Writers WRITE.

If there is anything more terrifying than sitting down to write something original, I'm not sure what it is. This from a girl who is scared of NOTHING. Well maybe sharks, but that's legit. And if I stay out of the ocean, I'm fine. I've been talking about writing for ages. Years, maybe. Last year I decided that I was going to develop the habit of daily writing if it killed me. It didn't, but I also found myself with a lot of journal entries that began with, "Today I ____". Completely uninspiring. And this word "inspired": I totally find it suffocating. I CAN'T get inspired, I don't KNOW what inspires me, I'm inspired by EVERYTHING, I don't even know where to START, it's all so overwhelming…maybe I'll just go fix a cup of coffee and see what's happening on Facebook.

Yesterday I was forced to face the fact that it's all a pile of nonsense, thanks to a dear friend who is facing the same wall. I can't start by writing something marketable, something that I think other people will want to read. I can't wait for a good time, or a perfectly staged life. I don't have to find a magic key to unlock my inspiration (because it doesn't exist), and if I'm going to be a writer, I have to shut up, sit down, and START WRITING. There, I said it: "I'm going to be a writer." AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!

Welcome to my writing world. I can't promise inspiration, though I think it will come. I'm pretty sure it's going to be messy, and I'm going to have to get okay with that, because (and believe me, with two artists for parents, I KNOW) creativity isn't very neat or orderly. (ARGH, again.) I'm not sure what this is going to be, except a place to start, and that's ok.

Stream of Consciousness

So tonight I saw a picture of a waterfall and then I started thinking about waterfalls.  And pralines.  And Nalgene bottles, and marathons, and the Opera House.  And then I started thinking about love.  And what the diffference is between loving and being IN love.  Heaps of people tell me I'm in love, and I wonder how they know?  I DO love, I definitely love.  I most definitely love.  But IN love?  I'm sure I even know what that means.  Does it mean you get all goofy?  Because that does happen, but then it goes away in a few days and I'm left wondering if I got blindsided by a truck or if I dreamt that I got blindsided by a truck?  And then I start thinking about writing and how I am incredibly intimidated about writing what I'm ACTUALLY thinking because of who might read it.  I wonder if I could possibly be a good writer, or even a great writer if I just flug caution to the wind and let the chips fall where they will.  And then I start thinking about love again, and wondering what it would look like the spend the rest of my life with the same person, and how I'll know that person when he shows up and if there is ONE person for me, or maybe there are many or maybe there are none?  And I wonder if I've already met him and he looks like a medical scientist with birds and a turtle and fish, or if he looks like cargo shorts and running T-shirts or a tall German with perfect hands and shoulders or a tenderhearted boy who married the wrong girl.  And then I think about the guys I've known who are truly the PERFECT fit of everything I've ever wanted except for that ONE thing, and then I go back to the waterfalls and pralines and Nalgene bottles.  And I wonder if I could learn to enjoy Shakespeare, and the Great Outdoors, and dressing up like the Lord of the Rings characters for parties.  And I wonder if it would be worth it, to give up my dreams of luxury accommodations for anniversaries, or probably remembering anniversaries altogether.  And if I really DON'T care about small hands or twelve years of life experience. And I realize that I DO care.  But I also care about trusting someone truly, madly, deeply, and it terrifies me that I even have the capacity for that level of trust because I know it's unrealistic and sooner or later there's a letdown that will most likely come.  And then I stop and breathe.  And just like with my writing, I'm flooded with doubts of whether I'm good enough, or interesting enough, or talented enough, or open enough, or too open.  And I revisit the journey, and (like writing) it's almost too terrifying to reread, and I'm tempted to just let it go and not look at it again, or to destroy any evidence it existed at all.  And then I realize that, despite the pain/loss/terror/unknown nature of how the story turns out, that (like writing) it's been a gift.  A gift of waterfalls, and pralines, and Nalgene, and laughter, and loving, and friendship, and memories.  And (like writing) I can live in fear of the gift, or I can simply let the gift flow where it will, trusting that God will guide me through unknown territory into the promises He has made me.  And I think of waterfalls and pralines and poetry and Shakespeare and breathe deeply, and I write. 

Home again

After an extended blogging hiatus, I've decided it's time for a return and a bit of a redesign.  If you read this  :), be looking for changes and a leap in post frequency (I say this partly to challenge myself to write) in the near future.  Meanwhile, a bit of a catch-up on life is way overdue. 

After my last post, I decided to finish my time at Hillsong College with the final semester of 2011, and I continued to live and work in Australia until August, before returning to the USA.  In retrospect, it was the best decision I could have made-I realized that being part of church for those months was just about the biggest part of the learning experience I had overall.  Looking back, I remember that when God called me to Australia, He said to go sit under the leadership there, but it was nine months later that He used the college to get me there-and a visa to keep me there.  And the church experience-sitting under that leadership-was transformational.  During those months of being part of the church and NOT the college, I got out of the college bubble a bit and saw what it was to actually be the church without the demands of college life forced upon you.  I think that college was vital-to get me to Australia, and keep me there legally, and to make friends with the people I met and have grown to love.  But the church helped me to understand what it means to be an effective representation of Christ on the planet.  I came home believing in the Church's capacity to change the world for the better and ready to work to make that happen. 

And so...at home, I am.  I miss Hillsong, but I don't miss Australia terribly-except that I went from Aussie winter almost directly into Ohio autumn/winter-BRRR!!!!  The weather has been a less-than-optimal adjustment (I like snow and cold, but not for months on end), and living at home with my folks has been good-interesting, but good.  Mom asked me to come home and help look after my grandma, which I've been doing for six months now.  Gram is healthy enough at 89, and sharp as a tack.  But she is rather high-maintenance and it can be exhausting to keep up with her demands for attention (she'd be appalled to hear that, so don't tell her.).  It's been absolutely lovely to be able to have this time with her to chat and gain insight into her life and perspectives, and even to share thoughts on what I've learned over the last few years.  I adore this time with her and I'm so grateful. 

As for how long this season will last, and what's next, I'm afraid I don't know.  I know it IS a season, and I feel like I'm meant to be preparing to hit the ground running for my next season, so I'm doing my best to stay faithful where I am, and to embrace these moments I have with my family, in the farmhouse surrounded by cornfields, devoid of much but full of love, living simply (and sparingly!) until God opens the next door. 

And that's about the gist of it all.  There's lots more to come, though...so stay tuned! 

<3 br="">

Finishing what's begun...

I've been in Australia for the last 18 months, studying at Hillsong International Leadership College for a Diploma of Ministry. This experience has been so much more than I ever imagined it would be when I started the journey. I was told by a friend and former HILC student to "drop your expectations, but come expectant" and I've done my best to follow his advice.
Through the college and my time at this incredible church, I have gained insight into the Bible, as well as my own personal leadership and my ability to effectively lead others. I have learned what it is to "use what's in your hand to fulfill what's in your heart", to be motivated to serve rather than to be served in church and work, and to look for opportunities to bless others at every turn. I have experienced the elation of meeting and being led by people I've admired from a distance for many years, and the loneliness of being separated from my family and watching my sister's kids grow from across the planet. I've lost my grandmother during this time, and gained many lifelong friends from all corners of the Earth. I have been inspired to use my unique gifts and talents to make the world a better place, and to truly follow Jesus' command to love God and love my neighbor. I have had times of being stretched so hard it hurt, and growing so fast I feel like Alice in Wonderland. The time here has been a blessed time to make connections with future leaders from around the world; to plan, hope, dream and pray for a brighter future for the world, led by a strong, loving, generous Body of Christ.
I have financed the experience on my own, and I've had amazing things happen along the way that have affirmed the path I have chosen. Many small miracles (is a miracle ever small?) have popped up along the way: unexpected housing, the loan of a car, a free plane ticket to get here are just a few examples of how God has provided for me to be here. I've worked to pay my tuition and living expenses while I'm here, and while it's been a challenge at times, I've always had enough.
I''m looking at the final semester at college beginning at the end of January, and I know that God hasn't finished with me here yet. However, I need a miracle of provision to be able to enroll to finish my course. I must come up with $4720 to be able to stay in college, and therefore in Australia. I have been working through the holidays, and have been able to just cover my living expenses by living frugally. Please believe that I have struggled with whether to ask for help or not, but as I've prayed and thought about it, I realize that my time here is not just for my own growth, but also for the others I may be able to equip and serve when I finish and move on to the next phase of ministry.

