my spontaneous schedule

Don't know what to blog about...my life seems to have settled into a strange kind of spontaneous schedule. I get up late every day to my cute and cuddly husband, we cook sometimes, sometimes we run out for a bagel or smoothie, we write/work, I find something to scrap up for a late lunch, we might work out, we run to the library to write/work some more, we might hang out or meet up some of the church, we watch "Alias" on DVD (I've been catching him up lately...we're on season 2), we go to bed late. Or, we might do something else entirely with our day, we never know.

It sounds wonderful doesn't it?

It is.

Dumps

Isn't it a marvelous coincidence that you can be in just the right place, at just the right time for a bird to take a dump on your windshield? Ah, the wonders of nature.

But seriously, why do "emotional dumps" seem to happen all at once? And right when you don't have any windshield wiper fluid to take care of them?

Mike and I had dinner last night with someone close to me who I haven't seen in a very long time, and it was difficult. To top that off, we'd been quarreling (I like that word better because it sounds less like fighting and more like hunting small birds, which could be fun) for most of the day beforehand. I'm afraid that it's easiest for me to bottle my emotions up instead of dealing with them and finding the Lord in them. So, right now is a particuarly tough time for us.

On a brighter note, here are some pictures from our wedding taken by Emily Davis, friend of olde. Just click on the Mike&Jasmin link and you're in!

If you have any useful ways of handling the dumps, lay 'em on me.

In love

Babies who are born blind still know how to smile. Isn't that amazing?

I've been reading a book called "A General Theory of Love." It's about the physiology of love and the way relationships (good ones!) keep us healthy both physically and emotionally. I've been fascinated to begin learning how the brain works in relation to emotion and its helped solidify my thoughts about living in community and church life in general.

I'd been one of those Christians who thought she could do it on her own. My relationship with God was a very private one, and I enjoyed it and, and I enjoyed my friends in church, but the two were always pretty mutually exclusive. Then life started catching up with me, and I didn't enjoy God or my friends. That's a pretty sucky place to be, and when you isolate yourself, it's a lot harder to get out of that place than you'd think. Don't get me wrong. They're are plenty of times when I've found the Lord as an individual, and I was in that valley, and He was always faithful. But sometimes when you don't have brothers and sisters (not just friends, but family) around, it's harder to remember exactly where you're from and who you are. Love shows you that when you can't show yourself.

The Lord literally wired us so that we couldn't live without love. "From birth to death, love is not just the focus of human experience but also the life force of the mind, determining our moods, stabilizing our bodily rhythms, and changing the structure of our brains. The body's physiology ensures that relationships determine and fix our identities. Love makes us who we are, and who we can become." (Preface, viii)

I think this is one of my favorite things about the Lord. He is Love, so in a spiritual, "other-realmy" sense, we are always in Love. But then on earth he gives us a people we get to share love with, and be "in love" with, so we are surrounded and filled with it. And that is such a beautiful thing.

*You might be thinking--of course she thinks love is such a beautiful and romantic thing, she's a newlywed. To that I have no defense except perhaps to say you ought to meet my husband, (who is a very caring and loving person, don't get me wrong!) before you assume I think love is equated with romance. Yes I am feeling lovie. So sue me.

*Drew if you're out there, thanks for the book.

Okay, so it's probably too confusing to explain, but I didn't actually post that last blog entry...My new husband was a little over-eager to bring me back into the blogging world. Anyway, yes I am married, and yes, I really am back this time.

The wedding was great, being married is crazy and wonderful, and I'm not entirely sure what I want to blog about. I might just slack off. So here it is. My little bit of nothing for the day. Maybe I'll be more forthcoming about my life and thoughts later.

Four Jobs I've had:
Postal Clerk
Barista
Medieval Literature Research Assistant
Basketball Camp Coach

Four movies I'd watch over and over again:
Groundhog Day (I have watched this over and over again)
About a Boy
As Good as it Gets
The Sound of Music
(*And I could probably watch Rear Window over and over again too, because I love Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart in that one)

Four Places I've Lived:
Oklahoma
Virginia
Rome (hah, I wish it was Rome, Italy)
Raleigh, North Carolina...well, I will live there soon!

Four TV shows I love to watch:
Smallville (Allison got me hooked, Tom Welling might not be able to act, but he does make a cute teen superman)
Alias, Jennifer Garner kicking butt is my favorite thing about this show
reruns of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air...love that 90's flair
The Cosby Show, c'mon, who doesn't love the Cosby show besides the KKK?


Four Websites I visit daily:
Dang, I don't even get online daily.

Four places I've been on vacation:
Montana
San Francisco
Mexico
Florida (I know Florida's like the staple vacation place. I hope my next big trip is overseas.)

Four foods I love:
Mac-n-cheese (no, I am not five years old)
Mike's grandma's manicotti
is Mayfield's Moonpie ice cream a food?
Hawaiian bread


Four places I'd rather be:
Once springtime starts to hit us full force I will wish I am somewhere pollen free.