A Few of My FAVORITE Things

1. Sick days used well.
2. Going to a matinee during the week.
3. Eating too much candy at a weekday matinee and needing to take another sick day because of stomach problems.
4. Words that rhyme with "luck".
5. The patch of eczema on my eyelid.
6. Unending colds with an undending supply of mucus.
7. Feeling too sick and lazy to get groceries for a week.
8. My friend Esther cooking Indian food at the end of a week of being sick and lazy.
9. My dad's fancy new car.
10. My silly little car being stuck in a pile of snow.
11. Stressing out about my silly little car when the city has "threatened" to clear the roads and would leave my little automobile stuck until the spring - or the rapture - whatever comes first.
12. Being so dependent on a car that after having one for only eight months I feel stressed when I can't use it.
13. Jesus's birthday.
14. People celebrating Jesus's birthday with rampant consumerism.
15. Jesus.
16. The patch of eczema on my eyelid that is begging, begging, begging to be scratched.
17. Remembering that eczema can be aggrevated by caffeine - and being so in love with coffee.
18. Jesus (Happy Birthday!!!)

The Dirty Librarian Pt 2

Here is something from the Message that encouraged me soon after my terrible days:
If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face (Romans 12).
I was irritated and depressed and I didn't have a smile on my face. I think a smile helps. I'll work on smiling more.

On a different note...my dad bought a BMW. No joke.

The Dirty Librarian

I went home early two days in a row for mental health purposes because I had two craptastic days in a row. Yesterday all was well until the afternoon when a client freaked out and threatened a coworker. I was okay until I found myself on the floor with no one available and then dude passed out on the toilet and girlfriend was afraid he would seize. Everyone was dealing with police and I grabbed one to give me a hand and it was his first time in our hood and I so annoyed that I had to ask him for help - and his help was to encourage me to call the ambulance. And let me tell you, the phone call pushed me from the edge of annoyance to fully in, swimming in, a cesspool of annoyance. I was unable to articulate the fact that I did not have a cordless phone to take to dude on the toilet and that no, I could not see him and that no, I did not have anyone to help me and that I've done this a MILLION times before.
Today had no real substance as to why it sucked. I've been cleaning the back room for about three days now and I'm tired of it and I feel sick and I tend to allow myself to live in a state of annoyance when I'm sick and feeling taxed. But here's some good news: the redness has moved from my belly button to my eyes. (Yessssss!)
Reflecting on the past two days I think it was mostly pride that caused my terrible annoyance. I was really upset that I was forced to ask the newbie cop for help and I was upset that the ambulance dispatcher didn't trust my judgment and treated me as if I was stupid. I want to be respected despite my gender and age. (Being respected because of my gender and age might be pushing it a little). It's also pride that tricks me into believing that it's acceptable to be grumpy about cleaning up (other people's) messes in the back. Hmmmm... I wonder if Jesus would clean up messes with his grumpy pants on or in his humble pants. Okay. I just decided to put my humble pants on tomorrow morning.

Red Itchy Shopping Carts

I think my belly button might be infected or something. I did a little google search and I think I'm going to try washing it with salt water twice a day for 2-3 days and if the symptoms persist I may see my physician. I am going to bed right away and I'm looking forward to it. What I'm most looking forward to is lying in bed listening to the heat maker thing. It sounds like a shopping cart and at first I thought it was a shopping cart because there are carts in my hood and then I realized that it was really just the sound of staying warm. Now it's time for me to not think about my red itchy belly button and just focus on sleep.

It's Tax Reciept Time

Good news kids! One of my favorite things in the world, Candeo Housing Association, just recieved it's charitable status. We've been praying and waiting for it for what seems like forever. And we got it! Youpee! So now we get to fundraise a couple million and then buy a building and then let the good Lord heal people in the midst of community. Got questions? Want to give Candeo your $money$? Check out our site...it may or may not change your life.

Regret Regret Beget My Regret

It's cold outside and I'm inside and I will stay inside until the sun is up again. Usually I have incentive to leave my home on Thursday evenings to go to Heidi's and watch the Office - but it's not on tonight so instead I'm staying in and dreaming of the moment when I get enough ambition to get up and go to bed. One entirely annoying quality that I possess is a need for approximately 18 hours of sleep during the winter. Grrrr....
My airband party has come and gone. It was good. I really like airbands, and I really like dancing, and I really like friends, and I really like friends dancing and airbanding. One consistent problem with my parties is that immediately after the party I am filled with a sense of "oh no, what have I done?!" No seriously, what have I done? This photo is one example of "what have I done?" As you can see I am standing on a chair acting out a song with Barbie and Ken dolls. "Where it began/I can't begin to know when/but I know it's growing strong...".

BFF Birthdays

Today is my good friend, Heidi's, birthday. Happy birthday Heidi. Happy birthday. Next week is my good friend Esther's birthday. Happy birthday, Esther. Happy birthday.

In Love With Life and Air Guitar

I am so in love with community. I love sharing my life with people I love. I love that in community I am forced to live my life with people even on the days that I don't want to live. I love learning from people who are sometimes very similar and sometimes very different from myself. I love how I can give more love when I'm surrounded in loving relationships. I love that parties errupt from community. I love airbanding in community. (I love airbanding).
As mentioned on my last posting, the next airband party is coming up in a couple weeks. There's nothing like a little bit of spandex and eyeliner that brings people together. I'm terribly excited about this party. I love dancing. I love exessive costumes. I love guitar shaped cakes. I love watching people trash it up and rock out. So, here are some photos from last year (just a little tease of the event to come).








On a completely different topic, today I remembered how one year when I was a camp counselor at a conservative Christian Bible camp I convinced all the girls in my cabin to embrace the anthem: lewd! crude! slightly nude! Sigh...

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like....

So I went to my first work Christmas Party. It seems that I may have avoided previous parties for a very good reason. I enjoy my coworkers very much. But the problem with having a party with a ton of people that work together is that it isn't common interests that bring people together. No, no, no. It is a common workplace. This to me indicates a potentially dangerous social situation. Someone is bound to be unhappy with the goings on. One of those unhappy suckas was me. Our Christmas party was at a "Seinfeld" themed dinner theatre...in the mall. I KNOW! Oh well. Some people really enjoyed it I'm sure. Fortunately, I have a party that I will enjoy coming up very soon. (Drumroll please....) It's the 4th annual ROCK STARS AIRBAND PARTY Nov. 18th!! (I even rented a hall this year!!!!) Wooo!! Partay!!! It's beginning to feel a lot like airbanding...

The Sower

I went to the library today to pick up a copy of Henri Nouwen's "Peacework: Prayer, Resistance, and Community." Although I have not yet started reading the book I think I will love it. Wanna know why? I'll tell you why. For a lengthy period of time when I would think of Jesus I would see Jean Francois Millet's painting "The Sower," and then it evolved to Van Gogh's take on "The Sower". In my mind's eye, Jesus was the sower. I believe that some of the seeds that Jesus was sowing were seeds of justice. Needless to say, I was THRILLED to pick up "Peacework" and discover Van Gogh's version is on the cover. I can hardly wait for Jesus to teach me while I read. I just can't wait. Yes I can.

He's Got Big Bags, She's Got Big Bags, But I've Got the Biggest Bags of Them All

I sometimes feel like God asks things of us, of me, that are completely unreasonable. But I’ve been blessed with the gift of sight and literacy and natural rhythm. I’m reading a book by Gary A. Haugen called “Terrify No More” and it makes me want to jump up and down and crap my pants and weep for the good that takes place when the Kingdom acts as the Kingdom. Anyways, he writes about a seemingly impossible task that God asked of him and his colleagues. His words about giving God responsibility provided much healing and encouragement to me:
"If I, as a parent ask my little kids to carry all the luggage into the house from the car, they will protest that some of the bags are too heavy for them to manage, because they are. But if I say, 'Fine, I'll help you with the big ones; you carry the ones you can,' then it is I, not they, who am on the hook if they've lugged all their little bags inside and only the bigs ones are still sitting in the car. The children have done their part, but the dad hasn't done his....If I believed there was a God, and I believed what Jesus taught about him, then he was on the hook for all of this a whole more than we were” (60-61).
I want to keep God on the hook. I am weak and small and limited, but God will give me the skills and resources I need whenever I need them. If I stay connected to the Creator then I will hear that soft whispering voice, and will be given that sometimes quiet, but always immutable direction.
I also feel encouraged to have some little kids to carry my luggage. Seriously that might be a good way to fight childhood obesity.

Fashion Redemption

I almost vomited on the bus - again. I don't understand. Jesus keeps on healing me from motion sickness and then I keep on getting sick again. Maybe it's just to keep me grounded. I mean you can't go far if you can't go anywhere without puking. The worst thing about it today was that it was on the way back from the mall. The mall. I hate the mall. I had to return something for my brother at the mall. Blah. Maybe God was trying to tell me something. Maybe I am being asked to hate the mall less and start a shopping ministry of some kind. I could seek out awkward junior high kids and teach them a lesson about fashion while drawing a little diagram of a great canyon. One side of the canyon is for unfashionable heathens while the other side is for God fearing hotties. To get on the side of hotness, all one needs to do is allow Jesus to bridge that gap. Hmm... it makes so much sense now. I guess I got sick on the bus for a reason.

End of the Century

I feel like it's the end of the century. I just finished a contract. I started my first blog. I went out with work people and liked it. Change is in the air. It smells a bit like smog.
At work today I was told that I do the "straight man" very well (ummm... that sounds way sexier than it was). Apparently that may be due to my generations' need to be cooler than everything to be cool; to like things for irony rather than actually liking it for what it is. I disagreed. I said, "listen, my favorite movie is 'Saved'. Mandy Moore is in it for crying out loud. I can like nerdy things for what they are. I do not need to like something ironically to feel cool". Then I realized that I like it because it's terribly sarcastic and as a Christian who dislikes Christian culture I like it because it reminds me that I'm cooler than everything Christian. Mmmm...