8 posts tagged “love”
Loving
- My brother and Alicia's wedding! It was more beautiful than I could ever describe, and there was no possible way that either of them could have smiled any bigger. I bet their faces still hurt. Below are a few of my favorite shots, but I'm collecting photos and will be flickr-ing them soon so you, too, can partake in all the joy and celebration of their marriage. I am so, so very happy (geez, I'm tearing up) for them. *mucho hugs and kisses to them both*
- And onto other things I'm loving, including seeing all my family for the wedding, including people I haven't seen in 13 years.
- Taking two naps on Sunday and then going to bed at nine.
- Black by Ted Dekker.
- Slow days at work.
Loathing
- The heat. And that's about it! Life is good. :)
Hey blog world. I miss you. Sorry I have been neglecting you. Hugs, Cori.
Love:
- My BIRTHDAY! I turned 28 on Tuesday and this week I have six birthday dinners, two lunches, and wine tasting. This is an excellent week.
- A lot of ice cream this week. I really do love ice cream. More than all other sweets.
- Went to Tahoe for the weekend with some girlfriends. It was nice to get away for a couple days and stare at a mountain. It made me feel like this:
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- Playing chicken foot dominoes in Tahoe.
- Finding out that I already knew how to play Rummikub because it's the same as the card game Manipulation.
- Getting ready for my trip to Chicago in three weeks.
- Tuesday night Bible study
- Finding so much truth in John Ortberg's book The Life You've Always Wanted.
- Sleep. I have never loved sleep like I do these past few weeks.
Loathe:
- My jeans not fitting well due to said six birthday dinners.
- Wanting to run but still being tired from (what I now think was the swine) flu.
- Target being out of dominoes so I couldn't get a set.
- Forcast for potential rain on Saturday.
- Being so busy that I haven't posted two book reviews.
- The fact I only have two book reviews to post in the last ten days.
- Not being able to take a nap right now.
Read because: I really liked his first memoir, Honeymoon With My Brother. Also, he's local (from Davis). And my grandma knows his mom. And I saw him at an author reading. Is this enough reasons?
Purchased from: Amazon. And I bought it new (at a discount at least). And in hardback. I never do that.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Synopsis (from Amazon): The bestselling author of Honeymoon with My Brother hits the road again to learn about love and finally finds it closer to home When you’ve been jilted at the altar and forced to take your pre-paid honeymoon with your brother, it’s fair to say you could learn a thing or two about love. And that’s what Franz Wisner sets out to do—traveling the globe with a mission: to discover the planet’s most important love lessons and see if they can rescue him from the ruins of his own love life. Even after months on the road, he’s still not sure he’s found the secret. But a disastrous date with a Los Angeles actress and single mom keeps popping into Franz’s head. While researching ideal love, could he have missed a bigger truth: that something unplanned and implausible could actually make him happy?
My Review: I don't know what it is about Wisner, but I just really like the guy. When I saw him read, he was personable and funny and slightly neurotic, and that personality comes through in his books. His writing is really accessible. I liked that he picked some out-of-the-way places to discover thoughts on love in this book -- Egypt, Nicaragua, Botswana, etc. One line in particular I thought precisely captured India (which I visited back in 1995):
I looked across the hotel foyer to the bright palette of saris, aquamarines and chartreuses, apritcots and lime greens. Americans are given a mega-sized box of Crayolas at birth, and we usually choose to go gray. Indians are handed pencil shavings and somehow they explode in technicolor.
The whole book really was a love story and it was very well done. I got a little misty at the end. And more than anything, it made me want to pack my bags and head for somewhere else. Mostly New Zealand. After hearing my mom and dad talk about their recent trip there, plus my brother's trip a number of years ago, and now Wisner's adventures, I really wish I could go. Darn you, Real World. Always bringing me down.
Things I LOVE:
- MY NEW HOUSE! Last night I started to unpack. Let me just say that built-in bookshelves are a dream! I'll start posting pics soon.
- WALL-E. I'm not kidding. This movie was absolutely spectacular. A million billion stars and thumbs up. (And note this comes from the girl whose jerkface ex works for Pixar -- I wanted to put the movie in the "loathe" column. But I can't. It was phenomenal.)
- Organizing stuff in my new house.
- Being slow at work so I can blog and read Go Fug Yourself.
- AT&T's U-Verse service. It's light years ahead of Comcast.
- My new commute not being all that bad so far.
Things I LOATHE:
- It's 107 here today. Combined with the choking smoke coming off the charbroiled mountains into the valley, I'm considering moving to Hades because it's probably a little more refreshing.
