You can go home again...

Hubby and I just got back from 5 refreshing/exhausting/beautiful/stressful/tiring etc. etc. days back home in Tennessee. The trip, although tiring, was pretty wonderful. My brother and I pulled off a suprise party with more than 40 guests for my parents' 30th Wedding Anniversary. Our parents were married at the tender age of 18. My family has its problems, but I have to say that my parents did something right. At 48 years old, they have two kids with post graduate degrees (they have high school diplomas), a house and two cars they own outright, and a church and civic community of which they are an integral part.

At said anniversary party, my brother announced that he and his girlfriend are getting married this summer! My brother has a legacy kinda like Seinfeld. He dates women for awhile but it doesn't work out because she has man hands, or is a low talker, or he finds fungus cream in her medicine cabinet. At 28, he's been a serial long-term dater-- one year here, a three year there, a two year back then. Although many of these women would have given their right hand to marry my brother, he always decided the lady in question wasn't the one. BUT, I think the lady he is marrying was worth waiting for. She's brilliant, cute, funny, and she fits in with our CAH-RHAZY family. Plus, she's going to be a vet. She's in her second year of vet school. Isn't that special?

Wow, let's get my family together. You'd have a psychologist (me, duh), an environmental engineer (my brother), a vet (his fiancee), and the mysterious profession that my husband has forbidden me to reveal (my husband). Add my parents and you also get a UPS driver and a youth minister. With enough time and funding, we just might be able to save the world, one soul and kitten at a time.

There were a few negative developments, however. Hubby caught the horrendous head/chest bug that has been going around. He had to fly today despite a 102 fever. :( My brother's wedding is one THE ONE WEEKEND THAT SUCKS FOR ME. Yeah, I am supposed to be taking a class that is offerred once every three years that week. Gotta work that out somehow.

Okay, I'm exhausted. Off to bed.

I'm doing a meme...

Just when I was thinking, "Gee, I'm such a lazy no good blogger that has been focused on having a life in the real world that everyone online has forgotten about me," Jim over at Serotonin Rain goes and tags me. Thanks for the love, man.

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. White Water Rafting Guide (Boy, did I suck at that!)
2. NAMB Summer Missionary (Gasp! Yes, the SBC...)
3. Program Counselor in a Psych Hospital (Yes, I have put someone in a straight jacket...)
4. Psychotherapist (Note how the last part spells, "the rapist")

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. The Family Man
2. I Heart Huckabees
3. Garden State
4. Crash
5. It's a Wonderful Life (I couldn't resist doing an extra one.)

Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. Nip/Tuck
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. ER
4. Prison Break

Gee, I seem to like medical shows and psychopathic deviates. It's all good.

Four places I’ve been on vacation:

1. Europe (Sopron, Vienna, Venice, Munich, Prague, Krakow, London)
2. Denver/Colorado Springs/ Rocky Mountain National Park
3. Vast portions of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Like, every other
weekend of my life until we moved to Chicago).
4. Yellowstone/Grand Teton/Rocky Mountain Nat'l Parks


Four favorite dishes

1. My Granny's Banana Pudding
2. My Granny's Potato Salad
3. My Aunt Susan's Broccoli and Cheese Casserole
4. My Aunt Sandra's Sweet Potato Casserole


Four Web sites I visit daily:

1. BBC News
2. Yahoo Mail
3. Five Gazillion Blogs
4. Knoxnews.com


Four places I’d rather be:

1. The Clifftops at LeConte Lodge in the Great Smoky Mountains at Sunrise.
2. Munich, with a huge Radler beer and some bread dumplings following a hike in Fussen, Germany to Neuschwanstein Castle
3. Prague, Czech Republic
4. At the graduation for my Doctor of Psychology degree.


Four bloggers I am tagging..um,I'll just tag 2 people.

1. Kevin
2. Stephanie
3. Whoever else wants to do this!

Rotten Fruit of the Spirit

My hometown newspaper has a "SoundOff Line." This is a fancy answering machine where the local pissed off people who haven't discovered blogging leave messages that can't be deleted later like a blog post. The newspaper then publishes these comments. It's actually not a bad idea, except it is a bad idea. Because yet have I heard someone call in and say something that actually needs to be heard. And rarely are anonymous comments very helpful to foster true dialogue and community. Just like anonymous commentors here, these callers tend to flame and blame and have pointless conversations that go on for weeks and finally degrade into a second grade match of, "Teacher, he hit me!" and "But she hit me FUHRST!

