Snow Flutt'ring Down

Well...it's snowing again in the DC area. The Weather Channel (.com) is calling for 4-7" today with a possible 2-4" more overnight. But watching it come down....and a lot of other things....has put me in a thoughtful mood.

I think God has called my bluff. I've talked some big words about some things, and I think He's saying, "Ok, here's what you said you wanted...pretty much exactly...do you have the guts to go through with it?"

It's scary to think about...but not at all scary at the same time...which may be the scariest thing of all.

Heh...I just re-read the title of my blog...and I have my answer.

Jesus is my Boyfriend

I'm sure you're all wondering what a single girl (whose most recent foray into the world of dating ended with the guy taking yet another leap off the face of the earth) did for Valentine's Day, especially since V-Day was the anniversary of the best puppy in the world's untimely death.

Well, first off, for the first time, probably ever (except possibly for the years I was dating JM), I wasn't dreading V-Day for V-Day reasons. Its approach made me think of Mara and that made me sad, but I didn't dread V-Day. Several years ago my two "adopted" aunts began the tradition of celebrating the man in their lives for V-Day. Both being single believers, that man was Jesus. When JM and I broke up, I started joining them, as did various other strays from time to time.

While I'd always enjoy the food (we'd eat crabs!) and the company, I always hated the evening because it was a glaring reminder that I wasn't feeling how I knew I ought to feel (ok with who I am, content with being single, etc.). I knew I ought to be ok, but I just didn't feel that way so the feelings of desire for a flesh and blood guy to do something romantic for me were combined with the feelings of guilt that I _had_ those feelings since I knew I should be "content whatever state I was in."

Last year, the guy mentioned above and I had only just met a month or so before, so I sorta just ignored it and so did he. I still kinda _hoped_ that he'd do something, but I didn't make a big deal of it since it was so soon since we'd met. And then when I actually saw him the next day, Mara dominated the conversation, so it just never came up.

But this year...I dunno how to explain it other than that when I'd think of V-Day, I just wouldn't care that I didn't "have anybody." Life is great! I didn't feel unworthy of love due to the fact that no guy had made his interest known. I know that I'm unworthy of love, but it has nothing to do with what guys think (or don't think) of me, and God loves me anyway. :) I don't _have_ to wait for His call after we spend time together because He never leaves (in a good way).

Anyway, apparently all of this is just an unexpected (but welcome) side effect of all I've learned recently.

But we continued our tradition of our V-Day dinner and this year opened it up to the other single women at the church. We didn't have a huge crowd, but we had a good group. We ate well and enjoyed great company, even though most of us didn't know everyone else. One lady came that no one knew. She actually came to the church door looking for assistance right as we were getting started. She'd been given the number to our deacon hotline previously during another crisis, but had lost the number and was in another situation which required help. I didn't know who she should call, so we invited her to join the party while I found out. Then, when we found out what she needed to do, we invited her to stay and eat dinner, which she agreed to do. When we went around the room to introduce ourselves, she was one of the last ones to talk, which was really good because that gave several others the opportunity to say how they were single moms and for me to say how I am unemployed, so it wasn't a big deaal when she said those same things. We sent her home with lots of leftovers and party favors for her kids and she said that the evening had really touched her, so she and her kids would be at church on Sunday morning. Al hamdoo lillah! :)

It was a great evening! Plus, I got to play delivery girl to bring a card designed by Dawn's husband Joe and some flowers to Dawn. So it was fun to make the day extra-special for her too.

_AND_ (as if all of that wasn't enough), when I woke up, there was snow on the ground! All some guy would do is maybe bring me flowers. Who made the flowers? Jesus. And who knew exactly what I wanted for V-Day (i.e., snow)? Jesus. And who's the only Guy able to give me exactly what I wanted? Jesus! So forget all you other guys - _Jesus_ is MY boyfriend.....unless of course He's willing to share me because that would be nice too. ;p

Engineering Fun

I've been spending a great deal of time these past few days playing wtih orbits for the s/c we're designing in my satellite design class. It's been a whole lot of fun. I've missed this stuff soooooooo much! I've recently been appointed the systems engineer for our group (mostly because I'm the one with the most time) and am just having a blast putting together budgets and stuff. I know it sounds boring, but the systems people get to have their fingers in a bit of everything, and I _love_ that! ;p

The other thing that's been taking a great deal of time has been my piano!!!! I had it delivered on Tuesday and, as a Valentine's Day gift to one of my great loves, will get it tuned on Monday. :) It's a "little" worse for wear due to life with little kids, followed by life at church, but it still sounds great and isn't really that far out of tune.

I've still got some irons in the fire in terms of "real" jobs, but I may end up just getting a part-time clerical-ish job that'll give me access to benefits. I'll have to get student loans for the first time in my life...but it's almost gonna be worth it if I get to keep my current lifestyle of living mostly in my pjs. :)

I've also just heard from my friend Khulood. I've been a terrible correspondent due to connectivity issues and just my own issues with living out of a suitcase, but she and her family are doing well. It's so good to hear from her!

I've also finally started watching my Buck Rogers DVDs. They are funk-o-licious! And did you know that in the originial movie/mini-series thing that there are _words_ to the theme song?!! I had no idea!! But my favorite part during the credits which are _very_ late-70s chic is when Erin Grey (Col. Wilma Deering) "seductively" tosses her very fluffy mane. It is hi-larious! As is the end when she tells Buck "I know I've been cold in the past, but I'm going to show you every day that I'm all woman." That is _so_ out of character for Wilma (and just such a stupid, cliche thing to say) that I was rolling, I was laughing so hard.

But I can definitely see why I was in love with Buck (yes, even at 3 and 4). He's the man. There are just no two ways about it. The actor's gotten old and fat, but Buck is still the coolest 500-year-old man ever to fly an Earth Defense Force ship.

Anyway, I should get back to my engineering fun. It's interface diagrams for me today! Woohoo!!

Resumes

Ok....so I'm an Alias fan. There are no two ways about it. I have been since about the middle of the first season when I visited my friends Phil and Lori (and Andrew and Katy) and Phil turned me on to it. It's just a cool show. Somewhat vulnerable girl kicks baddie spy butt! And there are hot guys too! And a geeky guy!! And enough soap-opera-esque backstory to keep you watching and re-watching old seasons for signs of what eventually became.

So what does that have to do with resumes, you might ask? Well, just for the record, yesterday I submitted an on-line application for a couple of positions at APL (in addition to having friends there distribute my resume since that really works better at APL). But because of Alias, I have just completed the on-line resume submission for the CIA.

Get this...as I finished the submission, the modem started making dailing noises again. It hadn't disconnected at all. It just decided that right as I was submitting a resume to the CIA (for various jobs which actually looked really cool and could be an interesting blend of my aerospace and overseas experiences) to made dailing noises again.

I am convinced that some Marshall-like person is now sitting in a cubicle at the CIA watching me. So, um, "Hi, Marshall-like person! He's my favorite geeky character on the show, although I did think it was cool when Carrie showed up and he got a girlfriend!"

What's funny is that they got my address from the form. Now they're just watching me, even though they already know where I live. I'm being surveiled. Heehee...

Occupation

OK...so my schtick since I've been back is to tell people that, while the media is not lying to them about what's happening in Iraq (as in, this isn't "Wag the Dog" with actors making up a war), they're not telling the _whole_ story - i.e., people _live_ there, go to school, go to work, go shopping, have babies, get married, etc.

The thing is, lately I've noticed that the media _is_ lying about one thing. They keep talking about the "occupation" of Iraq by US and Coalition forces. From Dictionary.com, here are the definitions of the word "occupation:"

oc·cu·pa·tion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ky-pshn)
n.

1. a. An activity that serves as one's regular source of livelihood; a vocation.
b. An activity engaged in especially as a means of passing time; an avocation.

2. a. The act or process of holding or possessing a place.
b. The state of being held or possessed.

3. a. Invasion, conquest, and control of a nation or territory by foreign armed forces.
b. The military government exercising control over an occupied nation or territory.

(Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.)

Clearly, definition 1 does not apply in this case. Definition 2 could be applicable, but definition 3 is by far the most applicable.

Now, the Coalition forces _did_ "occupy" Iraq from roughly April 2003 until June 28, 2004. But, on June 28, 2004 (my birthday, btw...have I mentioned that before? Have I mentioned how cool I think that is? Because it's _way_ cool!), the Coalition Provisional Authority (the occupying power) transferred their authority to an interim Iraqi government. So, at that point they stopped exercising control (note in definition 3a the three things required for an "occupation" - invasion, conquest, and _control_) over the sovereign nation of Iraq.

The Interim Iraqi Government promply then _asked_ the Coalition forces to remain in Iraq indefinitely.

Let me tell you a little secret. When a government _asks_ you to be there, you're not an "occupying power," no matter what you may have been in the past.

So write/call in to every news source you hear use the term "occupation" in reference to the current situation in Iraq and tell them that they're wrong. Because they are and it's (purposely) misleading to those in the American/world populus who don't take the time to look up terms like that in the dictionary.

Volleyball and Snow!!!!

God is definitely good. Al hamdoo lillah! The year before I left, the DC area got one of its biggest snowfalls in like 20 years. Since I've been here (like two weeks), it's snowed three times. And it's accumulated some each time. And then stayed for a while afterwards. I've missed the snow. Yesterday as Dawn and I stayed home due to cancelled church services, we ate snow cream (with an added twist, thanks to Dawn - powdered strawberry Qwik!!) and watched Alias all day while doing a puzzle. It was a wonderful Sabbath!

And to make it even better, I spent the previous evening playing my first volleyball match since April of 2003. And it felt _GOOD_. I'm still feeling it, but I don't care and can't wait for next week! I have missed volleyball _so_ much.

So, although I miss the daily group dinners, discussions of deep-ish things, and evenings of Alias-watching with our group, there are _definite_ advantages to being back in America.

And after three months, I've even put my hair in a pony-tail a couple of times without wincing. Mostly though...I just _really_ prefer it to be completely free. But still....there were two months in Amman where it was down a lot of the time, and three months here now. It was weird though. I spoke to part of our Hispanic congregation on Friday night and showed them how I'd do my hair and cover...and that felt...safe too. But it still felt good to let my hair back down. :)

But also al hamdoo lillah for the success of the elections yesterday!! I'm praying that I'll run across someone with a marked finger around here so that my Arabic can stop being a parlor trick. :)

Elections

Everyone, please be in prayer for the Iraqi elections. They happen tomorrow, but remember that they are 8 hours ahead of us (on the east coast), so by the time you wake up in the morning, the polls will be getting ready to close.

Specifically, pray for:
- Peace and safety during the polling process.
- Participation by those who are eligible to vote.
- Understanding of the new process by the voters.
- The integrity of the polls and the vote-counting process.
- Clear winners to avoid (more) sectarian strife following the elections.
- That we and the Iraqi people would know that, no matter the outcome, God's will is being done.

School Days...

Well, the very, very good news is that it shouldn't be a problem for me to get back into grad school. It might take a week or two for all of the paperwork to actually happen, but it's probably _going_ to happen. In related news, you know how I've been saying that I was within the 5-year time limit for taking all of my classes for this degree? Yeah....since I started in 2000, I actually got cut off _this_ year, not next. Because with my Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, I'm not actually able to count to five.

But Mary doesn't think it'll be a problem, so I'm not worried. Plus, I'm just not worried.

In other news, I went to my software safety class today at 4. I was a little early I thought, so it didn't surprise me that there was a class in the room....but when the discussion on the very entertaining movie they were watching about the possibility of cyber-terrorism taking down power grids (paid for by your tax dollars and mine) continued, well past the 4 o'clock hour, I figured that something was amiss. The class was being held in the Instructional Television building (meaning lots of technology for broadcasting lectures via satellite to other places and what not), so the people in charge of the building were around and helped me figure out that my class was actually on _Tuesday_, not Thursday. I felt like an idiot (especially coming fresh off of the counting to 5 thing), but was mostly worried that it would conflict with the other class I'm taking on Tuesdays. Fortunately it doesn't, so life is even better than it was before since now I'll have another free afternoon/evening each week. :)

But since I didn't have class to go to, I went shopping! :) I used my Christmas Linens-N-Things gift card to get stuff to hang things on, then I went off in search of a bookshelf. I went to Target first. They didn't have any bookshelves (??!), but I got notebooks for my classes and a hole puncher and a couple of other things. Then I went to this furniture store because it was halfway between Target and Kolhs. They had, no lie, _one_ bookshelf in the entire store (which could easily have fit two football fields). Said bookshelf was of the typical pressboard quality found so often now-a-days, but this one was apparently pressboard lined with gold or something because the _display_ model cost over $300!!!!

So then I went to Kohls. They didn't have any furniture at all....but they were having a clearance sale where things were up to 80% off. I actually found a suit-ish jacket that I can stand. I think it normally sells for $60 or more, but I got it for $13. Now I just have to find pants or a skirt to match it. The "nice" pants that I have bought recently are black, but the jacket is blue. It was even the right size. It was probably the only thing in the whole store that was small enough for me.

I know that I'm petite, but I still don't get how I'm a size 4. I've got a big top and a big bottom, but anything larger than a 4 just falls off of me. I don't _think_ I'm skeletal or anything. I know I eat enough. But its _VERY_ frustrating to go shopping and not find anything smaller than an 8.

