Evil tricksters trying to sabotage my blog!

To all those who peruse my blog, please use caution when reading the comments that others post. My blog has been littered with links that contain viruses. Users whom I do not know have been posting comments. They usually say something like "click here" or "see here" and when you open the link it automatically starts downloading some suspicious somethings onto your hard drive. Not cool, eh?

Here's what you need to know:
1. IT IS COMPLETELY SAFE TO READ MY BLOG. There are no viruses on my blog page.
2. I try to catch these tricksters as soon as possible. I delete their comments with rapid speed. There is very little time between when they post their comment and when I delete it.
3. Use caution when opening links on anyone's page. If you do not know the person who is posting a link, do not open it.
4. If you have a Mac, this really doesn't apply to you because you are really cool like me and you have a system that those viruses don't know how to take down. (Yay for Mac people!)

5. Finally, and this is to the evil tricksters that are trying to poison my blog space:

DO NOT PUT YOUR FILTHY VIRUS-LADEN LINKS ON MY BLOG.
It is rude and conniving and just plain mean. You know who you are. Stop it. What's the big idea? Why can't everyone just play nice? C'mon people!

That said, I have to say that if you have posted viruses on my blog, I am working on forgiving you. Please stop attacking my blog and you'll make it a little easier.

Temporarily In Need of A [Fake] Husband.

I am in no hurry to get married, but every now and again, I get in situations where I realize how useful a husband would be. I have a fun-filled and satisfying single life, so these occasions are rare. Nonetheless, being married has its advantages over being single in some situations.

More specifically, yesterday I went to have my car looked at. Let's face it. Car dealerships and auto mechanics treat women differently than they do men. They treat men better than they do women. And, as we know, I am a woman.

In January, when I returned to Portland, the radio in my car had stopped working. I turn it on and can change the radio channels, but the volume won't go up or down and the CD player is unresponsive. When I took my car in to get an estimate, they asked me to sign a paper saying that they would charge me $100 to examine it. I paused and asked the man behind the counter if the fee was nonnegotiable. He then dropped the fee to $50, explaining that it probably wouldn't take an entire hour to check it out, so they would charge me half. (Initially, I was proud of myself having knocked off half the price. I later found out that my male friends get these sort of estimates for free.)

After waiting over an hour in the waiting room, I went back into the office to see about my car. They assured me that they would know details soon and asked me to continue waiting. Keep in mind that they are just checking on the radio. After about twenty minutes of waiting by the service desks, the man finally came out to talk to me. My radio was broken. When I asked questions, he said that he did not know the answers to my questions. Ten minutes later, he returned with a sheet, a bill, detailing what it would cost to replace the radio. In it, I was given no options for upgrades, used radios, or recommendations.

I have to admit, I felt very alone. Was I asking the right questions? Was I receiving the answers that I deserved? I felt very grown up in a way that I kind of resent. How am I supposed to know what to do with my car if my mechanic, who I trust to diagnose the problem, will not fill me in on all the significant information. I think that one has choices in how to replace a car radio. And I think that I should also be educated by my mechanic on exactly what he has found after AN HOUR of examining the radio.

I decided to get some more opinions. I'm not even sure if it is indeed my radio that is broken. When I think about the symptoms, it seems to me that instead it is my speakers that need to be replaced. Mostly, I wish I knew how to find out more information. I wish I knew a good honest person who knows about these things and can diagnose my car. I wish that I had a fake husband so that when I go into situations like these, I will have an advocate of the preferred gender. And I wish that I lived in a world where one gender did not receive preferred treatment over another.

For now, I'm driving around town with no radio. I think that the silence is good for me. I'm not ready to fix the radio. It is too exhausting. Maybe a good fake husband will come along in the meantime. One that likes silent car rides.

Remedies for S.A.D. days

Part of life here in the lovely Pacific Northwest, especially here in the valley, is the soggy, gray days. The climate is such that on days when it is sunny, Oregon is gloriously beautiful. However, when the soggy days go on, one after another, one begins to forget how beautiful Portland is and how it looked when the sun was out. After a beautiful sunny day, a couple of gray and wet days are not too hard to bear. When three or four - or even ten - soggy days happen in a row, one's temperament tends to be affected. Some people even develop Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.). It is a real fact of life here. My dad seemed to be concerned about it when I visited Texas in December.

January has turned out to be a bit more soggy than my previous months in Portland. So, I've decided to take on preventative measures. There will be no S.A.D. days for me, if I can help it. In order to prevent the onset of S.A.D. I have developed a few of my own remedies to ensure that I'm getting my quota of S.A.D.-defeating joyfulness each day. Here they are:

1. Eating lots of hot soup. I have been collecting soup recipes and making lots of new soups. Maybe it is true what they say about chicken soup.
2. Cooking great meals. Delicious food adds greatly to contentedness.
3. Spending quality time with friends.
4. Meeting new friends. There is something about meeting new people that adds a nice amount of unpredictability to my day, and I just get a kick out of some of the really quirky people I meet.
5. Prayer and quiet time to consider the important things and people.
7. Working out! My body's circulation is stimulated and my heart rate goes up and it feels great!
8. Eating oranges in the shower.
9. Looking for ways to bless and serve others. This does much to add joy to each day!
10. Laughing.
11. Taking advantage of every opportunity to enjoy the days when the sun does come out. Go for a walk, or, if it is too cold, sit by the window. Take a mental note of how beautiful everything looks in the sunshine.

