My wife, from distant lands no less, has requested more blogging from me, her husband. I have no choice but to comply. :-)

A couple weird things happened at work today. I was pretty darn tired because of the day I had anyway. It was a GREAT day, though! I haven't had a day where I felt I had accomplished so much in a long time. It's awesome to get things done; especially when they're going to bring so much joy to someone else. hehe Anyway, I lent a cd that my friends made to a co-worker who's Christian. It's an incredible worship cd, which is lacking in this area. I really thought he'd dig it because worship at his church is super...old. I asked him what he thought when I got to work today and he said the only song he liked was the only one they didn't write. "Jesus, Holy and Annointed One...Jesus." So anyway, he said musically it sounded great, it just wasn't his "style." That's fine, but for some reason I got really offended. I didn't shhow it at all, but deep down, I felt like he was dissing my friends. I think that music impacts us on such a deep level, so when someone "doesn't like" your kind of music, it's hard to deal with. Like, "How in the world could this NOT impact you?" I hope I'm not alone in this...

Another thing was that I had one of my beliefs bluntly questioned. This kid I work with is thinking about "giving his life to Christ" but he asked me, "Do you think that it might just not be right for some people?" I was baffled as to how to answer that. In my mumbling I basically said that if you really have a desire in your heart to seek God, I think it's open to you. I believe that. But I think he could tell I was thinking about all the predestination stuff as I was talking. So that was really awkward. Secondly, I got to think what it means to "give your life to Christ." Is it an instant action? He said he already gave his life to Christ a couple days ago but hasn't seen any change and doesn't feel any different. I asked him what it meant to him to do that and he couldn't respond. Honestly, I couldn't really either. I think it's imperative to understand what Christ did on the cross and believe in the resurection. You need to accept that; the sacrifice and that Christ is risen and lives again. I guess I'm not sure what imediate evidence there is when you place your faith in Him...lots of thinking to do. :-)

Well, I'm already going to get less sleep than I want, but that's ok. I work at 5:30am but I don't work too long, which is nice. I'll have plenty of time to take a little nap if needed. I really need to look forward to tomorrow. Attack it. God will give me rest.

Oh, and wife...get your booty home to me. I miss you.

Don't worry everyone, the mush will stop in less than a week! :-)

As I stared out the window of this corner diner, complaining about how small my steak was and how my "salad" was just lettuce, I saw approximately 47.625 "cute couples." Then the complaint of "only lettuce" turned into, "Julie's favorite salad consists of only lettuce." I miss her so much. Walking around downtown, by the lake/beach, was not a great idea. Seeing all these couples hand-in-hand was torture! And I'm a GUY! I must really miss her a lot. Being married is sooooo cool, but makes it infinately more difficult to be apart. The thing I might be most afraid of at this point is...how long will it be before I take it for granted again? Up til now, I honestly feel like I've been taking things for granted. Our time together has been affected by my selfishness because I've just rested in the fact that we're married. It's embarrassing to admit this to the world (or the 4 people that read this) but that's how I feel. It's like every other area of my life. I know WHAT to do, I just don't do it. i want to make Julie feel like the most beautiful, smart, important woman in the universe and I think I'm failing. More walks, games, reading together, bike rides (?), talks, pillow fights, trips, flowers...less tv, laying around, bad communication, laziness...I need to be a man and step up to the plate. I need to do more for the right reasons. I need to put her first and act accordingly.

Baby, if you read this, I mean it.

So I'm off to work in a half hour. Just enough time to watch some of our wedding video again and remember how incredible the best day of my life was. To see Julie smile the way she did that day...my wife has the most incredible smile. Plus, she looked super hot. :-) That smile cuts straight to my heart...exactly what I need right now. Jules, you're not the only lonely one. I miss you and am waiting for you.

