Being Grateful

I heard a sermon this past weekend on what it means to be grateful. Honestly, I don't remember exactly what the pastor said, but it got me thinking about what I am grateful for. I can get so caught up in so much else, that I often forget. So, I began to think about it in church and started to cry. I've been thinking a lot about it since and decided I needed to write a list. So, this is my abridged list, because today, I could go on forever and ever...

Jesus and his gift of free Life
God's unending forgiveness and sovereignty
The ability to pray freely and be heard unconditionally
That my parents are alive (two of them were caught in the Joplin tornado in May)
A loving family
Three wonderful parents
Mary and her powerful and unending prayers
Josh and his physical, emotional, and spiritual protection over me
Jackie and her unconditional truth, grace, and love
Julie and her pioneer ministry and determination to declare the Gospel with her life
Amazing friendships that transcend time and proximity
My family in Christ
A place to live and enough money to survive
Political and spiritual freedom
Those who have served to protect this country at all times, especially the last decade
Time to think today about what I am grateful for
People who have interest in possibly wanting to hire me
Sunshine, mountains, flowers, and a beautiful city
A place where I can fully relax
Books and my passion for reading
My education and training to write well
Getting to share my heart and thoughts with you through this blog
People willing and wanting to read my blog (Thanks!)
Music
Art
Intellect
Strength and weaknesses
Desire to live a legacy
My life, God's protection, and God's provision
Ability to see what God has saved me from and what He's saving me for

There's so much more, but for the sake of time and space, I'll leave it at this... for now...

An Average Day in the Life of an Unemployed

Have you seen Tangled? The Disney movie about Rapunzel?? Remember the beginning scene??? Well, If you don't remember or haven't seen the movie you should go watch it. Right now. But in case time and life does not allow for that, I have included a video of that scene below. And have you read my thoughts about how that movie applies to my life? If you haven't, you can read them here. But I digress.

I am currently unemployed and looking for a job. I've only been in this situation for a little over a month, but it has felt like forever. Mainly because an average day in my life is much like that scene in Tangled. So, I invite you to step into my life for a moment to enlighten yourself about the average day in the life of the unemployed Amie Lou...

1) I wake up whenever I happen to rouse into consciousness (and depending on how late I was chatting with my roommates the night before, that could really be any time from 7am-10am).

2) Then I groggily look at the apps on my phone to read the Bible verses of the day and say a prayer for my sanity and productivity.

3) I mosey up the stairs to start brewing my coffee and while waiting, check my email on my phone to see if anyone sent me an email offering me a job during the course of the night. So far, no one has. But I look expectantly every morning anyway.

4) I drink my coffee and peruse Twitter for any life updates or breaking news in the world. And I am always amazed at how much I can learn from 160 characters.

5) Then, I search my routine job sites and find that only 8 jobs had been posted since I checked it the day before. And I am usually not qualified for any of them.

6,7,8,9,10,11,12,etc.....) So, then I usually make my bed 3 or 4 times, browse facebook for a while, read a book or two, paint my toenails, do Zumba, vacuum the floor, wash all the dishes in the kitchen (clean and dirty), look down at my toes, decide to re-paint my nails, clean the bathroom, re-organize my closet, search for jobs again and find no new postings, watch a movie, knit a sweater, check my email hoping for a job offer, stare at the wall and wonder why it's painted such a weird color, daydream about better colors to paint the walls if the landlord would let us, look down at my toes and decided that if I can't repaint the walls I'll re-paint my toes (again), watch YouTube videos like a 'bauss' (that's for you Josh), search for jobs again and still find no new postings, check my LinkedIn profile to see how many possible employers may have looked at my page, be disappointed that no one who may want to hire me has viewed it, bake muffins to cheer me up, eat muffins realizing lunch was hours ago, browse facebook again to see what my friends are doing around the world, check my email again hoping for an interview, go the gym and literally have my butt kicked in the exercise class, lay on the floor as the muscles in my body explode, see my toes and decided to re-paint them (yet again), search for jobs again and not find anything worth applying for, re-wash all the dishes, bleach the sink, clean the bathroom again, take a shower, shampoo the carpets (that one's for you Dad. Are you paying attention? ;)), light a candle and watch the flame dance, read how to make candles, realize I would have to leave the house to get candle-making supplies, decide it's not worth it, re-paint my toenails instead, make an elaborate dinner with whatever I find in laying around, search for jobs again, find nothing was posted since I last checked, hear my roommates come home, talk and giggle with them about how I entertained myself that day, check my email hoping for anything, get ready for bed, browse facebook one last time, and then I brush and brush and brush and brush my hair and wonder when will I get a job.... (Okay, maybe I only brush it once or twice, but watch the video for a frame of reference)

Everyone has been telling me to enjoy this time while I have it, but painting my toenails 5 or 6 times a day is wearing me down. It wasn't so bad before school started and all my roommates were home with me all day, but it's kind of boring being the basement bum all by myself. Hopefully I will be able to write a post soon about the average day in life of Amie Lou's job.... Ahhhhhh.... That would be nice :)

And for a full reenactment of my average day, check out this video. It's amazingly accurate...

*I don't know what country this video came from, but it's great quality and still sung in English. Enjoy. And when you can, watch the full movie. Or maybe I'll watch it for you today :)

The Dog Days of September

My roommate and her boyfriend went to St. George with his family for Labor Day weekend, so the rest of us get to puppy-sit Nick's adorable canine, LeLu. Yesterday I went to the neighborhood Starbucks with a friend. Because this neighborhood is so dog-friendly, I decided to bring LeLu to hang out with us over coffee.

Because she is still a puppy, LeLu was very excited and wanted to meet everyone sitting on the patio at Starbucks. Then she whined for a while because there was another dog that didn't want to play with her, and then she was whining because the birds were singing, but then she calmed down and slept at my feet for a while in the sunshine. Then on the way home, she couldn't see out the windows of my car, so she decided to get a better seat.

Oh, what it would be like to live as a dog. According to LeLu, it's quite the life...

 

 

The Nightmares of an Insomniac

After seeing a movie and going for late-night food at a diner, my roommates and myself decided to talk until after 2am and share fun things we had found on the internet. Because our lower-level cave is significantly cooler than the main floor, we all sat in a row on the futon in our basement living room. We were excitedly discussing cakes and frosting when we all saw a creepy, long-legged thing (literally) run across the floor in front of us. Following the shrill screams from me and Jackie, we pleaded with Morgan (the self-appointed and fearless live-in spider killer) to kill it. Her complacency toward the situation just made things worse. Probably due to my ghost-white complexion and look of sheer terror, Morgan eventually caved and went hunting with my tennis shoe. But, to no avail. The creature sufficiently hid itself underneath our plethora of DVD's.

It took Jackie a while to calm me down. It helped to know that while venomous, these nasty creatures commonly called the House Centipede cannot penetrate human skin and primarily hunt spiders and other pesky insects. And they only come out at night. But it didn't help make me less paranoid. Jackie continued to spout the virtues of this insect until she ascended the stairs to go to bed and leave me in the basement, alone, with the hidden creature. I talked myself down off of my irrational cliff as I walked into my bathroom until I switched on the light and saw a big, black spider perched right in front of the toilet. That's when I realized that my irrational fear was in fact rational: bugs (both malignant and benign) are everywhere. 

So, here I am, after 3am, sitting on my bed, paranoid that I will see another creature of abnormal speed and proportions (for the record, I did kill the spider in the bathroom, thanks to the emotional support and encouragement from Jackie). How can I have creepy-crawly nightmares when I have yet to fall asleep?? And how can I fall asleep when I am having creepy-crawly nightmares?? I feel this is a vicious cycle. Moral of the story is that no matter how much I love talking to my wonderful roommates, I have to be in bed before midnight so I don't witness the nocturnal creepy-crawling of creatures doing their nightly rounds. 

*PS, I thought about attaching a photo of the bug I saw, but that meant that I would have to look at one, and I wasn't about to put myself through that kind of stress again right now. But if you are really that curious, just Google "House Centipede," and make sure you do it long before bedtime!

On a lighter note, one of the discoveries we made before getting interrupted by bugs is that Costco.com is selling a one-of-a-kind, internally flawless, clearly colorless, 6.2 carat diamond solitaire for 1 million dollars. Say What??!?!?? Yeah, that's right. (For those unfamiliar with this talk, I'm pretty sure a 6 carat stone would be much bigger than my finger!!) Talk about a rock!!! The (un)lucky recipient of that ring will have to do arm workouts for months before preparing her hand to flaunt that chunk of ice. Check out the crazy ring here. But good news; you'd save half a million dollars by buying it through Costco!

Sex on the Moon: A Book I Recommend

Before you think anything, it's not what you think. The book, Sex on the Moon by Ben Mezrich, is only 2% sex and 98% moon. But in our culture sex sells, and thus the title.

