Bria's Blogie

The Super Duper Mega Church

I awoke late this morning realizing that it is Wednesday and that I haven't checked my mail since early Monday. (I am expecting two textbooks in the mail any day now. When those arrive, they tend to take up the entirety of my tiny mailbox, so it is imperative that I check the box everyday until they arrive.) I literally stumbled down the two flights of stairs to the mailbox block and opened the box door. Lo and behold, junk mail and that was it. I slammed the door shut in frustration, dropping the mail in the process. I stooped down to get the junk off the ground, grumbling at the people I bought my textbooks from because at least one of my books is overdue. One piece of mail caught my eye--a booklet entitled "2008 Fall Preview". It looked like something the University would send out, so I assumed they were already searching for places for perspective students to stay for the fall preview. I ripped open the little seal and read the first page. The page title read "4 services @ 3 times". Perplexed, I turned the booklet over to investigate the to/from and... it wasn't addressed to me. Oops. It wasn't addressed to any of my housemates either, but to someone that used to live here. Her stuff shows up in the mailbox a lot. The booklet was from the Super Duper Mega Church. Now understanding what the booklet was, I tucked it under my arm with the rest of the junk mail and proceeded to stumble up the stairs. (Yes, I am talented enough to stumble up the stairs too.) When I arrived back in my apartment with a few more scrapes than I had gone out with, I sat down in my favorite chair, pulled out the booklet and proceeded to peruse the  Super Duper Mega Church's offerings for the fall.

I read the first page. Four services, huh? Interesting. Why the need for FOUR services? It appears that the difference between them is the volume. At first I concluded that the loudest were for the old people that couldn't hear, but then when investigating the service times, found that the softest were in the morning for the early risers and the loud ones in the late morning for the non-morning people. Ah, the loud ones are for the rocker younger people like me. Gotcha. So I continued to flip through the pages... and I flipped... and I flipped... read some here, read some there... and I continued to flip... my eyes began to bug out... and I flipped some more. The booklet was twenty-seven pages long! And each page was filled with microscopic print detailing services, groups, studies and events the church has each week! I wasn't even at the Super Duper Mega Church and I already felt lost in the amount of services they were peddling at me.

I must admit, the variety of services is alluring. As I read, there were a few times where I exclaimed to myself, "OOO! I'd like to be involved with that!" either as the server or servee. Is that the draw of the Super Duper Mega Church? The sheer variety of services offered? The four worship services? The "not your average" business meetings? The hundreds of small groups? The dozens of Sunday schools? The twenty weekly courses? The never ending options for Wednesday night? The huge college group? The equally large youth group? The multiple aging and still single groups? The enormous  children's department, which by the way offers a separate class for the mentally or physically disabled children staffed by professionals? Or is it the dozens of venues in which one committed Christian could serve his or her Christ within the church walls. WHAT IS IT?!?!

Why is the Super Duper Mega church so huge that it needs several policemen to direct traffic on Sunday morning? Why is it that the Super Duper Mega Church is so obviously successful that they can afford ostentatious sculptures that tower over their parking lots while my family's church just down the street still lacks a real sanctuary after being in the the new building for four years and is staring bankruptcy in the face?

I've been to this church for concerts numerous times. Even sat in on just one of their many Wednesday night services on occasion. Walking into that place gives me the chills because the rooms are so huge! Then the people! There are so many of them that the services look more like sardine cans. The body heat is almost unbearable. And that's not even at the concerts!

Tell me, why do people flock to the Super Duper Mega Church, but zoom past my family's church, almost running over our congregation as they pull in, in their rush to get to one (or several in the case of the families in mini-vans) of the services offered by the Super Duper Mega Church?

Miscellaneous. That's a funny word.

To be completely honest, I have no writing goal in mind. Usually I begin a blog with a topic at least, but I don't really have one right now. I'm just writing again to improve my English skills. The wonderful thing about the blog is that you and the reader, have no idea how many times I've edited this! haha.

I was browsing through flair on the pieces of flair app a little while ago (Facebook application where you can pick out buttons to put on your very own cork board space on your profile) and found it funny that a portrait of Jesus was right next to a portrait of Bob Saget.

 It has rained all day today. That never happens here, much less in August. It's supposed to do the same tomorrow. The freshmen are moving in tomorrow too. I hope they bring big plastic sheets to throw over their stuff so it's not soaking wet by the time they drag it up from the parking lot! Due to the rain, I slept for four hours this afternoon. That's what Sunday afternoons are all about. The problem lies in that I really need to go to bed early tonight because I have a dentist appointment at 8:30 am.

My cousin Ryan ran a triathlon today. I am so jealous of him! He just got started in the outdoor sports a few months ago and he's already doing all this stuff with it. Like he's done this and he goes mountain biking on the weekends and hiking! He's a member of some group up where he lives. People around here just aren't interested in that kind of thing. Of course, the mesquite trees and scrub brush don't get me real excited about spending time in the great outdoors either. But sheesh, you'd think in a decent sized city there'd be something! There is a bike club. Maybe I should look into it. I suppose the reason I haven't is because the only bike trail near here has a really big drop with a gravel pit at the bottom in which I've heard everyone takes a big spill. I don't want to fall! That's where the group rides. I may try to find out some more info though, because that's what the adventure sports are all about; conquering one's fears.

