Unit 34: 09.2009

9.28.2009

Visit: Smaller Liberal Church

We finally made it to visit a second church. Because the weather was nice, we narrowed it down to two churches within walking distance of our house: Sojourners and Belmont Baptist. Both were having out-of-the-ordinary services, with a special speaker at Sojourners and a 60th homecoming celebration at Belmont. We settled on Sojourners to get the full "crazy liberal church" experience. And because it is only a five-minute walk instead of 10 or 15.

Sojourners is a relatively new church and is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, which is a bit of a departure for us faithful Baptists, but in many ways it felt similar to Binkley, the church we attended in Chapel Hill, which was Baptist. It is openly inclusive of all, regardless of culture, "race, age, gender, sexual orientation, mental or physical challenges, or religious background." A banner in the sanctuary says "Social Justice." There are recycling containers. The bulletin lists upcoming community events related to peace, non-violent communication, Islam, Christianity, and other topics.

If we attended this church, probably the biggest adjustment would be that the worship service is at 9:30 instead of the more typical 11. I guess this gives you more time to do justice the rest of the day, or it would, if the service weren't as long as it was last week. We left at about 11:15, and there was still an hour of discussion planned. The special focus was prison ministries, a timely topic given the recent press about the Books Behind Bars program, and there were a lot of visitors there for the size of the congregation.

It's not a tiny church but isn't big by any standards; the sanctuary is modest and was configured in the round with chairs instead of pews. By the time they started (late), though, an empty chair was hard to come by. Attendees were truly diverse in the characteristics specified above. It really makes me wonder why all churches cannot just welcome all people, rather than forcing some to be relegated to a "welcoming" church as if it's some kind of leper colony.

Music was different but interesting. With a piano but no organ, about half of what we sang was accompanied. The service began and ended with a South African praise song that we learned by repeating the leader (no printed words or notes to look at). The closing song was done in a big circle around the outside of the room, holding hands, kum-ba-yah style - "to look into each other's faces and feel the inclusion." The choir, a 10-person group (also diverse, with one woman in traditional Indian garb) sang harmonies nicely, with one somewhat familiar hymn from the hymnal and another on an insert. The offertory music was a little different, because it began only after everyone had already given their gifts by standing up and carrying them to the communion table at the center of the room. (I liked the note in the bulletin explaining the process and adding information about how to sign up for service opportunities, reminding us that money is not the only offering we can give, but I thought it was odd to have everyone move like that in a church with a substantial number of people with physical disabilities.) Amanda pointed out that the choir has long practices, with over two hours on Sundays plus occasional Saturdays. Yikes.

Other than the offertory and closing circle, we weren't forced to move around, but there were three times when individual people stood up to share. The first was right at the beginning, during the welcome, when visitors were asked to stand and introduce themselves. Needless to say, I was horrified at this request. (We did not stand, which might be why nobody really welcomed us after the service. One woman did speak to us beforehand, though.) The second standing time was devoted to any announcements people wanted to make, about whatever topic, and the third was for sharing joys and concerns. Both of these had the potential to get out of hand, added substantial (and unpredictable) time to the service, and reminded me too much of a public meeting where angry people stand up and have their time to speak. They also interrupted the flow and any worshipful mood that had developed.

I guess I'm used to having those sharing times during the Sunday School hour, which isn't an option at Sojourners, because they don't have regular classes. I think they always have fellowship time after the service, and sometimes a special discussion as well, but no small-group Bible study classes. Perhaps the various social justice committees and the evening Bible discussion group (led by a bald man named, no joke, Dawg Strong) serve the purpose of getting smaller groups together. I worry that there are few people our age, as with most churches. There were a handful in the worship service, but I think a lot of them were visiting because of the topic.

There was a children's time, and kids left the service in two bunches to go to children's church: the little ones left right after the children's time, and up through 7th grade left just before the sermon. In most churches I've experienced, middle schoolers sit through the whole service, but I guess maybe the sermon topics are a little too adult for 7th graders?

The day's guest preacher was a young woman who challenged everyone to take the biblical charge to "release the prisoners" to heart by visiting them, praying for them, etc. It was more like a teach-in than a worship service. There was no invitation or pressurized commitment time where a forlorn minister stands up front, hands crossed, trying to sing without the words (a big plus to me).

