Passing on my Childhood

One of the things my family always does around Christmas is to decorate gingerbread cookies. Last year, since I knew I wasn't going to be home in time to do it with my family, I did it on my own with friends from Church. This year I made them again, and decorated them with two different groups.

The first I did with the Palladinos. At four and six years old respectively, Diego and Sierra were old enough to enjoy it, but it was quite an adventure. I think that they ate more candy than they put on the cookies -- and it would be a mistake to say that any of their cookies were low on candy. Their results weren't fancy, but they seemed very proud of their creations.

The second group was with the Kennedys. At fourth grade and sixth grade, Amanda and Tarin were capable of doing a bit more sophisticated patterns on the cookies. A substantially percentage of their candy ended up on the cookies. I think this was largely due to the fact that they felt they needed excuses to eat the candy. For instance, if two chocolate chips were stuck together, or if a cinnamon candy was the wrong shape or size for their purpose, or making sure that a thick layer of frosting didn't harden on the knife.

Early on, Amanda and Tarin got into a competitive spirit about how many cookies each had decorated. I had made three giant angel cookies (over twice the size of the next largest cookie shape). Amanda was the first to decorate one, and informed Tarin that it counted as three cookies, thus putting her well in the lead. Tarin was quick to counter with a point that Amanda agreed to: "No, it needs to count as one cookie so that when Mom tells us we can only have one..."

Gift Exchange

Last night my home group had a Christmas dinner. As part of it we did a white elephant gift exchange. The first gift opened was the holiday edition of Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. It has some useful advice in it such as "How to get rid of carolers" (answer the door wearing a towel). As things got more and more frantic in the gift exchange, the joke came about that one of the tips in the guide was "How to survive a gift exchange and end up with the gift you want." I ended up with the guide, and I have a feeling this won't be the last gift exchange the book ends up in this Christmas...

And so this is Christmas?

Yesterday I was driving somewhere, enjoying the warm weather with my windows down, while listening to Christmas music. Something about that just didn't seem to fit. I guess that's just part of Southern California.

Thanksgiving Finale

After all of the chaos and stress of having my return flight canceled, I would have thought that the story was over. Now, I could mention the extra opportunities this gave me, like the extra two days with my aunt, uncle, and cousins -- or getting to enjoy a dinner with Liz and Dan. That stuff, however, probably isn't all that interesting to read about, so I'll skip ahead to other things.

After getting a few days of snow in Seattle on Sunday and Monday, it warmed up enough for the snow to start melting, so that it could freeze over again as ice all over the roads. While this may be normal in Minnesota, in Seattle they have more trouble dealing with it. The news Tuesday morning recommended that people stay home if at all possible, or, if that was not possible, to allow as much as four hours for a normal commute, time which we did not have. Fortunately we got lucky and the thirty minute drive only took us an hour.

Once at the airport I checked in, and they informed me that although I had a reservation, there was no seat available for my flight from Seattle to LA. Somehow that didn't surprise me too much. I asked what else they had available, and the women cautiously started to suggest something. The way she was saying it prepared me for the worst. I began to mentally prepare myself for a long day at the airport, if not a few more days in Seattle. What she said surprised me:

"If you don't mind, we could put you on the direct flight to Santa Barbara. It will get you in at around 11am instead of 3:30pm."

It stunned me. I gladly accepted and then began to wonder how she possibly could have thought that I would have preferred two flights with a two hour layover in LA. As much as I love airports, and LAX in particular...

The rest of the trip was comparatively smooth.

An Inconvenient Snowfall

As stated in my last post, I am in Seattle a bit longer than I had expected to be. Some of us were planning to go to a showing of An Inconvenient Truth tonight. I've been wanting to see it, and it seemed like the opportunity was there.

Well, tonight it started to snow, so we've decided that the truth is, it is too inconvenient for us to go see the movie. Instead of seeing the movie, we are going to practice the message of the movie by not driving to go see it.

Thanksgiving Surprises

This year for Thanksgiving I flew to Seattle where my Aunt and Uncle were hosting my parents. By design, my parents were unaware that I was going to be joining them. To make it a little more exciting, I haven't been with my parents for Thanksgiving since 1999 when I was in High School. It certainly took some doing, but the surprise element was successful, and it was pure joy the moment that I revealed myself to my Mom in particular.

