2 meals with friends!

Even though I woke up plenty early for church, I still managed to leave the house later than I should and once again broke my record. 30 minutes and sweating! After a Saturday of rain and clouds, the sun was coming out! I was so blessed to find Laura B. in the back row and sat with her as well as Jenny and Joe. It’s so fun singing next to my mezzo friends! The brass quintet starring my friends from small group, Amber and Kyle, accompanied us and it doesn’t get much better or closer to heaven than that. Tim K is speaking on Deuteronomy in a new series that will take us through the summer. Sadly, this was my last Redeemer service for the next 6 weeks. I might have to subscribe to the mp3s online! The talk was on the Fire of God and one aspect that really hit me, in light of my intense reaction to the earlier date, were the things I hold as idols. I know, I know that I hold onto fining someone and/or marriage as an idol. I’ve always felt like as soon as I get there I’ll be complete and life will really begin. Tim offered that anything that occupies our thoughts more than God is an idol. Yep. That hit home and just like God, it came on a morning when I most needed to hear it.

In the muffin hour, I was really excited to reconnect with Melanie who has been pretty intensely investigating moving to LA to be in the same city with a man she met on-line! Craziness. I loved hearing about her recent trip and the ways she says, “God has had his hand” on every step of their relationship. After church I accompanied Jenny and her friend Chad and his former roommate David to our favorite midtown diner. I was meeting the Gees for lunch at 12:30 but went along with them for company and to whet my appetite for the food to come!

The Gees and I planned to meet at Grand Central where Mr. Gee knew of a seafood restaurant. They walked there only to find it closed and we had a fun game of hide and go seek. Well, I was walking towards them and they were walking towards me and would we ever find eachother? Well, we did and it was really great to see them. Mr. Gee is the current president of the Rice Alumni Association and had come into town for a Rice Alumni College event. I was especially excited to see Mrs. Gee, so healthy after a serious brain aneurysm last year. God is so good, indeed. We walked through the heart of Times Square and eventually ended up with the small “Oyster Bar” across from their hotel. On the way there, we literally ran into Karim and his mom, Aida. Busted! Karim knows how much I love my Chicago mom and he didn’t let me know she was in town?! He said there were just about to call me to go out with them. Of course, my day was full, but it was fun to see her however briefly. The Gees caught me up on Andrew’s gorgeous new baby girl, Isabella, as well as all of the characters at Mr. Gee’s law office, where I was once employed! I left them at their hotel and walked to Bryant Park. The weather had turned breezy and lovely and I wanted a little time of reflection and journaling before the next adventure.

I had a wonderful time with David and Penny. They are both graphic artists and just walking with them and noticing things with their eyes helped me see more than just buildings and sculptures. They had said the forecast called for “shower” in the singular and sure enough, around 5 pm there was a shower. We found a bit of scaffolding and watched the rain dance on the pavement. When it ended, we peered through several closed Chelsea galleries and walked our way eventually to their hotel on 46th, right across the street from Actors Equity. They took me to Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay’s restaurant. It was beyond delicious. I told them I would be writing every detail in the blog so here goes: First, I started with a yummy frozen margarita and they had these lovely blue corn muffins and another hand-made white roll which was outstanding. For appetizers we ordered a blue-corn pancake stuffed with barbecued duck and blue-corn (do you see a theme?) chips with a goat-cheese sort of fondue. Delicious! I ordered the cornmeal crusted chile relleno that was stuffed with goat-cheese and lying on a bed of a fig and quince chipotle chutney. Penny had the roasted pork tenderloin and David had venison chops. We shared a butternut squash tamale that was out of this world. So stuffed, we all dipped into one dessert, a coconut macadamia cake with cinnamon-crunch ice cream. Bobbly Flay was out of sight but I was recognized as a fellow audtioner by our actress-waitress. It’s a small world after all! I had such a wonderful day with Penny and David and bid them adieu on the N-R train.