This Life in Writing » little gem

subway shows.

jessica — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:19:14 +0000

So, I was gonna tell you all about this.

But then someone who had gotten the whole thing on his phone friended me on facebook and threw it up on there (ew. threw it up. just thought I’d point that little gem out).

And if pictures are worth a thousand words, then I can only imagine what a video is worth. Maybe a whole flippin’ blog post, actually.

But, this is a bit of serendipity that happened on the subway, coming home from capoeira, yoga, and grocery shopping. It just proves that some pretty good moments lay buried among the mundane all the time. We just got to be open to them, is the thing.

uh, that’s not the kind of baptism I meant, but okay. It’ll do.

jessica — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:19:57 +0000

Basically life gets funnier when I open my mouth.

Well, that, and more embarrassing.

Like tonight, when I was innocently referring to how my friend came over and showed up with a small bag of cookies, but ended up saying this:

And then Jimmy showed up with his small package…

But then I couldn’t even finish my thought because I realized what it sounded like I had said and so I started laughing while trying to explain that there was a huge difference between what I said and what I meant.

But, really.

His small package?!?

Yeah, we then spent the rest of the night trying to shimmy that little gem of a phrase into as many of our conversations as possible.

And thank God for humor. I was talking to a friend of mine who has been well acquainted with grief herself and we both agreed that sometimes it comes down to either laughing or dying.

And so it’s really nice when there are moments that make the former option easy.

And it’s also nice when you play games with your family and you find yourself doing something as dumb as pouring water over your head because you’re playing Truth or Dare and you had tried to give that little dare to your mom, but she turned around with a rebound card and there you are, poised with the water over your head, thinking how this is not one of the worst things you’ve had to endure, by far.

But don’t take my word for it.

See for yourself.

blind date and Jesus IS jewish, after all.

jessica — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:24:00 +0000

Apparently you can be happily married, never having once signed up for a profile on Eharmony.com, and still end up on a blind date.

Like today.

Mandy, a lovely Texan who found me through this blog offered to take me out for a real meal while here (it seems she had read one too many mentions of my penchant for PB&J’s on twitter and well, nobody leaves Texas hungry). At first I laughed it off, not wanting to be the ~~awkward~~ gauche person who takes somebody up on an offer that they meant as a joke. But she made it clear she was serious, and so I bit.

She picked me up at noon today and we spent a great couple of hours together. She’s kind and talented with a fun sense of humor and also loves to blog.

The fact that she’s 5’8 just like me doesn’t hurt, either.

She took me to this cute Mexican place called Chuy’s and the waiter was obliging enough to document the moment.
And here’s a little gem from there as well.
Our silverware was wrapped in paper that gave us three options for prayers, depending upon your preferred faith and assuming that you couldn’t just make one up on the spot, I guess.

Not everybody can free-style, you know.

All three prayers are lovely, actually; I’d be honored to pray any of them and I am pretty sure God would be happy to hear them.

The fact that there was a gentile/jewish choice made me think of my six year old nephew, Ollie, who now lives in California during the school year. Anyway, one day his mom came into his classroom only to find him covered in a prayer shawl and wearing a yarmulke.

They were studying Judaism. Which is awesome.

Later, when Ollie announced to his family that he wanted to become Jewish, his sister Lyric informed him that he simply couldn’t.

Why? he asked.

Because we are Christian! she said, leaving no uncertainty in the matter.

Showing some budding abilities in diplomacy, Ollie stated, Then I will be Christian when I am on the east coast and Jewish when I am in California.

And that plan seems to be coming along just fine. He’s back on the east coast for the summer now and, as far as I know, has been faithfully attending church every Sunday, just like a good Christian should.

Anyway, it’s quite a lovely world considering we can start a meal with a stranger and finish it with a friend–and be given the option of three different prayers all the while.

Oh. And perhaps I can look forward to observing Passsover with Ollie next year.

Or Easter.

I guess that will just depend upon which coast he happens to be on at the time.