Runny Babbit and the Polary Bear

I love poems by Shel Silverstein.
They are all great, and you can't pick a favorite...
but here are a couple really good ones.


Bear In There by Shel Silverstein

There's a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire--
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there--
That Polary Bear
In our Fridgitydaire.


 
Forgotten Language by Shel Silverstein

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?

One of my favorite books is Runny Babbit - A delightful book of poems made up of spoonerisms, where the first parts of words are transposed.

A quick example of this book is,

"Runny be quimble, Runny be nick. Runny cump over the jandlestick."

Silly... but I can't help loving this...

(Ha! That rhymed!)

Romance...

What is romance?

I looked it up online and the first definition is "a relationship between two lovers".
Kind of disappointing to me.
Why you ask?
Well, I'll tell you why.
I have found that I have been using, or thinking the word "romance" or "romantic" lately... now, now, don't be like my Grandma Bertha and start asking me if I have found my man yet, just listen. 

This is "romance" in my opinion...

To me, the idea of Peter Pan is romantic. 
The way that petals fall on the ground and their pale colors contrasted by the green grass... is romantic. 
The way the ocean is constantly changing colors, and teasing the sand... is romantic.
Mysterious wood-elves who have long flowing hair and wear wildflowers in their hair... are romantic. 
I just think that the beautiful things in life, that take my breath away, and make me sigh contentedly... are romantic.

I guess, now that I think of it, the definition I found does suit my feelings... because I just feel completely romanced by God right now.
He is captivated by my attention, and I am by His.
He loves surprising me, and taking my breath away.
He thinks of me day and night.
He constantly wishes to share special moments with me.
We share secret inside-jokes.
I tell Him my deepest fears, my highest dreams, and my thoughts about this day.
He is constantly giving me gifts - seeing five Kingfishers at once, petting a puppy on a special day, planting a flower in my yard, whispering sweet words in my ear while we are walking in the park... 
He is so romantic.

My God is incredible.
And I love Him with all my heart.

Read this and tell me that this is the most romantic thing in the world - because it is.
It's beautiful.
Proverbs 30:4, b
"Who holds the wind in his fists? Who wraps up the ocean in his cloak?"
My beautiful, sweet, lovely, caring, romantic Saviour - that's who.

Clumsy and Embarassing Moment # 8,827

I've never had a guy wink at me before. Until today.
I've never fallen up the stairs. Until today.

I'm walking up the stairs to go to my table on the third floor of the Library.
And this guy is rounding the corner to come down the stairs.
He stops just at the top of the stairs, grins... and winks.
Well, I have never had that happen before. And it shocked me.
So what did I do?
Stare at him with my mouth wide open, gaping in surprise, and stumble. up. the. stairs.
Great. Not only was I feeling really embarassed and awkward from the wink, but now I get to add to my feelings the sheer mortification of almost falling down - going up the stairs.
Sigh...
My life is average awkward.

I Heart Old Men... and Shuffleboard.

Today I finished up my volunteer hours (ten hours for a social work class) at the Weak Center/Senior Citizen Center. I went expecting to help cook meals, sort paperwork, clean something, etc. Instead, I spent two hours with the dearest old men in the world, watching them play Shuffleboard. It was one of the best "time-well spent" mornings I have had in a while. It was fun to talk to people with so many good memories, watch a game being played that wasn't aggressively competitive, *chucles to self*, and constantly being handed candies while being told I was beautiful.

NOTE: To all girls who need a self-confidence boost, go to the Senior Citizen's Center. You will be fed tons of chocolate and sweets (we always love that), told that you are too pretty to be in the company of these old son-of-a-guns, and asked why you haven't married their grandsons yet.

As I'm sitting there I was suddenly hit with how much I miss my Granmpa Sooter. He died 2 years ago this month, my Freshman year of college. No, I didn't get to see him every day (almost all my family lives in California), and no, I didn't call him every other day... but I still loved my Grampa and was very close to him. And sitting there today made me think of all the good times we had feeding the seagulls or playing Rummy, and just brought back to mind all the little things I have forgotten.

Here's a list of what I observed today... all sweet and most reminded me of Grampa Sooter (I am adding just a few other observations that I found to be sweet or funny.)

