It all started when I drove through the greying wetness of post-rain Pittsburgh to a Mexican restaurant off Carson Street, there to join fellow collegiates in supper and laughter. More laughter than supper, but we ate a lot too. Plans shifted all over prior to that dinner meeting, but they ended up with Mom and Dad at home getting pizza, my car at home with a flat tire and recently-dead battery, Daniel at play practice at the Church office, and Ken who knows where out West like he always is.
I woke up Friday morning having slept a good hour or so extra. It was bright outside, and after two weeks of dedicatedly trying to sleep more I arose rested and refreshed. I put on a bright blue Hawaiian shirt to celebrate the delightfully warm air that blew on my face as I walked out to my car, and that shirt pretty much represents my mood all day. I truly enjoyed being that chipper and saying funny stuff and being friendly with folks at work. Plus I got to walk around the plant for two hours tracking down all the waste drums in satellite accumulation areas and correlating them with the in-plant inventry printed off of the Waste EMS database at the beginning of the month. A cajun chicken salad with ranch and a Dr.Pepper at The World-famous Midway perked up the midday and packed my stomach tight, though I still find room for a piece of pizza left over from the lunch for the air FSA auditors.
The traffic on the way home was jaw-droppingly bad, and I finally resorted to following the little squiggly lines on my trusty AAA Pittsburgh Metro Map to try getting to Becks Run Road a little bit quicker. Didn't really help much, but I felt a little less hopelessly trapped on the clogged roads. I felt sorry for the poor wet biker dude stuck on the Parkway.Katie and Sarah, Mike and Shannon, Nate and I. That was our dinner crowd. I was still chipper and full of funny comments (according to my self assessment and Nate's laughter), and it was really nice to hang out with this solid group of folks. I almost got the veal tongue taco, but settled instead for a Pambazo (or something like that) that I'd never heard of. It was ok, but the tail end of Sarah's burrito which I tried was fantastic. I definitely want to go there again. OH, and the cantalope "Fresh Fruit Water" was amazing! Musta been blended up frozen cantalope and water..maybe some sugar, but that's it. Straight-up fruit, bursting with genuine cantalope flavor the way God made it. Ahh--exquisite! The conversation was basically a long string of serious questions followed by real answers and lots of joking :-)
Then we retired to the Calano's abode, in whose living room we wiled away the night with balderdash, ice-cream sundaes, crazy antics, and Elmo's Book of Love :-D
Balderdash is a great game, and we had our fair share of crazy words and crazier definitions (An ox cart used to haul hard coal). I came down from my Two-Dr.Peppers-and-a-Pepsi caffeine high round about 11:30, and was half dead to the world after that. Mike laid around on the floor by the couch and was weird. Katie texted everybody from Mike's phone. Sarah yelled as only Sarah can. Daniel sat by the play pen with his freshly cut hair. Rebekah took a far second place to Sarah's dominating 33 points. Nate was Nate, in all his joviality. We finally wandered out the door around 1:30 am, bemused and relaxed.For Saturday and Sunday I'm gonna pretty much copy and paste from an email, with a few streamlining edits:
Dude, Saturday was totally a malesh day :-) I slept till 1:00, and after lunch I pretty much just layed down on the couch and let Daisy sleep with her head in my hands until Dad was ready to give me a haircut. Then Nate came over for dinner (Grilled teriyaki salmon to die for!) and we talked for a long time, then Jonathan came over and he and I jammed downstairs, and then we pretty much layed around in the family room and watched funny video clips and random basketball games until 1am. So much for the huge list of stuff I need to do on my precious weekends at home :-P
I thought several times this morning about the conference in Wadi Natrum [in Egypt] as I played acoustic guitar for worship. It helped me remember that worship is not about me but about God, and that this stuff is real and exciting. But mostly I was consumed with the firey pain coming from my left hand fingers as I had to keep mashing them into the strings. I had jammed out on electric for hours the night before, and my digits were tender before we even started practice :-/ Ah well. We got through, and God was worshipped and extolled.
Mr. Pierson preached a great sermon on evangelism, based on John 1:43-51, where Philip goes and gets Nathaniel and brings him to see Jesus, the Messiah they found. I have always liked what Philip says after Nathaniel asks "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" He doesn't rattle off all the good things about Nazareth, or argue his logic, or whatever. He says "come and see." Come and see! You ask how God can be good if 9/11 happened? Well, good question. Just come to church, and see what you see. Come on over for dinner, hang out with me, look at my life, and see. Ah, what simple freedom! "We are bringing people to a Person, not to a set of religious beliefs" was a great point. We've got an Easter service coming up, to which we are encouraged to invite folks, and a survey about peoples' beliefs about the resurrection to give to folks. Should be quite interesting.
After church we had a worship team meeting at the church office to officially commence Ryan's reign as leader of the team. It's great to have this change force a fresh look at what we do and why, and to have Ryan's diligence and organization come into play with a schedule and such logistical aids. Nate and I are also being drafted as 3rd and 4th string worship leaders, which is cool. I'm especially excited for Nate--he's gonna make a great worship leader! For now Ryan and Rick are taking most of the load, and Ryan will be conducting some "musical interviews" for folks who are interested in joining the team. Aahhh, fresh blood and fresh stirring! I'm highly expectant for the coming months with the band.
So, that's pretty much the weekend.
I've been sitting here on the couch in the family room since getting back home, watching some Simpsons, writing the email above, listening to some music, and wishing I had Daisy sleeping next to me. Mom and Daniel are on their way to Chicago to chill with Grandma and Grandpa for a week, and they took my little beaglet with them. It's amazing what a psychological difference it makes when you remember that there isn't a little tail-wagging big-brown-eyed soft-eared dog waiting for you at home. I mean, Dad's nice and all, but...it's just not the same :-PI think I'm gonna go fold some laundry, run another load of darks, straighten up my room a bit more, and put my two beds into an "L" shape along the walls, rather than the parallel configuration they've been in for the last year or two. It's already 8 o'clock (good gravy!), so that'll probably finish the day off. It has been a lazy weekend, I've gotten almost nothing done on my to-do lists, but I had great times with the ever-deepening and ever-richening friends at Providence, and I enjoyed the indulgent relaxation that will soon enough be impossible to find.
Anotherweekofmylife, here I come!
--JPB
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5 comments:
(I'm curious to know what you think I was like at Calano's...but that's just me being selfish. Hey, maybe I was being selfish at Calanos!)
I keep thinking about Kayte's conference, too. It's amazing how little I understand the term "global Church." The body of Christ is all over the place! So cool
oh, and it was nice to have you in Pittsburgh! I'm looking forward to more of that fresh-faced guitar on Sundays :-)
Hm. It's not selfishness necessarily. Sometimes it can be plain old curiosity, and sometimes it can be concern for being a better friend and serving those around you more kindly.
You were, from my point of view beneath the driving cap, your normal self; just during Balderdash you kept talking too long when people were trying to reign it in and get on with the game. Cheerfulness must be tempered by awareness of others, as I have had to keep learning painfully over the years :-)
...fresh-faced guitar?? Garr
I said "fresh-faced" because you did. "PChOP just isn't ready for my brand of fresh-faced American rock 'n' roll." <-- from your post on Valentine's Day about the Butler church. No, you didn't say guitar. You used the term "fresh-faced" to describe your music style, so I used it to describe your guitar style. Is that assuming or implying too much?
It sounds to me like I was being selfish at Calano's. Darn. I'll shut up now. :-)
Ah, I see now that I unexplainedly ommitted Laedelas from my list of people in the livingroom and what they were doing. 'Twas unintentional, but I guess it made you think :-P
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