stumbling toward divinity

a weekend that was busy, but fun

Well, my blogging has been kind of scarce, to say the least.  There has been a lot going on at work that has been keeping me busy, and I guess I've just been feeling unmotivated to blog.  But things have been going well.  They have been busy, but good. 

This past weekend I was able to take a break from all things work related, which was nice.  My friend Weepy came up for a visit and this past Friday we made a "pilgrimage" to a restaurant that has some connections to Holden Village, which is a place very near and dear to both of our hearts.  I had these amazing stuffed mushrooms over pasta.  And then I bought two hand-thrown pottery mugs from the restaurant.

Afterwards, we went to the movie "Into The Wild."  I read the book written by Jon Krakauer a while ago, after I read "Into Thin Air" his book about Mount Everest.  Both are good books which I whole-heartedly recommend.  The movie was good, too.

Saturday I officiated at my second wedding.  This one was by far the most stressful of the two I've done.  The groom was nervous during the rehearsal, and it was looking like it would be worse the day of the wedding.  The groomsmen were actually placing bets on whether he would pass out, or not.  I was talking to his grandma, and she said that his dad had passed out at his wedding, so I guess it runs in the family.  I heard the bride talking about how her dress was a bit tight, and was constricting her breathing.  She said she felt like she could drop, too.  I told her that was unallowed.  This was also the biggest of the two weddings, by far.  There were six guys on the groom's side and seven girls on the bride's.  There should have been one more guy, but he was out of town because of a death in the family.  The bride had a daughter from a previous relationship, and the two had a daughter together, and so they wanted to do some vows for their kids, too. 
But they were a fun couple, we laughed a lot together, and during the wedding itself we had some laughs.  I told them during the rehearsal that when I introduced them to the congregation that they could then kiss and walk down the aisle.  I wouldn't actually say, "You may now kiss the bride,"  or anything like that.  So, when I introduced them, they smiled and started walking and I whispered (more of a stage whisper, I guess) "Hey!  You might want to kiss!"  So the photographer, I guess, was completely unprepared for the kiss and didn't get any pictures of it.  He tried to blame me for that, but I just wondered why he wasn't prepared to take pictures of them as they were walking down the aisle, anyway, since he delayed the whole processional by a couple of minutes because he was snapping pictures of the first couple and wouldn't let them start walking down the aisle until he got a picture he liked, I guess.

But, overall, it was a fun weekend.  Even though it was action packed and I didn't get much "just sit on your butt" time.  I wonder how El Capitan would feel if I decided to take every day this week as a day off.... Hmmm.....

update on the soup

Well, it's edible.  And it tastes ok.  So I suppose it is a small victory.
I think my problem is that I assume that all these things I try, for the first time, will end up tasting like gourmet foods.  And I'm just not that experienced at cooking.
Though, I have to say, I think this turned out better than the vegetable lasagna.

hold me! i'm nervous!

so i was looking in the Cook Boldly cookbook from Holden Village and I found a recipe for black bean soup.  So I'm trying it.  I had the beans soaking since last night and, though I got delayed because of a few other things going on tonight, I decided to go ahead and try and make the soup tonight.  I hope it turns out better than the vegetable lasagna...

I'll let you know.

who'da thunk it?

I am known for my willingness to try new foods.  When I was growing up, my mom knew that out of the three of us boys, I was the one who would be willing to at least try whatever it was she prepared for supper.  She was well known for having fun with Saint Patrick's Day.  I remember two in particular.  One year, I remember she made green mashed potatoes, green biscuits, and green milk.  Another year she mixed green food coloring with the spaghetti noodles.  They looked fine until you put the red sauce on top of them.  Then they were a bit weird.  But I went ahead and tried them.  My oldest brother, however, flipped his plate over and said, "All I want is a normal mother..."

As I've travelled to places like Mexico and India, I have always been more than willing to try whatever it is they serve us.  Lamb curry?  Ok!  Cabrito*?  Why not?  Chilled monkey brains?  Sure!  [ok, honestly, I've never tried chilled monkey brains.  And you should totally know what movie that's from.  If you don't, I'm not sure we can be friends.]  I'm all about trying new and different foods.

But, there has always been something I've been hesitant to try.  Sushi.  Just something about the thought of raw fish has always kind of turned me off.  But, I have to admit, I've always been kind of curious as to what it was like.  However, the only places I have gone that have served sushi have been Chinese buffets, and I just think Chinese buffet sushi screams "sketchy."  So I've never tried it.

But my friend Stacey was in the area visiting her family while she was on vacation, and she is a fan of sushi.  So she did her research and we drove to a nearby suburb to eat some sushi.  And I tried several different kinds.  I had spicy tuna roll and dragon roll and rainbow roll and even unagi sashimi (eel!).  And, I have to admit, it was darn good!  I'm a sushi convert!  Though, I've decided if I ever go to sushi again, I'll make sure I have something else to eat either before or afterwards.  Because, while it's good, it can be darned pricey!  So Stacey and I had a fairly pricey lunch, but it was good and the company was mediocre...

