The Gem

Monday nights, those of us who live in 'da hood' have started a tradition to meet at the local little hole-in-the-wall pub to have a few drinks and to chat. This past week was the first week that I was able to go, and interestingly one of the first nights that nobody showed up. Just as well, because Nick and I got a great chance to catch up over a pint. And we also took a minute to take silly pics with beer using Nick's phone. We are Gems afterall.


I realize that I'm really going to miss Nick when he heads back to Calgary. We've lived in the same house now for almost 2 years now, and well, gosh darn it if I don't just love the kid. He's like my big brother, and he keeps me sane. Guess now I've just a good excuse to go out west.

Pimp out to Nick.

Practical matters

Started day one of the new job today - I think it went relatively well, even with the added stress of the TTC strike this morning. Grr. Hiss. Boo.

Have become relatively obsessesed with putting pictures on Flickr. Check 'em out.

I am tired, bed time.

Like an inside joke

Sometimes I think knowing God is like being a part of a really great inside joke. He gets me in certain ways, in fact, He knows me better than I know myself. There are moments where you just see things happen and you know it can't be a coincidence. I find myself then laughing or pointing at the sky saying "Tricky!". And I'm not angry, I want to do nothing else but smile. This weekend I totally felt like it was one of those moments.

Most of my Saturday was spent running around doing errands, but it started to slow down in the evening when I went to see X-Men 3 with Karl. After that I was scheduled to go to a karaoke party with some of the people from Queen's Players Toronto. Now, I must admit part of me was kinda leery about going because I know that I have the tendency to let my "wild side" creep out when I'm around these people - mostly because they all remember me as that girl from Queen's. I went anyway, going with a "be good" look from Karl. And here comes the smile - lately I've been really weak at defending my wild side and so I just paused and asked for strength, and just like that I went into the Gladdy. And things were great - I talked with my newly wed friends about the value of marriage commitments and I chatted with friends and I spent most of the night bonding with two girls and not being a flirty bad girl. It was brilliant. Furthermore, at the end of the night I had a long convo about God with a good friend, and came home to some amazingly encouraging words on my blog comments from Ericka. Wow. It was like God saw my heart, but ran with things.

Today has been great too - I walked to church, and as I walked in the sun, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with God's love. It was great. Everything made me smile, and I took a moment to reflect on some of the work He's asked me to do. And just like that, God answered some more fears during church. Amazing.

I like being on the inside.

Disturbing fact of the day

Did you know...the average woman's thighs are one and a half times larger in circumference than the average man's.

Weird.

Countdown to UFC 60 - Hughes vs. Gracie

Little known fact - I am totally into UFC thanks to my roomie Nick. This weekend is a HUGE fight between the most dominating fighter in UFC history, Matt Hughes, and a pioneer in the sport and ju jitsu expert, Royce Gracie. I'm so torn. I've got about 3 different place to be that night. Anyone gonna have pay per view at their house and want to tape it for me just in case?

Waiting for an "arranged" marriage???

Recently my friend Tom posted on his blog about the seemingly huge preoccupation that Christians of a certain age have about getting married. Makes you think. I agree that it is very true of many of us younguns at FT and even other Christian communites I've been around. So many of us are wanting to find that one true relationship and end up projecting vibes like "Love me! Love me" or "Are you my significant other?" onto others. Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? It's hard to say.

For a long time I know I was reluctant to even acknowledge that I want to be a wife. I've talked about this before. Now that I do know it is something I want to be prepared for, I feel even more confused. What does it mean to be looking for the one? How will I know my husband when I meet him? I've been so wrong in the past. And for me, that's a HUGE sticking point. Twice in my life have I ever been "sure" about dating someone, in the sense that I knew that I was meant to date them. Interestingly enough, these boys were my first and seconds loves, but still it went wrong in the end. Hindsight 20/20, although very good at the time, my surety was based in infatuation. I left no room for God to work, I didn't want to admit that I could be wrong.

Is it possible that we do place too much emphasis on kismet or romantic notions of cosmic proportions? Are we so seduced by relationships depicted in movies and books that we are closing ourselves off the the possibilities that exist? I often think about this. Mind you, I have very little experience dating within Christian circles, but still. I find myself noticing a certain element of hypersentivity in Christian dating and I am uncertain if it is well founded. What I mean is that it seems to me that many of us are putting ourselves "out there" but we're not ready to accept the consequences of that, or even more simply we are not ready for the follow through. It's almost a sense of feeling that we are all waiting for the proverbial lightening bolt or fireworks to strike before we admit that God might have a hand in a relationship. It's is this "quick start, quick end" approach that confuses me.

I do acknowledge that it is very unfair to cause your Christian brother or sister to stumble or to cause them to be diverted from their path because of an ill-timed romantic sensibility. I am no suggesting that one should drag on dating until you are beating a dead horse. Rather, I'm wondering if we are too quick to throw in the towel because we are so untrusting of the sensation "being in love" - we want to pass it off as infatuation and we don't allow the seeds of deep caring love to form at all. Simply, sometimes it seems like "this person is my friend, let's hang out, not my wife, let's be friends again". How are we so sure?

Yet, I also consider the other side of the coin. I do whole-heartedly believe that God must have His hand in our romantic relationships. Christian marriage is serious. It is marriage to one person for life, and a promise that is made at the feet of God himself. Messing with that is not something I want to do. So, yes, we have to make sure that we listen to God as well. He is the one who designed me to love - manifested as both "being in love" and as long-term promise keeping love. Amen for that.

I guess in the end all I can do is admit that I don't have the answers. I don't know what God has in store for me - I may be a wife next year, I may be one when I'm 52, or I may never be one. Who knows but Him who would have me do His will? I figure sticking with Him is my best way to find out what is arranged for me.

Miami Inked

I've decided that I think it would be worth flying down to Miami just to get tattooed at Miami Ink. Really, those people are so talented. I should be so lucky as to make it on the Chris Garber wait list. Wow. And Kat Von D - totally tattoo babe. If only I had more guts, I would look like that.

Sigh.

Bestest friend date

Had dinner tonight with Andrew at the Drake. It was nice to be able to meet after work and it be a decent hour. Andrew and I talked about quite a few things - it was a good chance to just talk seeing as we haven't had a friend date in a long time. QT with AJHR. Excellent.

I can't believe we've been friends for seven years now and we haven't killed and/or married each other yet. Ha! Luckily neither of those options are currently on the books. :) Good thing...Ericka might kick my ass!

Even if you're not reading the internet lately, I still say thanks Andrew. You're awesome, fatty, though you're not quite as innocent as you seem. hehehe.

Party time! Excellent!

Today was again pretty chill - much needed after the excitement of last week. I made a start on some packing, and managed to throw away from more crap that I don't need. Next step is getting it out of the house. I want it gone!

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching Wayne's World with my friend Lisa. As it turns out, she's just a huge a fan as I am, and we spent a good few minutes quoting the movie even before it started. Oh the hilarity. Such quotes as:

"A gun rack? A gun rack. I don't even own a gun , let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack."

"She will be mine. Oh yes. She will be mine."

"Garth, marriage is punishment for shoplifting in some countries!"

"I still live with my parents, which I admit is both bogus and sad."

and our personal favourite:

"I once thought I had mono for a whole year. Turns out I was just really bored."

It was expecially enjoyable to watch with Lisa because she grew up in Chicagoland, so she gets all the references to that, and well, coming from Canada, I get a lot of the Canadian reference that Mike Myers throws in. Sigh. What a good movie.

(thumbs up) "Zang".

Lost boys (and girls)

This weekend has almost officially been devoted to reconnecting with long lost friends - and if that isn't the theme, I would have to go with boys, seeing as I've spent more time with boys than girls this weekend. Yup, pretty funny - it's been sleep, lazing and hanging with boys. Oh, that's funny now that I think about it. "Shifty".

On Friday night, I had dinner with my friend Jared who I haven't seen in almost two years. Not suprising seeing as he's been teaching in Lithuania for a year. We originally met a church in Waterloo called The Embassy about 4 or 5 years ago now, and we've managed to stay in touch off and on since then. It was really nice to just be able to chat in person, in the same city, heck, on the same continent even. He's a very cool person, so that made it even more of a pleasure. After the dinner, I ended up watching Napoleon Dynamite with my friend David, which was also good. I enjoy that movie for it's sheer quotable quality. "I caught you a delicious bass!" :) I even managed to catch up with Ryan over the phone that night - the poor kid got his wisdom teeth taken out last Tuesday and then had an adverse reaction to the meds he was on. Brutal. Here's to hoping he's better.

Saturday was a pretty chill day - I organized a meeting with a guy I sorta knew from Labrador City named Donny Swanson. We connected via MySpace, and he's been living in Ontario for about as long as I have now. It was kind of surreal, but we had a good afternoon downtown just hanging out. A highlight was going into the new Apple store in the Eaton Centre. I treated myself to a new remote/FM radio transmitter for my iPod. The rest of the time was spent walking and chatting. It was nice to be able to talk about stuff from back "home" with someone who actually knows what I am talking about. We talked about "the lights" (there is only one street light in Lab West) and about the nasty bars. It was fun. All in all, a successful venture. After that I spent an evening having excellent sushi at Fujiyama with my friend Karl, which we then followed up with a viewing of the movie X-men. It was a good way to get excited about the X-Men 3.

Today has been pretty chill - had brunch with the girls upstairs and then went to set up for church. David rocked the sermon tonight with an excellent talk about 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, and Colin led some great worship. I nipped out early though, cause I hopped the GO train to Pickering to have some food and drinks with my friends Al and Jen and Kate from Queen's plus their respective significant others Scott, Shaun and Jeff. It was a lovely evening - I haven't seen these people in ages. I got to see Al's rock and to finally meet Jen's squeeze. I think the most interesting part was my long involved philisophical/theological debate with Scott - it's true, he does just keep going on any point. Ha! In the end of it all I urged him to read Mere Christianity and to give me feed back on that. hehehe.

Now I must be off to bed. Too many late nights, not enough sleep lately.

Set on random

The goal: Put your music library on shuffle and answer the questions with songs in the order they come up. Interesting. High five to Lisa for beating me in doing this.

1. What's my mood like right now?
Feel Good Lost Reprise - Broken Social Scene
2. How's tomorrow going to be for me?
Losing Lisa - Ben Folds
3. What kind of person am I?
Come Here Boy - Imogen Heap (ahahaha...aha...ha...)
4. Am I loved?
These Eyes - The Guess Who
5. How can I achieve my highest potential?
Big Dumb Rocket - Our Lady Peace
6. What should I do with my life?
I'm Still Your Fag - Broken Social Scene
7. Is everything really going to be alright in the end?
All Alone - The Gorillaz
8. What is my best quality?
Falling Into You - Turn Off the Stars (oohh..that's cool)
9. How does my sex life look?
I Put A Spell On You - Nina Simone (oooh...another cool one)
10. What's the meaning of life?
One - U2
11. What do people think of you?
Cover Me - Björk
12. Would I make a good catch?
I'm Willing - Ben Lee (hehehe - but NOT that way)
13. How crazy am I?
Union City Blues - Blondie
14. Will I have a good life in general?
Some Hope For Us - Eden Ants (interesting...)
15. Can this (insert person here) ever really love me?
So Here We Are - Bloc Party (dumb question)
16. Can me and every guy out there ever be more than friends?
Numblock Ft. Skuff - Ill Seer
17. What's going to happen to me this week?
Little Girl - Death From Above 1979
18. Where will I be a year from now?
Can't Stop Now - Keane
19. What is my biggest wish?
Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl - Broken Social Scene
20. What is the love of my life doing at this very moment?
Meet You On The Other Side - Cuff the Duke (deep...hehehe...Jesus is my boyfriend...)
21. How will I die?
Gyasi Went Home - Bedouin Soundclash
22. What will happen after I die?
Livin Godly (Refrain) - Ill Seer (now, that's REALLY cool)

fangirl

According to Urban Dictionary, a fangirl is:

fangirl, n. 1. (derogatory) a female fan, obsessed with something (or someone) to a frightening or sickening degree. Often considered ditzy, annoying and shallow. 2. (playful, good-natured) less extreme, a female fan who can laugh at their own passion for their particular interest (or even obsession).

