The X-Box Hates Me, No Underwear, Silent Night, and a Relevant Link

This may be long, and I could break it up into a few entries, but I'm just going to put it out there for you now since I'll be busy for the rest of the week and since all of this happened over the weekend anyways.

First of all, the Vs have an X-Box with NCAA 05, which, even though I am 24, is totally addicting to me. I could play it for hours. And I'd like to think I'm pretty good. That is until I played a seventh grader who I will call Indiana. The first time we played, he picked Ohio State, ranked sixth or seventh, and I chose Clemson, which is ranked fifteenth but has low ratings in all statistical areas. He ran over in the beginning, until I figured out how to slow down his running game. I ended up beating him in the second half, but he had too much of a lead and I lost. So the second time we played, he got LSU, ranked third, so to even things up, I got USC, ranked first. Well, he had two, not one, but TWO Hail Mary passes that were tipped into the air and subsequently caught by another one of his receivers for a TD. Why was he throwing Hail Mary passes? Because when the playing field was even, he could do nothing against my defense. So he was up by three, but I drove right down the field to about his 30 yard line. I had a deep ball batted down, though it was only man to man coverage, and the next play he intercepted Matt Leinhart, the Heisman trophy winner from that year, again, in man to man coverage. 0-2. But it gets worse. We played again this past weekend, me with Clemson again, and this time Indiana chose Southern Miss which, though unranked, has better grades in the different statistical categories. He had TWO INTs of balls thrown into man to man coverage and I fumbled the ball at my own 20 on the VERY FIRST handoff of the game. Throw in one more tipped ball Hail Mary TD because, again, he couldn't move the ball on my defense, and you have a seven point victory by the seventh grader. I'm 0-3 now. This X-Box hates me.

This weekend was his fourth grade brother's birthday too. So I went over Sat afternoon to hang out. When I showed up, the birthday boy and Tom Tom were playing in the dirt out in front of the house with their play tractors. Their mom came out and told them that they'd have to get a bath before company came over. All three of us let out a loud, "Awwww, mom!" If any of you know me, you know why. If you don't, keep reading. I told Tom Tom not to worry about it, bathes are cool every now and then, and that I had actually taken one that day myself (though I won't say how long ago the last one was). Tom Tom came over to stand beside me and said that he wanted to live with me when he grew up. I told him he would love it when he got older. That when you get to be my age Tom Tom, you don't have to shower if you don't want, you don't have to get a haircut if you don't want, and you know what, you don't even have to wear underwear if you don't want to. Of course, this took the breath out of their sweet, little, ultra-conservative mom, and got a laugh from the 4th grade brother. But Tom Tom just looked at me with a puzzled look and asked, "Are you wearing underwear now Mr. Chris?" You know Tom Tom, I can't remember.

Last night was our regular "youth group" meeting. Though it's called a "youth" group, the youngest person in the room was 21 and the oldest was 45. It's more like a "single-and-old-enough-to-be-let-out-of-the-house-whenever-you-want" group. But anyway, he had a wonderful dinner prepared by the German lady in town and we sat around drinking tea and coffee and talking. I asked one of the Turkish girls to write down the words to Silent Night for me, in Turkish, so I could be memorizing it for our upcoming Christmas performance. Someone overheard us and the next thing you know, I was asked to sing Silent Night, in English, for everyone in the room. Again, anyone that knows me, knows I can't sing. I don't change notes, I just change volume to simulate raising and lowering my pitch. My philosophy is, if I can hold this one note through the whole song, then at some point, I will be singing the right one. That's better than trying to follow the tune up and down and never getting it right. Anyhow, I agreed, partly because I am stupid like that and partly because I have no pride left. But to my surprise, as I started, the same girl I had asked to write the words to the Turkish version joined in singing the English. She has a beautiful voice and we sang the whole first verse for the room, after which not only did we get a loud round of applause, but it sparked about an hours worth of impromptu accapella singing by different people around the room. Come to find out, not only does this girl know a lot more English than she admits to, she also did something with the local Catholic church at one time, helping with a Christmas program, and learned a lot of the Western Christmas hymns. It was the highlight of my singing career, so far.

And finally, check out this article. It sums up a feeling a lot of us have in us with our desire for a "third place." I totally believe what the author has to say, and after thinking about it, find that it also explains what may be the hardest part of living in a new place. There is no one here who knows my name. Half of the people here can't pronounce it correctly even if they know it (it's pronounced like Carese with a long E sound). There is no place where I can go where people know how I like my coffee, mainly because I don't know of a place where I can even go and order a cup of coffee! In general, there is nothing really familiar here, and I am not familiar to anyone or any place here. It's starting all over. Trying to build those relationships all over again, but doing it in a place where very few people speak your own language. Check it out, it's a good article, speaking truth, and well written. http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life_article.php?id=7327