Lower Still

Hey Molly,

I don't have a whole bunch to talk about tonight. Dinner was good; we went to Concetta's, this little italian restaurant in Bloomfield. The owner knows my Uncle by name, which was weird. We got a chicken cordon bleu pizza, AMAZING. My dad and I sat down and watched some episodes of Law and Order when we got home, which was also weird; it was the first time in a long time where we haven't been arguing, so it was kind of surreal. My Mom called! It was so good to hear her voice. From the sound of it, she's up and about with a walker, waayyyyy ahead of schedule! She should be home by Sunday.

Ok seriously, here's a direct link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN1kI85URYQ

You have no reason now not to check 'em out. They've got a serious prog/tool vibe going on, without the really nonsensical lyrics. Some other users have posted some other great songs as well, but I really dig this one.

Ok, another short post. C'mon Mouseboy you can do better than this. Next time I'll find something really good to post, promise.

G'night Molly,
-The Mouse

Awesome haunted house is awwesooommme

Hello David!

I just got home from training, and now I am posting before heading off to small group. I am so excited to be back! I had such a fantastic time, got to know my class a lot better, and can't wait to see my fellow interns again. Now I am all rejuvenated and itching to set up one-on-ones and events and stuff.

I have to tell you about Netherworld. I don't think I've ever been to a haunted house, and this one was the #1 haunted house in America. Just waiting and walking around outside, waiting for everyone to gather, was amazing. There must have been a dozen or more actors dressed as all different terrifying characters such as a muzzled wild woman, a voodoo doctor, a creepy clown, a tree-person, a giant bug-like thing with glowing red eyes and jaws that snapped. Entering the house cost $22, but it lasted probably 30 minutes, and just when you got to a point in the house when you felt like, wow, that was totally worth the cost...it continued and got even cooler. It employed all sorts of different sensory experiences, was a feast of creativity for the eyes and mind, was terrifying and captivating and so, so much fun. Let me slow down and give some examples.

Sensory stuff: Basically, the path you were to follow weaved back and forth through an old warehouse, and every inch of space seemed to have been put to use. At one point the walls were all mirrors, and in the dim lighting, figuring out which way is clear and which is a mirror--as well as which is your reflection and which belongs to an actor about to jump out and scare you!--is not a super easy task. At another point, there was a swamp, which was created by casting a waist-high plane of green light, under which a swamp creature hid. And the path through the swamp was flanked by blown up polyester tunnels that you had to push between, making it seem like you were moving through water. The tunnel things appeared later by themselves, creating a cloistering, dark crevice you had to push through. There were a couple spinning tunnels with stationary walking paths through them. One was lined with green dots of light, and even though I knew the path must be stationary, and even though one of my fellow interns was behind me yelling, "Molly, the path isn't moving!" my body refused to listen to reason, and I made it across, clinging to the railing and trying my hardest not to fall down. It was so, so neat.

The creativity that went into creating this attraction is mind-boggling. Around every corner is something new. There was always someone jumping out--sometimes lurking in the shadows, sometimes swinging down from the ceiling overhead, sometimes dressed as similar objects in the room, such as a chair or coats of armor or gargoyles or statues or corpses. Statues, walls, and rafters fell. Water dripped from the ceiling. Eerie lights dimly lit the fog. The most suspenseful thing for me was when I would notice that something was definitely a person, but because I was staring at it, it held perfectly still, and I passed by, the whole time with my fists up by my face (to hide if need arose I guess?) expecting it to jump out. (All I could think of was: "Don't Blink!") In the case of some of the actors, if they got a rise out of you, they would follow you through their section, saying creepy things in your ear. There was a nasty bathroom, and a spooky lair, and a deceivingly plush living room with a beckoning hag, and a mad scientist's laboratory, and on and on and on. I would have loved to go through the house a second time just to look closer at everything, and see all the details I missed on the first walk-through.

