On Our Way To Crazy

You can know you’re married to a good guy. You can be thoroughly convinced of his awesomeness on a daily basis. But then you get an email from someone who deals with a lot of people on a very personal level, and you are reminded all over again. Especially when the email reads like this:

“I feel that I should be writing you and Aaron a thank you note. Aaron is indeed a rare man and it is a privilege to work with him. Perhaps for you and me both, life is a little less lonely and a little less crazy because of the partnership.”

Amen, brother.

Sometimes you’re having a hard time. A faith-shaking, maybe-I-don’t-even-believe-this-stuff-anymore kind of time. And then you read a quote that makes you feel like a person again, like you can get up and say yes and mean it, and let that be enough for today.

“If you tell me Christian commitment is a kind of thing that has happened to you once and for all like some kind of spiritual plastic surgery, I say go to, go to, you’re either pulling the wool over your own eyes or trying to pull it over mine. Every morning you should wake up in your bed and ask yourself: “Can I believe it all again today?” No, better still, don’t ask it till after you’ve read The New York Times, till after you’ve studied that daily record of the world’s brokenness and corruption, which should always stand side by side with your Bible. Then ask yourself if you can believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ again for that particular day. If your answer’s always Yes, then you probably don’t know what believing means. At least five times out of ten the answer should be No because the No is as important as the Yes, maybe more so. The No is what proves you’re human in case you should ever doubt it. And then if some morning the answer happens to be really Yes, it should be a Yes that’s choked with confession and tears and. . . great laughter.”

-Frederick Buechner

I read a lot when I was a kid. Babysitter’s Club, Sleepover Friends, Sweet Valley High, the Wayside School books. But somehow I missed the Anne of Green Gables series. I don’t know how, but I did. And I am kind of mad at everyone I knew in the 80’s for not giving it to me.

I’ve had a copy on my shelf for a while that I picked up at the library sale, an I finally read it a couple of weeks ago. Then I immediately ordered a box set of the first three books on Amazon. I finished those in about five seconds and ordered the rest of them. They are so wonderful. I wish so much that I had known Anne as a child.

I got to spend a few days last week at a youth pastor workshop in Georgia. It was totally free and totally last minute, and it was awesome. Three days at a beautiful retreat center with my own huge room, fancy bathroom, and hours in the evenings with no technology but lots of books. I sat with 40 other people (all guys, of course) who do the same thing I do every day and we talked programming, lesson writing, parent struggles and long-term planning. We ate delicious food and did not judge each other for taking seconds on the apple pie. It was a great, much much needed break and I am so thankful I got to go.

A couple of weeks ago I found myself on a ‘thank you’ kick. I sent notes to people who have gone out of their way for me or the kids recently, I emailed authors of books that touched me, I wrote to a guy who has been really helpful to Aaron lately. Responses have started to trickle in, and it totally makes my day every time. It’s amazing what paying a little attention will do for you.

I don’t want to go to Bonnaroo. I don’t. I know I would be miserable. But it’s hard to see that when I’m looking at a lineup that includes: The Avett Brothers, The Dead Weather, Conan (!), Weezer, Phoenix, LCD Soundsystem, Aziz Ansari, Brandi Carlile, The Punch Brothers, Miranda Lambert, OK Go and Kings of Leon. Seriously, y’all. SERIOUSLY.

Yesterday we took our kids to work on a neighborhood revitalization project near where a lot of them live. It was a really run down part of town that most of them didn’t even know existed. They got to meet the people who live there and do some construction work on a house for a family who is crammed into a one-bedroom apartment right now. They painted, scrubbed, sawed, crawled under the basement, sheetrocked and caulked. I was so impressed by them, as usual.

The other day I was talking to a group of people and I mentioned that, when I eat M&Ms or Skittles, I pour the whole bag out and separate them into colors. THEY FREAKED OUT. Is that really so weird? The separating part? I hadn’t even gotten to the part where I count them and make sure I have the same amount of each color, then eat the extras, then arrange them into some kind of aesthetically-pleasing pattern. I decided to spare them those details for fear they would never speak to me again.

