Just thoughts.

Last night I was watching a television program reviewing various events and pop culture happenings of the new millennium. It wasn't on the History channel or anything so I wasn't expecting any particularly serious material. Imagine my surprise when the segment on 2001 closed with a piece on September 11. The focus was on how the country banded together. Far-left leaning comics said with very serious looks on their faces that they went out and bought American flags. Another commented that she saw a man standing by the side of the road that day, and people who drove by were honking at him to show their support. She said she cried all the way to work and when she got their, she called her dad and told him that she finally knew what the flag stood for.
Now it's several years later and we've all gone back to hating each other.
It's not just Democrats and Republicans bickering with each other, though. It's Republicans fighting over whether or not they really support John McCain. It's Democrats still bitter about the way Hillary Clinton was treated by the press, paving the way for Obama to take the Democratic nomination. We fight over the war. We fight over the economy. We fight over the environment, abortion, gay marriage, immigration, torture, oil, whose television channel is more biased, religious "tolerance", evolution vs. creationism, and even whether people should be allowed to homeschool their children.
It was not that many years ago that everyone was getting along for a few weeks. In our state of shock and our surge of patriotism we acted like humans and put our differences aside for some civil conversation. We were reminded that there are more important things going on in the world than telling everyone who will listen, as loudly as we can, "I'm right and there's nothing you can say that will convince me otherwise". It's really depressing that the destruction of buildings and the deaths of thousands of innocent people is the only thing that can make us think of others, and of our likenesses, than to think of ourselves and focus on our differences.

Next time I'm going to Indiana, I want to go somewhere flat.

So...I went to my friend Jonny's wedding yesterday. It was cute. It was outside and outside and I don't get along very well, but it was beautiful. He looked handsome, and his bride Sam looked stunning (guess what shoes she wore? Knee-high white Chuck Taylors. It was cool). The first song for the processional was "Come What May", from Moulin Rouge (I love that song!) The whole thing was pretty. It made me want to get married like, right now. Only if now were winter and we were inside rather than outside in the humidity and bugs.

May the happy couple have a beautiful life together.

*sniff*. I feel old. But happy for them.

Oops

Perhaps I should have waited to upload the pics, as they are more exciting than this. But I find surveys to be irresistible.


A)Age- 20. Ugh. Someone asked on a survey the other day where I will be in 20 years...I thought, ewwww I'll be 40! Gross.
B)Burger of choice- In Washington D.C. I was introduced to a restaurant called Ollie's Trolley (I think). The burger and fries were absolutely fabulous. And we don't have one around here anymore, and that makes me sad.
C)What kind of car you drive- an Escort with a spoiler, which costs me an extra $100 in insurance every three months. Because it's a "sport car". Ha.
D)Dogs name- Polo. And Diego, and all the others.
E)Essential item you use everyday- Toothbrush.
F)Favorite TV show- Since it's Friday night I think I have to say The Soup.
G)Favorite game to play- Erm...I don't know. I don't play them that much.
H)Hometown- Louisville. "Tha 502"
I)Instruments you play- At one time or another I have been able to play at least one tune on the piano, violin, guitar, and harmonica.
J)Favorite Juice- sweeter stuff that often includes mango, passion fruit, etc. No orange!
K)Whose butt you would love to kick- I could make you a list
L)Last restaurant you ate at- Taco Bell
M)Favorite Muppet- what an odd question. Floyd, I suppose. Of the Electric Mayhem.
N)Number of piercings- I have had my ears pierced many a time. But I'm down to just one in each lobe.
O)Overnight hospital stays- I think just the week that I had surgery in 8th grade.
P)People you were with today- Brandon and his little brothers, for most of the day.
Q)What you do in your quiet time- Sleep
R)Biggest regret- holding on to things for too long.
S)Status- Idling.
T)Time you woke up- Sometime between 7 and 730. I would love a nap.
U)What you consider unique- I don't know...unicorns?
V)Vegetables you love- Most of the ones I've tried. But there is no place on my plate for cauliflower. I don't even know why it exists.
W)Worst habit- opening my mouth when I shouldn't.
X)X-rays you have had- about a billion. Most for my back.
Y)Yummy food you ate today- The Icee at the zoo was good until it got rain in it. Then it was just weird.
Z)Zodiac sign- Apparently I'm a taurus

Icee's just aren't the same without a straw.