I played some cross-cultural basketball today at the park. Nearly died, too. I went to shoot around and there were some guys playing who asked me to join them. Only one spoke english. There were 3 other Spanish guys and a Russian. Then me; the little, white, one armed guy. So we played some 3 on 3 and I was on fire. I ended up scoring 9 of our 15 points. They were all shocked that this one armed whitey could play ball. hehe Unfortunately I'm quite out of shape. So late in the game, my legs literally gave out as I made a move towards the hoop. You know when you see a little kid running and then they get top heavy and it's just a matter of a few more steps before they tumble forward? That's what I looked like. I made the move and immediately mumbled, "Crap, here I go..." Ripped up my arm pretty good but I was ok. A couple plays later I actually scored the winning bucket, driving to the hoop on this buff spanish hombre. It was a pretty cool experience, especially since my team won. :-) A couple scrapes are worth the glory of a pick-up game victory.

Today's tip: When meeting 5 Spanish and Russian people, don't expect to remember their names for more then .73 seconds.

When visiting (or living in) Lake Geneva, WI, never attempt to say the following:

"I'm going to the store quick."
"I'm going to the gas station quick."
"I'm running to Starbucks quick"
"I'm going to go get a banana split from Culvers at 9:30pm...quick"
"I'm going to ________ quick."

It simply is not going to happen. Sometimes I really despise this dumb town. Hey, tourists...GO THE DANG HECK AWAY! OF COURSE IT'S GOING TO BE CROWDED IF EVERY RESIDENT OF CHICAGO COMES TO LAKE GENEVA AT THE SAME STINKIN' TIME!!!!

ahem...Lord, please bless me with patience. Amen.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Not as good as I thought it'd be. Impressive but...I guess I just didn't get into it. The fighting was cool and there was a decent plot. I'm sure there was tons of deep stuff I just completely missed. I'll have to read some reviews and junk.

Dagnabit. My stereo speakers keep going in and out. Bad connection. I speak. In fragments. Actually, I type. In fragments.

Do you ever get in a cleaning mood? I do. I'm not in one right now, but in about an hour I know I will be. Good thing I can sleep in tomorrow. Speaking of cleaning...

could this be any more random or boring?

Couple loose ends to tie up:

First of all, I DID get 3 wisdom teeth out. It went really well, except I still can't feel the back left part of my mouth. Kind of sucky but...whatever. Also, I TOTALLY got on Julie's insurance in time! They approved our application and everything worked out. It's a Christmas miracle! Seriously, that was awesome.

Secondly, I've chosen to switch schools. I'll be going for my associate's and then bachelor's degrees from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I researched and prayed a lot and I'm super excited about it. My application will be sent by the end of this week and then we'll get the ball rolling. :-)

Oh, also, I wrote a best selling book called "My Life In The WWF: The Rock."

One of the preceeding three statements is false. Try to figure it out.

Love always,
The Rock

It's very hard to type and laugh your rear off at the same time. I'm watching our wedding video (again) and I just noticed there's this guy at our reception and I have NO CLUE as to why he's there!! I mean, I know the guy but he's a friend of my other friend so why he would come to my wedding is beyond me. Man, it was just so dang funny when that realization hit me. Oh, and my friend Chad said, "Julie...Ryan...I love you guys like a sister..." hehehe

I miss my wife. Julie, get back here and QUICK. :-)

My tip of the day is: Once you get married, never leave each other for more than a couple dang days. erg.

If you want to be greatly impacted, (angered, saddened, shocked, amused, surprized, etc.) you need to watch Breaking It Down with Serena on MTV. This "episode" (?I've never seen it before) is an expose of street people in LA and it's surrounding areas. Absolutely incredible. I'm not sure why I'm so emotional about this. Perhaps it's because these people are in our country and are...so lost. Some of the areas she went into I literally said, "I'd never go there." Druggies, prostitutes, homeless, shizos, etc. Guys turning tricks on guys for $40 to get speed and pot. Guys who haven't showered in over 2 months. People/Gutter Punks who choose to eat out of dumpsters. I'm overwhelmed...God, help me to do my part.

Well, this is interesting. Jim called back and said, "Just keep yours and enjoy it. I'll get Keith a new one. Thanks for being great tenants!" Isn't that rad?? Man, that's cool.

