Unexpected Health Tips January 28, 2008

Have you ever noticed that you believe the points of view that you like?  That you will agree with the side that you would most enjoy?  I know I certainly do.  I recently came across the Health Ranger website.  He has a list of health tips, a few of which are pretty unexpected:

Exercise regularly: some form of cardio at least three times a week!

I think everyone would agree that this is a good health tip.  I like that he puts it first!  I certainly notice that I barely get sick at all when I’m in a solid routine of exercising.

Drink lots of water, it’s mother nature’s most versatile medicine

Once again, not too many would disagree.

Get 6-9 hours of sleep daily

Another no-brainer.

Meditate

Ah, now we’re getting a little unexpected.  My absolute favorite form of meditation is what I think of as the “Catholic version.”  Saying the rosary, or responding along to the mass that we’ve heard since we were infants is both calming and nurturing, to our souls and our bodies.

Buy locally grown, organic goods, preferably in season, as often as you can

I totally agree, although this is a hard one to follow.  Not too much locally grown organic produce in the midwest at the end of January! 

Nutritional supplements: whole food supplements, organic vitamins, Standard Process tablets, Alive! supplements, vitamin C

This one I currently don’t agree with.  For the most part, I think we should get our nutrients from actual food, not supplements.  Aren’t supplements and vitamins just chemicals, synthetic vitamins and minerals?  How can that be good for us?

Rainforest herbs: Amazon herbs, chanca piedra, etc.

Hmm…

Enjoy one hour of full exposure to intense natural sunlight on a near-daily basis with no sunscreen (important for vibrational nutrition and essential for mental health, bone density, vitamin D production, etc.)

Just one thought…YAY!!!!  Despite my fair skin, I think deep down I’m a beach babe.    In the winter I dream about sunshine and warm weather. 

Take absolutely no prescription drugs or pharmaceuticals whatsoever

For the most part, great!  In my personal experience there hasn’t been too many times when the benefits outweighed the side effects.  Lots of times, I’m taking an antibiotic doing something my body would do on it’s own eventually.

No visits to M.D.s or western medical doctors (visit naturopathic physicians only)

They certainly won’t poke my finger, give me a shot, insert an IV, or draw blood if I don’t show up, right??? 

No following the USDA’s ridiculous Food Guide Pyramid

After a deeper investigation into the Health Ranger website, I am on board with this one to some extent.  A person does not need meat or dairy to be nutritionally healthy, although if you choose to eat those foods they can certainly fit into a healthy diet.  I also agree that the food pyramid is misleading by implying that our diet should be based on grains.  Until it is more common to find a whole grain food than a refined grain food, this is VERY unhealthy, in my opinion!  If all or most of our grains were whole, I think it would be harmless for the most part, but I think it would be best to have a diet based on fruits and vegetables. 

No steroids, andro supplements or other questionable bodybuilding supplements

Duh!

No diet pills, stimulants or fat burning pills

Of course not! 

No fad dieting.

THANK YOU!  I love this movement that says diets don’t work.  Theoretically, a person could go from unhealthy habits, to a diet to get their health under control, to a life of healthy habits.  The truth is, it doesn’t happen that way.  A diet feels temporary, and when you give up or you reach your goal, it’s so easy to go back to the old habits because the temporary period of restriction is over.  The key, I think, is to educate yourself on what healthy eating and activity looks like, and then build healthy habits one step at a time.

To be fair, I think this guy is pretty extreme.  Balance is important.  Obviously one should see a doctor if one has been in a car accident.  And wouldn’t it be better to eat fresh produce that is not organic and was grown in South America than to not eat fresh produce at all?  And while whole grain bread offers more nutrients, fiber, and less opportunity to cause the changes that lead to diabetes, sometimes it’s not an option.  Sometimes it might be a meal that’s mostly fruits and veggies, some whole grains, and a little bit of the protein of your choosing, but other times you’ll just make the best choice you can at Burger King.  We should make the best choice possible in the situation in front of us.  That is all.

Las Vegas, part 3 January 27, 2008

We started Day 3 with a trip to the Las Vegas sign.  I think this picture looks like we’re just arriving in Las Vegas, so maybe I should have changed the story and started with this!   

 

 On the way back from the sign, we passed a chapel and Blake and Becky got married….Oh wait, I guess they did that a couple years ago!

