Below are excerpts from the book 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan. These stories hit me pretty hard, so I just thought I'd share them.
Jamie Lang
When Jamie was twenty-three years old, she flew from the United States to Tanzania with $2,000 from her savings account. She planned to stay until she ran out of money, at which point she would come home.
Jamie was overwhelmed by all of the need that she encountered, so she started praying that God would allow her to make a radical difference in one person's life. After about six months, she met an eight-year-old girl at church who was carrying a baby on her back. Jamie learned that the baby's mother was dying from AIDS and that she was too weak to care for him. Jamie began to buy formula for the little boy, Junio, to provide him with the nutrition he desperately needed. At the time, he was half the size of a healthy baby.
Jamie fell in love with baby Junio. She wondered if she was being foolish - a barely twenty-four-year-old, single, white American entertaining thoughts of adopting a baby. Besides, she didn't even know if Tanzania allowed international adoptions. Eventually, he discovered that the country didn't allow international adoptions; however, because she had lived there for over six months, she could establish residency.
Before Junio's mom died from AIDS, she came to Jamie and said, 'I have heard how you are taking care of my son, and I have never known such a love. I want to be saved.' Just before she died, she said, 'I know that my son is taken care of, and I will see him in heaven someday.'
Jamie spent six months going through the adoption process and then five more months working with the American embassy to get Junio a visa. When she finally came home, she had been gone for a year and a half.
Junio is now five years old, totally healthy, and HIV negative. When Junio's mom was pregnant with him, she took a 'morning-after pill' late in her pregnancy in order to abort him. But instead it induced pre-mature labor, and because Junio was so small, no bleeding occurred during his birth. Thus, he did not contract HIV from his mother. What was intended to end his life, God used to save it.
Since adopting Junio, Jamie has gotten married, had a little girl, and is moving back to Tanzania with her family to work with Wycliffe to translate the Bible for a group that has never heard it before.
The Robynson Family
This family of five, with three kids under that age of ten, chooses to celebrate the birth of Christ in a unique way. On Christmas mornings, instead of focusing on the presents under the tree, they make pancakes, brew an urn of coffee, and head downtown. Once there, they load the coffee and food into the back of a red wagon. Then, with the eager help of their three-year-old, they pull the wagon around the mostly empty streets in search of homeless folks to offer a warm and filling breakfast on Christmas morning.
All three of the Robynson kids look forward to this time of giving a little bit of tangible love to people who otherwise would have been cold and probably without breakfast. Can you think of a better way to start the holiday that celebrates the God who is Love?
12.29.2010
12.25.2010
my miracle
when I walk this road
and I stumble and fall
I reach out for You
and trust in Your grace
there are times that I find
I can't carry it all
so I'll let You wipe
tears of sorrow from my face
I have to choice
I trust no one but You
for even in my darkest moment
Your love is unchanged
I'm desperate man
who is lose without You
but I'm desperate for You
and no one else
I'm so profoundly in need
and You meet me here
You will always be
my miracle
that You could truly know me
and still love me
that You can hold and forgive me
is a miracle
You are
my miracle
and I stumble and fall
I reach out for You
and trust in Your grace
there are times that I find
I can't carry it all
so I'll let You wipe
tears of sorrow from my face
I have to choice
I trust no one but You
for even in my darkest moment
Your love is unchanged
I'm desperate man
who is lose without You
but I'm desperate for You
and no one else
I'm so profoundly in need
and You meet me here
You will always be
my miracle
that You could truly know me
and still love me
that You can hold and forgive me
is a miracle
You are
my miracle
12.22.2010
The Man Trip - I didn't see any wind in the Windy City!
I basically spent half of our time in the car thinking of witty titles for my blog posts, so my alternate title for this one is, 'I robbed three banks in Gotham City, and Batman didn't show up.' You're welcome.
Chicago was the first serious leg of our journey. Long Island to Boston is only about five hours, but Boston to Chicago is 16. So, after we checked out Cheers and our little duck-statues park, we decided to hit the road. For whatever reason, I wasn't super excited to visit Chicago. I'd told Robby it seems like a neat place to stop, but if we wind up altering the route and going somewhere else, I wouldn't be all that upset about it. Good thing that didn't happen.
We got into town around 7a, after a sleepless night (the car wasn't arranged to its peak efficiency for comfort up to this point). Chicago was the first place where we found the joy and beauty of Hotwire. We didn't have any reservations in town, so our first stop was the nearest Starbucks so we could caff. up and make some reservations. (Little side story, working for Starbucks and traveling cross country is awesome. Every time we stopped at one to get drinks, the barista would ask where I worked, and I'd get to tell them about the road trip and my transfers, and they almost always hooked me up for being a fellow partner doing a sweet trip). With Hotwire, you get to choose how many stars you want your hotel to be, and what part of town you want to stay in, but you don't find out what hotel you'll be at until after you book. Ritzy hotels don't want to advertise rooms for $90 a night. We started in each city by checking out where the coolest and classiest bars, pubs and restaurants were, then searching that part of the city for hotels. In Chicago, that led us to reservations at the Palmer House Hilton in the North Loop, across the street from Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago. Yeah, we're classy like that.
