A Matter of Perspective

Today I read an article about a woman who made the controversial decision to get married "young". It was called something like "Crazy in love or just Crazy?" I say "young" because the woman that wrote the article was 24 when she got married. Apparently this wild and crazy behaviour scandalized her family and friends who could not believe someone would settle down at such an early point in life.

I supposed I should have been appreciating the wit and wisdom of the article (if there was any)-- but all I could do was laugh. I don't know anyone who would consider 24 "young" to be getting married. And it just reminded me of something I know-- but tend to forget-- and that is the fact that the Midwest Christian view of the appropriate age of marriage is NOT the general world view. I don't know who is right and who is wrong, but it amuses me that in many parts of our country you can be considered too young to get married when in other parts you are an old maid at the very same age.

It was a good reminder for me that you can't live your life based on other people's opinions and expectations since those two things are going to be so different everywhere you go.

Friends

I saw this article today and it struck me as kind of interesting. I've been categorizing my friends ever since...




By Michelle Burford

(OPRAH.com) -- "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves," writer Edna Buchanan once said.

I consider the "family" I've gathered -- with five kinds of pals I count on for completely different things -- among the wisest choices I've made. If you can find even one who embodies any of the characteristics that follow, you can consider yourself fortunate.

The Uplifter: This woman's favorite word: yes. You could tell her you're trading your six-figure income for a career in offtrack betting, and she'd barely pause before yelping "Go for it!" Don't you need someone who looks past the love handles to notice the extraordinarily gorgeous you?

The Travel Buddy: When the hotel in St. Lucia is a bust, one characteristic becomes all-important: flexibility. This agreeable companion need not be the girl you traded pinkie swears with on the playground; it's enough that she's comfortable with quiet (between gabfests) and is a teensy bit mischievous (as in tequila after midnight).

The Truth Teller: Intent is what separates the constructive from the abusive. Once you've established that the hard news is spoken in love (not in jealousy or malice), you'd be smart to seek out this woman's perspective.

The Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun: One Saturday a pal and I -- and yes, we're both over age 12 -- pored over every glitter lip gloss in a drugstore aisle for an entire 45 minutes. Forget the crisis download (for that, see the Uplifter); this partnership is about spontaneous good times.

The Unlikely Friend: "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive," Anaïs Nin wrote. My friends -- some twice my age, others half, some rich, others homeless, some black like me, others Korean, Mexican, Caucasian -- have added richness to my life that only variety can

An Open Letter

Dear Woman With Too Many Bumper Stickers,

While I may agree with your sentiment that "Well Behaved Women Don't Make History", I really must insist that you not try to make history by being the world's worst driver. Please-- take yourself and your little station wagon off of the interstate. You see, driving on a freeway when you clearly don't know the location of your gas pedal is demonstrably UNSAFE. Furthermore, to exacerbate this problem by talking on your cell phone while peddling your vehicle like Fred Flinstone down I-44 seems downright silly. So I would like to take this moment to ask that you take your own advice: "Think Globally and Act Locally" by STAYING OFF your local freeway at rush hour. I feel this would be the first significant step towards world peace-- starting with me (and my sanity)

Thank you for your kind consideration.

Sarah

P.S. You may feel that "There is a Village in Texas Missing it's Idiot", but I rather suspect that people who have clearly spent a large portion of their monthly income on little sticky slogans that they like to put all over their rat-trap cars shouldn't talk. Just a thought.

Random Thought of the Evening

I have had several people in my life (over the years) tell me to stop analyzing everything so much. I've always pretty much just dismissed that as an outright impossibility......analyzing people and situations is too much of part of who I am to flip a switch and turn it off.

But I suspect that sometimes it is just an excuse. Analyzing is definitely a part of my personality-- but I wonder how often I'm really just second guessing (and third guessing...and fourth guessing....) myself but rationalize it because I've labeled it as something that sounds more "adult".

Always Be Prepared For Never Being Able To Keep Up

I gave my 7 year old niece, Meredith, a ride home from church tonight. When we finished discussing the pizza we were going to eat for dinner, she was quiet for a minute or so and then the following conversation was had:

M: Aunt Sarah, I just don't get it.
S: Get what, sweetie?
M: How God could have always been here! He must have had a creator. If He's here now, someone had to make Him. How could He have always been here?
S: [silence]
M: Don't you think?


