Immovable Object, Meet Unstoppable Force

Maggie, a student here, is obsessive-compulsive when it comes to her bed. She wants it to be clean. So clean. It must remain clean. Each night, after her shower, she goes right across the hall, changes quickly, and gets in bed before she has the chance to encounter any more dirt.

On Wednesday afternoon, people were coming in and out of the dorm, claiming their children and their children's clothes for the five-day holiday. One student's five-year-old sister, Sara, was running through the halls at this time. Sara has Down Syndrome, and she is the busiest kid I've ever met. She runs and runs. She runs to the edge of the stairs on the girls' hallway, looks around, then goes down the stairs and up to the boys' hall. She's tough to catch up with, and impossible to stop.

Maggie and a few other girls happened to be with me in my kitchen that afternoon, when Maggie's roommate came in, asking in Chinese who the little girl was. We told her, and she said, "She came into our room, looked around, and went to Maggie's bed. She moved all the covers, and left!"

Maggie bolted out of my kitchen to collect her sheets and blanket, and immediately did a load of laundry. Maggie's roommate stayed in the kitchen, looking puzzled. "I don't understand it," she said, "She just came in, went straight to Maggie's bed, then left. It's like she knew."

Wedding Weekend in Albany

A good friend, one of the group that laughs, got married a few weeks ago. It was one of the loveliest times of my life. I'll tell you why. Think of each paragraph as part of a list.

The party began while I was still at my day job in Pennsylvania. The crowd gathered at the airport to welcome Erin, and her carry-on backpack. [Listen, she's a professional, okay? She knows how to pack all the things. And she brought this one backpack and in it were her bridesmaid dress, her sweet shoes, a change of clothes, pajamas, toiletries, hair-doing supplies, make-up-doing supplies, and two gifts. You. Don't. Even. Know.] When she arrived, everyone screamed and hugged and giggled (except for, possibly, Sam and Rich... but I don't know, I wasn't actually there), and Ashley cried out, "What do you have there, Erin? A big bag of wrinkles!?" BAhaha!

When Sheri arrived, by contrast, she brought her entire bed from her bedroom! It's not only possible, but true, because she sleeps in a hammock that has a free-standing frame, and she is the coolest person known to Syracuse and beyond.

One of the best parts of being with these young women is hearing the stories. We sat enthralled Friday afternoon as Erin told us an incredible story about her and... a person... You'll see it published one day, and sold in the No-Freakin'-Way-Is-This-For-Real? section in Barnes and Noble. 

At the rehearsal, we realized that the groomsmen were all at least 10 inches taller than all the bridesmaids. We also realized that we had no pockets in which to keep the song lyrics, and were therefore compelled to practice the music together. We huddled around the lyrics and harmonized between processional and recessional.

Friday night, we were tasked with decorating 120 cupcakes with purple icing and sprinkles. Ashley made the icing, and the kitchen probably still has small purple evidences thereof, I know my shoes still do. But the sprinkles were especially interesting. As the icing hardened, we found that sprinkles weren't sticking... until Sheri started to throw them aggressively at the lovely purple cupcakes! 26 seconds later, opalescent sprinkles were flying all over the room, and they will also probably stay in dining room crannies for as long as the house itself stands. 

The puns and the laughing. 

Christine married a wonderful guy on Saturday. 

We packed up the reception site with many hands. My car and Sam's truck were full of wedding paraphernalia. Sam and I even had the privilege of packing up Christine's wedding dress. It went like this:
Sam: I don't understand why girls even save these!
Me: Because, it's special! [aggressively adjusts the hanger and bodice thereon]
Sam: But look, the bottom's dirty, and it's never gonna be worn again. [gingerly gathers the bottom of the dress, and places it in a bag, to avoid further damage]

After packing and hauling all the presents to the house, and finally backing my car into the driveway during a moment in which my hands refused to cooperate due to laughter, things got more serious. Christine and Rich were off on a new adventure, and we were four of us, glad for a few moments of being together and doing nothing. We had just started a too-complicated game when a friend in crisis contacted Sheri. We stopped playing the game. We began to pray and sing. Listen, you know you're friends when you can transition into worship from a game of "Bang."

