No T-Guide to Follow

I'll admit. The T-Guide was lame. This week I'll leave you with some things that I'm sure will be on my mind as I journey from Monday to Sunday. And, because a picture is worth a thousand words, I figure I'll save some time and do that.



















So have a good week... and love each other...

No Magic Kingdom this time around

I just got off the phone with John. It was one of those casual conversations. You know:

J: Hi Sara
S: Hey John how's it going?
J: Good. Do you want to come to Disney World? My parents said I could invite a friend and they'll pay for everything except the flight.
S: !!!!!!!!!!

The sad thing is that I actually COULD go for the 5 days they are planning on taking off. Nothing due, nothing major holding me back. If I had a paper due or, like Brea, had to work, then it wouldn't be so sad to say no. But that's ok! We gave it a shot! I just can't afford $700 right now when I've got Australia coming up.

Wouldn't that have been fun though?

Happy Birthday

Today is my Opa's 75th birthday. We had a good ol' German-style crazyfest at the clubouse in their development. It was really nice. I stole Kye from Shelice (though she was looking forward to a half hour break I think). I can't believe he's a month old; it's insanity! Where on earth did February go? Whoa!

And now for some more out-of-context quotes that continue to paint a very interesting portrait of some of the people in my life:

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"There's no room left in our family. You have two choices: a cork in the head or back into the womb." - Kelly

"Yeah there's no alcohol at this party." - Mom
"Knowing our family, there's booze in the butter." - Sara
"Yeah... the 'adult' butter." - Kelly

"Eww! Rainbow jelly! The dog eats her own [...] and she won't even go near that." - Kelly
"Are you talking about me?" - Andrea

"Are you eyeing my wine? I'm just going to drink it from the bottle." - Kelly

"I don't know why I'm laughing... I can't even hear what you're saying." - Shelby

"We need to get you a brown paper bag." - Mike (to Kelly, who is wandering around with a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling raspberry juice)

"OH! Rich is here! HE will have wine!" - Andrea

"How would you like me to kick you in the face?" - Kelly

"Let's paint your room. Then eat the paint." - Kelly

"I'm so tired from drinking all that wine." - Kelly

"Sara, if we DO end up taking over the entire world, why will we need an army? - Dyllon (my 11 year old genius cousin who is as tall as me)
"Well what about aliens?" - Sara
"Oh. Good point." - Dyllon

"Bugs! Naked bugs! Flying naked bugs!" - Kelly as Sara as Gil Grissom

-----

I'm leading care group tomorrow night. So far I have no idea what I want to discuss and I'm a bit worried about that. As of now the plan is to just stare at each other for a few hours. I'll call that one Plan B.

Man oh man... unless something bad and unforseeable happens, I'll be going to Australia in four months. There is so much to do, so many things to fill out and get done and collect and figure out and arrange. But I'm so excited. A little overwhelmed to be completely honest, and yet I know it will be worth it.

Anyway... I have to help Kelly set up her new iPod mini.

MANCANDY

I was reminded of this by the start of the Oscars!

In alphabetical order, just for practice ;).

Howie Day




Sigh. Yeah, he’s cute, but not really that stunning. His hotness certainly comes from the talent. And the blue eyes! I’ve traveled twice internationally to see him (OK so it was just Seattle but shh), and skipped out early on a Poli Sci midterm (on which I did very well thank you very much!) to meet him at an MTV taping downtown, and it’s surely been worth it. If you’ve not heard the boy I would recommend asking me, for I have a LOT of his stuff, including live recordings (which kick more butt than this studio work ever will). The Madrigals DVD versions of “Ghost” and “Madrigals” blow me away… in fact I think that they should be shown on screen at PPAC because my tv isn’t big enough.

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Gary Dourdan
(left)


I didn’t even know his real name so I had to google it. All I know is that Warwick (apparently he goes by “Gary Dourdan”) is a good-looking, blue-eyed dude who solves crimes!!! So what if he’s not technically real?!! So WHAT? [Note: Warwick is a character on CSI]

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Ryan Gosling


He played the dweeb on Breaker High but he is no longer that dweeb. I remember thinking he was kinda cute, back when I was like, 13. Word on the street is that his performance in United States of Leland is quite good, so hopefully when I see that, it will redeem him from The Notebook. Not that I have anything against The Notebook; I think that I just went in with too high expectations because people had been raving that it was heart-wrenchingly beautiful. Anyway. Hot. Canadian.

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Jack Johnson


Jack I have had the pleasure of seeing twice. Once at the Orpheum, where he played most of the set solo (unbelievable!!!!!!) and once at T-Bird with Ben Harper (This was the first time that I did something alone with that crazy chick that randomly added me to her msn… what was her name? Oh yeah! Zahida! Who could have known at the time that her best friend went to my church?). Totally different shows but equally amazing. One thing that remained the same was his soft voice and Hawaiian-inspired melodies. In addition to being a great singer / songwriter / guitarist, he’s also an award-winning documentary-maker (Documentarist? Documentarian? Filmmaker? Docu-ho?) and surfer. He’s hot because he’s talented

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William Joseph




Oh you and your stupid piano. I think he’s trying to kill me! Megs insisted that he was gorgeous back when we both had tickets for Josh Groban (WJ opened). I couldn’t see… she was in the reds and I was up in the blues. Those of us up in the nosebleeds probably wouldn’t have known if William Joseph had been a woman, or a well-trained monkey even. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked up his site a while later. Of course being good-looking doesn’t make someone play the piano better. But that’s another story.

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Jude Law


There’s something about his Britishness I think. I find him charming. Kelly agrees, and she makes fun of everyone, so I knew I’d made a good choice when she commented in passing, “oh he is so hot.”

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Jared Leto


OK, well, Jared Leto IS a singer in a band, but let’s please not go there. He is not on this list because he is musically talented. Actually, let’s please go there. His band, 30 Seconds from Mars, was about 45 minutes of horrendous and offensive noise that I was forced to endure before Incubus (Incubus was WELL worth the pain though!!!). When I found out later that Jared was heading the band, I thought to myself, “well now that’s a shame.” It almost makes him less attractive. Almost. The good news is that I can be entirely superficial when the need arises. And right now is one such time.

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Jack Liebeck


See the problem with this guy is that stupid violin. He’s actually my friend Mike’s cousin and Mike brought me his cd when he was visiting from London in the summer. He’s really good and the world should be lucky enough to be exposed to him soon.

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Evan and Jaron




There are TWO of them!! They win the hottest twins category hands down (not that there are really any categories). By the way, note that they look the same and there are two. They wisely dropped the last name (Lowenstein) because that is not a hot name. One plays lead guitar, the other guitar and piano, so the question is, well, which one to choose? How about the unmarried one! Theoretically.

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Brad Pitt


It’s very difficult to have a list of mancandy without including Mr. Pitt. He has made it on here even though he’s old and blond. So that is saying something! As my mom said when I was showing her this list, “Jennifer what the frack were you thinking?”. Ha-ha!

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Tyson Ritter
(far right)


(second from left)




Haven’t heard of him? Yeah I’m not surprised. He is the lead singer of a mediocre band called the All-American Rejects. I like a few of their songs but I don’t know that I would buy their album. But he’s VERY CUUUUUUTE.

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Michael Vartan


This is for Stef. Happy Sunday, Stefanie. G**g stinks. And I chose not to fully spell his name so that you can avoid flying into a blind and violent rage ok? (…and Bradley Cooper didn’t cut it for me)

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Rufus Wainwright


Great musician. I love his voice and his piano-playing. Brea loves him more, though. The thing is… he himself loves men. Sorry Brea… it needed to be said.

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Tom Welling


TV’s Superman.

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Aaaaaand I think that's good for now. Kell helped me out by giving her "ewwws" and her "ooooohs" ;).

I am ridiculous.

I'm going to Australia.... :O

Nostalgia

T Guide: Read this on Saturday

I should be finding out soon about this whole exchange thing. I’m nervous but excited and I hope that I get accepted! I had a pretty strong application I think… I wrote stuff that I know they will want to hear, but it’s still true.

