sorry it's been awhile since blogging action has occurred. 've been busy with training in the new position and all. life has been good though...finally feel like i'm on track and going in a good direction.

random notes: i went to a youth ministry meeting last sunday. they were planning a retreat and the whole time i'm sitting there i'm thinking of how much i had grown without realizing it. i wanted to be a part of their team, but they have no direction, strategy, etc. i'm sooo over being involved in things that are flailing around like a fish out of water. i spent the last 6 years of my life being involved in organizations that didn't know what they were doing... it sucked the life out of me. not anymore:)

is it christmas already? really, it can't come soon enough. i miss my family a ton and i get to fly home to see them. yeah!!!

it's now time for the "WHAT A MAN" segment of my blog... have you ever met anyone that physically makes you ill to be around them. i have my first. i will not name names to protect the innocent, but there is someone that i have recently met that literally churns my stomach. he's just really gross. i wouldn't consider myself to be an obsessive compulsive individual, but he has brought me to the brink. everything he touches i go behind and disinfect with clorox wipes. for thanksgiving he plopped the entire turkey leg on his plate(along with pounds of the other fixins), then proceeds to tell me how he doesn't eat that much. (stomach is churning...) the worst story. i got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and had the unfortunate problem of not falling to sleep right away. this man is staying in the house for 5 days... this is day one. he uses my bathroom... he gets up after me and for the next three hours i hear the man exploding in the bathroom. the next day, at lunch he explains that the refried beans were doing a number on him!!! ggggrrrooossss!!! i almost hurled.

side note: as i'm sitting here my friend's little nephew is just sitting here talking away... he's soo cute:)

i need to go, i can't resist a cootie patootie!

mel

terrible, honest confession... i didn't vote. i wanted to but i missed the deadline for absent(y?) ballods. what makes me even more horrific... i was shopping at a vintage store on tuesday that was offering an additional 30 percent off if you voted. they asked both my friend and if this was the case. she said yes and i just kind of stood there giving off the "if you think i did then maybe i did" look. they presumed wrong, what can i say? these lamps that i got though were really cool! from the 50's... tres bien, tres bien.

there really is something very rewarding in finding treasure in another man's junk. any shmutz can go into a trendy store and find something cool, but can they find the diamond amongst the cubic zerconia? ahhh that is the question...

randonium: favorite artists of the week - the shins, jem, and the oranges band.

more randonium: a friend and i were talking about our double standards in the pedestrian verses vehicle debate. when i am the pedestrian i feel that all traffic should yield to me. however, when driving i usually spew out profanity at the idiots who aren't watching out for me... yeah, the driver of the big automobile.

scary of the week: i was explaining to a fellow co-worker that there was a mysterious box of electrical whatever haning underneath my steering wheel by the brake/gas petal. he casually replied, "hmm, someone was probably trying to hotwire your car and couldn't figure it out." hmmm, that freaked me out! i immediately felt the need to look underneath my seat to see if someone was hiding out, which is lame since the seat basically rests on floor board. i've heard too many dumb stories and watched too many scary movies in my time. (remember the whole achiles tendon slasher hiding out underneath your car thing? yeah, i still check underneath my car.)

faith struggle of the week: how does the church live out community in a culture that is so individualistic? i'm not sure what the answer is, but i don't feel that we're making much progress. if you ask me, the church is one of the most individualistic, segregated institutions in america. how many multi-ethnic, intergenerational thriving churches do we see today? hhmm. there is something wrong with this picture. i believe we are missing out. the young are missing the valuable lessons learned from the old. the old are missing out on energy and passion of the young. the caucasions are missing out on the beauty of the african americans and the koreans are missing out on the spirit of the hispanics. i'm not about the universal church (as in everything goes) but why aren't we coming together? thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. there are no lines of seperation in his kingdom. we are all one in Jesus. isn't this supposed to happen now? there was never a prerequisite for jesus to come back, right? it's supposed to be happening now. we have his spirit that unites us, that takes us beyond ourselves into a place of peace that passes all understanding. i'm not trying to be naive about past wounds and the racial healing that needs to take place, but i also understand the scriptures to proclaim the church as god's reconciling agent. i want to see some reconciliation going on...know what i'm sayin'



mel

i hate halloween...

it's never been a good "holiday" for me. top five reasons why:

1. the costume i have in my head never turns out the way it's supposed to when i put it together. end up claiming to be a piccasso.

2. go to a party thinking it will be exasperatingly fun. what really happens... stupid people find excuses to act more stupid and get on every nerve in body.

3. costume ends up causing permanent damage in some shape or form to parts of body.

4. stay home to hand out candy to the wee ones to only have 5 kids show up at door.

5. all the candy left over from no one showing up ends up on my thighs.


the only good thing about halloween in charlotte... it was nice and warm. a welcome change from frigid chicago.

randomness... a guy that is a regular at my coffeshop was in front of me upon entrance into the glorious wal-mart. he was acting all macho and impressive by holding open the automatic door... what a man.

i did finally get offered the job and i start next monday. i would have put an exclamation mark at the end of that sentence, but it's taken way to long for me to be excited about it... it's just a matter of fact. whoo hoo.

something i've been upset about is when they offered me the job last thursday, i was told by my manager that the DM was wondering why i wasn't more excited...hmmm. maybe because they've been dinking around for so long?!!! it was almost a month and a half before i heard anything. please!!! now i'm supposed to be just sooo excited and jumping up and down because they couldn't make up their minds whether or not they wanted me? i should have told them to take a flying leap for making me wait so long. they're lucky to have me. i'm a hard worker with a lot of integrity and passion. they should be hugging me. i know that's not how the real world operates, but sometimes it just isn't fair.

okay... i'm done. just needed to air it out.

mel