#TheSeriesofLifeUpdates

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Tax Season Part 2 : Mar - Apr

Hello.

How are ya? Doing well I hope.

I’m doing much better now that tax season is over.

But March and the first half of April were rough to say the least.

Let’s reminisce, shall we?

First, the customary calendar pictures. Spoiler alert: I’m changing up the pattern of my blue highlighter in May. Big news, I know.

I started March off by hosting a game night, which I greatly enjoyed. It felt ...right to be playing the host again. I love it.

I got my passport and can officially say I’M GOING TO PARAGUAY in July with the youth group. Many days in tax season I wished it was July 22nd already and we were on the way. Fun fact: I once heard or read that only 3% of American have a passport. I am happy to be in the minority.

March 6th may be the highlight of my last two months. I went to the Rock and Worship Roadshow in Pittsburgh to see Crowder (and a few other bands that were touring together). He only had half an hour, but it doesn’t take long for that man to captivate your spirit and take you somewhere else. This is what I said about it in a text later that night, “I realized on the way home that I was fully incapable of taking it all in live. I wanted to focus on the words, the instruments, the atmosphere, the lights, the people, the sounds. My mind, heart, and soul didn’t know how to balance it out. It transcended this world and took us to the very porch of heaven.” 

Trying to be artistic during someone who is not Crowder was playing:

Crowder’s short set was so spectacular that as soon as it was finished, we looked up the closest stop on his solo tour and decided then and there that we had to find a way to get there. More on that later.

The net significant moment in March was when I gave my testimony at Crave, which is my youth group. I thought it was a great opportunity to be an example of how to be open and vulnerable in front of the very people I was trying to convince to be open and vulnerable. I told my story in two ways, once through the public eye and then through the my eyes AKA the real story of my life. I had some positive feedback from some of the students who related to my story and one student ended up meeting with me to share their life story for the first time. Every Monday night and the time I’ve spent investing in these students outside of Monday nights instantly became worth it. For a moment in this student’s life, the walls crumbled like Jericho and scars starting looking a little more like beauty marks. I closed my testimony with these words:

And then I turned 23 on the 13th. After a 10 hour work day (woo! fun!) I went to play indoor frisbee, which was awesome. Afterwards, some thoughtful and great friends made me ice cream pies. Was it messy? Yes. Yes it was. Was it worth it? Yes. Yes it was. This is me turning 3:

The rest of March was like this: I went to a sportsmen dinner, which was tasty. I went to Quaker Steak & Lube with the cousins, which was tasty. I went Chick-fil-a with some Geneva friends, which was tasty. And I helped at a “Dine Like the World” Paraguay fundraiser, which also was tasty. 

Short Intermission:

Someone finally figured out that it’s more about what’s on the inside than the outside:

On to April.

April started off with lots of church stuff, which is always good. I went to a Maundy Thursday service with my mom. I guided a group of kiddos through a “Walk With Jesus Easter” event on Saturday night. Then I played drums on Easter Sunday morning. We introduced Dustin Kensrue’s song “It is Finished” and, o my soul, is it amazing.

I didn’t actually sing on Sunday, but I practiced with the mic.

Ahh, this brings us to the end of tax season. April 14th and 15th were both 14-15 hour days. Oh my, around 7pm on Tax Day they started passing out Yuenglings. We celebrated. Responsibly, of course.

Our secretary won our office a “catered lunch” on April 14th from a radio station, which turned out being the cruddiest “catered lunch” imaginable. They took this picture of us, which is absolutely hilarious. We all look super rough around the edges, but you probably can’t tell because you never saw these people before, but trust me...it’s not pretty. We hung this picture up in our kitchen so we can see it every day. It’s titled “Dream Team”. They say winning a championship with someone bonds you for life. I think that may be true for tax seasons as well.

Here is my final tally from tax season, although it doesn’t include over a dozen extensions I did:

Question. What are the best ways to celebrate the end of tax season? Answers. Going on a 5 hour road trip to Ohio to see Crowder. Dinner with my guys (and a few gals). Playoff Hockey.

I wanted to enjoy the show to the fullest, so I only took one picture, which turned out blurry and ugly, so instead I’ll show you the ticket. A full two hours of Crowder was beautiful. Neon Steeple is one of the most unique albums I have ever heard and it was an experience to remember.