Did you know…. Did you know, did you know that Kelly is going to be 14 (FOURTEEN!!!!) on March 8? Wowsers I can’t believe it. She still seems 9 to me. I still remember the day that she was born…

My parents woke me up in the middle of the night and my mom was wearing her black maternity dress. Dad took me to the Kvarnstrom’s and let me in and tucked me into the bed in the guest room. In the morning I surprised Anders and Michele as they were getting up and they knew immediately what was going on. Michele said I could stay home and we could go shopping instead (woo hoo). It was my 6th birthday a few weeks later so she said I could pick something out as an early present. In the car on the way to the mall I tried to convince Anders that there were 50 seconds in a minute. Funny how you remember little details like that, huh? Anyway, at the toy store it was a tough decision, but in the end it was Babysitter Skipper over the Perfume Pony. Grr. I also remember that Gillian (my childhood neighbor) broke Skipper’s head off while trying to strap her down on her Doctor Barbie examination table. That BITCH. Haha.

Later in the day, dinner time maybe, Dad picked me up and we went to McDonald’s before heading to Lion’s Gate. We parked on the sidewalk and walked towards the hospital. I tripped and ripped a hole in my red ribbed leggings. Man, those leggings were almost as cool as Mike’s! Then we went to see my mom and my new baby sister, Kelly Diana. I got to pick her middle name. I chose Diana because my name means Princess and I wanted Kelly to be a princess as well.

So… then I saw my mom and Kelly and they made me sit down and then gently placed her in my arms. And the first thing I thought was that she was really funny looking. She had pointy ears and a squished face and she was all red. But I guess to a 5-year-old that’s what babies look like. I just remember thinking that I was the luckiest girl in the entire universe and I was so proud of her.

Sniff sniff. And now she’s almost 14. In those 14 years I’ve dropped her (“no mom don’t worry I know what I’m doing”…WHOMP), smacked her, locked her in the freezer room, while she’s bitten me, slammed my fingers in doors and gotten me in trouble for things I haven’t done. But we’ve survived, and the important thing, when it all boils down, is this: I can still kick her butt if necessary.

"And now for something completely different!"

A line from a song that has been in my head for a week now: "You see the depths of my soul and You love me the same" (from Indescribable). It's just so true!!!! Sigh. God rocks. Maybe I'm not quite sure what exactly love is, but I know that He is love. Even though we screw up and hurt one another and the depths of our souls are not always pretty, He loves us anyway. And not just mediocre love, either. Perfect love.

On Turning 20 and a Blog to Peruse

T Guide: Read this on Friday

Sigh the beach is so nice I LoVe it down there. Brea and I went there for a walk on Tuesday night really late and it was freezing but there is always so much to see. So much beauty. Sigh. I noticed that the hemp store is gone though! Where am I to get my “supplies” now??? I was there once and bought a wallet and it was rad:

Lady: “Yeah these are great little pouches for keeping your pipe and your stash. OH if you’re looking for something to hold your stash look at this purse! It has a little hidey hole for some rollies!”

Sara: [just stares, wide-eyed and innocent]

Oh those were the days. The days of my youth and innocence.

Speaking of youth and innocence I am about to turn old! Maybe not ABOUT but getting rather close! My last two birthdays have been HORRIBLE in very different ways so hopefully keeping it low-key will work out better for me. It’s on a Wednesday and I’m scheduled to do sound that evening, so that will be really, really nice. Who wants to go out on a Wednesday night after 6 hours of class? Not I! I haven’t had a party in years though, so this year I’m going to have a dessert and coffee thing at my place methinks. I had this crazy idea in the middle of the night and I think it should be great fun! Details to follow mwuahaha.

Go look at www.meiermg.com/rwanda. There will be some craziness going on in April sometime. So much potential; I’m really excited about this.

Man-Candy

T Guide: Read this on Thursday

I was reading People the other day and was looking at the Sexiest Men Alive issue that my mom always buys for me. I find that I very rarely agree with most of their choices. In fact… hmm. Yes. I am going to make my own list of hot celebrities! Except their title is boring. For my objectification of men, I think I shall call it… “MAN CANDY”. Perfect. I’ll compile it this week and blog it next time! In the meantime, feel free to post your own nominations for consideration!

Kelly and Her Hilarity

T Guide: Read this on Wednesday

I am still in the habit of writing down things that people say that I find funny or intriguing. Or the things that they do for that matter. Take right this second, for instance. Kelly has Roxy up in the air and she’s claiming that our dog is her angel of music. We’re talking full-on Phantom of the Opera here…. Now she wants to know if I can make some sort of pulley system so we can suspend Roxy and reenact the musical.