The book is the real-life narrative about Thad Roberts, the NASA intern who stole the moon. The story recounts Thad's life of overcoming familial and age-based obstacles to achieve his dream of working at NASA in hopes of being the first man to walk on Mars. Through reinventing his persona as as an audacious, reckless, and fearless co-op (NASA's name for the interns in their 3-year program), he impresses his peers by "breaking into" the space shuttle simulator and taking it for a spin. In the midst of getting high esteem from his professors, admiration and respect from his peers, and the silent treatment from his wife, who decided to stay behind in Utah, he was introduced to Dr. Everett Gibson and the Lunar Lab. After seeing some rock samples that were taken from the moon and the way Dr. Gibson talked about them as if they were trash, Thad began to fantasize what it might look like to "rescue them" and give the used lunar samples the respect and value they deserved. While mentally devising imaginary ways he could steal the samples, he involved Rebecca: his mistress and fellow co-op, Sandra: a flirty but platonic co-op, and Gordon: a guy he randomly met at the University of Utah, in his imaginary plan that quickly evolved into reality.

Meanwhile, Axel Emmerman, a Belgian rock collector, decides the email he got inquiring interest in buying Moon Rocks was not just a big joke, like the rest of his comrades in the small Belgian town of Antwerp. So, against the wishes of his wife, he got involved, contacted the FBI, and became his imagined super-hero, saving the world from a maniac criminal.

I really enjoyed this book. It has action, suspense, and I even learned a lot about science. It kept me captivated through every page as the story and history of Thad Roberts was built-up and as the heist took place. I won't spoil it for you, but instead, I encourage you to read the book about the "most audacious heist in history" for yourself. Plus the book is written by the same person who wrote The Accidental Billionaires which became the the Academy Award-Winning movie The Social Network. Based on his writing style and superior story-telling, this and the other works of Ben Mezrich's are now on my reading list.

I give Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History a 4.5 out of 5 stars. The missing half star is because the resolution, following the amazing and spell-binding climax (which is only the final 7% of the book according to my Kindle), is such an extreme fall from the heart-pounding previous pages. The book came to a full-circle ending, which I liked, but it was hard to keep my attention to get there. However, the remaining 93% of the book is well-worth it. The story is so well-written, detailed, and unlikely, that I had to remind myself it was true. And it seemed like I read half of the book within minutes, because the action flowed seamlessly, and my anticipation followed.

All in all, I highly recommend Sex on the Moon. And I'll let you figure out for yourself the clever way the aforementioned 2% fits into this true story.

The Mysterious Muffin Man Strikes Again!

The house was hushed in the early morning hours as dawn began to break, and the oven was set to 400 degrees. Flour and sugar dotted the counter as the faint scrape of the spoon against the glass bowl echoed through the kitchen. An hour and a half later, a variety of muffins were set on the table as they cooled. There could only be one explanation... THE MYSTERIOUS MUFFIN MAN STRUCK AGAIN!

For two of my roommates, today is the last first day of school. For one of my roommates, today is the first day of first grade (in case you're wondering, today is her first day as a student teacher). And because I am the bum in the basement who is unemployed and looking for a job, I wanted to serve my roommates and make them breakfast. But breakfast got a bit carried away and turned into three batches of mucho mouthwatering muffins! And the best part was that I uniquely invented each one. I loosely based the ingredients on my dad's muffin recipe that he stored in his head (until I asked him to write it down for me, and even that was pretty vague), and they came out pretty great! I used creative ingredients like packets of flavored instant oatmeal, Grape Nuts cereal, Craisins, and frozen berries. And they got rave reviews! If I still can't find a job that fits, maybe I can be a baker... Alas, if only I lived on Drury Lane...

Triple Berry Muffins, Apple Cinnamon Muffins, and Secret Muffins :)

You Know You're out of Shape When...

...You spend two hours on a Saturday watching your boyfriend load up his stuff onto a cart, wheel it out to your car, load it into your car, drive two blocks to his new apartment, you finally help to carry it up one flight of stairs, and you consider all that enough of a workout for the whole week. This happened the Saturday before last.

After evaluating my physical condition and mentality about the whole moving situation, I came to the conclusion that I am pathetic, and may be suffering a bit (or a lot) from laziness. So, to combat these diseases, I renewed my membership at the local gym (and by local, I mean it's literally next to my house. If I tried to drive, it would take 15 times longer to drive around the block, into the parking lot, and walk around to the other side of the building, which is in the direction of my house). I have been every day for the last four days, and I feel that my body is in the process of spontaneous combustion. My muscles are on fire!! But practice makes perfect, which doesn't really fit here, but I keep telling myself that anyway, and I've somehow stayed motivated. So hopefully by this time next week, I'll be in the swing of things and won't hurt so bad.

(You also know you're out of shape when you go to write a blog about being out of shape and you realize it's been a month since you last posted.... The adventures in my life lately have felt less than average, so I will do my best to have a more exciting life so I can write about it more often.)