victory.

This morning I woke up, ate some breakfast and read some Ephesians, got ready and took off for the doctors. My dad was all worried that I wouldn't know how to get there (which I didn't), so he called several times and ended up having me follow him to the pediatricians. That's right, folks. I still go to my pediatricians. I'm almost Ross. Not really -- it's just how my parents' insurance is working out right now. Know what the great thing about the pediatricians is? The nurses treat all people, babies and adults alike, as though they are delicate little sweethearts. Luckily, I AM a delicate little sweetheart. It works out. And when I say "delicate little sweetheart," I mean "wimpy little scaredy-cat." Just kidding. Kind of. Not really.

To some people, this might sound like an overstatement, but God really, really provided at the doctor's today. I didn't burst into tears, I didn't feel woozy, I didn't have to compose myself before the eye-test -- nothin.' It was like God was literally filling me with joy. When the sweet woman with the cute accent came in the door with two shots, I closed my eyes and said, "Okay. So I'm really scared. So I'm just going to close my eyes and you tell me when it's over." She paused and said, "Do you want the numb-bing spa-ray?" "... what?" "Numb-bing spa-ray. It will make your arm numb." "... oh. Oh! Yes. Sure." So she brings in the numb-bing spa-ray and I closed my eyes and it was over before I could say lickity split. I walked out of the doctor's office with my typhoid pills, a smile on my face, and a worship song in my throat. I have never EVER felt that way at the doctor's office, even for a routine checkup. Shoot, I'll get shots for Jesus anytime. Bring 'em. Jesus gave me the Holy Spirit.

yesterday and ma[i]l[e]

Yesterday. The power was out at Cornerstone so the big wake-up-early-on-Sunday-Haiti-prayer was canceled. The power was out at Barnes and Noble so my read-the-Bible-at-B&N-plan was canceled. Improvisation! I drove to Borders in San Ramon and did devos, then I bought Crazy Love. I'm really enjoying it so far. :)

Male. Nick Chavez. I hung out with him and his family. They are the digs. Not ONLY do they always treat me with delicious food and funny conversations, but since Kelly didn't show up today, Di cut my hair FO FREE. I now have shorter bangs, shorter hair, and browner short -- I'm a whole new head. :)

Mail. I got home today and saw that it CAME. It came/it came/it caaaaame! My passport arrived in the mail today. Do you know what this means? My God is a God who provides. I have been spared the test of waiting for it to arrive oh, so close to departure.

Tomorrow I will get some Haiti shots. That's all I have to say about that.

the end of an era

I watched Toy Story for the first time in theaters with my dad. I was five. I remember he laughed throughout the movie and the more he laughed the more I laughed. When we got home, I told mom all the funny parts my dad laughed at and alllll the funny parts I laughed at. I used to imitate the little green aliens with my tiny, high pitched voice...

This morning, Shelty was so gracious to watch Graham so dad and I could see Toy Story 3 in theaters. It was a little bit ironic, because we had seen it when I was little-Andy sized and now we watched it together in theaters when I was older than old-Andy -- already in college, already choosing what to keep and get rid of from childhood. I'd heard the movie was a tear-jerker, so I was prepared throughout the movie. 3/4 of the way through, I was a little disappointed. There is nothing in this movie that would make me cry. But Pixar, you got me again a little bit there at the end. Seeing the end of Toy Story was accepting that my childhood was really over. I'm not a child; I'm not a teenager -- but I value those years. The Andy years.

Time is such an interesting thing. The fact that this is my 100th blog post, for example. I sat down in front of Linus 100 times on 100 different days and wrote some momentarily significant thoughts about significantly momentary events.

After dad and I took Graham for a mini-bike ride, we made eggs in a nest and french toast.

