A night out with the girls

Well, it wasn't really "out" and it wasn't really with MY "girls" but it was surprisingly fun.

Last night we had an all-girl church activity where we were supposed to bring stuff that represented our talents so that other people could walk around, look at them and instantly understand who we are and what we're all about.

Yeah.

Tall order.

Between work, the gym, and hitting the mall for the finishing touches of my little sister's birthday present, I only had about 10 minutes in which to create this display that would fully encompass me.

I opened up the back seat of my car and started tossing stuff in.

I threw in my violin, my guitar, some CDs, a tall stack of books I've just finished, the 10 journals I've filled in my life, a bunch of photo albums, sheet music, my ski boots, goggles and gloves, a couple of frisbees, two huge posters I've made for work and some engineering text books, a patridge and a pear tree.

I drove like a madman to get there on time. When I showed up, short of breath, I realized that not everyone had been so quite to offer their entire lives to the event.

People had a painting they had done, or a photo of their family or a book of piano music. I was kind of embarrassed by the shear volume of stuff I'd brought, but I pulled it all out. I figured that just having that much stuff would show people how splintered and fragmented I feel these days.

Anyway, I ended up spending most of the night trying to explain what I do at work to a group of people with complete blank stares on their faces. Engineering tends to do this to people. I think it intimidates a lot of people, but I wish they would just listen and give it a chance because it really isn't as technical and difficult to grasp as they think.