February 28, 2013

Doctor Who Quotes

Season 5, The Pandorica Opens
The Doctor: They fall out of the world sometimes, but they always leave traces. Little things we can't quite account for, faces in photographs, luggage, half eaten meals, rings. Nothing is ever forgotten. Not completely. And if something can be remembered, it can come back.

February 27, 2013

Forgiveness

In tonights Growth Group we did a study of Dietrich Bonhöffer, and we talked a bit about forgiveness. From this, I decided that I have some work to do on forgiveness.

From Bonhöffer we learned that "When God was merciful to us, we learned to be merciful with our brethren  When we received forgiveness instead of judgement, we, too, were made ready to forgive our brethren. What God did to us, we then owed to others. The more we received, the more we were able to give."

First, a confession: I have been holding this anger against someone for two and a half years now, under the pretense that I'm waiting for an apology against something which, in all honesty, deserves one. But I've come to the realization that not only is that apology never going to come, but that I must find it in myself to forgive her regardless. So, Rachel, I understand that you were having a stressful day, and while that does not excuse poor behavior or ill-placed anger, it is forgivable. And I'm sorry for holding this against your character for so long when I should have let it go a long time ago. I forgive you.

Back to Bonhöffer. what I get from this now is that what we have, indeed, all we are, is what we received from God's Word in Jesus Christ. And that without Him, we would have no concept of forgiveness, mercy, and giving. He forgave all, He taught us forgiveness. He was Merciful to all, and taught us mercy. He gave all that He was and more, to teach us what it meant to give. Without God as an external force, and without each other, we can have no concept of these things. So now, the key is, I suppose, to forgive others, have mercy towards them, and give all that we can so that others may see His Grace through us.

That sounds like utter horseshit. But think about it- how did you learn to forgive? Not the silly "say you're sorry" that your mom makes you do and you know and they know that you don't mean it at all and you'd take that toy all over again if given the chance. Real forgiveness. When someone wronged you and you thought that this is it, the last straw, I'm done! but instead you forgave them? I can't think of the first time that happened in my life.

I can think of a few examples in the past few years when someone who is my friend, and a good friend, totally screwed me over. Like, again and again, without even acknowledgment. And I really had no choice but to forgive if I wanted to remain friends, which I very much did. It's been particularly difficult when someone knows you so well that they know exactly what to say to hurt you. But I think it's worse when things happen that the other person has no idea how hurtful they are being. Which is exactly when you just need to forgive without word. Simple forgiveness with no strings attached. What do you do when you want to forgive someone but it hurts to much or you're still upset? You forgive them anyway and the pain will be lifted.

That's a bloody lie. Your pain and hurt isn't automatically lifted. But it's a start. It's a lunching board off of which you can heal. I've forgiven people tonight, I may never tell them in person, but I know it in my heart and I can start the letting go.

We had some homework from Growth Group, and I may post some responses to that, probably not though.

February 15, 2013

Tiny whales and bows!!

So as you may know, and you probably don't unless you're a total stalker (Amanda...) I have almost all of my belongings in a 5x10 storage unit. Which is awesome unless you know, I need something. Sad for me. But I do have some crafty things even without my beloved Boot Box.
Today I was perusing some crochet patterns on the interweb and I found two beauties that I want to try out RIGHT RIGHT NOW. However I can't find any crochet hooks, my yarn scissors, and only one skein of yarn. Shit my life, right?
Searched my Jeep and, Oh wait- what's this? two hooks and 6 skeins of different colored yarns!!
TO MAKE!! First, there's these little guys:
and how super cute are these bows?!?!
And how lucky is this Lady? These two patterns call for different size hooks well, I found two crochet hooks. E for the whales and J for the bows! How perfect?
Also, Princess Bride is on TV.

February 7, 2013

The JFK 50: Don't worry, I didn't run it.

On November 17th, My mom and my step-dad Joe decided that they were CRAZY and wanted to run this fancy 50 mile race... again. So my friend Jamie and I were their Crew. 

Crew:
This involves meeting your runners on the race course at several pre-designated points and bringing them, well, whatever the hell they want. Food, drinks, gu, changes of clothes, socks, shoes, hat changes, whatever. So you meet your runners, give them whatever they bark at you and then make sure you know their pace and what time they will be at the next checkpoint and what they will want. If you don't find out what they will want at the next checkpoint, bring EVERYTHING. 


