand, i don't know maybe i'm just paranoid. so i found a table that is facing out the windows, but right behind it is this french fry stand, which i guess would hide me in case someone wanted to come up and kill me or something...

it was really a sweet time. very relaxing. just me. and about 100 other strangers. crying babies. loud tv's. smell of greasy fast food... i read for about 3 hours. which is more than i've read in like the last year. every now and then i would just stop, and ppl watch (this is another one of my favorite things to do) and just pray over the ppl. that God would just reveal himself to them. in some way.

i really enjoyed the book. i will prolly blog about it soon. very basic but yet profound truths... so there you go. that was my afternoon. i did something different for a change. so go ahead and try it sometime. do something different. you may just end up liking it. or may just end up learning to like to coffee... (is this gonna stunt my growth?)