The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

http://www.worstpreviews.com/trailer.php?id=92&item=0

disregard the "worst previews" ...it's one of the few links that worked and came out clear.

also, get excited!!

chicago and 21

free hugs and "home for christmas"
they offer
he begs, hopes
sitting on newspaper
with soaked-through shoes
Ezekiel in Starbucks and gloves on feet
in the midst of dry bones
"home for christmas" and happy birthdays
snow and snow and snow
am i really any different?
only a child of the Creator,
and that is enough.

love and love
and home for christmas.

books.

this is my bookshelf:

I haven't read all the books in it yet. I think this is okay? but some, I've read into the double digits.

Anne of Green Gables reminds me of Jenna, Julie, and Abby. I found it in the children's section at Half Price Books. It even has pictures in it. And I love it.

The Dharma Bums is my link to Shannon, my fellow barista/Starbucks extraordinaire.

So what if there's a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms?

And two full copies of the entire Chronicles of Narnia?








some of them are children's books, some are theology, classics, or maybe just favorites. But I think I figured out what I want to do... I want to have my own bookstore with a cafe, and I want kids to come in and sit for hours reading, beginning to appreciate literature, expanding their knowledge, riding across America with Kerouac, discovering Narnia with Lucy. Journeying from Savannah to London to Africa to Seattle, and maybe even out of this world. I want it to be like a library, where they can grab a book off the shelf, read a bit, and put it back when they're finished. They don't have to buy any books, but maybe once they've read a certain one a few times, they'll decide it's time. Time to have a fresh one to be personalized; to be worn, underlined, and distinct. To fill someone else's shelf.

spurgeon just rocked my world.

wow. you need to go buy CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening. Here is today's Morning (it's long but I just had to copy the whole thing):

The LORD is a jealous...God. Nahum 1:2
Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did He choose you? He can't bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He can't endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would not stop in heaven without you; He would sooner die than have you perish, and He can't endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He can't bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always freely available to you. When we lean upon Him, He is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend--worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, He is displeased, and will chasten us that He may bring us to Himself. He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret communication with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. He would preferably have us abide in Him, and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials which He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon Himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care this much about our love, we may be sure that He won't allow anything to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies. Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!

true confession

you know when you're having a bad day, or even just an off day? and people say things to you like, "You know, it's okay to smile." Well, things like that just make me more upset or pised, or wanting to punch that person in the face. Sorry, a little extreme, I know... but when it's some random person who comes into Starbucks and I am making his $4 latte and for those 3 minutes I am not smiling (because making a latte is really not that exciting) and he tells me it's okay if I smile, I kind of just want to throw the latte in his face.
don't judge me please..

The other day I found out that my parents had our dog put down, and didn't actually take him to a farm like they had told us. I haven't had a dog since 3rd grade, and I just found out about this 4 days ago. Maybe you're thinking, "Well, the whole 'going to the farm' scenario has been used countless times and you should have caught on" but I was 9 years old people! And now I am 20. While it is kind of hilarious that I'm just now finding out, it's also pretty sad... and this is what I wanted to scream at the guy who told me to smile at Starbucks.

just thoughts

i wish that we didn't have to take GECs (or GenEds) in college. i like learning. call me a nerd or whatever, but it's true. i loved when the scholastic book thingie came in elementary school and you could order books. i remember one time i ordered the little house on the prairie set, and when it came other kids made fun of me because they were big books. this was in the first grade, and apparently reading was NOT cool in the slightest bit. but, like i said, i am and have been somewhat of a nerd. so back to GECs. i thought i went to college to learn? to take classes in literature, folklore, art, the history that i haven't yet learned, theology, archaeology.. but instead i have to take useless classes that are only a repeat of what i did for four years in high school. is the only reason to go to college now just to get a job? what about actually learning? why can't i take all the classes i'm interested in? the thing that kills me the most is that if i wanted to take more classes (that is after i'm through with all the ones i need to graduate) i'd have to be in school longer than necessary, and pay more money to do it.

so this turned into a bit of a rant. oops. all i'm saying is, i love college, but i wish that the general classes i took in high school counted towards something other than a transcript.. and that i didn't have to repeat them in college. just let me learn!

things that bring me joy...

the smell of gasoline from boats.. and all the memories that come with that smell.

the Outpost

hello, blogspot.

so, i have decided to start one of these blogspot things. apparently xanga is no longer the right thing to use.. it's so hard to keep up.
preface: i don't really know what this is going to be like, other than just things I'm thinking, reading, seeing.

lately i have been having a lot of those "out of your body" moments. the kind where you feel like you're outside of yourself, watching from above or something. the kind where you know that this moment is being seared into your memory forever. and i've been remembering a lot of those moments as well. i've heard that smell is the sense most associated with memory, and i completely agree. but i also know the other senses play a pivotal part in memory. for example:

the nites that my parents would go out when i was young--i will never forget the sound of my mom's heels on the linoleum kitchen floor. or smelling in her Chanel No. 5 as I would sit on my mom's bed and watch her put on her jewelry. or the way she would just touch her cheek to mine so that she wouldn't smear her lipstick.

standing in the Aegean Sea and watching the Sun come up, feeling the smooth, algae-covered rocks under my feet and how cold the water was. or the musty smell of the Sistine Chapel.

standing inside the Outpost at Saranac, watching people walk by outside, smiling and laughing. but not hearing them because the windows were shut.

the warmth of someone's hand on my shoulder and the sound of sniffling noses as we huddled around Karl and prayed for him, as one body united under the Name of Christ.

the way concrete smells when it rains on a hot day. and then running and dancing around the ark in the rain with katie.

the way my hands smell like bleach and my hair reeks of french fries after leaving the k.

how to me, pipe tobacco and worn cardigan sweaters means my granddad.

how all i could think when i watched meg being baptized was "new creation, new creation"