sun and sand!

I'm headed out the door - FINALLY - for a week on the beach in Florida! I've been looking forward to this day for weeks. I intend to try to forget all about work and day-to-dayness until Friday.

Cheers...

lucky numbers

My new addiction is the Virginia Lottery. Not long ago, my mom started getting a couple of tickets each week for the Florida Lottery because the jackpot was up to $82 million ...at least until last night, when two people matched all six numbers and crushed the jackpot back down to $3 million. It's only $1 a ticket to play in both Florida and Virginia...so why not get two or three tickets?

"Consider it entertainment that might reap big rewards," Mom says. She's right, I suppose: after all, the Mega Millions lottery in Virginia was up to $265 million on Tuesday before one person hit the jackpot in Ohio. Now it's a paltry $20 million or so. Pocket change by comparison. I bought three tickets on Tuesday and I did get the Mega Ball number correct on the first one. That won me a whopping $2. Not a big winner, but still - I was excited about the drawing all afternoon. And I made back two of the three dollars I spent. True, I didn't win a damn thing on the one ticket I bought last night for the Win for Life drawing, but who cares? There's another Mega Millions drawing on Friday night.

Who knew $1 could buy so much excitement?

holy itunes?

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, the end of Holy Week. For those of us who work in the church, this is the most important (and often busiest) week of the liturgical year. It is a time when - hopefully - our hearts and minds are open to holy and the divine.

Now, with that in mind...the following statement may sound a little strange: I'd like to share with you three coincidences involving Holy Week and my iTunes. Seriously. I make no claim as to the meaning of these incidents - I know only that they happened and that the odds of all three happening are slim, to say the very least.

Incident #1: Good Friday, 2005 (last year)
Having finished singing the noon Good Friday service, I went into my office to get some work done before heading out for the afternoon. I opened iTunes on my computer and put it on shuffle. (I should note that I have over 3,400 songs in my iTunes - that's over 10 days of continuous play. I have almost my entire music collection on there.) The second or third song of the shuffle was a track from "Jesus Christ Superstar" - specifically, it was the track entitled "Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes)." The timing was significant enough to me that I mentioned it to a couple of people in the office.

Incident #2: Palm Sunday, 2006 (last Sunday)
Each year on Palm Sunday, we end the service with a very moving rendition of the hymn "O Sacred Head Sore Wounded." It begins with a boy soprano singing the first verse solo, followed by the choir singing verse two a capella in four parts. For those not familiar with the hymn, the melody is from Bach's "Passion Chorale" - it is a traditional Holy Week hymn. Following the service, I went home to make lunch, still humming the song. As I sat down to eat, I put my iTunes on shuffle. The second track that played was Paul Simon's "American Tune." For those that don't know the song, the the melody is also from Bach's "Passion Chorale." It is the same melody as "O Sacred Head Sore Wounded." (Side note: We actually sang these two pieces - "O Sacred Head" and "American Tune" - together in alternating verses at a Maundy Thursday service two years ago.)

Incident #3: Holy Saturday, 2006 (today)
Having been busy for most of the week and finally having a day of relative rest, I decided to clean out my closet this afternoon. As I began to work, I put my iTunes on shuffle. On this day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the second song that played was from "Jesus Christ Superstar." The specific track? "Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes)."

Happy Easter, all...

minutia of a thursday afternoon

I really need to get a new look for this blog.

My friend Austin just made herself a rockin' new design and layout for her blog. Check it out: it looks pretty great, right? I think it's the second redesign in the last three months, each one better than the previous one. And all of this in spite of the fact that she promised me back in October that she would drag me out of my dorkdom by putting her creativity to use and providing some hot new design idea for my blog. You might have noticed that that hasn't actually happened yet. (Yes, I'm calling her out, just a little bit - but only because her site looks so freakin' sharp!)

Meanwhile, I have to share the best link I've received via email all week (maybe all year). Erin gets the credit for finding this little nugget - it's the Falling Bush screensaver: http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm. Republicans, beware - you won't like this. The rest of you (I think perhaps ALL of you reading this?) enjoy! And take note: when he gets stuck, you can drag him around with your mouse, even squeeze him through seemingly too-tight spaces. Endless hours of entertainment!

