Honey.

remember how i'm on a team called L'aMet? we performed at a facility for alzheimers and dementia patients recently. i love old people, so i was really excited to perform and talk with them.

the first day we got there was a shakedown on my nerves. i have a sincere heart for people with alzheimer's and/or dementia, mainly because my grandfather has it. i thought i'd be totally okay, and for about 15 minutes i was. it was heartbreaking, though, and i ended up breaking down afterwards. i can't even explain the strange cocktail of emotions i had. it was despairing, but with a sort of nostalgia and personal hurt mixed in. the second day, i was determined to be better, stronger, kinder. i had to be. i couldn't handle a second day like that.

once again, i performed, and once again i attempted to be loving and kind to the people there. it proved to be incredibly easier the second day. there was this wonderful, softspoken old man who was so much like my grandfather. after a brief period of small talk he told me, with near-perfect clarity, about his life as a stock-broker on wall street and how he used to travel the world. i also met his wife, who had married him only 13 years ago. *insert cheesy quote about love being timeless* she had one killer wedding ring, too. the diamond was the size of my thumb nail, i kid you not. he leaned over to me and whispered that he took out a loan for it and smiled. it was precious.

i also met this woman whose name was Honey, and let me tell you, the name suited her. she was as sweet as she could be, and (in my opinion) didn't have that bad of parkinson's or dementia. i was privileged enough to hear her life's story. she met her husband in WWII while they were both in the air force. they got married and stayed in the armed forces until vietnam, when they got caught up in an attack. her husband died, and she was captured as a prisoner of war for 3 years. she showed me her left hand, which was still bent and scarred from it.

she told me about how the grace of God got her through that time in her life, and how she was sure that He had big plans for her, even to this day. she cried a little bit as she recalled memory after memory. she told me she was sometimes still afraid, but that she had faith. she had a firm grasp on the grace of God and his plan for bringing her through all of that. i agreed with her wholeheartedly, and I still pray for that darling old woman.

Honey helped me immensely. God must have known how much i needed someone to speak truth to me that day. she encouraged me to persevere in the worst of times, because God is still good and He has a bigger plan. i remember her fondly, and i hope she's still there when we go back.

Song of the Day: "Beyond the Blue" by Josh Garrels (listen ----> here!)

updates! news! monsters!

i promise i've been working on the memphis post. it's almost done. in the meantime, though, i've decided to start blogging all those little stories that i don't feel are quite long enough for full posts. every time i come up with something, i decide it's too short or doesn't make any sense. i'm just going to post them all anyway. so for the next couple of blogs, they are going to be very short, and they're going to be about the strange people i've met in my life, unusual stories, and perfect random happenstance. it's going to be entertaining you guys, and i'll be posting on a more frequent basis. i think it's going to work out nicely, because i'm working on a weird schedule right now that only allows me to work in short bursts. i'll finish the memphis blog soon, and now when i do, you're going to be like AWAWOWOWOWOWAHHHHHWOW. it's that grand.


in other news, i've been thinking a lot about when i was a kid, and how i was the most optimistic, rose-glasses-wearing, bright-side-looking geek you've ever met in your whole life. i'm still a geek, for sure. but i'm re-teaching myself optimism all the time. it's not easy, but i think i'm starting to get the hang of it.


let's do something together. you know, the whole blogger-reader bonding...thing. humor me.


we can all agree that life is messy. there's too much to do. i mean just too darn much. we try to schedule in more than we can possibly accomplish in the time we've allotted, and we form enormous, jam-packed schedules. it doesn't go as planned, and just when you think you've got it down, things get all weird again. basically life can start looking like this.

that's Harrison the Unhappy Monster. nobody wants to be him right now. he's having a bad hair day because he forgot his umbrella as he dashed off to work with his cup of coffee and briefcase. on his way to work, he spilt his coffee on his tie, and therefore had to go without one today. he stopped at Starbucks briefly to get another coffee, much to the chagrin of his nearly-empty wallet. upon going back outside, he discovers his briefcase has been locked inside his car, along with his keys. he is, at present, waiting for a locksmith to come and get his briefcase and keys from his car. in other words, it's been a rough day for Harrison.


however, what Harrison does not know, is that at this very moment, there is a transfer truck hurdling down the highway at unsafe speeds. the driver of this truck, who is employed to move large amounts of mattresses, has been driving from boston to florida with very few breaks and absolutely no sleep. as he barrels down the rainy highway, he suddenly has a flashback of Dwight Schrute from The Office saying

"Before I do anything, I ask myself, 'Would an idiot do that thing'? And if the answer is yes, then I do not do that thing."

Suddenly, the mattress transfer truck driver, in his sleep-deprived delirium, determines that only an idiot would be a mattress transfer truck driver. he should not do this thing. he only wanted to grow beets. an idiot does not grow beets, and therefore he should do that thing. he decides to return to his ranch house near boston by making an immediate u-turn on the highway, causing a flurry of feathers to fly in all directions. fortunately, he landed upon a few of the spilled mattresses, and was completely unharmed.


remember our dear friend Harrison? you know, the one with the bad hair? if he had been on time to work, he would have gotten into a scuffle with a certain mattress transfer truck. his bad circumstances were entirely purposed to keep him out of even worse circumstances.


moral: look on the bright side. you never know what you might be missing. :)

Song of the Day: "Dog Problems" by The Format (listen ---> here!)