Sojourners feels a little more like Charlottesville than UBC or First Baptist did. By that, I mean it has the granola types and the aging hippies that populate the farmer's market on Saturday mornings, plus the people with disabilities who probably ride around with the transit provider I work for, plus families who are an active part of this "liberal mecca." It doesn't feel like a university church or like a corporate everybaptistchurch.

It's focused on looking at problems and trying to deal with them. A worthy goal, to be sure, but I wonder if attending Sojourners would end up being too depressing, just as it might be too syrupy sweet for me to attend an all-smiles, praise-and-worship church. There wasn't a lot of humor or laughter at this particular service -- that could be due to the serious topic, but what if it's always a serious topic? Would I end up giving so much time to so many causes that my family would suffer? Or would it make it easier to give time to things that really matter to me?

We found out about another potential drawback to Sojourners through a small blurb in the announcements. It seems that the church is about to undergo a planning process similar to UBC's Advance, and this is happening because "our cherished pastor is retiring." So even if we go back to experience a "normal" service there, which we may do, it might not be very representative of the future.

Overall result: inconclusive.

Labels: church

9.16.2009

Advance

The Advance report/discussion at UBC met my expectations, but only because I expected it not to be what I was expecting. The presentation itself was quite brief, and the accompanying handout outlined some of the church's major strengths, the Great Commission, the names of two more task forces that will continue the work, and goals for improvement. The Advance task force itself did not really recommend anything for the church to do regarding its direction or vision.

Then there was the discussion, which was mostly dominated by a spiffy pseudo-senior named Betty. (I am fairly certain she qualifies for the senior discount but is in denial.) She brought up a few points: she is a traditionalist and attends UBC because of its traditional style. She is concerned about programs for the youth and the senior citizens. She is terrified of the risky youth activities (i.e. tubing) but is thankful that youth leaders are willing to do them. Others latched on to the discussion about youth (maybe because the middle-school Sunday School class was sitting in the room): There needs to be a full-time youth pastor. There needs to be a Youth Sunday (I was surprised to learn that there isn't.) The youth are the future of the church. The youth will only stay if we have a service with a contemporary worship style. (Honestly, I thought the "contemporary vs. traditional" argument was over a decade ago, but apparently not.)

There was also considerable discussion about ministries for international students, including English classes. One participant thought very strongly that the program should literally "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19) by getting students dunked while they're here and sending them home to evangelize. I wanted to say something about how odd it is that UBC is very happy to teach English to well-to-do international students but doesn't seem to offer anything for those members of our society who have less resources: working-poor immigrants - legal or not - who need to learn English to survive. It's as if we offer English classes for speakers of any language but Spanish. (Unless you're actually from Spain.)

There was even some mention of a hidden agenda in the Advance: a desire to start a new capital campaign for needed HVAC work and maybe some other projects. Nobody mentioned the addition of a steeple, which I've heard rumblings about before.

Apparently the two-day Advance itself was more of a presentation than a discussion, which was not what people were expecting, but the takeaway point of that presentation was that the church may have plateaued, focusing on doing programs instead of on having a vision, and that it should get back to a vision. Well, that was half of it. The other half was sort of like succession planning, trying to confront the reality that the senior pastor is eying retirement in the next few years.

Amanda never really got to say what she wanted to say, since they didn't ask for our input and filled the time with other discussion. Her input was that it feels like the church doesn't really have much to offer for people at our station in life: young married couples (without kids, for another few months). Every church seems to struggle with this. Churches often have classes or groups for singles, college kids, and young families, but the young couples seem to drift away, so there's nobody to group with. Do we drift away because there's nothing offered for us? Or do we drift away for independent reasons, making it impossible for churches to offer us programs? Whatever the reason, if the youth are the future of the church, then young couples are the church's immediate future, since youth tend to become young adults or die trying. And maybe it's OK to ignore this segment of the population, since once young couples have kids, they tend to return to church (either for free childcare or because they want their kids to grow up in a church).

Don't get me wrong; inclusion was discussed, as both a current strength and a goal for improvement. Discussion focused on how to get new people plugged in, and small groups were mentioned. Once again, there are such offerings for youth and seniors... and that's about it, other than Sunday School. The goal for inclusion reads, "Become a friendlier, more inclusive church without compromising our core values." This sounds a little like a veiled statement that inclusion is good up to a point, until it threatens our comfort levels. There is nothing about being more progressive or welcoming and affirming people regardless of disability, sexual orientation, income, etc. The church mostly seems interested in attracting young families. Amanda pointed out that this goal could be strengthened or clarified by specifying exactly what would compromise those "core values" and would not be allowed.

So I don't think the Advance gave me confidence that UBC is on a fast-track for change. Of course, there are new task forces that will do more studying and reporting, and I know patience is a fruit of the Spirit, but I am impatient. It seems as if these committees will be working on how to fit new people into the church's mold, rather than molding the church to meet the needs that exist in the community, needs that other churches aren't serving.

In Sunday's worship service, the Gospel lesson included the "dust off your feet" verse, which we have heard before from someone threatening to leave a church in Chapel Hill if the church didn't get serious about environmental ministry. Do we need to shake the dust off our feet?

One last note. The pastor's column in last week's newsletter was fairly confrontational, questioning whether the church has gotten mixed up regarding its mission and the means of achieving that mission: he pointed out that the mission was evangelism, with worship and other ministries the means. I could go on for a while about whether this is good or bad, but I'll focus on something Amanda noticed: This confrontational, challenging tone (which is somewhat energizing and welcome, from my perspective) seems to appear in the newsletters more than in the pulpit. It's the same guy, though. Is he passive-aggressive? Does he want to limit his challenges to the membership instead of Sunday visitors? Amanda came up with the most compelling potential explanation: the radio. Sunday services are broadcast live. We wonder if that makes the preaching get watered down a little to avoid offending any listeners. Just something to ponder.

9.09.2009

Home Again? (Part Three)

Last weekend, my parents were in town for a visit. (We always seem to end up going to visit them only a week or two from when they come to visit us.) After a day touring Monticello, we went to UBC on Sunday.

We managed to piddle around in the morning long enough to miss Sunday School, since they wanted to come to our class with us, and we weren't wanting to go. Our class at UBC is called "Twentysomethings," and unlike other classes my parents have visited with us, it's age-based. I'm sure it would have been fine for them to join in, since there are often thirtysomethings in there, plus teachers and their spouses who are my parents' age. But we skipped it.

Another reason we wanted to skip Sunday School was that we had a special mission. Sunday School often involves discussion, sometimes one-sided, that lasts until approximately 20 seconds before the worship service begins upstairs. This would have harmed our chances at a successful special mission, because the special mission required us to find people who have been at UBC for a long time and talk to them.

You see, when we visited my parents a few weeks ago, my mom had been going through some of her dad's old things that she had recently received. She showed us one of them, a large black-and-white photo of some men burning a piece of paper at the front of a church sanctuary. The stained-glass window behind them was unmistakably the one at UBC. Some of the paneling and columns have changed, but this was a picture taken around the time my mom was born, when her family lived in Charlottesville and attended University Baptist Church. (She was six months old when they moved away, so she doesn't exactly remember living here.) Because we had been out of town since our visit to my parents' house, we hadn't shown this photo to anyone.

My mother immediately succeeded in finding someone who recognized the photo. "Oh yes, I was there," he said. "I recognize all those people." The event was a note-burning to celebrate the church paying off a debt of some kind, probably for the building. UBC might already have a bunch of these photos, since photography isn't generally practiced in the Sanctuary except on special occasions, but we gave him the photo to keep with the church's collection.

And then my mom turned to me. "Isn't that neat?" she asked. "You have an old tie with this church."

Home. It's an interesting word. Is the old tie I have with UBC - the fact that my grandparents went there - enough to make it my home? Does that mean it's the right place for me now? Not necessarily. But added to the fact that I spent four years there, that it was the right place for me during that time, and that the church gave generously of itself to support Jubilate, a ministry I benefited from... there is an argument to be made.

And because of all those factors pulling on me, it does kind of feel like cheating to be visiting other churches. And I feel paranoid. In last week's issue of The Word, UBC's weekly newsletter, the pastor's note quotes John Chandler's book Courageous Church Leadership:

I once asked a church architect about why there were so many church arguments about the selection of the color and style of the carpet. He replied that, while very few people understood technical issues related to roof trusses, nearly every person in the church got up in the morning, stood in front of the mirror, and decided that they knew what looked good. Everyone is an expert in what looks good! By the same token, people who have extensive experience 'attending' church sometimes automatically assume that they have great experience 'leading' church. While flying as a passenger in a jet plane doesn't necessarily mean that you know how to pilot one, that does not stop many from offering criticism to those in the cockpit.

