lower case g
Saturday, October 04, 2008
so much truth...
courtesy of phdcomics.com
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
23... and teethingi woke up this morning with a strange surprise... my wisdom teeth decided to continue their ascent into my mouth. not really what i expected on the day after my birthday. also, i understand why two year olds are cranky... this really hurts!!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
the decision i never thought i'd makei will be at this place next year
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
sometimes you realize...... that your ability to communicate in another language has some serious limitations...
and i realized this about 2 weeks ago at my first (and perhaps only) attempt to get a 2 dollar hair-cut in a foreign country. the adventure of my honduran haircut started off very well. i went in and effectively communicated that i needed a haircut. the nice women in the store lead me to a chair and parted my hair squarely down the middle. then she asked me if i wanted layers or a strait cut... again, we effectively communicated that i would like layers. although she did insist on giving me three layers. now i am not a hair officianado so i really have absolutely no idea what this meant... so i just said "si" and we continued on with the cutting of the hair. next she asked how much i would like off... holding her fingers about a half an inch apart i showed her mine with about 2 inches apart... and the cutting began.
it started out ok, but slowly oh so slowly (as the entire town passed the window to stop and marvel at the white girl getting her hair cut... not a normal thing i'm assuming) i realized that my honduran haircut which had begun so well was starting to turn into gayle's honduran mullet. not wanting to offend, and also not knowing the honduran word for mullet... so as to use in a sentence like... "what are you doing!? you are giving me a mullet! stop!!!" i let the haircut proceed... with one interruption so that i could let my haircutter know that not being able to pull my hair back was NOT ok!
finally it finished... my two dollar honduran mullet was complete... and much of my hair was on the ground.
but two weeks out... my hair is slowly growing back, as i knew it would... i think i am less saddened by how it looks and more missing the functionability of having my hair so long i can pull it back in many different ways... but oh well.. it is just hair and it was kind of fun.
oh and much thanks must go out to amanda who saved my hair from remaining in a mullet like state. she did a very nice job of fixing some of the major problems (like a back layer of hair that went to my mid back while the front layer was about ear length.
the back of my newly short hair...
the place at which it the whole event took place
Monday, April 14, 2008
travel logs...coming soon will be many blogs about my wonderful trip to visit amanda (including the story of my rather unfortunate honduran mullet experience) but first... my adventure to get home...
tuesday:
last week tuesday my adventure began with a 2 hour bus ride + 15 min. taxi ride from siguatepeque, hn to san pedro sula, hn (these rides were filled with sadness as it meant leaving amanda and honduras behind :( but on a possitive note, the bus ride was filled with spectacular views of a beautiful countryside) (guessing... 90 miles 144 km of travel)
still on tuesday... i have the wonderful privilege of exploring the san pedro sula airport for 8 hours. wherein i meet a couple from southern ontario; a family from santa fe, new mexico; a singer song-writer from nashville, tennessee who gave me a free cd; a guy from new york, new york who used to date a dutch girl who looked just like me; and a guy from florida whose time in honduras was less than fantastic. i also found out that the san pedro airport has free wi-fi (something a few american and canadian airports could learn from!), rather confusing boarding procedures, and that needing to go to the bathroom allows you to cut in line when everyone else is waiting to get their bags checked for a second time (i discovered this accidentally... and felt bad about cutting... but i did really have to pee!)wednesday:
leave san pedro at 2:00 am, fly to ft. lauderdale (895 miles 1440 km)
land in ft. lauderdale at 5:45 and go through customs after 30 mins of sleep (yikes!)
meet my parents who were in ft. lauderdale for the week (very strange! but also very wonderful!)
take a nap!
go out to lunch with my parents and grandparents (also in florida for the week)
go back to the airport at 6 pm, have coffee (which is much needed at this point)
leave ft. lauderdale at 8:10 pm, fly to chicago o'hare (1,374 mi, 2,211 km)
land in chicago at 10:30 and meet erin bridgewater! (smiles!!!)
go to erin's home (12 mi, 19 km)
SLEEP!!!!
thursday:
my time with erin was sadly short because she had to work at 8:30 in the morning (which also meant that my sleep was sadly short)
so... i took the metra (chicago's commuter trains) to downtown (13 mi, 23 km)
transfered trains and took another train out of the city to wheaton (26 mi, 42 km)
had lunch with derek and wondered around wheaton looking for dr. haas and dr. bowald who were there for a conference... but sadly our searching was in vain and we did not find them... although we did find some very discounted books which i had to resist buying!
derek dropped me off at wheaton's metra station where a garbled message told me that police activity on the tracks meant all the trains would be delayed... at this point i was a bit nervous that i would not get back into the city in time to catch my train home... thankfully a train that was running very behind schedule (it was supposed to be there at 12:57) showed up at 2:30 and so i took it back into the city (26 mi, 42 km)
took a taxi because it was raining so hard (3 blocks) from the ogilvie transportation center to union station
5:20 pm boarded an amtrak train to holland, mi (150 mi, 242 km)
10:30 pm arrive at HOME!!! and SLEEP!!!
friday:
wake up at 9 am and get ready to leave home again.
drive to hamilton, on... completing my three days, three countries tour (338 mi, 544 km)
go to the redeemer concert choir's 25 years 25 anthems concert (:D:D)
saturday:
go to aylmer, on for melissa kuiper's birthday party! (77 mi, 124 km)
go 5-pin bowling! *which has nothing to do with traveling but it was my first time 5 pin bowling... it is definitely not my calling
drive back to hamilton (77 mi, 124 km)
sunday:
drive from hamilton, on back to zeeland, mi (338 mi, 544 km)
arrive home at 8:30
go to bed at 9:30.... sleep for 13 hours
thus ends my week of travel and adventures, i have traveled by bus, plane, train, and car as well as using my feet for a large portion of the week...
i have traveled 3,416 miles, 5,499 km and enjoyed every minute of it... particularly the parts where i got to see old friends :) now i am happily in my home in zeeland, where i plane to stay all day long!
Monday, February 11, 2008
happy birthday
to my dad...
Friday, February 01, 2008
BOOKS!i've been tagged by dave beldman with the following rules to follow:
Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.
i had a really hard time figuring out the nearest book to me. right now i count at least 17 books within a foot of me (i think i need to start usuing my bookshelves... or making sure that on the days i write studies for church that i put the books away as a i work :S) but i decided to pick up
The Jewish Reclamation of Jesus: An Analysis and Critique of the Modern Jewish Study of Jesus by Donald A. Hagner (a book that has been very helpful for me in my present work!)
pg. 123, 5 sentences in " No other passage in the New Testament is cited by Jewish writers more frequently and with more satisfaction in the Jewish reclamation of Jesus than Matthew 5:17-20. The argument is that if Jesus spoke the words recorded in these verses, he cannot be regarded as breaking with the Law in the way that has been described above. Jesus speaks in no uncertain terms of the permanency of the Law: he has not come to abolish the Law; neither an iota nor a dot will pass from it; the one who relaxes even the least of these commandments, teaching this to others, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, whereas the one who keeps and teaches them will be called great."
Monday, January 28, 2008
proof that no matter where i go...i will never escape the tendency to burn myself
michigan burn count: 2 (run in with the toaster oven and a cup of boiling water for tea which i spilled on myself at work)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
this zeeland life: part 4...the expedition through zeelandstep 1 of expedition: getting ready to brave the snow....
my time in seattle gave me a new appreciation for snow. even though i still want spring to come tomorrow, i missed seeing the world made white... my time in seattle also taught me the valuable lesson of layering...
my brother helped me record the first layer that would protect me from frostbite
fleece and finally ready to go!
step 2 of expedition: go outside into the snow storm
chris came too!!!
step 3 of expedition: take in the immediate surroundings
our mailbox from whence fun things sometimes come (insert shameless plug for sending me mail here) and our house... looking very wintery!
step 4 of expedition: go somewhere... in this case... 1 kilometer to downtown zeeland
entering downtown...
the zeeland clocks
and sadly...
