Unit 34

good things for January

2012-02-04T14:47:00.003-05:00

1 - Saw lots of folks at church in Greensboro, toured Doug and Cindy's new house, rode a Gator and operated an excavator with Jonah, and met baby Aidan.
2 through 9 - [there were many good things, I'm sure, but this week is one of those holes in my record-keeping]
10 - Started new job. Orientation was painless, and I had a choice of offices.
11 - JAUNT Board made a dumb decision that made it even easier to leave for the new job.
12 - First whole day at new job. Either office provides views of trees.
13 - First holiday at new job.
14 - Crystal played with Jonah while Amanda and I did some much-needed organizing.
15 - It took all of Jonah's naptime, but I fixed the coat rack, at least for a while.
16 - Pancakes and local sausage for dinner.
17 - Reserved a hotel for first trip of new job (Transportation Research Board).
18 - Apple sent me a tiny, fancy new Nano to replace the vintage one that was recalled.
19 - Spudnuts and Bodo's at work. Eatin' round things with holes.
20 - Pizza lunch with the new boss and listened to a colleague give a talk in one of the old engineering classrooms.
21 - We tried an appetizer at Belmont Pizza.
22 - Snow, without all the problems that usually come with snow.
23 - Safe trip to DC during morning rush hour when it was supposed to be icy.
24 - Saw some old friends and colleagues I wasn't expecting to see.
25 - Was glad to get home and see Jonah and Amanda again (well, I only saw Jonah at church).
26 - Attended a planning meeting and saw many of the usual suspects.
27 - Back at JAUNT for one last day to give a decently well-received presentation.
28 - The weather was nice enough that we walked to the open house of the International School, where Jonah will not be attending preschool.
29 - One of Jonah's friends appeared at Red Robin as we were lunching and sat by us.
30 - Amanda and Jonah met me for dinner.
31 - Anniversary of 11 years since Amanda and I started dating.

good things for December

2012-01-04T22:22:00.002-05:00

1 - Free lunch. I am a big fan of free lunch.
2 - Todd rode my bus. It was not necessarily good that he was in town, because he was here to visit his father-in-law in the hospital, but it was good that he took a break to ride Green Route.
3 - I biked, Jonah rode in the bike trailer, and we got to see the Christmas parade downtown while Amanda had some time to clean.
4 - Amanda's first Cloth Diaper Party had a good group of interested parties.
5 - Stayed busy at work.
6 - Interesting small-world conversations at dinner in Roanoke with other mobility managers.
7 - "They want you to take the rolls!" (This episode of Boy Meets World, at this moment in the episode, happened to be on when I turned on the cable TV in my hotel room at breakfast.)
8 - Jonah went to bed without much fuss and I got some things accomplished (including adding Dec. 5-9 to this list).
9 - Finally created a Mii.
10 - Visit from the 'rents.
11 - Choir Christmas music performance. In the words of another choir member, "I'm glad to do it, and I'm glad when it's done."
12 - News on potential new job continues to be good.
13 - The Blue Ridge Eco Shop now carries Plan Toys and has one of Jonah's favorite things: a train table.
14 - Santa shopping was a better deal than I planned on. And Alba liked his singing Peanuts characters.
15 - Explored the warring winter wonderlands on Mountain View Street.
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17 -
18 -
19 -
20 -
21 - Formal job offer should be in the mail just in time for Christmas. And free lunch at work.
22 - Amanda received a mop for Christmas (she actually wanted one).
23 - Christmas Part I was great, except for naptime. Jonah really got into it.
24 - Christmas Part II and church in Earlysville.
25 - Christmas Parts III and IV, and I checked the mail just in time to put the letter confirming my new job under the tree.
26 - Christmas Part V, recovery, and an adventure to Whole Foods.
27 - Received lots of congratulatory messages after spamming everyone I've worked with for the last three years.
28 - My boss replied to the same e-mail with a picture of a crying baby.
29 - Two burgers in one day. And our last trip to Ben & Jerry's for free ice cream.
30 - Jonah slept great last night and went to bed tonight with minimal fuss.
31 - Came to Greensboro and met Atticus before he turned 1.

good things for November

2011-12-02T22:21:00.002-05:00

1 - We have six fish! In our fish tank!
2 - We still have five fish! On the bright side! Also, a short bit of evening bus driving.
3 - We still have three fish! And the rest were under warranty, so we have six again by the end of the day! Also, my dad is 70.
4 - Impressed Amanda, and a pedestrian, and myself with my parallel parking abilities (key: use the bumpers - that's what they're there for - but be gentle).
5 - Visited my parents to help celebrate my dad's birthday.
6 - Jonah slept most of the drive home.
7 - Jonah had a friend over.
8 - Voting and dinner out afterwards, which is becoming a tradition.
9 - More interesting news on potential jobs.
10 - Three fish have made it at least a week.
11 - Jonah is becoming a pro at pooping in the potty, even at other people's houses.
12 - Drove a 23-year-old bus for the football game.
13 - Jonah went to bed without a fuss for the first time in over a week.
14 - A longstanding misconception about lunch breaks was corrected.
15 - The Regional Mobility Map may not be perfect, but it is finally done.
16 - Told a funny story in choir.
17 - Learned about what we'll be doing on the Pastor Search Committee.
18 - Busy and productive day: got car inspected, biked, drove bus, had lunch with co-workers, had an outdoor meeting, played with Jonah.
19 - Watched as Jonah put gravel and leaves into a bucket, very purposefully.
20 - There was not total agreement at the church Transition Luncheon, but there were some ideas I agreed with.
21 - Unexpected, exciting, and terrifying news about a job.
22 - Continued and confirmed good news.
23 - Authentic and tasty chimichanga for lunch.
24 - Thankful.
25 - Jonah and I had some Guy Time while Amanda got deals, and we saw Charlottesville's Grand Illumination that evening.
26 - Spending the day in Nokesville without spending the night meant less time wasted in preparing and screaming. Win-win.
27 - Jonah took a long nap and we still got outside to enjoy the nice weather afterwards.
28 - I got fingerprinted and didn't get ink on my hands. And I didn't have to commit a crime.
29 - Although it was a little silly for them to serve only cookies and peanuts at a meeting scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m., the chocolate chip cookies were good.
30 - Finally started to get some of the melodies, words and rhythms for the Christmas cantata.

Good things for October

2011-11-02T10:05:00.001-05:00

September: Didn't keep track of all the good things that happened...

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2 -

3 -

4 -

5 -

6 - Such nice weather this week... we walked to Belmont BBQ and ran into one of Jonah's friends on the way home.

7 - Fighting back against The Man Tryin' to Keep Me Down, who in this case is Google Transit's gatekeeper.

8 - Cows 'N' Corn with both sets of grandparents.

9 - Good deal on brunch downtown.

10 -

11 -

12 - Saw that TMBG will indeed be playing a show in Charlottesville on 2/16/12.

13 - Fun train trip to Philadelphia and subway ride to the hotel. Jonah made lots of use of the Baby Sign for "train."

14 - Jonah had infinite fun at the Please Touch Museum.

15 - Another day of Jonah fun at the Smith Play Place and Philadelphia Magic Garden. Sightseeing at the Italian Market and a cheesesteak at Pat's King of Steaks.

16 - Cobblestone streets.

17 - Despite Jonah having a cold, this day worked out pretty well, and we made it back home on the train before bedtime. Well, not before Jonah's bedtime, but he stayed awake.

18 - Two bus stop sign approvals, approval to join Google Transit, and driving up the bumpy road on Carter Mountain - a good day at work.

19 - I could tell I was getting sick, but I went to choir anyway and enjoyed it.

20 - Got out of the office for a pleasant drive to Scottsville and back.

21 - Rented an antique convertible and drove it on the Skyline Drive to see the leaves. It was a little cold and I was sick, but it was still awesome.

22 - Spent some time swimming at an aquatic center in Christiansburg.

23 - Relaxed and avoided speaking.

24 - Quiet Monday at work.

25 - Slept in.

26 - Stayed home to rest.

27 - Bicycle planning goddess Mia Birk visited Charlottesville.

28 - A co-worker had a vat of hot cider going across the hall all day.

29 - Jonah did a lot of good dinosaur roars.

30 - Hayride on a tiny wagon attached to a lawn tractor.

31 - Trick-or-treating on the Lawn was slightly less crowded than last year. More roaring.

good things for August

2011-09-06T18:48:00.001-05:00

1 - Discovery of chiggers on me meant I wasn't going to crazytown - there's a reason for the itching.

2 - Insulating contractor came and did work that may lead to us not having to run the A/C so much.

3 - Fun bidding on hotels through Priceline, even if we didn't get anything yet.

4 - Jonah ate fries with ketchup, bread with ketchup, and peaches with ketchup. A true Bartley.

5 - Morning bus driving.

6 - Took an interesting class that let me revisit the architecture school building at UVA.

7 - Jonah gave us kisses at bedtime and was, for the first time, coordinated enough to make the sound when his lips were on our cheeks.

8 - No traffic jams on the way to Roanoke.

9 - My presentation at the conference went well. Also, old buses.

10 - Got to swim with Amanda and Jonah before evening activities.

11 - Jonah really got into giving kisses.

12 - Still not sure if it's a good thing, but I rode in the back seat of a jacked-up Jeep Wrangler for a very important work meeting.

13 - Jonah finally met the much-discussed Marie when we visited Nokesville.

14 - Our power never went out during the big storm.

15 - Drove a bus in the HOV lane of I-66 past some slower traffic.

16 - Surprised by being asked to return for a second-round interview.

17 - The whole workday was taken up by one meeting in Lynchburg.

18 - Serious mental beach preparation.

19 - Last day of work before the beach! And handrail delivery. And Twentysomethings gathering.

20 - Sort of got our money's worth by getting to the pool one last time before my season pass expired.

21 - Went to the beach, blissfully ignorant of what was to come.

22 - Little Debbie Fudge Brownies, ocean.

23 - Sitting in the beach house, we just barely felt the earthquake that rocked the Charlottesville area and were quickly able to learn more through the power of social media.

24 - We wisely crammed in a lot of stuff this day, including a trip to take Jonah to the sound-side beach with no waves.

25 - Went shopping instead of evacuating in a timely manner.

26 - Pretended we were still at the beach by going shopping again and having ice cream.

27 - Walked downtown before Irene really got going.

28 - Discovered the huge sprayground at Forest Hills Park.

29 - Felt nice and busy at work.

30 - Interview went fairly well and was almost fun.

31 - Amanda's birthday was low-key but fun; she and Jonah met me for a picnic lunch, and then we got a deal on dinner at IHOP.

good things for July

2011-08-01T19:23:00.001-05:00

1 - Joined the Downtown Mall for its birthday party

2 - Bought vibrant paint and began brightening up the kitchen during Jonah's nap time.

3 - Dan and Alden appeared at church; productive afternoon.

4 - Painted a wall of the guest room while my parents had fun with Jonah (they all wore each other out). Wet conditions made the evening fireworks safer.

5 - Dinner out with Amanda (Jonah stayed home).

6 - Left work a little early for an afternoon nap, which helped me feel better.

7 - More good interviewing experience.

8 - Received good news about our finances.

9 - Explored Afton with Amanda and Jonah.

10 - Jonah's naptime was our most productive in a while (in at least three days, since Jonah hadn't taken a normal nap in three days).

11 - Guests arrived safely.

12 - Quiet evening.

13 - Air conditioning is a great friend in July.

14 - The weather cooled down enough to make my walk around Scottsville (looking for bus stop locations) pleasant.

15 - At the Eco Shop, overheard John Grisham commenting to his wife about a bat guano product.

16 - Thanks to weather and Tour Guide Todd, the bike ride in Lynchburg was a smashing success (excluding the part where I smashed Jonah's trailer into a wall by taking a turn too tightly).

17 - Jonah gave me a nice hug in the morning.

18 - Listened to this. Also gave blood without feeling woozy.

19 - Finally got initial approval for the second bus shelter.

20 - Amanda surprised me with wild wing popcorn the day after kettle corn.

21 -

22 - Got to drive a full bus, a rarity in the summer.

23 - Harry Potter movie in a theater (first movie in a theater in almost two years).

24 - Seven years of married bliss cannot be overshadowed, even by a large amount of pink vomit on the carpet.

25 - Ate healthy salad for postponed anniversary dinner out.

26 - Enjoyed a fancypants lunch at Hamilton's courtesy of the boss.

27 - This was not a good day. However, I had an interesting meeting with a developer's architect.

28 - Felt much better.

29 - Got to drive the oldest bus, which amazingly had very nice A/C.

30 - Received $70 for doing basically nothing.

31 - Shade + breeze = nearly pleasant weather for the outdoor family gathering.

good things for June

2011-07-02T21:06:00.002-05:00

1 - I had an interview and did not melt down completely.

2 - Looked forward to next week's trip to Indianapolis.

3 -

4 - Jonah did fine on his first two airplane flights.

5 - Bike surrey ride along the canal in Indianapolis.

6 - Some good conference discussion; met Amanda and Jonah for lunch.

7 - Free dinner at a fancy steakhouse where we saw Peyton Manning after he finished his meal.

8 - Jonah ate pizza like a big boy (not cut into little bites) and loved it.

9 - Jonah was excited to see the buses at the Expo.

10 - Everything went smoothly with late checkout, eating our large amounts of leftovers, walking around, taking the shuttle, and getting home (very late in the evening).
11 - We all took an afternoon nap.

12 - After the big storm came through, the weather was decent for the Earlysville Community Picnic.

13 - Jonah started walking all over the place without help (as long as I wasn't there).

14 - At work, three agency drivers finally got trained. I have been working on making this happen since September.

15 - Church conference actually featured a vote on something with substantial amounts of "no" votes. (We shouldn't always all agree.)

16 - Played with an iPad. Unrelated: Jonah got the giggles.

17 - Got paid to ride a bus for three hours.

18 - Long walk to and from the farmers' market, and then Jonah enjoyed a fresh peach at Carter Mountain Orchard.

19 - Amanda gave me a a manly Dremel for Father's Day.

20 - Installed shelves in the garage.

21 - Jonah built block towers so high that I had to lift him up to keep going.

22 - Jonah was OK after getting hives mysteriously.

23 - Evening cookout with Twentysomethings.

24 - Skipped work to help at Vacation Bible School: PandaMania.
25 - Successful shopping trip; Jonah said "Washish?" 794 times.
26 - My first trip to the pool at Meade Park.
27 - Jonah walks around now like it's his job.
28 - Free lunch.
29 - Went on a field trip to take an old bus to the auction.

30 - Watched half of the long-awaited video of Jonah's first six months.

Good things for May

2011-06-01T20:21:00.002-05:00

It's not that Thursdays are bad, just that I forget what happened by Monday, when I realize I forgot to jot anything down.

1 - Todd and Amy and Mellow Mushroom

2 - Spent the afternoon riding around Shenandoah National Park for work

3 - Amanda called me at work to say that Jonah was walking around his room by himself.

4 - Drove a special exam shuttle that confused everyone

5 - Nice weather for a morning meeting downtown

6 - Jonah enjoyed playing with the beach ball and miniature bus at Clean Commute Day.

7 - The weather wasn't to blame for our dismal yard sale earnings.

8 - Jonah slept a little better than in recent memory.

9 - Amanda and Jonah met me for lunch in the park.

10 - Amanda found a great deal on airfare for our trip to Indianapolis.

11 - I turned in a job application, my first in over two and a half years.

12 -
13 - Church Twentysomething gathering
14 - Jonah is now old enough to feed the bear puppet my mom likes to play with.
15 - Bubbles were blown and fun was had outdoors.
16 - City Council supported a tiny piece of new bike lanes that (gasp!) required removal of on-street parking spaces.

17 - Jonah slept all night last night AND screamed for less than 10 minutes before going to sleep.

18 - Hilarious presentation at church about the Deacon Team Ministry Model. Seriously, hilarious.

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20 - Spoke with bicyclists in the morning, had a going-away potluck at work, and had a second meal with Todd and Amy in one month.

21 - Tried a locally made popsicle at the farmers' market. Also: had a shady spot at the kids' bike rodeo.

22 - Drove a bus with good A/C (sensing a theme here?) for UVA graduation and enjoyed the Jesus Rap at the Follies in Earlysville.

23 - New bus route I helped start began running

24 - Strawberry picking at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains... idyllic.

25 - This blog was revealed to me. The blogger rode each of Charlottesville's city bus routes and evaluated them.

26 - Amanda and Jonah met me downtown, where we enjoyed strolling (Jonah walked many blocks), hot dogs, and fro-yo.

27 - Saw Charlottesville's newest stretch of bike lanes

28 - Afternoon in Waynesboro for Grayson's first birthday party and dinner with Phillip and Ashley

29 - Took the 'rents to the new pizza place near our house

30 - We bought season passes for the city pools.

31 - Drove a bus and chatted with another bus driver who is here as an exchange student from Ireland.

Good things for April

2011-05-01T07:55:00.002-05:00

1 - Monkeys in the bathroom, cow in my lunch, dinosaur behind the mouthwash. Animals everywhere for April Fools.
2 - First Farmers' Market of the season!
3 - Jonah's first bike trailer ride went well. It's unclear whether he liked it, but he didn't scream.
4 - Leftover Thai is a good leftover to have.
5 - Watched the video of Jonah adding his own power to the swing.
6 - Installed a bus (passenger) shelter (with a crew of four others)! Possibly the first time I have used my civil engineering degree.
7 - Excellent weather for doing some shopping on the Downtown Mall.
8 - We had guests, and it was funny to watch Jonah and Lucas engage in "parallel play."
9 - It was cold, but the trip to the eco-tulip place was a success.
10 - Dinnertime hilarity thanks to the "Banana Fanna fo [name with initial consonant sound replaced by F]" song
11 - can't remember
12 - can't remember
13 - Jonah is really getting into hiding and finding Easter eggs.
14 - Date with my special someone involving melty cheese and melty chocolate.
15 - Odd but good day... inauguration charter, cheap custard, and some alone time on the way to Dublin (VA).
16 - Bus roadeo, where I did not die despite sitting outside on a day with a chance of thunderstorms in an open parking lot on a hill in a metal folding chair holding an umbrella. Plus, one of our drivers took first place.
17 - Successful family bike ride leaving from home in great weather.
18 - Jonah slept fairly well both before and after this day.
19 - Two outdoor excursions during work
20 - Jonah shared his curiosity with the church nursery workers, "washish?"ing and pointing at everything, and they understood what he was asking.
21 - Just about perfect weather.
22 - Felt like a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all in one.
23 - Got rid of household hazardous waste, walked through the Eco Fair, participated in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record, and went to the church picnic/Easter egg hunt.
24 - Easter with family.
25 - Jonah went to sleep fairly easily when I was alone with him for the evening during Amanda's shopping adventure.
26 - Waited out the thunderstorm in Ben & Jerry's, where we could see a rainbow while eating ice cream.
27 - Jonah slept in after his first night without a midnight feeding (though not without a midnight scream-fest).
28 - Cookout in a lovely new-urbanist enclave
29 - We biked downtown! And then converted the bike trailer to a stroller and terrorized the aisles of CVS!
30 - Learned how to build a patio as a do-gooder.

Good things for March

2011-03-31T19:03:00.005-05:00

I am posting this tonight in case April Fools gets out of hand and I lose access to my list. Nothing good is allowed to happen in the next few hours (at least nothing better than what I wrote for today.)

1 - Filming at work, when Jonah got to be a movie star (see the 31st).
2 - Amanda discovered Jonah's top molars, which explained the screaming.
3 - Exciting news at bike committee and still-warm lasagna when I got home.
4 - I built a pentagon tower with Jonah's blocks after he went to bed.
5 - Free stuff at healthy babies fair, then my parents came, and Jonah started being able to stay standing unassisted for multiple seconds.
6 - Productive rainy afternoon creating space to play in Jonah's room.
7 - Amanda reported that Jonah pointed to his hippo puppet when she said something about a hippo. And he got his Personal Penguin book when she started singing the song.
8 - We watched an entire movie... on a weeknight!
9 - We had dinner at church and sat at a table of, well, old widows, and Jonah did an excellent job of being cute for them (and stayed quiet during the prayer!).
10 - Replacement TV arrived! No more horizontal lines!
11 - Tax refund arrived!
12 - Strolled by the river in perfect weather.
13 - Another walk in perfect weather, this time around the neighborhood.
14 - Amanda took care of Jonah, which isn't that different from the usual, but this time it allowed me to stay in bed for over 10 hours and recover from a bug.
15 - The first day after being sick is always a thankful time.
16 - Jonah took a couple teeny steps on his own. Maybe they were more like lunges.
17 - Explored the Ix building.

18 - Drove a bus and called Amanda every 20 minutes when I had extra time at stops.
19 - We bought a bike trailer! Kind of an impulse buy. But it's awesome! I am excited!

20 - Jubilate Homecoming Concert was excellent.
21 - Nice long drive through scenic Buckingham and Nelson Counties for work.
22 - Ended up having two outdoor work meetings at coffee shops in beautiful weather.
23 - Choir was good.
24 - Jonah pushed his Mega Blocks table all the way down the hall and around our bed.
25 - Jonah's doctor ruled out an ear infection and the flu as causes of his crankiness and fever. Also, free part for my bike and free smoothie.
26 - We bought him a blue bike helmet.
27 - Jonah seemed much better by the afternoon and finally had an appetite at dinner.
28 - All three of us attended the IMPACT rally, Jonah's first time in U-Hall.
29 - The fast-casual Indian restaurant concept made it another week on America's Next Great Restaurant.
30 - Got caught up on some projects at work.
31 - The video with some of my favorite movie stars was posted on YouTube.

Good things for February

2011-03-02T21:36:00.002-05:00

1 - Even though we have 56 coupons for free Ben & Jerry's, Amanda bought a container of the limited edition Edy's Thin Mint ice cream.
2 - During the few hours of springlike weather, I walked to Blimpie and got my free cookie.
3 - Drove six buses
4 - Ate steak wrapped in bacon for dinner
5 - Guy Time with Jonah, then Amanda joined us to serve dinner to the homeless guys staying at our church
6 - Using the DVR made watching the Super Bowl amazing. Also, leftover bacon-wrapped steak.
7 - Messy burger (third bacon occurrence in four days!).
8 - Jonah went to sleep easily for the first time in a few days or maybe weeks.
9 - Jonah's birthday! Lunch at the hospital where he was born, then his first cupcake!
10 - I got to use spray paint at work, then came home to a one-year-old in a very good mood despite having had shots at his checkup.

11 - Preparations for Jonah's party were on track.

12 - Jonah napped in the morning and woke up fully refreshed just as his guests arrived, and everything went well.

13 - Another Jonah napping miracle: he stayed asleep during the transfer from the car to crib after church and kept sleeping for maybe 90 minutes.

14 - I won Valentine's Day.

15 - The weather cooperated with my plan to have four meetings downtown from 9:30 to 2:30. Plus, I ate a hot dog with buffalo wing sauce.

16 - Relaxed bus driving in the morning. I sort of skipped breakfast, but then there were doughnuts when I got to work.

17 - Amanda attended the MOPS group at church for the first time and liked it.

18 - It was so nice that my boss asked if we could have our meeting outside. (Yes please.)

19 - Jonah made some really funny faces watching Amanda's mom chew gum and blow bubbles during Jacob's wrestling match.

20 - First use of free Ben & Jerry's coupons!

21 - Jonah drank a cup of cow's milk (he refused the day before)

22 - Jonah was doing a funny new laugh; I'd call it a titter.

23 - Long-awaited bus stop shelters arrived and were unloaded without breaking anything (people or equipment).

24 - Mmm, haircut.

25 - By a stroke of luck, the high winds didn't blow the shelter roof pieces over until there was a bus parked next to them preventing them from falling all the way over and getting scratched or broken.

26 - six businesses, one parking spot for our Saturday shopping extravaganza. Also, we saved more than we spent.

27 - Slightly awesome weather. Indian buffet, walked a few blocks, ice cream, walked some more.

28 - Special mission at work.

Good things for January

2011-01-31T19:58:00.002-05:00

1 - A float broke down during the Rose Bowl parade, which was entertaining. And NC friends' baby was born very close to 1:11 on 1/1/11.

2 - Parents visited and brought me some gifts, all of which were better than the box of sour-cream-and-onion-flavored crickets they also brought.

3 - Birthday cake at work and dinner out. After the ChristmaNewYeBirthday eating season, I was proud to fill up on the salad bar and take 3/4 of my burger home.

4 - We assembled our new shelves made from recycled paper.

5 - I brought a blanket to work to put over my cold legs and feet instead of my hoodie, which was less obtrusive but less warm.

6 - The Buckingham County Administrator complimented my report.

7 - I changed the most consecutive diapers ever, probably, due to staying home with a sick wife (note: I was changing Jonah's diaper, not hers).

8 - I spent way too much time looking at beach houses.

9 - Last birthday freebie at a restaurant: yummy cheesecake.

10 - Presentation to Buckingham County elected officials went fine, with nobody falling asleep.

11 - New LED bulb for Jonah's night light arrived in the mail.

12 - Hilarious e-mail from my parents with a picture of my dad wearing a T-shirt with an upside-down bus on the bottom from where my mom had made an ironing mistake and folded the shirt back up and put it in his drawer... and he then put on the shirt and wore it on a day when he had a physical and an x-ray and didn't notice the bus until the end of the day.

13 - Leftover half tofu wrap for lunch at work

14 - We started watching another episode of Sherlock.

15 - We attended the grand opening of the brick-and-mortar store for Abby's Lane and then spent a little time with my parents.

16 - Choir party extended the eating season

17 - I finally finished a draft of the report that I had been working on for over a year at work.

18 - Totally by coincidence, I rode both of the new hybrid buses in the city's fleet on their first day of operation, having not ridden a bus in weeks or maybe months.

19 - Leftover pizza was really good

20 - Jonah ate peas from my plate and corn from Amanda's plate and seemed like he would have kept eating them forever.

21 - Weekend again already!

22 - Large amounts of progress on planning a beach trip for the summer.

23 - Jonah ate more peas. And more peas. Peas seem to be his favorite.

24 - I gave blood for the first time in over eight years, did not faint, and got free dinner and a lot of orange juice.

25 - I had a morning meeting where I got to comment on a map and an afternoon meeting where I got to comment on a plan. I like commenting on other people's work, so these were both good.

26 - Snow! And I found out I won a Major Award from the blood drive: 52 coupons for free single-scoop cones at Ben & Jerry's.

27 - Amanda reserved our beach house! While there was snow on the ground!

28 - Manly birthday dinner for Amanda's brother (steak and potatoes and apple crisp)

29 - Preliminary taxes indicate a huge refund! When we almost had to pay an under-withholding penalty last year! Being poor has its pluses this time of year.

30 - Back to the in-laws' house for the final extension of the eating season - with gifts!

31 - Amanda succeeded in getting Samsung to extend our faulty TV's warranty so the repair will be free (knock on wood).

Good things for December (ghostwriter)

2011-01-01T10:21:00.003-05:00

Early December was busy and crazy and full of so many good things that I was going to take December off. Instead of keeping track of good things, I was just going to enjoy the season. Which is what I did. Without my knowledge, Amanda kept a list secretly and presented it to me this morning. I love being married to someone who knows all my good things. So, without further ado:

1 - Madrigal Dinner put on by Jubilate. A couple of good songs by PDQ Bach.
2 - Used our new DVR to watch a TV show a couple of minutes after it had started.
3 - Went to Greensboro to visit friends. Bought the first bag of kettle corn from a street vendor preparing for a festival. Mmm...kettle corn.
4 - Snow! We were checking out Amanda's uncle's new house in Pleasant Garden when it started snowing. The first flakes were so intricate.
5 - Church at College Park.
6 - Someone I work with brought Jonah a riding caterpillar that her twin daughters have outgrown.
7 - Finally brought our new-to-us set of drawers upstairs to our closet.
8 - Was gone for 12.5 hours and did not get a headache.
9 - Managed to create a block so that I could drive a bus on Saturday.
10 - Found this: http://www.masguapo.com/. It is locally-made and makes me happy.
11 - Had a productive morning: drove bus, shopped, choir rehearsal. Then went swimming in the afternoon.
12 - Christmas choir performance at church and a visit from my parents. Also, Jonah took a 2-hour nap, which is always a good thing.
13 - Made macaroni and cheese from scratch, which included using up an expired bag of Wacky Mac.
14 - Ashley took me to and from my chiropractor appointment (since we just happened to have appointments at the same time) and then dinner with Phillip and Ashley (and Amanda and Jonah).
15 - Perk of having a mechanic for a brother-in-law: Phillip brought his code scanner by and read the code on our Check Engine light.
16 - Snow!
17 - Retirement party for a co-worker. He was actually there for the party, instead of being like the last person who retired and left before a party could be had.
18 - Productive Saturday of Christmas letter writing, Christmas gift shopping, and socializing with our neighbors and their friends.
19 - Got to sit with Amanda in church, then had a chili lunch and went Christmas caroling.
20 - Yummy Thai food for dinner. Drove a bus for the basketball game.
21 - Jonah only woke up once in the middle of the night.
22 - Short day at work! Took off early to head to my parents' house for Christmas.
23 - Jonah's first "fake Christmas." He got pretty good at unwrapping presents.
24 - Sibling gift-exchange at the Bartleys' in which I negotiated and ended up with an awesome gift of root beer, yummy doritos and grasshopper cookies.
25 - Jonah's first "real Christmas." Lots of presents and joy.
26 - Unexpected free afternoon at home. We were able to install our last baby gate, using a dremel.
27 - Got a head start on using my birthday coupons from restaurants. Progressive dinner after driving a bus!
28 - Amanda washed the baby dishes, so that I wouldn't have to. I don't like washing all of those little things.
29 - Came home to freshly-baked bread.
30 - Did not catch our kitchen on fire while making funnel cake with Todd and Dustin.
31 - Played Band Hero with Amanda's family while waiting for the beginning of 2011.

Good things for November

2010-11-30T21:31:00.003-05:00

1 - Won a door prize at a meeting. I gave it away.
2 - Voted. Also, dinner at Bodo's.
3 - Took Jonah for his first two rides on CAT buses and my first swim class with him.
4 - Special mission driving my boss downtown in a bus so she could measure something.
5 - Amanda and Jonah came and rode around UVA on the 22-year-old bus I was driving! Four buses in three days!
6 - Dinner at one of the many new upscale pizza places. So upscale that they baked a piece of paper into Amanda's pizza accidentally.
7 - There was a nice crowd for the choir's presentation of Rutter's Requiem, including my parents and some friends.
8 - Jonah slept in, mercifully, after a rough night.
9 - Beautiful day, with bright yellow, orange, and red leaves on Jonah's first hike riding in a backpack carrier.
10 - Jonah tried eating Stars ("baby crack") again and didn't gag on them this time.
11 - I got way too excited at a city bike committee meeting.
12 - Finally sort of finished a draft of a big report at work.

13 - Crisp autumn air: we went for a walk in a nice neighborhood.

14 - Envisioned the future of transportation.
15 - Dinner in lovely Buchanan, Virginia, at the historic Burger King.

16 - Rode an articulated bus from Blacksburg Transit back to the hotel. And Thai food in downtown Blacksburg. And brief swim before bed.

17 - Family time with Amanda's grandma, aunt, uncle, and cousins.
18 - Turned off the engine on an Interstate highway for the first time in my life, I think. And the second, and the third. (We were stopped due to a blasting zone.)
19 - This day was basically like having a one-day work week.
20 - Had some good playtime with Jonah.
21 - Jonah kept pulling the phone book out from its hiding place, which caused me to look inside it, where I found a coupon for Belmont BBQ that expires at the end of the month.
22 - Jonah pulled himself to standing, sort of. Not sure if this is a good thing, but there it is.
23 - At work, I received a proofing sample of the red stars that will be stuck on our bus shelter windows.
24 - I was not the most stressed-out person at work.
25 - Thankful for someone to watch the parade with. Finally.
26 - After a false start due to a poopy diaper, we made it from Charlottesville all the way to Nokesville without a pit stop.
27 - We helped my parents decorate their Christmas tree.

28 - Lunch with friends from far away, plus we put up our own tree.

29 - Installed Jonah's new car seat... it's hard, realizing that he has already outgrown something so major as a car seat, but it's exciting to think about the trips we'll take in the new one. Also, we used the aforementioned Belmont BBQ coupon before it expired.

30 - Last day of the month, but a day of firsts: Jonah pulled himself to standing purposefully and repeatedly. He had his first ride in the new car seat. His first sixth tooth began to appear. (You can never have a second sixth tooth.)

Good things for October

2010-11-01T19:57:00.002-05:00

1 - Dose of nostalgia: Drove a 19-year-old UTS bus that the mechanic had to start for me by sticking his finger into the engine where a relay was missing.
2 - Trip to Lake Anna to see old people. The weather was nice, but not warm enough for swimming.
3 - We made some decisions we had been needing to make.
4 - Jonah tried on his penguin suit (pretty funny). Unfortunately, his head was too big to go into the face part - which was pretty funny too.
5 - Amanda and Jonah brought me surprise BBQ for lunch. You can't beat surprise BBQ.
6 - The furniture store gave me a replacement for the piece I broke off my recliner, for free.
7 - Fake Friday on a Thursday because we're going to the beach!
8 - My life's dream of riding in a four-wheel bicycle was fulfilled! And while in it, we were photographed for the Virginia Beach SPCA Calendar with some dogs.
9 - Jonah's first sand-and-ocean experience
10 - Encore four-wheel bicycle ride to the northern end of the boardwalk
11 - Had a meeting in a historic house downtown
12 - I arranged my day so I could still spend some time at home while Jonah was awake without missing my evening meeting.
13 - My third meeting of the day, the only one that was unplanned, was the most joyful.
14 - Dinner out at a Thai restaurant
15 - Enjoyed watching Jonah scoot
16 - Perfect conditions for my bus-driving gig at the UVA-UNC game. (Conditions that did not help the Hoos, apparently.)
17 - Amanda accomplished everything on her list! And I removed hair clogs from the shower drain!
18 - I had to lead a meeting, and I was not sure who would show up or if anyone would add anything to the discussion or if it would go too long or too short... and everything went fine.

19 - Jonah went to bed after absolutely no fuss.

20 - Got to choir practice just in time for shoulder rubs for the second week in a row.
21 - Cut out of work early for a quick trip to Carter Mountain Orchard with my baby and my babe.

22 - Final preparations for yard sale!

23 - Yard sale! The weather and the fellowship were good things.

24 - Rest for the weary.

25 - Sore throat was gone by the end of the day, maybe thanks to the humidity.

26 - Jonah was not injured when I thrust his head into the spinning ceiling fan blades. (This was not, in general, a great day.)

27 - I got caught up on three hours of podcasts during my workday, thanks to a meeting in Keysville.

28 - Saw the sunrise over the hospital while driving a bus and got my flu shot. Take that, flu!

29 - Heard Obama's disembodied voice from two blocks away.

30 - We adjusted our closet to allow pants and dresses to hang down without hitting other stuff.

31 - Halloween on the Lawn with our little sock monkey was a success, despite the sock monkey losing his head, which we never found, halfway through.

Good things in September

2010-09-30T20:58:00.001-05:00

1 - Long post-birthday lunch with Amanda and her parents (and Jonah, who was thwarted in his attempt to destroy the restaurant by pulling on the hanging plant as we walked away)

2 - Amanda shared one of her birthday chocolate truffles with me.

3 - After it was a little stressful looking for parking, which is something I feel especially guilty for doing as a bike/ped/transit person, we had a nice walk past the Fridays After Five concert and ran into friends old and new.

4 - We bought chicken, pork, and two different kinds of beef at the farmers' market. And in the afternoon, we went on a thrilling scavenger hunt for downtown-mall bike racks.

5 - Had an interesting lunch discussing insurance with a budding financial planner/insurance salesperson, and then we explored the new grass-covered bridge at UVA.

6 - Jonah got to go swimming in his first chlorinated pool, plus a cookout in Waynesboro.

7 - Jonah's third tooth!

8 - Amanda watched Jonah so I could drive a bus past the Lady Gaga preparations every half hour.

9 - Jonah did not pitch a fit during the hour or two he spent with me while Amanda was out to dinner with another young mom.

10 - Early to bed.
11 - Annual Safety Meeting for work - fun because I didn't have to plan it and didn't have too much responsibility and still got to drive three buses.
12 - Celebrated Jonah's baby dedication with family.
13 - Interesting discussion at a work meeting.
14 - Amanda was kind enough to take Jonah out of the financial planning meeting to change his somewhat-explosive diaper. This would not have been a "good thing" if I had done it.
15 - When biking home in the evening, crossing a bridge over the train tracks, I saw the headlights of the Amtrak train from D.C. approaching the station. It was a nice urban moment.
16 - Jonah started pushing up on hands and knees and rocking.
17 - I ate out for lunch on The Corner - pizza - and for dinner downtown - burger.
18 - We won big at Family Fun Day.
19 - Productive afternoon at home
20 - Excitement! there was a policeman at our neighbors' house for a few hours in the evening. Probably not good for them, but exciting for gawkers like us.
21 - Poked around one of the new buses at work
22 - Day of Caring! Three and a half hours of dragging sticks, branches, and logs down a hill and hurling them into a ravine on a warm day gave me new appreciation for working in an air-conditioned office.
23 - Jonah interrupted yet another financial planning meeting with yet more questionable sounds. (Just farts this time.)
24 -
25 -
26 -
27 -
28 -
29 -
30 - I think it's safe to say I have had a busy week, since it's the last day of the month and I have forgotten to jot down entries for the blanks above. It's all a blur now, but there was the potential to see Todd's parents, my parents, and Dustin's parents all in one weekend at different times; a new cultural experience at a professional wrestling tournament; a chance to catch up at a picnic; lots of fun "da-da-da"s from Jonah; a work meeting where I was basically recruited to apply for three different jobs; a chance to hang out at UVA during work. A blur.

