Best Buy in the Morning... Early Morning [return]
Minnesota Update #9
Jul 19, 2005
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PREFACE Well. I'd like to say this has been 8 months in the making. While the events below span that time, it's really down to my inability to sit down and craft this update. This this is a monster. Longest webpage ever. Make a cup of Earl Grey tea, sit down and enjoy Update #9. By the time you're done reading it, Update 10 will probably be ready :) |
NOVEMBER 26, 2004:
STUFF DAY
In the US, the day after Thanksgiving is likened to our Canadian Boxing Day. There is no special celebration, no reflection on the holiday past, simply a chance to join the maddening frenzy of early morning risers, desperately trying to get that hard-to-beat sale price.
Since this was my first ever time celebrating an American Thanksgiving, I figured it would only be suitable to really experience it all completely.
So, I made plans with my bros-in-law (Stephen and Jonathan) to wake up early and get to none other than Best Buy when the doors opened. One thing that particularly amazed me was the fact that stores opened early. I mean early, early. The doors to Best Buy opened at 6am. I later learned that some stores even opened as early as 5am. Now that's insane.
Best Buy in the Morning... Early Morning
When the three of us poured out of the van at Best Buy around 5:45, there was a lineup that strung around the corner, down the street and reaching into the nearby McDonald's parking lot.
Regardless, we were able to get into the store in the first rush. Actually, I'm sure Management disregarded any sort of safety or fire codes and simply poured anyone and everyone into their small-ish store. When getting inside, not only were there hundreds of rebate-related sales, but you also got a free photocopy of the store layout indicating the path the checkout lines would take and which aisles had been barricaded off for crowd control.
My only purchase there was a CD player for the car. Looking back, however, I'm not convinced it was even on sale that day, but boy was it fun.
From there, us three muskateers went to Office Max. Our scheduling and planning was impecible, because we parked the car and stood once again in line only 5 minutes befor the doors opened at 7am. During our short wait, we were each given a coupon for a free McDonald's coffee. Free stuff rocks.
As the wave of consumers entered the building, you could see some running across the store to get to who knows what. Probably 8 duotangs for a buck.
EDITORIAL NOTE: A few months ago, I went to Office Max to get myself a few trusty duotangs. After searching high and low, I was told that they were on the clearance shelf, because they weren't being made anymore...? That doesn't make any sense to me. They're possibly the greatest binding apparatus ever designed (besides the paperclip, I guess). Instead of the simple duotang, there's only fancy-pants, over-the-top binding porfolios with translucent covers and snap on bindings. Crazy!!!
Back to the story: our mission here was to get 3 executive leather office chairs (complete with adjustable hieght, 360 degree spin action, wheelies and a high back that makes for total kung-po action!). They were "apparently" $100 normally, discounted to $70 with a $20 instant rebate and a $30 mail in rebate, giving us this action-packed chair for only $20. CRAAAAZY!!!
So, we got the chairs, and lugged them into the van. Since the sun still hadn't risen yet, we felt like theives, villians, and con-artists. Which is a nice segue to the next part of our adventure. Sort of. Not really.
As we departed, we took our new-found treasure of the free coffee coupons to the McD's drive through. As we placed our order, we asked if we could get three hot chocolates instead of coffee. We were put on hold at the pickup counter when we triumphantly presented our coupons. Apparently we were the first ones to redeem said coupons because she stared blankly at them. Off she went to check with her manager. I can certainly understand because the cost difference of free hot chocolate to free coffee must be pushing close to 10 cents a cup.
Our boyish charm must have been the deciding factor because, in the end, we received three freshly brewed cups of hot chocolate and sipped them carefully (CAUTION: CONTENTS ARE HOT) as we drove into the almost rising sun...
...to our next stop.
EDITORIAL NOTE: Wow, this story's long.
At Southdale mall, our goal was 2-fold. First, I wanted to go to Marshall Fields to pick up some stuff for the home that was on sale and secondly, for my birthday Stephen and Jonathan were going to get me a new pair of pants.
Since we arrived at the mall before the small stores opened, we made Marshall Field's our first stop. Along the way, we eventually concluded that since the day after Christmas had a name in Canada (Boxing Day), the day after Thanksgiving needed a name. So, with much thought, we decided to call it Stuff Day. The only thing else we needed was a tag line.
