frisbee, feet, [f]ilosophy

i played in my first ultimate frisbee tournament on Saturday and it was so fun! our team won! plus, it was supposed to downpour all day and it held off until mid-afternoon so it was great. I was very, very tired afterwards but all in all a good time.

for some reason i always feel the need to time something deeper and more philosophical in, but i can’t really think of anything. I did get this huge blood blisters on the bottom of my big toes which is kinda gross. I can tell whenever I get a pedicure the girl is thinking, “what does she put her poor feet through?” my feet are very hygenic, but i get a lot of blisters and battle scars.

OK, don’t know how it went from philosophical to feet, but what can i say…

PS: ultimate frisbee is NOT disc golf! there’s nothing wrong with disc golf, but just to clarify that’s not what I was playing on saturday. google each to see the difference.

 

stuck in my head!

first I want to apologize…but I’ve been working on a project and this song has been stuck in my head all day! so I thought I’d let others share in the “fun.”

 

spoiled banana

so i was off for five straight days! thur-mon. i don’t think i’ve had that many days off without a plan in a while. usually it’s been for a mission trip or something like that, i can’t even think of a vacation except when i went to japan in college. so this was a big deal.

i spent a couple days in sherman, a couple days in the metroplex and it was so nice. saw some people i hadn’t seen several months, went to a show at the hob with ginger, hung out by the pool with folks in sherman, played ultimate frisbee! and other fun activities.

i realized during the time off, while i enjoy the work i do here, i do miss having a ‘life.’ playing in a sports league, going to a midweek bible study, things like that. so in the next few months when i’m job searching, i think quality of life is going to play a big part. I’d like to think if I’m in a bigger city there will be more options and things to do at more flexible times for my schedule. Maybe I won’t report at all. I dunno.

In the meantime, I’m stuck at home today. Yes, after 5 days off I was actually ready to go back to work. I had a banana this morning that I think was a little too soft and felt queasy and horrible, got ’sick’ and went home from work. How lame is that?!?! It just seems silly that a stupid banana is holding me back so to speak. I had some plans tonight too that are on hold b/cs that.

i guess that’s life. there are certainly worse things.

 

talk about bad timing

Williamson Co. shelter stops “Black is Beautiful” promotion

© 2008 The Associated Press

GEORGETOWN, Texas — An animal shelter pulled the plug on a program promoting the adoption of black cats and dogs after criticism that the event would have taken place the same week as Juneteenth, a state holiday commemorating freedom for enslaved blacks in Texas.

The Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter planned to reduce adoption fees June 14-20 for black-coated animals to $25 through a “Black is Beautiful” promotion, the Austin American-Statesman reported in its online edition Wednesday.

The shelter had pictures of a black cat named “Midnight” and two black dogs named “Britain” and “Baskin” on its Web site Wednesday.

Eleven of 17 dogs and 12 of 24 cats at the shelter have black coats, shelter director Cheryl Schneider told The Associated Press.

People choose other animals over the black coated cats and dogs for a variety of reasons, including superstition, fears of aggression and complaints people can’t see the animals’ facial expressions as well, Schneider said.

Celebrated June 19, Juneteenth commemorates the 1867 arrival of Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger in Galveston with news of freedom for Texas blacks. The announcement came nearly two and a half years after passage of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Schneider put a stop to the adoption program after learning about the controversy. “It was just bad timing,” Schneider told the AP.

“It’s just a known fact that black cats and black dogs are difficult to adopt,” Schneider said. “I think it is very unfair to the dogs and cats that are here.”

Williamson County spokeswoman Connie Watson told the paper the shelter has offered promotions before when it has had a high number of a type of animal, including a promotion for cat adoptions later this month. The promotion was not meant to be a Juneteenth-related event, Watson told the paper.

Nelson Linder, president of the Austin chapter for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told the paper the promotion was “not very well planned or considered.”

“In society, we live in small worlds, don’t talk to people, assume things and promote things that have no basis in reality,” Linder told the paper. “I would encourage them to do more outreach on those animals. Talk to people, get some feedback so these things don’t happen.”

Schneider said future promotions will not be so specific.

 

surprising self-help

the weather is absolutely incredible outside!  80 degrees, sunny, slight breeze.  just perfect.

i ran a couple laps at the main park here, then walked 2 more just because it’s so nice out! then i ate lunch on my balcony and read a magazine, just enjoying being outside. i’ve been in a new apartment since december and now i’m really reaping the benefits of having lots of windows and the balcony! it seems like such silly things, but i really like sunshine, there’s a creek of some sort with lots of trees so it makes for nice scenery.

the past couple of years since college, it seems like inadvertently i’ve started on some type of self-help when the seasons change. last year it was cleaning. seems trivial, but i’ve never been a neat freak. not a slob, but have always had my fair share of clutter. i literally bought a book on housecleaning and it’s great! still not a neat freak, but things are a little more under control.

this spring it seems like i’m trying to cook. do we see a pattern here??? i’m usually outside, shopping, reading, or spending time with people than doing particularly domestic things. well, cooking for oneself is usually cheaper and healthier than eating out all the time, and it’s embarrassing not knowing the basics.

plus, my mom and sister are REALLY good cooks so they’ve been in the kitchen while i’ve usually watched the game on tv with my dad. so bad right?!

so far it’s the basics. omelets. stir fry. different varieties of salads and pastas. sometimes combined! rice, chicken, and combinations of it. i really like polenta and hummus (not combined!). other stuff, but again VERY basic. my hope is i’ll have a foundation of some sort and be able to build slowly on it.

i think the bottom line is, it’s so important to try and improve oneself in some new way. i certainly have more things to work on than just cooking and cleaning but it’s a start!

 

“media” rant

so as a member of the nebulous “media” let me rant a little here:

 I’ve had a few incidents just in the short time I’ve been a journalist where Christians (or people claiming the name at least), ministers included, have called the station, or we’ve done interviews with them etc.   not happy about a story we’ve done.  Or they are trying to “show off” about something.  Or they’re trying to say something but in so many words it comes across as arrogant, as “God’s word to bring to you.”  

Now I’m a Christian.  And I’ve interviewed some WONDERFUL people of faith in several stories.  I’ve gone inside multiple churches and met incredible, godly people.  Honestly, I try to make a point in doing that.

And I know everyone is human.  But to me it just seems like they way a person reacts when they’re not happy about something shows most about a person’s character.  I know people say “I can’t believe ‘the media’” “How dare they ask that,” “they hate God and Christians and George Bush” etc. etc.  And I’m not saying news coverage is always perfect.  This isn’t a post about bias…that’s a different topic.

But you never know who you’re talking to on the other end.  They’re a person on a spiritual journey.  When I hear my colleagues receive a nasty phone call from a “Christian”, I WISH I had taken the call.  When someone has been rude to me or really pompous, I’ve wanted to pull them aside and say, “Look.  You should be glad I’m a Christian.  Because you really would have turned me off to your faith.”  

They will know we are Christians by our love. 

 

only in texoma

so i was driving through mcdonald’s today…(horrible i know…i try and eat healthy)…picked up my food and the manager or someone leans over and says, “Hey I saw you at Calhoon’s!”

 sadly, he was right.  Calhoon’s is this ‘club’/'bar’ type place in Denison, like country meets hip hop in all the wrong ways kind of place.  I went for the first time with a friend on Thursday, more for curiousity and to do some good people watching.

The guy says, “yeah! When we were there we were like, ‘hey! that’s emi fitzgerald!’”

So I’m “recognized” which is embarassing enough, by the McDonald’s guy, for being at Calhoon’s.

Classy.  I gotta get out of here.