....

...The day at the beach ended typically. Grant and Tod drank too much, Grant and Maria fought about nothing, and Kathleen and I sunburned our backs. We were all tired by the time the sun started making its descent, and Kathleen and I voted firmly against a bonfire. So we loaded up the truck and the Civic and headed home.

Three weeks later I was sitting in the backyard with a cup of coffee and a mystery novel when I heard yelling over the back fence.
"Brent, you can't do this. What are the rest of us supposed to do."
"You'll figure it out, dude. I've just got to get out of town, get some space....get out of here."
"Well, what about staying until we find another drummer, at the very least."
"Look, man, I wish I could help. But I've got a one way ticket out of here on a bus tomorrow morning. And I'm on it."
A string of cursing and insults, an engine starting up, a car roaring off and then silence. Just me and the birds again. The screen door slammed behind me.
"What's up?" Kathleen said around a yawn, cradling her own cup of coffee. Clearly she was just moments out of her bed, yet still her hair looked perfect. Drove me crazy.
"Brent left the band."
"Seriously?" Kathleen settled into a lawn chair next to me. "Why?"
"To find himself?"
Kathleen rolled her eyes. "What a load of crap."
I shrugged. "Well, Tod was pretty pissed."
"Still am, eavesdroppers."
I laughed and walked over to the fence and up on a stool that sits beside it for just this very reason. Peaking over the top I saw Tod laying spread-eagle in the middle of his back yard.
"Sorry, man," I said. "Tough break."
"Yeah," he said, his voice flat. "Especially considering we're more booked up for the next three weeks than we've ever been, with more prospects for after that AND a chance at South by Southwest."
"Really?" Even Kathleen sounded impressed. "Your tape got through the first round?"
"Yeah," Tod said, "Not that it matters. You can't fake your way through a set with no freaking drummer." He sighed, and seemed to sink deeper into the dirt.
"It'll work out," I said.
"Just try to sound like you believe it, Miss Optimism."

...

"Ladies, it's been a pleasure."
I looked up from my beach chair and shaded my eyes. Our new friend John was standing over us.
"Likewise," Kathleen said from her own chair.
"Yeah," I chimed in. "Are you going to be hanging around Houston for a while? Did the guys give you our numbers?"
"I'm not sure, and yes. I'm sure I'll be coming back through here at some point."
"Be safe."
We waved at John as he shouldered his backpack and headed down the beach. I closed my eyes against the sun and thought about this new, interesting person I'd just met. The thought of traveling around and just living like a gypsy seemed both exhilarating and unnerving. And what made John more interesting was that he didn't seem like you're typical gypsy type. Just a guy going around being really friendly to people all over the country. And I got the impression that every new place he stayed for any length of time just added more links of friendship to what was probably a very long chain.
"So...."Kathleen said in her charicteristically cynical tone. "Do we think this guy's crazy, or what?"
"No way!" Maria said, with a wave of her hand. "He's just por completo de la vida, full of life. Not like SOME people I could mention."
I rolled my eyes. We all knew she meant Grant, and we all knew whatever fight-of-the-week they were having had nothing to do with not being spontaneous.
"Well, I agree with Maria. About John anyway," I said. "He may be different, but he's not crazy."

As we plowed through Tod's juicy, drippy burgers, John kept us entertained with a seemingly endless supply of stories.
"... so then the kid just threw himself down in the middle of the aisle and started wailing, sounded like a dog being tortured. His mom's face just turned red; I thought she was going to start crying."
"Ugh," Kathleen shuddered. "I've been in the checkout line behind little kids that start doing that and it's terrible. If I ever have kids -- which I don't ever, ever plan on doing -- I'd never take them to the store. How embarrassing."
John shrugged, "I just felt sorry for her," he said with a smile. "I mean, she had a baby strapped on in one of those carrier things -- couldn't be more than six months old -- plus a cart already full of groceries. So I just walked up to the mom and asked if she wanted a hand."
"I'm surprised she didn't think you were some kind of perv," Tod said around a mouthfull of dead cow.
I'm not, I thought.
"Guess she was just that desperate," John said. "She said yes, please. I picked up the little kid, threw him over my shoulder and followed her to the checkout and her car. The kid was so surprised I think he stopped screaming long enough for her to checkout. Started up again just as we were leaving of course, but at least she made it out."
"Did people give you funny looks when you went back in the store?" I asked
John grinned, "That's the funniest part. I totally forgot what I'd gone to the grocery store for, so I just went home."

...

We fell into a predictable arrangement once we arrived in Galveston. Girls on beach chairs, lathered up with sunscreen and trying to prematurely age our skin in the name of beauty; guys down by the water, inventing new ways of playing Frisbee. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath; I love the smell of salt water, and today that earthy aroma was joined by the smell of charcoal, burgers, and that unmistakeably summery and cocunuty scent of sunscreen. Laughter drifted across the wet, salty breeze, and the sound of the surf began to lull me into a stupor.

Eventually, my rumbling stomach responded loudly to the burgers on the grill, causing me to finally open my eyes and check on their progress. As I stood up and stretched, I took in the picture: Tod manning the grill; Kathleen arguing with him about a movie they’d seen last week; Grant and Maria listening with their arms wrapped around each other, despite of the heat; Peter and Phil standing close by, listening to a story told animatedly by a tall blonde guy

Wait a second.

I walked over to the group.

“You’re new,” I said with a smile. “I’m Gia.”

“Grace of God.”

“Excuse me?!” his comment startled me, but he just laughed, deep grooves appearing around his green eyes.

“It’s what your name means,” he explained. “Grace of God. It was my grandmother’s name.”

“Oh,” I said, trying to look like I wasn't thinking 'weird' -- which I was. “But you don’t look Italian.”

“My grandfather was German. "

Phil finally stepped into what was turning into a very odd first conversation. “This is John,” he said. “We met him down by the water; he’s been camping out for a few days.”

“Cool,” I said. “Where are you from?”

It wasn’t a hard question, I thought, but he took his time answering.

“Nowhere really. I grew up in New York state. But now, I’m not really from anywhere.”

“So what do you do?”

“Little bit of a lot of things. I’ve built houses, painted houses, cleaned boats, mowed lawns, waited tables, loaded moving trucks, demolished buildings. I was just telling these guys about the time I house sat for three months Alaska.”

“What?!”

He laughed again. It was a nice laugh. Made you want to laugh along. “This couple was getting ready to go visit family in the lower 48 and were going to be gone for three months. I was eating breakfast a diner and heard them talking about it to the cook. They said they hadn’t been able to find anyone to watch their house, and were worried about wild animals or squatters if the place appeared too abandoned. I offered to live there while they were gone.”
“And you didn’t know them,” I said in disbelief.

“I guess I have a trusting face,” he replied. “Plus, they figured I couldn’t do anything worse than the wild animals or squatters. This way, if it worked out they came out ahead, if it didn’t they weren’t any worse off.”

I shook my head. “Unbelievable.”

“It really was.” Yeah. That wasn’t what I’d meant.

“Burgers are ready,” Tod called, holding up a full plate. I took the opportunity of activity to study John a bit more. His hair was long and bleached, pulled back into a ponytail; his skin was bronzed and weathered, and his body had that lean but strong look -- like a long-distance runner, or this cross-country skier I dated once. I watched him laughing and joking with Maria and Grant as they loaded their buns, and marveled at how at ease he seemed with a group of total strangers.

The Beginning

Kathleen always says that if you can't feel the air, then it's not summer. In July, in Houston, it's always summer.

It was one of many weekend trips to Galveston, maybe not an award-winning beach, but it was our beach. And like Tod says, you don't need powder-white beaches and turquoise water to grill hamburgers and drink beer. Or play Frisbee and football and get a tan.
When we hit the Gulf Coast freeway at 10 a.m. on the dot, the sun was already a golden ball of fire, the temperature hovering just below 90 degrees. I was driving my S-10, Tod's beat-up charcoal grill strapped down in the back with a couple of hand-me down coolers. Peter rode shotgun while everyone else followed in Maria's Civic. It was the first time I'd seen Peter in about two weeks and after several minutes of silence I said so.
He shrugged. "I've been around. Where have you been? Avoiding me, perhaps?"
"No, that was six months ago. Keep up."
His dark sunglasses hid his eyes. More silence.
"Do we have to listen to this crap?"
"The Eagles are not crap."
"Whatever," he said, leaning over to look under my seat. "Do you have any other CDs in here?"
"Sure." I pulled the case from underneath my side of the bench seat and handed it to him. "But you always put up with them before."
"Yeah, when we were dating."
Not much to say to that; but the words only felt like they brushed up against my bruised heart, rather than full-on attack. I was pleased enough at the progress to ignore the fact that Tod had taken over my CD player.
"So, I'm guessing a new girlfriend?" I said, wondering as I did why I kept harping on the subject.
"Do we have to talk about this?" he asked.
"Peter!" I said, my radar buzzing at his avoidance. "Are you spending time with the Millers again?"
"Last time I checked, I don't think it's any of your business anymore who I spend my time with and what I do every night." his voice hardened with each word.
"So yes, then." Why couldn't I let this go?
Peter sighed, his tense body easing slightly, but not relaxing. "Gia, let's not okay? I'm tired and this..." he gestured between us, "...just makes me more tired. We're friends and we're with friends, headed to the beach. So could we just not? For today?"
I nodded and we sat and I wondered why we couldn't have a normal conversation and why he'd jumped in my truck anyway.

something different

Well, friends. Originally, I began this blog as an experiement in keeping in touch with friends, but it seems that I'm a pretty inconsistent blogger :) I think I'm as effective at staying in touch with "old-fashioned" email as I am with blogging. So, I've decided to try and adjust my use of this blog. Background: I am an undisciplined writer (some might argue that that makes me a non-writer, but I'm going for optimism here) who wants to be a consistent, "writing" writer. So I'm going to try a little exercise: turn this blog into a story, reminiscent of old-fashioned magazine serials. We'll see how it goes! The first installment may take a week or two to go online, so be patient but stay tuned.

It's August

Crazy to think about...August seemed so far away just a short bit ago. On one hand, I'm always amazed at how time just rushes by sometimes. On the other hand, I'm excited because that means that hot summer weather won't be around forever! (insert global warming joke here).

Camp was awesome, as usual. A great group of kids this year, and I particularly enjoyed the fact that since I've been a counselor now for three years, I actually felt like I knew some of the kids. Visiting home was also great. We actually had time to take Jeremy around to some of the cool history stuff in the area (World War I Monument and Museum, the Frontier Trails Museum, and the Truman Library). I learned a lot about World War I that I'd never known before. We also had a surprise anniversary party for my parents (30 years) which turned out Awesome! They were very surprised and really loved it.

Anyway, that's July....
The next "big thing" is a hiking/backpacking trip the weekend of August 24. We're headed to South Carolina with our friends Max, Ryan, and Nicole and their two beagles. I think the trail includes the highest pointin South Carolina, which will be cool.

that time again

Jeremy and I head to Sooner Youth Camp on Saturday. Woo-hoo! Then off to a week of hanging out at my parents' house in Independence, MO. should be a fun time both weeks.

A call for prayers

If you run across this post, please pray for our friend Cherish Cantazarro. Her husband died unexpectedly this weekend; they have five children and Cherish is 9 months pregnant with their 6th. As you can imagine her life has been turned upside down. God is providing her with an awesome amount of strength right now, but I know she would appreciate the prayers of others. Thanks.

continuing....

So, my good friend Dan Dalzell reminded me after my last post that sometimes having a paid staff is a necessity. And I must say that I'll admit that's true for many -- if not most -- churches. We visited a church a few weeks ago while out of town for a visit that has quite a large staff; they also have extremely professional drama and media programs, and an extensive children's program. It's true that the more a church wants to do, the more paid staff they'll need in order to do those things well. But I think what frustrates me lately, is that so often in those (often smaller) churches with only one or two paid ministers, the leadership and/or congregation have unrealistic expections of those ministers (like Dan said, they're only people, just like the rest of us). Sadly, this often leads to what I think are very un-Godly attitudes and actions toward those ministers. I appreciate Dan unwittingly encouraging me to clarify this...I guess the answer to my frustrations lies more in encouraging a change in attitude toward and treatment of paid, full-time ministers.