Good things for August

2010-09-02T19:44:00.006-05:00

1 - Finally placated my mother by taking Jonah to Manassas Baptist Church. Moo Thru ice cream on the way back to Charlottesville.

2 - The weather was nice enough to take a short walk at work.

3 - Amanda's mom is OK after her bee sting, despite being allergic.

4 - We survived Jonah's first big stomach bug. (Every time I start a Good Thing with "we survived," it is kind of a cop-out. So also, Amanda made sweet potato casserole, and it was good. And did not cause stomach bugs.)
5 - Dinner on The Corner before it became infested with students again.
6 - Lovely views of the mountains driving a bus chartered to a vineyard for somebody's rehearsal dinner.
7 - Productive day! Fixed drawer. Lowered crib. Cleaned things. Adjusted car seat. Jonah ate squash for the first time.
8 - Thai buffet was very tasty, if pricey and overwhelmingly large.
9 - I drove a bus while Amanda spent an hour trying to win diapers on a blog. I would have gone nuts if I had been home, probably, so it was good that I wasn't there, although I do tend to be lucky. (She didn't win.)
10 - Lunch out at a fancy place for work to celebrate how awesome we are, and how underpaid.
11 - High chair and rug arrived at the same time, on the same truck!

12 - Jonah can sit up for minutes at a time without falling over (if he concentrates). Also got an e-mail from Todd trying to weasel his way into the Good Things list.
13 - Last-minute work-related lunch out. I only ate my packed lunch twice this week! May be a new record!

14 - Fun morning walking around downtown and the farmers' market, despite the post office ignoring good urbanism by having the downtown location closed on Saturdays while keeping the sprawly ones open. Anyway, the weather was quite pleasant. And there was a fresh taco and gelato.

15 - You know the saying, "Laughter is the best medicine"? I think it could be amended to "baby laughter is the bestest medicine." Jonah got the giggles a couple times with me today.
16 - Jonah came to work with me for a half-hour while Amanda ran an errand that would have been difficult to do with him along.

17 - Second high chair assembly attempt was successful!

18 - Got new city bus guides for 2010-2011. This is exciting.

19 - My parents came for a brief visit featuring very tasty Indian food made with curry purchased at the farmers' market. They were very impressed with Jonah's sitting abilities.

20 - Bus stop signs arrived at work! They are very pretty.

21 - Nice afternoon at Smith Mountain Lake. Jonah liked the water.

22 - Pancakes, Wii, church, and endless Chinese buffet with Todd and Amy. Bonus good thing: a bus driver meeting that was held on the new 52-passenger charter bus.

23 - While playing on a quilt on the floor, Jonah pushed his stomach up more than he's done before... we really need to get some baby gates!

24 - I was able to drive a bus for the morning of first day of classes, and even had one passenger I knew!

25 - Pleasant walk downtown during lunch of a day-long meeting, then dinner out to use a birthday discount for Amanda.

26 - Stopped by Charlottesville's only hostel for a quick tour on the way home from a meeting.

27 - Amanda surprised me with a picnic dinner downtown, and we surprised ourselves with frozen yogurt from a new place, and we walked and explored and bought cold medicine and it was glorious.

28 - Another walk around downtown! Two days in a row! And a party/open house in a hip, modernist house.

29 - We ate at the student luncheon after church, despite not being students.

30 - Amanda made dinner featuring very tender local chicken that we had bought at the farmers' market. As much as we shop there, getting local meat is still a treat because it's soooo much cheaper to get it non-local at the grocery store.

31 - Happy Birthday Chocolate Fondue for Amanda. Jonah teethed on the cold granite tabletop.

Good things for July

2010-08-03T19:34:00.002-05:00

1 - I saw Jonah's first tooth poking through! [This seems like forever ago now, a month later, when he has two well-established teeth]

2 - Fork Union Drive-In (first movie out with Jonah)

3 - Great nap to recover from the double feature at the drive-in

4 - Oooh. Ahhh. Fireworks in Earlysville.

5 - Aunt Mary Kay and Second Cousin Lydia (age 6) came to visit.

6 - Very productive Monday-on-a-Tuesday at work.

7 - We stopped by Bodo's for dinner.

8 - Ice-cream social at work for a birthday celebration. Best part was that someone liked the Orange Crush topping we've been trying to unload.

9 - After a bizarre spontaneous trip to Cici's to hear about Crystal's camp experience, we went to Big Lots, where I found boxes of Spree candy, which I had been looking for unsuccessfully for weeks. They are perfectly aged Spree.

10 - Volunteered to drive a parking shuttle for a Habitat For Humanity event. More excitement was later in the day, meeting baby Grayson.

11 - Slept in! And free buffet at Maharaja from our frequent-dining card.

12 - Played with Jonah in his new umbrella stroller.

13 - Amanda and Jonah met me for dinner downtown between meetings.

14 - Board meeting at work, but I didn't have to present. I like them best when I go but don't have to present.

15 - Charlottesville Transit Summit was entertaining, if not earth-shattering.

16 - Took the train to Staunton! Nice fellow passenger at the train station there gave us a great tip about going through the parking garage instead of walking up the hill to get to our digs, the historic Stonewall Jackson Hotel.

17 - Walking tour, gelato, huge stromboli, trolley ride to the mini-train, and generally being on vacation. Mmm vacation.

18 - Glass-blowing, more vacating, and ROOMETTE!
19 - Received offer of CTS bus stop sign to add to my collection.
20 - Productive day at work, and then my parents stopped by for a visit.
21 - Great presentations at church about mission trips
22 - Lunch downtown with a transit expert
23 - Drove a bus for the first time in over a month, and it had A/C, which was crucial since it was over 100 degrees outside.
24 - Amanda and I celebrated six years of marriage with a fondue dinner.
25 - The non-reunion family get-together for Amanda's grandmother's family was held indoors instead of in the 104-degree heat.

26 - Roller coasters and old friends (perhaps another non-reunion gathering).
27 - Very productive evening: Maurice and Amanda fixed the dryer while I put Jonah down for a nap, we ate dinner, Jonah got a bath, I got a haircut, I talked to my parents.
28 - Steak and cake for mother-in-law's birthday celebration
29 - We cherished our only normal evening at home this week (although nothing is normal with a baby around).
30 - I shut the door at work and tried to get some work done. I was mildly successful.
31 - Amanda and Jonah got to see my high school for the first time at the non-reunion Alumni Day (that's three non-reunion reunions this month!).

Good things for June

2010-07-02T16:38:00.002-05:00

1 - I picked cherries from a tree while driving a bus. Well, while stopped at a bus stop.

2 - My package of Emerald Natural Walnuts & Almonds says on the back: "Ingredients: Walnuts and Almonds. CONTAINS WALNUTS AND ALMONDS." Who would have thunk it.

3 - Amanda made a lovely dinner featuring the whole spectrum of food: from a box, frozen, locally grown by farmers, and front-porch grown by us.

4 - Amanda noticed the black snake at the back door before it did anything scarier than existing. Also, Jonah really enjoyed his bath extra much, with extra kick-splashing and giggling at the rubber ducky.

5 - Splendora's gelato was perfect on a hot day

6 - The sermon was on "eco-theology" and there was a church picnic in the afternoon

7 - The weather was lovely and we walked to Mas and had a somewhat fancy dinner outdoors.

8 - I drove a bus again, and the driver after me was there on time (and a little early).

9 - Tour of the new CAT bus operations and maintenance facility with other co-workers.

10 - Went to part of a conference in Richmond, played on buses, and got to tour another new bus operations and maintenance facility.

11 - Finally, a quiet day at work to catch up on everything. And a quiet night at home too.

12 - Jonah met Asher.

13 - Jonah enjoyed making loud, high-pitched screaming sounds (for fun, we think). We enjoyed them too. (For now. Enjoyment was over by the 15th, when he continued screaming most of the day.)

14 - My first bicycle and pedestrian committee meeting was interesting.

15 - I got to put Jonah to sleep, and he was really sweet about it, even if it took a long time.

16 - It was weirdly yellow outside due to an evening thunderstorm. Dehydrated-pee yellow, I believe we determined.

17 - Excited about our upcoming trip. A webinar helped the afternoon at work go by more quickly.

18 - Rental car (a pretty blue Camry)! Safe trip to West Virginia (despite the burning tow truck on the mountain)! Hot tub!

19 - By the numbers: 80 - the route number of the Forest Road I biked down. 214 - the number of steps I walked down and up with the baby carrier to see Blackwater Falls.

20 - Semi-off-roading in the rental car through Dolly Sods. Lovely weather at Spruce Knob, too.

21 - Cookout at work for the boss's birthday

22 - Amanda and Jonah met me downtown for dinner

23 - Two "small world" moments remind me of the interconnectedness of life, especially in a small urban area.

24 - Other than an extended power outage, we had no damage from the crazy storm that went through in 15 minutes and took down dozens of trees.

25 - The power came back on!

26 - We crammed in a lot of activities in Waynesboro when my parents came to visit.

27 - No sermon, only music.

28 - Movie night on a Monday was nice.

29 - We finally made a decision we'd been working on for a while.

30 - The weather was finally nice again! So nice that Amanda brought me a zucchini muffin at work (she also brought Jonah for everyone to coo at).

Good things for May

2010-05-31T20:11:00.004-05:00

1 - We helped serve the community by driving around delivering supplies, lunches, and baby smiles to teams that were doing actual work.
2 - Our server at Ruby Tuesday gave us extra chocolate chip cookies.
3 - I think I can handle this chiropractor thing.

4 - Trip to Christiansburg to see Grandma Great (and Jonah met some other relatives, too).

5 - We both had chiropractor appointments, and Jonah came with us, and he pooped in the waiting room and was smelly and probably very hungry because he had spit up his breakfast before we left home, but he was kind enough not to scream in the office.

6 - Six years after receiving my engineering degree, I bought an engineering scale and learned to use it.

7 - We had some much-needed time at home to catch our breath.

8 - Off-roading trip with Bartley boys involved no injuries or major mechanical failures, although the best spots were closed (silly Harrisonburg, wanting clean water).

9 - Mother-in-law got the surprise of a lifetime with a new Mustang for Mother's Day (not from me).

10 - Freebies at work: Clif bar and ginger ale for a meeting, cinnamony bagel to celebrate a cancer-surviving co-worker's return after chemo.

11 - Finally spent some time with Jonah after spending too much time working on a newsletter the last few days.

12 - Belmont BBQ for lunch.

13 - Jonah pulled the handle on his rocker chair by himself for the first time, activating the "If you're happy and you know it" melody.

14 - I learned that the boy would giggle if I blew in his face or on his belly.

15 - The weather cooperated, and so did Jonah's feeding schedule, for our trip to Fredericksburg to see my parents and some other folks.
16 - Had fun at the Chestnut Grove Baptist Church Follies, even though we're too poor to win any of their auction items.
17 - Played with 2-year-old twins at work, then saw a former co-worker of Amanda's at a meeting.

18 - Went home for lunch and caught Jonah in a good mood. He cracked up with laughter at my silly song/sound effects/motions.

19 - Found out that my job is funded for a third year! Yay employment, even if it's only one grant year at a time! Also, Ride of Silence was mellow and a good time to reflect.

20 - I cannot remember exactly what happened that was good, although there was probably something. Thursdays tend to be like this.

21 - Rode bikes around the parking lot with my boss and a co-worker for a few minutes during work to celebrate Bike to Work Day. And then tried out the co-worker's recumbent trike.

22 - Learned to wrap Hardee's hamburgers at the Relay for Life (and stood under the tent while it stormed).

23 - Drove the graduation golf cart step-saver shuttle thing. The weather held steady enough to be enjoyable, with the thunderstorms waiting until I got home.

24 - We pushed the stroller to Belmont BBQ for dinner, and I had a rib sandwich, and it was delicious, and Jonah slept.

25 - At work, I was treated to a great video of a lawn mower driving into a bus earlier in the day and one of our finest employees uttering a poetic exclamation.

26 - Amanda brought Jonah to have dinner with me so I wouldn't have to bike home and back out again.

27 - After stressing out about the city bus running late, it got me to my appointment right on time.

28 - Jonah made the ladies at work swoon when he dropped by at lunch. Also, I got a second monitor on my desk and oriented it vertically. Exciting.

29 - Todd and Amy stopped by and Todd asked where the May list of good things was, so I am being sure to mention Todd and Amy here. Todd and Amy. And we went to... Belmont BBQ! Three times in one month! New record.

30 - We attended our first Jewish wedding. We were somewhat nervous about leaving Jonah with my parents, and he gave them some challenges but survived.

31 - Jonah met even more people at a festive Memorial Day gathering, to make May his most meeting-est month yet!

Good things for April

2010-05-01T14:07:00.000-05:00

1 - I was already planning on going home for lunch, and then I did, and then my mom stopped by on her way home from visiting relatives.
2 - Fresh sausage for dinner. (seriously, the pig was killed earlier in the week, and the sausage was never frozen)
3 - The three of us went to the farmer's market, and the weather was perfect for it.
4 - Easter in Earlysville. Too much food. Jonah met his great-grandmother.
5 - I amused my co-workers with the mechanical bunny my parents gave Jonah for Easter.

6 - Chocolate frosted donut at a meeting far away, then lunch with a friend far away as well.
7 - Realized how totally unaffected I have been this allergy season. Thank you, Lord, for generic Flonase.

8 - Drove back from a meeting in Louisa through the countryside with the windows down.

9 - Visit from the Lesters!

10 - Unexpected visit from family, some of whom were meeting Jonah for the first time.

11 - Went for a 3-mile walk by the river! Beautiful weather, shade, sun, trees, flowers, water, and a midway milkshake from Hardee's. And no bee stings, despite numerous bees.

12 - Left work early to drive a bus in my new bus shirt with a name patch.

13 - Our first date after Jonah (Outback). Good steak. Happened to go home at the right time to catch the Dogwood Festival fireworks from the K-Mart parking lot.

14 - As I was getting on my bike to ride home for lunch, the Chinese-food delivery guy was getting in his car, and he said to me with a big smile and a thick Chinese accent, "You don't need no gasoline!"

15 - National High Five Day. Many high-fives given at work.

16 - Stayed home with Jonah in the morning, and there were no problems.

17 - My parents came, and the five of us toured the lovely Morven estate.

18 - Jonah was very cooperative during a long afternoon of garden tours. Probably because he got to meet Pinky beforehand.

19 - Jonah's first laugh! Caught on video, since I wasn't there! Also, we went downtown for dinner, and the place we tried to go was closed, but that was OK, because we got to walk down the Mall and I had fried green tomatoes on a salad.

20 - Jonah slept through the night.

21 - He did it twice in a row. This is pretty cool. Also, ice milk at the dining hall, for old times' sake.

22 - No more sleeping through the night, but he laughed while looking at me for the first time.

23 - Bread from a local bakery.

24 - Bought a coffee table to complete our living room with adult furniture.

25 - Ginny's request for breakfast from Bodo's benefited everyone involved.

26 - After having some for dinner, we threw away the last of the turkey from Thanksgiving 2008.

27 - I drove buses in circles at work and measured the circles using chalk.

28 - New coffee table arrived!

29 - Jonah stayed awake for our entire walk around the block.

30 - I took the afternoon off to drive a bus, and Amanda and Jonah came to ride it!

good things for March

2010-04-03T10:54:00.002-05:00

1 - Amanda took her first walking trip with Jonah to see me at work. The ladies all swooned over him.

2 - Free lunch at a meeting.

3 - Tacos for dinner.

4 - Installed a programmable thermostat without getting electrocuted, and it worked!

5 - Jonah FINALLY lost his umbilical cord stump. We had been waiting so patiently.

6 - My parents visited, and we took a driving tour past the house where my mom lived for the first two years of her life. Also, Jonah seems to be getting better at holding his neck up.

7 - Jonah went to church for the first time, and slept through the whole service like a good Baptist.
8 - It feels like spring, which is one of the best changes to experience after a bitter winter, and my lovely wife and son met me for the walk home from work - the scenic route.
9 - Although our official slate of dinners-from-choir-members ended Saturday, another free dinner was delivered. (We have eaten quite well since Jonah was born.)

10 - Worked on birth announcements.

11 - Jonah missed Amanda's eye when he tried to squirt poop at it.

12 - Watched a whole movie in one night. (This has become increasingly difficult.)

13 - We had visitors, both planned and less planned! We also spread some joy at a funeral visitation by bringing Jonah along.

14 - Slept in. Ate pie at the post-funeral dinner.

15 - Filled out our Census form! Civic duty!

16 - Jonah seemed to be cooing.

17 - Dinner on the porch!

18 - Site plan review: Planner fun.

19 - Drove a bus for five hours in perfect weather.

20 - Went for a walk at UVA, saw Matthew, saw the revitalized BSU building, saw Libeau boys, ate BBQ.
21 - Jonah made it halfway through his first Jubilate concert without screaming.

22 - I didn't drown him in the bath (I had let Amanda bathe him until today), and he didn't scream.

23 - Finally used my coupon for a free jalapeno thickburger at Hardees, and it was pretty good.

24 - We started working on our taxes. Civic duty again!

25 - Took the afternoon off upon completion of a big presentation in the morning. Drove a charter to Monticello and convinced Amanda to bring Jonah up there to walk around for a while. It was very family-oriented.

26 - Movie at home. Almost finished the whole thing.

27 - Jonah's first Pizza Night in Earlysville. Although he had to sit in a large teacup and be photographed, I think he enjoyed the evening. I played a lot of Wii Zelda.

28 - Jonah made it almost all the way through church without waking up, until he screamed at the end. (John Grisham noticed the scream, because he made a comment to Amanda on his way out.)

29 - He slept for 6 hours at night, making it 7 hours between feedings. Praying it continues.

30 - Cooing up a storm is better than pooing up a storm.

31 - The family went to Wednesday night dinner at church.

good things for February

2010-03-01T17:57:00.001-05:00

This month is, of course, dominated by one very good thing.

1 - The baby waited until February! (I guess this really happened in January, but we are glad his birthday will be in February.)
2 - We were safely at home during the evening's snow.

3 - Went out to Belmont BBQ. (It did not induce labor.)

4 - Didn't wear boots to work, the only day this week it was possible.

5 - Snow day! Didn't go to work.

