The Beauty and the Mess

Things I'm happy about right now:

• fun lunches with old friends


• driving down Poplar on a sunny day with a drink in my hand


• proof that I'm not the only one at work who makes mistakes


• Rold Gold pretzels


• planning to go thrifting tomorrow


• taking a day of sanity leave from the labeling project (and I'm on Texas now!)


• my boyfriend giving me second-by-second updates while we're on the phone ("I'm sitting on a ladder. Now I'm standing on a ladder. Hey, that's where our water heater is!")


• getting to see my sister twice in a week


• being told by my old friend that I would make a good librarian :)

And on the other side of the spectrum...( Where I Was When... )

You know, almost all of these memories are connected with TV. That depresses me. Though I guess it was the same for other generations' events...theirs just involved the newspaper or something. :P I'd ask why When Hurricane Elvis destroyed Memphis (7/22/03) isn't on here, but we all know that Never Happened in the eyes of the national media. Tell that to the people a block away from me who had to tear down their entire house and start over. *shakes head*

Here's a quick post before I retreat back into my cell- er, file room- for another day of moving file folders from drawer to drawer. Friday was an exhausting day. That night I went to a Riverkings game with Evan, and while there, my budding sinus problems came into full bloom. I was congested and moderately miserable all weekend, but still got things done. On Saturday I went to Kathryn (Ashley's fiancee)'s bridal shower at the church. Their wedding is in less than two weeks! That was pretty much my main social activity of the weekend. I spent most of the time resting and seeing my sister and Bun. Evan had to work all weekend again; his schedule has basically become one weekend on, one weekend off. He is not at all cool with working on Sundays, though, so he's going to talk to his manager. I am sad and irritated that they work him so hard and give him bad schedules, but it's not like he has other options. We just have to get used to hardly seeing each other, I guess. Soon he will start two extensive truck projects, and the little time we do have together will be gone. Life is sometimes annoying.

I finally finished The Ragamuffin Gospel and am now back to working on Desiring God. (I have started on most of my Christian books, but gave up on them fairly quickly.) There's a definite contrast in tone between the two books. TRG is very refreshing; I recommend it to everyone.

I love this Concert Festival Tycoon thing that Helen made up. I had to think for a while about mine. ( Brendapalooza )

On another musical note (ha, ha): One of Evan's truck friends went to high school with Josey Scott and still hangs out with him occasionally. When you call him, you hear, "Hi, this is Josey Scott of Saliva and you've reached Bobby's cell phone." How cool is that? :)

It's Friday the 13th! I haven't seen any signs of chaos, except at the bank when they played a Muzak cover of the Backstreet Boys' "All I Have To Give." Now that was scary.

I am officially sick of winter. If it's not going to snow, I want winter gone. February is usually the point where the chill has seeped into my bones and I'm cold all the time, even when it's not that cold. Also, my apartment gets draftier every day. So I'm ready for some warmth.

Earlier someone asked me for a safety pin, and my brain could not pull up a picture of what that was. I kept thinking of a paper clip. It was really weird!

My mom gave me a Valentine gift bag yesterday, with candy and In The Name of Love,the U2 tribute CD I've been wanting for a while. It's okay. I think I'll like it more as I listen to it, but one of the Amazon reviewers summed up my initial reaction: "I realize that this is not Bono and the Edge up there so it's going to sound different, but it seems like almost every song had that U2 trademark mix of soul and spirit just ripped out of it and what's left is a completely cheesy, overproduced sound." Why is so much CCM like that? I can often tell the difference between a CCM rock song and a secular rock song without even paying attention to the words. Then again, a lot of secular music is cheesy and overproduced, too. Can anyone recommend some good, quality, non-cheesy bands? I'm really getting into Nickel Creek. I love every song I've heard of theirs. I want the CDs- I bought This Side for Evan's birthday, but since it's his I haven't listened to it much. Anyway. My mom is very thoughtful. :)

Evan is taking me to Spaghetti Warehouse tomorrow night, assuming we can get in (they don't take reservations). I am very excited. We'll even have the whole day together- it's his first Saturday off in over a month. Yay! Happy Valentine's to you all! Also, Happy Singles Awareness Day. Know that anything is possible, and I am praying for you guys regularly. :)

In honor of the day I wanted to share my personal list of top 10 romantic songs. Feel free to share your own! ( La de da de da )

Okay, so in three days we've gone from a high of 70 degrees to a high of 34 degrees. The low tonight is 16, which I have not experienced in at least a year. I plan to spend the evening bundled up in a blanket.

This is not the greatest day. I've had a series of annoyances which culminated in me getting mad at Evan over something very dumb. Things are okay now, but I still feel kind of tense. Do you ever have one of those weeks where you're suddenly, irrationally afraid of all the things that could happen to you? Like, out of nowhere, you think "Oh my gosh, what if I had an accident and went blind?" It'll pass. I probably just need to watch less TV. :P Everything I saw last night seemed like a list of ways to suffer- being stranded on a deserted island, your loved one marrying someone else because they thought you were dead, being sneakily murdered by your plastic surgeon's nurse, etc. Well, God's in control, and most of those things should be easy enough to avoid. LOL.

The new Strong Bad e-mail is hilarious. Sorry to those of you who don't like Strong Bad. Hey, that's a good lead-in to the following list, inspired by Jessica's. It was a good stress reliever.

