Nature Girl

I said in my last blog I would let you know how the driving thing went. Well it was long and boring and lonely but I got to drive a couple of cool people and got paid so I am very thankful. Not much interesting to share there.

This morning was a different morning for me. My roommate had their mentoring group over at 7:30am so I needed to not be here. So after getting ready I headed to the local coffee shop with my other roomie. We had fun not doing what we were supposed to be doing and enjoying some ok coffee.

After that I headed to my appointment with my tailor. What am I doing going to a tailor? Well I am in a wedding in DC in January and I needed my dress altered. So I headed to her house and it was quick and painless. So quick that I had some time to kill before I could go back home.

I was near my favorite park so I decided to stop there for a bit and enjoy the cool morning. I sat down by the lake and had some time of stillness and quiet. The sun was rising and the ducks were quacking and it was beautiful. The breeze was blowing on my face and I felt peace. I felt like I could have stayed there all day. Unfortunately I had coffee that morning and really needed to potty so my time was cut short. Leave it to my tiny bladder to ruin the moment.

Why am I sharing this? Well my quiet time with God sucks, and is almost non-existent. I pray throughout the day but rarely do I sit down intentionally and spend time with God in quiet, prayer or study. I hate this about my life. I KNOW that I need this time and that God desires it for me also but for some reason I have this block that keeps me from it. I have been working against this block for probably a year now and nothing has worked. I see my roommates having their quiet time and it makes me wonder what is wrong with me.

Well now I have a new thing to try that I do not know why it has not occurred to me before. Nature! I find God in nature so easily. I see him every day in the trees, in the wind, in the cool night air, in the stars I see as I ride my bike home at night. Everywhere! So as I sat outside this morning quite time came so easily to me. Not that it is not possible to have quiet time inside and maybe that will come with time, but it just makes sense to me to spend time with God outside instead of stuck inside where I am all the time anyways.

I should have known this about myself especially after living in Colorado. My dry spell runs all the way back into my time in CO but I remember very specific times where I was out hiking or sitting my the river that I felt the most comfortable being quiet with God. Just because I am in ugly Abilene does not mean I cannot do the same thing. There is beauty and nature here, its just a bit different.

So my new plan of action is to start out with a goal of going to be outside with God once a week. Running does not count. I need to go somewhere that I can be away from people and technology and business and just be in nature where I find God the easiest. Maybe from this I will feel a desire to spend more time and I can move it to a daily routine (man I hate that word) but we will see. Baby steps Dee!

Typically I try to stay away from sharing too much personal, emotional or spiritual info on here because that is private. I would LOVE to talk to anyone about this stuff in person but not on a blog. But today I felt the need to share my experience so sorry if it was too much.

Driving Miss Daisy

Lectureship (aka Summit) is happening here at ACU next week and I have taken on a little job. I am going to be a driver of vans to pick people up who are in town with no cars. They will call in, I will get radioed and then go get them wherever they are. Then I get to take them home at night. I have been told most of them will be speakers (maybe even Brian McLaren). Sounds pretty fun to me! I love meeting new people.

To be "qualified" to drive I had to watch a little safety video about what not to do. The main idea was be careful and to watch out when backing up. I am now "qualified" but I failed to mention my past van driving adventures. Lets take a walk down memory lane.

All of these occurred during my time as an intern in Colorado. All of them occurred in the same van. I'm surprised it is still running.

First incident, driving on the highway with 2 kids in the van. I had not been there long and was still very mesmerized by the mountains. I could not stop looking as I drove, but I came close to the edge of the road and had to swerve pretty fast to avoid going off. Ooops!!

Second incident, I was in the church parking lot backing the van out of its spot...and talking on the phone with my mom. Bad idea. I backed up w/o paying attention and heard "crunch" and then "bang." I told my mom I had to go and just hung up. I sat there until the land lady came out to check on me because she heard what happened. I knocked over the light pole. I cried because I felt bad but she said it happens about every year so it wasn't a big deal. The rest of the summer the preacher called me Smash.

Third incident, I was taking some girls camping. We decided to take the van because my car was pretty small with 3 of us and all our stuff. We loaded up the van, and ran some errands before heading to Rocky Mt. We were about to take off and one of the girls mentioned smelling something funny. Luckily we remembered something we forgot so we headed back to the church. We pulled up and the other intern ran out and started yelling for us to get out of the van. It was smoking!!!!

Turned out I had been driving with the parking break on for about 30 min. Another oops moment! In my defense 1. the break light did not work so I had no indication it was still on, 2. I grew up in Texas and had never used a parking break before so I did not know to even look for something like that. Needless to say, we crammed in my car and had a great camping trip. They changed the break pads just to be safe, but everything seemed ok.

All this to say I do not have the best luck with 15 passenger vans. I am hoping for some luck while driving Lectureship speakers around. Should be an adventure. I will update after its over.

