It’s happening… I think!

I’m on my way!

See you on the other side. 

 

the Zilla?

I always think that the world stops when I’m traveling or wedding-ing.

This weekend since I’m the maid-of-honor in my best friend Laura’s wedding, and getting ready to (hopefully) travel to see my African sister on Wednesday, I am a bit distant from the reality of everyday life. But the past week and a half at my parents’ house has been sweet and full of reconnections, from old high school and college friends to home church community.

It has also felt like a lot more time than a week and a half, which I realized a few days ago when some small travel fears turned into full-blown nuclear meltdowns. Too! Much! Free! Time! So I’ve decided to keep myself busy from now until Wednesday with slathering aloe on the sun burns I am constantly accumulating (shhh, don’t tell JZ) and wedding appointments because hey! what bride doesn’t want her maid of honor to accompany her on ALL the errands the week before her wedding? Laura, the most laid-back bride ever, has lovingly dubbed me “maid-of-honor-zilla” which should be funny, but actually really isn’t all that hilarious. I just want perfection, ok?! I keep telling her, “it’s not the wedding, it’s just my personality.” But since she’s not into the Enneagram, it’s hard to convince her of the truth in that statement.

And now, since I was given a camera by my wonderful GR family… welcome to the NEW [illustrated] lifeofliz!

Packing is going REALLY well, as you can see.

 

Had a wonderful goodbye date with my pastor’s family… this is Mary, doesn’t she look like my sister, seriously? I totally held her when she was in the hospital, just after being born. That makes me feel really old. 

 

Starting the decorations at the reception hall… it’s a small reception, only their 450+ closest friends, no big deal. And Laura’s family is cooking all the food.

 

Justin, the groom, is ready!

 

So is the bride! Haha, don’t hate me Laura… it was actually a sad night spent watching The Notebook, NOT pre-wedding jitters… I was laughing for the whole two hour breakdown, sorry to say.

 

At a family spaghetti fest with the ‘Okie’ half of Laura’s family. This picture is featuring my good friend and fellow bridal attendant/liberal Amber… she is great! I’m so glad to have some time with her. The 30 person spaghetti fest is not to be confused with the rehearsal dinner, which only 70 of the closest family members will be attending.

The Original Teranna.

I have a few really significant posts in my heart that are being slowly written down. In the meantime, for you impatient readers, feast on this…

This is the “Aquinas Sampler” I happened to have in my purse during my five day trek to ‘Teranna’ in May 2006. I wrote down funny quotes all weekend on this and then stuck it in a pile of papers, which I found during the massive move in May 2008. I laughed so hard that tears were coming out of my eyes. So I thought I’d share it with you.

~~~

“Find me a man and I’ll make out with him!”  - Chester on love

“I put my interests on the wall. I like romance, I like… building things.” – Jason from Freetown (which I think was the restaurant we were eating at?)

“I don’t like it when people talk a lot / he totally sucks you in!” – Chester on listening

“I didn’t know if five days was too long to stay at Lisa’s place but then I thought ‘Who cares about Lisa? I’m staying til Wednesday!” – Liz as quoted by Andrew

 

And, of course, my preposterous number of Lisa quotes:

On Relationships:

“He’s very pale and skinny, I’m like ‘Here’s a donut.’”

“Maybe I should stop questioning you… but I can’t stop!” 

“I want to take my brain out of my head because you are so boring my head hurts.” 

On Faith:

“My toilet seat got stuck in the up position. ‘You should pray about that!’”

“Guitar- the Christian instrument.”

“Jesus, why don’t you treat me better?!”

Etc.:

“I ate some sort of weird testacle [sic], I can’t remember what animal it was.” – on international travel

“I slew 5 spiders!” – her feat of strength

“This is embarrassingly laborious.” – as she vacuumed cat hair off her rug

“Under my cheapness tutelage.” – on her mom

You can read Lisa’s tale of this visit here. We attempted a Toronto 2008 trip, but it didn’t quite happen… which is sad since we didn’t get to see Ches and Dave much during their, you know, wedding this Christmas. I’m holding out for 2009!

ABC’s by Nick.

Cc

“Church is mostly for Catholic people and First Communions.”

-The Facts of the ABC Book by Nick, age 8

Blessed.

I generally get my blogging material from people I meet or from my friends and funny things they say. Since starting to leave, there has been too much good stuff to blog!

This weekend I made a new friend in Chicago. I was spending the day downtown, getting my Indian visa. Well, there is something inherent in the government of India that I think is designed to kill your soul through frustration. Some would allege my soul wouldn’t be so frustrated if I planned a little bit, but to that I reply “details are for shmucks.” And, of course, India decided to outsource the visa application but they didn’t say clearly where one should go to get this visa application turned in. I did all the steps, but still found myself trying to figure out where to go, which pictures to have, etc. Somehow, two taxis and an hour of meandering later, I got my Indian visa! 

Afterward all I could think was one word, “COFFEE.” So I walked towards the nearest likely place- and on the way passed this guy, sitting, holding a sign: “Hungry. Thank you! God Bless!” I looked at him, and the Holy Spirit spoke; “Hey! Do you like coffee?” “Lots of sugar.” he replied. So I grabbed some Seattle’s Best, and walked back. Three sugar packets weren’t enough, he put in about 10 total. We sat under the Old Navy awning and talked for a couple hours. My friend has a daughter he can’t see, likes house music (which was born in Chicago apparently) and horror movies, lost his job and now ‘hustles’ for $18 a day so that he doesn’t have to sleep on the streets, but can stay in a hotel a few blocks up until he gets a job. He asked me where I lived and I told him “Grand Rapids.” He laughed. That’s where he says he’s from when he can’t get money and needs a ‘bus ticket home.’ He kept calling his life “my situation.” He said “you want to know what’s degrading- THIS is degrading” as he pointed to his sign. I hate that it’s so rare that someone sits with him, so rare that he gets 50 cents without people asking “what are you going to use my money for?! are you using drugs?!” I hate that as we sat no one looked us in the eyes. Worst of all I hated that he thanked me so much as I left, when I was the one who was given a gift. 

As we were talking another man who is homeless came up said to me “This isn’t a game, this is our lives.” Yeah it is… and that opened my eyes to something else. No one gave us any money in the whole time I was sitting there. My clean clothes and big purse kept him from earning even 50 cents in two hours. He sacrificed to sit and talk to me. We are blessed by our friends who sit and talk to us, giving up their time so that we can know Jesus among them. I always want to stay connected, not necessarily through a ‘ministry’ but by these true moments, to why I have chosen the life that I live…. because this life is a blessed life.