Curve-Balls
I am not really a fan of spontaneity. It’s fun sometimes, but typically I like to have things planned out so that I can mentally prepare for what I need to do. REALITY CHECK: That’s not how the real world works! I found this out today… Last night I had a lot of plans for this up-coming week… I was going to get an oil change, go grocery shopping, buy some new shoes, run other miscellaneous errands, work on the menu for the wedding, and then go home on wednesday to hang out with my family for a few days before starting work next week. Plus mom & I had planned on going to David’s Bridal on Thursday to dress shop, since she works on the weekends. But one phone call changed all of that… apparently my training class started today and they told me the wrong date. So I was awakened at 9:00 this morning by HR apologizing for the mistake and requesting that I come in as soon as possible. At first I was really upset… I was looking forward to getting away for a few days and taking care of my to-do list before starting 40 hour weeks. My plans got rocked, so I just had to adjust. I guess there’s no point to fighting it, but this is something I need to work on. I expect everything to go my way and if something happens I think its a personal attack, like the world is conspiring against me. Ridiculous, I know, but this is how I think. I need to lighten up a little and make room for curve balls in my life. I’d be much happier and a lot less stressed.
Dear John
Nicholas Sparks is my favorite author. I’ve been reading his books since I was 13, and I’ve read them all. Dear John ranks in my top three, behind The Guardian and The Notebook, of course. It’s a beautiful story about selfless love, and as usual I cried all the way through. His stories never fail to move me to tears… that’s why I love them so much. 
I don’t know why girls like to cry, but we do and Nicholas Sparks knows how to make it happen.
Anyways, that’s all besides the point. The purpose of this post wasn’t to dote on Sparks necessarily… but to contemplate why it is that Hollywood always seems to screw up a good story?! The Notebook was the only one they got right… Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe… all fails one way or another. And it’s usually because they feel the need to mess with a perfectly fine story line. That’s what they did to Dear John. Of course I understand that some things have to be cut out, but why change the ending? The ending is what I loved about the book! Without it the movie just didn’t capture the message of the story in my opinion. It wasn’t as passionate, tragic, or romantic as it could have been if they had left it alone. The choice of cast didn’t really do it for me either, but maybe I wouldn’t be so harsh if I wasn’t such a big fan of the book.. I’ve definitely seen way worse. All things considered, I’ll still give it a B-… because that one kiss scene was pretty hot.
Nonsensical Fashion
Apparently this is the fashion for the fall of 2010…
Can someone please explain this to me?? I don’t consider myself extremely fashion savvy by any means, but I think I have decent enough taste. I just don’t understand the world of couture… if any one out in the real world wore something like this people would just point and laugh. So why design it at all?
The line between looking “vogue” and looking like Chiquita Banana is getting thinner and thinner every season.
Know your strengths.
I just attempted to cook chicken adobo for dinner. It’s a fairly simple meal and I’ve seen my mom cook it a thousand times. I was pretty confident I could work it out. Just garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, and chicken… how difficult could it be? Apparently pretty difficult. I don’t know where I went wrong, but it tasted like rubber. So cooking is not a strength of mine, it never has been. I’ve been trying to practice so that I can at least make edible concoctions (for my fiance and future children’s sake), but I’m never going to be a Rachael Ray and I think I’m finally okay with that. I never like accepting defeat, but in this case it’s the smartest, and safest, thing to do. Who knows, maybe every now and then I’ll surprise myself and come up with something fabulous, but for the most part I think I’m gonna have to stick with the basics. Instead of repeatedly trying and failing in an area that I’m clearly not cut out for, I’m going to start focusing that energy into things that I am good at. This doesn’t mean I’m giving up all together. I’m just accepting that I can’t be good at everything. :/
Perspective matters.
