It’s that feeling you get when you get some sleep, yet you feel as though you haven’t gotten enough sleep. I’m pretty tired. Slept from 7:30AM til 1PM, but I don’t recall ever getting into that deep sleep that revigorates you.
So the lock-in went well. The kids let me listen to Lightning 100 when driving the van and I was happy. They didn’t understand Lightning 100, but then again no one does. I’ve heard anything from Willie Nelson to Newsboys on there. Here is just a small sampling of songs I heard last night:

• Counting Crows – “Big Yellow Taxi” – Cover of that Joni Mitchell tune. The funny thing is that it is a hidden track on their latest album. Yet it’s become a hit for them. Imagine that. A song which was sorta an afterthought for their album, becomes the biggests hit from the album.
• Jars of Clay – “Unforgetful You” – I had heard this song before, but never actually realized that it was Jars. I like Jars. I like them despite their participation in Winterfest. They do preach Christian themes without getting too preachy….not shoving the Gospel down my throat.
• Ben Folds Five – “Battle of Who Could Care Less” Good song. It was a semi-hit way back when. That’s what makes Lightning 100 different from 107.5 The River. While the River handicaps itself by playing ONLY top 40 junk, Lightning 100 is still cool enough to pull a hit from 1995 and play it.

At one point the kids did change the radio to 102.9 The Buzz, Nashville’s Angry Young Man station (actually the correct label genre is “Modern Rock.”) Plays stuff like System of a Down and Nine Inch Nails. The NIN I can take. The rest of the songs I haven’t heard of. I felt lost listening to that. Still it was better than any of the junk the River plays.
Anyways back to the lock-in. After Lipscombland we went skating in Brentwood. Author’s note: Has skating and Brentwood ever been used in the same sentence? But I digress. Skating was good. Carpet on the walls to prevent bruises. “I can’t skate” was the cry of many of our people. But they DID skate and had a good time.
I found refuge in a “party room” nearby. Amongst the party hats and birthday favors, was a bench to lie down on. The room was dark. That was enough. I could have done without the DJ and his sound system urging everyone to do the hokey pokey. But otherwise I did get some rest.
At 4AM we left and went to a bowling alley “Strike and a Spare,” in Bellevue somewhere. It was more than a bowling alley. It was part of some kinda a Circus World arcade. Made bowling fun. They had cool little computer animation for spares, splits, and strikes. And it told the speed of the ball traveling down the lane (fastest ball I saw was 20MPH – thrown by Phil). Anyways they turned on the blacklight and everything glowed. Everyone was happy.
I was too tired to bowl. All I wanted to do was sit around and watch the sideline TV show “Bosom Buddies” – a topic which aludes many of our youth. “Tom Hanks!” I scream from the comfort of my sideline chair. This was his first big break. Kinda like seeing George Clooney on “Facts of Life” or Leo on “Growing Pains.” Kids don’t understand this. Kids haven’t heard of Bosom Buddies. I soon grew tired of saying “See that guy in the pink dress, well he’s the guy in “Saving Private Ryan.”
They played Nelly’s “Hot in Here” over the speaker system. At that point I had to ask myself if it was hypocritical for us to allow them to play what is obviously a sexual song when we had just preached against. Whoever picked that song made a mistake, whether it was the bowling alley staff or someone from within our own group.
Anyways Crieve folks were nice and friendly. I thanked Tim for allowing us to tag along on their activity. Well organized. Everyone knew that they were doing and did it. There wasn’t too much confusion about it.
It has been raining seemlingly for days now. Flood watches are everywhere. On my way back from getting lunch I saw a guy with a sign in front of the local Wal-Mart. The sign advertised Kmart’s going out of business sale. It was raining pretty steadily, yet the guy did have on a poncho. I feel pretty sorry for this guy. What a miserable job.
Anyways I decided to come up with a list rain inspired songs for floor watches.

• Led Zeppelin – “When the Levee Breaks”
• Jars of Clay – “Flood” – and yes, I did realize this is the 2nd time I’ve mentioned JoC in this entry.
• Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”
• Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Who’ll Stop the Rain?”

There are tons more.
Well that’s it for now. Bye bye kiddies.

Well here I am at Lipscomb University – Bison Room. It’s located in the basement of the Students’ Center. They have really spruced things up since I left. They always do. I remember when they built a Sonic Restaurant right beside my high school…the year after I graduated.
Anyways here at the Bison Room, they have Laser Tag, large screen TVs, pool tables, video games, foosball, etc…. They also have a computer lab with 5 computers. I had to wait for someone to stay logged on before I could get this computer. This would have been great to have when I was here. Maybe this is what they used my tuition money for. This had to have cost quite a bit of money.
Phil has me driving Ole Blue church van. Drives like a tank. Accelerates like a tank. I think it was used in the Gulf War. Man, this van has alot of memories in it. If these walls could talk. It’s been around since my sister was in the youth group at church. It was a big deal to them to get such a van in 1989. First used in some kinda mission trip to Valdosta, Georgia.
Lock-in is going smoothly. No one missing. Everyone having a good time. I’m not sure how sleepy I’m going to get. I’m already sorta tired. And I drank a Mountain Dew at the church before I came here.
There’s a huge number of people here. Mostly from Crieve Hall. They brought about 4 of those big church vans. I think they outnumber the MJ people 5 to one or something. We have about 20 kids here from Mt. Juliet.
Next is bowling somewhere in Hillwood. The state’s 2nd largest bowling alley (or so I’m told). So it will be a site.
That reminds me. I was told that Knoxville was hosting some big bowling convention for several months. There were signs up saying “Welcome Bowlers.”
Anyways I don’t have much else to say. Maybe somehow I’ll stay awake through this. Ryan V. already went home. Sick I guess. So it’s just me and Phil and the adults from Crieve to keep watch. And what am I doing? Writing in this stupid blog. Well gotta go, kids…..

So I’m doing the lock-in tonight. I’m not sure if I’m up to staying up all night, although I have been staying up til 1AM lately. Maybe that and caffeine will help.
Phil has us going all over the city. Bowling, Lipscomb, Crieve Hall Church of Christ. You name it, we’ll probably be going there. We’re starting at 9PM, which makes me think that some of these semi public places that we’re going to might have special arrangements to have us at 1AM. I don’t know for sure. I just drive the church van and count kids.
You know, I haven’t bought any duct tape or plastic sheets to make a safe room yet. This whole orange terror alert is based on false information. “What me worry?” I don’t really have time to worry if smallpox is going to be released at our malls. Worrying shortens my lifespan in the longrun. Plus I hardly think that Nashville or anyplace in Tennessee is relatively high on the terrorists’ list of targets. Unless they have something against country music or Elvis, but then again, who doesn’t have something against country music? So why bother worrying about this? Safe rooms? Might be good for somebody in Manhattan. But not in Mt. Juliet.
So today is what they call Valentine’s Day. More than likely the Olive Garden will be packed with couples staring at each other in dim candlelite. Me, I’m doing a church lock-in. Not that I would have done anything anyways. Valentine’s Day has always aluded me in a way. Yet I am sorta glad of that. Girlfriends would be expecting chocolate or flowers or some other meaningless thing like that.
Still, CBS did give me some good eye candy to look at when they showed Survivor Amazon last night. Heidi. Man, is she cute. And a P.E. teacher. My P.E. teachers were never that beautiful.