One Month to Live

I had lunch with my mom yesterday. It was pretty awesome. She was in town for some convention and I walked down to the hotel and met her and we had lunch not far away. Afterwards, as I was walking away, I really could not have felt more on top of the world.

Nice weather. Interesting and creative day at work. A city I love. Lunch with my wonderful mom in the middle of the day. Bible study friends coming over that night. Wonderful, amazing, beautiful friends. And a God who loves me so much, he put all those things in my life. It just doesn’t get much better.

I guess I’ve been lingering on this topic for a couple of weeks. We’re in the middle of a series at church called One Month to Live. I know. It sounds pretty scary. It’s really not. It just makes you think, and maybe feel, some things you don’t usually acknowledge.

Last week, we talked about Loving Completely. Opening your whole heart to something, to somebody… to God. At one point in the sermon, Dave challenged us to open up and let the people we love know it, and if we did “hugs would be commonplace, ‘I love you’s’ would flow easily, tears would be welcome, and joy would abound”.

Um, I don’t want to sound like I’ve got everything figured out here, because I certainly don’t, but…. Check, check, check, and check on those, my friend.

If you don’t believe me, you haven’t seen me with my friends and family.

Here’s some more good news: Heaven is going to be like that. Times a thousand.


Burying the Lead


That’s a term in the news biz for when someone puts the ‘lead’ – or the most important sentence or idea – waaaay down toward the end of the story.

You will feel like I’ve done that here. But, the truth is, I’ve buried it because I’m going to give you very little information about it.

I’m dating someone. I met him at church. He’s an attorney. He’s pretty brilliant.

The most important thing for you to know is that he’s an amazingly strong Christian with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for the Bible. The second most important thing for you to know is that he knows how to treat a woman well and he really, really likes me. The third most important thing for you to know is that I really like him as well and he’s the type of person I can not only get along with well and have fun with, he’s a person I ADMIRE, which is something I haven’t had in past relationships.

That’s all you get.

The reason you don’t get more is because things are moving very, very slowly and I think part of me isn’t sure he’s real.

So you’ll have to stay tuned…


Standby…


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A few quick hits while I'm still coherent

I did the early shift this morning (as in, get up at 2:30am), so here are just a few quick thoughts before my brain goes on auto-pilot:

That guy

I covered a political forum yesterday, and there was a reporter there for a local TV station that I just can’t help but like. To be honest, I don’t watch local TV news, so I haven’t seen his reports and I don’t read his blog. How do you know you like him?, you might ask… well, he’s got a little different vibe than the majority of his TV counterparts. And by vibe, I mean ego.

Don’t get me wrong, this guy still has an ego, he just deserves it. He’s been reporting on Kentucky politics for Y-E-A-R-S. And that’s really something for an industry in which most good reporters leap-frog their way across the country. Because he’s stayed put, he’s got insight his young, whippersnapping rivals do not. But this isn’t even the best part… my favorite thing about him is that he carries his own camera and tripod around.

You should know that most TV reporters think they are way too important to be carrying such large, heavy equipment around. They require a camera operator to travel around with them, they never offer to help carry all that stuff and often get a little muffy when asked to do something technical, like, hold-this-piece-of-white-paper-so-I-can-set-a-white-balance. Seriously. All they have to do is LITERALLY hold a piece of white paper.

Anyway, this guy traipses about with his own camera and his own tripod… not only does he carry it, but he knows how to work it. Maybe it’s because camera operators can’t keep up with him. Either way, I like it.



Can someone get me a portrait of George??

As I rummage through my purse and desk for a precious quarter on an almost daily basis, I wonder, will I ever outgrow my constant need for a 25-cent piece?

In high school, I was always bugging my dad for a quarter so I could buy a pack of light blue Extra at Chevron. (still the best flavor, even though I don’t chew gum as much, thank YOU cracky jawbone) In college, without even asking, dad would give me whatever quarters he had in his pocket for the always needy laundry fund. That laundry-quarter need continued my first few years in Louisville, since I didn’t have a washer and dryer.

These days, I’m always needing a quarter because our vending machine at work is from approximately 1928 and demands quarters (no other coinage amounting to 25-cents will do).

So nearly every day, I’m checking for quarters among the lint in my purse or running around the building with some dimes and nickels looking for someone else who has a quarter (they rarely do, because THEY all need quarters too!).

