Well, barf. Here it is, 1am, and I've woken up and can't get back to sleep! What to do? Well, I could ramble in my blog, so here I am
I'm actually pretty awake, too, all things considered
What to talk about? Hmmm....
Ahhh, the superiority of a feather pillow! There's no pillow that shapes quite as well when you squeeze it in your arms and lay your head on it. Those new-fangled foam pillows get hard and lumpy when you do that, but a feather pillow stays soft and has no lumps. Yeah, every so often a feather works its way out and sticks you, but that's a small price to pay for an otherwise perfect pillow
Have you ever noticed how still and quiet it is in the middle of the night? There's a hush outside as the world around you is sleeping, and these stolen moments of wakefulness seem like moments out of time. If I was to get dressed and go for a drive, the roads would be almost empty. Inside my house, the cats are asleep, my roommate is asleep and the only light on is the small lamp next to my computer.
Even as a teen I loved these moments. They were truly
my time when I could do whatever I wanted. Sometimes I'd read, other times I'd clean or bake cookies. But they were always magical
To this day, I still love those moments, and now I've added other things I enjoy doing...catching up online, praying...these moments truly are gems in the hustle and bustle of daily life.
And on that note, I think I'll go back to bed. Goodnight!
I recently joined
Netflix, and am enjoying having DVDs mailed to my house and being able to watch them at my leisure.
I thought it might be fun to share about what I'm currently watching and my thoughts about the movies.
Right now I have 3 DVDs waiting to be watched:
Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la bête), 1946 - This is a black and white French film with English subtitles. It's supposed to be magical and enchanting. I'm looking forward to seeing it :)
Sharpe's Rifles, 1993 - this is a 13 or so episode TV series from the UK, starring Sean Bean. From IMDB.com: "
Portugal 1809, the Penisular War in the age of Napoleon. A British sergeant in the 95th Rifles saves the life of Arthur Wellesley, and finds himself promoted to Lieutenant and in charge of a company of Rifles that do not respect him, to carry out a dangerous and vital mission."
I'm planning to watch all the episodes over the coming months. I've seen some of this on PBS and really enjoyed it.
The Four Feathers, 2002 - starring Heath Ledger. I'm not too sure I'm going to enjoy this movie, but decided to give it a chance.
A surprisingly excellent movie that I saw a couple of weeks ago was
Secondhand Lions. Fun, uplifting, and a great message. Check it out!
Wow, we've had some wild weather lately! I woke up yesterday morning and it was a horribly blustery rainy day. There were reports of gusts of wind up to 70mph! Rain was heavy at times, and there was some minor flooding. Days like that make me want to stay home reading, but no such luck...I had to brave the weather and head to work.
Unsurprisingly, the power went out at work and was off for nearly 2 hours. With the type of job I have, if there's no power, there's nothing to do, so we all sat around and talked for those two hours. Of course we were hoping that the power would take a long time to come back on and that they'd let us go home for the day, but that rarely happens. Management ordered pizza for all of us, so we had a nice lunch
Later in the afternoon the storm passed and the sun came out. You'd never know it had stormed! The storm left its mark, though...trees and branches down, mudslides, power lines down, power outages, minor flooding...at home there were branches of the palm trees in my front yard all over the yard and driveway.
Sometime during the night another storm moved in, fortunately without the high winds. Right now it's raining, sometimes heavy, sometimes light. Traffic signals are out in different areas around town, and the roads were a mess during the morning commute. I came across a major intersection with no power, and decided to head a different direction and backtrack so I could get onto the freeway and get to work on time. As I went down a surface street I drove by a fallen power line that was sparking and in flames. I did make it to work on time, thankfully
I went to bed around 9pm last night. I've overslept the last two mornings and didn't want to do that again today or be really tired over the coming weekend, when I'll be busy. Sometimes it's nice to go to bed that early, and last night was one of those nights for me.
This Saturday we'll be celebrating my niece's 16th birthday. Her birthday was back in late December, but we postponed the celebration because everyone was close to broke after buying for Christmas. I've been unsure what to get her as a gift, and after asking some online friends and my sister for advice, I've decided upon the following:
A silver necklace. I'm going to go to a Christian book store and look for something unique.
A book: You are Special by Max Lucado. I'm not sure yet if I'll get the kid's edition or the gift version for adults.
