This weekend I was a visitor at a church. I had a mix of feelings about it. When they took up the offering they talked about who they would donate it to (unless the check was marked as tithe). I've never been to a church where the money was directly donated to an organization or relief aide or something. I think there are so many churches in Birmingham who don't need all the fancy things they have and here is one that is giving money away instead of building a room full of PS3s or something.

Jaime and I were driving to Nauvoo this weekend and as we drove through some of the poorest parts of the state we past countless churches. BIG churches! Fancy signs and large parking lots. Even in parts of Birmingham where things aren't quite so poor looking the churches are huge. I know of not one but two churches in Birmingham that have large yellow slides inside them for the children to go down on their way to Sunday School. Why do people spend so much money on things that don't really matter when other people are obviously suffering?

Giving money to help people in Chile after the earth quake. That seems like a pretty good thing to do. You don't need a slide. You don't need a game room with tv's and pool tables and video game systems.

I was so pleased with the giving and the donations that would be made to a cause I thought was worthy. And then the sermon. I had such a difficult time during the sermon. So did a lot of people, he went over by about 45 minutes. It was uncomfortable to sit for so long and listen to someone who was very very passionate but perhaps not very knowledgeable. His entire sermon was about the rapture. I'm not very sure where I am on the topic of the rapture which is why I think I was uncomfortable. I'm still working my way through lots of different ideas and rapture just wasn't up there on my list this weekend. The man who was preaching, who was a visiting preacher not at all the regular pastor of this church (we can give them some grace for this unfortunate choice), was very insistent upon us not wasting our lives in sin and filth but living for God. He was sure that most Christians felt like they could sin away their lives and then at the last minute ask God for forgiveness (before the rapture) and then everything would be ok. His reason for why the Bible says that Jesus will come within the disciples lifetime was because he knows that God's people are procrastinators.

I'm not sure where his logic came from but what I deduced from listening to him was this. I'm struggling with things on a religious level. (which I think is important) I'm questioning things about God about Jesus and about the Bible. Deep things. If Jesus were to rapture us all right this minute and I was called up to stand before God I doubt very much that I would feel like I've wasted my life. I do not think that I would be ashamed for having doubt (another thing I've heard "Christians" aren't supposed to do). Because of this I felt a large disconnect about what the pastor was talking about. Why would I want to go out and sin my life away just because I have the time. It seems to me that people who want to go out and sin their lives away aren't really believers in the first place.

I could be wrong. But then it also brought up lots of different questions. The Devil left Heaven and took with him angels. Lots of angels. What must God be like if these angels left his presence? In all my days of learning TULIP I never once heard that angels had free will. I always heard that angels were jealous of us for having free will. Then how did these angels "fall away". I know the answer to this is probably very clear and obvious and possibly dangling in front of my face but for right now I just don't get it. It's probably something like "it pleased God to have them leave His presence" or something like that. The man that was speaking at this church obviously meant for us to think... wow that devil must be a very good deceiver because he even got angels to follow him. He must have meant for us to be afraid that the devil was going to trick us somehow. But instead all I could think was.. how come the angles wanted to leave God's presence? Am I the only one that thinks things like this? After the sermon was over I went home and laid out in the sun (I'm working on that base tan for the beach trip later this month) and I wondered about what I believe and how listening to the sermon today made me think of the Bible as a lot more like Greek and Roman mythology than what I've always thought it to be. And is it that different? Would it be more interesting? More exciting?

Jaime said that the way the Bible actually explains the end of the Earth is that there is a great war between good and evil. I like that idea much much more. He also says that I should read Issac Asimov's Guide to the Bible, which I should. And that I should have taken his BP class at Samford, which is probably true as well. I figured I should write Samford a letter and say that the BP class I took was horrible, I learned nothing, and I remember nothing. So can I audit another class for free?

The good news is that my Madeleine L'Engle books arrived on Friday and I'm about to start A Circle of Quiet.

This is one of my Bell Pepper plants. Green or Yellow, I'm not sure which. But it's sprouting some tiny baby flowers which will probably become peppers.. or maybe peppers don't even flower. What do I know.



Every one of my squash plants has blooms like this one. I have four large pots each one with two to three squashes in them. I thought about transplanting but they look so happy that I figure we're doing alright. I also have a few yellow squashes coming out :) I was really excited about that. They are so small and fuzzy. Which I guess means that the phallic symbol I found from last weeks post really is a zucchini :) I can't wait until I have actual female flowers and not just males. I'm ready for some veggies!



My favorite picture so far. My beans :) I don't even know how I'm going to cook them or what they will taste like. I'm just so excited that they wound up the little tee pee I made for them.


Isn't it amazing how they do that? They started winding up the supports within hours of my putting them there.
Jaime and I were having a conversation about God the other day. I have decided that no matter where I grew up or what religion or lack of religion I was raised in, that I would believe there is a Creator. There has to be. I can't look at these beans and not think that it's amazing that they grow like that, and that they had to have been created. Designed for a purpose. To wind up my little tee pee.


Jaime and I purchased this iron thingy that we put up on the wall. We had candles on it before all the rain came and it was very very pretty. Very relaxing. I'm trying to find ways to make the porch a comforting place to be and spend time. Not just a vegetable garden, but a place to calm down. You can grow veggies and relax at the same time right?



Over the weekend we had some storms and Monday morning I went out to walk the dogs and found this right outside our door! The dogs were curious of course. People were outside in no time taking it down limb by limb so it was cleared in a few hours. Then the dogs were really freaked out. The smells! The random pieces of wood lying around. They barked at the stump that was pulled out of the ground. The poor red bridge will never quite be the same again and I'm still not sure if it's safe to walk on.



We bought a rug from an Antique Gallery in town. Jaime said it's always been his dream to play guitar on a rug like on the stages at rock concerts and jam sessions. I was excited because I love old rugs like this and have always wanted one. Win win for us! The dogs are thrilled because it's so much fun to roll around on it. Just one more place for them to battle out their dominance. I think Churchill always wins but lately I've found him on his back with Huxley at his throat. Maybe he's just getting older. I do worry about Huxley a little bit, sometimes he's just too excited. We don't walk them enough. Yesterday he was so excited saying hello to Jaime that he bit his lip. He does that. Not bite, but he has his mouth open a lot and things happen. He also like to "hold" you with his mouth.. like.. your fingers or your wrist. Strange dog. But sweet and precious as well.. and as of today, the Beta doggie.



Jaime's trying to teach me how to drink whiskey. It's vile. It really is. I don't know how people enjoy it. But I want to be one of those people. I want to drink with the boys. I want to order something impressive at a bar and not look like I'm going to gag when I drink it. Drinking whiskey in my mind is sophisticated. Something every well learned person should learn to do. Besides you can't keep drinking Smirnoff Ice for the rest of your life can you? So on Monday night I had a shot of Drambuie, but I sipped it. I have to savor the taste. I learned that if you breath out after you swallow it gets the vapors out of your mouth. Gahh.. get the vapors out of your mouth. Can you imagine? Horrible. Last night I had Johnny Walker Red.. it was way worse. Jaime only gave me a few sips of it. Thank goodness!



We watched Julie and Julia last night. We were both disappointed. What a boring movie. The Julia Child part was interesting and I thought that it was done pretty well but still.. boring. It was like there was no arch to the story. Sure Julie's husband leaves her for a night but I didn't feel to bad for her. And sure it took Julia a long time to publish her book but.. really it wasn't suspenseful or captivating in anyway. It did however make me want to live in France. For four years at least :)




Jaime started his new job with mice so has no need for the stuffed monkeys that he had at his office. Huxley has found one to cuddle with. The other I haven't gotten a picture of, but he likes to drag that one around with Churchill. What a sweet little doggie he is. Did I tell you that he's sleeping under the covers with us? Well he did last night at least and on my side where Churchill usually sleeps. Churchill ended up between us which is just as nice. I have always heard people say that it's not good for your dogs to sleep in the bed with you, especially if you're a couple.. it's bad for sex or something. I think those people are bogus.

I know that I have lots to update :) But you'll be happy to see that I've taken lots of pictures this morning and even had time to upload them nice and fresh for you to see. Jaime and I recently bought patio furniture for our HUGE patio. It rained this morning so there are leaves and pollen splotches all over it but despite that I love it. It's so nice to have breakfast outside, to wake up with the world you know? I'm finding myself more and more eager to grill out. I love the idea of cooking your meat outside and eating it while the sun goes down. I love the nice weather and everything about being out in it. Like eating all my meals outside :)

Our good friends Austin and Sarah will be moving this week. We've had the pleasure of living next door to them (well.. two doors down but who's counting) this past year and are sad to see them leave. Really sad. They have been the hosts of numerous parties and I'm starting to realize that Jaime and I may soon be the host of the next outside party. Which makes me think of our patio. And makes me think of how different it will be without our neighbors there. I realized it when I was thinking about watching the Alabama games this coming fall. We hosted a lot of those and had several friends come to watch at our place. Without Sarah and Austin our party might be a bit small. That's when it hit me. We'll be saying goodbye to them this week which is harder, I think, for my husband than it is for me. We're secretly hoping that graduate school in Oklahoma fails horribly and by sheer luck they'll be forced to move back here, back to our street to be our neighbors once again. Actually we don't hope that graduate school fails miserably at all. I wouldn't hope anything bad for them. But we do hope that they come back. At least for Black Christmas right guys?



I don't know if you remember the last picture I put up of my entire garden. "Entire garden" minus the few potted flowers and strawberries on the front porch. Well you might want to scroll down to make a comparison because this jungle is completely different looking from the pictures taken just 20 days ago. I'm not only amazed at how huge my garden has gotten but at how well my camera worked this morning. Perhaps it's a morning person like me. I know that this plot doesn't look like 30 pots full of plants but you'd be surprised what I have tucked away back there. I obviously need to do some rearranging so that everything can get adequate sunlight.





My greens are growing in nicely and I'm so happy that they are thickening and getting sturdier. I think these are the Turnip Greens since they aren't all ruffly on the edges. These and the Mustard Greens will need to be transplanted so that half remain in these troughs and half in a new set of troughs. I didn't want to move them before they were sturdy because I was fearful that I would tear them apart. It's amazing how something so delicate can turn into something so different. It's amazing how things change over time. All the sudden, in my own life, I see myself as a different person. Older, more mature, and capable of so many more things that I imagined myself doing when I was in college. After I graduated college my biggest ambition was to live in my own apartment and to have a dog. That was it! Quite a lofty goal.




Look at these! Cantaloupes! I don't know if I'm supposed to put more soil around the necks of these plants or not. I know they grow as a vine and I intend to lead them up some sort of trellis when they get a bit bigger.

I suppose part of the reason I see myself in a different light is that my life is settling. This summer Jaime and I will have been married 3 years and all the sudden I feel like it's gone by so quickly. At the same time I'm so glad that those years are behind us because they were difficult. Learning to live with your husband is one of the trickiest things I've ever had to learn and I'm so thankful that we've made it this far and that things are looking bright. Jaime started a new job this week. Still research, still science, more work, more hours, but I think, more fulfillment. I think this has also affected me since he is part of me. This job doesn't end when the grant is over, it appears to be endless as of right now and I think that gives us a sense of permanence.


The dogs were not pleased that I shut them inside while I took pictures. They want to be with me all the time. ALL the time. They stood at the sliding glass door and barked like someone was trying to break in. Only really.. they wanted to break out! Huxley (the darker) is learning to cuddle and sleep under the covers with us. This is such a relief since before he would find the most uncomfortable places to fall asleep and would be almost impossible to move around after he found them. This past weekend we spent a wonderful time with my parents in South Carolina. A very quick and short trip but a very nice one. They are doing some renovations on their 1920's home and at the moment the only usable bathroom is in the new 3rd bedroom upstairs in what was (as of Christmas 2009) the attic. Jaime and I slept up in this nest on an inflatable mattress with the dogs. One morning my father snuck by us towards the bathroom and for the first time ever the dogs simply looked up at him, growled just a tiny bit, and then fell back asleep.
Churchill will be 4 this summer, Hux only 1. But since we've had the dogs they have barked at every unknown sound. They bark at strangers, they bark at my parents when they see them in the morning, they bark at the door knocking, me pouring cereal in the morning, a car driving up to the driveway. They bark whenever they feel like they need to say something which is almost all of the time. That is why it's such an amazing thing that they didn't bark at hearing my father come upstairs, or watching him walk right by us. Let's hope that this is a recurring amazement.



I know that this close up of a phallic symbol is odd to put in a blog. But, is it just me, or does that look like it might be, maybe, a little baby zucchini? I'm really hopeful. I've been looking over my plants every morning and every evening it seems for signs of fruit (or veggies). This weekend while we were gone it rained. I wasn't here but I hear that it was more than just rain. My plants must have been ecstatic because I found this little guy hanging out and several others that looked a lot like him. I could be totally wrong. He could just be part of the plant and not a zucchini. But I have high hopes.



Speaking of high hopes. My friend Lauren can attest that when we began our garden experiment almost all of our swiss chard decided to kick the bucket. Out of 12 plants that had sprouted only 2 remain. When I came back from the weekend I was so shocked to find this very healthy almost double the size swiss chard waiting for me. Look how thick the stems are now! And so brightly colored. This one is Lauren's and is hard proof that she does not, in fact, kill everything she touches. Hanging out behind and to the right of that pot is my pot of string beans... or snap peas? I can't remember what I planted. It's some sort of vine that produces peas/beans. I have to stake them tomorrow so they have somewhere to go. Right now they are in dire need of direction. Maybe these guys will really be like Jack and the Bean Stalk. Maybe they will really grow super fast. I mean, they went from seed to over a foot high in 20 days. What will they do now? Tomorrow can't come soon enough :)



I'm leaving you with the most beautiful thing I've taken a picture of in a long time. I feel like this needs to hang on someones wall or something. This is what happens when you stop watching your garden and simply let it grow. This is what I came home to from South Carolina. Zucchini is about ready to start producing. I hope that the bees do their jobs and if they don't believe me, I'll be out there with my q-tip pollinating this sucker on my own. I've heard that Okra flowers are beautiful. I'll have to wait a while for that. For right now though, this Zucchini flower has made my day.

It's already summer in Alabama. The only thing that says it's still spring is the pollen and the different colors of green in the trees. Pretty soon everything will be that same lush color and the pollen will be gone but the heat will stay. At least all the plants love it.




You can see things in this picture like Squash, Zucchini, Brussel Sprouts, Tomatoes, and Peppers. The empty pots should soon show us some Spinach, Snap Peas, and Okra. Hopefully. And some flowers, but you know my luck with flowers. It's much easier to get a large Squash plant than a few Zinnias for some reason.


I'm also uploading two youtube videos for you to check out :) Hope you like them. Of course all they show are our dogs, because we love them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0kyfMvz21k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WXqARAG9Jw

We found out that Huxley will retrieve playing cards if you throw them. He's very gentle and doesn't bend the cards. Churchill ruins playing cards, but Huxamux loves them. The second video shows us trying to get Huxley to growl. He has this really cute low growl that he lets out, it's kinda like a roooooo but different. I filmed him like five different times before he finally let one out. I think it's because Jaime was singing Lady GaGa that finally sent him over the edge. Anyway, we bought a new toy for him and he was really really excited about it (still is) and he was growling at us while pacing back and forth. It just took five takes to get this on video. So wait until the very end and then you'll hear him roooooo!

So I'm reading Catcher in the Rye and no I haven't finished it because I love lingering in the last few chapters of books. It makes them feel more important to me. Something that Holden said in the book really hit home with me though. He was talking about a speech class he had to take at one of his schools and if the speech giver ever started to rabbit trail the rest of the class had to shout out at him that he was going off topic. The thing that stuck out at me was when Holden said sometimes you have to go off track to find out what's really worth talking about. I am that person all together. I often feel like I have to get my mouth or fingers going before I can talk or type about what my mind is really wanting to say. I wonder what it must be like to be one of those people who can just say the right thing in one go. My husband is one of those people I think. This may be because he's my husband and because he's a guy but those kind of people aren't really the best conversationalists. Sometimes I just want to talk it out, sometimes I just want a conversation that is going around in circles because I enjoy talking so much.
My Dad is like Jaime. Not a big conversationalist. Again, he is a man. Maybe it is a man thing. My mother and I can spend hours on the phone talking and we probably go in circles at least ten times in each conversation but I love that. Not that talking to my father is boring because it isn't a conversation, it's wonderful in it's own way. He's wonderful because he is physically there. And it's his presence that is comforting where my mother has presence but it's her words that show her affection.
Sure I could have this all backwards but I'm pretty sure I got a few things right. I used to get frustrated with this blog because I never felt like I could really get out what I was trying to. I could never really exactly say what I was wanting to say.. I felt like I never even knew what I was trying to say. But I love the process. I love writing what I'm thinking and even though it may be boring and uneventful and it doesn't' update anyone on anything going on in our lives in particularly.. it makes me feel a little more sorted out. A little more organized.

I'm dipping out on half marathon training. I got to my long run of 6 miles and did a great job with it. And then I realized that I always get to this point where I don't really see any change in the way I look (not that I expected it but still) or the way I feel. This week I've started weight lifting again with some friends at my gym. Now that I can feel. And I know deep down that I was really supposed to be doing this in the first place. Running isn't my thing. Well.. long distance running isn't my thing. I think I'd like to keep my weekly runs at 3-4 miles maybe longer if I wanted to. But pushing beyond that only makes me feel more accomplished in something that doesn't' even matter to me. There are plenty of other things that are more important to me, piano, sewing, gardening. Those are things that I can put my energy into and see them develop. Swimming upstream against the 8 mile run that was supposed to happen tomorrow is pointless for me. Sure 8 miles sounds impressive but wouldn't I feel more fulfilled doing something that I love? Wouldn't I feel better when I get a crop of zucchini? (which by the way is looking super peppy and healthy) I've also always felt so much better about my body when I was lifting weights. I felt stronger and more capable. A "I can take on the world" feeling. I never got that while running for more than an hour.
Two weight lifting sessions later I'm sore as can be. My armpits hurt! Who's armpits hurt? But it was so fun while I was doing it and I know that as I continue the pain will go away.

UPDATES: Jaime got his job offer and accepted it. Next month he'll be moving into a new (very fancy) building to work with mice instead of monkeys. He couldn't be more happy. I'm very proud of him and very excited to see where this job will take him. He gets to keep his title of Research Assistant and will be the new lab's manager. I think he is looking forward to being the go-to guy in the lab. The one with all the answers because let's face it.. Jaime has always had all the answers. He's a freaking genius!
I have a solo tomorrow morning at EWTN it will be the Palm Sunday morning mass 7am Easter Time. I'm pretty nervous because it's my first by myself solo, not a duet with someone else. I'm also nervous because he has me singing an alto solo and I'm not an alto. It goes just low enough for me to feel like all I'm doing is breathing out 'deeply'. I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of other alto's in our choir who could sing it just as well as I can but at the same time, I'm thankful that he picked me to do it. I really do love singing. All of this has spurred deep discussions to myself lately of if I did the right thing majoring in Piano in college. All the sudden this one choir director thinks I sing really well and when I tell him that I never had voice lessons I feel inside that maybe.. what if.. what if I did have voice lessons? Would I be a better vocalist than a pianist? Oh choices. Singing may feel very natural and I may feel very beautiful when I do it, but piano is my passion. It may not be as natural and as Jaime once said "you don't KNOW the piano" like some musical geniuses, I can say that I LOVE the piano. And even more than I love the piano I love watching my students learn to love it.
I've had a lot of friends write about their purpose and what they could have been in their blogs. I've read it countless times. And I, myself, feel the same way. If I could tell you how many peers I had at SCGSAH that made it big time. My old roommate who's playing the lead in Sister Act in London, my ex boyfriend who graduated from Eastman. Sometimes I sit back and think.. if I had focused just a little bit harder I could have been where they were. If I practiced a little bit more or if I was more serious about my work I could have been something amazing! This is where my parents would tell me to speak the truth. The truth is that growing up my brother stayed at home to study and while he studied I was out with friends. The truth is that I did very well at Governor's School but I also enjoyed keeping a balance between my social life and my school work. My brother went to the Ivy League and I went to a Southern Baptist College. Speaking the truth would be saying that I was proud of my brother but I was never envious of him. Ivy League is up north and who wants cold weather all the time? Birmingham was green and lush and beautiful and I could picture myself here much more than anywhere else. (Because that's what all parents want to hear, that their daughter picked a school because it was pretty not because of what it offered) I'm sure it offered all the right things, a great piano teacher, a great campus, and my parents said I could have a car my sophomore year.
Speaking the truth would be to say that I never had any intention of going to Eastman or to Rice or Carnegie Mellon. But I have always had every intention of enjoying the life I have. I went into college knowing what I could have been, but also knowing what I wanted to be. I knew that I wanted to teach. I'll never be the world's next Glenn Gould but I would like to appreciate him more. (boy this is turning into quite the rant now isn't it?)
Speaking the truth would also tell you that I'm perfectly happy at EWTN and I'm thrilled to be asked to sing solos because I love singing but I'm not going to let it get to my head and get pipe dreams about what could have been. I'm growing plants outside, and all my turnip greens and mustard greens LOVE me, you can just tell. One of my best friends Lynnora is going to get a fabulous quilt for her wedding in June and it has been one of my greatest joys making it for her. My favorite band at the moment, Muse, played a song.. I think it's United States of Eurasia, and at the end of it is a Chopin piece and you know what? I found it in one of my books and I can play it and it's beautiful. Last night in weight lifting we did a lumber jack move that made me feel so powerful and graceful all in one. Those are the things I love about me. And if going to Governor's School and getting a degree in Piano Performance from Samford were what it took to get here. Then I think I've done pretty well for myself.
My old roommate Lindsay would tell me "Quit your bitchin'" whenever I started complaining about something. I tell myself that often. Who cares what could have been. I care about what's going to be. Namely very large very juicy tomatoes from my garden :)

I woke up early this morning. At first I was going to go to the gym but like many mornings I talked myself out of it. Who wants to get up at 6am when they don't HAVE to. By the time 7:30 rolled around I had hit snooze about a million times and Huxley had found his favorite wake up spot nestled near my chin and licking my face every time he sees my eyes open. Sometimes I can fake him out by squinting to see if he's awake but if I ever get my eyes fully open, just for a second, I get kisses. I love his morning kisses but they also mean that there is no chance of getting back to sleep. So instead of waiting until 8am to roll out of bed I got up at 7:30 and took the dogs on a walk around our townhouse complex.
I noticed a few things about our dogs while I was walking them. Specifically about how they go to the bathroom. I don't know why I hadn't noticed before, maybe this morning I was extra awake and attentive. Churchill loves to mark every tree, rock, pile of mulch, you name it. It's his. Huxley is a much more private and long lasting marker. More like, he finds a place that's kinda hidden away and he won't let his leg down until it's all gone. It takes a surprisingly long time for such a little dog. I also realized it was the same way with the poops! Huxley hid behind a building and if I hadn't watched him I wouldn't have realized what he was doing (with our dogs you have to watch them and make sure they go or else they'll make messes inside.. it happened yesterday). Churchill on the other hand will find the most open and most public place to make his poops. He'll also make sure the he makes his poops when cars drive by, or neighbors are walking around. It's almost embarrassing. I also saw Churchill almost pee on Huxley's face. He's very inconsiderate.
Here I am talking about my dogs pee and poo like you really want to know about it. But I thought it was interesting this morning, before I had my coffee. Oh and I realized that everything that Churchill does, Huxley has to do. I watched Huxley approach a neighbor getting out of their car. He was so sweet and curious and the neighbor smiled. Then Churchill realized what was going on and erupted in a series of loud barks that Huxley immediately copied. The neighbor quit smiling. Why!? Why do they do that. They are like car alarms that go off at the most inopportune time and you're stuck fumbling your keys trying to figure out how to make it stop! But I do love them. I really do.

My husband and I work late during most days of the week. We love teaching. LOVE teaching. But when 7:30 or 8pm comes around.. it's dinner time. In a big way. Last night I got home before Jaime so I started on dinner. We got a new kind of Hamburger Helper, Sloppy Joe, and that is what was on the menu for Monday. I was excited because Hamburger Helper is comfort food for me. And what's not to love after a long Monday at 8pm when you're more than just hungry, you're starving? The only problem was that it smelled bad. Like ketchup soup. It looked funny and all the sudden I began to miss Cheeseburger Macaroni so much my stomach hurt. Jaime came home and we taste tested and found out that it really did taste as badly as it smelled. I ran around to see what else we could make. Shoot! We ran out of milk. How could we run out of milk? I couldn't make anything filling or decent that didn't include milk (I don't know why that was, probably because I was delirious with hunger). So we set out to decide where we want to eat. I said, we don't have any money in our eating out budget. Jaime says, I'm hungry and I'm not going to wait to eat. I said.. you're right. I'm hungry too.

We went through the list of where we wanted to eat, Habaneros, Moes, Sol Azteca (what we aren't in the mood for Mexican, what's wrong with us?), Burger King, McDonalds, Purple Onion, Mandarin House... it was 8:15 by this time. Chic-fil-a.. yes! YES! That is indeed where we want to eat, no, wait, Saigon Noodle House. Jaime pressures me into going on an "adventure". I consent. He's rarely if ever in the mood to do something spontaneous. Saigon Noodle House it is. I'm not in the mood for soup so I'm hoping they have some rice. It's an Asian restaurant, they've got to have rice. And they did, with a really healthy dinner of stir fried veggies and chicken. Jaime fed me a jalapeno that I thought was a green bell pepper (seeds and all) and because of that he owed me a milk shake.

