Shane Life

For the past couple hours, I’ve been sitting in front of my computer.

I have a sermon to write for this Sunday. I have work to do for Alli’s art show on Friday and Saturday in Gardner. I have yet to work out today. I have a new blog design that I could code, updates to the church website and A SERMON TO WRITE FOR SUNDAY.

But I’ve been staring at an empty WordPress text box for as long as it would take me to do each of those. Occasionally, I’ll pop over to my Tumblr dashboard and see what’s going on there and I’ve got Tweetie keeping me lathered in tweets. But for the most part, I’ve been sitting here. Staring.

It’s how I tend to get when Alli’s gone. Oh, did I not mention that? Yeah, she’s at dance camp. The one time every year that we’re apart. And I can barely function.

Well, I can function, but I don’t want to. I’d rather just sit here and listen to Glen Hansard.

There are lots of things to write about. I’ve got two really interesting (at least I think so) posts sitting as drafts. I could write about the travesty that is the Big 12 11 6? I could talk about the season finale of Glee (although I did that briefly over on my Tumblr). I could talk about how I went to play with the new Sprint HTC Evo tonight (impressive, but it’s not the iPhone). None of this interests me. Everything is very meh.

Even just writing this out is boring the crap out of me. I know that if I open up Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, I’ll never stop. So instead, I’ll complain to you, my fine Internet friends. I’ll threaten to move my blog entirely to Tumblr again (the only thing I can’t quite sort out how to do elegantly is archiving all my old WordPress content).

The lesson in all this? Don’t pay any attention to me. I’m just a miserable cur because Alli’s out of town.

I used to think that my first name afforded me an amount of uniqueness in the world. I never really met a lot of Shanes, let alone a lot of Shane Adamses. But just my luck…there are like half a dozen of them that are active on the internet.

• The Realtor, (who snagged the vanity URL from all of us a long time ago)
• The musician and author,
• The storm chaser,
• …and now the teenage fiction writer from Philadelphia (who is also on Tumblr)

Great.

Now I realize that I’m probably not doing myself any favors, since I’m currently fourth on the Magnificent Google List despite having been online for longer than all of them.

But I just can’t help myself.

(reposted from my Tumblr)

I started the last year unemployed.

I lost my job on December 11th last year, was unemployed for the first three months of the year, which isn’t exactly the ideal way to start a year. Even so, I thought it was pretty fun. I got to hang out with my wife pretty much all day long for 3 months straight, save the times she had practice, mural jobs, or if I had an interview.

In March, I joined Cerner and I have been there ever since. The first couple months there were a complete blur and then it was summer. The family headed out (I wish I could say in the family truckster, Griswold-style, but alas, it was just an oversized van) over the Fourth of July to visit our good friends at their ranch in Wyoming. We rode horses, I almost died twice there, first almost falling off a mountain, then being bucked off a horse. It was a phenomenal trip and made me remember how much I love the outdoors, especially the wide open spaces of Colorado and Wyoming.

I wrote a post in August about sweatshirts and silverware that was one of my favorites of the year.

I saw a bunch of movies, several of them courtesy of two great sites: Lost in Reviews and Scene Stealers. But the best time that I had at the movies (maybe besides Avatar), was spending an entire Saturday in the Cinema Suites at the Olathe AMC watching the Best Picture Showcase the day before the Oscars.

In September, I attempted to take a picture of my dog everyday. It didn’t work so well.

I celebrated my 5-year bloggiversary.

Alli was the featured artist at our alma mater’s Homecoming (also my 10-year Honor Year). She painted the walls black and had one wall painted with just words.

I bearded up for the winter, just before I saw Rob Bell in concert, which was totally amazing, as I kind of expected.

Alli and I also went to New York, which was a great trip. I went for the Web 2.0 Expo, where I saw The Onion’s web editor Baratunde Thurston give an amazing talk called “What the Hashtag?”

On the same trip, we saw the Complexions modern ballet and ate dinner at Perilla, my Top Chef favorite (from the very beginning) Harold Dieterle’s restaurant in Greenwich Village, which was arguably the best meal of my life.

And then it was December and I started a huge project at work, turned 33, and celebrated Christmas and rang in the New Year. That was my 2009.

As for 2010, I have no idea what to expect. I didn’t think that 2009 was terribly exciting, but looking back, I’m more aware of how much actually happened. I’ve made a lot of new friends at Cerner and have actually met some bloggers and Twitterers this year.

