I Heart Texting

This week I found this sweet site called Callwave that lets you send free text messages to cell phones in the US/Canada from a computer. And the nice thing is, when the American/Canadian replies, I receive it as an email on my computer instantly! This sort of technology makes me very happy, because communicating from across an ocean can be quite expensive.

If you have a Mac (and why, I ask, would you not?) you can get a cute little Callwave Widget for your Dashboard, too. It integrates auto-magically with your Mac Address book.

Jewel Cases Piled High

Since finals are over for my Fuller online course, I'm working on numbers 3, 5, and 17 of my How to Rest in America list. My latest adventure includes emptying every CD case I own, recycling the plastic cases, and making the liner notes into recycled stationary. (Coming soon to a mailbox near you.) Since the digital revolution, all of these jewel cases are just taking up space. It's time the album art gets looked at all over again, in a new way, I say. I feel like I'm living in a fifth-grade art class. And it's really great fun.

Most Vivid Dreams - Part 1

I've been having the most extensive, vivid dreams. Last night my dream was replete with Europe, my murderous spirit, show-tunes, The Last Supper, and the Postal Service. (Enjoy the trip in to my psyche. Any interpretations welcome.)

In my dream last night I was with some of my roommates from Portugal, a couple youth group kids from here in La Plata, USA, and a few other friends. We were headed on a road trip to get somewhere in Europe. I’m not sure if we'd started in Europe or in America.

On the way, we stopped to see my great uncle, because it was a good resting point on the way. In the dream uncle was an invalid, and was being taken care of by the daughter of one of his closest friends, who lived on the second floor. Uncle couldn’t talk, but he could snore really good. The lady upstairs would often yell down from her bed to hush his loud snores.

It was time for all of the road-trippers to go to bed. We were all sort of camping out in the living room, stuffed like sardines. As we were falling asleep, I was about to close my eyes, and I saw that a girl and guy were crammed on the couch sort of snuggling to sleep. I immediately remembered a prior conversation I’d had with the girl in which she bemoaned how snuggling-boy had been giving her so many confusing mixed signals about their relationship. (The majority of which signals were, “I don’t like you.”)

So, in all of my Jenelle-confontationalism, I said to snuggling-boy from my sleeping bag, “You are such an idiot. You’re just an idiot. Sometime before we leave tomorrow, I'm going to tell you why.”

Now quite annoyed, and unable to sleep, I traveled upstairs. I found a shy Dutch girl, but we couldn’t understand each other enough to speak. She was voraciously reading some novel in Dutch. Another lady from the Netherlands was there, too, and she was crazily multi-lingual. She grabbed a gigantic English/Ancient Greek dictionary, and started translating words from Ancient Greek to English to Dutch for me. Nice lady, she was.

Then Scott and Terri Last (once in Florence, now on their way to work with CAI in my Portugal) wandered in. Terri told me how she’d just spent a week at IHOP, and I flipped out telling her how I’d met with God at IHOP back in September. I was glad they were starting to settle into their new home in Portugal.

I came back downstairs to find that everyone was now awake. Apparently my you-are-an-idiot words to the boy had caused a lot of commotion. (I sort of liked that.)

To the boy I returned and (somewhat) elaborated, “You are either an idiot or just a fool. I think you’re just a foolish idiot.”

The best part was how I then recalled how Jesus said that calling someone a "fool" or "idiot" is the same as us acting in a murderous spirit. And that sobered me. (But I was too irritated to apologize to him.)

And with that, we all took off for our European adventure. We started on a riverboat cruise, in Istanbul or something, and we saw the most amazing sunset with ancient ships strewn against the horizon. I dug for my camera and tried to capture the scene. I failed. The pictures only showed a tenth of the actual view.

We wandered into a hostel and spoke to the man at the reception. There were multiple magazines in all sorts of languages on the shelf behind him. The man was Italian and spoke broken English. When I caught his eye, he grabbed one of the English magazines, came out from behind the counter and started singing a homemade show-tune! He sang acapella, and it was all about how he was going to learn English. (I was amazed at how well he stayed in tune! It was a great song, I wish I could replicate it here.)

He danced as he sang wide-eyed about how all his dreams would soon come true.

As he sang, I saw a live-music video of sorts. There was a catwalk, and a stage, and a curtain that opened. He sang about all of the places in Europe that he'd soon visit, and how his pilgrimmage would help him in his “spiritual journey." As he sang about each city's artwork, the curtain would then open and a life-sized image would float down the catwalk towards me. There were five images, and they were all various famous artistic pieces associated with Christ and the cross. The last one was “The Last Supper.” As that image came towards me, I walked into it.

