a coherent collection of random statements regarding God, words and tunes

The Inauspicious Return of
"Shameless Plug #... well, you decide...." 

Long-time viewers (yes, all three of you) may remember that this time last year I bared my soul -- or at least my sense of dignity -- and shared a series of webmercials that I... um, starred?... in.

Well, it's another year, another level of Grapple (this time Junior High), and thus another batch of commercials. And for that matter, an even deeper level of ignominy.

http://grapplefits.com/ 

So... er... enjoy?

(And with my birthday being next week, it's pretty much guaranteed that the main promo picture will once more be plastered all over the f-ing building again.... )

Posted by: burninglight at 01:31 | link | comments (17)

On the Other Side of the Crossroads
(and then some...)

Yo babies,

It’s been a very eventful few weeks – and just when we thought we’d finally get a breather, it got even more eventful.

In the interests of time – not least of all, my own  – I’m just gonna answer my own issues from the last “Crossroads” post, in the order originally addressed.  Suffice to say, I didn’t get a whole lot of those predictions right, either.

1) Year two of “the curriculum that won’t go away” is, in fact, toast. Yes, I’m happy. I’d be happier if I wasn’t currently working on all the ancillary products designed to salvage some revenue from this thing (but which I’m pretty sure will amount to throwing even more money down a hole), but that’s a very temporary pain in the butt, and I think even the worst of that is over now.

2) The wedding went off without a hitch. A little windy, but a nice time was had by all, and several people mentioned how nice the ceremony was, etc. Some of that I’m sure was formality, but it was in fact a nice day. And I wound up both doing the ceremony and walking the bride down the aisle. And yes, I got through it all somehow.

The bride & groom vacationed in Telluride for the better part of the week, and scored me some cheap Taylor Ham (aka the ultimate comfort food if you grew up in Jersey) just in time for Father’s Day. (We can thank citizen Tom Cruise for something, apparently.)

Now comes real life. Prayers for all of us.

3) My dad is actually in much better shape than previously portrayed. Definitely shakier, but spent a lot of time walking around town (because, honestly, that’s what you do when you come out here), and had enough energy left over to flirt shamelessly with the mayor of Winter Park (Dave’s “second mother” -- his 1st one is still very much alive, married to his father, and happy to have Jessica for a daughter-in-law, mind you) during the rehearsal dinner. (BTW, now that I’ve finally met Dave’s father, I now have a very good idea what tim’s gonna be looking/acting like in 20 years, albeit soberer. )

4) Speaking of which, you can get the post-Hegger update at the bottom of the following entry at tim’s place. The Tension Envelopes reunion that the whole world has been waiting breathlessly for (in honor of tim’s fallen first lung, of course) will not be denied. But yeah, tim, MARCH.

5) This one, as noted in the comments of the original, is still up in the air. But we’ll need to either extend it even further or drop it, given….

6) Three days ago – i.e., less than a week after shipping her off for what we believed to be an already-long-enough two months – Amy e-mails us. There’s an opportunity starting this coming Monday for her and Sam to do DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM in Romania. 24 college credits, but it also means a five-month commitment – three for training in Tirgu Mures, and another two doing missions work at a site to be determined (which right now it appears to be between southern Romania, Ghana and Turkey).

Yeah, catch yr breath. And let us catch ours again while we’re at it.

Suffice to say there’s been a lot of soul-searching, God-searching, crying, irritation, pleading, additional coffee-drinking and consequent sleeplessness in the already temporarily empty nest called the Simmons home over the last few days. In the end, though, we said yes. Doesn’t hurt that the base leader’s originally from Jersey.

After which, we bought a cybercam and headset and created a Skype account so we can see the kid somehow between now and November.

So suffice to say, the anxiety hasn’t fully passed yet, and could accelerate around mid-September depending on the locale. 

It was even more of a blessing than initially suspected, then, that Amy came with me last Tuesday to see all the wedding guests off at the airport – it gave us time on the way back to talk about what God’s been doing in both our lives (i.e., a lot). I needed every bit of that to help process the events of the past few days -- intellectually, spiritually and emotionally.

So with that all said, anyone who cares to check out their ongoing adventures can go here. It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: Unless you're already a personal acquaintance of Amy's, look but don't touch.

7) So yeah, the nest is gonna be empty quite a while longer – specifically, until the beginning of the holiday season. More time to practice, I suppose.

8) And while it seems almost anticlimactic to bring it up after the above – literally as Item #1 was being killed, I simultaneously received official approval from the top to work on my discipleship curriculum on the clock here. No business plan or official go-ahead, but anyone here knows that just getting initial buy-in at the top is a huge step. Ergo, a lot of people in between me and said top are quite happy and downright surprised by this, and really wish that I’d do more of a happy dance about it.

Me, not so much, given a) in practicality, it means that I get to do the same thing I’ve been doing for the past nine months – I just don't have to do it secretively anymore ; b) I still haven't had sufficient time to work on it right now; c) I’ve been saying all along that this is a God thing, so while it’s been a long time coming it’s just as well it hasn’t been moving any faster; and, of course, d) Have you been reading the rest of this? Needless to say I’ve been a bit preoccupied.

So with that said: We got to do Lesson 13 (i.e., the end of Quarter 1) together with our group Tuesday night. Again, given all of the above events, Marion & I were both basket cases (and surprisingly to both of us, I was the bigger one that evening -- crap, I can't get through singing "How Great Is Our God" without melting down normally), but we walked away resolving to stay in touch, starting with the first of several town free summer concerts tonight (gad, I love this f-ing place).

Plus, we got to share what the first part of this course – and each other – have meant over this crapload of transitions for all of us (have I mentioned that said group ultimately wound up containing the entire former elder board from our old church?). All “formal” (as well as former) church stuff aside, it’s been good for us to be together to look forward and remember the things God really calls us to, and to be there for each other while doing so.

Next time we get to music for really truly maybe. There’s a lot of new stuff out there -- 77s, Sparks, Alejandro Escovedo, Frightened Rabbit, The War on Drugs -- and I'd like to get to all of them soon. Although I’m thinking I’d like to first wax poetic about Paul Westerberg(/Grandpaboy)’s 2002 (Mono)/Stereo album(s) sometime soon. Yeah, that'd be nice.

 Honestly, there’d better not be any more oncoming Mack trucks. Please, God? Pretty please?

Posted by: burninglight at 21:02 | link | comments (10)