Home is where the birdies are

Okay. Here it goes again!

Two years-ish have passed. I'm a little older, a little wiser (have I used this already?) (probably.), but otherwise I'm still a big big girl (28 years old) in the same big big world (Chicagoland, USA). I've missed blogging, and that's typically something I don't notice until I read other blogs and am like "hey! I can do that! wait, I have done that! wait.... why haven't I done that in over 2 years?!" and so on and so forth.

Whatevs, you get it.

Obligatory update: I've been employed by Aaron's school for juuust about 2 years now, and Aaron has started his doctoral program in Theological Studies--Church History, more specifically! He is just now hammering out the details of what he hopes his dissertation topic will be. Maybe it'll be about some old European theologian? Then maybe we may need to travel to and spend some time in Europe where Aaron can translate old stuff, and where I can choose to not translate old stuff and to instead look at sweet buildings and eat pastries? Hey, I can dream it!

I haven't taken many recent photos... like, at all... so here is our spice drawer. 

We are still in our little house, and this spring-summer, a family of birds made their home in our awning. It's the closest thing we're going to get to roommates for now! They're great. They just fly all around, feed their babies, squawk at threatening-looking squirrels, and unintentionally dive-bomb near our heads on our way to our driveway. Actually though, I hope they've migrated at this point because their nest is starting to fall out of the awning, so now it looks like garbage is just seeping out of our house's exterior above our windows. Whatever will the neighbors think!

Fake conversation between my fake neighbors.
Neighbor 1: Frances, I just don't know about those Deans!
Neighbor 2 (Frances?): How do you mean?
Neighbor 1: I don't know if you've noticed... but.... (whisper) I don't think they take out their trash. ...I think they just stick trash in their awning!!
Neighbor 3, eavesdropping from a nearby location, faints in distress.
Neighbor 2: Well, if I too had to throw out my trash in that dumpster way across the parking lot, I'd do the same.
End scene. 

My neighbors are actually way awesome. However, we do, sadly, need to remove that bird's nest. But, for now, I'm content to eat a food. To food!

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The Soundtrack of My Life

There's a Facebook game going on that I'm really into right now. The rules are as follows:
1) find out the song that was #1 the week you were born.
2) find that song on YouTube.
3) post that video on your wall without shame.


I found my song for the week I was born, but now I'm looking for an excuse to search for and share some Billboard #1 hits from the other "important events" in my life. So here are five #1 singles that really take me back......


1. The week I was born:
Genesis - Invisible Touch (1986)



2. The week I graduated from kindergarten:
Kris Kross - Jump (1992)



3. The week I first went to the orthodontist:
Elton John - Candle in the Wind 1997 (1997)





4. The week I had backstage passes to a Weird Al concert:
Vertical Horizon - Everything You Want (2000)





5. The week Aaron asked me a question... in Central Park, no less:
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind (2009)





Leave me some fun ones from your life in the comments! Or on Facebook!


<"

Again, for the 25th time

Happy New Year, dudes! I don't know about you, but I had a wonderfully refreshing, fun holiday time. Aaron and I were in New Jersey for the Christmas week to see my family and in Pennsylvania over New Year's weekend to hang out with his. The week was filled with gifts, merriment, manual labor (painted one of my parents' bathrooms as part of their Christmas gift!), pajamas, and delicious delicious food. We arrived back in Illinois last night in order to regroup today... and now I don't think I'm yet ready to go back to work!

my family, l to r: Brittanie (sister-in-law-to-be), Stephen (brother), Mom, Dad, me, Aaron

As I am wont to do, today I wrote down my list of personal goals for 2012. I almost scrapped the idea entirely after listening to the beginning of the sermon at my in-laws' church on Sunday; the youth pastor began his message by reading a couple of Jonathan Edwards's 70 resolutions which, mind you, he wrote by the age of 20. For example...
"Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God."
or 
"Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live."

