Thoughts for the Hurricane Victims
I have been reading everything I can find on the Hurricane because I have friends who (used to) live in New Orleans, I have friends who have family in Mobile, and I know some business partners in Biloxi. I am so saddened by all the reports of deaths and the continuing threat of water and contamination. A dear friend of mine is a licensed ferry operator from New Orleans and has grown up on boats so I am pretty sure that if he has the ability, he has out there helping rescue people. I haven't heard from him. Just like the Tsunami and even 9/11 and now reports of those people getting killed on a bridge in Iraq - it just makes you think, "what is going on in the world?" I believe in God and I know that He is in control. I know that He does not cause things like this to happen, and that no matter what, He is still Sovereign. But it just makes you want to go up to Heaven and ask, "Why does this stuff happen?" So even though there may be unbelievers reading this blog, I want to post this for anyone who has either been directly affected or indirectly affected by the Hurricane.
"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness', made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. . . . Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal."
NIV 2 Corinthians 4: 6-9, 16-18
May God bless those who have been injured, who have lost everything, who feel defeated. Know that there are even strangers praying, and that God is with you even if you don't believe or understand. May we all do what we can, be it giving monitarily, volunteering to go help, or simply praying.
Beware: Tackiness to follow
Okay so this may be incredibly tacky but I just need to vent. I am stuck in cubicle world near a person who has unbelievably bad gas this afternoon. I do not know who, nor would I say so anyway (thats really tacky) but I'm dying here! I feel bad because I keep spraying body spray to mask the odor but jeez! There is no shortage of restrooms around here............. Its literally bad enough to make me have to get up and walk away for a moment while the air clears. But after a few minutes, there it is again. One of my cube neighbors finally came over into my office because it was worse at her desk and we laughed quietly and made faces at each other. For those who know me, they know that I am very proud of my belching ability. But every now and then if one smells (and I usually know if it does) I apologize and warn those around me to back up. I mean, thats only polite right? This person MUST know that they have gas but oh well. Just a few more minutes til I can get outta dodge and breathe fresh air again. But while on the subject, has anyone else had an experience like this? Or been the one with gas? I mean what do you do? I know sometimes you can't control those things but............. :-) we are all friends here right?
Toes
So, you know from a previous post that I have a toe injury. It is still in the healing process but several people have scolded me for continuing to wear flimsy sandals or going completely shoeless. I hate wearing shoes I always have. As a child I was constantly stubbing my big toe and once it would heal I'd stub it again. Granted,
this injury is MUCH worse than those days but I still refuse to let one incident prevent me from being barefoot. Well, due to the attention I've been getting recently I've realized many things. There are people (girly magazines specifically) that say that a woman who keeps her toes pretty and nice is a woman who likes taking care of herself. I guess its an attention to detail thing. There is a guy at my office who has what I would call a foot fetish. He always looks at my feet to comment on my polish, or choice of shoe, or lack of shoe. So he has checked on the status of my toe every day as well. Then there is my boss who is very squeamish and would rather not know any of the details - although today he did see it (as I did not bandage it) and said "Thats it?" Nice. Then there is a guy at my church who totally skitzes out about other people's feet. He can't stand to see them, talk about them, hear about them or be touched by other people's feet. The mere thought makes him shiver and make a funny face. Its great amusement. But as for his own feet, he's okay with them and likes getting pedicures (since they do it better than he does). So its funny how this tiny injury has caused so many discoveries about people and what they think about feet. But no matter what, I will keep my toes polished, my heels scrubbed and my feet bare at all times possible! Oh and if you care, I didn't even chip the polish on my toe - how awesome is that!!!
SFART
Okay so this weekend I went to a conference in Downtown Dallas and I rode the DART down there - saves gas, etc. Anyway I was also recently in San Francisco and rode the BART. So as I was on the train I was pondering the acronyms and working them out in my head. DART is obviously Dallas Area Rapid Transport. But what was BART? What did the B stand for? Obviously its the San Fransisco Rapid Transport so it took awhile before I finally realized its called the Bay Area. So that made sense. Much more sense than calling it the SFART..... a thought which still brings giggles. I'm sure those around me on the train thought I was on drugs as I laughed hysterically at the thought of people riding the SFART.
The Adventures of Green Mouse
Okay so I have two cats, Ty and Lady. They are very sweet and playful cats and they especially love toys. Like children, they happily play with just about anything that they can kick around like a ball and so I usually amuse them with bottle caps. Yep, regular old "free" plastic bottle caps. Somehow these mysteriously disappear regularly but as I drink water every day I come home with more each week. One day I am sure I will find a collection - under the fridge/stove/washer/dryer etc. Well one of their other very beloved toys is a fuzzy green mouse. Now, I bought a pack of fuzzy mice awhile back and have slimmed down to only 2 remaining and one is green mouse. Yellow mouse remains safely tucked in a drawer until green mouse disappears for good. You must understand, though, that green mouse is very well loved. So loved, in fact, that he has no head. How the cats managed to remove the head I have no idea. But all that is left is a body and a tail which apparently is enough. Since green mouse cannot move on his own, Ty and Lady bat him around - normally on the kitchen/entryway floor which provides the perfect surface for skidding. Green mouse gets sent to and fro on a regular basis. Its a good thing he doesn't have a head because he'd be very dizzy. The problem with this is that the stove is in the kitchen. At my current apartment, the refrigerator sits just low enough that there is no room for fuzzy green mouse to go sailing underneath. The stove is another matter. Green mouse regularly retreats underneath (for some peace and quiet I am sure) and so after much pleading by Ty I usually have to "rescue" green mouse and return him to the playing field. Many times I come home to find Ty crouched on the kitchen floor in front of the stove looking underneath, or somethings just laying there waiting for me to retrieve his toy. So far green mouse has escaped the dangers of the bathroom. Please understand that as strange as it may sound, this is a fabulous arrangement - my cats drink out of the toilet. They have done so ever since they arrived. It used to be that Ty was too small and so he would climb up on the rim (I leave the seat up of course) and step down INTO the bowl to drink. Oh yes. But now they are both big enough that they simply dip their paws into the water and then lick their paws. Strange, I know but it works. Otherwise I'd have spilled water on the floor constantly because they like to play. The toilet has been the death sentence for many fuzzy mice. I hate to think of the septic system but hey, not my problem! Thankfully, green mouse has escaped this death thus far. Well, the playing has stopped...... I must go see if I need to rescue green mouse again.
No pain, no gain
So here is a picture of my friend Mrs. T's gerber daisies. The picture was taken at the urging of my wonderful friend corrie ann who loves to tease me about my photographs of inanimate objects and animals. Mostly she laughs at the animals but grouped in would be the random trees and flowers and such. I argued with her teasing saying that I am a fledgling photographer and I simply like to take pictures of neat things. She said if I was a true photographer that I would take a picture of the flowers. So I stepped outside, barefoot, to take a picture, stepped on a stick lying on the concrete and proceeded to stub my big toe. Very nasty, very painful BUT I still took 2 very good pictures of the flowers! (see above) Now, am I a photographer or what!!! I will be kind to those of you who have sensitive tummies and will not post the picture of the toe, but I do have one if you wish to see. . . .
Wedding Season
(old post from my xanga site) Tis the season.... of weddings that is. I am off to my fourth one of the summer (well if you count april as summer...) and I have 2 more go to for the year, at least that I've been invited to so far! More invites could come, time will tell. I just watched The Wedding Crashers and laughed my butt off - go see it if you haven't. Yes there are a few "crude" parts in there, but they are quick and the rest of the movie is actually quite hilarious and even heartwarming. I absolutely love Owen Wilson but I now have a whole new fondness for Vince Vaughn. In fact, I'll have to see it again just to catch all of his zingers! I mean, I know its awesome writing but he does SO great at spitting them out at lightning speed! Okay so back to weddings. You know, each one is different and yet they are mostly the same. I hope that when my day comes I can add some spice to it - something different, catch people off guard or something. Who knows what that would be but I have plenty of time to think about it. Of course, this wedding is the 3rd one at my church that I've gone to and there will be 2 more so I assume they will look fairly the same. The fun part is watching whether they write their own vows, whether or not the bride trips going up the stairs, who cries first the bride or the groom, whether or not the ring bearer and flower girl make it all the way to the front and stay there. See I don't understand why people pick these super young kids to do that stuff - pick at least a 6 or 7 year old that won't cry, pick a booger or just go and sit down! Of course, kids are the humor in everything right? Maybe I'll have my cats be ring bearer's - think I can train them to do that? HA! They'll probably lay down in the middle of the aisle expecting everyone to cater to them. I know people who have had their dogs - now thats pretty cool if you have a pretty and well behaved dog... So I guess its wedding time. Don't worry I'm not crashing this one, I'm actually invited..... seriously go see that movie!
Bad Date Scenario
Okay, don’t shoot me, but we met online, and while initially this guy seemed nice, it quickly became apparent that he was lacking conversational skills as most of our IM conversations consisted of smiley’s to indicate what he wanted to say. So after several weeks of this I gave up and stopped talking to him. He questioned this and then persuaded me to “give him a chance” in person. He chose the restaurant for us to meet at. He showed up late, and did not greet me at the door but merely followed me to the table (that’s right, no hello, no nothing). Upon sitting he immediately started perusing the menu and commented that he hoped they had bread or chips. Uhh its TGI Fridays, they don’t do that complimentary. So after several minutes of silent menu reading we gave our order and he ordered a salad and breadsticks to be brought out immediately and a water. I ordered a steak and a soda (hehe). When the bread came out he pulled it over to his side of the table and proceeded to eat every single piece while double dipping in the butter. No, he did not offer me one, nor did I wish to try to take one! During the meal the conversation centered around my choice to drink soda and not water (very unhealthy) and the fact that too many people these days eat very unhealthily (as I ate every bite of my delicious steak and mashed potatoes) blah blah blah. He did pay the bill without comment (thank you) but then we sat in awkward conversation/silence. I was unsure what to do. He had mentioned that he had found some damage on his car before dinner and that he needed to get something at the store to repair it. So finally, with no other excuse for a graceful exit, I mentioned this. So he got up, walked in front of me out the door and straight to his car. No good bye. No holding the door behind him for me. Nothing. Nada. The end. 3 days later he was shocked when I scolded him on his behavior and told him not to contact me again. ACK!!!
(deleted test)
Sorry, that "test" was boring but since I couldn't quite figure out the whole posting a picture thing my dear friend amy helped me out and we posted a "test" to make sure it showed up! thanks amy!
Thinking Out Loud
I'm new to this whole blog thing and I'm very confused. It looks so easy and yet its not........... so this is a test draft!
