I love getting to play and getting paid for it! Today I started my four-day rescue training class. Instead of going to work, I got to sleep in and drive half the distance to go jump off towers. Woo hoo! We played with knots, learned how to set up rigging, and practiced lowering each other off a 60 (or so) foot building. Very fun! Tomorrow we're going to practice patient packaging and lowering. Man, I can't wait to be dropping to the ground while strapped to a backboard . . . .
I was one of two females in the class of 27, and the other was quite a bit older. While this in no way bothered me (Mines taught me nothing if not to be used to being in the extreme minority), I found it interesting that there was always a guy waiting to help me unhook after being lowered. Even more interesting is the fact that none of the guys in my group received any help unhooking when they were lowered. So the question is, did the asistees think I needed more help, or did they just enjoy getting up close and personal with the sole pretty young girl? Hmm . . .Fortunately, I am either a) easygoing or b) egotistical, and have decided it was the latter. I found it very amusing. We'll have to see if that continues through the week!
Oh, and I've decided that BBQ is to (SE) Texas what pizza is anywhere else. Lunch is provided with this course, and what else did we get but BBQ. This has been quite the trend in most of the lunches I've had in the past month or so. However, I don't think I've had pizza yet. The amazing thing is that the BBQ is always the same: brisket and possibly sausage, baked beans, dirty rice, flimsy white bread, onions, pickle and banana pudding topped with vanilla wafers. The drink is always iced tea. Today I was really excited, because there was potato salad too. Amazing! I guess I really can't complain (and honestly, I'm not, the food is generally pretty good), it's just another way to tell that I've a moved into a whole other culture!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Sunday, February 19, 2006
2/19/2006
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I placed a bid on a house and it was accepted. Yay!! :) I will now be going through the lending, inspecting, etc. process, but assuming that it all goes well, I should be in the house within 2 months. I cannot wait to get out of this apartment!
For the curious (Dad), the address is . . . well, just email me to find out. While I haven't actually driven from the house to work (I'll try that on Monday), I'm sure it is no more than 10 minutes from work. Much better than the 30/45/60 minute drive I have to and from work now!
Also, I've posted some pictures online, so visit my photo page (link is to the right), check them out, and let me know what you think! :)
For the curious (Dad), the address is . . . well, just email me to find out. While I haven't actually driven from the house to work (I'll try that on Monday), I'm sure it is no more than 10 minutes from work. Much better than the 30/45/60 minute drive I have to and from work now!
Also, I've posted some pictures online, so visit my photo page (link is to the right), check them out, and let me know what you think! :)
Thursday, February 16, 2006
2/16/2006
I must apologize for my deliquency in posting. I do have a somewhat valid excuse, however. My cable was down for a week, which affected not only my TV viewing, but also my ability to et online. In fact, it was the internet part that was more bothersome than the TV part. I can live without TV, not so the internet! Although, had the cable not gotten fixed 5 hours before the Olympic opening ceremony, I would have been one unhappy camper! Fortunately, I have been able to enjoy the Olympics from the start and am looking forward to the men's free skate tonight. :) :)
Despite the fact that I haven't posted in a while, you haven't missed much. I was pretty sick last week, enough so that I missed work on Friday. I was worried I was going to get the lingering cough, but gallons of water and cranberry juice must have staved that off. Sadly, though, I had to miss a camping trip, Settler's of Catan game night, plus a discussion on limited atonement at church. I would gladly give those up again, though, if that's what it takes to keep from getting the seal-like bark.
Other than that, nothing too exciting. To show how boring my life is and how completely pathetic I am, I must confess that this afternoon I spent some time using my digital camera to record myself talking and singing. I've always wondered what I sound like and after today I can confirm that I cannot sing! Ouch, I was terrible! I sang along with songs off my computer and boy, did I butcher them. Not that this is any surprise, but I thought I could at least carry a tune! My church singing volume is going to approach zero from now on. Either that, or I'll have to sit far away from anyone else!
Oh, and I had not one, but two guys call to wish me happy Valentine's Day. Very odd!
Despite the fact that I haven't posted in a while, you haven't missed much. I was pretty sick last week, enough so that I missed work on Friday. I was worried I was going to get the lingering cough, but gallons of water and cranberry juice must have staved that off. Sadly, though, I had to miss a camping trip, Settler's of Catan game night, plus a discussion on limited atonement at church. I would gladly give those up again, though, if that's what it takes to keep from getting the seal-like bark.
Other than that, nothing too exciting. To show how boring my life is and how completely pathetic I am, I must confess that this afternoon I spent some time using my digital camera to record myself talking and singing. I've always wondered what I sound like and after today I can confirm that I cannot sing! Ouch, I was terrible! I sang along with songs off my computer and boy, did I butcher them. Not that this is any surprise, but I thought I could at least carry a tune! My church singing volume is going to approach zero from now on. Either that, or I'll have to sit far away from anyone else!
