Monday, June 26, 2006

And it's called a journal

Okay, so the previous post was rather like a pressure valve- kind of vague, irritable and not fun to read. So I am now going to actually blog/journal. It's more interesting, I suppose.

;)

Friday night was VBS. It was only my second night going, circumstances kept me from going more frequently. I taught the lesson, and I think it was okay. I didn't see any children mis-behaving or falling asleep, which is always a promising sign. I was going to go to a drive in movie afterwards, but I was told it was "The DaVinci Code" and since I had read it was exceptionally boring, and because Debi wanted me to come over and spend time with her- I opted not to go. I'm not sorry that I didn't. I heard everyone was bored. And I'm now eight dollars richer, on top of getting time with my favorite Debi. :) We went walking, and went probably about 4 miles. It was dark by the time we got back, but we had chatted and caught up, which was wonderful.

Saturday morning I worked. At the Worrell's. I don't know if I will call this my "job" any more. It's so incredibly fun. We played soccer for an hour, went swinging, and took several wagon rides. All very, very fun.

Went home and tried to get beautiful (because the boy was supposedly coming at 2ish.) However, ended up playing the piano and then falling asleep on the couch only to be awakened after 3 by a phone call and a delay of the visit. At five we finally left for Indy. A bunch of us went to an Indians game (Jenny, Sarah, Micah, Jason, Chris, Me, Dave, Matt, Tristan, Leah- who I met that night). The game was rather boring. I'm not a huge baseball fan. But Jenny and I chatted the whole time- I hadn't seen her since school ended. And of course with Sarah there, I felt cuter. She just has that effect... she makes you want to, and also imagine yourself as cute. It's very nice of her.

The game went into overtime, it was 11 o'clock, and so we decided to leave. Steak 'n' Shake was the only restaurant open. So I ate my chicken fingers and cheese sauce with great relish, and resisted the temptation of a milkshake. It was rough. But I was strong. :)

Chris and I didn't get back to my house until 1:30. Late, late!

Sunday morning was awesome! I think I say that every week. I just love going to church and worshipping with other believers. I don't think there's anything more exciting than that. It's wonderful. All the college students sat in the front row- it's our new thing. I'm pretty sure when everyone comes back to school it will continue. From here on out we will claim the first 3 rows. Hey- we're Baptist! No one sits there any way! ;)

It poured Sunday afternoon. And I went to lunch at the Hoffman's. Mr. Hoffman (I suppose I'm supposed to call him "Jim" but I really can't...) grilled out, and Mike Luepke prepared his burgers in a special way. Apparently Mike is trying to body build this summer and is being incredibly particular about eating and exercising. His goal: gain 3 lbs. a week. My goal: lose 3 lbs. a week. :)

Sunday night I watched David while Scott and Cynda went to the VBS closing program. Then several girls and I went over to the Aucoin's for a movie night. We didn't actually watch the movie- we just talked. It was grrrrreat.

Now it's Monday morning, my first full day at Purdue. It's a very nice job, with very nice people, although it can tend to get a little slow. But so far I haven't incorrectly transferred anyone or hung up on any one, so I consider that a HUGE plus. Tonight I work at the Worrell's so my total working hour will be about 12 hours. It's a little rough and exhausting, but I suppose that's life... and in all reality, I have it very good.

Well, have a spiffy day! I'll "blog" to you later!

Very Confused... i.e. Feeling like normal

Okay, I'm not sure exactly what is going on- all the posts except for the one directly previous to this one are whited out and my profile is at the bottom of the page. I have no idea how this happened, I didn't do anything (at least, not intentionally) my blog just decided to go balistic on me.

Well, life has kinda gone ballistic on me... not in a bad way, just in several hard ways. I guess that's okay. After all, the hard stuff is what is supposed to shape, define, and perfect your character, right? After a series of bumps, you are, supposedly, supposed to be a better person. However, what if I don't WANT to be a better person? Hmmm? How about that? What if I am exceptionally happy with being a shallow, insipid, rather bland person? What if being flawed is more fun?

That's funny, "being flawed is more fun." I am living out perfect examples of why being flawed is not more fun. Sticky relationships, failed promises, a lack of growth, a lack of servanthood. You name it- I've done it. Not that a lot of good things haven't happened as well- I'm loving this summer more than probably any other summer. It's super fabulous! I just wish I was a little more wise, omniscient, all-powerful, intelligent, and loving. However, I'm not. But maybe the series of events that I have put myself through is what will help me grow (with very little steps, it seems!) more like Jesus Christ.

I just want to be done growing.

I want to be perfect.

In other news- I think I'm going to have THE most fabulous 4th of July EVER. Friday night I'm leaving with a bunch of friends for Michigan for a weekend by Lake Michigan. A friend (i.e. Mike Luepke) is having a hoop-la at his house Friday night thru Tuesday night. It'll probably be pretty late-ish when we get back, and I have to work the next day, but who cares? You're only young once! So, after a week of biking, bonfires, fireworks, swimming, and cook-outs, I can guarantee that I will be redder than a lobster and very, very tired. I can hardly wait. The fam is going to Chicago, so I suppose this is the first official family holiday that I've skipped out of. I'd feel bad, except I'm almost 21. At almost 21 there are a LOT of holidays that you have gone to, and so you don't feel as bad for missing one.

I think that's all in the Courtney world... I wish I was perfect, I'm having a great summer, life is good, and rough, and after tonight I think I will be much more rested, peaceful, and at ease. However, I also believe that I'll cry. Which is never fun.

All well.

Friday, June 23, 2006

I've always had an urge to post something with a title longer than the actual blog. So here it is. My day is going spiffily-Hope your's is too!

The End.

:)

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Yessssssss!

I took an on-line personality test and it told me I was a monkey. Very flattering, no?

And the summer goes on...

I'm a little tired. A rather limp lethargy that makes me want to be lazy and yet do great things at the same time. A tired that has a conflict of interests. Perhaps that tiredness comes from sitting at a desk waiting for a phone to ring, or praying that I can find all the mail inboxes that I have letters for. That may be it. Or, perhaps it's a lethargy that was created by my rather late night last night...

So, there was VBS. We yelled and screamed, I was appropriately coated in red face paint. We ate snacks, made faces, jumped on the moon walk thing, and listened (oh so very carefully!) to the lesson. (Friday is my day to teach the lesson and I'm a little anxious... I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep 60 4th graders' attention...) But then, after VBS it was PARTY TIME!!!!!!

Amanda, Alex, Lee, Micah, Cameron, Jason, Mike, and Bethany all went to Leah's where we proceeded to eat pizza, play spoons, euchre, and talk about Lee's womanizing. He was trying to give all the guys hints... apparently he's a player, which made all of us laugh. Mike proceeded to tell us how many calories are in various fast food meals, and gave a dissertation on the benefits of weight lifting. Jason's job was to make fun of me and my use of the English language. Amanda did NOT pout after losing spoons (!), and Cameron (the newbie) proceeded to look very confused at our loud, raucous behavior. My job, as always, was to put my foot in my mouth over and over again... "The boy" called while we were partying and left a message to the effect that "It was probably too late, and I was in bed." Nope. Not sleeping. Definitely partying. Besides, any guy who doesn't call for 3 WHOLE WEEKS even though he is dating me doesn't merit a party-interrupting phone conversation. (Okay, just kidding, I didn't know he had called until I left.)

Today (or rather tonight) is VBS again. We do crafts tonight. I was getting so excited, I thought I had missed craft night, but no such luck. Blah. Now I have to be crammed into an impossibly small room with 60 4th graders and puffy paint. Not a fun combo. :) But, before that, the mom and I are going to go shopping. It's about time... I haven't bought shorts for about 2 years now, I kinda need some new ones. Plus, I just love to shop!

Okay, I'm going to return to "The Grapes of Wrath." Yes, it is depressing me, but I think that's okay because Steinbeck is such an incredible writer. Is it okay to be depressed by genius?

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Me: Official Messer-upper

Bother. I got involved in my life again. I always do that. Inevitably things are going well, and then I become involved and *pow* and I completely mess EVERYTHING up. I'm very tired of me doing that...

I understand that there's a master plan and that God has it all completely figured out, but it makes it very difficult to believe when I continue to mess things up. Someday I'm going to be infallible- that's the dream. Heaven looks really good when you mess up on earth. YAY for perfection!!!

I suppose at this point it would be good to be completely crushed. Broken. But I'm not. Just rather frustrated and tired of dealing with me. So, in the future "Me" is going to follow these guidelines:

- "Me" will do the right things even when not easy.
- "Me" will have the hard talks rather than running away from them.
- "Me" will think and pray and wait before leaping into anything.
- "Me" will be more others-focused and less self-focused.
- "Me" will buy nicer hair products.

(The last one was thrown in there for good measure...) Yup. Me will now be wiser. I feel it coming. If not- my life is going to be rather messy. Blah!

I think the new me will also go shopping for shorts tomorrow...

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

And it's Tuesday...

Yup. Here's another blog entry... I'm sitting at this desk with three pieces of mail for which I have no mail box. I really don't want to go back down stairs to find out what I'm supposed to do because I've already been down there several times. I locked myself out, and then I couldn't find postage. I'm inclined to believe that I'm more trouble than I'm worth.