*Cabrito is Spanish for goat.  Actually, it's "little goat" but that makes me think of a baby goat, and I refuse to think that I had the goat equivalent of veal.  I just refuse.

so many things

There are a lot of things racing through my head right now, and I'm not sure that any of them warrant a post of their own.  So what you're going to get is a mishmash of what is going through my head right now.

Fourth meal - This is the new, or not very old, campaign for Taco Bell.  They advertise that Taco Bell is the place to stop for your 'fourth meal,' which is the meal between dinner and breakfast.  At first, I thought it was kinda funny.  It reminded me of the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings with all of their different meals, like second breakfast and 'elevensies.'  But then, it hit me.  Let's take a group of people (that would be U.S. Citizens) who already tip the scales as an overweight country, moving rapidly towards an obese country, and encourage them to eat fatty, unhealthy foods during the time of the night when their bodies are the least active and less likely to burn off the tons of calories and fats rolled up in crispy chalupa tortillas that they're cramming down their throats.  Yeah...  sounds like a great idea to me.

Seminary youth - I was walking across campus this evening to help a new student move in after she arrived at a not very convenient hour, as far as receiving maximum move assistance from the community.  I was stopped by a couple of the seminary kids, who love to give me a hard time, when out of the tree jumps one of the boys whose family has just returned from their year of internship.  Now, I know you aren't supposed to pick favorites... blah blah blah... but you have to admit there are always one or a few who stick out, who you really get a kick out of (yeah, I dangled that preposition... what of it?).  This just happened to be one of those kids for me.  It completely made my night to see him, and he was quick to offer a hug.  Just kind of made me realize how I'm going to really miss the youth of this community, and I'm going to miss being the advocate for them that I have been these past years. 

Reality TV - Why is it SO addictive?  (This wasn't really running through my head all day.  I just added it now, after watching an episode of Real World/Road Rules Challenge on MTV).

My brush with death - This might be an entry that warrants its own post, but it doesn't get it.  It will just have to cope.  So, I was sitting in my room, checking my e-mail, watching something on TV (probably reality television) and basically minding my own business.  Now, I have two dorm fridges in my room that are known for making weird noises.  Some of you may remember from my internship year, that I had a refrigerator that continually decided to malfunction and whizz on my kitchen floor several times.  This resulted in me having to walk down into the furnace room (remember?  the one that I thought had someone living in it, who would repeatedly hit and kick the furnace and water heater to make strange noises) and not only did I have to go into the furnace room, but I had to crawl into the CRAWL SPACE in this furnace room (remember? the crawl space that made me fear a facial attack by a raccoon as I climbed in to shut off the water).  So, anyway, these fridges and their noise-making always makes me think that they're malfunctioning.  Well, as I was sitting in my room, I hear this "tic, tic, tic" noise coming from my right.  I glance over, hear the fridge about three feet to my right humming, and figure that it is just one of the fridge's random noises.  No reason to be concerned.  I continue web-surfing when I hear it again.  "Tic, tic, tic."  Mainly as a reflex I turn to look at my fridge.  Only it wasn't my fridge.  It was the bat crawling across my a pile of papers.  Yeah, that's right, a bat.  As in the furry, winged kind.  Not the wooden, sports equipment kind.  So, basically I jumped out of my skin and let loose with this yell/shriek/whimper noise and freeze in place as this bat crawls to the top of the pile of papers and looks around.  I grabbed the closest thing I could find, which happened to be a sweatshirt, and tossed it on the bat.  It began chirping, as if to say, "What the heck is going on here?" and I jumped over the bat (it was blocking my only exit) and rushed out into the hallway.  Of course, the minute I made it out into the hall, I realized that was a dumb idea.  Because at least if I was in the room then I knew where the bat was.  Now that I was outside, the bat could decide to fly just about anywhere in my room.  So I warily walked back into the room, expecting to see the bat come rocketing at my face (do you see a theme hear, involving a fear of animals attacking my face?) and was just in time to see the bat crawl to the top of my sweatshirt and look around.  Grabbing another shirt, I threw it on top of the sweatshirt, stooped down, bunched the shirts up, picked them up and rushed outside.  I practically threw the shirts onto the ground outside, and the bat just kind of laid in the grass.  My neighbor happened to be outside, and not as freaked out by bats as I am, so she stooped down to check it out.  Come to find out it had an injured wing (which is probably why it wasn't flying around my room in the first place) and so it just laid there, in the bright sun, and curled into a mangled, little ball.  She scooped the poor thing up and went and deposited it into a shady spot under some trees.  Now, when I'm in my room, everytime I hear a noise I think it's a bat creeping out of some nook or cranny in my room.  So, at least I'm not freaking out about the fridges malfunctioning, right?

Saturday - I move on Saturday.  I'm starting to get a wee bit freaked out by the whole thing.

how many days has it been?

I know it has only been one day since my last post, but with what happened today it seems like it's been several.  That means today was a long, busy, glorious day.

Maybe I will type more later, but for now I need rest.  And so, tonight I will sign off.

Sincerely,
your friend
Mark, MDiv