6 - Snow Saturday. We never lost power, didn't have to go anywhere, and were able to do some shoveling.
7 - Took a spontaneous trip to Food Lion to see if we could get out and grab some Superbowl snacks.
8 - Went to the hospital to have labor induced.
9 - Jonah Clark Ohlms is born! I think many of my "good things" from now on will relate to him.
10 - Amanda's first time seeing Jonah since right after birth.
11 - This was not a very good day, but we had some time to rest and recover.
12 - He steadily continued acting more and more like a normal baby, and we watched part of the Olympics opening ceremony on the tiny hospital TV.
13 - The doctors allowed Jonah to get off his monitors and join us in our room!
14 - We had our biggest laugh in weeks while listening to Jonah poop and watching his facial expressions (at the same time). Such a nice V-Day present.
15 - Jonah got his IV removed (which was bad because it had failed, but good because we wanted to hold him without wires).
16 - We took Jonah home!
17 - Learning to live as a family is tough but a good thing.
18 - I ran some errands that included Bodo's bagels.
19 - Jonah gained two ounces since his last doctor's appointment, his first official gain.
20 - My parents came for a brief visit and enjoyed looking at Jonah's funny faces.
21 - Still all about the baby. He ate a little better most of the day.
22 - A half day at work began my gradual return to normalcy.
23 - Jonah made it to two weeks old and exceeded his birth weight!
24 - A big presentation I was preparing for at work was postponed a month, lifting some stress.
25 - We went on a big shopping trip (Babies R Us and Kroger), and Jonah managed to sleep through the whole thing. First time using the stroller.
26 - Finally finished watching the tape of the Olympic opening ceremonies, two weeks after they were on.
27 - Bodo's for breakfast! Drove a bus!
28 - New showerhead installed after many months of woe.

Jonah Clark Ohlms

2010-02-14T20:24:00.001-05:00

Jonah Clark Ohlms joined the "outside world" on February 9, 2010. For those of you who just want the numbers, he was 7 pounds, 15 ounces; 20 inches long; and it was 6:29 a.m. For those who want more details, here's a summary of what's been going on.

On Monday morning (Feb. 8), Amanda went to a scheduled checkup. Since Jonah was due Feb. 3, we expected to discuss an induction date. As it turned out, the doctor sent her straight to the hospital to be induced because she was already leaking amniotic fluid (her water had apparently broken over the weekend).

Everything went along fairly normally for a while. Amanda's body was responding to the drugs, going right on into labor with contractions and dilation and everything. The pain got pretty bad pretty fast, so she went from natural pain management techniques to injected pain medication to the epidural as the day wore on. As it turned out, the epidural was a very good choice.

Amanda was a champion of labor. Jonah was a little stubborn - every time Amanda would lay on her right side, he would fuss and drop his heart rate, limiting the positions she could use. By late Monday night, she was fully dilated, so it was time to start pushing. She pushed and pushed. And pushed some more. Finally, the nurse called the doctor in, after some good pushing progress made it look like birth was coming soon. Kept pushing.

After three and a half hours of pushing - when we could see the top of his head - the baby stopped making progress and Amanda was running a fever. After a few more tries (the strongest yet), the doctor recommended a C-section, so we prepared for the operating room. We later found that three factors meant he was not coming out any other way: his neck was extended instead of being chin-down, he was turned sideways, and he was facing up instead of down.

C-sections are scary, especially after you've already been in labor (or watching labor) for 19 hours. All that pushing? Edit, undo. Although the "reverse push" was much quicker than the evening's efforts, the grunts of the many doctors made it clear that it was also a major effort.

Jonah pooped as soon as he made it out, which made me very proud. Because of the prolonged pushing and the three factors holding him up, he had a very pointy conehead ("highly molded," they call it; it has since settled down a little). I held him next to Amanda's head as the anesthesiologist took our first family portrait.

After he had his measurements (also running a fever, not unusual since Amanda had one), we got to spend some time with him, although Amanda was confined to bed after the surgery. Then a nurse came and took him away. After finding that his temperature had plummeted and noting that he was lethargic, we were told that he was probably fighting an infection.

He started antibiotics and monitoring, which meant he was confined to the nursery. Amanda was still confined to bed. After the physical difficulty of labor, the emotional difficulty of this situation was a lot to bear. It's pretty rough for a new mom not to see her baby for a whole day, yet both probably benefited from a chance to rest. Even sitting up was tiring and nauseating for her, and getting out of bed was a gold-medal event. Eventually, we were able to make the transfer into a wheelchair and visit Jonah in the nursery.

The next couple days are a blur of trying to get Jonah to eat, dealing with Amanda's pain and physical recovery, and hearing about his infection and treatment. We began hearing from the beginning that if he didn't seem to get better quickly, he'd have to do the full seven-day course of antibiotics.

Murmurs of jaundice began on Wednesday. On Thursday, he was yellow enough to get put under the blue lights that help lower the level of bilirubin in his blood. (In utero, he relied on Amanda's body to do this for him, and it's not uncommon for newborns' livers not to be up to the task of controlling bilirubin.) He got to wear lovely gray felt sunglasses; with those and the blue lights, he was in his Avatar phase.

With the jaundice under control by Friday afternoon, Jonah was no longer a blue-light special. By this time, we had agreed that we should go for the full seven-day course of antibiotics, which meant that we'd have to go home Saturday and visit Jonah until he could come home Tuesday.

Come Saturday morning, there was a change of plans: We get to stay in the hospital until Tuesday! Although I was looking forward to our bed at home, this is a good thing. Jonah will be staying in our room instead of being confined to the nursery (which means he's always our responsibility instead of a baby we go visit every few hours). So now the fun begins! He has been enjoying watching the Olympics.

Saturday morning, Jonah also entered his Avatar - The Sequel phase: he has an IV in the back of his head, just like those little USB things from the movie. This odd arrangement is his third IV, after the one in his hand and the one in his foot both wore out. If we can make this one last a few days, we'll be good. The most absurd part of it is that he is wearing a "party hat": To protect the IV site, the nurses fashioned a cover out of a Winnie the Pooh paper cup, which is taped to his head upside down. The other babies probably made fun of him for this.

We still expect to bring him home Tuesday, assuming the jaundice doesn't come back any stronger than it already has. Things haven't gone quite as expected, but we appreciate everyone's support and look forward to going home with the new addition to our family.

good things for January

2010-02-01T22:05:00.007-05:00

1 - New Year's Day. Lots of "baby talk" after lunch.
2 - Went to see a movie (in a theater!) (Avatar!) and had dinner at a restaurant (local!) (downtown!). Amanda was especially nice about this day, because she wasn't enjoying either of these as much as I was.
3 - My parents came for (my birthday) lunch and a trip to the UVA Art Museum to see an exhibit on Jefferson and the architecture of the Lawn.

4 - Leftover holiday cookies from Karen at work for my birthday. And Amanda took me out for post-birthday dessert after I drove a bus.

5 - We sat down and watched some mindless TV.

6 - We skipped our homeowners' association meeting because I didn't really feel like going, and we got some things done at home instead.

7 - I could tell that the days really are getting longer. We went to Qdoba for my birthday. I got a birthday present. (It was a drawn-out birthday celebration.)

8 - One of the drivers at work was excited about a new bus service I proposed.

9 - Baby shower in Nokesville! With lots of food!

10 - Even though Amanda had a cold, she trudged along on the Architecture Tour of Monticello, which involved getting to see the normally off-limits Dome Room. This was another birthday item for me.
11 - Sent photos of houses in Charlottesville to my mom and her brothers to see if one of them was where their family lived in the 1940s before she was born.

12 - Drove a bus past the house that they lived in after that one, which was the first house my mom lived in after being born at the hospital where my son will be born.

13 - Amanda got caught up through December on her case notes; I finished listening to Three Cups of Tea.

14 - May have figured out how to use the baby carrier, although I may need to go back and get my PhD to be sure.

15 - Friday! The work week went by fast.

16 - Rearranged the nursery.
17 - Gave a driving tour of Charlottesville to some friends from NC.
18 - For the first time this year, the sun had not quite set on the walk home! Also re-rearranged the nursery.
19 - Georgia came over for dinner.
20 - Our new video camera arrived.
21 - We each got baby gifts from our supervisors at work, and both of our supervisors had gotten those gifts at the Eco Shop.
22 - They had a mini-party for me at work, I drove one person on a charter afterward, and we had dinner out after that.
23 - We were showered with gifts and love once again, this time in Earlysville. I won the game of not saying "baby" by never saying it and catching four people in the act.
24 - Watched an incredibly offensive show about circumcision and made it all the way through.
25 - Saw a flooded creek on my way to a meeting for work.
26 - Dinner at Cici's for Jesse's birthday, with a bizarre trip to Big Lots afterward.
27 - All turned out to be fine with Amanda and the baby after a trip to the hospital for some tests. The doctor even said the baby was a "rock star."
28 - Two good but very different things: I learned that a site plan I had reviewed at work was actually revised based on my changes (it was a small change, but gratifying). And Phillip and Ashley came and cooked us dinner involving chicken AND bacon.
29 - We watched a movie on the internet. We are high-tech.
30 - The baby was nice enough to stay in the womb during the latest snowstorm.
31 - We braved the snow and went to church, which was one of the only churches not cancelled, and then had lunch downtown while other people were getting cabin fever.

Good things for December

2010-01-03T09:26:00.003-05:00

1 - Amanda got home early and we went out to dinner before baby class.

2 - Helped decorate the church sanctuary for Christmas.

3 - Tasty leftovers for dinner.

4 - So many good things! Helped put up the tree at work, left early to drive a charter, had our annual Christmas-preparation sleepover.

5 - Snow! (A relatively manageable, pleasant snow.)

6 - Screwed down the last trim piece for the living room floor.

7 - Practiced putting cloth diapers on a baby doll. Was glad to provide Amanda with such entertainment.

8 - Amanda came home early because of a bad weather forecast, which was double-good for me, because I got to see her and she made dinner.

9 - Presents began to accumulate under the tree!

10 - Assembled our changing table.

11 - Carpooled to Waynesboro after work for the first of the weekend's four social events: A Christmas party at Amanda's office.

12 - Baby shower (lots of laughter), another Christmas party in downtown Charlottesville courtesy of Amanda's job.

13 - Cookie decorating after church, then some much-needed time at home.

14 - Naomi and Asher rode my bus!

15 - Last baby-prep class included a tour of the hospital.

16 - Leapfrogged the trolley on my bike all the way down West Main Street to choir: I started in front of it, it passed me, and I passed it at a bus stop. This cycle happened five times.

17 - I was running late on the way to work when a JAUNT driver happened by and whisked me the final few minutes down the hill. And Amanda and I made cookies out of crackers in the evening!

18 - Cookie exchange at work; snow! (Less manageable and more of a catastrophe, but still exciting.)

19 - Snow day! 18 inches and counting. Safely at home.

20 - Snow day 2.0! Got a lot of stuff done at home, including putting up curtains in the bedroom.
21 - Walked down to work for a few hours and heard all the scary stories about buses stranded in the snow.
22 - Got to drive across town in the slush to pick up 20 bags of salt. In the beefy Durango. And I never had to switch out of 2-wheel drive. Best part: I got to talk on the radio.
23 - Last day of work before the holidays!
24 - Kidnapped Amanda's grandma and took her downtown for lunch.
25 - Got up at 2 a.m. to look in our stocking and hear from the "little ones" what was in their stockings.
26 - Learned to play Spicy Farkel and experienced Trader Joe's for the first time.
27 - Installed our new slow-close toilet seat (a Christmas gift from Amanda).
28 - Free burger for my birthday.
29 - Todd and Amy stopped by and brought Pizza Hut. They got a free cheese pizza because the guy made the pizza they ordered wrong. They also helped us assemble our crib.
30 - Bought our stroller/car seat. it was more difficult to assemble than the crib, I think.
31 - New Year's Eve with family to finish off an interesting year.

Good things for November

2009-12-03T08:11:00.002-05:00

1 - Parents visited for church and a pre-birthday celebration for my dad. After they left, the day was perfect for a nap.
2 - Saw historic Keysville, Blackstone, and Crewe, in addition to eating at Shoney's for the first time in forever.
3 - Voted (not that it mattered for the statewide elections) and had dinner at a semi-fancy local restaurant to celebrate the 6th anniversary of getting engaged. And my dad's birthday, although he wasn't in town anymore.
4 - Got bamboo flooring. Saved money by picking it up ourselves from the sketchy trailer behind the warehouse. Impressed the warehouse worker by fitting all 11 cartons into Benson.
5 - Really got going on moving stuff out of the living room.
6 - Survived getting the air compressor out of the car, and I think Amanda has no lasting damage.
7 - Amanda and Barbara got the offi-- er, nursery painted. Maurice and I got half of the floor put down in the living room.
8 - Amanda and I bravely tried using the table saw while her dad was gone, which was the key to clinching flooring victory from the jaws of time.
9 - Found the tennis ball that had rolled out of the Bartleymobile and into the storm sewer.

10 - First "Preparation for Childbirth" class. Tried on the 25-lb backpack full of blood, placenta, fat, water, baby, uterus, and more.
11 - Got a ride home from choir so I didn't have to wait for the bus in the rain.
12 - Had time to just relax and watch Parks & Recreation and The Office.
13 - Sprouted gills to deal with all the rain. No, untrue, but I did have a lovely lunch in Farmville overlooking a flooded river.
14 - Drove the President's Shuttle for another losing UVA football game. The really good part was during my layover at the stadium, when a guy showed up with a little boy who was way excited about buses.
15 - I was really stressed out, but we did make enough progress on the floor trim to put all the furniture back. And we had a nice walk to visit to Belmont Baptist.
16 - Guadalajara was open, even if La Michoacana wasn't.
17 - Baby class! Chocolate-covered pretzels for snack.
18 - Squeezed in some bus driving between work and choir, although I ended up getting to choir late.
19 - Amanda drove me to work due to the sky having opened and dumped a million raindrops right over our house.
20 - Scenic tour to Lynchburg for a planning summit on aging.
21 - Tried out gliders at Babies R Us and continued organizing our house.
22 - Very relaxing haircut.
23 - Didn't end up leaving the building during work, which was good since it was rainy (sense a pattern this month?).
24 - Reached new domestic heights by cleaning the brown crud off our shower curtain. Also, baby class was very interesting, but I got really squirmy, especially during crowning, so the shower curtain wins for good things.

25 - Helped make li'l smokies for Thanksgiving.
26 - Was thankful. Also spoke with the man with all the Christmas lights a block from our house.
27 - Got to sleep in while Amanda got the deals. And we went to Revolutionary Soup later with my parents.
28 - Helped decorate the tree in Nokesville and had a relatively relaxing afternoon featuring a movie.
29 - Friends in town for the holidays delayed their departure to have lunch with us.
30 - We discussed our wish lists to help get in the holiday spirit.

Visit: Smaller Baptist Church

2009-11-16T18:23:00.018-05:00

It sure is hard to visit other churches while continuing to participate fully in the one you attend regularly. Or maybe we just took October off. Either way, we realized that if we were going to try any other places, November 15th would be the day.

Since it was rather balmy for mid-November, we walked to Belmont Baptist. Decades ago, this would have been our default church, I imagine: people probably just went to the closest church of their chosen denomination. Nowadays, with liberal Baptists and ecumenical churches and conservatives and non-denominationals, it's no wonder so many folks stay home on Sunday mornings: it's too confusing.

I think Belmont is probably representative of a typical small, relatively conservative Baptist church: mostly old, mostly white, mostly empty. In a way, this disappointed me, since Belmont (the neighborhood) has gone through so many changes and has visions of being hip, bohemian, and progressive, yet Belmont (the church) seems not to have changed with the neighborhood.

I remember visiting Belmont as a UVA student nine years ago and thinking that it was OK but pretty old. Most established/ traditional churches are on the gray side, but Belmont strikes me as a little more skewed toward the upper end of the age spectrum. In fact, Amanda spotted her great-great-aunt a few rows ahead of us, someone she had not seen since her great-grandmother's funeral 15 years ago, yet who, somehow, looked exactly the same. This, along with the fact that Amanda's great-great-aunt used to live in Belmont and still rents out the old family home, led me to my Belmont Baptist Hypothesis: When the neighborhood was a thriving community of working-class folks decades ago, maybe Belmont Baptist was a thriving representation of those who lived here. Now that the neighborhood has changed and the church hasn't, it consists largely of people who have moved away but continue driving in on Sundays. I have no idea if this is true, but it happens in a lot of churches.

Or maybe they still see Belmont as a down-on-its-luck neighborhood, which it certainly has been in the past. Maybe the church members are swooping in to save the neighborhood. They already do some significant ministries for the poor, and they're starting an excellent new one. It's great to see people spending their time doing something good.

Belmont Baptist also gets an A+ on being welcoming. From the moment the door opened and we were greeted with a friendly, "Y'all come on in!", we continued shaking hands well into the beginning of the service. The prelude was informal, with everyone continuing to talk, and after the welcome came the "shake your neighbor's hand" time. Those folks moved all around that sanctuary to shake hands. (UBC tried this a week or two ago, but instructed everyone not to shake hands due to H1N1. Belmont did nothing of the sort, since shaking hands is holy in smaller churches).

One of the members was what I'd call the liturgist: said the welcome, did some prayers, etc. He also probably shook the most hands of anyone there, although he didn't shake ours. He's a resident-turned-Republican-politician who just unseated the Chair of the County Board of Supervisors in a close race. (I believe his platform was essentially "No.") Despite the outgoing Chair's odd stances on some issues and his highly talkative and sometimes argumentative personality, he is a great advocate for transit and transportation, runs a planning firm, and drives an electric truck. I will be sorry to see him removed. So having his replacement lead my prayers really challenged me to worship God in spite of it.

How much should politics affect the church decision? Just because one parishioner is a politician doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad church. Politicians have to go to church somewhere. But I began wondering whether it was the votes of the people in this congregation that pushed the election his way, and exactly how much power he had over them, and it was distracting. I also wondered whether there were people there from across the political spectrum or if he was truly representative of all their views.

We got an e-mail from the pastor on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, we got phone calls from someone at Belmont. (We didn't answer on Wednesday, not recognizing the name, but I answered it on Thursday. He said it was nice to have such a young couple in church, or something of that nature. The thing is, we purposely did not put our phone number on the visitor card. They must have looked us up in the phone book. That takes dedication... and is a little weird.) Friday, we got a handwritten letter from the pastor. All fantastic, but none substitute for having people roughly our age, roughly where we are in life, greet us personally, and there didn't appear to be anybody our age there.

There were some youth, we think, and there were a few kids, and the pastor knew all the kids' names when they came for the children's time. I'm sure it would be a fine place to raise a kid, but I'm not so sure it's the right place to raise my kid(s).

The choir had a bunch of older women and two older men. (I am forming another hypothesis about the advantages for choirs of more liberal churches, where men don't have to feel that singing challenges their machismo.) I think there were four choir members without gray/white/no hair. The music matched the small-church and older-person style, featuring at least one countrified pronunciation of "dee-vine." The invitational hymn featured a full-on spoken invitation beforehand and was as slow as molasses (O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee? More like O Master Hang On, Wait for Me.)

The pastor is younger, seems really nice, and had some decent jokes. His sermon connected with the older crowd by referencing Sanford and Son (and maybe connected with Amanda, since she grew up watching reruns of it). But neither of us managed to pay attention during the whole talk well enough to be able to discuss what we got out of it on the walk home.

So Belmont, although you were mostly inoffensive, we didn't feel God calling us to return too often. Best of luck to you. And don't listen to that politician guy.

