At Long Last...

I have returned to post a new blog!  Yes, I have a new computer.  Yes, it is up and running.  And yes, I did figure out how to transfer all of my itunes to it.  It was a little dicey for awhile, and I almost had to call Apple for help, but thanks to perseverance or stubborness I avoided that call.

This weekend I have also been battling an upper respiratory infection and pumping myself full of antibiotics and albuterol.  Apparently, now when your lungs are affected by sickness they also automatically give you an inhaler.  Oh well, it's working, I feel better and pray against relapse. 

Today I got to meet my mom's cousins, John and Gwen, who are missionaries in Ethiopia.  They are wonderful people, whom I have heard stories about my entire life.  So it was wonderful to meet them and hear their stories.  As they talked I imagined myself going to visit, camera in hand, to see the people they reach out to every day.  Even the 24 hour plane ride and 18 hour car ride out to the village where they live did not dampen my spirits. 

And then John began telling us about the encounters he's had with SNAKES.  Um, I hate snakes.  Even little, less than a foot long, garter snakes make me scream in fear.  I know this because one got caught  in the sliding door of the house I was dog sitting at.  There was plenty of screaming and praying as I tried to slam the door closed and finally had to use a yard stick to fling the thing outside.  I laugh as I remember how my friend Karen suggested I simply pick it up with my BARE HAND, and fling it outside.

I don't know how I would react if I ran into a thirty foot black cobra in the outhouse.  (That's right, outhouse.) I would probably forget how to scream and die from fear.  I don't know if I could make it back to the house to grab the machete, that is apparently lying around for such a time as this, in order to kill the thing. But I wish I had had a machete with the garter snake, maybe I would have screamed less.

The Menche's Experience

Sorry for the long delay in posts, my computer is broken.  The monitor is beyond repair and I have to look for a new laptop.  Nightmare!!  So, in the mean time I have to find alternative ways to use the computer, which is annoying seeing as how I'm used to having the Internet one click away at all times.  Now all of the questions that pop into my mind, such as where Sri Lanka is located, the current exchange rate for the British pound, and that recipe for watermelon margaritas, will have to remain unanswered.  I just hope that watermelon stays fresh until I choose my new computer.

Anyway, back to the post I was originally going to write last Friday when my computer went haywire.  My friend Kim told me all about this great yogurt place.  A magical place where you help yourself to delicious frozen yogurt flavors such as Mango and Angel food Cake, top it with just about anything you can think of and then pay just 44 cents an ounce.  It's in Dublin.  Ohio, not Ireland.  And it's called Menche's.

Last Friday, we finally found the perfect opportunity to check it out when our friend Brittany came into town.  It also was the perfect opportunity to pull out my brand new camera, and by the end of the night I came to realize that this new camera was destined by God to be a part of my life.

 Stephanie and Brittany show us just how good the yogurt is!

Here all us girls are in front of Menche's in frozen yogurt bliss.  The two husbands that came with us are safely hidden behind the camera, but you can make them out in the window if you look close.  And you guys thought you avoided detection.  Hah!

 

Then the real excitement started when someone accidentally hit the fire alarm inside the store.  A few minutes later, as Menche employees stood helplessly by, the fire department showed up, axes in hand, to put out the fire (but in reality just stood around waiting for the manager to show up with keys to turn off the alarm).

And let me just say, if you are in your twenties and still single, you need to go to Dublin and start a fire.  Cause they've got some cute firemen out their.  And the best part is that they know how to wield an ax, which is one of my top five most important requirements for my future husband.  All things considered I give my Menche's experience a 9!  Good food and full of drama, just the way things should be.

Nikon

I was going to write about my neurotic animals.  Then I washed my camera, which was still in my jeans pocket after the Irish Festival.  No worries, it was cheap, albeit relatively new.  C'est la vie, or that's life (to you non-French speakers).

I ordered a new camera that should arrive today.  It does not fit in my pocket, so being destroyed by washing machine has now, fingers-crossed, been eliminated from the various ways I can harm it.  But as I wait for its arrival my previous camera mishaps keep playing a permanent rerun loop in my mind.  I've spent a little more money on this one (so that it can't fit in my pocket), and I fret that I will not be able to keep it safe. 

How hard is it to keep an inanimate object safe?  Well let's recall my history with cameras.  I will skip all the times I dropped my camera before I owned a digital.  There are too many incidents to keep them straight. 

When I was in college, my parents bought me my first digital camera.  It was wonderful, took great pictures, and needed little to no skill to use it.  I had this camera approximately two months before an unfortunate mishap forever took it from my novice hands.  My school took a trip to Cedar Point, a local amusement park, and I took my new camera.  We posed for a few pictures in line as we waited for the Racers, one of the most tame roller coasters there.  And then it was my turn to ride.  I was careful as I put the camera in my jacket pocket and lowered the bar, making sure to wedge the camera so there was no way it could fall out.  Except that it did fall out.  One camera gone forever (especially since I forgot to check the lost and found before we left). 

