5 people who will be annoyed that I tagged them:

Unfortunately, I'm somewhat of a lurker when it comes to blog reading, and since the bloggers I know outside of the internet have already been tagged/tagged me (Christie, Betsy) and the other ones I read on the internet are super-famous bloggers (dooce, pamie, Mighty Girl) I think I'm up the creek without a paddle on this one.

[Christie is going to wish she hadn't tagged me.]


4 things that should go into Room 101 to be banished from the earth forever:

borsch - ewwww. (And just so everyone will not think me shallow. I have tried it. In RUSSIA. Still gross.)

Most morning radio shows - no, I don't want to start my day annoyed at your ridiculousness. Thank you.

Stupid humor movies. I'm not ever going to see any of those Scary Movie movies, or that new one that's coming out about the stunt guy. Just as an example.

Credit Cards. Do I need to elaborate on this?


3 things people do that make you want to shake them violently:

Pop their knuckles. Eeeesh.

Be fake-nice. Badly. If you can't do it well, don't do it at all. This is the South.

Not tell me to order something and yet expect me to order something.

2 things you find yourself moaning about:

Not spending any Saturdays at my house.

How money doesn't grow in trees. WHY is that anyway?

1 thing the above answers tell you about yourself:

I complain too much. And apparently have things pretty good, if the top thing on my list to be banished forever is borsch.

Ah. Exercise.

"My friend Andy once said to me, 'I couldn't possibly be interested in running one mile, much less twenty-six of them in a row.' And I said, 'That's because you like yourself, and have nothing to prove.'"

That quote comes from this and pretty sums up my feelings on running. For pleasure, at least. Running, from like, a bad guy, would be a different situation. But I guess you knew that.

Wiki-Love

I've been tagged! Christie nominated me to continue with the Wikipedia love (one of my favorite internet things by the way - it's like a regular encyclopedia except on crack, what with all the linkage glory and whatnot) So, here goes. Prepare yourself for some serious dorking out.

1. Go to Wikipedia and enter your birthday without the year:

March 3

2. List three events that occurred that day:

1791 - The United States Mint is created by the U.S. Congress. Interesting, because, of course, money, and, also, because I am currently listening to John Adams, by David McCullough, on CD while I drive each day, and he was the Vice-President at the time, under George Washington.

1918 - Germany, Austria and Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending Russia's involvement in World War I, and leading to the independence of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. They all lost the independence again in the Second World War(go figure)(Polish invasion of 1939, the Baltic States' annexation in 1940 to the USSR) but are now again independent states.

1938 - Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia. Greeeat.

And some bonuses ('cause I couldn't stop at just three...I'm a nerd.)

1820 - The U.S. Congress passes the Missouri Compromise.

1845 - Florida is admitted as the 27th U.S. state.

1861 - Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing serfs.

1873 - Censorship: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.

1877 - Rutherford B. Hayes is privately inaugurated as the 19th President of the United States (his public inauguration coming on March 5).

1904 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a sound recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.

1915 - NACA, the predecessor of NASA founded.

1923 - TIME magazine is published for the first time.

1931 - The United States officially adopts "The Star-Spangled Banner" as its national anthem.

1933 - Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated.


3. List two important birthdays:

1847 - Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish inventor (d. 1922) - The telephone!

1918 - Arthur Kornberg, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - This man won the Nobel Prize for "his discovery of 'the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)'" and his research interests were studying the nucleic acids which control heredity in animals, plants, bacteria and viruses. What's not to love?

4. List one death:

1703 - Robert Hooke, English scientist (b. 1635) And this man (on another I'm Especially A Biology Nerd note) coined the biological term "cell" "because his observations of plant cells reminded him of monks' cells which were called 'cellula.' He is often credited with the discovery of the cell, and although his microscope was very basic, research by British scientist Brian J. Ford has now shown that Hooke could have observed cork cells with it." He also, interestingly, had a great deal to do with the design of Bethlem Royal Hospital (also known as "Bedlam" (which is the other meaning of that word are derived).

