Andre Cabrales

epiphany... just had one. Well maybe not... I just remembered something that I already knew but have ignored it in a big way.

My relationship with Christ directly affects the type of person I am. I have not been the happiest person recently and have bought up a lot of stock in other things... those aren't really important and aren't necessarily bad.

BUT... the big thing is I have just been flat out ignoring the Lord. Why? because I can.

I have come to realize... again... that God brings me so much happiness when I least deserve it but only when I'm at where he wants me.

Lately... I've been using a lot of excuses to not go to church, not pick up the word... blah blah blah. IT HAS BEEN AFFECTING ME... in a big way.

I've become somewhat apathetic. Do I still love the lord? Yes... big time! But... Am I doing what I should be... and overwhelmingly no.

Can I do okay without the Lord? Hell yeah... but I don't want to. I could be the most successful person you ever met (by the worldly definition)... but that doesn't matter to me. I just want to get straight with my savior again... for my sake... not anyone else.

I love Christ and it's time I start living like it again. What the F happened? I could blame a lot of recent events... but that's not me.

Need to get my game right!

Okay so... I've contemplating why I'm not an A student, getting all kinds of offers to go to grad school... WHY? Because, the only reason I would get a PhD would be to become the real DR DRE!

Don't get me wrong, I love going to class... I really do. But I really don't see myself enjoying grad school. I'd love to teach as a prof or a community college... but... I just don't want to do the work. The whole reason I chose sociology was because I enjoy studying it... not because the degree's gonna make me money.

I was thinking on my way to class today... "self, I'm glad you chose not to engulf yourself with school... you've done a lot of cool things... you may not have graduated on time and you're probably not gonna be making money right out of college... but you have some cool experiences"

I couldn't imagine not being a part of ministry. It's allowed me to experience so much and I feel like I'm way better off as a man... I don't believe I'd be the same if I'd just given it up and gone to school to become and engineer... which sucked... and it would have been a waste of time... because being an engineer major at this point would have meant you will not be employed anyways.

I couldn't imagine busting my butt to get a crazy high GPA... get a job working for some corporation... only to really make that corp more money. I'll take living with my parents and having an awesome part time job at Apple and having the freedom to do what I want any day.

40 plus a week where the only that would drive me to do well was a paycheck? nah!

My life goal has been achieved... I'm graduating from college. That's all I wanted to do when I was small... graduate from college. Pretty sure not many people get to say they've reached their life goal.

So what does the future hold? I dont know! but here's a list of stuff I'd like to do for a living:

1. carpentry (making some fine cabinets and counters with my uncle)
2.building furniture (I'd make some dope ish!)
3. screen printing (same as above)
4. open an in-house coffee shop/bar
5. open a mexican restaurant on the east coast or the northern states. (see 2 and 3)

all great choices... and every option includes me being my own boss. the short term goals?

1. keep my job at Apple until it's time to leave

that's it.

for now... like... right now right now... I'm going to sleep. If you notice... this was written at 12:37... PM. Notice I didn't say "I'm going to take a nap". I pulled an all nighter... just got home.

peacey weasy

DRE

caution: I might ramble... but this is good stuff I think... DON'T SLEEP ON THIS!

1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

I often (very often) consider leaving my faith an assimilating back in to the proverbial "world". But then I realize what that entails... I'll talk about this later.

I truly believe living out my faith, and pursuing knowledge and Christ, has freed me in more ways than the world can ever do so.

Here's why:

If I were living as the world does, I would be very competitive. This, I mean, in the sense of money, relationships (including: business, friendships, and with women), materialism... pretty much be the best and have the best of everything.

The scripture above could not describe more about how my soul disdains these things because of the malnourishment the world brings to my soul.

Let's think about the world for a minute.

What is the point, really, of being the best and having the best?

The answer is status... just so we can feel better about ourselves and "be better" than others. Don't get me wrong, competition is not all evil, and wanting what's best is great.

But I believe being caught up in the world's race is stifling to individuality and real freedom.

I believe Christ has taken that burden of performing off of my chest.

Side note: Performance is an easy "christian" entrapment too... in my opinion, the easiest lie to believe.

