The Beauty and the Mess

Here are some excerpts from Kevin Leman's book The Birth Order Book - lists of tips for only children, firstborns, middle children, and lastborns. I find this stuff interesting and thought some of you might too. :) There's more content in the book, obviously. At some parts I just hit the highlights.

( Firstborns and Only Children )

( Middle Children )

( Last-Born Children )

The Secret Country by Pamela Dean
A fantasy book about a group of cousins who have invented and played at a "secret country" together every summer of their lives. As they start their first-ever summer apart, they accidentally enter the Secret Country and discover that it's all real. An interesting premise, but I couldn't get into this as much as I expected to. It's the first of a trilogy, and while I expect to finish the series someday, I'm not really chomping at the bit.

The Journey of Desire: Searching for the Life We've Only Dreamed Of by John Eldredge
For years I considered Eldredge & Curtis to be the leaders of touchy-feely Christianity. This book broke down the last of my defenses, and forced me to admit that touchy-feely or not, their books speak to me in a way that few others do. I really see God's timing in my reading of this book. I've been thinking about futility and wasting your life, and wanting answers about it all. This book didn't give me answers per se, but it taught me a few things. I've typed out my favorite parts from the book, and they're under the cut. Highly recommended.

The Outside World by Tova Mirvis
A novel about an Orthodox Jewish wedding and marriage, and the families who reluctantly come together because of it. I didn't know when I picked it up that the author is from here, and thus a lot of the story is set in Memphis. I really liked this book.

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
People have been telling me for YEARS to read this. It lived up to the hype. It's about Anna, a thirteen-year-old girl who was conceived as a perfect match for her older sister, who's dying of leukemia. The last hope to save her sister is for Anna to donate a kidney. She responds by hiring a lawyer to declare medical emancipation from her parents. Really interesting - and the ending is a SHOCKER.

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
A weird, fantastic book about a girl who is sent to England to stay with country cousins she's never met - who turn out to be the family she's always wanted. Shortly after she arrives, World War III breaks out and the cousins are separated. The rest of the book is about the horrors of war they experience as they try to get back to each other, but through the eyes of the girl, who goes from broken and self-absorbed to caring and brave. There's also a love story that most would find squicky, but somehow in context it didn't bother me. This book haunted me for days. In a good way.

Books for October: 5
2006 year to date: 69

( Quotes from The Journey of Desire. )

Kat posted the other day about quotes that mean a lot to her. As a collector of quotes, I liked that idea. So I went through my list and found the ones that have stuck with me most over the years, or are a good summary of what I'm about. ( Enjoy. :) )

There has been an abundance of food at my office this week. The architects in my department had a vendor come today to give a presentation, and he brought a huge Italian lunch. The guys are all still talking about it. It reminded me of this...

Phoebe: There's a whole table of mini-muffin baskets. Which one did you send?
Ross: The small one.
Rachel: What? You actually thought that basket was gonna get you the apartment?
Ross: Well, yeah! Someone sent us a basket at work once, and people went crazy over those little muffins. It was the best day!
Chandler: Your work makes me sad.

Today is my Friday since I'm taking off tomorrow for the wedding festivities. Tonight we're taking Emily to Tunica for her bachelorette party. We're meeting up with some other people there...it should be interesting. I'm not a fan of gambling, so my slots limit is one dollar. :P Tomorrow is the bridesmaid luncheon, and then the rehearsal dinner (to which Evan is invited, yay!). Then Saturday is the wedding- it's going to be great. I'm excited! The only sad part about it all is that when it's over, Em will be moving to Washington DC, even further away from us. :( But we'll get to visit her and Daniel, I hope.

I need to delete my whole LJ bio and just write, "Weddings. Friends. Books. Fashion. Evan." That's all I talk about here. Well, I should stop apologizing for it. This is me. I might as well accept my fluffiness. :P :)

TGIF! It's a quiet day, something I haven't experienced in a while. I am full of anticipation of our date tonight. We decided to postpone ceramics for a special occasion. Instead we're going downtown to have Chinese food and see 50 First Dates. :) The rest of the weekend will be full of other fun activities. We're seeing Passion of the Christ on Sunday night with the church group. Knowing how much it will shake me up, I'm not really looking forward to it, but being spiritually jarred is good for growth. I'm very disturbed by gory movies, but I can stay okay by telling myself it's not real. This was real, and it was for me. It's pretty overwhelming.

On a lighter note, my musical appliances have formed a conspiracy against me. A couple of months ago, my beautiful, fairly-new Kenwood stereo stopped turning on. The standby light is on, but when you hit the power button, nothing happens. (I refuse to believe that it's dead and want to take it to a repairman...if I ever get around to doing so.) Shortly thereafter, my tuner/discman died completely. The cheap discman that I use in the car became my all-purpose one. On Wednesday, it went the way of the others. Today I'm getting another cheap one because I can't stand the radio anymore, but Evan thinks I should just get a car stereo with CD player and he'll install it for me. It might be a better idea in the long run, but it seems like an unnecessary expense right now. So many things demanding my tax refund. :P

Yolanda didn't show up last night. I went to Streets and she had just left. It was weird, but not unexpected since you never know what's going on over there. Hopefully we can do McDonald's next week.

I miss Jessica.

