Gina

So I just need to share a really cool thing that just happened. I'm not sure that anyone will get it...maybe big brother Bryan, but nevertheless I'll tell you. I was on my weekly perusal of the Blues Traveler website (if you don't know I am out of control obsessed with this band, i know their history, all the songs, and am currently contemplating a tatoo of their symbol the black cat, and generally refer to bassist Tad Kinchla as my boyfriend and John Popper as God...but I digress) when I found that Gina (who I'll explain in a minute) was accepting e-mails for the top 5 BT songs for a new acoustic album. If the thoughts of an acoustic album weren't enough, I may have a hand in picking the songs!

Now, Gina. In BT lore, Gina was one of the earliest most steadfast fans. She eventually turned into something of a "Head Groupie" and began generating alot of publicity for the band. Now she runs the website, mailing list, etc. Also, and probably more importantly, she is the namesake of one of the band's earliest Nirvana moments in the form of music. The song, Gina, is a dedication of appreciation from the band, so for true traveler fans, she's almost as big as the band.

Ok so I write my e-mail with these songs (which you should download if you are new to Traveler)

1. Optimistic Thought

2. Mountains Win Again

3. Go Outside and Drive

4. Thinnest of Air

5. Girl inside my head

Now I didn't expect to hear anything back from Gina, assuming that there were probably millions of submisions and if I was Gina I wouldn't want to open the doors for dialogue with crazy fans like me. Maybe at the most I could expect a form letter like "Thanks we got your songs."

But NO!

Here is the e-mail:

Hi Brenna,Thanks for taking the time to send in these wonderful song picks...hope to have an update for you all soon...Gina

Short and sweet I know but note two key things: First she used my name! Yesss!!! and secondly she said my picks were wonderful. Gina approves of my choices!

This has made my week.

Lots of Love

"With things, there is a way..." John Popper

Movin' on up...

So a few great things happened this week, along with a few less than great things. Firstly the great things:

We are officially moving! Yay! We got to check out our new place this week, although we won't actually move until next Friday. It has 3 rooms and two full baths (girls and boys don't have to share) and we're the first ones to live there. Most importantly, it is a volunteer, work, boss free zone. Very exciting.

Secondly, Andy's Club might be on TV. The ABC affiliate, WLOX, is doing a story on Katrina kids and how they're expressing themselves post storm. I'm excited for this but haven't heard back from Trang (the reporter) since our initial conversation. I think she may be mad that I didn't really know who she was.

On Friday I went to Houma, LA for some fun with our friend Lauren that lives there. We went to see the world renowned (if your world is Houma, LA) Couche Couche band at the Jolly Inn for some Cajun music and dancing. We missed all the locals by about half an hour so it was just us dancing around like idiots and disgracing a whole culture of people in the process. Tons of Fun!

Not so cool: there were pickled quail eggs being sold at the gas station in Houma. Ok spit your vomit out and keep reading.

Also not cool: Both the Saints and the Patriots lost. I now have no reason to watch the superbowl.

Also, I've been left sort of alone to do Andy's Club. I was basically alone before, but now its official. E-mail me if you want details since I can't really talk about it here.

I did have a hilarious Home Depot trip with Sally-Lodge yesterday. We were picking up some things for the new place (she is a decorator extradonaiire) and we decided to do self check-out. Well, as I came to learn, this only really works with a couple of small regularly shaped things. The machine yelled at us ALOT. The person monitoring the self check out area actually had to work...ALOT. It was very funny.

Love you guys!

New Hair...

but keep reading, there's a good, new blog entry below.

These are the days it never rains but it pours...

Lately I've been feeling God's abundance in an overwhelming way. In almost every aspect of my life, I feel like I have more than I can handle. Firstly, at Andy's Club we are probably at the peak of what we can handle in terms of numbers of kids. Then yesterday, I saw that my flyer that I handed out in October, was now being recirculated to a school that I hadn't approached. So now I'm waiting for the deluge of phone calls for sign-ups. This is what I wanted but without consistent adult volunteers and reliable group transportation for field trips I can't take all those kids. I'm trying to take this one day at a time.