More funny things that Kelly has said:

“He does like to drum. Topless.”

“There were supposed to be eleven people. But then they ate one.”

“Sara is a homo-erectus. Get her drunk and ask her to take off her mask.”

“For my birthday I want a trident. Sara for my birthday I want a trident. A really pokey one. I mean sharp.”

“One of us is about to get eaten, and we both know it’s not going to be me, because I’m the cute one.”

“I’ll break your legs. I will rip your heart out.”

“Tempted by the fruit of anOOOOOOOTHER ooooooh!”

She got her hair cut today. She has bangs now and they look amazing! I could never have bangs because I have an afro. Actually my hair is straight right now believe it or not. But that’s an exception to the rule and I choose not to believe it, at least in the long-term.

I went the 9 am old people service this morning because the temptation to go do stuff after church is sooo… tempting. And I really have to study. It was good; sat up in the balcony with my aunt and uncle. My aunt makes lipgloss these days so she is going to call me next time she does so I can come over and help. Sweet. Such a social butterfly (har har) - I think I'm going to be making pasta with Chris and Tenaya sometime this week. That should be fun. Homemade pasta kind of rocks.

John E. and John C.

T Guide: Read this on Tuesday

Friday after work I took Roxy to the vets. She was freaking out. Tried to jump of the table several times and was crying and shaking. It would have been funny if I didn’t love her so damn much. She is on antibiotics so hopefully she will be better soon! Speaking of sick though, my car is finally doing a bit better. My dad charged up my battery and cleaned the terminals and worked some other Tomko magic and now Bubba is starting which is just a delight. Out-STANDING.

Friday night was excellent. JJ Emmerton and I went to Sammy J Peppers for dinner and had a great time. I haven’t done anything with him since school started. He lent me his computer and I went to see him and Brea briefly back in October… oh and we drove Stef to the airport but it’s been way too long. Considering we used to live in each other’s pockets. It was really cool - he asked me to tell him about how I became a Christian which is just bizarre to be honest, because he is very adamant that he does not want to hear things like that. Afterwards he said that he thought it was all amazing and that he hopes we can talk more about it soon. Hmm! I am shocked (and those of you who know John will be as well I think!) but pleased. Because he was once one of my best friends and I would like to be able to share the most important part of my life with my friends!

Afterwards we met up with Trevor (Meier) and Dean for some John Constantine. I must say I got myself worked up for very little. I do tend to get scared by, oh, let’s say EVERYTHING, but I thought for sure that this would be terrifying. It wasn’t. It was mediocre, though the special effects were quite good. The best parts of the movie were when Gabriel gets punched in the face, and when John and Isabel do NOT kiss at the end. That would have been ridiculously uncalled for.

One major gripe that I had was that it was projected digitally on 2k rather than 4k. Just kidding. I have no idea what any of that means. In layman’s terms I think it means the quality was not what it should have been and I would agree that it was a little pixely.

I have midterms this week. I wish that I didn’t. I want to do well in 221 in particular because it fascinates me and it’s a key course in my program. What I need to learn to do is actually talk to the professors but the idea of going to an office hour fills me with terror. I’m too chicken I guess. Not that these people are scary, but I guess I am just very intimidated by them.

Catching Up II - LEGGINGS!

Before I begin, I'm implementing a system of rations for people who don't feel they can handle a blogging frenzy (aka "I can't read that much!"). I'm calling it the T Guide for "no" reason in particular.

T Guide: Read this on Monday

Like I said, Kell's ankle is broken. It's just a hairline fracture thank goodness. We tried to come up with some amazing story about how we were street fighting and she broke it while kicking ass, but in truth, it happened whilst she was "leap-frogging over a fat kid". Her words, not mine. It's actually pretty funny; she was at Tae Kwon Do and she was just sort of walking past all the tall and big kids but then the master of the studio was watching so she had to try to jump over this kid. Then after she fell, Master Chang, who is also a doctor of acupuncture, started to stick needles in her foot. The other foot. Gah.