TIffany's, the Sydney Opera House, and Orchids

I had the most wonderful gift from a lady at college recently. She gave me two box seats for the Sydney symphony at the Opera House. After a magical evening that began with a steak dinner (filet mignon and a Hunter Valley Shiraz-yum) and ended with pink champagne, chocolate truffle gelato, and the most gorgeous orchids I've ever seen, I was thinking that I've been blessed to have attended several extraordinary events. I started counting them up and felt the need to list some of the amazing things I've gotten to do and see:

Artists:
Itzhak Perlman
Joshua Bell
Kathleen Battle
Sting
U2

Venues:
The Sydney Opera House
Severance Hall
The Kennedy Center

Places:
Sydney
Paris
Chicago
New York
San Francisco
Los Angeles
New Orleans
Amsterdam
Melbourne
Gothenburg
Kampala
Jamaica

Events:
Symphony
Opera
Light Opera
Chamber Orchestra
Play
Jazz Club-Chicago and New Orleans

I've gotten to:
visit four continents
visit 28 states
sing in an oratorio
go on safari
scuba dive in the Caribbean
try on diamonds at Cartier and Tiffany's
taste wines on three continents
live in a foreign country
own a dog
own an Empire Red KitchenAid
window shop on Rodeo Drive, 5th Avenue and the Champs-Elysées
fly first class to Paris
hike in a rainforest
shop Paris flea markets
swim at a colonial hotel in Africa
experience a complete day spa with my best friend from college
visit the Guggenheim, Smithsonian, the Louvre, the Museé d'Orsay and the Rodin Museum, Van Gogh Museum, Cleveland Art Museum, Chicago Field Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney

I'm sure there's about a million things I've not listed, but even so, I have had a VERY full life in my 40 short years. I can't wait to see what the next 40 hold!

For Courtney and Chris

and anybody else who wants an update of life in Australia. I've been promising this for awhile to those who are impossible to schedule a Skype date with... (bad grammar, Ski-but I'm leaving it this time.)

Ready to move on-in some direction. I've got work to do. I've been thinking a lot about what life will look like after Hillsong-while I still don't really know, there are some things that have come up lately that look interesting.

So, direction...

I feel like God's been defining things (some things!) for me over the last several months-and it really kicked in when we had our goodbye dinner for you, V!. My heart has always been for healing nations-but for years, I've defined it in a mostly physical sense. (You know-be a doctor, heal people.) I've realized that healing nations happens when you build people, and building people happens in community, where you get people encouraging and speaking into each others' lives about hope, destiny, vision and purpose. In the context of that, I looked around the table at dinner that night, and realized that we have formed community around my kitchen table in the last year...people have relationships around food. And food is what I'm good at-that, and networking people. So I think I'm supposed to heal nations by building people in community around my dinner table. Sounds crazy-small, but I think maybe it's crazy-big. And it could happen anywhere in the world. In fact, I've gotten more and more of a vision for home-the States as a base lately.

I feel like too, God's been growing my revelation of His church body. Just imagine if people really understood who they are and what they're gifted for, how healthy the Church would get?! I see Europeans understanding that their history of intellect, culture, the arts, stewardship, and even longevity (the European church having seen both the greatest abuses and the greatest revivals in history) are meant to build the Church-both locally and globally. When people get who they are and what they're here for, they stop looking at themselves and start looking around at building others. I SEE the church in W. Europe giving a hand UP to the church in E. Europe-mentoring, investing and bringing health to broken people who've been occupied for centuries, and breaking strongholds that perpetuate abuses like trafficking. I firmly believe that you can rescue and prosecute till you're blue, but the real change will come when the culture changes and people start valuing each other.