Oh! and we get t-shirts! 
So the night before the race, we got to Hagerstown, Maryland and checked into the hotel the 'rents would be staying in. Which happened to be the official Race Expo location. Perf.
Clarion- this place is only marginally better than the place that put ultramarathon runners in a smoking room.
Oh, except that their room faced the expo room and it was really loud, so we almost immediately bounced and met up with Jamie and Bébé Alex... at the outlets!! (What? me, shopping? Noooooo...) After Jamie and I grabbed a quick geocache in the outlet parking lot, we all went to dinner together. 
So post-dinner, I spent the night at Zac and Jamie's and we decided to surprise Mom and Joe with support signs. Oh yeah, just like the ones you've seen on the internet, but better.


Race Day:
Our first course meet- up is Weverton Cliffs- 15.0 miles which is immediately after they get off the Appalachian Trail. Parking there is a bitch. But don't worry, Jamie and I survived our 3 block hike to the trail.
This is where we parked.
For this, our first meet-up, the signs we chose were a couple of classics:
Run like you stole something
Toenails are overrated!
That second one may not seem like a "classic" but if you know an ultra runner (that's when being a marathon runner isn't intense enough) then I'm betting you're gonna think that second one's really funny. 


Then we hit Antietam- 27.1 miles well, we hit a geocache or two and then got to Antietam. Yes, that Antietam, where the infamous battle in the civil war was fought. No, we didn't do anything interesting or historical. We did, however, stop at a gas station for food and coffee. There was no food. I mean, none. they had potato chips and not much of a selection, and slim jims. That's when the gas station guy and lady pointed out to us the bin of homemade doughnuts for like $0.75 each. there were two left, Done deal. I may have dropped one on the ground and then still ate it and DAMN it was goooood. We were really quite hungry and  it was totally worth it.
Run like a Kenyan... being chased by Killer Bees!
Run like a Kenyan, This is so overused it's ridiculous. There are t-shirts that say this. Every marathon runner has seen a sign with this or something similar to it. So we wanted to add something to really give it something special. Killer Bees!
The stick figure Kenyan is saying "I'm faster than you!"
Quick! History Quiz!! 
Q: Who knows where Marathons started? 
A: The name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the Battle of Marathon (in Marathon) to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated. It is said that he ran the entire 25 mile distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "We won!" and then dropped dead. In all fairness, this guy just was fighting in a battle and then they made him book it to Athens. Did they not have a page or someone that could do that? I guess not. Oh, and all of this happened in 490 BC.
When they started the modern olympics in 1896 they didn't have a set distance, they went back and forth between running almost 25 mi and over 26.5. 
So why is it now 26.2 miles? because some asses in the International Olympic Committee agreed in 1907 that the distance for the 1908 London Olympic marathon would be about 25 miles, the standard at the time if there was one. The organizers decided on a course of 26 miles from the start at Windsor Castle to the royal entrance to the White City Stadium, followed by a partial lap of the track, 385 yards, finishing in front of the Royal Box and that distance kind of just stuck.

But I digress.
Antietam- 27.1
With this new knowledge, 

Pheidippides was Dead by now
Pheidippides was dead by now is Hilarious when you know that those people running past us at mile 27 have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what the hell that sign means. We originally weren't going to make the Pheidippides sign, but Jamie convinced me that for that one guy who gets it, it will make his race. So we did, and wouldn't you know it, we were at that checkpoint for less than 5 minutes when the only runner other than my mom who got that sign pointed at it and yelled, "Yes!" 
Totally worth it.Also at Antietam, in the parking lot we saw this car: 
JFK 50 Car
That guy has to be intense. 
From there, we made our way into Antietam's town center. We were a'searchin' for some eats. We stopped at what seemed to be the only restaurant/bar open in the town and they were packed. I mean, like woah. We waited for a table and practically attacked a couple as they left, then before we even saw a waitress we had to leave because we were afraid that we would miss Mom and Joe at mile 38. So we got some advice from some locals and stopped at a deli down the road and grabbed some quick eats and a 6-pack. Remember, we were super hungry and all we'd had to eat was gas station doughnuts.


Then off to Taylor's Landing Aid Station- 38.1 miles where our adventure really starts.

For next time, friends, for next time.