WARNING: this is long and, for everyone except Andrea, and maybe even Andrea, this might be boring... just another one of "those blogs" that review the past few days.
Lisalips, there isn't much about Trevor and no new pictures, so feel free to skip this one.
At Bible Study, Jon made a comment about how much you can learn about people just by their screen name. Is that true? You tell me...
Bible Study on Friday was great. We had a split girls/guys Grace on Campus, or, as stevetu21 put it, "Guys on Campus" (as you may imagine, the girls were "Girls on Campus"). The room was a pretty steep stadium-style arrangement and it was neat to hear the guys singing out. All songs except for one were (purposely) in the key of E, which meant lots of cut capo action. I'm admittedly very late to the short capo game, but I must say it's pretty fun.
For most of the evening, the 100 or so guys broke up into 10 groups, each led by a staff person. It was basically "Meet the Staff" night and everyone wrote down a question or two for me (and the other staff) to answer. My group was a good mix of people I knew and people I didn't. The group took initiative in asking questions, many times asking questions verbally when they came to mind... a nice switch from the blank stares usually associated with group discussion.
The questions ran the gamut... What is your family like? How did you and Andrea meet? How did you propose? What have you learned from fatherhood? What's worse - onion breath or garlic breath? What's your vision for GOC? Great stuff. It makes me with I could have more student interaction, but with the distance, it's fairly difficult.
It was Trevor's first time at GOC, but unfortunately, probably his last. It's just too difficult to bring him along. Andrea would need to feed him during GOC at some point, and those of you...well, at least clydesilla and family know that feedings don't always go as quickly as planned. And there's not really any place for Andrea to feed him anyway. And it's a hassle to have to drive 2 vehicles every Friday night. And, as we found, throwing off his schedule isn't very beneficial.
On Saturday, I slept in for the first time in a long time... it was 9 or so when I got up. Sometime before lunch, I recorded a rough demo for the song formerly known as "Enslaved in Sin and Bound in Chains." It was nothing too elaborate... drums, bass, electric guitar, and electric guitar playing the melody. I tried to rip off Ric Hordinski in a few places, which, I suppose, is quite fitting since the music was inspired in part by an Over the Rhine song. I may end up recording at least 2 versions... one upbeat (Ric Hordinski guitars, busy drums) and one acoustic (more percussion, more vocals). I've revised my pedalboard, so recording was pretty easy.
Soon it was lunchtime. We were starving and didn't have much food in the apartment. We looked through the fast food coupons we had. After removing the expired ones (shows how much we eat out), there were 3 options: pizza, Quizno's, and Arby's. Pizza would have been too slow, and the other options were too expensive. I got as far as saying, "There's always the value menu at Burger Ki-" when Andrea cut me off with something like, "I'm not eating at Burger King."
That's fine.
So we took advantage of one of our Christmas presents - DSL - and looked up some random places, finally settling on Wendy's. Based on the online pictures, their value menu was incredible! And each item only $0.99? We'd be making out like bandits.
Well, you can probably guess the results. Would I be telling this story if nothing out of the ordinary happened?
I tried to remember where the closest Wendy's would be. Aha! On top of Lyons Avenue. But I was pretty sure that one hadn't opened yet. Um... oh yeah, there's one by Magic Mountain. Not as close, but it's right by the freeway, which we'll need anyway.
As we pulled in, Andrea noticed the prices... $1.39 for value menu items!!!
Here's how the order went:
Wendy (cashier #1... that's right, #1): Hi, welcome to Wendy's, can I take your order?
sunken.anchor: I have a question... does the Deluxe Double Stack have cheese on it?
(pause)
Wendy (#1): *static* Can I take your order?
sunken.anchor: Yes, does the Deluxe Double Stack have cheese on it?
(pause)
Wendall (cashier #2!): Hi, welcome to Wendy's, can I take your order?
sunken.anchor: (slowly and louder - maybe they can't hear me?) DOES THE DELUXE DOUBLE STACK HAVE CHEESE ON IT?
Wendy (#1): Yes it does
sunken.anchor: Who am I talking to? Are there two of you?
Wendall (#2): Yes it does
sunken.anchor: Huh?
Wendy (#1): Yes it does
(long pause)
sunken.anchor: Are you ready to take my order?
Wendall (#2): Yes it does
sunken.anchor: ARE... YOU... READY... TO... TAKE... MY... ORDER?
