In the last month or so, I've heard this song on the radio a lot. It's got some really interesting contradictions in it, which makes me like it more. I like the sentiment of it - I can do better, I've been wrong, help me get out of this, show me where to go so I can move on, getting closer to perfection.
But it also has some things that go a little against the grain: "I'll pay any cost to keep me from being confused." In a sense, because Christ died, He already paid the cost, or the price, to keep every person on earth from being confused. But at the same time, we, as mere mortals, have to be willing to give up our sins to know Him better, to become more like Him. We have to want to know what we're looking for before we will find it, and we have to be willing to follow the path once we're shown the way.
But the song does have a point - that we are saved only in Christ, but that He can help us change, to become more than what we are, until we are beautiful lilies in the field, sunlight on the water, angels on earth. We just have to be willing to let Him help us...to look to Him to 'show us what we're looking for.'
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Thing I and Thing II
If you missed the Seuss reference, shame on you!
More things about me, that you may never have learnt:
1. I don't own hairspray
2. I like to paint even though I'm not good at it.
3. I adore growing melons. A few years back, I had this awesome internship, and I got to live at home and grow melons in my spare time. The first thing I did when I got home from work every day was to put my bag down, toss my shoes in the closet, shuffle into my gardening sandals, and run outside to see what new little leaf, curling tendril, or blossom flowerlet had emerged. You'd think that not much could change in a day, right? WRONG. One day I went out there, and everything was fine. I was growing these wee cucumber plants that were ever so cute. Anyway, one day I went out there to check on two little cucumber plants that were about 3" high and seemed to be doing well. They were fine. The next day, I went out, and lo and behold, one of the plants was GONE. Disappeared. Poof! I didn't pick it, the dog didn't eat it, and the other plant was just fine. Did ants eat it? Did some obnoxious quail take it as nesting material? Whatever the reason, I was nearly distraught and had to be comforted by my mom. I care a lot about my wee plantlets. Don't MESS with them! Or you'll...you'll....I'll...put a cage on your head so you can't eat them anymore. I'll make it a lead cage, too, just in case you're Superman.
More things about me, that you may never have learnt:
1. I don't own hairspray
2. I like to paint even though I'm not good at it.
3. I adore growing melons. A few years back, I had this awesome internship, and I got to live at home and grow melons in my spare time. The first thing I did when I got home from work every day was to put my bag down, toss my shoes in the closet, shuffle into my gardening sandals, and run outside to see what new little leaf, curling tendril, or blossom flowerlet had emerged. You'd think that not much could change in a day, right? WRONG. One day I went out there, and everything was fine. I was growing these wee cucumber plants that were ever so cute. Anyway, one day I went out there to check on two little cucumber plants that were about 3" high and seemed to be doing well. They were fine. The next day, I went out, and lo and behold, one of the plants was GONE. Disappeared. Poof! I didn't pick it, the dog didn't eat it, and the other plant was just fine. Did ants eat it? Did some obnoxious quail take it as nesting material? Whatever the reason, I was nearly distraught and had to be comforted by my mom. I care a lot about my wee plantlets. Don't MESS with them! Or you'll...you'll....I'll...put a cage on your head so you can't eat them anymore. I'll make it a lead cage, too, just in case you're Superman.
Things about Me
For those of you who missed my facebook note:
1. I used to be hot pink personified. Now I'm more an earthy brown.
2. I secretly would like to write songs for a living. Or books. Or blogs. Or anything...as long as it involves writing.
3. I have a hug timer. When I need a hug, I say, "ding!" and expect the nearest loved one to hug me. My fuel is hugs.
4. My boss is my favorite thing about my current job.
5. I never thought I would end up living in LA. Ever. But I live here now. Have for awhile...not sure when I'll be leaving, either.
6. Samwise Gamgee is my literary hero. Because he took the ring at the end and gave it back. Because he stayed behind to deal with the pain, when Frodo went into the West. Because he loved Rosie enough to want to stay with her. Because he was the truest friend that one could ever ask for. I aspire to be like him.
7. I will do all the dishes you want, but please do not ask me to take out the trash.
8. I love each member of my family. All ten of them. Plus the dog. :) I spent all my vacation days visiting them last year. That's true love. A lot of it... 25 days.
9. I tried to make an alphabet with names of medical conditions I've been diagnosed with. I was four letters short of making a book, but I had several duplicates.
10. I learned the guitar as an excuse to sing.
11. I didn't eat salad dressing until I was 21. I still only rarely eat it.
12. I only drink fresh-squeezed orange juice. We're talking, I had to see you squeeze it or squeeze it myself in order for it to count. That's fresh.
13. I am good in a kitchen but I can't cook.
14. I have a $300 pair of designer prescription sunglasses.
15. When I was a kid I hated nothing worse than washing celery, wearing sunscreen, and wearing hats. Now I voluntarily do the latter two. But I still hate washing celery.
16. My dowry is not cows, or $, but a 150+ collection of hardback children's books. So I can read to my kids someday. If I'm lucky enough to have any, that is.
17. I do not like to move. I stayed in the same apartment for two years as an undergrad, and another apartment for both years I was in graduate school. I crave stability, something which LA and being single do not offer.
18. I'm double-jointed. That means I can bend my fingers more than halfway back, loop my thumb under the knuckle of my index finger, and touch my elbows behind my back. It also means I'm in a lot of pain due to several neck injuries.
19. I love to go to the zoo. And museums. I'm one of those people who says, "Did you know..." and rattles off more facts about giraffes, snakes, and frogs than you would ever possibly want to know.
20. I have more art than will fit on my walls.
21. I wish I knew how to do back hand springs. Really. A lot. It's one of the things that I will always regret not learning how to do.
22. When I was a kid, I wanted them to remake Anne of Green Gables and cast me as Anne. I still do wish that, sometimes....
23. My favorite food is hamburgers. With pickles. Cannot forget the pickles! NO sweet pickle relish though. Or sweet pickles at all. Sicky!
24. I have made a concerted effort to become a more tolerant person.
25. There are angels in Los Angeles. I know. I haven't seen any, but because of my experiences with losing and finding guitars, people picking up my phone, and my perfect near-brush of death due to a garbage truck that they are real, and that they watch over me.
1. I used to be hot pink personified. Now I'm more an earthy brown.
2. I secretly would like to write songs for a living. Or books. Or blogs. Or anything...as long as it involves writing.
3. I have a hug timer. When I need a hug, I say, "ding!" and expect the nearest loved one to hug me. My fuel is hugs.
4. My boss is my favorite thing about my current job.
5. I never thought I would end up living in LA. Ever. But I live here now. Have for awhile...not sure when I'll be leaving, either.
6. Samwise Gamgee is my literary hero. Because he took the ring at the end and gave it back. Because he stayed behind to deal with the pain, when Frodo went into the West. Because he loved Rosie enough to want to stay with her. Because he was the truest friend that one could ever ask for. I aspire to be like him.
7. I will do all the dishes you want, but please do not ask me to take out the trash.
8. I love each member of my family. All ten of them. Plus the dog. :) I spent all my vacation days visiting them last year. That's true love. A lot of it... 25 days.
9. I tried to make an alphabet with names of medical conditions I've been diagnosed with. I was four letters short of making a book, but I had several duplicates.
10. I learned the guitar as an excuse to sing.
11. I didn't eat salad dressing until I was 21. I still only rarely eat it.
12. I only drink fresh-squeezed orange juice. We're talking, I had to see you squeeze it or squeeze it myself in order for it to count. That's fresh.
13. I am good in a kitchen but I can't cook.
14. I have a $300 pair of designer prescription sunglasses.
15. When I was a kid I hated nothing worse than washing celery, wearing sunscreen, and wearing hats. Now I voluntarily do the latter two. But I still hate washing celery.
16. My dowry is not cows, or $, but a 150+ collection of hardback children's books. So I can read to my kids someday. If I'm lucky enough to have any, that is.
17. I do not like to move. I stayed in the same apartment for two years as an undergrad, and another apartment for both years I was in graduate school. I crave stability, something which LA and being single do not offer.
18. I'm double-jointed. That means I can bend my fingers more than halfway back, loop my thumb under the knuckle of my index finger, and touch my elbows behind my back. It also means I'm in a lot of pain due to several neck injuries.
19. I love to go to the zoo. And museums. I'm one of those people who says, "Did you know..." and rattles off more facts about giraffes, snakes, and frogs than you would ever possibly want to know.
20. I have more art than will fit on my walls.
21. I wish I knew how to do back hand springs. Really. A lot. It's one of the things that I will always regret not learning how to do.
22. When I was a kid, I wanted them to remake Anne of Green Gables and cast me as Anne. I still do wish that, sometimes....
23. My favorite food is hamburgers. With pickles. Cannot forget the pickles! NO sweet pickle relish though. Or sweet pickles at all. Sicky!
24. I have made a concerted effort to become a more tolerant person.
25. There are angels in Los Angeles. I know. I haven't seen any, but because of my experiences with losing and finding guitars, people picking up my phone, and my perfect near-brush of death due to a garbage truck that they are real, and that they watch over me.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
A Photo's Worth a Thousand Words:
Or several thousand dollars.
Check it out!
