A Little Rambling

Oh my. I am a terrible blogger. Last post in September?! Oh dear. Well, life is continuing on. Finished my semester of community college (or at least, I will be finished if my professor figures out how to get our final online...more than 3 hours late, currently...) and have been accepted into ASU's music education program. !!!! That's HUGEly exciting for me. :) :) :) I'm also in the process of buying a house, also hugely exciting! Only a little while left in the apartment. But I'll almost miss this place, as it looks so cute for Christmas. Being me, I've got my lights up and I now have 2 trees! With the lights, decorations, candles, and Christmas music, it's just delightful. And while that may not be what Christmas is all about, it sure is a lot of fun! So yeah, not a whole lot important to say, but I'm trying to get back into the habit of doing this. So, back to waiting for my final to be posted and enjoying the rain in the meantime!

I don't know that I can actually say all that much about this - she pretty much says it all. But I want to be like this woman - I want to 'blaze through the world' as she does, not ashamed in the slightest of the God I serve, and His Gospel, because I know it is the only reason I am alive, and the only reason for living. This is a challenge, ladies and gentlemen, and not one quietly delivered. There is passion in this woman, and it is infectious. Listen to her, learn from her, and then act . I can't find the whole video except on facebook, where I originally saw it, so I hope this link works for all of you. I know it's 16 minutes long, but believe me, it's worth watching - and I don't even like speeches! Gianna Jessen , 9/8/08, Australia

Psalm 143 , ESV + Laura Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! I know that you always hear me, Lord, but sometimes it's hard to remember. In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. I know that I would not be able to stand before Your judgment were it not for the blood of Your Son. Even then I am sometimes ashamed to stand before You. For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. Appalled at my own deeds, and the way I allow the enemy to torment me with dark thoughts. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I remember all the times before that You have fulfilled Your promises, and wonder why I ever doubt? I stretch out my hands to you; desperately my

For some reason, I have this theory - if a thing is too popular, it can't really be good. I make my judgment and then avoid whatever it is I have deemed 'too trendy.' And, as often as not, I end up looking into it anyways and changing my mind a year or five later. Some notable examples: 1. Harry Potter - mom made us listen to her read it, and fell I fell in love with it. Opinion changed. 2. Facebook - opinion obviously changed. Not that that means it is good. 3. LOST - after 2 seasons, Ashley got me to watch one episode, and I was hooked. But not hooked enough to make it past season 4 on Hulu. 4. Christian school - everyone at church was going to PC, and I went to Apollo. Lasted one year, then I was begging to be at Northwest. Fast forward to college, a huge chunk of my friends are doing Southwestern, Grand Canyon, Point Loma, Cal Baptist, etc etc etc. I choose ASU...and where did I end up? 5. Twilight - okay, just kidding. Never did jump on that bandwagon

My truest passion is choral music. I love singing. I love piano. I love teaching both of those. I enjoy singing in a praise band. I love working with little kids, and reading, and cooking, and a whole host of other things. But I have no passion [for any earthly thing] that compares to singing in a choir. A GOOD choir. I have been in choir of some sort for as long as I can remember, starting in little kids' church choirs at Bethany. In 6th grade, I joined the Phoenix Children's Chorus, which built the foundation for this passion. In high school, I practically lived in the choir room. At 16, I left PCC and joined the Phoenix Symphony Chorus, and enjoyed being in a professional-level volunteer chorus, singing with the Symphony, under the best director I've known, Bob Moody. At ASU, I was in the women's chorus, which, while not on par with either PCC or TPSC, was still enjoyable. Then came Southwestern. Not being a student there anymore, I can say this out loud -

Yesterday, Taryn and I saw a movie no one seems to have heard of. I'm not even sure how I heard of it, but I know I saw a preview at some point, and it piqued my interest. It's an indi film called "Get Low." To save the trouble of me explaining the premise, watch the trailer below. Then read on... I don't know how to do this without giving away at least some of the plotline, but since I'm going to encourage you all to go see it, I'll do my best. This is a movie about forgiveness, pure and simple. It's wrapped up in quirky characters and beautiful music and an interesting story, but the heart of it all is forgiveness. Everyone in the town vilifies Duvall's character, the recluse Felix Bush, and everyone has heard a story of some awful thing he's done. At one point in the movie, Felix talks about how he doesn't ever want to be forgiven [for those things], and wants to bear the weight of his sins and stare at them everyday. How often d

I kind of feel like I am doing school backwards, in several respects. I started at an enormous state university, moved to a small private college, and am now doing a semester of community college. I have a hefty amount of my major requirements fulfilled, and now, as a senior, am taking gen eds. On a minor scale [accidental music pun], at SWC I took Acts-Rev before Gospels and Prophets before Gen-Song. So today was my first day of community college. I had high hopes. At ASU, my classes ranged in size from 21 to 600 people, but the professors still managed to be professional and good and I stayed involved in my classes, even if I almost never opened a book. Southwestern raised the bar in professors, but not necessarily in academics. PVCC has dropped the ball entirely. And it's been one day. Okay, so that's not fair. My public speaking teacher seems delightful. My biology professor will probably drive me crazy before the end of the week, but the class itself should be fi

Every now and then in life, you need a moment to be still. No talking, no tv, no music, no book, no laptop, no cell phone. Just you, and God. My favorite way to be still is to enjoy rain. Sometimes it's dancing in it, sometimes it's walking in it, sometimes it's sitting on the balcony listening to it, sometimes it's curled up in bed hearing it pound against the window pane. At the Festaburg, I sat on the balcony and stared at the trees through the rain, enjoying my tea in the absolute silence. Tonight, I sat on my balcony here, listening to the rain on the tin parking covers, and enjoying my steaming mug of chamomile tea. The rain is over now, but I'm still out here enjoying the dripping from the roofs and trees, the smell of renewal and wet earth. Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." It is times like these that, no matter how busy my mind has been, I can calm it

So, today was my last day working at Jamba Juice , and I have once more become a "normal" person with only one "real" job. I am thrilled beyond saying. The last couple semesters have been kind of insane. Last fall, I had 22 credit hours at school and was working two "real" jobs (teaching and nannying), as well as all those little odd jobs - babysitting, housesitting, tutoring, modeling, donating plasma (not a job, I know) - that start to add up. Besides that, I was doing the school musical, and dating, and living on my own, and paying my way through school. Unfortunately, school proved to be a bit more expensive than I could handle, so I ended up taking last semester (mostly) off to work instead. So now, I only had two credits at school (voice lessons and my junior recital), but I had three "real" jobs, plus the odd ones. At first, it was not overwhelming. I had a lot of close friendships, and a boyfriend, to help share the stress and mak

So, I've decided that I really feel like blogging again. However, it feels weird to use Across the Atlantic , since it's all for Germany, and I am reluctantly stuck in Arizona again. Thus, a new (& domestic) blog is born. Here's to a lot more rambling! Or, in the interest of promoting my own title, and preserving your interest, only a little rambling.