What was I saying? I think I'm going senile already (which reminds me it's getting close to my birthday!). Oh yes. So we got our x-rays and my doc called and said she wanted to do a follow up. Oh ick. BUT! Apparently the ligament (tendon? thinger?) that's holding my patella in place is a bit messed up but they don't have to cut me! Huzzah. "You cut me and I'll cut you!!!"

I did some Tomko-ing on Thursday and Friday and had some good times with Nicki. Saw Trevor “T-Dawg” Neufeld who was going to put up a Mammoth system (HAHAHAHAHAHA sucks to be him!), but by far the best part was when I saw Mike (my dad’s business partner aka my boss). I was thinking to myself, “well now that’s strange; his shoes look really big.” It wasn’t until I had looked at him for a good ten seconds that I realized that he was wearing black leggings. Yes you can laugh. In fact, I’m laughing right now. Oh dear. It was really spectacular. Made my day. It was almost as cool as the time when I turned on his truck and Clear FM came on loud and… clear (nyuk nyuk). Trevor turned on his car too so we could listen to it in STEREO behind the warehouse, and a disgruntled and embarrassed Mike came running down to try to shut off the Celine Dion before his reputation was destroyed forever. Too late!

Catching up I

Well it's Sunday which means that I can write in here. Basically, this little baby is one of the things that I'm giving up for Lent this season, under a common theme. I thought that Zahida had made it quite clear on my behalf in the comments section, but for those of you who actually seemed to be upset by my lack of blogging, here it is:

Nice to see you've stuck to your word about not blogging for a bit. Remember that Sundays don't count in the 40 days of Lent.

In the meantime, I'm trying to think of what's been going on. It's really a shame that I didn't get to post again before Lent began because I didn't want the previous post to be the last one! Oh well. I actually started to write another, but then it was past midnight before I was done and I had to trash it. I haven't discussed the "situation" with said person, but I figure it's a)too late now; b)not worth it c)meh I was too chicken anyway. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

What else, what else? I did sound at church on Sunday, which is why I didn't take advantage of the "Lenten Loophole" (sounds like a line dance!) last week. It went quite well. I was having nightmares all week about it going just TERRIBLY but nothing blew up. I had a couple token screwups, but they're getting fewer and far between and Trev helped out a lot. Good times. The BEST part about Sunday was when the congregation was singing. It was kind of like, yup, He's here. I haven't really had that experience at church for a while, and I was getting really worried. Maybe it's just God's way of saying, "I'm here, you just have to look and wait". I love how God gives us not only the things we need, but things we want, both small and big. In care group we're supposed to write down how we have experienced God's love in the last while, so I've been thinking about it more. And that's a good thing, Martha! [Speaking of which, Ms. Stewart is getting out soon I hear! EEEEEP!!! We're going to have a criminal among us!!!]

Valentine's Day was great. I know lots of people get bitter or depressed by I kind of like it! I think it's sweet. Highly overrated but fun to watch nonetheless. Anyway it rocked because it was the first day of reading break so I got to sleep in! Woke up at 8 (which is highly unusual in itself!) and then as I was about to get up, I passed out again. YES. So I actually got up at 10. What a treat. Then I didn't do anything really. Did some bio, went for a walk, my mom, sister, and dog came home from Whistler, and then my cg went to Joe's to bake sugar cookies. That was fun. Tonnes-o-fun! Joe can solve a Rubix cube in like three minutes!! He is fantastic!

Oh gosh it really puts life into perspective when you don't blog for twelve days. All the stuff that I would normally blog about every day seems not quite as important. BOOO. This is the longest that I've gone since starting to blog and it's weird. I miss it.

Anyway I'm getting carried away.

What the heck else did I do? OH. My knee! I finally gave in and went to the clinic last week and she wanted me to get x-rays and basically my patella is like, way on the side and that's apparently not normal. So I went and got all x-rayed and she told me to be prepared if they needed to go in there and fix things up ie operate on it. Gahhhh. The good news (the "good news") is that Kell also had x-rays that needed to be done so we got to go together. Like a family outing. To the hospital. Her ankle is broken.

Shoot. I will finish this later. The theme of part II is LEGGINGS.

"To be, or not to be... irked."