Here are the fantastic people I roadtripped with, Hannah and Sam. (Not Pictured: Mr. Kolesar)

Does it look like we were in a car for 5+ hours? I’ll let you answer that.

Fun fact: By the time that picture was taken, I had already thrown up everything in me 3 times. Unfortunately, I got sick minutes before departure. Life has a way of throwing curveballs when you expect a fastball down the middle. I made through the concert and was able to enjoy it though. I was able to drive the whole way home from like..11-4 am, so it all worked out well.

The day before the concert I had dinner with these great people who I had the privilege of serving as their RA my junior year. I love that we still hang out.

Playoff Hockey. It speaks for itself. The pens barely made it in, but everyone has a fresh slate once Game 1 comes around. Unfortunately, injuries and a lack of depth were too much for the Pens against the Rangers, who eliminated us for the 2nd year in a row. I got to go to game 4 with a good friend who received free tickets. We cheered, we yelled, we made our team proud. But it was not enough, so I have yet to see a win in the Consol Energy Center. I’m sorry.

Quick Hits to close out March and April:

I was able to start attending men’s breakfasts on Saturday mornings and they have been amazing. These guys have a true passion for loving Jesus and loving the people around them. We talk about a passage of Truth and how we as a church can serve the people around us. It’s phenomenal.

I’m leading the games and playing drums for VBS and band practices are every Thursday for what seems like forever. That’s okay though, because I love it and the kids will be singing the songs for months afterwards.

Paraguay training started and it’s got me even more excited. I *literally* just decided that I’ll do a blog post on my Paraguay trip when I get back. (You have to read that sentence in a Chris Traeger voice.)

I think I’ll be going back to monthly updates now starting in May. They’ll be shorter so I can go more in depth.

One last picture I almost forgot:

I got to see these ole friends at Geneva after tax season (the same day I had dinner with my guys)!

Thanks for reading, friends. I still owe all three people who read it last time coffee, so I get a free pass this time : ]

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The Series of Life Updates: December 2014

HoHo! It's halfway through January and I'm just now getting to talk about December. That should tell you something about what my January has been like. So, the only way I'm going to remember December is by looking at the calendar and through the pictures, so let's get to it.

Oh wow, December started off with hunting season. I took a vacation day so I could go out with my dad on the 1st then I went the next two Saturdays. We didn't get anything, which is a huge bummer. It was nice to spend time with my dad and be out in the woods though. I didn't hunt the past 4 years because of college.

I visited my good friend Megan in her new apartment. It's cool to see where everyone is ending up after graduation and to be able to visit and catch up is priceless. We ate bruschetta, which was a first for me. Good times.

I saw Casting Crowns with Drew. Geneva sponsored it and I bought 2 tickets months ago, but didn't have anyone to go with until the morning of the show. They are a solid group of youth leaders for whom God just happened to have bigger plans in store.

Drew snapped a picture of us.

We had our annual Family Christmas Party the first Sunday of the month. I made Bailey's rice krispie treats and they were fantastic.

I hung out with Katiestacy, LizMc, and Kari one night after work. Starbucks and Chick-fil-a is enough for anyone to have a good time.

I went to the Exodus premier with a bunch of church friends. It wasn't good. That's all I have to say about that*.

* It wasn't bad because it wasn't biblically accurate. It wasn't good according to Hollywood standards of film making.

I went to my church's Christmas show. It was like a talent show, but it wasn't to show off talent, it was like a bunch of little acts. It was well worth going. More on church stuff later.

I went to Chili's with Debo. We've been trying to do that for over a year. He graduated too. #TeamAccounting

Jake graduated on #TeamFinance, which is pretty much brother to #TeamAccounting. He graduated just in time too, more on that later.

I went to The Hobbit premier in Imax 3D. The visuals were so awesome that I didn't notice how terrible the plot was until I read a few reviews afterwards. I had a great time, which was good because the ticket was way more than I am typically wiling to pay for a movie. I've been spoiled by $4 Wednesdays growing up.

JAKE AND BECCA WELCOMED LLEWYN JACKSON CAPORALI INTO THE WORLD!!! Wow. Jake has a son. What in the world?! I met him when he was two days old and he's already one of the coolest people in the world. I'll be Uncle Sean to him even though we're cousins. I can't wait to watch him grow up! (This is why Jake graduated just in time. Even more on this later).