I got a new camera. And I got to go to the zoo. These are two very exciting things. Here are some pictures. Enjoy.

Sims! Oh joy!

I have an illness, and it is called "addicted to Sims." Or rather, Sims2.

For those of you who don't know, it's pretty much the most addictive, fun computer game ever created, and it's completely pointless. You make people and move them into houses, and they live there. They go to school or work. They have relationships and pets and can even cultivate a vegetable garden.

Because "Sims 3" is supposed to be coming out next year (I won't be getting it because it looks to advanced for me), EA Games had said, according to wikipedia, that the last expansion pack they put out (Freetime) would indeed be the last one for the Sims 2. Today I went to their website to take a look at the next Stuff pack (new furniture and clothes) to be released next week, and apparently they have changed their minds and decided to create "Sims 2: Apartment Life". Which looks really awesome and exciting.

Will it ever end? A secret, slothful, video-game loving part of me hopes it never will. And I don't even play right. I never let my people grow old and die. I use cheat codes to get them more money so they don't have to live in a dingy shack until they have the funds to furnish a home to fit their seven kids. Half the time I don't even make them go to sleep (cheat codes). I just make people (usually mildly famous, like the Duggars and their...nineteen kids, is it now?
Or the Huxtables from the Cosby Show). And then I get bored and make yet another family and play them for a few weeks.

It's exciting.

I have no life.

Help!

I just realized that I have nothing to read on vacation.

I have this marriage book that I plan on taking, but that's no fun. I mean, it might be, but even if it is, it's not enough.

Do you have any recommendations? Here's a messy description of what I like.

*Fantasy novels, but nothing heavy. Neil Gaiman is pretty good. Think like Willow, or the Princess Bride. Not Sci-fi, zooming around in space ships kind of stuff.

*Love stories, but nothing like "romance novels" or sappy, fluffy stuff. I prefer books where there's a love story but it's secondary, or it's not really the focus of the story but it's still good and still important, like Sarah Dessen's books, or Meg Cabot before she got boring (or I grew up. Whichever.)

*Biographies

*Harry Potter (have yet to find something comparable. And if you recommend something, chances are I've read a recommendation for that book already and tried to read it but didn't like it. No offense)

*The Great Gatsby and Jane Eyre are my favorite so-called "classics".

Also, I have read everything by Jodi Picoult (by the way, if you haven't read her stuff, do it. Read "My Sister's Keeper" first) and liked about half of her books, and all the hilarious Georgia Nicolson books by Louise Rennison. Funny things are good. Very good. Actually I prefer humor over all other genres, I suppose. Particularly British novels with hilarious, self-deprecating characters (see Louise Rennison).
And one thing I hate: all those generic Christian fiction books with the concerned-looking women on the cover that are so alike you can pretty much switch the authors' names around and you wouldn't know the difference (Beverly Lewis, T. Davis Bunn, Janette Oke, etc.). Particularly the Amish ones. I don't know why, but I just can't stand these books! I find them boring and predictable. Which is sad, because I wish I liked them. Now that I think about it, the only author of "Christian fiction" I can think of that I always enjoy is Frank Peretti.

Anyway. If you have any suggestions, please, feel free to share them!

Happy belated father's day.

Based on some information that has come to light over the past 24 hours, I know that work today is going to be both hectic and stressful, for several reasons. If you think of it, I'd appreciate a quick prayer that I would not only be able to handle it, but that I would stay in control of the things that come out of my mouth and that I think before I speak. This is often an issue for me, and there are several things I could open my mouth about today, but I would probably get into trouble. And that would not be good. As much as I complain about my job, I both need it and kind of like it sometimes. Getting fired would not be good.

You bet it's the happiest place on earth.

