like a fetter

hello.

It seems as if almost everyone is taking a holiday break from blogging. I guess I have too. Most of my post-holiday time has been spent in a support raising freak out haze. I have about $300 in monthly pledges left to raise and I'm at the point where I just have to be faithful in following through and then just TRUST that it will come in. Yikes. That's hard to do. Christmas was good. pretty much completely normal. norwegian christmas eve at grandma b's, church (although it was the 11pm youth service this year...not the same), presents in the morning, breakfast with grandma, dad's side christmas, dinner at aunt sandy's. it actually seemed to be a really calm christmas this year which was just what i wanted.

My aunt jaine (my stepdad's sister) is typically pretty strange, but in really funny and interesting ways. I love talking to her because it's fun to have a conversation with her. she always has such a funny point of view. well anyway, she said she had a gift for me and she pulls out several little fabric parcels and it turns out that it's a piece of fabric with Chutes and Ladders on it and inside the fabric was a pair of dice and some plastic animals. she said that she thought it would be a good thing to take to Africa because it's a game with only numbers so it's easy to understand in any language and I can even practice my Arabic numbers by playing it. She gave me several of them to give as gifts because she knew that at the beginning of my time in Africa I would be really dependent on the hospitality of others and they could make good gifts. I was so overwhelmed. It was such a thoughtful gift. I really don't think I've ever received a gift that had more thought behind it. It was so amazing. I'll post some pictures later.

Christmas with Dad was good until I had to explain to my family AGAIN that I will be gone for TWO YEARS. My step-mom's response was, "Well then we'll have to have lunch sometime soon!" Only a little frustrating.

Got the Sufjan Stevens Christmas CD(s). Very nice. I love it when he sings worship songs.

I quit my job yesterday. My boss was mad and it stressed me out but I think I'm pretty much over it. Everyone else is really excited and that makes me even more excited.

I've gotten to see Crissa a lot and I can't think of anything better to do at Christmas time.

I think that's it.

Ok Bye.

yes, another one

One. Word. Survey. You. Can. Only. Type. One. Word.

1. Yourself: procrastinating
2. Your sibling(s): brothers
3. Your mother: here
4. Your Father: quiet
5. Your favorite physical feature on others: laugh
6. Your dream home: small
7. Your best friends: away
8. Your dream last night: stressed
9. Your Favorite drink: psl
10. Your Dream Car: hybrid
11. The room you are in: guest
12. Your Ex: who
13. Your fear: staying
14. What you want to be in 10 years: overseas
15. Who you hung out with last night: cousins
16. Something you’re not: ready
17. Muffins: cranberry
18. One of Your Wish List Items: moleskine
19. Time: sparse
20. The Last Thing You Did: breakfast
21. Your Favorite Weather: Fall
22. Your Favorite Book: Thessalonians
23. The last thing you ate: cheerios
24. Your Life: starting
25. Your Mood: sleepy
26. What are you thinking about right now: resignation
27. What are you doing at the moment: survey?
28. Your summer: long
29. Your relationship status: ha
30. Who You Are Now: me
31. Who You Want to be in Five Years: still
32. What is the weather like: frosty
33. When is the last time you laughed: earlier
34. Who should fill this out: hojo

this totally makes my spirit bright

JANUARY

1. Who kissed you on new years?
Ha. Hahaha.

2. Did you have a new year's resolution this year?
I doubt it. I generally avoid things like that.

3. Does it snow where you live?
APPARENTLY NOT!

4. Do you like hot chocolate?
oooh yes

5. Have you ever been to Times Square to watch the ball drop?
No, and I don't really have any desire to. New Year's is pretty dumb if you ask me.

FEBRUARY

1. Who was your Valentine?
Um...my dog?

2. When you were little, did you buy valentines for your whole class?
Uh yeah! Cool ones, like the kind you fold into paper airplanes.

3. Do you care if the groundhog sees its shadow or not?
No. The movie is much more important than the actual groundhog. Am I right or am I right or am I right...right right right.

MARCH

1. Are you Irish?
Probably not but maybe.

2. Do you wear green on St. Patty's Day?
Generally not. But I do drink green beer.

3. What did you do for St. Patty's Day in 2006?
Alex came to see me and we went to the Panther Lounge for green beer and watched the guy put drops of green food coloring in our beer and stir it up and hand it to us. It was awesome.

4. Are you happy when winter is pretty much over?
I don't really like that week or so where it's still cold and the snow is dirty and everything is wet. But I love it when it's finally warm out and you don't need a coat.