Here is the dilemma of the moment. If someone pisses you off, makes you feel like you're a tool (ie it seems like maybe they're using you), and, to be honest, kind of hurts your feelings, what do you do? What do you do if you don't want to keep feeling resentment towards this person? Do you talk to them about it? What if you can't possibly see a way of NOT coming across as an ass in such a situation? Like, say, you don't know the person particularly well and you know that they didn't mean to be hurtful....

So that's basically my problem this afternoon. I don't like feeling like I'm being taken advantage of, and at the same time, I don't know to to bring it up without sounding like a baby.

Pfffffft.

Piece of Glass

The first half of today just... rocked. It straight up rocked my world and I had an amazing time with my Opa and his wife Dorle. Maybe you're thinking, "nerd alert", but you can piss off :). I adore them. I really do.

I went to White Rock Baptist this morning and Benny Jones was preaching. Benny is the guy who looks like Hank's dad (from King of the Hill). He married my Opa to Dorle last summer, and I always sort of didn't like him very much. So when I found that he was at the pulpit, I was thinking, "Of all the days for the regular pastor to be on vacation..." and then he went on to talk about communion and the significance of the Lord's Supper. I found myself asking afterwards, "of all the days for the regular pastor to be on vacation." Of all the days for me to go to White Rock Baptist. Of all the days for me to need to hear that sermon SO badly.

I wish they had recordings of the sermon, because I think I could stand to hear it again. He said something along the lines of, "Do you know what this [communion] table means? It means someone died for you." Simple. True. He said a lot of things that just hit me as being very true. And they're things that need to be said, too.

I went up after and shook his hand and thanked him for blessing me with such a powerful message. Turns out he's a really sweet guy. I'm glad that I went up there, because I never would have known otherwise.

My Opa is so adorable. Hahaha! Here's a story for you: I got there about ten minutes before the service, ran into Gio (a guy from my choir in high school), and then found Opa and Dorle. Opa asked me if I want to look at their tech set up because he knows I do sound elsewhere. To be honest, I didn't really want to, but I can't say no to him, because it's Opa! So I said I'd go take a look. I wandered up to the balcony and peered down over the sanctuary, pausing briefly to look at the soundboard and camera, to appease Opa.

Then all of a sudden, there he was! He'd come up the stairs a few moments after me because he thought I would be to shy to ask about their equipment. So he marched over to the head techie dude and said, "Trevor, this is my granddaughter. She likes doing sound for worship at church. She is interested in that kind of stuff. Don't be shy, Sara. Take a look." And then he left.

So I shook Trevor's hand and asked him a few questions. Again, must appease Opa! And then before you know it, he's all, "Oh so after the service you should introduce yourself to Pastor Steve, he's in charge of worship here. They rehearse on Thursday nights but usually the tech volunteers don't have to be at that. They just come at 8:00 on Sunday morning for the rehearsal. We don't have any girls on the team actually."

Uhhmmm... thanks Opa! I muttered something about taking a listen and then I ran away. And after the service, I hid from Trevor.

Sigh. Opa, Opa, Opa. Like I said, I can't say no to him. I delight in his happiness. And did you know he was 12 lbs when he was born? He claims it's because his mom drank a lot of beer when she was pregnant with him. I learned that today at lunch.

Lunch was something else. Talked a lot about Jesus.

So that was the first half of my day.

In the second half of my day I made some really foolish decisions and I'm angry with myself as a result.

But all in all, as Opa said to me as he was looking in his coffee cup, "the glass is half full!!" So cute.

A Public Apology

To My Dad,

I'm sorry I've been raving about your ruining lately. I'm sorry I blamed all of the internet problems on your lack of savvy. And most of all I'm sorry for calling you a male bimbo behind your back on one or two occasions.

Love Sara

---

To My Daughter,

I don't read your blog. But thank you anyway.

Love Dad

---

To Sara,

Stop pretending to write emails. We all know it's just you pretending.

Love Sara

---

So. Henry aka Mr. Telus Man just left (he's my new hero by the way), and with him he took our old, evidently broken modem. Which means that I must come clean and apologize for blaming it on my dad. Sure, he's responsible for some of it, like the deletion of my MD Software, but not this. This was a hardware issue. And I didn't call him a male bimbo. I think my dad's really intelligent actually; a very clever businessnman. I just really like the term. Male Bimbo. Has a ring to it.

