Seriously, people are so good to me. So good! Today Christine rocked my reality when she brought ice cream (and another Christine) to the Daily's offices. I could not love visitors more. I love them the maximum amount! ESPECIALLY when they're Christine and especially when a treat is involved. And last night Angie and Justin had me over for enchiladas. I am so fortunate to have you good people in my life. Really, thank you all soooo much. You give me hope. For real. You can expect a token of my affection (coming to you from S.D. or Neb.) soon!

Here is the remnant of the ice cream. It melted a little on my desk calendar. See image below.



THANK YOU CHRISTINE AND JUSTIN AND ANGIE FOR BEING SOOOOOOOOOOO NICE! I love you all and I hope you know it!

Empath-y

Watchman Nee says:


A believer who can commence a walk of faith (not feeling) enters upon a life of rest. The fire of the cross has consumed every greedy pursuit. He recognizes that God's will alone is precious. All else, though naturally desirable, is incompatible with the highest life of God. Now he rejoices to relinquish everything. Whatever the Lord deems necessary to withdraw, he gladly allows his hand to do it.




Deanna Troi says:




Feelings aren't positive or negative, it's what you do with those feelings that becomes good or bad.




I say:

This weekend was great.
Slumber party Friday. We giggled and had a pillow fight. Christine and Rachel and I bonded intensely. Emily was nice enough to not yell at us while she rested. Jana and I spent Saturday a.m. downtown, searching for a non-existant Farmer's market. That evening, we all (and when I say all, I mean Angie, Justin, Jana, Eric, Dusty, Andre and I) went out to dinner and to the Kitty Kat Club. Dusty and I also spent some quality time jamming out to Kriss Kross, a time I don't think I will soon forget. Andre, thanks for making me dance! There's nothing quite like being the most fumbly couple on the dance floor.

Also, work is insane.

11 months in Minneapolis

My friend Jana told me last night that part of her job is to explain playground rules to kids who are not native English speakers. The joys of teaching. She also wants to go to La Conga tonight. No. She doesn't want to go, but she's going so she's trying to make me go. She wants a (non)dancing partner. Salsa anyone?

I dreamt about Robert's Rules of Order. You know, "I move that we..." "I second the motion..." "All in favor..." and so on. Could be because I COMPLETELY forgot to use them at Wednesday's Minnesota Daily Board o' Directors meeting. THAT could be because I was too busy not knowing the answers to questions.

Tuesday, I went to a forum on immigration and the use of the term "illegal" vs. "undocumented" (and vice-versa) at Minnesota Public Radio. Put together a room full of life-long journalists, rather miffed activists and a microphone. You see what happens.

In the last two weeks, I've been inundated with controversy and CDs. Strange combination, I know. I think I've received at least 5 CDs and 3 controversies. I'm hoping that the number of CDs will increase and the number of controversies will stay the same. Too much to ask...?

Finally, it should be noted that my mother is hitting the United States and hitting it hard. Hurricane Lori. Specifically, she leaves in her wake 1) interior decorating, 2) good advice, and 3) shopping malls.

This weekend I:

Bathed a he-cat named Muffin.
Walked a she-puppy named Monster.
Sweated.
Talked to my dad (in Saudi, alone on dad’s day) and mom (in South Dakota, already redecorating our entire house). My parents kick butt, excuse my language.
Ran.
Saw the following people that I thoroughly enjoy (in alphabetical order):

Alec* (*barely making the list.)
Angie (Mrs. Spencer, that is.)
Ben (Fine, don’t DDR. I don’t care.)
Beth (Wedge shoes)
Carrie (Roommate)
Christine (“Go back! Go back!”)
Joe (Best of Backstreet Boys)
Michael M. (From 7 Days, a marvelous man.)
Rachel (The secret of the shorts.)
Mz. Sara M. (From the Daily. So fun.)
Will (JNCO)

"Hiked" around Minnehaha falls after eating GREAT Indian food from Marla's Indian and (quasi-)Caribbean Restaurant.
Forgave. Or worked on it.
Was woken up by my baby (aka The Minnesota Daily) on Saturday a.m. There was a leak in the roof.
Watched a flash flood.
Talked to a podiatrist about my toenails. I’m losing two, due to my running shoes. But I love them and will not ever leave them.
Bought some Jamie Lidell on iTunes.
Had an extended conversation with Angela & Baby "In the Womb" Bucholz. It was good.

And other stuff.

4:30 a.m. between Urbana-Champaign and Minneapolis/St.Paul

I just don't know why I didn't post these earlier.

Really nothing

Running yesterday was totally perfect. It felt terrible and wonderful all at once. I read a quote once, of a guy who had gone from coach potato to triathlete. He said of running, "It's simple. But it's not easy." So true. And it's so good for you. As much as I hate it sometimes, there are great moments when my feet hit the pavement the sun's hitting me and it feels like I can outrun any frustration. I tried to push my pace and my mind passed their present bounds.

In other news, sometimes I just want to Google "lesson i'm supposed to learn from this situation" and have some great wisdom be instantly, abundantly clear. I should try it.

