Examples of my extrovertedness

Jake was scheduled to work a full day at the bookstore today, which meant that I was at home alone today.  It was an ok day, but I was more than ready for Jake to come home.  We hung out for quite a while- browsing Target, playing Taboo (yes, it's possible to play with only 2 people... just a bit weird), and watching tv with our new DirecTV network (thanks Mom and Dad!).  

After all of that, I asked Jake what we were going to do next.  He listed blogging and applying for jobs, so I said "but those are individual activities," to which he said,

"We've got to get you out of this house."

Yep, I like people.  And I'm an extrovert.  Good thing my future career plans involve being around people... all the time. :)

Marley!

So I read Jake's blog review of the movie Marley and Me and found out he thought I was reviewing it too.  I wasn't, but now I will since I indicated that I probably would.

I like Jake's comments about the movie, but I also want to add that I cried more in that movie than I have in a while.  It's incredibly touching, and seriously, that dog... I want him.  I'm not sure I could handle the mess in the apartment, but I want a dog.  Marley was cute from beginning 'til end.  I think the movie was so good because it was so relevant to family life.  I could relate with the parts about marriage, and the parts about kids reminded me that I am more than happy not having any for a while. :)  

In the end, it was worth the running around to different theaters trying to find one that wasn't sold out.

Shout-Outs

I want to give a shout-out to Joel and Pam, off of whose websites I saw that I could come up with a new background to my blog.  I am not at all artsy, but I did find it fun changing colors and looking at different backgrounds.  So thanks!

I also want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas.  Today is kind of a weird day for us because usually Christmas is a family-gathering day, but instead my family left today.  After being surrounded by great people for a couple of days, we are left alone on Christmas.  Weird, huh?  Jake and I are going to go see the movie "Marley and Me" in a couple minutes.  I think it looks amazing, mostly because I love dogs- but my dad said it got bad reviews.  We shall see; maybe I'll post my own review of the movie when we return.

My quandry... help!

I'm in a really bothersome quandry.  At our new apartment we have to pay for our own heat.  We also have no idea what to expect in terms of how much heat we can use without totally breaking the bank, so we've been trying to be fairly conservative about how much of it that we use.  

However, we have a fish.  He's a good fish, but I think maybe he's cold.  I caught myself thinking something dangerous earlier today.  I thought, "Ya know, I'm not sure that a fish is worth us paying for the heat to stay on while we are away from our apartment."  Let me tell you why that thought is dangerous.  You see, when I was in junior high, my family decided to move.  We had a cockatiel at that time, and we weren't sure where we were going to put her in the new house.  I made a joking comment that it might just be better if she died.  Unfortunately, my comment came true and I was the one who found the poor dead bird at the bottom of her cage.  I was horrified.  So now you can see why I'm concerned about the thought I had earlier.

You may be thinking, "He's just a fish.  No big deal."  Let me personalize him for you.  His name is Tiki, which is short for Tiki-Tiki-Tembo-No-Sar-Rembo-Charry-Barry-Rouchie-Pip-Berry-Pembo.  He's kind of a spaz, but he often follows my finger.  He gets really excited when I come up to the bowl and swims around furiously.  Well, at least he used to.  Now he sits at the bottom of the bowl and doesn't do much swimming.  I think he's cold.

So now that you know the background, what should I do?  Do I sacrifice the heat for the fish?  Do I stop thinking bad thoughts because it might jinx things and I might end up horrified again, finding a dead fish at the top of the bowl?

Thoughts?

Magic GROW!

Last night I talked Jake into playing with our little "grow capsules" which turn into safari animals when you put them under warm water.

We decided to have a little contest to see who could guess the correct animal before it went under water.  For the first animal, neither of us got it right.  For the second animal, I guessed an ostrich and Jake guessed a giraffe.  Guess who was right?

Let's just say that Jake was calling me a "punk" for the rest of the night.  Now all I have to say is "ostrich" and he'll get mad at me.  It's great.

"I wanna talk about me"

I am going with the crowd (even if a little late) and listing my top 10 selfish wish list.

