The Beauty and the Mess

Happy late birthday, Lauren! I'm sorry I forgot to get on and wish you a happy day. I'm glad it was good. :)

I've been on LJ for two and a half years, and I have never seen so much going on with my LJ friends as I have these last couple of weeks. Life-changing events are apparently the order of the day. It amazes me (in good and bad ways) how God works.

I'm having one of those missing-Florida episodes. On Saturday I listened to my Gloria Estefan CD for a while and then ate a mango. That's as close to the beach as I can get right now. LOL.

This weekend was good. I easily finished everything on my to-do list, which I think was an act of divine intervention. On Friday night a bunch of us went to see Van Helsing, which we all agreed was hilariously awful. Best line:

Friar: You're supposed to die.
Frankenstein's Monster (hanging precariously off bridge): But I want to live!
Friar: Okay. (helps)

Afterward we stood outside the theater making fun of the movie, and I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. Good times. On Saturday night, after a nice dinner at my parents' and dessert at Sonic, my mom took Debs and I to a local church production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown. For an amateur production, it was pretty impressive. Besides, it's probably my favorite play - if I could choose a musical to be in, that would be it! I spent the night at my parents' and then went to church with them in honor of Mother's Day. They sang "Jesus, What A Friend For Sinners," which pleased me because they've never been much for hymns there. Evan and Ryan met us at Shogun (a Benihana knockoff) for lunch, and we all had a good time. Evan says our pastor did a great sermon on marriage, so I was disappointed- I haven't gotten to hear a marriage talk with Evan since we started dating. :P Oh well. We spent the afternoon at the house, playing Ping-Pong and Scattergories and kicking a beach ball around in the backyard. I'm so glad my sister is back, though I'm afraid she's going to get very bored. She's only working two days a week all summer. That sounds great to me, but logically I know that after a while, I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

Okay, that's enough.

This icon is a picture from Hollywood Beach, Florida, where I spent almost every Saturday when I was younger. My best friend Kristi and I would "surf" and play in the sand and walk on the boardwalk all day. I'm missing the ocean a lot lately. I was looking online for things to do in New Hampshire, and there's a whale-watching tour that guarantees a whale sighting! I'd be so happy. :) Evan thought it sounded cool, too, so maybe we can go.

I am finally forced to admit that I've become addicted to Quizno's. Turkey Ranch & Swiss on rosemary bread. It's what's for dinner. Er, lunch. Plus, they're the only restaurant I know of that has Vanilla Coke on tap.

I'm spending the next three nights at my parents' because they're going out of town and didn't want to leave my brother alone. I don't mind staying out there- it's nice and quiet and I can do laundry. Unfortunately, my mom had plans for Kevin and me, which I can't do because of flute practice and my hair appointment. Now she's irritated, but at least I can spend all of tonight with him. Evan is coming out to the house so we can watch American Idol together. I'm sure Kevin will be glad to see him. They're buds. Oh, and tonight is Evan's last class of the semester! It's already Study Day week. Where does the time go?

It's still kind of weird at the house without Bun.

You know, I got a neat star guidebook for Christmas and I've only tried to use it once. I want to take that to New Hampshire, too- we can probably see a lot of stars there. The thing is, how are you supposed to use it? It's dark when you're looking at stars! Do you take a flashlight, or just memorize the map of the thing you want to look at before you go out there? What do amateur astronomers do?

GO TIGERS GO! We won our first round NCAA game by 16! :D Now we play Oklahoma State. I'm happy, though. We're improving year by year. Yay!

Debra is in Florida today on a choir trip. She called me a little while ago from the beach so I could hear the ocean. For a minute, I was seriously almost in tears because I wanted to be there so much. How am I going to survive until next summer without going to the ocean? Few people know what it's like to grow up on the water- especially in Florida- and then have to move away from it. Lauren and Philip are probably the only ones on the friends list who will understand. Memphis is great, but away from the water, something is always missing for me. I will always be a woman torn. :P

Here's the ( Friday lyrics quiz )

Because I am in a weird, sleepy state today and have nothing to talk about, I offer this:

( Why March is my favorite month on the U2 Calendar. )

My Miami Dolphins glass broke on Sunday, so now I'm looking for a new one on Ebay. Although I'd be in better shape not replacing it, since I seem to have a problem with breaking fun glassware. :(

I'm going to watch the Big Game at my parents' house tonight. They have invited a lot of people, so it should be fun. Em and Ryan (and probably Evan) are coming, too. I just talked to my mom, and she said they've pulled all the Hurricanes stuff out of the guest room and hung it in the living room. Apparently a few Ohio State fans are coming. They shall not pass. :)

It's interesting how people take such different approaches to holidays and big events. I like Tradition. I like making a big deal out of things. I think people should hug and kiss at midnight on New Year's, and wear green on St. Patrick's Day, and have birthday parties. To me, those times are special. They're an excuse to have fun. But some people are like, "Big deal. Who cares? It's just another day." I don't understand that at all.