I totally forgot to blog about this! Last month we got to go see Jennifer Knapp open for Todd Snider. JENNIFER KNAPP. TODD SNIDER. Are you familiar with Todd Snider? I had forgotten how awesome he is. It was a great show… he played for a couple of hours and I could have easily listened for a couple more. It was awesome.

My love for Waterdeep is well-documented on this site. I have seen them countless times, all over the country. We had their song in our wedding, my blog title came from another of their songs, etc etc, whatever and ever amen. You would think I would be out of words to say about them, right? How many more ways can I express my love for them? How many times can I write the same blog post?

At least one more, apparently. Because they played a full band show last weekend that BLEW MY MIND. Literally. It’s gone. It was that amazing.

They just keep getting cooler. A lot of the music I loved a decade ago hasn’t held up… I listen to it now and I just don’t see what I saw back then. Or, I go see those bands play their new music and just leave disappointed. Their place for me is in the past. But Waterdeep? Not only could I listen to the old records over and over, but their style and my taste have kept up with each other. I could have walked into that show or listened to the new records with no prior history and fell completely in love. (Sidenote: we brought a friend with us who knew nothing about them and she has not shut up about the awesome for four days.)

It was just a great, straight-up rock show. Loud and big, with massive guitar solos and weird percussion and tracked loops and yelling and a pink glittery guitar. It completely ruled.

They played a lot of new stuff, which I loved, but they also played a ton of old songs. It was like they looked at a list of my favorite Waterdeep tracks and just turned it into the set list. Take a look at this, music fans:

• Everyone’s Beautiful (!)
• I Know the Plans (!!)
• Both Of Us’ll Feel the Blast (Our wedding song! That I requested via twitter!)
• 18 Bullet Holes
• Almost Gone (!!!)
• Wicked Web
• Good Good End
• Sweet River Roll

And then, you guys. THEN. The band left the stage and they did one more as kind of an acoustic encore thing. They were kind of going back and forth about what to play, and I said to our table, “If they play Everybody’s Guilty I am going to have a heart attack right here in this club.” And what did they do? THEY PLAYED EVERYBODY’S GUILTY. Shut the front door.

It was an amazing, amazing show. I was beyond thrilled to be there.

And then it got even more awesome.

A guy we are friends with used to be Waterdeep’s manager a long time ago. He’s a guy Aaron knows through work, and he has been one of my favorite people ever since we met at an industry party and then sat at a table for two hours talking about them. He comes up to us after the show, takes my arm, and says, “Ready?” And drags me over to meet them. I was so excited and so afraid I would so thoroughly embarrass myself that I couldn’t show my face around town anymore.

So we walk up to Lori, he introduces us and we talk for a couple of minutes about the show and the songs they played. And then he told her about how I accidentally stalked them at an open house. She remembered me, thankfully, and even thanked me for saying something because they never get recognized and it makes her happy when people talk to them about their music. So that was good. But I was horrified.

We then met Don and talked to him for a while about the Khrusty Brothers and Remedy Drive. (He writes with them sometimes.) I tried so hard to be cool, y’all. I really did. I just don’t think I have it in me. But even without my complete and total lameness, it was a great night.

