Thursday, November 29, 2007

Turned around

Um, this morning, the cat jumped on my face. While I was in bed. I bear a battle scar on my lip. Not cool. That is just not cool. It should be against the rules. Oh wait, it is. Oh wait, the cat doesn't know English, so she doesn't know it's against the rules...right. Does that mean this situation is hopeless? All things considered, she should have learned last week when she jumped on Amy's face and was flung off only to immediately land sideways *smack* onto my face (we were laying side by side). She should have learned. There you go...it's her own fault. But I'm the one with the scratch on my lip.

I need some sort of really interesting (or even slightly interesting) story to happen to me so that I can blog about it...

Amy left on Wednesday...tiempos tristes.

OH! but OJ, Suzy & Co. are officially coming for Christmas! (and on that note, can I say that I just typed "Thanksgiving" instead of Christmas for the umpteenth time only to have to go back and fix it. Why can I not get over Thanksgiving??"

You know what, I am abandoning blogging for the night and am going to try calling Callie and/or Chloe.

Perhaps info on driver's ed tomorrow. Let's just say that sitting at the desk wondering what I'm going to do with my life is a common occurrence. And my test is tomorrow. Let's also say that.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

the Ayes have it

These guys are funny. And I have Vista. Dang.

Monday, November 26, 2007

the Unexpected Day

You wouldn't normally think that the day your nose, throat, and lungs decide that breathing is a sin against humanity would be a day where you wake up at 6:30 and go non-stop. You also wouldn't think that the day where your nose becomes not a way to breathe but the new hottest place in town for snotty singles to meet would be a day where you do choir rehearsal late into the night.

And yet, this is my day.

***
So, my Chemistry teacher is a doctor, right? It's kinda funny how he puts in little (albeit simple) advice in the middle of class. Once, two girls were late and one of them came in explaining why and asking if she could go help the other girl because she had a nosebleed. Dr. Albert's reply was, "Ok...tell her to put cold water on the bridge of her nose and the back of her neck." Well, that was easy. Then today, in my stuffed up state, I put my head down in class and he switched from Chemistry to medical-ry (or whatever). "Anna, drink lots of fluids. That will help." Good thing I had my waterbottle with me.

***
And, in even other news, I have something to add to yesterday's post. Another side effect of not being able to breathe through one's nose, and consequently keeping one's mouth open all the time is a bit tongue, I find. Yes, I suspect that during the night my teeth got tired of staying open and decided to attack my tongue...sad times.

Anybody got any news that doesn't have anything to do with Anna's cold??

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Cracked

One of the worst things about a cold is that since I can't breathe through my nose, I have to have my mouth open all the time, which results in terribly chapped lips...all the time. When I wake up in the morning, it's like my lips are frozen in place. I find that even in the middle of the day, I end up feeling like my face will soon be lip-less because of the dire state of things. Oh, I need some super-powered chapstick or something.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Enough

How much is too much? How much is enough?

Is insignificance just plain insignificance or is it prideful? I think there is a chord of insignificance that is pride -- thinking that you are the ONE that is mistreated or you are the ONE that matters. But that makes sense, doesn't it? That self-pity, insignificance, condemnation -- they each have a string of pride.

Sometimes my friends and I, we have these table talks about all our problems, as in, sin problems. We talk about how selfish we are and how much we hate it or how prideful we are and how much we hate it. But, when you think about it, we kinda should have realized it before. And, you know, these talks, they usually kinda discourage us, but, actually, Jesus saved us. And, He knows our weakness. We, in our nature are super, super, super sinful. But, Jesus saved us from it. He redeemed us. And , we have these little "talks" where we realize how much we needed to be saved, but sometimes we forget the encouragment of the facts:

We already are.

We are saved. Jesus redeemed us. And we mess up. But there is hope. And it's called forgiveness. It's called amazing grace. It's called the heart of Christ. Walking in forgiveness and hope is a struggle in itself, but Jesus will help us with that, too. And we won't just walk, we'll soar.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Angel Arms

[Originally, this post read "today is Thanksgiving!" but now, it is not Thanksgiving, it is the day after...please excuse the timing]. [Yesterday was] Thanksgiving! There is tons to be thankful for. First, let us talk about snow. I woke up this morning to two things: a sore throat and snow. Snow! The first snow of the season is on Thanksgiving. Maybe we need to be more thankful for snow.
If you had been at my house today (as I was) and had been asked to take out the trash (as I was) you would know (as I do) that snow creates a triviality of no trivial nature known as icy steps. This is where my angel arms come in...well, not my angel arms, but those that must have been wrapped around me considering the fact that I do not at this moment have a broken neck, broken back, or some other tragic-ness (besides my sore throat and stuffy nose). I had two bags of trash in each hand, and when I got to the icy steps, I decided to brave them (as I normally would). On the first step, my foot went a-sliding. Falling down my stairs would be very bad, in case you haven't seen my back steps. I let the two bags in my right hand go and they crashed to the ground as I grabbed the railing. I had a very firm balance right away, though, which leads me to believe that there must have been some angel arms surrounding me in some way. Yay for angel arms.




At the beginning of the day, it looked like we would have a very small Thanksgiving, since the people we invited either had somewhere else to go already or were just so happy to have a day off work that they just wanted to rest. We hoped to convince the girl who lives in our basement apartment to have dinner with us, so we set a place for her just in case and figured if she didn't come, we would just have a place set for Jesus (like how at Passover a place is set for Elijah). A teacher from the school ended up calling and accepting the invitation.
I made mashed potatoes, which requires all of one's strength...

We talked of Pakistan and education and various things. I had my jellied cranberry sauce. Every year, my mom makes real cranberry sauce with whole berries, but I always have to have the jellied kind. It's super yummy.

The kitty has a name! My mom decided (as in, decided, and said no one could change it) that it would be called Jemimah. No argument, contestation, or wavering. My very inner nature wants to protest, but I cannot... Jemimah took part in the Thanksgiving feast, too. Well, she tried to. She is quite mischievous. Maybe it's okay to call her Jemimah...funny names are good for animals at some times.

Speaking of animals, we watched the national dog show in the morning (random, yes) and the cute australian sheepdog won -- we were rooting for her. I might want one of those someday.


Our craziness:

we could be models



Amy's kung-fu-ness my favorite dance move
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Monday, November 19, 2007

No Way

I'm really tired. And I still have two sections of Worldviews to read. I would be officially crazy if I wrote the blog I was planning on writing right now, before my homework is done. That would be especially true because it is now 10:31. I left music school about 9:32. Somewhere around there.
In fact, this was today's schedule (just so you know, I feel like pronouncing it sh-e-jule like the English...so be sure to read it with that pronunciation):

6:00 - wake-up


6:07 - decide that's it's not after six, I'm sure of it


6:22 - turn around and actually look at the clock.


7:12 - leave the house


7:42 - pass Lincoln while driving on Devon (I was looking at the clock, I just thought I'd put that in there)


7:56 - we have no first period teacher because she's out of town for Thanksgiving and...I think everybody else forgot that she's out of town for Thanksgiving


8:38 - first class with the new teacher: Miss Richert!


11:12 - lunch...that's always importnat


fast forward:


3:25 - driving towards bank to get money orders for first Driver's Ed class


4:05 - I walk into Driver's Ed class after asking 3 Taft students how to find the room...awkward


5:30 - First Driver's Ed class done! [more on that later]...hurry home and grab food for my hungriness and try to check some e-mail and then run out the door to rehearsal


7:05-9:00: sing some high G's (and trust me, they're high)


9:28 - leaving Merit


in between then and now I have looked at blogs and read some e-mail...and written this blog of course (which doesn't count as the one I was planning on writing...it doesn't...)


10:38 - read Worldviews and (hopefully!) go to sleep sometime in the next five hours...



notice the heavenly light pouring down on her head? Oh yes, sleep is good.

Did I mention that I'm really tired and have been probably since, oh, I'd say, about 2:00? Yeah...random headaches....

Did you know that caffeine dries out your vocal chords? And yet, I have a fascination with Starbucks.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Thanksgiving buzz

Jewel is like a hive of bees in the middle of the summer who are stuck with black tea without any sugar, so they have to make honey. There are Jewel workers in the blue shirts everywhere you look, boxes taking up the whole middle of the aisle waiting to be unloaded onto the shelves, and stacks and stacks of stuffing and cans of sweet potatoes.

As I stood in front of the glass door standing between me and the tins of crescent rolls, I began to think. How many should I get? One makes six rolls...and then, I had a wonderful remebrance...leftovers! All of a sudden I was more excited for the Thanksgiving leftovers than for Thanksgiving itself. You get to have Thanksgiving over and over again for at least three days. Yummy...yummy...yummy... I got two tins.

