Late Night with Jonny Olsen

Hey there, yall!

12:57am: So, last night was a failed all-nighter. I made it till about 8am, then crashed till 2pm. No good at all. Laura and I have completely screwed up our sleep schedules by talking through the night about a week and half ago, and so tonight we are staying up all through the night and on into tomorrow evening in hopes of resetting our synced-up circadian rhythms. It is now almost 1 in the morning, and it feels like 7 at night to my body. Lame-o. I'm listening to Cartel at the moment; this band is really good! Laura is taking pictures of herself for the self-portrait she's making for class tomorrow.

1:11am: Starting The Brothers Bloom. Not sure what to make of it so far... for some reason I thought this was a period piece.

1:30am: Now I understand. The main characters just dress like they're from 1850 for some reason. Not bad so far.

2:58am: Brothers Bloom paused, maybe indefinitely... Laura and I are Skyping now, which is my favorite part of the day by far. For the self-portrait, she's having to cover the paper in charcoal first, which is super messy and really annoying to clean up. She's super talented though, and this won't take her very long at all. (Side note: Laura sometimes talks to herself out loud to psych herself up for doing homework... today's phrase was, "Alright, Lala!" She's so cute.)

4:37am: Watched a few episodes of Arrested Development ("What about making out? $50? Or is that just LA?") and just checked in with Ms. Lawson... the charcoal self-portrait is even better than her other one from last week. The tiredness is really starting to set in.

6am: Laura is finished with it! It looks pretty darn good to me... we are both exhausted and she's going to take a 2 hour nap before waking up for class tomorrow. I'm going to get some sleep myself... It's been fun.

Watching the sun come up,
Jon

Wow, Nostalgia Bomb.

Hahaha... it's insane how long it's been since I've written a blog. Hi there everyone, good to see yall. *shakes hands, waves, kisses babies*

So, a paragraph per topic, yes? Sound fair? OK, off we go:

Job: I quit both wedding photography and my job at the church in Saratoga. Neither one (separate or together) could allow me to be financially secure, and I felt God calling me to step up and take care of myself; thus I set out on a job hunt. I found one and was hired 5 days later. I work for Claremont Rug Company, a high-end antique rug dealer in Oakland. I'm a floorman, which means I organize and move carpets around the showrooms and such. I also get my manager his lunch ("Hunan squid from Great Wall, Jon... also, get me a firm pineapple, and a mango. Firm."). Cracks me up every time. My coworkers are cool too, they're mostly musicians and we talk a lot on the job, which makes the time go faster. Check out the new website: www.claremontrug.com

Living Situation: I rent a room in a house in Hayward these days. I have a roommate named Thomas who's really chill and has Starcraft LAN parties sometimes. He's also a huge metalhead and, being a show photographer, goes to metal shows all the time. He's gonna get me on the list one of these days. Also, his boxer/pitbull mix, Reno, wants to do nothing but play fetch all day. The dog never, ever gets tired.

Laura: My beautiful, talented, and all-around awesome girlfriend Laura packed up her belongings and went to school in Laguna Beach a few weeks ago. I've already been down to visit her once, and I got to see her school (Laguna College of Art & Design) and a lot of her family members; most of her extended family lives in Orange County. We miss each other. A lot. But Skype has become our new best friend!

(Follow-up prayer request: We learned about a month ago that Laura has something called Retinitis Pigmentosa; it's a degenerative eye disease wherein the pigment in your eye slowly dies from the outside edges in. She's lost 70% of her peripheral vision thus far, and has a chance of going blind as well, possibly within the next decade of her life. This is a very scary thing for her, besides the fact that she's an artist and wouldn't be able to paint traditionally anymore... please keep this in your prayers. Thanks a lot guys!)

Mom: Mom's in the Czech Republic, teaching kids English. She'll be back at some point.

So, that's my life these days. I work 5 days a week, hang out with friends and Skype with Laura in my off time. Hopefully I'll be keeping up with this blog more often though... bye for now, blogosphere.

Baseball Tooth

Ow.

My mouth hurts.

I had dental work done today for the first time in about 2 years, and MAN OH MAN is it annoying. I should be used to this!

Anyway, quick update. Here's what's happening in the life of Jon.

First off, in case some of you don't know (and really, how could you NOT at this point?), this is my beautiful girlfriend Laura (pronounced Larr-uh):

Purdy.

She and I have had quite the two months together thus far... going to So Cal for my graduation, getting dinner in the City, going to family functions together; things are progressing very nicely, if you ask me. If you haven't met her yet (and really, why haven't you?) then do it very soon. She's fantastic, and I have a feeling yall will be seeing her in my life for a quite a while to come. :)

Graduated from Biola on Saturday. Good friends, good times, bad hair. Check the FB pics.

Car trouble, dental trouble, money trouble... yet still happy and not worried. Confusing, but I'm thankful for it!

Working a lot... church and photo. Kinda burned out these days; my body is learning to function on little sleep and little food. But what's replacing those things are a lot more fun!

Gotta get back to work... Peace out everyone!

I'm going to get better at this.

You have my word.

-Jon

The Things We Can & Cannot Keep

Morning, all...

So Mike Crimmins, the "crazy old dude" from Montana (love you, Mike!) has begun mentoring me, starting yesterday. I've never been mentored before, though I've always been secretly envious of people I know with mentors because they can discuss so much with them in such a candid manner. Mike and I have a deep love and respect for one another, but in terms of actually knowing each other, we aren't incredibly strong yet. But nonetheless, we are diving into this mentorship, and I'm very excited to see where God leads both of us through it. We decided to go through a book called Disciplines of a Godly Man by Tim Hughes. I read through it once, but didn't feel like I retained anything; hopefully this time around things will stick.

