15 Saturdays in a row

I've heard of a month of Sundays, but I never thought it was real.

Until now.

Almost.

The last 2 weeks have felt like a month of Saturdays. and Sundays. I've never had a stretch of time feel so painfully LONG!! The last two weeks have been one day after another after another of stuff; hard stuff. Heart stuff, and head stuff, church stuff and people stuff, job stuff, death stuff ... the list goes on and on and on.

I've sat here staring at this screen for ages and ages trying to figure out what to write; trying to figure out the words to say how the week was, how I feel like I've been on a roller coaster too many times in a row, how grief and death affect people.

I lost an aunt last week, to a battle with lung cancer. She never smoked, and that makes my mom mad. I think it's because cancer is so unfair. It gets people, even healthy people. People with lives, with families, with jobs and with grandkids. You cannot escape it -- death just happens, and cancer hits people when you least expect it. My aunt was 57, and diagnosed with cancer on January 24. This past Tuesday, we congregated for her funeral.

What do you say in response to that?

You can't. I can't. I don't think anyone can.

On Friday, my sister graduated from High school. It was beautiful. She was beautiful. My little sister looked like a princess with her gown and her sparkley hair. It was great to see her and her friends all dressed up, having fun and being grown up all at the same time. The weather was poor, but the day was great.

Like I said: I've been trying to find the words to write to explain this week, with it's ups and downs, and I can't. It's all I can to do trust God, knowing that he's got it all under control. And somehow, under his watchful eye, he'll turn this month of Saturdays into something beautiful.

But right now, this past month just seems like a wild ride.

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I
am
so
tired.

This has been one of the most tiring weeks in a long time. It ranks up there among the top 5 of all time.

if you have nothing to do...

If you have nothing to do this afternoon, I HIGHLY recommend looking at the David Crowder Band website, and reading all of their quirky and hilarious new items.

I particularly recommend a few:
Christmas Bells!
Merry Christmas
Face to Face encounter

and anything else you decide to read.
You will not regret it.

http://www.davidcrowderband.com/news

The Rain

So, it's been raining here -- spitting yesterday, and drizzling on and off today. It's funny. Today the rain makes me happy. Usually, it makes me feel sleepy and sad, but today, I'm glad that it's raining. Everything smells good when it rains, and the rain reminds me of being in Laos, and being cold and wet and not being able to do anything. It reminds me of sitting in outdoor cafes, wearing ALL the clothes I brought, and eating good waffles and strong coffee with a good friend. The rain also reminds me of rainy season at GES, where rain spelt disaster for the classroom. Indoor recesses are really a very BAD idea. (this is contrary to what i believed when I was in elementary school!!) Anyway, today the rain is making me smile. The good part about it drizzling now, is that the grass is starting to grow. I was encouraged yesterday, when I looked down while walking home from the bus. The grass is poking up -- little green sprouts, reminding me that spring will come, and summer will follow. How exciting.

Buying a sweater

I thought I should enlighten all of you, and tell you a story. This is how I buy clothes.

My mom and dad bought me a UofA sweater for my birthday, which was really awesome. When I got it, Mom said to me, "Honey -- there are so many colors and styles of sweaters at the bookstore, I didn't know which one you would like. So I just bought one. If you want to take it back, do it, because I didn't know which one you'd like."

So, i thought to myself: i'll go look.

There's something stupid about going "looking" at hoodies at the UofA stores. That in itself is a problem: THERE IS NOT JUST ONE PLACE. yes, that's right: there's two. You can buy hoodies at the UofA bookstore, or at SUBtitles. They happen to be right across the hall from each other, which means you can't just compare sweaters. You must make MENTAL NOTES, and then walk across the hall. The second thing that's dumb is that there are about a MILLION different sweaters in a plethera of colors, shapes and styles.

Back to the story.

I decided I was going to go look. Wonderful. I looked at a bunch of clothes, and was immediately overwhelmed, and then decided to leave.

As I was walking around, I decided that I needed to have MORAL SUPPORT in order to go sweater shopping at the UofA. There really were just too many options. So i called up my friend, and she agreed to meet me before her classes on Friday and help me decide if I was going to exchange my sweater.

We met on Friday, and headed over to SUB to check out the sweaters. First we went into SUBtitles, but we didn't find anything that I liked MORE than what I already had. So then we went across the hall to the bookstore. After looking at almost all of them, we found one that I liked. So THEN the problem is finding a mirror. We wandered around the store for a bit, and finally found a mirror.

great.

so then my poor friend had to witness me putting one on and taking it off, and then putting the other one on and taking it off. (i'm pretty sure she thinks I did it a MILLION times. I maintain I only did it 3 times.) But I still couldn't decide. Here was my problem: the one I was looking at switching to was grey, and I can't wear a grey sweater with gray sweatpants. (incidentally, I only own gray sweatpants).

My friend was pretty much rolling on the ground by now in agony. Did i mention that she hadn't had coffee yet?? She's a little like my sister in that respect...

I thought I had decided to go with the gray one anyway, but then I realized. "HEY! I've got my cell phone! I'll call mom." So I did. And we talked about the sweater. Finally my mom persuaded me to buy the gray sweater, and return the blue one that she had bought.

OK. Fine. No problem. Except she bought the blue one at the OTHER store. I had to traipse all the way back to the other store across the hall, and persuade them to return my money, even though more than 7 days had elapsed. Then I had to pusuade them NOT to put it onto my credit card, but to give it to me in cash. THEN, i went back to the other store and bought the other sweater. (which I am wearing now, by the way.)

After that, my friend and I went for coffee.

The moral of the story: thank goodness for friends, who will put up my my crap while I'm shopping. ( for those of you who may have trouble getting your friends to be this awesome: you just have to promise coffee afterwards...)