I, Shane › Shane Adams’ personal weblog

Sunday, I’ll once again be preaching at my home congregation.

That means it’s almost time for the new season of The Office.

Over the weekend, Alli and I headed up to her folks’ place to take our future nieces to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo. We’ve been before (obviously, Alli, having been from the area has been several times…this was my 3rd trip), but each time we go, they seemingly have some new attraction for zoo-goers to peep.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day on Saturday and plenty of folks took advantage of the great weather to visit the zoo. We even ran into our friends Mike and Danielle on their way out of the zoo, which was funny because I hadn’t seen them here in KC for a long time.

It’s no surprise to run into folks from Kansas City 3 hours North at the Zoo. Omaha’s zoo puts Kansas City’s poor excuse for a zoo to absolute shame. The zoo in Omaha is accessible, clean and all the animals look comfortable (mostly) whereas the KC Zoo is a blight as far as zoos go.

I think that the KC Zoo would be better suited to close up shop, ship all its animals 3 hours North and put all its money into a high-speed train that runs to the Omaha Zoo. Because as far as zoos go, Omaha’s is one of the best.

One of the coolest things that Omaha has is a newer attraction called the Kingdoms of the Night, which has a slew of nocturnal animals and one specific section called The Swamp, which feels - predictably - like a swamp. It is the world’s largest indoor swamp and inside, the zoo has constructed a wooden bridge that takes you through sunken rowboats and trees in low light while alligators and beavers and other nocturnal animals mill about as if they were in the bayou of Louisiana. Along the way, you’ll get a glimpse of the crown jewel of the Omaha Zoo - the very rare White Alligator, one of only 13 in the world.

This display is just one example of how much better the Omaha Zoo is compared to ours. And to be honest, with the way that Kansas City, Missouri is run, it’s no surprise.

So for those of you who have never been, I would highly recommend you take the 3-hour trip North to Omaha, if only for the day. It’s completely worth it.

Every few months I have to remind myself why I blog. Today, I’m here to tell you that I’m not sure I can answer that question to my own satisfaction anymore.

Last week, Alli and I had an amazing time at our church’s Congregational LIFE Workshop, a week dedicated to spiritual growth and helping leaders learn some tactics to implement in their own congregations. I’ve come back with a new look on a lot of things.

In sort-of-related news, I’ve been feeling a strange disconnection to my own blog lately and I’m realizing that I’m not doing it for the reasons I started it for originally. I’m not sure that I want to go back to how it was 4 years ago when I started, but I’m also feeling that I need a focus to my blog rather than it being all over the place. I’ve got some ideas, but nothing concrete yet.

I hope that helps explain my absence lately.

Every so often, I have to re-evaluate the blog and its purpose. Lately, I haven’t been feeling all that bloggy lately. Perhaps it’s my effort to scale back my responsibilities in life since I tend to take on too much. I’m freelancing less, I’ve been to church 2 times in the last 6 weeks and I’m figuring out that the word ‘No’ can be extremely liberating.

Still, there’s plenty going on in my life so I’ll give a quick rundown…

• I’ve discovered that I like my oatmeal a lot more if you add some sliced strawberries.
• Summer means it’s time for So You Think You Can Dance. This group is more talented than any other season, but in my opinion, the contest is Will and everyone else. That guy is amazing.
• Alli and I are going to a spiritual life workshop at the end of the month. I’m really excited because it’s at our alma mater. I’m kind of excited to spend some time up there (although it will be ridiculously hot).
• I am officiating over my first marriage a week from this Saturday. I’m so excited to be a part of this union. It’s one I believe in very much and I’m thrilled they chose me to officiate.
• Alli’s business is going really well. She’s had some great jobs this summer, including one that involved painting all the planets in the atrium of an elementary school. 
• Speaking of Alli, we bought her her very first bicycle in her life last weekend. I dusted my 10-year-old Raleigh off and we went for about a 4-mile ride the first time out. She’s really doing well for having never owned a bike before.
• I’m helping my brother build a dog house on Saturday. 
• I’ve yet to find a coffee you can purchase in a store that is better than Starbucks Pike Place Roast.

So that’s about it. I hope this blog finds you well. Not really, but it’s all I have time for this morning.

Today, People Magazine posted a story online (I got the link from CNN, I swear) in which Vanessa Hudgens (she of High School Musical fame) shares the “secret to her great relationship with co-star Zac Efron.”

There are so many things wrong with this story, but I’d like to tackle her “secret.”

“If you really love someone, you shouldn’t have to work at it,” the actress tells Cosmo Girl! for its July/August issue, reports Entertainment Tonight. “You finish each others’ sentences and have the same sense of humor.”

