xtreme water sport

yesterday ross and i ventured up to lake buchanan for a day of kayaking. if only we'd known what lay ahead, perhaps we'd have made other plans. at any rate, we made the 100mile trip up to a resort on lake buchanan only to find that it was kinda windy for kayaking. we went up to a place 5miles down the road to investigating renting a sea doo for the day. but it was not to be, as the available sea doo was not working. so we went back to the kayaking place and decided to brave the elements. we headed out and made our way (perceived effort level 4.5) to some cliffs that i spied in the distance. about 1.5hrs later we were delighted to discover the cliffs were quite cool and there were some waterfalls there too. we got out and walked around some for a break, then rode our kayaks gleefully under the waterfall, leaning over so as not to swamp the kayak. sorry i do not have pics of this beauty, but i didnt trust my camera in the kayak. at that point, though we wanted to keep on going, we decided we ought to head back. three excruciating hours later, we pulled wearily up to shore. at times i felt as if i was paddling so hard only to drift backwards because of the wind and the current. truly, i cant think of anything that i've done that was more difficult. when we made it back to the boathouse we discovered (to my horror) that we'd just made an 8mile round trip, in some pretty adverse weather conditions. i dont even like to think of walking 8miles really, and when biking, 8miles doesnt seem so long, but kayaking is pretty much like going 8miles using only your arms. i love kayaking so much, right up next to white water rafting, but i think thats the last time for me on lake buchanan. next time i think i'll hit up a river instead. more excitement for the pain, plus you can usually catch a bus back up the river. all in all, a great time, but i was pretty much awfully sick all day today, a little sunburned, a lot fatigued, and extremely dehydrated. but hey, i made it. and it felt good.

2 weekends ago i refilled my fish tank with life once again. i bought a very pretty betta (which are only aggressive towards other bettas, supposedly, fyi), 3 tetras, a pink kissing fish, and a crab. i ditched walmart and bought these from a bonafide pet store. early this week i arrived home to discover one of my tetras missing. i was trying to figure out if the crab or the betta was to blame, when to my horror i watched the kissing fish attack and eat the other two tetras like corn on the cob in a matter of 15minutes. i was quite annoyed at this agressiveness. so, i made a trip to walmart, and bought thaddeaus jr (named after my late frog). and so the battle begins. who will win? the frog or the kissing fish? currently there is rivalry between the betta and kissing fish for the coveted spot near the filter. they face off and glare at each other and then chase each other most of the day. the frog also chases them around, and the crab just kinda chills and climbs anywhere and everywhere. i've started feeding them 3x as often as i had been previously, hoping this could alleviate further aggressiveness. but really i think of it more as brinkmanship, like the u.s. and russia during the cold war. always near death, but no one willing to take the first bite. hopefully.

camping in the hill country

last saturday i took the day to go with some pals from work to go camping at a place near leaky/kerrville/etc called lost maples. we spent the day hiking a lot, and cooked over a stove (no campfire, sad day) and basically just had a good relaxing time.







this is the mountain we hiked up, and if you look closely, you can see our tents waaaay down there.














here's everybody, hiking to our campsite.































here's ross looking all hiking geared up. we stayed at the primitive camp site, which means we had to park and then hike to our site, carrying everything we would need.



















here's veronica sporting one of 2 uber cool green light sticks that i brought along. they last for 12hrs and we used them to light our card game, and they were overall quite useful, and merely needed to be hidden in a bag when it was time to sleep.
















also you can see a leaf with a spider web on it, and the dew made water droplets, kinda cool.
















pretty much had a great time, barring the scene where i went to the giant port-a-potty late at night and there was a mouse chillin in there. not too cool. but overall, fun times, fun times.

the ipod flea

haha this is funny. i post it here for your entertainment.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5783370061401851458&pl=true

visualization of said haircut

by popular demand.

just shoot me now

ok so some lady apparently felt pity on me for not having anything to post about. and whether out of spite that has grown from a lack of updating this blog or out of sheer stupidity, this lady --my hairstylist--check that, former hairstylist, and i do use the term lightly--murdered my hair today. while i do recall multiple occasions when a haircut caused me to burst into tears as a child, it had been a long time. i do confess to shedding a tear or two today when i got home. i like to chalk it up to a tough week and venture back into the bathroom to convince myself it really wasnt all that bad. and no, it wasnt really so bad...it was worse than i'd thought. after about 4yrs of going to the same hairstylist person in midland i'd gotten to a place where i only semi-dreaded getting a haircut. it is situations such as today that i think my haircutophobia is not unfounded.

haircut lady person: yes let me just ignore what you asked for and cut your hair however the heck i feel like and while i'm doing that let me just butcher it beyond repair and pretend like i did go to school for this.

me: yeah i'm pretty sure a 2yr old with plastic scissors could have done a better job. let me just pay you for this wonderful service you have provided me...


while i'm relating stories, here's another one from today, a phone conversation:

me: um yeah, about that, i'm going to need to find out some results, can someone please call me back?
idiot, i mean, person on phone: ok what is your last name
me: josefy. j-o-s-e-(slows down)-F-y
idiot, i mean, person on phone: ok josephine. but what is your LAAAST name
me: that IS my last name. josefy. j-o-s-e-f-y. but my first name is sharon. s-h-a-r-o-n.
idiot, i mean, person on phone: ok so its sharon j-o-s-e-p....what?
me: my name is sharon josefy. j-o-s-eeee-fffffffff-yyyyyyyyyyyyy
idiot, i mean, person on phone: ok and your date of birth?

it is no small wonder to me that i have not received a call back.

a very un-post

sunflower seeds are awesome when driving
hope is a terrible thing to lose
all telemarketing calls should be banned due to the hi availability of the internet
remember when everyone had dialup modems? hahaha
old friends are like the coolest
newfound discovery in san antonio: clear springs cafe, ahhh yeah

i hope duke wins, naturally, because reddick is pretty fiiine
some people should not be allowed to drive

please tell me tony hasnt truly joined in vaughn's fate
other? or innocent balloon rider....i'm thinking other
surely you heard the brits defeated india in cricket last nite?
to have friends, be a friend
loooove it: the Northwest
everyone should be required to visit a 3rd world country sometime
so high...current fave song
stinkin awful post is finally concluded, better luck next time

what a week

last thursday was: exciting. i travelled to oregon and hung out with my pals.

last friday was: fun. i helped set up for fuel youth retreat up in the mountains. there was snow.

last saturday was: amazing. kids accepted Christ. it doesn't get better than this.

last sunday was: awesome. fuel wrapped up. jenn and i laughed. i hung out with some cool peeps.

monday was: long. i flew home from oregon. my flights kept being delayed. ug.

tuesday was: weird like whoa. i found out i've gotten transferred to a new team at work. i'm no longer have to be on call!!!!! now instead of all the craziness i did before, i will be coding in java. huh? yeah, i dunno. not a big deal. but i'm pretty stoked nonetheless.

today was: blah. i wrapped up everything on my old team at work. kinda sad.

tomorrow is: a new day. on my new team. and i'm playing bunco tomorrow nite with ladies from church. haha. fun times.

so yeah seriously, this weekend was incredible. and, as Will pointed out, how awesome that i could fly to portland for the weekend. much love friendsies, much love. and say hey to joe for me. i'm excited about the new things going on at work. i'll keep ya posted.

the truth

i've got so many questions,
but for now i'll stick with pilate's
the timeless question
what is truth
the pain in my heart
and the sadness in my bones
are not easily satisfied
and i'm tormented
and i'm seeking to know
what is truth

"call to me and i will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."
--jeremiah 33.3

"I am coming to you now, but i say these things while i am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. i have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than i am of the world. my prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. they are not of the world, even as i am not of it. sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. as you sent me into the world, i have sent them into the world." --john 17.13-18

me, my fam, the alamo, and tim duncan

well my mom and j-rod and rachel came down for a lil visit on their winter break. we had a blast this weekend: we got pedicures (well, not jared), ate chick-fil-a, watched olympics, played scrabble, cooked yummy food, went to the movies, went to my new church, worked out, played pool, took a cruise on the riverwalk, watched part of the mardi gras parade, toured the alamo and followed the mission trail to other missions, checked out usaa, got a treat from shakes, and topped everything off with the spurs vs. knicks game. the apt. seems very quiet now.

thoughts from the weekend

you know you're asking for trouble when you're in college station and dont go to wings 'n more. here's a hint: dont pick outback.

how many tom cruise movies can you name?

you know you're an alumni when you actually buy something other than a scantron at the MSC bookstore rather than CC Creations

it sure is good to hang out with old college friends

it sure is good to hang out with the fam.

the pink panther remake with steve martin is very very humorous. would you like to buy a hamburger?

you know you're at a good church when the pastor uses your oft used phrase big ol honkin in his sermon without cracking a smile.

happy valentines day

if you are searching for a spark to make your valentines day happy, i've provided a few tips:

1. watch bob costas in HD. this is not for the faint of heart. but its funny. and the skiing and snowboarding look pretty tight.

