rachel’s blog

Hello Orlando…

Hello palm trees, beautiful flowers, and the heron by the side of the road.

Hello Marriott and your glass elevator that carries me through the roof to my luxurious bed on the 19th floor.

Hello colleagues and our not-so-wise decision to have so many key employees travel on the same flight.

Hello Gaylord Palms with your gorgeous decorations (even in the bathroom stalls!), automatic soap dispensers, and a shuttle bus that carries me from my hotel to the place where Michael Jordan is staying… and where I sit in meetings.

Hello Bahama Breeze and your amazing grilled salmon with mashed cinnamon sweet potatoes.

Oh yeah. And hello 1000-plus other conference attendees. We have a rough life.

My eyes still feel puffy from the tears that leaked from my eyes and ran down my cheeks this afternoon. I wasn’t planning or expecting to cry, so I hadn’t even carried a tissue with me. But the involuntary tears made their appearance, and there was nothing I could do but let them fall.

The auditorium, which officially seats 1200, was more than packed. I sat in the balcony, where some people had to stand along the aisles. As a community, we gathered to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Lee Eshleman. It’s hard to sing when your throat is tight and the tears welling up in your eyes threaten to spill over. I made it through the first two congregational songs OK (”Come, Let Us All Unite to Sing” and “Praise the Lord, Sing Hallelujah”), but when we started singing “Wonderful Grace of Jesus,” I only got through part of the first verse before the tears started to fall.

Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin;
how shall my tongue describe it, where shall its praise begin?
Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free,
for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

The reality that Lee ended his battle with depression through suicide makes the words of this hymn incredibly poignant.

This wasn’t the first time I had attended a memorial service for someone I had never met. The first was just over a year ago, after the death of Tom Fox, a Christian peace activist whose kidnapping and death in Iraq was widely publicized. Tom and I had mutual friends. Lee and I also had mutual friends. Many of them. Lee was more than just a friend, of course — he was a son, a grandson, a husband, a father.

It was a meaningful, unusual time of remembrance. Never before have I attended a funeral or memorial service where the mourners watched comedy clips on the video screen prior to the arrival of the family. But we did, and in fact, it would have been wrong not to. As half of the fantastic comedy duo Ted & Lee, Lee will long be remembered for the way he presented insights into scripture (and the more mundane things in life…) with humor. This was also the only memorial service I’ve attended where the decor on stage included such recognizable props and costumes as Lee’s viking hat, the book “Green Eggs and Ham,” and the angel Gabriel’s robe.

Lee’s best friend and business partner, Ted, read Lee’s “life sketch” a.k.a. eulogy, and of course he managed to throw in some much-needed humor and levity as well. (Did you know that Lee flossed daily?) The remainder of the memorial service was fairly typical, except for the fact that one of the special musicians was none other than Ken Medema.

In spite of the difficult circumstances surrounding Lee’s death, the memorial service proclaimed a message of hope. The final congregational song we sang was “I Am the Bread of Life.” I offer these words from verse four in closing:

I am the resurrection, I am the life.
If you believe in me, even though you die,
you shall live forever.

Today is Day 101 in my quest to do 101 things in 1001 days. Since my last update on Day 89, I have accomplished 6 more things. “Only” 80 things and 900 days to go!

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

28. Help with a Habitat for Humanity build. — I checked this one off while I was visiting my mom (and dad) on Mother’s Day weekend. I also discovered muscles I had forgotten about…

77. Sew a purse/handbag. — I dug through some leftover fabric and ended up with a cute little bag. It was incredibly easy… after I took a few minutes to think through how to sew the seams in order to make a lined bag.

49. Offer or receive something through Freecycle. — I offered something, but apparently nobody else wants it either. Oh well.

76. Get a better digital camera. — It’s a Fujifilm F30. Love it! “Old camera, meet new camera. New camera, say goodbye to old camera.”

It was time. I’ve upgraded from 2.2 to 6.3 megapixels, and since I bought a “recertified” camera from Newegg, I even got it at a discount.

98. Do one trip from “Touring the Shenandoah Valley Backroads.” — See yesterday’s blog entry for more about my little roadtrip.

37. Pretend to be a morning person for a week. — Check! This means that I got up at least two hours before I had to be anywhere. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that I went to bed at 10:00 each night. (True morning people don’t allow themselves to be sleep deprived, do they?) I enjoy the early morning hours, but it’s hard to get out of bed when you know you haven’t gotten enough sleep. Fortunately for my 101-in-1001 project, I’m stubborn persistent…

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I’ve also made some progress towards Thing #16: go on a date. All I have to do is find an excuse to go to DC, and I can accept a date invitation from a total stranger (hi Nathan!) who has been reading my blog. The times they are a-changin’.

