I forgot to mention it last week, but on Saturday, the 11th, 33 of us packed up in 4 vehicles and headed to Ft. Wayne for the annual Winter Jam Concert at the Ft. Wayne Coliseum.

A great time was had by all!

Photos from the event are here.

The back pain is beginning to subside (finally!), though I still know that it’s there.

The cold, on the other hand, has quickly become my nemisis as it has built a baracks inside my nasal passages and continues to hinder my “getting well”.

This morning we had a NETWORK meeting. The Network is our group of local youth leaders who meet monthly to encourage and pray for one another. It’s always a good time spent with that group.

This afternoon we have another Doctor’s visit. Tomorrow we head to Bluffton for a baby shower! Looks like I get to spend most of the afternoon with my buddy Steve Zerbe as Rita joins in on the baby shower festivities and Steve and I find out what we can do for a few hours in Bluffton!

So this morning I did what any normal American should do when his/her back pain has lasted for more than 2-days.

I went to the Doctor.

I haven’t been to a doctor in “I don’t know how long”, so it was quite the ordeal.

I left the dr.’s office with a band-aid on my butt, some “Cyclobenzaprine” in my system and two prescriptions. More “Cyclobenzaprine” and some “Ketorolac”. (Both of which “may cause dizziness” – SWEET!)

I enjoyed lunch with two of my Bible study buds – Jason Knepp and Shawn French at El Ariero’s (a restaurant I promised to never eat at again after a 3-visit consistent stomach-problem). We’ll see what happens.

Tonight I’m finishing up a series on Friendship at theBOX.

It will be difficult to be my usual charismatic-self with only partial-use of my neck muscles. Note to self: more fog machine, and more music to confuse the students as to why their youth pastor seems so “robotic”.

It’s Tuesday.

Yesterday I woke up with the worst back/neck-ache that I have ever experienced in my life.

Not being one to “wimp out”, I continued on in my day, drove to Ft. Wayne for a meeting with the District Youth Cabinet, came back to Warsaw and put in a few hours in the office in the afternoon, too. Last night I even went to Bible Study and then – in an attempt to relieve the pain, took an extremely hot shower and went to bed before 10!

This morning I was supposed to join Jess and her 1st Grade class on a field trip to Fort Wayne’s “Science Central”. I was looking forward to this experience very much. When I woke up this morning, there was NO WAY I was going to be able to function as a useful chaperone on this fieldtrip and I opted to head to the office instead.

I came home soon after lunch time to work on some projects that I have going on and to attempt to rest my neck/back. I also stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up some much needed Icy-Hot that will hopefully relieve some of this pain that continues to make me cringe.

A neat link I stumbled upon (even before all of my friends started posting about it!) – “The 39dollar Experiment“.