mat kearney.

i confess - i have a new band crush.

not that i still don't heart good charlotte's new daddy, joel madden, but i have recently fallen hard for the oh so soulful, mat kearney. i've been a budding fan of his over this past year as his singles were gradually released into the top 40, but it wasn't until this weekend when i bought his full cd on itunes that i truly flipped!

his unique-to-himself blend of pop/folk/rap masterfully combine the art of poetry and melody. wow, is he good. truly there is not one song that i don't absolutely love. and to make things even more sweet, i was enamored to find out this man has a sincere heart for the LORD. his lyrics may not be overt in this message, but just like in creation, his art touches the universality in all of us and ultimately points us to our maker.

check out this intro video of kearney, put out a year or so ago. my favorite line:
one thing i tend to do is to dive in to the depravity of reality but also with one hand hold onto the beauty of life and the grace of god that i have experienced

also, below are the lyrics to my new favorite song - in the middle. i'm sure it can be interpreted a multitude of ways, but i believe mat is talking about his promise to GOD and HIS unwavering commitment back. i feel it just captures my life of faith; it resonates with my soul.

you can listen to the song by hitting track #6 on his main website page - www.matkearney.com

i meant it all and every part
and every word right from the start
i’ll never let this love fall in the middle

‘cause you know you broke the hardest part
you know you broke the hardest heart
i’ll never let this love fall in the middle
through it all

fifteen years old in a sea of blank faces
swimming bold against a stream that’s mocking as it races
in these halls, mountain high under a tangerine sky
crack a smile just to hide the race that’s inside

eighteen years old bags packed and a pass for the rail
one last look at the past as it drowns in the hail
one in a million, still i keep feeling you keep me from a fall
a world to lose coming back with you tall
through it all
------
no parachutes or safety nets here
one foot on the water to face these fears
coming out strong like i can’t be wrong
i said eh, i wont fall in the middle
------
twenty five here i am with freshman lps
one life to write one, two years to repeat
behind a curtain, uncertain if an encore’s in store
tuck my shoulder like a soldier to knock down the door

thirty something here i am running with kisses for one girl
these scars upon my sleeve still casting out my pearls
throw each stone microphone like it’s my last turn
with a kiss to the abyss and watch the ripples return
through it all
------
------
and i said i’m gonna be alright,
i’m gonna be alright
with you by my side

and i said i’m gonna be alright,
i’m gonna be alright
with you through this fight
through it all
------
------
i meant it all and every part
and every word right from the start
i’ll never let this love fall in the middle
through it all

neighborly love.

not a day goes by that i don't see at least one homeless person...usually perched on the corner of a city block or resting on a park bench. most days, i'm oblivious - you just get used to such a sad reality. when i am actually aware, i shy away from eye contact, pretending to be busy messing with my ipod, rummaging through my bag, checking voicemails or merely zoning out. although i rarely feel threatened by their presence, a flood of awkwardness mixed with guilt overcomes me. how to do we, especially as christians, effectively answer the need that is so apparent in our city - and how do we do this with justice AND mercy?

growing up in a secluded bubble of a houston suburb, it was not until college when i was rudely awakened to the disparity of humanity that runs rampant in most urban settings. from the hub of power and money, you find those on the other extreme - desperate for hope and future, not to mention life's basic necessities of food and shelter. as an underclassman i spent about a year of my time in philadelphia addressing the dichotomy as such found in the infamous west philadelphia neighborhood. from a beautiful safe campus, a walk just a few blocks west took you into another world, as if alice stepped through her looking glass to find, instead of a fanciful wonderland, an urban wasteland.

working with a local public elementary school on improving literacy rates in a 3rd grade classroom, i was amazed at the students' stories that were aroused from various writing assignments we assisted them on. these were just children but faced insurmountable challenges daily - drug deals, street violence, hip-hop culture pressures. it's no wonder correct verb usage was the last priority on their list! even so, after our morning session concluded, returning back to campus to our privileged lives as well as demanding collegiate responsibilities, it was hard not to feel hopelessness for our neighbors....and sadly, just as easy to shove it onto the back burners of our mind.

all this to say, this conflicting burden of conscience has not dwindled but has increasingly grown on my heart. especially dc, with it being our nation's capital - the center of supposed justice and constitutional values - the irony is one you become cynically accustomed to. from the raging race riots of the late 60s to the transient nature of such a town, it's no wonder the district is far from the model city it should be. however a change is a-brewing, bringing economic prosperity and shiny new opportunities for growth.... otherwise known as gentrification.

on the surface, i think this is great thing; after all, i directly benefit from the transformation of the gritty to the glitzy. but what often goes unnoticed is the strong undercurrent the pushes the poor out of their homes and to where...? for the past 50 years, the inner city has been synonymous with the ghetto 'hoods of the forgotten and unwanted. but as this urban revitalization trend has built momentum, the reality is a diaspora of the most vulnerable and needy. no, they don't just disappear; they have to go somewhere, and that's a huge issue.

being a part of gracedc, a church in the city, for the city, this need has not gone unnoticed. so in coordinating 2 other dc churches - church of the resurrection and christ our shepherd - a multi-church symposium was organized in effort to unify dc christian's to address these needs with mercy and justice. one of the first such events convened in the history of the city, the interest was in no surprise, historic. with over 400 in attendance, members from 25 local churches, it was a beautiful mix of believers with a heart of the poor and impoverished.

friday night kicked off the weekend with a talk from the headlining speaker - bob lupton of atlanta - who has addressed the need for community development in conjunction with the force of gentrification for the past 35 years. this article published by PCA's web magazine - by faith online - captures the essence of his work and what this symposium centered on.

on saturday, i attended a morning and afternoon workshop - only 2 out of the 10 offered, but i wish i could have gone to all! ranging from education to public health to urban race issues to homelessness, there was a breadth of topics available with a wealth of knowledge and experience presented. instead i decided to attend sessions regarding housing development and job provision, facilitated by the directors of sister NPOs - jubilee housing and jubilee jobs. initially started as programs through a local church up in NW's adams morgan neighborhood, the visionary direction and compassion of these now established organizations have proved indispensable for this city.

i won't go into any more detail as i think this post is now long enough! but if anything this weekend proved that despite the efforts of our government - whether HUD's Hope VI program, HHS's welfare and unemployment benefits or dept of ed's NCLB initiative - positive sustainable social change can only really come from neighbors who care. developing a community that promotes mercy and justice to those without a voice, to those who could use a helping hand, to those that need the love of christ.... to that is what we are called.

and you shall love the LORD your GOD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. the second is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. there is no other commandment greater than these. - mark 12:30-31

sleeping beauty.

one of my new years resolutions is convert my night owl ways into that of a morning-loving early bird. yeah, good luck to me. i love my snooze button more than many things in my life. the idea of sneaking in a few extra minutes...or hour(!)...as a cuddle up in our way too comfortable bed... it seems so worth it at the time. that is until i actually get up and curse myself for my evident laziness as i'm forced to fly through the early morning to catch up on lost time.

over the past few years, my husband has become slowly accustomed to this annoying idiosyncrasy i possess. after all, the alarm actually has the desired effect on him - er, interrupting REM cycles. recently he's made the comment that he thinks it's my actual alarm clock that's the problem. it's not cacophonous enough and the snooze button is positioned too well for quick hit. honestly, he's right...

plus, it's one with 30 buttons for 5 radio presets, cd stop/start/fwd/back controls, clock-time change, 3 different alarm functions with a 9 permutation possibilities, a nap button, etc... even though i usually hit a grand total of 2 buttons on a day to my alarm, i'm sort of haunted by the others. no joke, i often have dreams about its complexities, in between my snooze hits, and i subconsciously refuse to wake up until i sort out the jumbled mess in my head. i wish i could explain it further that this, but it's a little beyond my conscious mind.

needless to say, it was time to get me a new morning buddy. something so simple and so loud and with NO SNOOZE button, that i couldn't help but drag my feet from under the covers to the awaiting day's reality. well, i'm happy to report i did find the perfect alarm - for a mere $13! a big thank you to target and a thank you to the simplicity of yesterday's classic - bell & hammer. isn't she a beauty?

now, i may still have to place this baby on the other side of the room to get the desired effect, but at least i'm on right path to resolution!

p.s. franklin appears to like the new alarm clock too... can you see his reflection in the right bell???

hope on the horizon.

back to work, back to the grind. after a not-so restful winter break, i can't help but sigh at the circumstances. but there is hope on the horizon... in just a few short weeks, stephen and i will be taking a much needed vacation - to the gorgeous islands of hawaii nonetheless!!!

with stephen's recent completion of grad school and his upcoming 30th birthday in february, we knew a celebratory trip was in order. we started brainstorming this past fall and settled on america's pacific paradise. he has never been and last time i checked, it was over 20 years ago that i had the pleasure. so we looked up flights, compiled our frequent flier miles and booked two tickets to honolulu for a mere $10 each!

now this was back in october, and our planning pretty much stopped there, that is until this weekend. this may sound bizarre, but this is the first real vacation i've had to plan...ever. i was totally clueless on our honeymoon plans and every other trip i have took has either been planned by my parents or accompanying friends. so first things first, the day after we got back from houston, we headed to borders and picked up a comprehensive travel guide book.

during my lunch hour thursday, i booked our lodgings at modern boutique hotel in the center of waikiki. that evening i purchased a 3-day go-oahu-card and drafted a schedule to maximize our savings. friday night, i spent the entire evening reading the guidebook cover to cover. and this weekend, while stephen was busy working preparing for his upcoming armenia trip, i searched dozens of websites, made a handful of reservations, purchased pro bowl tickets (AHHHH!), organized all my links into a google notebook and then neatly summed up our travel itinerary using the amazing new internet tool - tripit. so cool!!! i forwarded my account to my oh-so-organzied dad to check out my handywork in my first planned vacation.... let's just say, i certainly did him proud.

in the meantime, i updated my netflix queue to have hawaiian movie classics sent me over the next month. first up, elvis presley's blue hawaii. fools may rush in, but....

FEBRUARY 5th CANNOT COME SOON ENOUGH!!

subconscious soundtrack.

i just dropped stephen off at the airport. now that grad school is finally over (as of 6pm today when he turned in the infamous doug feith's final), his job is eager to get him traveling. this week it's cambridge's harvard square to interview 3 ksg profs/ambassadors. in 2 more weeks, it will be an adventurous trip to yerevan, armenia in the south caucus - lucky him. :P

i have to admit, i kind of enjoy having an evening all to myself. right now i have gingerbread men baking in the oven while i chill out on the couch in a kitty sandwich - franklin to my left, winston on the right. such sweethearts.

today was interesting day...from conquering "are you smarter than a 5th grader?" at the RSM luncheon/holiday party (quite the spread, not to mention my candied pecans - oh yum!) to finalizing the federal government's standard operating procedures on how to administer retirement (yes, it's as interesting as it sounds) to battling expectation against the fragile hope of *possibly* being able to roll-off this wretched project at the end of the month (if only!)

but through it all, one thing has remained constant - this song stuck in my head, playing on repeat! instead of the expected mariah carey's christmas classic, it's been the goo goo doll's summer hit........ah!

i think it might have something to do with the fact that stephen broke down and actually BOUGHT the transformers movie (i miss the 80s) this weekend - that along with the new harry potter. yay. our dvd collection has seriously suffered since becoming netflix members in july of 06. to celebrate, we watched the flicks again and again - y'know, to make sure they didn't "need" to be returned.

so welcome to the inner most tick-tocking of my mind...at least, for the moment. that's what blogging's for, right???

wizards & wine.

FINALLY, some of our friendships are starting to "pay-off". ok, well, i'm only HALF joking...

one of stephen's old buddies from the booz allen days just moved back to the city after graduating from michigan law....and scored a job at one of the most prestigious law firms in dc. we got together with jeetander and his wife alicia (also a mich law alum) last summer while they were in town for internships - they are such a great, down-to-earth couple...not to mention brilliant. :P now that they are back for good, we had been meaning to reconnect, but they beat us to it! courtesy of winston & strawn, they invited us to a washington wizards game saturday night with some free box-seat tickets in their corporate suite!

we were thrilled!!!

not only have i never been to an nba game, let alone at the super sweet verizon center, but who gets the luxury of soaking up the action in plush seats with your own mini kitchen and personal bathroom! so after linking up for an early dinner at matchbox, enjoying a-mazing sliders, onion straws and a prosciutto white pizza pie (oh, i'm hooked), we skipped down 2 blocks in chinatown to take in the ball game in style. SO MUCH FUN!!! and fortunately, the wizards are pretty good this year; it's always more entertaining when the home team actually wins ;)

afterwards, we said our goodbyes (& many thanks!) and then rushed off to arlington to hit up my cube-mate's holiday party...toting our bottle of white merlot with us to compliment her wine-tasting theme. i always find it interesting to go to coworkers' parties - to see where they live, to meet their "outside of work" friends and to connect more on real-life terms (who cares about business process reengineering - NOT ME!). all this to say, we had such a blast. after catching up with the BPR team and meeting tangential accenture acquaintances, it was no surprise to find many of kathryn's college friends are close friends with our gracedc friends...with the connection being wake forest university.

it's been the running joke this past year that all the new friends stephen and i make hail from winston-salem and chant "go deacs" every chance they get. it seems like every other week i'm asking kathryn (who literally sits 12 inches from me...don't ask me how many times we bump chairs, ugh), if she knows so-and-so from WF. the answer is usually...i don't think so...but as we now know, the answer is different when you talk to her friends. in fact, her sorority sister, lindsay, knows HALF of our bible study from their wake days.

yep, it is a small world - at least in what i have repeatedly found in the dc/wfu circle. i would say it's probably close to the nyc/penn world i know i miss out on daily...yes, i'm actually jealous!

president paul?

i find it pretty ironic that i call dc home yet i have an overt aversion to politics. honestly, i could care less if you work on the "hill" - i'm sure all you do is pour coffee and make copies for the one to many corrupt politicians that make our laws. ugh, yes, i'm a cynic. i hold politicians right there up with real estate agents, in regard to my trust in their motives - not very high.

however, with 2008 just around the corner and the presidential race in full swing i can't help but start to pay attention. i believe firmly the duties of a citizenship and the importance of voting. i often getting annoyed by those who constantly complain about the state of our country yet didn't bother to vote in the last election. hello!! you basically forfeited your oratory soapbox when you failed to participate in our electoral process. even if it means choosing the lesser of two evils, to vote is to have a say.

i'm not ashamed to say that in the last 2 presidential elections, i cast my vote for dubya. i mean, when you compare him to his last democratic competitors (at least their party line mascot was appropriate), i would say i didn't have much of a choice. but over the past 8 years, i have become increasingly disappointed in the republican party as they blunder opportunities for progress meanwhile the democrats continue to act like jackasses. where is our country heading under such incompetent leadership??!

like i said, i'm not much for the political scene, but i have become more and more interested our country's economic plights. between wall street, the housing markets, rise in health care costs, devaluation of the dollar....i could go on...it's rather disturbing that not more political attention has been focused on such hot topics. not to mention this huge deficit we have dug ourselves into by over-expanding our already big government, all the while increasing taxes. yikes! as i was reading through an econ blog the other day, i came across this great youtube clip of representative ron paul (r-texas), grilling the fed on their seemingly futile efforts.



i was so impressed that i started to actually look at paul's campaign website and read his more libertarian platforms. wow - how come we don't hear of this guy as much as the other republican front runners...romney, mccain, guilani....move over! i was intrigued to find dr. paul had a very visionary approach to many of our nations deepest woes while going to back to core of what country was founded on 231 years ago - the constitution. imagine that! as a practicing medical physician with 10 terms of congressional experience under his belt, i was certainly drawn to this citizen-statesman who seems so different than all the rest.

now i'm not quite sure i'm fully committed to join his "rEVOLution," but he certainly has my attention as a glimmer of hope in an answer for america. we shall see...