church that! double church!

woo! busy day again!

lish and i headed over to Prairie Lakes for the early service. i was hoping that the third time would be a charm and I could hear Eli's old pastor preach...but no. it was some other Jason dude. it was a pretty good talk, but sometimes hard to follow and lots of page flipping to figure out what was going on. it's a huge church and is all pretty and new. we went exploring and amy swisher caught us. we also saw matt sharp (on his way to jordan!) and amy baldwin. it was somewhere in between what parkview is now and what i'm imagining it will be like after the renovation. it was comfortable (mostly) and all of the (many) different ministries all had snazzy names and fancy logos. the coffee smelled great. no less than 73 people demanded to shake my hand and say good morning but none of them asked me my name.

we went to VI for some breakfast (I tried the multigrain pancakes - not bad) and then went to my house for a crafting lesson and a change of clothing. after avoiding a piece of stray siding flying off the top of my house (seriously), we gathered up some power tools, including the power washer (my parents have everything) to get rid of some peeling paint at her house.

then it was church #2. it was pretty great. about 30 people (only 2 from my high school! an all time low!), good worship, self-guided communion, good teaching, young atmosphere. everyone asked me what my name was. the pastor asked if he and his wife could take me to lunch or out for coffee sometime. that's what i call church.

so yeah, i still have a long way to go in figuring out the whole church thing. i know (from experience) that you can get plugged in and have a great experience at a huge church, but something about the vibe at smaller churches just speaks to me lately.

gosh! i'm such an annoying twentysomething! whine whine whine, postmodern postmodern postmodern, mindset mindset mindset. i appologize.

busy day

i washed 4 fire trucks today. no, i don't have any pictures (proof) of this. hello, fire trucks are huge, i was too busy scrubbing. most of the time i even had a child on my shoulders (who i had never met) to get the high parts. it was a busy day.

today was Love Cedar Valley. a whole bunch of local churches got together for random acts of kindness all over the area. crews were put to work doing everything from painting and cleaning toilets, to handing out cookies and flowers around town. my mom and i joined a crew that went to the waterloo fire stations. we dropped off a basket with stuff to make dinner (pork chops, potatoes, dessert, etc) and candy (lifesavers of course) and other goodies, then we asked them to put us to work. we were expecting to clean bathrooms and make beds, but they had another idea. they handed us some rags and a hose and we washed the trucks. we thought this would only happen at the first station, but by the time we got to the next ones our reputation had preceeded us. it was pretty great. we got to put in some quality time with some pretty cool dudes, play on (and in!) fire trucks all day, try on big huge boots and hats, and even did some pole dancing. okay, not dancing, more like pole...noticing (they're super slippery!). i also got to tag along to make ice cream cones for some folks at a nursing home. all of the participants (almost a thousand!) met up later in the afternoon for some worship time. it was neat hearing stories of how other people spent the day. there were all kinds of cool stories, especially from the people who went door to door cleaning toilets for strangers.

i tend to avoid situations where i'll run into lots of people i know from high school. i'm not sure why, it's just exhausting; but today i realized that most of the time these situations are at gatherings where a bunch of local churches have gathered together to do something. that's pretty great.

in other news: alisha and i are trying out two (2) churches tomorrow that are exact opposites. one of them (prairie lakes) is a huge suburban fancy new shiny mega-church, complete with "instrumental worship" (rumor has it) and lots and lots of people. the other, abundant life meets in a really old church building right by my grandma's house and is small and personal and emphasizes weekly small groups. we'll see how it goes. i'll give you the full report tomorrow night.

you know what sucks?

TICKS!

this is what i found in my hair last night when I was almost asleep. stupid woods. i woke up my mom and made her check for more. and then i made her check again for tick babies. my mom said there were no tick babies and that i should just go to sleep. then i went back and asked if i should wash my pillowcases and she said "angie ticks don't travel in packs and if they did they would be in your head, not on your pillow" which was definitely not an image that made it easy for me to fall asleep. this was my first parasitic experience, but it won't keep me away from the woods. i'll just wear a hat next time. unless i die of lyme disease before i get the chance.

that's pretty much true...

