Love, Angel, Music, Baby (- Babies and Angels)

I’ve been waiting for this day for a while now; not only am I done midterms until after reading week, but the Oscars are a mere ten days away (!!!), and tonight is TV bonanza night wherein Jess and I discover whether or not Meredith Grey survived her encounter with the choppy Seattle waters. Contrary to what certain people say, Grey’s Anatomy is rather suspenseful in many respects, and it is extremely possible that Meredith will kick the bucket tonight; a very small part of me hopes that she does die to prove my correctness. February is officially one of my favourite months; the days are getting exponentially longer (the sunrise this morning could actually be enjoyed while I munched on some breakfast!), and it’s jam-packed with my two favourite things to top all my thousands and thousands of favourite things: love and music. In my life, there always seem to be a couple of recurrent themes that I ponder at any given moment, varying from how colours mix together, to the merits conventional evangelism. Delightfully enough, music and love have been intermittent throughout this month, making for a good month indeed. Sunday night was Grammy night in Hollywood, and I was quite thrilled by the musical gong show, despite missing much of the ceremony while out at a feminist play with Caitlin (it was a seriously strange play, but written by a tormented soul, so I was correspondingly informed that I should appreciate it more).


I love that my whole family gets into the Grammys; my parents watched it upstairs in their room because they’re sleepyheads, while Jess and I watched downstairs in the family room, and throughout the show we yelled our excitement and thoughts on the performances and award recipients across the house. Quentin Tarantino announcing a nominee list in an at least slightly wasted state was almost a musical feat in itself; I’m pretty sure that he got up to 100 dB. Additionally, performances by Gnarls Barkley, Corrinne Bailie Rae, Mary J. Blige, and The Police made the night particularly memorable. We saw Sting and Annie Lennox in concert a couple of years ago, and he’s decidedly better with his old band than without them. Other mentionable musical events this month include new music from Acrade Fire, Bloc Party, Jann Arden, Sondre Lerche, The Shins, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Nickelback (haha)! (Arcade Fire is playing SNL next weekend, too; I’m definitely taping that episode.) The release of CYSI Vol 2, which you really must have the CYSI Mail Service deliver, has also added to the month of February, and facilitates much dancing fun with Jess. There are a ton of new favourite songs contained on this release, including one about children of December. People born in December are the coolest people of all. FYI, I have come up with a new dance move which is actually the best thing ever. It’s really embarrassing to perform for other people, and thus I can’t show anyone but Jess, but you can trust me on this one.


My parents have been to a gazillion concerts as of late, and although I’ve been pretty jealous of their enjoyment of Alexander Escavado, and Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, they give me hope that I can be just as much of an audiophile in 30 odd years (my mom turns 50 in a month; this is exceedingly exciting). For my entire life, I’ve been anomalous in terms of my maturity levels. Since I can remember, I’ve always liked pondering, discussing, writing, and getting involved in rather serious issues, be they political, spiritual, or intellectual. However, at the same time, I’m one of the nuttiest and most eccentric people I know (around really close friends and family; only Jess has seen the extent of my hardcore ridiculousness). Thus, growing up has been strange for me. I don’t really want to lose the harebrained side of me, and I feel as though I’ve known who I am in terms of my tastes, passions, concerns, callings, and beliefs since grade 8 (that was such a good year). Not to say that I haven’t had loads of growing up to do in the past decade or so, but it’s been an odd manner of maturing. I’m quite certain that I’m forever going to be an oddly intense, serious, and silly individual who has no interest in “traffic,” and I kind of like knowing that. I really, really love children and elderly people, above any other group of people, and this is in part because I relate to them most, I think. Children appreciate the small things in life, whether the colour of their favourite milk glass, or the insanity of Mary Poppin’s carpet bag. They know how to be spontaneous and creative, and aren’t afraid to be emotional. Most elderly people seem to have learned that life can be tragic and harsh much of the time, but know from experience that people and situations can be redeemed. They’ve realized what the important things in life are, and have a strong sense of who they are. I aspire to be a child at heart with an old soul.