Good things for October

2009-11-01T19:43:00.002-05:00

1 - Skipped out of work early to drive a bus during the pre-U2 traffic. Saw a brand-new Unit 93 at the bus lot.
2 - Despite one of us being pregnant and the other one being a weakling, Amanda and I successfully moved all the furniture in our bedroom in preparation for painting.

3 - Completed first coat of paint. Relaxed with pizza and a movie.

4 - Completed second coat of paint and moved furniture back.

5 - Ate some of the mysterious frozen rolls that take forever to thaw.

6 - At work, I spoke on the phone to some people I had been trying to call for a while.

7 - Had dinner out with Amanda and heard a young man beatboxing on his way to the salad bar... and on his way back. Possibly a Virginia Gentleman or one of the Academical Village People.

8 - Amanda started to feel kicking, and it wasn't from me! And we watched the wedding episode of The Office.

9 - Packed for the beach.

10 - Saw the ocean for the first time in a couple years.

11 - The water was warm enough to get in and play in the waves.

12 - Sat on the beach and looked at a baby name book. And watched altogether too many home shows. And ate key lime pie with Jen and Ward.

13 - Lovely morning walk on the beach with Amanda.

14 - Amanda had a sick client, which was not good (see 19-21 below), but it meant she got home early enough for me to eat with her and take the car to choir practice, which was good, because it was cold and rainy out.

15 - Free bagel at work. From Panera. With cheese and buttery goodness. Right when I was hungry.

16 - Registered for baby stuff at the Eco Shop.

17 - Went to a cousin's wedding and had a free brownie at Chick-Fil-A. (No, I am not getting paid to mention these businesses. They were just good things.)

18 - Survived the cold at an outdoor Third Day concert downtown with Phillip and Ashley.
19 - Did two loads of laundry for my sick wife, despite starting to feel sick myself. I am so domestic.

20 - Sick days are never good, but I made it through without a headache or a sore throat, two of my least favorite symptoms.

21 - Felt mostly better and got caught up on some e-mails during the second sick day.

22 - Found everything I was looking for at CVS and Food Lion.

23 - Amanda got an Edible Arrangements.
24 - Drove a bus for a UVA football game for the first time in six years. I guess I technically got to drive three buses, since I broke two of them.
25 - Crozet Pizza with bus drivers. Amanda discovered that Fuzzibunz cloth diapers had just become available at Babies R Us.
26 - Spent the day driving around Virginia for work. Amazing leaves.
27 - Heard great stories from/reminisced with a former UVA mechanic who I happened to meet in Buckingham
28 - Looked at wood flooring options with Amanda
29 - Maybe got a decent deal on bamboo

30 - Saw a child in costume as a garden gnome on the Lawn. With full white beard and pointy hat.
31 - Bought paint for... the nursery! It still feels weird calling this room, in which I am sitting and which is an office, a nursery.

Traffic

2009-10-07T17:11:00.008-05:00

I do not read many books. But I did recently finish Tom Vanderbilt's Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do. I am posting these quotes from it, not so much for anyone to read or because I have anything to add, but because I wanted to keep them saved somewhere in case I ever want to use them.

On traffic safety vs. homeland security:

"Grimly tally the number of people who have been killed by terrorism in the United States since the State Department began keeping records in the 1960s, and you'll get a total of less than 5,000 - roughly the same number, it has been pointed out, as those who have been struck by lightning. But each year, with some fluctuation, the number of people killed in car crashes in the United States tops 40,000. More people are killed on the roads each month than were killed in the September 11 attacks. In the wake of those attacks, polls found that many citizens thought it was acceptable to curtail civil liberties to help counter the threat of terrorism, to help preserve our "way of life." Those same citizens, meanwhile, in polls and in personal behavior, have routinely resisted traffic measures designed to reduce the annual death toll (e.g., lowering speed limits, introducing more red-light cameras, stiffer blood alcohol limits, stricter cell phone laws).

"Ironically, the normal business of life that we are so dedicated to preserving is actually more dangerous to the average person than the threats against it. Road deaths in the three months after 9/11, for example, were 9 percent higher than those during the similar periods in the two years before. Given that airline passenger numbers dropped during this same period, it can be assumed some people chose to drive rather than fly. It might be precisely because of all the vigilance that no further deaths due to terrorism have occurred in the United States since 9/11 - even as more than two hundred thousand people have died on the roads. This raises the question of why we do not mount a similarly concerted effort to improve the "security" of the nation's roads; instead, in the wake of 9/11, newspapers have been filled with stories of traffic police being taken off the roads and assigned to counterterrorism."

And here's a good summary of the main conflicts of driving:

"We all think we're better than the average driver. We think cars are the risk when on foot; we think pedestrians act dangerously when we're behind the wheel. We want safer cars so we can drive more dangerously. Driving, with its exhilarating speed and the boundless personal mobility it grants us, is strangely life-affirming but also, for most of us, the most deadly presence in our lives. We all want to be individuals on the road, but smooth-flowing traffic requires conformity. We want all the lights to be green, unless we are on the intersecting road, in which case we want those lights to be green. We want little traffic on our own street but a convenient ten-lane highway blazing just nearby. We all wish the other person would not drive, so that our trip would be faster. What's best for us on the road is often not best for everyone else, and vice versa."

Good things for September

2009-10-04T08:33:00.001-05:00

1 - Got a Kit Kat from the receptionist's candy jar when I went to a meeting.
2 - Perfect weather; Amanda and I went for a walk after dinner and CROSSED the STREET. I know!
3 - Found a 1911 wheat penny in the parking lot.
4 - Ate lunch outside, and smell from the sewage treatment plant was minimal.
5 - Toured Monticello with Amanda and my parents.
6 - Went up to Carter Mountain for some peaches and a great view.
7 - Drove a bus through Grounds during four class changes (good chaos). Amanda and I debated whether to get the cream, beige, or olive/mushroom "huggy" chair, then chose one and also bought a recliner. Happy Labor Day to us!
8 - Although the weather was dreary most of the day, it turned out nice for my walk home.
9 - Sat in new chairs in the living room.
10 - Kept the window open at work most of the day, until the sewage treatment plant smell started wafting about.
11 - Read a fascinating series of articles about the master's thesis in urban planning written by one of the 9/11 terrorists. Also had dinner outside at Monsoon, watching people jaywalk.
12 - Amanda joined my Saturday work meeting and we ate the free lunch.
13 - We did some initial nesting.
14 - Learned that Gladys means "one who is lame," according to one of our baby name books.
15 - Amanda and I somehow got home at the exact same moment, even though I was riding my bike across town and Amanda was driving an hour and fifteen minutes from Churchville.
16 - Biked to choir and did not get rained on, despite a rainy forecast. And Amanda made it down the mountain safely despite a nailed tire that was losing air.
17 - The tire exploded at the tire shop, which was the best place for it to explode if it had to do that. And I left work early and had a lovely afternoon/evening getting a flu shot, looking at an exhibit about UVA, driving a bus I've been waiting to drive, and eating tasty Afghan food with my adventurous wife.
18 - Had a better-than-expected time when we stopped by the Downtown Mall with the siblings (and had a brush with celebrity when Creigh Deeds was walking by, and listened to a cool drumming circle for a while).
19 - Discovered a very nice playground in nice weather at a city park.
20 - Experienced The Lollipop Shop, a twice-a-year maternity/baby/kid consignment store/frenzy. (This is a good thing because I survived it.)
21 - At the Try Transit Week kickoff event downtown, I received a black-and-white business card on plain white paper from "Dj josh" (who apparently "Plays all the hits"). "I made it myself," he said proudly.
22 - Amanda rode along while I drove a bus!
23 - Found out that the baby is a boy and appears to have everything he should have (we even counted little skeletal fingers!).

24 - Read an article about local a political candidate and marveled that he said the following to a reporter: "I don’t know; do they mind me calling them a Negro anymore? Is that improper also?”

25 - Survived my undercover work mission as Pete Shifflett from Cow Hollow. Also enjoyed Jubilate's Variety Show in the evening.

26 - Got one of only a few tables for the Derek Webb concert, and there was free water. I don't think the artists like it when people sit instead of standing in the pit, but chairs are a blessing for pregnant women and their husbands.
27 - Helped (watched) Amanda get excellent deals on baby stuff, including a sock monkey halloween outfit that won't get used for over a year but will be really cool at some point.
28 - Finished the long-overdue post about Sojourners.
29 - Finished a long-overdue report at work.
30 - Biked past U2's ginormous stage set up in Scott Stadium for the next day's show.

Visit: Smaller Liberal Church

2009-09-28T17:23:00.004-05:00

We finally made it to visit a second church. Because the weather was nice, we narrowed it down to two churches within walking distance of our house: Sojourners and Belmont Baptist. Both were having out-of-the-ordinary services, with a special speaker at Sojourners and a 60th homecoming celebration at Belmont. We settled on Sojourners to get the full "crazy liberal church" experience. And because it is only a five-minute walk instead of 10 or 15.

Sojourners is a relatively new church and is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, which is a bit of a departure for us faithful Baptists, but in many ways it felt similar to Binkley, the church we attended in Chapel Hill, which was Baptist. It is openly inclusive of all, regardless of culture, "race, age, gender, sexual orientation, mental or physical challenges, or religious background." A banner in the sanctuary says "Social Justice." There are recycling containers. The bulletin lists upcoming community events related to peace, non-violent communication, Islam, Christianity, and other topics.

If we attended this church, probably the biggest adjustment would be that the worship service is at 9:30 instead of the more typical 11. I guess this gives you more time to do justice the rest of the day, or it would, if the service weren't as long as it was last week. We left at about 11:15, and there was still an hour of discussion planned. The special focus was prison ministries, a timely topic given the recent press about the Books Behind Bars program, and there were a lot of visitors there for the size of the congregation.

It's not a tiny church but isn't big by any standards; the sanctuary is modest and was configured in the round with chairs instead of pews. By the time they started (late), though, an empty chair was hard to come by. Attendees were truly diverse in the characteristics specified above. It really makes me wonder why all churches cannot just welcome all people, rather than forcing some to be relegated to a "welcoming" church as if it's some kind of leper colony.

Music was different but interesting. With a piano but no organ, about half of what we sang was accompanied. The service began and ended with a South African praise song that we learned by repeating the leader (no printed words or notes to look at). The closing song was done in a big circle around the outside of the room, holding hands, kum-ba-yah style - "to look into each other's faces and feel the inclusion." The choir, a 10-person group (also diverse, with one woman in traditional Indian garb) sang harmonies nicely, with one somewhat familiar hymn from the hymnal and another on an insert. The offertory music was a little different, because it began only after everyone had already given their gifts by standing up and carrying them to the communion table at the center of the room. (I liked the note in the bulletin explaining the process and adding information about how to sign up for service opportunities, reminding us that money is not the only offering we can give, but I thought it was odd to have everyone move like that in a church with a substantial number of people with physical disabilities.) Amanda pointed out that the choir has long practices, with over two hours on Sundays plus occasional Saturdays. Yikes.

Other than the offertory and closing circle, we weren't forced to move around, but there were three times when individual people stood up to share. The first was right at the beginning, during the welcome, when visitors were asked to stand and introduce themselves. Needless to say, I was horrified at this request. (We did not stand, which might be why nobody really welcomed us after the service. One woman did speak to us beforehand, though.) The second standing time was devoted to any announcements people wanted to make, about whatever topic, and the third was for sharing joys and concerns. Both of these had the potential to get out of hand, added substantial (and unpredictable) time to the service, and reminded me too much of a public meeting where angry people stand up and have their time to speak. They also interrupted the flow and any worshipful mood that had developed.

I guess I'm used to having those sharing times during the Sunday School hour, which isn't an option at Sojourners, because they don't have regular classes. I think they always have fellowship time after the service, and sometimes a special discussion as well, but no small-group Bible study classes. Perhaps the various social justice committees and the evening Bible discussion group (led by a bald man named, no joke, Dawg Strong) serve the purpose of getting smaller groups together. I worry that there are few people our age, as with most churches. There were a handful in the worship service, but I think a lot of them were visiting because of the topic.

There was a children's time, and kids left the service in two bunches to go to children's church: the little ones left right after the children's time, and up through 7th grade left just before the sermon. In most churches I've experienced, middle schoolers sit through the whole service, but I guess maybe the sermon topics are a little too adult for 7th graders?

The day's guest preacher was a young woman who challenged everyone to take the biblical charge to "release the prisoners" to heart by visiting them, praying for them, etc. It was more like a teach-in than a worship service. There was no invitation or pressurized commitment time where a forlorn minister stands up front, hands crossed, trying to sing without the words (a big plus to me).

Sojourners feels a little more like Charlottesville than UBC or First Baptist did. By that, I mean it has the granola types and the aging hippies that populate the farmer's market on Saturday mornings, plus the people with disabilities who probably ride around with the transit provider I work for, plus families who are an active part of this "liberal mecca." It doesn't feel like a university church or like a corporate everybaptistchurch.

It's focused on looking at problems and trying to deal with them. A worthy goal, to be sure, but I wonder if attending Sojourners would end up being too depressing, just as it might be too syrupy sweet for me to attend an all-smiles, praise-and-worship church. There wasn't a lot of humor or laughter at this particular service -- that could be due to the serious topic, but what if it's always a serious topic? Would I end up giving so much time to so many causes that my family would suffer? Or would it make it easier to give time to things that really matter to me?

We found out about another potential drawback to Sojourners through a small blurb in the announcements. It seems that the church is about to undergo a planning process similar to UBC's Advance, and this is happening because "our cherished pastor is retiring." So even if we go back to experience a "normal" service there, which we may do, it might not be very representative of the future.

Overall result: inconclusive.

Advance

2009-09-16T16:58:00.003-05:00

The Advance report/discussion at UBC met my expectations, but only because I expected it not to be what I was expecting. The presentation itself was quite brief, and the accompanying handout outlined some of the church's major strengths, the Great Commission, the names of two more task forces that will continue the work, and goals for improvement. The Advance task force itself did not really recommend anything for the church to do regarding its direction or vision.

Then there was the discussion, which was mostly dominated by a spiffy pseudo-senior named Betty. (I am fairly certain she qualifies for the senior discount but is in denial.) She brought up a few points: she is a traditionalist and attends UBC because of its traditional style. She is concerned about programs for the youth and the senior citizens. She is terrified of the risky youth activities (i.e. tubing) but is thankful that youth leaders are willing to do them. Others latched on to the discussion about youth (maybe because the middle-school Sunday School class was sitting in the room): There needs to be a full-time youth pastor. There needs to be a Youth Sunday (I was surprised to learn that there isn't.) The youth are the future of the church. The youth will only stay if we have a service with a contemporary worship style. (Honestly, I thought the "contemporary vs. traditional" argument was over a decade ago, but apparently not.)

There was also considerable discussion about ministries for international students, including English classes. One participant thought very strongly that the program should literally "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19) by getting students dunked while they're here and sending them home to evangelize. I wanted to say something about how odd it is that UBC is very happy to teach English to well-to-do international students but doesn't seem to offer anything for those members of our society who have less resources: working-poor immigrants - legal or not - who need to learn English to survive. It's as if we offer English classes for speakers of any language but Spanish. (Unless you're actually from Spain.)

There was even some mention of a hidden agenda in the Advance: a desire to start a new capital campaign for needed HVAC work and maybe some other projects. Nobody mentioned the addition of a steeple, which I've heard rumblings about before.

Apparently the two-day Advance itself was more of a presentation than a discussion, which was not what people were expecting, but the takeaway point of that presentation was that the church may have plateaued, focusing on doing programs instead of on having a vision, and that it should get back to a vision. Well, that was half of it. The other half was sort of like succession planning, trying to confront the reality that the senior pastor is eying retirement in the next few years.

Amanda never really got to say what she wanted to say, since they didn't ask for our input and filled the time with other discussion. Her input was that it feels like the church doesn't really have much to offer for people at our station in life: young married couples (without kids, for another few months). Every church seems to struggle with this. Churches often have classes or groups for singles, college kids, and young families, but the young couples seem to drift away, so there's nobody to group with. Do we drift away because there's nothing offered for us? Or do we drift away for independent reasons, making it impossible for churches to offer us programs? Whatever the reason, if the youth are the future of the church, then young couples are the church's immediate future, since youth tend to become young adults or die trying. And maybe it's OK to ignore this segment of the population, since once young couples have kids, they tend to return to church (either for free childcare or because they want their kids to grow up in a church).

Don't get me wrong; inclusion was discussed, as both a current strength and a goal for improvement. Discussion focused on how to get new people plugged in, and small groups were mentioned. Once again, there are such offerings for youth and seniors... and that's about it, other than Sunday School. The goal for inclusion reads, "Become a friendlier, more inclusive church without compromising our core values." This sounds a little like a veiled statement that inclusion is good up to a point, until it threatens our comfort levels. There is nothing about being more progressive or welcoming and affirming people regardless of disability, sexual orientation, income, etc. The church mostly seems interested in attracting young families. Amanda pointed out that this goal could be strengthened or clarified by specifying exactly what would compromise those "core values" and would not be allowed.

So I don't think the Advance gave me confidence that UBC is on a fast-track for change. Of course, there are new task forces that will do more studying and reporting, and I know patience is a fruit of the Spirit, but I am impatient. It seems as if these committees will be working on how to fit new people into the church's mold, rather than molding the church to meet the needs that exist in the community, needs that other churches aren't serving.

In Sunday's worship service, the Gospel lesson included the "dust off your feet" verse, which we have heard before from someone threatening to leave a church in Chapel Hill if the church didn't get serious about environmental ministry. Do we need to shake the dust off our feet?

One last note. The pastor's column in last week's newsletter was fairly confrontational, questioning whether the church has gotten mixed up regarding its mission and the means of achieving that mission: he pointed out that the mission was evangelism, with worship and other ministries the means. I could go on for a while about whether this is good or bad, but I'll focus on something Amanda noticed: This confrontational, challenging tone (which is somewhat energizing and welcome, from my perspective) seems to appear in the newsletters more than in the pulpit. It's the same guy, though. Is he passive-aggressive? Does he want to limit his challenges to the membership instead of Sunday visitors? Amanda came up with the most compelling potential explanation: the radio. Sunday services are broadcast live. We wonder if that makes the preaching get watered down a little to avoid offending any listeners. Just something to ponder.

Home Again? (Part Three)

2009-09-09T17:22:00.017-05:00

Last weekend, my parents were in town for a visit. (We always seem to end up going to visit them only a week or two from when they come to visit us.) After a day touring Monticello, we went to UBC on Sunday.

We managed to piddle around in the morning long enough to miss Sunday School, since they wanted to come to our class with us, and we weren't wanting to go. Our class at UBC is called "Twentysomethings," and unlike other classes my parents have visited with us, it's age-based. I'm sure it would have been fine for them to join in, since there are often thirtysomethings in there, plus teachers and their spouses who are my parents' age. But we skipped it.

Another reason we wanted to skip Sunday School was that we had a special mission. Sunday School often involves discussion, sometimes one-sided, that lasts until approximately 20 seconds before the worship service begins upstairs. This would have harmed our chances at a successful special mission, because the special mission required us to find people who have been at UBC for a long time and talk to them.