Work in general is overwhelming. I'm trying to fundraise for Andy's Club as well as jumpstart the homeless ministry with Pastor Scott AND work with him and Sally-Lodge learning some ministry stuff. As, I explained to him yesterday, I feel at times like I'm doing a mediocre job at several things rather than an awesome job at one thing.

Then there is all the awesome support I'm receiving from home which is in no way a burden but I suddenly have to keep in contact with people, write more support letters, go shopping with money I didn't have before. This is really ok, though, great even...just something I have to learn to do.

With Seminary, I thought the hard part was just getting in but now I spend tons of time researching scholarships and staying connected with the people in NJ I need to be talking to.

Furthermore, without being too specific, there have recently been some slight developments in my social life which could add to the anxiety in a good or bad way.

Yet, as I say all this, I can hear my brothers making the whiny voice all the way from NJ. I have so much to be thankful for- last week I was informed that Princeton is giving me a grant for next year to cover all my tuition (I still have to work on housing though), the group I was directing for the High School drama festival won three acting awards this weekend, and we're having an awesome week at Andy's Club because there's a professional dancer here from NYC this week teaching the kids African dance.

Ok, I'm gonna be fine.

There have also been some great "Welcome to Mississippi" moments this week.

First, when we were at the Gym/Community Center this weekend, there was a group of soccer mom types dancing provocatively to that song "Loosen up my buttons". If you are unfamiliar with the song, consider yourself lucky. Its one of those unfortunate things that represent everything that's wrong with America (it doesn't stop me from dancing to it when it comes on the radio though!) Just to clarify, the nature of the dance initially lead us to believe that perhaps it was one of those stripper-robics class. Got the picture? On the way out I asked the person working at the front desk what the deal was because if it was indeed a stripper-robics I wanted in. The answer was even better though. Apparrently, the soccer moms were rehearsing for this year's Mardi Gras Ball. Yes, I love the South. To follow up this was the exchange I heard while we were leaving and the belles were having a ciggy outside:

(please hear appropriate Steel Magnolias accents)

Soccer Mom A: (to B) Did you get a boob job?
SMB: No, its just my bra.

I believe this whole day set the Women's movement back 50 years.

The second story involves two of MS's favorite things- guns and daaawwwgs. I went to pick up Justin for Andy's Club yesterday and as I was pulling up I saw a police car on his street and his dog (a HUGE pitbull) running like he was on fire around the neighborhood. Justin explained he couldn't go with me because he was having trouble with his dog. Then his uncle who was standing there mentioned that the neighbor had pulled an AK47 on him when the dog was in his yard. At that point the second cop car was just pulling up. I asked if I could but since I left my wife-beater and trucker hat at home, figured I wasn't worth being cast in tonight's episode of COPS. What astounded me was that Justin's uncle (the adult in the situation) didn't have him inside and away from crazy dogs and guns. Hmmm...

Finally, as I've been sitting here at the coffee shop writing, I've been privy to a conversation between two men, discussing their options for the Saint's game on Sun. I guess the wife of one had wanted to invite some of their friends over and was asking him about it. The man explained his reaction: "I just kept turning the volume up on the TV so she would shut up but I guess it didn't work cause she kept talking." What a lucky lady.

Send me some encouragement!

God is in the Glitter Glue

Yesterday, I received two large boxes of children's books from a family in my church. Awesome. And today I opened my e-mail to find a HUGE list of things being sent to me for the after-school program from PJ at church. I am truly blessed by love from my congregation. The kids love all this stuff- books and craft supplies- because they don't have lots of access to it. I feel great pride in being able to give books away or letting them use as much paper as they want. A million thanks to Binghams and PJ!

That said, sigh, Tuesday was ROUGH again with the kids. We were supposed to have some help from the volunteers who are down here this week but at the last minute they decided they couldn't help because they were too busy preparing for dinner, so it was just me and Sarah Ann, my roommate. It ended up being another one of those days where I feel like most unequipped child handler in the world. I'm hoping for better results today as I have two hearty kids from the youth group nearby coming to help. I hope they aren't scared off right away. It will be interesting though to see how my kids deal with older kids that are authority but not quite adults. Deep breaths, deep breaths...

