well. your going to have to wait and come back tomorrow. i have to leave work now!

also, mute math has a new song out. it’s called “spotlight” and you can listen to it, here (www.stepheniemeyer.com)

what makes me think i would have liked the 60’s? i think i would have enjoyed all of the above, but most of all, the music. i can’t imagine what it would have been like to attend a simon & garfunkel concert. wow. to hear scarborough fair live would have been an incredible experience. also, what about the mamas & the papas? wow. monday monday. california dreamin. could it get any better? peter, paul, & mary. jefferson airplane. the grass roots. i could go on and on. the music in the 60’s transcends any decade before or after it. so many great artist. it has a sound that just brings a blissful feeling. i love let’s live for today by the grass roots. what amazing vocals! man. i think i would have loved it. yep. even though i was born in the 80’s, i’m a 60’s kid at heart. no doubts.

now, to the crisis at katv. for those of you who haven’t heard, anne pressly, a young news reporter, was brutally attacked in her home earlier this week. she was asleep, and apparently attacked between 10:30 PM and 4:30 AM. the media is reporting that it is possibly a robbery. but, something tells me that this was probably the act of a stalker. since anne is young, beautiful, and on the news every day, it’s easy for her to be identified in public. the reason this really hits home with me is that amanda manatt, another young news reporter for katv, is a good friend of mine. amanda and i graduated from high school together, and lived about a block apart growing up. she’s much like anne. young, beautiful, and easily recognizable. the thought that someone could have done this exact same thing to her just baffles me. from everything i’ve read, anne is a very sweet girl who never meets a stranger, much like amanda. i just can’t understand why someone would want to cause harm to such a wonderful person. thankfully, it looks as if anne will eventually recover. however, she has a very tough road ahead of her. it’s a tragedy, and hopefully the person that is responsible for the attack will be captured, and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

that change came last night. for the first time since june, i went out for a run. while it was a little tough getting started, once i found my groove, it’s like nothing had changed. with the help of my ipod and the best music available to the human ears (mute math), i was able to run without a care in the world. the feeling i had after i finished is indescribable. it’s a feeling of pure joy and excitement. i am back. back to running.

as the days drew closer, i became more and more excited. talking to and getting autographs from guys like deuce mcallister, reggie bush, and jeremey shockey doesn’t happen every day. so, the days passed and friday, august 1st, finally came. i woke up around 4:15AM (which if you know me doesn’t happen, ever) and began to get ready. my nephew had spent the night so i got him up around 4:45AM and by 5:00AM we were headed out the door to meet our group. after a quick stop in at wal-mart, we were on our way to jackson by 5:30AM. the trip was great. old stories about past football experiences (mostly good ole sec stories) kept us awake and alert during the early morning hours. we stopped in lake village for a little mcdonalds (greg thought his mcgriddle went in the trash - you had to be there) and then we were back on the road again. we finally arrived into jackson about 9:00AM. this is when things started to go downhill.

after stopping at a convenience store to get gas and snacks, we headed towards millsaps college. the sky was starting to turn dark. very dark. as we pulled into park at millsaps (we had to pay 5 dollars!) the rain drops had begun. we got out, and made the short trek up a hill. as we got to the top, there they were. the new orleans saints. reggie, drew, jeremy, and deuce. all accounted for. we stood in the corner of an end zone and were only 40 yards away, if not closer, to the action. the coaches were coaching, the players were running, football was definitely in the air. unfortunately, so was a large thunderstorm. as we stood there in the rain for all of 20 minutes, the first large thunder clap, followed by a lightening bolt, was all it took to cancel practice. wait a second, we just got here! can we get some autographs? photos? anything? nope. nothing. the players walked around a separate entrance and just like that they were out of sight. the coaches did come right by us, and few of them even signed a couple of autographs (we didn’t receive any). so, after the coaches left. that was it. we headed back to the SUV.

other than a stop in vicksburg to eat at cracker barrel (in an absolute monsoon), we headed back to monticello and arrived at approximately 2:30PM. all that driving, all that anticipation, for 20 minutes. the word is true. we can make our plans, but the final outcome is in god’s hands.

while most of our kids had the tendency to be quite rambunctious, two stood out above all the others. kurt and alex were more than just hyper, they were downright nuts. i’m sure in one days time myself, along with my coworkers miah and megan, said their names at least 50 times a piece. they practically lived in the time out corner. it’s hard to believe that 2 second graders could be so hard to handle, but trust me, they were. kurt was a little dark skinned boy who’s grin could make you forget that you were upset with him. alex was a frail little boy who wore hearing aids, but knew how to use them to his advantage. he would turn them off on purpose and then use his lack of hearing as an excuse for not obeying the teachers.

michael was one of my favorites. bless his little heart, everything that happened to him was hard. he spent a lot of time in my lap due to his inability to play with others. he, along with alex and kurt, was also in 2nd grade. he was a little chubby with dirty blonde hair and had little to no self confidence. unfortunately, his two best buddies were alex and kurt. they were constantly picking on him and getting him upset, but day after day he continued to befriend them. well, one particular fall afternoon, in little michael’s mind, kurt and alex went to far.

one of the favorite places to play on the playground was the large oak tree beside the sand box. it was near the property line and had a fence that ran along side of it. since there weren’t really any trees or other obstructions throughout the area, the 3 skc teachers (myself, miah, and megan) usually sat near the basketball court and watched all the kids as they ran and played. it wasn’t uncommon at all for michael to come running to me 2 or 3 times a day crying and complaining about something. on this day, it was far from a cry.