Oh, and I had not one, but two guys call to wish me happy Valentine's Day. Very odd!
Saturday, February 4, 2006
2/4/2006
I have just finished reading The Chosen (for the second time) & The Promise (for the first) by Chaim Potok. I have discovered why a book is such a harder entertainment than the TV, and not just because it requires the trained ability to read versus the natural ability to see & hear. The TV is easy. I can come home, turn it on and be absolutely passive. I can get up and move around while it's on, preparing my dinner, cleaning the house, checking my email. It only requires a portion of my brain & none of my heart or soul. It is just as easy to turn it off as it is to turn on. When I am tired, it is no great difficulty to leave it and go to bed. When errands need to be done or chores be completed, it is no great hardship to leave the TV because, since it has required nothing of me, I have given nothing to it. I fee no great sympathy for those on-screen and no compulsion to continue viewing. My life continues, unchanged.
Not so with a book, however. A book requires your whole attention and therefore captures your whole being as a result. To read a great book is to abandon living for a moment. No longer can you go about your daily routine. You are trapped by the images it evokes. Meals go unprepared & uneaten, sleep is no longer a necessity. You cannot leave it to use the restroom, so it come with you and, should you have been foolish to start on a day when you had to be somewhere, well . . . you will most likely be late. A good book makes you tardy to work, keeps you holed up in your office during breaks and leaves you daydreaming in the office. It even keeps you from driving home after work; so intent is your devotion that you sit in the car to finish it. For however long it takes, that book and your life are the same. You feel the characters' pain, you laugh in their joy and drown in their sorrow.
Then, the inevitable comes. You finish the book. You set it down and slowly come back to reality. You look around, slowly realizing that you are no longer in 1950s New York, or 16th century Europe, or wherever else the book may have taken you. You are here, in your house (or at work, or sitting in your car) and you are a person with a life independent of the book. You have events to attend, responsibilities to be taken care of, friends and family to connect with. You know this. And yet, for a few moments, you can't leave the book behind. You may try to capture the feeling by re-reading a favorite passage but it is not the same. So you set the book aside and wander aimlessly, trying to collect your thoughts, trying to re-enter the world in which you live. "The kitchen should be cleaned," you may think, "but what are mundane chores compared to the suffering I have just experienced?" Or, "I should really call my friend back . . . but how can she share in this inexpressable joy?" Slowly, slowly, your senses return and you move on, realizing that part of you has been left with the book, but part of it has come with you. Life returns to normal, tasks are completed and you are once again your own self . . . until the sweet seductive song of another book ensares you.
That is why it is easier to watch TV than read a book. Yes, much easier to remain a neutral observer than an impassioned participant. But oh, how less satisfying . . .
Not so with a book, however. A book requires your whole attention and therefore captures your whole being as a result. To read a great book is to abandon living for a moment. No longer can you go about your daily routine. You are trapped by the images it evokes. Meals go unprepared & uneaten, sleep is no longer a necessity. You cannot leave it to use the restroom, so it come with you and, should you have been foolish to start on a day when you had to be somewhere, well . . . you will most likely be late. A good book makes you tardy to work, keeps you holed up in your office during breaks and leaves you daydreaming in the office. It even keeps you from driving home after work; so intent is your devotion that you sit in the car to finish it. For however long it takes, that book and your life are the same. You feel the characters' pain, you laugh in their joy and drown in their sorrow.
Then, the inevitable comes. You finish the book. You set it down and slowly come back to reality. You look around, slowly realizing that you are no longer in 1950s New York, or 16th century Europe, or wherever else the book may have taken you. You are here, in your house (or at work, or sitting in your car) and you are a person with a life independent of the book. You have events to attend, responsibilities to be taken care of, friends and family to connect with. You know this. And yet, for a few moments, you can't leave the book behind. You may try to capture the feeling by re-reading a favorite passage but it is not the same. So you set the book aside and wander aimlessly, trying to collect your thoughts, trying to re-enter the world in which you live. "The kitchen should be cleaned," you may think, "but what are mundane chores compared to the suffering I have just experienced?" Or, "I should really call my friend back . . . but how can she share in this inexpressable joy?" Slowly, slowly, your senses return and you move on, realizing that part of you has been left with the book, but part of it has come with you. Life returns to normal, tasks are completed and you are once again your own self . . . until the sweet seductive song of another book ensares you.
That is why it is easier to watch TV than read a book. Yes, much easier to remain a neutral observer than an impassioned participant. But oh, how less satisfying . . .
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