back to your regularly scheduled blog posts

a stunning sunday afternoon outside and here i am in this dank little hole just off the auditorium at the middle school. with the musical this weekend, we were short handed, so i stepped in to help out. otherwise, i probably would have begged off. extra cash = good. missing out on a beautiful earth day = bad.

thought i might get an early jump on my research papers, but find myself not in the mood. so i simply graded the handouts i'd had the students finish in my absence and updated their grades. SOOOO many of them are failing, mostly because they haven't done their research papers. i expect to get a couple of panicked phone calls from parents this week wondering why their student has a 4.02%.

yes, that is an actual grade.

so yesterday, after nearly five months of trying, i finally got to sit down with my friend amy (bender) willmann from high school. we met up near the dayton mall at a place called rusty buckets. spent about three hours filling each other in on the past 18 years or so. eerie the way many of our stories paralleled one another. i actually drove up as her and her husband bruce were walking in and we immediately recognized each other, even with eighteen years of changes. physically we may look different, but our spirits, our essences are the same and were instantly recognizable. surprisingly, we talked very little about our time in high school - most of the time was spent with what God has done since then. kind of nice not to have to rehash old memories, if that makes sense. i'm looking forward to staying in touch and not letting another 18 years slip through the cracks. amy's spirit is infectious and definitely someone i want in my life.

this weekend was the prayer vigil for the restoration of st. e's. i "volunteered" for the 4-5AM slot, which wouldn't have been bad had i gone to bed before 2AM (i got caught up in a project). but the space was beautiful, as always, and my time was too. when angie walked in i thought she had come in early, only to look at my phone to see an hour had already passed by. God reminded me of the significance of st. e's to norwood and the importance of our stewardship. and it was good just to spend that much time in prayer. made me wish we could logistically, somehow, keep her doors open all the time. i know that's probably impossible, but how great it was to be able to enter into that space and be alone with God. i couldn't make it to the closing, but from some of the artifacts left behind, it looks like God did a lot of talking this weekend. here's hoping we can turn that into action.

i feel like i'm at the beginning of a marathon sprint to the end of the school year, only i'm already exhausted. i knew getting into the play that it would squeeze my time even more than normal, but didn't realize the toll it would actually take. i haven't cleaned my house in forever. i haven't bought groceries in even longer than that. someone this week asked me when i take time for myself and all i could think was when i'm in the car driving to work or driving to rehearsal. hard to carve out a sabbath when you keep yourself this busy. i believe it will all be worth it when it's over, but right now i feel like bilbo - too little butter spread over too much toast. going to have to be careful.

had my tests this week, trying to figure out the strange pain i've been having. x-ray was clear - my heart and lungs are in excellent shape. the upper GI found a minor hiatal hernia, but nothing that would have caused the pain i felt. the ultrasound did find a shadow in my gall bladder, which is what i suspected. my doctor wasn't sure if was actually stones, but said it was near the opening and could be responsible for my symptoms. i'm supposed to call a surgeon for a consultation, but i get the feeling it's going to be more me watching what i eat more than anything else. at least i can put my mind at ease that it's nothing more serious.

oh, and in preparation for midsummer, i am beardless once again. just in case you were curious.

time to go check how many more dancers are left. they thought they might get out early, but i get the feeling that was just wishful thinking on their (and my) part. but at least i won't be here until 11:30 again. here's hoping my week goes well.
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tunes: daniel amos - theo's logic