[Sep. 25th, 2006|08:59 pm]

It's been a while. I have a very worthwhile story for you.

I'm in the West Quad library. Someone just sneezed very loudly. Someone else shouted across the library, "God Bless you," and everyone broke into applause for his monstrous sneeze.

In other news, I'm wearing pants.

I have some important information that everyone must know.

1. My adress is 313 chicago house, west quad, ann arbor, Mi 48109. It is vital that you send me letters. It is less vital that you visit me, but if you ever want to, call first!

2. My 18th birthday is September 27th!

3. I deeply miss fresh fruit.

That's all. God be with you.

In other news, I might spend the weekend on Lake Michigan! And I'm moving into West Quad's Chicago house a week from today.

Goodbye Theresa, Ed, Dan, Jim, Doo, Jackson, Matt....

Bye Bye love
Bye Bye Happiness
Hello loneliness
I think I'm gonna cry

Just kidding. But I will miss you all sehr viel!!

"I think you bit all the way through your bottom lip."

It kind of hurt, but to be honest I was a lot more scared than I was in pain. Dan drove me to urgent care ( I did leave a bit of a bite mark on his knee!). I definetely bit straight through. The doctor congratulated me.
"You did a nice little number on your lip. Good job!"
I really liked that she called me kiddo. It was funny being in urgent care in a bathing suit, shoeless.
Three and a half hours and 5 stitches later, I was back at Kims.

The amazing part is, it's not really that noticable. My lip's just puffy and it's hard to eat. So if you'd like a laugh, take me out to lunch. (Thanks Matt)

HOORAY!!!!!

In other news, Mission Christ's prayer week starts Friday night. 24/7 prayer! Get involved if you can. We transformed a room into... something amazing. And I can't wait. Especially for the night shifts. I finally gave blood today. I went to a blood drive with Kim and Will, at the senior center. It's weird, because the senior center was an elementary school about a decade ago. I gave blood in the same room that I went to kindergarten class.

I totally lost my voice for 3 days. It was really hilarious, especially when I'd call someone and forget that I didn't have a voice. People thought I was prank calling. It's coming back.

I'm moving out soon!

God is with you right now. He's sitting next to you. Check him out. He's totally wearing sunglasses.

So on my way home from Ricke's house at 2:30, I stopped to get gas. Somehow I drove by the other 24 hour gas stations, and I had to drive across Dexter to the Clark station. Inside, I found Craig Clements! He's a friend of Matt's, we were in high school together for one year. We talked about the usual crap (what are you doing these days, ya know the drill), but then God urged me to pray with him. So I did.

I ended up hanging out at that gas station for 2 hours. It was so cool seeing life from another perspective- the night shift. I definetely had fun, playing guitar, talking to a night fisherman, learning to long board, making craig sing, and just opening my eyes to a different view. I really hope that I blessed him. I was definetely blessed.

For example, yesterday I mulched someones yard for nearly 7 hours. At the end, the very eccentric and barely clothed owner of the house (an older, skinny man in wee shorts, sandals and nothing else) said that we were welcome to swim in his pond. It was so PERFECT! The water was clean and cool, and 6 hours of accumulated dirt was washed away. It was fun swimming fully clothed, I just wish my coworkers would have joined me.

Also amazing: POURING RAIN. I visited Azita at the library (where she works) and she joined me outside for a bit of dancing in the downpour.

Some other great things in life include Cowboy hats (I've got 3!), Motorcycles (my boss has one, he offered me a ride), playing guitar (one morning, sarah was an hour late. I got to play guitar on the hood of a car, surrounded by chirping birds, a beautiful farm, and the rising sun. I still got paid), Tubing (I sewed kim's broken tube with dental floss! And we got 4 people on one tube), paychecks, brothers, Puma shoes for $1.60, a bunch of free cds from West (including Mae, Lifehouse, and Pax217), jamming with Jackson and Patrick (yeah Banjo!), living and loving SUMMER!

Boy, I can't believe it's only half done. Summer is taking it's lazy old time, and I like it. It's really weird not going anywhere. No vacations, no music festivals, no mission trips or road trips or sailing trips or campouts that last longer than a weekend. Meanwhile, everyone else IS doing all of these things, and I am at home enjoying each time a group of friends arrives back from their various locations.

It's really neat to be here, and to enjoy those who are here with me. No matter how many people leave at one time, there are always plenty who stay. These people are SO COOL! I love the opportunity to get to know individuals more personally, because I am forced NOT to spend time with the people I usually do. Not that I don't love them.

So, let me list some advantages to my circumstance:

1. Summer never seems to end
2. I have a crapload of unscheduled time
3. I'm not going to miss the Ann Arbor art fair
4. I'm coming to know and appreciate a lot of new people
5. Every time someone arrives back I realize how much I missed them, and how important they are too me.
It's an endless celebration!

This is all for now. I LOVE EVERYONE SO FLIPPIN' MUCH!

When you're thirsty, your body doesn't necessarily need food. When you're thirsty, you'll eventually get dehydrated. Though you will feel weak, it's a different kind of weakness than the weakness felt when hungry.

I want to hear what everyone has to say about hungering for God versus thirsting for God.

It seemed to Mary and I that thirsting for God has more to do with the Holy spirit, and with a personal relationship with God. The part of your relationship that is one on one and intimate, that doesn't involve fellowship with other Christians or evangelism or anything like that. It requires listening to God. Being silent WITH him. Spending time alone with him.

