if i had the words

21 things you never really needed to know about me...

2012-01-29T14:17:00.000-08:00

My best friend recently posted in her blog a 21 item list of random facts about herself and then tagged me to keep the fun going. So, below you will find 21 random things about me that you never wanted or needed to know!

1) I dislike when people say things like "Sending some good vibes your way!" Please don't send me vibes.. they take too long to wash off.

:)

2) Whenever I'm working hard on something that I'm writing, like short stories, blog posts, or long papers (in the college days), I end up looking for split ends in my hair every 5-10 minutes. It may look like I'm spacing out, but I actually get a lot of great thinking done during this activity.

3) I love singing alone in my car. If I'm in a really great mood I get especially animated...until a car pulls up beside me and then it gets awkward...

4) Contrary to popular opinions, I actually really enjoy having a desk job/office job.

5) Almost every time I walk into someone's house, apartment or room, I imagine all the different ways I would've decorated it. Not because they did a bad job, but just because I'm constantly imagining how I would decorate anything/everything..

6) One goal I have for my life is to fly somewhere by myself, because I love the sense of accomplishment I get from doing new things.

7) I've been able to say the alphabet backwards in under 10 seconds since I was 7 because my second grade teacher taught us to, just for fun.

8) Although lighting candles is supposed to relax you, it actually makes me anxious. Not for fear of burning down my apartment but because all I can think while it's burning is "Every second that passes, I'm losing a little bit more of my candle!"

9) A couple months ago I witnessed a car driving down the road with a dog poking out of the sun roof and it made me smile.

10) One of my favorite things to do is change into my pajamas or sweats after working all day.

11) I owned a harlequin great dane, named Zoey, for almost 11 years.

12) I met Busta Rymes with my cousin at customs on the border of Canada back in 2003 on our way into Canada and he gave us autographs and tickets to his show for later that night (part of the rock the mic tour).

(You think it'd be obvious if you saw a celebrity in real life, but I actually was unsure for many minutes. It wasn't until he broke a chair he was sitting in and someone in his group yelled "Busta! Be careful!" that I realized it was, in fact, him.)

13) I have a huge OCD habit that involves my car keys. I've been locked out so many times before that now-days whenever I get out of my car, even if I watch myself put my keys in my purse before getting out of the car, I literally don't let myself shut the door until I peek in my bag and see them in there again. It's actually way more detailed than that, but I don't want to expose too much of my crazy...

14) I've had a lifelong fascination with skeleton keys.

15) I went on a cross-country road trip with 3 of my best friends and in 2 weeks' time, we had 3 car accidents, two of which involved hitting mule deer.

16) When I was a kid, my dad took me to a rubber ducky race. It was awesome and anti-climactic all at the same time!

17) I want to get lost in a human maze with actual green shrubbery... but not in a "Shining" kind of way...

18) If I could have any pet I wanted, it would be a baby elephant who never grew any bigger.

19) I spent a full week this last summer looking up YouTube clips about Koko the signing gorilla. I love her!

20) I never get tired of astronomy-related things.

21) I think every girl has a little bit of Jess Day in them.

Reunited and it feels so good!

2012-01-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was reunited with two of some of the greatest people I've ever known!

My college roommate, Shannan, who's been in China for the last 2 years, hung out with me tonight and we caught up with our friend Simone through the lovely little Skype machine. Simone is my favorite and only Australian friend and she made my fall semester of my senior year the best semester of my whole college career!

I am blessed with some of the greatest friends a person can have! Top notch quality, I tell ya!

The lovely and newly married Simone!

College roommate love!

I also like this funny photo we took tonight:

..which reminds me of the first time I ever Skyped with Simone..

The Butterfly Circus

2012-01-24T17:13:00.000-08:00

This is one of the best short films I've ever seen. I heard a rumor that they will be making it into a full length movie, and if that's true, let me buy my ticket right now!

I find Nick Vujicic so inspirational, and to see him in this short film brought tears to my eyes. Seriously, if you've got 20 minutes to spare and you want to see something uplifting... look no further than right here!

I want to find my role in The Butterfly Circus!

Don't you?

"Save the Assistants!"

2012-01-22T16:40:00.000-08:00

I bought a book recently off of Amazon called Save the Assistants by Lilit Marcus. I've only read the first 30 or so pages, but so far I am loving it!

It was originally a website that Lilit and her friend started as an outlet to express all the crazy things that people go through as assistants in an office. Overtime it blew up in a good way and so many people were sending in their own stories (the good, the bad and the horrendous) so she decided to compile some of the best stories, as well as her own, into a nice little instruction manual of sorts for people like me to read and learn from.

I've laughed a lot already partly because she's humorous, but also because I've already seen some similarities between what I'm reading and what I'm experiencing from 8 to 4:30 every day. It's a really fun read, and I highly recommend it...even if you're not an administrative assistant right now because odds are...you will be at some point. :)

Also, there's a quiz after the first couple chapters that you can take to find out which TV assistant you're most like and I'm very proud to announce that I am Pam Beesly, everybody!

Being as big of a fan of The Office as I am, how can I not be happy about that??

2 Laundromats in 1 Day

2012-01-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

Had a little adventure today! I washed my laundry at a laundromat....

...for the first time ever.

My best friend brought her laundry into town today to do when we got out of church because she hates doing laundry in her apartment building, (for many lengthy reasons) and since I was planning on doing mine today anyway, I decided to bring mine along and give it a try.

The first one we went to was super fabulous. The outside of the building looked like the outside of a ski resort or some such fun place as that. Unfortunately though, the whole entire town and their extended families were in there using up all the machines so we trekked back into my town to use "the worst laundromat in the world."

(That quote came from a guy who was walking in at the same time as we were.)

Overall it was a fun experience, but I can't really say I'll make a habit of doing it again simply because I don't need to pay to use the ones in my building so why bother?

Maybe if I ever move, I'll give it another try!

My New Favorite!

2012-01-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

"Don't look back, all you'll ever get is the dust from the steps before.."

That's my favorite line and a great one to live by. :)

Hey girl! Whatcha doin?

2012-01-17T17:30:00.000-08:00

In the last week I've watched and re-watched every episode of New Girl that there is because I was a little late jumping on that bandwagon, and now it's translated to my taste in music. I've been listening to She & Him on my commute to and home from work and right now, this is one of the songs I like listening to the most:

"I Want That Man"

2012-01-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

and I lived to tell about it!

2012-01-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

I did it y'all!

I never say "y'all", but it felt extremely appropriate for some reason.

Last night I worked my first (will there be more??) overnight inventory shift at Macy's. I was worried about it for days in advance. My biggest concern was learning how to move my sleeping schedule around just enough to be able to make it through the shift and not die in a horrific car crash on the way home, but also keep it "normal" enough that I'd be able to wake up at 6am on Monday morning for my first day at The Job.

Well, so far so good!

I took a nap from 1 to 3pm yesterday and then got to Macy's to start my shift at 9pm. None of us got to leave until 6am. 6:05am for me, exactly. And since I live too far away for circumstances such as this, I didn't actually get to sleep in my bed until 7:30 this morning! But here I am, awake after 5 hours and feeling pretty so, so. My goal now is to stay awake for the rest of the day so that I can get a lot of sleep tonight in preparation for the aforementioned Job.

The overall experience was actually pretty entertaining in that "here's something I've never done before" kind of way.

More than 20 of us were each given a "Scanpal 2" ...

and then split up into two sections of the store with one assignment... "Scan every single item."

It had similar ups and downs to an elementary sleepover. We started out with a lot of energy; joking, laughing and teasing each other. Then, with each turn of the clock's hour hand, our energy steadily depleted until we were no longer human's with individual thought, but scanning, silent drones instead. All that could be heard for hours at a time was the continual chorus of the spontaneous "beep..beep-eep..beep.....beep" ringing throughout the store.

After our "lunch break" which took place at 2:30am, we were restored to much livelier versions of ourselves, much like young adolescents at a slumber party after ingesting some late-night sugar.

Here's where things got interesting for me.

At the end of my lunch hour I drank one of those tiny 5 hour energy drinks and by 3:15am I was a shaky, rambling fool, I tell you! Really, I think it was a combination of 3 things:

1. The effects of all that caffeine crammed into one tiny bottle

2. My complete lack of sleep (bloodshot eyes ensuing)

3. The aftereffect of lifting heavy kitchen item after heavy kitchen item

Sure, one box of expensive silverware isn't that heavy, but by the time you lift the 153rd box, it feels like someone at the factory decided to just start making all the cutlery out of cement. And this was just the first of many heavy things! Around 4am I'd moved on to huge stacks of microwaves, blenders and coffeemakers; all conveniently hiding their bar codes on the absolute bottom of their boxes. Eventually I couldn't even initial my name in straight lines anymore. As I watched my hand all a quiver, attempting to write my item numbers and initials after every fixture, it felt more like I was watching a toddler learn how to hold a pencil for the very first time.

At this point I decided that the best thing for my overall health and well-being was to steer clear of anything weighing over 5lb. All this left for me were endless displays of fancy china. A sane person would automatically conclude that the last thing shaky hands should hold is fancy china, but at this point I probably wasn't your average sane person.

And I even drove myself home! .... I think.

once again I'll be a working girl

2012-01-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

Come Monday morning at 8am, this will be what I look like! (give or take a few details)

Yes, my new job is beginning in just a couple days! I'm looking forward to it a lot because everyone loves new things, right? I'm slightly nervous though ... I've been experiencing the usual anxiety that comes with a new job. Mainly I'm afraid I won't know how to do anything right. But there's a grace period for new employees, so I'm hoping for the best!

image taken from http://work-girl.blogspot.com/

things to be happy about

2012-01-03T17:14:00.000-08:00

Today was one of the more productive days of my life. I don't know what got into me but in the last 7 hours I:

1. Washed and dried all the dishes

(then did it all over again after making and eating breakfast & lunch)

2. Washed 3 loads of laundry

3. Reorganized two individual dressers

4. Reorganized and consolidated four makeup bags into ONE

5. Dusted and rearranged all of my pictures and knickknacks to make room for Christmas present knickknacks

6. Cleaned out and reorganized my entire closet!

7. Went through every piece of clothing I own in this apartment and deemed it either Trash, Keepsake or Charity Item

It felt really great to finally get all of that done, but after a whole day of talking to no one, a sad feeling settled over me. I really dislike that kind of "sad" because it's a vague sadness with really no cause or purpose. I'm slowly feeling it lift and partially because of the following two items:

1. My discovery of a website actually named Things to be Happy About.

2. A waving bear--

the one with more of Joe Gordon-Levitt

2011-12-29T12:10:00.000-08:00

After writing my last post, I decided to check out Joe Gordon-Levitt's website and found this video that he made with the help of many others.

It's my kind of independent short film! And not only is Joe in it, but so is Channing Tatum!

If you want to see more, click this.

Zooey and Joe

2011-12-29T11:49:00.000-08:00

This just may be one of the sweetest videos I've seen in months. Mostly because Zooey Deschanel is one of my favorite actresses and Joe Gordon-Levitt has been a celebrity crush for me since I was little and saw him in "Angels in the Outfield".

Below is the paragraph Zooey wrote on her site to go along with the video:

I have known Joe Gordon-Levitt for going on 12 years. We first met in the summer of 2000 while doing a tiny movie called Manic, where we bonded over a mutual appreciation for Harry Nilsson and Nina Simone and I have been lucky enough to call him one of my dearest friends ever since. When we did 500 Days of Summer 8 years later, we spent every lunch hour dancing to Marvin Gaye in the hair and make up trailer; we had loads of fun. I hope to do a thousand more movies with him because he’s simply the best. But in the meantime, we made a little New Year’s duet for all of you! The original by Nancy Wilson. ENJOY! Don’t forget to check out Joe’s website http://hitrecord.org/

What are YOU doing New Year's Eve?

buyer's remorse

2011-12-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

I just bought 8 movies.

A Blockbuster near my dad's house is moving its location so it put up all of its merchandise up for sale.

As you can imagine, my dad and I ran amuck throughout the aisles filling our arms to overflowing with movie after hilarious movie with the same enthusiasm as any kid left alone in a candy store would have. (when I say "my dad and I" I really just mean me)

I felt really great about it all, until at the counter I was told that the 99c sticker on each movie was referring to the rental price, only.

My dad being the smarter, more grown-up and logical adult, gracefully gave up everything he'd chosen while I just did my best to thin out my huge stack from 1 billion down to 8.

80+ dollars later (and that's no exaggeration) I'm being eaten alive by guilt.
But, with "all sales final" being their motto of the day, all that's left for me to do is continually list off the reasons I should give myself a break:

1. I used Christmas money to buy them.
2. Absolutely no one bought me ANY DVDs this year for Christmas.
3. A majority of the movies were less than 10 dollars.
4. I can count on one hand the number of times I've splurged in the last 2 years.
5. I'm starting a new job in 2 weeks with a much higher pay rate!

Those are some pretty great reasons to just relax!

Pictured below: My dad and I "mid-amuck", before I broke the bank.

God's version of a "Mash-up"

2011-12-25T20:26:00.000-08:00

I discovered this video on youtube tonight that gave me chills and almost made me cry.

Louie Giglio briefly shows the sound bites of whales as well as the sound recorded from various pulsar stars in the universe and then plays them all together at the end in such a beautiful song!

Merry Christmas Laughter

2011-12-20T20:14:00.000-08:00

Nothing says "Christmas time" like Awkward Family Photos....so many to choose from.....

everyone loves an epic trophy

2011-12-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

Last night, some of my co-workers and I participated in a gingerbread house competition. This competition had some specific rules though. You could make anything except for a traditional house, and once the competition was over, your table could only have things on it that were edible....(so, no superglue holding things together...that kind of thing.)

We decided to make "Noah's Ark : After the Flood"- complete with people and animals and landscape devastation.

There were 7 other teams and a few of them made some brilliant creations so honestly, I didn't think we even had a chance of winning- especially since one other team also made Noah's Ark (during the flood).

To my utter amazement though, we not only won, but we also got to take home this EPIC TROPHY!

Fun time had by all:

In unrelated news.... Tonight is my first shift at Macy's! I'm actually quite excited for it. (Not so excited about having to drive home around midnight though...) I keep praying customers won't yell at me tonight. I fully expect some occasional irate people, don't get me wrong, but not on a girl's first day!!

the ultimate TAMA: Christmas Edition

2011-11-30T09:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my roommate and I got out the tub of Christmas joy and gave our apartment a makeover.

Even though we haven't had ANY snow yet, I'm really getting into the Christmas spirit. I love decorating this apartment!

Pictures:

the view from my bedroom door

the big picture

the apartment layout in a nutshell...

it's pretty much one big 'L'

one of my favorites!

Yes, those are cinnamon sticks inside a candle.

***

We usually have two bookshelves in our long hallway, but to make room for our tree, we had to move the movie "book" shelf to the gap between the originals. Each bookshelf got a little bit of Christmas cheer:

Bookshelf 1

Bookshelf 2

aka the new kid in the hall..

Please do not concern yourself with the door behind it.

Even though it looks like it leads somewhere important..it doesn't.

In fact, it's sealed shut because it enters into the apartment next door.

Long story.. :)

Bookshelf 3

Another angle:

Lastly, the Christmas wreath!

Read TAMA #2 here

Read TAMA #1 here

to a "T"

2011-11-29T20:50:00.000-08:00

I found an article (of sorts) that debunked 10 myths about introverts. Being that I scored as an introvert on a well-known personality analysis program, I really wanted to see what these 10 myths were, and what the truth about us really is...

I was surprised at how accurate the "myth truths" were! They described me "to a 'T' " ... See if it describes you too:

(text below copied from this website...I did not write any of the Myth's)

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.
This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.
Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.

Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.
Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.

Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.
On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.
Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.

Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.
Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.

Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.
Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.

Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.
A world without Introverts would be a world with few scientists, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, doctors, mathematicians, writers, and philosophers. That being said, there are still plenty of techniques an Extrovert can learn in order to interact with Introverts. (Yes, I reversed these two terms on purpose to show you how biased our society is.) Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.

“You cannot escape us, and to change us would lead to your demise.” <-- I made that up. I'm a screenwriter.

It can be terribly destructive for an Introvert to deny themselves in order to get along in an Extrovert-Dominant World. Like other minorities, Introverts can end up hating themselves and others because of the differences. If you think you are an Introvert, I recommend you research the topic and seek out other Introverts to compare notes. The burden is not entirely on Introverts to try and become "normal." Extroverts need to recognize and respect us, and we also need to respect ourselves.

pigg

2011-11-25T13:09:00.000-08:00

Today I caught up on watching Parenthood and was very surprised to see that Landon Pigg made a cameo appearance!

I don't know much about him except that in 2007, his song "Can't Let Go" came as a free song on the Zune I got for Christmas.

I LOVED that song when I heard it. I have since replaced my Zune with an IPod, and somewhere along the line of transferring music from one storage device to another that beloved song went missing and eventually I forgot all about it.

But I looked it up again for old time's sake and was very pleased! I'll have to buy this one on Itunes.

what God saw from August to October

2011-11-14T11:10:00.000-08:00

A friend showed me this clip that NASA put together. This time-lapsed clip recorded the earth from August 2011- October 2011.

Take a fast-paced look at yourselves!

(The lightening storms are my favorite!)

Kina has a new music video!

2011-11-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

And it's made with Jelly Beans!

An Invisible Sign

2011-11-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

This is a great movie! I found it this past weekend and absolutely loved it! If you like Lars and the Real Girl with Ryan Gosling then you will love An Invisible Sign with Jessica Alba. The movies are similar in the way that they both have a unique, independent feel to them and both main characters have very love-able quirks.

Para-para-paradise

2011-11-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

I just got the new Coldplay album yesterday- Mylo Xyloto. So far I am loving these songs!! One of my favorites from the album is Paradise.

After listening to it a few times through, I decided to look up the official music video. The concept for the video was totally unrelated to the video I pictured in my head. At first I was like..."Are you kidding me right now?" But as I kept watching it I started to really like it and I laughed a lot around the 2 minute mark.

I'm a fan.

Believe it or not.

This one is fun too!

when people are as awesome as you'd hoped...

2011-10-30T19:04:00.000-07:00

(I am on very little sleep so forgive me for not writing this better)

I've been gone for a long time... gone from blogger, that is... my reasons are as follows:

1) I've been sick with severe bronchitis for at least 3 weeks if not more.. I'm feeling better now but there were several days that I lost my voice completely and at least one day that I couldn't swallow food and occasionally would feel my throat closing in. And through all that I was still going to work! That is because of reason number 2..

2) This past Halloween weekend I helped the non-profit organization that I work for put on one of the best and largest conferences in over 10 years! Preparation for it took several months but this last month and a half were the most intense.

One of the highlights of the conference was having Phil Wickham perform on Friday night and Saturday morning. Wow! Listening to his CDs now doesn't hold a candle to hearing him perform live! It's incredible how talented he is. His song lyrics are so creative and they paint such a vivid picture that my friend and I teared up through so many of his songs.

Also, I got to meet him! He was such a down to earth guy that within minutes of talking to him I suddenly didn't see him as a famous musician but as just a really awesome, normal guy. He and his manager (who was also really fun to hang out with) would just hang out in the meetings when Phil wasn't performing and occasionally they'd come out and hang out with us who were working the sales tables. At times they even did our jobs with us! Willingly!.. I have a new respect for Phil Wickham now because it's so rare to find somebody in the limelight who isn't at least a little bit corrupted with prideful self-ambition. Unfortunately in the past I've seen that you can't say the same thing for as many "big name" people as you'd like to think...so finding the real deal was amazing for all of us.

He kept telling us all how genuinely glad he was to have been invited to spend the weekend with us at our event and how he wished he could stay longer rather than have to take off for more concerts in other states. Maybe sometime soon we'll get him to come back!

The first video at the bottom of this post is one of my more favorite songs that he performed Friday night. The lyrics are so incredible! It's a song that I just really have no words for.. it's just really moving..

The last video is just a more casual one I found of him doing the cover of Hallelujah. Enjoy!

splatter paint

2011-10-21T13:38:00.000-07:00

This guy is amazing!

David Garibaldi: Jesus Painting from Thriving Churches on Vimeo.

Caged birds and free ones too

2011-09-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

This morning StumbleUpon helped me find Maya Angelou's poem, I know why the caged bird sings. I don't think I've ever read it before, although the title is familiar to me and I know the author's name very well.

As I was reading through it, I realized that a fabric collage I made last winter depicts a good picture to go along with the words, so I wanted to share them both!

I know why the caged bird sings

by Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps on the back

Of the wind and floats downstream

Till the current ends and dips his wing

In the orange suns rays

And dares to claim the sky.

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage

Can seldom see through his bars of rage

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill

Of things unknown but longed for still

And his tune is heard on the distant hill for

The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze

And the trade winds soft through

The sighing trees

And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright

Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams

His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with

A fearful trill of things unknown

But longed for still and his

Tune is heard on the distant hill

For the caged bird sings of freedom.

get rid of the mold and find yourself

2011-09-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how people can often spend all of their time and effort trying to blend in with everyone else, or they try to fit into molds that were never meant to contain them?

Apparently the same thing occurs in the animal kingdom...

Don't be content with looking like everyone else. You're different for a reason.

webcam 101 for the elderly

2011-09-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

This put a huge smile on my face today. A much-needed smile.

sleeping at last

2011-09-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine got married a couple weeks ago and this was her song that she entered the sanctuary to:

I just may steal it for myself one day.

<3

a love/hate relationship

2011-08-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

I love to keep a journal. The classic pen on paper type of a journal.

I love everything about it..
...putting my penmanship on paper
...filling page after page with memories or dreams I don't want to forget
...getting out all of my thoughts on things, whether good or bad
...knowing I can be completely honest about anything at all

Keeping a journal keeps me sane. I think the process of it is fun and the benefit of reading past entries is a reward in itself.

But then there are days, weeks or even months where I absolutely loathe keeping a journal. Especially the pen on paper kind of journal.

I hate everything about it...
...I hate my own handwriting and how cramped my hand always gets
...Slaving away to remember all the details of a dream or event that I want to remember
...Forcing myself to relive issues or events by getting my feelings out so that I don't bottle them inside
...Fearing complete honesty in the pages because it's never a sure thing that I'll be the only one to read it

Keeping a journal makes me crazy. The process of it is way too time-consuming and the pay-off isn't much when I can't find a single entry from years past that I'm eager to re-read.

Bottom line: I will never stop writing in journals.

musings..

2011-08-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

It isn't "either/or", it's both and more!

I can't get enough.

Steve and Conan make for a good clip

2011-08-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

Raindrops

2011-08-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

I've never noticed this before, but yesterday morning I was very caught up with just staring at raindrops. More specifically, the raindrops that laced my car windows.

The rain had stopped by the time I got in my car, but all the water droplets had settled themselves into perfectly straight rows on the passenger windows!

I wish I had thought to take a picture because I couldn't find one to illustrate my point on the internet, but even though the raindrops I witnessed did not look like colorful gems sitting on a gray flower, just the fact that they were so perfectly placed seemed to hold so much more beauty.

forgive my music madness

2011-07-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else strongly dislike it when one of their favorite relatively unknown songs starts getting broadcast from an extremely well known radio station? AKA Indie music gets put into a bright(er) lime light and suddenly the whole world is in love with it.

Is it just me that gets driven up a wall by this?

This happens from time to time, but a few days ago it was the most angry I'd gotten over this. I was unjustifiably upset when I heard one of my favorite Indie songs on a popular radio station.

I don't know why I get so bothered by this but I came up with some general "why's":

1) Sometimes I think of my Indie music as my own private music that no one else knows about, so when or if it does get well known by the public I feel myself wanting to yell "I knew about it first!" A childish response but a response none the less.

2) This could probably not be true at all but sometimes I'm under the impression that lesser known bands create better music. So when I see a good band getting swayed by the masses I fear for their quality.

3) Sometimes I'm just selfish about my music and have a slight Music Snob problem.

My apologies. It's just how I feel. Don't tell me you've never thought about these things with your own favorite bands!

One bit of music that I'm not at all selfish about at all is the music of Michael Ketterer. I want everyone to hear about it because I love what I've already heard so much! I can't wait for his newest album that's coming soon.

"Love/War/Solar System" Promo by Michael Ketterer from United Pursuit on Vimeo.

So says my blog....

2011-07-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

So, remember this day last year and how I was completely oblivious to the fact that July 7th is my bloggy's b-day? Well...

I forgot again.

And just like last year, I had no idea until "Teena in Toronto" wished me a happy "blogoversary". So thanks again, Teena! You saved the day!

I should be better at this.

little bit of encouragement

2011-07-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

It's cliche, but something about this picture just makes me not care. :)

Friday Funny

2011-07-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

Rolling in the Deep

2011-06-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

I love this song by Adele. I also love Kina Grannis' music as many of you are fully aware of by now, so this is a great combination!

She also made this song sound amazing! (Believe it or not!)

I love a good storm

2011-06-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

Last night (early this morning if you want to get technical) we had an INTENSE storm that briefly woke me from my dreams because of the sheer volume of the thunder cracks. It wasn't just a "loud storm." I mean, INTENSEly loud.. as in big and bold with cracked letters for emphasis.

This was some of the loudest thunder I've heard in years and you know what? I loved it! I'm a huge fan of thunder. Lightening not so much, but it's a necessary evil if I want me some good thunder.

The storm sounds played an awesome soundtrack to my dream I was having at that moment:
My mom and I were driving at night on a bridge very high up in the air. On either side of us were multiple tornado funnels! I counted at least 9. It was...... (all together now!) INTENSE!

I love it when thunder is so loud that you're positive that it's broken the sky.

Old Shows

2011-06-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

I forgot how much I used to enjoy the television show Taxi. I was looking it up (because believe it or not I only just heard about the death of Jeff Conaway) and I came across some great clips. I remember the scene from the first clip very well. It was one of my all-time favorites. This show just has so many great characters.

Did you ever get into Taxi?

It's Okay to Laugh

2011-06-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

"Come tell me is life worth living if you can't laugh a little."-United Pursuit Band

Finding this picture online got me through my sleep-deprived day! I still can't help but chuckle.

"Even Now"

2011-06-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

Share Even Now by United Pursuit Band

It doesn't always work like I've planned it
I've seen a lot of good things, a lot of things been out of my hands
Even when I don't understand it
We have all got choices to make
And this one is mine

Even now, here's my heart God

Seems like all You do is so hidden
Sometimes I'm led to wonder are You working at all?
But even in the darkness I'm listening
For Your still small voice in the distance
I hear You call

Even now here's my heart God
I'm in love

Runnin' out of reasons to doubt You
Can't live another day here without You

Even now here's my heart God
I'm in love

Your love is sweeter than honey
Your love is stronger than death
Your love lifts me off my burdens
And teaches me to dance

(Some) of the (many) things I've Enjoyed this week

2011-06-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

1) Okay, right off the bat I'm going to contradict my title. The first item on my list I didn't enjoy as much as it was just so bizarre and crazy that it's stayed with me all week. Allow me to divulge...

Last Thursday or Friday I was driving home from a friend's house late at night. As I turned onto my street I noticed there was a bird sitting in the middle of the crosswalk and I had come inches from running it over. I'm a big fan of birds, as you may already notice, so I immediately pulled my car to the side of the road to go discover what was wrong with this little guy with big hopes of getting him out of danger's way.

I looked ridiculous, I'm sure of it!

First of all, there was no way I was going to attempt to touch this thing with my bare hands, so there I was waving this little branch frantically in the middle of the night pleading, "Fly away bird, get out of here!" Second of all, there were still cars that were driving by rather frequently and many of them were turning right for us so to the people in the cars I must have looked like some lunatic who'd be standing in the middle of the road, casually walk a few feet away as they'd turn with a horror-stricken look on my face every time because every single time I'd think,

"This is it! That bird's gonna get flattened and I'm going to witness the whole thing!"

No one ever hit the bird but it came so close every time and the bird wouldn't think twice about it. It was like it had a death wish!

I approached it a few times with the intent of poking it with my stick to give it a "kick in the pants" so to speak..but I was never able to do it because at the last second I'd imagine the thing going rogue on me and pecking my eyes out. So at the end of it all I just left it there but as I got back in my car I saw another bird in the glow of my headlight acting the same way-just sitting in the road seriously not giving a care.

What's up with the birds around here?! Every time I drive on that road now and come to that spot I wonder what ever ended up happening to those two [dumb, let's just say it] little birds.

2) In the spirit of birds..

Last weekend I helped my best friend decorate her apartment with a wall decal that we found and I think it looks so great!

The birds could be placed anywhere you wanted ...

3) My friend from Australia told me she was engaged!!!

4) I went through some of my jewelry to get rid of stuff I don't want anymore. I gave 3 bracelets to the little girl that I nanny yesterday and she wore them all day and when she wasn't wearing them, she decided they'd be perfect collars for her smaller stuffed animals. I just thought it was sweet.

the best thing you could hear in 4 minutes time

2011-06-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

G.O.S.P.E.L. from Humble Beast Records on Vimeo.

the one where I got to meet Kim Walker-Smith

2011-05-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

It happened! I actually got to be in a live worship concert with Kim Walker! I almost still can't believe it. While the concert was going on I was reminded of a time a year and a half ago where I honestly prayed to God that I could someday somehow get to be somewhere where she'd be singing worship at a church or an event of some kind. And then I threw in "maybe even meet her too" as a little bonus.

I'm so grateful that on that multiple choice prayer-question God marked: C) all of the above.

At the end, she hung out by the stage to meet people and sign their stuff and since she wasn't being mobbed too much I decided, "Heck! I might as well stand in line too!"

After waiting maybe 20 minutes or so it was finally my turn to go up and get a picture with her which my friend took care of for me with my cell phone-since I couldn't find my real camera before the show. As we were leaving I felt this urge to make sure the picture was in my phone and I'm so glad I checked because it had actually never been saved! My friend who had been feeling very sympathetic toward Kim and her mob of fans told me not to go back, but I just couldn't walk away like that after waiting and being so close!

Luckily I knew the guy who was her "acting bodyguard" at the time and after explaining what happened he let me sneak back in quick. I explained my situation to Kim and apologized for my silly mistake, but she was incredibly nice and said she didn't mind at all!

The original picture was so much better, because this second one was done in such a rush, but I'd rather have a second-rate photo (of myself) with her than no photo at all!

Kim Walker is coming to town.

2011-05-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

For months I've been anticipating her arrival and now in just a few short days (3 to be exact) she will be here in my very church ushering us into the presence of God for hours.

I can't believe it.

Past posts of mine that talk about Kim Walker-Smith's music:

bada-bing

bada-boom

This will always be one of my favorite performances of her's:

TAMA #2

2011-05-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

Back in February I got the idea for a blog series that I would call "Things around my Apartment" or "TAMA" for short. Originally I was going to do a new post every 3 weeks and it's looking like I should've said every 3 months instead so I could pretend that I actually kept my word.

Either way, I'm ready to post my TAMA #2!

This is a painting my roommate made for me as a recent birthday gift.

Things I love about it:

1) It's a small rectangular canvas, so..not the average painting

2) The image was inspired by part of my tattoo

3) The Bible verse is one of my favorites which is also the verse that coincides with my tattoo and the reminder I get when I look at it.

read TAMA #1 here

fold-up home

2011-05-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

As I was watching this clip I had many thoughts run through my head.

At first glance: "I could never live there. I feel claustrophobic just looking at it through my computer screen."

Few minutes later: "Wow, I would totally live there!"

A minute later: "I want a fold-up home!"

30 seconds later: "I have way too much stuff to pull that off."

By the end: "I could never liver there."

Take a look though! It's definitely unique!

meat-loving dog

2011-05-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you have seen this by now but for those who haven't...

It just puts a smile on my face!

birthdays

2011-05-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

Today I turned another year older.

The small gestures are sometimes much more wonderful.

One of my best friends made me this on Paint. This came out so well considering what a pain it is to 'paint' on Paint.

It's a pretty close likeness of me too, given all of the true to life accessories...right down to the converse high tops.

I like birthdays.

for Dana and anyone else who cares

2011-05-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

I'm making this post mostly for my friend Dana who asked to see my other favorite announcement videos of Dave's, so rather than direct her to a bunch of different entries and pages I thought it'd be easiest to put them all in one. Much more efficient. I hope you enjoy them, too!

05-09-10 Announcements FINAL HD 1 from EGC on Vimeo.

08-29-10 Announcements from EGC on Vimeo.

4-24-11 EGC News (Easter Special) from EGC on Vimeo.

The Art of Tipping

2011-04-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

My friend Dana is home this week from Missouri so we got together last night for dinner at Red Robin.

While we were there approximately 5 people got sang "Happy Birthday" to which leads me to conclude that most people lie when they go to Red Robin.

Our waiter was still in his "training phase" and to make him feel a bit better about his night, Dana and I worked really hard on leaving him something unique for a tip. He had made a comment during the night that he had recently seen a dollar bill in a fast-food donation box that had been folded into the shape of a t-shirt, and how he always wanted one himself but couldn't figure out how in the world it was done. Neither Dana or I had never seen, let alone heard of t-shirt shaped dollar bills, but we wanted to do our best to make his wish come true.

With the use of her smart phone, we downloaded a tutorial from Youtube on how to make such a thing. We both wondered aloud why he hadn't done the same and after what felt like 20 or 30 minutes of studying the craft, attempting it and failing, we finally succeeded! He was so happy, too! He said just the fact that we had been trying so hard blessed him and the fact that we actually succeeded in the end was the icing on the cake. From now on, he said, he's going to tell people about the two girls who surprised him during his first week by making t-shirt dollar bills with his tip money.

So, if you're ever at a Red Robin and your waiter starts talking up a storm about these two random girls who put sweat, blood and tears into making a tiny wish come true involving tiny doll-sized clothing made out of money, it's safe to say you're being served by the same guy we were!

The Triumphant Smiles:

The Finished Product:

Good Finds!

2011-04-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know what your general opinion of the dollar store is, but last week I found some treasure!

I don't shop at the dollar store on a regular basis but there are a few items that I hunt for solely at the $1 and they are:

1) Greeting cards of any kind (because who wants to pay more than a dollar for something the recipient will no doubt toss in the trash can just a few days later?)

2) Notebooks (with the occasional splurging purchases made at Barnes and Noble)

3) Mints

Oh, my mints! Just a few weeks ago my best friend introduced me to one of her addictions and thus I am now addicted. The drug: Lifesavers Wint O Green mints. Their name sounds a little funny but trust me, there's nothing funny about these little beauties. All heaven! I suggest you get out there and search for some yourself, if you're a mint fan. I'll even give you a picture to help guide you in your quest:

Last week I made a run to the Dollar Store to pick up another bag of "Wint O Greens" and ended up walking out of there with a bagful of other awesome purchases including:

and my personal favorite:

The Poor Man's Goldfish

These are actually very tasty and I will buy them from now on whenever I have a hankering for some Goldfish, but don't feel like paying so much.

The things you unearth if you poke around the aisles of a Dollar Store!

I was ecstatic about each one of these purchases! 500 Days of Summer is a must-see, by the way! I've been wanting to watch that movie and I've heard nothing but good from people who had seen it, so when I came across it for just 5 bucks, I pounced!... And immediately put it on when I got home.

If I were half as talented as my friends...

2011-04-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

I'm in a bragging mood today, and for good reason too! Although I don't know if this falls into the bragging category because I'm not really bragging about anything I did...

First, the story of Todd's proposal video got picked up by Fox and he and his fiance, Elisabeth were on their morning show today for an interview!
watch their interview here!

Second, my friend Dave (the guy Todd mentions in that interview who helped film Todd's fake proposal) creates announcement videos for our church every Sunday. If you read my blog regularly then you've already seen two of my other favorite announcement videos he's done, but in the spirit of Easter he made this: (it's inspired by Mike Tompkin's cover of Dynomite on youtube)

4-24-11 EGC News (Easter Special) from EGC on Vimeo.

How Did That Happen??

2011-04-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Remember back in the fall when I shared a clip from youtube of my boss proposing to his girlfriend by making a fake movie trailer? I don't know how this happened, but I just found out that Perez Hilton (a famous celebrity blogger for anyone who doesn't know) posted an entry about it on his website! How crazy!

Check it out!

A lot of people left mean comments at the bottom though and that's really bugging me. There's even someone who commented saying he doesn't think this was real at all which KILLS me because I know (obviously) that it's 100% real and I hate seeing random strangers comment about my friends like that. Regardless of letting the comment section get me riled up, I'm so excited for Todd and Elisabeth! This is awesome!

How to Talk Like a Pilot

2011-04-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

In response to my previous entry, a reader sent me the following document in an email:

The Aviation Alphabet

Because some letters have similar sounds, like B and P, the aviation industry uses the following words to reduce confusion. For example, Taxiway B should be referred to as Taxiway Bravo on the radio.

A Alpha N November

B Bravo O Oscar

C Charlie P Papa

D Delta Q Quebec

E Echo R Romeo

F Foxtrot S Sierra

G Golf T Tango

H Hotel U Uniform

I India V Victor

J Juliet W Whiskey

K Kilo X X-Ray

L Lima Y Yankee

M Mike Z Zulu

What do you know?! Some people really do use a cheat sheet for their letters and X-Ray really is supposed to be used for X!

How often do you say "popsicle"?

2011-04-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

You know what I think is a funny, yet slightly awkward experience? Giving word examples for the specific letter you're describing to people over the phone.

You know, like if you were trying to tell someone your name was Barry you might say something like:

"B (as in Banana) A (as in Apple) R (as in Robot).." etc.

I never found it very funny until my recent job experience. I'm on the phone with people every day having to spell out my name, my email address or our organization's website URL. The problem is, I don't know what the "normal" words are to describe the letters of our alphabet. Are there such things? Is there some memo I didn't get where the proper etiquette for those type of situations includes a list of animals or objects you should list off in reference to whichever letters spell out your name?

I feel like there is, and someone forgot to tell me about it. Whenever I have to go through this kind of social awkwardness on the phone I feel like the person on the other end is slowly shaking their head at me or laughing to their friends or co-workers after they hang up saying:

"Hey guys! I just got off the phone with this girl who used the word 'xylophone' to describe the letter 'x' in her name. Everyone knows you're supposed to say 'x-ray'!"

(there are no x's in my name, btw)

One time I was on the phone with someone who needed to know the Executive Director's full name for something and they actually requested, for accuracy, that I spell his name using this method for EACH letter. Well, my boss has nine letters in his last name! That was a tough assignment because right there on the spot I had to think up these crazy words for each letter in his name and none of the words could repeat. I felt ridiculous! Sometimes, in cases like those, I try to be a little creative and use words I don't think anyone else has ever used before.

For example, my last name has a "p" in it, and for the last year or so it has commonly been misspelled with the letter "b". To fix this problem I adopted the word, "popsicle". Whenever I'm asked to spell my name over the phone now, when I get to the troublesome "p" I always say, "P as in popsicle". I've secretly thought that was pretty clever but no one has every said anything about it...
......until today!

For weeks now I've debated about writing a blog post on this whole spelling "issue" because I wanted to see if other people find it as fascinating and odd as I do, but I kept putting it off. Well, after my phone call today I just knew it had to be done.

In the late afternoon a guy, who sounded like he was about my age, called up to offer our organization a special deal for tickets to a sports game. (He works for a local baseball team that always has good promotions for the summertime) I told him he could send us more information about it, since I'm in charge of organizing office outings. He needed to know my name for the mailing label. I spelled out my first and last name but when I got to the "p" I said "p as in popsicle" [because I'm convinced now that it will always be mistaken for a "b" if this precaution is not taken.] Once I was done spelling he asked with the hint of a smile in his voice,

"How often do you say 'popsicle'?"

I wasn't expecting that at all so I laughed rather loudly and said, "Pretty much every time I spell my name."

He replied, "That's a good one!"

30 Celebs I want at my Funeral or Wedding: Battling the Inbox

2011-04-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

As I've hinted in the past, I'm pretty much a pack rat when it comes to my email accounts. I still have emails in my main inbox from 2005 and that's no exaggeration. Call it spring cleaning or whatever you call it..

[call it dumb, call it luck, call it love or whatever you call it]- Guess that song!

- at the start of this week I decided I needed to have order in my inbox again or I would die!
On Monday I had close to 500 unread emails and a total of 16,000+ emails in the inbox and after many, many, many minutes of surfing through it all and sorting it out, I'm now down to 83 unread and 562 total. That's some mighty good progress, if I do say so myself!

Just now though I came across this email from a friend sent almost a year ago that was totally random, totally in jest and totally awesome so I had to share it:

It's titled "30 Celebs I want at my Funeral or Wedding"

In no particular order:

1)entire cast of LOST minus Ana Lucia (even Widmore and Keamy can be there)
2)entire cast of The Office (minus Kelly because I don't like the actress or her tweets)
3)Bret
4)Jermaine
5)Ashlee Simpson
6)Pete Wentz
7)Stephen Colbert
8)Betty White
9)Alicia Keys
10)Bruce Springsteen
11)Barack Obama
12)Al Roker
13)Matt Lauer
14)Anne Curry
15)Candace Bure
16)R-Patz
17)Cast of Psych
18)Conan O'Brien
19)Derek Jeter
20)Paramore
21)Channing Tatum
22)Tina Fey
23)Amy Poehler
24)Kelly Hopson
25)Norah Jones
26)Billy Graham
27)Jessica Simpson
28)Kirk Cameron
29)Hillary Swank
30)Sandra Bullock

I don't know what I originally responded back but if I could respond to it now this is what I would say:

Friend,
I can pretty much guarantee that there's a good shot at me getting celebs 12, 15 and 24, but everyone else is going to come at the cost of some heavy duty prayer and a lot of green rectangular papers.
Yours Truly

By the way, if you guessed this song you were right!

Kids and Quotes

2011-04-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

I work with kids on a weekly basis these days and I agree 100% with that statement! The things I've heard kids say, (even in this month alone!) baffle me. I wanted to share some of my favorites with you:

1) Sunday night I was working with childcare at our church and this little girl, barely over two years old laid down on the floor and put her head in my lap. "Are you sleepy?" I asked. She looked up at me and put her hand over her eyes and said, "Yeah! It's been a long day!"

2) One night after friends of mine put their kids to bed, their 2 year old son started calling out for his mom over and over and over. There was a minute or two pause as my friend went to check on him and as soon as she walked into his room he looked up at her with a big smile and said, "Mom! I was just thinking about you!"

3) I was nannying yesterday and the two girls were making a fairy house. The oldest one (who's 6) told her sister (who's 4):

6yo: "Make the furniture like this. I've got a plan!"

4yo: "That's not going to look good!"

6yo: "Have I ever steered you wrong?"

4yo: "Yes."

6yo: "What?! When?"

4yo: "That time when I was 3. [pauses to think] Or pretty much always. You always steer me wrong."

save the cat!

2011-04-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've finally given attention to that part of my life that's been sitting on the back burner for the last two years.

What am I talking about? My writing!

But haven't you been blogging this whole time?
Yes, friend I have. But that hasn't been enough for me. In order to really feel like I'm pursuing my creative writing passion I have to be intently working on other projects like poems, short stories or novels or else I feel like something is missing.

What sparked it for me again was coming across an old textbook of mine from college a few weeks ago called, Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder.

This book is great for anyone interested in writing; it's not just good advice for screenwriters. He lists and explains all the essential "beats" that should be in a movie which is so helpful in plotting out short story ideas or novels too. He's really a genius, in my opinion and since I took this class and read this book, I've never watched movies the same way. It really helps you to spot a good piece of work from a terrible one.

So I've started reading this book again and even got my pens and papers out to start working on my various writing projects. Yesterday I had the day off and I holed myself up in a coffee shop on a nearby campus and finally started writing out a short story that's been in my head since last summer. It felt so good!

This past week I also went to my first ever meeting with a legit writing group that meets on another local campus. I had such a great time the whole night! I felt totally back in my element and I can already see how beneficial this group will be to me in the future. I just wish they met more often than once a month...I don't think I can wait that long!

Anyway, if you want a good read as well as a truly brilliant how-to manual for plotting out your stuff, pick up a copy of Save the Cat! You really won't be sorry!

image

2011-04-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

The fact that children get a little bit of their genetic make-up from each parent makes logical sense, but when I really stopped to think about it, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of that concept.

The fact that you can look into your child's face and see glimpses of yourself and your beloved spouse; it seems like such a gift from God. It is a tangible example of your love for each other, and there is no denying that child belongs to you and that child cannot question where they come from because they see it in you.

It is in this way I've come to understand the Father's love for me so much more. The Bible says we were created in HIS IMAGE. He loves us because we are His children. When He looks upon us, He sees glimpses of Himself in us and similarly, we cannot deny that we are part of Him.

Where do you find your identity?

Things I Have Been Loving About This Week

2011-04-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

1) It's been a 4 day week...which really feels like a 3 day week because I nannied on Tuesday and wasn't in the office then, either.

2) This frozen puddle I saw on my walk to work yesterday morning:

3) The fact that 4 of my friends slowed their cars down at different points of the day yesterday to ask if I needed a ride and how I had to tell them each time that I was deliberately walking..not stranded without a vehicle. By the time the 4th car slowed I had to laugh. I wanted to say, "I know you're all just being sweet and I appreciate it, but really... we live 3 minutes away from work by car. I'll be okay if I move my legs for 10 minutes."

4) My new periwinkle nail polish I put on last night:

5) The fact that my best friend (who's been living 5+ hours away from me for too long) officially signed for an apartment 15 minutes away from me and will be moving in on my birthday weekend. Happy early Birthday present!

6) The fact that when I went to my friend's place the other night, his deer was dressed as if he was on his way to a tennis match:

I like him better when he wears the fedora.

7) A new soundtrack I got which is made up of singers and bands from the United Kingdom. My two favorite songs I've been listening to on repeat are:

This second song was originally done by The Kooks... look that up and you'll enjoy that one too....and possibly love me for suggesting it. Here, I'll make it easy for you.

Love notes can be posted in the comment section :)

either/or, I've been sick

2011-03-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

Do I have allergies or do I have a head cold?

That's the question that's been plaguing me for the last 6 days.

At first I thought it was just a terrible allergy attack, due to the sudden temperature changes, but a sleep deficit of 7 hours and two empty tissue boxes later, I was convinced that I must have a cold. My opinion on the matter swayed every day being that the only cold symptom I had was a congested/runny nose and I became so fickle that for a few days I'd be popping benadryl pills and then suddenly switch to cough syrup.

Needless to say, I was JACKED UP on medication and extremely sleep deprived. My definition of being "productive" was reduced to summoning enough energy to feed, bathe and clothe myself as well as make it to my workplace on time.

Check! Check! Check, and Check! = Successful (with blurry memories of day-to-day life) Week!

For your viewing pleasure here is my week in photographs (of people and things who clearly aren't me, but are serving to prove my point):

A little bit of this:

(X infinity)

A lot of feeling like this:

And this:

Mix in a bit of this:

And that about sums it all up!

Whether the cause is allergies or a head cold, I no longer care. I've decided to just chalk it up to "Head Congestion", and move on.

For the first time in 6 days I can actually breathe with my mouth closed! That's enough to send me into the weekend smiling!

Happy Weekend!

trash cans and open window jumping: THE FOOTAGE

2011-03-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this post? In it, I talked about a birthday party in my apartment building where half the guests got locked out because the door handle refused to turn, even though it was completely unlocked. We had a (too) long waiting period until someone could come look at it so eventually we got the idea for those trapped outside to stand on a tall garbage can and jump through the living room window.

The birthday girl took videos of this hilarious occurrence and after a couple weeks of me ~~annoying the crap out of her~~ asking her to upload them, they are now officially online and ready to be watched!
I don't think you can ever hear my voice at all in either video but if you look closely, you might be able to spot me! (I'm not one of the ones diving through the windows!)

This video didn't begin until after the jumping had already began, but it's still very funny!

One of our party guests came a little later and had trouble getting through the window because she was a little bit shorter than the other people who'd gone before her.

a child's idea of perfection

2011-03-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

You know what I like most about nannying? You learn a ton of stuff about how to be a responsible adult while also learning how to loosen up and be a child yourself!

What I've been noticing for many, many months now is that the average child's definition of perfection is a lot easier to measure up to than the definition we so unkindly batter ourselves with.

It first began to sink in for me while watching the two young sisters work on arts and crafts. There was never any careful consideration that went into anything they worked on and even when paint would be splattered all over a ceramic butterfly as if the artist had been blindfolded, or when marker colors were bleeding off the page and outside of every conceivable line already marking out the picture, these girls would look back at their work and triumphantly proclaim, "It's beautiful!"

The second example I've learned, with the youngest sister especially, is that no real thought has to go into a hairstyle or outfit choice as long as the one wearing it thinks it's outstanding.

The youngest girl I nanny for is, most of the time, just like the stereotype would tell you:

1)She loves pink.

2)She loves wearing dresses.

3)If she isn't playing Princess, it's a rare day.

A normal day with this one means helping her throw on the prettiest, ruffliest dress possible complete with strands of beaded jewelery and a huge (but plastic) tiara.

(very similar to this girl pictured on the left)

To her, it doesn't matter if her hair isn't perfectly in place or if the tiara is slightly lopsided. If it's on her head, that's all that matters! She walks around like she's worth a million bucks.

Even when she isn't feeling "princess-y" she still thinks her casual hair style choices are nothing short of fantastic. The other day I watched her put on a stretchy headband. She hadn't even pulled most of her hair out of it on the bottom and all kinds of hairs were sticking up on the top of her head, but when she stood on her bed to look in the mirror, she surprised me. I was bracing myself for her to fly off the handle about the headband making her hair look so disordered but instead she yelled out, "Perfection!"

She even went through a phase this past summer wear she'd insist on me doing her hair like this:

because according to her, it was the only hair style that made her look the prettiest. If only everyone felt as confident in their appearances as this girl does!

obedient while in the midst of oblivion

2011-03-09T14:01:00.000-08:00

Did anyone else used to think like I did that God only used you when you asked Him to or when you were feeling especially close to Him? I know now that that's not the case at all, friends! Two things have happened within the last four days that are helping me learn the lesson that God can use you in any circumstance, and whether you're aware of it or not. I'm starting to wonder now just how often God has used me in the past while I've been completely oblivious to it.
_______

The first..

This past Sunday I was on the phone with a friend and after an hour or so my friend asked if she could pray for us both before we hung up. After the first few minutes while she was praying I suddenly saw this picture of her in my mind. It was a vivid picture with vibrant colors. I knew instantly what the message behind the picture was, but still I had no idea that God was in the process of using me. I wasn't even going to tell my friend what I'd seen because it didn't strike me as a big deal, or as anything she didn't already know about herself but at the last second before hanging up I felt a prompting to just tell her.

I explained that I'd seen her sitting at what looked like a large wooden desk and she was writing. There was light shining on her but I knew for some reason that it wasn't sunlight. I could feel the smile of heaven in that light that shone on her. Upon closer look at what she was writing I realized there wasn't any paper in front of her but instead a small pool of water and I saw the word "Reflect". Strangely enough though, this girl's reflection was not in the water. Instantly I "heard" the message behind the picture: that God was using my friend's writing to reflect the glory of the Lord and that he was pleased with her.

I shared this all with my friend thinking simultaneously that she'd probably just shrug it off because I was so sure it was most likely just something I'd thought up by myself. I was so wrong! It turns out that this was the answer to a prayer she'd had for a while about whether or not God was pleased with her and her writing. She told me that just a few days prior to this she had seriously considered deleting her entire blog for good! I never would've even seen that coming, because I love her blog so much and think she does such a good job. She was so thankful to me for sharing and I was just so thankful that I acted upon the inkling to share it, instead of assuming it was nothing but an over-active imagination.
______

The second occurred today..

  The past three days the college ministry that I work for has been doing what we call a "Campus Blitz" at a nearby college. For those who don't know, the ministry I work for is represented on 30 different college campuses in the Northeast and twice a year we hold a large conference where all the students from each campus come to spend a weekend together and listen to amazing speakers and bands.

  We went up on Monday and passed out flyers about an event we were having in a couple days time and talked to students. Yesterday we had a table set up in their union with a music system (one of our staff members works part-time as a DJ) lights, and free snacks. My staff members even got a big group of students to dance with them during different songs throughout the day.. like the cupid shuffle! I couldn't be there yesterday but I saw videos from it and it looked awesome. It was like a live mini musical complete with choreographed dancing.
Today was our last day of the blitz and we had 5x more students than are usually present at the meetings at that campus so that alone was amazing. As I was leaving a girl approached me and asked if I had been the one that handed her the flyer on Monday about our event and about our ministry. I told her yes and she said:

"I'm so glad you did! I've been thinking about coming to this group for a long time, but I always put it off. I was thinking about it again at the exact moment you handed me that flyer and I was so thrilled because it was an answer to my prayer! I'm definitely coming back every week and I've already signed up for the conference next month!"

  I was shocked, honestly. I remember handing her the flyer very well and I can tell you there were no super in-tuned with God thoughts guiding my hand that I was aware of, just my own self-centered desire to be done for the day and get the flyers out of my hands as quickly as possible. Without much thought at all I walked up to this fast-paced moving mass of people and just randomly stuck my hand out and invited her to our event. Little did I know that that was the tipping point for her and her walk with the Lord!

I don't know what else to say except, thank you, God for using us even in what we perceive to be the smallest of ways, when we're least expecting it and completely unaware of you.

living alone is bad for my organizational behavior

2011-03-05T15:36:00.000-08:00

Whenever my roommate goes out of town it takes about a half an hour from the time she leaves for our apartment to look like it's been ransacked.

I don't know how it happens! I'm usually a pretty tidy person. In fact, I repress my "hoarding tendencies" so much now days that the only place I allow it to leak out is within the boundaries of my email inbox.(I've got so much mail in there that you'd shed tears of shame on my behalf)
Normally I'm the type of person who's much happier in a clean and orderly environment than one where stepping over and around random odds and ends is a frequent occurrence, but for some reason once it sinks in that I'll be the only one in the apartment for the next few days, my mind short circuits and defaults to the simplest of settings: Only do what has to be done. Nothing more, nothing less.

Default setting tasks include, but are not limited to:
1 Remind body to keep breathing
2 Tell body when to eat, and when to stop
3 Tell eye lids to blink in order to prevent eye balls from shriveling up

Perhaps that may be a slight exaggeration, but for the most part it's safe to say that on the weekends that I have no plans and the apartment is mine alone, I turn into something that very closely resembles that of a sloth. I try to justify my laziness by telling myself I deserve to take a break from my busy daily routine, but really I just end up feeling guilt-ridden for being so counter-productive with my precious time. In my worst of lazy spells, I even begin to wonder if I'll ever accomplish anything ever again. It's during those moments that even recalling the things I have actually accomplished over the years results in a very boggled mind begging me for a nap.

Here's a snapshot of what I look like this weekend:

When I like something, it's pretty obvious

2011-02-28T13:47:00.000-08:00

Too much of a good thing is impossible for me when it comes to this band, The Civil Wars.

I wanted to share three other songs I like listening to. The first is a cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". I've always loved that song so this is just borderline too good to be true right here..

The second song is called "Tip of my Tongue." It's a song they wrote and it's on their Poison and Wine EP. If you don't want to watch the beginning of this clip, fast forward to around the 1:30 mark for the song.

This last song is called "Barton Hollow" which is also the title of their CD.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Poison and Wine

2011-02-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

I went to a wedding today with my roommate because it was for a mutual friend of ours. It was a beautiful wedding and it was one of the most emotional ones for me, more recently.

We had a long drive there and back. On our way home from the wedding, we gave one of the bridesmaids a ride home as well because she lives in our building and it just made sense.
Of course.

We listened to "Civil Wars" all the way home and our favorite song that we kept playing over and over was called "Poison and Wine". It's so beautiful! The lyrics, the voices, the music...it's all great. On our third repeat of the song I said something like:
"I know this is obviously a song about a relationship between two people, but just now I was listening to some of the lyrics as if it were in the perspective of a person talking to God and vice versa."
We instantly started the song over listening to it in that perspective and we all got so giddy because it really did fit in so many ways!

The male voice and chorus being what we would say to God either when we feel love for him or when we don't and the female's lines being what God would say to us no matter what.

"I don't love you, but I always will" also makes me think of how even if we tell God "I don't love you" He would say "But I always will" because the fact remains that whether you know him and love him or you choose not to, he knows and loves you.

Some of the lines in the Christian perspective we thought up might not make sense right away but if you really listen and let it sink in, trust me.. it will!
(or ask me what the heck I'm even talking about in the comment section and I'd love to explain!)

You only know what I want you to
I know everything you don't want me to
Oh your mouth is poison, your mouth is wine
Oh you think your dreams are the same as mine

Oh I don't love you but I always will
I always will

I wish you'd hold me when I turn my back
The less I give the more I get back
Oh your hands can heal, your hands can bruise
I don't have a choice but I still choose you
Oh I don't love you but I always will
I always will

when everything else sucks, get creative

2011-02-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

Today was a terrible day. There were tears and frustrations galore. To top it all off, I ended up feeling really sick at the end of the day and am now fighting off (attempting to fight off) some mild body aches.

To try to salvage the day, I came straight home from work and got all "artsy-craftsy" on myself. I made a collage with some pictures that I've been storing up for the last 4 months. I don't know any appropriate names for collages (if there are such things) so I'm just going to talk about it however I want, if that's alright.

This collage is a box collage. Most of the pictures are square and the overall appearance is boxy because of it. Also, it is made on part of a card board box. So there you go! My "box collage".

In this collage I played around with two different ideas:

1) color/tone

2) lines/shapes

From right to left is how this should be "read". It begins with (mostly) colorless images and forlorn expressions. The color picture located on the right of a hand with a key is supposed to represent the act of offering hope. There's also another picture in there that is mostly dark with color bursting out of a box and as your eyes continue to move from right to left the colors get gradually brighter.

There are also a lot of lines I've continued from picture to picture but it's too much to explain in detail. Maybe you can spot them for yourself!

the right side/beginning

the left side/end

your weekend was better than mine because it had an extra day in it

2011-02-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

Why is it that even when you make every effort possible to enjoy your weekend to the fullest, it still ends up feeling as if it slipped right through your fingers?

I worked today. The rest of the world [or so it seemed] got to gallivant and play, but four other people and I sat at desks.
Typing.
Answering phones.
And meeting about work stuff.

Honestly, it really wasn't that bad. I'm just sulky because if I'd had today off it would've meant a whole day to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. I've been devouring that book the last few days! I'm trying to finally get the rest of the series read before the last movie comes out. I know many "Harry fans" out there are in shock right now and would slap my face to know that I didn't read the whole series in 3 days time like them, but I don't really have an answer as to why I didn't follow suit. I'm just glad I've gone this long and not had the ending spoiled for me yet!
(Please don't tell me anything past book 5! You will make tears roll down my face and no one wants that.)

My weekend was good with the exception of Saturday turning into a blustery, mean old thing after Friday treated us all so beautifully. Even the geese had the rug pulled out from under them! They flew in on Friday assuming warm weather was here to stay and then the next morning they woke up to this:

Poor, feathery-friends. This picture doesn't even begin to show how awful this day actually was.

I got a lovely discount coupon from Borders on Friday so I spent a good portion of Saturday looking for a book to use it on. That was no easy task, let me tell you! I spent almost 2 hours browsing that place and I couldn't find a thing I could even justify spending money on. Most of the time I knew that if I bought any of the books I was even remotely interested in, they would end up never leaving my shelf again if I brought them home with me. Eventually though I wandered over to the biography section and found this little piece of gold:

If it's a person I find even the least bit interesting, I love to read their biography! Like I said in the last post, I love things from the past! I don't know much at all about Grace Kelly but I've always heard good things about her so after my reading adventures with Harry Potter, I believe this will be next on my list to dive into.

I've got something to recommend! Have you heard of the movie, "My Date with Drew?" Go find it and watch it right away! I showed it to my roommate this past weekend and we were laughing almost nonstop!

This movie is highly entertaining! I've been watching it over and over since 2006 (because I like to show it to my friends) and it never gets old! It's a documentary that this guy and some of his friends made while living in L.A. where they try to use the idea of the Human Web A.K.A."6 degrees of separation" to get a date with Drew Barrymore in 30 days.

It's got comedy, suspense and a tiny bit of love all wrapped up into one neat little package. I'm telling you, every time I watch this movie my heart still pounds at all the nerve-wracking parts even though I know what will happen every single time!

It's a must-see!

Something New!

2011-02-18T19:12:00.000-08:00

The other day I got an idea to post a picture of one of my most valued possessions and share a brief story about it. Within seconds that idea grew into the idea for a new blog series I will be starting which I'm calling, "Things Around my Apartment". (or "TAMA's" for short.)

(pronounced TahMah)

Here's how it will work!

Every 2 or 3 weeks I will post about another 'thing around my apartment' that either has a great story behind it or is simply something I like for its uniqueness and how it adds to the character of this apartment. At the end of each post there will be a link to the TAMA before it so that they can be easily tracked. This will force me to really examine the things around me and work on expressing why things mean as much to me as they do, which will be a slight challenge. - Which, of course, is why I'm looking forward to it so much!

That all being said, my first "thing around my apartment" is

::Drum Roll::

This antique picture of my grandparents!

I know I'm biased because they're my family and all but even just setting that aside for the moment, one big, fat, true, never-gonna-change-fact about me is that I love things from the past! And while many of you may think this picture is less than beautiful because it looks as if it has weathered some storms in its day, I love this picture because of that very reason.

Now for the more personal reason this picture pulls at my heartstrings..

  I've grown up hearing so many amazing stories from my dad's side of the family. They've endured a lot. When I think about how my grandmother had to suffer the loss of a husband and a son before she passed away, it gives me so much respect for her. She was able to fight through all of that and still light up a room with her smile by the time I was alive to know her. I still love her so much. I only wish she had been alive longer so I could've asked her more about her life and gotten to know the person she was before she became my grandmother.

  I never met my grandfather. He had already died by the time I was born. But I've heard wonderful stories about him and I know he loved his family. All I have to do is look at him and my heart softens because I see so much of my father's face in his. I know if I'd have met him, I would've loved him.

  My dad says his parents were in college still when this picture was taken. I stare at it from time to time and just reflect on what the years ahead of them were going to be like; the good and the bad. And then I think:

For that moment in time, they didn't know of any tragic losses to come. All they knew was their love for each other, and it was enough to keep them together.

Nannying Went Well Today

2011-02-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

On any given day that I go to my part-time nannying job I never know what to expect. Little children's temperaments can change at the flick of a switch. All you have to say is one wrong thing that they don't want to hear and God help you with whatever happens next.

Today wasn't a nightmarish day though. Today was fun and flew by. Just the way I like it!

The highlight of the day was when the mail came. A few weeks ago I worked on a story with the oldest girl and we mailed it out to be published. The finished book arrived today and it looked so good! (for a 6 year old's doing) I was so excited for her! I was especially excited because I illustrated one of the pages (by her request) so in a semi-sort-of-way, I've been published too!

I also got a kick out of something the older girl said and did near the end of the day. She asked if she could trace my hand but when she got to my pinky things got crazy! It looked like my pinky had a huge tumor on the end of it or something. I said, "Whoa! Little crazy with the pinky there, don't you think?" She laughed and said, "Yeah! I got a little off course there!"

Look at those awesome "cards"!

Youngest girl wanted to photograph her new puppy while I held it..

Look at that bloated pinky!

why wouldn't I smile?

2011-02-16T07:07:00.000-08:00

It's Wednesday! That means two of the worst days of the week are over, and it's nothing but smooth sailing from here on out. Until Sunday night rears its ugly head again with unwanted promises of having to go to bed early just in time to wake up with the Monday blues.

I'm happy about some things and angry about some things.

Things that have put a smile on my face:

Raspberries

(I ate a whole carton of them in two days. They're just the most delightfully peculiar little berries!)

My two new post-it pads at work.

(One is almost neon yellow while the other is near neon purple. They go very well together.)

The lamp in my bedroom that now provides extra lighting!

(I finally bought 3 light bulbs for it yesterday even though it's been sitting there fresh out of the box since August.)

The fact that I got my contacts in without a problem this morning even though I haven't worn them in a year and a half.

Things that have put an angry frown on my face:

The silent 'p' in "Raspberries"

When people make their smiley faces like this:

instead of

My nasty, awful, no good internet connection in my apartment.

(We're beginning to suspect it cannot handle more than one computer at a time. Which makes for a very flustered individual, i.e. Me)

But the good list outweighs the bad list which is exactly how life should be.

P.S. I forgot how different contacts made my eyes look. Whenever I don't wear them, my pupils practically dominate my iris' (plural). Ask anyone who knows me. My eyes are usually just big black dots with an outline of blue. I think it's because your pupils get bigger when your eyes are trying to see something better.

But when I put my contacts in, the pupils look like normal human pupils again. It sort of freaked me out this morning though. My eyes didn't look real. They looked photo-shopped or something..

Slight exaggeration on that before image, but not by much. I should wear contacts more often.

Feeling Fickle

2011-02-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

I'm in a super fantastic mood today and I think it's because I smell spring! Then again, I could be way off, but I'm usually pretty great and sniffing these things out.

The more I've been looking at spring pictures the more excited I get. I even caught myself thinking, "Spring is my favorite season!"

Then I was like "whoa, hold up, liar. you love fall!"
Deliriously happy self: "I just love every season, every season is my favorite!"

That's when I realized I'm seasonally fickle.

(Seasons: Legacy Cycle)

Belated Love

2011-02-14T19:24:00.000-08:00

Another Valentine’s day has come and gone and it was full of little surprises for me.

Surprise number 1:

This lovely cake baked by my awesome roommate which we and some others ingested heartily (ha!) while viewing "Hitch"

Surprise number 2: included a huge care package from my mom and step dad which I haven’t gotten since I was a freshman in college! This lovely parcel included:

This beautiful (wakes-you-up-sweaty) blanket!

A brand new journal! Which I unfortunately cannot start until I finish the one I just began a month ago…(It’s all I can do not to start filling it’s pages right. this. second.)

And some really great bags of candy which I’ve already consumed...

(image taken from phat friend: sweeping generalizations and unicorns)

In the spirit of love, would you all take a moment to watch this proposal, sign in using your Facebook name & password and vote for this couple? The guy is one of the friends I met when I went to Kansas City last month. He's a good guy and these two deserve a free honeymoon! (which is what they'll win if you put your 2 cents in!)

Thank you (on their behalf)! You're wonderful.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

more than a name and a kind face

2011-02-14T18:31:00.000-08:00

I was reading the blog of one of my good friends a few days ago. She's living in Kansas City right now, and frequently visits IHOP's prayer room. (I try not to get jealous, but it's difficult) She wrote a wonderful post about something God did to personally encourage her and after much thought and seeking out her permission, I've decided to share that part of her post right here for you!

This is so much of what's been stirring inside of my heart as well and her testimony brings me so much joy!
(You can visit her site and read the rest of the post here)

It's been two months since I last posted and I've been struggling with how to go from here. How do I allow the Holy Spirit to encourage my heart and edify the viewer to want more of this Man? Where I/they won't echo a Christian sermon anymore, or a book, or a cd but actually experience the real God, Jesus Christ themselves! To see the invitation that is in front of their eyes, open it and attend the things the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to them that is so deep and personal to their very being.

Then the thought came to me during Saturday night service, "Post encounters and testimonies you have with Me that describe who I Am and My desire for you and My people once a week". So, I prayed and asked the Lord for fresh encounters with Him, testimonies to prove who He is and how He desires for me to be with Him where He is. That these future posts would stir something inside of you (the reader) to go after Him. To encounter Him. To experience His love.

Literally that night as I was leaving service, an older gentleman probably in his 50's interrupted my steps, stopped me and handed me this...

If you can't read that, it says the following:

Yesterday God showed me your face in a vision. I saw you smiling and I saw the happiness of Jesus in your eyes. He delights in you. :)

Talk about confirmation. My face, smiling with the happiness of Jesus in my eyes was revealed in this complete stranger's vision yesterday. My face. All to lead this older man to tell me one simple yet profound statement: "He delights in you :)."

This is Jesus. This is my God. This is Him who is not distant and disappointed in me, but so near and burning with desire for my heart. And this desire will never stop. This love will never end. This love is for you!

http://danachristine.posterous.com/

Man down!

2011-02-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

Deciding to start a blog is, in some ways, a lot like deciding to let a new person into your friendship circle. In the beginning you want to hang out every day because it's new and exciting and unknown. But after a while that zeal can start to wane. Before you know it your blog becomes that friend that you see once in a great while or occasionally bring up in stories. You still love it, but there's just nothing really driving you to spend time together anymore.

Well, dear reader, that is what has happened to me. I apologize for my frequent absence! I've been slacking.

The past few weeks I've realized how inconsistent my blogging has become and I've been thinking how I should get myself back into the habit by making some kind of goal for myself or have a certain theme that I post about regularly. I couldn't think of anything that hasn't already been done, so I never took any steps of action. But the other night I noticed I lost a reader and an imaginary alarm went off in my head,

"Man down! Man down! Man down!"

I'm not trying to be vain or anything, but it's just a fact that writing a blog is a lot more fun when you know there's a higher probability that people are reading it, am I right?

This morning I got an email that settled it. It was from Jon Acuff, the author of the book and website "Stuff Christians Like". He'd checked out my blog and then gave me some feedback. Being an avid reader of his, I was ecstatic to say the least. He told me the things he liked, and then gave me some suggestions on how to make it better. Know what was on top of his list?

1.I'd love to see you posting more often. Set a goal to write 1 post a week for 90 days.

His wish is my command.

Or in other words...Look! Incentive!

So, that is what I will be committing to. I hope you'll join me!

p.s. the comment from Jon that gave me the biggest smile?....

"(Shout out to the Wonder Years! Loved that.)"

trash cans and open window jumping

2011-02-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

Is it possible to get locked inside an apartment with an unlocked door? Yes, I can tell you now from personal experience that it is all too entirely possible!

Tonight we had a birthday party for a friend in our apartment building. It started off like any other party when suddenly midway through guests arriving, the doorknob decided it had done its fair share of "turning" in its lifetime and wanted no part in it anymore. For well over an hour there was no opening that door! For the life of us, we couldn't figure out how an already unlocked door could not be functioning properly.

For the first 20 minutes we were just laughing about it (and those of us locked inside with the pizza and brownies began feeling a lot of compassion for the 5 or 6 gathering on the snow-covered porch) but soon after that we realized we had a problem on our hands. Eventually everyone stuck outside had to congregate in someone's car to keep warm while we tried to figure out what to do next. When we finally tracked down the landlord he said he was out of town and would't be back for quite some time, so that was when everyone trapped outside decided the only way in would be to stand on a trash can and heave themselves up through the (only) living room window.

When I saw what they were planning I yelled out, "Once you're in, you're in for good so think long and hard before coming in here!"

It was a joke, of course but actually I was secretly feeling a little bit claustrophobic. Everyone trapped inside kept saying, I'm so glad to be stuck in here rather than out there. I caught myself nodding along but I think I was wishing instead that I was one of the frozen one's outside because then at least I could be free! The thought that there was just no way out unless I wanted to jump out the window was not sitting well in my stomach.

Watching them all leap through the window though made my fears subside. It was priceless! We were all laughing to the point of crying as one after the other came flying through the window, legs flailing and all! And I realized at that point that I was lucky to already be inside because with my wimpy upper body strength, there's no way I would've made it through that window!

Hopefully once the birthday girl posts her video of it I can share it for all of you lovely readers as well!

We were all locked inside for close to 3 hours and I kept thinking that it would make such a great episode plot line for a show like Seinfeld or Friends.

All claustrophobic feelings aside, it was an awesome night that I will be able to laugh at for many more days to come.

the prayer room

2011-01-30T13:27:00.000-08:00

Some of you may not have heard of The International House of Prayer in Kansas City, otherwise known as IHOP-KC. It is a missions base well-known for its 24/7 prayer room that has been going on since September of 1999. It was inspired by David's tabernacle in the Bible (1 Chronicles) where 288 singers and 4000 musicians were employed as their full-time occupation to pray and intercede for the community. The prayer room at IHOP is scheduled into 12 two-hour prayer and worship meetings a day. It never ends. While one band is wrapping up their 2 hour session, the other band starts infiltrating the stage, warming up their instruments, to take over when they're done. It's remarkable, when you really think about it.

I have known about IHOP since 2005 and I've always wanted to go there specifically to be in the prayer room and experience it in person. In 2010 IHOP provided a live web stream of the prayer room that anyone can tune into at NO COST. Since last summer, I would regularly watch the live stream whenever I had spare time and a good internet connection. I thought it was wonderful to be able to watch over the internet, but it's far, far better in person! And this past Christmas season I was able to experience it firsthand!

Back in October there was a night where I was really crying out to God in my heart because (all details aside) I just really needed Him and wanted to know Him even more than I already did. In an instant, the desire of my heart became, "God please, whatever it takes, I want to go to IHOP this December and spend my New Year's Eve with You." It was a quick thought and I didn't have any pre-conceived ideas of how I could pull that off, or where the money would come from but I just was so desperate to know God and get out of the rut I was in that I was willing to go at whatever cost, even if it meant going alone- I distinctly remember thinking that night that I didn't care if I wasn't with any friends on New Year's Eve just as long as I was with God at IHOP.

Two months later out of nowhere, God acknowledged my request. A board member from my job contacted my boss saying that he was willing to pay all the transportation and hotel expenses for one staff member to go to Kansas City for IHOP's annual "One Thing" conference that "coincidentally" ended at midnight on New Year's Eve. I jumped at that chance immediately because I knew it was meant for me; it was God answering my prayer because I hadn't told anyone about the prayer I'd said to God that night back in October and such an opportunity like that had never been presented to our staff members in the past. I knew it was God honoring my request.

And here's the thing that I've learned out of it all: God really does give us our heart's desires. Even if there's a spark of interest that we have for Him, that's invitation enough for Him. He'll move mountains to get to us and to get us to Him because even when we don't pursue Him, He's in constant pursuit of us. He wants us to know Him more than anything else and just the slightest nod that you give Him- He'll take it and run with it.

It took 20 hours just to get to Kansas City and I went without any of my friends, just like I'd told God I was willing to do. That first night I got there, I walked into that prayer room and just about cried! The atmosphere in that room is indescribable. You can feel God in that room! How could you not, with the 10+ years that He's been praised unceasingly in there! I felt like it was a glimpse into what heaven would be like. The room was packed with almost every race and nationality, young and old as well and everyone was mixed up in the crowd. There were no specific age groups here or there, no cliches of any kind. Everyone was just there together praying and singing to God. It was the happiest I'd felt in a long time!

After an hour in that room, Cory Asbury, my favorite worship leader and the same guy I posted about in the last entry, came on stage to take over for Matt Gilman (another favorite) who had just been finishing up and I was overwhelmed! God gives His children good gifts! I couldn't get over the fact that I was actually there- That God had hear my prayer that night in October and then just a couple months later there I was standing in the very room I dreamed about visiting, sitting just 7 rows back in a worship service led by one of my favorite worship leaders of IHOP. It was so incredible!

When I say "they never stop" I mean that they truly never stop. Even when they lose power! There's something so beautiful about this clip, even though there's nothing to "see".

watch the prayer room for yourself

Here are two of my favorite Cory Asbury songs: My Beloved, and Where I Belong. My Beloved is sung with Jay Thomas and it's got a great sound. Where I Belong is a little slower but it's beautiful. Just listen up until the first chorus and see if you're not loving it. The bridge of that song is awesome too!

Bonus: Who of us knows the embarrassment of singing a line of a song just a few beats earlier than everyone else, or has sung the wrong words before? Well IHOP-ers can share your pain too!

how I spent my new year's eve

2011-01-29T19:41:00.000-08:00

So I've been a slacker in blogging about all of my travel stories from this last month but here's a glimpse into what my new year's eve looked like...

I still consider it such a blessing that out of all those people there for the conference, I got to be within the first 10 rows every day! (with the exception of the last day)

I love Cory Asbury's voice! And that guy on the keyboard? I know him! I'm not his friend or anything but his mother-in-law is my co-worker and he's come into our office a few times. I hope some day I'll get to meet Cory and his wife but until then.. I'll settle for watching them on the prayer room.. like this clip for instance:

I'll explain more about this soon!

Good for a Laugh

2011-01-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

Whip My Hair

2011-01-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

Today I finally did it. I dyed my hair red like I've always wanted. I didn't get the exact shade I wanted because my hair stylist wanted me to start off at a dark shade rather than the brighter I had in mind but I love this so much that I really don't care.

In the spirit of "hair" I needed to blog about this song that's been around for the last couple months. It's called "Whip My Hair". I first heard it a month or so ago and honestly my first thought was, "Gosh, this is so annoyingly repetative!" I never heard it again either. But then a week ago I heard some radio announcers talking about the song and how the artist was Willow Smith... the very daughter of my favorite actor, Will.
They were talking about how she was incredibly young-9 years old when she recorded the song, now 10. I couldn't believe it! I made a mental note to look it up the next time I could, but I completely forgot about it really.

On Wednesday my friend was telling me how much she liked the name 'Willow' which for a brief moment reminded me of the whole "Willow Smith-Whip my Hair" thing and as a result I had a dream about Will Smith. I have dreamt about this guy a lot in my lifetime! I don't understand why but it seems like he pops into my dreams at least once a year.. which is a lot considering I hardly ever dream about any other celebrities. In this dream I was hanging out with him, his parents and his daughter Willow. Willow, however, was only 1 1/2 years old!--and the song "Whip my Hair" was playing in the background. Will was dancing around the kitchen jokingly whipping his head around and I kept asking, "What is this song?! How does she even sing it? She can't even talk yet!"

The next morning I had a dream hangover and decided I had to look up this song once and for all to see what it was all about. I was shocked when I saw the video because I had no idea Willow resembled her father so much! Honestly, it floored me. I had so many thoughts fly through my head while I watched it. The biggest things were:
1) That song is catchy, but it's got that annoying element to it that just still kind of gets under my skin.
2) I felt so old because all I could keep thinking was how this girl was just a baby, if even born yet, around the whole Y2K scare while I was already in my teens. It also made me feel old to think that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith could be old enough to already have children making their own names in the movie and music business.
3) I got a glimpse into what it must feel like to be a parent. I've heard parents say that it's really bizarre sometimes to have children that look exactly like them because it's hard to look past the fact that the children seem like just miniature versions of themselves, when in reality they are completely different people. As I was watching Willow's music video for the first time all I kept thinking was, "It's the little girl version of Will Smith!" I couldn't see past it. It was so weird.

I looked up her first television debut on Ellen this morning and she won me over. If people my age are allowed to be fans of people her age, then yes...sign me up. I just don't think I can stand it if years down the road she starts turning into the next Miley Cyrus or something (in regards to behaviour). Ugh, how am I going to ever have kids? I won't be able to let them grow up!
Parents don't get enough credit for all they have to go through!

If you want to see her official video, look it up. I'm only going to include her performance on Ellen (because the repetative stuff is slightly less annoying and her voice sounds very good, live) as well as her interview with Ellen because she has such a great personality. Definitely has a likeness to her father!

Ver - ti - go

2011-01-14T19:59:00.000-08:00

"Vertigo" is an awesome word, isn't it?
If you think so, it's probably because you don't know what it means.

I was diagnosed with it yesterday and until then, I had barely ever heard the word before much less known what it meant.

This past Tuesday night I was hanging out with some friends in my apartment when literally one moment I was completely fine and the next, every image I looked at looked as if I were viewing it from an extremely fast-paced Merry-Go-Round! It was so bad that even with my eyes closed I could still see the spinning motion.

My friends helped me to my bed, because walking alone was out of the question, and for the next two hours all I could do was lie there completely motionless. Even opening my eyes made me nauseous. Around 10 that night it had faded to the point of just feeling mildly carsick, so I decided to sleep it off. When I woke in the morning, it seemed as if it had worked.

Key word, seemed...

Around 12:30 that day, while preparing lunch for the 4 year old who I nanny, I started to notice the symptoms returning from the night before. It wasn't nearly as bad so I thought I could ride it out. After an hour of "being tough", I caved and told the girl's father what was going on and within an hour he, the two girls (the oldest being home from school by then) and I were in the car and on the way to Urgent Care.

Because I still couldn't walk by myself, their dad had to hold onto my arm and hand when we were walking in from the parking lot and I guess this easily confused the receptionist because for about 5 minutes, she kept referring to him as my husband and me as his wife. TALK ABOUT FEELING AWKWARD! Although at the time I was so consumed with my nauseous state that I hardly cared, thinking back on it now definitely makes me flinch. It got worse when he corrected her... twice! He had to repeat, "Uh.. she's my nanny, actually," and the woman finally understood and said at way too high of a decibel, "Ooooh! She's your na-a-nny!" Something about the way she said it just made me want to die right there on the spot. Luckily though, that's about the time that my roommate showed up to sit with me and my "nanny family" got to go home.

It doesn't end there though! Oh no, the crazy-weirdness just got amped up to a new level once I got called in to see the doctor. My doctor was a tad bit too much to handle. I was very thankful that he gave me so much of his time rather than just seeing me for two minutes and slapping down a large bill as many are keen to doing, but he was nothing like the "normal" kind of doctor one might expect. My roommate was there in the room with us and she later described him as reminding her of an old military doctor or something. He had such a dry sense of humor and was a very unapologetic sort of man. He definitely was trying to be funny, and maybe in his mind he was, but he was completely straight-faced the whole time.

After checking my ability to still hear sounds correctly, the first crazy thing he did was grab either side of my head after I hung it upside down as he requested and start vigorously shaking it back and forth in crazy eight patterns! And then he said, "How does this feel?"
"You know, not the greatest.." I mumbled back while my head was still upside down in his hands.

Once that was over he said, "Okay, now I'm going to throw you back and turn your head to the left."
And he did.

After staring at my eyes for 30 seconds (to see probably if they were rattling around in my head like ping pong balls no doubt) he "threw" me back up into the upright seated position and said, "Now I'm going to throw you back and turn your head to the right."
And he did.

He stared,
he threw,
up I sat again
and then he looked at my roommate who was trying ever so hard not to laugh out-loud and said, "I think your roommate here thinks this is funny.."

Well I don't blame her. The last thing we expected was that a doctor would throw someone in my condition around the room like that when I was already seeing the whole world spin just by sitting still. But hey! We're not the ones with medical degrees under our belts now are we? The best thing that came out of that visit though was the doctor's note excusing me from work for the next 3 days!

Why, hello 3-day weekend! Too bad my friend Vertigo will be joining us..

On the way home I felt incredibly sick to my stomach. Who wouldn't after being shaken up so much? We had to pull over on the side of the road for a few minutes too which in the end helped me feel a whole lot better! When we got to Rite Aid I picked up the medicine he prescribed and as my roommate walked me up to the counter, a guy our age came to the register to help and asked, "How are you tonight?"

Being the humorous person I usually am I clutched the counter for stability, smirked and said, "Oh I'm just great."

He stared at me for a few moments obviously picking up on my sarcasm and I said, "I'm sorry. I'm not feeling well. I have vertigo."

He smiled and said, "Oh I know exactly how you feel. I'm trying to quit smoking so my brain is all mush today too." He started ringing me out and then asked, "So how was your Thursday?" I looked at him in momentary disbelief and said, "It was great. I spent it in Urgent Care. How was yours?" He laughed again and said, "Ah, sorry! I'm trying to quit smoking. I'm not with it at all today."

Right..

When I had finished paying and it was time to leave I said, "Well, good luck not smoking!"
"Yeah, good luck with your vertigo!" he said cheerily.

"Good luck with your vertigo"...
...I can honestly say that that is one of the last sentences I would've ever expected to hear directed at me. But yet, here I am... with vertigo....with plenty of spare time to "be in vertigo"...and still all I can think is, "Vertigo is such an awesome-sounding word!"

just checking in...

2011-01-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

Let me just blow the dust of my keyboard here......

...Hello! I am back home after 4000+ miles of travel! These last two and a half weeks have changed me.

Completely changed me!

I'm still getting myself settled back in at home and still furiously journaling all the details of the last several days so I can't recap my experiences just yet but believe me, I've got so much to come! It will most likely be told in parts because I'm still overwhelmed by all the I've seen, done and heard.

Hitting the Road

2010-12-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be MIA for the next few weeks for some exciting reasons!

Reason number 1: I will be spending Christmas with some family at home!

Reason number 2: I will be leaving almost immediately after Christmas for an all-expenses-paid trip to Kansas City for the One Thing conference at IHOP... which is partially work-related, but I'll be ringing in the New Year with people like Mike Bickle, Misty Edwards and Cory Asbury so I don't mind!

Reason number 3: I will be heading to New York City for a week long mission trip with the rest of my co-workers and 25+ college students.

All this to say, there will be no new posts from me until the middle of January! But when I return I'm SURE that I will have some amazing stories to share!

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone! Catch you in 2011!

out of the heart, the mouth speaks

2010-12-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

I learned something pretty valuable a few weeks ago when I was reading through some chapters in the book of Joshua.

For anyone who hasn't read it, the book picks up right after the death of Moses. Moses was instructed by God to make Joshua the new leader of the Israelite tribes. That was quite a promotion! One day he's an assistant and the next he's the "go-to guy" for masses of people. No doubt he was a little frightened. How do I know he was frightened? Because several times in the first chapter of Joshua the Lord tells him:

"Be strong and courageous.."

*(1:6-7) "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous..."

*(1:9) "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
*(1:18) "Anyone who rebels against your command and does not obey your words in all that you command him, shall be put to death; only be strong and courageous."

-emphasis added-

God wouldn't tell him that over and over again if Joshua wasn't shaking in his boots, if even a little bit. The repetition of that phrase is very hard to miss and I know now that it's because God was trying to push it down into his "heart knowledge", not just to retain it in his "head knowledge".

Joshua went through quite a journey with God by his side once he assumed command. He lead Israel into Canaan, the "promised land" and was victorious in battles against Jericho and Ai. By the 10th chapter it is clear that Joshua had great favor in the eyes of God because he made a bold request of the Lord. During a battle against the five kings and their armies who were attacking the city of Gibeon (which happened to be an ally of Joshua and his people) he asked God to help them by commanding the sun to stand still "until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies" and the Bible says, "And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. There was no day like that before it or after it, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man;.." 10:13-14

Talk about a confidence boost! By that time, Joshua's relationship with God was so much closer and he'd matured and grew wiser in so many ways that not long after the "sun incident" he started giving pep talks to his men with the very same pep talk he received from God:

The five kings had fled and hid themselves in a cave after the Lord helped Israel destroy the kings' armies but they were discovered and brought to Joshua- "When they brought these kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him,...'Do not fear or be dismayed! Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies with whom you fight." So..Joshua struck them and put them to death..." 10:24-26

-emphasis added-

When I was reading this whole story I realized that God is always multi-tasking in a way. Because he sees the bigger picture all the time, the things He tells us usually serve more than one purpose. In this case, telling Joshua to be strong and courageous and not be dismayed was serving two purposes. The first was for that particular moment. He was building up His child and telling him that Joshua was worthy of his new role and that He would be there with Joshua every step of the way. However, He was also planting a seed in Joshua's heart that would grow and bloom down the road. Joshua had learned through many valleys and victories with the Lord that God can be trusted and as the Bible says "Out of the heart the mouth speaks" so the confidence and comfort Joshua was bestowing to his men came from the seed of courage God planted in his heart in the beginning.

"music video announcement video, video"

2010-12-06T06:24:00.000-08:00

Do you remember this time last year when I shared an auto-tuned announcement video that my friend made for our church service?
(then click this first)

He made another one and played it yesterday and man did he out-do himself! I love it. I've watched it at least 5 times in total.

2010 Music Video Announcements

Enjoy!

It's Funnier This Way

2010-12-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

What's better than buying little tiny angel ornaments with your name and your roommate's name on them? Buying little tiny angel ornaments with names that somewhat resemble your real name when the correct ones are sold out!

Merry Christmas Season from "Dana" and "Kelsey"!

Lessons Learned

2010-11-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

Lessons Learned Through Nannying- part 1 (because I've learned many, many more things than this)

1 putting children into a bath can change any grumpy Gus into a happy Pappy, but as soon as they're out it's as if you just took them out of a big vat of caffeine. It's pure crazy town!
2 you can gauge the volume of their oncoming crying fit by how much they hyperventilate in the 5 seconds leading up to it.
3 if a child is cranky and your mere presence is making it worse, but they're content as long as they're left alone to play in their "imaginary world", the last thing ..... the. LAST. thing. .... you want to do is make direct eye contact with them. Avoid at all costs!

All in all, it was a fine day but let me just leave you with this true fact: the second I left that house today the first word that ran through my head was, 'Hallelujah!'

because Conan is back!

2010-11-11T16:01:00.000-08:00

I happened upon this video recently and I had to share it! Unfortunately I can't embed it because that option was disabled. However, you MUST MUST MUST click the link and watch it. The song is "The Denial Twist" by the White Stripes.

I Love this video for 3 reasons:

1)Conan O'Brien is in it!
2)It's an awesome concept for a video, especially the foot thing. (that'll make sense if you watch the whole thing)
3)I love how everything is distorted as if it were a dream. It creeps me out but that's exactly why I love it at the same time.

Did I mention Conan O'Brien is IN it?? He makes everything better.
or maybe that's just my opinion.

it could be worse though, right?

2010-11-10T11:33:00.000-08:00

Nothing makes me feel like I have a problem more than when I enter the library with a stack of Alias DVDs to return and walk out with a stack of the same quantity and quality as said-returned-stack. I have done it twice now and both times as I walk up to the desk with 8 DVDS in my hands (four to return, four to check out..It hasn't gotten THAT far out of hand) the small thought occurs to me, "I'm not sure but I think this could be classified as an unhealthy obsession."

It's not as bad as it sounds though because I assure you I have a full and happy life outside of watching tv shows, but I just can't ignore that pang of embarrassment I get when the librarians take my DVDs to return and/or check out. They never seem to judge me-at least not openly. I can't speak for what kind of thoughts might run in their head though. Maybe something like this:

{inner monologue commencing} Oh here she comes again-the girl obsessed with all things Alias. If only we could charge her for these rentals...We'd finally be able to add on that extra wing to the city branch we've been talking about.

{simultaneous spoken communication)"Oh hello dear! How are you liking the show? You know you really are clever to watch these shows this way rather that on air like everyone else did. This way you don't have to sit through commercials and wait week after week for each new episode to air. You're so clever."

Ah yes, they've got their poker faces down pat.

Well, this Sunday starts a new series at my church about breaking out of addictions. Maybe I can pray for some deliverance.

the BEST movie theater proposal EVER!!!

2010-10-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to call this guy my friend and employer! This is probably one of the best proposal schemes I've ever heard and it killed me to have to keep it a secret for a month!

no time for cameras

2010-10-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

I love Matt and Kim. Everything I've heard of theirs in the past two years I've liked immediately. So today when I was driving back to work at the end of my lunch break and this song came on I thought, Hmm..I'm going to have to look this one up. I wasn't surprised at all that it was theirs.

I also came across this today..thanks to a friend. All I can say is thank you Jesus for such a glorious, kick-butt happy ending. Otherwise, I might have gotten a tad bit teary-eyed and I definitely would've reprimanded my friend for telling me about it.
;)
Definitely watch this!

another tv show

2010-10-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I actually don't watch a lot of tv. Mainly that's because I don't have cable and I usually just get hooked on series that are already out on DVD or archived on the internet. One show that I am actually following (though I watch it on hulu and never live) is Parenthood. I absolutely adore this tv show. I've heard some people say they don't like it because it's too much like real life, but that's exactly why I love it! My roommate watches it too which is nice because that means I can have someone to talk about it with and the other night I was telling her all the reasons I love this show.
1) I think the acting is fantastic. Some actors more than others but overall, it's outstanding. The show doesn't feel like it's scripted sometimes. I feel like I'm watching real people talking about and living their lives.
2) I love that it doesn't always follow typical plotlines that other shows do, or introduce the typical drama that other shows always fall back on to ensure good ratings. This show is fresh and original.
+Okay maybe 'original' is a bad word to use since it is based on the movie from the 80's and it is in fact the second tv show created based off of that movie but you know what they say, third time's a charm! They hit the nail on the head this time around.
3) (This is my most recent realization of why I like this show so much and it's something I can't help but make fun of myself for saying because I sound like I should be lying on a couch with a therapist nearby but here it goes...)
I love this show because it's about a big family and the season I'm in right now in my life, I don't feel like I have family. Don't get me wrong, of course I have a family and I have extremely loving parents, but lately ... for the past year or so, I've realized that a lot of the lonliness I feel at times stems from the fact that I don't have a "stable" family unit. My dad's side of the family is an amazing bunch of people but they're literally scattered all across the United States and I never see any of them. My mom's side of the family is right in and around my hometown but there's no real feeling of unity or belonging. There's no closeness to speak of. I see them usually once a year for Christmas and then at other things like weddings, graduation parties or funerals. We don't hang out or build relationships. Then there was my step family. For the longest time I had it good with them. They are a big family that we would not only spend every holiday with, but we'd also have weekly dinners and even take small trips and vacations together. For most of my life I considered them family more than my actual family. But three years ago we had a Thanksgiving from Hell and a feud started that to this day has not been resolved and with each passing day they just become more of a distant memory than actual people in my life. This breaks my heart, but I feel powerless to change it. I hate family drama and politics. It serves no purpose other than to cause strife.

That all being said, I've been craving family closeness and although I do have a family of friends out here where I live now, there's still a sense that something's missing because I don't have that comfort of knowing my family is in tact back at home.

So my recent conclusion is that a big part of why I love this tv show, Parenthood is, I guess because for right now, they're my family substitute.

What do you think of this show?

just another pipe dream

2010-10-19T07:24:00.001-07:00

I am currently very hung up on the tv show "Alias". However, my roommate only owns the final season so that's what I've been watching. I know that's blaspheme probably to a lot of Alias fans but don't worry! I plan on renting the other seasons from the library before I finish season 5.

I'm really fascinated by all this CIA secret agent stuff. I absolutely eat it right up. I like it so much that I even went and saw RED this past weekend just because I knew it had something to do with the CIA. (Awesome movie! Go see it!)

So all this CIA stuff has got me wishing I was a secret agent myself. I'm not going to lie. But I was thinking about it today and I don't think I've really got what it takes to play with the big boys. I'm not very tech savy when it comes to computers, I suck at math...so using calculus to crack codes (as I've seen them do on Alias) would get me absolutely nowhere but killed, and let's face it.. I'm a panic button waiting to go off under intense pressure.

And I'm also not the greatest at keeping secrets. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a loose cannon. I can keep secrets, I just hate doing it. I like being honest and open.

Then I was thinking, even if I did somehow get hired by some fluke, and I was all cool with my little spy gadgets, breaking into computers and helping protect the country... with my luck, nothing would ever go as smoothly as it does on tv. I know it's supposed to go smoothly on television but seriously?!...every time those actors are stealing data from computers it's done in practically nano seconds! And just in the knick of time, too!

But then this morning I was trying to upload some pictures from my cell phone onto my computer and the computer tweaked right out and a job that normally takes 10 seconds, ended up taking 15 minutes. I had to restart my computer and everything. And as this was all going on the thought actually occurred to me, "If I was doing a CIA secret mission right now, I'd be toast!"

Talk about a high stress level career! It's best left for my dreams.

Stereophonics

2010-10-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever heard of this band before but they came on the radio while I was driving on my lunch break and I liked the song.

lyrics:
"You're My Star"

You fly with angels wings
You've got my blood in your veins
And your eyes see everything
And they shine like diamond rings

You're my Sunday, make my Monday come alive
Just like Tuesday, you're a new day, wakes me up
Wednesday's raining, Thursday's yearning Friday nights
Then it all ends at the weekend, you're my star

At times, I cave right in
(Times I cave right in)
But this fights, we have to win
(This time we have to win)

And your songs you love to sing
(La la la la la, la la la la)
May your dreams forever live
(La la la la la, la la la la)

You're my Sunday, make my Monday come alive
Just like Tuesday you're a new day, wakes me up
Wednesday's raining, Thursday's yearning Friday nights
Then it all ends at the weekend, you're my star
You're my star, yes you are

It's a thrill to see your imagination
Just watching you is an education
What's in your mind, is my fascination
It blows my mind, it set's my heart racing

You're my Sunday, make my Monday come alive
(You make me come alive)
Just like Tuesday you're a new day, wakes me up
(You make me come alive)
Wednesday's raining, Thursday's yearning Friday nights
(You make me come alive)
Then it all ends at the weekend, you're my star

What did you do on 10-10-10?

2010-10-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

I know what I did.

I finally got my tattoo! (And no, I didn't purposely plan to get it on 10-10-10, but once I realized the date I thought that was just pretty much fantastic.) Now I'll never forget the date I got it done!

In case anyone remembers, this is the same tattoo I was going to get last spring. I figured since 7 months went by and I still wanted it just as much if not more so than before, then I really wasn't going to regret getting it. I have absolutely no regret! I feared I would which is why I was so hesitant beforehand, but once I saw how great it was going to look and after seeing the final result, "the rest of my life" didn't seem so haunting anymore.

The meaning and reasoning behind my tattoo also assures me that I'll never regret it. It's something I'll be able to grow old with and it will still remain relevant. There are several different things this tattoo represents to me but to be brief I'll just say that overall it reminds me of my relationship with God and how just like the Bible says, He is near to those who call on Him. That's something worthy of a daily reminder.

(in case it isn't clear in the photo, there is a bird flying in from the left toward a bird perched on a thin branch)

I know also that the opinion on tattoos, especially among Christians, is varied with all kinds of responses. I know that there will be some people who might read this and think that I did a terrible thing, or that I committed a sin. Trust me when I say that I've put all the thought and prayer into this that I could and this definitely wasn't a spur of the moment decision. I've actually wanted a tattoo on my wrist for the past 3 years and once I got the idea for this one, you can believe that I prayed about it ceaselessly for months upon months. I believe that the "rightness" or "wrongness" of getting a tattoo is a complete heart issue. God knows our hearts and if our motivations are pure and pleasing to Him, I honestly don't think He has anything against a tattoo. It's when you're being careless with your choices or when your heart motivations are off that I think it could be considered a sin against God.

I can say with certainty that I don't regret anything.

It was such an amazing day and I loved having two of my friends come with me- one to film and photograph the memory and the other to offer me a hand to squeeze (to death!). It actually didn't hurt as bad as I feared. Actually, the pain never scared me and the idea I had in my head of what it would feel like was pretty accurate to how it really felt. But there's something about those final minutes leading up to it that puts your insides into a straight knot! At about t-3 minutes and counting, suddenly my mind was imagining all the worst pain it could think of so that in the final 5-10 seconds before he started, I actually started to get teary-eyed and almost thought I would cry at how scared I was. But once he actually started doing it I thought, "Really?! That's it??" Of course there were a few spots that actually did hurt enough to make me catch my breath but it was over in less than 3 seconds each time. Unfortunately, I was squeezing my poor friend's hand so hard that not only did her fingers start to turn a slight shade of purple, but later that night my entire right arm, from the crook of my elbow down was torturous to move! I had such terrible muscle aches. Kind of funny that even though it was my left arm with the tattoo, the real pain I dealt with all night was from my other arm!

She Don't Use Jelly

2010-10-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

A little over a year ago as I was making the long drive out here for my job interview, (seems like an eternity ago-- in a great way, of course) a song came on the radio that really made me happy. I'd never heard it before that day and until yesterday I never heard it again. But yesterday as I was driving along, suddenly there it was! Coming right out my speakers! I was actually laughing, it made me so happy.

I don't know why I like this song so much because it's definitely not the best song I've ever heard, by far. I do know that I like the simplicity of the lyrics and the playfulness of it. I probably also like it so much because the first time I heard it, I was in such a great mood (anticipating my future and all) so all my good feelings are attached to it.

That being said, you should give it a listen. Have a happy start to your weekend!

-oh and, uh.. in my opinion this music vide0 doesn't do the song justice at all so why don't you just play it and then look away.. ;) That's what I do.

I know a girl who thinks of ghosts
She'll make ya breakfast
She'll make ya toast
She don't use butter
She don't use cheese
She don't use jelly
Or any of these
She uses vaseline(x3).

I know a guy who goes to shows
When he's at home and he blows his nose
He don't use tissues or his sleeve
He don't use napkins or any of these
He uses magazines(x5).

I know a girl who reminds me of Cher
(reminds me of Cher).
She's always changing
(she's always changing).
The color of her hair
(color of her hair).
She don't use nothing
That ya buy at the store
She likes her hair to be real orange
She uses tangerines(x6).