I eventually came up with a response about that being an excellent question that many people have asked before, and that we can never really comprehend it since we're stuck with a severely limited understanding, you know the drill.....all the while worrying that I was not going to satisfy her with this response and that I was going to somehow lead a 7 year old into a crises of the faith....but then I heard giggling. I turned around and she'd picked up a box from my car seat and stuck it on her head. That's when this conversation happened:

M: [in a deep robot voice] I'M A BOX HEAD!
S: [laughing] You are?
M: [deep robot voice] YES. AND I'M HERE TO ANNIHILATE YOU! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.


And what lesson can we take from this? Hm. Maybe-- never underestimate the distraction powers of cardboard? Or maybe it's just never overestimate the attention span of anyone under 10. But really-- I think the main point has to be: When the world starts to not make sense-- talking like a robot is bound to cheer you up.

Oh To Be Mysterious

So I realize that the entire premise of this blog is the fact that I realize just how mysterious I'm NOT.....but there's a little part of me that still likes to think that I am. I like to believe that people don't REALLY know what I'm thinking unless I let them.....that I have my own secret little world of ongoing thoughts in my head, and that I have complete control over how much of that world anyone gets to see.

Lately I've begun to suspect that I'm accidentally giving away far more information than I've realized. And it wasn't until I had THAT thought that I realized what a control freak I apparently am.

I don't know what the point of admitting any of this is, really, since you all probably know this about me anyway. The "self-aware" are always the last to know.

A Non-Update

I haven't posted since getting home from my vacation that turned into a hospital stay....but I've been rather unsure how to approach the whole topic (or whether to or not since it's been so exhaustively discussed in "real" life). I really don't feel like being all serious and deep about it-- but on the other hand, there are only so many "public forum" appropriate jokes you can make about having a 6lb ovarian cyst. (One that-- as my sister so lovingly pointed out-- weighed more than Meredith did when she was born).

So I'm turning to my go-to post for when all creativity fails. That's right! It is the return of the "random list of nonsensical observations"!!



1. I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night. It was quite excellent even with the teenage boys squeeing at Harry kissing Cho Chang. Yes, I said "squeeing"....of course they did the more manly "YEEAAHHHH!!!"-- but whatever. That's the boy equivalent of squeeing. Just because you do it in a lower tone of voice does not make it any less fan-girlish.

2. I've become hooked on the TV show Bones over the the last few weeks (thank you Netflix). It's strange that I got hooked on it because I don't usually like "solve the crime of the week" shows and I definitely don't like "look at these dead people while solving the crime of the week" shows. The only explanation I can give you is that it made me laugh.....and not in an accidental way.

3. This is the best movie that I've seen in a long time with a soundtrack I am already obsessed with.


















4. I read today that shoulder pads are coming back in style. I am horrifed. That is all.


5. Wait-- that isn't all. I also read that apparently "jumpsuits" are also big for the fall. I am aghast. THAT is all.



6. And just so that my family vacation is not completely neglected...I will leave you with a taste of my time in Arkansas:

The Clip That Made My Week

As many of you may remember, I have a slight issue with a certain local weatherman....and now, Jon Stewart is officially ON MY SIDE!!

Albino Smurfs Moved In Next Door

A Confession

There's something I've been keeping to myself for quite some time now---
A sneaking suspicion that I just didn't want to face.



I kept telling myself that it wasn't true....that it couldn't be true...that the thoughts that
started popping into my head didn't mean anything....that they were just random--
because to face otherwise meant realizing that I might have been wrong all this time....and who wants to admit that?



But this morning I was reading an article on MSNBC and I just could no longer live a lie. I had to face the fact that what I thought to be true wasn't. That I was wrong....that I owe someone an apology.




I'm sorry, Prince Harry. You really are way way hotter than your brother, Prince William.

Food For Thought

Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.

He changes times and seasons;
he sets up kings and deposes them.

He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.

He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells in him.