a search

The church we attend out here in NC is searching for an associate/youth minister right now. This weekend we had a candidate out for an interview weekend. What a frustrating process! And -- being that I'm not an elder -- I'm not even that involved in the process. The struggle for me is how high do standards need to be? Do I need to be blown away by the candidate, or is "adequate" enough? The problem is, I'm really hoping to be blown away. Honestly, it just reminds me of how I really think that not having full-time/paid/staff ministers is sometimes better. Of course I also realize the bigger the church, the more impractical that is. Our church is tiny, but I also realize that it's important to think with growth in mind...plan for the future. On the other hand, even in a big church is full-time/paid staff really necessary? It does take a restructuring in our whole thinking and framework of church organization, but I think it warrants some thought at least. My basic thoughts are that developing a strong eldership and a strong network of deacons and volunteers could take the place of a full-time minister (more people doing the job of one person makes a light load for everyone). Elders or other gifted teachers could take turns preaching, or a church could pay someone to just preach -- no other duties. Unfortunately, I don't know if the congregation we attend right now is ready for that kind of radical shift in thought.

this and that

We went to the Outer Banks this past weekend for a wedding; we had time to visit the Wright Brother's Museum, Jockey's Ridge ( huge, huge dunes), and the Bodie Island lighthouse. Plus we ate some amazing seafood at a restaraunt called Tale of the Whale. If you're ever up near Nags Head, NC, eat at Tale of the Whale and order a Pina Colada and something with scallops. (Mmmmm...so good).

This week I started a temporary telemarketing gig (only a few weeks...the event I'm calling for is the beginning of June). Since school's out right now for me, I had a little extra time, and this way I can make a little extra money too.

peace...

is it Saturday yet?

I know, I know....not for a few days, kiddo. :) Just finished up a long, fun, exhausting weekend. Our friends Brent and Hannah got married on Saturday, and we were very involved in the execution of the wedding. Plus, our good friend Sonya came up from Texas for the wedding, so I stayed up later than I should wanting to spend as much time with Sonya as possible. The wedding went really well, and was very special and sweet and pretty. And I remembered what it is like to wear healed shoes all day :). So today...I think I'll put off cleaning my bathroom until tomorrow and take a nap. I've got four more early working days ahead of me, so I'm going to try and start the week off on a good note.

a few good movies

I've watched a couple of good movies recently (not in the theater, mind you, so some of ya'll out there have probably seen them already). One of the movies is Scoop. It has Scarlet Johansen, Hugh Jackman, and Woody Allen. It was a kind of whimsical murder mystery. Hugh Jackman and Scarlet Johansen were funny and witty and really good in there roles, and the movie was very entertaining without being over the top, which I appreciated. Only down side...Woody Allen's character grated on my nerves. Another recent movie that I enjoyed recently was Friends With Money; a contemplative drama with some light, funny moments thrown in. But not too contemplative, so not depressing. Basically it's just about life and relationships and making choices...but again, not too depressing. I feel like I've seen some other movies recently, but can't remember what they were (clearly they didn't stand out all that much).

Ta ta!

book sale

Today I went with Nicole and Jeanette to the public library's bi-annual book sale. As a friend of mine (who is a library volunteer) put it...it was like being in a candy store! Seriously, it was a good thing that I only brought a certain amount of money with me because I could have done some damage...and the books were cheap! $2 hard back, $1 trade paperback (those are the large-size paperbacks for anyone who isn't familiar), and $.50 mass market paperback and children's books. I spent $15.50 and came home with 12 books. Awesome!

M.I.A.

I know, I know...Patti will be harrassing me for not posting in months. :) The last couple of months can be summed up like this: baby shower, wedding shower, school, baby shower, lingerie shower, wedding planning, school, wedding shower. Oh, and little book reading, t.v. and movie watching (especially catching up on 6 seasons of Gilmore girls), and work thrown in. So, I've been having fun, but staying busy that's for sure.
Next week will be the last week of school for the semester; this week and next week I have A LOT of work to do. But the first semester has flown by with only one or two minor meltdowns. Like riding a bike; a tad cliche, but true. I can't take any classes this summer because of scheduling, but I'm looking forward to the fall semester, and I'm going to try and volunteer at our local library this summer for some experience; figure it can't hurt.
What else....
Here's a fun tidbit -- I think that I wrote a WHILE back about an exercise challenge that my friends and I entered in; basically we have to exercise 30 min. a day/5 days a week. For each day we don't exercise we put a dollar in a jar. (so if we only exercise 3 days we put $2 in, etc.). And of course, you get sick days. We started the first part of January, and so far there is only $8 in the jar. yay!

hope this weekend is one with plenty of joyful moments.

spring's around the corner

Fall is my favorite season; always has been. But every time spring rolls around I remember how great it is. Some of the things I like about spring:

1. more daylight
2. the chance to wear flip-flops again (with jackts and long sleeves sometimes, which is my favorite way to wear them).
3. flowers
4. gardens and the beginning of fresh produce
5. pretty dresses

Not that it's spring quite yet, but down here in the South, it's getting close. We're in that in-between time. Anyway, happy Wednesday!

exciting Saturday

Welcome to my Saturday...I'm sitting at the computer, "participating" in a chat for one of my online graduate classes. I put the quotation marks because I'm mostly "listening" to the chat. Anyway, not a very exciting Saturday evening, but (aside from being tied to the computer for an hour against my will) I love having a chill, no-fuss, veg-out evening every now and then. We seem to have been busy lately, so it's nice.

