Scheming for the Future

Hey all, it’s been a while since I posted last, I know, but a lot has been going on.
I got a job at Sears as an MCA (Merchandising Customer Assistant). Essentially that’s a guy who stocks the shelves, keeps track of inventory, sets up ads, sets up floor displays, and tells customers where to find things. I’m making minimum wage, but it’s better than nothing. I like the job itself, but the environment throws me a curve ball when it comes to my comfort zone. None of my co-workers, as far as I can tell, are believers. Some of them are church-goers, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a Bible-believing church.

My family is moving in March of 2010 and I’ve been trying to figure out what to do about that. It looks like I’m going to end up staying with my grandparents who live nearby and continuing to work until I can return to school in the fall. Based upon my current financial situation, it looks like I will be able to return to Biola and the L.A. area at the end of August. I’m so excited! In the meantime, I am having a very interesting time trying top figure out what to do from day to day. The holiday season has kept me very busy at work and I’ve been working on writing a story, coding a video game, and writing a play.

This is my report.

Me - signing out.

The Incredible Journey - Day V

Yesterday was the final day of the trip - Wednesday. I left the KOA campground and tried to get ahold of the BMV (I’m assuming this is the Beuro of Motor Vehicles as opposed to the DMV - department of Motor Vehicles). It has a different name in Indiana than in California and Virginia. I wanted to get some temporary lisence plates so I wouldn’t get a ticket on my way back, but they didn’t have anything like that for someone from Virginia.
So I left Indiana on the toll road and drove on through Ohio and Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is aptly named… meaning Penn’s Woods after William Penn, the trees everywhere make the place quite lovely. I never really noticed all the trees before, but I sure did this time. I crossed the Appalachian Mountains which was quite difficult for my car once again. After getting over the mountains, I got off the toll road (I-74 in Pennsylvania) at the wrong place because my GPS had messed up maps and told me the wrong time to get off the road. So my journey south from Pennsylvania was a bit crazy, but I finally made it! I got home at about 8:30 I think, and today (Thursday) I have been working on putting away all the stuff I brought over with me.

Yes, I have arrived.

The Incredible Journey - Day IV

On Tuesday morning I set out from my aunt’s house in Nebraska for an essentially unkown destination. I planned to stay at a KOA camp in Indiana, but wasn’t sure exactly where it was or how to get there. My aunt had bade some cookies for me to take on the road and supplied me with some ice for my cooler and I departed.
I drove across Iowa and, looking at the map now, I realize I went through Illinois as well. I got into Indiana and accidentally got on I-94 instead of I-80/90 (same road, but two route numbers). Thus, when I got near the campground I planned to go to, I found that I needed to return to I-80 which is a toll road starting in Indiana. This caused a problem because getting on the toll road east meant that I had to take the proper turn after the toll booth. I failed to do this three times in a road and found myself going west instead! Finally I told my GPS to take a flying leap and go around that road, I realized that it would take me an extra hour or two of driving and it was already getting late. I was furious because I kept taking the wrong ramp onto the toll road and I had been yelling at my dad and the GPS and I was in a really bad mood. I also was having trouble seeing the road in the dark, and my lights were not helping! Then at last, I discovered my problem…
I had been wearing my sunglasses all day and forgot to take them off at sundown. Yes, I have a story for posterity.

I switched to my NORMAL glasses and could now see just fine, but I wanted to double-check before getting on the toll road again. So I parked before the toll booth and walked past it to where I could see how the ramps divided, one going east and one west. Then, and only then, did I get on the toll road east.
While I was driving along, minding my business, a police officer pulled me over for not having license plates (see Day I below). I told her my story and she told me that I might as well just put them back on for now because that way I wouldn’t get in trouble for having no plates at least and to get Virginia plates as soon as possible. Once again - saved from a fine and let go.
Finally reaching my campground at about 10:30pm and totally worn out, I signed up and put my registration in the night box. Then I drove to the little tent site, parked my car, moved all my food stuff to the driver’s side from the passenger side, and went to sleep; very tired, but relieved to have finally made it.

The Incredible Journey - Day III

On Monday I drove from Denver, Colorado to Omaha Nebraska. After the huge mountains of the West, the prarie was quite tame. I talked with my hostess over breakfast before I set out. She is the leader of a women’s Bible study and has a lot of interesting things she has been going over on the relationship of God to the Church (believers as a whole). There were lots of farms and the land was basically flat after I got out of the Denver area. I was happy to finally see some lush green plants and some water though. There were also a lot of little yellow wildflowers along the road. I also started to find a lot of road work being done.

Overall the day was pretty uneventful until I got to my aunt’s house. Her husband is in the military and he is currently stationed in Japan. They’re both in their late twenties though and find communion over World of Warcraft… go figure. haha
I made friends with their cat, Tigger, and couldn’t get him to leave me alone after that. I also tried to learn the language of my baby cousin a little, but didn’t succeed very well. I had steak and asparagus for dinner, and it was actually quite amazing! I’m not used to liking asparagus, but I guess I have changed toward it.
So that was pretty much day three for me.

