back!

guys! well, it's been. . . a while. a long, good while. in fact, most of us have seen each other since and had holidays and babies (go richies!) and good new years and stuff.

here at the academy, things have been incredible and busy. i've played hymns with francis collins, hung out with os guinness, taught class on gilead, and, saving the best for last, played music with jen. i also bought a plane ticket for keith's wedding, so anybody involved in that, i can't wait to see you.

the real push to post again has sprung out of the lavish love (i thought about just saying loveish, but it didn't sound right) shown to me on (and around) my birthday by my friends here and abroad. yall are unbelievable.

this description won't quite cover it, but i just have to try. (and no, i will not compare this to a surprise party at homewood park. not gonna do it.)

well, it all started with the traditional birthday blessing at matins by two other guys in the group, picking out verses either appropriately descriptive or encouraging. one of them was Ecclesiastes 9:7 "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do." ha ha, spot on. but seriously it was pretty great.

then we had breakfast with who else but os guinness, great (x 1 or 2) grandson of the guinnesses and severely smart Christian thinker. after that was a scheduling meeting (that's not part of it but still very important (business time anybody?)). interspersed throughout the day were phone calls from friends and fam. the highlights of those were john and kristen. i talked to john for an hour and it cost him about 7 peanuts; i talked to kristen for about 5 minutes and it probably cost her 7 meals. but thanks for calling and facebooking everybody, it was awesome.


so the real party started at 3:30. we all piled into the 15-passenger family van on the way to a mystery location. where would we go for my birthday but to a winery! so we had wine and cheese and a tour, and it was fun.

but the real killer part of the whole day came with dinner. oh dang. my friends miriam and hannah made a meal worth freaking royalty, that was sensitive to my carb-free preferences. there were something like 11 or 12 courses, i dunno i lost count. but here's what i remember:



why, yes, that is a portobello pizza with pesto, freshly grated mozzarella, roasted red peppers and a basil leaf! and, yes, that is a roasted vegetable salad (complete with one of my new favorites, parsnip) on a bed of spinach with some wonderful carvings of plump, juicy turkey, all rounded off with a generous helping of acorn squash.
and no, i still don't know how to appropriately respond. next were oysters (of course; no photo though). and i think there was one other thing before the carb-killing dessert:


haha, yes, that's a fancy cheese plate, complete with havarti, fontina, goat, gouda, manchego and a garnish of dried cranberries (what is this world i live in?) add some cab sav (just enough, mind you) and a LOT of dove dark chocolate (actually legit on the diet), and you're done, right? right? wrong.


oh yea. honey, brie, and an oh-so-beautifully-arranged pear slice, on homemade puff pastry. you gotta be kidding me. wow.

so if i can't have my birthday with the family (memphial or alma material), i can't think of any better way this could have gone than it did, with all 15 of us around the table for two hours of talking and laughing, and maybe a little singing. priceless.

well, to end my multimedia birthday blog (exciting!), i leave you all with a photo of the group.

oh yea, and i really, really love you guys. and miss you, actively, with prayer and pain and joyful hope in God's direction (and reintersection!) of our futures. as our old country music station might put it, "cryin', lovin', leavin', or laughin'." hmm, that hits the spot.