Happy Christmas--kinda late

I love singing Christmas carols. They are so beautiful. One year we went to an Anglican Christmas Eve midnight sevice--that was one of the most beautiful service I have ever attended. It was so formal and reverent and full of awe. We sang every verse to each carol. And, a little trivia for you, my favorite carols are O Come O Come Emmanuel and O Holy Night. What Child is This comes pretty close though.

I spent this year's season making the best Christmas carol playlist. Now that it is Christmas day, I want songs that I don't have. I want the happy songs, not the weepy ones. I woke up singing I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. I should have thought ahead.

I went crazy baking this year. I think it was some sort of coping mechanism. It was fun, but no more late night baking sessions for me for a while. I think that might be a bit over the top.

Thanks to a some very kind people in my life, I got Starbucks Christmas Blend for Christmas. Today I drank some, from a french press, with a spice cookie. WOW. I mean WOW. It was sooooooo good. I didn't realize how much I missed drinking premium coffee. Verona, with dark chocolate, Sanani with cranberries--there is nothing like it. I might like black coffee more than a latte, or an Americano.

My life is full and good, immeasurably better than I deserve. Still, I wish there were more people physically in my life that knew me, that really knew me. I love you guys :)

The two stages

Did you know that there are two stages of weevil life? Two. They live out their youth as small eggshell colored larvae. Then they ascend into adulthood as regular black weevils. If you knew this, you are ahead of me. I didn't even know how to spell weevil, but thankfully spell check did. I also thought that they were only black, and obvious in flour.

It is Christmas time. The season of advent needs no extra frills in order for me to appreciate its meaning. However, making cookies around this time of year is fun and generates a sweet feeling of nostalgia. And who doesn't like to eat cookies? So, I have gone a crazy baking. At least, I started baking and decided to enter into true insanity this evening by making an egregious amount of snickerdoodles. My plan has been foiled. It has been foiled by the first kind of weevil. The light in the kitchen shines dimly, and I did not check the flour closely until it was too late. Now I have a ridiculous amount of useless batter. I feel defeated.

I would make more batter, but I have nearly run out of butter, and cookies are not worth their salt without fat. I do not have the energy to go to the store to buy more butter. I planned to give my friends cookies tomorrow as a gift. Maybe I will do the unspeakable and buy store bought cookies.

"let your love rage like a lion" andrew osenga

Movement

A good friend here has commented on how quiet i have been. Am I becoming a quieter person? I don't know. But I know for certain that there are times when I have no idea of what to say so I say nothing, times when getting across what I want to say would take more effort than I can give, times when I don't want to say anything at all, and times when I want someone around who will hear my words in the context of who I am.

I spend free time on the internet looking for great song writers and musicians. I keep "discovering" people that most people have known for years, loving musicians I merely liked before. I never did this in America--I even listened to the radio there but mostly because I had a very loved but very old car. I suppose it isn't the worst way to spend free time, especially since I haven't yet been able to watch a movie straight through. What has happened to my attention span?

Arabic isn't too bad these days. I still don't understand most of what people say to me, but I enjoy learning it and see progress in class. I might even characterize it as fun...

Two lists

Things I miss (in no particular order):
Easy access to talking to and seeing family and friends
My Fort Worth apartment and my full of grace and mercy and laughter roommate inside the apartment.
All my DC peeps--you each deserve your own line on this list.
Dynorock--climbing partners and employees--think of me on the 45 wall.
Target
Friday morning rushes at Starbucks--but only when I was on the bar
Speaking of Starbucks--a rocking latte right after a shift--mmmm-nothing like it. Well, a rocking latte on a day off is pretty good too actually--when the weather starts to get cool, but is warm enough still to drink iced drinks.
Trinity Park
Tuesday night tea time
Cooking in a kitchen and culture of which I have a full grasp.
Wearing my hair down
Wearing whatever I want
South Texas sunsets
Tacos Ernesto and Rosas
Not having unattractive feet


Things I love here (again, in no particular order):
Music--more than in America--I don't really get it--and I have way more folksy taste here--bring on Sandra McCracken and Derek W--will there ever be a perfect playlist?
My park/zoo
Walking
Anytime I can speak Arabic
Being here
Shwarmas--kinda like tacos
Scarves--I feel like Grace Kelly in them.
Cooking--sorta--I will like it more once I figure out a few more things about shopping here.
Slumber parties
Right now the weather (this will change in a few months)
Juice stands
Community
Laughing with strangers
Fun long skirts that nearly cover my toes.
Dashes--apparently

Sarcasm

I think I am going to ease up on the sarcasm for a while. Sometimes it creates walls between myself and people, and those aren't ever good. It isn't the first time I've put it aside, some of you may remember that I did so last spring, but it still isn't that much fun. I hope that it helps facilitate more genuine, honest relationships.