Aaron's family, l to r: Ashley (sister-in-law-to-be), Ben (brother), Mom, Dad, Aaron (a.k.a Pork Pockets), me, Kurt (brother-in-law), Bethany (sister), Tyler (nephew)

Somehow, my goal of "exercising more", in comparison, pales in importance to the point where I may as well have said "watch more TV". Nonetheless, I know that even though they're not as spiritually mature or whatever, I have made my list of now seemingly silly goals, some of which I will share for the sake of a sense of accountability....

• plant a vegetable garden and a butterfly container garden. Pictures hopefully to follow in the coming months!
• write daily, with at least 2 days of the week devoted to the blog. They say it takes 21 straight days to form a habit, and it's by far the skill I most want to improve on. That, and not ending my sentences with prepositions. Or writing fragments. D'oh!
• get our basement main room and guest room in order without spending a lot of money. I'm expecting this a year-long project because of the money aspect, and I am looking forward to making the basement very usable. Perhaps I should start a Pinterest board to get me going...? 

I have way too many others, but these goals are good ones to track on here. Though feel free to yell at me if you somehow find out that I've gone three days without doing any strength training!

In conclusion, here's a good beginning-of-the-year thought from ol' Ozzy... thanks to a friend from high school posting it as his Facebook status:

"One of the difficulties in Christian work is this question – 'What do you expect to do?' You do not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually revise your attitude towards God and see if it is a going out of everything, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in perpetual wonder – you do not know what God is going to do next."

<" 

psssh math!

As I await to skype-chat with my dear best friend (or "bestie", as I guess they're called now?), I decided to peruse Google for a daily/weekly devotional book of some kind, using these exact search criteria:

"recommended devotional book that doesn't suck"

...which in turn linked to this book, via some homeschooling websites:


So... does anyone have any devotional book recommendations? Preferably something of substance, and maybe with workbook-like features. I'll continue the hunt on Google for a while, changing up the search terms a bit as well. :)

<"

okay, I'm back. for reals, for reals.

Allllll righty then! Whew, the summer just came and went, huh? Siiigh.


SO MUCH has happened, and I need at least a month and a half more of this gloriously warm season.


Pardon the change of templates! I'm experimenting, you see, and I hope to get the aesthetic right on the ol' blog. You know, to match the mood. Whatever that may be--I guess based on the background, the blog's feel is "hipster blue birdy". I'm kinda down with that for now. 


So I won't go into an excruciatingly long "catch up" list of any kind because right now it would be torturous for me to even figure out where to begin. All you need to know is: (ONE) I'm fi-hiiinally working full time hours (TWO) my dearest brother Stephens is engaged to a darling New Jersey-an (THREE) we have officially moved! To a small house! Oh, sorry, one more thing (FOUR) we got LIBRARY CARDS today. Blammo!!

New kitchen, pre-paint, pre-moving in

Aaron is in his 2nd year of seminary, and I can't even believe it. Now he's reciting the Hebrew alphabet and explaining Saint Augustine's views on marriage to me. He's putting down tile on our floors and has been our home's resident expert on boxelder bugs. He also put air in my new-used bike (thanks, Molly!) this afternoon and bought me an awesome t-shirt. So you see, he's still the best husband in the world.


And with all of the change and what-not, I've begun a whole slew of new mental (soon to be on paper) to-do lists. Getting library cards was definitely on it, so I feel very accomplished. Soon I need to finish the stain work on some shelves we're putting in our living room/dining room, and after that I have a photo frame decoration project that I'm super excited about. On top of that there are several borrowed books from the aforementioned library about gardening...

One part of our yard that will house a new, colorful (or edible) garden someday!

