Reflections on an MRI

So, as many of our readers know (all two of you), I had an MRI on Friday to diagnose a weird and terribly painful problem I have been having with my back. The short story is this: on January 8 my back started hurting, and by January 16 I was bedridden. I am now able to be up and around a bit but still with a lot of pain.

I had never had an MRI, and so I didn't quite know what to expect. So I did what any normal human being would do. I googled it. And here's the truth for me...too much information can be scarier than no information when it comes to medical stuff I don't understand. So I quickly left google and decided to go wildly into the unknown...or at least as wildly as a woman who can't walk very fast and uses a cane can go.

I got to the hospital and walked for what seemed like miles to the MRI center, only to realize that there was an MRI entrance that we somehow missed. I got into one of those robe that hides nothing...not even your pride and tottled into the MRI room. The chamber looked like a space pod. As a laid down and the tabled moved into the chamber, I thought of two things: 1) This is what it must feel like to be an astronaut, and 2) This is what it must feel like to be a cannoli. The chamber was tight, and I closed my eyes thinking that would make it easier to remain perfectly still for 20 minutes.

The tests themselves were kinda weird. They lasted from 30 seconds to 4 1/2 minutes each and consisted of a lot of noise and knocks. The first few made me think of pressing the escape pod in Spaceballs, or perhaps less creatively...a car alarm. The later ones made me flash back to my days as a music major. Every Friday we had to go to convocation, where we performed and/or listened to other music majors perform. Sometimes the performances were great. And sometimes they were experimental music, which I haven't always understood. The MRI sounds were like some of those experimental concerts...painful to listen to!

Finally, you know how sometimes you start to hear words out of sounds. Well this happened to me. Some of the words are ones I would publish on a blog, like "bang" and some were ones that I wouldn't. Needless to say, when I heard some of the unpublishable words, I had to find new things to think about so I wouldn't start laughing and mess up my test.

I should find out in the next couple of days what the results are, and I will keep you posted.

All in all, the MRI was not a bad experience. But then again, I'm not claustrophobic. If I had been, it would be altogether a different story.

The Refrigerator Door

My refrigerator door has always been a place to display achievements. When I was very young, it was that piece of impressionist art that I painted...that no one knew what it was supposed to be. As I aged, it became those good grades I got on a paper or test. That continued even through graduate school.



The number of cute or interesting or personal magnets has increased, while the number of pizza magnets has decreased. This year as the Christmas cards rolled in, I started covering the fridge with my friends' "achievements," the photos of their kids. And the truth is this...no one else can have kids! I have run out of room on the fridge!



But seriously, I love seeing the lovely faces of the next generation on my fridge. It gives me great hope for our world!

Happy New Year!

The new year brings with it all kinds of excitement, like going back to work after two weeks off (ugh) and even colder weather than in December (ouch)! But it also gives me and Vince the opportunity to redeem ourselves after a miserable fall of no blogging.

In just two days...that's right, two days...Vince and I will turn in our commissioning and ordination paperwork, respectively. We have been working hard on it for some time and will be glad to have it off our plates. Then we'll have something else fun to think about...INTERVIEWS. Our interviews are in early March. In fact they might even be on my 33rd birthday. I'm hoping that the religious elite treat me a bit better than they treated Jesus in his 33rd year. I figure I'm not nearly as radical as Jesus and just about anything is better than crucifixion! So, pray for us as we turn in our pages and pages and as we prepare to meet with the Board.

We hope to blog more in the coming months, and we look forward to reading all of your blogs as well. And if you have a blog and we don't know about it, let us know because we would love to add you to our online neighborhood.

So, as I sit here waiting for feedback on the $200,000 grant I just wrote, I am sending a little love to y'all out there! Peace to you this new year.

April, Vince and Gumbo on our new loveseat. Can you read Vince's shirt that my brother got him for Christmas? "You had me at shalom." Love IT!