The Palmer House is one of the original 4-star hotels; it helped set the standard for what a high-class hotel is supposed to look like. I need to get pictures from Robby, but it has one of those extravagant lobby entrances, with high painted ceilings, art everywhere, and fantastic architecture, and a killer balcony to look over the whole thing. I'm pretty sure there's a promenade somewhere. I'm not entirely sure what a promenade is, but I feel like this is the kind of place that would have one.
They graciously gave us an early check-in, which allowed us the opportunity to sneak a nap in after our overnight drive. Again, I really just need to get the pictures from the hotel instead of trying to describe it, but the rooms boast one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in (granted, trying to sleep in a car where the seat won't go down may have altered my perception) and a killer bathroom.
Post-nap, we wandered the city. Our first plan was to find some killer jazz bar, because where could be a better place to sit and enjoy and beer and some jazz than Chicago. Unfortunately, the only place we found was called Legends, I think, and it was a little too touristy, and a little too far for us to walk to at night - didn't look like it was in the best neighborhood. Thankfully, we decided to skip out on Legends later that night. From there, we wandered up to Millennium Park, which is a sweet spot, even if it is a little touristy. There's a giant water feature with a bunch of video screens behind it, so even though it's a little creepy when there's a face open it's mouth and water shoots out of the fountain, it's also very cool looking. There's also The Bean, a gigantic mirror ball, in which you get the most stereotypical, but also coolest looking, photo of yourself and everything reflected and refracted all around it. We want back later that night and got a shot of a the skyline reflected with everything lit up. As an added little treat, David Gray was performing at the stage in Millennium Park that night. It's one of the best venues I've ever been able to check out. We didn't buy tickets for the show or anything, just looked at the stage and seating as we went by. As always, I had to resist the strong urge to wander backstage and offer my services for the show; someday I hope to get to work there.
I don't know if I can even remember now all the different places we went later that night. I do remember that I don't ever recall paying more per drink than I did at a few of the places, though. As we were already downtown, and we were staying at the Hilton, we felt like pretending to be classy for part of an evening, so we went to several of the hotel bars to hang out. I'm pretty sure we were the only people making less than six figures at some of them. The coolest one we visited was The Wit, the rooftop bar down the street. They have a bunch of outdoor seating, and a fire pit that lines the patio so you get to sit right along the fire no matter where you are. All those really cool seats were taken, of course, so we had to settle for sitting at one of the indoor tables, but you still have an amazing view right out the window over the city and the park. We later went back to our hotel and paid $31 for two Long Islands. Yeah, we spent a lot of money in Chicago...
Through this trip, I've learned that the two best people to ask when you need to find good local (read, 'not touristy') place to hang out are cab drivers and bartenders. When I ask a bartender where I should visit, they tell me where they'd be if they weren't at work. This strategy led us to Wicker Park. Admittedly, we didn't really wander Wicker Park very much, and it was a little late to be exploring anyway, but we did find a place called The Southern, if I remember correctly, a cool little bar in an old garage. I think our main reason for going there was just to say we'd hung out in Wicker Park, though. On the way, we decided to go to a place called Rino, a nightclub that is apparently pretty chic (how could it not be chic, with a name like Rino?). We got there about ten minutes to 11, with a line outside, which I think is always a pretty good sign. Figuring it'd be busy and expensive I asked the bouncer about the cover, and found out that because it was a Thursday night, there wasn't even a cover, but they didn't open until 11. Then, we got inside, and found out that all vodka drinks were free until 1:30! How a place manages to make money without charging for entrance or drinks is beyond me, but it was definitely a hot little club worth visiting. It's not very big inside at all, so the bass pounds throughout the entire room, and everything is dark and mysterious with 'reserved' seating everywhere, and one of those guys in the bathroom who gets the door and offers you cologne. A sweet place to visit, but by about 1a, I was finally done, and actually wound up ditching Robby and cabbing it back to the hotel. We wanted me to stay and talk to some girl in a sundress we'd met out front. But he wound up at the hotel 30 minutes after me anyway, having sat by himself at the club until he decided to leave. I feel like I made the right decision.
The next day, before leaving town, we made an impulsive decision to visit the Art Institute. I'd never been to an art museum, and didn't think I'd be too joe-joe about the experience, but it turned out to be great! I'd have to flip through all my photos to remember all the different exhibits, but getting to see Monet and Van Gogh up close in person is freakin' awesome. It's a little crazy to look at the art and realize that it's not just a print, but the original, painted a couple hundred years ago. When in an art museum, though, remember not to step across, reach across, or lean across the little barriers they set up in front of the art; they don't like that.
