Exciting news!

I have some very big news! I now have a job! :D

Last Sunday one of my friends told me the restaurant he works at is hiring more people to bus tables on Friday nights, since he knew I've been looking for employment for quite a while now. I called them the next day and was able to get an interview Wednesday night.

When I got there, entering through the large front doors (which, by the by, remind me very much of a hobbit hole - they have a huge circular window), I was about 10 minutes early for my 5:15 interview. There was no one in the lobby, but I could hear people talking in another room and figured there was probably a staff meeting going on. I stood awkwardly in the lobby for about 10 minutes, reading and re-reading the plaques, smiling at passers-by, and feeling more and more uncomfortable. The restaurant is at a golf course, very large, and with big windows that showed lovely views of the golf course which I could see parts of from where I stood. Finally a lady asked if I'd been helped or was just waiting for someone, so I told her I was there for an interview. She told me the staff meeting was going longer than usual and I could just sit down, so I settled into one of the four large chairs near the fireplace and pretended to be doing important things on my phone (the only magazines were golfing related, so there wasn't really any reading material).

At last the staff meeting was over, and D., the lady who would be interviewing me, appeared and brought me an application to fill out. It didn't take long to fill out since I didn't have any past jobs, and D. was quite surprised I was done already when she walked through a second time. Then she sat down and interviewed me, which was quite painless and rather humorous. :D

At the end of the interview, she asked if I'd be ready to start this Friday! I enthusiastically said that would definitely work, and so she gave me all the necessary forms and information, such as wear your hair pulled back and what sort of shoes and socks to wear (black, closed toes, with black socks). She also asked if I'd be fine with being a hostess sometimes, which would mean I'd greet the people who had reservations, bring them to their table, and give them menus, which of course I said I'd love to do! As I went outside, folder full of confusing forms in hand, I tried my hardest to not run until I'd at least gotten out from under the archways leading to the door, but I was SO excited I couldn't help myself and ran to the car as fast as I could! Dreadfully undignified, but oh well. :) Earlier in the week I'd thought that it would be pretty cool if they hired me right then and there and I could start working that Friday, but I thought, "Ah, that'll never happen. They'll have to call my references and everything, so I won't even dwell on it," but it happened! I was so happy! I feel so blessed to have gotten a job so quickly and painlessly!

After I'd excitedly told my dad that I'd been hired and called my mom to give her the big news, Dad suggested we go buy my requisite black pants and black shirt right then. That was incredibly difficult - have you ever tried shopping for a long-sleeved, button-up black shirt in July? Don't, if you wish to preserve your sanity! I finally had to settle for three-quarter length sleeves, which will hopefully be acceptable for summer at least. And since I'm so tiny, finding dress pants also proved to be quite a challenge. After I'd almost given up hope since the Petites section had no sizes under 6, I spotted some in the Juniors section that were size 1. They were exactly 6 1/2" inches too long, as I discovered while altering them today, but they FIT! So now I have my clothes...I'll have to take a picture tomorrow so you all can see how official I look. ;)

The other exciting that hadn't occurred to me would happen is...I'll be getting a checking account! Now that is scarily grownup...I'm past the point of no return, no going back now! ;) And I suppose I'll have to learn how to balance the checkbook...fun stuff.

So yes, that would be my big news. Exciting! At this time last week, I'd no idea I'd a have a job in a week! :D

*****
I added a few songs to the playlist at the bottom of the page and deleted a few others. It's quite an eclectic mix...everything from the Secret Garden to Skillet...and I hope you hear something you like! :)

*****
And thank you SO much to Rocina Fontina for giving me the Princess of Feminine Delight award! :) That was so sweet of you!

100th Post!

We watched Eight Below last night. Amendment: my mom and sister watched Eight Below - I ended up running out of the room screaming! Here's a brief synopsis of the movie, in case you've never heard of it: Jerry is a guide in Antarctica, and provides transportation for scientists with the aid of his beloved dogsled team. On one journey, the scientist he is assisting breaks his leg, Jerry gets frostbitten fingers, and after getting back to the station in the nick of time before a huge storm hits, they have to be airlifted to the hospital. And sadly, there is no room on the plane for the dogs. After plans to return immediately to get them fall through due to the awful weather, Jerry is forced to return to the U.S, tortured by the thought that he left his dogs to die. It turns out fairly well, with Jerry being reunited with 6 of his dogs months later.

