How do you do?

A couple of things happened today while I was at work. The first was that a friend of mine told me that I should blog because I’m funny and he likes to read funny blogs. I figured I would give it a try (again). As for the funny part, I can’t make any promises. The other thing was that while sitting at work today, I was waiting for my boss to get off the phone, and I began messing with my stapler. I noticed that on the bottom, where the staples are loaded, was a message engraved from the manufacturer: “Read user manual before stapling.”

How stupid do they think we are? It is a stapler. Sure, this particular stapler is a little bit difficult to load (the instructions are given in the form of a picture of how to load the staples into the empty apparatus). And sure, there is some risk involved with using a stapler, if you’re clumsy/stupid/numb enough leave part of your body underneath the part where the staples come out. And, working in a law office, I know that anyone will try to sue anyone else over anything. (A large percentage of my work day consists of me telling local crazies ‘No, you don’t really have a case. You can’t sue someone because they don’t like you. Discrimination is based on a specific factor, not just attitude.) So, in a time when we have to put “Caution! Hot!” labels on coffee cups, I could even rationalize a warning label on a stapler.

But a user manual? All of my life I’ve only seen two real styles of stapler: Automatic, and Manual. Furthermore, both of these are simple enough that even toddlers use them with ease (although they must of course be supervised. Toddlers like to put things in their mouths, and as far as I know, tongue piercings on infants are not as popular as ear piercings on infants).

For manual staplers, the only basic process I’ve seen is two steps:
1. Put your papers into the opening on the stapler.
2. Press down.

And automatic staplers are even simpler, with just the first step required and the magical stapling forces taking care of the rest. Either the stapling companies think that everyone in modern civilization is hopelessly idiotic, or these alleged user manuals are the biggest waste of paper ever.

Let’s list other things that don’t really need but could conceivably have a user manual!

Drinking glasses
(1. Keeping open end up, pour your desired beverage into the glass. 2. Bring the glass to your mouth, resting your bottom lip on the closest side of the glass. 3. Tilt the glass up so that the beverage flows into your mouth. Caution: Do not attempt to drink with your mouth on the far side of the glass. Doing so could result in wetness, stickiness, or injury.)

Facial tissues
(1. Pull a tissue from the box 2. Hold the tissue to your nose. 3. Exhale strongly. Note: For better results, try pinching one nostril shut and blowing out of the other. Then repeat, holding the alternate nostril closed.)

Shoes
(1. Slide your foot into the cavity of the shoe. If necessary, loosen any laces. 2. Stand, walk, or run on shoe. If shoe has laces, pull them to a comfortable tightness and tie the laces in a bow.

Feel free to leave more suggestions!

Let a Brand New Day Wash Over You

Happy Easter! (I was going to say "Happy Easter, Everyone!" but figured no one would actually read this, and if anyone did read it, it was not likely to be enough to warrant an 'everyone.' If you are reading, however, welcome! Glad you could join me!)

It's been almost a year since I last updated. I was going to try and keep this blog going, but summer happened, 40-hour/week summer job happened, relationship drama happened, good things happened, school happened, graduation requirement drama happened, school kept happening, a puppy happened, and school continues to be happening, and I finally feel like saying something.

So, yes, I don't have much to blog about on a regular basis, as my life has mostly consisted of homework, class, and interning these last few months. I graduate in about a month and a half, and I'm looking forward to that. I'm going back to work at the law office, and I'm really thankful that they're giving me this job. It's not in my field, but it's a regular, steady, paying job that doesn't make me want to blow my brains out. My boyfriend also lives next door to the office. I think this is a much more fortunate set up than most of my fellow graduates will likely happen upon, so I'm definitely not complaining.

I also got a puppy. She's a blue heeler that my friends Danny and Katie found lost on campus one cold December day. I fell in love with her and brought her home to my parents.



After discovering her affinity for biting fingers, we lovingly named her Charlie and as I type this, she's lying on the floor looking at me with big brown eyes that clearly say, "I'm bored. You should put that stupid computer down and come pet me."

She also recently had a run-in with a skunk, though, and until the smell wears off a bit more, I'm going to keep most of the playing in the category of "fetch."

She's a good dog though, and aside from her roaming a bit too far from home, we haven't had any real problems with her. She's smarter, better behaved, and has more personality than quite a few humans that I've met, and I'm glad I could bring her to a good home.

So life is going on. I'm getting through my final semester of college, working on making the transition to "the real world," and enjoying what I can while trying not to stress about what I can't.