- The forecast of 100+ temps for the rest of the week.
- Spending my slow day at work wishing I was at home unpacking and getting settled.
- Carrying unwieldy empty boxes downstairs. Or through doorways. Or down hallways. Or loading them into cars. Or whatever. I hate empty boxes.
- Not having bathmats. I need to get some ASAP.
- Leaving my phone charger in Iowa which meant that I had to buy a new one in Chicago which means that I now have FIVE chargers. It's a trifle excessive.
I found out today that our family beagle Phydeaux (pronounced Fido) is going to be put to sleep tomorrow. He's old and while there isn't anything visibly wrong with him (he really does look healthy and young still), he's just shutting down. He's stopped eating and doesn't want to go on walks and won't even lick our ice cream bowls.
I cannot tell you of the heartbreak and sadness this fills me with. I'm at work and I can't stop weeping for my puppy. We all have to say goodbye tonight, to a pet that was absolutely one of the best dogs in the world. I really mean that -- I could not have asked for a better dog.
(Well, except for that time when he ate an entire can of bacon grease on September 11, and spent the day quietly throwing up between the pillows on my parents' bed. We probably could have done without that.)
Phy, I will miss you and your velvet ears. Thank you for being the best dog for the last 13 years. I love you, puppyface.
I'll write more about him and his mischievious shenaningans soon -- he had such a great personality -- after my tears are gone and I can see the screen more clearly.
Note: There might be some spoilers here. We'll see.
After reading -- and absolutely loving and devouring -- Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters through DailyLit.com, I thought that I'd tackle another Gaskell book, Mary Barton.
A brief overview from Amazon: While Mary Barton is literally a murder mystery, it is also an abundantly detailed and sympathetic view of the nineteenth-century English weaving village of Manchester and some of its people. Mary Barton is young, kind, and beautiful -- perhaps dangerously so. John Barton, her hearty and intelligent but grievously uneducated father who "could never abide the gentlefolk," pours fierce love and courage into his family and work. Mary's love -- for her father, her friends, her charming rich suitor (the son of a factory owner), and his rival, her faithful childhood friend Jem who "loves her above life itself" -- provides rich texture and suspense in this finely spun tale: will Mary's pride be her ruin? Will Jem pay with his life for his love of Mary? Interspersed with sparse but regular authorial observation, scenes from family life, work, and love in a nineteenth-century industrial village come alive.
My friend Hillary originally recommended Mary Barton to me a while ago and said, "yeah, try counting how many people die."
I stopped counting after a while. A lot of people die. But one of Gaskell's main themes is the vast difference between the working class and the wealthy, and how so many people died deplorable, painful deaths from starvation in 1840's Manchester because of that divide. There is a very strong (heck, let's call it preachy) Christian/moral theme to this book, especially toward the end, about witnessing the suffering of another man and doing nothing to relieve it. One's inhumanity toward another is inexcusable in Gaskell's eyes (as it should be in everyone's eyes, don't you think?).
On the other hand, there is the love/murderous triangle between Mary, Mr. Carson, and Jem, which is excellently portrayed, with intrigue, suspicion, and red herrings. The relationships in the book outside this love triangle are even better -- Mary and her father, Margaret and Will, Job and everyone, Alice and everyone, Jem and his mother, etc. These relationships are all so rich and well-developed.
The plot is depressing, exciting, boring, sobering, and loving, all in one. Hillary particularly liked the middle of the novel where Mary Baron plays detective. I must agree, and add that the boat chase was fantastic. Mary Barton would translate to film really well, I feel. Come on, Andrew Davies! Tackle it!
My Rating: 7 out of 10, for being in stark contrast to the fluttering world of Wives and Daughters. But it definitely showed Gaskell's range as a writer. Some of the parts about labor unions bogged the story down a bit, but all in all I'd definitely recommend this one.
Things I Loathe:
- Remembering 99 things at work but forgetting the 1 thing I need to know.
- Poison oak that seems like it will never heal.
- Dating someone who lives over an hour away (I loathe the hour away thing, not the dating him thing)
- Not having another three-day weekend until the end of May.
- Putting away laundry.
- Dealing with paperwork at home -- don't I do that enough at work?
- That I can come up with as many things that I loathe as I love.
Things I Love:
- The weather forecast saying it's going to be 70+ later this week.
- Hiking. Who knew?
- My parents coming home from their trip to Florida.
- Getting to the point where I'm enjoying exercising.
- Thin Mint ice cream.
