It’s been awhile since I’ve written (my apologies, I’ve been coughing up my lungs for the last two weeks, awesome), and I’ll be gone next week soaking up the sunshine in one of my favorite places in the world, Leisure World/Mesa, AZ. I thought I’d just write a quick post about the last couple days. Some highlights and lowlights, maybe even in the Top Ten list format… ooh yeah, that’s fun… it’s been awhile. But since I am pretty indecisive in general, and won’t for the life of me be able to put one higher than another, these will appear in no particular order. (Drumroll please…)
10. Since Bible study was canceled last night, I decided to listen to a John Piper sermon while I worked out. You know, exercise the mind and body. I love John Piper. I don’t know if I agree with everything he says theologically, but what do I know?, at least I’m trying to learn, and that man is a great preacher. I have visited Bethlehem 3-4 times in the last couple months, and I really like it (it also helps that tooma* goes there too). I downloaded the sermon off Piper’s resource site, Desiring God, went down to the exercise room in my building and hopped on the elliptical. It was a good workout, and an even better sermon. I ended up listening to two other sermons later in the night, all within the same theme/series of regeneration – the new birth in Christ, how we love God and love others through faith. It’s good stuff, you should check it out.
*No, I’m not trying to sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, tooma stands for “the object of my affection,” a term which I learned from my sophomore year roommate when she would write cryptic emails to boys she had crushes on, she would put “tooma” in the subject line. Funny.
9. Besides listening to three Piper sermons last night, I also made a Target run for groceries and general browsing. I love Target. I also love grocery shopping. It had been awhile, so I spent over an hour roaming the aisles looking for good, healthy food options. I didn’t even go with a list, I just went. One of my favorite, random, non-food purchases was this lip gloss. It was on sale. I didn’t really look at it too closely, I just liked the color, and it was super cheap, so I basically couldn’t resist. After I unloaded my bags into my car, and shivered frantically as my car sat idling in the parking lot (it was surprisingly cold!), I opened up the gloss and tried it on. Decent color, a little too pink, but it’s always very deceiving you know, but the best thing happened approximately 30 seconds later. When I say “best thing,” I really mean, “weirdest sensation I’ve ever felt in my whole life.” Little did I know, it was the new “VolumeXL Shine Seduction” lip plumping lip gloss. It burns. I’m not even kidding. I know my lower lip especially is extra-sensitive after my jaw surgery (it has been partially numb/tingly for almost 10 years, awesome), but I felt like my lips were seriously going to go up in flames and fall right off my face. And yet, I keep using it… Good times.
8. Yesterday I had a surprise visit from tooma. It totally made my day, I hadn’t seen him for 3 weeks. He stopped by my office. We talked for approximately 5 minutes, mostly about the Piper sermon actually. (And, can I just say, I don’t like calling him tooma, so let’s go with… hmm… CJ?) CJ is my current crush. You will probably be hearing more about CJ (hopefully, meaning everything moves in a positive direction) in future posts. I can’t actually reveal his name, because he doesn’t know how I feel, and even if he did, I would still be protective of his identity. So, yeah, surprise visit. Definitely the highlight of my day/week, maybe even month.
7. Thursday and Friday of last week, my department closed our offices and had a retreat in the Frogtown area of St. Paul. It was on the theme of diversity and reconciliation. Our group of about 50 people visited various Bethel-sponsored sites and ate at an authentic Vietnamese restaurant for lunch one day, it was good. It was really eye-opening and interesting to learn about what Bethel is actively doing in the community and how we can be more aware of people in need, as well as just people in general. You know, get beyond ourselves. We got to stay at the Embassy Suites in Downtown St. Paul, along with just about every high school wrestler and his family in the whole state of Minnesota. That wasn’t so awesome. The rooms only had king-sized beds which was kind of funny to share a bed with a co-worker, but whatev. Apparently there was a hide-a-bed in the living room area, but the hallways were less-than-ideal on the scale of quietness, so I opted out of that. Oh well. It was a bonding experience, to say the least.
6. On Friday night I went to bed at 10 p.m. Awesome. Woke up at noon on Saturday. Super awesome. Got caught up on much-needed sleep this weekend. It was great.
5. Saturday evening, my friends PK and Jamie got married on the campus of Northwestern College. It was a beautiful ceremony, very God-centered. They wrote their own vows, it was really personal and meaningful. It was just fun to spend time with friends and celebrate their big day. I was really hoping to bust out my hip hop moves on the dance floor, but to no avail. Regardless, I still love weddings.
4. I bought an external hard drive at Best Buy the other day. I’m kind of a nerd, so that was pretty exciting to me. I can now rest easy knowing that all of my memories (in dig. photograph form) and my entire music collection are now backed up in case my computer crashes. I know it’s just “stuff,” but I would’ve been pretty sad nonetheless. Oh, and while at Best Buy, I continued to drool over my newest technological desire. There’s a laptop that I’m really pumped about, that I feel will really revolutionize my freelance design abilities and availability. I just need to save some major moolah, it’s pretty spendy.
3. I have lined up several freelance graphic design jobs in the last couple days. That’s always exciting, mostly because I could use the extra income (to save for aforementioned technological awesomeness), plus it will be fun to work with some new peeps.
2. I’m really, really looking forward to my trip to Arizona. I’m going by myself to visit my grandparents. They live in a retirement community called Leisure World. I plan to do nothing but be leisurely. Take long walks, lay poolside, read, play with their dog Maxie, eat Arizona lunches (which is a cuisine all of its own: PBJs, Tostitos, Diet Coke, a fresh-picked orange… ahhh), cruise around in their Mustang convertible, and maybe even meet up with a friend or two that lives in the area. It will be a timely break, this a really busy week. (which is a good reminder to wrap up this blog, because my lunch break is almost up and I need to get back to work.)
1. Last but not least, another thing I’m looking forward to: Houli’s. I’m going to Houlihan’s for dinner tonight with my parents. I don’t know why I love that place so much, but I just do. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, maybe…?
Well, that’s it. It’s been a good several days, and I’ll be sure to write again when I’m back from vacay. ♥ jb