As I said, I am paranoid. Although the pastor then tied this to being appreciative that people serving on the Advance Task Force were church leaders and not just attenders, it seemed like it could be directed at me for posting my thoughts here. I know it's not. Exchange of ideas is valued at UBC. Besides, I am not trying to criticize the leadership of any church. I am simply offering the view from the pew, which necessarily involves observations and descriptions of what seems to work and what doesn't.

Speaking of the Advance, I am looking forward to this Sunday, when we will hear UBC's Advance Task Force Report. (The church was going to hold a planning retreat, then somebody pointed out that they didn't want to be retreating from anything, so they changed the name to the Advance. Really. They stuck with it.) We were unable to attend the Advance, since it was on our anniversary weekend, but I am hopeful that the report and ensuing discussion will be encouraging regarding UBC's future. Part of me hopes that it will somehow make it clear to us that UBC is the right place for us and that we don't need to be searching for something else. I know the presentation will not cement anything like that, but I am still interested to hear what was discussed and any recommendations the task force came up with.

Cliffhanger!

Labels: church

9.07.2009

Home Again? (Part Two)

Deciding to visit other churches is a little like deciding to try to have a baby: Even after just one time, you're committed. We've still not visited more than one other church in Charlottesville, but it's always on our minds.

The last Sunday of August, we were in Greensboro for our first visit since moving to Charlottesville. So we went to College Park, the church that caused all this ruckus. Here is one reason why I liked that church. I do not know Peggy Hester, but her words explain things much better than I can: "Bumps in the road happen in this congregation as ... in all churches but somehow they seem to maintain a sense of foolishness that rounds the sharp edges and smooths out the rough places." You can probably imagine some of the bumps in the road to becoming a progressive Baptist church a mile or two away from a common meeting place of the Southern Baptist Convention. Evidence of the sense of foolishness is easy to find, too, thanks to the magic of YouTube. I am looking for a church with a sense of foolishness along with a sense of mission.

I did a lot of math on Sunday morning. I learned not too long ago that when you feel that tickle in your eyes, and you are thinking about something that is going to make you cry, one of the best ways to maintain composure is to occupy your brain with something else, and math problems are relatively easy to create on the spot and work on. Being back at College Park brings back some memories. And I am not a big weeper most of the time, but I did a lot of math on Sunday morning. In the hallway right after we got there. In the packed, overheated Sunday School room. And in the Sanctuary.

It wouldn't be fair to let College Park off without a little examination of the details of the service, but mostly, I like the way they do things. Specifically:

The bulletin always contains a selection of quotes for reflection. They are sprinkled throughout the service: one beforehand, one at the Moment of Silence after the anthem, one at the Offertory, and one at the end under the Postlude. These are not Bible quotes; they are usually from non-Biblical poets, authors, philosophers. Example Meditation of Preparation from Sunday: "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." - John Donne
The bulletin is smaller than it used to be. With a responsive reading or two, a bunch of announcements, and the aforementioned quotes, and because they often use hymns that aren't in the Baptist Hymnal, the bulletins at College Park had gotten absurdly long before we moved away. It was not unusual to pick up a 16-page booklet in those days. Now, though, the bulletin was the size of the one we had used the week before at Manassas Baptist: a single 11x17 sheet, tri-folded (plus a survey on an insert). Yay for saving paper!
The Meditation of Preparation, Lighting of the Candles, Tolling of the Hour, and Welcome and Announcements (including the stand-up-and-shake-hands time) are all done before the Prelude. This allows the prelude to establish the mood of worship without a lot of gabbing during it, and the meet-and-greet doesn't mess things up. I've heard other churches argue that they can't do things that way, because late-comers will miss the announcements and meet-and-greet. But you know what? People can get there on time.
After a Bible reading, there is a response. This is typical of liturgical churches, and it is often, "This is the Word of the Lord; Thanks be to God." At College Park, though, one little Word change keeps things fresh. On Sunday, the verses were from Acts and about the early Christian community. So the response says, "This is the community of the Lord; Thanks be to God." Somebody has to spend time figuring out what the response should say, and I think it's worth it.
The Blue Cards are good. These nifty little pew-rack cards provide space for visitors to make their presence known, space for members to volunteer to serve, and space for anyone to make a statement of intent to join the church. (This makes it possible to avoid a spoken invitation at the close of the service, which was very new and different for me at first but a pleasant change from the typical scene of the pastor standing up front, looking lonely and dejected that no one has come forward.) I have even known the Blue Cards to be used to communicate anonymous messages to ministers, such as asking them to clarify their use of the phrase "in lieu of."
The communion table up front had small framed photos on it. We forgot to walk by and see what they were, but this is one manifestation of how College Park is able to personalize religion. I remember one month where people were invited to bring in action figures to go on the table. Although I've forgotten the exact meaning of that exercise, I know it was yet another way to get people involved with God in a personal way - and to make church sacred and reverent but not untouchable (Amanda's words).
There are clear instructions in the bulletin. The setup for kids after the children's sermon is kind of complicated: 3-year-olds go to a toddler room, up to 1st grade go to children's worship, and older kids sit in Big Church. This is explained clearly in the bulletin, along with what ages/grades are invited to come forward. As a kid, I remembered agonizing over when I was too old to be going up there. Someone probably thought it was best to let kids decide when they weren't kids, but this is not true. Kids want to be teenagers. So we had lots of too-cool 8-year-olds dropping out of the children's sermon back in the day.