Anyway....so I went from Kohl's to Walmart. Not only did they have cheap hangars, they also had a bookshelf for $32. It's the cheap of the cheap kind, but it holds all of my books and will do me nicely at least until I move again.

So, now I'm gonna go cut up boxes for recycling.

Oh...and the book that's recommended for my Satellite Design class? $134.50!!!!! And that's on Amazon (Half.com's prices were even higher!)!!! I'd forgotten how astoundingly expensive engineering textbooks are. Good thing I can write it off for taxes.....next year....

Oh, and Amazon's "People who bought this book have also bought..." lists? EEEEEEVVVVIIIILLLL. That list is of the Devil. I rebuke it in the name of Jesus. I have been tempted to squander more money from those stupid little lists than from anything else I've ever known. It's like Amazon can read my mind and knows titles which will elicit great longings in my heart. Titles like Spacecraft Systems Engineering make me think - I'm already spending $134.50 for one book...what's $66.77 more? And Bah! Now I know that the Farscape mini-series is out on DVD now! Bah! (Btw, Claudia Black will be on Stargate SG-1 tomorrow night.) At least it's not horribly expensive.

Settling In

Well, yesterday was my first full day back in Maryland "for good." Sunday I drove to Nashville, got some more of my stuff on Monday, then drove back on Tuesday. Yesterday was a full day with getting my car serviced in the early, early AM, lunch with my pastor, then an afternoon of trying to figure out what to do about getting back into grad school with my advisor. I also ran into my ex-boyfriend, Jean-Marc. He's married now! (Don't worry, it wasn't a surprise to me or anything, it was just the first time I'd seen him since the "big day.") Hard to believe sometimes that it's been six years since he and I dated.

Anyway, then I went to my first class - Satellite Design. It looks like it may be more work than I expected, but hopefully it won't be too bad. There apparently were complaints about the lengths of homework assignments the last time the course was offered, so hopefully they're going to work on that some this time. It's gonna be a really fun class though. We've been given "Level 1 Requirements" (i.e., top-level requirements for the system, some of which are imposed by the instrument that the spacecraft (s/c forevermore) we're designing will carry, some imposed by the launch vehicle we've been assigned, etc.) and we get to completely design the s/c bus to adhere to those requirements. It'll be fun, I say, but then I've always loved design classes. :)

Today I'll spend in the continuing unpacking/organizational phase for my room. It's pretty much just boxes and stuff all over the place right now. For all that I tend toward the cluttered side of life, I can't stand it when things aren't organized and I like to feel "nested," so it's somewhat discombobulating to still have my "home" be a wreck. I'm working on that though and will work some more today. There are a few things I need to buy (like a new bookshelf and some hangars) in order for everything to have a home, so that's probably what I'll spend my "out and about" hours doing today. I also still need to get a MD driver's license. That might be a "tomorrow task" though.

I also need to stop by the University again today to talk some more with my advisor's wife who I hate referring to in this manner since she's an aerospace professor in her own right and on the graduate selection committee. So, from now on I'll just call her Mary since that's her name. My advisor will be code-named Dave. Oddly, that's his real name too. Either that's not sneaky at all, or it's so sneaky that it's really amazingly sneaky.

Yes, I've been watching too much Alias.

On the job front, I've got a couple of irons in the fire including one at ARL (the Army Research Lab). It's a defense-related thing....but actually _defense_, not offensive stuff....so that makes it better somehow? It would also mean working for a guy at my church which could have its good points and its bad points. They're going to send me an application, then I'll interview after that, in sha'allah. Hope with me that ARL has a "casual" dress policy because all (both) of my business suits got eaten by mildew while I was away and I'm too cheap to want to spend hundreds of dollars (and many, many hours of shopping) replacing them right now. Actually, I took the mildew-eating as a sign from God that business suits are a tool of the Devil and should not be worn except at great need. But maybe I'm biased in that regard.

Anyway....I'm going to go shower now and get my butt moving on the ever-growing list of things I need to take care of and buy.

Yay, God!

Bah....runtime error deleted my post. Oh well...it wasn't terribly well-written anyway.

So a few days ago, Mrs. C. called and made a _great_ suggestion - that I live with her daughter-in-law, Dawn, while Dawn's husband (and Mrs. C's son), Joe, is in Iraq (that's right - he's G.I. Joe). Dawn's been praying for an opportunity to share the extra space in their house and it's just a perfect fit. We're both _really_ excited about it. She's excited about my piano being there and because this gives her a chance to re-arrange things.

I'm excited for a whole bunch of reasons. Not only is this a low-rent option, but I also won't need to rent a big truck in order to bring a lot of furniture....but I'll still have enough room to have a little space of my own. I'll have to convince my brother to keep some of my stuff for a little while longer, but I don't think he'll mind.

We're both also excited because we started talking tonight about the things I learned in Iraq about sharing with Muslims and she's really excited to learn more. This'll give me a chance to review and learn more while we study it together. Hopefully we'll be able to get some other folks involved too.

I'm just so excited that this is working out like this. It's like the apartment shopping was just a way for me to know exactly how generous God is. So, yay, God!

Or as they say in Iraq, al hamdo lilla!

One Step Up

Well, I'm still unemployed, uninsured, and homeless....but at least I'm not living with my parents anymore. That's a move in the right direction, isn't it? ;p

The drive here was uneventful, as usual. I spent Saturday and some of Sunday afternoon looking for apartments (Barbara came along on Saturday). We went to a lot of places, so I spent Saturday evening setting up a spread sheet on my computer (have I mentioned that Henry's not a paperweight anymore? Yes, thanks to the generous help of my church, he has a new hard drive and is back up and running, although we've still not recovered any data from my old hard drive. But, at least he's no longer a $3000 paperweight!). Since everywhere had some different variation of pet fees, student discounts, utilities, specials, and laundry issues, I decided to compare them over the course of a year rather than month-to-month. So, I'd add together the monthly rent for twelve months, any monthly pet fees for twelve months, any monthly utility estimates for twelve months, then add in any one-time fees like the application fee, add in an estimate for laundry costs if a washer and dryer weren't included in the apartment, and subtract any discounts. Not surprisingly, the two efficiencies that I looked at topped the list of cheapest place to live over a year. Far more surprisingly, for only ~$200 more (over the course of the year, not monthly), I can get a 1BR apartment, newly renovated, in one of the nicer areas of Laurel (Montpelier). It even comes with an alarm system and is actually ground-level (not "ground floor" which ends up being down several steps quite often) - making the installation of the piano _MUCH_ easier. They've even got one coming available this Saturday.

The only "catch" is that I need to have income before they'll lease it to me. I can probably get my parents to co-sign for me if it comes to that, but the alternative would be a letter of intent from where ever I plan to work. Some of the other places would take six months of bank statements, but not this one, and money in the bank doesn't seem to make much of a difference. That makes me wonder how really rich people who don't need to work manage to rent apartments. Maybe they just buy stuff.

