Someone Worth Checking Out

I'm not really big into the blog scene. I know, I know, I HAVE a blog...but really this is a place for me to get on my soapbox about crazy Christians and ugly shoes. I would not consider myself a wheel in the blog-cog.

Until about a month ago, the only blog I follow religiously is ThePioneerWoman. I'm addicted to her witty anecdotes and beautiful photographs of dicing onions and cracking eggs. Her Grilled Ribeye Steak with Onion-Blue Cheese sauce will go without mention here because even the thought of the deliciousness makes me put on 5 pounds.

I wish I was kidding. (About the poundage, not the recipe.)

However, if you like blogs about real people doing their best to love the Lord and deal with the ups and downs life throws at them, this girl is totally worth checking out:

http://www.sarahmarkley.com/

If there is one thing I dislike...hate...dispise even, it's a preachy Christian. I get mad at people that only post things on their facebook status like "God is SO Gr8!" or "I am so FULFILLED in HIM I don't know what to do with myself!!!".

I get mad for 2 reasons:

1. God is not extra honored because of weird capitalization.

2. NO ONE is always that happy and fulfilled. So to me, they just come across as desperate and fake. Some of my most intimate moments with the Lord come from conversations that start with an expletive (from me, of course, not God) or a phrase like, "God, I'm so mad at you right now." There's a brokenness found in that sort of place that can lead to a deeper insight into who God is.

Think of the words of Jesus on the cross. "My God, why have you forsaken me?" Obviously, Jesus would not have tweeted while on the cross, but still, that wasn't a "Jesus Christ is: super-excited for what the LORD is doing in His life!" kind of moment.

And the Bible says to "work out your faith with fear and trembling" not "and on your facebook status so everyone can know how spiritual you are"

So if I can't handle hyper-spirituality in 140 characters, I'm sure as heck not reading some pompous, self-righteous blog.

ALL OF THAT TO SAY:

Read Sarah Markley. She has a beautiful balance of insight and wit flavored with a deep and honest relationship with the Lord. She's articulate. She's genuine. She's refreshing.

And she has 2 adorable little girls.

And an amazing husband. (Usually I don't say things like that about other people's spouses, because clearly, Mr. Awesome has no equal. But just read their story, and you'll see what I mean.)

And she has an amazing God...I think He's pretty gr8 2!

So, They Announced the Date for the Premier...

And I am not a happy lostaway.

February 2nd.

That's 74 days from now. And that is lame.

What about the Olympics? Will they take a break? Can't they just show it all at once. We're talking one 18 hour (or wherever the count is now) chunk. Eating and sleeping would only be allowed on commercial breaks at my house.

URGH! I'm so impatient to get to the end.

The Three Camps of Christmas

Want to walk into a group of people and immediately stir up controversy? Sing a Christmas song in the middle of November.

Other than national health-care, nothing will polarize a group of people more quickly. There are only three camps:

1. The Buddy-the-Elf:
"OMG! I created my Dean Martin Christmas station on pandora.com two months ago! I've been listening to it and drinking peppermint mocha's from Starbucks every afternoon!"


2. The Traditionalist:
Covers their ears. "No, no! I will hear none of it until after Thanksgiving! You will leave my presence for trying to ruin the sanctity of Christmas by forcing it to precede Black Friday. Now begone with you, and your misguided holiday spirit."


3. The Ebeneezer Scrooge:
"Bah! Christmas. It's nothing but a commercial crock to make us spend money on frivolity and airline tickets. Frankly, my favorite holiday is Boxing Day. Yeah, Boxing Day. It's as far away from sugar-flake-gum-plum's as possible."

I promise, there is no middle ground here. Please, please try this in a very large, very public gathering of people and let me know what you find. :)



Make Buddy proud. You know you want to.

Confessions of the week

1. I ate a cheeseburger for lunch today. With fries. After complaining about not being happy with my weight to my husband this morning.

2. I teared up when I saw the "It's Wednesday" family game night commercial, which is neither emotionally touching or creative. 2.5: Apparently I'm hormonal.

3. I want to watch the "V" premier tonight because of Elizabeth Mitchell (as does any good Lost fan):


















4. But I'm afraid I'll be too distracted by Morena Baccarin's wretched new hair. I don't care what Tyra Banks says, this hair cut does not look good on any woman, even someone as stunning as Morena:




















5. This may not seem like a confession, but, trust me, it is: I really miss Lost. It's kind of pathetic how much I miss the show. I feel like a piece of my week isn't quite right without the show. Maybe I should buy the DVDs since we have purchased one season of Battlestar Galactica every weekend for the past 5 weeks.

6. I'm slightly bitter about purchasing aforementioned DVDs because I don't really love the show and feel like they're not worth the money we were charged for them.

7. This week I had the thought, "What if I'm really not as creative as I think I am." That's sobering.

8. I'm probably not terribly creative because I play about 5 different games on facebook almost daily. Mafia Wars being my top time/brain-waster. But WOO HOO! I'm at level 112! Beat that, Bitches!

9. I feel like all but two of my best friends have abandoned me in the past 3 months.

10. I hate not having married friends.

11. I tried making Monkey Bread on Sunday, and it literally fell apart. That was simply sad.

12. I go back and forth between desperately wanting to have a baby and being terrified of the ordeal and wanting to talk to Mr. Awesome about "permanently preventative" surgeries.

13. I fall more in love with my Husband every day.

14. There is little that makes me happier than seeing Mr. Awesome enjoy something I've cooked for him.

15. Ate one piece of candy this entire Halloween holiday.

16. I have listened to nothing but Celtic music for the last 4 or 5 days. Specifically David Arkenstone. Yes, those of you that aren't familiar with the New Age/Celtic musical genres, go ahead, laugh at his name. Yes, Arkenstone. And I love his music.

17. I missed The Pioneer Woman signing her cookbook in Denver last night, and from what I've heard about the insanity of it all, I'm kind of relieved I didn't go battle the crowds. I'd rather pretend I'm her bff than go to a book signing with a bajillion other people there and find out that I, indeed, am not. (Props to you though, Jen! I don't know that I would have made it through the whole evening without feeling rejected by her not identifying immediately what a kindred spirit I am.)

18. Today I almost blogged about the effects of PMS in my life, and then decided not to publicly disgrace myself.

Musicals, as a Lifestyle

I always have been an avid lover of musicals. It started innocently enough with things most kids watch like Disney movies, or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Then Julie Andrews came along and messed everything up. With Julie, frolicking through the Austrian country-side in curtains or dancing on the rooftops of London seem not only like entertainment to a young, impressionable, imaginative slightly-hyper child. It became a possibility. And certainly, a preferred reality to the aforementioned child.

Then my eyes were opened to the wonderful world of Rogers and Hammerstein. Cinderella was a personal favorite of mine. Upon a recent revisiting of this musical, I realized how horrifyingly bad the vocal performances are. But hey, it was 1965, that's an entirely different musical era. (Listen to this if you want to cringe)

Needless to say, by the time I was 13 and finally introduced to Les Mis, I was desperately, hopelessly, and thoroughly hooked on musicals.

So I wonder:

Why can't choreographed singing and dancing happen in real life!?

Think about it, there are some cultural things that didn't really come from anywhere and are never officially taught, but people know them anyways. Like paper, scissors, rock. Every American child knows it is the most unbiased way to make a decision. The other night after Mr. Awesome and I used this method to agree on something terribly important, like what TV show we watched, I tried to remember where I learned it. I obviously wasn't born with an instinctive knowledge that rock smashes scissors, it was something I just picked up along the way. Probably preschool.

So why can't singing and dancing be the same way?

