Monday, October 31, 2005

that's it. i'm moving to new jersey.

newsflash: i got a summer job. i'm getting two months off from my duties at the church this summer, and so i've been looking for some other employment. and on friday, i found some: i'm going to live at the beach for the summer. that's right. me + summer + ocean city = goodness. i've always felt that i was meant to live by the ocean, and now i get to spend nine weeks living two blocks from the atlantic. oh, sweet bliss.
i'll be staffing the ocean city beach project, which is a discipleship house that the cco runs every summer. there will be about 25 students coming out to be trained in leadership, community development, bible study, relational evangelism, and social justice. we all live in one big house with a pretty porch and foos ball and it will be awesome. check it out at www.beachproject.org. yay for me!!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

if you give a mouse a cookie

so. there is a mouse in my office at church. yesterday, i came in, and i had a phone call. i was leaning back in my oh-so-professional office chair, talking to someone from my congregation, when i saw a half-eaten piece of candy with the wrapper chewed open sitting next to my phone. the candy was from a bag that was sitting at least four feet away on my desk. ON MY DESK!!! there was a mouse crawling around ON MY DESK. i don't do mice. now, if they want to stay outside, or in the basements, or garages, or barns or something, that's fine. it's cold outside. i can be humane. but i won't stand for rodents on my desk. i just can't have it. we've set two traps, which have not as of yet caught any mice. therefore, i'm going to have to leave. luckily, my job is of the variety that i can do from somewhere other than my office. i'll return when we catch it. until then, i'll be working from home. gross.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

i heart GetGo

i just bought gas for $1.89 a gallon. AMAZING. that hasn't happened in ages. you're probably wondering, "how is this possible?" well, i'll tell you. you're a chump. OR, maybe i've just got the hookup. around here, we have fuelperks from giant eagle, the grocery store khadija generally refers to as "the big bird." for every $50 you spend at giant eagle (including movie rentals and prescription fillings), you get $0.10 off per gallon at GetGo. i've been saving up my discounts for a while now, waiting until there was harmony of cheap gas and empty tank, and then i struck gold. $1.89. GetGo, i love you.

*note: one should not assume that just because i am appreciating the benefits offered by my local grocery store chain that i have forgotten about my first love: meijer. how could i forget you, meijer? with your million reasons, and your single store? never.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

goodnight, sweet prince.

last night, i came home after a long and rainy day to find my fish friend kenny lying on the rocky bottom of his bowl. i am deeply saddened by the passing of my dear pet, and am at a loss to explain the cause of death. perhaps i should have seen it coming. you may recall his suicide attempt when i last cleaned his bowl. i suppose he just lost his will to live. rest in peace, kenny.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

happy october 23, and the vertigo tour

i just remembered that it is the twenty-third of october. let us commemorate the occasion with a brief moment of silence in honor of one james robin king. (for those of you who don't know... on this fateful day in 2001, mr. king suffered a severe injury due to a tragic accident at meijer. his arm was never the same again.) here's to bobo.

in other news, last night andrew and i went to see the one and only U2 at the mellon arena in pittsburgh. it was fabulous. the opener was damian marley (a reggae band from jamaica) and they were fantastic. then the U2 set was amazing, and we were oh so close to the stage. so close, in fact that the combination of smushing, heat, dehydration, low blood sugar, and my compromised health may or may not have caused me to faint. yes, that's right, i fainted at the U2 show. oh my gosh. i suppose it's fitting: it was the vertigo tour after all. (VER-ti-go (n.): A sensation of irregular or whirling motion, either of oneself or of external objects.)
luckily, i was able to grab andrew in time, and he helped me through the crowd to safety. i remember the entire process, however vaguely, and came to within a minute or two. i'm awfully embarrassed to admit it, but i felt that i had to get the truth out there before andrew has much of a chance to circulate some rumors. i've already heard some of the blatant lies he intends to tell (most of them include a lot of beer), and so i am telling you the truth. please don't judge me.
(in his defense, however, andrew was a very good caretaker. he was very attentive, especially considering that U2 shows are arguably his favorite thing in the world.)
well, i'd love to gush about the show, but i have to get to that film discussion now. i will say this: it was a very political show, which was fabulous. they were plugging the ONE campaign (to make poverty history... go sign the petititon at www.ONE.org), among other things. if you'd like to read about it, here's a review: http://www.u2tours.com/displaymedia.src?ID=20051022&XID=8296&Return=. all right, perhaps i'll add more later. but for now, wish me luck tonight! adios!