Hopefully I'll update this more soon, but I won't make promises.

I'm a Little More Than Useless

Well, I've decided I'm going to keep blogging, even though I'm no longer on adventures abroad. Feel free to continue reading or stop reading as you desire. Most of what I say here will just be random things that pop into my head with whatever commentary i come up with.

With that said...

I'm adjusting to being home rather nicely. Sometimes it feels as though the whole semester was just a dream, but I have things that remind me it was real, like pictures, friends I wouldn't otherwise have met, and souvenirs. WIthout a doubt, the souvenir I use the most is the purse I got in Greece (Ha, I bet some of you thought it would be a shot glass. Got you!). It's adorable, but it's pretty difficult to organize. It only has one small pocket on the inside that's about big enough for my sunglasses and my cell phone, or my cell phone and my ipod, or my keys. When I set my purse down, sometimes the things spill out of the pocket into the purse anyway.

As a result, my old sunglasses got pretty badly scratched up by my keys. So I went to Target and got some new sunglasses, and I thought to myself, "Let's not do that same thing again! I'll get a case for my sunglasses, like any sensible person would do!"

I couldn't find a single glasses case in the store. I thought, "No matter, I've got some spares at home, maybe my sunglasses will fit into one of those." They didn't fit.

When I went to visit my best friend a little over a week ago, we thought we'd do some shopping, and I told her that I wanted to try and find a glasses case. We're pretty good at finding random things, I figured we be victorious rather easily. Nope.

I know glasses cases haven't gone extinct, I've seen a few people with them here and there. They must definitely be highly endangered though, because In the entire Columbia mall, the only place we found hard cases were Claire's. They were even the right size, but they were pretty ugly. The only soft ones we found were pretty plain, nothing decorative. And it left me wondering:

Why does no one make sunglasses cases anymore? I know people still wear sunglasses. And sunglasses aren't getting any more indestructable. Generally I'm pretty against the whole "more material things" notion. There are countless "inventions" out there that we don't need, mountains of junk that beg to clutter our lives. But sunglasses cases are not in these categories. They are simple and useful, and I just can't understand why I'm having such a difficult time finding any.

Maybe it would be easier to find a case to keep my keys in.

We're Gonna Make Our Way to America

I’m on my flight back to the States (but by the time I post this, I’ll probably be be sitting comfortably in my own room. It’s a long flight (about 7 hours remaining, and then a layover, and then the 2 connecting flight), and I’m ready to be home. I miss my parents and my friends, and being in a reasonable time zone to the majority of them. I miss food with flavor and being able to eat when I want. I miss my double bed in my own room with my own bathroom and a real-sized shower that provides water at a variety of temperatures (as opposed to only ‘uncomfortably warm’ and ‘scaldingly hot’-- except for that week that the hot water went out and the only temperature was ‘colder than ice’). I miss my car and being able to sing along with my music at the top of my lungs.

But I’m going to miss London, too. I’ll miss the big, beautiful, royal parks. I’ll miss being able to hop on the Tube and get just about anywhere pretty quickly. I’ll miss being around so many people who are so different from me. I’ll miss the beautiful architecture all over the place and the buildings that are older than our country. I have had the most extraordinary semester, and I can hardly believe how blessed I am to have gotten such an experience. I’ve seen things that I didn’t think I would ever get to see in person, like Stonehenge, the Rosetta Stone, and Big Ben.

It will feel strange being back home. It took me about three months to get used to Sterling not feeling like play money, and I kind of feel like Dollars are going to feel like play money now. It will also be difficult for me to remember that display prices don’t include tax at home. I really got used to not having to add that on when I bought things. I think I’ll also have to adjust to hearing American accents all over the place. It was getting to the point where I was so used to hearing English accents that sometimes after talking to someone, I would walk away and wonder, “Wait, did he have an accent?”

Here’s my obvious statement of the day: The ocean is really big. Even from way up here, it just goes on as far as you can see. When I look at a map or a globe or something, it doesn’t seem like it should take almost 9 hours to fly from London to Charlotte (and to be fair, it was less than that on the way to London. I have no idea why this flight is almost two hours longer). I wish the ocean weren’t so big. It makes traveling more difficult.

Thank you all for reading my blog this semester. Your comments have been very encouraging, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Much Love,

Holly

It's a Beautiful Sky on a Beautiful Day

I don't have much to report today. I had some friends visit last weekend, which was a lot of fun. Greta brought a couple of her friends from Poitiers, and it was great to meet them, and to get the chance to show them around. I really feel like I'm getting the hang of this city when I can show people around.

