Just an Abstract Thought

From Whence Does Tragedy Come?

2009-03-19T20:29:00.007-05:00

With Spring Break comes the annual youth group ski trip to Colorado. I opted out, not being a great fan of the sport. Everything was going great, they were having a blast.

Then on Monday, March 16, 2009, all of us back home were horrified as the news spread of a crash on the slopes, and one of our sisters in critical condition. 15 year old Jessie is now fighting for her life in Grand Junction, Colorado, after sustaining serious wounds to the head. The skiiers came back in shock, and the rest of us weren't far behind.

For me it's a time of frustration and anger. Frustration because she's far away fighting for life, and all I can do is pray for her. Anger because every time these groups go to ski, they come back injured and broken. Besides Jessie, other injuries included a torn ACL, a damaged knee, a punctured abdomen, and numerous others, not including one terrible back injury last year.

It can't be worth it - no matter what you say, it can't be worth it when teenagers are coming home in ambulances.

These times are reminiscent of Colin Phillips' accident and the death of Rachel Barger in 2005. I am however much closer to Jessie than I was to either Colin or Rachel.

In all of these crises, the amount of confusion and aprehension are only surpassed by the incredible power of the body of Christ coming together when one of our sisters has fallen down. There are now more than 1800 [see footnote] members in a Facebook group created for her, with hundreds joining every day. Emergency prayer vigils have been organized, and the power behind this network is startling.

The speed with which FaceBook and group texting spreads news and updates is also startling.

God WILL be glorified, whatever the outcome. If Jessie makes a full recovery in two weeks, we will praise Him for His miraculous healing power. If Jessie continues to fight this battle for years to come, or worse, we will praise him for the beautiful girl we all knew, for His guidance and presence throughout, and perhaps we will be able to show our savior to the world in the process.

He has not and will never abandon our Jessie. He loves her more than any one of us. Maybe he misses her so much that he has planned to bring her home to stay, and maybe he has much more for her to do here on earth. Either way she is in the capable and perfect hands of a great and mighty God.

God didn't promise days without pain,
laughter without sorrow,
sun without rain,

But he did promise strength for the day,
comfort for the tears,
and light for the way.

Edit: As of 3-21-09, the FaceBook group has 3,155 members

As of 3-23-09, 5,008 members

As of 3-25-09, 5,807 members

As of 3-27-09, 6,487

As of 4-1-09, 7,380

2009-03-15T21:46:00.002-05:00

The day of the senior picture shoot! It did in fact come. It was glorious.

We set out for the ghetto to get some urban/grunge shots. The effect was lovely, but shirtless people kept driving by and honking. Ew.

Our ballet shots were....difficult. I was trying to dance on old broken down pointe shoes, on rocks and chunks of glass and random underwear strewn about. Not that I'm too great of a dancer, or too great of a model to begin with. Two complexes all rolled together....

At our next stop, an old abandoned mission building downtown, we pulled in just ahead of another suburban - another photographer and a senior girl out on a similar mission. Interesting incident. There were no honking people here, and no underwear, but there were hobos. It was great.

We wandered around to the next building, where we just made ourselves at home on the porch of a coffee shop. Kayla had written 2009 on my bare feet, which were then propped up on the table with careless nonchalance. The idea was to get them in focus, and me a little blurrier in the background, blowing big pink bubbles.

The most immediate problems that presented themselves were my incredibly ticklish feet, and my inability blow bubbles. We got through the tickly Sharpie business alright, though I did do some necessary squealing and shrieking. The bubble blowing....well, all the ones I could get peaked at about golf ball size. Kind of pitiful, but you do what you can.

We got back to her house after a good three hours of shooting, to find my car....slightly less whole than it was when we left it. The neighbor apparently has a few backing issues - that were taken out on my drivers side door and front fender. Darn.

Well, blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. Oh, the irony. Just another story to tell....

Me - The New Hawaiin Smock Dealer

2009-03-13T13:47:00.007-05:00

The shortest distance between two points
is always under construction. ~Noelie Altito

A tree never hits an automobile
except in self defense. ~American Proverb

Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits
are objects of scorn to smart Americans who
blow horns to break up traffic jams. ~Mary Ellen Kelly

Any man who can drive safely
while kissing a pretty girl
is simply not giving the kiss
the attention it deserves. ~Albert Einstein

We trooped down to the Driver's License place today -- DPS? DOT? DMV? -- to get things updated. I am now the happy possessor of an unrestricted license, meaning I can now drive at any hour of the day, and carry as many distracting passengers as I please. wOoT

It was, as always drudgery in that office. Wild ideas start coming into your head, like - somebody really needs to stand up and announce a game of musical chairs, or whip out Catch Phrase or Mad Gab, or even hangman. Maybe it would even be sufficient to have a group of people standing at the door to greet people as they came it. We could pass out tropical leis and name tags:

I can only imagine what would happen if those examiners came into the waiting room to find 30 previously subordinate serfs in a big circle, wearing bright hawaiian print smocks and floppy hats, laughing happily and playing party games. They would, likely as not, order us all out immediately or arrest us for disturbing the mortuary. Political prisoners.

Makes you really want to go out and start purchasing hawaiian print smocks in bulk.

I did escape the office for a little while to walk around outside. I observed construction workers smashing discarded glass doors with bricks (more of that having-too-much-fun-for-their-own-good business), and nearly got run over chasing a button from my sweater that fell into the street.

My license picture was actually an improvement over the restricted version, even though I made the bad decision to make it hair experiment day, and this particular experiment will now be forever preserved.

The unrestricted license is just in time for me to legally drive myself to the bowling alley this evening to party for the majority of the night. The only on-time blessing the DPS ever gave me.

2009-03-07T13:27:00.000-06:00

You will notice one missing - sadly there are no pictures of her anywhere on the planet. Logically put, none to upload here.

2009-03-05T12:14:00.004-06:00

New Feature
I would like to draw your attention to the status update section I have recently added to the top of my sidebar. As you can see, these are little announcements as to what I'm doing, or what messes I'm making, or what I'm thinking about at the moment. The goal being for me to update it at least once a day.

Vocal Chord Update
I am happy to report that my throat feels infinitely better and there seems to be no lasting damage to my vocal chords. I shall now endeavor not to treat those chords so badly in the future.

I'm not actually very good at stealth operations
Alright, so yesterday I was sneaking down the hall during naptime. I was feeling like a spy because so far I was getting by without being heard...I could hear Philip singing to himself

...and on that farm he had a pig, E-I-E-I-O
with a moo moo here and a moo moo there...

Then, alas. Ninja fail. I made a semi loud noise and the E-I-E-I-O's stopped. Philip called out very carefully -- "who is der?" His counterpart in crime, also not sleeping, called back from across the hall "don't you know! that noise is you!" This confused him and I thought my ninja identity would be saved. "it was me?"

"yes! it was your crib. it makes that squeaky noise."
"oh. dat's okay. it was my crib make dat noise."

Kind of like Marlin from Finding Nemo convincing the forgetful Dory that he was the voice of her conscience....ha.

Counting Down the Days
Perhaps you are not so aware as I am myself, but it is
50 days till choir tour
65 days till prom
79 days till graduation

The prom obsessing has already began. People are already making limo and dinner reservations...I'm not saying I don't already have the dress and I'm not going to deny occasionally thinking about it, but it still seems like such a long time till prom to be making such a fuss about it. :-)

2009-03-03T16:32:00.002-06:00

Good morning to you all. Can you believe its March already? Well, I can't, not really.

My first item of interest is that I have possibly bruised my vocal chords. Maybe? I really don't know, it's an odd feeling. I was sort of not doing healthy things to my voice yesterday and they have been not-so-subtly getting back at me for it today. I'm definitely not going to sing anymore for a few days...ikkkk.

After choir today (yeah, with the whole vocal chords thing, it was painful) I went to eat with some friends. We were waiting in line to order at Chick-Fil-A, when this elderly gentleman came up to us and said "Did you know a man once fell into a bubble gum vat. Do you know what happened to him?" *insert blank stares from all of us* "His boss chewed him out!!!"

Definitely the weirdest encounter ever.

I'm laughing more now than I was at the time...cause it took us all by surprise. Ah, interesting times.

That's it, ya know. Buenos tardes.

2009-03-02T13:46:00.000-06:00

Fill-a-Me up!!!!

http://lorenz.com/Med/Sample/10_2807M.mp3

Wake up Sinnuh!

http://lorenz.com/Med/Sample/10_3616L.mp3

2009-02-27T21:08:00.002-06:00

Recently I was enjoying a half hour or so alone in the house, happily creating some dinner. I was making good use of the broiler when I got in too much of a hurry and grabbed the oven element instead of the cookie sheet. Whoops. You will be glad to know I was not injured in any way, but the pot holder was seared nearly all the way through. And -- it smelled of burnt marshmallows. Yummy.

As you know, last Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent. I attended a lovely Ash Wednesday service alone, which is always best for those sorts of services. As you can see, I rather like to be alone.

I have given up sweets, desserts, and other foods subjectively deemed to contain too much sugar. This is sad for me, but a great time to exercise devotion. It's also a good time to devote my time to exercise, which should theoretically couple with the no sugar and possibly result in a smaller waistline?

Happy fasting....

Psalm of Confession for Lent: Psalm 51:1-17

Another original

2009-02-26T09:06:00.003-06:00

"Equivocal"

Standing from a distance
You look so very tall
But way up close you seem to me
Like you feel very small

No matter what you're going through
I'll love you just the same
I know how much life hurts right now
It isn't you I blame.

You need to know I believe in you
And I know what you can be
Life might not be so difficult
If you wouldn't fight it so desperately

You know I have to leave you now
It's time for me to go
I've waited here for you too long
And what have I to show
Life doesn't wait for anyone
I pray peace one day you know

2009-02-21T13:43:00.004-06:00

Hope you can read this. Hahahaha, it was humorous to me.

Tale of an impatient two year old
Philip marched up to the librarian this morning, who was preoccupied with another job. He slammed his book on the counter and demanded "Type us in NOW!"

What can you be thinking, that newly abandoned child doesn't belong to me....

The only fan of a slightly obscure sci-fi show
Recently my Facebook status was a quote from 3rd Rock From The Sun. It said

"Stupid, STUPID alien! I do irrational, often annoying things for LOVE!"

This is a quote by John Lithgow's character Dick. Well, apparently no one else caught my reference. I had all these messages reassuring me that I wasn't stupid, telling me I was stupid...and one kind friend thought I was having some sort of relationship breakdown. *sigh* Just a happy quote, friends...

The Urge To Scrapbook
So, I have the great urge to scrapbook. Namely, to create digital scrapbook pages to print off my own 2008 choir tour scrapbook. Both sets of my grandparents have their own copy of this...and yet, I don't. Weird. Besides this weirdness, I want to redo them for a different page size and mess around with the content for my own copy.

Volunteer Work
This morning me, my father, and various other siblings participated in our church's monthly work day. I met my bestie beforehand at IHOP...we managed to pull in at the same time in spaces right next to each other, and get out to find we were wearing matching clothes. That's special right there. The rest of the morning we painted and worked in a food pantry. And daddy patched a wall. I never before realized how many brands of green beans there were.

Book Worms
This weekend is the annual book fair at the expo center. Let me tell you, it is a madhouse in there. Thousands of people almost pushing each other to rifle through stacks of maddenly unsorted books of every possible variety. Well, they're sorted by category. Tired spouses and bored children left to stand guard over piles and piles of books. Besides the old cloth bound pieces of literature, these books can be had 24/7 at the library for free. I wonder why these people get so excited.

They had an entertaining loudspeaker at least. It was announced that if the named party does not go out front immediately it will be necessary to call a taxi...and that we know such and such is not lost, but their poor friend is, and will they come find her at the information desk...and will Sam and Dick the Yin Twins please show themselves...odd.

Speaking Up For The Unborn

2009-02-20T13:17:00.003-06:00

Oklahoma City made national news this week when a man was pulled over for having an anti-Obama sign displayed on his truck. The sign was confiscated and the Secret Service were called in to investigate a possible "threat" to Obama's life. The sign read "Abort Obama, Not The Unborn." The technicality being debated is the definition of the word "abort." The officers claim that the word abort means to kill. Thus...they're worried about the man wanting to kill Obama. To quote columnist Jill Stanek: "This just goes to show everyone innately knows what the word 'abortion' really means." You know it.

http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2009/02/abort_obama_not.html

Here is a link to the full story.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/deadlineusa/2009/feb/19/first-amendment-abort-obama-sign

I understand that the police and Secret Service must do their job and investigate possible threats. Inciting violence is a crime, but that wasn't this man's point. The word abort was used because it is the word used for unborn babies and his point was Obama should be impeached.

2009-02-17T14:03:00.002-06:00

I would like to start by mentioning that we have just passed the third anniversary of the creation of this blog. Huzzah.

Fruit and Yogurt Parfait
3/4 cup artificially sweetened nonfat vanilla yogurt
1/2 fresh or canned fruit (suggestion: blackberries, strawberries, pineapple)
Whipped Cream
Chocolate Chips

You know how delicious that sounds. Yes you do.

Oh the frustration of these past few days. Sitting on the sidelines during ballet because she's broken the recital piece into little groups of people and she's decided the whole class period will be used to choreograph everyone else's bits. And not too many other people doing much because they are also standing around while she choreographs on the spot.

If you are interested, this is the music selection for the recital:

Advanced Ballet:
"Aria (Cantilena)"
Composed by Hector Villo-Lobos

Pointe
"It Had To Be You"
Michael Buble
There was no version of Michael on YouTube, and no acceptable cover.

We have some new pieces added to our choir repertoire - one of them a Sunday School medley. Jesus Loves Me, Do Lord, The B-I-B-L-E...It's ridiculous. Completely impossible that a grown person would try and make a high school choir sing If You're Happy And You Know it in public. In one concert - our entire social lives evaporated. Like magic.

The Lightning Bolt Poem

2009-02-12T17:59:00.002-06:00

Hahaha, so, I found this poem in my desk today. It must have been from quite a while ago - I barely have any memory of it. I certainly don't remember what I wrote it about. But -- it made me laugh. Funny tense to write a poem in...

You wait in the hall and take one last breath
It must be now or never, freedom or death.
You take up your purse, put on that last glove,
You wait for a lightning bolt sent from above.

No lightning bolt comes, and so with a sigh
You take a step nearer, sure you will die.
That little steel room contains your worst fear -
I shan't be surprised if you never reappear.

2009-02-09T20:19:00.002-06:00

This past weekend, as I said previously, I went on a Confirmation retreat as a student leader. We started having fun times nearly as soon as we left. Our bus driver was speeding along (in the ballpark of 70mph on a two lane highway in the dark) and we passed right by the turn. So, he's not allowed to back up on highways, basically meaning the bus can only go forwards and therefore we spent a loooong time wandering around county roads before we got turned around. The driver was all defensive and exclaimed "Did you just not realize I didn't know where I was going???"

It was certainly a fun, if exhausting weekend. Leaders are kept busy. I missed out on my small group's hike to the cross as us thirteen high schoolers were locked in Miller Hall banging our heads against the wall. We were left without adult supervision with the simple mission of putting together a skit for evening worship. You just try containing 13 ADHD and argumentative teenagers...

I actually think we should have made a documentary of it. At one point we had some guy banging on the drums, another trying to smash everything in sight with a soccer ball, and the other eleven all rushing around yelling at no one in particular.

The first thing we did was decide on the guy that would play Jesus and I'm pretty sure that was the only thing we ever agreed on. In the end, we just ended up doing the Lifehouse skit...here is the original skit, courtesy of YouTube, currently boasting nearly 9 million hits.

Ours was significantly less polished and we needed serious coordination with the different sins and temptations, but it ended up really working, and I think everyone really got it. Towards the end, when you see everyone fighting Jesus, we went a little nuts. It was mayhem, and I got a few good whacks in the process. No fear, I'm sure I punched at least my fair share of people as well. We are hoping a tape of our skit will soon be available on YouTube. :-D

Late late that night we had one last element for the kids in the woods. We took them around in the dark, reading scripture, smashing clay pots with crowbars, and lighting things on fire. It was cool. You don't probably get a good idea of what was going on from that description, but that was sort of the point. Haha.

Sunday I got back just in time for my Quartz audition. So. Blasted. Nervous. The tonal memory excercises seemed much easier than last year, but then again time tends to warp my memory of such things. I screwed up a few things but mostly did quite well. The sight reading was the best part of the whole audition. I got 90 whole seconds to make whatever noise I wanted, unlike last year's unfortunate goof. I could've lept for joy when I saw the music - 4/4 time, F major, nearly all steps and two sol-do jumps. Hallelujah indeed! Nailed it. BAM. I wasn't thrilled with the audition as a whole, but I did okay.

We don't submit resumes or supplementary paragraphs this year, which makes me nervous because those are two things I think strongly helped my acceptance last year...eek. I still haven't been able to calm down about it, even though its over and nothing I can do now will affect it. Now I just have to wait till April. Drat it all.

Back to chemistry and other normal occurances. Back from camp, I get significantly more sleep and cleaner, hotter showers....

I got a little hyperlink happy....

2009-02-05T11:15:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we actually went on two college visits. Yes. It was January of my senior year before we went on a single one. All the overachiever sophomores who have visited every college in the state and five more around the country now have license to gloat.

So, I started out leaning heavily towards OSU. For no logical reason, just predisposed bias. We toured OU first, and I was pretty impressed. They had telephone booths!!!!! I could go there every day and pretend to be Rose Tyler....except, of course, Tardis is a blue police call box and not a red telephone booth.

There was somebody in the cafeteria playing Disney songs on the community piano, that was nice. The old library was also awesome. They smooshed seven layers of library into a four story height, which means the ceiling of each was only just high enough for me to walk into. The floors were separated only by cemented glass blocks. My cousin Joe would have to do a log roll to get from one side to the other. Not sure he could even crawl through on hands and knees. :-D Love you Joe.

After getting back from OU, I spent a good part of the night hanging with choir friends. We ate a whole lot of pasta, and read letters Brittany's dad had sent her mom while he was still in India. Bryan tased himself until he collapsed, after which the taser was taken away. Ha.

Our OSU visit the next morning was a little crazy. We went on one of those mongo group tour days. It wasn't really what I expected, and I was more than a little underimpressed. Wait, that's a terrible sentence. More-Little-Underimpressed...contradictory. Anyway, we still have more colleges to visit so the race isn't over yet.

This weekend I'm heading out of town to a retreat with the confirmands at church, undoubtedly many adventures to come.

Update from the land of ice......

2009-01-27T20:18:00.005-06:00

We have been declared a disaster area. If there is a commissioner out there thinking we are suffering a disaster because we get a few extra days to take it easy our warm snug homes, I should hope that commissioner never has a tree fall on his house. It might redefine his idea of a disaster. Okay, so I guess there are some power outages and a few dozen wrecks...[and when I say a few dozen I really mean exactly 900]

We made stew and hot tea and sledded down our driveway. Not too bad at all. Unfortunately school could not be totally gotten rid of (I can never convince our school board that the ice creates hazardous transportation issues), and I plugged away at a few academic endeavors, including at least 4 hours filling out scholarship applications.

The same thing over and over and over. With all sorts of road bumps and detestable essays in between. I have a new arch enemy.

We pulled a glass bottle out of the refrigerator at lunchtime. There was some yellowie liquid in it, which was, to say the least, quite gross. Dad had assumed it was a science experiment. It was, I said, a science experiment gone bad that just escaped from the soda bottling factory. It actually contained some sort of papaya guava lemon soda concoction, which was naturally rejected by myself when I first tasted it. Unfortunately, the back shelf of the fridge failed its trash compactor examination and the repulsive stuff refused to be obliging and vaporize itself.

Insubordination.

I leave you with this nice little quote, especially applicable to those of you also experiencing a "state of disaster."

“In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer” - Albert Camus

Oh yes, I nearly forgot. Below this is a post of my Brickfish entries. If you care to, votes on my photographs will be accepted. :-)

So, there's a lot of these, right?

2009-01-11T20:55:00.000-06:00

Basically, just vote and improve my ratings, okay? lol

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

--------------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

-----

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

--------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

--------------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

---------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

-------------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

---------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

----------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

--------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

-----------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

-------------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

----------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

-------------------------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

-------------------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

-----------------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

-------------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

--------------------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

-----------

Seeing Things in Black and White
Brickfish

2009-01-09T22:02:00.002-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB9hjYLkTMg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dUKmOSQQF4

Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc - www.reverendfun.com)

A Commentary on the Origin of Neckties

2009-01-07T13:55:00.001-06:00

I wore my new scarf for the first time yesterday. Very cute, that little piece of turquoise cotton. Those decorative ones are about as useful as men's neckties. I like scarves more than neckties, actually. An alarming number of men seemed destined to be perpetually bad tie choosers. Some are even worse at tying the things, for that matter. Here I shall insert an edit - a wonderful use for neckties I had previously not thought of. Better than stealing that dude's baseball cap - catch him in a tie and yank him around by his neck. Oh my evil mind.

I remember discussing neckties when we recorded our podcast at The Oklahoman last year. The other aspiring young reporters chosen for my group were almost strangers to me, and podcast studios are uncomfortably intimate places to get to know people. You can view the giant headphones you all wear as either a bond of coolness between you, or a dorky piece of recording equipment that just makes you look dorkier to match the idiocy coming out of your mouth. Your choice.

But back to neck ties. One of the girls had researched their origin for the podcast, and announced that they were originally some sort of battle attire worn by Croatian soldiers. My inherent skepticism led to my own internet research endeavors, and I unearthed a large number of arbitrary websites of questionable authority. Some agree that they came from Croatia, some say they come from silk pieces wrapped around the necks of the members of the Terracotta Army in China...and a plethora of other theories. That's pretty much where my interest petered away, and redirected to more reminiscing of Newsroom 101 at The Oklahoman.

My blog archives provided this humorous excerpt, obligingly referencing those headphones....

We got to go into this tiny recording studio with bumpy foam on the walls and sit around this little round table and sit there....well, talking. Into the mics. The headphones were broken, so we were denied the coolness factor of sitting there feeling like real radio people with spiffy headphones. Ha.

I would've felt much more relaxed and secure had not my stool been determined to throw me to the floor. I had to brace myself on the table the whole time to keep from swinging wildly off in a counter clockwise direction with a succession of frightened screams and the probable end result of a screwed up podcast. The world's first stainless steel bucking backless swivel chair. [http://singdanceandplay.blogspot.com/2008/03/do-not-be-satisfied.html]

One morning we had a particularly entertaining guest speaker. He was the Life and Entertainment reporter, maybe? Or perhaps he was actually on the crime beat....don't remember liking the crime guy, though...Too bad I took an entire semester of news reporting and never learned to take notes.

Anyway, he was talking about a case in Europe where this man volunteered to be eaten by another man. We sort of got off topic then (seriously, do you blame us) and Carrie mentioned that there were people all over the internet volunteering to eat and be eaten...we collectively decided that there was big money to be made in the creation of CannibalMatch.com - let's get all these people matched up...

There are all sorts of disturbing news stories, really. There was a story yesterday about these women who buy baby dolls and pretend that they are real children. They give them birthday parties and take them on outings in the park...reportedly getting all the best parts of motherhood without the dirty diapers. Now really. http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=43464502661&h=klw4T&u=X8YLl

Joyeux Noël

2008-12-27T11:03:00.000-06:00

Recklessly wasting the last bit of air
A half forgotten world
Is lying, encased in Eve's red blood
The shackles of sin she must bear

A paradise created for an innocent bride
Now dies of poisoned wine
A million souls that rot away
Behind their folly hide

One lonely girl holds a ray of light
In her icy human hands
Bewildered by one pale child
Whose screams pierce the moonless night

The dying do not feel it yet
But the air is clean again
For Maria's child chose not to breathe
And died to pay their debt

2008-12-25T00:00:00.000-06:00

Joyeux Noël mes amis!

Merry Christmas, lambs of God!
Smile today, for eternity is in front of us.
Let there be peace for our country and in our hearts....
Messiah has come

The Reason For The Season

2008-12-23T15:41:00.002-06:00

Christmas is a spectacular time for toddlers. No one without a two year old could possibly experience so much joy. We have a two year old and a five year old who are taking full advantage of the season and can hardly wait for snow.

Last week I took Philip on a walk. For a two year old, "walk" is an ambitious word. No nativity scene can be passed without full inspection, no manhole or water meter will avoid being jumped upon, and many are the pebbles and leaves that must be carted home.

It is sometimes very hard for me to take a deep breath, relax, and remember that half the fun of going somewhere is getting there, and the fun of the walk is what you discover along the way. The colder it is, the harder time I have relaxing, and when it is 25 degrees I have an especially challenging time. But we both enjoyed it - a little frozen mucus on the face is good for everybody.

Wrapping gifts is almost as exciting as opening them. "Me hep wif tape?" is quite possibly the world's cutest, most heart melting request, and certainly undeniable. You will think to yourself, as you are opening a lopsided, crinkled package on Christmas morning, that all that really matters is that it was wrapped with love.

Olivia can't even contain herself with wrapping gifts. When there are no more to be wrapped, we must find more! Every single member of our family will be opening at least three specially wrapped items from Olivia's toy chest. Mommy and Daddy get presents to wrap from stores, because that's what they are supposed to do, and five year olds get presents from their own toy chests, because where else are they supposed to get them? All of the toys will return to her chest in a few days, but its really all worth it because of the suspense when an older sibling opens a gift - its either a real gift or Ginger the Puppy!

Last of course, the Christmas lights on rooftops. They never lose their wonder - trips to the grocery store will be a constant babble of "Yights! Yights! Yed an Boo Yights!" Lights, lights, red and blue lights. But it's cuter when they say it.

Our yights didn't exactly make it this year. They're half up - stapled around the perimeter of the garage and duct taped to the bricks, but somehow the great electrical fuse managed to spoil that little endeavor. Maybe its for the best - who knows how many small children would end up being electricuted if there were actually yights to have the excitement of turning on every single night.

I remember decorating the tree several weeks ago and just wanting to freeze that moment in time - all the family crowded into one place, hanging twenty three years of memories on an artificial pine. Who cares if the Charlie Brown ornament got his head ripped off?

2008-12-21T16:54:00.002-06:00

jingle bells...

Thought for the day: If a two year old knocks a carrot from your hand, simply knock the carrot from his hand in retaliation. Right Jordan?

Went shopping by myself after church today. I was happily getting gas and enjoying the really cold air when I realized I had locked myself out of my car. I asked the station attendant if he had a phone and he was like yes -- and a phonebook!!!! Here it is -- Do you need the phonebook??? Ha.

Being too dumb to wait inside the station for arrival of the backup keys, I quickly got over my enjoyment of the frigid temps.

So, I went on my merry little way and popped into a shoe store. One of the clerks said he really liked my shoes, that they were really fun. How awkward is it for a guy to compliment pink shoes? I dunno, but my mind changed tracks when I realized I was clearly wearing one black sock and one bright blue one. No, usually it does not matter, only when you're in a shop of muckrakers.

Those people with their heads down to look at shoes.

It's getting harder and harder to prevent the small children from ripping into the presents. Lucky us, only three more days till we get to open them! Yes, that would be Christmas Eve. Leaving 4am on Christmas morning has its perks. :-)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

2008-12-19T12:46:00.002-06:00

Recently we had our Choir Christmas Concert. Compared to concerts past, it actually seemed subdued, if one of these concerts can be subdued in any way. I had my own special little challenges, meaning my right ear totally ceased functioning. There must be a terrific amount of was blockage in there. I was amazed at how little I could hear just using the left ear, and it made our ensemble pieces especially difficult, as the monitor was to my right.

My experimental rubbing alcohol and peroxide sloshing between rehearsal and concert time resulted in temporary return of hearing which quickly settled into a small amount of hearing from the right side. :-)

Afterwards we went to IHOP for our traditional late-night party. This guy my friends and I had never seen before, I suppose he was a friend of a friend or something, came over to Melody and said "My name is Elliott," then got down on one knee and proposed to her. The waitress got so excited, she slammed the water pitcher down on the very edge of the table, quite close to spilling all over me, and gave this humongous gasp and rushed out of the room. It was most likely the funniest thing I have seen in a while...

We got back to Carolyn's house at almost 2am, and there was no party left in any of us. So we went to sleep. Later that day I ate calamari.

Calamari is squid.

2008-12-06T18:47:00.003-06:00

A Highland Rose

2008-12-04T17:21:00.004-06:00

I walked up into the hills today
To find a rose for you
Someday we'll build a house up there
And in those hills we'll stay

This rose is colored snowy white
Your beauty is as pure
I'd cross the ocean just for the chance
To dance with you tonight

When I look at you I cannot speak
You take my breath away
You see in me the strength I lack
The wisdom that I seek

Deep valleys loom on every side
So hand in hand we'll go
This path is wide enough for me
And my beloved bride

As years go by this little white rose
May see our youth away
But real beauty does not fade or die
As time goes by it grows.

"Bloodstains"

2008-12-01T09:06:00.000-06:00

And in that day you will say,
"Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples;
Make them remember that His name is exalted."
Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things;
Let this be known throughout the earth.
Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel*

This will be my third Thanksgiving with grandfather and grandmother. My third year to slip out to the cemetery before dawn. As I sit by the slabs of granite where Dad and Mom are buried, I whisper the words of Isaiah from memory. To sit there praising God with my mouth, while at the same time all the old pain is welling up in my chest - it is a curious feeling. But that's what you get in life - all the hurt and hope mixed up together.

The first flakes of snow begin to fall as I let myself back in the house and escape to the kitchen to warm back up. Grandmother is already worried sick about all the relatives getting stuck in a blizzard, but grandfather says a little holiday flurry never hurt anyone.

After a deceptively quiet morning, everyone seems to appear at once. Aunts and uncles come pouring through the front door - and the back door, and the garage. I'm pretty sure I saw Bradley leaping over the side fence but how he could have managed that with green beans in one hand and marshmallow sweet potatoes in the other I don't really know.

All the small children are running madly hither and yon - for the littlest ones it's like making new friends all over again. The snow gets piled higher and higher, the fire gets bigger and brighter, and everyone settles in for a good long visit.

Uncle Tommy seems quieter this year - more frail. I manage to guide him through the melee and we sit together on grandmother's love sear to watch the happy comings and goings. Most people don't know what to do with Uncle Tommy. He is always sitting alone, smoking cherry cigars. When his eyes well up with tears, people get embarrassed and don't know what to say. They are afraid that something has reminded him of the war, or of Aunt Mary, or of his sons. Uncle Tommy and I get along just fine together, just two lonely souls.

A little later on I am rushing around passing out grandmother's famous punch when Uncle Tommy touches me gently on the arm. I can smell his rich cherry tobacco as I lean close and he whispers to me that I need to talk to Sequoyah. Surprised, I open my mouth to question him but he has already limped away.

Sequoyah was sort of grafted into our family tree. She was engaged to my cousin Gray, and she always stuck around, even after the accident. Nobody questioned her being a part of our family - she always seemed to fit right in. I guess she doesn't have a lot of family of her own - there's a lot she doesn't ever talk about. Sequoyah is maybe twenty years old. She is tall and slim and beautiful. She doesn't talk much, but you will always find her lending a hand somewhere or cradling a sleeping baby. They can never seem to stay awake in her arms.

After some searching, I find there is no trace of her anywhere. That's very odd, I think. Then I see it, a dark silhouette barely visible out in the snow. Grandfather's holiday flurry has turned into a furious storm and now I know there is something wrong. It is hard to rush in a snow drift, but I do my best, gasping as the frigid air slaps the breath out of me.

I put my hand out to touch the shadowy figure and Sequoyah turns to my with almost empty eyes. She does not try to hide the knife in her hand and my heart stops dead as I see the drops of blood in the snow. Then suddenly she is weeping and she throws the knife to the ground. I leave the thing where is lays and lead the shaking, swaying woman back to the porch. What else am I supposed to do? I cannot take my eyes off the blood dripping from her arms. My own tears are freezing hard on my cheek. Sequoyah is sobbing harder than before and in a panicky voice I sing the only words that come to mind--

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit, washed in his blood.**

How utterly ridiculous - it is Thanksgiving Day, a woman is bleeding into the Vermont snow and I am standing there singing about blessed assurance - something that nobody seems to possess at this particular moment.

Sequoyah is still now. She has buried her face into her hands. In a hoarse voice, she is asking to hear about - Jesus. Because there seems to be nothing else to say, I just start with the manger and ramble on till I make it to Easter and - that's it. I just stop. They talked about sharing the gospel in church last Sunday - how could I have imagined this? I wasn't prepared to kneel on my own back porch and pray with anyone.

That's how they found us: two half frozen women clinging to each other, blood on our clothing, praying out loud to Jesus. There's a lot to be thankful for this year - and I have a brand new sister to share every moment.

Weak and wounded sinner, lost and left to die

O raise your head, for love is passing by!

Come to Jesus, come to Jesus, Come to Jesus and live***

* Isaiah 12:4-6, NASB
** "Blessed Assurance," Fanny J. Crosby, 1873
*** "Untitled Hymn," Chris Rice

"A Failure of Balletic Proportions"

2008-11-29T15:05:00.001-06:00

There are few things as inspiring as the success story of a young dancer. She came from a family of great dancers - you could say it ran in the family blood. Out of pure love for the sport she sacrificed much and spent the better part of her adolescence in a rehearsal hall. Her dedication was obvious and endless hours in technique resulted in flawless skill. Over the course of her career she performed all over the world and retired to serve as director of the most elite dance school in the country

~~V~~

Morgan began her tumultuous battle with the world of dance at the age of eight. She tried very hard not to let the fact that she was the tallest and gangliest girl in the class get the better of her. Weekly classes were a difficulty for Morgan and an even greater difficulty for those watching.

Somehow she muddled through exactly eight years of unflattering leotards, consistent last-row placement in the year-end recital, and the all-too frequent bruisings from - well, there are really innumerable things to run into in a dance studio when you can't quite get the hang of that whole cessation of motion business. You could say the family blood ran out of Morgan quite frequently. Most days Morgan considered herself a success if she managed to avoid tying the ribbons of her pointe shoes to each other. A less stubborn individual might have considered the many alternative horizons worth pursuing.

Her teacher's dedication was obvious, and endless hours of trial and error brought her up to the overcrowded level of mediocrity. At the age of fourteen Morgan suffered from scoliosis and chronic arthritis. But her family was extraordinarily supportive - her mother encouraged her to hang on to her dreams, and not to let failures or setbacks or injuries keep her from dancing. And Morgan kept at it - she knew performing with a professional company would be impossible, but just maybe determination would pull her through a few years of college ballet with the rest of the mediocre.

Two more years of questionable improvement found Morgan hovering in the second to last row. Preparations were well under way for the annual recital when one overly exhuberant tour jeté landed her in a hospital bed facing knee surgery.

When one is active in the world of dance, one is never very far from inspirational quotes by Agnes de Mille and Martha Graham and a lot of never give up on your dreams propaganda. However there comes a definite point in life when you just stop listening and come to the decision that failure is too harsh a word - try "pursuing new horizons."

2008-11-26T19:38:00.000-06:00

Oh the adventures of travel.

Our first episode was in Mobile, Alabama, a bathroom break at the friendly corner Wal-Mart. This stop was fraught with danger, with people quite set on flattening us with shopping baskets, and security guards yelling at us from inside their security truck with the windows rolled up, and people trying to smash their vehicles right into us. I think my quest for a driver's license would've been easier had I just tried it in Alabama.

A safe arrival at my grandparents house in Pensacola, Florida, thank goodness. After a stop at Johnson Beach this morning we ate lunch at a local seafood joint. You really have to take five cousins under the age of 6 out to lunch before you can totally grasp this experience. Then: we observe the Floridians at nearby tables.

One lady in her early fifties is applying lip liner using the reflection of her cell phone. Her husband is simultaneously examining himself in the mirror of his wife's compact. "Honey - have I always had this crease at the end of my nose!!??!"

Not far away sat these two men. One spent the ENTIRE time on his cell phone while his friend sat there quite bored. If I had been the one driving and he had been the one talking, he might have ended up being the one walking I don't know why it bothered me so much. Maybe I just needed another unintelligent person to divert my attention. My own decision to indulge in the all-u-can-eat popcorn shrimp cost my poochy gut dearly. Oh stupidity.

I loved our time at the beach, though. The sky was absolutely breathtaking - you should see pictures.

"Because He Is Beautiful"

2008-11-25T16:37:00.002-06:00

The beach is deserted. There are no boaters, no sunbathers, no children. One lone sandcastle seems to be quite frosted over. No one goes to the beach in February, except people like me, who just need to get away and think for a while.

The funeral was this morning - my new black stilettos lie discarded in the sand. Somehow I keep going from laughing to crying....it all pretty much ends up going out again with the tide.

Dylan was beautiful, like you wouldn't imagine. With my eyes I could see a precious baby, and I always wanted so badly to believe that there was no way I could love him any more. You have to understand that -from the very beginning I set out to love him.

It was me that was the problem. Before Dylan was even born, I let myself believe it was all a mistake. There were nights and nights of trying to think our way out of the situation - or informing God through pursed lips that the days were ticking by and he was running out of time to fix this mess he's made.

Then - that morning I held him in my arms for the first time. Tears ran down my face, how could I not love this baby? I knew then he'd be a part of our family forever. God, I cried, look what's happened to my life! You created this child and sent him just to break our hearts! But I loved Dylan that day.

I never fully imagine what we would go through in the years to come. Doctor's visits, surgeries, special training and equipment. I loved Dylan even more as time went by, but I loved him because he needed me. I would hold him and kiss his hair, and wonder why God couldn't send us a blond, blue eyed little boy who could run and sing and feed himself. In those moments I remember hating myself for those thoughts.

Two years ago Dylan got sick. As hour after day after week after month passed, I knelt in prayer at Dylan's bedside every single night, I held a sweet baby in my arms again and as I looked down at him through thick tears I asked God what he wanted of my life. For the first time I was seeing beyond the realm of my own bitterness.

I found angels to guide me there, and I became closer to Jesus during those weeks than I have ever been before. Dylan did get better, and we received wonderful feedback from the doctors. At last God, I see what you planned for us! You brought me through this illness to grow closer to you and to my family. What a wonderful gift you sent us in Dylan!

Fast forward now to exactly one month ago. I had just finished my evening Bible Study and was complacently mulling over the great blessings of life when God reached into my world one last time. Fueled by rage and addiction, the life of my greatest friend was taken by her own father in a tragedy that led to a nationally publicized trial and investigation.

Very little seemed to happen in the following hours as I lost control of myself altogether. Just as the sun rose over the windowsill, I heard the faint whimper beside me. There was Dylan, with his arms around me. That tiny angel had carried me through the night. It was in that moment that God showed me what love looked like.

Dylan's job was done, and God brought him safely home two days ago. God, in his great wisdom, didn't send me visions or dreams or talking donkeys, he sent me one beautiful, perfect boy named Dylan who knew the meaning of love.

Think before you write cause somebody might publish it.....

2008-11-24T15:11:00.000-06:00

Hahahaha, so, I was Googling myself, and I found this lovely article about Quartz Mountain, and they had quoted me in it! After acceptance, but before we actually went, they required everyone to turn in a written quote that could be used in a news article, talking about what the experience meant to you. I was a little tired of filling out forms, and I thought it was silly that we had to talk about our experience before we had even had it yet, so I just made up the cheesiest thing possible. I guess it was just the stuff published media can use. Lol, I had completely forgotten about it. They only put a little of my quote in there - I have no idea what the rest of it said.

http://www.independentcharities.org/search/detail.asp?ID=1834

Dwelling In Poppies

2008-11-20T09:45:00.001-06:00

hey didnt think i would get a connection tonight with everithing so cloudy up in the atmosphere. things are worse since i talked to u last -- the news reported 25900 more cases of cancer in the last week. do u remember what cancer is? well its not the same anymore. like the other mutation, something is wraung with it. none of the hospitals here have the cancer yet, just the starving people. -- no, i dont think so. i wish….

i didnt used to be afraed u knowe. things were bad, but i was okae. i pretended not to knowe when the detonations killed the others. now i do not look away. my fishbowl here gets more and more transparent - i dont look through water animore, i look through red blood. and i am afraed.

i went to see kiska yesterdae. its getting pretty bad over there. kiska says they laust two more old men since i was there last. and -- they cant get medicyn now. the medics cant climb in anymore, and even if they could, we hear the medicyn is gone anyway. it hurts me badly not to be able to help kiska but in the end theres nothing more i can do. kiska knowes that.

before i left we looked up at the heavens for a whyle. the earth down here is swallowing life up, but the stars never stop shining. funni to think of the stars outliving alaska -- what again? oh, i suppose so. they say the sun will quit very soon.

i was thinking of kiska as i left -- the kiska we knew before all this. perfect, irrepressible, dwelling in poppies. as the poppies dysappeared, kiska became faculty and satire and lava rock. kiska was created for this time, u would knowe if u could see. and still, the old kiska is not yet quite gone. when kiska looks at eternity -- the poppies live forever.

Pretty impressed with myself....

2008-11-16T13:25:00.002-06:00

lol. This was a haphazard three hour endeavor. I set out with no plan at all and let the story make itself up....warning. Very cheesy rhymes.

Cinderella was a lie
I found the evidence
Of her scheme to rule the land
By marrying the prince

She found a job as a serving maid
To a wealthy lady of the court
She used errand days as a cover-up
To slip into the king’s fort.

She spied on nobles and officials there
Silent as a cat
She gathered facts on everything
But nobody noticed that.

One day while she studied stolen papers
Ella discovered a terrible threat
Two daughters of that very house
Were weaving their own deadly net

Their positions on committees in the court
Would give them the power to promote
New generals to mobilize the entire army
To storm the castle moat.

With the royal family safely locked away,
Cinderella’s chance would be lost
And if the duchesses discovered her plot
Her life would be the cost

So Ella decided to change her plans
And strike that very night.
She’d dance with the prince at the costume ball
And whisk him out of sight.

And when they were alone together
She planned to stab him in the heart,
Then bundle up the prince’s body
And silently depart.

She’d leave a note at the castle gate
Declaring they planned to marry
She’d stamp it with his signet ring
And then the body bury.

With weeks gone by she’d reappear
From the honeymoon dressed in black
She’d tell the world of her husband’s death
In a secluded woodland shack.

She’d forge a marriage document
To prove what she said was true
The people would crown her their widow queen
And her problems would be few.

The hour was now growing very late
Ella hurried to find a gown
With shoes of glass and a blade of steel
She set her lips into a frown.

Everything went according to plan:
When it was Ella’s turn to dance,
She smiled up at the unsuspecting prince
And out the door they did prance.

She looked into his hazel eyes
And tightened her grip on the blade
A moment of hesitation
Was the only mistake she made.

In an instant he glimpsed the glittering knife
And knocked it from her grip.
In her panic she tried to run away
But her glass shoe caused her to slip.

The prince broke into a run
And almost got away
But Ella threw her shoe at him
And on the ground he lay.

The glass had broken on his head,
The blow cost him his life
Ella frantically abandoned
Pretending to be his wife.

She could hear the sound of pounding feet
The soldiers had heard the fight
She disappeared over the garden wall
And hurried out of sight.

In her hurry to escape
Ella dropped the other shoe
And there it lay on the garden floor
A single deadly clue.

The soldiers went from house to house
To find a foot that fit,
But Ella was nowhere to be found
The finally had to admit.

Ella was never seen again
But as the years went by
The false fairy tale was spread around
I cannot tell you why.

2008-11-13T19:22:00.002-06:00

Some events in life are just randonimity and chaos. When you think of them later you suddenly find yourself unable to stop laughing.

The choir met early this morning to ride the bus across town to the Ambassador's choir festival, resplendent in our new matching choir t-shirts. The purpose of these t-shirts is to make sure that no one got lost. Not to worry. One might secretly wish for an uglier shade of periwinkle, but one would be disappointed.

Rehearsal went alright. One of the director ladies was really fearsome. Besides us, there was the Langston University chorus and six high schools, and in the evening the Ambassadors joined us, maybe 350-400 total. You have no idea what it is like to put that many people on one weird stage.

That night, after very little choral rehearsal and no physical on and off sort of rehearsal, we did our little concert. The first half was each choir performing one selected piece. It was fun to hear the different styles and sounds of each one.

How we sounded as a mass group, I have no idea. The stage was as long as a football stadium so the people on the other end of the stage could've been having a disco party for all I know.

One thing that amazed me was the reactions of people in our choir to the sanctuary. Sorry, bad sentence. People asked me why they had a piano AND an organ - don't they do the same thing? Seriously. They thought the mirror on the organ was so that the organist could put lipstick on between hymns. Really. Not knowing what the big chairs on the stage were for I could forgive. But still.

The coolest part of the night was when all 400 of us shouted TWO THREE FOUR HUT TWO THREE

2008-11-10T14:19:00.002-06:00

This past weekend our youth group went on a very small mission trip/ fall retreat (also known as the Fall Retreatsie).

There were the normal medical maladies - my sister was afflicted with a mysterious illness and sent home early; Ibsen had his left hand crushed (incidentally he is left handed); Lizzie had a bottle of Mr. Pibb knocked from her hand, which fizzed over uncontrollably, causing her to slip and sprain her elbow; and other more minor incidences.

We got very little sleep over the weekend - and when I did sleep, it was rather impeded by the shortness of my bunk and by Hailey's tendency to sing loudly in her sleep. Haha.

It was a weekend of general laziness and non-structuredness, barring worship every night and the occasional activity sometime during the day; a peaceful time, and a time to get to know people better. I got to know Michael better - he screams deceptively like a girl if attacked by ladybugs or Daddy Longlegs.

Saturday night it was 34 degrees. That was the night we spent outdoors - watching Mike and Ty Todd Two Times catch themselves on fire roasting marshmallows (for your information Houston is a shameless Back Seat Mallow Roaster), then later playing Capture the GloStick. That didn't turn out so well for some people due to the fact that the ranch has these motion-activated flood lights that tend to give your supposedly secret location away to the enemy at very inconvenient times.

Sunday morning we worshipped from the top of the canyon to the aptly timed percussion of machine guns down in the valley.

It was a beautiful weekend. I probably gained like a million pounds. My last Retreatsie as a student. :-(

Now, back to more structured activities....

2008-11-05T10:32:00.006-06:00

2008-11-04T16:37:00.000-06:00

This is an awesome link. Ha, I love people. So, look at that graphic of a star - how many points do YOU see?

http://gojko.net/2008/08/29/how-many-points-are-there-in-a-five-point-star/

2008-11-01T13:51:00.003-05:00

We went to the Philharmonic last night. Wonderful seats - but also occupied, like last time. Its always awkward to move people, especially when the people sitting in them are like 90 years old.

It was a night of Hitchcock. We watched about twenty minutes each of four Hitchcock films - North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder, To Catch a Thief, and Strangers on a Train - while the orchestra played the soundtrack live!!!! It was so cool. I have never seen Dial M or Catch a Thief before, and I definitely want to rent them now.

One distraction during the course of the night - on the way out the door I took the liberty of dashing myself with some perfume I hadn't used in a while. Oy. It smelled terrible and I quite regretted putting it on. Hopefully no one else was afflicted in the same way. :-D

ACT

2008-10-25T14:35:00.004-05:00

Acquisition of Certain Things?
Australian Council of Trade?
Additional Copies of Trouble?

Nope - "Trick the Colleges into Acceptance."
We'll just rearrange a few letters.
Yes, trick them into thinking
they're really accepting a smart person! :-O

Took the ACT today for the second time this morning. I was glad I already had my nerve-wracking first time experience over with. If that's in any way an advantage, I'll take it. Haha.

The English, my highest scoring section last spring, was a surprising struggle. Maybe my brain wasn't quite awake yet, I don't know, or maybe I had copped myself out and convinced myself I didn't have to hurry quite as much. Any way I finished three seconds before time and had to skim, not really think, the last eight questions or so. IKKK.

The math was pretty much the same as last time - I had a great idea of what to expect which was a relief and a help. I still don't think I did marvelously, but maybe I'll at least keep the score I had last spring. YAY FOR PROGRAMMED CALCULATORS.

The reading comprehension and science reasoning I believe will be my biggest score improvements, if there are any. At least I felt the best about those two. The passages in reading comprehension were really quite delightful and I enjoyed them very much. Especially the one about paper use.

I tried a new strategy on faking my way through the science, and it seemed to work quite well. I say faking because I never have the slightest clue what they are talking about [curses upon anyone who ever swung a pendulum or heated any sort of metal. They should be punished] and only have to try and figure out what the graphs and charts are saying as best I can. I am so pressed for time I have no time to even read the overviews of the experiments and such, they must be skipped. We'll see what the score difference is.

For all my "experience" I was still very nervous coming into the test room. My foot was tapping tapping tapping - as silently as possible - and I repressed the urge to jump in and out of my seat. Let me interject here how much I detest those little desks with attached plastic chairs. By the time I was halfway through the English portion I had a very large headache and painful cramping right at the base of my neck, both of which stuck around for the duration of the morning. Ah, stress.

I mentioned the reading comprehension passages a little while ago - can anyone tell me what the heck that first one was about? We were reading about a lovely astronaut taking a trip to space but all of a sudden there's a random alien lady who isn't from Earth and it traveling around to search for animals on other planets. ????

As always, now I have to wait three whole weeks to get that dratted score. ::fingers crossed::

Oh nooooo

2008-10-21T19:00:00.001-05:00

A few links about things going on this month in California. CREEPY.

First graders taken to homosexual wedding as school fieldtrip

Bride and Groom not allowed to marry in California

Poem for you

2008-10-19T20:29:00.002-05:00

This was written for the children of Uganda who are victims of a terrible war. They must walk to shelters every night, some as far as ten miles, to escape being kidnapped by the LRA. I have posted an excerpt from the Invisible Children website at the bottom for more information.

A dusty road under a stormy sky
A thousand footprints every day
A thousand miles to run from the nightmare
That may never go away.

Just another night under God's starry sky
Go to sleep now, go to sleep.
Maybe they won't come for you tonight
And hope is all you keep.

There's no one around to hear my tears fall down
I walk alone in the moonlight.
Can anyone out there hear my weeping
Would you save my soul tonight?

Across the ocean children laugh and play
Do they know we bleed and die?
Did God mean to let them take our children away?
What in this life is not a lie?
Now they are gone and I want to know why.

There's no one around to hear my tears fall down
I walk alone in the moonlight.
Can anyone out there hear my weeping
Would you save my soul tonight?

"For the past 23 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU) have been waging a war that has left nearly two million innocent civilians caught in the middle. The GoU's attempt to protect its citizens from this rebel militia has largely failed, leaving an entire generation of youth that has never known peace.

With dwindling support for their cause and heightened government offensives, the rebels resorted to abducting children and indoctrinating them into their ranks. It is estimated that more than 90% of the LRA’s troops were abducted as children.

In the last two years, an estimated 800,000 of the 1.8 million displaced have returned to their homes. But that leaves one million people currently living in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. While the majority desires to return home, the issues surrounding their return are complex. Some have been displaced for more than a decade, and their former way of life is all but gone. Access to clean water, economic opportunities, health centers, and education are a pressing concern for all, and even more so for the many who contemplate returning to resource-barren villages."

http://www.invisiblechildren.com

Cantada

2008-10-15T12:53:00.000-05:00

This has been some week. I can't believe Octover is already half over! I spent the night with Kathryne last week. We painted pumpkins, rode on a tractor hayride, and she rather thoughtlessly ran right into an electric fence immediately after walking through cow remains. Silly.

Also at this same farm I gave into peer pressure, attempting to climb a tree and having large suspections it couldn't be done. This resulted in large scrapage of the leg.

Tuesday night we had our first choir concert of the year. We had been invited by the homeschool band to sing with them at the beginning of their concert and also to perform a few of our own songs. Like our previous spring concert, the theme was God and Country, and so all we had to do was several weeks of brushup on our patriotic pieces. Yay.

After our rehearsal we ate dinner at Furr's. THAT was good times. I'd never been to a Furr's - let me tell you, it is a smorgasbord of goodness and temptation. Marred only by the accusatory looks I got from my sister - condemnation for eating fried foods before a performance - and by the waiter's insistence on removing plates before I could get every last morsel off. Let's just see him try that roast beef stealing move one more time. :-D

That's really all I have for now. Oh yes, if you care to hear me sing, you may visit this link. Haha

http://audio.xanga.com/jcee_girl/afe192790996/audio.html

Lol

2008-10-12T14:08:00.001-05:00

2008-10-01T17:37:00.002-05:00

From the movie "Iron-Jawed Angels," a beautiful version of Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

A Non-Special Post, Just What I've Been Doing Lately :-D

2008-09-25T14:38:00.000-05:00

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not. - Kurt Cobain

We were able to pick up our photos from the State Fair on Tuesday. It was fun to see them displayed, and we did win a couple of collective ribbons. I had one award, and it was certainly not given to my favorite photo. Oh well...

Third Prize, Geometric and Abstract Shapes Division
2008

Last Wednesday I was finally able to attend small groups for the first time. It was SO good to be back after our summer break and my schedule conflicts these past weeks. There were eleven of us there - a big increase from last year's five regular attenders, though I did know all the girls there. It will be interesting to see how many of these eleven remain through graduation.... :-I

The new DWTS has started. WAY EXCITED. :-D I definitely don't have a favorite yet, but it looks like a pretty good lineup.

I have been pretty interested in the news about Gospel Today magazine. They recently published an issue featuring women senior pastors on the cover and Lifeway Christian stores immediately pulled it from their shelves. I don't happen to believe they should've pulled it, I have no reason to believe there's anything wrong with women pastors. Hmmm....

http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/2008/09/18/gospel_magazine_pulled.html

The Lord's Prayer

2008-09-19T06:07:00.000-05:00

in two parts: the prayer ( in blue type ) and GOD's response ( in red type ) .

*********

Our Father Who Art In Heaven.
Yes?
Don't interrupt me. I'm praying.
But -- you called ME! ;
Called you? No, I didn't call you.
I'm praying. Our Father who art in Heaven.
There -- you did it again!
Did what?
Called ME.
You said, 'Our Father who art in Heaven'
Well, here I am. What's on your mind?
But I didn't mean anything by it.
I was, you know, just saying my prayers for the day. I always say the Lord's Prayer.
It makes me feel good,
kind of like fulfilling a duty.
Well, all right.
Go on.
Okay, Hallowed be thy name .
Hold it right there.
What do you mean by that?
By what?
By 'Hallowed be thy name'?
It means, it means . . good grief,
I don't know what it means.
How in the world should I know?
It's just a part of the prayer..
By the way, what does it mean?
It means honored, holy, wonderful.
Hey, that makes sense.
I never thought about what 'hallowed' meant before. Thanks.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Do you really mean that?
Sure, why not?
What are you doing about it?
Doing? Why , nothing, I guess.

I just think it would be kind of neat if you got

control, of everything down here like you have up

there. We're kinda in a mess down here you know.
Yes, I know;
but, have I got control of you?

Well, I go to church.
That isn't what I asked you.
What about your bad temper?
You've really got a problem there, you know.
And then there's the way you spend your money --
all on yourself.
And what about the kind of books you read?
Now hold on just a minute!
Stop picking on me!
I'm just as good as some of the rest of those

People at church!

Excuse ME.
I thought you were praying for my will to be done.
If that is to happen,
it will have to start with the ones
who are praying for it.
Like you -- for example .
Oh, all right. I guess I do have some hang-ups.
Now that you mention it,
I could probably name some others.
So could I.
I haven't thought about it very much until now,
but I really would like to cut out some of those things.
I would like to, you know, be really free.
Good.
Now we're getting somewhere. We'll work together -- You and ME.
I'm proud of You..
Look, Lord, if you don't mind,
I need to finish up here.
This is taking a lot longer than it usually does.
Give us this day, our daily bread.
You need to cut out the bread.
You're overweight as it is.
Hey, wait a minute! What is this?
Here I was doing my religious duty,
and all of a sudden you break in
and remind me of all my hang-ups.
Praying is a dangerous thing.
You just might get what you ask for.
Remember,
you called ME -- and here I am.
It's too late to stop now.
Keep praying. (. . pause . . ) Well, go on.
I'm scared to.
Scared? Of what?
I know what you'll say.
Try me.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
What about Ann?
See? I knew it! I knew you would bring her up!
Why, Lord, she's told lies about me, spread stories.
She never paid back the money she owes me.
I've sworn to get even with her!
But -- your prayer --
What about your prayer?
I didn't -- mean it..
Well, at least you're honest.
But, it's quite a load carrying around all that bitterness and resentment isn't it?
Yes, but I'll feel better as soon as I get even with her. Boy, have I got some plans for her.
She'll wish she had never been born.
No, you won't feel any better.
You'll feel worse. Revenge isn't sweet.
You know how unhappy you are --
Well, I can change that.
You can? How?
Forgive Ann.
Then, I'll forgive you;
And the hate and the sin, will be Ann's problem -- not yours. You will have settled the problem
as far as you are concerned.
Oh, you know, you're right.
You always are.
And more than I want revenge,
I want to be rig ht with You . . (sigh).
All right all right I forgive her.
There now!
Wonderful!
How do you feel?
Hmmmm. Well, not bad. Not bad at all!
In fact, I feel pretty great! You know, I don't think I'll go to bed uptight tonight. I haven't been getting much rest, you know.
Yeah, I know.
But, you're not through with your prayer are you? Go on.
Oh, all right.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Good! Good! I'll do that.
Just don't put yourself in a place
where you can be tempted.
What do you mean by that?
You know what I mean.
Yeah. I know.
Okay.
Go ahead. Finish your prayer.
For Thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen.
Do you know what would bring me glory --
What would really make me happy?
No, but I'd like to know.
I want to please you now.
So, tell me . . .
How do I make you happy?
YOU just did.

Lingering. To be read in a deliberate manner.

2008-09-10T08:41:00.008-05:00

"Those who dance are thought mad by those who hear not the music." - Anonymous

It's been ninety-seven days. Ninety-seven days to grow older, for the sinew to forget. But I will make sure it remembers.

Pulling the pieces of spandex and pink cotton and velvet out of my bag - I slip them on with pleasure. They cling to me and it feels so familiar.

I force myself to perform the most painful ritual now, my own Achilles' Heel. The uncomfortable sensation of skin stretching and normal body parts being wrenched apart is the familiar feeling I shrink away from. Suddenly determined, I push my shoulder blades farther down, I force my thighs to defy genetics and bad habits.

They scream to me.

But they are warm and ready as I step slowly onto the hard paneled floor. It is dark, the air unmeaningful. The music begins, and almost without thought, my body begins to move.

I feel the movement, feel it down through my toenails. Deep in my abdomen I feel the stirring of muscles that have become accustomed to dormancy.

This is natural, it is instinctual, but not enough. The movement now becomes mental. Technical. Internally I connect the deltoids to the lats to the glutes. I flex my sartorius experimentally.

The movement evolves.

Now it becomes married to the movement around me. As I begin to conform to the angles around me, the movement itself ripens and becomes mature. The bodies fuse and ripple as one. As each body connects, our light grows stronger. The room glows with translucent color.

The air is chocolate.

2008-09-07T05:16:00.000-05:00

Girls are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the trees. The boys don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground that aren't as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think there is something wrong with them, when, in reality, they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

- Author Unknown

---------------------------

We are leaving today on vacation. We'll be gone until the 18th I believe, visiting several cool parks and monuments around the nation, including Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills, the Continental Divide...and who knows what else.

Many adventures to be found. I will try to post some updates as we encounter WiFi and have a few previously written posts scheduled, so don't totally check out.

Happy Trails...

2008-09-05T03:43:00.002-05:00

You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease

Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
You hold my world in Your hands

Two weeks ago, I sat in our youth group's weekly acoustic worship service and saw a whole room full of teenagers absolutely moved by this song called Healer. It was written by a pastor in Australia, who performed it on stage with oxygen tubes in his nose after sharing his testimony about his two year battle with terminal cancer. Since then, people around the world have joined with Michael Guglielmucci, sharing his song, donating money.

Until the news came out: Michael Guglielmucci does not have cancer. It was all a fraud. Guglielmucci has lied to the world, has even lied to his own family. What can we even think about a story like that? I believe one can rightfully assume that Christians are ready to pray for his wife, pray for his church, and everyone else who has been hurt.

Can we forgive Guglielmucci?

His life has been shattered. For whatever his sins, whatever his mental problems, the words of that song are still true.

And yet, it's really painful. I don't know the guy at all, but I'm angry with him. Just one more missile for non-Christians to add to their arsenal. He's getting help now, and that's good. His family and church are starting to put things back together. Now it'll just be a matter of time.

The news story

"Healer," as performed at the Hillsong conference

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24216087-2,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24223781-5006301,00.html

Dearest Journal

2008-09-03T07:58:00.003-05:00

[That No One On The Internet Will Ever Read,]

Date: Saturday, August 30, 2008
Location: Norman, Oklahoma

(1:30pm) We all gathered at Kitty's house today to start the afternoon's activities off. There were five of us to start, and then we dropped by FedEx to pick Terri up. After a rather loooong drive to Norman, we left the Suburban at the Miller's house, piled into the Miller's van, and let them drop us off in front of the OU stadium. Complicated, huh?

My sister and I happened to be the only two in our group signed up to take tickets, the others were braving the crowd as program sellers. So quite without warning or instruction we were abandoned to our own fate. By some skilled map reading, clue deducing and general investigation, we accidentally wound up in the right place. Still alone, but victorious in our detective skills.

(3:15pm) We were issued electronic scanners and a few instructions, though not too many; it appeared to be pretty simple.

(4:30pm) The gates opened and the madness began. Turns out the frustrating little zapper was quite sensitive and had made up its mind to be disagreeable. It took some frantic trial and error to figure it out. :-(

(5:30pm) Half an hour till kickoff and the fans are getting really tired of standing in line --- hands...getting tired --- Sorry people! You know you would all make it so much easier on yourselves if you read the backs of your tickets or even the SIGNS posted everywhere...There is NO bags bigger than 10x10 allowed, your beer CANNOT be taken in, and neither can your fanny pack. What's that!!?! No I will not let you go back to get the tickets from your car and then skip this whole line --- oh oh, fingers --- cramping!!!! --- and just for that selection of words, sir, you are officially on the list of people I hope to eternally avoid!

(6:45pm) Been messing around for half an hour. There won't be many more fans coming in. Now I'm just mooching Full Throttles from the nice fellow with the Employee Supplies Cart and trying to avoid being hit and burned when the sky rains touchdown-firework-corpses.

(7:50pm) The rain is coming now, and it's not messing around any with it's dramatic entrance. Looks like it won't let up soon - they're telling us that we will still be required to stand in the rain by the gates, and that, rest assured, the scanners are waterproof. The game is being put on hold at halftime here due to lightning.

(9:30pm) It's about the beginning of the 4th quarter now, I guess, and we've just been released to go home. We were told we would be required to stay till the end of the game and till all the fans had left the stadium but I guess someone found a little sympathy for us. The storm earlier was totally crazy. We were totally and absolutely drenched, the thunder was shaking the concrete stadium, and the lightning was bright as daytime. We had emergency police and medical personnel madly rushing around tooting sirens and people were pushing to get under the concourse area.

(11:30pm) I don't know exactly how many people stayed after the rain let up, but I certainly wasn't interested in watching the end of that game. We met up with our program selling friends, they finished settling their accounts with the OU people, and then there was the drive home. It feels like this afternoon has been going on for forever. Besides those two hours of actually scanning tickets we didn't have anything to do, so I wonder that I'm so tired...

Just how long is it till the next home game??? :-)

German Mirror Prank

2008-09-01T09:34:00.001-05:00

This is hilarious. OMG, imagine going to all that trouble practicing....just to prank people? It would undoubtedly be even funnier if the video was in English.....

2008-08-30T08:40:00.000-05:00

I was walking across campus after class yesterday, trying to remember where I had parked my car. This guy came up to me and handed me a small paperback. He was tall and generally unkempt, with wild hair and a scraggly beard. I noticed that the book was styled to look like one of the La Haye / Jenkins Left Behind novels, quick observer that I am. The guy asked me to contribute anything to the printing and binding costs, suggesting candy, gum or a few pennies, anything. It was just a bit odd, but I told him truthfully I had nothing but textbooks. After thinking, I offered him my ballpoint pen, which he accepted. I felt sort of bad, but I was curious about the book. It is titled Survivors, by Zion Ben Jonah, and upon inspection of the back cover appears to be an attempt to correct and rewrite the Left Behind Series. So, now I'll have to see what's inside.

WOW GUYS.

2008-08-27T17:43:00.000-05:00

I did a little bit of research and sadly, it's true - its now legal in the state of Colorado, as far as I can tell, for anyone to use any restroom, locker room, etc. that they prefer, men's women's or otherwise. This is supposedly to prevent "discrimination" against transgenders, crossdressers....etc. They cannot even be questioned about it. Here's the bill itself:

http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2008a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/BD7A295EB6F4460E872573F5005D0148?open&file=200_enr.pdf

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26781&s=rcmc

Crazy. And a little bit dangerous. I'm glad I don't live in Colorado!

-------

So Sunday I was playing the previously referenced game of crud. *sigh* It got slightly rough and I ended up smashing myself into the pool table more than once, and also once into Matt Hechtner. I suppose you would already guess that. These smashings actually resulted in three large purple bruises, each with different levels of swellingness and accompanying scratches. Very painful, more so when one forgets that one should not cross one's legs.

At one point, we were between games and all of a sudden Sang let out a cry and just fell over. I seriously thought innocent MaKenzie had kicked him in the shins and taken him out - and I think Logan thought the mini ninjas had finally gotten to him....lol. The undramatic actual occurrence was that Sang had shifted his weight onto an unfortunate place over his ankle that was disinclined to support him.

Other events of this past week include locking myself out of my car, playing scavenger hunt at OSU for a phone I was allowed to use to call for help, and playing musical chairs for the first time in quite a while.

Have a happy week and don't forget to be excited about DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON SEVEN!!!!!!!

wOoT for my Beijing Athletes Hall of Fame

2008-08-26T13:00:00.000-05:00

Michael Phelps, 23
United States of America
Swimming
8 Gold

-------------------------------

Yang Wei, 28
China
Gymnastics
2 Gold, 1 Silver

------------------------

Matthew Mitcham, 20
Australia
Diving
1 Gold

-------------------------------------

Guo Jingjing, 26
China
Diving
2 Gold

------------------------

Shawn Johnson, 16
United States of America
Gymnastics
1 Gold, 3 Silver

--------------------------------

Fabian Hambuechen, 20
Germany
Gymnastics
1 Bronze

---------------------------------

Thomas Finchum, 18
United States of America
Diving
No medal

The Olympiad

2008-08-21T18:24:00.003-05:00

this is from chariot's of fire> had to post it in honor of the beijing olympics> they have been quite exciting this year - michael phelps is swimming his way soundly into the history books> he has become an american hero, really> you just can't help getting excited when you see him hit the water and slice through it like there's no tomorrow> everyone across the nation watches him and cheers for him> wonder what it feels like to be michael>

after some reading, i hear he is actually human> phelps was arrested in 2004 for dui>

but much more interesting than phelps' momentary bad behavior is the atrocious actions of many years past>

1956 > a water polo match between hungary and the soviet union dissolved into an all-out fistfight prompted by political hostilities between the two nations> the game was abandoned and the bloodied players were removed from the building>

1972 > pakistani field hockeyers stomped on their silver medals after being defeated by west germany> they were banned for life>>>

1972 > american basketball team gets mixed up in a scoring dispute during the basketball final against the soviet union and they refuse to accept their silver medals>

while we're on interesting trivia>

1900> a tug of war team made up of athletes from denmark and sweden wound up without enough men on their team and ended up with a nearby danish journalist as a last minute substitute> yes, they won gold> of course, there were only three teams entered>>>

1904 > felix carbajal of cuba stopped in the middle of his marathon to eat some green apples and sustained such a terrible stomachache he had to forfeit>

1904> american gymnast george eyser won gold in rope climbing, parallel bars and vault> why is this interesting? he had a wooden leg>

unidentified gymnast in 1940's

1908 > london built the first arena specifically for olympic games> it cost only 64 grand>

london games, 1908

1932> the officials monitering the 3,000m steeplechase lost count of the laps and everyone ended up running a 3,400m> oops>

United States of America field hockey team, 1932

1936 > boxer thomas hamilton-brown of south africa was mistakenly eliminated> he followed this elimination with a meal so large that he was unable to reenter and complete the competition when they discovered he was the true winner> the glutton never does win>>>

Norway's 1936 boxing team

1964 > giovanni pettenella and pierre trentin stood at a standstill for almost 22 minutes after the starting signal of the 1,000m cycling semifinal> giovanni ended up with the gold>

g. pettenella at the '64 games

1972 > eleven israeli athletes were captured and murdered during the munich games> holy smokes>

memorial service for israeli athletes

>>>>

of course everyone loves the visa "go world" commercials> at least i do> :-) > really, it's mostly morgan freeman>>>

phelps

nastia

beamon

as the newscasters and commercial makers say - we love the olympics because when they succeed, the human race succeeds>

The Passionate Player

2008-08-07T11:46:00.003-05:00

So, how many of you share my passion for the game of Crud? Also known as Skittles, Ghetto Ball, etc.

You can look at the Wikipedia link for a good idea of how to play, though of course a few house rules apply depending on who you play with.

So we were playing last night at church, and I was doing very well. At one point I even managed to beat Isaac, who is an absolute wizard at this game. The person behind him usually lasts exactly three rounds - long enough for him to sink the 8 ball on you each time and put you out of your misery. :-)

Last night there happened to be a lot of people from other churches, Skittlesless churches, that joined us. EVERY round new people would wander up and we would have to stop and explain the rules. Again. And again.

Some people, you explain the game to them and their first turn, they break the rules. You tell them that's okay, its theri first time, we wont give you a strike and you reiterate that they must not throw from whichever side they please. They do it again and again till everyone is too nice to tell them they are breaking the rules every time and you have a perfect mess. That is a pet peeve of mine - people who break the same rule every time.

Then, there are the sissy players. They do NOT pay attention to when its their turn, they squeak and just stand there watching the ball, they feebly bat at the cue ball, and walk wimpishly around to the end of the table to throw it. *shrieks of great frustration*

This is a competitive game!!!!!!!!!!!! You must attack the ball!!!! You must wait in a strategic position when the person before you goes up to shoot! You must sprint around the table, and shove the other bozos who aren't paying attention out of the way!!!! No politeness, if they get an elbow in the gut they won't stand in the way next time!!!!!!

Of course you all say I take this way too seriously. Maybe I do - but I do it out of pure love for this excellent game..............

*dramatic music* ____ *fade to black*

2008-08-04T15:55:00.000-05:00

Now for the glorious announcement: I have my license and I can officialy drive solo!!!!!!!!!

*much cheering*

I have driven to the pool, the zoo, the library, the bank, and to Kathryne's house. I cannot even tell you how much I love driving by myself. Nobody bothers me by talking to me, I can do whatever the heck I want with the radio, plus I totally feel like I could conquer the world in my little red car.

My sister and I went shopping together. That was fun. Then we tried to go to Starbucks but I missed and ended up in Bank of America. errr, oops? haha.

At Kathryne's house, we had a lovely time swimming in her lake. That was awesome fun. We remained mostly in the cove, where it was just deep enough to touch. In the much shallower parts we squelched around in yummy mud. I. Love. Mud.

I found out today that I won $25.00 at the library in a drawing. That's cool - I don't think I've won anything since I won the American Girl Stationary at the Hallmark store like 6 years ago...

Tonight at church we had a really great time. We played Ghetto Ball, where I was much more successful than I had a right to be, and softball, where I was much less of a success than I wanted to be.

I watched and laughed at the boys playing Buck-Buck, a game that some of you Fat Albert enthusiasts may be familiar with. A game surely invented by some uncivilized culture...

VICTORIOUS!!!!!!!!

2008-07-29T15:42:00.001-05:00

I have recently returned from church camp where I did a lot of thinking. I get very philosophical when I sit in beautiful canyons for long periods of time.

So I think, a very comfortable occupation, about how to take what I've learned and experienced back to my normal life. And I play the What If game.

What if my youth group worshipped together in the evening as if we knew Christ would come again in the morning?

What if an angel touched our eyes and we saw the poor of spirit within the Body of Christ. Really looked at them, through the eyes of a man who died to wash away their sin and save them.

What if we could grasp 1/10000000th of God's love for us and infect the world with it like a virus?

What if I were arrested for being a Christian? Would there be enough evidence to convict me?

Am I generating enough of a spark of light in this world to even illuminate my hand in front of my face?

What if I could see the future? What if I could see my total contribution to the kingdom of God?

Jane Austin quiz

2008-07-05T01:02:00.003-05:00

Take the Quiz here!

Hey everyone, what's up? I am currently working at the children's music camp at our church. We are doing a production about Daniel in the Lion Den. Some of my little dancers have the brains of turnips, but that's okay. Some of them are at least trying. :-)

I have made prints of all my digital photos from Quartz Mountain and am now in the process of making my scrapbook! Yay! It's mostly black and white, and it should be pretty cool. I love scrapbooking.

We played this lovely game at youth Sunday night called Nukie, or something like that. It involves everyone standing around, and someone has a playground ball. They throw it at someone, and they can run to catch it if need be, but once they have the ball they can't move. You pretty much have to stick the landing. If they do not catch it they are out. Obviously the point being to be the last one in and win.

I did pretty well I thought. Those huge quarterback guys were playing pretty nice, if I had been a guy they would've played with more cheap shots but I think its safe to say I surprised them with my ball catching ability. Shoot, it was even pretty easy. But like I said, they were going a little easy on me. I am extremely sore though.

Now, because I haven't done this in a while...

(Copyright Gospel Communications International, Inc - www.reverendfun.com)

The Bird Caller

2008-07-04T17:17:00.002-05:00

This is the final project created by the film and video students at Quartz Mountain. The students were divided into two groups and a second group made a comedy version of this same film. Exact same script, different cast, to see how different they could make them. This one is supposed to be the darker, more tragic version, even though the guy still ends up dying in the comedy....

Too Much To Describe

2008-06-30T08:42:00.005-05:00

Acting

Ballet

Chorus

Creative Writing

Drawing and Painting

Film and Video

Modern Dance

Photography

So Quartz Mountain was incredible. It was two weeks of tedious rehearsal, bad cafeteria food, refreshing morning classes in yoga and kick boxing, a strenuous mountain climb, late night silliness in the dorm, of adventures with new friends, most of which you can't believe you haven't known your whole life, of performances every night by nationally acclaimed artists and instructors.

The first week wasn't too hard at all. I was stressed the first day cause I felt pressured to get settled in and make a few friends and I was paranoid about being late for something. Soon everything started to become habit, I pretty much memorized the schedule and got used to lugging my music around and keeping up with a room key. I loved our first week conductor, Dr. David L. Brunner.

He was so much fun, and very encouraging. I wished I'd prepared the music a little more thoroughly, but it really was fine.

Almost every night there was an optional Conversation where a faculty person would tell about themselves and answer questions, and a required Performance by another faculty member. There were so many amazing people. I loved the creative writing instructor George Bilgere. Here are a couple of his rocking poems:

The Table

Unwise Purchases

Click here to listen to a recording of George reading some of his poetry for us.

My favorite was the percussion instructor, Valerie Naranjo. She is a totally and completely amazing lady and an incredible performer. The first time she sat down to play the gyli (african marimba), and sang beautiful tribal songs I was hooked. She played about every other day for us, and we never got tired of hearing her. She taught us to sing along with her, and there was not a soul who didn't feel like jumping up and leaping around.

Of course we also got to see performances by all the students. The ballet and modern dance was brilliant!!! One of my three roommates was a ballet student. The other two were orchestra. I probably made more orchestra friends than anything else, though of course I had choir friends and two awesome girls from Creative Writing. Didn't really know people from any other discipline.

We all decided amongst ourselves that they should let us pick one or two other disciplines that we were interested in and give us an afternoon of classes cause we were all insanely curious to know what each other did. Personally, I would pick photography or modern dance.

Our first performance went very well. It was combined with the orchestra concert so we had to sit backstage and didn't get to hear them at all. :-(

Our second week conductor was Dr. Pearl Shangkuan. I was quite scared of her at first but at the end we all loved her and pretty much decided she was a SuperNinja at night. :-) She can be very fierce for such a tiny lady but she knows what she wants and insisted we all work our bottoms off. She told us at the beginning fo the first rehearsal that we had to have every note and rhythm down by the end of that first day and that we would drop score on four pieces by the fourth day.

Memorizing those four pieces didn't turn out to be so hard as I thought. Well, one of them was a pain in the rear, but the point of the whole camp was to challenge ourselves, so it's not like we could complain. :-)

Anyway we had many adventures. We were transported by bus to a nearby community college for rehearsal two days in a row. Not terribly fun. The room smelled funny and the sandwiches for lunch tasted funnier. :-) Even worse, the bus only held 40 and there were 54 of us.

Of course not everyone took advantage of the opportunities at this camp. Three kids got sent home for smoking pot. That's a bummer. Overall though it was so so so cool to spend two weeks around 274 other people who loved their discipline and were totally focused on it. Some of those creative writing people were really intense - even if they did get to spend many hours a day laying out by the lake to do their writing. :-)

These are some of the songs we sang, but they are just YouTube recordings, not us actually singing them. There were several really interesting pieces I couldn't find. :-(

If you're only going to listen to a couple, I'd pick Duerme, Gamelan, and Amor de mi Alma. Dravidian and Danny Boy are pretty cool.

"Duerme Negrito" Boy I really didn't like this song.

"Ave Verum Corpus," William Byrd. Loved this one

"Gamelan" Oh the pain. The most frustrating piece we did over both weeks. Caused my tongue to become dislocated from my body

"Sanctus," Leonard Bernstein. This one was pretty fun. We didn't take it this fast though

"Danny Boy," Joseph Flummerfelt. I don't need to tell you how much we loved it. It was harder to get the nuances right than I expected

"Dravidian Dithyramb" This is one we had to memorize. Oh, and we did it on na na, as in nanny nanny boo boo, as opposed to nah nah.

"Amor De Mi Alma," Z. Randall Stroope. My favorite from the first week's pieces. So beautiful. And we did it way better then them. ;-)

"Liebeslieder Waltzes, 9 and 10," Brahms. We did 8, 9 and 11 I believe. We didn't have enough time to do the German diction for 10 and 12. The people on this video do their German differently than we did ours...

Movements 11 and 12. Again, we did not perform 12

"Ain't No Grave," Sean Ivory, Paul Caldwell. Ours was way cooler. :-) They pronounce too many consanants here. We had a little more fun and sang it more like a traditional spiritual. I will never forget the first time we came together to sing this piece in rehearsal after learning the work in sectionals. We were all really hyper and pretty much blasted the roof off the auditorium. It gave us goose bumps.

"Son de Camaguey," Hatfield. This was an audience favorite. Dang the ending was hard. :-I

"I am in Need of Music," David Brunner. This wasn't my favorite, but it was pretty easy and nice to listen to. It was interesting to do our conductor's own piece

This is an African Marimba called a gyli. Valerie played this for us with soft mallets acutally and not sticks.

Sooooo if you're still alive, I'll post some pictures sometime later.

The Return

2008-06-29T09:00:00.004-05:00

So, I got back from camp today. Hey, give me a chance to unpack, I'm not posting anytime soon!!! Here are some recent photos I've taken...

Matthew 5

2008-06-27T09:56:00.001-05:00

3"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

From Jeremiah 31

2008-06-25T09:43:00.002-05:00

2 This is what the LORD says:
"The people who survive the sword
will find favor in the desert;
I will come to give rest to Israel."

3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:
"I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

4 I will build you up again
and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel.
Again you will take up your tambourines
and go out to dance with the joyful.

5 Again you will plant vineyards
on the hills of Samaria;
the farmers will plant them
and enjoy their fruit.

8 See, I will bring them from the land of the north
and gather them from the ends of the earth.
Among them will be the blind and the lame,
expectant mothers and women in labor;
a great throng will return.

9 They will come with weeping;
they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel's father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

10 "Hear the word of the LORD, O nations;
proclaim it in distant coastlands:
'He who scattered Israel will gather them
and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.'

11 For the LORD will ransom Jacob
and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.

13 Then maidens will dance and be glad,
young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

14 I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
and my people will be filled with my bounty,"
declares the LORD.

Photos, by me, of Little Charge, my friend Isabel

Hey! I'm still at camp. Moving on to Isaiah 45

2008-06-23T09:40:00.001-05:00

1 "This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him
so that gates will not be shut:

2 I will go before you
and will level the mountains ;
I will break down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.

3 I will give you the treasures of darkness,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me.

5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,

6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
men may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.

7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things.

8 "You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,
let righteousness grow with it;
I, the LORD, have created it.

19 I have not spoken in secret,
from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I have not said to Jacob's descendants,
'Seek me in vain.'
I, the LORD, speak the truth;
I declare what is right.

24 They will say of me, 'In the LORD alone
are righteousness and strength.' "
All who have raged against him
will come to him and be put to shame.

25 But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel
will be found righteous and will exult.

Finishing out Isaiah 40

2008-06-21T09:39:00.000-05:00

26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

More from Isaiah 40

2008-06-19T09:38:00.000-05:00

10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,
and his arm rules for him.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.

11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?

13 Who has understood the mind of the LORD,
or instructed him as his counselor?

14 Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge
or showed him the path of understanding?

Isaiah 40

2008-06-17T09:36:00.000-05:00

1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD's hand
double for all her sins.

3 A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD ;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.

5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Just checking in to say....

2008-06-14T16:00:00.002-05:00

Hey guys, by now I am at Quartz Mountain. wOoT for summer camp!!!!!!! For the next two weeks I will be stowed away in scenic Quartz Mountain State Park studying the art of choral music. I am supposed to push my boundaries, grow, explore, and find the inner person I never knew was there. I have scheduled some Scripture passages to be posted while I'm away, about every two days, and also some of my own photography, so don't totally check out.

To here more about Quartz, listen to this podcast:

http://www.oaipodcasting.org/OSAIPodcasts08/OSAI%20pre-camp.mp3

Thank you to Ellentia for the unauthorized reproduction of her post which I admittedly ripped off

2008-06-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

Alright, here are the promised pictures!

Now that we have all the warnings out of the way, we can begin ;)

Hall of Giants

The Chandelier in the Big Room

Crystal Spring Dome (the bottom)

Of course these pictures can't possibly do justice to the Caverns, they are beyond description.

~Ellentia

Okay, now everything above is Ell's and everything below is mine

Pictures from the Reunion

In Teddy's Arms

2008-06-06T10:47:00.007-05:00

She’s seventeen years old, so full of life
At night she plans and dreams
She’s going to be an engineer someday
And teach the Sunday School

Her dad works hard at his job all day
And they get by just fine
When the dishes are done she goes upstairs
To sing her baby sister a lullaby.

Next week after school she sings a song
Her boyfriend is taking her out
But the evening ends before it begins
As she collapses and is carried away

She wonders what has happened
And what are these machines for
Through the wires and tubes she holds Mama’s hand
And tries not to cry too hard.

Six months later she lies in bed

Chemo has left her too weak

She clutches her teddy bear in her arms

Gotta make it through the day

Dad sits by her side and holds her hand

"I love you Daddy," she says

"When Aunt Kelly comes tomorrow should I put my bear away?

After all I'm seventeen"

He holds her and sobs and sends up a prayer

Lord give us a few more days -

You're never too old for teddy bears,

Only too young to die

500 Years of Female Portraits

2008-06-04T08:59:00.000-05:00

This is so cool. The creator slided and morphed each picture seamlessly into the next. I love these. And I also love making up new words like slided.

NANNY

2008-05-23T20:01:00.001-05:00

Today was my first day as full time “nanny.” My little Charge was still abed when I arrived, and stayed that way for a quiet 45 minutes. The day passed fairly quickly I thought, we watched tv, made cupcakes, ate lunch, and some of the neighborhood girls came over to share the sandbox.

I have observed that many of the stay at home mothers would greatly benefit from a hobby or something productive to occupy their time. Very lonely people eager to share about their recent tonsillectomies.

We sort of lost the cat in the afternoon – else, nobody knew where she had gone to. Searching every nook and cranny and even rattling the kitty treat jar did not produce poor Martha. In all probability, she’s just hiding and sleeping, which I tried to convince them of so they didn’t give her up for dead.

It was a hot and humid day. I will definitely have to think of creative things we can make for lunch – a perfect opportunity to practice cooking skills. If Little Charge doesn’t like potatoes, she will by the time school starts again… :-D

Have you ever tried crab nachos? These are actually quite delicious. Maybe Little Charge likes crab nachos?

Currently Reading:

“A Tree Grows In Brooklyn,” Betty Smith

2008-05-17T11:26:00.000-05:00

This morning I woke up with my now-normal intent:
To do as little work as possible, though my character it does dent.

If one cannot think of anything inspiring to write poetry about, one usually has to resort to whatever comes to mind, uninspiring as it may be.

At least I realize that I have innumerable lazy thoughts at any given moment. That is the beginning of altering the offense, no? Motivation, discipline! :-(

------

I spent a nice part of my morning calling insurance people, and by nice, I do not mean that it was a pleasurable experience. I suppose that it wasn't really their fault, only I was kind of nervous and kept waiting for them to say things like "What is the 50 digit number found on the under side of the back bumper - answer in the next 40 seconds or this telephone will self destruct and you will never be allowed car insurance anywhere ever again AND YOU WILL SPEND THE REST OF YOUR DAYS CARPOOLING!!!!!!!!"

Most likely I am scarred for life and shall never recover. Just for the record, Farm Bureau gets no points for niceness to terrified teenagers being forced by their treacherous parents to approach impending doom.

------

I am a bit dejected at the lack of response to the Uncle Aaron stories. Perhaps you people do not enjoy them quite so much as we did?

------

"To Him We Sing," sung by the Lycoming Choir
http://www.lycoming.edu/choir/mp3s/singjoyfully/tohimwesing.html

Uncle Aaron Reads Again

2008-05-14T14:50:00.000-05:00

In a faraway land filled with magical balloons, a dark presence shadowed the sky. An evil wizard was building a giant hot-air balloon in order to enslave all the other balloons.

This hot air balloon was ingeniously designed to release a foul smell, resembling that of a tour bus bathroom, when attacked.

And because of the smell, people all over the world fell in love, resulting in nearly 5 billion weddings on one day (a new Guinness World Record).

One of these weddings in particular was of utmost interest to a few Zoborgs, who, when they received news of this worldwide explosion of weddings decided they should take matters into their own hands...

So they enlisted the most prominent members of their society, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, to infiltrate the happy occasions and wreak havoc...Vince and Owen went on to wreak havoc by painting lime green horses and neon pink cows. After that they went to paint ducks navy blue and Pistol Pete Crimson and Cream.

This made Pistol Pete very angry, so he went on a tyrannical rampage, imprisoning all the navy blue ducks and forcing them to eat chicken livers and non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiris.

Pistol Pete took a bath, scrubbing his skin until it was raw, yet the crimson and cream would not come off.

Pete was shocked and angry but still determined to proceed with his heinous plans. In a fit of rage he decided to make the treacherous plan even more treacherous. Now the navy blue ducks would have to eat pigs foot and construct a tower made primarily of cocoa.

So away they toiled, late into the night, until it was done - a giant chocolate tower in the shape of our choir director's husband. They worshiped it every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm for generations to come. The end.

Story time with Uncle Aaron

2008-05-12T08:53:00.005-05:00

This story was written by a multitude of tired people on a very long bus ride. Every time there's a new paragraph, the story had been passed to someone else, which you could clearly see were you to be able to view the large variety of atrocious handwriting. :-D

Billions and billions of nanoseconds ago, digital cameras ruled the bus.

Both teenagers and adults were plagued by momentary blindness as well as the dull job of having to polish lenses.

"Nay!" exclaimed one innocent child. "This crazed madness will not go on any further as long as my faithful stead is by my side!!" The young child said this as he pointed to a small, unclothed pink figure...more commonly known as...

Penguin! It was indeed a pink penguin. The child (who was named Rose) smirked with satisfaction. "Now!" she said "You will see something! No longer will we be plagued by these digital monarchs!"

She and the penguin quickly began to fight against these evil monarchs not with weapons, but with the most powerful defense in the world...Chris Humphrey's singing!

He sang every song in his repertoire including the hit "10 Days of Tour"

and ended this fantastically horrid show with a dance. The digital monarchs screamed in horror and tried to close their lenses. But, it was to no avail. Chris Humphreys kept on dancing unaware that while he was merely having a good time we was also frying the memory circuits of the cameras. With a groan the monarchs sank slowly into oblivion. The people on the bus along with Rose and the penguin were overjoyed but they had to shut Mr. Humphreys in the bathroom because he wouldn't stop dancing...

However he had to stop when the giant lobster that lives in the toilet burst out and started pinching the people in the back of the bus. Ouch! Ouch! Ouchy bagouchy!

Brittany tried to save the others by beating the lobster with her hair. But the lobster clawed her hair and it was stuck!

Thinking fast, she ran screaming into the ocean and asked a friendly Loch Ness monster for help.

He replied "Hello young lady, what seems to be the trouble?" She said "My mean old Uncle Aaron came and stole all my Naked Pigs. Then Mr. Loch Ness ate Uncle Aaron and they all went to eat with Chuck Norris.

Spring Formal

2008-05-10T19:42:00.007-05:00

So last night was the 2008 Spring Formal. :-) I was pretty nervous, and I was feeling very sorry that I had been talked into going. We bought my dress the day before from a thrift store - it shouldn't be legal for such a pretty dress to only cost $4.50!

My sister convinced me to let her do my hair. I shall admit to being a bit apprehensive, and I now admit that my doubts were totally unfounded. Thanks sis, it was totally and completely gorgeous.

I met my friends there, of course everyone looked very lovely, and we all sort of wandered in together. Great, too late to chicken out now!!!!

The theme was Enchanted, which worked out quite nicely. I hear that last year's theme was Breakfast at Tiffany's, which I think would've been nice too.

After the dance got over at like 12:30, we went to IHOP of course. We found out something cool - they give you free cups of chocolate chips if you ask for them.

It was like 2am or so and Aaron and Bri had sort of dozed off at their booth when our obnoxious waitress went over, slammed her hands down on their table and screamed "Wake up!!!" in their faces and ran off. Aaron leaped to his feet and for a second I really thought he was going to run after her and slug her. It was so bad.

Since that lady wouldn't let him sleep at the booth Aaron had to resort to sleeping outside the IHOP. Lol, actually I think he was darted. It takes a brave man to be cooperatively darted in dress clothes. Not I....

We got to Brit's house after 2:30 and then we messed around, watched home videos, and finally crashed at like 5am.

That was pretty much it. I had a blast, and I would be all in favor of a Summer Formal and a Fall Formal and and Autumn Formal... :-)

2008-05-07T17:31:00.000-05:00

"El Vito," arr. Antonio Sanchez
http://www.lycoming.edu/choir/mp3s/cloudburst/elvito.html

One would think all the hours in the bus would kill ya, but it wasn't but a blink of time. The few hours at a time we spent commuting to DC and the other places were more stressful.

We drove for two days, then spent about three days in Virginia, which is the most beautiful place ever. Arbols upon arbols... :-D We competed in a choir competition that didn't go overly well, toured Colonial Williamsburg, spent about three hours at Busch Gardens in which we rode Splashdown, one rollercoaster, and ate nine inch baked potatoes. We sang for the church service at the Norfolk Naval Base and spent just a tiny bit of time at Jamestown, which they tell us should technically be Yamestowne. We visited the Yankee Candle Factory, which was like a magical mall, and spent three hours on the side of the road due to the unfortunate collision of two vehicles travelling with us. Thankfully injuries were minor, only a couple of knocks on the head and broken fingers. It was scary, though.

The Arlington Cemetery was beyond description. I could've spent days there, instead of the few hours we had. We toured the capitol building, and attended evensong at the National Cathedral. You should've heard those uncultured wimps in the choir whine about having to sit through 45 minutes of beautiful music. Wait wait, this is the nerd speaking. We finished that day up with dinner at the Union Station. BEWARE THE ARABS!!!!! :-) They somehow vetoed my suggestion that we return and ride the train home.

The next day I visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which was horribly boring, and the National Archives, which was much better. We got to see billions of monuments and memorials: the Lincoln, the Washington (you don't have much choice about seeing that one), the WW1 and WW2, the Korean and Vietnam wars (or are they conflicts?), the back of the White House, and a bunch of big impressive buildings.

Next day was Mount Vernon, and our surprise event, a dinner cruise and dance party down the Potomac. Lovely. Three sisters with us lost their grandmother that day, which was of course difficult for everybody.

That was pretty much the end of our trip, besides the 2 days driving back. We watched a nice little queue of movies, including some really dreadful ones like Spaceballs. We had story time with Uncle Aaron, when one of the seniors would read over the microphone these total nonsense stories written by half the bus one sentence at a time. That was memorable. :-)

The last night was like all last nights. We crammed into the teeny tiny breakfast room of the hotel (what do you mean 50 people anywhere makes any room seem teeny tiny?) and had the singing of our required song and people cried. The last time I sing our song will be a dreadful day.

2008-04-16T22:33:00.000-05:00

"Precious Lord, Lead Me Home," arr. Jack Schrader

http://www.lycoming.edu/choir/mp3s/etresurrexit/preciouslord.html

==================

Similar to Application to Date My Daughter, these are

Rules for Dating a Marine's Daughter

If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure not picking anything up.
You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.
I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose this compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, In order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my electric nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.
I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without utilizing a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.
In order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics, and other issues of the day. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is "early."
I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.
As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful, like changing the oil in my car?
The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter:
- Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool.
- Places where there are no parents, policemen, or nuns within eyesight.
- Places where there is darkness.
- Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness.
- Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka zipped up to her throat.
- Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided; movies which features chain saws are okay.
- Hockey games are okay.
- Old folks homes are better.
Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a potbellied, balding, middle-aged, dimwitted has-been. But on issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house. Do not trifle with me.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of your car in the driveway for a chopper coming in over a rice paddy outside of Chu Lai. When my Agent Orange or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) starts acting up, the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter home. As soon as you pull into the driveway you should exit your car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car. There is no need for you to come inside. The camouflaged face at the window is mine.

=========================

I got the preceding Rules from a friend of mine, who is not in fact the daughter of a Marine. She is the daughter of a Naval officer. :-) Good luck to her! The ACT went well. I'm nervous about getting the scores back. Did you like the Lycoming Choir? I have some more links for later. Have an excellent week.

2008-04-09T07:28:00.002-05:00

Funny story. We were driving through our neighborhood and my four year old sister sees a yard covered in those purple flowery weeds. "Oh!!!!" she says, "They have such pretty flowers!!!" Then we passed a yard filled with dandelions. "Oh!!!!" she says, "Look! All their grass has yellow flowers!!!!!" Then we came to a flower bed where some bulbs were sprouting, but they hadn't bloomed yet so all you could see was the green stalks. "Mommy," she said, "They are growing weeds!!!!!" Lol.

Hiya.

I've been soooo busy. I have so much stuff to do and it's just not getting done. :-(

We finished up with the Newsroom class last Saturday, but we still have some copy editing to do and then I believe we'll have a closing reception.

I'm taking the ACT this Saturday. Pray for me!!!!!!!!!!! *groan*

I got my hair cut Monday. It's pretty short, like at my ears. :-) I love it. It's fun to mess with and tousle. The guy in the chair behind me came in and got checked in for a haircut and they mentioned that it had been 50 weeks since he'd come in. [Little side note, it's been almost exactly 50 weeks since my last haircut] He replied that he didn't get down to this part of the country very often, and went on to explain that he is retired and that he and his wife don't have a home anymore; they just travel from place to place and stay for so many weeks or months. Next they're going to Hawaii for 2 months and then to Uma for the winter.

At this point I am thinking two thoughts: why am I working so hard to eavesdrop on all of this, and Wouldn't it be neat to talk to this guy. I already had a bunch of questions I could ask him, and I'm fairly certain I could think of lots more. This is what learning to interview does to you. :-)

Choir concert is in like two weeks. Yeaeeegks. Want to know how many costumes I have been ordered to procure? Somewhere between 5 and 20,000. At least five, anyway, and if I have any say in the matter we won't have to get a sixth one for the sextet song. It wouldn't be flattering to attempt to look like the Andrews sisters anyway. Let's also mention that these are all to fit in the first half. Ridiculous. Show me to audition for ensemble and allow myself to be volunteered for three dances. Heeeeeelllpppp.

Shenandoah

2008-04-03T18:13:00.001-05:00

I am going to borrow violet leira's idea and post a few pictures from Flickr. Jah, one could easily become addicted to browsing through endless Flickr files.

edit - whoah, I didn't even notice the pattern of the pics until after I randomly uploaded them...

You don't need me to say anything, do you? I haven't been doing much. I've been taking a couple of practice English tests for the ACT. Fun fun. The ones I've done so far are just read the essay and change the underlined parts. *sigh* almost all of the pieces are very boring. There's almost always things I would change and rewrite that aren't underlined. Perhaps it's just my particular, preferred style. Mom says I write like my dad.

I am currently listening to a recording of the book The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair. It has nothing to do with jungles or forests (who was I contradicting about lions in forests in India???) but rather is the story of a Lithuanian immigrant and his family who come to Chicago seeking "The American Dream." They get jobs in meat factories - gross and gruesome.

I liked My Antonia better - the story of a Bohemian immigrant family who ends up somewhat better off than the Lithuanian family, at least so far. Well, I don't know, I guess it depends on your opinion. I still remember the Kirsten stories from American Girl. They were Swedish?

This weekend we work the Taco Stand at the medieval fair! Oh yeah. I love Taco Stand. Making, eating, and all else. Maybe I'll get to fry!!!

In the news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080403/ap_on_re_us/odd_marriage_age_mixup%3B_ylt%3DAnd1QKl6BS5rkFrsqrg1Wx8DW7oF
And they say poor uneducated people are swindled by fine print....lol

Matthew 5:13-16 "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. "You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father."

A Weekend of Funness

2008-04-01T09:51:00.000-05:00

Do you know what I want to add in to these posts? I think it would be supremely useful, especially for lengthy posts, to be able to have each main point have a drop down list that would show that whole idea or paragraph when clicked upon.

Don't you think that would be a good idea? Haha, no, you're going to stop reading now because you're sitting there thinking to yourself, "Oh boy, she's thinking of reasons to ramble on and on..."

So this weekend was dedicated to the celebration of the birthday of one of my great friends. What better way to celebrate than with a sleepover?We watched, what else, "Enchanted!" What a lovely movie - perfect chick flick!and She's the Man, quite a funny movie. Yeah, that's a weird picture up there. It doesn't quite look like Giselle, and I'm pretty sure that's not an actual still.

Anyway, it was like 4:30 a.m. by the time the movies finished. I had little trouble falling asleep and little trouble awakening three and a half hours later when I had to get ready for Newspaper Class!!!! WoOt! :-) Let me tell you, it's pretty weird moving around in somebody else's house when you're the only one awake.

Brief interlude from partyness: We spent almost two hours polishing our stories. Mine is now completely done to my satisfaction and apparently the approval of Those Adults In Charge. It was pretty fun working in that spiffy computer lab. I'm really going to miss the kids in class. I only get to see them two more times!

Then it's down to a salon where I rejoined les filles de partie and had my nails done! It was so much fun - yes, this is the first time they've been professionally done. Least favorite part was definitely when that nice looking girl suddenly attacked my fingers with a Cuticle Ax. Painful. Blood was involved. But then I got to watch my hands turn into congealed wax which was pretty darn awesome. They are now bright red, with gorgeous glittery thumb accents of white flowers. *sigh* they told me that in newspaper writing you must zap all modifiers and clichés. Gorgeous glittery is perhaps disallowed? :-)

After that we proceeded to spend multiple hours imitating People In Half Comas Who Lie On Futons. This was followed by more boring stuff - dinner, leftover birthday cake, the movie Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream, which was quite excellent, and then sleep!

Sunday I was bushed. Church was good. We had ensemble rehearsal afterward, which was bad. Blekk. Spleooghh. Mostly it's just the songs. The first one is this bland wishy washy piece called O For A Thousand Tongues, though it's not related to the hymn. The harmonies are simple and unimaginative and the text has absolutely zero meaningful content. The audience won't remember it 4 seconds after it's over.

The other one is an atrocious medley of I've Been Working On The Railroad, Oh Susanna, Home on the Range....and a few more. She ordered us to procure one of the following costumes: a Southern lady, a cotton picker, a railroad engineer, or random overalls and straw hats. Somebody'd better wake me up quick cause you have so got to be kidding me! You think I auditioned for this shebang to get up in front of an entire audience like Beverly Hillbillies In Three Part Harmony? Uh-uh, wrong. Blast it. It sucks.

Monday was pretty good. The ice machine leaked into our math classroom forcing them to move the table and chairs to the opposite side of the room so the carpet could dry, and freaking everybody out because their perfect seats were flipped around! Noooo! World.....is.....ending!!!!! *gasp* lol It was quite entertaining to watch every single person coming into the room, tripping over and unplugging the fan cord. Apparently nobody is watching where they're walking.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T08:02:00.002-05:00

This video says it all

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

A joyful Easter to you! The king is risen from the grave! Where, o death, is now thy sting?

My life lately and my opinions of the DWTS premier

2008-03-20T08:06:00.000-05:00

Hey, we're more than halfway through Spring Break! It feels like this week is dragging on forever, for one reason or another.

Tuesday we went to a meeting of the Senate which turned out to be less than thrilling. It only lasted about twelve minutes - most of the Senators never even sat down. They simply wandered around on the floor and chatted with each other. Then they all vigorously approved the motion to adjourn, and that was that. lol.

Yesterday I spent five hours or so working on a little dance bit for Easter morning. This young lady at church has choreographed some ballet work with streamers - not a lot, but a fun little chunk that she and I will do together. If I can manage to keep my ribbon from getting all knotted up, I'll be good. So much choreography to remember! I'm not exactly happy about having do this for all three services, but hey, it won't be bad.

The hard part is costumes. After we finished dancing Melissa and I went shopping to see what we could come up with. Melissa has a liturgical crepe skirt but I don't. We managed to find one for me without too much difficulty. It matches hers almost perfectly. The leo - not so easy. We found out that not one of the not so scarce dance boutiques in town carries two matching white leos in adult sizes. How is that possible? Well, there are a few restrictions - it can't be a spaghetti strap or strapless or otherwise revealing design. Halter, maybe, depending on the cut. Mock turtle, tank, long sleeve, short sleeve, nada. Black, enough to outfit and entire company. Maybe we can find something in a pale Eastery color? Not too many choices there either. Too bad we have like three days. If we had a money tree we could rush ship something, but that would be a risk as well. Hard to judge how see through a leo will be. Grrrr.

Poor Melissa's car doesn't do too well at stop lights - think Princess Mia of the Princess Diaries - and after going all over town all afternoon, we were quite discouraged. Ah well, it will come together.

--------------

Since the girls and guys danced on separate nights, I can give you my rankings only withing these categories. When I see them all dance together, I'll mix the two lists. Sorry about the picture quality - I can only post what they give me. I'll start with the ladies, who as a group impressed me more than the guys. In order of favorites:

Marlee and Fabian

The top three ladies were all just wonderful, so it was hard to pick an absolute favorite, but I guess it would have to be Marlee. She looked so beautiful out there - not nearly as nervous as Priscilla, for one thing. She never strayed from the beat, and for a person who can hear nothing whatsoever, this is something indeed. I think I'm mostly just fascinated watching her speak through her interpretor. I happen to think that sign language is beautiful to watch, and for some reason it is amazing to me that her interpretor can translate as fast as everybody else talks. This seems silly when you think about it. I liked her partner, the only new pro this season. For him to undertake teaching ballroom dancing to somebody who can't even hear him is laudable to say the least. They were actually fantastic together. It has got to be frustrating having to speak everything through an interpretor. Are there signs for specific dance steps? Using ballet terms, as I don't do ballroom, how do you say pas de chat or coupe or sissonne in sign language?

Kristi and Mark

Very impressive, very polished. Way too good for the first week, which doesn't necessarily bode well. Number one, people like underdogs, and number two, you have nowhere to go but down - or sideways, I guess. Technically, Sabrina Bryan was the best technical dancer last Season, and she didn't even make it to the finals. Anyway, I don't care that Kristi has a lot of advantage over the other competitors. I like the costumes and the dancing and the better they dance the better I like it. You can't possibly tell me that figure skaters don't receive intensive and sustained ballet and strength training. Some dancing ability is required, and ABC knows this. I just choose to enjoy them for what they are. And it was lovely!

Priscilla and LouisAll I can say is whoah - Priscilla definitely came out of nowhere. You can always expect greatness from Louis, though, and he certainly delivered. Absolutely exquisite. Not to say they're perfect, but on the first week - shoot! I don't think I would do too well with Louis as a partner. He has such challenging choreography and demands so many risks. Props to Cilla and Louis, even if it is painful to look at that plastic face of hers. Such a shame.

Shannon and Derek

She's cute, and has potential, but I wasn't overly impressed. Her technique is okay, but I didn't come away from the number thinking "Wow! That girl's good!" It has to wow me. She was a little annoying in the rehearsal videos too.

Marissa and Tony

Besides my opinion that Tony is a little weird, this is a very fun couple. Marissa's enthusiasm and energy is unbelievable! It's impossible not to love her. The dancing though...hmmm. Not a bit of real cha cha in it - hard to tell if that's truly all she's capable of or if Tony just didn't give her enough to work with. Either way, she's not exactly America's next ballroom champion. I'd hate to see her go, though.

Monica and JonathanDefinitely the weakest of the ladies. She is rather challenged in the dance area, understandably, and it wasn't like she was terrible beyond belief with no possible with no potential improvement, but its unlikely she'll be here for very much longer. The story was beautiful, though. Jonathan is a great choreographer.

NOW FOR THE GUYS!

Cristian and Cheryl
I was absolutely thrilled with this dance. Cristian's hips and footwork were tremendous. His posture was his undoing - yeah, it needs work, but the judges threw him over a cliff for it. I got quite worked up about it, and still think he was totally robbed. Very promising. I mean, he has Cheryl - he can't lose! Mario's dancing was technically better, but I clicked more with these two.

Mario and Karina
Say, where have I heard those names before? This Mario looks to be just as good as the first. Karina is certainly the nicest she has ever been. This couple was great, and will probably go a long way. Loved the costumes.

Jason and Edyta
Edyta has grown on me each season. They sure seem to be fond of giving her bald guys! [link] [link] I really like Jason's personality, and if he can get over feeling effeminate he should do quite well. His lines are gorgeous! Love the costumes. Choreography - so so, but great potential.

Steve and Anna
Very very likable and charming. Definitely want him to stay. His dancing will surely improve - Anna's very talented, and he wasn't dreadful. I bet he'll do even better next week. If he didn't have such unimpressive choreography it would help a little.

Penn and Kym
In all fairness, there wasn't a lot of difference in how much I liked Steve and Penn, but Steve was a bit more graceful so he goes first. Penn was quite clunky and his dancing was not good, but what 50 year old has ever "waltzed" right into this show without a hitch? His dancing was more than a little reminiscent of Billy Ray Cyrus. :-) By the way, who would name their child Penn? Worse, he named his daughter Moxie CrimeFighter. Heaven help them. According to Wikipedia, unreliable as it is, he does not drink, gamble or do drugs, yet is a confessed "chronic liar." Mmmhmm, this is where you raise the eyebrows. He apparently also paints a single fingernail bright red, though I confess I didn't even notice it.

Adam and Julianne
Oh boy. What to do with these people? By the time their rehearsal videos finished and they got ready to start dancing I was ready to boot them off. This guy has got to be the most obnoxious and frustrating person alive. A lot of his comments seemed to remind me of Jerry Springer, whom I actually enjoyed. Oooh, he'd do a lot better imo if he never opened his mouth at all. His dancing was surprisingly not too awful. I watched it a second time on the internet and it wasn't horrendous or anything, but quite meritorious of a first week elimination. Keep your fingers crossed - but people will probably vote for them just because of Julianne. :-(

2008-03-18T17:31:00.000-05:00

Good morning, bloggers. Hope you're all enjoying Spring Break. Don't you love that picture to the left? What a stinker.

It's officially spring up here. The Bradford pear trees are snow white, though quickly turning green. There's a solitary redbud across the street also turning a beautiful pink. Yes, they should be called pinkbud trees.

Sunday afternoon I ran over to discover a little park I had heard about. This park is for the use of our neighborhood association, but it is very hidden away. If you didn't know it was there, you would never find it. Actually, that makes it kind of secret and mysteriously cool.

What is the past tense for swinging on a swing? I swung for a while, then tromped off into the woods and discovered a path leading to a long grassy bank on the edge of our neighborhood lake. It was lovely. I sat there for a little while and tried to simply enjoy the water and the ducks, but the ants eventually drove me away. :-)

Do you know what I would like to do? I would like to take a trip. By myself. The summer after my Senior year, maybe, just hop on a plane and fly off to a distant location where I have never been before. Heck, I'm not talking about going to France or anything - just a random state up north. I'd stay there for days and days and do all sorts of things. Walk around downtown, go to a park - probably not the mall or the movie theatre. I would go to whatever restaurants I wanted and say up in my hotel as late as I pleased watching tv or reading or writing in my journal, and then I would naturally sleep in as late as I felt like it. I would definitely order dinner from room service. I would take very long very hot showers and swim in the hotel. I would be un-useful and not worry one bit about anything. Well, that's the intent anyway. That would be a fun week.

2008-03-16T12:58:00.000-05:00

"Penelope," starring Christina Ricci and James McAvoy (2008)

So, I arranged to see this movie with a friend on Saturday. It was awesome! I had some good recommendations, and they turned out to be right on. It's not the best movie ever, but I certainly wouldn't be opposed to buying it. I'd give it about 7.5 out of 10.

I couldn't figure out why the heck all the guys were running away from Penelope - yeah she has a slightly strange nose, but it was NOT bad, she's still very pretty. Sheesh. Ricci was a little annoying, like in the scene where she begs Max to marry her, but very believable. James McAvoy was the best part of the movie - my goodness he is good looking! Whew, Middle School Moment. lol. It actually took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize he was Mr. Tumnus. I knew I had seen him somewhere.

Same for Simon Woods, who plays Edward Vanderman. It was driving me crazy. I had to look it up to find it: tada, Pride and Prejudice's Mr. Bingley.

Catherine O'Hara, Reese Witherspoon and Peter Dinklage were likewise recognized, though it took me much less time to place these folks.

Some of the plot was confusing, and not well explained, like the part about her parents faking her death and the reason they couldn't do plastic surgery on her nose. What artery was that again?

There was a small and very silent crowd watching with us. They didn't laugh once - not even at "Edward, don't lick Max!" I felt quite silly laughing, even quietly, but some of those lines were really funny! Ope - they did laugh once. At the end they all applauded, which was weird. I've rarely been in a theatre of people who applauded a movie. I guess they did like it.

----

Hope you guys have a good Palm Sunday. I'm hoping to avoid the Easter Egg Hunt, if possible. :-) It was a weird morning, as all the youth are gone to ski in Colorado. There were like 8 of us High Schoolers. HA! And that's normal at FCC. How time changes things. The fire alarm went off after church let out. It was just an accident, but everyone just stood there talking. I thought am I the only person remotely concerned about finding out if there's a real fire? Hope there never is one. Personally I'd rather just head for the nearest exit in a calm and orderly fashion and be safe than sorry. :-)

Do Not Be Satisfied

2008-03-13T14:45:00.002-05:00

Hello. Bonjour. The weather is quite cloudy today. I would love to run around outside, actually. In the rain. But it's not raining. I'm feeling like the tour will never come. I want to go! Travel! Explore! Take pictures! Be obnoxious! Annoy my friends! Splurge and be crazy because nobody will stop me! Eat lots of food! Drink Starbucks coffee! It's free in our hotel, and I have just now decided that I will drink some of it at least once.

Thank goodness for Spring Break. I will still be doing some reading and stuff on my own, but I have time off from choir, ballet, math class, Confirmation, newsroom 101, and other nonsense. Obviously I'm not so thrilled with the cancellation of youth activities. You know me - I'd have youth three times a week Spring Break or no.

Since there is no ballet Monday night, as mentioned above, I will get to watch the Dancing with the Stars premier! Oh yes, oh hallelujah. The rest of the season I will have to watch it from the computer. I believe the computer can be hooked into the tv, but it doesn't get as big as our screen, I don't believe. I can't wait to see all the couples dance. There will surely be surprises. Too bad Samantha's back! I so loved Drew as temporary host. Course, I loved him more as Season 2 champ. :-)

===============

Tuesday night at Newsroom we had a pretty busy class. We spent almost all of the time in little groups going from station to station, a definite change. This also involved changing floors multiple times. Since our little groups were traveling solo, stairs were the only option. Ha, one group found this out the hard way when they tried to be lazy and take the elevator and ended up in security! :-D Ya hafta have an i.d. to use the elevator!

My story was reviewed and corrected a second time, by a different guy. He told me several things that conflicted with what the first guy said. Grrrr. Generally I liked his corrections better, though. Either way, I think it's going to be a fine story and I know I'll be relieved when it's completed, assuming that blessed day does indeed arrive. I have scheduled one more interview for this evening so I can perhaps get a little bit more info to stick in here and there and kind of round it out. Psssrrhh, interviewing in complicated and difficult. :-P

We also got to record podcasts and vodcasts Tuesday night. Honestly I was quite stressed about this; my group seemed very unconcerned and very unwilling to do any discussing or planning beforehand. We got to go into this tiny recording studio with bumpy foam on the walls and sit around this little round table and sit there....well, talking. Into the mics. The headphones were broken, so we were denied the coolness factor of sitting there feeling like real radio people with spiffy headphones. Ha.

I would've felt much more relaxed and secure had not my stool been determined to throw me to the floor. I had to brace myself on the table the whole time to keep from swinging wildly off in a counter clockwise direction with a succession of frightened screams and the probable end result of a screwed up podcast. The world's first stainless steel bucking backless swivel chair.

Thankfully, it was quite fun and went over pretty well. Some people got off topic at the very end - I'm not overly happy about that, but hey, it was fine. The vodcasts were less fun. They sort of sprung those at us at the last minute and I had no idea what to say. I babbled on and on and made up a whole load of nonsense. There is a proverb that says something to the effect of "Better to be silent and have people think you are a fool than to open up your mouth and prove it." Obviously this is not totally practical in the given situation - I couldn't very well sit there dumbly when it was my turn to say something, but good gracious.

===============

So I was looking for a specific quote the other day and Googled the term "do not be satisfied." The results were quite interesting. Here are some of the phrases I found to complete that sentence:

...with the status quo

...with hearsay or with tradition or with legendary lore

...with the results of that person whose heart is not in his work

...with stories about 'Bill, from Wellington'

...with non-specific ‘vitamin injection’ therapy

...with mentioning the bare fact of your venial sins

...with what you have achieved so far

...with the slipshod recognition-knowledge of grammar of the "reading method."

...with pictures that are mediocre-have slides that show the iris at its best

...with merely providing an answer, go a little further than what is required

...to travel down the road of familiarity

...when you get to the end of the page

...until you receive all of the answers that you came for

...to just meet the expectations of each customer

...with excuses or poor performance

...with extracts that sometimes appear in annual reports

...until you can say, “Yes, yes, I can see the Lamb of God"

...by merely filling your own belly, try to appease the hunger of others too

...with the mere recitation of the "Metta Sutta"

...with being fresh, fragrant bread

Apparently, we should not be satisfied with much of anything :-)