Friday, October 21, 2005

help me

i've got a problem. this sunday night, aviance (my co-worker) and i are showing the movie crash and hosting a film discussion about racial reconciliation. i've seen the movie twice, and i think it's amazing. artistically, it's very well done. the cinematography, the writing, the acting... all great. more importantly, i think the message of the movie, that racism is still a huge problem in the united states, both individually and systemically, is very important for students to hear. i want them to think about the ways that our prejudices affect us still, even when we think we've got them under control, and to think about what our responsibility is as Christians to work for racial reconciliation and justice. we're hoping to use this film discussion as an evangelistic tool to bring a bunch of students together, and let them know that the Christians care about these things. we've advertised around campus, and we're ready to go.
what then, you may ask, is the problem? well, on wednesday night, i brought postcard invitations up to the fellowship group on campus. i passed out about a hundred invitations. the group is run by another ministry out of a local church, and i've spent the past year working with this group, building a trusting, working relationship with the leaders. it's been great. however, as i finished passing out the last few cards, the leader picked one of them up and asked me what it was. i told him about it and invited him, and he asked me if i'd read the reviews of the movie. i told him i've seen it twice, and i think it's great. he said that he's heard that it has terrible language (which it does, and some sexual content), and since he spends so much of his time trying to get the students to guard their eyes and their ears, he doesn't want to back this event. he said he wished i had asked him before i passed them out, because since the students got the invitation at his fellowship, it looks like he supports it. i hadn't even THOUGHT of that. i definitely should have asked him before i passed them out, but it didn't even occur to me, and now it's too late. i am afraid that i have compromised the relationship that i spent a year building, and i feel terrible. however, i still think that this movie is worth watching. i want to teach the students how to discern between the good and the bad, and even though this movie drops the f-bomb a whole lot of times, i still think it has a lot of great things to say. i know it's going to spark a lot of discussion, and hopefully get the students thinking about the issue of racial reconciliation. but i don't want to compromise this relationship with the other group, because i think it's really important that we learn how to work together. in john 17:20-21, jesus' last prayer for us before he was crucified, he said, "i am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. i pray that they will all be one, just as you and i are one--as you are in me, father, and i am in you. and may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me." if his last prayer was that we be unified, i think it's important that we figure out how to work together past our differences. so, what do you think? what should i do?
also, i just found this poem on my friend becky's site, and i thought it was relevant. enjoy.

There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about.

Ask “What’s possible?” not “What’s wrong?”
Keep asking.

Notice what you care about.

Assume that many others share your dreams.

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Talk to people you know.
Talk to people you don’t know.
Talk to people you never talk to.

Be intrigued by the differences you hear.
Expect to be surprised.

Treasure curiosity more than certainty.

Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible.
Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
Know that creative solutions come from new connections.
Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know.

Real listening always brings people together.
Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.
Rely on human goodness.
Stay together.

