Blogging

I've been reading my old blogs. Boy, I got overly dramatic sometimes. I guess my writing has its own signature. I was talking about someone I know being a writer and wondering if they could be a better writer than me. The Honey told me that they weren't, and he was very adamant about it. I asked him how he knew they weren't better and he said, "If they were, they would be published." Instead of skewing it the negative way, I took it as a compliment and vowed to start writing. I'm going to do NaNoWriMo again, even though I didn't finish last year. Maybe I can get something started.

I am both excited and dejected about writing. I want to do it. I can feel my fingers itch to type. So why do I delay the ideas that fairly burst in my head? I guess if I had the answer to that question, I would be published.

I Need New Music

Some of you may not know this, but I have a new iPod mini. It is new and old at the same time. I bought it in August, shortly after it was introduced and shortly after that, they stopped making it to make the Nano. It was for The Honey, but it became apparent that 4 GB was too small for his music. So, in a competitive move, I'm trying to find new music so that I have too much music for my Mini. *shakes fist at The Honey's new 60 GB iPod with Video, then cries silently to myself*

Any music suggestions?

Rest In Peace

Rosa Parks died yesterday. My husband said that he could feel his throat close when he read about her death. I know she didn't know how great a fire she would ignite when she decided that she would stay seated for today, thank you very much, but that action rippled through life, through eternity, to very many people. Her life touched mine, tangibly. I feel her touch when I see the Blacks Only and Whites Only signs at the Terminal Station and realize they are an extinct way of living in the south, even if some of the thinking hasn't changed. I felt her touch when my mom would tell me about living in a time when a distinction was always made because of the colour of her skin. I feel her touch when I walk down the street and can hold my husband's hand and noone has the right, or the public backing, to lynch us or ostracize us, or the right to make us feel like loving each other is wrong. I feel her touch because I can look any other human being in the eye and I never have to think that I am inferior. I'm not old enough to remember the boycotting or having to sit in the back of the bus or any of the indignities. They are distant memories that, if perpetrated now, would only be a mark of ignorance. I know that Rosa Parks didn't make all of these changes happen on her own, but she was a damn good spark. Rest in peace, Rosa.

Race For The Cure

Thanks to Kevin, I raised $25 to help fight breast cancer. Next year, I'll start campaigning earlier and I am actually going to try to run the 3 and a half miles. Maybe I'll start asking for money based on time. We'll see. Pork Chop definitely had alot of fun. I didn't let him go to the pancake breakfast because I didn't think I'd enjoy the walk with a belly full of pancake and Pork Chop's a pig when it comes to breakfast (heck, he's a pig when it comes to anything, but I digress). But we do have a few pictures.





Pork Chop is openly confused about what I am planning to do. (That's the knitting and walking part)






You can tell he doesn't think this is going to be a good idea. (You don't have to look so condescending, Pig!)







The first of many ladies Pork Chop met that day. She is walking for her mother, who is a 3 year survivor.







Katie from Mount de Sales, cheering Pork Chop on (I was uncomfortably close to her when I took this picture. Not as uncomfortably as I could have been, but uncomfortably enough.)






Tattnall Cheerleaders holding the Pig. ( I also think someone was pulling his tail - do you see the look on his face? Not his best picture, I tell you)







This is the turn around point, about 2 minutes after our first timing, which put us at about 29 minutes walking. The second timing put us at 49 minutes and we finished at an hour and 1 minute... and 29 seconds.




They both agreed that people should eat mor chikin.







Pork Chop worried needlessly. I didn't fall once (I tripped twice and made one "creative decision" by knitting one line completely opposite of the rest of the work). It is going to be a scarf, one side pink and one side blue. I will post the complete project later. All things started will be donated to Scarves for Cancer organizations.



And last,but not least.....




To: Officer Simpson(The guy on the left.). I only said I wouldn't give it to a newspaper.

I guess this page is a mite safer.

(When I took this picture, I completely didn't see the irony. Neither did they, or they wouldn't have agreed so readily.) These deputies were extremely nice and only yelled at us once to stay within the cone, but we were so tired by this point that we just waved them off and promised to use the picture for blackmail purposes.

All in all, it was a fun two hours even though I got up at 6:30am, left my clutch with my driver's license at home and had to drive back to get it, parked illegally at Kroger and ran into someone who is a really good friend of the family whom I hadn't seen in a long while. She's pleased as punch that I got me a husband and that makes me smile.

For The Fans

If you're a Pork Chop fan, never fear, he will return. Due to oversight by the writer of this site, Pig at Daycare pictures were lost forever. However, I have a few pictures that I will post soon, as well as his adventures at the Race For A Cure 5K run/walk this Saturday, in which we are participating. If you would like to donate, or learn more about it, check me out here. Pork Chop and I are hoping for your support. And if you show up, you will see the bunch of us at Team Creative Yarns knitting and walking... which is a feat, considering I sometimes find it hard to walk and walk at the same time. But it's all for a good cause.

News For A Nerd

My husband is eagerly awaiting the new iPod with video capabilities and because I'd like to think I'm a good wife (as opposed to giving in to cute little puppy dog looks and whining) I helped him get the biggest one. His should be delivered some time this week. But then things like this causes him to salivate even more. He can't wait until Thursday or Friday when he will get to unpack his own iPod.

Church

I miss communion. You know, the grape juice and stale cracker that symbolizes the blood and flesh of Christ. I don't know why I miss it, I'm not even sure of all the symbolism of it. I just know that I feel somehow bereft. I was commenting on Josh Fuller's site (link on side) about church dreams and as I was commenting, I thought about communion and felt a deep longing, like a hunger pang, for communion.

I'm sure it's more than the juice and cracker. It's discourse, study, relationship, ministry that I miss. It's communion with other believers that's not on the job, that's not in an interdenominational study where the ties are only to the materials and not the people (just yet, anyway). BSF will get better, I know. We are studying Genesis, beginnings and many of us are at beginning points. After the first fellowship, when we've gotten to know each other better, we will begin to form attachments, maybe even lasting relationships. But it's not church. We are not guaranteed each other next year. I miss the women from my class last year and I think that the other women feel the same. The one person I talk to is the one person who was in the same class with me. I still sit in the front row during lecture and talk to my favourite person for the last three years in BSF. BJ is an older woman that took on those initials in her latter years. She's so full of life and so caring. I want a church full of her is what I want. I want to be like her to others. I'm not. I am wrapped up in my own little world, in trying to be a different person, in trying to heal myself internally. Self absorbed. I should be more understanding that others are also wrapped up in their own internal healing. There are people who try to reach out to me that I don't accept. It's my fault, not theirs. Like Mr. Fuller said, I'm just rigid in other ways about other things. Maybe one day I can find a place that's rigid in the same way and maybe we won't clash as much.

I do miss taking communion though.

Babies!

No, it's not what you think. I have enough baby love going with these two. I don't need one of my own. But thanks for thinking of me.

Baby Jules and Cam, her big brother (bruva) sleeping like... babies (I thought the baby was supposed to be the one without hair).

Beautiful, sweet Haven Grace who let us hold her without any fuss. I know her mommy's glad she's so sweet.


Baby Jules again. We think she's going to keep the blue eyes. *she's so beautiful!*

Nerd News

I can't end the day (day ending when I fall asleep - and I'm very close to that) without talking about the news of the day.

Apple has unveiled their new iMac, iPod, and iTunes for the world, just in time for the holiday shopping season. You can get a smarter, thinner iMac, a sexier, thinner iPod that holds more than you could ever really need and now runs video with an impressive colour screen and a new iTunes that sells video (music and television shows) for $1.99 each.

The Honey has been waiting anxiously for this news. When I got home from Bible Study Fellowship this morning, I found him up, at the computer. On a normal day, he doesn't stir from bed before 1pm. On a normal day, I am right there with him. Wednesdays are never normal days for me, but today was especially not normal for him. Then he found he had to wait a few hours for 10am PST.

On the way to work, he gets a page from work. "Did you see the news?" his boss asks him. I wonder what's happening because The Honey works for the news. What news should we be seeing. "Yeah" The Honey fires back. I wonder what he hasn't told me. "It's sweet, isn't it?" his boss sounds highly impressed. "The iMac or the iPod?" The Honey asks. "iPod," his boss says. "I haven't had a chance to look at anything else."

So tonight I watch the Steve Job's keynote address. We don't even set aside this much time to listen to the president talk. But we spent some solid time with Jobs tonight as he explained each of the 3 acts of features that made todays "unveiling" something special. I didn't get excited until I saw that they would be selling the old and current seasons of LOST at their iTunes store, today's epidode being ready by tomorrow (Thursday). Then I got excited because the one thing I love, besides God, my husband, writing and coffee, is television. So I guess, in the end, there were enough gadgets in Steve Jobs show to satisfy every nerd in the family. Extended and otherwise.

Movies I've Seen (possible spoilers)

Serenity - Most people say that all space films are really hi-tech westerns. Well, Serenity is a true western set in space, with the Texas accents and everything. Should you see this movie? Yes. For the surprises, the laughs, and most of all, the adventure. I cried a little in this movie. That shouldn't surprise you.

In Her Shoes - I saw the preview to this movie when I watched "Must Love Dogs" (which was cute in its own right). I saw it was based on a book so I went to B&N to buy it. I saw that this woman had other books, so I picked one of each (3) and said I would buy the one that kept me the most interested in the first 2 pages. 30 minutes later, I was heading home with all three books (and a knitting magazine, but that's neither here nor there). In Her Shoes was the worst of the three I read, but it was still a very good book. It is also easy to see why it was made into a movie, of the three. It has the least confusing list of characters and build of action. Past events are talked about and told almost as a separate action to the book, a true Plot B, while the other books have so many characters, so many storylines and the past is so intricately interweaved into the present that to tell the stories the way they are truly meant to be told would either confuse the audience, or couldn't be done. Soooo, the movie, was it good? Yes. I'm a big fan of Toni Collette. It was good to see how she played the Rose Feller character, with a great deal of strength and a lot of self doubt. We get to see her transform in the movie, in a way. We see her go from insecure to confident in herself. Cameron Diaz plays a good Maggie Mae Feller, but the things that helped her move from slacker to responsible in the book don't show up here and, although they try other tactics to get us from these two extremes, they don't do it as well as the book. And the relationship with these two women never grow. Rose still doesn't trust Maggie Mae, but accepts her love and her role as little sister who will always need to be watched. Maggie Mae is okay with that. While not satisfying, it's okay. That being said, the movie was better than the book. *gasp* Can't be! But it is. The movie was clearer in some areas, like why Rose continues to take care of someone who acts like they care one cent about her. I like the idea of Maggie Mae reading to the professor in the hospital and the touches that spark vs. the book's version of her slipping into classes at Princeton. The entire Princeton scenario was awesome in the book, but I understand why it wasn't in the movie. I just wish they'd taken the heart of that scenario and added it into the middle of this movie. I cried like a baby at this movie. You shouldn't be surprised.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose - I love horror movies, but after I watch them, I am usually a bit fearful. To say that Emily Rose is a horror movie is to miss the depth and breadth. It is a courtroom drama where the truth is not on trial. What is on trial is something far more intangible. Faith, demons, possessions, mental disabilities and psychosis, etc. and who has the right to judge them. There are some scare moments. I remember one scene where I jumped, audibly gasped and covered my mouth with my hands. The girl next to me, with whom I'd gone to see the movie, did the exact same thing at the exact same time in the exact same pitch. There were creepy moments where you wanted to have already seen the movie so you would know not to be scared. I really loved this movie. I liked the themes, I like the true lack of a final answer, I liked what this had to say about people and faith and all the ways it looked at the questions it raised. Was it a perfect movie? Not by any stretch of the imagination. But I left the movie more satisfied by the ending than any other movie I'd seen in a while. I didn't cry in this movie, but then, it was a horror, so it shouldn't surprise you.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - I'm a big fan of claymation. I saw The Corpse Bride as well, although I was disappointed to know that some Corpse Bride moments were CGI. Wallace & Gromit, however, did not disappoint. Wallace and Gromit are Anti-Pesto, a humane rabbit catching outfit that keeps rabbits from ruining the vegetables that will compete in the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. A mysterious, vegetable eating giant begins destroying all of their work, so much that the organizer of the Annual Giant Vegetable competition finally decides that maybe the giant must be disposed of non-humanely. I laughed so much at this movie, that I cried. I highly recommend it because you have to see well done clay-animation like you have to see well done CGI. I laughed so hard I cried at this movie.... you get the rest.

The Corpse Bride - Frankly, a disappointment. The acting was bland, not humourous at all. I was intrigued by the almost lack of colour in the living world, and the vibrant colour in the afterworld, but I think that there were too many moments where the thoughts of the director weren't connecting with the editing of the movie. I enjoyed watching the technical aspects of the film, colour, directions, movement, emotions of the characters, etc. but the story left a lot to be desired. I didn't cry at this movie.

So there you have it. Hopefully I will be seeing the delightfully fluffy Just Like Heaven with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Rufalo and Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst (I've already teared up at the online trailers) and possibly An Unfinished Life with Robert Redford (because I like Jennifer Lopez as an actress). I'll let you know how that goes.

Cantankerous

I'm nosy. I like to know what's going on. I will question you and question you until I get an answer. I know part of it is the things that lets me interview and even intuit as a mentor, but really, it's just being nosy. The thing that helps others out now is my age and the fact that I don't want to make anyone too uncomfortable.

I am moving, however, uncomfortably close to being a senior citizen when it comes to nosiness. That is, I am really bad about being nosy. I listen to conversations now so easily, I don't even notice that I'm doing so. I am just suddenly aware that I know what's going on at the corner table. My eyes are always scanning a room looking for weird behaviour, and, upon finding it, want to know why the weirdness exists. Oh, I know others do this as well, but it's becoming a problem. If I'm this bad now, what happens when I actually am a senior citizen? When I don't care what others think because I will most likely die tomorrow? When I will just put my nose in other people's business because I'll never know if I don't. I'm afraid. And you should be too.

I do still love you all

This is an update, as opposed to an actual post.

I was thinking about starting my own milk and cookies place in a small town. The only thing I don't like about the idea is moving to the town. Don't get me wrong, I love the town and a church we enjoyed attending is there and family is there, but it's a small town and I think we would get bored with it. I don't know. I talked to my boss here, so if I decided to do it, I know I can get help from him. Also, some equipment he was thinking about buying, he won't, so I could get it for alot less. It's just something to think over. In talking to my boss, I decided that I would rather stay here and see what the future holds. I like where I am. I like the people I work with and am friends with. So we will see. I believe it's up to me.

I submitted a short story to Glimmer Train's short story writing contest. I am very nervous and feel like nothing good will come of it. Then I remember that there is some good. 1) I finished a story and let someone other than my husband read it. 2) I wrote with a deadline and met that deadline. 3) It sparked other ideas, including article ideas. 4) It made me realize that writing is much more important to me than I ever gave it space. So the main reason I've missed writing here is because I've been writing there.

I am the proud new aunt and cousin once removed of two darling baby girls. These two new babies are the most precious babies I've ever seen. We went to Michigan two weekends ago to meet the new family members. They were good babies and let me hold them and kiss their soft, dewy cheeks and smelled good like babies are supposed to. It made me know that one day I wanted babies. But not today. Today, I will enjoy The Honey and make him stay good to his promise: As long as we don't have children, we get to travel. We may never have children. But if we do, I will love them.

I started this year's Bible Study Fellowship, which means more homework and less time to play. But I love it. Anyway, that's all the update for now.