Galatians 5:1
[ Freedom in Christ ] It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

BOOM!

The world says to be free is to express that freedom in a lot of ways. As a young man, that would mean exploring my sexuality, being free to drink and explore drugs... pretty much do the opposite of what "Christianity" is or what is labeled as such.

This exclusion of morality (I believe to be a divine installation to every human's psyche and one the world fails to explain) has imploded so many lives and left many void of meaning and outright joy. It has led the world to believe that it's okay to feed off of others and to "get ahead" or "be better" or even have a good story... by whatever means the individual feels is necessary to do so.

Why is being Christian (truly following Christ) so deviant.... so different from the world? Because being a part of the world is waaaayyy easier to do.

Why am I so free? Because I don't prescribe to the world's standards. I don't care about being the best.... I care about being and living life... at least trying to.

Here's my plan for life: If God so desires, raise a family with my best friend (wife!) that I don't believe I've met yet, and spend as much time doing random things that will enhance the enjoyment of the little time I have on this little space of the universe. I will preach the Gospel ALWAYS... sometimes I'll use words.

If no familia... do the same. Simple as that.

I can't believe that I would be the same man I am if it were not for Christ. As hard as it is to follow, He keeps showing up in ways that always surprise me. As much as I want to go back to the world sometimes (don't get me wrong... I DO fall in to the world here and there... I AM NOT above anything or anyone else in this world)... He'll remind me that the World is hell on earth.

My my my... another great weekend.

Showed up in Flag about midnight due to me chillin with Serena and Adam all night. So I missed out on a lot of hanging out with people from the summer.

The guys' house is ridiculously nice compared to the last one they were in. Too bad they're dirty mofos.


Nate shaved his nasty ass beard.

Saturday morning, went out to flag so Scotty could get some nice clothes... from Savers.

The wedding was at Snow Bowl in Flag. It was gorgeous. Beautiful scenery, outside weather was awesome... It was just plain nice.

The reception was great too. Nolan and Mike running sound was pretty funny. All the ladies were tearing up at this sight...


Once the music started, I'm pretty sure I didn't leave the dance floor. It was ridiculously fun. I felt like I was at a club... except it was with all of my good friends.

One thing I have learned about being single at a wedding... women are definitely in the mood to "fall in love". It's almost ridiculous what weddings do to women. At least at this one.

This weekend definitely made me fall deeper in love with Flag.

Ended the weekend with dropping Nate dogg off at the airport, napping, then chillaxin with a bunch of past interns at Mark Boothe's house, eating, drinking, talking, watching football and baseball... excellent weekend.

As for now... just got done with a test i studied all of 5 hours for and got an 88%. I've realized that I don't care about school right now and I'm really going to enjoy myself when I graduate.

Anywho... peaceyweasy

Today was DOPE!

Woke up, went to my nana's and cooked menudo... It takes forever!

I used my grandfather's recipe... I'm currently the only person in this world that holds this recipe.

It was cool hanging out with my grandma, my aunt, and my older cousin Sandra. I really enjoyed that time.



Did some HW and took an hour nap... It was great.

Then I went to Total Wine and perused the beer.

THEN... whadaya know! My boy Adam Castro calls me and is all like "You ARE gonna come with me to watch Bob Dylan!"

I thought about it because I didn't want to pay the money for entrance to the State Fair and then buy a ticket to the concert.

Turns out it was only 10 bucks to enter. When we went to buy tix to the show they weren't sellin' em... it was free.
It was a cool experience seeing Bob Dylan. Surreal really. Thanks to Adam, I probably wouldn't have went if it wasn't for him.

Then we walked around the fair... ate some crappy food and watched people being... people.

Don't eat the corn dogs... they suck something fierce.

Well... good day.

peaceyweasy

This is probably one of the coolest things I'm a part of.

Every Tuesday night a group of us (consistently; Shane, Amanda, Ashley, and Shey) go out to try new places. We've recently been to America's Taco Shop (Named after a person, not our country), and Pizzeria Bianco (don't even get me started! Excellent place to go spend money on world class food). I missed last week due to a meeting on Tuesday night.

Last night we went to Chino Bandido on greenway and 19th ave in Phoenix. This place has been on 'Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives'... so it was an easy choice to make.

