you're doin' fine, oklahoma

Woo family vacation! My uncle moved to Oklahoma a few years ago ad we finally went to visit him at his new place this weekend. It was so fun! It was a long drive but not too bad. My uncle has a great house and a great pool and a great view. It was the perfect weekend. I have to take back all of the bad things I've said about Oklahoma. It isn't a wasteland after all, at least not the Tulsa area.

Oh, another great thing - my aunt and uncle have been together for about 20 years but never got married. I think they were both married before (there's an alarming divorce rate in my family) so I guess maybe they just didn't want to. About 2 years ago they randomly decided to tie the knot. Just the two of them, no big deal, just to do it. I was excited that they decided to do that but didn't expect any change. I was totally wrong. They're super affectionate and loving now, not only to eachother but to us as well. It's so cool! My uncle has always been really quiet and closed-off but now he's open and excited to talk and hear about our lives and stuff. It was seriously an emotional breakthrough! You don't witness that every day from a hunting, fishing, nascar-loving Iowa man. It was a really cool thing to witness.

Another cool thing is that as I get older, I see my family differently. My mom has 2 sisters and 2 brothers and they're all so different. Since my grandma died they have all put a lot of effort into staying close and in touch. It's a big priority for them and it was something my grandma talked about a lot as she was approaching death. Seeing them together more often has been fun because you see their similarities and differences more. There are so many things that 2 or 3 of them have in common or ways that they look or act like eachother (or their parents) that all five of them don't share. It's so fun. One of the most important ones is that 3 of them have pools. Speaking of family, we really put some thought into figuring out what my heritage is. Oklahoma is all about Native Americans and my aunt kept asking where the Native American was in my lineage. This isn't an uncommon question, especially after spending so much time outside in the summer and looking increasingly (and alarmingly) like George Hamilton...and because I braid my hair sometimes. We still couldn't come to any conclusions. My mom still thinks she heard something about Eastern Europe at some point. Who knows. It's still a mystery. I'll keep you posted.

And finally, the BEST part about this weekend. FIREWORKS ARE LEGAL IN OKLAHOMA!! Every night we sat and looked down into the valley and watched fireworks going off all over. It was amazing. My uncle got some good ones and set them off for us too. Amazing.

I only have a few pictures because most of the time I was in the pool, where my camera is not allowed, but here's what I have.

my aunt really likes to find wildlife in her (35 acre) yard
she taught us all about how to spot birds and such
we even had a contest to see who could identify the most wildlife
mom was trying really hard
i was holding out for the pileated woodpecker (dryocopus pileatus) because it's HUGE! 15 inches high! That's a big effing woodpecker. No luck.

this is my cousin, oscar
my uncle saved him from a burning barn when he was a tiny baby potbelly piglet
they meant to get rid of him after he was old enough to leave but then my aunt fell in love with him
he snores and thinks he's a dog
(domesticated wildlife didn't count toward the contest)
sunrise!
this was from out the front door
you can't tell in this picture how beautiful the view was
huge fireworks warehouse in missouri
luke was pretty excited
we stocked up, don't worry

Oh PS- we looked ALL OVER for the DVD of the musical and didn't find it anywhere. OUTRAGE! And I forgot to buy lots of OU stuff to send to Bryan. And I couldn't even find the right postcard for Jess. I suck at tourism.

Okay one more story and then I'm done, I promise. As we were driving through Kansas City, my mom said, "Oh look, there's Worlds of Fun." Luke replied, "Word up." My mom then said "No, Luke. WORLDS OF FUN." It was hilarious. It took us quite a while to explain what "word up" means but we're pretty sure she understands now because she's been saying "word up" in response to everything.
"Goodnight, Mom"
"Word up, Ange"

the 10 degrees of kelli b

Ways that I am connected to Kelli B:

(in the order in which they were discovered)

(these will most likely be inaccurate because most of them are assumptions)

1. She's a fellow blogger and an active commenter :)

2. Kelli knows my friend Crissa because she did Nav stuff.

3. She went to SMR and met my friends Joanna, Lorriane, and A Nox (and I'm sure many more)

4. She has gotten to know Holly, who is one of my favorite people.

5. She lived in Cedar Falls and knows about all of my favorite places here.

6. Her brother-in-law was friends with my friend Alisha at Wartburg and I hung out with him a couple times a few years ago.

7. Her sister goes to Iowa and goes to 24-7, just like I did.

8. Her sister is dating Misch - who was in my friends' growth group and lived on the couch that is still in my apartment.

9. She participated in the Invisible Children event and feels deeply the desire to dive in and change the world.

10. She is from Boone and knows Eli's dad and step-mom and has seen (and remembered!) Eli talk about missions stuff.

Okay I think that's all, for now. Keep in mind that Kelli and I have NEVER MET! This post is probably creepy (sorry kelli!) but these things just kept coming up and I couldn't get over it! The funny thing is that there are probably more ways that we are connected and we'll just have to keep discovering them! I don't know much about Kelli, but from what I do know, Kelli and I have completely different lives, yet God has woven our lives together in these little ways. At some point in our lives we met Jesus and became part of a community and this is just the evidence of how we're all connected. Funny, huh?

the first part of the weekend...

we set up a tent in target!
jk jk it's just a little mini one (i LOVE those!)

there was some registry confusion at target in cedar rapids
cate wasn't happy about it

i gave eli a present so that he wouldn't feel jealous of jess opening so many.
ps - jess reads really important literary works

a blender came wrapped in this huge gift bag from target.com
we told eli it would be funny for him to get in it
he does whatever we tell himwe needed a pre-shower secret cocktail
it was obviousy really tastyiris (the flower girl) helped open presents

she's the cutest kid everellen made the bow bouquet!jess with her loot

those were the shower pictures. it was a pretty funny night. eli whispered silly things to me about every present ("i hope she doesn't strain herself picking up that collander...wow what a great grater") and jess's aunts were more than happy to chime in with lots of opinions about how things should go. basically the best way to feel good about not getting married is to hang out with the family of someone who is. it was a hoot. jess asked "now do you see why i'm crazy!?" about 500 times. the answer is yes.

PS- crissa just said "henry winkler, you dirty bastard"

what could i ever run to

i'm sitting here downloading jon brion music from the i heart huckabees soundtrack which jason schwartzman was in, who is also in shopgirl which i am watching right now while i blog about intonation, where i saw jon brion. when my life gets circular it kind of freaks me out. but i also kind of like it because it makes me feel a little bit "together" which is nice.

anyway. we went to the intonation festival on sunday. it was a bit of an ordeal (forgotten papers, working late, bad navigation, etc.) but we finally got going. eli and i wandered into an asian grocery store and found some snacks for the drive.

we found this soft white little pillow of something

it was filled with sweet red bean paste which was nice.
i couldn't really handle the texture of the white stuff if i thought about it too much.

pop! this one is grape. eli approves.
although he doesn't like grape stuff.

"choco taste creams" and sweet little rice cheeto things

coffee candies filled with sweet cream stuff.
we really just got it for the cool package.

they were a bit strong

we made it!
they look photoshopped into this picture but they're really not

There were these girls going around promoting different things from vendors but they never came to solicit our interest in their roller derbys or energy drinks. we think it was because of our blank stares, which we are demonstrating in the picture above.

jon brion was great and did a lot of sampling which is always very impressive.
he brought up a guy to play with him.
it turned out to be a heartbreaker (of the tom petty persuasion)

oh here's another one.

oh and then he was all "hey glenn, where's glenn? oh there he his. you can come on up and play now" and i thought he had met a fan who played drums and he was going to let him play on stage which was really cute. then it was glenn kotche from wilco. swoon.
i was really excited to take this picture for some reason.
jess and eli let me take lots of pictures of them doing funny things or just standing there, or doing whatever i tell them to basically. it's really nice of them.
this one makes me think that in like 30 years their kids will find this picture of their parents and love it and frame it and take it to college with them like the pictures jess had of her family when they were young.

which makes me want to make the colors super warm.
it also means i shoud print out a few dozen copies and make sure i always plant one in places where future generations will find them. like on the table in her parent's basement.

this lady was behind us during jon brion. when we moved to the other stage for robert pollard she brought her blankets and did the same thing right behind us again. very curious. although i daresay i would love to do that at concerts - find a way to be alone and enjoy the music in my favorite way (falling asleep to it)

hey there's eli.

a little bit cool

then we walked around and got food and it got dark. this was all during dead prez who was yelling offensive things...probably because we weren't listening to him. we bought some shirts and some beers and then the drunk dead prez fan came to stand (and by stand i mean dance obnoxiously and by dance i mean jump into me) by me. jess and i made up elaborate scenarios about me putting his hat on my head and dancing around with him and then stopping, throwing his hat in the dirt and punching him in the face. it probably would have been in his best interest. he needed to sober up.
(they weren't really wearing their sunglasses at night)
bloc party!
oh and then the drunk guys went away and the hyper tween bloc party fans sang (screamed) along to the two bloc party songs that get radio airplay. jess and i spent this time discussing how old we are because of how often we said "i just want to enjoy the music" and then we were tired

the end.

oh yeah, and then we drove home and slept and then i left for home and stopped lots of times for more starbucks.

forgot about these

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to go to Chicagoland for Jess's shower. I was just there a couple weeks ago but I never posted the pictures. Before I have another batch of pictures of Jess's pouty face, I should show you the old ones.