Shelty and I went to family church and then took out Thai food at a place Matti introduced to us. Afterwards, we kidnapped Matti and played spades/spicey uno/euchre with Christine at my house. Matti and I (Team Plum Telephone Booth) lost REAL bad to Team Banana Scissors. But we ate peanut butter cups, so that makes it allll worth it.

real quick

Roommates are very good at discovering those little habits and nuances about you that everyone else doesn't notice. Kayla Johnson, for example, noticed this past year that I say "real quick" before I tell a story. I'll spare my blog the psychological analysis of the reasoning behind this. Feel free to be your own Einstein/Freud/Dr. Suess. So here, real quick, is a story.

Today I was privileged to meet another one of Nick's Biola friends, Aaron. The three of us and grandma (Erica Wondra) ate lunch at Tomatina's. It was, naturally, good times.

Now I'm hanging out with Christine at Jessica's house. We Panara'd, horrible cake-watched, and watched The Princess in the Frog. I'd consider it worthy enough to be a classic. It was well done. I liked it.

hm... "sustained" is the word

"Witnessing the Siege." Picture my family as a castle -- one of those old stone ones with a drawbridge. When I moved to college, I left that castle and build my own little castle next to the family castle. I can still see everything that's going on there, but it's not where I live. Well, circumstances have been beating my family castle pretty heavily. There are men with big wooden and stone weapony things throwing everything they've got at the walls. My family castle is crumbling, and even though I'm connected to my family's castle, I have my own now. I'm safe. Every time I've read my Bible or God has opened my heart to Him, another shovelful of dirt is removed from around my little Bethany castle and my mote gets deeper. So right now I'm looking out the little window at the men pounding away at my family's dilapidated castle, wondering what will happen to it and knowing I have no control over their circumstances. God save them.

"The Dog Complex." There is a certain bracket of time where I sit in the living room... watching the mail slot... waiting for the mailman. One day, I know, he'll deliver my passport, and all will be well. Yesterday the mailman didn't come. I think he did it on purpose.

"It is Time." Today I will make an appointment to get 7 shots. Unless I chicken out about rabies. Then it will be 4. Hoo. Okay. Well, first I'll eat lunch.

"Shelty's House." Today I'll go to Shelty's house with Nick. I'm sure we'll eat yummy food and do something fun.

And we'll stop there.

I just finished Forgotten God. I was ridiculously enthusiastic about it -- half my book is underlined. What an awesome gift, Spencer. What an awesome Gift, God.

I heard on the radio this morning that the US beat Algeria and that John Isner was in the middle of a 9 hour match in Wimbledon. "An amazing day for US sports." At this news, I got a little patriotic on the inside and, after I drove Graham home and took care of a few things, watched the US game. I held my breath for like 20 minutes. It was so legit.

Ever since "pretend this post is a concert," my blogs have been short and thoughty. Your time has been saved. As has mine. Here are some suggestions of what to do with your extra minutes: Volunteer at a soup kitchen... Create a trail mix recipe... Take the neighbors dog for a walk.

with one swift swing of the car door

I broke my phone. Luckily I never named it.

I can't read texts or see 75% of the screen. You've been warned.

the color is "ash."

Wake up in the mornin' feelin' like Beth'nyMueller. You gotta say it RUUUL fast. That's my little Bethany thing lately. It's "ruul" instead of "real." But, as with "whatever floats your boat," that too shall pass. My other phrase is "OH fur sure." But enough about me.

The day was mainly Shelty, Nick, and me at Di's house. We ate great food (Nick's on a diet), looked at modcloth dresses, and dyed my hair about 5034059835 times. It's finally auburn-brown. The original goal was an almond-y nut brown. But that was the result. I've been told it's lookin' good. Next week I cut it.

Speaking of shots, I need to schedule about as many shots as times I dyed my hair. And then not think about it. When that blessed day comes, when I'm made immune to every disease known to man and can finally be known as a semi-immortal -- I will blog heavily. Until then! And or sooner!

I like this watch from modcloth.

as I sweep glass off the driveway

Don't act like it's the end of the world unless you hear the Holy trumpet and you see that chariot blazing in the sky.

pretend this post is a concert

Take your seats. Well, hopefully you're just taking one seat. It's the folding chair kind at an outdoor venue -- you'll fit just fine.

