Day two.

There's something about the first of a month that makes me feel hopeful and excited. Or, alternately, immediately stressed out. When you're just looking at things day-to-day, life can seem somewhat mundane, but when you are looking at things coming up, things take on a different sort of meaning. The emotional connotation behind the events in our lives is much bigger when seen from a distance.

September is an exciting time of year. Things are still relatively warm, and the crispness of the air holds lots of promises of good things ahead. Fall usually brings plenty of new opportunities and challenges, and this one is looking to be especially full. My sister's wedding in 11 days (!), new classes, the college ministry I'm involved with is getting started up again... some really sweet stuff.

Thankfully, this First of September has proved to be a good one. A very happy birthday to Jon Palmer today! Jon is one of my closest friends from a while back... he’s a deep thinker, and also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, without those two being mutually exclusive. He and I have been involved in ministry together for several years in different forms; Jon tends to do more drama and speaking, while I’m usually leading worship. I’m always blessed when we get a chance to collaborate. I’d say that we’re similar enough to get along really well, but different enough to keep things interesting by challenging each other - the best kind of friendship. Some ways in which I look up to Jon:

1. He’s, like, 17 inches taller than I am in real life.
2. He’s a dang good cook. Seriously, if I could just throw stuff together like that guy does, I'd be pretty pleased with myself.
3. He and I share a love of literature and language(s), but he is head and shoulders above me in his understanding of both. Thanks for slumming, dude.
4. That frickin playing basketball thing.

That’s just for starters. Today we hit up the MN State Fair with my wife and some good friends for a few hours of solid eating and walking around to celebrate the day. Feliz cumpleanos, buddy.

Secondly, the new Bon Appetit magazine was delivered yesterday. I can't tell you how happy this day of the month makes me. Seriously, just look at that picture on the front! That is some hot food. It's impossible to exactly pinpoint the time when I decided cooking might actually be fun, but it was only in the last few years. The number one reason for my love of good food will always be my mom; a close second is this magazine.

Reading it has inspired me to look at food - and cooking - in a whole different way, and to make me dream about what kind of things I could do as a cook. Since I'm not very good on some techniques, there still are some things that are over my head, but it's really fun to think about. Thankfully, they have a Prep School column where they teach really useful things, such as making a pie crust or even something as simple as perfect grill marks. And the desserts... oh, the desserts. Every issue, they have a different main ingredient for their desserts, showcasing the various things you can do with them. Oh man... when the peanut butter ones were featured, I wanted to do nothing more for the rest of the month than hang out in the kitchen and work my way through the recipes. This month is all about apples; I can't wait to see what they've got.

All in all, today was a great start to what could be a very hectic and crazy month. 11:40pm... sort of on the later side of Day 2, but I'm determined to stick to my goal no matter what.

Until tomorrow...