Vienna Waits For You

A little Billy Joel is always good for the soul...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsEBGhbSKVc&feature=related

(Copy and paste link... ;) )

What I'm looking for...

Nope, still can't find it.

But, I DID find this awesome song lyric: "And I've been trying to find/What's been in my mind/As the days keep turning into night." (Alexi Murdoch)

Currently, puzzle pieces are sitting in front of me, but I'm just not certain how they all fit together. Or even what picture on the front of the box looks like. Somehow it involves love. Capital "L" and lowercase "l". And all four types: eros, storge, philia, and agape. Also, the movie Away We Go. And my parents. How does a couple stay happily married for 35 years? And Lewis is several puzzle pieces. Perspective is as well. HIndsight is 20/20, but how does one step out of a situation to gain the clarity needed?

Lots of parts. I'll find what's in my mind eventually.

Until then, here are some pictures of Vienna.

Perspective

I'm typing this from Lewis' dining room. Being here at The Kilns has humanized dear Jack. (Lewis hated his surname, Clyve Staples, so he gave himself the nickname Jack after a neighbor's dog who had died.) And, I think that's a good thing. I haven't quite processed it all yet. Needing a tad bit of hindsight perspective on the issue, I'll blog more about it at a later date.

For now, you'll just have to look at some pictures of Oxford.


Cheers to Jack at the Eagle and Child


A good way to spend half-an-hour


The front of St. Mary's


Looking up from the base of the spire at St. Mary's




The Sheldonian design by Sir Christopher Wren at Oxford University

At Home at The Kilns

It's officially been 32 hours of wakefulness for me. (Is "wakefulness" even a word?) I'm typing from Joy Davidman's (Lewis' wife) room which is my sleeping space for the next two nights. Below you will find some pictures of their home, The Kilns.

And I'm going to bed ready to explore Oxford in the morning.

Oh, and Mom was shocked upon my arrival. She even started to cry!

The Most Important Decision

Decisions, decisions....the most important decision of any trip continues to be what reading material to take. Somehow this is never an easy task. Here are the in-progress books I began with:


Okay, even I admit that 10 books may be just a few too many for a week long trip. The narrowing begins...


Still too many. Now I have to be truly discriminating. I'm sorry Shakespeare and Flannery, you're staying in North America. The final cut...


1. Top 10 Vienna - Obvious choice
2. The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis - I'll be living in Lewis' house for three days, so I felt like I needed be reading something by him that I haven't read. This collection of works has been on "my list" for a while, and the time is now.
3. A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols - The nonficition story of nine sailors who race to do a solo nonstop circumnavigation of the world. One only completes the journey alive. (Thanks for letting me borrow AB. I promise it will return safely.)
4. Dark Star Safari by Pual Theroux - Theroux chronicles his journey through Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. Africa is never far from my heart.
5. A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken - This one is a reread. I might actually be crazy taking this with me because it's a tear jerker and it incorporates some of Lewis' writings as well. More on the significance of this choice in another blog entry. Anyone who is married or desires to be married some day should read this book. My literature professor father says it changed his life.
6. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A Life in Letters - Another obvious choice since I will be in the land of Mozart and at his home in Salzburg.

Hmmmm...I'm only taking nonfiction books. This decision I may turn out to regret. I think I need to start over...I think I'm going to be up all night packing...

Grown-up Camera

I bought my first SLR camera this week and have had some fun playing around with it. Below you will find some of my favorite pictures.

Guitar


Kitchen


A yummy breakfast at the Garlands

On strongly disliking bloggers

My mom claims "hate" is a bad word. Or, at the very least, a "strong" word. She continues to encourage me to use the phrase "strongly dislike" as opposed to the four letter afore mentioned verb.

For once, I'll take my mom's advice in making a statement: I strongly dislike bloggers. Unless I have some sort of connection to you, I truly and honestly don't care what books you're reading, what music you're listening to, or your restaurant recommendations. I have absolutely no desire to know your "deep" thoughts and I especially don't care where you found a sale on diapers for your two month old. I mean, seriously?!

Maybe I'm being a tad harsh. But all of you reading this post have some kind of connection to me. As in you actually know me in the real-life world. You would come to my funeral and say nice things about me if I got run over by a Marta bus tonight. At least, I hope you'd say nice things.

I do confess that I frequent several blogs of people I don't know. John Mayer posts pieces of the songs he's writing on his blog. It's pretty damn cool. And I love insights into the minds of genuinely creative people. Especially if they are tall, attractive musicians types. I also skim Donald Miller's blog. (If you haven't read "Blue Like Jazz" stop reading this instant and go out and buy yourself a copy. No, I'm serious, stop reading...go NOW!) Sometimes he posts parts of his current writings and funny videos with music from bands of which I've never heard. But, occasionally, he's boring, so I skip those posts. If you're hilarious I'll read your blog. Like the "Stuff White People Like" blog and the take-off "Stuff Christians Like".

If C.S. Lewis had a blog, I'd read it. If Mark Twain had a blog, I'd read it. If you had a blog I'd read it, cause you're reading mine and I probably like you and have maybe even left the continent with you.

But, honestly, this blog is more for me than it is for you. It's to keep me thinking and writing and remembering and being thankful. When I remember and reflect, I'm grateful for all that which I've been truly blessed. And I need to display gratitude much more frequently than I do.

And my musings are partly for you too. To see pictures of places you haven't been and to read about what I'll forget to tell you when I return. I hope that you don't "strongly dislike" it.