You are a jewel on the arm who escorts you…
Heehee…about mid last week (I think) I got a compliment like this from an Arabic guy, and it made me recall dance class a couple days ago when some of the lyrics were just as amazingly and satisfyingly corny…like “[I am] the dancing flame” “[you have] the beauty of the moon my love” and some which I didn’t really understand…kinda did but not really, like “You are my gazelle”…and others, thanks to Sting, are blatantly obvious *cough Desert Rose cough*…also a verse from last night (I am the desert rose you seek…ha). So while they are corny, sometimes confusing, I’ve grown to love them lately 
Here’s a list of my favorites of the ones I’ve heard over the years:
~You are a jewel on the arm who escorts you (given to)
~Your smile is the shining sun (given to)
~[You are] an oasis amidst the burning desert (lyric from dance)
~[Your] eyes are two stars and your face is the moon (lyric from dance…I think)
~You glide between my heart as tears from my eyes, my new moon (poem by Al-Hallaj)
~[You are] a gazelle
~You have the beauty and strength of your mothers and the sun (given to)
~You are the princess who walks in the darkness of my dreams (song lyrics…I think)
~[You are] a desert rose…thank you Sting
Yes, they are corny, but I have grown to love them recently 
Abigail Adams
She was amazing. The End
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/aa2.html
http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/abigailadams.html
would that I could be as strong as she.
I think I’m Russia
Sans the age difference…still, someone once told me when I was little I had an old soul, so maybe it averages out.
http://www.tonsoflaughs.faketrix.com/funny-jokes-geography-of-a-woman.htm
“Tell Me, if you have understanding.”
So, like I am prone to do when I’m mulling something around, I’ve found another point that struck me tonight in posting the previous entry. I think, especially when it comes to living a Godly life, we sometimes wonder why ‘X’ thing had to happen. I mean, we were following the book, doing our best, and yes, we knew challenges would ensue, but still we ask “Why this? Why now?” and sometimes, as in my own case “Where are you? Don’t you care?”
Last night was one of my pity parties. I felt like everything was just being heaped on me: running a house, trying to deal with my little sis, caring for my car and my sis’ car, trying to finish school, dealing with slow business, having to make new friends since mine are out of country now or something, problems at a church I thought was home…the list went on, believe me, and included worries not particularly my own, like “What about him? Don’t you care about him? What about her? What’s she ever done to deserve this?”
Thinking to find a passage about comfort, love, etc, when I opened my Bible I found Job 38, where Job is whining and God is like “Where were you when I did all of this?! Do the heavens and powers of the universe answer to you?! What about your very mind? Did you create that?! Tell Me, if you have understanding!”
God basically told me to sit down. As I paged through the rest of Job, among other books, it dawned on me, as it has so many times before, God knows what He’s doing even if we don’t. He has known about every, single, small, great trial we will ever face and has equipped us to face them if we choose to use those gifts. And, for every, single trial, we come out with lessons learned, a stronger will, a stronger faith. Years later, we may see a prayer answered how we wanted, but the timing wasn’t right. We may see, more often than not, what we thought we needed or wanted, but only a challenge would help us see it wasn’t, and God had other plans. In the end, whatever the reason for the challenge, God always uses it for our benefit, and reveals plans greater than we see sometimes.
I read some of my old journals after this, ones from the darkest points of my life, when I truly thought my future was only a dream. But as I look back, I realize my trials have made me empathetic, compassionate, understanding, strong, brave, and unafraid of a challenge, and closer to Him, whether sent by God or otherwise.
God didn’t promise our lives would easy for following him, and promised the opposite. And yes, sometimes we feel unsure, unready, unable, just plain scared, to do whatever it is, but He also promised He’d be with us, always, no matter what. So, to life, to the worries of this world, the lessons I still need to learn as a person, as a Christian, to the uncertainty of the future, to all my future struggles, bring it on.
I pray I still have this hopeful fighting spirit tomorrow!
Not of This World, But Still In It
In the first lesson in a bible study series (concerning the study of different religions so we’re aware of what’s out there, and why that makes Christianity all the more special) a few points of interest were brought up.
The lesson was a basic introduction, one that presented obvious information that there are a ton of Christian-like cults, individual churches within a synod/group which miss the mark, those who have good intentions but build on a foundation of sand instead of rock, and those who have grown weary of competing with the world today. Among our discussion, the question came up, who was more responsible for this decline in membership, the willingness to fight for God, this complacency, etc. Someone mentioned that they had a friend who wrote to JC Penny, asking why they didn’t close on Sundays, more importantly, Sunday mornings. JC Penny actually wrote back with a very, very pointed remark: When Christians refuse to shop on Sundays or Sunday mornings, we will close.
When it comes down to it, if there is something we don’t agree with in the ‘world’, or how the ‘world’ views religion and Christianity, we could blame the church, but we are in the church. We could blame the world, but we are in the world. Our group also acknowledged that it’s harder today. True, it might be, but, as we discussed, God did not promise it would be easy. He said it would be the exact the opposite, but we are to take comfort in knowing we do not stand up alone. In our discussion we also mentioned Acts 5:27-40, and how that even though we will have trials of all sorts, challenges we would not imagine in living a Godly life, if we are truly doing anything for the glory of God, it will not be stopped. Feel free to send comments, questions, etc back to moi
A Weekend Full of Surprises
Somethings have happened over the weekend that no doubt have divine traces in them. The first, for all my interest, is that after praying one day about school, the desire to study forensics and become and field and lab tech and CSI were gone. My interest was there, but try as I could, the drive for that wasn’t there. I prayed about it some more, explaining I wanted that drive back…all I got was it just isn’t my time for it. The second involved church. I thought I had found one, in my old church, but after some heart breaking events today during the service, I guess God wants me to reconsider, so we’ll see.
