The Time Has Come, My Little Friends, to Speak of Other Things

1. Truffles

I just discovered a fantastic recipe for homemade truffles, courtesy of Dorie Greenspan, the author of Baking: From My Home to Yours. I made them for my project club on Valentine's Day, and I'm not sure if anyone else was as big a fan as I was, but I really liked them. For others' benefit, I will post the recipe here:

1/3 cup heavy cream
6 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet dark chocolate, very finely chopped or grated
2 tablespoons butter, very soft
Unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Bring the cream to a boil and pour it over the chocolate. Wait 1 minute, then whisk until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Whisk in the butter completely; cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or until firm.
2. Scoop out teaspoonfuls of chocolate, then squeeze and roll them between your palms to form cherry-sized balls - a messy job, but fun. (If the chocolate is too hard to shape, leave it on the counter for 20 minutes.)
3. Roll the truffles around in a bowl of cocoa, then toss them from hand to hand to shake off the excess. Cover and refrigerate until ready to eat.

This was my first attempt at making truffles and I was rather surprised at how well they turned out. The only thing I need to work on is making them look slightly more rounded and less lumpy, but I suppose practice makes perfect, right?

2. Striped Armwarmers

I have a relatively eccentric fashion sense, and therefore I am in love with a pair of striped armwarmers I recently acquired from Dancewear Solutions (http://www.dancewearsolutions.com/). They're very comfortable and kind of snazzy-looking. I consider them merely as an interesting fashion accessory; however, some of my friends are divided in their opinions over whether the armwarmers make me look like a jailbird or a zebra. I haven't yet decided which I would prefer to look like. (BTW - the P91 logo on the T-shirt in the picture above stands for Psalm 91.)

3. Biceps

I find myself actually somewhat proud of the fact that I have biceps, however insignificant they seem. According to my dad, that puts me in the minority of females. But since the only way I have biceps is from doing full-out push-ups, I suppose I ought to be proud of the results. (Of course, when one compares one's biceps with one's older brother's, one quickly feels very inadequate. Not the best way to build one's self-esteem.)

4. Colorful Socks

I'm a big fan of colorful socks. The only problem with them is that I wear mine so often that they quickly become holey. But I enjoy them while I can. :-) Above are my most recent acquiry, appropriately given to me on Valentine's Day.

These have traction hats on the bottom. Is that cool or what?!

All right. I've exhausted my supply of totally random subjects for the present. I suppose I ought to go and do something worthwhile now.

The Woes of Work (and they are few)

"Good afternoon; Grace Covenant Church; how may I help you?"

I picked up the phone and said those words for the last time today. I can't say I was sorry that it was the last time. Wow, I thought, I no longer need to pretend like I actually know what I'm doing!

I have been employed for the last thirteen months at a local church, where I also attend youth group on Wednesday nights. This is not the church, however, that I attend on Sunday mornings, and therefore I am not hugely familiar with all that goes on there. Therefore, I don't always know exactly what to do for people who call, and occasionally end up sounding kind of stupid: "Um, I'm sorry, sir, but I am really not the person to ask about that...can I take a message for you?" Or, when I do get a message, I sometimes email my direct boss with the information and the apologetic, "I had absolutely no idea who this should go to..." One time a guy came into the church and asked if we had a copier. I replied somewhat proudly, "We do, but we don't have a policy for non-staff members to use it." I thought to myself, Aha - I know something! Turns out the poor guy just wanted to sell us a copier, not use the one we already have. Nice going, genius!

I felt stupid in other ways, too. I was so used to working in the afternoon that when I had to cover for the morning once or twice, I picked up the phone and began with "Good afternoon..."

There were two kinds of calls I absolutely loved. The first one was when I picked up the phone and an automated message warning us about potentially expiring credit cards or exploding bombs had already started playing. Click! Or the ones where I went through my whole authoritative speel of greeting, to be followed by a click on the other end. Hey, if you don't want to talk to me, I ain't complainin'!

But overall, work was great. I got paid to sit at the computer, check my email, do school, and answer the occasional phone call. Oh yeah - sometimes I actually had to work for my money - shredding papers, addressing and stamping postcards, assembling guest gift bags, and other fun stuff. But it wasn't too bad, and I definitely could have had worse jobs. I could earn the exact same salary during the sparse babysitting jobs, so I compared the two. Hmm...would I rather change the diapers of little screaming tots, or would I rather put inserts in CD cases? Well, let me think about this for a little while...

