Last week’s church attendance was 101.  I’m not sure about today’s, but again, it was very slim in numbers.  For me, church began with me asking myself, “What is this offering me?”  There are clearly many groups at church that cater to many people in our congregation.  But, I find almost nothing that caters to me.  I do attend the Men in Mission group, but aside from that, I find really nothing else that jumps out at me to get me excited about church.

Then I began thinking about all the things that I could be doing in order to create a group that caters to me.  Our congregation is an older one.  The majority of people are seniors, and those who aren’t seniors are the “middle-aged.”  I’m not saying anything negative against seniors or the middle aged, but neither of those describe me.  With one young couple who visited today, and a couple of others who are young singles, I got up at the end of the service and made an announcement inviting young couples and young singles to talk to Sarah and me about getting a group together.  This could be to have a Sunday school class together, but I see it going much further than that — to go out to dinners or lunches and to cultivate friendships.  That’s the one major factor missing from my life right now.  I just don’t have any friends — people who are my age, who are young professionals with no kids. 

I’ve gotten so sick of it lately that this week I actually threw all my nerves out the window in an effort to find a friend.  A contact through my job had called me to talk about a story opportunity, and I later asked if he would like to hang out sometime.  So on Friday, we met up and had a beer and just talked.  It was refreshing.

I guess sometimes it’s not enough to sit back and wait for things to happen.  Sometimes you just have to take the bull by the horns and make things happen.  Just like sitting in church and realizing that it’s just happening for me, I guess the reason is there’s no one to make it happening or exciting.  Maybe that’s God’s way of telling me to do something about it.  Our theme at church this year is to witness and serve.  I hope I can get this group going and it’ll be my way of putting myself out there for God.

I’m Wining

Today marked yet another adventure into our tour of North Texas wineries. This particular adventure brought us to Wales Manor in New Hope, Texas. The good news is that it was a new winery with a new experience. The even better news is that it is now checked off our list and we never have to visit it again. My main problem with Wales is that it had 100% no charm. The owner was very too self-important and spent all of 2 minutes with us – 1:45 of which was either concentrated on getting a glass of wine for himself or making very sexist comments (in front of 3 women). Anita, our tasting pourer, was very knowledgable and was friendly enough. I suppose for my speed she was going rather slowly. But in her defense, she had many other customers to attend to.

 

Maybe, instead of ranting about how much I disliked Wales Manor and the fact that I spent too much money there for not liking it, or instead of talking about the rude people we were forced to be nice to, I should talk about last weekend’s fantastic winery visit to Collin Oaks in Princeton, Texas.

Before you snap to any judgments about my frequency of visits to these wineries, you should really just be in awe about how much knowlegde I have about wine (especially Texas wines) and how much my tastes have really grown – although some would argue that a liking to Texas wine is like prefernce to a vending machine snack cake over a gourmet dessert. Texas wine is just great, though, I’ll have you know.

Anyhow, Collin Oaks had the best wines, not to mention the greatest amount of charm. Louis and Gary, the vintners, were just awesome. We went last weekend when it was soggy and yucky all day, but the warmth of the wine and conversation inside the tasting room was captivating and humbling. We realized that this is exactly the experience we look for when we go to these wineries. Collin Oaks is our new standard in winery experiences. It was THE best visit and experience. I felt bad about not buying more at Collin Oaks last weekend, but never fear — we will be revisiting Collin Oaks many times to come, and not Wales Manor.  There’s something to be said for investing in future business.

It’s Time

This is for people like my mom, and for everyone I’ve ever asked to take a picture that turns out like this:

People, it is about time to learn how to use technology.  This world is not going to get any simpler.  We are only going forward.  If you don’t take the time to at least know how to push a button on a phone that, OH MY GOSH… HAS A CAMERA… then I’m sorry to say that I will no longer be able to help you.

For the sake of my sanity, and for the millions of other people wishing the technology-challenged could just get a clue, please learn what DVR stands for and how to use it.  I don’t know how many times I’ve had to reprogram my grandmother’s answering machine.  God love her, it’s just one button that you press, hold, and then speak to leave your message.  When you’re done, just take your finger off the button.

For those of you who are digial camera challenged, it can’t get any easier, really.  Many cameras have a window to view your picture.  If there’s no big space to see the picture, then look into the little tiny one — it’s called the viewfinder.  Please make sure your fingers are not covering up the round thing on the front — called the lens.  The lens can vary in sizes.  If it’s a camera phone, you’ll need to pay special attention because the lens will be very small.  One finger could cover it up.  As you see in the picture above, half of the picture is practically fingered.  NOTE: If you take a picture with a digital camera, the beauty is you can preview it right away.  If you see a finger, please offer to retake it.  Please notice headroom (the space above the subject’s heads), any irritating light that could make the picture “too bright” or other factors like smudge on the lens.  Any of these could make for a bad picture.  Since it’s digital, it would be very, very easy to delete and reshoot. 

I’m tired of having to explain technology to those who don’t have a clue.  Yes, I have questions about technology, but at least I can provide basic knowledge to many technologically-inclined tools of our society.  I can use a computer, I can take pictures with a digital camera, and I know my way around my Palm Treo 755p like the back of my hand. 

All I’m asking is to please take some desire in learning this stuff so people like me won’t have to lose our hair earlier in life, and so that our heart health won’t fail us.  You will do everyone such a big favor.