Butter Rum

Seriously, is there a better lifesavers flavor than butter rum? I had nearly forgotten about this tiny circle of bliss when my coworker brought them in. And now I am savoring one here in the silence of my office. Alone. With tastiness.

Oh butter rum lifesaver, you make me think of creme brulee and all its deliciousness. And I long for that creamy dessert...

Now, I'm officially rambling.

Here is what is currently distracting my mind:
 ~ I have cried an inordinate amount this weekend due to movies and TV shows. We just saw UP which is basically a sobfest, I revisted Sleepless in Seattle which I can never get through dry-eyed, and much to my horror (I literally avoided watching the end of Dr. Who series two because I was dreading this moment so much) Rose Tyler and the Doctor are SEPARATED maybe FOREVER. Oh, that single tear coursing down David Tennant's cheek just plucked at my heartstrings

~I'm obsessing about reading every book on a 100 Must-Read book list Shana sent to me months ago. Obsessing. I think about it more than is normal, I'm sure of it.

~ Cross-stitching for baby Murphey. Can I finish before he makes his debut as an independent being on this planet??

The End.

Office Forwards

All the time I get the goofy office forwards in my inbox. Most of the time they are so stupid or crude I can feel my brain cells dying while I read it:

Brain Cell: No no no! Don't even open it! DON'T DO I- AAAAYYYIIIIEEEEE.... ~cough cough~ (dead)

However, sometimes they are amusing like the one I received today with crazy animals. And I BURST out laughing and terrified everyone. Which is why I now have a print out from today's office forward hanging in my cubicle that says:

HAHAHAHAHA

As a side note to cranky people who act like the Twilight books are some sort of downfall of civilization (hello people, reality TV?), I have a few questions:

1. Did someone tie you to a chair or in some other way remove your freewill and force you to read them?
2. Have they (the books) in some way hurt you?

If the answer to both of these is "No" shut yer trap and move on with your life! People can read what they want to read and that's that. Sure, I think that certain books are drivel but if that's what people want to read instead of Salinger, what can I say? At least they're reading! Sheesh.

That's Amore

I was just doing a little reading/editing of a story an inspiring Lindsay wrote and got quite the shove when the following words showed up on the page:

We are one in the spirit,
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity
May one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, By our love
And they'll know we are Christians by our love

A song I haven't thought of in years and years, but an idea I've been thinking about almost constantly for the past few weeks and one that has hovered in the back of my mind for much longer.

A couple weeks ago I was staying at a friend's house and had the immense pleasure of meeting his mother. She and I bonded immediately, feeling completely comfortable talking about the most awkward of subjects. When she asked me about my beliefs, I felt utterly at ease telling her about my Christian faith even though I knew it was not something we had in common. While we talked I finally, in a desperate desire to express my deepest beliefs and, in what I believe was God giving me the right words to express my heart, I told her what I have seen and learned from my parents: that love is what really matters. And that truly trying to genuinely love God and love the people around me takes up all of my efforts and leaves little time for worrying about the many questions for which we have no answers.

Jesus, when asked what was the greatest of all of the commandments answered, "The most important one is this: 'Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself .' There is no commandment greater than these."

Whenever I read those verses I dream. If only we would really do it. If we could all unify in love and not bicker about when to baptize or what will happen in heaven or how much to tithe or the million other things that divide the family of Christ from one another. A terrible division. And beyond that family, I imagine (a lot like John Lennon) what it would be like if I could truly learn to love everyone. If I could see the overwhelming, beautiful, priceless value in every person, in spite of my personal feelings. Is it possible to disagree, yet still love? And not just a mild kind of, "oh sure, I love that person cuz God says I gotta" type of love, but the kind that makes you really go the extra mile. The kind that Jesus talks about the Good Samaritan having or when he says that if you see someone without a coat, take yours off and hand it over. (Ouch. I love my coat.)

It seems impossible in my own life, let alone on a global scale. But there are hints and glimpses of the great love we're capable of and the wondrous results; enough that I want to see more. I want to see how much we can do. And for the sake of heaven, I want people to know we are Christians by our love not by our rules or judgements or politics or creepiness. And when I say I'm a Christian, I want to  leave it at that and not need to go any further because does the rest really matter? Do we need to say anything else if we're walking in His steps? I hope not because boy oh boy can I get tongue-tied.

Brilliant

A strange thing has occurred since I returned to work this week after a trip to England to see the sights and my brother and sister-in-law. People would come up to me and say something like, "soooo... how was England?" in a tone of voice that suggested that it most likely sucked. They would often follow this up with a story about how their mother hated England with a firey passion or how they had heard that the British are much meaner to Americans than even the French. Oh, and English food is terrible. And so is the weather. (PS SARA- What a STUPID trip to take. Oh, wait, your brother lives there and you were visiting him? Oh. Oh, ok.)

I found it all very shocking because in spite of my amusement at how poorly the UK was able to deal with their snowfall and how incredibly expensive things are (except at Poundland! where everything is a pound! wooohoo!) I very much enjoyed England. And here are some reason why I think Britain is GGRRRRR-eat (HA)

First, in the food category (take that!)
Black Currants!
Please America. Please. Please please please bring these back into the mainstream. They are delicious and I love the flavor, especially in tea. I'm begging you.

Pheasant!
And other game birds. We just don't eat a lot of game birds here and I think that's a shame because I like them. So there.

