

THAT WAS THE WORST CALLED GAME IN THE HISTORY OF WORST CALLED GAMES!!!!
"...All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us..."
~J.R.R. Tolkien
Since I'm on a roll all of a sudden with the technology, here's the regular crew for our Saturday morning read through. We average about 10 chapters a week here, outloud, and we're almost through Numbers. Thank Goodness. There's a lot to glean, and we feel very well informed about sacrifices and heave offerings and grain offerings, and we've started tying in New Testament applications (Like Paul's reference in Philippians to a drink offering, or Romans' Christ as the firstfruits), but we're ready to get back to the adventure. The Pentateuch is rather repetative. Moses wasn't much of a writer. The Jackson's Sports Bar leg of the study should finish out the last five chapters so we're ready for Deuteronomy next week at Inklings.
Oh, and that's Denise, Johanna, and me. Sometimes we have Nathaniel and Julie too.
Last night, after I got off work, I got a phone call. It was Steve! We talked for about an hour. Lots of "what have you been up to since 1988" and then comparing our favorite books. He's trying to get a paper published on an analysis of a Robert Frost poem, and how it homages the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. He's also writing a one act play.
It was great to talk to him. Afterwards, I went to the folks house for a craft night, which didn't happen. Instead we all sat on the floor and sorted through our old photo collection, trying to find pictures from preschool and kindergarten. No luck -- they're all on slides. But Allie found my class picture from then, which I've posted below. Weren't we adorable?
Yesterday was quite the day. Nothing very formidable happened on the surface. Prayer Breakfast. They sang the song I loathe with an all consuming passion. (Walking and talking with my MIIIIIIND...SEEEEEETTTT on Jesus) No Amazing Grace to the tune of the Gilligan's Island Themesong. That borders on sacriligious.
I tried to get my oil changed, but Goodyear was backed up until Tuesday at 3:00. I'll drop my car off on the way back from St. Pauls and walk back to the Lighthouse. I can walk back after I close the shop. It's utterly convenient to live within a mile of all three major jobs, several favorite restaurants, church, and a used bookstore. Once the weather warms up again, I'll start walking more places.
I worked a full day, no teaching to break things up. Tessa and I priced the latest load at the front counter where it's warm. I put myself close enough to the heater to smell warm clothing particles all afternoon. Tessa is amazing. She is so smart, reads all the time, had all sorts of scholarships to colleges, graduated at 16, and was published several times as a teenager. Then a couple of bad decisions left her on welfare years later. She's about my age. We talked about what she'd do if she could do anything, and money and current situations weren't an object. She wants to go back to school for an English degree. She wants to go abroad for a while. I took my lunch break far later than usual to stay and talk.
I got two emails in a row, one with some bad news, and one with good. I am still grinning over Steve Pedersen showing back up after twenty years. That balanced out the other.
After work I had band practice for Sunday, and then went to Borders to buy a new Cloud and Townsend book that I've been coveting for a couple of weeks now. I'm not a big fan of the "Self-Help" genre, but my counselor in college recommended their "Boundaries" book. It took me a year and another recommendation to actually read it, but it was very good. The new one is good too.
And I'm back to work.
I had my second thoughts about being on myspace, but today it did what it was supposed to do. I got an email from someone in Southern California. A guy politely introduced himself, saying that he had a girlfriend named Rachel once. They were both in preschool together, and then he moved to California when they were seven. Before he left she drew a picture of him. Could that Rachel possibly be this Rachel. And it was.
I wrote back that I had been madly in love with him in Kindergarten and Preschool, and we must have watched the My Little Pony movie at his house a zillion times. He had a pogo stick, and one of those bouncy planet-with-a-ring balls that you could stand on. I had wondered off and on over the years what had ever become of him. From my memory, he was the nicest guy I've ever known.
I hope he writes back! He was my best friend.