the scriptorium

Thursday, July 31, 2003

I got up this morning and found in my inbox an email from my friend, Brian; one of those things that are forwarded around cyberspace at regular intervals. It's nice and the content is inspirational in that cutesy kind of way that these things are, but there was one difference that was so intriguing that I had to go on and post the thing here:

Next time your morning seems to be going wrong and the children are slow getting dressed and you can't seem to find the car keys and you hit every traffic light, don't get mad or frustrated; praise God instead because God is at work watching over you.
After Sept. 11, I happened to call a man on business that I didn't know and have not, nor will ever, talk to again. But this day, he felt like talking. He was head of security of a company that had invited the remaining members of a company who had been decimated by the attack on the Twin Towers to share their office space. With his voice full of awe he told me stories of why these people were alive and their counterparts were dead--and all the stories were just 'little' things.
As you might know, the head of the company got in late that day because his son started kindergarten.
Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.
One woman was late because her alarm clock didn't go off in time.
One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.
One missed his bus.
One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.
One's car wouldn't start.
One went back to answer the telephone.
One had a child that dawdled and didn't get ready as soon as he should have.
One couldn't get a taxi.
There were other stories that I hope and pray will someday be gathered and put in a book.
The one that struck me was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. That is why he is alive today.
Now when I am stuck in traffic, miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing telephone--all the little things that annoy me--I think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment.
May God continue to bless you with all those annoying little things and may you remember their possible purpose.

Now, here's the part that so impressed me with this particular email:

Pass this on to someone else, if you'd like. There is NO LUCK attached. If you delete this, it's okay: God's Love Is Not Dependant On E-Mail.

To all y'all who send or are tempted to send me this kind of thing and may be reading this, this is how they're supposed to end! Any others will get deleted almost before I'm done reading them. /rant. Oh, and btw, Brian, thanks for sending this--that little paragraph made my day.

posted by #Debi at 7:08 AM | permalink | 0 comments |

Monday, July 28, 2003

Dear God, this has been quite a day! I am taking over some of the trainer's duties while she is gone to India to train some people there to do some of the stuff we do. It's just God's twisted sense of humor that the first day out at this, we end up with no work in the system except a job that practically no one in the office is trained to do yet. So, I ended up having to train them all (well, all four of them--it's not like I had a whole roomful or anything). AND, it just so happens that this particular job that I had to train these folks on is the job with the reputation of being the most hated and hardest to do batch type that we have available. The reason it gets this rep is that it's sort of a combination of all the other claim types rolled into one, so you kinda have to know a little bit about all the other types of claims in order to be able to understand this one. Just to throw another little twist into the mix, at least one or two of the girls were fairly new employees and really aren't quite up to the basics they need to know to do this. It was like telling someone to write a novel, and having them raise their hand, asking, "By the way, what's this alphabet thing I keep hearing you talk about?" But, we muddled through it, and I think most of them actually got it. Part of the frustration came from finding out that we'd all been trained by different people, at different times, and all had different ways of doing the same thing. It took us all a while to finally get past that. I told my supervisor that this experience is teaching me the difference between "right" and "not wrong". I have this thing inside my head that makes it unacceptable to be merely "not wrong". I must be "right". If I am not "right", I must learn what is "right" and then do what it takes to become "right". But I am learning to accept that, at least at my job, "not wrong" is apparently good enough.

posted by #Debi at 8:39 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

Sunday, July 27, 2003

Here is one of only a few photos that I took at the Vineyard Central AllGroup that actually turned out good. There are a couple of others, but most of the photos I took look like the photographer (me) was on crack or something, they are so shaky. I was trying out that new Kodak high definition film, and I think it's great--it's just the user's fault this time. I really want a digital camera at some point, but that's gonna have to wait until there's more discretionary income at my household. Anyway, enjoy the photo.

posted by #Debi at 8:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

Speaking of the newspaper, I have to tell you a funny story on Liz. Some time back, she and Rachel and I were planning to go to the movies and were all talking on the phone, making plans. Liz was going to check movie times on the internet and asked me for the web address for the paper. I told her "kentucky.com", but she went to ky.com, which is a different site altogether. Hee-hee! I guess stories like this are the reason I get a PG rating!

posted by #Debi at 12:23 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

There was a good article in yesterday's Lexington Herald-Leader about a concept called "theology on tap" that the Catholic Church uses to get people who wouldn't normally come to a church "building" talking about spiritual matters. The Lexington diocese is now doing it here, at one of my favorite places, McCarthy's Irish Bar. Here's a couple of good quotes from the article:

"Churches, unfortunately, can be intimidating for some people, and they may shy away from coming," said Tim Schosser, 22, a youth minister and Lexington Community College student. "But when you have (religious discussions) in a place like this, they flock to it."
Kristin Kant, 29, a University of Kentucky graduate student, said she feels comfortable sharing her faith in a tavern. "God and our faith should be in every part of our lives," she said. "There's nothing wrong with Jesus being here."

posted by #Debi at 8:36 AM | permalink | 0 comments |

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

I've been meaning to get on here and post some impressions from the VC AllGroup thing, but I've been slightly ill (respiratory infection, turns out), and still working the OT, so there really hasn't been time. I want to do it justice, though, so I'm gonna wait until I have more than just a couple of minutes to do it in.