Speaking of entertaining, my favorite - albeit not terribly PC - quip today comes from my sister, Leslie: "There's nothing like an overweight Hasidic Jew riding on the back of a Vespa to make your day. I love Miami."

inside the ipod

I can't pinpoint the date, but somewhere along the line I became a bit of a tech nerd. This morning, I got to scrub in on an iPod "surgery": Randy and I took his third generation iPod apart to replace a battery that wouldn't hold a charge anymore. This was appealing to me on three levels:

(1) I'd never seen the inside of an iPod before, and I had no clue how to open it since it seems so beautifully seamless. Fun challenge.
(2) Taking your iPod to the store to get the battery replaced costs $75. However, if you can figure out how to replace it yourself, the battery alone is only $25. I'm kind of cheap, so I love the "do-it-yourself" quality at work here.
(3) Most embarassingly, I know that this is the closest I'll ever get to participating in some cool, rare, Grey's Anatomy-style surgery (apparently I'm a TV nerd, too).

In truth, it's amazing how simple the iPod looks inside...and equally amazing how small the hard drive is that holds 20 gigs worth of digital information. We were able to swap out the battery pretty easily, and it seems to be working fine so far.

So I may not be ready for open heart surgery or brain tumor removal yet...but I bet I can program your DVD/VCR combo.

what i will NOT be doing on sunday evening

Did anyone happen to catch the following CNN article today?

Holy Poor Sportsmanship! Youth Minister Charged After 'Dodgeball Rage' Incident

I have to admit, I laughed out loud in spite of myself. It sounds like it should be a headline from The Onion. I can picture this poor guy thinking "What's wrong with a harmless game of dodgeball?" just before getting beaned in the head by a 16-year-old with a strong arm and accurate aim. I mean, come on: who really thinks it's a good idea to gather a bunch of teenagers together for the sole purpose of pegging each other with a rubber ball? Who thinks it's an even better idea to jump into the middle of the fray? Recipe for disaster.

I can't decide what's worse: that this happened at all, or that it's front page news on CNN.com. Either way, I'm pretty sure we will not be playing dodgeball at youth group this Sunday...at least, not anymore.

the anti-rip-off

I'm in the process of trying to get my jetted tub fixed. For the past year, turning on the jets in the tub has caused water to gush through the light fixtures in the kitchen ceiling. Probably a bad sign, no? Every time I use the tub, it is decidedly unfulfilling because I can't turn the jets on for fear of electricution and flooding. I haven't had it fixed sooner because there are no access doors to the pump and pipes; consequently, I had to have the siding ripped off around the tub just to get to the leak.

I talked to this handyman last week about coming by to fix it - he came highly recommended by a couple of people at work. Relatively young guy, probably about my age or a little younger. He dropped by this afternoon to take a look. He showed me where the sealant had come loose between the pipe and the pump. He said it was a pretty easy fix that I could do myself and told me exactly what I needed to get at the hardware store for the repair. I thanked him and asked him how much I owed him for the consult. He said, "Oh, don't worry about - you don't owe me anything. I just do repair work after my day job to make a little extra money and help people out who need it."

It seemed to be such a change from the often-expensive fee that plumbers and electricians usually charge just for showing up. It's unnecessarily kind acts like this one that restore my faith in the goodness of humanity...or at least help me get my hot tub fixed for cheap.

how the mighty have fallen

It's 10:00 PM. I'm sitting in my office having just finished choir rehearsal. I checked the basketball scores on espn.com to see what I missed...and now I'm afraid to go home because DUKE just LOST. I've never seen Colin get super-pissed, but I imagine that if ever there were a time when he might be throwing things and screaming at the top of his lungs, it might be now. Yikes.

So much for my brackets.

just what i needed

Salvation comes when you least expect it...and from unlikely places. I've been feeling more than a little overextended the past six weeks - as evidenced by my lack of postings on this blog - and I've been approaching a point where I need to slow down and take a break or risk total exhaustion and burn-out.

So, I was completely caught off guard when Virginia, the organist and director of the choir for the 9:00 AM Sunday service, walked into my office on Monday, told me I had been looking overly tired at rehearsals on Wednesday and Thursday nights, and asked if I wanted to take off from Wednesday night rehearsals until after Easter. For those of you that know how constant, demanding, and consuming the choirs are for me, you realize what a coup this is and how grateful I was (and still am) for the surprise suggestion. I feel blessed to have been given this little reprieve when I expected it least and needed it most.

o me of little faith

It's been a beatiful few days, warm and spring-like for the most part. The kind of weather that allows me to thrive. Over the weekend, I began building vegetable garden beds in my backyard. I've never had a vegetable garden in my adult life, and I only vaguely remember helping my parents with the one we had when I was about five.

