Top 5

I have been home alone this week, and not much has gone on, so I haven't had much to update. Because of that, I have decided to write a couple top 5 lists. These are simply my favorites - nothing else. They aren't even in any specific order.

Top 5 musical acts (now):

• Allman Brothers Band
• the Violet Burning
• B.B. King
• The Ramones
• Chris Tomlin

Top 5 musical acts (when I was in high school):

• Billy Bragg
• the Cure
• the Jesus and Mary Chain
• the Violent Femmes
• the Ramones
• the Smiths

Top 5 movies:

• The Blues Brothers
• The Princess Bride
• Uncle Buck
• the Lord of the Rings (if I have to pick one of the movies, it would be the Two Towers)
• Star Wars

Top 5 places I've been:

• Grand Canyon (enough said - look in the archives from May 2006 for more info)
• London, England (if I have to be specific, it was White Hart Lane).
• Great Smoky Mountains (where I proposed to Tara)
• Nizhny Novgorod, Russia (the site of a mission trip that changed my life)
• Germany (do I have to pick a favorite place there? If so, it'd probably be Heidelberg)

Top 5 concerts:

• The Violet Burning at IS Fest
• the Prayer Chain at some hole-in-the-wall bar in Chicago
• the 77s (where was it that I saw them?)
• Camper van Beethoven at Cabaret Metro
• the Allman Brothers Band (though if I could have seen them back in the 70s at some of their Fillmore Concerts, that would have beat the shows I've seen...)

Top 5 concerts I'd rather not repeat:

• Mojo Nixon's part of the Dread Zeppelin concert I went to with my siblings (we were all pretty disgusted and embarrassed to be there)
• Crosby, Stills, and Nash (1994 - with Fleetwood Mac as opening band - they ripped through all their songs as fast as they could. FM just played terribly, and Mick Fleetwood made a specticle of himself with a drum machine suit...)
• Foetus
• Santana's free concert at Grant Park (1994 - besides terrible sound, there were two horribly ugly stoned people in front of us who seemed to think that it would be a good idea to get it on in public. I shudder to think of it.)
• Bob Dylan at Welsh-Ryan Arena (he was so wasted that he almost fell off the stage)

Top 5 friends from high school that I still keep in touch with:

• President Bill B
• Admiral David C
• Tony L
• Jenny (yes, my sister - we were, in fact, friends in high school)
• this space is intentionally left blank

Top 5 (organized) sports that I have played:

• soccer
• volleyball
• cross-country (I liked cross-country a lot - too bad it was in the same season as soccer, and too bad my coach was a jerk)
• track
• basketball (I only ever played intramural, and I think I averaged about 5 fouls/game, but once in 6th grade I scored half my team's points (2), and in college I averaged 10 ppg).

Top 5 meals I've eaten while Tara's been gone:

• Mexican with Trent (we went out for lunch today)
• leftover pizza from the soccer party
• leftover pizza from the soccer party
• leftover pizza from the soccer party
• a bowl of cereal

Top 5 reasons I need to finish this up:

• I have a sermon to finish
• I have a newsletter article to finish
• I am meeting with a couple to do premarital counseling in 1/2 hour
• I need to wash the car
• I could keep going on this stuff all day, so I need to finish up sometime.