On Our Way To Crazy

Because I feel like the last few weeks (months? years?) have been crazy full of stress and frustration and heaviness, today we are going to talk about something fun. Shoes.

I love shoes. I know it’s a stereotypical girly thing to say, but it’s true. I love shopping, I love clothes, I love shoes. I just do. I can’t help it.

Lucky for me, I don’t have expensive taste. I mean, sure, if I could afford it I would buy nicer shoes. More real leather instead of plastic-y fake stuff. Some sturdier heels. Maybe something that doesn’t tear my feet up for the first few wears. Or all the wears.

So maybe you’ve got some extra cash on you. Maybe you really, really like me, and you want to buy me a present. Or maybe you’ve had a rough few weeks too and you need to buy something for yourself. Or just look at pretty pictures.

Flat? Ankle-strap? Peeptoe? So adorable.

I need another pair of flats like I need a hole in my head.

These are way too tall for me. But they are also $24. I am torn.

Turquoise suede! Are you kidding me with this?

I hate wearing t-straps and have absolutely no use for these in my life. And yet. I want.

Completely impractical. Completely awesome.

I spent some time last week in Dallas. When I booked the ticket a couple of months ago, it was to attend a weekend wedding extravaganza for a friend I’ve known since I was four. Four! How does a 29-year-old person have 25-year-long friendships? HOWEVER, a few weeks ago, that friend, after a heart wrenching process and a lot of crying group therapy sessions and emails with our friends, decided to call the wedding off. It was a tough, but right, decision, and it resulted in a whole different kind of weekend for me.

I never get to go to Dallas and just hang out. We are always there for a reason – holidays, events, family things. Never just to visit. All of a sudden I had four days to fill with whatever I wanted. It was awesome.

I landed in Dallas Thursday afternoon. My parents picked me up from the airport and we talked about going to a sports bar somewhere to eat and watch the basketball tournament. Somewhere in the conversation it came up that there was a new ALDI grocery store in Mesquite, my hometown. Then we had an obvious breakdown in communication, because when I was saying ‘go out to eat and watch basketball’, my dad was hearing ‘go to ALDI and look at weird food with a bunch of crazy people’. So that’s what we did. It was fascinating.

Then we played wii swordfighting.

Friday morning my mom and I, armed with nothing but a Gap coupon and some fairly comfortable walking shoes, headed out for a full day of shopping. We went to multiple Targets in search of the Liberty of London line (seriously, y’all! Look at this! and this! and this! and this! and this! Oh, how I wish Aaron wore ties regularly.) We loaded up on notecards and tops and dresses for little girls we only kind of know but who HAD to had them because they are so cute. We walked a GIANT outlet mall circle and found great deals on sandals and dresses and… ponytail holders. So fun.

Then we played wii ping pong.

We got back just in time for me to turn around and have dinner with two of my most favorite people: Allison, my high school friend, college roommate and bridesmaid, and Julie, our awesome friend who was also one of our youth leaders when we were in high school. She hates it when we tell people that. We had pancakes and crepes at Cafe Brazil and then hung out at Allison’s total jealousy-inducing Pottery Barn-ish house in the M Streets. Great night that ended with the creation of the phrase “Fake Asian Babies For Christ”, which I would explain to you if I could. But I can’t. So I won’t.

Then I went home and played wii bicycling.

Saturday morning I had brunch with my friends from high school. I know I write about them every time I go home, but I can’t help it. I have eight awesome girlfriends that I have known most of my life. Who has that? Not many people, that’s for sure. I am very lucky. We had monkey bread and fruit and talked about turning 30 and having babies and canceling weddings and how things are never quite what you plan them to be. It was wonderful and restful and comforting. I love them.

Then I went home and played wii basketball.

I never seem to hang out with my mom and sister without getting our nails done, and this time was no exception. We were on our way out the door for mani-pedis when my dad came down the hall asking if he could go. That’s right, my big dad with his mangly feet (sorry, Dad) got a manicure and pedicure with us. It was awesome. That poor girl who had to scrub his ticklish feet.

My sister and her boyfriend work at one of those movie theaters where you can eat dinner. So Sunday after our nails were done we headed over there to watch Alice in Wonderland in 3-D and eat fried appetizery things and ice cream sundaes. For free. I loved the movie, the food was great, and all it cost me was a few dollars for a tip. Can’t beat it.

After the movie, I ran across town to have dinner with my friend Jon and his family. Jon and I have known each other for a long time… he was my first real boyfriend and we have a lot of history together. I don’t know how it turned out that we are actual friends after everything that went down and how much time has passed, but I am thankful for it. His wife is awesome and his kids are hilarious and we had a really nice time.

Then I went home and played wii jetskiing.

Before I flew out Monday afternoon, I met up with an old pastor of mine. We didn’t really have a youth pastor when I was in high school, but right before graduation a guy named Paul and his wife Jill came in and took over the youth program. It was life-changing for me – they were young and fun, and I volunteered with them throughout college. I always thought Jill’s life seemed awesome because she got to teach English and be a youth pastor’s wife. (I obviously did not live in a church culture that let me believe that a female could be the real youth pastor.) Anyway, they were one of the only functional youth programs I’ve ever been a part of, and Paul is now a pastor of a church really similar to ours in Nashville, so it was really great to spend some time just talking with him. He gave me some much needed encouragement and perspective on my current situation and future plans. So helpful.

Then I went home and played wii canoeing.

I love going to Dallas – it’s always relaxing and fun to see all my old people. This trip turned out to be an unexpectedly good one, and I am thankful. Especially for the wii.

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.