Nevertheless, today was my last day as a receptionist (read: largely unlearned person who sits at the front desk, smiles, and nods). No, I didn't lose my job, but I am transitioning from answering phones to doing all of the extra stuff I previously did - guest gift bags, new believers' toolboxes, assembling CD cases and boxes in which to mail travel mugs to guests, and so on. I keep my four-hours-a-week even if I sit there twiddling my thumbs for half the time. Did I mention that I love working at this church?

So today I bid a not-too-fond farewell to feeling incompetent over the phone. No more fumbling words, making dumb mistakes, or telling someone for the hundredth time, no, no one from this number called you in my [scant] knowledge. Today I move on to bigger and better things.

And now, bring me that horizon...

25 Random Things

Due to recent emails from my Facebook-patronizing sister, recent comments by my Facebook-patronizing employer, and recent posts on blogs I follow, I have decided to post my 25 Random Things. Enjoy! (and please forgive my long silence...)

1. I never salt or pepper my food.
2. I am very partial to kiwis and would probably consider them my favorite fruit.
3. I had no idea that my sister wanted to be a lawyer until I read her 25 Random Things.
4. I have (briefly) considered careers in politics, journalism, and history.
5. My all-time favorite school subject was Algebra 1 and my two all-time least favorite school subjects were physical science and geometry.
7. I am going to name my next two parakeets Mario and Luigi.
8. Speaking of parakeets, mine (aptly named Kiwi) does not prefer me to be within a three foot radius of him.
9. I am very mildly allergic to mold, dust, white oak trees, shrimp, cat dander, and egg whites.
10. My sister is my best friend and her hair always smells amazing.
11. My Bible is hot pink and lime green and it also smells amazing.
12. My top four favorite actors, in no particular order, are Ben Barnes, Gerard Butler, George Clooney, and Ioan Gruffudd.
13. I have the funniest feeling that I already know the person I'm someday going to marry (and this feeling has absolutely no relationship whatsoever to random thing #12).
14. I am an easily inspired, usually cheerful, very unique goal-making multi-tasker who is great at planning, great at procrastinating, and dreadful at following through.
15. I recently made an attempt at color-coding my dreadfully unorganized bookshelf, to some measure of success.
16. I am dreadful at making summaries. When asked to summarize the plot of a book, movie, or ballet, I almost always have to apologize at the end for my abysmal explanation.
17. I have now had my learner's permit for a grand total of 11 days. w00t!
18. If I had enough time, I would gladly pursue almost any field related to the arts and make it a co-career of all the other fields. Needless to say, I am a very artsy person.
19. I believe that physics and geometry are the bane of all teenage existence, particularly because they serve no practical use whatsoever in everyday civilized life. I love the fact that I have completely forgotten everything I ever learned in geometry and that it won't matter at all.
20. I enjoy experimenting with cooking. In the future, I am hoping to invent tomato chicken noodle soup, followed by raspberry crumb pie with a cream cheese drizzle for dessert.
21. I love Gmail, polynomials, knitting, and roller coasters. I am also the only person in my family who actually enjoys Earl Grey tea.
22. I am rather eccentric. I have a four-month-old miniature pumpkin on my bookshelf (never mind that it's February), a dissected and cotton-stuffed banana in my old room, a huge collection of scrap paper in two of my drawers, and three or four boxes full of old letters and mementos that I may never read again.
23. Barnes & Noble is one of my favorite places to spend a few hours.
24. I am in love with almost everything Starbucks.
25. I will eat any dessert you set in front of me. So please, be sparing.

2009: The Year of Living Dangerously

...otherwise known as the Year of Really Scary Birthdays. In my family, we have a 50th, a 25th, a 20th, and a 16th birthday looming this year. Add me starting community college and Lyn entering her second year of college, and one of the cousins on Mom's side getting married (the first of the eighteen of us to do so)...wow. Lots of changes.