 When we got back to the hotel, we spent some time at the pool.  We didn’t take any pictures because we just wanted to relax, take some naps, enjoy the water.  But the views will be forever in my memory.  Laying on a comfy pool lounge chair, looking up at the clear blue sky, looking up the slope of the Luxor, seeing the tops of the other nearby hotels, just soaking up the sunshine…It was absolutely wonderful.

In the evening we went to Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian.  Here we are waiting for the bus.  We were looking west, and the sun was just beating down, so I decided to stand on the bench to get some of the shade way up high.  Becky, Blake, and Meredith did the same, (Meredith is taking the picture), and then the stranger in the background did it too! 

 We took a gondola ride around little fake Venice before the show.

 

After the show, we got gelato and enjoyed it outside overlooking little fake Venice.

 We then ventured across to the Mirage to see the volcano.  It was much more entertaining than it sounds! 

 

One of my favorite moments of the trip…I am TOUCHING a REAL PALM TREE!!!  I absolutely LOVED all the palm trees in Las Vegas, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that they were real and living.  You always see palm trees at water parks, gas stations, Pier I…so in my mind, palm trees are these plastic things.  That palm tree I was touching was REAL!!!  And they were ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!

What They See Vs. Who You Are January 26, 2008

I have many Sarahs in my world…how did that happen? 

A girl named Sarah writes a blog that I read regularly, Walk Slowly, Live Wildly.  Sarah dreaded her hair one year ago.  She lives outside of the mainstream in many ways, but recently I’ve been thinking about her dreads.  My hair has stopped getting longer.  I think this is as long as it gets.  It gets dry and split at the ends, and I get it trimmed, and it’s an inch shorter for awhile and then goes back to the same length.  And not because of the trims, because I haven’t gotten it cut any more or less often over the last couple of years, and for awhile it was getting longer by the month, and now it’s just the same.  That’s not a bad thing, because I have such baby fine hair that it looks better shorter anyway.  I guess I just love long hair because it feels so girly and pretty.  In my imagination, my hair looks long and thick and beautiful, until I look in the mirror and realize that it looks flat and has no volume whatsoever.    Growing it long doesn’t make it thicker!

Do I want dreads?  No, I do not.  I would love to have such easy hair care…wash every few days, put in ponytail when it gets in the way, use headbands or beads for fun.  How simple!  Right now, if I do my hair the way I want it done, I do this: wash, condition, put in mousse, blow dry, curl, curl some more, curl some more, hairspray.  And it looks nice for an hour, and then it looks flat and stupid again.  So most days, it ends up to be this: wash, condition, put in mousse, let dry or blowdry, maybe straighten the front curlies, put in ponytail.  Still more work than dreads!

But here are the reasons that I feel I can’t consider dreads:  I don’t know anyone in my real life who has them, and I am not a very good pioneer of new things.  I don’t know what they will look like on me.  It takes at least a year to get them, and that’s a long time for a hairstyle that I don’t even know if it will look good on me.  I don’t know what parents, administration, and other teachers would think of a teacher having such a stereotyped hairstyle.  What if I were ever interviewing for a different job?  I think people would look at the dreads and not really notice whether or not I would be a good addition to their teaching staff. 

The bottom line is, I don’t really like dreads enough to put them on my own head, even if all of the above reasons weren’t true.  But the fact that those other reasons are what I think of first reveals some issues.  Do I care too much about what I look like?  Do I care too much about what other people think of me?  Do I worry too much about the future, and fail to trust that God is taking care of it?  I’m pretty sure all three answers are, YES!

What you look like is a symptom of everything else that goes on.  Attractiveness is just as much an indicator of how happy and fulfilled you are as it is how well you take care of your physical health.  I think we rely on outward appearance to make up for things.  I feel that I need to look a certain way and dress a certain way because I’m not confidant that someone would see my value through my outward appearance.  Of course there are certain things we have to follow, like dress codes for our jobs.  But why do I hesitate to make the outside reflect who I really am on the inside?  I want to blend in, I don’t want to stand out.  So I hide behind an appearance that I’m working very hard to make acceptable to others.  It goes right along with caring too much about what other people think.

For me personally, I don’t know what I would do differently to the outside.  I would still wear makeup, because I think doing makeup is fun.  I actually might experiment a little bit more with different colors and stuff.  I would color my hair more dramatically.  The highlights I have now are nice, but I want something even more interesting to look at.  At the same time, I would let my hair do it’s natural crazy wave thing most of the time, rather than fighting it with a blowdryer and a curling iron or straightener every day.  I would love to find a haircut that would compliment my face shape and the crazy waviness and baby fineness of my hair.  There are occasional days when doing my hair is fun, and when I have time to kill I always like to do someone else’s hair.  But most days, doing my hair is not fun, it’s a chore.  I would also love to have one of those little nose jewels, I don’t know what they’re really called, a piercing right on the side of your nose with just one little sparkle.

