You never know

I suppose when people look at me they don't automatically think to themselves, "I bet she speaks Spanish." In high school, I used to battle with friends and other students trying to convince them that yes, in fact, I was fluent in Spanish. Well, just recently a couple of events have happened which point to the notion that perhaps you shouldn't just talk about someone right in front of them in another language. They could understand you!

The first incident was at work. I was there late as usual and it was trash day. Now typically they come by, empty your trash can, and vacuum your office (if you're not there). If you are there, they ask if you want your office to be vacuumed. Of course, this assumes that you are in an office, which I am no longer, but you'll have to wait until the next post to hear about that one. So, back to the story. There was quite a bit of scrap/trash in the hallway because everyone was cleaning out their offices. Three people come by to pick up the trash that day. Does it really take 3 people to do this? Anyway, they sort of ask if the pile in the hallway is trash. Three of us in the offices right around there respond yes. But for some reason they look at me as if I am the one deciding this. I repeat (in English), yes this is trash. So what does the little crew proceed to do? They look at each other and one of them says in Spanish, "she doesn't know what she's talking about. That's not trash." Now at this point, I was already seated back in my chair. If I were a bit more confrontational or cared at all what these people thought, perhaps I could have shot back, "Si, yo se de lo que estoy hablando y eso es BASURA." But no, Holy Spirit in charge, I held my tongue. Personally, I think it was an easy out that resulted in less work for them. But what do I know?

Now lets shift the scene to the car wash place. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon. I got the afternoon off and decided to run some errands. It was so nice to sit outside while I waited for my car to be washed. Once the two ladies drying my car were done, they waved the towel in the air and beckoned me over. I soon got up and started walking toward them. I look at the one extending a receipt toward me and smile big. I get a smile in return while at the same time she says to the woman next to her, "Asi quiero estar yo. Quiero estar haci de flaca." Translation: "That's how I want to be. That's how skinny I want to be." Now while this comment about me was more flattering than the previous, why do they assume that I won't understand what they're saying???

It's really a strange thing. I suppose that it would be less probable walking into a nail salon and expecting to understand the Vietnamese flying around me at record pace. But Spanish is a pretty common language. And even if you're not from a Spanish-speaking country or have parents that are, there is still a good chance that you speak it. So, my little advice to those out there. Be careful of what you say. You never know who understands what you are saying.

High School Musical 2

I can't say that I spend much time watching the Disney channel. And before last Friday, I had no idea what High School Musical was. Well, I got a crash course in this latest craze. I heard about it first on the radio. They were announcing the release of the new movie that evening. I heard that teachers across America were planning movie parties for their students and that kids everywhere were going to be glued to their TVs that night. I wondered what all the hype was about? It's just another Disney movie, right? On Friday night, I went to church to help out with our Girls Night. This is basically an all-night retreat (like a lock-in) we do for all the junior high and high school girls. The kids were excited because someone was going to be DVR/Tivo the movie and then bring it up to the church so they could watch it later that night. Well, I didn't stay for all the into-the-wee-hours-of-the-morning activities, so I didn't actually see it that night. Bu fortunately for me, Disney decided to air the movie multiple times throughout the weekend. I finally saw it Sunday evening. I was only going to watch so that I could stay in the loop with the latest craze in the lives of high school students. Therefore, my expectations were pretty low. But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a cute movie, funny at times, and had some catchy tunes. The movie was totally clean, which was nice to see. I was pleased to see some quality programming on TV. Now, of course, I want to learn the cheesy little songs. And I want to see the first movie (High School Musical). It comes on in a couple days, so I'll definitely have to DVR it! By the way, my favorite song was "You are the music in me."

Google's Street View

I recently discovered one of Google's latest inventions. It's called Street View and is available on the Google Maps webpage. It's nice in that in contrast to Google Earth, you don't have to download anything to your computer to see it. For cities that have been photographed, you can see real photo images of streets and intersections. It looks like Google goes around and takes pictures at every intersection and along every street. You see everything from buildings to sidewalks to people and cars. So far only NYC, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Las Vegas, Orlando, Miami, and the great city of Houston have been photographed. It is very cool in that it allows you to see a 360 view of any particular street. You can also traverse the street in any direction. But the funniest thing I have discovered about this is a blog that keeps track of funny pictures that get posted on Street View. Here's the link to that site:
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-06-03-n48.html
My personal favorite is the guy "caught taking a leak." There's just no privacy anymore! ((-*

Enjoy!

Gelato

I have been slacking again. I can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote. I decided tonight that I couldn't let the month end without sharing a thought here. As I look at the last couple of posts, I see that I have been a bit serious of late, so perhaps I should lighten things up a bit. If you know me however, you probably realize that serious is more the norm for me than not. But no worries, "lightening up" is on my list of things to do. (-;

One of my loves in life is ice cream. I could eat the stuff everyday for every meal. I like all flavors, all kinds. If we go to the basics, I do have a preference of chocolate over vanilla. But the latter is good too because you can always put chocolate syrup on top! My all time favorite kind of ice cream is gelato. That stuff rocks! For those of you who live in Europe or frequent often, you know what I am talking about. A few months back, a friend told me about a place that sells gelato here in the States, in fact, in the great state of Texas. They have a special family-owned recipe direct from Italy. It's made with whole milk instead of cream and has top-notch ingredients. The place is called Paciugo's (http://www.paciugo.com/) and fortunately for me there is one in Houston now. Praise God! I did some research on their website and learned that they all but spell out how you can have one of your very own Paciugo's. I started to get excited dreaming about my very own all-I-can-eat gelato establishment. They have an application online for a franchise. They give you some steps on how to get set-up and they even list out what it will cost to open a new store. Well reading that must have been when I awakened from my fairy tale dream. Ouch! It can cost up to $372,000 to open one of these dreamlands. So there ended any bright ideas of starting my very own Paciugo's. However, my time on the site was not a total loss. I did learn that they are opening a location just minutes from my house near the Willowbrook Mall next Spring. Wahoo! Now I won't have to travel over 30 minutes to enjoy my very favorite treat on earth. A little bit of heaven just got closer.

Love God, Love People, Nothing Else Matters

Several years ago after reading Purpose Driven Life, I decided that my mission in life would be to love God and to love people. I thought to myself, success at the end of my life would be for people to say at my funeral, "she loved God and she loved people." Well, apparently I am not alone in my pursuit in life. This past Friday, I attended the funeral of one who achieved this lofty goal and did it well. Dan Reiter was the victim of an unfortunate car accident. He was a young 22 who had just graduated from college. My relationship with Dan stems from my involvement in my church's student ministry. Dan and I were part of a team that went to the Dominican Republic about 6 years ago. I was a leader on the trip and Dan was one of the students. That trip was a magical time and I have experienced nothing like it ever again. We all had such a blast and saw God work in tremendous ways. The whole time I knew Dan, I was always impressed with his upbeat attitude and unending kindness towards people. He always went the extra mile to help others. His impact is far reaching as evidenced by the over 1000 comments left on his Facebook page since his death. I am so blessed to have known such a wonderful person. And now I am inspired anew to a live a life that matters; to live a life driven by the pursuit to love God and to love others. Below is a quote from Jim Elliot that was part of Dan's funeral service.

"God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you Lord Jesus." -Jim Elliot, 1948

Water for Life

So, apparently I am still slacking with the frequency of my jblogs. I just can't seem to find the time or energy to sit down and write, but anyway, I'll catch you up on a few things. First, on my list is to tell you about my well. Yes, that's right, a water well, in fact. I bought one recently. I don't know what it looks like or where it exactly it is located, but I know it exists. Let me tell you how this happened. About a year and a half ago, I learned about an ministry led by James and Betty Robison. Beth Moore was starting to appear on their Wednesday tv show teaching Bible study. Of course, I started to watch (via video stream on my computer and later on my ipod). My draw was Beth, but I was soon impressed by all the different outreaches this ministry was doing. In particular, I felt drawn to their "Water for Life" project (http://www.lifetoday.org/site/PageServer?pagename=abt_home). The mission here is to build water wells in remote areas of Africa that do not have clean, running water. These wells are designed to provide water up to a 1000 people in a village for at least 25 years. In their first year of the project, they intended on building ~100 wells. This year, their goal is 200. Well, I decided I wanted to be a part of that. I have had a soft spot for the hungry, the thirsty, and the sick people of Africa for a while. But I always felt like there was nothing I could really do to make an impact there. So, I looked to see how much these wells cost. I soon learned they are expensive! $4800, to be exact. Of course, you can donate nominal amounts that will be put towards building a well. But, immediately in my heart, I wanted to buy a WHOLE well, not just part of one. However, I didn't happen to have $4800 just laying around in the bank. Who does? So, I just kind of put that desire on hold and prayed to God that if He wanted me to do this, He would have to show me where the money would come from. Like I said that was the beginning of last year. If you read my last post, you also know that I bought a new car this year. My lovely 328i (I am still enjoying it!). When I was figuring out how to pay for the car, I did all sorts of calculations, which included selling stock and things like that. One day, it occurred to me that I could just sell a little more stock and use the money I would get from selling my car, to purchase this water well. Brilliant! God answered the prayer! I was ecstatic at how this came about. In fact, when I sold my car, I got even more than just covering the cost of the well. Praise God. So, a few weeks after selling my car, I made the call to Life Outreach International (www.lifetoday.org) and purchased my first-ever water well. How cool! What a privilege to participate in something that will make a difference, something that really matters. I so wish I could see the faces of those who will drink from this water well. I can only pray that it will be a HUGE blessing for them, lasting for many years to come.

jBlogs

I am hoping to bombard you with a slew of jblogs here in the next couple of weeks. Jblogs, of course, are blogs written by Jennifer. Nothing scientific or fancy here, just a way to distinguish my blogs from the millions of others out there. Anyway, I have so many things that I've wanted to write here in the past month and just haven't had the time. I don't know that the near future will be any better, but I'll sure try.

First on my list is my beautiful new car. After having it for a month or so now, I am still thoroughly enjoying it! The new car smell has not worn off and I love smelling it every time I get in. The BMW 328i is everything I expected it and more. One of my co-workers was right when he said that you just get in a better mood when you get in the car and start driving around. Most fun has been watching my blue xenon lights turn on in the dark. They are self-leveling lights so they do this fancy dance up and down each time they turn on. I call it the " light show." I'll include a picture here so you can picture me in my new car easily. It's a dream! God-willing it will serve me well for many a year.