| |
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
all the reason you need to praise God every time you flush... so, recently i've been struck by the number of people who don't understand the way i (and some other people with lead feet) drive. i keep hearing people kind of sneer at traffic lights when they pull up next to a car that zoomed past them three blocks ago and saying, 'see? didn't get you any farther, did it? heh!' that seems to imply that people who drive like i tend to (or some who're downright obnoxiously zippy) want to get ahead of slower drivers b/c we think it will get us somewhere faster. for me, that's generally untrue. (every now and then when i'm late somewhere, i do use speed as an agent of, well, speed...) for the most part, i want to get around people so that i can have the freedom to go as fast or as slow as i want. i get just as antsy when someone obviously going much faster than i am crawls up my car's behind. let me move outta your way so i can go back to setting my own pace, which is slower than yours. my intention is never to bully people out of the way, even when people are cruising in the passing lane (ARGH!). and it's not b/c i think me passing them will get me to the next red light any faster. it's about the freedom. driving should be an enjoyable experience, and i enjoy it most of all when i feel able to go at a self-set (and speed limit sign guidance set) pace. p.s. today on 495 there was a cop who just kept driving with everyone (with only one person as far as the eye could see doing anything under 70). i can't tell if that scares me or reassures me. i had something else to say. really, i did. it's just not coming to me at all. so maybe later. i've gotta get to class so i can read a bit before the prof shows up. going to fla on fri, so i may be incommunicado-ish.
(1) comments
Saturday, January 20, 2007
okay, so i have a way lot to post about, so hold onto your seats. first, interesting class conversations class discussions this time around've been pretty super. there's a lot to say and a lot to hear, and they aren't really contrived. don't get me wrong - i still feel like one of my classes is a ridiculous amount of work, the reading won't mean so much to me, and i often wish i were already done with school. but now i've gotten back into the late lunch, 9.30 dinner, turning on lights before i leave the house groove, and that makes things seem less stressful. and as we in the psych world know, it's not about reality - it's about perceived reality. second, sarah's party so last night i went to a friend's birthday/housewarming party. it was in dc, so i caught a ride with mandy and her hubby, which was excellent. i actually replied to the evite before i knew mandy and nate were going, which i consider a step in the right social direction. i figured, 'hey, for once i don't have anything planned! i'd love to see sarah, and maybe mandy and becca, and i do know how to mingle, even if i haven't had to do it in a long time.' however, i'm SUPER glad that mandy was there. not that i can't mingle, but sarah was being hostessy and talking to many, many people, so we didn't get all 4 hours with her, obviously, and then almost everyone else was from her church. and i do mean everyone. there was a pretty large group there, and i was impressed we all fit in the house - which is ADORABLE, btw, and a decorator's dream almost - but it was so weird b/c everyone else knew everyone else. so at least i had another outsider to chat with. we pulled in another non-res (the church is something something resurrection, so everyone calls it res) partygoer so she wouldn't be stranded, and actually had a good time. some very funny things happened, though. three current or former advocates employees were there! me (obviously), mandy (who'd interned there), and sam (who goes to res and is like an adopted son to one of my coworkers). sam, i'd met briefly once before, but it was kind of weird to go, 'hey! i know a lot of the same people you do!' but cool. and then, i ran into a guy i used to see at frontline. now, we're talking frontline, so that puts it at about 6 years ago. it was really random, but he was very cool about being like, 'yeah, you do look slightly familiar, but i haven't been to frontline in a looooooong time.' anyway, so that was my random, "yet so-so playful" time. actually, the party raised a weird question for me. i'm not a beer person at all. never have been, never hope to be. it just seems somehow unclassy to me, and for me it's always associated with a bunch of greasy chip eating, football watching, t-shirt and plumber's butt guys. anyway, last night, there was beer served, along with whatever you call fruity hard liquor-ish (not licorice) stuff, which i guess is malt, but doesn't, for me, fall into the same category (as evidenced by the fact that i had one). anyway, much of this is just to show you that i'm actually a snob in disguise, and the other part is to try to figure out what i would or wouldn't have at a party to which i invited almost all church friends. now, this is a little weird b/c my church is made up of mostly older or mostly younger people, so the scenario's a little off, and also b/c i know that if i had a party, i'd likely invite quite a few people who'd have no problem getting completely sloshed. so i was just trying to decide what i'd serve if i definitely didn't want anyone puking on my furniture but still wanted it to be what we in this country have decided is a party. third, devotions i've really been slacking off about reading my Bible or anything decidedly Christian lately. i don't know why - likely laziness - as it's not like i've stopped believing anything written in there or have stopped thinking God is all that and a bag of chips. i know i need to get back to it, but i just can't seem to. maybe i'll make a deal that for every cup of starbux coffee, i hafta read two chapters. or maybe one for tall, two for grande... as many shots as i have, i have to read chapters. we'll see how it goes. fourth, gchat so i was introduced to gchat the other day and am sort of enjoying it. i must say, though, that i've definitely done the accidental sign off in mid-converation thing. whoops! anyway, if you wanna gchat me up, this is your invitation. fifth, dvds i've been trying to cut down on spending recently. i don't know what happened, oh, wait, textbook buying... i DO know what happened, but i've been running more lean on money than i usually care to. i've been trying to stop my impulse buying. holy cow, i'd no idea i had such a problem with it! and why do i think that $10 dvds are a good bargain? buy two, and you're out a full $20! that's not little! i'm also at the stage where i've pretty much stopped watching things on vhs. this makes me sad on many levels, one of them being that i have movies i should replace with dvds. i just can't bring myself to do it. i mean, what, am i gonna throw out all the vhses (okay, so if that were in caps, it might be vhss, but that looks funky in lowercase)? is a puzzlement. sixth, life i've been a total slacker as far as e-mail and phone call returning goes. i'm just at the point where my lethargy is more important to me than keeping up constant contact. that's bad, and it needs to change. right now. happy weekend, everyone! i actually got to see SNOW the other day! not that it stuck or lasted for more than ten minutes, but it was SNOW, and that's all i needed.
