I went to school five hours early a couple weeks ago to do my American duty wasting people's time wading through needless bureaucracy (rant omitted). Nonetheless, I didn't at all mind staying after class to help Ms. Arwain with a technical problem. It wasn't anything serious, mostly just a bad case of technophobia-induced panic. (For the record, I ( Read more... )

This entry is was actually written a year ago, but I feel (a version of) it deserves reposting ( Read more... )

I've been talking to a very dear friend of mine about the ways we celebrate Christmas. It got me to thinking about how much we take some things for granted about the holidays (and life in general). And that's family. I used to take things like that for granted, and even now I still dislike the traditionally huge Christmas Day feast thing (I think ( Read more... )

This Sunday in church I was sitting in my usual spot in the front row on the left side. I prefer there because if I'm further back, I always feel like there's a seat between me and God. Plus I like leg room, and there's (nearly) always lots of free seats in the front row. :-3 If I'm sitting in the back at the computer, I always feel like there's a ( Read more... )

Isn't it funny how having your little sister around always seems to last forever, and yet they grow up so quickly and all too soon they're gone? Nari's gone. Beats me why I'm worried; she's over at Meg's house, prolly having a wonderful time. This isn't her first time at a sleepover at a friends, but nearly the first. It's cute, I think. The whole ( Read more... )

So a couple days ago, a very dear friend of mine was very depressed. I was very worried for her, and tried my hardest to cheer her up, but nothing seemed to work, and eventually she got offline. I found out later that shortly after that, when she was feeling really depressed, she was looking through a book of pictures from Alaska I’d sent her when ( Read more... )

When I first moved in to my current residence, five or so years ago, there was a tree that always caught my eye as I drove down the road. It stood alone at the corner of a pasture, black and blasted straight down the center, to that it was only three quarters of a shell with nothing inside except char and cinder and vacant emptiness. Very obviously ( Read more... )

They have these grab bags at the Idaho Gem & Mineral Show where you pay a dollar and get a bag full of pretty rocks. If you have a special prize rock, then you get to choose an extra prize. :-) I overheard a family next to me, a little boy telling his mom how he and his older brother both won. But the little sister was sad because she hadn't won ( Read more... )

Nari came home in tears this afternoon. Mom was out with everyone else finishing their Christmas shopping presumably (yeah right...this early???), which left me home alone, asleep. No one bothered to tell me that I would have to be the one to pick Nari up at the bus stop, so the first I knew of it was when I heard her sputtering ring of the ( Read more... )

I got the opportunity to walk Nari to the bus stop today. I haven't been doing it much lately because I've been either busy, sick, or (as is usually the case), both. She's getting to be big enough that she doesn't need supervision, and there is generally another adult at the bus stop to keep an eye on all the kids, but today, wonder of wonders, she ( Read more... )