Fluoridation Is The Most Monstrously Conceived and Dangerous Communist Plot

After hours and hours of delays and a long dinner with my parents and Mr. & Mrs. Eades, I stood at the end of the escalator anxiously awaiting the return of our beloved ex-patriot compatriots. My eyes tear’d over with boundless joy when I spied Dwight’s humongous halo of hair, and I charged him like a Raging Bull ready to strike the matador… or his wife (that one’s for you, Jamie). I buried my face so deeply into Dwight’s buxom chest that I failed to see Erin walk right past me. Turns out that I suck as a boyfriend- not that the past four years hadn’t proven that already…

I drove Erin home in my parents’ Lexus and was, as Keith would later describe, “giddy as a little kid” – so giddy, in fact, that I found it unreasonably difficult to keep my eyes from drifting to the pretty girl on my right. As you may know, when a driver’s eyes drift to the right, the car tends to do the same- a fact that was not lost on the officer behind me, who promptly pulled me over.

“I noticed you were swerving a little bit back there, and I just wanted to make sure that everything was okay,” announced the Fuzz.

“Sorry, I just picked up my girlfriend, and I haven’t seen her in six and a half months, so I’m a little excited,” I stammered exceptionally excitedly.

“You couldn’t wait until you got home?”

“I’m…. just…. excited…” I declared just as extraordinarily excitedly as before. After confirming that we had just come from the airport, the Man in Blue let us continue on our way, to revel in our excitement until we passed out watching Steve McQueen steal the heart of his leading lady both on and off screen (bonus points to anyone who can name the movie!).

Good tidings to you and your kin. See you in Chattanooga, but first, bring me a drink of pure grain alcohol and rain water.

Update from Kris

Someone (Brian) once told me- in reference to housing- "Ethiopia is such a breeze compared to the states. You have no idea." I would like to emphatically disagree based on my first night in my new Ethiopian house.

So, it had been a great night. Had dinner with the landlord family, Jen called, and I was doing some reading before bed. Out of the corner of my eye, I see something run across the floor. As it turns out, it's a massive rat. Some of you will be proud to know that I didn't scream. But I could have. Very loudly.

The night turns into an effort to get him out. I almost squashed him once by slamming the door as he was crawling along the top of it, but then chickened out. At another point I thought that he was out, only to find him back in my room a few hours later. He found a hole. Or rather, many holes. I would stuff one, only to see him coming back in through another. If I didn't see him, I heard him… or imagined that he was crawling on me in my sleep. Definitely a breeze.

But don't worry! I was ready and waiting with my Amharic dictionary opened to 'mouse' when landlord mom came out at 6am this morning! She, obviously, thought this was hilarious. But the holes have been stuffed, the mosquito net hung so it can't eat me, and the cat is sleeping with me tonight. And I'm bonding with the family. We're off to a good start.

Things really are going well. The last two weeks have been awesome as far as relationships here go. And God has been pretty cool too. I had decided that my method for getting through the holidays was going to be not to acknowledge them. I was quickly reminded that it's really not about me. Some awesome Christmas music (including It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. Weird) was forced upon me and then an Advent reading guide from Mountain Brook Community circa 2006 mysteriously appeared. I have no idea how this made it to Ethiopia, but there it was. I've been reading through it and it's been awesome to focus on the prophecy and sovereignty leading to Christ's birth.

In other news… I miss you guys! You should know that the first thing I did upon moving in was hang family pictures all over my house. You are all well-represented and often laughed at by visitors. Hope you're all having Happy Holidays and enjoying wrapping up the semester/ getting a good break from work! Hopefully I'll be talking to most of you soon…? Much love!

Finally Over

While watching Man vs. Wild last night I was keenly reminded of my experience in med school this semester. Bear was attempting to climb down a waterfall and holding on to a vine for dear life while thousands of pounds of water were crashing against him threatening to send him plummeting to the rocks below. Somehow, my experience of sitting in a lecture hall while my unrelenting professors threw countless amounts of material at me seemed very familiar to Bear's situation. Fortunately, just as Bear eventually reached the bottom of the fall unscathed, I have now made it through one of the most stressful weeks of my life and am done with my first semester of med school. And despite what Brian may tell you, it actually is as hard as people make it out to be. The unfortunate part about it is they like to cram all the things that make it really hard into about 2 days and it was pretty much all I could do to keep my sanity...I think I lost it for a few hours.

