I would like to go one record and say I am sick of the Honda commercial with the Vampire Weekend "Holiday" song. I don't have a problem with Vampire Weekend, but they have successfully ruined that song. Also, it bugs me that I have no clue what he is singing at the end of it... it sounds like "Holiday oh holiday, and the best one of the year...[insert Honda verbiage]...Holiday, oh holiday 'ouldn' s'top 'y 'eeeere' "

Our food

About a month ago, maybe more, I watched a documentary called Food Inc. It was great, as far as documentaries go, and I felt they laid out the information quite well. Food Inc. is about the America food industry today; I believe it was made this year or in 2009, so it's pretty relevant. The basic message is: we as consumers have no idea where our food is coming from or what is in it. Neither do we band together and rise up to demand this info, we're all just kind of okay with our more-fat, worse-tasting foods we are being given. I could go on, but I will stop there.

Funny thing is that this completely coincides with a book I started reading over the summer called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which is a great non-fiction book about a family's quest to eat local and grow their own food. Again, similar facts are presented about the food industry and how bad it has become in such a short time.

Well, I stumbled upon this article this evening and just had to post it. I loved it. I always like reading the posts that this guy writes. He is the author of the "Eat This, Not That" books and, although I am one of few who should eat "that" not "this", I still love reading these articles.

And what do you know, the first thing he writes about is the beef industry, which was a topic in Food Inc., which said the same thing: the beef you get at your supermarket, most likely, is actually made of many different cows. (Ew. I'm SO glad we buy part of a steer locally... now to find someone who has chickens...anyways...)

But the main reason I'm posting this is because of a bit of irony (or happenstance, or what have you.) The next thing he talks about is BacO's, those "bacon bits" that are somehow more like cereal than bacon pieces. Less than an hour ago, I was putting the cheese back in the fridge, and I saw our "Real Bacon Pieces" and thought to myself 'I wonder what those other, weird, bad bacon pieces are actually made of? It can't be bacon.' Now I have my answer.

Next bit of weirdness is that earlier tonight we played Fact or Crap and one of the questions was about the fat in avocados. I didn't realize they were so fatty! Anyhoo, the next thing he talks about in the article is avocado dips and how UN-avocadoey they are. Funny, because I thought that too last time mom got one for me (for a Mexican lunch thing at work) and I had her take it back because it A, looked gross, and B, avocado was one of the last ingredients on the list. That just didn't sound right.

So... in conclusion: go read that article, and if you're interest is peaked, as mine was, about this food-deception that seems to be happening, check out a book or documentary about it too. There's some definite shadiness going on, and I'm enjoying learning about it. You just have to be prepared for some things you might not want to know, because you WILL get grossed out at some point.

House-buying coming to a close

Christmas has come and gone, and now I am waiting for New Year's Eve. We had plans until this evening, when our hostess had to cancel her party because she has the flu. That's a shame, and now I don't know what we'll be doing, but I definitely appreciate her canceling now, versus later, and being mindful of getting everyone sick. Obviously, she earns a couple brownie points in my book for her consideration.

Anyhoo, Christmas was good and I got some wonderful gifts. Jarrod and I, together, got a garage door opener (something we needed for our house), which was quite exciting, and a Blu-Ray player. I got a nice KitchenAid stand mixer too! I also got some snowmen, a couple sweaters, a bath wrap, two pairs of earrings, Beauty and the Beast (yep, you read that right), a cook book, and some other things. Jarrod got me some flannel pajamas I asked for, and they are awesome. I've never owned flannel pajamas before, and I am reveling in the comfort and softness!

Now I am, as I said, waiting for New Year's Eve. But more than that, I'm waiting for next Monday. Next Monday is when we close on our house. I just want the day to come and be over with, honestly. This whole process has been stressful and kind of hectic, to say the least; I am so glad that it is coming to a close. After today, we are for sure locked in for our mortgage rate and so on, which means no more running here and there to sign this and that and somehow email it or fax it over to the right person by 5:00pm. Thank. God.

As I told a few people: Jarrod and I NOT living together during this was mega inconvenient. We are obviously not in favor of that anyways, as I am not moving in with him before June, but it was really difficult to be 35 minutes away during this process. Anyways, that part's over, so now we just have to "hang in there", as our realtor put it, until Monday.

Charity

This time of year calls to mind the idea of giving, and also giving to charity. Most wide-spread, probably, is the Salvation Army. The red kettles pop up around Thanksgiving every year since I can remember, and even now there are digital kettles you can donate to online in competition-like manner, supporting one radio host's kettle versus another.

Everyone has their charities they donate to and don't donate to; it's definitely personal preference. I am going to go out on a limb and take a slightly controversial stance against one that I see this time of year: The Little Wishes campaign for foster children.

Every year, channel 5 here has this "Little Wishes" campaign. Year-round, they support things with foster care, which is fine. But the Little Wishes really bugs me, and here's why: it's expensive. If a person wants to grant a "Little Wish" for a child, you better expect to pay a minimum of $35. Why? Because they don't offer any gifts to choose that cost any less than that. The cheapest toys on their website are 35 dollars. I'm sure some would argue that is not much, but I'm sorry: beggars can't be choosers. Maybe this is not the right attitude to have about it, especially in light of Christmas, but that's just how I feel. This year, I am not even spending $35 on gifts for people I KNOW. I just feel that asking for the things these kids ask for (which span all the way up to $200 toys) is a little much. I would gladly donate to St. Vincent de Paul Society, who helps people who are probably in worse shape than foster children, and they don't ask for $35 items. I can easily afford to give a little girl a sweatshirt that has a cute animal on it, which was one of the ornaments our family pulled off the giving tree this year.

I guess it's all in how a charity is run, but I just don't understand how the child can't be happy with a $20 or $15 toy.

Oh happy day

God works in strange ways, that is for certain. Yesterday, I actually received a call about a job application (after I wrote that blog) for a Front Desk person at Club Fitness. I was excited that I finally had heard SOMETHING from SOMEONE on a job. I called the woman back and had a successful mini-phone interview (phew), but then she said that she actually wasn't in need of a front desk attendant but a babysitter. So she said I should think about it and I could let her know. Well, that was a let down because me watching kids does not work; kids have many germs, and it would not work out good for me.

So I was disappointed, obviously, but reassured at the same time that 'Yes, I am doing something right here.'

Well, today my plan was to spend the day in my pajamas and clean my room a bit. I didn't really clean anything, but instead I started to go through some things. As in: my huge assortment of stuffed animals. I realized that I have never gone through them, so I currently have every animal I've ever had, plus a few of mom's, haha. I found a cat with a "I <3 Lynn" shirt on and her Mary Poppins doll from when she was a kid (which is awesome, I must say; it's this great hand-made doll from the 60s.) But then I got a call from Mary, who I went on CRHP retreat with and who my parents have also known for years. She said they were short on help at her company and wanted to know if I could come in today to talk with her.

Sure! Of course I can! I met Mary at 2:00, we talked, and was offered a job doing part time random office work. This is kinda funny because at my previous job, I ended up doing a lot of random things too. But, I am so excited about this. I think this will be so refreshing. I can just tell already that the atmosphere there is different from my former workplace; much more friendly and warm.

God works in strange ways... My parents ran into Mary and her husband on Black Friday at a local bakery. Had that not happened, she might have not realized I was out of work... and so on and so on. It's so wonderful. I am SO thankful I have something for now. The schedule I'll be on works out great, too. It'll be about 24 hours a week.

I start tomorrow!

Can we say 'stress'?

1. I think we need to start praying to St. Joseph for some intercession on the house hunting. He is the patron saint of house hunting, so... yeah!

2. I'm not quite sure how my body is handling all this stress right now. I don't feel overly stressed, but I'm sure it is taking its tole on me. I have barely been getting any sleep because nightly I wake up coughing at least once for 2 hours. Two nights ago I think I got two hours of sleep, after waking of 5 separate times. So not much sleep. Next is that I'm pretty darn busy: I'm looking for a job, looking for a house (which takes up way more time than I thought it would), planning a wedding, trying to keep in contact with people, watching my bank account go down because of Christmas presents, and trying to stay healthy too. I have been out of work for a month now, and I haven't received one call or email or reply whatsoever about any job I've applied to. So that's encouraging... So add that worrying to all of this, and I just don't know when or what day I'm finally going to snap, whether it's mentally or by way of getting sick. I figure my body can only handle so much. The only plus in this is that I'm NOT at work, thus not exposed to as many germs.

Crazy house hunting

So Jarrod and I found a house that we both really liked. It met all of the things we wanted in a house and was in a great location in Wentzville, not to mention at a great price. It had a nice sized master bedroom and bathroom, double sinks, a good yard, a nice big kitchen with tons of counter space, a great open floor plan, and just plenty of room overall. The miraculous thing about the great price, too, what that this house was not a foreclosure or even a short sale. The folks trying to sell it just needed to get out from under it and were trying to sell it for cheap.

