Run Waldo, run!

So it appears that I've had this blog since 2009, and never written a single thing. Some people (2) have made the comment that I should totally have a blog to share my stories. I'm going to start with a good story. So here goes.

The day: Sunday, June 5th, 2011.
The time: 11:02 AM.
The place: Church.

Imagine this, I wake up on time, feel fairly confident that I knew exactly what was going to happen that day and I was feeling generally good about life. Got my truck back, new engine, gotta baby the thing, but whatever. All in all, life is good.
So here I am in my normal good Sunday and I'm chilling in a meeting that I have at church, having my normal thoughts (read: no thoughts whatsoever). When I get a random text from my brother, "Are you coming?"
This simple text sets off a chain reaction of thoughts and memories where I remember that my brother had invited me to go to his daughter's baby blessing, TWO WEEKS AGO!
Keep in mind, this is his newborn child, his firstborn child. My older brother can "potentially" still beat the crap out of me. This means a lot to him. This is kinda important.

Pictured: Kinda Important

So in what has to be the fastest and most awkward goodbye's I've ever given, I book it out of my meeting.

Now that I'm out, I only have the small task of going from my building to my brother's. Here's the situation: His services start at 11:00 am. Baby blessing are one of the first things they do. I have to travel 6.5 miles NOW or else I miss the whole thing. PLUS! I got this:

Not pictured: speed, dignity.

So I convince the truck to run like a race horse down the freeway at speeds I'd rather not specify. Once off the freeway, I seem to find all the red lights that the great city of Peoria has to offer. Fortunately, once I finally get there, I find the best parking spot EVER.

Anyways, somehow, I still make it to the building in 8 minutes.

At this point I'm basically running inside (RUNNING! ME! Who hasn't run since that dog chased me down in Mexico (different story)), only to hear that someone is already blessing a baby....

HOORAY! It's some other guy's baby!

So I bust open the door....

                                                                Artist's interpretation

...to see that my brother and his wife, Jessica, are staring at me with this look of, "HOLY CRAP, WE DIDN'T THINK YOU'D MAKE IT"

I got there with a full 40 seconds to spare to participate in one of the most special moments of my brother's life.

BAM!