Sure, you learn the hokey pokey, but usually that's some poor teacher trying to get her ADD kids to blow off some steam before trying to teach them about addition. And sure, you learn "David and Katie sitting in a tree, K-i-s-s-i-n-g" the first time your kindergarten crush (jerk) is ignoring you for someone else (she was scrawny and bossy and he really should have liked me instead), but that hardly even qualifies as a song.

I'm talking about a real world, like that scene in Enchanted when everyone in central park knows Amy Adam's song. I'm talking about the scene in 500 days of Summer with the Hall and Oates song. I'm talking about fraulein Maria's voice being pumped through a train station's sound system.

THAT, my friends, is a world that I want to live in.

Here's to believing for a better tomorrow for my kids!

Oh, Sweet Internets, It's been so long

It's been so long since I've blogged, I'm not sure if I'm still capable. I know there's about 50 good blogs lodged in my brain, but I'm not sure how to get them out. Communication Ex-Lax? Eww. that's gross. Strike that. In fact, strike the entire paragraph.

This month has been a busy one. I know that technically busy isn't bad, but it sure feels like it when I'm brain-dead at the end of the day. The new job is kicking my hiney. I'm hoping it'll kick hard enough that a few pounds go flying off. Don't judge my methods of weight-loss! It could work.

Mr. Awesome has again proved his awesome-ness by purchasing these for me. Actually, he's Awesome for far more than that. Saturday last week, he said that new shoes were in order because I'd come home with throbbing aching feet from wearing completely ridiculous shoes at work. Though I work in an office, I do a surprising amount of walking. Sweet husband, not wanting to listen to my belly-aching at the end of the day logically says, "Let's get you something with a lower heel."

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you will know he would have gotten further asking me to scale a tall building in a single bound. At least I would have tried that.

See, I wear three kinds of things on my feet. Flip-flops, my one pair of chucks, and heels. I really tried to get into the cutesy little ballerina flats thing when they first burst on the scene a few years back. I really really tried.

But if I'm honest, I hate them.

And that's what I kept mubling to myself in the shoe store number one in Denver. Yes, I got some dirty looks from other patrons, but I didn't care. Or stop mumbling.

I gave about 10 of them a valiant effort. But between ugliness, poor fits, and toe cleavage (yes, toe cleavage) I couldn't come up with anything that straddled the line between hideous and practical enough for me to purchase.

Mr. Awesome came to check on me several times and valliantly tried to help me pick something out. With his help I tried about a dozen more pairs, still to no avail. However I did find a hot little D&G pair on sale for -$450 off the original ticket price. *sigh* Someday.

On to shoe store number two!

I think Mr. Awesome was about to ground me and take away my video game priveledges he was so frustrated with me. To be completely candid, I was acting a bit spoiled. But again, store 2 had dozens of adorable heels, and twice as many not-adorable flats.

Rows and Rows of shoes later, Mr Awesome held up the lovely little Steve Maddens as mentioned above. I can't say I've ever been more proud of him. (ok, that's entirely hyperbole, he's done some really great things and I'm damned proud) They're comfy, they're not entirely flat, and they're Steve Maddens.

Woo Hoo! Brownie points for Mr. Awesome. Maybe I'll make him a pan of them this weekend as a reward.

Exciting New Seasons

I'm the kind of person that keeps jobs for a long time. I say this as a 25 year old working professional and I understand I don't have 30 years worth of working experience to sound seasoned and experienced but I'm ok with that. For someone my age to have had one job for over 5 years and one job pushing 4, though, is really good thing. So when I say this, I want you to understand my full meaning:

I GOT A NEW JOB!

The best part is, it's at a publishing company! If you don't know me you're probably not bouncing up and down in your seat and applauding but, if you've known me since I was about 10, you are. It's an entry level position, but I'm not complaining even a little. Nor will anyone hear a negative peep out of me for at least 534 days. I wonder what is 534 days from now...maybe I should take that into consideration, before I start making any grandiose promises. I'm simply thrilled to finally have a foot in the door of the place where I can acutally build a career!!!


I start mid-September. Yay!