Speaking of the children's sermon, it featured precious darlings saying something funny, as usual. In this case, they were supposed to be coming up with rules for living together in community. They were doing pretty well until one bright child suggested an important rule: "Do not show your--," whereupon the adult leader wisely interrupted, "OK, let's stop there."

To be honest, we were a little disappointed when we learned that the pastor was out of town for our visit. I was hoping for a Dr. Seuss sermon from his summer series. But God works in unexpected ways, and the excellent sermon we heard seemed oddly appropriate for us. It was from Cindy, the Sunday School teacher we had at College Park, and it was her first time preaching. (She may have been terrified, but she did a great job.) In 2006, she invited us to her class, and we went often, even though we were the youngest people there and didn't always contribute much to the discussion. She was one of the most influential people for us there.

The topic was the church as a community - a diverse one. People have a need to be accepted, included, and involved in a community: the concept of koinonia. This word has lots of meanings for Amanda and me. From the funny and memorable Koinonia Farms monologue at BSU in college, to the slightly awkward koinonia dinner groups at Binkley, to the real spirit of koinonia we found at College Park, we have now ended up looking for that sense of community again. Churches of all sizes often seek to create it through small groups, and neither of us has much experience belonging to a small group that meets in homes regularly.

Cindy quoted from a blog (this one?) about a place "where I can be my most ME." The right church community is where I can be my most me. She also said that at its best, the Christian community is counter-cultural. She pointed out that no Christian community is perfect, but that Christian community is incredibly important for spiritual growth. I liked all these little sound bites, and they speak to what's going on with our church-hopping.

One of the highlights of the sermon was towards the end, when any narcoleptics were jolted awake by sudden, loud drumming. This accented the return to a central thread Cindy had woven through the sermon: she had seen a drumming circle in Asheville (the Charlottesville of western NC) that was full of diverse people with crazy different beats, but eventually, they all began playing in rhythm. The right Christian community is like this drumming circle: it blends with your unique beat, although the other drummers aren't drumming exactly the same way. And it may take time to find the circle that blends with your beat, Cindy said, but don't give up. An encouraging word for us. (And maybe this is a stretch, but she said something about the "throb of the Spirit" that reminds me of Derek Webb's new song that questions whether some Christian communities would rather just have the literal drumming circle - the latest gimmick - than feel the genuine beat of Christ.)

A bonus from the sermon was getting to hear some of Cindy's personal story that we really hadn't heard before. But enough about the sermon. After that was a short focus on a recent missions effort at a nearby elementary school that serves a lot of kids from low-income families. Two staff members from the school visited the church to share their thanks for the work, and it was a perfect example of evangelism through service, as I mentioned at the end of this post. Although there was some applause after these visitors spoke, I have been strongly advised that the congregation is not Claptist and was just being polite.

I have to add that whenever I hear the parting song from Sunday, "Go Now in Peace," I always end up thinking of the alternate title that I heard somewhere along the line... Maybe we came up with it in middle school, or maybe my dad penned it to represent his agony at the end of a long sermon, but it does sound an awful lot like "Go Now and Pee."

So overall, a great visit at College Park, with a little of what we remember and a little new. Of course, it's not fair for us to compare the welcome we felt there to what we receive when visiting a new church like First Baptist, because we knew people at College Park. And Cindy gave us a shout-out at the end of the service so people would come by and say hello, which was special. But I know that anyone else who filled out a blue card that Sunday also got a handwritten note from someone a few days later, and I hope they appreciated it as much as we did.