And Chris successfully graduated from Basic Combat Training on Friday. We got to talk on the phone for about 20 minutes yesterday, which was really nice. I've gotten to talk to a couple of other people from home as well, which has also been nice. I'm really enjoying it here, but I do miss everyone, and I'm looking forward to seeing them all in around a month or so.

And today is Palm Sunday. I didn't make it to a church service or anything, but after I woke up and showered and dressed and all that, I noticed that it was an absolutely beautiful day outside, with a wide blue sky and a few puffy white clouds, and it was already 50ºF, so I had a nice little meditation by myself out on the balcony. As I read in Luke about Jesus's journey to Jerusalem, and how the crowd was shouting about all the wonderful things they'd seen, I thought about the wonderful things God's done for me.

There are miracles I've seen long ago, like strangers stopping to pray with each other, and out-of-control vehicles somehow landing in the only safe place on the entire hill. There are small things like songs coming up out of nowhere saying exactly what I need to hear, and friends calling at just the right moment.

I thought about how so many little things happen and disappear, but leave an impact and bring us to where we are, and end up being really important for reasons we could never forsee, like all of the reasons that got so many of us here at Regent's at the point in particular. If a few small things had worked out differently, I wouldn't have met the people I have met, and would not be having the same experience at all.

"If these were quiet, the stones would cry out!" It's a wonder the stones don't cry out more often. I don't think we acknowledge daily miracles enough. Maybe that's why birds sing so much. They sing because we don't, and singing stones would draw a lot more attention (and probably make people uncomfortable with the strangeness).

I wish I could enjoy the sunshine longer, but I have to write a paper now, and the books I need have to stay in the library. Hopefully the sun will still be out when I finish...

We've Learned to Change, but Did We Change to Learn?

I got a letter from Chris last week, and he asked what I've been learning over here in London. I didn't really know how to answer that at first, because my classes are all rather easy.

And yet I'm here for a semester of my college education. I ought to be learning something, oughtn't I? In Adolescent Psychology, most of what we've talked about was mentioned in my AP Psychology class in high school (I knew Gillam was a good teacher). My Media class mostly watches movies about non-Western culture and briefly discusses them (actual movies, not documentaries; the kind that play in theaters). All I've learned in English Palaces and Country Houses is not to eat in the class room because the professor is a real stick in the mud who would rather us fall asleep during his lecture than silently enjoy a bit of chocolate. I'm always a little paranoid that he'll try to teach us something important and I'll miss it because I have so much trouble staying focused in there, but the most substantial thing he's tried to teach us were the orders of classical architecture, and I learned that from Mr. Vellios back in high school. And I've learned that my theatre class has no tests, just a couple of essays about shows, and the professor really enjoys my writing.

It's not all that bad. I do enjoy my classes mostly. I enjoy the free field trips to the theatre and to old palaces. And the movies and discussion in my media class really aren't bad. ... Psychology is pretty unforgiveably dull, but what's a semester without one of those classes? (erm, exciting??)

So the classes are all easy. But that doesn't mean that I'm going the whole semester without learning. I'm just not learning traditional 'class-room' things. For example, I've learned how to use the London Underground system (The maps make it look intimidating. It's delightfully easy, in fact).

And I've learned a few random Greek words over spring break (but I can't spell them, so it's no use on the blog. You'll just have to take my word for it).

I've learned that the foggy, rainy London stereotype exists for a very legitimate reason. I've learned that just because the English drive on the left side of the road doesn't mean that they walk on the left side of the sidewalk (any side of the sidewalk is fine, just don't run into anyone else. This does not apply to escalators, however, where the rule is strictly 'stand on the right, walk on the left').

I'm also learning things about myself. I'm learning just how much I really appreciate home and the relative quiet friendliness of the Midwest. While I've found Londoners to generally be friendly, most of the American College is from the North East, and while I've made some very good friends from them, there's a definite difference in background and culture. And London is never, ever entirely quiet.

I always knew I liked driving in my car with the windows down and the music up, singing at the top of my lungs, but being without that makes me realize how much I miss it.

Similarly, I always knew I like my privacy, but I'm learning that I can, in fact, adapt to sharing a room for more than a week.

I'm also learning that I can never figure out how to end blog entries. I just run out of things to say and click "publish post."

