FOUR of My Favorite Items In My Bedroom:
1. iBook
2. tight black t-shirt
3. folding bookcase
4. new white blanket
THREE Things I Do Everday:
1. drink coffee
2. shower
3. swear
TWO Things I Am Trying Not To Do Right Now:
1. bite my fingernails
2. be envious
ONE Person I Want To Meet Right Now:
1. Amy Grant
FIVE Things I'm Afraid Of:
1. being in an accident and being disabled
2. losing my wallet and/or mobile phone
3. betrayal
4. being the guy in 'Magnolia' who says "I have so much love to give and nowhere to put it"
5. insomnia
SIX Things I Believe In:
1. forgiveness
2. telling the truth
3. flying first class (it's only happened twice!)
4. long phone conversations
5. the power of music
6. teaching/learning/education
SEVEN of My Favorite Things:
1. iPod
2. mobile phone
3. 2001 manual transmission Honda Accord LX
4. dinner with M and B
5. Annaleasa
6. Newcastle Brown Ale
7. road trips
from last night's viewing of the Star Wars movie, someone back behind us: "Yoda's such a pimp."
this morning:
me: "Did you leave a piece of dental floss on the couch?"
him: "No."
me: "A used piece?"
him: "Oh, sometimes I play but don't use."
me: "You're weird."
Total volume of music files on my computer: 31.74 gig
The last CD I bought was:
new:'Stand Up' Dave Matthews Band
used: Chemical Brothers 'Surrender'
5 songs that I play a lot:
1. 'Disappear' Bebo Norman
2. 'From the Station' Mark Cohn
3. 'This Is Your Life' Switchfoot
4. 'Walk On' U2
5. 'After the Fire' Amy Grant
NINE Places I've Visited:
1. Belgium
2. Slovakia
3. Czech Republic
4. Austria
5. England
6. Romania
7. Hungary
8. Honduras
9. Germany
TEN Random things about me:
1. lots of David Bowie cd's
2. it's really easy to get me to stay up late
3. pretty much a year since I've been on a date with someone that I knew before the date
4. one of my favorite meals is scrambled eggs with refried beans and salsa (this works for breakfast, lunch, and supper)
5. it's not a weekend unless you've baked something
6. I can't remember the last name of one of my housemates
7. Birkenstocks are sexy
8. I'm a loser, I lose things--keys, wallet, glasses, books
9. bad bad awful sense of direction
10. one of the weirdest things anyone has ever said to me is, "You're so good looking but you don't know it and that's really attractive"
but I guess I can still technically wish Joy (at karagraphy.com) a happy birthday.
Thanks for everything. Please ignore any out of control cheesy messages on your voice mail, friend.
Ok, so at least 3 of B's siblings have blogs, and I've linked to all of them. (See blogroll links for Hunter, Shep, and JP.) All I can think is that I'm trying to spread P family fame throughout the universe...
I really do think that it's time for B to start a blog.
But the real matter at hand is--who will blog the birth of W and B's child first? Can I beat them to it? Any of ya'll want to step up to the challenge?
Above where we live
Then I look up a glare in my eyes
Are you having regrets about last night
I'm not but I like rivers that rush in
So then I dove in
Is there trouble ahead
For you the acrobat
--Tori Amos
There are moments, or there should be, when we are weeping all alone. The questions don't dissolve, the things that have been flying around your subconscious become very evident and true, and the breaking of your soul sometimes becomes a break with reality, you reach that place where nothing makes sense. Obviously, that's extreme. But you know what, I have been to that place. Maybe you have too.
Am I going back? I don't know. Can't see that far down the road.
Sometimes in the morning I can't sing with the faithful. Sometimes I do want all this world and I don't want any Jesus. I just want coffee.
And in the afternoon I don't want any Jesus. In the evening, when everything simplifies to menu changes and the immediate concerns of providing a good dining experience and not falling down as I'm walking through the kitchen one more time, life is pretty good. Ultimate concerns (like who am I gonna love, who is gonna love me, or ten thousand charms) recede. It's a simpler life. I need that relief, because it's not just my maker lying prostrate in the garden, it's me too.
It's funny how noone can see it. It's the necessary deception of everyday life. If I actually told everyone who asked me how I was doing, I'd be on the floor in a pile of tears. "I'm fine, how're you?"