Oh the news

These are some snippets from funny news stories I have read lately. I am not a news watcher but I do like to stay up on big US events and especially International news. These are of no big importance, they just made me laugh and the news can always use some laughter.

1. Uganda Seeking to Ban Miniskirts- The dude wanting this to happen says that it is like women are walking around naked. And what happens when you are driving and see a "naked" person, car accidents of course! Can you imagine trying to pass this here in the US?

2. Beer Belly/Wine Bra- Not sure why these are all about clothing but this one is crazy! They are making beer bellies that a man can wear on his belly and it holds beer and has a long straw like a camelbak. And for the woman? A wine bra! I wonder if they make Dr. Pepper bras...

3. 86 Wives- Ok so maybe this is not something to joke about but 86 wives? Seriously? A Muslim man was arrested in Nigeria for having 86 wives...the limit is 4. Ha! I know it must be a cultural and power thing, but what man would want more than one wife? Women are crazy! The limit is 4, that's funny. And does he really need to be punished? 86 wives seems like enough punishment to me. I sure wouldn't want 86 husbands.

4. Longest Legs vs. Smallest Man- This is great! I guess the Guinness Book of World Records just came out with a new book and to promote it they got this odd couple together. The woman's legs are 4'4" long and the man is 2'5" tall. She makes me feel not so tall.

There is some strange stuff out there!!! :)

I Tried

I tried to not look at the pictures of Hurricane Ike but I could not help myself. I get pretty freaked out by the hurricanes that come through the gulf and rightly so. My city and pretty badly damaged. I cannot even imagine what a Cat 3,4, or 5 would look like.

I did not want to look because I knew it would just make me sad and it would not help anything but some of the images are just amazing. Not amazing in a good way, amazing in how much damage occurred. Obviously I am very very sad by the pictures of peoples homes being ripped apart or under water, but the ones that get me are seeing the places I know and have been.

Seeing I-45 covered in debris, boats and water. Seeing the sky scraper windows in downtown Houston shattered and glass all over the streets. Seeing the sea wall in Galveston littered with parts of buildings and peoples homes, knowing that the piers over the water must be gone. And seeing part of the roof ripped off of Relient Stadium (selfishly wondering if we will still get to go to the game in December when I should be thinking about the poor people without homes now).

I must say despite all the awful damage and how some places may never be the same, personally I am thankful. My parents are fine, our house is fine and so far that goes for all our friends and family. My parents walked around our neighborhood and realized how blessed they were that out of the 60+ trees that are ripped out of the ground or snapped at the truck, none of them fell on our house. And thankfully the death toll is supposed to be low everywhere because of the great job the cities did of evacuating. We did learn some things from Katrina and Rita.

I told my mom that I do not know if God keeps trees from falling on houses but I prayed (and so did they) so I give my thanks to God. Now everyone just has to figure out what to do with their time (and for food) for the next week with no electricity or jobs to go to.

So I tried to not look at the pictures and I will try to not look anymore because it just upsets me, but please remember Houston and the Gulf Coast as they rescue those who stayed and try to rebuild their lives.

Beach homes

Downtown Houston building

I-45

Relient Stadium where the Texans play

Sea wall at Galveston

Thankful Thursday

Three things I am thankful for tonight:

1. I am thankful to be in a town and involved with a community with such amazing people. Today was a very peopley day and I loved it. No where else but in college can you have so many people in or around the same place in life as you living in such close proximity with the time to spend with each other. It is just so amazing!

2. I am thankful for friends being concerned about my friends and family who are about to be hit by the hurricane. I have not been in a hurricane since I was like 3 but they really kinda freak me out. The fear may be somewhat irrational and it is spurred on by me watching the Weather Channel too much, but I am thankful people put up with me and check up on me knowing that I am worried but trying to hide it. They are just so destructive. I cannot even imagine the chaos in Cuba right now.

3. I am thankful for my house. I have amazing, caring, fun, roommates and such a wonderful house. We have everything we need and so so much more. We have a place to sleep, eat, study, and laugh. We can be hospitable to our friends and provide a place to hangout and be in community. The house has its quirks but that makes life interesting.

I could not be more blessed right now. Sometimes it is easy to think about what I don't have or what could make life better, and I forget how amazing my life is and how much I need to be sharing with others because of that.

Tis' The Season

Football season is here and I am ready for it. Usually when the season ends I am ready to move on to something new but every September I have had a good break and am ready for it to start.

I still remember the first NFL game that I watched the entire thing. I cant tell you who played or who won but I was at my grandparents house and I was proud I made it through the whole game. I was pretty young, maybe 10 yrs old. I think I wanted to want to watch football because my brother and my dad liked it. So I guess I thought if I wanted to hang out with them I needed to be into football. My enjoyment grew over the years and now I am happy to even sit down and watch a game by myself, but company is always better.