I played cajon at church for our Christmas Eve service. We also had a drummer, so I was nervous that it wouldn't mix well, but the feedback was that they complimented each other and sounded great. That's a relief. My goal was to compliment the drums and add a little something to "fill" the songs. I played tambourine with my left foot, which definitely deserves a shout out. I love you, Tamby.

Then there was Christmas, which was fun because all the siblings were home.

This is me sleeping on Christmas Eve surrounded by the monstrous pre-production of what was to come.

I still got a stocking, which was unexpected, but great because it usually has candy in it.

Even more unexpected was getting a cajon. I am returning it today for a different one (there were so many, my mom didn't know which one to get). I'm looking forward to developing some cajon skills.

Ha, great picture.

Bella got a puppet show thingy. She stopped opening presents (a miracle) and played with this for over half an hour. She put on a big show for us. She would throw the curtain open and yell "Ladies and gentlmen, GREETINGS!". She proceeded to call each of us up to the "stage" and do our own act. It was hilarious.

It came with 5 finger puppet animals.

Jesse, my sister-in-law sewed this together. She definitely won Christmas this year.

My church's youth group had their biggest event of the year, the Crave Lock-In. It was great. I think one of the kids' favorite parts was when I displayed Trivia Crack on the screen and they answered questions for prizes. Culture is king...kind of. There was an escape artist act too, which was entertaining. Here are some pictures:

Inflatables.

Henna.

Spin Art Frisbees.

Lastly, I saw Interstellar (FINALLY). It was so cool. You should see it then think about all of the things God has created that we know nothing about, but show his immense glory and power throughout the whole universe.

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The Series of Life Updates: November 2014

November. Oh yeah, I remember November. Sorry, I've been so caught up in December that I almost forgot. November was wonderful. Easily one of the best months as of late. Let's take a look back, shall we?

  My OT Survey class ended in the first week of November and then my Community Group went on Christmas break right before Thanksgiving. It was really weird to have Tuesday nights free and eventually Thursday nights too. I really enjoyed my night class and I love my community group. Sunday mornings have gotten so much better now that I know more people in the church who aren't under 25 years old. I really believe that small groups should be a part of every Christian's life.

A lot of random events took place last month.

I went to a gun raffle with my cousin Isaac (we didn't stay long); it was so not our crowd.

I went to the casino with a group of cousins because one of them turned 21 and wanted to see what it was like. We left around 12:30 am and stayed out until 6 am. The best part was going to Denny's at 4 in the morning. The waitress was really thankful and surprised that we weren't drunk. Apparently only drunk people go to Denny's at 4 am.

I went to another community group one night (the one that all the young people go to) and had a great time.

I started watching The Blacklist and absolutely love it. You should check it out if you tend to like cheering for the criminal. Especially a criminal who is helping the FBI take down other criminals.

I met with Northwestern Mutual and ended up getting a small life insurance policy. It's nice to know that I can still bless people through my own death by paying a monthly fee while I'm alive. Nothing can replace a human life, but it gives me peace knowing I won't be leaving anyone with a $4,000 funeral bill. In fact, I'll be leaving them with much more than that to help relieve their financial burdens.

I had two Turkey Bowls. One was a 9 am frisbee game on Thanksgiving morning with the youth group and the other was the annual cousins football game on Black Friday. Speaking of Black Friday, the cousins went to Game Stop at 1:30 am to pick up a video game, but we couldn't get back up the hill to the Caporali house because of an embarrassingly small amount of snow. We went to my house instead and slept over there and made our way back to the Caporali's for breakfast before the football game. The game was really great, definitely one of our best ones. No injuries and a decent amount of competition. Snow on the ground and everything. We played longer than we usually do too.

The annual group picture with Zach in the front.

Kick off returning like a man about to get tackled by a few large men.

Jake's weak attempt to tackle me.

Sure I'll catch it when everyone else just watches.

I got to spend a lot of time with family in November, which is harder to come by with a full time job and all the other weekly events that I had going on since August. Three of my younger cousins had a combined birthday party at a fire hall. This gave me the opportunity to fulfill my cousin-ly duty, which is battling the young kiddos until they all start jumping on me and trying to bring me down. I lasted 4 or 5 kids before Goliath went down. Some of the cousins had a good time taking dozens of pictures with my phone at the birthday party and at Thanksgiving. Selfies, of course. Thanksgiving was fun. My family and a couple other families went to my grandma's house to eat and then the rest of the family stopped by throughout the day after their Thanksgivings. Having the whole family in grandma's house again reminds me of the good ole days when we did that every Sunday. It's hard to get us all in the same place now that there are over 100 of us. 