So I’m getting married. I briefly mentioned that in my last blog, but I felt it deserved a little more attention. We’re in the beginning stages of planning, which you can read more about on our wedding blog. Planning has only been in full swing for about 2 weeks, but we’ve already run into numerous obstacles and I’m starting to feel the stress. I realized yesterday that it was starting to take away from the excitement, and that’s not how I imagined this time of my life to be. So now I’m really working on keeping things in perspective. In the grand scheme of things my marriage, and not the ceremony, is what’s important. Thanks to my best friend I understand that now. I was focusing too much on petty problems that really won’t matter 20 years from now. She pointed out that if my purpose in all of this is to marry Rob and spend the rest of my life with him, if that’s my true motivation, then I will be happy no matter how the minor details work out. If I stay focused on that purpose everything else will fall into place. And she’s right of course… that’s why she’s my MOH. To keep me from turning into Bridezilla. 
That same principle applies to other aspects of life too, not just the fated drama of wedding planning. We all have goals that we have set out to achieve. Career goals, educational goals, weight loss goals, you name it. And inevitably we will come across obstacles in our journey to reach them. Things distract us or we face resistance, and we lose sight of what’s really important. Often when this happens the source of our motivation changes too. I’m going to use a cliché example here, but it works. If your goal is to get in shape your motivation should be staying healthy. Then the first week you drop 4lbs, the second week you drop 5lbs, and you’re feelin’ really good about yourself. At this point your motivation has probably changed because of how quickly weight is coming off. But the third week you gain a pound. Then the fourth week you don’t change at all. The resistance you’re facing discourages you and distracts you from your original goal. It may even make you completely disinterested. However if you had stayed focused on what’s really important, which is getting into shape and staying healthy, and not necessarily the number on the scale, then you can easily push through the resistance. Make sense? All I’m trying to say is when setting a goal make sure you focus on what’s important and let that motivate you. Keep things in proper perspective. Don’t let minor details and obstacles deter you because they won’t matter at the finish line.
Relaunch: enjoy the ride.
After almost an entire year of absence on the blog scene I’ve decided to relaunch. I don’t know if it really means much of anything to anyone else in the world, but I miss it so I’m back. Plus, I don’t have much to occupy my time during the day since I haven’t started my new job yet. I’ve been wanting to start writing again. I used to everyday… I’m not sure why I stopped. I think it’s because I used to use it as therapy, and at this point in my life there hasn’t been much need for that. Things are finally starting to fall into place.
2010 has been really good to me already. I got a degree, an apartment, a job, and a fiancé all in the course of a few weeks. I was thinking tonight about how much time I wasted during the past couple years worrying and trying to figure things out; how many plans I made for my life that just kept failing one by one. It all seems silly now. I should have just laid back and enjoyed the ride, because in the end everything worked out greater than I could have planned or imagined. In October I will be marrying my best friend in the world, and I am so excited to start our life together. I feel so incredibly blessed and completely undeserving; my faith has not exactly been the strongest. It’s funny how quickly we forget, once the storm calms, why we were ever afraid. God always had a plan, even when I didn’t think he was listening. I always say every year how much I hate resolutions, but I think this one needs to be made. And I encourage everyone else to join me in this one, not just for a year, but for life. Stop worrying. Stop planning. Stop trying to figure everything out. Just enjoy the ride.
Live from Jerusalem
Our journey began three days ago, we arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday afternoon, but our actual experience of the city of Jerusalem began this morning. The view from my window is amazing! I can see the Dome of the Rock from where I’m sitting right now on my bed. At 5:30 this morning I could hear the Muslim’s chanting their prayers from the Old City. Then after a short debriefing the group headed toward the Jafa Gate where we did a prayer walk, but it turned into more of a “Oooohh look at that! Can you take my picture?” walk instead. What would you expect though of our first time setting foot in the city where Jesus walked! Afterward we went to a Messianic church. The worship was in Hebrew of course, and it was beautiful. I have totally fallen in love with the language! We also got lost in an Arab market, which was quite the experience. And then for dinner we ate filaffels, and i must say… not bad! So far I’m having an amazing time, I’ve already taken well over 100 pictures, and I can’t wait to upload them and share them with you all! But for now I better get some sleep. Early morning wake up call! Shalom!