Maybe when I’m a grown-up, I won’t need quarters anymore. I’ll have tons and tons of leftover quarters and I’ll give them to quarter-starved youngsters. I hope it happens around the same time I start to like olives. Being a grown-up is going to be AWESOME!



Turn away from the darkness, Michael


As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s hard not to like Michael Phelps. Dude is pretty amazing. My friend Ann has decided to marry him and/or challenge him to a swim-off, and that’s why this latest bit of news concerns me:

I heard on the radio (not MY radio station, and therefore I cannot confirm this is true) that Michael Phelps says he wants to meet Lindsay Lohan. And, of course, Lindsay Lohan wants to meet Michael Phelps.

Sigh….

Please, Michael. I know you’re 23 and you’re the pimp of the Olympics, but let’s make wiser decisions, okay? I know you’ve just spent the last four years in a swimming pool, so maybe you haven’t been keeping up with celebrity news… just take my word for it and stay away from The Lohan. Your new swimming-pool free time will be super-fun, let’s just not go overboard. Lohan is not the answer.

And, besides, if you want a woman like that, you don’t deserve my friend Ann. Even with all your Olympic bling.


Standby….



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You Don't Speak for the Crowd, Kenny.

I have one more thing to say about Major Bible Prophecies.

You know how there are all those praise and worship songs (or hymns) that have lyrics that say something to the effect of “we can’t wait for you to come back, Jesus”? Well, maybe I’m the only one, but for most of my life, I’ve added a little thought to that sentiment. Something along the lines of “but not too quick, because I have things I want to do first”.

You know it’s true. Doesn’t matter what it is. “Sure, God, I want you to come back, but first I want to _______.” Fall in love. Get married. Have a kid. Invent a new mousetrap. Finally prove the theory of relativity. Go to space. Whatever.

I’ve been sort of debriefing Major Bible Prophecies in my own mind over the last few days and maybe the biggest shift in my mind now is that the (_______) is now gone. I’m ready. Rapture now, please.

After seeing the character of God spelled out in all his kept promises and promises for the future for us, after seeing how deeply and how intensely he loves us, I can’t help but want it now. There is nothing on this earth that could compare.

Kenny Chesney has a new song “Everybody Wants to go to Heaven (But Nobody Wants to go Now)”. There are a lot of things wrong with this song (including putting money in offering to atone for sin and giving money to the preacher to have him talk to God for you), but you can gather from the name of the song what I’m going to say. There’s even a part at the end where he says ‘I think I speak for the crowd…' and goes back into the chorus.

No, Kenny. You don’t.






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Things I've Learned from John Walvoord

My Summer Bible Study just finished up. And by “Summer Bible Study” I mean, “Summer Book Group About the Bible”. Ann, Vivie and I read this book called Major Bible Prophecies by John Walvoord. I just noticed last night that I just started calling it “The John Walvoord”, much like I started calling Mythology by Edith Hamilton “Edith” in high school.

It’s a strange relationship I have with this book. There are times I hugged it to my body and closed my eyes, imagining the amazing promises God has in store for us. There are times I wanted to throw it out the window.

It’s not the easiest read… it’s a lot like a textbook. But I learned a lot from it and I feel like I understand prophecy a lot better now, and in so doing I understand God a little better and who can be mad at John Walvoord for that? Not me.

So here are a few things I took from the book I can share with you:

- God is a seriously meticulous planner. (I KNEW I liked Him!)

- We are probably going to live later on a satellite that looks like a really glorious city (an ACTUAL satellite, like DirecTV) and we’ll just commute from there back to earth when we need to do stuff. (this would be one of the times I wanted to throw the book out the window)

- There is an actual place named Armageddon. And it could be where the final battle of Jesus vs. Bad Guys gets played out. My question is this: Why would you LIVE there? Seriously, people, move down the street.

- Daniel was a Bible-time P-I-M-P. Okay, I already learned a lot about that in the spring when we were studying (cough) Daniel. But it was cool to revisit that stuff now that I know it pretty well and think, “Angels KNOW this dude’s NAME!”

- A lot of the things in the last portion of the book (Revelation-stuff) are things we can’t even ATTEMPT to understand. Some of them are really big things, like Jesus INHABITING the earth. Some of them are more aesthetic. For example, lots of jasper used in the New Jerusalem… apparently, that’s not a very cool stone to us earthlings… but when it’s GOD’S jasper, it’s crazy-beautiful. And, of course it is!

