Ahhhhh relaxation....

So it's been a week since I finished my masters degree, and I have done absolutely nothing productive. As a tribute to this new found level of laziness, I thought I would list out what has occupied my time this last week.

1. TV. Really, I had no idea how relaxing and wonderful TV can be.

2. Reading. I pulled out a nonsense book that a friend let me borrow. It has the wonderful smell and the crackling of the plastic that always covers a library book. I was in heaven!

3. Cooking. It really is fun to put more effort into dinner than just "heating up" some leftovers or eating a bowl of cereal.

4. Cleaned off my desk. I finally went through and trashed every paper that had anything to do with class. I'm ashamed to even acknowledge how many pages of assignments, journal articles and rough drafts I tossed, but my desk is looking positively amazing!

5. I finally set up my Google Reader. Right now I have mostly "field" feeds for librarianship, but don't worry....I'll be adding some more that cover the really important topics like celebrity gossip. For now, however, I'm enjoying just scrolling through article and article knowing that I don't have to read it and won't be graded on my summation of the thesis!

TV therapy

I remember a time when my brother and sister and I would be in our pajamas on Saturday morning, eating cereal out of what now would be called cool retro bowls while watching cartoons. Our little black and white tv use to sit in the bookcase and we would gather around right in front of it. It was magical! A few years ago I decided that I would stop watching tv all together, use my time wisely and be productive. I thought I was wasting my life with hour after hour of tv shows. Although you know what, since then a lot of life has happened. And frankly, it's changed my mind about a lot of things. I like tv! It relaxes me and makes me laugh. The RIGHT kind of television anyway. A friend of mine recently blogged about this same concept. I only watch fun and light-hearted comedy sitcoms. I know that seems surface and simple, but that's the kind of therapy I need right now. My friend Kelli said it perfect, life is too short.

I don't enjoy watching about crimes and murders (fact or fiction), the medical dramas, unsolved mysteries and the like. Instead, I enjoy hearing laughter, witty banter, and watching friends and families interact in regular life kind of ways. I enjoy escaping from my current responsibilities for a few minutes to get some feel-good moments of therapy. It's only made better when I get to sit around the same living room (although the tv no longer sits in the bookcase) with my friends or family. I think it's as magical as being 5 years old and watching Saturday morning cartoons!

No Tylenol PM for me :)

Refreshing Sleep
"So He giveth His beloved sleep" (Psalm 127:2).

Ours is not a life of anxious care but of happy faith. Our heavenly Father will supply the wants of His own children, and He knoweth what we have need of before we ask Him. We may therefore go to our beds at the proper hour and not wear ourselves out by sitting up late to plot, and plan, and contrive. If we have learned to rely upon our God, we shall not lie awake with fear gnawing at our hearts; but we shall leave our care with the LORD, our meditation of Him shall be sweet, and He will give us refreshing sleep.

To be the LORD's beloved is the highest possible honor, and he who has it may feel that ambition itself could desire no more, and therefore every selfish wish may go to sleep. What more is there even in heaven than the love of God? Rest, then, O soul, for thou hast all things. Yet we toss to and fro unless the LORD Himself gives us not only the reasons for rest but rest itself. Yea, He doth this. Jesus Himself is our peace, our rest, our all, On His bosom we sleep in perfect security, both in life and in death.

Sprinkled afresh with pardoning blood,
I lay me down to rest
As in the embraces of my God,
Or on my Saviour's breast.

Taken from "Faith's Checkbook", by Charles Spurgeon

Tragedies of Life

So this week I started to notice a lot of Facebook activity about a sweet, little girl named Ava, but I didn't fully understand it right away because I'm only friends with certain people. See, I went to school with a great fella named Joel. His brother's little girl has just been diagnosed with brain cancer. This is difficult for me to understand. But even more than that, I don't understand how, after reading both Joel and Josh's blogs, they can still be functioning upon hearing such life-altering news. God's strength alone. And I'm not talking about some vague, super natural power that 98% of the world believes might be out there....I'm talking about the God of Abraham, the God of the Old and New Testament and His perfect son Jesus Christ.

God does not give us strength to handle the tragedies of life 5 years before they happen or even 5 minutes before they happen. If we draw near to God, He is walking with us through each step of life. So if or even when certain tragedies happen, we have His strength and peace in that exact moment. This is why worrying really is purposeless. I worry about things like cancer, losing my job, never marrying, dying alone and a myriad other little things. Truth is, I might go through cancer, never marry, lose my job AND die alone...and that's ok. Such things seem overwhelming, scary and impossible to handle if I let myself worry about them. This is because I haven't been given the strength to handle them today. Today I simply have to handle today. Let those days, whenever they might be, handle themselves.