The kids table. Complete with church pew.

I got an eye in there.

Don't ask questions.

Brotherly love.

Pretzel mouth.

It's refreshing to see that some kids don't want their picture taken.

I want that pretzel.

I went on a weekend retreat to Pine Springs Camp with about 15 of the youth group kids and had an amazing time. I do not know how to convey the joy I was filled with after this weekend unless you could see it in my eyes and the smile I get every time I think about it. I've been trying to get my group of guys to open up and be vulnerable, to share their lives with each other, and to go deeper, but our community group time at youth group has been one giant Sunday School answer. But it finally happened at the retreat. We shared life stories and struggles and bonded like brothers in Christ. It was so great. I re-experienced the joys I had as an RA when my guys finally trusted me enough to want to talk about something deep or when they learned a valuable lesson, etc. Light bulbs were going off, so to speak. I gained their trust and in the 2 weeks since the retreat, *spoiler alert* those relationships have gotten better and 4 of us started a Bible study today (but that's an update for December).

One of the youth group kids had a birthday during the retreat, so we made him the best cake we could manage. Hand delivered in a frisbee, which was the real "icing on the cake". He absolutely loves frisbee.

There are a lot of ministry opportunities at this time of the year and it's helping me keep my word to God that "if he gave me money, I'd give it away". I filled a couple shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, bought Christmas gifts for a local 5 year old through the Salvation Army, and sponsored Suraj from India through Compassion. He's such a boss.

  I saw Fury with a friend from high school who moved away, but is back now and is also helping with the youth group. It's phenomenal. It captures the human experience of war really well plus it's filled with religious themes that get you thinking.

My fantasy football team went off the deep end. I still managed to end the regular season in first, but that's only because I had a lead built up. My guys got hurt and stopped scoring touchdowns. Oh well.

The Pens had one of the best Novembers in their history even though Dupuis has a blood clot in his lung, Maatta had a cancerous tumor, and everyone else is hurt. I love hockey. 

And lastly, it finally happened. It took a few months of Starbucks Wednesdays to reach it: Gold.

I almost forgot to mention work. It was really, really, really boring and slow for the first two weeks, but picked up at the end of the month. Good thing too because I'm the kind of worker that needs to see meaning and value in work and not having work to do made me wonder why I was even there and what the point of it all was. I had a new employee follow up meeting and it helped answer a lot of my questions, which was a huge psychological relief. I also had 5 days off in a row from Thanksgiving to December 1st, which was amazing. You can't appreciate and understand the value of time off of work until you have a full time job and experience it for yourself.

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The Series of Life Updates: October 2014

Hey. October flew by and I have to look at my calendar to remember what happened. Oh look, it's my calendar: 

Let's get to it, shall we?

Work is going well, it's definitely the slowest time of the year for our firm, so there's been quite a bit of down time, especially the last week of October. It's not a good picture of work is like overall because it will get busier and I won't have free time.

Monday night youth group got better. I'm getting to know the students better and I think (I hope) they are accepting me into their circles and lives more than in September. They love frisbee. It's the way to their heart. They play after church every week and I could only make it to one of them, but *spoiler alert* I made this past Sunday, which was in November. I think there is a correlation between playing frisbee with them and being accepted into their circles. We'll see what happens in November when frisbee ends after Thanksgiving. I bought the frisbee shown below today. I've wanted a good frisbee for a while and I finally went and did it. I got it for free too. I used the cashback that I got from my Discover Card that I earned from a baby shower purchase that a bunch of my aunts went in on because it was expensive. I reaped the benefits. They can use my card anytime.

My Tuesday Old Testament Survey Night Class ended last night. Reading most of the minor prophets and talking about them was great. They go overlooked a lot in church or school, but they have quality material hidden in them. I'm really looking forward to having Tuesday nights free and being able to use my Wednesdays at Starbucks for something other than night class homework. I'm thinking I could read a book or study a different book of the Bible with that time, but I'm not sure. I'm going to enjoy the free time and saving gas money regardless.

