I’LL HAVE A BLOODY MARY, A STEAK SANDWICH AAAND A STEAK SANDWICH
Easier than writing lots of individual emailsArchive for February, 2007
NY NY
In a few hours, I’ll be leaving on a jet plane (thanx to Howard Hughes). My cousin Pete is playing Carnegie Hall and there are about 30 of us family members going to see him. We’re all staying in the same hotel…I suspect we’re going to be having a rip-roarin’ good time! I have soooo much to do before I get wanded at security, before I put my belongings in the overhead compartment where items may shift during travel, before I fasten the safety buckle tightly across my lap, before I order Diet 7Up (I always get that on a plane) and say ‘no thanx’ to the chips and so much to do before I let all of my short sleeved California worries fade away into the sunshine as I glide into the heavy coated and gloved and scarved arctic JFK airport. Oh, and our hotel is in Rockefeller Center, so maybe I’ll ice skate or something too. Maybe not.
Truth is, that besides being with family and enjoying a great celebration of life and history, my only goal in NY is to get to ground zero and take a few minutes to reflect. And, after that I have a meeting with Guliani.
JAZZ+USHER=YES
Last Saturday Holly and I ushered the ‘Elegant Evening of Jazz’ festival at the PAC…Lots of good jazz-lots of ‘cultured’ people-lots of good jazz.
Tonight I ushered the Langston Hughes 12 Moods for Jazz show…totally cool. It was like a serious version of Mike Myers in the cafe in So I Married An Axe Murderer…beetnik, historical, jazzical, magical and Langston Hughesical.
AND, if you want to join us in our ushering shenanigans, there’s an orientation meeting on Monday March 12th at 6:30pm at the Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons ..come on…it’s sooo worth it! Free shows, great stories, getting in relationships with people in our community, great resume data. Do it.
BERIT AND OTHER GOOD THINGS
SO, Berit Kawaguchi was in town (for a funeral) and we had loosely planned to hang out Sunday afternoon/evening. I’m so glad we did too. It was great to see her and to actually meet her dear sweet hilarious little daughter too.
Though Berit had a lot of holding, bouncing, changing of diapers, comforting etc. to do, she still managed to ask a ton of questions, to laugh, to be warm and interested and to be speaking of the great things that God is doing in their lives. I’m grateful for her.
AND, big bonus, we were at Tina baker’s house, which is always great…Tina is mellow, inviting, and usually pretty hilarious. All in all, it was a refreshing time to see other believers in the body of Christ on an Oscar studded Sunday afternoon/night!
PINK EYE-SHMINK EYE
So, lots of people have been asking me ‘How’s the eye?’…as a result, I figured I would post an update.
They’rrrrre GREAT! Those $70 eye drops..YES, please!
If you ever find yourself in the pink-eye blues, land yourself a little bottle of Zymar (gatifloxacin ophthalmic solution), use 3x a day and begin to open your eyes again, literally!
PTL!
AMAZING GRACE-THE MOVIE
So, last night was like a little local Christian community reunion (LLCCR) at Edwards theatre in Canyon Country. We had about 8 people in our group and the theatre ended up packed out.
The movie? WELL DONE! I’m glad I went-would see it again even.
BEKAH & BLAKE BOYS HAVE A BOY!
I don’t have many details (pronounced ‘D-tails’), but I do know that Bekah & Blake had their baby boy, Owen, on Wednesday. Whooo Hoooo!!! So now, the best friend’s sons (Saja & Bekah) are just a few days apart AND there are TWO Boys grandsons (since Ryan & Lindsay had their son recently too!). Soooo, fun!
DR. VARNER HAS A NEW ARRIVAL!
I just got an email from Dr. Ibex and I think you might want to know about it. Please see excerpt below (and get your credit card ready 
).
“My new book, The Way of the Didache: The First Christian Handbook, is now available from University Press of America www.univpress.com . It is also available on Amazon.com – but there is a 15% discount if you order it directly from the publisher (www.univpress.com). Just type in “Varner” in the Book Search window. There are also copies in the Masters College bookstore.
For laymen – you can skip the chapter on the Greek text – there is still plenty that will interest you, I am sure.”
Thanx Dr. Varner for constantly learning and teaching!
LIKEMINDED FRIENDS ON ICU PANEL-FANTASTIC
Praise the LORD-He is certainly good and good and good!
I will be brief. I just want to say that we had an AWESOME event at Valencia High School today (hosted by ICU club). Today was a Q&A panel with people who have gone to Uganda. There were about 40 students came who listened and asked questions of the panel: Josh Masiko, Mark Tatlock, Pete Bargas, Jeff Lewis, Sarah Dyer, and Cindi & Gunner. Everyone really seemed to get a lot out of it and the students were totally stoked! So, I am sure a future post will include testimony of how God used everyone’s willingness and hopefully we will have pictures of the event to share too!
A highlight for me was when one of our club members asked Jeff, ‘I heard you went to Uganda to spread the Word about Jesus Christ. What was that like?’ Can anyone say ‘Opportunity’?