• their names -- When I think of older gentlemen I think of the names that these old men had: CM, Brice, Bob, Bud, and Skeeter... My grandpa's name was Doc...
• wet, chewed-up toothpicks hanging out of the corner of a mouth...
• when sitting and crossing their legs, their slacks come up above the top of their socks...
• a folded hankerchief seen sticking out of the pocket...
• an old man with a long white beard sticking his head out of the billiards room to shout to those playing chair volleyball, "On tv all the chicks wear bikini's! Why dontcha try that! A-hee hee hee!"... he then ducks back through the doorway before all the indignant (and secretly pleased) ladies start yelling at him and calling him, "a perverted, old, buzzard!"...
• how Bud (my favorite person there) makes faces behind Skeeter's back because Skeeter just made a good shot while playing Shuffleboard...
• Brice telling me about how he went back to college after being out for 29 years... and he "bested all o' them young whippersnappers there" and made the Dean's List...
• old-knarled hands that have seen years of hard work...
• jokes that really aren't funny but everyone still howls with laughter because of the personality of the individual who told the joke...
• the slang used: "let er' rip dip!", "wild as a barn-bird", and "hang onto your teeth!"...
• old men who seem rude and crotchety, but as they walk by they stick out their tongue, cross their eyes, and wink at you -- quickly returning to their original seemingly-grouchyness before someone sees and ruins their reputation...
• Bud fake jogging back to his seat, where Elsie shouts out, "You are acting like a little boy!!" Bud then shouts back with a gruff tone, "But I AM a little boy! Yippee!" (Can anyone say "perfect candidate for the real Peter Pan"?)...
• old faded ballcaps sporting their favorite baseball team...
• talk of the good old days... and who turned out exactly like their mother or father...
• card playing... Grampa and I played cards every time we were together.
• Bob sweetly talking of  his "pretty lady" that makes me understand the phrase, "I want to grow old with you"...
• spots of dark, black coffee that was dribbled on the fronts of their old long-sleeved polos...
• hands covered with band-aids...
• CM shuffling his feet and calling it a jig...
• the smell of lefterover cigarsmoke and peppermint candies left in pockets to give to visiting children (the word "children" is not determined by age... since I came home with my pockets stuffed with gum and candy...)

Even though I left feeling like I needed to see my Grampa and knowing that I couldn't, today was a great day. Hopefully my classes next year will require more volunteer hours... if not, I might have to make a fake certificate calling myself the "Official Shuffleboard Score Keeper" and go back every once in a while.

She Has a Name...

     I'm laying in my bed with the covers pulled up to my chin. My eyes are closed and my thoughts have drifted away down a lazy, clear-blue river that flows across a carpt of velvet black fabric and fades into the stars. I'm on the brink of falling completely under Sleep's spell when someone puts their hand on my shoulder. Not wanting to give them the attention they are wanting, I turn over on my side. The hand is taken off, and the person moves into my sight. Her name is Creativity and she has come to wake me up.


     To me, she is thin, willowy, made of silver and shining white thread and gives off a small glow. To others she appears differently. I have heard that Creativity sometimes comes as an elf -- maybe a short little Christmas elf wearing a onesie the color of an evergreen forest, sporting a peppermint jacket and brown leather boots. But to me, she is a lady of mystique.

     Now that I see who it is, I raise myself up on my elbows. "What do you want?", I whisper into the darkness. "I want to show you something" she croones in my ear. By now, since I am nearing the age of 21 and have already recieved many nightly visits by this annoying beauty, I know what is coming. Sighing and showing slight impatience I tell her that, although I appreciate her efforts and the generous gift of crafty ideas, I would rather sleep right now. I did not want to end up like my cousin, who awoke at Creativity's nudge to go make wrapping paper and rewrap ALL the presents under the Christmas tree at two o'clock in the morning. Oh no! I am MUCH too smart to fall for her silky voice... which last time told me to go Google recipes and ideas for ornate Gingerbread Houses at 11:00 P.M (my bedtime is 9:30). Knowing that I have smartly hinted that she should return another day, I roll onto my stomach with the pillow balled up under my chin.


     I then spend the next two hours planning how to make a rag rug. Staring at the wall in front of me I contemplate what colors I am going to use, what size crochet hook would work best, what rug shape would be the easiest or hardest to start off with, how big it should be to fit in my room, and how much longer it would be until the nearest fabric store opened so I could start. All the while, Creativity is stirring quietly in the corner of my room, twirling her hair with a finger, shoulders shaking with silent, joy-filled laughter.

"These Are a Few of My Favorite Things..."

1. My God
2. His taste in color
3. His provisions and plans for me
4. His unconditional love.
5. People
6. Laffy Taffy Jokes
7. Starry Nights
8. The smell of a new book.
9. Cooking with fresh garlic.
10. Kids -- esp, Isaiah
11. Smiles
12. Blue skies with fluffy white clouds-- so that you can lay on your back and find shapes in them.
13. My pink pig pillow.
14. Flowing white skirts -- to twirl in.
15. Flowers in my hair.
16. Golden Retrievers
17. Christmas
18. Accoustic Guitar Worship.
19. Singing in the woods, alone, singing praises to God.
20. Christmas Trees
21. Writing opinion papers.
22. Being called a hippie.
23. Kittens bundled in baskets.
24. Watching a movie in a heap of down blankets and feathered pillows.
25. Reading a good book, preferably in one day.
26. Burying my feet in the sand, and then wiggling my toes.
27. Feeling protected and secure.
28. Flannel Pajama Pants
29. Making lists for everything... literally.
30. Azaleas
31. Blueberry Pomegranate Applesauce
32. Holding Sleeping Babies.
33. the color orange.
34. cute shoes.
35. bracelets made by, and given to you by friends.
36. making up new recipes... like my parmesian stuffed chicken breast.
37. gardening.
38. sidewalk chalk
39. families who homeschool
40. the look on people's faces when i tell them i have been homeschooled all my life.
41. oregon trail.
42. snow.
43. the idea of a semi-casual, barefooted wedding on the beach.
44. christmas music.
45. guy's cologne
46. scrapbooking accessories with birds on them.
47. brown flipflops with gold sequins
48. picnics
49. deep conversations
50. prom dresses.
51. other people's akward moments.
52. laughter.
53. pranks
54. complements
55. new mechanical pencils.
56. wind
57. the smell of spring
58. taking thirty minutes in walmart to smell all of the laundry detergent and fabric softner
59. painting chocolate
60. long curly hair
61. sitting outside with friends, doing nothing but talkng.
62. coffee mugs
63. disney movies -- but not dumbo or the fox and the hound
64. cheering people on in sports from the sidelines
65. fabric
66. watching movies with the subtitles on
67. my roommates waking me up in the morning by cuddling with me
68. wearing shorts right after i shave my legs
69. climbing trees.
70. robin hood -- he's one foxy fox!
71. teaching people something new
72. playing in the rain in a parking lot
73. spring time flowers -- daffodils, crocus, tulips, etc.
74. french twists (the hair-do, not the pastry)
75. dipping cookies in my coffee
76. the smell of my cocoa-nut deoderant
77. making arrowheads out of the flint i found on the buffalo river banks
78. sunday night church
79. thunderstorms
80. the kind of tired you feel when you get done making a snow man
81. backscratches
82. stickers -- preferably of disney princesses or birds.
83. dark blue or white toe nail polish (meaning only on toes)
84. lunch dates with a friend, one-on-one
85. babysitting
86. professors who write comments on your papers
87. going over my minutes monthly, after telling everyone that i hate talking on the phone
88. anything that smells minty
89. shaggy hair (on guys AND dogs)
90. being included in a secret or surprise
91. the rare and few nights i stay up till 2:00 AM to do something fun
92. catching crawdads and minnows in the creek
93. sitting on the porch at 6 AM, with coffee and my mom, listening to the birds wake up
94. tank tops
95. hearing a different language being spoken
96. collages
97. fresh raspberries, eaten on the beach after a piece of cheese and black olive pizza.
98. surprise parties thrown for me (hasn't happened yet... HINT HINT)
99. diving off the high dive
100. montages of people falling down (America'sFunniestHomeVideos)
101. my Mom
102. Getting a stain out of a white piece of clothing
103. card tricks
104. Calligraphy
105. testamonies
106. Four dollar movies at Walmart
107. christmas lights
108. the tooth fairy
109. finger paint
110. old movies
111. black and white with yellow polka-dots
112. rachel ray magazines
113. music by cory asbury
114. baby ducks
115. going to bed early
116. dancing to music while in my car
117. playing sardines in the curris center
118. popping my neck
119. a harvest moon
120. old, romantic, folk songs... like stuff by aubrey atwater
121. confetti
122. the smell of lemon furniture polish
123. ribbons in french braids
124. rolling down hills
125. making a wish on a dandelion -- if you can blow all the seeds off in one breath, your wish happens
126. playing with flower petals
127. sleeping under the stars

