Faithfulness

I lead a very blessed life. Much of this can be attributed to the faithfulness of my parents. They gave up so much in order for us to live a good life. To clarify a bit, we were not spoiled. We shopped at Ross (do you love it, I love it!), drove decently crappy cars, but lived in a nice house and attended private Christian schools for the entirety of our elementary years. I used to ask why we drove a Pontiac 6000 named "Cracker Haven," when our neighbors drove slick new purple Dodge Caravans. My mother would always respond that they made sacrifices by sending us to private schools and providing us with a Christian education. I'm very grateful for this. While I didn't always have a blissful experience at my Christian school, I had fantastic teachers, a great education, and made some wonderful friends that I am still close with to this day.

My parents tithed faithfully and attempted to pass this down to us. When I was five or six and earning an allowance of $2 a week, I remember them encouraging us to deposit 20 cents of this into a little plastic white church bank for tithe. While I was never able to successfully turn this into a habit as a child, I have somehow been able to pick up this as an adult.

When I look back at the life my parents provided for us, I see God's blessings everywhere I turn. My dad is a very intelligent individual and he never went to college. He has spent years and years educating himself to become the person he is today, and he's very successful. My parents sent all four of us to college, and paid for 90% of it. I have minimal student loans because I went to private school, but my sisters don't have to worry about them. They set us up for success by being faithful stewards of God, and for this I am very grateful. This is a large part of the reason why I have a job that I love.

 I look around at my life today, and I can't deny that I have been blessed because of faithfulness. Sometimes being faithful with my money is a challenge. I have a husband who isn't always fully convinced that the 10% we give to the church is the best thing to do. But every time he doubts and I still write out the check, we have received something unexpected that far exceeds the amount we have given. This isn't always financial, but to me, God's blessings are so easy to spot. People aren't just "this lucky." If I ever need convincing that God exists, I simply look around.

Hope

I'm not generally a hopeful person. I 'm not a doomsdayer either, but I'd like to believe I'm realistic.  I told my dad over and over again that Obama would be our next president and knew that we had no hope. And here it is (well, weeks later...).  Honestly, I couldn't write about it before this.  I've seen so many people shedding tears of happiness, and I've read blogs where people discuss hope and a new future, and I just don't see it.  It almost pains me to see these things- I feel like people are delusional in a way.  While I haven't lived a very long life, and I've barely been around for any important elections, this one didn't feel as pivotal to me as it does to the rest of the American population.  A person with darker skin was running. Great. He's not really African American, but that doesn't really matter anyway.  

I hate to say these things, but a respected friend once told me she could feel evil in people. At the time I wasn't sure I believed her. But I see evil in Obama ("Obama's gonna change the wooooorld").  I could be crazy, but I swear I do. Its not because of all the rumors that have been flying around about where he came from or what he knows... something just feels wrong about him.  And he's the new leader of our country.

Now, I suppose this shouldn't be surprising to me. Lets face it, we live in a world consumed with evil, so much that its often difficult to distinguish the truth. Right and wrong. Good and evil. Truth and falsities.  

I worry about our country, and I worry about my friends and family (hopefully not!) that buy into all of this. 

7 reasons to vote for Rossi

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=684699

I don't care what they say, I like her.

Jenna got a job.

I started my job this week and the results are positive thus far.  I like the environment and I like the people I work with. Although everyone seems to be stressed out this week, they somehow manage to keep in good spirits and suck it up.  Whenever I got irritated with the lazy people at Overlake I was told that these people I would have to deal with my whole life.  Ironically, everyone around me seems hard at work all day regardless of the stress levels.  Lazy lifeguards, you have no chance in the real world. 

I never really worried about getting a job.  Not like I was pompous or overly confident about it- I wasn't at all.  I'm thoroughly convinced that God puts me at peace when I least expect it, especially about things like this.  The day of the interview I lost all nervousness and gave intelligent responses... so out of character for me... Perhaps this was all part of some master plan.  

Ultimately, I'm very satisfied.  

Man of the people:

Weird.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0MXs1E7-8

Executive Decisions

I'm seriously considering boycotting my daily gossip until the November election is over. Perez Hilton is a flaming liberal, and his dislike of Sarah Palin is getting on my nerves.  Its all that his page has become. 

http://perezhilton.com/2008-09-06-more-drama-for-sexy-sarah

RIDICULOUS.  Like McCain would have ever picked her if this were true. 

I could create an entire Anti-Diddy blog, but I won't.