I wanted to post a couple of interesting things I got in the email this morning. I've read in a couple of blogs (and heard in conversation) by Presbyterian types, mention of "the five points" of Christianity. Not being brought up "high church", I really didn't know what those were. They are incorporated into today's CQOD. Turns out it's basically the Apostles' Creed, but I thought I'd list them here for posterity:

1. That the Holy Spirit did so inspire, guide and move the
writers of the Holy Scriptures as to keep them from error.
2. That our Lord Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.
3. That Christ offered up himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and to reconcile us to God.
4. That on the third day He rose again from the dead with the same body with which He suffered, with which also He ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of His Father, making Intercession.
5. That Our Lord Jesus showed His power and love by working mighty miracles. This working was not contrary to nature, but superior to it.

The other thing I thought to share comes from today's A Word A Day email. They usually put an interesting quote at the end of the email, and here's today's:

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
~Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)

posted by #Debi at 6:43 AM | permalink | 0 comments |

Saturday, July 19, 2003

Yesterday was a "lucky day" for me. I managed to get all my overtime in by the time I left, so I don't have to go in today. Hooray! I answered a quiz question on a local radio station, and won a book by John Lennon, along with a cool T-shirt with a cariacature of him on it. When I got home, I got the best thing of all: the results of blood work I had done a little over a week ago when I went to the endocrinologist for a 6-month checkup on the Graves' Disease. My doctor has OK'd me to cut my meds in half, to two pills per day! I had hoped for no pills per day, but this is a good second.

I'm off to Cincinnati this afternoon, to Vineyard's Central's quarterly AllGroup celebration, so I guess I need to get a little housework done before I head off.

posted by #Debi at 9:49 AM | permalink | 0 comments |

Thursday, July 17, 2003

I just got home from work and found that my dad had sent this photo to me (and to my brother) in an email. Apparently Mom and Dad had been going through some old photos and found it. Aren't we so cute? My brother looks like a cherub from an icon or something. Don't let that fool you, though! :^) I'm guessing I was maybe 5 or 6 and he was 2 or 3. Pretty cool!

posted by #Debi at 10:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

Wow. It seems like forever since my last post. Things have been incredibly hectic around here lately. I'm still working the mega-overtime, which is good for the pocketbook but wears on the psyche. It seems like forever ago that I had my 3-day weekend for the 4th. I'd like about four days off with no other commitments: one day to sleep in and do pretty much nothing, 2 days totally committed to house-cleaning, and then another day to unwind and prepare to go back to work. Ah, dreams...

Today is my brother Mike's birthday. He is 40 years old today. That's amazing on so many levels. He's about 2 1/2 years younger than me, and I think in a way I'll always see him as that pesky little boy that he used to be. But he's OLD now :^), with a wife and three lovely kids. He's grown up much better than I think any of us gave him credit for having the potential to do. He's got a ways to go (don't we all!), but he's a good "kid", and I think with the help of his family, he's gonna do OK. Since he lives in Kansas, I only get to see him about once a year, which is not often enough. If you're reading this, Mike, have a great birthday. You deserve it. (Btw, his head is bald on purpose; he shaved it just before I last saw him, at the beginning of July. Must be a mid-life crisis thing.)

posted by #Debi at 6:55 AM | permalink | 0 comments |

Saturday, July 12, 2003

I just got in from work, the gym, and shopping and I'm sitting here trying to cool off--my air conditioner is broken again. It did this last year, seems like, on a weekend that time, too. It's really inconvenient for it to break on a weekend, because no one will be around to fix it until Monday at the earliest.

Thank God I've planned to spend the day tomorrow in Louisville with Matt and Rachel and the rest of the gang. We're going to hear Matt play keyboards and lead worship at his home church, Forest Park in the morning, hang out in "the 'Ville", as Matt calls it, during the afternoon, then see him do the same again at Sojourn, another church where Matt has ties. (I hope I got all those "family ties" correct. Matt, you can correct me in the comments if not.)

In any case, it should be a fun time. I even bought a new outfit for the occasion. Well, really I just needed (wanted?) something new, but this is as good a time as any. WalMart loved me today--between the outfit (not too expensive) and the groceries (more expensive--I needed everything!), I ended up spending about $100. I never spend that much at one time, usually, but sometimes you just run out of everything at once, ya know?