Amy is coming to Chicago for Thanksgiving. She'll be here on Tuesday!

In other news, my driver's ed class starts tomorrow. This is good. I really want to drive. The little bit I get to do is retrieving the car from the garage to the side of the house where I pick up my dad, and when I do, it feels so good. Is that weird? Driving feels really awesome. Tonight I sat in the Walgreen's parking lot waiting for my dad. I watched all the different people drive in and I had many thoughts: one of them was how I wonder what it will be like to be an adult..and I'm kind of excited. Yeah. Just a little bit.

don't I look like I'm dreaming of adulthood? hehe...life is good right now too

Snickerdoodles

Some of the best cookies. ever. Try 'em!

Snickerdoodles
Mix: 1 cup shortening
1.5 cup sugar
2 eggs

Sift together and stir in:
2 3/4 cup sifted flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Roll in balls. Rolls balls in mixture of 2 Tablespoons of sugar+ 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

the Amazing Gray-Ice

here was no gray ice involved with last night. I didn't even have any ice at all for that matter. But, I wanted to make a play on "Amazing Grace." Gray: my dad wore a gray suit. And, I'll make an acronym for ICE: "I Can Exceptionally-imagine-myself-drinking-milk-while-bungee-jumping. Oh wait...I didn't drink milk while bungee jumping last night.

I watched Amazing Grace last night with Amy and Mr. Pan. It was like fulfilling a dream or something. Hehe. We got the house for a while because my mom and dad had to go to a fancy party...


we matched! his tie - my jacket..wahoo!

First of all, I was happy the movie was here. Second of all, we didn't have any popcorn. Sorry, guys. I had promised popcorn in my e-mail, and I let them down. Sad times.

But the movie was good! The cat enjoyed the fact that we were all just sitting there peacefully. She decided to be everyone's friend, at least for a while.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Mis-type

When I type something wrong (see, I just did: spelled "something" wrong and had to go back), I don't pick up my hand and go to the mouse, click on the spot, and fix the mistake. Instead, I backspace all the way to where the mistake was, even if I have typed a few words and/or a long word in between.

Is that strange?

Today when I got home, I found a package for me! I love getting packages. It was from my sister Elizabeth -- a onething cd and dvd. So delightful! Some of the songs are songs that I have on the person's cd already, but with added in choruses and stuff live from the conference. I love it! There's a song on there by Misty Edwards that isn't on her cds called "Servant of All" and I love it! It's about how the God we are in love with is humble, and if we want to meet Him, we'll find Him low, serving the lowest of our brothers and sisters...it has a nifty little "Inside, outside, upside down kingdom, where you lose to gain and you die to live."

I think I can definitely say that life feels like it's at a crazy spot. And I'm beginning to wonder if all of life is crazy, or just small little packets of time. Beginning to be blinded to the rest of life!! ahh!! J/K. Craziness is pretty intense, when you're going through it. It's a lot easier to look forward to or back on, but the actual moment is a whole different matter. I have recently been finding myself telling many people "The Lord never takes us somewhere that doesn't bear fruit in the end somehow." It was so encouraging when I was first told it, and as I tell it to others I'm finding that I need to hear it a lot.

During craziness, one of the struggles is balancing how much of the craziness is just going on around you and you have no control over and how much of it has to do with sin issues in your own life. And when I have met those sin issues in the past, condemnation has been a pretty big issue, so now I am kind of on guard against it, but I often wonder if I am recognizing it or not...if it's there or not.

Jesus is teaching me so much. And it is quite the journey to learn how it is okay to learn. It is okay to be on a journey. God doesn't expect us to already have arrived there. We are running the race. We are. And we can approach Jesus confidently and ask for His grace. And He helps us. And He holds us up. How can it be that Jesus wants to help me and give me grace when I'm sinning/a sinner/struggling with sin? It's a crazy thought. Why yes, grace is quite amazing.

Today I found myself fighting to believe that Jesus wasn't pushing me away and holding me at arm's length because I'm dealing with some sin. Is He happy that He gets to journey with us?? He sure is.

And through it all, Jesus is so good. He is just as faithful when we come to Him with sin to confess as He is when we run to Him for comfort. Honestly, I'm finding that running to Him for comfort is a lot more...comfortable. But confessing sin is so important, and it results in freedom. And you know what, we have to lean on Him to repent of sin, so when it all comes down to it, Jesus is the only thing. The ONE thing. He is our only one. He has to be, or else, I pretty much die.

I think trials teach us so much. Especially where I am right now. I kind of feel like 13 lessons are getting taught all at once. But there are so many I could learn, and I know Jesus will pick only the ones that I need right now to teach me right now. I love Jesus.

Sometimes I think this verse keeps me alive:

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:3-5

Friday, November 16, 2007

Both fronts

I feel assaulted on all sides. Both my back and my stomach hurt. What to do? My first response is lay down and die. That is also the response I have to resist. New response: go practice for house group. Leave the school and practice for worship.

I am looking forward to worship tonight. I wasn't looking forward to being at school. That's because I didn't know that I was going to be at school. I slept until like 11:45 and then was watching a movie with Christy and Amy in my pj's when my mom called and asked me to come to school to help rescue the attendance on the report cards. It is now 4:50. And I have to go practice for house group.

Sadly, the other news of my day is that I haven't eaten anything that wasn't sweet. I had Honey Bunches of Oats with cinnamon for breakfast, and then Mrs. Peterson paid me for my flying-fingers on the attendance work with an Andes mint and then I had a Cranberry Bliss bar brought from Starbucks by Mrs. Saari. I feel like eating a carrot or a cucumber or something.

Bye.

P.S. I am soooo excited about Amazing Grace!!!! (the movie - soon to be seen at my house in a bright red envelope called "Netflix")

Monday, November 12, 2007

Choices, choices

There is this scholarship competition, and I'm thinking of entering it. But, I don't know which one to send! I know these pictures are of little ones that I love, so I'm kind of biased; plus, I am not that developed of a photographer, so, it's a total long shot anyways. My thinking is that I don't really have anything to lose, so I might as well go ahead and enter. Please, help me figure out which one you think is best in a photographic-sense. (and remember...none of them are actually, you know, real photography... =P )


above: this one I love because of Glorie's expression and the...I don't know what you call it...how she is in the side of the picture instead of the middle.
above: I think this one is a little too shadow-y
above: I have this one on my wall: the drawback is the camera string in the top right corner!

Decisions, decisions! Please comment!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Sneaky

Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve written. It seems I say that often…

So…I’ll tell you a secret. And it really is a secretive secret. I am in an economics conference right at this moment. Yes, I am. But -- I am writing a blog. This means that I must cast furtive glances up to the transparency and look very enthralled and interested and put random breaks into my typing at inopportune moments in order to mask the fact that this furious typing is not notes about the United State’s trade deficit, but about my last dying breaths.

I’m not actually dying, but I have to say that I am about to fall asleep. I went to Starbucks this morning. I’m still falling over. I just decided to try to keep myself awake with food which is why I picked up a Rice Krispies treat, a bag of pretzels, and a chewy bar EVEN THOUGH lunch is exactly 44 minutes away. I think I’m typing too much…it’s suspicious -- I’ll take a break. If only the space bar didn’t make so much noise…

***

I feel slightly redeemed by the fact that I know that I’m not the only one that periodically gets to the point where I space out and totally miss everything he says for 10 or 15 minutes.

I’m intimidated by the thought that I might get suspicious glances from the mature woman who is in the leadership of this institute, economic thingy-majig.

By the way, Ramona (sitting next to me) has the same “kinda red” gel pen that I do. Fancy that.
It’s working!! The mix of the pretzels, water, writing the blog, and shaking my leg is keeping me awake! Success!!!

I have no idea what they’re talking about.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

On the subject...

First let me say that I like the song "Far Away" by Nickelback. I know I could take/have taken some flack for it, but, there you go...I'm just putting it out there.

What I really want to be on the subject of, though, is clean hair. Or perhaps more accurately dirty hair. It's probably different for guys, but can I say that for girls (or, this girl at least), dirty hair is like torture. One of the most heavenly feelings ever on this earth for me is clean, silky, straight hair. If I happen to have a great day where I may happen to have straightened my hair, or the timing of the blow-drying just happened to be perfect or something like that, my fingers will be in my hair all day just because it is one of my favorite feelings. Plus, on top of it all, having a good hair day makes me feel pretty.

Off my random soapbox about hair. (though I may climb back onto it to talk about my school picture where my hair was too perfect...that's basically the way to describe it. It looks plastic or something! crazy...just looks wrong)

I want to post some good hair/bad hair pictures, but that will have to wait -- I haven't done my homework yet... oh dear - a meeting with Macbeth is up ahead, and that doesn't seem to bode very well for anyone...

