Smack

I don’t normally mind when people talk smack about me. I dish it out, I better be able to take it. Even when the person really doesn’t like me very much, I don’t usually mind. In fact, it usually makes me laugh. What really bothers me is when people talk smack about people I care about. OMG! Have you ever been so mad that you laughed? It’s either laugh or kill someone. That’s how I was today at work.

But then I really started thinking. I was reminded today of a story told by the former teaching pastor at Lake Pointe, JR Vassar. When he was younger, he worked at a store like Gap or something like that. He stood at the door and greeted people as they walked in. One day, a guy walked in and JR greeted him, but the guy ignored him. JR was sort of thinking the guy was just a jerk. But as he watched him, the other guy walked up to someone and started signing in sign language. The guy wasn’t a jerk, he was just deaf. It’s amazing how differently you look at people when you understand their condition.

So I guess that’s how I have to look at this situation. It seems like this person was being a big jerk. But when I consider her condition, I look at her differently. Does it still make me mad? Well, honestly, yeah. It does. But I have an opportunity to handle this in a way that reflects Christ. Will I have the courage? Maybe, maybe not. If nothing else, I can free myself from the anger I might otherwise feel. And considering this quote by Frederick Buechner, that might not be a bad idea… “Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back -- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

And then I found some scripture. Let’s look at Luke 6:27-38. “‘But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amounts. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measure to you in return.’”

Ephesians Chapter 1

We’re studying Ephesians during the fall semester at church in our ABFs. (Adult Bible Fellowships. Basically is the Lake Pointe version of Sunday School.) I got a commentary on Paul’s prison letters that has some great stuff in it that I wanted to share. My direct quotes are from “Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters” by Tom Wright.

“Most of Paul’s letters start, after the initial greeting, by telling the church what he’s praying for when he thinks of them. He will come to that later on in this first chapter. But pride of place in the opening of this letter goes to a long and quite formal prayer of thanks and praise to God. This opening prayer lasts, in fact, from verse 3 all the way to verse 14. Though we can break it up into quite short sentences it is really a continuous stream of worship, and we should think of it like that. Before Paul will even come to a report of his specific prayers, he establishes what is after all the appropriate context for all Christian prayer, reflection and exhortation: the worship and adoration of the God who has lavished his love upon us. The entire prayer, all eleven verses of it, is woven through and through with the story of what God has done in Jesus the Messiah. He has blessed us in the king; he chose us in him, foreordained us through him, poured grace on us in him, gave us redemption in him, set out his plan in him, intending to sum up everything in him. We have obtained our inheritance in him, because we have set our hope on him and have been sealed in him with the spirit as the guarantee of what is to come.”

Then it starts to get tricky. Paul has to go and use phrases like “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” and “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons” and “also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose.” Why is this so complicated? It’s because we have to reconcile what appear to be conflicting viewpoints. Growing up, I heard a lot about free will and about how God doesn’t force us to accept Him almost to the exclusion of biblical ideas based on passages like this of God’s sovereignty and His choosing us. So there are a few things we have to consider here. First of all, throughout scripture, it’s clear that there is some element of human freewill involved in saving faith in Christ. We are free to accept or reject Him. But we can’t ignore passages that talk of God’s choosing us. (Read Deuteronomy 4:2 – You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”) So we must understand that both are involved in our salvation: God chose us and we chose God. How the two align exactly, I don’t know. And I don’t think God intends for us to know. Because it ultimately doesn’t matter. That’s not information that we need to know. Besides, I don’t think that’s the issue that Paul is addressing here. What he wants us to understand is that “we aren’t chosen for our own sake, but for the sake of what God wants to accomplish through us.”

A few more thoughts:
“Power is one of the great themes of Ephesians. For Paul, the greatest display of power the world had ever seen took place when God raised Jesus from the dead. And at the centre of Paul’s prayer for the church in the area, which he now reports, is his longing that they will come to realize that this same power, the power seen at Easter and now vested in Jesus, is available to them for their daily use. Paul doesn’t imagine that all Christians will automatically be able to recognize the power of God. Many of the things which God’s power achieves in us, such as putting secret sins to death and becoming people of prayer, remain hidden from the world and even, sometimes, from other Christians.”

Let’s switch to a different commentary for a few last thoughts. This one is called “Ephesians(MacArther New Testament Commentary)” by John MacArthur, Jr.

