I Like...INSANELY talented dancers. And B-Boys. And Yellow Shoes.

I meant to post this last week, but Lil C's dance troupe "The League of Extraordinary Dancers" (completely cheesy name? Yes) performed on the SYTYCD results show last night, and I have watched it approximately 6 times since then. Prepare to be amazed:

Find it, Feel it, Do it.

For your viewing pleasure:

It's so good to know that extremely inappropriately high cut leotards are necessary for "facial workouts."



Find that Boogie Body! Okayyy, boom chicka BOOM!

Happy Friday.

Ahh, the dancing

I haven't been posting about TBSOFT aka The Best Show of All Time aka SYTYCD aka So You Think You Can Dance because let's face it, when the show takes place during the third semester of grad school, there just isn't time to write all-important, earth-shattering recaps that EVERYONE reads. Um. But anyway, I have been feeling pretty good about the season so far, but now it's the top 10 and I am starting to get attached to a few of the dancers.

For Top 2, I'm predicting it's Ellenore and Jakob, and here's why:

Overall I think Jakob is my favorite...he reminds me a lot of Travis and even Danny in some ways because he flies and he is just. darn. amazing.

I am also a big fan of Katherine, and Legacy has really grown on me in the last few weeks. I don't think Russell will win, but he is fun to watch, and his solo last night was CRAZY.

Dang. Krump it yo.

I'm not a big fan of Mollee aka High School Musical Miley Cyrus My Little Pony 1990s Flashback girl who dances in denim leggings with crimped hair...and I think Ryan aka look at my large muscles and leather pants and cheeseball solo moves dude is on his way out.

There have been some great routines this year - nothing earth shattering, but enough to still make me wish I could dance. For now, I'll have to stick to interpretive dancing in front of my Christmas tree. Oh well.

7 Days of Thanksgiving - Day 7

This is probably a cop out because I have been baking and snacking and baking pretty much all day, so food is on my mind...but I am so thankful for it. I know I forget how HUGE it is to be able to talk about food as a given, as a "hobby" that I can indulge in whenever I want. I definitely forget what a privilege it is to be able to pull out my cookbook, mull over different recipes, imagine what kind of pie to make, and know that I can afford the ingredients.

I've never known [what I imagine is] the gut-wrenching feeling of wondering not what or where I'll be eating, but IF. It's so simple...but I think so much of the time it's the simple things - automatic for us but a luxury for so many - that we forget to breathe a prayer of thanks for every day. So in that sense, I am incredibly thankful that I can not only eat a delicious meal with family tomorrow, but that I can eat. At all.

I'm also thankful for food because of what it does to people. It doesn't matter how bad of a day it's been or what kind of baggage you bring - it all gets left at the door when people gather around a meal. At Convergence, it has become a regular event to have a community meal for people in the neighborhood. Each person brings a dish - doesn't matter what it is or how much - but each person brings something, and we gather around it and enjoy.

See, people bond over food. A man from an art gallery can sit next to a single mom from the streets and they can talk about how GOOD that green bean casserole is, or how decadent that piece of chocolate cake tastes. At our house church, we gather around food once a week, and some life-changing, encouraging, and completely frivolous (but AWESOME) conversations take place over those meals. Conversations take place and entire communities are formed on Twitter about food between complete strangers. You can learn so much about entire cultures based on the kind of food they eat and how they eat it. I don't know about you, but eating a good meal automatically puts me in a better mood (that might mean I should be in counseling, but whatever). The thing about food is this: no matter who you are, everyone likes food, and everyone needs it. Simple as that. It's amazing.

Happy Thanksgiving.

7 Days of Thanksgiving...Day 6

I am SO thankful for all of these people:

Extended family, friends, in-laws, they are all amazing! Even if they make weird faces, can't dance in a very coordinated fashion, and wear man short shorts. They are literally all over the world and I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like, but they are still my besties. I am also VERY thankful for things such as Gchat, iChat, and email that let me stay up to date with what's going in their crazy and amazing lives. Thank you for being so wonderful!

7 Days of Thanksgiving - Day 5

This is kind of related to yesterday's post, but I'm not cheating! Over the last three years, I have become acutely aware of how important it is to be a part of a community...To surround yourself, whereever you are and however you do it, with a group of people who care about something bigger than themselves, who are committed to caring about you and "keeping it real," as it were.

Despite what we tell ourselves and what the flashy billboards screaming "rugged individualism" tell us, we are not meant to go through life alone. We're not meant to struggle, make decisions, celebrate, or love in isolation. We can tell ourselves we're okay on our own all we want, but that doesn't change the fact that we need each other to give a hug, lend a hand, call us out, or help others together.

I honestly believe that being a part of the Convergence community has changed the direction of my life, and it has had a profound impact on the direction of my life with Scott as the Girgishmelsons (you have to have the "h" in there to make it sound right). It definitely played a big part in my decision to pursue a career in social work, and it has been so amazing to see how real, authentic, and powerfully changing life with God and life with others can be. Yesterday, I spent the morning helping set up for "ReThread," the free clothing store we do several times a year for the kids in the neighborhood. Families come in, are greeted with a smile and maybe a hug, and they get paired up with a "co-shopper" who takes them around to find the sizes they need and helps them try on clothes just like they would in a real "store." Yesterday, we gave out over 160 coats (I had to leave shortly after the store opened, but it was awesome nonetheless) to kids who would have otherwise been cold this winter. But as always, it is one of the most amazing feelings to look around and see this group of people who love each other dearly extending that love just as authentically to others.

The point of this isn't to say how awesome Convergence is or how "selfless" or "giving" these people are; it's simply me saying how thankful I am to be part of such a real community in the midst of a lot of "fake." They've seen me happy, sad, vulnerable, excited, inspired, scared, and everything in between...and I know they'll be there through everything else. Yesterday I had a scary thought: "What if we hadn't met them? What if we had just gone through the last 3 years alone?" What if we hadn't met them? I wouldn't have a lot of the passion for justice and true life with God that I have now, and I definitely wouldn't have laughed as much. I've probably gotten weirder, too. I don't know what our lives would look like, but I know for sure it wouldn't be this. And that's DEFINITELY a good thing.

7 Days of Thanksgiving - Day 4

Unfortunately, I don't have many embarrassing photos of these people to share with you, but that is only because I do not have my camera with me every minute I am with them...trust me, they are very weird. This group of people have made our life here in Oklahoma SO incredible. They have been with us on the med school roller coaster since before the first test block, and they are amazing. They bring us food when we are too stressed out to cook, make us roll on the floor laughing with their randomness, give us awesome role models for that FAR OFF day when we become parents, send us weird and inappropriate videos, call us out when we need some tough love, hold us when we cry, laugh for an hour about weird plastic evil rats, care about other people and show love to those who don't get it enough, bring us desserts every day for 4 days before board exams, live out their faith every day in an incredibly authentic way, let us kidnap their children and take them to Chuck E. Cheese, and basically walk through life with us hand in hand. Oh and also, they are all AMAZING COOKS. That is really why we are friends with them. They even listen to Scott's random rants and don't run away when he shows them disgusting pictures of operations and human organs and such. That is love.

Seriously, I am so very thankful for our amazing church community, especially our house church (small group). They are some of the best friends we've ever had, and they are literally like members of our family. We would do anything for them, and they have been there with us during the great times and the unexpectedly heartbreaking times in the last three years. We all know I was less than thrilled about moving to Oklahoma, but I truly believe that these people are the reason we ended up here. They have literally changed our lives, and I don't know what Scott and I would do without them!