We first looked at it on Friday, decided we wanted to take our parents through on Saturday, so we all met there at 9am that morning. Everyone liked it, which was wonderful. We decided we wanted to put a contract on it that day, so we hung around in Wentzville while our realtor showed another house. Then we went over to her office in O'Fallon and wrote up the contract. The only thing we were waiting on with this house was the sellers disclosures, which was worded into the contract so if anything was terribly wrong, we would have the ability to back out (since it was being sold as is.) We finished up around 1:30 or so and came back here, since Jarrod's car was parked here.

So, around 2:30 or so we got a call from our realtor saying she had received the sellers disclosures and emailed them to us. She wanted us to look it over and let her know what we wanted to do; she had not yet sent our contract over since these were faxed to her right away. I was doing a neb and reading them on my laptop while Jarrod read them over at my computer. As I kept reading it, I got this sinking feeling in my stomach. I'm not kidding you, every section of this thing had something wrong with it. There were problems with the plumbing; the kitchen appliances; the furnace supposedly turned on and off randomly and there weren't parts available to fix it; water got in the basement because the gutters didn't drain properly; he suspected movement in the house. A moving house is never a good situation. Also on this thing he wrote that a sewage pipe under the basement floor was cracked and sometimes backed up and that a PVC pipe in the wall of the house had been damaged due to movement. Oh, and he suspected termites. We were (or at least I was) stunned that it had this many problems. The house was fairly clean and in really good condition, it hadn't been totally neglected, so it was hard to believe that much was wrong underneath it all.

This house was so perfect for us, except everything was wrong with it. We shared the disclosures with dad, who kept saying "Oh boy..." as he read it, and unanimously decided we didn't want to put a contract on the house any more.

It was such a long day, I was so exhausted from it all. Here we were excited we had found the perfect house at a great price, only to have our hopes dashed a couple hours later once we found out all that was wrong with the house. I just wish we would have had these disclosures sooner because then we wouldn't have wasted our time. I was definitely disappointed, but I've moved on. If it wasn't the right one, then it just wasn't the right one.

"Going Green" is not new

I love old things, and especially if they are semi-old things from my childhood.

For a few years now (really, I don't think it's been much more than that, and I feel last year was the worst ever for "green" marketing) our society has been bombarded by "green" messages of saving our planet because, guess what, we're polluting it and that can't go on forever. But the funny thing many people forgot is: this is not a new idea.

Enter Exhibit A. My bookmark. I have an old little paper bookmark from [at the very least] 15 years ago. I believe I got it one time because of a book order in grade school. Anyways, I love this bookmark and keep it because it is 1, cute, and 2, about the earth. The front has a cute little illustration of a smiling earth and it says "Save the Earth", followed by the illustration of the earth, and "It's the only one we've got." at the bottom in what looks to be either Century Gothic or Avant Garde type. Then (ready for the best part?!) the back has 5 tips to saving our earth. They read;

1. Avoid "disposable" products that are used once, then thrown away.
2. Recycle. Reuse things if possible. Before you throw away games, books, or clothes, remember someone else might like them.
3. Organize a clean-up committee for a littered park or street in your community.
4. Encourage your friends and family to be more Earth-conscious. Then set an example yourself.
5. Read all about it. The more you know about the environment, the more you'll realize why it's important to save it.

Funny how those same things still ring true today, yet now they are shoved down our throats, sadly. I also really like how the first tip addresses "disposable" products. This bookmark is from the days before bottled water, mind you. How times have changed... Well, the message hasn't changed, but our habits have changed for the worse.

Happy birthday

Today is the 41st birthday of my beloved childhood television program: Sesame Street. Therefore, most of the morning I have been whisked away to a much simpler time watching old clips. Enjoy. (If you're having trouble loading them, try quitting your browser and starting over.)



















Kids just don't know what they're missing these days...

Read a book!

Hanging out with my good friend Marie is always a ton of fun. But along with the fun, many times we find ourselves deep in conversation about very serious topics. Frequent topics include the demise of the world due to facebook, the yearning for a simpler life, stereotypes, and a plethora of other things effecting the world right now and how saddened we are by them.

I feel that the mark of a good conversation/debate is if you get something out of it. When a person is talking about deep issues such as these, there should be a little bit of introspection with it. How does this apply to me? How can I change? How do I feel about this?

Hopefully this is making sense, and if not hopefully I'll clear it up in this paragraph. Today we were talking about facebook, a semi-frequent pondering, and how we both wish we could either: 1, lessen our time on there, or 2, drop facebook completely. It is clear that facebook has become a sort of addiction for both of us, though we are by no means the worst at fault for this. I know for certain that there are many, many, many people in the world who are on it more than we are. But the reason we feel it has an 'addiction' sort of status is because of all the time wasted on there. Here's the scenario: I log on, just to check if any numbers are at the top of my page basically.


I only intend to be on there for a harmless minute, right? So I check. And then, I click on someone. One minute has turned into 5, then 15, then 30. And before you know it, it's 2:00 in the afternoon! What happened to all that time? I compare this facebook addiction, in a way, to drinking. A person wants JUST ONE drink. Then that turns into two. Then three. Then four. And before you know it, they are drunk. Same with facebook. You intend to only be there for a minute; you just want that one little sip, that one drink of information on everyone. And before you know it, an hour has gone by.

So, here comes the introspection part! Stay with me here...

I myself feel I have not been reading as much as I used to, and this really saddens me. I love to read. I love getting lost in a good book. But I have not been doing this a whole lot lately and I realized why: my laptop. Ever since I got my laptop back up and running with Ubuntu, I have been using it a lot more. Typically in the past, I would read while I was doing my vest. With two vest sessions a day, that would equal an hour of reading every day, which is pretty darn good for most people. But now, I keep my laptop by my vest, too, and more times than not I will pick up the laptop, play a game, or check all my anti-social network stuff and before I know it, I am on my last vest setting with 2 minutes left. I can't read now! There's no more time, I think to myself. Once again, time has passed and another opportunity for me to spend some good family time with my books is lost.

So, even though writing this blog is taking some time, haha, I intend to read tonight while I vest. I am so glad we had this conversation because it made me more aware as to WHY I am not reading as much. Hopefully I can turn things around and my books will be back in my hands more!

Turn! Turn! Turn!

I am reminded of so many quotes and songs this evening that apply to my situation in life at the moment.

First is the title, the song popularized by the Byrds. You know the song, "To everything (turn, turn, turn) there is a season (turn, turn, turn) and a time to every purpose under heaven." It's based on a verse in Ecclesiastes, and what I'm taking away from it tonight is that a time in my life has ended. [And if you wanna hear this great song, you can click here.]

I have been laid off from my job. It was quite a blow, honestly; I was not expecting it at all. I was offered a contract position, but I declined it because I was not interested in doing contract work for them. At first, I was very emotional. I went back to my desk after the meeting, sat down, realized I had to pack up my things, and then left because I was on the verge of breaking down. I tried to call Jarrod and tell him the news, but he wasn't answering. I left the bathroom, after splashing my face with some water, and returned to start packing up my things. I then cried a little more, but was trying to not make a scene. My coworker heard me and asked if I was okay. After composing myself for a brief moment, I shared the news that I was not going to be there on Monday. I noticed Jarrod had tried to call, so I left to call him back, and the news was obviously not what he wanted to hear either. I finished packing up and left, after saying goodbye to my three friends there. That was tough.

I read over the contract they offered me, made my decision, and went by today to tell them I was declining.  I think that the HR lady was half surprised, half not.

But in talking with my friend just now, and reading a couple blogs, I am starting to truly see the good side to all this. She also shared this wonderful quote: "God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes, and prospects when He is about to give us the desires of our hearts." -John Newton. Earlier today after I talked with HR and told them I was declining, I had a nervous knot in my stomach for a while. I wondered 'Did I do the right thing?' Now, I am happy to say that has subsided. I now feel that this was God's little nudge for me to move on. If this wouldn't have happened, I wouldn't have quit. I was just going to keep chuggin' along like everything was fine, when in reality I knew that I needed to get out. I knew that I had no potential there; I knew I was barely tapping into my creativity; I knew I was unhappy.

But now that I'm free, I have hope. I feel that with some prayers, I have bigger and better things on my horizon. I know that sometime soon (maybe not as soon as I would like) I will find a decent job.

Where would I be if I didn't have any sort of belief in God? I would be an unhappy, unemployed crab apple. But instead, I have hope for better things. "Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead!"--I Peter 1:6

Movie people in America got some happy news today about the next Batman installment from the almighty Christopher Nolan. For one, the title is to be "The Dark Knight Rises." I approve. Also, the Riddler is not going to be the main villain, as originally suspected. But, most importantly the big news today was...

It is not going to be in 3D!