Vacation is in 12-ish days, and I think I am excited. Well, I am because I don't have to work for about a week and a half (yay!). But I wasn't excited initially because of what we are doing on vacation. For one, I am supposed to help my mom work the Deeper Still conference in Atlanta. I'm all for swarms of women going to see lady speakers talk about God, but working? On vacation? Not something one normally does. Anyway. After we do that, we are supposed to go to Daytona beach in Florida. I hate the beach. Sand is icky, I can't swim, and I am not built like a swimsuit model. I am pudgy and pale. Not a good combination for the beach. Plus manic stingrays and killer sharks live there. I mean, I've seen Jaws. And I just loved Steve Irwin. Oceans are not safe.

Then about a week ago it was announced that we are indeed planning on visiting Orlando one day during our trip. I immediately started doing a Disney dance around the kitchen. I love Disney World. Even if we aren't vacationing there, we plan to go to Downtown Disney, which is this place with like, the world's largest Disney Store, and some fun restaurants (one is called the Earl of Sandwich. Ha.) and an ice cream parlour and all sorts of other fun things. It's like taking an animal lover to the zoo instead of on a safari. It's not the same, but it's a small taste (a fun one) of the excitement. And while we are in Orlando, we might as well stop by the gigantic mall and go to the Sanrio (HELLO KITTY) store, right? Right.

The other day, my parents call me into the kitchen and my dad says that he had a dream that we went to Disney World. So he's figured out that if we take one of our cars, plus a rental car, to Atlanta, then take my aunt's van to Florida, we would be able to go to the Magic Kingdom for one day. Oh. My. Gosh. We don't know if it's going to work out (to be truthful my parents are sounding less and less optimistic about it) because it would rely on several things. First, my brother would have to agree to the plan. Then we'd have to get my aunt to okay it, and get her to let my dad drive and my mom ride up in the front seat. Mom talked to her the other day and she said that she doesn't have air conditioning in her van right now (ew) but she plans on getting it fixed before we come down there. Still, the stability of this transportation is up in the air. We don't know how reliable the van is. I hope it is found to be suitable because I really want to go to Disney World. Of course, I'll be fine if we don't, because we'll still go to the Sanrio store and Downtown Disney. But if we don't I'm not going to get to go again (probably) until my honeymoon, which right now looks about another year and a half away. I haven't been since I graduated high school in 2006. I swear that place is like a drug. I need another hit of happy. Consumer driven, capitalist, fairy tale happy. *sigh*. This situation calls for a little bit of magic pixie dust. If only such a thing existed....

Speaking of Disney and related happiness, I've picked out my wedding cake topper. It's not a cake topper, though. But I will make it one. Because it's cute and I want it. Do I have it yet? No, but I hope to, soon!

Isn't it adorable? They're wearing Mickey Ears!

It's important and secretive.

I am having a rough time.

There are a couple things in my life that I could/should change, could/should get rid of, etc.
If I did so, my life would be drastically different than it is now. I don't know if I'm up for that. I don't even know if these things really need changing. Right now, though, I'm feeling like they should. Maybe it's just me being dramatic. Maybe it comes from having a bad day. Week. Year. I don't know. I know that I really need to just let go and give it up to God. It's going to be difficult. Even though I can't give details, I hope that you'll pray for me. Giving up control and leaving things to chance (you know what I mean) are not things that I am good at. It's going to be difficult. So...yeah. I need guidance, and prayer. And perhaps a bit of divine intervention.

Jesus in the news

Item #1:
So there's this church in...I think it's one of the Carolinas. Anyway. A trailer with 75% of their stuff was apparently stolen (don't ask me why their stuff was in a trailer and not in their church. Or if you know, maybe you can comment and enlighten me). Bibles, communion stuff, lots of their possessions. So they posted donated billboards with a slightly controversial message:
The church then uploaded this video, which I thought was cool. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I think that the guy still sounds a little bit bitter, but it's what he says that's important. I hope that whoever stole their stuff not only returns it but sees Christ through the church's forgiveness and they give their hearts to God.

Item #2
This story is a little older, but it's still really neat. Two guys from New Zealand ran out of fuel while flying their small airplane, and they prayed about it because they are Christians. They came to a safe landing right next to a sign that says "Jesus is Lord". I think this is very cool and very funny.

In case you're interested...

In case you were curious, have an extra half-hour, and/or really like church, I found the link to that special Wednesday night service on Heaven that my mom and I talked about....here.

I fell in love with a grocery store.

I had a fairly exciting day...
This morning we had a yard sale. For the past several years I have been...required to sit outside with my great-aunt and sell my parents' stuff. Despite spraying myself twice with sunblock, I am pretty badly burned (for some reason, just on the right side of my body). And it was very overcast, albeit hot, today. Anyway. I put a bunch of my stuff out for sale and was hoping to make enough to buy a new pair of glasses, or at least pay for a significant portion of them, as I'm trying to save money for vacation. Sadly, I only earned about $13. And I had dad buy a television for Brandon at another yard sale (which I have since found out was a really stupid thing do to, as implied by the fact that Brandon didn't sound very excited about it, and continues to mainly sound frustrated, even though he's been jokingly asking me to buy him one for a while) for $15. So technically I'm in the hole.
Anyway, Kelli came and sat with me most of the day, for which I was grateful. She is burned too. Unlike me, she was not surprised by this. Afterwards we planned to go to World Market, which is an amazing store (I like random collections of international food). We ended up going to this neat little Asian grocery store on the way, where I bought not only a mango-flavored Hello Kitty drink, but two boxes of animal crackers. Only instead of being shaped like lions, tigers, and bears (oh my), they were shaped like Kitty and her family. It was very exciting (it does not take much to amuse me, apparently). Then at World Market we found several very exciting things, and I got a little thing of lemon curd (sounds disgusting, actually delicious), some sticky rice, and three bottles of water. They were in exciting containers and were from Norway, Wales, and..somewhere else, I don't recall. The packaging was neat. And Kelli and I love bottled water.
After purchasing shopping baskets full of interesting-looking water, we headed to Whole Foods Market. I have never actually been in there before but it's where they shop on Top Chef, and I absolutely love that show. I was wowed, to say the least. I am a person who likes food. I like reading about it, cooking it, tasting it, and watching it on TV. There was a lot of food here and it was much more exciting than any grocery I have ever been in. The cheese section alone was awe-inspiring. I got some edamame and MADE MY OWN PEANUT BUTTER. Yes, apparently you can do that. It's like those coffee grinders where you pick the beans and then put the end product in the little baggie, only a million times better. Trying the big, growling, grinding machine was intimidating, but Kelli and I each bought a little container of honey-roasted peanut butter and I must tell you that it's quite delicious. I am looking forward to eating it on crackers or something at a later date.
So despite having one beet red and stinging shoulder (that would be the sunburn- I haven't contracted some horrible disease. I don't think...) I am pretty content with my day. It was fun. And I hope to be financially stable and blessed with a large grocery budget in the future so I can join the elite in purchasing my pancake/waffle batter in a convenient air cheese-style can (yes, they had that, too.)

So I think I might start to do reviews on this thing. I love movies. And I love books. And I love music. I like telling people about these things, and recommending them to people. Hopefully it will work out.




Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen


Ruby Cooper has been sent to live with her estranged sister after her mother basically abandons her. In the years they've been apart, her sister, Cora, has married the founder of a popular social networking site and is living well in a large house in a gated community. Ruby has never dealt well with people- the fact that she could never depend on her mother has influenced her to never depend on others. She also has social issues. Through the course of the book, Ruby begins spending time with a neighbor, stereotypical popular optimist Nate, and even inspires her jewelry-making employer to start creating necklaces similar to her own: a simple chain with a key. Throughout the story Ruby uncovers some secrets her mother kept from her, and discovers that Nate is keeping a secret, too. Predictably, by the end of the book, Ruby learns that you can't go through life without depending on friends and family.
I only give this book three and a half stars because I know Sarah Dessen can do so much better. This is one of her longer books, and it took about 200 pages for me to get interested in the story. As an avid fan of Dessen's writing, it's pretty sad that I had to read half the book to even remotely care about the rest of it. Dessen also likes to link secondary characters (and sometimes primary ones). For instance, the reader may notice that a character in one book is listening to a band featured in another novel, and one of the band members happens to be the love interest for the central character in that other book. The references are usually subtle, but there were so many and some were so far-fetched that it was distracting. Almost every other novel Dessen has written is referenced in some way, and sometimes it seems very unnecessary. On a final note, the boy-girl relationship in this book was very disappointing, as well. Dessen's best novels show resolution to the obligatory conflict that arises between the lead female character and her romantic interest. The other two novels in which the conflict wasn't resolved weren't nearly as engaging as her other books. The relationship in this book is a long time coming, and when you finally get to it, it's so near the end of the book you have a feeling things aren't going to work out. Whether they do or not is arguable, but I found the conclusion to be not at all satisfactory.
If you've read any of Sarah Dessen's books, I recommend this one because her characters are interesting and the story is usually good, but if you haven't had any experience with her before, read another book first, like The Truth About Forever, or Someone Like You.

Kleenex, how I love thee, let me count the ways...

A new layout! Very exciting.
So I have decided that I am ready for June to be over, even though that would mean I'm that much closer to going back to school. This is not a very exciting prospect, as I will be taking 18 hours next semester, and basically any time I'm not at school, I'll either be at work, or studying (or writing papers). Anyway. I am ready for June to be over because I am ready for a new work schedule. I think that as everyone else's schedule was changing this month, I got lost in the shuffle and my wants/needs were completely disregarded. I hate changes in routine (I lack some kind of coping mechanism, I think) and this one is relatively drastic, compared to the schedule I've had for...the past year and a half, I guess. I'm working all my hours four days in a row, first of all. I'm used to only working three long days, spread throughout the week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, for instance). I've had Wednesday nights off for as long as I can remember, which was cool because Kelli could come over and hang out and we would watch Ghost Hunters (it's nice to spend time with her once a week because we went to high school together and for several years, we'd see each other seven hours a day, five days a week). Now I work Monday mornings while Brandon is off (he works Monday nights), Tuesday nights (Brandon works all day), Wednesday almost all day (until nine, too late to see Kelli), and Thursday afternoons (again, Brandon is at work). In addition to this schedule, this week- the first week I'm working these hours- apparently I am going to a wedding Friday night, meaning I don't see Kelli, and Saturday I am hosting a yard sale in my driveway. Poor Brandon. Last night he said "well I guess I'll just move to Alaska because I would see you just as much then as I do now". I feel bad for him. I feel bad for me. But I'll get over it. We are going on vacation at the end of the month and I'll have a week and a half off from the madhouse that is the library in summer time.
Just so you know that I'm not kidding about that last part, I'll have you know that most other times during the year we have anywhere between 500 and 700 patrons visit us each day- this is assuming our door counter works correctly. During the summer, so far we are not at all surprised if we have 1200 people come in. Also parents frequently decide it's perfectly acceptable to abandon their children at the library (I was unaware that my nametag said "Jessi, Customer Service, Baby-Sitter), etc. The place is a mess, and the mess is compounded by the fact that we only have one page at the moment. A page is the person who shelves the books. We are supposed to have three. One is on extended sick leave due to cancer treatments, and she probably won't be back. The other, who only worked there for six months, quit two weeks before our Summer Reading Program began, allegedly because she just wanted to have fun this summer (she recently graduated high school). And the icing on the proverbial cake, the entire city government has been under a hiring freeze for a while now, and rumor has it, the freeze will continue now that the mayor's new budget has been set.
The ladies of my branch would probably appreciate your prayers during this busy, stressful, hair-pulling time. There are moments when I think we are very near the brink of insanity and eventually someone's going to beat someone else up. Maybe. Perhaps.

An unnecessary post for unnecessary times.

If my background is a boring pink-gray color, forgive me. Or rather, try to forgive the website that I got my template from. Apparently they are having difficulties...or maybe they were shut down? The point is, I can't access the site from google or anywhere else.

Hmph.