Saturday, January 15, 2005

So I've been back in St. Louis for about 3 1/2 months now and that has given me time to do a little comparing and contrasting with living in Chicago.

• In St. Louis, I can see more stars, but the neighborhoods are so dark.

• In St. Louis, the weather is better for riding my bike, but the hills are way worse.

• In St. Louis, we have great, affordable restaurants, but they are all some incarnation of Applebee's. I'm going to have to dig to find a good Thai restaurant.

• In St. Louis, I have pets! And pet hair.

• In St. Louis, gas is way cheaper but I still don't have a car to put it in.

• In St. Louis, it is actually convenient to drive places, but it is extremely inconvenient to walk. And the public transportation system here? A joke.

• In St. Louis, I have high-speed internet access and cable TV. And as long as I live at home, it is paid for by someone else (thanks, Dad!).

The Muny's 2005 season was announced this week. My first summer back in town and my favorite musical is playing. The last time I saw West Side Story as a live stage production was when it played at The Muny in 1995. I went three times that week. The full line-up is Beauty and the Beast, Annie Get Your Gun, Mame, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, Singin' In The Rain, and The Sound of Music. You can look for me in the free seats often this summer.

Friday, January 14, 2005

This year, many people at my church have signed up to read the Bible through in a year. Many are just doing the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. Others are doing the whole thing. I've always wanted to read through the entire Bible so I signed up, along with about 90 other people from church. Knowing that many people are involved is a lot of incentive to keep me going. My mom and I are sharing our resources - we purchased a copy of The Message, which is a Bible paraphrase in contemporary language, and a book called The Map: Making the Bible Meaningful, Accessible, and Practical, by Nick Page. The Message isn't a study Bible; it is mainly a reading Bible, so it's perfect for this endeavor. Here's a little bit that I like from Matthew 7:24-27, from the end of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit - but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

"But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."

That's imagery we can all relate to after the recent disasters in Asia and California. I want to be fixed to The Rock.

In other news, Jack is sick. I won't go into all of the gory details, but he has an abscess and had to be fitted with a cone so that he wouldn't bother the wound. He hates that collar. He gets it on and almost immediately he seems to go into a trance. He barely moves, he doesn't acknowledge people, it's almost like he thinks his body doesn't work the same way with the cone. It's pretty pathetic.

This website is my first attempt at anything like a blog. I've had several basic websites before, mainly to post pictures or information. This might end up being the same type of thing, but I'm going to give this blogging thing a shot. I have no goal and no theme - this is just going to be my little residence on the Web. At the same time, I'm learning FrontPage, so if the design seems a bit awkward, be patient. I'm figuring this out as I go along. Because I'm not using Blogger or Blogspot or anything similar, I haven't yet figured out how I'm going to archive my posts or how (and if) I'm going to let people respond. Won't this be fun?