Won’t go into details, but the short and long of it is included me not being able to partake in Communion because I wasn’t allowed yet. I realized a lot today. Friends and family leaving in the military, family and friends you’ve known forever doing 180s on you, the stress of school/work, people leaving, physical pain…I can handle all that, because I have God. But what I cannot, and refuse to, handle is someone telling me I cannot be with my Savior through Holy Communion because they aren’t ’sure’ I am a true believer. It broke my heart and dwarfed all other pains I thought I was feeling.
I’m praying on this, and I have one or two places I might check out if my old church is also another “not your time”. Sigh…back to homework…again…yay administration of justice.
Antonio also went hunting Friday morning and brought me back a live roach this time. Thanks to my wicked mad shooting skills now (not) I sprayed it with some Bug Be Gone ten times and took care of it.
Falling Star
I wonder if this is how a falling star feels. Having everything stripped away from your world so fast and knowing that it has to end at some point but you don’t know when, and you don’t know if you will still have the most important thing to you when it ends or if all that will remain are little pieces of the star you used to be ready and waiting to be analyzed and sorted by scientists, all they while saying as they look through their microscopes, “Pity this didn’t survive…what a brilliant thing this could’ve been. I’m sorry it couldn’t last.”
God I hope not.
Je regrete, mais une entree triste
So I’ve found there are certain things one should not listen to or watch if one is already in a crap mood…’specially if that ‘one’ is me. Rest assured I’ll be in a much better mood when I write again, it’s just that now most of my posse is scattered across the globe. So in no particular order…
MOVIES
1. Romeo and Juliet
2. The Notebook
3. Moulin Rouge
4. Black Hawk Down
5. Big Fish
6. The Princess Bride
7. Last of the Mohicans
8. Cold Mountain
9. Life is Beautiful
10. Gladiator
SONGS
1. My Immortal ~ Evanesence
2. Breath (2 am) ~ Anna Nalick
3. Here Without You ~ 3 Doors Down
4. I Need Some Sleep ~ Eels
5. Save Tonight ~ Eagle Eye Cherry
6. Here With Me ~ Dido
7. You Belong to Me ~ Jason Wade
8. Travelin’ Soldier ~ Dixie Chicks
9. You ~ Switchfoot
10. Where’d You Go ~ Fort Minor
Mish~mash of thoughts
Right, so I thought to post an update since I haven’t written in a while, and what better time than procrastinating typing a paper?
Work~
It’s fine. I am totally loving my job and am learning so much so fast! I still have a long way to go until I’m uber-good but everyone seems really happy with my work so far, so that’s cool. I need to ask for more hours though, b/c gas is redonk and I will be driving from El Cajon to La Jolla everyday in summer, bugger it. Aside from that, I really do love my work.
School~
I hate it . I love my classes, my professors are all pretty cool this quarter, but I’m just so tired of being in school, the commute, the insane workload, the fees, the paperwork, etc. I’m told that some day I’ll look back on these years fondly and wish I could go back, but I foresee this ambiguous ’someday’ as being far, far, far, oh-so-far, in the future. Right now I want to get out and start paying these off. To those of you who have listened to my whining about this before, thank you! Your patience is amazing, and I am trying to look on the bright side even when it sucks, so you hopefully won’t hear my gripe as much…right after I say that thanks to stinkin’ gas prices, I will have to either find places to sleep in the La Jolla vicinity or ‘ration’ my school days…or take out a loan for $30 grand and get an uber-awesome hybrid.
Fencing~
On hold until I have more time and money 
. Have since begun working out in the mornings before work/school, including running a ton with my roomies, which surprisingly enjoyable .
Family~
They are good. My sis is actually one of my roomies, my cousin’s birthday sushi party is tonight, one is getting married in a few weeks (his fiancee’s bridal shower is Saturday), and one is expecting his second kid Thanks to the one getting married, everyone else is coming out soon, which means a mini-reunion as sorts. Should be fun.
Friends~
My best friend ever is getting married next month as well, and I am a bridesmaid!!! I have a fitting Saturday to see if my dress is good to go. Everything seems like it’s happening on Saturday 
Anyway, I am uber-excited for this…’specially since I get to take a special someone In other news, my other roomie and I have also decided that this summer will be a time when we a) redo the backyard as a beach (sis’s idea actualy), b) get really good at cooking and have “Asian Invasion Week” where we will attempt to cook Thai, Chinese, etc the whole week.
Summer Plans~
School, work, converting the backyard, practicing cooking…keeping busy until the end of August…
Harris Matrices: A lesson in futility
So I’m in archaeology right now, and we’re just learning about Harris Matrices, which some archaeologist invented in the 1970s to help “convey information.” What ensued was a simple theory illustrated by a complex flow chart of sorts. We just did a 15 minute exercise and tried to take this stratified cross-section of a site and make it into a Harris Matrix. After 14 minutes worth of boxes and lines and crossouts, the professor finally showed us what it was supposed to look like versus what we actually came up with. Once we got it though it’s actually kinda cool, because you can show if something is superimposed, directly related or not. I wonder if I can use that to plot out my life after graduation…