You see, when we visited my parents a few weeks ago, my mom had been going through some of her dad's old things that she had recently received. She showed us one of them, a large black-and-white photo of some men burning a piece of paper at the front of a church sanctuary. The stained-glass window behind them was unmistakably the one at UBC. Some of the paneling and columns have changed, but this was a picture taken around the time my mom was born, when her family lived in Charlottesville and attended University Baptist Church. (She was six months old when they moved away, so she doesn't exactly remember living here.) Because we had been out of town since our visit to my parents' house, we hadn't shown this photo to anyone.

My mother immediately succeeded in finding someone who recognized the photo. "Oh yes, I was there," he said. "I recognize all those people." The event was a note-burning to celebrate the church paying off a debt of some kind, probably for the building. UBC might already have a bunch of these photos, since photography isn't generally practiced in the Sanctuary except on special occasions, but we gave him the photo to keep with the church's collection.

And then my mom turned to me. "Isn't that neat?" she asked. "You have an old tie with this church."

Home. It's an interesting word. Is the old tie I have with UBC - the fact that my grandparents went there - enough to make it my home? Does that mean it's the right place for me now? Not necessarily. But added to the fact that I spent four years there, that it was the right place for me during that time, and that the church gave generously of itself to support Jubilate, a ministry I benefited from... there is an argument to be made.

And because of all those factors pulling on me, it does kind of feel like cheating to be visiting other churches. And I feel paranoid. In last week's issue of The Word, UBC's weekly newsletter, the pastor's note quotes John Chandler's book Courageous Church Leadership:

I once asked a church architect about why there were so many church arguments about the selection of the color and style of the carpet. He replied that, while very few people understood technical issues related to roof trusses, nearly every person in the church got up in the morning, stood in front of the mirror, and decided that they knew what looked good. Everyone is an expert in what looks good! By the same token, people who have extensive experience 'attending' church sometimes automatically assume that they have great experience 'leading' church. While flying as a passenger in a jet plane doesn't necessarily mean that you know how to pilot one, that does not stop many from offering criticism to those in the cockpit.

As I said, I am paranoid. Although the pastor then tied this to being appreciative that people serving on the Advance Task Force were church leaders and not just attenders, it seemed like it could be directed at me for posting my thoughts here. I know it's not. Exchange of ideas is valued at UBC. Besides, I am not trying to criticize the leadership of any church. I am simply offering the view from the pew, which necessarily involves observations and descriptions of what seems to work and what doesn't.

Speaking of the Advance, I am looking forward to this Sunday, when we will hear UBC's Advance Task Force Report. (The church was going to hold a planning retreat, then somebody pointed out that they didn't want to be retreating from anything, so they changed the name to the Advance. Really. They stuck with it.) We were unable to attend the Advance, since it was on our anniversary weekend, but I am hopeful that the report and ensuing discussion will be encouraging regarding UBC's future. Part of me hopes that it will somehow make it clear to us that UBC is the right place for us and that we don't need to be searching for something else. I know the presentation will not cement anything like that, but I am still interested to hear what was discussed and any recommendations the task force came up with.

Cliffhanger!

Home Again? (Part Two)

2009-09-07T15:02:00.003-05:00

Deciding to visit other churches is a little like deciding to try to have a baby: Even after just one time, you're committed. We've still not visited more than one other church in Charlottesville, but it's always on our minds.

The last Sunday of August, we were in Greensboro for our first visit since moving to Charlottesville. So we went to College Park, the church that caused all this ruckus. Here is one reason why I liked that church. I do not know Peggy Hester, but her words explain things much better than I can: "Bumps in the road happen in this congregation as ... in all churches but somehow they seem to maintain a sense of foolishness that rounds the sharp edges and smooths out the rough places." You can probably imagine some of the bumps in the road to becoming a progressive Baptist church a mile or two away from a common meeting place of the Southern Baptist Convention. Evidence of the sense of foolishness is easy to find, too, thanks to the magic of YouTube. I am looking for a church with a sense of foolishness along with a sense of mission.

I did a lot of math on Sunday morning. I learned not too long ago that when you feel that tickle in your eyes, and you are thinking about something that is going to make you cry, one of the best ways to maintain composure is to occupy your brain with something else, and math problems are relatively easy to create on the spot and work on. Being back at College Park brings back some memories. And I am not a big weeper most of the time, but I did a lot of math on Sunday morning. In the hallway right after we got there. In the packed, overheated Sunday School room. And in the Sanctuary.

It wouldn't be fair to let College Park off without a little examination of the details of the service, but mostly, I like the way they do things. Specifically:

The bulletin always contains a selection of quotes for reflection. They are sprinkled throughout the service: one beforehand, one at the Moment of Silence after the anthem, one at the Offertory, and one at the end under the Postlude. These are not Bible quotes; they are usually from non-Biblical poets, authors, philosophers. Example Meditation of Preparation from Sunday: "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." - John Donne
The bulletin is smaller than it used to be. With a responsive reading or two, a bunch of announcements, and the aforementioned quotes, and because they often use hymns that aren't in the Baptist Hymnal, the bulletins at College Park had gotten absurdly long before we moved away. It was not unusual to pick up a 16-page booklet in those days. Now, though, the bulletin was the size of the one we had used the week before at Manassas Baptist: a single 11x17 sheet, tri-folded (plus a survey on an insert). Yay for saving paper!
The Meditation of Preparation, Lighting of the Candles, Tolling of the Hour, and Welcome and Announcements (including the stand-up-and-shake-hands time) are all done before the Prelude. This allows the prelude to establish the mood of worship without a lot of gabbing during it, and the meet-and-greet doesn't mess things up. I've heard other churches argue that they can't do things that way, because late-comers will miss the announcements and meet-and-greet. But you know what? People can get there on time.
After a Bible reading, there is a response. This is typical of liturgical churches, and it is often, "This is the Word of the Lord; Thanks be to God." At College Park, though, one little Word change keeps things fresh. On Sunday, the verses were from Acts and about the early Christian community. So the response says, "This is the community of the Lord; Thanks be to God." Somebody has to spend time figuring out what the response should say, and I think it's worth it.
The Blue Cards are good. These nifty little pew-rack cards provide space for visitors to make their presence known, space for members to volunteer to serve, and space for anyone to make a statement of intent to join the church. (This makes it possible to avoid a spoken invitation at the close of the service, which was very new and different for me at first but a pleasant change from the typical scene of the pastor standing up front, looking lonely and dejected that no one has come forward.) I have even known the Blue Cards to be used to communicate anonymous messages to ministers, such as asking them to clarify their use of the phrase "in lieu of."
The communion table up front had small framed photos on it. We forgot to walk by and see what they were, but this is one manifestation of how College Park is able to personalize religion. I remember one month where people were invited to bring in action figures to go on the table. Although I've forgotten the exact meaning of that exercise, I know it was yet another way to get people involved with God in a personal way - and to make church sacred and reverent but not untouchable (Amanda's words).
There are clear instructions in the bulletin. The setup for kids after the children's sermon is kind of complicated: 3-year-olds go to a toddler room, up to 1st grade go to children's worship, and older kids sit in Big Church. This is explained clearly in the bulletin, along with what ages/grades are invited to come forward. As a kid, I remembered agonizing over when I was too old to be going up there. Someone probably thought it was best to let kids decide when they weren't kids, but this is not true. Kids want to be teenagers. So we had lots of too-cool 8-year-olds dropping out of the children's sermon back in the day.

Speaking of the children's sermon, it featured precious darlings saying something funny, as usual. In this case, they were supposed to be coming up with rules for living together in community. They were doing pretty well until one bright child suggested an important rule: "Do not show your--," whereupon the adult leader wisely interrupted, "OK, let's stop there."

To be honest, we were a little disappointed when we learned that the pastor was out of town for our visit. I was hoping for a Dr. Seuss sermon from his summer series. But God works in unexpected ways, and the excellent sermon we heard seemed oddly appropriate for us. It was from Cindy, the Sunday School teacher we had at College Park, and it was her first time preaching. (She may have been terrified, but she did a great job.) In 2006, she invited us to her class, and we went often, even though we were the youngest people there and didn't always contribute much to the discussion. She was one of the most influential people for us there.

The topic was the church as a community - a diverse one. People have a need to be accepted, included, and involved in a community: the concept of koinonia. This word has lots of meanings for Amanda and me. From the funny and memorable Koinonia Farms monologue at BSU in college, to the slightly awkward koinonia dinner groups at Binkley, to the real spirit of koinonia we found at College Park, we have now ended up looking for that sense of community again. Churches of all sizes often seek to create it through small groups, and neither of us has much experience belonging to a small group that meets in homes regularly.

Cindy quoted from a blog (this one?) about a place "where I can be my most ME." The right church community is where I can be my most me. She also said that at its best, the Christian community is counter-cultural. She pointed out that no Christian community is perfect, but that Christian community is incredibly important for spiritual growth. I liked all these little sound bites, and they speak to what's going on with our church-hopping.

One of the highlights of the sermon was towards the end, when any narcoleptics were jolted awake by sudden, loud drumming. This accented the return to a central thread Cindy had woven through the sermon: she had seen a drumming circle in Asheville (the Charlottesville of western NC) that was full of diverse people with crazy different beats, but eventually, they all began playing in rhythm. The right Christian community is like this drumming circle: it blends with your unique beat, although the other drummers aren't drumming exactly the same way. And it may take time to find the circle that blends with your beat, Cindy said, but don't give up. An encouraging word for us. (And maybe this is a stretch, but she said something about the "throb of the Spirit" that reminds me of Derek Webb's new song that questions whether some Christian communities would rather just have the literal drumming circle - the latest gimmick - than feel the genuine beat of Christ.)

A bonus from the sermon was getting to hear some of Cindy's personal story that we really hadn't heard before. But enough about the sermon. After that was a short focus on a recent missions effort at a nearby elementary school that serves a lot of kids from low-income families. Two staff members from the school visited the church to share their thanks for the work, and it was a perfect example of evangelism through service, as I mentioned at the end of this post. Although there was some applause after these visitors spoke, I have been strongly advised that the congregation is not Claptist and was just being polite.

I have to add that whenever I hear the parting song from Sunday, "Go Now in Peace," I always end up thinking of the alternate title that I heard somewhere along the line... Maybe we came up with it in middle school, or maybe my dad penned it to represent his agony at the end of a long sermon, but it does sound an awful lot like "Go Now and Pee."

So overall, a great visit at College Park, with a little of what we remember and a little new. Of course, it's not fair for us to compare the welcome we felt there to what we receive when visiting a new church like First Baptist, because we knew people at College Park. And Cindy gave us a shout-out at the end of the service so people would come by and say hello, which was special. But I know that anyone else who filled out a blue card that Sunday also got a handwritten note from someone a few days later, and I hope they appreciated it as much as we did.

God is calling us to a life together; will you join me?

Cindy ended her sermon with this question/challenge. And it made me do some more math, since we did join in the common life at College Park. And it was tough to leave, which we knew would be the case. If I haven't mentioned this before: one of the first times we were at College Park, Amanda said, "It's going to be hard to leave this place." Because we knew we would have to leave. And we could have gone somewhere that would be easy to leave, since we knew it was coming. Instead, we invested ourselves there... and it was worth it.

Now that we're settled in Charlottesville (hopefully for good), we want to make sure we're investing ourselves where it will be hard to leave.

Good things for August

2009-09-02T21:10:00.005-05:00

I am stealing this concept. I think it will help me to be more positive. So I tried to jot down a good thing for each day of August, and here they are:

August 1 - Brought Spudnuts to Phillip and Ashley's house and helped pack their stuff into a U-Haul and completely used up two Mr. Clean Magic Erasers on their walls.

August 2 - Talked with Phillip and Ashley for a while, since they were homeless for a day and spent the night at our house.

August 3 - Rode with some of Amanda's family to Waynesboro to help Phillip and Ashley move in, and got to eat Crystal's fiery Cheetos on the way.

August 4 - Had a very quiet day at work because most everybody was at a conference in Roanoke.

August 5 - Spent multiple hours driving to and from Roanoke with a work colleague I didn't know very well... I was sort of dreading this trip, but it was good conversation.

August 6 - Drove a bus and passed an undercover Public Relations ride-along. I greet people and tell them how long we'll be sitting at timestops!

August 7 - Amanda and I set up our new indoor composter.

August 8 - We shopped 'til we dropped (6 HOURS!) and actually ended up buying some of the things on our shopping list. But we didn't buy anything at the baby store... yet.

August 9 - Exercised freedom of religion (and freedom of critiquing the way they do church).

August 10 - Went to the Bartley house for Jacob's birthday dinner. Crystal asked if it was fun to make a baby. She is WAY too old to be asking things like this innocently.

August 11 - Drove a bus and did not get rained on (much).

August 12 - Enjoyed watching Amanda spend some time with a blanket up her shirt trying to see what things will be like in a few months.

August 13 - On the way to work, I watched a green walnut fall from a tree onto the street, bounce, and roll a long way down the hill slightly faster than I was walking, and I pondered the chaos of life.
August 14 - Amanda and I were very excited to open our indoor composter after it had been sealed for a week to grow the cultures. The stuff we had put in there before... it was all unrecognizable! Except for a small dried flower. But... success!

August 15 - Lovely drive along the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park, with a couple short hikes. It was in the mid-70s instead of the mid-80s up there. And we saw a few black bears from a safe distance.

August 16 - We had a great guest preacher at UBC, and he (and his wife!) recognized me.

August 17 - Spent a few extra minutes at work because I was in the right place at the right time to get drafted to take a wheelchair bus to UVA to help a family that was stranded.

August 18 - Got new CTS/UTS bus guides.
August 19 - Came home early before going to drive a charter for international students.
August 20 - Toilet repair with my father-in-law.

August 21 - A rural church delivered lunch (fried fish!) to work.
August 22 - Shared a funnel cake with Amanda and a turkey leg with my dad at the 60th Annual Prince William County Fair.
August 23 - A decision-free lunch for me, since I got to taste stuff from my parents' and Amanda's plates: my own salad, a shrimp, a bite of fish, a few ribs, a few fries, and a quarter of a slider.
August 24 - Wrote a birthday card, or at least meant to.
August 25 - Took the afternoon off to drive buses in heavy traffic for the first day of classes at UVA.

August 26 - Went to the Meade Park farmer's market and came back with four gigantic peaches, flowers for Amanda, and an impulse-buy of sticky buns made with chocolate. Also, there were some kids that had fun with my bike horn, although that may not have been a "good thing" for the people near them.
August 27 - Met Amanda on the Downtown Mall for dinner.
August 28 - Played Rook (for the first time) with Todd and Amy.

August 29 - Had cheesecake in Greensboro and played (not Rook) with baby Evan, who is not a baby now.

August 30 - Church at College Park (thoughts coming soon) and lunch with friends we abandoned.

August 31 - Bodo's for Amanda's Birthday Breakfast (I have never gone out for a birthday breakfast before, and her parents had never been to Bodo's).

Home Again? (Part One)

2009-08-24T17:23:00.038-05:00

Because we are adventure-seekers, Amanda and I traveled north last weekend to experience the Prince William County Fair. We stayed with my parents. But I am not writing about the gigantic turkey leg my dad bought that I had to gnaw on because it was too tough for his mouth, or the $4 my mom won for getting second prize in the "homemade jackets" category, or the fact that we did not ride any rides because Amanda is pregnant and it looked stormy, or the animal/magic/comedy show for kids that we watched. No, I am not writing about those things.

I am writing about when, the morning after the fair, we worshiped at Manassas Baptist Church, my "home church," where I attended until going off to college nine years ago this week. Go ahead, click the link. Right there is a picture of what makes MBC unique, and its curse: the middle school and grounds the church bought in 2002 next door to the main church building. It is now known as "The Rock." I may be biased because I wasn't in favor of that purchase to begin with, but The Rock is a big boulder catapulting downhill, pulling the church with it. And because the church used a balloon loan for the multi-million-dollar acquisition (remember 2002?), and the loan is about to "pop," MBC is now in, as my 11th-grade humanities teacher once said, deep kim-chi. The pastor, the same pastor who led the church into this mess, is continuing to try to rally people around "God's plan" -- although I remain unconvinced that God requires big buildings to change hearts.

When I say "the pastor," I mean Dr. Bill, the Senior Pastor, not the Lead Pastor or the Pastor for Discipleship/Evangelism or the Contemporary Worship Leader/Coordinator. At least there's no "assimilation" pastor as there was at First Baptist in Charlottesville. Manassas Baptist has always been a fairly big church, but growing up, it seemed more like a naturally big church, not one bloated by pride and property and wanting to be a megachurch.

All of this is background for my thoughts on Sunday's service at MBC. First piece of excitement: They have a new bulletin format. It is a full-color 11x17 sheet tri-folded, with a nice logo on the front and photos of actual churchgoers. (The only two I recognize are the senior citizens, though.) My dad told me that they are trying to copy McLean Bible Church. It seems MBC is always looking to copy one megachurch or another. Underlying that is a genuine desire to do God's will, though.

In some ways, the 11:00 service at MBC is a comforting reminder of my childhood. Manassas does visitor cards the same way it always has, with two ushers coming to the front and turning around, the person at the pulpit instructing visitors to raise their hands, and the ushers walking towards the back handing out visitor cards. I never thought much about this approach, but now I dislike it. The ushers always start walking a little too early, so if there are any visitors in the first five or ten pews, the ushers walk past them before the visitors know to raise their hands. Plus, if I were a visitor, I might not always feel like raising my hand. I've experienced the bulletin tear-off, the sign-a-register-on-each-pew, the small-church call-out, and the card in the pew rack. I think the card in the pew rack is my favorite: you don't have to scream that you're a visitor, and you have a chance to ask questions.

Over the years, MBC has transitioned from Baptist to what I call Claptist. Maybe it's the contemporary service, or maybe the congregation is just moved to praise God with their hands, but they generally clap after solos. I was taught that clapping in church is generally not appropriate unless you're really sure who the clapping is for: if it's for God's Glory or to say thanks for the gifts of the performers, that's OK, but if it's for someone who just performed, that's kind of like worshiping them instead of God. Clapping is very unusual at UBC, but if a precious darling so much as squeaks out an "Amen," the congregation at MBC will clap. Guaranteed. And I'm pretty sure it's usually for the performance, not for the Glory of God. (It is also interesting that clapping is only after music and rarely after the sermon. Isn't speaking a gift, too?)

The sermon was actually pretty good. My mom said it was Dr. Bill's best in a while, and Amanda said that although it was about 30 minutes long, it kept her attention. (That could have been because we were in the second row, though.) Dr. Bill asks a lot of questions and wants people to raise their hands. As with the clapping, the hand-raising bugs me. It turns some people off to church and makes others uncomfortable -- it's not necessarily bad for a sermon to make people uncomfortable, but it is bad when they're uncomfortable because they're being asked to answer yes or no to a silly question without time to devote conscious thought to it.

