The Beauty and the Mess

Happy graduation to Alissa and Laura (and Melinda and Carolyn, are your graduations this weekend?)!

Congratulations, guys! School's out forever!

Congratulations to the proud new parents, Fraser and Carolyn! :D

I want to let you guys know that I might not be as chatty on LJ for a while. Lately I haven't been as focused on my work as I should be. I haven't been very aggressive in asking for more work, and I'm going to try to change that. Christians are supposed to model excellence, and I've failed to do that in my job just as I have in myriad other areas of my life. :P Plus, I've realized LJ might have too much influence over me. You guys probably have no idea how much I think and talk about all of you. Sometimes after I've spent ten minutes telling Evan about the hot comment thread of the day, I think, "You know, this is kind of sad." I talk to some of you more than some of my "real life" friends. So I'm taking a little step back. I'll still be posting, reading, rejoicing and praying with you guys, but I'm retiring my Commenting Queen crown for a while. (Unless it's a really slow day. :))

Also, as I told Jessica earlier, my tendonitis is back full force. After work yesterday I was in pretty serious pain- I could hardly lift the teapot to make the tea. This alarms me, since the ergonomic keyboard had fixed the problem before. It's probably just a flare-up, but less typing can only help me.

( And now a survey from Jessica. )

Everyone's already said it, but Happy Zero Birthday to little Emily Christian, daughter of Rebecca and Steven! I'm so excited for you guys.

Dont' forget it's National Day of Prayer today. I went to an excellent lunchtime service at Second Pres; the sermon was on I Timothy 2, about how the most important thing in ministry (or anything else) is prayer.

Last night I made a mix CD of my favorite RUF songs and a few other worship-y songs from other sources. I've been wanting to do that for a long time. When I listened to it on the way to work this morning, the sound quality was noticeably bad (I use Media Player to rip songs- .wma). Now I'm kind of bummed. Anyone know of a free mp3 ripping program? I'm so dumb when it comes to computer things.

So it's Friends finale night! We're having a small party with pizza and Friends Charades. The Dateline special last night was so good! I cleared a tape and am taping all the finale stuff, editing out the commercials, and Kathy's mom is going to put it on DVD for us. Oh, and can I say again how great it is to have Kathy back? Really back. The change in her is amazing. After seeing what her, and Lauren, and Jonathan have gone through in getting their masters, I don't think I will ever go to grad school. Ever. Then again, you guys have something to show for all your work. I have no accomplishments. I fear this is my destiny. :P

A lot of you have made very meaningful posts today that I wanted to comment on, and I have other things I wanted to say here, but the work keeps coming. Maybe I'll have more time later.

So I get back from lunch, casually load my friends page, and see that Shana and Phillip are engaged!!! Congratulations, guys! It's about time! Though, Phillip, you could have chosen a day when everyone was less wary. :D Yes...one by one, the LJ girls I pray for weekly are finding great men. Prayer is powerful. Hang in there, girls. :)

So far, today is a better day. Yesterday got increasingly worse, work-wise. By 5:00 I was practically in tears of frustration. I went home and talked at length with Kathy, and then went to band practice. I'm so thankful that I can play, because there's nothing like a good music practice to calm and cleanse you inside. I felt much better. On the way home I called my dad for advice, and he assured me that things would be okay. So today's resolution is to do the best job I can, and leave it at that. Sometimes God reminds me that I can't do anything by my own strength. I think yesterday was one of those reminders..

It's official: I'm not tutoring Yolanda anymore. :( Her mother was displeased with her last report card and blamed Streets (not her or the school) for not teaching her well enough. So she's pulled her out of the program. Logic, anyone? I gave them the okay to match me with another kid. They do need tutors badly, and I can't just give up because things aren't working out. I'm applying my Ezra Principle.

Tonight one of my favorite Friends episodes is on! And the 10:30 one will be good, too. Last night's was the first episode of Season 2, when Rachel goes to get Ross at the airport and he gets off the plane with Julie. I discovered to my chagrin that I have almost the entire episode memorized. Anyway, I also get to be with Evan! I feel like I've hardly seen him at all, since we were apart all weekend and he's been busy this week. Yay for quality time.

Happy Birthday Manda! I hope you enjoy your school-free birthday. :)

And congratulations to new mom secludedgrrl! Kevin is a beautiful baby. The first of many LJ babies due this year... :)

Okay, back to work. If I have time later I'll come back and do Hannah's books quiz.

Happy 2004, everybody! I'm glad to hear most of you had good New Year's holidays- congratulations to dakoda on her engagement! Woo hoo! :D

So I just had two days off. On New Year's Eve day I ran some errands, had lunch with Evan near his work, and then visited my sister at her work. She works at a day care during her time at home, so I met the kids in her class. They were sweet, especially a little girl named Mya who climbed right into my lap a minute after meeting me. :) I was glad I went. In the evening Evan, Debs, and I headed up to Millington for Luke and Myla's party. It was pretty fun. We played the new pop culture Trivial Pursuit and watched some of my Friends DVD. We decided to spend the night up there, since everyone else was and it's closer to Evan's work (where he had to be at 7:30 the next morning). The rest of us got up around 10 and had breakfast. Then Debs and I went home. I spent New Year's Day doing housework and taking down the Christmas decorations. I also watched an interesting show about the wives of Henry VIII (am I a nerd or what?). When Evan got off work, I went to his place bearing food, and we ate dinner and relaxed. It was a nice way to start the year. Tonight we might be having a date night, as opposed to our usual sitting around, but I'm not sure what we're going to do.

It's Friday but it feels like Monday. Since last week my schedule has been work two days, off two days. On Monday that will be over. I'll miss it, but my brain will be glad to be back on a normal schedule.

Others have commented on the weird weather. It is, indeed, weird. You heard it here fourth.

My lower back has reached a new level of pain. Every time I think this pull or strain or whatever is going away, it deals me another blow. I think sleeping on Myla's couch aggravated it this time, because by last night I couldn't do much that involved motion. I'm hobbling around like an old lady and yelping every time I bend. I feel like such a whiner, but this just isn't going away. I'll tell myself to bear it like Paul. Maybe a back problem was his "thorn." :)

Okay, hasta luego!