And that was Chicago. An art museum is a great way to end any trip to a city, so I'd highly recommend that to anyone traveling. I'm sure I'm leaving parts out - I think that's what happens when you write about something that happened three months ago while you're jacked up on caffeine and started to get shaky 'cause you haven't eaten... But, you'll soon learn, as I did, that cities only appear to get better and better the further west you go in America. Our next 16-hour drive took us from Chicago to what was, in my opinion, the best city of the trip: Denver.
Chicago was the first serious leg of our journey. Long Island to Boston is only about five hours, but Boston to Chicago is 16. So, after we checked out Cheers and our little duck-statues park, we decided to hit the road. For whatever reason, I wasn't super excited to visit Chicago. I'd told Robby it seems like a neat place to stop, but if we wind up altering the route and going somewhere else, I wouldn't be all that upset about it. Good thing that didn't happen.
We got into town around 7a, after a sleepless night (the car wasn't arranged to its peak efficiency for comfort up to this point). Chicago was the first place where we found the joy and beauty of Hotwire. We didn't have any reservations in town, so our first stop was the nearest Starbucks so we could caff. up and make some reservations. (Little side story, working for Starbucks and traveling cross country is awesome. Every time we stopped at one to get drinks, the barista would ask where I worked, and I'd get to tell them about the road trip and my transfers, and they almost always hooked me up for being a fellow partner doing a sweet trip). With Hotwire, you get to choose how many stars you want your hotel to be, and what part of town you want to stay in, but you don't find out what hotel you'll be at until after you book. Ritzy hotels don't want to advertise rooms for $90 a night. We started in each city by checking out where the coolest and classiest bars, pubs and restaurants were, then searching that part of the city for hotels. In Chicago, that led us to reservations at the Palmer House Hilton in the North Loop, across the street from Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago. Yeah, we're classy like that.
The Palmer House is one of the original 4-star hotels; it helped set the standard for what a high-class hotel is supposed to look like. I need to get pictures from Robby, but it has one of those extravagant lobby entrances, with high painted ceilings, art everywhere, and fantastic architecture, and a killer balcony to look over the whole thing. I'm pretty sure there's a promenade somewhere. I'm not entirely sure what a promenade is, but I feel like this is the kind of place that would have one.
They graciously gave us an early check-in, which allowed us the opportunity to sneak a nap in after our overnight drive. Again, I really just need to get the pictures from the hotel instead of trying to describe it, but the rooms boast one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in (granted, trying to sleep in a car where the seat won't go down may have altered my perception) and a killer bathroom.
Post-nap, we wandered the city. Our first plan was to find some killer jazz bar, because where could be a better place to sit and enjoy and beer and some jazz than Chicago. Unfortunately, the only place we found was called Legends, I think, and it was a little too touristy, and a little too far for us to walk to at night - didn't look like it was in the best neighborhood. Thankfully, we decided to skip out on Legends later that night. From there, we wandered up to Millennium Park, which is a sweet spot, even if it is a little touristy. There's a giant water feature with a bunch of video screens behind it, so even though it's a little creepy when there's a face open it's mouth and water shoots out of the fountain, it's also very cool looking. There's also The Bean, a gigantic mirror ball, in which you get the most stereotypical, but also coolest looking, photo of yourself and everything reflected and refracted all around it. We want back later that night and got a shot of a the skyline reflected with everything lit up. As an added little treat, David Gray was performing at the stage in Millennium Park that night. It's one of the best venues I've ever been able to check out. We didn't buy tickets for the show or anything, just looked at the stage and seating as we went by. As always, I had to resist the strong urge to wander backstage and offer my services for the show; someday I hope to get to work there.
I don't know if I can even remember now all the different places we went later that night. I do remember that I don't ever recall paying more per drink than I did at a few of the places, though. As we were already downtown, and we were staying at the Hilton, we felt like pretending to be classy for part of an evening, so we went to several of the hotel bars to hang out. I'm pretty sure we were the only people making less than six figures at some of them. The coolest one we visited was The Wit, the rooftop bar down the street. They have a bunch of outdoor seating, and a fire pit that lines the patio so you get to sit right along the fire no matter where you are. All those really cool seats were taken, of course, so we had to settle for sitting at one of the indoor tables, but you still have an amazing view right out the window over the city and the park. We later went back to our hotel and paid $31 for two Long Islands. Yeah, we spent a lot of money in Chicago...