The Air Gets Clean and the Seas Get Wide

So, I haven't updated in a while, and for that, I apologize. I didn't do much traveling for the rest of February or the beginning of March, since I was saving up for spring break, which was absolutely and unbelieveably amazing.

I packed up and went with a couple of friends to Greece, where I had the best spring break I could imagine. We spent most of our week in Volos, staying with our friend Mark who is studying there for the semester, and was kind enough to let us stay at his apartment for free and show us around town when he was out of class.

Greece is, in many ways, entirely opposite of what I've experienced in London and in the United States. In Volos, things don't happen so much on a schedule, and everyone seems to actually enjoy what's going on around them rather than trying to rush past to where ever they're going. When people go for a walk in the evening, it's not a walk to burn off calories at the fastest pace you can go. It's a gentle stroll to take in the cool air and enjoy the waterfront by night.



Going out for coffee with friends is a four-hour event with long conversation, rather than 30-40 minutes with a bunch of watch-checking.

On our first full day in Greece, a Sunday, Mark took us up Mt. Pelion to see Makrinitsa, which was absolutely gorgeous.



Up on the mountain, there were a bunch of little fountains that spouted cool, clean water constantly, and the runoff just went on down the mountain. I tried some, it was delicious. We had lunch in a little restaurant, where I had some of the best spaghetti I've ever tasted, and I'm certain it was greatly influenced by the freshness of the ingredients.

We also walked up to an abandoned monastery, and just as we got there it began to sprinkle. It was a perfect sort of rain though, and as I looked around, it was no surprise to me that Greece is such a religious country. With so much peace and beauty around, how can you not feel like there's someone bigger out there?

We spent the rest of our time in Volos exploring the coffee shops, local food, and the old part of town. My favorite part of being in Volos, I think, was breakfast. We would all buy whatever we wanted, and on Monday morning, we took it out onto the jetty and ate breakfast from there, looking at the Aegean in one direction, and Volos in the other on a perfect spring morning.

At the end of the week, we went into Athens for a few days, which was also a lot of fun. We did the typical sight-seeing, such as the Acropolis. I didn't realize how really enormous the Parthenon is until I was standing at the foot of it. To think that people could build something like that without cranes and such is amazing.



We also saw the new and old Olympic stadiums. Next to the Acropolis (well, kind of on? but not quite...) is where Paul preached to the Athenians, which was really exciting to see.



Not too far from that was the cave where legend holds that Socrates drank the hemlock.




I could go on and on about how beautiful and relaxing and fun Greece was, but I need go get some lunch and do some laundry (I still haven't washed my clothes since I got back, and I'm nearly out of things to wear...), but hopefully I'll update again before long!

We'll Carve Our Names in The Unknown

Well, it's been a while, and I've been on more adventures. On the 14th, I went to Salisbury and Stonehenge. It seems kind of silly to me that so many people can be so fascinated by a bunch of big rocks, but honestly, I thought Stonehenge was amazing. The whole thing was roped off, so you couldn't get close, which was a little disappointing, but I enjoyed it anyway. I also had Eddie Izzard jokes going through my head the whole time.



I also found out sometime around then, that the school has gotten all of the official signs for our back gate to be useable now, so we can walk through the school grounds directly into the park (down the little path that you can see in the pictures from my balcony). I took this path and was delighted to discover that flowers and trees are beginning to blossom, even though it's only February.



Tuesday was my 21st birthday. I'm sure all of you know that in the US, 21 is the legal drinking age. In the UK it's 18, so it didn't matter over here, but my friends and I went out to celebrate anyway. We went to a fun little pub called The Rocket, and had a great time. I found this sign a few days later and thought it was hilarious. I hope you're all pleased to know that this fate did not befall me or any of my friends after celebrating.



On Friday, Becky and I went to Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle is, I've been told, the oldest castle in the world that is still inhabited. The queen and the princes live there sometime, though none of them were in when we went to visit, as was made apparent by the Union flag flying, rather than the royal flag.



It was really neat to see though. The inside part of the castle that we got to see made me realize how incredibly ridiculous it would be to actually be royalty, and to own that much stuff that you'll never possibly have need for. The enormity of it doesn't really hit you until you see it... I couldn't get pictures of all those things though, because there was no photography allowed inside. Boo.

Becky and I also went exploring yesterday because the weather was uncommonly beautiful for London. It was sunny and about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We were going to tour Westminster Abbey, but it was closed on Saturdays, so we walked about 2 and a half miles to Hyde Park, and then another mile or so through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.



