Counterculture Par-Tay
Friday night I had over 50 people at my house. OMG! It was packed. I think they all had a good time. Everyone was polite, respectful and very appreicative. What nice people. The only causualty was my coat hooks. We think there were over 20 coat on it when it gave up and fell off the wall. No worries, it will go back up. Valerie and her crew did a wonderful job cleaning up. They are AWESOME!

Today I had my second class of Yogalates. It feels so good to strech my muscles. I feel so much better afterwards. I highly recommend it to everyone. Then I went shopping with Mom. We had a great time at the mall. There is yummy coffee at the Daily Grind. She helped me make a color decision for my downstairs bathroom. It will be jade green and I now have rug! Next stop - painting the walls.

Veggie Update: Retaurants are out to get me. The last 2 times I've eaten out and ordered vegetarian meals, they have addeed chicken. Whats up with that? I was struggling earlier this week, but now i'm holding firm to my convictions. It's actually hard for me to even consider eating meat. Tonight when I was brought chicken noodle soup instead of potato soup, I couldn't eat the chunks of chicken. I'm turned off by the thought of eating anything with a face.

99% good, 1% evil
Thats the results when I ran my website through an evil detecter.

Veggie update: It isn't easy being a vegetarian. I have been struggling with protein sources. My body seems to want meat. I almost gave up on Monday, but decided to keep on after receiving a pep talk from Val. I went grocery shopping tonight looking for interesting sources of soy. I got a few. Hopefully they will help. Otherwise I'll be eating Kashi cereal for every meal. Fortunately its really yummy.

Weekend in Williamsburg
I'll try to sum up many of the experiences I've had this weekend. There was a yummy dinner at Olive Garden friday night. Then off to the Virginia Conference Youth Workers Retreat. The speaker was Erik Swanson and he spoke on spiritual formation in youth. We were taught several prayer practices to use with the youth. One of the spcial prayer times for me was sitting in a quiet room, being led in simple two line songs, listening to a scripture passage read twice, then sitting in silence for 15 minutes, finishing with another simple song. I found it incredibly relaxing and peaceful. What wonderful time with God.

I went away this weekend feeling busy and overwhelmed by everthing there is to do in my life. So this became a theme in my prayers. By the end of the weekend I was at peace with my schedule. I felt God reminding me that he is in control and I can do all things through him. He will make sure I have enough time to do the important things in my life.

Hump Day
Florida here I come. The tickets are booked and the hotel an car are reserved. Now I just have to wait for March 26. Wow Florida during spring break, I'm just a few years late for that one. I guess you'll have to watch MTV to see me at the beach house (jk).

Tonight we had a mystery dinner at MYF. It was really yummy. Thanks to the Lehmans for hosting us. It was awesome.

Veggie update: I've been trying to make food choices that do not include meat. It isn't always easy or tasty. I'd be interest in comments or recipes if anyone has feeback.

Bovine University
Last week I read an article (while waiting at Harrisonburg Honda) in the Washington Post Magazine. It was about mad cow disease and how cattle are treated before they are slaughtered. I found it to be pretty disturbing. I've been looking for it online so that I could link to it but haven't had any luck. So now I am seriously thinking about giving up meat. I was successful in giving it up from Thursday until Saturday. If I can find some alternate forms of protein (that I like) I think I may be a basic vegetrarian. One of the items mentioned in the article was that they feed the cattle poultry feces and they also feed them other cows. It pointed out that no species is is naturally canabalistic. So they are going against nature. Well enough on that happy topic.

Saturday morning I had my first Yogalates class. It was good. I am now aware of some muscles in my back that have been neglected. I am looking forward to when I know the positions better and it can be a really relaxing time.

Busyness as Usual?
Lately my life can be summed up by the word "busy". I keep trying to figure out what I can cut from my life to have more time, but there isn't anything. I think what makes it hard is that work has been really busy and I could spend many extra hours there and I have. It feels like I just need to get organized, but I only have time on the weekends and then I need to relax. Which is what I am doing this morning until its time for exercise.

Thursday was an awesome day. I took off work early and had a facial. It was so incredibly relaxing. It included a arm, leg and foot massage. Then I was off to the hairdresser to have a cut and color. I was thinking that I would do something different with my hair, and we did cut off 2 inches. But it doesn't look a whole lot different. Maybe next time. Next was dinner at Dave's Taverna. I had some yummy linguine and red sauce. I was dining with Funado which is always a blast.

Friday night was spent hangin with the girls. Audrey, Patty and Amy stopped by to watch the season premiere of Munk. We ordered pizza and just vegged. Just what I needed.

Yay for friends!

How Cold Is It?
Thursday was another fun funado. We had yummy potatoes at Ney's place. The usual shows we all reruns so we watched A Mighty Wind. It was really good.

Saturday Jesse and & I saw Runaway Jury. It wasn't as good as the book, but movies hardly ever are. They actually changed the main focus of the story, but it still worked.

I finally got back to the gym. It felt good to be running again, althought I didn't know I was missing it. Tomorrow is Audrey's birthday so make sure you all wish her a happy day.

I'm loving my new cd by Death Cab for Cutie. Their song New Year sums up my feelings lately: "So this is the new year, and I don't feel any different". It seems like the time to figure out what would make life perfect and change things so it will happen. But there is something unappealing about that. Life will never be perfect, how do you measure perfectness, and perfect doesn't mean happy.

Well, thats enough introspection for tonight. I'm trying to get psyched up for another busy week.

Inside Voices
Lately I've been battling a cold. Definately not fun. Work is once again crazy busy. The phone doesn't stop ringing and the emails are pouring in. It is overwhelming all the details Andy, Adam & I have to manage.

Not much has been going on outside of work. New Year's Eve was spent with Jesse and Steven. We had mucho fun watching a movie and playing video games. Jesse wore his hott pants. After midnight the girls (Audrey, Jen, Patty & Amy) stopped by for some sparkling grape juice and cold pizza. It was great to have the group together again. People cleared out around 1:00, but I wasn't sleepy and I ended up playing video games for several hours.

Saturday night Patty and I hung out and worked on bills. We watched two episodes of The Sopranos. It was good! Unbelievable, I'm hooked on another HBO show. Sunday was the season premiere for Sex in the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm. They were both excellent and worth the wait.

Tonight was Counterculture small group. It felt good to meet again. What a wonderful amazing group of people. We are still working on A Purpose Driven Life.

Snaps to Mom for her good humour and rapid healing. You are such an incredible person, no one wiill ever accuse you of being cold and indifferent.