This is the day which the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

Freedoms

Dear Ottawa Citizen,
In lieu of your recent statement regarding Ann Coulter visiting your university to debate politics, let me remind you of the purpose of university campuses, both in the United States and throughout the world.

1. The freedom to access information.
2. The freedom to spiritly debate.
3. The freedom to speak.

Instead you have chosen to have your university campus be a campus that, and I quote, "promise(s) our students a safe and positive space. And that's not what (Coulter) brings."

Education should never be based on these principles. Knowing only one side of an issue is neither safe nor positive. And hearing what others have to say is obviously not what Canada brings.

Sincerely,
Freedom Supporter

Letter to the Company

Dear Parts and Fittings Company,
I realize you've been supplying the industry with parts and fittings since 1901, but please stop sending me your giant 3,856 page catalog with over 480,000 parts and fittings. I don't want it. I didn't ask for it. You make me feel like I'm chopping down a tree and throwing it away myself by not keeping it. All of your catalog numbers and corresponding fittings are online. I know how to Google.
Sincerely,
Online Shopper

Returning to Independence

I read an article today about how Bin Laden urged his followers not to do business with American companies and to let the dollar fall into insignificance. He said that by boycotting American products it would also lessen our ability to fund the war on terror. Financially speaking, he is right in that respect. If countries no longer accepted our aid, purchased our goods or sought to do business with Americans, our economy would drastically falter. But it got me thinking of this on a grander scale. What would happen if countries stopped purchasing American products. What are legitimate American products these days anyway? Would this change us?

It would. We would no longer be able to borrow money. If we can't borrow money then we couldn't purchase imported items, and we wouldn't be able to fund our military as it has been. I think it would dramatically change the image of what America is today, but the America I love would return to take the place of this America that is seen today. Oh we'd probably look a little rough, but we would be forced to grow a spirit of independence once again. We would not rely on other countries for our finances or our consumer products. I would consider this true liberation!

I don't want to be giving aid to countries that despise our economy, our capitalistic ideals or our religious freedom. I don't want to be driving a car that comes from a country that mocks us. And I certainly don't want to be buying plastic uselessness from a country that mass produces it, even if it only costs me 25 cents. I'm not sure there is an actual solution to this calculated house of cards we've created where countries are dependent on each other and enemies are doing business with each other. If nothing else,though, I plan on boycotting them long before they boycott me.

iphone, or well ifired ;)

So the iphone has been in my possession for a short while, just 5 days. The problem with the iphone is that it's way more fun than working, doing school work, cleaning the house, potentially even hanging out with friends. This is a problem! Life can not simply be an iphone, right?! But the fact that I can battle it out against the computer with a game of Risk, listen to Christmas music, email my friends (since I'm clearly not hanging out with them) and receive phone calls all at the same time is really quite marvelous.

Thanks to all of the wonderfully free apps, it's amazing anyone gets anything done anymore. I discovered Jingle Jumble this morning. I'm almost on level 3 and frankly, this has become my new goal, well that and making sure all the christmas ornaments line up appropriately in Fuzzle or all the little fuzzy balls can be flung in the right direction for Fling. And if it's this or place orders and make travel arrangements for faculty, well they're just going to have to wait. Becuase if my hangman dies or my checkers aren't kinged, or even worse, pac-man doesn't survive the maze, well there's just no point in living.

You're gonna miss this....

So yesterday I was driving to dinner like I do every Wednesday for girl's night, and I started flipping through the radio stations. I flipped to the only one playing a song and started listening. It was a country song, and I probably came in as it was halfway done. It didn't matter though becauase I still managed to get the idea of the song. Before you know it, I was getting all teary. So along with the song playing in the background, I started thinking of the things I would miss about this time. They are too many to count for these are definitely some good times. I know the future is inevitable, and eventually I'll have the job I have been going to school to get and a house of my own and so many other things that I have wanted. Until then though, I want ever so much to appreciate the time I'm in right now and the things that are here, for when it is done...I'm gonna miss it.

You're Gonna Miss This
She was starin' out the window of that suv
Complainin' saying i cant wait to turn 18
I'll make my own money and I'll make my own rules
mama put the car in park out there in front of the school
and she kissed her head and said i was just like you

your gonna miss this
your gonna want this back
your gonna wish these days
hadn't gone by so fast
these are some good times
so take a good look around
you may not know it now
but your gonna miss this

before she knows it shes a brand new bride
in her one bedroom apartment and her daddy stops by
he tells her its a nice place, she says itll do for now
starts talkin bout babies and buyin a house
daddy shakes his head and says, baby slow down

cause your gonna miss this
your gonna want this back
your gonna wish these days
hadnt gone by so fast
these are some good times
so take a good look around
you may not know it now
but your gonna miss this

five years later theres a plumber workin on the water heater, dogs barkin, phones ringin, one kids crying
ones screamin and she keeps apoligizin

he says they dont bother me ive got 2 babies of my own
ones 36, ones 23, huh its hard to beleive

but your gonna miss this
your gonna want this back
your gonna wish these days
hadn't gone by so fast
these are some good times
so take a good look around
you may not know it now
but your gonna miss this

I must have a sexy voice....

