Ramble scRAMBLE.

...So we are back. We've been back. Actually I am about to leave and I can not even believe it. 

You can look back a few blogs and see the times when I was counting down the days to move out to San Diego, in four days I move back home to Indy. I called San Diego home but it was anything but home. I could never really live here. It's has been a blast but it is just not me. And now I am headed home to see what is the next step. 

I don't even know at this point.

I feel like everything I have had in the last year or so is just temporary. Friends have came and went. I have been across the entire US, other countries, other continents, never long enough to get comfortable. 

I haven't had a home since June. Home seems to be an important thing to have. So many people refer to it but are never there. We are always out and about, turning over new stones, (sometimes boulders) meeting new people to replace the old- and in the end the new, too, will become old. Your best of friends find ways to replace you without even trying. Married off, far far away. Or maybe they aren't so far in distance but things just aren't the same. ...And why would they be, who wants to be a bachelor their entire life. Not me. Someday I will not notice that I have gone astray with a new found love. Ah so much to do.  I just have to find where Home is first... 

I remember the days when I would sit infront of my parents house late at night after work before I went back to the apartment that didn't cost enough to have luxuries like the internet. In those times, I would look at facebook and try to figure out who were going to be the cool kids, who I would like and dislike. I searched for cool things in SD. I waste a lot of time trying to figure out how I was going to make San Diego work. In hind sight I would have done things differently- wouldn't we all? No use crying over spilled milk, unless of course you are a Roadie and you dont make any money and when you spill your milk you cant have cereal and when you dont have your breakfast you eat your lunch to soon and if you eat too soon you lose all of your energy for the day and then you cant get done what you need to get done in order to save east Africa from a war that already seemed impossible to stop and now you think about how you would have done things differently and just bought those fool-proof breakfast bars that have the milk and the cereal combined in one nice package. Story of my life. 

In all honestly though, this house will hold some of my favorite times locked inside of its stupid So-Cal walls. Space parties and ghost stories. Capture the flag and hard conversations to be had. Veggie burgers and beer brats. Too many people and too few spoons. Nights when I had too much to drink and nights when I wasn't even invited. Freshly baked stale bread that a landlord brought over and you are determined to make it last the week. I have swooned over too many girls and I'm sure it has been seen by all.  

I can say that to this point I have done some rad things. People often tell me how jealous they are that they didn't careless drop everything they were doing for their attempt at saving the world. Oh if money weren't an issue I would continue- attempt after failed attempt. Every attempt counts towards something though I am sure.

I am excited to get back in the groove though. Playing music and making art. Going to church on a regular basis and back in school (for the time being. Thats a whole other blog in itself.) 

Well the night has gone on for entirely way to long. I have small African children to save in the morning. 

Godspeed. (what does that even mean.)

ps. I am too tired to proof read this. Sorry. 

yeah dude

Hello friends.

Nothing much new here. Tour is halfway over. We are currently in Philly, watching the debates.

OBAMA IS SMASHING McCAIN! Dang! 

I really like Obama and Biden... too bad I cant vote because I wasnt able to get my absentee ballot in. I need to watch this, but I hope if you read this you are doing well. 

PA.

Not much to report here, tour is going okay but I definitely miss Indy and SoCal. 

I am glad that it is fall, I couldn't live in a place without fall. There is something so awesome about leaves changing and falling to the ground. I don't know if there is anything more beautiful than a tree that has every shade of yellow, orange, and red in it. (I may argue that a tree stripped of it's leaves comes in a close second.) 

All of this driving that Beast Coast has been doing gives me lots of time to think, perhaps too much sometimes. Recently, I have been analyzing someone fairly close and I see a lot of things that I don't like. Dwelling on these things while driving long distances is not the best way to handle the situation. I feel like there is a huge reason that this keeps happening. The more and more that I analyze this person the more I see parts of myself in what they are doing. I am a pretty self aware person but it's easy to overlook yourself sometimes. This same exact thing happened back home before I left for SoCal... we always say "Responsibility is the price of awareness." I am guessing these people are in my life for a reason. I am only stating this in a blog in hope that more people focus on being self-aware. Its a vital part of being in a successful relationship (or team.)

Until next time...

...just on tour.

Thats my friend Cynthia, the beastliest team leader I know. 

Girl is rad. 

She inspires me.

I'm stoked to be home from Africa, I am stoked to be on tour.

I will write about Africa soon. 

I have like a million things to say and even a spoken word piece to transcribe. 

The trip was refreshing and inspiring.

It brought meaning to what I'm doing right now.

This job is so hard but so rewarding.

Unfortunately Beast Coast is on edge right now, only time will tell.

... regardless of the outcome, I love this team.

If life weren't running at 1000 miles an hour I might be able to write more. 

3 hours until I leave for Uganda.

Had you asked me one year ago if I thought I would be going to Uganda I never would have believed you.  This whole internship has absolutely rocked my world, I am feeling things that I haven't felt before. My East Coast team is amazing, they are my family, we will lean on each other everyday for the next 3 months. The team that is going to Uganda is one of the strongest groups of people I have ever met. I don't even know what to expect. I guess I know that I will go to Uganda and have my heart shaken but how do you prepare for that. 

Today we finally got to see the new documentary, its called GO and it was a super powerful piece of media, I'm honored to share it with students all over the country. After we saw it we had do a mock screening in front of Jason Russell, one of the original filmmakers. That was a bit intimidating. Lucky for us IC is all about your personal story so even though Jason has a very good idea of what he wants we all will gather something else from it. We survived training. I will fly back from Uganda and join the rest of my team while we are in pittsburgh. I'm excited to do so. 

I need to try to grab an hour of sleep before I go. 

Perhaps my next post will have pictures. 

Godspeed.  

Two weeks in.

Two weeks into this and I am starting to realize just how hard this is going to be. I love it, but it can be rough. It doesnt help that most of us in the house are sick. I guess thats bound to happen when you have 57 people in one house. Most nights average 4 to 5 hours of sleep. Today I decided to take a day to myself. I spent the day downtown San Diego. 

Yesterday I spent the day in Los Angeles, I needed to expedite my passport at the federal building... why did I need a passport? SURPRISE! I am headed to Uganda on Sept 4th. My team will headed to the east coast while I am on a 26 hour plane ride... San Diego to Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Kampala. We leave here at 8:45 in the morning on the 4th, and we land in Kampala at 8:15pm on the 5th. 36 hours... I don't get it, I have a hard time putting all of this time change stuff together. I come home on Sept 15th. And by home I mean I land in Pittsburgh and jump right in to tour. No days off, its the real deal. I've been living out of a suitcase since the end of June. I kind of like it. If you feel like donating any money to help me out on this trip feel free to do so. I didn't expect to go to Uganda so I wasnt able to save for this one... $2700 dollars is what I need for this trip. I am confident it will happen. Thank you if you give, and I am super appreciative for any prayers or thoughts sent my way. 

You can make a check out to Invisible Children and put "Roadie trip, blaise vincz" on the memo line, and if thats you, you can send it to:

Invisible Children 

2705 Via Orange Way Suite B

Spring Valley, CA 91978

C/O Roadie Trip, Blaise Vincz

I am so surprised that it NEVER rains here. I have been in San Diego for two weeks, I dont know if I have even seen a cloud. I like it. 

I am going through withdrawal from my bike and my guitars. I would kill to have either of those here at the moment.

Hope all is well. 

can i just say...?

WOW! I feel like I have known these people my entire life. There are like 57 people in our house, its pretty amazing. Our house is huge. And San Diego is beautiful. 

We start work tomorrow morning. 

Trip here was a little rough, on the way here the guy next to me didn't talk to me and when he did he was pretty rude, no big deal, I'll never see him again right? WRONG. He broke the golden rule, I saw him in the airport bathroom later in the day, AND HE TALKED TO ME AT THE URINAL!!!

Maybe he felt bad for being a jerk on the flight, where it is totally acceptable to talk to the person next to you. 

Well aparently it's story time so I going to wrap this up by simply saying... I love this place. 

...before i pack my computer:

I'm about an hour away from leaving. It's crazy how things seem to hit you. I hadn't really even thought a whole lot about this until now. Said some final goodbyes, some harder than others. I was surprised by one of them, I'm not going to mention names but I was touched. Neither one of us cry very often, but I think we both had to just walk away because it was definitely coming. I'm not a very sentimental person, I have a very small collection of sentimental things that mean the world to me... their gift will be added to that collection.

So here it is. I'm leaving. Tonight I will be sleeping in La Mesa, California- the first night of this stretch of my life. I'm excited. I'm ready. I'm ready to meet these people that share my heart. I'm ready to shine. 

My last night in Indy was rough but well needed. I think God just has to break you down sometimes, remind you that He is your rock. He and He alone. I'm okay with that because it's Us now. I will have to rely on Him more than ever in the next 5 months. 

Good, Good. 

Wish me luck. Pray for me. Do your thing. Thanks. 