So now I'm sitting here, trying not to move around too much to conserve "cool", as it were, with all the windows open and the fan going. I hope it doesn't rain tonight, because I think I'm gonna have to leave the windows open all night. (Hmmm, a huge, well-iced glass of mint tea sounds really good right now....)

posted by #Debi at 7:57 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

Friday, July 11, 2003

Notice the new "photo" in the sidebar--that's the poster for LOTR3--The Return of the King, which I originally saw at Dave's site. I liked it so much that I went to the LOTR website (which is very cool, btw) and downloaded my own copy. It's there to download free, as well as a desktop version for you ladies (and gents, I suppose) who can't see enough of those eyes. I'm gonna have to explore the website some more--it looks like there's plenty there to keep me busy (like I got nothing else to do all day!).

Btw, thanks to all of you who have signed my guestmap lately. I've had three or four new pins in the last month or so, so those who haven't checked it out in a while might want to stop by.

posted by #Debi at 10:06 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

Thursday, July 10, 2003

Found at Bene Diction's place:

What rating is your journal?
brought to you by Quizilla

What do you think? Do I deserve the PG?

posted by #Debi at 11:33 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

Well, it seems that Andrew has been hard at it, taking online quizzes. He has four of them posted today, one of which he got from my site. Here's the results of the other three (well, yeah, of course I took them all--whad'ya think?)

Which Peanuts Character Are You Quiz

The next one came out as a tie, so I've listed both results:

You are Alfred Lord Tennyson
You are very analytical and like to debate. You want truth and beauty. For you, it seems that every cloud has a silver lining. You believe it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Take the Which Poet are You? Quiz - brought to you out of boredom and pretention!

You are Maya Angelou
You have a strong sense of self and have faith in your abilities. You are an optimist and believe that things can get better if people work together. You also have faith in humanity.

Take the Which Poet are You? Quiz - brought to you out of boredom and pretention!

And, last but certainly not least:

Take the Hey Hey, Which Monkee Are You? Quiz.

posted by #Debi at 6:25 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

Monday, July 07, 2003

Hey, I forgot to mention earlier (and actually meant to mention yesterday) that yesterday was my blogiversary--the one year anniversary of my starting this thing called blogging. I'd do a big retrospective piece or something, but I'm late for the gym. Maybe later.

posted by #Debi at 7:18 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

Here's a cool quote sent to me via email from Brian:

"A community isn't something people invent. A community is more like spontaneous combustion, or the Big Bang, or some other of God's more mysterious works."
~Jeanne Marie Laskas

posted by #Debi at 7:46 AM | permalink | 0 comments |

Do you suppose it's some sort of metaphysical symbol of my life that the only plant in my apartment that refuses to die no matter how much I neglect or abuse it is my prayer plant? If so, what could it mean?

posted by #Debi at 7:44 AM | permalink | 0 comments |

Saturday, July 05, 2003

Forgive me, blogosphere, for I have sinned. It has been three days since my last confession...er...post. I have been spending the last couple of days consumed with consumption--of the 1800's variety. Not really, but it feels that way. I have been blindsided by allergies and have coughed up goo pretty much non-stop for 2 days now. It sucks to be sick on a holiday weekend when I had so many plans.

I didn't cancel everything, though. I worked out yesterday, and managed to get through that without too many hacking fits. Later in the day, I went to Matt and Joseph's for a cookout. Matt is like the best cook in the world, next to Alan. He made so many goodies, too many to mention all of them. A representative sampling would include BBQ chicken, grilled vegetables, grilled fruit (very good, btw--you should try it sometime), grilled kielbasa, homemade salsa, potato skins with bacon (real bacon!) bits and cheese, herbed potatos, and "fruit pizza" in the shape of an American flag for dessert. If you're not familiar with fruit pizza, you take sugar cookie dough and bake it into a crust, then spread it with a cream cheese/whipped topping combination, then top it with fruit of your choice; usually strawberries, kiwi slices, etc. Matt used strawberries for the red stripes and blueberries for the part where the stars go. So much for the diet Rachel has been "exhorting" me to stick to. ;^)

After dinner, all of us at the cookout went over to a friend named Sally's house to watch fireworks. She's staying with some relatives in an upscale neighborhood in town. Apparently, some of the neighbors go in together each year and put on a fireworks show in the neighborhood. It was great; I believe it may have been better than the one put on by the city. It was certainly longer, anyway. After we watched the fireworks, we went back to Sally's relatives' house and played Cranium until about 1:30 AM. Needless to say, I was pretty wiped out this morning and slept in. I'm feeling somewhat better today, but still not 100%. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. It's "leg day" for me at the gym, I've been told.

posted by #Debi at 10:51 PM | permalink | 0 comments |

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

It's quiz time! I found this one at Rich's site:

picture of lemur