No Justice!

My brother met The Edge. And Bono. And Adam. Normally I'd just be straight thrilled for him. However, two weeks before he went to the concert he had an extra ticket and asked if I wanted to come up to Montreal. I decided that the responsible thing to do was to skip the concert and be sensible. Have a mentioned that I suck? Is there an emoticon for kicking yourself?? Remind me again why I decided to go to a Clay Aiken concert rather than another U2 concert??? Sigh.

On the bright side, evidently The Edge passed along greetings to me.

What do you want for Christmas?

My brother's blog has an interesting post today about looking beyond ourselves in this holiday season. I know my small group have purchased a goat, baby chickens and seed packets through Samaritan's Purse to celebrate the holiday season (click on Giving and then Gift Catalogue).

Happy shopping!

Much to be Thankful For

One of my favorite things about American Thanksgiving is that it always exceeds my expectations. Since I grew up in another country, I don't have any childhood memories associated with the last Thursday in November. No requirements for it to be a proper Thanksgiving.

This puts me in the fun situation every year of not caring if I spend the day alone or with a crowd of people. Every year that something cool happens is a bonus.

This year I spent most of the day (after the snow shovelling, which I was NOT thankful for) with my church small group. We cooked the turkey and trimmings together (and I scared them with my dorky love of all things cooking), sat around, played games and shared memories of past Thanksgivings. A little family away from home, but without the usual dysfunction of the usual family holiday.

Then I went home and watched some of the new U2 DVD. What more can you ask from a major holiday??

Afraid of My Desk

Have you ever gotten to the point when you're afraid of cleaning your desk? Goodness only knows what's under there! And when I clean it, I presumably need to file the paper, not just put it back on the desk.

For the 3000th time - I SOOO need an assistant. Sigh.

The Looming Threat of Bells

What happened to my life? Just a few months ago I knew my schedule - go to work and stay there indefinitely. Come home, collapse, make a phone call, fall into bed, repeat....

Now I have these people called friends. I have church groups. I have fun things set up. I have commitments.

I have to say this is all very taxing on my brain.

Plus, I'm doing an awful lot of out of the office work these days and it's hard to plan future meetings when you're not at your computer.

Thus, the looming threat of bells.

Let me tell you how much I hate PDAs. Many years ago I had one for work. At first I diligently tried to learn "graffiti" and put contacts and dates into the palm. I kept running gift lists in there. I hot synced every day. But then I started to realize that this thing chewed through batteries (before rechargeable PDAs) and then the hot syncing started deleting all my computer and PDA files. Then I had no schedule or contacts. That was fun. So I put the PDA away and vowed never to use it again.

And then there were the bells. You know the ones. To remind you to be somewhere. My nerves were shot. Then one morning a reminder went off at 6 and wouldn't stop beeping every 10 minutes. That was fun too.

Now I live my life PDA free. When my friends' PDAs give off a series of beeps I laugh at how their life is ruled by their gadget.

But, now my schedule is getting a little crazy. I need to have files with me. I need to have contacts. I'd love to have the Bible electronically (and searchable, if possible). Sigh.

Is this just inevitable? Should I just give in?

What a Year!

Today is my one year anniversary at my job. One year of crazy chaos, endless to do lists, endless crises, upheaval and change. My job is so much different than when I started - I'm in my third office, on my third set of bosses and the job description appears to change every day.

Sometimes I wonder why I stay. Things never seem to "settle down". I'm always being pulled in a million directions and the hours are long.

On the other hand, I can see real progress. The project has taken off and I'm doing things I never thought I could do. I've organized several conferences, designed a website, learned to maintain the site in Dreamweaver, launched a whole new side of the operation, built amazing corporate contacts and got the project through all the previously mentioned crises.

I'm a very deadline and purpose driven person and there's no lack of either in this job! Sometimes that's for the good and sometimes it's for the worse. Lots of drama - both highs and lows.

It has been a great job for bringing together skills that I picked up in various places over the years and forcing me to learn new ones. It's been a thoroughly wild ride and I hope I have the opportunity to celebrate a second anniversary here.

It's funny, when I took this job and moved I was really sure this is what God wanted me to be doing. I wasn't sure why. It's not like I work in a Christian organization or that there's anything particularly Christian about my job (though there is a social justice element). It's interesting that a year later some of that is becoming much clearer to me (at least I think).

As always - life is an adventure!!

Interesting Articles

I'm really getting to love Relevant magazine. They had some great articles up today.

The first is a great call to action on poverty.

The second is an interesting discussion of what God's promises REALLY are.

Enjoy!

Life of Luxury

Here I am in my $300 a night hotel room waiting for my conference to start tomorrow.

The bed here is so high I need a running start to make it into the bed. Whose brilliant idea is this? I put on the complimentary robe and the belt loops are somewhere around my knees. I think I have been assigned the "Giant Room" or something. Bad enough that I always feel out of place in expensive hotels, but now I also feel short.

I've managed to leave key documents in my office, which is 2 1/2 hours away. Or, you know, 4 hours away if you get stuck behind a huge accident like I did today.

Some of us clearly aren't made for the good life, I guess!