I could live in Asheville....sigh. Part quatre.

On Wednesday, we went to Asheville. Oh, man, it was so awesome. I love going to quirky shops, and Asheville was full of them. My favorite was the first one we went to, this modern interior design shop called Mobillia. I took one look inside and said, "I want to live here." I was sorely tempted to buy this plastic man with a magnet in his head so you could stick paper clips on it and give him a cool hairdo, but I restrained myself. They had big pink pillows too...hee hee hee.

We also went to a Hungarian import store. They had the most beautiful sari cloth, and the cashier showed us how to play these things called singing...something. I forget. Anyway, they looked like mortar and pestles. You use the wooden baton-like thing to run it across the edge of the metal pot, and it starts making this deep, mellow hum. It was so cool.

Then there was the Chocolate Fetish. Ridiculously expensive truffles. Ridiculously good truffles. I must have spent an hour total in there just drooling. In all, I ended up buying 11 truffles from there at about $2 a pop. It's so funny how high-end these things were. One of them was dusted with cayenne pepper, like it was originally consumed by the native Central Americams, and another was garnished with a violet petal and flavored with ginger, lemon, and saffron. I read aloud the descriptions of the truffles to Lou and Matt Jones just for a laugh. I shared a bunch of them with various people, but I must admit, I was thinking the same thing every time someone ate one of those truffles: "That's two dollars they're putting in their mouth." But I made several people very happy. Jones actually gave me a hug.

We met a homeless man on the street who asked us if we knew of any labor unions. It seems he was trying to get a job, but with his bad knee and only being able to work for so long, it wasn't going well at all. So Lou just takes him to a restaurant down the street and treats him to lunch. I was just like, "Wow". And the guy was really grateful. I felt kinda bad because it was at that moment I realized he was a person...and if it had just been me, I just would've said, "Sorry, man" and walked away.

We ate lunch at Jerusalem Garden, which was this really good Mediterranean restaurant. The room we were in was covered in tapestry, and we all sat on intricately designed cushions. I felt like belly dancing. No, not really. But the food was awesome. Matt Callis was sick, so we drew him a picture. It was a person, and we all had to draw one part. You can imagine how crazy that thing looked when it was done. It was a merman...with an eyepatch...and hearts on his nipples... Then we called his cell phone and sang "You Are My Sunshine". Well, it was pretty much Garrett singing a solo.

When we got back to Bonclarken, we went to see how Callis was doing. Eric and Jones were already there, and Callis was in the shower. "He's singing emo songs," Jones explained. We all got quiet. Sure enough, Callis was singing. Rather loudly. "He doesn't know we're here, does he?" asked Lou.

We all started sniggering like little kids. Then we rearranged the furniture and ran to the next apartment. And this is why it's no fun to play practical jokes on Callis, because apparently he just came down and moved the furniture without saying a word.

After we threw pens and truffle paper at each other and I finally called home, (I forgot! seriously!) there was napping, so we were seriously channeling kindergarten tendencies. I stayed awake and watched Jones, Callis, and Lou nodding off, and I was just like, "This is awesome." And then "Yup, I'm their stalker."

Garrett led worship that night, and it was so homey. Then we talked about what had been said the night before, and I realized how lonely so many people were here at the Shack. I mean, we hang out all the time, but conversation rarely goes beneath the surface, and a lot of people need more. I guess I take things like that for granted. I'm going to try to work on that, I think.

And then we went and played Mafia. I have nothing to say about that.