From January 7....a little behind!

I have so much to catch on!!! What an exciting week!
Just so you know, one of the main reasons why I haven’t been updating this blog regularly is the lack of internet connection in the apartment. “RD” is the one network we can sometimes hook onto but he is a fair-weather friend. Lately, he has been no friend at all and I’ve been limited to checking email at the gym.

I’ll try to remember all the fun details…
Sunday, Jan 7, I did end up visiting both the Brick Church and Redeemer’s Upper West Side Evening Jazz Service. The Brick Church is on Park Avenue, just a few blocks down from the apartment, and wowsers, swanky doesn’t even begin to tell the story. The ushers literally take you to a seat and they are decked out in sharp suits with boutonnières!!! The music was beautiful with a professional choir that sang some of my favorites: “Rise Up Shepherd and Follow” and “In the Bleak Midwinter.” Ideally, I could find a job in a choir like this one and then go to Redeemer at night. The positions are really hard to find, especially, go figure, for sopranos! I definitely did not feel at home at that church in the same way that I feel frumpy among all the perfectly put-together upper east-side pixie models that I walk past on every street. Okay, Sheina, was right. I can’t get away with pilling sweaters here!
After church Adrienne and I went on a shopping adventure to the Container Store (where I revisited childhood memories of coveting all the jewel-colored plastic boxes in every size) and the original Bloomingdales on 59th Street. I found a really great bookcase for my room at the Container Store. Shopping in NYC is a whole new experience because you have to factor whether or not you need it delivered or if you can fit the thing in a cab. Also, everyone seems to bring their dog into every store. Seriously, when we were at the Container Store there were at least 10 dogs browsing canisters and crates with the common folk.
Sunday night I ventured over to the UWS for my first crack at Redeemer. It was an amazing service….I loved the music….they had a jazz quintet and a female vocalist leading us in some songs I knew and many I didn’t but this musician-friendly had sheet music for all of them in their program. The head pastor, Tim Keller, spoke about whether God is really in control as reflected in the last half of Romans 8. He talked about the power we each have to make choices but how even in that free will, God is continually working out His perfect plan in seemingly insignificant forks in the road. The illustration he shared is how we ended up in that church that night…well, because 20 years ago he and his wife felt led to begin a ministry in NYC…and that only happened because he was part of a denomination (PCUSA) that supported that calling and vision…and he only became part of that denomination because of a class he took in his last semester in seminary….and that class was taught by a British scholar who was a fill-in…but he almost wasn’t able to come and teach because of immigration issues…and the dean of the seminary was praying about it when a student happened to come by who asked what he was praying for…and in the 11th hour that scholar was able to come and teach Tim Keller because that student happened to be the son of the current president of the USA, Gerald Ford. And Gerald Ford was only President because Nixon resigned….and Nixon only resigned because of the Watergate scandal…and that scandal leaked out because a door was open 2 inches and the conversations were taped….you get the idea….so whether you open your door or close it all the way, you don’t know how God is using you to changed the world! I loved that illustration…I’m sure I don’t do it justice!
The only part of church that was hard for me was being a loner and feeling completely on the outside. I’ve been so blessed to be on the inside for such a long time and I’m sure it’s good for me to see what it’s like to really be alone but I’m longing for a piece of Christian community out here.
Karim called me as I was on the crosstown bus home and I ended up meeting him at the Apple store on 59th and 5th Ave. This store is crazy…you’ve probably seen it on TV. It is a glass cube and all of the merchandise is underground…and it’s open 24/7! Crazy! It was raining but we walked all the way to Times Square. All the beautiful Christmas lights were still glowing including the ones on the Rockefeller Tree, even more stunning with sans tourists! We went to a 10:30 showing of The Holiday (for $11…eeek!)….easily two movies crammed into one so that we didn’t get out of there till nearly 1 in the morning! This is life with Karim! A very interesting ride home on the A-train (there’s a song about this somewhere) followed….less is more for this story…but I ended up taking a cab from the West Side and was safe and sound by about 1:30. EEK!