I don't know what it is about placing orders with these fellas, but the following conversation was definitely a hoot!


Him: Where are you located?
Me: Florida
Him: Ohhhhh I love forida. Let me tell you...I was just recently in Florida, not but 10 minute drive from the ocean.
Me: Oh yes, the ocean is beautiful.
Him: Ohhh I was there, and as I was walking along the beach, I just said it couldn't get any prettier than this.
Me: Oh well you know, you do kind of get use to it after years of living here.
Him: Well, Babe, if I was there..we'd be going, you have got to do some fishing at night in Florida.
Me: Did you just call me Babe??

Latest developments with school work...

1. Was assigned an ILS product review
- I googled "ILS"

2. Was assigned a SWOT analysis of a current company
- I googled "SWOT"

3. Was told to post regarding Clarion's OPAC system, Pilot
- I googled "OPAC"

4. Was asked how my internet connection is created at home versus my local library
- I googled "proxy server", "IP address", and "Routers"

5. Was asked to define "Symbolic-interpretive" as an inspiration for organization theory
- I googled how to get an MS degree in two weeks by mailing a check for $5,000

a poem

Ode to a Yellow Jacket

There once was a yellow jacket, alive and well
Until that fateful day into my shower he fell

All pretty and yellow with rings of black
It's sad that for survival he has no knack

Round and round the water did swirl
"You've stung your last!", said one very sweet girl

Resistent til the end, this critter did struggle
His life in my hands, I carefully did juggle

All too soon it was over from one final crush
And into the toilet for a really quick flush

Really?

I can't help but chuckle as to the great lengths companies are going to these days to assist people in never learning how to cook. This is the latest and greatest development, microwaveable rice. Is it really so hard to put a scoop of rice in the rice cooker, add some water and turn it on? Is it because we are increasingly impatient? I believe this Uncle Ben's package is advertising that it can be "cooked" in 90 seconds. That's definitely quicker than my rice cooker, but seriously, is this as good as it gets?

What's so wrong with learning how to cook a couple dishes? I'm going to be old-school here and speak just to the ladies. I know you're busy managing everything from work to the house, but it really doesn't take that much to learn! Although I have to be honest, if the saying is true that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach then I do believe I'm beating out my competition hands down just by knowing how to boil water ;)

random insight into my mornings....

So every morning, my dear sweet kitty Shakespeare practically breaks down my bedroom door in order to be near me. He is not a very noisy kitty, but as if on cue with my alarm clock, he begins to meow so loud and so mournful that I always think something is wrong. Every single morning, I greet him with a little trepidation about what I might find to be the problem. He meets me right at my bedroom door, waits for my feet to be right next to him and then begins to take me on a journey through the house.

I always wonder if he's trying to show me something terrible or if he is desperately trying to alert me to something that's going on in the house. I treat him as if he's Lassie about to show me where Timmy is hiding in the well, or in this case if something has happened to Annabel. I follow him around as he keeps pace with my feet. Inevitably, every morning he leads me directly to the same spot...his favorite window. I lean over the table in front of it, pull the blinds up just enough so he can see outside. He settles in on his cozy blanket that sits on the table and curls up.

And yea, I'm starting to wonder if perhaps I'm the one who's Lassie ;) Maybe Shakespeare can train me to bring him treats on command next.

Life: the not-so-understandable part

It's an interesting thing trying to make sense of that which is difficult to understand. It can come in a myriad of forms from the jobs we lose, the people we love who die too early or our most heartfelt dreams being deferred. It leaves me with a yearning for life to be simple. If I could just make my life more simple, rather than dealing with all of these complications then surely these unplanned events won't happen. If I could just organize things a little more and have everything in its place then life will always continue on the track I want. It's even tougher to realize that no matter how organized, with it, put together and simple I try to keep things, that it is not chaos but God who reigns supreme.

It takes practically nothing to believe the Bible to be true when everything is going well, after all its a common thought that God is simply a god who blesses. To have faith, always believing God makes the most perfect of decisions for my life in order to cultivate me more like Himself, it almost hurts it's so difficult! In Jeremiah, God promises us that He has plans to prosper and not to harm us. It's a beautiful thing to know that God sees the beginning, middle and end of my life when He says that. He knows what direction to steer me in so that no matter what the circumstances, the best possible outcome can become...possible.