The World of Joel

So as you all know I have a wonderful girlfriend named Jenn who I have been with for almost four years now. Well when I decided to transfer out of Cal State San Bernardino during the Fall I knew I would see a lot less of Jenn as we used to carpool down to CSUSB together. Well that did happen and due to my work/school schedule we did end up seeing each other a lot less, and even less now in the Spring. So this has been tough on both of us and I can honestly say it has been stressful. We have managed just fine its just the constant running around trying to get thirty minutes with each other which is difficult.

Well to make a long story short I was coming back from seeing Reign Over Me during one of my long gaps at UC Irvine. I was driving back to school while talking to Jenn on the cell phone. She was supposed to be busy doing birthday shopping for her dad, and she kept asking about where I was, and where I usually parked. Well anyways I park at my normal area and I was tired and wanted to lay down in the back seat where I can stretch out. I see a girl walking up to the car, not paying attention to who it was I shut my door to let her pass. Well then the girl opens the door and wouldn’t you know it, it was Jenn. I don’t think I have ever been that happy, it was one of the most amazing surprises I have ever had. And to top it all off she took me out to eat at one of our favorite little spots in the OC, Spaghetti Bender. It was such a memorable surprise and one that I just couldn’t resist posting.

This week for spring break Jenn and I have made every attempt to spend as much time with each other as humanly possible. This has involved a previous post which was talking about our adventure down to an art museum. Earlier today we went down to Santa Anita to go to the Horse Races where for the second in a year in a row we got box seats. Going on a Thursday was actually realy nice as we got to go on a pretty slow day for the race track and made it a lot more relaxing. then on the weekend.

Well anyways I really enjoy the race track mainly for the thrill of gambling without dropping a ton of money in a few minutes like at a casino. Unfortunately there are those days where things just don’t go your way and today was one of those days. I bet on the first five races and went 0/5. Jenn went 3/5 which made it even harder when all I could do was lose. It was truly a great time and I for one am going to miss having the time off.

So I have probably been to many one or two art museums in my life, and those were in elementary school when I was forced to go to these sort of places. I never thought I would go to one of these art museums for pleasure. However the love of my life Jenn has a facination with art and thus my trip last weekend to the Orange County Art Museum. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the art museum but here are some things I did learn while was there.

- Playing with lego’s can be considered art, they had a big Lego city representing The Tale of Two Cities
- People really get into there art. There was a peice that looked like something from the old road runner cartoons and this guy sat there laughing about how brilliant it was.
- We were walking past this guys self portrait where he used some sort of weird mathematical sequencing to create the art and this lady was balling. I don’t think she knew the guy, but maybe the numbers were significant. I don’t know I must have missed something.
- Probably the most interesting piece was a guys portrait of his wife made from his own finger prints. Now that is what I called talent.

All in all I have to say that I am not a big art person so maybe if you like art you are pulling your hair out reading this blog post. For me I enjoyed my time at the museum but a lot of what they considered “art”, I considered something else. If you get a chance I guess it’s worth a look. If nothing else it was pretty relaxing and you only have the beach five minutes away.

If you look at my life, and the schedule I have been on for the past three months, you can see why I am thrilled to say that I have some free time. After my Thursday Final I have had sometime to gather my thoughts, do some R&R, and more over just recoup from an extremely long quarter. In fact with some of the free time I have been able to enjoy things that I haven’t been able to for a while. Like for example to let off some stress, Jenn and I hit our old past time Tennis and played for a couple hours which was great. Today we took her new dog Spark to a local park and just took it all in. It’s so hard when I am just going from school, to the bank, to either of our houses to work on Movie-Stop, Darkstation, and then Homework. If only this free time would last, that would be a great thing.

My recommendation to anyone and everyone, if you have a free second, take it, enjoy it, cherish it, and thrive in it. I am just as guilty as anyone in taking for granite the simple things in life that make living such a great thing.

“I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.” -Leviticus 26:12 NLT

Each year since I have known Jenn (this being my 4th trip) we have gone with her parents to Indian Wells down to the Pacific Life Open. We are going from today Thurs the 8th to either Saturday or Sunday. It is going to be a scorcher down there with temperatures well up into the high 90’s and maybe reaching the triple digits. That’s Indian Wells for you! Should be a great time and I will be back with more from that and Movie-Stop.net updates on Sunday! Take care everyone.

The past few weeks I have been struggling with my first quarter at UCI and through everything there is one thing that no matter what gets me through everything. It’s the Power of Prayer. Sure many may say that there is no point, there is no God, there is no one to pray to. And I say to you that’s just not the case, there is a Lord, his name is Jesus Christ, and he has had such a detrimental impact on my life since the day I first came to know him. Through all my up’s and downs, through all my questions, and through all of my decisions, the power of Prayer has given me peace of mind knowing that my life is in the Lord’s hands. It’s an amazing walk, one that is not always easy, but one that I know was and still is the best decision I have ever made in my life.