To get this beauty of a car, I went through a rather traumatic process, which included traffic on the 5, dealings with the Russian Mafia of car salesmen, and several hours of rather grueling research.
Now all I have to do is get my rotten-in-the-state-of-Denmark insurance agent to call me back to make sure this baby blue is covered to the maxx!
I woke up at 7 this morning to (a) make sure it was still there (b) make sure it had no 'dings' in it and (c) make sure that the sprinklers hadn't ruined my carwash.
The 5 trip wasn't so bad. I only felt bad because my friend Kimmy was taking me to the dealership, and she had something to go to later, so I am afraid she was rather late.
The Russian Mafia, on the other hand....grrr. I went to check out a 2010 Ford Fusion (if you don't know what they look like you can check them out by going here. I liked my car salesman - very genial sort of fellow. Tried to be understanding, and all that. I went in, and I wanted a blue car. Those of you who know me know that I really like blue.
I wish I had a picture of him. His name was purportedly Alex. All his teeth were caps, unnaturally white. You could tell he was a smoker (I don't have anything against smokers, just their smoke/smell), and all the back teeth had gold caps on them. He had bear-greased hair cut in a very severe style and the accent to go with it. He looked very...Russian.
My salesman was fine. Then Alex, the numbers guy, came out, and gave me a sheet of paper. I immediately stiffened. I react very strongly to people and this guy did not bring warm fuzzies to my gut - in fact, he generated the exact opposite response. I did not want to be within ten feet of this guy, much less shake his hand to meet him. Keep in mind that the sticker price on the car was $21,599 or something. He says, okay, you qualify for the 0 down 0.0% financing. I say, sure, let's see what the payments would be. He shows me the paper and one eyebrow just went up. I figured I could figure it out - I got out my cell phone: $869.00 x 36 = $31,284.
I'd been up since 6 that morning (on a Saturday? Me? UNHEARD OF!), so granted, I was a little tired. But not tired enough to pay $10,000 above sticker price!!! I just looked at him and said, "Do you really think I'm that stupid?" to which he had no reply. He said, well, that's the numbers, and I just showed the phone to my salesman and started to laugh almost uncontrollably. Seriously, that Alex character will ruin it for poor Todd every time. By the way, they're just asking for a lawsuit, in my book...
So I tried to leave. That didn't work so well. They sent guy after guy to come talk to me, saying, what can we do to earn your business TODAY? I said, absolutely nothing, when I woke up this morning I knew I was not going to buy a car. They pushed and pushed, but to no avail. The final straw was that I'd parked my car in the service lot unwittingly and I couldn't leave...I had to come back and get one of the guys to open the gate for me.
On the other hand, I was in and out of the dealer yesterday in a little under two hours...test drive included, with the computer down. That's pretty good. And they didn't even try to sell me any extras. Yay for Commerce Hyundai!
[Up] the Hill and Far Away
About a month and a half ago (yes, I'm in a time warp), I took a trip with a couple girlfriends to the J. Paul Getty museum. It looks like this:
but that's not the view I know and love. I couldn't find a photo and I've never taken any. :(
Regardless, I actually have seen very few things INSIDE the museum, as I always end up just taking a walk around the grounds and looking at the flowers.
He
re are a few photos I took:Above, please note the soft red against the pale green. What a stunning combination. I should wear green more often, I think...
Above: I've never seen an orange cactus before.
I think the main reason I took it was for the fuzzy things in the centre of the picture, but I can't exactly remember how they looked close up right now.
To the right:
the solitary beauty stands aloof
her soft pink inner shell unrivaled
tall and slender, there, she models
setting her body lines just so
exploiting the background, light,
turning so her perfect blush
draws the eye, invites a smile
she'll raise one eyebrow in a moment
querying, to test the admirers of her display...
this one will always want attention
Here's little ol' me. Back when my hair was a smidge longer. Ah, there is my beloved Yankees cap. Remember, I am a pre-A-Rod Yank fan. Now, anybody b
ut the Red Sox winning it all is just fine.Below: "Girl Watching Water"
It's an inside joke, so please don't ask. But I will tell anyway: We'd just seen all these pictures, and when we came out and saw the fountain, I thought, wow, I could be in one of those pictures, you know, from behind, a girl laying on the pavement, watching the spray of water as it endlessly shoots . If you bend down far enough it looks like one stream of water is shooting over, making a wee tunnel of sorts. Anyway, so I could imagine an impressionist painting of me, wearing a skirt, with my legs bent at the knee, calves crossed, watching the water. Of course this is not what it would look like, it just looks like me being silly at the Getty. But there really was a purpose behind it!
Oh, the indulgences we grant ourselves....
And on that happy note,
'til next time!
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