No wonder I've always been taught rap culture is "bad."

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid285859616/bclid294430730/bctid1767973083

Oh, John.

I'm a firm believer in not blogging unless you have something interesting to blog about.  People don't want to hear that you ate some red meat, thought about going for a run, and then finally settled into some Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on ABCFamily.  No one cares. Well, at least, I wouldn't care.  This may be one of those fatty, fat, television show filled blogs because thats all I did this weekend. 

I went to visit Tim's family this weekend in Bend.  The one clear difference between a male and female house is the food that is consumed.  This weekend was a red meat weekend.  I am this close (-) to disowning red meat for the rest of my life (except for McDonald's hamburgers, but those really don't constitute animal meat anyway, do they?). Friday night we had ribs. Saturday night we had barbecued hamburgers, and Sunday we had rib-eye steaks.  Meat.  Enough for a year. Tim was in seventh heaven. 

So we ate. And ate. And ate. 

And afterwards, I got in a heated discussion with Tim's millionaire uncle about the sanctity of life. And Obama the antichrist.  The fun part of that is Tim's mother clearly told me there would be no political discussions that evening. I believe she said, "Do not talk politics." But, I am my father's daughter and am unable to steer clear when the opportunity presents itself.

So what did I learn? Democrats love the idea of "tolerance," which CLEARLY I am not.  We should tolerate others (because one person killing an unborn child does not affect me, so I shouldn't bother), after all, its the law so it must be okay! Dad, that was for you... wish you could have been there to hear it. 

The lesson for this week is tolerance. I should probably learn to mind my own business and be tolerant of other people's choices. Maybe this will come with old age.  The close-mindedness that comes with being a Republican is so hard to handle sometimes. 

Well, he had to do something.

I'm a firm believer in the idea that Barack Obama will quickly and easily defeat John McCain in November.  McCain even knows it... That's why he chose a female running mate with less than 2 years experience.  They're still going to lose.  I think it was the only thing he could have done to shock people in this campaign, and BIG SURPRISE he did it the morning after Obama's "historic speech" at the democratic convention (which, by the way, made me want to vomit when I saw this morning in the newspaper, and I still don't understand why a "call for change" is historic... whatever). 

At least I like her.  She seems like the type of person I would like to run for president, and I suppose she makes McCain look like a better option. 

Obama's camp had a lovely, jealous, and intelligent response to the whole situation. Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton warned that McCain had "put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency." Way to be. 

Maybe McCain isn't as dumb as he looks.  

"Barack has Chosen"

I guess I don't really get it. Perhaps Obama is just trying to get the moderate vote by choosing Joe Biden. Obviously, the war in Iraq is a key issue in this election, and Barack has made it clear he wants to get out of there ASAP (" So when I am Commander-in-chief, I will set a new goal on day one: I will end this war"-Barackobama.com). Biden doesn't even want to get us out of there. "Change you can believe in"... why would anyone believe in you?

Whatever, I don't care.. but I do find the John McCain commercials to be not only entertaining, but lovely and stupid.

Murderer.

A little startled there, aren't you?

For my father.

I made an executive decision today.  As much as I enjoy coaching, the hours that I would need to devote to a coaching job are less than ideal.  The IST swim coach called me today and I told him I am no longer interested in the job.  It seemed like the perfect opportunity to officially enter the coaching world, but since Tim works until 4, I really don't want to start my job at 430.  My days would be spent in the house while the rest of my friends work 40 hours a week.  I officially decided I need a normal job for the sake of our relationship. Sad, but true.  

So begins the rest of the job search. I have yet to hear a decision from Sharebuilder, but I would be satisfied if I did or did not get the job.  Regardless of the outcome, I faced my fears of interviewing and feel as if I was a success in that aspect.  I'm still encountering the same problems though: what do I want to do with my life?  I remember in high school when 9th grade life skills teachers encouraged us to take test after test, which should determine where our skills lie.  They were meant to give us direction, but I was too young to seriously contemplate that direction. I was told I should be a lawyer or a teacher, two occupations that would definitely not suit me.  Then again, in college I was forced to pick a major which was meant to also guide me in my pursuit of a career.  Unfortunately, it has done nothing but confuse me more.  For some reason though, I feel like God has put my mind at ease.  I keep telling myself that I need to continue to anxiously look for jobs, but am somehow failing.  Last month I was looking religiously.  Maybe thats one of the abilities God has given me though, the ability to keep a low stress level when things seem out of my control... it was that way with college at least.  Or maybe I'm just too laid back for my own good.  I guess we'll see.  I at least feel at peace with my decision to not be a swim coach.