But the most amazing things of all were the large creature heads that, I learned the hard way, were not in fact mechanical. My favorite moment of the night: We had been winding through the house in a chain--Jake in front, then Rachel, then me holding her hand and the hand of Jen, who was behind me (Jen and I screamed and laughed and clung to each other the whole time. We are so much closer now, lol), then Andrew (there was another group of six interns that followed a little behind). We entered a room painted like the stormy sea, with octopi on the walls and nets draped here and there, and a giant dinosaur-shark head thing at the far end of the section. As Jake and Rachel crossed it, the shark head thrust out and chomped, just missing them. I stopped and watched it withdraw back, then spring out again. Jake and Rachel were on the other side, just through the next doorway, waiting for the rest of us to cross. I carefully timed my escape, figuring there must be some sort of pattern to the shark's movements, and because it was just drawing back, I should have enough time to dash across, right? WRONG. It pulled back, I ran, and out it came and my whole body got chomped in its mouth! I squealed, and it let go. There was a similar creature later on, and that's when I realized that there was actually a person inside the giant head. Too. Cool.

Summary: Holy crap that was awesome. I'm definitely going back next year.

I will read you tomorrow!
~The Princess~

Faster than a speeding Mark

CRUD!

I almost forgot I was supposed to post tonight. Did a good deal of reading, homework, etc. Just found out one of my favorite albums OF ALL TIME got rerealeased on vinyl. Neat.

Man, Mark is fast. It's kind of like he had a word limit and tried to cram everything in. Still, it's a good refresher, I'm just trying to figure out where I should go after I finish him (might even finish it tonight). Any recommendations? I'm thinking of going to Acts. Actually that's probably what I'm going to do!

My Mom goes in for surgery on Thursday. I'm scared for her. And no amount of hoping and praying will change what COULD happen. The doctor says it's more likely for her to get into a car crash and die on her way to the hospital than it is for her to pass during the surgery, which isn't exactly comforting. Please please please say prayers for her tomorrow and Thursday.


Ok, time to finish Mark. Goodnight! I'll read you tomorrow. Right? And it'll actually be a decent post, Right? Night Molly

-The Mouse

Lame post is laaaaame

Hello David!

I am at RUF training in Atlanta! I am about to go to dinner with my area coordinator, and afterwards I am going to NETHERWORLD HAUNTED HOUSE with some interns. It should be a grand old time. But it also means I don't have much time to post. Sorry!

~The Princess~

Homework, Sermon, Guitar, Batmaning...I mean sleep...

Hey Molly,

Just finished my homework for the night; we were supposed to be having a small group discussion which I completely forgot about. I hope the group forgives me (probably not), thank the specter of the internet that they can't e-punch me, because I definitely deserve it this time. Prior to my hw freakout, I had dinner with my family and Uncle Tom, and then we had cake! It was his birthday. I asked him what the civil war was like, he didn't seem amused. 

Now I'm probably going to watch Kevin's first sermon. After that...I dunno. I still have to send stephen and brad emails, so that sounds like a good idea to me. Maybe play some guitar afterwards? By then the night will be pretty much over. The days go by so fast.

Short post. Deal with it. Actually that's not what I intended, but tonight was really boring, and I feel like I'm about to explode in anticipation for friday. A group of us are going to this restaurant that made an appearance on the food network. It was on a show following eateries that were absolutely terrible, but this magic chef comes by and fixes all of their problems and makes it a 4 star restaurant. We will be the judge of that, and I expect much in the way of sarcasm from john. It'll be good fun.

Night! Read you tamale.

-The Mouse-

Ho-hum last minute posting

Dude,

Alyssa is here. We're drinking Reisling. I don't have time to go into detail about my day. But suffice it to say it was a good one. We went to a documentary called The Swell Season about that band, and it was great. It was at a super indie movie place. And I out-hipstered you by telling you Sigur Ros made a movie. What's. Up.

Sorry this is so short--but you've made short posts before so I'm gonna not feel bad about this. Also, I can always edit it later.

:-)
I will read you tomorrow,
~The Princess~

EDIT: I'm not sure what that song was about, but this line is really haunting:
One empty rings around your heart
The world just screams and falls apart

One evening 1945...

Evenin' Molly,

I played so much guitar today and it felt GOOD. I haven't sat down and played like that in probably months. Let's see...what did I learn. I relearned "Independence Day" by Elliott Smith (this time properly without messing around with random finger picking) and every song off of that album "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel. Here's a link to a song! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCjpbjCH5L0

You're probably not gonna get around to watching it, but I really wish you would; it's excellent if you can get past his kind of nasally, shouting voice. The lyrics will break your heart.