God is calling us to a life together; will you join me?

Cindy ended her sermon with this question/challenge. And it made me do some more math, since we did join in the common life at College Park. And it was tough to leave, which we knew would be the case. If I haven't mentioned this before: one of the first times we were at College Park, Amanda said, "It's going to be hard to leave this place." Because we knew we would have to leave. And we could have gone somewhere that would be easy to leave, since we knew it was coming. Instead, we invested ourselves there... and it was worth it.

Now that we're settled in Charlottesville (hopefully for good), we want to make sure we're investing ourselves where it will be hard to leave.

9.02.2009

Good things for August

I am stealing this concept. I think it will help me to be more positive. So I tried to jot down a good thing for each day of August, and here they are:

August 1 - Brought Spudnuts to Phillip and Ashley's house and helped pack their stuff into a U-Haul and completely used up two Mr. Clean Magic Erasers on their walls.

August 2 - Talked with Phillip and Ashley for a while, since they were homeless for a day and spent the night at our house.

August 3 - Rode with some of Amanda's family to Waynesboro to help Phillip and Ashley move in, and got to eat Crystal's fiery Cheetos on the way.

August 4 - Had a very quiet day at work because most everybody was at a conference in Roanoke.

August 5 - Spent multiple hours driving to and from Roanoke with a work colleague I didn't know very well... I was sort of dreading this trip, but it was good conversation.

August 6 - Drove a bus and passed an undercover Public Relations ride-along. I greet people and tell them how long we'll be sitting at timestops!

August 7 - Amanda and I set up our new indoor composter.

August 8 - We shopped 'til we dropped (6 HOURS!) and actually ended up buying some of the things on our shopping list. But we didn't buy anything at the baby store... yet.

August 9 - Exercised freedom of religion (and freedom of critiquing the way they do church).

August 10 - Went to the Bartley house for Jacob's birthday dinner. Crystal asked if it was fun to make a baby. She is WAY too old to be asking things like this innocently.

August 11 - Drove a bus and did not get rained on (much).

August 12 - Enjoyed watching Amanda spend some time with a blanket up her shirt trying to see what things will be like in a few months.

August 13 - On the way to work, I watched a green walnut fall from a tree onto the street, bounce, and roll a long way down the hill slightly faster than I was walking, and I pondered the chaos of life.
August 14 - Amanda and I were very excited to open our indoor composter after it had been sealed for a week to grow the cultures. The stuff we had put in there before... it was all unrecognizable! Except for a small dried flower. But... success!

August 15 - Lovely drive along the Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park, with a couple short hikes. It was in the mid-70s instead of the mid-80s up there. And we saw a few black bears from a safe distance.

August 16 - We had a great guest preacher at UBC, and he (and his wife!) recognized me.

August 17 - Spent a few extra minutes at work because I was in the right place at the right time to get drafted to take a wheelchair bus to UVA to help a family that was stranded.

August 18 - Got new CTS/UTS bus guides.
August 19 - Came home early before going to drive a charter for international students.
August 20 - Toilet repair with my father-in-law.

August 21 - A rural church delivered lunch (fried fish!) to work.
August 22 - Shared a funnel cake with Amanda and a turkey leg with my dad at the 60th Annual Prince William County Fair.
August 23 - A decision-free lunch for me, since I got to taste stuff from my parents' and Amanda's plates: my own salad, a shrimp, a bite of fish, a few ribs, a few fries, and a quarter of a slider.
August 24 - Wrote a birthday card, or at least meant to.
August 25 - Took the afternoon off to drive buses in heavy traffic for the first day of classes at UVA.

August 26 - Went to the Meade Park farmer's market and came back with four gigantic peaches, flowers for Amanda, and an impulse-buy of sticky buns made with chocolate. Also, there were some kids that had fun with my bike horn, although that may not have been a "good thing" for the people near them.
August 27 - Met Amanda on the Downtown Mall for dinner.
August 28 - Played Rook (for the first time) with Todd and Amy.

August 29 - Had cheesecake in Greensboro and played (not Rook) with baby Evan, who is not a baby now.

August 30 - Church at College Park (thoughts coming soon) and lunch with friends we abandoned.

August 31 - Bodo's for Amanda's Birthday Breakfast (I have never gone out for a birthday breakfast before, and her parents had never been to Bodo's).

Labels: good things

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