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The justification of nuclear weapons as deterrent of war is flawed and outdated.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?

civil war?

Yesterday NBC made the fairly inevitable decision to begin calling the Iraq situation an official Civil War. Frankly I'm not sure how it has taken this long for someone to make this call. President Bush has remained firm that it's not a civil war, however common sense definitions indicate that it's fairly obvious that the situation collapsed into civil war several thousand deaths ago.

Here's what Wikipedia says:

"A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight for political power or control of an area. Political scientists use two criteria: the warring groups must be from the same country and fighting for control of the political center, control over a separatist state or to force a major change in policy. The second criteria is that at least 1,000 people must have been killed in total, with at least 100 from each side."

Fairly obvious?

Tony Snow seemed to think it was fairly obvious that it can't be called a civil war when he spoke to the press yesterday. According to him, a civil war is "where people break up into clearly identifiable feuding sides clashing for supremacy in a land." Thanks for clearing that up Tony...obviously you and the President have it right...that's not what's happening in Iraq...

The issue is obviously a lot more complicated. How do you calculate the impact of America's involvement in the situation? I can't help but feel that our sloppy war tactics forced these people into a certain degree of desperation that could lead to a huge increase in violent outcry. I also get a little panicky thinking that there's nowhere to go from here except chaos and although I would love for our troops to come home, how horrible would it be for us to drive them into war with each other and then back out. Let's ask Somalia how that worked out.

I guess in the end all of this "civil war" mumbo jumbo doesn't really make much of a difference. We can continue calling it "sectarian violence" for as long as we like and in the end it's just semantics. People are still killing each other. We are still failing to bring peace. It's still really sad. I wonder how much peace we could bring if we redirected the millions of dollars being spent every day on this war away from military spending and put more of it toward meeting the real needs of the Iraqi's. Millions of dollars. Every day. $6 Billion every month. Do you know how many goats you could buy for World Vision with that money?! LOTS!

World AIDS Day

December 1st (Friday) is World AIDS Day. Awareness is a really powerful tool that we have in the fight against this pandemic and World AIDS Day is a good excuse to brush up on your knowledge of the disease and what you can do to help out. World Vision put together a list of 12 things you can do (action steps!) to join the fight.

Number one on the list is a quiz to test your knowledge of the disease.
I got 9 right. Now it's your turn!

I'd really encourage you to check out the list and see what you can do. Most of the options don't require money or even a lot of time, just a little awareness. They also have a lot of holiday gift ideas that will have a real long term impact on people and families all over the world. I mean seriously, why would you not give someone a goat on behalf of your brother who is impossible to shop for?!

dticd

Remember a while ago when I got to go to Iowa City and hang out with Cate for DTICD (Downtown Iowa City Day)? Here are the pictures. Yes, there are only 3.

We checked out the bead store and I got this one. It's clear but from the sides you can see that the edges are green. It's pretty neat. I think I'm just going to hang it from clear jewelery wire but I haven't gotten any yet.

We wandered around downtown and checked out the cool stores, stopped by Starbucks to get my markout for Cate (she chose a box of Wild Sweet Orange Tea) then headed to Old Chicago. We got the usual (pepperoni rolls and chicken alfredo pizza) then went to Stranger Than Fiction.

Cate calculating the tip

Getting caught taking her picture

captain random

i thought i should dump a couple pictures i found on my camera before posting anything for real. here you go:

this is why my room got a little update- holes in my sheets
it was really sad because they were really great sheets
chocolate covered potato chips that luke and i tried out
they weren't bad. the salty/sweet thing was definitely going on.
the kids next door made a snowman when we got some snow a couple weeks ago. it was the first snow so there were leaves all over him. he was melted the next day and there was just a wet scarf in the yard. it was sad...but really cute.
ok i think that's all of the random ones.
peace out.

hi there.