As for Starbucks Wednesdays, I told someone that I'm there from 5-7 every week and that turned into a meeting time for some Geneva friends, which was unexpected, but I really great. Katiestacy goes every Wednesday, Megan Coomber stopped in last week, and other people might start going if they can. (There is flexibility between making it on Tuesdays or Wednesdays now.) It's nice to be able to keep up with friends. That'll serve as a nice transition into...

...Catching up with friends. I made a list of people to catch up and started putting one person on a day of the week in my planner. The results were great. I'd call them out of the blue just to say, "Hey, how's it going?" I had about three 1+ hour conversations and a couple half hour talks. The intention it takes to maintain friendships post college turned out really rewarding. I really want to keep up with doing this monthly.

Thursday night Community Group is still awesome. We were low in numbers for 3 weeks, but that made it more personal. The past 2 weeks were back to having more people. Everyone brings something to eat, we hang out, then when we start, we always begin with a random topic until we end that conversation, our pastor sums it up, then we start going over last week's sermon. We're finishing up Matthew and then we'll start into Hebrews, which I'm excited about. I just ended that sentence with a preposition and I'M LEAVING IT!

Weekends were crazy. I had lunch with high school friends on the 5th and I got to hold their new baby. I'm watching The Walking Dead at their house on Sunday nights, but it's gotten off to an inconsistent start. I was at Geneva for Homecoming, which was fun. I lot of hugs and people wondering what your life is like now that graduated. I didn't realize how many hugs you get around college, it's definitely not like that at home. I didn't go see Gungor and Switchfoot on the 12th unfortunately. My cousin Joel (Jake's younger brother) turned 21 on the 19th, so we went out the night before with some friends. I played the moderator. I had lunch with my dad on the 19th because that's his birthday too. I got to play drums in church once and that's always great. I'm stuck on the reserve list since they practice when I have community group. I went to a high school football game, which is weird, but it was followed by a 5th Quarter/Grog Night youth group event that I was helping run. It was a fun night. Then on the 31st, I got to trick or treat with Bella for the first time.

I tried showing her how to salute:

But she's better as girl poses:

The Pens season started! They are really, really good this year. I snapchatted this picture:

I student rushed a game, because I AM A STUDENT!

They lost to Philly, which made Debo happy...

More kittens.

The first Walking Dead episode, back with the gang at Nate and Amy's.

Homecoming: 

Duck Hunt.

Our old roommate, Ryan.

And Liz, rocking the studying.

We are finally almost done with basement renovations. New carpet, new ceiling tiles, and soon enough band practice can begin again. Right now it's just a giant play area for Bella.

Quick Hits:

I saw Gone Girl, it's really crazy. Look up a ratings guide before watching it just in case because there are some really messed up things happening throughout it.

The Pirates lost their Wild Car game on the 1st, which quickly turned "Buctober" into "Penstober".

I did the all you can eat wings at Quaker Steak with the cousins. I finished with 24, Isaac won with over 30 wings taken down.

My fantasy football team is still in 1st place, despite one stupid loss.

It was a good month.

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The Series of Life Updates: September 2014

The whole idea for the Series of Life Updates came when I took this picture of my calendar at work. I like to be able to see what I've done with my life after a month has gone by. I have two years worth of these calendars from high school collecting dust. God made me with a weird nostalgic kick and I like to remember things. Maybe that's why I'm good at remembering things. I'm not sure if there is a cause and effect in there somewhere, but that's just how I am.

I want to mentally process what I've done to help me be grateful for what happened, leave the stresses of the month behind, and remember the joys of the month. I also can analyze what I did and see if I am doing something too often, too infrequently, etc. Think of this logical and lyrical progression of thought:

                                               TIME IS LOVE. 

                             WHERE YOU INVEST YOUR LOVE,

                                   YOU INVEST YOUR LIFE.

My life is what I do with my time and my time should go to what I love, as opposed to going towards idols, which is false, misguided love. So away we go.

There are not a lot of college degrees among my 99 member mom's side of the family, so when I graduated in May I knew I wouldn't be having many academic or deep, college-like conversations as often as I did the past 4 years. So, determined to stick around the conversations, I signed up for an Old Testament Survey class at my church, led by my college-educated pastor. That's every Thursday night for 3 hours, plus the hour or two spent doing the work for it. That also helped me get involved at church, which is something I wanted to do right away after graduation. So  I started helping with youth group every Monday night from 6:30-9. And then I joined a Community Group at my pastor's house which started halfway through September on Thursdays night (night class switched to Tuesdays). So here's what my life has been like throughout September:

Monday: Work - straight to church for youth group

Tuesday: Work- straight to church for night class

Wednesday: Work - Starbucks to do my work for night class

Thursday: Work - home for 30 minutes - community group

It's been really busy, not a college kind of busy, but a working world kind of busy. I get home from these events around 10 and have an hour left until I should be in bed at 11. I never got to bed at 11, so I would be somewhat tired at work. This is part of why I needed to start keeping track of days on calendars and then write about it. The system overload alert was going on in my brain. So many new experiences during the post-college lifestyle change I wrote about two posts ago were a tough adjustment. I used the word "was" because I think I'm getting better at it.

So those were my week days. How about my weekends?

I traveled to Lancaster to surprise Travis for his birthday and to go to a Zac Brown Band concert. (Technically this was the last weekend before September, but it was the first weekend after I started working, so It's getting lumped into September's post.) It was a ton of fun, but it was a full weekend and consisted of about 10 hours of driving. Cool concert story: Our seats were upgraded 5 minutes before the show from the "worst seats in the house" to the "best seats in the house". A ZBB rep gave us wristbands to go all the way up and into the Pit. Sweet!

The next weekend, the first weekend of September, my family had a yard sale. It was a small amount of work, but it took a lot of time. I made $7 off of garbage, gave the rest of the garbage to Goodwill or the dumpster. But then I spent $10 on Sheetz coupons, which was totally worth it. You get your money back so quickly. Just this morning I used the free breakfast sandwich and loaded it up to a $5.50 bill. Nice.

The next weekend we had a cousins Friday night bonfire, which was great. We eat cheesy hotdogs, have certain beverages that I don't talk about online for professional reasons, and talk. We're a tight-knit group of cousins. 

Then on Saturday, I had the Noa Jordan and Gungor concert, which was amazing. Jordan is a friend from Geneva who is an amazing artist. I truly believe that. I like to think that I'd love her music even if I never met her. By God's good grace, I found out that Gungor needed an opener, so I talked to Jordan and she was able to make it happen. I helped her promote it and sell tickets and she got to open for Gungor. In real life. It ended up being a Geneve reunion and it looked like Jordan may have outsold Gungor, which is crazy.

Here's a group picture of us with our rockstar friend that I struck a pose for in the background. I even got her broken guitar string. I'm sure that'll bring my billions on eBay some day.

And here's Gungor. It was my 4th time seeing them and it's always great.

The next weekend I went back to Lancaster to play in a Spikeball tournament with Travis. We played poorly and didn't make it past the first round, which was disappointing. But it gave us the time to visit with our friends Nathan and Hannah, who drove in from Philly. It was another grand weekend at the Dombach home. But it was also another tiring weekend of 10 hours of driving and a half a day of physical activity in the sun.

The last weekend of September was the most restful of them all. I played paintball with cousins and some of their friends, which was a blast. I saved Jake's life twice and had 3 out of 4 kills in the last round.

Other notable highlights from September:

The Steelers started off with a close call win against the Browns. Then stunk it up the rest of the time.

The Penguins started the preseason. YES!!!

The Pirates made a successful push to the playoffs and will be celebrating another Buctober.

September is the month to shamelessly play "September" by Daughtry and "On the Way Home" by John Mayer endlessly.

I saw The Giver. I can't compare it to the book because it's been almost a decade since I read it, but the movie on its own was enjoyable. I wish The Giver's final speech was more epic, but as it was, I still wanted to think about it and talk about it and analyze it. Unfortunately, I'm not around people who do that much, so I never did. But it's okay, that sounds sadder than it actually is. I'm okay, guys.

So that concludes September. It was really busy. I was tired. It was the fastest I've ever gotten to being burnt out. Usually the adrenaline and freshness of a new job and extra-workular activities keeps you going and on a high of sorts, but man, not this time. It's good to lay it all out there and file it away in my mind, so that my head isn't all cloudy and blurry.

That's part of why it took until 2 weeks into October to write about it.

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The Series of Life Updates: Summer 2014

This one will be a captioned picture guide of my summer.

1. GRADUATION

College Career (August 2010-May 2014).

Major: Accounting.

Minor: Christian Ministries.

