WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

Dear Spencer,

Where are you? but also, where was I? It is like we both forgot about our baby of a blog...
It is pretty crazy how bad I did not keep up with this blog, but I am going to be better and tell you all about what crosses my mind.

The posts are not necessarily going to be just about life in Little Rock, but also about anything happening/relevant in general.

Are you ready for this?

P.S: I am still new at this blogging deal, so bear with me.
Spencer, should we rename our blog to something else? because I am ready to take this to another level.....

Seek...and you will find

This last week has been a great week. It started when I met a new couple at church last Sunday. They are from Russia and have been in the USA for 2 years now, but they just moved to San Francisco. I ended up spending the grand majority of my afternoon with them last Sunday helping them find apartments they had arranged to view. It turns out that we both they and I came to SF under very similar conditions with a job in SF. As were were talking about our pasts, I quickly realized that is was not coincidence that I was meeting these people. When it hit me I almost teared up.

Let me back up…

When I was doing my own job search I prayed God would give me an opportunity to do something new. I felt that my job was Him opening a door in front of me. I gladly accepted and decided to take a leap of faith coming to NorCal without knowing anyone here. From my roommates, to families at church, to my job transition, to another ACU friend moving to the City…God has definitely filled in the gaps and connected the dots for me. I know that's vague, but I feel that I'm in the right spot because He has blessed me beyond belief through this leap of faith.

So as I was saying, this new couple - my new friends - is another blessing from the Father. And they are merely the cherry on top of everything else God has provided me. Today as I was taking my hour-long trip to get to my church, I began thinking about all the good things in my life and couldn't prevent my eyes from watering up a bit. When God's children put their faith in Him, He will never leave them alone. I know that no matter what else, God is with me regardless of how many or how few people I know around me. When I see these tangible answers to prayer around me, I can't help but feel at home where I am. I don't think all of my new friends - at church or at work - realize how impacting they have been to me. But all I know is that my faith has been strengthened these past few weeks as I've seen God working all around me.

I put on a Wow Worship CD this morning as I was walking and Chris Tomlin's version of "All the Way My Savior Leads Me" came on my iPod. You can either listen or read the lyrics:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All the Way My Savior Leads Me (by: Chris Tomlin)

All the way my Savior leads me

Who have I to ask beside

How could I doubt His tender mercy

Who through life has been my guide

All the way my Savior leads me

Cheers each winding path I tread

Gives me grace for every trial

Feeds me with the living Bread

You lead me and keep me from falling

You carry me close to Your heart

And surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me

All the way my Savior leads me

O, the fullness of His love

O, the sureness of His promise

In the triumph of His blood

And when my spirit clothed immortal

Wings its flight to realms of day

This my song through endless ages

Jesus led me all the way

Jesus led me all the way

All the way my Savior leads me

All the way my Savior leads me

I couldn't help but laugh a little because of how unmistakably I've seen the truth in these lyrics in my own life. It's amazing how when you seek God, you find Him. This has allow me to feel completely 'full' spiritually lately. I can honestly say that lately He has poured so much in my cup that it's way overflowing. Wow, what a God He is!

Friday adventure

This past weekend was one of the most interesting weekends I've had in a while.

Friday at work I watched a sailboat race out my window at work, then watched a concert of the San Francisco Symphony orchestra at lunch while eating outside my office. In the later afternoon, I went for a run along The Embarcadero where I was passed by literally hundreds of cyclists riding (I think) in promotion of riding bikes instead of driving vehicles. Several of them were completely naked riding along one of the main streets downtown. I noticed a policeman riding on a motorcycle behind them, and at first I thought he was going to stop some of them. I quickly realized, however that he was escorting them...and protecting their right to ride (even in the nude). I'm pretty sure in Texas there are public indecency laws and the policemen would have stopped those guys!

