Freight Train to Nowhere

Vacation.

Starts tomorrow. I'm taking along my copy of The Idiot. Man, I am loving this book. A lot funnier than I thought it'd be. Imagine Jane Austin on steroids. Okay, now that I've repulsed you (weight lifting in those bikinis and hair growing under her lips): The Idiot is the story, at least in this first quarter, of an inter- and intra- familial tension arising out of an arranged marriage. At the center of it is a simple Prince musician, a man who has no place to call home, no money, is a foreigner in his own land, yet is of royal lineage. A man so stricken that people generally don't regard him, yet one who holds all (servants and generals alike) in the same genuine manner and is able to see them for who they truly are, and loves them - and protects them - all the same. Does any of this sound familiar?

I probably won't update much, if at all, during the next week. I had thought of plugging this site with more stuff to read, but, why the heck? Maybe by the time I come back, there'll be another posting at Further Up & Further In (maybe even done by one of the ladies!). Another week after that, school will start again here in Chicago, so I don't know when I'll be able to post or if on any sort of regular schedule. Until I get a laptop, at least.

I fully expect to be a full-time substitute teacher when the semester begins. Which'll be all right. I can make some headway into my debts again (about time!) while still spending time with my youth group. Although we're still expecting a new youth pastor to come in soon, there is no definite time schedule for that. We're looking for someone who'll come in for the long haul (five years) - no small feat for a youth worker in a fairly small urban church. But since our teens feel a sense of abandonment every time someone leaves a) the church, b) formal youth ministry, it's a necessary thing. Heck, I've been on month-by-month for over a year. They feel I'm abandoning them.

Oh, check out ol' boy Andy Whitman. He writes for Paste Magazine and has been with them since the beginning. I always enjoy reading his stuff, yet it wasn't until recently that I found out he's on blogger. Insightful, music lover (The world doesn't have enough honest-to-goodness music lovers who are short of music-geeks [the difference? I can understand one.]), heart-felt, Christian. Of course, his musical tastes run similar to mine.