I happen to think that I am a good example of fangirl type 2 when it comes to Mr. Ben Folds. A little while ago I became an official fan club member, and today I got my membership card, letter and official signed photo in the mail.


In other words, I got my some swag - doesn't it look nice with my Ben sweatshirt that I got at his last concert?

Oh Benny, how I enjoy thee.

WOOT!

Apparently I did do well in the interview....well enough that they offered me the job!

Time to breathe again

Just had the interview with the "big boss" here. I think it went pretty well. She's very down to earth and I really like her. We'll see what the other "boss" thinks.

Relax. Breathe.

In limbo

These days I've been feeling like I'm in a bit of a transitional state. I'm not quite sure what's happening, but I know my life is headed in a new direction. For now, I'm just going to sit in "limbo".

Firstly, I've applied for a new position here at work, and I'm waiting to hear back about it. I would love to have this job, it would be a solid new challenge, but of course, I'm still a relative "newbie" to the company, and we're going to have to see what the powers that be say. In the end, I'm just honoured to have gotten this far. Apparently I was one of only a few candidates to get an interview, and that's pretty good as far as I'm concerned. As much as I would like I new challenge, I've got remember to just be still and accept circumstances as they come. But all the same - here's hoping!

Secondly, I officially moving as of the end of next month. I'm going to sublet my good friend Kate's place while she's at home in Winnepeg and I'm looking forward to it immensely. She currently lives with a good friend of mine from Queen's, and I think it'll be really nice to get a chance to bond with him again. Plus, it's a total change of scenery and that's probably going to be the most welcome part. I've been in my current house for almost two years now, and I'm ready to live somewhere different, to have a more grown-up place. It's time.

I'm thinking I'm just restless again, but it ok, because things change, and I'm ok with that.

Quid pro quo

Humour takes on many forms, but I must confess myself I am particularly attracted to what is called a "witty repartee" or a "quid pro quo". Athough certain natural occurences can be funny, mostly when they are incongruous, I am just partial to what a repartee inspires. It allows you to be quick thinking and clever, and to have a wide base of knowledge. Generally, it's about thinking fast and furiously.

I have to admit today I've been confronted with several moments like these. In fact, I pretty much would have to say that my friend Ryan, just like my friend Coatesy, have really managed to master the quick thinking one-liners. I don't know how they do it, but I love the challenge that talking to them inspires. Today I had the chance of meeting another collegue and he seemed to be on the same track as Ryan. All in all the conversations I have had with them today been a highlight.

And if you don't believe me, just ask your mom.

Will and Grace

Sometimes it's hard to find the will to be graceful when it comes to relating to other people. I'm noticing that lately I haven't been graceful enough in my relating to others, which it stupid because I expect them to be graceful when it comes to me. It's a double standard, and we all know that I hate double standards. So, friends, I promise to try my best and to treat you all with more love and understanding. That's the least I can do. It's not easy when I'm so willing to just get angry, or even harsh.

Just be graceful with me, I'll be graceful with you.

Saturday Night Fever

Today was a lazy crazy Saturday. I spent a good chunk of the morning sleeping (unintentionally) and then I got up and started "the purge" of my room. It was good. I managed to get rid of bunch of crap that I don't need anymore, though I still have tons of stuff to get rid of. Baby steps. Then I spent some time talking to friends on the phone and we came up with a plan of action for tonight. I also kicked around the mall a little, waiting to get some ancient films developed - I finally have the pics of me graduating from Jets Go. Wow.

So, to the plans for the evening - so good. I planned to meet Rachel, Rob and David in Little Italy to have some eats and drinks. We had originally planned to go to Kalendar, but it was full so we ended up at another little pizzeria. We had wine, we challenged each other with skill testing questions - "There is a man lying dead in the middle of the desert with one shoe lace untied, how did he die?" It was good. Then Roshan came to meet up with us and we went on to get some delicious ice cream/gelato. Yum.

