Time Lapse

Friday: Make plans to meet my manager at his house at 8:00 Monday morning to drive to Nashville. That means leaving my house at 7 a.m.

Monday: I'm in the shower and suddenly panic. Am I supposed to leave at 7:00 or get to his house at 7:00? Oh no. I'm confused. I hurry, get dressed, apply no makeup and get out the door at 6:50 a.m. I'm thinking: "Hope he's not too made when I show up late." "Darn. I had to reset my cell phone and lost all my numbers." "This is not going to make a good impression on his wife." While driving over to his house, in the dark by the way and trying to read the directions, I realize ... I don't need to be there until 8:00. Whew. I'm not late. I have time to pull over at a gas station and enter his address into the navigation system.

Monday night: Make plans to meet at 7:45 in hotel lobby to leave for meeting. Set alarm for 6:00 on hotel alarm clock and cell phone as backup.

Tuesday morning: Cell phone alarm goes off. Good thing I had that as a backup since hotel alarm didn't go off. Wait a minute. Hotel clock says 5 a.m. Bugger. Cell phone clock didn't switch to central time--it's only 5 a.m. I get to sleep one more hour, except now I'm afraid I'll over sleep and don't end of going back to sleep.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

That is the question. Sometimes I like getting tweets from Twitter and sometimes I get tired of them. In some cases it appears that people send tweets to impress others on where they are, shopping at elite stores, getting spa treatments, what impressive thing they've just done, important people they're hob nobbing with, etc. There's one person who is on the Women of Faith team and she sends tweets from the conferences. I wonder where she's sitting when she sends the messages.? On the other hand, the most bizarre things happen to her and it's funny to read about her latest mishap. One person sends messages from the plane. I didn't think cell phones worked on flights and besides, they're supposed to be turned off. I'm not a technorati, so I'm not following those types anymore. What surprises me is the complete strangers who are following me. Why would they be interested in what I'm doing? Right now, my mobile Twitter is set to "off." I'll just take a vaca for a while and then go back "on." I like Facebook status updates, they're fun to read and see what people are up to. I guess I like it better because FB people are not sending updates every minute.

BlackBerry Lemon

Just the other day I posted about loving my BlackBerry. I still do, but it's giving me trouble. I've spent hours on the phone with customer support from Verizon and BlackBerry. My problems started when we switched the phone over to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the hour glass showed up on the screen and just kept spinning. After doing a complete reset it went away. This is where the device is wiped clean and you start over. I reset all my preferences. A week later, the same thing happened. Verizon is now sending a new BlackBerry. Hopefully this one will work--customer service is beginning to know me by name.

Pumpkin Carving

Today I watched Rebecca and my brother, Keith, carve pumpkins. I watched because I couldn't very well carve and take pictures at the same time. The carving started outside, but it was chilly today in Georgia. So after the "guts" were removed, we moved inside. We tried toasting the seeds, but they didn't taste too good. Not sure what I did wrong. They smeared petroleum jelly inside the pumpkin hoping to preserve their work for a few more days. Don't their pumpkins look great?

Teen Scene

Last night I took my 14-year-old daughter and two of her friends to a concert at the Masquerade in Atlanta. Actually four bands were there: The Maine, Mayday Parade, All Time Low, and one other group I can't remember the name of. We bought the tickets weeks ago. An hour before we're supposed to leave we can't find the tickets. I thought my daughter had them, she thought I had them. We looked everywhere we usually stick things. I even went back to work to look in a bag that I sometimes put things in. Nope. Not there. Finally I called TicketMaster and because we had saved the e-mail receipt, they were able to put our names on the Will Call list. One catastrophe avoided.


Her friends arrive at the house and we take off for downtown Atlanta. We arrive and get in line to purchase a ticket because one of the girls didn't buy hers ahead of time. She's about 30 people from the end of the line and they yell, "The concert is sold out. No more tickets." Oh boy. I didn't drive three teen girls all the way downtown to turn around and go home. Besides, three out of four us had tickets. We make a plea to the ticket lady at Will Call. We gaze at her and the other fellow in the booth with angelic faces and they decide to sell us a ticket. Whew! Another catastrophe avoided.

All are happy. We go in. The first band is already cranking. Yep. It's LOUD. Good thing I brought ear plugs! I stand in the back with the other parents. I stand for a while, but need to move around and really need to sit down. No seats. I go just outside of the concert room and lo and behold, I spot a couch with a Dad sitting there. Turns out he brought his 14-year-old and three of her friends for her birthday. I camp out there for the rest of the night. No ear plugs needed. The girls stayed in that hot, crowded room all night. They screamed and jumped and danced.


I didn't see any kids drinking, but plenty were smoking. The club had lots of security on hand keeping the exits clear and everyone under control. There were also plenty of parents there waiting for their kids. We stay until the very end. The girls wanted autographs. They hang around for another hour or so and the band finally comes outside. They get the guys to sign their shirts. The girls are thrilled. We pull out of the parking lot after midnight. We arrive back home around 1:00 a.m. The girls can't hear and they can't speak, but they're feeling great. They loved it. I even got a thank you from my own daughter. They're already planning their next concert trip. Hopefully another parent will step up and take them.

