High Tea With the Ladies

Had a great show last night here at Second Reformed in Pella.

Every December they have an event called "High Tea" where all the women of the church are invited to dress in their Christmas best, enjoy a cultural show, and then eat a wonderful meal. Only women allowed!

Well, for whatever reason, they invited me to share my poems this year. They also invited our church organist, Kris DeWild, to play Christmas selections on her harp since she's a fantastic harpist. (Is harpist a word? It's surely not harpie . . . nope, just looked it up on dictionary.com. Harpie / Harpy is a winged death-spirit best known for constantly stealing all food from Phineas. Who Phineas is, I have no idea. But he must be fairly hungry at this point.)

Let me make this perfectly clear. As far as I've ever heard, this event is known for being a pretty fancy-smancy event. And this year they invited me to share my silly poems at it.

Just to be on the safe side, Kris and I decided to alternate between songs and poems just like Kyle and I do when we do a Morgan Valley Social Club show.

Well, my nervous fears proved worthless, because we had a great time. The crowd laughed at all the right places, Kris' harp playing brought a few to tears. And overall, I'd say it was one of my better poetry shows in a while. Plus, I got a great meal!

I have a few weeks off here before I do a couple benefits in January.

I'll be doing a poetry show as a fundraiser in Sully for the Christian school there. It looks like Jonah's Wale and I will also be doing a benefit for an old youth student of ours from Rock Valley, IA named Justin Bousema.

Justin is a fantastic guy, and we loved having him in youth. He went on to seminary up in Sioux Falls, and a while back was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia. When they called the other night to see if we wanted to help out, I jumped at the chance, and Troy, being a Rock Valley guy himself, jumped on as well. So that show will be coming towards the end of January, I believe.

Have a great Christmas! Till next time,

Jason

List of books I've read recently while traveling or at home. . .

H.M.S. Ulysses by Allistair MacLean
- Great book. The first one McLean every wrote. Unbelievably full of British technical jargon about military ships. The first in a long line of "heroic men brave unbelievable weather and traitorous actions to get the job done" stories.

Ice Station Zebra by Allistair Maclean
- (See the last sentence of the previous book description.) Falters a bit at the end as it turns into a Matlock wrapup. Very, very good up until then.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- Inspired Lunacy. One of the funniest books ever written. Douglas Adams' gift for unique metaphors is unparalled.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
- Not quite as good as the first. But it comes close. A ton of great moments on it's own. Adams is so good at poking fun at religion without declaring which side he's on.

Life, the Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams
- Good. But after reading it amidst the other three, I'm vague on what exactly happened. More searching for the meaning of life, I suppose. It must have been good, because I immediately wanted to go read the next one.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
- A strange diversion from the typical Adams' Hitchhiker book. This one is almost more of a character study of Arthur Dent as he finds the woman of his dreams. Very good. But very different. I still have to read the fifth book in the trilogy. (Not a misprint.)

The Innocent Man by John Grisham
- I didn't know this was non-fiction until I opened it and began to read. A bit slow in parts, as Grisham writes it like a typical non-fiction crime drama. So there's lots of repetition of evidence in court proceedings and witness recollections, but it was still a very good read, and made me very nervous about our justice system.

A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex by Chris Jericho
- I've read nearly every wrestling autobiography that's come down the line. (I tend not to read the ones put out by the actual wrestling companies, as they tend to distort the facts a bit.) I enjoy wrestling, but that's not the main reason I read them. They're stories about guys who spend a lot of time in cars, vans, planes, and hotels, traveling around the country, and sometimes the world. They get out, do their show, and get back in the car again. They're about staying busy, happy, sane, and occupied while traveling and performing. A lot of them are good. A few have been lousy. This one I would put up near the top. Maybe even better than my all time favorite written by Mick Foley.

Recent problems . . .

I've been lots of places and done lots of things. I've spoken in Wisconsin for a great group, and Orange City for another great group. I got to seem some fantastic theater, and work with some really cool people. I also gave the Sunday morning message at my home church at Second Reformed, which I thought went okay.

So why haven't I been updating?

Well, like the clumsy dope I am, I spilled a bottle of Diet Cherry Pepsi all over my laptop and crashed the whole thing. So, I've been a little preoccupied with getting that mess cleaned up.

It's sort of ironic, now that I type it, that it was Diet Cherry Pepsi that's almost ruined my online life. I've blogged several times about the fact that my diet pop addiction is beyond control some days.

(I've recently been trying to slowly replace my pop intake with hot tea and iced tea. But it's slow going.)

Now my addiction is so out of control that my subconcious (elbow) knocked over a pop to try and ruin my laptop and therein destroying a lot of important information (my speaking life).

I have all my talks, talk lists, presentations, poetry, stories, and the as of yet unpublished book on my laptop. It may be gone, it may not. We'll find out.

Even tougher to swallow is the fact that my entire iTunes library may be gone. I can handle losing the music. But the Ricky Gervais Podcasts will be the real knife in the gut as far as I'm concerned.

I did have an interesting comment after a talk I gave Sunday night at Central College here in Pella. My father in law, and Central's chaplain, Joe, is gone on vacation and he asked me fill in for his Sunday night worship with the students.

I spoke on one of my favorite stories from II Samuel 23 about King David, and a well, and three soldiers, and overall I thought it went all right. The faces in the crowd seemed to be smiling at all the smiley parts, laughing at all the laughy parts, and seriously thinking at all the seriously thinky parts.

Afterwards, a young woman approached me. She told me she was Roman Catholic, it was her first time to the college Sunday night service, and then she commented that, "Everything that happened here tonight completely contradicts everything I believe."

Okay . . .

I'm not sure if it was just the talk, or the whole worship service, but I figure I was implicated in some way shape or form with her complaint. So I just passed her on to Joe and the rest of the staff and told her to bring it up with them.

Sometime I'll have to blog about all the wonderfully interesting comments I've gotten after speaking . . . it can be enough to discourage a guy, but now I tend to find a lot of them quite amusing.

Well, okay, for instance, I gave a talk once for a church where I felt like I really poured a good deal of my heart out. I related some of my own favorite stories that still have quite an emotional impact on my life - several that were ABOUT me and my faith walk.

Afterwards, a guy walked up and said, and I quote, "I don't know if any of that was true or not, but I enjoyed it."

He wasn't joking, he was quite sincere. And I still can't quite grasp how someone's brain might work in that they would think someone would not only make up a "personal story", but also become emotional while telling a made up "personal story." But, oh well.

Sometimes I'll use some of my old standup stories during a talk to lighten things up at the beginning. And sometimes they really are great lead-ins to the deep stuff I'm getting to. Quite often they get very good reactions - lots of laughs. There's the finger story, and the puke story, and the zipline story, many of which are probably familiar the the blog readers.