I myself was excited to find this out, and from what I've seen, many other people are excited about that too. Which leads me to my point: based on this, I feel it's obvious that the movie-going audience does not want 3D right now. And the fact that myself and others like me still consider this a "trend" says something, too. By calling it a trend, it means that we aren't convinced that this is going to last, or maybe we don't feel this is the 'right' path to take the movie business. Right now, it seems that movie makers are making movies in 3D for the sake of making them in 3D. I felt this in Toy Story 3. Granted, I love Toy Story and pretty much everything that comes out of the Pixar Studio, but the fact that Toy Story 3 was 3D added nothing to it. There was nothing that popped out of the screen, nothing came out to grab me; it didn't really add anything. I am positive that the graphics would have been just as crisp, just as sharp, and just as colorful had it not been in 3D.

TV makers are just as guilty at this point too because 3D TV's are a major part of the TV showroom now. Will it last? I'm not sure that it will. For one, the glasses for at-home viewing are ridiculously pricey and are only specific to the TV you buy. Also, it has been said that 3D viewing is not good for some people with certain vision problems, and that it can still cause many headaches and tired eyes for anyone with or without vision problems.

But for now, I'm just glad there are other people like me who are also resisting this technology change. And that Batman will not be made in 3D.

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date

Have you ever had a period of time in your life where you felt you were a little out of control? I think that I had a little bit of that when I was finishing things up for my capstone project senior year in design. But other than that, things are still on the calm side. Except for right now.

Thank goodness I had a slightly productive day today. That helps a lot, but still...

I have so many things on my plate right now. Some are more pressing than others, by far, but still. I feel like things are about ready to come crashing down around me.

I'm trying to plan a wedding, not a small feat. I have people I need to call, things I need to choose, other places I need to contact, guest lists to finalize, and I have fallen behind on my to-do list for all of this. I don't want to keep getting further behind.

In addition to that, Jarrod and I have started looking at places to live. With this, obviously, comes the task of talking to places about financing for the house, all kinds of costs you don't initially think of (especially being new home buyers), and soon we'll be talking with a realtor and touring, hopefully. So there's that. But thankfully, Jarrod is taking over most of this. It's a wonderful help.

Work is kind of stressful, but that's all I'll say since I have pledged to myself not to talk about work on here.

I promised Jarrod I would finish his blanket by the end of the month, but that is definitely not going to happen. So I'll have to break that promise...

I need to exercise, but don't have a whole lot of extra time. Last week when I played with the Wii Fit, I just felt like I wasted half my day so I'm quitting that for now.

The other big thing adding stress to my life is my room, actually. My room is a disaster, and I hate it. My room is always cluttered, but as has been described by some, it is still slightly organized. It is organized chaos, in a way. Things are in piles. There is a pile of stuff near my 'desk' that is all office kind of stuff because, well, my 'desk' isn't really a desk but just a table and I have nowhere else to put that stuff. But right now, it is just horrible. I have things all over the place and I hate it. Not to mention, the probably 20 or more boxes of crap I have throughout the house with stuff that can probably be recycled or donated.

And, I am practically out of clothes. Seriously. I have maybe (big maybe) two short-sleeved shirts in my closet right now. I have a basket of clothes that is clean but has been in said basket for over 5 weeks now. I never put it away and still haven't fluffed it in the dryer so it is unwearable. And the rest of my clothes is dirty and needs to be washed.

On top of all this, from time to time I try to do something I enjoy, so I don't completely lose my mind, like see a friend or read or watch a movie, but those things are easily pushed aside. So it shouldn't seem too surprising, now, that I haven't updated this in so long.

However, like I said, today was an okay day because I did get a little accomplished. I filled out our registry some more, and it is about as complete as it can be right now, I researched some other wedding things, and I went through two boxes of stuff in the spare room. So it's a little something.

Well, sadly... I am sick. First time this season. I even had the thought the other day while we were at a restaurant 'I think I'll use some of this free germ-x soap since we're getting into cold and flu season' and sure enough, the next day I have a cold.

Chances are I caught this from Jarrod :(. Oh well. It is the first time this has happened, but I'm positive it won't be the last.

I'm hoping for a speedy recovery because I have a wedding to go to this weekend. And right now I'm waiting to see if I will be going to work today or not; most every time I have a cold, I spend one solid day coughing. Almost like clockwork, I will cough every 30 seconds or so. No fun...

Christmas in September

People my age and around it are a group of people (maybe not an entire "generation" per se) with a bunch of 'lasts'. We are the last group of people that ever knew what life was like without the internet. We are the last group that knew a time when hardly anyone had a mobile phone, when you had to use a LAND LINE and be careful of using too many long distance minutes. We are the last group that grew up without text messaging. We are the last group that ever knew of film cameras as the only way to take a picture. Likewise, our parents generation were the last ones who knew life without a TV, knew a time when not
everyone had a car, and when black and white film was the only way to go.

Well, I argue that there is another 'last' that young adults my age witnessed and didn't know it: a time when Christmas only belonged after Thanksgiving and during December. And it was an exciting time; you waited most of the year to get here, to start putting up your decorations and prepare for the holiday season.
Well, times have indeed changed... Yes, we are already being faced with the happy smiles of snowmen and the thoughts of sugar plums dancing in our heads... IN SEPTEMBER!

I can't quite put it all into words, but I will attempt to, but this really, really bugs me. No wonder hardly anyone pays attention to why we even celebrate Christmas. When Christmas-ish merchandise is pushed in our faces while the official Fall season has not even begun, it is blatantly obvious the commercialization Christmas has been turned into. It blows my mind that stores are already trying to capitalize on this holiday in mid-September. There is absolutely no reason that we need to start shopping for decorations this early.

Ironically (but maybe not too surprising), in almost every case, the stuff they are pushing has nothing to do with the true reason for Christmas. They're not pushing to sell me a nativity set right now because, well, I guess that would be silly! Jesus' birthday is so far off! But how about some snowmen, Santas, stars, tree-esque green things, and some other cute ornaments to hang-on-your-fake-tree-that-you-won't-put-up-for-two-more-months-because-it-would-be-stupid-to-bring-it-out-this-early to tide you over until Christmas: the Celebration of Red White and Green?

Oh what a beautiful morning

Yes, that was an Oklahoma! reference.

Some mornings, when the temperatures have been just right overnight, there is steam coming off the lake in our subdivision. And when this happens, I always pass by and think 'I need to take a picture of that sometime; it's so pretty.' This morning, I finally did. And I am so happy about it.

An odd question

I have had something bugging me for quite some time now. I didn't think of it too often, but occasionally a conversation topic would come up, and there was the nagging question, that I once more forgot to look up online.

Well, I have finally found the answer and my brain is at peace.

The topic: soda. Specifically Sierra Mist.

The question: What was the soda that came before Sierra Mist? It was a Pepsi product, lemon lime, and I remember that I liked it a lot. I do not like Sierra Mist, and I remember that I was very disappointed once all restaurants phased this soda out and solely carried Sierra Mist.

If you know the answer, good for you! Why didn't I ask you sooner? If you can't figure it out like me, click below.




The answer is Slice! Anyone else remember it? I'd say there's a good chance that everyone reading will remember it. But yeah! The orange flavor of it was pretty good too. This picture isn't exactly how I remember the design of the can, but oh well (if you're curious, the can I remember was black with a blurb-comic-book-type bubble on it that was a bright green and said Slice in the middle.)

I cannot even explain how oddly happy I am that I have finally figured this out.

A more journalistic post

Well, it is Saturday night and I am ready to turn in early. I have already talked to Jarrod, who also went to bed quite early tonight. He should already be asleep right now, haha. My Yahoo! weather describes our current weather as "Thunder in the vicinity." What an awesome weather report, eh!? Anyways, I am awaiting the storms to reach our house as I type. Hopefully I get done with my vest before they get here. I
doubt the power will go out, but I always hate doing my vest when there is a strong-ish storm around.

So this week has been pretty nice. I have a slew of birthdays all in a row for the week, with Marie's yesterday, Michelle's today, my grandma's tomorrow, and also my cousin's tomorrow, another cousin Alex's on... Wednesday? and Jeff's birthday this upcoming Saturday. Wow, lots of birthdays. I think I missed someone too... but I don't know. Anyways...

I finished up my home IV stuff on Thursday and it was a great thing. I had a good follow-up appointment with the docs and it was decided we could go ahead and wrap things up. My lung function was back up to where it should be. That appointment was also awesome because I was in and out of there is less than an
hour! I was there for a total of 50 minutes! How often does that happen? Not too much.

Well, it looks like the storms are almost here, so I think I'll cut this off. Good night everyone.

Our butterfly

I have noticed over the past couple weeks that we have, what seems to be, a resident butterfly. Otherwise, we have a family of butterflies. But either way, there is this butterfly I keep seeing when I sit out on the front porch. She has landed a couple times near my feet on the bench and also seems to like some of the shrubs out front, too.