1. Better cooking sheets (for cookies and for pizza). I'm tired of ours falling apart.
2. Angel cookies (I think it might happen this year!)
3. A new couch (sometimes ours falls when we sit on it).
4. Thick socks to keep my feet warm
5. Tickets to see Phantom of the Opera on stage (again)
6. Gift certificate from someone saying they will do our dishes for a year.
7. A new pea coat
8. A DOG! (Which also includes a place big enough to house one)
9. A letter from Cornerstone (the management company we worked for) thanking us for all our hard work and telling us that we are leaving our property in MUCH better shape than it was before we came. And there would also be an appology from Charles, the owner of our building, saying that he was hard on us but that he does appreciate our work.
10. A winning lottery ticket.

Whoot. And now that I have caught myself thinking a little too selfishly... I am going to go read for my New Testament class and try to recenter myself. :)

I like school????

So I'm pretty much done for the semester.  All I have left is a late afternoon class where I will be part of a group giving a presentation, but it's pretty much in the bag.  I've got a little bit of time with not much to do, and I caught myself thinking something that is SO wrong.

I thought, "Well, it's too bad that I don't have my NT book for my intercession class; I'd get started reading it now."

What in the world is wrong with me?  Maybe I enjoy school more than I thought... Barf.

I'm gonna go take a nap in one of the counseling practicum rooms instead.  Hopefully no one comes in and tries to counsel me.

Weird things in my head

Please, let me know that I am not the only one in the world that has experienced what I am about to describe.

I was reading over part of a paper I started to write a couple of days ago.  As I read over the word "Omaha," my brain apparently only comprehended the "O" and the "b" first, then went back to the "m."  So, instead of pronouncing the word "Omaha" in my head, I heard "Obama."  I knew that there was no way I included Obama's name in my learning contract, so I went back to try to pronounce it again in my head.  I think the second time I read, "Obahama," then "Ohama," and after getting frustrated for a second, realized that the "m" came BEFORE the "b."  It took me another second after making this realization that I was finally able to pronounce the word correctly in my head.  

I'm pretty sure if there is a city named "Obahama," I do NOT want to live there.

Central SSS

Earlier I came out into the living room/den/dining room (we have a small apartment) with a Central College SSS (Student Support Services) sweatshirt on.  Jake recognized it and remembered that it used to be his.  He started telling me about how he loved being a part of SSS around Christmastime because they would always give him a piece of clothing that had their name on it.  He started listing some things that they gave him, and he stopped upon listing pair of sweatpants, at which point he got a confused look on his face.  He asked me if he still had them.

I lifted up my leg and showed him the SSS logo on my sweatpants.  I mean... his.  Mine. :)

Just a few minutes ago...

...a guy walked into the bookstore (where I am camped out and where Jake is working) and Jake asked him if he could help him with anything.  

The guy said, "Yes, I'd like to find a book."  

And then he stood there.  Waiting.  As if Jake knew exactly which book he wanted. 

I laughed, but tried to stifle my laughter because I quickly realized that he wasn't trying to be funny.  But it was pretty funny.

Midnight snacks

Jake and I decided to make a cake around 10pm.  Jake is currently icing it, and we are probably going to both have a piece before we go to bed.  I know it's pretty late for cake, but I have to admit that I'm really excited. :)

It snowed last night.  I gotta tell ya, I think that Denver is one of the prettiest places to be when there is snow- there's nothing like snow topped mountains!  I know we may not live here our whole lives, but I'm really thankful that we get to now.

Shootin Turkeys!

I have a guilty pleasure that I must admit.  My friend Sandy sent me a link to play a game where you shoot turkeys.  I've become obsessed.  I also found out that if you use a mouse, it's much easier.  Here's the link so you can become obsessed too.  Happy Turkey Day!

Turkey Shoot

Gasoline

Last night we ran out of gas.  First time in my life.  It was sort of exciting.  I think my favorite part was when Jake said, "Our accelerator is not working!" after he started slowing down on the highway.  I'm really amused that we both thought there was something wrong with the accelerator before we realized that maybe, just maybe, we were simply out of gas.  I think we might need to get our gas gauge fixed soon.  We have apparently been guessing for too long.

Free Stuff & The Old Lady in Me

I am pretty excited about the free excitement we have had this weekend.  This week is the Denver Art & Culture week, so there are lots of free events going on around town.  Last night we got to sit in on a rehearsal for a dance company.  We went partly because it sounded fun, but mostly because it counts toward my immersion experience for my social/cultural class.  It was pretty exciting.  We also went to Sam's yesterday to taste lots of free samples.  I left completely full.  We went back today. :)

Today we also went to the botanical gardens and the Denver Zoo!  That zoo is humongo.  It served about 3 hours of entertainment this afternoon, and we didn't even get to look at everything.  While we were at Sam's today, we watched a demo for knives and we got 4 pairing knives for free.  I love free fun.  Sometimes I think I'm already an old lady; when Jake tried to get me to go anywhere where we would miss a free sample, I'd make sure we went back.  I'm not gonna miss free stuff.  Nuh uh.

Tonight we're going to a club called Jazz at Jack's.  It's not free for the drinks and appetizers, but if we go in before 8pm, then there is no cover charge.  I'm REALLY excited about the group that is going to perform tonight.  It is a quartet of African American guys who will be singing Motown, Classic Soul, and Old School Rhythm & Blues music.  It's gonna be good.  I'm go take a nap now so that I can stay up late.  Seriously...I really am turning into an old lady.

My husband

I have a great husband.  This morning, he went outside and scraped the car because there was some serious ice hanging out around the windows.  He often makes a good portion of our dinner. He hangs out with me a lot, including playing the game "Sorry" with me tonight.  He does things to help me out without complaining (i.e. this afternoon he came to my work-study location and took something of mine to the car since I didn't have time before class).  Last night he went to the grocery store TWICE, and there was a shooting at a WalMart close by and he didn't even complain.  What a guy.  He also thinks I'm funnier than most other people and constantly makes requests for certain things I do he thinks are funny.  He drives me around most of the time, and he is my personal "google maps" for when I am going to crazy places in Denver and I can't figure out how to get there because there are diagonal streets that make me go crazy.  And then he puts up with my anger on the phone when I can't figure out how to get anywhere.  AND... he waits patiently in the morning for me as I desperately try to get everything finalized before we head off for a long day at school.  So... I think it's safe to say that he's pretty great.

Immersion

I'm in a social/cultural foundations of counseling class this semester, and for it I have to do an immersion project.  The purpose of this project is to immerse myself in another culture that I have not had much exposure to.  Obviously another portion of this project is to work through some of the biases that we have held about that culture.  I chose to immerse myself in the African American culture, mostly because there were about 3 black individuals out of about 1,000 people in my high school.  So I think it's fair to say that I haven't had much exposure.  I also knew that I have been holding some stereotypes that I wanted to break. 

At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted to learn to see other cultures as God sees them.  Boy has God been showing me pieces of that!  It's interesting how the views I had been holding about African American (primarily women) were SO wrong, and they were also a reflection of the stuff that I have been trying to work through on my learning contract.  There are SO many things to appreciate about the African American culture, but the one that stands out most to me is how deep their faith runs.  I met with a pastor of a primarily African American church yesterday, and I asked her what the role of faith in counseling the population should be.  She said without a doubt that faith is primary to who they are.  They as a culture have experienced so much hardship that they have quickly learned that without God, they are nothing.  I was astounded at how much more faith they have than me.  I am so thankful for this project, and I actually wish that it was not going to be over after this semester.  I have been so blessed by the time I have been spending in the African American culture- not only have I gained a better picture of how God sees them, but also I have gained a better picture of who God is through them.  Thank you Lord for such a special time.

Distractions

It's 10:45pm and I have yet to write a single word for my 4-5 page paper that is due tomorrow at 1pm.  I just finished the book I have to write the paper over, and I'm having a hard time getting motivated to start writing.  Let's just say I've been a been distracted over the past couple of days.

Jake and I are going to be moving soon.  I'm really excited about it, but also confused at the same time.  I am going to be applying for an on-campus apartment managing job, but we also have a deposit down on a different apartment.  I really like the idea of living in a place where I have absolutely no responsibility to anyone else, but I also like the idea of cheaper rent and living on campus in a beautiful apartment.  Jake also needs to find a full-time job, so we could use prayers for our situation.  Muchas gracias.