As I stood in line to purchase our cookware and bed sheets, our wish came true. Next to me an exasperated woman hurriedly placed a large duvet on the checkout counter. As the clerk began to run it through, she asked the employee if the price was actually $20. "It's $20? I don't have to buy a certain amount to get the sale price?". The clerk ran through the item and it indeed came up as $20. "Nope. It's just on sale." The woman was happy. As she was taking out her credit card she said: "Wow. I don't need it, but I can't pass it up." And there was our tag line:
STUFF DAY
"I don't need it, but I can't pass it up."
After Mashall Fields, it was time to get me dressed up. We initially went to Express as it first opened. They're big sale was a free cashmere scarf with any purchase. We worked very hard to find some clothing there, but it was difficult. We had to have that sweater it seemed. Can you really blame us? I mean, really, just take a look at Stuff Day's new motto.
We then went back to Marshall Fields and eventually discovered that a new pair of slacks would be much more beneficial than a new shirt for me. After trying on numerous articles, we found what we were looking for - and we were free to move on!
And so we did. The remainder of our adventure took us to only 2 more locations who's stories include nothing new to the continual onslaught of lineups and crowds and as such, will not be mentioned here. Regardless, I had a great time hanging out and bonding with my new bros-in-law. We had ourselves a tiring adventure.
When I got home around 11am, I found that the apartment's electrician was there to change out all our outlets. The guys who visited know just how horrible the old ones were. During the renos, they were all supposed to be changed out. Well, now they're all new and work like a charm.
Also, here's an announcer blooper from the Thanksgiving Day Parade that some of you may get:
DECEMBER 3-5, 2004
SILENT 'P' NEUMA
The Upper Room have been planning a retreat for quite some time. It was actually our first retreat, so for us we were breaking new ground. I saw us, but I really mean the others at work. I had very little to do with the planning stages as everyone else did such a great job. Regardless, the weekend of 12-03-04 was going to be called: Pneuma. If I had internet access where I'm writing this, I'd look up what Pneuma meant. Since I'm a guy, however, I'm going to do what most guys do when faced with something they don't know: make up an answer
* . Pneuma in some language means refreshing, or something.* I could tell you why this is, but I don't really know much about it. But it is a scientifically studied fact. Rather than me making up an answer about a study on making up answers, I'll let you email
Connor with your questions.Since it was our first retreat undertaking, we had a hard time trying to get the minimum number of people to sign up. Even with guest speaker Brennan Manning, there were concerns in our community about the cost of the retreat, and the timing with it being so close to Christmas.
In the week leading up to the retreat, we had a burst of interest and ended up with a little more than the minimum of people required. Not only did God bless us with that, but he was also present in the weekend as a whole. Sarah and I were going as an opportunity to not only get away and relax and be together, but also to meet more people in the Upper Room. What was particularly cool about the retreat was that there were a wide spectrum of people in our community. From those who are heavily involved to even people who knew no one on the retreat! That's so cool. Imagine going away for a weekend without knowing a single person. I'd be terrified, but some people had more courage than I. There were even people who had never even known about the Upper Room, but found out about the retreat from Mr. Manning's website.
The retreat center was a really nice facility. I couldn't really describe it very well, other than to say it was kind of like an old Victorian home with many seamless additions to is making it an impressive labrynth of rooms, corridors and hallways. The food, facilities and people were great. Because we had more people than expected, a few of us married couples (including Sarah and I) were put up in an AmericInn just down the hallway. It worked out fine, since we were only there for two nights and hardly in our rooms. I had not complaints, other than the pillows were incredibly lumpy. I must have extra nerve sensors in my big head, because Sarah didn't seem to mind as much.
Brennan Manning, even in his elder years is an incredibly powerful speaker. We were able to hear him speak on 5 separate occasions which was really a treat, plus gave us more than enough to think upon. His thoughts on us living our lives loving God like children is a very deep and profound topic. Check out his website to see what books he's read.
Like me, most of you may never have heard of Brennan before. I had heard the name, but never really knew who he was. In fact, the first time I ever did hear him was when I put together the promo video. Then, the day before the retreat, I was going to the bathroom at work when it suddenly struck me (why many thoughts and ideas come to one in the bathroom is beyond me)! I did know that voice, and so did anyone who had grown up listening to DC talk.
To give credit where credit is due, I remembered later that Jeff W. had a long time ago mentioned his name in conjunction with that quote but I had no idea who he was at the time.
So, when I had a moment at the retreat before a session, I sheepishly approached Mr. Manning and asked him about it. He told me that he was speaking at a DC Talk retreat and they had recoded his messages. They then used that sound bite without asking him. He then said that we was glad they did and that they were really great guys. Being intimidated by him (not because of his personality, but just because I was timid) I nervously said something stupid about him being famous. He cooly replied that it was an odd way to be famous, I laughed nervously and retreated to the comfort of my seat. And that is the story of my exchange with a very wise man of God.
DECEMBER 7-9, 2004
IN AND AROUND 8 MILE
Shortly after returning from the retreat, I was sent over to Detroit of all places for work. Stefan, the worship leader at Upper Room used to work at a church there called Kensington. The thought behind my trip was to go and simply experience how they put together their service on Wednesday nights, similar to that of Upper Room and just get as many ideas about how to do production. Unlike us, their service, as I found out, has a lot more production than us, which is a great place to simply learn.
So, I awoke on Tuesday morning at 3:30am to catch my 6am flight. Since arriving here in February, this was the first time I'd have been away from Sarah by plane and since my last flight (into Minneapolis) was incredibly stressful (see Update #1), it was going to be interesting to see how we reacted.
My flight from MN to Chicago was uneventful and since my layover was about 90 minutes, I whipped out my laptop and began doing a bit of work. The next time I looked up, it was the time of my flight and I had no recollection of hearing any sort of boarding call. I went to the check in counter, showed my pass and heard the lady say: "The plane's left. It's gone." It was at that point that my gut immediately sunk. Thankfully, I was too tired to panic, so I simply said "hmph". She replied in her defense: "I called that flight at least six times."
I was then booked on the next flight which then meant I had to call my ride and re-arrange being picked up. I can't believe I actually missed a plane. A new experience for me.
Actually, while we're on the topic, on my way home from that trip, I ended up having to run for my plane since I was almost late for that one, too. Not a good week for flying.
As for the trip itself: it went really well. The people at Kennsington Church were really cool, friendly and helpful. It was great to get another perspective on "doing church" in terms of production. The stuff they use is way beyond what we have, but the same stresses, concerns, and work schedules remain constant across both churches. I went home feeling refreshing, knowing that what I was going through was completely normal.
The highlight was being able to meet up with Rich (highschool buddy and longtime member of daBoyz) for coffee the second night. It was great to see a familiar face and friend.
Oh. The subtitle.... In Detroit, their grid of main streets are each called different miles. 12 Mile, 15 Mile, 8 Mile. The house I stayed at was only a short drive away from Mr. Slim Shady's 8 Mile house where he grew up. I didn't see him, his house, or anything related to his story, but it was probably as close as I'll ever get to seeing Eminem.
A DAILY JOURNAL
FOR ONLY A FEW DAYS
In an effort to keep up with this update stuff, I thought I'd be clever and make notepad pop up everytime I turned on my computer. This way, I could continually enter in a journal of everything I did and give you a more complete process. As you're going to see quite quickly, that didn't happen at all.
December 10, 2004
December 17, 2004
For Sunday, Stefan and I worked together to create a large mosaic poster for the
service. Last week, we took pictures of about 400 people in our community.
During the week we used a software program to generate a large mosaic using
those images. The final size was 5' wide and 6; tall. Here you see Stefan and I
with the finished product.
December 20, 2004
I experienced my first freezing rain storm. Not really a storm, but the
continual rain with freezing temperatures cause the ground to become a slick
layer of ice. Poor Sarah spent close to 2 hours getting to work. I met in the
morning with a friend from Upper Room named Dave. Him and I were going to a 10am
showing of Flight of the Phoenix. Because of the weather, we didn't get to the
theatre until 10:30 only to find the place deserted. The only employee we could
find was busy making popcorn. He took us to the manager who explained that the
showing we were planning to attend got moved to a week prior. In order to help
us out, he told us to come back at 12:30 and he'd give us free tickets to the
2:30 showing anyways. So, the two of us killed time by going to the arcade,
wandering the stores, having lunch and generally just having a blast. When we
got into the theatre, we were the only ones in there. By the time the show
started, we were joined by 6 other patrons. Needless to say, it was the perfect
way to watch a big screen movie. No distractions, no noise, just pure movie. And
it was actually good, which was a plus.
The drama continued. Sarah and I found out during the day that her parents
fireplace had a crack in it and the heat caused by the last few fires caused the
wood behind the wall to begin to ember. When her dad awoke for work at 4am he
noticed smoke throughout the house. Shortly after the Grimsby front lawn was the
attraction of many neighbors as rescue vehicles gathered around to survey the
damage and ensure that nothing caught on fire.
I can't imagine all the work that needs to go into the aftermath of this, but
from what I hear it's a lot. There's even a company that's cleaning every item
in their house. Also unfortunate is the fact that the smell of smoke is near
impossible to remove from carpet, so in the summer next year there will continue
to be an odor. Kids: this same principle can be applied to cigarettes and your
lungs.
Everyone's safe and there was no permanent loss, which everyone is grateful for.
While incredibly unfortunate, it's another story to add to the huge portfolio of
Grimsby adventures.
December 21, 2004
Wedding Thank Yous are done, thanks to Sarah's hard work. This evening I tried
my hand at making hot apple crumble and was...............SUCESSFUL! I ate too
much and it's 10 minutes shy of midnight. This could be a long evening.
December 26, 2004
Due to FCC Regulations, I cannot call today B***ing Day because that's a
Canadian term and I fear being thrown in jail. Instead, I simply have to settle
calling it: The Day after Christmas like everyone else here. How drab is that?
Our first Christmas together was wonderful. We had a nice and relaxing time.
Christmas Eve was spent at the Grimsby's house eating a wonderful dinner and a
very entertaining and frantic opening of Christmas gifts (because the boys had
to get to the church and the fam was leaving for Cancun on Christmas morning).
Their house is in good condition, all things considering, and everyone is in
good spirits about the whole smoke-damage ordeal. I took a picture. The large
machine in the middle of the room is to suck out all the particles in the air.
While they have to return it after it's all done, Mr. Grimsby is secretly
considering buy their own and keeping it in Stephen's room; discretely hidden
under the bed. :)
In the evening, we went to Normandale for a traditional Christmas Eve service
which was a nice experience; great music, too. Baby Jesus even made an
appearance, or at least that's what I thought until Sarah told me that it was a
family in the congregation simply standing in for an object lesson.
From there, Sarah and I went over to CPC for our midnight Upper Room service
complete with candle lighting. Even at that hour, there was still a full turn
out.
Christmas morning, Sarah and I simply lounged around all morning and early
afternoon. Our tree is still holding up but is completely dried out. The needles
are so sharp that it hurts to touch it. In all seriousness, we may have to wear
gloves to take off the ornaments.
For dinner, we went over to the Aunt and Uncle Gimsby's for a big Family
Gathering. Sarah and I sat at the kids table, which worked perfectly well for
me, because I could see the exact moment in time when cousin Eric and Michael
fired up Ye Ol' XBox. In order to play a little 2-player Halo 2, we had to fix a
controller who's cord had been chomped through by the dog. While it looks crude,
we were sucessful and the controller worked. We're brilliant electricians to say
the least :)
Today we did a little Boxi.... er.... Day after Christmas shopping. The crowds
were very minimal, which is quite a change from "our neighbours to the North".
Nothing terribly exciting to report, besides the fact that Sarah and I had the
opportunity to hang out with cousin Christina and Bethany which was a blast!
Here we see them crammed in the back seat with our new ironing board (cue oooh's
and aaaah's)
Lunch at Cheesecake Factory and hanging out at the apartment followed.
Oh. And today I completed the collection of LOTR Special Edition DVDs. I then
made use of the offer within that gave me a free slip cover for all three sets.
www.lotrdvdbox.com. Only $3 shipping. Get yours today!
Tonight we're going to some bar downtown for Sarah's makeshift 5 year high
school
reunion. It made me realize this morning that my 10 year is coming next
year..... Worth a trip home? Depends on the selection of free food, I guess.
December 30, 2004
We woke up this morning to the threat of frozen rain again. The highways were
apparently ok, but the sidestreets and sidewalks were very slick. Oddly enough,
though, later on in the day it was strangely warm out. No breath could be seen
in the air.
This is a stupid post. Sorry to have wasted your time.
January 2, 2005
Happy New Year!
As you can see, a very poor attempt. You can see the gradual degradation of this strategy. In fact, you can see how severe it's become, considering it's now late May and I'm finally putting everything together. That's a total of.... ummm... 7 months since the last update. Quite possibly a new record.
So, since that didn't work, I'm going to try something different to get you back on track....
8 MONTHS IN 8 SECTIONS
WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON or FOR THOSE WHO ARE BORED
Ok, this might be a lot to take in, but I'll put it all down if even for nostalgia's sake. Here I'll break everything down into each month and give you a little snapshot of what's been happening.
Nov 21:
Birthday Bash. Sarah threw a b-day party for me at our apartment following an Upper Room service. Here we can see the events unfold, including our ice-cream scooping friend, Andrew, dropping a load of ice cream into our large candle. Mmmm.