I had the Jade Red Chicken and the... i don't know.. some sort of pork. The pork fried rice was good, the black beans were AMAZING, the pork was okay (didn't really stand out for me), the jade red chicken was RIDICULOUSly good (had it in a quesadilla).

The place looked like a run down hole in the wall... which it is... BUT i'll definitely be back for more!

Well... not really. But I'm pretty sure I would know how to if I became so desperate.

Went to Best Buy to waste some time and I saw something called Drive+play by harman/kardon... pretty much an ipod radio transmitter on steroids.

I saw them for 20 bucks... couldn't pass it up!

So... I spent a lot of my night taking my dashboard apart and gutting my stereo. I made a lot of mistakes (didn't unhook the battery... blew a fuse that took me an hour to find) and pretty much wired, re-wired, repeated for 3 times.

It really sounds great... you wouldn't believe it's just an FM transmitter.

Now I can say I'm pretty confident how to install stereo stuff... the right way.

the blunt club in Tempe... Usually known as Club Red.

Every Thursday they have an underground hip-hop... thing. It was pretty dope... to say the least.

I met up with my cuz Angel, Mike Steezy, and this other guy Chris. We probably showed up at 1045... It was crazy late.

Abstract Rude was great....

He's an underground legend... seen him years before with Mikah 9 and Aceyalone as Haiku d'etat.


Then Busdriver took the stage...

Man this guy is weird... but genius.

He did a few classics... everyone went crazy when 'imaginary places' came on... that song live was RIDICULOUS!

This was definitely one of the best and weirdest shows i've been too.

Why are artist all about smoking weed? I just think it's weird and unnecessary... who really cares?

AND... there were people pop locking everywhere... it was soooo dumb. I could imagine if they were messing around and having fun... but some people were serious... AND SUCKED!

at the end of the show the dj threw on a NAS track 'Hip Hop is dead'.... people actually gathered around them! We all looked at each other with that "seriously?" look.

That's about when we left... good show... weird crowd.

Then... as i was relieving myself between some cars.... Busdriver so happened to walk by.... told him good set... looked like he didn't care... i went home.

Okay... so I haven't been on in a while... but here's the latest development.


SCREENPRINTING!!!

Got some supplies from a vendor... got some stickers from the USPS... painted them white... then screenprinted my face on them.


Not too shabby for my first time I think. The way these came out has me excited to do some more stuff. On the heavier side of things....

My grandmother passed away last night. It was comfortable with the situation because I just knew it was her time.

I was more worried about my pops. As strong of a man he is... something like this could break anyone really.

What surprised me was i went to go fill up his tank yesterday... before she passed... and he was listening to a christian talk radio station. That really threw me for a loop.

I was also thinking... why is it only when things are awry most of us take God seriously? When everything's good... we dont... but once we understand or the gravity of life and how much we actually lack control.... that's when we see God... or at least seek Him.

As for my dad.... He seems to be mourning... but okay with her passing. I really believe that the prayer of friends and family has blessed my family. I've never heard of other people in my family talking about God... until last night when I came back to Tolleson after she passed.

God shows up in the darkest places and brings light.

Another great weekend in Northern AZ! Spent it with great friends... both old and new.

headed up to Flag with Luis, Shane, and Adam and chilled at Mike, Brett, Matt, and Doug's house. Logan showed up too... needless to say it was a packed house. We sat and watched football then spent the rest of the night at the train tracks.... It was a lot more fun that it sounds

This weekend was pretty good. Jeff needed some help for a men's group at Lost Canyon... so I showed up on camp about noon on saturday, worked the zip line for about 4 1/2 hours. Then just chilled out with a few people on camp then went and kicked it at Jeff's place with him and Heather.

Next day, went to church at Grace Community with Katie. There are soooo many people there that I knew. Seems like a decent church. I'd go there if I lived in flag.
After church we packed out Fratelli's Pizza... then Katie and I went to Barnes and Noble for a few hours.

We went to Karma for some sushi. I didn't want to look like a pig so i was pretty conservative with what i ate.

THEN... BLUEGRASS CONCERT!!!

