Love won. the end.

I've been thinking a lot lately about waiting on God. .... mostly because that's where I'm at (in just about everything), but I feel it really strongly, too, the waiting on God. It's been what I've accidentally been reading about..... and I just now realized, it's also advent.

Sometimes the it's the rain making bells and harmony, sometimes the soft autumn air lilting through the open window, and even the sunlight makes the casual appearance, sneaking in one beam at a time. These are my mornings, waking on a floor in Asheville. And it feels like peace. It feels as close to home as I can crawl while still in this skin.
It's the people.
They breathe. We talk, we live.
We sit up late at night playing games where the rules change and people win in 2 minutes or 3 hours. We cook in mass clumps, scurrying here and there, dodging people, inserting words and laughs, staring in astonishment at the amount of food that can fit on open counters and stoves, and....any other empty places. We sing together and we are quiet together, listening with dream-filled faces to the music.....
We go to hunt for blankets and friendship, and end up with free waters and fries. We sit on couches with bits of life escaping from our mouths and eyes. We go on rambles through the woods, crossing creeks and walking with soggy feet. We go on runs and walks through the rain, joyful as it swells the rivers.
We learn together, and I am continually taught what love means, and what trusting God feels like.

This year has the potential to be the best Christmas yet.
I won't be in Illinois for Dec. 25th. Neither will my sister and her boyfriend. Turns out my brother and his wife won't be either, actually.

I think this is great, for multiple reasons:

We have decided to have Christmas sometime in October..... no joke. I think maybe the 19th?
Actually, we decided to have Christmas, thanksgiving, and Halloween all on the same day. (or at least that is the rumor/plan) I am delighted.
I don't even have to be the target of all the horrible commercialism, turns out..... (at least not 90% of it) because I'm having Christmas before Halloween! Ha! take that advertisement, consumer driven-America!
Maybe I can have some peace without all the clutter. maybe I will be able to have a good day with a little food and people.

And maybe it will be a day well spent, about what it's about. About what everyday should be about..... maybe that's what'll happen.

I don't know that I'd suggest riding on a bike through the cold wind and the rain in a poncho. It feels like you have a parachute attached to your back. So if you like riding your bike in the cold, windy, wet, with a parachute attached to your back....then, yeah, it's loads of fun. Maybe I should look into getting a rain jacket...you know, those things you wear that are semi-water-proof. Or I could just keep wearing the poncho and telling you the same story. over and over again.

Either way, I actually had a good time riding (parachute on my back and all) and stopped to take some photos, so enjoy:

pumpkin puke

So, I’m sitting in my room, yawning from the sleepiness creeping nearer. It’s getting later, and getting nearer the time where technically I’m a year older, even though technically I’m only a day older….how exactly does that work again?
Well, I sat around for about an hour realizing that I am moving in a few days…or leaving at least. Hmm…

Somehow I end up on the phone with my brother/former bartender/great person to ask about how much alcohol certain drinks contain, and my suspicions are confirmed. …..and then the conversation trails off into the realm of our annual (3rd , as of this yr.) pajama eggnog run. At which point I remind him that we have to get some of the ‘pumpkin milk’ as well as the eggnog. (if you haven’t tried it, you should, especially if you are a pumpkin addict like myself)
And then he tells me that he read on a blog once about someone having one of those milk-chugging (til you puke) contests, except with eggnog….. Which we both thought was hilarious and seriously disgusting. And then we decide someone should try that with pumpkin milk….and that is even more disgusting and deadly, because, as it turns out, eggnog is really bad for you and contains about 250 or 350 calories per tiny serving, but pumpkin milk, oh pumpkin milk. It has put eggnog to shame. If I remember right it has a whopping 450 calories per serving…… so basically, a meal in a glass. Minus any good/essential nutrients for you of course. Can’t have those things helping out your immune system, folks. We also decided that my brother would probably miraculously not puke after such an escapade, but instead would be sick for about 4 days. My opinion was that he’d be hospitalized, and everyone would be baffled as to the cause of his illness.
Anyway, sometime around the mention of pumpkin puke, eggnog guzzling, and hysterical hypothesis of what would happen if we did that, and of course the sheer disgustingness of consuming so many calories in one go (you do the math, at least half a gallon worth of servings of that stuff) I lost it, or we both did, and we just kept laughing, I was laughing in between sentences, tears streaming from my eyes.

Someday maybe I will attempt it. But I really hate puking. And it would have to be a group event, you know, community and all that.

But who knows, pumpkin puke? Eh…..