- A bigger tax return than expected.
- Homemade fish tacos
Marathon post warning!
We're talking about our passions at church (not those kind of passions, people). A guest speaker a few weeks ago told us that if we're unsure what we're passionate about, we can ask ourselves three questions: What makes you sad? What makes you mad? What makes you glad? Then we can use the answers to find out how we can use our passions to serve others. So...
Mad:
Judgmental Christians make me angrier than anything. Shush Now had a fantastic post about this a few days ago. We are NOT called to judge. We are called to LOVE. That's it. Love the Lord God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. I have no idea where in the Bible it says to castigate people for their actions, beliefs, or ideas. The closest I can find is that as Christians we are called to speak with other Christians (not those outside the faith) who we see acting in a way contrary to what we believe. And we're supposed to do that IN LOVE. So, Mr. Phelps, let's talk.
The complete lack of charity by people who can afford it (this definitely includes myself at times) makes me mad. It makes me more than mad -- it makes me sick -- to see the distribution of wealth around the world. I'm not saying we should sell everything and give all our money to the poor, but does Paris Hilton's dog really need a freaking diamond collar when thousands of people die daily because they can't afford a meal? Do I really need 30 pairs of shoes when there are millions who have no shoes at all?
People who believe themselves to be entitled to something for reasons A, B, or C make me mad. These are the people who think respect should just be doled out in handfuls instead of earned. People who cheat and think it's okay because other people cheat. People who sponge up welfare without trying to earn their own way. People who refuse to merge properly on the freeway because they drive a nicer, faster car, and they deserve to go first. People who expect others to be at their beck and call. Basically, people who think the rules don't apply to them make me mad.
Sad:
The situation in Africa (and anywhere else this might happen) where children are kidnapped in the middle of the night and are forced into being soldiers. Just thinking of being ripped out of my home and being forced to kill the people for reasons I can't understand because I'm ten years old makes me tear up. I don't understand how the world can allow this to happen. Why is this okay? Isn't there something we can do?
The rate of illiteracy around the world, especially here in the US. My parents read to me from the day I was born until the day I grabbed the book out of their hands and read it for myself. I've been a reader ever since. I love books because they give me insight, they take me on adventures, and I learn incredible things from them. The thought of not being able to read and experience books (not to mention all the other things we read on a daily basis -- signs, applications, etc.) makes my heart ache.
It makes me mad when women think of themselves as worth nothing. This includes women who have been battered and abused, girls who find their worth only in how they look and what guys think about them, women who have been told lies about who they are, and pretty much any girl at the wrong end of the foster system. I want to take all of these women and teach them that they are worth everything to God. And that there are people out there who find them worthwhile, too.
Glad:
People doing noble things make me glad. Anyone who runs a good charity falls in this category. Seeing people who find all the satisfaction in the world from seeing a kid with cancer smile, or spending some quality time with an elderly person, or seeing the look on a mom's face when she's finally free from an abusive relationship. These people tend to sacrifice a lot of things that the rest of us take for granted. These people make me glad.
Being outside in God's creation makes me glad. I've never considered myself an environmentalist by any stretch (I recycle. I use CFLs. That's about it.). But I'm coming to the realization that God entrusted us with this world, and it's a good thing to be good to the earth. So maybe that's a passion that's slowly developing, although not in this alternative-to-religion way that environmentalism seems to be lately. I just want it to be beautiful when I go to the beach, or for a hike, or even just for a walk in my own neighborhood.
Being in communion with people makes me glad. Just being around people and loving them and having a good time makes me very happy. Learning new things about people I've known for years makes me glad. Meeting new people and expanding the circle of people I know brings me joy. I used to be a total homebody, never getting out and meeting new people. But it's becoming a lot easier these days (thank you WGA strike), and I find that I like having people around; people to talk to, to discuss issues with, to enjoy activies with. These things are making me happy these days.
My thoughts about what makes me mad, sad, and glad:
I think that I'm scratching the surface of my passions. Financially, I try and give as much as possible because I've been blessed with a lot, and I'm giving to charities that align with what make me mad, sad, and glad. I'm taking time to enjoy the things that make me glad, and to try and become like the people who make me glad. I'd like to start doing a little volunteer work outside the church. I'm still working with the youth group girls to try and instill in them a sense of worth and respect. I'm not afraid to (in love) knock some of my youth group kids down off their little entitlement pedestals. Mostly I'm trying my best to love everyone around me, especially the people who aren't as easy to love. Like that guy on the freeway who can't merge.
