Lazy Blogger!

I admit it. I'm not holding up my end of this blog thing. I've been extremely unmotivated as of late and I can't really tell you why. But after some prodding from good friend Dustin, here's an update on the last few engagements I've been on . . .

1. Kiwanis! I went and read some poetry to a group of Kiwanis here in Pella a couple weeks back over their lunch time meeting. I'm not sure if they were expecting what they got. I think they were used to reports from park and rec commissioners, local ministries, and Pella politicians. What they got was half an hour of pig, dog, and farm poems. I had a great time and it lead to me getting two other shows. One for the Kiwanis in Knoxville (they meet over breakfast . . . oogh) and one for a hospital in Knoxville.

"Fantastic!" is all I'm thinking. I've made no secret that these kinds of shows are my guilty pleasure, and if I could figure out a way to make a living doing them, I would. I've just got to figure out how to get them to pay first . . .

2. Vriendship Villagebochendootch . . . Okay, I don't know how it's spelled, but it's a retirement community here in Pella that's actually called "Frienship Village" but they spell it the Dutch way to confuse Irish poets. I read some poems there too, this time to my ideal audience of 70 to 90 year-old retired folks. I love these shows because they always go the same way. I read poems. They laugh more than they should. We have coffee time afterwards. They ask me two questions in this order - "You're from Prairie City? Who was your grandpa?" I wouldn't have it any other way.

3. Church stuff - I took part in a five part monologue last week in church, and then we did it again this morning at Central college for a Lenten breakfast for the students. It was basically five biblical characters with five different monologues on why they think Christ deserved what he got. I was Judas. Gotta love the bad guy roles.

This Sunday morning I'm in charge of the Sunrise Service sermon. Why do they call it the sunrise service? Yeah, oogh, six a.m. I'm doing it with father-in-law Joe B. again like we did last year. I'm expecting it to be just as much fun.

Coming up,
I do some stand-up next week in Des Moines for a Serve Our Youth banquet. I know, I know, I've said it before, I'm trying to shy away from straight stand-up. But listen! The main speaker for the night is Iowa newscasting legend - Dolph Pulliam! As soon as I heard that, I was on board. Dolph interviewed my great uncle Johnny Taylor way back when about milking cows at the Iowa State Fair. I figure if I can get Dolph to laugh just once, my life will be complete.

I'm also heading to Michigan in a few weeks for a Sunday night youth rally. I don't know much except that Mark Elgersma is going along for the ride, and they emailed and told me that the praise band is riding in on Harley's. It sounded too good to pass up.

Till next time,
Jason