Missing in Action

My wife has left me. She has her reasons...good ones even:

Needs to travel.

Wants to help others.

I didn't clean the toilet in time (no, I still haven't cleaned it thanks).

Ok, so she didn't leave because of the dirty toilet, nor any other negative reason; she is away on a missions trip to the Philippines! She left on Sunday night (Monday morning) at 2am and I haven't seen her face since 1:15am. That's just over 40 hours. Not so long, and not our longest time apart, but the kicker is that there are 264+ more hours to come on top of that! I miss her terribly and hate being without her.

The thing I realized last night is that everything really does change when you get married. I was 30 on the day of my wedding and had experienced a whole bunch of singleness in the years prior to that blessed day. But in all my days of being single, while I may have had lonely moments, nothing matches the loneliness I felt last night. It is the proven reality that you can only really miss something when it's gone (i.e.- you had it before and now you don't)...

When I was lonely as a single person, it hurt. It was sad. It was depressing. But I didn't know what I was missing. I was never really aware of any void.

Now, there is a VOID. It's big, it's bad, it's ugly. Something dramatic and significant (all-encompassing) has gone missing and left a hole where it once sat. Crazy kind of lonely.

I don't bring this up to drum up sympathy or tell a sad tale. I bring this up because today, for the first time in my 32 years of life, I can at least begin to understand what it might be like to lose someone. I will see Alex in 264+ hours (God willing) and the void will go away for me. But there are many without that great fortune. So today, think about someone in your life who may be staring at that void and pray for God to love them like He's loved no other, that they may be touched by the richness of HIS mercy and the comfort of His peace.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."

What did I miss?

November 17th.

Becoming less of a last-minute guy has real consequences. There was a time in my life when I could do anything anytime...a real free spirit! Not only that, but I could improvise at the drop of a hat. Last-minute, no problem!

The first problems with 'last-minuteness' came up within personality conflicts with people at work. "What?!? You want me to plan HOW far ahead? You're insane! Why would you do such a thing?" Well, needless to say, some give and take resulted from these mature conversations and I learned to plan further ahead while others learned to 'go with it' a little more... ahhh the beauty of balance.

Now, it makes sense to me to plan some things months in advance. Set dates, do legwork, prepare for changes, etc. It works. This past Saturday, however, I paid the price...

Lance in concert at House of James. Out.
Pre-release Mutations and Monsters Heroclix Tournament in Richmond (exclusive to only 30 people...I was signed up 3rd and had to cancel once I realized the date!!). Out.
UFC 78: Bisping vs. Evans. Out.

All because at a youth pastors' lunch in Cloverdale in September, we decided to plan a suburb-city event for our youth. Cloverdale Younite. We set a relatively random date of Saturday, November 17th and rolled out of the meeting. Sounded great at the time.

In fact, it wasn't until Sunday evening, November 11, that I realized all of these events were converging upon each other....a huge mess of social impossibility. And all because of a random date set months before at a lunch. Oh, to have Last-Minute Man back again... sigh.

Of course, that would've put me into awkward territory, having to decide between Lance and Heroclix (remember, my first ever exclusive pre-release). Glad I didn't have to choose :)
The Younite went well also, so I'd say it was a win all around. Though Last-Minute Man would've had some greater flexibility, PLAN-IT-AHEADER (a lame super hero name to be sure) made some early choices that saved later turmoil (having to choose between Lance and HC). Go dude!

In other news, my LT Panthers were knocked out of the playoffs last Thursday, getting thoroughly beaten by the unbeaten John Barsby Jr. Dawgs (from Nanaimo). Quarter-finals of the provincials. Not bad, but this team could have done more had they worked together better. Always next year ;)

Games

Day 2 of the Basketball Renewal Sessions begins in less than an hour. Awesome.

Football playoffs begin for my team tomorrow as we travel 3 hours to face our #2 seeded opponent. Should be fun. Nothing quite like a bus trip with a bunch of stinky 14/15 year olds ;P

I almost purchased Settlers of Catan (plus Seafarers and Cities & Knights) yesterday but I didn't pull the trigger. I love that game and my wife and I are hosting games with a friendly couple on Sunday (haven't seen them for awhile) so it made sense to play that then. But I didn't get it. I still think I'm saving up for the next Heroclix set instead...we'll see.

Games are very enjoyable for me. I am competitive like crazy, so sports are good, board games are good, group games are good, pretty much anything. Sudoku and Solitaire are even fun for me! The only games I don't like are emotional games, like between people who are deceiving each other. Those games suck. Yup.

That is a weird note to end on, but there it is. Game-playing: good all the time unless you're hurting someone! HAHAHAHAHA!