2. reference my blog posting from last valentines day and recall elementary valentines day past. o the happiness.

3. plan a vacation

4. relax on the couch

5. eat chocolate

6. go to h-e-b and buy lots of little kids valentines and give them to your friends at work. share the love.


for valentines day 2006, i worked 9hrs rather than the 13 i posted yesterday. i came home and did #4. and by relax i do mean passed out for 2hrs. then i proceeded to contine to do #4 with a little #1 mixed in.

before i close, can i just say that curling is the funniest thing ever. it reminds me of mr. estes calculus class 2002 because we all talked about it so much, but i still get a kick out of it. more than that, i get a kick out of the poor guys that are the commentators for curling. umm yeah its going its going, they're sweeping, they're sweeping....ooo its in the circle yay.

i think thats all i've got for you dear blog reader. here's hoping your valentines day was quite splendid.

why customer service has gone the way of hymns in a church service

it has become increasingly clear to me as i deal with issues that one must deal with in 'the real world' that customer service is becoming rather non-existent in our culture.

case A:
last weekend when i traded in my 'normal' dvr for one that is 'HD ready'. first note that they did NOT deliver it, nor OFFER it to me, though it is standard service. once i uncovered this dirty little trick, that i was indeed paying for something that i was not currently enjoying, i drove over to pick up a new cable box. never mind that i had to wait in line for a long time, then drove home to realize they had not given me the correct box at all, but rather the same box i'd just 'traded in.' i called the customer service. let me clarify that i tried to call customer service from the very phone they bill me for and it could only get a busy signal. i got through on my cell phone and waited on hold for 45 min before being told...yeah we gave you the wrong box. with no apology. so again i DROVE back over and waited in line for 1 HOUR, and got the new box. i was alarmed that they were not in the least bit surprised they'd given me the wrong box. again, no apology. when i complained they offered me 10 dollars. i explained to them that they'd wasted over 3hrs of my time, and that i was accustomed to making more than $3.33 an hour. 'thats the best we can do.' yes....but are you SORRY?!


case B:
tonite i broke my rule of eating out for dinner during the week by ordering a pizza. it was valentines day after all, cut some slack. i went online to order, which they encourage you to do. then i proceeded to wait 30 min. then i got a call that my order had been placed at the wrong store. never mind that the internet chooses the store. also disregard that i've ordered from the same store in the past. not only does he not apologize that it will take 30 more minutes because the 'internet sometimes thinks one store is actually closer', it is going to cost more at this store. i cancelled that puppy. (that was for you, team awesome)


these are 2 minor cases of poor customer service that i've experienced this week and not really a big deal. but i am convinced this is an epidemic in our society. they teach that business is all about the consumer so the customer is always right. this is no longer practiced. i think it has to do with our self-service driven economy because of enabling technology and high cost of labor. i also think it has to do with, again, technology that makes it possible to say...dont like us? fine, go somewhere else. see if we care.

ah, soy excellent

a taste i'd been craving on some level since my childhood was finally satiated (is that a word? i think it is. i think it sounds good, so i'm gonna leave it there) yesterday evening. on one level i dont miss peanut butter at all because the mere thought of it brings up repulsive feelings. however, on some other level everyone needs that satisfaction that comes from eating a pbj every once in awhile. i had done some research for peanut butter alternatives...i.e. peanut butter without the peanuts. contrary to what it sounds like, this is not like going to sonic and ordering a cheeseburger, hold the cheese, as i can recall gleefully doing on occasions with childhood friends. for some reason it was funny. anyway, turns out they do, in fact, make peanut butter without the peanuts. after 2 strikes at my h-e-b, i stumbled across it at super target: soynut butter. yes, friends, thats right, soynut butter. it looks like peanut butter, but it is peanut free. it tastes like peanut butter...well, i wouldnt go thaaat far, but it wasnt bad at all. it did the trick, just a little pasty i guess. now, i chose the creamy kind, though i do remember enjoying crunchy peanut butter. but i couldnt help but ask myself, what are the chunks in chunky soynut butter? soynuts? what do soynuts taste like? dunno. but this is the 2nd time this month that soy has done me a favor...earlier this month i investigated soy milk, and am now able to enjoy drinking a glass of milk. so, if you can eat peanut butter, i say definitely stay away from soynut butter, but if its your only option, i'm saying its not bad. not bad at all.

thoughts from thesharester

• living outside of one's passion is frustrating.
• all the feelings in the world should not replace convictions. or dreams.
• pepsi's new slogan 'brown and bubbly' is perhaps the worst slogan in marketing history.
• love is....patient.
• showers of blessing can sometimes be mistaken for torrents of despair.
• soy milk is actually not so bad.

this twisted path
keeps turning the wrong way.
this sick rollercoaster
has too many valleys
and not enough peaks.
i'm holding on
but i'm not sure where i am.
in this choose your own adventure,
i picked the wrong option.
my only hope
is that it wasnt me
that chose this way.
and that somehow
someway
you have a plan here too.



"Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He
chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall
inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and
He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the
Lord..." --psalms 25.12-15

i'm glad my life isn't on 24 because...

1. if chloe spoke like that to me, i think i'd cry
2. cant we all just love each other and be friends?
3. stress eats away at one's lifespan
4. i value sleep entirely too much
5. the pressure of knowing something awful would happen every hour a couple minutes before the hour, that would get to me.

also, honestly, 24 is a really great show, but can we say....predictable?

mold, jalapenos, and resolutions

tonite i was making a fajita for dinner. let me qualify that by explaining i was warming up pre-cooked h-e-b fajita chicken and plopping it on a tortilla with cheese. it was at this point that i was mortified to notice a seemingly dark spot on my newly purchased cheese. was this mold i spotted?

now, i will be honest and humbly admit that i am no stranger to mold on things in my refrigerator. i think this gene comes from somewhere in my family or perhaps just the fact that i live alone and think putting leftovers in the fridge seems rational but never feel like eating them. my most interesting personal experience with this involved a fruit salad that was extremely fun to make and tasted awesome the first 3 or so times i had it. then it became the neglected salad. when i finally investigated it later, it seemed to be alive. or, as ross stated, something that God looked down at and said, what is that living creature? i certainly didn't create that.

anyway, as i was saying, i had just bought this h-e-b finely shredded mexican cheese so i was quite disturbed it would have black spots on it. i picked up the package and learned that this mexican cheese included jalapenos. despite the fact that i cant stand jalapenos, i figured this would be ok for my fajita, i simply poured a lot of salsa on the thing so i couldnt taste the cheese. however, sadly, my main purpose for the cheese was for a dish i was going to make tomorrow that would not appreciate the added cheese flavor. so frustrating. not to mention the stuff tastes nasty. thus, i lament the fact that i did not pay more attention to the cheese i was purchasing. also, it leads me to share some things i've resolved to do this year:

1. maintain the refrigerator so that it has current food/beverage and ONLY current food/beverage.
2. drink far fewer cokes.
3. get a car wash more than once every 6months
4. play my guitar more....as a friend recently reminded me: a girl needs her guitar.
5. write down the stuff that i'm learning
6. visit somewhere i've never been before
7. stay more in tune with world events
8. sing freely while driving in the car, not caring that other drivers might laugh
9. go to the dentist of my own freewill, not my parents predetermination
10. write blog postings more frequently

a concert, a frog, a visit, and a phonecall

so last week i went to my first rock concert. it was to be aerosmith & lenny kravitz, but lenny was sick. i wonder how sick one has to be to alienate all of san antonio by failing to appear. i was slightly annoyed at grown adults acting so crazy, but the music was decent. at one point a guitarist took of his shirt and began slinging it down on his guitar repeatedly, making 'music'. it was at this point that i thought to myself, yes, now i have heard music at its finest.

the other night i was doing a bit of cleaning, putting things away in my closet. my eye caught on a piece of fuzz near my shoes. what a strange shape for fuzz i thought. then i thought, wow, i hope thats not a big ol spider. i bent down for a closer look, but only briefly, because in about 1/2 of a second i realized that fuzz was frog shaped. and thus, the mystery was solved...thaddeaus was found....about as far away from his little home as he could have gotten while remaining inside my apartment. he never did smell, which i found to be strange, but he was most certainly dead and crusty. i was most grossed out. i expressed this by repeatedly saying ewwwwwww and shuddering. but i am glad to know there is no longer a killer frog on the loose in my apartment. so, lolly, you are free to come visit now!!

my nana paid me a visit this weekend and we had a grand time enjoying board games, shopping, laundry, eating out, and the botanical gardens in san antonio.

this morning i received a call from work because i was....oncall. i went off oncall at 7am. the call came about 6.30am, unfortunately for me. it was from someone on the east coast, having difficulties. my vpn was not working so i grudgingly realized i was going to have to go into work asap. i wondered if the lady's coworkers were having the same problem she was? she condescendingly explained to me that it was really early and of course no one else was at work yet. ah, really? if its that early on the east coast, why then are you bugging me in the central time zone? the solution to this problem is: go home. lay down on the bed for awhile. then come back to work at a decent hour. if the problem is still occurring, call whoever is oncall now. thanks and have a great day.

agenda for the evening

there are a few things i need to consider accomplishing this evening:

1. go to the grocery store. i actually alread accomplished this a few minutes ago. but i do belong to that personality type that i still write it down, just so i can cross it off. besides, i thought it was worth documenting my first trip to the grocery store of 2006.