Just imagine, then-if a healthy Europe brought those things-history, longevity, culture, etc-to the global church as resource? And imagine, just regionally, if other parts of the world brought their strengths? Africans, with their extraordinary faith? Asia, with its extraordinary tenacity? South America, with its extreme passion? North America with our "If you can dream it, you can do it"/"sky's the limit" ingenuity and creativity? Then the church-The Church-gets healthy and can heal a broken world. THAT'S my vision. Not entirely sure how I do it, but I'm pretty sure it starts around a dinner table. :)

Aran did his prophetic thing in class the other week...he said to me, "God knows why you're here"-and I was like, I sure wish He'd tell me! I do know-but the worship aspect of things here still frustrates and baffles me. He said, "He will-you'll be doing something inocuous and one day the pennies will just drop, all the dominoes you've lined up in life will fall, and you'll know." He also said something to the effect that the next place I go won't feel forced (which here does a lot, you know), that there'll be a place for my gifts, and that it will be HOME. I have to admit, I like the sound of that-I'm a bit over feeling transient. He asked me last week what my plans are after I leave here, and I told him a bit of the above. He said to me, "You need a base to do this from-to go out and teach, and to write, and to take teams." He reiterated the "home" theme, and said that he thinks it will be the next place I go-or the one after that. Ironically, about six weeks ago, another friend from Hillsong asked me something similar-could I see myself being based in the States and taking teams to Europe or do I feel like I need to move to Europe? Also, my friend from home said something very similar to me a while back about having a base to take teams from...so definitely something to consider.

I've also been challenged about writing a book. Aran might have mentioned it briefly, and another friend-actually two, now that I think of it-encouraged me to do so...SO, I'm trying to hear what God's saying about that, too. We'll see. And as far as what happens after this place, well. I have some recent ideas about that, as well. I've been increasingly drawn towards Bethel's worship and teaching lately. I've always wanted to visit and of course I have several good friends there in Northern Cal. I don't want to do their school-this is my time for that here-but I would love to be able to get there for some of the teaching and the culture. They embrace the supernatural lifestyle more than Hillsong does, and I have been missing that. (Sounds so weird to say it like that, but I don't know how else to put it.) I was on their website the other day, and found that they offer a TEFL course during the school year on Thursday nights. I'd considered getting my TEFL license before I came here-you know you can take that anywhere in the world to teach English-so it's not a new idea. I will still have one year left on my science teaching license when I go home next year, and VA has reciprocity with CA for teaching, so I could get a job teaching for a year in/near Redding, be part of Bethel, and take the TEFL course.

So...lots of wait and see, lots of 'God's up to something', lots of learning to trust Him...and I've also been challenged lately about finishing well, and being where I am at the moment. I'm trying to stay on top of things, and really embrace the season I'm in -after all, who knows when or if I'll get to Oz again?


That's me for now. Keep your Donna in prayer, kiddos. Is it bad to say that I'm feeling increasingly like I want the girl thing-a home and a family? . We'll see what God has in store. I'm good if I have to do this on my own-because I'm with Him, but it'd be nice to have someone to share it all with. Until then-if it happens!-I've got plenty to keep me busy. :)

Can I just say that I love having you two in my life? Even if you are MIA often (and I do understand-though I hate it! :P) , I'm thrilled to know that you're out there, somewhere. I miss you dreadfully, but I'm so glad things are working well on the African front...I'm so excited to see what God does with you guys. I pray for you regularly-let me know how I can pray with you, and keep me posted on life in general. Can't wait till I see you again-and to find out where it'll be! Much love to you both...

m&ms musings

Blue m&ms are just weird. Food ISN'T naturally that color. I don't eat them unless I'm sure know that no one is looking, and not even all the time, then. And I'm bitter that they removed the tan ones because of them.

I'm still a little scared of the red ones, because of the red dye poison scare in the 80s.

I'm completely ambivalent about yellow ones. I wouldn't care if they stopped making them.

The brown ones are comforting...like, they're the color of chocolate, and you know they'll always be there to remind you that you are, in fact, eating real chocolate pieces. It's like they're a little slice of reality thrown into the rainbow.

I adore the green and orange ones. In fact, I eat them in pairs, so that I can get the full satisfaction of having had both.

I always eat my m&ms in a pattern...the pattern changes from time to time-sometimes entirely eliminating one color at a time, sometimes even-ing out the colors, sometimes eating them in order of preference-the point is, there's always some kind of pattern to it.

