A True Story:

I work in a building that has elevator attendants. They push the button for your floor and make the door open and close. I don't know why the owner/manager of our building thinks it's a wise use of our rent money to employ at least 5 different people just to run the elevator, but apparently it's at the top of their priority list, above cleaning mold from the a/c ducts.

Anyways...now that the tangent is done. I stepped into the hallway and pressed the up button. A minute later someone else stepped into the hall and pressed the down button. The first elevator car came and it was going up. I stepped in; the other person wasn't paying attention but caught herself at the last minute. The elevator attendant's helpful word of advice, "Press the down button."

This person is a "Professional Elevator Operator." Either she has come across so many people that don't know how to operate elevator call button and has therefore lost all her faith in people's abilities to press the correct button - OR - this job is actually challenging for her and she thinks others need help figuring out this whole elevator thing.

Does anyone else see the comedy in the situation?

Do you donkey or elephant? WARNING: THIS IS SURE TO PISS PEOPLE OFF

Do people really know why they subscribe to a particular political party? I would say the majority do not. Warning: I will use sweeping generalizations for both sides...

Today at work a conversation began about politics. I'm often surprised by the number of republicans at work. I am a democrat and have often found that people in organizations that help others, like the place I work, tend to be democrats because the Democratic Party typically spends more money on helping others.

The other day Kevin and I were watching a documentary on Evangelicals. After watching that, I'm proud to say that I'm neither Republican nor Evangelical. Why? Why would a Christian be proud of being neither?

1. Definition of Evangelical: Evangelicals believe the Bible is infallible, believe in the trinity, and the authority and sovereignty of Jesus. I believe that too - BUT I think that too many Evangelicals have forgotten that Jesus said the two most important commands: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and the Second is like it Love your neighbor as yourself." Apparently for Evangelicals that means blowing up abortion clinics, legislating morality, protesting at the funerals of stars because they acted gay in a movie, etc. I can feel the love.

2. I am pro gay marriage. Why? Because GOD GIVES US FREE WILL. God doesn't smite homosexuals, but the Conservative Right doesn't grant the same freedoms God does. Hello? Regardless of if you think homosexuality is a sin or not -- we don't pick on other sins. Why do the conservatives start rallying over sinners like liars, the greedy, the hypocrites, etc?

3. While I'm not pro abortion, I am pro choice. Don't be confused. I personally will never have an abortion, and I pray that people will make wise choices both pre-sex and post. Again, if you refer to #2 I believe that God gives us free choice. I think He will hold us responsible for the atrocities we commit (Like murdering little babies), but he gives the choice to do it. Some would prefer that the government be more restrictive than JESUS. I don't think the government should legislate morality.

4. I have known and experienced poverty. (To clarify American poverty - which is still richer than 2/3 of the world.) I believe that because of our history as a people and our societal structure not everyone is given an equal chance and the government ought to support those that don't have the same opportunities.

5. Environment: People are generally stupid with resources. In 10 years if we just let people do what they want with the environment, we won't be able to breathe from carbon emissions, and the oxygen producers like trees will be gone, we'll be scorched by the uncontrollable sun beating down on us through our giant ozone holes, will have no clean water, will be overcome with garbage and waste, need I go on?

6. Taxes: a necessary evil. That pays for #s 4 & 5.

So, have we established that I’m a moderate Democrat?

So vote Obama. His wife doesn't do all his campaigning for him like Hillary and Bill. THE BIG PLUS: He's funded through grassroots efforts, not big money backing him like the oil companies (Hillary). He was the first candidate to mention supporting Africa and is proposing solutions to problems in a place that has been forgotten.

The point? Search things out for yourself. Research the candidates at: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/compare-candidates/index.html

A day in the life of me

3:30 am - wake up, steel covers back from Kevin & dodge being elbowed in the head (a tricky task)

4:30am - wake up, steel covers back from Kevin and Ellie by shoving ellie off my legs and dodge being elbowed in the head - again tricky

5:30am - alarm clock goes off, roll over, roll my eyes and try to figure out how to hit the snooze button

5:40am - reach to hit the snooze, can't figure it out, and turn off the alarm clock in stead.

6:00am - wake up to ellie begging to go out, freak out because I was supposed to wake up half an hour ago

6:05 am - quickly dress, and then add layer upon layer to go out into the bitter cold and wait for ellie to find the PERFECT FREAKING SPOT to pee and poo -- pick up the poo because I'm a good citizen and HATE! stepping in poo.

6:20am - finally get back inside - she takes forever! Rush to get ready

6:52am - run out the door, praying I didn't miss my bus. Have a minor panic attack thinking I left my phone at the house and then realize it's fallen to the bottom of my bag

6:54am - bus comes, get on. Look at no one, find a seat, and read In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. Realize that everything I blogged about yesterday just might be the will of God and I should shut my mouth and listen for the next step, not 15 steps down the road. Think about carrying a journal so I can right revelations like that down but get distracted by the crazy lady that talks to herself and laughs at people.

7:40am - arrive at the metro, fight the crowd to get on the train. I actually got a seat today - woohoo

8:03am - get to my office building, and grab the elevator. Greet the elevator attendant (you read that right - we have elevator attendants) and ask for the 3rd floor. The elevator sails past the 3rd floor to the 7th, then the 8th, then finally the 10th. I'm the only passenger left and cheerily say "I need three." Turns out that the elevator is broken and doesn't want to stop at the 3rd floor despite the handy, worthily employed elevator "technician". When we arrive at the lobby by boss is there. It's 8:15. Of course, this time it stops perfectly. I believe this is called Murphy's law.

8:20, finally get to my desk, switch shoes (it's my attempt to be like Mr. Rogers), hastily eat my oatmeal and print my report for the meeting I have with my boss.

8:35, check email. South Africa office is panicked. I roll my eyes and RUN to my bosses office. We meet for a good half hour - piling the work on we then focus on the next meeting. I get a phone call in the middle of the meeting. It's South Africa. I make them wait. I'm not a fan of our South Africa office.

9:20 (meeting in 10 minutes), call South Africa. No answer. So I email. They want money I already sent to them. So I send them the confirmation. They email back and ask for the confirmation. I slam my head onto my desk and hit RESEND. They email back and say, "Oh, that's a lot I guess it was there."

9:35 - important person we're meeting with has been waiting for 5 minutes. We chat and wait for my boss. I call to remind my boss to come to the meeting. We chat some more. Eventually the meeting starts - bickering about what can be done in a year.

11:00 - prepare for next meeting. Do a million other tasks, get lunch set up. Enjoy lunch meeting with visiting field staff.

1:00 - prepare for Thursdays BIG meeting by making binders - my job title should be Binder Maker Extraordinaire.

2:30 - get office ready for new guy. Avoid asking anyone for anything because at Pact that means you add 18 extra steps and get turned into a human ping pong ball (Why ping pong? Why not air hockey puck? - I digress)

3:30 - ask boss to get a temp to finish boxing up the stuff in this office because it's been there for 6 months and the room is packed! He solves the problem by having the CEO's SPECIAL ASSISTANT come and do it for me. I feel about an inch big. Sigh

3;30-5:20 - start new duties, work on international banking regulations, create pdf versions of policies for field staff, solve a million other office dilemma

5:23 - run (well if you consider walking really fast running) to the metro to try and get to my bus on time. NO SEATS :( Spend my time on the metro noting the difference between people's eyes. Why are some people bug eyed and others look like there eyes are attached to the back of their head? Watch a guy use his limited English to flirt with the girl next to him. Train in front of us is BROKEN :( Get to Ft. Totten with 30 seconds to catch my bus. LITERALLY RUN (i may have knocked someone over) to my bus. I missed it. So I catch the longer ride bus. Enjoy watching the cutest little boy laugh and play with his mom and everyone around him. Sigh.

6:58 - make it to my bus stop, skirting the crazy drunk on the bus. Legs go numb walking home. Too COLD!

7:05, pretending I'm on a cooking show I cook dinner for tonight and prepare chili to be slow cooked tomorrow - I entertain myself.

8:00 take Ellie out for our second round of take an hour to find a place to pee. This time it starts raining so I ask her to go potty. She looks at me, bends down and pees. Then it rains harder. SO I tell her to poo, she crouches over and poos. If only I could really train her to go to the bathroom on command - that would be a real trick! Run home.

8:10 Kevin's not coming home for another 40 minutes or so. I blog.

Still to come: shower, pick out clothes for tomorrow, clean kitchen, watch lots of FOOD network.

Magic 8 Ball

I need a magic 8 ball to tell me what to do with life. When should Kevin and I start a family (well, at least add a baby to our family)? Should I get my masters? Where should I get my masters? What should it be in? What should I be when I grow up? Should I try to get a promotion at work? What should I wear to work tomorrow? Do I take the bus or drive? What do I get Kevin for his birthday? Should I cut my hair?

So, in light of having only questions and no answers I'm going to give up trying to figure out the answers that only leads to stress and headaches. Instead of trying to figure out what God wants I'm going to pray over the magic 8 ball and it will be like casting lots in the Bible. Whenever I need to know the answer I'll ask a questions, giver her a little shake and see what we get. Of course I have to reframe most of my questions to not be open ended. How much would it suck to ask the 8 ball what I should be when I grow up and it says "Outlook not so good." Yikes!

In the mean time, I'm open for suggestions - why not add to the confusion.

I'm an addict

I suck. I already missed a day in the first week. Oh well, I'll post two today.

Yesterday was a great day! Church was great. Then I got to have lunch with Meghan and her new beau, Wes. They're so much fun! Kevin and I had a great afternoon and then went to a Bible Study.

Afterwards we went to get dinner and that's when the intervention happened. As we were looking for some restaurant I spied to glorious red lights of my addiction - no it's not prostitution --get your mind out of the gutter. Seriously people.

It's really hard to admit this, but I'm am slowly coming to terms that I am addicted to...Boston Market. I know many people think it's gross and to be honest I'm not addicted to their rotisserie meats. It's their side dishes. I love them! I NEED them!!

It's probably better for us to have moved away from Tallahassee. There I worked and lived within a mile of Boston Market. Now I have to traverse the scary traffic of DC and drive a few miles to get the good stuff.

Do they have a BMAA? (HA! That could also mean people who are addicted to pooping!)

GO SEE JUNO!!

OH my goodness...best movie this year!!! Seriously funny and written really well!! I love it! For shizzil!

Wizzard! (go see it!)

Song of the day

FAITHFULBen and Robin Pasley
I WANT TO SING YOU A LOVE SONG, YOU ARE THE THIEF OF MY HEARTRHYTHM AND RHYME TRY TO DESCRIBE ITNO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY...I CAN’T HIDE ITFAITHFUL, YOU ARE FAITHFULI HAVE FOUND NOTHING BUT GOOD IN YOUR HEARTLOVING, YOU ARE LOVINGI AM IN LOVE WITH THE WAY THAT YOU ARETHANKFUL, I AM THANKFULI HAD BEEN RUNNING AWAY ON MY OWNAND THEN YOU FOUND ME, OH HOW YOU LOVE MEI KNOW YOU’LL NEVER LEAVE, LEAVE ME ALONE
I WANT TO SING YOU A LOVE SONG, FOR YOU ARE THE LOVE OF MY LIFE
RHYTHM AND RHYME TRY TO EXPLAIN IT
NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY, I CAN’T CONTAIN IT

Mad Props to NCC or for the non-ghetto: Why I love my new church

Before Kevin & I ever moved to DC we began to research churches. From website searches we narrowed down the churches we would visit based on a variety of items: congregation, worship style, statement of beliefs, small group life, and location. From a long list we had about 3-4 churches to check out. At the top of the list was NCC (National Community Church --check it out at http://www.theaterchurch.com/). We went and knew right away that's where we belong.

Now let me tell you why. Neither one of us is a new kid on the Christian block, we've been a part of the church for a long time, have experienced a variety of churches and I have some deal of education in the area. All that being taken into consideration each week that we have attended worship we have consistently been challenged and changed by the message. I think I'm growing more now than I have in the past five years!

Not only is each sermon by the variety of pastors chalked full of goodness the music is descent (We've been spoiled -- Wesley, Morning Star, Jason Upton, etc) and the people are friendly. Plus they have so many small groups they have to put out a catalog!!

