My ten-year high school reunion is coming up this Summer and it really hit me by surprise. It’s been ten years since I graduated? That’s insane! What happened to all the time? This has really caused me to look back over the past decade and figure out some of my accomplishments and some of my mistakes, and I feel like I’ve had a lot of both.

Accomplishments

Graduating college – Graduating college in 2007 felt like a huge accomplishment to me, partly because it was so difficult for me and took me seven years for whatever reason. Many of my current friends I met in college and I am thankful for that.

Going to China - My brother, sister in law and their two kids currently live in China and have for the past seven or eight years. Visiting them and getting to see all the cool things out there such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall was an experience I’ll never forget.

Going to Japan – My band received the awesome privilege of playing for the U.S. Navy in Yokosuka twice in 2005 in 2006. My brother was our lead singer at the time and getting to go with him was amazing. Needless to say I had some awesome memories there that will last a lifetime.

Music – I’ve come out with a couple CD’s and my band has as well. Getting a chance to open for Blind Melon was an amazing experience that I am thankful for.

Generosity – I hope to improve in this area, though there are a few times over the past ten years I can think of that I was able to help some friends or acquaintances out. During these times I have found that it is truly “better to give than to receive”.

Mistakes

Love – I don’t really regret any of my past relationships, though I sometimes envy my friends who are married and/or have kids already. I sometimes feel weird when I bump into old high school friends who are married, have children already while I’m as single as ever.

Friendships – I have not been the best with keeping up with some of my old friends. I hate to admit this, but even remembering friends’ or even family members’ birthdays can be tough for me. This makes me feel bad.

Worry – I’ve wasted far too many days and nights worrying about who I am or who I may someday be. Over the next ten years I hope to spend less time worrying and more time living with a “childlike faith” that “everything’s going to be alright”.

In conclusion, I hope the next ten years will see an improvement on some of my “mistakes” and I’ll be able to continue with some of my “accomplishments”.

One of my roommates and I recently joined a local gym and I’ve been trying to go at least two or three times a week. And I’ve noticed recently that going to the gym can have its pluses and minuses. For example, when I check in and am given a key to a locker, I can either be blessed with a locker that is not surrounded by people and therefore easily accessible, or I can be stuck with a locker surrounded by talkative, outgoing, unashamed naked guys. A friend of mine once got stuck in that unfortunate situation and decided to try and maneuver his way to his locker and get out of there as quickly as possible. But apparently one of the guys next to him started talking with him and he ended up not being able to avoid a face to face conversation. Apparently this guy was a “close talker” as well, which is awkward enough when people are…well…clothed. And to make matters worse the unashamed naked guy put one of his legs up on the bench as he was growing more and more animated in his story telling. Fortunately for my friend the conversation didn’t go beyond ten minutes or so and he was able to leave the locker room with his dignity. Yet for some reason, after their conversation my friend always remembered that guy as “Ballsy McBallserson”.

Is it possible to be too unashamed of your body?

 

Growing up, from about the ages of 6-13 I always had a paper route with my two older brothers. Six days a week we would rubber band and deliver the papers ourselves, rain or shine, in sickness and in health, uphill both ways…you get the picture. And I remember how the rubber bands would sting if they broke on your hand and how the ink would blacken your hands after rolling up a dozen or so papers. Six days a week we’d do the paper route ourselves, yet Sundays our dad would usually help us out. Apparently there wasn’t a lot of news in our town until the weekends, as the Sunday paper was always guaranteed to be huge. Because of this, our dad’s help was always appreciated as we sat in the foyer together, puffy-eyed and tired, adding inserts and stuffing the forty-some ”Daily Courier” newspapers into weatherproof bags. Then we’d load them into the back of our old, beat up yet reliable Oldsmobile station wagon. The back door of the station wagon could fold down so we would sit on it, and as he drove slowly down the street we’d hop off and deliver the mountain of Sunday papers until it had gradually disappeared. Sitting on the fold-down door like that probably wasn’t safe or even legal but the paper route was finished in record-breaking time. Afterwards we’d almost always drive to Rollin’ Donuts and relax a bit after the early morning of hard work. To this day I still haven’t had a better apple fritter. It’s amazing to me how moments like this, when I was a child, seemed like they would last forever. But now, twenty years later, I sometimes wonder where the time has gone. I am thankful for these memories and the things I learned from them as rmembering them helps me to appreciate the time now that I get to share with those I love.