Finally, it is significant to point out that I really could care less about m&ms in general. However, I think it is also significant to note that-even though I don't care about them-I have very thoroughly explored opinions about them. In other words, I feel like my attitudes towards m&ms accurately introduce the pathologies that I have in life in general. While I could detail these for you, I'm already bored by this conversation, so I won't bother.

That is all.

February

...is come and nearly gone, without me writing CRAP. Which tells you just what kind of month this has been. :P

Just praying I can get in the swing of things soon. This WILL be a good year-if I have to drag it to "good" all year long...

:D ( <--This is me smiling through my gritted teeth...)

Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire

Yes, I read Vanity Fair. And yes, I am a Christian. I love lists-if you've ever read this blog, you know that about me. This is a great list...

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
2. What is your greatest fear?
3. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
4. Which living person do you most admire?
5. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
6. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
7. What is your greatest extravagance?
8. What is your favorite journey?
9. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
10. On what occasion do you lie?
11. What do you dislike most about your appearance?
12. Which living person do you most despise?
13. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
14. What is your greatest regret?
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
16. When and where were you the happiest?
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
18. What is your current state of mind?
19. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
20. If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
21. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
22. If you were to die, and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?
23. If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?
24. What is your most treasured possession?
25. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
26. Where would you like to live?
27. What is your favorite occupation?
28. What is your most marked characteristic?
29. What is the quality you most like in a man?
30. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
31. What do you most value in your friends?
32. Who are your favorite writers?
33. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
34. Who are your heroes in real life?
35. What are your favorite names?
36. What is it that you most dislike?
37. How would you like to die?
38. What is your motto?

January Expectations

I love January.
Not the (usual) cold and ice and snow...
especially THIS year,
but the expectation, the newness,
the planning and organizing and sweeping clean
and starting new.

This month I've already been so blessed-
I know this year will be a year of the Lord's favor on my life,
and I'm already seeing it, with meals with friends,
the loan of a car for the last four weeks and the next,
free tickets to Sydney tourist spots...
God is good.

I look forward this month to
a new job-time to get back on a work schedule,
starting my second term of college at Hillsong,
voice lessons with Dee,
writing regularly,
photo blogging,
and digging into the Word of God.

I am excited in January about
establishing goals and
working out my vision for the year.

This will be a good year.
A VERY good year.

Frohe Neues Jahr!

Or "Happy New Year" in German, as I learned on New Year's Eve. Sooo much fun to spend the day with about a dozen German friends, enjoying the sun, playing games, reading, swimming, sunning, grilling, eating, chatting, sleeping, learning German, listening to music and waves, watching fireworks...it was SUCH a perfect way to spend the day, and to welcome 2011.

And so...2011 is here! It promises to be a good year of growth and favor. I was thinking about new year's resolutions, and looking over last year's goals on New Year's Eve. I think I've had two big revelations about this for 2011: discipline and completion. I really feel like it's important for me to focus on completing some of the things that did not get finished last year. With this in mind, some things I want to accomplish this year are as follows...

1. Read the books I've begun/bought/brought to Australia. These include:
~Fasting, by Jentezen Franklin
~Songs From Heaven, by Amanda Fergusson
~Talent is Never Enough, by John Maxwell
~For This I Was Born, by Brian Houston

Also, the Kindle books I've bought:
~Self Study Bible Course, by Derek Prince
~10 Principles for studying your Bible, by Charles Stanley
~The Daniel Fast, by Susan Gregory
~Getting the Pretty Back, by Molly Ringwald
~Dreaming of Dior, by Charlotte Smith
~The Message Solo, b y Eugene Peterson
~Shoeless Joe, by WP Kinsella

2. Listen to my Podcasts and have a clearout.

3. Develop my music:
~Practice piano
~Review theory
~Practice voice, and continue lessons with Dee

4. Develop my writing:
~Journal (PS. Also keep a photo journal of a photo a day)
~Blog
~Bible Study
~Letters and Postcards home
~Songwriting

5. Work on self-disciplines:
~Establish a reasonable bedtime pattern
~Limit Facebook time
~Read my Bible more
~Exercise regularly
~Eat more healthfully
~Write regularly


Enough already...more to come~

Four months...

since my last post...I'm officially IN Australia, and have been since July-that for another blog. At the moment, I'm also officially SICK. The nasty pneumonia I spent five weeks getting over in January/February has decided to sneak up on me and hit full force this weekend. I cannot breathe, and I think that's a problem.