Good Taste (finally!)

The cat (more commonly known as "NO!") like to watch HappySlip [youtube warning for anybody who wants to steer clear of the site] with me. One thing we can agree on.

At least she's calm when she watches it.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Just not right

It is just wrong how cold my fingers are right now.

And how much sleep I've been getting is pretty much not so good.

And insignificance is just plain evil.

But it is very right how vanilla lattes, white chocolate mochas, and vanilla chais are all options at Starbucks in this new-found cold (and snowy! for real!) season.

Monday, November 05, 2007

VICTORY!

I GOT IT! I GOT IT! I KNOW WHERE HE'S FROM! AND I TOTALLY HAVE SEEN HIM BEFORE!!!!!!! The church that I used to play piano for - he went there!!! OH -- I totally have seen him. Now I need to go back to Starbucks...

Head-banging

Sorry for the fairly large (for me) gap since the last post. If it gives you any idea of how busy and occupied I've been over the past four or five days, let me tell you that I had 29 new e-mails just now when I logged on. Twenty-nine! That is probably a record for me or something. I've gotta catch up on all my blog-reading and stuff.

I spent pretty much the whole weekend with people (and I know this will be really hard for you to believe, but I don't have a single picture from the whole thing). It was Rachel's birthday weekend so we did all sorts of fun stuff with some Starbucks mixed in, and just had a yummy time all around.

Before we go any farther, I have to say that there is a barista at Starbucks that I know. I know that I know him. There is no way in the world I don't know him. But, he denies it! I knew that I recognized him, so we made our conversation very loud and mentioned "TACOMA" and "KANSAS CITY" "IHOP" "I hope I can go to ONETHING" "I love hearing ALLEN HOOD preach" to which Amy added a random "MIKE BICKLE". Yet alas, he took almost no notice. My stomach turned over and over, because I knew that I would have to just come right out and ask him. So, I did. And he denied it. All of it. He said he hadn't heard of the Furnace and the only time he was in Kansas City was for some school or something. But he told me that his name was James.

We happened to go back to Starbucks the next night, and he was there. He recognized me, waved hello and I said "Hello, James!" and then added "I'm sorry, but, I really feel like I recognize you." No headway was made. It didn't help that I looked utterly RIDICULOUS because SOMEHOW the ugly stuffed animal that was appointed my "littly buddy" had somehow found its way out of the car and into Starbucks with us [amy!] , where we all refused to hold it, which resulted in it dropping to the floor. The trials, the trials.

Anyways. this guy James. If you happen to be able to think of a dark-haired James, fairly tall and pretty skinny that has a (noticable) limp and how I know him, let me know. Because I know that I know this man. But where?? Where? If you had any idea of how IDENTICAL his face is to someone I've been around before, plus the IDENTICAL limp, you would understand how when I'm in Starbucks I feel like I'm going absolutely insane because I can't think of it. My idea is to put out a facebook APB for him and try to figure this mystery out. Speak up if you have any ideas, so that he can be redeemed from his identity that we call "lying, limping James."

Onto more head-banging. Today in gym, the ball got thrown at my face. I was turned away, and the guy threw the ball and called my name; I didn't respond and the ball whacked me in the jaw. Funny, it made the other side of my head hurt. From that moment on I had this conspiracy theory about how one side of my face was lower than the other side.

Then (this isn't really head-banging, but it still belongs in this post, I believe), I scraped my knuckles on my dad's door. I was innocently going to the office, and it just took the skin right off. It was still quite ouchie about an hour later.

And to top it all off (literally), coming up the stairs, I banged my head. And it was no ordinary bang. You would have thought that I bounce up the steps, because basically I stepped onto the first step, then bounced up towards the second one, only, when I bounced the top of my head (the whole top of my head) slammed into the ceiling. It was so shocking. It was as if it hurt super bad without actually feeling horrible pain. I sat down on the steps instantaneously and almost melted immediately into tears. Only I took a second to think about it. And then I melted into tears. Not so fun. If I can't walk straight or end up in a coma or just think that 2+2 equals six million, eight hundred and forty-two thousand, five hundred and ninety-five tomorrow, you'll know why. Just pick me up and carry me away to somewhere where I can rest.

***
In other news, the cat still doesn't have a name. And I need a hug.