cedar falls humor

i'm still not used to living in "the jesus bubble" that is cedar falls, iowa. yesterday at work two guys came in and while the first one was rattling off his complicated order the other one was asking me how to order his drink the way we call it to make it easy on us. I explained that we would call it a "triple grande 2 pump vanilla 2 pump toffee nut soy no foam with whip latte," to which he replied to himself, "that's harder than memorizing isaiah 58." I laughed and said "shout it aloud, do not hold back." we had a pretty good chuckle.

the people at work thought it was weird that i had memorized scripture so i explained to them that the same person who taught me the value of memorizing scripture is the one who taught me the importance of being silly in the drive thru.

and on that note, i started keeping a tally of the people who say "hi angie" back to me in the drive thru speaker and i'm pleasantly surprised that it's often above 50%. the average drops drastically when i tell the customer who else is there, for instance "good morning this is angie, chase, alison and kate what can we get started for you?" but they usually say "well hi everyone." so that's good enough.

funny cards

i love letterpress stationery. while i was perusing some stationery and design websites i found these hilarious cards. things that are beautiful and well made but aren't to be taken too seriously are among my favorite things. i can't imagine how hard i would laugh if i opened up my mail and had one of these waiting for me.





they also come in "what did i ever see in you?" and "you just suck the life out of me" and can be found here.

the obligatory main event post

First of all, I need to mention that right now I'm using the Firefox v.2 update and loving it. The coolest part is that there's an inline spell checking feature which means that no matter where you're typing it lets you know if you've mis-spelled something immediately. Great idea. Love Firefox. Anyway...Main Event.

Main Event was awesome. I got to spend some sweet time with some really great people. I got dinner with DeeDee and Kari and sat with them during the sessions. It was so good to share that worship time with them, as well as try and figure out what boys talked about before Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Kyle and Jennifer (Jen was in my growth group and then we met one on one after that for a couple years. She and Kyle got married almost a year ago and have been raising support for their first year of marriage) stayed at my house so we had some really great talks. They got to go up on stage and talk about going to Japan and share their hearts with the whole ME crew. They spoke some sweet truth ("Don't wait for a dramatic call from God - don't wait to be 100% sure you should go, I've never talked to anyone who was 100% sure.") and definitely got my "Amen." We got to talk about our hearts and how God is leading us and share things that have been encouraging to us along the way. I'm so thankful that those two are in my life. It felt really good to just talk about that stuff. It's definitely something I took for granted in Iowa City. I got to talk to (and pray with) Weaver- the representative from Africa Inland Mission (who has the coolest Africa stories EVER) and ran into some other high school/CF people - even a girl I work with at Starbucks! (btw- "Starbucks" is apparently not in the Firefox spelling dictionary...nor is "btw")

Oh and also about 25 girls slept in my basement. I invited Betsy and her girls and told her to invite whoever. It was super fun. I got to know some ladies I've seen around and done ministry with for years but never really talked to and nothing is better than late night silliness with Betsy Skat. Nothing.

evidence:
lots and lots of mini cereal boxes

rows of sleeping bags with a pathway to the bathroom

the shoe pileEveryone is always so grateful to be sleeping on my basement floor for a weekend which seems a little strange because there are very very few things I look forward to more than filling up my house once a year. Coming downstairs on Saturday morning and seeing every chair and place at the table taken by a college girl doing a quiet time is pretty sweet. It just fills up my heart. Betsy also made fun of my because I was so excited to do things like bake cupcakes and get breakfast ready. Washing towels and buying cereal seems like an unfair trade for filling up my house with laughter, community and spiritual hunger for a whole weekend. The fact that God set it up so that we can bless and be blessed at the same time is so great.

oh and they decorated a cupcake for me
with trix
amazing

my only football game of the year

well folks, it seems as if it's about time for an update. i'm trying not to be distracted by the daily show and the recipe for something called "mint chocolate volcano cakes" i just found. anyway.

last saturday (a long time ago) my nephew Cody got to play his last football game of the season in the dome on his birthday!! my dad called me to invite me (a pretty big deal) so i went to cheer him on (Cody, not my dad). it was so cute and a lot of fun. he turned 12 and i haven't gotten to see him in probably 3 years so it was really good. he made a really great play and they announced his name and said happy birthday. family stuff on that side is going shockingly well. we all seem to be consistently happy to see each other and even have things to talk about most of the time. it's really really nice. i took Samantha (Cody's sister) down to the front row so I could take some pictures and she saw lots of her friends from school. a few of them asked who I was and I really liked hearing her say, "That's my aunt!" in her cute little excited voice. I hope to hear it a lot more often...even if none of her friends are around and I just make her say it to me.

Sammy
(who looks exactly like her dad)

huddle

Cody is #50

fall is pretty

Fall is beautiful. I think it's pretty great that God made Fall to be such a beautiful time of the year. Who would have thought that a season when everything is dying and falling away would be nothing short of breathtaking. Pretty cool. Alisha and I took our dogs out to Hartman for a walk the other night. It was so pretty. Hartman is pretty great because it's mostly woods but then there's this big prairie area with 7 foot tall grasses an paths mowed out to wander around in. It's fun. The dogs love it (although my mom hates it because Riley comes home and needs a bath immediately).

Riley and Krypto

the dogs disappear for a while and then pop up out of nowherewe used to go on school field trips here. part of it was taking a walk blindfolded so that we would use our other senses to discover . we would have to hold on to this wire fence thing that would guide us to different spots in the woods. it's fun to go to hartman and see the wire i've blindly followed so many times.

Oh and Fall also brings MAIN EVENT! I love it. It'll be sad and weird this year because Cate won't be here but there will be quite a few other people in town and that'll be fun. Betsy is bringing her girls to stay at my house and Jen and Kyle are staying here too. DeeDee and her crew are staying at Kari's but it'll be fun to see them. The AIM rep that will be there this year is Keith Weaver who Kate and I got to know in New York. He's one of the coolest dudes I've ever met. He was the first AIM guy I met at Main Event 3 years ago who first told me about TIMO and (most importantly) prayed for me and my future right then and there. It was seriously life changing. It was a time in my life when I was completely overwhelmed and Weaver really represented God bringing himself into my heart to calm everything down. I was really excited for my family to get to meet him but my mom will be out of town (at Disneyworld with her sisters to be exact) so it might not work out. Weaver has some pretty awesome stories about living in Africa for like 30 years. He had a parrot that could say "Weaver come inside" in his wife's exact voice. One time a giraffe charged at his car and jumped over it! I can't wait to hear more Africa stories. I mean seriously, a giraffe jumped over his car.

click for...

virtual bubble wrap

my friends are the coolest

I've gotten some fun mail lately. Usually the only excitement via post I expect is a packet of letters from Kate in Africa but the fellas have really been pulling through. I love mail. A lot. I would love nothing more than a pen pal if any of you are interested. I'm good at it, just so you know. Anyway. Tim was a little disappointed that I got a job at Starbucks because you know, it's selling out and everything. He threatened to make me a Sellout shirt but I only half believed he'd do it.

Well, he did.

I'm rather impressed. This shirt required a trip to Hobby Lobby and even the use of an iron. It's pretty darn great. The note enclosed in the package (written on a post office form of some sort) only said "I told you I'd do it," which was also pretty funny.

Surprise number 2? An international mixtape. Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ There's nothing cooler than getting mail and looking to see who it's from and not being able to read the language it's in. Pretty awesome. Yudai sent me this super fantastic CD full of Japanese delights. Yes, it came with a birthday card. No, it's nowhere near my birthday, but he knew that (which is also impressive). There's some pretty great J-pop and (as advertised) everything from rap to jazz to salsa. Love it. Thanks Yudai. ｍ（．＿．）ｍ

I was so excited and knew that only Holly could understand so I promptly text messaged her. She asked what was on it so here's the track listing.

