Week of Aug. 15, 2004

Week of Aug. 15, 2004
Saturday I went to Lancaster, the city where I was born. I stopped first at Rising Park and climbed Mount Pleasant. I was out of breath when I reached the top, and my heart was beating rapidly. From the summit, one gets a beautiful view of the city, including the Fairfield County Fairgrounds across the street. I stopped next at Subway for lunch, and had a roast beef deli sandwich and Baked Doritos. When I was in high school, Mom would sometimes get dinner for us at that Subway, and I would get a footlong pizza sub.

Then I made my way toward the house where we lived after I was born (until I was about 3 years old)… right around the corner from the hospital, actually. The house is a two-story home on North Cherry Street in the east side of Lancaster. It is blue now, but when we lived there it was yellow or mustard-colored. Across the street is a park, with basketball courts and two ball diamonds. If we had stayed in Lancaster instead of moving to Millersport, I probably would have played there often. I spent some time in the park, proofreading previous journal entries. After leaving the park, I stopped at the church where we went when I was very young. Roger Q. is the pastor there now—I met him when I was doing day camps for the Southern Ohio Synod. I also stopped at Risches drugstore, which still has an old-timey soda fountain with stools, etc. I remember taking my great-grandmother to the podiatrist next door with my grandma. While great-grandma was at the foot doctor, grandma would buy me buttered toast at the drugstore. I may have dipped the toast in fried egg yolk, as that was the only part I liked. I think they may have served drinks in paper cones.

After my trip down memory lane, I dropped my memory card off at Target, to have digital prints some digital prints made. While I waited (so much for 1 hour photo processing…) I went to “In the Ballpark,” a nearby comic store. They were having a HUGE 25¢ sale. I bought 56 sale books.

When I got home, I made Mom draw me a layout of the North Cherry Street house, so I would know what it looked like on the inside. There are a few photos of the interior, but Mom and Dad didn’t take as many photos back then, in the days of 126 film and disposable flash cubes.

On the way to Mom and Dad’s on Friday, I stopped at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, to go to the Augsburg Fortress bookstore and do some research in the library. At the bookstore, I found a booklet published by the ELCA in which my (uncredited) artwork appears. The image is very small, but it looks great in print. I bought all the copies they had in stock (3). I also purchased a Marty Haugen cd with Now the Feast and Celebration (a liturgical setting for Holy Communion) and Holden Evening Prayer (a setting for Vespers). The Annunciation/Magnificat from Holden Evening Prayer was sung at my commissioning service, and I still cry every time I sing it… At the library, I read a bit about The Acts of Paul, apocryphal stories about the apostle. As part of my research for my comic book, I am reading the Acts of Paul, Acts of Barnabas, and other extra-biblical books. Though the storyline of the comic is based on the Acts of the Apostles from the New Testament, I’m throwing in some subtle allusions to other literature. For example, one of the stories in the Acts of Paul is about woman named Thecla. I first read it in college in my Art of Biblical Narrative class. In my MissionTrek comic book, the Ambassador starship’s computer system is named TECHLA, an anagram of Thecla. The computer also has a female voice and personality, which although not original, is another nod to St. Thecla. After my time in the library, I met Andy and Laura for lunch. (Andy was the youth director at St. Peter’s in Corydon, Ind. for a time). Though I’ve run in to them several times this summer, it was nice to be able to talk to them for a longer time.

Thursday evening was our get together with the Fellas, guys I went to high school with. I think my Dad coined the term “Fellas.” The Fellas include me, the oldest of the Fellas, class of 1992; my friend Bill, class of 1993, who has been mentioned several times already in my journal entries; Kyle, also class of 1993, who lives near Scott’s apartment; Rusty, class of 1994; my brother Scott, class of 1995; and Kevin, Kyle’s younger brother, class of 1996. We played Cranium Turbo (which just came out in stores… we received a free preview copy from Cranium Central), watched some television, ate some pizza and reminisced. At one point I was laughing so hard I choked on some food. We went out for frozen custard after we were done with Cranium.