(2) comments
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
so yesterday, if i had had my camera with me, a place to park, and any sort of photographic talent, i could've given ddoi boy a run for his money. sadly, the camera was at home, all the parking lots require permits, and... i'm me. i may post some that i took today, though. not artisticly cool, but an interesting place. man, i have many, many photos to catch up on. class has started again. back to being behind in my reading. back to long treks to school as the sun sets. back to before-class posts. :D
(1) comments
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
all i have to say is "WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!" the somali attacks are ridiculous. what, we've just decided that when our satellites pick up suspicious activity or our oh-so trustworthy sources point the finger at someone, we shouldn't talk to them or give them any type of trial or even chat up consequences with the government, shaky as it may be... if they're in a nation that's in a state of unrest, we should just send a plane over there and bomb 'em. what the heck is wrong with us? future posts: sore afraid and some other revelation i'm sure i've had... class time!
(0) comments
Monday, January 08, 2007
this is me on the night before classes start... printing up syllabi, the shortest of which is ten pages long, checking the amazon.com delivery date for the textbooks i'll need, looking around my desk trying to find where last semester's papers, notebooks, and texts are so i can shove them to one side, scavaging what notebook pages are left as recompense for the inordinate amount of printing i'll do in the coming months, scrawling due dates i already dread in my planner, digging my messenger bag out from the accrued pile on top of it, finishing the last chapter of interpreter of maladies, deciding which dvds i should rush to watch before i enter the long dark of school, and tiring already. a lot's gone on since i last posted. i felt a lot better through about new year's day... and then my health went down a severe decline. but first, the fun. x-out at church is the youth group's year-end event (generally on new year's adam, but this year on new year's adam's eve so we could go to a wizards game). it's an all-nighter that goes from 5pm to 7am the next day, and boy is it a kicker if you've not prepared adequately by, say, getting sleep. but even when you're already in need at 5pm, it's still loads of fun (aside from the boring wizards game and the worry that you'll lose one of the 25 kids on the overcrowded metro). we played capture the flag again this year, and since x-out 2005 was my first youth group event, memories of first knowing where i fit when we played came back to me. last year i didn't even understand what they were talking about when they said 'the field' and 'the upper & lower buildings', so this year was even better. i got some entertainment playing ddr, trying not to whack people or full cups with pool cues, deciding how to handle the suggestion that we give a fifth youth group kid a ride to church by putting him in my trunk, and having several conversations about who likes whom and other middle and high school stuff. new year's eve was just ridiculous. it started with a trip to bethesda, md, in the morning for church with trisha, immanuel, and his clan, plus a touch of hannah. then it was off to somewhere close to the middle of nowhere, md, for some olive garden and a visit with ha(u)nnah and jonfen. good times. but then i had to say bye to t-bird and iggy, which was very sad, but i was slightly consoled b/c i was heading toward va to meet up with diane (who was in from philly) and amy. so we hung out for a bit trying to figure out what to do the rest of the night... we made one restaurant choice which, after we had some people already heading there, turned out to be booked for parties our size (no fat jokes!). then we sat around amy's apt trying to think of good food but no too good (and therefore expensive) food, trying to come up with places nearbyish but convenient and not already packed... lemme tell ya, it's not that easy, even in nova! so then we figured it out, lost a few people who'd lost interest along the way, but eventually got to dine with david and trina, and eventually john g.! oh, the laughter. for you who know that crew, you might be able to imagine. it was a seriously good time, and hopefully we'll do it more often. long after our dinners were eaten, we parted ways, with amy and diane taking me back to my car in mclean (with poor john trying desperately to follow us!), and me scurrying off to ashburn. so, i got to michael and kellan's house, and we were like, 'waddaya wanna do?' leave it to michael to break out his latest toy, a gamecube. so we rang in the new year by playing mario kart double dash. then we stayed up a good piece later and finally drifted up to bed. i got to wake up lateish on new year's day and hang out with the sibs, which was excellent, and then later mom and pop done joined us. good stuff. anyway, even though i had a GREAT time at each "event", the day wore me out... i was late getting everywhere. the kfc clan was running late for church, so i didn't go in until they got there, then lunch started late-ish 'cause we hung around church 'cause there were people trisha and immanuel hadn't seen in a long time, then heading back to va took longer than i'd thought it would 'cause i had been calculating from a different part of md, then figuring out what we were doing took way longer than we'd expected, then we all enjoyed dinner so much that we stuck around for a long time, then i hadn't thought about how much closer the restaurant was to m&k's than amy's place, so it took me a long time to go all the way back and then forth again. anyway, it was... a delayed day. what the heck... HAPPY NEW YEAR!
(0) comments
|
|