2. wash the dishes. my starving stomach was not the reason i finally ventured to the store, but rather my need for diswasher soap. of course i totally forgot to buy this at the store. i suppose i'll have to wash the dishes with my hands. what?!?! who does that????

3. do some studying and work on the computer, and get some stuff ready to mail

4. finish a book. i have 3 of them going. make that 4. i'm trying to make up for all the lost time in college when you cant read books just for the heck of it because you are so busy reading other stuff.

5. visit the workout room downstairs, just to say hey

6. laundry and other assorted household chores

7. put away the christmas tree. stop judging. on second thought, maybe i'll leave it up until next christmas. actually i probably would except my nana coming to visit this weekend shall provide the motivation to take it down sometime before friday. maybe.

8. post something on my poor neglected blah blog............check!

You raise me up

When I am down, and oh my soul, so weary.
When troubles come, and my heart burdened be.
Then I am still and wait here in the silence.
Until You come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up to more than I can be.

--Brendon Joseph Graham, Rolf U. Loevland

boring, oregon and the fate of thaddeaus

well i've returned and survived one post-vacation day at work. i find it humorous there is in fact a town called boring, oregon. you may find it humorous that i chose to vacation there. each is entitled to their own opinion i suppose. at any rate, my vacation was quite nice and most relaxful. ross and i did manage to take in some sites, including the waterfalls along the historic columbia river highway, traipsing around in the snow on mt. hood, and checking out the oregon museum of science and industry...and taking a naval submarine tour, though we were quite disappointed to discover this meant a tour of the sub, not a tour in the sub. at any rate we had a blast. it was also awesome to see my boring, oregon friends and the gresham and troutdale ones too. we played scrabble, skip bo, and went to see glory road at the movies (most excellent). hung out at youth group and with friends. all in all, a most excellent and most needed vacation. props to my oregonian friends, miss all you guys.

o yeah. i neglected to mention the fate of thaddeaus. when i left to go to north texas for new years i bought an automatic fish feeder to feed the frog. when i came back the frog seemed fine. the next morning i got up and went to look at thaddeaus. and he was gone. i know what you're thinking, how could a frog get out? half the lid of the aquarium was off so the automatic fish feeder could be attached. still, you are probably still thinking, how could a frog get out? its a question i still have of my own. at any rate he was gone. evelyn was visiting and i think we both found it quite unnerving to know there was a frog somewhere in the apartment other than the aquarium. still, almost 2 weeks later, no sign of thaddeaus.....

blogging in the new year

well i was able to go to my parents house for the christmas weekend and have a grand time, along with m&b who were in from london. our family chose to show the christmas spirit by driving 9 people to weatherford to watch the chronicles of narnia in a 7 passenger suburban.

my dad shared 2 quotes with us to treasure
1. if i were to begin commenting on people's clothing, we'd be here for a long time.
2. you havent lived a complete life unless you've vomited up a brussel sprout.

after a nice visit with the H-crew, my first overnite guests, i made a return trip to north texas for the new years, this time i had company as ross came along. m&b had rented out a lake house and invited the families out on friday, then on saturday we were able to just hang out and play enough board games to last for the entire year of 2006.

this week eveyln has been in town, whoop! we had a blast hanging out (when i wasnt working) and playing games. sequence has become the new game of choice (thanks nana).

in a few hours ross and i are going to catch a plane to one of my most favoritest places ever...gresham, oregon to hang out with some of my most favoritest people in the world. its my first extended break from work, and i'm quite stoked about it. hope you guys all have a great week...i'm off to enjoy some actual winter weather. this 88 degrees on new years day just does not cut it for me.

corporate christmas partay

well i guess one of the things that makes you feel grown up is going to the office christmas party. nevermind that my office christmas partay was held across several ballrooms with thousands of people in attendance. ross brought over roses and then we drove in his camaro to work, where we caught a shuttle downtown to the convention center (this took approx. 1hr!). when we finally arrived downtown the party was in full swing, we caught part of the cirque show dealy, got our picture taken, and browsed around the international food buffets. we walked around and heard different bands in the different rooms. we met up with some friends from work and hung out with them, eating dessert and watching a simulcast of the doobie brothers from the other room. the older crowd was living it up, all they needed was some candles or something to fully enjoy their doobie experience. the doobies were looking quite old i must say. afterwards we walked around the riverwalk a bit until the park & ride bus line went down and then caught a ride back home. it was quite the partay.

christmas times

the times of christmases past:
well the past few years as a college student i've moved back home for most of december. way back in the day i can recall going to extended family's homes for christmas, but for the past few years, we've stuck to our house, and other family has come to visit us before and after the big day. but generally in our house, a couple kids get up early and sit in their room whispering. but its been the trend it seems that my dad actually wakes US up, otherwise christmas might not start till noon or something if we had our way. at any rate once we're all up, we each take turns opening our stocking, generally youngest to oldest, except last year i think we reversed it. then we have breakfast, usually monkeybread. then we take a break for everyone to get dressed. then we all gather in the living room and one person is selected to be the santa person. for the past 5ish years this has been me, probably because my name starts with s, i'm not sure. at any rate i go to the christmas tree and find one gift per person and distribute them. then we take turns each person opening their gift. then we have a second round, etc till all the presents are gone. sometimes someone might need to open 2 if they have a lot of presents and someone might have fewer presents (but quantity does not always indicate quality!). but eventually we finish about time to eat lunch or something. a lot of times in the afternoon we will go to see a movie. and thats pretty much how we do christmas.


the times of christmases present:
this year i get about 5 days rather than 30ish days off for christmas. matt & bree will be coming in for a short while, from london, rather than up from college station. i put up my own christmas tree. saturday night ross and i are headed to our corporate christmas party downtown. we went downtown and saw the lights. i also hope to drive around to one of the nice neighborhoods and look at some more lights. its just really not that cold. i still have a lot of christmas shopping to do. we will have christmas in graham, year 2. can you say christmas bonus? whoop.

the times of christmases future:
???

my christmas tree

so here's a pic of my first christmas tree. its obviously artificial, i picked it up at target, along with a few ornaments & candy canes & lights. its very relaxing to just sit and watch the lights. ross came over and helped me put it up, on the 1st of december. we drank egg nog and i made him watch its a wonderful life, because its one of my fave movies in the whole world that i watch every year around christmas, and he'd never seen it before. so it was pretty fun, and i'm really glad i went ahead and put the thing up. now, if you come to visit me in, say, march, and its still up, please help me take it down.

its not like you couldnt see it coming, but still

well, devoted reader, i regret to inform you that it has happened. yes, thaddeaus has attacked and murdered bling. i normally feed them when i get home from work, at 5 or 6, sometimes 7 or 8. occasionally i'll forget or something and just feed them whenever, sometime before i go to bed. well today, after church, ross and i went out shopping and such, and then we ended up going to an 8pm showing of the chronicles of narnia movie (it was ok, i think i actually like the old movies better, surprisingly enough). so, i got home rather late, to find bling attacked and dead, and thaddeaus just sitting there all alone. i wonder if he's lonely or if he now feels as if he has conquered the aquarium. perhaps now i'll get a verry large fish and see if it will eat thaddeaus. or maybe ross and i will have frog legs for dinner tomorrow nite, give him a taste of his own medicine.

christmas time & the riverwalk

so here's a first: i was getting my haircut and the lady asks me, so do you have kids? no ma'am i most certainly do not. ok, so maybe its not the first time people have wondered that, i distinctly remember feeling rather awkward sometimes while caring for my younger siblings at the mall or such, but at any rate its the first time someone has directly asked me that. i did feel better after it became clear to me that the haircut lady had simply asked the question so as to transition into a rant about commercialized Christmas and how no one bakes or makes homemade presents anymore like they did (and no lie she actually sad this) "back in the day."

sometimes i like to torture people with thoughtful questions. one i enjoy pulling out of my arsenal is what is the best christmas gift you've ever received? but perhaps my favorite of all is what's the best christmas gift you've ever given?

i've enjoyed many wonderful christmases at our hizzouse. and despite the fact that matt and i enjoy kidding our parents about asking for basketball shoes for christmas a couple times, we got some pretty dang good presents....

