On Our Way To Crazy

We are completely obsessed with reruns of The West Wing on Bravo. I don’t know when or how often they come on, but we have about 25 sitting on the DVR.

I really actively disliked Studio 60 when it came on. I didn’t understand all the preaching and uppity-ness about sketch comedy. But preaching and uppity-ness about liberal politics? That I can handle. It’s smart and funny and has great characters. I love it so much.

I have listened to Dashboard Confessional’s Dusk and Summer about a thousand times in the last week. It is the perfect end of summer album. Go download ‘Stolen’. I’ll wait here.

I have a church music pet peeve I need to share. It is so awkward when songs have lyrics that describe an action that we aren’t actually doing. It feels weird and disingenuous to sing lines like “awestruck we fall to our knees” or “we stand and lift up our hands” if we are not actually doing those things. But it feels fake to do them just because we’re singing about it. I mean, it’s one thing to lift your hands and spin around in the youth room. It’s another to falsify your awestruck-ness.

Also I hate it in “How Great Is Our God” when the line ‘sing with me’ is on the screen. Who are we talking to? Why is that in the official lyrics? I do not understand.

I have a very distinct memory of these cookies that my mom used to buy when I was a kid. They were like little shortbread bites, but they were hollow and the middle was filled with chocolate. They were excessively delicious – nice and crispy, and then you would bite into them and this chocolate frosting-y stuff would burst out. I can’t remember the name of them and they are nowhere to be found.

Then today I am wandering around World Market looking at all the crazy food they sell. I am in the Japanese section, looking at the different Pocky flavors, when I come across something called Hello Panda. What is Hello Panda? Just a delicious Japanese cookie, then and crispy on the outside with chocolate frosting-y stuff in the middle. Also, THE MOST DELICIOUS COOKIES EVER. They aren’t the cookies I remember, exactly, but they’re pretty darn close.

Things are on a major upswing with the youth group these days. Well, an upswing with a weight tied around it. Our Sunday mornings have been great the past few weeks… it’s amazing what school starting will do for you. We have a ton of new kids and have been having some really good discussions in our small groups. I am thrilled.

The weight wrapped around it comes in the form of our youth space. Remember that house we were working on to renovate and turn into a youth building? That is pretty much dead in the water. The combination of this recession and unknown and potentially astronomical structural repair costs have put the project on the probably not happening list. I don’t know what the future of a permanent space for our kids will be, but we do have a temporary answer. We have taken over the conference room and a couple of other rooms in our church office building and I am frantically working to get them cleaned and painted and youth-ized. So, at least for a little while, we’ll have some space that’s ours.

We had more kids than can fit in the room today, though, so it’s a mixed blessing.

I recently bought skinny jeans, tall boots, and a lumberjack plaid tunic. I am trying to be cooler than I am. Lord help me.

Last week was our last Sunday night as care group leaders. Remember all those concerns I had a couple of years ago when we started this thing? Turns out I knew more than I realized. It was just too much.

Lucky for us our group is full of amazing people and we had no trouble handing this thing off to another couple. We will just be… members. We can just show up and participate. I don’t have to plan or clean or worry that no one will show up. I can’t wait.

I have had it with Counting Crows concerts. For real this time.

Tuesday night we went to see Counting Crows at the Ryman. Counting Crows! At the Ryman! My favorite band at my favorite venue, AND it was the day after my birthday. It was meant to be.

I have seen Counting Crows live at least five times. And at least five times, I have been disappointed. You’d think I would learn. And I will! This time! I mean it!

There were three bands on the bill – Michael Franti and Spearhead, Augustana, and Counting Crows. Emphasis on COUNTING CROWS. You know, the headliner. The band we bought tickets to see. The one that gets the butts in the seats. So we get there, the curtain comes up, and we see… everyone. All three bands in their entirety are onstage. They do Rain King first thing, right off the bat. We are all on our feet. It is awesome.

And then? We are subject to an hour and a half of Michael Franti and Augustana. Adam Duritz is on stage, singing along and taking pictures, but there are no Counting Crows songs to be found. Then we go to intermission.

OK, we’re thinking. That was fun. Kind of confusing, but at least it was a more interesting way to do the first two bands on the show than just us sitting and staring at them. We get drinks, stand and stretch, and get excited about the Counting Crows portion of the evening that is surely going to start any minute.

But start it never did. The curtain comes back up, and guess what? ALL THREE BANDS. Again. Sometimes one of the bands would go off stage in order to let the others have the spotlight. Which would have been great if the band that left the stage wasn’t always Counting Crows. You know, no big deal, we only paid a gazillion dollars to see them play.