However, I am having a happy moment-I just looked at a few blogs ago, and I noticed a happy list (we know how much I love my lists)...and I was pleasantly aware that all those things on the list STILL give me a warm fuzzy. So at the risk of being redundant, I'm listing them again:

Starbucks Dark Cherry Mocha Latte (which I cannot get here, btw)
The Young Victoria, with Emily Blunt
Twitter
Aquabumps photos of Bondi Beach
As Time Goes By, with Geoffrey Palmer and Dame Judi Dench
Lilly Pulitzer (in moderation)
Ralph Lauren-without moderation (NY fashion week just ended, and the spring line is to die for...)
Paris (and Parisians, too..)
Atomic Ranch magazine
Tyler Florence
Jacques Pepin

I miss several of these things. Maybe when I feel better, I will start populating a list of things I love in Australia.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my amazing mom-one of the few truly great people I know. She's my best friend, my confidant, my advisor, my mentor... I've lost my superlatives. I hope she knows how much she is loved. If you're a mom, happy day to you, too! I got a Tweet today that sums up my own feelings: Looking forward to joining your ultra-cool club someday!

Rantishness

I've been terribly deficient in blogging lately. Indeed, I ought to be writing overdue papers for a grad class I loathe, even as I write this. Oh well...

I'm alternately ready and terrified of not being ready to go to Australia these days. Ready to LEAVE Northern Virginia forever-to shake off this horrid red clay, and move on with life. Not ready from the perspective that I have SO freaking much to do before I go...Not to mention money to save...Ack (my latest expletive).

I'm sitting in my Starbucks-it really IS mine, too...complete with my Starbucksbaristafriends Tyler, Brandon, Kyle, Kurt, Tony and Brooke. They call me by name, they give me just about every other drink, and they greet me effusively and send me off (somewhat pathetically) with a heartfelt "See you tomorrow!" Living at DeAnna's has beenl ovely-no rent to pay has been LOVELY, but Linda (the other "tenant") is just plumb crazy, and DeAnna is sweet, but high-stress. I've adopted Starbucks as my home away from home this year...

Speaking of home, I miss my family is a ridiculous way. Perhaps it's because I know that they will be almost entirely out of reach for 24 months, and that any in-touch-ness I will have will be dependent upon their sporadic (at best) communication. Well, at least my sister's. Bless her-Angie has SO much in her life, I don't blame her too much for not staying in touch better, but it IS hard sometimes, especially because I know that the kids are growing like weeds and I'm missing out on major milestones pretty much daily. Ack again, I say. And mom is having fits about my going-oh, she wants me to, but is terrified for me. All of which does NOT make it any easier.

Then there's school...trying-I really AM!-to finish well, but at the moment, I feel like I am failing epically. Oh, and then there's the HUGE disappointment of Joel Houston coming to New York City to start the new Hillsong church just as I leave for Sydney. There goes both my cool guitar guy AND my idea of catching his vision. Crap. Not that he IS my guitar guy. But still. :P

Oh, I'm PMS-ing, can you tell? I'm just stressed (grad class isn't helping) and crabby. Poop. I need to end this post-AND this day...a testament to the day's productivity: I took about a dozen Facebook quizzes which informed me of everything from what kind of Southern Gal I was to Which Disney Princess I am...

I need to end with a list of some happy things...Or else I'll explode in a sea of hatefulness. So, in no particular order:

Starbucks Dark Cherry Mocha Latte
The Young Victoria, with Emily Blunt
Twitter
Aquabumps photos of Bondi Beach
As Time Goes By, with Geoffrey Palmer and Dame Judi Dench
Lilly Pulitzer (in moderation)
Ralph Lauren-without moderation
Paris
Atomic Ranch magazine
Tyler Florence
Jacques Pepin


That's all for now. I feel better.

