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Monday, 12 October 2009

  • It is my day off again. Yay! So much to think and pray about. Time to look for a new job? The GRE's in February? Going to four days? Grad school in the fall? Will I get in? Will I get a job as a professor too someday? Will people hire me to teach Biblical Studies? I think the fact that the first thing you see on my resume is a major in Biblical Studies has majorly affected my ability to get secular jobs in an academic setting. Religion and Culture? But I want to dig deep in the Bible again, to learn Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek. Everyone always wanting something. Matt asked me what I wanted this morning: Jesus coming back. Besides that: hot tea and Pumpkin Raisin Pecan Spice Cookies with Lemon Frosting, do you think that is too wide a contrast? Can I be content anywhere? Well, the answer is as obvious as the rain clouds this morning. Always looking towards something else - to college, to missions, to engagement, to jobs. Except, writing papers, in my dorm room with best friends, I think I was content. Is that reason enough to go to grad school? I'm writing silly thoughts; obviously that is not the only reason. Grad school? What a dream. And Bangui? What will I write? Submission to God's silence - a new lesson in a textbook without a table of contents. You know the next chapter when you get there. So much to think and pray about, in the silence of my answer-to-prayer apartment as my cats sit beside me waiting, with me, to hear God's voice.



    My Husband came home the other day with a bouquet of flowers he had picked (not from someone's yard!)



    Fall Tractor Festival in Smithsburg! Crafts, Tractors, Apple Pie Ice Cream.



    Sabilliasville Fall Festival: Old Cars, Squash, Country Music





    Mandy, Dave and Noah were in town!!!! It was an awesomly fun night!



    And the making of the Pumpkin Raisin Pecan Spice Cookies with Lemon Frosting, with my beautiful half-marathon running sister last night!

Thursday, 24 September 2009

  • Stream of conscious - Do you ever feel like if you aren't motivated enough to do one specific thing that needs done, you don't feel motivated enough to do anything that needs done? It's weird that the less work there is to do in a day, somethings the more tired you are at the end of the day. Matt and I walked around Georgetown the other night. It's beautiful because it reminds me of the intricate mix of modern and historical that is intrinsic to Madrid. I feel like fall has officially fallen because, while we roamed around the city of Matt's graduate school alma mater, I sipped my first pumpkin spice latte of the season! If you have been recently married, you know the infrequency of a latte at all and to have it prepared sooo delightfully on such a beautiful evening in a beautiful city, ahhh. The blessings and curses of the senses. Americans are fat. But there are so many wonderful things to see and taste and touch in the world and I'm thankful for them. I think I want hot chocolate. People are always wanting so much. I learned how to make butternut squash last night. yay! I becoming a house wife. Now to also become something 'important'. Isn't that horrible that that is how I feel sometimes . . .   How do you explain the sacred coolness of marriage without an understanding of how it is based on the relationship God himself has - with himself. Oh my goodness, never ever accidently put dryer sheets in the wash instead of the dryer, especially with a cold handwash only load that cannot then be dried in the dryer. How will I ever get all of this white "stuff" off all our nice clothes?? Why is Luigi less important than Mario? Is it because he wears green and it stand out less? It bothered me all night that O'Brian from Star Trek took all of Tom Cruises' money in "Far and Away" because that probably happens to people in the world and while it is "only money" the cruelty of man cannot go forever unpunished. What a thought to end on. Do you ever wonder why we wonder so much?   



Wednesday, 26 August 2009

  • Currently
    Fairest
    By Gail Carson Levine
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    of dreams and funny miscommunication

    Once I thought I was gifted, bright, intelligent, special (everyone wants to be special). I never thought I was beautiful. Now I have a job that requires little academic finesse (and I am more and more convinced that I was never a true academic or I would have succeeded in that arena) but instead requires one to be constantly in front of the eyes of others. Being a wife is extremely humbling as is this current position for very similar reasons. Although, a cook at work said, “You are pretty Karen but there are many girls prettier than you. We like you because you aren’t a punta.” Thank you . . .? And last week he reinforced it, “You aren’t beautiful like (insert name (why insert name?)) but you have good character and you aren’t stupid.” So there’s that :0)- Do people at work know I love Jesus? They know I’m a Christian, but what does being religious actually have to do with anything. Besides with the cooks, I haven’t really gotten to talk much about what Jesus actually means, which is everything.