Jess & I camped the first night.

we're easy to entertain

So there were a couple bug incidents. One of them involved Jess saying "I killed a spider while you were out there," when I came back into the tent. That's kind of a big deal because Jess hates spiders so I assumed it was a rather small spider. The next morning I found this in the tent which turned out to be a rather LARGE spider. It was all gross and folded up and right by where I slept. You can't tell but the body was about the size of my fist. Seriously it was.
I was on the phone and she was pretending to drive away. She lost interest and just rearranged everything in my car.
That hill back there was marked as a mountain on the map. It was majestic.
Crissa got into town on Saturday to hang out with her friend Katie. She parked at Jess's and we drove her into the city and then had dinner at Artopolis in Greektown. It was so yummy. Lots of things to dip/spread. Eating with the Jess/Eli/Matt crew is always great because we just order a bunch of stuff and share. It's really the best way to dine. Even if it confuses everyone else.
mmmm
The place where we ate had some amazing desserts. We got a couple to share and walked down to the columns to eat them.
We had a white chocolate mousse with fruit stuff and a dark/milk chocolate mousse with genache. Pretty dang tasty. Oh that poking the food is the other thing we do. It's just to check and make sure the temperature is right.
The real reason for my visit was to do some wedding stuff. Below is the makings of her bouquet. It's going to be so great.
We also got the wedding and shower invitations printed and sent. Jess refused to take a nice picture of envelope stuffing until I yelled at her and said "THIS IS GOING TO BE THE ONLY PICTURE OF YOU STUFFING YOUR WEDDING ENVELOPES! BE HAPPY!" Which worked. Clearly. Or she was just excited because that one was mine. Addressed to "ange" which my mom thought was a typo.
We caught Eli snacking. He never snacks. And when he does snack he insists that it's something "substatial" (we got in a pretty fierce debate regarding fruit snacks once). It must have been a weak moment.Alex came to hang out too. She took lots of pictures of herself in the car.

And one of Jess making the pouty face.
the end.

new survey!

1)How old do you wish you were?
18 so I could do college differently. Or like, 6.

2) Where were you when 9/11 happened?
In the shower in my dorm room. Cate made me get out of the shower to come see. We sat there for the rest of the day with everyone. Aaron got mad when we thought about leaving to eat.

3) What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Pout. And ask for more money. Vending machines only seem to happen when I'm with my parents.

4) Do you consider yourself kind?
To strangers and animals.

5) If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
I have one on my neck. If I had to get another one it woud be on the side of my foot.

6) If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Arabic! Quick!

7) Do you know your neighbors?
Yes. Mr. & Mrs. Remmert, Mr. & Mrs. Sorenson (and Aidan and Marley), the Weinerts, and Carol.

8) What do you consider a vacation?
Leaving the state and not having a strict schedule. If my family is there it's more stressful but includes lots of expensive things which is sometimes worth it.

9) Do you follow your horoscope?
I read it if I happen upon it in a magazine, if that's what you mean by "follow"

10) Would you move for the person you love?
Definitely. Unless it was to a suburb. Or to Los Angeles.

11) Are you touchy feely?
No. My mom just figured out yesterday that I don't really like to be touched.

12) Do you believe that opposites attract?
Yes.

13) Dream job?
Being a mom in Africa. Anything in Africa. Okay not like, mining.

14) Favorite channel(s):
Travel, TLC, Food Network, (33, 35, 37), Comedy Central

15) Favorite place to go on weekends?
Chicago. or Omaha. or Iowa City. or anywhere but here.

16) Showers or Baths?
Showers. Baths are gross and weird and boring. You think you can like, read and stuff but then you're all wet and you get your book pages wet. Not relaxing, just frustrating.

17) Do you paint your nails?
No. If I do it lasts for about a day before I take it off.

18) Do you trust people easily?
No. Well, yes but not completely.

19) What are your phobias?
Being alone at night in my house. There are just too many ways that someone else could get in without me ever knowing...until it was too late....dun dun dun.

20) Do you want kids?
Yes. Lots.