Got some discussion stuff done for my class, had dinner (CURRY! YES) and then went out to pick Zach up from Youth Group. I've never really sat down and talked with him about his faith. I get the feeling that he goes to church to please our parents and doesn't really take anything from the service. He's still young, but it's probably something I should bring up with him. He does look up to me (or so says the 'rents) so it couldn't hurt.

Tomorrow at 10:30 I'm meeting with Pastor Anderson. I'm pretty excited; I'll let you know how it goes afterwards. I think I'll probably grab some Mrs. Murphy's for breakfast along with some Celebration of Discipline/PABIG/I completely forgot I still had the Reason For God! I was really wrong about the whole mysticism aspect in CoD (not call of duty) and I think it might be a book you'll benefit from. I'd imagine that a lot of it will be old news to you, but you might find some parts of it really interesting, I know I am.

Goodnight!
I'll check back tomorrow for your post.


-The Mouse

Marcia-mellow, dressed in yellow

Hello David!

Marcia and I just finished watching American Beauty. It was a toss up between that and Adaptation, and we were going to leave the final decision up to Alyssa, but when she wasn't able to join us for the movie, I decided that Marcia would probably like a tragic suburban drama over a quirky meta jaunt. Well...I still hold that she would like American Beauty over Adaptation, but that's just because I really think she wouldn't be amused by Adaptation.

It's bedtime now. Marcia surprised me with microwave brownies, which we will enjoy tomorrow. Thanks for suggesting them. :-)

I will read you on Monday,
~The Princess~

I have probably over 10 copies of this book sitting in my house

Hey Molly,

Today was really interesting. Work wasn't all that special, but during lunch I stopped by the local emissions tester to get, well, my car's emissions tested. The place was open, but apparently the guy who was supposed to do the testing was out for the day....WHAT?! Ok, granted they do provide other services, but still EMISSIONS is in their store name! Hmph.

My dad and I went out after dinner and grabbed an appetizer and a beer. We chatted for a while about faith and a number of other topics that we can delve into if you feel like giving me a call sometime nudge nudge wink wink. But really, it was nice. I've never really connected to my dad like this...like man to man. It was good.

I've been trying to keep busy, for a number of different reasons. I'm starting to realize more and more that by focusing on small goals throughout the day, it's easier to keep that pace with bigger things. Tonight I'm gonna continue with "Celebration of Discipline". The next chapter focuses a bit on meditation, which has always kind of confused me in it's separation from prayer; maybe this will clear things up. I sent Pastor Anderson emails to two (2) email addresses, so hopefully he gets back to me by tomorrow morning (He's an early riser, like grandpa level early). We're also going to be discussing spiritual disciplines, I'm curious what he has to say about meditation, though given that this is one of his favorite books....hmmm....*UPDATE* 10:30 am tuesday we're gonna meet! ^5 Dave

Anyhoo, things are looking up for the Feldmeister! (if you get the reference I will eat one of Zach's socks out of sheer amazement). Goodnight!

-The Mouse-

Poetry, shmoetry

Dear David,

How long do orchid flowers usually last? Because mine have been with me since the beginning of the school year and have yet to fade. I enjoy their company, I'd just like to know when I have to start worrying about their impending death. Should I get my orchid plant a friend, do you think?

I am ahead of the game study-program-wise. I finished my book for this month, and my scripture readings, and I've read the sections of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and Confession of Faith for this month AND the next. Now I just have to write my report on Spiritual Depression, which I hope to finish tomorrow morning.

I got a book by Terry Goodkind a while ago. It's called The Law of Nines. I was super excited to find another Goodkind novel (he wrote the Sword of Truth series), but I don't think this one has any dragons in it, so what's the point? Anyway, I just started Mockingjay, the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy. It's a great series, but I have somehow lost interest, even though I read through each of the first two books in three days.

I thought about writing a poem, because I have a lot of words swimming around in my head, but then I figured this was not really the place to get all artsy and morbid. And also, I want to get some reading done tonight and go to bed. I think I've been getting too much sleep again, because I'm always tired, and I just want to stay in bed all day. If I didn't have Responsibilities, I just might give in to that temptation.

I have another video in the works. Well, it's at the idea stage right now. I will write up the script this weekend,  because it is fall break so I will have not much to do. Well, I will write it up Monday, that is. BECAUSE MARCIA IS COMING ON FRIDAY WOOOOOT!!!

I will read you tomorrow,
~The Princess~

Tuesday? More like Snoozeday

Dear Molly,

I made dinner for the family tonight! Cooked some mac n' cheese, grilled some Kielbasa, yeah it was pretty great. I even served them on buttered-and-toasted hot dog buns. Yep...cooking, it's just in my genes. It's like culinary delights are my paints and tongues are my canvas. I'm trying to think of other ways to draw this subject out....nope! On to the next!

I can't wait for tomorrow. We're having a Psych Night!...I'm not quite sure what it is. I know Psych is a tv show, and I've seen a couple episodes but don't really remember much. HOWEVER, there will be pineapple-related foods (I guess that's a thing in the show?) and a group of people hanging out at John and Molony's. Only downside is that it starts at around 10 o'clock, which means a late night, given that a trip there is about an hour and 15 min. Worth it though to see molony's smiling face and chipper 'tude.

Rest of the night is gonna be spent trying to get this paper done. Nothing all that interesting, just trying to tie some paragraphs together and then write a cover letter for the whole thing. After that probably going to see if I can get a start on this book about spiritual disciplines that my dad has. Apparently Pastor Anderson said it's one of his favorite books, so I'm looking forward to that. There's ALSO gonna be some PABIG in there too, I haven't forgotten :P

I'll read you tomorrow
David

Pepper Pork

Dear David,

Oh man, I am such a good cook. Tonight I sauteed some garlic (which I peeled and diced by hand) and added cubes of pork (which I cut up myself), chopped green peppers (ditto), broccoli cuts (okay, that one had been frozen and pre-cut), tomatoe pieces (those, however, I did cut up myself), and carrot shavings. Add some soy sauce, some corn starch to thicken the mix, and cook up some rice, and what a wonderful meal I had. I used up a lot of food that needed to be eaten, and I still have plenty enough leftovers for two or three meals. And I love cooking, and it was a nice break from reading all day.

Tomorrow I am going biking with one of my girls. It will be the first day that I ride my new (to me) bike! I am excited, but I have to wake up and pump up the tires and fit it into my car and all that, so I need to get to bed so that I am all rested. Exercise is another one of those things that I know I will enjoy doing, but oh boy is it difficult to convince myself to get out there and move.

Three minutes to spare!
I will read you tomorrow,
~The Princess~

Curry EVERYWHERE

It's your day, but I'm posting anyway.

Wendy invited me to have dinner at their house tonight. She made chicken pot pie with curry in it. I couldn't quite identify what the unique flavor was at first, but when she said it, all I could think of was how much you would've enjoyed that chicken pot pie.

~The Princess~

Orange you glad I'm making you eat a durian?

Hullo Molly,

I have a new obsession. Gritty crime dramas, one in particular actually. Law and Order:SVU. It's pretty brutal, and most likely not a show that you'd want to watch, but there's something really powerful about the characters, especially the two lead detectives benson and stabler, having to deal with all these atrocities on daily basis. What really grasps you about doctor who?

Oh, right, what did I do today. I worked. It rained. The world keeps turning. I tried a dogwood fruit today. Not sure if you know what a dogwood fruit looks like, but if you can picture the pokemon koffing dyed red, you're not too far off. We were trying to think of all the fruits at work we had yet to try, and sure enough dogwood was the last one, which wound up being fine by me because after I took a bite I was done. The inside of the fruit was kind of stringy....hard to describe. Almost like chewing on polly-o string cheese. The flavor was like a really, really over-ripe peach; kind of sweet, kind of bitter. This was all initially spurred on by Jess bringing in some home-made hot sauce, made from some ornamental peppers that we were selling at work. It was mighty tasty with some pretzels. Mmmmm... All this talk about food is making me crave durian...

Wait.

What's that? You've NEVER tried a durian?!