The warm up act of this post was actually the main part of my day. But it was main for me, since I experienced it. Less interesting to read about... "you had to be there"... all that. So I present to you, the warm up band, Pink Shower Toilet! Those were my/Matt/Shelty's nicknames during a game of hearts. We had gimungous portions of thai food, went to family church, and then went back to the house that Shelty is babysitting (Bicker household). We watched the first 10 minutes of The African Queen, Shelty and Matt got bored, then we played cards, played with Weston (cutest puppy grandma baby dog EVVERRR), sifted through "would you rather" questions, and finally cut out felt symbols for a coat of arms. The latter event was for Tatti, who is leaving in the morning for Hume Lake.

And now for our main event... Bethany's Embarrassing Moment! Put your hands together! I had Haiti training today -- a three hour session about medical information, conditions, and packing. Now I'm not squeamish about blood or anything -- it really doesn't affect me. But veins (arteries, etc) really, really, REALLY make me lightheaded. The concept of a vein (and of needles going into a vein) make my eyes water. It's the weirdest thing. We were finishing up with the medical portion when Jeff started talking about pressure points -- how to stop bleeding, etc. That was no big deal until he started to explain that these pressure points were this or that vein. I felt a little lightheaded, but I ignored the feeling. I've felt squeamish before, so I just dealt. Then he started talking about a "tourniquet." I'm going to be honest, he was half-way through explaining what it was when I looked down and saw that my hand was leaving a literal steam-print on the table because I was so hot and sweating so much. Everything felt fuzzy, so finally I told myself I needed to real quick go to the lobby and put my head down, just to let the blood flow without embarrassing myself. I got up and looked down as I walked out of the room, since I couldn't really see. As soon as I turned the corner into the little back lobby, I saw a table in my semi-vision and put my hand down to steady myself, but I guess I missed because a woman appeared next to me and grabbed me as I fell, half-conscious, to the ground. I had, essentially, blacked out. She had me lay down, put a cold cloth on my head (that was the point where I could see fully), and put a cold water bottle behind my neck. She brought me some water and some fruit to munch on, since I hadn't eaten much. Then I walked nonchalantly (aka reeealll conspicuously) back into the seminar.

Not So Serious Application

I will never know what a tourniquet is. Please don't bother telling me. I am so glad that there are people in the world who are medically driven. I respect them, would love to work with them, and admire their passions. I just could never BE one of them. But really, don't tell me. Ignorance is consciousness. ;)

Serious Application

Thoughts I battled: I'm the biggest light weight ever. I can't handle the concept of a vein, why am I going to a third world country? How am I going to get shots for this?

Thoughts that conquered: This trip is for God's glory, and even if I passed out ON sight, I can still do His will and be His vessel to love on people. I've only passed out one other time, in 7th grade -- it's not a regular occurrence. I am not defined by my little weaknesses.

"and STOP!... the devil... from doing bad things?"

I had a realization today as I was tutoring Alex. Since I'm volunteering, I don't have to worry about taking up the full amount of time. Finished early? Great, I'll drop him off at his aunt's house. Why was I pressuring myself so much?

Nick came over today and we ate chickens, made iced tea, concocted brownies, talked deeply, and watched The Iron Giant. The chicken was delicious, the tea was addictive, the brownies were devoured by my dad, the talk was freeing/honest/relationship deepening, and the movie was inspiring... the bow on our package of a night.

When Nick and I first met, we honestly didn't have a lot in common on the surface. As we have gotten to know each other, we've realized how much odd stuff we both think and feel. I'm not saying we're twins or the exact same. In fact, for every thing we have in common, we have something that we differ on -- but that's us becoming our own individuals. It's great to see someone you love becoming fully who God meant them to be for his purpose, even if you can't witness the whole process. I value my creative and relatable friend.

i blog therefore i blog

That's Decartes. ;)

Isn't it funny how people record their current emotions or physical state on a blog? As if it will affect the reader in a profound way? Or even be interesting enough for said blogger to read later? Huh. Speaking of which, I'm quite tired. Are you fascinated yet? I hope you're hooked enough for the both of us. Since I'm tired and all. Have I mentioned the tiredness?