Xavier Rudd opened up... His bassist and drummer were ridiculous. Fun to watch

This was the first bluegrass anything I've been exposed to.

Here a couple of birthday cards I got.


WAIT FOR IT.....


GOOD ONE!

From my friends Rikki and Joanna. Good times

NEXT...


My grandma is great!

I've decided to start to post any cards I get.... so i don't feel so bad when i throw them away. To remember them too.

Yesterday... woke up and chilled with Nate. On our way to eat lunch with my mom, had to get gas... turned off my dad's jeep, filled up, then BAM... dead battery. Got it jumped, went to eat, then it didn't start again.... AGH! I was so pissed that i had to run around and get it fixed.

Today's my BDAY! big TWO THREE!

Man... It's weird being this age. You spend most of your teenage years waiting til you're 18... then you wait to be 21... then... well... nothing.

I pretty much spent most of my day driving around stressing about my car... which did not pass emissions. UGH... I need my tags very badly.

It's a couple hours before people start showing up to my house to have a great time. All I know is it's gonna be fun to chill with friends.

Just made the trip back home... It's crazy being in the real world again and away from Lost Canyon.

Just saw my little brother Anthony... that little guy has stretched a lot since I've been gone. Gave my momma a kiss when i walked in the door and gave my pops a firm hug. I'm really excited for being back home and be around the love of my friends and family.

Man summer's been crazy, fun, tiring, beautiful.
Marisa and Ryan are gone... Lauren will be out tomorrow. Man... It's gone by so quick! So... quick checklist of what my summer was like:

• Had a final, flew to San Diego the same day, Two days later flew back to Phoenix, packed, Started my internship at Lost Canyon
• Show up at Lost Canyon a day later than everyone else, spend the night at sycamore canyon (worst night of sleep ever!).
• Worked a mens group at the playground...one of them got tossed because he was small and hung on way too long to help slow someone down.
• 1st session group of volunteers come... they were cool.
• The tradition of going to Denny's after every "Carnival night" begins.
• I take a couple of guys to Woodleaf (another camp in N. California).
  
• 2nd session comes... had a lot of homies come out... I really enjoyed that time... A lot of homies came up to work!
  
• 3rd session comes... Had a great time with these peeps
• Cliff jumping at Grasshopper Point in Sedona... Beautiful
• Jumping off a tower into the lake without the blob being there (check the picture)
• Bought a new camera (Check my facebook to see all the new pics!)
  
• Fell in love with Diablo Burger in Downtown Flagstaff
• Realized that doing property staff somewhere in the US is in the cards.
• Realized that God is totally in control... whether I like it or not.
  

I'm gonna walk away from this summer with a lot of great friends.... brothers and sisters really.

The last weekend get-a-way I'll have for a while. No whole free weekends til next semester due to school and interning this summer... SUCK!

I decided on a Thursday night to take the trip. Called Drew last minute....extremely last minute and he luckily had the weekend free. Alex and Eric were down to go... it was good not to drive all alone. Which would have been very lonely. 6 hours is a long time to spend alone.

The weekend consisted of:

Met up with Rogelio in Indio for some food... wish he lived closer to PHX.

Bought a lowrider bike from some guy in riverside. Bought it because everyone is going to be either cruising on BMX bikes or Beach Cruisers at the camp I'm gonna be interning at... so due to my personal nature of trying to be original (and gangster...hahaha), I bought a lowrider bike. Only paid 120 (which i raised by selling crap on craigslist).

Chillin with Drew... good guy, intellectual, very humble... a favorite in my book.

Met up with an old friend.... Marina... always good company.

DA BEACH..... BOYEEEE! It was nice to get to the beach and relax. Redondo beach is probably my new favorite. Not too crowded, lots of places to eat and walk around. Santa Monica was kind of a let down... PACKED and really not much to see. The buskers were pretty intense too... I thought one of them was gonna punch someone! The highlight of Santa Monica was some kid trying to catch pigeons. Other than that... not worth the trouble.

Left at 7am on sunday to get to a meeting at 1 at the office... other than that... good weekend. Need to do it more often. It was not expensive at all and well worth it if it was. Next stop... probably DUKE CITY to see JT