Memorial Day

I had a great memorial day, especially because it was a day off. After breakfasting with a friend and then going for a 10 mile bike ride, I spent some time at the beach doing my Greek homework, did a little shopping for clothes for a wedding, visited the local lighthouse (more on that later), and finally in tribute to those who have served our country and given up everything, I went to the local cemetery to pay my respects and pray for our soldiers, sailors and airmen currently deployed abroad. As I was walking through the cemetery, I came across the graves of 6 brothers and one of their wives. It took a moment to work out the relationships, but it was amazing. All six had served in one of the world wars, 3 in navy and 3 in army. The two oldest served in World War I according to the stones, and the 4 younger in World War II. The crazy thing is that all of them survived to an age of at least 80 except for one of the middle brothers, who died in 1945 in the army, I'm guessing at one of the battles. What a testimony of love and support for a nation; a whole family. It was incredible.

Things People Say

Yet again, the radioisms speak from work. This time we were listening to a station where the DJ decided that it would be a good day to have an English vocabulary lesson. Meaning that people could call in and give unusual words or their favorite words. Hmm. She then shared that they were eating cheesecake in the studio (making many listeners jealous of that graham cracker crust) and she says, "This cheesecake is contagious." After correcting her vocabulary (I think she was going for addictive), I laughed a lot. Later on, I tried to figure out if there was anyway a cheesecake could be contagious (have to think of something at work), and figured maybe if there was a food fight, one could use that term, but it seemed a bit of a stretch. Dad thought maybe if the cheesecake had some sort of fungus it could be catching, but I don't know. Anyway, watch out for the words you use, that you actually know what they mean. (My brother used to make us go look up words in the dictionary if we used them and couldn't tell him what they meant.)

The other thing I heard yesterday was in the bookstore. My friend and I are looking at magazines and these three guys walk by us, maybe seniors in high school or in early college. Here is what one of them said. "Are we ready to get out of the bookstore? I'm bored. I don't know how to read anyway." I laughed after they left the store, although maybe I shouldn't have if it was indeed true that he could not read.

Radioisms

Dj's on the radio say some interesting things sometimes, but today, they outdid themselves in a good way. The guy slips in this comment in the ten seconds before the next song. "Tomorrow is yesterday in two days. Think about it." It took 2-3 seconds and then my coworker and I started laughing so hard. It was kind of a duh statement, but it was really funny how it was slipped in.
There is also a song being played right now, and one of its lines is "Life ain't always beautiful, but it's a beautiful ride." How true it is (and obviously from a country song because of the interesting grammar.)

A Freak Out

For those of you who don't know, I have a few paranoias or things I don't like so much. Here is an example for you. Today at work, I was working at the sink by the entrance into our workroom. As I was calmly taking the hard boiled eggs out of the ice bath I had put them in to cool them off, I saw something orange on my shoulder. Hmmm....I thought, I wonder what I carried that was orange. As I turned my head to look and see what I had carried....the orange spot moved and I realized it was a spider about the size of a quarter. Needless to say, I freaked out a little. I just started brushing at my shoulder furiously, and of course that is when my co-worker walked back in. I was impressed with his reaction. Instead of laughing and asking what I was doing, he asked what was wrong, and I said spider and pointed it out now on the floor. (It's dead now.) So then, I felt like things were crawling on my for about 10 minutes or so. Yikes! I'm not fond of spiders (I have been bitten by a few, and it is not pleasant.)

Perserverance

Today was pretty windy here, and it was really noticeable when I went running today. At the beginning, I had to control my speed to keep the wind from pushing me along, but on the way back (uphill I might add) it was against me the whole way. It made me think about life (what do you do when running but think and try to breathe), and how one has to make a conscious effort to perservere through it despite the winds of change or adversity try to blow you back or make you swerve off to one side or the other. At times it is not easy to continue pushing on despite the resistance, but infintely worth the reward at the other end. The wind does eventually stop blowing or become more gentle.

Happy Anniversary

So, I shamelessly stole this pic off my bro's site. My parents are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary this week, which is really fun. They are a wonderful example of a godly Christian marriage, and it is crazy to see them become more in love as the years continue. Congratulations mom and dad!

My Moving Analogy

I was walking along the ocean one day a month or two ago, and realized that I had made the transition to my new home. It came to me as an analogy, and I thought I would share it with you.
The analogy is of how a wave on the sea correlates to my moving here to the ocean. I'll try to put it into written word, although that is not my forte. When I was finishing up culinary school, I knew that I was on the edge of something, like the wave just as it reaches the point when it starts to form. As the wave actually starts to form and heads toward the crest, that was my application process, and knowing after I sent it in that God was going to have me move here, just as the wave knows it can do nothing except become a wave. As the wave starts to crest, I see the rocks (the coastline here has lots of rocks) that represent all of the hardships I see in store with moving: loneliness, no church, no friends, no clue why I am here, no place to live etc, but like that wave, once it starts, there is no way to go but forward towards the shore. So, forward we go and crash against the rocks, knowing it will get better, but knowing it will hurt to reach that point beyond the rocks. Then, the wave washes up on the shore having gotten past the rocks (with God's amazing love, help and provision) and is home on the beach. But just as the water from the wave recedes back into the eddying waters between the beach and the rocks, so I still struggle occasionally with the gentler current of the rocks instead of the crash onto them, but I will eventually wash back onto the shore, knowing that someday I will ride the wave in again.I thought of that analogy one day as I was walking along the beach, and it was the night I realized that this new place has become home (for now anyway.)
I took this picture along one of my favorite beach walks. It would seem spell check is not working so sorry for any glaring english mistakes.

A Crazy week

I had the craziest week last week. I'm currently enjoying a lovely, sunny day off. Last week was a work 6 days for at least 9 hours a day if not more, then on my one day off, I drove up to my hometown to visit my bro, and then on Satuday, drove back up for a BBQ and down the next day in time for work. All I can say is that it was such a fun week, for all the hours i put in. I highly recommend finding something to pay the bills that you enjoy doing, because it makes work so much fun. It was great to see my brother and hear about what is happening all over the world.

Spacing

Sorry, the spacing in the prose peice below didn't transfer over when I posted it. Sorry about that.

An Attempt

This is an attempt to put into words my current favorite thing to do, especially when it is sunny. I have no clue what genre it is except maybe prose poetry, or just writing with interesting spacing. I attempted to put in a picture, but don't think it worked. Hope you enjoy.

It calls

Beckoning me near

prompting me to follow
The murmurs I can't resist.

It salutes hello

With a crashing plume

on rock near the shore.

How can I withstand

the seductive waves on the shore,

And the peace of the Creator,

Coursing through

The deep inner part of my heart.

Calming the restlessness.

The wild, untamed part of my heart.

Full of energy and the chance to live.

I sit transfixed.

Watching the writhing sea.

Breathing in salty spray,

As the mist caresses my face.

It is these moments of calm,

Peace from the Creator

Given only through nature,

That helps draw me to the shore.

I pull myself away,

Blocking the seduction.

Waves calling,

Beckoning me to stay.

I turn my back.

Returning home with peace.

The restlessness at bay,

Until the beckoning calls me again.

A Laugh

If you want to laugh, click on the burning hearts link to the right and take the evil laugh lesson. It made me laugh really hard, but not evilly. I'm not even going to try, I'll just take over the world with no evil laugh while he is laughing.

Reunion

This weekend I went back to my alma mater for a reunion for one of the clubs I was involved in. It was so much fun to be back in the town and see friends that I've lost touch with, but wanted to contact. It was great to see everyone and spend time catching up, but I was so tired by the end of it. One of the staff on campus when I attended school there, spoke about living life after college away from the Christian community that we had there. It is not easy to be a light always in the workplace, especially after being there for several years. Anyway, he made a great analogy. You know when you watch a movie like, remember the Titans, Rudy or Hoosiers and at the end they tell you what the people went on to do, and eventually you get to one player who has gone nowhere in life, in spite of the potential that was there. Be a person that can continue to perservere through life no matter what happens while reaching the potential God has for you in Him. It was something like that, and it doesn't give the quote justice, but hopefully you get the picture.
We also got to have a time of worship with the guy who used to lead it. He just released a CD so if you want to hear what it sounds like go to this site.
It was fun, but I was so tired from talking to so many people (definitely not an extrovert) that I pulled over on my drive back home to take a nap. Sad but true.

Further Reflection

Upon further reflection, Silent Hill was still a disturbing movie (more than the horror film it was supposed to be), but it has sparked a lot of conversation about what the movie really was about and deeper or symbolic meanings of what the movie was about. In fact, we had a really good discussion over our lunch break about Heaven and Hell because of the movie.
In other news, my boss came back to work. I highly recommend not getting shocked that badly, and definitely not if you used to have the nickname sparky, because this is not the first time you've electrocuted yourself at work.

A Poll

Ok, so at lunch the other day, I was catching up on my Sunday comics, while two coworkers were talking at the table. There were some really funny ones, and in the tradition of my family, some of them were laugh out loud funny. My coworkers just gave me funny looks, and I asked if they laughed when they were reading the comics. To my surprise, they both told me they never read them, even as kids. Something about it taking too much thought and not really getting the jokes. I was flabbergasted that there are people who don't read the comics. So, here's my question on the poll. 1) Did (do) you read the Sunday comics and 2) Do they make you laugh?

A Movie Night

So, last night, I went with some friends from work to see a movie. Normally, my one friend picks out great movies, so when she said we were going to see a horror movie, I said sure. Word to the wise, do not see Silent Hill unless you want to see a really twisted and disturbing movie, and the end kind of left you hanging in what happened. Even my friends thought it was disturbing.