This vegetable planting has resulted from the confluence of several items. While the idea of a vegetable garden has always appealed to me, I've never had anyone who could instruct me as to what to do. (Given my natural knack for killing plants - ten, yes, TEN azalea bushes - this is an absolute necessity.) Nor have I had anyone willing to help with the manual labor of gardening on a regular basis. Thankfully, mercifully, Erin has taken on both of these roles. Brave girl. Couple this with my new-found focus on vegetables as a consequence of giving up meat for Lent, and suddenly a vegetable garden seems like an absolute necessity!

But here's the thing: seeds are small. REALLY small. Tiny. But plants...plants are big. Plants are hearty, leafy, fruitful. We started planting these tiny seeds in miniscule trays that barely hold an ounce of soil. We buried a single seed in each one and covered it with a few granules of wet dirt. All I could think was, "No way." Erin said, "Trust me. They'll grow." I shook my head. "No way." I mean, those things are tiny. "They'll get lost in there."

That was four days ago. This morning, there was life where there was no life before: little sprouts of green as my lettuce had begun to germinate and sprout.

Maybe I should reconsider how much faith I really have...

and one to grow on

So. Today is my birthday. Twenty-nine. Counting down the days to 30.

Strangely, I don't have that "digging my heels in" sensation that I've sometimes had on other birthdays, that knee-jerk Peter Pan "I won't grow up" feeling. I have no idea why. But it's nice. And freeing.

It doesn't hurt that today is the first day this year that has really, legitimately felt like spring. It's that first day of good warm weather that makes me want to laugh - almost maniacally - just because it's so beautiful outside. I am thankful that some cosmic coincidence has landed that day on this particular date this year.

Birthday. Day off. Incredible weather. Dinner plans with Erin later. I can't imagine that it gets much better than this.

so, what's in the box?

Despite the fact that she is almost 90, my grandmother is still a very sharp, very "with it" woman. For the most part she acts as if she is 15 to 20 years younger. At Christmas, she always sends tasteful gifts: a stylish scarf, a pair of nice gloves, an interesting book, etc. - she is always very thoughtful. However, she seems to use my birthday as an occasion to exercise her practicality. Every year she sends me a care package for my birthday, and every year it includes items with which to stock my pantry. She either thinks that I am starving, or that I don't know how to shop for myself...or perhaps both.

The thought is endearing, but it's the curiosity of some of the items themselves that make me wonder what she was thinking. It gets weirder every year: I didn't even know some of these existed. Here is the inventory of this year's birthday box:

1 bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies
1 box of Orville Redenbacher "Mini Bags" of Smart Pop
1 package of generic caramel dipped shortbread cookies
1 box of Suddenly Salad Creamy Parmesan Pasta
1 box of Pasta Roni Chicken Quesadilla-flavored Pasta
1 package of Lipton "Asian Sides" Chicken Fried Rice
1 bag of Idahoan Butter & Herb "Just Add Water" Instant Mashed Potatoes.
1 "Lunch Bucket" pasta & chicken
1 package of yellow cornbread mix
1 package of brown gravy mix
1 cannister of French Fried Onions
1 "Lunch Bucket"-style spaghetti rings & franks
1 can Campbell's Split-Pea with Ham & Bacon soup
1 package of Chicken of the Sea shrimp

If I'm ever forced to build a bomb shelter and hide out in it for a couple of weeks, I think I'll be all set.

in the waiting line

Having been awake far too long already today, I find myself being distracted by the most inconsequential minutia. This morning's inane burning question is this: When I use the drive-thru teller at the bank to make a deposit, it takes - on average - approximately 60 seconds from the time I put my checks in the container to the moment when the teller says, "Have a nice day." Maybe 90 seconds if I'm getting cash back. Why, then, does it often take the person in front of me upward of 6 or 7 minutes to do what they need to do? A deposit is a deposit - ceteris paribus - and shouldn't vary too much from one to another. So what are those people doing, anyway? Have they asked for cash back in nickels, dimes, and quarters? Maybe they want 50 crisp singles with no folded edges to feed the vending machines at work? Or perhaps they're submitting a loan application?