21) Do you keep a handwritten journal?
Kinda. I have a notebook. Sometimes it's a journal, mostly it's just full of lots of different kinds of lists.

22) Where would you rather be right now?
Africa. Which is probably less hot than my room is right now.

23) What makes you feel warm and fuzzy?
My dog? She's pretty fuzzy.

24) Heavy or light sleeper?
Heavy. And easliy scared or confused.

25) Are you paranoid?
A little.

26) Are you impatient?
No. I don't really notice when things are taking a long time.

27) Who can you relate to?
The people at my cool new church. Kate Yucuis.

28) How do you feel about inter-racial couples?
Great.

29) Have you been burned by love?
Nah.

30) Whats your favorite pick up line?
I don't know.

31) What's your main ringtones on your cell?
"Sophisticat" Jess's is "Cicada" which is my favorite because it's just crickets.

32) What were you doing at midnight last night?
Reading. Realizing that I forgot to call Bryan again. Watching the Daily Show.

33) What did the last text on your cellphone say?
"What r u doing Saturday night? Want 2 watch the kids?" from my sister in law.

34) Where did you last hang out with your best friend at?
Dinner in Chicago with Jess, Snow Cones with Crissa, Baseball game with Lish

35) What color shirt are you wearing?
Gray

36) Most recent movie you watched?
Finding Neverland. I bought it the other day.

37) Name three things you have on you at all times?
my phone, either my camera or my ipod, um...corrective lenses?

38.) What color are your bed sheets?
light blue sheet, khaki, white, navy and light blue striped duvet cover. (but not for long!)

39) How much cash do you have on you right now?
none. I don't have any pants on right now.

40) What is your favorite part of the chicken?
not the leg

41) What's your favorite town/city?
Chicago? Iowa City? Ouagadougou? not Accra.

42) I can't wait till:
I leave the country.

43) Who got you to join myspace?
Lindsay Overton

44) What did you have for dinner last night?
Salad from Pablo's. Yum.

45) How tall are you barefoot?
5'9"?

46) Have you ever smoked heroin?
Yeah, definitely. Can't get enough.

47) Do you own a gun?
No.

48) What do you like to drink in the morning?
Coffee or Diet Coke

49) What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?
Ha! It's a secret, duh.

50) Do you have A.D.D.?
Nope.

51) What time did you wake up today?
Like 8ish when the cleaning lady started vacuuming.

52) What do you think about the person who took this before you?
Total stranger.

53) Current hate?
Humidity.

54) Favorite place to be?
Overseas. Or in big cities. Or in the woods.

56) Where do you think you'll be in 10 yrs?
Africa.

57) Last thing you ate?
Lasagna from Zio Johno's

58) What songs do you listen to in the shower?
Beastie Boys or the most recent thing I downloaded.

59) Last thing that made you laugh?
SNL rerun on E! that Jimmy Falon...

60) Worst injury you've ever had?
I almost broke my pinkie finger once.

61) Does someone have a crush on you?
Stacey Lens probably.

62) What's your favorite candy?
Peanut M&M's

dear ms. schupbach,

In response to your previous comment (seen here), according to my handy see-through inflatable globe (courtesy of former Caleb Project Intern, Mr. Eli Steenlage), "dig a hole" from here is more like India.


As seen below, a more accurate "dig a hole" for you is eastern Brazil (when you line up the longitude lines properly, as I did not when taking this picture).


Of course, this is depending on a point of reference that does not boast impressive accuracy. As seen below, Iowa doesn't even exsist on it. Omaha and Chicago are right next door to each other, which would actually be kind of great.


Nevertheless, fear not. It is most likely that there is a place that is farther from home than you are now and there are certainly places that are harder to get to. We even share a hemisphere. Oh and you are most definitely never forgotten. In fact you are remembered often and fondly, usually with giggling.

speaking of my favorite

i miss her:

she is here:

which is approximately 9157 miles away.
that's a lot.

but soon i will only be 4872 miles away.

Joanna- you're 6125 miles away. that's a fair few.

Holly is only 1232 miles away. That's so close I can smell her from here.

Jess is 226 miles away. I only posted that because she'll call and yell at me for not including her if I don't. Soon she'll be 4282 miles away...counting down the days...omgjkjk

PS- last night I had a dream that I converted to Judaism so that I could join Jews for Jesus but the first time I went to temple (I'm the kind of Jew who goes to temple even when it's not a high holy day) Elia Einhorn (Aaron Wonky Goodtime's brother) was there and called me out for loving Jesus and all the real Jewish people were sooo mad and kicked me out. It was really sad.