A quote to think about today:
The questions worth asking are not answerable. Could we be fascinated by a Maker who was completely explained and understood? The mystery is tremendous, and the fascination that keeps me returning to the questions affirms that they are worth asking, and that any God worth believing in is the God not only of the immensities of the galaxies I rejoice in at night when I walk the dogs, but also the God of love who cares about the sufferings of us human beings and is here, with us, for us, in our pain and in our joy. - Madeleine L’Engle

Finally, a quiet moment. I better seize it. :P

So yesterday was my four-monthiversary. Evan and I had lunch. We didn't think we'd have any other time together, since he was supposed to have a class from 6-9. It was cancelled, though (on the first day), so he got to go watch Chasing Liberty with Debs and I. (I was surprised that he was willing to see it, but he was determined to have a monthiversary activity.) I really enjoyed the movie. The scenery was beautiful. It made me regret that I didn't spend my college-age years backpacking through Europe. I suggested to Evan that we go to Venice for our five-monthiversary. He laughed. I can't imagine why.

Debra went back to Nashville today. I'm sad. Thus endeth my female companionship.

The other day I started listening to Room for Squares again, after leaving it alone for a few months. I know some of you don't like John Mayer because of his overly breathy delivery. I find it annoying, too, but his songs are just wonderful. I enjoy his romantic songs even more now. :)

Random items I have been pondering: Why do the stars seem closer and clearer in wintertime? What causes deja vu (and don't say when they change something in the Matrix)? Why is my neighboring apartment still vacant after ten months?

My attempt to eat healthier is going well...I think. I had a Doubletree cookie today because they were giving them away downstairs, but that's my first major splurge in a while. I've been eating a lot of vegetables and drinking diet drinks instead of regular. I feel lighter. Of course, I don't own a scale, so I have no way of knowing how I'm doing. What kind of weirdo goes on a diet without a scale? :) Last night I ate with my family at a new restaurant, Firebirds. It gets my seal of approval- the menu items are unusual in a good way. I had a salmon salad that was to die for. Maybe we can go there when the California crew comes to visit.

Finally, why dakoda is one of my favorite people: "Danny and Kitchie came up with this idea for there to be cell phones all throughout LOTR...they talked about how Gandalf, being all old, would have one of those ancient cell phones that are huge, and then when Gandalf says in ROTK that Frodo has passed beyond his sight, he'd say "Frodo has passed beyond my service range." And then Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas would talk about the roaming expenses on their phones, because they're running all over Middle-Earth. And then with Frodo and Sam, Frodo would exceed his free minutes, and he'd be like "Sam, it's all over now....I've used up all of my minutes!" and Samwise will go "Here, take mine Mr. Frodo, I've got free nights and weekends."

Harry: What does this song mean? My whole life I don't know what this song means. "Should auld acquaintance be forgot." Does that mean we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean that if we happen to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot them?

Sally: Well, maybe it just means that we should remember that we forgot them, or something. Anyway, it's about old friends.

- When Harry Met Sally (my favorite movie of all time)

I'm off work tomorrow (woo hoo!) so this is my Farewell 2003 post. This was a great year for me. I am blessed to know each of you and have enjoyed sharing in your silliness, happiness, sorrows and deep thoughts this year. I'm glad to have met many of you and become "real-life" friends with you. 2004 is on its way, and I have a feeling it will bring many great things for all of us! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

aggielad mentioned this morning that today is the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux. I'm not Catholic, but Christian history always interests me, so I followed the link to learn about her. In the quotes section I found something that really jumped out at me. It's from one of her letters:

The practice of charity, as I have said, dear Mother, was not always so sweet for me, and to prove it to you I am going to recount certain little struggles which will certainly make you smile. For a long time at evening meditation, I was placed in front of a Sister who had a strange habit and I think many lights because she rarely used a book during meditation. This is what I noticed: as soon as this Sister arrived, she began making a strange little noise which resembled the noise one would make when rubbing two shells, one against the other. I was the only one to notice it because I had extremely sensitive hearing (too much so at times). Mother, it would be impossible for me to tell you how much this little noise wearied me. I had a great desire to turn my head and stare at the culprit who was very certainly unaware of her "click." This would be the only way of enlightening her. However, in the bottom of my heart I felt it was much better to suffer this out of love for God and not to cause the Sister any pain. I remained calm, therefore, and tried to unite myself to God and to forget the little noise. Everything was useless. I felt the perspiration inundate me, and I was obliged simply to make a prayer of doing it without annoyance and with peace and joy, at least in the interior of my soul. I tried to love the little noise which was so displeasing; instead of trying not to hear it (impossible), I paid close attention so as to hear it well, as though it were a delightful concert, and my prayer (which was not the Prayer of Quiet) was spent in offering this concert to Jesus.
- Saint Therese of Lisieux, from Story of a Soul

Isn't that great? I have so many "little noises" in my life that drive me nuts. Maybe what I need to do is stop trying to ignore them and start acknowledging them, to God and to myself. That's my lesson for the day. Learn to love the little noise.

Only funny line from Good Morning Miami last night [about a new clip art graphic]: "Why is the sun wearing sunglasses? I mean....he's the sun. What is he shading himself from?"

Hace frio hoy. Apparently we're skipping fall this year. I've been in Memphis most of my life, yet its bizarre weather never ceases to amaze or annoy me.

I'm sad because I have band practice tonight, so I can't go to Bible study with Evan. Next week, my "off" week, I'll be in the midst of a business conference and will probably have to go to a dinner or something. :( Also, Derek Webb is playing at First Evangelical tonight and I can't go to that either. However, he's having a concert at a local college on Friday night, so Evan and I are planning to see him then. That'll be good.

( Survey from Jessica. Sorry I'm doing so many surveys lately. )