Brady

Last night I went to see Marley and Me with my friend Kim. I knew it was going to be sad and that I would probably most definately cry. I read the book about a year ago. I think I cried for the last three chapters.
What I decided last night was that I am pretty sure that Marley and my dog Brady are somehow related. For example, there is one scene in the movie and the book where Marley jumps out of the car while it is moving, um, yes Brady has done that. Then there is the scene where Marley jumps into the shower while the dog sitter is there. UM yes Brady has also done that to me. While Brady has yet to consume any electrical appliances, she has eaten a life time supply of wooden cooking implements. She has ripped apart several phone books, that is REALLY fun to clean up. She has destroyed an area of drywall in my kitchen. She has eaten I don't even know how many socks. She thinks that her rightful place is sitting in the recliner in the living room and gets annoyed when I kick her off it so I can sit there. She loves to chew on carrots and the stems of broccoli. Figured that out when she jumped up on the counter and stole them. She loves to try to take off running when I take her for walks or runs and trys to pull me around, however, when my brother tried to stand on his skateboard and get her to pull him, she just stood there looking at him like he was crazy. She is incredibly friendly and is very gentle with small children though she tries to greet all adults by jumping up and licking them in the face. She loves to eat ice, and for that reason LOVES it when I take her in to work when I have to stop by the office. Brady loves to go to the lake but she is a hysterically frantic swimmer. She loves to go hang out with her friend Sadie, and she loves going to the vet. She is just an incredibly social dog. And everyday I come home to a smiling, excited, tailwagging dog who thinks she is a lap dog and crawls up on the couch with me to snuggle.

Crazy, I KNOW

I just got back from San Diego, where my family spent an extremely relaxing Christmas. We stayed in my parent's time share, I met up with my good friend Nate and saw where he works, which is beautiful by the way. I played a round of golf at a par three course with my brother, he showed us around San Diego. We went to church at a really neat church that my brother's friend attends on Christmas eve. We ate Christmas dinner late so that Ian's roommate could join us, he had to work, and is from New Zealand so obviously he doesn't have family there. It was completely drama free, which is exactly what I needed, and what I had been praying for. Except for the plane rides that is. Despite the fact that flights were getting delayed and cancelled all over the country, I had no problems in that department. I was so exhausted from all the basketball travel lately that I got on the plane in Nashville, fell asleep before even taxiing from the gate, and woke up tucked in with a blanket. I really appreciated that flight attendant who did not wake me up for anything. Then on the connecting flight from Houston to San Diego, I ended up between an Iraqi and a Persian (Iranian). Now I don't know if you know much about the modern history between these two countries, but it isn't pretty. The Iraqi was a 21 year old college student whose parents fled the country before he was ever born. The Persian was a 65 ish yearold man who was convinced, based on the Iraqi's facial features, that he was Persian. Long story short, the Persian guy was extremely opinionated and made both myself (in the middle of the three seats) and the Iraqi kid very very uncomfortable with his racist remarks. I was thankful when the plane touched down in San Diego, and even more thankful to have some quality time with Nate who has similar frustrations and fun in his work with college students. So then after my relaxing stay in San Diego, I hoped a plane back to Houston today, it was a pretty uneventful ride. THen I hoped another flight from Houston back to Nashville. It was on an extremely small plane, and the guy behind me was somewhat inebriated and VERy LOUD. I have not heard that much foul language, maybe ever. There was this girl next to him who thought he was cute and nice I guess and they kept talking and talking VErY loudly, F this and F that and etc... This woman sitting behind him asked him to stop because her 5 yearold was hearing everything he was saying, it didn't stop. So sitting next to me was this cute couple who like me were getting more and more frustrated. When the plane finally touched down in Nashville, we all booked it as fast as we could. We commented to each other how nice it was to be away from this guy and hoped that he didn't have baggage to claim. So I end up on the bus with this couple to parking and we are discussing our AWESOME ride when I mention the plane ride to San Diego and the crazy Persian guy and that I grew up in the Middle East. Suddenly the wife's ears perk up. "I did too." she says. GET THIS, she is the same age as my brother, and we grew up in the same town in Saudi Arabia, but her family left when I was about 5 so I don't remember them. Our cars end up being at the same bus stop! and we stand there in economy parking at the Nashville airport reminiscing a little. Her husband is totally floored and excited to his wife able to talk about her childhood so freely with someone who understands. He is a physician at Vanderbilt Childrens' hospital and she works for the Vanderbilt hospital system with their computer systems!!! I gave them my card, and she is going to e-mail me, and I am SO PUMPED. All that from two airplane rides next to loud obnoxious travellers that will hopefully I never see again.

Sometimes you just need silence

For those of you who don't know, I went to a Quaker high school. It was an experience I have mixed feelings about, there was a lot of transition going on in my life and I was away at boarding school. Often people are confused about what Quakerism is, basically it was a protestant sect with some very particular ideas about silence and about consensus. Most Quaker meetings are now pretty liberal compared to most protestants today. It's a boarding school so we all lived there. At my high school we had 1 television for about 300 kids. So think kind of like 300 high schoolers living in your house with 1 television. We didn't watch very much of it, partly because there was only 1 and partly because we had so much other stuff going on. We had study hall every night, and we all played sports. Living at boarding school there was constant activity, constant noise. But I could always count on Wednesday morning meeting for worship where we would sit in silence for an hour, unless that is, that someone had something they felt the entire student body needed to hear. Complete silence. 300+ people sitting in complete silence is a pretty powerful thing. I always had that time to think, to process. It wasn't until this past week that I really realized how that silence to process is so important to me. In high school, with all the transitions, the normal ones like growing up, and the unusual ones, like moving half way around the world to a new country and a new culture, it was really helpful for me to have that silence. In my life today, there is still a lot of activity, I work with 18-22 year-olds, I have a lot of commitments at work, and several weekly activities, mostly related to church, outside of work. I am sometimes thankful that I live alone with my dog, because I get to come home to a quiet house. We have been on the road a lot in the last 3 weeks for basketball. This year, with the addition of a female sport info person, I now have a roommate on the road. I appreciate her, she is very helpful to me, she is a good friend, but I also miss the ability to go to my hotel room and have a few moments of silence. I think better with silence, I sleep better with silence, I don't feel awkward having a quiet time with the Lord when I am by myself. I do feel awkward having that time when there is someone else in the room watching television, and who doesn't share my beliefs. I also have to forgo my usual bedtime routine, which includes laying in bed reading before turning off the lights and going to bed. She goes to sleep with the TV on. I have never in my life had a television in my bedroom and I never ever plan on changing that. My family, though they can be loud, especially my dad, recognize my need for alone time, and the importance it is to me to get a good night of sleep. I get kind of, well maybe a lot cranky without it. I definitely met my limit last week. I was frustrated and when people made some interesting decisions that made more work, and disgusting work I might add, for me, I kind of definitely LOST IT. This past weekend we went on a short just over 24 hour trip. I got sick, I had a fever and horrible horrible stomach cramping. I ended up going back to the hotel to be alone while everyone else went to dinner. I really needed that time. When my roommate came back, the TV immediately went on and the noise in general increased. That is when it hit me. I think that for the most part, our society is afraid of silence, because silence allows us the time to think, about all sorts of things, especially deep stuff. If you never turn down the volume, you never have to face truths, like that we are all people who intentionally break God's heart, and that we are in desperate need for a Savior. As Christmas approaches and we get ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior, I am thankful to be home this week, and turn down, or off the volume, and remember that I truly need a Savior, and that God loves me enough to send one. And that he came to earth on Christmas day, and His name is Jesus...