As I walked to dinner

The other day, as I was walking to the clinic, I was hailed by a small shepherd boy I sort of know.

He called out: "Rachel! Hi!"

"Hi! How are you?"

"Fine! Give me your jacket!"

"No!"

"When will you give me clothes? When I come to your house?"

"No. I'm not giving you any clothes."

By now he was following me down the road.

"You will give me clothes tomorrow when I come to church."

"No. I told you, I'm not giving you any clothes."

"Then I won't come to church! I won't come if you don't give me anything!"

"Then don't come! God is angry with you if you only come to church to get something. You know why I go to church? I go because I love Jesus. His word says, 'Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.'"

"It is true."

"So will you come to church?"

"I'll come if you give me candy!"

I looked back and shook my finger at his gleaming smile.

Although it seemed that my haphazard Sunday school lecture was entirely wasted on him, I saw him in church this morning.

Save it for the shower.

We all have that moment. That door-swings-open-and-you're-finally-home moment. You step up to the door and swing it wide, calling an end to whatever work you'd been up to at that point. Maybe a little bit of stress still hunkers over your shoulder, but you're home. You can now leave it behind you and relax.

For some, this is an exhilarating experience. Maybe you had a really good day and you're just ready to keep it going. You just can't contain that joy, that excitement. You just HAVE to burst it out and all over Creation - in song!

My advice to you is: Don't do it. Don't sing out your joy of finally being home. Hold it back. Restrain yourself. It doesn't matter if you're having a Whitney Houston moment - keep it together. Because there is ALWAYS someone nearby - whether it be in the house or outside - who, maybe, did not have such a great day and really doesn't want to hear how great yours was.

Or maybe that person is doing something that needs quiet. Say, your father is meeting with the Local Chairman. Or your sister is having piano lessons. Maybe your mom's just not feeling well. Either way, keep a lid on it. Hum if you really need to, but keep it quiet.

All this I say from a LOT of experience, particularly specific experiences, in fact. Trust me.

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I have an art studio.

Granted, sometimes it becomes a library, a research lab, pilates room, or (and most often) a coffee shop of some kind. But I like to think of it as my studio. I have canvas rolled and stacked, paintings hung from everywhere, and random statuettes and carvings that constantly serve as models. There is a MASSIVE pile of photography books on the desk - again, models. I have my watercolor, acrylic, and oil palettes propped up proudly to show the world that I'm cool like a real painter, plus my various stashes of brushes that kind of end up all over the room.

Lamp at just the right angle. A rug for sitting on while painting. A chair covered with a bright yellow wrap for when the rug thing gets old. I like to lie on the floor and let the ideas flow in, collecting in the drain of my mind.

Oh, and there's a bed in there too.

My biggest adventure yet

This blog has, so far, largely been just a collection of stories - things that have happened in my life. I see nothing wrong with that, but I realized that it isn't very helpful when people want an actual update on what I'm doing. From now on, I'll try to actually write about what's going on.

So. I'm going to India. Some time around early November, so I can be there for Diwali. I'm not solid on the details yet, but I'm going.

I hope this is the last time I blog about blogging. Writing about what you're going to write about is a tad strange.

Rejection.

An exciting way to have an adventure is to find an interesting way to do a fairly not-interesting thing. Rejecting is my current favorite - the dance craze, not as in actually rejecting anything. If we stop somewhere, I try to find an interesting thing to reject on. Or just some way to make the reject more interesting. (and, of course, all of these are going to be chronicled in the B.o.A., in case you were wondering.

So far, I have stopped, stepped and done the reject:
- On a trash heap
- While holding a banana over my head
- On an international monument
- While playing badminton
- On the trampoline
- On the carpet in the kitchen
- in the back of a pickup

Most of those aren't very interesting. But I'm going to keep trying.

Some Adventures

Interesting things are constantly happening to me. I'm not sure why. All I know is that every experience I have is a chance to have another adventure.

And, of course, each one is now chronicled in the Book of Awesome.

Some of the latest:

131. Paged someone in a department store.
It was very exciting. I grinned like an idiot the entire time, even though I was trying to convince the guy that we really couldn't find Mary.

134. Jumped on a wet moon bounce that was slowly deflating.
Have you ever jumped on a moon bounce in the rain? It's definitely a hazardous sport, for it is almost impossible to land once you've jumped - your legs simply fly out from under you.

122. Took a wok on a piki. (clever pun, clever pun...)

126. Took a tour of a mosque, unveiled and in the mens' section during prayers.
The guy in question knew my father, so it was totally cool. Although I think the hajji was about to lose his chips entirely.

141. Found a World War monument entirely by accident.
This was only a few minutes ago. We were at the immiration office in Jinja and we noticed a strange pillar type thing in the middle of a field. We went to investigate, fighting our way through the thick greenery that was embracing its base. On it were the words "IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE TWO WORLD WARS." There were the dates too, but of course I can't remember those.

#127

I put out two candles using my sweatpants.

That was last night. This morning, one of them could be found across the room from it's original place, and the other was splattered all over the floor.

I laughed so hard I snorted, drooled, choked, and fell over.