I know a lot of us have taken the Myers-Briggs test, but have any of you read Personality Plus? It's easier to understand than Myers-Briggs, and you can clearly see yourselves and your friends in it. (I'm completely Perfect Melancholy, Kathy and Ryan are both Popular Sanguine, Em is Powerful Choleric, and Evan is so Peaceful Phlegmatic, he might not notice if his head fell off. :)) Anyway, I recommend it if you like personality stuff.

I am so ready to get out of here. :)

My sister is filling out college applications. She just called me to ask what nationalities we have in the family (which is ironic, since we had a survey on this the other day). She told me what she had already written, and the last thing was "Miami." I was sad to point out that Miami is not another country. :) But it turned out that my sister was going down a list of other nationalities on the application and circling what applied to us. And Miami was on the list. How weird is that?

Where is jessecho today?

I'm back! I had an interesting trip. On the whole, it was very good. Evan took this picture of me at large group one morning. It's not too clear at this size, but it's proof that indeed, I was at summer conference. :)

The trip did not get off to the best start. My plane to Tallahassee was late, and it was one of those commuter planes that seat about 20 people. My seat was right next to the wing, and there was a hole in the engine cover which was patched by- I kid you not- a piece of tinfoil. I watched that tinfoil for the entire flight, wondering what I should do if I saw it come off. But as we landed, I started smiling and smiling. It always happens to me when I go to Florida. Something in my body knows that I am going Home, and I am full of joy, and my heart is singing the Orange Blossom Song. (Phillip, you might understand. :))

I was amused by the Tallahassee airport. I had been concerned about finding Harris, but the place was the size of my office building, so I sat down in the hallway to wait. (Yes. THE hallway.) After a few minutes, I saw Evan coming through the door. I had just seen him the night before, but I was happy to see him, and so pleased that he came to get me. Silly, but it was one of the better moments of the trip. :)

We went back to Harris's parents' house, where we all spent the weekend. On Saturday, we went skiing. It was fun. On Sunday (Mother's Day), Ryan took me to Publix to get a cake, due to my obsession with Publix and its bakery. (Yes, Steve, Publix is only in Florida and Georgia, and no one is sadder about it than me. :)) I was upset at the time, due to events which I will not document in this journal, and Ryan could see I was in need of cheering up. He suggested we have something fun written on the cake. After much consideration, we ran back to the bakery.
Brenda: Do you write things on the cakes for free?
Bakery Girl: Yes, what would you like?
Brenda: (laughing) "Happy Mother's Day, Harris."
Bakery Girl: (puzzled) Harris?
Brenda and Ryan: (hysterical, unable to get words out) Yes!
Bakery Girl: May I ask what's so funny?
(Ryan, later: "You're putting a man's name on a Mother's Day cake! Do you not see what's funny about that?")
So we got our cake. Everyone laughed. Harris was, um, surprised. :) That night, a few of us sat up late singing RUF songs, and it was a really special time.

On Monday we drove over to Panama City for the conference. And so began five days of good teaching and hanging out on the beach (and inter-group conflicts, but I won't talk about those here). I took some wonderful seminars, which I will talk about later. The main speaker was Jeffrey Lancaster, a pastor from New Orleans. He was incredible. I wish I could go to his church. :)

On Wednesday night, there was a talent show. It was undoubtedly won by a band from the Oklahoma RUF called Where Are My Pants? I can't express in words how hilarious they are. Think early Barenaked Ladies. They have a song about a man who is a clown, but insists that he's not. I was hurting from laughing so hard. They have a CD, which I have ordered, and as soon as I find their website, I will be linking to them. :)

Thursday night was our group night out. We went to Buffalo Bob's for seafood. I got shrimp and crab cakes, which were very good. Then we went to an arcade that we go to every year. Evan and I were the only ones who vaguely remembered where it was, so of course, we got lost. It was a beautiful night, and there were a whole bunch of us in the van with the windows down, all dressed up, lost, and singing along to "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" by Chicago at the top of our lungs. It was fun. :)

So I had fun, but it was definitely a "growing" trip. I did a lot of thinking, realized a lot of things, and dealt with a lot of problems. It was not like the carefree summer conferences of old. But I don't think that's bad. I am very glad that I had the experience. Maybe I will share some of my reflections later.

Congratulations to anyone who made it this far. Hey, I have to make up for my absence, right? :)