Latest life goal:

I was in Montclair with two of my cute high school girls (I was their youth leader for two years) and we were playing a photography game. Having a camera in hand always makes me more attentive to details. I found this sign on a shop and I found myself saying, "Yes, indeed. Me too."

Hope you're feeling open-hearted these days.

Melting Smelting!!

It is hotter than a mouth full of Haitian peppers. And it is raining. The weather in Swelter-delphia does not make sense to a mild-climate soul like myself. Black clouds are choking the tip-tops of the skyscrapers out my window and I'm crossing my fingers that we won't lose power for another three days. Seriously. We lost power for the entire weekend.

Last night I went to a going-away party for two fabbity fab people here in Philly and I stayed out late dancing and I cannot figure out why I wasn't entirely flattered by the guy who was hitting on me and has now called me twice. I must be getting old and crotchety. Or the weather is cramping my style. Of course there could be a million other reasons.

But I digress.

This morning I was running errands for church and I passed two different guys selling bottles of water on the side of the road. This seems to be a common summer business venture. Shirtless, often toothless fellows, drag big coolers to busy cross streets and sell bottles for a dollar. The way they fearlessly maneuver through traffic reminds me of the women at truck stops in Zambia who hold up baskets of produce for passers-buy to pluck up for a few hundred kwacha. It's a tough job and I cannot imagine they make much profit. I drove passed one ambitious salesman, brown and leathery, and I had the sudden urge to pull over and buy the whole darn cooler full of water. Across the street the parking lot of a strip club was jam-packed with cars at 11 in the morning and it gave me pause. The things we do for money are always...fraught. Yes, that's the word. Fraught.

I got a package in the mail today that made me cry. Some people are just so darn thoughtful! Thank you, Cheri!

Philadelphia Charm

I have no good excuse for the lack of blog postings lately. Lots of lovely things have happened since I last wrote. I went home to visit the fam, got to see wonderful friends in Seattle; I have read three trashy novels, watched a half dozen World Cup games, and have had some fabulous meals and coffee dates with friends here in the City of Brotherly Love. The world is chalk-full of fine folk and I seem to be crossing their paths left and right.

But I still feel some writer's block. I'm so uninspired that I stole this photo from a stranger's blog! For shame!

It is a cool picture, though, eh? Of all the things I like about living in the Northeast, this still ranks in the top three: lightning bugs. They are magical. Last night I had a wonderful dinner with three women in the suburbs and we lingered on a back porch savoring good food and drink and sorbet and best of all, the charming fairies with glowing green bellies. I love a good, sultry summer night and hats off to Philly. It does 'sultry' very well.

Sweet Carolina

I'll be honest. For most of my life "the South" has been a mythical place known only through country songs and movies about slavery and plantations and redneck ferocity distilled by female gentility and bourbon. There are lots of us non-Southerners that are truly afraid of the South. We don't get the whole confederate flag thing, nor seersucker suits and bow ties. Your accents and debutant balls, grits and greens are perplexing and I feel like a deer in headlights when I am called a Yankee or a Northerner. I was born and bred west of the Rockies and have no sense of where the Mason-Dixon line begins and ends. But I decided to expand my horizons this weekend and spend a few days visiting friends and camping in the mountains of North Carolina.

What a beautiful place.



The pictures do not capture it, but I was immediately smitten with the rolling hills, the red-clay soil, and the magnolia trees that perfume the air. Stereotypes were fulfilled left and right as I was warmly welcomed with a slow, sweet drawl everywhere I went. Do you know that in many circles the CIVIL WAR is referred to as "The War of Northern Aggression" (by the way, the word "war" is two syllables here)?! Years of unpleasantness in which the government infringed upon States rights. Yikes.

I was in the heart of the Bible belt and was amused (and incredulous) at the number of conversations amongst strangers that involved "the Lord." Spent a couple of days camping in the mountains Northwest of Raleigh and visited Winston-Salem (yes, the cigarettes) and Chapel Hill (UNC). My friend Clark and I hiked and played in mountain streams and swimming holes, studied trout and toads and snakes, and hung out in hammocks under a perfect Carolina blue sky. I especially loved that our food included brie, pepper jelly and homemade bread. This is my kind of camping.

I am feeling relaxed and refreshed and wonder why I don't do things like this more often? Lovely.

Thank you for your hospitality, friends!

I love Denmark!

These flash-mobs are all the rage and I have yet to see one that disappoints. Check out this wonderful surprise birthday celebration for a Danish bus-driver named Mukhtar!!

Getting Saved

I just reread my blogpost from Saturday and chuckled as I thought, "For God's sake Carmen, so melodramatic!" That first line from Shakespeare's Richard III comes to mind: Now is the winter of our discontent.

I've never read that play, by the way, but what a great line.

A new work week has begun and I am feeling much more cheerful. On the way to a meeting this morning I had two different people stop me to hand me a tract and ask if I had been saved. European friends, you are going to think this is insane and I imagine it would be rather shocking if something like this happened to you on a Monday morning in say, Stockholm or Zurich. But this was not especially surprising. I took both tracts, smiled and said thank you. I know these people truly have my best in mind even if I think it is a rather weird way of showing it. I suppose I could have stopped to engage one of these strangers, perhaps saying something like, "To be honest, I feel like I am saved, or rescued, on a regular basis." Belly-aching laughter has saved me from all kinds of despair. I had a cup of coffee with an old friend from college who knows all kinds of crazy things about me and still likes me. Friendship saves people all the time.

I know these people are probably worried about my eternal salvation, worried that I'll be turned away from the pearly gates. But I'm not so worried about the pearly gates these days. If there is a God, which I happen to believe, I think God is pretty interested in our todays. God is probably pretty sad about this oil spill. Doesn't like the violence that ravages homes and entire countries. God is busy delighting in all kinds of births and new loves and still probably gets excited about the sun rising and setting day in and day out.



Funny Americans.

I have some fun things planned in the coming weeks. Going camping in North Carolina (what up, Southern states!?!? Stoked to check you out!) and I get to spend a week at home with the fam in early June. I cannot wait. I plan to hold baby Alissa as much as possible.

Wishing you all kinds of joy and love today!

Update

2 hours on the phone with Jessie.

Walk in the sunshine.

Better.