I went with my dad to church today for father's day (he's a Lutheran). It was a really nice service. The sermon was by a visiting minister, who worked within the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960's. She was friends with Martin Luther King, and has continued to be an activist for social justice. In her sermon about the beloved community and our responsibility towards promoting equality, she tied in a passage from Exodus where Moses finds the burning bush. Moses doesn't believe that God could really want him to be the one to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses is a stutter, and doesn't have much confidence in his ability to lead people. What I got from the sermon was that we all have the ability to fight for justice and equality, that God wants each of us to take part in this struggle- even if we believe we don't have the ability to make a difference. Even if we aren't the most eloquent of leaders. I don't know if God has a purpose for people, but we can find a purpose within God and what it means to believe in God. I don't know how you can truly believe in God, and somehow not believe in human equality.

Not meaning to bore people with my religious thoughts on here. Happy Father's Day to the dad's on here! Also, a very happy birthday to (e:jason) and (e:joshua).

I didn't know if anyone here has posted about Kucinich's call for an impeachment of President Bush.

While he obviously will not be impeached now, it does surprise me that there wasn't a greater movement to impeach him during his presidency. Maybe no one felt that they could substantiate the claims against him enough to make a concrete move for impeachment? It just seems that potentially lying about mass weapons seems like a worse offense than what Bill Clinton lied about. That's not to say that it was right what Clinton did. I just meant from a comparative perspective.

Aaron came up for a couple of hours yesterday, and we went yesterday to the beach. It's been a long time since I've been to the beach, I really enjoyed it. It was really good seeing him. Afterwards, we went to this cemetery in town and looked up war monuments and memorials. I know that probably sounds morbid, but it was interesting.

i just finished up a research project last week, so I'm looking for a job. I also want to get my license (it's kind of a long story why I don't have one). I'll let you guys know when I'm taking the test, so you won't be out on the road that day.

I just finished reading several good books. One book was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, and the other was Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. Dick's book was good, but it's hard to wrap your mind around it. A lot of it deals with transitive realities, mind-shifting drugs, and the corruptibility of organized religion and power. In the end, you have no idea what is real or what truly existed. I like some of his other books better, but I would recommend it. I definitely would recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns. It's amazing. I don't even have the words to describe how great of a book that truly is.

It's been a good weekend so far. Yesterday, I ended up dropping off some things at Buff State (long, long story). At any rate, I was able to get a ride up there with my parents. We ended up going to the Galleria, and we had dinner at this restaurant called Jack Astor's. It was a chain restaurant, but I liked it. Today, I went out with my friend and her daughter (she's about a year old) to the local Ribs festival out in Celeron. (I don't eat pork products, but I received confirmation from various sources for their rib excellence).

I really enjoy spending time with that particular friend and her daughter. I can talk to her about things that I normally wouldn't feel comfortable speaking about with other friends. I like being around her little girl a lot. It's fun watching her constantly learn new words and new ways of doing things. We take her daughter out shopping or to the park a lot.

I've been realizing more and more over the past year of how much I want to be a parent. Not now, but someday, I would love that. I don't know if I can have children. Women with lupus can definitely have children, but I have a relatively severe form of it.

It is kind of cool to be Aunt Jessi to all my friends kids, though! You get to have all the fun without doing very much of the work.

I finally saw Juno today. I enjoyed it, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It was funny and it seemed to get better as it went along, but the first half of the movie didn't seem quite as good. Maybe I didn't give it a fair chance.

One movie that did exceed my expectations was August Rush. It surprised me how much I enjoyed watching it recently. I thought it might be kind of lame, but it really wasn't. I really found myself rooting for the characters and enjoying the way that their stories came together. I definitely enjoyed the music in the movie. Even if its not exactly treading new ground, it was worth renting.

I'd like to see "There Will be Blood," "Eastern Promises," and "No Country for Old Men" (Saw part of it recently, it's great so far).