 

headed to the BEAST coast

Today I found out which IC Schools for Schools tour I'm on: East Coast. That covers PA, NY, NJ, DE, DC, MD, and WV. I'm not going to lie initially I was hoping for some place like Socal, Pacific Northwest, Deep South, something along those lines but the more I think about it the more excited I am about getting the east coast! I heard someone call it the Beast Coast and I liked it more. So far my team seems pretty solid, I'm sure this is going to be the experience of a lifetime! I fly to San Diego on August 2nd, drive the the East Coast on September 4th, tour for 100 days, drive back to San Diego, and fly home to Indy. 

This evening I had my last WCM practice for a while. Nathan and Erik invited me up to tell the worship team what I was up too. I showed them a short clip about IC and explained my job and the S4S tour. They prayed for me and gave me some support. I was all pretty amazing. They have always preached about how worship is more than music and art, its living a lifestyle that worships God in everything that you do. I feel like I am doing that. 

I'm so stoked.

Beast Coast you have about a month and half to get ready... I'll be there soon!

...and to Sandy Eggo.  11 days. 

round two. ding.

So its late on sunday night, i'm sitting outside of my parents safely locked house while i steal their internet. i do this every night and i never tell them because they will tell me to just come inside. i dont want to. the midwest has nearly perfect weather. its cold in the winter, nice in the spring and fall, and hot in the summer. just the way it should be. i will miss that. 

tonight was the "bye bye blaisey" ::inhabit cookout. my friends are amazing and i am going to miss them dearly. we spent the night grilling in the rain and then after it cleared up we played a good ol' hick game of cornhole. [you know, the game where you throw bean bags through a whole in a little homemade tilted platform thing.] there are people in that group that define who i am. there are people in that group that i have poured my soul into. there are people on that group that have poured their soul and then some into mine. 

i am starting to come to the realization that im leaving soon. everything has this, "i wonder if people in other parts of the country do this?" question tagged to it. everything here will be a memory soon, but then again everything you do will end up a memory. i guess thats a pretty negative way to look at it.  i just dont have a clue what to expect. a girl that use to be a roadie told me thats for the best. i am excited to get to know these people, and i am definitely looking forward to living in a community with them. 

most of my money is raised, praise God for that. i wasn't sure if that was going to work out in such a timely fashion. the next 12 days will consist of deciding what to take, and how to take it. i guess relevant magazine says its cheaper to ship luggage than to take it these days. crazy.

i said i wasn't going to, but i am halfway tempted to go watch dark knight in the next few days, very rarely do people talk this much about a movie only to be let down by it. call me what you want but i hated the movie sin city. it just wasn't my thing. people wouldn't shut up about that. 

here is something worth checking out though. ratatat's new album "lp3" its amazing. i cant think of the last time i bought an album and EVERY single track was amazing. this one is though, i promise.  

john cleveland posed an interesting question today: "can you or anyone else mess up God's plan for life? or is that God's plan and its just not the way you saw it? your mess up is just a step to the final outcome." i dont know. you can call it what you want but i honestly just dont know. i think they call that predestination but if that were the case why even try to do whats "right" ...unless thats just part of Gods plan. 

too much for this tired little brain of mine.

well its time to pack up and head to the jank apartment that i sometimes attempt to call home, i havent felt at "home" in months. its time to move, make a new home.

peace out girl scout. 

Thirteen days till GO time.

So I leave 13 days from this very moment. Last night, my family had a "farewell party" for me. To my surprise we had a full house and I got to share what I am doing to pretty much everyone there. Its weird because I come from one of those big families that we only see each other at funerals and holidays. In all honesty I like it that way, not that I don't love my family to death but I think you will be better off in life if you surround yourself with more friends than family because you decide who your friends are and if they hang around enough they become true family. Real brothers are made in time and love. 

It's weird to think that these are my final days here, today was the last day that I get to play guitar with my WCM family, tonight may be my last midwestern cookout for a while, August 1st marks my last day "rockin' the bar at the Star'." I am not one to say "goodbye" to people. I am not good at it. I don't like it. "See you soon" sometimes feels better even if I never plan to see someone again. It's non-confrontational. I like it. 

I am thankful for the way that some people come through just when you feel like there isn't much hope left. Last night I was truely blessed after my family left, a third of my trip was paid for by a good friend. I was in awe. I have had to learn to just trust God and things work themselves out on His time. "Leave your agenda at the door."

Facebook ruined my surprise party tonight. "Bye bye Blaisey" has like 25 confirmed guests. Thanks facebook, you're a peach. I don't really like surprises anyway. I am however going to miss my ::inhabit crew while I'm gone. They are my best friends. 

I have been thinking a lot about what is going to happen after my time with Invisible Children. I still have no idea where I will end up or what I'll be doing but I did decide on one thing. I am getting a dog. An Italian Mastiff to be exact. I fell in love with a friends mastiff and I think it would be good for me. If you have ideas for names let me know.