25 Interesting Things About Me

There has been some “tagging” going around on Facebook with a note called 25 Interesting Things. Thought I would blog my list on here as well.

1. I never want to move away from Western Washington. I love it out here. The beauty of the mountains, the ocean, the rain, everything about it! Of course, having enough money to afford to take vacations to warm locations would be nice as well. I also love that our bugs/insects are tiny and very few are poisonous! Not saying I wouldn’t move if the
reason was justified but would never WANT to.

2. I turned 21 and was ordained a minister on the same day! Oh the controversy!

3. I have the same birthday as like 4-5 other people that I know from church. Just Weird! Also, I have the same birthday as Abraham Lincoln!

4. I would love to own a log cabin in the mountains/foot hills and an apartment in the city someday!

5. I have never broken a bone in my body. I also rarely get sick. I have never even had a reason to personally go to the hospital for myself. Just to see others.

6. I am a total wimp when it comes to “making a move”. The girl practically has to be the one to do it. Sad, I know!

7. My favorite colors are Turquoise and Maroon

8. I LOVE Chick Flicks. Yeah, it’s true. Get over it! LOL!

9. I have never smoked a cigarette or done any drugs. Have never even come close to having an interest.

10. I currently serve on the GPNW Samish Family Reunion Planning Committee, 50th Samish Celebration Committee, and the Evangelist-sponsored Retreat Planning Committee. I also direct Camp Genesis (for 3rd and 4th Graders) and Co-Direct the Annual Young Adult Retreat, both taking place at Samish Island Campgrounds. Also helping
with the Annual Fine Arts Retreat.

11. I will be in the role of “Guest Minister” for the first time at the end of March. I will be flying down to Happy Valley Campground in California for a Missionary Retreat. I am co-leading a class on Young Adults and the Church.

12. In the summer of 2007 I was on staff at 9 different camps (8 weeks and 1 weekend) and served in the roles of Director, Camp Pastor, Head Cook, Jr. High Class Co-Teacher, Counselor, and Assistant Cook.

13. I am very liberal and a devoted Democrat but have deep reservations about Barack Obama.

14. I am the product of a kid born in the computer age. I am a good typist but my handwriting sucks!

15. If I have hurt someone (or even think I have hurt someone) it absolutely tears me up inside. Even to the point of sometimes making me sick to my stomach. I stay that way until I know I haven’t or until things are reconciled.

16. I am a major smart ass. Which can often times can lead to #15. It is something I know I need to work on.

17. I LOVE country music. Absolutely love it. Saying that, one of my favorite groups is Aerosmith!

18. I LOVE to go camping. My favorite locations are Copalis Beach (near Ocean Shores) and Maryhill State Park (Southeast Washington, on the Columbia River).

19. I LOVE the rush of a concert. You can’t get any better than live music. My favorite concerts so far have been Garth Brooks w/ Trisha Yearwood, Shania Twain w/ Emerson Drive, Duran Duran and Carrie Underwood. I always imagine what I would do if I was a singer. How I would set-up the stage, special effects, transitions, etc.

20. Growing up I wanted to be a Full-Time Minister (still possible), Elementary School Teacher (still possible), Lawyer (too much school and would be afraid of becoming a stereotypical lawyer….a.k.a. a pompous, self-absorbed ass), and Singer (of course, can’t sing so that rules that one out).

21. As much as I love being around babies, I have a fear of holding them with a lot of people around.

22. I believe that everyone who wants to be a parent of more than one child, should adopt at least one child.

23. My dad used to be a Line Dance Instructor. I used to go line dancing with him every other weekend when we were at his house. He would also occasionally pick me up to go on weeknights. I loved it! This lead to him being the lead line dancer for a local country singer. He lead a group of like 8-10 dancers that would travel on the weekends to venues throughout the Northwest line dancing behind her while she sang. I used to love to go with them and watch.

24. My mom, brothers, and myself all got a tattoo within a month or two of each other. My tattoo is on my right bicep and is of a cross, loaf of bread, and wine goblet. I plan to eventually get a band of thorns around my right arms as well.

25. I am beyond ready to move out of my dad’s duplex in Kirkland and move down to the Greater Auburn/Puyallup area. Any one wanting a roommate or have a room to rent? LOL! Though, it would be hard for me to find a roommate because I wouldn’t want to live with someone who smoked, did drugs, or wanted to have big, loud parties. Plus, I already have so much stuff. I have been collecting items for moving out on my own since I was in the 9th grade. I already have everything needed for a stocked kitchen!

My Stengths/Weaknesses!

So, on Facebook your friends can vote on your strengths and weaknesses. I get an e-mail about once a week letting me know what my friends have voted. Well here is yesterday’s results:

STRENGTHS:

most trustworthy
hardest worker
best father (potential)

Well, that is really nice of my friends to say that of me. Here is what they say my weakness is though!

