Another three day weekend here in Southern California, and it was quite a good one. Brace yourself for a potentially long post.
It's always nice to start things off with a picture. Here's one of the tallest building in the US west of Chicago. It's the US Bank Tower, (I don't know why they've got their name on such a huge sweet building out here and on such a sucky arena in the nati), also known as Library Tower, or as I know it, the L.A. building the aliens blew up in Independence Day.
I had to go to bed early on Friday night, because Saturday morning I got up early to do some volunteering with Mosaic. This guy Ben was happy to pick me up from my apartment and he was a very awesome guy. Ben and I drove down to the Union Rescue Mission's warehouse south of downtown. There we met up with 5 other guys from Ben's Mosaic small group out of the Pasadena Mosaic community. Ben was probably in his late 20s, and the rest of the guys with him were all in their mid-to-late 30s and 40s. Still, they were very cool guys, and although I couldn't really join in conversations when they talked about their kids, it was a lot of fun.
We spent an hour or so packing up 1000 kits of stuff like shampoo, toothbrushes, socks and combs that will be part of the 3000 that Mosaic and Union Rescue Mission are handing out to the homeless in the city next month. The sheer number of homeless people in this city continues to amaze me, so it was awesome to be doing a little to help them out. I'll be looking forward to more opportunities to reach the homeless here, as much as it might take me out of my comfort zone.
After we finished packing all 1000 kits in 1/3 of the time we had planned on (we couldn't do any more because they wanted other volunteers to be able to help with more packing next weekend) the men of the small group decided to head out for some Breakfast/Lunch, and it was decided that we'd go up to the Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Pasadena.
Roscoe's was quite an experience. I know I've heard of Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in some movie or tv show or something, but I don't know where exactly. But apparently it's very famous and is exactly what the name makes it sound like. I had fried chicken and waffles. It was actually really good, especially the waffles.
Although I was really young compared to most of the guys in Ben's small group, as we were talking and all, I was really struck by how good and solid the guys were. They were all really supportive of each other and definitely had a lot of life experience and knowledge that I was learning from.
As we were leaving the restaurant, one of the guys told Ben to make sure he gave me the info about their small group. I don't know that it would be possible for me to ever make it up to Pasadena to join them, but I am really looking forward to being able to spend some more time serving alongside them. Ben was a really cool guy, too, and it would be great to be able to hang out sometime. He was already hoping things work out and I'm able to come back here in the summer.
Since I was in Pasadena at Roscoe's, I gave Alli a call to see what she was up to for the afternoon. Before I do go any further, Pasadena itself was pretty awesome. The place was very nice and looked full of stuff to do, plus there are really tall mountains right next to the city. As you hopefully know from reading this blog, I really love these California mountains.
Anyway, Alli and I took the beautiful new Gold Line light-rail/subway back downtown to check out the MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum has like 3 different venues around town, we only went to one, but it was very cool. I continue to be amazed at how many seriously famous and really cool pieces of art are in this city, and I haven't even seen the Getty yet!
So the museum was cool, but there was this guy outside it that was giving me some serious 'tude. He and I came really close to fighting, but eventually he just backed off.
Let's see, ohh yeah, I also bought this cool shirt from the Walt Disney Concert Hall that has the silhouette of downtown LA reflected below it so that it looks like sound bars like you'd see them in an equalizer or something. If that doesn't make sense, you'll see it when I wear it, it's cool.
On the way home, I caught the bus at Union Station, Los Angeles' equivalent of Grand Central Station. Here's a hall in the beautiful old Train station that is no longer in use. I love the mood and the light from the sunset and everything. The train station really captures what I imagine was the emotion and excitement of Los Angeles in the 30s and 40s.
Sunday morning I went to Supercuts across the street and got a haircut from Alfredo. A man has never cut my hair in Supercuts before. Alfredo did nice work though. I was surprised, the regular supercut out here was $16.95, isn't it just $12.95 or $13.95 back east? I was not too thrilled about that. Maybe I should get my hair cut in the barber shop inside Launderland, the laundromat on the corner. Probably not.
I went back to church at 2:30 to help with set-up again, only this time I got a ride there from Meg (making friends is a wonderful thing). I spent most of the afternoon helping Justin sweep and mop the second floor, which wreaked from the smell of spilled alcohol and dirty bathrooms.
Right before the service I was on flavor of the week duty, but I got a little discouraged, because there weren't as many people alone in need of free drinks and conversation as last week. Still, I was able to talk a little to a guy named Deacon, and talked to a middle-aged guy named Matthew. Matthew was a businessman from DC, in town for work. He told me he had come to town for business last year and checked out Mosaic and was back now and made sure to come back, even though he's only here for a week. I thought that was a cool story. When I told him I was from Pittsburgh, he told me a friend of his from his church was actually going to Pittsburgh to plant an urban contemporary church like Mosaic there. I told him that was an awesome idea, and that Pittsburgh didn't have anything like that from what I know.
Still, like I said, I was feeling discouraged because I didn't find as many people as last week. The service itself was awesome as always. They had the same girl singing as last week, and she had a pretty unique, sort of Avril Lavigne-like voice which was cool. Erwin McManus' message was about streets named after Martin Luther King, and he challenged us with the question "what kind of a road will they name after you? Will it be a cul-de-sac just going in circles, or a dead end, or will you actually go somewhere?"
It was great, and then at the second service for flavor of the week, I had some amazing caramel hot chocolate to hand out and I went inside and found a guy sitting alone. I offered him some hot chocolate and sat down and we immediately started talking. The guy, Ryan, was also a third year student in college up in the Valley and was orginally from Northern California. He said Northern and Southern California were totally different. He's History major and is hoping to be a High School American History teacher. It was a lot of fun talking to him, and reminded me how awesome it is to talk to new people.
It's amazing how more often than not people are thrilled to talk and open up. I'm definitely learning a lot here by taking initiative and hopefully I can remember and use all of this in other places in my life.
Let's see, today I got up, went for a run around the block, and did some prep work for the ccm opera I'm helping out with. Then I took the bus back downtown because I wanted to exchange my medium LA Philharmonic t-shirt for a large so it wouldn't shrink too small. Back at the gift shop in the concert hall, a guy told me the large was a good idea because the shirts do shrink. I was happy to hear that.
As I walked from the Concert Hall to the subway stop, I saw this. It looked like they were filming a car commercial or something. Just proving my point that the Walt Disney Concert Hall is in every car commercial on TV. Just watch for it.
I took the subway to Hollywood and Vine, because I decided I wanted to find Erwin McManus's book, Soul Cravings. I had seen there was a Barnes and Noble or Borders on Vine somewhere, but I got off the subway and couldn't find it. I could however, find the Capitol Records Tower.
I got on the bus and rode it to the West Hollywood Target where I looked for Erwin's book. They didn't have it, so I got on another bus and decided to go all the way to Santa Monica Beach, where I knew there was a Barnes and Noble. The bus ride was long, but I made it.
The Barnes and Noble was at this place in Santa Monica called the Third Street Promenade. It's a few blocks of a street that is closed and lined with all these cool stores and restaurants. Musicians play music all along the promenade and singers perform as well. I stopped for a little while to listen to an amazing violin player, who was hooked up to speakers that were kind of laying down a kind of beat that he was playing classical music with a modern flair to it. It was very cool.
Anyway, I found a border's on the promenade, but they didn't have Soul Cravings. So I grabbed a panini for dinner and was about to head home, when I noticed a barnes and noble further down the promenade. I went in there and found Erwin's book! I was excited and got a moleskin sketchbook too. Now my day was a success.
Then I waited, got on the bus, and came home.
It was a lot of Metro riding in one day. Probably more than I will ever do again. I essentially went in a big circle around West L.A.
Well, I don't have too much other big news from the weekend.
Aaron Sapp told me the theme for Relay for Life this year is Disney movies. I'm pretty excited about that. Should be lots of fun. I love relay. Usually in my mind I forget about the part that isn't as much fun, like getting really tired and cold. Still, the fun and the greatness of the cause makes up for all of that.
That's about it for now. I'm starting to read Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus now and I'm really looking forward to it. Have you read it? Maybe you should.
Alright, I hope you have a great rest of the week. Call me, it'd be fun to talk.
much love,
It's always nice to start things off with a picture. Here's one of the tallest building in the US west of Chicago. It's the US Bank Tower, (I don't know why they've got their name on such a huge sweet building out here and on such a sucky arena in the nati), also known as Library Tower, or as I know it, the L.A. building the aliens blew up in Independence Day.
I had to go to bed early on Friday night, because Saturday morning I got up early to do some volunteering with Mosaic. This guy Ben was happy to pick me up from my apartment and he was a very awesome guy. Ben and I drove down to the Union Rescue Mission's warehouse south of downtown. There we met up with 5 other guys from Ben's Mosaic small group out of the Pasadena Mosaic community. Ben was probably in his late 20s, and the rest of the guys with him were all in their mid-to-late 30s and 40s. Still, they were very cool guys, and although I couldn't really join in conversations when they talked about their kids, it was a lot of fun.
We spent an hour or so packing up 1000 kits of stuff like shampoo, toothbrushes, socks and combs that will be part of the 3000 that Mosaic and Union Rescue Mission are handing out to the homeless in the city next month. The sheer number of homeless people in this city continues to amaze me, so it was awesome to be doing a little to help them out. I'll be looking forward to more opportunities to reach the homeless here, as much as it might take me out of my comfort zone.
After we finished packing all 1000 kits in 1/3 of the time we had planned on (we couldn't do any more because they wanted other volunteers to be able to help with more packing next weekend) the men of the small group decided to head out for some Breakfast/Lunch, and it was decided that we'd go up to the Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Pasadena.
Roscoe's was quite an experience. I know I've heard of Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in some movie or tv show or something, but I don't know where exactly. But apparently it's very famous and is exactly what the name makes it sound like. I had fried chicken and waffles. It was actually really good, especially the waffles.
Although I was really young compared to most of the guys in Ben's small group, as we were talking and all, I was really struck by how good and solid the guys were. They were all really supportive of each other and definitely had a lot of life experience and knowledge that I was learning from.
As we were leaving the restaurant, one of the guys told Ben to make sure he gave me the info about their small group. I don't know that it would be possible for me to ever make it up to Pasadena to join them, but I am really looking forward to being able to spend some more time serving alongside them. Ben was a really cool guy, too, and it would be great to be able to hang out sometime. He was already hoping things work out and I'm able to come back here in the summer.
Since I was in Pasadena at Roscoe's, I gave Alli a call to see what she was up to for the afternoon. Before I do go any further, Pasadena itself was pretty awesome. The place was very nice and looked full of stuff to do, plus there are really tall mountains right next to the city. As you hopefully know from reading this blog, I really love these California mountains.
Anyway, Alli and I took the beautiful new Gold Line light-rail/subway back downtown to check out the MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum has like 3 different venues around town, we only went to one, but it was very cool. I continue to be amazed at how many seriously famous and really cool pieces of art are in this city, and I haven't even seen the Getty yet!
So the museum was cool, but there was this guy outside it that was giving me some serious 'tude. He and I came really close to fighting, but eventually he just backed off.
Let's see, ohh yeah, I also bought this cool shirt from the Walt Disney Concert Hall that has the silhouette of downtown LA reflected below it so that it looks like sound bars like you'd see them in an equalizer or something. If that doesn't make sense, you'll see it when I wear it, it's cool.
On the way home, I caught the bus at Union Station, Los Angeles' equivalent of Grand Central Station. Here's a hall in the beautiful old Train station that is no longer in use. I love the mood and the light from the sunset and everything. The train station really captures what I imagine was the emotion and excitement of Los Angeles in the 30s and 40s.
Sunday morning I went to Supercuts across the street and got a haircut from Alfredo. A man has never cut my hair in Supercuts before. Alfredo did nice work though. I was surprised, the regular supercut out here was $16.95, isn't it just $12.95 or $13.95 back east? I was not too thrilled about that. Maybe I should get my hair cut in the barber shop inside Launderland, the laundromat on the corner. Probably not.
I went back to church at 2:30 to help with set-up again, only this time I got a ride there from Meg (making friends is a wonderful thing). I spent most of the afternoon helping Justin sweep and mop the second floor, which wreaked from the smell of spilled alcohol and dirty bathrooms.
Right before the service I was on flavor of the week duty, but I got a little discouraged, because there weren't as many people alone in need of free drinks and conversation as last week. Still, I was able to talk a little to a guy named Deacon, and talked to a middle-aged guy named Matthew. Matthew was a businessman from DC, in town for work. He told me he had come to town for business last year and checked out Mosaic and was back now and made sure to come back, even though he's only here for a week. I thought that was a cool story. When I told him I was from Pittsburgh, he told me a friend of his from his church was actually going to Pittsburgh to plant an urban contemporary church like Mosaic there. I told him that was an awesome idea, and that Pittsburgh didn't have anything like that from what I know.
Still, like I said, I was feeling discouraged because I didn't find as many people as last week. The service itself was awesome as always. They had the same girl singing as last week, and she had a pretty unique, sort of Avril Lavigne-like voice which was cool. Erwin McManus' message was about streets named after Martin Luther King, and he challenged us with the question "what kind of a road will they name after you? Will it be a cul-de-sac just going in circles, or a dead end, or will you actually go somewhere?"
It was great, and then at the second service for flavor of the week, I had some amazing caramel hot chocolate to hand out and I went inside and found a guy sitting alone. I offered him some hot chocolate and sat down and we immediately started talking. The guy, Ryan, was also a third year student in college up in the Valley and was orginally from Northern California. He said Northern and Southern California were totally different. He's History major and is hoping to be a High School American History teacher. It was a lot of fun talking to him, and reminded me how awesome it is to talk to new people.
It's amazing how more often than not people are thrilled to talk and open up. I'm definitely learning a lot here by taking initiative and hopefully I can remember and use all of this in other places in my life.
Let's see, today I got up, went for a run around the block, and did some prep work for the ccm opera I'm helping out with. Then I took the bus back downtown because I wanted to exchange my medium LA Philharmonic t-shirt for a large so it wouldn't shrink too small. Back at the gift shop in the concert hall, a guy told me the large was a good idea because the shirts do shrink. I was happy to hear that.
As I walked from the Concert Hall to the subway stop, I saw this. It looked like they were filming a car commercial or something. Just proving my point that the Walt Disney Concert Hall is in every car commercial on TV. Just watch for it.
I took the subway to Hollywood and Vine, because I decided I wanted to find Erwin McManus's book, Soul Cravings. I had seen there was a Barnes and Noble or Borders on Vine somewhere, but I got off the subway and couldn't find it. I could however, find the Capitol Records Tower.
I got on the bus and rode it to the West Hollywood Target where I looked for Erwin's book. They didn't have it, so I got on another bus and decided to go all the way to Santa Monica Beach, where I knew there was a Barnes and Noble. The bus ride was long, but I made it.
The Barnes and Noble was at this place in Santa Monica called the Third Street Promenade. It's a few blocks of a street that is closed and lined with all these cool stores and restaurants. Musicians play music all along the promenade and singers perform as well. I stopped for a little while to listen to an amazing violin player, who was hooked up to speakers that were kind of laying down a kind of beat that he was playing classical music with a modern flair to it. It was very cool.
Anyway, I found a border's on the promenade, but they didn't have Soul Cravings. So I grabbed a panini for dinner and was about to head home, when I noticed a barnes and noble further down the promenade. I went in there and found Erwin's book! I was excited and got a moleskin sketchbook too. Now my day was a success.
Then I waited, got on the bus, and came home.
It was a lot of Metro riding in one day. Probably more than I will ever do again. I essentially went in a big circle around West L.A.
Well, I don't have too much other big news from the weekend.
Aaron Sapp told me the theme for Relay for Life this year is Disney movies. I'm pretty excited about that. Should be lots of fun. I love relay. Usually in my mind I forget about the part that isn't as much fun, like getting really tired and cold. Still, the fun and the greatness of the cause makes up for all of that.
That's about it for now. I'm starting to read Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus now and I'm really looking forward to it. Have you read it? Maybe you should.
Alright, I hope you have a great rest of the week. Call me, it'd be fun to talk.
much love,
Alex
2 comments:
thought of you because right now they are playing "all i wanna do" by sheryl crow at starbucks.
"all i wanna do is have some fun til the sun comes up over santa monica boulevard."
you could've totally taken that guy in a fight.
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