I was, however, on the other end of a surprise too. About an hour before I left for the airport to fly up to Seattle, I printed out my itinerary from a flight reminder email (Does travel actually slip some people's minds?). It was at this time that I noticed my itinerary was a bit different than it had been when I bought the tickets. See if you can spot the error:

Wednesday:
SBA -> LAX
LAX -> SEA

Sunday:
LAX -> SBA

My return flight from Seattle to LA was missing! They did, however, still have my flight from LA to Santa Barbara. All I needed to do was get from Seattle to LA on my own... I started hoping that this was just an error in the email that was sent, and called up Orbitz, where I had purchased the tickets. The women on the phone was polite, and told me that she needed to call up American Airlines, where the ticket package was from. I soon envisioned that the following was going on:

Me - On hold with Orbitz.
Orbitz - On hold with American Airlines.
American Airlines - On hold with Alaska Airlines (the operator of the actual flight).
Alaska Airlines - Looking up the information.

Eventually they got back to me and informed me that my flight had been canceled. I thought that it was considerate of them not to trouble me with little details like that, nor automatically schedule me into another flight with the potential to conflict with my schedule. In any case they were helpful enough to inform me of the few options available on the day before Thanksgiving. The two choices closest to my original date were leaving Saturday morning, or Tuesday morning...

To those in Santa Barbara, see you on Tuesday.

Of Soups and Cars

On Thursday my home group had a potluck dinner before our study. Everyone was supposed to bring either a soup or a salad. I chose to bring a soup. I came home from work a bit early and made a pot of soup. I then realized that I had a very hot pot full of soup that I really didn't want to spill inside of my car. I placed it at the foot of the passenger seat of my car, then proceeded to drive as gently as possible to home group. At the first light, I wanted to turn right. There were several opportunities when I could have made it, but I didn't want to accelerate as fast as it would take, so I continued to wait.

I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be ironic if of all the times I'm out driving, I had a collision while I'm specifically trying to avoid any extra bumps?" Then it happened, someone rear ended me as I sat at the stoplight. Fortunately it wasn't hard at all, but it was enough to make me worry about the soup... and then the back of my car. I put on my hazards, then got out and talked to the man. I got his contact information, and took a look at my bumper. It was hard to see in the dark, but I could tell there were at least some minor scratches. There clearly wasn't any massive damage to the rear of the car, so I went on to home group.

Once I got to home group, I was able to take a better look at it. I drive a Saturn, so some of you may wonder how Saturn's dent-resistant paneling held up. Now that I have had some experience I can say with a degree of certainty that it does not dent. No, the paneling breaks. I am now the "proud" owner of a few holes in my bumper.

Goodbye Mark

Mark, one of the men I share an apartment with, is moving out over a little thing like leaving town. Anyway, it means that unfortunately, less than a year after we moved into this place, we are either going to need to move yet again, or find a new third person to move in with us. I am greatly hoping that it will be a new roommate, because I'm not much in the mood to move again.

James 3:1-12

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

We studied this in my home group last week. Also, as is the custom in my Church, we received teaching on it on Sunday. As a result, I've been thinking about it quite a bit over the last week or so.

• How often have I let a few words spoken in haste deeply affect my thoughts and actions?
• How often have a deeply hurt someone or destroyed a friendship by words spoken in anger?
• How many times have simple words of encouragement been all I needed to accomplish something I never thought I was capable of?
• What paths in my life have been shaped simply by the challenging words of someone I respected?

I can think of so many ways that simple words have shaped my life for better or worse. I probably never would have done LAUP if it wasn't for the challenge and encouragement of several friends. I can think of too many friendships that have been deeply hurt by stupid words that I never should have said ... or that they never should have said - usually some of each. It is only by the grace of God that any relationship is ever able to outlast the power of the tongue.

Almost Humorous Conversation

I'll should qualify the title a bit. The conversation could have (but didn't happen). If it had happened, it would have been funny.

Setup: A close friend of mine in Santa Barbara just got engaged. He is also a big Cardinals fan. I talked to him on Saturday, at which point he was engaged and the Cardinals had won the World Series, neither of which I yet knew. If I had known about the Cardinals winning the World Series, it is quite possible the following conversation could have occurred:

Me: Congratulations! (Meaning the Cardinals)
Joel: Thanks, but how did you find out. (Thinking I meant the engagement but not knowing how I could possibly know yet because they hadn't told much of anyone outside of their families yet.)
Me: Um... isn't it public information?
Joel: Really?!? I didn't realize.
Me: Come on, it's all over the Internet.
Joel: ... (Confused silence)