ARGH!!!!!

What is going on with the world?! We just found out that Laura's house got robbed again today. They took EVERYTHING. I can hardly imagine how she must be feeling right now. What a huge violation. What makes people feel that they have the right to other's property or that they have the right to violate someone else's rights or that they have the right to hurt innocent people for their own selfish gain? It makes me sick. The condition of humanity makes me sick. I know this happens everyday. We know another family that was robbed a month ago. Same thing: they took everything. Even stuff that wouldn't mean anything to anyone but the family. It's disgusting. I am so tired of selfish people!!!!! Does anyone think about anyone else in this life anymore? It doesn't seem that way. Everywhere I turn, people are looking for the angle that makes their lives better without a thought to how many people's lives they are making miserable in the process. How did this happen, or has it always existed and I was just too naive to notice?

I love you, Laura! Please be strong through everything you are going through. The sun will come out even though it's been hiding from you for way too long. We are always here for you no matter what. Don't lose your faith. This is when you need it most.

Right Under the Wire

I'm going to try to be concise, since I am tired but it doesn't make too much sense to write about the weekend the farther you get from it. It was another whirlwind that kinda' crept up on us, so here are the highlights:

Friday night we went to dinner at Grape Street with one of Don's co-workers and his fiance. We hadn't been there in a really long time, because every time we've tried to eat there it just happened to be closed. As we were waiting for a table, it happened to me again. In walks a guy that I went to high school with. We were on Executive Council together. We both did a double take and made some small conversation and moved on. Another guy from Exec wasn't far behind, but we didn't really say anything to each other. That's pretty much how it was in high school, too. Some things never change. I can't believe that I haven't seen anyone for years and all of a sudden there are Clark '97 almuni everywhere I turn! I hope this isn't a bad omen like that I'm not going to make it to the reunion for some unforeseen reason, so I'm seeing everyone now to make up for it. Weird. Of course after they walked in, a church parishoner was right on their heels. We actually talked for a while. It was Brock from 5:00 Mass, so he asked what we'd been up to and all that jazz. I felt bad for the couple that we were with, because we kept getting interrupted by all these people I know from my "other" lives. Once we were seated, the interruptions ceased and we ate a lovely dinner. (Lovely? That sounds so matronly.)

Speaking of small worlds... I attended a bridal shower on Saturday for Don's cousin's fiance, Brigitte (catch that?). Brigitte and I also went to Clark together, so when we all "met" at a family function years ago everyone was surprised that all the new girls were already acquainted. (I already knew Doreen, too, because we went to religious ed together.) Plus, my brother went through most of his schooling with Don's cousin, Aaron. Weird, hu? I guess it was all meant to be. But, I digress. It was a nice shower, except for the games. They weren't as bad as some I've been part of. I just don't care for them, and I know that some of you out there agree. We played the "if you get caught saying wedding or crossing your legs, so and so gets to steal whatever" game. That's one of my least favorites. Why in the world do I want to expend energy fighting over a dot or necklace with women I barely know so I can bring home a doorprize that has been re-gifted more than once? Needless to say, Debbie and I lost our necklaces quickly and were relived to be able to cross our legs at will. I was the only one who gave the bride-to-be lingerie. You have to get at least one or it's just not right! Lisa, you would be proud;it was a pretty, full- coverage nightie in lavender. Hey, can we give lingerie at baby showers, too? That would be fun.

After the shower, Don and I ended up with last minute comps to Hairspray compliments of Marty and Melea. Their two little boys came along and were such a riot. They had us laughing out loud a few times. Marty and Melea have done a wonderful job of exposing them to the arts and culture, so they know how to sit through plays. Hairspray is a fun show, but there aren't many memorable songs and the story is a little thin. They rely too much on having a character in drag to get cheap laughs. Harvey Fierstein was great, don't get me wrong. But, he's only here for a short time, so what's going to happen when he's gone?

Marty is the Senior Manager of Box Office and Show Tickets at the Luxor. Don and I were floored when he told us that the expectation for the show is "100% capacity, 100% of the time". They do ten shows a week for goodness sake! That sheds more credible light on the Avenue Q woes.

Sunday morning came too quickly, but we had to do it. We finally made it to 9:30 Mass, and we sat just like everybody else! My parents were there, so we sat with them. I will admit that it's harder to pay attention to the homily in the morning. The energy is different at 9:30 Mass. I think it fits us better at this point in our lives. It was very nice to attend as a family and see other families that I used to know better when I attended that Mass as a child/adolescent. Don and I even went to breakfast afterwards. We won't get into that habit, but it's nice every now and then.

