.saturday third wheel.

Today was spent mostly in the richmond airport hanging out with the one and only aaron black. Hanging ot with Aaron was great times, his gramma bought us lunch. We people watched and reminisced about Peterborough... what else do two Peterpatch friends do in an international airport?

Other than that I spent the day feeling like a third wheel to two folks in love with each other... (but house rules say we can't)... I hate being a third wheel, I don't know what to say or do, and I was annoyed because I had to feel that way. I'm still mad to some extent.

All my feelings are being felt in a different context than before, and to a point I have very little idea how do deal with it. It struck me this past week that I haven't cried since I've been here (two months! that's a record... even chick flicks haven't pushed me over the edge) nor have I actually been really angry. On one side, it's great, I've been a very happy camper out here. On the other hand, I'm sort of relearning how to have negative emotions in a constructive way within a community. I felt angry today and had NO idea how to deal with the emotion in a Christ-like way, so I retreated to my bottom bunk and slept for two hours.

Yes, this is how I deal with problems... I try to sleep them off. Brave Meaghan that I am.

chocolate milk, chick flicks, strokes and Jesus...

Yet another sunday brings us together. I just got back from a potluck dinner at Kaye and George's church. Chris from Poland was in the mix, between us we ate enough to last for the next three days I'm sure.

Kaye and George's church is old, it is a seniors congregation with a very traditional service. I became acutely aware of the oldness of this congregation tonight at dinner, when a man at a nearby table had a stroke. The fact that the guy keeled over with a stroke isn't really all that suprising to me, what got to me was the reaction of this congregation. They remained completely calm and natural, called the hospital and the man was taken out without a whole lot of ceremony. The evening went on relatively smoothly.

The members of the church weren't suprised or all that frightened of death, strokes or ambulances. They prayed briefly for the man, and went on with dessert.

What scares me is that at some point, I will be that comfortable and that accustomed to death.

So we sang some hymns and after went to George and Kayes's for some mate.

Currently I am ruminating over a chick flick I saw today on 'Da's laptop, 'Ever After'. Nothing much to ruminate over really... chick flicks have no substance, so why do I love them so? It like having an affinity for eating cardboard... or sugar coated cardboard... I should be an entrepreneur.





...Currently: blowing bubbles in my chocolate milk and wondering about the Son of God...

Currently: Chilling on a Sunday afternoon. Listening to Fear Factory of all things, and helping my younger brother with his homework via msn conversation. 'Tis good times.

Yet another apology for the lack of posting. I swear that I want to, it's just that other stuff like life and people keep popping up, impeding my ability to air out my life on this blog. Sigh. It'll happen.

So since my last post, I have three thanksgiving dinners under my belt, been in a fairly serious car accident, had my first sad day and handed in a whole paper.

The dinners were great (salmon is turkey over here).

The car accident was icky. We blew threw a stop sign and t-boned another car. No one was injured but the cars have seen better days.

My first sad day here was Thursday, and it was sad. I felt a lot of guilt over a conversation I'd had the night before, plus it was just a really long day. I was tired and we spent half the afternoon crying over our personal 'death' words. Death words are words in our lives and in our memories that truly wound us. A sad afternoon indeed.

My paper was handed in late.

It's still all good. Accountability has started in the Lifehouse, bringing with it the familiar squirmy feelings that are associated with being really vulnerable with people. Fortunately, said squirmy feelings are a jumping off point for conviction and growth... praise be.

Peace.

I have moved up in the geek ladder.

I am now the proud owner of an Army of Darkness t-shirt. A complete impulse purchase I might add on an exploratory trip around the Lonsdale district (my placement stomping grounds) with Josh. Get this, the dude who owns the comic store where said t-shirt was purchased IS the comic store guy from the Simpsons... it's incredible folks... I have seen a cartoon in human form. The only noted difference is that this particular comic store owner was wearing a Star Trek styled shirt ... live long and prosper...

Placement, as a note is going well. It makes me sort of tired... I need to learn how to sleep at night. The problem is that when you sleep in this house you're either missing something, or you're having your picture taken while you sleep. Sigh, I think that they have about four or five of me sleeping now. I'll post them later. I grudgingly admit that they are sort of funny.

In placement (from here on out known as Skate Church - it's what the kids call it) I've got a group of about a dozen grade ten girls I'm in charge of. Fifteen and sixteen year olds mostly... I went to their highschool today just to check it out. The girls are rad, the type you'd find hanging out on the edges of a skatepark watching their boyfriends. I'm looking forward to getting to know them. Other than that today I pushed paper at the church office. It's a massive church that we work out of... like, huge. They have a paid Children's Music Pastor (to give you an idea) ... as well as about four full time youth workers I've seen so far. So today I did the exciting part of youth ministry that the pros call data entry...

Yeah... I can see Jesus sitting down at a computer for three hours fiddling with Excel.


Just kidding. No worries... it could be worse... my placement partner was enriched spiritually for hours today practicing the spiritual discipline of laminating. ;-)

I'm having fun.

if Jesus played poker...

I am just learning how to play this wonderful game, where fortunes have been won and lost. I am not gambling with my fortune, partially because I don't have one, and partially because we here at Lifeteams prefer to gamble with jellybeans, using puzzle pieces from a foam Japan puzzle as pokerchips. Yes, gambling among poor, christian students is an interesting phenomenon.

I am under the poker tutelage of Chris from Poland, he has been able to teach me most everything, except bluffing. I'm generally quite hopeless at bluffing. I can't lie to save my life. Bluffing is essentially lying and keeping a straight face about it. Tonight I really tried it for the first time... I lost all my japan-puzzle chips making huge bets on a low... well, practice makes perfect I guess... in the mean time I could sure use some jellybeans.