I'm pretty sure that the school's population of ducks has waddled away from the pond in the rain and taken up residence under my window today. Either that or a very large chorus of frogs. Well, toads. It's too dry around here to have real frogs. Usually, not today though. Maybe they came out from hibernation. If a frog were to hibernate around here to wait for rain, they'd have ridiculously long lives. But the point is that there is something making quite a bit of noise down there. I'm not on ground level, so I'm sure I'm not getting the full effect. I'm sad. Not.

I've been wanting to read for days, so I'm off to do so. 

Summer's end

I finally finished my horrible summer. No more physics. No more heavily mathematical classes EVER! You have no idea how excited I am about that. Now I can graduate in May too! Hooray! I really and truly have no idea how I escaped all that work with my sanity. Well, some would argue that I didn't. I've had my nose glued to my calculator for so long my English skills have flown out the door. I find that often times what I'm thinking will come to me in Spanish rather than in English. Which is bizarre. That happens all the time when I've been studying my Spanish, but I haven't been... in a while. So to fix that problem, over the next few days I'm going to read a lot in the book I picked up at the beginning of the summer but have had little to no time to read so far-- the Arabian Nights. It's been great so far. It is basically a large story book for grownups. I will probably also be writing around here.

I just got back from vacation. I deserved that. I went and played at a waterpark, shopped, went to the spa for a mani, pedi AND massage, ate some awesome food and just chilled. Great times with my housemate, Tink. 

I have the rest of this week and next week to prepare myself for school. I've got a lot to do and I haven't even finished making my to-do list yet! I won't be sitting around too much, that's for sure! However, treating myself will continue because I intend to only set my alarm on the days on which I have early morning appointments. Alarms and I aren't the best of friends. I would worry about someone who did enjoy their alarm though. 

It's raining outside. That's a miracle around here-- an August rain. 

Anyway my summer is a total blur to me. I think I've blocked it out of my memory as a protective mechanism. (I did learn something in those silly intro to psyc classes after all!)

On Friendship

Is it ever too late to start over?

There are times in my past when I have been a really crappy friend. Very rarely was I intentionally a bad friend. I've just not been good about keeping up with people. Unfortunately, the people seem to take it personally, because here lately I seem to be on the receiving end of "Forget you!" from several former very close friends. It hurts. It hurts a lot. Perhaps we've grown apart, but I still treasure those good times we spent together. I'd still invite them to my wedding--if I were getting married-- or hope they'd show up to my funeral if I died for some reason. In fact, I would prefer they showed up over the everyday acquaintance type friends from the present. However, right now I doubt any of those people would show up.

To those people in my past with whom I've unknowingly burned a bridge: I'm incredibly sorry to have hurt you.

Some days I wonder if my past transgressions will ever leave me alone.

A few quotes of friendship from quotegarden.com:

One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.  ~George Santayana

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  ~Elisabeth Foley

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.  ~C.S. Lewis

The tender friendships one gives up, on parting, leave their bite on the heart, but also a curious feeling of a treasure somewhere buried.  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Southern Mail, 1929

Friends are relatives you make for yourself.  ~Eustache Deschamps

Hold on to friends with both hands.~ A Nigerian Proverb

STUPID IRRESPONSIBILITY!!!

If you're looking for sunshine, rainbows and cute fuzzy bunnies, I advise you to look elsewhere for the time being.

I'll start from the beginning.

I am currently in the middle of an internship at a local physical therapy clinic. Part of that internship is a project which should teach the student (me) something and be a help to the cooperating agency (the pt clinic). I've elected to create an exercise poster to be displayed near the pool, so that the former patients who return a few times a week to continue their aquatic exercises will have a visual cue to work with. So I wrote my project proposal, turned it in and was approved to proceed. In the proposal, which I gave to everyone involved, I delineated what I would need from each individual and when.

That was almost two weeks ago and I have made little to no progress since then.

This is why: I need computer created images. The program that creates the images is housed in only a few particular computers on campus and I had no idea how to run the program. I needed my supervising professor to show me how. I put in my proposal when in the project time line I would need to be shown how to work it, which was a week ago. The professor was out all last week and never returned my phone call. I had to call him again. So finally today I got to work with the computer (and I had to cancel my actual work hours to be present this afternoon because the professor is out again through the rest of the week.) I get to the computer and the program hasn't been properly installed by the campus tech people yet, so it is completely useless. The professor tells me to wait until he's back next week so he can call the tech people to come install it. Next week is my last week of internship. I'm supposed to have this poster totally finished and present it to the pt clinic by next Friday.

This is a great example of my BIGGEST pet peeve: when people don't follow through and my goal depends on them.

If I can't get the poster done in the time period specified, I will look bad to the therapists at the clinic. One or more of them may be on my interviewing board for physical therapy school come September.

Days like today make me want to be a hermit. There have been several times today that I have been stopped at a red light and I just let out a huge scream-- the shakes the glass sort. I am that frustrated.

I think I'll try to sleep away some of the frustration for now and then run until I can't breath anymore once the blazing sun goes down. Running does wonders for me when I'm upset.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

STUPID IRRESPONSIBILITY!