Things were blooming here as well, and a lot of people were out enjoying the lovely weather. We found the cool Peter Pan statue in Kensington gardens as well. I tried to get a good picture of it, but it was difficult because there were a lot of people hanging around near it, and as soon as one group would move on, another group of people would rush up to it, making good photography difficult. That's okay, though, because I'm out of pictures for this blog anyway.

The weather is still fairly nice, close to 50 all week long, though the clouds have moved back in for a while. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my Sunday. Take care, all!

Edit: I can't believe I forgot to post a title on this! Fix'd!

I Think We're Going Somewhere

Sorry it's been a while. Things got busy, and then when they slowed down, I got a little homesick. But I'm feeling better now, and since it's a nice, quiet Saturday, but still a little too cold to go exploring, I'm finally updating. Let's see...

Maybe blogger will be nicer this time and let me put up more pictures.




Leeds Castle was gorgeous, and it had great gardens and such around it. Becky and I thought we made friends with a peacock, but he was just begging for handouts and when he found out I didn't have any, he tried to eat my leg. No good.

The next "adventure" was to the Tower of London with my English Country Houses and Palaces class. Our class mostly focused on the White Tower in the middle of the castle.



It was built by the Normans shortly after the Norman Invasion in 1066, so this building is nearly a thousand years old. After having the year 1066 drilled into my head in Latin class (It was turning point for language as we know it, apparently), it was interesting to be able to connect something with it.

There were lots of other neat things at the Tower. The Crown Jewels were unbelievably sparkly, but, sadly, no pictures allowed. Helpful signs showed you where you could do your shopping, find the bus stop, and, apparently, get beheaded.



Last weekend, I went on the school trip to the city of Bath. I was geeking out over all the Roman things at the bath, and even --yes, I'll admit it--bought a copy of Harry Potter in Latin.

The city was built around an old Roman bath on the hot springs in the area. The baths were dedicated to the goddess Minerva



Well... That's the main bath. I was going to put up a couple more pictures, but Blogger has decided that I've put up enough.

My theater class also went to see Spring Awakening last Monday (even with the crazy snow-- I'll have to post pictures of that too. I'll try and do another post tomorrow). It was a really neat show. I loved the music. It was kind of a shocking show; not what I was expecting, and not the kind of show you'd want to take your grandma to see, but I loved it.

I was going to go on an adventure today to find the part of London where some of my family is from, but it's a bit on the chilly side, so I might wait for the weather to get warmer.

They've Got Years On Us

It rains here a lot, but I like the rain. It's not very warm, but I don't do heat very well. I'm loving being here. There are so many things to do and places to see. I love being able to wake up on a Friday morning and say to my friends, "What should we do today?" and they reply, "I don't know.... Hey, let's go to the British Museum!" and we hop on the tube and go there.

I also love meeting up with my friends on Friday afternoon and saying "What do you want to do tonight?" and they reply "Do you want to go to a show? We could see which shows have half-price tickets!" and then going to a professional musical on the west end for £25.

I also went to see Leeds Castle, which was gorgeous.

I have far too many pictures to put them all up to show all the awesome things I've seen at the museum and on the castle grounds. I am in awe of how old some of the things are. I've seen things that are thousands and thousands of years old, and they're in great condition. It floors me to think of the people who made these things. When they made those pots and urns and carvings, I'm sure they wanted them to last, but probably had no idea that they would last this long and that people would be walking by them en masse to admire them. I have more pictures to put up, but blogger is being mean and not letting me at the moment. I'll add them later.

This Paper Posed as Photographs

We had some nice weather for a bit and some of us decided to do the tourist thing and go on one of the Double Decker bus tours. It seems like the annoying, cliché thing to do, but I highly recommend it. The tour guides are great and you get to see everything. It's also pretty reasonably priced and you can get off the bus at any of the stops and look around and take pictures and get back on the next bus. Our ticket also included a free tour down the Thames on a little boat, which was pretty neat.

I'm still getting used to being here and all of the things that are different, but it's a lot of fun. Classes started on Monday as well. They seem to be going pretty well, and I have a couple that go on field trips, so I'll have pictures from those as well before long.

Regent's Park


One of the lions in Trafalgar Square


Big Ben and Boudicca


Apple!


Tower Bridge

It's Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door

I ventured out again today! Some of us went and bought oyster cards for the Tube, and later we took the tube to an Ikea (okay, not that culturally different).

I'd never ridden a subway of any sort before, so riding the tube was kind of exciting just in its novelty. The announcements at the stops remind me of the beginning and end of a rollercoaster ride, but the ride itself is rather uneventful.