Now I need to think of fun things to send back to them. I once offered to send Yudai some good Iowa food but the packaging concerns got the best of me. I wonder how far a tomato with a stamp on it would make it.

a lovely addiction

just found this new stationery brand. love it. love that it's called lovely. love vintage maps. couldn't be better. i'm still spending a lot of time at cavallini & co. and i still haven't found a day planner that i like more than the sukie one. there, now you have an update. still haven't purchased any new stationery since june. i get my first real paycheck tomorrow...uh oh.

link

Extreme Drive Thru at McDonalds

no alex, it's not just a baby

Some people have pointless jobs that are a waste of time. Most of the time these jobs employ people who just need the money, which I'm completely fine with. Sometimes these occupations are filled by people who love what they do. Like what? Breeding tiny horses.

Why?

I have a feeling Alex would really get along with these people.

link

and before you know it, the leaves have fallen

It seems like yesterday I was noticing that the leaves were starting to change. I didn't even get any good pictures of foliage. It's supposed to be super cold tonight. I can't wait to wake up and need an extra blanket. It's time for Sigur Ros. I read a great blog entry about their song "Hippipolla" today:

"When i hear this song i visualize Jesus coming back for some reason. It's so incredibly victorious. It's like Jesus has finally come back to bring his children to his side one last time ... to end suffering and disease and heartbreak and dissapointment forever. The death of death. And he wipes every tear from every eye. The orphans are no longer fatherless, the widows no longer desolate."

See now that's a guy who gets it. Very nice.

Oh and btw, I've really been loving working at Starbucks. There really is a sense of community there, it's great. I love seeing old couples come in and stay long after their cups are empty. I love feeling challenged to learn new things and I feel like I'm good at what I do. I love getting to know my co-workers and ask them fun questions. I love getting to read the New York Times every day. Today on the front page North Korea was described as "starving and friendless" and it cracked me up. I'm pretty sure the people I work with aren't quite ready for my real sense of humor (I'm easing them into it, don't worry) so I promptly called Alex. I also realized that I've successfully eased Alex into my sense of humor too because she totally played along when I started personifying Asian countries. I mean we feel bad that North Korea is starving and friendless but it's their own fault. Really South Korea has it worse because SK plays well with others but has to cut across NK's lawn in order to get to China and NK knows the whole time that they're together but didn't invite them. SK and China can't even play outside because NK would totally see them (and bomb them). Japan is just too cool to get involved and wants everyone to calm down and get along.

Yes...this is how my brain works.

Oh and yesterday when I was on my break I was really excited to buy the new Decemberists album and went to the mall and the Sam Goody was gone. It was some random t-shirt store now. It was so confusing because I was on the phone and walked into the store and turned around in at least 2 circles trying to figure out what happened and where all of the cd's were.

Okay. This post has been all over the place and it's time to just make it stop. Have a great night.

Pumpkin Pie Day

Last week while my parents were out of town at the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert (...seriously) Luke saw a van drive by and drop something off on our doorstep. A pumpkin. Heartland Vineyard church had dropped off pumpkins to all of the houses in the neighborhood. It was cute to look up and down the street and see a pumpkin on everyone's doorstep but we had other plans for ours. Pie. I'd never made a pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin before so I thought we would try it. (By the way, when I just typed "try" it came out "trie" the first time) Now this was only my second overall pumpkin pie baking experience. One time for growth group we made a whole bunch of pumpkin pies but I don't remember why or what happened to them. Alex?

Anyway. So I found some instructions online and then found a can of pumpkin in the cupboard so we decided to make two pies - one out of a pumpkin and one from canned pumpkin. Oh I know, we're thrilling people. Alisha and Isaiah even came over to witness the adventure.

Step one was to clean out, cut up and roast the pumpkin. It was harder than I thought it would be to cut it up into big chunks and it was kind of a pain to have to scrape it out of the chunks. Someone online said to just cut it in half (squash style) and that's definitely what I'll do next time. There was a longer roasting and cooling time but it would be worth it.

