I've Been Tagged!

This is a defining moment in a blogger's life. I've been tagged for the first time by ramblingrose to do one of these list things (as I call them) or memes, the proper blogosphere term for the "list things" (click here for more definitions of blog jargon). Here goes:

7 things that scare me
1. Not living up to my potential.

2. Being stuck in one place forever.

3. That presentation they showed us in Senior Camp back in the day about how rock music is satanic and they had like recordings of 80s rock with that backward masking stuff they would do. Like, that Queen song played forward would sing "another one bites the dust" but played backwards it sounded really freaky and said stuff like "try suicide, take a snort, take a snort" (like of cocaine or whatever). It scared the life out of me and brings tears to my eyes even now.

4. The thought of something traumatic happening to my teeth. I always have dreams of them being crushed because I bit down on something too hard or of them all falling out.

5. The thought of being separated from God. Like if one day I woke up and realized that He wasn't on my side any more. That He was just going to leave me to go at it all alone.

6. Walking out into the ocean barefoot and possibly stepping on some kind of slimy sea creature, sharp stuff (like glass or a sea urchin) or a really textured creature, like a starfish.

7. Something terrible happening to people that I love or myself. More specifically, the thought that since I haven't undergone anything absolutely devestating in my life thus far, that it's on its way and might catch me unawares.

7 things I like (aw, this one is easy!)
1. Iced chai tea lattes.

2. Reading for pleasure.

3. Traveling.

4. Long, leisurely showers.

5. Attractive male attention.

6. Knocking everything off of a to-do list.

7. Feeling like I fit in.


7 things I plan/hope to do before I die
1. Learn another language fluently.

2. Learn to play the guitar.

3. Visit all of the continents of the world (so far I've only done North America and Europe).

4. Contribute significantly to the work of God.

5. Get married to a man who will cherish me and have at least 2, maybe 3, fat, laughing babies. I don't want any of those skinny, long babies. I want cute, fat ones.

6. See the California Redwoods and think, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?"

7. Maybe before I die, technology will have advanced enough for people to have jetpacks, and we could personally fly, instead of driving or catching flights, to get from place to place. I've always had dreams of flying over the city, and I'd like to do that before I die, if technology and the good Lord allow.

7 things I can do
1. Speak Spanish fluently.

2. Recite the general prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Old English. "Here begynneth the book . . ."

3. Make a pound cake from scratch.

4. Make an origami frog that jumps.

5. Laugh at myself.

6. Try weird looking food.

7. All things through Christ which strengthens me. (I couldn't resist!)


7 things I can't do
1. Be cool with people who look down on other people.

2. Cook. (Yet.)

3. Eat blood sausage. I like rare steak, and I usually have an open mind about trying weird food, but that stuff is hands-down nasty.

4. Completely forget about all the dumb things I've ever said and done.

5. Drive a stick.

6. Juggle.

7. Say "toy boat" 3 times fast. (Bet you can't either. Just try.)

7 things I say the most
1. Adding "or whatever" after a possible activity. Example: "We're probably going to go to the mall or whatever."

2. Adding "and such" and/or "and stuff" when trying to describe all included elements of something or trying to capture the essence of something or some action. Example: "I thought she was all about traveling the world and such."

3. "No, I didn't mean it like that!"

4. "Why?"

5. Using the phrase "for real" instead of "really." Example: "He didn't show up looking like that for real, did he?"

6. Saying "You know what?" before making a decisive statement. Example: "You know what? I'm just going to go ahead with my original plan and not worry about the extra stuff."

7. This is not really a phrase or anything, but I always give disclaimers when I'm explaining myself. It drives my friends nuts. It's like I have this need to cover all my bases and give this preamble before I get to what I'm actually trying to say.

7 books I love (I have to mention plays and short stories too.)
1. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

3. Pepita Jimenez by Juan Valera

4. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

5. "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe

6. Cane by Jean Toomer

7. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

7 people I want to tag
I don't really feel like tagging other people because honestly, most, if not all of the bloggers I know have already done this, if not something very similar. But if you read this, and you're a blogger, please feel free if you want to do this and leave a comment letting me know so I can read yours!

Travel Trauma

:sigh: I made it, finally. I'm comfortably at the home of one of my best friends in the world. When you're a military brat, it's hard to be friends with people as long as I've been friends with Mat (female).

But the journey to the abode of Mat and her family was not without event. I want to talk about it, but I don't want to get all involved. Let's just say that I missed my last connecting flight to NoDak because my previous flight was delayed. There I was at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, late at night, stranded. Oh, what to do?

The people I tried to get help from were really not helpful, and it was so frustrating. I know that people miss their flights all the time . . . it just happened to be me this time, but the unhelpfulness and rudeness of people whose job it is to help stranded travelers didn't make matters better. The conclusion: The next flight out to North Dakota wasn't until the following morning at 9 a.m. Was I going to have to spend the night at the airport?

But God, as usual, was lookin' out for his girl. A very pleasant lady who overheard my tearful conversation with Mat explaining my predicament smiled, let me know that she was in the same situation, and gave me the numbers to a nearby hotel complete with a shuttle that would pick me up and take me back to the airport the following morning. I thanked her profusely, made a couple of phone calls, and 15 minutes later, I was on my way to a place where I could lay my weary head for the night.

Before I left to catch the shuttle, I said, "Thank you so much! This was just what I needed. You are an absolute godsend."

She replied, "You're welcome. God's people always look out for each other, right?"

Then I turned around and she was gone. Just kidding. It just seemed like an appropriate ending. Maybe she wasn't a for real angel, but God placed her in my path at the moment I needed it the most. Thank you God, for lookin' out for your girl.

Today I Got My Socks Shocked Off

Usually, you think of old church ladies as these sweet people that might talk too much and try to get in your business, but tell you straight and exhort you unto good works and such. The elder shall teach the younger and all of that, right?

Well, tonight, an old lady at church shocked my socks off.

I was wearing a long denim dress and Sis. Old Lady comes up to me and says,"Darlin' you lookin' just as purty as you always do. But let me tell you something, you look better in short skirts and dresses than you do in long ones. Now, that dress looks nice, but I remember seeing you in somethin' a little shorter not too long ago. Now, not nothin' too short, but you know . . . and I thought my, you look 100% better in short things. Just let them legs show, honey. Let them legs show!" It wasn't until after she gave me an old church lady hug and walked away that I did a mental double take.

I laughed. Incredulously and flabbergastedly, I laughed.

Novels and Travels

I just finished reading The High Window, a 1940s era detective novel by Raymond Chandler.

“Is all this on the level—or are you just being smart?”

“That straight goods about you owing Morny twelve grand?”

I was charmed by all the Dick Tracy-esque slang, (referring to women as “dames” and all of that), the fast-talking, wise-cracking banter. But what was nice is that Chandler used a lot of creative simile and metaphor, which is usually unconventional for this type of novel.

I also finished Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller last week. Non-religious thoughts on Christian spirituality. It was one of the most enlightening books I’ve ever read; it articulated a lot of my struggle with the paradoxes of faith.

His tone was so honest, down-to-earth, and humorous in sort of a self-deprecatory way. I really liked what he had to say about love. It should be given unconditionally, not parceled out as a commodity to only those who measure up to our expectations. He also hit on what I truly see as the central element to all sin—self-absorption. Satisfying number one above all else and at all costs is part of the twistedness of human nature. Reversing it is what we need to work on—putting others before ourselves. Jesus did that very thing for us to the ultimate degree on the cross. It’s so simple, yet so true.

In other news, on Thursday I’m leaving to visit some friends in Macon, GA and from there I’ll leave out of Atlanta on Friday to visit some friends in the cold, cold land of North Dakota. Or, No-Dak, as they affectionately refer to it. I’m looking forward to our upcoming Minneapolis, Minn. side trip, too. Which reminds me . . . I’d better check on the weather because I’m 100% sure that Midwestern summer weather is nothing like it is in the South, and this cold-natured girl is not going to be taken by surprise!