Today I have a severe case of "I don't want to settle down." and "I want to travel the world!" I get them quite frequently. They're urges that are often accompanied by my "I want Gucci shoes" and "I want to be a partying single socialite when I graduate" moods. I'm afraid I'm not very docile, and I'm rather inclined to be independent. All well, perhaps someday I'll be less selfish and kinder.

But not today.

I'm reading "The Grapes of Wrath." I anticipate it taking a long time- not because I'll mull over it and try to digest it fully, but rather because I'm very depressed by it, and I have a feeling that I won't like it. Books have a great amount of impact on my moods. It would be safe to say that they have a greater impact than people. That can be good or bad. If I'm mainly people-izing it's good. If I'm bored out of my mind and my only summer recreation is going to the library- it's bad.

Tonight is VBS. I'm helping in 4th grade and Ian Heinz is my special responsibility. He doesn't need much help, just a little every now and then when he gets frustrated by his handicap. Poor boy. He's quite tall. Close to my height. But we have fun together, and the other kids will (of course!) add a little levity to the night. My mom's helping in 1st grade.... she says her gift is not with younger children- especially when there are 67 of them. I don't think anyone's gift is younger children if there are that many of them. That must be the reason why God made it impossible to have that many (except maybe by Eve- poor woman...)

Well, I shall return to my reading. Perhaps I'll try to find something in this office kitchenet to clean... although I've already tried that several times...

Monday, June 19, 2006

Imaginary Day

Okay. I'm back at work. It's Monday and I'm sitting very complacently at my impeccable desk, once again waiting for the phone to ring. I've finished my coffee (yum-yum for mocha cappucinos) and the humidity is starting to pull the curl from my hair and poof and frizz it at the same time. I love Indiana summers...

I've been musing about my life, and, although I must admit it is very pleasant, it is not very eventful. So this entry is going to be entirely fictitious. I have a feeling that you would enjoy it more than the boring, bald facts.

*************************************

I awoke early this day. It was completely dark with just a smudge of gray along the horizon. I pushed the enormous down comforter off me and fumbled around in the dark for my slippers. Even though it was June, the weather was still chilly up in the Austrian mountains. Besides, when in Europe, one simply must breakfast in one's robe and slippers. It makes one feel quite European and cosmopolitan. (Though I'm quite sure that very few Europeans actually do eat a leisurely breakfast in their pjs...)

But this morning I didn't sip my coffee as leisurely as I normally do- I didn't have to reheat it once. Nope. I downed it in a gulp and then started digging through my drawers, leaving my broichen half finished. If you've ever had broichen you know that this is quite a feat. A hot broichen with nutella is not easy to ignore. But I was excited about something else. Donning my newly purchased, thermal body suit, I quickly slapped on my carefully chosen accessories. For, even when doing extreme sports, one must be stunningly fashionable. I cut several poses in the mirror before tightening my hair into a very severe ponytail. Glancing at my watch I did a rapid inhalation and bolted down the stairs.

There, at the curb was a very American jeep. It looked very awkward on the cobblestone road, but many American things look awkward on these streets, especially my new stilettos. Don't ever walk on cobblestones in heels. Awkward falls are inevitable. In the jeep, propping her eyes open with one hand and clutching a hot tea with the other was Keturah. She groaned and laughed when she saw my completely coordinated outfit. But being a good friend, she leaned over and opened the door for me since my hands were full of our lunch and my knapsack.

"You really don't need all of that, you know." I muttered something about emergencies. "Hmmm, last I knew there was no emergency that necessitated three different kinds of lipgloss, Charles Dicken's Our Mutual Friend, a camera, and hairspray."

I grinned. "Okay, okay. But you never know- when your poor little chapped lips are burning and your hair refuses to stay up, you will come crawling to me- begging for my 'necessities'." She did a snorting laugh and pointed to a cup next to her-

"Tea. For you. Come on. Let's go."

As we drove out through the town and began winding our way up through the mountains, the sun began to turn the sky behind us a subtle pink. I breathed deeply and grinned at Keturah.

"Wanna sing 'On Top of Old Smokey'?" And we did. Much to the consternation of some nearby cows.

Our final destination was a castle. Or rather haf ruin, half castle. Waiting for us at the dilapidated gate was a 50ish man who looked rather disgruntled. I couldn't understand him, but Keturah said he was rather upset at having to get up so early. I didn't have much sympathy. I was suffering from jet-lag and fully awake. Besides, if one is going to hang glide, one should do it off of a castle in Austria. At sunrise.

He led us up some crumbling old stairs to the highest tower on the furthest wall. The cliff dropped off sharply below us and in the distance there was nothing but rolling farmland. I grinned. It was impossible not to. In the gray light we fumbled with our gear, driving the little old man to exasperation. Keturah at least knew "right" and "left" in German. I was clueless. But after finishing all the strapping in we were ready to go and the sun was peeking up over the horizon. With one last look at each other, one final grin, we both turned and ran off the wall.