I don't think I ever told my parents about the fate of that camera.  Well mom and dad if you're reading this now you finally know why you never saw that camera again, I'm sorry.

Over the next few years, I think I stuck to film cameras, afraid of what might befall an expensive camera.  Then about five years ago I finally got a new digital one.  Radio Shack was having a sale and I had a coupon.  The camera went with me everywhere, out of the country to France, England and Canada.  To amusement parks where it stayed in the safety of a zipped pocket.  And even to my classroom.  Until sometime last year, when I put it in a bag I was bringing home from school, and I have never seen the bag or the camera since.  I know it was in my room at one point.  Now I think it is residing in the local dump. 

Well, now that my first "grown-up" camera is on its way I'm filled with excitement about all the macro, landscape and portrait shots I will take, but at the same time feel great trepidation at what may happen to this poor camera that is in my care.  Let's all send up a prayer that my camera will be with me for a long time to come.

Less than two weeks away from the release of one of the most anticipated books in my lifetime!  I'm talking, of course, about the third installment of The Hunger Games, aka Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins.  If you have no idea what The Hunger Games is, you need to find out.  SOON. 

These books are fast pace, thrilling adventures that are easy to read since they are young adult fiction (which in my opinion is often better than adult fiction) and are outstanding.  Even Stephen King and Stephanie Meyer agree with me.  Now, if you don't know who either of these writer's are you probably won't like these books.  Not that you have to like Stephen King and Stephanie Meyer's books in order to like The Hunger Games, you just have to be aware of who they are.

Honestly, if you haven't read these books you need to go now and beg, borrow, or steal them and devour them ASAP.  Well, maybe you shouldn't steal, although if you're thrown in jail it would give you the time to read the books.  But it is undoubtedly not as comfy as your couch.  However, you would have an intersting perspective on the content if you were in jail. 

Just to be clear, stealing is bad.  Don't do it.

But do read these books. 

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

It's Sunday night already!  How did this happen?

Oh that's right, the Dublin Irish Festival was this weekend.  And I had a blast and a beer.  That's right, only one.  Actually, I even shared that one. 

The Festival completely snuck up on me.  I knew it was coming, but it still took me by surprise.  Summer is going way too fast.  How can it already be August?

Normally I only go Sunday morning to the festival because when you donate a can of food you get in free.  This year I went Friday and Saturday night.  And it was amazing.

This is Gaelic Storm, who played Friday night.  A ton of my friends rave about their music, and now I know why.  Even though I was crammed in the midst of four thousand strangers, with no room to move, I had so much fun! Their music is Irish with some rock thrown in and so much energy.  Loved it.  Want the music.  Kind of want to be a serious groopie and follow them around on their tour.

Also, Irish Dancing is fun to watch.  I'm too afraid to try it.  Maybe I will some day when I decide I'm okay with breaking my ankle.  FYI, I was informed one of these dresses can cost a few thousand dollars, the wig is another four hundred.  So that's why my parents put me in ballet!

Finally, having friends in high places is awesome.  I got to hang out backstage at one of the stages and just chill and listen to the wonderful music.  It was great!  And I'm really tired. 

Penelope is one of my all time favorite movies. Those of you who have heard of this movie starring Christina Ricci, James McAvoy and Reese Witherspoon may be asking, “Isn’t that a children’s movie?” And you would be correct, it is—a fairy tale to be exact about a girl born under a curse with the nose of a pig. To break the curse she must find “one of her own kind” to love her despite her appearance, and since she is an heiress she must find a rich blue-blood to marry.

Sound silly? Perhaps, but there is something about this movie that I absolutely adore; I find myself tempted to watch it over and over again. I could probably watch it every week (sometimes I have), but I try to steer myself away from such obsessive behavior.

So, what is it about this movie that keeps me coming back? It’s more than the beautiful imagery, amusing actors and deep blue eyes of James McAvoy that warm my heart and leave me wanting more. Being a typical girly-girl I love fairy tales, but it’s more than a good heart-warming story.

There are certain truths contained in the dialogue and images that speak to my youthful, single heart. So, just like my friend from Bible study, Mike, who always must share three answers for every question—I feel compelled to do the same as I answer why I love this movie.



#1. Penelope refuses to blame others or become a victim. From the time she was a child her mother taught Penelope the mantra that the nose was not her nose but her great-great-great grandfather’s. She has every right to blame her great-great-great grandfather who caused the curse to fall on their family. Her father blames himself since it was his family through which the curse ran. But Penelope chooses not to blame them, nor does she give in to being the victim. What? Don’t blame your parents or your genes for your short-comings? How very counter-cultural!



