Pennsylvania Or Bust!

The countdown begins till the trip home for Christmas. I have 2 more nights of work, and then one day to pack, and then I'll take the 12 hour drive all by my lonesome on Thursday morning. If all goes well the car rental people will have my vehicle ready and waiting for me when I come to pick it up at 7:30 AM. If not, I have already promised myself that I am going to request to speak to the manager, for the single, solitary reason that the last time I reserved a rental car it took them 2 whole hours to get the car ready and extended my trip by 2 hours. I did not leave the rental headquarters till about 9:30 AM and my reservation was for about 7:30 AM. Needless to say, I am very anxious to just be on the road and closer to spending some time with my folks and most importantly my dogs, whom I miss more than anything in this world.

Another note of praise, I'm done with all my shopping. I have yet to send my elder sister's gift to Poland, but I think that is something that is going to have to wait until I return from PA, since it is a little pricy.

But as all good things must come to an end, I must stop here, I'm at work and duty calls.

Where's Your Focus?

I feel that this is a really important life question, not to mention extremely relevant. In the book of Matthew we read that "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." For blogging purposes I would like to propose that one's treasure could also be one's focus. There are many people in this world whose life revolves around money and anything related to monetary dealings. For such people money is their treasure as well as their focus.

The reason I've even presented the question, stems back to something that was said to me tonight at work. As I've matured over the years I've learned that there are 2 types of people in this world: those who have more than one brain cell to use but merely choose to use only one, and those who really only have one brain cell and thus all their thoughts run along a single track - hence the term "one track mind." At first you may be wondering how any of this pertains to this blog. Keep reading. It's coming.

Let's rewind time about a hour and a half back to when the night techs were just coming on shift. On this particular night we have 3 fully grown, living, breathing males on 1 North. Scratch that. We have 3 living, breathing males on 1 North. Of course this is more testosterone than us lady nurses are used to, but when it boils down to it, it doesn't really matter because the majority of my fellow co-workers are married and could care less about the male-female ratio. Yet I seem to be awefully sensitive to it and I can literally feel a difference in the air when there is more than one male on duty for the night.

Imagine the scene if you will: 3 living, breathing males all sitting around complaining about women and how complicated we are. . . . .blah, blah, blah. To such I could not resist but to inform them that it is not women who are complicated, but most certainly males. The returned response was something to the effect of, "Of course men are not complicated. We like violence, computer games, and nudity (which really translates to sex)." To which I retorted that I really prefer none of the aforesaid. This in turn, triggered a gasp, a loud round of laughter, and then a rather embarrassing questionnaire. Here comes into play my previous statement about the 2 types of people on this earth. For whatever reason it seems beyond their comprehension that I can state, without even so much as a flinch, that I do not enjoy sex. How can you enjoy something that you have never experienced? It makes perfect sense to me. This is not to say that someday I might proclaim the various wonders of sex, but today is not that day.

For example, (and please do not take this illustration the wrong way-it is just an example) I had never tried Humus before. It all sounded so gross to me and anything with garbanzo beans is really not my thing. For whatever reason, I was at the Mellow Mushroom one night with a bunch of friends and they were all raving about this Humus and how wonderful it was. So, to my own surprise, I insisted they pass some my way and let me try it. I loved it. It was heavenly. Point being, I could not really say either way whether I liked Humus or not because I had never tried it before. Yet afterward, I was completely legitimate in saying that I liked it. I'd tasted it. I'd experienced it. I could now say it is something that I like. Sex on the other hand, well that's a different story, and honestly I am not ashamed to say that I've never experienced it.

I suppose I am just a little miffed because I feel so misunderstood and even more than that, disrespected. Instead of saying, "Hey I respect that you have not had sex and so I'm not going to bust your chops about it. . ." I get all this bologna about having not had sex, and well of course that makes me strange and just not hip and cool. But the thing that really bothers me is that I am trying really hard to be okay with this person, and take their blows, and not let them see that it all bothers me more than it should, and even hurts my feelings, and yet I am fighting the urge to hate this person and just give them a piece of my mind- this mind that is so unhip and makes me such a loser. And the thing the stinks so much is that I know deep down inside me is a clever and smart woman that really is not complicated at all. I know that I am not the best thing that ever was, but I'm trying to be okay with me and I don't really want to believe that I am such a loser as this person brainwashes me to believe.

I also don't want to come to the point where I start to believe differently than my convictions. I know what is right and what is wrong. I know the temptations that are placed before us in this world and quite frankly, it is really hard to walk to the beat of your own drummer because there is all this commotion in the background and there is always someone clapping off beat.

I know where my focus is. It is just a matter of keeping it there and not allowing someone else to stear me off track. Where's your focus?

This Is Your Wake Up Call!

I felt so lazy today. I am making a really bad habit of just staying in bed all day long and those of you who know me, know that I am not that kind of person. I don't mind sleeping in a little when I get the chance, but generally I am a morning person. Hence the fact that I worked at the SAU cafeteria for three years, with my shift beginning at the ripe hour of 5:00 AM.

I did not work last night and thus I stayed up a little later than usual. I have been getting these horrible cravings for things that I just can't name. I know what I am hungry for and yet at the same time I cannot seem to get it out. Therefore I thought it best to take the last 2 dollars in the wallet and head to the local Micky D's. Mind you, this was around the hour of 11:00 PM. I pulled into the drive thru and ordered 2 apple pies from the dollar menu and headed back home. I then settled down with my pies and a steaming cup of hot chocolate. This late night snack seemed to hit the spot but I'm not quite sure that apples pies is what I was really craving.

At 7:00 AM my alarm went off and I simply rolled over, turned it off, and went back to sleep. Had it not been for the neighbors upstairs, who, as is their habit, began yelling and screaming and crying and running all around above my head, I would have slept more soundly. Yet that was not the plan and thus I slept rather restlessly till about 2:00 PM when Mom called to talk.

And thus lies the problem. I did not drag my pathetic little body out of bed until 2:00 PM! I'm feeling a great need for some motivation. I wish I had a dog to take out, or someone to wait on, or something that required my immediate morning atttenion. I suppose I could automatically say that God requires my immediate attention during the early morning hours, yet I know that would be as challenging as it is for me in the evening. But I think I am going to make the effort for this next week to get up while it is still morning. I'm sure my body's circadian rhythm would appreciate a slight bit of normalcy.