- We are probably living in the best time to live. I know, it’s hard to believe! Let me break it down this way: In what we commonly refer to as “Bible-times”, God was interacting with the world in really obvious ways… burning bushes, stopping the sun, raising the dead, drying up huge bodies of water, locusts, water to blood, that sort of stuff. He was also dealing directly with sin… lots o’rules, punishments, sacrifices, etc.

These days, he deals with us in less obvious ways (that one’s kind of a bummer, but it gets better) BUT deals with sin with (drumroll please) grace. Also, we get the Holy Spirit (jackpot!). So we’re living in a time in which our faith is more blessed because we believe and haven’t seen (remember Jesus to doubting Thomas after he saw the scars in Jesus’s hands?) AND we’re covered by grace.

Um… it’s going to go back to that ‘other way’ before it’s all said and done. It’s going back to God dealing with stuff, moving mountains and such, and dealing with sin immediately. We’ll be cool though, we’re covered.

- If you are in Jerusalem when a major country starts to invade Israel after breaking a seven-year peace treaty (John Walvoord thinks it will be Russia), head for the hills in the most literal sense. LITERALLY. Head. For. The. Hills. Don’t go back to your house. Don’t change your clothes. Don’t grab some unleavened bread for a snack on the trip. Drop everything. Go to the mountains. I’m not joking.

Ann and I decided that if for some reason we are living in Jerusalem when this happens, we’re keeping an emergency suitcase with us at all times in case we have to run away. Sort of like how pregnant ladies keep a bag ready in case they have to rush to the hospital. Only much scarier.

- If a world leader enters into a seven-year peace treaty with Israel, start your stopwatches, peeps. Prolly 3.5 years later, the doodie is going to FLY. Also, you missed the Rapture, so you better step.it.UP.

- You know how lots of us are all “what am I supposed to DO with my life?” and “is this what I’m meant to be doing?” and “am I utilizing the gifts God gave me for his purpose?” Well… good news. When we get to the New Jerusalem, we will do nothing but serve God, all day long. And we’ll be doing EXACTLY what he created us to do.


Those are just a few things I thought I’d share. I’m still digesting even though I’m technically finished reading it. I feel like I’ve learned A LOT and yet still can’t even comprehend some of it. It’s a wonderfully frustrating feeling.

Oh. Also, if you’re an amillenarian, we can’t be friends anymore. John doesn’t like you either.



Pork Butt on a Stick


The Kentucky State Fair started today. Sigh.

Before I lived in Louisville, I viewed this annual fiesta with the hazy adoration of a person who had never been. But now I know better.

Maybe its because I’ve been forced to ‘cover’ this event several times, maybe its because I had to work a booth there once and listen to people ask me ‘ya’ll are paid by the govment, right?’ repeatedly, maybe its because all the food there is designed to make me vomit, maybe its because hordes and hordes of rednecks don’t excite me, maybe its because its frikkin’ HOT outside… but I just don’t like the state fair. I don’t like it.

This disappoints all my girlfriends. And, truthfully, I’m a little jealous of their excitement over it. I wish I could go back there. But I can’t. I’ve seen too much!

I might go anyway. Because everything is fun with my girlfriends. Maybe this is my last chance to turn it around for the state fair.

I DID read yesterday the National Weather Service has a booth there… and something called a ‘Tornado Machine’…. And the guy I always talk to at the Secretary of State’s office is running ‘Civics Jeopardy’… I could kick some serious butt at that… hmmm….


I don’t like fish. But I like Michael Phelps.


Dude can SWIM. Goggles messed up, can’t see anything, still wins, still breaks a world record. Go America.



Standby…

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You Stray, You Pay

I listen to the radio a lot. Like, ALL DAY. Sometimes it’s just a murmur in the background of something much more important, sometimes it’s something really important I can’t NOT pay attention to while I’m working.

At some point today, one of the shows was talking about John Edwards’s affair and how people found out about it and the fallout, etc. One of the questions that always comes up in these types of stories is: do we care, as voters? Do we care if the person who could be (or is) running the country has or has had an affair?

I can’t speak for the rest of you, but my answer is: YES. That’s Y-E-S.