Sunday I met a new couple at church. They are from Russia and just moved to the Bay Area a few days ago. I ended up spending all Sunday afternoon with them looking at apartments. I think their arrival to the City is just another God thing. I had a really good talk with them and I think we will end up being good friends!

So I also ended up going to IKEA and buying the rest of the essentials for life...a bed frame, kitchen table, reading lamp, couch, chair, and palm tree. Yes, I have a small palm tree in my room. I'm starting to feel like a real person...with a real room! I'm just glad my bed isn't on the floor any more!

To those who know what it is, I will be attending the East Texas Yamboree (click this legit link) this year. I will be traveling almost 2,000 miles to be with my family and eat a yam or two in Gilmer! I thought it was a great excuse to see the Texas skies again, so I'm starting my countdown to my first weekend trip to Texas! It will be a great weekend to spend with my entire family in the country for a couple of days.

Ramdom sidenote...apparently there was an S&M street festival (Google at your own risk: Folsom Street Fair) on Sunday this past weekend. One could see crazy things on the subway and walking downtown. YIKES.

Harsh, harsh, harsh reality

It has been a while since the last time I have posted. As you might suspect, a lot has happened since then.
Fact numero 1: Doctorate-level classes are hard. I should not be surprised about this.
Fact numero 2: I am definitely getting lazier. This is a problem.
Fact numero 3: I got involved in a young adult life group from church that meets every wednesday at one of the elders' house. It is a great place to be challenged and a much-needed break from the routine of life.
Fact numero 4: made tons and tons of friends from Europe and specifically from Germany, Austria (who are really fun by the way), Latvia, France, Norway, and England. The craziest part is that we all hang out together. It is definitely a blessing.
Fact numero 5: Little Rock is not as bad as I made it out to be... I am going to plan some hiking and lake trips soon... This is The Natural State and I should take advantage of this.
Fact numero 6: my classmates are ALL overachievers and competitive students.... and all over the age of 36. Welcome to ACADEMIA LAND.

Anyways, I still love the Lord and thank him every day for the blessings He has provided us.

Your love is my drug... NOT

The first few weeks in Little Rock have been OK. I am actually starting to like it here. I have found friends, a church home, and some other friends... so all is well in the life of Laza.

This past weekend was one of the best in my life. You may all wonder why. Well, I was able to have a 5-day weekend... Yes, 5 days doing nothing academic. With this awesome free time in my hand, I made the decision to drive down to Abilene!!!!! Heck YEAH.

It gets more interesting and I am going to tell you why.

First, I made a stop in Plano to meet my beautiful and babelicious friend Esmeralda. She agreed to come on the impromptu adventure with me.

Things got a little crazier when I realized that I was going to see Justin Sims, who just moved back to Abilene... and another friend, Denton Josey, who I have not seen since he left the U.S. two years ago to teach English in Korea and India.

I also got to see almost all of my guys from Mabee Hall. I have missed them SO MUCH. They did not even know I was coming in town. It was so weird because a few of them made a short movie to show everyone the night I arrived. I happened to show up at the "World Premiere" of the Razors 80's Skooterz and got a round of applause from everyone in the room, which there were about 45 students in the room. I shed a tear of joy. It was so good to come back to a place where you feel people's love for you.

There were so many events happening that weekend... Ihop at 2am, getting to see my sister, ISA Chai Cafe, sand volleyball, soccer, slumber party, deep conversations, chapel, Austin's birthday, house church... It was the bomb of a weekend, but somehow, I was ready to get back to Little Rock....

welcome to the city... part 2...

Apparently I am a magnet for weird events. If you haven't read it yet, you should read my post titled "welcome to the city..." right here.