Lists and More Lists!

So today I was reading a blog written by my Aunt Julie. In this blog she referred to her love for lists...

I also have this love for making lists.
 I make lists for everything. Literally. I make my lists on post it notes, in notebooks, in the margins of my textbooks (in pencil, of course), in emails, on newspapers, or on the offering envelopes at church (I know, I know, that's not what they are for.) I write them on everything, and I am constantly making them. If I were paid a penny for every list that I made I would 1.) be a millionaire 2.) be able to pay for my college 3.) probably not go to grad-school and 4.) buy too many cook books and craft supplies. (Ha! Just realized, that's a list!)
So it's a good thing I don't get paid for making lists... :-)

Here are some examples of the lists that I make daily.

1. Grocery Lists - these lists can be quite numerous and extensive. I have a list for recipes that I want to try, a list for recipes I am going to try this week, a list for the ingrediants to those recipes, a list that includes all of my groceries, a list dividing food items and non-food items, a list for each store, etc. When I say I make lists, it gets a little OCD - I go all out!


2. To Do Lists - these are the best. I make lists for homework, lists for goals for the day, lists for recipes to make, crafts to make, pictures to take, places to go, people to spend time with, etc. These lists for each day are all written down in 15 minute incriments of time. And I make two each day: one for today and one for tomorrow (even though the next day (the "tomorrow" list) I will make one all over again).
 
3. Journal Lists - I love to journal, and 75% of my journal is filled with lists! These lists are different every day... some days I fill the pages of my scrappy, torn and smudged notebook with lists of dreams. Other days it's "my favorite" lists, goals to accomplish, wish lists, things I have been thinking about, things that have changed in my life, etc.
 
So, as you can see... I love to make lists. I always have, and I always will.

Allergies, Muddin', and Joy.

Today has been a very strange day.
This morning I woke up and felt awful. My nose was stopped up, dry, and runny all at the same time. My throat was dry and scratchy, and I was so exhausted I could barely move... Work sent me home, and I spent most of the day in bed trying to sleep. I took some allergy and cold medicine that completely knocked me out and made me drool in my one class. Oh boy. Lovely. I think it might just be allergies, but I'm not sure... it could be a cold.


I am really hoping that it's not a cold because tomorrow (which is our Fall Moment, er, I mean "Fall Break"), where there are no classes, I am going home with my friend Danni. I have been super excited about going home with her for weeks now, so I better be able to go. Let me explain why I love going to Danni's house...
(In list format, of course)


1. I love her Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Step-Grandma, Aunt, Uncle, and two little cousins - who ALL just happen to live on the same road. I love family!!!
2. We do nothing but relax - which is either in the form of playing cards, watching movies, sleeping, talking, or playing the wii.
3. We stuff our faces there. Danni's mom, Patti Kaye, goes and buys BAGS and BAAAGS of candy, lays it all out and says "help yourselves." Not only that, but she cooks for us, and Bobert (Robert, Danni's dad) makes us blueberry muffins for breakfast on Sunday morning. THEN they usually take us out to eat after church on Sunday. These rare weekends should be called the Festival of Food. How islamic cultures have Ramadan, this weekend is the opposite. You eat and eat-and-eat-and-eat till nine... then start again in the morning.
4. We do really fun things like fourwheeling and stuff like that.
5. Her house is very peaceful.
6. They have a dog named Derby. He's an adorable Yorkie.
7. There are a ton more things that I love about her house, but I don't have two hours to list it all.