We're all starting to talk about the places we want to go and the things we want to see. There will be more pictures soon, because some of us are planning on going on a doubledecker bus tour.

I've never been much of a city person. They always seemed dirty and crowded and dangerous to me. London is crowded, and fairly dangerous, but this is a beautiful city. The green of the grass blows my mind, there are actually big trees along some of the streets, and the architecture is beautiful.

These are a couple of pictures from the balcony at my room, and then a few pictures of the sunrise from the airplane.

I'm On a Flight Tonight, You See Me

Well, I'm not actually on the flight anymore, but I had two to get here to London, and they both went pretty darn well. It was difficult saying goodbye to my parents, but I really wasn't nervous about the flights themselves. I don't know why I wasn't at all nervous, but I certainly won't complain.

I've decided that I like flying. I don't mean just in comparison with other modes of transportation, or as a positive way of saying, "Well, I don't hate it." I actually like it. The lines at the airport and the security checks are all bothersome, and I don't think anyone could like in-flight lavatories, but there's something extremely powerful to me that hits me when the plane leaves the runway. 

I know it's just physics, nothing breaking rules or anything like that, but there's something of a miracle in an enormous metal vehicle making itself and a bunch of people airborn. People aren't supposed to be airborn, but especially not along with heavy chunks of metal.

And the clouds! Clouds can be beautiful from the ground, but up close, they're even better. I took some pictures of the sky on my flights, mostly of the sun rising above the clouds. I'll put them up when I can figure out how.

Until then, I'm going to get some sleep (I got about 10 minutes of sleep on the flight last night), and keep reminding myself that I'm actually, finally here.

Aim My Getaway Van at the Sun

Well, it's time to re-introduce my blog, since it'll be covering something else and new people will (hopefully) be reading it.

I'm getting ready to leave for a semester in London. I'm making this blog to share stories and a few pictures with my friends and family (rather than trying to contact each of you individually each time). 

I don't know exactly what I'll write about. Hopefully fun and exciting things that happen (provided I can find the time and internet access to share them on here). And my habit of using song lyrics as titles will be challenged, but we'll see how creative I can be. 

Anyway, I leave on Wednesday, and I'm pretty excited. I'm a little nervous about the flight, and I'm going to miss everyone at home a lot. The goodbyes are becoming difficult. It looks like I should have internet access during my layover, so maybe I can update then.  Wee!

A Twist in the Plot Line

I love spontaneity. I remember one time when I was in elementary school, I was playing with one of my friends at church, and we decided it would be fun if she came home with me to spend the night so we could keep playing. We asked my mom, and she was fine with it. We asked my friend's mom, and she got a condescending sneer on her face and said something to the effect of, "Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but we just don't do spontaneous things." 

Even at that young age, hardly knowing what the word spontaneous meant, I remember thinking "What a ridiculously boring way to live!" Sure there's something to be said for having a plan, to keep things from getting all hectic and confused, but when everything is kept inside such rigid lines and you know exactly where everything is going, how do you find any excitment to keep yourself going?

One of my friends, whom I hadn't spent time with in a very long time (close to two years), randomly asked me to a movie. There was a bit of nervous tension, but it was a lot of fun.

A couple of my other friends decided today that they want to come visit me this weekend, just to hang out and maybe do some shopping. They apologized for the idea being so last minute, but I hadn't even considered being put off by it. I was just excited that they were coming to visit. 

It's like getting surprises all the time, and it puts interesting twists and turns in the plot. How can we really live when we try and set up our entire futures, leaving no wiggle room? How can that even be desirable? "We'll live tonight, tomorrow never knows where we'll be..."

Who Needs Air?

I've been working out more lately. I've never been particularly happy with the way I look, but I've always had various excuses for why I couldn't change. I knew that running is immensly good for you, but it always hurt. Honestly, one of the happiest days of my adolescence was when I got a mole removed on my ankle and the dermatologist said I ought not to run the mile in the upcoming fitness test. 

I've realized that in elementary school, they didn't have us stretch properly, and that was why my legs would hurt when I ran. After I learned to stretch, I just hated running because I'm rather fond of being able to breathe, and as much as I thought I was, I apparently was unable to do both at the same time. 