there was the year matt and i both got new bikes. oh yeah. back in the days before one drives, one's bike is of upmost importance. and we got cool ones. in fact, i took mine to college with me. at any rate my dad hid them in the guest bathroom. after we'd opened up all the other presents, he somehow lured us into going in there (probably he told us we'd better clean it before guests arrived or something) and we were elated to find new bikes.

there was also the year we got a basketball goal. if my memory serves correctly my dad set it up in the shop in the backyard. thats right folks, we had an indoor basketball court...with a tin roof. i remember playing out there in the rain, it was so deafening. but, and forgive me matt for saying this, but matt and i would have big ol tournaments. i forget exactly how we played, but we'd represent certain college teams, and probably have some sort of free throw shooting contest to determine who moved on in the brackets. good times.

one year we got a pingpong table. there was much ruckus going on early in the morning as it was being assembled. my favorite part of that christmas was watching my grandmother and grandfather duel in a ping pong game. that ping pong table provided many hours of entertainment.

there was also the year i got my guitar. my brother and ER spent some time picking out just the one they knew i would love. my family hid it in the guitar case of the guitar i was borrowing at the time, back in my room. j-jo got her keyboard that year too.

that same year i believe it was, my brother bought me a ring from james avery that he knew i wanted, but had cut out of my christmas list because i really wanted the guitar. it totally surprised me and i think its been one of the best christmas gifts i've ever gotten.

tonight i participated in the commercialization of christmas. ross and i went down to the famed riverwalk, and took one of those little boat tours to check out all the christmas lights. it was pretty cool and we also had some good bbq at the county line. thats all for now, check in next time for a glimpse into christmas traditions of my past and things i'm doing this yr, my first christmas out on my own.

ross and me at the riverwalk...

word of the day

logorrhea: excessive talkativeness

yes, i am quite familiar with this. it is quite frustrating to me.

fish update: bling is hanging in there, under the watchful eye of thaddeaus.

work update: its alrite. put in a nice 12 hr day today, which is contributing to my lack of literary prowess at the moment.

when i get some new batteries for my camera, i will upload a picture of my most fabulous christmas tree. until then, thats all i got.

a visit to the nurse

so growing up in midland where there are effectively no (as in zero) trees, i was convinced that i was not allergic to anything. besides peanuts. i had a rude wake up call when i moved to college station. i am having a ruder wake up call here in the s.a. metropolis. the deal here though is that claritin pretty much rules, except it didnt do anything for my eyes. my itchy red swollen eyes that i wanted to just rub and rub and then just wanted them to go away. so for 2 weeks i kept thinking, this shall pass. finally i had to cave in and go see one of the nurses at work in hopes that i could get some stronger medicine that would take care of my allergies.

sharon goes to the clinic.
sharon waits for 25 minutes.
eyes are itching and red. i think my coworkers probably believe i'm on crack.
nurse comes out and asks who was next, woman cuts in front of sharon and 3 others.
sharon waits more.
sharon finally gets to see nurse.
sharon explains itchy eyes.
nurse stares into sharon's eyes.
sharon is uncomfortable.
nurse wonders could it be pink eye.
sharon reiterates that, while possibly pink eye, most likely ALLERGIES. PLEASE GIVE MEDICATION.
nurse suggests to wash my hands often( i later read that this is one of the job functions of the nurses at work, to encourage healthy habits)
sharon stresses that she does wash hands, please give me medicine
nurse cannot prescribe medicine, please come back tomorrow and see the doctor, after all, 'if you've been putting up with this for 2weeks, 24 more hours wont hurt you'
sharon's eyes itch and remain red like someone on crack.

so i went back to the doctor today. she talked with me for about 5 minutes. was like hmm sounds like allergies. let me give you some medication. this is more like it. 15minutes later, thanks to our onsite pharmacy, i was connected with eye drops and allegra. surely the next few days should go better.

thaddeaus and pierre

so i had bought these fish. and a frog. a cute little water frog. he is an albino clawed water frog. didn't know there were albino frogs? join the club. but he's quite cute. his name is thaddeaus. i also bought a catfish (pierre) and a bala shark (mo) and a bright orange mali (bling). i love these fish and they are quite entertaining to watch and they have a nice little home here at the apartment with me.

then it happened. i was finalizing my snack preparations to be the snackmaster of thanskgiving and about to head down to c.s. i look over, and, thaddeaus is trying to shove pierre down his throat. never mind that pierred is about 2x larger than thaddeaus and there is no way he could fit. nevertheless, thaddeaus has shoved pierre's tail in his throat and is trying to shove him further in, meanwhille pierre's whiskers are shriveling up and pierre is breathing laboriously. i banged on the glass and yelled at thaddeaus to stop. horrified, i watched as he ignored me. i continued banging on the glass and finally he spit pierre out. but it was too late. pierre lasted a few hours more but then passed on. the next day thaddeaus attacked mo, my shark. MY SHARK. now i'm just down to bling. he eats so much i think thaddeaus is scared to take him on for fear of choking. or maybe he's just fattening him up, then getting ready to move in for the kill.

see, this stuff is real

Kiss fatal for girl, 15Sat, November 26, 2005
By CP


SAGUENAY, QUE. -- A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy has died after being kissed by her boyfriend, who had eaten peanut butter.
The girl died this week, a few days after being kissed.
The teenager, who lived in Saguenay, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City, received a shot of adrenalin immediately after being kissed, but did not recover.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2005/11/26/1324591-sun.html

the verdict

well i finally picked out a new car. thanks for all your input. yesterday i bought this car, its a 2001 chevy impala with just under 12k miles. its got a nice v6, 3.8L under the hood and a great interior. i hope to see you soon so we can cruise around together.

who knew?

so tonite i made a trip to walmart to check out the boardgames. it brought back many memories from my youth. games like dont break the ice, guess who, battleship, electronic battleship, clue, monopoly, chinese checkers...they bring back fond memories. i settled on purchasing chinese checkers and scrabble for our playing pleasure.

after a close game of chinese checkers, i proceeded to play the best game of scrabble i've ever played in my life. yes, it was incredible, and i have no shame in exulting in that fact. our agreed upon dictionary was of course the ever popular....dictionary.com though i personally think merriam webster (m-w.com) is superior. at any rate, i learned a new word: en.

Printing. A space equal to half the width of an em.

And what is an em you ask?

Printing. The width of a square or nearly square piece of type, used as a unit of measure for matter set in that size of type. Such a measure for 12-point type; a pica.

so there ya have it. ya learn something new every day. that was my learning.

for a co-worker today, another lesson was learned. while in the company store burning some time during lunch hour, we were smelling a candle. a really gross smelling candle labeled Christmas cookies/ biscuits de Noel. the lesson was not that biscuits is french word for cookies, but rather that noel (fyi) is french for Christmas. who knew? sometimes you give the lesson, sometimes you receive it, but discovering new stuff is pretty much the coolest thing ever.

pick a car any car round 2

acura rsx










honda accord

there's got to be a better way

i'm 'on call' this week in case any horrid disaster should befall the computer world. this adds to my array of technicalness one additional cell phone and one additional pager, leading to the ridiculousness that is the picture above. surely, there is a better way.

day light savings time. nice to get an extra hour. terrible to lose it again in the spring. is it worth the hassle? i prefer the morning darkness when i'm not awake as i'm driving to work in the first place over the sadness that comes with darkness at 6pm as i'm leaving work. is daylight savings time worth it? is arizona really got it more together than us? surely, there is a better way.

made a return as an alumni to texas a&m this past weekend. it was excellent to hang out with some family members. it was strange to sit on the alumni side. it was awkward to be informed that the seats i had purchased in the MSC were on sale because the owner was in the hospital from a heart attack he had suffered the previous evening. i thought additional alumni were going to go into a state of shock as the team was dismantled by....iowa state?!?! surely, there is a better way.

pick a car, any car

so here's a fun little game for you. its called help thesharester pick out a new car by voting for one i'm currently considering or suggesting a different one for me to consider.

