ADVENT

Tomorrow begins Advent. We will be celebrating Advent at the church I am on staff at. This is new to me. I've never celebrated Advent, nor have any of the other churches I've worked at celebrated Advent.

I'm actually very excited about it because it is an aspect of celebrating the coming of Christ (past, present & future) that I've never celebrated before. In all honesty, I need a fresh perspective on Christmas and the coming of Christ. For me, it seems that the consumeristic aspect of Christmas heavily taints the days and weeks leading up to this most important "holiday". It's like every year we are "surprised" that Christmas is already here - and I'm not sure it should be that way from the standpoint of a Christ follower.

The problem is that many of us from an evangelical/protestant viewpoint grew up being told that tradition was "bad" and not healthy. I am beginning to disagree with that dogmatic belief. The older I get (today I turned 30... YIKES!) the more I see the importance of tradition in our lives. Healthy tradition that is... Tradition that doesn't replace an authentic relationship with the Father.

So for me, I'm excited about taking time out of my day for the next 4 weeks to focus in on the celebration of Advent and really begin to hone in on what we are truly celebrating at Christmas.

How are you celebrating Christmas this year? I would love to hear about it...

BRRRRRRRRRRRRR.....

Cold day here in Chicago. Got my bright orange (and warm) sweater on and we are getting ready to head over to Taylor Street (Little Italy) here in Chicago to see what kind of EYE-talian food we can find. Probably not a good thing to do after just getting back from Little Italy in NYC.

It seems that the mystery hacker has finally taken a chill on my site. But again, I repeat - if you see any lewd images on my site, just beware that as crazy as I seem, I haven't gone that far off the deep end.

Happy Saturday!

BACK IN CHICAGO

(A few pics from today in NYC - Central Park, SoHo neighborhood, Me (Scott) eating food, View from Empire State Bldg - facing lower Manhattan, Central Park, Abe w/ the bull at Wall Street)



Well we made it back to Chicago. I was actually amazed at the ease by which we travelled on Thanksgiving Eve. We were not delayed at all and even arrived in Chicago early. Good job airlines! (Although I'm sure that not everyone has the same story...)

It's weird to be back home. It's hard to imagine that just earlier today we were walking down 5th Avenue in NYC, visiting Tiffany's & Co. and walking through the beautiful New York Public Library. New York City was certainly an awesome experience and I will take some time over the next few days to share my thoughts and observations about this great city.

By the way - from our home to yours - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

LEAVING NEW YORK CITY

Sitting in Laguardia (NYC) right now... Flight will be leaving (fingers crossed) in about 30 minutes. Will be back in Chicago tonight. Great, great trip - lots of things to share!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

OUR VISIT TO GROUND ZERO

(Note: Click on links for more pictures)



Today we visited Ground Zero (GZ) here in Manhattan. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. I really had no idea what to expect besides a giant hole in ground in the middle of Manhattan.

GZ is quite a place. What amazed me was how many of the surrounding buildings around GZ are still badly damaged and under repair. It’s been just a little over 2 years since 9/11 and the physical after effects still seem very fresh.

In a way, I was expecting to be overcome by sad, reflective emotions. But surprisingly, I was mostly taken back by the obvious unified spirit that took hold of the people of NYC and beyond after the tragic events of that sad day. This city pushed through 9/11 and the months following by putting each other first and seeing to it that morale and support for relief workers and survivors remained strong.

After our visit to Ground Zero we visited St. Paul’s Church (The Parish of Trinity Church) just around the block of where the World Trade Towers stood. The chapel was completed in 1766 and is considered the “oldest public building in continuous use on the island of Manhattan and the only remaining colonial church”. George Washington worshipped at St. Paul’s for almost two years during the time that New York was the capital of the United States.

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the chapel served as a “place of rest and refuge for recovery workers.” After the collapse of the Towers, St. Paul’s chapel became known as “the little chapel that stood”. Just looking at the location of the chapel, it’s amazing that the church remained unscathed by the collapse of the Towers.

On display in the church are various items related to 9/11: pictures of the victims, banners and signs showing support of the relief workers and families, and videos and images of the days following the attacks. It’s hard to explain the feeling of sitting in the same pews where just a little over 24 months ago, firefighters, victim’s family members, etc… slept and rested.

Quite a day in NYC. Here’s our itinerary for tomorrow:

Dean & Deluca 9:00am – 10:00am
Empire State Building 10:30am – 12:00pm
NY Public Library 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Tiffany’s & Co. 2:30pm – 3:00pm
Central Park 3:00pm – 4:30pm
Laguardia to Chicago 5:45pm

BLOGGING FROM CHINA TOWN IN NYC...

I'm sitting in a Starbucks in China Town right now. This place is JAMMED packed... I love the energy of NYC. People everywhere.

Going to have dinner tonight @ Bobby Flay's restaurant called The Mesa Grill . Click on the link and check out this menu!

It's been a great day here. We visited Ground Zero. I'll write more about that later - maybe tonight. We also walked along the Hudson River on the very southern part of Manhattan. The Statue of Liberty glistened in the distance. We were going to take a trip on a ferry to Lady Liberty, but we missed the last ferry. Maybe tomorrow... (We've been saying that about everything - "maybe tomorrow" - we'll see how far we get.)

Leaving tomorrow to head back to Chicago. I've got a lot of thoughts to share about NY. A lot of observations, etc... The people here are really amazing. People have been very friendly and willing to help us w/ directions, questions, etc...

Gotta run - more later.

LIVE FROM NEW YORK

Sites from NYC




Wow - what a trip... My friend Abe and I arrived in NY last night (Sunday night). Caught a cab from Laguardia to our hotel located in the SoHo neighborhood. SoHo refers to the neighborhood south of Houston street (New Yorkers pronounce it "How-stun" street...) in the lower east side of Manhattan. We are smack dab in the middle of China Town, Little Italy and not far at all from The Village. The SoHo neighborhood is a very trendy, artsy and creative area. It's made up of a lot of "flagship" stores that we all go to in our malls all over suburban America. It's also full of specialty boutiques and art galleries not found anywhere else in the world.

Our first night here we walked and walked and walked... We walked through Little Italy and over to the Village. It didn't take long for us to get our hands on a NY style pizza (see pic). We ordered the margherita w/ fresh mozzarella, basil and light sauce. It was so/so - about a 5 on a scale of 1-10. We are making it our goal to find the best NY pizza in Manhattan, so if you have any ideas, shoot me an email!

Today was not a good day. I woke up early this morning sick as a dog. In fact, I didn't even leave our hotel until about 5pm and that was just to buy a Gatorade. I've spent a great deal of time bowing down in worship to the porcelain god. I'm guessing it's food poisoning. I'm feeling much better now. I finally felt good enough to get out so we took a double decker bus tour of Manhattan and Brooklyn. It was a great time until about 1/2 way through when my soul began longing for the great white throne. We actually had to have them stop the bus so that I could find my temple of worship - McDonalds. I'm not going to get into the details here, but it was a GOOD thing that we had them stop the bus. And the McDonalds - let me tell you... This was not a Yorkville, IL McDonalds. This was a NYC McDonalds.

SOOOOOOOOOO.... Tomorrow we are planning to visit Ground Zero. We are only a few blocks from there. I have tried to prepare myself emotionally for that visit, but I don't think I can even comprehend what we will feel.

We are also planning to visit Times Square again. We took the subway there tonight and it is just absolutely amazing! It's like standing on a sidewalk surrounded by 10,000 large screen TV's all playing something different. Pretty wild...

Signing off - more later.

ON OUR WAY...

Getting ready to head out to the airport for NYC w/ my friend Abe. Be sure to check this site for periodical NYC updates/pics/etc...

Later.