Happy 2010

Time for an update. It's been too long I know, but that's life. Too much to do, too little time to do it in. So here we go.

Since my last post there we have celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. For Stacey and I we celebrated Thanksgiving in our normal fashion by spending the week in Durham. Everybody but Lindsey's husband Michael was on hand for that gathering. We did a lot of shopping, including my mom buying out several department stores pants collections. She wasn't going to keep them all, she just needed to allow us to pick them out. So she created her own department store collection at her house. How convenient.

Christmas was unusual this year. Stacey had to work at the hospital. We were able to attend our church Christmas Eve Service together and then I we went home and she slept for about 4 hours and then went to work. I slept longer and then hung out at the house. It was a very peaceful day. There are tons of great movies on tv on Christmas Day! Stacey got off early and so we were able to celebrate together with a nice dinner in.

Stacey did get off for New Years so we journeyed up to West Virginia and got in just in time to see everybody except for my brother Ryan and my sister in law Rachel. Everybody else was still around and for the next few days we had a good time catching up. For the record I played media support technician at several houses. Computer IT support and High Def television support at another. Nothing like a college degree to help your grandparents watch TV in HD.

In Atlanta things are busy but good. Stacey is currently working a GI rotation. I'll spare you the details on that. I am gearing up for a big mission conference the church puts on every year. I have significant responsibilities in the planning and execution of the event. It happens in February. It's going to be a lot of fun, but I'll be happy when it's March. Stacey and I both joined a gym that is on the ground floor of the skyscraper that sits across from the church. Because it's primarily used by attorneys and bankers its kept really nice and it's not very large. However, they have all the equipment we'd ever desire. It's also super convenient being across the street from the church. And because it's primarily used by working old guys, they give pretty good incentive for spouses to join. So Stacey and I can work out there for a fraction of the price of joining any other gym in the area. Its on the way for her to work and they have really nice locker room facilities so I believe this is just the healthy workout solution she has been looking for.

They give you a fitness assessment when you sign up and...let's just say I didn't get put on the weight loss plan. In fact they didn't even bother taking my BMI or blood pressure. They just said here's how you use the equipment and you need to stretch....like all the time. They noticed that I'm not very flexible.

I'll probably post again believe it or not next Saturday. I regrettably volunteered to help with our youth groups lock in next Friday Night. There will be stories to tell I'm sure, but I will also be interacting with the kids at one point in the evening as my alter ego "Philthy Cobb" You can check him out here: http://vimeo.com/8332877

A really good day

Strike it off the bucket list. I never dreamed I'd even get the chance to do what I did this past Saturday.

It all started Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm. I got a phone call from my dad. "Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?" I don't know but usually its something great for phone calls like this. "I'm going to the Duke Game, and my seat is behind the bench." I asked "how behind the bench?" He responded "two rows." Hmm. Its tomorrow you say? How long would it take me to drive, could I get there. What about a flight? I asked the question. What if I could get there? From the background I hear "If you come you can have my ticket." Dad said "That was your mother." God bless my mother. But now my mind is really spinning.

Next step is to call my wife. "Stacey, my dad has tickets for behind the bench at the Duke game tomorrow." She was already in Ohio visiting friends. "You have to go. Buy a plane ticket. I don't care what it costs." God bless my wife.

I called my dad back. "I'll call you back in an hour. I'm going to figure out transportation. I'm coming."

I get online and find a very reasonable AirTran flight to RDU. God Bless AirTran.

"Dad I'm flying up in the morning and flying back that night. Can you pick me up?" He replied yep, I suppose so, acting as if he wasn't excited I was going to join him for the game.

I jet setted my way into Durham the next morning and my parents swung by the airport and picked me up. We headed over to Cracker Barrel. God Bless country breakfasts. We then headed to the house and killed some time until it was go time. Oh yeah we also had an Iron Duke parking pass that put us about 30 feet from the front of the stadium. God Bless elite parking spots.

We went inside the fabled mecca known as Cameron Indoor Stadium as the doors opened. We walked into the lobby and handed our tickets to the usher. "You're behind the Duke bench!" Yeah baby. We walked onto the floor....yep that's right onto the floor of Cameron Indoor Stadium. Not happening, not happening. At this point I thought I was going to cry. This was getting surreal. We handed our tickets to the next usher. "You're right here." She pointed about three feet behind her. She pointed to row B. Row A is used by....the players. Holy player perspiration batman! We sat down and the team trainer sat a bag of gear...on my feet. I almost knocked over the water cooler. This is just getting ridiculous now.