However, in one part one of the dogs is eating an orca carcass (naaasty looking), when suddenly a huge, hideous, nightmarish-looking leopard seal comes bursting out of it! I screamed bloody murder! Thinking about it still gives me the creeps, in fact. :P I stuck around, slightly petrified by the seal (if you don't know what they look like, here is a picture. *shudders* And they're huge), until the seal, which had vanished back under the ice, suddenly popped out of a hole and grabbed one of the dogs by the leg! That was when I leapt off the couch, bolted upstairs, and started reading C.S Lewis. :P Good comfort for a troubled mind.

But before I tell you how, thanks to Mere Christianity, a question that had been troubling me has been answered, I'll remark that I really dislike movies like Eight Below and March of the Penguins. It's not that I find that morally problematic...I just find them terribly depressing. I guess it's because it just seems so hopeless, since even when things are at their worst for humans, they still have reason and can at least try to find a way out. And even if they do die in the end, if they were a good person you know they're going to a better place, but when animals die, that's that. They're guided entirely by instinct, they don't understand what's happening to them, and all in all it makes for a depressing experience.


Anyways...on to brighter topics!

For months, I've been struggling with the question of why God gave us free will. The answer I was always given was, "Because we cannot love without being free, and He wanted us to be able to love Him." To me this always just seemed terribly selfish, so I figured I must be missing something. I was, and it was all made clear in Chapter Three of Book Two of Mere Christianity.

"Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot imagine such a thing. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata - of creatures that worked like machines - would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.

"Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. Perhaps we feel inclined to disagree with Him. But there is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source. When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on. If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will - that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings - then we may take it it is worth paying." C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You would not believe how grateful I was when I read that. For months, I'd been tortured with doubts about free will. It seemed selfish and unnecessarily cruel of God to give us our free wills simply that we may love Him when it was so terribly easy for us to go astray. But after reading that, I realized, among other things, that God does not need us. He doesn't need our love, so why would He create a bunch of automatons simply to love Him? It would be absurd. But He loves us, and He loves us so intensely that He wants us to share in His love. And as C.S. Lewis pointed out, He knew there would be great risks in giving us free will, and He knew it was worth the risk.

With that thought in mind, isn't it awe-inspiring to imagine what the Beatific Vision must be?


Well, back to more earthly topics. I have joined that venerable company of people who have...found their first gray hair! :^O Except in my case, it skipped gray and went directly to white. :P My mom and I were taking a walk and as I ran my fingers through my hair, I glanced down and noticed one of the strands looked very pale.

"It must just be blonde," I thought, since I have a few hairs that are very light blonde amidst the majority of brown. But it looked awfully pale...I looked closer...

"Mum," I said, "I just found a white hair!"

She looked at it and confirmed that yes, indeed, I have a white hair! It's sooo weird... I hope it stops right there for...um...at least 20 more years?


So here it is, folks - my 100th post! I can't believe I've actually written that much on here. I've officially been on Blogger since February 2009, but I didn't actively start blogging until June of last year...just a little over a year ago. I'd wanted a blog for months, but I just couldn't think of anything to write about. Suddenly, however, I started thinking of things, and I haven't stopped since!

And I am so, so, SO thrilled to have 43 followers! It is so wonderful and encouraging to know that there are people out there who enjoy my writing. Thank you SO much! You're all so very much appreciated, and I keep you in my prayers. Every time I get a new follower, I shriek happily, "Yay! I have another follower!"

So, since it seems like people often have some sort of celebratory thing when they reach a significant number of posts or followers or years on Blogger, I thought I'd borrow Melody's idea. You can ask me any question you'd like (within reason, naturally. heehee), and I will answer them all in a post next Saturday! Yay...you get to know more about me...exciting. Sarcasm there. ;) But I really enjoyed reading Melody's post, and I figure, we all like learning more about our friends, be it IRL or in the blogosphere. So...ask away, me hearties! Yo ho!

Summer Days...

Today was one of the greatly anticipated days of summer...the church picnic!

I really love the picnic - I have ever since the first one we attended, and that was 6 years ago! I love spending time with my friends and being outside and playing sports/games and eating picnic food and listening to people play their musical instruments. Today, I ended up playing tennis, badminton (I was so surprised when I realized that it's spelled badminton), volleyball, a game reminiscent of monkey in the middle, jump rope, frisbee, soccer, tug of war, and kickball.