1. VW Passat








2. Honda Accord



(no pic)


3. Pontiac G6













4. VW Jetta









5. (fill in blank)

o great

so i'm trying to comment on my own blog and at first cant figure out what letters are on the stupid word verification thing, which as mentioned previously, is not really a word at all. but apparently its trying to verify that i'm a person rather than a computer. so if i cant figure it out, what does that say about me?

just another day at the office

dying to know what it is that goes on during my days at work? so am i!! this is a snall sample of what a typical day sounds like:

hey will you log on to IMS and ISPF and do the RL14392s and the CL19854. and if you dont mind taking care of the R6500 report today too.

o thats easy, we just roll up the c1492 and c3045 and c1032 components to get that.

yeah you'll have to ask the SME and then bounce it.

call up the DSA and see if you can get VPN to SCP.


its pretty ok i guess, but i wish i'd taken greek in school. cuz it sounds like they are speaking it at work.

congratulations!

go astros.

a post about lance

so this is kind of a random post because i've been away from my fave place of gresham for quite some time now, but i just wanted to mention what an incredible guy lance is. he is the youth minister at ggbc and he and his wife jen are some of my bff fo shizzle. they are probably the reason i ever went back to ggbc, because that first summer i went they invited me to help at the youth in the evenings, and then would also invite me out to go see movies or chill at their house. then this past summer i got to help out with the youth ministry some more, and go to centrifuge & world changers. pretty much lance is the only person that i've EVER seen eat 10 dumdums at one time. and it was pretty much hilarious. they have a difficult task at their church but they also have some of the coolest youth ever and they do a rock solid job of helping students grow in Christ and leading students to know Christ as their Savior. anyways, he & jen rock my face off. i wish that you could know them because i'm convinced they are 2 of the most coolest people in the world.

p.s. did you talk to joe today?

escalators

i'm not gonna lie. one of my favorite things about work is the abundance of escalators. there are not a whole lot of escalators in midland, zero in particular at midland park mall, so i can remember as a child particularly finding great pleasure in riding up and down an escalator. you'd think i would have grown out of this by now, but i must admit that i still enjoy it. a lot. i've never seen taller escalators than those buried deep underground in the tube in london. you quickly realize that you must stand on the right, walk on the left because some people, are in quite a hurry. sometimes you are that person. and people standing in the middle=uncool. but anyways, those things are huge!! we don't have any so huge at work, but we do have about a bazillion of them.

this morning at about 7.15am I was groggily making my way up the maze of escalators from the depths of the parking garage (which is really quite the process). I'd almost made it out when I decided to try to clip my ID onto my jeans pocket (hooray casual fridays). Normally this is not quite such an ordeal, but perhaps because it was so early in the morning or perhaps in my excitement over the escalators, i dropped my ID. I was already nearing the top and I could see the steps disappearing viciously into the floor. I think I then uttered an audible gasp. Two scenarios flashed through my head, the first that my ID card was simply sucked into the stair sucker never to be found again, costing me a small fortune and some job repercussions, not to mention some humiliation. The other scenario was the ID card catching in the stair sucker and causing the whole escalator to jam, and leaving it painfully obvious to security just who screwed it up, since my name is on the ID. Luckily, I, butterfingers, was able to snatch up the ID just before it was sucked away. And I clipped it on my jeans and went to work.

now that's more like it

so yesterday i didnt' have to go to training class, instead i got to work alongside my mentor, learning how to prepare some reports and about systems that i will be using. he also took me around to meet some people from other teams that i will be working with. i did take a few hours of online training classes, but just doing something at least semi-productive for most of the day made time go by sooo much faster than sitting in class, and it made the day much more enjoyable. of course other factors include a sudden change in the weather from gross hot to oh my goodness chilly but INCREDIBLE and also casual dress friday. or maybe it was the frappucino i had. either way, yesterday was pretty alrite for being at work on a friday.

further excitement came from realizing that i'd had my contacts in the wrong eye for the past 3 days or so. my left eye is significantly more blind than my right eye, but somehow i'd messed up my contacts and somehow NOT FIGURED THAT OUT for 3 days of being blind. but yesterday at work i couldn't figure out why i couldnt see my mentor's computer screen even after he'd adjusted the resolution. it dawned on me as i practiced closing one eye, then the other, that i could only see blurryness out of both eyes, yet my contacts were both in. sure enough, this morning i switched them and it all became clear.

last night i went with some folks from church downtown to investigate 'first friday', a street market similar yet quite inferior to portland's saturday market. so we walked around looking at street vendors and listening to local bands. it was alrite, but portland clearly has it going on in this type of venture. today i was going to meet up with some friends to watch the red river shootout, but as i drove up the place was flooded with burnt orange vehicles and everyone walking in was plastered with tu fan gear. if it was all maroon and howdys, this site would warm my heart, but hypocritically this site makes me nauseauted and wonder what extremists/losers are inside. it was too much for me to handle. so i turned around came home...and turned the game on tv to pull against all odds for the sooners.

quote unquote

from alias-

syd: marshall, its me
marshall: oh yeah, i know. i gave you your own ring tone. so. did you find the bomb?

syd to weiss: i will see you soon. God knows i have plenty of frequent flier miles.
weiss: i was just thinking about d.c. in the summer. i'm a sweater.

*if weiss goes too, then i officially cannot STAND alias.

from Bible study-

jeremy: sara and i, on our honeymoon, i got to hold an alligator. yeah, it was so cool. oh yeah, and we went to the holocaust museum. i'm really good at planning stuff like that obviously. thats why we dont celebrate our anniversaries, because i clearly would mess a thing like that up.

from kara's away message-
people just totally came over and caught me in my robe. i can't decide if that is sexy or loserish.


from my brain-

hip hip hooray for friiiiiday.

i'm sorry

an online card from my mom that will make you laugh.

*i hope you already read it b/c i broke the link b/c i dont want the whole world to know my parents email address. but it was a super funny card. holler if you missed it and i'll send you the link.

go figure

so it wasn't quite the weekend i had envisioned, but i guess is should have seen it coming when vaughn was killed on thursday night. i mean, talk about a downer of a way to start things off. but lets say beforehand i felt maybe a bit like a piece of chewed up gum, and afterwards i felt like spit out gum on the bottom of someone's shoe who just happens to be climbing to the top of a mountain.

there is definitely something therapeutic about seeing friends from old school times, particularly when everyone is doing awesome in life and are succeeding at levels you had previously only dreamed about together. to see what God brings into fruition in your friends lives is pretty much awesome. also having been exclusively hanging out with people i've known for less than a month, seeing old friends was particularly pleasant.

so tonite i hit up barnes & noble for one exciting night. ok, so it was better than watching more tv, but perhaps doesn't warrant the word exciting. but one can always find interesting books there. there were two that stand out in my mind from tonight. the first alarmed me: it was entitled God's blogs, and apparently the author had made up postings for God's blog. imagine. typing God's blog for him. imagine that there's a book about God having a blog. crazy times.

the other one was a lexicon of intentionally ambiguous recommendations (LIAR) when writing refrence letters. you can be honest without being brutal, a key skill you must admit, by saying things such as the following.

I cannot recommend this person too highly.
I recommend this candidate with no qualification whatsoever.
He has made immeasurable contributions to our firm.
In all the discussions she and I have had over the years, her salary never came up.
I simply can't say enough good things about him.
I am sure that whatever task she undertakes -- no matter how small -- she will be fired with enthusiasm.
I am pleased to say that this candidate is a former colleague of mine.
She is always trying.
He is a difficult man to replace.
She is one of the most discriminating people you'll ever meet.
He will take full advantage of his staff.
She takes a lot of enjoyment out of her work.
His input was always critical.
I found myself frequently raving about her work.
I would place this student in a class by himself.
She is now ready to strike out in a career.
He is resigning a position that he has held with our firm for years. I truly wish there were more people like him.
We were teetering on the threshold of bankruptcy last year, but her efforts pulled us through.
For the services he has rendered to our firm over the years, we find ourselves deeply indebted.
She works without direction.
He works effortlessly.
To get the job done, we need ten employees like her.
Attacking a difficult challenge, she doesn't think twice.
You should seriously consider initiating an offer since she probably won't apply herself.
When he worked for us, he never did anything halfway.
We were forever asking her for new ideas.
You can't offer this man too high a salary.
How did she manage those who worked for her? Quite fairly.
There is nothing you can teach a man like this.
She was never away from the job too long.