God at Work

Within minutes of publishing my last post, "It's not too late," my phone rings and it's our pastor's wife from the church we were members of years ago in Maryland. Her husband (our pastor) passed away a few years ago and she's now living in Alabama. She was calling to ask if we would befriend a former student of hers from China who is getting her master's degree at Georgia State University. God works fast. I said I was ready and open and now here's an opportunity to minister to someone. I don't know what He wants me to do, but I know He'll show me. All she was asking me and my husband to do was to be her friend and let the Lord use us in her life. She's living in a bad part of Atlanta and is scared to leave her apartment. Money doesn't seem to be an issue. It's getting her connected with a safer home near Georgia State. My prayer now is "Lord, how can we help her?"

It's Not Too Late

Joel 2:12-13 (NIV)

12 "Even now," declares the LORD,
"return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning."

13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.

I've been away from God. But He never left me. The Holy Spirit, as quenched as He may be, was always there prodding me to make a change. At Catalyst this year, Craig Groeschel spoke and used these verses. They immediately spoke to me. The words, "return to me" rang true. He talked about Christians having lost "It"--that enthusiasm and love for the Lord that we had when we first came to know Him. I'm tired of being out of God's will. I love these verses, "Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love." It's amazing how God can use us even when we're far from Him. Imagine how much more He can do through us when we're close to Him. Thank you, Lord, I'm returning to You.

BlackBerry

I am the proud new owner of a BlackBerry. I've actually had it for a month and love it. I take pictures, check Facebook, get my personal and work e-mails, maintain my calendar, browse the Internet and, oh yes, use the phone. It's great. It pretty much goes everywhere with me now, even the bathroom.

Invisible

Have you ever had the experience of being "invisible?" It's very strange. You're with a group of people that you know, but they don't notice you're there. You try to join the conversation, only they don't acknowledge you. Their circle closes and before you know it, you're out, blocked, not included, you're not in their tribe. You casually wander off and take a seat. The group moves their position. They wave. You wave back. They wave again and you wave back. But just like in a movie they're not waving at you, they're waving beyond you. You turn around to see other tribe members behind you. You blush and hope they didn't see you waving. Oh, that's right, you're invisible, not a tribesman. It's not a nice feeling to be excluded. Anger, then self-pity envelopes you. You stew--it only makes it worse. You notice your jaw is sore from clenching your teeth. You try and make the best of it. Oh well, they don't realize what they're doing. I should say something Christian here, like I prayed about my bad attitude, but the prayer doesn't come. I'm pissed. Now that I've blogged about it on the World Wide Web I'm starting to feel better. I've released my feelings to potentially hundreds of people. Now maybe I'll pray about it.

Too Tall for Short

Guys, I'm tellin' ya (Palin speak), this post is probably not gonna interest ya in the least. It might not interest some women either, but it's something I have to get off my chest. I'm 5' 4". Which translates to: too tall for misses short size pants and too short for regular misses. Which means that if I get pants in "short" I'm wearing high waters. If I get misses regular length, they've got to be hemmed. I can't hem worth a lick so that means I have to pay to get them hemmed. So the pants that were on sale for a good deal now aren't such a good deal because I have to pay another 10 bucks or so to get them hemmed. How did men get so lucky as to be able to get their pants with a waist and length size? Must have been a man who made this decision a few hundred years ago. Maybe he thought that since women stayed at home to raise the children, cook, and clean that, first, women would be wearing dresses, but they could hem their clothes themselves. Whoo, I feel much better now.

Calculate Fuel Costs

I saw this today and thought it might be pretty nifty. It's a fuel cost calculator from AAA. I have no idea how accurate it is, but it's worth a try. With AAA's calculator, you enter the city you're starting your trip in, the destination city, vehicle make, model, and year and it will calculate how many miles your trip is, how many gallons you'll use, and the cost for fuel. There's even a link to see how much gas is costing per gallon in your city. If you try it out, let me know how it works. Click here for the link.

My Thoughts on the VP Debate

I was really looking forward to this debate, but ended up falling asleep. I did get to see most of it, though. My hope was that Biden would slip up and say something really stupid or insulting--but he didn't. My prayer was that Palin wouldn't slip up or say something that would be dissected and regurgitated and played over and over. I don't think she did, but the press has a way of looking through every frame of the video to find any fault.

I know it's not just me because other people have commented on this too: Has Biden had plastic surgery? Maybe a little botox? Those eyes looked a little too slanted and pulled up. His teeth were extra white, too.

To me, he was Washington politics at it's best. He delivered what you'd expect from a seasoned bureaucrat. Here's what I like about Palin--she's not! I think she's smart and I like what she says about making the Feds accountable. She's like the average American, except she's had more experience with government. She did much better facing Biden in the debate than biased Charlie Gibson or Katie Couric. My advice for Palin: try and cut back on using words and phrases like "betcha," "doggone," "heck of a lotta." BTW, did you notice at the end of the debate when their families came on stage, Biden's family, especially the young girls, wanted to meet Palin?

Wow

After the debate, I wonder what these two said to each other? I think he just wanted to stand real close to her!

I'm voting for McCain and Palin. I hope in the next Presidential debates that McCain just smokes Obama. The thought of Obama leading our country scares me, especially when it comes to dealing with foreign countries. Wake up people, he's got you snowed!