WEAKNESSES:

best singer

Lol! I already knew that. Didn’t need all my friends to tell me that too! Lol!

The meaning of Sean Michael Langdon

A discussion on the Community of Christ discussion board spurred the thought for this blog post. They were discussing the meaning of our names.

My full name is Sean Michael Langdon. Sean means that “God is Gracious” or “Gracious Gift of God”. Michael means “Who is like God”. Makes sense to me! lol! Have no clue where Langdon comes from. I haven’t really ever researched my genealogy.

As I understand the story, when my mom was pregnant with me she went to a John Michael Talbot concert with my dad. My dad was (is) a big fan of John Michael Talbot and thus got the idea to name me after going to the concert. They did not want it to be exactly the same so they named me Sean Michael instead of John Michael. Sean is the Irish form of John.

Family members never gave me any nicknames growing up. In the 5th grade, I was messing around with some friends outside during PE while the teacher was giving instructions for softball. He looked at me and said, “Quit messing around you turkey!”. I responded with a chicken noise! lol! oops! Anyways, turkey stuck and it was my nickname all through the 5th grade and Middle School. Even when I moved to a new city in High School there were some kids at the new school from my middle school and so I even heard the nick name there. A couple of years ago my mom was at the mall with my brothers. Someone that I went to elementary school with came up to her and asked, “Aren’t you Turkey’s mom?”.

Then since my name looks like it should be pronounced as “Seen”, an elderly lady in my congregation always called me Seen instead of Sean. Others noticed this and would call me “Seen” just to be funny. I never had the heart to correct a lady in her 80’s but about a year ago someone came up to me while I was talking to this elderly lady after the church and said my real name followed by a question. After I finished the conversation I continued my conversation with the elderly lady. She then asked me, “Is your name Sean?”. I said yes and then she commented that all these years she thought my name was pronounced “Seen”. I said, “Oh really, I never noticed”. lol!

Saying Goodbye to Old Choices!

So, in an attempt to get my mind off of something else, I make this post. As y’all know I am very active in my faith community. This is not very common for a young adult in the Northwest and therefore I am often made to be the example. That can be way too much to uphold and thus very uncomfortable. For in my young age I have made some stupid decisions. Also, I have been an adult longer than I have actually been an adult. Does that make sense? Lol! I often acted like an adult in my teen years. I once had a church leader ask me if I was interested in directing a children’s camp (have to be 21 to do so). I politely told them, “Ummm…..I’m only 14 years old”. She was surprised to hear this as she thought I was in my 20’s already. Again, I was often made to be the example while growing up because of my maturity.

Though, the realization is that regardless of who we are or what we do, we all make mistakes. Some bigger than others, but we all make mistakes. For me my biggest mistake has been related to my finances. I think this is on my mind because it is now my job (part of it at least) to be a payee for those who can’t handle there own my money. Fresh out of high school and after starting my first job I was offered several credit cards. I took them. I maxed them out. Biggest mistake I could make as a youth fresh out of high school. Then, for three and half years I worked for 2 different payday loan companies. I knew the business and how to work it. I know what I could and couldn’t get away with. Therefore, I got payday loans. This was pure stupidity on my part. I am still paying for those decisions and will be for a while now.

Then, came another big mistake. I decided to quit my job with the payday loan company. My last day of work was in March of 2007. It wasn’t stupid to quit the job for I needed to get out of the industry. What was stupid was quitting without having another job lined up. After quitting I went on a road trip for three weeks with the thought I would get a new job as soon as I got back. Well, I didn’t. I couldn’t find a job I liked. I was way too picky. I got too focused on two positions that I ended up not getting. I was unemployed for 16 and half months. It screwed me up financially even more. Typically, I don’t get depressed but I was definitely at a low point during this time. I was too afraid to go to a job interview. I would arrive for the interview to find myself never getting out of the car and end up going home. I did this repeatedly.

Well, as you all know I now have a good job, am living in a new area, and am basically starting a new life. I am happy I made the decision to take this job. My finances will begin to start getting figured out. I have learned from the mistakes in my past and am ready to move forward.

Also, I am ready to work on my weight issue. With all the changes going on I have a new lease on life and I am going to embrace it for all it’s worth. Both of my brothers have lost a lot of weight and so has my mom. It’s my turn and I am going to do something about it. I say this publicly with the hope that I will be able to stick to it since I am putting it out there for the world to read. As it is, I have found myself eating a lot less these past couple of weeks. Eventually, I will begin the exercise aspect of losing weight and most importantly, becoming healthier. For now, working on the diet is the most important thing. I have always felt like a skinny guy in a fat suit and I am ready to make that a reality. Well, without the whole fat suit part. I mean, that would just be uncomfortable.