What next you ask? We did the most mature thing we could think of - we decided to go swinging and playing on the jungle gyms in Trinity Bellwoods park. It was hilarious, even if we all felt a little naseous at some point. Rob was the funniest because it took him three swing to be practically over the top pole - sometimes having long legs pays off. I can't tell you how much fun it was to just be spontaneous, act like a kid and have a blast. We've gotta hook up a game of spotlight. I swear by it.

Frickin' Karl.

I want happy teeth

Since Wednesday, I've been learning all about dental information for work. It's kinda fun, but at the same time it makes me think about the fact that I haven't been to the dentist in ages. Oh my! It'll be good. I've heard that there are some good places to go in Toronto. It's strange having to find a new dentist though, seeing as I totally love my dentist in Kitchener. You go in there, and they are super nice, and the building is awesome. They talk to you about what treatment is going on, and my dentist even knows that my teeth are sensitive so I require some extra local anesthetic if drilling is required. It's good. Also, everyone in the office is good looking. It's almost surreal, but I swear, it's true. It's the Stepford Dentists and Oral Hygienists (except not creepy).

Anyone got a good replacement here in the T-dot?

Jesus is my boyfriend

Is that the greatest Christian culture T-shirt slogan?

Seriously. I love it. More so I can't believe it exists somewhere.

New challenge, friends. I want you to post the cheesiest Christianese slogan you've heard recently. We can even have a competition. The person with the best slogan will be awarded with a special post all about them winning.

Do it.

FOLLOW UP - Apparently, you really can date Jesus - um...I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Too good at the game

Warning - this post might come off sounding a little self centered, it is not meant that way.

Tonight I had a couple of quick chances to "exercise" a muscle that I haven't really been using a lot lately - my flirting muscle. And as nice and as innocent as it was, it made me once again realize one thing - I'm too good at the game. Really. I can come, play and conquer if need be. I can twist wills and create illusions. I can up the ante while completely bluffing. I can do it with ease. It's scary.

I'm tired of it.

I just wanna be real.

Negativity sucks

I was watching a show today, and the person on it was just so negative about everything that it really began to tick me off (it's tiring) but it also made me feel sad for the person. If I'm getting tired just listening, doesn't that person get fed up with themselves? I think it would be just so unbearable to spend my life doing nothing but complaining and feeling like crap. I own that I do my share, but I'd like to think I'm relatively positive.

Ugh.

Negativity sucks.

Pondering the arguments of an atheist (Part One)

Recently on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert interviewed Sam Harris, an atheist author, and listening to the interview made me ponder a few of the motivations behind atheism and some of the points that Harris made. (You can view the interview here). In other words, I'm wondering, is there any truthiness in atheism?

First, let me stipulate I am not about to set out on a rant here so that I may convert my readers, I simply want to ponder some of points of atheism from a Christian perspective (though from a less over-the-top manner than Colbert). The aim therefore is a point-counterpoint type review of what was said, adding in a few extra Christian views - it's my personal bias, I'm stating it up front.

The first point that Harris brought up was the idea that all of us understand what it means to be an atheist because we are all atheists when it comes to Poseidon. Anyone who still believe in this Greek god is considered a "lunatic". He further added that Christians are atheists when it comes to the beliefs of other religions. Interesting. In my experience, there is nothing in my Christian beliefs that teaches me not to believe in the merit of other religions. In fact, in studying world religions, I was often struck by how much of God is in them. I may not, however, believe that Jesus is the way, but it doesn't mean I'm not listening for God in other ways.

Harris stated that one of the main sticking points for him is that each religion makes incompatible claims about their own deity, making the point that the Koran says that anyone who believe in Jesus is destined for hell. He also specifically pointed out that is is these differences in ideals that are responsible to for the violence of this world. Although, I can see his point as I too believe that some religious zeal has lead to some unecessary wars, I find it impossible to blame them solely on relgious beliefs. Religion is only a scapegoat because people don't want to admit that there is such a thing as free will. Just as guns don't kill people, people kill people - God doesn't kill people, people kill people. We are responsible for the actions we choose to take, and if we are using religion as an excuse to do wrong, it's not right either. Eliminating the human factor skews the reality that humans are fallable. Also, religion does have a political side and it is usually said politics that are the motivating factor for violence and war, people just (sadly) feel use religion as their excuse.