Singles Mingle

Just say that out loud to yourself. When I say ‘singles mingle’ it simply turns my gut. Just the sound of it makes it seem like an event that I don’t want to attend. What kinds of images converge in your head? It gives me the image of odiferous, undesirable juices slowly trickling and flowing together to mingle and form some even more odiferous and undesirable byproduct.

I know, I’m being dramatic. Maybe I’m a little cranky and hormonal too. This whole week we’ve been having our District Camp Meetings and Thursday night (tonight) has been designated as the Singles Mingle. Tonight after service at Ruby Tuesday. On a Thursday.

Maybe I’m being frivolous, but I just can’t bring myself to do the singles thing. You know, up to about . . . hmmm, 21 or so, you’re churchly defined by your age. Children’s church. Teen’s class. Youth service. But then, once you’re like good and settled in your twenties, you become defined by your marital status. Single.

Now, I don’t mind being single too much. Really, I know it’s all good. I’m 24, I’m handling my business. I’m not freaking out about it. And I hope I never get to the point that I do. But for some reason, I have this aversion to doing “singles” stuff. I’ve never been to a singles conference. I have this notion that if I gave in and resigned myself to doing the singles thing that I would place myself into an environment where I’d just be breathing in all this desperation-filled air. That I would be putting myself out into the meat market, freshly cut from the cow. Pentecostally selling myself. Putting myself up for grabs. “Look, guys, no ring!” The very thought is so icky to me. As unattractive as force feeding yourself a bowl of cold, lumpy grits.

Now, I know times have changed. People do the “college and career” thing now, and I’m really down with that. But it hasn’t really caught on here yet. Right now I feel like it’s “Poor old sad single folks. Let’s let ‘em mingle and maybe a few here and there will get together and be happy.”

A million people must’ve asked me if I were going to the Singles Mingle tonight. Sample conversation:

Person: Are you going to the Singles Mingle tonight?
Me: No.
Person: Aww, you really ought to. It’s just for fellowship. They’re going to have some really nice door prizes.
Me: I know, but . . . I’m not going.
Person: Come on, why?
Me: Because I don’t want to.
Person: (after an awkward pause) Party pooper.

I know, I know, I’m being cranky and a party pooper and maybe even a little snobby. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be. I know the Singles Mingle is not by virtue going to be a desperation-filled meat market. How unfair of me to categorize it as such. But I can’t help it.

List

1. I finished reading The English Patient. Such lyrical, haunting prose. It spoke to something in me, but I can't put my finger on exactly what. Though I understood it, there was something about it that was just beyond my grasp.

2. I’ve begun to read Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. “I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.” It’s a man’s honest look at his Christian spiritual journey.

3. I finally, for the first time, watched Anne of Green Gables. Isn’t it like a Pentecostal female cult classic? The assistant pastor’s wife gasped when I confessed I had never seen any of them and she let me borrow the DVDs of the series. So far I’ve watched the first one and the sequel. Now I can sleep knowing that Anne and Gilbert finally got together.

4. Today my odometer read 123,456 miles. It was only going to stay that way for a mile more of driving, so I pulled over to the side of the road, dug out a disposable camera that I happened to have, and took two pictures of it. I just have this irresistible urge to memorialize unique moments, regardless of how small. There will only be one time in my car’s life that the odometer will read that unique series of numbers, and that moment has been immortalized in film.

5. I recently began a new personal journal. The cover of this one features one of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings. This is the first journal since the last three that I’ve filled up that is not lavender. Sometimes you just have to get out of the routine.

Oh, Baby

Today I saw a baby being born. I won’t get too graphic, but I saw everything. I saw the little guy come out, I saw what came out after the little guy came out, I saw the cord being cut . . . I mean, I had front row seats to a live birth.

It was amazing on one hand, but a tad unsettling on the other. Maybe ‘unsettling’ isn’t the right word. ‘Raw’ maybe? I was just like, “Whoa. This is real life.” It was sobering, a lot to take in, but at the same time, miraculous and beautiful.

I’m going to be honest and say that the circumstances surrounding the birth were difficult. A young, unmarried girl with mental challenges. An uninvolved, non-existent father. The new grandma, a co-worker, and I became family.

Will this be me one day? Before the birth, one of Grandma’s co-workers dropped by to visit. She looked at my 5’6, 110-pound frame, my girlish denim skirt and flip-flops and said, “Could you even imagine Chantell having a baby? Her little self?”

I don’t think it’s really my size; I think, perhaps, especially when I’m out of my professional teacher wear, that I still give off somewhat of an adolescent air. Sometimes I look in the mirror and think, “I’m 24?” I suppose I'll be thankful when I'm older.

Anyway, I hope when that time comes that my mom will be there, comforting me, waiting on me, giving me all the little bits of motherly advice. (Perhaps my pops will be chilling in the waiting room). I hope that I will be supported and loved by an amazing man who will be by my side and who will be determined to help raise our child in a godly, loving home.

I hope that I will look into my child’s eyes and realize that I am holding a part of myself.

Back in the Atmosphere

Now that she's back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there's time to change, hey, hey
Since the return from her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey

CHORUS 1
Tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated?
Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star?
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?

Now that she's back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey
She checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo
Reminds me that there's time to grow, hey, hey
Now that she's back in the atmosphere
I'm afraid that she might think of me as plain ol jane
Told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land

CHORUS 2
Tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back to the Milky Way?
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?
Was it everything you wanted to find?
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?

BRIDGE
Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you're wrong
Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour phone conversation
The best soy latte that you ever had . . . and me
Tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back toward the Milky Way?
(Repeat 1st chorus)

"Drops of Jupiter" by Train

I'm Baaack!
I know the above is a "secular" song, but I love it and it describes kind of how I feel right now (the only exception being that I'm 100% sure that heaven is not overrated!). I took a hiatus from "Where You Can Find Me" blogging on "A Month in My Life" on 90&9, and it was a blast. (One of my fellow classmates from UGST is the new blogger for June.) I'll be honest and say there were some flare-ups of controversy here and there, but in the end, it was all good. Sometimes a little controversy spices things up and brings things out into the open that we don't ordinarily want to deal with, but that we need to deal with.

I also returned from St. Louis from my stint at UGST doing the Paul class yesterday. Like the song says, it was a "soul vacation." I learned so much, and it was so refreshing to get away, get a change of scene, meet like-minded people, gain some direction, and make lasting connections. I have a feeling that St. Louis and/or UGST is in my future . . . I don't claim to know the mind of God by any means, but if it is in my future, I know that I have a network of support already established.

Now, once all the Jupiter drops fall out of my hair and once I can get over my brushes with shooting stars, perhaps I can settle down and get focused on the 20-pager about the historical Paul that is due mid-August. (sigh) Back to the real world.

Upcoming . . .
In a couple of weeks, I'll be headed away again, but this time to the cold, cold land of North Dakota. (I'm desperately hoping that summer time will make the weather at least bearable.) North Dakota as summer vacation? "You're crazed!" some might say. But to make a long story short, I have some fellow military brat friends up there whom I haven't seen in eons, and we're taking a trip with their youth group to close-by Minneapolis to do Mall of America and the like. Yay!

For Now
I'm going to knock some things off my never ending to-do list, and get real with researching for the Paul paper. My topic is the centrality of the Antioch experience to Paul's ministry. (Remember the "ghetto Paul" entry where he "withstood Peter to the face"?) Maybe I can sort of sneak Paul's ancient ghettofabulousness into the mix of the paper somewhere . . . if only I could find some Bible scholars' writings to back me up!