Ash Wednesday

Took the bus down to Santa Ana today for an interview to be a mentor for some students in the Kidworks program. The trip was made easier thanks to Google Transit, which was recommended actually by the Orange County Transit Authority website and is much better than their own search feature.
The trip only took a little over half an hour, plus some walking. I stopped at a run-down taqueria and got a couple of really delicious street tacos al pastor. I'll have to remember that place.
The interview went well, I think -- I never know how to answer questions like "what are your strengths?" or "what do you think is the biggest problem facing the youth of today?" though. They seem to require research, a long bibliography and extensive synthesis. Maybe some day I will have pat answers to give out to questions like that -- but I doubt it!
After the interview, Amy picked me up for an Ash Wednesday service at the Episcopalian Church down the street, where I had never been before. We were joined by a bunch of people from Canvas, which was nice. The church is brick on the outside and wooden on the inside, about 100 years old I think. Very lovely, though a bit empty during the service -- the Spanish service that got out as we were getting there was much more well attended.
I love being reminded of all the ways that people "do church," and found this service refreshing -- no music, no video screens, just scripture readings, a short sermon, the ashes bit, followed by hugging, then some liturgy, and finally the Eucharist.
That's such a superficial way to break a church service down, and I feel bad about it, but I need to do some serious reading before bed if I am ever going to get caught up for my Fowles Lecture Series class. ugh!
xxoo

The Greatest View

What a great weekend!
Played Frisbee saturday morning on Chapman's fancy new field, then watched a tiny bit of Shakespeare at a theatre competition on campus. After that I met Keika and we drove out to Corona to see a metal band. We got there before the venue opened, so we hung out in Corona for a while, admiring the hills and eating at "Honey's Diner" where Keika got pasta and I got strawberry ice cream. By the time we made it back to the theater, it was packed with kids and there wasn't really any way we could get in. Which was sad. But we went to see Megan in Redlands instead, which was a lot of fun. We had pizza and beer with her and her parents and bro, then met her puppy and played Guitar Hero II until we were too tired to be coherent.
The next morning was church, where we had a good discussion about what salvation means and how different groups of Christians consider themselves "saved." Amy was driving me home after church when we had a spur of the moment plan to get Indian food for lunch, which her parents joined us for. We drove out to Huntington Beach where we ate at a sweet Indian place that had a Sunday buffet, then walked around the pier -- although it had been a beautiful day further inland, it was cold and windy on the beach! I had a lot of fun just talking with Amy and her folks.
Afterwards I came home and took a nap for about an hour (which was much-needed at that point), until Shawn B. came to pick me up for the Silverchair concert in Hollywood. Met Sean G. and Brian B. up there and I mostly hung out with them, since Shawn B. wanted to sick closer to the stage and potential mosh pits than I really cared to. The three of us hung out by the side of the stage and chatted with a security guard, joking that she should let us backstage.
Then, after the opening band ... she actually LET us back stage!
We walked back there and stayed kind of huddled together in a tiny space where we were out of the way of the roadies and stagehands. I think it was pretty obvious that we had no business being back there, but everyone was cool and mostly ignored us.
It was kind of amazing. The show was sold out and it was really exciting watching all the kids pressed up against the stage cheering and singing along to all the songs. And Silverchair was great, of course. I will probably write more about the whole thing later since I need to go to bed now, but wow, what a fantastic weekend!
... I didn't even really get any homework done!