The Incredible Journey - Day II

I woke this morning in my comfy bed in my semi-comfy cabin. It was pretty cold up there in the mountains.
The bathroom (if you can call in that) was tiny! The celing was only about 6 inches above my head at its lowest point (it sloped). The shower was made of steel and just had pipes leading into it for the shower head. I ate some pop tarts for breakfast with some apple sauce, took some pictures of the lake,and bought some more ice for my ice chest before heading out. The ice was only 20 cents and filled two giant Coca-Cola cups.
I gave my dad a ring once I got a signal on my phone and he told me to go back to I-70 a different way than the way I’d come. So I took this other windy mountain road calls Rt. 72 down the mountain. if you want to look up the place, look for Fish Lake or Loa, Utah. By golly that was a long windy road!
I got back on I-70 at last and was kind of freaking out because I was starting to run low on gas. However, huzzah for 4-cyllinder street cars! I get excellent gas milage and I found a gas station in time. The road went on and on and I watched as the mountains became those strange obelisks you see in western movies. I was taking lost of pictures. I must admit, I’ve been taking photographs while driving. However I’m trying to do so safely, only taking pictures if I am on a reasonable straight segment of road and there are no cars within about 1000 feet of me. I’m also just pointing the camera in the general direction of my subject and pressing the button, not really looking at what the camera sees, but trying to focus on where I’m actually going.
Just before crossing into Colorado from Utah, I hit the most amazing stretch of road. At 75 miles per hour, this road was essentially a roller coaster designed by God. Rest assured I took no photographs while on this streatch of road though I wanted to very badly. However it is something that really must be experienced first hand. This road twisted every which way and went downhill at a 6% grade. At one point, I was zooming around a banked turn and behind the lip of the turn I could see that I was not upright in regaurds to the center of the earth. I was looking at this cliff at what was probably a 20 degree slant, but i felt like I was experiencing normal gravity toward the road. The best way for me to describe it is that I know now that I never want to ride a roller coaster, but that God’s roller coasters are incredible. True - the road was designed by man - but God made the groud upon which the road runs.
So I continued on my way, crossed into Colorado, and finally made it to my destination with some friends about an hour out of Denver.
I am posting this from their computer since no one knows where the wireless internet access key is. Otherwise I would upload pictures. I had no internet yesterday so I made the post for yesterday just before this one (see below).

The Incredible Journey - Day I

Well it’s been a couple days since my last post. Yesterday morning I left the place I was staying in California and began my journey east. I packed all my stuff from storage into my little Geo Prizm along with some Pop Tarts, apple sauce, bottled water, and tortilla chips. I was sent off with a little bit of fruit and a chicken sandwich for the road. My plan changed from taking the southern route to taking the central route. I took I-15 North from California and went though Las Vegas, Nevada (spent as little time there as possible…). I cut through a little bit of Arizona and then into Utah. I then got on I-70 East. My original hope was that I would reach Denver by the first day, but that was quite insanity. My dad told me over the phone about a campground on Fish Lake in Utah that has cabins for $45 a night. That turned out to be way off the main drag - about an hour drive to guesstimate.  I got pretty frusterated when the detour took a very long time and was pretty upset with my dad, but I finally found the place after getting essentially pulled over by a police officer and asking for directions. I got to the road where the camp was, drove almost all the way to the site, saw nothing in the dark of night, and turned back. Then I called my dad and finally went back to the camp, found it, and got a little cabin place for the night. Now, about the police man; he saw me idling on the side of the road with my flashers on and my California lisence plate. He asked me about what I was doing there, looked at my Virginia drivers lisence and did an investigation of my lisence, the plates, and my registration for the car. Finally he let me go, telling me to remove the license plates which apparently do not transfer ownership with the sale of a car. I had the previous owner’s plates which is illegal, which I did not know.

And So in Closing

This is npt really the end, but the title of this post reflects something of my feelings on the matter.

Today the temperature in LA County reached 104 degrees fahrenheight. I got a ride over to a dealership to look at a couple cars with Derek, but none of the cars they had were very good so I came back to the place I’m staying and continued my serch online. As I got a ways into looking on Craig’s List, I found this ‘97 Geo Prizm automatic that Ryan had pointed out as being good to me before. It was still there! And here I was, stressing about not finding a car - what was I gonna do? Should I fly back and ship my stuff? What?

So I found this Geo Prizm (exactly the same as a Toyota Corolla) and called around to find a ride. I would check this thing out one more time. So my friend Mark came and picked me up and drove me over there.

Now… I am the proud owner of a $2300 Geo Prizm with 119,600 miles on it! I plan to leave probably Saturday morning and head out across the great western desert. In the meantime, I will get an oil change and such to make sure this thing is ready to make the trip. And I will bid a very fond farewell to all my brothers and sisters I’m leaving behind at Biola and all these people who have so graciously housed me and driven me around during my search. I’ll miss you all and I hope I can come back soon!

To my family back home, I will be back in about a week!

