Thursday, June 3, 2010
SEND ME TO SERVE
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Friday, May 28, 2010
QUEST TO BE THE "COOL COUSIN"
“Woah…Amber was just literally clothes-lined!” I heard my little cousin yell. Well, that explained the unyielding stinging pain across my right eye. Why did people keep the clothesline up if there were no clothes on it anyway? Two words: safety hazard. So there I was lying in a mound of cold, wet snow. My jeans, soaked. My head managed to find the only patch of ground not covered in a cushion of white, but instead a pile of dirt and rocks. How did this “building a snowman with my cousins” event turn into a game of snow wrestling? Probably about the time my cousin pulled the head off the snowman and launched it at his brother. So there I was…back to the ground, blinking cautiously into the glaring sunlight. At that moment I realized I had two options: 1) Call it quits for the day and go inside for some hot chocolate. 2) Be the “cool cousin.” Yes, “cool cousin” status was in sight. Stand up and get back in the game. My choice was already made for me. I jumped and ran for the body of the snowman. Game on…
My housemates have encouraged me to start a blog. They are the geniuses behind the name “oh my blog.” However, upon registering with www.blogspot.com, I found that ohmyblog.blogspot.com was already taken…as well as ohmyblogg, ohmybloggg, ohmybloog, ohmyblog2 and ohmyblog3 (tragic). This of course leaves me at ohmyblog4 (which I assumed was a perfectly logical selection given the unavailability of the other options). My housemates have since informed me that not only is ohmyblog4 not clever, but also lacking originality. At any rate, here I begin with a brief summary of my last few months…
Lent
This year I had six Lenten goals and they are as follows:
1) Memorize a scripture verse each week. (Okay…that didn’t happen, but I did sort of memorize one.
2) Rice and Beans Week with my community…Rice and beans for all dinners the first week of Lent to be more aware of our brothers and sisters throughout the world who are physically and spiritually hungry…and to be more attentive to the way we are physically and spiritually nourished. Success…although when the San Miguel School of Camden granted us a pizza the first night, we couldn’t let that go to waste.
3) Say something positive to someone every day. Success.
4) “Cut back” on sweets. Some of you might remember my failed attempt to give up sweets last year that ended in a devastating chocolate pretzel binge the first Friday of Lent. This year, however, I was successful. Although, I have compiled a list of items that could potentially appear on the “sweets” list that I did not count:
i. Doughnuts and Pancakes (Sweets or Breakfast foods? What if I eat them after dinner?)
ii. Mints and Bubblegum
iii. Freezepops
iv. Chocolate Milk (Good for your bones. What about hot chocolate? Basically the same thing…only the temperature changes so I think it’s fine.)
If I knew how to do a poll on a blog, I would do it for this.
5) Read the Purpose Driven Life and discuss with some of my community members. Success.
6) Talk to at least one stranger a week about God. Success AND Fantastic Learning Experience. Some comments from strangers about God, faith, prayer, etc.:
i. “Our world is so beautiful and magnificent….how could there not be a God. Look around.”
ii. “You can pray anytime, anywhere.”
iii. “There must be a God because someone is watching over me.”
Extreme Sports
My dear friend Andrea Rose (a JV in Philly) decided to run the Washington D.C. Suntrust Marathon this year. Sooo I decided to join her. It was a great experience, with just a few hiccups. Mistake #1: not registering early enough for the discount (and away went my stipend for January). Mistake #2: only training for 1 month prior to the event. At any rate, I knew it had to be better than my last marathon experience… where I spent the night before downing a pint of cookie dough ice cream with my brother Chris and spent the ride home after the marathon vomiting hot neon Gatorade into a Wal-Mart bag. Needless to say, no PR was achieved that time.
Jenna (“Little Bird”….which, by the way, is way better than “dried tree sap”) and I are in the process of training for a 70 mile bike ride on May 29th (Sponsor an XBA biker) to benefit the San Miguel School of Camden where Jenna and Mark are teachers. One of the highlights of our training so far came from our “4 hour bike ride” two weekends ago….which ended in me achieving the world record for longest distance covered by scootering a bike with a missing pedal. Despite the burning pain up my left side (from leaning sideways to balance the bike), I didn’t think things were that bad until I overheard not once, but twice someone remark “Oh my God, that girl’s missing a pedal!”
