dancing, bryson & goatees

"I blink and a whole week goes by." That's what I've been saying lately. I haven't blogged because I haven't felt like there was any one thing worthy of posting on the internet, but now that a couple weeks have passed I'm feeling anxious to just post something. So while there has been loads of busy-ness around here, I'm having to pull from a few places for this post. Ash has been very busy preparing for the chili cookoff (huge fundraising event for the youth summer trips) and participating in new hire business, but that's not great stuff for a blog. And I have seen God use my couch and coffeepot to initiate some amazing conversations with young women lately, but I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to post those either. We've also enjoyed several evenings with friends over for dinner, but for this post, I'm pulling from our date night and Bill Bryson.

First, date night. There's dance lessons the last Saturday of every month at this sweet cafe (Cafe Neo's-- for those in the area and interested). Ash and I went in February and a few of the junior girls went as well. This past month we all did some recruiting and the last Saturday of March saw no less than a dozen WBC couples (plus John & Sarah) learning the hustle (yes, the hustle). It was so fun to be part of that lesson! The hustle is a swing step, but born in the era of disco. Men and women are separated for much of the lesson as men are sent along one wall to learn their steps and women along the opposite wall to learn theirs. When joined together, we packed the room-- all of us hustling (and stepping on and bumping against one another) to Brittney Spears and Prince. It needs to be said that there were no less than three pastors with their wives there! I am reminded of our church in Durham, NC because they had close to 100 life groups (small groups within the church) that met for various purposes (Bible study, ministries, fellowship while watching 24, etc...) but one group I always wanted to be part of was the group that met monthly to swing dance! So here I am in Wasilla, Alaska learning the hustle! I love the little things God does!


So on to Bill Bryson. I just finished Made in America; An Informal History of the English Language in the United States (should I have used a colon instead of a semi colon there?) This was a hu-whoppin accomplishment for me. I have been silently freaking out that Ash is whippin out book after book while I have been sludging through Bryson's. Don't get me wrong, it is an enjoyable, worthwhile read, but Ashley adding his book list has made me a little competitive. I really don't know how he's doing it! So while most of the books I read won't get a mention here, I need to celebrate that I finished a book that took over two weeks for me to read! I've decided to celebrate by sharing some of the most interesting things I learned from Bryson:

1. "Just three years after its epochal crossing, the Mayflower was unceremoniously broken up and sold for salvage. According to several accounts, it ended up being made into a barn that still stands in the village of Jordans, Buckinghamshire, about twenty miles from London, on the grounds of the British headquarters of the British Society of Friends, or Quakers. Coincidentally, almost in its shadow is the grave of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania." (p.3)


2. "Great efforts also go into finding out why people buy the brands they do. Advertisers and market researchers bandy about terms like conjoint analysis technique, personal drive patterns, Gaussian distributions, fractals, and other such arcana in their quest to winnow out every subliminal quirk in our buying habits. They know, for instance, that 40 percent of all people who move to a new address will also change their brand of toothpaste, that the average supermarket shopper makes fourteen impulse decisions in each visit, that 62 percent of shoppers will pay a premium for mayonnaise even when they think a cheaper brand is just as good, but that only 24 percent will show the same largely irrational loyalty to frozen vegetables." (p.244)


3. "Luncheonette (sometimes modified to lunchette) entered American English in about 1920 and in its turn helped to popularize a fashion for words with -ette endings: kitchenette, dinette, usherette, roomette, bachelorette, drum majorette, even parkette for a meter maid and realtyette for a female real estate agent." (p.191) This one is for the drum majorette I know!


So there you have it-- and you didn't have to spend two weeks to get these priceless bits of information. I think we should all attempt to buy the cheapest mayonnaise we can find now... just to see.


And there is actually something else I have to pass on... Ash and I love reading two blogs in particular- Steven Furtick's and JD Greear's... both are pastors in NC of churches that are exploding with growth. We highly admire both men and their blogs are almost always challenging to us. I even recommend pulling up their sermons to listen to-- God is doing amazing things in those churches. But one thing that we have laughed at and laughed since discovering it on JD's blog is http://www.stuffchristianslike.net/ We've both laughed until tears have come to our eyes (the rules on holding hands in church is one of our favorites) but it was just me laughing when one of the latest entries was about how most youth pastors have goatees. I guess even interim youth pastors... let me know your favorites if you visit the site!