michael came running with a look of sheer horror on his face. i was sitting down and he nearly knocked me over when he ran into me. his little face was red from the crying he’d been doing. he could barely get out words because of his constant heavy panting. somehow i managed to understand that i needed to come with him over to the oak tree. when i got there, alex and kurt had this look on their faces that said, uh oh. here we go again. after michael finally stopped crying and whimpering, the story began to unfold. (remember, this was in late october). apparently, before we had even left the lunch room to go outside kurt and alex had told michael that they were going to build something and that he couldn’t be a part of it. well, when they got to the large oak tree they decided to build, a water slide. that’s right, with 40 degree temperatures and coats on, alex and kurt were going to build a water slide. what they managed to do was lean two old branches that had fallen from the oak tree up against the property line fence and call it a water slide. obviously any clear minded individual could distinguish two things here. 1. leaning two sticks against a fence does not constitute a water slide. there is no water nor slide, so, you can’t really call it a water slide. 2. it’s late october and the thought of being submerged in water outside is insane. but, these two thoughts don’t register with a 2nd grader who lacks self esteem and common sense. for nearly 5 minutes, i explained to michael that this was no water slide and that even if it was, we weren’t allowed to play on water slides at skc (i totally made that up). he wasn’t buying. finally, i made kurt and alex tear down the water slide and put them in time out. while michael was satisfied the water slide was torn down, he was still hurt by the fact that kurt and alex wouldn’t allow him to play.

as i think about this story, i realize how my life as a christian is a lot like michael’s story with the water slide. i see things that i know aren’t true (false hopes, etc) and yet i get upset when they don’t come true. i also get very upset when friends of mine turn their backs on me for no reason and seem to show no compassion or mercy. i need to realize that the lord has blessed me with an abundance of friends who i know i can turn to at anytime. i am so incredibly blessed.

to say that mute math completely changed my view of music would be a total understatement. they changed my view of life in general. never before had i even come close to hearing the kind of beats and rhythms that mute math put together. as they played the songs from their debut album, the reset ep, i became totally fixated on darren. this guy, before every show, ductapes massive ear phones to his head. i guess it’s to cut down on drum noise (and also liven the crowd). as he played, i was completely fascinated by how fast his hands were. when they finally got to the song “reset”, a complete instrumental, i was already impressed. then, i became dumbfounded. the beats on “reset” are so incredibly fast, i find it almost impossible to believe (had i not seen it with my own two eyes) that a man’s hands were capable of moving that quickly. after mute math rapped up, mae came on to the delight of everyone (they were the headline show) and rocked the place out. not to take anything away from mae, they are a great band and i enjoy their music, but it was mute math’s show. needless to say, del and i spent the last 30 minutes or so we were there talking to paul at their merch table. paul is an incredibly nice guy with the most incredible sense of music i’ve ever known.

after the great conversation, del and i loaded back up and made the two hour trek back to louisville. we arrived at approximately 3:30 AM, only to have to wake up at 7:30 AM for a 3 hour systematic theology III class. you can imagine, del and i both caught up on sleep throughout the entire lecture.

i write all that to say, mute math has completely changed the way i view music. i don’t even like to call mute math a “band” because i feel like that’s just placing a label on them, and mute math doesn’t have labels. they are not indie, pop, or rock music. they are mute math. they make beautiful sounds that capture the heart and please the mind. since 2005, mute math has released a self titled album filled with 13 incredible tracks. while i will never grow weary of listening to the self titled album, they are set to release a new album this september. which is why mute math has replaced football as being my most anticipated september event.

september. a month filled with anticipation for the life of a certain 20 something arkansan. holding with the tradition of the south, september is a time when young men venture out onto 12 luscious fields scattered across the southern landscape and battle each other in a sport we like to call “footbawl.” from athens to oxford, knoxville to columbia, sec football comes to the forefront. trying to describe the anticipation from spring practice until the first kickoff is nearly impossible. after memorizing all 12 depth charts and strength of schedules, it’s nothing short of complete utopia when september finally comes. however, this september, the september of 2008, holds a different sort of anticipation.

it was a cold october thursday afternoon in louisville, kentucky. the year was 2005 and i was enrolled at southern seminary taking a full load of classes while also working at american eagle outfitters. my friend del had convinced me earlier in the day that we should venture to bloomington, indiana to hear this band from his home state of south carolina called the working title. i was told they were really good and that the bands touring with them weren’t bad either. the three other bands were mae, circa survive, and mute math. while i was excited about the possibility of a road trip, i was a little skeptical when i found out bloomington was nearly 2 hours away and the show didn’t begin until 9 pm. i eventually gave in and since del owned a gas guzzling jeep, we decided to take the infiniti. we drove through southern indiana passing through towns called knaw bone, among others. as we arrived in bloomington, we drove around the IU campus until we happened upon the venue. what we saw next was not very pleasant to two guys who had just driven quite some distance. the line was stretching out across the street with approximately 400-500 people waiting to enter. judging by the size of the building, it was going to be a stretch to fit anymore than 300 inside. also, the temperature was in the very low 40’s with a fierce wind and neither of us thought to pack a jacket. after a few minutes of talking to a couple of girls near the end of the line, a man from inside came out and informed us that we were wasting our time by standing this far back in line because we had no hope of getting in. del, never one to panic, told me to wait in line while he went to try something. after about 10 minutes passed, he came rushing back and told me to follow him. we tracked around the side of the building and he introduces me to one of the members of the working title. we enjoyed small talk for a minute, then del informs him of our situation. i wish i could remember the guy’s name, because i am eternally grateful for the decision he made after our explination.  he said, “you can just come in with us and pretend like your with our band.” i had no idea at that very moment that my life would change forever.

*(come back tomorrow to read the conclusion of our amazing journey)