( Things I Am Not Sorry For )

It's an exciting day around the office- my friend Cortney is engaged! Her boyfriend proposed yesterday; it was her birthday. I'm so excited for her. For a couple of weeks, I've had a gut feeling that another girl I knew would be engaged before the year was out. So it's good to know who it was. Of course, it could still be one of you. :) 2004 is officially going to be the Year of Weddings. It's great that I can be excited about other people's engagements now, without that underlying fear and sadness that it will never happen to me. Sometimes I still can't believe I have been so blessed. Even if I don't get any presents this year, I already have everything I want for Christmas. :) Sorry if this makes anyone sad. I just can't help but gush sometimes. (Edit: Just to clarify, I am not engaged. I am simply a girl in a happy dating relationship who knows, so far, four couples getting married in 2004.)

Yesterday I was suddenly, strangely exhausted. It was like someone had taken an Energy Vacuum and sucked the life right out of me. I had to rest in the middle of doing dishes. I fell asleep at 8:00 while Evan was there. This morning wasn't much better, till I had coffee. I hope I'm not getting the Dreaded Flu.

tingilya asked about everyone's top five albums of 2003. ( I cheated and picked six. )

I'm sure everyone is tired about hearing about ROTK, but have you heard how long this movie is? Three hours and forty minutes. That confirmed it- no midnight showing for me. Evan and I are going to the 8:00 show tomorrow night. I can wait one more day. I'm anxious, though. Please, Peter Jackson, don't butcher my favorite book of all time.

Everyone should go buy the new issue of Elle, which has a major story about Clay, complete with stunning photos. I'm getting my copy on the way home. That darn Clay is turning me into a magazine-buying fool. :)

Last night I went to sleep at 9:30. I hadn't done that in a couple of years. I had a bad headache and was extremely tired. Today, I feel more refreshed than usual, so maybe I should make an occasional practice of it. In the night I accidentally kicked something at the foot of my bed. Then I felt tiny teeth biting my foot, realized it was Gandalf, and went back to sleep.

What are some songs that always cheer you up (for one reason or another)? I thought of that topic over the weekend. ( Here are ten of mine: )

It's amazing how different the world looks when you're seeing clear skies for the first time in two weeks. It feels strange to not only see the top of the Clark Tower (the "skyscraper" of Memphis, which is very close to my work), but to also see so much blueness over it. I took my lunch to the park, and sat there soaking up God's creation. I could have stayed there all day.

Tonight I am getting a haircut! Kathy called to make an appointment for both of us, but they only had one opening, so she let me have it. Isn't that nice? :) But I'm just getting a trim; I'm going to grow my hair out a little. This is not because I like my hair long. It is because no matter how it's cut, it looks exactly the same. Cutting it shorter again will not make a splash with anyone, so all I can do is let it grow. Lately I feel very blah, appearance-wise. My hair is boring, my clothes are boring, my accessories are boring. I like to look "classic" and "simple." Unfortunately, I noticed the other night that apparently this style is no match for the fun hair/fake fur/juniors' department look of some of my contemporaries. And if I were to emulate this look, I am pretty sure people would think it looked stupid on me. Including me. :P I tried to get input on this issue from aardwolf and yakko7178 yesterday, but they just panicked in a very masculine way and accused me of trying to "trap" them. :)

Wow, I didn't mean to talk about any of that. Here is something I've been thinking about:

Top 10 U.S. Cities I Want to Visit
(That I Have Never Been To Before)
1. San Francisco
2. Boston
3. Seattle
4. Baltimore
5. New York City
6. Philadelphia
7. Chicago
8. Williamsburg, VA
9. Norman, OK
10. Phoenix

What would yours be?

Halloween candy is already out. This means candy-corn pumpkins. I bought a huge bag of them at lunch and have already eaten more than I care to admit. I do this every single year. It is bad. In about 3 days, Pumpkin Shock will set in and I will be unable to have sugar for a month. :P

Time goes by, and I still do nothing to my journal style. I would like something with a sidebar, and then the "generator" style in the middle. I would also like a fun background. I have no idea how to do any of this and it would take me months to figure it out.

Rambling aside, I am posting again because I remembered a conversation we had at lunch yesterday: what we would do if we were as rich as Bill Gates. :) It makes me happy to think about what I would get for other people, not for me, if I had that much money. I think it's a good indicator of who's most important to you.

( If I Had 90 Billion Dollars... )
Please think about this and share your lists! :)

Today is Jeans Day at my work! It is also the end of Diversity Week, so we just had a big barbecue lunch. It was pretty good. Now I am back in my cube, but it's Friday so I am content.

I like this trend fettman started of telling what's in your CD wallet. My list is ( right here )

I had other things to say and now I can't remember them. Well, I will return later.

Behold my beautiful new phone! It can receive calls! It can deliver calls! It can take voicemail and text messages! It can call friends around the country with no long-distance charge! Can you tell I'm excited? The phone is my birthday present from my parents, and they are going to pay the bill because they got a family deal. I have very, very nice parents. I think they know that one more bill will put me over the financial edge. :)

Have you ever stopped to ponder how much Starbucks is too much? This article certainly has. I never read business articles, but this one struck me as funny and relevant. And it reminded me that I haven't had a frappucino in a long time.

In the Princess Diaries books, Mia is always making these funny, random lists. One of them is "The Ten Women I Admire Most." I thought this was an interesting exercise, so I made my own list awhile back. It really gives you perspective about the qualities you value in other people.

( Be warned, this is long )

I had to limit myself to only two fictional characters, because otherwise I would have taken up the whole list with them. :)