…i’d like to say i don’t have internet.
somehow we have a little dot of wifi showing up. we were supposed to have ours hooked up today, but they somehow lost our reservation. so until thursday, it will be quiet (although we might go to the library and use the computers there…or lug our iMac to a hotspot).
so, we moved in quickly (under an hour or so once we got going and a whole group of people showed up!) and am totally digging the new place.
more thursday…or sooner if we can.
much love!
alrighty…so, by the time you are reading this, we are hopefully on the road to nashville. we’ll be staying the night in memphis (in a fancy-schmancy hotel because afterall, it is our 5th anniversary) so, yeah. there you have it.
if you could pray for our safety as we travel, and for everything to just go smoothly (we had a few hiccups with the moving truck company) that would be great!
see y’all later!
this is my last week in oklahoma city. two of my closest friends each wanted to celebrate the future with me one last time before I escape to nashville.
last wednesday, my friend aaron and his wife lorren, could take me somewhere.
where?
somewhere.
about thirty minutes later they were at my house, and thirty more minutes later we were at a casino in the middle of nowhere, oklahoma.
aaron slapped a twenty-dollar bill in my hands and told me to go to town. lorren and i lost our money in the penny slots after about 15 minutes.
it was certainly the most random farewell I have ever experienced…yet even though the cigarette smoke that permeated our clothes is now gone, our casino trip is something we’ll remember forever.
==
last night, i went over to blake and ally’s house. i’ve only known them a couple of months but every time we hang out, it’s well past 1 am when i leave.
after dinner, we got snow cones, checked out the house they’re moving into, and headed back to their home where we began discussing important theological issues such as communal living and scary times in tijuana. as i spoke of my accidental trip into the slums of mexico, a loud bang echoed in the living room and glass shattered above the couch where blake and ally sat.
blake threw ally on the ground, somehow i manged to fly about 25 feet and assume the army-crawl position in the kitchen whereas my friend looked ready to fly through the window and kick the crap out of whoever just shot/threw a bomb/threw a rock through the window.
as ally and i looked at each other, trying not to let the fear-induced swear words wake their four children up, blake approached the front door.
i suddenly remembered my life insurance policy ended thursday and got a little worried.
blake’s brother along with his children had decided to TP blake and ally’s yard, and for fun, he also pounded loudly on the window causing it to break.
at least nobody died.
but my car was TP’ed.
and after we recovered, continued our conversations about transgendered mexican prostitutes and (unrelated) marketing and target audiences, blake prayed over us and we drove home.
this is life.
the way it should be.
unscripted.
scary.
random.
fun.
memorable.
i feel completely unworthy of these friendships, yet completely grateful.
when i get nervous, my feet sweat.
your turn…share your grossest quirk!
ROME (Reuters) – An Italian man was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend from a pub, taking her home and forcing her to iron his clothes and wash the dishes, police said Monday.
The 43-year-old man dragged the woman out of a pub in the port city of Genoa, shoved her into a car and took her to his home where he made her iron and wash dishes after threatening her, they said.
Police arrived at his house after being tipped off by a friend of the woman who watched the scene at the pub.
The man, who was apparently furious at his ex-girlfriend for leaving him, was arrested on charges of kidnapping, police said.
if chris ever left me, i’d kidnap him and make him do the dishes and take out the trash.
what chores do you hate to do?
my friend lynse wrote about such an incredibly personal struggle and beautiful redemption. personally, this is something i have no experience with, but i know with the amount of readers that pop by, maybe some of you have dealt with this or know someone who has.
lynse shares her journey about cutting. cutting (and other forms of self-injury) is defined as “a deliberate injury inflicted by a person upon their own body without suicidal intent.”
lynse gave me full permission to post the entire story, and i encourage you to visit her blog to encourage her and celebrate with her. also, i actually do ask that you repost her story…so many people suffer with this addiction in silence. i know lynse personally. i was honored to be in her wedding, and just from seeing her and getting to know her, i would never have guessed this was something she struggled with. chances are someone you know might be hurting themselves, too and you would never suspect a thing.
lynse writes:
To most the thought of harming yourself would be so outlandish that you would look at me like i was crazy if i told you that it makes sense to me.
