Posted Behind

Hmmmm - that title makes you wonder doesn't it. I am envisioning a large butt completely covered in yellow post-it notes. Not the big ones, you know, the old school square ones, but the little yellow rectangles.

Actually it refers to the fact that I am now approximately 6 blog posts behind where I would like to be. This serves as the reminder to my lazy butt to do them, a reminder to my forgetful butt what it was I wanted to write about, and a reminder to your lazy butt to remind me to look at my reminder.

#1 (that is SOOOOO late) - my niece's birth (don't worry - no bloody pictures, I promise) and the hope that I see in a small child..."This Little Child"

#2 - My Christmas Decorations

#3 - My Christmas Parties (necessitating the decorating thereof)

#4 - Nanny and the sucky thing about growing old

#5 - My Christmas (and the weirdness that it was)

and finally #6 - My visit with my sister and brother-in-law, and naturally niece

and while I'm at it I might as well add

#7 - the New Year's Austin Trip I'm about to take...can't wait!!

O.k. - I am going to bed, and on a serious note, I ask for your prayers - I'm feeling utterly and completely and totally separated from God right now, it's freaking me out, and scaring me a whole lot. I can't explain what's going on, but I want it to be over.

And once again I'm left to ponder...is there anyone out there who actually reads this thing???

that's all.

Jason Dunn

This week has really made me think about a lot of things. Mostly how lucky I am. No, how blessed I am. I just spent the evening with Jason Dunn. Jason and I met at Fish Camp. I was the crazy insane aqua haired counselor, he the overwhelmed freshman in my cabin, and in the DG of my best friend, Tommy. Jason and I became great friends over the course of his freshman year. I used to go pick him up in the mornings and we would go to the rec together. I would even shower at his dorm before heading to class. The next summer he lived in James' vacant room for 6 weeks while taking summer school classes. Those days were some of my favorite in college - we got to hang out all the time, eat meals together, run, pray and enjoy each other. Over the past year and a half, Jason and I kind of drifted apart. We didn't really see much of each other. We've worked this semester to soak up what could possibly be some of the last times we have so unrestricted to hang out. After tonight, I hope we can do even more of this in the spring. Jason is one of the few guys that I feel I can be myself around. So much of the time I feel I must put on the "macho male" facade - you know, pretend like I watch ESPN SportsCenter religiously, thrive on playing football, and eat only raw meat. But Jason, like a few other of my guy friends, I can just be myself - the cooking, crafty, creative artistic person that I am. And that's awesome.

It was interesting tonight. We watched Christmas with the Krunks (which was, by the way, save for the "Botox" scene and the touching "giving of the cruise tickets" scene CRAPTACULARLY CHEESY). Afterwards we were going to play Rummikub - the game we've played against each other for the entire time we've known one another. He stood up and said - "Hey, feel my pec." I awkwardly did so...this was kind of weird. I don't make a habit of such things. As I did though, I could just say one thing "DANG SON!" Jason's been hitting the diamond push-ups. I write all of this to say how he has once again inspired me. So much of what I have struggled with this fall has centered around loneliness. I feel like I am alone here, and I keep turning to food, and other awful habits to find my self worth and acceptance. What this has done has led to weight gain, and worse self confidence than I have experienced since I was at my fatest.
But seeing Jason succeed - the guy who was finally fed up with people calling him scrawny and puny, and decided to take matters into his own hands - working out every night at his house and reaching new heights in fitness and health, has helped me see that I need to get over myself and take better care of me. Man, I can't and musn't find my self worth in my friends, my physique or anything else. I need to get things right with my heavenly Father first, and THEN take care of the temple he has given me so that I am at my best to serve him.
Look, I don't want to be a football player whose biceps circumference impeeds the full use of his arm - I just want to feel good, to look healthy, and to respect myself.
I often go through these times when I simply think "Why would anyone want to spend time with me?" But tonight was a reminder that spending time with friends is about enjoying who they are, and who they inspire you to be. For that, I am thankful. Thanks Jason. I love you, man!

that's all.

Animal Rights

I have felt a very serious need to express my thoughts and ideas recently. And right now is no exception. Two nights ago, in my midnight cookie making frenzy, I was flipping through television stations and ran across Larry King (wow - I sound like my grandmother). Anyway, I only stayed on the channel for about three minutes because I couldn't take any more than that. The idiot on the program was discussing animal cruelty in China - how they eat cats and dogs, and kill them for their skins. All right, I'll let the guy have the fact that this is an unfortunate turn of events. I mean who wants to see Fido skinned and roasted up for dinner. But there is a much bigger issue here.

I mean, how can this man truly take his argument seriously when just down the road from the dog butcher there are a series of sweat shops employing, or should I say enslaving, chinese children to produce his shirt, tie, shoes, underwear, and probably the chair he's sitting on as his makes his claim. Should he not be arguing for their rights as human beings?

He doesn't stop there either - he goes on to state that the government and the American people should strive to end animal cruelty and obliterate it from the face of our planet. At the risk of sounding like the Jeffrey Daumer of the animal kingdom, I would say that perhaps we should first strive to end homelessness, starvation, heart wrenching disease, oh, and that's right, the murder of human beings - whether it be from the friendly neighborhood axe murderer, or the medical professional who performs countless abortions each day.

Look people, I see the importance of animals. In fact, I would say that my family pets have played a large part in shaping me. I can't even tell you how many hours my dog sat and listened to me gripe, whine, cry, yell, or whatever else - and you know what, he came right back to me the next day. But as much as I loved him, I would have traded his life and "comfortable lifestyle" for the life of one of my friends in a heartbeat.

You see, there's a fundamental difference here: my friend can say something back to me.

that's all.

once again...

Another Friday night, spent at home alone completed.



It's really a shame.



How depressing.



On a side note I subbed again today - for speech classes. I had six periods, instead of the typical five, and most were horrid. I can't believe how immature freshman are...and how annoying. If I hear another valley girl idiot speaking about how her friend was "totaaally in looove with Jaaames - don't eeeeven try to dennyyy it." in the next 48 hours it will be way too soon.

I guess I'll go to bed now.

that's all.

OPAS Holiday Skate Party

Last night was our OPAS Holiday Skate Party at the Artic Wolf Ice Rink. I had SO much fun! I am a much better ice skater than roller skater (though my right butt cheek might argue that statement). I really like the lack of friction and resistance that the ice provides - I think I'll be going back to the ice rink more often!

In the spirit of Christmas, I dressed up as Rudolph. I had a lot of fun making my antlers and my tail, and then later designing makeup to transform me into a reindeer. Here are a couple of pictures of my awesome get-up:

SMILE!



Note my form...it's great! (note also that I am NOT on the ice doing this...)



And LOOK! I have a TAIL!! :D



Oh -- He's an ANGRY reindeer.



After leaving the ice rink around 10:15, and not wanting to return to the house, I concocted a great scheme. Still in costume, I thought - you know - it would be really funny to go through the drive through dressed like this. So after dropping Babis off at Cassie's apartment, Cassie, Melinda and I loaded up in my car and headed to Wendy's. On the way, we stopped at a light and pulled up next to a big truck loaded down with what looked like a load of stuff belonging to someone who was moving. I was going to stare them down and freak them out...but the couple inside was busy making out and there were a couple of LARGE sofa cushions, encased in a black garbage bag, on the seat next to them. I was sad that my harrasment plans were foiled, but I soon got over it when Cassie piped up with

"Man, that is a really large person in that seat."

I replied "Who are you talking about? Cassie, that's a sofa cushion!"

"Oh."

Extreme and uncontrollable laughter ensued during which I almost ran through the red light, mistaking the green left turn signal as directed towards me, who was traveling straight through the intersection.


Lesson # 1: Large sofa cushions can look suspiciously like large people.


And as if that weren't great enough, it only got better from there.

We pulled into the Wendy's drive-through and after waiting for 7 minutes behind someone NOT EVEN STARING AT THE REAL MENU, but at that little stand-up, preview menu that just has the value meals on it, we got up to the ordering place.


Lesson #2: That "pre-menu" designed to speed the ordering process, can in fact slow it down.


Donning my best reindeer voice (something like a combination of Yogi Bear and Bullwinkle), I ordered my meal...emphasizing the need for a SALAD (though I think my joke here was lost). I pulled around, after taking a picture of myself with the menu in the background.I noted that the poor woman sounded upset, and then, I saw her. And the reaction was priceless. After a triple take she said

"Where are yew goin?"

"It's more where I've been..."

"So where ha' yew been?"

"Delivering presents"

"Yew got mi-ine?"

"Um...I left it at your house."

"MMM - HMM."

Cassie: "Can I take your picture with Rudolph?"

"NO! Sharis. come here, he wants a picture of you! Smile!":


* Note the face of the far right employee! (and the HUGE smile on the others)


Lesson #3: Fast Food workers just need some fun in their lives...and we should do all we can to provide it -- especially in the form of dressing like reindeer.


Eric: "Hey, can I get a side of hay with that?"

"Yew want me to get choo some?"

"That's ok, but I really do want some honey mustard, please!"

"Yew got it."

"Thanks! and Merry Christmas!"

*I start to pull away*

"WAIT, Chew forgoot yo drink!"

"Oh yeah! Thanks!"

We drove around the building and I took another picture by the drive-through sign:



We left, and after a brief contemplation decide we needed to try this again...so I drove to McDonald's, only to discover they were CLOSED!

Lesson #4: McDonald's sucks (not that this is a NEW revelation).

So we went to DQ, laughing all the way, and ordered blizzards (another unnoticed pun) and the lady was a real bore... I mean, she was a fuddy duddy. Oh well, Wendy's made up for it!

Lesson # Final: Wendy's workers are WAY more fun than Dairy Queen's.


That my friends, is what I like to call a "cheap thrill" and it was AWESOME!

that's all.

"What in the name of Me is going on in here?"

OH MY GOSH!!! Will Meier shared this with me this weekend...STINKING HILARIOUS!! You should check it out. Go here: http://vintage21.com/pages/link/video.
Then find the movie camera link in the upper left-hand corner to navigate to the video page. Click videos. Then click page 2. Watch the voiced over Jesus videos. The fourth one is the greatest! This truly is how we view Jesus - but he's so much more than this!

that's all.

Subbing

I HATE SUBBING...I had my first sub job on Monday. Let's see, I taught three classes of sewing and two of food and nutrition (one of those was entirely football players - is this A&M?) I mean, it was ok - I got some reading in - but I can't stand the fact that the kids just work to see what they can get away with. 7th period 4 ladies went out into the hallway 5 minutes before the bell and then wouldn't come back into the classroom...almost not even after I went into the hallway to persuade them. A general lack of respect for authority plagues this country, particularly the younger generations, and will eventually lead to major problems in our country. I miss Europe where children behave, and where respect is still a part of society.

On a happier note, today I'm subbing in my old student teaching classroom. It's so fun to hear all of the hearty "MR. LEE"s as my students walk into the classroom and see me. It's enough to make anyone feel great about themselves and have a huge smile! I really have missed these kiddos, and it's really fun to see them again!

that's all.