As I read that last paragraph, I realize it reflects everything else about me.  I love uniqueness, finding things that I like even if someone else may not.  I like changing, doing something different tomorrow from how I did it today.  I like putting myself into what I’m doing, rather than just blindly following a plan or a trend.  Look at how I am decorating my new apartment, or how I choose the books I want to read or the music I listen to.  Look at how I run my classroom, for crying out loud!  My very self goes against this desire to blend into the crowd.  I don’t have one red wall in my living room because I want people to remember it, nor did I choose it because it’s like other apartments.  It is there because I like it, because it looks so much different from the other rooms, because it’s more interesting to look at than just having four white-ish walls.

But that fight with the desire to fit in is very real.  Case in point…I do yoga.  I started doing yoga in college.  I love yoga.  Not too many people who read this might know that about me.  Or you might, I don’t know.  I don’t hide it or anything.  But I’ve never taken an actual yoga class.  I’ve only done what I’ve learned in books and videos, and this awesome Oxygen network yoga program that comes on at 5:00 a.m.!  I really want to learn more about yoga, so why the hesitation to take yoga with real people?  Because people in my “crowd” don’t do yoga!  Because there are stereotypes about yoga that it’s somehow religious, that it would make me less Christian, that if I do yoga I have to eat tofu and wheatgrass, and “om” every morning when I wake up.  (For the record, I have no idea what wheatgrass even is!)  But it’s easier just to not pursue it, to “be” that person that people see. 

The thing is, I already AM that person who takes yoga and has crazy wavy multi-shaded hair and a nose sparkle.  If I weren’t, I probably wouldn’t have a red wall in my living room!  The fact that I am hiding under flat, two-shades-of-brown hair and an unpierced nose doesn’t change who I am.  It makes me wonder how many other people are hiding under an appearance that doesn’t reflect who they really are.

Friday Night Ramblings… January 25, 2008

Believe it or not, the one situation where I would like to have the ability to predict the future is in car repairs!  I told you I had the option of spending 2/3 of my February paycheck on a car repair.  Well, I’m very glad I didn’t, because that’s not what was wrong with it, according to this second opinion place.  Instead, I spent about half my February paycheck on totally different stuff.  An O2 sensor, and spark plugs and boots, and an idle control box?  Is that a real thing?  Something like that.  Hold on…

Ha!  An “idle control system.”  I was right!    Anyway, he said it probably started with the O2 sensor, which fried the box, which fried the spark plugs.  He said the box and the spark plugs were totally black.  Actually that makes me feel good about the deal, because I think they fixed something that needed to be fixed!  And the car seems to start just fine tonight. 

Although…If I had gotten the O2 sensor taken care of when the check engine light first came on, maybe I wouldn’t have need an idle control box and spark plugs!  The O2 sensor was the most expensive part, but still, I have learned my lesson.  Get it checked out right away!

I’m rambling.  Here’s my point.  I wish I could know if I will constantly be paying for repairs on this car, or if this one repair will be the last one for awhile.  So far, including this one and the one where I was stranded on the side of the interstate the morning of parent-teacher conferences and had to be towed, I have spent about half the purchase price of the vehicle on repairs.  That shows you, it was a pretty cheap car to begin with, but still.  It totally blows apart my plan of paying off debt when I have these big bills.  I would like to pay off the car, as well as a couple of other things.  But now, February’s money is committed to this repair bill!

Back when I had too much consumer debt, I made this schedule.  It took awhile, but I basically made a list of how much I would pay off each balance every month, and I had it planned out when I could expect to pay off each account.  Most of that is gone now, but it took longer than the first schedule said it would.  You can’t plan for everything.  Other things come up, you need to pay a doctor bill, or a car repair.  You end up taking a trip because it’s more important to you than paying down your debt.  You buy Christmas presents.  You forget to watch your budget one month and do too much shopping.  A person simply can’t budget for every penny.  Even if a person was willing to say no to every movie, every vacation, every pair of jeans that hadn’t been planned for, what if that person has their appendix burst and ends up with an unplanned hospital bill?  Insurance is valuable, but there’s still a bill to be paid when you’re done.  You can’t have the exact amount planned for and saved in advance for every possibility.