I tried it. It's really not helpful. The top three results:

"What Business Can Learn from Open Source"
"FastWeb: Resources: Freshman Blog"
"A Lesson in Learning Hawaiian"

Last night, my phone died. I mean, corpsed out for real. I had talked on it for approximately 5 hours and it had enough of my attitude, or something. The tricky part was that I hadn't even called back Stacey or Michael, two people I have been sorely neglecting in the last 48 hours (sorry, dudes). So I sat down to drown myself in Reese's Pieces and email them instead. I got one sentence and five Reese's Pieces into the whole ordeal, when I bit my tongue. It was no small injury. I mean, I seriously bit the tip of my tongue so hard. I yelled an assortment of cuss words as blood gushed from my mouth. Yeah, I know that's hot. (As Christine would say, "Why am I not married?")

Also, I'm sort of mad at my parents. I think they're in between continents right now, on their way to the States. But I don't know for sure, because they haven't called or emailed in a week. Grounded.

I must say, there are moments when I seriously hate that i'm gonna be in MPLS for another year. The world is out there, after all!

I went to sleepaway camp so long ago, that it was the Stone Age. No, but seriously...

Oh, Sugar Lake.

I'll admit, the weekend got off to a rough start. In the first ten minutes of the conference at least the three rockers closest to me (including me) openly complained. One said, "I think I might go to Pat's." Pat's party, that is.*

Another was having trouble breathing (not her fault).**

Then, something great happened. The Sin Chart. I won't repeat the wonder of Christine's blog entry about this phenomenon. But you REALLY should check it out. You can find it at: http://christineone.blogspot.com/ or just click the "Christer" link. Right there on the right of your screen.

In the process of tracking our sins, we learned how much we sin.*** The judging/tattling got pretty bad. Demonstration:

Joe pointing out Kevin's sin: "My lusty girlfriend says he cheated."

There are so many things wrong with that, I can't even begin. But I will. First, Emily is not Joe's girlfriend. I mean, just look at that picture on Christine's blog. Second, Kevin did not cheat. Third, Joe is judging, which we all know is a sin. Also, he's calling his (non-)girlfriend "lusty." Bad show, Joe. Bad show.

I feel it's important to point out that Christine was literally on her high horse the whole night, too.**** She was so harsh, Joe got to the point where he would apologize if she had to reach for anything on her own. This included cards during her turn of Phase 10 (Yes. Every turn.), snacks, etc.

There's much more to this. But it's this girl's bedtime.

Christine, thanks for blogging about this and letting me steal your astericks. Joe and Rachel, thank you for singing so loudly to me (it was so long ago, but it's all coming back to me). Emily, thank you for the hummus. Kevin, thank you for setting an example for the believers.



* I should clear this up. We weren't really invited. We just saw a sign with balloons, that's all.
** Not mine, either.
*** I'm not sure we learned anything.
**** It was actually a rocking/easy chair. Another of Joe's duties was to push the chair back into the circle anytime she rocked herself out of the group, which was often.


Mad props to all the 240 ladies. Let's hear it for the weaker sex.

Labor & Love

Work equals assorted, unsystematic tasks. It equals meetings galore and reading about tax exemption status and calling the IRS and trying to even glance at a copy of the lease for our building and waiting (impatiently) to order furniture we need and figuring out how I can help our little Admin family grow stronger, etc.

And I am so, exceedingly thankful. I see people waiting tables and landscaping for the summer and the yuppie in me screeches, "I love working in air conditioned offices!" How lazy. Oh, well.

I am filled with gratitude. Angela, my dear! You know not how much I admire your words and the way you communicate wisdom. It's crazy. It's great. Everytime I'm at the end of my embarrasingly short rope, your words speak directly to the core of my situation. How can one person's words be so sincerely DIVINE?

Christine & I went shopping last night. She bought a huge button-up shirt. Her tiny torso is totally lost in it, but she feels like it'll help her fit in at Hormel. There must be some relationship between meat and baggy shirts.

Finally, running at night is good because it's not as hot.

I've included a couple pictures of Angela.

In the beginning (of the C of D)

God means for us to be liberated. He means to draw us into relationship with him - one that's lifelong and gives meaning to the victories and defeats we WILL face.

But how?

The introduction to The Cost of Discipleship contains these phrases:

"What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will of us today? In the last resort, what we want to know is not, what would this or that man, this or that Church, have of us, but what Jesus Christ himself wants of us."

"The real trouble is that the pure Word of Jesus has been overlaid with so much human ballast - burdensome rules and regulations, false hopes and consolations - that it has become extremely difficult to make a genuine decision for Christ."

"When the Bible speaks of following Jesus, it is proclaiming a discipleship which will liberate mankind from all man-made dogmas, from every burden and oppression, from every anxiety and torture which afflicts the conscience."

Geez, Bonhoeffer. You're so right. All things man-made, even our understandings of God, are broken or destined to break. But what we lack in courage or comprehension, He compensates for with patience and prodding.