The dog ate my homework
I got a dog last Sunday (see: Honey, below). And not totally her fault, she chewed through my laptop charging cord. All that to say, this newsletter may be coming out a little late/rushed etc.
Do add your address to the Christmas card list .
I think Brian from Enterprise is guest writing next week, but I fully forgot to confirm with him, so stay tuned. If not him, I’ll be back, and we’ll catch Brian another time.
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This sentence now has links to the my instagram, and old issues of the newsletter. I hope today is beautiful for you.
Number One: Honey
Sometime around Halloween my sister Laura told me that a dog had started hanging around her future in-laws ranch in Oklahoma and that they wanted this dog to go to a good home. So I slid into Rhonda’s text messages and offered up my 3BR/1BA in a good school district. Last Sunday, Honey came home.
She is an angel. Couldn’t be more sweet. She did chew through that cord, and she’s thrown up once, but we all have our days. Honey is just an objectively good dog, and I love her so much. She’s a Great Pyrenees and has the little weird toe thing on her hind legs. The other day we were on a walk and someone was like, “is that a baby Pyrenees?” And I was like, “ok, just how baby? Because I know she’s supposed to get bigger, but I’d be down if she stayed this size.” I’ve been telling people she’s nine months old, like I know anything.
Hair is just about everywhere. It is what it is. I’m glad I didn’t name her Pine Cone.
Number Two: Trader Joe’s Herb Goat Cheese
Add to your holiday cheese board. Easier to slice than the blueberry goat cheese.
Number Three: The Hardee’s Game
I used to play this game with myself where when I saw someone with a personality car (i.e. a pink pick up truck), I would wonder, “what’s this person like at a party?” I was explaining this to my boss a few weeks ago, but he thought I said “Hardee’s.” And it’s actually more fun to imagine what someone is like in a Hardee’s drivethru, so the game has been changed.
Do they know what they want to order? Are they paying in cash? Will they drive over the curb?
Number Four: grouping tabs on Chrome
I often feel like mentally, I have too many tabs open. So to combat that, I try to close tabs in Google Chrome. Even when it’s hard to believe, tabs can be reopened. And to help me believe that tabs can be re-opened, I group them. Right click on the tab and select “add to group” and then make groups. It’s one of those no-brainer, but also major life upgrade things.
Number Five: Christ Church Mission
Friday night a friend asked me how church has been for me and I said, “I love it so much, I could cry.”
Around May I started showing up to the 9am service at Christ Church Mission. It was a funny little post-break up thing, like when you compulsively change your hair. I wanted to feel fresh and in control of something, so I re-visited a church from when I first moved to Kansas City. And then I just sort of stayed.
Like a lot of folks that grew up Evangelical, I’ve had a level of skepticism about anything resembling Catholicism, for reasons silly and reasons fair. My report is that my Anglican experience doesn’t feel that catholic to me except for that there’s a Bishop named Todd, and we all like Todd. I know nothing about Todd, I just know that there’s a Todd, and the general vibe is that we like him.
Anyway, one time I met Tish Harrison Warren at a birthday party, and later watched the sweetness of my cousin Logan’s faith. So for the last few years, I’ve had the sense that the Anglicans were having a good time. Plus I love infant baptism.
So when I was not having a good time in May, I showed up to Anglican church.
I’ve hesitated to Five-Things my church because I want to protect how precious it has been to me. Plus there are tensions that I hold about it all, but I am so grateful for the space to hold those tensions. In a year of so much change and transition, Christ Church has been my favorite.
Specific things that are life-giving to me:
the service is a tight hour, just a total lack of ego, beyond refreshing, very predictable
passing the peace, which I also hate because it’s awkward, but it’s mostly beautiful and good
being in the care of a pastor who knows my name and story
singing the doxology every week
my small group
Odds are, not going to meet my husband at Christ Church. I think we can all say with fairness, there are just more cute boys at other churches. But I’m not going to put a limit on what God can do. When a person on the prayer team called me a few weeks ago, I said, “oh you can always ask God for a husband for me, who knows.” The prayer team is on the case, it sounds like.