Anyway I gotsta go to the clinic, but I felt I should publicly acknowledge that I made a mistake. Hee hee. Hee hee.

Oh and I'm reading another really odd book - Not Wanted on the Voyage. It's a twisted tale of Noah and his family.

Taken from "Leviticus"

Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (Leviticus)

The Heathen were a daily household preoccupation. My mother found them everywhere, particularly Next Door. They tormented her as only the godless can, but she had her methods.

They hated hymns, and she liked to play the piano, and old upright with pitted candelabra and yellow keys...

One Sunday morning, just after we had got in from Communion, we heard strange noises, like cries for help, coming from Next Door. I took no notice, but my mother froze...

'What is it?' I said.

'I don't know,' she said in a loud whisper, 'but whatever it is, it's not holy.'

'Have you got a wine glass?' urged Mrs. White.

My mother looked horrified.

'For medicinal purposes, I mean,' added Mrs. White hurriedly.

My mother went to the high cupboard...

'I never use these,' she said meaningfully.

'Neither do I,' said Mrs. White defensively, clamping herslef back against the wall...

'They're fornicating,' cried my mother, rushing to put her hands over my ears...

'Ask the Savior to Help You, we'll sing that. Mrs. White, you be the baritone.'...

By the time we got to verse 3, Next Door had started to bang on the wall.

'Listen to the Heathen,' my mother shouted jubilantly, her foot furious on the hard pedal.

'Sing it again.'

And we did, while the Heathen, driven mad by the Word, rushed away to find what blunt instruments they could to pound the wall from the other side...

My mother lept from the keys and rushed to our back yard to quote the scripture. She found herself staring at the eldest son who had a lot of spots.

'The Lord help me,' she prayed, and a piece of Deuteronomy flashed into her mind:

'The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt, and with the ulcers and scurvey and the itch of which you cannot be cured'...

Then she ran back inside and slammed the door.

Does this help to clear up your confusion, Zahida J.? I'm doing a presentation on this particular novel on Monday and we we've decided we need to have some dramatic reading in there, just for kicks.

It's a decent read, about an evangelist girl who preaches from the age of eight, trains to be a missionary and then comes out as a lesbian. And obviously she has a lively mother. Very interesting, though I can't say anything was really reconciled for me at the end. Then again, I'm not sure what I expected.

You know what my Egyptology prof just said? Kind of random, but funny nonetheless:

"Who built these pyramids? Well first of all, the Egyptians. There were no aliens involved."

Good to know!

"I'm on your lawn"

Kelly: Wow that's so cool. It's like, a snake woman.
Girl in her class: It's a peacock.
Kelly: Ohhh... umm, I really like it.
---
Kelly: We should make that salad... you know that one that Auntie... uh... crap I forgot her name. Dammit!
---
Kelly: Yeah, I think you're pretty, but you would be prettier if you looked different.
---

So. Funny. When. You're. Tired.

I have lost the ability to do big colorful fonts in here, but I must once again explain that CHRIS AND TREVOR ARE MY HEROES.

My dad in his wisdom and brilliance has been busy ruining things as usual and the repairman is coming on Saturday to fix our internet. They let me come over to their house so that I could use their wireless set up and have my little msn meeting with the kids I'm doing my group presentation with. What would I do without my technology?

I also stole a great deal of their music.

So they saved the day and now I just wonder if there is some way into shaming my dad into fixing the holes in our ceiling....

The blinky thinger on my PalmPilot informed me that it's been three years since I was baptised. That's a long time.

Even though things are a little bit screwey right now.... oh and I'm being threatened with a dust buster.

Anyway, the cool thing about... things (please pardon me, I'm sleepy), is that even though I wonder about stuff and I have my questions, I don't doubt Jesus. And I don't doubt for a second that He sought me out. I came across my testimony a few days ago actually, and even though a lot of things have changed (not surprisingly), there was one thing that really struck me as being so very, very true. "He's my rock" said I. Yep. Veddy, veddy true.

And also, Trevor and Chris are on their hands and knees picking up broken glass.

And finally, it's time for me to go because I've done all I can do for this bleeping project for this evening. It's going to be fun I think. I get to yell, "THEY'RE FORNICATING" and then shriek a few Bible verses. Good, good times.