Anyway, so that sent me to job hunting today. I've just applied online to a place in Silver Spring where I'd be a software tester, do some tech support, and write users manuals. That might actually be the low-stress job that I'm looking for. Another alternative is the Army Research Lab. I was talking to the dad of one of the girls I grew up with at church, telling him about how I was looking for a job, etc. and the guy behind him asked what I did, then gave me his card. He works for SAIC at ARL. That might work out well too, although I would imagine that they do a lot of work with defense stuff and I've never been too keen on that. Don't get me wrong, I think that wars are necessary from time to time (this time included), and I'm glad that there are people who are willing and able to design, build, and use defensive and offensive weapons and equiment, but I'm just not one of those people. But then again, it's a job, and it's right down the road from the nicer of the two efficiencies (which is running a close second to the 1BR due to its location and the friendliess of the staff). I'll email him and see what he can find for me. Most of the other jobs I've seen in the papers I've looked in have been "driver" or "assistant," etc.

I also need to email someone in the aerospace department. I'm still not able to register for classes and no one seems to know why. The person that I was sent to didn't answer my voicemail, so I'll try email now. I've still got over a week before classes start, but I really need to take care of this.

I'm pretty stressed about it all right now. I know that everything is happening according to His plan, but _I'd_ certainly like it all to be settled.

I hope to go to the inauguration on Thursday. I don't think I've ever been to one, despite living in the area for most of my life. I vaguely remember working the day of the last inaugural (about two blocks away, actually) and thinking that I should have walked over.

Anyway, that's where I am right now.

I Am A Packing Queen!!!!!

So my travel plans have changed (those of you who know me and/or my family will not at all be surprised at that). It was just too much to try to fit in this weekend, and the whole driving all night thing sans caffeine just wasn't smart, so here's the new plan: I drive up tomorrow during the day (with a brief stop in Cookeville to drop some stuff off with Toby who went back to school today), then take my time in finding an apartment. Once that's done, I'll fly to TN, pack a U-haul with the rest of my stuff and my furniture (knowing better what furniture will actually _fit_), then drive back. Or my family will pack for me, drive up, then drive back. I vote for door #1 though. I was in MD when my stuff went to TN, so I didn't help with that at all. The least I can do is be there for the unloading of Jesse's basement since I missed the loading.

But, as you can see in this post's title, I am a packing queen! When going through all of my stuff, between trash, goodwill, and repacking I diminished in "stuff" by 12 variously-sized boxes, and several bags. But not only that, but today, I fit everything I wanted to in my car with room to spare. But you really just have to see it in order to appreciate the full magnitude of my mad packing skillz. Every nook and cranny is filled. No space is left empty (except the top and where I'll sit). The back seat bottom pulls out before the back of the seat folds down. Under that space is all of my linens. In the triangular space between the front seats and the first row of boxes are my SCUBA fins. You really have to just see it. And what's funny is that since I had room after I put in all the stuff I'd planned on taking, I'm _really_ having to fight the urge to bring more stuff...just because I can. :) But I won't because I don't want to deal with anything more than I'm bringing now.

But now I'm sleepy. I stayed up late last night, hoping to sleep as late as possible this morning, making it easier to stay up late and drive tonight. But I only made it to about 2...and then got woken up multiple times this morning...all of them early...so by 8:30 I was too awake to sleep anymore. So...going to bed now. I'll be in MD tomorrow for good(ish). Saturday is the first (and hopefully only) apartment-hunting day. Once I find an apartment, then will begin the job-hunting day(s). And on the Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday after Jan 26th begins the school days.

Ok...going to bed now....later!

Guitar! (and Packing)

So, I went to the guitar store where I bought my old guitar. Turns out, they knew a guy who could actually fix it - if I wanted to pay as much or more than what I paid for it. So instead they showed me around the ones they had available for cheap, but decent quality. And for $250, I ended up getting a used Fender in really good condition. I'm "kinda" excited about it. The guy said that they sell for almost $1000 new. I haven't looked it up yet, but I'd believe that it was a pretty good quality guitar. Plus, it's a Fender. :) I've actually _heard_ of that brand. :) It's a natural finish, cut-away style, acoustic electric. They also sold me a used direct box for $25 (that kind sells for $50 new), so now I can even plug in at churches that don't provide them for us. :)

But all of this is more than a little bittersweet. Like when you bring a pet to the vet for the last time, I left my old guitar with them for a proper burial. They all got a chuckle out of that notion, but they understood. It was a good guitar and did me well.

In other news, I spent yesterday afternoon/evening under Jesse's house going through my stuff. It didn't take as long as I expected. All that I have left to do today is go through my book boxes, many of which are apparently full of old school notes and assignments (making the task significantly easier). I threw a lot of stuff away, and I've got a car-load full (with the back seat down too) of stuff for Purple Heart when they come by tomorrow.

The stuff did pretty well under Jesse's house. All of my remaining clothes and linens are musty (as are the books), but there were only three boxes that were sitting in puddles. One had stuff that I really didn't care about at all (old trinkets for my Sunday School class, old nail polish, etc.), one had dishes so it didn't do any damage, and one was my box of Cal Ripken memorabilia. Every time my mom would find an Orioles or Cal memento anywhere, she'd buy it for me, so I had a box full. But also in there were my ticket and souviener posters from Cal's 2131 game that I went to with Barbara. Only one corner of the box was wet, but it was, of course, the corner by the big and flat things. The posters were completely ruined, but the ticket is still readable, although a little worse for wear. It's got a blue-ish tinge now from the envelope that it was in for safe-keeping, and the embossing stamp that they used to mark the ticket (instead of ripping it like normal) is gone, but it's still legible.

My games were attacked by some paper-eating bug. The boxes are still in tact, but the top layer of paper is gone in a lot of places. There's only one set of "stuff" that I can't seem to find. I thought there was a box of old cassette tapes and CDs, but I can't find it. I'm pretty sure I put all of the CDs in one of those CD notebook things and recycled all of the cases since otherwise I would have had boxes and boxes of CDs, but I had a good number of tapes too, and I don't know where they are.

I managed to get a nice-sized "crick" in my neck that a heating pad and I are trying to get rid of right now, but after that, I'll go finish wading through the books. After that I just need to collect and organize all the stuff that's scattered around my parents' house now, then I'll be ready to go. :)

Miscellany

I haven't been much of a blogger lately. I have my suspicions as to why, but they're not really important. Hopefully soon I'll get back to doing it more regularly. But as a result, there are lots of little things to talk about, none of which really deserves its own post....so here's the miscellaneous randomness of my life:

Moving: Well, the big move may happen this week. What I know for sure is that I'll help out with my dad's Science Club meeting on Thursday after school, then I'll drive to MD overnight. Normally, I'd forego overnight driving (especially sans caffeine), but I need to spend Friday looking for (and hopefully finding) an apartment. If I find one available for immediate occupancy, my parents will drive up on Saturday with all of my stuff, furniture, and my cat. If I find one that will be available really soon, or even if I don't find one at all, they'll just bring up my stuff (no furniture or cat) and I'll store it or something. Then, when a place _is_ available, I'll make another trip to TN to pick up my furniture and cat or possibly my family will come up again during Spring Break. As two months is a long time to go without a bed, I'm really hoping it won't be that last option. So, MD folk, I'll be back in town "for good" starting sometime early Friday morning, but I'll be pretty busy over the weekend.

School: I just tried to register for my classes and there's some block on my registration. The lady who might know what the problem is comes in at 1:30. Hope with me that it's something simple. I now plan on taking three classes: Tuesdays, 7-9:30PM is Space Human Factors and Life Support; Wednesdays, 6:30-9PM is Satellite Design; and Thursdays, 4-6:30PM is Software Safety. The human factors class will be interesting - it'll cover life support systems and the "human" aspect of space travel. I'm counting this as my "easy" class since my "expertise" at my old job was the life support systems on the Space Station. Design classes are always fun, so the satellite design class should be good. It'll give us a nice overview of each typical satellite system (power, thermal, guidance, etc.), then I'm sure there'll be a group design project. :) This course is possibly time-consuming, but hopefully also not terribly difficult. The last one could be really hard, or it could be a cakewalk. I hoping that some of my friends from my old job will take the class with me, so we can cut up in the back of the room. :)

Job: I still have no idea about a job. I figure that I can live (_very_ carefully) as long as I'm making at least $6/hr full-time, but I'll also need to pay for school, so something higher than that would be really good. It needs to be full-time so that I've got some amount of medical insurance, and I'd rather it be relatively mindless work. The last real "hourly" job that I had was in high school at Service Merchandise and I used to have nightmares about it, so hope that I've gotten over my fear of working in retail sales. If anyone knows of anything, let me know. This semester it could pretty much be anything, even a 9-5er, but I don't know about next semester, so flexible hours are probably necessary.

Guitar: I played and sang "Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)" for church on Sunday. When I got out my guitar on Friday to practice, I noticed a new "feature" near the top of the neck that I'd never noticed before. I thought it was odd that I'd never noticed before that it was two pieces that were joined, but whatever. On Sunday morning I realized that the neck was cracked, pretty much all the way to the fret board. The guitar made it to and from Mexico, to Kuwait, Iraq, and Jordan (probably - I didn't examine it very closely at the time), but sometime since then either due to temperature changes or impact or something else....well, she's dead, Jim. Lacking anything else to play, I went ahead and used her on Sunday morning, but I'm going to head over to the store where we bought her three or four years ago to see about buying a new one. They buy used guitars, so maybe I'll get some small amount of trade-in for her "electric" side or something. So sad. :(

Wasting Time in TN: I've spent much of my time here helping my family clean/reorganize their house. We've sent a lot of stuff to charity and a lot of stuff to the dump. During my less busy time, I've been playing games on the computer, and watching TV and DVDs. Last night we finished watching all of "V." That was originally a TV mini-series in 1983 and 1984, then it lasted one season as a TV show. It was about these lizards that dressed up like humans in order to act like our friends, but really to rape the planet of its natural resources. They eat a lot of mice and other rodents, and the guy who plays Freddie Krueger is a friendly lizard. :) It's fun. I also very much enjoyed the Alias season premier last Wednesday. JJ Abrams (series creator) decided to give that to my mom as a birthday present (Happy Birthday, Mommy!). I was worried through the first hour that my boyfriend Marshall (the tech geek) wasn't going to be on the show anymore, but he is, and I'm happy. My other boyfriend Michael Vartan, of course was still there. But sadly, they say that they've killed off Lena Olin's character. Fortunately, no one's ever _really_dead on this show (except for Dixon's wife, Emily (this time), and possibly many of the "red shirts," to use a Star Trek term). But Spy Daddy was just as ambiguously good as ever, Sloan was just as ooky as ever, and it looks like Agent Sean might get a girlfriend this season. :) Yay! Agent Sean is my other, other boyfriend (he's the big teddy bear imaginary boyfriend, Vaughn (Michael Vartan) is the hot imaginary boyfriend, and Marshall is the geeky imaginary boyfriend - hey....when they're just imaginary boyfriends, you can have as many as you like and switch between them depending on your mood. Imaginary boyfriends are very convenient that way.). The credits are a little different, but I could still do my internationally-known "Alias Dance" to them, and the disguises, accents, and fight scenes were just as much fun as ever, so I have high hopes for this season. :)

ANY-way.....so now I'm going to head over to Jesse's house to spend time going through my stuff in his basement. That should be "fun." And cold. And dirty. But at least his crawlspace is tall enough for me to stand up, mostly. Purple Heart is coming by again on Wednesday, so I'm hoping to finish going through everything by then. That's the goal anyway. We'll see what actually transpires. We'll also see if I can practice what I've been making my mom do - enjoy it for one last moment, now give/throw it away!

Car: I finally got my MD license plates, so my car is official now!! :)

Computer: I forgot to tell you that my computer is no longer a paperweight! My hard drive is probably definitely gone (although we'll see about someone Marshall-esque retrieving the data, if it's not too expensive), but my church generously replaced my hard drive for me and got Henry back up and running again. Not having much need for him here, I've only recently finished getting him back to the way that I like him, but he's working just fine again. I'm still sad about all of the applications I've lost though. And I haven't connected him to the internet at all to update anything, so it's entirely possible that SP2 will work its magic again, but I hope it won't. I think I've got a scheme for having internet connectivity once I get back to MD, but otherwise, does anyone know the cheapest way to get internet access in the DC area?

Sunday School: I'm sure you've all been wondering how things have been going with my Sunday School class. Well, unexpectedly, I've really enjoyed the time. Mostly because I always had a class of one - me. No one else ever came, and except for the first time, I didn't get caught, so I got to have an hour of "me" time. That was definitely better than sitting in some class. :) But I turned in my book yesterday, so my career as an adult Sunday School teacher seems to have come to an end.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure I'll think of something else piddly here shortly, but it can't be that important if I can't think of it now.

Year in Review

Well, I started this year alone at my house in Baghdad. My roommates had gone to Amman for the New Year. I think I stayed up until midnight. Heh.

A lot has happened this year. I started the year expecting that I would be in Baghdad for another year and a couple of months. That didn't quite happen. Evan showed up and was diagnosed as most likely benign. I've visited Cyprus, England, Scotland, and Jordan. Mara and my friends died. Iraq regained its sovreignty on my birthday. We had a change in leadership of our team which _greatly_ affected life there. We moved from one house to another. We left for some training and weren't allowed to return. I got to SCUBA dive in the Red Sea. Instead of sitting around in Amman until my term ended, I came home five months early, surprising my family and most of my friends. Since then, I've mostly been sitting around my parents' house, helping to re-organize stuff.

This next year is still pretty fuzzy for me yet. I expect that I'll finish my Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland. I'll have some job to help finance it (and give me medical benefits - I'm currently among the uninsured). I'll be involved in some way at my church. I'll either rent the cheapest apartment I can find, or I'll buy the cheapest foreclosure I can find in the hopes of selling it for a tidy sum at the end of the year when I figure out where I'm actually gonna settle and what I'm actually gonna do.

It's....unsettling....for me to know so little about where I'm gonna be and what I'm gonna do.

I've never really been one for New Year's resolutions. I'll let you know if I make any, but I can't think of anything right now. I don't need to lose any weight or stop smoking anything. I could probably stand to exercise more regularly. My house is definitely gonna be less cluttered than in the past. I'll definitely have a less hectic daily schedule than I had prior to my overseas adventures. I definitely want to keep up with my Arabic. But I don't have any measurable "resolutions," per se.

This year actually ended for me almost three hours ago, if you're counting 366 24-hour periods, but it won't end here for another six hours. My little brother's out with friends, as I expect my older brother is. My mom's asleep on the couch, my dad's cooking something, and my sister is playing "vulture" for the computer. We'll watch movies until my dad makes us turn on the Sesame Street New Year's thing. After that, he'll fall asleep and we'll probably end up watching Conan since he's doing a Central time thing.

But, tomorrow is not just another day, it's also another year, and while I'm somewhat unsure of what it'll bring, I'm also looking forward to it. So come, on, New Year! Give it to me with both barrels. I can take it.

New Year's Eve Eve

Well, yesterday was something of a red-letter day for me and my family. In the morning, I finished reading Malachi!! I actually managed to read the Bible through in a year! I have no idea how many times I've attempted to do that, although I know that the first time I tried was in 7th grade at Mr. Lenart's encouragement. I'm sure that I've at least considered it every year since then, and attempted it some subset of those 15 or 16 years. So, yay me! Not sure what I'll do for devotions now.

Then, in the evening, our whole family gathered at my brother's house and played Cranium. I'd played it on several occasions before, but no one else had. It was _hilarious_! We got to see my mom act like Jackie Chan, my dad hum (incorrectly) "That's the way (uh-huh,uh-huh), I like it," and me, Toby, and my dad all try to act out the word "missionary"- try sometime to do that word in charades by pointing to someone, trying to motion the word "before," and holding your hands like you're praying and/or giving a book to someone. Beth finally got the word (yay, Turner daughters team!), but not before all of us were pretty much rolling on the floor, laughing. Apparently, that looks more like a Chinese waiter than a missionary.

So we had a lot of fun.

Reggie White

I've been somewhat surprised at the coverage of Reggie White's life. Reggie White, the ordained minister (not just of defense) - his life was completely about sharing the Gospel. There was never an interview in which he didn't share some part of his testimony or the Gospel. All accounts of him on and off the field say that he lived according to his beliefs.

But the vast majority of the coverage I've seen has spent the absolute minimum amount of time and words on that "side" of his life. Basically, other than saying that the nickname "Minister of Defense" comes from the fact that he's a minister in "real life," they've said nothing about him _as_ a minister.

Somewhat unexpectedly, however, on ABC's Monday Night Football half-time tribute, they actually _did_ spend some time on that 'part' of his life (which was really his whole life). So kudoes to ABC and MNF.

And a Common Sense tribute to a good man who was blessed, and who used those blessings to give the honor and glory to the One who blessed him in the first place. Welcome home, Reggie!

Let it Ice, Let it Ice, Let it Ice

The weather people in Nashville did it to us again. They called for flurries and got our hopes up. Then the flurries sorta disappeared....then as the day approached, they came back....and got up to 1-2 inches in the area, with it remaining through Christmas because of the cold. But when the time came, we got ice instead. Lots of ice. It was pretty, and it kept flurrying all through the day yesterday, but the accumulation was rather limited.

Oh well....while "I'm Dreaming of a Clear Christmas" doesn't have quite the ring of "White Christmas," it's still not so bad.

Last Year This Time

It's almost 6:30 PM in Baghdad right now. A year ago right now, I was sitting in the WarEagle chapel, getting ready for their Christmas Eve service. I'd spent the day before making cookies for my friends and all of the gate guards that I'd see on my way into the camp (and for some other friends and gate guards at another camp) - because it'd be pretty rude to walk past all those guys with goodies for folks inside and nothing for them. When it was a pie or cobbler, I'd do it, but whenever I made cookies, I'd make extras for them.

I'd spent that morning trying my darndest (unsuccessfully) to get a ride out to a rehearsal I'd scheduled, and ended up spending the afternoon with Mystery Date and his troop at their Christmas party.

This year I'm sitting in sweats, unwashed, watching Ted Danson search for the Loch Ness Monster on SciFi with my family. Later on, we'll go to my parents' church's Christmas Eve service (with all the talent provided by the Turner family, apparently), then maybe to one of the services at the church that pays Jesse to sing in their choir.

Return to the Shire

At the end of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, there's a scene where the four hobbits return home. They're so excited to be back. Merry and Pippin are wearing their respecitve coutries' colors as they ride into town. One of the first things they do is go back to their favorite pub and get a drink, just like they used to. But it's different somehow - all the same things are going on in the background, but they're not the same. They clink glasses and drink, but it's just not the same anymore.

They've gone off and seen and done amazing things and their old world has stayed exactly the same. And that's what they wanted, wasn't it? Sam, Merry, and Pippin all managed to re-adjust, but Frodo didn't.

I guess the jury's still out as to whether elves will need to spirit _me_ away.

Diet Donuts

So yesterday after the Michael W. Smith Christmastime concert, my siblings, dad, and I stopped off at Kripsy Kreme for a donut. As we were walking out, my older brother was eating his donuts - one regular glazed and one cake (i.e., without the glaze).

That makes them diet donuts, right? 50% of the sugar?

The Dentist, Part II

So I spent yesterday morning at the dentist again. She'd said that I needed one of my other old fillings replaced, and since my health insurance and other benefits end on Saturday, I figured I should go ahead and do it then. Well, she looked in my mouth and found two more old fillings that were on the verge of cracking or something and when she heard that my benes ended soon, she just went ahead and replaced all of them. The good thing about it is that now my mouth is set (except for cleanings) for a very long time. _And_ apparently dental technology has advanced considerably since she put those fillings in, 8 years ago. Back then, those fillings had to be so big or something that she had to use the metal fillings instead of the tooth-colored fillings, but apparently either the holes have shrunk, or the tech has grown because now all of my teeth look completely like teeth.