So, as you can tell, I am pretty darn excited about this weekend. Our plan is to play cards, watch "When a Stranger Calls", play paintball, go muddin' on the fourwheelers, and eat. *Squeezes eyes shut, crosses fingers, and repeats over and over "It's allergies, it's allergies it's allergies, not a cold!*


Another reason that this day is really strange is that even though I feel terrible, I had an amazing time with some friends tonight. I first had my discipleship meeting with Hailey, who is a new freshman. In Christ Ambassadors, we have a mentor-type thing where an older girl will meet with a younger girl and mentor her, encourage her, and go through a Bible Study with her. It's great, and I do that with two girls: Hailey and Kerry. Hailey and I just started, and it has been so much fun spending time with her. We have recently found out that we both have a lot in common... We are both from California, both love cheesy stuff, we are both hopeless sappy romantics, have the same facial expressions and exclamation phrases, and both love to make sound effects randomly. Tonight was more of all the above said, and I had a wonderful time! 


After meeting with Hailey I picked my friend Kerry up and went to another friends house for dinner. Cindy Cho, an international student from South Korea, has been a very good friend of mine for over two years now. She and another Korean girl, Sora (pronounced Sore-ah, rolling the "r"), made dinner for us. It was a wonderful Korean spaghetti made with onions, shrimp, soysauce, honey, and something else. Yumm-O! It was a great dinner with great conversation!


Finally, I am filled with so much joy right now, that I don't know words to express it. My current facebook status says, "Can't find the words, song, dance, or shout to express the joy, complete satisfaction, and awe she feels towards and in her Maker!", and it's so true. I have really put an effort in my time spent with God lately... really trying to meditate on Him more, and focus on Him throughout the day. He has blessed my socks off in return! I feel like I have never been so joyful in my life, as I feel right now, at 11:00 at night. I feel Him here, I am full of hope, full of contentedness, and just full of joy! It's an amazing feeling to have, and I am so thankful for everything that God is doing in my life right now! I am thankful for His blessings, His revelations, His warmth, His comfort, His seeking me out. Thank you, thank you, Lord.


So, yeah. This was a completely random post, but oh well.
It's 11:00 at night, I'm tired, full of joy, and wanting to play paintball. That's my day, and that's how I feel.

Monday's Lesson of the Day!

Do NOT go to bed without washing your blue mascara off your face...
Otherwise, when you wake up in the morning you won't almost pee your pants when your really strange sleepy dirt scares you.

It's like Sulley from Monster's Inc. crept into my room in the middle of the night and I ended up using him for a pillow...

My Playlist for Today

My dear Aunt Julie put her playlist on her Blog, and I thought that would be fun to do too!!


Here are some of my favorite artists and songs… Some might be a little bit silly, and some might make me cry, but here they are!

1. Where I Belong – by Cory Asbury

The chorus says, “I finally found where I belong. I finally found where I belong – in His presence. I finally found where I belong – it’s to be with You.”, and then later says “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine, so come into Your garden and take delight in me.” These lyrics are so beautiful! I know it’s cheesy, but it “strikes the chords in my heart.”




2. Love is Little, Love is Low – it’s on old Shaker’s Hymn, and my favorite version is played by Aubrey Atwater on her Mountain Dulcimer.

3. Lost at Sea – by Jimmy Needham

This has been a favorite of mine since it first came out in 2006 (I believe that’s when it came out… I could be wrong . Really, anything that he sings I love.





4. Mystery – by Brooke Frasier

If you have ever heard of Hillsong, Brooke Frasier is a singer for them. But she also has her own Albums, that are more “secular”… but not at the same time.  I think that I will post a blog soon about the lyrics to this song soon… I really really really like this song.



5. Deathbed – by Reliant K

Ok, first of all. I don’t really like Reliant K. I used to love them, I have all of their CD’s, and sometimes when I feel goofy I’ll listen to them. But this song, as awful as it sounds, makes me cry. I want to post the lyrics on here, so I’ll include this in the blog with the song “Mystery.”



6. My Soul Longs for You – by Misty Edwards

“I believe You will come like the rain.”
*contented, delightful sigh*
Isn’t that beautiful!?


