to find beauty

my new favorite thing

Monday night I nearly became a popsicle. I live in an old house with old, drafty windows. Whoever designed the vent system, had the bright idea of putting the heat vent on my ceiling. Yeah, a lot of heat there.

So, Monday night I am getting ready to go to sleep and I am so, so cold. I already had two comforters, a goosedown and a regular blanket on my bed. I curled up in the fetal position, hoping to warm up. My nose, which was outside my blankets, was like a icecube! Finally, I got up and put on my knee high ski socks, added a hooded sweatshirt to my sweats and long sleeved shirt, put on my mittens and topped my little ensemble with my stocking cap. I add another blanket, return to my fetal position and finally am able to sleep.

That is the last night that I go to bed that cold.

So last night after work, I went electric blanket shopping. They'e pricey! But I found my best deal at Target. 29.99 for what I can now testify to as money well spent! I slip under the covers, and I am welcomed by wonderful warmness. I slept AMAZING. And now I am typing this little post while enjoying the warmth of my new favorite thing wondering why it took me so long to get one!

elwood lookalike!

okay, so while working on my "white elephant" present for the Abundant Life Church staff Christmas party, I ran across this amazing picture of a cat with similiar markings to my very unusual elwood. (search term used: "mr t" under google images)

mr.t

elwood

okay, so maybe they aren't IDENTICAL, but perhaps they could pass as brothers? elwood, of course, being the far more handsome cat. and yes, he modeled for the above photo!

hmmm.

coolest news ever for a big book nerd like me

Okay, I was given the best link ever (thanks Korrin). It reveals amazing news that not only is my favoite series (bypassing maybe even Sweet Valley High... maybe) going to have a SEVENTH book - who knows when exactly (the author will be done end of 2008), but it won't even be the last! Yes, the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon will continue! I will be able to lose myself in the time-traveling adventures of Jamie and Claire and their children... oh, this is like, the coolest news ever for a big book nerd like me. This must be what it feels like when the Harry Potter fans or Star Wars people camp out for the next book or movie sequel? Joy mixed with anticipation mixed with peace that you will be reunited with characters who seems so real.. oh I am excited. only a year or two to wait. ;)

Those of you also hooked as well- you better leave me a comment expressing your shared joy!! I know I am not alone in my Outlandish nerdiness.

For those needing to know more, click here.

beatnik cori

a couple times now, i have referred to a very silly poem i wrote in high school for an english class project. my beatnik on love poem. i thought maybe i would publish it now, relive its groovy memories. please remember, i wrote this like a DECADE ago.

(to fully embrace the essence of the experience of the beatnik you really need a bongo drum, but i think you can pretend my strumming your nails on a nearby desk or patting your thigh to the beat. c'mon, i dare you.)

beatnik on love

the heart beats on
the heart, hollow muscular blood circulation
beats it rapidity rythmic emotions
a gallimaufry of desire, utterful pain

the heart beats on

resist the heart's gregarious bolster
love, a universal wuzzy blanketing truths
protest, express the red hollow torture

the heart beats on

paralyzed my naive fellow creature
we suffocate pulmonary artery
passion inscribed in equilibrium Circle
susceptible to desideratum
repose society's love-extremity

the heart beats on

fantasia floating filling facets
hollow red pervade empty mind, aura
screaming, crying, crystalline compounds
the scarlett nestled within pulsating

the heart beats on
the heart beats on

my mission to nicaragua blog

Check it out! I made a blog entirely dedicated to my upcoming short-term mission trip to Nicaragua. Its listed in the links list on the sidebar, or click here.

easy like sunday afternoon

today,i fought a cold and recovered from a weekend of migraines; I spent the day cuddled on my loveseat watching an entire season of America's Next Top Model (the one Danielle wins). i feel like a slug; i feel slightly guilty for not being social and productive sunday night cori. mostly though, i wonder if, cold symptoms aside, resting always feels this luxurious and easy...

getting it done

Check it out! I got my Nicaragua Sponsorship Letters done! Okay, I only made thirty of them, but they were a little more complicated than just printing a letter! And, well, I have yet to determine WHO I will be sending them too... But it feels good to have this much done! Yeah!

the set up

i discovered some very interesting things about myself during my week of vacation.

i am a woman of expectations. i am a woman full of a lot of hope. [i think thats why i am looking forward to nicaragua: its a trip giving me (and the team) an opportunity to give hope to women and children where hope is not an everyday luxury.]

i am a woman who is still hiding from a lot of Giants. i am afraid of confrontation. i am prideful. i take too much responsibility for the success and failure of a ministry i am participating in.

i allow my identity to be wrapped up in what i do and not who i am.

and i desire very much to share my life with someone who loves Jesus. 

it was interesting this past week. sleeping in, visiting with special friends, working on some projects at home. it was wonderful.

i also found myself in a role familiar to most Singletons: the "set up."

my recently married friend decided she would find me a boyfriend. (this could have been prompted by me saying "i wish i had a boyfriend..." haha) so, last saturday, i found myself sitting next to one of her husband's most valued (single) friends. we will call him L. he was nice, cute, and as a i am quoted to have written in an email to a friend: "has the cutest squinty eyes." he really did.

[its worth noting that my second grade crush was a boy named Ryan who ate glue which I found very attractive.]

we had a good time. the four of us went wine tasting (admittedly not my thing... but it was very beautiful at the wineries), then dinner, followed by a haunting corn maze, hay ride, and hay maze. it was fun. i laughed a lot. it felt good to not be the third (or fifth) wheel. to have someone to laugh with and tease. we ended the night, carving our pumpkins.

i felt pretty good. we had a good time. but i am dumb to all this real life blind dating stuff: what happens next? i decided to be patient. excited, but patient.

wednesday evening found me once again sitting next to  L at gustav's happy hour. very spontaneous. my friend and i had been shopping most of the day and were there to unwind. L and i again were friendly, although i think we were mostly entertained my by our mutual married friends. sex and football. gotta love it.

last night i found myself once again sitting next to L. this time i was brave enough to ask "how was your week?". (its tough chatting with someone with an audience. i am not good at it. i was nervous) we ate. our friends were grumpy (he just got a very expensive photo ticket in the mail, that makes anyone grumpy) and we were all a little tired. we went bowling. (i will add here that i got second place the first game, and first place the second game. woo hoo)

i had fun. we laughed a lot. we ended the night at a local coffee shop. then L went home. i left with the married friends. i left exasperated. no exchange of numbers. emails. nada. no hint of interest beyond the night (excep for a party the married friends were throwing in a couple weeks).

i am soooo not good at this. this knowing what the other is thinking, if he is interested, if i am saying the right things or asking the right questions. a co-worker once advised me when i was speaking of my lack of dating know-how:

Just enjoy the moment!  If it's meant to be, it will be.  Don't push too hard or hang back.  Just be CORI, the wonderful person you are!  If it's God's plan, it will all work out.  Listen to me, a g-gramma giving advice to a 20 something!

so, i think thats what i am aiming to do. enjoy each moment. i had fun with L, and i am sure if we were to see each other again, we would have fun again. i still yearn for someone to share my life with, to fill the seemingly always empty seat next to me at church... (err), but i am patient and i trust God. As i wrote this morning during church service:

I ache to know what, who it is you have for me. But its Your heart I live for. ... Lord, break through all my doubts, all my fears. I want so much to be obedient, to be content with what you have for me and i know You only have the best for me and only You knows what the best is- i trust You to reveal that to me. I thank you so much for Your love and patience. You know me.

So, tonight I will go Uprising and it will be a night for me to praise and worship my Father, who loves me unconditionally and is yearning for me to share my life with Him.

things i want to do someday [slightly updated]

1. Dress a mannequin. (maybe more than one)
2. Write the letters for a coffee shop menu - COMPLETED. Life Cafe menu at church!!
3. Walk in a cranberry bog like in the commercial.
4. Have a picture taken of me in a red tulip field. - COMPLETED. (thanks Mel)
5. Master the sewing machine.
6. Move out on my own.
7. Write a book. Or two.
8. Publish my own Zine.
9. Visit India (visit my dear friend Lavie!)
10. Also visit: Scotland, Ireland, England and Italy... Greece too.
11. Go on a cruise: have a fancy drink with an umbrella while sitting on a reclining chair around a pool, while reading a smart book and sporting cool sunglasses.
12. Go to Prince Edward Island and see the house where Anne of Green Gables was filmed. I really, really want to do this one.
13. Also, visit Missouri and see the house where Laura Ingalls did most of her writing. :) Little House on the Prairie!
14. Learn how to crochet. - COMPLETED. On to knitting.
15. Go to a road trip around the US like John Steinbeck did... visiting obscure places and interviewing people and writing about it.
16. Go on a short-term mission trip. {quite possibly happening this March when I go to Nicaragua!!} - COMPLETED.
17. "throw a pot" (pottery term)
18. Catch the bouquet at a wedding - COMPLETED.
19. Cut fabric like they do at the fabric store AT THE FABRIC STORE with the super sharp scissors and the line thing to make it straight.
20. Learn how to use a cash register. - COMPLETED. @ Wild Plum Pies, seasonal job while at OSU
21. Kiss a boy on the bridge at Multnomah Falls... at Vista Point... on the Space Needle at sunset... in a dressing room... hmmmm...
22. Play on the troll under the bridge in Seattle.
23. Visit Emily's grave-site, also in Seattle. (I tried to do this one, but we didn't know where the gravestone was!)
24. Learn how to drive a stick shift. [this was kinda sorta completed when I test drove at the Kia dealership...]
25. Strip and Refinish a table - COMPLETED. Ang enjoys the fruit of that labor.
26. Visit all the Mary Englebreit stores in the country. (may not happen, have  been to the one in Seattle)
27. Have a french fry taste testing contest. COMPLETED (see future blog)
28. Become a foster parent.
29. Learn how to change the oil in my car.
30. Paint a mural.
31. go crabbing
32. go snowboarding with Kori at least once this winter (if she comes home) [COMPLETED... however... I am not sure if it should really count as snowboarding.]
33. take a cooking class - COMPLETED! Thanks Mel and Chris! (see Oct 26th blog entry)
34. get a pedicure (hmm thats real hard...) - COMPLETED A MILLION TIMES OVER... I am addicted now.
35. Make a list of the gardens of Oregon and visit them this Spring and Summer (2007). (okay, I did MAKE the list... I visited two...)
36. Fix the wireless router so I can have fast, broadband internet on my laptop! [COMPLETED 3/17/07.... my happiness with completing this one is immeasurable]

(recently added)
37.  Have the best birthday ever: 28 on 8/28/08 (born in 80!)
38. Organize all my photos
39. Play golf.
40. Get a tatoo. (this one may never happen...)
41. Read the whole Bible.
42. Send out a Christmas Family newsletter. For reals, folks.
43. Sell a piece of art.
44. Graduate a child from high school in SIMS2 - not sure why this is so hard for me.
45. Meet a celebrity.

exciting purchase

So, thanks to Chrissy Miner and her wonderful super hot flat iron and the result of my beautiful hair for Mel's wedding (see "me in weddings") I HAD to purchase a flat iron with a little more heat... fortunately there was a sale at Sally's Beauty Supply! :) So, I just played with it a bit. and already the outcome is amazing. my frizzy hair when sleek in minutes. Watch out world, here comes Sexy Hair Cori! :)

I also cashed in a gift certificate for a manicure/pedicure this afternoon (with Mel) and am sporting darling toes! "Chocolate Shakespeare" with "apple red" and white flowers on the big toes. (my fingers are just clear, what i like best!)

My vacation is winding down... but it has been good. I look forward to getting back to work. I miss my co-workers! :)