(Bee-dee, bee-dee, bee-dee - hey look! The bad guy is Jack Palance!)

It was funny at the end of the visit. They told me to rinse and spit, but I wasn't quite over the bowl. I thought that I'd closed my mouth, but apparently I was too numb to know that I hadn't. Fortunately, the assisstant chick was still taking off my bib, so she caught the river of mouthwash that came streaming out of my mouth. We both had a good laugh over that.

It's always weird going to my dentist though. She's latina and so are all of her assisstants (and apparently many of her customers). So, her working language is Spanish (although they all speak perfect English). It always takes me a second to figure out who she's talking to because I have to decipher the language first, then the content (if it's English) - all while there's suction and drilling going on inside my head.

There's just something wrong with a Dremel tool being used inside my mouth. I'm not a big fan. I find myself seriously tensing up. My legs shake from the tenseness. I don't even notice that it's happening, but literally every two or three minutes I have to force myself to relax.

(Ha! The little triangle made it above the purple line on the screen! That means that Buck's buddy escaped to warn Earth. And double-Ha! Wilma outranks Buck! Go strong chick characters!)

Anyway. I'm not sure why you'd all be interested in knowing about my dental adventures, but the other post I've been contemplating involves watching a DVD, which would mean turning off Buck Rogers, and that's just not gonna happen. Y'all are great and all, but it's _Buck_!

Buck Rogers!

So I was just flipping through channels, with Sci-Fi being one of my first stops (as usual) and who should be on, but my first love, Buck Rogers! He just found the magic bubble wrap at some factory on a world where the ruler is a sorcerer who can bend people's will to his eeeeeevvvvvil ways just with his words. And he found the magic bubble wrap to some kickin' background late 70s, early 80s bomp-chicka-wakka music.

Move over, Mystery Date. It's Buck Rogers. I fell in love wtih him at 3 (or so). And what's funny is that even then, and even with love veiling my eyes, I still could see the difference between the Saturn V rocket they showed launching in the credits (at least in the first season) and the space shuttle they found him in in the backstory episode during the second season. But it's also kinda cool that they kept up with the changing technology between '79 and '81 when the show aired.

Hey look! It's Wilma! I could never decide if I wanted to _be_ her (because she's a cool, strong woman character), or if I was jealous of her because she got to be around Buck. She always did have the best hair. Curly, bouncy, but not with Farrah wings.

I shouldn't have looked online to see what years it aired. Now I know that the entire series is on DVD. Bah! Curse you, Amazon.com and all of your choices!

Oh no! His ship was crashing and now it's "To Be Continued!" Good thing Sci-Fi is showing another one next. Buck, my love, I'll see you again soon!

Update

So I got back from MD today. I think I tied my fastest time - 9 hours and 45 minutes. That's a really long drive. When I got back, no one was home, so I thought that they'd gone out to dinner for Jesse's birthday without me and left very pitiful voicemail messages on everyone's phones. But, they'd just gone to one of those "Walk through Bethlehem" things and came home a little while later for dinner - I hadn't missed it after all.

My trip to MD was completely unnecessary. My main purpose for going up there was to get the license plates for my car and since I had to do it _some_ weekend before January 5th (when my temporary tags ran out), I figured I might as well go during the weekend of my church's Christmas musical. It was great to see everyone (and this time I actually got to _see_ people since it wasn't a secret anymore). All of the youth who were shorter than me when I left are now taller than me, the kids who were in my Sunday School class (3rd and 4th graders) are now youth, and the toddlers that I used to chase around the sanctuary and tickle don't remember me anymore (and are in grade school now)! And there were lots of new babies for me to meet (and babies that were new a year ago, but are still just "new to me").

I really enjoyed the trip, but let me get back to the "completely unnecessary" part - so apparently the tags were sent by MVA to CarMax. CarMax hadn't gotten them yet, but they would within the week, and as long as someone had a note signed from me giving my permission, they'd be allowed to get them for me. But it was really great to get to see everyone again.

I've _really_ missed getting to be part of a church music program. At the downbeat of the musical's overture, I teared up, and was fighting back tears most of the show, and not just because of the content. :) We'll see how much I can be involved in with school as my main focus, but I've really missed getting to be part of a _group_ of musicians. I've pretty much been on my own since I've been overseas, although there has been the occasional duet or trio. My skills have improved some as a result of that (no one else to lean on), but it's just a different thing altogether to get to play and sing with other people too. :)

One musical grouping that you might remember was my Christmas Eve program last year for the guys out at Camp WarEagle. In the email about that night, I mentioned "another guitar player." Well, said other guitar player and I spent some time getting to know one another while we were both overseas (it was all purely platonic, for those who would wave "the rules" at me), but lost touch when he came home in July. Well, we've started talking again since I've been back...and he's coming through Nashville this weekend and....(you might want to sit down for this).....he and I are going on a _date_.

You heard that right folks. Leia, the dateless wonder, will be seeing a gentleman caller for dinner and some blues music on Friday night, then hanging out again some on Saturday before he continues on his way to visit family for the holidays. Other than a possible "it went _really_ well" or "I don't want to talk about it," you probably won't hear anymore about my mystery date (the person or the evening), but I just had to share. :) I'm a "little" excited about it myself. :)

OK...well past my bedtime. Nighty-night!

Sunday

I was reminded yesterday that some of you are sitting on pins and needles, anxiously awaiting my retelling of how things went this past Sunday.

Well, there's not too much to tell. I got there, but there wasn't anyone else there. Eventually another girl apparently showed up, but before she made it to my class, she got taken to work in another classroom. I was sitting there by myself, in a puddle of sunshine, happily reading the paper when the pastor (the teacher of the men's class) caught me and invited me into their class. Then, since I'd prepared for the lesson, he had me teach "half." He took the half that was discussed in the teacher's book, and I took the rest. It was fun.

This Sunday, I'll be driving back from MD, so I won't "get" to teach, but I'll be back in the saddle next Sunday.

It's just after 9 here in TN and I'm all packed up and ready to go. Once I finish this post, I'm headed out the door to drive to MD. I'll be there through Sunday, obviously. My missions while there are to get license plates for my car, get a new license for me, and watch my church's Christmas musical. Those of you in MD who read this and who don't already know about the musical, they're doing it at least on Saturday night and Sunday night. I don't know times. Check out the church's website. I'll be there Saturday night.

The reason I'm coming back on Sunday (and not waiting till after church) is that Sunday is Jesse's (my older brother) 31st birthday. And while the family tradition for the past 10 years has been that I'm away (usually in MD) on his birthday, I figured that it was a tradition that could change this year.

Anyway, gotta hit the road or I'll never get there.

Prophets

So I was thinking about this today as I was writing to a friend about it. I've been reading through the prophets recently and am currently in Ezekiel. Are there modern-day prophets?