Through this trip, I've learned that the two best people to ask when you need to find good local (read, 'not touristy') place to hang out are cab drivers and bartenders. When I ask a bartender where I should visit, they tell me where they'd be if they weren't at work. This strategy led us to Wicker Park. Admittedly, we didn't really wander Wicker Park very much, and it was a little late to be exploring anyway, but we did find a place called The Southern, if I remember correctly, a cool little bar in an old garage. I think our main reason for going there was just to say we'd hung out in Wicker Park, though. On the way, we decided to go to a place called Rino, a nightclub that is apparently pretty chic (how could it not be chic, with a name like Rino?). We got there about ten minutes to 11, with a line outside, which I think is always a pretty good sign. Figuring it'd be busy and expensive I asked the bouncer about the cover, and found out that because it was a Thursday night, there wasn't even a cover, but they didn't open until 11. Then, we got inside, and found out that all vodka drinks were free until 1:30! How a place manages to make money without charging for entrance or drinks is beyond me, but it was definitely a hot little club worth visiting. It's not very big inside at all, so the bass pounds throughout the entire room, and everything is dark and mysterious with 'reserved' seating everywhere, and one of those guys in the bathroom who gets the door and offers you cologne. A sweet place to visit, but by about 1a, I was finally done, and actually wound up ditching Robby and cabbing it back to the hotel. We wanted me to stay and talk to some girl in a sundress we'd met out front. But he wound up at the hotel 30 minutes after me anyway, having sat by himself at the club until he decided to leave. I feel like I made the right decision.
The next day, before leaving town, we made an impulsive decision to visit the Art Institute. I'd never been to an art museum, and didn't think I'd be too joe-joe about the experience, but it turned out to be great! I'd have to flip through all my photos to remember all the different exhibits, but getting to see Monet and Van Gogh up close in person is freakin' awesome. It's a little crazy to look at the art and realize that it's not just a print, but the original, painted a couple hundred years ago. When in an art museum, though, remember not to step across, reach across, or lean across the little barriers they set up in front of the art; they don't like that.
And that was Chicago. An art museum is a great way to end any trip to a city, so I'd highly recommend that to anyone traveling. I'm sure I'm leaving parts out - I think that's what happens when you write about something that happened three months ago while you're jacked up on caffeine and started to get shaky 'cause you haven't eaten... But, you'll soon learn, as I did, that cities only appear to get better and better the further west you go in America. Our next 16-hour drive took us from Chicago to what was, in my opinion, the best city of the trip: Denver.
11.28.2010
The Man Trip - you like apples?
I think I forgot to label my last post, but my friend Kirsten dubiously (or appropriately) dubbed Robby's and my trip from NY to Oregon as 'The Man Trip'. I felt like it was a very fitting title.
It turns out I suck at keeping up a blog. This is either because I'm lazy, or because subconsciously I figure no one else could possibly care about my ill-advised escapades traveling from coast-to-coast. However, keeping things right on par with my usual standards, I'm delivering what I promised, just a little later than I promised it.
Next stop: Boston! City of... I don't know what Boston is the city of. My alternate title was, 'I parked my car in Harvard Yard', but that would be a lie. I parked my car at the Ramda Inn. Which was a bad idea, by the way. Robby and I figured it would be a good idea to get a hotel a little outside the city center, so we could pay less for the room. However, saving $50-100 on a hotel room doesn't mean much when you end up spending $80 on a cab in and out of downtown. Little tip for everyone: just use Hotwire, and stay downtown. That's what we did for the rest of the trip after Boston. More about that once we get to Chicago, though.
I think when we did Boston, we were still warming up; we hadn't quite hit our road routine yet (which eventually came to consist of drinking local beers, sleeping, and driving). We asked out hotel clerk where to head, and he just sent us to Harvard Square, which sounds very cool and Boston-y, so that's where we headed. The architecture is rad, exactly what you'd expect from Boston. Everything is packed tight, and everything is brick. There is even lots of cobble stone everywhere, which looks awesome. We walked around Harvard Square for a bit before we decided it was time for - what else?! - finding a sweet local pub. Our cabby had told us to find a place called Tommy Doyle's. It sounded like a good spot to hit, but what really locked it in for us was asking a cop. Some cop was just standing on the corner, doing his little beat, and when I told him we were only in town for a night and wanted a good Boston spot, he said, 'Tommy Doyle's. I'll be there in half an hour myself.' So we headed in.
They had some live music going, but I'm pretty sure it was a banjo, if I remember correctly, which isn't Irish at all. Nonetheless, we had a killer bartender who sat and BS'd with us the whole, who himself had been coast-to-coast. With a little hesitancy, I ordered bangers & mash. I'd never had it before, but I was determined to get a decidedly Irish dish. Freakin' amazing. I don't think I even knew what they were before I had them, but I will forever be a fan of bangers & mash after that. Hopefully some lame local bar won't go ruining them next time I get them.