I drove Graham to and from school today (well, yesterday). That's over four hours of driving. And Graham is a DE-LIGHT to drive with. To school, I say that literally. He's tired (deja vous?) and calm. On the way home from school, noooot... so much. The DVD player wasn't working for the majority of the time, so I got a little bit of a beating. As long as you don't take it personally, though, it's not too big of a deal. I have a little less hair and a little less skin -- new weight loss strategy? Haha. .... too soon? Thank goodness Ben was there to spot me and distract Graham.

I visited Nick in San Ramon -- one of several places I would consider my not-home home. We made iced tea (Alice in Wonderland Mad Tea Party blend... which I procured at Disneyland). What if I started to italicize all of my pretentious words? Hm? We picked out the shade of brown with which I will desecrate my hair. We watched a full season of Arrested Development while doodling/photoshopping new blog headers... (Nick gets credit for photoshopping 98% of my doodle into a header)... and then I lumbered (oh yes, I lumbered) back home.

shave and a haircut - [three] bits

Bit One. I started with Alex today -- 4 hours of assessment. Tutoring Alex won't be easy; my work is definitely cut out for me. But Alex is smart and willing... so hopefully it will be worth the time. :)

Bit Two. Singin' in the Rain is a delightful movie. It's so popcorn-y. It pops.

Bit Three. Compliments. Shelty is the sweetest piece of candy in the bag. I love her joy; I'm thankful for her encouragement. Tatt is a good boy too. I disagree with him on many... many... things... and he's stubborn and intolerant sometimes... but when he actually feels like talking about things that he likes, then I get the privilege of listening to interesting thoughts and a good sense of humor.

utterly confident

Today started too slow because yesterday took far too long to end. But it doesn't matter how it started. It matters how it turned out.

I went to my first informational Haiti seminar today. They told me all sorts of things about the culture, the history, and other contextual things. I got more excited as the seminar progressed.

-Creole (or Kreyol) is a language reminiscent of French! I know some French!

-I took an entire semester of Colonial Latin America. Since it is more common for countries south of the border to view their history in a cyclical way, it's helpful to know their past for my perspective

-The missions director, Chris, asked us to examine our reasoning behind going to Haiti and I can honestly say that I'm so excited to love and serve. I'm completely there on God's behalf. The Holy Spirit is going to work-- I don't know how and I don't know when, but the Spirit will work. :)

The funny thing is that I don't have any expectations about what is specifically going to happen. I'm not emotionally high and I'm not overly excited. I'm just so confident in God and looking forward to giving myself wholly for whatever His purpose is.

let's start with yesterday

Yesterday:
Shelty watched Graham while the family went to Outback to celebrate Ben dodging the bullet and getting his diploma. (JK... mostly) The most exciting part of the day was watching Shelty talk about Graham and how she was so determined to understand him. She was so loving and attentive. How awesome.

Then Shelty, Tatt, and myself went to "family church." Its basically Tatt's church on Saturday nights. But when we go there with friends, we call it family church. This all had to be explained to Shelty's family when we went to her house afterwards.

We then watched A Beautiful Mind, which Shelty and I had never seen, but Tatt loved. We then talked about the differences in our personalities and our opinions on life, love, and God for about 3 billion years.



Today:
Our worship leader has this habit of taking old hymns and contemporizing them a little bit. Our church loves it. My grandparents had to get used to a little bit of a tempo with old favorites, though. Poor kids.

I think I'll take a cat nap and hang out with family for the rest of the day. Maybe cards? Probably television? She doesn't know.

two down.

So, Ben graduated today. And since Graham doesn't really... graduate... for real... that's pretty much it. Watching Ben's class of 2010 graduate was all good and fine -- but it reminded me how BOMB our class was. We were seriously the thing. I can't wait for some type of reunion so I can see everybody at the beginning of saving the world. I really respected my classmates. And I still see more than a 10th of them. :)

Ben and I are watching Tarzan now. :D

I ate a hostess cupcake for breakfast

and the day just kind of went from there.