SARAH JANE BROCK-THE WARRIOR MOM
Well, starting Sat at 9am and ending Monday around 7am, Sarah Jane and Mark stayed focused and persevered and as a result, we all welcome Mr. Jacob Noah Brock into our lives. AND, on only 3 hours of sleep, days of excruciating pain, AND a new baby to care for, she still found the time to text us all with his little mug! How DOES she do it?!
Praise the LORD for this new soul. Please pray for them as they raise their son up in the way that he should go.! Way to go Mark & Saja!
PINK EYE MUSINGS
So, yes, Dr. Corben confirmed that I have bacterial conjunctivitus.
Ok, here’s the background to my most recent ponderings…last Saturday I started feeling flu-like Read the rest of this entry »
MY TIME HAS COME
Well, at long last, my days of being a healthy kid that never got what the other kids got, are over.
My right eye is almost swollen shut with something my flatmates think is probably ‘pink eye’. If you’ve been watching Survivor, I look much like ‘Boo’, minus the manliness (and the extreme accident proneness).
My eye doctor’s office (Dr. Corben-the best in the world) opens at 9am on Saturday. I hope that when I wake up tomorrow that the pink hasn’t jumped and earned the title ‘Pink EyeS’, plural, if so, it will make driving to ’see’ Dr. Corben a bit more challenging with both eyes swollen shut.
They say that you’re highly contagious with ‘diminished hues of red eye’ and that once you get antibiotics in you, you have to be quarantined for 24 hours before you can rejoin the human swell again. So, given my calculations, I am guessing that I won’t be seeing any humans until Sunday around noon. So incredibly sad, considering that Mark & Sarah Jane are going into the hospital at 9am tomorrow to get induced in order to start the birthing process of Baby Brock.
God’s will is being done and that’s cool. When I have physical malladies, it does make me thankful for what I usually have in good health, but moreoever it makes me compassionate for those who have chronic ails everyday. His grace is real and kind.
Happy Belated Valentine’s Day….I have a pink Valentine for you.
BONUS TEXT-I just walked into Ken & Kristin’s room and was met with, “Excuse me, I did not hear ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ ” I laughed so hard my eyes teared…oh wait, that’s the tablespoons of goop coating my eyeball.
SCHOOLS FOR SCHOOLS-WANT TO SUPPORT US?
Hey everyone. You may or may not know that Invisible Children just launched a program called Schools For Schools. It’s basically a healthy competition between schools around the world to raise money for specific underprivileged schools in Uganda…and the website shows a real time account of where the money goes and which Ugandan school it’s helping. Also, the school to raise the most money in the most creative ways, wins a trip for 3-5 of the club members to …UGANDA!!!!
ICU at VHS signed up, has a profile, and is TOTALLY excited! CLICK HERE to learn more and SUPPORT us! We appreciate you! (aren’t the ICUers adorable??? Jennene and I love them!)
VIDEO DEPOT AKA: SEINFELD
Those who are close to me oft say that my life is much like a Seinfeld box set. Things happen to me on a regular basis that most only experience a few times in their lives. I am blessed beyond measure to have such bizarre opportunities wherein I secretly pretend there is a camera documenting it (like The Office)…journey with me to one such event… Read the rest of this entry »
DEDICATED TO AMY. YAP.
So, last week, I subbed for 2 days in Ken’s high school Algebra & Geometry classes at West Ranch. Since this was a new semester, we had to go through the usual ‘introduction and here’s how it’s gonna go’ speech, after which I let them ask me anything they want to. It warms them up to me, kills some time (from their perspective) and generally speaking, they usually end up asking questions that lead me to sharing the gospel…it’s legal if I am answering questions that they asked.
So, last week, I had some return students who already knew the ‘ask me anything you want’ routine. Someone asked about my world travels and away we went. So, a kid that I like and find to be a free thinking and thought provoking chap, we’ll call him Sir W (who also loves The Office), followed up by Read the rest of this entry »
REMIND ME (IF U WANT)
I have 2 stories to post when I have time, which is not now. One happened last week when I was subbing for Ken, it involves a country I’d never heard of, and one happened a few nights ago at Video Depot and was much akin to a Seinfeld episode…once again, no one was there to share in it with me…such a shame.
Remind me to post them. I think they’re a worth it read. I must away…I’m subbing at La Mesa today for my favorite hooligans and then after school I have a termite inspection and a home inspection to attend!
BLACK HISTORY MONTH & ICU
It’s finally happening…Invisible Children the organization will be hosting assemblies all day at Valencia High School, couresty of the ICU club. CLICK HERE for more info. Please show your support by commenting on the ICU blog.
BET WON, NOT BY ME.
Thank you all for your continued support in helping me. Confirmation came from Mark Spansel himself…his boys are surely from Liberia.
So, here, for everyone on the WORLD WIDE WEB to see…I am giving a public announcement to Kristin Harvey aka. the victor! “Kristin, I was wrong-YOU were correct!”
She believed the Spansel boys to be from Liberia. I believed them to be not from Liberia, but rather maybe Kenya or Ethiopia or somewhere not Liberia. I was wrong. So very wrong.