“But from letters, as well as through personal reports from friends who visited him in prison, [Paul] had received considerable information from and about the churches. He heard two things that indicated the genuineness of their salvation, and for those two cardinal marks of a true Christian – faith in Christ and love for other Christians – he affectionately praises them. Those two dimensions of spiritual life are inseparable. The New Testament does not separate Jesus as Savior from Jesus as Lord. He is both, or He is neither. Jesus becomes Savior when He is accepted as Lord. Granted, no person receives Jesus Christ with a full understanding of all He is or all He requires as Lord of those He saves. Many Christians come to Christ with only the barest idea of His sovereign deity or of what it means to belong to and submit to Him. But they are willing to submit, to give up all they are and have, and to leave all and follow Him. Once they have come to Him, some Christians lose their first love for Him as Savior and resist obeying Him as Lord. But their lovelessness makes Him no less Savior, and their resistance makes Him no less Lord. Christ is not accepted in parts, first as Savior and later as Lord. Jesus the Savior is Jesus the Lord, and Jesus the Lord is Jesus the Savior, He does not exist in parts or relate to believers in parts. Awareness, appreciation, and obedience of Him as Savior and Lord change. When we are faithful to Him those things increase and when we are unfaithful they diminish. But the fact of Jesus’ lordship begins the same moment He becomes Savior, and neither His lordship nor His Saviorhood changes for believers from that time through all eternity.”

That’s sort of a strange thought, isn’t it? Even when I give in to the temptation of sin, even when I am involved in outright, willful disobedience, Christ is still my Lord. He never walks away and says “Fine. You don’t want to be a part of Me? Have it your way.” That would seem as if I might be spared discipline or judgment if He let me “unpick” Him. But He doesn’t. He will always deal with me with the authority of my Lord and Master. That sort of changes my perspective on things a bit. Christ said, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” I can’t even snatch myself out of the Father’s hand. Which is comforting, and scary, and convicting all at the same time.

I lied.

I thought of something I could post. Here are the lyrics to Strong Tower, by the Newsboys.

Strong and mighty
Strong to save us
Like a fortress
Never failing

Strong in battle
Strong in kindness
When we stray, Lord
You're strong to find us

When the winds come hard against us
You are steadfast, You are true
When the ground beneath us trembles
Your foundation never moves

Strong tower
High and glorious
Strong tower
Mighty in love
Our refuge
Our defender
Strong tower
Lord above

Strong to lead us
Through the shadows
Strong to carry
All our sorrows

When the enemy surrounds us
Closing in as darkness falls
Though his armies rage against us
They can never scale these walls

Strong tower
High and glorious
Strong tower
Mighty in love
Our refuge
Our defender
Strong tower
Lord above

You are my shelter, my shield
You are the home I could never deserve
Here I will serve, ever under Your gaze
Here I will serve, ever singing Your praise

Strong tower
High and glorious
Strong tower
Mighty in love
Our refuge
Our defender
Strong tower
Lord above

Strong tower
Lord above
Strong tower
Lord above

Uninspired

Sorry, guys but I just can't think of anything meaningful to write. My head is full of nonsense. I feel bad, though, because I see my counter stats everyday and I know that people are visiting the site, but I just can't think of anything worth posting. I mean, I write lots of stuff that I intend to post, but I'm sort of a perfectionist when it comes to my writing and if I don't feel like I made my point very well, I don't post it. It just sits there in the My Documents folder waiting for me to sort it out and finish it. But I don't. I think it mocks me, like it has in some way defeated me or something. But it's just a ploy.

So let me ask you to write about something. Do you struggle with pride? How does it manifest itself in your life? Do you actively attempt to temper it? How? Does it work? If you had to rate yourself from 1 to 10 on the pride scale, with 10 being VERY prideful, where would you fall? Who do you compare yourself to when making this judgment? Where do you fall on the humility scale?

Feedback from viewers

This one is going to be kind of long. It consists of an email I got from a fan, and then my response. Happy reading.

First, the email:

Hey Woman Who Schmoozes With Famous Authors,

"Just so you know, if a girl is trying to be content in her singleness, going on and on about how wonderful guys can be is probably not the greatest idea either."

I wrote "Other things guys are useful for" because your post was excellent, informative, logical, funny... and devoid of emotions. It seems to me, if you are going to write about relationships, or refer to them, that there should be some emotions involved.

"...but it’s also important to remember that if you aren’t happy with your life BEFORE you get married, you aren’t going to be happy with your life AFTER. I’m pleased to say that I am quite content with life before."

You say that you are "content" but in the previous line you use the word "happy" to express the emotions of life.

ARE YOU HAPPY?

It's OK to be a little lost and lonely while being single. God made man and woman to complete each other. GEN 2:24 "... and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." We have friends and family that can help cover that void for a time of singleness, but they cannot fill that void. I wanted you to express some feelings, some emotions. To deny that they exist allows them to build up. A pressure that can be released unexpectedly. For example, if you happen to met a nice guy, but not the right person for you, those pent up emotions can overwhelm you. You could end up making a big mistake. But expressing these feelings, talking about them, allows us to become acclimated to them, almost like building up a resistance. :) Hopefully, this allows us to gain control over those wily emotions.