Gametime approaches. Team comes out for warmups. I could reach out and touch them. This was going to be a new kind of game watching. The kind that made you keep on your toes because a player might end up in your lap. Kyle Singler had a cut on his arm at one point. He came over to the team doctor for treatment. I could have put on the bandaid.

So what did I learn? First, the guys are huge, fast, and ridiculously strong. When you go to the hoop in D1 college basketball you better go hard. Second, sitting in seats like that is a once in a lifetime experience. I'm glad I got my once. Third, keep a good relationship with your mother so that she will offer to let you go to a once in a lifetime experience. Fourth, I truly love Duke Basketball. I will never forget that day. Being there with my dad, taking in my favorite team from an unbelievable vantage point on a day when they tied a school record for three pointers...Its awesome with a capital A.

Finally, the chip for this entry goes to the guy sitting next to us who never showed up to sit in the seat. Are you kidding me. I would have to be in a hospital...check that Duke medical center isn't too far away, I 'm sure I could work something out.

A new powerhouse in college football

How do I know its a beautiful fall in Atlanta? The leaves have changed, the air is crisp, and Duke Football is in the hunt for a bowl game. Wait what was that? Its kind of fun to not say "I can't wait for basketball season." I of course still can't wait for basketball season, but there has been plenty to watch this football season.

Speaking of football, on Saturday I will be traveling to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to watch people drink an absurd amount of alcohol...and watch LSU take on Alabama in football. This will be the biggest football game I've ever attended in person. There are going to be five of us in our posse and its going to be a great time. We'll be sitting towards the bottom of one of the endzones if I remember correctly, so look for the 5 guys with no shirts, wigs, and BAMA! painted on their chests...that won't be us but it will be entertaining nonetheless.

Stacey is on a first year resident retreat this week. I was pretty impressed that they have the residents go and work on communication and team building. That is such a valuable exercise because good communication is most needed in high stress, fatigue situations. Good to know that at least some of the medical community is doing everything they can think of to be at their best in taking care of the rest of us.

I just found out that Ryan's church in Dalton signed on to host the Backyard Abolitionist Tour for Not For Sale, which fight modern day slavery in our world. We are hosting the same tour the next night. That means that the Cobb family is responsible for 2/3 of the tour dates in Georgia. Who says one family can't make a difference in a big issue facing our world. www.notforsalecampaign.org

I've been listening to a podcast put on by a public radio station in New York. Its called radio lab. Its a really creative audio show that investigates science, math and other critical thinking questions. What I really enjoy about it is that as they interview scientists, mostly academic types, the overwhelming theme is that we have just scratched the surface of understanding our world and that makes me appreciate even more our Creator.

Stacey and I are officially fans of the following shows: Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, Glee, Lie to Me and Modern Family. Those get DVRed every week. I also record Mad Men, but she thinks its too depressing. I think its depressing too but enjoy the fact that its about an advertising firm. We've also determined that DVRs were made for married couples who don't want to go out on Friday night because there is nothing good on tv on Friday night. Perfect solution: great shows from earlier in the week.

The chip award for this post goes to:

I think its safe to say we don't want these people having children.

Duke Basketball Starting Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izKfjwsm7LQ&feature=channel

Stapled Shut

It was a rough week. Starting with fact that I fell at work in a stairwell and gashed my head open requiring 5 staples. That hurt. The good thing about being married to a doctor is that Stacey gets to pull the staples out for me and I don't have to go back to the doctor.

So with that out of the way, here is what else happened. Stacey has finished her night rotation and starts in the neo-natal intensive care unit Monday. That should be interesting. Sick little babies. I can't think of anything more pitiful to see.

I have been asked to speak a number of times over the last month on the topic of human trafficking. I spoke on a panel of so called experts yesterday at the Emory University Law School. I even had an official bio posted on their event website. I am speaking to the Christian Medical and Dental Association next week at a church near Emory. Human Trafficking is a hot topic right now, and I'm getting a lot of opportunities to speak on behalf of the church and our coalition streetgrace (www.streegrace.org).

One of the blessings of our marriage is that we love the same kind of television. The current dramedies on tv are great fun to watch together. Thursday nights are our night. We typically tape them on our DVR and watch them back on the weekend. The Office, Community, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock is a hot date night in our household.

We went to see U2 two weeks ago in concert. Unbelievable. Those guys know how to put on a show. And for those who don't know Bono, U2's lead singer, has done a lot of good with his celebrity platform for humanitarian causes in Africa.

Duke basketball kicked off their season this past Friday Night. I watched it online. Technology has taken my devotion to the Blue Devils to a whole new level. I have tickets for the December 15th game against Gardner-Webb, Merry Christmas.

The chip for this week goes out to the Heene dad. The balloon thing, and everything that has happened because of that has more than proven the point that he probably shouldn't be raising anymore children. Unbelievable.

Jesus and the Criminal Trespass Warning

Oh what a week it was. The headline for my week should read: I kicked Jesus Christ out of the church.

And now for the context...

On Sunday North Avenue Presbyterian, where I work, was visited by a homeless individual who had attended before. He was a big guy, and had a memorable look. He came into our first worship service and sat down. He just silently observed. The service ended and he approached a staff member at the back of the sanctuary. He stated that he would like to speak to a Pastor. The assistance pastor at NAPC is....me. That doesn't go over well with most of our assistance seekers because I don't have a guilt problem. If we can help, we do, if we can't I tell them that. On this occasion this gentlemen recognized me. He didn't want to speak to me, so I spoke to him. I informed him that he could go to a Sunday School class but if he wanted lunch he needed to go to our homeless worship service and get a lunch ticket. He told me that he had been invited to lunch by a pastor. False. I told him that he was making that up. He didn't like that. Then he said he was going to Sunday School. I said he could do that, but not to ask anyone for lunch money to eat in our normal lunch area. I alerted the team including the police officers. I had sounded the Philthy Cobb High Alert Status. That's defcon status people.
You know what that trucker did? He tried to go through the line and the usher turned him away and told him to go down to the homeless service. The guy then went around the corner and waited for the usher to walk away. He then went up a member and got them to pay for his lunch. Oh no he didn't. I got the call from the cashier, Philthy, we have a problem. I called the five-0 and headed to the crime scene. We pulled the gentleman out of dining area after he finished the meal and I asked him what he was doing? "These people invited me to lunch." False. I recounted the morning of deceit back to him. He listened intently and then asked me if I was finished. By all means my friend let me know how you're going to change my mind. He then stated "Do you know my name? My name is Jesus Christ and I died for all of these people. I sacrificed for everyone here. This is my church, I deserve to eat the food of the church. You're people owe me." Ohhhhhh, my bad, I had no idea. I stated back to him "I don't think you're the same Jesus we believe in." He shouted back at me "Yes I am!" I responded, "We're going to have to agree to disagree on that."
I then gave him a criminal trespass warning and the officers escorted him from the building. He stated to them that he would be coming back next week. One of the officers responded "If you step one foot on this property, I will handcuff you and arrest you." They've got my back.
So in summary, I won over several ushers who witnessed the whole deal, our business administrator, and both police officers complimented by handling of the situation. And this is my chip award winner for this week.

And just for the record, if any of you are wondering if I made a huge mistake and didn't recognize the second coming...I asked him "what is my wife's name?" He didn't know. I think the real Jesus would have known.

Its been a busy past week. Lots of meetings and events. As I write this I'm preparing to go to the Georgia Tech vs. North Carolina Football Game. My brother managed to get tickets as well, though we will be cheering for different teams and his tickets are much better because he got them from a corporate client. Between the tickets and the golf, I tell him regularly he'll never get another gig like this.

We celebrated Stacey's birthday this week. She had a good birthday. We ate some good food, spent most of the day together...spending time with me always guarantees a good day....and she got to do some clothes shopping.

This past week I gave my first professional invocation at a special event. I was invited to a banquet by one of the churches ministry partners. I channeled 28 years of being a pastor's son and flipped the preacher-pray-in-public switch. In my studies through the years there are a couple of keys to the public prayer:
1. Use words like everyone, community, all, children, world and together.
2. Bless as many people as possible.
3. Talk about the greatness of the past, and ask for greatness in the future.
4. Use terms like gracious, gentle, kind, love, beautiful, lovely and loving.
5. Avoid saying words that make people stop and process like "you are a swell God" or "Lord you are really cool"
6. Avoid corporate buzzwords such as "God we thank you for returning on our investment everytime!" or "God your brand is unmatched!"
7. Always acknowledge the current natural disaster.
8. Go long enough to sound like you're a professional but don't put anybody to sleep.
9. Remember to bless the food, that's the real reason you're there.
10. Most importantly remember to bless the organization. If you don't, you probably won't be asked back.
11. Oh yeah one more, make sure you turn off your ringtone, the last thing you need happening is for Jailhouse Rock to start playing in your prison ministry achievers banquet prayer.

Finally, as promised I've been scouring the news to find this weeks person who will receive the chip. If you remember from the previous post, the chip doesn't allow you to reproduce. This is a product our world needs as evidenced by:

Operation Wedding

Classy.