But what I enjoy, is the occasional listener (usually a high schooler for some strange reason) who comes up afterwards, pulls me aside, and says something to the effect of, "A story like that has no place in worship."

Now, none of my stories are dirty in any way. The most they are is occasionally gross. As in someone throws up, or someone loses a finger. I always want to retort by pulling out my Bible and reading some of the scriptural stories that are so disgustingly crazy and perverse that they'd never be used in worship, and yet they're in the Bible. My stories can't compare to those.

I won't share them on the site, but a camp counselor back in high school shared a few with me under the premise, "You'll never hear this one in church!"

Well, back on to computer repair! Till next time,

Jason

Canadia

So, Troy, Dawn and I all went up to Red Deer, Aberta, Canada for most of last week. We led seminars for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then headed to the Circle Square Ranch near Halkirk, Alberta for a youth reatreat on the weekend.

Some highlights include:

On a day off we visited the Olympic Park in Calgar and got to go to the top of this bad boy. That would be a pic of the ski jump.

Once on top, I noticed something interesting. There were only two small bathrooms. One for the women, and one for men. And each only had one small toilet. I had to go to the bathroom, and as I did I realized something. All the great skiers from 88' had to use the exact same bathroom I did. That means . . .

I was two degrees of separation away from Eddie the Eagle!!!

So, while we were there, we got to see some of our friends in ministry. Of course I have to mention our great friends Dave and Cathy Tilstra. They are big supporters of Happy the Dog Ministry, and we can't thank them enough for their hospitality. Cathy was even kind enough to give me a print of one of her paintings for my wife. And I must say, the painting is fantastic. I'll have to take a pic to post on the site, but it is definately going to the be the highlight of our art collection.

We also got to catch up with good friends Sharon and Thomas. Thomas even came on board as at Happy the Dog supporter which is a pretty crazy committment for guy not far removed from high school.

Here's a pic of us worshipping. The Circle Square Ranch is set up like an old west town. We worshipped and ate in the saloon. The guy in front (with his back to the camera) in the white shirt and jeans that's about a foot taller than everyone is me.

The worship was great. We played Mission Impossible in the cooley. Billeted in some nice rooms. And we had gravy with our fries. Plus, there were Big Turks galore, and plenty of Red Rose. What does all that mean? I'm not really sure and I experienced it. . .

This group up in Red Deer is just the best to us, and they've quickly become a family away from home. We can't thank Dave, Cathy, Sharon, Thomas, and the rest of the crew enough for making us always feel welcome.

I also got Carson a sweet Calgary Flames onesie which almost got my head bitten off by the pro-Oiler crowd. . . but I figured hockey's hockey, right?

We head to Sheboygan, Wisconsin for a week on Sunday. And then the week after I head up to Northwestern College for a bit to try out some new material with good friends Jeff and Karen Barker.

Till next time,

Jason

Speaking in English

I had the opportunity to do a twenty minute poetry set at North English, IA on Saturday night. Now, I'd heard of North English, but just a few miles south is another town called South English. This was interesting to me since I'd never heard of South English, and I wondered how the two towns earned their respective names. No one really seemed to know.

We had a meal before the show and these were the place mats we used at the church . . .

I thought it might be a bad omen, but it turned to be a great show.

I went on after the North English Community Choir and before the Interfaith men's choir.

This is Interfaith.

Both groups were just fantastic. It was another show I got to do because of Old Time Gospel Show friend John Finical - who also sings in the Interfaith choir.


The crowd was roughly around 70 or 80 people, and they were just the best. They were very energetic and laughed hard. I know just a few posts ago I talked about cutting back and retiring from alot of the poetry shows, but man, this crowd really makes it hard to think about.


And some very exciting news for myself - one of the sound guys said he had a digital recording device hooked up to the sound system at the show and he wanted to know if I wanted a CD of the night to do with as I please! I've been lamenting for a long time now that I really wanted a CD of the poetry, and now it looks like I may get one!


Perhaps I'll have to include the twenty minute show in a CD on the back jacket of the next book.

I head off to Canada here again in another two weeks or so, and then to Wisconsin a week after that. But as for poetry shows, it appears I'm done for a while anyway. I don't have any more booked for the long term. So perhaps that gives me some time to work on Farm Dog 2, and edit a CD together.

Till next time,

Jason

Carson

More recent Carson pics . . . Here he's on the right while his TWO MONTH YOUNGER COUSIN Isaac is on the left!

After a bath . . .

Having a good time. . .

Pole Rally / Archaeology / Canada

A bunch of trips to update on. . .

Last Wednesday I trekked up to Sioux Falls to do a short comedy set at their big "See You at the Pole Rally". The Sioux Falls Christian School gym was packed with over 1000 kids, and we had a wild time.

On Thursday morning, I did the Sioux Falls Christian morning chapel and talked about the woman weeping from Luke. Then in the afternoon I spoke for good friend Luke Vander Leest's Old Testament Bible class about the Biblical Archeology stuff I've been studying over the last year.

This past weekend, I headed up to Red Deer Canada with bandleader Troy Kooima for a big CRC 150 years in Alberta celebration. And it was a wild time to say the least.

It started with my plane being delayed for about an hour in Des Moines before I took off. This led to a very interesting, albeit mostly one-sided, conversation with a woman sitting near me who appeared to be very drunk.

I'll give you just a taste of what she said. (Now, most of her sentences were filled with words I cannot repeat on a Christian speaker's blog, so I'll replace all the profanities with the words "huggy-buggy" to protect the eyes of innocent blog readers.)

The first thing she does is lean over to me and say, "Can you believe this huggy-buggy airline? Of all the huggy-buggy, huggy-buggy things they do, they can't huggy-buggy get a huggy-buggy plane off the huggy-buggy ground. This whole huggy-buggy airline's going down the huggy-buggy tubes and this is the first sign!

I nod my head and smile, trying not to encourage a full blown conversation with her. Finally she leans over real close and says, "You want to go get a huggy-buggy cocktail?"

I told her that I was fine with my diet coke, but thanks anyways. She went on for quite awhile longer before finally heading to the bathroom. I took the opportunity to move across the waiting area, and sit hidden behind the terminal desk.

So what else happened in Canada? Got lost. Had a fire drill. Got a little sick. Danced and sang with about fifty elementary school kids. Ate some wonderful barbeque with good friends Dave and Cathy Tilstra. Watched "The Guns of Naverone" with Troy on the airplane.

All in all a great trip,

Jason

Vriendschap Village

No, that's not a typo. That's the dutch spelling of "Friendship Village" - the place I did a poetry reading this afternoon. It's a retirement community here in Pella for independant and assisted living.

I did a show for them last year, and they're a really fun crowd. Turns out quite a few in the crowd knew my grandparents way back when, so that always helps.