APRIL

1. Do you like the rain?
Yeah, I love it.

2. Did you play an April fool's joke on anyone?
I don't think so. I've played some good ones though. One time I pretended to drink pee on a bet and then spilled it on Dan's coat. I think that's my favorite. It was diluted apple juice.

3. Do you get tons of candy on Easter?
Not tons. Mostly just lots of chocolate eggs and lots of jelly beans. Oh and lots of those malted milk ball egg things that I hate.

4. Do you celebrate 4/20?
Ha no....I don't think I ever have.

5. Do you love the month of April?
Not particularly

MAY

1. What is your favorite flower?
hydrangeas, daisies, cherry blossoms

2. Do you like the spring?
Yeah. It's not my favorite though.

3. Finish the phrase "April showers":
bring may flowers...duh

4. What is the first color you think of when you think of Spring?
green. and yellow.

JUNE

1. What year did/will you graduate from high school?
2000

2. Did you do anything fun during this month?
I hung out with Alisha a lot- we did lots of fun stuff.

JULY

1. What did you do on the Fourth of July?
Hmmm. I don't really remember. I know that Andrea and Alisha and I went to the fireworks but I think that's it.

2. Did you go on any vacations during this month?
We left for Alaska at the end of July!

3. Do you blast the A/C all day?
Not if it's up to me. I'd much rather be a little too hot and have the windows open.

AUGUST

1. Did you do anything special at the end of your summer?
Alaska! That was definitely special.

2. What was your favorite summer memory of '06?
Lots of animals in Alaska, getting ready for Alisha's baby, lots of time with my niece and nephew.

3. Did you have a sunburn?
Yeah! Kelly, Andrea, Alisha and I spent all day at the lake and I definitely got a sunburn that day. I think that was in June though...maybe July.

4. Do you go to the beach a lot?
No. I don't really care about the beach. I love the ocean though!

SEPTEMBER

1. Did you attend school/college in '06?
Nope!

2. Who is your favorite teacher?
This guy John is a history professor at UNI and I like it when he comes to Starbucks...does that count?

3. Do you like fall better than summer?
Yes! I LOVE fall.

OCTOBER

1. What was your favorite Halloween costume?
My brother was "dead Ashton Kutcher" which was hilarious.

2. What is your favorite candy?
I think peanut m&m's

3.What did you dress up as this year?
I bought a wig to wear to work but I didn't end up wearing it.

NOVEMBER

1. Whose house do you go to for Thanksgiving?
Everyone comes to our house. This year I worked.

2. Do you love stuffing?
Yeah! I love putting it in lefse and rolling it up.

3. What are you thankful for?
The "givers" of the world. I'm so so so thankful for them.

DECEMBER

1. Do you celebrate Christmas?
Yes!

2. What is December 1st, 2006?
Jeff Goodenbour's 25th birthday. (There are like 5 people from elementary school whose birthdays I remember and his is always one of them...I hope he doesn't google himself and get creeped out by that)

3. Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe?
My step-mom always hung mistletoe in a doorway and my brothers would chase me and pretend they had to kiss me but I don't think they ever caught me. Then there was mistletoe in Dan and Aaron's room (and a duct tape circle on the floor defining the "danger zone") but I don't know if I got caught. Obviously if I did it wasn't a very memorable kissing experience...

4. Get anything special last year?
My Ipod!

5. What do you want this year?
Monthly supporters! I would just really like a nice relaxed Christmas with my family without pressure or stress. There's a list of things that I need to take to Africa but I'm sure I'll probably just get a bunch of stuff that will sit in my room for 2 years.

6. Do you like cold weather?
If there's snow...

ok fine, no nap

I would rather be napping but apparently my mom would rather be vacuuming...so I'll blog.

Here's the rest of my superfuntime weekend. Alex was in town and I was assigned to Alex entertainment duty for Monday morning. The first order of business was to go to the post office to mail some stuff. Kinsey had no idea there was a post office downtown and was pretty upset that she had been walking to the one across from the courthouse all these years. Alex and I thought it was pretty funny and made fun of her all morning. Her response was always, "Are you sure it's been there that whole time? I'm SO MAD!"