Angie -- [adjective]: Like in nature to a train-riding hobo 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

this is what spring is for

I left to take Riley on a walk this afternoon and it turned into a 5 hour excursion. We went to the Greenbelt, one of my favorite places. This time of year there are bluebells everywhere. There are patches of them everywhere you look, it's just beautiful. I took lots and lots of pictures and most of them are only good when they're big, but I posted a few of them here anyway.

they go on forever

i found a white one!

i love the woods

happy feet

At some point I gashed open my toe (without noticing) but I washed it off and it got recoverd in a thick layer of grime (see above). It was a pretty great afternoon. After I'd already been there for about 3 hours I called Alisha and she brought Krypto, who tried (not very successfully) to teach Riley to swim. Then her parents brought Flash and we walked some more. I should have stretched for a while after such a long hike but instead I curled up in a chair and fell asleep for an hour or so. My leg muscles were not so happy with this decision. Alisha said there was another great place to see the bluebells, hopefully we'll get out there and try to find it before they all go away. I guess this is another thing I have to add to the "Things I Don't Hate About Living in Cedar Falls" list. Dang.

i've been in america for too long

every once in a while i completely lose perspective and get consumed with wanting things i don't need or can't afford. once in a while = now. i want:

this

and this

and this

and maybe even this

i would spend all of my money on books and cd's if i had no convictions. and paper products and water bottles. and camping equipment. i'm hoping that admitting to my coveting will make it go away? maybe? probably not, but at least i tried.

my friends are funny

"alex, baby, let's work it out"

aiksias: i don't know why but i can't stand tom selleck
angieui: that's really strange
aiksias: i can't even handle looking at him
angieui: how can you not like tom selleck?!
aiksias: i'm sorry i just don't know
angieui: HE RAISED A BABY THAT GOT DROPPED AT HIS DOORSTEP!
aiksias: no ange he didn't, ted danson did

family stuff is hard

I spent the first half of my life thinking that my family was totally normal. I got into arguments with other kids at my school because for some reason they thought that moms and dads live together...crazy kids. I had to explain many times that dads live with step-moms and moms live with step-dads, maybe their moms just never told them that it was their step-dad. I felt really lucky that my parents were at least honest with me. Fast forward 15 years and I can't figure out how I ever thought my family was normal. I'm so much like my mom that we can't get along and other than her I can't figure out how I came from any of these people.


I know that being in your 20's is supposed to be all about "figuring out who you are, which I used to think that was total crap, now I'm just annoyed that it's true. Living in Cedar Falls again has been hard for a lot of reasons. I'm learning a lot about how much I've run away from and what I've been ignoring. I'll look back at this time as a huge blessing because it really is a make-or-break time. I couldn't have gone away for 2 years and had functional relationships with my family without this time to re-connect and figure eachother out. I've seen some of my family more this week than I have in the last 2 years. Most of the time I'm trying to relate to them as best I can and find some common ground, and all of a sudden there's a glimpse of familiarity. My brother (who looks exactly like my dad) was playing around with his daughter and she started brushing his hair. I used to do that to my dad all the time. I'd run back and forth from the bathroom to the living room trying to get enough water on the brush to get his hair wet so I could make it spike up like my brother's. It was a very poignant moment...until my nephew climbed his dresser and jumped off of it at me.

Spending time with them is great and makes me excited for my own family. I have always been told that the desire to get married and have a family is a God-given thing, so I've believed it. One of my biggest fears is that this desire is completely from myself. I'm afraid that I want to be a mom and have a husband and kids in order to reconcile the things I wish I had in my family and be a parent the way I wish I was parented. I think it's just that I resent some of the things I've had to learn for myself. It's been so strange to have to work all of that out recently. But there's still grace. My family is a broken, distant, and painful thing, but that's nothing new. It's just so comforting to know that while I spend so much emotional time and energy trying to reconcile all of these things, God has already figured it all out. He has already reconciled our relationship, and now I just trust that he'll work it out. I'll just stay out of the way and do what I'm told, just like my family taught me.

tai chi

luke: oh yeah, it's that meditation thing

me: more like a martial art

luke: well yeah, a martial art for life failures...and people from california.

remote light switch

this is a wireless light switch from gnr8. it can control any light fixture (from 100ft) by attaching the remote base to the desired light. i'm pretty sure it was designed for functionality and convenience but the little sister in me is almost willing to shell out the $129 just for the prank potential.

in reference to rearranging my room...

me: I think i want my bed against this wall

luke: that would really mess up the tai chi in here

dirty old man

i think morrissey's face was meant to be this age

the answers

i was able to stop coughing long enough to turn in the cup of joe application on wednesday. some people were interested in how i answered the questions, so i thought i'd let you know!

1. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

not that i know of, but red is my second favorite color

2. If you were stranded on a deserted island with only one of the following, which would it be?
a. a stack of National Geographics
b. the complete works of Danielle Steel
c. a single latte

3. Hypothetical Question: A groggy, confused, caffeine deprived customer walks in. How would you approach the situation?
a. talk slowly and loudly
b. slap them silly
c. suggest a double espresso or redeye

4. What are your thoughts on Kwik Star Cappuccino?

for three weeks in a row we snuck out of junior high bell choir practice to walk the 3 blocks to the nearest Kwik Star to get our fix. we didn't even try to hide the evidence and our parents never asked where the cups came from.

5. What do you think your mission would be at the cup?
a. to cater to the caffiene craze currently hitting CF/Waterloo
b. to caffeinate the free world
c. to bring peace and happiness to those around you

6. How do you feel about Decaf?

it makes me feel like an old man

7. Is Folger's an "F' word to you?

yes, but it's not my favorite one...and the commercial circa 1986 where the brother comes home to surprise everyone and sneaks in the house in the morning and makes coffee and everyone wakes up...i get choked up every time.

8. Are you sufficiently addicted to caffiene?

of course

9. If you could have only one beverage for the rest of your life (besides H2o) , what would it be?

white tea - pear or orange blossom flavored. or grape juice.

10. Where have you worked?

blah blah blah (that's not what i wrote, i'm just not going to list it)

11. What are you doing with your life?

i'm not in school and i don't have a job. i spend a lot of time with my dog. and starting new craft projects. i want to live in africa.

i'm sorry, i know you don't care...

before:

after:

riley got a haircut and looks kinda silly. well, silly in a different way.

you can always count on holly

Put your music player on shuffle.
Press forward for each question.
Use the song title as the answer to the question.


How am I feeling today?
Southern Anthem - Iron & Wine

Will I get far in life?
Eden - Alli Rogers

How do my friends see me?:
How - Lisa Loeb

When will I get Married?:
Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well - Mike Doughty (great)

What is my best friend's theme song?:
Decatur - Sufjan Stevens (close enough)

What is the story of my life?
Breathe Me - Sia (good one!)

What is/was highschool like?:
Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia) - The Flaming Lips (exactly)

How can I get ahead in life?:
Queen of the Slipstream - Van Morrison

What is the best thing about me?:
Saeglopur - Sigur Rós (translation...anyone?)

How is today going to be?:
The Blues are Still Blue - Belle & Sebastian

What is in store for this weekend?:
The Only Moment We Were Alone - Explosions in the Sky

What song describes my parents?:
Get Rhythm - Johnny Cash

To describe my grandparents?
Tell Me - The Rolling Stones

How is my life going?:
Have Love Will Travel - The Black Keys (the travel part is right on)

What song will they play at my funeral?:
Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye (wow...)

How does the world see me?:
Believing is Art - Spoon

Will I have a happy life?:
The Prettiest Thing - Norah Jones

What do my friends really think of me?:
Viõrar Vel Til Loftárasa - Sigur Rós

What should I do with my life?:
You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me - Frank Sinatra

Will I ever have children?:
Along The Way - Scotland Yard Gospel Choir

What is some good advice for me?:
Frankly, Mr. Shankly - The Smiths

How will I be remembered?
Give It Away - Zero 7

What is my signature dancing song?:
You Talk Way Too Much - The Strokes

What do I think my current theme song is?:
Say It Ain't So - Weezer

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?:
Communist Daughter - Neutral Milk Hotel (there are days...)

What type of men/women do I like?
Theologians - Wilco (nice)

conversations with jess

sometimes it's fun to write down what jess says.

me: "it was a cocker spaniel with the head of a st. bernard"
jess: "that's what people are going to say about your kids"

jess: "you're really the only one i can sew my wild oats with before i get married"

i should probably make a website with stuff jess says in the same format of that guy who keeps track of the things he fights with his girlfriend about.

cup of joe

remember when i said i picked up and application to work at cup of joe?

here are the questions on it:

1. Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?