As for the love theme in February, yesterday was obviously Love Day. At my house, this involves Jess and I making up horrifying love stories for each other (Jess is in love with Elvis Stojko, and enjoys hooking up with playas) while my parents are adorably cheesy and even more vomit inducingly affectionate, though this year Valentine’s festivities took place a day early as my dad is in Calgary playing various “unChristian" card games with his friends, among other things, for teacher’s convention. My grandma made us her world famous Valentine’s Day cookies, and I wore clothing in various shades of pink and red. “Rob” got Crystal flowers, which was so very sweet of him; only a truly magnificent person would get Crystal flowers for Valentine’s Day. Plus, I bought $18 worth of heart-shaped Belgian marshmallows on Tuesday (that’s a lot of Belgian marshmallows: mmmm…) and have been slowly munching on my considerable stockpile. There’s an awful lot of anti-Valentine’s rhetoric, but I really think it’s kind of silly. Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be commercialized if you don’t want it to be; it’s only a superficial day if you let it be. It is silly only to tell the people you love loads and loads that you love them loads and loads once a year, but one day to do this especially, and to have fun with it, strikes me as kind of wonderful. Also, I think that St. Valentine was incredibly cool, and certainly deserves a day in semi-commemoration of his love of God, and love deserves at least one day where we think of it especially. After all, life at its very best is all about loving God, loving others, and loving life.

Providentially, I’ve been reading 1 John for the past two weeks. Yes reading four chapters in two weeks is kind of silly, but my devotions have been taking it slow recently; we’ve been reading 10 verses a day, but they’re such good verses with so much to unpack! 1 John is definitely a good book in the Good Book. John, or who we think was John at least, talks about love in such a great way, and his writing rings so true, and gives me much cause to think. I could talk about love for ages and ages, and would likely bore everyone, so I’ll restrain myself, but suffice it to say that reading John’s thoughts on a temporally appropriate subject makes me smile. Onto an unrelated topic, my family’s going to see John Mayer in April. We love John Mayer sooo much, and have been huge fans ever since Heavier Things. My mom recently signed us up for his fan club, so that we could reap the benefits of being official Mr. Jessica Simpson aficionados, and resultingly we had first dibs on tickets to the concert. WE’RE SITTING IN THE SEVENTEENTH ROW. ON THE FLOOR. Words cannot express my excitement! John Mayer is supposed to be simply awesome live, and I’ll be done exams by April 28, so it should be a perfectly lovely night out. I can’t wait until the end of April!! I’m hoping to find a job working with children, and plan to do a great deal of camping, longboarding, and adventure-making this summer. My parents are going to NYC too (they’re such copycats), so I’m so stoked for them!

Another exciting upcoming event is reading week! Crocheting, catching some films, a party or two, lunching with friends, sunrise walks in the river valley, baking, making movies with Andrew, and reading await. Plus, my family has the long weekend for family day, so we can have extra fun; we’re watching Half Nelson tomorrow when my dad returns home from his Cow Town bonanza, and a weekend spent with Jess promises to be great fun. We’ve now compiled Jess’ grad outfit, and it’s so deliciously pretty! Jess caved, and chose the shoes that I liked and she didn’t, and her dress is BCBG Max Azaria (the best dresses of all time!). My smarty-pants sister is going to be über-gorgeous at Grad 2007. Also over reading week is the C&C missions trip to Jamaica, which I’m so excited about for all of my friends heading over to the Land of Rasta. Crystal is taking my horrifically disgusting money belt (pictured coming through my belt loops in NYC on the left), and has promised to search high (haha… high… Rasta…) and low for a crochet Rasta hat for me. I’ll be praying for you guys and can’t to wait to hear all of your stories! I’ll miss hearing from you all for an entire week. As an aside to my small group members, the C&C Courier comes out very soon, and you know what that means; we must chat after you return from Jamaica-ness! In other news, my dad is officially the best dressed teacher of the dozens of staff members at his school, according to his students. The girls of our family are rather proud of this. We’re kind of intense about how my dad dresses, and frequently purchase random articles of clothing for him that are lovely and fun while on shopping escapades. At last, all of our attention to his wardrobe had paid off! I’m about to head off for a walk outside to make the most of this wonderful weather (clearly the groundhogs were correct!), but I hope that all of you are having splendid weeks full of love, music, and all other good things! I love you!