the new zeeland branding campain
(zeeland has started a new campain to get people to come visit... "feel the zeel" ?! what!? i am so embarrassed by the choice and the amount of these banners hanging around town)
more of downtown, including a stop at one of zeeland's million or so churches
step 5 of expedition: make your way back home and enjoy something warm!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
this zeeland life: part 3... civic dutythis week i exercised my civic duty... for the first time without an absentee ballot. it was fun!!! even though my candidate did not win the michigan primary.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
this zeeland life: part 2... habitat(a)step 1: find a way into the room and make a small patch of floor for myself
around dinner time (which was 4:30 because i desperately needed an excuse to get out of my room)... my room looked like this... note that the floor is showing!!!! however, the depressing part of the day was realizing that after that much work i did take a break to go out for lunch with my brother... so at least it wasn't a full 6 1/2 hours of work to get the place to this state) ... my room still looked like a horrid mess
step 2: find a place for all the things that have no place and throw away about 7 cardboard boxes which used to store all those things with no place
because of my extreme dislike of cleaning i had to make the day a little bit fun... mostly i tried to get excited when i found things that i have not seen in a long time...
amanda! i found your mit--- however, i still think that the other one is lost (not by me) to ontario forever... but if you have found the other mit in your moves... it is waiting for you in zeeland
after dinner i kept persevering... the result was that around 7 o'clock my room looked like this!
i even organized my closet! sorry there is no "before picture" as my closet had become a storing location for my family and was filled with too many things to get a "before shot"
i was extremely elated at my accomplishment. i found the floor! and i organized!!!
i was extremely elated at my accomplishment. i found the floor! and i organized!!!
yet altogether, the day left me feeling like this:
and it left me with projects for another day. for there are still a few problems in my habitat
problem 1: i own more books now then i did when i was 16 (the last time i lived in my room)... these are my bookselves... and those 3 blue bins in the picture at the beginning of this post are filled with books as well... oh and i have already brought three boxes and a backpack full to work to store there :S
problem 2: my room has become a storage space for all of the old startrek shows my family owns as well as my brother's ever growing dvd collection... my goal is to regain this wall in the next few weeks... but we'll see :)
Thursday, January 10, 2008
this zeeland life: part 1. peoplewelcome to "this zeeland life part one: people"
now that i have made the move across the country (for the 2nd time in 4 months), survived 7 parties in 7 days (christmases, new years, and birthdays), and spent over 20 hours in a car over that same 7 day/7 party period... i am back in the land of zeeland and hoping to be blogging more regularly (how many times have i said that!?) anyway... i thought i should introduce you to my new life
SO.. first and formost... introducing those with whom i spend a lot of time with these days
first... my mom (linda) ... who is addicted to tostidos (which is nice... because that means we are always stocked with salsa and chips!!!
my dad (larry)... i guess this could prove that the apple does not fall far from the tree
my brother (chris) who also likes taking self portraits with the camera... in this one i think he is trying to be serious...
the little dog... with the very little brain whose name is nemi
star--the one we call "the real dog"
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
maybe i should check my junk e-mail more oftenabout 4 years ago i stopped using hotmail as my primary e-mail account (yes i jumped on the gmail bandwagen and i have been happily riding it ever since!). anyway, i randomly check my hotmail inbox to see if i have any fun e-mails from people still using my hotmail address... today i decided to check my junk-mail...
to my suprise, i am still the recipient of holland christian high school's weekly announcements... something i signed up to get as a freshman... and have been getting every monday-friday for the past 9 years. oh my goodness... its been 9 years since i was a freshman in high school. AAHHH... anyway, i finally unsubscribed to announcement... i have lost the ability (not that i ever knew i had it) to find out what the cafeteria will be serving at good old hc.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
a prayer of kierkegaard for the dayFather in Heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget that You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment. But grant also that this conviction might discipline our soul so that our heart might remain faithful and sincere in the love which we bear to all those whom You have commanded us to love as we love ourselves.
You have loved us first, O God, alas! We speak of it in terms of history as if You have only loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing You have loved us first many things and every day and our whole life through. When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward You - You are the first - You have loved us first; if I rise at dawn and at the same second turn my soul toward You in prayer, You are there ahead of me, You have loved me first. When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul toward You, You are the first and thus forever. And yet we always speak ungratefully as if You have loved us first only once.
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