"Take your top off"

I come to you today with an entertaining tale involving Aaron the Bryant and myself. We were partaking in Chick Fil-A for lunch discussing Aaron's mission adventures in the wilds of Africa, when an elderly employee of the dining establishment approached us. With a smile she said.
"Do you need a refill for your beverage?."
We nodded, Aaron instructed her that his beverage was tea and I instructed her that my beverage needed to be refilled with Doctor. Pepper. Following our instruction, we slid our cups to the edge of the table so the attendant could take them for refilling. We did not realize that we had not taken the lids of the cup. So the elderly employee reminded Aaron by looking at him and saying...
"Take your top off, honey." (I don't know if she actually said honey but my mental replay of the story thinks that she did because she was a kind old lady, and kind old ladies always call younger people honey or darling.)
We took the lids off our drinks and she departed. Holding our breath for 5-7 seconds proved difficult but we did. After she was out of sight we giggled like school children on holiday. It is not everday that an old lady asks us to take our tops off.

The End. I have now completed my quarterly blog.

Chinatown Bus

Hello all its about time for my every 4 month blog. Right now I am sitting in a dorm room at NYU. Somehow randomly I ended up here to visit my best friend Khalil because he is working up here this summer for some investment banking firm. So, that puts to rest the rumors that I am up here to buy pure Columbian cocaine. We got up here on a charter bus service called Chinatown Bus. Sure it was only 20 dollars to ride to NYC from Washington so I knew it wouldn't be great but I wasn't expecting two of every kind of creature to be on the bus either. Needless to say it wasn't the greatest experience and I didn't know if I would wake up in NYC or chained up in a fishing boat in Hong Kong with a limb missing. But, we made it here in 3.5 hours which is way too fast but it works for me. I got to see the fireworks down at the Southside Seaport which is an experience that every American should have, great fireworks and jerk New Yorkers that will find any reason to yell and or cuss you out. Let's see what else has happened, well not a lot, its fun to be up here and remember old times and talk about highshool with my best friend. We played with sparklers last night too and that scene from The Sandlot where they're running around during the 4th of July played in my mind and I felt like I was a kid again. Well not really because there was a large Italian man who was an angry drunk standing near us so that kind of ruined it but for a split second Childhood was there. I'm going home to VA tomorrow on the train, I elected not to take the Chinatown bus back to downtown DC at night. Then I'll return to TN on Saturday after a visit to VA Tech to see my other best friend. My week of Vacation has been busy but fun and its one I'll remember.

Too much work

I have an incredible amount of things to do. I have no motivation to do them at all. Such is the college life. Its been a cold Saturday consumed with typing papers. I got news this week that I didn't really want to hear. I knew the news was coming but regardless I didn't want to hear it. The news further reminds me that my childhood is fading away and the real world approaches. That sounds depressing, it is kind of but it also reminds me that I have many opportunities and experiences to look forward to in life. But as for now I'll be ticked off about the news I've heard and I'll be introspective and listen to music that's cooler than the music you listen to and write my papers.

At the stars...

I haven't blogged in about four months and I don't know exactly why I'm writing anything today. I just finished typing a large exegetical term paper for my greek class. If you don't know what an exegetical paper is go here: http://alpha.furman.edu/~mcknight/wake/exegesis.htm I have an incredible amount of stuff to do between now and next Sunday. I've got two 12 page papers and a 5 page paper due next friday, 3 presentations, and 4 sermons to preach in a little town that you get to by turning left at the fork in Triune. I'm going to Chicago Monday-Wednesday too. But that should be fun, its for the Lord. Now that I've had my pity party I shall go listen to my Better than Ezra Greatest Hits CD and reflect upon my 5th grade year where I first heard "Good" on MTV's beach house. Ah the wonder years have passed. Speaking of the "Wonder Years" I wonder when the sesaons will be released on DVD, for the day that occurs shall truly be a day of jubilee.

