Sex, Crepes and Alcoholic Roy Rogers

Did my title catch your attention? That was the purpose. So I have a few stories.

Wednesday night after work I was given an interesting proposition, and despite still recovering from being sick, I decided I couldn't miss out on it. This past week was Sex Positivity Week at Georgetown, a very well known liberal school. Tuesday night there had been a forum debating the nature of pornography (it sounded as though the conclusion was that it was a valid form of sexual and artistic expression), and I had really, really wanted to attend but was obviously fairly sick.

On Wednesday Shanley sent around a text asking if anyone wanted to go to the forum that evening with her because she was covering Sex Positivity Week for United Press International. For those of you who don't know, I am fascinated by the integration of sexuality, individuality and spirituality. I took a human sexuality class last semester that was by far one of the most personally challenging and growing experiences I've had at Biola, and I am also a huge proponent of the issues discussed and the questions raised by the book Sex God by Rob Bell. Needless to say, it didn't take much to talk me into going, so Shanley, Rachelle and I set out for Georgetown.

Random necessary statement: Georgetown's campus is beautiful. I felt scholarly just being there, and I'm sure my IQ went up 10 points with each hour I stayed on campus.

So the topic of the evening was abstinence and chastity, and I was assuming the event to be a fairly large lecture. Instead, we ended up in a classroom with maybe 25 other students sitting in a circle, and the several hours consisted of a forum discussing sexual orientations and experiences that had led to the convictions each person held concerning sex and its context in various relationships. I was surprised by how open and vulnerable everyone was concerning their own personal experiences with sex, both positive and negative. So many people had experienced pain and abuse and many seemed to be confused and searching for sexual fulfillment.

And all types of people with all ranges of experience were there. Quite a few people had at least experimented with gay or bi lifestyles and many definitely had a much more liberal outlook on with whom/when they wanted to engage in sex than I do, but there were also several virgins who spoke up. Regardless of what people's personal lifestyles were, though, everyone was generally very accepting of others' views, including those who were virgins. I didn't offer anything to the discussion (I had decided in the beginning that I was going to strictly be an observer), but I found the entire thing so interesting. I would go more into detail, but that probably wouldn't be appropriate for this blog post. If you ask, though, I would love to talk about it in person.

I know some of you might be surprised that I attended an event like this. The three of us spent a good deal of time discussing everything, both on the way to the forum and afterwards, and we kept coming back to the same thing. Jesus would have associated with and invested in the sexually broken, confused and sinful individuals. Those are the people He would have talked to. He would have listened to their accounts, as wrong and sometimes as graphic as they were, and hurt with them over their pain. He would have offered a solution of hope and peace and forgiveness. He would have been clear about righteousness and truth, but not to the extent of being condemning and harsh. Love would have gone hand-in-hand with the truth.

That's the outlook I want to have on all of my interactions. I have absolutely no problem with attending events like this and listening to an audience that I will primarily disagree with. In fact, as a Christian and with the passions and gifts I have been bestowed with, I believe I almost have an obligation to. How else would Christ's love ever reach people? And I believe this is desparately needed in a world in which many of these people are scorned by Christians and consequently turned off from Christ.

After the forum, Shanely, Rachelle and I decided to actually walk into Georgetown to catch us bus ... and then we came upon a crepes restaurant ... the rest is history. Even though it was 11 p.m., we had to stop, and I am so glad we did. My moulin rouge crepe (peaches and chocolate) was to die for. A sweet ending to an insightful evening.

Thursday at work I about died. I was given two briefs to write, and I didn't have a ton of motivation, but I did have a massive headache. Enough said. Choosing to walk to the Dupont station and take the metro home instead of the bus helped. Making chicken and tossing it into pasta helped too. Talking with Rachelle and Alyssa for a while was also nice, and then Rachelle and I watched When Harry Met Sally. I had never seen it before, but I absolutely loved it. The dialgoue and banter was so witty, and I love the developments in their relationship. So funny.

Friday we had class and Ebenezar's as always. Then Rachelle, Alyssa, Natalee, Zack, Chris and I all went to the National Press Club for taco night. As I mentioned before, taco night is free for members when you purchase a drink. I felt like spicing things up a bit (while staying within the covenant, of course) and asked the waiter if they had pina coladas, which they didn't. So I ordered a Roy Rogers. Rachelle decided that sounded good and ordered one too. The waiter brought our drinks over a few minutes later, and everyone else was given their sodas in tall glasses, while Rachelle and I had short and squat ones. And the liquid was much lighter than that of a typical Roy Rogers. A sip definitely confirmed that we had been given alcohol. Obviously, we remedied that one quickly, but I still keep coming back to the same question:

Since when is a Roy Rogers an alcoholic beverage?!?!?!?!?!

People on the East Coast tend to not know what Roy Rogers are. (It's coke and grenadine for those of you who are still confused.) But if in doubt about a drink, serving customers (especially underage ones) alcohol probably isn't the best method for trying to shield your ignorance.

But taco night was really fun (and sober ... let me clarify that!!), and when we finished, we decided that the night was way too early to conclude. The night was surprisingly comfortable weather-wise, so Rachelle, Natalee, Zack and I set out to see some of the nearby monuments. We spent a good deal of time lying in the grass looking up at the Washington Monument and then attempting to scale the side of it like Spiderman (we failed miserably). We also sat in front of the pool behind the Capital for quite some time. Then we decided to just complete the walk back to the apartments instead of spending money on the metro, which is fairly easy to do when the Capital is in view. So we started walking toward it, and our joy and excitement was manifested in our running through the grass and jumping over little walls and fences to make our journey as easy, as well as just more fun, as possible.

So we were behind the Capital on a walkway fairly close to the actual building when we started looking around and realized that maybe we weren't exactly supposed to be there and that maybe we had leaped over one (or two) fences too many. And then we noticed a security guard walking toward us (just as Zack jumped over another wall -- good timing, Zack), and we proceeded to apologize to the annoyed guard who told us to go back over the fences we had come from. As we were leaving, we could hear him on his walkie talkie calling off the back-up. So we unknowingly breached security. Exhilerating.

Then I got a text from Mark asking me if any of us wanted to meet him at the Union Station theater to see Taken in 15 minutes, so Zack, Rachelle and I headed on over. If you've seen the movie and would like to talk about it, I would love to discuss it. In a nutshell, I thought the gravity of the issue of sex trafficking was entirely overshadowed by the need to see Liam Neeson kick butt. This bothered me a little. We walked back to the apartments in the drizzle, and then I talked to Juliette for an hour and then Aliayh for three ... I didn't go to bed until 5:30 a.m.

Which is why I didn't wake up until 2 p.m. yesterday (Saturday). I got ready for the day, enjoyed talks with both Cherise and my dad, and then hung out with Christina. She was back for just the day to get her stuff before going back home, and she came up to our apartment and talked with me and Rachelle for a while before we all headed to The Old Siam (the best Thai restaurant ever!!) with Zack, Mark and Chris. My chicken was actually genuinely spicy, and our conversation was enjoyable, so overall it was a wonderful dinner. Then Christina took a taxi back to her hotel and the rest of us went back.

We decided we wanted to all watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so Rachelle and I headed to 7-Eleven to get ice cream, and then we got the tv downstairs. But yesterday was Jason's birthday and he wasn't too keen on our selected movie, so we let him pick a different one, and we proceeded to watch 3:10 to Yuma, another fantastic movie. We had an intermission in the middle or cake and to sing him happy birthday, but then we finished up the movie. And it was late, but when Rachelle and I went up to our apartment Danielle was watching my season 1 of Arrested Development. So of course we had to join her for a few. Then we went to bed.

This morning we went to Capital Hill Baptist again with David, Yvette, Mark, Zack and Chris to hear the actual pastor who was finally back. He gave a sermon on requirements for a godly church, and it was one of the most solid sermons I've heard in a while. Although style-wise the church is vastly more traditional than what I'm used to, I'm so impressed by the substance of the messages. Then we went to the college/intern lunch, which was good, and once again the pastor came down to answer people's questions about anything. An obviously intelligent guy, who identified himself as a naturalist, asked about how one could validate the Bible, and the pastor gave an amazing, solid, in-depth response (he used to be an agnostic), and then set up a lunch with the guy to talk more about it. I really respect that.

Now I'm back at the apartment for the rest of the afternoon! I think I might go running in a little bit, and then Rachelle and I have a skype date with Erin and Juliette in a little bit. We just found out that we most likely have the house for next year -- the amazingly large and adorable and amazing one that Rachelle and I have been wanting since our sophomore year!! -- so we're going to talk about that.

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL.