Dispatches in Randomicity

It’s Wednesday morning, and I don’t want to work! So you get this beautiful little example of American literature.

• My brother gets married in 10 days! Should I care that I still don’t know when in the service I’m singing what? Or that neither he or my future sister-in-law have any idea about what needs to be done in these final days.

• The St. Louis Cardinals are 6 games back in the Central Division, trailing the CUBS (gag!). And they haven’t broken .500 yet. Weird.

• My laptop is dying. RIP, Compy. The replacement I’m trying to begin saving for, you ask? A MacBook. (Actually, I’d like a MacBook Pro, but saving that much money for a single girl who just bought her own place would take forever. And Compy isn’t going to last that much longer. . . .

• Jeanna Dawn Smathers, my beautiful little “niece,” will be 1 year old this month. It doesn’t seem at all possible.

• I heart my coffee pot. Yes, it’s cheap. Yes, coffee snobs would say (in an appropriate accent), “This coffee pot makes swill!” But it’s also programmable and makes sure Mandy has coffee at 6:20 a.m. every weekday morning. . . . .which is necessary.

• Is it weird that I have a half-hearted dream of one day being certified to teach Pilates?

• I’m beginning to get dedicated to losing the weight I’ve gained back. While weighing 123 lbs may have been a little to thin for me, I’m dedicated to getting back within the range. I just have to stay in the current weight range until August 18 so my bridesmaid dress for Stacy and Phillip’s wedding stays on.

• I wish I still had summer breaks. I need a vacation. (I wish I had vacation days that weren’t allotted to weddings and being in certain places when other people want me there.)

• I’m a dork. I’m rewatching “Alias” beginning with season 1. I’m about halfway through the first season at the moment. Ah, it was good back then. I’m remembering why I such a big crush on Michael Vartan.

• I’m in love with this quote from Martin Luther: “The idea that the service to God should have only to do with a church altar, singing, reading, sacrifice, and the like is without doubt but the worst trick of the devil. How could the devil have led us more effectively astray than by the narrow conception that service to God takes place only in a church and by the works done therein…The whole world could abound with the services to the Lord, Gottesdienste – not only in churches but also in the home, kitchen, workshop, field.”

• Mindy, Rachel, and I are about halfway through with Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis in our reading group. At times, I love Rob. At times I think he’s so far off base I want to throw the book against the wall. We don’t always agree, Rob and I, but I’m interested to hear what he has to say. If we’re going to show the world that faith means something, that God works in our daily lives, our attitudes have to change, along with the ways we talk about it, approach worship, and life in general. I agree with you on that point, Rob. Sometimes, though, you get carried away and take your theology right out into the middle of lake that’s not fully frozen. And I can’t go there with you.