http://iamdougpeters.tumblr.com

Thank you,
-Doug

Currently listening to: Dredg – “Information” (about 20 times at least today)
Current mood:

*** For the entire month of January, I had 317 blog visits. In the first 4 days of February, I’m at 131. Holy buffalo wings Batman!

Look at the calendar, hahahaha random.

So I got back here about 11:45pm and it’s snowing lightly outside, you would think I would learn to just stay home sometimes but nahhhhh. With all the threat of snow and ice that lays ahead, I always find myself saying “lousy Smarch weather.” It’s a quote from The Simpsons by Homer in an episode making fun of their schools non-commitment to anything resourceful. You view Homer coming in from the snow and seeing the calendar utters the epicness. I’m sure only one person could appreciate this with me, but it’s ok, I’m laughing pretty good right now to myself just thinking about it.

the wonderful upcoming forecast.

So as you can see, Boone is going to have it good with the winter weather for the next many days. Because it’s only a 5 day planner, you can’t see that it is supposed to continue through Wednesday. I prepared myself well by going to the grocery store and getting 8 galloons of milk because I’m going to be locked away forever. They ended up having buy 1, get 1 free Cheez-It boxes, so you know what I’m going to be surviving on the next many days? If you said Cheez-It’s, you are wrong. I like to give myself a little more variety, but not much.

As I posted below, this morning I woke up to an amazing message on Facebook from someone I have not spoken too in a long time. Her message really is what I was always talking about is everything that I wanted to get from this blog. I now had an excellent written example that I could show with simply copying and pasting because I am not going to freak someone out and voice record a conversation. Anyways….it was great that no matter how much time has passed, I was still able to reach out to someone through this blog and we were able to talk and jump into stuff as if we had been in touch every day.

I know I get a lot of feedback from friends that are followers of Christ, but I am extremely intersted if anyone has been reading that isn’t, what are your thoughts? I try to keep an open mindset when I write because although our views on religion may be different, I want people to know that I struggle and have had my share of tough experiences in life and that it may relate to others. I am not using this blog to try to convert anyone by any means, but I want to use it as an opportunity to get involved with everyone. I know that life can be tough and sometimes the answers are hard to find, and I feel that many of us have had something in common here and I enjoy the talks about it.

I am extremely excited for the weekend ahead, and I’m looking forward to the Super Bowl. This should be a great Super Bowl between 2 high offensive teams, so I’m hoping for a lot of points. I know the feel good story is the Saints, but I think I’m going to go ahead and go with the Colts on this one. Don’t know why, but go Colts!

After I got up to get a quick glass of milk, Ross is passed out cold on the couch. I really can’t say I know how he puts in the hours he does as a ski instructor.

“Lets start this off with a story…

It’s been great to read about how God’s working in your life and to kindda catch up with you through what I’ve read…I’m so happy for you getting things in line for your life and going to school and enjoying the opportunity you have! On a different note, I’ve been struggling a lot today with some stuff going on with some people in my life and just very overwhelmed by it all. For a while after the kids went to bed tonight, I sat around thinking about how much I believe that everything happens for a reason, God has a plan for every little thing that happens, im pretty sure I couldn’t feel any more strongly about that…yet sometimes its so hard to even see how anything even slightly positive could come out of a situation. I’m not sure how that really applies to anything, but I was just really down, and after I read your blog entries, I feel so much more encouraged. I’m not sure what it was that lifted my spirits or why or anything, but I’m just put into a much better mood and confident that everything will work out perfectly…maybe not to me, but it will be perfectly in God’s plan.”
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I think that today is going to be a great day.

So yesterday was the most visited day ever for my blog, and the day that I received the most feedback. It’s because of how many people support me that I feel so comfortable sharing more and more of thoughts in my head that I would always keep there. God is really doing some great things in my life right now, and I’m glad that I can share things on here without fearing of what people would think or say.