We did some shopping, I found these cool pencils made from rolled up Chinese newspapers:Then...(drumroll)....BALDY'S!! My fav-o-rite.

mmm

the only place where i get the same thing every time
(chicken and jack!)i would also like to take a moment to point out that this is kinsey's first cameo in my blog. apparently she's been a secret reader for some time now. i like talking to her about her wedding and she's not too cool to hang out with you. that's all you really need to know about kinsey. (jk)then kinsey went home and we went to the q bar for some afternoon pool. Alex and I used to play pool and have a pitcher of miller lite every wednesday before bible study.

then alex left and i went hoa #1 for some milky tea and was pleased to see that abbie kampman was working. it was so fun talking to her. she's so great. then deedee called and i got to see her and kari and then deedee and i went and got betsy for dinner at quinton's, another favorite.

deedeebetsy

(aparently i only take pictures of people drinking?)

So there it is, yet another successful trip to Iowa City. Perhaps my last for a long long time. Weird.

beautiful

the most wonderful time

i had an amazing weekend. cate and i have been wanting to hang out to do some holiday baking and finally figured out a day that worked so i headed to west liberty on saturday afternoon to get that done. it was so fun. we made lots and lots of goodies and watched lots and lots of satc episodes from the last season that cate had never seen. it was perfect.

sugar cookies

toffee bars with hershey's bars melting on top.
super fun way to put chocolate on something.
rice crispies for scotcheroos
cate was listening for them to snap (crackle or pop) and then one did really loudly and we had to retake this picture after we were done cracking up.food coloring is funfrosting! we were done being creative after cookie #5

i decided that my favorite thing to do when i stay over at my married friends' houses is to put my toothbrush in their toothbrush holders.

and to add to their holiday decor

(that's my sock)so yeah, fun stuff. part two of the weekend is coming up next and it was pretty much just as fun. good times.

I got a fortune cookie today that said:

"You will receive unexpected support over the next week. Accept it graciously."

Pretty great.

is it really too much to ask?!

all i want is to be able to crochet and read at the same time.

and it's raining. can you imagine how great it would be to crochet AND read while it's raining outside?! with christmas lights? come on!

some things just must be too good for our earthly hearts to contain.

although i did just get TWO emails from Kate. that'll have to do.

stop hurting america

I heard a comment on NPR about Jon Stewart's appearance on CNN's Crossfire and I finally remembered to look it up. I know that it's old and I know that everyone has seen it but me but it's so good. And sadly, still relevant. If you have 14 minutes of your life to spare I definitely recommend checking it out. Even if you don't have 14 minutes, just watch from minute 2:50 and stop when you get bored. I'll be the first to admit that the Daily Show swings way to the left but I really appreciate and respect that Mr. Stewart addresses that the last thing we need is partisanship. I'm guilty of it too and I'm quick to judge based on political affiliation so it's good to hear an intelligent and respected celebrity call for members of the media to stop the noise.

Here are a couple of my favorite lines:

-How does it pay?
-Not well, but you can sleep at night.

-...and maybe this explains quite a bit, that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity.

-This is theater...how old are you?
-35
-and you wear a bow tie...and listen, I'm not suggesting that you're not a smart guy because those are not easy to tie...but the thing is that you're doing theater when you should be doing debate. It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery.

-You're on CNN...the show that leads up to me is puppets making prank phone calls...what is wrong with you?!

-You have responsibility to the public discourse
-You need to get a job at a journalism school I think
-You need to go to one

It's almost painful to listen to these men try desperately to get a word in edgewise and try to get back to what they thought this interview would be like. They just don't know what to do when getting faced with the tough questions they accuse him of not asking.

I haven't seen a clip of Jon Stewart that made me respect him this much since the video seen here, which was hard to find a copy of.

that's a lot of wonder

Fark had a link to a site listing the 7 wonders of each state. It's pretty funny to scan through them. i must admit i hadn't even heard of half of the Iowa ones. All of the Illinois ones are not only in Chicago, but within a one mile radius of one another if that, which is weird. Oh and also, one of the Nebraska ones is in South Dakota. Pretty funny. Check out the wonders of your favorite state!

international mail is expensive...you'd better hurry

so i order this book online from amazon for about a dollar. i'm really excited about it and i'm eager for it to arrive. one day my mom says, "did you see that you got a package?" I'm excited to hear this and look around at the various places the mail usually ends up but don't see any packages. "It's out in the garage, it's pretty big," she says. Hmm...big? So i figure it's a used book so the person probably just sent it in whatever box was laying around but then I see that it's a rather new, quite large jones soda box...huh?!

Confusion sets in.
I open the box.

Dude! A case of Jones Soda! Score!

Ew gross! Turkey and Gravy Soda! Sick!
HA! It's from Alex!
Wait...and my picture is on it.
Of course.
And it's that picture...of course.
She sucks.
How did she even get that picture?

If anyone would like one (or 11) bottle(s) of Turkey and Gravy Jones Soda with my picture on it, give me your address. Actually I can really only give away 10 because I have to send one to Jess because she's my co-star. Details - the picture was in Legoland at the Mall of America on Matt's birthday forever ago. Jess made me dress up like a pirate and I clearly was not as amused as she was. I make this face a lot because my friends are ridiculous, as proven by this post. Oh and it tastes horrible...kind of like chicken broth and sprite.

OH! PS! She also sent a case of Jones to Amy - who got an ACTUAL GOOD FLAVOR OF JONES! GGRRRRR.

see, i've been right all this time

There is a category of movies from my childhood that are usually beloved but somehow I've always found them creepy and unsettling. Also in this category? Pete's Dragon and the original Willy Wonka. I can't believe everyone isn't totally freaked out by those movies. I'm sure there are more. Then I remember that my favorite movie growing up was The Neverending Story, which is pretty darn creepy.

Anyway, I found this Mary Poppins mashup on YouTube and then found some other pretty good ones so I thought I'd share.

more

i found some more pictures. here they are:

the obligatory picture of eli eating fried cheese
it happens every time.

this is jess hiring dan and them both questioning the decision

i got some of this. yum.and some of this.

The calendar is 12 little sheets with the calendar info on one side and just the design (suitable for framing!) on the other side. It's little and perfect.

There are no pictures of Crissa or Alex and only one of Dan. Sorry guys. Maybe you should do more fun things that I want to take pictures of.

overdue

These are the pictures from my most recent jaunt to Chicagoland.

The first order of business when I got to Jess's was Thai food.
If you know me at all, you'll know the excitement I felt when the waitress kept putting down little dishes full of condiments. It was a joyful moment.

Jess and my phoneAfter sharing a big plate of fried stuff, Jess said "do you want to go see the tiny cemetary?" I thought this was just some sort of display in front of a gravestone store but they were real graves. Some of them were from the 1800'sgraves in a strip mall
a whole new level of suburbia

we went to ikea for a new comforter
Jess found this chair which was both rocky and bouncy

i made her bounce even though a lady was watchingi also got some alarm clocks (all of which I ended up giving away)
and some glogg, which I left at Crissa's

we went into the city to find something to do and we found the cookie monster
we also found bryan (definitely fun)
we talked about starbucks and then he suggested the art salethis is what i got at the art salethe one that says magic has letter-pressed reindeer, they're fun

I also got these. They were 5 for $1. Eli got one and so did Crissa.
We even got a free tiny paper crane.

Bryan got some scarves. I was nice enough to model one for him on the cold walk back to the car. He was nice enough to model one for himself and ask me to take his picture because checking himself out in the windows wasn't good enough. He's one of the funniest people I only kind of know.

my friends are smart

Sometimes I'm really excited about who my friends are. This post by Yudai made me really proud to be friends with someone so intelligent and insightful. He wrote this after a recent visit to Hiroshima. Hopefully he's okay with me reposting it.

The justification of nuclear weapons as deterrent of war is flawed and outdated. First and foremost, the indiscriminate nature of nuclear weapons makes them illegal, especially when targeted at cities and children (because international law provides that blood of children should not be spilled ie: children should not be used as tools of war). Second, with the amount of nuclear weapons in the world, Mutually Assured Destruction between two warring states would go beyond the two and definitely have the potential of destroying the whole human race (through nuclear winters, black rain, radiation etc.) So the term "Mutually Assured Destruction" is more accurately, "The Complete and Utter, Indiscriminate Destruction of Everyone and Everything on Planet Earth." Third, the proliferation of nuclear weapons does not actually reduce the risk of war, it only guarantees the maximum amount of destruction and suffering when one does occur. Look at the results of North Korea's A-bomb test in October...it almost caused a war. It definitely did not make the world a safer, more stable, more peaceful place.

The ice age, stone age, bronze age, industrial revolution, and not the modern age of computers and electronics and nuclear weapons. Modern? Hmmm...Aren't we just doing the same things that we've been doing for eons and eons, just with bigger, prettier weapons? Modernity should include justice and peace, diplomacy and communication; an era where war is as obsolete as one of these:

Because, after all, wouldn't PEACE be the ULTIMATE deterrent of war?

He's so right. Can you imagine how impossible it would be to see war as a solution to a problem if we truly knew peace?