There was one truly terrifying moment when I seemed to plunge towards the ground, and then suddenly I was flying. No words can possibly describe that feeling. I'm convinced that in heaven we will be able to fly without grumpy Austrian men and 50 bizillion buckles and straps. I can hardly wait!

We landed (too soon!) in a field about a mile from our rendevous car. (My little VW rental.) If you have never carted two hang gliders down a mile of Austrian country roads, then you have not truly lived. The sun was fully up by now and my stomach grumbled as I remembered my uneaten broichen.

The car was there. (We were beginning to think that we were lost.) And we deposited our gear at the nearby farmhouse, presumably owned by the grumpy man's daughter. At least, Keturah said she thought she was his daughter. I don't know. I just nodded and smiled.

Then we had to drive all the way back to the castle and get the jeep. It was quite a drive, but I had brought my favorite Disney tunes and we yowled along to those until Keturah got the idea to sing along to organ fugues. It was quite amusing. I got to sing the bass line. Keturah has a great falsetto...

We tried to eat our picnic lunch at the castle, but it had been sitting in the sun in the jeep for several hours and the sandwiches smelled funny. The apples were rather warm, and my favorite chocolate cake was a gooey mess. So instead we opted for a game of knights and princesses in the deserted castle. Neither one of us wanted to be the princess. It sounded too boring to sit and wait to be rescued. So we played two knights who were out to free the castle from its rooms full of dragons. We did the job very neatly, I might add. Granted, two twenty-something girls running around an ancient castle looks rather funny to a casual observer, but that's probably because that casual observer has never really had fun.

It was three-ish when we got back to the village. I was famished. So we showered (fighting dragons is sweaty business) and met at a little cafe where we proceeded in confirming to the natives that all Americans are gluttons. We then visited a house where Jews had hidden from Hitler, and took random pictures at every street corner and monument. No tame smiley pictures for us, no sirree-bob. I even got yelled at by a policeman for my Napolean picture (His statue gave me a piggy-back ride), but Keturah didn't get caught for her guillotine action on the one of Marie Antoinette. Lucky duck...

Dinner at this ritzy place. We dressed quite stylishly, then it was an evening concert outside. Apparently this place was some sort of accordian production capital. And we arrived just in time for the accordian festival.

It was midnight when we returned to the hotel and fell into bed. I made Keturah pack her bag before she slept, though. If she wanted to use the bathroom for her customary 30 minutes tomorrow there would be no time for packing, and we had to leave by 8 to make it to Paris before dark. She'll thank me in the morning. Tonight she just looked at me ruefully and said,

"If I'm grumpy in the morning- it's your fault."

"Of course you'll be grumpy in the morning. But since you're always taciturn anyway in the morning, I don't think I'll really notice..."

I proceeded to mash down my clothes and tuck toiletries in the the corners of my suitcase. Tomorow was Paris.

Tomorrow would be wonderful...

Friday, June 16, 2006

Yada, yada, yada...

Hi.

It's summer again. Invariably my summers consist of an office job where I have little or nothing to do other than clean the office kitchenet. I already cleaned the kitchenet. So now I'm blogging. It has been 2 months and a week since I last composed an entry, and I wish I could use this next paragraph to say I'm sorry for my gross neglect to my scanty readership, but that would be lying. I'm not really sorry. The last month of school was tough, and then summer kicked in, and after spending almost every waking moment in front of a computer, I wasn't all that thrilled to do it again. (By the way, my research paper on the impact the factory girl had on the 1920's flapper was a bang-up success.... that's what stole my time from blogging. It's also what boosted me a letter grade, so I'm not going to say I'm sorry for neglecting my on-line rambles.)

But hey- now it's summer! And here I am sitting by a phone that won't ring. Of course it won't ring because I'm here. As of right now my job description consists of answering the phone and sorting mail. The mail sorting took 15 minutes. The phone hasn't rung once today. But, hey, if Purdue wants to pay me 50 dollars a day to sit and read/write. I'm not going to complain. I have no qualms about blogging on company time. The ladies told me to bring a book, or find something to do.

Speaking of books I'm going through at least 3 a week. Sometimes four. This week I've done one a day. Yes, I work 40+ hours a week, but I'm addicted to reading and so I stay up to all hours of the night to finish my daily quota. That would explain my lethargy and circles under my eyes. Maybe I should get help for my addiction...

All well. I'm going to pull out another one. This one's by Booth Tarkington. He's sometimes morbid, but I hope this one won't be. It makes it so hard to be happy when you're reading a morbid book...