It may be one of the last few poetry venues for me for a while as well. Turns out my schedule is getting a little too hectic between speaking and youth group activities, and something had to give. So, for the time being, I'll only be doing local poetry shows for in and around Pella - and the occasional show if somebody fun like the Runnels church calls once a year.

Usually I only make what I can sell in books at these shows, and some weekends, that's just gas money or less. So, while I'll miss doing things like The Old Time Gospel Show dearly, I'll just have to look more forward to the Vriendschap Village and Runnels shows.

I have one more poetry show coming up next month, I think, in North English, and then I'll retire for a bit.

I got asked back for Convention again next year. That's the big Youth Unlimited youth event that I did this year in Salt Lake City, and last year in Flagstaff, AZ.

In '08 it's going to be in Boseman, Montana - just ninety miles from yellowstone and Old Faithful, so that should be pretty fun.

Next week I head to a Rally at the Pole event in Sioux Falls, SD on Wednesday, a Christian school chapel on Thursday morning, an old testament Bible class on Thursday afternoon, and then back to Canada on Saturday and Sunday!

Till next time,

Jason

Pipestone

I spent twelve hours in the car on Saturday as I drove up to Pipestone, MN to speak at a men's retreat with Troy, Dawn, and the rest of Jonah's Wale.

I left at ten a.m. and I got home at 2:30 a.m. That means I spent sixteen and a half hours away, and TWELVE of those were in the car. So here's a quick breakdown of what I listened to on the trusty cd player and ipod radio hookup thingy.

Cake - Comfort Eagle
Great album. Lots of folks say Cake stopped being as good when this album came out, but I love it. Not as much trumpet as their previous works, which is kind of disappointing, but it's still very good none-the-less.
Cake - Pressure Chief
Even better than Comfort Eagle in my opinion. This album's quickly becoming my favorite of Cake. Just a great mix of silly lyrics with an alternative rock drive behind them. And more trumpet!
Beck - Mutations
Great wierd and funky album. Almost a little too mellow for a drive in parts though.
White Stripes - White Blood Cells
I haven't listened to this album since the first few times after I bought it way back when Andrea was still in school. It's nothing less than fantastic. What a great band. I don't like all their stuff, but this, to me, is their best album.
Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs
Ben's best album in my opinion. Lots of fun.
Ben Folds - Live
Ben Folds with the greatest audience participation song of all time . . .
Foo Fighters - One By One
A little harder than what I was in the mood for, but it still rocked.
Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
I don't love every song on this album, and I only listened to the electric side, but it still has some great stuff.
The Ricky Gervais Show on Podcast
I love me some Ricky Gervais. I have all three seasons downloaded to my ipod and I've listened to them (all thirteen hours of them) about seven or eight times. It's just three funny guys sitting around making fun of each other and laughing. It's the funniest thing I've ever heard. And it's British, which helps . . .

Till next time,

jason

Poetry at Living Faith United Methodist in Toledo

Hello everyone. I hope you've had a good week since my last update.

I went up to Tama this week to do a poetry show for a Methodist church up there. I opened for the Headin' Home Gospel quartet -

This is a really grainy photo taken with my trusty camera phone. Headin' Home is a great gospel group, and they do a wonderful job of getting the crowd riled up for great music.

This show was an offshoot of the Old Time Gospel Show that I do for John Finical. John was at the show since Tama is his hometown, and I got to meet his wife Karen for the first time and see his new house.

The real highlight for the show, for me, was the fact that Karen told me a great story about a car accident that happened right in front of their old house that involved two teenagers, a bull, a semi, and three DOT trucks. Trust me, this story was a classic! And it will soon be in repertoire of poems as soon as I get some time to work on it. I'll make sure to post here first.

Something else interesting that happened . . . I do a poem called "The Squirrel" in which I detail an experience of almost hitting a squirrel on the road after some wild driving. Well, on the way to the show, I saw a big turtle crossing the road in the other lane, and my first thought was to stop and snap a picture of it so that I could post it on the blog for all those of you who constantly complain that I'm a bit too boring here.

How a picture of a turtle would liven things up, I don't know. But that was my initial thought for you the loyal reader.

Anyway, as I began to slow down, a pickup coming from the other direction just demolished the poor little guy right before my eyes. Needless to say, I didn't stop for the picture. I figure that if any of you really want to see him, I can now just give you directions. But if I change my mind about the photo, I guess I know where to find him.

I've also been asked to be a little better at posting my schedule of performances. Don't forget that you can always see where I'm gonna be by checking out our ministry webpage in the "On the Road Again" section at http://happythedog.com/OntheRoadAgain.html.

But here's a quick list:

September 8th - Men's Retreat in South Dakota

September 20th - Poetry show at Friendship Village in Pella.

September26th - See You at the Pole Rally in Sioux Falls, SD

September 27th - Chapel and Old Testament Bible Class at Sioux Falls Christian High School

September 29-Oct 1 - Canada for a retreat

October 6th - Poetry for the DOC Church in North English

October 23-28 - Canada for a retreat

November 5-8 - Sheybogan, WI Christian High School

Till next time,

Jason

A Tour Through the What Cheer Opera House With a Camera Phone . . .

I did another Old Time Gospel Show this past weekend for my favorite Old Time Gospel crowd at the What Cheer, IA Opera House. Seriously, this is one of the best crowds a guy could ever have. A true dream audience. They cheer, they clap, they laugh, they even hoot and holler, and occasionally stomp a foot or two.

Plus the opera house has tons of great history. For instance:

This is one of the two backstage doors to the theater. It's about a foot and a half wide, and twelve feet high. I was told by two separate people that it's in the Guinness Book of World for the tallest, thinnest stage door. Now, I looked it up on the official site, and I couldn't find it after searching for "stage", "door", "tallest", "thinnest", "skinniest", "What Cheer", or "Iowa" - but none-the-less, it is a fun door to squeeze through.

This is a pic of the stage from the balcony. My camera phone does it no justice, but here it is. The building is air conditoned very well, although it is about ten degrees warmer up in the balcony.

The backstage walls are covered with lots of great autographed photos of all the famous musicians and entertainers that have performed on the stage in the past:

A few of the notables including:

Hank Williams Jr.

Guy Lombardo . . . (there were actually about seven different Lombardo's with pictures up. This family went into conducting in a big way, and they apparently all jumped on Guy's enormous coat tails.)

They also have posters all up around the auditorium like this one . . .

. . . of the Glenn Miller Orchestra (under the direction of Jimmy Henderson!)

. . . and this one of Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra . . .

. . . and of course the Chairman of the Board, Jr. . . .

. . . and then ya got your Kitty Wells - who I know solely through name, and of course her prominent mention in the song Me and Paul by Willie Nelson . . .

I've made myself a promise that the next time I go, I'm going to bring a black and white photo of myself that looks really old, and try to slip it into the ranks of great peformers from the past.

So yeah, it's a pretty spectacular theater when you've got such a great crowd. My twenty minute set of poetry went over really well once again. I got to perform right after this guy:

. . . Joe Shetler - a Swiss, Mennonite, guitar and mandolin playing yodeler. He's good. This is the third time I've gotten to do a show with him, and he's always a fun guy to follow. He got to introduce me this time, and it went a little something like this -

"Okay, so up next is Jason Taylor. He's a youth director and Christian speaker. He's a comedian, and he is also . . . a comedian!"

And so, that's about it for this week. This coming weekend, I'm back in Toledo, IA for another poetry show. Then I have a couple weeks off as we kickoff all of our youth events here in Pella before I head out again for a men's retreat in South Dakota with Jonah's Wale.

But before we go, here's one more snap of a sticker on a backstage door from What Cheer . . .

. . . Lest we forget . . .

Till next time,

Jason

Salt Lake City / Minneapolis / Pella

Lots to update this week. I've been away on a couple trips, so my computer time has suffered greatly.

Went to Salt Lake City two weekends ago to emcee, speak, and do improv at Youth Unlimited's Convention. There were about 900 high schoolers from all across the U.S. and Canada that came together at the University of Utah to worship and attend seminars.

I had a blast. Happy the Dog was there in full force as Dawn was the woman behind the scenes for all the main stages, and Troy was leading Jonah's Wale in some late night worship.

Emceeing was probably the highlight for me as we got really goofy. Troy and I, along with improv-er Steve Hydeen did a rousing rendition of "Ring of Fire" complete with Steve's amazing trumpet playing.

I also climbed a mountain. . .

This is Steve and I at the top of it. You can't really get a sense of height from that picture, but this one's a little better . . .

This is Steve looking out over Salt Lake City. Again, my camera phone really doesn't do it justice. It took us a big hour to get to the top, and another hour and a half to get down. Shouldn't getting down be faster? Yes, it should. But cosidering that we took a really scary way down, combined with the fact that we kept stopping to make silly camera phone videos, we got a little distracted.

Steve's in possesion of the videos now, and since he's more technically literate than I am, someday there might be a youtube link here to view them.

After SLC, I got to fly home for a couple days and spend some time with Andrea and Carson. Best friend from high school and college, Nathan Kinkaid, swung through for a short visit before he and his family move to Australia. That's right . . . Australia. Hmmm. We tried to go get a margarita at El Charro's here in Pella, but they were having some minor difficulties with their service that night, so we went out to a really fancy grill on the south side.

Then it was off to Power Connection in Minneapolis where I was emceeing again, and doing some improv with Steve Hydeen for about 1000 middle schoolers. If I didn't mention it already, Steve is a professional improv-er out of Omaha, Nebraska with 88improv. We occasionally have the chance to get together and do improv shows and seminars. We also occasionally have the chance to get together and do this . . .

. . . hug giant, rusty, iron turtle sculputres. This was at Bethel College where the event was held. It looked to me like a tetnus shot waiting to happen. But Steve just couldn't resist 'rasslin the big guy into submission.

Finally I came home and got some much needed R and R with Andrea and Carson. Things at home held up well without me, although I sorely missed my wife and little guy.

Last night, the Morgan Valley Social Club hit the Third Reformed Church here in Pella for a Pillar's party. The Pillars are the senior group at the church and we did about forty minutes of music and poetry for them.

I had a blast, as a poetry show was just what I need to wind down from a week and a half on the road. Kyle was in his best form as he alternated hymns with Johnny and Willie tunes, and the crowd really seemed to go with us.

Is that all? Not by a long shot, but I'm trying to keep this post short so you'll come back and read again some time. I'll try to update more later on all the hijinks and hilarity that insued as I did things like lose my luggage at the airport, have my banjo fail to pass security, wear another man's clothes for a day, and scare the pants off a pantsless Troy Kooima as he was getting ready one morning.

Till next time,

Jason

Catching Up

Yeah, well . . . I didn't exactly post last week on vacation like I said I would. What did I do instead?

I sat in the air conditioning and watched a lot of Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel. What a great show. This is the job I wish I could have if I wasn't such a wienie.

I sat out on the deck at 5:30am with Carson after he'd wake up so mom could sleep. Uncle Bob was often up after fishing.

I ate a lot of food.

I hung out with family. This is always my problem on vacation. I've been told by several people that I'm an undiagnosed case of social anxiety disorder. I get a dreadful feeling in my gut when I know I have to be around people, even when they're people I like. But as the week goes on I come out a little more and a little more and by Friday I always wish I'd been more social the whole week and I promise to do so next year. . .

But we had a great fish fry at cousin Laura's trailer on Friday night, and we got to see a great variety show put on by lots of little cousins. So overall, it was a fantastic week despite the heat.

Favorite laugh of the week - I was eating supper at a card table with my folks and cousin Janae. Cousin Stephanie (Janae's mom) had brought pizza rolls to the supper and Janae had some on her plate. My dad looked over and said, "What are those?"

Janae gave him a skeptical look and said, "They're pizza rolls, uncle Hugh."

My dad said, "I don't think I'm familiar with those."

Janae then looked at me and asked, "They don't get out much do they?"

I tried to run a few times over the week. Four times to be exact. I surprised myself by running nearly 3 miles each time. But now that I'm back home and we're back to our regular full weeks, finding time to run is no longer an option. So instead, Carson and I take hour long walks on the lake trail.

After vacation, Andrea and I headed to Rock Valley (the town in which we used to live and work) so that Andrea could sing at a wedding of a former youth member (Morgen). We stayed with Steve and Lisa Van Den Top and their family in their new house.

To be honest, I was a little leary about going back. I've been back since, but it's always been on a limited scale while traveling to or from somewhere else. But this time we were there specifically to spend time with lots of old friends.

Lots of those old doubts, fears, and anxieties come up when visiting Rock Valley. It was hard to leave, but we needed to at the time.

I always wonder how much good work I actually did while I was there as I cut my teeth my first few years as a youth director.

The Van Den Top's have three great kids, Zach, Katie, and Brittany. I had all three of them in my high school and middle school youth groups. It was great to have them give us big hugs when we saw them.

Saturday night after everyone sacked out for church the next day, I stayed up late with Brittany and played my new favorite, addictive video game - Pocket Tanks - and we had a great time laughing and blowing each other up.

As I sat there it felt great to see Brittany again. She was just out of sixth grade when we left Rock Valley in '04. Of all three of the kids, she was the one I'd really known the least. Yet she treated me like an old friend after coming back, and I had a great time with her. As we talked, laughed, and played, it was one of those moments when you realize that youth work can be very rewarding.

I head to Salt Lake City next week for Convention with about a thousand high school kids. Then on to Power Connection in Minneapolis to emcee and do some comedy with Steve Hydeen. Steve will actually be on both trips - hallelujah!