Peace out, homies.

Welcome, Kye Michael Rodier

Shelice had her baby at 11:30 on Monday night. Woohoo! He is just beautiful. I went out to the hospital in Abbotsford to meet him last night, and it was rad. Kye is absolutely precious. From his fuzzy head to his tiny little toes - adorable! And Mommy looks amazing, albeit a bit tired.

I have a midterm today, but some things are just way more important than studying. Like seeing Kye and coming to the realization that he has a big head. You know what that means... it means that he will be able to join me, Opa, Dyllon, and Kyra in our quest for world domination. Excellent!!! [Note: Yes, I am going to take over the world, so start being nice to me now and you might just get your own country.] And I realize that International Relations will help me in my conquests, so I DID study. I just took an extended break to work on some recruitment.

Stef has decided to boycott, or picket (or whatever she wants to call it) my blog because she insists that I'm not blogging anything of substance. Pffft. How much substance does she expect? Interestingly enough, though, I must agree that my output in the last month has been less substantial than I would like. Not just the blog, but in general. I feel like I'm retreating into myself or something and it's getting harder for me to speak intelligent words. It's making me feel stupid. Hee hee. Hee hee. Take CG on Monday, for example:

D: What do you think, Sara?
S: Uhmm.... uh DUhhhhhhh.

I'm thinking more, but concluding less. Must focus!

And in the meantime, it's not my fault that the words of others are doing it for me. So please don't hold it against me, Stefanie, or at least get your own blog so that I can picket as well :).

How about some book reviews? Does that count, Stef? Better than lyrics at least?

I got a couple good reads in during the last few days. I finished Green Grass, Running Water, and it continued to amuse and perplex. I would recommend it; it can be read for amusement alone, or for reflection. Either works, because the basic plot is engaging enough. I don't know enough about Native mythology, so I can't really comment much on it right now, other than to say that at its most basic level, the novel is really well-written. The characters are developed in such a way that you can get to know them - the narration shifts so that it's almost always third person, but not omniscient. So you see the characters through the eyes of different peers, almost as though it's first person. It really keeps things interesting. It's not a matter of asking, "well who's telling the truth," but more of a reflection on the idea that we see others in different ways, and we may perhaps even present ourselves differently to certain people. Hmm.

I also read The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis - super short, intellectually invigorating, packs a punch. And don't you like the triple alliteration? Shut up Sara. Anyway yeah you should read it - I'm going to read it a few more times I think, but so far, one of them kind of touches on education and the subjective inculcation of certain virtues by linking them to emotions. Then he makes fun of some people and I find it very amusing and clever.

The second one reminds me of something that one might say to Mr. Friedrich "I'm Crazy" Nietzsche. Then again I should probably re-read him too, before I comment on that. John has my Nietzsche. I have his T-4 tax form.... I'm thinking maybe we can make a trade.

Man, talk about digression (is that a word?).

The second one reminded me of Nietzsche because N seems to use the tactics that he criticizes in order to convince people that there is no truth and that everything is relative. "OK kids," said Freddy N., "let's take THIS to be true so that I can show you that there is no truth! Woot!" And I think (THINK) that maybe Lewis touches on this in some way.

The third essay, "The Abolition of Man" is the one that I think I understand the least so far, but am the most interested in pursuing. For now, I just really like this passage (basically the last words of the text):

"[T]he kind of explanation which explains things away may give us something, though at a heavy cost. But you cannot go on 'explaining away' for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on 'seeing through' things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is the same as not to see."
- C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

And, for the purposes of annoying Stef:

Where is the satisfaction
In all the things that draw my attraction?
Where is the delight
In all the things I can't deny?

What happened to the fun
Since I stopped thinking about anyone
But me?

Haven't seen an emptier day
Than this one I'm walking my way
Didn't know that I could eat
And still not have the strength
To stand on my feet

What happened to the fun
Since I stopped thinking about anyone
But me?

I don't want my life to taste this way
Knowing it gets so sweet when I pray
So I'll shut my eyes and forget about me
And I'm humbled that You are all I need

You are all I need

- L. Hubick

Thar ye be. I'm a pirate. Yarrrr.