Anyway, in accordance with our agreement, I was reading 1st John this morning. Can I seriously just gush about this book for a bit? Thanks.

1st John is, without question, my favorite of all the NT books (possibly even the entire Bible). Side Note: the title of the book is not why I love it so much. John just hammers his readers right off the bat with truth; no punch-pulling for this guy! Not his style. "If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth" (1:6, emphasis mine). I mean, OUCH, right? That's just a harsh word to hear for lukewarm believers. More than anything, this verse backs up the idea of actions being the evidence of our inward state. We can lie as much as possible, but our actions will give us away. And then, after John gets done spitting fire and brimstone at his readers, Chapter 3 comes out of nowhere: "O how great is the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him" (3:1). I love this. Have you ever read another verse that made you feel so supported by God? To call us his children and to remind us that we are in him in the same sentence? Man, that hits me every time.

Not sure how to end this blog; kinda tired, kinda restless.

But good. Very, very good.

The Streets I Used To Own

Trust is the word of the year for me. Even as I sit here on my couch, unshaven and underslept, while Viva La Vida spins in the record player to my left, I'm struck by the sheer power of this idea of trusting.

Take this song for instance. The speaker clearly used to have an incredible life filled with power, influence, and wealth. Yet he sings "Now in the morning, I sleep alone, and sweep the streets I used to own." I'm intrigued by the idea of so readily trusting in things that realistically will, indeed have to, let us down. Greed breeds more greed, lust for power can't be satiated, and there will always be a new woman or man. Yet every single one of these things are more trusted in than the One who not only created the very notion of trust, but is perfect at it. If we are in Him, He cannot let us down.

Last night, I had somewhat of a little mini-crisis at worship practice: missing music, missing sound equipment, semi-drunk band members, arguments about the number of times the word "tremble" is sung in a song... the list goes on. My boss, for the first time (I think), was genuinely disappointed in me. I could feel the enemy's grip on my heart tighten as he reassured me that I was not cut out for this job, that I couldn't lead a group of adults into God's throne room, that I had no business being in charge of a band made up of people who are not only older than me, but far more talented. I let this sink in for a while, feeling my head hurt and fear start to creep into my mind.

But then, I remembered. Galatians 3:10: "For all who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, and do them.'" I can't do this on my own. It's literally impossible. And I have to trust Him, because He put me into this job for a reason. Whether or not I'm amazing at it honestly doesn't matter; as long as I glorify Him with what i do there, my work will not be in vain.

Side Note: Andy Barron, Biola graduate, is an awesome photographer.

Vinyl Sunset

Yesterday marked one of the best birthdays I've had in quite some time. Honestly, the only thing missing was my family; but when your birthday is on a Tuesday, that's kind of an understood thing.

First off, up to mom's house to retrieve the gift she got for me from Amazon. Turns out it's a record player. ...WHAT!!?!?!! A RECORD PLAYER??!?!! (5-minute freakout) Yeah, my mom rocks when it comes to getting gifts for people. I've wanted a record player for a long time, and the dream came true yesterday. I thanked mom, then drove off to Saratoga for my first ever staff meeting as a Worship Director. It went fine, and I walked out with a gaggle of new keys that I'm sure I will rarely use... wow, I'm on staff at a church. Still kind of hitting me.

Next up was lunch with Ken and Joe Blackman, as every Tuesday should be. Highlights? Making up inappropriate pickup lines directed toward the woman on the sidewalk in the Statue of Liberty outfit ("I'll light YOUR torch... Hey baby, I'M your poor, your tired, and your hungry... I'm pretty sure I'M a giant gift from France to YOU!") and Joe calling me sexy in the middle of lunch. Joe also stuck a candle in a donut back at his auto shop and had everyone in the office (4 people) sing to me... what a nice man.

Ken and I took off for Best Buy (another Tuesday tradition) to pick up some new music/DVDs; I found my first vinyl record (Viva La Vida, of course) and Ken picked up Quantam of Solace (does anyone actually understand this title?). From there, off to Rasputin for more vinyl, and we walked out with 3 other records: My Brightest Diamond, JT, and Nat King Cole. Totally great finds, and today, once I bring my receiver down from the house, I'll be able to listen to them all with amazing quality. Cannot tell yall how excited I am for this!!! Betty and Julie stopped by graciously drop off gifts and hang out for a while. So nice to see their faces! To sum up, Betty has great taste and Julie made Muddy Buddies. ::raises fist in victory::

Later in the evening, Laura came by (with pie and balloons, no less!) and we went up near Lake Chabot to play some worship and take part in the "golden" aspect of my birthday: sunset. Mosquitoes, cold wind and a mad cow that almost trampled us? Check. Still a fantastic time? Check. We went back to the house and I got to make her an old "family" recipe (literally the only thing I know how to make) while watching Bono crawl around onstage like a cat on the U2 Live DVD. Top it off with pie around midnight and one of the coolest cards I've ever seen, and that concludes one of the best birthdays I've had in years.

And I can't forget my Facebook friends, who totally blessed me yesterday with a ton of messages and wall posts. Thanks for the love, everyone! Best friends EVER.

To end, enjoy this Mute Math that's been destroying me lately: