Which would then make it expected.
And would nullify it's unexpectation.
BUT ENOUGH! This week began on Sunday, as most weeks tend to do, having awoken from a crazy night of consuming various vegetable-based dishes at the house of my new sister, Miss Julie Hill, I rose to my inaugural Sunday Morning Angelus Temple service - and, Good Lord, brother Perry Noble absolutely NAILED IT! Indeed, his sermon was so raw and real that if it was a steak, it would have been completely uncooked. THAT, my dear friend, is how real it was. Like uncooked steak. Meaty. Blue. Awesome.
That's right, awesome. The most over-used phrase in America.
In fact, now looking back, this past sunday was a day full of 'firsts' for me. Alongside my first Angelus Temple Sunday Morning Service, it was my first Red Eye chillout. Connected to this, it was also the first time I'd ever been to a Los Angeles Heritage Day, as unbelievable as that sounds, and connected to this, it was also the first time I had ever been kicked out of a tree, let alone the first time I had been kicked out of a heritage tree, let alone the first time I have ever been kicked out of a heritage tree by a really nice lady. In fact, as I continue to ponder this week, it has indeed been a week of firsts.
On Monday, I had the privilege of meeting Elijah 'White Tundra' Bisbee for the first time in the flesh, after almost four months of cyber conversation. Aside from being a full time male model, Elijah helps out at Dream Studios, and in secret he records his own original songs, which are some of the coolest experimental stuff I've heard in a while. Monday held many surprises for me, including a trip to Santa Monica with the White Tundra, as well as connecting with my long lost Australian brother, Kyle. Now, no-one really knows what Kyle's last name is, at least I dont, but after spending 18+ years together at the same church I found it hilarious that we met each other in the middle of a parking lot in Los Angeles, California, America. HILARIOUS! This night was my first ever experience of something we like to call 'Yoghurtland'. That's right, Yoghurtland. Imagine a land filled with various kinds of yoghurt, from strawberry to caramel to pistachio to peanut to double cream to chocolate to blueberry, and billions of different kinds of fruit and confectionary toppings. Now imagine how happy you'd be if you were there. Now quantify your happiness to a numerical figure.
Now square it.
Now half that.
Now triple it.
Now divide it by 45, square it and then times your final result by zero, add one and multiply this number by infinity.
Yes sir, that's how happy Yoghurtland has made me. I'm now a better person. Sure, Pink Berry might taste better, but I have no money. That was Monday.
Tuesday, oh tuesday. Here my memories of the daytime blur, but Tuesday night... Oh wow, Tuesday night was the bomb! (you're not allowed to say 'the bomb' in public here in America when describing something hip and cool, because otherwise everyone freaks out and runs away.) I hit the town with Mr Monty Coleman, Sir Justin Mayo and the Reverend Dan, who's last name is also unknown by me. What I do know about Dan, however, is that he is the man. Dan the man. We hit up a killer Thai place, purchased various headwear and glasses, as well as the first season of Heroes, hit up Yoghurtland again (try and imagine how happy I was... now halve it, because this second time I was aware of how lactose intolerant I am...) and finished the night with my first (and hopefully last) ever experience of the Nicholas Cage movie - Knowing. If someone ever suggests to you, "Hey, you should go see Knowing, the movie with Nicholas Cage" as a certain cinema employee did to us, I suggest that you cut of all ties with that person, renounce your friendship with them and, if necessary, leave the country and change your name.
Yes, that is how bad the movie was. Can you imagine it? No, you cant even imagine it - that's exactly how bad 'Knowing' was to watch. Though, highlights included seeing Monte literally convulse, cringe and bury his face in his hands as the plot got more absurd and random dudes became aliens. "What, the bad dudes are aliens?!?! NISH! You just ruined the movie's awesome plot twist in your blog!" No, blog reader, the movie's awesome plot twist, and the movie itself, was ruined by the mere act of it being made. But, nevertheless, we had a great time with its absurdity.
:)
Wednesday, oh wednesday. (Note: I'm definitely going to be late to church. From now on, I shall speed type!) Wednesday included exciting trips to ridiculously a happy/nice tax office where Justin and I were rewarded for no reason with white chocolate and caramel popcorn! LA is a very exciting place. Other highlights of this day included going to see some epic pieces of art at a new friend's art gallery, making even more new friends with Jeremy the DJ at this gallery (who thoroughly enjoyed his complimentary drinks), going out to Indian food (which tasted absolutely nothing like Indian food) with Justin, Joy and Monte only to randomly make friends with a bunch of people from Manchester, England! One of the guys from Manchester was actually England's fastest bowler, who's name I also can't remember. We pretty much joined tables for the entire night, and it was all supremely 'awesome'.
Thursday was a day that was also awesome. I moved into a new room with a bunch of dudes, one of whom is named Zach, and it was with Zach that my Thursday adventure unfolded. Although it was slightly unsettling to wake up and not see Justin emailing/facebooking/twittering/texting on his Blackberry (a morning sight I had become accustomed to), I adapted quickly enough and Zach and I soon decided that it was quite necessary to travel across the city of LA in search of bargains for young dudes on a budget. From Ross to the 99cent store, in different buses in different hoods, fun abounded and there was much laughter in the air. However, this laughter turned to tears of joy when Zach and I stumbled across a treasure trove of bargains concerning noodles - 6 packets for NINETY-NINE CENTS! WHOAH!
Just try and imagine how excited I was. Yes, that's exactly how excited I was, as we gathered months worths of supplies and bused it back to the Dream Centre in time to enjoy some of our kill from the hunt before we trekked it over to Angelus Temple for church (walking past a bunch of gangsters getting arrested by the LAPD on the way). Following the service, fun continued to abound as I somehow managed to fit in with a whole bunch of cool people and hit up the Alcove. Eat their chicken wrap, your life will be changed. I also got a chance to hang out with Michael Esparaza, whose last name I've probably spelt wrong, brother of the guy who picked me up with Justin when I first got to LA, and Michael is pretty what I hope to be when I'm older - awesome.
Friday, good Friday, consisted of a blur of the first of 1/2 of the day (that tends to happen with my mornings) but at night Joy and I re-acquainted ourselves with some of our Manchester friends, all the while adding a bit of Sarah Shaw to the mix, which is always super-exciting. While Sarah and I waited approximately 10.452 years to get picked up, we got a chance to check out my first ever LA sunset (not that the sun hadn't set the other nights I've been here, this was just the first one I'd watched). We even had a guy play acoustic guitar for us. And there was a dude rapping too. Also, for a little bit, there was Monte. Oh Monte. When we finally did get going, we got lost, because of Miss Kyra Joy Rheman, but soon we were on the right track again, but then we got lost again, thanks to Joy. When we finally did make it back to Joy's house to check out some cool stuff her brother Juan was doing (oh man, Juan has some amazing stories... the guy's done it all!) we had bagels. Many bagels.
Think of any kind of bagel. Any kind. Got it?
We had it.
After Juan was finished doing his thing, with some extra words from Mama Karin (who's name I've probably spelt incorrectly, sorry mama!), we hit up Urth Cafe, where our Manchester friends told us many jokes and messed with our heads, particularly the heads of Sarah Shaw and my brother Ennio Emmanuel, and many lattes were simultaneously sipped. We talked about every thing you could think of, and then it was time for our Manchester mates to go back to their Snoop Dogg hotel and pack their bags so we all made our way home...
TODAY! Saturday. Aha, what a day. To make this short, seeing as I am WAAAAY late to church, Monte, Sarah and I hit up Adopt-A-Block in one of the less privileged areas of downtown, and man was it amazing. To be serious for a moment, there were alot of hurting people, mothers who had lost their sons and sisters who had lost brothers, but we were able to show them a whole lot of love. As one of my ex-gang member friends, Robbie, told me "In their world of darkness, whenever they see us roll up to their hood it's like a ray of light man" - this coming from a dude who rolled in a South Central gang for 25 years and got shot multiple times. Everytime he hears a firework he still cringes. But God is using him to shine His light.
Heck yeeeah.
Well, I am probably going to be at least an hour late to the service, but I'm sure you'll forgive me :) I also hope that this blog is as fun to read as it has been to write.
I love you all like a fat kid loves Hersheys!
ha, hersheys.
peace in,
nish.