What’s one of your childhood memories?

“Winter Falling”

“Window Shopping”

“Sunken Leaf”

“Warm Glow”

“Lights, Lights, Lights!”

“Let it Snow”

“Ice Drops”

“My Favorite Addiction”

“Norwegian Ice House”

“Chilled Brandy”

“Cabinside”

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Hope you all have a merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a great New Year or just an awesome Winter Season, depending on what you celebrate.

Also, I submitted a new idea to Xanga Ideas to feature photo, video and audio on Xanga’s front page. This would give photographers on Xanga more attention along with bands, podcasters and vloggers. If you want, feel free to vote here! Pete

1) For Christmas and birthday gifts the past couple of years my parents and sisters bought me some interesting boxer shorts, most likely to embarrass me. So I often end up wearing Dr. Seuss, Sponge Bob or Simpsons boxers.

2) I often enjoy sleeping on the couch over my bed.

3) I used to have kinda long hair. For those of you who went to Judson College with me you probably remember my scraggly, hippie days, for better or worse. :-j

4) I have hardly any hair on my arms.

5) If I laugh a lot I get hiccups.

6) I am more of a night person and can be crabby in mornings.

7) I wrestle with being late.

8) I’ve been to Japan twice and China once. In Japan I accidentally told a flight attendant “Asiago” (a kind of American cheese) instead of “arigato” (thank you). At the time I wondered why she looked at me so strange.

9) My dad’s dad came from South Dakota and was from a family of ten children. So I have a ton of relatives in South Dakota, and part of the movie “Dances with Wolves” was filmed on their property.

10) When I was a kid fire engines used to make me panic. According to my parents I would run around in circles with hands over my ears when a fire engine would drive by with its sirens on. My mom used to call me “Peter Panic Attack”. I’ve grown up since then. Now I just run around in circles.

I’ve been on and off a few dating sites for the past couple of years and have had some good conversations and some not so good. Yet one of the most awkward conversations I’ve had through one of these sites occurred about two weeks ago when a girl I hadn’t talked to in several months called me completely out of the blue at almost midnight on a Saturday night. I was with a friend at the time and decided not to answer, hoping she’d leave a message. Yet she didn’t call back or leave a message so the next day I texted her to catch up and inquire why she called. We texted back and forth for a little while, which was well and good but then she asked me if I was still dating the same girl from Wisconsin. At this point I was beginning to think she was crazy because I had been single for the past few months and couldn’t for the life of me remember dating someone from Wisconsin. After some more texting things just got worse as she said she remembered me telling her about this girl just a week ago. So after much confusion I started to wonder if she had me confused with somebody else from that dating site, so I decided to tell her my name. Needless to say she did have me confused with somebody else and she was really embarrassed and apologized. In the end, though, we were able to catch up a bit and had a few good laughs at least and put an end to a really confusing conversation…

1) When my alarm clock doesn’t work and it makes me late for work (today for example.   buying new alarm clock after work).

2) When my roommates don’t replace the toilet paper. Jerks.

3) When traffic is backed up at a stop light and the person in front ignores a green arrow, causing others to miss it.

4) When people slam on their brakes right in front of me after seeing a cop car with its sirens on.

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Do you suffer from road rage?

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I’m watching these on a PC, though I hope to someday get a nice Mac. Do you prefer Mac or PC?
And here’s a South Park version featuring Linux. Funny stuffz…

We’ve all probably seen the movie or at least heard the story of Beauty and the Beast, where a woman falls deeply in love with a monstrously ugly beast who ends up being a kind and gentle man. Yet is this story realistic?

A couple weeks ago I asked a question on my site, “Who are more superficial, guys or girls?” Many of the women who responded said that women are more superficial than men, though most said it’s fairly equal, albeit in different ways.

I think guys and girls can be equally superficial, and tend to end up with people who are equally attractive as them. For example, I would be surprised to have seen John Goodman end up with Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt end up with Rosanne Barr.

And so if you are single (like me), and are expecting a “Beauty and the Beast” fairy-tale ending to your love life, remember that Beauty didn’t fall for the Beast until he had worked on himself and made himself presentable and attractive. In other words, before she considered him, he had to tame the beast within himself.

In your experience, do opposites attract in love or is Beauty and the Beast simply a fairy tale?

This is one of my favorite scenes from any movie. If only I could dance like Clooney here…..