Mmmm... Cake.
Andrew dishing out ice cream... into the candle.
The aftermath.
Nov 27:
Our first snowfall of the year.
Nov 28:
Sarah and I buy our first Christmas tree! And it's a live one, too...
Dec 3-5:
Pneuma - coveredDec 24:
Upper Room Candlelight service... Although held at midnight on Christmas Eve, we still had a full house...
Dec 25:
Christmas - coveredDec 28:
I decided it was time or organize our closet and get rid of that stupid shoe hanging rack... A horrible, evil thing that I was glad to see go.
Before.
After.
The shoe rack at it's new home.
Dec 31:
New Years - barely covered (but who really wants to know that we enjoyed our time at a friend's house playing XBox and hanging out?)
Jan 14: The tale of a modified XBox... Basically (and since this update is already so long, I'll spare you the details), I ended up having problems with my XBox being able to read any discs. After looking online, I found a place that could "modify" boxes by replacing the DVD drive (with a better model). I drove across the city (fortunately, it was local) to a deserted industrial district and found the correct building. Oddly, though, the place I was looking for did not have a sign, save for a piece of 8.5x11 with their llama logo on it.
Down the elevator I went to the basement. I was a little skeptical, but pushed on by curiosity. I found the room and walked into a chaotic workroom where there were piles and piles of opened Xboxes shipped from all over the world to be modified. Needless to say, I simply got my DVD drive swapped right there and it's been working perfectly since. What a great (nerdy) experience.
That's my XBox he's working on...
Jan 28:
Kingdom Builders. Once a year, CPC puts on a weekend seminar-thing for people in the church to attend. This is a time for the leadership team to share their vision with the core of the church body.
Since Upper Room is a big part of it (and our vision was shared with the rest of the church), we helped facilitate the worship and sessions (technically speaking). In the evening, Sarah and I hung out with Dave and Laura. Here we see Dave showing off the fact that he can bounce on a bed with just his legs... He's crazy-talented :)
Jan 20 - 24:
Vancouver Reception - This was such an awesome time for Sarah and I. We were truly blessed by those who could make it to Sutherland. It was a great evening of reconnecting and allowing people to meet Sarah. Now, I have to say, I'm incredibly proud of Sarah. She met more people in one weekend than I think I've met in the last 4 months... and what's more: she remembered most everyone! Wow.For me, it was kind of strange to be back. Since I've never been away from home for such a long time, I didn't know what to expect. While it felt the same, there was still this feeling that my home and family was in Minneapolis. That might sound like I didn't enjoy Vancouver or that I've moved on (which isn't the case), but it was encouraging for me because it felt like I had moved over to something else. My fear coming into Vancouver was that I wouldn't want to leave. While I still miss Sutherland and the gang very much, I felt I finally had some "closure" to traveling to Minnesota and not know when I'd be back originally. Does any of this blabbing make sense? If not, send me an email with questions. Let's move on.
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| Rachel and Elizabeth | Who are these weird out-of-towners? | |
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| It's ok, Jeff... It's just a camera. | Hola Senor! | |
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Hwah and Jurb. Yuh. |
Ummm...
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At Dave's party.
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These be some mean hockey players... | |
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Celebrating Todd's B-Day |
Which
one of us is not amused?
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| My two favorite ladies. | e-couples. | |
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| Up to no good yet again. | Yummy wolf shirt! | |
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| Wheeler and the chili cookoff | ||
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| I. Am. Hot. | ||
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JURB! |
And they lived happily ever.... nah.. this is gross. |
Jan (sometime): Small Group - Sarah and I are part of a Young Couples Small Group that a few of us started. There are 5 couples in our group: Laurie/Steve, Jeremy/Kristy, Anne/Jon, Sarah/Corey and Sarah and I. The ten of us have formed an incredible bond over the last few months. When we're together we feel connected and have a great time. What's even more of a blessing is our ability to be open and honest with each other. It's still early on, but I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone even more than I have already.
Feb 7: Superbowl hangout with a rousing game of Cranium... Here we see Greg and Corey struggling with some sort of word puzzle (or maybe just Greg [left] is struggling and Corey's letting his teammate guess.