What about the arguement that having faith in God is illogical? This is a common in our scientific world. Harris bring it up and states that we have "good reasons" to believe in scientific discoveries and that it's only when we have "bad reasons" that we turn to the illogical arguement of faith. Personally, I find this is a very narrow contention. Logically, we accept science as fact because we believe in its authority, in other words, we believe it comes from a valid source. Most people cannot see an oxygen atom, but they believe it exists because someone, somewhere has said is real. No more can anyone in this century prove the existance of Napolean Bonaparte, but we believe he existed based on historical books. They accept them based on historical authority. Why then are people so quick to dismiss the Bible's authority? It is illogical to create a double standard because the Bible requires us to have a little faith as well as believe in what is written in it. Also, I do not see faith as a "bad reason", rather it is the only logical explanation to the illogical; it is the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for.

Pondering the arguements of an atheist (Part Two)

Harris also brought up the point that 44% of America believe that within the next 50 years, Jesus is going to sweep down from the skies and save the world like a superhero. And of course he states this effects the social policies that we create, the wars that are waged and overall define society. Furthermore he states that most people also believe in the "God" who says that martyrdom is a direct to pull to heaven and that condoms are evil. He says that because of the respect for religious authority we cannot call a spade a spade and criticize the church for their sanctions. Isn't that what you've just done, Mr. Harris? But again, the point is being missed. What Harris is arguing about are the dogmas that have been created by the political church. (Political in the sense of being related to the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental body). Christianity and religion in its truest essence should be related to the living God, the Holy Spirit that guides us. As humans we are not designed to exactly understand the ways in which God works in our lives, we can know it by faith. To get stuck in theories and semantics is just silly; it is the same as saying I cannot breathe in oxygen because I do not understand how it is processed by my lungs. People were breathing long before this was understood. But even so, as I mention earlier, people are fallable, and our own dogmas are fallable. Living a Christian (and religious) life is far more than following and criticizing rules, it's accepting that which you cannot see - if we could openly explain it all away of have a concrete set of rules we would be trying to bypass its very function in our lives.

Regardless of the biases any of you readers have, I urge you to consider yourself what you think when it comes to all this. Are we expecting too much to want to have all the "good reasons" ready and available? Personally, I'm glad to accept that I don't know everything and that not everything has an explanation. It's nice to have certain mysteries. I do not go to a play to see the director, as soon as he steps on stage the theatricality is interrupted. In the same way, I do not expect to see God physically in this life because, as C.S. Lewis says, "When the author steps on to the stage the play is over".

Yes, those are church ladies!

A little while ago, on out women's board of FNet (our church website), there was a post about the rather humourous idea that us girl at FT are in fact "church ladies". Somehow this conversation thread morphed into the idea of us outwardly showing our church lady status by having what we dubbed "H&G day" or "Hat and Glove Day" at one of our Sunday services. Last night was the night. A few of us FT women put our best hats forward and had a great time of it!

Roshan totally stole the show with her glam church lady style. Oh, and of course there was Nadine who did the crazy church grandma bit with her cane. Hehehe. Next step church pirates! Yarr!

Rock this bitch

May 6th, 2006 has come and gone, and it was worth every minute. The road trip was fun, the concert was awesome, and all in all, it was a good day. It rocked this bitch! ;)

Saturday started early for me - I woke up at 8:30, got showered and dressed and biked down to Kensington to meet my friend Lisa at Moonbean for coffee and to do some shopping in like cool Toronto hipsters for the Sunday adventure. We had a great time - we shared bagels and chatted over coffee, I even had a cup . (This is a big deal - I hardly ever drink coffee). Then running around looking at dressed and hats and gloves. So fun! We managed to get some really great outfits, and then I booted off to start my second adventure of the day: Road Trip to Niagara Falls, NY and the Ben Folds concert.

