*if you're looking for the baby name, please see the previous post where i explain what's going on with that.*
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jesse does a thing with his youth group in the summers called mystery night. the kids don't know what's going to happen, they just show up at the church with a certain amount of money and then jesse takes them to a surprise destination for some fun activity (it has been bowling, lasertag, a bounce house previously, to name a few). while it's not jam-packed with discipleship, the idea here is to have something you can invite a bunch of your friends to, and if it's lame, you can totally blame it on jesse because you didn't know what it was going to be. but they're not lame, so hopefully it introduces a new batch of kids to the youth group and makes them more likely to come back and learn something cool about jesus at another event. hopefully. in theory.
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a few weeks ago, it was roller skating night. i went along since judah was spending the night with my parents. since i am pregnant i couldn't quite capture the magic of my youth as the speed-gorged little roller-demon that torched every one of my friends' birthday parties in the greater atlanta area from 1989-1994; channelling apollo ohno as i blew tamer patrons back onto the carpeted safety surface of Sparkles with my low stance, shiny umbros and stride rhythm perfectly in sync with the bumping of "groove is in the heart." no, 20 years later, it was more of a slow, sweaty whale parade wherein i held onto to jesse's hand like grim death. i think i made maybe 5 total laps.
the wind in my hair at approx .75 mph
maybe my first ever HH episode at the roller rink. none of my boyfriends in elementary school could keep up with me enough to hold hands. at least that's what i told myself
there was a really cheap deal going on that night where you could skate for only $3. of course, if you wanted to upgrade to speed skates like a true badass and really impress all the ho's, that was an extra dollar. guess who decided it was worth the investment?
check out the cool racing stripes on his black pleather booties. could he be any sexier?
later in the evening, they dimmed the lights, slowed down the music and declared it backwards and couple skate. everyone who wasn't skating backwards or with a partner who was skating backwards had to clear the floor. his new speed skates giving him a previously unknown dose of roller-confidence, jesse decided to stay on the floor despite the fact that he can't skate backwards. what followed was one of the most hilarious things i have ever been privileged enough to witness. he let the smooth R&B tune flow through him as he felt the beat and roller-lurched inch by inch backwards around the rink. ignoring the danger to himself and more advanced skaters, he made his humble, yet booty-droppingly seductive, circumnavigation of the floor. it took him the whole song to get one lap done, but it was amazing. a thing of beauty. i have never been prouder. of course the video quality is horrible, but i assure you it isn't difficult to pick him out.
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his groove IS in the heart. play on, playa. play on.