#2. Instead of allowing rejection to keep her prisoner she escapes and really lives. Since she was a child, Penelope has been hidden in her home. She always imagined that her parents were protecting her from the horrors of the outside world. In order to break the curse and give her the freedom she has always wanted Penelope must get married. Her mother hires a matchmaker who introduces her to gentleman after gentleman in hopes of finding the right match, but every time they reject Penelope. Now, I’m not suggesting that most of us encounter people who crash through second story windows just to get away from us, but I know it sure feels like that sometimes. When all hope seems lost, Max arrives on the scene and they connect in a way that gives hope to the idea that she can be set free. After revealing her hideous appearance, Max does not run as others have before him, but for reasons of his own he still rejects her—refusing to marry her. It is then that Penelope sees her home as the prison it has always been where she has merely been waiting for life to start. Instead of staying in the safety of the familiar and fantasizing about another life she breaks free. She tries things she had only dreamed of before.



#3. When given the chance for freedom with strings attached, Penelope refuses. She is finally given the chance to be free of her nose when a blue-blood, forced by his father, asks for her hand in marriage. On the day of her wedding, as she stands there wondering if she should say yes and end her years of “suffering”, she realizes that this path is false. It does not lead to true freedom, but only more slavery. If she said yes she might be free from the nose that everyone is so offended by, but she would be miserable in a loveless marriage. And so she rejects the prince who offers her only the illusion of freedom and chooses to love herself despite her shortcomings. What she discovers is that loving herself as she is was the way to freedom all along.

Have you ever been offered freedom only to discover there were strings?

All this talk of the movie has made me remember how wonderful it is and how mesmerizing James McAvoy’s eyes are - deep blue like the Carribean Ocean.  I might have to go watch this movie now - can you blame me?

The Process

I don't recall ever hearing the phrase "enjoy the process" until five years ago.  It could be that every single one of my teachers used this expression and I just didn't hear it as I stared out the window daydreaming about boys.  Perhaps it is a relatively new idiom that has caught like wildfire.  Or maybe I had heard it, but had no clue what it meant until I began to work in the real world. 

Whatever the reason for my ignorance, this idea was spoken to me by my boss five years ago.  "Enjoy the process" is her mantra, she could have made it up for all I know.  Five years ago, I began the job I currently have as a teacher in an early childhood center.  I signed on before the center was even up and running.  There were no classroom shelves, no toys and no children.  No problem.  My job was something of a dream.  I helped order classroom supplies, began planning lessons and dreamed about the day children would be hard at work in complete harmony on the lessons I had created. 

Then the day came for children to arrive and I realized starting something from scratch was almost as difficult as speaking into the darkness and creating the sun.  And by difficult, I mean impossible.  There were days I would go home and cry because my class was so out of my control.  Life had not prepared me for managing a classroom and the behaviors the children brought to school with them. At the end of every day I felt like a failure.  And  I was sure the parents of my students, as well as my co-workers, felt the same way about me. 

When I mentioned my sentiments to my boss she smiled, with a calm that still kind of irks me, and said those three little words, "enjoy the process."  What?  My mind was screaming "what in the world is there to enjoy?"  I quickly decided I hated the process.  The process was stupid.  I wanted the process to endure a slow and painful death and see how much it liked the process.

Over the next few years I would cringe, internally roll my eyes, and sometimes openly roll my eyes (when I couldn't help but be sassy) whenever this idea was uttered.  And then, as if to heap salt on my wounds, I started hearing this phrase in other places, like church, books I would read, or the dentist.  Well, maybe not the dentist, no one will ever enjoy that process.

Here we are, five years later and I am finally beginning to see the truth in these words.  You don't come out of college prepared for the world as I, in my naivete, had thought.  No, you have to make mistakes to learn and experience failure before you enjoy success.  Most important, you have to go through these difficult times to realize you need Jesus.  There's a reason its impossible to speak light into existence from darkness, we're not God. And we can't navigate this strange sphere without him.

So, the process is important, but can we ever enjoy this time of failure and feeling stupid? Where is the fun in asking for help and relying on God instead of ourselves? I didn't think it was possible.  Failing is too humiliating.  What could there possibly be to enjoy? 

Well Virginia, there may not be a Santa Claus, but there can be some good times in the process.  Believe me, no one is as shocked as I! Don't get me wrong, it's not that I have grown to love failure, I still abhor it.  On the other hand, when I do have a set back I can see it as an opportunity.  Now I can stay alert and see what God is going to do with this impossible situation.  How will he use me, what will he teach me? 

In truth, perhaps I have not learned to "enjoy the process" as much as I have learned to "enjoy what God will do as he guides me through the process".  Somehow I don't think this phrase will catch on, it's a little wordy, but whenever I hear the short and sweet version, the long, wordy version is what will go through my mind.