to find beauty

what was i thinking? (plus photo op for natalie with obama!)

 

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., center, shares a laugh as he chats with volunteers [specifically Natalie Caminiti on his right talking on the phone!] at his campaign office in Brighton, Colo., Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

** Check out my friend Natalie and Obama! She is totally working on his campaign in Colorado, and he just stopped over. Y’know just to hang with his campaign peeps. I got a text message from her yesterday with the words, “I just met Barack Obama. He came and made calls from our office.” That’s it. Just another day in the office! (Cool people visit the chuch too. Hmm. Not presidential nominees, but we aren't a campaign office.) The AP press took lots of pictures and in several of them you can spy Natalie! Click here for more pictures. What was I thinking about all this? Answer: Natalie is so, so cool and I am praying for her as she works really hard with barely any showers time!  (Why I can’t be in politics: apparently, you’re working so hard and for long that you end up taking showers like once every five days. No way, Jose! Maybe every other day. Maybe. Even in Nicaragua, I was able to take a shower everyday and that's a developing country!)  Also, I can't stop looking at their teeth. Both have such white smiles.

** Went home at lunchtime to get socks (my feet were freezing, what was I thinking wearing heels with no socks when its 1) cold and 2) I still can barely walk with my hurt toe still!) and I decided it was the perfect time to get some “fighting” done on my “Gangster Wars.” [Facebook application.] However, all the people – all 19 pages of people who were online, were already heavily wounded. I think maybe there was a gangster bloodbath this afternoon. Sad. Really sad. I couldn’t score any experience points at all. Oh, and it’s sad they were all wounded. Hmmm.

** So, if you are following my adventures as a re-student (short for returning student, clever, eh?) than you know about my issues with the “thesis statement.” Well, apparently, I am STILL not getting it or something because my prof’s comments on the assignment I turned in last night were:

 “Nice detail here, Corinne. What is your thesis statement? Thanks, David.”

Hmmm. Seriously?! I did re-read what I sent and I do agree: there was no thesis statement. What was I thinking? I was able to respond with what I hope to be a decent thesis statement. *fingers crossed*

** I also realized last night while straightening my desk that I have more books “mid-read” or “need-to-read” than humanly possible to actually “completely read” in the nearby future. Again: what was I thinking? I need to say no to buying books, especially when all my reading time needs to be devoted to stuff for school. When I get home, I will count how many of them are stacked on my desk and bed-side bookshelf. Does anyone else have this problem? I know I can’t possibly be alone.

** Okay, so I just checked my 'stats' and there was ANOTHER "girl looking in the mirror" google term, as well as a link from my friend Alyssa's blog, specifically from someone reading in her sub-category, "snot." So, what I am thinking is that someone clicked on the "snot" link on her page, read all about Alyssa's sinus surgery and snotty stuff, and then thought, "I think I want to read Cori's blog." From snot to moi. Heheehehehehe! I think it's a hilarious.

That's my day so far. I also don't know why typepad is choosing to italicize all my words. Weird. What is IT thinking?

 

 

scary times at the haunted manor

 

Looking to get scared? Visit Milburn's Haunted Manor! It was scary! Really! Jennifer, Alison, and I checked it out tonight, and we were genuinely freaked out! See that fear on my face!? I may look like I am laughing, but that's a real scream coming out of my lips!

lessons from "gangster wars"

This morning, upon checking my Facebook (what morning does not begin with checking my email and Facebook?) I received a message from a good friend of mine. The subject heading read:

You are not a good gang leader.

Now, to be honest, being a good gang leader is not the highest priority in my life right now. Being a good friend: yes. Being a good lifegroup leader: yes. Being a good admin: yes. Being a good student: yes. Being a good daughter: yes. Being good in general: yes.

Now, I know my friend well, and I am sure her email was in jest. (She has a great sense of humor.) So, I continued to read her message.

"Oh My Word! You never told me I could end up in JAIL...What kind of gang boss are you when you don't tell me these things. I don't have that kind of money to get out, so I am stuck for a while. Geee, it's been an all round bad day. Now, I am in jail. Come visit me sometime."

Okay, before you think that I REALLY AM the leader of the newest bad-ass gang in town, its not what you think.

It's a game. A terribly addicting and time consuming game on Facebook called "Gangster Wars." I don't even know if I should be confessing to be playing this game, as it involves such violent and criminal activities. Basically, you move up in levels as you get points for fighting and performing missions. You earn money on the missions or by purchasing "territory" that pays you back by the hour. With your money, you buy weapons, protection and transportation. The better the weapons, etc the more fights you win. I feel like its one of those games I would normally be mocking.

Instead, I am fielding off complaints from my one gang member. (I have been advised by another gang boss- the one who got me involved in this SINister business to recruit more gang members, but I feel a little bad asking people to join my gang so I can advance to the next "mission" of store burglaries.)

All this silliness, brings me to a good lesson. One that, again, I picked up on at the Group Life conference, but I think I could have come up with it on my own too.

Lesson One: Admit your errors as they may be due to sin or selfish motives, etc. Just own it. Say I am sorry.

So, to my friend and fellow gangster: I am sorry. I am sorry for not warning you that when you do bad things like fighting with baseball bats and vandalism (part of the game) you might get caught and you might have to pay the consequences. To be honest, I didn't know "jail" was part of the game, but it makes sense. When we do bad things, we should get in trouble.

On a 'hole 'notha level: when in life we realize we have made mistakes, and we realize that it was our own selfishness or *name a motive* that lead to the mistake... its a bigger person that admits their errors and "just owns it." 

***UPDATE***

So, I finally got in trouble too.

read the post-it:

Welcome to part numero dos of my reflections on the GroupLife Conference last weekend.

You're excited, I know. What will I talk about this time? It could be about anything! (I did babysit for some kiddos last night, and I could share my experience with 3-year old, Cade,  and the tantrum heard-around-the-world because we (his sister and I) didn't want to play "Cruise Ship" anymore. He missed his afternoon nap.)

So, I was thinking: how about forgetfulness?

Not the feeling that you get when you are driving to work in the morning and you can't remember if you unplugged the flat iron or not... (I know I am not alone with this!) but the forgetfullness we allow into our lives that separates us from developing an intimate relationship with Christ.

The first session was lead by John Burke (he wrote the No Perfect People Allowed book, and has a new one, Soul Revolution, that looks like a good read as well) and from him alone I have a litany of phrases I should write on post-its and place around the house.

So, I don't forget.

They included:

• Spiritual growth is scandalously simple: stay connected to God.
• Only one thing is necessary: listening and responding to God.
• What God is building in me is essential.
• We pretend we are “other than” ourselves. We aren’t happy with “this,” so we act out on “that.”

All of these I could probably write about alone, (and I just might) but the phrase I want to focus on now is:

• We need to help train ourselves not to ignore God all day.

What? He is daring to suggest that I need help to remember God? Well, he is right-on. I need help. A lot of help. I need to train myself better to remember when I am having a 'drama queen' moment (and we now know I do!) I will instead of freaking-out, I will go to God with my drama. He can take it.

This week in lifegroups we are on session three, "Disappointed and Fogotten." We are reading about how Joseph interpreted the dreams for the cupbearer and the baker, but the cupbearer forgot what Joseph did. And how frustrating that must be for Joseph. To be forgotten. Left out. Insignificant. Used. [Genesis 39:20b-40]

I think of how many times I whine and complain about feeling forgotten as a single person. Where's my good-lookin', Christ-lovin', funny as heck, good with children and cats, loves to bbq (meat) and read books (that aren't just about cars and computers) man? Yep. Maybe God forgot about me.

Maybe not.

Maybe I forget about Him. Does God ever feel left out? Insignificant? Used in my life?

How can I train myself better to not forget? Maybe some of the disappointment (and yes, a little jealousy) I feel when friends get married or single friends have hot-date prospects (and I don't) could be converted somehow to happy-happy God things?

The ALC Living Right When Life Goes Wrong lifegroup curriculum asks us (pg18): "What is a principle that Joseph displayed that will help you walk through disappointment in your life?"

The answer (pg43):

• Joseph never lost faith in God.
• He continued to trust God in his disappointment.
• He continued to serve and focus on others.
• He made the most of his situation.
• He responded with character

"But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden." Genesis 39:20b-21

I want that: the favor of God because I am trusting and putting my faith in Him.

Amen!

 

 

Go God!

Last Friday and Saturday between the craziness that is my life with a full-time job in ministry, part-time back-to-school load and all that other stuff called "having a life," I was able to "squeeze in" a conference. It was not required by work, however, my job title is "Administrative Assistant for Small Groups and Spiritual Formation" and this was a conference about small groups and spiritual formation. Yep. I must love my job.

"Willowcreek's Group Life conference" was presented via "simulcast" at Beaverton Christian Church. Amidst the technical difficulties: watching someone's mouth move as it's just a little off from the audio and the extra fifteen minutes of worship Saturday night morning as we waited for things go to "live" (not a bad thing), we got to hear the encouraging words and hilarious stories of great spiritual leaders in the Christian arena.

Going into the conference, I wasn't sure what to expect. I mean, knew I should be writing an essay due that Sunday night (and I hadn't started it yet), but I also knew that God wanted me at this conference. There were things He knew I needed to hear.

So l listened.

And I took notes.

Lots of notes.

And I now have a list of things I want to write about. Lessons and pieces of advice I want to share with the lifegroup leaders at Abundant Life Church and to my friends in ministry. I believe to the core of my being that God has given me the urgency to write it down. Whether it's to inform or entertain, complain or praise: I must communicate what He is teaching me with others in my special Cori-like way. I can't help it. Blame God. ;)

I was discussing this "need to write for others to read" urgency with some friends earlier, and I found myself telling them that when I was a little, little girl and had discovered the freedoms of "writing in a diary" I was not satisfied with writing all my stuff down and then closing the book and putting it away with a little lock on it. No way. I wanted to call my best girl friends, and read to them what I wrote. (I love my friends. They put up with a lot.) They in turn, would read what they wrote in their diaries. (I can listen too.) It was blog-sharing at the elementary school level.

Back to the conference. Although, I am sure my diary entries about how cute I thought a certain 10-year old boy was (at 10) and whether or not I would try out for the basketball team is fascinating…

At the conference, I was reminded that I am a lifegroup leader, and leading a group is not a "tour of duty." It is a life commitment. Not to freak myself or anyone else out, but when you make the decision to invest into other's lives, you can't just do it on your assigned night and time. To be a great leader you look "between the meetings" and use your "tool box."

Cell phone – Its original purpose was to CALL people. Punch in their phone number, let it ring, speak.

Email – When so much of life is tech-driven, a personal, encouraging note amidst the spam and junk mail makes checking the inbox worth it.

Notecard – I love buying cards, making cards, and receiving cards. But somehow I get stuck in the sending of cards. (I blame it on lack of correct addresses.) Share the joy you feel when you get something fun in the mail with someone else. Stamp: 42¢. Smile on someone's face: priceless.

Errand-Running – Need to run to Target for toothpaste and a birthday card? Call someone who might need to go as well, and use the time to share an experience with another. We all need something at Target, right?

Meal – And we all need to eat. Invite a couple over for dinner, kids included. I think we get so busy with LIFE that we forget to live and share our lives with others with the simple and every-day stuff. My best memories growing up are going playing with my friends as my parents "played with their friends." Usually, we would come up with plays or some dance routine, to which the parents had to be the audience for later on… but well, as we practiced our routines… I think my parents needed that time to be human with others.

Sit together at church – Okay, so this is soooo easy. You all go to the same church (or most of you do) and it's not like we have a million services. Just eight. *wink* So, pick a service that works best for the majority of your group (not 10am, think Saturday night or Parkrose Campus) and attend together. Build community in your group.

Dance card – No men, this does not mean actual dancing is involved. In the olden days (I have idea when really, I know Anne of Green Green Gables refers to a dance card at the Carmady Christmas ball. Hmm.), people would fill out dance cards of the people they were scheduled to dance with for certain dances or songs. You were intentional and planned ahead so you got to dance with who you wanted to dance with... Write up a "dance card" for the people in your group. Write their names down and for each name add an action. For example, "Sam-call on Tuesday eve; ask how job interview went. Linda- help move next weekend." Know your boundaries, and know what you able to do always, and don't be afraid to delegate responsibilities… but be intentional about including them in your life.

Ask – Look at the members in your group and find ways they can use their skills and interests for the group (or church, community, world, etc.) If someone in your group loves to organize things, and you need someone to help organize your garage. Ask. The worse they can do is say no. (And let them say no.)

Hand-off - Need someone to lead the study next week? Hand-off. Need someone to plan a SERVE project? Hand-off. Don't be the King/Queen of Everything: share the load and hand-off. Let me say it again: HAND-OFF. I know its hard... (trust me, I know its hard) but you can't do it all alone.

I hope those ideas were as useful to you, as they were to me. Stay tuned as I continue to process the great teaching I received the Group Life Conference, and as God continues to lay things on my heart to share with you.

In case you are curious (and I might be if I was reading this), the essay that I pushed back so I could go to the conference… the essay I proclaimed that God would bless me in writing because I was spending time learning God-stuff instead of prepping… after a Sunday spent writing and receiving amazing help from my friend, Joy, who crazy enough, knew the material better than me and she wasn't even in the class nor had she read the book. Hmph. Well, I got an A!! Specifically, a "this was well-written and has some fine evidence to back up a clear thesis" type of an A. Go God!

Pop quiz, hot shot: Am I a drama queen?

I know, I am a 'miooaqueen', (if you don't know what this… ask me later…when there are no guys around, trust me. Hush-hush.) but I think maybe I have become a drama queen, particularly on Mondays, specifically in the last month or two. I don't like this at all.

I feel a little… out of control.

I googled "drama queen" (fyi: googling is one of my fav internet pastimes, outside of writing this blog and facebook) and I learned that:

"Conflicts and disappointments are natural side effects of the human experience, but for a certain personality type known as a "drama queen," life's little setbacks can trigger explosive emotional outbursts and other irrational behaviors." [www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-drama-queen.htm]

Emotional outburst and irrational behaviors? Who? Me? Let's take a quiz and find out.

1. You are cat-sitting for one of the pastors at your church, and it is mentioned that they would really appreciate you grooming their cat. You do it (because you are a nice person and want to help people), but you have the skills of Edward Scissorhands, and the poor kitty looks like it got stuck in a blender. (Kinda.) You:

a.) Comfort the cat, but don't freak out because she's fine and there's nothing to worry about.

b) Visit the local Petstore and describe the cat's condition to a vet tech to make sure the cat is "fine." You call the pastor (first time you have called this particular pastor while-housesitting.) and leave a voicemail telling them that you butchered their cat. (This voicemail is saved and replayed repeatedly by the pastor to the amusement of many.) You then write at least two or one? blogs about the CATastrophe, and drive your co-workers crazy with your anxious whines. (The cat is fine.)

c) Nothing. What can you do?

2. You try out eharmony.com, and end up chatting up a nice guy who eventually asks you out. During this process, you:

a) Are excited, but are trusting God that if its meant to be, it will work out.

b) You invoke a posse of prayer warriors, who follow every moment of the meeting on twitter.com. You also, get yourself in such a tizzy, that during your date you talk his ears off and end up telling him about your insane and anal outlook calendar tracking, including the fact he was scheduled on the calendar. Once the "date" is over, you anxiously await to hear from him, but are so exhausted from the leading up excitement you go out with friends and get happily buzzed on one (okay maybe two) pints of German beer. (You do hear from him eventually, but its not (unsurprisingly) good news.)

c) Nothing. What can you do but go with the flow?

3. You try your hand at online dating again, only this time you decide to post a Craigslist ad. (Yes. You did.) You get several responses, most worthy only of your junk mail, but one dude sticks out and you agree to meet up with him. To prepare for this date, you:

a) do the normal first-date activities, made sure someone knew where you were going, and wait to have a good time.

b) do the normal first-date activities plus you purchased a brand-new outfit, had your eyebrows waxed and got a pedicure. You set aside an entire morning to primp for the date. However, before the date you made sure not one, but several people knew where you were going to be and what time you were meeting him. You also analyzed whether or not meeting him was an "okay" thing to do (since it was Craiglist and you aren't an experienced dater, really.) which requires help from your counselor, several groups of friends, and a co-worker now dubbed your "dating mentor." You also google the dude, find his myspace page, and track him on classmates.com. (This is a big clue to what 'miooaqueen' is...) You consider purchasing pepper spray but settle with the pocket knife under the front seat.

c) Nothing. Got dressed as normal and prepare for a new experience.

4. Typically, when something exciting happens in your life (this could be anything from getting A on a paper, meeting a cool new guy or getting positive feedback at work), you:

a) Want to share it with your closest friends.

b) You write about it on a public blog, twitter it, facebook it, call all you friends and tell them the whole, entire story (with loads of details), talk about it with any of your co-workers who will listen, mention it to your: counselor, chiropractor, doctor, pedicurist, cashier at New Seasons/Safeway, and consider adding it the book you want to write someday.

c) Nothing. Good things happen and that's great.

5. You get in a car accident. An unmarked police car turns in front of you with no warning at all and you hit his back bumper. You did not see his lights until the last minute. You find out that you are being held liable for the accident. Your response:

a) Suck it up and realize your insurance rates just spiked.

b) First, you yell and vent your frustrations to the insurance claim adjuster, including lines like "this is ridiculous! How can cops get away with being so completely negligent?" and "I understand that lights mean yield to police cars, but what if there is not enough warning? You are in a crappy (not what I said) situation because there's no where you can yield to!" You then bawl your head off, crying out, "I do everything right, how come this happens?" You call your insurance agent and consider his suggestion to call a lawyer. You twitter your angst (to which TWO pastors either twitter back or call you to make sure you are okay and not dying), find the "Guy You Like" and tell him how upset you are and what a dumb situation it is and love that he gets mad too (but then worry your scared him away with your dramatic insanities.) You then rant and rave for the rest of the day to: you boss and co-workers, your neighbor, your bible study group, a best girlfriend, and consider leaving the sob story on the voicemail of your other best girlfriend even if she is in Arkansas on a family vacation. You are frustrated that you had to pay $250 for a deductible and that multiple visits to the chiropractor (although she is very nice) have taken over your lunch period. You also begin to compare your situation to Joseph from the Bible, and begin applying principles the Pastor has been using in his teachings and realize that even if you are being blamed for something you did not do!!! (really!!!) and your integrity is being damaged (as a good driver, etc) that you are "being watched in the pit" and you must trust and have faith in God through it all.

c) Nothing. Its settled. Nothing to do.

6. You write a response paper for a new professor for your first class in five years, and your professor responds that you missed the point of the assignment and that your thesis is not clear. You:

a) Chalk it up to good critique and work on improving for the next paper.

b) Write a passionate, confused email to the professor claiming his directions where unclear. You then re-write the assignment for him. You realize as you re-write the assignment that the professor was in fact correct, but you are feeling prideful so you include a quote from the book that contradicts the professor's assignment completely. You also consider the idea that returning to college was a terrible, bad idea and way too hard. You have mini-counseling sessions with several people at work about the situation and google "thesis statement." You eventually, admit you are wrong to the professor, and hope to God that he has pity on you when grading your next assignment.

c. Nothing. What can you do?

In case you didn't notice, but my answers (even if I wished they were the a's) were the "b's" and I think that makes me a bit of drama queen. It's funny, because I am only realizing now (especially as I write this all up) what a freaker-outer I really am! I should be banned from twitter, and no decent guy should ever want to date me because I might call the Channel 8 news if things go completely wrong... or right.

Note: call and schedule appointment with counselor tomorrow. May want to print this up for his records.

something ridiculously cool

Okay, so I am major supporter of my friends and their life's passions. Soooo check out this video my friend Jason made! Its claymation, so immediately it rocks. Leave him comments too!

 

I got married last night (in my dreams)

Last night, after an evening I don't even want to get into the details to… okay, fine. I will a little… I ended up kneeling over a toilet - no flu bug, eating disorder or alcohol involved, I swear! Just a migraine. A terrible, evil sneak-up-on-me-to-ruin-my-night-of-studying migraine. I was ready and longing for sleep at 9:45pm. Waaaay early for me. Oh, but lovely, lovely sleep.

And I had a wonderful dream. I think it was God's little way of being nice after my migraine. (Somewhat kidding.) Because I am that much of a weirdo-romantic (and I have your attention thus far)—here we go:

I found myself in an older home that I had never been to before. It must have been built in the early 20s (gee, so is the house I am staying in right now…) I didn't know why I was there or what was going on. I walked around the house and realized that everyone I knew practically—family, friends—were getting ready for a wedding in this home. They were all busy and happy. I asked someone, I think my sister, who's wedding it was and she looked at me like I was completely slow and said, "Yours Cori! What's up with you? Oh and your new soon-to-be mother-in-law is waiting for you upstairs."

What?! I am getting married? My mother-in-law? Hold the fort: who am I marrying?? I go upstairs (which oddly I knew exactly where they were) and walked slowly into one of the guest rooms and again, people are busy and happy—but I don't know any of these people. Must be my new in-laws I think. I say hello.

"Oh Cori come here! We must try this on you!" My new mother-in-law comes to me all happy and friendly, and puts something on my head. All the people in the room ooh and aah. I feel disoriented, but I really want to make a good impression. I get the feeling in the dream as I leave that I really like this woman.

I go downstairs and decide to sit on the floor in the hallway, the only empty place with no people milling around, and am trying to figure out what is going on: I am me, I know that, but how did I get here and who am I marrying?

Then he walks through the door. Tall and blond (!?) with the warmest eyes ever. He is seriously the most good-looking, wonderful looking creature I have ever seen. He looks at me and starts laughing, "you can't hide forever! I will find you!" (oooh! Promise?) He comes to me and takes my hands in his… And his hands are big and rough and perfect. Working man's hands. I look up at him and I know this is him. The man of my dreams. (Really.) He puts his arms around me and holds me warmly. I am thinking, "wow this must be a dream, I better pay attention and enjoy this!"

The next thing I know, I am in my wedding dress and it's BEAUTIFUL. I mean, really, really beautiful. Literally dream dress beautiful. Layers of silky material that make me feel like I am floating. I fingered the netting and thought to myself, "I never would have picked out netting on my dress, but I love it.l.." And, in my dream, I am the size I am now, so it's not like I dreamed I was a size 6. I was me, now, in this gorgeous dress feeling wonderful. But I had no shoes. I called my mom (I had my cell phone on me, of course) and she was worried because she forgot her shoes too. I figured I would just walk barefoot, even if I wish I had my brown flip flops. (I really thought this!) A lady at the farmers supply store heard my shoeless drama (apparently I was in a farmers supply store, think: Coastal) and gave me a pair of "glass slippers" to wear, and they fit but when I walked in them they felt like rubber shoes. I think were rubber glass-slipper shaped gardening shoes. Very odd.

