my new best friend...

...two posts in one day, aren't you lucky. sarah and i went to the park tonight (for those of you who don't know i'm staying with sarah magarian while her parents are in mexico) to swing and enjoy the sun. this adorable red head with braces marches up to me and sits down on the swing next to me. i told him he had cool shoes, he said thanks. then he starts doing serious dismounts of the swing to impress me. i told him he was a great jumper- he should look into swing olympics. i ask him how old he is...he says 9. he tells me that he was born in italy at which point sarah asks if that's in france (she's serious). he tells me his name is pietro. but hearing it from an adorable 9 year old in an italian accent is so cute. it was like he declared it, he didn't just say my name is pietro....he owned it. i told him is english is great for only having been here a few years and he tells me that he wants to learn other languages so he can understand all people of the world. so this 9 year old and i start having a border line philosphical conversation about languages and people. he was so intelligent and adorable. he told me to come back tomorrow if the weather's nice....i told him i would have to ask my mom (i think he thought i was like 12). i love kids, they are so awesome if you just listen to them.


in other news i have a stye and an infection in my eye:-(

my friend is a celebrity...

....check it out. my friend kristina is working for the democratic national convention in denver. she moved there two weeks ago and is already being interviewed...phenomenal. i may have her as a guest blogger b/c her stories already sound like sammy's hill. and if you are a girl and you haven't read sammy's hill you absolutely have to.

are you for real...

...this is what i thought as i read someone's license plate cover this morning on my way into work. first of all, Oregon drivers never cease to amaze me at how ignorant they are. we all know that when you get a mile or so from the tunnel on 26, you can't change lanes b/c it's pretty dangerous and can causes a headache of a traffic jam. so mr. shiny mercedes decides he's going to get over w/o a blinker. wonderful idea. i slam on my breaks. i'm ticked off but not really pissed. b/c of his awesome manuvere i am close enough to read his license plate cover. it reads "i would rather be killing terrorists". are you kidding me? now my juices are boiling. i can't believe he (1) actually paid to have that put on something and (2) would then take the time to put it on his car. now, don't get me wrong, i'm not a fan of "terrorists" but i am a fan of human life and don't think any human has the right to judge the finality of life. i would LOVE to ask him when he first learned about "terrorists" and what the word means to him. who does he classify as a "terrorists"? b/c newsflash buddy: terrorism has been going on for centuries..if history repeats itslef (as it normally does) terrorism is not likely to end in our lifetime.

so after all that ran through my mind i decided to pray for mr. shiny mercedes. i would love to have a conversation about why he felt compelled to state that he would rather kill people than oh gee i don't know...go golfing!!!! his statement, whether he really beieves it or not, scares me. have we let our media and national dialouge be so independednt that he thinks it's okay to say he would like to kill another person? if that's the case...heaven come down!

today was....

.... wonderful. i got up after the first good night sleep in a long time, volunteered again at the orphans overseas booth, drove with my windows down listening to all the sounds outside, cleaned my room, layed in the grass and had an awesome day. my sister, traci, and i wanted to take nikolette to the tulip farm to take pics. well, we didn't think all of western oregon would be going there too. we were in traffic for freakin two hours...LAME. but no worries, we stopped at the brooks truck stop and had a great time. we came back to my parents house and played with nikolette and took some cute pics:







the first one is my favorite. she is chowin' down on a pear and the dog is waiting 'till she can get a piece. we had fun. traci and nikolette spent 2 hours in the back seat so i'm pretty sure they are buds now. nikolette is such an awesome baby. it was a great day, the sun was therapeutic.

other thoughts:
*wish i could quit my job to travel with an aide organization
*can't wait to move out
*i miss zach
*i miss kristina
*i was desperate for some sun
*i need to make more time to read
*lately, i can't listen to the news...it always makes me angry
*the differences between young/old on church issues are fascinating
*traci is a good friend
*i am looking into dance classes again
*balancing friends/boyfriend time is so tough
* god has been putting interesting thoughts about the future in my heart lately
*wouldn't mind having a good cigar to smoke tonight
*life is good....

peacelove

....

...a thousand times i fail, still your mercy remains...

there is such comfort in truth

did you see....

...i caught the tail end of american idol last night and they were singing "My Jesus My Savior"...how cool was that?!

okay, ill admit it...

...i am a john tesh fan. his radio voice at night is so soothing (zach makes fun of me for it) and i love the intelligence for your life pieces. my friends and i had a conversation the other day about laundry. i know, i know...it's weird but that's just how we are. two of us were brought up with moms who always told us to buy clothes a size bigger b/c "it will shrink in the wash". besides the fact that this is the greatest lie i can remember during my childhood--bigger than the Easter Bunny (i've only had one thing shrink in my life and that was b/c it was thrown in the drier like 11 billion times) we both grew to do laundry very differently. both of our moms were sorters but kristina and i do things very different, she piles and i do it all. i do two loads; light and dark. hot/cold. simple as that. pretty much everything goes in the dryer except for some jeans and work stuff but, i as i learned in college, laundry is a time sucker so why make things more complicated with "piles"? tonight i was crusiung the john tesh website for some random tidbits of info and came across this bit about laundry so i thought i would share it:

Set the washing machine to COLD. If every person washed four out of five loads in cold water, it could keep 50 tons of nasty carbon emissions out of the atmosphere per year. An added bonus? It’ll make your clothes last longer and you’ll save money, too.

pretty neat, eh? laundry takes up so mcuh time and i am always amazed at how some people can become so controlling over their laundry. does it matter that much to your family?

are you a laundry freak?

peacelove

procrastinating...

...i feel like i'm in college again. tonight, i found myself at a coffee shop with my headphones, hot chocolate and papers strewn about a tabletop. i'm working on a big RFP for a client we already work for. it's a great project with both creative and community outreach components. so i'm sitting here, excited about the project and the chance to bid for it and i'm stuck. maybe it has to do with the lack of sleep i got this week in my hotel in medford. maybe it has to do with all the sugar i've had today. maybe it has to do with the world of warcraft team that seems to be playing all around me. i don't know what it is but i'm just stuck and my butt is sore from sitting.

in other news, i absolutely love my new book. last october i started eat, pray, love and still have not finished it. at christmas i started a book about which detailed the theory of the government using fear tactics on the american people after 9/11. it was interesting but i couldn't get into it. then i started yet another book that i couldn't get into. finally, i found one i love. it's called acts of faith by philip caputo. this book follows two mercenaries as they travel into the sudan to provide aide to the starving/struggling sudanese people. they come to africa with good intentions, wantin to save the world one person at a time and end up getting entangled in the moral battle that is africa. who is good and who is evil. basically it plays off the phrase TIA or this is africa. behind every good deed is an evil outcome. it's really good so far and fairly believable. i'm really considering going to africa in the fall so i am exposing myself to both far-feched and not so far-feched concepts. anywhoo, it's a good read.

okay- back to work i go

peace love