Would You Like us to Wash your Windshield with that New Service?

Today was the start of our new worship service at church. Going into it, I felt like a little kid on the first day of school- I was excited, and nervous, and there was all this stuff that I had to do. For me personally, one of the coolest things was that I was partially responsible for planning the service. I like that I’m on the leadership team for this service, I like planning things and helping them move smoothly. It didn’t go perfectly- we went a little over on time, and the video we were going to show at the end didn’t work. But the teaching was sound and the music went well. We (the team) met with some of the families that came to the service to get feedback from them, to take suggestions about what will best aid them. People were being a little reticent to share, but I know that that will change as the time goes by.

Tonight our church hosted a dinner for the people living in Branson who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. I didn’t get to go to help out, but they were expecting 200 or so people. Apparently, there are a number of families living in Branson who have nowhere else to go. All the churches are trying to help out, the Salvation Army and some of the other charities in town are working overtime to aid the needy. We already had several charities in place to help those who need because during the wintertime, everything closes down and a lot of people who live here year-round are out of jobs. Right now, we need a lot of help in town because there’s never enough help during the summer, but in the winter, it gets really slow. I guess it’s the curse of living in a tourist town. (By the way, we need help at the bookstore. We’ve been down a person for a month.)

Pop culture moment of the day: Danielle’s brother, Jon came to visit this weekend and brought Indecision 2004 with him- you know The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’s coverage of the election last year. I swear, it’s one of the funniest things I have ever seen. They completely make a mockery of the election process. It’s really quite humorous. I have America: the Book and I laughed the whole way through it (except for the page with all the naked Supreme Court justices on it. Ew.) My interest in politics started in 1992, when Clinton became president for the first time. I was twelve and in 6th grade. My friend, Jonce was “a Democrat.” I was “undecided.” Since then, it’s been a healthy interest, not an all-consuming passion (like Jonce, who I think has political aspirations. He’s a lawyer, and I’m sure that he dreams about waking up in the White House.)

I haven’t listened to any Rent today, but the night is still young. I did watch a video I had downloaded, one of the cast on Access Hollywood. Apparently Access Hollywood went to the set while they were filming “La Vie Boheme.” The first time I watched it, I got the chills, it looked so good. Everyone singing, dancing on the tables, jumping off things. It looked great. They also interviewed Jesse, Anthony, Adam, Taye, Idina, and Rosario and they all had positive things to say (I especially liked Anthony defending Rosario’s singing voice. Some of what he said had to be bleeped out, but the effect was “that girl can sing!” It’s true. Go listen to the audio clips on the official site if you don’t believe me. She tears “Out Tonight” up.) Maybe I’ll watch my Today show video again- the cast sang “Seasons of Love” and Adam and Anthony sang “What you Own,” one of my favorites. However, my Today show video is kind of jumpy and distorted. I guess you take what you can get.

Well, I think that’s about it. Talking about Rent makes me want to go and feed my inner “Renthead.” Except it’s not really an “inner Renthead” anymore, it’s more of a fully realized and manifest “Renthead” now. So, “viva la vie boheme!”

Brianne <><