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. Life has been pretty full these past couple weeks. I got to go to Chicagoland for a few days right before Thanksgiving which was really really good. I didn't take enough pictures (what was i thinking?!) but I'll post the ones I have as soon as I get my camera out of the abyss of my car. I had to work on Thanksgiving. I was supposed to open and then be done around noon, in plenty of time to have Thanksgiving with my family but instead I covered for someone who was scheduled wrong so I totally missed family time. I know I'll get to see everyone at Christmas time but it was a little weird to completely pass over Thanksgiving. When I got home everyone was gone and my parents were napping so I microwaved some sweet potatoes and pouted...but only for a few minutes because i had to go to bed immediately to be at work by 4am for "early morning shoppers" of which there were approximately 5. Ok enough with the pity party, I love my job and was happy to help out when needed and I'm glad I got to eat sweet potatoes. Oh and the funny story of the year is that my cousin walked into the wrong house on Thanksgiving. He looked around, didn't recognize anyone, got confused, turned around and left. Pretty funny.

Now between work shifts I'm filling out paperwork, getting a new birth certificate and a replacement social security card, filling out immigration forms and sending packages to Kate with last minute "America" stuff before I won't be able to anymore. I'm really thankful to be living at home during all of this because the little things that could potentially stress me out (or at least just annoy me) are just taken care of. When my printer is out of ink I can just run to the basement for a new one, there are always stamps and envelopes, sometimes my laundry is even finished for me and waiting by the stairs when I abandoned it in the dryer after grabbing clean work pants and running out the door (after I put them on). Pretty nice.

Ok that's all for this sad excuse for a blog. I'll make it up to you, I promise.

an open letter to eli l. steenlage

that's all.

i've gone global

uh, hello?! did anyone notice that FINALLY someone in AFRICA, land of my HEART has read my blog?! woohoo!! I think it might have been Kate (that dot is totally in Mozambique) but still! Now someone on every continent has been to my blog. I'm so famous it's not even funny.


PS who are all these other dots? I definitely don't know all of those west coast dots...or the east coast ones for that matter. well anyway, welcome dots. er, bienvenue...les...dots...or something.

spending money like a champ

so...i've been buying stuff. and feeling guilty about it. it's been a long long time since i've had a regular paycheck and now that i have an income i'm becoming more liberal with my spending. that's what we'll call it. liberal spending. to my defense, i'm still a total tightwad. i haven't bought anything without some sort of discount or intense online research so in my head that gives me permission to shell out for some cool stuff. i still really hate accumulating things and it's hard for me to justify spending money and raising support at the same time so it's about time to put a lid on it. but really most of the things i bought are things that are long overdue for replacement (flip flop season is over, i've been using the same wallet since i stole it from mary-claire in high school, etc.). so there's my justification. thank you for playing along, now look how cool:

cute, right? eight bucks and in my size. come on!

the queen bee bag i've been dreaming of for YEARS

finally an fm transmitter/charger that works and isn't designed by an idiot!

that's pretty much it. there may have been some stationery (only a little!) and a book or two (just the ones that the library doesn't have!) and some new sheets (the old ones had holes...come on) and a matching pillow (so i'm a sucker for stripes) but that's pretty much it. seriously.

spitting cobra

this is what kate found in the bathroom in the middle of the night.

i'm almost done

i try not to be too political on this blog because about 80% of the people in my life disagree with my politics and most of the rest just don't care. i just needed to share some funny election-related internet stuff just in case you have a sense of humor about the situation. i'm not even going to talk about how the president told the press corps today that he lies to them to make them shut up. at least this year no one at my job said "burn her at the stake" when i told them how i voted.




ps- as i'm writing this, stephen colbert and john hall are harmonizing the national anthem like nobody's business. you should be looking it up on youtube.

good news i couldn't even have voted for

Peace out Donald.

no news links yet (except ones that say Rumsfeld shows no indication of stepping down) to show you because the press conference just started. now i have to leave and go to work with an extra spring in my step.

seriously. go. right now.

would i have made that picture this big if i wasn't serious about this?

this is a problem

this isn't even a liberal rant, this is just sad.

Army Recruiters Accused of Misleading Students to Get Them to Enlist

Nov. 3, 2006 — An ABC News undercover investigation showed Army recruiters telling students that the war in Iraq was over, in an effort to get them to enlist.

ABC News and New York affiliate WABC equipped students with hidden video cameras before they visited 10 Army recruitment offices in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

"Nobody is going over to Iraq anymore?" one student asks a recruiter.

"No, we're bringing people back," he replies.

"We're not at war. War ended a long time ago," another recruiter says.

Last year, the Army suspended recruiting nationwide to retrain recruiters following hundreds of allegations of improprieties.

One Colorado student taped a recruiting session posing as a drug-addicted dropout.

"You mean I'm not going to get in trouble?" the student asked.

The recruiters told him no, and helped him cheat to sign up.

During the ABC News sessions, some recruiters told our students if they enlisted, there would be little chance they'd to go Iraq.

But Col. Robert Manning, who is in charge of U.S. Army recruiting for the entire Northeast, said that new recruits were likely to go to Iraq.

"I would not disagree with that," Manning said. "We are a nation and Army at war still."

Manning looked at the ABC News video of his recruiters.

"It's hard to believe some of things they are telling prospective applicants," Manning said. "I still believe that this is the exception more than the norm. … I've visited many stations myself, and I know that we have many wonderful Americans serving in uniform as recruiters."

Yet ABC News found one recruiter who even claimed if you didn't like the Army, you could just quit.

"It's called a 'Failure to Adapt' discharge," the recruiter said. "It's an entry-level discharge so it won't affect anything on your record. It'll just be like it never happened."

Manning, however, disagrees with the ease the recruiter describes.

"I would believe it's not as easy as he would lead you to believe it is," he said.

Sue Niederer, whose son, Seth, joined the Army in 2002, said she was all too familiar with recruiters' lies.

"They need to do anything they possibly can to get recruits," Niederer said.

Seth was sent to Iraq and was killed by a roadside bomb.

Niederer said she was not surprised by what ABC News had found. She believes it's still a widespread problem. She said that recruiters told Seth he wouldn't be put into combat.

"Ninety percent [are] going to be putting their lives on the line for our country," she said. "Tell them the truth. That's all. Just tell them the truth."

Link

i'd really like more symmetry

This is what my blog looks like as a graph. I won't pretend to have any idea what it all means but it was pretty cool watching it create itself. I bet Chris Zinkula knows what it means. Click here to get one of your own or try out some other sites. So far the coolest I've seen is for BoingBoing.net. Try it out!

now if i just had blogger beta....

a few months ago my computer freaked out while i was doing some template stuff on this blog and it deleted all of my links. it was a horrific day because just a couple weeks before that i accidentally deleted all of my saved bookmarks as well. i remembered a lot of it but there are still a lot of cool things that i bookmarked that i will probably never find again. all in all it was a good lesson because i never would have admitted or really even realized how addicted i am to the internet and collecting cool internet stuff until it was all gone.

then, joy of joys, while i was cleaning up the basement before main event i came across a piece of paper with my handwriting all over it. turns out it was the scrap of paper i scribbled a ton of links on the first time i decided to put them all up on my blog so LUCKY YOU my links section is back up and running. the paper also had a bunch of other stuff on it, like Ben's(?) phone number and several to-do lists. i deciphered that the paper must have been right before new year's last year because there's a bunch of "before chicago" type stuff on it, like "look up train schedules" (which i never actually do), "look up good ethnic food" (which is dumb because the best places are the ones that won't be on the internet), "borrow socks" (your guess is as good as mine).

another quirk i have (a tangent to the list-making tendency) is that the night before a busy day i often make a detailed list of what to do in the morning. i think that in my head it makes sense to organize how to be as efficient as possible down to an excruciating level of detail. for instance part of this list is "wake up, shower, breakfast, dry hair, brush teeth" and it's in that order so that my hair starts drying while i eat and i wait to brush my teeth until after i dry my hair because it's annoying to brush my teeth immediately after i eat because of the residual cereal gunk in my teeth that will just end up in my toothbrush if i don't wait a few minutes. i don't know why i can't just have a routine without having a thought out reason and written order to how things are done. you don't even want to know what that list looks like if my car needs to be cleaned out or if there's laundry to be done. there are usually several drafts.

wow, i'm crazy.

sorry, i just can't help it

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:30am

2. Diamonds or Pearls? diamonds. although not if it's a conflict diamond
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Marie Antoinette
4. What is your favorite TV show? Globe Trekker, The Office, anything on the Travel Channel, Arrested Development
5. What did you have for breakfast? a granola bar and lots of coffee
6. What is your middle name? Jo
7. What is your favorite Cuisine? anything ethnic, Thai, Japanese, Mexican
8. What foods do you dislike? lots of meat, pizza hut, processed foods
9. What is your favorite potato chip? i don't really like potato chips. but i do like sun chips
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? the new Decemberists and my mixtape from Yudai
11. What kind of car do you drive? 2003 Oldsmobile Alero

12. Favorite Sandwich? anything you can make into a panini, with pesto and lots of vegetables
13. What characteristics do you despise? selfishness, arrogance, ignorance
14. What are your favorite clothes? pajama pants or skirts
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? Mozambique to see Kate, or Japan, or Arizona/California. Basically the far away places where my friends live.
16. What color are your eyes? Hazel
17. Favorite brand of clothing? anything basic like Banana Republic or Gap, although I only wear free T-shirts, pajama pants and work clothes
18. Where would you want to retire? Africa...or maybe Colorado
19. Favorite time of day? morning usually
20. Where were you born? Waterloo, Iowa
21. What is your favorite sport to watch? Swimming or Baseball
22. Who do you think will not send this back? probably you
23. Person you expect to send it back first? blah blah blah
24. Pepsi or Coke? Pepsi
25. Cats or Dogs? both, but probably dogs
26. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Usually a night owl, but usually accidentally.
27. Pedicure or manicure? I've had a pedicure once. It was okay.
28. Do you prefer funny or mushy cards? I prefer blank ones that are pretty
29. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with everyone? umm...no
30. What did you want to be when you were little? a marine biologist
31. What do you have in your trunk right now? (it's funny if you accidentally read the previous answer in response to this question) an african mat, some yarn, a can of red spray paint and some sparklers
32. What is your best childhood memory? riding bikes to buy gum, anything at my dad's house or with my brothers
33. What are the different jobs you have had in your life? Hy-Vee, Burge, day care, Hollywood Video, Hallmark, the dealership, Naomi's Kitchen, Starbucks, lots and lots and lots of babysitting
34. Favorite Holiday? Flag Day
35. What is your favorite dessert? chocolate cake, or anything warm with ice cream on top, like peach cobbler or a brownie
36. Favorite Summer getaway? Minnesota or Lake Michigan
37. Ever been to Africa? Yes!
38. Glasses or Contacts? Glasses, but only because I ran out of contacts. I hate them.
39. Ever been toilet papering? of course
40. Been in a car accident? a couple
41. Favorite day of the week? thursday or friday
42. Favorite restaurant? here it's Rudy's, in Iowa City it's Baldy's
43. Favorite flower? I have really liked hydrangeas this year
44. Favorite movies? Royal Tenenbaums right now
45. Favorite Pastime? um, email surveys, duh
46. Favorite ice cream? Phish Food, or mint chip
47. Favorite fast food restaurant? ick. Subway?
48. How many times did you fail your drivers test? none!
49. From whom did you get your last email? Sojourners
50. Sandals or tennis shoes? sandals
51. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? any book or cd store
52. If the speed limit is 60 what is the fastest you will drive? 68
53. Bedtime? I can't seem to fall asleep before midnight
54. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? you
55. Last person you went to dinner with? i just had lunch with my stepmom and sister in law. dinner was the work meeting last night at brown bottle

56. What are you listening to right now? whatever Pandora is playing...right now it's Iron & Wine
57. What is your favorite color? blue. and brown lately
58. How may tattoos do you have? one
59. How many people are you sending this Email to? I'll probably just blog it.
60. What time did you finish this email? 10:50pm

homesick

Sometimes I just want to go home. I just want to be done and go to heaven. I feel selfish (and extremely un-spiritual) for feeling this way. I know that it's mostly the cold and gloomy weather and the fact that life seems to be taking longer but going by more quickly. I know that the chemicals in my brain have a hard time figuring out that I am a person who is blessed and provided for and that I should be happy and joyful and easily entertained. Things just seem hard sometimes and I feel especially like I'm in a place far away from the place I was made for. Nothing in particular. Nothing that can be fixed. Nothing that will go away any time soon.

On an entirely different note (and another reason that I shouldn't be so whiny) - I had a really fun work day today. I've gotten to know some coworkers and working is more fun now because I feel more comfortable and can carry on easy conversations with the people I'm there with. I'm officially a certified Barista as of today, we got out the stuff for the Christmas drinks (red sprinkles! yay!), and I was voted "Partner of the Month" even though I've barely even been there for a month. Oh and I had a fun talk with a customer about music and ran out to my car to get the Decemberists CD for him to listen to. Turns out he was having a one on one with someone ("someone" being the funny guy at Main Event- who walked in during the Decemberists conversation and marched...yes, marched around singing 16 Military Wives) and they sat in the store reading the Bible and praying together (a sweet thing to see at work).

See? I'm blessed. I've also come to an important realization lately that is significant if you know me really well. I have this...we'll call it a quirk...where I need everyone to like me. I really like being the favorite. I don't really like a lot of attention and it's not that I think I'm great, I just want you to like me. I don't know why. It's a weird sinful tendency. Well getting a new job and therefore meeting lots of different people all at the same time has made me realize that sometimes I have to sacrifice being liked by everyone in order to be true to who I am. A couple of challenging situations have come up that have brought to my attention that my difficulty in saying "no" to people has caused me to sacrifice my integrity and my personality. It's nothing huge- just realizing that it's okay to choose which topics of conversation or social outings to be a part of even if it means people think I'm a snob. If you're thinking to yourself, "Shouldn't she have learned this lesson in 6th grade?" the answer is Yes. I would go into more detail if my little brother didn't read this.

cedar falls humor

i'm still not used to living in "the jesus bubble" that is cedar falls, iowa. yesterday at work two guys came in and while the first one was rattling off his complicated order the other one was asking me how to order his drink the way we call it to make it easy on us. I explained that we would call it a "triple grande 2 pump vanilla 2 pump toffee nut soy no foam with whip latte," to which he replied to himself, "that's harder than memorizing isaiah 58." I laughed and said "shout it aloud, do not hold back." we had a pretty good chuckle.

the people at work thought it was weird that i had memorized scripture so i explained to them that the same person who taught me the value of memorizing scripture is the one who taught me the importance of being silly in the drive thru.

and on that note, i started keeping a tally of the people who say "hi angie" back to me in the drive thru speaker and i'm pleasantly surprised that it's often above 50%. the average drops drastically when i tell the customer who else is there, for instance "good morning this is angie, chase, alison and kate what can we get started for you?" but they usually say "well hi everyone." so that's good enough.

funny cards

i love letterpress stationery. while i was perusing some stationery and design websites i found these hilarious cards. things that are beautiful and well made but aren't to be taken too seriously are among my favorite things. i can't imagine how hard i would laugh if i opened up my mail and had one of these waiting for me.





they also come in "what did i ever see in you?" and "you just suck the life out of me" and can be found here.

the obligatory main event post

First of all, I need to mention that right now I'm using the Firefox v.2 update and loving it. The coolest part is that there's an inline spell checking feature which means that no matter where you're typing it lets you know if you've mis-spelled something immediately. Great idea. Love Firefox. Anyway...Main Event.

Main Event was awesome. I got to spend some sweet time with some really great people. I got dinner with DeeDee and Kari and sat with them during the sessions. It was so good to share that worship time with them, as well as try and figure out what boys talked about before Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Kyle and Jennifer (Jen was in my growth group and then we met one on one after that for a couple years. She and Kyle got married almost a year ago and have been raising support for their first year of marriage) stayed at my house so we had some really great talks. They got to go up on stage and talk about going to Japan and share their hearts with the whole ME crew. They spoke some sweet truth ("Don't wait for a dramatic call from God - don't wait to be 100% sure you should go, I've never talked to anyone who was 100% sure.") and definitely got my "Amen." We got to talk about our hearts and how God is leading us and share things that have been encouraging to us along the way. I'm so thankful that those two are in my life. It felt really good to just talk about that stuff. It's definitely something I took for granted in Iowa City. I got to talk to (and pray with) Weaver- the representative from Africa Inland Mission (who has the coolest Africa stories EVER) and ran into some other high school/CF people - even a girl I work with at Starbucks! (btw- "Starbucks" is apparently not in the Firefox spelling dictionary...nor is "btw")

Oh and also about 25 girls slept in my basement. I invited Betsy and her girls and told her to invite whoever. It was super fun. I got to know some ladies I've seen around and done ministry with for years but never really talked to and nothing is better than late night silliness with Betsy Skat. Nothing.

evidence:
lots and lots of mini cereal boxes

rows of sleeping bags with a pathway to the bathroom

the shoe pileEveryone is always so grateful to be sleeping on my basement floor for a weekend which seems a little strange because there are very very few things I look forward to more than filling up my house once a year. Coming downstairs on Saturday morning and seeing every chair and place at the table taken by a college girl doing a quiet time is pretty sweet. It just fills up my heart. Betsy also made fun of my because I was so excited to do things like bake cupcakes and get breakfast ready. Washing towels and buying cereal seems like an unfair trade for filling up my house with laughter, community and spiritual hunger for a whole weekend. The fact that God set it up so that we can bless and be blessed at the same time is so great.

oh and they decorated a cupcake for me
with trix
amazing

my only football game of the year

well folks, it seems as if it's about time for an update. i'm trying not to be distracted by the daily show and the recipe for something called "mint chocolate volcano cakes" i just found. anyway.

last saturday (a long time ago) my nephew Cody got to play his last football game of the season in the dome on his birthday!! my dad called me to invite me (a pretty big deal) so i went to cheer him on (Cody, not my dad). it was so cute and a lot of fun. he turned 12 and i haven't gotten to see him in probably 3 years so it was really good. he made a really great play and they announced his name and said happy birthday. family stuff on that side is going shockingly well. we all seem to be consistently happy to see each other and even have things to talk about most of the time. it's really really nice. i took Samantha (Cody's sister) down to the front row so I could take some pictures and she saw lots of her friends from school. a few of them asked who I was and I really liked hearing her say, "That's my aunt!" in her cute little excited voice. I hope to hear it a lot more often...even if none of her friends are around and I just make her say it to me.

Sammy
(who looks exactly like her dad)

huddle

Cody is #50

fall is pretty

Fall is beautiful. I think it's pretty great that God made Fall to be such a beautiful time of the year. Who would have thought that a season when everything is dying and falling away would be nothing short of breathtaking. Pretty cool. Alisha and I took our dogs out to Hartman for a walk the other night. It was so pretty. Hartman is pretty great because it's mostly woods but then there's this big prairie area with 7 foot tall grasses an paths mowed out to wander around in. It's fun. The dogs love it (although my mom hates it because Riley comes home and needs a bath immediately).

Riley and Krypto

the dogs disappear for a while and then pop up out of nowherewe used to go on school field trips here. part of it was taking a walk blindfolded so that we would use our other senses to discover . we would have to hold on to this wire fence thing that would guide us to different spots in the woods. it's fun to go to hartman and see the wire i've blindly followed so many times.

Oh and Fall also brings MAIN EVENT! I love it. It'll be sad and weird this year because Cate won't be here but there will be quite a few other people in town and that'll be fun. Betsy is bringing her girls to stay at my house and Jen and Kyle are staying here too. DeeDee and her crew are staying at Kari's but it'll be fun to see them. The AIM rep that will be there this year is Keith Weaver who Kate and I got to know in New York. He's one of the coolest dudes I've ever met. He was the first AIM guy I met at Main Event 3 years ago who first told me about TIMO and (most importantly) prayed for me and my future right then and there. It was seriously life changing. It was a time in my life when I was completely overwhelmed and Weaver really represented God bringing himself into my heart to calm everything down. I was really excited for my family to get to meet him but my mom will be out of town (at Disneyworld with her sisters to be exact) so it might not work out. Weaver has some pretty awesome stories about living in Africa for like 30 years. He had a parrot that could say "Weaver come inside" in his wife's exact voice. One time a giraffe charged at his car and jumped over it! I can't wait to hear more Africa stories. I mean seriously, a giraffe jumped over his car.

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virtual bubble wrap

my friends are the coolest

I've gotten some fun mail lately. Usually the only excitement via post I expect is a packet of letters from Kate in Africa but the fellas have really been pulling through. I love mail. A lot. I would love nothing more than a pen pal if any of you are interested. I'm good at it, just so you know. Anyway. Tim was a little disappointed that I got a job at Starbucks because you know, it's selling out and everything. He threatened to make me a Sellout shirt but I only half believed he'd do it.

Well, he did.

I'm rather impressed. This shirt required a trip to Hobby Lobby and even the use of an iron. It's pretty darn great. The note enclosed in the package (written on a post office form of some sort) only said "I told you I'd do it," which was also pretty funny.

Surprise number 2? An international mixtape. Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ There's nothing cooler than getting mail and looking to see who it's from and not being able to read the language it's in. Pretty awesome. Yudai sent me this super fantastic CD full of Japanese delights. Yes, it came with a birthday card. No, it's nowhere near my birthday, but he knew that (which is also impressive). There's some pretty great J-pop and (as advertised) everything from rap to jazz to salsa. Love it. Thanks Yudai. ｍ（．＿．）ｍ

I was so excited and knew that only Holly could understand so I promptly text messaged her. She asked what was on it so here's the track listing.

Now I need to think of fun things to send back to them. I once offered to send Yudai some good Iowa food but the packaging concerns got the best of me. I wonder how far a tomato with a stamp on it would make it.

a lovely addiction

just found this new stationery brand. love it. love that it's called lovely. love vintage maps. couldn't be better. i'm still spending a lot of time at cavallini & co. and i still haven't found a day planner that i like more than the sukie one. there, now you have an update. still haven't purchased any new stationery since june. i get my first real paycheck tomorrow...uh oh.

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Extreme Drive Thru at McDonalds

no alex, it's not just a baby

Some people have pointless jobs that are a waste of time. Most of the time these jobs employ people who just need the money, which I'm completely fine with. Sometimes these occupations are filled by people who love what they do. Like what? Breeding tiny horses.

Why?

I have a feeling Alex would really get along with these people.

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and before you know it, the leaves have fallen

It seems like yesterday I was noticing that the leaves were starting to change. I didn't even get any good pictures of foliage. It's supposed to be super cold tonight. I can't wait to wake up and need an extra blanket. It's time for Sigur Ros. I read a great blog entry about their song "Hippipolla" today:

"When i hear this song i visualize Jesus coming back for some reason. It's so incredibly victorious. It's like Jesus has finally come back to bring his children to his side one last time ... to end suffering and disease and heartbreak and dissapointment forever. The death of death. And he wipes every tear from every eye. The orphans are no longer fatherless, the widows no longer desolate."

See now that's a guy who gets it. Very nice.

Oh and btw, I've really been loving working at Starbucks. There really is a sense of community there, it's great. I love seeing old couples come in and stay long after their cups are empty. I love feeling challenged to learn new things and I feel like I'm good at what I do. I love getting to know my co-workers and ask them fun questions. I love getting to read the New York Times every day. Today on the front page North Korea was described as "starving and friendless" and it cracked me up. I'm pretty sure the people I work with aren't quite ready for my real sense of humor (I'm easing them into it, don't worry) so I promptly called Alex. I also realized that I've successfully eased Alex into my sense of humor too because she totally played along when I started personifying Asian countries. I mean we feel bad that North Korea is starving and friendless but it's their own fault. Really South Korea has it worse because SK plays well with others but has to cut across NK's lawn in order to get to China and NK knows the whole time that they're together but didn't invite them. SK and China can't even play outside because NK would totally see them (and bomb them). Japan is just too cool to get involved and wants everyone to calm down and get along.

Yes...this is how my brain works.

Oh and yesterday when I was on my break I was really excited to buy the new Decemberists album and went to the mall and the Sam Goody was gone. It was some random t-shirt store now. It was so confusing because I was on the phone and walked into the store and turned around in at least 2 circles trying to figure out what happened and where all of the cd's were.

Okay. This post has been all over the place and it's time to just make it stop. Have a great night.