The tennis balls went flying crazily all over the park; I'm terrible at badminton; it was a semi-lame game of volleyball in which everyone kept switching sides whenever they wished ;); the monkey-in-the-middle-ish game took a very long time because of how we are all very good at throwing, catching, and confusing people :D; jump rope was actually quite fun, and I have retained my skillz; the frisbee ended up on the roof of a little concrete utility shed, and I was able to hoist myself up on it with my own two arms...I felt veddy strong! ;) (I'm terrible at frisbee too, though...one of my friends told me to throw it harder and pretend I was trying to take off his head. lol); one of my friends and I were going to play a one-on-one game of soccer, rushed at the ball, collided, and didn't even touch the ball...it was hilarious :D; we all got our fingers hurted playing tug of war; and our ball was commandeered halfway through the very confusing game of kickball. But despite all that, I think I can safely say everyone had a wonderful time! We know how to have fun. :)

Oh, and I did all of the above in a skirt, with no problems whatsoever! :)

I realized today that I'm really not terribly good at most sports, (I might just need more practice, though). I love playing them, however! Everyone has always told me that I'm very competitive, and I guess I'm realizing that I am. *smiles sheepishly* But that's not a bad thing at all, in my opinion. It's kinda funny that the truth eluded me for so long, however, seeing as every time I'm running with someone it turns into a die-hard race (for my part, at least).

Oh, and while I'm talking about sport-like things, I'll make the announcement that I now know how to swim! :D :D :D We decided to brave the public pool one evening after noticing that it's really not that busy and ran into some friends from church, Mrs. W and her two daughters. Mrs. W was able to teach me how to swim! I can now do the breaststroke and the crawl. It's sooo much fun...I can't wait for swimming lessons in the fall! I just wish water didn't have to be chlorinated, since it aggravates my asthma. :P

We watched The Return of the King last night. I looooooooovvvvvvvvvveeeeee that movie...as I'm sure you all know. :) After last night's viewing, I noticed two things (I always notice new things): I like the secondary characters (such as Eomer and Theoden) a lot more than I used to, and this time I felt such an incredible feeling of relief when the Ring was destroyed! I guess it just really hit me...wow...it's gone. They accomplished what they set out to do, and the world has been saved. What an incredible feeling of disbelief, wonder, and awe would fill your heart after accomplishing something like that! This time around, I also really noticed how hard Frodo fought to destroy the Ring. It was killing him, but he pressed on untiringly. He's always been my favorite character.

So, these are a few of my favorite moments from my favorite movie ever: Arwen seeing the vision of her son (it's such a beautiful message of what a gift life and a mother's love is, and always makes me cry); the moment when Eowyn says, "I am no man!" and kills the Nazgul ( my mom and I agree that that is the coolest part of the entire trilogy!); Galadriel helping Frodo press on in Shelob's Lair; Theoden's speech before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields when he hits his sword against the spears; Aragorn's speech to the Men of the West before the Black Gate (both of those parts give me chills!); and the entire end.

*sighs* The Lord of the Rings is just one-of-a-kind.

On a different note, this is my 99th post! :O :D I feel like I should do something special for it, but I've no idea what. :P Any ideas? :)

I am thinking of redesigning my blog, however...even though that makes me so nervous! I don't know...I don't like change. But I am getting a wee bit tired of this layout, so I think I will.

Distant Dreamer

I was listening to one of my mixed CDs that I haven't listened to in a while, and came across this song - "Distant Dreamer", by Duffy. I realized that this is definitely my theme song! :D It describes me and my general outlook on life extremely well.



So anyways...

Life has been going pretty normally. Therefore, I can't think of anything to post. :P Well, here's one thing! I have many teeth issues (hence my oh-so-lovely braces...), and there was a good chance I'd need oral surgery to correct the placement of one of them if it didn't come in on its own. But the good news is...it started coming in today! The only bad thing is that it's coming in through the roof of my mouth - rather unpleasant. But I'm SO relieved that I won't need the oral surgery! Now all that needs to be done is for it to come in all the way and the orthodontist will attach a bracket to it and wire it to the rest of my braces.

I sincerely hope that wasn't Too Much Information for anyone! :/ *smiles hopefully*

Bread and Movie Trivia!

