fiftyeight. september 10, 2010. "life."

my roommate is engaged! it's great news. they're both such kind and lovely people.

fun facts:

last summer i had a flat tire, and discovered it in the middle of my day at work. i called a friend who was unemployed to see if she could help me figure it out at that time of day, but she had a job interview. she called this other guy who was also unemployed at the time, and i had only really met him the night before. we didn't know each other. at all. but he drove all the way out to my job (a 20 or so minute drive), and tried to help me change my tire. a stranger.

a few days later i learned he was moving, so i decided i wanted to help him out. i was so thankful for his help. i noticed he had some frank lloyd wright posters hanging around, which just so happens to be my sister's favorite architect. at one point we were sitting around waiting for lunch or something, and i told my friend "this guy is so nice. and he likes frank lloyd wright. if my sister lived here, i would make them date." she chuckled.

a week or so later, a group of friends gathered for a picnic. i drove with the friend who chuckled, where she informed me that she wasn't going to let my sister have this nice guy. she preferred to keep him for herself, and was hoping he'd ask her out. which he did a month or so later.

i love the progression of this story. she ended up being my roommate months later. which i had no idea was going to happen. they ended up falling in love, and now they're getting married. it's so weird how tiny events like a stranger changing your tire, or driving to a picnic, end up coming together in such a delightful way.

just a few days ago he killed one of the spiders who has been making my life unpleasant. let's not leave that out of the story. he offered to whack the big one, but i don't want him to die. so we'll just leave it for now. but seriously y'all. don't use the front door.

fiftyseven. september 9, 2010. "history."

this is the church i found myself in this evening. i met a nice woman who grew up on a dairy farm in switzerland, and i never would have known that about her if i hadn't had to suffer through an awkward training exercise. what do you know.

fiftysix. september 8, 2010. "shelob."

this is one of the spiders who has made my house its lair.

a few years ago i lived in a different place, and we also had a spider this size living on our door. it was brown. spotted. we named it "charlotte" to make ourselves feel better.

but i'm just going to go ahead and call this one by its proper name. shelob. indirect servant of sauron. obstacle to all who travel through mordor to mount doom. "...bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things are her food, and her vomit darkness."

if you knock on my front door, i will not be answering. that door stays shut. just go home.

fiftyfive. september 7, 2010. "gray."

gray is used in the united states. grey is used in the UK.

i googled that.

this picture was taken right before i saw the giant spider hanging on my front door. tomorrow i may or may not work up the courage to get a good picture of it. i kind of feel sick even thinking about that right now. obviously i didn't muster up that courage today, because this is not a picture of a spider. getting closer to it is just...i don't know. if i can do that.

it is, however, kind of a marvelous looking spider. evil though it may be.

the internet says it is "just" a "harmless" garden spider, "protecting" our house from other bugs.

doubtful, says i.

fiftyfour. september 6, 2010. "labor day."

goodbye summer. goodbye watermelon.

goodbye soul-crushing heat.

fiftythree. september 5, 2010. "banned."

(series: the book i just finished).

"Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer."

fiftytwo. september 4, 2010. "go marching in."

i went to musician's corner again today. music in the park. one of the acts started playing "when the saints", and then left the stage and started a little parade through the crowd. i'm not sure if they meant for people to follow them, but people did.

fiftyone. september 3, 2010. "dunder-mifflin, this is pam."

had to wear a bandana to sit through some seminars today. it makes less sense with more information, so just go with it. and that...is the sock puppet i had to make.

fifty. september 2, 2010. "rats."

there's a lot of background info that goes with this picture.

my church is part of a group of churches that are working together to create change in our community. different denominations. different theological beliefs. it's fabulous.

last summer, our first step was to take walks around the neighborhood and make notes about things that need to change. piles of trash. broken things. abandoned vehicles. problems with roads. a list was compiled.

in september or october of last year, we had our first meeting together. the list had been given to city officials who could make changes. they came to the meeting, and let us know how they would address those issues.

a few months later, small groups at the churches met to come up with three issues that we feel are big issues in our community. not just piles of trash or broken things, but major issues.

then all the churches came together again for another meeting, and we combined all of that to come up with the top 3 issues that this organization will work towards changing. the results: education, crime/safety, and community development. each person signed up for a team they want to work on.

tonight we met again, and divided into our groups. i felt like we had very fruitful conversation about what exactly it is that we want this organization to do, and how that's going to play out. instead of saying "education is a problem", that was broken up into specific issues that can be addressed. so now each team is going to spend time meeting and researching these issues, and figuring out who is in charge. i really appreciated that one of the people in charge took a moment to say "you could actually spend the next year just doing research." i love that realistic approach. being an idealistic group isn't going to get anything done.

i also love looking back at the past year. a few months go by and i think "what's going on with this? we haven't met in forever." but tonight i could actually see the progress. we couldn't have had tonight's meeting without the "insignificant" ones of the past year. we couldn't have jumped in where we did tonight. these small steps we're taking are actually moving toward something. and it's exciting.

so it's my photo of the day.

fortynine. september 1, 2010. "back in the saddle."

i went for a joggish type running adventure today for the first time since the incident that made my bursa explode. that's on my knee, for all you out there who don't know much about such things. there's still a little bit of fluid on it, but it's been a month. i decided today was the day to risk causing further injury. today, when my throat is sore, and it's 90 degrees outside, and my mind is full. but it went fine! my knee did not fall off. there was no pain. i'm very excited about this.

fortyeight. august 31, 2010. "tea time."

i met a friend tonight for tea. we didn't actually have tea, though. just pleasant and refreshing conversation. also, she has cool candles.