The Super Duper Mega Church
08.20.08 (1:35 pm) [edit]I awoke late this morning realizing that it is Wednesday and that I haven't checked my mail since early Monday. (I am expecting two textbooks in the mail any day now. When those arrive, they tend to take up the entirety of my tiny mailbox, so it is imperative that I check the box everyday until they arrive.) I literally stumbled down the two flights of stairs to the mailbox block and opened the box door. Lo and behold, junk mail and that was it. I slammed the door shut in frustration, dropping the mail in the process. I stooped down to get the junk off the ground, grumbling at the people I bought my textbooks from because at least one of my books is overdue. One piece of mail caught my eye--a booklet entitled "2008 Fall Preview". It looked like something the University would send out, so I assumed they were already searching for places for perspective students to stay for the fall preview. I ripped open the little seal and read the first page. The page title read "4 services @ 3 times". Perplexed, I turned the booklet over to investigate the to/from and... it wasn't addressed to me. Oops. It wasn't addressed to any of my housemates either, but to someone that used to live here. Her stuff shows up in the mailbox a lot. The booklet was from the Super Duper Mega Church. Now understanding what the booklet was, I tucked it under my arm with the rest of the junk mail and proceeded to stumble up the stairs. (Yes, I am talented enough to stumble up the stairs too.) When I arrived back in my apartment with a few more scrapes than I had gone out with, I sat down in my favorite chair, pulled out the booklet and proceeded to peruse the Super Duper Mega Church's offerings for the fall.
I read the first page. Four services, huh? Interesting. Why the need for FOUR services? It appears that the difference between them is the volume. At first I concluded that the loudest were for the old people that couldn't hear, but then when investigating the service times, found that the softest were in the morning for the early risers and the loud ones in the late morning for the non-morning people. Ah, the loud ones are for the rocker younger people like me. Gotcha. So I continued to flip through the pages... and I flipped... and I flipped... read some here, read some there... and I continued to flip... my eyes began to bug out... and I flipped some more. The booklet was twenty-seven pages long! And each page was filled with microscopic print detailing services, groups, studies and events the church has each week! I wasn't even at the Super Duper Mega Church and I already felt lost in the amount of services they were peddling at me.
I must admit, the variety of services is alluring. As I read, there were a few times where I exclaimed to myself, "OOO! I'd like to be involved with that!" either as the server or servee. Is that the draw of the Super Duper Mega Church? The sheer variety of services offered? The four worship services? The "not your average" business meetings? The hundreds of small groups? The dozens of Sunday schools? The twenty weekly courses? The never ending options for Wednesday night? The huge college group? The equally large youth group? The multiple aging and still single groups? The enormous children's department, which by the way offers a separate class for the mentally or physically disabled children staffed by professionals? Or is it the dozens of venues in which one committed Christian could serve his or her Christ within the church walls. WHAT IS IT?!?!
Why is the Super Duper Mega church so huge that it needs several policemen to direct traffic on Sunday morning? Why is it that the Super Duper Mega Church is so obviously successful that they can afford ostentatious sculptures that tower over their parking lots while my family's church just down the street still lacks a real sanctuary after being in the the new building for four years and is staring bankruptcy in the face?
I've been to this church for concerts numerous times. Even sat in on just one of their many Wednesday night services on occasion. Walking into that place gives me the chills because the rooms are so huge! Then the people! There are so many of them that the services look more like sardine cans. The body heat is almost unbearable. And that's not even at the concerts!
Tell me, why do people flock to the Super Duper Mega Church, but zoom past my family's church, almost running over our congregation as they pull in, in their rush to get to one (or several in the case of the families in mini-vans) of the services offered by the Super Duper Mega Church?
Miscellaneous. That's a funny word.
08.17.08 (8:10 pm) [edit]To be completely honest, I have no writing goal in mind. Usually I begin a blog with a topic at least, but I don't really have one right now. I'm just writing again to improve my English skills. The wonderful thing about the blog is that you and the reader, have no idea how many times I've edited this! haha.
I was browsing through flair on the pieces of flair app a little while ago (Facebook application where you can pick out buttons to put on your very own cork board space on your profile) and found it funny that a portrait of Jesus was right next to a portrait of Bob Saget.
It has rained all day today. That never happens here, much less in August. It's supposed to do the same tomorrow. The freshmen are moving in tomorrow too. I hope they bring big plastic sheets to throw over their stuff so it's not soaking wet by the time they drag it up from the parking lot! Due to the rain, I slept for four hours this afternoon. That's what Sunday afternoons are all about. The problem lies in that I really need to go to bed early tonight because I have a dentist appointment at 8:30 am.
My cousin Ryan ran a triathlon today. I am so jealous of him! He just got started in the outdoor sports a few months ago and he's already doing all this stuff with it. Like he's done this and he goes mountain biking on the weekends and hiking! He's a member of some group up where he lives. People around here just aren't interested in that kind of thing. Of course, the mesquite trees and scrub brush don't get me real excited about spending time in the great outdoors either. But sheesh, you'd think in a decent sized city there'd be something! There is a bike club. Maybe I should look into it. I suppose the reason I haven't is because the only bike trail near here has a really big drop with a gravel pit at the bottom in which I've heard everyone takes a big spill. I don't want to fall! That's where the group rides. I may try to find out some more info though, because that's what the adventure sports are all about; conquering one's fears.
I'm pretty sure that the school's population of ducks has waddled away from the pond in the rain and taken up residence under my window today. Either that or a very large chorus of frogs. Well, toads. It's too dry around here to have real frogs. Usually, not today though. Maybe they came out from hibernation. If a frog were to hibernate around here to wait for rain, they'd have ridiculously long lives. But the point is that there is something making quite a bit of noise down there. I'm not on ground level, so I'm sure I'm not getting the full effect. I'm sad. Not.
I've been wanting to read for days, so I'm off to do so.
Summer's end
08.15.08 (1:11 am) [edit]I finally finished my horrible summer. No more physics. No more heavily mathematical classes EVER! You have no idea how excited I am about that. Now I can graduate in May too! Hooray! I really and truly have no idea how I escaped all that work with my sanity. Well, some would argue that I didn't. I've had my nose glued to my calculator for so long my English skills have flown out the door. I find that often times what I'm thinking will come to me in Spanish rather than in English. Which is bizarre. That happens all the time when I've been studying my Spanish, but I haven't been... in a while. So to fix that problem, over the next few days I'm going to read a lot in the book I picked up at the beginning of the summer but have had little to no time to read so far-- the Arabian Nights. It's been great so far. It is basically a large story book for grownups. I will probably also be writing around here.
I just got back from vacation. I deserved that. I went and played at a waterpark, shopped, went to the spa for a mani, pedi AND massage, ate some awesome food and just chilled. Great times with my housemate, Tink.
I have the rest of this week and next week to prepare myself for school. I've got a lot to do and I haven't even finished making my to-do list yet! I won't be sitting around too much, that's for sure! However, treating myself will continue because I intend to only set my alarm on the days on which I have early morning appointments. Alarms and I aren't the best of friends. I would worry about someone who did enjoy their alarm though.
It's raining outside. That's a miracle around here-- an August rain.
Anyway my summer is a total blur to me. I think I've blocked it out of my memory as a protective mechanism. (I did learn something in those silly intro to psyc classes after all!)