All in all it was a four hour show split evenly between the bands. It was a triple-headliner. Michael Franti, while very cool, only has one quasi-hit that you would only know if your town has a triple A radio station that you listen to constantly. Augustana, who was much cooler than you would think, has maybe two songs you’ve heard if you’re not a big fan. They were great choices for OPENING BANDS. I sat for four hours and heard maybe ten Counting Crows songs.

Here’s what I don’t understand. Counting Crows makes great live albums. GREAT. Which means, somewhere, at some time, for some audience, Adam Duritz gets it together and plays an amazing show. Has he only done it a few times, when he knows it’s being recorded? Am I just in the wrong part(s) of the country? Why does he always do this to me?

No more, Adam Duritz. You have burned me for the last time. I shake my fist at you. I bite my thumb at you. I fart in your general direction. Next time I will just sit at home and listen to Across a Wire. GAH.

I turned 29 this week. It made me feel old.

I never feel old, not really. I work with teenagers every day, which generally keeps me feeling young in the kind of way that makes me unable to participate in conversations with real grown ups. I have old lady moments every now and then, like when my little sister doesn’t know what Z Cavaricci’s are or when I am trying to talk to someone about the music we listened to in high school, only to realize that when I was in high school, he was in THIRD GRADE. And now we are adults. Together.

I was good at being 28. I liked 28. It worked for me. I wasn’t very good at college and young 20′s, not in the traditional sense. I didn’t party. I wasn’t crazy. It felt right to turn 28, like I’d been 28 all along and my actual age finally caught up with me.

But 29 feels old. It feels grown up. Like I don’t have an excuse for acting like a kid anymore. I kind of like being the youngest one in the room… it lets you be a little more relaxed, a little less responsible. It’s okay to be the one in the back of the room making jokes.

Old or not, I had a great birthday. My excellent friend Becka took me out for a wine and pasta lunch, I went shopping, and had a great night out with Aaron. My mom sent me a birthday box that included a stainless steel skillet, some great jewelry, tons of candy and a coffee mug that says “I HEART DALLAS”. Friends I haven’t talked to in ages called me with birthday greetings. I got excessively sweet messages from unexpected places. Aaron gave me a wax seal for letters and promised to still love me in my old lady state. It was a great day.

And now I am 29 and four days. Three hundred and sixty-one days away from 30. It’s crazy crazy crazy. At least I’ll be an old lady who sends very cool mail.

I am embarrassed by the tiny number of posts between the last good things post and this one. July? It was hard.

July 1 – I got a haircut that was only about six months overdue.
July 2 – I made a seriously good photo slideshow for a friend’s birthday. Seriously, you would cry and you don’t even know them.
July 3 – Derek Webb movie thing and delicious barbecue downtown.
July 4 – A failed attempt to see baseball and fireworks turned into a rip-roaring Trivial Pursuit challenge and the hugest “sopapillas” I’ve ever seen.
July 5 – I discovered, and quickly became obsessed with, Word Challenge on facebook.
July 6 – I made tikka masala for dinner and it was delicious.
July 7 – The end of the great flamingo tour of 2009.
July 8 – Camp paperwork is finished! We are now prepared for any hospital visits, food allergies or major destruction that may come along.
July 9 – Went to visit my dear friend Anna and her sweet baby Ian at St. Jude’s in Memphis. That place is amazing and he is doing so well.
July 10 – Camp shopping at Target! So much fun.
July 11 – Took the youth girls to see one of our own in a musical. She was fantastic.
July 12 – Haircut day for Miles! I think he lost 20 pounds of fur.
July 13 – We made it to camp! The drive was only three hours! Camp is the best!
July 14 – I spent two hours talking about books with a 93-year-old man over jello.
July 15 – Mega Relay!
July 16 – We took the kids to see Harry Potter during camp free time.
July 17 – Girl talk in the party room.
July 18 – I laughed so hard driving home from camp that I almost ran off the road.
July 19 – An exhausting but productive meeting went well.
July 20 – We got to share our bed with Miles after a week with plenty of leg room.
July 21 – Finally caught up on our camp laundry.
July 22 – We made plans to go to Florida in September.
July 23 – I rediscovered the awesomeness of West Wing reruns.
July 24 – I fished out what I thought was a great youth idea to parents and was resoundingly shut down. Yay for constructive feedback.
July 25 – Long lazy anniversary celebrating day with a fabulous steak and fries dinner to finish it off.
July 26 – We made it to seven years of marriage.
July 27 – A short work trip for Aaron turned into a free youth conference for me.
July 28 – Long lazy day at Ridgecrest, reading and walking and hanging out with the band.
July 29 – Found delicious chicken fried steak in Knoxville.
July 30 – Energizing and encouraging youth staff meeting. Good things are coming.
July 31 – Laughing, dancing and margaritas to celebrate a dear friend’s vow renewal.