But oh wait, there's more! The lead/senior pastor put out a book called In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day. It's about Benaiah -- captain of King David's guard who happened to have killed a lion on a snowy day by chasing it into a pit!!! Now that's a man! I've been slowly ingesting this yummy book, savoring each section (YES IT'S THAT GOOD!) and thought tonight I would share an excerpt from the 3rd chapter -- enjoy the goodness:

"The goal of love is fearlessness! As we grow in a love relationship with God, we unlearn the fears that paralyze us and neutralize us spiritually. That is the essence of faith.
Faith is the process of unlearning your irrational fears." pg 48

"Lion chasers don't hide from the things they fear. They chase lions into pits. they expose themselves to the sources of their terror because they know it is the only way to overcome them. Lion chasers have a high threshold for fear because they have built up fear immunity." pg 49

"The other tactic [Satan uses to neutralize you spiritually] is fear. Satan wants to scare the heaven out of you. He wants to put you on your heels so you can become reactive and defensive. That is why he is described as a prowling lion." pg 51

"I'm convinced he [Jesus] could have and would have talked his way out of the cross. Why? Because he never lost an argument. But he chose instead to close his mouth and go to the cross." Pg 52 (THAT ONE IS FOR KEVIN--I'LL TRY TO BE MORE LIKE JESUS AND SHUT MY MOUTH :)

"So here is my question: Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling stories about?" pg 56

Now that you have tasted the goodness READ THE BOOK! http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1590527151/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-6313366-5282317#reader-link

Be assured my friends you will be hearing more quotes and thoughts evoked from this tasty book. (I don't know why I describe good books like food -- I'm weird)

The Pros & Cons of Life

So today has made me think about all the great things and all the crappy things in my life. So here goes:

The Good:
1. Not having to ride the bus today (I love my husband!)
2. Mmmmm...coke. (You can't see the drool, but it's there)
3. Waking up at the same time that I'm usually standing in the cold waiting for the bus. (see 1)
4. Feeling better than dead
5. Rocking out on Guitar Hero III


The Bad:
1. Being sat on by a beast on the metro
2. South Africa NOT EVER KNOWING HOW TO COMPLETE PAPERWORK CORRECTLY (IDIOTS!!)
3. Ellie taking 10 hours to poop when it's 5 degrees outside. (I never exaggerate, EVER!)
4. Petty people at work at create drama
5. Debt


Then, in the mix of all this good and bad was the a news article that put my ridiculous, wasteful, irresponsible life on the map of life on the globe.

Did you know that the UN concluded that 9.7 MILLION children die before they reach age 5. 9.7 MILLION -- that's almost a 10th of the global population! Or to put it in even more perspective, 26,000+ children die every DAY!!! That's almost 18 kids a minute!

So, global good vs. bad.

Good:
1. God
2. Grace
3. Forgiveness
4. People living the life Jesus is leading them to
5. Prayer & Social Justice

Bad:
1. 26,000 children dieing each day
2. global warming
3. no health care
4. malnutrition world wide
5. Aids
6. nuclear weapons
7. fascism
8. Greed
9...need I go on.

I guess it's a good thing the good out weighs the bad.

HAPPY BLOG, huh?

1 down, 345 to go for 2008

I used to blog a lot, but lately I haven't been. Well, I don't know if it's the lack of friends near by or if I'm just inspired by our new pastor but I've decided to start blogging again. It's my new goal to blog every day, even if it's just a sentence.



I can hear eyes rolling back in people's heads right now. What can be so interesting about my life that I'd want to blog everyday? I propose that there's a lot in life that's interesting and fun and this can be my challenge to search it out everyday. (Not to mention that I've been plotting this for a while now and I have back lock of material for really boring days.)



So here goes...

At work the other day I was planning a trip for one of my bosses to go to Kyrgyzstan (a very interesting country!). While applying for her Visa I had to contact the Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic to ask a question about my boss' entry dates. They are ridiculous to get a hold of by telephone so i tried to email them. Attempt failed. So, I resorted to posting the question through their website. The results of which MUST BE SHARED WITH THE WORLD:



"Thank you for writing to us! You will now receive a copy of your message in your inbox (if the email address you entered is valid!) And if your message is really interesting, I will get back to you as soon as possible. "



How's that for an "Up Yours, America!"



So on that note, feel free to post comments. If they are really interesting I will get back to you as soon as possible. :)



BT