Tonight I did give an honest answer, 'cause it seemed like the asker was actually interested in the answer. "Last week was pretty shitty. I'm still recovering."
Some of what I need for the recovery process is pretty ridiculous. I need my housemates to be quiet as well as to not let an alarm clock go off and on for hours. I need them to shut up. I need them to not spread papers all over the living room and then go fix dinner. I need them to not turn the closed captioning on--he can hear, for pete's sake, it's not like he needs to read it too. (I wonder what preferring the closed captioning indicates.) I need to not find things in the house that shouldn't be here. I need the dishes from last Sunday to be done. I need the television to not be on all the time. I need bourbon. I need to know how to care for someone who's in big trouble who has always thought that I was the one in big trouble. I need this stupid cell phone to not spontaneously turn itself on.
The need for sleep is not ridiculous. Catch you later.
Waking up and realizing that you have to be high-functioning at the restaurant until 11 or so tonight is like
muscling up to Armageddon.
realizing that you can't always get what you want.
wanting to make a daring daylight escape.
wanting the chance to break up one more time.
realizing that you're not really that into speed metal.
knowing that you're never gonna get to sing with Amy Grant.
swearing in a foreign language.
'And if a man has got listen to the voices of the mob
Who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got
When they tell you all their troubles have been nailed up to that cross
What about the times when even followers get lost?'
--Andrew Peterson
The first believers experienced the kingdom of God—the revolution of all things and the revaluation of all values. They experienced the complete transformation of all conditions and all possibilities, the re-ordering of all relationships in business, state, society, and everywhere. An utterly new scale of values took effect, quite different from what had existed so far. Christ replaced all other sovereignties; he swept away the power of lying, of impurity, and of murder—and instead of them, the peace of God took hold and held sway.
This was the expectation and experience of the original church-community, and it stands in sharp contrast to our Christianity today. Anyone can sense that at that time a fresher wind blew and purer water flowed, a stronger power and a more fiery warmth ruled.
Eberhard Arnold
You'll keep on searching 'til the very end
For one true lover and for one true friend
You'll get your answer on the whispered wind
When you find it
Don't let go
--Steve Winwood
SANFORD, Fla. — A county Republican chairman says his bid to head the state party was sabotaged because a letter falsely accused him of having been married six times. The right number, he says, is five.
"That's unconscionable," Seminole County Republican Party Chairman Jim Stelling (search) said Tuesday in the trial over his defamation suit. "I have four children and eight grandchildren that I love dearly. I believe in family values."
From a recent outgoing email:
I'm familiar with Time Traveler's Wife. Read it on the way to Slovakia last February. It's pretty great. I think I'll re-read it soon. Since I may have some reading time. It's interesting to think about having a spouse that involuntarily leaves every so often. Obviously that's better than having a spouse leave voluntarily. Which my mom did, a couple of times. I guess this week has stirred up some of that stuff. Marriage stuff. Been surrounded by it--N's long distance girlfriend is visiting this weekend and week. So at lunch yesterday the first thing one of our marriage-obsessed friends says is, "When's the date?"
I have to get back to that place where the blessings of other people don't curse me.
it is difficult to post. There's just nothing to write, except about the lack. No thoughts from reading or conversations. It's just trying to keep up with the laundry so you'll have clean jeans to wear to the restaurant because you're waiting tables EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK, getting up and forcing coffee down so you can do something in the office, ignoring the yard, ignoring the dishes in the sink.
And yeah, dealing with a temporary housemate who has no money, no phone, no car but does have lots of stuff to work out...that just adds to everything.
I'm not complaining, I'm just holding on.
I'm back. 2 weeks early.
I'm gonna mow the grass and work in the yard. Flower input has been much delayed this year.
I always know when Bob is visiting us. Things end up in odd places, like his Bible on the dish drain rack in the kitchen. That's not only odd, it's also precarious.
Skipping graduation again. I'm a slacker.
And an old friend is having a horrible family life, so he's coming to live with us today. This complicates my life in pretty significant ways. Prayer for all involved would be excellent.
"well I've run through rainbows and castles of candy
I've cried a river of tears from the pain
I've tried to dance with what life had to hand me
my partner's been pleasure my partner's been pain"
Love that Stevie Nicks.
Have a great weekend.