I don't know. It's a little baffling. I assume these are the same people that are able to drag the grocery checkout experience into a 15-minute ordeal, as well.

crossing the finish line

These have been two of the busiest weeks of my existence...and finally they are coming to an end (Hallelujah!). It's as if every time I blink three days and 80% of my energy are lost. I spent 8 of 9 straight nights doing work-related things. We had our big Mardi Gras fundraiser at the church on Tuesday night, two services on Ash Wednesday, and then the grand finale of the work week on Thursday evening: the entire choir got booted from rehearsal halfway through because we were ill-prepared on a piece that should have been more up to snuff. We didn't even practice the two anthemns for Sunday. Unbelievable.

The weekend did bring some reprieve, though. I had a Friday happy hour gig with Oak Lane, the folk/bluegrass band I've been playing in. Not a bad start....but Saturday was the real redeemer of the week. After a Joe's Inn Saturday lunch that was so late it almost qualified as dinner, Erin and I went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, which I hadn't visited in over a year. The best part was that we saw all these exhibits I'd never experienced - or certainly had never appreciated - before. I finally learned to which time periods "Art Nouveau" and "Art Deco" refer. I even felt vague affection for a Frank Lloyd Wright chair - it's probably the only time I've ever actually looked at furniture in a museum and paid attention.

On top of everything else going on this week, today was Youth Sunday at the church. At the 9:00 service this morning, the youth ran everything in the service: they were the officiants, the preacher, the ushers, the acolytes, the readers, the musicians, etc. And all of them fulfilled their duties with much more poise than might be expected of people their age. They made me feel proud and privileged to have the job that I do.

And now, I plan to revel in the end of the week (or the beginning of a less-busy week, I guess) with a nap before Youth Group tonight.

2, no 6, no 12 - baker's dozen

Why does February always sneak up on me as one of the busiest months of the year? It seems so odd. I realized yesterday I haven't posted in a week. Lame.

I just finished eating a single chocolate iced glazed Krispy Kreme donut, and it was the best thing that's happened to me all day. As I pulled out of the KK parking lot and drove toward home, donut in hand, I started getting nostalgic for a number of pivotal moments in my life that have revolved around donuts (I know this is weird, just stick with me for a minute). From the time I was about 3 until I was 5 or so, my dad used to take me to school on Tuesdays - his day off. Before school, we would go downtown to this bakery called Waites for breakfast, where I would have two chocolate glazed donuts and a glass of milk. The same two waitresses - Bernadette and Thadine - waited on us every week. And every week, when we would take some donuts home to my mom and my baby sister, they would put in one extra donut for free and not tell the grouchy lady at the checkout register. They even threw me a birthday party once in the back room of Waites (I think I was four) and gave me a red toy race car.

There are other moments worth remembering: one of the best little league baseball games I can remember was one Saturday morning in 2nd grade when our coach brought us glazed donuts and orange juice; my high school friends and I downed half a dozen each one night cruising around town; I went to Krispy Kreme on September 12, 2001; I kissed someone in the Krispy Kreme parking lot once; I had a donut for dinner before the Coldplay concert last fall; and today I cashed in my "free donut" valentine.

Sweet.

free at last, free at last

Sometime about 12 or 13 years ago, I got my braces off. It was a glorious event, marred only by the fact that they glued this thin metal wire to the back of my lower front teeth to keep them from moving. It was a permanent retainer that I was (potentially) supposed to have for my whole life.

A few days ago, my teeth rebelled and took up arms against their metal oppressor, tearing the sliver of metal away from the glue on one side. And yesterday, when I went to the dentist for him to take a look, my teeth won their freedom, completely and forever, with the removal of the great metal monster. Hallelujah! It's like getting my braces off all over again. The real estate in my mouth feels as if it's increased threefold. The speed bump on the back of my teeth gone, it now feels more like a ramp that's been greased with Crisco. The only bad thing is that, apparently, said retainer acted as a sort of "seat belt" for my tongue...and for the first two hours it was gone, I felt my tongue wanting to slip up and loll forward (and out) of my mouth like a panting dog.

Nevertheless, it is unspeakably great to be able to feel the entire surface of the back of my lower teeth again for the first time in over a decade.

a little too personal?

This is the post of personal shout-outs, because several people deserve them this week. Here we go:

- To my sister, for a number of reasons: for putting up with my ridiculousness for 25 years; for sending me several good books in the mail; for being patient when I don't mail her things in a timely fashion; for trying to teach me Spanish; for calling me while I'm on a date and chastising me (rightly) for picking up the phone.
- To Alyssa, because today is her birthday. And she just flat out rocks. And makes me laugh endlessly.
- To Josh, who also sends me good books in the mail (what is one to do with all these literary friends??). And who always has sage words of wisdom in times of need...or at least a confusing zen koan or two.
- To my favorite old woman in Miami, who's working her magic on some new guy. Keep up the good work, playa...and keep an eye out for my sister - she just moved down to Miami yesterday.
- To Nancy, who bothers to read these posts even though I see her multiple times a week. You and Colin (and Scout) make hanging around my own house a worthwhile endeavor.