Feb 1 – Snow snow snow everywhere. Read lots of books.
Feb 2 – Snow canceled school and allowed a rare mid-week lunch with one of my favorite kids.
Feb 3 – My awesome husband brought me lunch.
Feb 4 – We made turkey meatloaf and crash potatoes for dinner and almost died from the deliciousness.
Feb 5 – Super fun and much needed girls night out.
Feb 6 – Nice, normal, non-stressful Saturday. Spent the afternoon with Jeff Bridges and some Sour Patch Kids.
Feb 7 – The power that had been out all morning came back on just in time for us to barely make it to church.
Feb 8 – My friends were very good to me. And I was thankful.
Feb 9 – My friend Steffanie had her second beautiful daughter, Elliot.
Feb 10 – Avett Brothers, all day long.
Feb 11 – Texas got a ton of snow and every single person I know called to tell me about it.
Feb 12 – Girls sleepover! Cookies and games and glitter and general hilarity.
Feb 13 – The kids were awesome on our service project. Then we had really expensive cheese cubes and listened to a barbershop quartet.
Feb 14 – We tried some new things with the youth group format and it went really well.
Feb 15 – Breakfast for dinner.
Feb 16 – Had an unexpected and really good talk with a band wife.
Feb 17 – Had a beautiful Ash Wednesday service at church followed by Olympic snowboard watching at Flying Saucer with the band.
Feb 18 – Saw a really cute high school production of Nunsense.
Feb 19 – Long, delicious dinner with friends. Tempura avocado, crab salad, crunchy salmon, japanese bbq chicken, lots of wine.
Feb 20 – Saw Jennifer Knapp open for Todd Snider in what may be the greatest pairing ever.
Feb 21 – Had a really interesting discussion in care group about what it looks like to share your faith as an adult.
Feb 22 – A friend gave us tickets to a benefit for Porter’s Call, an organization very dear to us. It was a really cool night full of stories.
Feb 23 – Read Don Miller’s new book. Loved it.
Feb 24 – Got to be silly and a little gossipy with coworkers at lunch.
Feb 25 – Saw a freaking amazing Waterdeep show AND got to meet them afterward.
Feb 26 – Delicious sushi dinner with new friends.
Feb 27 – Took two long walks with my boys.
Feb 28 – Ate a greasy fried lunch and ran into fun friends at the mall.

For a couple of people have never taken Valentine’s Day particularly seriously, we had a whole mess of stuff going on this weekend. I am wiped out.

It all started Friday night with a youth girls’ sleepover at our house. Thirteen girls and two adults crammed into our tiny house, with all the pillows and blankets and games and movies and marshmallows and kool-aid and glitter that come with them. It was out of control.

We played a rousing game of Celebrity (which included references to both the Andrews Sisters and BILL CROSBY, which I took to mean Bill Cosby but actually meant Bing Crosby, apparently my junior high girls were born in in the 1920s) before tackling a Valentine’s cookie making project. I thought it was going to be simple – roll out the dough, cut out the hearts, bake and decorate. No problem. Somehow, instead, we ended up with a mountain of oily batter that would not shape into hearts no matter what we did to it and flour everywhere. EVERYWHERE. It was all over the kitchen, in their hair, on our clothes. Messy messy messy. Fun fun fun.

After not nearly enough hours of sleep, we got them up and headed over to a nearby assisted living center for our monthly service project. The kids sang old hymns and visited with the residents, and were overall just full of awesome. I was really proud of them – for a lot of them it was their first time to do something like that, and making conversation with people in those situations can be pretty nerve-wracking. But they did a great job.

We got home mid-afternoon, just in time to turn around and go to a Valentine’s event our church’s men’s ministry put together. It was exactly what you think it was – dressed up old people, roses, cheesy love songs, linens, tiny desserts. But it was oh so much more. There was a barbershop quartet. There was a picture of our pastor dressed as Elvis. There was contraband wine snuck in from the hotel restaurant. There was an under-the-breath Delilah reference that made me cry from trying not to laugh.

It was… not cool. But we had fun with the other four people there under the age of fifty, and we learned a valuable lesson – sit in the back corner where no one can see you. And bring a flask.

We celebrated the actual day by doing nothing, thank goodness. We had a good morning in youth group, a quick lunch, and then spent the entire rest of the day reading, napping and watching the Olympics. We ate sweet tart hearts and pineapple salsa and it was glorious.

The Ballad of Love and Hate by The Avett Brothers

Love writes a letter and sends it to hate.
My vacations ending. I’m coming home late.
The weather was fine and the ocean was great
and I can’t wait to see you again.

Hate reads the letter and throws it away.
“No one here cares if you go or you stay.
I barely even noticed that you were away.
I’ll see you or I won’t, whatever.”

Love sings a song as she sails through the sky.
The water looks bluer through her pretty eyes.
And everyone knows it whenever she flies,
and also when she comes down.

Hate keeps his head up and walks through the street.
Every stranger and drifter he greets.
And shakes hands with every loner he meets
with a serious look on his face.

Love arrives safely with suitcase in tow.
Carrying with her the good things we know.
A reason to live and a reason to grow.
To trust. To hope. To care.

Hate sits alone on the hood of his car.
Without much regard to the moon or the stars.
Lazily killing the last of a jar
of the strongest stuff you can drink.