Well, it’s February, and the semester is beginning to come at me fast and deadly. Next week is going to be a killer week, as I have a finance test, an income tax test (ughhhhhhh), a tax return assignment for income tax, and then all my other classes work and assignments. This weekend is going to either help me or ruin me depending on how the weather turns out. If we get a lot of ice, I can say goodbye to power like the last major ice storm and opportunity for studying. I suppose I could light a few candles and rock it out reading a book like The Neverending Story…..hey, that’s not a bad idea….kinda cool actually…

Because of how many credit hours I have to my name, I keep getting emails for graduation and everything that comes along with that. How I wish I was done with school in the worst of ways.

Not much left to say except that I think lying in bed browsing Netflix on the laptop sounds like a great idea right now.

“Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.” – Philippians 1:3

Thanks to my wonderful Intermediate Accounting professor canceling classes, I spent a good portion of my afternoon returning to finishing Tony Dungy’s Quiet Strength after putting it aside to read Run Baby Run. I know in previous posts I have mentioned this book, but I felt a certain part of the book struck me hard. As the Indianapolis Colts were 13-0 just before a few days before Christmas, he received a phone call early in the morning that his oldest son had commited suicide.

Unless it is a Hollywood movie, it’s near impossible to capture emotions as we experience them in life. Reading the pages regarding the incident overwelmed me with so many emotions. What touched me the most is that instead of letting grief and sadness overtake him, Tony Dungy asked everyone to view Jamie’s life as a celebration. He noted that the celebration for him and his wife was that they knew that Jamie had an identity in Christ, and that nothing can ever seperate us from the love of God that’s in Jesus.

The above scripture is not directed towards anyone in particular, but to everyone in general. Too often I feel wrapped up anymore that I may not make it known to someone that I appreciate them in my life, no matter how long or short it may be. To reference my own struggles, I look back on those that I have lost, those I almost lost, and those I wanted to help from ever having anything happen to them. It always hurt when I saw people feel like losing control, when drugs and alcohol would take over, that there was no such thing as love in this life. There are a few people that come to my head that have come great strides in their life and that they are still here today gives me great joy.

In just over 2 months, I will be turning 24 and have gone 3 official years legal drinking age without one drop to drink. When I was repeatedly sick in 2005 and the numerous doctor visits I had to endure, I was always asked the question if I was a smoker or a drinker. When the tests would lead them to take looks at my liver and kidneys, it scared me that something would maybe one day happen and I would not be here anymore. I guess I always had that mindset because we were never given concrete answers about what was ever wrong, no matter what tests or bloodwork that was done. I am always asked as to why I don’t drink, and although I have multiple reasons, one of them is that I do not want someone to have to get that phonecall on my behalf. The 2006-2007 period of my life was one of the difficult times of my life, and while I never thought that my depression would ever end, any thoughts of suicide never came into discussion because I could never imagine doing that to anyone I loved. I felt that during that stage of my life that alcohol would overcome me and that there was a strong possibility that something could have happened. I just always said no thank you.

Someone recently challenged me to pray about why people are brought into my life. I had never thought that God would introduced people in our lives for specific reasons. Looking back at the writings I have spoken of, often I am mentioning certain points in my life and others that have affected it one way or another. It all comes together to make me who I am today. I am not one to anyone like to look on certain incidents and have regrets because I regret nothing in my life. “I think there are times when I believe God welcomes the circus into our lives to give us an opportunity to show that there’s another way to live and respond to things.. I cherish the memories of my life (every good and bad) because they are growing experiences. Going back to two posts ago as I reflected on forgivness, I believe that people are introduced into our lives for a reason. We may not see it right away, or not believe if it something goes wrong, but God is showing me why he brought people into my life. It is just another part of life’s journey.

So if you are reading this and I actually know who you are (haha), then I thank God for you being in my life.

Tonight Jordan and I went to play indoor pickup soccer on campus. There was a group of friends there that tried to play the whole time that they were the best ever and only 1 of them could back it up. This………*censor* one guy and I got at it right away because he would keep trying to knock me into the walls and knock me over and would swing his arms. We went back and forth exchanging words which I’m not happy I got pulled into but I despise people that play the way he would. The group would eventually get under Jordan’s skin and he got into it with the same guy as I did and another guy.