Happy Synaxis of the Theotokos/First Day of Kwanzaa

Hello to all my patient blog readers. It has been over two months since I have blogged. I got an Email from a certain person that we will refer to as "Amy-Jo" telling me that I needed to update my blog. She is right, and seeing as how she is one of my bosses and holds power over future recommendation letters, I feel that it is appropriate to agree with her suggestion. First off Christmas was grand, good family times, good gifts. I got the whole Happy Synaxis of Theotakos from my new palm pilot that I got, apparently when I downloaded the Christian calendar for this palm pilot I got the Greek Orthodox version so when I turned it on today it reminded me that Today is the Synaxis of the Theotokos I think that means something like the Beginning of God being on earth in greek I'll look it up for you. Tonight I saw Life Aquatic with some old friends that I grew up with in Church because Meet the Fockers was sold out. I was happy because I wanted to see this more than Meet the Fockers anyway I mean I love Ben Stiller and all but that movie will be around for a while. I loved the movie, it was random like me and it gave me the happy feeling I had after watching Royal Tennenbaums, of course everyone else hated the movie so I became the social outcast in my group tonight. (it is rated R so proceed with caution). Also I have been pretty good about actually reading books over this break to enhance my knowledge or somethin. I just finished Blue Like Jazz, now I can finally talk to Seth about it and he'll stop threatening to murder me or somethin. I'm gonna catch myself up on The Chronicles of Narnia and read two of those and top it off with some Flannery O'conner's WiseBlood we'll see if I can accomplish that. On the spiritual side I'm doin Ok I really enjoy Christmas because well I spend time with my family but more than that I'm reminded that Christmas marks the time that the source of my Peace and Assurance came into the world. Thats what It boils down to for me. So there's my random long blog that will keep my boss from firing me and or cursing my future employment record.
Observing the First Principle of Kwanzaa,
Brian Coates

Day of travel with many inside jokes created that you as my audience will never understand

Today we got to do a lot of the tourist stuff in Northeast England. We started off by going to York and going through the minster cathedral which was a miraculous thing to see and realize that people in the middle ages actually made that. We toured the town for a while, and had lunch at some italian place. It was a great visit. Then we headed to Whitby which has ruins of this old Abbey and we got to tour that and tack three thousand pictures and we toured some more and had dinner. Theres plenty of details that i'm leaving out but we just had a great time today hanging out and enjoying each others company, we had deep theological conversations at times, we made fun of eachother at other times but in every situation we just to use the Jay small group phrase "lived life together" and it was just fun. I'm very blessed to be over here with the people that I am over here with, I wish all the people I cared about could be here to just enjoy this time. I'm getting sappy in this blog and thats alright because God just put on my heart today the importance of the people that I have around me in my life, and thats pretty cool. We go to London tomorrow night, Amy-Jo hasn't had splenda for a few days I'm worried about her withdrawl symptoms. Jay is preaching tomorrow too so I'm going to bring my camera to take a picture of him when he holds his arms out inviting all to the throne of God. Peace out all.

This just in: Amy-Jo gets cursed by the gypsies on the second day in England

Well hello chaps, I just got done drinking a gallon of tea. So, this was the second day and God really used us in great ways. Today we got to go to a school called norton school which is a public school in a rough area of Teesside. We got to talk directly to 4 classes of students about our faith and what we believed about homosexuality, sex before marriage, and answer a lot of questions about America and our culture. It was amazing how God has opened the schools in this area to the message of Christ. Most of the details I will share in person but I really have been blown away by the thirst for God in this area and the need for Him in so many ways. I sense God doing really great things in this area it is much like the feeling I got in my heart when we were at Armitage this summer. There is just a great faith in what God is doing here and I really want to continue to help in the movement here, I'm excited to see the role that our Church will play in helping the people of Northeast England. There are so many great things to tell about today but I'm tired of typing and we have to be up in the morning to go tour castles and fight dragons with lancelot or somethin. Long live the Queen.