It has been so unseasonably cold here! When I got up at 7 am, it was only 50 degrees Fahrenheit out. Brrr! It's 66 right now, which is still pretty cold for the last day of June. o.O

I felt like baking, so I made not one, but two loaves of bread. The banana bread had to bake for an hour, so I decided to just bake a loaf of oat bread as well, since it bakes for only 15 minutes. The house smells sooo good right now!

I also cleaned parts of the house, and I think I've figured out why cleaning can be so therapeutic. You can feel like this, at least, is something you're in control of. And often thoughts will start spinning out of control, but when you clean, you can actually see something become orderly.

And now for the Movie Trivia Game!

I thought it would be fun. Some of my friends have done it on Facebook and I've seen it on a few other blogs lately, so I thought I'd give it a try!

Here are the rules:

1. Pick 20 of your favorite movies.

2. Go to IMDB.com and find a quote from each movie.

3. Post them for everyone to guess.

4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.

5. NO cheating.

I'll give you until next Wednesday to guess. :)


1. Character #1: - "Look at me. What did you see?"
Character #2: - "A tree. There was a white tree in a courtyard of stone. It was dead. The city was burning." Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, guessed by Christina and Vicki

2. Character #1 - "If I can't win, I won't run!"
Character #2 - "If you don't run, you can't win." Chariots of Fire, guessed by AutumnRose

3. Character #1: - "Reckon I'll leave my brains at home, then." North and South, guessed by Jessica

4. Character #1 - "I'm sorry I said anything about it now. I'll try to find a more agreeable piece of news."
[pause]
Character #1: "Old Marjorie at the lodge is dead." Wives and Daughters, guessed by Jessica

5. Character #1 - "The fact that you rescued me, unnecessarily, hardly wipes out past wrongs." Anne of Green Gables, guessed by Vicki

6. Character #1 - "Some day it'll just end. Everyone will go home, get on with their lives. Tall grass will cover the battlefields. And all the pilots we've lost won't mean a d--n thing." Flyboys

7. Character #1 - "I was so tall."
Character #2 - "Well, you were older then."
Character #3 - "As opposed to hundreds of years later, when you're younger." Prince Caspian, guessed by Jessica

8. Character #1 - "A bird may love a fish, signore, but where will they live?"
Character #2 - "Then I shall have to make you wings." Ever After, guessed by Jessica

9. Character #1 - [holding Character #2's cat] She's so soft. And she's vibrating.
Character #2 - She's purring, David. I Am David

10. Character #1 - "No one of our age has ever taken power."
Character #2 - "Which is why we're too young to realize certain things are impossible. Which is why we will do them anyway." Amazing Grace, guessed by Christina and Vicki

11. Character #1 - "Monsieur! You are now addressing the second most celebrated balloonist in Europe."
Character #1 - "And who is the first?"
Character #1 - "He is not available. He was, uh, buried last Tuesday." Around the World in Eighty Days, guessed by RoseinFaith

12. Character #1 - "Oh, er, do you mind if I ask you a question, frankly? Do you love my daughter?"
Character #2 - "Any guy that'd fall in love with your daughter ought to have his head examined."
Character #1 - "Now that's an evasion!" It Happened One Night, guessed by RoseinFaith

13. Character #1 - "How many have I had?"
Character #2 - "Two."
Character #1 - "Make it an uneven three." The Sound of Music, guessed by Jessica and Vicki

14. Character #1 - "Never again will I allow WOMEN to wear my dresses! " Top Hat

15. Character #1 - "That's it. Out you two pixies go - through the door, or out the window. " It's a Wonderful Life, guessed by Vicki

16. Character #1 - [exits study, finds four of his daughters eavesdropping] "Good heavens. People." Pride and Prejudice (2005), guessed by Christina and Vicki

17. Character #1 - "I've been sitting right here since seven o'clock."
Character #2 - "Yes, with your back to me. When I invite a woman to dinner I expect her to look at my face. That's the price she has to pay." A Night at the Opera

18. Character #1 - "She saves me from an inferno and she's glad she happened to be awake." Jane Eyre, guessed by Audrey

19. Character #1 - "I'm fighting for something that's real for the first time in my life! " Step Up

20. Character #1 - "I feel as though someone's handed me the moon... and I don't exactly know what to do with it." Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel, guessed by Vicki

One of those days...

