Golden Age

Lovely weekend and not enough time to fully describe it as I enjoy my mocha americano this beautiful morning as the fresh light begins to seep in the windows but I shall at least mention the wonderful capstone of last night in which myself and Emily and Erica went and watched a showing of Casablanca at cinema and oh it was so wonderful seeing one of my all time favourite movies on the big screen with loads of other people and just being able to enjoy it as we laughed at the funny parts(mostly all of Claude Rains’ lines!) and enjoyed the deeply romantic and movingly patriotic themes woven throughout(and something I realised just now as I looked up the cast is how many of the actors are non-Americans which surely contributed to its emotion for so many of them were refugees from war-torn Europe and were from countries such as Russia and France and Austria-Hungary and Germany and some of them were Jewish and even had family members in concentration camps and so the emotion you see in this film in certain scenes is far from faked) and as I write this I realise it is only one sentence so far so I am determined to keep it that way and also have decided to finish sentence sans commas and it will be magnificent(my apologies) but I suppose I must confess the best part of the night was the conversation I had with Emily and Erica after the movie in the parking lot in which we discussed many things but all of them honestly and deeply and my heart was much encouraged by them and now I suppose I really shall close this sentence as it is far too long(but I think rather successful in its lack of commas) but wanted to share a few words that have been haunting my thoughts these past few weeks and been keeping me stuck in the same chapter for quite a while now and this not at all a bad thing and so as I sat on my couch this morning with blanket wrapped around me and read these words yet again just know how my soul was warmed and enlightened by the truth and by my regenerated heart understanding that these words are Real in the sense that little else is:

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the
Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit
of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though
the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of
righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give
life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

-Romans 8:9-11(oh what beautiful words – we are indwelt by the very Spirit of God)

Agora

Happy Saturday y’all!! I’m sitting here in Agora coffeehouse in Houston enjoying a beautiful day…and I really have been trying to write something semi-creative, but alas – my muse has fled me(at least for the time being). Anyways, I’ve successfully gotten some other tasks done and so I thought I’d write a quick post here. I woke up a bit later than normal today, but I have a good reason for that…yesterday didn’t get to bed until past one o’clock! That was totally my fault though. Got home about midnight, and then instead of smartly going to bed, I read for an hour. Ah well. My book(current one – Worthing Saga by O.S. Card. Classic) was worth it and I still got enough sleep. Oh and I forgot to explain why I was up so late last night! Me and Daniel went to the movies – met up with a bunch of other people(Matias, Jonathan, et. al…) and then had a time of awesomeness watching Furious 7.

So – I must confess – I’ve never seen any of the previous “Fast and Furious” movies, so I’m a novice to this world, as it were. And it didn’t matter. I much enjoyed!! Was the movie moderately ridiculous, full of physically impossible and logistically ridiculous stunts? Yes. A thousand times yes. Was the movie exhilarating and awesome and just really super fun? A million times yes. Watch the trailer and you’ll get a sense of how ridiculous(ly awesome) this movie is. The characters were all well played, by actors that seem to have a lot of fun just hanging out together. The movie was very well shot, in that all the action and stunt scenes, I could actually follow every bit of it, never being confused by what was on screen. Classic lines of dialogue and great combat scenes and…a lot of heart. That was what maybe surprised me the most. One of the main actors(Paul Walker) died last year in an unrelated car accident, and so this movie is is his final film. And truly, it was a tribute to him in a lot of ways. Movingly so. I actually got close to tears at the end, as they had a scene with Walker’s character and family playing on the beach as the rest of the cast looked on. It was beautiful. So as much as this movie was full of fast cars and big muscles and sweet hand-to-hand combat…it was really a movie about family. And that your truest friends are truly family. And you can’t ever let that go. Good film.

And after – we all just hang out for a while outside the cinema and acted goofy and chatted and enjoyed the beauty of the night. (Actually…there were a ridiculous amount of people there, so it wasn’t that quiet or beautiful. So. Many. People. All there to see F7 too, apparently!!) Eventually it started raining so me and Daniel headed home. But that’s why I didn’t get home ’til midnight. I say it’s a good reason. Don’t dispute me on that.

Now Hotel California is playing in here…it’s really hard not to sing along. Really hard. I have to say, this place is awesome. This has to be the first ever coffeeshop I’ve been in…with a jukebox!! I’m now going to attempt to write a little more…if no piece of poetry shows up here later, you’ll know my muse is indeed hiding well. Peace y’all, have a day of awesomeness.

Battle of the Heroes

So, Star Wars Ep. III is currently playing as I sit here in the family room and attempt to write a few words! It’s been a Star Wars marathon for the past few days – fun times! But since I’m feeling a bit sleepy and not capable of writing too much tonight, I’ll try to quickly summarize these last few days of awesomeness!! Yes, home in Tampa right now, what! Maryanne and Laura are here too and we’ve had a Thanksgiving to remember.

And I would write more now(and I mean to laters!) – but time to finish up watching Remember the Titans. That’s been our family movie these past four nights!! Fourth quarter. Fourth quarter. Fourth quarter.

Morris City

Hello there!

My spaghetti is boiling, so my time is already ticking down, but I thought I might as well write a few words this beautiful Sunday night. The Texans/Colts game is on TV(and the Texans are actually up 14-0, shock!) but I think I’m going to turn that off soon because my dinner is at hand. I’ve made proper Mom’s spaghetti sauce today, even though it’s looking suspiciously unlike hers. Ah well, it still tastes pretty good and the meatballs are legendary as always(can I call my own meatballs legendary? forgive me this once!) I’ve had a nice and relaxing afternoon, trying to write. I may be mad, but I’ve committed to NaNoWriMo(National Novel Writing Month) this November. This is a scary thought, because I’ve said I’ll write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Yes. I’m mad.

Anyways, I’ve actually already written about 5800 words, so – progress! It’s a mess though, I don’t think any of you will ever get to see it. We shall see.

In other news, church this morning(at Bethel) was fantastic. Worshiping God with a family of fellow brothers and sisters. Few things are better. And last night, went out with a crowd of people(I think we had fifteen of us? Thanks Abby for the heads-up!) to see Ender’s Game in cinema. One of my all-time favorite books by one of my all-time favorite authors. I went in a bit dubiously, doubting the movie could match the book. And while the silver screen has certain limitations in comparison to the written word…I was most impressed. The movie captured the heart and soul of the book, and I think I spent half the movie with my hands to my mouth, just trying to process the emotional breadth of it all. If you haven’t read Ender’s Game, it’s a science fiction novel involving a young boy who’s being trained to be a battle commander. It’s brutal and tear-worthy. His internal struggles and extreme loneliness are at the core of the book…and the movie handled that very well, I thought. I won’t write more on that now, because it is dinner time.

So farewell my friends. Have a most lovely evening. Peace.

Aha!

Quick one paragraph update!

About to go see Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa at cinema with John and Joel(gonna be classic!!). Got home from work about half an hour ago, had my left-over chili and now it’s movie time! John just came back five minutes ago from his Portugal holiday, hurrah! So now I won’t be alone in the flat all the time anymore! And because I really wasn’t lying about this being one paragraph, I’m going to say farewell. Have a most awesome Friday evening, my friends!!