So, I spend my January (and now February) days eating tasty soups, laughing with my new acquaintances, and eating oranges in the shower. Oh, and I think that my new galloshes (or "rain boots" as they call them here) help counter the S.A.D. as well. Aren't they incredible? For now, I think I have this S.A.D. thing beat. I am sure with the coming seasons that I might discover some other great secrets to Northwest winters - something else I am looking forward to.

some thoughts I've been having

I haven't been blogging as much lately for a few reasons. One reason is that my thoughts are in so many different places, it would be difficult to write a cohesive blog. Another reason is that I have been incredibly busy and blogging has not been much of a priority. However, who is to say that I have to write a cohesive blog?

Some thoughts I have been having:

---I need to make an effort to slow down. How did I allow myself to get so busy? I am realizing that I am a bit too optimistic about how much I can handle. I have a great deal of faith in my ability to do a thousand things at once. To be sure, I'm good at it...BUT I'm not sure that it is good for me. There's the catch. I'm great at multi-taskin. However, I think that often my multitasking skills are keeping me from the important parts of this journey with Jesus, namely meditation, silence, prayer, rest, and the ability to be available to bless others spontaneously. I think that multi-tasking is a great skill, but I have allowed it to be so much a part of how I function that I forget the importance of rest, silence, and stillness. I have a hunch that I'm not the only one who lives like this...

---I'm so blessed and so priveleged. I have choices. Choices are a result of privilege. I have decided to move out of my house and to relocate across town. Moving to Portland has been a great experience overall. However, living 30 min from school, 45 min from family, and 35 min from good friends, and 35 min from church has been taxing. I don't have enough good music in my car to make the distance worthwhile. (I'm kidding)...But really, I'm thankful that I have the ability to choose to change my situation. I'm thankful that I have the option of moving closer to school, friend, family, and church (essentially my community). I'm also incredibly blessed in that I have good friends and I have only been living in Portland for a few months. My honorary family, as well, lives here in Portland and has taken me in for the holidays (and cooked an INCREDIBLE meal!) and that feels great. Yesterday, on Thanksgiving morning, we started the day with a game of football, played Rummikub as a family, watched Miracle on 34th street (the old black and white version, which makes me feel all cozy), and ate a delicious meal! Football, games, old movies, great food and great people - it was my kind of holiday! :)

---Sometimes I take myself a bit too seriously. I have been trying to loosen up a bit and enjoy myself a little more, instead of worrying or being so caught up in "shoulds" and "coulds"....I'm trying to enjoy a bit more spontanaeity, adventure, rest, and craziness! It has been fun. I'm also playing a lot more. I played Wii for the first time the other day. I lost (barely) at boxing and tennis, but I came back and trampled my buddy in bowlng. I think that I'm a better virtual bowler than I am in reality. Now I just need to go bowling a bit more and remember all the skills that I'm learning on Wii.... haha.


Other thoughts...
-Its not as much fun to be a Mavericks fan when I don't live in Dallas. I miss watching the games with the fam...
-The weather really does affect my mood. I'm especially thankful for sunshine these days. I got pretty spoiled in Santa Barbara and even in Dallas since the sun shines so much there.
-Regularly traveling is a healthy thing for me. It helps me to appreciate where I live and engages a part of my soul that I really enjoy. I went to Seattle last weekend. I had a fabulous time with my friend, BrennA (http://brealrosey.blogspot.com/). We ate some incredible food, walked all over downtown and along the waterfront, explored the market, and went to see Ben Harper in concert. It was a delightful way to spend two days, and when I came home I appreciated Portland even more. It made me extra thankful for Portland and I was able to retrieve a freshness in the way that I see my life here.
-I have been thiking about this funny thing we call "dating." I am realizing that I compartmentalize this part of my life. I'm either totally unaware that I'm a 23 year-old single female, or I'm very aware of it. It is like a switch or a dual personality. I don't just let things be what they are. I compartmentalize everything. Perhaps it is a professional thing or a control thing, but I just have no fluidity with this area of my life. Here I am calling it an "area of my life"...do you see what I mean? It may not always be helpful to corner off my romantic life and keep it contained from the rest of my life until I'm ready to engage it. Life is life. Sometimes it involves romance and dating and sometimes it doesn't....but we can't completely control that and that's alright. Sometimes things just are.
-I also think that because I just wrote the above that some of my friends are now tempted to call me and ask if there is anyone new in my life. That makes me smile and chuckle.
-I have been much more open lately to not knowing what lies ahead for me in the future. I'm a lot more contented to enjoy the present and see what happens. I don't need to figure out what exactly I want to do with my Masters degree right now...I've only been in grad school for a couple of months...there is still time and I am interested and capable of a lot of things. No need to worry or stress. Just enjoy the education. :)


Those were a lot of thoughts. What are your thoughts as you read this?

monkey

Brandi, my roomate, was in the middle of a story the other day when she started yelling "Oh my gosh!!! oh my gosh!!!" as she looked out our front windows.

"What!!!!?" I responded.

"A MONKEY! ON A BIKE!!! LOOK! GO OUT AND LOOK!"

Sure enough, I went outside and there was a man on a bicycle with a big fuzzy 6-foot stuffed monke! He was just cruisin'. No big deal. The monkey was bigger than the bicycle. Its tail was probably 4ft long. It was quite a sight.

I didn't get a photo. but it was incredible. trust me.

this photo I found on google images. The monkey was that scale in comparison with the bike, and it was a normal-sized bike!

sleepiness

I really want to update my blog right now, but I'm too sleepy to write anything cohesive.
One exciting thing though: I had the most bizarre experience walking in my sleep last night! I don't think that I have ever sleepwalked before, so it really took me off guard! My sister is home and we are sharing a room and I gave her quite a scare when I jerked open the curtains in the middle of the night and couldn't answer her when she asked me what I was doing. I groggily decided to go the other direction to the bathroom, but it took me a while. I had some wild and bizarre dreams last night.

Off I go to bed...for another adventure.