Day Ninety: Some hearts

Some hearts just get lucky sometimes.  Even hearts like mine. :)

Day Eighty-Nine: Sunset Boulevard

As I've mentioned before, having Lucy around has inspired me to take more walks and discover my neighborhood.  Although I've known about it for a while, I finally got to take a picture of this beautiful drive today that Pete and I passed when taking Lucy out on this beautiful spring day.  The location of this land may not be perfect: the path that leads to the house which sits on the land abuts the interstate, but it is certainly picturesque and reminiscent of a time that seems so far from, but yet so close to now.  

I've never really quite settled on the type of house that I want when I "grow-up", but if it can be "in" the city like this one with a drive similar to this, I think I'd be happy for quite a long while.

Day Eighty-Eight: Brew to Brew to Brew

Ask anyone who knows me well, or anyone who has visited me in Lawrence, and they will tell you that my favorite restaurant in town is 23rd Street Brewery.  I fell in love with the place because of its "Hazelnut encrusted goat-cheese salad".  Very rarely do I go in there and order anything else.  But the other food I have tasted is also delicious; on my most recent trip, I had the basil pesto chicken sandwich that was just as good as left-overs as it was when it came out of the oven. Those were accompanied by their made in-house pub chips.  MMMmmmMMM.

When my family visited here last year, I brought them to the restaurant.  My mom couldn't stop saying "this is so cool, this is so cool.  I think part of the reason for her reaction, and why we both like the place so much is because of its atmosphere.  This brewing "station" is lofted high over the bar.  The ceilings rise to about 25-30 feet above your head, but somehow the place still remains intimate.  In the summer, a patio invites you outside to take in the warm air, and was often a place of refuge for my friends and I this past summer when we needed a break to avoid bar review overload.

Did I mention they brew their own beer, too?  I enjoy the hoppy beverage, but I'm not anywhere near what you would call a beer connoisseur.  Frankly, I would much rather save those calories for a tasty dessert or frothy drink than beer.  Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped me from trying their brews a couple of times (usually, the raspberry wheat), and it has never failed to please.

Without trying, I realize that I have now "taken" you to three of the breweries around the Kansas City/ Lawrence area: Boulevard, Free State, and now 23rd Street.  I'm not sure I know of any more, or have any plans of visiting them, but if I do, I guess you'll know!  You may be interested to know that this weekend, there is an annual event called the "Brew to Brew" where those who love beer and running (possibly in that order) run from the Boulevard Brewing Factory in Kansas City to Free State here in downtown Lawrence.  The combination of beer and 44 miles doesn't work all that well, so it's a team event where each person runs a small leg of the distance.  I haven't yet participated in the event, but it always sounds like a good time.  Cheers, mate!

Day Eighty-Seven: Winter Wonderland

They say if you don't like the weather in Kansas, wait 10 minutes. The weather didn't change quite that quickly the past couple days, but the today's mercury reading stands in stark contrast to the 60 degree days we had at the beginning of the week. Lawrence dodged the bullet for the most part. While we got some ice and sleet, places to our west and east received several inches of snow. The precipitation we got created a nice coating around everything in its tracks. Pete and I ventured outside today to try and capture some of that. Enjoy!

Day Eighty-Six: 19 years to go?

It's March Madness, and the Kansas Jayhawks are the defending national champions. Last year, 40,000 poured out on to Mass Street to celebrate the overtime win. Last year, the University canceled classes to allow students to celebrate. Last year, the nerds and the jocks were friends, all uniting around the dream that was finally reached after twenty long years. None of that will be happening this year. With 32.4 seconds left to go and down by two, the tension was high. But despite the valliant effort and leading most of the game, the Jayhawks fell (for the second time this season) to the Michigan State Spartans, ending all dreams of repeating the victory. We must give a shout out to the boys in blue though. They exceeded our wildest expectations and gave us a post-season stint longer than we could have expected at the beginning of the season.

The Jayhawks won a National Championship in 1988. Twenty years later, we won again. Hopefully, we don't have 19 more years to go....

Day Eighty-Five: Shattered

Life is busy, and Thursdays are particularly crazy for me. At work, Thursdays usually include several conference calls, making sure I've accomplished the things I need to accomplish this week, and playing catch-up for those things that aren't anywhere close to being done. Pete and I are sponsors for people wanting to enter into the Catholic church (the program is called RCIA), and we have weekly meetings/ classes at 7p.m. on Thursday evenings. That leaves just enough time to either (A) run home, grab a quick dinner, maybe watch everything but the last round of "Wheel of Fortune", and head to church, or (B) fit in a quick workout, leaving just enough time to change into clothes that won't cause everyone to walk out of the room when I walk in.

Tonight, I chose option "B" with the caveat that my workout had to be shorter than usual. Because the President spoke on Tuesday night, my beloved reality show "American Idol" got pushed from a Tuesday/ Wednesday airing, to a Wednesday/Thursday airing. So, I shortened my (already short) workout to make sure I got home to set the DVR so that we could watch American Idol on the big screen after RCIA. I also forgot my camera and Lucy had been alone all day. In short, running home before RCIA had four goals: 1) Set TV for Idol, 2) Take Lucy out, 3) Grab camera, and 4) Change out of the smelly workout clothes. And did I mention that all this had to be accomplished in a matter of about five, and absolutely no more than ten minutes?