We capped the day with dinner at Debbie's, which is always a fun and relaxing close to the weekend. Of course, poor Sharon brought her work along. Don has a vocal cameo in her play which opens this week. Yippee! We're going to see it on Thursday. It's not Shakespeare, so we're safe this time.

So, now we're looking at a semi-busy week ahead. Don and I are going to try very hard to keep Wednesday nights sacred for music work, whether it be secular, church or instrumental practice (I should really try to become a better chart player, and Don wants to get his trumpet chops back.). We're going to have a showing of Rent on Saturday night. Oh, I almost forgot. I actually went to the gym today. Can you believe it? One of my friends invited me to go, so I decided to try it out. Of course, the manager tried all his hard sell tactics on me, but I did not sign up. My mom has a treadmill at her house that I can use for free. So, maybe I will.

By the way, welcome to blogger Katie! You better keep us informed of all the NAU excitement and the latest pearls of wisdom courtesy of Grandmama. It's time for me to drift off to dreamland and dream of the day that I no longer am awakened to go to the bank. Have a good week, everyone!

Sometimes No One Wins Really

I watched an ok movie last night, Godsend with Robert DiNero. The basic premise is that a couple has a child, the child is killed and Robert DiNero steps in and offers them the chance to "clone" their dead child in a new embryo. This post is not about cloning, although that is probably a goldmine of controversy.

One scene that grabbed my attention was the father confronting Robert DiNero when his new child starts to do weird things. The father blamed him, and Robert DiNero threw the argument back at him and said that they did it together. The line that stuck with me is, "What? Do you think you can just open Pandora's Box and close it again." In light of all the controversy that I am on the fringe of, that seems so true. Do people even think of the consequences of what they say and do? Until recently, I never realized how damaging a vengeful person can be. I think we've all had vengeful thoughts in defense of ourselves or someone we love, but typically we don't act on those feelings. They soften with time, as they should. What I fail to understand are the people who are so motivated by hate and misplaced justice that they will destroy everything and everyone in their path to victory. How can one not even consider all the people and good things that they have the power to destroy and not see that it just isn't right? Do some people really find themselves believing lies as truth? Do they make themselves truly believe what they want to see? That must be it, because no psychologically stable person would hurt others with such malice and believe that it is ultimately for good. I also never realized the power of one. It only takes one person to set the world on it's ear. So for all the times we feel powerless, I guess it isn't really true. We can make life a living Hell, too. Ok, sarcasm. If it only takes one person to spread evil, why does it seem like one person doing good isn't quite as effective? Maybe, I should know the answers to some of this, since I'm a shrink wannabe and all. I do have some theories. Maybe someday...

That has me spinning, too. I have spent so much of my life wanting to be "in the know". Now that I am, I realize the burden of information and truth. Sometimes it's better not to know. Like, just eat the hot dog and don't ask how it's made. Ignorance is truly bliss sometimes, especially for people like me who so want to believe that people are inherantly good. I don't want to know that there are snakes all around me. I don't want to be distrustful or feel that I have to watch what I say to whom. I don't like having to remember every detail of every day. I just have to keep believing that God is here and that good does conquer evil. Prayer doesn't hurt, either. Unfortunately, at this point the damage is done and no one really wins no matter what they think. Be good to each other.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody! I hope that everyone has great, romantic plans. Don and I both have to work late. At first I was bummed, but Josh from Second City put together a dinner for all of us Second City couples after the show. We're going to try out 3 Tomatos and a Mozzerella. I hope it's yummy.

Computer people: How do I get rid of the ugly orange title? I found this nice purple for my post but can't figure out how to change the title color. Argh. Help, please.

Divine Secrets of the CTK Sisterhood

The Girls' Retreat has officially ended, and I think it was a big success. We ended up with 21 girls, which is a great turn out. Only two didn't show. It was actually a lighter retreat than the one we did last year, but I think it was better that way since we had a younger group this year. I think we finally found the free-time/serious activity balance. That has been the hardest thing to do with every activity. They seemed to settle down and pay better attention when we needed them to because we let them have so much free time with their friends. The girls were very appreciative of all the attention we gave them and left little notes for us in their rooms, which actually made me a little misty. Those are the moments that make all the stress and long hours worthwhile. Aside from a few shock value moments, they are good girls with pretty good heads on their shoulders. I always feel that the proof of what we do isn't in the event but is in the decisions they make years after it. If even one thing we do with them helps them to make a better decision or feel better about themselves someday, then we have been successful. I know we can't save them all from hard times and future mistakes, even though I wish I could. I can't give away all of our secrets in the event that we publish this retreat someday. lol. Actually, Debbie and I would like to tweak the best retreats and lesson plans that have been done lately and work on getting them published. There aren't enough good Jr High resources, so we would like to be in a position to share what has worked for us with other youth ministers. Susan, our old youth minister, has been publishing a lot lately, but most of her stuff is high school appropriate.