I am choosing to write about this because there is such a need around this generation to bring light and truth to the fact that a lot of this generation is stuck in the rut of Self Injury. It is a painful place to be and takes a lot to get past. It is a dark place to get stuck. And as statistics are showing there are a lot of people stuck there.
So i want to share my story??
I started ?cutting? when i was 13. I dont fully remember how i was introduced to it, but within a few days had taken root in my life. The pain that was so deep inside of me was killing me. i was allowing myself to die emotionally. It was a fight that i didnt want to take place but had no idea of how to stop it. It seemed meaningless to fight to keep them alive when i viewed them as the things that were causing me so much pain.
So my only solution to make sure that i was not dying totally was to hurt myself. To feel the pain on the outside assured me that i was still alive. That there was still hope. At least that it how it all started. It started out of my desire for hope. For some feeling to let me know that i was alive. That i could still feel something. That one day maybe i would feel again.
Soon it became an addiction. I had my way of doing it. I had my ?ritual.? The when and how. within 2 months it had moved past the need for hope. My body and mind were addicted to the feeling. To the release that it gave me. My rage towards myself and other people had grown so much that i didnt know how to release it. And i thought this was a good way.
As time went on whether i had a bad day or not i had to cut. I had to do it each night before i went to bed. It calmed me enough to rest and go to sleep. (and about addiction, still to this day if i experience intense pain i get tired because my mind was trained to go to sleep after pain.)
I share this because i know that there are people who are in this rut. And honestly, it breaks my heart. because being on the other side of this ?journey? for hope i have found that the only hope that there is is in Christ. I know, i sound super spiritual?.but it is true.
The only way that i could figure that out was to get to the darkest part of my life. I was in such darkness. I had been cutting for 4 years and no one knew. I had a secret. And it was a dark dark place to be in. full of pain and the desire to get caught in hope that someone could help me. I was tired of the darkness. And the only solution i knew was to come clean. To get someone in my head and share the journey with.
This was key for me. To let someone in and know the pains and the hurts. I knew that if i let this remain in the darkness it would grow bigger and bigger. and the thing that once started in the search for hope was driving me further and further away from it.
The person i went to had no idea what to say. She often looked at me dumbfounded. the thought of doing that to herself was so absurd that she couldnt understand. But she listened. She was determined to help me in any ways she could, even though she didnt understand.
You cant wait until you understand to help someone. And this is what i see happening. So many people know people who self injure and are trying to learn why they do it. Each person has their story. And if you ask, i am sure they will share. It is a very dangerous thing to get into. You may not realize the roots that it can create in your life. But i would encourage you to share your story with someone.
But without sounding like a public service announcement, if you self injure or know someone who does please please please let someone in. Let someone into your darkness. It will hurt at first. It will be uncomfortable. It will be embarrassing. But if you live in the darkness alone your life will never change. Let someone in and bring the light into your pain.
HT: nataliedee.com (*various items from this link may not be appropriate for all audiences.)
when the comments started rolling in yesterday morning for my post “we are moving from okc to nashville,” my first thought was, “that post goes out monday. is today monday? we’re still in kansas city. i am going to be so late for work!!” because i do not live by man’s calendar, oh no. i live by the calendar in which i have scheduled posts.
and my moving post=monday.
then i realized it was sunday.
then i realized, “oh crap. nobody reads my blog on sunday.”
and then i realized about 50 of you do.
(obviously, my 50 favorite readers, because if you read any blog on a sunday, it’s true love.)
(i love you, too.)
so anyway, a friend texts me and says, “i think that was pre-mature blogulation.”
and that was too funny not to share.
okay, so, in case you missed it yesterday as you flushed out your blog reader of choice without reading my post…
(i’ll get over it.)
we are moving to nashville.
in twenty-five days.
now i have to go reschedule and fix the posts i have scheduled out…
because somebody thought there were only 30 days in may. or maybe it was 32.
