The Things That You Need to Do

Well, in case you didn’t notice, last week was not easy for us. There were other stressors during the week that shan’t appear in writing and things that will remain unsaid to the world that made the week unpleasant, to say the least.

There were also small little victories and pieces of life that looked shockingly normal in the middle of a lot of chaos. The dishes got cleaned and some bills got paid (including the giant one that lets Jud keep taking classes). The laundry is now clean, although the bathtub is not. Our friends moved down and our church involvement has gone up. In short, life is still moving.

I’m just a little less inclined to write to you about all of it as something makes me hesitate when I think about putting words to our life over the past few days. I think I’m just holding my cards a little closer to my chest right now but I know that I still need to play them one at a time.

So, I’ll lay a few down, but then you’ll have to promise to play too.

Jud helped Jeremy & Rachel move in on Friday. They rolled all of their earthly possessions past hot stinking rotting garbage that made the bile come up in Jud’s throat once or twice. He told me that he imagined me there, freaking out about the stink. He was right to imagine my tantrum. I would’ve pitched a fit about one hundred degree trash juice.

We had supper with an old school Omaha crowd that night – Jeremy, Rachel, Greg, Michelle and Laramie and then I got to see Jeremy & Rachel’s new place. It’s very cute with nice high ceilings and a dishwasher, so you know I’m jealous. Although every apartment door had some sort of children’s mark on it as we walked through the hallway, including one with an ultrasound print out and caption that read “Shh, I’m gestating.” The Baby Factory, it is in business.

Saturday we slept late and made our way to Cafe Brazil for brunch (if you can call 1pm brunch, which of course you can’t, but you are missing the point. I ate french toast and fruit while Jud had steak quesadillas…in the same restaurant! That, my friends, is brunch).

Jud worked on his chart for Romans 1-8, eventually finished it and submitted his work online. He should write a post about how one of the guys in his class is biting off of him and just blatantly stealing his concepts, albeit poorly. It very much reminds me of the square paintings I once saw a foolish art student at UNL attempt to rip off (The originals were magnificent, by the way, especially when they hung on mutual apartment walls later). Here’s the rule of thumb when stealing people’s ideas: Improve upon them and make them your own. I know Qoheleth’s words, so it’s not like the original is truly unique in all aspects, but when in the same institution as the originator, it would probably be best if you weren’t creating the poor man’s version (or more appropriately, the less talented man’s version) of someone else’s work. If you like what they are doing, take the parts you like and add them to your own work in a unique way. Stop stealing.

Sunday dawned bright and early and Jeremy & Rachel met us at our church. Our pastor is on sabbatical for now and so an elder preached. The final tear count was 6.5, which by any standard is just too high. He’s going to need to ration those things. J & R came to our place for lunch and we made our own calzones and then ate some cake. Chocolate cake. Green frosting. It looked minty but was deceptively not. The rest of the day held swimming with church friends and tying up our weekend with a big piece of twine.

And now? Now I call your bluff.