First of all, it should be assumed that we all know this is a 19-year-old talking about the secret of her great relationship with her 20-year-old co-star. It’s beyond ridiculousness. Hudgens and Efron have been dating since October of 2007. For those of you that are bad with math, that’s less than 12 months.

While a great relationship should not feel like work, you still have to work at it. If I’m going to take a celebrity’s sage advice about relationships, I’ll stick with my boy Will Smith who said:

“Counseling, individual learning, books, conflict resolution,” Smith confided. “It is a full time job to try and be happy. People tend to think that they can go to work for 50 or 60 hours a week and then come home and their relationship is just supposed to work.”

That’s the truth. Why would you spend less time working at your relationship than you do on your career? I know that People’s business is selling magazines and driving traffic to their site, but it’s really irresponsible for them to prop up this lackadaisical attitude toward relationships, especially from a teenage pop star who has been in her supposed “serious” relationship less than a year.

Over the past several months, Alli and I have been doing some pre-marital counseling for a couple that I will be marrying in late July. It’s been a terrific experience because out of all the things I’m good at, I think I’m probably best at being married. It’s not a skill that will necessarily lead to a long, illustrious career, but it sure makes my life a lot more enjoyable.

One of the things that I’ve found is a constant in the couples that I look to as relationship mentors in my life is that if you want to make a relationship or a marriage work, you should work harder at your relationship than you would in your career. When you do, it won’t feel like work. You’ll be happier, your significant other will be happier, and you’ll find that working at a relationship can be the most rewarding thing that you’ll ever do. If I had but one piece of advice to give to couples, that would be it.

That, and don’t get relationship advice from 19-year-olds in People Magazine.

What a crazy few weeks it’s been.

It started with Alli taking off for drill team camp at Emporia State for a few days. They had a very successful camp and Dreyfuss and I held down the fort. As soon as she got home, her sister took the dog with her up to their parents’ house. Dreyfuss struggles with kennels, so we send him up to Grandma and Grandpa’s where they can spoil him.

Then, we were off to Negril, Jamaica via Memphis for Jake and Kelly’s wedding. Four days in Jamaica, then a day and a half at home before we headed up to Council Bluffs to get the dog. We spent the weekend with Alli’s parents, celebrating her mom’s (belated) birthday and then returning home about 7:00 this evening.

Now, we’re parked on the couch, I’ve got the DVR remote in hand and we’re catching up on some TV. Sure, I’m back to work tomorrow, but it’s nice to have everyone home.

Playing for Pizza
by John Grisham
RATING: 7 out of 10

Remember back in the day when the world clamored over when the next Grisham book would come out and how great it would be? I remember reading A Time to Kill and The Firm years ago and devouring them as I marveled at Grisham’s ability to make legal proceedings accessible and to make lawyers seem a little less…um…lawyer-y. For about 6 years during the late 80’s and early 90’s, he dominated the book world. His books now come a little less often, but are still putting plenty of coin in his pockets.

Grisham has written 16 legal fiction books and 4 non-legal fiction books (as well as a single legal non-fiction book). Playing for Pizza falls into that second non-legal fiction category and focuses on an American football player who has managed one of the single biggest failures registered in the history of the NFL (think Lin Elliott).

Rick Dockery is a typical anti-hero…lazy, physically gifted, a real schmoozer. But he’s also tainted goods. No one in the NFL will sign him so he flies the coop off to Parma, Italy where they play real American football (not that silly stuff we call soccer). Apparently, Italy has a league that allows 3 American players per team (Grisham apparently discovered American football while researching another book in Italy) and the competition is probably equal to that of large-high-school football.

The title of the book comes from the way that most of the players in the league get paid…with pizza and beer. Most of the Italian players are athletic guys who just enjoy the game. Oh, to have players that enjoy the game…

Anyway, you can imagine what happens. But predictability is not the biggest sin of this book…the story itself is interesting and Grisham’s descriptions of the food and the cities of Italy made me miss it very much. The story is light on character development and it just made too many leaps where there were opportunities for great storytelling. The book reads more like a screenplay and, frankly, it will probably be better as a movie. Actors will (hopefully) be able to capture the nuance and subtlety of the characters’ feelings, which was one of the major omissions from the book.

Still, it’s a quick, enjoyable read; it just leaves you wanting a little more. It certainly could have been longer, only clocking in at less than 250 pages, giving Grisham more room to develop the characters, but like I said, it’s something that actors will be able to overcome in a movie (as long as they are decent).

I’m taking a break from blogging for a few days.