Aren't we cute?

I just wanted to share this picture with everyone
because I treasure it. of course, it's my dad and
myself way back in the day.

I ruined THEIR dinner?!?!

So I have these friends (yes, I have friends). The particular ones that I am refering to are now seniors (well, most of them) at my alma mater. Earlier this evening, I decided to call my friend Justin. I happened to catch him while he was dining at a fine pizza establishment with several of our other friends. Because he was eating, I was going to let him go, but sensing the joyfulness in my voice (that has been absent for a while), he began questioning me. While doing so, I had another call from a number I didn't recognize so I asked him to wait while I checked it (I check all the unrecognizable numbers in case it's a job waiting for me). It was Jake, another of our friends, who also happened to be eating pizza with Justin. He just wanted to steal me away from Justin...who in turn got "frustrated" and hung up. Jake and I chatted for a few minutes and then I called Justin back. During this second conversation yet another phone call came. I asked Justin if another of his dinner companions was calling me; he replied with a no. We ended our convo, promising to talk on Tuesday (to make plans for the wedding). I decided to call the mysterious second number back since Justin said it wasn't one of them. However, it was another of them, Big Mike as he is called. Oh goodness, so I hear everyone at the table saying, "Is that Amanda?!" "Yes!" he exclaimed. (Pastor) PJ, well I envision it as grabbing the phone from Big Mike, yells into the phone, "You are ruining our dinner!" All I really wanted to do was talk to Justin, and I was in the process of letting him go when all of his RUDE dinner guests started phoning me! Goodness!

Three dollars

Gas prices went up to $2.99, and the roach guy came this morning. I just wanted to record this day in history.

Random thoughts at 1am

The clock has just ticked late enough that the day has turned to the first of September. Neither my roommate nor I can sleep for some reason. (She probably drank too much coffee late in the day.) I don't know what my problem is. We still have roaches, but they are leaving tomorrow morning!

I had an interview last week that I should be hearing about Thursday or Friday (I mean, as long as they call when they said they would.) The place will remain annonymous for now, but the job would be going into schools and teaching about anything and everything from drug abuse to stranger awareness for 4-18 year olds.

In the meantime, I have just started as a temp nanny through a local agency. Basically, I get calls to go to different places to fill in for full time nannies who are sick or maybe for a family that just needs a nanny for one day. It's both fun and nerve wracking, but so far, so good.

Our apartment is fun (minus the roaches) - we are getting more and more settled every day.

Oh yes! I forgot that I wanted to share a lovely website and I expect everyone to check it out! It belongs to my new friend, Kent Needler, who really isn't my NEW friend at all. Unfortunatly our circles only cross when a game of Cranium happens at the seminary. So that has limited our friendship. Anyway, he has an amazing graphic design gift! Check it out! www.orange40.com

Okay, I think I'm going to try to sleep. Over and out.

P.S. My roommate (Tanya, not the roaches) just came in and sat on my unmade bed (I washed the seats today) and said, "Is this your bed? Do you want help making it?" I said, "No, that's your bed, but sure you can help make it." Maybe we are more tired than we thought?

Wicked

I just finished "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire. It is the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (from the Wizard of Oz). I highly recommend reading it! I know you are saying, that childhood story? Yes, but this is full of politics, passion, intrigue, murder....and Animals with spirits who can talk! Not too mention, you realize that each of us is a little like Elphaba (the witch) - we just want to be understood. (Wicked also recently became a musical-actually the biggest hit on Broadway last year. It is based on the book).

They're moving in!

Tanya and I have new roommates. I'm not kidding. We've tried to name them, but being that they are too numerous, and they all look alike, it's difficult to keep them straight. That's right, we have roaches...little ones...which means there are big ones hiding somewhere! Ahh the perks of living in an apartment building! We killed around 20 of them last night around 10pm. I couldn't sleep thinking of all of them crawling around in the dark so about once an hour, I slipped on my trusty Californian Reefs and headed to the kitchen armed with bug spray and paper towels in hopes to kill several more in the spilt second after I flipped the light on. I probably killed about 20 more during the night. So gross! Anyway, we have to think of them as pets because the exterminator can't get here until Thursday. Of course we think of them as pets we want dead. But if didn't think of them with at least a little affection, we would go crazy from grossness!

My kind of town

Can't you just hear good ole Frank singing it right now? "Chicago, Chicago, my kind of town."