I actually managed to go to the gym each day this week, Monday through Friday, and I realized today (Friday), that sometime during this week of spending 30 minutes on the eliptical each day, I've learned how to breathe. Maybe I just wasn't breathing deeply enough before. Maybe I was just too distracted to remember to breathe. But as I plowed through my first mile, I realized, "Hey! I'm a little tired, but I'm not breathless! This is amazing!"

I still wouldn't say I actively like running, but I'm amazed that I finally am not 110% averse to the idea. I'm also astonished that it's taken me 20 years to learn to do something as simple and basic as breathing. I guess I'm not such a quick learner after all. But at least I made it.

Isn't It Nice to Know

Sometimes you have to search for awesome stuff to blow your mind. Sometimes it punches you in the face with how awesome it is, and it would be almost impossible not to see it.

Several years ago, I went to this concert with a couple of my friends, and after the show we were waiting behind the venue to meet the band. The wind kept blowing some trash around which kept psyching me out, thinking that someone was there. I decided it would be more productive if I spent my time waiting by picking up some trash. Besides, being the star-struck teenybopper I was, I could get closer to the bus by picking up trash without looking as much like a creeper. I spent a good 10 minutes picking up trash while my friends laughed at me and the one security guard rolled her eyes. And then I realized I had two handsful of trash and nowhere to put it. The security guard said I couldn't go inside to throw it away, but that I could put it in that dumpster in the far corner of the parking lot. As I started to walk over to the dumpster, the drummer walked out. I was so excited that I, embarrassingly, threw the trash in the air and ran up to him. He talked to my friends and me for quite a while and afterwards I did regather the trash and throw it away. 

I'm taking Biblical Hebrew this semester, which is both really cool and and rather insane. We've gotten to the point where we can translate bits and pieces, and yesterday we were trying to translate the creation story from Genesis 1:1 as it appears in the Torah. I've known the Genesis 1 creation story basically as long as I can remember. We have a video of my first birthday where I'm sitting on my grandma's lap and she's reading me a children's version of it. But for some reason, translating it from the Hebrew makes it so much more powerful of a story. Maybe because you have to think about the words more than just letting them hit your eyes and moving on. It really made me think how incomprehensibly old God is and how unbelievably powerful and how insanely big and complicated the entirety of the world is.

I went to another concert last Thursday, with the same band as I mentioned in that second paragraph. It was the 10th (wow, I just had to write it down and add it up, 10...) time I've seen them. My friends and I now have a tradition of waiting to meet the bands after whatever concerts we go to, and some of the band members recognize us (well after 10 shows, it's no surprise). Anyway, this was the absolute best set I've seen them do. They pulled out some old songs that I hadn't heard them play in a while, and they played the best of the new ones. The highlight was the end though, when they played a very somber song and built it up at the end to the point where it felt more like you were breathing music than air, and every heartbeat was a prayer thanking God that I was alive. I know it sounds corny and cliché, but that’s just how it was. I felt more spiritually awake than I’ve been in a very long time, if not ever. 

After the concert, we met up with the opening band and talked to them for a while (the opening band is actually my favorite; here’s a shameless plug: Go check out House of Heroes), and then moved around to the back of the venue to try to meet up with some of the headlining band before we had to drive back home. We were hoping to see one member of the band particularly, the bass player John. The last time we had seen them in concert, we talked to John for an hour after the show, and he’s remembered me at the last four shows. After waiting for about five minutes, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the wrapper from the CD I had bought. I spotted a dumpster and jokingly said to my friends, “Hey! I’m gonna go throw this in the dumpster for good luck!” I went to ask the security guards if I could put it in the dumpster behind them and they said I could. 

I went back to my friends and Erin said, “I wish John would come out---” and then her jaw dropped, and I turned around to see John walking up to the small crowd that was waiting, and I looked at Erin and said “It worked!” (to which John looked confused and said, “What?”)

There’s no logical reason why that timing should have worked, and I know that my throwing away a bit of cellophane had no affect whatsoever on the situation. Instead, it kind of feels like an inside joke. My friends were already in on it. We would joke about throwing away garbage for good luck. But this time it was kind of like God extended the inside joke to remind me that He was a part of it, too, because He was there when it happened the first time, and when it happened again. 

And after translating the creation story and being reminded of how unfathomable God is, I’m totally in awe that He wanted to be a part of my stupid little joke, but I’m really glad He does.

It Seems We're Fearfully Made and Designed

My eyes water a lot. Aside from the fact that I'm fairly emotional and cry easily, my eyes water when no emotion is involved whatsoever.

