Lofbomm.com

Check it out! We just saw this great article about CouchSurfing in the New York Times!

As you probably know, we’ve been really involved in The CouchSurfing Project for over three years. Since we moved to Seoul last month, we’ve become CouchSurfing Ambassadors, and we’ve already hosted seven different people. We love CouchSurfing.

Stay tuned. Very soon, we will begin a series on this blog called “The Couch” where we’ll share photos and mini interviews from our surfers from around the world.

-Jessica

We have news that Adam’s dad is being discharged from the hospital today, earlier than initially expected.  That’s good news.  Adam talked to his parents last night, and Steve seems to be doing better.  I don’t know any details, really, but I know you’d like to hear the good news that he’s going home.  Thanks to many of you for asking about him.  He could use your continued prayers.

In other news, Adam edited and uploaded an interview he conducted with my Grandpa Swanson in 2006.  If you’d like to hear about his childhood as a Swede in Minnesota and his time flying a “Pregnant Whale” in WWII, you can download the interview at http://lofbomm.com/Grandpa.mov.  (It’s a big download.)

And then, completely unrelated, I’m now #29 on the Idol Underground chart, up from #40 last week.  Thanks for stopping by- I’m sure it was you that raised my ranking.

We appreciate you, our friends and readers.

-Jessica

My mom’s dad was an alcoholic. He was drunk through most of her special moments growing up. He was distant, and he lied. His wife didn’t trust him. He had high walls around him.

Then he got old. He still drank. He and Grandma moved from New Jersey to be near my mom and dad in Illinois.

Soon, my dad took away his car keys. He fought tooth and nail for his independence, but he wasn’t able to get out to drink without the car. The fog began to lift. And then, Grandma passed away. This man we had always known as irritable, lying, and closed, melted away. He mourned his wife.

Grandpa began to say “thank you.” He started to tell my mom, “I love you.” His dementia gave him a sweet naivety, an innocence. He talked about his good life and the gratitude he had for his family. His addictive tendency turned toward Oreo cookies. He walked through the hallways of his retirement community and greeted his neighbors with a smile, a hello, and a delicate handshake. He always asked my parents about their dog Blake, oh and then their kids. He became simple, warm, and grateful.

It was an incredible gift for my mom to get to know her father in the last few years.

Grandpa passed away in the middle of the night (this afternoon by our clock). He had skin cancer growing behind his ear since February, and it finally took him. I am grateful for my Grandpa and for his final years of love and clarity. He was a kind man.

-Jessica

I have a superpower.

No, I can’t fly. I can’t read minds. I can’t walk on glass. I have a special power that I call Doggie Love.

That’s right. I have a superhuman love for dogs. And they love me too. It’s an observable fact. Mean dogs, barky dogs, skittish dogs, passive dogs, good dogs– we have a connection. Each one sits down, licks my hands, shakes its leg at my scratching.

There are many examples I could share, but none so unique as last week in Japan:

Adam and I went to Ohori Park in Fukuoka to enjoy the beautiful night and walk around the lake there. As we rounded a bend, we saw a big, beautiful English Sheepdog ahead of us. Korea is full of pansy dog imitations, so I always jump at the chance to visit with big dogs. But the Sheepdog was far ahead of us, jogging with his owners.

The path curved again, and we lost sight of our friend. Since we were walking, and he was jogging, we knew we wouldn’t catch him without being weird dog people chasing him down. I hoped aloud to Adam that they would take a break and sit down on a bench.

As we rounded another curve, the Sheepdog came back into view, and as though he knew we had emerged, he stopped abruptly and swung around. The dog looked at me, then sat down. The owners pulled on his leash, but he just sat there, watching me as we approached.

Adam and I eventually reached him, and asked if we could pet him. The owners spoke English and laughed that their dog never stopped like that. “He was waiting for you!” We loved on the doggie for a minute, then he was on his way.

What’s your superpower?

Tonight, Adam discovered BARk magazine and bought me a subscription. Thanks, Addy! :).

-Jessica

Tonight Adam and I watched a great documentary on Nirvana’s landmark album, “Nevermind”. Man, that’s a great album. They were just trying to make a good record and ended up replacing Michael Jackson at #1 on the Billboard charts. It went on to sell over 26 million copies worldwide.

This is funny because after we finished watching, I opened my email to see a link to this:

Yes. I am now Top 40.

Well, actually #40 for seven weeks so far on the Idol Underground Electronica chart with my song “Quiet My Fears”. Who knew?

Over a year ago, I uploaded my song on Idol Underground, following a link from myspace. Then, I forgot about it. Here I am now, a superstar. Aren’t you impressed?

Additionally, this is funny timing because I just received an email from my online CD distributor, CD Baby, asking if they can send my CDs back to me since they’re not selling. If you want to listen to the charts and stick it to the Baby, click here to get your own copy of my musical masterpiece. If not, I can have them mail my CDs back to my parents’ house where they’ll sit in a box in my old bedroom for generations until our grandkids dig them out and use them as coasters.

Good night. :).

-Jessica

p.s. My newly rediscovered Idol Underground page is idolunderground.com/jessicalofbomm.

p.p.s. I actually am proud of my CD, and if you’d like to buy a copy, click the CD Baby link above. It’s just $12, and they ship anywhere in the world. I’m also on iTunes if you’re digital like me.

Being the only child of two extremely loving and adoring parents, pride and self-inflation are perhaps some of my greatest struggles on the spiritual path. I’m not alone though, this is the last and deepest obstacle for all who walk on two feet in this world.

Seeing who we really are, and living in light of that reality, could be said to be the whole point of this human being thing that we are all doing.

I’m both comforted and challenged by these tremendously accurate and insightful words from Thomas Merton:

“€œIt is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is the beginning of blessedness and the consummation of humility is the perfection of all joy. Humility contains in itself the answer to all the great problems of the life of the soul. It is the only key to faith, with which the spiritual life begins: for faith and humility are inseparable. In perfect humility all selfishness disappears and your soul no longer lives for itself or in itself for God: and it is lost and submerged in Him and transformed into Him.”€

- from €New Seeds of Contemplation

-Adam

It’s now the 5th of July here, but it’s the 4th in the States.  If we were there, we’d be eating burgers off the grill, going to a parade and watching huge fireworks displays.

Last night, Adam and I ventured to Itaewon, the international part of Seoul and found a good ol’ American burger joint, Kraze Burgers, and had our first real burgers in Korea.  Mmmm.

It was great, but there were no fireworks to be found (at least we got our fix on Canada Day).  Before bed, Adam turned off the lights and flicked some lighters around, and that surprisingly satisfied my need for fireworks.   He’s so funny.

-Jessica

Adam and I are in one of those spots.  One of those transitional phases.  We’re very near the end of our first year in Korea.  Our year at English Village.  We’re preparing to move to Seoul in just a few weeks, and we’re feeling a potent mix of nostalgia, melancholia, anticipation and home-sickness.  I’ll speak for myself, but I know Adam also feels a lot of the same things…

It has been a great and difficult year.  We have made some good friends, seen some new things, and we have learned a LOT.  The thing about learning is that it sucks.  Only later do you look back and say, “well, at least I learned a lot…”  Korea is an intense place.  Intensely good and intensely infuriating.  The building blocks of this culture are so different from ours, so we think in very different ways, work in different ways.  It’s good to get shaken up a little– to say, I don’t really know what I believe– I don’t know exactly who I am and why I value what I value.  It’s also good to sometimes be able to tactfully say, that’s weird and I don’t agree.  Then there are the great things, the great people, the great traditions, the great food.

The thought of beginning again and getting even deeper into this place makes me alternately thrilled and terrified.  I sort of want to run away home, but what baby reaches the pain of birth and says, “no, I think I’ll just go back to the womb.”

Tonight I watched the video I made in December, walking through Seoul.  I remembered the city with similar nostalgia as when I remember Nashville and Chicago.  You see a place, a person, a time through the lens of your choosing.  This second year in Seoul is going to be incredible.  I think this year has been a gestation.  We need to stay for the birth (…this metaphor is not to be taken literally… we are not, read NOT, expecting a baby this year…).

This blog has been pretty lame recently, and there are two main reasons.

1. Adam and I are a commuting couple for June and July, and a lot of my time that had been spent blogging is now spent in the city or hanging out in Paju with Adam when he’s home.

2. It’s not as easy to write when you don’t know what you feel exactly.  Maybe it makes for good reading, but it’s not easy writing.  I’ll try to be more candid if you’ll forgive my clumsiness.

And I think that’s it for now.  Here is the video, re-posted from December.  It’s funny that the whole first sequence up through the Galbi restaurant is filmed in immediate proximity to where we’ll be living very soon.  Enjoy.

-Jessica

Today is June 26, 2007, Adam’s and my third wedding anniversary.  Wow.  I love him so much.  These years have been so rich.  I can’t imagine what the next seventy years will hold.

So much has happened since just last year this time.  We started last year with my CD release in Chicago, moving out of our house in Nashville and in with Adam’s Granny Nita, going to the Jersey Shore with my big extended family, watching Grandma Rau slip away, moving to Asia, Adam reentering college, learning how to teach, and meanwhile stretching, exploring, and growing.

On June 26, 2006, we were in Chicago to celebrate my Grandma Rau’s birthday with her.  She is my hero, and Adam and I are honored to share our wedding day, such a significant day with her birthday.  In August, Grandma passed away, surrounded by the love of her children and grandchildren.  But it’s nicer to remember her birth and life.  So here’s to Grandma!

Love,

-Jessica

I have just stayed up too late uploading tons of photos.  We had a bit of a backlog, but now there are SEVEN new photo sets.  Just click your way to the photos page to see some of what we’ve been up to.  Adam’s photography is growing with leaps and bounds.  I am so proud of him.

Adam has gained a lot from his photography class in Seoul.  We’ll miss his teacher Giorgia and her husband Luca as they return to their home in Italy this week.  They have become good friends in such a short time.

-Jessica