<"

Talkin' 'bout my sense of humor

I am emerging from a bit of a hiatus to address an accusation made today at work, which is that I, Christie Dean, do not have a good sense of humor. Now before I go any further, let me first point out that I'm 99.9% certain that this was said in jest. After all, I have a GREAT sense of humor, if I do say so myself. I will even go so far as to say that my grasp of the amusement in most things may, in fact, be my best quality. It is at least the part about little ol' me that I value most, probably because it keeps me sane. But in case there is any hint of doubt in anyone's mind that I am aloof in the sense of humor department, or that I take things waaay too seriously, I have prepared a list of things I find humorous. You will find that the items are varied, for my sense of humor is well-rounded. Eclectic. Cosmopolitan. You be the judge.


Different things I find humorous (This is just the tippy-top of the iceberg, mind you):

• Most animals and their sounds
• This Red Hot Chili Pepper's lyric: "Keystone cops and the billy bob chops / Gonna scare my kids gonna share my crops"
• What Up With That
• The word "wharf"
• Dr. Seuss books
• My philosophy professor at my alma mater
• When an outfielder during a major league baseball game so thinks he's about to catch a fly ball and doesn't
• Bubsy
• My husband's made-up jingle for the brand of romaine lettuce we recently bought at Garden Fresh ("Andy Boy/He makes the lettuce for the girls and boys")
• Informercials
• Canadian stereotypes
• Listening to what people get really frustrated about when they're playing a board game, e.g. "Crap, I could really use some ore right now!"
• public access TV
• Baby/child toys and games
• Crazy eyes
• This joke
• Paul F. Tompkins stand-up 
• When the little boy who lives in my apartment building practices riding his bike up and down our very short hallway
• Passive-aggressive notes
• Suspenders
• RickRolling
• Conversations between two people who are way into computers
• Made-up words
• Grapefruit spoons 
• Stock photos

Of course there are things I don't find to be amusing very much at all. Some examples are:

• pen ink
• grass 
• grilled chicken
• tires
• grids (of any kind, really)
• algebra

Video Friday! 5/6/2011

Some friends and I will send each other a group email every once in a while with the subject "Video Friday!" (or maybe Video Saturday. You know, it all depends.). It's a pretty straightforward concept; one of us watches a video on YouTube or another site, finds said video amusing, and shares the video via email with friends, who then react with a comment or respond with a video of a similar nature. Anywow, I've decided to make Video Friday a weekly feature on the blog, because I find many things humorous and want to share them... and just because I can.

Enough with the banter!

I love "Weird Al" Yankovic (understatement of the millenium), and his new album is coming out in June. This is cause for celebration. Let's watch a couple of his best videos, shall we?

Duh.


This song is easily in my top three Weird Al tunes... and the video is so delightfully random.


Here's something a little different... I was trying to find a different video but came across this instead, which is more than okay. Weird Al had a couple TV specials and videos (in VHS form whoooooa!) in the 80's and 90's which had all sorts of amazingly bizarre clips and guests. No other words of introduction are necessary.



Special bonus video!

a flu-ridden re-cap

I apologize for the unintended hiatus! This week has been especially weird, since I came down with the flu (or something flu-like) on Tuesday and had a fever for the first time since who knows when. I'm still getting over it all, but since my head doesn't hurt anymore at the very thought of typing I thought I'd have a go at a more lackluster blog post. Better than no post at all, right? Right.


It's been an eventful two weeks. We had to take our car to the shop for the first time since we got it last year because we thought something had broken off of it. 

After Aaron took it to the shop though, the mechanic called to let us know that the part that came off our car wasn't even a part of our car... but rather was just a piece of metal that had gotten lodged into our wheel. What?! He ended up repairing our transmission pan since Ole Paw, our car, was there anyway, but that repair was $500 less than the original one would have been. Whew.


Also, pretty big news, we are moving off-campus over the summer. This is both exciting and heartbreaking at the same time (sort of like The Lion King?) since we'll be living in a bigger space in a cute neighborhood at a very nice price, but will be a good 15-20 minutes drive from the seminary community that we have gotten to know and love. I have to keep reminding myself of one of the huge perks of relocating in order to make me feel more at ease... our new neighborhood has SIDEWALKS. How I've missed them!