I just returned from Chicago and how wonderful it was to be back in the city that captured my heart two years ago. The youth group I worked with was from a small town in Minnesota. They were wonderful! I seriously think that if a youth pastor designed their own kids to be in their youth group, they couldn't get a better group. I'm not kidding either! The trip did have some minor glitches, but I didn't loose anyone. No one died. And the kids had a great time!

Monday
We spent the day at The Greater Chicago Food Depository which is this huge warehouse that ships food to "agencies" in Cook County. Agencies would be food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, etc. GCFD gets their food through donations from grocery stores, corporations (usually the "bad" products meaning that maybe the blue ink ran out at the Kraft factory so they get the boxes of Mac N Cheese that are red and yellow-perfectly good food), and by purchasing food with money from private funding. 30 percent of their labor is done by volunteers (which was us!) For the morning, we were assigned to the bread room where we were given the task of pulling and repackaging the good bread to be sent to agencies. We threw away almost 2,000 lbs of bread!! HOWEVER, we "rescued" close to 10,000 lbs. The afternoon was spent opening little boxes of candy and dumping them into HUGE boxes to be shipped out.

Tuesday
We spent the morning at the DuSable Museum of African American History. DuSable is actually considered the father of Chicago. The Dusable Museum was the first African American History museum in the nation which also makes it the oldest.

The afternoon was spent in my old neck of the woods at Cornerstone Community Outreach ( a homeless shelter in the Uptown neighborhood- run by Jesus People USA) We moved mattresses up 5 flights of stairs, helped in the free store, served dinner, and played with kids.

wednesday
Wednesday was spent working with Holy Family Lutheran Church in Cabrini-Green. They run a school further out in the West Side. We spent the day cleaning their classrooms and helping them get ready for school. My project for the day? Well, I tried to be like Neil Das (he's a librarian). I had the task of putting some organization into the elementary library. With the help of two youth, three bookshelves were cleared off, but the rest was left for the next volunteer group.

thursday was our free day and was spent exploring Chinatown, New Millenium Park, the Mag Mile, State Street, and the Museum of Scienc and Industry.

One is Silver, the other is Gold

As any good American girl does (at least back in the day when I was young), I joined Girl Scouts. we would run around in our brown outfits (I was only a Brownie...why named after a food?) selling cookies, singing the Beach Boys "Kokomo" and doing crafts while trying to earn our badges. But the one thing that has stuck with me is a song that says "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold."

That is oh so true. This weekend, I went to Pella for a wedding. During my time there, I actually got to see several friends that I missed dearly. Like Justin. Justin is this really great little brother who I've had the privilege of watching grow and mature into a wonderful young man with passion for seeking the heart of the Lord. He continues to be one of the few people from college who call to check in on me....to just share life with me. It was fun to actually spend time with him in person instead of on the phone. Justin is just one of a three musketeers type trio of guys. Ironically, the other two share the same name...Nick. But I call one Nico and the other Nick. I was blessed with the prescence of both of them this weekend as well.

I spent some time in laughter over a Jeopardy game with Joel and Pam, Sherami, and Anna "Queen Helga." (She would shoot me for using that name, but that wouldn't be the first time she has beaten me up. ....hehe)

Old friends really are like gold in that they are great treasures.....they are comfort...they are laughter....they are hugs (no one hugs here like they do at Central)....they are a stable force....they are a blessing!

Just another week in my life

What a whirlwind of week this has been. I'm still looking for a job. The CityLights students are leaving next week so I'm trying to spend my last minutes with them. I'm leading an Urban Immersion to Chicago for a high school youth group next week so I'm preparing for that. Oh and I'm moving the day I return so I've packed my entire apartment in four days (while doing all the other stuff.

Moving....friends...Chicago...packing...so what else is new?

King-sized bed and Lifetime Television

My dear friends Jake and Colette got married this weekend. I did a brave thing. I went to the wedding alone, all the while knowing that I probably wouldn't know many people there. As I drove the 3.5 hours to the small town in Iowa, I contemplated what I would do if I ended up in a corner alone all night. Just why is it that a person has to feel this way about attending a wedding alone?

Once I arrived at my hotel, I didn't have to contemplate long...I had a king-sized bed and Lifetime Television. My new dilemma quickly became "should I go to the wedding?" knowing that this special treat was at my finger tips! Of course, I did attended the wedding (I have been waiting for this wedding for about 4 years now) and was acquainted with a hand-full of people there (mostly Central College people who graduated 3-4 years ahead of me.) I was lucky enough to sit next to the Brownlees - Tony was the neat guy in college who dubbed me "Patty" (for salmon patty in case some of you don't get it). After the ceremony, I gave Jakey and Letta a big hug and headed up the aisle out into the foyer...and what to my wondering eyes appears?? MATT OLIVER! If you know Matt Oliver, then you know why I say it just like that. I spent the rest of the evening laughing and catching up with not only him, but another long lost choir friend, Steph Messer. We all went to Romania together (as well as Colette).

I highly recommend attending a wedding alone just once. See what buried treasure you can dig up! (But make sure your hotel room has a king-sized bed and Lifetime Television just in case!)

Andrew

I had the privilege of serving with Andrew Stern this week. Andrew is the volunteer coordinator at our church by profession, but in reality he is a fighter of injustice. A Habbakuk, who sees injustice, sees the good, and seeks to make things right. He is a defender of the poor, the orphan, the widow, the immigrant and refugee - literally.

The opportunity to hang out with Andrew came two days before our youth group was going to move on site at our church and go through the week-long high school program....serving and working in the inner city. Andrew runs this summer program, which sees several church youth groups from all over the US throughout the summer. This particular week, Andrew was moving in with the youth from our church to serve as their leader (in addition to his usual role.) I moved in to be a leader on the women's side. (Side note: I know you are thinking "When did she start doing things with the youth group?" I didn't and haven't. They just really needed a female leader...Andrew asked me.)

Andrew spends time with all sorts of people. I use the phrase spends time with instead of works with because he has such great relationships with people. He doesn't go somewhere to fix someone or to fix a situation. He goes to meet the people...to know them...to find out their name, their story, their heart...and then to best help meet their needs. He spends much of his day building relationships, fixing houses, taking widows on errands, setting up volunteers. He is a huge tie between our church and the community. Anyone who knows him will tell you that he is a humble servant of His maker and of others. And at the end of a long day, where does he go? Home - to his wife and 5 young children. My response to that is simply an Andrewism "More mercy!"

I pray that the Lord would continue to open my eyes to the injustice that Andrew sees. I pray that he would mold my heart to be one of humility, bringing me before others to know them, not to judge...not to make a quick "fix." But to love.

Been a long time

I realize that I haven't blogged in a while...okay, since April is actually a long while. Due to the many complaints I received during my trip to Iowa (I didn't actually think that many people read my blog :) ) I am now doing an update and hopefully will continue to write on here.

Job Status: I'm still under contract with The Freedom School for another month, but will be unemployed after that...the job market is not very good right now....but don't you worry, I've definatly been applying.

Camp Ewalu: I worked there last summer as the day camp coordinator. This year the director, Adrian or A-train as I call him, asked me to lead the Chicago Urban Immersion. Basically this means that I'm taking a youth group from Minnesota to Chicago to serve and to look at city issues. Oh, and we will play some too...I'm so excited!!

My trip to Iowa: was GREAT! I spent four days with the Rohde family. We camped out in their backyard. Mr. Rohde grilled for us almost the entire weekend (including breakfast!) I literally just sat around most of the time I was there...it was beautifully relaxing! I also made a couple of new friends - Joe Peter, Matt Ploeger, and Joel and Jake's friend Will Norton. I also got to see Jaron play baseball. Oh, and I had some ice cream at the oldest(still running) soda fountian in the world. After 4 days in Wilton with the Rohde's, I traveled up to Ewalu for two days to iron out some Chicago trip details and hang out with A-train, and then headed over to Pella. Pella was still Pella. However, I was able to catch up with several friends. Kurt made it back from Africa, but he's going back (no surprise :) ). Anna is still the tough, but funny softball coach...only she gets paid for it now. Joe...now, when I visited Joe he was moving in about 6 days. He was going to be gone for 4 of those days, and he had yet to even begin packing. HAHA! We didn't get to feed my ping-pong craving though due to the Upward Bounders being on campus..that was sad. Funny story: one evening I was locked out of the house where I was staying. I tried to call them and I knocked on the door, but I could get anyone to hear me. So I pulled my sleeping bag out of the car.....and slept on the porch. The sad part is that it was really funny, and I really wanted to be able to tell someone that I was sleeping on the porch.

CITYLIGHTS: I have been hanging out with the CityLights students quite a bit. (CityLights is the InterVarsity St. Louis Urban Project. I was on the 2001 summer team). The team is really great.

Okay, I really don't have much more to say. I promise to blog more often...oh, and if you can think of a good title for my blog, PLEASE let me know!