I was listening to a song on the train on the way home from school and I just thought I should write down some of the lyrics. The song is called Choose Life by Big Tent Revival.

Trust the Lord with all your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your being. Hold on, listen and obey. Surrender your life, into his keeping. Choose Life that you might live, the life that he gives, he gives you forever, choose life the way that is true, from the one who chose you, your father in heaven, choose life.

So I thought since I have slowed down a bit on my posts to give everyone an update on the latest in the World of Joel. First and for most my latest project Movie-Stop.net is getting close to completion and we are just any day now from launching the website. My younger brother Jake and I are working hard on getting a good database of movies already in there and working on getting at least a few reviews ready for the launch. I know we are both really excited about that new project and the many ways it could potentially lead us.

This week you may also see the addition of some Blog’s I read. I only have two, but that is just for right now, as more come along, I will post up more. And if you are interested in exchanging links the e-mail is joel[at]worldofjoel.com! First on the list is Bob Buskirk who is the owner of ThinkComputers a website I wrote for a long time ago when I was just getting into hardware reviews. I then have David Lithman who I have talked to once and seems to be a pretty interesting guy trying to make a living online. So those are the first two and I am sure many are on the way.

Finally UC Irvine is in full swing and so far so good. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the transformation from my two 1/2 years at Cal State San Bernardino, but so far so good, nothing seems all that different. I have gone to advising twice since starting and both times they have told me I need to wait until my next quarter to change majors, so here I am sitting and waiting. To get into UCI I had to put down I wanted to be a Studio Art major (Economics was not available), and thus I was accepted under that major and now I need to transfer into Business Economics the major that I want to be in, so there is some added pressure for me to do well this quarter.

Anyways besides that the World of Joel is just that, The World of Joel. Jenn and I are busy as always studying away and like I said stay tuned for Movie-Stop.net it should be coming any day now, and I think most of you will be pretty impressed!

One of the things you learn growing up is that you are supposed to grow up get married have kids and buy a house. I remember many times in my life wondering if and when I would meet the girl in my life who I wanted to be with. For 3/4 of my High School life I remember never finding a person that really sparked my fancy. It was my senior year when I met Jenn and it was then I met not only my first girlfriend but the absolute love of my life. Three and a half year’s later we have been through a ton and what started as a high school crush has grown into something eternal.

So why do I write this? I write this because I don’t say how much I love Jenn enough. Sure this may seem a bit sappy, and for some this may not go along with what your expecting to read on this blog. However this evening I felt the need to share that my greatest dream of meeting the perfect girl and being able to spend the last three and a half years with her has been an amazing blessing. She has always supported me and has always wanted the best for me and for that I just want to say thank you. I Love You Jenn and I appreciate all you have done for me.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

So this morning at approximately 8:30 Jenn and I drove down to Irvine to pick up my books and make a test run on the Train. So the test is now done and I got my books and I am ready for my first quarter at UCI. The train ride home was really nice and from Tustin to Riverside is less then an hour. The test will be getting from UCI to the train station in time for my train ride home to go to work on Monday Wednesdays and Friday. Jenn was a real trooper going down there with me and plans to wake up at 5 tomorrow to make my 630 train! Thanks Jenn and I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Well with that being said I am a bit stressed about going to UCI, it seems like it will be a bit more difficult. This is a new path, a new journey, and I am ready for it. Please pray for me as I go on this new college experience.

What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of this blog? I know the answer to both but at times they do creep up on me and leave me deep in thought. Today was one of those days that I would consider picture perfect. I had today off, off from school, from work, from for the most part worry. Jenn and I had the great opportunity to just spend time with each other something that has brought us a lot closer together over the past few weeks. We went to Castle Park to play Miniature Golf and what an amazing experience that turned out to be. Although at the time it was just a lot of fun, when we sat back in the car and talked about it, it was blissful. It was an experience that is so simple and yet it profoundly made what was a normal day off into an extraordinary one.
Why do I mention this? Well if a few days time won’t be as plentiful. The moments I get to spend with Jenn now I need to cherish as they will be much harder to come by in the next few days. We are going to different schools, different schedules, and for a lot of the day separate lives. And I want to make sure that when we get into the middle of this all we have this post to look back and remember the amazing Tuesday we shared together.

Having a break from both school and work has really helped me take a deep breath and remember that not only am I the luckiest guy in the world to have Jenn in my life but I also am so fortunate to have a job and live in such an amazing country that we live in. I know I for one take it for granted all that things the Lord has blessed me with and I need to remember that even when things do get rough which eventually they are bound to do.

Although Thursday will be my last official day off from school and today my last from work, I must say that through thick and thin what started out as a high school crush turned out to be an eternal love that I am so happy to be able to share with Jenn. May you all have a blessed day and just an amazing 2007.

So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Matthew 6:34 NLT