When I walked in the door, the number of things I needed to accomplish in that short time quickly expanded from four to about four hundred. Greeting me at the welcome mat was Lucy. She was surrounded by the shreds of two pairs of Jennifer's filp-flops Lucy had found somewhere in the house. Lying next to that was my stuffed Mickey Mouse, which meant I had left my bedroom door open, and Lucy had entered the premises. After seeing Mickey (fortunately, he was without any scrapes or bruises), I made a B-line to my bedroom. It was 95% in tact. A few remnants of (what I think were) the flip flops were on my bed, and a different stuffed animal, from which Lucy had removed it's button nose several weeks ago, had been accosted again. Lying in the threshold of my bedroom door was Lucy's food bowl, which she has recently begun moving all around the house whenever she feels like it.

At this point, my blood pressure was rising trying to figure out how I would clean up the mess and still make it to RCIA on time. Because of the other things I had to do, I decided to just leave it there until I got home and could clean up. Because Jennifer wasn't going to be home and it wouldn't inconvenience her, I decided just to leave it there and clean it up later. I changed clothes, set the TV for Idol, grabbed my camera and made straight for the door. The problem is I simply grabbed my camera (in its bag) and didn't check to see if it was secured. As I placed the strap over my shoulder and opened to the door to leave, the Canon EOS 20D fell out of the bag, tumbling to the ground with a crash and a shatter. When I picked it up, the lens looked like this.

I sat in mild anguish throughout RCIA thinking about how much it would cost to get another lens. (I failed to consider the possible internal damage to the camera. I think this is a fortunate thing, as my stomach would have been a mess.) But, after RCIA (which I always love) and some prayer time, I was a bit calmer. I told Pete what happened, and when he got to look at the camera, he delivered the first piece of good news: the shattered glass payne on the end of the lens was actually a protective cover he had put on there and could easily be taken off and replaced. With any luck, there wasn't damage to the lens. My second piece of good news came when Pete and I tried taking several pictures with the camera: everything worked normally. It appers my camera is fine. *SIGH OF RELIEF*

Tomorrow during my lunch hour, I'll head down to Wolfe's camera shop in Topkea and pick up a new protective cover. I atrribute my fully functioning camera after a hard fall to that little piece of glass that took the impact for the team. I don't know what Consumer Reports says about digital SLR cameras, but knowing how hard this camera fell and how it still shoots like day one, I would highly recommend it to anyone who is in the market.

Day Eighty-Four: Scene it

Pete and I have been trying to get to see "Slumdog Millionaire" for weeks. Earlier this week, we decided we were going to go today, and believe it or not, we actually made it there. The movie is currently playing at Liberty Hall, a versatile space on Mass Street where they hold concerts, show movies (usually independent films that aren't too mainstream), and even hosts weddings. It is a space that is definitely from another era, and as a result, is full of nooks and crannies, interesting architecture, and fixtures that intentionally haven't been updated in the recent past. Since I hadn't taken my picture for the day, I snuck in a camera in hopes of snapping a shot of the space after the lights had dimmed and come back up again. After a few attempts to gather a shot from another angle, I moved positions and ended up with this "classic" picture.

I'll answer the question right now of who the "mysterious" man in the picture is: As you probably guessed, it's Pete. I asked him to sit there while I took the shot. But setting aside the fact that we actually know who this guy is, the lone person in the theater poses some interesting questions. Why is the man there alone? The empty theater exaggerates the fact that he is there by himself and makes the loneliness you expect he is feeling even more dark. But maybe the man like the dark? Does he, like some of my friends, enjoy coming to movies by himself and find it liberating? Or maybe he's waiting for someone. Who is he waiting for? Did his girlfriend or buddy get up and go to the bathroom or the concession stand? Has he been stood up? Maybe he's waiting. Waiting for you. From the calm, almost happy look on his face, it appears that whatever his circumstances, he is peaceful and content. At this angle and lighting, you may catch a glimpse of him upon a first glance, but it takes another look to really know that he is there. The man doesn't want to be noticed right away. But he's there.

It wasn't intentional when I took the picture, but the emptiness of the theater and the lone man in it is a perfect illustration of what our lives can be like, and how the Lord patiently waits for us. And He waits for us even if we question what he is doing or why he is there. If each individual chair is a different place we choose to be in our life, we can either sit next to God, or we can sit in the opposite corner. If we sit next to Him, we get to engage in conversation with Him and have Him put his arm around us when a scary scene comes along. From seats far away, it's often difficult to notice Him or feel His presence, but He's always there. Waiting. Patiently waiting.

Maybe I read too much into my pictures. Maybe its "just" Pete sitting there, posing for my picture. Maybe its just a man who wants to see a movie. But maybe its more. Just maybe.