My grandparents "the Muellers" are visiting. So today I got to hear them quibble (which involved grandma poking fun and grandpa... and grandpa scowling and calling her "Alice" and "Maude," which is not her real name). Grandpa told me stories about plane malfunctions he witnessed while serving in the military in Hawaii in the early 50's. I ate it up. Then we talked about how my great grandpa had a job delivering milk in a horse drawn cab. Whuuuuuuut.

Today was good. God is good. Yep. :)

the Muellers

My dad's parents are hilarious... and I'm not quite sure they know it.

Conversation One

Bethany: Grandpa, what are collared greens?

Grandpa: Ohh... you know... they're leafy... uh... black people eat them.

Grandma: Whaat?

Grandpa: I'm serious.

Grandma: Black people eat them? Everybody -- all kinds of people--

Grandpa: I'm just saying that they're known for eating them.

Grandma: They're not known for eating anything!

Grandpa: I didn't say anything wrong. You tell me where I went wrong.

Bethany: Dad, what are collared greens?

Dad: Any green plant. Anything leafy that's "colored green." Haha.

Conversation Two

Bethany: Grandpa, do you have black squirrels in Michigan?

Grandpa: Oh yeah.

Grandma: That's all we have. We see some grey squirrels and some brown squirrels... but they're mostly black.

Grandpa: "There goes the neighborhood."

Grandma: Lou.

Grandpa: Nooo... I'm just pulling your leg.

Grandma: Well, they're skinny squirrels too. And they don't have those bushy tails. They're all over the place with little skinny tails. Actually, maybe they're just rats.

... I promise my grandparents aren't racist.

a SUPER post via Castro Valley woman

When my dad wakes me up when he's in "cleaning mode," he's literally the most friendly and excited I've ever seen him. His benevolence is riiight below the mood he's in when he wakes me up on my birthday.

He told me he was having Ben take everything out of the garage, organize it, and put it back. Since my grandparents were coming, the garage apparently needed to be spotless. He asked me to do the same with the linen closet, the fridge, the kitchen cabinets, and Graham's room. I asked him if he wanted me to uproot and rearrange the trees in the backyard... but for some reason he declined.

Spencer forced me to join Google Wave. I miss Spinner a lot. Shelty, Matt, and I all agreed.

After my day of cleaning, Shelty, Matt, and I went to an A's game. We spent a lot of time laughing and watching the A's lose miserably. Poor A's. We took a picture with Stomper (aka Thumper) the Elephant and I won at the "keep track of the thing under the hat" game. Know what Matt and I decided was really funny? The fact that 30 Seconds to Mars by The Kings and the Queens make fuzzy, big-eyed owls look "fly through fire and wear ancient armor" EPIC. Hahaha

Know what I think is interesting? When reporters identify victims by their city of residence. I mean, it makes sense, to some degree. But when I hear, "The Palo Alto man was found dead in the mall parking lot..." I think of a super hero: Palo Alto man! He has superhuman strength but a slight handicap when in parking garages!

it's not red... it's lightish pink!

Christine and I went to Great America, better known to college students as Munchkin Land (Congrats, Middle School classes of 2010, by the way -- you're basically there!) . The highlights of the day were threefold:

1. Riding Top Gun (re-named Flight Deck -- thanks a lot for dumping your theme park, Paramount) twice in a row because NOBODY or their mother wants the second row. Shoot, I'll take it.

2. Sliding back and forth between seats on the river rapids ride to avoid the splooshes of water. I like to think it helped. My pants may have disagreed.

3. A theological talk on some plastic lawn chairs at Boomarang Bay whilst the very Australian song Forever (via Chris Brown) played over the faux bamboo speakers.