Crazy and Caminando

Well today was kinda insane. This guy with his Geo Prizm came from Newport Beach to La Mirada (about half an hour) with his car, absolutely confident he had a buyer. I called him before he left and told him that I’d found out that his car has a manua transmission and that I’d be happy to look at it if he would show me how to drive a stick. He was all excited and came anyway. So I checked it out and found nothing wrong with it. So we went for a drive and he taught me in 20 minutes the basics of driving a stick… I didn’t get it. Well I sort of did, but it’s the kind of thing that grows on you. My greatest fear is buying a car that I’ll destroy simply by being incompetent. So I told him I couldn’t take the car. It was the perfect price - $2600 or something - and it was in great condition from what I could tell. He tried to get me to continue test driving it all the way back to Newport Beach. I said no thank you! He was so persistent, but I finally got him to go. 10 minutes later, I was talking to my dad on the phone and I got a call waiting signal. It was this guy from Newport Beach and he started cussing me out for “dragging me out into the middle of nowhere” and being “such a *beep*ing moron!” So I told him I’d given him fair warning and I’m sorry, but goodbye and went back to talking with my dad.

My mom was aparently thinking about my being out here in California an awful long time for what I’m here to do and maybe I should just fly back and put my stuff in storage. So there I was with the stress of being cussed at for something that wasn’t my fault and being told what I already knew, that my future is an enigma (not a bad thing nessecarily, but at an inopportune time). So I went for a walk of about two or three miles through a park to Biola. I “cooled” off a bit, but got a little warm in the 90 degree weather. It was a nice little walk and I got to think and stuff a little. When I got to Biola I went to the prayer chapel they have there and did a little devotion and tried to collect my thoughts. I think I may still find a car yet. So my host very graciously took me around town to look at some used car dealerships. No luck, sadly. Then I went back to his house and I ate dinner with him, his wife, and their daughter, her husband, and their 7-month old little girl - all very nice people.

After dinner I was driven over to the home of some other people from GHFC where I am to spend the night for a couple days at least. Still looking for a car now…
I’m blessed with continued provision, but still no car. What’s my Father up to?

Driving Local

Well today was unproductive in a productive sort of way. Ryan* told me he could take me around to look at cars, but he wasn’t available until about 5:30pm. So I ended up just sitting around for a while. I did a little car research. Then Derek* called me up and asked if I’d like to go to lunch with him and we’d see if we could figure out a plan of action.
So I went to lunch at a pizza place called Gondola’s (or something like that). It was a pretty generic pizza place - pretty good food. We each got a large pizza slice and a salad (apparently to offset the fat and oil ).
We then went over to GHFC* from whence I did lots more car research. Then we went out looking at some places at 3:30. I found a 1990 Toyota Carolla which looked kinda sad, but seemed to run alright. I looked at a Nissan Maxima which looked pretty nice actually except I found that none of its tires, including the spare, were alike. In case you don’t know, the treads on the front tires need to be the same, and the treads on the back tires need to be the same so they all run in tandum with each other and don’t throw the axles off or anything like that.

We then went back to GHFC and Ryan picked me up and I went back out to look at other stuff.
We went to a couple used car lots but found nothing. Then we went and looked at a car I’d seen while out with Derek and found that it was all dented up. It looked unkempt. Then we went to look at that Nissan again, this time with Ryan’s car doctor tools. He determined that it has a cylinder on the engine that is not firing at the right time (or at all/missing). He said the repairs it needs are not worth trying to buy that car. So once again I have no car this evening.
However, I got a call back from this one guy who has a Geo Prizm (basically a Toyota Carolla with a Chevey logo on it). This guy says he is so confident that this car is good that he is willing to drive about half an hour or so to where I am and show it to me. I told him I’m really not sure if I’ll buy it, but he insisted so I decided to let him give it a shot. This Prizm is a 1994, has 77,000 miles on it, and the guy (Glen is his name) said it will do anything I want it to. I’m sceptical, but maybe this is it! Never know until the door is opened.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, aknowlege him and he will direct your path.”

Dealers and Cattle Prods

Well today was comparatively uneventful. I got about 9 hours of sleep last night which was great. I ate breakfast and sat around for a while, Skyping people and playing a little Runescape to pass the time. At 1:00, my friend Mark picked me up and took me around to some dealerships to see if they had any deals in my price range. As soon as I told most of them that I’m looking for a car under $3000, they looked taken aback. My price range is terrible for most dealerships and the employees don’t want to work with someone they can’t sell to - the get payed on commission.

So Mark and I went around for about an hour looking and found nothing, but a Ford Taurus which is not the right type of car - mainly looking for Toyota and Honda; maybe Nissan.

Late this afternoon I got a call from the guy with the 1990 Camry. He said the car passed smog, but I told him I would only take it for $2000 based on various statistics and information I gathered. I found that the car may need as much as $1000 of work done on it. He didn’t even try to haggle, but flatly refused. So he ended up with the $300 I gave him for a deposit and we hung up and went our separate ways.

I now have 14 cars listed in an MS Word document and will hopefully be able to check a few of them out tomorrow with Ryan as he will again be available.
The time is currently 10:00 and I am unusually tired for not having done a whole lot of activity today. I am exhausted. Goodnight.