Monday. Today's highlight: penne pasta with olive oil, basil pesto, chicken, mushrooms, asparagus and garlic. Loth House was quiet tonight with John & Brandy off house-sitting, though Vine Street wasn't too quiet: gunshots and ghettobirds!
Tuesday. Mom surprised me by visiting me while I was at work. It really made my day. Amos and I went to Newport to see World War Z: 3D, and we barely made it on time: police shut down Vine Street. Someone was murdered in the park at the end of Loth Street.
Wednesday. I went on a date this evening with a girl named Jennifer. We went to the Happy Hollow and had a few drinks. She's super awesome, and we talked till about 11:30 AM. We'll probably hang out again. Isaac came over and joined us for a bit, and she loved his tattoos.
Thursday. Jennifer came into work today to check out the cafe. I made her an Italian capp and she loved it. We sat and talked on my break, and as cool as she is, I just don't feel a connection. I'm still in that trap of measuring everyone up against the Wisconsinite. Small Group was cancelled 'cause of flooding rain, which was okay, because my car can't handle it. Once the rains cleared, Isaac and I spent the evening with Amos at the Loth House. Oh: Ams and Josh are talking again, and Ams' plans to move in with Chris and Sarah are kaput. Some weird shit went down.
Friday. Eric and I opened, and I had the place to myself tonight: pork chops and a garlic loaf for dinner, and I finished Season 3 of Game of thrones. I played Birds of Steel 200 cc, taking shots like the Japanese kamikaze pilots as I bombed American carriers in the Pacific.
Saturday. Mom, Dad and I spent the day in Anderson, Indiana for my cousin Addison's marriage to his wife Mandy. It was a beautiful, quirky wedding. Weddings can be bittersweet for me, signposts to the disappointments underscoring my life. The thoughts can be consuming to the point where it's hard to breathe as I fight off panic attacks. It's awesome.
Sunday. I went to The Anchor before church at U.C.C. The sermon, preached by Mandy S., was great. I spent some time with Amos, John and Brandy and had a quiet evening of video games, SVU, and orange chicken from Double Dragon II. Mandy's sermon was on Ecclesiastes 3.1-14. It's the whole "everything has a season" spiel. My takeaways: (a) no one has a "perfect" life. Everyone has good and bad things happen to them. Life is hard, and it will have both laughter and mourning. You can't escape it. Period. (b) We deal with hard times and say "If only..." If only this or that were different, everything would be perfect. Not true: all is stained. (c) God gives us good things "in time," and often these gifts are temporal. They're no less gifts because they don't last forever. (d) It's easy to focus on life's difficulties, the "If onlys," but doing so blinds us to God's loving gifts all around us. It's God's desire that we enjoy these gifts, and do good, as we live our lives. (e) The good gifts God gives us won't fulfill us. They're gifts, not the End All. That title belongs to God. He has set eternity in our hearts, and real, lasting, and abundant living is found not in the gifts but in the greatest gift of them all: the gift of the Spirit, the gift of Christ in us, the gift of a holy union with the Creator. So, yeah: damned good sermon.
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