I did some research, and our lovely little butterfly is a 'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple (Limentitis arthemis astyanax). I finally got a great picture of her two days ago that really displays the colors quite well.



[Side note: it was taken with my old Canon PowerShot G6—this thing is from... eh, the 2005 era and only takes 7.1 mega-pixels, but I am super impressed with the image quality I got here. I forgot how much I like this camera for macro shots.]

PS: You can click on it for a larger image.

In a world of my imagination

Yesterday, there were two different times where I was imagining things. It hit
me that the reason I find so much hilarity in nature is because I inject myself
into that animal's mind. Allow me to explain...

The first was on my way to church. On the drive out of the subdivision, I passed
by a turtle. It looked like the same on that was in our yard the other day. He
was crossing the road and was still moving as I was approaching. I carefully
avoided him and passed in front of his head where he could see my car zoom past.
In my side mirror, I see him immediately turn around and start booking it
towards the other side as if to say "Screw this! I almost got killed!"

The second time I was imagining the thoughts of something else was last night. I
was sitting out back and our resident owl started screeching, as it usually
does, to announce that the sun will be setting soon. This has always stuck me as
funny to begin with because usually we think of owls hooting at night and
staying completely nocturnal. Well, our owl likes to wake up a little early I
suppose. Anyways, ANOTHER owl started hooting and then they started talking.
They kept going back and forth and it was really cool. I wondered if they were
arguing? Just chit-chatting? Who knows!

Prepare to tear up

When I was eighteen, I was granted a wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. My wish was to see Wicked, the musical, in NYC on Broadway. What a wonderful foundation that is; they went above and beyond the wish I asked for and I was treated to a wonderful five-day trip to NYC, all inclusive, and it was an awesome time I'll always remember.

Apparently there is another new organization out there called Wish Upon A Wedding. This organization, as I understand it, grants wedding wishes to those who have a life-threatening condition or life-altering circumstance. And recently, the St. Louis chapter granted it's first wish.

The recipient of her wedding wish was a girl with cystic fibrosis. I was told about this by Heather, and the story following is what she shared (I'm not sure where she heard about it either, side note, but I think it was a story on the news.) So this young lady with CF went in for a checkup where she was informed she had possibly six months left. Her boyfriend was at this appointment with her and he left. This upset her (as it would me) and she didn't quite understand it. I would assume he was distraught. Well, turns out he went out to a local jeweler at that moment and bought an engagement ring. He then proposed that same day.

Wish Upon A Wedding was somehow brought into the picture and they worked quickly and were able to provide her a wonderful wedding, all expenses paid. Two weeks after he proposed, they were married here in St. Louis. The Four Seasons hotel provided the place and catering, and many other local vendors chipped in and she was given a dress, flowers, the whole nine yards: all free of charge.

As you'll notice in the pictures, she is on oxygen. She apparently walked down the aisle halfway and couldn't go further but had to be pushed in a wheelchair for the remaining distance. Of course, the groom didn't care. They also wrote their own vows. Basically, hers said something about her happily ever after being cut short, and his stated that his love for her will live on in his heart even if she is no longer with him. (Who's tearing up? I am!)

So it sounds like their day went wonderfully and it was the happiest day of her life. As you will see in the pictures, it is very easy to tell that they simply adore each other. It is such a shame that their time together will be short, but I rejoice in hearing that there are wonderful people who would allow this to happen for them in the midst of such devastating news. I wish them a wonderful, happy time together. Here is the link for the website and a few pictures:

Wish Upon A Wedding

Im goin to da park l8r fr sum ice creem OMG

We all know that grammar and spelling are going down the tubes for the generations of kids 18 and younger right now. Without trying to be too much of a rant, I would like to point out a few things and simply ask: WHY?

1. Why is it that most any girl under 16 has to end every sentence with three or more exclamation points?

• Examples: 
• I love shopping at Wal-mart!!!
• OMG he is soooooo cute!!!!!!!!

2. Why doesn't anyone know when to start and stop a sentence anymore? I read something one time that was an entire page and there were a grand total of two periods in the entire thing. TWO?! Had I not seen it myself, I would have never believed it.

• Example:
• We went to the mall where I met up with Kate and then we went in Forever 21 which is like my favorite store I bought a cool coat there and am totally excited to wear it when it gets colder but right now it's too hot for it so I guess I'm just gonna have to wait to wear it but right now we are at the apple store looking at ipods

3. Actually, I would say two rules were broken there: lack of punctuation AND run-on sentence.

4. Spelling. Need I say more? I must admit, though, I have a hard time telling if kids really can't  spell or just don't care enough to spell correctly. Thanks to text messaging and the consistent narcissistic posting we all do now, the internet lingo was born.

• Examples:
• what r u doin l8r?
• idk y he isnt talking 2u

5. Incorrect capitalization. Since when did this become difficult to figure out? First words of sentences, proper nouns (ie, names... of stuff, kiddos), and the letter "I."

6. And of course, our favorite part of internet lingo, abbreviations. TTYL, LOL, OMG, ROFL, LMFAO, IDK, BRB, GTG... all lovely things that have made their way into our everyday writing. For some people, at least.

But, in most cases with teens, all of these crimes of language are combined to give us something like the following:

• we went to the mall where i met Up with kate and den we went in forEver 21 which is like my favorite store I bought a c00l cote der n am totalley excited 2 ware it wen it get's colder but Right now its 2 hot 4 it so i guess i"m justt gonna haf 2 wait to ware it LOL. but rite now we are at the apple Store lookin at ipods and there is this sooooooo cute guy standing bi Kate but idk y he isnt talking 2u I guess hes like shy or sumthin!!!!!! 

What I would really like to know is if this is mostly an American thing (like most terrible habits that we develop) or if this trend is worldwide.

Lord, help us.

Though the mountains may fall

I have a song stuck in my head at the moment. It's a church hymn, actually, and I haven't the slightest clue where it came from. It's the one that goes "Though the mountains may fall,
and the hills turn to dust,
yet the love of the Lord will stand
as a shelter for all
who will call on His name.
Sing the praise and the glory of God!"

The song goes on and part of the verse is (possibly out of order):
"[...something...] He will not forget your name.
Should you wander away from Him,
he will not abandon you." And the refrain repeats.

First of all, it's really weird that this is stuck in my head. But I had a small epiphany while singing this over and over: God's really amazing.

Well, duh, Jamie, we all know this already. But... Think about it like this (are you ready for my mini-realization?): If you were dating someone, you would definitely not stick around based on the way most of us 'treat' God. If they didn't talk to you for a week or more, you'd leave. If they never let you in to their life, truly, you'd probably leave. If they never let you help them out, you'd get tired of it. I think there's something in the song about 'He will always take you back' too. Would we always, time and time again, be so open to this same significant other who constantly screwed up and constantly left us? No, I don't know of anyone who would be so tolerable on a constant basis.

Yet, there's God. And He always wants us to come to Him and He will ALWAYS be there, ready to welcome us back. Pretty awesome, huh?

Late night

Here's a little peak into a prominent aspect of my life. There are times that I cough right before I go to bed, and sometimes this lasts for a while. There are other times when body wakes itself up and I cough in the middle of the night. In either scenario, this equals less sleep for Jamie.

At the moment I have been coughing for about 2 hours, and I did an albuterol neb but that didn't help. If that's not going to open up my airways, then not much else is going to help. Except for some prednisone, but I like to avoid that if I can. It's pointless to lay in bed and cough because you just get yourself frustrated that you aren't stopping and falling back asleep. So it is better to just get up or at least do a little something.

So what's a girl to do when this happens? Well...

1. I do random Photoshop stuff late when this happens. Check out my facebook profile and you shall see the results of tonight.
2. Listen to some music. I prefer something a little mellow or just eclectic. Usually I'll hit up one of my radio stations on iTunes with piano songs or Irish music, or I'll play a mellower artist from my library. Tonight, the set list has been O.A.R. (Jarrod, be proud.)
3. As you have noticed, since you're reading this, I also sometimes write blogs. But I gotta admit that this is a little difficult. I am getting to that overly tired point where putting together these sentences is getting difficult.
4. Or I may read a book, the easiest of all options because you can read in bed. I am currently trying to finish Eclipse (that third book of the Twilight series) because I just can't wait to read something better once I'm done. Seriously, I cannot understand for a minute what is so special about these damn books. The quality of writing is not that good, I don't feel I can relate to the characters because there is no characterization, and I have serious issues with the whole premises of Edward's relationship with Bella. But, I could go on and on; I will save it for another blog (another time I'm coughing, haha?)

Well, I think I could possibly try to fall asleep now so goodnight. Hopefully you're all asleep right now, though.