Dr. Bill mentioned a celebrity's support for Darfur, which I thought showed a nice awareness of issues outside typical evangelistic confines, although he pronounced Darfur a way I have never heard it pronounced before. I think it rhymed with "Babar." Another highlight of the sermon was that I received an unexpected shout-out from Dr. Bill as he was reminiscing about the large whale costume that my mother made for a musical about Jonah: "You were in it!" Well, almost; I wasn't in the whale suit (that was the husband of the Director of Music), but I was in the musical.

The reason he was talking about Jonah was the God's Plan Argument. Which is: God had a plan for Jonah. Jonah said "meh" to God's plan. God caused Jonah to have an unpleasant experience that led him to follow God's plan after all. Do you want to resist God's plan? Of course you do not, because you will end up inside a whale, and that would be unpleasant in this day and age of harpoons and whatnot. So you should follow God's plan for your life. And you should follow God's plan for Manassas Baptist Church.

I am with Dr. Bill to this point. Where I am not with him is when he draws the conclusion that God's plan for Manassas Baptist Church equals Dr. Bill's plan for Manassas Baptist Church, the implication being that church members should step up and keep the church from going into foreclosure or having to sell off the middle school property. Or else you're gonna feel guilty, or whale-eaten, or worse. As I said before, I am not convinced that God requires a middle school for Manassas Baptist Church to do its work. He certainly might, and the building has certainly spurred new ministries at and brought new notoriety to MBC, but might not an investment of $9 million in the existing property and new programs have enabled similar transformations?

Amanda noticed - although I did not - something else Dr. Bill said. It was when he was talking about Madonna (the pop icon, not the virgin Mary) and her transition to spirituality. He noted that Christian churches probably never told Madonna that they loved her or that God loved her. But God did, and does, love her. And then Dr. Bill pointed to the congregation and said, "And I love you. Because I have the heart of God!", which sounds like a slightly presumptuous claim that he is, in fact, more spiritual than the rest of us by having God's heart. I think he probably meant it as, "The person who spreads God's love in this way is acting in line with God's heart."

I think the physical expansion of MBC has created two churches where there was one: traditional vs. contemporary, organ vs. drums, hymnals vs. PowerPoint. Apparently they have tried a "blended" service, but when the traditionalists requested a slightly lower volume level so that their ears didn't get blown off their skulls, the boppers said, "No way, we like to feel the beat in our kidneys." Did I mention that when we arrived at church, Dr. Bill was finishing up the boppin' service, dressed in a casual polo shirt? And by the time the traditional service started, 10 minutes later, he was in a full suit. It's like he's Superman or something, changing in a phone booth between services to adopt a new identity. And that identity is required because he is serving two congregations. What if the two congregations' differences go deeper than clothing and worship style?

The reason we were sitting up front was because my mom was interpreting the service for a deaf woman. I always feel bad for my mom when Dr. Bill goes into strange stories, sarcasm, or recites the Bob Mumford quote, “if we fix the fix that God has fixed to fix us, He will simply have to fix another fix to fix us.” (My mother told us that because he says that once or twice a year, she has memorized how to sign it.) The ministry for the deaf is one of the really good things about MBC.

The service raised what I think is a fundamental question about how churches prioritize what they do: telling the lost vs. serving the downtrodden. Evangelism vs. social justice. Looking to save Madonna's soul vs. picking her up when she has fallen. Both are important. But given a finite amount of time, there is a real conflict in trying to do both. Churches like First Baptist and Manassas Baptist are very focused on evangelism, on telling the Good News, on winning souls, and this is often to the detriment of their missions and social justice commitments. Other churches are militant about social justice and downright scared of the term "evangelical." A select few find a balance where service and progressive ideals become the evangelism: instead of using the tongue alone, the whole person becomes an example of what God can do. That's what I'm looking for in a church.

Mickey Chuckles

2009-08-20T18:43:00.006-05:00

[Confused? Read this first.]

On Sunday we decided not to visit anywhere special but went to University Baptist, in part because a minister who was there during our student days was back as a guest preacher. We remember him offering the kind of energy and welcome that we're looking for.

He did not disappoint. On my way inside, his wife remembered my name - amazing because I didn't remember hers - and they chatted with me for a moment. Amanda and I felt that his sermon was more relevant than what we've been used to, or maybe it was just that his expressive tone kept us from zoning out (much). A bonus surprise was a duet our guest sang with the music minister.

Centered on the parable of the mustard seed, the sermon pondered the idea of deliberately sitting back to let God cultivate the church, and whether that will result in something like what happens when we leave a garden to God's cultivation: a mixture of wheat and weeds, fruity vines and bushy chaos. (For non-Bible scholars, he explained that mustard was essentially a kudzu-like weed in Jesus' time.) He put this in the context of growing the church: Should churches focus on the traditional three B's (building, budget, and bodies)? Or should churches grow each person spiritually, and focus on being the church in the community, without worrying so much about size, money, and outward appearances? Should churches be cleanly cultivated so they look impressive, or should they be diverse enough to include both people who the world views as wheat and those viewed as weeds?

We're not sure if he was describing where he sees UBC heading, or challenging the church to head in that direction. But I wanted to go to the church that gracefully welcomes weeds and wheat and deliberately grows everyone spiritually instead of just growing the three B's.

And I guess that's one reason we're not sure about our future at UBC: Amanda and I aren't entirely sure we're growing there. I wonder, though, if we'd grow more if we spent more time trying. In the summer, we've basically only been present for Sunday worship, and only two or three times a month.

So it was a better-than-average day at our moderate-but-traditional church. But we're not sure if this was because we had higher expectations, because it was something different, or what.

This is not to say we don't like the regular pastor. He's a nice man, he's caring, and I believe he has a genuine concern for social justice. But he doesn't seem to connect with the congregation in a challenging way like the pastor at our church in Greensboro did. Plus, there's definitely something to be said for having a different voice from the pulpit every once in a while.

We are off the hook for deciding where to go the next two weeks because we'll be out of town. And one of those weeks will be in Greensboro, so we will see if things at that church are as rosy as we make them out to be now that we're gone.

Also: Amanda and I have decided we should get paid by churches to evaluate them. Maybe we should take a commission out of the offering plates.

new look

2009-08-17T21:05:00.001-05:00

I agree with the comments about the previous template (white on black) being too hard to look at. Especially when I write things this long. Is this better?

Visit: Large Conservative Church

2009-08-17T17:07:00.009-05:00

Last week, Amanda and I visited First Baptist Church on Park Street. I wrote a lot more about the fact that Charlottesville has two churches called First Baptist, and the parking lot and stuff, but it somehow got lost in the sinews of the Interwebs. I will, however, try to recreate what I said about the screens.

First Baptist is a large, fairly conservative church. They are in the Southern Baptist Convention and appear to be proud of it. Friends, I am not a big fan of the Southern Baptist Convention. I think some of what it has done in the last decade or two has led conservative Christians down a dark path. Since going to college, one of my main prerequisites for a church was that it not be in the Southern Baptist Convention. This is probably a big reason I ended up at a militantly liberal church in Chapel Hill - I admired that it had been kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention. Point is, I am not a big fan of the Southern Baptist Convention. But since First Baptist is a big, fairly well-respected Baptist church on a nice street in town, Amanda and I figured we'd give it a try.

The sanctuary has lots of screens. There's a huge projector screen on the front wall, along with smaller but still massive flat-screen TVs mounted in various locations so everyone can see. The huge screen is blocking the baptismal pool and two stained-glass windows, so - GET THIS - some wise Baptist took a photograph of the wall when the screen was not there, and when the screen is not showing words, IT SHOWS A PICTURE OF WHAT'S BEHIND IT! I thought this was phenomenal. Oddly, the TVs also showed this picture, although they were not blocking miniature baptismal pools and stained-glass windows.

The service began with a video about debt, which sort of played like a commercial for the church's financial management ministry. Not worshipful, but probably useful for some. After we got into a more worshipful state through a litany, hymns, and prayer, the pastor initiated the Greeting, during which everyone was asked to tear off a piece of the bulletin to place in the offering plate recording their attendance, and then to greet others. For years, I have felt that these greeting times are nice but break the worshipful mood, but this one was over the top. The ritualistic ripping of paper distracted from the mood if it didn't kill it, and then we nervously said hello to the people near us, who of course had no idea if we were visitors or members, because it is such a large church. Then we sat down. But it continued. Apparently each person was supposed to say hello to all of the 900 other people there, or at least it felt like there was time to do so.

The music was interesting: There was probably an average or above-average quantity of songs, but they were grouped into only a few bunches. So it was two hymns, then some other stuff, then two boppin' praise-&-worship songs, then the sermon, then two more hymns. There was a full orchestra to help out the organist (who was one of Amanda's music teachers in elementary school). The music dragged on a bit: the hymns, though I liked them OK, were a little slow, and the boppin' songs were mind-numbingly repetitive, as boppin' songs tend to be. (I had not heard them before, and by the time they were finished, I was content not to hear them again.) And oddly, the congregation didn't seem to be singing much. But they did applaud a little after the boppin', after a "Praise the Lord!" urging from the Worship Pastor. Oh, and the offertory was sung while standing, using words on the screens, which was different, but it was helpful to be standing already when I had to walk down the pew to pass the plate.

There were a lot of kids, which is usually a good sign of a family-friendly place. I bet they have a lovely playground. Only a handful of itty bitties came forward for the children's message, though. Maybe it's limited to preschoolers so as not to overwhelm the speaker with squirmers.

During the pastoral prayer, some folks came up front and kneeled, and there were a few upraised hands during songs, so some of the congregants embrace a more participatory worship style. The pastor seems to be a nice old man (with a booming voice - a bit like a televangelist), but it's hard to tell much else from one sermon. He had props: plaid shorts and a shirt that, apparently, he wears during his downtime at home. There wasn't a scripture reading before the sermon; it was integrated into his 35-minute message. I was impressed that he hardly looked at his notes the whole time. I got tired of his yelling style of speaking and didn't get the main idea of the sermon other than to take joy in God - a nice reminder, but not helpful in evaluating the church's position on much of anything. He did say that, 9 out of 10 times, the answer to anything is in the Bible, and I got the impression that First Baptist is a little more literal on the Scriptures than I believe is appropriate.

I just want to say that 35 minutes is too long for a sermon. I learned in engineering school that most people have an attention span of up to 25 minutes, but even that has to be broken up somewhat. The service at First Baptist began at 10:45, which we figured was so they'd get out before the Presbyterians down the street and snag the best tables at Applebee's. But no. They begin at 10:45 so they can have an extra 15 minutes and still end a little past noon.

Sorry for all the complaining, but one of my pet peeves is when a pastor cuts off the invitational hymn after a verse or two because nobody has come forward. The bulletin indicated we'd be singing two hymns during "A Time to Decide," and after he cut us off during the first one, he made a comment about not wanting to draw it out and force anyone to make a decision. I respect that. And although I was ready for the service to be over, it seems like cheating to cut out music like that. It's as if he wanted a few more minutes of yell-preaching and made an on-the-fly executive decision to remove some music. What if I had been looking forward to singing "Satisfied with Jesus"?

One final personal complaint: First Baptist uses altogether too much Comic Sans. Not in the bulletin (thankfully), but on the screens and the web site. I know I sound like a diva, but come on, it's Comic Sans.

The pastor's name is Lindsay. The back of the bulletin has an invitation for guests to "meet Lindsay in the parlor to receive your gift for visiting us today." Small problem: Guests do not know where the parlor is. This is, as I have said, a large church. There are multiple buildings. I wasn't sure I needed my gift, but Amanda is a sucker for a freebie, and I was somewhat interested, so we looked around for a while before giving up. We did get a nice e-mail from one of the pastors with info about a home group Bible study for young adults and a college-age Sunday School class. And we're on their e-mail/mailing list for a six-month free trial period. (Thanks, torn-off part of bulletin!)

The church's vision is "Love God, Love Others, Serve Both," which is included on a lot of its materials. I like this vision; it's well-focused and valuable for keeping such a large congregation centered. In principle, it has its priorities straight, and I think First Baptist is making a positive contribution to Charlottesville. But overall, Amanda and I agreed that it's not the place we were looking for.

If I thought I had a substantial number of people reading all the way to the end of this, I'd ask for a vote of which church we should visit next. Maybe next time.

Escaping Greensboro

2009-08-17T07:09:00.004-05:00

[I made the following post a while ago on the facebook. I am now copying it here for continuity's sake, with some edits to avoid full names.]

Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 9:51pm

It seems more difficult than it should be for Amanda and me to "escape" from Greensboro and North Carolina in general. We keep getting pesky reminders that it still exists, that there's still a church there with a lot of people that we miss.

For example, we just received our first checkbook from the UVA Community Credit Union. The checks have lovely photos of Charlottesville landmarks... and they came to us straight from the manufacturing/distribution facility in Greensboro. Then there's furniture. Now that we're not planning to move in the next couple years, we're ready to move beyond the futon and the plastic nightstand. But the furniture store taunts us with "Carolina Prices." And we bought something, I don't remember what, that had a label from Boone, of all places. Boone! And just today, in church, they announced a quick overnight mission trip to lovely Charlotte for the purpose of packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

The freakiest thing is that our church has some missionaries visiting next Wednesday for a world-missions focus. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionaries. Missionaries to Hungary. Missionaries who we don't really know but who were celebrities from our church in Greensboro. I am hoping that they'll bring some people we do know "on tour" with them as roadies.

Isn't it enough that I have to pretend MSU is giving the sermon, instead of our dear TEL, in order to pay attention? Isn't it enough that I wish BTM would play "Jesus Loves Me" on the organ before and after the children's sermon? Or that I want the ushers to stop passing the offering plate across the whole row? Or that I really wish we could have the closing hymn without a spoken invitation every time?

Sheesh. I want to copy and paste my past into my present.

More on Churches (not Moron Churches)

2009-08-15T07:22:00.013-05:00

Looking back on the few entries I have made here, they mostly address church and work. Those are two big parts of my life, and this post begins another mini-series about churches.

I'm a little sad that I didn't blog much about church when Amanda and I lived in Greensboro, because now we really miss the church we had there.

It's not like everything there was perfect. In fact, when I rediscovered this blog site of mine, I had an unfinished entry (it was barely started, actually - just a title) about how I was not in support of that church leveling a historic house for a few more parking spaces. But it was a place where both Amanda and I felt welcomed and included, and where we grew in our faith. So we miss being there.

Kinda like we missed our old church in Charlottesville after we moved to Chapel Hill. And now we've been back in Charlottesville for 10 months, attending University Baptist Church, the church we used to miss, where we were married. So all is right with the world, yes?

Except we've changed... We began our married life in Chapel Hill, moved to Carrboro, then moved to Greensboro. We church-hopped in Chapel Hill, settled on a militantly liberal church that didn't ever feel quite right, then moved to Greensboro and visited only two churches before finding one that was basically perfect. We changed through our life experiences.

...And our church in Charlottesville hasn't. That's one of the comforting things about it: each Sunday, the order of worship is strikingly the same, the offertory is done the same way, Communion never varies. This consistent nature is one thing I love about how the music is done there: for each hymn, the organist plays a full verse as an introduction, the congregation stands on the last stanza of the introduction, the first and last verses are in unison, and any middle verses are in parts. Once you learn the routine, it makes it easy to worship without worrying about doing something wrong. It is still a moderate church with a traditional style.

But maybe a church needs to change a little.

I'm not sure what change is needed. Maybe the leadership retreat (termed an "advance") will figure that out, and I look forward to hearing its findings. But it just doesn't feel quite right anymore.

As a result, at the risk of offending people there, which I really do not want to do, Amanda and are checking out some other churches in our city. When I started at UVA, I did that. I visited the big church, the hokey church, the black church, and others before settling on UBC. Having grown up nearby, Amanda has pretty much only been to her home church and this one.

Visiting elsewhere might simply end up making us feel sure that we should stay at UBC. Perhaps seeing other places will help us appreciate the qualities that made it ideal for my college years. Or perhaps we'll find someplace else that feels right. If that happens, it will be sad to leave, but a church should help with spiritual growth, and if that's not happening, it's not the right place.

Timing is also important. It would be even more troublesome to be church-shopping if we already had kids who were "established" at a church. So it looks like we've got until February to figure something out!

But still, we're somewhat invested at UBC. I sing in the choir and got nominated to serve on the Transportation committee.

In the end, we enjoy tossing the blame for this experience on the pastor at our church in Greensboro. He helped us see how a church could welcome us and help us grow spiritually and, as a result, raised the bar a bit for future - and past - religious experiences.

Hello, blog!

2009-08-15T07:14:00.003-05:00

I kind of lost track of this blog for, you know, a couple years. But I recently had need of writing, so I found it and will try to put my thoughts here a little more frequently than before. Maybe I'll go back and make some edits, too. Just in case I become famous.

For now, think on this, something I wrote here in May 2006 and just rediscovered:
"I mean, I tend to lean a little more towards the liberal side than Amanda does, so I can't see myself being happy in a very conservative/ evangelical/ fundamentalist church, but I don't want to force her to attend a church where she doesn't feel at home. Neither do I want for us to end up attending separate churches."

More to come...

a king and a kingdom

2006-11-16T21:49:00.001-05:00

"my first allegiance
is not to the flag,
a country,
or a man.

my first allegiance
is not to democracy
or blood.
it's to a king and a kingdom."
-derek webb, who is giving away his most recent album for free.

It's nice to hear some songs that have quotable, relevant lyrics, but this album has so many of them that it starts to stress me out - I can't type them all in, and even if I did, it doesn't read the same as it sounds. So just go download it for yourself. I think Derek Webb would be a good person to have coffee with, if I were the type to have coffee with people over intelligent conversation.

I don't want to get into the "What would Derek Webb do" thing, but I do kinda wonder how the lyrics would go to a song about the recent events of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. Enacting "one of the most rigid anti-gay policies among the nation's Christian churches," complete with the threat of deploying investigative teams to determine whether churches are affirming or approving of homosexuals, really seems wrong to me.

There's something about trying to stay in our comfortable little bubbles and minister only to those like us that makes me sad. Isn't there something wrong with telling local churches that they cannot choose how best to carry out the task of ministry? Local church autonomy is one of the historic Baptist principles that I find very important. Yes, it also applies to associations of Baptists, so the NC Baptists are free to make their own choices, and this decision was made by a democratic vote. But there's so much politics and so little spirituality. Others have said it more eloquently, but I'll add my voice to the refrain.

Two problems stand out: (1) the simple point of not being willing to minister to those who are different, and (2) the absurdity of pursuing this issue when so many others should take precedence. College Park Baptist disagrees with NC Baptists on the former, and First Baptist Greensboro disagrees on the latter, yet enough people didn't disagree with either that the resolution passed. And how many of those who voted for exclusion had really thought about it and discussed it? How many were like the Christian in another Derek Webb song:
"Don't teach me about
politics and government.
Just tell me who to vote for.
...
Don't teach me how
to live like a free man.
Just give me a new law.
...
Don't teach me about
moderation or liberty.
I prefer a shot of grape juice.

