It's Sunday night. Luanne's down at The Flipside; she's the guest speaker tonight. Tony's doing a series on Myspace, and Luanne is a good one to talk because she had a crazy experience over Thanksgiving weekend. She was randomly selected to be be a "Cool New Person" for four days and got over 130,000 hits to her page, something like 5,000 friends requests and 1,000 e-mails. In four days.
I'm home enjoying the peace and quiet after a big day of leading worship gatherings at church. I was really pleased at how well things went today. Especially the choir's song this morning! We did this funky a cappella gospel song called "What Ya Gonna Call Him?" and it really rocked. Tonight at Sunday At 6, it was like "Classic Christmas with the Sunday At 6 Band"... We did all the usual suspects: O Come, O Come Emmanuel; Babe in the Straw; Angels We Have... HEARD on high; and that modern-day classic, Satisfied Forever. 
Anyway, the kids are all in bed and I'm enjoying some solitude.
I'm listening to a new favorite, Andrew Bird. His album, "Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs" is a strange and wonderful thing. Music. Ah, music... I love music so much. Some of my latest discoveries are Keane ("Hopes and Fears"), The Decemberists ("Picaresque"), and John Vanderslice ("Cellar Door"). Each is a serious contender for my "Best of 2005" list.OK, fine, not all of them were released in 2005, but I discovered them in 2005...
True confessions: I have been listening to... um... how can I say this? Hanson. You know, these guys are OK. Lay off already.
Reading. Ah, reading... I love reading so much. It's funny... I go in cycles. I'll read a ton of nonfiction and not even have any interest in fiction. I'll read the spiritual writers: McLaren, Manning, Yancey, Langteaux, Wallis. This past summer I got all morbid and started reading about death... I mean the actual process of dying. There's a great book by Sherwin Nuland called "How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter." And then I read a book by Mary Roach called "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" that was somehow hilarious and sobering all at the same time. Highly recommended... if you can stomach it.
Now it's all about fiction, baby. Jeff and Joan were taking some boxes down to the preschool rummage sale, so I looked through them and found a few books that looked interesting: "Odd Thomas" by Dean Koontz and "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. So, apparently, I was hungry for some fiction, because I tore thorugh both of them. Loved them. In the month or so since then, I've devoured two more Koontz books: "By the Light of the Moon" and "Forever Odd," the sequel to "Odd Thomas." Just finished that one yesterday. Awesome, but not as good as the first one. I've read Sue Monk Kidd's latest book, "The Mermaid Chair," and "Monster" by Frank Peretti. And I've discovered the amazing Ted Dekker. I've read "Blessed Child," and its sequel, "A Man Called Blessed," "THR3E" and now I'm reading "Black." Joan is like my own personal book-dealer. I've found my drug for now, and she's keeping me supplied.
Next up: "Hoot" by Carl Hiassen. Josh just did a book report on it. I figure I should know what the boy's reading, right? He said it has the "A Word" in it...
Luanne's back, and I've been giving too much to the computer and not enough to her. I'm outta here.
Tomorrow: "Happy Holidays: A Rant."