My parents are coming to town this Thursday night! It will be their first mid-western adventure together as they take the 14 hour trek to Deerfield from New Jersey. I have to still think of some interesting places to take them (my apartment might be interesting for only an hour, but that's pushing it) and hope that some warmer spring weather manifests itself in due time... 


Finally, here is a picture of a fake coyote staring at a goose. 

You're welcome.


Happy Easter Weekend!


<"

Happy April!

Happy April, everyone! I've been meaning to post a ton more than this, both here and on the Trinity website, but this week in particular was the busiest I've had in a while. And it feels GREAT! I don't know about you, but April's been pretty okay for me so far. Actually, it's been downright fantastic. We have some friends coming over tonight for dinner with two of their little munchkins (the human baby kind, not these), I got a MUCH needed haircut with my dear friend Laura, I browsed through some awesome Google April Fools Day pranks, I got an awesome package of letters and gifts from my lovely Rachely Rachel, and Script Frenzy began! 


I haven't had the greatest of starts for this year's Script Frenzy. I'm already three pages behind on my screenplay! 100 pages in the month of April is the goal, but I really need to get rollin' on it. Oh, and I have no solid story idea yet. That might be a problem.


Anyhow, something of more substance (i.e. a post with pictures) later. I've got a lot of talk about, but unfortunately cookies don't bake themselves. Laters, gators!


<"

Why is it snowing again???

One of our next door neighbors came over just now to borrow a movie. As he was talking to us, I happened to glance in the direction of our massive windows only to see a form of precipitation from yester-season falling mercilessly onto our precious earth.... It IS spring, weather!! It was official as of last Sunday! Didn't you get the memo that the weather-memorandum person sends out to your vicious kind?!?

You make Aaron grumpy, too!!

<"

Cupcakes--in Pictures

 
ye ole wet/dry ingredients

the fillin'

 filled w/ the fillin'

 frostin' them up...

  

 ...in St. Patrick's Day colors!

 

YUM

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Dessert Questing

Since getting married, I have spent an embarrassing number of afternoons reading cookbooks and baking blogs, and I get excited over finding recipes for treats I love to eat that I never thought to make on my own. I've come a long way since even a year ago in my kitchen confidence and no longer settle with baking a box mix cake or cooking Kraft macaroni and cheese. Oh please, who am I kidding... I still have that mac and cheese on stand-by for particularly taxing days (and, whatever, even on days when I'm a-okay) and I juuuuust made a batch of Funfetti cupcakes with *GASP* Pillsbury frosting (and they're AWESOME).


Annnywaaay... I have four "dessert quests" (as I will refer to them) on which I will begin to embark as of Thursday afternoon. They are as follows:

• Vanilla Cupcakes (wait for it...........) filled with Chocolate Cream! This will be my first attempt at a "stuffed cupcake"--and it shouldn't be too hard. Right? This is my Thursday project... I will be coloring the frosting in Irish-like colors (see flag) as an added bonus. Blammo!
• Molten Chocolate Cake! I've made this cake before using a lazier recipe, and the results, though tasty, were sort of lazy as well (i.e. not what I had hoped for?).  
• Cannoli! Yes! I will make this fantastic dessert so that I don't have to pay $4 for one in Little Italy next time I find myself in Manhattan. I'ma go to Ferrara and sit at one of their fancy tables and pull one of my homemade cannol's (that's how they say it in Italy, duh) and my home-brewed cup of coffee that was in an open thermos (oops) out of my purse and the waitress is gonna be all like "you can't have outside food here, ma'am, and it appears your purse is leaking coffee" and I'll be like, "Yo, fuggedaboudit" and soon find myself sitting on the curb next to a thieving, ravenous pigeon. Moving on..
• Donuts! Of the baked variety! I was hoping to find a non-fried version, especially since frying is needed for cannoli shells, and here she is!! When perfected I believe I can make many small group members, co-workers, house guests, and my husband's desire for sweet foods very happy with this.
  

From a previous, not as ambitious "dessert quest"--strawberry shortbread cupcakes!

I'm so looking forward to the results of my dessert quests--provided my dear sweet oven doesn't give me too many issues. We've had a love (or rather--agreeable)/hate relationship going on for a while now. I'll let you in on my harsh critique of the process later this week! Until then...

"Cookies are made of butter and love."  -Norwegian Proverb (Well said, Norwegians!)

<"

Hockey Night, by way of Des Plaines

I got Aaron two tickets to a Chicago Wolves (minor league hockey) game for Christmas. His +1 ended up being yours truly (yeahyeahyeah) so we skidattled off campus right after I got out of work and enjoyed the afternoon together, taking the long way down to an arena we had never been to before. It started out wonderfully enough--we loitered around Barnes and Noble as we're apt to do, longing to purchase an entire shelf of excellent DVD's that were on an incredible sale. We came out with two cups of coffee and a much-needed day planner instead.

With still so much unexplored territory to be experienced, Aaron and I took the non-interstate way to the arena and ended up for a long time in the city of Des Plaines, IL. Here are a few fun facts about Des Plaines:

• It's pronounced exactly how it's spelled, unlike "Des Moines" in Iowa. Dess Planes.
• Apparently it's official nickname is "City of Destiny". Yeah, this makes sense, especially if the destiny in question is to get into a major car wreck at night because of the poorly lit streets and confusing intersections and one ways. (This didn't happen to us, but it almost did)
• First.McDonald's.Franchise.
• Also home to what I dub as "The Worst Wendy's Restaurant Ever".
• The Left Behind series? The story is set in Des Plaines. Is it bad to say that I find this to be very fitting?

Sorry to anyone who lives in Des Plaines... we were not fans of the town. To its credit we are judging the entire town based on one very nerve-racking, ill-conditioned main road--and the weather was super crummy. 

But we made it to the Allstate Arena! We got to sit right behind the Wolves bench, eat nachos, and watch their mascot (a wolf named Skates?) shoot pyrotechnics from his fingertips. Rock rock on! Check out Aaron's phone pictures:

All right, it's time for me to gear up for Saturday Night Live... I'm feeling like a 15-year-old all over again because The Strokes are the musical guests!!!!! WOOOOOOOO! 

<" 

Super Bowl Sunday

It's a very gray Super Bowl Sunday here in Deerfield. It snowed a couple more inches this morning--which we needed, obviously--so it is perfect weather to sit in front of the TV and watch big men throw each other on the ground. I decided as of this morning that I would be a good wife and, ahem, root for the Steelers along with my husband. I agreed to do this since I started feeling bad for singing the Steelers Fight Song to Aaron but inserting "Packers" every time "Steelers" should have been sung (along with any Packers players I knew... which resulted in a song entirely about Aaron Rodgers). I have to admit that my loyalties all along were with the Steelers or the commercials, anyway.

I'm more of a hockey person... this was taken in my old Pgh apartment circa 2009

I miss my Pittsburgh friends a TON--but I don't miss a lot of "Steeler Nation". During my time in the city, I lived in this one apartment on a wild street on the outskirts of the college neighborhood. I was hanging out with Aaron's family during the last Steelers Super Bowl, and when I arrived back in Pittsburgh after the game I found that the bus shelter I normally waited under for my commute was destroyed and that a couch or two had been incinerated on the sidewalk--all on my block alone! And the Steelers had WON that game! It's comforting to know that I will most likely not run into any burnt furniture on the way home from another Super Bowl party tonight (especially since that party is also on campus, woohoo!). 