I then spotted someone who appeared to be my maid of honor (still at Coastal), but I couldn't see her face. So, I walked over to her to get a better look and it was a girl I went to high school with that I haven't seen in years. She gave me a huge hug and said she was so excited to be there for me. I was totally confused. Where were my friends that I had always thought would be my wedding party? Then, my soon-to-be husband, who has no name, came to me and starting trying on cart hart jackets over his suit. (Really.) And he asked me how they looked on him, and me, in my wedding dress, said, "You look great! Really great ('cause he looked awesome). Let's get married now!"

So then, we are front of everyone at the church and are repeating the vows and they are totally "unique" vows. I can't remember them, but they were like vows no one has heard before. I honestly don't think they were real wedding vows. When we are done, we lead everyone the next room (which was like a school gymnasium), great dance music is playing and everyone starts rocking out to it. But my hairpiece (apparently the one from my mother-in-law falls out and it has all these weird pokey things in it) and my new husband tells me he loves my hair long and free anyways. So I let it flow. And it's long and gorgeous. (I write this as I play with my short new hair style. Hmm.)

Then I am walking around with my wonderful hubby and I amazed at how many people were there and actually dancing. I tell him, "Wow, you must be some great teacher, look at how many of your students showed up." Weird. Why would a teacher have such wonderfully calloused man's hands? And his blond hair is gone and he has brown hair and not quite as tall but he's still him. It was very weird. But wonderful too.

Then I woke up and thought: What a lovely dream. WHERE IS HE?

 

Okay, thanks for reading my dream last night. No over-analyzing. ;)

 

life. is. great. *sarcasm*

I woke up exhausted this morning.

Perhaps it was because I tossed and turned all night as Elwood, who was not the best cat ever, sang up a storm all night. Atleast with children you can duct tape their mouths shut, not possible with cats. [Note: I would never really duct tape a crying kid's mouth shut.]

Perhaps its because I spent the bulk of my weekend reading a book called "A Courtship After Marriage" which told me everything I didn't know I needed to know about marriages in Mexico comparative to their migrant counterparts with specific differences in the young women's marriages versus their mothers... And then, I wrote up the discussion responses (which I was really proud of!) and the prof writes back this morning saying that I missed the point of the assignment all together. Great  generalizations, but you missed the boat, kiddo. [Okay, those are not his words exactly...] I wasn't to agree that the marriages were different, which apparently is obvious, but whether or not they are better.. blah blah. I seriously want to cry a little. Is this what school is? Because I had forgotten the frustrations of trying to understand and please professors when all you want to do is learn things.

*sigh*

This week I have to write an essay for aforementioned professor about the same book. I am scared to death.

It doesn't help that this week, on top of the homework for my other class, I have a conference that will take me away Friday night and most of Saturday. Plus I have a meeting Sunday afternoon. I have two lifegroups to attend. And Mel and Chris will be back this and will want their house back... so I need to move out and clean things sparkly again.

I am feeling very whiny right now. Now, I must be off to the chiropractors because my back is hurting from my car accident last weekend when the unmarked police car u-turned in front of me...

Life. Is. Great.

why my cat is better than yours...

Mine helps me study. See how he's fascinated by the "Poverty by Developing Region" map. He helped me read and I got a 100% on the reading quiz.

 

And, he plays nicely with "Princess" Felicity. See how he let's her have a turn batting around the weird cat toy.

 

Of course, he likes to play as well.

And he is super-resourceful: he can find his own water supplies!

Okay, so that's my little tribute... *cough* .. day two of "elwood, the best cat ever" posts. Maybe Dad was right, maybe I do need a boyfriend so I am not such a crazy cat lady? (He really did day that; he will deny if asked. LOL.)