Aug 13, 2004

woah...

Oh...My...Gosh! I went to the Chihuly exhibit today. It was phenominal! I have never taken so many pictures in such a short period of time... and I take a lot of pictures! I took 4 1/2 rolls of film in two hours. That's somewhere around 106 pictures. Not joking. That's one picture every 1 minute and 13 seconds. Regardless of the fact that I will now have to spend at least $20 in developing charges, I am so glad I went and had the opportunity to take those pictures. I suppose out of 106 I have a pretty good chance that some of them turned out okay! On top of the glasswork being incredible, the garden has an orchid room in their green house that took my breath away! Orchids are my absolute favorite flowers, so I spent forever in that room taking pictures. Actually, I had a lot of trouble getting my camera to focus on the orchids, so it took a little longer. There was another room that housed rainforest type plants, which was also amazing. Chihuly's main piece in that room was incredible. It was a bunch of glass balls in various colors, sizes, and designs, all strung together from the 30-foot ceiling reaching all the way to the floor. I realize as I'm telling this story that unless you were there this is totally unimpressive, but I'm writing anyway. Another cool thing was that he has "floats" in the ponds. They are also large glass balls that just float around (who would have guessed) in the pond. It sounds simple, which technically I guess it is, but it's cool because as a piece of art it is in constant change because the balls change location in the pond all the time. And they are intermixed with these enormous lilly pads. The biggest I've ever seen in my life. The large ones were probably 5 feet in diameter. They're really cool because, as I heard a man explaining, they come up from the bottom of the pond relatively small (I would guess six inches to a foot) and they're kind of wrinkly, and as they sit on top of the water they expand and all the wrinkles smoothe out. Before I left the garden (side note) I had the best Caeser salad. Then I began driving home, but aparently I was in a daze or something and missed my exit. Eventually I was like, "shouldn't I be almost home by now? I feel like I've been driving forever." Sure enough, I had been. When I figured out where I was I was WAY off track! So all in all, I drove an extra 40 miles today! But on the plus side, it gave me the opportunity to go down like the coolest road in Georgia. I drove down this crazy curvy road at like 65mph with my window down and my hair flapping and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a great day.

Aug 12, 2004

holding hands with the wind...

curving Georgia asphalt. beautiful day. manual window in the down position. hair back, hat on: saves face from a battering. righ hand loosely on black wheel. left hand outstretched to the outside world, holding hands with the wind. jade wrapped around thumb, wide brown leather encasing wrist. breezy fingers intertwine with mine. palm to palm. hands twist around, in and out, with glorious interplay.

to feel God. to know His presence. to hold hands with the Creator through Creation. trees, breeze, and rays of light. the glory of God declared. behold, He comes!


This was my five-minute drive to the barn today. I live for moments like that.

Aug 11, 2004

baptism...

Pastor Jonny has been preaching on baptism for the last couple of services. I've enjoyed it very much and my understanding of it has been broadened. Today I was reading Scott's post called "Baptism and Salvation". I think I hold a slightly different point of view in some respect than he does, but here's what I do believe. (This is such a complex subject... I know I won't be able to say everything perfectly, but I'll try my best.) I don't believe that baptism is what brings salvation, in the sense that if you are dunked under the water you are automatically saved. That would be to say that salvation is work-based. However, I do believe that baptism is a "part" of salvation, in that if you become saved you will be baptized. Not you might be baptized, or you can be baptized, but you WILL be. As Pastor Jonny put it, "The New Testament does not even seem to entertain the idea of an unbaptized believer." (As Scott put it, salvation is more a combination of things than a single act, but more on that later.) I do not believe that it is absolutely impossible for a person to be saved and not baptized, but for the most part I believe that if your faith is real and your salvation is real, your only desire would be to obey God in every possible way, the first of which is baptism. Regardless of anything else you believe about it, baptism is commanded by God, so in order to live an obedient life, baptism is required.

Aug 10, 2004

artist info...

Dale Chihuly has an exhibit at the Atlanta Botanical Garden right now. It's been going on all summer and will last till the end of October. For the 98% of you who have no idea who Chihuly is, he's this awesome glass artist that I learned about in my Intro to Visual Arts class last semester. He makes these incredible pieces from colored blown glass, usually with a very interesting shape. Typically he displays his art in "odd" locations, meaning he doesn't just line the halls of an art gallery with his stuff; he puts them out in nature, or in public settings, or wherever. I really hope to be able to go see the exhibit some time this week. From the pictures I've seen, the pieces look incredible in the garden, and I really want to experience them first-hand and take some good photos. It looks like I might be able to go on Saturday to see it after Ashlee takes her driving test in my car and before Allie gets here that evening. We'll see.
useless info...

We went out to eat Sunday night at one of those Japanese restaurants where they cook the food in front of you. I've been to one in Jacksonville, but there's no comparison, this one was way better. And it was authentic-looking, too: the girls wear kimonos, the decor is very Japanese. With the meal you get salad (with very yummy ginger dressing), soup, fried rice, Japanese hash browns, vegetables, shrimp, and your choice of meat or extra veggies if you prefer (I had shrimp). Anyway, I am very proud to say that, aside from my salad, I successfuly ate my entire meal with chopsticks... rice and all! Yay me!

Aug 9, 2004

nine days/five days...

The summer has flown by! In a mere nine days, I will be returning to Florida. I am SOOOO excited! I can't wait to see my friends in St. Augustine and get settled into my house. I'm also way excited because in only FIVE days my best friend Allison is coming to see me here in Atlanta!!! She's riding up with Ginny Pellum on her (Ginny's) way back to school, and Allie will stay with us for a few days and then ride back to Florida with me. That's awesome because now I'll have company for the 6 1/2 hours!

I had to think about something positive for a few minutes because today was a stressful day at work. Luckily, I haven't had too many of those this summer, but today was probably the worst. It was just a really annoying job today. Conditions were far from ideal. But we got done what we needed to do, and luckily Wendy the designer was helping a little today and she's going to finish up the rest tonight because she has to meet with the builder or somebody like that at that house anyway. On the plus side, there was a really attractive guy installing some speakers or something for a little bit while we were there! The funny part of today was Marti and I figuring out how to fit the ladder into her Jeep Wrangler! We conquered it though. It's all good.

Not much else is new. Except that the kids started school today. The middle-schoolers are home already and seem like everything went well. The high-schoolers are still at their extra-curriculars. That's all. Later.