5. List one holiday or observance:

Bulgaria - Liberation Day.


And that's that. I hope everyone learned something today. I'm going to lunch...

Good Friday...

Celebration is in sight!

On this Friday, I wanted to share a couple of the songs that have been speaking to me lately.

Josh and I will be singing the first on Sunday morning - I think it might be my new favorite Easter song.

See, what a morning, gloriously bright,
With the dawning of hope in Jerusalem;
Folded the grave-clothes, tomb filled with light,
As the angels announce, "Christ is risen!"
See God's salvation plan, Wrought in love,
borne in pain, paid in sacrifice,
Fulfilled in Christ, the Man,
For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!

See Mary weeping, "Where is He laid?"
As in sorrow she turns from the empty tomb;
Hears a voice speaking, calling her name;
It's the Master, the Lord raised to life again!
The voice that spans the years,
Speaking life, stirring hope, bringing peace to us,
Will sound till He appears,
For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!

One with the Father, Ancient of Days,
Through the Spirit who clothes faith with certainty.
Honor and blessing, glory and praise
To the King crowned with pow'r and authority!
And we are raised with Him,
Death is dead, love has won, Christ has conquered;
And we shall reign with Him,
For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!

"See What a Morning", Words and Music by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend


I've seen the days melt into night in circles of lights,
I've watched the spider spin a star between the window box flowers,
I've heard you laugh and cry in a single sigh,
And a story form within.

Don't let me lose my wonder.
Don't let me lose my wonder.

I saw her broken dreams inside but helping others fly,
I saw his eyes without a doubt though other lights faded out,
And though her calling roared,
such graciousness poured,
From the vision of her soul.

A baby cried through the dark beneath a jeweled spark,
I knew your voice upon the hill and heard my lostness still,
I found my home in the light where wrong was made right,
And you rose as the morning star.

Don't let me lose my wonder.
Don't let me lose my wonder.

"Don't Let Me Lose My Wonder", Words and Music By Keith And Kristyn Getty

I am driving up 85 in the
Kind of morning that lasts all afternoon
Just stuck inside the gloom

John Mayer, "Why Georgia"

Today, in this dreary, weird, 50 degree weather day (the first day of Spring, interestingly), sandwiched between two 70 degree days, I've been thinking about how things become different. Change, I guess. Sometimes incredibly quickly, but so smoothly you hardly notice and sometimes, slowly, achingly so, but still come as a jolt.

When I first started this job, especially in the position I'm in now, I was terrified to go into the Director's office. Scared to death. I liken it to the same feeling when you stand to give a speech in front of a large crowd, that knee-knocking, quivery, swimmey kind of feeling. And now, well, I stepped in a few moments ago and cheekily asked if he had been promoted, that his authority level had changed in our purchasing system and was that a mistake? The question had been asked of me by someone who needed to know for business purposes, but I had no qualms going in there, and probably in someway, inapproriately, inquiring. Not long after I began, the girl who had this position before I did called to answer some question, and at the end of the conversation she said "Tell Victor I said...blah blah blah, insert some joke here..." I think the most I could relate was "She said hello." And that took all I had. Now, everyone would say that that is just natural, that my confidence and comfortableness where I am has obviously increased in the almost two years I've been here, and of course, you're right. But I am still suprised. Some days I walk going "Seriously. Did I just do that?"

Last night my husband (that word still feels perfectly right and incredibly foreign every time I say (write) it) and I went to a concert put on at the Seminary - Keith and Kristyn Getty. They are up and coming modern hymnwriters and the music was amazing. Even more so, the atmosphere of the chapel on campus. It is an immense building, with slanted wood floors and large columns dotted throughout the sanctuary. Pipes for the organ glimmering on the forward wall, and large floor to ceiling stained glass windows lining each side. Put a full house of seminary students, faculty, spouses, and local church members together in it and lead them in worship and WOW. At the end of the service, the Dean of Faculty, Dr. Nelson, who was in "charge" was understandably reluctant for it all to end. There was this air of waiting on behalf of the congregation, an unwilllingness to leave when the Spirit was moving so powerfully. So, after a moment of whispered discussion, during which Kristyn Getty made the tongue-in-cheek comment, "Oh, no, I don't care, you're the man, you decide" (that made me giggle), the question was posed to the congregation - what did we want to sing? And the unanimous answer was their song "The Power of the Cross". Amazing. So they sang as a special a personal song of theirs, and then the congregation joined in singing "The Power of the Cross". It was hard to leave. Especially when studying (for Josh) and cleaning (for me) awaited.