Jason

SERVE 2007

Had a great week at SERVE in Sioux Falls this past week. I've got a bit to do this week, so this entry will be short. Not to mention the fact that I'm not really in the mood to write my usual happy go lucky ramblings after coming home and hearing about the news of Lee Eshleman and Chris Benoit both dying of suicide.

Lee was one half of the duo Ted and Lee, and I got to meet them both a few years back at a Brethern Church conference. I was leading a seminar on youth work, and I got to watch a performance they gave from their play Fish Eyes. It was fantastic, hilarious, fun, and they were great guys when I introduced myself after. Lee will be sorely missed, and I cannot imagine Ted continuing on with performing for quite a while after this. Lee passed several weeks ago, I guess, but with the summer schedule, I only learned of it on Sunday.

Chris Benoit, on the other hand, was just an awesome professional wrestler that I've spent hours of my life watching, and had never gotten to see in person yet. He embodied everything left of pro wrestling that I actually enjoyed - technical wrestling and great in-ring storytelling - a far cry from most of what wrestling turns out today. What a sad and tragic end he met this past weekend due to whatever personal problems that he suffered from. I'm sure it will be a large black mark against the sport as he joins a long list of wrestlers to tragically die young.

What a wake of sorrow suicide leaves behind. It makes me want to grab the phone and contact the several friends I have now who are going through rough patches in their lives.

I'll update a more upbeat version of the blog next week. Andrea, Carson and I head up to Okiboji with the family for vacation and I'm very much looking forward to it!

MVSC at the Bethany Lutheran Church in Iowa Falls

The Morgan Valley Social Club had a great show Saturday night for so many reasons.



First of all, I was asked to do the show by my cousin Laura Brunson. One of my Okiboji cousins growing up, Laura is always fun to be around. Her folks were there - my uncle Bob and aunt Donna. As well as her husband Eric, and her two girls Erin and Paige. They made us a great meal after the show of grilled chicken, and chocolate cake that was a hit with everyone.


Secondly, it was Kyle's first MVSC show back after taking a two month absence after the birth of his new boy Isaac. So that was great. He also brought along a good friend of his named Brian Gumm to help on music and we had a ball.


Thirduhly, I got to see great friends Mike and Susie Rottink. I don't think I really need to elaborate on that much. Just read old blogs. I am a bad friend as I didn't really get to spend much time with them though. Bad friend! Bad friend!


Fourthely, we got to see a part of Iowa Falls I've never seen. I had my camera phone with me, but alas the best pics didn't turn out. But here's a sample of what we saw.

So, Iowa Falls has the Iowa River running through it and there's a dam that looks like this:
Well, this dam is right behind cousin Laura's house, but to get there you have to descend down 99 concrete steps:
This is uncle Bob leading us back up the steps through the jungle. It's not as much fun climbing 99 steps as it is going down.

But once we were down, there were great views like this:

That's uncle Bob closest to the camera, Kyle after him, and Brian after him.

The two best sights by the dam were a tributary stream that runs into it that was AWESOME. The stream was crystal clear, and surrounded by rock bluffs with trees completely overhanging to give it a real cave effect.

There was also some kind of mill that was built right into the bluff wall that was pretty cool to see. But, alas, my camera phone has no flash, so I'll have to go back again some time.

And FIFTHEDLY - my cousin Laura wrote me a poem. For those of you who've seen the MVSC show, I read silly poems, and Kyle plays country music. It's a pretty simple concept. Well, Laura surprised us all by introducing us with a poem she'd written herself about me.

How was it? Well, it was fantastic. And I was a little embarrassed to read my stuff after she was done. We'll have to see if she can go on tour.

And Sixedethly, it was great because for the second time while traveling with Kyle, a small child came up and asked him how tall he was. Seriously, it's like traveling with Chewbacca, or bigfoot or something. The guy's height just draws attention.

Till next time,

Jason

MVSC at the Tama Bluegrass Cafe

Seven people showed up to listen, but we'll get to that.

The Morgan Valley Social Club hit the Bluegrass Cafe in Tama, IA last Saturday night. The Bluegrass Cafe is this great place in Tama where you can have a good meal, and apparently listen to great bluegrass on the weekends. One of the neatest things about it, is that it seems to cater to senior citizens very well - which is exactly up our alley - so that was cool.

I went and checked the place out about a month ago while in Toledo for the Old Time Gospel Show. There were about fifty or so seniors listening to a great bluegrass band, and the owner Lisa asked if we'd like to do a show there. I instantly agreed.

When we got there, it turned out Memorial Day weekend was not the best time to have a show.

I took good friend and fellow improv-er Tim Schoenfeld with me, as Kyle couldn't make the show. Tim is a great guitar player / singer, and can play a ton of great songs, including some really, really fun ones that he wrote himself.

We were supposed to play a two hour show 7pm - 9pm, and at around 6:55pm we realized there was only one man in audience so far. Apparently there were two big weddings in Tama that night, and, of course, it was Memorial day weekend.

But we played on anyway! Before it was over, another six people showed up, plus we had the staff of the cafe, so we still had a good time.

Since we were playing a little loose and free, I forgot the poetry for a bit and took the opportunity to pull the banjo out and play my own favorite Willie Nelson songs. Earlier in the week when I wasn't sure if I could find a replacement for Kyle, I began practicing a few songs for the show. Upon hearing me butcher a classic Willie tune, Andrea advised me not to play or sing. Well, the crowd was small, and Tim's tunes were so inspiring, I decided to have a go, and it was a blast.

We also debuted a new song I wrote for Kyle's new son called, "The Ballad of Isaac Clayton Young" which went over like hotcakes!

June 9th, Kyle and I head to Iowa Falls for a show at a church, and then my summer of Christian speaking really kicks off, so I'll be busy:

June 16-23-Sioux Falls SERVE with Jonah's Wale
July 14-18 - Cadets Camp out with Jonah's Wale
July 20-24 - Youth Unlimted Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah
July 27-29 - Power Connection with Jonah's Wale in Minneapolis, MN
August 1st - MVSC at 3rd Reformed in Pella
August 18th - MVSC in Toledo
Sept 8th - Men's Retreat with Jonah's Wale somewhere way up north.

And guess what? We get to back to the great state of Canada, not once - but twice! Once in September and once in October. How did we get so lucky????

Till next time,
Jason

Another Old Time Gospel Show

Headed up to Toledo, IA for another Old Time Gospel Show with John Finical's bunch. Had a great time. Heard Interfaith and a great yodeler! Read some poems, including a couple new ones that went over okay. I got a 50 / 50 reaction. One went great, the other one went rough.

I also went to visit the Bluegrass Cafe in Tama, which is just a fantastic place. It's kind of like a bluegrass nightclub for senior citizens, and it was fun just to hang out there for just a few minutes as I talked to the owner - Lisa Blomme. Turns out she's interested in having The Morgan Valley Social Club come and play a show on May 26th, so I'm pretty pumped about that! It was a great crowd, and a great atmosphere, so I'm sure the show will be lots of fun.

I heard bits and pieces of two very interesting conversations while I was traveling to the show on Saturday night. While eating some buffalo wings in the Tama Hardee's while working on a poem I overheard a conversation from a couple senior citizen couples that went like this:

Guy 1: So Joe and I pull up to the bar and we were already three sheets to the wind.

Guy 2: Oh no!

Guy 2's wife: Oh no!

Guy 1: There was a crowd outside talking and I couldn't get my door open.

Guy 2: Oh, no! What'd you do?

Guy 2's wife: What'd you do?

Guy 1: I kicked the windshield out and crawled out over the hood.

Guy 2: Oh no!

Guy 2's wife: Oh no!

(Guy 1's wife sits and looks incredulous as she sips her drink.)

Guy 1: It was the best 50 bucks I've ever spent!

Guy 2: 50 bucks! That's pretty cheap!

Guy 1: Well this was years ago, Don!

(Guy 1's wife gets up to go refill her drink, but I don't think it was empty)

Pretty classic stuff. Then when I stopped to buy gas at the Casey's on the way out of town I walked in to hear the cashier talking to the pizza maker:

Teenage girl cashier (kind of under her breath as if I'm not supposed to hear it): Oh, hold on. Somebody's coming in! I better tell you the rest later. (Loudly adding) But that is THE DRUNKEST I have ever been! (laughter from both)

So yeah, two drinking stories in one night. Those people in Tama really know how to live it up I guess.

Till next time,
Jason

Gunn Lake Community Church and the Diet Pepsi Woman

I apologize (to all three of you that read this regularly) for my lack of posting recently. I've been filling in for Andrea during her maternity leave, and between keeping up with her senior high work, my junior high work, the speaking stuff, and the baby, it's been a little hectic.

A week ago last Sunday I headed out to The Gunn Lake Community Church in Wayland, MI to do a little comedy for the congregation. They'd just finished some big rennovations on the youth portions of their church, and the night was set up as a celebration for the whole church.

I did about a half hour of comedy. The first fifteen minutes or so was all new jokes about the baby and it went over really well.

I listened to a great book on the way home called Deep Storm by Lincoln Child. Since I get to do so much driving, I try to listen to as many unabridged books on tape that I possibly can. I got hooked on Lincoln Child when I read a series of books he wrote with Douglas Preston about an FBI agent named Pendegrast.

Long story short, the book was about oil drillers who discover alien technology at the bottom of the ocean - so I found it pretty entertaining.

I've said it before on this blog, but I think it bears repeating - you see some strange folks at rest areas between 2am and 6am. It was a long weekend for me because my middle school crew had an overnighter on Friday where I only got an hour of sleep. Then on Sunday morning I hopped in the car and drove to Michigan, got out, performed, got back in the car and drove all night to get home.

So I'm well aware that when people see a disheveled thirty year old guy in rumpled clothes and a five o'clock shadow stumbling into the mens' room at three a.m. on the interstate - they may think I'm the strange one.

But I got out somewhere just across the Iowa border for a stretch and a soda, and when I got to the Pepsi machine, there was a lady in front of me who just kept putting the same quarters in over and over - and the machine just kept spitting them out.

She wasn't angry. She didn't even seem that confused or concerned. She would put them in, and the machine would spit them out. The machine was clearly full on quarters, but she kept trying. Over and over. I'm not exaggerating when I say I stood and watched her do this mabye twenty or so times. She would not give up. A man who was apparently her husband sat on a bench nearby and spoke back and forth to her in Spanish. I have no idea what they were saying, but I'm guessing it went something like this:

Man - Did it take them this time?

Woman - No, it didn't.

Man - How about this time? Did it work this time?

Woman - No, it still didn't work. I think I'll try again.

Man - Okay. Yes, I think you should just keep trying.

I waited patiently for her to realize her effort was futile so I could get my diet Pepsi. I thought about exchanging her quarters for my two dollar bills, but then I would not have had anything but quarters - which obviously didn't work. I thought she might eventually just sigh and step out of the way so I could have a chance. But she didn't. She just kept plugging away at it while chatting amiably with her husband. Finally I just turned around and bought a diet Coke which was not what I wanted - but I had to get on my way.

Sigh,

Jason

MVSC and The World Famous Harlem Globetrotters!

Well, the Morgan Valley Social Club hit the Prairie City Church of the Brethren this weekend. Unfortuanely, Kyle wasn't able to be there, so it was just myself reading poetry.

The men of the church were putting on a supper for the women where the guys did all the cooking and the serving. The meal was great, the crowd was great, and I got to see a lot people I hadn't seen for awhile since I grew up in the Prairie City CotB. Old high school and college friend Aaron McConeghey (Sp?) was there. As was Ann Bach, the wife of my childhood pastor Jeff Bach. We all laughed a lot.

I did about a forty minute show, and I realized pretty quickly that as much as the people seemed to be enjoying things, it sure does add a lot to the show to have Kyle along. When I do the Old Time Gospel Shows for John Finical, I usually do about a twenty minute stretch of poetry, which is just about right for that kind of performance I think. When I can add Kyle's guitar and country songs into the mix, it definitely can stretch a good show out, though, as we've easily gone an hour before. I think the music can help clear the palette a bit and get you ready for more poems and stories.

I also went to the Globetrotters in Des Moines this weekend with my jr high group. WHAT A BLAST. . . I had so much stinking fun, I can't believe it. I've always seen the commericials for the Globetrotters. I've seen them on that old Scooby Doo episode, and Gilligan's Island of course. But man were they fun live. The whole bucket full of water / confetti bit, the stealing a woman's purse out of the crowd joke, the pulling the other teams shorts down - they did it all - and I'm not ashamed to admit I was nearly in tears at times. They put on a GREAT show.

Now if I'd only thought twice before putting twenty bucks on the New York Nationals . . . they've never won a game, but I thought they were due!

I wish I was a Globetrotter. Here's my favorite player - the ringleader of the whole team - Matt "Showbiz" Jackson. He's been on the team for twenty years! Good grief, this guy was funny.
I think I'm going to ask for a jersey for my birthday.

Till next time,

Jason

Bradenton, Florida

Yeah, check this out. This is me giving the message last Sunday night on a beach on the opening night of Bradenton, Flordia SERVE. I was there with Troy and Dawn (they were leading music), and it was a fantastic week. Look at me! Just from the picture, I appear articulate, thin, and interesting. Either that, or I'm reinacting some of my favorite Karate Kid beach scenes.

Here's the whole crew that was there. They were all Canadian except for Troy, Dawn, and I. Even the Pastor of the Bradenton Church. But I won't hold that against them . . .

A pic of Troy leading music on the beach. He led while we all watched the sunset, which was pretty amazing. Then, after my talk, he led a last song - at the exact same moment, about 15 to 20 feet off the shore, dolphins began to spring up like crazy. Probably the best worship moment of my life.

We washed and waxed this airplane for Agape Flights. They fly missionaries and supplies to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. What's so funny, Dawn?We helped out here at the Good Samaritan Mission doing all sorts of painting, repair, and lifting. The mission serves immigrant workers in the area. We had a great host named Laura who sang and gave backrubs and served us THE BEST authentic Mexican meal I've ever had. It was great.


This was the Pastor who hosted us for the week - Pastor Jeff Klingenberg. (or PJ, or Colonel Klink, or Klinger, or Klinky-dink). What a great guy and a fun man of God. Don't let this picture fool you. He does have a silly side.

Highlights of the Week:

1. Nicknames: We had a student ride with us (Troy, Dawn, and I) in the car every day, and we took it upon ourselves to deem them with a new name. We had Magellan, Ups, Flo, and Peter Son of Tater Heir to the Throne of Bobcat. Don't ask. It was a long week.

2. Canadians: What a great group! I've totally changed my opinion on Canadians. I didn't tell our group this last week, but I've had a few not so great experiences with Canadians before. Well these two groups from Alberta totally changed my mind. They were some of the most humble, ministry minded, caring folks I've ever met.

3. Shark's Teeth: Yeah, I was one of the few that found one on the beach.

4. Canadians

5. Troy and Dawn: I got to spend A LOT of time with these two this week. Now, let me just give you a little insight into our relationship as a ministry team. The three of us, along with business guy Mark Elgersma, are the core of Happy the Dog Ministry. We get to travel together quite often.

Now, you'd think, being the world travelled, amazing musician, theater trained, theologian, Christians that we are - you would think that we'd have some pretty fantastic conversations about God, life, faith, and all those kinds of things. Well here's a typical conversation for us:

Troy, Dawn, and I head out for steaks on our last night before our flight home, and I go to use the restroom. As I'm unbuttoning my shorts, the button on the front of my new Old Navy shorts pops off and lands in the urinal. Now, I have a very simple rule about the bathroom - anything that lands in the toilet (under a certain value, of course) stays in the toilet. I quickly realize that buttons are worth mere pennies, and I did indeed have a spare attached to my inside pocket, so I let it be.

As we're waiting for our table, I tease Troy that I've left something for him in the bathroom that I wonder if he could fish out for me. Troy immediately goes to the bathroom and comes back with my button. You see, Troy has been serving as a temporary janitor at a high school for some weeks now, and he says that's he's fished all kinds of things out of toilets and gross places. He tries to give me the button back.

I decline.

He says I'm being silly. I should take and reuse the button. It's been thoroughly washed.

I say I don't care how well it's been washed. It was in the toilet. I'll use my spare.

Troy says I'm being silly. Dawn now chimes in and says I should just use it. I have a feeling she's just egging Troy on, because I'm pretty sure Dawn wouldn't use a pee button.

Troy tells me I'm a baby and that I need to chill out.

I tell Troy that I've had to do gross things in my life. I grew up on a pig farm afterall, and I worked there six months after college. I've done gross things. I just choose when I do them. I do not want the button back.

Was I crazy here? It fell in the urinal! The toilet! It got very wet! I've asked a few people since coming home and they have all agreed with me - once the button hit the water, it's gone!

What do you think? Feel free to chime in on the comments. I'd love to hear who you think is really right?

I'll update some more on Bradenton with more pics later!

Till next time,

Jason

Edgerton, Minny Soda

Went up to Southwest Christian High School in Edgerton on Wednesday to speak at a spiritual renewal day with Troy and Dawn leading music worship.

I was tired. Dead tired. Everyone said that all babies do is sleep, eat, and poop. Well, they got two out of three right. This kid does not like to sleep -

- at least during the night. He'll sleep all day if you let him. He'll sleep so hard that you can't get him woken up. You think he must be in a coma. You shake his legs, his arms, you pinch his cheeks - nothing. You try to get him to feed. He stirs for a little bit - then nothing.

At night though, he's WIDE awake.

So with little to no sleep I went to speak in Minny Soda with Troy and Dawn. Let's just say that it's good God works in spite of me. The day went great.

The first talk was . . . well . . . kind of blah. I was tired, it was morning, I did the best I could. Afterwards though, they had an open mic session for the kids to give some testimonies and it was unbelievable. Some kids came forward and really opened up in a deep way. There were hugs, and tears, and lots of peer support. Troy, Dawn, and I all just looked at each other and went, "Okay, that was pretty cool!"

Since the students were so into it, we scrapped the schedule for the rest of the day and just went right back into worship. Troy and Dawn were fantastic. Troy played this new song by this guy named Trace Elliot (wink, wink), and I've been singing it nonstop since I got home.

What a day! I hope the school can keep up the feeling that was created on Wednesday.

I was very happy to crash home late Wednesday night and slip Carson into my arms from Grandma so we could rock awhile.

I'm home for the week and then Troy, Dawn, and I all take off again for Florida to lead worship for a week at a SERVE site in Bradenton.

Till next time,

Jason

My Boy is Here!!!!!

Here's Carson West Taylor just about two minutes after being born. He has good lungs.

That's ketchup right? It's ketchup? Tell me it's ketchup.

Check this out. 8lbs 15.6 oz. I thought that was a pretty big baby. Turns out the night before, they had a boy who was 12.8lbs. That was a Pella record. Our guy looked like a . . . well, a baby next to him I guess. I told Carson not to start trouble in the nursery.

Here's mom and dad with little Carson. The baby is five minutes old. The beard is two weeks old. Which one's cuter?

Here's our going home outift and teddy bear. We got home today (Saturday the 10th of March) and we're doing great. Thanks to all who helped and prayed!

The Morgan Valley Social Club

Thought I'd take a moment to update since I have a few weeks off from speaking due to our impending baby. . .

Brouther-in-law Kyle and I have teamed up after our recent success with the Valentine's Day shows. We're now calling ourselves The Morgan Valley Social Club and offering ourselves up for entertainment to all sorts of groups. (Morgan Valley is the old coal mining town where a lot of my mother's family is from. Although the town is now defunct I guess, and the coal mines are gone, the area down around Runnells is still often referred to as Morgan Valley.)

We've had a very promising first few weeks as several offers have rolled in. Several churchs and banquets have called already. I kind of wish speaking events would come in this quickly.

What's the show? It's basically me reading poems, stories and cracking jokes while Kyle fills in with all kinds of classic country music or whatever tickles his fancy for the night. It's very midwestern, and definitely geared for the 35+ crowd. But the shows are fantastic fun. In fact, I really hope more of them pour in because they're such a blast to do. Aw, well, if wishes were fishes, right?

I also heard that Van and Bonnie on WHO radio read one of my poems a few weeks back, although I wasn't aware of it until after the fact. I was in Omaha performing with the improv guys and gals when one of my cousins called to tell me they'd heard it. I took it as a great compliment that they deemed it worthy of air time, although I was told they changed the name of the person in the poem and messed with with ryhme scheme a bit. Oh well, any publicity is good publicity, right?

Till next time,

Jason

Jason Taylor - Wedding Singer

Kyle and I did two more Valentine's Supper shows last night for the 1st Reformed Church in Pella, IA. There was a supper at 5pm and another one at 6:30pm and we performed for both.

It was a bit different from the Runnells shows as we didn't perform after the crowd ate, but rather while they ate. This can be interesting as most of the time during the first show they would have their mouths full of food while we were trying to make them laugh.

So for the second show, we did about three minutes up front, and then waited till dessert was served to finish off with about twenty minutes that went very, very well.

Kyle worked in Johnny Paycheck, Sam Cooke, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash all in one show. You can't tell me that's not a show you'd pay two bits to see. C'mon, that's a good show.

And on top of that, I once again accompanied Kyle on Johnny Cash's version of Rose of My Heart with my Grandpa Kain's old accordian. Afterwards, Andrea's sister Aleisha asked if we'd play it at her wedding to future brother-in-law Troy Elscott.

Now let me tell you how big of a deal this is for me. I'm no musician - not even close. I've tried many times - piano, guitar, banjo and now accordian. I'm occasionally good enough to use an instrument in a comedy bit. Some easy, short song that I can come up with. But I would never consider doing anything even semi-serious in front of people.

I've performed some comedy with music at several weddings now, but it was always for the reception. But Aleisha - Aleisha has asked me, if I understand her right, to actually perform at her wedding ceremony - and on the accordian no less!

So I'm pretty excited about that. We'll have to see how that turns out.

What else is new? Hmm. Baby's due in a week. Andrea shows no signs of labor yet which leads me to believe it may be awhile. Everyone keeps coming up and assuming she's just miserable, but she says she's not really - other than a bad cold. So if this miserable feeling precedes childbirth, we could be in for the long haul.

Heading to Minny Soda for a day next month, and then Florida - both trips with Troy and Dawn. I think I mentioned that in the last post, so I'll just wrap up now.

Till next time,

Jason

The Runnells, IA Crowd

Did a poetry show over the weekend. It was the Valentine's Supper for the Runnells Christian Church in Runnell's, IA. For those astute readers of the blog, you might remember I did this show two years ago and it went fantastic.

Well, this year, I brought along my brother-in-law Kyle for the show to play some music, and it went even better. Kyle is a great guitar player and singer and we did an hour show of poetry and music. I even joined in on the last song with my Grandpa's old accordian.

The food was great, the crowd was great (probably 50% of them were relatives in one way or another), and the show couldn't have gone better. Many laughs were had, we got to listen to Kyle dissect a Johnny Paycheck love song while he was playing it (Andrea said my dad was rolling with laughter during this part), Andrea came up to sing back up on Sam Cooke's You Send Me, and we got rid of lots of my new poetry book, Farm Dog, and Other Poems.

It was, quite honestly, the most fun I've had with a show in a long time. One of those times where the material and the audience just really seemed to click. It makes me really want to set up lots more shows just like that one. I think with a little polishing, we may be onto something here.

Kyle and I are doing two more shows this week for the First Reformed Church in Pella, IA. They'll be back to back shows for their Valentine's Night Supper, and I'm really excited to make a few touch ups on the show and see what happens.

Other than those shows, I've kind of taken about a month off from speaking until the baby comes. The due date is February 23rd, but Andrea has been feeling so well that I'm afraid the baby may come a little late. But that's okay, because we'll both be around for the next few weeks.

Next month I'll be heading up to Minny Soda to speak for a spiritual renewal day for a high school, and then the last week of the month Troy, Dawn, and I head down to Florida for a Happy the Dog Ministry trip on a SERVE project in Bradenton.

I'll try to update after the Wednesday shows with Kyle.

Till next time,

Jason

Go Oilers!

88 again

I've been doing a lot of traveling over the last couple weeks. Two weekends ago, I went over to Omaha again to perform with 88improv. I worked with Nate and Sarah Schoenfeld at a really swank country club for a dinner. It was a great show. Some of the best improv I've been involved in for a long time.

We played this game called Genres which is kind of hard to explain if you don't know it, but it essentially breaks down into everyone having to make up showtunes on the spot. Well, I'm horrible at this part of the game. I can't make up songs on the spot (let alone sing on tune). Over the last couple weeks I've performed with the 88 crew, it's gone something like this:

Tim: I don't care
If you don't share
About the fair
With that pair!

Jason: That Pair!

Just basically me repeating the last line of what the other improver says as best I can. Well not this time! This time I made up my own song about ear piercing with Nate and it worked really well. It ended with me singing about Nate giving me a kiss on the ear, which, in improv, he naturally had to do since you're always supposed to agree with everyone.

Oh, Canada!

So Troy and I headed up to Alberta, Canada this past weekend to lead a retreat. He played some rock your face off music like normal, and I spoke. We had a blast.

First of all, it was about 30 to 40 degrees warmed in Canada than it was in Iowa the entire time we were there. It was great!

We were speaking in this little town called Neerlandia. When we were renting our car at the Edmonton airport, we asked the ladies behind the counter, "Do you know where Neerlandia is?" And one of them asked, "Did you say Narnia?" While that would have been pretty cool, it was not what we'd asked. So after several phone calls and lots of map searching, we finally found the town which was located two hours north of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

It was strange. It was just like Iowa in most ways. At 6:30 am, I left my house in my little dutch pig farming community on Friday morning, drove for an hour, got on a plan for four hours, drove for two more hours, and got out of the car in a little dutch pig farming community. It was all a bit surreal.

We had a great time with the 100 or so students and adults at the retreat. Troy and I discovered that all Canadian punctuation is spoken out loud.

Eh = .
Right = ?

For instance:

Jason: Hi, I'm Jason!
Canadian: Good to meet you, eh You had a good trip, right

They also put gravy on their french fries, and they love hockey. Both of those quirks were very agreeable with me, so we got along great.

We also started marketing our new Happy the Dog Ministry t-shirts, which I'll have to post on here soon. The kids seemed to take to them very well, and we sold a lot of them.

Sunday morning, we led worship for about 500 people in the Neerlandia Christian Reformed Church, and we had great time. Troy even got everyone, and I mean everyone, up and dancing to Undignified.

So, in short, Canadians were great. It was my first time out of the country, and I had a blast spending time with Troy all weekend. We met some great new friends like Becky, Joelle, Sandy, Cindy, Janice, Rob, Rick Rick, Randy, Randy, and many others who I'll think of immediately after I post this blog.

Till next time,
Jason