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!

Taking a break

This past weekend Kyle and I tried our hand at faux-parenting. We babysat for three kids, second cousins of Kyle's, for about 48 hours.

I was skeptical that we could handle it all, mostly because I'm not used to entertaining anyone but Kyle (and let's face it, that isn't hard), but also because of the age range: 6 - 14. These kids are super active, too. And I'm just not Miss Active anymore. At one time, maybe. But weekends are my time to unwind and do very little.

Turned out, the weekend was a blast. We did the soccer parent thing on Saturday. We played games and read stories and went to a park on our first most beautiful day of Spring weather. I furthered the addiction of Chicken Foot dominoes to two girls whose birthdays are this month (I think I know what they're getting). All in all, we survived and had fun in the process.

Let me just say that these kids are incredible. Not only do they love being active and playing games above all else, but they got along so well. Very little "you probably shouldn't do that" or "let's not repeat that" type of correction had to take place. We didn't have to separate anyone because of fighting or ask for apologies. My siblings and I were never that well behaved.

Needless to say, we have three new friends. At the same time, we came home exhausted and thanking God that kids don't pop out aged 6, 11, or 14. They call them baby steps for a reason, I think. Baby steps to the idea of having kids. Baby steps to having a baby. Baby steps through cuteness and tantrums and teeth falling out and sports and boyfriends, etc.

I've realized more and more that my life feels full but it could be even more so. I have choices to make every day about how I'll spend my time and with whom. In light of that, I'm taking a break from blogging. It has been very therapeutic for me these last four years, but I need to focus elsewhere and I've been doing a terrible job of keeping up with this since the New Year anyway.

So I'm signing off for a while. Until there is something of substance to share. No one wants to read drivel. And I feel like all I have to share is drivel.

Thank you to my faithful readers. You probably should go outside and enjoy the coming Spring.

Happy Sunshine and laughter!

February Blues are over

I am well aware that my blogging since the first of the year has been less than acceptable. After the January from Hell, work picked up for me and my days are jammed full of projects, sorting information, making decisions on what books to add to our library, creating and modifying endless spreadsheets, and generally running from place to place.

Our evenings usually find us away from computers, since we both spend all day at work staring at a monitor. We watch movies, read, talk, or do various activities for exercise (I like to walk and jog, while Kyle plays intramural basketball and racquetball).

Weekends seem to have been busy, too, though maybe we're just relaxing and trying to catch up on sleep and sanity from our intense weeks.

My health has also been in question for about the entire month of February. Strange things to be sure, but I'm hoping that today's spell in the Library (I nearly fainted in the Reference section) is the last of this bothersome winter blues and illnesses. We've also been under an inordinate amount of job stress for about the last two weeks, and I know that it takes a toll on my body in (predictably) strange ways.

March begins tomorrow and with it, I am praying for some hope of spring, of new life and warm breezes and more sunshine.

Nothing big, nothing fancy. But altogether wonderful.

This weekend was great. In light of last year's Valentine's event, and our current financial status, I knew it would be a fairly low-key celebration. But I knew we'd have a blast, and it would be utterly relaxing.

Friday night we watched X Men 2. We're going through film and TV series again, and it's super fun. Saturday was a very slow and lovely day. We slept in, made brunch, watched X Men 3, and took a nap. At which point we had 15 minutes to get ready to "go out" for the evening. I managed, somehow, to not look like I'd just awakened from a nap and off we went. Olive Garden was our destination of choice and after an hour plus wait, we got our table. Our server, Seth, was awesome; super friendly and very real, none of this fake I-Want-A-Good-Tip stuff.

Example:
Kyle said, "Tonight must be really good for you..." [meaning for tips]
Seth said, "Yeah, it's not bad, but I'd much rather be sleeping right now."
We agreed with him, and could not fault his honesty.

The food was delicious: Chicken and Gnocchi in Veronese sauce for Kyle and Four-Cheese Mezzaluna with Sausage for me. I didn't think I liked sausage, but Kyle convinced me I did. Plus, I knew if I didn't like it, we'd switch dishes and it'd be fine. We ended up loving both, and thus going halvsies. A true marriage, right? Sharing everything?

Afterward, we headed to a tiny venue for the Griffin House concert. I'd been looking forward to it for nearly a month since Liz mentioned he'd be in town. Upon arriving, we discovered five of my Bible study friends and a few other friends from school. It was hilarious and awesome. Well-timed, since the week prior the Bible Study girls had begun to doubt if I'd really gotten married. None of them had met Kyle. Now I have proof he's real--and for those who weren't present at the concert, the ones there can attest to his existence.

Sunday brought a whole different kind of fun. We woke up early to drive home for a true Gottschalk party, with Leslie and Calli recently arrived from the West. Brian, Raendra, and Clayton were around as well as Emily and Evan. And although mom was not well enough to join us for church, lunch, or an afternoon of games, we did manage to have dinner and a game or two with her later. So much food. Wow. It was like Thanksgiving and Christmas all over again. Before getting home, we even squeezed in some time to be with Kyle's parents and discuss Lost. Which was awesome.

Thus, our first official Valentine's day was full of things we love: great food, music, friends, and family. Nothing could have been better!

I want to be different.

But I can't seem to change.