We chilled at Tommy's for a few hours before we decided to take off. I had to run upstairs to pee before we left, and, true to his word, the cop was upstairs with his partner having a beer, which I thought was awesome. As we checked out, our bartender asked us, 'You guys showed me your IDs for the Harvard discount, right?' To which I responded, 'Yes, yes we did.' So, our night in Boston, we hit up a sweet local spot, and our bartender helped us pretend we were locals.
On the way into town, we'd passed a van of a few people who were also road tripping, did the whole writing signs thing, and eventually just wrote our numbers down. We chatted, laughed, and said we'd meet for drinks later that night. They were north of us, so we had to head out of town a little ways. Now, I've never had a rendezvous in a bar, but it's just as cool, and weird, and slightly creepy as you'd think. Rob and I walked in, not really sure who we were looking for (we'd only seen each other through windows going 75), so we sat down, called the number, and watched for whoever answered their phone. It was kind of fun to meet some random person in a bar, but at the end of the night, not worth it. It was a funny story to tell the rest of the trip, but after we had made it to Chicago and then Denver after that and we were still getting texts from the girl, she got nicknamed Crazy Andover (for the life of me I don't remember her real name), and we decided we wouldn't be doing anymore phone number exchanges.
As cool as Boston streets are to wander on foot, driving them sucks. I'm pretty sure I wound up doing at least two illegal turns and going the wrong way down a one-way that night before we finally got back tot he hotel (and no, not because I'd drank too much). We headed to Capitol Hill the next day, struggled through one of the worst parking situations I've ever been in, and finally parked to wander the streets again. If Harvard Square is cool, Capitol Hill is... boss. Sorry, I couldn't think of a better adjective to top 'cool' off the top of my head. It's hilly, and bricky, and has awesome store fronts and apartments. I would love to live in an apartment there. I'm pretty sure they were something like $2400 for a one-bedroom, though. So I probably never will.
We had made it a goal to get some sweet flasks for the trip, so we kept checking stores there, but to no avail. In retrospect, it's probably really good we didn't get them. Right as we were about to leave, I happen to look behind us and discover that we parked only two blocks away from the Cheers bar without even noticing it. So, of course, we went to the cheers bar for lunch. Now, I am aware that it's not the real bar from the show (Rob), but it was still kinda cool to head in there. I don't remember the food or beer being too memorable; really, the place is a little touristy, but they, that's it's gig. It was just cool to say we'd been there. There was a killer park across the street, so we finished lunch, wandered through the park a bit, where, by the way, we found some sweet duck statues that were completely random, and hit the road.
Boston was probably one of the least eventful stops on the trip, which is actually really sad to me, because I've wanted to go back there since the first time I went, when I was ten or eleven. But, like I said, I think we were still getting into the swing of things and learning how to really explore and appreciate a city in just one day. I'm definitely glad we made that a stop, and I can't wait to go back. Much as I expected, though, things just kept getting better as we headed west :) The next Man Trip installment will be from Chicago!
It turns out I suck at keeping up a blog. This is either because I'm lazy, or because subconsciously I figure no one else could possibly care about my ill-advised escapades traveling from coast-to-coast. However, keeping things right on par with my usual standards, I'm delivering what I promised, just a little later than I promised it.
Next stop: Boston! City of... I don't know what Boston is the city of. My alternate title was, 'I parked my car in Harvard Yard', but that would be a lie. I parked my car at the Ramda Inn. Which was a bad idea, by the way. Robby and I figured it would be a good idea to get a hotel a little outside the city center, so we could pay less for the room. However, saving $50-100 on a hotel room doesn't mean much when you end up spending $80 on a cab in and out of downtown. Little tip for everyone: just use Hotwire, and stay downtown. That's what we did for the rest of the trip after Boston. More about that once we get to Chicago, though.
I think when we did Boston, we were still warming up; we hadn't quite hit our road routine yet (which eventually came to consist of drinking local beers, sleeping, and driving). We asked out hotel clerk where to head, and he just sent us to Harvard Square, which sounds very cool and Boston-y, so that's where we headed. The architecture is rad, exactly what you'd expect from Boston. Everything is packed tight, and everything is brick. There is even lots of cobble stone everywhere, which looks awesome. We walked around Harvard Square for a bit before we decided it was time for - what else?! - finding a sweet local pub. Our cabby had told us to find a place called Tommy Doyle's. It sounded like a good spot to hit, but what really locked it in for us was asking a cop. Some cop was just standing on the corner, doing his little beat, and when I told him we were only in town for a night and wanted a good Boston spot, he said, 'Tommy Doyle's. I'll be there in half an hour myself.' So we headed in.
