all the things that really matter...

My birthday weekend was phenomenal. There were many times throughout the weekend that I thought Oh I need to remember this for my blog, whether it was something funny someone said or just a good memory to put down on "paper" to come back to later. But, now that I am actually sitting to write about them I can't remember all of them. I do remember getting the coffee mug from Sharon and the incredible cookies from JoAnne and the Burt's Bees Hand Repair Creme and Burt's Bees Night Creme from Cheryl.

But the very best things were the intangible gifts - the ones that couldn't be touched but the ones that were felt or experienced. Like Tom and Doug taking turns reading the 29th verse of every chapter in Proverbs that had a 29th verse and then reading all of Chapter 29 itself, along with Psalm 29. Like Blassi making me dinner - spaghetti with good homemade sauce. Like Tom taking me out for a couple birthday beers on Saturday night at around 11:30 and getting so lost in good authentic convo that we completely lost all track of time and didn't leave until around 2 or so. Like Tom and I meeting up with Blassi and his brother Larry, and Lisa and Doug at Blassi's place and seizing the opportunity to tell each of them how much I love them and how thankful I was that they helped me celebrate. Like going to the beach to play frisbee with 4 of your best friends and then heading to the bluffs to watch the sun "set." Like hanging out all night and not going to bed until 4:30am. Like hanging out at Buckets for almost 4 hours last night watching NBA Finals. Those were the things I remember and will remember years from now. Those were the gifts of the most worth for me. And they were all gifts of relationship and fellowship, people giving of themselves because that's all they had to give and because they knew that's all I wanted. Yeah, it was a good weekend.

I remember laughing A LOT and feeling loved. And that's really all that's important, right?

Oh and I remember this... Doug said the other day: "When I became a Christian God took all my sins and put 'em in a big burlap sack and tied 'em up and tossed 'em into the deepest, darkest ocean. And then he posted a sign der that says, 'ABSOLUTELY NO FISHING!'"