We will have to rectify this! The durian is grown in southeast asia, and is said to have a flavor similar to "...almonds, rotten onions, turpentine and gym socks". It, too, has a consistency similar to string cheese, actually more like a warm, stringy mozzarella found on a pizza. The fruit has been banned in many public places in asia because of just how smelly it is. Even still, there's a large portion of the population that loves it. And I think we should try it. See if there are any asian markets down in nashville! I'm sure you could find one that we could split when I head on down to visit. I'll bring the smelling salts in case one of us passes out from the noxious fumes.




Alrighty, well I'm going to see if I can finish up the second chapter in PABIG, and then it's sleeptime, and then I'll start the process all over again! My trip down to see you can't come soon enough. I miss you.


Goodnight!
Dave
  

Forever single

Hello David!

The thing about Events and Adventures is, the commercials stress meeting new friends, not finding a date. It first asks about do you want to hang out, but all your friends are married? Well we can help! I don't think it IS supposed to be a dating thing. PLUS (and I just thought of this and am rather proud of it) if the purpose were dating, and they were using "single" in a broad sense, then as soon as two people became an item, they would be kicked out of the group! A-ha! See? Incentive to not go to the group looking for a date! But anyway, if I DO find another boyfriend, I'll be sure to warn him that you're gonna bring the smack down on him. Or whatever.

Your girlfriend is a total dork. A very conscientious, organized dork, but a dork nonetheless. As you know, I am planning on watching some episodes of Marble Hornets with one of my freshman girls. After small group tonight, I asked when might be a good time that we could plan for, and as she started to answer [sidenote: it sounds like the TARDIS is landing outside my window. No joke, I actually looked to make sure that couldn't be true, because I am NOT missing out on an opportunity like that] I pulled out my little scheduler to write something down. She sees the little black binder and says, "You are NOT writing Marble Hornets in your scheduler." I was like "Whyyy? I write EVERYTHING in my scheduler! I even have 'David arrives' in my scheduler." She graciously conceded, "If it's like, therapeutic for you, then I GUESS you can..." In the end, I didn't write it down, but we didn't pick an exact date anyway. We just decided that we will watch it on a Thursday night. I'll probably write myself a note to remember that. What she doesn't know can't appall her.

David, I will read you tomorrow!
Love,
~The Princess~

arachnapancakes

Hello Molly,

How was your day? I just realized that I have to post tonight oh crap oh crap. Here it goes. I cleaned up my room today. Like, legit. It looks nice. And now I have a comforter on my bed! Awesome. I was stripping the sheets on my bed earlier today and found a large, squished spider. I had slept on a spider. I freaked out for a second and then peeled it off of my sheets. I've since found several other large-ish spiders dwelling under my bed and behind my dresser. They actually looked a lot like this guy...

Gross. Also, I'm preeeeety sure if they say deliberately that it's for singles, they mean people looking for that special someone. So careful; if I find out you have another boyfriend down there, it's gonna be really awkward when I have to swoop in and kick his butt. I'm hungry, I gotta get something to eat before I hit the sack. Goodnight! I'll talk to you tomorrow.-David

Never give up, never surrender!

Hello David!

I'm making a quick post before I head off to girls small group. I just finished eating dinner--pepper steak and rice, followed by a brownie warmed in the microwave and topped with Hershey's syrup and whipped cream--while watching the season premier episodes of HIMYM. It's a pretty good day. I got through a LOT of reading, and that in NEXT MONTH'S book for the study program, so I'm ahead of the game. I also went for a walk with Benny, my roommate's mom's dog whom we are watching for a week. I got to go explore a trail I had wanted to check out for a while. I think maybe he has asthma, because toward the end on the way back he started wheezing, so I carried him the rest of the way. Yeah, not only did I get some cardio, I got some STRENGTH TRAINING as well. Okay, so the dog is a little white fluff ball, but STILL.

Tomorrow I have a staff meeting, two one-on-one coffee dates, and a one-on-one trip to a thrift store. It will be fun. And then tomorrow night is large group, and this Friday will be the RUF camping trip!