So, that’s it. I have made some wrong choices but I am turning over a new leaf. To quote the Bon Jovi song:

It’s my life
And it’s now or never
‘Cause I ain’t gonna live forever
I just want to live while I’m alive
(It’s my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I’m alive
It’s my life

Can I get an Amen?

My first day of work with the Share & Care House

Well, my first day of work has been completed! Woo-Hoo!!!

It’s funny, usually I am up late the night before I start a new job because of being full of anxiety. Well, not last night. Yes, I did stay up late. I mean, I do have a reputation to uphold! There was no anxiety though. I was too excited to have anxiety. I think that was mostly because I already knew my boss and some of my co-workers.

So, this morning I left my dad’s home in Kirkland at 8:45. I arrived in Puyallup by 9:30. I was surprised that it only took me 45 minutes to get there. Since I didn’t need to be there until 10 I went to a nearby store and then browsed an “Apartments for Rent” catalog.

My workday was filled with an overload of information, mostly computer inputting stuff. It will all work out in the end just need time to apply what I am learning. All the staff at the Puyallup office (where my training is taking place) are great! Tomorrow, I believe we will be going down to the Tacoma office to meet other co-workers and for me to see what happens there. Eventually I will be based out of the office in West Seattle.

After the long day of learning I went to the home of the Director of the Share & Care House where I will be staying while training is taking place. We had dinner on the deck, visited, and then I retired to the room that I will be staying in so I could work on some different things.

It was a FULL but GREAT first day of work. I am still loving the changes that are happening in my life!

Saying Goodbye (and Hello!)

The time has come. I am about to spend what will be my last night in the house that I have called home since December 1999. Everything is packed and in boxes. In the morning (well, technically later this morning) I will leave and only return to get more of my belongings. I am ready for this. I am sure the magnitude of this change will hit me at some point but for now I am embracing and welcoming it.

I just finished packing as many boxes into my vehicle as possible. I have a load of clothes in the dryer and towels in the washer. As soon as the clothes are dry I will fold them, put the towels in the dryer, and then go to bed. I will only be getting about 4 hours of sleep tonight. Thankfully, I have very little to do in the morning to get ready before I leave.

In the morning I will drive down to my dad’s in Kirkland and drop off a load of boxes (where I will be storing them in his garage). From there I will drive to the Auburn Congregation for my first Sunday there as an official member of the congregation. After church I will go to the director’s home of the Samish Family Reunion for a post/pre meeting and lunch. Then it will be back to the Auburn Congregation for an evening Intergenerational Contemporary Service. Following that I will most likely go back to my dads for the night. Then on Monday morning I will have my first day of work with the Share & Care House. Woo-Hoo!

Reminiscing…..

This afternoon I went upstairs to get my stuff out of the storage. I had 36 boxes up there! 36 boxes! How the heck can I have that much crap? Then on top of that I had a big storage canister full of old clothes and 2 big trash bags full of the stuffed animals from when I was a kid. Most of the boxes were books, old clothes, Christmas decorations and other odds and ends.

So, this evening I started going through everything to decide what I was gonna keep, donate, throw away, etc.

First, I started tackling the books. Now, I collected books when I was growing up. Still do to some extent. When my grandma got married in 1995 I took a lot of her books. They have been sitting in boxes ever since. Most of them will be given away or thrown away. As I was going through the books this evening I came across some that I loved back in Elementary School. They would be such classics as “The Turkey that Ate My Father” and “Abe Lincoln for Class President”. Lol! How are those for some titles! Ok, so not really classics.

Then, I started going through the miscellaneous stuff. First I went through some old kitchen stuff. I will be giving most of it to my brothers. Then I went through a box that had my old cub scouts uniform, etc. Oh, the days! Then one of the last miscellaneous boxes I went through had stuff in it from my elementary and middle school days. This included old crafts, assignments, etc. I found the poems that I had written in the 8th grade and previously posted on here. I also found the class pictures from my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes. Oh, I also played the lead in my 5th grade performance. It was a 50’s theme and I played the DJ. Well, I found my note cards with my script as well as the bulletins that were passed out at the performance.

Lastly, I tackled the boxes of clothes. I have mostly kept the clothes because when I loose weight, I will fit back into a lot of them. It will happen! So, I started going through them this evening. I put into grocery bags the ones I no longer want and will donate them to a local clothes drop off location. The ones I want to wear again someday (when I loose the weight) were repacked. Then there were some that will just get tossed out. I found clothes that I remember wearing back in middle school. Seeing the old clothes caused me to recall memories from when I wore them or where I got them. One shirt I got while sight seeing in the Cascade Mountains. One was a shirt I got from my dad and former step-mom when they visited San Diego. There were old church shirts. Some clothes made wonder, “WHAT WAS I THINKING?”! lol!