They had some live music going, but I'm pretty sure it was a banjo, if I remember correctly, which isn't Irish at all. Nonetheless, we had a killer bartender who sat and BS'd with us the whole, who himself had been coast-to-coast. With a little hesitancy, I ordered bangers & mash. I'd never had it before, but I was determined to get a decidedly Irish dish. Freakin' amazing. I don't think I even knew what they were before I had them, but I will forever be a fan of bangers & mash after that. Hopefully some lame local bar won't go ruining them next time I get them.
We chilled at Tommy's for a few hours before we decided to take off. I had to run upstairs to pee before we left, and, true to his word, the cop was upstairs with his partner having a beer, which I thought was awesome. As we checked out, our bartender asked us, 'You guys showed me your IDs for the Harvard discount, right?' To which I responded, 'Yes, yes we did.' So, our night in Boston, we hit up a sweet local spot, and our bartender helped us pretend we were locals.
On the way into town, we'd passed a van of a few people who were also road tripping, did the whole writing signs thing, and eventually just wrote our numbers down. We chatted, laughed, and said we'd meet for drinks later that night. They were north of us, so we had to head out of town a little ways. Now, I've never had a rendezvous in a bar, but it's just as cool, and weird, and slightly creepy as you'd think. Rob and I walked in, not really sure who we were looking for (we'd only seen each other through windows going 75), so we sat down, called the number, and watched for whoever answered their phone. It was kind of fun to meet some random person in a bar, but at the end of the night, not worth it. It was a funny story to tell the rest of the trip, but after we had made it to Chicago and then Denver after that and we were still getting texts from the girl, she got nicknamed Crazy Andover (for the life of me I don't remember her real name), and we decided we wouldn't be doing anymore phone number exchanges.
As cool as Boston streets are to wander on foot, driving them sucks. I'm pretty sure I wound up doing at least two illegal turns and going the wrong way down a one-way that night before we finally got back tot he hotel (and no, not because I'd drank too much). We headed to Capitol Hill the next day, struggled through one of the worst parking situations I've ever been in, and finally parked to wander the streets again. If Harvard Square is cool, Capitol Hill is... boss. Sorry, I couldn't think of a better adjective to top 'cool' off the top of my head. It's hilly, and bricky, and has awesome store fronts and apartments. I would love to live in an apartment there. I'm pretty sure they were something like $2400 for a one-bedroom, though. So I probably never will.
We had made it a goal to get some sweet flasks for the trip, so we kept checking stores there, but to no avail. In retrospect, it's probably really good we didn't get them. Right as we were about to leave, I happen to look behind us and discover that we parked only two blocks away from the Cheers bar without even noticing it. So, of course, we went to the cheers bar for lunch. Now, I am aware that it's not the real bar from the show (Rob), but it was still kinda cool to head in there. I don't remember the food or beer being too memorable; really, the place is a little touristy, but they, that's it's gig. It was just cool to say we'd been there. There was a killer park across the street, so we finished lunch, wandered through the park a bit, where, by the way, we found some sweet duck statues that were completely random, and hit the road.
Boston was probably one of the least eventful stops on the trip, which is actually really sad to me, because I've wanted to go back there since the first time I went, when I was ten or eleven. But, like I said, I think we were still getting into the swing of things and learning how to really explore and appreciate a city in just one day. I'm definitely glad we made that a stop, and I can't wait to go back. Much as I expected, though, things just kept getting better as we headed west :) The next Man Trip installment will be from Chicago!
10.27.2010
No Sleep in Brooklyn!
Goodness gracious, it's been a long time. If you still check my blog, then I'm sorry, Amanda :) There are several posts on the way, though...
So! Adventures in the city. It's hard to remember everything when I don't write it down as it happens. I blame Robby for keeping me too distracted. Robby is, for those of you who don't know, my boyfr...I mean, my best friend. About six or seven years ago, a group of us from high school started talking about taking this little road trip, that would start in Oregon and end in New York, hitting up ballparks along the way. The details have changed a little (it's only Robby and me, not the group, and we're not doing all the ballparks), but nonetheless, Mr. Hill flew out to NY, and we've spent the last couple days road tripping. The route will take us from NY to Boston to Chicago, and we are doing the cities right!
Our first stop has to be NYC, of course. Our buddy Jake from high school lives there, and there have been two or three times since I've been out here that he and I have tried to connect in the city, but it never works out. So finally, especially with Robby in town, it became a priority and I got some time off of work.
About four weeks ago, Jake told me he'd moved into a penthouse in Brooklyn. Now, there are penthouses in Brooklyn, then there are penthouses in Brooklyn, so I was pretty intrigued to see which he lived in. I don't even remember what night of the week it was that we headed to town, probably Saturday. Either way, that night, Jake was painting at a loft party a buddy of his was throwing. Jake does a lot of live painting, which if you've never seen done, you need to. The artist has a blank canvas onstage, and throughout the night as bands are performing, he works on the painting. It's one of the few times you get to watch the creation of a piece of art completely from beginning to end. It's freakin' rad! If I can find a good picture of the finished piece, I'll be sure to put that up, especially since Robby and I both posed for it. It's a collage of faces, profiles, and bodies. It looks very cool. Rob and I were going to try to buy it, but some guy had already shelled out $600 cash for it before we even asked. Yeah, it's that kind of party.
