updating

i haven't posted in a while. that's for no reason really, except that i've been busier at work and otherwise. :) i know you are all just wilting from the lack of sustenance graciously provided to you by this blog, and thus i feel it's my duty to continue provision of that life-giving brain food you have all, no doubt, come to depend on.

so, here are a few things that have happened in my life since March 7th (date of last post).

I...

...made some summer fun-plans. these are currently including, and not limited to:

• going to chicago for a weekend in July. this is a plain fun trip.
• going to peru for two weeks in June. this is a missions trip. which will hopefully be fun.
• possibly going to Florida with The Fam to watch a shuttle launch. there is potential for fun here, mostly because of the Florida part.

...applied to the university, hopefully to start this fall.

• still don't know what my major will be. right now i'm "Undecided - General." any suggestions are welcome. current possibilities: political science, philosophy, english, psychology. not really too serious about the last one, but it would be neat, i think.

...remembered how very much i love spring flowers.

...decided i don't really care much about the death penalty, at least in this state.

• and, i am tired of hearing about it.
• i hate politics.
• and stupid people. er, i hate it when people are stupid.
  

...learned far more than i ever have before about the beauty of the unconditional, forever love God pours out on all of us. and how that aspect of God's character is displayed in human relationships.

...thought pretty hard about getting my hair cut, but in the end, i didn't. at least, i haven't yet.

• but it might happen, sometime.

...finished paying off my car. you (may) have no idea how great a feeling that is! i will get the title transferred to my name as soon as we get to a...title place...?...and sign on all the appropriate dotted lines.

...listened to some more of the Heaven book. thoughts are forthcoming.

...have gotten spring fever, or whatever they call it when you are overly anxious for warm weather.

• i have also gotten nervous because it could still snow, or be cold.

...learned not to put too much faith in people. or maybe i'm still thinking about that one, and trying to decide how much is too much, and how disappointed i really should be when people i already know are fallen human beings fall, further than they are expected.

...still haven't done my taxes.

...canceled some store credit cards that had been the bane of my financial life for several months.

...was sick for the third time this winter.

• the first time it was strep, and then i had some kind of gross coughing disease.
• this time it was rhinosinusitus, a.k.a. a sinus infection (the rhino part is kind of neat in the other term).
• really, who can blame me for hating almost everything winter brings?

the X-Treme grocery trip

it's a well-known fact that i have a lot of material in my Blogger Dashboard, just waiting to be finished or posted. actually, a lot of my half-baked posts consist of a sentence or a thought that just needs expanding. some of them are raw ideas or stories that i think have the potential to be funny or thought-provoking or whatever i feel like being at the time.

a blog can be a LOT of work, especially when you have untold masses of people relying on you to be funny, thought-provoking, serious, light, personal, etc etc etc. if you're not, no one will read what you wrote. it's a huge personal responsibility. anyways, i thought this time i'd just present you with some raw material from my Dashboard, and you can get what you want out of it. i'm tired of doing all the work. except, of course, color-coordinating some of the words, for maximum effect with minimal effort.

i made a twenty-minute trip into hy-vee the other day. my body has never been so confused and doesn't know whether to sweat or make goosebumps or turn my fingertips into raisins or just start bruising all over.

starting out, of course, i walk out of my warm home, into the cold air, into my warm[read:always VERY warm] car and again into the freezing winter air. that's just getting to Hy-Vee, and that's enough to make me go into cardiac arrest. but then just as my heart recovers from the shock, i step into the giant roaster that is the entryway of all grocery stores in the winter. it is basically a human-size broiler with a fan on it, meant to warm you up for the one second you're under it. (and that's all it probably takes for most people, but i enjoy standing under it for a good amount of time.) and i stood there for a minute or two, and warmed up all the way down to my kidneys. ok, i'm good, right? well today, this grocery visit made necessary trips through the fridge section, the bakery section, and the freezer section; the temperatures of these areas are 60 degrees, 98.5 degrees and 30 degrees, respectively. i then hobbled to the checkout area, which, being near the front doors, is served by pulsing blasts of winter air intertwined with the 3,000-degree heater air. then i had to go under the broiler again (which thawed and then evaporated all the frozen sweat on my body), then out into the winter cold, then into my still-warm car.

no post-post commentary. i'm tired.