Last night Chris Hostetler and I went to a UNC Alumni-Student Networking Reception at the Alumni Center. (Afterwards Chris asked me why I wanted to go, and I had no good answer--but that's another story.) I had a few interesting experiences that I'll share:

1) I noticed that there was a familiar wooden elephant on the wall in the staircase. I asked about it and the girl at the reception desk outside the Carolina Club said confirmed that it was the same wooden elephant that I remember from the Carolina Inn when it used to have a cafeteria that my grandmother would take me to as a very small child. She said the Alumni Center had bought them when the Carolina Inn was renovated years ago.

2) When Chris and I got on the elevator going to the reception, an old man, who reminded me of the grandfather on silver spoons besides his old red puffer jacket from the seventies that he was wearing, go ton the lift with us. He was kind of scowling at me and finally he said in an angry tone, "Do I know you?" I said no, and thinking he was on his way to the reception, I stuck out my hand and offered my name. He just stood there scowling, so after a minute, I took my hand away, and he immediately stuck out his hand. So I tried again to shake hands, at which point he pulled his hand away! Confused, I put my hand down and he offered his hand again… and then pulled it away again just as I tried to shake it! It was one of the most bizzar interactions.

3) The reception went pretty well. I'm not sure that I really connected with anyone that will be a great resource for me, but I did meet a girl who recegnized me from IV (she had been involved with waymaker) and she now goes to the Bible Church, so perhaps she will turn out to be a future friend to Brooklynne and me.

4) One lady I met, named Nina asked me what I do for personal growth. My answer was blogging... kind of creepy, but this has been a great forum for working through my thoughts and exploring what's important to me--one I haven't used nearly enough lately.

5) Just as time was winding down on the event, this old guy (UNC class of 1947) collapsed on the floor and had to have the paramedics come and check him out. It was really scary, but I think the guy was alright.

Well, my wife is in CO this week, so I'm batchin' it up. I miss her though, so here's a blast from the past. I think this was taken almost 5 years ago. Time flies.

Note: I am not in any way condoning divorce in this post. I believe that it is sinnful and life altering in a negative way for all parties involved, especially the children. Having said that I do believe that good things can come from bad situations, as in my life. I am so thankful that God has given me two families that love me, who are healthy and happy emotionally, physically and spiritually. I have three awesome sisters, and one fabulous brother that I would never have had if my parents had stayed married. I have a relationship with my brother (who we share the same mom and dad) that very few peole have, and I firmly believe that we have such a strong relationship because of my parents' divorce. I appreciate that I always felt loved and I am very thankful to both my mom and my dad for understanding the impportance of fostering strong relationships with both of them. Now on to the post...

For a long time Miles and I have been kicking around the idea that I should write children's books. Now that I am at home with Halleigh, reading childrens books all the time, I have rekindled the idea. From a couple of posts ago, you know that I have had the inspiration of the title and first page... I was driving down Club Blvd. in Durham, and there is a house on the north side of the street that has the most striking red door, and I thought there is a house with a RED RED door. And letting my mind wander, I thought that "The House with the Red Door" would be an interesting title to a children's book. The book would go on to talk about what happens to a child and their family inside that house with a red door.

Then my blog friend (I have never met her in person) and Miles' real friend (he went to college with her) Beth Ann gave me the great idea of having red throughout the entire story. (see post entitled "In case you were wondering...")

So, taking the risk that someone reading this might steal my idea and make it their own and make a billion dollars... I want to share and start to flush out my ideas and vision in writing children's books. Here it goes.

Marshall Benbow is the InterVarsity Area Director for the Western NC region. He lives in Greensboro with his wife Dianne, two girls Eliza and Psalter, and they are expecting a new baby boy, Jaccob, any day now. Marshall mentored Miles during his senior year at UNC (Miles's freshman year). Besides work and family, Marshall invests in his urban ministries to the Glenwood neighborhood, and in his overhand drive on the disc golf course.

Miles and Marshall discussed his small group and job, his family, disc golf, and the Tarheels. Click continue reading for the conversation.

Over the next two weeks or so the Travis Web Journal is going to make a slow transformation into a new look that will hopefully add some power and flexibility to my blogging. This will include a new template, a front page that will integrate several separate blogs, and a couple new features intended to make this site more interesting to a wider audience. I know the Halleigh Show is a big hit with the family, and it will stay, but I would like to add some other cards to my hand. The first of these new features is a section called “Catching up with…” where I will interview people and post our discussion here for everyone else to read. I’ll start with friends and acquaintances and then hopefully add other random interesting people. Tonight, to kick it all off, I will interview Marshall Benbow and publish our conversation by tomorrow morning.