(no, i didn't sit there and write all these down. they are from here

blog killer

i've been reading up on some blogging legalities, and it seems that once again in our society the misdeeds of a few have brought punishment for everyone. blogging about the workplace is generally considered taboo and is becoming increasingly illegal to mention much of what goes on behind those walls, or in my case, the compound. a pretty cool compound, but still. add to that a layer of intense information security native to my particular workplace, and the many funny comments and happenings, and also the strange little interesting things that go on are not bloggable. which really threatens to kill, or at least hamper, my quote based theme and also much of the events that would give me material to blog about. but i'm trying to get the hang of relating my life to you without being shady in the blogger world.

p.s. did i mention, as a follow up to an earlier blog, that i bought with birthday moolah from my parentsies Adobie Premiere Elements & Photoshop Elements???? heck yes i did!! much greatness. so little time to enjoy.

those words

those words
they sink in deep
deeper than my own thoughts
right into the core
of who i am and
who i want to be
and it hurts worse
than i want to admit
and i'm not sure what
to do with
those words

waiting

you didnt look comfortable as you
sat there waiting for your turn
and it seemed like the comments of those
that passed by
hurt you more than the things you'd seen
and the memories crowded around
you served more fury than satisfaction
maybe if given a chance to redo then
you would not choose the same track
but as you sat there waiting
i was watching and i was
waiting for you

if you want me to

IF YOU WANT ME TO

The pathway is broken
And The signs are unclear
And I don't know the reason why You brought me here
But just because You love me the way that You do
I'm gonna walk through the valley
If You want me to

Cause I'm not who I was
When I took my first step
And I'm clinging to the promise You're not through with me yet
so if all of these trials bring me closer to you
Then I will go through the fire
If You want me to

It may not be the way I would have chosen
When you lead me through a world that's not my home
But You never said it would be easy
You only said I'd never go alone

So When the whole world turns against me
And I'm all by myself
And I can't hear You answer my cries for help
I'll remember the suffering Your love put You through
And I will go through the valley
If You want me to

--ginny owens

musical faves

probably when i'm old (if i ever have to be old) then i will read this list and scoff at my pitiful music tastes, but simply to provide myself that pleasure, an alphabetical top ten for the month of sept 2005 here at the sharester apartment, as denoted by my itunes counter:

bless the broken road, rascal flatts
gone, tobymac
i'll fly away, alison krauss
my happy ending, avril lavigne
shoot the moon, norah jones
strong tower, kutless ****most fave****
this fragile breath, todd agnew
we fall down, kutless
who i am hates who i've been, relient k
you and me, lifehouse

would you rather

so this coming weekend i'm headed to be a d-now leader at a friend's church and he has provided us with the now infamous 'would you rather' questions, to foster discussion among the students. now, any ggbc youther would probably attest to the fact that i am far from a novice at asking such questions, particularly on long road trips as i'm driving uber cool vehicles, i.e. mini-van, but perhaps you are unfamiliar with the exercise. i thought i would discuss them with you, my bloggy friends, over the next few days to foster discussion on my blog. as in the comment section of my blog.

so. would you rather...

1. be lied to or about?

hands down one of the very most important things in the whole wide world to me is honesty. probably being lied to is the thing that makes me the most angry out of everything else. being lied about really stinks too though, but i've gotta think you've at least got your reputation to go on there so people can judge for themselves if its truth or not. lying sucketh.

2. grow hair out of your nose or out of your ear?

like this seriously makes me want to hurl. i think nose hair grosses me out the most.

3. get a job making lots of money doing something you hate or doing something you love and make close to no money?

this is kinda touchy with me right now. i have definitely put enough thought into this over the past year to last us all a really long time.

4. have the mild or hot sauce from taco bell?

when i was a kid and my mom ordered taco bell she always got us mild sauce. so for the longest time i always got mild sauce for myself. then i went through a wow-taco-bell-is-so-disgusting-i-hate-it-like-none-other phase for quite a while, then i went to the northwest where there is umm zero mexican food and so i was like taco bell isn't so bad. and so now i go there some. but one time i was like hmm i'll try hot sauce. and i like it. so, in a word, hot sauce from taco bell.

5. drink sour milk or eat baby food?

baby food. fo shizzle. i'm kinda particular about milk. first off, i dont really care for it. at all. but it is necessary for things like cereal and smoothies, etc. but if its more than like 2-3 days old i'm out. its sorta like tennis players who use a new can of balls every time they play. thats me and milk. i like to open a new one every time.

6. be punched in the stomach or be kissed by a member of the opposite sex?

is this like really a question? i guess it is if you are working with junior hi students, but seriously, no question here.

7. do 10 push-ups or 10 sit-ups

sit-ups. i've been doing a lot of sit-ups lately. i'll be like laying on the couch and realize i forgot my tea in the kitchen and i'll have to sit up and then go get it on the commercial.

8. lick feet or sniff armpit hair?

feeeet.

9. eat ketchup plain or mustard plain?

mustard. despite what j-mase says, i'm still not that into ketchup.

10. be forced to eat throw-up or lay in a pile of doggy doo

let me just say that in my question asking, THIS would never be one because i detest throw up so much that the thought of it makes me pretty nauseated.

mmm on that note, thats all for now. i had another stimulating weekend of....doing pretty much absolutely nothing. i am spending this week pulling 10hr days at work in order to have friday off so i can go up to dallas for said d-now.

special shout out to my freda & amy cuz i heart ya and i miss asking questions with you while making power bracelets.

this IS my happy faaayce

um, don't be such a crab.

back in the rowing seat

wednesday i finally gathered up the courage to investigate one of the workout centers at work, and also finally remembered to take my tennis shoes with me to work. they provide the rest. i glanced around the cardio room and with great delight spotted 2 rowing machines tucked away in the far corner. so yesterday and again today i rejoiced in my return to rowing which provided much pleasure last spring. so...yay.

this hurricane stuff is quite crazy, i think it must be quite the interesting year to be at aggieland, but i obviously am not there. i am safely tucked away in san antonio.

i think there is actually some validity in going to bed and getting up at a consistent time helps your body get into a nice groove. i'm slowly adjusting to a 'normal' schedule, and its getting easier and easier to get up and then to fall asleep at night. but i've got to say its kind of boring. i sort of miss the excitement of staying up randomly late and getting up really late and meeting up with friends at like 11pm to go hang out. but, last night i got my first paycheck, which helped ease the pain.

my new couch

so here ya go, by popular demands, visualization of my new furniture in my new apartment. more pics later, but for now:

one can see my new furniture stuff




and also my nice table, courtesy of the hopkins....gracias



and my ghetto tv set up with my tiny tv that hopefully will all be replaced soon

non-competition clause

so matt and i seriously do have a non-competition clause i believe that went into effect roughly about the time we were both at a&m-ish. but i need to also post where i went camping this summer.




this is me leading worship at said campout.


when one cant think of anything to blog about, one can always post pictures. today was perhaps one of the most boring of my life. i spent many hours listening to a lecture on mainframes. i felt like a nerd. but ya know, what can ya do. so my internet and furniture came on saturday and the aggies won so overall it was quite the stellar day. i'm starting to feel like i have most of the things i need. i bought some spoons so i'm no longer eating cereal with a measuring spoon. which is nice, because measuring spoons are so deep its kinda hard to get the cereal out. but anyway, i'm like up past my stinkin bed time because i'm such an old person now. that is just great. getting up at 6am.

and have a nice day

just when you thought it couldnt get any better

so today i learned something very exciting. already i had been told of the only corporate wendys, which of course comes along with a frosty machine. now, frostys are good. BUT today i learned, that at one of the cafeterias here there is a.....icee machine. yes, its true. i think i'm going to get one tomorrow. :)

i also had an early success story from today while .....playing with tinker toys. at work. getting paid. to play with tinker toys. with grown men and women. the instructions were to build the tallest, widest, longest structure possible without talking. it only takes a semi-conscious aggie to think of working together as a whole room rather than 5 different tables. today i was that aggie.

today also marked the end of general employee orientation. tomorrow i was given the morning off, and then all of friday off. i'm not sure if this is a good sign or not...perhaps its a disturbingly calm before the great storm. or just a perk of having a good manager, who knows.

first day

so today was my first day at work. granted, it was just orientation and not really work, but i'm getting paid to be there, which differentiates it from school. i now have my official ID card which comes with a zero tolerance policy of forgetfulness and a steep fee if you lose it. it comes with a fancy schmancy lanyard though with a retractable stringy device for easy swiping. one can also use the ID to purchase lunch, starbucks, and anything else you felt like buying there, which could be dangerously convenient for some. along with starbucks, cafeterias, etc, there are also plenty of subways, the ONLY corporate wendys in the world, pizza hut, chick-fil-a, and other nice places to eat. top that off with 3 gyms that have free fitness classes, weight rooms, cardio rooms including dvd/cd/mp3/cable tv on EACH cardio machine, locker rooms equipped with all toiletries, workout clothes, lockers, saunas, etc, there's even a post office...because the place is so big it has its own zip code. there are nurses clinics and testing clinics, even a pharamacy. and one begins to wonder why you even rent a separate apartment.

so the place is huge and on a large amount of land with beautiful landscaping. in fact today while i was eating lunch, we saw a deer wandering around outside, which was a nice touch. i suddenly felt very young as we went over all the available medical benefits and 401k plans, not feeling quite ready to go there just yet, but here i am. and here we go.

starbucks in san antonio

well i've made it to san antonio. my parents hooked me up with all sorts of fun stuff before they headed back home. now i'm just all alone, unpacking and waiting for work to start next week. i have all kinds of fun stuff set to be delivered to my apartment, but not until the 17th. until then, i've been renting alias dvd's from blockbuster. right now i'm at starbucks checking up on emails and such. there's a girl to my right studying a book thats fatter than....well, its really fat. and i'm thinking wow, i'm quite glad that i am through with school. there's also some other people to my left. i feel really bad for this lady A)because she is being interviewed for a job, all the typical interview questions and B)because she is being interviewed in a rather condescending way for said job by not one, but two ladies about 10 years younger than her. how awkward. i hope she gets the job.