It's getting colder outside, and I can almost guarantee that if you see me on campus, I'll have big, fat, crybaby tears rolling down my cheeks, even though I'm not sad at all. I know lots of people's eyes water when it's cold and windy, but this is insane. Mostly it just annoys me. It wears off all my make up (I worry too much about my makeup, apparently), people are probably going to start thinking I'm some weird emo kid who cries all the time, and it's just a nuisance.

But I never really considered why we humans are wired to react this way. I mean, crying really doesn't serve any purpose except to wash debris out of the eye. Crying when you're sad or angry doesn't do anything. And if you're cold, that doesn't mean there's something in your eye.

I realized the other night though that tears are salty (duh, we all know that, and have since we were small). But what do we do when the sidewalks freeze over? We sprinkle salt on them. Why isn't the ocean frozen? Because it's full of salt water. So my overactive tear ducts are really just trying to keep my eyeballs from freezing. Which I think is, in a dorky, nerdy kind of way, really pretty awesome.

A lot of people say that God and science don't go together, but I don't think that's right. I think science is us figuring out how God makes stuff happen. Like maybe God set up a machine that does the repetitive stuff so that he can go through and manually do the fun stuff. And some of that machine stuff is science. And I think it's awesome when I realize stuff like, "Our tears are salty so our eyeballs don't freeze." I know if I were designing something, I wouldn't have thought of that.

Maybe that'll help me not hate it so much when the cold and the wind make me look like I've just finished watching the Notebook. I mean, I'd rather have tear-stained cheeks than chunks of ice for eyeballs...

Rain on Everything That I Know

It rained today. Even though it makes my hair do weird things and makes a mess of my clothes, I generally like the rain. Today it wasn't even very cold rain, so I was pretty happy. Being dressed up for professional day, I was less than comfortable, but even considering that, it was alright. 

I was looking around at other people, though, while I walked to lunch. One guy, totally soaked, looked fairly miserable, but like he was taking it in stride. A couple of girls were grimacing, obviously perturbed by the weather's affect on their hair and makeup. Another girl, wrapped in a hoodie looked like she was trying to suppress an appreciation of the rain. The best reaction I saw, though, was some guy who walked out into the middle of Drury lane and turned his face up to the sky with a wide open smile. 

I wish I didn't care so much about my hair, my makeup, my clothes, and could appreciate the rain like that. It looked like fun. 

Last time I said I need to try and see the beauty in things I don't like, but I saw today that I need to more openly appreciate the things I already do enjoy. 

Like the Colors of Fall

I'll come right out and say it: My least favorite thing about fall is the foliage. I know everybody likes the reds and oranges and yellows of the trees, but I'd prefer just to keep the green, thank you very much. Bring on the early evenings, the cooler weather, and damp days, which are all manageable. But if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not have naked, dead trees everywhere. 

This blog isn't a critique on the autumn season, actually. I actually am realizing, as I type this, that I need to learn to live for the moment a bit more. Not so much that I am negligent of the future, but enough to appreciate what is just as much as what will be. 

When I started my rant about the trees, I was reminded of the Mitch Hedberg joke where he talked about wine: "I like to drink red wine. This girl asked me once if red wine gave me a headache. I said, 'Yeah, eventually, but the first and middle part are amazing!' I'm not going to give up on something because of what it does eventually. It's like getting an apple and going 'Woah, stop! That's going to be a core eventually!"

This fall hasn't been as depressing as I was afraid it would be. I'm finally learning to enjoy it while it's here. I've got semester-long, group projects in two different classes, as well as other ongoing projects in those same classes. I'm trying to learn two different foreign languages, and I was assigned another project to come up with a story and be ready to present it over a weekend. I've got tests and quizzes to study for, research to do, letters to mail, and Sunday School lessons to plan. And aside from these responsibilities, I feel the need to maintain my friendships and family relationships. In short, I'm swamped. But I don't really feel it. 

Last week I walked across campus with a perfect stranger. Instead of worrying about being late, or being nervous around someone I didn't know, I just enjoyed the conversation (We actually even talked about politics, which isn't something most people discuss with strangers, nor something I particularly enjoy). Everything about the situation that could have made me uncomfortable or irritated me wasn't an issue. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. 

And now that I think about it, it's not the first time I can say that. I've had a few other brushes with strangers that were profoundly awesome. 

When you talk to a stranger, you have to kind of let go of everything else that you know and that they know to really communicate, because there is so little common ground. Maybe to keep appreciating the moment, even to see the beauty in the dying trees, I need to talk to a few more strangers.