A birthday card
A giant stuffed panda. I got it at Albertson's for $10...quite a buy!
A gift certificate from a local mall
And lastly, I'm planning to write her a letter letting her know how special she is and acknowledging her passage from childhood to adulthood. I hope she doesn't think the letter is dorky, although she might at this age.
What I'd like to do is find a fabric gift bag at Michaels, put everything inside of it and tie it around the neck of the stuffed panda bear. Hopefully there's such a thing! If not, I'll either make one or use a paper gift bag.
I was bad at work today
I bought some super sour lifesavers and put them in the candy basket at my desk. When people dug through the candy looking for something I'd suggest one of the lifesavers. The expressions on their faces when they got their first super sour taste!!!
The funniest was when Donna put one in her mouth and then spit it out into her hand with an anguished cry! I had just taken a drink of some iced tea and had to spit it back into the glass so I wouldn't choke!
Ah, yes...my coworkers love me
Here's a
fantastic blog where the author is focusing on The Passion of Christ and is doing a series on questions and answers about Jesus.
Who is Mark D. Roberts? From his blog:
The Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts is a pastor, author, and speaker. Since 1991 he has been the Senior Pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, California (a city in Orange County about forty miles south of Los Angeles). Before coming to Irvine, Mark served on the staff of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood as Pastor of Education.
Mark studied at Harvard University, receiving a B.A. in Philosophy, an M.A. in the Study of Religion, and a Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian Origins. He teaches classes in New Testament for Fuller Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Mark has written several books, including Jesus Revealed (WaterBrook, 2002), After "I Believe" (Baker, 2002), and Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Word, 1993). His most recent book is Dare to Be True (WaterBrook, 2003). Mark serves on the editorial board of Worship Leader magazine, where he frequently publishes articles and reviews. He often speaks for churches and other Christian groups, and has been interviewed on over fifty radio programs nationwide.
Being a team lead can be a challenge. Basically you're a supervisor without the official title, and with the 'unofficial' title of lead come many responsibilites, some not so fun.
Today I had one of those responsibilities...the typing department has been making a large amount of errors, and my supervisor has asked me to return ALL their errors to them for them to correct, when usually the proofreading group corrects most errors. Needless to say, a few of the typists weren't very happy about this, and I quickly became the least popular person. I became quite familiar with this reception
LOL! I saw a drastic change in the error ratio of the typists, so I don't think we'll have to do this very long
As I was wandering the halls of the building today, I passed an older man, heavyset and balding, who had the most incredible handlebar moustache I've ever seen in real life!
It must have stretched out at least 3 inches on each side!
He made me think of a bodybuilder from the turn of the century
All he needed was that funny gym suit they used to wear back then!
I procrastinated this weekend and never did get around to going to the laundromat, so I had to go there and do my laundry after work this evening. To make things easier, I loaded up my laundry in the car this morning, and at lunch went to
Raley's to buy some detergent. When I got into my car, it reeked!!!
Dirty clothes sitting in a closed-up car in the sunshine isn't a good combination...
The laundromat is between my house and the office, so I stopped there on my way home to do the laundry. Laundromats are interesting places...you never know who you're going to meet! While I didn't really talk to anyone there tonight (I usually load up my clothes in the washers and dryers then go sit in my car and read), I was entertained by the people who were there while I was there.
An african-american family came in, and the father was wearing a neat caftan. The family seemed nice and were having a good time, then dad began to sing (embarrassing his teenaged daughter). He had a really good voice, and I liked the songs he was singing. It was cool because he was singing songs about Jesus! It was uplifting to hear praise being sung to Jesus at the laundromat. I was tempted to join in, but I didn't.
The sun was still shining when I got to the laundromat, and as evening progressed I was treated to a beautiful sunset. As the sky darkened to a midnight blue, the stars began coming out, and Venus shone bright as a diamond next to a gorgeous crescent moon.
Now I'm home, my clothes are clean and smell like spring, and I'm watching some TV.
Why is it that weekends seem to pass so quickly while work weeks drag out? Other than the obvious 2 day/5 day difference
An investing commercial is on right now playing the song "Call Me" by Blondie
...it's a Fidelity commercial. It's reminding me that I need to get in touch with my HR rep at work about getting a 401k plan going.
I should go to bed soon...I need to go to the laundromat after work tomorrow or I'll be out of clean warm clothes!
