Well, I do have a resolution on my long lost pension buy out. It turns out that since I did not send some paperwork in time, though I thought I did, that I can’t have my pension monies until I turn 65. That’s only 37 years until I can see it! Yippee skippy!

Note to self: In 13000, please call Cathy at 312-653-2906 and make a withdraw. If blue cross is still around, I’ll get my money then. I put it on my outlook calendar I am surely not going to forget now.

[In other words, I can kiss that money goodbye. But you never know. It may be God’s funny provision for me.]

Like a lot of Americans, I am up late tonight watching for the latest voting counts. It’s stinking close. Close, close, and closer.

As I’m starting to wipe away the tears of exhaustion I am still chanting…

Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.

Please oh please don’t let it be Kerry. Go George go!

this is the pitter patter of democracy in action. 

Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.

Can you tell I’m a little antsy today?

Unlike many of my 28 year old counterparts, I have been investing in my retirement for several years now. I rode the up and up cycle and then I proceeded to give it all back when the markets busted. While I am 100% certain that social security will be there for me when I retire in 2056 I want to make sure that I have a nestegg to live the high life off of. (Note my sarcasm please!) In the last 7 years we’ve somehow managed to store away roughly $15000. Not bad for some punky kid, eh?

Long story short, when you move jobs your stuff gets messed up. Mine still isn’t right as I’ve moved jobs a few times in the past several years. The last one I am trying to get straight is my pension from Blue Cross. About a year ago I received a note from BCBS that I was due a pension distribution. It turns out I was vested into their pension by a matter of months when I left to enter the ministry.

So I sent paperwork and got paperwork back. In January I thought I had it all taken care of. It turns out that they never wrote a check to my rollover account. So today I faxed over a follow-up note asking where my money is now located. I want my money!

I believe heavily in the realities of compounded interest. Mathematically it just makes sense to invest small portions over the long haul instead of waiting for the big distribution and transfer of wealth when some parent dies. While it would/will be nice if someone in front of me secures my future, I’d like to be a part of doing the same for my children. (It’s not like my folks are rich… But I can see that they each have something that they will pass on to my brother and I. Hopefully it will be more than an unpaid mortgage!) And so Kristen and I plug away and invest where we can.

IRAs work for Kristen and I. I think it has a lot to do with the massive withdraw penalties. I know that some of my friends regularly borrow from their and that there is even some good sense in doing so to buy a house… But we chose to keep ours off limits. Why? Compounding of interest! To stop that cycle is just foolish.

A few weeks ago, our main investment had distributions. It wasn’t much, but it added about 2% to our number of shares in those funds. Each day I keep an eye on good ole TEMFX on the stock market. This is an international stock fund and I’ve been investing in it for some time. We have a target for how much we will invest in it before we lock it away and we are only about 3 months away from realizing that. Next we will focus on a simple stock fund. Yippee! I love US stocks.

More on this in the near future. I’ll keep you updated with the BCBS saga. I want my money!

You heard it here. My vote was suppressed today.

It took me 45 minutes to cast my ballot this morning since the ballots were filled with people.

I made my way to the Capital Banquet Center right after my Bible Study ended at Sweeties and I got the students to the high school. The parking lot was jammed and the lines were long. Thankfully I live in the village which meant that my precinct line was a lot shorter.

The mood in the polling station was jovial as Americans exercised their right to vote for George W. Bush. (All Kerry voters were taken out back, stripped, and left for dead in the woods by guys with a red pick-up truck and Texas plates.) I would have been in there a little less if I didn’t have to fill in all those stupid little dots. Give me back my punch cards! I would have been able to vote a straight ticket if it wasn’t for the fact that the Democratic sheriff in my county is really cool. So instead of one little cirlce, I got to color in dozens. As usual, I voted for judges I have never heard of. Those with last names closest to mine in the dictionary always get my vote!

Other than the long lines, voting went as boring as ever. I think all the media hype is such a bore. All the craziness about observers suppressing the vote or intimidating people is just stupid. All the lady was doing was checking IDs of newly registered voters. She is just a second set of eyes as the polling officials already did that anyway. Besides, if you are intimidated by a grandmotherly looking observer… You don’t deserve to vote anyway! Move to Canada.

All eyes will be on the results tonight. 4 more years… I hope.

That’s right blog fans. I am talking about completely and totally normal voting habits for tomorrow.