Besides, it would be hard to set any armchairs on fire outside with all of the SNOW. Man, we got a lot of snow. I ended up getting two days off from work, and Aaron didn't have class those days either. We instead got to hang out with some on-campus friends, catch up on our Netflix queue, and read new blogs (like this one by my new friend and fellow blogger Laura!).

Tuesday night right outside our apartment building...

Have a fun evening eating tortillas and salsa! Tune in next time for another blog post about something else. Go Football!


<"

Hello, Scary Weather

It looks like the apocalypse will take place Wednesday.

From the Wikipedia article (which also mentions "extratropical cyclones"): "Thundersnow, while rare anywhere, is more common with lake effect snow in the Great Lakes area of the United States and Canada, the midwestern U.S., and the Great Salt Lake." 3+ more years, huh? :D

As long as it doesn't turn into this...

<"

Much-Needed Winter Breakthroughs, and a Furry Animal I Like

Man, it's so cold and gloomy outside--it's been really rough getting up and motivated for work these last few days! Aaron's getting back in the school routine once again, which for him also means taking a temporary break from sci-fi books... at least until spring break. Despite having an obscene amount of winter lethargy, we've made some decent strides since Christmastime...

Ah, a bright blue sky during a wintery day on campus! Can't wait to see that again soon!!!

-Re-organized our huge closets. Though our apartment is tiny, there is certainly no lack of storage. Unfortunately, throwing miscellaneous items in there when we moved in was all too easy, but we have a great system now. Thanks, pretty clearance baskets from Target!


-We officially settled in a church! I know I have said this in the past about another church, but that one didn't work out as well as we had hoped, mostly due to the distance. We starting going to the Evangelical Free Church of Libertyville two weeks ago after a lot of discussion and prayer. So far, so good.


-Finally, Aaron and I have health insurance. Hoorah! This was an item that had me nervous for a while--Aaron hadn't been insured since he graduated college, and my individual plan was pretty...cheap. We finally enrolled in Trinity's student health plan, which means we really have no excuse to avoid going to get our check-ups.


On a completely different note, last night we watched Late Show w/ David Letterman and Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon, and they both had their respective "animal guys" on, which stirred up in me the desire to go to the zoo, buy a hedgehog, or become a zoologist, as it usually does. I mean, look at this thing!

It's called a bearcat. No, really, it is. Jack Hanna brought it onto Letterman's show and told Dave that bearcats walk around cobras quickly in order to make the snakes dizzy before the bearcat attacks the snake. So cool! To me, anyway. Consider this your animal trivia fix for the winter...

Off to eat a midday snack. BONUS.

<"

The Gary's Dance Their Way to #1

It's a new year, and this is a new blog post. I know 2011 will be awesome--I'm relatively-newly married, homemade marshmallows are in our living room, we "Better Homes and Gardens"-itized our shelves (example), and I know how to make marshmallows. So far this year is unbeatable. Did I mention it also started out like this?

Which resulted in me feeling like this:

Good game, Aaron. :D

<"

Shake a Hand, Make a Friend

Hey friends, check out my newest post on the Trinity Magazine site. It's about our expectations and realizations of discovering on-campus community. If I've learned anything thus far about making friends here, it's this: Don't be too shy to entice people with food!


<"

New Friend Invasion!

Wheeeeeew-weeee! Guys, last week was a great week. As previously mentioned in a former post, Aaron and I love having people over to our cozy (a.k.a. tiny) apartment and giving them food. We had a record number of friends over during the course of the week, the grand total being 12!! My small group Bible study meets at my place on Mondays, which greatly contributes to this high number... but even with that, the number is rarely greater than seven.

A picture of my small group--taken by fellow small-grouplet (that's what we're called, right?) Christy Nieh--and no, I wasn't trying to be obnoxious and cover my face! Haha--though I suppose that's what happens when you decide to kneel behind a present...