Walking thoughts

I took a walk with mom last night. The weather was so nice out that it was difficult to waste all my time indoors. It occurred to me that during this time in my life, I am getting the littlest amount of exercise I have ever had in my entire life. In gradeschool, I took dance lessons, ran around with neighbor kids, and rode my bike. Up until my Sophomore year in high school, I took dance but then I dropped it due to theatre scheduling conflicts. But for the rest of high school, I still had to walk to class and climb stairs and just get around there. In college, I didn't exercise but I still had to walk to classes, so at least I walked a little every day. And now... I'm moving the least I've ever moved. I don't have to walk around at my job, I sit at my desk all day and I'm lucky if I walk around the building once in a day. It's a short walk to my car, so that's not a big thing either. I guess most adults face this problem, but it also just drives home how much I need to get out and take a walk, even if it's only for 15 minutes.

A true debate

A topic of great concern: the flooding in Pakistan. Almost three weeks ago, heavy monsoon rains flooded the provinces of Punjab and Sindh and now almost 1/5 of the entire country is under water. Millions and millions of people have been affected by this, with more and 4 million now homeless, and the death toll is unknown. Not only is this affecting people now, the long-term effects may be even worse. There is a large fear that due to sub-par conditions, a cholera breakout is likely.


Aid has been slow to pour in. Whether this has to do with the Pakistani government is unclear, but either way, let's compare:

• Back during Haiti, over 2.4 billion dollars in aid was sent, with the US contributing 4.6 million.
• Currently, totals for aid going to Pakistan are about 3.17 million, with the UN appealing for 4.59 million (I am unsure if this has been factored in already or if this will be in addition to the 3.17.) So far, the US has contributed 1.5 million.

Doing some basic math here: if you divide the totals, so far Pakistan has not received even 1% of the amount of aid that Haiti did.  As far as size, Haiti is a country of about 9.8 million people, so basically the state of Georgia (but obviously much more crammed.) Pakistan has a population of around 166 million people, which is about half of the USA. For the sake of argument, let's pretend that you handed each person their share of the aid (around 3 million were affected in Haiti, around 4 million so far in Pakistan.) Each person in Haiti would have received $800, and each person in Pakistan would be given 79¢. 

Have I made my point yet?

I feel that a large part of the reason Pakistan is not getting nearly the amount of help it needs is two-fold. First is the lack of media coverage. Back when the earthquake in Haiti happened, you could not turn on a TV without hearing about it. I do not want to try to undermine the situation to be any less worse than it was, but the coverage after a while became borderline rediculous and overdone (as usually happens.) The coverage of Pakistan's crisis has not even reached a tenth of that. The second reason is probably obvious to some: they are the enemy. Pakistan is definitely known as a terrorist nation and has been said to harbor them. In the mountainous terrain of Pakistan, it is easy for terrorists to hide out and train and go undetected from a lax-enough-anyways government. But this is where the debate comes in...

If you had to choose: Which nation should we be helping out more? The Bible tells us to love thy enemy as thyself. Haiti was never our enemy, and if they ever were it was definitely not to the calibre of Pakistan. Not that it was un-noble of us to help out Haiti, but both nations are just as poor and in need of other countries' help. If we are to take that teaching to heart, shouldn't we be helping out our enemies? Easier said than done, obviously, but still worth thinking about. I acknowledge there is definitely a real dilemma in sending aid to Pakistan. More than likely, there will be extremists receiving this aid. The exact people that wish us dead will be saved by our contributions. But we also forget one important thing: we are all human. We all have families that we care for, pets that we look forward coming home to, houses to clean, children to raise. Does the fact that their views radically clash with our own merit them unworthy or our help, of our love?

It has been argued that the fact that so little is being done over there is actually going to make the chance for terrorism worse, which makes perfect sense really. Those who are wanting to push their extreme agendas are being given the exact kind of situation to do just that; people are desperate and if they [extremists] come along and point out all that is wrong with this, more people are likely to tag on to it and join them.  Wouldn't it be beneficial, from a political stance, for them to see or hear that the US is helping them out? We all know that Islamist teaching can be very "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" so... need I say more? If you haven't read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortinsen, (first of all, I advise you to, it's very good) he shows that education and a little bit of care go a long way. The people he has helped in Pakistan are extrememly grateful and they are not the terrorists we envision.

So I now open it up to you. What are your thoughts on this? Is it a noble thing to send aid to our enemies or would that make matters worse? I'm interested to hear some thoughts. Discuss.

Smokers gotta exercise too

First of all, hello again everyone! I know I've been absent from my blog for a while, but I'm back for now. A couple days this week I went down to our riverfront trail for some exercise. And it never seems to fail that someone comes down there who is a smoker. Of course, that doesn't seem surprising, many people smoke. But what I really, REALLY don't understand is the couple I saw there. They got out of the truck, put their roller blades on, then sat on the bed to have a cigarette before they took off on the trail. Then, when they got back, they did the same thing and smoked AGAIN! What?! What about this makes ANY sense? It's like eating a triple cheeseburger right before you go in for your liposuction. If you're that addicted to your cigarettes that you smoke right before and after you exercise, you might as well not even bother to exercise. I don't understand why anyone would smoke to begin with, obviously, but this incident was just beyond dumb. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though. Another time when I was riding my bike there, there was a small group of people taking a break on a bench, having a smoke. That really bothered me. I'm sorry, smoke when you want to, but I do not want to inhale your smoke when my lungs are enjoying the happy air they're getting while I'm breathing in deeply and riding my bike. Maybe it was the same people.

Thoughts from mass

This morning I didn't go to my normal church but to the parish in Union. I really like my priest in my parish, Fr. Mike, but I really like the one in Union too. They are both different in their styles but still equally good: Father Mike is a little more modern, Father Mitas is a little more old-fashioned.

Anyways, Father Mitas said a few things this morning that really hit me and made the mass completely worth it. The overall theme was persistance in prayer yet also the words "Thy will be done." He was talking about Paul and how he was a prideful person. He prayed and prayed that God take away the things that he had to deal with but God never did. Finally, after asking three times for God to take it away, he realized why he didn't. God was testing him, in a way. By not having things go his way, God was teaching Paul humility.

And that one just really resonated with me. It is so easy for us to forget that when we don't always get what we pray for, God has a bigger plan and just might be teaching us something. And like Paul, it keeps us humble. It reminds us that we are not in control here, God is.

The overall point here is not to say that persistance in prayer is a waste of time either. Moreover, it brings us closer to God and can also bring peace and acceptance in our lives. Rather than being upset that it doesn't go our way, through prayer we can come to a better understanding that "Well, I guess it's just not meant to be" and move on in life, versus being hung up over it, you know? And the other point he made was that after praying for something for over a year, you might not even be in the same place or want it anymore. It is the same as being a parent on earth: when your child asks for something, do you always say yes? Chances are you say no more than just giving them everything they want. And most times it's just an impulse anyways, so a week may go by and the child doesn't even care about it any more. Well, he pointed out that God acts in a similar way. It makes so much sense, doesn't it!?

Thoughts: "Inception"

Last night we went to see Inception. I thought it was great. I really wish Netflix did half-star ratings because I would give it 4.5. So real quick, I'd like to offer a few thoughts without spoiling it for those that haven't seen it:

1. I thought the script was the most impressive thing about it. It wasn't based on anything, it was completely a creation from Christopher Nolan. And for a script that he wrote for almost 8 years, I would sure as heck hope it was good. I was never confused (very impressive considering the plot) and I could follow it, and it was just... mind-bending, in more ways than one.

2. I liked all the actors they pulled in too. Nolan is kind of reminding me of Terrintino because he tends to use the same people film to film. Michael Caine made another appearance in this and so did Cillian Murphy. Ellen Page was possibly mis-cast, but I didn't think she did too bad of a job.

3. I was on the edge of my seat for probably the last 45 minutes. That's definitly worth some credit.

4. I really appreciate that there was no sexual content in it. Truly. I get so annoyed with this because more and more it seems that it is just thrown in a movie for no reason. Do directors really think this draws more of an audience? Does it really draw an audience? Either way, I was glad that Nolan didn't go there. It wasn't needed and would have knocked off some brownie points in my view.

5. Lastly, see it. If you're a fan of action, thriller, and movies that make you think and pay attention than this is for you.

Time for a fresh start

I decided this morning that it is finally time for me to do a reinstall on my laptop. It's an older PowerBook G4 and it amazes me how out of date the software is.

I used it more heavily only three years ago; so three years have gone by, and we have advanced THAT much and my laptop barely works. That is the part that blows my mind. I mostly use this for online and email-checking, maybe a little bit of Word. Other than that, it's not too useful anymore. Even so, the browsing online is so limited. My email works but does not display correctly, I can only type in Courier, Facebook can't even load, Twitter works though, Craigslist works, and Wikipedia works. Outside of that, it is very hit and miss as to what will load properly (or even load at all, for that matter) and what is going to crash the browser. My main problem there is my browsers are out-of-date, but I can't UPdate them either. I am still running Mac OS 10.3.9 (was that Panther??) and nothing is available for that OS anymore. If I update to Leopard, that will be my last update and in three years more (probably less) I will again be obsolete. So now I need to make a choice as to whether to install the Mac OS or maybe try a little Linux. I have never used Linux but I am positive I would learn it quickly and have no problems with it.

