grateful

making rolls

bacon-wrapped waterchestnuts & aprons

i saw a girl on campus this week who didn't have her left arm.  i got to thinking what that would be like. if i didn't have a left arm, i think i'd dream dream dream of what it would be like to have one.  it is something so simple--something that everyone has--but that one car accident could claim or one blip in my dna could have prevented.  and for it then to be impossible to ever have one...  king lear, over his daughter's dead body, cries, "this feather stirs; she lives!  if it be so, it is a chance which does redeem all sorrows that ever i have felt."  i imagine i'd have dreams sometimes of waking up with an arm, or of scientific miracles that'd make it possible to attach one perfectly.

that is an unparalleled happiness!  for something impossible to suddenly be given to you, something you've waited and dreamed for.  getting that arm would be a source of total joy and gratitude for the rest of my life.

and here i am, two arms, two legs, good hearing, good eyes, both parents and all siblings alive and healthy, a warm warm bed and good good food, money in the bank.  i do not have diabetes, or cancer, or wheat or dairy allergies.  my family who i love loves me too.  i know who i am, i love God, who also knows who i am and loves me.

how am i not in a constant state of constant excitement?

what a joy this thing life is.

"there is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish.  the thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have.  remember scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not here any more."

happy birthday grandma, or why i love my family

october 9th, we had a birthday part for my grandma.
this is what it felt like.

i love her for so many reasons.

she is kind

and ladylike.

extremely intelligent,

but never self-applauding.

oh that i can be like her when i am grown.

a gentleman's game

let me just say i wasn't expecting it either.

i mean, sure.  i hide around corners to jump out at my roommates and shoot them with my finger-guns (pew!pew!).  yes, once i army-crawled up an entire flight of stairs just to get a clear shot at courtney before she turned around.  and true, i do have an uncanny familiarity with the flight plans in star wars (the original 3) and the attack tactics (say that one out loud) in mission impossible, lord of the rings, and home alone.  

so maybe that explains it.

("it" being that in a vicious game of laser tag this monday, i had 46 kills (16 of them being my brother), got 45,849 points, and placed second--second only to a legitimate policeman.  you know.  no big.)

ya'll better run.

via

monday maintenance

favorite moment of the week:

hottub wednesday.  hands down.  i had forgotten how nice hottubbing is!  this will need to be a repeat for sure.

gentlemen of the week:

1.  a certain gentleman, upon seeing my feet turn lily-white from the cold of the church room, took off his wool socks and let me wear them.  later he told me he has athlete's foot, so i guess that'll be fun.

2.  a certain gentleman, upon realizing that he could wrestle me to the ground to retrieve the glove i'd stolen from his apartment (more on that forthcoming), instead opened the front door for me and said, "go ahead.  it's yours."

3.  a certain gentleman, upon wearing a green knitted sweater that made him look oh so huggable, let me hug him.

4.  a certain gentleman, namely my father, the most gentleman of them all, took me to my favorite thai restaurant for lunch, wherest we enjoyed lovely conversation, as we always do, my dad and i.

adventures of the weekend:

--wrote a song about a window washer

--slid down stairs in a sleeping bag

--friend went to e.r. for apendectomy

--stole gloves from people, as part of the great glove heist, 2011, in which our entire ward/neighborhood is trying to steal gloves from each other's apartments.  how many have we stolen, you ask?  that's classified.

--saw an [airsoft] shooting (as part of said glove heist).  the crime reel from my window:

yep.  things gettin pretty dangerous round here.