Love takes a taxi, a young man drives.
As soon as he sees her, hope fills his eyes.
But tears follow after, at the end of the ride,
cause he might never see her again.

Hate gets home lucky to still be alive.
He screams o’er the sidewalk and into the drive.
The clock in the kitchen says 2:55,
And the clock in the kitchen is slow.

Love has been waiting, patient and kind.
Just wanting a phone call or some kind of sign,
That the one that she cares for, who’s out of his mind,
Will make it back safe to her arms.

Hate stumbles forward and leans in the door.
Weary head hung, eyes to the floor.
He says “Love, I’m sorry”, and she says, “What for?
I’m your and that’s it, Whatever.
I should not have been gone for so long.
I’m your’s and that’s it, forever.”

You’re mine and that’s it, forever.

I am completely in love with my DVR. Have I mentioned that lately? There are many, many household items I would sacrifice if it meant I got to keep the DVR. It is amazing.

My job includes a fair amount of ‘busy work’… I am my own assistant, and I do a lot of data management and related tasks both for the youth group and for the church at large. Because I work from home a couple of days a week, I like to have some stuff logged on the DVR to watch while I work. The nature of those logged shows changes with the seasons. Sometimes it’s sitcom reruns, sometimes it’s late night talk shows, sometimes it’s bad MTV reality. Don’t judge me.

Lately I’ve been on a Masterpiece Classic kick. Particularly, Emma. And, oh, you guys. It is just perfect. The only film version of Emma Woodhouse I’ve ever seen is Gwyneth Paltrow (and, you know, Alicia Silverstone). This one (played by Romola Garai) has a much different feel… she’s confident and strong and I just love her. I am completely thrilled with the entire thing. Also, I wish we still had balls with choreographed group partner dances that everyone just knew. Also also, Dumbledore.

The other habit I get into is recording movies off of the Independent Film Channel. But that doesn’t work out so well as I am not a big movie fan. I like some movies, and the ones I love I really love. But I’m not really a movie watcher. I get bored. And I usually record a bunch of movies, let them sit for ages, and delete them to make room for something truly important, like America’s Best Dance Crew. And yet, somehow, I’ve accidentally watched two Woody Allen movies in the last several days. First it was Annie Hall, which I really enjoyed, mostly because of Diane Keaton. (Has anyone ever noticed how much Katie Holmes looks like a young Diane Keaton?) Then I watched Hannah and Her Sisters, which I didn’t realize was Woody Allen, but was also a good one. I didn’t even know I liked Woody Allen movies.

There are several more movies waiting for me that will probably never be watched, and I’m sure I will give up on Masterpiece Classic for a while once Emma ends. But for now, my DVR compulsions are serving me well.

Jan 1 – I read two books and Aaron made me pancakes.
Jan 2 – We celebrated our ten years of dating anniversary with delicious garlic basil butter sauce. It was on something, I’m sure, but I don’t remember what.
Jan 3 – Good discussion about goals with the kids.
Jan 4 – Bought some awesome new boots.
Jan 5 – Pancakes for dinner. 2010 is the year of the pancake.
Jan 6 – I survived an overwhelming day.
Jan 7 – I survived an even more overwhelming day and had delicious sushi with friends for lunch. Also, drove in the snow and did not die.
Jan 8 – Ate at Chuy’s with Aaron and a band guy and we got TWELVE FREE SOPAPILLAS.
Jan 9 – The Cowboys won a playoff game.
Jan 10 – I learned I am no longer a young adult. It’s a good thing, I promise.
Jan 11 – Insomnia led to staying up crazy late watching music videos with a friend.
Jan 12 – The song “Caves” by Jack’s Mannequin knocked me on my face. In a good way.
Jan 13 – I learned the word ‘qhapffin’. Don’t try to look it up.
Jan 14 – I acquired the most perfect pair of pink plaid slippers in the history of the world.
Jan 15 – Girls dinner out for restaurant week! Melon salad and curried salmon and crazy wine and berry cheesecake and so so much laughing.
Jan 16 – Spent a wonderful evening with some of my college girls. They make me so proud.
Jan 17 – Had a really interesting discussion in youth group about Haiti. I have some sharp kids.
Jan 18 – I talked a lot today. It was necessary. And good.
Jan 19 – Avett Brothers, Avett Brothers, Avett Brothers.
Jan 20 – We played Celebrity with the kids and I laughed so hard I WEPT. They rule.
Jan 21 – Today was very interesting. I will not tell you why.
Jan 22 – Played basketball for the first time in ages.
Jan 23 – Kari sent me an inappropriate text. Or should I say… sext.
Jan 24 – Our biggest Sunday morning ever! I know it’s not about numbers, but sometimes numbers make you feel good.
Jan 25 – Homemade chicken tikka masala.
Jan 26 – Finally finished my Christmas returns and found some great deals on much needed new clothes.
Jan 27 – American Idol reminded me of the awesomeness that is Shai.
Jan 28 – Super fun and looooong dinner out with friends.
Jan 29 – Snow day! We watched movies and made cookies and played a thousand rounds of Phase Ten.
Jan 30 – Snow day again! We got stir crazy and went to Target and bought $5 war movies.
Jan 31 – The Second Annual Manes Family Grammy Party was a success! We had glow sticks and 3-D glasses and a beer incident and more dip than you could ever have the chips for. Awesome.