I went on a little road trip this afternoon…

…and made it all the way to Russia!

OK, just kidding — that picture was actually taken as I trekked around the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. With the exception of four summers, I have lived in the Valley for almost eleven years, but until today, I had never visited towns like Mt. Solon and Grottoes. Not only did I want to check off one more thing on my 101-in-1001 list (do one trip from “Touring the Shenandoah Valley Backroads”), but the mini roadtrip was a great excuse to use my new camera AND to work on the 26 Things photography project for this month.

I have occasionally considered leaving the Shenandoah Valley and perhaps moving to a bigger city, but on gorgeous days like today, I find myself almost-jokingly praying, “God, please don’t make me leave!” (I also happen to be 27 and single, so I’ll gladly relocate if the Right Reason comes along.) But really, there’s just nothing quite like the feeling of driving through the countryside with the windows down on a clear, crisp, sunshiny day…

The trip was a little over 80 miles long, so I didn’t stop to take a picture of every beautiful view. In fact, the most breathtaking moments were when I drove over a hill or around a curve and a magnificent panorama came into view… with nowhere to pull off to the side of the road. Go figure.

The highlight of my entire afternoon was being able to take a picture to represent the word “feast” for the 26 Things project. When I was brainstorming a few days ago, I decided that my ideal image for the word “feast” would be a turkey vulture indulging in some fresh roadkill, but I knew that the likelihood of discovering that scenario AND being able to take a picture of it was incredibly slim. To my delight, when I crested a hill this afternoon, my dream suddenly came true. I hit the brakes and grabbed my camera. I was able to snap two pictures through the windshield before the vulture flew away.

Click HERE to view some of my photos.

It seems almost irreverent to post something funny on a day in which this community is reeling from the untimely death of our beloved Lee Eshleman. Although I didn’t know Lee personally, many of my friends and acquaintances did, and I had the privilege of watching him perform many times as half of the comedy duo “Ted & Lee.” We have lost an insightful, hilarious brother in Christ, and while this sounds cliche, I miss him already.

Lee created many opportunities for us to laugh — and hopefully the image below will bring a little laughter to you as well. It has nothing to do with Ted & Lee, but I found it tonight and couldn’t resist posting it.

The site selling these Left Behind Gym Shorts describes them as the perfect short for anyone who is concerned about the “End Times.” Left behind is screenprinted on the appropriate location. Adult sizes only as we all know no child should be “Left Behind.” Don’t leave these shorts at the Gym or they will be Left Behind.

How many pictures of a banana peel can one person take? A lot, apparently. The plethora of pictures can be blamed on two things: my decision to work on the 26 Things photography project for May… and a new camera.

Eventually just one of these images will represent the word “after.”

Last night I received an email from a woman at my church inviting others to join her for an impromptu “quilting bee” at church this evening. When I read the email, I said to myself, “Self, you’re a Mennonite woman. You should know how to quilt.” But that wasn’t the end of the discussion. I had to convince my Inner Non-Conformist that since very few of my peers know how to quilt, learning to quilt would actually be an act of non-conformity.

I checked with the coordinator to see if it would be OK for me to learn on this quilt… and it was. So I spent an hour and a half this evening learning to quilt. After a while I started getting the hang of it enough that I could actually quilt and talk at the same time. Can you tell that I’m an extrovert?

* The title of this post is from Isaiah 43:19. Just for the record, I am not the Lord, and I’m pretty sure the prophet Isaiah didn’t know how to quilt. :o)

College students are often surprised to learn that many offices on campus stay open throughout the summer. When I decided to pick up our receptionist’s ringing phone over lunchtime today, I encountered one of the Many Reasons We Do:

Caller: I’d like to talk to someone who could tell me whether you have a certain major there.

Me: OK, what is the major you’re interested in?

Caller: Public Relations.

Me: I’m sorry, we don’t offer a major in Public Relations.

Caller: [To someone else] They don’t have it.

[To me] Well, do you have something similar?

Me: Hmm… I can’t really think of anything. What kinds of things would you consider to be similar to Public Relations?

Caller: [snippy voice] I don’t know — that’s what I’m asking YOU!

[pause]

Caller: You know, something where you work with people.

Me: [I-can't-believe-that-was-her-answer, I'll-just-echo-thoughtfully voice] Something where you work with people…

Caller: [you-must-be-stupid voice] That’s what Public Relations IS — you work with people.

