I have lived here for five weeks now and up until last Saturday I had not once caught even a glimpse of the foursome living above me. However, while I had never seen them, I did know an fair bit about them. For starters:
- I could tell they were young twenty-somethings.
-They also really like techno music with a bouncing, firm baseline.
-They have a gaming system with which they practice the art of loudly blowing things up.
- They recently bought Halo 3. I can't wait to hear how they do.
-They often return from their nighttime barhopping with shouts of joy and a loud narrative about their recent activities.
I was also fairly convinced that not only was there two boys and two girls living up there, chances are by the other loud nighttime activities they enjoy, they were coupled. And while I couldn't quite tell the layout of the apartment, from the sounds of it, they like to practice windsprints from about 1-3 a.m.
Long story short:
They didn't seem like the kind of neighbors I could call for a spare cup of sugar.
My grandmother and uncle visited last week and asked about my neighbors and I told them the story, but they mentioned, "you know, you really should at least meet them." So, after my family pulled out to go home, I was still in good spirits and thought, "Gee! I should go knock on their door!"
So I did.
Only one of the tenants was home, Chris, with a friend of his. Being a friendly kind of guy, he invited me in. Here is a short "verbatim" of our time together:
Chris: Hey, do you smoke?
Natalie: "No, thank you, though."
And then he held out a joint.
Chris:"No, I mean, do you "SMOKE."
Natalie: "Oh, no thank you - I think they do random drug testing at work."
And Chris again: "Oh, what do you do?"
Natalie: "I'm a pastor at Christ Lutheran up the road."
Chris: "Oh man. You aren't gonna call the moral police or the cops or anything, are you?"
Natalie: "No. Just be careful about putting out your smokes. Don't burn down the building and we'll be fine."
Chris: "Sounds good... Well, can you nuns drink?"
Natalie, feeling like her badboy image is being threatened: "I'm not a nun, and yes, I love a good beer."
Chris: "Oh good. We drink Coors here. I'll let you know when we party next."
Natalie: "Thanks! I'd love to come by."
Then Chris told me he has never gone to church and thought it might be cool to ask some
questions sometime.
The next day when I walked down the stairs, I noticed "someone" had stolen a few gold foil letters off the other mailboxes and posted "Pastor" above my lastname - with the "R" as a vertical hyphen and the rest haphazardly penned in.
I think I'll invite him to church for Advent.
Thats the news from out here. If you need a smoke, I know where to find it.
Peace out,
Pastor Marley
6 comments:
Wow! I look forward to spending reading days with you and your colorful neighbors :)
Yeah, and don't bogart the stories, either, man! (Kris already has dependency issues with this blog... Anyone know a good blogaholics anonymous rehab program around?)
That is the greatest story! Sometimes I much prefer unchurched people because they are authentic...no hiding behind churchy facades...sounds like you made a good impression...nice work...
Dean,
Like any good dealer of controlled substances, I'd like to know a little more about Kris' addiction. Any chance to feed her dependency is more lucrative to me than finding her a rehab program.
Here at the VicarBlog, we're not high on pot, we're smokin' Jesus... so, we're high on LIFE.
We Lutheran pastors are like the Cheech and Chong of the faithful.
As a pastor, I'd like to preach with the sure and certain knowledge that I'm the Cheech to your Chong.
Technically, it should be: "fully Cheech and fully Chong..."
The Nicene Creed insisted on the word 'homoousios' = 'of one substance.' I just never realized it was talking about an illegal substance.
- The Confessional Police
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