go sap | part 1

in honor of valentine’s day in less than a week, i decided to do a series of sappy email/chats that g and i had when we first started dating in 2006. now you can see how random and crazy i used to be (wait… still am?) but i promise, i’m not this crazy anymore (g might beg to differ).

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this particular one i find awesome because it’s the first time i showed g a pic of baby oink. i find my comments on how “big” he’ll get particularly hilarious:

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now, the above was just a tiny snippet of all the random, short sentenced emails i used to send g. please note that i was also getting used to gmail as i had just created the account and was apparently very “confused” by it all. below, i think g is trying to nicely tell me to stop emailing him so much and use the gchat function. obviously, i ignored him.

kink bday | part 2

my lovely katherine turned 16 (*ahem* + 10) yesterday. and although i wasn’t partying it up with her in austin, i know that a ton of other people who love her (just a little less than i do) were – which makes me happy. i’m looking forward to our planned brunch in february for some quality birthday fun just for her.

our friendship started in 2003 as innocent little email pen pals. we’d trade stories about life, boys, school and send each other pictures of ourselves drinking starbucks so it would be like we were drinking it together. and now, 8 years later, i have to say we’re still pretty cheesy and still talk about life, boy(friends), and our time together at school. the big difference – there’s a depth to our friendship that i wouldn’t trade for the world – the kind that can only be made with time. there’s no tip-toeing around the real issues. it’s honest-to-god true friendship… and to quote katherine… “After 8 years and counting, life is so much better with you in it. ♥”

i really can’t express how much i love you. i appreciate your quirks, even the ones that annoy me (like talking about babies/giving birth). I admire your strengths and the way you strive to continuously better yourself. i respect your opinions and thoughts. you’re my go-to girl. and with that role, you sometimes are forced by me to carry the burden of my problems. but i’ve never seen resentment or anger from you for that. ♥ i also love you for being weird with me. making squeaky noises instead of talking (i think we can have an entire conversation like that). flailing our arms around like we’re going mad. squid. etc. etc. etc. :]

i can’t thank you enough for always sticking by me. this post isn’t as eloquent as i hoped… but you are the writer in this relationship. :] i love you and happy birthday.

i need to find older pictures of us together later… these are from 2005 – present.

attn: worship leaders

i think some of the things that bother me about church (other than the people – that’s number one) is the routine and how predictable the services are. each church usually has it’s own little thing going on, but one of the major consistencies i’ve found across these “modern” churches are the worship leaders and how they put on a show for their ‘audience’…

1. why do you have to change your voice to be so breathy? i know that’s not your normal voice.
2. when you pray, do you realize you’re just being overly dramatic?
3. why do you stick so many long pauses in your prayer? is it because you didn’t rehearse it enough beforehand? this might go with question number two in being overly dramatic.

here is an example of the worship leader’s prayer:

(in a breathy voice with random voice inflections)
“oh dear and mighty god…
(long pause)
we come to you broken…
(long pause/start strumming the guitar)
and humbled by your awesome and glorious presence.
(long pause)
thank you…
(long pause)
thank you so much for your amazing love. thank you…
(long pause/emphasized strumming on guitar)
for your mercy and grace.
(long pause)
[insert something specific to the sermon of the day]
(long pause)
[insert something to close out the prayer - along the lines of "watch over us this week", "we put our trust in you", usually also tying in to the sermon of the day]
let us go forth and praise you…
(long pause)
amen.
(start playing a song from the guitar)

anyway, sorry if i insulted you, but come on. you know that’s all an act. BE REAL.

multi-task

PLEASE. DO NOT TEXT AND DRIVE!

that’s all.

nomination

i’m actually quite excited that the king’s speech starring colin firth and geoffrey rush got nominated for so many oscars. the more i think back on it, the more i like it. with all the crap out there nowadays, it takes a moment to appreciate true acting talent sometimes.

it’s also amusing to see geoffrey rush not have a pirate tone to his voice. :]

security

every sunday i participate with millions of other people in reading the postsecret blog, where people can send their secrets anonymously on a postcard. i don’t usually connect with any, but this one made me smile inside.

this is how i feel whenever people say ‘god has a plan’ or ‘trust in god, he knows what he’s doing’ or like the postcard, ‘everything happens for a reason’. i admit that i’ve said these things before, but thinking back… they’re just empty words of encouragement. they’re cop outs to delving deeper into the situation… into connecting on a personal level. in some cases, i know that these words are comforting because, well, you just don’t want to take responsibility for anything or don’t want somebody you know/love to take responsibility. it’s god’s responsibility, it’s out of your hands, right? i guess so, but eventually… what are you going to do about it?

honestly, in the big picture, i do think things happen for a reason – but this just might be my perception and how i react to the challenges set before me. i want to use those opportunities to teach myself something, or at least better myself in some way. but sometimes saying that to somebody in pain is not always the best thing. sometimes, you need to put aside your own agenda. faith is a funny thing. for a lot of christians, it’s the only thing that matters. god is the number one priority. i understand that. i get it. i can even respect it. been there, done that. but sometimes, it’s just exhausting for the other person. and all i see is the hypocrisy of it all. it’s blinding.

anyways, don’t take these words to heart. i’m just recording down my thoughts. it’s nice to see how your ideas change year after year.

positivity

a positive work environment really makes all the difference. thank goodness.

fellowship

today we received an email regarding sujal. the uganda village project has put together a fellowship in his honor. to check it out (or if you want to apply) click here.

randomly i’ll find myself thinking about sujal. even though i wasn’t close with him, it still saddens me to have the world lose someone who was trying to better it.

<3

http://www.globalhealth.umich.edu/sujalparikh.html

in the middle

here are some things i’m in the middle of doing

• looking for a bookshelf for the house + other organizational elements
• watching how i met your mother, entourage, scrubs
• reading several books including handle with care (jodi picoult), eat pray love (elizabeth gilbert), the brand you50 (tom peters) and crazy love (francis chen)
• exercising
• eating better

i’m sure there are more, but as i was thinking… there are a lot of things i’ll start and then i won’t finish. the books i think are understandable… but i would still like to finish all of them eventually. these aren’t crazy goals, but i hope to get them all done in 2011. haHA!

warm poo > cold

is it gross that it was so cold this morning that when i picked up oink’s warm poop, it felt good?