Happy Halloween

A few pics from the on-campus Halloween festival last week. All the student organizations have booths with games and candy for kids of the community. For one night the dorm quad is transformed into a colorful, costumed sea of kids! We are located in a rough part of town where it wouldn't be safe for these kids to trick-or-treat.

Alice in Wonderland, Where's Waldo, the Wendy's girl, Minnie Mouse

an old lady, Nancy Drew, cowgirl, an acrobat

Thrift

-verb
1. To adventure through a dusty haze on a quest for treasure, sort through mounds of clothes, search for potential among all things out-dated and weary.

usage examples: This afternoon I thrifted with a couple students. When I thrift I feel like a detective and an artist all at once. Thrifting is a fun and cheap way to find great clothes and houseware items. (ok grammar nazi's, so the last example "thrifting" is used in a noun form)

I recently discovered the Birmingham thrift storm scene. Let me tell you, there are some real gems. My recovering-from-20plus-years-of-Florida-living wardrobe is happily more winter friendly these days thanks to these thrift stores. Found some great items I've been needing. And a couple Saturdays ago, I thrifted alone and found a beautiful window leaning in a corner with a $4 price tag slapped on the corner. This window has now found a home on my wall. I enjoy finding new and pretty ways use to use the old discarded items.

the little things

Glimpses of a few fun-filled days with my dear friend, Allison:



My favorite B'ham coffee shop - Urban Standard Delicious, STRONG, local, french press coffee. Fresh goat cheese salads, autumn-ish soups (apple, squash, etc), flavorful paninies, and (the deal-clincher) gooey moist cupcakes (confession: I regularly crave the red velvet wonderfulness)



Peevine Falls. 5 miles round trip hike at Oak Mountain State Park. A beautiful jaunt up the mountain. Time to just walk and listen to whispering breeze, a chance to talk about life and families, moments to laugh at each other as we slipped on leaves and tripped over roots. I'd hiked to this waterfall a couple months ago and it was literally a dribble over a cliff. But after all the rain I have complained about, the trickle was transformed into a coursing, roaring, misty force.



Orange cranberry scone and jasmine green tea from the The Continental Bakery



Soaking up the atmosphere of this cute bakery on my birthday. These are the moments that our little girl selves dreamed about...



Today I am thankful for real touch, rolling laughter, shared food, raw questions, a lovely few days of honesty and craziness.

for your enjoyment.. random movie recommendation

Away We Go starts where most "happily ever after" stories end: Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) are desperately in love and committed to each other (in word, at least; she refuses to get married). Yet, the fears and decisions unleashed in the midst of excitement over a surprise pregnancy throw them into a state of confusion. In one scene, they huddle on the couch in candle light (their ridiculously old space heater blew the electrical fuse) surrounding by tattered home decor and the stark realization that at thirty-four and thirty-three years old their lives are far from put-together. Her parents are dead, his are crazy (seriously). With unstable jobs and a wealth of insecurity, Verona and Bert wonder how they can possibly be good parents.

So, they travel in search of the "perfect" place to raise their child. Visits to family and friends expose a wide range of family situations, some clearly bad parents, others struggling through the pain of miscarriage, a spouse leaving, etc. One moment we viewers buckle over at hysterical parodies, the next we weep at heart-breaking realities. Yet, there is something quite beautiful and freeing as Veronica and Burt see that in a sense they, themselves, are everything they fear and cannot offer their child a perfect world. There is a beautiful scene where they lay on a trampoline in a friend's backyard and make random promises to each other about how they want to raise their daughter... well-versed in Mississippi lore, non-weight obsessed, etc. It's a rambling story, peppered with quirky dialogue and unforgettable characters.

Quite a creative bunch joined forces for this project. The movie is directed by Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition, American Beauty, Revolutionary Road, among others). The music of Alexi Murdoch bathed little moments in unassuming warmth. Dave Eggers wrote the screenplay, along with his wife, Vendela Vida. Watch out world, Eggers is a force to be reckoned with. I first fell in love with his writing a few year ago in his daring, hilarious, honest memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Brilliant book on so many levels. (side note: Eggers also wrote the screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are which comes out next week! Can't wait!).

coming up for air

I predict tomorrow will be a cough-drop-free day. The first in over three weeks. It's the little things that make me very thankful.

Like the weather. Rain finally gone. Autumn seems settled in to stay, I think. I hope.

Spent this past weekend with over thirty students at a lake house for our fall retreat. I'd been told it was an amazing house - sleeps twenty-five easily (we had thirty-five, so some students slept on air mattresses and couches) and has been featured in Southern Living on multiple occasions - so I tried to conjure up my wildest imagination of a breathtaking lake house.
For once, reality exceeded my expectations. I cannot begin to describe the home.... colossal yet quaint, its opulence somehow displayed with an unassuming southern antique flare. We had a great time.



Recently ran across a well-known hymn whose words have been encouraging to me in the midst of sickness, an insanely busy schedule, and many decisions... just a couple of the verses:

This is my Father's world.
O let me ne'er forget:
That though the world seems oft' so wrong
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world,
The battle is not done
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And the earth and heaven be one.

This is my Father's world.
Should my heart be ever sad?
The Lord is King - let the heavens ring.
God reigns, let the earth be glad.
This is my Father's world.
Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.
No place but is holy ground.




I love that line for dear to God is the earth Christ trod.

The case of the unfortunate weather mix-up

I have a hunch. We are living in the midst of an unsanctioned weather mix-up. Now, why Seattle would want to give up its drizzly claim to fame, I have no idea. But, none-the-less, they have been having sunshine and 0-10% chance of showers and here in little ol' Bham have had two weeks straight of rain. I am tired of wearing my raincoat. Damp umbrella aroma lingers in my car.

But a few days ago, as I drove home from campus, a little sun peeked through and gave us a rainbow. Funny, how the ribbon of color seems an after-thought tossed against golden twilight. Beauty that I cannot finger whispers all shall be well.

Honestly, we have had a few other breaks from the gloom and gray. Like the morning/early afterrnoon on Labor Day when we went to a nearby lake with students (see pictures below). The past two weeks have been a whirlwind... new faces, big questions, hard decisions, raw conversations, the routine, the mess. But somehow God shows up in the everyday little things, among rain-spattered windshields. And I suppose the weather, like most things I deem frustratingly out of hand, is quite under control.

good song

Fall is in the air. A crunchy freshness, buoyant in its affront on oppressive summer. Summer hangs, winter sleeps, spring bursts, but autumn flutters in. Fitting, since classes started last week, for rain to sweep summer under the carpet until next year. Lots of new faces. So many stories.

Listening to this song tonight.

The Cure for Pain - Jon Foreman

I'm not sure why it always flows downhill
Why broken cisterns never could stay filled
I've spent ten years singing gravity away
But the water keeps on falling from the sky

And here tonight while the stars are blacking out
With every hope and dream I've ever had in doubt
I've spent ten years trying to sing these doubts away
But the water keeps on falling from my eyes

And heaven knows... heaven knows
I've tried to find a cure for the pain
Oh my Lord, to suffer like you do
It would be a lie to run away

So blood is fire pulsing through our veins
We're either riders or fools behind the reins
I've spent ten years trying to sing it all away
But the water keeps on falling from my tries