soy lattes

I've been longing for a good coffee shop lately. When I spent a summer in Seattle, many of my most memorable - even life-changing - experiences came in a coffee shop. In college, my roommates (which they will forever be called, whether we're actually living in the same place or not) and I would always meet/drive together to the nearest Starbucks (or Biggby's, if Sara was in charge) and spend hours talking and laughing together.

Jeremy and I even made friends with a Starbucks barista in Grand Rapids, who we think was slowly evolving into a woman. Apparently I reminded this barista of his sister, and so he remembered Jeremy and me and often even remembered our normal orders. He (at least, I think you could qualify him as a he, still, by the time we left...I'm not sure what protocol on this would be) disappeared by the time I graduated from Calvin. Jeremy and I still speculate, sometimes, onhow his progress might be coming along.

So, today, I'm home alone. Jeremy's taking his final exam of the summer, then has to work until 2:00. And, since I have no money and no car, I decided to make our apartment into a coffee shop. I made myself a delicious soy latte, since we were left with a mostly-full half-gallon of soy milk from Jeremy's brother, which I only like when combined with coffee, and I turned on some coffee-house music. Charlie is sleeping next to me on the couch (although, as I type this, he's realizing he's falling off the couch, so he's slowly melting his way to the floor and trudging over to his favorite yellow chair), Coldplay is playing, and I'm drinking a nice foamy latte.

If only my roommates were here...

Short People

While Jeremy's parents were here, we toured multiple places that showed us how small people used to be. At the Getty Center, we saw some old clothes and beds that were very small. At the Huntington art museum, we saw some chairs and clothes that were also very small. And, at the San Gabriel mission, we saw some monastic robes, beds, and doorways that were the smallest yet.

Look how short this doorway is. (You may also notice how cute my husband is, too, but that's beside the point. I believe this is his this-picture-is-stupid face.)

Believe it or not, I don't think the "Low door, watch your head" sign is original.

I've known this is true for a long time, but it always takes me by surprise. I think I first learned this when we went to the Little House on the Prairie house and some of their dresses and shoes were there. And they were tiny. I know that many of the years of my life have been spent getting used to Dutch people, which are remarkably larger than the average human, even today. In Pella, IA and at Calvin College, I was of average height at 5'8". Now that I'm in LA, which I think gives a relatively good cross-section of humanity, I'm very tall. I'm not sure how I feel about that, actually.

Also, I know that this mostly has to do with the fact that we have better nutrition today than we did in the 1800s. Well, not the Dutch people thing - we're just big people, I think - but, I mean, people in general.

It all makes me wonder, though, how tall someone like Goliath really was. If we're so much taller than people in the 1800s or even 1900s, how much taller are we now than the BC people? Maybe David was really like 3'7" and Goliath was just 5'8" like me, but they thought he was a giant. Maybe if David went to Calvin College, he'd be terrified at all the giants.

I'm trying to think of a way to wrap this all up, and I can't. Just random thoughts to share with you, Anna and Hehoff, my only readers.

The end.

the love of a dog

I'm currently dog-sitting for the day. Our neighbor is getting new carpet today, and so her dog can't stay in her apartment while she's away at work. So, Mona (the dog, not the neighbor) is here in our apartment. Which is great. Charlie loves Mona. She's his second favorite dog in the complex (nobody can ever be greater than Huckleberry in Charlie's heart). They play well together, although today Mona has a sore hip and Charlie has a sore foot, so while they try to play, it's a little pathetic. Mona, however, also loves me - as does Charlie - and so sometimes Mona will come and lick me and ask me to pet her, so I do. But Charlie does not appreciate this, so he comes and nudges his way between Mona and me and gives me more kisses and asks me even more emphatically to pet him. They've apparently worn themselves out, and so Mona is laying at the foot of the couch, and Charlie is laying on me, which doesn't work very well, since he's a big long sausage dog and weighs over 50 pounds. But, he's got to one-up Mona and prove that I am his person and he loves me more than Mona ever could. Ha.

Also, Charlie stinks pretty bad and needs a bath.

I guess it's time for a real live update, aside from videos of my dog and pictures of my terrifying future child. I am officially done with summer classes, which feels pretty dang good. I finished ahead of the deadlines, even, although that had a practical purpose. Jeremy's family is coming to visit us on Monday, and they'll be staying for 2 weeks. So, now I've got no more homework to do while they're here, so I can entertain them while Jeremy has to go to class, etc. But, in celebration of a month with no papers to write or books I have to read, I'm reading a novel. I haven't done that since last summer. Joe Jones by Anne Lamott. Anne Lamott is a Christian fiction writer, which I normally hate with every fiber of my being, but my Mom and my sister both like her, who also normally hate Christian fiction as much as I do (my sister sometimes will read a Christian book, but only on the toilet, for that is where they belong, she says), so I'll give her a shot. So far it's good, but I'm only on page 42. It involves two people who broke up after living together, a "sexy" old woman, and a gay man...so...there's that.