Crazy Town
I’ve been cooped up in this house so long I’ve actually started talking to myself. Outloud. Or to the animals. Sometimes I think they understand me. Makko looks pretty attentive at least. Roxy just cocks her head to the side with her eyes wide open in fear, and then runs away with her tail between her legs. That’s Roxy though. I tried to take her out to pee earlier, you’d think I was dragging her to the lions! Poor thing, she’s lived such a hard life. (Gag me.. Never has there been a dog as pampered and spoiled as that one.)
Well, I’m convinced that I will be writing papers until Jesus comes back. And maybe even after that. I write and write and write, and read and read and read, and never seem to make a dent. I see no light at the end of this long, dark, ominous tunnel… except maybe the fact that Israel is a week away.
Oh yah, there is that.
Horizons
I’m trying to fight back the nostalgia of what today once was. It’s hard sometimes to quit seeing the future the way you used to see it, and to start seeing it the way God does. But what’s the point of staying there, in the past? when there’s so much to live for here in the present! God has blessed me with so many opportunities this year, and its only March. It’s time to start chasing new dreams and quit mourning the ones that died.
Coming Attractions
Twenty days from today I’ll be on the other side of the world. I’m stoked! There’s still so much left to do in preparation though. I wish I could just hit the fast forward button to 3 weeks from now. We got our final itinerary today. It looks like this:
Day 1: Arrive TLV BUS AND GUIDE half day
Day 2: Day of orientation – Walk to Jaffa Gate – First impression of Old City – Prayer walk no guide or bus
Day 3: Orientation of Jerusalem– Tower of David Museum, Old City Walls – GUIDE
Day 4: Knesset, Holocaust Museum, Mt Herzl – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 5: Golan Heights, Tel Dan Nature Reserve, Caesarea Phillipi, border with Syria – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 6: Menorah opposite Knesset, Israel Museum (Shrine of the Book and Second Temple Model) – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 7: Tel Aviv: Diaspora Museum, Carmel Market – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 8: ———–
Day 9: ————
Day 10: Galilee: Ancient Boat, Boat Ride on Sea of Galilee, Mt of Beatitudes Tabgha (Peter’s Primacy), Capernaum –
(Re)baptism in Jordan River BUS AND GUIDE
Day 11: Valley of Ela (David and Goliath), Phillistine Country, Cave of Absalom – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 12: JSC Building Dedication – no guide or bus
Day 13: Dead Sea, Qumran, overnight Bedouin Camp – Camel Ride BUS AND GUIDE
Day 14: Massada, Desert Jeep Safari including lunch – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 15: ————–
Day 16: ————–
Day 17: Galilee: Nazareth, Caesarea, Megiddo, Beit Shean, Mt. Carmel – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 18: Morning: Rockefeller Museum; afternoon: Introduction to Islam – GUIDE
Day 19: Archeological dig (arranged by IGT for all 43 students-4 hours) – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 20: Bethlehem, Church of the Nativity, Shepherd’s Field, Herodian – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 21: Ein Gedi – Day of reflection
Day 22: ——————
Day 23: ——————
Day 24: Mt of Olives, Palm Sunday Road, Garden of Gethsemane, Caiaphas House, Upper Room – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 25: Northern Negev, Sde Boker (Ben Gurion’s home and museum), Beer Sheba, Joe Alon Museum, Sderot – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 26: Old City of Jerusalem: Jewish Quarter, Burnt House, Temple Institute, Free time in Arab Market- GUIDE
Day 27: Old City: Pools of Bethesda, Ecco Homo, St Anne’s, Via Dolorosa Garden Tomb – GUIDE
Day 28: Galilee: Haifa, Akko, Gideon’s Spring, Jezreel Valley, Tree Planting – BUS AND GUIDE
Day 29: ——————
Day 30: ——————
Day 31: Easter Sunday daybreak celebration, City of David (including Hezekiah’s Tunnel) – GUIDE
Day 32: Temple Mount, Old City of Jerusalem, Western Wall, Western Wall Tunnels – GUIDE
Day 33: Depart for Home BUS AND GUIDE half day – depart Tel Aviv
I can’t wait to be over there having the experience of a lifetime. It’s going to be insane!