So, I haven’t quite tackled that stack of 36 boxes yet but I am a lot closer! Who knows what other memories will arise by the time I am all done.

The Packing Continues

Well as previously announced, I am moving. I got a new job that is taking me to the South King County area of Washington State. I have spent the past 4 days putting my life in boxes. It is amazing how much stuff you accumulate over time. It is hard to believe that I am having to pack so many boxes just from what is in my small studio apartment. It’s crazy. Especially, when half of my stuff has already been packed up and in storage since May.

So far I have almost finished packing everything in my apartment. My kitchen is completely packed. All that is really left is a few odds and ends. I still have to go through my shed. Most of what is in there is my camping stuff though. Then I have the storage upstairs to go through. I have all my Christmas decoration up there. I also have all my old stuffed animals from when I was a kid (yes, I kept them). I also have boxes of books, old clothes, and other miscellaneous things to go through from the storage.

Just a few more days until I leave. I have to be all packed by Saturday early afternoon because I have a wedding at Samish Island Campgrounds to go to that night. Then on Sunday morning I will drive south. I’ll go to church at my new home congregation (the Auburn Community of Christ Congregation) on Sunday morning, then have to go to a lunch/post/pre planning committee meeting for the Samish Family Reunion, and then back to church for the inaugural Sunday Evening Contemporary Service at the Auburn Congregation.

I am just so happy right now. My Aunt Arta Rose and Uncle Mark from my dad’s side of the family took me out to lunch today and my aunt asked me what I will miss most about Marysville. I said “Honestly, nothing”. As of right now, I mean that. I am so beyond ready to leave the area that I grew up in and start this new chapter of my life.

Good News To Share!

Well, a lot of changes are in my near future! What is spurring all this change is that I got a job! I will be working for the Share & Care House. This is an organization that is affiliated with my church but is not owned by it (or something to that affect). From what I can best understand, my job will contain two main functions. One, I will be a payee for those that cannot pay their own bills. Then second, I will do guardianship work. That is, taking clients to the store, doctors appointments, etc. I am so excited to get this job. I stupidly turned down a job opportunity with them a year ago but luckily was given a second opportunity. I am so excited. Essentially, I will get paid to do ministry. At least, that is how I view it. My job contains office work for part of the time and then in the field part of the time. I will begin my work with the Share & Care House in a little over a week.

With this new job I will be moving south to the greater Auburn, WA, area. I have wanted to move to this area for a while now. I knew when I moved out of the family home I wanted to move far enough away to feel like I was on my own but not too far away from my family, friends, etc. Auburn is about an hour from where I live now. This is actually happening at just the right time as our family home, if not sold by August 6^th, will go into foreclosure. When my grandma was alive and living with us, she paid half the bills. It has been a little over two years since she passed and mom just can’t afford the house anymore. Since it hasn’t sold, foreclosure is scheduled to happen next month. So, this job and subsequent move is happening at just the right time.

Though, of course, that means I have to have everything packed within the next week. While training is going on I will be staying at the home of the Director of the Share & Care House. If I don’t have an apartment/room to rent/etc. by the time training is over, then I will probably see if I can move into my dads until I can get into a place. So, since I will be leaving for training in a little over a week, and the house will go into foreclosure within three weeks, I will have to have everything in my apartment here at the family home all packed and in storage by next weekend. (I know, that was a run on sentence but this is a blog so that is allowed! J)

Then on top of all this, I will also be transferring my church membership to the Auburn Community of Christ Congregation. I have been attending the Cedarcrest Community of Christ Congregation, where I serve as the Communications Coordinator and as a Counselor to the Pastor, since I was three years old (it was previously the Everett Congregation). I am looking forward to this new congregation though. There is a lot going on there with potential for much more. Transferring to that congregation will allow me to grow even more in my ministry. I will be worshipping with a group of people that know me as a young adult and not as a child/teen/young adult.

So, the future looks bright. I will be working for a GREAT company in an area of Washington State that I have wanted to live. It is almost surreal to think about all that is going on in my life right now. As crazy as it all is at the moment, I feel so blessed!

The funk has passed!

I awoke on Sunday morning feeling refreshed, though very stressed. A good nights sleep got me out of my funk but did not cause me to feel any better about the upcoming camp that was to start later that day. Around 1 PM I drove into town to turn my cell phone back on so now that is taken care of. I am very happy to have my phone back!

As Sunday evening approached and I got to interact more with the campers the stress started to alieve. By the time the night came the stress had mostly passed. It will be a weird week because we are so few in numbers (staff and campers) but I know it will be great. I just have to remind myself that I am here for the campers and not for me. I know I will be blessed.