Desserts (aka Puddings!)
Seriously, in America, I barely ever am tempted to order dessert because everywhere has the same things- cheesecake, ice cream, some sort of brownie. Blah blah blah. I know I'm weird, I know that, but I love custard. Love it. And in England it is so easy to find a pudding served with hot custard! Amazing. And Harry Potter is right, treacle tart is delicious. I have to learn how ot make that...

And those are just the stand outs. We also greatly enjoyed the curry, cornish pasties, chips of course and Joe was crazy about mushy peas (they did not win me over though I admit they are better that regular peas). Cheeses! Weird soups! It was good stuff.

Some other things about Britain that are cool:

- Derren Brown. Coolest magician/mentalist/almost scary because he's so awesome I've ever seen.

-Pantomime! A theatre production that is unlike anything I've ever seen. Think musical meets improv meets mayhem. It was so fun.

- Castles!

- British authors! CS LEWIS! TOLKIEN! (I got to go to the pub they hung out in. Where I ate the treacle tart! Which I knew about through ROWLING!)

I really could go on but people don't like to read long posts. They just look at them and think "Yikes, not even gonna try" and since I waxed eloquent about the food I have to stop now. But I just wanted people to know we had a great trip. Thanks Aaron and Becky for having us and showing us around. Thanks Joe for boldly driving on the wrong side of the road. And thanks Caerphilly Castle for still having part of the set from an episode of Dr. Who up, which piqued my interest and introduced me to an amusing show (David Tennant, you are great. Which is another thing about England- hot actors. All my most favorite eye-candy actors are British. Ow ow.).

Highlander Romance (a fiction)

Today I went to the Highlander Festival in Radford with my parents. We watched some beefy folks compete in some traditional highland games like caber tossing, hammer throwing and chucking a hay bale (they called it a sheaf) over a high pole. There were two stand outs. A giant redheaded man and a ripped brunette chick. We believe that maybe they are married and in love. This is how I imagine their courtship progressed:

"Hey lass, I've never seen anyone toss a caber like ye"
(tosses her hair and looks tough) "Aye, I be the toughest lady-caber tosser in all of America."
"You're a mighty bonnie lass, want ta get a pint down at the pub?"
(keep in mind, these are Americans, they're just feeling the ancestral vibe from all the caber tossing, that's why they're talking this way.)
"If ye can toss that sheaf 20 feet in the air, I'll go with ye."

Let me tell you, he had no problem tossing that sheaf that high.

"Now will you go to the pub with me?"
"Yes, but don't buy me Guinness. I hate Guinness."
"You are the perfect woman!!"
(the highlanders are Scottish, not Irish)

The rest is history. They now travel together, sharing their love and competing in highland sports. Someday they will have very strong babies.

An Amazing Moment

So, I will confess, this week, I watched "Dancing with the Stars" for the first time. Kelly Osbourne, the foul-mouthed daughter of the famed Ozzie had decided that "Dancing" was a way to become more of a lady and make her parents proud. She really did a lovely job performing the foxtrot, but the show-stopping moment (for a softy like me) was seeing her proud parents just looking completely blown away. Her mom was straight up weeping. Precious.

I just had a moment like that. This weekend Joe and a lot of other poor Newhouse students are working a lot and sleeping very little during the annual (thank God it's only once a year!) Fall Workshop. During this Thursday through Sunday stress-fest the students descend on a town near Syracuse and create photo/multimedia/video stories about whatever they can find. They all hole up in a building (in this case a firehouse) and consume large quantities of caffeine and pizza while editing, capturing, (maybe gently weeping in some cases) and basically working their poor little butts off.

As a way to thank the community they descend upon, there is a "Community Slideshow" where the subjects of the stories, the students and whomever else can come and see some of the work that has been done thus far. We arrived a little late (I was tagging along with Joe and some others working on some more touches for their stories), so I didn't see everything. When we snuck in the photos of the various students were going by. Suddenly, the photos went to videos. Joe had the second video. The audience, who up until this point had been, for the most part, silent aside from a few titters, erupted. People were laughing at all the right moments and just having a great time. And then, when his video ended, the entire audience applauded. Right in the middle of the show. It was amazing. The only time the audience applauded that night, aside from after the show ended, was for my husband's video. I am shamelessly bragging. I get to, I'm his wife. I am so incredibly proud of him, I want everyone to know. It was just so satisfying and overwhelming to hear this audible reaction to the way I feel about my amazing, talented Joe.

Now, I know you all probably have a lot of questions for me like, Sara, what's it like to be married to someone famous? I'll just say, I have always known that wherever Joe was (and is) going in his life would be an adventure. I'm just glad I get to be part of it. Even the bits that include me guarding camera equipment at a high school dance. (Dang, some of those dresses were SHORT.) And from what I can tell, there's gonna be some awesome stuff coming down the pipe.

Hello, My name is Sara and I'm addicted to books.

I just logged onto my library account and apparently all the planets have aligned and I've got 5 book requests heading to my tiny branch for me to pick up. I have never had five books to pick up (with the exception of books for papers- that doesn't count). This is giving me flashbacks of when i was a child and my mom used to set a limit on the number of books I could take out from the library. I kept hearing about books that sounded good and so I would put in a request for it and the number climbed quickly. The library people are going to look at me funny! They're going to raise their eyebrows! (Unless it's the one librarian that likes everything I ever check out. He's a nice man). I'm going to have to read voraciously!

At least I'm just checking them out form the library and not buying them all. I'm really trying to limit my book buying so that Joe doesn't have to weep bitter tears when we're packing up and moving boxes and boxes of books. They're quite heavy...