i made my first expedition into downtown san antonio today, to the federal building there to ask for a new social security card because mine is lost. this might have been rather simple a few weeks ago, but turned into a rather lengthy and kinda smelly process today due to a large number of evacuees from new orleans flooding the building. but i survived and made it back and its all good.

headed out

hey blog friends. just wanted to give you a shout out that in the morning i'm mooooving. my parents are coming down with me to lend a hand...and a u-haul. anyway, i won't have internet at my apartment for about 2 weeks, but no fears, i will make some updates from my laptop from like starbucks or something because i have some fun stories i want to tell you about, and i know you will anxiously be awaiting news on my new life and such. besides, i won't know anyone so i will probably need to, you know, blog a lot to fill my time. much love to oregonians who i miss like none other, say hey to joe for me. and also aggies, midlanders, and other such friends, that should all come on down for a visit asap, provided that asap does not occur all at the same time for everyone, because my apartment is only so big. o. and gig'em ags, lets btho clemson. yay for college football. :)

comment spammers

i guess some business folk felt badly about seeing 0 comments on my blog posts. however it doesnt bother me so much that i desire to see their advertisements. thus, i have relented and turned on word verification for comments. this means that it makes it slightly more difficult for YOU to comment, which i was hoping to avoid. now after you sign in i guess one needs to type in a word to ensure that you are an actual person rather than a spammer machine thing. i deleted most of the spam from my last post, but left the fat loss comment because i thought it was funny comment and here at thesharester we are all about funny. anyway, i'm sure the comment word verification will not hinder you from commenting, in fact, it might be sort of fun for you. almost as much fun as turning on my electricity was fun for me today. but probably not nearly as much fun as trying to figure out which internet and tv package to purchase, all of which are seeming to be a lot of money. does one really need internet and tv???....why, yes, i think so.

texas size road trip

well its hard to believe i've only been back in texas for one week, it feels like a month or so. probably because i've been driving pretty much the whole week. but its been fun. i was able to enjoy a conference with my mom and grandmother. we stayed near the reunion tower in dallas and so we went up and enjoyed smoothies and a revolving tour of dallas from the top of the reunion tower. we also ate at pappadeaux which rocks my world. i also was able to eat a #14 with chicken at rosas in ft. worth with my grandmother and do some shopping, including at the new ikea store in frisco which is somethin else. pretty crazy, but cool.

also this week i had the opportunity to catch up with a lot of college friends (shout out especially to my triple chunks!! and to melanie, lisa, will, eveyln, chara, and the J's) and some old school midland friends too which was tahiight.

anyway, now i'm just waiting and preparing for this weekend as i make the big move to the new apartment/new city/new job/newness. i shall leave you with a quote from one of my bestest pals:

"p..s i know i will see you again soon, but if something very terrible happens and we dont' see each other, meet me at the east gate. okie dokie??"

you know you've been in oregon awhile when....

you feel a twinge of guilt about THROWING AWAY your 'pop' can after looking around and not being able to find a recycling bin

you indulge in sonic every day since you've been deprived for the past 3 months

you almost feel sick because it is so stinkin hot

you assume the person's name you cant remember starts with an 'A'

every rascal flatts song reminds you of the youth at ggbc

you find yourself saying "so here's the deal"

you wonder why people say baah instead of bye at the end of their phone convos

your mind still jumps at seeing texas license plates

you keep looking in the rear view mirror thinking you will see a glimpse of the mountain

you hear the phrases "all yall" and "fixin to" and they kinda make you think twice

saying goodbye

well the time finally came for me to leave the northwest for awhile...i flew back to texas yesterday. once home i enjoyed a double delight of rosas and then sonic with my dad. my drink of choice was cherry limeade, and yes, evans, i thought of you as i crunched that wonderful ice.

so my last nite in oregon was abbreviated as i had to leave at 4:30am to head to the airport. but it was a fun nite. hit up youth group and ate some ice cream and said goodbye to everyone. then several of them came over and we just chilled and hung out all nite until it was time for me to go, as in, we didnt sleep. there was some moments in there when we thought we wouldn't make it, but come 4:30 everyone was still awake, standing on the corner in the coldness waving good-bye. and it rocked my face off.

so basically i heart ggbc and i miss you guys a ton already, and it was no fun to leave. but i hope to see you again soon. much love.

so now the blog turns from college and the best summer ever to entering the real world. i've got a week or so of down time, then comes the big move and the new job...this could be interesting!

video editing and railroad tracks

today i worked on making video with highlights from our world changers trip last month (the one with all the roofing). it was a lot of fun A)because i heart video editing and B)there was lots of funny footage from a really fun trip with really fun people. my favorite footage is that of youth minister lance eating 10 dum dums at the same time while singing.

anyway, i have done actually a lot of video editing this summer for various trips, events, etc. i have only been using windows movie maker, which comes free with windows xp. now, while it is just fine for elementary movie making, i made a mistake. tonite i went and helped someone out and got to play around with adobe's premiere elements. this, my friends, is like movie maker on steroids. it made me wish i'd been using it all summer instead of making rinky dink movies in movie maker. i KNEW it was nicer. i had contemplated purchasing it for myself to play with. however, now that i've touched it and seen it with my eyes, movie maker will never be the same. its like going back to front page from visual studio. its like going back to typewriter from computer.

one thing thats kinda random about gresham, is i mostly go down one road, division st, to the church and back, to the church and back, etc. sorta like midkiff in midland. anyway, there's a train tracks crossing between where i'm staying and the church. this makes college stationers shudder and want to pull their hair out. its like the worst thing ever to be caught by a train. and then there's that awful feeling of not seeing a train for a week-ish and then getting stopped by TWO in like one hour when you've just bought a lot of ice cream at h-e-b, or something like that. but the awesome thing about the train tracks in gresham are just for the Max, the public transit train thingys. the little lights come on, the thing dings, the crossbars go down, and the train goes by....for like 2 seconds. and then, in less time than a red light its over, and you can keep driving. i'm so used to college station trains that when i see the lights go on i get kinda frustrated, and i'm like rats its the train, but then i'm like oh yeah, its like 2 seconds long. its getting stopped by the train without the inconvience.

camping

so last weekend i went to the church campout. generally when i think of camping i think of camping as it is in texas...think: circle 6 ranch in stanton. but camping in oregon is rather different. we drove a couple hours to the coast, and voila, the pacific ocean with a nice beach, complete with golf course, hiking trails, boat ramps, etc. and its stinkin cold in the night time. i wore 3 shirts, a sweatshirt, 2 pairs of pants, cuddled up in a blanket by the fire and was almost warm enough.

we happened to be there during the meteor shower, so i went as "the adult" (haha) with some of the youth down to the beach late that night to watch the meteors. i took my guitar and we sang and lay in the sand watching the stars. also we had a campfire and made s'mores of course. i only stayed for one night. i went up friday night, led the worship time for church service saturday morning, and drove back with a friend that afteroon to be back in time for church that night. it was just the right length of camping for me.

so i decided the way to camp is to have a trailer/RV/some cool place to chill in, and most importantly sleep in at night. some scream that "thats not camping". to them, i shrug. to me, camping is falling asleep on the couch in front of the tv. i think my family's been camping about exactly once (not counting a glorieta experience) and it was miserable. probably due to the fact that the wind was blowing so hard the tents kept collapsing. and the park ranger wouldn't let the dad's park their trucks by them as a windblock, because it could damage the grass. and to that i say, grass??? you mean that brown dead stuff? but i digress. i was wanting to say that camping is a whole stinkin lot of work. all the preparations to go, the unpacking when you get back (Which, as many of you know, i detest), the dirtiness involved, all the work to prepare meals, etc. i think in spite of all that i might enjoy camping somewhat except everytime i go i always have severe allergies and end up being miserable for days afterwards. but what i do like about camping, particularly in beautiful places, is just being outside doing fun stuff and just marveling at the awesomeness of what God has created. maybe i'll go again...in a year or so.

the best of

you should be excited that thesharester has now surpassed the century mark in number of posts. welcome to post #102. this morning i awoke at 5am. and couldn't fall back to sleep. one of the things i did to occupy my time was sift through my painfully overloaded email inbox. this annoying task brought back many fond memories of past times, and i share with you some quotes, since i know you probably, like me, are missing the quotes.

courtesy of team awesome's awesomeness...

