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Ask not for whom the bell chingeth …
December 13th, 2008 by witherow
Well, here I am. My church’s Christmas play, A Jerusalem Story, will be performed tomorrow morning. After a months of researching, writing, gathering props, learning how to direct and act at the same time, and ordering fake beards online, I just won’t know what to do with my time once it’s all over.
Wait, I just remembered. I will sleep.
A lot.
Until like March.
In all seriousness, I am excited how God has allowed everything to come together, even when I doubted this all would work. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s not about the acting or the set or the fake beards (which I am SO glad I don’t have to wear) — it’s about showing a little glimpse of how wonderful Christ really is. Soli Deo gloria.
Midway Bible Church doesn’t always do a drama at Christmas, though. Last year we just had a small program of Scripture reading and singing. I found another old instant message conversation from last Christmas, this one with my friend Mike, in which we allude to this program. Among … other things.
MIKE
do you hear the bells?
for whom do they toll?
ME
the silver bells, or the big scary church bell?
MIKE
um…
ME
Ask not for whom the bell tolls
MIKE
the little ceramic ones shaped like snowmen and things
except little bells don’t toll
they tinkle
or ringle
or go ching ching ching
ME
Ask not for whom the bell ching ching chings
MIKE
hmmm
it chingeth for thee
somehow that doesn’t make chills go down my spine…
ME
it’s the kid-friendly version.
MIKE
who wrote that anyway?
ME
Um, I was about to ask you that.
MIKE
rats
ME
I am a failure as an English major.
MIKE
oh well
uh..
I mean
that’s too bad. I fully commiserate
here’s a virtual hankie
ME
thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhttttt!
That was me virtually using said virtual … oh, never mind
MIKE
my friend made fun of me the other day and I asked him if it was possible to send whooping cough as an e-mail attachment
he said to try
ME
Did it work?
MIKE
I didn’t try
I’m too nice
WE’RE GOING TO COUNTRY CUPBOARD TO GET THE BREAKFAST BUFFET TOMORROW MORNING
oh what happiness
ME
Fancy!!!
MIKE
I can eat breakfast sausage until it comes out my ears
ME
I’M GOING TO MY MOM’S HOUSE TO GOOF OFF ALL DAY TOMORROW.
MIKE
cool
I was going to ask if you were there already yet
ME
I went home earlier this weekend, but came back here so I could go to Midway today for the Christmas program.
MIKE
how’d the program go?
ME
I was reader number three. nothing fancy, but it was little and good.
MIKE
I’ve always wanted to be the Third Reader
kind of like Shakespeare’s Second Murderer
Only not
ME
Hee hee. Becky and I thought of a prank to outrank last year’s refrigerator decorating
[[To explain--The year before Becky and I had decorated the refrigerator on Christmas Eve. We tied dozens of little ribbon bows around the pickles, ketchup, steak sauce, everything. On Christmas morning, my mom sure was ... wondering about the mental health of her daughters.]]
MIKE
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh
I have just written the longest “ooh” in the history of English literature
what is it?
ME
I doubt that’s the longest one, but I digress. we are going to string yarn across the kitchen. It will be so obnoxious and we will be in such trouble! oh boy!
MIKE
can I help?
I could maybe create some sort of diversion
ME
can you send us some virtual yarn?
MIKE
I can try
I’m going to get going
I need to go to bed early if I’m going to get up and eat all that food in the morning
it takes a lot of energy
ME
Wow. That’s intense.
MIKE
yes it is rather
I’ll send an attachment with some yarn
ME
say hi to Judith for me
MIKE
I will and I will tell her that you’re super offended cuz she hasn’t called
ME
Great idea! adios and merry Christmas!
The yarn stringing did work. Now we just have to come up with another Christmas Eve prank … one that is funny, random, and will make my mom laugh, instead of one that will irritate and anger my mother and make her want to return all of our gifts on the spot. Christmas morning is a sensitive time to do things like this.
Oh, and right after our conversation I had to go look up the poet. Because I’m dorky like that. And if I can’t match random lines of poetry with their poets at a moment’s notice, at least I have some pretty amazing Google-fu (that’s like kung fu for nerds).
It was John Donne.
Posted in Hijinks, Strange E-mails, That's life | | | 5 Comments
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on December 13th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
[...] Vote Ask not for whom the bell chingeth … [...]
on December 13th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I thought it was Hemmingway. Oh, well, I guess I’m a musician for a good reason.
on December 13th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
[...] Vote Ask not for whom the bell chingeth … [...]
on December 13th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Actually, you’re righter than you think. The line originally comes from a John Donne meditation, but Hemmingway borrowed part of it (For Whom the Bell Tolls) as the title of a novel.
on December 22nd, 2008 at 11:57 am
Hey Emily,
I just have one question… Is trainging in Google-Fu as cool as having shillelagh power? Oh, and by the way, it took me forever to find how to spell shillelagh!
Oooooooo! Have you come up with a prank for this year yet?
Merry Christmas friend!