Which is worse - the illness or the cure?

You know that feeling that you get when your "non-drowsy" meds are actually quite drowsy? It feels like instead of blood you have water and it's flowing down your veins at half speed - which is simultaneously faster than normal blood (since water is less viscous than blood) and slower, since it's actually moving slower, as previously mentioned. Focusing is difficult. The world passes by you, as if you were on a train or bus, looking out a slightly clouded window into a cold, cruel world.

This is the blog post of that medication. It apparently increases my metaphoric tendencies while at the same time decreasing my speed and accuracy of typing. I wish not to be on these meds anymore. I really wish not to be at work any more. My nice, warm bed is where I would prefer to be located at this moment. With a book on tape droning at me 'til I fall asleep. That would be perfect.

None of that for me, though.

I shall instead attempt to work - knowing that my attempts are probably going to be miserable failures or at least misguided and taking 2x as long as necessary.

Allergies are no fun. Allergy meds are also no fun. I don't know whether I am good to drive or will be when it is time to go home. This is also not a good thing. I wonder if there's a way to get Scott over here to drive me home. Or to church. Or whatever.

Prayers appreciated.

Unicorns are Extinct

If I were to ask you what you thought unicorns represent, what would you say? My first response is purity. Unicorns, like purity, are almost extinct. Unicorns exist in our minds, in our imaginations, but not at all in the real, physical world.

Purity exists only in God. (James 1:17 - Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.)

So, these two things cannot be seen, touched or interacted with in our physical world. But they are things we strive for. What human being does not crave purity? What little girl does not want a unicorn?

I certainly wanted a unicorn when I was little. Why I thought a horse with a sharp pointy thing on its head would be better than a regular horse, I don't know. But the truth of the matter is, unicorns poop rainbows, have self-brushing hair and are always refreshingly fast, but never stubborn. Nor do they require feeding, for they dine on sunshine. As someone who regularly partakes of a diet of sunshine, I knew this was not only possible, but true.

Even to this day, the concept of a unicorn appeals to me. I imagine their hooves would jingle melodically, they would never require saddling and would always be very, very fast. I would gladly commute via unicorn, because the unicorn would know the way to work and I could just sit and read whilst I rode.

---This Unicorn Themed Post is brought to you by Hannah Sillily Asking Scott What She Should Blog About. I promise to ask someone else next time I can't come up with something.----

I certainly want purity still. This is why I clean, this is why I strive to be better, to do better, to live BETTER. Because I know I am not pure, but I seek after it. And when I can't find perfection - I settle for second best. Luckily, eventually, I will get this perfection. Someday God will take me and make me perfect. But, even better - God loves me now. And He, who is pure and perfect, does not need me to make myself perfect - but instead is completing this work in me, through His Son, even now.

Life has consequences

"Live Life to the Fullest" is a saying that I usually whole-heartedly endorse. But sometimes I realize that it needs a caveat, or at least, an addendum. Because when you live life to the "fullest" you leave little room for rest, relaxation and adjustment. You're always going full speed ahead and you can't ever stop. This weekend was wonderful, amazing, enjoyable, and very, very full.

On Friday I arrived home to a surprise delivery. Our good friends in Abilene had sent us a gift - a game called Dominion that we had thoroughly enjoyed playing with them last weekend. This gift, of course, had to be USED! So I called our friend Craig, who is often up for some last-minute-fun, and invited him over for an impromptu game-time. We picked up some tasty Bun from a local Vietnamese restaurant and proceeded to thoroughly enjoy ourselves. Scott was glad for the break, I was glad for the fun times with friends - it was an excellent way to begin the weekend.

Unlike most Fridays, though, we didn't stay up too late - because we had to get up way too early for a Saturday to get Scott to his conference on time. I then proceeded to search for about 30 minutes until I found the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (I forgot the exact location, and left my cell phone @ home). Eventually finding the place (I now know where it is and shall not lose it again!), I proceeded to purchase a door, a faucet & some rope. Little did I know that each and every one of my purchases had a flaw!

I'm going to stop for a moment here and highlight the phrase "Little did I know" - because it's worth a second look. It's one of those "indicators of doom" that you instantly recognize. Just sayin'. DOOM!

So, flaws: The biggest & most obvious was that the door was not the right size. The hinge holes were in the wrong place. So I had to return the door, bringing along part of the old door to show where the hinges were supposed to be. Then I looked at the faucet - the faucet was not the faucet that was pictured in the box. Fortunately, I decided I liked this new faucet equally well to the one pictures and furthermore, was not picky. The rope - well, I bought the rope to hold the door in the car. Completely unnecessary. So, the rope was not so much flawed as superfluous. Ah well.