Joyful Things Recently
- journaling
- the fresh layer of snow
- 1 John
- CBC Radio
- cookies, cottage cheese, and chocolate rainbow ice cream
- the way my halogen lamp lights up my eyelashes like bulbous Christmas lights (you too should notice this)
- being an expert money-saver
- heart-shaped marshmallows
- blankets
- my new Weimeraner calendar
- new music videos
- eating out with friends
- my $3.99 daffodils
- walks down Saskatchewan Drive
- feminist plays
- cooking (I’m getting kind of good at it!)
- watching sunrises and sunsets from the gigantic windows at work
- green tea with honey
- having a clean room
- discussion of Aboriginal issues in Poli Sci
- CYSI Vol 2
- incredibly wonderful professors
- Jess’ grad dress!!!
- my new dance move that involves jumping whilst letting my arms flail about (simply awesome)
- Grey's Anatomy, The Office, and The OC
- pranking Crystal/Rob
- my teddy bear being washed
- Pokey and Gumby figurines
- making people blush by bringing up romantic things
- Charles Bukowski
- articles about music and the emergent church
- playing Slaps with Jess
- Motorcycle Diaries on DVD

Bands to Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Check Out
- not the Beastie Boys
- Architecture in Helsinki
- Julian Nation
- Rosie Thomas (BFF of Sufjan and Denison!!!)
- Jens Lekman
- Sondre Leche
- Damon Naomi
- Purnice Brothers
- M. Ward
- Philip Glass


P.S. Charles Bukowski’s poetry is simply incredible. He writes things in a way that no one else can, or at least no one else dares to.
P.P.S. Journaling is totally my new favourite activity. Like blogging, except even more self-indulgent and wordy (hard to imagine, I know!). I write at least a few times a day now, and it’s so freeing and delightful.
P.P.P.S. I put up a massive Nacho Libre poster on my wall today that my uncle bestowed upon Jess and I. While it sounds corny, the poster is actually beautiful; I love Mexican wrestler masks. And Jack Black.
P.P.P.P.S. An election is coming soonish! I can feel it in my bones! Yaaay!
P.P.P.P.P.S. I have a new Compassion child, named Daniel José Jaminez Romèro. He likes soccer, his grandpa, and playing group games! He's pretty much my Colombian twin except that he's 5 years old (pictured above; sooo cute!!!!!!!).
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Most postscripts ever! I love hyperlinks.

Some Vague Thoughts on My Thoughts

A lot of the things I’ve been mulling over recently aren’t very easily blogged about. Thus, my absence in the world of blogging has been protracted, perhaps to the chagrin of very few. However, yesterday Blogger finally allowed me to update my blog to the “new” Blogger, and I found this kind of exciting. I can now include news feeds, photos, and text in the left margin of my blog; this allows for a great deal of fun to be had. Admittedly, I’m slightly disappointed that the few things I’ve learned about HTML will no longer be of use, but I suppose I can still italicize words in comments. I suspect that this entry will be relatively condensed, as I’m currently in the middle of watching the Golden Globes and have some homework to slog through later tonight. In short, 2007 has been kind to me in the two weeks that we’ve known each other, and I have a good feeling about where it’s taking me. My family returned from our skiing bonanza (which was stupendously relaxing and enjoyable) shortly before school started, and since then, I’ve loved my courses and profs this term. I’m taking two bio classes and two psych courses, with one of each being evolutionary in their survey of life. I find the idea of evolution fascinating and complex, and relish the opportunity to reconcile science with my faith. Besides my science courses, I’m taking my beloved poli sci again, and I’m happy to be reunited with the world of politics once again. In truth, part of my gratification from taking poli sci is due to the pure entertainment value offered by my right-wing classmates. About 85% of any given poli sci class is bound to be quite “liberal,” but those who aren’t so leftwardly-inclined never shy away from saying absurd things that consistently amuse and amaze. I realize that I’m biased in my comparison of right-wing and left-wing students, but the arguments of the former group are objectively ludicrous and patently self-motivated. Research has proven that people who favour limited social programs and conservative governments are significantly less intelligent than others, and typically have authoritarian personalities; this is all too clear in Poli Sci 220. It’s kind of terrible for me to find people’s political views so funny, but it’s basically like watching Michael Scott, Lucille Bluth, and Stephen Colbert all at once.



