Shofar, Shogood

For being such a big fan of spring and summer, I’m really enjoying fall right now.  The weather has been (for the most part) beautiful, we’ve had that cool, crisp feel in the air (that everyone always talks about), but it’s still warm in the sun.  I love it.  And it’s still pretty early.  There are plenty of autumn adventures yet to be had: apple picking, hayrides, football games, etc.  So much to look forward to.  I have just recently brought out my favorite fall accessory: the scarf.  I love scarves. And I even made apple crisp (accompanied by cinnamon ice cream, yum!) for our office meeting this morning.

Our office rotates who brings treats and does a little devotion before our weekly production meeting, so no, I wasn’t just caught up in the spirit of autumn, or even just feeling domestic and generous to share my homemade goodies, it was just my day to share.  And being that today our Jewish friends celebrated Rosh Hashanah, or the Jewish New Year, I played off that theme for my devotions (not that Bethel’s going Jewish, but I needed a starting point).  Anyway, from my brief research, I learned that Rosh Hashanah is a day in which the Jewish people look back on the past year, and more importantly, it is a time of repentance, a time to start over.  How perfect.

It was a great reminder to me that we all need a fresh start.  Every day is a fresh start.  Take advantage of that.  Oh, and for those of you that haven’t quite adopted the sentiments of fall, go buy a new scarf or eat a caramel apple, it will help. I promise. ♥ jb

(Also today I learned that my friend has a authentic shofar from Israel and he actually blew it once today, I don’t even think he knew of its significance to the holiday, but I think that is hilarious and awesome. He also told me the clever line that I used for this post title. Thank you, dp.)

Not quite the crazy cat lady

For those of you frequent readers at The Jenna Daily, you already know that for the last couple weeks I have been taking care of my brother’s cat.  So, now after several previous blog posts about getting everything on the single girl’s grocery list besides cat food… well, it’s official, I have turned into the stereotypical poor lonely single girl with a cat.  (ok, to clarify, I’m not really lonely all the time, but the other adjectives are more true than false.)

Tonight I went to Rainbow (at 11:30 p.m., mind you, already a half hour past my bedtime) and picked up the following items: a 3-pack of my new favorite gum (the foil pop-out kind), a package of “gourmet” chocolate chip cookies that were on sale (a definite impulse buy), a bottle of water (to help wash down the cookie(s) I was going to consume on my way home), cat food (there it is), some cat treats, some new cereal that I probably didn’t need (but it’s new! Honey Bunches of Oats – and it’s just the good, tasty Bunches! …that might even be it’s name…), and some SmartPop Kettle Corn (trust me, it’s awesome). 

I guess the list isn’t that embarrassing after all, but after the several trips to Target and feeling thankful that at least I wasn’t throwing bags of cat food into my cart, I have to say I was a little sheepish carrying the bag full of cat goodies (not to mention the huge half-full bag of kitty litter that I picked up at my parents’ beforehand) into my building tonight.  I shouldn’t be ashamed though.  Buddy is cute and he keeps me company and he likes to play with Finny (which makes me a little nervous), and it just makes me happy to have him around.

Anyways, we’ll just hope that some awesome guy comes into the picture soon to make me feel a little less like the crazy cat lady.  Any takers?  ♥ jb

Still 2008… Still Living in Love

I know you have all been wondering how I’m doing on my Live in Love in 2008 motto for the year.  Well, to be honest, it’s been a harder fight for me the second half of the year.  I started out so strong, but I have just felt super lazy in my loving efforts lately, I don’t know what happened.  Don’t you worry though, I haven’t given up. 

Sara Bareilles’ Bottle It Up chorus lyrics sum it up for me right now: 

Only thing I ever could need, only one good thing worth trying to be and it’s love, love, love, love… I do it for love, love, love, love.

Just wanted to share. ♥ jb

Oh Deer!

