I'm Baack

I'm back! I know you all missed me dreadfully, right? I'm sitting in the living room of my (parent's) new house on the one piece of furniture we actually have in here. My parents bought 3 rooms' worth of furniture that was supposed to be delivered on Saturday, but there was a mix-up b/c the delivery people are stupid, so we're not getting it until tomorrow. Our living room and dining room look very spacious right now. It's so weird being in a new house. This morning when I woke up, it took me a minute to register where I was. I'm not sad anymore, though, which is a plus.

Friday night when I got home from the coffeehouse at church and pulled into the driveway, I just burst into tears because I was all of a sudden hit with the fact that I wouldn't ever drive up that driveway again or sleep in that bedroom ever again. I sat on my bed and cried for a good thirty minutes, wrote in my journal, and then I tried to sleep. It felt good to actually write in a real live paper journal, since I usually keep my journal on my computer, but it was packed up. There's something so comfortable and permanent about a journal.

This weekend I went with some of the college and career to a little town called Cloverport for a retreat. We had some good time reading in James and talking about it, and we also got to fish, ride four-wheelers, and shoot guns. Fishing was kind of boring; I caught a fish in the first 10 minutes and decided that I'd conquered the sport and moved on to tanning my legs. I shot a 22-gauge rifle, and I was convinced I would be deaf or dislocate my shoulder, but I came out of it okay. I didn't come anywhere close to hitting the target, but oh well. The cabin we stayed in belonged to the parents of one of the guys who went, and it was on 100 acres of land and was soooo beautiful and peaceful. I hope that someday I can have a place like that to visit. There's something about nature that makes me feel closer to God, I don't know why. I guess just being surrounded by His creation reminds me of His power, creativity, and the grandeur that I miss in my everyday comings and goings. It was wonderful to get away, if only for a little bit. Now if I could just go to the beach...

Oh, and a funny thing about moving: we had people pack us, and when I got home from work on Friday they were still there, and one guy had been packing in my room for 3 hours! He ended up filling 19 boxes, and he said that was some kind of record. He told me he'd moved people in 2-bedroom apartments with less stuff than I have! And that was after I'd thrown away 3 garbage bags full of stuff. (I kept all of my notes, though.) I apologized to him, but couldn't help but feel oddly proud. I'm such a weirdo.

One more thing, and I'll go. The coffeehouse on Friday night was really good; they had some live music and a poetry reading. Several different people, myself included, read some of their poems, and it was so fun! I really wish churches would encourage and foster better environments in which people can share their art. I am sure there are a lot of people who write or paint or draw or whatever, and it would be so neat to allow them to share that. Something to think about...[If you want to read the poems I read Friday night, I posted them here.]

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it: if you buy Nichole Nordeman's CD, see if they have the special edition. I found out after I bought mine that she made a special edition that has 15 songs, not 11 like I have! Needless to say I was a little distraught, especially after my friend Sarah told me the others are really good. Stupid special editions. Why can't they all just be the same???