Don't teach me about
loving my enemies.

Don't teach me how
to listen to the Spirit.
Just give me a new law..."

my celebrity look-alikes

2006-11-14T19:39:00.000-05:00

Because this is apparently now the cool thing to do, here you go.

I am not familiar with Ms. Leigh, Ms. Clark, or Mr. Padalecki.

Before you start getting too excited about this, remember that some people just don't care (warning: contains foul and offensive language).

Buses and bikes

2006-11-05T16:31:00.001-05:00

Ah, the joys of a chilly Sunday afternoon in fall 2006: watching a car race while blogging. It's the perfect way to make sure you don't miss something exciting without feeling like you've spent the whole afternoon losing brain cells. Today: two of my favorite things, buses and bikes.

Item 1: Buses.
Following up on my last post, which was admittedly a long time ago, we at the Greensboro Urban Area MPO have been working hard to think of how to get folks involved in stuff they generally wouldn't care about otherwise. My favorite possibility: using a bus as a mobile meeting room! At first, it might sound farfetched to some, but they do it in Fayetteville and my co-workers are actually considering it seriously. We were thinking about having a meeting at the mall to grab some extra attention, and we might still do that, but the mall might charge money. With a mobile meeting room, you can set up in most any parking lot or on most any street corner. Or we could drive all around the city honking the horn and getting people to come outside and see what's up. I mean, what could be more convenient? Instead of trying to get folks to come to an open house, we bring the open house to them! -- dang it, I was so excited about the possibility of driving a bus that I missed Jeff Burton crashing into the wall after blowing a tire. -- Anyway, I'm hoping this will work out and that I'll get to drive our mobile meeting bus.

More bus excitement:
I had a meeting on Thursday at Greensboro Transit Authority and got to go on a tour of the admin building and bus lot afterwards. It just so happened that they received a brand-new low-floor Gillig the day before, and we got to go check it out. I think it's GTA's first low-floor bus, and I think it's their first Gillig since the mid-'90s, when they were buying Phantoms.

I sat in the driver's seat and wished.

It had the same steering wheel and driver's seat as the Gilligs at UTS, and the four-way flasher had the big plastic red switch extension that our new Gilligs had. The transmission pad was different, and a lot of the controls were arranged differently. The destination sign control was above the driver's window instead of above the windshield, probably because the low-floor design makes the windshield really big. Anyway, that was exciting.

Item 2: Bikes.
Sometime I should probably write more about College Park, the church we attend now. A few weeks ago, we went out to dinner with the pastor and his wife, and in my babbling, I mentioned something about getting a bike rack at the church. Expecting the typical response of, "Oh, that's interesting, but we probably want to put our resources elsewhere," I was surprised to hear him say that he'd like to have one installed. I followed up this week with the possibility of a custom-designed functional art piece, which might cost a little more than a standard bike rack but could add a little something special to the church grounds, even for people who drive everywhere. He asked me to look into that a little more, so I'm checking with a local artist who specializes in "functional sculpture." So that's pretty exciting. We'll see if anything comes of it.

In other news, I'm going to an organ concert tonight, which should be cool. I've got a meeting/mini-conference in Raleigh on Thursday, and I signed up for a Habitat build next Saturday. I'm still trying to get rid of these hockey tickets I have for next Saturday's Hurricanes vs. Penguins game in the evening... if I have no luck by then, we might go to the game, but I really think I'd rather have pizza night here. Does that make me old and boring?

I'm missing C'ville but enjoying Greensboro too.

Participating the (BiPed) Public

2006-09-03T11:17:00.000-05:00

How do you get people to care?

That's what I'm wondering right now. At work recently, I've been looking at the MPO's Public Involvement Plan and considering some changes, and I went to a(nother) class in Raleigh called Innovations in Public Involvement. I was hoping it would tell me how you get people to care, because that is the basic goal. But I was kinda disappointed. We've also just released the Greensboro Urban Area Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Greenway Master Plan for public review and are having a walk-in open house about it on Sep. 12, so I'm thinking of ways to get people to care about that specifically.

Government is doing all kinds of stuff. A lot of people think that government isn't doing squat and that all they get for their taxes is trash pickup, but then when they're given a chance to see what government is doing, they don't have time/take time/care. The truth is, most everyone in Greensboro has a stake in this gigantic BiPed Plan, whether they're interested in

walking or bicycling for transportation,
driving on roads where bikers and walkers have their own space and aren't "in the way" as much,
traffic congestion,
ped/bike safety,
getting exercise on nearby off-road greenways,
sustainability/environmental-friendliness/improved air quality,
attracting the "creative class" and businesses that employ them, or
real estate values.

Some people will like what's in the plan, and some won't. That's the whole point: to hear the public's varied opinions. But how do you get people to care? The class I took showed us all these shiny techno-tools, such as blogs -- we spent at least an hour going over what a blog was and how to create one for your MPO. But not everyone has the Internet, and even fewer are searching for blogs on metropolitan transportation planning. So we also spent a few minutes talking about old-fashioned techniques involving going door-to-door. But that's simply not a practical approach for a region-wide planning document, since someone would have to knock on hundreds of thousands of doors.

I am hopeful that our standard approach of putting the document at various locations around the City and on the Web will work to draw folks to the open house. And I guess it's not that big a deal if nobody reviews the plan, because I have reviewed it and I thought it was OK, but it sure would be nice if a whole lot of people got involved and said Yes, we want Greensboro and its surrounding areas to improve walking and bicycling conditions. Without that citizen buy-in, it may be difficult to get to full implementation (read: actually getting things built costs more DOLLAR$) on the hundreds of miles of bike lanes, sidewalks, and greenways proposed in the plan. Nevertheless, I am optimistic that this is one plan that won't just sit on the shelf -- some of its recommendations have already been implemented, and the plan hasn't even been adopted.

Interesting sidenote: the Blogger.com spell-checker does not recognize the words blog and blogs.

First business trip

2006-08-28T18:53:00.000-05:00

Last week, I went on my first business trip, a titillating two-day class in Raleigh from the Federal Highway Administration about highway financing. Although I'm mostly interested in transit and ped/bike issues, there were some interesting points made, and now I know the 4 A's (Authorization, Apportionment, Appropriation, and Allocation) and all about how the federal "money" process works.

It's incredibly complicated.

"Money" is in quotes because, for most of the process, the amounts of money discussed are only theoretical or on paper. In reality, states will never receive the amounts of "money" that federal legislation authorizes. In reality, the number all the newspapers published when the new legislation passed (SAFETEA-LU -- acronyms are key if you're in Congress*), the amount the Feds were gonna spend on transportation for the next five years, is just for show. That's the "authorized" level, but then the government puts an Obligation Limitation on its spending, meaning that they'll only dish out a certain amount of money. The Ob Limit is what actually gets divided among the states, and it doesn't necessarily have to resemble the authorized levels of spending. Meanwhile, the states are "authorized" to spend more and more each year, while usually getting less and less, so on paper, NCDOT has billions of dollars in "extra" federal authorization for transportation, but in reality, it is sitting on the street corner with a sign saying "Will Work for Highways."

The Fake But Shiny Authorization Amount actually reminds me of something Amanda told me about child assessments. You know those people who brag about their 1st-grader who tested at a 5th-grade level? Are you one of them? It sure sounds like Bobby, 1st grade, took a test with the 5th-graders and passed. But apparently, we've all been a little deceived. Say Bobby takes a test and it says he's at a 5th-grade level. It doesn't mean that he'll have to go to the middle school library during lunch next year. What it actually means is that if Joey, a typical 5th grader, took the 1st grade test, he'd score what Bobby scored. So to say that Bobby could do fine in 5th grade and should skip the best years of elementary school is not exactly correct. Yes, he is ahead of the typical 1st grader, but the reality is that he simply scored as well on a 1st grade test as an older kid would have scored. He might flunk a 5th grade test.

Anyway, I got to drive a Greensboro city car to Raleigh and spend the night at a hotel, which was exciting but weird - I don't know if I've ever stayed in a hotel by myself before. And it was across the street from a historic Raleigh neighborhood that I saw pictures of last spring in my historic preservation class, so I went for a walk there and got somewhat lost but ended up at Cameron Village, Raleigh's own car-oriented-but-spiffy outdoor shopping center, where I had a salad at the Cafe Carolina Bakery. I have already discussed the salad with Amanda enough to make her salivate (or sick)... suffice it to say that it was tasty.

The next morning, we finished up the class, so now I know all about the scary, political way we assign funds to our transportation system in this country. At the end, we took a quiz to see how much we learned. I think I passed - after all, I tested at a fifth-year employee level, and it's just my first month. Maybe they should promote me to fifth year and give me a bonus.
;-)

*Extra points if you already knew where the LU really comes from... The full acronym is "Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users." Although some have claimed that the LU should really be "Likely Unfunded," there is an even sillier reason it is included: influential House Transportation Committee chair Don Young (R-Alaska), who has become legendary for the huge amounts of transportation money he channels to his home state for projects that some say are wasteful, is married. His wife's name? Lu. Hey, if he gets to pass a law naming a bridge "Don Young's Way," then his wife is probably gonna feel pretty jealous without a piece of landmark legislation bearing her name as a suffix.

Job job job

2006-08-12T10:53:00.000-05:00

I've had a real job for like two weeks now!

And I'm enjoying it so far, although I've mostly just been reading stuff and getting orientatated. (I have another full-day employee orientation this Friday). The Planning Division of the Greensboro Department of Transportation seems to be a good place to work, and I work with a good bunch of folks.* So far, I've read the 2030 Long Range Transportation Plan, the upcoming Bicycle, Pedestrian and Greenways Plan, the Mobility Greensboro Public Transportation Master Plan, and part of the titillating federal legislation regarding MPOs.

What exactly is my job, you ask? That is a wonderful question, and one I hope to answer for myself in the next 8 months or so. If I don't know what I'm doing by then, we might have to figure out another arrangement. Like driving buses. Anyway, my job title is MPO Transportation Planner. Every urbanized area of the U.S. has a Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is the conglomeration of staff and decision-makers who do the regional transportation plans. There are a lot of boring federal requirements involved, but the basic idea is that federal and state transportation dollars flow to localities through the MPOs. So part of my job is providing administrative and staff support to the decision-makers on the Greensboro Urban Area MPO's Transportation Advisory Committee... As in, I bring the coffee to the meetings, tell an intern to type up the minutes, and study whatever the decision-makers ask me to study. The MPO is not technically an arm of the city, because it is supposed to support the whole "urban area," including the city and a few small towns and unincorporated parts of the county, but the city is the lead planning agency for the MPO, meaning that its staff do the work for the MPO.

The other part of my job is working on transportation planning and implementation projects for the city. Judging from the list of files that I'm supposed to find and bring to my office/cubicle, I'll have primary responsibility for transit stuff, which is cool. Except that the city's transit administration is a separate division of GDOT and has three transportation/transit planners listed on its staff. I guess if they don't feel like performing actual transit planning, I'll work on it. And so far, I've gotten the chance to make some comments on the gigantic bike/ped/greenways plan, which is apparently one of the most ambitious in the state.

Another thing I do is go to meetings, conferences, and training. Call me young and idealistic, but I think these things are kind of fun. They're like field trips! I'm already signed up for a three-day conference in Charlotte and a two-day training in Raleigh, both of which will involve hotel stays that the City will pay for. And yesterday, I got to go to a meeting in historic Salisbury to meet other folks who work with MPOs across the state. I didn't understand a thing they were talking about, but I got to drive a City van there and eat lunch, which the City will also pay for.

So it's going well. I bike to work every day and get to explore downtown during my lunch hour. I got a free bus pass instead of paying for parking. Of course, the one time I tried to ride the bus, it was 10 minutes late and I ended up grabbing my bike instead, but I'll give it another shot sometime. Because while I'm trying to do my part to make things better here, I have to work with what we have like everyone else.

*This is true, but I'd probably have to write that anyway even if it weren't, because who knows who could stumble upon this blog?

church rant (postscript)

2006-06-14T22:41:00.001-05:00

Interestingly, the Sunday after I wrote the Liberal Churches Rant (below), we happened to run into Binkley's pastor at lunch after church. Feeling a little guilty about being a hateful blog-ranter, I got nervous when he came over to our table to chat, but as always, he was warm, welcoming, and friendly. Try not to be too critical, Peter! We mentioned our plans to move to Greensboro, among other things; after a while, he left and went to his table, and I calmed down a little.

When we left, though, we stopped by his table to chat some more. It was then that he asked us to be worship leaders. One of the Binkley mantras is "every member a minister," and we're not even members, but we still got invited to lead a responsive reading, read scripture, and do prayers. So this past Sunday, Amanda and I were Binkley worship leaders for the first and last time.

After the service, we went to the Fellowship Hall to shake hands with everyone, as we had been asked to do. Coincidentally, it was the pastor's 10-year anniversary celebration, so the receiving line went a little slower than usual. OK, a lot slower - we stood there for 45 minutes shaking hands, making nervous small talk, and staring blankly at people as they waited to speak to other, more interesting/important people down the line. (This was also a scary thing for us because we usually skip the receiving line after worship.)

On the whole, people were very nice and welcoming, and many of them asked us our names and if we had just joined the church. It got to be kind of fun to tell them that no, we'd been there for two years and were about to leave, and wasn't it a shame that they hadn't gotten to know us yet.* One woman asked if we were in high school. Another was completely sure that we had a young child. The craziest thing was that I met an alumnus of my planning program -- he's a big shot transportation planner for Arlington, but he was down in Chapel Hill visiting. So I did get some networking out of the event.

We're looking forward to moving to Greensboro, but it will be sad to leave Carrboro. If you love lifting boxes, come help us move!

*I don't think we ever actually said that last bit.

Liberal Churches Rant

2006-05-27T15:52:00.001-05:00

For most of the time we've been in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, Amanda and I have been attending Binkley (officially The Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church). To put it mildly, it is progressive (a Duke Divinity student called it "the crazy liberal Baptist church"). Binkley has been quite a change from the more moderate congregations we've experienced in the past. It was created in the Civil Rights era as a place where blacks and whites could worship God together, overcoming the bitter division of other Southern congregations, and since that time it has made a point of being at the forefront of equality and social justice. A huge portion of its budget is split up among dozens of humanitarian organizations. All text and hymns are gender-neutral and politically correct. And as a "welcoming and affirming" church, it aims to be inclusive of all, regardless of race or sexual orientation. One of the precious darlings in the preschool Sunday School (er, Church School) class that Amanda taught has two mommies.

So is it really welcoming? Sure, as long as you're a well-educated liberal Democrat.

That's what has bothered me most about being at Binkley. Two years ago, after leaving University Baptist in Charlottesville (where I am proud to remain a member), I was ready to find a church in Chapel Hill that had absolutely no ties to the demonic Southern Baptist Convention but that also didn't rely on PowerPoint and a praise band for worship. Binkley does fit those requirements - it was sort of kicked out of the SBC in the early 1990s - but Amanda and I don't fit its requirements quite as well. The church doesn't have any official statement that all members must be registered Democrats, but it might as well. The ministerial staff members are great, and I don't think I've ever heard a sermon that explicitly endorsed a political candidate, but discussions in Church School classes and elsewhere make it quite clear what type of person is not welcome at Binkley. If you aren't well-versed in philosophy, history, and theology, you won't understand a lot of what goes on in Church School. If you aren't a liberal Democrat, you'll find it uncomfortable to laugh at jokes about conservatives and middling moderates.

It reminds me of being back at UVA, where you couldn't have a discussion with another student without the conversation turning to which adult alcoholic beverages were the best. For those of us who chose not to drink, it was a bit lonely. I think that's how Amanda has felt sometimes at Binkley. I guess you could also say that we've felt overlooked - we have been there for nearly two years, and we've been involved in handbells and teaching the kids this year, but still, people walk past us in the hallways and refuse to say hello, give a friendly nod, or make eye contact. Perhaps they are focused on the day's social justice task, or perhaps a young white heterosexual couple is simply of no use to them. Some parents of the kids in Amanda's class don't know her name. This is by no means representative of everyone; there are some awesome people at Binkley who we've gotten to know fairly well, most everyone is friendly once you know them, and as I said before, the ministers are great. But it isn't welcoming. Sometimes, it seems more like a social justice army than a faith community.

We're moving to Greensboro in less than a month, and it will be time to find a new church. Many of the more friendly Binkley folks have noted that we might not find a church like Binkley in Greensboro (I have avoided the temptation to say, "Yes, thank God.") and have asked if we'll commute to Chapel Hill on Sundays. Not so much. I mean, I tend to lean a little more towards the liberal side than Amanda does, so I can't see myself being happy in a very conservative/ evangelical/ fundamentalist church, but I don't want to force her to attend a church where she doesn't feel at home. Neither do I want for us to end up attending separate churches.

The solution: in Greensboro, we must find a moderate church that really does welcome people like us. I heard an NPR podcast recently with an interview of the retiring Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in D.C. who had been a staunch advocate for a moderate position for the Catholic church. When I heard it, I realized that, despite my general sympathy for liberal views and my problems with fundamentalist positions, I identify most with the middle. That's okay with me, and I need to find a church where that's okay too. I close with a quote from that interview (please excuse me if the Latin is incorrect).

"There's a great line from the old fathers of the Church: 'In medios dat viritus - In the middle is virtue.'
And some people are going to say, you know, that's mediocrity; it's not. It's real courage to be able to stay in the middle and resist the extremes."
- Cardinal Theodore McCarrick

Interviews

2006-05-23T19:45:00.000-05:00

Today's big excitement was that I had another job interview. It was a phone interview, and I think it went well. I actually prepared a little more for this one than for the in-person one I had last Monday, which could be part of the reason why it went well, or it could be that I had the ability to drink water during the interview and that it didn't last for two hours.

I also followed some of the instructions on my handy-dandy Interview Overview from the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. Yes, the Department of City and Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill brings in a career services person from Duke. It sounds weird, but she's an alumna of our department and just works at Duke. I managed to find the handout last night while trying to purge my files in preparation for our move, and it has a section about telephone interviews! I dressed up in my suit, as I would have for an in-person interview, and set up a chair to represent the interviewer. It was sort of silly.

AND I found out why I got the technology award. It was for my work as a TA of the Development Impact Assessment class, back in second semester of first year. The professor admitted that he nominated me, and it was good that he admitted it, because I was quite mystified. It was nice of him to do that, though; the "awards" section of my resume had been a little thin.

Award-Winning

2006-05-20T22:02:00.000-05:00

At the close of one chapter of my life - my education - I have begun another - blogging.

My master's degree is now six days old. About a week ago, the 'rents and my wife Amanda and I went to my department's ceremony for the graduates. It was pretty nice, at least for those of us who loaded up our plates with "refreshments" before they ran out. (Honestly, if you're having an event from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m., do you expect people not to turn "refreshments" into "dinner"?) Entertaining speakers, fancy clothes, and even some awards. One of which was given to me. The first one.

If anyone has any information about why I received the Egan Award for the Outstanding Application of Information Technology, please do share it. I guess I'll discuss this more some other time, because it's bedtime.