So I found out yesterday one of my new favorite tv shows has been canceled: Eli Stone.

Sigh.

If you haven’t watched the show (and since low ratings is the reason the show got canceled, there’s a good chance you haven’t), Eli Stone is the story of a lawyer who had it all–high-paying, high-powered corporate job, beautiful fiancee, amazing apartment, a car to die for–until he started having visions.

And his first vision, of all things, was George Michael singing in his living room.

It's a quirky show.

Turns out, Eli’s visions were brought on by a brain aneurysm. It also turns out that Eli’s visions were brought on by God.

Eli’s visions caused problems in his life.

You can guess what I watched on tv last night.

We saw history made. In our lifetime. That doesn’t happen just any day of the week.

Perhaps you woke up this morning with a feeling of dread about where our country is headed. Perhaps you woke up this morning with a feeling of hope about where our country is headed.

I woke up this morning feeling one of those ways, and it got me to thinking about what do I do now? The unprecedented election is over, and we have a President-elect who is about to inherit a mess.

We also have believers on both sides of this election. What do we do now?

We pray for President-elect Obama. And no, I don’t mean praying that he’ll change his mind on issues we don’t see eye-to-eye on. I’m talking about praying for the man, no strings attached. Praying for his wisdom and discernment, that he surrounds himself with capable and compassionate cabinet members and advisors. Praying for his marriage and family, that his wife and children will be a source of strength, comfort, and joy to him in the days and years ahead. Praying for his leadership skills, that he won’t tire in the face of great opposition. Praying for his role in international affairs, that both our country and the world will respond. Praying for his health, that his body will be able to stand the rigors of office.

Tomorrow is the day.

And unless you’ve been living under a rock here in America, you know what I’m talking about.

On this Election Eve, I’ve been pondering a few things. No matter how the election turns out tomorrow…

…a lot of the country will be upset.

…we will have an unprecedented President-elect/Vice President-elect combo.

...most Americans will be glad, at least, that the election is over so our leaders can get down to the business of leading and perhaps move on to tackling some other, pressing issues.

…political commercial season will be done!

As an avid tv watcher, I say “amen” to that last one.

Happy Election Eve, Everyone. Be sure to vote tomorrow.

The conservative shock jock I mentioned the other day is at it again (why do people keep sending me this stuff?!). She’s posted an article that basically says if a believer votes for Obama, they should do us all a favor and quit calling themselves a Christian.

Wow. Last time I checked (in the Bible, no less), my Christianity was defined by my relationship with Jesus, not my voting record.

I learned a new word at church last night—homothumadon. It’s a Greek word and it means “with one mind,” “with one accord,” “with one passion.” It is a compound of two words meaning to “rush along” and “in unison,” and it shows up 10 times in the Book of Acts in connection with the early church.

Wow. I don’t think we’d be able to use that word in connection with the 21^st-century church. At all.

So, I spent a long weekend recently with my younger sister and her family in the Land of No TV.

They have a television set, mind you (three of them, actually), but they don’t subscribe to a cable service, and where they’re located in somewhat rural Illinois, tv by antenna doesn’t really exist.

They gave up cable service several years ago, for a variety of reasons (some of which I actually understand, though I’m not sure I could ever endorse a cable-free existence), and with tv on DVD (via a NetFlix subscription) and online options (unlike me, they DO have high-speed internet—which they started to lecture me about, but I was quick to point out that those with no cable should not throw internet connection stones), they feel they haven’t really missed much…and have gained a lot.

I watched an appalling video on YouTube yesterday.

It was by a right-wing shock jock. She was posing as a news anchor, reporting on national and international conditions after the election of Barack Obama as president. Her lead story told of the celebration by terrorists in the Middle East upon hearing the news that Obama was now president, adding a “quote” from a terrorist leader that they had never been so happy since 9/11.

I don’t care what your political leanings are—that’s not funny or clever or satirical. That’s offensive.

Her news report went on with stories of happy pro-abortion leaders (one who was pictured as a crazy-looking woman holding a sign that said, “Kill, Kill”) as well as a mean-spirited parody of Michelle Obama.

I stopped watching at that point (it was about halfway through the video).

I’ve done the math, and I’m not sure my tv-watching schedule is going to work this season.

When I calculate how many hours I have available to watch tv and subtract the hours taken by tv shows I already watch and am committed to and add in the new shows I want to watch and hopefully would commit to and factor in sleep, well, I’m in a mess. It looks something like this (where HA = hours available, AW = already watch, HW = hope to watch, S = sleep):

HA – (AW + HW) – (S x 8) = NOT ENOUGH HOURS!

I was on the Math Team in high school—not in the Math Club, but on the Math Team. We didn’t just get together because we liked math—we had to try out to make the team, we had daily math drills and practices to improve our skills, we competed in state and national events, we won honors, awards, and medals.

And here I thought the automatic toilet seat covers in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport took the cake.

I was in the Portland International Airport (PDX) last night on yet another business trip, making a visit to the restroom, where I saw this sign on the back of the stall door:

Water-Saving Dual-Function Handle

Up for # 1 (liquid waste)

Down for # 2 (solid waste)

Now, I’m all for saving water with each flush. I celebrated Earth Day and recycled long before it became green and cool. Depending on God’s plan, people may have to use this earth for hundreds, if not thousands, of years after I’m gone, so I really shouldn’t be squandering its resources. So, good for PDX for installing water-saving dual-function handles on their public toilets!

I’m pretty good at the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” I’m grateful someone created that game, actually. All my obsessive movie-going during the 1980s finally paid off.

Kevin, John Lithgow, and Lori Singer were on The Today Show last Friday, reuniting in honor of the movie Footloose. All week long Today was bringing together casts of movies that were pop-culture phenoms, and the singing, dancing movie of 1984 made the cut.

I love the movie Footloose. I went to a semi-repressed, small Christian liberal arts college during the ‘80s, where our campus was very much like the small town in the film—absolutely, positively, NO dancing (among a laundry list of other things). You can only imagine how we young adults flocked to the movin’ and goovin’ movie that celebrated freedom from the establishment in a way very near and dear to our hearts.

I had a brief visit with my parents over the weekend, and in the course of my stay at their house, my mom and I went through a drawer full of papers and projects that she had saved from the childhoods of me, my two sisters, and my brother. It was a really fun trip down memory lane.

Among the graduation programs, wallet-size school photos (goodness! how many wallet-size photos can a person possibly ever need or use?!), and homemade flannelgraph figurines (my little sister and I got pretty creative in a story we made up about a guy named Larry who wanted to sing in the Christmas choir) were no less than 3 autobiographies by yours truly. Yes, 3. One looked like I had written it in first grade, one was from third trade, and one was from sixth grade. What can I say? It was the ‘70s and self-discovery was very important in that decade.