The second weird event happened Monday. It was my first day of work and it had been a great day. The people I'm working with are great. It's a diverse group of people and many different backgrounds including Venezuela, The Philippines, Hong Kong, China, and Alaska. (I feel like Alaska is cool enough to make the list.) I came home, then went for a 4-mile run along the Bay. Beautiful...sunny...windy. It was perfect. So before I continue I should mention that the street I live on is one of the steepest blocks in San Francisco. I honestly think it is classified within the steepest 15 streets in the city. So I was walking up my block to my apartment and noticed the big brown UPS truck was parked outside the entrance to my apartment. As I got closer I noticed the truck was driving away, except the motion was more jerky than as if it was being driven...and the driver was missing. No joke. The UPS truck was rolling down one of the steepest streets in San Francisco. I was literally breathless as my heart sank in preparation of witnessing a devastating crash as this rogue truck bulleted down the hill. The guy had forgotten to turn the wheels into the curb since he was facing down hill. IDIOT.

Luckily the wheels were scraping the curb all the way down which kept it from plummeting full-force down the hill. Instead it was more of a slow-motion death roll (in my mind). I started praying that nothing would happen, which didn't seem likely since the cross street at the bottom of the block was hustling with traffic. God heard me because there was a lull in cars right as the truck plunged into the intersection (which is flat) and came to a stop in the middle. Tires screeched and traffic was abruptly halted. I sprinted down the hill and was prepared to do something to keep it from rolling down the next city block but another man hopped in just before me. I think my heart stopped beating as I prepared to witness a horrible crash, but everything was alright.

My roommates say I must be a magnet for these happenings, because they have lived here for a year and never been near any of these type of events. Lord only knows what's next.

Until then, I'll leave you with a photo or two...this is the view I have from my training in my office building!

Looking out towards the

Golden Gate Bridge - off to the left,

Looking out at the bay

and Treasure Island.

the last hurrah

So I write this post in my last few hours of freedom. I will be entering the professional work force tomorrow morning. I won't be doing anything spectacular for the first while, but I will nonetheless be a young professional.

That being said, I have a little catching up to do! I have basked in the glorious sunny weather of northern California a lot recently. I have talked about the wonderful weather in one of my previous posts, but I can't fail to mention a freak heatwave we had roll through last week. It got up to the upper 90s. My iPhone said 98 degrees at on point. Being outside felt like a Texas summer for a while, except that I had an awesome view of the Pacific Ocean and Golden Gate Bridge as I went on a hike around Sutro Heights Park and around to the Sea Cliff. When I caught the bus to head home, however, the sunshine started catching up with me. The bus was HOT. The bus has no a/c. There's usually no need, so the windows were cracked which was only letting in the heat! Then my house...my room was the same temperature as outside. Before anyone tells me that last Tuesday it was 100 degrees in Texas or Tennessee or anywhere else, think about how that would feel sans-a/c. Yeah, it's a whole new animal. Needless to say I didn't sleep well until about 6am when I had to get up and close my windows because my room was once again down to the SF summer temperatures of mid-60s. Alright, enough complaining...I just had to share my rogue-heatwave story.

So I spent the past 4 days in the Monterey Bay area. I was between Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, and Carmel. I have to admit, I that was some of the most beautiful coastline I've ever seen. Seeing the boats in the Monterey Marina and the Lone Cypress jutting out of 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach was awesome. Also, just seeing Pebble Beach and it's famous golf course was incredible. Pebble Beach is interesting...it's a private community that you have to pay to enter. I went whale watching and saw 14 humpback whales and 1 blue whale. Supposedly the latter are going extinct. Also please note: going "whaling" and "whale watching" may be slightly similar in orthography (an honest, excusable mistake, right?), however could not be more different in meaning. Don't confuse the two when you're talking to a local in Monterey or the person will most likely burn a hole through you with his/her eyes. Yikes.

Well, I should get some rest -- or at least that's what all the professional people I know say, so I guess I should say it, too. I'll leave you with some photos of the Monterey Bay:

Pebble Beach, CA

Point Lobos, just south of Carmel-by-the-sea, CA

Sailboats in the Monterey Bay @ the Monterey Marina