finish the quote...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, whose name became synonymous with color-coded terror alerts and tutorials about how to prepare for possible attack, resigned Tuesday, saying...

possible suggestions:

a. "I thought I would go into the peace corps for a while."
b. "This color coding thing really isn't my bag, baby."
c. "I ran out of duct tape."
d. "I ran out of plastic."
e. "I ran out of both duct tape and plastic."
f. "I have stockpiled both duct tape and plastic and am moving to Canada."

Please feel free to add any other possible endings. This is after all a free blogging community.

the house

I am now, for your reading enjoyment and my entertainment, going to make a list of things that have happened in our house in Miami since we moved in.
1. No hot water for the first two weeks. Found out there were not one, but two huge leaks in our house. It required a jackhammer to fix properly.
2. The "good" shower was continually being coated with a fresh batch of worms daily.
3. Ants...Ants....Ants....and more Ants. They officially own the house. We are their new tenants. Hopefully we can coexist in peace. And by that I mean that I can single handedly wipe out the entire colony so they will stop running all over our kitchen.
4. Rats. In the garage. In the ceiling. In the walls. I guess they got along with the ants just fine.
5. Cockroaches the size of you index finger. I'm not making this up or overexagerating. They are freakin' huge! One of them began talking to me with a Cuban accent. Okay, that I made up.
6. Termites in the baseboards and generally all over anything else made of wood in the house. The ants tolerate them as well I suppose.
7. Blocked up pipes due to roots that are growing where else but under our street. Which would require a little more than a jackhammer to fix.
8. A front door that fell off. That's right....it just fell completely off the house one day. Termites had eaten it all the way through. It finally got cleaned up today after laying in the front yard for two weeks.
9. One house tenting early this month which officially killed everything living thing in the house. Hoorah!!!
10. However, the tenters did not remove the dead pests after they pumped our house full of who knows how many chemicals. Therefore our house reaked of dead rats for about two weeks or so.
11. The ants did not die. Obviously they are smarter than us, this much is clear. I think the tenting experience just pissed them off becuase there are now more than ever.
12. The house is now filling up with flies becuase of the dead rats. I think that they made a deal with the ants.


Who knows what else will happen throughout the year. I'll keep you posted. That is unless the ants decide that I should not.

i am applying

Alright folks. I know that you have all been sitting at home watching in anticipation of this announcement. YES, I am applying to grad schools! I have decided to just go for it and hope for the best. I have been sitting on many of these applications for quite some time now. Some of these programs I have been considering since before I went to grad school the first time! I will be applying for my MSW (Masters in Social Work). So far the schools to make the cut are UIC (University of Illinois Chicago), Loyola (Chicago), NYU (New York), and possibly BU (Boston). That was in order of preference for those of you who are really interested. Tune in two months from now when a live studio audience will be voting on which school should choose me. If I make it past this next round I MAY win $10,000. Or I may loose the $200+ that I'm having to shell out for these things when it's all said and done. Wish me more than luck. I need it.

unwittingly drafted

I had a revelation the other day that I am now "in ministry." Someone here referred to me as a missionary when introducing me to one of their friends. Somehow this thought hadn't occurred to me prior to this encounter. A missionary? Me? I'm just a grad-school drop-out who was sick of working her two dead-end food service jobs and not feeling like she was going to make a difference in the world by serving random people pasta. I'm no missionary. And then it hit me, I raised my own support, I'm working through a church, I'm living in Christian community
....awwww crap, I'm a missionary. How did that happen? It seemed odd to me that I had never thought of it that way. I saw this year as an opportunity to try something new, stretch my wings, and by the way help some people...but I never really intended on being labled a missionary. Isn't missions something that someone is specifically called to, perhaps a major in bible college? But certainly not something someone realizes they already are?
I always said while at LCC that I would never work in a church. I don't like churches that much as far as the institutional standpoint. I see preachers who are stomped on by their congregations and placed under unrealistic scrutiny by their parishoners and I never wanted to be a part of that system. I want to do ministry without the problems and expectations of a "church." I guess that's kind of what I'm doing here as a "missionary." I work as a community music school director and that basically means that I function as an adminstrator, a secretary, an assistant, a facilitator, a teacher, a mentor, and a friend to many. It's a very ambiguous role that is sometimes confusing and sometimes perfect. In my quest to thwart the traditional institution roles of the church I have unwittingly been drafted as a "missionary."

And to top it all off, now I'm thinking about Seminary...yet another thing I said that I would not do when I graduated from bible college. It seems as though God has a way of getting me to do things that I seemingly didn't want to do.

Let us keep testing this theory...I never want to marry a Godly, handsome, charming, intelligent man.

Bring it!

i'm not whining

So I realized while filtering through my last few entries that I am an utter and complete whiner. I have written mostly negative things on this blog for the past two months. For those of you not keeping track that is about the same amount of time that I have been in Miami. However, this weekend really changed a lot for me. I had an unexpectantly great weekend traveling with our high school band Drive to a small country church outside of Tampa. I wasn't looking forward to it, infact I was pissed that I had to leave at 2am and wouldn't arrive at our destination until 8am! I was already exhausted from the week and didn't feel like not sleeping for a weekend.
But when I woke up and stumbled out of the van it was as if I had been transported to another world. A world with trees and small white country churches and sweet poeple who cooked us biscuits and gravy for breakfast with eggs and fresh squeezed orange juice. I laughed with the band members and we played and sang and enjoyed the company of cordial country folk along with their homemade pumpkin pies. I felt like I had gone back in time where people actually knew their neighbors and there was a sense of love, if not that of mutual understanding. I felt safe and comfortable and peaceful all at once. And then it came to me.... I like the country. I would have never said that say, three months ago, but there is an overwhelming peace when you are somewhere quiet and open and green. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still a city-loving girl...but a calming trip to the country every once and while is soothing to say the least.
Anyway, I had a great ride back to Miami, most of which I spent laughing and I felt mostly refreshed and ready to tackle the loud and busy city once again. I was once again taught that God often works in ways we don't expect. I didn't expect to enjoy this weekend. I expected to be worn out and exhausted and crabby and annoyed. But God had in mind amazing peace and joy and fellowship. I am glad to say that the whiner did not triumph. For once cynicism did not get the best of me. Amen.