Taken from:
Wheatley, Margaret J. 2002. Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future. Berrett-Koehler: San Francisco. p. 145.

creepy

hey hey. i just got this email about this "ghost car ad." it's a modern-day ghost story, if you will. check it out. you gotta look really closely after the car goes behind the trees, and make sure you turn up the volume, or you can't hear the cameraman at the end.
http://duelingpianosconsulting.com/html/ghost_by_car.html

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

uggggh 2.0


hello again. sorry about the utter lack of posting for the past week. i've been away from the internet. this is what i've been looking at for much of the past week. this picture was taken when i was moving in to my apt. last august, but it's pretty close to the view i've been taking in lately. but, i have been out and about a little bit. i attended as much of the national youth worker's convention as i could handle here in the city, and the rest of the the time, i've been (in the words of my grandmother) making sure my couch doesn't go anywhere. the walking pneumonia is vicious. i went to bed at 8:30 on friday. in the past week, i've watched the entire lord of the rings trilogy and five discs of the second season of the o.c. i've read tons and tons, sent out a newsletter, caught up with a bunch of friends and family on the phone, and knitted half a scarf. note the common denominator of all of these activities: they can all be done from my futon. i feel like i've been quite the trooper though. i went to a lot of the conference. i only skipped the late night stuff that happened after 8, which still means i spent too much time there, according to my doctor. i'm trying to catch up, and i'm wearing myself out. i've just been instructed to take a nap on the couch in my office by my secretary. i might take her up on it. after all, fifteen middle schoolers will be here in five hours to see me. sweet dreams.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

wonderful

and we have a diagnosis: i have walking pneumonia. fantastic. i'm going home.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

kenny NO!

yesterday, i picked up kenny from the betta-sitter's, and, due to a miscommunication about proper care and feeding of a betta fish, his water was so cloudy that i couldn't even see him. so, i took him home, and as i was cleaning his bowl, he made an ill-advised suicide attempt. apparently he doesn't know what happens to a fish out of water, and instead thought it would be wise to flop pathetically in the bathroom sink. but, momma katherine to the rescue! i plugged the drain (without pinching his fins, i might add), filled the sink with water, and swooshed him to safety using a metal teaspoon from my kitchen. disaster averted. me + kenny forever.

Friday, October 07, 2005

at least it's yellow.

hello, hello. i'm back in the greater pittsburgh area, after a very successful recruiting trip to chalvin chollege and gvsu. unfortunately, i was mute for the entire time. i am in fact NOT feeling better, though sam, i do appreciate the link to the flu vaccines. i do not have a fever, and at least the filth coming out my lungs is yellow, not green (TMI, TMI). but, i'm still coughing as if it's my job, and i lost my voice on monday. i'm still attempting to squeak out meaningful communication, and my "voice" has been described in a number of unflattering ways, ranging from darth vader to a barking seal. (thanks a lot, danny and nate.) but, we're going to power through.
i'm back at work for today, and tomorrow is my day off. my plans include addressing envelopes for my newsletter and watching the majority of the second season of the o.c. any takers? huh? misery does love company. that's it for now. peace out.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

achoo, achoo, i'm even sicker.

i suppose i should update this thing. the problem is, i've been sick for a few days, and there's not really much to say. i've been camping out at my friends' house since thursday night, making sure their futon doesn't go anywhere and trying not to get anyone else sick. i can give you an overview of what i've been doing, but it's not going to be incredibly entertaining.
  • hours i've been out of this house since thursday: 3.5
  • discs of arrested development watched: two. (but there's still time.)
  • times i've checked my email: about 27. i admit that i have a problem.
  • times i've vomited in the trash can: 1
  • times i've vomited on the floor: 0. good job katherine.
  • people who had the unfortunate fate of being within earshot: 3
  • naps i've taken: 12 or 13.
  • times we've played iron and wine's trapeze swinger: at least 5. it's very good for lulling one to sleep.
  • new people i met while lying curled up on the futon with an unbelievably higher fever and cold sweats: 4

and that about covers it. thanks again to khadija, my ever-faithful nurse. and nate, aaron, dean, and anya, as always, it was lovely to talk to you yesterday. all right. perhaps it's time for one more episode of arrested development before naptime. i gotta get better before tomorrow night... gr, here i come, pulmonary infection and all. peace out.