But to counteract the 2.5 billion people who will post in their Kerry loving blogs this Tuesday that their vote was suppressed… I am pledging to document my completely and totally normal voting experience for the world (the 3 guys in China) who read my blog faithfully. Thank you Xi, Yao, and Johnny Goodluck!

Keep checking back. As soon as my completely normal and boring voting experience for the republican party candidates of my choice is over, I will certainly publish an exciting story.

Things begin to look normal again this week. Praise God!

Monday: I have a bad case of the Monday’s. But there are still lots of things for me to do. Continue researching out our mission trip. (A future post will share how the Croatia 2005 trip got re-routed) Make a decision on a winter retreat. Get things penciled in for our Christmas break event, 8 Crazy Nights, turn in some receipts, make a sketch of Wednesday night, and get my shopping list for all the stuff we are out of downstairs. I’ll also be attending a band event tonight from 7-8. (It goes much longer than that, but that’s as long as I plan on staying!)

Tuesday: Election day. It’s sure to be a good and distractingly long night. I also plan on meeting with Rich to go over storage of all the golf stuff at the high school. After school there will be several students here working on the clothing drive as well as the worship set for Wed. Night.

Wednesday: I may actually take the morning off like I’m supposed to. I know, scary. I’m sure the vast part of my day will be spent scrambling around trying to finish up everything for Light Force. It’s not a special night, but it is just our normal routine. Games, worship, talk.

Thursday: No major plans. Yippee!

Friday: Day off.

Saturday: I’ll be at the WOL Superbowl all day. This is a big outreach event that is held annually in our area. Two things strike me as ironic about going to this big outreach event. 1. The people going aren’t all that excited about it. 2. I don’t think we have more than 2 outreach level students going. I suppose that is mostly my fault.

Sunday: A normal Sunday.

In case it isn’t shining through, I’m totally stoked that I have a normal and slow week.

It’s no secret that I don’t care much for the neighbors. Gradually over the past few months however, I’ve been able to sort out the troublemakers from the pretty nice neighbors with bad circumstances.

Case in point, the past week.

Kristen has invited the neighbor kids and moms to countless church events. She’s even had some really nice and pleasant conversations with them in the recent past. Last week, almost all of the neighbor kids and moms made it to the churches harvest party and we ever received a very nice thank you note.

Two steps forward, one step back. Tonight the drunkenness returned and escalated to the point of us calling the Romeo PD. I hate to do that, but they were out of control, screaming at each other, and someone hit someone else. As soon as the cops showed up everyone scattered and it calmed down. But the point is that we shouldn’t have to call the police on them in the first place. I wish that they could learn to make better decisions!

Let’s hope that the next week will be one of more positive progress. They have always responded well to us when we’ve re-drawn the line. More on this in the future.

We returned last night from one of my favorite youth group trips of the year. Each fall I pull juniors and seniors out of school to visit a couple of colleges. This time, it was Moody (my alma mater) and Wheaton College.

In the most technical sense, the weekend went off without a hitch. The students got the tours, got to ask questions, and got to see what kind of cool places they could get a solid Christian education. There is a lot of value in that.

But dont think that this is only about checking out schools. It’s absolutely about investing in and spoiling my most influential students! For 3 days we hung out, drove, had fun, and annoyed each other. And it was a blast. The road trip part is always fun as I try my best to make an idiot of myself at 70 MPH in the church van. We also crashed at my cousins house. Kudos to Maria for always being a willing and fantastic hostess. I also exposed them to my old youth group, http://www.alliedforce.org, and they got to meet a lot of my friends both at Calvary Memorial as well as Moody. Then I took them to Johnnies… which serves the most fattening and incredible Italian Beef sandwhiches in the world. If you’ve never been there, you’ve never experienced perfection. It’s like the first time you havea Krispy Creme when all you even knew about glazed donuts was the ones at the grocery store. They are worth the road trip to Chicago alone. We also checked out a place in boys town called, Ann Sathers. They make the best and most fattening cinammon rolls in the world.

Something that happened that was shocking and funny at the same time in Chicago.

1. My guys got hit on by a real live gay man in boys town. It was too funny and quite a teachable moment. It happened in an instant… so no damage was done.
2. We saw gorrilas on Michigan Avenue. It was one of the funniest sites I had ever seen in the city. I’m glad they were there with me!

Of course, I can’t wait to do this trip again in 2005. Who knows? Maybe in a few years we’ll all be visiting some of our graduates!