In other news, Jeremy's family is coming for 2 weeks on Monday. Jeremy and I enjoy when people come to visit us, not only so that we can see the people who are visiting (which, yes, is one big reason) but also so that we have an excuse to see or re-see things in the city. So, we keep trying to plan out days with Jeremy's family, but then realize that maybe we should ask them what they want to do first. Anyway, if anyone feels like taking a trip out to LA - come on over!

We're also enjoying our youth group/worship work. We're currently trying to get some of the youth involved in the services, and we've had a few of the kids interested. After watching these kids for a month, we've noticed that when people are asked if they want to do something, nobody will say anything until someone else does it first. So, we're hoping the more we get different people involved, the more people will come out of the woodwork and want to get involved, too. So, that's our project at the moment. But, the services we lead are going well, and the kids seem to enjoy them. There was one week a couple weeks ago where we had a previously-agreed-to service to lead at another church, so when we told the kids we wouldn't be there next Sunday, but another band would be filling in, we saw lots of faces drop. And there are two high school kids who have so far refused to do anything church-related, but then when they heard about Jeremy and me and our service on Sunday mornings, they wanted to come. And they've come for 3 weeks now. So that's all very encouraging...and it's exciting to get to be at least a small part of these kids lives. It makes me want to keep pursuing some worship stuff here at Fuller. I've been focusing more on cultural stuff and urban stuff, which I also love - but this job always reminds me how much I love the worship side, too. Which may mean I'll drop my concentration and just do a general M.Div. so I can diversify a little bit - but we'll see.

I also got new shoes yesterday. For $10 at Target. Now I have something to wear on my feet besides my falling-apart flip-flops. Awesome.

And I guess that's it for now. These posts always end up way longer and more boring than I anticipate them to be when I start. Sorry about that.

no words...

I discovered a website that merges two pictures in an attempt to show what the child of those two people might look like. So, I got curious, and tried two pictures of Jeremy and me. So, I'm pleased to introduce to you our future child:

Please note that the baby inherited Jeremy's earring, only on both ears. Who knew that was a hereditary trait?
I also particularly enjoy that all the coloring is mine, given that all of my features are from recessive genes. Except for maybe the nose. That might be unavoidable...
But, wow... If this is what our kids will look like, I think I might start looking into adoption. I'm not sure I can morally bring that level of creepiness into the world.

Letters

Dear Couple sitting two rows in front of me,

I'm glad that you love each other. But please refrain from kissing in the middle of class. And snuggling during lectures.

It's annoying.

Sincerely,
Jana

Charlie vs. The Office Chair

Charlie's foes may have gotten bigger since the doorstop, but his reaction remains the same.

California Summer

Summer is most definitely here. It got up to 97 today; Jeremy and I finally broke down and put on the air conditioning. Summer also means...well...summer classes. Jeremy's taking a Greek intensive this summer - or, 10 weeks of 12 credits worth of Greek, meeting 3 times a week for 4 hours per meeting. He's doing well, since he took it at Calvin, but he's grateful for the refresher before he takes classes that utilize Greek. I'm taking three classes this summer (also 12 credits) - a one-week intensive and two two-week intensives. I just finished my one-week intensive, Biblical Foundations of Mission, which met from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. - long days, but it was a good class. Then I'll start my other two classes soon. So...summer will be busy! Good thing we like what we're doing.

Jeremy and I also begin our jobs this week. (Finally!) We're working in a church, leading a worship service for the youth. I think I mentioned it in my last post...so you can look at it there, because I don't want to type it all now. But, we start this week...and we're excited.

Not too long ago, we went to a place called Venice Beach, which is basically the hippie haven of the LA beach scene. Here, we learned why pot should not be legalized. The area started off as one of my favorites in LA so far; there were vendors lining the beach, selling their art glass and jewelry and cool clothes. The further we walked, however, the more bong-sellers we passed and the more really bad indie music street musicians we passed, which soon turned into people on bikes yelling "Hey, man, you want a bong?" and a not-so-authentic looking medicinal marijuana clinic. And, it culminated with a guy, who rode his bike in a sort of zig-zag pattern, running over an unsupervised small child. But, hey, the beginning of the street was pretty cool.

Also, I think every Christian should watch the movie Saved. And that's all I have to say about that.

Jeremy would like you to know that Charlie has developed the ability to be even lazier than he was before, which is no small feat.

As you can tell, I'm running out of things to update you on. We're still doing well and we still like California a lot. And we're keeping busy. At this very moment, we're all piled on the couch, Jeremy and I on one cushion, and charlie on the other...with his butt trying to push me further onto my own side. This is in fact an improvement, as usually Jeremy and I are laying on the floor, while Charlie stretches out across the whole couch. Oops.

And, as always, I leave you with a picture. Let's make it a Charlie one: