Chicago is.... my kind of town!

Earlier this month (right before finals actually), I headed to the Windy City to enjoy time with my old Baylor Cohort and attend the 2010 NASPA (student affairs administrators) conference. I was so excited for this visit, even though school was kind of stressing me out (all of my assignments seemed to be due leading up to the conference and right after it ended).

Candice, Matt and I had been collaborating on this visit for a long time. Matt and I knew that to convince Candice to come back to the US for the conference, we'd have to make it worth her while, so Matt invited us down to his place in St. Louis for the weekend following the conference. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

I woke up early on a Saturday morning, threw on some clothes, grabbed my huge bag and headed to LAX. Candice had flown in on Friday to get a start on jet-lag-management (seriously, Candice came to us from ENGLAND! that = awesome), and Kathryn (our other roommate) was headed in Saturday also. We were excited to see each other after a long time apart, and were also looking forward to connecting with some of our other cohort-mates who happened to already be in town!





I don't want to bore you with the gory details of everything that happened except to say that it was a TERRIFIC time. We sang Karaoke (Kathryn, Jonathan and I rocked the bar with our rendition of "Love Shack"), had a cohort reunion over deep dish pizza at Gino's East where I think we were the loudest group in the entire restaurant (and Candice, Kathryn and I walked almost a mile only to find out we were at the wrong location...), heard Condoleeza Rice speak (she was a really great speaker), went to a few sessions, presented a workshop on Campus Spiritual Climate (with Matt - which we think was a success), and shared a lot of laughs and memories over a lot of wine and beer.

On Wednesday evening, Candice, Shannon and I joined Matt and a few of his coworkers on the Amtrak to St. Louis. It was really fun to take the train somewhere and inspired me to take the train to other locations as I have the chance. While its not faster than driving, it is certainly easier and cheaper, the seats are way more spacious than on a plane, and they have electric outlets so you can use your computer without worrying about a dead battery.



While in St. Louis, we explored Forest Park, visited the Arch, enjoyed thin crust pizza, did some shopping, stayed up till all hours of the night, and did a lot of laughing. OH, and Shannon and I sang Karaoke ("Ain't no Mountain High Enough").

All in all, it was a grrrreat work and vacation time, and I was so grateful for the opportunity!

Book Review: Hunter's Moon by Dan Hoesel

Hunter's Moon by Dan Hoesel is not your normal "Christian Fiction." First, aside from Frank Peretti, most of the Christian fiction I see around is romance-novel-ish. I love mysteries, and action stories, though, so I thought this book would be right up my alley. And indeed, it did have a good mystery, a lot of tension, and a fairly exciting ending. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

C.J. is a novelist who, despite his efforts, cannot keep his hometown of Adelia out of his books. There is only one problem... some people may not want their histories shared with the world. When C.J. returns to Adelia to attend his grandfather's funeral, he finds himself confronted with a family secret he ran away from, and a number of family members who are and aren't happy to see him. C.J.'s brother, Graham, is running for senate, and meanwhile C.J.'s messy divorce and other family happenings are sort of mucking up the plan. All the while, C.J. is rediscovering who he is and who God is calling him to be.

Here is the bottom line: this book wasn't half bad. I thought there were too many characters right off the bat, and too many with similar names which made it hard for me to keep them straight (George and Graham for instance). That and the fact that the mysterious family secret was revealed pretty early in the story were my only "cons". I thought the author did a really good job of presenting C.J.'s young faith in Jesus without being super preachy but still being authentic to the character and to Christianity. The story did meander a little bit, but I was engaged in C.J.'s life, so it was actually OK. And the end kept me up past midnight because I didn't want to go to bed without finishing it, which if nothing else at least shows that the book had caught me pretty well by then.

Hunter's Moon is a pretty solid read, not great, not the best book I've read in a while, but good. If you like mysteries and suspense, you'll probably like it. 4 scarecrows out of 5.

Book Review: Never Say Never by Lisa Wingate

Thanks for putting up with my continual book review posts, friends. It just so happened that my receipt of three books from Bethany House coincided with my travels across the US and my spring break - which meant there was going to be a LOT of reading time in my future. And since my only obligation in return for getting these books is to write a review, well.... you've seen a lot of them lately.

On the bright side, "Never Say Never" by Lisa Wingate is hands down the BEST of the books I've read in the last month or so. The characters were so engaging and charming, the story so touching and entertaining, and the setting so enjoyable that I read it in 24 hours.

The story centers around two women, Kai, a young gal who works on a cruise ship and makes jewelry from found objects and Donetta, and older lady, who with her two best friends is headed to Perdida, Texas to enjoy a cruise. But before they can make it to Perdida, a hurricane moves in and causes an evacuation of Kai and the rest of the gulf coast. Donetta, her friends, Lucy and Imogene, and Kai end up traveling together after  series of the kinds of crises that happen during a hurricane evacuation. Through their travels together on the road, and Kai's eventual landing in Daily, Texas (Donetta's hometown) - all involved learn about themselves and others.

Kai and Donetta alternate narrating the chapters, and so you hear both of their perspectives, often on different events that are happening - and it makes the story really entertaining. As you learn about Kai's family history, you understand more about her reticence to find a home in Daily - even with the handsome Kemp Eldridge (Donetta's nephew, and the high school Baseball Coach) on her tail. And as you learn about Donetta's relationship with her husband (who is missing when she returns to Daily), you really get a sense of how miscommunications can happen within marriages.

As I read the story, I chuckled out loud a lot; I also got teary-eyed a number of times. Lisa Wingate is a great storyteller - and it didn't hurt that Daily is located near Waco/Killeen, so the way the characters talk (they say things like "might could" and eat Chicken Spaghetti) was super familiar and accurate and the areas that she was talking about reminded me so much of my years in Texas.

If you enjoy fiction novels, and especially if you like romance stories - you will really love this one. For real people, buy this book. Five Small Town Baseball Fields out of Five.