Baciami, Part 2

Remember in February when I wrote about how I want the kiss on the cheek greeting/farewell to come into my life more? Well, I apparently am ahead of the news. Today Katie Courie and sweet Al did a special on how popular the cheek-kissing is getting.

This evening I am flying to one of my absolute favourite cities--Boston, Massachusetts. Of course, Boston is where Joy and I got engaged, and actually, it was in Boston during that visit that I started this blog. It seems we've come full circle. Tomorrow night I will be celebrating with many a Taylor grad as we go to the graduate recital of Mr. Taylor Horner, bass. Yeah, it will be fantastic. And you better believe that when I see all of these friends, a friendly kiss will be in order.

John Wesley Prayer

One of the classes I am in this semester involves the integration of psychology and theology. I have a big paper for the class due on Wednesday (rough draft finished today baby!) and in my reading on spiritual direction, I came across this prayer by John Wesley:

O Lord Jesus,
I give thee my body,
my soul,
my substance,
my fame,
my friends,
my liberty, and my life:
dispose of me and all that is mine
as it seems best to thee.
I am now not mine, but thine:
therefore claim me as thy right,
keep me as thy charge, and love me as thy child.
Fight for me when I am assaulted,
heal me when I am wounded,
and revive me when I am destroyed.
Amen.

I don’t know about you, but I find that strikingly beautiful. I have been continually reminded that Christ calls us to transformation and that transformation involves the whole person. This journey of surrender to the will of God (to borrow from Thomas Merton) continually reminds me that God desires and demands my all, and so often, I barely give Him anything.

Mandisa

There is indeed injustice in the world. Tonight Mandisa left American Idol and people such as Bucky stayed. I almost cannot take it in. I guess it helps when I remember that most voters are probably a decade younger than me, but still, there is no excuse. There are several contestants I still like, but Mandisa reguarly ranked at the top of the list for me. Because quite frankly, when it came down to pure vocals, I don't think she could really be beat. And heck, she had a pretty poised stage presence too. Alas, she is now off of the show and I regularly wait to see just how far Bucky can go as he leads our nation further and further into disgrace. Am I upset and biased? Absolutely. But hey, that's part of the show.

Doober's Diner

I have recently become an addict of the Food Network. Now, I’ve never been too much of a TV watcher, but it’s begun, and it really is quickly becoming a full-blown addiction. I realized this the other day when I got up, and as I was brushing my teeth, went out to turn on the Food Network to see what was on. Then there was that night where I watched four hours in a row. You see, I’ve always loved cooking, and recently, Joy and I have decided that we want to have a show on the Food Network. Now, I’m not sure it will ever happen, but we now regularly find ourselves talking about our show, what we’ll call it, what our signature stuff will be, etc. We are in fact planning on beginning to video tape each other cooking meals in our kitchen as we pretend we’re on TV. Yes, we know we’re odd and we’re working through that.

Now, you must not think that this food and cooking through is new. I mean, most of you have probably never heard of Doober’s Diner. Well, Doober was the name of my late three-legged dog that I got during my freshman year of high school. (Actually, for the record, when Doober’s Diner began, he probably still had four legs. After he lost one during that rough winter, he became known as Tripod.) But back to the Diner. You see, omelets were always my specialty, so I decided I was going to open up a restaurant right in my home where we would make the best breakfasts known to Shelby. So I made up a menu, listed the ingredients, thought of some prices, and printed them off. And for those of you who think this may be joke, let me assure you that it is not—I was dead serious about this diner. I would regularly tell people at our church about it and ask them when they were coming. For some reason, they never did. And then I would try to get my family to come to Doober’s Diner, but for some reason my parents didn’t want to pay to have their breakfast made at the Diner in their kitchen when they had paid for all the ingredients stored in the fridge. So needless to say, Doober’s Diner did not last long, but the dream has lived on.

So I’ve got some ideas for my show for the TV network. Joy and I have thought about doing a show where we show how cooking in the kitchen can be fun when done with someone else. We can teach some basic and easy meals to young couples or friends. If I had a show by myself, I would work on showing guys a good time in the kitchen, showing them how to cook for the ladies, have a good time, and enjoy their time amidst veggies and pots and cutting boards and a freezer without frozen pizzas.

Maybe someday I’ll have my own restaurant. Fine food, cheese, and wine…it doesn’t get much better than that, right? But that may never happen it seems, but if anyone is in town and wants a good omelet or a lamb rack in a red wine reduction glaze served over asparagus, you just let me know.

Bachelor Again

Joy is in Florida for her spring break. No, she didn't go to try to get on MTV or Girls Gone Wild or anything like that. Our church youth group goes to Florida for spring break, and since Joy's spring break lines up, she's there with them. As for me? Well, I'm at home in Chicago wondering why I am not eating meals at the dining room table and wondering why my lunches aren't packed when I get up for school. Yeah, she takes good care of me. I'm finding that you really get used to living with someone very quickly. I suppose I've always lived with someone, but marriage is different, and the apartment is just a little lonely this week. Hopefully (yet doubtfully), I'll get a significant amount of school work done, because it certainly is building up entirely too fast.

In other news, I pulled out to grey hairs this morning. I think it has something to do with
1) taxes still not being done,
2) trying to figure out my class schedule/work schedule/practicum schedule for next fall,
3) none of my teams are in the final four.

Taxes

I've just about had enough. I always heard about taxes in negative terms while growing up, but I never really understood. I mean, from my end, I didn't do a thing AND I would get a surprise check in the mail. Well, those fairy-tale thoughts of the IRS have ended. I am officially an adult, and with that comes the obligation to hate tax season. You see, I don't know a thing about taxes. And my parents don't either, which is why they've always just taken all of our W-2's to some man in the city who would fix us up all nice, tell us where to sign, and then send them out. It was pure bliss. Well, as I looked to doing taxes for the first time, I decided that, by golly, I was going to learn how to do them myself. I mean, it should be easy this early in life, right? It's not like we have a house, any property, any investments, or any of that stuff that's supposed to make it really hard, but it still has been a challenge and I'm beginning to wonder if it's been worth it.

First of all, I got married last year, so Joy and I are filing jointly. Sounds good so far, right? Well, it gets complicated when the states get involved. I was a part-time resident of Ohio and a part-time resident of Illinois. So I've been on the phone several times with each of those states, trying to figure out what to check, where to sign, what form to fill out, and really, what numbers to put on that form once I find it. Although we are federally joint, we are filing "married but separate" in Illinois, putting all of Joy's stuff on her's and all of mine on mine with an added form for part-time residency. I thought that would work for Ohio too, but alas, they are different from Illinois and if you file your federal jointly, then you have no choice but to file Ohio jointly as well. And yes, you better believe there is another form for my part-time residency stuff. I'm actually getting to the point where I think I understand what's happening and am not too afraid that the IRS is going to track me down. At least I can prove that I took the effort to do everything right. Now I have just two small hurdles left: Indiana and Local Tax. Joy got a tiny check for doing something at Taylor, so we haven't figured what to do with that W-2 yet and Ohio does local tax and no one has a clue as to what to do with that. I think I might just ignore them both and hope it doesn't catch up with me at some point.

I will be pleased when this is all over. And yes, when that check comes (or more accurately, that direct deposit comes...), I will be glad of the work, but still, it just plain aint very fun. But this is grown-up land and I don't want to go to any man in the city.

Spring Break

My spring break is officially over. After ten wonderful days without classes, I was back at school for class at 7:30 on this foggy Monday morning. Needless to say, I wasn't happy about it.