My brother Randy can sing at least as high as me.

Competition - Woman Style!

Two things about my mom and her twin.
 
We were driving home from Seattle after picking up my aunt Connie and three of her children and it was rather late and they were rather tired.  So people were sleeping, except mom, she was trying to stay awake to keep me awake.  And Connie was in the back seat sleeping, and every 15 minutes she'd rouse herself and cry out asking if I was ok.  I'd wave and she'd settle back, only to repeat the process a little while later.
 
I remember when I was paranoid about people (Tom) falling asleep on late-night drives.  I was pretty crazy.  One time, I think I just yelled at him out of the blue to make sure he wasn't falling asleep on me.  And did I hit him, too?  I don't know, but I was serious.
 
And my mom and my aunt, oh my!  They are so competitive about their weight!  They told me tonight that they weighed and were exactly the same!  So both of them should be happy.  But when one of my cousins expressed surprise that they were the same, Connie was quick to say, "Oh, so who do you think should've weighed more?"  And it goes both ways, it's just crazy!

I was also invited to a party that happened last evening.  A par-tay.  I don't think they were going on a picnic and drinking iced tea.

To be hired at the IAC you have to go through an interview process.  First, the assistant director and maybe a student or two interviews you, then, if you passed the first test, a panel of students interview you again, so they can get a feel for the candidate.
 
Yesterday I was in on a student interview, the first time I have ever, ever played the part of the interviewer in a job situation like that.  I was bad at it, too.  I had a list of questions in front of me, and I had picked a few out that I thought were good.  There were three of us interviewing, so after someone else had asked a question or two I dived in asking about how he met deadlines.
 
"What do you do to make a deadline?"
 
That's what I said, after stumbling around like a toddler in a dark room for awhile.  Or maybe it was stupider than that.  For my first question, I should have just read it from the page.
 
Better yet, I should've prepared more thoroughly.  'Cause it's true that I'm not the spontaneous type.

You ever lose yourself in the feeling that it's so much bigger and grander than you or your problems or your doubts?

Think about all the grand, beautiful things that fade away. A shooting star, a rose, the moon. Death steals people, time dims memories.

But love...no, Love goes on.

I have a mechanical pencil with a little cap that guards its eraser. I've slid the cap off so many times that it's pretty loose. So if I'm gesticulating wildly with my pencil in my hand, sometimes it flies off. It's little and plastic and bouncy, so when it flies off it goes places. But I've never lost it, amazingly. It always falls to places that I can get to.

Like today. I was walking down some stairs and it flew off as I was turning a corner. But instead of falling between the stairs way down to the bottom--where it could bounce to who knows where--it started dancing a jig on the flight that I was turning to descend. It's like it doesn't want to get lost, but it wants to be mischievous.

It's my birthday today. I'm an ancient 22.

Mom threw a surprise birthday party for me Sunday night. I'm so unsuspecting, not the suspicious type. So when I drove into the driveway and there were lots of people in the doorway and some of them started cheering and waving, it took me a second to figure out it was for me.

In the ever-continuing quest to provide insight into my life and who I am, I will do what I have not often done before and directly address some by-log comments in the by-log proper. “Ag” posed the following questions to me, and I will do my best to answer them.

1. Are you desperate?

No. “Desperate” is an adjective that would do a very poor job of describing me right now. Desperation, it seems to me, can be closely linked to passion. Unfortunately, “passionate” is another adjective that wouldn’t be very descriptive of me at in the last few months. Sometimes desperation is good.

But no, “Ag”, I’m not desperate.

2. Can you type with your toes?

No, ma’am.

3. Did you ever try? (quesion 2)

No, ma’am.

4. What is your idea of a dream date? (I love to ask people that quesion!)

Golf in the afternoon, eat in the evening. I just love the idea of golfing as a date. If she doesn’t know how, then I get to be the hero and teach her. If she does know how, great, what better time to get to know her than a leisurely afternoon on the golf course? But it would have to be a twosome, for sure.

5. French fries or onion rings?

I sort of like onion rings now, and they are formed in the shape of eternity, but I’ll say french fries.

6. Chocolate or vanilla?

Ok, Ag, this is beginning to sound like an e-mail forward a person gets sent. I like them, though, so I’ll have to say context, baby, it’s all about the context. Leaning toward ‘nilla, yo. ‘Sup?

7. What song do you completely lose yourself in? You know, like you are totally GONE and forget about yourself. That's where the whole "drowning in the music comes in.

I just keep thinking about the Chris Rice song, Smile. I almost go to pieces thinking about it. The lyrics themselves don’t do the experience justice, and I’ve quoted them here before, but I’ll do it again.

I just wanna be with you.
Just want this waiting to be over.
I just wanna be with you.
And it helps to know the day is getting closer.
But every minute takes an hour,
Every inch feels like a mile,
Till I won’t have to imagine
And I’ll finally get to see you smile!

I can almost cry when I hear that song, or even think about it very much.

And the guy, Chris Rice, just makes so much sense. I hope this link is good for awhile, because it’s a great article, and it lets you know where he’s coming from, and I love it.

8. Can Tom really cook?

Yes! He made some mean toasted-cheese sandwiches (even though he did something unthinkable in serving food to guests without even a drop of ketchup anywhere in his apartment) when I was recently at his house. And the sausages weren’t bad either.

9. Would you rather have people call your laugh a giggle or an exuberant snort?

It’s not an exuberant snort. It’s a “cute” laugh. But I guess I’d rather them call it an exuberant snort. I guess.

10. Do you floss?

No, not regularly.

11. What is your dream vacation?

I’d like to go on a cruise, but really I’d like to go to a condo somewhere—most anywhere that’s pleasant—and just hang out and do nothing besides thinking and sitting around. Then, if I had enough of that, I’d go out and golf or run or play tennis, and then come back and think and write and watch a good movie. Do that for 1-2 weeks. I don’t care if there would be others with me, as long as they had the same mindset.

12. If you could live anywhere in the world that you could, where would you choose?

A difficult question to answer, because there are no parameters given. If a time limit is imposed, say 2 years, then there are lots of places I’d like to try. Namely, most anywhere in western Europe.

13. Answer a question that I didn't ask.

1. The wonder and intricacy of Creation confirms to me that there is truly a God.
2. The historical fact of the resurrection confirms to me that Jesus is God and Christianity is true.

This is a paraphrased version of an answer I gave to a question fellow Blogger blogger (get it?) Darin posted on his site: what stabilizes your Christian life?

14. What is it about women that is mysterious?

I don’t think there is just one thing, but men and women, as a rule, just approach stuff differently. Men are often completely baffled—and I say this from personal experience as well as what I’ve heard from others—by how women approach relational issues. It doesn’t make sense to us, it seems so much more complicated than it needs to be.

Generalizations, to be sure. I haven’t figured out if all women are like this to some extent or just some of them.

15. Is having a "fertile mind" a good thing?

Most certainly.

Names

My aunt Rosie is pregnant. I think it's going to be a girl, and I like the name Olivia. Mom dislikes that name, and I didn't get a favorable vibe when I asked Rosie if she liked it. Oh well.

If I would have been a girl, my name would have been either Amanda or Heidi, oddly enough names of two of my older cousins.