Was there someone who went up to Saddam prior to his downfall and said, "God told me to tell you that unless you turn from your wicked ways, the Coalition will come through and wipe your empire off the face of the planet?"

I'm not the first to liken Saddam to Nebuchadnezzar (heh...I think _Saddam_ was the first to do that). Thinking in terms of Biblical history...maybe there _was_ a prophet sent to Saddam prior to the first Gulf War and at that time, Saddam repented to some extent - to the point that being wiped out was reduced to being sanctioned for a few years...or at least delayed. Then the prophet came again only this time Saddam didn't listen at all and God's punishment was meted out by the Coalition.

You laugh, but why not? Do you believe that it happened in Biblical times? If so, then why not now?

I mean, we know that, historically, the Babylonian Empire took the Jews into captivity. That's not the question. The question is whether or not you believe that the prophets in the Bible were actually sent by God to warn them of this captivity in advance of them being conquered and captured.

And if that's the case, could it happen now? And if so, _does_ it happen now?

Now, granted, if there _was_ prophet sent to Saddam, he (or she) likely died a very quick death. But seriously, I'm very curious now. Are there modern-day prophets? Are there people God sends to speak prophecy to the leaders of the world?

Hey Look! I'm Famous!

This is the article that was printed about me in the South-east edition of the Davidson AM section of yesterday's Tennesseean. Shew..the other editions of that section had the story, but not on the front page, and I wasn't in color.

http://tennessean.com/davidson/southeast/archives/04/11/62350863.shtml?Element_ID=62350863

Not sure how long this link will work.

Sunday School

So, tomorrow I begin my adult Sunday School teaching career. I'm not a member of this church, no one's ever questioned my theology at all (although they know my parents and my most recent job, which I guess would give me some credibility within the SB sphere), and I've never taught adults before....but I'll be teaching their female singles for my remaining time in TN.

As is typical for me, I read through the lesson for the first time just a few minutes ago (hey - at least I didn't wait until the ride tomorrow). I really wish I'd read through earlier though. I dunno. I guess I was expecting the teacher book to be like the ones for children - they've got lots of activity possibilities all laid out for you. The material I used to use even had activity books with stuff to punch out and color for the kids, so I didn't even have to scrounge up paper most of the time.

This has one activitity. It involves writing on a piece of paper or chalk/white board. Let me tell you how exciting and discussion-provoking I find this activity to be. Hmm...

Anyway...so I was reading in the prepatory stuff at the beginning of the leader's guide and came across a section entitled "Elements of Bible Teaching." It's a half of a page, so I guess the elements are pretty self-explanatory. But in the middle of this section, the following sentence caught my eye: "For the Holy Spirit to transform lives, participants must experience all [seven] elements [of Bible teaching] before, during, and/or after the session." Now, I'm taking this sentence out of its context, and the ending ("before, during, and/or after") does leave it open for a pretty big time span...but the implication of the sentence is plain - the Holy Spirit _CAN_NOT_ transform someone's life unless that person experiences a bulleted list of things.

This seems to bring up two things in my mind. 1) The pride of the author in having the confidence to make such a statement about the nature of God, and 2) the limitations we allow ourselves and others to put on the power of God.

Why _must_ the Holy Spirit jump through these man-made hoops in order to transform someone's life?

And I'm not saying that these elements of Bible teaching are bad things. They're all good things...but it's still humans telling God what He can't do. That's pretty silly, imo anyway.

So...I'll tell you how it goes tomorrow. In the two weeks that I've been attending this class, there has yet to be a repeat attender other than myself and the people who were teaching the class. Granted, that's partially because occasionally they split the men and women, but still....other than the teachers, it's been completely different people for me every time.

Might explain why they asked _me_ to teach.

Dinner with Friends

I just got back from dinner with one old and several new friends of mine. The "old" friend was a guy named Scot who was on the SWBTS team that got to Kuwait just a few weeks after I did, and then followed me to Baghdad. They were on the field with me for the first several months of my term, so the whole lot of us got pretty close. The new friends were a girl (Delia) who is going to Amman over Christmas, a girl (Leah) who may go to Amman next May, and Scot's girlfriend Katie.

We had a really great time talking about our various experiences. The girls obviously wanted to know what Amman was like to know how to pack, etc., but we also just had a good time talking about things in general. They've invited me to hang out with them some, so yay! I have friends now! :)

Wow...how much of a loser do I sound like right now? ;p

Also, while I'm thinking of friends, y'all be thinking of my friend from WarEagle days Tom (or more appropriately, his wife whose name I've forgotten). She's due any day now, but if the baby doesn't come before Saturday, Tom can't go to the Army/Navy game with Terron and possibly Jason (both also from WarEagle).

I'm sure they'd like to have the baby sooner rather than later for other reasons as well, but that's as good a reason as any.

So...since I now know _lots_ more Army folk than Navy/Marine personnel....Go Army, Beat Navy.

But Bryan O'C, if you happen across this, that was really a typo. I meant it the other way around. Please still tell the NASA people nice things about me when I ask you to! Remember - your own son is Army Reserves. Eh...what am I worried about? Insulting you at my interview got me a job. Go Army!

Great-Uncle George

Today I went with my dad to the funeral of my Great-Uncle George. Uncle George was the husband of my dad's mom's sister. He'd apparently been suffering from Alzheimer's for some time now, so this was not unexpected.

I discovered when I saw Uncle George that I _had_ seen him at some point previously in my life, although I couldn't tell you when or where. I vaguely remembered the faces of some of my dad's cousins, but apparently they all knew about me and my trip overseas, so Daddy wanted me to come along 1) to have some "quality" time with me, and 2) so that they could see that I was safe, etc.

I learned a lot about Uncle George today. He had been awarded the "Silver Beaver" which is the highest level of Scoutmaster in Boy Scouts. Both of my brothers were scouts, taking after my dad who was a scout. Apparently Uncle George got Daddy into it. My younger brother, Toby, and my dad have been teaching at a scout camp here in TN the past few years with a boy named Danny. We learned today that Danny was a grand-nephew of Uncle George as well, but on George's side instead of Elenor's (my grandmother's sister). My dad was impressed with this show of Uncle George's legacy as a scout - grand-nephews on both sides of his family were continuing the tradition of scouting without even knowing that they were related.

I was impressed with his service record. Uncle George apparently signed up for the Air Force in 1941 - just in time for WWII. No one among those I was talking to (my dad and his cousin Jerry) knew what he did in WWII. And apparently, after his term of service was over, he got out and worked elsewhere....until the Korean War started. Then he re-enlisted (!!!) and served as a navigator on 32 flights into Korea from where he was stationed in Japan.

So Great-Uncle George, I wish I'd been able to know you. You sound like you were a really cool guy. But in any case, we here at "Common Sense" salute you.