nanovivid

It’s been much too long… Finally, here is part one of a three-part series of updates (props if you can get the song reference in the title). The plan is to work through the last week several days at a time. So without further adieu, I present Saturday through Tuesday (December 28 - 31).

Tonya arrived at my house Saturday afternoon, after getting lost on Afton Mountain thanks to my slightly vague directions (for future reference, "go down the mountain" actually means, "turn right, go to the top of the mountain, and then go down). Needless to say I got ragged on for that one. After she got there and some extended family left, we went to Patti’s for dinner. It was delicious, but it takes so much energy for me to be around her (Patti, not Tonya… and I mean that in the nicest possible way). After dinner, we watched some tv, including Trading Spaces, which inspired my mom to want to redesign the master bedroom. So after getting home, we proceeded to come up with a design plan (and it’s pretty cool, if I do say so myself… which I do). Now we’ll just see how long it takes to get implemented. :-)

After the design festivities, Tonya and I proceeded to stay up much too late hanging out and talking, which of course was way fun. We also went outside to look at the stars, which, as is typical at my parents’ house, were beautiful. Good times.

Sunday morning, we got up and went to church with my parents and brother. They go to a house church called… actually, the name escapes me. It was an ok service. I tend to be fairly cynical about church stuff these days, but I thought the pastor had some really good stuff to say about christians needing to live in the here and now and not be so focused on the impending "end times" that they forget about their task of loving people. Makes sense to me. The end of the world may or may not be coming soon, but being in the here and now is the immediate task, not focusing on escaping in some potentially impending rapture (especially since people have been reinterpreting the end times stuff in the bible to fit the current day ever since, well, ever since it was written). These days, end times ideas seem to have a lot more to do with merchandising and getting out of thinking about what needs to happen in the world now than anything else. I’m sure there are some good motives, but like I said, I’m cynical. Just my $0.02.

After church, Tonya and I drove into Lynchburg and went to Lowes to gather paint samples for the bedroom redesign, Wal-Mart for me to use my gift card (thanks Marsh Family) and get some cds (I got Daniel Bedingfield - Gotta Get Thru This and Sixpence None The Richer - Collage - A Portrait of Their Best), and ran a few other errands. We were planning to eat at the Drowsy Poet (a great coffee shop) but didn’t realize it was closed on Sunday. Then we were going to eat at Chick-Fil-A… same situation. So we stopped at Subway on the way home. The Drowsy Poet it ain’t, but as far as fast food goes, it’s definitely tops on my list.

Sunday night, not too much happened (for me anyway). But a lot happened on Monday. I slept in (yay for breaks) and then made my way over to Mark’s apartment where Jeremiah and Ryan were waiting. We made get some food and grab some movies from Blockbuster. When we got back, Rianna and Rachel were waiting for us. Introductions were made and we got down to business. Pulp Fiction was the first movie of the day. Jeremiah originally picked it as a make-fun-of movie but after the girls’ adverse reaction and Ryan’s and my fairly positive reaction, that idea faded. My general take on the movie is that sure, there is a lot of violence and stuff that is offensive to some people, but I found it to be a very interesting commentary on the nature of redemption by showing the different paths chosen by two people who started out very similarly. Jules’ decision to give up his life of crime and change his ways is inspired by what he sees as an "act of God" while his partner Vincent sees it as a chance occurrence. This small difference of opinion takes their lives in drastically different directions. In addition to this aspect of the movie, I also enjoyed the out-of-order edit and circular plot structure… very cool.

After the movie, we all piled into Rianna’s car and headed to Roanoke to eat at the Olive Garden. There was excellent conversation (the quote from this entry stems from that) and (after we got done being lost) wonderful food (though Jeremiah found his a bit too spicy… wimp ;-). Then it was back to Mark’s for another movie.

Memento was the second movie choice. It was my second viewing, and I liked it even better this time. It’s a major "wow" type movie as far as having lots of unanswered questions at the end. Similar to Pulp Fiction, Memento is an out-of-order edit. They are very different movies though. Memento was much enjoyed by all and I highly recommend it.

Monday was such a fun day for many reasons. It was awesome to finally meet Jeremiah’s "R Posse" - Ra, Ri, and Ry. The movies were cool and the food and company great. Plus I got to see Mark again, which was really nice. Thanks to everybody involved for an excellent funado :-).

Finally, on into Tuesday (New Years Eve). I had an eye appointment in the morning, and other than getting the massively annoying dilating drops put in my eyes, it was fairly uneventful. During the afternoon I hung around and read some, until the evening. Then we had a bonfire (or "bondfire" as Ryan likes to call it) at my parents’ house and after that Ryan, Jeremiah, and I went to Mark’s apartment to hang out and watch Adult Swim’s New Years Eve Bash. It was fun to get to hang out with Ryan a little longer, but we missed having the other two Rs there. After taking Ryan home, Jeremiah and I stayed at Mark’s a little longer to talk with him and then Jeremiah came back with me to spend the night at my parents’. We got in around 3am and slept in until about 12 noon. Then it was time to head home… and that will be covered in Part 2. :-)

♫ LP-T - The Move (Original Mix)

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