As most of you know, everything that Debbie, our volunteers and I have been doing lately has been uncharted territory. After this weekend, I say it's working. We are definitely growing a stronger program that is attracting stronger volunteers (Our Girls' and Boys' Retreat Teams are truly awesome and dedicated) and making more of a difference. I say this because our retreat was so important to the girls that they didn't use other things they needed to do as an excuse not to attend. I did not know that Saturday was Jr. High Solo and Ensemble Festival for musicians/singers. Many of our girls were participating and still came to the retreat. One girl left at 7:00am, performed her solo and came back! Of course, some of the girls had sports games on Saturday, too. They brought their uniforms with them so they could stay with us as long as possible. What a testament to the good that we all have been doing. I am so proud that we have given the kids a postive place where they truly wish to be.

MySpace

I should be getting siked for the Girls' Retreat, but I'm just not there yet. So, I'll write something in an effort to inspire myself to take a shower and pack my stuff for the night.

I have had my blogger and myspace pages for approximately the same amount of time. I actually did not want to get a myspace account at first, but Lisa convinced us to get on so we could correspond easier and see pics of Lacey more often. So, we complied. I have never liked myspace much, though. I hate the emphasis on appearance and hooking up with people you don't know but think are cute. I was asked to befriend a kid who I think is only inviting blonde girls to be his friends. Sure, that's going to lead to something. Long story short, I prefer this blog to myspace. However, lately I have been paying more attention to myspace because more people are on it. Most of the Second City guys are there, church people are there, plus I 've been able to reconnect with some people from high school. Just last night I found our babysitter from the street we grew up on. That was wild. She is now my friend, of course. I will admit that myspace makes it much easier to network, because you don't have to remember every individual account name. I do write on myspace from time to time, but it's usually really mindless stuff (because everything I write here is highly intelligent and thought provoking. lol.). Unfortunately, my readership there seems to be a lot higher than here. I have tried and tried to convince people to view this page. I even post link reminders every now and then. Some people do make it over, but I'm not sure it's a regular thing. I have even tried to bolster Blogger membership. I did succeed recently with the addition of Andy after many months of Lisa and me bugging him. But, where's Christine? Where's Mark and his musical reviews (I think it would be very informative.)? Sigh. Oh, Blogger I have tried, but even I am forced to pay more attention to myspace. So, please don't be jealous if I start writing more for them than for you. It's not personal. I'll always love you more.

Fashion Observation

I totally forgot to write about this in my New York vacation narrative. Maybe because it doesn't have much to do with anything else that I wrote. Hmmm. Right before we left, I glanced through a magazine at my allergist's office that showed pictures of celebs wearing jeans tucked into black leather knee boots. They were claiming that this is the new cute trend for Winter. I seem to remember this being a style in the late 80s/early 90s that everyone swore to never repeat much like day-glo colors, large belts and large sunglasses. Hmmm. How are we supposed to keep up in this fashion conscious world when last year's "don't" is this year's "do". I find it almost laughable. It is so strange to see trends that I remember return after being the butt of merciless jokes for so many years. Anyway, back to the boots... I made the personal desicion not to get excited about the jeans in the boots. So, we travel to New York and everywhere I turn, ladies have their jeans tucked into their boots! I couldn't believe it! That means that we have that to look forward to out here next Fall. Maybe it won't travel this way. Could we secretly hope for that? I don't want to have anymore pictures to laugh at. I have enough from childhood. Next thing we'll hear is how great shoulder pads are! Oh, God save us before we get there!

I have complained about this before, but I just can't get over it. What is up with the mohawk? I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! There could not be an uglier hairstyle. Over dinner this weekend we had a conversation with some friends about mohawk versus mullet. Both are awful, but we agreed that the mohawk just seems to be a big flip-off to the world and the mulett is just sad. Also, you can go to a normal job interview with a mullet but not with a mohawk. There are probably only a hand full of jobs in which a mohawk would be an acceptable hairstyle. What I almost dislike more than either of these is the weird faux-mo that is going on. If you haven't noticed, it's for 20 and 30-something guys who are desperately trying to be cool without committing to the full-on mohawk. I think it's awful and sad. The men grow their top middle hair longer than the rest but they still have hair on the sides and they gel it up into the middle in an impersonation of a mohawk. Very ugly in my opinion. It's just a wimpy attempt to hang on to the coolness and rebellion of youth that has passed. Kinda' like the mullet come to think of it. Business in the front and party in the back! Yuck! In summary, stick with the classics and you'll never go wrong.