~Daniel 2:20-22

Things That Did Not Happen To Me Today

1. I did not get married (I just thought I'd clarify that since it seems to be such a popular past time these days)

2. I did not get approached by a weird man at McDonalds

3. I did not give anyone on the road between here and work a sarcastic thumbs up

4. I did not forget to set my alarm (like yesterday)

5. I did not believe someone when they told me something even though I believed that THEY believed it

6. I did not figure out why people are mean

7. I did not see an elephant

8. I did not use all of my time effectively

9. I did not physically touch a single person all day long (I just realized that right this second while making this list....who says these blogs aren't thought provoking....?)

Things That Happened To Me Today

1. I accidentally listened to a Clay Aiken song.

2. I was thwarted in my attempts to find a professional and mature way to call someone an idiot via email

3. My favorite restaurant neglected to give me a fork for my "to go" salad causing me to contemplate the practicality of trying to eat a salad with my fingers.

4. I drove for nearly 20 minutes with my left arm unnaturally extended over the right side of my body just to prevent getting a sunburn through my window. I hate it when I forget my sunscreen.

5. I used baby powder in my hair so I could sleep another 20 minutes and not have to get up earlier to wash it.

6. I emailed approximately 5 people to tell them about someone I don't know and will never meet breaking their back and being in the hospital as if they were a close friend. (I'm sorry-- I happen to really like Jim and Pam on The Office! So sue me.)

7. I sent 3 emails to myself

Advice on Women:

To all of you single men out there looking for love-- let me offer you a tip. Hanging out the window of your car as you exit the drive-thru at McDonalds to tell a passing female (whose identity does not matter for this cautionary tale) that she's "looking pretty cute" and then asking her if she's single (since the nameless female is just going to lie to you anyway and tell you that she is not, in fact, single) is NOT the way to meet the love of your life.

I'm 99.9% sure.

Have you ever had someone tell you something so far out of the bounds of information you'd ever want to know that you have no idea how to respond and all you can do the whole time they are talking is try to think of ways to make yourself NOT laugh because even a smirk would not be appropriate in this situation? And then you wonder why you are worried about restraining yourself to an APPROPRIATE response to a completely INappropriate story that you never wanted to hear in the first place and yet there's no denying that you don't want to make the aforementioned "someone" feel bad for completely grossing you out.

A Defense of Mellow Music

It has happened of late that my musical taste has been challenged (by someone who shall remain nameless but lives in Nebraska) as being "too mellow" and my favorite songs are apparently too "slooowww". And while I freely acknowledge that my iPod on shuffle can sometimes take on the tempo of a Eastern European funeral, I feel this is an unfair criticism.

(Sidenote: you may at this point be saying to yourself "Eastern European funeral"? What in the name of failed communism is she talking about? I can only tell you I don't know...that's what came out when I was typing, so that is what I'm sticking with)

Anyhoo......I feel that mellow music often gets a bad rap. No, it isn't peppy and happy and the type of thing to make you bounce all over your car. And true, it can often be so moody and dramatic that it makes you feel way more "deep" and "introspective" than is probably wise while driving your morning commute...but the point remains that mellow music is important! Why? Well, it is my contention that more often than not-- it is the mellow music that is actually SAYING something interesting or thought provoking. We all know I like to analyze things, and this includes my music.

In case you still don't a)believe me or b)know what I am talking about....let's do a little exercise in comparing/contrasting the lyrics of mellow music vs the lyrics of peppy music....and you shall soon see what I am talking about! (bonus points for anyone who can ID the songs!!)


"Mellow" Example A
I was just guessing at numbers and figures,
Pulling the puzzles apart,
Questions of science, science and progress,
Do not speak as loud as my heart


"Peppy" Example A
All you people look at me like I'm a little girl
Well did you ever think it'd be ok for me to step into this world?




"Mellow" Example B
I found us in a photograph
I saw me and I had to laugh
You know, I'm not who I was
You were there, you were right above me
And I wonder if you ever loved me
Just for who I was



"Peppy" Example B
Mary Anne and Wanda were the best of friends
All through thier high school days
Both members of the 4H club
Both active in the FFA




Are you starting to see the difference? Did I make my point?


...........








(OK, here is where I make my confession that I only half mean what I said above. I love peppy songs as much as the next girl...and I honestly haven't been able to get "peppy" example B out of my head since I copied the lyrics.....but my point is really only this: DON'T DISS MELLOW MUSIC KATIE. I guess I could have started with that, huh?)