In other news, I finally got a ring for Kimberly. We didn't have one until just recently because we were waiting on some details to work out with a ring that she had in her family, but that kinda fell through so we went and got one! Thought I would let you all see it.

The Move-In: A Tale of Toil

dear friends and famil- er, friends and friends:

my dad, my grandpa, and i are driving my crap down to birmingham today, and moving it into my new place tomorrow. the offer of buying a coke or pepsi product for each or any of you as remuneration for your assistance in transferring the aforementioned crap into the aforementioned apartment (townhouse, technically, which was not aforementioned) still stands. my grandpa can't help carry stuff in because of recent back surgery, and my dad technically can, but really shouldn't, because he has a bad back (genetics? probably. woot). i know many of you have employment obligations during the days, but if you don't... help would be awesome. won't take very long at all with even 1 or 2 people helping.

sincerely indebted to the hoped-for help of you, the reader...

-brian

This one's for Brian

"'W00t,' a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year online poll that best sums up 2007." (Source: Express, a publication of the Washington Post)

Ohhhh. So that's what Brian's been doing - all this time, Brian has been summing up 2007!

it's a boy!!!

...cott. it's a boycott. of a few things, actually.

tonight, david and i learned (via "Planet Earth") that blue whales weigh 400,000 pounds. i repeat: 400-freakin-thousand pounds. for the record, that's more than the mass of mount everest (please don't look that up-- just take my word on it, or else my argument won't be very strong). is anyone else disturbed by this? is anyone out there willing to join me in boycotting this fact? incredulous masses, unite!

another thing i'll be boycotting, and i urge you to join in the cause-- Neopolitan ice cream. why? because i learned something else on tv tonight: girls in Napels sometimes invite ancient corpses (whose remains are hanging on the walls of some famous tomb) to their weddings... for good luck. i don't trust ice cream made by people like that... even if it's free with any meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory. [To Kara and Ryan: if you invite a dead guy to the wedding, and he shows up... i swear on his own grave that i'll kill him.]

and also Madonna. apparently her image is "omnipresent" in Napels. that can't be right-- "omnipresent"? somebody (i.e., the narrator) must be a HUGE (we're talking blue whale sized) fan of 80's/90's controversial pop stars. but i'm boycotting Madonna just incase she really is as present as God in Napels. because that's messed up. and while i'm at it, i'm boycotting the narrator for his overexaggeration... and for his overuse of the word "the": he keeps saying it in front of Madonna's name. "The Madonna." what's with that? she changed her name to one word for a reason.

oh, and studying for finals. i'll be boycotting that, too.

You can't hide

So I was poking around the list of posts on our blog, and I found one that Emily started, but never posted. Wow, I wish she had. It's only a little ridiculous:

Happy Halloween from the Remarkables!
get it? kinda like the Incredibles, only with an R, for Remington, or Remarkable... that was Eric's doing, and he was pretty proud of it. The costumes were mostly my doing... I was equally proud of my craftiness. It was hilarious. Thought y'all might get a kick out of that one- we miss you all!

strange who you see in this city

i shared an elevator yesterday with this guy



anyone recognize him?
i miss you guys!

advent

-noun
1.a coming into place, view, or being; arrival

I remember when i was little, just loving the song It Came Upon A Midnight Clear. there was something so eerie and beautiful about it. tonight i fell in love with it again. and i wanted to share it. read it a few times. it gets better every time. especially the last two verses. enjoy:)

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men
From heavens all gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled;
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world:
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

O ye beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
Oh rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace, their King,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

This American Life

I often listen to podcasts while I work, and I just listened to a really cool episode of "This American Life," an hour-long, documentary-style radio show on NPR. This episode had two acts. Here's the description:
"Stories about unintended consequences of market forces. A Tulsa businessman tries to cut costs by bringing workers from India to Tulsa. And two competing TV news teams in Boise, Idaho, begin with the same set of facts and end up with opposite conclusions."

Both were really good, and both relate to things some of us care about, ahem, Jamie and Aaron. So, if you have some time to listen, you can download the podcast for free from Itunes. It's the most recent episode, #344: The Competition.