So recently I was thinking about the dreaded NYR: New Year's resolutions. Last year, I made several, and managed to complete...a few...of them. I did read 30 books in 2008 and I did push-ups and sit-ups every day through the end of March (after that things grew a bit more sporadic, to say the least), but I failed miserably in several other aspects. In view of this, I decided that this year, instead of making resolutions for the whole year, that I would make mini challenges for myself each month. Each month will have a different focus: diet, exercise, dance, writing, reading, beauty's building blocks, doing hard things, habits, and cultivating interests. (I'm focusing on writing for three months and reading for two.) Each month has different "requirements" for me to fulfill...for example, I have to read eight books each month in March and September; peform one or two random acts of kindness every day for a week during February, for the focus on beauty's building blocks (which are compassion, contentment, consistency, and the Fruits of the Spirit); do a writing prompt and write 1,000 + words every day in April, August, and November for writing; walk 20 minutes every day and exercise in other ways four times a week during July for exercise (I can hardly wait for this one!), and so forth. I've always enjoyed one-month challenges such as the ones that Brio Magazine occasionally suggests, so this should fit me pretty well.

The only downside to this is that I an the type of person who is highly motivated to get a lot done, but will either get distracted easily or overestimate the amount of time I actually have. Therefore, I almost always end up getting much less done than I would have liked, and then berating myself relentlessly afterwards. Therefore, I am cautiously optimistic about everything I'm going to try to make myself do this year. So it really is my "year of living dangerously". Wish me luck! I'm definitely going to need it...

Once We Were

We stand at the edge of the world
Where the oceans pound on the rocks
Where the water stretches endlessly
Where sand meets sea and sea meets sky
Once we were like the surf,
new and fresh all the time;
Like the sand on the shore,
plentiful beyond count,
Full of dreams that were limitless


Now we are like
a starfish missing its leg;
We lost it when we lost our
Imagination.

We stand here in the valley
Where the mountains stretch above
Where the flowers grow abundantly
Where the grass tries to touch the skies
Once we were like the sunflowers,
Rocketing skyward without bounds;
Like the peak of the highest hill,
believing we could fly,
Knowing we could achieve our goals

Now we are like
a dandelion without petals
We lost them when we lost our
Courage

We stand here in the forest
Where the trees offer shelter and canopy
Where the sun seeps through the branches
Where the moss carpets the ground
Once we were like the ants,
Never ceasing in our desires
To attain the height of dreams;
Like the animals that forage
And always find a way

Now we are like
a dead tree without branches
We lost them when we forgot how to
Dream

We stand here in the twilight
When the sun has sunk
When the lights are turned on inside
When the children come out to play
Once we played too,
Ignoring what the world thought;
Like a lighthouse in the darkness,
We were unique and new
And we were guides

Now we are like the dead of a night with no stars
We lost them when we forsook
What we believed in

Once it was spring;
there was new life,
New growth everywhere,
And anything was possible.
Once it was summer;
We were flourishing,
We were flying,
And nothing could bring us down.
And it was on the brink of autumn
That we made our choices
And we left summer behind,
Never to return.

Now we stand here in winter
When the shutters have been shut
When the snow is swiftly falling
In a new direction.
Once we were like the clouds,
Always releasing new energy
And new ideas;
We were ready to make a difference.

Now we are like
A snowflake that blends in with the rest
We failed when we lost our
Passion
We lost our strength and our drive
We are just another at the brink of eternity,
Falling swiftly towards the snow-laden ground.

We still have a choice
Once we were new; now we are old
And we have lost many things
But one thing remains:
The memory of what we once were.
Will we grasp it again?
The ground is swiftly approaching.

Just Because...

After all these relatively serious posts, I guess it's time for some humor. So here we go:

Did anyone bother to proofread this ad...?

"Call your doctor right away if after taking LUNESTA you walk, drive, eat, or engage in other activities WHILE ASLEEP." {emphasis added}

So yes, I do tend to make journal entries late at night...

"Thanks to Maria's $20, I discovered that eating 3 and a half donut and 2 ginger snaps will inevitably lead to a headache and stomachache. Amen."

"I knitted, embroidered a square, and cross-stitching. Um, that was quite a sentence."

"Plus my skate guards, one of them broke. Another amazing feat of grammar."

"Though this journal harbors a lot of emotions and feelings...*builds up to some eloquent proclamation*...I must confess that all its ribbons have been pretty darn annoying."

25,682 Words

Nope, didn't make it in time. But, miraculously, I have not been beating myself over the head for it - on the contrary, I'm quite happy that I, one, managed to write 23,000 more words than last attempt; two, got a little more than halfway through; and three, that I wrote 25,000 words in a month (I have NEVER done that before). So, all in all, a very satisfying experience...I'm definitely going to try again next year, though if I've learned anything, it's that having a laptop is very, very, very conducive to getting more writing in.

Not that anyone cares. So I'll be quiet now, and proudly resort to displaying my badge *grins cheekily*.