Praise Band & Black Lights?

Our senior pastor [well, he is not an actual senior, ha] returns to his dutiful post in the pulpit this upcoming Sunday, so tonight was round 2 of Joe leading us in Wednesday night Bible study. Pretty interesting stuff, focused primarily on answering a wide scope of some of those tough questions:

What does it even mean to really be a Christian? What do I have to do? Why does a so-called loving God send people to hell? In terms of sexual immorality, how far is too far?

It was a pretty good discussion time; I really enjoy the variety of opinion and insight offered tonight by everyone attending. My favorite studies are the ones in which the entire group voices concerns, thoughts, Biblical references, and challenges. Nice topic, pogi :)

Plus, after church, Trish [leader of our praise team] approached me about joining them this Sunday to sing. I'm honored. It's perfect timing; my parents will be in town for my dad's birthday [happy early, dad!], and I know that even though I'm no professional, moms and dads always like to see their kids performing. So, I spent some time after our study catching up on rehearsal tidbits to be prepared for Sunday.

And then, Joe and I joined Jarod for dinner, which was an entirely aberrant experience, for Applebees. Apparently, once a month, the Applebees here hosts a blacklight party, complete with an overdressed linebacker bouncer in sunglasses guarding the front door as if it were the entrance to the White House. Against what was probably our better judgment, we decided to stay. Our table was accompanied by a neon plastic cup filled with those little crackable blacklight glow sticks - you know the ones: they sell them at fireworks and parents reluctantly shell out $3-$6 each for those.

So ha, these buddies were free of charge. 

glow bracelets

Anyway, fast forward to when we're halfway through our dinner: Sydni has torn down two of the neon foam stars hanging from the lamp over the table. She's also activated all the glowsticks and is wearing them on her arms. It's now dark in the room with blacklights glowing all over, which means every stray piece of lint on everyone's clothes is gleaming white, and our server's incandescent attire now makes her look like a highlighter advertisement. To make matters a little more awkward, there's also now a b-list DJ on the 1's-and-2's, making it impossible to hear each other.

I laugh looking back at it:
1. We thought Applebees of all places would be a suitable family environment. Fail.
2. We were officially those people: too old for the crowd, with a baby, hanging out with a bunch of college kids and middle-aged bachelors at a late-night blacklight party at Applebees.
3. It was a blacklight party at Applebees, complete with 1/2-priced jello shots, and we were there specifically for fellowship purposes. *Awkward.

Funny stuff.
So we decided to head back to the house, put Sydni to bed, and introduce Jarod to Monopoly Deal. As it turns out, Jarod too is a recipient of that crappy beginner's luck. Nicely done, Jarod.

Interesting evening, for sure.
Tomorrow I head out or the first time to an auto auction for a check-in with my employees that are driving for it tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. xx.

xo  | cmd