I've also been distracted with this stupid sickness that is hanging around.  I realized today that I have not been feeling well for over 6 weeks, which is a major bummer.  The biggest piece right now is this cold that has turned bronchial, and I'm trying desperately to take supplements to prevent it from turning into full-blown bronchitis.  I hate having to cough so much, because I know it's got to be really obnoxious to everyone around me, especially Jake.  He's been such a blessing though and has not complained once... yet. :)

White House Press Briefing

Somehow I managed to stumble across the press secretary's briefing from yesterday morning.  Since I have never been able to read one of these, and never seen one outside of the show West Wing, I found it pretty interesting.  It was also interesting to see how she portrayed President Bush's term in the White House, and has really got me thinking.  Check it out.

 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/11/20081103.html

p.s. I'm still awake, but I think I'm going to try to go back to sleep now. :)

Early morning randomness

It's 1:49am and I'm awake.  I couldn't sleep because my throat is practically swollen shut and my nose was so clogged that I couldn't breathe.  Fun stuff.

I can't believe that tomorrow (actually today) is election day.  After the longest election of my life, I can't wait for it to be over.  We receive lots of phone calls every day for political reasons, and it just gets old.  Sarah Palin called us about 3 times over the weekend, Joe Biden once, and Obama finally called us yesterday.  I almost feel as though we're missing out on McCain, but I think I'll live if he doesn't end up calling us later on today. :)

I cleaned our shower on Sunday after we got home, complete with new inner shower curtain.  I think our bathroom is my least favorite part about our apartment, simply because it never feels like it is clean.  However, it was pretty amazing how it felt after this particular clean.  I haven't done quite this extent of a scrub-down since we've moved here, and I think it paid off.  Yay for softscrub!

Baseball

I just need to post again because I am sick of the Red Sox winning.  They have taken my two teams down in the past two years, and and they're coming back for a friggin third win.  Tampa Bay better buck up and take game 7, or I'm gonna be mad.  On the other hand, Tampa Bay losing will be the only way that I will care about the World Series, so I guess there could be an up-side.

Lemonade

Since I've been having so many stomach problems lately, my chiropractor from Iowa suggested that I go on a cleansing diet to try to fix things.  Apparently she thinks that I am on my way to an ulcer, so a cleansing diet should help clean me out and heal some yucky things that are apparently going on in my digestive track.  

At first I was all for it.  I knew that my stomach has really been hurting, and I was a fan of making it better.  Then I found out what I had to do to be able to help it.  I have to drink this tea twice a day, and other than that, I can only drink this lemonade concoction.  Everything is organic that is in it, and it has cayenne pepper in it also.  That stuff is strong!  Anyway, it's kind of a bummer to not be able to eat solid foods, and I'm already sick of it (just finishing up day 2).  I'm not really sure how long I will go, but the aroma of solid foods really gets to ya.  I've also realized that I am a comfort eater, because when I felt pretty crappy today, I really wanted to eat something.  Sad, but true.  Anyway, I hope that the lemonade helps, cuz I'm already sick of it (I'm sure Jake is too-it definitely changes his eating habits also).  I have a good husband, but there really is only so much lemonade that a person can drink.

Blood and guts

I went to the hospital on Thursday night.  I thought it was really silly.  I had been experiencing some stomach pain in my lower right abdomen, and it got really bad after dinner that night.  As we got home, I threw up (sorry, had to mention!) and I felt a whole lot better.  I kind of assumed that I was fine after that, but a nurse that I talked to on the phone for advice told me that I should go in anyways to get checked (thinking about the possibility of appendicitis).  So of course we get there at like 9pm and didn't get to leave until 2am, and the doctor didn't find anything wrong.  Very silly trip.  

I did, however, find out on the trip that the idea I had been having about trying to get over my phobia is a pretty bad one.  I have this phobia of needles (I used to get sticked all the time in junior high and had a bad experience) and I thought it might be a good idea to donate plasma, using a flooding technique to get over my phobia.  However, when I was at the hospital, they made me give blood and it was awful.  I just have this problem giving blood because apparently my veins never want to do it.  He stuck me in my arm once and couldn't get enough, so he had to stick me in the hand.  I became more nauseous prior to/during the giving blood experience than I was when I came in to the hospital.  At least I learned that I'm never donating plasma.

