Saturday, February 28, 2009
EPIC
Wow, Dan Megan and I just played an EPIC three-hour game of Trivial Pursuit! It was awesome. It was nice to kind of let loose and just be my silly self and to let Megan see that side of me.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Catchphrase w/Consequences
We had a community night on Wednesday and played Catchphrase with Consequences. The rules were that the person holding it when the time ran out had to do whatever it was the previous person had chosen, such as tell a story/share a fact, do a chore, etc. It was mostly fun and interesting, except when I got stuck with my own consequences 4 times! Then we made beer bread with the leftover beer from the Valentine’s party and I put twice as much baking powder in as I was supposed to – oops...
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Valentine's Visit
Happy Birthday to my big sister Prairie!
The V-Day party was pretty fun, and there were no calamities. There were probably about 50 people here over the course of the night: Jenn came up with the Baltimore JVs, Conor, Megan, and Patti all had friends visiting, the German volunteers came, some St. Joe’s students, and a bunch of JVs. We made Jambalaya, cupcakes, hummus, and spinach-artichoke dip, which I can proudly claim was the hit of the night! I stayed out of the basement for the most part – it was too loud, crowded, and stinky. My room was the “safe haven” for the people who wanted to go to bed “early” (a.k.a. 1am), including me.
This morning, Jenn and I got up at 9am and headed off to Grace Lutheran Church after eating some pancakes. It's about two blocks from our house. I’ve been wanting to go there for a while because I know that the church has a history of being really involved in the city’s social justice movements. We got there a little after 10, but the sanctuary was practically empty. People gradually trickled in, and the pastor finally showed up around 10:15, apologizing for being “later than usual.” I loved the service, though – there was so much music, and I knew almost all of it! =) Pastor Margaret is a good preacher, too, and I was genuinely impressed to hear her include gays and lesbians in her list of “everyone that God loves.” She’s African-American, as is the majority of the congregation, but there were quite a few Hispanics and a smattering of white people as well. They were pretty excited that Jenn was an LVC-er, because apparently one of its founders was from that church.
After church, we met Marié in downtown Philadelphia, ate lunch at Reading Terminal Market, and strolled down the Ben Franklin Parkway in the breezy sunshine. It was fun to spend a day being a tourist, but I couldn’t get over the absurdity of the three of us Methodists from Oregon meeting up in Philly…
The V-Day party was pretty fun, and there were no calamities. There were probably about 50 people here over the course of the night: Jenn came up with the Baltimore JVs, Conor, Megan, and Patti all had friends visiting, the German volunteers came, some St. Joe’s students, and a bunch of JVs. We made Jambalaya, cupcakes, hummus, and spinach-artichoke dip, which I can proudly claim was the hit of the night! I stayed out of the basement for the most part – it was too loud, crowded, and stinky. My room was the “safe haven” for the people who wanted to go to bed “early” (a.k.a. 1am), including me.
This morning, Jenn and I got up at 9am and headed off to Grace Lutheran Church after eating some pancakes. It's about two blocks from our house. I’ve been wanting to go there for a while because I know that the church has a history of being really involved in the city’s social justice movements. We got there a little after 10, but the sanctuary was practically empty. People gradually trickled in, and the pastor finally showed up around 10:15, apologizing for being “later than usual.” I loved the service, though – there was so much music, and I knew almost all of it! =) Pastor Margaret is a good preacher, too, and I was genuinely impressed to hear her include gays and lesbians in her list of “everyone that God loves.” She’s African-American, as is the majority of the congregation, but there were quite a few Hispanics and a smattering of white people as well. They were pretty excited that Jenn was an LVC-er, because apparently one of its founders was from that church.
After church, we met Marié in downtown Philadelphia, ate lunch at Reading Terminal Market, and strolled down the Ben Franklin Parkway in the breezy sunshine. It was fun to spend a day being a tourist, but I couldn’t get over the absurdity of the three of us Methodists from Oregon meeting up in Philly…
Sunday, February 8, 2009
highs and lows
Saturday was a great day with a bad ending.
We got up late and made a big brunch as a community (I made coffee cake) and then went on a community shopping spree to Costco and the Dollar Tree for household and Valentine’s party supplies. (Every JV community is assigned a holiday, and we’re the hosts of this one). Plus, I found myself a digital camera – hooray! It was a beautiful and sunny 70-degree day. (yep, 5 days after that snow storm...)
In the evening, we went to McGillin’s Pub in Philly (apparently, it’s the oldest one) to watch a Gonzaga basketball game. I had a fine time until midnight came around and I realized no one was ready to leave except me. I couldn’t leave because we hadn’t driven and it wouldn’t have been safe to come home by myself, so I sat there feeling bored, tired, impatient, and on the verge of tears for the next hour until the others were ready to leave. At one point I put my head down on the table to try to rest, but an employee warned me that she’d have to kick me out if I didn’t sit up (yes, that would make two times!...). Maybe I should have let her kick me out so that everyone would have left with me...
It was probably the most miserable experience I’ve had all year, and everyone knows it, so hopefully we'll be able to avoid that situation in the future...
We got up late and made a big brunch as a community (I made coffee cake) and then went on a community shopping spree to Costco and the Dollar Tree for household and Valentine’s party supplies. (Every JV community is assigned a holiday, and we’re the hosts of this one). Plus, I found myself a digital camera – hooray! It was a beautiful and sunny 70-degree day. (yep, 5 days after that snow storm...)
In the evening, we went to McGillin’s Pub in Philly (apparently, it’s the oldest one) to watch a Gonzaga basketball game. I had a fine time until midnight came around and I realized no one was ready to leave except me. I couldn’t leave because we hadn’t driven and it wouldn’t have been safe to come home by myself, so I sat there feeling bored, tired, impatient, and on the verge of tears for the next hour until the others were ready to leave. At one point I put my head down on the table to try to rest, but an employee warned me that she’d have to kick me out if I didn’t sit up (yes, that would make two times!...). Maybe I should have let her kick me out so that everyone would have left with me...
It was probably the most miserable experience I’ve had all year, and everyone knows it, so hopefully we'll be able to avoid that situation in the future...
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
snow =)
We finally had some really real snow and it was lovely! It snowed all day Tuesday and Megan and Patti built a snowman in our back yard, and then it snowed some more overnight for a total of 6-8 inches! It was beautiful, and much better than that slushy/icy stuff we had before...
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