Wedding weekend

Mid-May, we had a wedding weekend with some great friends.

Here are a couple of my favorite pics from the event.

On their way from ceremony to reception: Matt & Courtney

At the reception

The wedding party

Summer fun; Weekend #1

My summer started off with a BANG! And I must say that if this is how my summer is going to play out, then I'm totally on board.

Friday: 2 best friends from college are here for lunch with our favorite professor. A surreal time of hilarity, delicious dining, insane puppies, and long over-due hanging out.

Saturday: Graduation of our students (Yay!), which officially finished our school year. The 3 hour ceremony was closely followed by the arrival of Evan and Emily for a day of tennis, games, and more scrumptious fare from a local eatery.

Sunday: church and grocerying. Tooling around in a friend's Mustang Shelby GT 500, plus more eating out and more ice cream. Purchasing new spectacles, which I haven't done in at least 6 years and was badly needed, since my prescription has progressed markedly in that time frame. I was able to meet Liz's new nephew, Alex, who is only a few months old, to hold him for a while, and to hang out with his mom and sister. That was awesome.

Monday: family get together about two hours away from home. Tons of food, more tennis, games, and lots of people to chat up. It was brilliant.

So, naturally, we crashed by 9pm and awoke to a new work week. A fantastic start to a busy, family and fun-filled summer. Some of my plans include a trip to Chicago with the fam, one or two Indians games, a week with my AZ girls (though not in AZ, sadly), a week with the Edwards & Co. in the Lower Carolina, and some other random fun thrown in there. If you are ever up for games and food, look us up.

I leave you with a picture or two of my new specs. I love them. They are VERY different for me, but cute, I think.

Because sometimes, you cannot take it seriously

I love sarcasm. Many of you who read my blog will already know that. But I can wholeheartedly say that nothing brings me more joy than hearing or reading a brilliant *zing. It doesn't really matter if it's directed at a person, an organization, or a subculture; if it's a good one, I will laugh.

Myself, I'm a part of several types of groups that deserve to be made fun of on some level.

I'm a Librarian, for one. We deserve ridicule for our sensible shoes and our bad fashion (most of us, anyway--you should see what I'm wearing right now). We deserve to be mocked when we straighten everything in the Library and at home, on our desks and in our drawers (desk AND clothing drawers included in this comment).

I'm a Literary person. I prefer books to people most days of the week. I have written very bad poetry for years, which thankfully dried up after being forced to write so many stories and poems in my pursuit of a B.A. in creative writing (a degree I use 0% of the time). When I have nothing to do, you will find me reading. Whether online or a physical book, I'll be devouring words one way or another.

I'm a Christian. There are many, I could say myriad, reasons why Christians should be the butt of jokes. As an adolescent person, I had no sense of humor. So, when people ribbed my Christian-ness, I was always offended (I spent the majority of my develomental years being offended by everyone in my life--friend or foe, sibling or parent). In college, I had to get over that, because I found myself drowning in an ever-expanding sea of Christian subculture. If I hadn't been able to develop a sense of humor about the cliche and often ridiculous things that Christians say and do, I would have keeled over from overexposure. Or broken from the rigid lines of perfection and "we are perfect" mentality that I would have insisted were reality. By my senior year, I was mocking Christians more than joining them, which is okay, I think. It's part of spiritual development (no really, it is) and part of the whole owning up to the light and dark sides of my relationship with Jesus and the rest of Christianity. This year, however, my acceptance of all things redonk (short for ridiculous, or redonkulous) in the Christian realm has been fueled by a great blog I stole off of someone's Facebook comment: http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/
I laugh at every new mini-essay the author, Jon, posts about Christian superficiality and the things we find ourselves doing and saying as a part of this subculture. I love it. I think everyone should read it.
So this is my plug for Stuff Christians Like.

These days, I try very hard to keep an open attitude toward sarcasm. I know sometimes it can be painful and sometimes inappropriate. I try to steer clear of those opportunities by biting my tongue, literally. It works, occasionally. If my wit ever does hurt your feelings, tell me. I don't like to embarrass or berate people. Mostly, I'm just searching for the funny or absurd. Those are my favorites.

Creeping back in

I almost want to come back. Really, I do.

I've had things I want to share with people.

Like the student who came to the library last week in a camo poncho and a Panama Jack bermuda-type hat.

Or just to let you know we had a nest of spiders hatch in our bathroom circa midnight last Saturday, and we were up spraying RAID and killing those trying to escape the burning fumes until after 1 am.

Or that I miss my friends, the ones who've moved away and gotten busy with life (like me). In the Spring I always miss Elaine because of memories from being on campus with her during the final weeks of school every year. I read her senior paper this week because I missed her so badly.

Or that I feel so blessed to be so much in love with a great guy who brings me chocolates and watches chick flicks and goes on walks just because those things make me happy.

I may need to switch my "break up" mentality from blogging to Facebook. I think I'm a bit addicted to the constant information updates in that realm. This summer would be a great time to focus elsewhere.

Also, of note, I've been reading A LOT. Another benefit from my hiatus from blogging. Since January, I've knocked out the Zion Covenant series: 9 books in total! The first six are about 400-500 pages a piece. The last three are a couple hundred and not as well-written. But I loved them. The characters kept me going this winter when little else could. I dreamt about them, thought about them during the days and wondered how they were going to survive the new twists and catastrophes occurring around them. Fantastic, really.
Today I finished reading Where the Heart Is, one of my favorite Natalie Portman / Ashley Judd movies. The book is good. Has some great character development and actually some changes in plot that I enjoyed.
I read Sex God, a book about the modern conception of sexuality and taking a fresh approach from a Christian perspective, by the new Christian super power himself, Rob Bell. Not as big of a fan of this one. The last few chapters had some great points about how we should view and relate to the people around us. But overall, I'm not a fan of his writing style. I got lost in his vignettes.

In the near future, I'm hoping to read The Living by Annie Dillard. A book I "borrowed" from Elaine about a year ago. Oops. I promsie to return it, darling. I'm also probably going to start the Zion Chronicles series, related to the Thoene books mentioned above. Yay!

Here's to happy reading, more jogging, less eating, more sunshine, less cold weather, and the glorious days of summer awaiting us just around the corner!