leftovers

I left church tonight with a ziploc of steak.

I should probably explain.

Last week I had dinner at the home of one of my church families - you know, one of those fantastic older couples whose mission it is to feed and care for the hungry, or in this case a single person whose parents live a few states away. We had steak. It was delish. However, I had leftovers (my hoover-like ability to devour food is apparently strictly limited to cheesecake), which I proceeded to leave in their refrigerator. Hence tonight's delivery via the church's staff kitchen. And hence the reason that I finished the evening at church in conversation with The Boss, attempting to discreetly hold a bag of steak in my hand.

I know. Everyone should be this cool.

Um, not.

The day didn't start with steak, however. It started with my alarm going off at 6:45, rousing me from another night of wacky dreams in time to get ready for early service. This is the third consecutive week of three-fers, aka three-service Sundays. I love three-fers. Although I sometimes wonder about what I was put on earth to do, one thing I know for sure is that I was made to praise God through music. And no place has allowed me to live out that calling like LaGrave.

Today's church highlight, though, was definitely the postlude. Tu es Petra. There is no medicine for the soul quite like the sound of a full pipe organ. And today I had a prime seat for that therapy; since I played violin for the 11:00, I spent the service sitting on the little pew directly behind the organ and therefore was in an ideal location for taking in the postlude. As the piece built to its loudest, I closed my eyes and let the sounds' vibrations overtake me. Absolutely fantastic.

Between Petra and steak was an afternoon of checking out ArtPrize with my parents. To see everyone out enjoying the city and taking in the sights was an incredible encouragement. So many things just plain stink right now - the economy is terrible, unemployment is through the roof... you know the list - and yet there we all were, out and about and enjoying life and celebrating art. It's a beautiful thing.

You know what else is a beautiful thing? An enormous table and chairs on top of the blue pedestrian bridge. And Nessie. I mean, who thinks of these things?? And I would be thoroughly remiss if I did not mention the amazing pieces entered by my friends, which you can check out here and here. (I feel like I'm in a small group with celebrities!)

And one more beautiful thing:

That is the view from one of the upper floors of RiverHouse condos, where Jason's piece is being shown. Wow. Just wow.

And with that amalgamation of thoughts, I bid you adieu for now. However, tomorrow begins Spirit Week at school, starting with PJ/Slipper Day. So I have a feeling that the blog fun for the week is just beginning.