(pause)
Wendy (#1): Go ahead
sunken.anchor: Ok, I'd like a Double Deluxe Stack, a Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe, a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, and a small Frosty.
Wendy (#1): (repeats order)... Would you like anything else with that?
sunken.anchor: No thanks.
Wendy (#1): that'll be $6 (and change) atthefirstwindowthankyou
sunken.anchor: *looks at Andrea with a look like what just happened?*
I must say, though, the Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger made it all worth it; the bacon was even crispy! Then I realized that the prices were marked up because it's practically adjacent to Magic Mountain. Then I realized that there's a Wendy's on the way to the Sillas' house. D'oh!
We then headed out to do errands... 6-month check-in at Robbins Bros. for Andrea's engagement ring, and then to a nearby mall for other errands. I was a little jealous of the way Andrea's rings were sparkling, so we hit up some random jewelry store, complete with a security guard wearing a suit jacket 4 sizes too large standing out front. Very politely, I asked if they could polish my ring. REJECTED!!!
Soon after this, Trevor started to get fussy. Really fussy. The plan was to pick up Truck from in front of the Williamson's house (we left it there Friday evening so we could carpool to Bible Study). Instead, we headed straight to my parent's house. We didn't make it, though. We had to pull into some undisclosed location so Andrea could feed Trevor. Finally we made it home (my parents'). There, we did laundry and Andrea gave me a haircut. Trevor was awake for most of that time, and not too happy. On top of this, we forgot to bring a pacifier, so he wouldn't sleep even though he was obviously tired.
We borrowed a few movies from my brother... he's moving to Bakersfield for work in a few weeks, so we took final advantage of his Blockbuster-esque DVD collection before he goes. We took Minority Report for old time's sake (we saw it in theaters while dating), Analyze This, and Freaks. We started Freaks... it kind of bored me... so we put in Analyze This. After about 2 minutes, we decided we weren't in the mood for a profanity barrage, so we put Freaks back in. It was actually pretty good after I got into the story. Plus, it was pretty controversial when it was released, which always gets my attention (Derek Webb, The Violet Burning, 60s folk music, etc.).
Sunday was great. The band sounded good, and Rick's message (originally Al Mohler's) was good as well. It's been great to evaluate my life and... *sigh*... see my shortcomings. It's good to get beat up by God's conviction, though, because there's usually a positive result (as opposed to beating yourself up instead of accepting forgiveness through repentance).
After church we headed back to my parents' house (they were out of town for the weekend) because we'd be going to Brentwood for dinner. We ended up taping 2 movies for future viewing...
Casino - I love this film, but the original has way too much profanity for my tastes. I joke that in Scorsese films, the "f-word" becomes an adjective, a noun, and a verb. I expected the edited version would be much more enjoyable.
The Siege - a classic late 90s terrorist/thinker film.
I also scanned some pictures (including the "punk" pictures) that I'll put up here someday soon.
Sunday night brought dinner with the Runyans. It was fun to hang out and talk about GOC, work, life, Trevor, etc. And "Random Questions With Steve." After dinner, we headed out to the Williamson's to get Truck and then went home.
Monday morning, Trevor was up at 4am or so. Andrea and he had a pretty rough day, as he was fussy for most of it. He still wasn't recovered from being out so much over the weekend. Work dragged on for me, but MT practice was fun. Before it started, I had a quick conversation with stevetu21 and jestertim about Rick's relationship series (which included me giving my "Rick theory"), and then another with just Tim about maturity, marriage, and... and... making disciples? Ha, no, that last one was just for the alliteration... maturity, marriage, and parenting. Good stuff, especially that about why it's easy to run from "growing up." Oh, and some tasty chicken curry, courtesy of jestertim (thanks).
Highlights of practice included chynaboy03 walking in like a zombie (tired), mspattic sitting on the couch like a zombie (tired), us forgetting over and over the extra measures in "Open My Eyes" (in part because of tiredness for everyone), and frostyblossom dropping her drumstick(s?) (she said she wasn't tired, so no excuse... ha ha) and then pretending nothing happened as she resumed her playing.
That brings me to today, which has been pretty uneventful but busy. Not much else going on... Certain message board debates find me growing more and more fed up with much of Catholic and EO theology (EO as in the Eastern Orthodox church, not as in Captain.
Listening to "Sun Stoned" by The Prayer Chain
from the album
Mercury