OK, I think that's enough - the saccharine proportions of this post are making me throw up a little bit in the back of my mouth, so I'm going to give in to my current state of exhaustion and go to sleep.

under the weather

I have a cold. Man, I'm pissed. I always seem to get sick one time every year, usually in February. Last year I made it all the way to May before I got a cold - I thought I was out of the woods, and BAM! This time it came upon me in a matter of hours: went to sleep last night feeling pretty good, woke up four hours later with a scratchy sore throat. What could have caused it? Could it be the erratic sleep schedule these days? Maybe the bourbon and gingers I had while watching the Duke/NC game last night? I don't know. I'm just hoping it's a short illness. Meanwhile, I can feel the NyQuil starting to kick in - I suppose that means I should go to bed before I write something exceptionally brilliant and interesting (read: stupid).

iron and wine, and the occasional moped

I saw a moped biker gang on Friday afternoon. For real. I'm not even kidding. They drove past the outdoor patio of the bar where I was enjoying good beer, good company, and amazing February sunshine. One guy even pumped his fist in the air and gave a "Woo hoo!" in a totally tongue-in-cheek moped-riding sort of way that made everyone on the patio laugh.

But the moped gang is not what I'm intending to write about because it doesn't do much good talking about it without pictures. The effect is lost.

Instead, can we talk about the fact that I might be the last person I know to begin exploring the music of Iron and Wine? I know it's shown up in a commercial or two, and I feel like I've skated around it for a couple of years but never really listened directly. But how amazing is "Naked As We Came" (shown here with audio and video), both lyrically and musically? Or, at the very least, the two fit together like peanut butter and jelly. The lyrics are beautiful, and the music suits it in a very gentle, thoughtful sort of way:

She says "wake up, it's no use pretending"
I'll keep stealing, breathing her.
Birds are leaving over autumn's ending
One of us will die inside these arms

Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes 'round the yard

She says "If I leave before you, darling
Don't you waste me in the ground"
I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms

Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes 'round the yard


It's one of those songs I wish I'd written. Even though at this point the song may be cliche to those who have heard it a million times, I've been inescapably hung up on it for a couple of days now. In fact, it's inspired me to begin compiling a list of other songs I wish I'd written...which I will put in a separate post in the near future.

it had to happen sooner or later

To date, I have refrained from posting anything overtly spiritual in nature on this site because I think everyone (myself included) has his or her own way of figuring out and dealing with spirituality and religion...and everyone deserves the right to do so on their own terms without unwanted interference. That being said, this is my blog, these are the things I think about on a day to day basis, and they constitute a large part of who I am. So, if you feel as if you might need a little spiritual feeding today (or at least something to think about), keep reading...and if not, no worries: just sit this one out and catch the next post.

I came across an article written by The Rev. Ben Campbell about the nature of prayer that I found extraordinary. Ben runs Richmond Hill, an ecumenical retreat center in a converted convent here in Richmond's Church Hill (the old part of the city, just down the street from St. John's Episcopal Church where Patrick Henry delivered his "Give me liberty, or give me death" speech). I've met Ben a couple of times - he's incredibly involved in community outreach in Richmond, especially across racial divides. Very energetic and centered in a way that makes you feel as if you've known him for years. All in all, a brilliant guy...and it doesn't hurt that he sounds strikingly like Johnny Cash.

Anyway, the article appeared on the cover of Richmond Hill's January newsletter. This is the paragraph I find most compelling:

"There are many points at which prayer can become rote, superficial, or deflected, but this point is one of the most deceptive. When we pray for the salvation, healing, and transformation of people's lives, nations, and histories, we are not asking God to do something he does not want to do. We are rather aligning ourselves with what we already know is God's will - his love of each human being in particular and of humanity in general. We are praying with God more than we are praying to him."

The concept of intercessory prayer as "alignment" is not one I'd thought about before. It makes more sense to me than the idea of asking God for things that seem obvious and unnecessary (as if God doesn't get it and we have to ask in order to call it to his attention). There are several other interesting bits later in the article, and I definitely recommend the full text if you have the time and inclination to read it.