After awhile things had cooled down, until Jordan and someone would battling for a ball in the corner of the field. Jordan pulled the move on him with the ball and got around him. Him being the…..*censor* *censor* *censor* sport he is, either tripped him or grabbed him from behind as Jordan was running past him (I did not see clearly because my focus was on the ball and not them both). Jordan in mid air came down on his arm, with the bone of his arm poking out the back of his elbow.

I was extremely angry because while Jordan was on the ground in unbelieveable pain waiting for the ambulance, I could see them off to the side laughing and grabbing their elbows. It’s almost as if they are glad it happened. How I kept my cool tonight is beyond me because it could have not been good at all.

I think I did ok with my emotions this message, but if I get to play against any of them on either one of my indoor teams coming up it’s going to be…..interesting.

Today is the first day of February, so that means that January is officially over. Here is a picture of the stats of my blog on a month by month basis:

January 2010 stats trumps all other months.

January officially ended at 317 visits, which I am beyond thrilled at for many reasons:
1) That people are actually reading my blog. It has allowed me to talk to many close friends about many things as well as bring me closer to those I wasn’t quite as close with.
2) I did not even start the blog until January 8th, and I also stopped the blog without a return date listed which turned out to be a week.
3) I do not know 1 single person on WordPress, so I have no random people being referenced from other people’s blogs, so that is a true stat of everyone stopping by.

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It is human nature to lie.
We lie to avoid responsibility for actions and mistakes.
We lie to avoid hurting people we love.
Sometimes a lie can tear you apart on the inside.
Sometimes the truth can set you free.

This past week was a deep reflection time for me. As I am in the middle of reading 2 Corinthians through CCF, a word that has been branded in my head is forgiveness. It is something that I have always struggled with for years and anytime someone has done me wrong. I spent a long time reflecting on past experiences in my life, and another word came up: lie. I thought of times that I knew people lied to me, and times that I have lied to people.

I recently sent out an extremely long email to someone about a lie in my life. All the details pertained to a certain lie in my life that affected many aspects of my life, more so than I ever had known and lied to myself about that it even affected me. I begun to connect all the dots and intertwined it all together to see my struggles. I am almost sure that because of it, I was never truly able to love myself and developed the nature to only focus on helping people rather than help myself.

Typing out the email was one of the best things I have ever done in my life. Although the truth can be painful for the person delivering it and to the parties receiving it, I can see first hand that the weight of carrying that burden can do so many bad things to yourself. It has allowed me to move forward with so many aspects of my life and to finally feel at peace in my mind.

If you are reading this and can relate, I am not saying you should follow me and go confess every secret / lie to anyone it may apply to in your life. Everyone has certain circumstances in their life and I understand why anyone would choose not to. However, if there are people you love in your life or maybe bridges broken, I encourage you to rebuild them. If you have wronged someone or have been wronged, forgiveness can do amazing things. Forgiveness will not always make situations better, sometimes situations can end up being the opposite. If I held a grudge against everyone that had ever done me wrong or lied to me at some point, then I would be a very lonely person. Sometimes we also need to hold ourselves accountable to seek forgiveness for mistakes. Do not feel compelled to run forever because at some point you will break down (like me as I raise my hand). I need to forgive myself for thinking that I am never worthy of love at all.

No wonder I have been listening to As Tall As Lions all day, specifically “Love Love Love (Love Love).” The line “Too many days I was afraid of love love love (love love.” was giving me shivers. It’s so true, bahaha! Watch the video because this band is superb and I am looking forward to seeing them again very soon:

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Phew I’m tired and need to get work done. Still wondering why I became an accounting major, probably always will.

-Doug, out!

“Hey, I know a joke! A squirrel walks up to a tree and says, “I forgot to store acorns for the winter and now I am dead.” Ha! It is funny because the squirrel gets dead.”

With that classic quote from the movie Up out of the way, I would like to say thank you for coming back after the little 8 day break I took away from this blog and Facebook. I did not log into Facebook at all, but it was good to see that at least I was somewhat missed….maybe?