It's like meditation that they do in Yoga, when you clear your mind of all thoughts. Clear your mind of every thought, plan, opinion, decision, concern, fear, doubt.... clear your mind of every thought except God's love. Not even what he did, or how glorious he is. Just his love. And wait on God. Don't rush his timing. He is never late.

Mary and I laughed when we looked up on her desk to see the title of an unread book: Thirsting for God.

I went water skiing.

I went to a loverly wedding reception Friday with lots of friends old and new.

I went to a loverly wedding reception Saturday with Joan Wolfe, and we didn't know anyone AT ALL including bride and groom. We were supposed to watch the kids, but the kids didn't really need watching. We blew bubbles and danced (no one else danced), we met a southern gentleman in a seer sucker suit with a hat and crazy sideburns. We did the dishes. We got paid a lot.

Joan and I drove to Azitas where we spent the night. We dressed Azita in middle eastern clothing while she was on the phone, toasted marshmallows over the stove, drank persian tea from a Russian kettle, watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show, went swimming at about 2:00 a.m, adventured (sopping wet) to Meijer to buy some cake mix, and finally went to sleep.

We were discussing Baba Yaga (cannibalistic witch who lives in a hut with chicken legs), and trying to figure out where the story originated. I guessed Russian, and then said "or maybe Yugoslavian... or Ukraine..." When we looked it up on google, google listed Russia, Yugoslavia, and Ukraine as the countries from which the story came. I AM AWESOME!

I'm actually looking forward to work tomorrow. I'm pretty pumped. It's been a while.

bumble bumble bumble

bumblebee, your sting hurts more than I could have anticipated. What did I do to make you so angry? Yeah, I killed you to death afterwards, but I'm talking about befooore our battle. What did I do, eh punk? Well I guess I showed you...

I really love the rain. I went camping and that was pretty swell too. I learned a lot about love, and how human love is conditional which was kind of upsetting. I'd rather my own love weren't so very conditional. I'd also rather that others love for me wasn't so conditional. But God showed me a lot about his unconditional love, and even in my frustration I felt so reassured, staring out across lake michigan and up into a sky filled with more stars than I've ever seen.

I don't have to work tomorrow! I'd love to hang out with someone. Matt is coming home soon and I can't wait!

I may not have mentioned it here, but I have said it to many people:
"I LOVE my job, I just wish it wasn't full time."

So this morning in our morning pow wow (where we sit on cars by the barn), Charles (my boss) told us that we're too good at this job- we got everything done for the week by tuesday. He asked if anyone wanted to go part time. PRAISE GOD! So now I am part time, and today was wonderful! We got off at 1:30 instead of 4:30, and I had such a great time bonding with everyone in the sunnnshine...

Here's the rundown: Charles (a large black christian minister/ my boss) and his sister Marcy do the administrative stuff. Jimmy (a 31 year old adam plomaritas with a mowhawk) and Sarah (a 35 year old former paramedic) have worked here for a couple of months. Emily (29 year old graphic designer), T.K. (just graduated from pioneer) and I all started on monday. 7 of us total. Usually 5 of us working. We get along so well! Which is good, because we spend hours together daily, and we have to cram all of us in a car to drive to each job site.

Everyone keeps telling me that this is a sucky job. I LOVE IT. Thank you God for providing me with such abundance, and restoring my joy.

I still like my job, no changes. I got an awesome chance to talk to someone about God for a good long time. I got fresh donuts from washtenaw dairy (cause we were working directly across the street). I had a lovely day.

Mary and I met Stanley Estrada today at Busches. We talked to him for the entire length of the tuesday night prayer meeting. He's a mexican man who looks just like my grandpa Mekis (not at all mexican). He says I'm beautiful!

I really love being awake in the fresh morning and sititng on the trunk of my car by the barn underneath the trees, with cats all around, waiting for everyone to show up at work. It's beautiful.

P.S. If you feel like giving me a massage, I will drive long distances to receive it.

I worked 8:00-4:00.

It was everything I hoped for! The people I'm with seem awesome, I was in the sun, the work was physical, I got extremely dirty and extremely exhausted. I took an hour and a half nap in Mary Wagner's van this evening. I can't get the dirt off of myself. I have a sunburn. I'm going to be soooo sore tomorrow. 40 hour weeks... wow. I LOVE THIS JOB!

One thing I learned today- going to bed at 2:00 a.m. isn't going to cut it anymore. With that in mind, I'm off to bed.

P.S. Praise God, I have no sign of poison ivy! I'm certain that I touched it multiple times today.

GOD IS FAITHFUL!

Alright, I need that tattooed on myself so I don't forget.

So, the big exciting news: On Tuesday, God told me to quit my job at the mall. I was thrilled, because I have not been a big fan of this job. However, I also came up with a lot of reasons why quitting would be a bad idea, particularly because I didn't have another job lined up despite numerous efforts. I quit last night at the beginning (as God directed). It was a good thing, because by the end of the night I probably would have changed my mind.

This morning, I got a job! Literally... the next day. It's a landscaping job, and I'm aware that it's a "sucky job" (that's what my new boss told me, haha), but it's gonna be sweet! I get to work outside, I don't have to work evenings, it pays a lot more, there are more hours, and the guy is an awesome christian! I'm really psyched. If you hear me complaining, remind me of God's awesome provision. I'm so thankful for this job.

Thanks God for your faithfulness, and for providing.