So once again, paying off debt, though very important to me, will wait for another month.  I’m not stressed about it, at this point it’s not a crucial point.  There is still money to eat and put gas in the car, money to go out with my friends and buy clothes, even.  Severely restricting that money is what makes a person stressed about money!  The months when I’ve been counting down the days until payday and hoping there was enough gas in the car to get me to work until then…those are the months that really got screwed up.  A little…BIG…repair bill that can be comfortably paid off in two months’ time is no reason to stress.

There’s no need to rush life.  Taking time with things is a way to peace.  The Boy always seems to run a little bit late.  Sarah and I called it “Mike Time” once.  If he plans to pick me up at 6:00, I can predict that Mike Time will really be 6:05 or 6:10.  (Actually, in the morning the difference between clock time and Mike Time is even greater.)  It doesn’t bother me in the least, because I plan to be picked up at 6:00, and then at the end of getting ready I can take my time instead of feeling stressed that he’s going to be here and I won’t be ready.  I think that’s the same personality quirk that causes him to say he’ll call, and then wait until I almost think he’s forgotten before he calls.  The thing is, you can count on him to come through in the end.  If he says he’ll call, he WILL call.  If he says he’ll pick me up, he will.  He hasn’t forgotten, and he doesn’t think I’m not important to him.  He WILL do what he said he would. 

That principle can apply here, too.  I haven’t forgotten about paying off my debts.  Paying down debt is very important to me.  The fact that it’s not happening as quickly as I would like doesn’t change either of those statements.  I commit to: Build up a “margin of error” in my savings for situations like car repairs.  Pay off all my consumer debt except student loans.  And begin to save for the next thing that I would buy on credit, such as my next car or whatever.  TODAY I haven’t reached any of these goals.  (I was quickly working toward a “margin of error” before this lovely incident.)  But I WILL reach each of these goals.  Notice I didn’t say “buy a car with cash,” or anything like that.  Maybe I will, maybe not.  I just want to save toward those kinds of purchases, whether I can save the full amount or just make the down payment greater.

Okay, I’m still rambling!    Goodnight!!!

$10…for what, exactly? January 23, 2008

I have ANOTHER cold, and I decided today I should drown it.  In my imagination, if I drink enough water and eat enough fruit, all the healthy clean liquid will just drown all the virus bugs and wash them right out of my system.  So right now I’m not going to bed until I finish this glass of water!  And then I’ll take another glass to bed and finish it by the time I turn off the light.  So while I finish glass #1, I thought I would rant a little on the blog.

My coworkers are playing The Biggest Loser.  We all pitch in $10, and the person to lose the highest percentage of weight gets the money.  $10 times a lot of participants is a nice chunk of money!  Right before it started, I was all about NO MORE DIETING!!!  I wanted to make good choices about what I eat, but not follow a list of rules or count anything.  I wanted to workout for reasons besides how I look.  And then, for some reason, I pitched in my $10 and weighed in at school.  Ugh.

What was I thinking?

I have told a couple of the other teachers that I have days when I care and days when I don’t.  The day I paid my $10, I cared.  But in reality, there are three attitudes I’ve noticed.  There are the days when I care about the number on the scale, and I eat very little, and I think about my skinny clothes and all the skinny people in the world.  Then there are days when I don’t care, usually right after a day of caring about a number on a scale, when I eat a lot of junk, and think about all the skinny people in the world, and feel crappy because I probably won’t ever be one.  Oh, and all the chemicals and preservatives I’m putting in my body probably don’t help with the bad feelings, either. 

Then there’s the third type of day…the day when I care about ME.  I eat WELL…not too much, not too little, just exactly as much as my body is wanting.  Not junk, not “meal replacements,” not chemicals, but REAL food.  Fruits and veggies, whole grains, dairy foods, sometimes meat.  Plenty of seasoning, cooked just the way I love them.  On this day, I also exercise…but not to burn calories.  Because it feels good, and it’s fun.  Because it’s a good time to hang out with The Boy.  Because it’s sunny and I just can’t stay inside.  Because I want to accomplish something.  Because it feels REALLY good the next day. 

I should have never joined the game.  I don’t want to weigh in anymore.  I want more days like that one.

Have you heard of these people who eat nothing cooked, only raw foods?  There’s just no way…cold food all winter???    Besides, while I love cooked veggies, I have to be in just the right mood to eat raw veggies.  I would live on fruit and water if I tried to do this!  Doesn’t sound too healthy!

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the rest of our trip to Vegas!  Part 3 coming soon.

Las Vegas, part 2 January 22, 2008

  Our second day in Las Vegas began with a trip to the Hoover Dam.

 

On the dam, looking upstream to Lake Mead.

Now we’ve crossed the highway and we’re looking downstream.

This is the beginning of a huge suspension bridge that they are building over the river.  Apparently people can’t really use the highway for driving anywhere, because it is such a tourist attraction.  This bridge will be for people who need to commute from Arizona to Nevada efficiently.

Look at that weather!!!

This monument honors the people who sacraficed their safety and in some case their lives for this project.

We had lunch at the dam.  Blake had a “Dam Dog.” 

After the dam, we stopped at a scenic place overlooking Lake Mead.  The photo above is my absolute favorite view of the sky and the water and the land.  The world was so BIG from that view.  There was so much air and sunshine.  The water was just as colorful in person as it is in the photo.

The first thing we did when we got home from our day trip was to spend a little time in our own casino.  We had played some at the other casinos last night, but we hadn’t spent much time in the Luxor other than sleeping.  We didn’t want to miss out!

After we had our fill of the Luxor, it was off to Fremont Street.  This is the area of Las Vegas that is the original strip.  It is such a different atmosphere from the strip with the newer hotels.  Actually, it reminded me more of the Las Vegas from my imagination…tacky decorations, lights, girls in crazy costumes working at the casinos. 

Oh, and HUGE drinks!  Yummy!

 

There were huge drinks for the boys as well.  Blake loves his beer!

 

Note the carpet, the old chairs, and the Mardi Gras beads.

We got a bit crazy on the walk home! 

Pictures from our last day coming soon…

Las Vegas, part 1 January 21, 2008

The first vacation of the summer was when Blake, Becky, Meredith and I went to Las Vegas.  We stayed at the Luxor, which is shaped like an Egyptian pyramid both inside and out.

The view from inside our hotel over the balcony: 

The view from our windows: 

Half the fun is getting there??? 

Some views from the plane: Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, the Rockies, and some beautiful clouds.

And we’re off to explore Las Vegas!

Blake found some sports…

…we found some M&Ms…

…and then we found the M&Ms!

We went up to the top of the fake Eiffel Tower at Paris.  Check out the view:

Best as I can remember, my impressions of our first evening were fun, fun, fun!  Las Vegas, or at least the part of it we saw, is a big playground for adults.  There is so much to see and do, and on the first evening I was just overwhelmed at the extravagance of everything.  One particular memory is the heat.  It was in the 100-115 range every day, and at night it wasn’t a whole lot cooler.  But it was comfortable.  Humidity makes heat heavy, but dry heat is more like warm and cozy.  You think you want to swim, but as soon as you put one hand out of the water, that hand is cold because of how fast the water evaporates.  But then in a minute you’re dry and comfortable again!  If you stand in the sun you’re uncomfortably warm, but move in the shade and you’re fine.

We saw the Bellagio fountains from the top of Paris, and we also saw them from the front lines.  That was one of my favorite sights!  It’s huge, and put to music, and just incredible.  We saw it a few more times while we were there, mostly because every time we walked past, I made us all stop and wait for the show.    We spent most of the first night just wandering around, seeing most of the hotels, and getting our bearings.

More to come!

Vacations January 21, 2008

Every once in awhile I think about the two fantastic vacations I took this past summer.  This is why people take vacations…to have a relaxing, peaceful state of being to go back to.  I’ve finally figured out how to upload photos, so I’ll probably give you some highlights of each vacation.  But for now, I just have to remember these two moments… 

 Sarah, Megan and I in sunny Seattle…our first day, we hiked down this woodsy trail to get to Puget Sound.  We had been driving for more than 24 hours straight, and our first desire was to touch the water!  The water was my favorite part of the trip.  Everywhere we went, the theme seemed to be water.  Bridges, beaches, the aquarium, the seafood, Seattle Rainwater Soap…but no rain the entire four days!

Becky, Blake, Meredith, and I went to Las Vegas…I can’t choose a favorite view!  I like this picture because it’s a combination of the two awesome things about Las Vegas…the desert and the city.  Be sure to check out the sky and mountains or hills or whatever in the background.  Nevada has the clearest, bluest, most beautiful sky I have ever seen.  This picture captures both the man-made fun and the God-created nature that it sits in the middle of.

Books, Books, Books! January 20, 2008

Hi, my name is Dawn, and I’m a book addict.