Stupid. Our landlord, who is generally pretty nice, pulled a stupid. He let us switch refrigerator's with our ex-neighbor when he moved last month but neglected to tell us he let the new tenant see the apartment with THAT fridge. So now the new tenant is all upset about the fridge and wants it back! Jim (landlord) called me at work today to see if I'd switch it back or with one in the basement. I REALLY don't want to. He got himself into this mess, he should get a new fridge for that guy anyway. I love this fridge, too. It's like Heaven compared to the other one we had. So that's getting at me right now. I understand the situation and want to be as helpful as I can but...I feel taken advantage of. Stupid.

A month and a half?? Man, have I ever neglected this thing. What a horrible...blogger-er. Oh, well...get back on that horse and ride! Whatever.

Call me corny, but Michael Card can put me at ease in a matter of seconds. It doesn't matter what I'm going through at all. There's just something about his voice and the power of his songs that cuts straight to my heart. (The Life is amazing) Michael, if you haven't heard of him, has been around for a LONG time. I grew up in the 80's listening to him and maybe that's part of the reason it's so comforting. Just to know something has been consistant in my life, ya know? The way he works scripture into song inspires me to try and write every time I hear him. Anyway...right now I'm peaceful with Michael singing Gentle Healer in my little apartment. Although, one ting is noticably missing...

My wife. Julie, I miss you, sweetheart. Julie's in Germany for another 2 weeks (it's been a week today!) and I'm slowly going mad. :-) I watched our wedding video again today and man...SHE IS AWESOME. She was so beautiful, so funny, so loving and excited. It still boggles my mind how well it all went. The best wedding ever. :-) So, I miss her like crazy. We talked today for a little while and it was so nice. It's incredible how small our world has become. Here she is, on the other side of the world, 7 hours ahead, and we talk like she's in the other room. Me on my cell in McDonalds no less! How strange. I'm so looking for her to get home. After the whole passport saga (I'll tackle that in a bit) happened, I'm just glad things worked out. She better be able to get back into this country!! If you read this, baby, I love and miss you like crazy. Remember to go to www.picturetrail.com/iamhaack if you need to see us. :-)

Well, I suppose I'd better document the passport debacle. Here it goes: Being the good husband that I am, I figured I'd get my wife's passport updated with her new name. So I sent it in about a month and a half before she left, being told (according to the form) that it'd take about 2-4 weeks. Fast-forward to 10 days before Julie leaves...still no passport. I call the NPIC ($5 a call, btw) to see where it is and the short version is that Julie told them to Fedex it overnight because it still wasn't done. They said it would be at our house by Friday. Saturday rolls around and still no passport. So far we've spent $60 for nothing. So Monday morning (closed on the weekends, of course) I'll call to figure out what to do. In short (again) I had to call them 4 more times in order to find out it had infact been sent and to get a tracking #. Fedex says the # doesn't exist. Great. They say it's apparently lost in the mail. Wonderful. We've spent $80 and have nothing to show for it...and it was supposed to be free!! So Julie decides to go to the agency in Chicago the morning of her trip to get a new passport in person. Luckily we made an automated appt. because the wait was 2 hours when she got there!! So she fills the forms out and as the lady is going through stuff she comes back and says, "Here's your passport right here. It's not done yet, though." WHAT?? We were told it was DONE and SENT. So she makes Julie wait another 4 hoursto finish it. The Climax: When Julie gets her "new" passport, the only difference is that on the back page of her ORIGINAL passport is TYPED "Julie's last name has been oficially changed to Julie Haack and this passport is amended as of June 12th, 2001." UNBELIEVABLE. So I'm writing as many people I can that can help me in any way. We better get our money back. But, thank God she was able to get on that plane and take those kids (exchange program trip) to Germany. Quite the experience.

So that's that. Man, do I need some time with the Lord. Things aren't horrible, I just feel...stagnant? I need a plan and to take action on that plan. It's nice to rest, but in order to rest you need to have been busy at some point. Right now I mostly feel lazy. Well, I guess I've written a good amount. I still have lots on my mind...perhaps I'll write more later. This has been great, though. I needed to write.

I'll leave with this: I can never decide on a biscuit or cornbread at KFC. That's why I get both.