I just signed up online for this thing I heard about on the radio called Events and Adventures, which basically is a company that schedules lots of events, and you can go to them and meet new people. They have a location in Nashville. I thought, hey, this could be a neat way to meet some new friends. So I signed up, and am now super apprehensive because the follow-up screen said they would call shortly. I think my plan is to let it go to voicemail. I'm anxious just thinking about the phone ringing. Here's a little catch though: the site is for "single" people. But it doesn't SEEM like the events have to be for people looking for that special someone. I mean, I've already got a super-special-someone, I just want to make friends. I'm fairly certain that they are using the word single to mean "not married," in which case maybe they will let me join. I dunno. But I thought all this might be good to tell you about...

Lastly: YOU GOT SUNDAYS OFF OF WORK OH MY GOODNESS I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!

I love you, and I better read you tomorrow!
~The Princess~

We suck at this

Dear David,

We keep dropping the ball with this blog. We need to step up our game!

Saturday night I am having a fancy dress-up dinner for some freshman girls at my apartment. We're going to dress to the nines and eat delicious food and have a blast and it will be great. Saturday morning I may actually go biking finally! I just need to pump up my tires and maybe ride around the condo complex a bit to make sure everything is ship-shape. Bike-shape? Schwinn-shape?? Unfortunately it's not a schwinn, so I can't say that. But anyway, you get the idea.

How long do orchid blooms last? The flowers I have have yet to wilt! A couple of them are getting a little bit ragged, but for the most part, they still look quite lovely. I'm so tempted to go get more but I don't know what I would do with bunches of orchids, besides just sit and look at them and keep their leaves from getting dusty. Flowers are so colorful and cheery. Everytime I go to the grocery store, the first thing I see when I walk in is a huge display of bright, happy flowers, and I'm always so tempted to pick up a bouquet or two or another potted plant. The only reason I stop myself is because I realize I could run out of money very quickly giving in to such desires. BUT THEY ARE SO PRETTY!!! Oh goodness, I am such a girl.

I will read you tomorrow!
~The Princess~

Sicky sick sick

Buenos Noches Moll Doll (or should I say Moy Doy...)

Being sick stinks, as I'm sure you know. I spent a good chunk of the day sleeping. Got up, had some muffins that my mom baked, lemon and blueberry yum. Shortly afterwards I filled out another app for Uconn. Then I had dinner a little bit later; we ate red beans and rice, a personal fav. My dad cooked the ham hocks just right so that there was little to no actual pig toe in the beans! I then went to bed, woke up just a little bit ago, and probably gonna hit the sack in a little bit.

I miss you so so much. I miss my best friend :( Tomorrow I think I'll see if maybe John is up for hanging out. I have some homework to finish, but that shouldn't take long at all. Mmmmmmm goodnight. Say a prayer that I get over this cold/whatever it is. I got a bad headache and stuffed sinuses.

I love you!
-Dave

Adventure time!

Dear David,

I. Have found. A friend. I just had such a fun evening with one of the girls I met at the RUF house show Thursday night. We traveled downtown and walked down the streets of Nashville, past about a million karaoke bars, trying to decide which bar to go to. And then, we saw it. An ice cream bar. We were in pretty much simultaneous agreement that we HAD to stop, and we both got ice cream sodas. Then we continued our stroll, and decided on a bar where a band--not a karaoke machine--was playing. It was called the Second Fiddle, and we sat there a while listening to the music and sipping our mixed drinks. Afterward we very intentionally wandered to a "fancy beer bar" called the Flying Saucer, admiring the many old buildings and magnificent churches lining the streets of the city. I got a Strongbow--thank you for introducing me to that most wonderful cider. We sat and talked about life in Nashville so far, and she mentioned "The Dragon," and stood in enthusiastic shock when I told her I had no idea what that was. "We're going there next!" she declared. The Dragon is a gigantic tiled masterpiece in a little park near Venderbilt, covered in a colorful mosaic. It was pretty amazing and beautiful, and the lamp lights in the dark park gave it an all the more magnificent effect. I just got home. What a great adventure!

Tomorrow is Thrift Store Saturday, the trip I organized for the RUF girls. I am so excited! I love thrift stores! And Saturday night is Belmont's Christian Showcase, which as far as I understand is some kind of American Idol like thing for aspiring artists. It's a big event at the university, so I'm pretty pumped. They spent all day today, and will spend all day tomorrow, preparing for it.

Good night, my love! I will read you on Monday!
~The Princess~