2010 will certainly be an interesting year for me spiritually, as I begin work as the Assistant Pastor of the Olathe Community of Christ church, my home congregation for over 25 years. It’s not a full-time position by any means, but it’s certainly going to take a lot of my time and energy in the coming year. I’ll be preaching next Sunday, January 10th and again in February. I expect to be preaching a lot more in my home congregation this year.

I hope that your 2010 brings you joy.

One of my favorite things to do when I visit big metropolitan areas is to go on photo walks around the city. I was in New York for the Web 2.0 Expo last week and each day I walked about 14 blocks to the convention center for the conference. I tried to carry my camera with me as much as I could.

Here are some of the pictures I took:

Alli and I were fortunate enough to see the premiere performance of Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson’s new Complexions Contemporary ballet while in New York. Alli had identified it as something that she really wanted to see and since it was opening while we were in the big city, we took the opportunity.

Amazingly, I found tickets for opening night at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea, a small modern dance theater. Even more amazing than that was that they were affordable.

The audience was treated to two brand new ballets from Rhoden and Richardson, Dirty Wire and Mercy (2 movements). The first ballet was set to an interesting ambient noise-like music and is described as:

In this complex world of communication, Dirty Wire looks at the advantages and disadvantages of being able to connect instantly; how those instant connections affect our relationships, what they do to intimacy and how negotiating distance becomes a new element in our bonds.

The entire first act consists of Dirty Wire…45 minutes of beautiful and innovative dance performed by phenomenal artists. It’s a powerful piece, but I felt myself more drawn to the second act, Mercy:

…an epic work with abstractions depicting passion and kindly forbearance with a yearn for grace and permanence in the sacred and spiritual deliverance of mankind. It poses the question: to what degree does humanity have to go in order for there to be some kind of relief? Mercy looks at the desire to advance without violence but shows the inevitable challenges in doing so. Although abstract in its format, Mercy hopes to provide a context for real images of pleading, forgiveness, indignation, grace and pity.

The description provided in the playbill is so apropos to this ballet and is somewhat unnecessary. Much of this is very obviously communicated in the dance, particularly when co-Artistic Director Desmond Richardson emerges and dances with the company. It’s powerful stuff.

After the limited engagement at the Joyce Theater in New York, the company will head out on tour in January, focusing on Southern states initially, then heading overseas to Australia (February 2010), Spain/France (March 2010), Germany (May/June 2010) and Israel (July 2010). There are periodic U.S. dates sprinkled in and performances in Pittsburgh, Portland and New Bedford, MA (April 2010).

If you are a fan of dance, particularly of ballet — and even more specifically, Alvin Ailey-esque ballet and Complexions comes to your town, I implore you to go see it. There are a couple different programs. We saw the one with the new ballets, but the others look just as compelling (particularly Rise, which includes the music of U2).

Unfortunately, the ballet is not coming to Kansas City, but if it’s coming near your city, go see it.

This post could not be possible without the help of the Complexions Ballet, who provided me with the high-quality pictures and information about the tour.

We went and checked out Greg Brady…errrr…Barry Williams in the New Theatre Restaurant presentation of the Church Basement Ladies 2.

Having not seen the first one, I didn’t know what to expect.

It was funny, completely owned by Janet Paone, who originated the role and played Vivian Snustad, the uptight Lutheran matriarch of the kitchen.

The food at the New Theatre is edible, but extremely beige. It’s buffet food, so…well…I don’t really need to say anything else about that. The service is very good.

As far as value for entertainment goes, it’s a very nice evening out.

I’m getting really beardy. It must be winter.

Also, if you want to donate to support Movember and men’s health, go here. I’m not participating, but it’s a good cause.

Thank you to all of those who serve and sacrifice so that I can live free.

Seriously. Thanks.

The changing of the leaves.
Baseball isn’t on TV anymore.
Football still is.
College Basketball is almost upon us in full force.

But 75 degrees in November isn’t fall.

I’m ready for jeans and sweaters and scarves.
I’m ready to snuggle up under the covers.
I’m ready for real fall.

Sure, it looks like fall out there. But this just isn’t right.

Bring on the cold.

For some great pictures of what fall looks like, check out my friend Ramsey’s Fall in Kansas City – 2009 set on Flickr.