Hurrah for 5 inbox messages and 5 event invitations haha.

Last Saturday in my last post, I had talked about how in a short amount of time the page views went all the way up to the 250ish range. It was shortly after that posting in my quiet time that I knew I needed to take a break away from the computer (and specifically Facebook and this blog). Although certain few people I have spoken with may know something else, to the general public let’s just say that it was a great time to focus on school work. And it really was, Income Tax is probably the Satan course of which I viewed accounting for so long.

It sucks that I was on such a roll and just abruptly stopped like that, but it was very much needed and paid off greatly. I was able to continue to focus on my life and certain aspects that I was not happy with and made steps to correct it. I was able to finally get on a comfortable routine of study time so that I did not feel that I was already slipping behind as my classes were moving forward. I was able to see so many close friends and continue to build upon ones here at Appalachian. I even played a lot of soccer and am ready for the indoor season to begin. Although I was not writing here, I have a lot stored away in my little journal that I may post here. We shall see there.

I must say that although I enjoyed all the sledding I have done in the past two days, I am already tired of the snow and ice. It’s just too much effort to get the ice off the car and then heat it up and then it gets all salted and your wiper fluid freezes and the wind shield gets nasty and you can’t see and yeah. I always make the best of it so why not share some classic pictures?

a nice face and jacket full of snow. nice.

rocking a sweet trashcan lid. Didn't work out so well....crash.

slide around on the pure ice streets, why not?

it was fun, it was fun.

If you follow me on facebook, you can view many more pictures and the videos and yeah. Cool beans.

-Doug

Let’s start off with some brief tidbits, shall we?

1) On January 17th I wrote that I had 164 blog visits. On January 22nd, it’s up to 257.
2) For the first time in weeks, I was physically able to sleep past 8am. I got up at 9:30. YES!!
3) I could very well be the biggest imposter of a musician in the world. I rock air instruments that much.

So the second week of classes is now over, and I’m slowly working myself into the new schedule (about time huh?). The past 2 days I was really good about studying, reading, printing off any worksheets needed, and then still being a slacker. Can’t win all the battles I suppose.

So my great weekend began last night with a trip to Skate World. I have not been roller skating in years and years and years. Sadly, I was then stuck using quad’s. The good thing was there was a lot of people I knew to watch them skate and fall and I had no problems skating myself (didn’t fall once!). The bad thing was I was on quad’s. Quad’s are just no fun as compared to inline’s, you can’t hurt gracefully at all. Highlight of the evening was us trying to push out someone’s car, and Keaton (whom had to be one of the most dressed up ones out of our large party) was sprayed with mud on his dress shirt and pants. Covered. Hilarious. Tommy is also up for the weekend and again always finds the dance parties, but I ended up having fun sitting at Taco Bell singing Goo Goo Dolls and Oasis.

I have been playing lots of soccer lately and the indoor team rep meeting is this Tuesday. If my co-ed team doesn’t have to play Tuesday or Wednesday’s, I think we are going to win it all. Best part is, we are in the same grouping as the team who elbowed me in the face and the team that broke the ankle of one of our girls and beat us in the semi’s. As probably as morbid as that sounds, this is the soccer I love – that it is pure aggression. I never want to see people get hurt, but I do want the game to be all out. It’s more fun that way.

I’m over halfway done with the book “Run Baby Run” and it’s an intense read. It’s about a man named Nicky Cruz whom before he turned 18 became the president of the gang in NYC known as the Mau Maus. He goes into great details talking about all the drugs, women, violence, death and hate that controlled his life. The most important he talks about is the hate that would run through his blood and towards anyone he ever knew. I just finished up probably the most important chapter of the book, where an old preacher went in the heart of the gangs and simply told them one small message: “Jesus loves you.” Reading about Nicky’s thoughts, actions, and struggles as that message was burned into his mind was amazing. I will stop here in case anyone wants to read the book (which I HIGHLY encourage) so I don’t ruin it all.

And finally, to share a video that always has me laughing: