CATS

I hate cats. HATE. I hate hate hate HATE cats.

A cat has taken to living on my property. Last night it tried to come in my house while i was getting my mail....in fact, it put it's catty little head right where i was going to put my foot and made me scream at the top of my lungs. Today i came home and it was sitting on the exterior window sill on the front of my house. Wouldn't fall off when I banged on the window, either.

I HATE CATS. This one has a collar, a tag, and disappears for days at a time, so i think someone is just LETTING it roam the neighborhood. KEEP YOUR FRICKEN CAT IN YOUR HOUSE, freaks.

Food for thought/conversation

Okay, the fun thing lately is to start very odd conversations. Here are some ideas:

*When is it okay to date a crack dealer?
*If you're a teacher and dating a crack dealer, could you lose your job?
*Who owns your birth certificate?
*If a government official takes/loses your birth certificate, can you sue?
*Should pot roasts ever be pink when they are done cooking?
*Who should Meredith pick?


In important MN-topical news: Are you voting YES for the transportation amendment?
Go here for info: www.voteyesmn.org
Basics to know:
*The amendment makes sure that 100% of the money from motor vehicle sales tax goes to transportation.
*At least 40% of the money will be dedicated to public transit.
*It's a transitional plan over five years and will allocate an estimated $300 Million to better our transit systems
*IF YOU VOTE FOR GOVERNOR AND DON'T VOTE ON THE AMENDMENT, YOU'VE VOTED NO. (so if you go to the polls, but don't weigh in on the amendment, you voted no)

Ask me if you have ANY questions!

Fritos

i just ate half a bag of fritos. MMM fritos. :o)

Bears Win! :o)

Starting off a great season....we're 3-0. Yes, the first two teams were pretty soft, but we just beat the Vikes who had a tough start to the season. And did you see we actually had an offense??? YEah grossman...keep it up! Announcers were talking that the Bears could be a force to reckon with if grossman becomes a solid QB. So, we'll see how it goes...but for now, 3-0! :o)

Big news...Veggie Tales were on NBC today! I think it may be a regular thing as they are also advertised as an option for saturday morning cartoons! Look how far they've come!!! I watched about two seconds and it was definitley one i'd not seen. YEAH!

So, it was a big TV watching day..leave me alone...i napped too! Anyway, there was a commercial for that new show Hero's (or something like that...) and a comment caught my attention. Someone asked why we feel a need to understand miracles or unexplainable things....what drives that need to know? We talked in church today about which master we are serving. There are only two....and are we sure we've given the correct master the reins? So...what about this? Where does the need to know come from? I think it depends. Do we "need" to know because we're scared of the possibilities? Scared of what trusting the bigger picture/plan that God has for us and that's why we need to know? Do we feel more important because we have an understanding of something that's not widely understood? Does it give us meaning? Purpose? Pride?

I'm not saying it's terrible, I just thought it was an interesting thought.

To do this week:
Feed My Starving Children on Tuesday, 8pm. Let me know if you want to come.
Bake lasagna.
Cook a pot roast.
Make signs for the library.
VB clinic!
Grey's Anatomy on Thursday! WOOHOO! :o)
Start a non-profit org.

I don't know why I made a list.
Today I got lights for my kitchen.
Time for bed.
G'night.

GA Eve

What. A. Day.

Traffic.
No togo coffee.
Few students.
"not liked"
Bad numbers.
"snippy"

Made some cupcakes. Watched some TV. Grey's Anatomy on tomorrow....SEVEN PM! (not 8pm...oops).
I need a VB team. NEED. Not want, NEED.

Interesting article - http://storefrontbacktalk.com/story/091606movie.php
"Perplexing popcorn payment problem" (amazing alliteration, eh?) - but seriously. What is the future of the movie theatre as we know it? As I was reading the article, I pondered - would I really want an experiencial movie theatre? It brings to mind visions of that feature at Walt Disney World - i don't know what the film is now, but when i went it was Honey I shrunk the Kids and you had the mice tails near your ankles and the wind and the smell and the etc. I don't like that. I don't necessarily want to be cold when the characters are cold, or wet when they're wet, or whatever. I'd be willing to pay more to NOT have that happen thank you very much. The draw for me is that it's something outside of your house to do with people that isn't necessarily high in energy. I'll go to a movie when i want to see a friend but we're not really up to dishing life with each other for two hours over coffee. To some extent it's the nice, "i need to see you so we keep the friendship moving along but i don't necessarily have anything to share and we're not really merging friend groups or we've done the hang out over coffee/beer so much that it'll just be nice to be next to each other and not have to engage" thing. Is that the total 21st-century, digital, anti-social behavior/viewpoint? So what if it is. Am I totally off base?

I read a different article recently about the dropping price in LCD/hi-def/flat panel TVs because of the grown interest in the home theatre. It seems the consensus in Best Buy type stores/vendors/take on customers is that people aren't as in to going to the movie theatre and would prefer to stay in and view the picture. Maybe. The whole claim of the above article was that just as music can be downloaded for free/cheap, so will new movies soon be available in formats other than the traditional movie theatre upon first release. Do I care? I don't necessarily HAVE to see a move in the theatre to enjoy it - again, it's all about another "event" option.

Or, to look at it all from a different angle, am I just completely off base as I'm totally not a popcorn at the movies girl? I don't know if I've ever gotten popcorn at the movies....and extend it to concessions in general....only when the guy insists (so cute)! So maybe I've totally missed the boat - any thoughts on this one?

Last.
*You're invited to my house, tomorrow, for Grey's Anatomy Season Premiere. SEVEN pm. Call me for directions.
*Also - do you, or anyone you know in the twin cities area, play volleyball at an intermediate level and are you (or your other vb-loving friends) available to play wednesday nights from mid-october to mid-march? Seriously call me - i might go crazy without at least one team)
*I need a grand gesture. Any suggestions?
*Prayer for the "__".

Love.
-R(as in totally Random tonight)

Art or life?

Question of the day at work - Is advertising inspired by life, or is life inspired by advertising?

Interesting. It's simmering. Perhaps there will be thoughts later.

Question of the day at not-work - Why are people so vindictive about things not related to them?

Interesting. It's been simmering. Thoughts now: There is a certain group of people who, if they read this might identify themselves (hopefully), as people reacting to a situtation that involved a friend of theirs. This group of people was never involved in said situation except as distant, stand-offish, judgemental, third-party observers who attempted to share many opinions that were disconnected and off-base as they were "referece above description of involvement". Because of their friend's reaction in and to the situation,and their previously conceived notions of the other related party (me), there is now a divide of sorts that is being established. I, although not the victim by any means, am seen as a certain sort of person by this group and as such, am being shunned. Ditched. Dumped. Excluded. It's lovely. May I just state that not one of these individuals (nor anyone but their friend and myself) knows the exact situation. And as they are not privy to all facts and related information, they should fricken mind their own fricken business and go back to being nice people!

Other questions -
*Do I like the new shoes I got today?
*Where do 2nd to 5th graders come up with such good questions like wondering what would have happened in Adam hadn't eaten the "apple"?
*If I'm experiencing this quote (Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else. - Ogden Nash, American Poet) at age 24....does that mean my life is half over?
*Is it weird that my first vacation with a boy is with my friend who's engaged?

In case you were wondering, Grey's Anatomy is the best show ever. No matter how crappy life seems, they always have it worse. A boyfriend with a wife? Being dumped by the guy who got you pregnant? STDs? Not even picking a dog that's good for you? Killing someone? It could always be worse, couldn't it.

We do get fall here, right? All the colorful trees in the autumny sunshine? I sure hope so.

Radical Secularism?

I'm on a prayer/praise distribution list at work and received an email last week requesting praise "that a name for a key force in opposition to people of any faith, especially Christian faith, has been identified: Radical Secularism" and prayer that "we would have true Godly and Biblical wisdom, individually and collectively, to share the Truth in love as a response". The email then referenced this "article", http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/aug/06081102.html

I'm not really sure how I feel about this. This: The whole email including the praise/prayer request and the article. The website. Radical Secularism.

I was listening to KTIS, and only KTIS, for about three weeks straight this past month. It was tied with my whole "not drinking/evaluating who I am" thing in an attempt to focus completely and wholly on my faith. After about three days though, I was hit with the same thought I got a lot in crusade, or youth group, or the Christian bookstore workplace - is it propaganda? So many of the "news" stories centered on religious "stuff" - this school was banning the Ten Commandments, this teacher got suspended for praying at school, this church had a problem with one of it's pastor's, the war is a sign that the end times is coming, the fight in Israel lines up with this particular Bible passage, etc etc etc. For three weeks I thought the big news stories all had to do with faith/religion/church. The message was clear - our world is heading down the tubes.

So, what?
Is our Christian sub-culture that we've created to keep us in touch with God actually keeping us out of touch with where God wants us?
When we're so focused on the religious news (that yes, is important), are we missing the actual hot topics of our day that might be of more interest to those around us?
Are we focusing more on tomorrow than we are on today? The present?

We're called to not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worry of it's own, but to live in today.

So. Radical Secularism? C'mon people. Anybody remember Sodom and Gomorah?? We're talking angels getting hit on for random, one-night stand orgies. How often does anyone of us, or anyone you know, or anyone you work with, or anyone you've ever even ridden a bus with, visit a city and not be able to make it through the town square without an escort because there's a reality that if they're alone they'll be gang raped? How often? That was an every day reality in Sodom. So is our world getting worse? Are we really more sinful than we were at the beginning? NO. Sin is sin is sin. Maybe people are more creative now. Or maybe, we have this new thing called the internet, a relatively new thing called TV, and a little less new thing called radio that is calling our attention to the violence, the murders, the rapes, the realities of war and it SEEMS as though the world is getting worse.

Now you're asking what exactly my point is or my opinion or what the heck I'm trying to say. I guess I just get worried that we get so caught up in improving our Christian sub-culture, understanding of "how we're in the end times", and making sure that we label everything right (radical secularism, rampant oversexuality, growing sin rate, etc), that we miss the point. Yeah, it's important to know what our situation is. But people, it hasn't changed. We're called to love, not to judge. Live in the space you've been given. Love in the space you've been given. Radical secularism? Woop-de-doo. "They" put a name on what we're facing.

News flash: Radical secularism is just a fancy name for The World. Or, in keeping with our overly-dramatic sub-culture, the realm under rule of Satan.

Bottom line. I don't have anything against KTIS. Or Christian websites. Or Christian news programs. Etc. Etc. Etc. I just want us to use the same filter we're hopefully using on everything else in the world. There's a lot of news slant out there, and just because the organization is Christian, or religious, or claiming to be one of those, doesn't mean we should just swallow whatever they say without scrutiny. Just for irony, I'll pull in an end times reference and mention that we're supposed to be watching for wolves in sheep clothing. Too often, I don't see that happening. So, be diligent, do your duty: be a sieve, not a sponge.

unsent mail

I was going to keep this blog very blase, very non-personal, very opinion only, if you will. I can't. But I will keep this to a short post.

I have a stack of mail I haven't sent. I can claim it's my current inability to find my stamps and my stubbornness to purchase more when I know I have at least 10 dollars worth of stamps in a box somewhere, but mainly it should be attributed to my current state of apathy - or more correctly put - my feeling of inability to impact anything. There are a lot of situations in my life that are "broken". I feel like I could fix them all if I could just be heard. But it won't work. I could send the mail which would be an attempt to get through, but I know it won't change a thing. It will be perused and then tossed. I could send out millions of cards and letters into the world, but it won't fix the friendships, the relationships, the work situations, the lack of meaning in all that I do. And so, the stack of unsent mail continues to grow.

Is this a stage in life...a search for meaning? Is this the proverbial, over-played, totally lame claim of a quarter-life crisis? Don't get me wrong - I know the meaning of life (a rather bold statement, I know, but I am solidly confident). But sometimes all of the other stuff of earth gets in the way. It claims utter importance, makes me feel lost, unimportant, un-impactful, and wandering around looking for home. The feeling of wanting to go home is one that's haunted me since freshman year of college - not home in the sense of my parent's house, but Home: Where there are no problems, life is easy, there's nothing to worry about, you're loved unconditionally, you belong. Maybe what I really mean is that I want to be twelve again. Or eight. Or five. Is that what Jesus meant when He called us to have faith like a child?

Birthdays

I was thinking today about birthdays because my Real Simple magazine was giving recommendations on ways to make memories with your family. I know I complain about how strict my childhood was, but I really was blessed. I have many fabulous memories of fun, special times with my family.

There were so many things my parents did to make birthdays special! I was homeschooled through third grade, and each year on our birthday, my Mom would give us the day off from school. We would go to a museum or get to play outside all day or do special projects - something to make the day extra-ordinary. Also, on our birthday, my Dad would wake us up early and take us to McDonald's: just the birthday girl/boy and my Dad. We hardly ever went to McDonald's and we would hardly ever get our Dad to ourselves (there were four of us) - so it was a huge treat. Something we continue to this day is that the birthday person gets to pick what we have for dinner and the type of cake my Mom makes. The birthday person sits at the head of the table and eats off of the "You are Special" red plate (I think it's a blue "celebrate" plate now since the movers broke the red one on the way from Madison).

My most distinct birthday memory was when I turned ten. I think it was one of the last times my Dad did the birthday breakfast at McDonald's (I would get the hotcakes - no sausage - every year...it really meant I'd grown up when I could finish all three). We were sitting at one of the tables, my dad was on the booth side, I was on the swivel-chair side, and my Dad was talking about how grown-up I was getting. I was super excited because it was the first year I was in double digits. He said that there were two different presents that Mom and he had decided I was old enough to have this year. First, because I was growing up, I wouldn't be spanked any longer and would instead be grounded if I misbehaved (doesn't sound like a positive since it was dealing with punishment - but you have no idea how great it was) AND I didn't have to drink milk with dinner any more! The orange glass filled with milk each night at dinner was the bane of my existence and made me dread dinner-time each day, so to not have to deal with that pretty much made the next eight years of my life the best ever.

The other birthday related memory my parents created was also really neat. I prayed to accept Christ as my Savior on May 31, 1985 (a night I still can clearly remember). Each year my family would not only celebrate our birth-birthdays, we would also celebrate our spiritual birthdays. We would have a special dinner and visit Vine and Branches to pick out a book or cassette tape for our spiritual birthday present. I was collecting these book and tape combos where you would listen to the tape and turn the page when you heard the beep (I wonder were those are now!). Each one was a different Bible story. Not only was the birthday celebration a great reminder of the decision I'd made, it also made me evaluate if I was growing in my faith as my birthdays were counting that I was getting older in my faith.

I feel extremely loved when I think back on birthdays and other memories in which my parents really went out of their way to make my childhood special...but I also feel nervous that I won't be able to make the same impression on my kids someday. My parents were amazing and I wonder how they came up with all the different things they did....was there a book or a class or something? They really put a lot of thought into how our family worked and I guess I am just realizing that all of my memories weren't an accident but were planned with meaning, intention, and foresight. That's pretty cool.

So yeah, birthdays, family memories, traditions....maybe I should start a list of stuff I'd like to do with my kids someday....

Twin Shout-out

First, to clarify, this is not a post about the Minnesota Twins. Indeed, they won tonight, but so did the Sox (go Chicago!!!). :o)

Instead, my friend Erinn's latest blog entry referenced the suprising number of questions she receives about if she's related to someone/an old friend/looks just like so-and-so - her unrelated, unknown, Twin(s). I too, oft receive the questions of "don't i know you?" or "are you related to so-and-so?" or "did you know you look exactly like ?" This line of conversation, however, brought to mind a related situation I encountered on my first trip to Lincoln, Nebraska.

I was visiting my friend Mariah one summer during college - in fact, it was the summer after graduation...my last months of freedom - in her hometown of Lincoln. We'd spent hours catching up and touring her old haunts - high school, camp, paint your plate, etc - when we decided we should also spend some time shopping. We headed down to the mall area - a newer conglomeration of stores - and first stopped at Journey's, the shoe store. We were perusing the merchandise when I spied a cute pair of shoes that were, unfortunately, unpriced. The store clerk, having just listened to my question about the price of said shoes, looked at me and said, "oh honey, we don't have those in your size." Now, one might jump to the conclusion that I must either have an extremely large or an extremely small pair of feet - however, they are a rather common size eight. I gave him a strange look and apologized questioningly, "I'm sorrry?" He replied, "Oh, you're in here all the time and I know we don't have those in your size." What?! Stunned, my only reply could be, "I'm sorry, this is my first time in Nebraska....I've never been here before!" Crazy! The shoe store guy, Mariah, and I all had a good laugh and we headed on our way.

Next stop, Banana Republic. After spending a solid amount of time rifling through sale item after sale item, I settled on a cute pair of pale pink capri's (yes, I am girly, it's a good thing). Proceeding with check out, I got out my card and prepared to pay - partially prepared for the obligatory "Would you like to use your Banana Republic card and save 15% today?" Instead, however, I was greeted with: "Hello! How are you? You know, for as often as you shop in here, you should really open a Banana Republic card!" Startled, I exclaimed that I'd never been to Nebraska before and certainly not to this store but that I'd just encountered a similar remark down the street at Journey's! The clerk laughed and said that I looked exactly like another woman who regularly shopped there!

So, not only do I apparently carry a striking resemblance to quite a number of women in our country, I also have a shop-a-holic twin running around Nebraska! The even funnier thing is that my mother had a similar experience in college and actually ended up meeting her twin - who really did look just like her!

I wonder if the science community conducts studies about things like this....are there facial characteristics that lend themselves to a sort of perceived duplication? Is it physical or is it more carriage and personality quirks? Do some people have several non-related twins while other have none at all?

Kickin' it off....

I've been itching to start a real blog for awhile, and now with my house wired for the 21st century (today I got internet!), I am able to do so without "wasting company time." Woohoo! :o) I've had my share of internet blogging sites - more in the format of online journals (and who really cares to read about the trite, sad, details of my semi-(okay, very) pathetic life...no one) - but this is my first foray into "serious" blogging. Are you super excited?! I know I am!

To further your opinion of my "still living in college" mindset - I'd like to make a reference to facebook and a plug for the removal of that ridiculous "live feed" feature that highlights the fact that I really do "waste company time"...thanks, facebook. So, sign the petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/faceb00k/petition.html), join the group (Students against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)), and if live feed is still a "feature" - boycott on September 12.

Okay, enough of the juvenile delinquency. Let's get down to business. Today I'd like to start with the topic of grammar. I know, I know. "Our generation has no regard for grammar or spelling." "We've maligned the English language with our texting and emailing." Blah, blah, blah.

No, what I'd like to discuss is the issue of all the other generations (i.e. the baby boomers, generation X, whatever the other older people are, etc) who are in management, supervisory, paid-way-more-than-me positions and who can't tell the difference between they're, there, and their! Insure vs ensure! Later vs latter! The proverbial whether vs weather, affect vs effect, ben vs been! I mean, c'mon people! These are standard rules of the English road! I understand a slip-up every now and then in an email - especially in just out of college, low profile, low-key, peon type of positions. But to see this in management?? Really? Does proofing an important presentation really take that much time? Does getting the message out really supersede your interest in not looking like a moron?? I'm not even touching on the poor punctuation, passive sentences (of which I am sure I've written several even in this post), sentences ending in prepositions, fragments, run-ons, etc that I see on a regular basis. Perhaps you would say I have high expectations - and yes, I do! But are they too high?? I would say, No. If you've been able to climb the coporate ladder, one would hope one of the necessary skills to make it to the top is an ability to communicate. Is it wrong to hope that the individuals affecting (see how I used it?) my company's profitablity can successfully navigate the English language?

My hope is that high paying management positions are free for my taking if this is an example of the standard (or lack of standard) to which we are held! Coporate power, here I come!