Halloween Humor

The night before Halloween found me at Goodwill, trying to come up with a last minute costume. Goodwill is such a great place for things like that. After milling around and rejecting several ideas, like the black cat suggested at work, I found the cutest camo skirt. This gave me the idea of being a soldier- not realistically, but more in a "support our troops" kind of way. The complete outfit included the camo skirt, matching drab green shirt, and little girly combat boots. I added the tan hat that Jeremy says makes me look like Radar from Mash, but looks just like the one my friend Frank wore in pictures from Iraq. With my American flag pin, you could definitely get the idea. Our residents and staff really liked the outfit, but there were a few funny moments.

I walked by two ladies sitting over in the retirement home side of the building and overheard their conversation.
"Look at her," the first lady said. "She's in the army now."
The second lady laughed. She knows me because her husband is involved in our Alzheimers Center. "Do you know where she works? She's in front-line combat."

Apparently, the camo actually works if the person can't see very well anyway. I was standing by the wall, waiting for the elevator, when I greeted a gentleman in a wheelchair farther down the hall.
"Good morning, John."
"Good morning," he replied with a confused expression. "Where are you? I can hear you, but I can't see you."
I thought this was a rather witty joke until I realized that he didn't have his glasses on and that the wall behind me was the same olive green as my camo outfit.

One Night With the King

Although I don't have much time, I'd like to say that this was one Biblically based movie that pleasantly surprised me. Relatively few of the details given by the Bible were changed. While additional fiction was added to fill in what the Bible doesn't say, it didn't significantly change the tone of the Biblical material. The book of Esther in the Bible doesn't mention the name of God or contain references to any other parts of Scripture, but the movie showed Esther and Mordecai praying to the Lord, references to several other Biblical narratives, and even a beautiful part where Mordecai reads from Isaiah. There was no foul language in the movie or off-color scenes. Even parts of the story from the Bible that could have been suggestive were down-played. The sets and costumes showed a magnificence that did as much justice as could be done to the extravagance of the story, and the acting wasn't bad, either. Surprisingly for a movie made by a secular company, it magnified the work of God and the faith of his people. Go see it, rent it when it comes out on video, or buy it (according to your preference), but it would be nice to support this type of movie with your cash so they can make more like it.

P.S. Plugged In Online (where I regularly go for movie reviews) highly praised it as well; however, their reviews can be spoilers since they are often so detailed.

okay,okay

I spent too much time reading other people's blogs today. Both of my breaks here at work were used up in this sometimes helpful, othertimes wasteful, practice.

Anyway, I read through some blogs of Christian guys my own age, some with whom I attended Bible college or with their wives. Most of the time I was encouraged to read of the work of God in the lives of these others and to see the expansion of good Christian families. Other times I was discouraged to read petty or belabored arguments and discussions that sound like Charlie Brown's teacher to me. "Bwah, bwah. Bwah bwah bwah bwah." Or more accurately, they sound like this, "I'm twenty-something years old with a four year degree from Bible college and/or still in seminary. Therefore, I'm qualified to criticise and malign all sorts of experienced and faithful pastors and teachers in this particularly pompous tone of voice."

Let's just say that humility is attractive and rare.

On that opinionated note we no longer wonder why I'm still single. :-)