It's time for a new start. It's still a really good machine, it's got 2 gigs 512MB of RAM. a 1.5 Ghrtz processor and 80GB hard drive space. It's over five years old too, and I definitely don't know of any Windows-based laptops that make it this long and still function without being clunky. Now I just need to back up all my files! And/or sell it and get something else. Like... an iPad.

Twitter love

Like almost all users of Twitter, I went though a long stage where I kept thinking "What am I doing here?"

Since Twitter was my third social network to sign up with, I was not exactly all about it in the beginning. At first, I tweeted meager thoughts I had that were fairly boring, like what I would post on facebook. After a little of that, I felt like posting other stuff on there that I usually wouldn't post on facebook. I can't tell you why, but Twitter just began to feel a bit different to me so I tailored my tweets to things I like and wanted to share with the world, creating a different batch of Jamie-ness than the facebook kind. Then I fell back into the "Why am I here?" stage.

And now, I gotta tell you that something clicked within the past two weeks. I finally love my Twitter account. I really enjoy the 60ish people I follow on there and I feel a lot more inclined to share something on Twitter now than I do on facebook. During a conversation last Saturday, I brought up something about one of the celebrities I follow. Prior to this, my group of friends present didn't know that I had a Twitter account. When I stated that I did, it was almost with regret. As someone said, it's almost like a confession to say 'Yes, I'm on Twitter.' I wish that wasn't so. I know that most people who know nothing about it will knock it and say 'Oh, Twitter is so dumb. It's just status updates. "I'm in the bathroom" Ha. Ha.' or something like that. I wish they knew more of what they're talking about because most people on Twitter will agree that... well, that's not really the case. I find more boring crap like that on facebook to be honest with you. That's not to say it never happens, but it is definitely more abundant on ole #fb.

Twitter is more, to me, about sharing information. You see a good article you like, a photograph, or an offer at a store and you Tweet about it. I cannot tell you how many cool things I have been introduced to by the few people I follow. Furthermore, I really like the celebrity/fan interaction that Twitter has created. I follow my favorite band, Muse, on there and what's cool about that is that it is actually being done my Muse, specifically Dom in most cases. It's not just some fan page set up by some company hired to do it, it is the real people.

Plus, it is so much more well-designed than facebook has ever been. This might not mean a whole lot to other people but it scores a point in my book. It's direct, it's clean, and not cluttered like facebook is. It's also kind of nice that there is the 140 character limit too. A friend commented how he liked this too: "Say what you need to say, get it done in 140 or less, and don't ramble on!"

So say what you want to people, but more and more I'd like to open up Twitter instead of facebook. Since I am a person who loves to consume media and information, I find it way more interesting than the boringness most of my 'friends' post on facebook. Anyone wanna follow me over there?

Point made

It's what I've thought all along:

Myth: If you can't figure out what you want to do, you can just go to grad school.

Fact: You go to grad school if you want to pursue a career that requires it. You do not go to grad school because you don't know what else you want to do or because the job market is bad and it's somewhere to hide out for a while.

Grad school is expensive. It's time-consuming. And it generally will not make you more marketable, unless you're going into a field that specifically requires a graduate degree. What it will do is keep you from getting work experience for that much longer, meaning that when you're done, your peers who have been working full-time while you were in school will be more competitive than you. It might also limit you by requiring you to find a higher-paying job than you might otherwise need, in order to pay back those loans (without actually increasing your earning power). And if you apply for jobs that have nothing to do with your graduate degree, employers will think you don't really want the job you're applying for, since it's not in "your field." Don't use grad school to prolong the day of reckoning.

For the four other myths/facts about job hunting, click here.

KC

Over the weekend, Jarrod and I took a trip to Kansas City for a concert. We left on Friday to set out and check in to our hotel semi-early. We arrived in Kansas City around 2:30 something and headed for the Plaza. Well, as it turned out we weren't ON the Plaza but right at the edge of it, so to say. Next time I am back there, I think it would be awesome to spend the extra to stay down near all the shops and such.

Anyways, we went to dinner early so we could get to the concert when doors opened and get good seats (general admission, you know.) I had picked out a BBQ place for us called Fiorella's JackStack BBQ. Boy was it awesome. We ordered a sampling of food for two, with beef, ham, and half a chicken and baked beans, potato salad, and fries. Jarrod also had a Boulevard Wheat and I had a Tropical Paradise martini. He liked his beer, and I thought it was good too; it has an odd flavor on the finish that I couldn't quite pin down. My martini was good at first but by the end of it I didn't care for it much (this seems to happen a lot with me and martinis, I guess they're not for me.) Anyways, our food was amazing. The beef was sliced thinly like a piece of bacon and it was so tender you could just tug and pull it apart. The ham was good and smoky, and the chicken was tender with a good flavor too. Jarrod ate the potato salad, which he liked, the fries weren't
anything special, but the beans were THE best baked beans I have ever tasted. Seriously. Busch's Baked Beans you make at home ain't got nothin' on these. They had pulled pieces of pork which added a nice texture to them and the flavor was as smoky and good as the rest of the food. I read that they hickory smoke all their meats, then cook them in a brick oven, and they [obviously] have their own BBQ sauces, of which we stuck to the Original. All in all, I can understand why it was award-winning and I highly recommend the place to anyone heading to KC.

After that it was back to the hotel to chill out for a bit. We then left, had to run back by the restaurant because Jarrod left his hat there, and were off to the Starlight Theater for the O.A.R. concert. It was raining at that point, go figure, and we hit construction traffic too. However, we got there about 5-10 minutes after the doors opened. And we got close parking, which was nice. We were given wrist-bands that allowed us to get closer seats too, since we were some of the early birds. We got to our seats and ended up in the center on row 12. We could have been in a closer row, but we would have been way off to the side. Luckily the rain stopped, but we still got our shorts wet when we sat down. The Starlight Theater was a neat place it's very similar to the Muny here but a bit nicer. They have concerts there and Broadway shows. I've never thought of it, but the Muny should open up their venue to concerts too. It would be a good alternative to
Riverport/Verizon Wireless Ampitheater/whatever the hell it's called these days for outdoor concerts.

The opener was Citizen Cope. I realized I knew one of their songs, "Let the Drummer Kick." It's a catchy song, if nothing else and I had heard it somewhere, though I'm still not sure from where and it's driving me nuts. Neither Jarrod or I was overly impressed with them, though. Three things: 1, I am not totally convinced that the singing wasn't dubbed. He was barely, I mean BARELY, opening his mouth when he sang and even though he was on top of the mic, I just don't know that a person could possibly produce that much sound with such a small opening of their mouth. 2, A lot of their songs were repition, and I'm just not too hot on a song that repeats the refrain over and over and over and over and has (maybe) one verse; it seems like a cop-out and they're not trying very hard. 3, I am also pretty sure he was stoned out of his mind because they were so disconnected from the audience. They (well mostly 'he' the main singer, the creator of the band) didn't
seeme excited to be there one bit, they didn't connect with the audience (as in something like "You guys all having a good time tonight?"), and they were just TOO laid back. They stood still, weren't into their own music, and gave the impression like they were tired of playing it.

In short: not too impressed, don't ever need to see them again, might buy "Let the Drummer Kick" from iTunes.

A half hour went buy as they tore down the set and put on O.A.R.'s. They opened with "City on Down" one of Jarrod's favorites by them. We ended up standing the whole time, which sucked only because I was in flip flops. They played an awesome show. To me, they were a complete opposite to Cope. They were excited to be there, you could tell that they really love their music, and they really interracted with the crowd. At one point, Jerry, the saxophonist, came down and walked through the aisles while playing that sax (now THAT is some talent there.) He went down the house right side and came back up on the left and was right next to us, so that was cool. I was lucky to change over the camera to the "Continuous" setting so I didn't have to worry about missing him.

They played for two hours, and I know Jarrod liked it a lot. They are his favorite band and since he didn't get to go when they were in St. Louis two years ago, we decided we wouldn't miss this one. I like them, but they are not my favorite (that spot belongs to Muse; Jarrod: O.A.R. Jamie: Muse.) We got out of there pretty nicely too since we had a good parking spot.