I have never been much of a Bruce Springsteen fan. He wasn’t a big player in the music of my childhood, and I don’t really connect to his working man Jersey persona. I don’t think those things are the problem, though.

I didn’t watch a lot about Sesame Street from when I was a kid. I think I was more of a Mr. Rogers kind of girl. But I do have a very clear memory of the Muppets singing a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run”. They had changed the title to “Born to Add”, and the verses were about adding one trashcan to two to get three trashcans, then one policeman to three to get four policemen. Groundbreaking stuff.

My parents weren’t big Springsteen fans, so I don’t think I knew the song outside of it’s math-centric version. And now, anytime I hear Bruce Springsteen’s voice, I see a Muppet and hear the addition lyrics. Which is pretty awesome. But it makes it really difficult for me to take him seriously.

Remedy Drive has a song on an Olympics commercial! Aaron knew it was a possibility, but we didn’t know for sure that it was happening until last night when it aired during Saturday Night Live and his phone started blowing up.

So if you see a Budweiser-sponsored ad for the Olympics, probably airing during late night TV, pay special attention. The very first shot is four beers clinking, and the lyrics are “Hope’s not giving up.” SO AWESOME.

We live two blocks from an elementary school. It has a great playground and park area behind it that we have sadly underutilized. But yesterday, on the first nice-ish day we’ve had in ten thousand years, Aaron and I decided it was time to play basketball. OH MY GOSH. It was so much fun. We played all the games and drills we could remember from our high school days – Knockout, Horse, layup and free throw and three-pointer drills. It completely wiped me out but was awesomely fun. We will definitely be back.

Are you guys on the Avett Brothers bandwagon? I have known for a while that it was my kind of thing, but for whatever reason just never took the plunge. Then we had a week full of grey rainy days and I needed new music that was also moody and mellow-ish. Something with feeling. ENTER AVETT BROTHERS. I am now completely obsessed with them. They are just a perfect little band. I love their voices, love their lyrics, love their sound.

They were on Austin City Limits last night. After it was over I rewound it and immediately watched the show again. They are fantastic.

Let’s talk about Parks and Recreation. It is easily my favorite Thursday night show. It has been exponentially more funny than The Office and 30 Rock this season.

We love us some Tom Haverford in this house, so when we saw that Aziz Ansari was doing a comedy special, we immediately set the DVR. That is one funny kid. This clip is from Jimmy Kimmel, but it’s pretty much exactly the way he told the story on the show. It makes me hurt from laughing. Also, slightly dirty. Just FYI.

I know I say this all the time, but I really really really love my job. Church politics and staff stress and personal issues aside, it is outside the scope of my comprehension that I get to do what I do every day. This weekend I got to hang out with college girls who I’ve known since they were in junior high, and with junior highers who say awesome things like “Make peace, don’t, like, not make peace” and who bring their Harry Potter sorting hat pillowcases to class so we can split up into the appropriate teams. Amazing.

Greek starts back up tomorrow! I love my teeny-bopper TV shows.