Were you hurt?

Ok, from my travels around my small blog-o-sphere, it seems alot of the sites I read (see the links) are created by regular folks. Good people who want about the same things most people I've met want - a fair shot at a decent life, to be shown kindness and to be allowed to show it, a reason to smile and peace. Most seem to be pretty normal and (dare I say it?) moral people. No thieves or axe-murders in my world that I know of.
But most seem dismissive of "organized" religion or even the concept of an active relationship with God. I read about a lot of us who are just trying to handle the question on our own, in our own terms.
Me?
I'm a pretty happy Presbyterian who is grateful for a relationship with my Creator made possible by His love and grace, manifest in Jesus.
I'm not the Pope or St. Paul or a male Mother Teresa.
I'm just a guy.
Working on getting to the end of today, hopeful for tomorrow and excited about after that.
So, it makes me wonder if any of you have had negative experiences with a church (or church people) that put you off the whole "religion" thing.
Anyone got a comment?

Friday Random Ten

Well, it's Friday and time for a random list of songs on your digital music machine. What are you listening to? Here's mine from this morning:
1)Larry Carlton - The Magician
2)Joan Sebastian - Ciega y Loca
3)Tom Rush - The Circle Game
4)Chaka Demus & Pliers - Gal Wine
5)Bob Marley - Soul Shakedown
6)Vanessa Carlton - Twilight
7)Lauryn Hill - When It Hurts So Bad
8)Bruce Cockburn - Light of The World
9)Peggy Lee - Hold Me
10)The Eagles - Seven Bridges Road
Let's hear from you...

There's two of us now....

Y'all be nice, okay?
My older brother has joined this space as a contributor. I have been after him for awhile to do this so he can make the more sublime observations.
He still swims in deep water; my psyche(delia) has changed to pseudo ;)

Marital bliss...

So Rat thinks we marrieds have everything at our fingertips...
Here's a story about that
So a sixth grader is standing in the pharmacy with a confused look on his face.
The pharmacist comes over and asks if he can help the young boy.
“Well,” the boy says,” I am doing a school report on condoms for a social studies class. But this display has me mixed up. Why are there so many different size boxes?”
“Do you see the three pack boxes?” asks the pharmacist.
“Yes”
“That’s the high school size. There’s Friday, Saturday and Sunday in those.”
“Oh.”
“The six packs are for college students. Friday, Friday, Saturday, Saturday and Sunday, Sunday.”
“I think I understand,” the young boy says. “But what about those twelve pack boxes?”
“Oh, those are for married people.”
“Married people?” The young boy is very confused by this.
“Yes,” replies the pharmacist. “There’s January, February, March…”

I love you honey. But it's a really funny joke.

Hannah update

So, my daughter has been in Spain for a bit more than a month. Her accounts back to us would indicate she is having a great time exploring the Spanish countryside and culture (nightlife). Here is her latest e-mail that came to her Mom this morning:
"hola momma...i went to Salamanca this past weekend and loved it so much...it was unbelieveable how cool everyone was...the train ticket was only 25€ roundtrip so i figured that would be better to buy than to use the railpass for bc i want the railpass to be valid until dec...Jimmy, me and Estrella went...Estrella is the china...she is very sweet and i like her a lot...and we met the kids from Butler University who had this and a few other trip included in their tuition...they stayed in a four star hotel right on the Plaza Mayor...which is said to be the most beautiful public plaza in Spain...it was gorgeous...and the three of us slept there too...for free...it was awesome...all we paid for was our own food and the transportation to get out there and thats it! it was awesome...the Catedral Nueva was free to get into and AMAZING!!!! we also climbed the torre and saw many more churches...we also saw rthe Casa de las Conchas...its supposed to be the most photographed building in Salamanca but i thought the Church across the street was much much more beautiful...the Casa was a disappointment for us but everything else was amazing...and just now i totally watched an eclipse...it was awesome too! Madrid is one of the only places in the world that saw a full eclipse..is that not insane? i thought it was the most beautiful thing...anyway...I have classes today and for the rest of the week and then this wkend i am goin to amsterdam...we have nxt mon and wed off for holidays so i will probably take day trips to segovia and toledo and who knows maybe back to salamanca bc i am in love with that city...but i love yall and miss yall tons...have a good columbus day wkend...it still trips me out that the catedral i went into this past wkend was older than the us by over 200 yrs...whoa!
anyway...besos!
Amsterdam? I am so jealous...Did I tell y'all that on her trip two weeks ago to Valencia she got her nose pierced? Mom was afraid I'd go ballistic. Instead, I wanted to know what color the stone is. It's sad they don't know me very well, hmmm?