7. I Wish I Were a Punk Rocker With Flowers In My Hair – by Sandi Thom

I really don’t know anything about Sandi Thom, or even if her music is clean or worth listening to… but a friend burned this song for me… and I love it. I love it because of these reasons: 1.) It doesn’t matter what it is, if it has anything to do with flowers in your hair I love it. 2.) It’s a hippy song, and I like hippiness (minus the drugs and no bathing stuff) 3.) I love her voice.


8. Glen Miller. Anything by Glen Miller. I love the Big Band/Swing songs. <3

9. The Mama Mia soundtrack!

I love musicals, so under #9 I include all of the good stuff: Singing in the Rain, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Hairspray, Enchanted, basically anything that is a musical.
I desperately want to see Wicked.


10. Clair de Lune – by Debussy

I love instrumental music, and this by far is my favorite…

I have sat at work and done some mundane task and listened to this at least four times in a row.

Cindy Cho

     Right now I am taking a class called International Social Work, taught by Dr. Chakradhar, a professor from India. The class only has two exams, one midterm and one final, so there are many papers that are assigned in the class. One that I have been working on is a paper written over an interview I had with an international student. The assignment was to learn about an international student’s culture as well as the politics and social welfare of their country.


     For two years I have been fairly good friends with a 20 year old girl from Korea. Her name is Jeongwha Cho, but she goes by the American name of Cindy. When I asked her if she would be willing to let me interview her, she gladly complied. We spent about an hour and a half discussing all sorts of things, most of which were new to me. We talked about how Koreans will eat rice at every meal, and how they use flat steel chopsticks and a spoon. She told me how the most popular thing for her friends to do is going to a local café where there are Playstations and Wiis set up for the boys to play while the girls sit and chat. She told me her family’s tradition of eating Seaweed Soup on every birthday, since the soup is given to pregnant or breastfeeding mothers drinking it on a birthday is symbolically honoring the mother. At the end of an hour and a half we came to the last question, what are some key adjustments that you have had to make since coming to America.

     It started out with the typical list: food, public transportation, and that cars actually stop when you cross the street. After talking about all of these “key adjustments” Cindy stopped talking. She got very emotional and started to tell me of her most difficult adjustment… discrimination. She said that in the ESL department, you do not experience any discrimination. This is due to the fact that all of your classmates are from other countries, and your teachers are trained to work with foreign students who normally can’t speak English. It’s when you become a University student that the change occurs. Jeonghwa Cho sees discrimination from everyone, both faculty and students. She explains that the first two or three weeks of classes are the most stressful and depressing weeks for her. If she goes into a classroom and sits by an American, 90% of the time that American will get up and change seats. Cindy said that if she is assigned to a group for a class project, that the group she is in will be treated as if it is handicapped, and will not be required to perform at the same level as the rest of the class. Even individual assignments given by the professor do not come with the same expectation as the rest of her classmates.

     Her hardest problem is that people assume that she can’t speak or understand English. “Savannah,” Cindy said, “they think that I cannot speak English. Or understand it. But how can they think that? If I could not understand English I would not be a University student, and taking their classes with them.” She cried as she said that students sitting in the row in front of her are always talking about her, as if she couldn’t hear them. Jokes are made, insults are thrown, and no one ever cares or shows compassion. Teachers see it and don’t reprimand the insulter. Discrimination is also shown through the tone of voice that people use when talking to her. “I am not a baby, so don’t talk to me like I am little,” Cindy repeats over and over. It’s fine when someone makes an effort to talk slower, and to pronounce the words slowly and correctly, minimizing a difficult-to-interpret country accent… but when they change the tone of their voice it hurts.

     I was completely shocked at how much discrimination is shown towards international students. Maybe that is in part due to the fact that I am in Christ Ambassadors (filled with wonderful, compassionate people) and we have an amazing International Ministry, so I am blind to how others treat foreign exchange students. Maybe it’s because several of my close friends are ESL students, and I feel that I am constantly aware of my tone and speech and attitude towards foreign exchange students that I meet. But as I listened to Cindy talk, I was ashamed. I was ashamed of my blindness. I was ashamed of the people around me, and to be honest, even in my country. We call ourselves the “melting pot” of the world… yet how are we to blend together if we hate each other, and openly show that disdain? Think of how of much God loves that 20 year old girl who is shunned in class. Think of how much pain Jesus feels when someone openly makes a joke about the girl sitting in front of them. It pains me so much to think that there are so many students on my campus who feel this way. The interview opened my eyes completely. It strengthened my determination to be kind and show as much compassion as I can to Internationals I meet. And to tell them about the love of my beautiful Savior, where there is never discrimination, prejudice, mock, or hatred.

