the new and the old

I can't stop playing these songs:

"If You Would Come Back Home"--William Fitzsimmons
"Devil's Prey"--Olle Nyman
"Summer in the City"--Regina Spektor

They're all three emo and weepy, but oh well...can't help it.

I officially love the book of Joshua in the OT.

Went home for the weekend for a wedding. Our family dog, Buffie, is not so well. She's almost fully deaf and blind, she can't control her bladder, she only has three legs because of a tumor two years ago, she has arthritis, and she's losing all her fur. It's a sad case. My parents know they need to put her down, but she has good days, and then they second guess themselves. I think I was seven or eight when we got her and I distincly remember getting off the school bus and seeing her on the front porch with my mom and brother. I also remember what I was wearing--a troll shirt pulled to the side with a scrunchie and bright blue spandex shorts. Awesome. Buffie is an old dog.

Louisville is losing a bit of its newness, but I still love it.

I went to Waterfront Park for the first time with Miss Erin. It was wonderful.

This ain't no ballet show

The other day I spotted a possum strolling down 2nd street on the sidewalk. You know, just strollin' like he owned the city.

Lately, I like late nights, loud music, lattes, long runs, and dancing. Oh...zeeee dancing.

The tap, turn,
and follow through
spin.
Promanade
while the floor slides
and the dizzy lights
dance across
waves of heat and
beat.

I was beat. Erin and I along with some new friends went contra dancing last night. Couples in thier forties and fifties were outdancing us. Intense. And some of the more dedicated ones have been doing such recreation for over twenty years. Amazing.

It's the first Father's Day that I haven't spent with my dad.

So much, so much, so much.
so much goodness, words don't even make sense.

I got a job (Hooray!) at a cute little cafe downtown and today was initiation round one. I'm officially a barista complete with black apron and tip jar. Cha-ching.

I'm tired and blogging. (Does that make any sense?) Haven't worked hard for the money in awhile, (tutoring is by no means a physcially demanding task) but it felt good. I like to work and feel productive and I don't like being idle or feeling guilty about being idle. So this is a very nice change--a relief, almost.

I've never been more sure of God's hand in my life and more unsure of exactly what that hand has purposed, but I'm okay with that. I trust He knows what He's doing.

Good Things

1. Farmers' Markets and Whole Food Stores
2. The Psalters--these guys put on an intense show
3. Office Re-runs
4. Coke from the bottle
5. Leftovers
6. Big, clear, coffee mugs
7. A Room of One's Own
8. Snail mail


Not-So-Good Things

1. Accidentally sending my dad his Father's Day card a week early
2. Mental second-winds at one in the morning
3. Burnett St.--it's a strange, strange thing
4. the droning sound our dishwasher makes--eeeeeeeeeeee
5. discovering that the Spam folder of your new e-mail account is hiding several employer responses -- How am I supposed to recover from that? "Sorry I just got
back to you ... I couldn't quite figure out my email account, but I promise I have a college
degree."

It's a Lengthy one.

This verse has been an encouragement to me this week:

"'This God--his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him'" (II Samuel 22:31).

David is speaking to the Lord in these verses and giving God praise for victory/reconciliation over/with his enemies. If you keep reading, you see that God is the One who gives, trains, makes, delivers, keeps, and brings. David was by no means inactive, weak, or passive, but God is the one who fights and wins the battles.

I've had to remind myself of that everyday this week through the never-ending cycle of looking for jobs, submitting applications, hearing nothing from anyone, and starting all over again. This week has been challenging. But! Praise Jesus, something finally looks promising! To no surprise, all the credit goes to God.

Before we moved, the roomies and I sort of crashed a graduation barbecue with some Louisville friends. While we were there, I introduced myself to the wife of the guy hosting the event. I told her that I felt terrible for eating their food and all that jazz. Kind of awkward. Last Friday, I met up with some friends at a pot-luck and lo-and-behold, the same woman was there. Turns out, her name is Kristin, and she remembered me, which is kind of embarrassing, but it actually turned out really well. We laughed the whole thing off and she introduced me to other people as "the girl who crashed her party." Hilarious. Anyway, later that night, I told her I was jobless and she said she could probably get me a position at the cafe where she works. I was like, "Heck, yes. I'm desperate." So, she pulled a few strings and I have an interview on Monday!! The lady sounded awesome over the phone and I'm very excited just to have a prospect. Seriously, I've had absolutely no call-backs and it feels very ironic that the one thing I didn't apply for is working out. I am completely aware that this only an interview, but that's better than nothing. It gives me hope and reminds me that God is working despite my worry and distress.

Also cool, is the fact that Kristin loves to run. Since we've moved, (Saturday is the official two week marker) Erin and I have been running around Old Louisville. Kristin offered to run with us. Yesterday we all ran a mile and half! I never dreamed I could do that! Running is like a drug to me, seriously. I love it, need, want it. Ahhh.... So good. By the end of the summer, Erin and I hope we can run at least three miles, because in the fall we plan on signing up for a 5k with some pals in BG!! (Man, I'm annoying myself with all the exclamation points I'm using, but I feel like that's the only way to make my extreme excitement clear). Good stuff.

Also, the roomies and I are exercising our Scrabble skills to the max. There's plans for a championship in the works. We mean business.

Today was Brittany's birthday. It was fun to love up on a dear friend. :)

All I can do, day and night, is try to be and understand who God created me to be. And by "try," I don't mean putting forth my own vain effort at life; I simply mean surrendering to Him and making sense of that submission.

Joshua 5:13-15. Whoa.

I was born a rambling...woman

I haven't blogged in over two weeks. It's painful, but I feel like this post has to be extraordinary because it's been so long! Not really, I just feel odd pressure to write something profound. Here goes.

I own a massive bookcase. Really, it's a beast, especially when you live in a second floor apartment, but it's very special to me not only because it houses literature that's close to my heart, but because my dad helped me fix it up when I bought it. We stained and finished new shelves for the inside and painted/fashioned a new board for the missing back. (I love taking tattered things and making them useful and lovely). Anyway, after moving I decided to organize my rather large/ridiculous collection of books in some way that made sense. The top shelf holds some of my favorites and others that I desperately wish to read. Here's some stuff I plan on picking up over the summer, but I know how my plans usually go. I'm probably being a bit ambitious.

debra marquart, the horizontal world: growing up wild in the middle of nowhere
A.W Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
Ayn Rand, We the Living
Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution
Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca
Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship ( I don't currently own this one)


So, the roomies and I are officially Louisville residents and it feels amazing. I'm very close to my family, the whole big lot of them, and I expected to be having more severe withdrawls, but truly this already feels like home. God prepared my heart. :)

On a darker note, I still need a job in a bad way. I've been applying like crazy, but still no luck. I know this is where I'm supposed to be. God has led me here. I have to remember that He's in control and has a plan. Which reminds me, God provided for me yesterday in the smallest way at a coin laundry shop and I almost cried because it was so awesome the way he used people I didn't even know to lend a hand.