This week's Soundoff column is just ripe! It's begging to be picked upon. A commentor managed to encapsulate everything that is wrong with the typical aura of Christianity that surrounded my small rural community. I'm not going to deconstruct it for you, or even make generalizations. Just read the comment below, and you'll see the short sighted faith that I grew up with. I'd link to it, but for some reason my hometown paper is concerned that people might read the paper online and not subscribe to the pithy print edition. So now, it's only available online if you subscribe in print. How ridiculous is that?

Here's the quote:

"To the person or persons who stole the safe at west End Baptist church: We might never know who you are, but I can tell you that God knows who you are and you will pay for what you did. It's bad enough that you stole but to steal from a church is lower than anything else. I know that the people at that church are praying for you and asking God to forgive you for what you did. The human side of me has asked God to bring his wrath down upon you and that it scares and bothers you so much that you ask for forgiveness and you repent and get saved. But also as a Christian I have asked God to forgive you too."


I hope Jesus kicks your ass, and I hope God forgives you. Too bad you're not perfect like me.

Longing...

Are there places in this world where you long to be? I hope so. Tonight I was looking at Flickr photos taken by others of the Great Smoky Mountains and other East Tennessee areas. I feel a distinct aching in my chest looking at this photo. It brings tears to my eyes. It's a longing for a place and its people. I feel disconnected from my history and my future. We've lived in Chicagoland now for three years and have three more to go, and I think my heart might burst from the anticipation of returning to home. My home. Our home.

I can hardly fathom that people take pictures like this on their vacations; not because it isn't beautiful but because it's like taking a picture of your underwear drawer to me. It's something you know so well that you forget to look. But you sure do notice when your underwear isn't there one morning. And I've had three years of those mornings.

Now, don't get me wrong. I see in a thousand little and big ways why God brought my husband and I here. We're growing, changing, and learning in ways that being in the shadow of home just doesn't allow. I feel uncomfortable enough in this flat midwest surrounded by buildings, concrete, affluence, and "Yankeeness" that I have actually have had to examine why I burn with a desire to live in the shadow of these mountains.

I get to visit home in two weeks, and I can't wait. It's just a long weekend, but I'm praying it will be sustenance to me in a time that feels so meager and malnourished emotionally and spiritually.

Friday Random 10

I haven't done this in awhile, thought I would. After I write an impossible number of papers in the next two weeks, I might actually say something of value. Until then, look for more drivel like this:

1. Jesus Walks..............Kanye West
2. Nookie...................Limp Bizkit
3. Highway Blues............Ernie Watts
4. Susie Q..................Creedence Clearwater Revival
5. You Owe Me Nothing in Return..Alanis Morissette
6. 'Til There Was You........Beatles
7. C is for Cookie..........Sesame Street (Cookie Monster!)
8. The River................Garth Brooks
9. The Lord Has Given........Veggie Tales (ACK ACK!)
10. Barely Breathing..........Duncan Sheik

For the love of God...

Why can't I just sneeze? Hmm? I've been wanting to sneeze all day, needing to sneeze. Desperately desiring to blow every mucous molecule out of my head into a tissue, a box of tissues. The sneeze acts like it's coming. I do that mouth half open, head tilted back, eye squinted preparatory face and then the sneeze fails to come through in the clutch. My elusive sneeze is like a bright sunny day during the Chicago winter. It looks promising from the window, but it never quite comes through when you really need a moment of 70 degree spring time bliss.

In other news, reading a Chaim Potok novel with a 101 degree fever while on Theraflu makes for some wild and crazy dreams. I never knew how bizarre my world would be if I were a Hasidic Jew. Now I know.

Blogging Scholarship

ProgressiveU.org is now accepting entries for its second semiannual Blogging for Progress Scholarship contest. The contest encourages current and prospective college students to write about current events, society, the environment, and public policy.

The first-place winner will be awarded a $1000 scholarship, and three runners-up will be awarded $300 scholarships.

The deadline for entries is June 1, but early entrants have an advantage, as scoring is based on the number of posts and readership over the five month period of the contest. There is no fee to enter.

Last year's entrants reached an audience of over half a million people during the contest period, and their postings continue to be read by thousands of people each day. We encourage all budding writers, journalists, bloggers, and leaders to start blogging for progress today, and make your voice heard.

More information, and registration forms are available at:
http://www.progressiveu.org/BFP_FAQ