The Talented Family Timm

I’ve been hanging out by myself all weekend. I haven’t hung out with Liz for a whole weekend in a long time. I think it might be a bit too much Liz because I just thought “I should go check Facebook and get some social interaction.” errr…

Thursday the Timm family welcomed me with an amazing Thanksgiving feast of a 24 lb turkey, exploded squash, wine, rolls with nutmeg, and amazing green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, coffee…. Agh, so good. It was really great to have a place to go for Thanksgiving, yet little did I know how great it was going to be.

On the front door there was a sign “Talent Show today, participants sign up for open slots.” You see, no Thanksgiving is complete without the annual Timm Family Talent Show. After our delicious meal we gathered around the sign “We are thankfull for our talents” to enjoy the unique gifts of the Timm family.

First there was a bike riding demonstration, complete with three false starts and an abort when someone pulled out of a driveway. Later we saw singing by Anne and Chad, the flipping siblings, interpretative reading, coloring (a bird with a sweater), stand up comedy featuring Mr. Timm, and the two events featured below for your viewing pleasure. 

After we were talented out we enjoyed an impromptu dance party that lasted for at least an hour and a half, culminating in “Senorita” featuring the vocal stylings of Justin Timberlake, and Chad. Gosh, this family is awesome, thanks Timms for the wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime Thanksgiving.

Sarah, age 11: “This is the best Thanksgiving ever!” 

me, age 22: “You’re welcome.”

And now off to an evening of ’social interaction’ with my favorite British wizards.

Marcia, Brittany, and Beth better come home soon!

Kovita’s Voice.

sidewalk meditations/i’ve tried to escape them/everything under a microscope

seeing is a privilege…

 

I’m trying to unpack from my time in travels and long transition. A few things are sticking out in my mind… a gift from a Nepali friend; her picture of the Sacred Heart, my brother Agamba’s birthday and dancing all night, weddings, working on Excel with Top Dai, dinners and cups of coffee with friends/family in Nepal, laughing, crying more tears in five months than probably the rest of my life combined. Especially vivid in my mind are the hours spent listening to “Kovita’s Voice” by my friend Kyle Scott. When I was questioning suffering in Uganda, community in Asia, and discovering my own vocation in the US this music walked with me.

Thanks Kyle for putting into music and lyrics the cry of my heart. 

He’s not good at advertising himself, so I’ll tell you instead. If you don’t have this cd, get it. You can e-mail him here.

Funny Friday.

After parking downtown to visit several of our vendors Brent and I were getting back into his small car. Nearby a middle aged man in very tight sweatpants was pushing his walker. I noticed the headphones around his ears and the eye patch over his right eye.

He turned around.

“Hey! HEY!” he yelled at us. 

We paused from our respective sides of the car.

“Why don’t you let your daughter drive?!”

Then he turned and ambled away.

Ugandan Slang Gone Wrong.

I love slang. I learned a few of these phrases in Uganda:

1. It’s Kawa. (Means, it’s cool, good.)

2. What’s the KB? (Give me the scoop.)

3. You look smart! (You look nice!) 

4. Don’t chuck me! (Chuck instead of throw or break or break up.)

5. “Chick” for girl.

6. “As in…” (A great way to start any sentence, could be used for “Example”. As in, I just gave you a demonstration.)

7. Using “and what” on the end to mean some combination of etc/other things/other ways/other people. Ex: “I was phoning my mum and what last night.” 

8. And a multitude of other various expressions that are a cross between Luganda and British English.

Today I had a collision of my tendency to dramatic statements like “I’ll assassinate her!” (About a well-known political figure, oops…) with Ugandan/British slang when Chris asked me how it was going at work.

“Well, Brent’s still got me in nappies!” I shouted in reply.

Errrr….  Might not have come out QUITE like I intended. Sorry Brent.

 

Other highlights of the first week of work include:

Jara: “You can just go CRAZY here on Outlook if you want.” (On setting rules for incoming mail to inbox folders.)

~

Dad: “Tell Young Yoder that I program in FORTAN on punchcards, but am hoping to move to MS Basic on 5.25″ floppies any day now.”

Paul: “hahahaha.”

Dad: “Tell young Yoder that only weaklings use Java. Real men use pointers.” 

(I don’t know what all that meant but it still seemed funny.)

~

Anytime Marcia talks. Especially if it’s about her fears of Google.