To tie this all into my theme... As we turned to leave the service, people several rows behind us started gesturing and calling Josh's name. I turned around and drew total blanks as to who they were - but Josh turned and began moving over and giving neck hugs. I stood there, I know, looking lost and dumb, until one woman reached her hand out to me and said "how are you, hon?" or something to that effect and Josh introduced me as his wife. She said something politely rude as "Oh, I had heard about that, but I didn't get an invitation..." as we moved down the pew. sidenote: I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE. So no, she didn't get invited to my wedding. We had to leave out people I actually knew. Anyway, we get down to the end, and Josh reaches his hand out to a man who is vaguely familiar. My mind started quickly racing trying to place who exactly he was, when it clicked! Paul Brewster, pastor of the church Josh served as youth pastor at, oh, I don't know, about 4 years ago. He reached out his hand tomorrow, and actually remembered my name, I think, and as Josh introduced me as his wife, made some comment that "Oh, yes, you two were off and on when you left. And now you're married." Like four years later, that is some suprising feat. Josh replied, that yes, we were permanently on. And we graciously took our leave, you might say. All that (I am long-winded) more just to mention how running into someone you haven't seen at all in four years causes you to think about how much has changed since then. Josh and I both are very different people that we were then. Our relationship has morphed in ways I am still suprised about every day, and so I guess it's interesting to run into people who have no concept of the changes. Paul never knew me personally really, but I hope that last night, greeting him as a seminary wife/chemist/20 something I projected, at least in part, on the outside, some of the change that has taken place on the inside. Especially since the last time he probably saw me, and I have no idea when that was, I was probably a nighteen-ish, stressed-out Biology student, who had a boyfriend that lived too far away and who had probably driven forty-five minutes out to a Wednesday night service when she really felt like she should be at home studying, ministry being her only opportunity to spend time with the love of the life (that she would not have described as the love of her life at the time.) I was distracted, younger, and easily irritated I believe. Especially with Josh. It was all so precarious - I just hope that the stability I feel now (at least in Josh and I's relationship, if not in life) showed through, just a little bit.

That said, the whole meeting threw my husband off a bit too. For different reasons, I believe. He "walked" it off reading sports news on the internet, and I did the same strolling the aisles of the grocery store at 9 pm. The same but different. In this. And everything.

Looking on the Bright Side

"That is one good thing about this world. . .there are always sure to be more springs."
- Anne Shirley, Anne of Avonlea
written by Lucy Maud Montgomery

I have a serious case of spring fever - imagine when April comes! For now, each day is spent waiting for lunch, so I can head to the park and read and swing. A brief respite of real life mixed in with all this work stuff.

AND! It was still light outside when I arrived home at 7 o'clock last night! (We don't want to talk about why it took me until 7 pm to get home from work...)

AND! Although I love the light, the time change? Killing me. My body is in full rebellion and the last two mornings have been a mighty battle of willpower- me against my body. Goodness gracious. Yesterday I don't think I began to recover from having to be awake until after lunch. This morning Josh rolled out of bed and promptly declared that he was going back to bed when he got home. To which I added, "And I'm taking Benadryl at 9 o'clock." Should be a fun night at the Greene household. Maybe we will slip one of the Disney movies I borrowed from my parent's house in before the sleeping. (Yes. We are grown. On the outside, at least. And no, we don't have children.)


I think I can finally justify going to lunch now...

Hi!

I'm Carrie, and I work with idiots.