The show itself was great. A couple of really good local bands, lots of cool people to chat with, and this guy's loft was sick. However, having worked, not slept, and been out every night since Robby had gotten to town, I was done pretty early, at about 1a, and was desperate to get back to Jake's apartment. I was warned there might be an after party at his place, but I didn't even care, so as soon as Robby and Jake's roommate left Jake's to go back to the show, I crashed right out. Stripped down to the skivvies and passed out on Jake's couch. Until about 3 or 4a, that is, when about a dozen freakin' people showed up! So I wound up getting up, getting dressed, and attempting to be social until 5 or 6 that morning, when things started winding down and the few remaining people started finding their sleeping spots. Based on this experience, I've decided I will most definitely attend any loft party I ever get invited to in Brooklyn.
Needless to say, we started a bit slow the next day. One of the first things I did was to step out onto Jake's patio (did I mention the entire roof is decked, and it wraps around, and that's Jake's patio?) to check out the view. The interior of the apartment is clean, super spacious, hardwood floors, with three or four bedrooms. It's killer. The view from outside? You can see Staten Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the skyline. And on the other side there's a famous cemetery, Greenwood Cemetery, maybe. Jake's place is decidedly the good kind of Brooklyn penthouse.
While we were out and about in the neighborhood, we got a chance to check out some great local spots. We stepped into a café that could have been on any corner of northeast Portland, and met three other people from Oregon in there! After coffee, Jake had to take off to some work done, leaving Robby and me to fend for ourselves on the mean streets of Brooklyn. The mean streets of Brooklyn, by the way, are not all that mean. We found Roots, a café Jake frequents, grabbed some breakfast burritos, and made our way to the subway to head into the city.
It was fun to take Rob on his first spelunking expedition into the subway system. One thing that's funny about NYC subs is that they don't operate on a schedule. Other public transit systems have schedules posted, or signs indicating 'On Time' or 'Five minutes late'. No such thing exists for the subway. We found our station, found where to make a transfer, and then had nothing to do but sit and wait for the next train, and hope that no one too awkward or disagreeable tried to talk to us.
There were only a couple of things I hadn't already scoped out, so we took the train straight to Ground Zero to start out, one of my obligatory destinations. Couple of funny things about Ground Zero on this particular day: on the train, Robby asked if it rains a lot in New York, to which I responded, 'Hardly at all since I've been here.' As we got off the train, it was pouring. I mean, if you didn't have an umbrella, it would be a matter of minutes before your clothes were merely sponges. Also, a group of protestors had decided to do what they do - protest - on that morning. So we got off the subway to pouring rain and ignorant... I mean, angry protestors, not to mention the cop presence. Everything at Ground Zero is boarded off for 'construction' anyway (not that any construction has actually happened there in the last nine years). So, I'm glad to have been there, but it wasn't exactly the powerful experience I thought it could have been.
From Ground Zero, we walked our way around soggy Manhattan, so I could show Robby many of the famous spots of the city. A lot of them were the ones I'd already visited: Rockefeller Center, Columbus Circle, Central Park (and I actually made it to The Great Lawn this time!), etc. We spent some time wandering through the Marriot in Times Square, too, but I'm pretty sure the bathroom Steve wanted us to visit doesn't exist anymore. The other place we hit up was the Village; I guess my brother-in-law Steve lived there in college, and after visiting the Village, I finally understand why he loves the city so much. If I ever move to NY again, I will live in the Village.
We had a long, wandering day around Manhattan before we finally made it back to the LIRR, and got back to Long Island around nine that evening. I'm sure there are things I've left out of the day, but I'm finishing this story two months after all this happened, so I think I'm okay with that. I need to collect photos from Robby's camera next time I see him, and then photos of the adventure will be up on Facebook.
10.20.2010
There's no place like home...
I'm entirely too tired right now to come up with a better title for this, but nonetheless, it has occurred to me that if I'm going to use movie titles as references, I need to start using much more manly ones than Sex and the City or The Wizard of Oz.
Anyway, I know the number of people who even noticed my blog was even more inactive than usual is slightly smaller than the number of people who noticed when Katherine Heigl starred in Zyzzyx Road. But for those of you who did, this one's for you.
I'll start with the good news: I'm posting from my Mac! About seven weeks ago, my MacBook Pro mysteriously ceased to function (a lot like Sarah Palin when she joined Fox News). I was very distressed, thinking I'd lost my hard drive. I finally had my buddy Adam work on it, and he not only narrowed down the problem to my motherboard instead of the hard drive, he even backed it up for me. Then, after taking the computer to Connecting Point, they informed me that the issue was covered under warranty! So about a week ago, I got my computer back completely repaired for free, instead of paying $2k for a new computer or $900 for a new motherboard!