" Steps to Make a Perfect Fool Out of Yourself at College"

I feel the need to give you dear readers a step-by-step guideline to show you how to make a "perfect and complete fool of yourself."
Whether or not this is from my own experience *coughtodaycough*, I will leave that up to you.

1. Begin the day by wearing flip flops. Preferably ones that have no tread on the bottom. If you have a pair of Old Navy flip flops that have been your best friend for at least two years, that would be perfect! 
2. Meeting a professor in a hallway somewhere on campus, you should walk with him/her to his/her office. It would be best if you are wanting to make a good impression on the professor you so happen to be walking with.
3. Wearing your no-tread flipflops, and walking to an important meeting with an important professor, look for a small, pool of water in the middle of the hallway.
4. Allow your foot to land straight in the middle of the pool of water, and fall. Yes, that's right. Fall. Fall flat on your butt, in the middle of the hallway. Your 4' 6'' professor will then try to help you up. Assuming that you are 200+ pounds (like I am) make the situation as awkward as possible.
5. I forgot to mention that you should have had your keys in your back pocket as well. That way when your teensy-weensy professor is trying to haul you up off your back, you can be immobile due to agony since something just hacked open your cheek. Or at least it felt that way.
6. To top everything off, the teensy-weensy-needs-to-be-impressed professor should then go and get the Chair of the entire Health and Human Services College (that would the Social Work Department, as well as Criminal Justice and Gerontology Departments) to come and clean up the small pool of water. 
7. The pool of water, which should be no more then a couple drops of water, should be made up to be a GINORMOUS deal. The student worker in the Social Work department should be called to "mop" up the water, and the janitor should then be called to fix the drip from the sprinkler.
8. To complete making a fool of yourself, please make sure that everyone in the office that you just walked into, along with the three people who were trying to help you, knows all about you falling flat on your back.

There. My job is done.

What a perfect day

I close my eyes and inhale deeply. The breeze outside, where I have been reading and eating lunch, rustles the pages in my new Ted Dekker book. The freshly cut grass, damp cool earth, and the musty-new-book smells fill my nose. Going to the garden, I pick several of Chrissy's wildflowers. I choose two dark burgundy cosmos, and bright pink daisys, several orange summer flowers, and a bunch of white flowers that have so many small bright-white faces clustered together that I would never be able to count them. Taking my bouquet, I walk to the house amidst a whistling chorus of birds.



Walking in the front door I decide to leave the door open, so that the breeze can tempt the hot stuffy air inside the house to come out and play. Going to the windows in the kitchen and living room, I open them and watch as the curtains settle back down, with the occasional dance with the breeze. It is now the perfect time to clean. I spend an hour, tidying up, vacuuming, sweeping, moping, and dusting. Standing in the middle of the living room I once again take a deep breath. The smells from the cool day outside and the smells of furniture polish and soap suds combine to make a pleasant, perfectly clean perfume. Beside the laundry detergent aisle at the store, this is the best smell in the world, I think to myself.


Going to my room I put on my happy yellow apron and bring out my laptop. In the freshly scrubbed kitchen arrayed with perky and colorful flowers, I sit with my laptop and create a playlist -- filled with Glen Miller, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Rose Mary Clooney, and Dean Martin. Next I bring out my family recipe book and pick several things to make for dinner. Barefoot, apron clad, and swaying to the music I spend the rest of the afternoon cooking and baking. Occasionally I wipe bits of flour off of my face, unknowingly putting on more than I had attempted to remove. Time flies by until, all of a sudden, I am done and I am surrounded by dishes and the succulent aromas of baked chicken, cheese tortellini’s with a pumpkin sage sauce, and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.


Faraway, a voice calls my name and I look up to see Dr. Munke calling roll for Social Work 301. Realization hits me as I remember that instead of a perfect day spent at home cooking and cleaning, I have two more classes and three hours of work; followed by meetings and appointments.


So much for my perfect day.