As alluded to earlier, I’ve been going through a “thinking phase” as of late; I typically think a great deal, and often prefer thinking to talking, but sometimes I have cause to think especially intensely. It is nearly impossible to describe how I think, but I’ll endeavour to explain myself. Jess and I were at a Breakforth workshop last year that outlined the circular process of actively seeking the Kingdom of Heaven and having a time of rest. The speakers (who were charmingly British) described the necessity of occasionally gaining some distance, reassessing where you’re at, and indulging in a true time of Sabbath. This is basically the place I feel I’ve been at for the past while, and I like it, despite how uncertain thinking so much makes me feel. There are probably about 50 different things I’ve been pondering recently, and it’s hard to incorporate them all into my brain at once. From a developmental psych perspective, one learns new information by either assimilating it into what they already believe, or by accommodating what they believe so that the new information can fit. It takes me some time to decide which of my beliefs need to be changed in order to accommodate newly-learned tidbits, and what fits with what I’m coming to understand. This is a terrible explanation of my “thinking phases,” but I suppose that it’s pretty much impossible to be au fait with someone else’s consciousness. At any rate, God’s had lots to share with me lately, and I’ve had lots to share with Him, and it’s tiring, and encouraging, and tricky.

After some going through Matthew and Luke recently, and reading Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis, I've felt encouraged to pursue those things that I feel most passionate about, but to pursue them differently in some regards. I often see things differently than a lot of Christians, so to stumble upon someone else who understands where I’m coming from, and explains my deeply felt desires for the church so eloquently gives me a sense of peace and affinity. I know it’s funny to mock the fact that I believe in what many would term a “liberal” view of equality and compassion, but these are things that my heart aches to see. I long for God’s people to love each other wholeheartedly, and for His creation to be appreciated and enjoyed. I wish that the church could share the Good News rather than so often preaching the “Bad News.” I yearn for a time when we’ll see each other as God sees us, and will renege our competitive natures. I wish for everyone to know God’s truth, and want Him to be exalted. Rob Bell gets this, and puts it in a way that rings so-very true. The book covers so much territory that I’m not sure that I can properly encapsulate it in a few words, but it makes me newly excited to do “Kingdom things” as Joyce Heron would put it. I won’t say much more about the book, because I’ve been confusing enough in the past few sentences, but will thoroughly recommend that you read it. I cried profusely over the last 5 pages because I felt such a strong sense of hope for the church. When a book makes me cry, it's clearly compelling. Don't worry, you probably won't cry as well; I like crying a bit more than most people. As I sense that this entry is becoming increasingly nonspecific and unclear, I think it’s time to return to admiring dresses and cheering for Grey’s Anatomy and Helen Mirren. It takes much less lucidity to admire the grace and modesty of Renée Zellweger whilst eating cottage cheese and scones.

The Highlights of Ringing in the New Year
- Crystal kicking Rob's Vans directly into Matt's face (this was THE MOST INCREDIBLE MOMENT EVER)
- hearing a very muffled radio countdown to 2007 in Jordan's van
- Matt C. acting out "jaywalking" in Cranium
- attempts by the guys to semi-snowboard down Connor's on crazy carpets
- cheating successfully to win Cranium
- Ashlee's party hats and noise-makers
- Jill's pink snowpants
- ringing in the new year with 007 (Jeremy's splendid idea)
- Matt singing "Auld Sang Lyne" for several measures of the song
- realizing that Gold Finger wasn't quite as frightening as I remembered it
- Zoe Deschanel in Winter's Passing
- having my -40°C MEC coat to endure the the temperature of the guys' house (Mike aptly describes the basement as a dungeon)
- the fact that there actually were fireworks despite us not seeing them (see! I’m not entirely insane!)























Words from a Right-Wing President
- “Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.”
- “I think we all agree, the past is over.”
- “This is still a dangerous world. It’s a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses.”
- “Put food on your family!”
- “Rarely is the question asked, ‘Is our children learning?’”
- “Will the highways of the Internet become more few?”
- “How many hands have I shaked?”
- “Vulcanize society!”
- “They misunderestimate me.”
- “I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.”
- “Knock down the tollbooth!”
- “Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!”
- “I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.”