Ok, info lunch is a go for me. Not a go-no-go, which I know can be confusing since we learned all about those, but rather just a go. --lisa

The baker at 12?? I’m feeling the cookies. Holla back --lisa

I didn't realize there was quite that much work (i.e. we had to write a proposal?? For real, I must not listen to a word that man says) and now I feel pretty bad. Anyway, I'll try to even it out next time. Please don't hate me. --lisa

Willy needs everyone’s screenshots ASAP (aka not 11pm tomorrow night) so he can review all of them and make them look not look like 4 different people made them!
--markum

Hello friends-
I propose INFO lunch soon.
Thank you. That is all.
--will

I second the proposed motion. --lisa

Ok, new plan. No kickboxing. working out is for losers --lisa

thus, i will be at wcl sometime between 4 and 5 to work on stuff. based on
this somewhat large time frame,whoever gets there first can start working or check their email repeatedly,whichever option seems more appealing. --lisa

I hope each of you is getting straight up krunk about presenting at the CMIS board meeting. I know I am. --will

re: dgEmployees.datasource=yourmom
I am about to work on the users manual for a little while, but I should be at the lab after our game, eating, and quite possibly showering.
--lisa


Directions to my house:
[street address]
Google map it.
--lisa

TO:Team Awesome
FROM: Lisa
RE: A Team Awesome Haiku

I heart the baseball
Cracker jacks, hot dogs, Astros, WHOOP!
Methinks Wednesday

Oh, P.S., If anyone is up for washing a car, hit me up, cause I am def. in need of that.
--lisa

courtesy of family, friends, and me writing emails while bored in class...

well, bball is going well, (haha, i used the same word twice in a sentence) --freda

Sharon,
I should have asked you sooner, but I waited because I wasn't sure what you would think about this. I was wondering if you would be willing to write a letter of recommendation for me --matt

do you think you could please coordinate your blogging schedule to where i have something new to read in class on tues and thurs about 11:30ish or so? --me

right now i'm apparently learning about quadrature amplitude modulation. hmm. --me

This is a quote from Deutsch today that I thought you might like:
“If I ingest 10 grams of cyanide, I’m gonna take a dirt nap!”-Deutsch
--markum

i think it would be a fun place to go in the winter. it seems like in some parts it would be a very cozy place. some places. cuz you know, living under a bridge doesn't sound very comforting or cozy rite now. --freda

notice i now have 50 invitations for Gmail...pssh like i even know that many people
--me

ummm can i just say PROPS to you for sleeping until noon. everyone should do this occasionally. i wish i could sleep till noon.......ah yes, thats right, i DO, fairly often i must admit --me

ok i'm sorta laughing at this girl in front of me who is writing this letter, saying she missed the q-drop deadline because she had a severe migraine. she's pulled up on google an article on symptoms of a migraine, and is listing them and saying she has a history of those symptoms. i wonder if its true, and if so why she has to look up the symptoms. more importantly, i wonder if it will work for her? --me

Happy graduation to you - see below
You might not care too much about the reserved seats since you don't get to sit in them, but the parking passes at least should make things more convenient.
--matt

what up? are you bored yet? we're...well, read my blog and you'll know. why write it twice? --cynthia

firin' it up

so i know i'm just a few states over to the west, but sometimes i feel like i'm in another country. or perhaps its that texas is the different country and i've finally found myself in the united states of america. but regardless, sometimes these people, whom i love, say WEIRD stuff. i've learned to ignore the use of the word 'pop' for carbonated beverages. in fact, sometimes i even say it. but to remind everyone that i came from texas i say it like 'paawwwwp.'

the other day the family i'm staying with was going to grill some hamburgers for dinner. however, up here they prefer to call it 'barbeque some burgers'. because they call their grill a barbeque. i dont know whats up with that. i dont even know how to spell barbeque i'm realizing at this moment. but the most disturbing is when they shorten barbeque to barbie. and then declare that they should go fire up the barbie. i only know that perhaps one of my sisters might just burst into tears if my dad ever wanted to go light the barbie.

however the pop and barbies are all worth it because, as i experienced monday, the coast is a mere 2 hours away, and bam, you are chillaxin the day away on cannon beach. i like the ocean. and the day before, one hour, and you are near mt. st. helens, and i went with friends exploring down in the 'ape caves' formed by lava. cool stuff.

the worst occupation ever

so last week while i was helping to roof a house, i was convinced that being a roofer must indeed be the worst job ever. it was hot. and we were in washington. transport to texas and i cant even fathom how miserable roofing must be. it was boring. teenagers can apparently learn to do its basics in one week. i became known as the best author on our crew...because of my proficiency at creating books of shingles. on saturday i didn't even know there WERE books of shingles. after my experience i came away with many things, the top 2 being that roofing is hot and manual labor and i dont get along so i'm glad i went to college.

however today i was reminded that there are MANY jobs worse than being a roofer. today i had to go to downtown Portland for some pre-employment drug testing. i quickly decided that the people that work in this clinic must have the most undesirable jobs ever. to Barb's credit, she did seem rather cheerful. i think SHE must be on drugs to be able to maintain a positive attitude in such an atmosphere.

however even as i'm typing this i can think of even more undesirable jobs. i wont ever forget one my most favorite teachers ever in the 6th grade admonishing the boys to study hard or they'd end up being garbage collectors, intended as the worst put down she could muster. but to them, one of whom is now an outstanding musician and the other a linguist in france, and another who plays football for a division 1 school, all they could think of is that garbage collectors at least got to drive big trucks.

insert some clever title here

i take great satisfaction in seeing those blogs birthed out of inspiration garnered from my own blog (at least i choose to view it that way) consistently out-posting my own. however, after an insanely busy month of summer activities, i find it rather difficult to find a post worthy of breaking my long silence, which leads to longer silence, which leads us to today: you better post something or people will stop checking, unless that has already happened. i find, unfortunately, that the longer you go without putting something up, the harder it is to think of something to put up, because there are so many things that have happened, or perhaps just because you are out of practice.


however you should know that i had an excellent july. august has started off wonderfully, with a white water rafting trip yesterday, topped off with enchiladas for dinner. and the second day of august finds me taking my second day off in the past 30 days.

last week i spent up in washington with some of our youth on a mission project. tomorrow i will tell you some about my experiences with manual labor. today i will leave you with the quote of july. it has to do with a system set up at the mission project for encouraging others. each participant had an envelope posted on the wall where others could leave encouraging notes, called encouragrams. midway through the week, one girl wanted to thank me for a note that i'd written her and loudly exclaimed across a roomful of people, "hey sharon, thanks for the mammogram!"

sweet yummy goodness

some generous transplanted texan friends invited me over tonite to share in their precious supply of.....blue bell homemade vanilla ice cream. they have 2 family visitors up visiting from texas and they brought it packed in dry ice on the plane. it was most great. now if only we could figure out how to get sonic....

tonite was also fun because of youth group...it was water games night. we played water baseball. to bat, one stands in a small wading pool. from there on each base is also a small wading pool. to score a run one must slip and slide into a pool of water. lots of wetness and fun times.

sweet, salty, and chocolatey

so last week i made the trek up to eastern washington, practically all the way to idaho, for centrifuge youth camp. it was really a great week. there were some really funny things that happened, and funny skits and videos were plentiful. perhaps one of the best parts of the week was the snacks provided on the way up there. the pastor's family is from down South and thus quite familiar with long road trips. they provided a cooler full of drinks, even calling to ask my preference, and then brought 3 shoeboxes. one was the sweet box which had things like cookies and jolly ranchers, etc. the salty box had handi snacks, sour cream & onion pringles, and other such salty pleasures. then there was the chocolate box. at first one might think it could be combined with the sweet box but of course it cannot--chocolate is its own category. and it was full of chocolate, all sans peanuts, a most thoughtful thing.

other good things about camp were guitar jamming sessions, tubing behind the ski boat, watching a 450lb man blob someone, softball games, a glow in the dark frisbee, the cool weather, being "an adult", and the mega relays.

best sayings of the week:
"good gandhi!"
"oh my gross"

"knocketh knocketh knocketh. tappeth tappeth tappeth. rrrrrappeth rrrappeth rrrrapeth. i've come to ask your daughters hand in marriage."
"just her hand?"
"no, her whole body."
"oh. well, no."
"no?"
"no no"
"no no?"
"no no no"
"no no no?"
"yes"
"YES?"
"NOOOOOO"

i got the power

howdy doody. sorry for not posting in a whole week blaaah blaaah. would you believe its because i've been doing a missiony project? well its sorta true. i've been one busy chica. we've got a mission team head to brazil in august, and they want to take at least 10,000 power band bracelets with them. you know the ones that help you tell the plan of salvation with the little beads? so i have been making these like there's no tomorrow. and suckering everyone else into doing the same. on sunday i hung out with some friends, then that night we were watching a girly movie and made bracelets the whole time. then i took some youth to starbucks and.....made bracelets. every nite while relaxing in the evenings i'm .....making bracelets. so far my friends and i have made 400. i have one more bag of 100 to complete before sunday. then i'm going to pick up some more because on monday i'm headed to youth camp....7 hours away. i wonder how many we can make??? it pretty much rocks knowing that each one you make might help a brazilian come to know Christ. cuz if all brazilians are as cool as the brazilians i know, we want them all in heaven with us! and one cant type blog postings and make bracelets at the same time...