A beautiful day, a good weekend, and March Madness...

Today continued the string of beautiful days here in Arkansas, though it was a little too warm for perfection, it was still a great day to be outside. I took full advantage of it playing basketball, walking the dog, and going on a bike ride. And, one of my favorite parts of warm weather, there's a chance for thunderstorms through Thursday. Nothing severe forecasted at this point but they don't need to be severe to be amazing. Anyways, I enjoyed today. And Bible study is coming up tonight and I enjoy that too so it's a great day.

My friend from Oklahoma Baptist, Kristen, came with her friend, Bethany, for the weekend so they came over yesterday afternoon and we hung out until Winter Jam. Winter Jam started out very frustrating. One of the main reasons Kristen and Bethany came was for the meet and greet time and so we followed our instructions and took our passes to the right side of the stage. The security guard asked someone and pointed us to where the pastors were going. So we got backstage and we ask one of the security guards there and he said to get up against the wall. After a while I asked another guy who seemed to know what he was doing (turned out to be the speaker/pastor Tony Nolan) and he got the tour manager (whom I've met before but I don't remember his name) and he pointed us to the pastors' meeting. So I got to see some of the people up close and hear them speak but no meeting and no greeting=disappointing. What further frustrated me was the person who we asked to save our seats (and she said she would) failed to save our seats (which were great, 15-20 rows back and towards the center on the floor). So we tried to find three seats together on the floor and people actually defended their empty seats like they're supposed to (which made me more frustrated at the girl who was to save our seats). So we tried to stand close to the end of the row on the center aisle but of course, there are some codes (probably) that prohibit standing in the aisle so the security guard asked us to move. We finally found seats in front of the sound board. But because we didn't have our seats I didn't get any good pictures (maybe some of them are decent enough). So I didn't get good pictures because we didn't have our seats and we wouldn't have left our seats if we had known the meet and greet was a lame misnomer for entry to the pastors' meeting so I think I can pin the blame on whoever manages the tour. So there's your chain.

But after my frustration kind of subsided, I enjoyed the show. One of my favorite tours. Concert review coming later. And it was good to see Kristen and meet Bethany and hear their stories of OBU and their trouble-making ways. And it was good to see Matt and Jamol and Stephanie at intermission. I rarely get to see friends at concerts so it was a good night.

Church was good yesterday. Pure Energy youth choir sang in the morning service. They were good, they're a talented group. I'll probably join in the fall but I haven't made up my mind yet. Am I really good enough? Do I really want to sing tough songs? Do I really want to sing slow, though nice, songs?

The trip to the beach is less than two weeks away!

March Madness starts Thursday! Tennessee (Go Vols!), Texas Tech, and Arkansas all made it. As well as Belmont (Christian university in Nashville) and Oral Roberts (Christian university in Tulsa, OK) so I'm rooting for them too as they're underdogs. And of course, one of my favorite college basketball teams North Carolina got a #1 seed. I'm looking forward to a UNC-Texas matchup in the Sweet 16. Though I love the state, I only like the college, go Tar Heels!

I suppose that's all I have to say today, comments can be left below...

-Kevin C. Burns