I'm also praying for the group I've been helping at the community theatre here. There competition is this weekend and while I feel that they have made great strides in their work, I'm not sure how it will hold up to other schools. I think I may be basing this though on Massachusett's standards which are pretty high. They had a dress rehearsal for an audience last night and while it went well, its also one of those things that feels like just one more week of practice would really do them well. I guess that's always the case in drama though.

On a whiny note, its cold here and the heat is not working all the way in my car. This sort of sucks since I don't like the cold. Also, I'm so attached to my car that I worry when she's hurting. I'm not jumping at the chance to return to the Wal-Mart auto center, however. This weekend it needs to happen along with my FAFSA form. Bug me about those things.

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

Alot has happened this past week. As I try to get back into the working spirit, I've also been forced to take a long, hard look at my life. For instance, I had to finish my financial aid forms for Princeton this week and there is a box which basically says, "So when we come right down to it, what are you worth?" I had to force the tears back as I wrote down $500. That's it. That's all I'm worth. On the one hand this is pathetic. I mean here I am with talents and a degree and I essentially have nothing except a bunch of DVDs and some fabulous shoes. However, as the week went on, I began to feel like maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all.

On Saturday, my roomie Erin and I did a "double feature" at the movies (this means we stuck it to the man by sneaking into a second movie without paying for it. I am not ashamed.) The first movie was Dreamgirls, the second was Blood Diamond. Both were really great and strangely had some similar messages most notably, how far are we willing to go, how many people are we willing to screw over in order to get some trivial material items like an outrageous house or a shiny rock?

Blood Diamond was especially political and begged the question, ok so what are YOU gonna do? For this I refer to a play I saw while I was home called the Vertical Hour with Julianne Moore. In it she played a professor of politics who had given up a life of journalism in crazy areas like Bosnia and Iraq in order to pursue a safer path of education. She struggles with the concept of not being ignorant, of knowing full well what's happening in the world and yet being a slave to Western demands just like the rest of us. The play basically asked how we can reconcile our need for change and peace with our need for comfort and safety?

Now back to my $500. While that $500 still puts me in a higher place than most people in the world, I feel better knowing that its all come from doing good. I am not cheating third world peoples out of a living wage or making an obscene amount more than the women or people of color in some company. Yet I know that the clothes I wear and food I eat may be hurting others and as much as I know about world situations I cannot give up my fancy shoes. God tells us She will provide everything we need so why can't I throw it all out and live in a hut filled only with family and whatever we're eating that day? How can I get these thoughts to stay in my head for more than a fleeting moment?

Ok, now for an awkward transition into nuts and bolts of what happened this week.

Guys and Dolls has officially been axed. Cancel your flights and front row seats, Brenna will not be performing in Gulfport. This is only mildly disappointing to me since I was becoming worried about the time commitment anyway, but I feel really bad for others who put tons of time into it. However, I'm still helping out with their kids' stuff which has been really fun and generally, I prefer this to performing anyway.

We have new kids at Andy's Club that are intense. They're great but all related so they feel comfortable with each other which means fine with punching and making fun of each other. I just feel like God was like ok you learned how to handle this lot so here's a bunch that you won't be able to handle. On top of that, my volunteer hunt is slow.

I had a great day trip with Sally-Lodge this week to the lovely, exotic Citronelle, Alabama. Her husband's company has purchased an old hotel there where they will live when in AL since most are far away. Well, Sally-Lodge and I got all girlie and were planning our grand schemes for this little hotel. I, being quite tall, was also instrumental in the removal of tons and tons of kitchy silk flowers ordaining the tacky mirrors and wall hangings in the front hall way. It was truly ministerial mentoring at its best.

Oh! Also I got a free awesome haircut this week from Heather who was here on a team from Linda's home church. I have fancy bangs and layers now. I'll try to get a picture up when I can.

Lots of love!
B