Luke was in charge of getting the spices and stuff ready. He was trying to put the sugar away and the brown rice got in the way and escaped...all the floor.Done!

It turned out pretty well. I think it would be tastier if I had roasted the pumpkin longer. You can kind of see that the inside is a little pale and there was a little bit of a raw pumpkiny taste. I also made the mistake of not using the same recipe for each pie so I couldn't really tell if the differences were because of the pumpkin or because of the recipe. Rookie mistake.

That's it for that adventure. This week's cooking fun was lasagna but that's not all that exciting so there won't be a post dedicated to it. The end.

Subj: I am a giant Starbucks nutball

I got this email from Bender after I told her I got a job at Starbucks. I've been coming across it in my inbox for a while now and crack up every time I read it so I thought I'd share. I'm sure she'll be really glad that I put it on the internet. It's pretty long, but definitely worth it!

Hi, You may remember me as Laura, which i go by for the most part but sometimes when i get really really excited and friendly at work I say that i am different people. You see, I work at the place of Starbucks. We don't even know what kind of a silly name this is but we don't even ask about it as we put on our green aprons and make loads and loads of coffee and say the words of would you like a pastry? My husband thinks that pastry is a funny word to say and should be omitted from everyone's vocabulary, i have other friends that feel the same way about the words moist and crevice especially when they are used together.

So...as i am working at this place i get put on "Drive Thru" a lot. On account of my speedy hands, feet and voice. You should see my body it is like a superhero. Well somedays i get to make all the drinks for Drive Thru and other times i get to talk to the people that come through the lane. At first i was very normal and polite about asking what they wanted and then sometimes when they would ask me how I was. I told them that i was very uncomfortable stuck in that little box and asked them if they could please get me out or at least pass me some water through the little vents so that i would not get thirsty. After a while i got tired of this and so i needed some new ideas.

I decided to replace, "Good Morning welcome to Starbucks, this is Laura.---or whatever else i would say" With a different person's name. Now most of the people don't even listen to what the heck i say on account of they are trying to remember if Vinte or Tall is the biggest or smallest and how to pronounce Carmel Macchiatto...I got Markalarde one time and i fined this guy 50.00 for not saying it right. Anyways, these people usually don't listen to me say my schpeel but if they did WOWWIE WOW WOW they would be talking to Brittney Spears, or Barbra Striesand, or my new Character of Yoda...who asks questions in this manner. "Pastry would you like?" Oh i am a funny girl. Plus also sometimes when they ask me to wait just a second i hum the JEPORDY theme to them and then they REALLY cannot think.

You must realize that you are being watched by a camera when you go through drive through so I can see all of their expressions as they hear, ignore, or don't hear my little Laurisms.

OK right now we are at the main part of the story...sorry this is so long. Yesterday i really wanted to be a Disney Character and i settled on the Little Mermaid. Now the customers that do hear me and the ones that have come to know me like to play along and ask me how i can be inside when i am a fish...and all sorts of other breathing problems. I not so kindly tell them about the Prince and my dad's amazing lazer spear that shot my aqua green fins apart and now i can walk about on two feet thank you very much. Well, i really wasn't feeling Oceany enough and decided i REALLY needed to get into character. So when one unsuspecting guy (who's name is Dan and he get's a tall coffee with a little cream). Came up to the drive through window. I suddenly remembered the part in the movie when Ariel is singing her song. and get's to the part..."Sometimes they walk, sometimes they run, sometimes the PLAY ALL DAY IN THE SUN...................................." She pushes her merbody up on the rock with all her mermight and the waves come crashing around her. SO i crouched down in my little drive through place and when Dan got to the window i pushed myself up through the window with all my might and scared the seaweed out of him.

My mom used the words, "Laura...know when to say when" very often on me, so today i told my manager that he could say those words to me when i got out of control. That is all.

Love,
Laura