let's pretend

For the sake of making my blog interesting compared to the exciting blogs from France and England, let's pretend that I am writing you all from an exotic island. And also for the sake of myself, because of the time difference on this island, I am not writing this at 2:30am but 2:30pm.

As I am writing I am fending off a crazy monkey that is trying to bite my toes, this monkey looks an awful lot like a kitten named Charlley. (Yes, I finally decided on a name for my kitten with the help of Robyn. It's pronounced Charlie, but spelt in a female way).

Life on this island is pretty exciting. It is not everyday that you wake up to cloudy skies and unpredictible climate change. One day it could be 5 degrees and mud is sticking to your pants, while the next day it could be -11 (with the windchill feel more like -40). I bet you tomorrow will bring some snow squalls. For all you back in Canada, England, and France, snow squalls are heavy periods of snow fall throughout the day. These really only happen on this island, so I am the only priviledged one who will get to live through them.

I am having a lot of down time lately, relaxing in the jungle... This means I can read as much as I want to. Right now I am reading through the LOTR with the occasional 19th piece on the side to keep my mind sharp. This reading is really helping me out with the classes that I am taking through Redeemer's new online classes. My Lewis and Tolkien class is by far my favourite class. I came into this class as a casual interest and I am quickly turning into a nerd... I fully embrace this.

I have met this really precious baby named Abigail Bowen in my explorations. She is simply adorable and I love spending time with her. We love to dance to Dixie Chicks together. I also just love it when it is her nap time and she just snuggles with me as she sleeps. Probably one of the highlights of my weeks here.

The other day the community center held a Soup Fest. This is where all the local restaraunts made their famous soups for us to try. My favourite one was Asparagus with White Mushroom. Mmmmm, it was delectible. Robyn tried one that was a definate FLOP - coconut chicken (by the way, Robyn came along with me to the Island).

I wish I could post pictures of this Island, but blogger isn't letting me dowload them right now. Oh, well some other time then eh?

Okay... I admit, I am not actually on a sweet Island somewhere and it is definitley 3am in the morning. Shoot... I wish I was travelling right now. I don't know what has gotten into me, but I am feeling pretty restless and I just want to go or do something different with my life. So just for now I will keep on pretending. Heck, daydreaming is one of my favourite past times, so why not?

lights will guide you home

One of my greatest pet peeves is when people do not update their blogs. As of now I am officially my own pet peeve. I swear it’s a great to feel that way about yourself.

You want to know another pet peeve of mine? Well whether you do or you don't you are going to find out, that is the beauty of rhetorical questions. Knots. I can't stand the knots that are impossible to untie, the ones that you could spend hours trying to undo but then they just become bigger, more tangled, and messier. In grade school I was the kid that all the other kids, and the occasional teacher, would approach to undo the knots in their shoelaces, I was/am pretty proud of that fact. And sometimes if was bored, I would purposely tie a string into multiple knots just so that I could practice untying them. I am not really sure where I am going with this... I wanted to turn it into an analogy of some sort for this past week, but I am failing miserably. Instead I am going to use it as a metaphor. This past week was like a tangled knot. If this metaphor does not work for you just take this past paragraph as you learning one more interesting fact about me and if I ever become famous and there is a Jeopardy category about me you will be one step ahead of the game.

Alrighty, enough about pet peeves and more about just pets. If you don't already know I have a kitten. You may have heard rumours that it is mutated and sickly and I want to take this time to assure you that these rumours are true. Yes, my kitten has 8 toes on its front paws and it repeatedly sneezes, but as weird as it sounds I love her dearly. She doesn't have a name, unless you count Kitty as a name. Not only do I have a cat in my life, I have a dog. Her name is Ayla and she is wonderful. Ok, technically she is not mine, she is the guys, but I like to think that she is. And just between you and me, with Ryan as an exception, I think I am her favourite. In my opinion everyone should have pet and here's why. Pets don't care whether you've had a good or bad day, they don't care what you have done or what is going to happen, they are great listeners and they don't give any advice. All they do is love you no matter what. We all need to be loved like this, even if it means that they slobber all over our faces or sneeze on our pillows.

This week I said goodbye to three pretty stellar friends. They have all set off into adventures in far distant lands that only Skype and MSN can bridge. I might sound like a sap, but I miss you guys already, especially my roomies. Just make sure you have the best time of your life while you are out there to make all this missing worthwhile. However, with every hole there is usually a trampoline close by to help you jump out and have fun while doing it. Since I am on a role with the metaphors I won't stop, Robyn is my trampoline. I can't even start to tell you how AWESOME it is to have her here with me again. She is definitely one of my most favourite people in the whole wide world. I was going to take this time to write you a whole list of things that make her wonderful, but chances are if you read my blog you probably already know Robyn and know why she is so great.

Tonight was Church In The Box. It was pretty great, except I was struck by something. During worship I found myself unable to sing some of the songs. Not because I didn't like them or disagreed with them, but solely because I knew if I sang some of those songs lyrics it would be hypocritical. For me, this is the main reason why I 'prefer' to worship with hymns. I find hymns meet me more at where I am at and allow me realise the state I'm in. While, I find that some of the contemporary worship songs make me say things that my heart does not. This is solely based on my opinion and is not necessarily true for you. It was just something that struck me as I was singing tonight and I am not really sure how I feel about this response.

Well friends this will be all for tonight, except that I am going to leave you with one more metaphor. Friends are like lights.

Lights will guide you home...