The 2nd door (having returned one door and come home with door with right hinges, then hung said door (not easy with only 1 person & very heavy door!), was too wide. Furthermore, I knew that the narrower door would be too narrow! So, I decided to narrow-fy the door and widen the door frame. This required the purchasing of a plane, so I was off to Home Depot. Needless to say, I opted for the $8 manual plane, rather than an electronic one that would not allow me the pleasure of working my butt off and really earning this closing door.

Oh, and just FYI - I salvaged the old door handle off of the old (and literally fallen to pieces, not to mention defaced) door. It has a lock, which we will have to be careful not to engage, as we have no key.

Then, at about 4:30, I go pick up Scott and we head to a TEMA party (Texas E-something Medievalists Association) that is about 40 minutes southwest of Austin. But the view of the sun setting was worth it - also the Indian food & the cheese & wine. We were the youngest people there by at least 5 years. But it was interesting.

So, we get home at about 9:30ish, maybe a little later. We are ready to decompress. I am too tired to play our new board game (also fun for 2 people, major plus!), so we pull out the bed-couch and settle down for Stargate: Ark of Truth. About 20 minutes into the movie, we hear a very emphatic knocking on our door, followed by...Christmas carols?

It is Mom & Lynna! Surprise visit! Wow! Talk about surprise! We are, of course, absolutely delighted & flabbergasted to see them. Scott gets very hyped up and cannot go to sleep. I end up going to sleep at about half-past midnight. I have no idea when he came to bed.

Late bedtime aside, my joy at having my Mom with me for the second weekend in a row means I cannot stay abed and I am up not much after 8AM. 's gonna be a loooong day.

We clean the kitchen.

We play board games.

We purchase a salt grinder.

We eat burritos.

It is very, very, very good. I am happy, I am tired. I am glad to see our small drop-in visitor kitten head off to her new home. It is only 3pm.

I play Portal.

I am too tired to play Portal.

I am too tired to stop playing Portal & do something else.

Scott grades papers.

We head to house church.

So, after house church I am pretty much exhausted, both physically & emotionally. But I am too awake to go to sleep. So I don't get to bed until after midnight, and don't go to sleep 'til after 1AM.

Today is a very, very slow day. I'm glad that there's nothing terribly intensive going on because I could not handle intense at this particular juncture.

This blog post is more about me processing this weekend than informing others about it. This coming week is very full - but I hopefully shall find the time to rest and breathe - because on Friday night, there is a party at our place and I really, truly want to have a most excellent time.

Now I've just gotta come up with a costume for said party!

Things I Love - in 5 minutes or less

I'm about to head home for the day, so without further ado, here is a list of things that make me smile, giggle or otherwise brighten my day:
-my husband
-Trillian Astra's wikipedia links
-cold, cold water
-the good feeling you get when you exercise at lunch instead of spending money on a soda
-nonetheless, the aforementioned ice-cold soda
-This American Life
-cleverly avoiding listening to the public radio station's week-long plea for money by listening to NPR podcasts on my USB stick
-planning to give money to the public radio station anyways
-hammocks
-hammocks + books
-hammocks + books + lemonade
-hammocks + books + Raspberry lemonade + nearby ocean or lake for ambient noise
-Portal
-the Portal song
-the fact that we have an emulation of the Portal computer giving us directions
-my family
-my family
-my family
-my awesome friends
-kittehs
-MY kittehs
-Squirrel!
-saying "It's funny because the squirrel gets dead"
-decorating my house
-my HOUSE!

and many, many more things. For these and much more I am thankful. Thanks God! You're awesome!

Gearing up...

So, when you start off on a bicycle, you hopefully start where the ground is flat. Then, after a little while, perhaps you go up a hill. If you're a normal person (i.e. not my brother whose bicycles are interesting & odd... love you bro!) you have gears to help you transition smoothly from the flat ground to the uphill climb. The reward for all of this is the thrilling sensation of flying DOWN the hill...well, unless you live in certain parts of Austin, where in order to get that, you really need to just turn around - because when you reach the top of one hill, lo and behold, there is another hill. Not saying this from personal experience mind you - my bike has not yet left the back porch (for shame!), but having driven in these areas, I can imagine biking them.

All this to say - November is coming. And with November is NaNoWriMo (that's National Novel Writing Month for those of you who don't know). And so, in preparation for my uphill attempt towards 50,000 words & a completed story, I'm going to endeavor to post in my blog much more often. Perhaps not every day, but my goal shall remain 7 posts a week.

This post, explaining what I'm up to, is not even the "flat land" right now I'm standing by the bike, contemplating my tires, checking the gears, etc. It's been a looong time since I was last on this particular machine and I want to make sure all is in running order.

Wish me luck!

-Hannah