We're hosting our becoming-an-annual-event Oscar party tomorrow night. The first one was in Houston with Steve and Jason and a few other friends. But mainly occurred because of Steve and Jason...wish you guys could come! Cali isn't that far away. ;) Basically it's candy, popcorn, and filling out our own Oscar ballots. Whoever guesses the most right gets a prize (movie tickets). The prize is really why people come. :) Party-planning tip: if you want people to come to your party, offer a prize.

purple

I'm terrible at coming up with titles sometimes for just random, "this is today" posts. So purple has nothing to do with anything. Just a color.

We played ultimate frisbee yesterday afternoon for an hour or two. I'm a little sore today, sadly. But I haven't done that much sprinting in a long time. Not to mention the sprint-stop abruptly-change directions thing in while. That's what really kills I think.

Finished reading a mystery paperback called Monday Mourning. It's the series that the t.v. show Bones is based on, if anyone is ever heard of that show (we watch it...it's pretty good). Of course, "based on" is very loose in this case. The character has the same name and profession, but the setting/other characters/etc. is completely different. Of course, that was a little hard to get around at first when I was reading the book, because I still had a picture in my head that didn't fit. But I got over it. And it was a good book.

So. rambling post. It's a monday, what can I say. :)

odds and ends

well, i've been m.i.a., that's for sure. school's going pretty well so far. only 4 weeks in, it's hard to make any hard and fast observations. the delayed feedback on assignments, etc. is the only downside so far to online classes. i love not having to work my schedule around actually attending classes.

what else is new....nicole's dad is in town for an extended stay -- he's looking to rent a house for a month or two (she's hoping two, or longer). so that's new and different. i've started taking some yoga classes about once a week. i bought a six-class card, so i've been trying to space it out. i'm enjoying it so far; i'm week enough that it's a good muscle workout, and it's really good for my inflexibe body. i have a tendency to tighten up if i don't stretch regularly, so this helps. today i'm going to try "hot yoga." it's basically regular yoga, but they turn the heat way up so you sweat a lot. doesn't that sound like fun! :)

no profound things to say today. i've seen both The Prestige and The Illusionist in the past few weeks. Very different movies, that's for sure; but i enjoyed them both. The Prestige is very dark; obsession is a big theme there. The Illusionist is more of a classic mystery and with an underlying love story. i really like Edward Norton, so that's a plus. of course, i really like the actors in The Prestige too (Michael Cain, Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman). Anyway, i recommend both movies.

happy Tuesday!

making preparations

So, I've decided that now's the time to start keeping tabs on the potential presidential candidates: what they're up to, what they think, what they've done or not done. I know a lot of you out there tend to keep up with this kind of thing ("news" and "politics" ;) on a regular basis, so if anyone has any good sources let me know. I'm looking for lots of good information without having to spend hours looking at millions of sources. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it....I'm into voting responsibly these days.

On a different note...
A few friends and I are encouraging each other to exercise with a little challenge we stole and adapted from one of their friends. Basically, we have a set number of days in which we are supposed to exercise, and if we miss a day, we have to contribute a dollar to our "jar" (it's actually a manilla envelope, but whatever). At the end of six months, whoever contributed the least to the jar gets the money. Then we start over. So far it's working pretty well...none of us want to give up our dollars! We'll see how it goes.

Happy Tuesday!

this and that

So registration worked out and this week i begun my first two graduate classes. Yay! I am nervous about some things, and a little stressed about some things, but not worried, if that's even possible or makes sense.

We got some cool weather again. yay!

Lots of weddings this year. Well, two that I'll attend, and one that I'll attend a post-ceremony celebration. Either way, it's quite a bit of festivity. It's fun to watch plans unfold.

Happy Thursday!