2. If you were stranded on a deserted island with only one of the following, which would it be?
a. a stack of National Geographics
b. the complete works of Danielle Steel
c. a single latte

3. Hypothetical Question: A groggy, confused, caffeine deprived customer walks in. How would you approach the situation?
a. talk slowly and loudly
b. slap them silly
c. suggest a double espresso or redeye

4. What are your thoughts on Kwik Star Cappuccino?

5. What do you think your mission would be at the cup?
a. to cater to the caffiene craze currently hitting CF/Waterloo
b. to caffeinate the free world
c. to bring peace and happiness to those around you

6. How do you feel about Decaf?

7. Is Folger's an "F' word to you?

8. Are you sufficiently addicted to caffiene?

9. If you could have only one beverage for the rest of your life (besides H2o) , what would it be?

10. Where have you worked?

11. What are you doing with your life?


For real. I can't wait to fill it out.

this doesn't mean cedar falls and i are friends yet

Luke and I did a little exploring yesterday. We started at Soho to try out the Cedar Falls sushi situation. It was a little sloppy (I really wanted to get behind the counter and do it myself) but it was quite tasty. Next we checked out the bead store to do a little research for Jess's bouquet project. We headed down to Cup of Joe to pick up an application (more on that later) and grabbed one next door at Vintage Iron Co. as well. We strolled down to the new kitchen store and saw that they were hiring too! What luck! The kitchen store was great, they even had the collapsible measuring cups and fancy avacado tool I want to have when I grow up and live in the tiny, urban, ultra-modern house mentioned in a previous post. They had samples of everything and even a great apron selection. I would love to work at any of those places, perhaps all of them. In a moment of inspiration, we went to Kim's Oriental Foods and picked up some sushi-making supplies (even some cool chopsticks!).

After all of this downtown business we went and picked up Riley to take her to the park. After a heated argument with a lady who was obviously just bitter that her dogs are ugly and mine is awesome, I went over to confirm that the artsy girl reading a book by the fence was in fact Amy from junior high. We caught up for a little while as Luke did that thing he does where he throws a ball to Riley but then runs after it himself to see if he can beat her to it. Amy wrote her digits on my hand and promised future dog park dates, which I can't wait for. Amy was the first person to only call me "Ange" and I called her "Aims" and she's the coolest person ever.

The menu and cool water glass

rollin it up

our spread, mid-devour
cool journals at vintage iron co.
our at-home supplies
okay, i admit it. we went to peek-a-boo baby

Today was less exciting. I woke up feeling miserable and pouted about it for most of the morning while my parents were at church. They brought me Panera and then Crissa called, which quickly cheered me up. We strolled around Old Navy, Barnes and Noble and Pier One with Cady and we stopped by my house to pick up a PS2 for her to borrow (she's a gamer now). Then Grey's Anatomy was a repeat, so I'm back to pouting...all alone...with only my sinus pain and post-nasal drip to keep me company.

found

i would like to draw your attention to one of the coolest websites i've seen in a long time. there's something about people accidentally revealing bits of themselves that fascinates me. it's a very amelie thing. making up the lives of strangers is one of my favorite things to do inside my head. this is why i love museums and used book stores.

here are some of my favorites:




one of them has the word "mailman" in aaron's exact handwriting, i swear

i need some ny-quil

i think i caught jess's sinus congestion. there's only one thing that could possibly make me feel better, and it is posting this on the internet:

oh and this too:

lucky drops

I picked up the new Dwell Magazine the other day. I have kind of an obsession with tiny, ultra-modern, urban housing and the cover of this month's issue boasted profiles of homes under 1700 square feet. This one is in Japan and was designed by Yasuhiro Yamashita. It goes from 10 feet (a few inches wider than a Hummer) at it's widest, down to 2 1/2 feet at the other end. The flooring is all mesh so the light passes through to each floor. The plastic composite material on the exterior is translucent so that it glows from the inside at night. This site has a lot of detail on this specific house, including the layout. It's called Lucky Drops, I think it's beautiful.

buy me this

randomshirts.com

01:02:03 04/05/06!!!!

this is almost as exciting as when my odometer is palindromic

Happy Birthday Krypto!!

Saturday was Krypto's 1st birthday!! Riley was invited to his party where there was puppy cake and ice cream and everything (and even some for the bipeds). She even got a party favor bag when we left!! It was a blast!

the birthday boy


sometimes riley tries to hide from the other dogs
sometimes she doesn't pick very good spots

luke was in charge of videography

chewbacca gets frisky

norman and krypto take a drink

riley enjoying her chicken flavored ice cream


before...

after!