Tag: Deana O’Hara

Christian Comedy Night with Justin Fennell

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Justin Fennell  is coming to Lifepark Christian Fellowship in Tulsa Oklahoma on Sunday, April 17 at 7:30 pm. Our local friend and comic Gary Thompson is opening for him, and I’m hosting.

Admission is free and we’ll be taking a free will offering to help offset his expenses. Doors open at 7:00pm. Be sure to bring your whole family out. This is going to be a blast.

Everyone loves a good laugh

That’s what you’re guaranteed to experience when you hear JUSTIN N. FENNELL. (That’s “fin” + “nail”) Don’t say his name too quick or it sounds like just an infidel! It’s yarn-spinning stories, props, audience participation, funny music and stand-up comedy. The best part of it is that all of his material is clean and appropriate. Fennell says, “you know, it doesn’t have to be filthy to be funny.” His performances are rated “E” for everyone!

 

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I have levels of crazy you haven’t even met yet.

Deana3 Comments

she is crazy

Have you ever seen a Southern Woman throw a wall-eyed hissy with a red rubber tail? Someone is fixin to.

I did the math, I’ve been gone 152 days out of a possible 275 so far this year.That is almost 22 weeks away from my family. 21.7 weeks to be exact. Seven of those days were for fun. I spent my friend’s 50th birthday with them. The rest of those days weren’t even close.

In that time:

  • My mother died.
  • I missed my 25th wedding anniversary and my 50th birthday.
  • The airplane I was on caught on fire and had to make an emergency landing in the middle of a runway.
  • The apartment I was renting had bed bugs – I’m violently allergic to those by the way and the pain inflicted was incredible. I had to go to a small town ER where they were so freaked out that they tested me for everything from HIV to Ebola.  I have scars on my arms and legs people. SCARS!
  • The night gal at the new hotel had pet rats that stayed on her shoulders while she worked – RATS people, think about that for a minute, will you?
  • After dealing with bed bugs and rats, I not so wisely decided I was better off sleeping in my dead mother’s home while I organized her estate.  I do not recommend that. For one thing, that’s just heartbreaking really and for another it’s creepy sleeping there alone, especially if oh I don’t know – her radio suddenly turns on in the middle of the night when you are there.

I left. Locked the doors and flew home.

The house can wait.

Why am I about to unload crazy? I gave a guy $3,000 to clean up my trees while I was gone. He did half the job and won’t come back. Oh he says he will, but he never does — really? While it is true, thatI know better – half up front, half when he’s done,  I was in a crisis and had to be in NY to take care of Mom while she died so I trusted him on good faith. And I came home to learn, NOPE he didn’t do it. Even after my husband hounded him.

My best pecan trees are dead now.

That good faith is gone. Not a good choice for that man.

You Will Make Broken Look Beautiful

Deana1 Comment

I read a great quote not that long ago, credited to only Ariana. I can’t find anything on her. It was simply,

“She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like angel’s wings.”

Loved it, so I decided to speak that over my younger self. you will make broken look beautiful Hippie Chick

Weird?

Yeah, probably.

But then, I’ve never been accused of being normal.

I found this old photo of me, taken when I was probably 19 and in the throws of bulimia. I had no idea. – I know John Hughes would have loved me as a teen. But he had Molly already and there was no need for two of us.

I had this friend once who, when I was anxious and fearful would say “Breathe Darlin’ ” and I’d take a deep breath and calm down. We aren’t friends anymore. Life does that sometimes, but I never forgot that phrase.

So when life throws you for a loop

and it will

remember that even though it feels like you are carrying the universe on your shoulders, you make it look like angel’s wings. Just don’t forget to breathe.

Love,

Your Oklahoma Hippie Chick.

It isn’t always who you are.

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“I just knew one of these days, God was going to strike me dead with lightning and ZOT! There I’d be, nothing but a grease spot on the ground. But you know what? He never did, because that’s not who he is.”

I listened to that tape for over ten years. I didn’t belong to a church when I was growing up and when I became a teenager and tried to join the ones in walking distance to my home, they all said no.

That’s not a joke, that’s true. And they all said it in different ways.

The first one said I needed papers. Proof I’d been baptized. And sponsors who would be committed to my spiritual growth. Problem is I didn’t know if I had a pedigree and I surely didn’t know any adult sponsors to ask. Joining a country club would have been easier than joining that church.

The second church didn’t allow unsupervised children there and I needed to get my parents and then we could talk.

The Baptist church even turned me down and that confused me because I heard they’ll take anybody.

It just so happened I babysat for this really cool couple next door and whenever someone visited their church that they thought I might like, they brought me the cassette. The two I remember most are Petra and Isaac Air Freight. Well, I remember their names anyway.

What I didn’t remember is the name of the lightening bolt dude.

I kept that tape and listened to it on an off from the early 80’s until well after I finally joined a church in 1993.

I wish I still had it.

It’s important to me because it’s the only Gospel I heard in that time frame.

I’d go my own way for a while looking into Buddhist things, or tarot cards or even Wiccan traditions and I’d come across the tape again and listen and be reminded that there IS a God out there who loves me. There is a God who is benevolent and kind and isn’t going to leave me dead on the side of the road.

I finally found that God for myself and I am thankful. And sometimes I do wonder who that was on the tape. I laid that down years ago. Needing to know. My luck, I’d make an idol out of the person and what if he turned out to be a jerk in real life, what then?

Would that negate the message?

It could have back in the day.

Something awesome happened while in the middle of this craziness that is my life right now, I stumbled upon a Periscope video made by a Christian Artist I enjoy today and he mentioned how much he loves Michigan and how it was his mainstay and livelihood back in his early career from 1980-1982. I just sat there and stared at my screen.

No way.

I mean the video is 8 months old. That just can’t be. And then the other day, he posted another video and again randomly stated how much he loves Michigan.

Okay ya’ll that is where I lived and went to high school.

I had to look into it, so I found and downloaded his very first Christian Comedy CD from 1989, and you know what, the voice matches and so do some of the stories, at least a little. The lightening story isn’t there, and I honestly think his closing song is really pretty cheesy, but it sounds like him.

I’ll never know for sure, nor can I ever prove it. What stands out to me though, if it IS him, it’s before he was famous, or probably any good really and yet God used him to keep reaching out to me.

I mattered to God.

He mattered to God.

Not fame.

Or greatness.

Just a guy,  a young one at that, doing what he knew best, to the best of his ability.

And it made a difference.

I think that’s us as well.

We don’t have to be rich or famous or some kind of superstar to make a difference in someone’s life.

We just have to show up and be who we are right now.

God can use that.