I also plan to reinstate the Youth Gone Wild videos, but that is dependent on my time schedule, so you’ll have to be patient. Any other ideas for material for this blog? Post your ideas in the comments.

Here's announcing the newest addition to the Halleigh Show, and for all you fans who have been waiting with baited breath... wait no longer! Just hit the "continue reading" link to enjoy a quick video featuring Kona the wonder bean and another short one that's my favorite Halleigh Show yet!

In case anyone was wondering, I live with a singular personality. The other day, I came home from work and my wife informed me that she had come up with the first joke for her new traveling national podiatrist conference comedy routine (No lie--she actually said that--I'm not making this up). After starting and stopping and thinking hard for a minute she said, "Oh, wait, I've got it now... have you ever noticed how obscessed with professionals America is? We've got professional singers, professional athletes--we even have professional dog groomers.... We're an over-pro-nation!" It turns out she was making up jokes for a hypothetical podiatrist conference in the shower that afternoon.

So you can imagine my thoughts tonight when she told me she had written the first page of her forthcoming children's book entitled "The House with a Red Door." She then recited the first page that goes something like this... "this is a story about a house with a red door, and the people who live inside." Life keeps getting better and better.

The greatest moment, though, was when she then told me that she had also written the first line of the cookbook she is creating... "one quarter teaspoon nutmeg." I love my wife!

(She also has a song with one line... ur... um... one syllable I mean. It starts out "Oooohh....")

It's been a while, but I've finally taken some time to get back to the blog. Between changing jobs and having a kid, some things just fall by the wayside, although the blog really does deserve more attention than it gets. I'm actually considering a redesign--I want to streamline the way I post pictures (you may remember a failed attempt last summer when I experimented with a streetpress photo archive), and I want to start using the blog as a research and writing tool, but I want to partition my school enteries from the rest so that people who don't care about the finer points of historical mumbo jumbo won't have to wade through all my rambling. I also have been wanting for more than a year to add a section written by guest bloggers so that there's more meat to the site. Look for this new redesign around the begining of February perhaps.

In other news, we took Halleigh out to Utah for Christmas. It was the first time any of that side of the family had seen her. I think I was most surprised about how excited the kids were. Blaze constantly wanted to hold her, which impressed me because I was always too embarassed to ask to hold my baby cousins when I was his age. Halleigh has also started to laugh which is SO CUTE! She started laughing for the first time on the plane to Salt Lake. I'll put some more pictures in the extended entry that you see by clicking "continue reading" at the bottom of this post.

I think Brooklynne has settled into her role as mom quite naturally and I'm always impressed by how well she handles all the home stuff with Halleigh clinging to her 24-7. I think she feels like this is what she was made to do... not because that's what I expect, but because this is what she has always wanted her life to be about--investing 100% in her children.

Brooklynne and I went back to her cardiologist for a checkup last week, and the good news is that Brooke has been cleared for having more kids in the future. The bad news is that their still up in the air over whether or not she will need to continue on her medicines for the the rest of her life. The pills aren't really that expensive, and it's not really that hard to take a few pills with breakfast in the morning, but it is an anoyance, and it would be great if the doctors felt confident enough to take her off the meds at some point. Still, the possibility of more kids is a relief, especially for Brooklynne.

On the Miles front, I've been experiencing a surge in creative juices lately and I've been painting and taking pictures alot in the past month or so. I now have a backlog of work that I'm really quite happy with, although my critical eye is still more finely tuned than my artistic skill. Anyway, here's an example of one of my recent painings. I saw a picture of this door on a travel website. I liked how the boxy, straight-line pattern on the door contrasts the curved door frame. I've also been working on a series of photos of places around the triangle. I'll include one example of my photos here also, although the shots lose a little of their charm when reduced from their original large-scale format. Other photos I've taken and I'm happy with include, the davie poplar bench, the tobacco warehouses downtown, and a series of pictures of the lucky strike smoke stack. A series of photos at Dook Chapel is in the planning stages too. I'm thinking of starting an istockphoto account if anyone is interested in getting their own copies (and supporting a starving artist while you're at it).

Now that you've wasted an hour reading this book of an entry, click "continue reading" for more pictures. I didn't have time to load links to high res versions, so if you want a copy of any of these, just email me.