~

Brent’s extended edition tour of the office… “This is where Community Care keeps their files, and here is the microwave. Some people in the office like to get to the microwave first to be sure their food gets microwaved; you’re going to hear requests for a new microwave for lunch time.      Get ready for it.” A few minutes later. “We have a situation in this office where at the same time people will be cold and hot, there are lots of complaints.            Sorry.”

~

Daphne: “We’re the moodiest department. By far.”

Hey November…

It’s super cold in Omaha this week, and I’m spending the weekend at a Board Meeting. I actually really like it, a lot. Sweet. 

In the meantime, this is my letter for November! I hope you enjoy, it was difficult to write, but in a good sharing-of-my-heart kind of way.

Much love.

Enneagram Discovery!

So, I’ve heard that John McCain is an 8, and I’m not sure if Obama is a 3 or a Social 1. (Any guesses?) I may not have the President elect and his former opponent down, but I did figure out Matt Damon based solely on this video. Hahaha… If you’re a 1, you’ll get this. If you know a 1 (and you do, since I’m a 1) you’ve probably seen something like this before. Watch how he starts really calmly and then talks himself into a rage right around “hockey mom.” GOSH, I love the Enneagram.

First Task: VOTE.

Today I voted. In Omaha. 

I have been feeling really guilty that I failed to send in an absentee ballot, assuming I’d either be able to register in Omaha or vote in Grand Rapids, but not really thinking it all through. It turns out that you have to have registered by October 24 in a new place to vote, so I realized last week I was too late to vote. I take politics and my civic duty seriously (well, at least I love sounding like I do) so that was quite a blow to my pride. I was thinking I couldn’t go to Jara’s election party tonight because I failed to vote. I even told my dad I needed to kill someone from the opposing campaign to cancel out my lack of voting. He said “Now I’m really afraid to drive you to Omaha.” Haha! Anyway, this morning (my first in a new home!!) Marcia went to vote and came running back in “LIZ! You can vote! The poll had a sign that people who just moved can vote, only in the Presidential, but they can vote!” 

Hurray! Brittany and I got in the car and drove to her polling location, saw the aforementioned sign, but had to call the main location (twice!) to be told “If you didn’t register by October 24, you can’t vote.” “But there is a sign here that says that we can!” “Well, I don’t know but if you didn’t register by October 24 you can’t vote.”

Finally we had the poll inspector make us a copy of the sign and drove down to the main location in Omaha… only about 30 minutes away and into the suburbs, no big deal. We arrived and handed the copy of the sign to the woman at the front desk, she repeated “Well, I don’t know but if you didn’t register…” We asked to speak to someone else. Once again I gave my sign to a harried governmental employee (do they come any other way?) and said “This sign is from a polling location in Dundee, I’d like to exercise this right and vote in the Presidential election.” Her reply? “Well, if you didn’t register by October 24…” “This SIGN was PRINTED by the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT! It SAYS that I CAN VOTE in THIS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!” I calmly (well, not so) replied. Another (less-harried) employee quickly said, “we’ll take care of it.” And five minutes later I had my ballot in hand.

I don’t know if they’re just going to throw it in the trash, but at least I got the sticker, free cup of Starbucks, and the right to attend Jara’s election party.

Suitcase.

I’ve been living out of a suitcase for six months. I’ve stayed in homes of my family all around the world, and tomorrow I get to load my suitcase for the last time in 2008 and move to my new home in Omaha. I’m really excited to unpack my boxes, which are remnants from my old job and say “Adult Briefs, Size XL” all over them. 

I HATE moving, and I think I blogged that exact sentence during my last (slightly traumatic) move to my small apartment post-college. This time I love knowing that I’m going home to live with sweet people, instead of starting a whole new life without knowing anyone or thing about my neighborhood. I also think that at 22 I’m entirely too young to be getting weird about doing things ‘my way’, which I was after a year in my own apartment. I guess roommates and kids seem to weed those controlling tendencies right out of you, and since I’m definitely not ready for kids… thank you Marcia, Brittany, and Beth for being those roommates! 

Today, (6 hours before departure) I finished sorting through a box and found 12 books I’ve been trying to find for at least a year and a half… woohoo! The entire Wheel of Time collection, and did you know that I really love the science fantasy genre and am actually a Trekkie? (Next Gen is my favorite).

So, I guess I’ll see you from somewhere in Middle America. Live long and prosper… until then!