Me: Right, I’m aware of what PR is, but I just don’t think we have any programs of study that would be comparable.

Caller: You don’t have anything similar??

Me: I don’t think so, but you’re welcome to visit our website and look through the list of majors we DO offer to see if you can find something suitable.

Caller: OK, thanks. Bye.

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By the end of the conversation, I was secretly glad that we don’t offer a major in public relations… or anything similar.

As I was traveling this weekend, I saw a billboard along the highway that caught my attention. It was advertising a local church, and the slogan at the bottom read, “One of America’s Most Exciting Churches.”

Says who? President Bush? Jerry Falwell? Your mom?

That’s a pretty bold statement to make. I wonder how the experts conducted the research and developed their conclusions. I’m pretty sure the Exciting Churches Review Board never visited MY church, but perhaps their sources had already told them we wouldn’t make the cut. And it’s too bad they limited their research to the United States. I mean, with just a little more effort, they could have collected Excitement Factor data on all of the churches in the world. And really, why stop there? If there really IS life on Mars, wouldn’t you want to know whether there might also be exciting churches there?

And how exciting IS this church? Do people camp out 48 hours in advance just to be first in line to get a seat? Do the ushers swallow your offering money and then magically pull it out from behind their ears? Do they feed 5000 people at their potlucks with only a loaf of Wonder Bread and a can of tuna?

OK, I probably shouldn’t mock a church’s efforts to draw people in to hear the Gospel. But seriously, I can’t imagine ever attending a church that has the audacity to claim to be one of the most exciting churches in America. Unless the Fruits of the Spirit are amended to include “Excitement,” I won’t be making a Sunday morning commute to this oh-so-exciting church.

Exactly three months have passed since I started my 101-in-1001 project on February 8. During those 89 days, I have completed 15 of the 101 items on my list. If I keep up the pace, I should be finished long before November ‘09. But I’m not counting on it…

If you go look at my Original List, you can see which ones I have already completed. Fortunately, I’m making progress on quite a few of the others, so I figured it’s time for a little update.

1. Learn to like pickles. — I have graduated from bread & butter to dills. I no longer think they’re terrible, but I wouldn’t say I enjoy them yet.

2. Own a pet. — I’m thinking about chinchillas… but I’m afraid the cage will make my house look like a zoo. Hmm. If I opt for birds instead, I automatically become an old spinster, right? Double-hmm.

5. Juggle 3 objects for 30 seconds. — I should have said THREE seconds.

10. Visit one of the 11 states I haven’t been to yet. — I have definite plans to visit one… and maybe two this summer. Odd thing is, they’re nowhere near each other! (I also have plans to visit another Canadian province.)

16. Go on a date. — Ugh. NO progress. Anyone want to help me with this one? Ha ha. But seriously… (Edited to add: I don’t like having this item on my list! I actually thought I was making progress on this at one point, but just when I thought the guy was going to invite me to dinner… he didn’t. I only wish I were kidding.)

28. Help with a Habitat for Humanity build. — I might be checking this one off on Saturday. Stay tuned.

36. Marry an amazing man. — Um, see #16. (Side note: In the past three months, I’ve only been aware of one guy who is/was definitely interested in me. He finally got an email from me that ended with the words “PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME.” He apparently didn’t think I really meant it the first time, which is why I resorted to “yelling.” Yuck. Unfortunately, you’ll just have to trust me when I say that this was long overdue.)

43. Eat/use up all food that is currently in my freezer or pantry. — Does anybody else like tapioca? If so, you’re officially invited to come over for dessert. Or if you prefer, I could knock out Thing 100 - cheesecake. Mmm.

44. Go on a real vacation. — See #10. I made the plans *totally* on a whim. To quote Inigo Montoya, “I hate waiting.”

63. Roast chestnuts on an open fire. — I happened to find a chestnut roasting pan on clearance for $2. Now I just need the chestnuts and the open fire.

69. Attend a City Council meeting. — Tonight was the first time I could have attended since starting the 101-in-1001 project. If I had thought about it before 7:00, I would have gone.

85. Bake a beautiful loaf of bread. — I baked a really delicious loaf of bread a few weeks ago, but it wasn’t beautiful. I need someone to tutor me in the fine art of shaping a nice loaf.

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I’m making tiny baby steps towards completing many of the other items on my list, but your eyes have probably already glazed over by now. And I won’t bore you with a list of the items that are impossible for me to do at this point… but the list would include such things as voting, participating in NaBloPoMo, writing a Christmas letter, and swimming at the city pool.

I have time. 912 days, to be precise.