The weekend started out pretty low-key.  Worked late on Friday, ran some errands, met some friends on Brit’s rooftop, went to bed at a reasonable hour.  Saturday I slept in, watched some Friends episodes, drove up to the cabin and hung out with my parents in the sun all day, it was quite lovely.  Little did I know what surprise was about to jump into my life.  Literally.

After dinner with the folks, I left New Richmond and was driving along Hwy 64 towards Stillwater.  I had just enjoyed a relaxing day at the cabin, some sun, some good conversation, and a delicious meal with my parents.  It was about 8:30 p.m., the sun had just set and I took a glance out my sunroof to notice the beautiful dusk blue sky, feeling so thankful for everything in my life.  I had my christian music playlist cranked and I was feeling good, I was content.  I continued driving, watching the lines on the road quickly pass by.  I didn’t have any other plans for the night, so I was really looking forward to just getting home, reading for awhile, and going to bed early. 

All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, there was a foreign object in the road.  In the flash of less than a second, I realized, WHOA!, THAT’S A DEER!, so I braced myself for impact, felt the *bang!* of animal vs. car, and then… nothing.  I think the poor thing just bounced off the bumper.  After years of extreme paranoia of this exact incident happening where I would be left either impaled by antlers or stuck in a ditch (or worse), I thought, ”That’s IT?!  *huge sigh*  That was like… bumper cars.  I SURVIVED!!!”  No broken windshield.  No antlers poking my eyes out.  No cars in the ditch.  No bloody animal guts spread along the highway (for all I know… it was dark).  That was a huge deer, and I totally lucked out. 

Well, soon thereafter (about 4 seconds), I realized I should probably pull over and make sure my car was ok.  It was driving just fine.  The jolt slowed me down significantly, but not completely.  It was strange.  Anyways, I pulled over, turned my flashers on and got out to inspect the damage.  *Insert your best Janice from Friends impersonation here*: Oh… My… Gosh.  The bumper looked fine, but the hood was smashed about two feet in from where it should be.  I got back in my car, took a deep breath, and didn’t know what to do.  Keep driving home or turn around and meet my parents back in town?  I frantically tried calling them (curse you, bad cell towers in rural Wisconsin!), we finally made a connection and decided that I would drive back to New Richmond and they would help me figure out what to do.  My car was drivable, but I couldn’t assess the damage in the black of the night along the highway (not to mention I was by myself and I had just hit a deer, I was a bit shaken), so that seemed like a good plan.

As I was driving back, I kept my eye on the engine gauge and whatever else, not sure what kind of problems were going on under the hood.  Everything seemed ok… until I pulled into town and thick white smoke started pouring out in front of me.  I couldn’t find a turn off the highway fast enough… Get me out of this car!!! She’s gonna blowww!!!  Well, Pete’s Pizza to the rescue. I pulled into the parking lot, turned the engine off, collected my belongings, and jumped out.  No trouble, just smoke.

My parents pulled into the parking lot within seconds of me (so thankfully they could witness the embarrassing and frightful smoke too), and we just stood there, staring.  First of all, they were so thankful that I was ok and that I wasn’t stranded along the highway and able to make it safely back to New Richmond.  I told them what had happened, we snapped some photos of the poor crushed hood, and then tried to figure out, sooo… what next?

Long story short (or is it?), they are the best parents ever and drove me back home (all the 60 miles to Richfield) to borrow one of their cars until after the holiday weekend when hopefully someone can come out and tow it back to the cities to be fixed.  I feel very blessed.  (But still kinda holding a grudge on that deer, that’s ok, right?)  ♥ jb

p.s.  I’ve always wondered why deer jump out of the woods/ditch/what have you, at cars that will ultimately not do them any good.  I mean, I was the only car on the road, why would the deer just hanging out in the grass decide to run onto the road at that very instant?  Do they think, hey, bright shiny lights!, I like those, I think I’m going to go check that o–UGHHH!?!

Seriously.  Dumb.