Feb 11: I had the opportunity to help my friend Mike videotape a Joe Rogness concert. Joe's a local artist that used to lead worship at Upper Room. Since the concert was promoted by Echo Ministries, I figured I'd throw in a flattering picture of Andrew (for those that know him, this would be a good sum-up photo :) )
Feb 13: [creo] - Much of January was spent prepping for [creo]. [creo] is an evening of Arts and Worship that we have at the Upper Room each year. Sarah and I were a part of the planning team. Sarah was in charge of being the musician liaison, as well as facilitating the "coffee house" room the night of the event. I worked with my buddy Mike on the production of the main stage performances. It was a lot of hard work, but being a part of something from start to finish and being able to involve myself creatively is what keeps me going. It was also a lot of fun to be on a team with Sarah and work together on our display table (which showcased some of our photography and a number of the Upper Room video's I've done).
Feb 17: Sarah got to meet John Corbett of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" fame.
Feb 20: After a short but mentally grueling interview, I was approved for my Permanent Residence Card. This allows me to travel to and fro the US as well as work without any additional documentation (oh, plus a stamp in my passport). It's illegal for me to be without this card... and it's pretty heavy duty. Hologram on the front, picture, barcodes and some sort of large film strip thing on the back. I couldn't imagine ever making a counterfeit. Right now, there are conditions on my residency (because Sarah and I weren't married for 2 years previous). Next year in February, I can apply to have the conditions removed. The question that still lingers is whether or not I want to become a citizen.
Feb 22: Not that this is terribly exciting, but we got a new vacuum! Whooohooo. Out with the old (and clunky); in with the new.
Feb 24: The Well. For an experiential element at UR, we needed to make a giant well that people could kneel around and scoop water out of. It was a stressful week because we had no idea how to make a giant well. We ended up buying an inflatable giant out-of-ground pool which we propped up with blocks and covered in cloth. Then, we projected video into the water. In the end, it worked out quite convincingly. However, the motto of "The Well from He**" was quite suitable.
Feb 24: Not that any of you would really care, but Microsoft sent out a recall of most of their XBox power cords. I sent in my request and got back this fancy looking thing. Safety first, as always :)
Feb 28: With the generous monetary gifts from the Vancouver Reception, Sarah and I were able to buy some cool furniture from Ikea. This particular week, we ended up visiting Ikea 4 times in 5 days. It was a grueling task getting all the heavy boxes into the apartment and then assembling them in such a small space, but it was definitely worth it in the end. Oh. And we got a small lamp called "Larum", too.
Mar 18: As if the giant 15' well wasn't enough, we decided that we wanted a large rock as a set piece a few weeks later. Visiting a company called Styrotech, we ordered 2 huge blocks of Styrofoam which created our 6' square rock. Just because we ordered the block didn't mean I knew how I was going to get it to look like a rock. Ask Sarah and she'll tell you this wasn't an easy week (especially for her because she had to put up with my mega-stress). Thankfully, I had Sarah, Jeremy and Robb to help me out in getting it all together. Below you can see Jeremy chopping through the block with Kurt's chainsaw. Since it wasn't real Styrofoam (and was the type made out of small beads), the aftermath of styro-beans could be seen EVERYWHERE. Literally. When Sarah and I went home on Friday night, there were still a few clingers that made it into our house. It was a mess to create but, thankfully, it went over exceptionally well. So well, in fact, that the main service used our masterpiece for their weekend services. As an added bonus, go to this link and watch a video of the making of it ("Let There Be Rock") that I put together just for fun.
Mar 19: To celebrate the release of The Incredibles on DVD, we invited people for a screening in our community room. Mike came in proper garb, which Robb then wanted a part of. Christa (his fiancée) is not impressed.
Mar 25: For Good Friday, Upper Room facilitated the church service by putting together CPC's very first Tenebrae experience. I was in charge of production, and Sarah joined the choir (wearing her Father Time choir robe). We had the service twice on Friday, with two run-throughs beforehand, so it was a fairly tiring day, but well worth it. Corey, myself and Jeremy had a blast working in the video booth (especially because we whipped out the headsets).
Apr 8: We started getting Simon Delivers to drop our groceries off at our house. While we're totally capable of going to the grocery store, we find this to be a little more economical (even though the food is probably a few cents more than the store). Not only do we limit the number of impulse buys, but we also don't have to spend hours wandering through the aisles (which drains every ounce of energy I have very quickly). As an added bonus, occasionally our food will come chilled with packets of Dry Ice. Sarah showed me what happens when you drop the block into bowls of hot water (NOTE: Kids... you know this is probably something you shouldn't try... also, don't touch it with your bare hands).
Apr 8: Sarah’s Birthday - Ok. This might be a bit of a touchy subject, since there are two very different perspectives on it. By and large, Sarah's birthday was a lot of fun and a success. However, I did learn some ways to be a better husband for Sarah. Basically, what happened was that I wanted to have a "surprise" for Sarah. Since Sarah is inquisitive and incredibly perceptive, trying to slip things by her is very tough. Working with our friend Christa, we had arranged for some Salsa dance lessons in which everyone would be invited and then I'd bring Sarah to. I'd then be able to surprise her with it. What I learned was that Sarah doesn't like surprises much, especially the ones where I have to convince her to get dressed and go to something she has no idea what it was. Gentlemen: if your girlfriend and wife seems unhappy with something and your gut tells you to do something, swallow your pride and do what's best. I really wanted to be genuine and surprise her, but should have given in and told her what to expect. Just another example of the continual learning curve of relationships and marriage.
Anyways, Sarah had a great time for her birthday... The one surprise that I was able to spring on her (yes, I tried with two different things which was incredibly risky of me) was an evening away at a bed and breakfast. The house we stayed in was one built in 1902 and very beautiful... I mean, it was. Really... If I can say that a house was beautiful, you can be sure that it was. Our two day stay was wonderful because neither of us had ever been to a B&B before.
Sometime in April: Yuh! Sarah gave us/me a gift of two VIP tickets to the Seal / Minnesota Orchestra in June. Seal and the MN Orchestra!! It's going to rock. Not only that, but we're in the 12th row! I can't wait... I'll be sure to fill you in after the concert.
Apr 15: Yet another successful X-Fest.. this time, complete with a HUGE bowl of fruit salad.
Apr 18: Our couples small group that we're a part of has been an incredible blessing. Our group has really bonded and have become good friends over the last few months. Here we celebrated Steve's (a.k.a. Felix) birthday.
Apr 24: Sarah and I attempted to fly our trick kite. You can see how well we did... as we ended up sitting in the grass, enjoying the lovely weather.
May 14: Sarah got something very cool in her nose. Much like a ring. Read more in Sarah's Corner...
May 21: We took a Saturday afternoon and visited MOA's underwater world.. There's some very cool creatures there... On the same day, we also did a bit of shopping. At Nordstrom's rack, I was blown away about the state of their women's shoe section... Now that's some frenzied shoe shopping.
May 30: A week later, we visited the smaller of the two Minnesota zoos (this one's free so it's already much cooler than the other one). All I can say is that monkeys rule!
Later that evening, we had a small group BBQ where we played Cranium and Felix randomly wanted to climb the Taylor's tree in their backyard.
June 13: Best. Concert. Ever. Earlier in the year, Sarah worked hard to purchase two tickets to the Seal concert (with members of the Minnesota Orchestra). As a result of her hard work the day the tickets were released, she was able to snag seats in the front row. Needless to say the concert rocked. A solo artist named Chris Pierce opened up and did an awesome job (we picked up his CD afterwards). Sitting in the front row made for such a different experience, especially when that artist is your favorite. The music was great! I'll let the pics tell the story.
June 16: A friend of mine and I took a road trip out to the Windy City (Chicago) for a two day Willow Creek Arts Conference. Willow Creek, for those who aren't familiar, is a mega church that founded the Willow Creek Association which provided churches with curriculum and other resources. Anyways, the conference took a look at the technical arts within a worship experience. It was a great time hanging out and seeing how other churches tackle the production side of a service.
June 19: For two Sundays, we took the Upper Room outdoors to a band shell next to a lake just down the highway from the church. The bandstand, which sits at the base of a little hill creating a natural amphitheatre, made for an awesome location to have Upper Room. Even though it was a lot of work to setup and tear down, it was definitely worth it (especially since the weather was awesome).
July 4: Ahh. The good ol' fourth of July. The night previous, Sarah hosted a bachelorette party for Erika (her maid of honor). Since it's fair to say that I didn't want to be around a house full of women (did I really just say that?) I crashed at a friend's house and played XBox until 4am (much better). The next day, Sarah and I were exhausted but decided we might as well host an impromptu BBQ and fireworks watching party. So, we opened our house up and ended up having a blast. OF course, I pretended that everone in the park was gathered to celebrate Canada Day, which made things much better.
July 6 - 10: Road Trip. Read more about this exciting adventure in Sarah's Corner.
IT'S TIME NOW FOR...
Hello wonderful friends! Welcome to my cozy little corner of MN Update # Whatever. Thank you and congratulations for making it this far in our embarrassingly belated and massive update. Unless you simply skipped to my corner first, in which case I don’t blame you. ;) Ready? Here we go!