Saturday we got up at a decent time and went down to breakfast, which was just so so. Soon after, there was a fasle fire alarm. Yay for that. It sucked that we weren't packed up and ready to leave, or we could have just drove away! We checked out around 10:30 to head down to the shops on the Plaza. We mostly wandered around. We picked up some caramel drinks from Starbucks. There was an old man there reading a book on an iPad, which prompted the idea to drop in the Apple store. We went in there and played with the iPads for a while. I was quite impressed and yes, it is pretty much a big iPod, but it is so darn neat. The experience of the user is so much better on a bigger screen versus playing games on an iPod. Plus, if you don't need it as your sole computer, it really isn't a bad alternative to a laptop. It's a lot cheaper, more versatile, and lighter. And more fun. After that, we decided to head out of the Plaza because it was a very hot day.

We originally planned to go to an art museum but I really wasn't feeling like museums that day. Jarrod was fine with that so we decided to just head back home, even if it was just 11:30. But before we left, we grabbed a light lunch. We stopped in Tomfooleries and split some chicken nachos. I liked the name of the place, and the nachos were fine, but our service was terrible. We were the only people at a table upstairs (which is no excuse) but our waitress didn't refill Jarrod's water till we were ready to leave, never checked on us after she brought us our food, never brought us silverware, and never brought us napkins. We had to use our little drink napkins! Obviously, she didn't get a good tip. She was terrible.

We came home and are back safe and sound. It was a great, great weekend. I know Jarrod really enjoyed the concert, and I'm sure we'll see tham again.

Caution: Astray letters and punctuation

This is the first time I've ever encountered this in my books. In my imagination, it looks like the 're is hanging on for dear life while A and a few commas have already lost their lives.

A funny little story

I have a small story to share.

For a long time now, I have been Jarrod's primary person who reminds him to do things, call whoever, etcetera. I used to always say that I was his PDA but since those have gone out of style, now I say smartphone. So here is our dorky exchange the other day:

Me: "I'm your smartphone."
Him: "You're my Palm."
Me: "......um... I prefer iPhone."

Haha. We are such dorks. Mac geeks, I guess.

A letter of farewell

Last night I said goodbye to an old friend. Well, we haven't been friends for that long but it has been a wonderful time. It started about three or four years ago when on a whim I decided to switch my radio over to listen to something different. And that was the beginning to my love of classical music.
Now this obviously wasn't the first time I had ever heard classical music, but it was the start to my love for it. As I listened to it more I began to notice all the different elements, the chords, the harmonious ways each section would mesh together to create this complex, beautiful sound. And noticing all of these elements and taking them in just got better over time.
See, that's the thing about classical music: unless you grew up with it or have a deep emotional connection (as in, your mom plays with the symphony or something like that) it takes a little bit to get used to it. It isn't an immediate thing, or at least it wasn't for me. And I wish more people would give it a chance. The music is a pure expression of emotions translated into an audio format. And some of the pieces are downright beautiful; there is no other way to describe it. I don't find many pop songs that I feel I could call beautiful.
At ten o'clock last night, Classic99 played their final piece, Beethoven's 9th. I sheepishly admit that I did not know it that well (see, I'm still a baby in getting to hear all of these great pieces) but it was wonderful. It was a great piece to go out with. After it was over, there was just… silence. And I gotta tell you, that felt almost like the death of a friend. I was expecting someone to come on and say goodbye for the last time, but they didn't and now I'm glad they didn't. Because at that point, there was no need for words. The piece was finished, the broadcast was finished, and those moments of silence, to me, meant that it was truly over. It really hit me then that this was final.
This morning, since my car radio was left on the station, I caught a few seconds of the new station that bought Classic99 which is a contemporary Christian station called JoyFM. I can't stand JoyFM, which does not make this any easier. I immediately started to find another station to program in its place and settled on 88.1, an independent station that plays an eclectic mix of genres of music. It might turn out to be an okay replacement.
So goodbye Classic99. I don't think anyone I know will quite understand what you meant for me. It was a great time while it lasted and I will truly miss you.

Save those turtles!

After reading this, I really wish I had some extra time and money, I would definitely go down to Florida to help. Hopefully the little guys survive the trip! It looks like their chances are better, though, if they're moved than if they just hatch and crawl out into a bunch of oil. That would be so sad... (not to revert to a second grade sentence, but it truly makes me sad to think of it.)

Read the original article here.

Time for some rest

Now that the big things are out of the way for the wedding, I am going to take a little rest. In my excitement, I wanted to start thinking about a lot of things, but now that those big things, like the date and finding a reception place, are tackled I think I can take a step back again.

Tonight we met up with Father Mike for the second time. We went over our 'test results' and found that we did agree on a lot of things. There are some areas that we will need to discuss once it gets closer to merging our lives together, but overall I am really pleased with how we both answered. I am sure that some people think things like this are dumb but it opens up conversation, and that's the whole point.

We also received the little booklet used for choosing your readings at mass. Mom had leant me her own copy from when they got married, but my new copy is a bit nicer with some updated photos (none of those 80s haircuts like her book, haha!) I must say, I am kind of excited to pick these out, though. Before my retreat, I don't know that it would have been a huge deal to me but... I don't know how to explain it, I'm just looking forward to choosing them.

In other news... my appetite is up lately. I don't know why, but it spikes from time to time. It's a good thing and I am trying to take advantage of it. I've been on a pizza binge and I ate about five pieces of pizza yesterday and I had three more today, so hopefully it'll help me gain a pound or something. Yeah, that'd be nice!

June Eighteenth, Two-thousand and eleven

That's our date! Jarrod and I aren't exactly the best decision-makers, but it became more clear that we would just need to PICK something and go with it. And June 18 is what we settled on.
Things are coming together so far so good. We picked the date, I reserved the church today, and will be reserving the reception place soon. Wednesday, we looked at the Kemp Auto Museum as a possible reception and we all liked it a lot so we are going with that. It will be a little bit different, but in a good, unique kind of way. The way they do it is they move the cars out of the middle of the room but leave the ones around the outer perimiter of the room. So, reception in the middle, cars around the edge. It should be really neat! Something funny is, in my mind I was thinking 'Oh, maybe I'll have on some Rat Pack-ish music for background during dinner' and as we walked through there, they were playing Frank Sinatra the whole time! So obviously I am not the only one who thinks that would be a good fit.
We are also set to meet up with my priest to go over our Foccus test stuff. It's not a matter of if we passed or not, but they compare your answers and just get you talking about different issues you might not have thought of before now. So we'll get that out of the way, and then as far as the rest of the Catholic preperation we just need to do a class. But no rush on that.
Mom and I are roughing it this weekend. Sort of. Dad is in Chicago-area for the Bloomington Gold and we are on our own. Last night mom barbequed hot dogs and we might hit up Quizno's for lunch today. Tomorrow night is an ice cream social out in the backwoods at this lovely little country church, so I may go to that with mom. Not sure.
Nothing else much to report. If you live where I live, watch the local paper this weekend for their On the Street opinion piece. Mom and I were interviewed yesterday while sitting at the riverfront and I am guessing my answer might be in there. Mom didn't answer but I gave a response, so I assume they may use it.

Zombie Jamie

I am sick today... well, it is becoming clear that I might have been 'sick' for a while now. For the past two months, a good night's sleep has been hard to find for me. I have been waking up coughing so much overnight that I have been averaging 4 hours of sleep a night. I cannot even tell you how annoying this has become. I think I can count on two hands the number of nights that I actually slept all the way through in the past two months. Now, it seems like it's getting worse and last night was definitely the worst one so far. I am a zombie today, walking around with my eyes half-closed, shuffling my feet, and having now energy at all. I think I'm even talking and thinking slower, too.

My doctors have had me try a couple things, but to no avail. Today, we are starting some antibiotics in hopes that this will do the trick. I do feel now that I may have picked up a bug somewhere and it's making matters worse. And that's certainly not unlikely: with so little sleep building up after a while, I'm sure my immune system is tired too and having a hard time keeping up. I really hope this works, because after this will probably be a tune up if it doesn't.

But, in other news, some random thoughts, since I'm having trouble putting together sentences today (heck, I don't even know if that made sense up there, and I'm not rereading it):
--My Lucky Charms were good this morning. They were a happy addition to my otherwise sucky morning.
--My reheated coffee wasn't all too bad either.
--Things are moving on the wedding reception front; hopefully setting up an appointment today to tour a place.
--Jarrod sent me an email that made me smile. When I told him I was home sick, my title for the email was ":(" and his reply was ":(-->:|--->:)--->:D" And I did just that, I went from a sad face to a smiling face :).
--Tomorrow Jarrod and I are going around town to take care of a bunch of things. I will be his chauffer, but it's going to be the hottest day of the year so far! And he'll be in a suit! Sounds like a fun day...
--I saw Toy Story 3 with mom, dad, and Jarrod the other night. It was great, more details to come in a later post.

Holy canoli!

So I dove into some heavy duty wedding planning today. I mean, I've been getting small things figured out, or at least thought about, since last week. But today I started finding out what it takes for the reception part of the day.