Playing fantasy football has helped my enjoyment even more. This is my 5th year and it has helped me learn the players and pay attention to their abilities. Games are more fun to watch when you know who is playing and what their team is made up of. I will never know everyone (and dont want to because that would take up too much brain space) who plays but as long as I can keep up with what is important each season I am pretty happy. I play in a league with my brother and his friends and my favorite fantasy season was the year my parents had a team. My mom spent more time managing it than my dad did. She was so funny to hear her talking about her QB or WR or whatever. It helped her be more involved in the mania that is football season. Its fun to, as a family, all be into the same thing.

We are an NFL family and our team is the Houston Texans. Dont laugh! I know they are not awesome but we are not bandwagon jumpers. We have been fans since the beginning and always will be. But you better watch out, it may be a while till we make it to the playoffs with the Colts in our division, but we had a 8-8 season last year. I would rather people think we are bad so eventually we can surprise them! My dad blesses our family with tickets to a game every year and we have so much fun. Even if someone doesnt like sports, GOING to a sporting event is entertaining enough with all the crazy fans and expensive food and funny things going on. I love it!

I am excited to be back in TX for the season because rarely did I get to see the Texans play in Denver. I enjoyed watching the Broncos and witnessing the Jay Cutler-Jake Plummer switch, but it just isnt the same. I never wavered in my Texans faith, but its easy to get caught up in the excitement of a city when you live there (especially when the Rockies made it to the WS).

Anyways, Im excited to get to watch some more Texans football but there is something different about being in TX. Seems like people are way more into college football here. I guess that is because of the 3 big schools here, but I have just never gotten into college ball. I tried my senior year because it is very fun to watch, but it is hard when you dont have a school you follow. I could just pick one but if I am not passionate about it I wont keep up with it. My mom went to A&M, dad UT, grandparents Tech, and brother OU...and I go to ACU. How am I supposed to choose?!?! So I just stay out of it. I feel almost wrong saying I am a UT fan when their fans are so intense that I do not even come close. I can enjoy watching games with others and will always go for at TX school (or OU) over another state but I cannot call myself a fan.

I also get so overwhelmed with how much there is to know about college ball. There are SOOO many teams and SOOO many players that change so often I cant keep up. Im happy if at the end of the season I know who the Heisman candidates are. Also, the rules are slightly different than NFL so I get confused. But football is football and I enjoy it all!

I hope I can enjoy futbol as much as I do football. I try now but I have a lot to learn.

Busy As Bees

It is the second week of school and I am already tired. Tired from lack of sleep (my social life's fault, not school) but also tired of business. My summer was pretty chill and un-busy so I am trying to adjust back to a schedule and a busy life, but I dont like to be busy. I know "busy" is the common response to "how are you" (2nd most popular after "fine") but I dont want to be busy.

I enjoy having time to sit on my front porch and enjoy the cool night air, having lunch with a new friend or just spontaneously making cookies. All of which I have done in the last 2 days when I should have been doing "good student" things. Something has got to go!

Some of you probably think I am crazy because compared to most grad student schedules mine is calm but thats how I need it to be. I need to be able to veg some in the evenings. I desperately need to spend time with friends, to worship at church and to be silly with roommates. I do not want to be busy. I want to have a still morning of coffee, breakfast and peace. If these things are important to me I need to learn to manage my time better but this is not really a gift of mine.

I tend to let time get away from me instead of using it wisely. I like not worrying about time because I think sometimes we are too constrained by it (that is another blog) and forcing myself to be on time to meetings and class and jobs are enough. I want my non-timed time to be open but where is the balance! (not necessarily asking for an answer, just typing out loud)

I know some of my semester will be busy and that is just part of life but I am going to work hard to not be busy AND not worry about time AND fit in everything I need to get done. Ask me at the end of the semester how that one goes! Ha!

Thanks for reading, now it's TIME to read! :)

Bella

My Newest Favorite

I watched an amazing movie this past weekend. I had heard of it from some friends so when I saw it at the store I had to get it. The movie is called Bella and you can see the trailer for it above.

It is hard to describe why I loved it so much. It really moved me and I am so glad I watched it alone because it made me cry a lot. It was beautifully filmed and much of it was spoken in a beautiful language. The characters were very flawed and normal and the movie made you love them and feel their pain. There is nothing flashy or thrilling about it, just very honest and beautiful. Like I said, hard to describe. But I would recommend it to anyone.

On another note, school has started again and I am getting back into the swing of things. I really like my classes and I am excited about them. I hope to learn and push myself a lot this semester. I am also enjoying meeting new people and reuniting with old ones. Our team is also having our first meeting since about April tonight and I cant wait. We had a great summer of hanging out but I am ready to do something. Hopefully we can set the date for our survey trip tonight!!

Thats all for now!!! :)