i like this:

Off-guard

So, the coffee shop where I work is in the Medford Center.  Which is adjacent to Hawthorne Park.  The Medford Center can be a little bit sketchy at times.  We’ve had broken windows, verbal assault, and transients passing through asking for change and cigarettes.

Perhaps I shouldn’t post this online, but nearly everyone at my work is a female.  And we mostly work alone.  Being a small girl and walking to my car alone at night can sometimes be a little nerve-racking.  (In all fairness and accuracy, there is always a security guard who is more than willing to walk us to our car.  But I like to think of myself as fearless.)

Well, last night was a particularly empty night at the Medford Center.  Particularly dark, too.  No cars scrambling for the closest parking spot.  No movie-goers hurrying to the next showing.   Just calm and quiet and dark.

As I rounded the corner that led to the parking lot, I could make out two male figures approaching me.  I started to get a little nervous.  I recognized one of the men.  I sometimes see him wading knee-deep in the decorative pond in front of Tinsletown – fishing for beer money.  He’s always drunk and sometimes his buttcrack shows.  So when I realize that it’s him, I get way more nervous.  I look around, but there was no one to come to my rescue if this guy were to try anything.  “Okay,” I thought, “Remember what mom taught us: If you carry yourself like a victim, you might end up as one.  Just keep your head up, look confident, look him straight in the eye.”

So I did.

He smiled and said,                                                                                                                  “God bless you.”

The Media in Relation to Consumer Confidence

I was watching the news today and it’s really negative stuff.  No wonder people don’t want to buy anything and our economy is going to crap.  The media is scaring them to death.  Let’s stop being Debby Downers and Negative Nancys.

My favorite part:

“Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.“

-Dr. Joseph Lowery

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Amen, amen, and amen.

Resolutions?

I don’t really like to make New Year’s resolutions because  I rarely keep them.  Yesterday was the first day of the year and I spent a good majority of it at home, in my pajamas, un-showered.  I took two naps and ate fast food for dinner and fudge for dessert.

2008 was a really good year.  I moved out and learned to be independent.  I met a lot of new friends.  My relationship with Will is better than it has ever been, and we even got engaged!  I’ve learned to be more honest.  I did a lot more maturing this year than my New Year’s  resolutions could have ever allowed for.  I couldn’t have planned this out.

The goals I have in my life right now are:  Read more.  Save more money.  Only buy clothes that I really love.  Stop getting annoyed easily.  Put more thought into the food I put in my body.  Get better at returning phone calls/emails.  Say “yes” more often.  Get married to the boy that I love (and have a lot of sex.)

We are, We are, the youth of the nation

I was just getting ready to write a new blog post when I saw that my friend, Abby, chastised me publicly for not updating often enough.  I know, I am no good at this blog.

In response to Abby, Sam, and Donnie’s blogs: I think the big question is “What constitues a hipster?”  I have 2 friends that consider me, Eric, Ashley, Bruk, Kala, Markie and Abby all hipsters.

• Boys wear the tight-ish pants with a vintage plaid button up and cardigan.  Add a beard and a guitar for bonus indie-folk cred.
• Girls wear leggings, dresses, scarves, pendant necklaces, and bangs.  Cowboy boots and touseled hair are powerful weapons in our arsenal.
• We all profess our love for art and music (especially if it’s Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Jenny Lewis, or Josh Groban.)
• Sarcasm abounds.
• Some of us like to revel in the exclusivity we exude when we refer to inside jokes in public settings.
• We’re very adamant that we aren’t hipsters, and write blogs about hipsterdom as if we’re examining some foreign subculture from a distance.

bonus!

The best  part about being sick is getting to stay in bed all day and watch movies.

And not feel guilty about it.

gypsies

My fiance is moving to Portland in 3 weeks.  The first 6 months he’s there he will be living rent-free on couches, floors, and guest beds.  He’ll be staying in sleeping bags and garages – living out of suitcases and boxes.  Such is the life of a gypsy.

It’s sure to be uncomfortable – the lack of stability and privacy and all that; sharing spaces with people he doesn’t know; accepting the hospitality and generosity of others (that would be the hardest part for me); being away from his family and fiance; learning a new job; finding a new church; making new friends.

We’ve always prayed that we would be adventurers.  That God would stretch us an make us uncomfortable.  That we wouldn’t get stagnant in our jobs or where we live.  We want to be easily adaptable.  I want to be able to find a sense of “home” wherever I am and whoever I’m living with.

I have the propensity to dislike change, but I think God is shaking that up.

——

Wanderers this morning came by
Where did they go
Graceful in the morning light
To banner fair
To follow you softly
In the cold mountain air

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I haven’t really updated in a while, but a ton has gone on:

• I’ve gotten settled into my new house in Talent.  It’s pretty rock-and-roll.  The girls that I live with are all really cool.  Julie is a journalist for a local newspaper and is also a self-proclaimed cheapskate.  We have lots of good conversations at the kitchen table.  Sara is a pretty busy lady but manages to keep in contact with her friends and family.  Sera is a photographer and youth leader in her church.  High school kids and her dog, Haley, love her.  She likes to try weird food (like shark!)
• We are actually looking for a new female roommate because Sara is moving in a month.  You wanna move in?
• We’ve been getting maple bugs on the outside of our house.  On a cuteness scale, I equate them with ladybugs.
• The warm fall wind blows right in my window at night.  I enjoy wind on my face at night.
• My power cord for my computer is not working.  So, my interwebz are out of commission for a while.
• I’ve been feeling very un-interesting lately.  I haven’t been reading or making art.  I haven’t been writing much.  I’ve been very undisciplined in the areas of eating well and exercising.  I spend a lot of my free time sleeping or thinking about how much I have to get done, but not actually doing any of it.  I think maybe it’s the weather?
• I love my friend, Abby, a lot.  She is so witty.  Listen to a couple of sentence that she wrote in her blog the other day (in reference to crying at the dentist,) “They look at me like I’m crazy when I cry in the chair.  Well sorry but the fact that you’re grinding my tooth away and I’m smelling my tooth smoke is a little scary, ok? “
• TOOTH SMOKE = a masterful stroke in writing brilliance.
• I am engaged to the sweetest, most steadfast boy in the world.  We have so much fun together; we laugh till our temples hurt.  We take good care of each other.  Man, I love him a lot.  We will be married on May 30, 2009.

Check out this Hottie

My Robin Hood Single Speed English bike <3