Nose Ring: I got a nose ring!! :-*) It's cute, small and hardly noticeable -- just a little twinkle. Yay! It's something I've always wanted to do but have always found excuses not to... because it's a little scary. I eventually decided it would be the perfect reward for a personal goal and told a lot of people I would do it -- so I couldn't back out when I got there. So when I reached my goal in May, off Michael and I trekked to Ink Lab http://www.inklab.com/ and I joined the piercing culture! It wasn't that bad and took less than 5 seconds for the actual procedure. It definitely hurt Michael (who the piercist called my "non-wimpy man friend") more to watch than for me to go through it. He was a bit wobbly on the way out. My little sparkle has been happy and healthy ever since! Yay!
Upper Room Road Trip: Michael and I went on a road trip that was put together by the Upper Room. 14 of us piled in two large vans and headed to the mountains of Red Lodge, Montana – which is about 15 hours away. It was interesting how most people signed up totally alone just to meet other people. Michael impressively drove most of the way with very little help from me. Michael, being the true nerd he is, rigged up a system between the two lighter units in our van to run power through a converter to charge his laptop to of course play movies and… write more of this MN Update. We had a wild and wacky time in Montana hiking, horseback riding, rodeo-watching, and (my favorite) whitewater rafting. No one fell out of the raft although we were all thoroughly soaked by the end. We both went cliff-jumping halfway through, which is a somewhat kamikaze experience and was both terrifying and exhilarating. Fun fact: Michael and I had really odd named horses. Mine was Parrot and his was Sevens.
Erika's Wedding: I was just the matron of honor in my friend Erika's wedding a few days ago on Saturday, July 16th. It was really fun to reciprocate since Erika was the maid of honor on our wedding last October. (Matron means married -- not old. No muumuus were involved.) Erika and Brendan got married in a small church in the town were we went to college and had their reception outside in the college arboretum. It hit 100 degrees F (which is 37.7777777777777 C for you Canadians) and was very humid, but we of course remained gorgeous despite it all. I was very proud of how graceful and put-together Erika was in the midst of such a wild day, and Brendan was sure struttin' his stuff. I wrote my toast on the way to and from Montana and practiced about a bazillion times, so I'm glad it went so well. I had great response from the audience with lots of laughter and clapping in all the right places. It totally confirmed how much I love public speaking and hope to one day turn it into some sort of occupation. It was awesome to catch up with and go out for malts with some of my really good friends from college with whom I'd lost touch. I also had the bizarre experience of introducing my ex-boyfriend to my husband which went surprisingly well. It actually bought some much-needed positive conclusion to a sad breakup from a long time ago. Whew! Aside from all the wedding day festivities, I also attended a shower, and threw a second shower and a bachelorette party for Erika. Lots of excitement! Fun fact: Erika asked us to sew our own bridesmaid dresses. She picked out a pattern and material and then... Brendan's mom made it for me! :) HUGE thank yous to Vickie for all her hours of hard work on creating such a beautiful dress!!
Celebrity Dirt Digger: Yes, that's me. I've taken on celebrity gossip research for our goofy Lori & Julia Show http://www.fm107.fm/loj.htm as an extracurricular work activity. You can listen online from anywhere in the world - even Canadia! Yep, all that Brad Pitt / Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise / Katie Holmes, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton stuff they talk about is from me. I love it! The best part is they always thank me every day -- something that assistants don't hear very often.
Work: ...is the same. Nothing new.
Puppy: I'm obsessed! I want a small "purse dog" SO BAD and dogs aren't allowed at our apartment! Michael can breathe a sigh of relief for now... I love our apartment but want a dog so much I'd move in a heartbeat. We (meaning I) have looked into everything from Yorkies to Golden Retrievers. I'm open to any size now, although I'd really like to have a tiny dog to carry around in a cute little dog purse and dress up in dog clothes. I'm sick, I know.
Christina's Wedding: My cousin Christina (who was a bridesmaid in our wedding) is getting married in September! It's coming up fast and I'm honored to be a bridesmaid! The dress has arrived and I'm getting excited! I have a shower in Chicago to go to right after I return from Vancouver.
So much has happened and so much more to look forward to! I’m excited to see most of you in Vancouver… tomorrow! I’d LOVE to hear from you any time: sarahmcquade@gmail.com . Have a beautiful summer!
Smiles, Love & Nose Rings, Sarah
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
No additional photos this time... as if there wasn't enough in this update...