this has been the longest, craziest, most bizarre-o holiday week ever.

I am kind of looking forward to my life returning to normal. seriously.

I love weekends. Saturdays in particular. and I love it when it's SNOWING, and I love it when I'm ALONE, and I love it when I have nothing to do.

love love love.

I have become a total solitude junkie lately.

RIP, Samson.

I am sooooooo sad about this.

I never really understood when people grieved over the loss of a pet, but I think I get it now.

(yes, he was only a fish. but I loved him!!)

:(

I am aware of the many ways the Church has failed me, and I have failed her. Yet in the midst of these mutual failures, I claim this Church as mine. She is my Church, my home, my mother. I will not run away from her, for I have seen through the cracks of her frailty her tremendous splendor, her littleness and her greatness, her poverty and her wealth. I feel more fed than failed. Not everyone can say this, however, and so we are called to great sensitivity in this area. Together we have to accept both the burden and the grace of being Church. The Church is us. She is mine and she is me. She is yours and she is you. She is a home, a broken home, yes! Broken, because you and I are broken.

-Macrina Wiederkehr, A Tree Full of Angels

selling out

When did everyone become a Garth Brooks fan? He comes to town and sells out NINE SHOWS at The Sprint Center. This is unfathomable to me. I realize that I know nothing about the supposed hype that surrounded his appearance(s) [thank goodness], but I am unconvinced that the enthusiasm surrounding this dude is warranted. wtf. Nine shows. Seriously.

I mean, he can’t be that big of a deal. He went to high school with my mom’s siblings in Yukon, OK. (name-drop.)

Anyway, all this to say, I had really, really wanted to go to the Regina Spektor concert. (I was in Broadway Café when I read in the Preview that she was coming to town, and, no joke, I got all teary eyed. I was so happy.) And then, when I went to buy a ticket last week…it was sold out. !!!!!!!!!!!!! wtF. *I* don’t go to shows that sell out. I go to shows at intimate little venues where everyone knows each other and probably the band members themselves. It’s how I roll. (Natasha got mad at me when we didn’t leave “early enough” to go to the Damien Rice show a few months ago…and I must admit that I was surprised to see the HUGE-ASS line winding down the street when we got there…I am just not used to things like this.)

So. Regina sold out. Regina, my girl-crush-soul-mate, who I have loved ardently since the trip to Chicago in September of 2006. It hasn’t been a long relationship, but it has been very intense.

And I didn’t get to go to her show. (I wasn’t able to go to the show last year, either.)

It was okay…I was less disappointed than I thought I would be. I surely wasn’t going to pay lots of money for a scalped ticket (okay, brief confession, I don’t have a clear understanding of exactly what ticket-scalping is). I did have “scouts” at the show to see if there were any extras, and there weren’t, as far as I know. It’s okay. I was at a bible study with the women that I love. So. Maybe she’ll come back??