Blessed

For those of you who don't know (of the whole 2-ish of you who read this), I'm in an auditioned choir that sings mostly sacred music.  I'm in both the big choir (90ish members) and also the chamber choir (30ish members).  We have both of those rehearsals on Sunday nights, and 2 other times a month I have women's sectionals.  I've caught myself complaining about it taking so much time, but this evening I came to realize that I need to quit complaining when I remembered about what happened my sophomore year of college.  

At that time I was in choir and started having significant problems singing.  It first just started to hurt when I would sing, and then later it got to the point that my voice would crack significantly when I would try (especially in my upper range).  It lasted somewhere between one and two months before I finally went to an ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat doctor).  They did a scope that they put through my nose and down my throat (yep, oww) in order to take pictures of what was going on.  When they took pictures, they found that my larynx was extremely inflamed.  They put me on steroids for a little while, and eventually I was able to sing again!  The point of this story is to remind myself that I should feel blessed that I can even sing at all.  Singing sacred music brings me a lot of joy, and I think I just need reminders every once in a while that I am blessed to be able to sing at all.

Random

Here's the thing.  I feel like I should blog since I haven't in over a week, but I just don't have much to say.  I'll just write some of my random thoughts that are going through my head right now.

The owner of our building is a very picky man.  We hardly ever see him since our main bosses are at the management company we work for.  Well, we just saw him as we were finishing our weekly cleaning and he is just so nit-picky about everything.  I kinda like it when we don't see him because then he doesn't give us more silly jobs to do.  Bah.

My fish must be pretty bored in his bowl.  I used to have a fake plant in there, but this last time is really started to fall apart and was making a mess out of the water, so I took it out.  Now he's just in a bowl with rocks.  Maybe I'll have to go get him something new to spice up his living pool.

I need to shower.  Neither Jake nor I have showered yet, and it's 4:30pm.  At least that means that we have been able to have a lazy Friday!  We have dinner guests in 2 hours though, so I should probably go do that.  Sorry I smell.

Freaks of nature

I have a major frustration that I want to vent about s'more. For one of my classes this semester, we have to take an online quiz every week over the chapters from the textbook that we have read. Now I have had to do something similar in another class, and it was not a very pleasant experience, mostly for the same reasons that I am going to vent about this class.

The quizes are open-book, so you'd think it would be easy to get all of the answers right. Well, you'd be wrong. On my first quiz, I missed one question, the second quiz- two, and the third quiz- three. THREE. Out of 20 questions. There is something wrong here. First of all, one of the questions that I "missed" actually was 100% correct. I found the answer verbatim in the text, which brings me to my first point. It seems silly to even have online quizes, because they are much more likely to have mechanical errors. When I miss a question on a quiz that was RIGHT (and this has happened on 2 of the 3 quizes thus far), I begin to question the accuracy of any of the quizes. It's pretty frustrating to even come into a quiz knowing that there is likely going to be an answer that I got right that is actually marked incorrectly.

My second problem revolves around a second question that I got wrong on the most recent quiz. Because the quizes are open-book, it is assumed that you will get many of the answers verbatim from the text. Wouldn't you think, however, that the point of a quiz is to test your knowledge? So, if I read a question and am sure I know the answer, even though I have not found it verbatim in the 50 pages of reading I was required, wouldn't you think that my answer would be correct? Well, again, you'd be wrong. There was a question that had 3 different answers that were all basically the same thing, and then there was a "none of the above" answer. As I thought through it, I decided that it wasn't worth looking more than the 8ish minutes I had already looked for the verbatim answer since they all were basically the same thing. Since I couldn't find any of them, I decided to go with D- "None of the above." Wrong. Too bad I didn't waste about 15 more minutes looking for the verbatim answer, maybe I could have found the right answer, even though it would not have at all proved my learning.  Instead, it would have proved that I wasted 15 minutes of my life to find an answer.  That's not really the goal of taking a class in my mind.

My final complaint: You can't argue a point about a quiz when it was proctored by a computer.   All of a sudden my learning has become machine-based instead of relationship-based.  Pity the person who actually wants to learn in the context of relationships.  I might as well take an online class.  But don't get me started on that... My final thought: Online quizes are freaks of nature.