    Oh my goodness, though. I have a really funny work story today. I don't usually share work stories, but it all happened in Spanish. One of the cooks was naughty with one of the former employees, whose husband came in with a knife looking for him one day. So, today someone called in and the manager handed me the phone and said, "He wants to speak to someone who speaks Spanish, I don't know who it is." I said hello and he said, "Who is working in the kitchen today. Tell me their names." I passed that message to the manager who obviously said, "Don't tell him! It's probably someone's angry husband!" I said I didn't know who was in today, sorry. They said, "I will be in later then. goodbye." ominous. I told that cook and he was a bit nervous. An hour later, right as I was leaving, one of the cooks ran in saying, "Did Karen give you my message, that I would be in late!" haha. Total miscommunication. He wanted to know their names in order to pass the message to one of them and when I wouldn't give the names - he gave me the message, he would be in "mas tarde" later. ha. Apparently he had told the manager his name, but she didn't understand so when I got the phone, he already thought I knew who I was talking to!

    Tomorrow is Matt’s 30th birthday. Wow. I got him a cool present from Eastern Market, which he may or may not get since I walked in to a stove, counter, sink full of dirty unrinsed dishes from he and his visiting brother’s apparently huge breakfast! Anyways, my husband is 30, we have an apartment, jobs, insurance, oh, so many answers to prayer in these first three months of marriage.

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

  • Currently
    Willow (Special Edition)
    By Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Warwick Davis, Jean Marsh, Patricia Hayes
    see related

    some people :)

    Now I'm back to not working Tuesday and Sunday. I haven't even gotten dressed today. I vacuumed, did litter boxes, dusted, and squandered my day off on facebook - all in my pjs. Willow is playing in the background, so I can focus on eating pretzel salad (my mother-in-law loves me!) and writing Thank You Notes again since Willow, like Star Wars, is memorized to the point of not having to look at the screen to follow the movie. I have a funny work story though. My last table last week before I drove to Hagerstown was a couple of interesting older ladies. Another waitress handed me chocolate when they came in and said I would need it . . . I followed protocol by not giving them the senior discount unless they were regulars or they asked for it - and the lady was so offended, she said, that I didn't automatically give it to them, that she went to the register, asked the host to calculate what the discount would have been, and then took it from my tip so that, "I would learn my lesson and not make the same mistake again." There's nothing like ending your shift on a $1.01 tip handed to you with a rebuke. I called Esther and vented in Spanish for a couple minutes. The funny part though is that yesterday I mentioned this story to my manager. She was their waitress once and they threatened to sue her for emotional damage when she gave them the senior discount because, "what was she trying to say about them"!! I know it illustrates a depravity in human nature, but I can't help but laugh at the foolish vanity of some people. Their silliness cracked me up the rest of the day.

    August 30th, my brother is coming home from the Marine base in Cali before he flies to Somalia! My family is having a big event that night (and I won't know my work schedule till days before so pray I don't have to work Sunday the 30th please). The whole family will get together and I'm sooo excited. Annnd - Matt turns 30 on August 27!! So, that's what's new. The options screen for Willow has played itself out and Matt's distant relatives are waiting to hear how thankful I am and how we bought a bookshelf with wedding money, etc. :)

Thursday, 06 August 2009

  • Currently
    Star Wars, Episode IV- A New Hope (Widescreen Edition)
    By Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness
    see related

    If you give a Karen a cookie . . .

    You know the book, If you give a mouse a cookie . . .? I just lived in this book. Today I have a real day off. It's been so long. A real day without work and without being gone all day so I can work on Thank You Notes to the background of "My name is Luke Skywalker and I'm here to rescue you!" All day I've been craving chocolate. "If we only had milk I could have chocolate milk" I kept thinking. And then the greatest idea hit me - I'll make chocolate chip cookies! I found a cool recipe that doesn't use brown sugar (honey instead, it's yummy). So an hour after I began this cookie making process (I'm a slow cookie maker) - I have a plate of chocolate chip cookies in front of me. And you know what goes realllly good with chocolate chip cookies . . . milk - the lack thereof which began this whole process It's all good though. Today is good. The last three days the air at work has been broken so the dining room has sat on a cool 89F (our uniforms are long and black) and by the time I get home, make diner, do dishes, iron and laundry and grocery shop (yes, I forgot milk), and all those things - it's been a 14 hour day, every day. I was so ready for this day of Star Wars, Thank You Notes, chocolate and 2 Kings (it's not random, I'm engrossed in rereading the whole history of the Israelite monarchy). wahoo!