Making Myself Smile

Quite a few obnoxious things happened today, but instead of rehashing all of that (and really-- who wants to hear about the things that go WRONG?)....I am going to share the little things that made me happy today.

1. Discovering that The Frames are in a musical/movie that was shown at Sundance. And I will never get to see it in a theater since I live in OK, but that is what Netflix is for, I guess.

2. Looking at the team lineup for the Irish National Rugby team with Cheryl.

3. The clouds right before sunset.

4. The fact that my middle toenail isn't going to fall completely off like I thought it was, which would have made open toe shoes an impossibility for most of the summer (what? I know that's totally gross-- but I'm looking for the positive, people! It's not my fault I don't have much to work with right this second...besides, not wearing open toe shoes ALL SUMMER would have been highly annoying)

5. Finding an extra 50 cents in the bottom of my purse

6. Finishing a piece of jewelry that I actually get to keep



Annnd hm. Well, 6 is kind of pathetically small, but that is all I am coming up with right this second. But you know, it isn't about the quantity-- it is about the quality! And non-falling off toenails is quality positiveness....so there.

Brave New World

I've really got to stop taking my laptop with me when I travel to see various little people......they always become much more interested in it than in me.

I can't compete with an iBook! When will I learn??

Random Self-Focused Facts For The Day After May 1st (sometimes known as May 2nd)

*I don't understand how anyone can NOT like peanut butter

*It worries me that I'm wrong when certain people in my life agree with me

*I often wish that there was a mirror that made us see the things we refuse to see about ourselves.

*I cannot stand to listen to Bill Maher say one single word. The man could open his mouth to tell me about the weather and I'd STILL want to smack him.

*I don't know how to reconcile the warriors of the Old Testament with the message of Christ in the New Testament.

*My greatest pet peeve is being told to calm down.

*I only like birds in theory

*I don't sing along to the radio as much as I used to, and I don't know why that changed

*It annoys me when people are not satisfied with deluding themselves and must make others agree with their delusions as well. It annoys me even more when other people actually do it. I probably greatly annoy people when I don't.

*I eat far too many apples

*I don't think I wash my sheets as often as you are supposed to. I don't even know how often you are supposed to.

*I think Harry Reid is a disgrace.

*I don't remember a time in my life when I didn't obsess about a chosen television show

*I hate the ice cream truck that circles our neighborhood

*I'm not sure how morally correct certain fertility treatments are

*I think many churches are often country clubs with Bibles

*I don't know what I think of a world where we will tell a million strangers our every thought in the comfort of invisiblity but we can't find a way to know our neighbors names.

Things to Know When You Go to Ireland (Cause You Should All Go To Ireland) Part One

1. You need to get a Clark. (too bad I'm pretty sure there's only one.....)

This is Clark. (Well, technically, it's Clark along with Peter the Angry Irishman, who is also a very cool fellow and thankfully was not quite so bitter about Ireland's Rugby loss in this photo....)






Clark started out as a friend of a friend's brother who was going to let us crash at his place in Dublin-- but Clark wound up being far, far more than that. If any of you go to Ireland, you should be so lucky to stay somewhere as all inclusive in its services as Casa Clark. He's the best tour guide, rugby introducer, driver, explainer, stand in the snow and get ice-cycles on his head freezer, language explainer ("pants/trousers" "crisps/chips".....need I say more?) that any group of travelling girls ever had. It's not every man that will sleep on a deflated airmattress in his own apartment just to give the beds to one girl he knows and two girls he doesn't.


2. Everything is always Cheryl's fault. Everything

3. Watch your body language in pictures. I present Exhibit A:




When you are taking a picture meant to convey that you are dangerously near the edge of a dramatic cliff (which in all fairness-- we really were)...you should not pose knees bent with ankles jauntily crossed like you're out for a afternoon stroll in the park. Crossed ankles are never edgy.


4. Stay at Petra House in Galway. Not only is it a lovely place to stay with yummy breakfast, but you are also treated to the dulcet tones of Frank's voice. I feel confident in my assertion when I tell you that Frank is the most soothing man in Ireland. He could be telling you that your hair is on fire and you would just feel incredibly good about it.