mangy dogs (not mine), rain-check on church, and adventures to come

hmm. once upon a time, yesterday...on a whim, i sent a text to a friend to see if she wanted to go check out a church with me. it had come up in conversation the day before. the answer was a resounding yes. so we agreed upon the 7:15 pm service last night. it's a bit of a drive to flower mound, but who cares, the conversation was good.

i'd visited the village church awhile back, but it was obviously in a different area at that time, so we may have overshot the first time and had to call upon google nav to redirect us. half-joking, nicolette said, "what if they cancelled service for halloween?" we pulled in, and there were no cars at 7:13...they cancelled service for halloween apparently...no warning....no worries, it was a good dry-run, just to make sure we know where it is for next time! 

so we back-tracked and missed a turn somewhere, but i had the general direction in my head (although it was cloudy and there were no constellations to guide us)...we did eventually make our way back to 35 S. and per our conversation, i made a point to show her where the closest sprouts was in our neck of the woods. then, since plans had changed, we decided to go grab coffee at dunn brothers. 

we walked in and she couldn't contain herself when she saw a gentleman with his lsu shirt on and she said something about geaux tigers...or purple and gold...or whatever crazy-talk-code language they have, and that was the beginning of the end. we ordered our coffee and food, and took a spot out on the sidewalk tables to continue our conversation. well...that didn't last, as the two older gentlemen who had been inside came out-the heavier one with a ragged beard and slightly disheveled look proceeded to ask if we would listen to a Christian song he wanted to sing to us, or if we would be like, "AHHHHHHH Go away!" so, being the considerate people that we are, we said that was fine, we'd listen. his lsu friend went to get his guitar, and he began to talk and tell us a whole string of tales. 

he'd played different gigs around town, and i guess he's worked for DISD in a substitute capacity (at george bush elementary, no less)...and that was an interesting story in and of itself...it had something to do with a little girl tapping him on the leg to ask a question, and him coming to the conclusion that he was going to be a grizzly bear with a toothbrush, because he didn't want that little pint-sized girl to end up in a crack whore house with the cartel... and he had some very unflattering things to say about madeline murray o'hair. (there may have been more to it, and i may be leaving out some details...i was trying really hard not to look at nicolette, because i knew for a fact that if i did, i would lose it..i could tell out of the corner of my eye that she was trying just as hard as i was not to giggle).

 but i digress, before this conversation happened, he sang us his song about a mangy dog on the side of the road helping angels...and there was a lot of repetition, so when he told us he wrote the song himself, to be honest..i wasn't surprised. right before he began singing, he explained the hierarchy of musical talent to us: there's whitney houston and beyonce, then there's like...george straight, then there's smaller bands that are local, then there's folks like me who play at restaurants, who have to make a profit to be able to pay me.... so...when he finished with his song, he said, "now repeat after me. Jesus Christ," and he waited. and we didn't repeat after him. and he said, "seriously, repeat after me. Jesus Christ, " and so i repeated that part, rather hesitantly, but nicolette just looked at him dubiously and he said, "no, you need to say it too." so she did, and it was SUPER AWKWARD, but at one point we stopped and said, you know what, nope. we're Christians- not really needing to repent to you or say a prayer with you...know our Bible and Truth...i tried several times to divert the conversation and figure out how to best move on-nicolette left me stranded once to go to the restroom, and then tried to assist in the wrap-up by taking our dishes, mugs and trash inside...they were cleaning the place up around us, and finally we had to just get up and start walking to the car (and he was still talking to us pretty sure we thought he was going to follow us right out to the car to keep the conversation going)...it was a rough night at dunn brothers. 

God bless him for being a witness and desiring to further God's kingdom, but one of the biggest turn-offs is when you're just trying to hang out and someone comes along just assuming they can monopolize your time...so we ended up at the ice house which is pretty much steps/minutes away from both of our places. there were a couple of costume parties going on because we were definitely greeted by two guys getting out of their car-one with no shirt, just a ninja turtles shell, mask and sword..but in all honesty, he looked really good without a shirt, as he flexed for us and said, "COWABUNGA DUDE!" what just happened? we avoided the costume party at the ice house by sitting in the patio area, and were actually able to have a regular conversation. it was actually really good because we have a lot of likes in common, and one of the things that has been missing for me in dallas has been someone to play with-no family, no husband, no bf, so we agreed to take this town by storm! and by storm i mean gentle rain...musicals, high school sporting events, art/craft shows, museums, street performances, food trucks....i mean...just the fun stuff that you do with friends. the outlook for the year just got exponentially better. 

i don't think i realized how lonely it really has been around here until we started talking and i began to think about the things i used to do with alyshia, bmayes, my small group, the girls when they'd visit from oklahoma, etc. it's the beginning of november, so it seems the appropriate time to be thankful.

julie