The title of my blog is actually from an online series about Halo, not gunna lie. But here, I'm not referencing virtual armor... but rather... well, my face. I "pish-poshed" the concept of sunscreen earlier today. Now I've got a $1 bet against Matt that I won't peel. I dissected an aloe plant as soon as I got home and smothered it on my face. I'm totally not giving up that dollar.

Finale of the day. Watching Seven Years in Tibet with Shelty and Matt and eating homemade chocolate peanut butter cups. We laughed through the slowish parts and fell in love with the Dalai Lama. The music box that played Debussy's Clair de Lune? Mmm, yes. I just love Shelty and Matt.

I'm cherry-topping my night with Glee. Goodnight, world.

driving

I drove to Lafayette to babysit a set of 2 year old twins for several hours. It took a little bit of ingenuity to keep them quiet and out of the way of daddy.

-We collected leaves, identified their colors, and then threw them into the air. A lot.

-We sword faught (sword fighted?) with sticks and then stuck leaves on the ends of the sticks. I'm not quite sure why.

-The twins closed their eyes and I threw balls around the yard. They would open their eyes and "find" the balls. It was kind of like a cutesy version of fetch.

-The rest of the day involved a lot of manual labor on my part -- a lot of pushing. Pushing the kids swings, the wagon, the tricycle..

I then picked up Graham at school in Santa Clara and drove him home.

My tiny nap was interrupted by a woman calling to confirm my Haiti trip. It all of a sudden became real. The words that I had written an hour before, "I trust You with all this money stuff" suddenly had substance. Yeesh.

I then drove down to Morgan Hill and witnessed a Guinness Book of World records amount of accidents. I'm pretty sure I got gray hairs on the way down. But it was all worth it. I got to visit the sweet and sunburnt Emilie Shrock on her 21st birthday. We had sushi, fro yo, and talked about California. She is a literal doll.

Almost Unblog-able

Things that happened: church, panda express, jamba juice, devos, the Sign of the Four (where I'm pretty sure the Great Mouse Detective was adapted from), long nap, red curry chicken, a humanities vs sciences discussion with Kevin, brief Kayla skype, Sabrina (with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart... a little bit of a black and white While You Were Sleeping), and a classic Disney movie.

It was a delightfully normal day. Almost unblog-able.

"hogarth?... might as well call him 'zeppo' or something"

We (Shelty/Matt/myself) had to do a little schedule re-arranging, since I had to watch Graham while my parents were at a seminar memorizing the Old Testament.

I cleaned like a mad hatter and took Graham on a preemptive ride. Here follows the lonnnng journey towards watching a movie:
-We couldn't watch Sabrina because Matt remembered it and "She's the maid but something happens and she goes to Paris"... which means he doesn't like it.
-Nope on The African Queen; it was skipping and jumping and doing various things that's okay on a playground but not so great in a VCR (chyeah, it was a VHS. They still exist. Bizarre, right? RIGHT?)
-TORA TORA TORA, as far as I could remember, is a good movie -- but we weren't in a foreign language "mood"
-Blockbuster put Matt on hold... then Blockbuster put Chelsea on hold... so they went to Blockbuster... and Blockbuster didn't have anything

THEN (phew) we watched The Iron Giant. One of my personal favorites. I would highly recommend this movie if you're in an animated mood. The dialogue, music, direction, animation... all superb. The history and wit behind it... AH! I could go on. I want to be friends with Hogarth Hughes. We ate homemade [not]Reeses peanut butter cups while we watched.

Ordered Top Thai. Ate red chicken curry.

Played hearts. Matt won. But then he left with Shelty and didn't close his facebook, so I got to change his status. It's the simple things in life, you know? Name that movie... that I'm thinking of...

We didn't get to do family church, but we still had family times. I think I'll try my Alice in Wonderland tea and finish The Sign of the Four (I'm reading the Sherlock Holmes books in chronological order... the ones I haven't read already, at least)

Dad and I have been getting rid of the oreos. Note how he cheats in our little game.

PS- I changed the settings so you don't have to type in things before you post a comment. I trust you. Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility.

the peacock experiment and the family movies

Let me preface this. I am a loyal fan of Macs. I have a Mac. His name is Linus.

I once saw this HP Ink commercial that I liked. It placed a nugget of inspiration in my brain, which I have only now allowed to hatch. Wall space has opened up since I took down and filed away all of my high school memories -- Europe and such as.

Here is the beginning of my little endeavor, which I will eventually tweak and hone when I get back to my Indiana dorm in all it's white-walled glory.

Tonight I went to Shelty's with Matt. We ate delicious meatballs and laughed throughout Avatar -- a movie which I had not expected to watch ever again, but quite enjoyed. But back to black and white! Because after, we made cookies and watched Casablanca. The classiest of classics. I, an avid old-movie watcher, have seen the film several times before, but not recently. Oh, I loved it all over again. I was happy as a duck.

I went to SoCal: San Diego version

Saturday Night. In San Diego, I got to MEET NEW FRIENDS/EAT CHOCOLATE/PLAY GAMES. Definitely 3 of the 5 experiences I would bring to a desert island.

Sunday. Wow, Flood is such a great church and Kevin and Spencer are great interns -- you can tell. And when I say you, I mean me. Me can tell. SPEAKING of cookie monster, Shelty and I got the beautiful privelege of working with the 3-5 year olds. We got to watch a puppet show, play games, and sing songs. Much to my chagrin, however, Hunter and Isaiah had homes and were not willing to be adopted. Memorable moments: "I'M the stepmother, and when I go to the ball, YOU have to cry." "Dear God, I pray for candy... from God. Amen." Post church included cra-zazy good burritos and many games. Mazel tov. Somewhere in the night, Shelty decided on "Bentie" as a Shelt-name for me over "BethYou." This was amidst shrieks of laughter over Matt's/Kevin's Nerts names, "Clothing" and "Tower." ALSO somewhere in there was MUCH rejoicing over Spinner's barking.

Monday. We swam. We ate sushi that cost as much as but tasted nothing like dirt. We beach combed. We went to extraordinary desserts and starred at mystery stone candles -- then we partook of cake that was something akin to mildly expensive manna. Not so much the "bread" part as the "from heaven" part. Nutella cookies and cookie dough were also made... at some point... it was kind of a blur of sugar. In a good way. Naturally. Oh. So then we went to the beach and watched the waves glow bioluminescently. Like fireworks, but from the ocean. I'm sorry, could this trip have been any cooler? Well, you might say, only if something like schools of fish were leaping out onto the shore, displaying the miraculous way that God works. Oh. Well that happened too.

Tuesday happened slow and steady... and, like a herd of turtles, Shelty, Tatti, and Bentie (that's me, world) departed. We had amazing conversation starting at 8 pm all the way up to 3 or so, when things died down as the moms were dropped off and I went home. Conversation included: at least 50 hypothetical questions, theology, dreams. Music briefly separated conversation, especially Jeff Zabel's horn honk song.

I'm so thankful for the oldies -- Spinner, Shelty, and Matty. I'm so grateful for the newsies: Kevin, Keener, and Janice.

I went to SoCal: LA version

Friday. So we jammed to Disney music and cruised on in through the gates. And when I say "cruised," I mean "we were herded amongst a throng of mickey eared tourists." California Adventure was SWEET and waaa-hayyy better than when I went like 15 thousand years ago. The animation studio? Yeah, I would live there.

And then. Disneyland. DISNEYLAND. It was full of waiting, laughing far too hard at possibly far too little (oh, but not too little), and being amaaazed at the Disney-knowledge that all the SoCal friends had. We finished a late night at the Rainbow Cafe. I would also be willing to live there. Let me know.

Saturday began the birthday times. Christine and Anna both joined club 20. How did we celebrate? People watching at the beach (quality only 2nd to the airport), Long Beach burritos, Downtown Disney souveniring, and SO much Spicey Uno at Anna's house. And the award for Best Birthday Brownies gooooess toooo....... ANNA STURRRRZ. She'd like to thank the little people and the cocoa bean.