I cannot believe how much it costs to have a damn reception. Really. It is astounding how much it all is after you add things up. For the most part, everything I've found has separate a charge for the facility, separate charge for the food, separate charge for the bar, possibly separate charge for the cake, separate charge for decorations, and separate charges for other crap. And that's only for four hours! I don't know about you, but I don't think that is long enough. 6:00 to 10:00? Does that mean guests can't arrive before 6:00? And do they have to be completely gone by 10:00? I mean, I don't want to be out till one in the frickin' morning, but still. That will definitely be a question we ask, but still, I think four hours isn't that long. One place I'm looking into offers to extend that time for a cheap price, but another costs $5 per hour PER PERSON. Shit, that's $1500 more if you have 300 people. Just for one hour! That's an expensive hour.

Jarrod and I will talk things out a little more tomorrow and maybe start to decide we want to include and what we don't feel is necessary. Right now I'm trying to find a good balance [in my head] between price and making sure it's a really fun, good time for us and everyone there.

PS-I'm really happy with this new blog redesign! Blogger has some [much needed] updated templates now, so I'm trying this one for now. I love hummingbirds, so I may keep it. Otherwise, don't be startled if the design changes every time I write something new. At least till I settle on something.

Yay Tuesday

Don't you just love productive days? I feel I've had a lot of those lately ever since I started looking into wedding stuff. Today has been pretty good. License plates renewed, ring being appraised, picked up some Toasted Pecan coffee from our local shop, and what would top this all off in production is if I rode my bike tonight. Man, I haven't ridden it in so long. It's pretty sad.

On to other things...

At work, I am forwarded an e-newsletter from someone named "The Quality Coach." Said lady resides here in town, but I can't really remember who it is. Anyways, I enjoy reading what she has to say. Being a 'coach' of sorts, they are usually helpful, insightful, or just positive breaks in my day. Recently, the newsletter posed an idea that it would be so wonderful to have a channel of news that is solely for good news. I gotta tell you, that really struck me. Why couldn't this be possible? I somehow have a feeling that lots of people nowadays would tune in to get a 'good' fix instead of the usual Negative Nancy news we are usually faced with. Which leads me to my next thought I've been toying with lately...

Talking with Jarrod about something, I posed the thought that, "It's so much easier for people to be negative than be positive." Why is that? Why is it so easy for us to bitch and moan when things don't go our way? This may sound like an optimists idealistic view of the world, but really: when you consider your day, there are more than likely hundreds of things that go just fine but somehow you only focus on the ten or so ones that went wrong. And as the usual chain of events, you complain about them to whomever is willing to listen. Why is this? I am going to guess that the reason we are wired this way is because of things such as the news; when we are presented with negative people and media in our life that we consume on a daily basis, we too become negative ourselves.

Something else the Quality Coach does in every one of her emails is she poses a question or a challenge for you for that week. In that light, I am going to say that if you're reading this right now, why not try to focus more on the good? I'm going to give this a shot... we'll see how it turns out.

News

I'm pretty sure almost everyone reading this knows by now: Jarrod proposed! It happened this past weekend on Saturday morning. It is a great little story, so ask me sometime when I see you and I will tell you all about it. I am such a lucky person to have a guy like Jarrod, you have no idea. He is the last of a dyeing breed, I like to say, in so many ways. You just don't find many guys like him around any more, especially at our age. So it is so wonderful to be officially engaged.

And, the planning begins...

I got myself a binder and have printed off a few things. I signed up for theknot.com as well, like almost everyone seems to these days. Wow, what a wealth of information it seems to be; I can't imagine planning a wedding the old way where you had to call everyone and all of this information wasn't right at your fingertips. I feel this will be one of the most helpful times in my internet history that I actually am really grateful for the invention of internet.

I am beginning to think that I'm even weirder than I already thought, haha! No, what I mean is that my tastes just don't mesh with what most women have in their weddings these days. It is just a bunch of little things and it all just goes to show, once more, that I am not your typical girl. For example, I hate strapless dresses. Why do there have to be hundreds of choices for those? Seriously, in the little dress-browsing I've done, I've found probably 70% strapless, and the other 30% account for sleeves, halters, small straps, etc. That's just one example, but there are a lot of other little things that I am different on.

Hugs

Though this is a few days late for Memorial Day, I still wanted to post. I stumbled on it yesterday and it is a great video. Thank you to all the troops out there who put their lives on the line and do things that I am not capable of so that I may live and enjoy the things I do. And, as the video reinforces, a large thank you is also due for the families who stay back home. Enjoy the video and I dare you not to cry...



And you wonder why hugs are my favorite?

My day

It's my birthday today. And it has been going quite well so far. I started my day out right with some Kaldi's Highlander Grogg, a local brew of coffee that is delicious. It has hints of maple and Caribbean rum in it and puts any other coffee I have purchased so far to shame. Tasty. We also 'celebrated' at work today too. I believe that I am the only June birthday, so it was just for me. I was asked what I might like for a meal, and I said that an Italian meal sounded good (something the office has done before) with, specifically, fettucine alfredo. Yeah, I know I'm usually a spaghetti girl but I am also sorta picky about it. I don't care for a sauce with mushrooms, onions, or peppers in it and with my luck, someone would have fixed it that way, and I certainly didn't want to offend anyone by not eating the dish they fixed per my request. Conflict avoided by just going with fettucine. We also had a yummy salad, some broccoli, some awesome awesome fresh-cooked garlic toast (seriously, the girl brought in her little grill and made it in the office; you could smell it halfway down the plant), and some chocolate cake. It was an excellent spread.

Tonight I am excited because, also per my request, we are having beef strogonoff with angel food cake. Afterwards, Jarrod and I will head out to downtown and see couple friends and share a drink. Nothing over the top, just nice, small, and special; the way I like it.

I know that some people, mostly men in my encounters, don't put much emphasis on birthdays. However, for me I always feel it's a great day. It proves yet another year of living with CF and keeping it at bay, which is quite an accomplishment. So, that's exciting.

In other news, I signed up for the Scenic Regional Library's summer reading program today! I went in and checked out "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card and signed myself up. If I read eight books by the end of July, I get a free recycled tote! And I am then also entered in a drawing for a larger prize. I will most likely read eight books by then anyways, so why not sign up? It was pretty cute seeing all the little kiddos sign up with their parents, too.

And you know what would be the best birthday present ever? Getting a full night's sleep tonight! (See previous post if you're lost.)

Finally

Well, here I am in what has become my "normal." I am up coughing with not an end in sight.

For the past two months (at least) I have had some sort of interruption or determent in the process of trying to sleep. At one point, I went for over 30 days without one full night of sleep, and I cannot even begin to describe how frustrating that is. Just try to imagine it. For a whole month... yikes.


I am finally fed up. I just emailed my doctors to see what we can do about this. At this point, I have no clue. I don't know if I am really "sick" or what is quite going on. I have never faced this sort of problem before for this length of time; the waking up part is not shocking, what is shocking is that it has not stopped. Which is probably why it has taken me this long to finally do something about it. I just kept hoping and hoping that this all would diminish, maybe I would sleep two nights per week all the way through and not wake up every night... it's easy to see how desperate you can become and how the very, very small things become very, very wonderful victories. But, it just seems I can't quite kick this, whatever the heck it is, so I need some help. I just pray that whatever my doctors decide works and that I can start sleeping again like normal people do.

My Case Against 3D TV

I don't know how the general population feels about 3D television, but I am one person who is completely not in favor of it. First of all, I really, really don't want to have to re-buy my entire movie collection. I mean, I still haven't even bought all of my Disney movies (those suckers are expensive!) on DVD; I still have my original VHS tapes for most. Hopefully those have some sort of collector's value someday, because I keep almost everything I have in mint condition and we have most of the original copies of the movies.

But more than the monetary issue, I just have a feeling in my gut that I am going to be one of those people who does not do well with 3D at home. I have seen one movie in theaters in 3D, and yes I did fine with it. But I am a prime candidate for having eye problems watching them for longer periods of time. I stair at a computer screen all day for my job, which definitely is slowly having an impact on my vision, so my eyes are more than likely fatigued to begin with. I have an astigmatism and I just have a feeling my eyes will not like 3D. Just sayin'.

Currently listening to: The Essential Johnny Cash

The Birds

Oh, I almost forgot, I befriended the hummingbirds today too. (Now, before you call me a hippie... haha... let me explain.) Anyways, I was standing less than a yard away from the feeder and a few of them stopped by to fill up at the Watson Hummingbird Gas Station Express. As long as you have a lot of patience, stay still, and don't make noise, you can see them pretty up close; they don't mind you as much. It was so cool, and cute 'cause they're so darn tiny, to watch one of them take a drink and watch him swallow and twitch and... yeah it was cool; I could have touched him if I'd wanted.

I then grabbed my camera and snapped some photos. This first one is when I was standing right next to the feeder, the second was with dad's better camera and with a macro lens. It was taken standing on the porch (about 8 feet away.)

PS-You can click on them and see a larger image.