Happy New Year: Efe

“In the thirtieth year… the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” Ezekiel 1 vs. 1

I’ve had some years that stand out as very positive and full of steps forward and last year was one of them. I love to do my thinking in the shower so join me there if you will.

*removes ring, takes off clothes, steps into the shower*

That’s right! I now wear a ring. By this time last year I didn’t even know the name of the person I’m now married to (Her name is Ima, in case you were scared to ask, and it means love). During the process of buying our family home (one of the brightest points of my entire life), she was introduced to the family as the lawyer handling the legal details. At the same time, my church family began to perceive that I was being set up for marriage and God helped my Dad put two and two together. Haha look at the irony. Efe the relationship advisor being match made!

My reaction to this was to laugh at God’s sense of humour. I’d reached the point of being spoilt for choice in the marriage matter. My binders were full of competent women (I’m sorry Romney, I could not resist) and analysis paralysis had pushed me to the point of asking God to just choose for me. I didn’t know how He was gonna answer that prayer but when I was told of Ima and the indications that she was the Rebecca to my Isaac, my first reaction was that of laughter. (Isaac means laughter).

We met and started courting. It was quick and to the point. If I begin to list all the attractions and chemistry and blessings multiplied between the two of us, I may incite my single friends to jealousy. Let it be known to the world though, that it is on record that Efe has loved and been loved. I’m swimming in love right now. (Ima means love) I’m so grateful to God. Our wedding was socially unusual and because of that there was friction from her family but God helped the young woman. She held firm through the storm and sought to keep the family at peace. Now we’re four months into our marriage and swinging our legs in glee from our marriage swing of love. No time.

I learnt how jealous and protective I could be of my partner. (Wow. God must be so jealous over us when we pander to men and things and idols and neglect Him.) Even the things in our history (past relationships and wild oats sown) seemed like despicable acts of betrayal. I felt sad that many young people will never know the joys of marriage simply because they have already begun spending the capital of love required for the marriage business on other white elephant projects. Celibacy, young people. Less baggage, earlier marriage, financial independence. All more important to me for single people than sexual or relationship experience.

Enough about marriage.

*notices the shower holder is fixed too high in the wall for petite wife to reach, frowns*

This last year I was holding down my first job. I met all kinds of people: the disillusioned, the competitive, the encouraging, the back stabbers, and the natural leaders. I learnt a lot about myself. Turns out I’m not as bold as I thought. The general feedback was that I loved to take the back seat and let others lead, not pushing my ideas strongly enough and letting weaker ideas triumph instead. This was a mild shocker. I’d’ve never noticed that though I was often the tallest or most intelligent in the room, I simply preferred stepping back and encouraging others to take the heat while I worked in the background. This will change this year. The funny thing is, despite my laid back, laissez-faire approach, some people still see me as being too forward. Hey guys, I’m not caring anymore. Smarty lala all the way in 2013 men.

Let me talk a bit about my gadgets this year.

My iPod has been annoying. Great device for music and games but I don’t like how it arranges my music. I sync a folder with many collaborating artists and it splits the folder so I have to remake my playlist in order to play them in succession. I don’t like seeing the duplicated songs either. How does that happen? I can’t collect or send songs by Bluetooth. The songs I download from sites don’t enter my iTunes list. To do that I have to download on my laptop and sync to my iPod. This offends me. I don’t need a laptop except for syncing my iPod. Apple, why? And I can’t sync my iPod to more than 5 devices. In fact, any new sync may wipe out everything on the iPod. If the iPad is a bigger version of the iPod then I can’t deal with this.

Had to let that out.

My Galaxy tab changed my life on the other hand. Mastered the art of Swyping (I’m a global expert, even the Americans were marvelled at my prowess). My note taking at meetings is faster than handwriting and my minutes come out faster than anyone else’s. My blog posts are all done here and I’ve moved my virtual life from my laptop to my tablet. So portable and light too. The annoying thing is the crashing. Oh my days this tablet has crashed up to a hundred times in one year and been replaced by warranty twice. It even has a copy and paste bug (this bug shuts down any program you try to copy from until you reset the tablet and lose all your hard earned updates) Rooting it seems to be the only way forward (apparently most of the problems are from the Samsung interface, not the tab itself). For that I’m grateful to my geek friends for helping me out with my enquiries and questions.

My latest gadget is my 2008 Mercedes E200 Kompressor (Elegance class). I’m excited! Nuff said already!!!!!!!! (Wanted to name the car Nkechi but my wife would be jealous. Still thinking. Maybe Bobo would work. Help me out people)

My friends and family have been wonderful in the last year. My love for them grew deeper and I started trying to spoil them a little. Phew! The house purchase took a lot out of us all and it’s time (in my mind) for us to be a bit more comfortable. Lord, please don’t allow us be carried away by comfort. Amen.

There it is, all I can remember about last year. Special thanks to all who participated in the 2012 Guest review. God has used you all to touch the lives of everyone who read your stories. We still have about five stories unposted and they will go up sometime next week. All at once. I do not believe we should miss those interesting perspectives simply because of date limitations.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!!!

Honey! Towel please!

*steps out of shower dripping rivulets of sweggur, steaming vapors of greatness*