Alyssa, Erin and I booked tickets to Hawaii last night and I'm so excited that we'll be going in less than three weeks.  It will be a must-needed vacation and a good last-hurrah to my life as an unemployed college kid.  

I need to do something amazing.

I have this itching to do something amazing and new.  Perhaps join a swim team. Perhaps get a job.  Perhaps have the afternoons off. 

I think I'm getting antsy with working two jobs.  I'm ready for the summer to end. 

Any suggestions?

So tired...

Really, I hate working so much, but I'm unable to give up anymore of my hours or responsibilities.  I'm so tired.  Every night I get home I lay on the couch for about twenty minutes and go to sleep.  Then I wake up (still tired).  I have so much to do that I'll never get to. 

I need to go to the grocery store. 

I need to fold that last load of laundry. 

It would be nice if I would iron some of Tim's pants so he can actually wear them. 

I should clean my downstairs. 

I need to workout. 

I still need to go to work (until 10 most likely, and I started this morning at 730). Kill me now. 

The job search has been slightly disappointing.  I applied for a high school swim coaching position at Bellevue and had an interview.  In this interview, I realized I don't want to coach high school swimming, because if I did it I would need another job, and I never want to work two jobs again.  I also learned I don't respect the coach of Bellevue, so even if it was something that would workout for me, I wouldn't ever want to work with him.  It was good practice for interviewing though, seeing that I'm horrendous at that. 

"I want to cut his [beeping] nuts off."

Besides the "its a great year to be black" statement, this one is my favorite. 

Its a great time to be a liberal too, apparently. I wish I had the nerve to publicly endorse someone, and then hate on him in private. Such nerve, these democrats. 

Its a great year to be black.

This is the best thing ever.  Mainly the beginning- the end is kind of vulgar. 

diddy obama
by dollarsandsense123

Idiots.

I hate watching the news. 

Gas prices. 

People getting laid off. 

Struggling economy. 

Obama/ McCain (barf!). 

Going Green. 

Lindsey Lohan and her lesbian lover. 

I hate reading it, watching it, thinking about it and talking about it. Yes, the economy isn't wonderful, but its not HORRENDOUS either, and I'm sick of hearing about it. 

I also hate that people think they are so hip and new if they are concerned about these things. Newsflash, you're not hip, you're a follower.

I really am just sick of all the "world is going to hell and we'll never get it back" crap. 

...Just like I thought.

What a psycho. Thank you for proving to me once and for all of your Christian beliefs.  Apparently you can smear "your own" religion for the sake of political gain (or just lie, whatever).  Barack Obama, you sicken me. 

Everyone is trying to make a political statement.

Last night I went to go see the kids movie, Wall-e.  I was excited for some clean, entertaining Disney/Pixar fun, but what I got was a movie loaded with liberal psychobabble.  It begins with a world that has been taken over by big business and garbage.  Humans were so wasteful that earth was destroyed and everyone had to move to space. In space, every person has become horribly obese and can't get out of their wheelchair gadget things.  I kind of wonder what its teaching children.  I guess it COULD be a powerful message, "Children, now lets not waste our resources, trash the earth and become lazy fat people..." but it came across as pretty harsh and slightly obnoxious. Its kind of like the going GREEN phenomenon that has been sweeping the country.  The movie is probably endorsed by uber-hypocrite Al Gore. 

I thought of this during the looooong drive from Lake Forest Park to Medina today, when "Handlebars" by the Flobots came onto the radio.  The song begins like a joke, stating, "I can ride my bike with no handlebars, no handlebars," yet towards the end, the Flobots (who came up with that name anyway?) lead singer begins to scream, 

"I can hand out a million vaccinations

Or let'em all die in exasperation
Have'em all grilled leavin lacerations
Have'em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don't like'em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command
I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
and I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope
and I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust"

Ridiculous. Yes,  we're pretty much horrible people because of technological advances and order. Ridiculous. 

Flobots, how about Anarchy? The probably just hate Bush like 75% (allegedly) of the US population. 

What really irritates me is that people don't even notice these things. I read numerous reviews of Wall-e before I went to the theater and none of them mentioned the political undertones, most likely because they agreed so fully that it just went over their heads.  Also, the radio refuses to acknowledge what the Flobots song is really about.  BS liberal propaganda. 

Sigh. Barack Obama went to the gym today and ran on the treadmill with his ipod... my hero.