…and spend the day there/to hear the words you haven’t said, and see what you might say.
I wanna hear you when you call/do you feel anything at all?
I want to see your thoughts take shape/and walk right out!
Freedom, has the scent, like the top of new-born baby’s head!
The songs are in your eyes/I see them when you smile,
I’ve seen enough/I’m not giving up, on a miracle drug…”
–U2, “Miracle Drug”
 
I’m in New Mexico this weekend visiting my girlfriend, so this may be the only blog post ’til Tuesday.
 
On the plane ride here I met a man named Daniel, and we started talking to one another. He is 27 years old like me, and he has a wife and two daughters.
 
He told me how much he loves his daughters, and how much being a husband and father has changed him for the better. He told how he strives to be his very best because he wants the very best for his family.
 
I asked him if he might have more children, possibly a son, and he said he and his wife had talked about it but weren’t sure, because his daughters got along so well, and he was afraid a son might mess up the harmony, and also because it would be harder to go to vacations at Disneyworld with a little baby and older children.
 
By the grace of the Holy Spirit, I was able to offer him a different perspective and encouragement on having more children. I suggested that one reason his daughters did get along so well was because he and his wife reared them well in love and that if they had more children, there would be that much more love and harmony!
 
I also told him how much I looked forward to being a husband and father one day. He thanked me for the ideas I had and told me it felt affirming to hear that where he was at in his life was a real blessing that others are excited about. Blessed be God, and may St. Joseph pray for Daniel.

 
In 10th grade, my sophomore year in high school, I was already a strident proponent for evolution because I thought it supported my atheistic beliefs.
 
People (especially my atheist friends) who have only known me since I became a Christian don’t usually believe that I was really an atheist for a long time. I was.
I have discovered a similar phenomenon with my Protestant friends who have only known me since I became a Catholic; they don’t believe I was ever really an Evangelical Protestant. Well, I was.
 
I understand why people feel this way. They themselves believe firmly in X and have trouble believing that if I had once believed in X as firmly as they do, I never would have converted to Y.
 
I have felt similarly about people who have converted from Catholicism to other faiths or non-faith; there must have been something that they didn’t quite understand or believe in that the Catholic faith taught, I think. And maybe that is true, but I don’t deny that this person believed they were a Catholic and very well could have been one.
 
I dug out an old partial auto-biography that I began sometime back and found this story from my sophomore year of high school:
more…

 
Last night, Katie and I took a test to discover our temperaments on catholicmatch.com.
 
You can take it without registering, though I’m not sure how in-depth your results will be (probably enough to sate your interest). You can also register for free I think. Taking it together with Katie was fun, and then we got to read about each other’s temperament and talk about how it affects our relationship.

 
Peanut butter + blackberry jam (lots) + dry oatmeal + honey.
 
I’m not sure why I put the dry oatmeal in it, but it feels right for some reason. I like the way it is dry and sticks to everything else when I mix it all around!
 
And at work someone brought in homemade chocolate chips cookies (the kind you can tell are really good just by looking at them), and I didn’t eat even one of them to follow through with my sacrifice.

 
Alex Bahrami has apparently pulled out of the real estate deal and decided not to build the strip club right down the street from our neighborhood!
 
Mr. Bahrami, I have reason to believe that you read this blog, and I want to tell you that I commend you for changing your mind about building this place of impurity. Whatever reason you may have chosen to do so, know that I harbor no enmity toward you and never did, even though I opposed with all my heart the strip club. I desire only the best for you, and have prayed and asked many others to pray for your conversion on this matter and for God’s blessing upon you.
 
I am in awe that our Father answered our prayers so quickly and powerfully. I attribute this miracle to St. Joseph and our Lady’s most powerful prayers. They obtained these graces, and I humbly ask them both to give fervent thanks to our Lord for Mr. Bahrami’s conversion.
 
“Holy Spirit, fire of divine love, we adore you and worship you, and we thank you for your love for all people. Please give the grace of purity to all men and modesty to women, that we may be pure in heart and see God one day, as Jesus promised.”

 
Katie’s sister Courtney is married to Fernando, and they have two handsome little boys: Nathan and Adam.
 
Nathan is really cute and calls Katie “Aunt Tatee” (pronounced like TAY-tee). He and I got to play soccer when I visited Katie and her family in New Mexico, and the boy can kick! I have never seen a two-year old who could kick that hard and dexterously.
 
Adam is only about 6 weeks old, and my lovely girlfriend babysat him and his brother for an evening:
 

 
The cuddliness of a baby and the loveliness of a young lady!

 
Can I get an Aggie whoop!? Our Lord gave all three of us the grace to run the Freescale half-marathon today!
 
It was freezing cold throughout the race (at mile 9 the Braker Lane overpass was still icy), and we sat in traffic to get to the start line location for 1 hour and 15 minutes, ultimately starting the race 45 minutes late.
 
Gerardo took off early, then Richard went ahead of me, and I brought up the rear, passing walkers most of the time, since we started so late. My foot and hip flexor began to hurt at mile 6 or so, but it wasn’t enough to stop me, and then the last two miles I began to book it, since the longest part was done, and I felt good.
 
I didn’t have to stop due to injury and ran the whole way, thanks be to God.
 
“Thank you, Jesus, for answering so many prayers for us!”
 
Here’s a picture of us after finishing the run:

 
My girlfriend, Katie:
Beautiful and brilliant,
Joyful and graceful,
A lovely princess of Heaven
in our Holy Queen’s court.
 

 
“Immaculate Mother, pray for her always and as Queen of Angels protect her from all evil. St. Joseph, I pledge myself to you with assurance that you will obtain the strength, courage, purity, and faith I need to lead her closer to Jesus Christ in our courtship. Christ our King, Your Kingdom come!”

 
Gerardo, Richard, and I are running the Freescale half-marathon tomorrow! It starts at 7 am and is supposed to be freezing-cold with possible icy conditions.
 
My thoughtful and lovely girlfriend already bought me energy gels and gatorade, so all I have to do is run the 13.1 miles by God’s grace. During training I have never actually run that far, so I’m excited because it will be a challenge.
 
The biggest problem I will probably face is my right foot and my left hip flexor muscle. For some reason these have been the weakest parts of my body when running long distances, causing me pain that sometimes forces me to stop running and walk for a while. So my goal tomorrow is to finish the race and to run the whole way without walking.

 
For a long time I have dissed the biathalon event of the winter Olympics.
 
The biathalon is where men combine cross-country skiing with marksmanship, and the juxtaposition of these two sports always struck me as odd, but today Gerardo and I watched the finals of the biathalon, and it was awesome!
 
It came down to the very end, where the “legend” was coming from behind against a French competitor, and the Frenchman missed more shots than the legend did on the last shooting round, causing him to take some penalty laps that resulted in the two being neck-and-neck.
 
There was only a few kilometers left for them to ski, and it was known that the Frenchman was a better cross-country sprinter than the legend was. They both came together into the stadium, and the legend was barely ahead. On the last turn, the Frenchman stumbled a bit, and it looked like the legend might hold him off, but then the Frenchie poured it on in the last fifty meters and won.
 
The fact that they can shoot their rifles so accurately in spite of panting for breath from skiing for miles is impressive, and so I will no longer diss the biathalon.