gratitude.

Today during worship, Butch's words wrapped themselves around me like a giant bear hug, the kind that you just need, and they don't let go. With every sentence the tears were inching upward, my chest was getting tighter, I gave my best low key sniffle, and I did everything not to think about the inevitable, the last Sunday I come to Living Hope, the last hope group I have with my essentially second family. And THEN, Butch closed with a video interview with a church member that turned my inconspicuous corner eye rub into crocodile tears. I hope Heather puts it on her blog soon, or it becomes available on the website, because this man's words were so true and sincere you could feel the holy spirit breaking hearts and melting fears. So lets see how many more times I cry during church when I think about leaving before August. I highly recommend downloading the podcast of today's sermon, or you can find it here.

in the words of relient k...

...opinions are immunity to being told you're wrong.

I thoroughly enjoy studying politics and world affairs.

With that said there is an integral aspect that I absolutely loathe even thinking about. And by loathe I mean I hate it more than the texture of mushrooms and velour track suits combined. What is it?

PUBLIC OPINION.

barf.

Some love keeping up with the latest polls and survey results and analyzing what that could mean for such and such policy or candidate or the president. But I think, polls, questionnaires, etc. and intrinsically and severely flawed, (In my opinion, mainly by the subjects themselves - the public. Yes, I'm debbie downer about my faith in the American public to give an educated answer.) and even more than that are the way results are presented. I'll just stop there. Anyway, I saw this ad a couple of minutes ago on washingtonpost.com and thought this was a prime example of my frustration. I think it speaks for itself.

how gorgeous is this?

So, I love decorating. Even though most of the time it's only in my head because, well, lets be honest I'm a little short on rooms and money. But with the knowledge that I will be living somewhere new next fall comes the opportunity to create at least a new bedroom sort of from scratch, which excites me to no end. Anyway, I read a few interior design blogs and this picture was featured in one today and I think it is absolutely adorable (you can click on the picture to see more from the company). So, I've decided I want one for my new bedroom, but I know I'm probably going to have to buy a plain form and either paint or drape the design I want on it, because they don't even list the price of this one, its only listed as being sold at some ritzy store in London, so I'm not even inquiring. So, I'm on the lookout for a really cheap form, but hopefully one with a semi pretty stand. Rachel, you're such an avid seamstress, any ideas where to look? I'm thinking maybe ebay...

just a few of my favorite things.

I'm really hungry right now and I don't get off work until 7, so here's what's on my mind:

1. Cool Whip (Free). I could seriously eat a whole tub if I had no self control. But I usually just put it on top of frozen raspberries.

2. The Laughing Cow cheeses, especially french onion, which I discovered thanks to Courtney.

3. Sonic's new double berry smoothies - very delish.

4. Bread.

5. Cheese enchilada's from Mercados.

One man's humble quest to follow the Bible as literally as possible.

I read this book over Christmas break and it was enlightening and entertaining to say the least. As some of you may know, I'm a sucker for memoirs and this story of one Agnostic man's year of "Biblical" living in New York City is a great read. It is very frustrating much of the time but not because of his own doing but because I so wanted to track down this guy's phone number and tell him, "You're missing the point and you can't help yourself and I feel bad for you!" But then again, he is very clear that he is not spending a year living for Christ, so inevitably his legalistic end result is not going to satisfy. But I recommend this book, it gives a look into how Christians are perceived and a generous amount of Biblical history.

remembering Jerusalem.

I meant to blog about this organization a few months ago when I found it but I just forgot. I heard about Rosa Loves through Relevant magazine. Part of their mission statement is this:

We hope to encourage individual people to get involved in the community around them on a somewhat tangible scale. We will accomplish this by providing financial support to those in need by infiltrating the t-shirt industry with a
new perspective of how clothing can serve a purpose other than outfitting. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a need. By using art and creativity, we hope to foster hope and encouragement through the aid of apparel. Each story will be told through stimulating graphics and actual text that will appear on the inverse of the shirt directly in line with the heart, where the Rosa Loves movement stems from.

Basically they see individuals with tangible needs in their area, i.e. a new walker, a new home, a meal, and create these shirts with graphics unique to that person's/family's story and sell them to meet that specific need. When they raise enough, that shirt is no longer available.

I was talking with a couple of good friends the other nite, one of whom is apart of a very active Christian organization on campus and he talked about how busy he was last semester with a large service project they were doing and how the spring project usually "tops" the fall one and he was having doubts about the effectiveness of the large project and all the resources it took compared to doing several smaller, local projects. When considering, Acts 1:8,

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

I think it is easy to only think of the "end of the earth" part, especially as a college student when speaker after speaker presents amazing opportunities to go serve Christ in far off places. I can definitely say I am guilty of not reaching out enough to the people I come in contact with on a daily basis.

food for thought.

As someone who tries to moderately keep informed of current affairs on a global perspective, I find myself often times as the "Debbie Downer" in groups of friends when hot topics come up such as any one of the African states in crisis, the war on terror, global warming, immigration, etc. I find myself in this position because most argue a) without knowing the complete story, only what has been fed from usually a single source and b) without taking into consideration circumstances beyond the seemingly "narrow" topic of interest.

The truth is that our world is ever more inter-connected than ever before and it increases exponentially everyday. Just for example, the conflict in Darfur is largely managed by the President of China, Hu Jintao whose country is largely choking on its own twofold growth, its extreme pollution and skyrocketing economy. The United States borrows billions of dollars from China largely to finance the war on terror, and therefore takes no action against them on either front, Darfur or global warming, other than mild lipservice. This is just a minuscule example of how nothing is "single-issue" anymore. But getting to point of this post, there was an interesting article titled, "5 Myths About Breaking Our Foreign Oil Habit" from the Washington Post this morning that I feel illustrates this point very clearly. And just a disclaimer, while I realize that solutions are very complex and encompass much more than meets the eye, I do not subscribe to the school of thought that we should just be apathetic, quite the opposite actually. I hope you find this enlightening.

mysteries of the world, vol. 1

Why do businesses sometimes keep only one of their two doors unlocked? Does the manager find it humorous to watch people essentially smack into the other door? As good as I am at creating explanations in my head for things, for this one I'm only drawing a blank.

One time in Wehner, not the main entrance, but another one, there are two sets of double doors you have to walk through. I went to one, it was locked but the one beside it was not and then for the second set I automatically went for the door right in front of the one I just entered but it was locked and its opposing one was open. Its a dumb thing to make you peeved, even if only for a moment, but maybe one day I will find out why this exists, or maybe you know.

Oh, and p.s. there is no promise that this "mysteries of the world" series will ever make it past vol. 1.

back to the grind.

I've been back in College Station for a couple of days now and I already have 3 post-its with scrawled and crossed out to-do's on my desk. In addition to the normal, back in town chores, I'm working on researching Austin area high schools, as well as skimming possible price points for apartments, reworking my resume, and as of today possibly finding a new job.

I have a meeting tomorrrow to discuss grad school this summer, career fairs this spring, and everything I need to do to be ready to be a legitimate teacher come August. I'm not stressing about any of the things its just placed a lot on the back burners of my mind. Oh and I suppose on the front burner is a pseudo fight with Alltel, but never mind that.

I kind of wish I was just in the "real world" already.

receding urgency, redux.

It's always a little depressing to me how quickly the holidays end, for something so grand you would think there would be a little more of an emotional hangover, but alas it doesn't seem so, only a rush to look ahead to the next thing.

If you don't know what that is for you, stores are already jumping to help remind you with promotions for the corporate holiday of all corporate holidays, valentine's day. Just fyi.

I've been a little absent from the blogging scene for the past few weeks. Once I hit the pineywoods of east texas, napping on the couch became an activity I looked forward to more than writing about the happenings of christmastime in tyler, texas. Yes, the chronic laziness set in, my rush mode evaporated, and all was well with the world.

Christmas was wonderful and I enjoyed the time with my family. We always do what I call, "big family Christmas" all day Christmas Eve at my Grandparents' house, and then just the four of us usually on Christmas Day. My dad came to wake me up at 7 on Christmas Eve morning and told me to hurry and get up because a main water line had burst at my Grandparents' house and now the 32 people would be coming to our house in mere hours. I helped my parents tidy up and start prepping. Two of my cousins have 3 kids combined under the age of 4 and they are all adorable, one I got to see for the first time, I really love spending time with kids, they're so refreshing. Around 8:30ish people started to either leave or follow us out to our property in the country to shoot off fireworks, which some of my boy cousins and my sister along with my uncles and dad did with vigor while the rest of the females watched and reprimanded. Christmas day was good as well, very relaxing with the 4 of us, my Grandparents from the day before, and one aunt and cousin who were still staying with them. I love my big loud family.

I also went to the Alamo Bowl with a few friends and overall it was a fun trip, the game a little disappointing but, eh, I'd say we're all used to it by now. However I did have the best hot sauce I've ever had at a restaurant on the Riverwalk, Courtney, you and Josh need to go to Rio Rio, our food was good, but the hot sauce was amazing! I wished I could have bought jars of it.

I'll blog more later about some other things, including a book I read over the break that was insightful and generally misdirected but a worthy read.