Things I’m tired of hearing from people on this topic:

“We have more important things to worry about than that, like the war, the economy, etc.”
“I don’t care what people do in their personal lives.”
“It’s none of our business.”

For me, whether or not that person has had an affair gets to the very heart of who that person is. Election types will call me a ‘character voter’. I’m okay with that. I’m not sorry to fall into that category. It says VOLUMES about a person that they were willing to fall into that temptation, make a very bad decision, purposefully (don’t tell me it was otherwise) inflict pain and embarrassment on the person you swore to love and cherish forever, and then (in some cases) LIE about it.

The war IS important. The economy IS important. But the character behind which these people want to make decisions about these things is the SAME CHARACTER that will be making decisions on the war and the economy.

(watch me do the backtrack dance) Now, I know people make mistakes. (I make TONS of them!) And I know people can regret those mistakes and repent and be forgiven. I know.

(and…now we’re back!) That’s why this isn’t my SINGLE issue. I actually don’t have a single issue and am likely to thoroughly question those who do.

But it is AN issue. And I think it’s pretty sad the world we live in doesn’t seem to even want to take it into consideration with an ‘everyone does it’ sort of attitude. Makes me really sad.



Don’t Mess With Mama.

Those of you who know my mom well know you don’t mess with mama. Especially when it comes to her kids. (This story, however, is unrelated to her kids.) You don’t mess with mama because she will not only prove you wrong, she will do it in such a way that your only hope of showing your face again is to put yourself under Sharia law and wear a burqa.

I’m not sure I can give you the full details of what she accomplished at her work this week without jeopardizing people’s privacy, but I will tell you she put wrongdoers IN THEIR PLACE Burn Notice style!!

It’s amazing drug addicts and alcoholics could think they are smarter than her! Seriously!

Good job, mom. One more trick like that, and you’ll be eligible to apply for your superhero name and outfit.

I vote for Trickery Typhooness. There will need to be purple in the uniform. Which is good, because you look really good in purple.

Not Barney purple, good purple.



Standby…


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Return of the Staycationer

To returning to work, alarm clocks, and having a schedule in general, I say: “Boo!”

Not the Halloween, scary kind of “Boo!”. The “Boo!” at the end of a really terrible performance. You know, “boooooooo!!!!!!!” ::frowny face::

Okay, now that’s out of the way, I can catch you up on the second half of Staycation, which will henceforth be referred to in this document as The Week of Awesomeness.

I left off at Wednesday morning, most of which I spent cleaning up the apartment… the previous night, Ann and I had picked a recipe to make a really awesome dinner. We wanted to make something we wouldn’t normally make during a regular week. We chose Greek Shepherd’s Pie. Mostly because it has lamb in it and we’d never made anything with that in it.

So we shopped for that and…. Voila!



It was really yummy. And hot. And heavy. In other words, perfect for a 95-degree summer day. We ate about five bites and had to lie down and turn up the a/c. Seriously.

That day was also arts-and-crafts day (did a painting for Mom) and take-dinner-to-Dad day. We were really excited to be useful and take a homemade dinner to my dad, who was only in Louisville to stop and refuel on his way to Birmingham. He’s pretty awesome, in case you’ve never met him. Liam, I know you haven’t.



Thursday was Drum Corps Day. We went to the quarterfinals of the Drum Corps International World Championships in Bloomington. Let’s get a few things straight here: drum corps is probably not what you think unless your name is Steph, Jeremy, Mom, Dad or Ann. It’s NOT like the movie Drumline. It’s NOT only for drums.

It’s marching band. Without woodwinds. And twice as many brass instruments. On steroids.

Seriously, it’s major league marching band. And it’s freakin’ awesome. Ever since we’ve been into watching drum corps shows, the fam has been really into Phantom Regiment. So even before we got there, we all knew we wanted to root for them. Ann, however, decided to just cheer for whoever asked her. Like…sigh… the TROOPERS.

She's even adorable as a Trooper fan!

It’s okay people, she’s a Phantom fan now. Phantom Regiment, by the way, came back from being in fourth place three days out and WON THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS that Saturday. AMAZING!!! Their show was awesome. But their show has always been awesome and they haven’t won. They deserve it. I don’t know why it took so long, but I’m really glad they won.

Here’s a vid of their show in 1996… it’s the only other time they’ve won a world championship and they had to SHARE it with Blue Devils. This time, it’s all theirs.

I especially love this 1996 show. It’s called A Defiant Heart. Music by Shostakovich. It’s beautiful.



Hey – remember that time me and Ann wanted to get our picture taken, so we went to Sears and asked for the “blue sky/white clouds background”?

Friday was pool day. Then Vivie was back from Miami and came with us to the winery on Saturday. Hey – remember that time me and Ann and Vivie went to Sears to get our picture taken and asked for the “day at the winery” background?



Um, this photo pretty much explains itself, it just too awesome not to post.



So, what have we learned from The Week of Awesomeness?

Friends. Real friends. Godly women. Beautiful women. Funny girls. Warm hearts. Genuine spirits. They’re kind of… essential. To living a full, wonderfully blessed, magically quirky, gift-from-God kind of life.

Standby...

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Picture Catch-up time!... and bits of Staycation 2008

It takes about three steps to get my pictures to this blog because of lack of wireless internet at my house and lack of storing my personal photos on my work computer... but every once in awhile all the digital photo stars align and I can bring you pics!

Here are some catch-up ones...

You may remember the time I got heat stroke... if not, here's my heat stroke blog... also, when I went to get the URL for that, I noticed some guy named Liam commented on it... I don't know Liam, but hey, that's cool. Welcome, Liam!


This is the whole first half of the day, when I was actually useful. Look at Ann's super-girly shoes! There's NO WAY you could EVER do WORK in those! You should definitely read Ann's blog from July 25th... about the shoes and this lady named Diane. It's hilarious.



This is the house we worked on. Actually, we worked on the back yard... and why are we hunched over like that? Great question. I don't know. I guess we thought it was a tiny doll house and there's no way grown humans would fit in a picture with it unless we hunched over.

Okay moving on from Heat Stroke Day... I painted something! And it turned out WAY better than the first thing I painted.

It's for Nannie... HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANNIE!

Okay, now for Staycation so far...

So far it's been Singin' with Gene Kelly, pool, pool, pool, mojito night, picnic at the lake, not reserving a boat, being tracked down by a gang of elderly lawn mowers, tracking down the ONE copy of Newsies in the whole city of Louisville, being too snobby to get pedicures at one place and then feeling really good about a place called "Fancy Nails", getting a really disarming pedicure done BY A MAN, watching Christian Bale sing and dance and pine for Santa Fe, eating tiny Mayan food, having the best shoe shopping experience EVER, going to the pool, running away from the pool in a downpour, eating lots of meat at Mark's Feed Store, and selecting several movies at Blockbuster and then somehow picking the worst movie ever made.

Here are my favorite pics so far...



Isn't she the cutest?? I mean, really! WHO is cuter? NO ONE! Seriously, folks, THIS is what is making the week hilariously fun. Without Ann in my week, I would already be bored and wanting to go back to work and mad at myself for wanting to go back to work. This pic is from our picnic at Taylorsville Lake... notice how the beverage is coordinated with the tablecloth and her dress. We're fancy like that.

After our picnic, we wanted to go scope out the lake and marina scene... and we see this sign...


It was pretty disarming. I hit the brakes. Apparently people have just DRIVEN into the water because the boat ramp is just an extension of this road. Pretty weird.

Last week I had to go do some contract audio work for a freelancer in NYC at Zappo's. You've probably heard of Zappo's, its a huge online shoe retailer. They have a H-U-G-E warehouse and distribution center in Shepherdsville, which isn't far from Louisville. I went to interview a guy about robots they're using in the distribution center. But I noticed they have an outlet store attached to the distribution center.

So when it rained on Baseball/Do-Fun-Things-Downtown Day, we chucked our plans and trekked out to Zappo's.

There weren't many, but we found a number of stripper shoes. These were our favorites...


I know you have questions. Yes, that is a gold, charm anklet that is ATTACHED to the my red, glitter shoes. No, Ann's white platform sandals DO NOT light up, even though they look like they do. We tried stomping and everything. They don't light up. Also, please take a moment to notice the ACTUAL shoes Ann and I were wearing that day.

Okay, I'm wasting away precious Staycation time here... you probably won't here from me again til its over because we've got a lot planned for the next few days. Also, I'm super-excited because Mama's coming tomorrow and we're going to a DCI show!

Yay Staycation!!

Standby...



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