"Yesterday"

Once upon a time there was a girl who lived in the desert. Somedays were tougher than others, especially those days which painfully reminded her that she did not yet really speak the language of this far off, exciting desert place. One of those days, let's call the day "yesterday" for the sake of this story, she also found herself locked out of her apartment late at night after watering the plants. She could not leave her yard for she was not wearing what some like to call, "culturally appropriate clothing." She called out for her kind and benevolent landlady to no avail. She then distressfully called out for the knight in shining armor/local store owner near her. He did not hear her either. Determined not to leave the yard, she feared she would have to spend the night outside. Finally a neighbor heard her call, and after a very long poorly communicated ordeal, the landlady came down with her son. The son broke down the door; more than an hour after the plants received their water, the girl reentered her house.

A few tears fell at some point in the evening for this girl, but she was reminded of the provision of her amazing Prince of Peace who always looked out for her, was always with her, even when she was locked out of her apartment in the desert. Her soul was restored. The next day, she also walked an hour in the heat of the day, and that felt great too.

The end

Also, she is still trying to figure out how comments work on her blog. She apologizes.

Community

I love community. I don't just love community, I recognize that I need it, that we all need it. I miss my community from back in the States. Close honest relationships take time to build. I miss those who gave me that time, and allowed me to share my life with them. But, I am so thankful for the new community here. His provision of new community is a gift which I can't help but thank Him for many times over.

Blogs are interesting inventions of our day. Email and mobility created a society which generated large amounts of long distances friendships and even acquaintances. But, we tire of communicating the same update in individual emails and hate insulting people with too many mass emails, so we created blogs. Blogs invite an opportunity to keep in touch without having to keep in touch. We can know how our friends are doing without emailing them or talking to them, let alone sitting down with them and a cup of coffee and sharing life with them. Overall I like blogs, but I don't want to use mine as a replacement for relationships which require greater maintenance than posting or reading a few paragraphs. So friends, I commit to keep in touch with you. Please call me out if I don't, and let me hear from you personally as well. And come have coffee with me here--my treat.

The Park

I've started spending time in a park near my house. While I do go there to meet people so that I can practice my still broken Arabic, I also genuinely enjoy going to this place. It has lots of grass to sit on and fun girls who often want to talk. I have to pay to get in, which I find interesting. An admission ticket is about 50 cents--really not too bad for a pleasant evening sitting in beautiful green grass. The weather hasn't been too bad either, that and maybe I've acculturated to it at least a little bit. Most of the evening one of the vendors plays American pop music, but I never know any of the lyrics. Maybe some pics will come, I need to procrastinate my self-aware computer system anyway.

Volleyball

A volleyball game made my cultural experience of the evening. Apparently volleyball is a well loved sport around here, second only to the highly beloved football. Now, those of you who know me well, know that I only really enjoy sporting events for the social aspects they provide. Mostly, I enjoy talking to people and eating cotton candy. Tonight was not too much of an exception; and while there was no consession person selling cotton candy, I was not at a loss for sweet things to eat. Foreigners are much the entertainment around here, and my friend and I were quickly ushered to a front seat at center court. More than one camera was pulled out in the course of the evening, including a TV camera, in order to document our attendance. Who knows, in only a few short days I too could be an international super star. Just remember, never believe what you read in the tabloids. We were given snacks and bottled water, and met international referees, at least one of whom has refereed at the Olympics. My team won. Ok, I didn't have a team really, but a team won and I cheered on their victory.

I took pictures and maybe sometime I'll post some. My aspiration for creating a blog has been reached so I plan to enjoy that before moving on to greater technological accomplishments. After the pictures, I think I'll work on creating self-aware computers. Then I'll create even stronger self-aware computers to help us defeat the first set of self-aware computers when they take over the human race. So basically, my next technical task is to save the world. Where do I apply to receive the Nobel Prize?

I finally got a blog--hence the url

Hey friends I finally got a blog. I love to write, but now I feel on the spot and can't think of anything. More to come.