It's one of those days...one of those days when you just feel sort of out of it...and depressed...and like doing something interesting...but there's nothing to do. :P I think I'm feeling people deprived - I wasn't able to talk to any of my friends after Mass today! So I will try and cheer myself up by writing a long, random, rambly post. ;)

I think I have finally figured out what my temperament (for more on the temperaments, here's an article I wrote on them) is! At various times in my life, I've thought I was choleric, melancholic, or sanguine (but never phlegmatic). I now think I'm melancholic-choleric, because of my mix of introversion and extroversion, and, well, I think I have a lot of traits from both temperaments. *sighs contentedly* For some reason it's so nice to know these things! I also found out that my Myers-Briggs personality is INFP (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceptive), and the descriptions I've read sound very much like me.

* * *

I read (actually re-read) a very good book yesterday - The Borrowed House, by Hilda van Stockum. The first time I read it, I was about the age of the main character - 12 - and, like her, many things just went over my head. But with this reading, I was able to really appreciate what a wonderful book it is. It's set during WWII, but from an angle that is seldom heard from - 12-year-old Janna is a member of Hitler's Youth, and believes fervently everything they indoctrinate her in. After she is sent to live with her actor parents in Amsterdam, however, things begin to change. She sees more clearly what the Nazis are doing, and the foundations of her world begin to tilt. I sort of fell in love with this book...I remember loving it when I was 12, too, but I think I love it even more now. It truly paints a vivid picture of what things were like during WWII, and brought tears to my eyes by the second chapter. And **SPOILER** I just know that Janna and Sef will find one another when the war is over! I wish there was a sequel. :) **END SPOILER** Hilda van Stockum is such a talented writer and portrays her characters so sympathetically and well that you feel their pain and suffering as though you were suffering it yourself. Much as I love this book, I find books about WWII to be so disturbing...it happened not so very long ago, and it could happen again. God grant that it won't.

* * *

I just experienced a really cool weather phenomenon! It started raining about 15 minutes ago, but before long I saw the sun shining through the window. It was still raining, however, and it looked so beautiful that I just had to go outside. As I stood in the sunlight in the front yard, raining pouring on my head, I could see the sky was blue on one side of the house and full of gray clouds on the other. As the clouds moved over my head the rain lightened up and eventually stopped, but when I ran over to the sidewalk it was still raining! It was so strange, but really cool.

* * *

And with that, I shall leave you. Today wasn't the greatest, but I know it won't stay like this. Ohhh! I forgot to mention - we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the other night, and I must admit I loved it! :) It's so crazy...and weird...and hilarious ("Even I am edible, but that is called cannibalism. And cannibalism, my dear children, is something that is frowned upon in most decent societies.")...and Johnny Depp is my favorite actor, I've decided. My family has also been having far too much fun watching the Marx Brothers lately...our favorites so far are A Night at the Opera and Room Service. :D

Nightwatch

This is a poem I've been wanting to write for months. The first two lines came to me one day last winter, but then I could not think of any more! I was finally able to finish it last week, however, and here it is.

Nightwatch

I have written of such beauty in the dark watches of the night,
When all the world lay silent, and shrouded with the dreams
Of the sad and lonely heart, torn asunder by its fears,
Dreams of battles fierce, as of yet unseen.
Dreams of a troubled heart, wet with tears and torn with strife,
Darkness leads to nameless terror, which misery alone will bring.

But some dreams were illumined with the light of the stars,
They shone in the darkness, they brought forth the joy
Of the heart full of peace, that seeks God even in dreams,
Dreams of purest beauty, with the strength they bring.
Dreams of truth and goodness, of hearts beating for a life -
Darkness leads to nameless wonder, which Truth alone will bring.

And I sat in silence wondering, my pen held in my hand,
Wondering how to tell it, this dark song of life.
Of the pain and the beauty, seen only when all is still,
Of the wonder grand, its perfect melody.
A song of peace and courage, a song of fear and strife -
This, all this I saw as I watched in the darkest night.

The words came to my heart and told of the watches of the night,
And I knew my gift was true, I knew my pen was strong.
I told of the beauty, of the glory of our life,
Told of the wondrous pain, the suffering of a wrong.
And the dreams came unto me, and they filled me with their joy,
And I wrote of their beauty in the dark watches of the night.