If going to the library cost money, I would be broke.  The only advertising emails I ever open are from Borders.  I buy way more books at Goodwill than I ever read.  And I just bought three books at half.com.  Fit From Within by Victoria Moran…read it, loved it, knew I needed to own it.  Shelter For the Spirit by Victoria Moran…a book by the same author on making your home a sanctuary for yourself, which is a topic I love.  And Simple Living by Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska, a book I’ve wanted to read since college but it’s out of print and not in the library.

 I keep hearing this commercial on the radio about how kids who love to read don’t get bored.  That is so me!  Both when I was a kid, and now.  Between these three books that are coming, the five I have from the library right now, the four that I reluctantly put back at the library when I noticed how big my stack was getting, the two books I bought over the summer that I haven’t read yet, and the six books I have borrowed from other people and haven’t read yet, I could sit in a waiting room or on an airplane for DAYS!  Not to mention all the books that I want to read but don’t have my hands on yet.

A new perspective on some inconveniences January 16, 2008

Yes, Tara, I know!    I know you wish you loved to swiff as much as I do!

I’m skipping choir tonight.  Just needed a nice relaxing evening.  Besides, it was snowing like crazy when I finally got home, and in the back of my mind was the thought it’s not worth it to drive on the roads just for church choir.  And then when it was almost time to leave, I peeked out the window, and there was a huge Nebraska Furniture Mart truck parked behind my car, so I couldn’t leave anyway.  I took it as a sign, and stayed home.  I will responsibly put the sheet music in my binder, and arrive early on Sunday to mark the necessary pages in the “blue book.”  (The book we use with all the regular church songs in 4-part harmony.)  Although, I don’t know what possessed someone to agree to drive a huge Mart truck through the snow!

Yesterday was stressful.  My car was in the shop, and when I went to pick it up I discovered that the thing that needs fixed could be very expensive.  My brother can “fix” it for free, but it will damage the part of the car that reduces harmful exhaust emissions.  The third option is to go to a specialty muffler shop that can fix it more efficiently, for less money.  Then, I got home to discover that my bathtub had been resurfaced, with no warning, so I wasn’t allowed to use it until tonight.  Actually, they didn’t put the drain back together, so there was no chance I would disobey.  Had I been warned, it would have been no big deal.  And it does look great…but to be honest, it was in perfectly good condition before, so I don’t care so much if it’s shiny or not.  So when The Boy picked me up to go play basketball and indoor frisbee with the frisbee/capture the flag crowd, I took a shower at his house before he brought me home.  You have no idea how tempted I was to start off this blog with that detail!    “Showering at Mike’s.”  Hehehe.  I think all of the women who raised me read this blog from time to time, and even as an adult, I love to freak them out! 

ANYWAY, here is my point…  I was incredibly stressed and beyond irritated last night.  But there was no need for any of it!  The car…At least I have transportation.  If it’s in the shop, I’m so lucky to live near people with whom I can carpool to work.  And I have choices.  I don’t know what I will choose, because I’m falling under the trap of what people tell me to do.  Both my brother and The Boy think I should just let my brother fix it and who cares about emissions.  I’m absolutely not spending two thirds of my February paycheck on the repair.  But I think I will get an estimate at another place.  Because, although it would be easy and free to do it my brother’s way, I truly think I should do my part to reduce the strain on the environment.  It’s bad enough that I drive so far to work each day.  But I’m not a broke college student anymore, and I think getting it fixed would be the responsible thing to do in this situation.  I think I should stand up for what I believe and take action accordingly.  Otherwise, I’m selling out for the sake of money.

Yeah, drama, drama.  It’s not a big deal, I realize!  Just trying to make my own decision here, based on what I think is right, rather than going along with the people whose advice I appreciate.

And the inconvenience of the bathtub…I am so lucky.  If I hadn’t been able to impose on The Boy, I could have imposed on Tara and Chad, or my coworkers that live close, or Jenna and Brian, or one of my church friends.  I may have one bathtub in my apartment, but I have many available to me because I am not alone in the world. 

I’m starting a new category for unity.  That seems to be a theme of mine lately.  We are all connected.  At its very basis, that’s what faith is.  That’s what God is.  I may believe one thing, and you may believe one thing, but the bottom line is, we were all created by the same One, whether you call that One God, or Yahweh, or Mother Earth or Father Sky, or even the spirit that runs through all of us.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s all one.

All of you faithful, please join all of us teachers in praying for snow!!!