All of a sudden I entered three different (somewhat hilarious) contemporary versions of the da Vinci's Last Supper. It was like I was on the front of the stage, watching as the actors rehearsed. The one I remember most had all of the disciples dressed as American fraternity boys from the 1950’s, with brightly-colored shirts and slick hair. Some had bow-ties, too. I'm pretty sure Jesus still had his white robe on, though.

When Jesus exited by stage-right, he jumped down into a super-sonic-speed ancient carriage. It was all so fast and dangerous, and I was worried that he got hurt in the jump. But then Tara (who is Young Life Europe’s Regional Administrator…Tara does everything and knows everything), quickly appeared and told me the physics of how these carriages work. And then I calmed down. Jesus would be just fine.

So I jumped into the ancient (but super-sonic-speed) carriage and ended up in Cascais, Portugal. Only it wasn’t just Cascais, but a hybrid of both glitzy Paris and flavorful Italy. I realized that I needed a break to be alone, so I started looking for a cafe to escape in. I rehearsed in my head how I’d ask the barista, “Un cappuccino, per favore” with the proper Italian accent.

But on the way to the cafe, I saw this guy, R.J. in the crowd (who stuck out only because he was about one foot taller than all of the short Southern Europeans.) (R.J. was my best friend from high school's boyfriend in the 10th grade. I haven’t seen him in 10 years.) I was so excited to see another La Platian’s face in Europe that I gave him a gigantic hug. (And proceeded to re-introduce myself to him, in case he didn’t remember me.) R.J. had on a snappy Postal Service uniform, and explained to me that he’d been working for the U.S. Postal Service in Paris, and had just gotten transferred to Cascais.

“Oh!" I said. "You’ll just love it here. I lived here for almost four years. I promise, you’ll love it. It's so beautiful and right here in Portugal.”

And then I remembered how (in real life) the day that I interviewed with the U.S. Postal Service, they told me that once I finished my Masters, I should consider working for the International division…to get a job back in Europe dealing with mail. (The End.) Image from Wikipedia

I'm Not A Big Old Adult

(This is Part 2 of the following post: Career Day at the Middle School)

It's official. I may be 27, but, I'm not a big old adult.

This week I received a thick envelope from Piccowaxen Middle School. Inside I found 28 full-paged letters from students saying, "thank you" for coming to their school to share about my "career." They were all from kids aged 10-13. Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

-I am extremely happy that you came...I am glad that you acted like our friend and not like a big old adult. Your friend, Bradley
-You inspired me to keep my hope towards being a youth director someday...I appreciate how you came in and the first thing you said was that your best friend's name was Jesus. Sincerely, Micaela
-I used to want to be a youth pastor, but I thought I would get bored with it. But when I found out you could travel to different countries and spread the Word, I thought that was really cool. Sincerely, Michelle
-I thought it was amazing when you taught us to speak Portuguese. Sincerely, Katelyn
-I've been trying since the 5th grade to tell my best friend about God, but she doesn't seem to get it. Hopefully she will know and love God...Hopefully soon. Sincerely, Taylor
-Thank you for coming in and sharing about your best friend, Jesus. Sincerely, Chris
-In my opinion, you had the best job...I've always wanted to have a job like you. Sincerely, Samantha
-I never knew or even heard of a Youth Pastor until last Friday. Now I know that there are people like you that watch over kids like us. Sincerely, John
-We really enjoyed you. Sincerely, Brittany
-After your presentation, I am definitely considering becoming a youth pastor as my future job...You are a true inspiration to me. A new friend, Timber
-It seemed pretty cool that by the time you are 13 in Portugal you know at least 2 languages...that shocked me! -Sincerely, Cheryl
-Your job could be hard because you have to build friendships with teens that might not be too nice. Thank you, Brett
-Your presentation was my favorite because while listening to you I learned how to be a great person...And as you know, I loved your hair. Sincerely, Monica

These thank you notes were the best birthday present ever. Jesus loves me, this I know.

I Heart (Passion) Mail

And I wish I could speak Dutch to understand what this site says: (translated) "Passion Mail". (Somebody help!) But it's so beautiful and simple that you really must glance through it. Their business has something to do with making creative snail mail. That makes me happy. When I grow up I want to work for them. (Thanks again for the sweet bloggy stuff, Marc...)