Perhaps my favorite part of training for this massive bike-a-thon was last weekend during our 40-miler….when at some point between mile 20 and 30, a downpour occurred (significantly limiting our visibility). All I know is one minute, we were in a bike lane pedaling through a small town...the next minute, we were suddenly biking on the highway.
A) not safe B) freaking hysterical
And as I conclude this first post, I’d like to give a shout out to Steph, my solo dedicated follower who has been my biggest support on my journey into bloghood.
Until next time…
My housemates have encouraged me to start a blog. They are the geniuses behind the name “oh my blog.” However, upon registering with www.blogspot.com, I found that ohmyblog.blogspot.com was already taken…as well as ohmyblogg, ohmybloggg, ohmybloog, ohmyblog2 and ohmyblog3 (tragic). This of course leaves me at ohmyblog4 (which I assumed was a perfectly logical selection given the unavailability of the other options). My housemates have since informed me that not only is ohmyblog4 not clever, but also lacking originality. At any rate, here I begin with a brief summary of my last few months…
Lent
This year I had six Lenten goals and they are as follows:
1) Memorize a scripture verse each week. (Okay…that didn’t happen, but I did sort of memorize one.
2) Rice and Beans Week with my community…Rice and beans for all dinners the first week of Lent to be more aware of our brothers and sisters throughout the world who are physically and spiritually hungry…and to be more attentive to the way we are physically and spiritually nourished. Success…although when the San Miguel School of Camden granted us a pizza the first night, we couldn’t let that go to waste.
3) Say something positive to someone every day. Success.
4) “Cut back” on sweets. Some of you might remember my failed attempt to give up sweets last year that ended in a devastating chocolate pretzel binge the first Friday of Lent. This year, however, I was successful. Although, I have compiled a list of items that could potentially appear on the “sweets” list that I did not count:
i. Doughnuts and Pancakes (Sweets or Breakfast foods? What if I eat them after dinner?)
ii. Mints and Bubblegum
iii. Freezepops
iv. Chocolate Milk (Good for your bones. What about hot chocolate? Basically the same thing…only the temperature changes so I think it’s fine.)
If I knew how to do a poll on a blog, I would do it for this.
5) Read the Purpose Driven Life and discuss with some of my community members. Success.
6) Talk to at least one stranger a week about God. Success AND Fantastic Learning Experience. Some comments from strangers about God, faith, prayer, etc.:
i. “Our world is so beautiful and magnificent….how could there not be a God. Look around.”
ii. “You can pray anytime, anywhere.”
iii. “There must be a God because someone is watching over me.”
Extreme Sports
My dear friend Andrea Rose (a JV in Philly) decided to run the Washington D.C. Suntrust Marathon this year. Sooo I decided to join her. It was a great experience, with just a few hiccups. Mistake #1: not registering early enough for the discount (and away went my stipend for January). Mistake #2: only training for 1 month prior to the event. At any rate, I knew it had to be better than my last marathon experience… where I spent the night before downing a pint of cookie dough ice cream with my brother Chris and spent the ride home after the marathon vomiting hot neon Gatorade into a Wal-Mart bag. Needless to say, no PR was achieved that time.
Jenna (“Little Bird”….which, by the way, is way better than “dried tree sap”) and I are in the process of training for a 70 mile bike ride on May 29th (Sponsor an XBA biker) to benefit the San Miguel School of Camden where Jenna and Mark are teachers. One of the highlights of our training so far came from our “4 hour bike ride” two weekends ago….which ended in me achieving the world record for longest distance covered by scootering a bike with a missing pedal. Despite the burning pain up my left side (from leaning sideways to balance the bike), I didn’t think things were that bad until I overheard not once, but twice someone remark “Oh my God, that girl’s missing a pedal!”
Perhaps my favorite part of training for this massive bike-a-thon was last weekend during our 40-miler….when at some point between mile 20 and 30, a downpour occurred (significantly limiting our visibility). All I know is one minute, we were in a bike lane pedaling through a small town...the next minute, we were suddenly biking on the highway.
A) not safe B) freaking hysterical
And as I conclude this first post, I’d like to give a shout out to Steph, my solo dedicated follower who has been my biggest support on my journey into bloghood.
Until next time…
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