What an amazing night. Because the Hamburger Helper was bad I got a great dinner, ate a jalapeno that tasted exactly like burning, and a milkshake. I also got to watch Jaime eat cow's stomach and that also went into my reasoning that he owed me a milkshake. Tripe, who on earth thought that up. Oh I'll cut open this cow's stomach and cook it, yum. Gross. We ended up shutting down the Saigon Noodle House as we were the last customers to leave. We went across the street to Chi-fil-a for the milkshake and got a loud "Congratulations Mr. Black, you're our last customer of the day". When do you shut down two restaurants in the same night?! What adventurers we are!

Tonight is an equally long night for both of us. I have to teach until late and then I get to go to the New Moon DVD release party at Laurens. I have to be honest and say that I could care less about seeing New Moon for the 4th time. It is an enjoyable movie, it indulges all of the parts of me that are a woman, especially the part of me that just wants to relax and watch a movie without thinking. Plus there will be Baker's Pizza, arguably the best pizza on earth, and I'll get to spend quality time with my friends. Jaime however has a much more stressful day. He's been going through lots of interviews for a new job lately. No he's not laid off. The research grant he's been working with is ending (it was only due to last four years and now those years are over) and Jaime's been looking around at other research positions. He thinks he's found the job he wants to do and is going to meet the rest of the research team today over lunch. I know he's nervous but I also know that he'll do a fantastic job. After all that nerve racking stuff with lunches out with the team (be impressive!) and then meeting with the doctor that is running the whole operation to discuss the 'details' he has to go to traffic school until 10pm. While I'm watching Edward almost get eaten alive by the Volturi Jaime will be listening to why it's good to use your blinker and stop and stop signs. We all mess up. I had to go to traffic school last year for a ticket. I just hope that he will have had really really good news before he leaves to learn about how to drive like a human. I'm sure he will, he's amazing.

Tomorrow is going to be my second ever Wednesday to myself. Oh boy am I excited. I have lofty plans of running intervals over 3 miles to help with my speed and breathing. Finishing the boarder on the quilt I'm working on (which honestly could end me at JoAnns getting more fabric) and just laying around and being amazing all day long. Taking a long bath, talking to my little plants (half of which are dead and half of which are FANTASTIC.. we can't all be winners you know). I'm sure I'll end up cleaning something. Last time I had Wednesday to myself I cleaned my bedroom and my was it nice to sit in there are sew. SO nice! Sew nice :)

Whew it's time to get back to work, or to reading Catcher in the Rye. I'm not finished with it yet so don't spoil anything but besides the language and the fact that serial killers liked the book I'm not sure what's so controversial about it. I guess I'll find out when I finish it. Maybe he's insane? Maybe he's dying? Maybe he ends up killing someone? Oh boy I can't wait to read it.

You know how you don't like someone but you can't exactly explain why you don't like them? Most people say that there's just "something about them" that makes them un-likable. Some people either like people or hate them, there are no in betweens. Me, I have lots of in betweens, but yesterday I came across someone I just don't care for. I can't think of any reason in particular why I don't like them. I just don't. I think it's because they come across as really pretentious, kinda like, they want to make sure you know that they are important, that they have money, that they are doing charitable things.
He kept talking about this school he does a lot of volunteer work for and how he is the only person who cares about these children. He kept talking about all the books they need, and all the software that they need and how he has such a busy schedule but he guesses that no one else will help them so he will. That type of person. I tried really hard to not look him in the eyes in case he thought I wanted to listen in to what a saint he was when the most amazing thing happened. There is this other guy I know. Annoying like nobody's business. But he's not on my unlike list because he kinda can't help it. He was recently diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome so there are somethings that he just can't help. One of those is talking to people about nothing in particular.. just talking.. the only thing is he won't stop talking.
Well he walked up to the guy on my not so likable list and started talking about nothing in particular and kept talking. He followed him out to the front of the store and kept talking. Finally the man just walked away from him, all the way out the door. Somehow it felt so good to me to watch that happen. I could think of no better ending to a perfect day than to have that haughty man rushed out the door by this well wishing stranger who just couldn't keep his mouth shut. It's like justice. A tiny little dose of it.