The Best Gift I Could Give

The following is a paragraph written by my 8 year old nephew Jonathan, who I affectionately call Butterbean. Bean had to write on the topic "The Best Gift I Could Give." This is what he wrote:

If I could give a gift I would give a present of care and give it every day. First, I would care for animals. For example, homeless dogs, I would give them food, water, and shelter. Second, I’ll care for homeless people by giving them water and food during the holidays. Last, I will care for my family by being kind and helping out for example I would do my chores like emptying the dishwasher. That’s the best gifts I could give.

I am so proud of Butterbean! He also had some great pictures to go with his paragraph, but I couldn't figure out how to load them. :(

Blessings to you all in this Advent Season. Sorry for the lack of posts. As I explained to our good friend Mira......new job+ordination paperwork due Jan 7=no blogging. See you in the new year!

Apple...HOLLA!!!

Last Friday my good buddy Grace and I met halfway (her from the Milwaukee area and me from Chicago) at the Apple Holler in Wisconsin. The Apple Holler is a restaurant, apple orchard, petting zoo, corn maze...basically, everything that is fall in the Midwest. We ate a delicious lunch and then went apple pickin'.

We picked tart and sweet Cortland apples, mild Macoun apples, and gorgeous Asian pears.

It was a beautiful day with warm sun...that seemed to get warmer as the picking went on.

Grace found a lovely, interesting mushroom.

We came home with quite a bounty....lots of delicious fruit. I thought I would make apple and pear butter. But I just can't help eating them just as they are.

Facebook is awesome!

Ok...so I know that I have been that person who doesn't always believe the internet is all that great. In college I said that email would never catch on, and of course now I can't live without it. However, in the last couple of weeks I have fallen in LOVE with Facebook.

It's fun and a good way to waste a little time. But the greatest thing is when old friends find you! This happened to me a couple of weeks ago....

I met Nigel the summer before my senior year in high school. I was part of the New Orleans Youth Action Corps (NOYAC), which was an environmental service program run by AmeriCorps. Nigel was the office worker, and I was a corps member. We hit it off right away, even though we came from different neighborhoods, experiences, etc.

We hung out a bunch my senior year, and then life happened. I can't even remember why we stopped hanging out, but we did. We lost touch. I've moved a ton, and although I have thought of Nigel often, I had no way of finding him. Until a couple of weeks ago, when he found me on Facebook.

Now that's crazy awesome enough. But what's more amazing is that we live a mile apart! And we've gotten together twice since finding each other! He's married now to the beautiful Nancy, and they have an amazingly cute daughter Amalia. It's been so great to have him and his family in our lives. Nigel and Vince have a lot of common interests, which is great, and I can see us all spending a lot of time together.

The message here....HURRAY for FACEBOOK!!!

Almost Unpleasant

Yes, we're alive and well. Our last couple of months have been both wonderful and hectic. And basically, as much time as we both spend on the computer at work, we have lacked the desire to spend time on the computer when we get home. But there is also too much that is good going on in our lives to hinder us from sharing. First, though, I would like to share an almost unpleasant experience that we had the other day.

On Friday morning, Vince and I had the rare pleasure of walking together at the beginning of the day. Vince usually rides his bike to work, but the afternoon weather was going to be gross so it was off to the El for him. I take Fridays off, so I usually am not out and about in the morning. However, this particular morning I had a doctor's appointment in downtown Chicago, and I was taking the bus.



Anywho, we were walking along and enjoying each other's company and conversation, when suddenly we saw this...





Now this particular picture does not recreate the situation well. I was about to say, "Oh, look at the kitty." When I realized that this was not a cute little kitty, but rather a skunk butt...poised to spray. We had startled it, and we both took off in a short sprint. We spent the final block of our walk speculating about our day had we been sprayed! Vince would have called in "skunked" for work and would have to take his Greek quiz another day. I would have tried to explain to my new doctor that I don't normally smell this way, but it was unavoidable today.

Despite the fact that we live in Chicago, we have quite a bit of wildlife around us. Lots of squirrels, raccoons, and yes, skunks. This was our closest of our close calls so far. We are usually glad that we notice the skunks before Gumbo does!