Snow Day

We are having a proper winter here in NoVA this year...The snow days have come fast and furious, and often in a very timely manner. Luckily, I can mostly get out of the house, because for the last few days, DeAnna's other transient boarder (:P) has been driving me a bit nuts. Linda has decided this week, not sure why, that she needs to order me around, and tell me that everything I do is wrong. To add insult to injury, she does it at the top of her voice-which is loud at normal volume-and will not be reasonably responded to...consequently, my best option is to leave the house as much as possible-which is, I think, at least partly her goal. Not entirely sure how to best handle this; just praying for grace.

In other news, I'm immensely behind on my grading-thankful for a snow day to catch up...now if only I do! As for Paris, Liz and I are GOING!! We are staying in a very modest hotel, in the 10th arrondissement, which has been described online as "gritty", "on the edge of urban renewal, but not quite making it", "bohemian", and " a safe enough place, but not recommended to walk alone after dark"...sounds great, huh? Well, who cares-it's Paris! We will be within walking distance of almost all major sights to see. My heart and soul wants to visit the Louvre, Versailles, the Champs-Elysees, and Montmartre. I'm very excited to get a last-hurrah with Liz before we part ways...this way, "We'll always have Paris"!

In still other news, the savings is going rather slowly for Sydney, but hopefully it will pick up here soon. January was a bit of a loss, due to lots and LOTS of trips to the doctor for the horrid bronchitis I dealt with for weeks, and weeks, and weeks...The good news is that I've got lots of tutoring at the moment, which definitely helps keep the bank savings from getting smaller. Now if I can only get them to grow!

Paris in the Springtime!

There is a possibility that I might be going to Paris for Spring Break. YES-that's Paris, FRANCE!!!

In other (related) news~ just met a lady from Queensland who tells me that Sydney is ridiculously expensive. Cutting back on my Starbucks now...and going on a diet. I think I'm going to try to get my daily food intake down to breakfast and high tea instead of lunch and dinner. I also need to save more money!

Boy names

My friend just named her son Ezra. After this school year, I am officially in love with the name Atticus. That is all.

Shout Out

To Jessie Penick! Thanks for reading, my friend!

Love ya!

Australia

So I'm moving to Oz next year. At least that's the plan. I'm currently formulating the Big Story. More to follow...

Spring Break

I slept until 12:15 today. I can't remember the last time I did that. I also exercised-can't recall the last time I did that, either. :P This week is going to be full of firsts-in-awhile: I also haven't had a week to myself in a long, LONG time...maybe not ever.

The sky is so spring-ish today. Huge, fluffy clouds of varying shades of grayness are racing across a clear blue sky, now full and dark, now clear and bright. We never get weather like this in Virginia-it makes me homesick for Ohio. We also don't get the beautiful flowering trees that Virginia has, so I shouldn't complain too much. Spring comes earlier here, and seems to stay a bit longer. I LOVE springtime.

I have a list a mile long to accomplish this week. (Of course.) However, it isn't even mostly a work list, which is unusual. It's only partly a work list-actually, almost more of an errands list, with things like "take vacuum to repair shop" and "wash car" on it. My other things to do include stuff like "study Spanish", "get a pedicure", "cook meals at home instead of eating out", "go see the cherry blossoms", "catch up my Bible studying", etc, etc. (Note: the list did NOT include sleeping past noon!) I set up a daily schedule for myself that we'll just see if I remotely follow. It's practice for my summer break, I think. It goes something like this:

hour 1: exercise
hour 2: shower, etc
hour 3: read (this includes Bible study)
hour 4: practice something (this includes things like piano, Spanish, French, writing)
*lunch* (in the soup and salad vein of things)
hour 5: work
hour 6: go (this would be the sightseeing category)
hour 7: pamper (mani/pedi, bubble bath, haircut)

-obviously these "hours" are subject to some flexibility-

*dinner* (in the home-cooked meal vein of things)
maybe a movie or reading in the evening, and then early to bed.

Doesn't that sound both fun and productive???

:)


(short hiatus...)

I just bought tickets for Montiicello tomorrow. I feel touristy!