Fridays

I feel like there are many things wrong with my Fridays this semester.  I am actually going to get to stay home on Fridays (which is by far the best part), but I want them to be days that I relax.  However, since it is the only day of the work week when I am home, apartment managing always arises.  It's really annoying.  I know that I should probably plan for these things to happen since we're gone so often, but I seem to come into Fridays thinking that I'm going to be able to relax, get a bunch of homework done, and just have a nice day.  Instead, it turns into LOTS of phone calls, me running around the complex giving people forms and telling them to stop doing stupid things, faxing things in to the office, and cleaning the buildings.  How rude.  I want a day where I stay at home in my PJs all day long drinking coffee, watching the Peoples Court, and doing only a little bit of homework.  I want people to stop calling us about the cobwebs outside their window, kids running in the sprinklers, inappropriate behavior in the laundry area, pot smoking, smoking in general, and other stupid things that people whine about and do.  There is going to come a day when Jake and I live in our own HOUSE where it is much more unlikely that we will be disrupted by neighbors and certainly won't be on-call for anyone.  And when we do...I want to have really ridiculously awesome Fridays.

Dogs

Dogs are great for the soul.  My husband and I frequently go to a pet store that has some puppies in these bins (for lack of a better word) that customers can pick up and play with.  I really enjoy these visitations and usually leave the pet store in a much better mood.  In fact, I usually request going to the pet store when I am upset about something because I know that it will cheer me up.  There's just something about a dog that lifts one's soul.  There is a depressing part though, and that's when you want to own one and for some reason you can't.  We never had a dog in my household growing up and I'm sure that I didn't know how much I was missing out.  Now that I know how much that is, it's heart-wrenching.  I know I sound dramatic, but I am SO excited about the day when Jake and I live in a place that allows dogs (and we have the money to afford one).  One day I'll come home to my beautiful golden lab and it will be just great.  Boo-ya.

Sharon the Great

I have a really great boss.  For real.  Below is a list of reasons why she is so great.

-At the end of my interview, she gave me a hug.

-She always asks me how I am and has prayed with me in the office multiple times.

-She asked ME to give HER my schedule for when I am going to work, which is basically a rough estimate.  If I come in earlier or later, no big deal.

-She has these gigantic mints that she loves to eat.  Once she puts one in her mouth, she continues to talk to me even though she sounds ridiculous.

-She makes me laugh a LOT.  In fact, some of the counseling professors have commented upon how often we laugh.

-Sometimes while I'm working she sends me to go see my husband in the bookstore.  I'm getting paid to see him.  How sweet is that?

-The other day we were both having a hard time concentrating, so we talked for most of the day.

-She tells really funny stories.

All of this after only 3 weeks of working with her.  Just imagine how many more funny quirks and stories and reasons why I like her will arise after working with her for a year.  Sharon, you're the best. 

Leaning Republican

Jake and I just watched Sarah Palin's speech and I thought it was fantastic.  In fact, right now I wish that I could vote for her for president!  It's beautiful to see a woman who is not a raging liberal be able to make it in politics.  She is feisty and likeable, and she has also been wildly successful in Alaska.  From what I hear about Alaskans, they are pretty hard to please.  She has some pretty good policies, and I'm with her for now.  I've still got a little bit of time to change my mind, but I think Sarah Palin was an excellent addition to the ticket.  After leaning "Democrat" for a while,  it looks like I may be leaning "Republican" yet again.

Mansions

It's my first post.  Congratulations to me for finally giving in to Jake.  Or maybe it should be congratulations to Jake for finally sucking me in to the blogging world.

On Friday I had dinner at my choir director's mansion.  There were 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, a billiard room, and a theatre in the basement alone!  He and his wife have been buying homes, fixing them up, and then selling them for a while.  When a few of us arrived at his place, he told us that he and his wife had recently settled with someone on the house.  Apparently the horrific housing market got to him, because he mentioned that he lost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars on the house.  Hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars.  My gosh.  I can't imagine even having the kind of money necessary to buy that house.  Jake has often asked questions about what we would do if we won the lottery (to which I usually remind him that we have to buy a ticket first), and I always reply that I would pay off our student loans.  After that, I'd have absolutely no idea, but I do know that there is no way that we'd ever buy a house as big and elegant as my choir director's.  I don't exactly want to spend my life cleaning!