Now for the other good news: I'm back on the West Coast! I got back to Oregon after an epic, expensive, and possibly ill-advised road trip with my best friend Robby Hill. I've got a couple blogs I started working on that I have to finish, so I'll try to have some regular posts recapping that trip in the next couple weeks. Let's just say by day two we stopped staying in any hotels that weren't at least four star, we've sampled more local microbrews from across the country than I'd ever even heard of, and we spent more than ten times on the drive back to Oregon than I did on the way to New York.
Without getting into too much detail, at the end of the summer, I spent a lot of time considering what I'd accomplished (and could look forward to accomplishing) in New York, and what my opportunities in Oregon would be, and I felt like God wanted me here. I have a great church family here (not to mention real family), I'm helping start a new young adult ministry at that church, Living Waters, and I feel like I'm moving forward with a lot of things. I couldn't be happier to have stayed in NY for a while and seen my family, and I'm glad I took the opportunity when I had it. I may still wind up back in New York later. But for now, I plan on doing some more traveling that God's laid on my heart over the next year or so, and using Oregon as a home base for doing that.
So that's my belated mini-update. Like I said, hopefully I'll have some fun stories worth reading up in the next couple days. And if things go as I hope they will, I will have plenty of very, very exciting things to be writing about over the next several months. Thanks to all who've kept in touch and supported me with everything!
Anyway, I know the number of people who even noticed my blog was even more inactive than usual is slightly smaller than the number of people who noticed when Katherine Heigl starred in Zyzzyx Road. But for those of you who did, this one's for you.
I'll start with the good news: I'm posting from my Mac! About seven weeks ago, my MacBook Pro mysteriously ceased to function (a lot like Sarah Palin when she joined Fox News). I was very distressed, thinking I'd lost my hard drive. I finally had my buddy Adam work on it, and he not only narrowed down the problem to my motherboard instead of the hard drive, he even backed it up for me. Then, after taking the computer to Connecting Point, they informed me that the issue was covered under warranty! So about a week ago, I got my computer back completely repaired for free, instead of paying $2k for a new computer or $900 for a new motherboard!
Now for the other good news: I'm back on the West Coast! I got back to Oregon after an epic, expensive, and possibly ill-advised road trip with my best friend Robby Hill. I've got a couple blogs I started working on that I have to finish, so I'll try to have some regular posts recapping that trip in the next couple weeks. Let's just say by day two we stopped staying in any hotels that weren't at least four star, we've sampled more local microbrews from across the country than I'd ever even heard of, and we spent more than ten times on the drive back to Oregon than I did on the way to New York.
Without getting into too much detail, at the end of the summer, I spent a lot of time considering what I'd accomplished (and could look forward to accomplishing) in New York, and what my opportunities in Oregon would be, and I felt like God wanted me here. I have a great church family here (not to mention real family), I'm helping start a new young adult ministry at that church, Living Waters, and I feel like I'm moving forward with a lot of things. I couldn't be happier to have stayed in NY for a while and seen my family, and I'm glad I took the opportunity when I had it. I may still wind up back in New York later. But for now, I plan on doing some more traveling that God's laid on my heart over the next year or so, and using Oregon as a home base for doing that.
So that's my belated mini-update. Like I said, hopefully I'll have some fun stories worth reading up in the next couple days. And if things go as I hope they will, I will have plenty of very, very exciting things to be writing about over the next several months. Thanks to all who've kept in touch and supported me with everything!
7.28.2010
The Wisdom and Scope of Whose Plan?
As I wrote in my last post, I've been spending quite a bit of time lately processing what the next step in my life is going to be. Most of us have, and all of us will go through points in our lives when these decisions and opportunities present themselves to us. But what is our response?
Ephesians 3:14 came to mind last time I spent some time thinking about it: 'When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plans, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father...' I was reflecting on that for a few minutes, when the thought came to my mind, 'It's the wisdom and scope of God's plan.'
My amazing mother wrote me a letter last week. In it she asked, 'So what are those things that are most important to you: School? Ministry? Relationship?' That question helped me to narrow my focus and choices. But as I tried to look beyond this summer, this year, the next five years, the thought became (as it often does) overwhelming. Not in resignation, but in an attempt at surrender, I simply said, 'God, what do you want?'
That thought shouldn't be new to any Christian. But it clicked something for me. So often, we make decisions based on what we want or what is important to us right at the time. But it's not our ability to plan that God wants. It is God's plan that should overwhelm us and bring us to our knees. What if we set our own ideas aside, and simply asked God, 'What do you want?'
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