Thursday and Friday evenings were grand. My dear friend Megan (the one who climbs apple trees) traveled down from Wisconsin for some quality chillaxin' and our next door neighbors dropped by to watch The Office. Usually Aaron and I only get to talk to them in passing--but now we can confirm that they're so cool and a lot of fun, for anyone who wanted to know. And on Friday husband and I had a dinner date with another couple on campus, Molly and Daniel. We had such a great time getting to know and laugh with new friends, and getting to share Aaron's favorite dinner with them. I must have ended up going to bed by 10:30 that night--it's been a while since we've had so many group activities in a week. How did I manage it as an undergrad? 

A taste of last week (again, thank you Christy!)...

We're hoping that this is the beginning of some solid on-campus community-building. Now if only we can finally and seriously decide on a church...!


<"


P.S. I totally forgot to tell you all--I'm now blogging for the Trinity Magazine website! So exciting!! I'll be updating at least every week, so be sure to check it out!

Semi-formed Thoughts & The Office

Aaron and I kinda (and by "kinda" I mean "really, really") like to watch TV in our apartment. We tend to gravitate toward comedies, and we almost never miss the Thursday night comedy block on NBC which includes, among a few other very funny programs, The Office. This week in particular this show has been a vehicle for me to go beyond being merely entertained and instead think about words said and themes expressed. This past Tuesday I was able to use an episode from a past season that I had on DVD to facilitate discussion about English vocabulary and expressions with my friend Younbi, who now comes by once a week so that we can eat tasty food together and learn about each other's cultures. Tonight's episode struck a chord with me as an involved church-goer, a former short-term missions participant, and as a Christian. 

I really hope that some of you who read this--"you" probably mainly being my family and friends (thanks for reading, by the way!!)--also watched tonight's episode of The Office because I'm really curious about your response to some of the different scenarios involved. It was about Jim and Pam's baby's christening, which all of their co-workers ended up attending (of course). As a result, the episode showcased the characters in a church setting and post-christening luncheon. If you missed it, check it out on Hulu. Anyway, some points of interest:

• Everyone's attitudes: Michael being uplifted/obsessed with the congregation's kindness and appearance of having fun, Ryan's abrasive attitude toward religion, Toby's hesitancy to "catch up" with God, Dwight seeing the congregation as potential clients, Stanley's complaints of being hungry, etc.
• After the actual christening takes place, Michael is greeted by some members of the congregation and immediately begins to act on the warmth he received from these people. He notices a group of young adults at the luncheon who will soon be going a service trip together to build a school in Mexico and expresses to his co-workers that he wants to hang out with them outside of work in the same way those young adults were hanging out with each other. Darryl told Michael that they were currently together outside of work, but Michael desired to have the "fun" he saw in the other group within his work group.
• Michael Scott is impulsive--and, being caught up in the moment, he chooses to get onto the service trip bus and go to Mexico as a result of seeing the group of young adults enjoying each other's company, being praised by the congregation, and their goal to do good in a different country. Andy decides to tag along in order to impress Erin. 
• When Michael and Andy start to freak out about their decision, Michael wonders why the Mexicans aren't just building their own school--and realizes that he doesn't know the first thing about constructing any kind of building. Michael's realization resonates with some critics of short-term missions trips.
• What do you make of the reaction of the young adult group when Michael and Andy are adamant about getting off the bus? Also, how about the one member of the group who leaves with them--and asks Michael and Andy to not tell his parents about his decision? 

Other interesting bits of action and conversation took place (such as the portrayal of church-goers being a mixed-bag, so to speak--some being genuinely kind, others trumping the christening celebration with their disappointment that all of the cider was gone...) but I've become a sad adult who gets sleepy sooner than I used to. I think I'm going to watch the episode again tomorrow, form some more cohesive thoughts on the subject matter in the episode, and either edit this post or write a follow-up post on my reaction. In the meantime, please let me know your thoughts! Or just let me know if you think I'm reading too much into it. :D

<"