I've been writing this post for a month, and I don't even have time to tell you about the lack of GPS, and the smiling, and the twinkle lights in the barn, and the wheelchair, and the couches, and the kissing, and the Shulan-spilling-rum moment, and the game of ninja at the reception, and the speeches, and the gorgeous hair, and the loud laughing, and the praying, and the eating, and the trees, and the not-apple-cider doughnuts, and the staying up late to talk, and did I mention that time we started playing Bang, and ended up worshiping God in song? Praise the Lord. It was like that, you know? Praise the Lord forever.

From CarolynBot

These are from a robot that uses language logarithms on Facebook to compile possible updates from me. Here's what CarolynBot has been up to.

CarolynBot makes plans:

"It's so sweet! May we see naked people that is kind words."

"Official end of winter. I am with booksturnedmovies, and caring!"

"I kinda wish I will be strengthened by fainting goats."

"Go hug time yet?"

"Every time I see this book fad. Shamelessly in."
"Black Rock is on my wedding."
"Sorry, no texting today."
"Preparing to clap."
"Yo me voy de los arboles, las alas de la U ahorita!!"
"I will rubric the living daylights out of my head for a wonderful birthday."
"I'ma comin' in a pretty little surrey with the economy and everything."

CarolynBot gives compliments:

"King Alfred the Great, you a great semester."

"Props, kudos, etc.!"

"We're all awesome."

"SUCH a pentillion people who is patient and amazing, and Jacob and Joella..."

"500 friends is a sweet bundle of cute."

"I love you right now."
"One episode of your monkey jokes online! Very nice."

CarolynBot confronts you with orders and the facts:

"We had all decided that was out of line."

"Study hall monitoring = fastest way to justify pushing you over."

"A termite went into obscurity."

"Go hug yo me"

"I kinda wish I could be your Mom."

"Shoot, I took Eric's advice."

"What Liz, come to be obnoxious?"

"Doctor Who, an ISFJ, but thanks for existing."

"This was the kind of weekend when you can't hide."
"Rebecca is why I'm not going to be strengthened by grace."
"I will be let down, as seen here."
"no, no. You get murdered in the mind."
"Radius = exactly the length of killing poetry."

CarolynBot scares us all to death:

"Beware, dark alleys!"

"Beware, dark shadows at all!"

"Shawn McDonald + George MacDonald = Satan's minions."

"was enchanted by scary people doing scary things. And nutritious."

"Official end Mennonite Fellowship"

"My heart finds rest in the darkness behind Ashley..."
"King Alfred the Great, you can't hide!"
"The girls are you, but I put into the shredder because they're sad."
"This one will become a pig slave. LOLZ!"
"But then as you are brutally murdered."
"Just sing along and go a natural disaster."

CarolynBot gets philosophical:

"My heart finds rest in a flying bison, as opposed to tell you a secret about"

"Rest in your story."

"Can one live alone, cozily?"

"Scrabble game gone overboard here?"

"Can one live with, and over?"
"Well, I can find my way manfully through the length of the library and find no benefit whatsoever on my homework."
"Am I Splinter?"

CarolynBot is self-absorbed:

"Boy, I can't believe I just noticed your legs broke? Miss you, we had an awesome my life is."
"I love so wide that it stops all my time. I have tasted of a voter's guide, for this is so old, so proud of exhaustion."
"Completely overwhelmed with me."
"The Millersville library has never known so many of a love myself."
"Sad to revise my own poems. They're either really pretty or really pretty sure is!"

Friday Moment

This happened and you have to believe me.

I had taken my class to the library for a research paper, and we were getting settled down to do work. Ashley, a student who used to live in the residence hall, stopped me and took me by the shoulders, and placed me to the side of the computer aisle. She then proceeded to run past me for a total of five feet. I was dumbfounded, without a clue. She then whispered in my ear, "Do you smell the perfume?"

I eventually had to kneel on the ground I was laughing so hard.

Oversimplifying Love, Probably

No Future Together

I found out about their break-up a week after it happened.
He said he didn't have those feelings for her anymore.
After 18 months, and countless little and big decisions to be together,
he saw no future together, after all.

---

Tonight

My grandpa has become a child again.
As my grandma cuts his meat, he looks up at her and smiles.
I wonder if she ever thinks about
how they're headed in different directions.
I wonder if she ever thinks about
how little she's getting out of the relationship.

---

Love

When is it ever the right time
To stop being selfish, and live for someone else?