Debt: ~$36,000

Favorite Memories (briefly): Being a Resident Assistant, BFC&T Tuesdays, Pancake Wednesdays, Freshman year paintball, playing for the Hoedown, Sundays at the Coombers. Least Favorite Memory: Dealing with a freshman couple behind a closed door doing…you know. It was my first incident as a resident assistant. Then I had another big one later that night. When it rains it pours.

2. PENS GAMES

My sister and I Student Rushed (even though I wasn’t a student anymore : ] ) two times after I got home. They lost both times including game 7 against the Rangers. They don’t like playing well when I’m watching in person, perhaps I make them nervous. It was still a fun time.

3. BROWN WEDDING

Jason and Hannah got married, Travis and I were co-best men. It was a great day. Travis and I surprised Jason with a bachelor party the day before that included Quaker Steak & Lube, cookie skillets from Chili’s, Catan, and BFC&T. It was great to see them be united in holy matrimony after a shaky-at-times year. God is good all of the time.

4. BELLA TURNED 4

My niece, Bella, and cousin, Hope, both turned 4 in June. The birthday party theme: Frozen, of course. The decoration were so cool and mostly homemade. But I’m keeping this post to one picture per event, so check out my facebook for more pictures of the party.

5. DOMBACH WEDDING

Travis and Hannah got married on July 5th and Jason and I were groomsmen. We took a lot of great pictures and had a fun night. A lot of Geneva friends were there, so it was nice to see them at the same time. It’s crazy to see how quickly this relationship turned into a marriage, and it’s honor to have been along for the whole ride, up until the night of the wedding, of course ; )

6. WEDDINGS

I also attended or celebrated a bunch of weddings this summer: Olivia and Joe, Jasmine and Jeff, Danielle and Isaac, and Nikki and Jason. This picture is from Jasmine and Jeff’s wedding. How sweet are those wooden pieces of furniture? Confession: I wore this outfit to two weddings. (College friends and high school friends’ weddings, no overlap in guests) I really like the tie.

7. GENDER REVEAL PARTY

This is my cousin Jake testing out some Civil War artifacts. I was his best man almost two years ago and we found out he is having a baby boy in December. Llewyn Jackson Caporali. I’m going to be a cousin-uncle!

8. GRAFFITI RUN

I run during sports. I don’t run for fun. Maybe I should, so I gave it a shot. From left to right me, my sister Emmy, and my cousin Isaac.

9. SPIKEBALL

I was made an admin on the Pittsburgh Spikeball facebook page, so I helped promote the game in our area. We played in Cranberry on Wednesday nights and Pittsburgh by the Point on Sundays. I introduced the game to family and friends from church and they loved it. Spikeball builds community. #JoinTheMovement This picture is the group we had one Sunday.

10. LAST SUMMER JOB EVER

This is me on my last day of working at my Aunts’ Daycare. I let them cover me in grass. Two of them are cousins and one is someone who has been at the Daycare since I first started working there a few years ago. I’ll miss it, but I won’t miss it, you know?

11. I GOT A JOB

It was a long summer of waiting. Interview. Wait. Interview. Wait. But I finally got one. I posted this picture on facebook and it amassed 190 likes and 51 comments. I was blown away by the support of so many people in my life who celebrated, in a social media way, this achievement. I got messages from high school teachers, college professors, the president of Geneva, high school and college friends, friends’ parents, pastors, family members, and friends of family members. Thank you all! And as my good friend, Debo said in his comment, “Praise God!”

And that is my Life Update for the Summer of 2014.

[carbonstory]

Intro to The Series of Life Updates

This post is written already, so I guess what I’m writing now is a foreword. I just came up with a title because Tumblr wanted a title, so here it is:

                            -THE SERIES OF LIFE UPDATES-

I’ll be writing life updates each month and potentially a few extra posts in between. That’s all the explaining it needs really—foreword over. Oh, of course, one last thing: I’ll have pictures in future posts. Those are cool.

I started my first post-college job on August 25th. I can officially say that I’m an accountant, which still feels weird to say. My official title is Staff Accountant and I work at Brunner, Blackstone & Associates, PC in Cranberry Twp., PA.

Life has gotten much busier than I thought it would once I started working. My mind has been a store house for all of my thoughts, ideas, plans, stresses, reliefs, and desires ever since I started. That doesn’t sound so bad; it’s normal for me, but it’s different this time. It’s rather hard to explain too, especially to readers, although I’m writing this primarily for my own benefit. I suppose this would be a good foundation: the transition from college life to work lifedemands

                     -A COMPLETE CHANGE IN LIFESTYLE-

Ever make fun of someone for going to bed early, your parents maybe? Well that’s just how it goes. I have to get up early every day for work. I can’t stay up until 2:30 am anymore—or midnight—or 11:34 for Jimmy Fallon’s monologue. That’s one example. What else? Eating habits. I have to eat and I have to provide my own food. There’s no more buffet-style that only costs a swipe. I have to plan my meals. I have to buy and make myself  breakfast, lunch, and usually dinner. I have to budget. This is fun for me-but it still requires a lot of thought and due diligence. Money doesn’t grow on trees, but if it did, my boss owns the trees and he gives me a piece of fruit on the 15th and 31st of each month. And first the government takes a bite of my fruit, then my phone, then car insurance, etc. I always told God that if he gives me money, I’d give it away—so I cut up some of my fruit and use it to feed others. Whatever is left is split up between gas, groceries, restaurants, entertainment, loans to family (I can count on it), student loans (starting next month), and saving up for CPA study materials, which will cost $3,500.

Have you ever heard about the challenge to make friends after college or see an article from Relevant Magazine make its way around facebook on the subject? Well, it’s all true. I can confirm with friends I have graduated with a few months ago and from friends who graduated years ago. Where do you even meet new people? You don’t exactly have a bunch of free time to hang out in highly populated areas handing out friendship applications to anyone passing by. I rely on my cousins, which has been true even back to my high school years. I don’t have college friends nearby, although Geneva is only an hour away and it’s not too difficult to visit, but that’s not exactly consistent. And everyone I know there will be graduated and dispersed within 2 years anyways. I have made a couple trips to Lancaster to see Travis and Hannah, but those were for specific pre-planned events, so it won’t be nearly as consistent. (The cost to travel 4 hours away doesn’t help either). So friendships have to be extremely intentional. I have to plan a week or more in advance to keep up with friends. It’s not like college where you are surrounded by 1,000 people 24/7 and see everyone every day. I keep a list of names of people who I want to catch up with and try to talk to someone on that list once per week. (I could hit them all up in one day with the same intro text, but I want it to be genuine and intentional.) A huge positive to this problem is that I have made the time I get around friends

                          -MORE INTENTIONAL AND DEVOTED-

Along that same line of thought, I still get asked about my relationship status frequently, if not more frequently than when I was in college. Just like you don’t make a bunch of new friends or meet new people, you don’t meet a bunch of new girls. Cue the “where are you supposed to find someone” questions. (Fun fact: the number one response I’ve heard over the past month: bars. Err, no thanks. [Nothing wrong with people who go to bars regularly, but I don’t want to be a regular bar attendee, so I would never consider a girl who wants that lifestyle.]) So, yes, I think about this kind of thing quite a bit—it’s only natural—but, no, I’m not going to disclose anything online because there are real people involved and the internet is no place for dropping names—especially if they don’t even know they are being talked about. I’d be happy to vent this stuff out in person though, that’s cool.

Side note: Now that wedding season is over, my official tally from #SummerWeddingSeason : In 2 wedding parties, attended 3, missed 1 because there were 2 that day, attended 1 wedding reception (they had a private beach wedding). And a good high school friend had a baby and my closest cousin is having a baby in December. I’m getting behind the times, sheesh. I’m not complaing because it’s

                       -ALL BY GOD’S GRACE AND TIMING-

This is now the 3rd time I have opened this up to continue writing. This is probably a good thing because it kills my train of thought and I have to start over with what I think is relevant. I think I covered a lot of the basics about what it’s like to graduate and start a full-time job (was that I what I was talking about before?). I went to Geneva’s Homecoming two days ago and I got asked so many times how I was doing, what I was doing, how work was going, etc.—answering those questions without using a copy and paste answer and adapting them to who I was talking to (because some people were being polite, some curious, some caring) really helped me figure the answers to those questions. I think the best way for me to summarize it all in one sentence hit me last week when I got a text from a friend from high school and college who wanted to catch up. This was the thought that came to my mind:

                                -I’M LIVING IN THE TENSION-

The changes, the difficulties, the new joys and sorrows, the sorrows that have passed away, and the joys that have become sweet memories, the past, the future…it’s all come crashing together at a crossroad and there I am with the I Am. 

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