After some deliberation about the departure time, I finally met up with my rough and tumble concert crew (Tom, Karl, Jeff and Cindy) and we left the urban city of Toronto and headed towards Niagara Falls. It was a good car ride, some highlights included Jeff taking pictures of a little push pin he found stuck in the seat on Tom's car - it was especially funny when he put in in Karl's hair ("Just let it happen!") and when Cindy and I worked together to get a picture of it next to Jeff's mole (they're cousins). Other highlights included Tom's rather unsuccessful ventures trying to find a Tim Horton's - at least it made for a nice detour through Grimsby and good ice cream stop.

After a venture looking at the Canadian falls (and all the tacky touristy crap around) we decided to head over the border. Of course that was an adventure in and of itself because Karl didn't have any photo ID because it all got stolen. Luckily we weren't stuck long, and after some quick fingerprinting and photo taking for Karl and little prayer by the rest of us, we were on our way again. Little did we know were heading into a rather sad and deserted looking town - half of the houses and shops in Niagara Falls, NY were boarded up and the roads were full of pot holes. We did, however, manage to find a gem of a place stop and eat - excellent sweet potato fries.

From there we headed over to the concert venue, which turned out to be quite small. I quickly found my friend Tiffany and her mom Bonnie a.k.a "Momma" Clayton and even my friend's Steve and Bri. It was great. We got a nice seat on the bleachers with a direct view of Ben at the piano and we didn't have to face the nasty crowd of super young college kids on the floor. Just as well because they all seemed so young that if you even looked at them you were jail bait! Ben was awesome! I swear he looked at me a couple of time, right Tiff? ;) Highlight included a great rendition of Bitches Ain't Sh*t and his improved version of Rock This Bitch - "Basketball is my favourite sport, I like to dribble up and down the court..." Love it!

The drive home was pretty quiet, we all just kinda chatted. Cindy and I had a really good talk. Sometimes it's just nice to be around Christian friends. It's pretty special when one minute you can be joking around at a concert together, and the next minute you can be talking about spiritual stuff. I didn't have that for a long time, and it's a true blessing. I tell ya though, by the time we got back to the city I was tired, and ready for bed.

Yep, we definitely rocked it!

Mere Christianity

So, our Living Rooms (small groups) at FT are embarking on a huge project - the study of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. I have to say, I'm really excited by the prospect. I have owned this book for about 5 years nowand have attempted to read it twice to no avail. I'm really glad that we are doing this. From what I have read, I can see that this is an amazing book.

Here's my challenge: if any of you out there are up to it, you should read it too and follow along with the curriculum that FT is doing - it'll be on the church website. Do it.

I love Gilmore Girls.

When I was back at Queen's and living in Apartment 3, me and the girls started what would become an addiction to a great show - Gilmore Girls. Really, there are many who shun it because the characters speak super fast and often make some of the most obscure pop culture references - but that's exactly why I love it! It's a very intelligently written show, and the stories are awesome. Tonight was a good episode. I'm really biting my nails to see what happens next week because the whole Luke and Lorelai wedding biz seems to be going down the shitter, and I can't figure out if this is a good or bad thing. Either way, it doesn't seem like they are communicating properly.

Wow. I really did just write about this...Sigh....more proof I am a girl.

Snail mail surprise!

This evening I got home to a very lovely surprise - a snail mail letter from a somewhat long lost friend who is now living in New York (read New York, baby!) and trying to make it as an actor! It was awesome to just have a tangible letter once again, it's a treat I haven't had since I left camp about 2 years ago. Wow.

I truly is amazing to get a snail mail letter - there is so much there that can be read. Plus, you also get to see the expression in the person's handwriting, and that's cool too. Plus, I just feel honoured to be back in touch with this person. He was someone I knew and just connected with when I was at school. We didn't always talk, but whenever we did, it was good conversation, usually about something mildly serious, and most often on theological issues. He's challenging in that sense, but in a very good way. I feel very happy, and very honoured.

Thanks friend (even if you will never read this because you don't have a computer!)