It seems to me that if you can't talk about not being single, should you be single? Just a thought. No accusations, just food for thought and a view from my side of things.

May God bless us daily,

David


And my response:
I’ve discovered that another of my spiritual gifts is my ability to overanalyze things. I’m especially gifted at it. So I’ve taken to attempting to understand how I feel about being single. Here’s what I have discovered.

My feelings about singleness really have very little to do with whether or not I’m married. It’s more about a natural attraction to men. I like men. They are funny, they are good-looking, they are good-smelling (most of the time), and they have deep manly voices and big strong hands. I LOVE that.

But I think there’s sort of a double standard when it comes to women liking men. If men like women, they just like women. That’s it. If women like men, they just want to get married and have babies. I think that’s unfair and untrue. Do I want to get married someday? Sure. (Although I have a few thoughts about that as well. But that’s a topic for another day.) But my attraction towards men has very little to do with the fact that I want to get married and have babies. When I meet a new guy I don’t think. “Oh, maybe he’s the one!” It’s more like, “He’s funny and hot and I enjoy hanging out with him.” Do you see the difference?

But as women enter their late twenties and are still single, it’s sometimes assumed that we’re starting to worry about whether or not it will happen for us. Like I’m constantly worrying “Will I ever find the man I’ll spend my life with?” I guess what I’m really trying to say in these posts is that it’ll be totally cool if I DO find that person. I think we’ll have a great time together and make a great team and do some awesome stuff. But I’m going to have a great time doing awesome stuff anyway. So if I don’t ever find someone, I’m not going to die a bitter old maid. How can I? God has been more than gracious enough.

So am I glad I’m single? Not really. I mean, if I had a choice, I guess I’d rather be hanging out with hotness. But am I happy being single? Yes. Absolutely. (I mean, if I was married with kids, you think I could blog as much as I do? It ain’t all bad. :) )

I'm also not sure how I feel about the phrase "God made man and woman to complete each other." I think maybe "complete" is not the right word. Perhaps "complement?" I would hate to imply that women who never get married are not complete and whole people.

And believe me, I know plenty about BIG mistakes. For real. It's conceivable that I might accidentally (haha) date the wrong guy because I like guys in general (hence the need for the Jan's Man Approval Committee.) However, I will NEVER marry the wrong guy just because I want to be married. The thought makes me want to throw up. I literally have nightmares about marrying the wrong guy and I wake up with a sigh of relief and say "Thank you, God! It didn't really happen!"

Thanks for the insight and encouraging me to better understand myself.

Jan

Encouraging...

I'm in a better mood today. I guess it's because I didn't get rained on today. There's just something about the 'drowned rat" look that bothers me.

Anyway, it has been brought to my attention that my previous post might have been "a bit harsh on the males." Perhaps this will make amends...

You might eventually get tired of me quoting or talking about Carolyn McCulley, but she really does have some wonderful things to say. Anyway, her blog entry today talks less of how single women should feel about their own lives as it does about how we, as women, can better help men be men. And indirectly, how we can enable men to treat us the way we want to be treated.

So guys, evaluate the following statement:
"If men had to choose, they would rather choose to feel unloved than disrespected."

What truth is there in this statement? How well do you think women do in general when it comes to respecting men? How well do you think Christian women do? Some may have the attitude that respect has to be earned. Do you agree? What do you feel about the idea that if a woman chooses to respect a man, he will want to be worthy of it? I guess my question has a lot with which should happen first. Should men be respectable and then women will respect them? Or should women respect men and then men will attempt to be more worthy of such respect? Or is it a combination of the two?

Comments are welcome, from both guys and girls. Here's your chance to speak your mind!!!

Complaining...

I don’t complain very often. I mean real complaining. I jokingly complain a lot, but it’s all in jest. But every once in a while, I need to get my real complaining fix.

Just so you know, I’m not obsessed with my singleness. But I have been thinking about it a lot lately because I’ve recently discovered a wonderful author who writes a lot about women and singleness. (This is my shout out to Carolyn McCulley!) She’s helped me understand that it’s okay to want to get married, but it’s also important to remember that if you aren’t happy with your life BEFORE you get married, you aren’t going to be happy with your life AFTER. I’m pleased to say that I am quite content with life before.

But I do have some thoughts about that. I don’t know if you know this about me, but I tend to be a little on the independent side. Almost to a fault. I really like to do things myself, and I don’t really like to get others' opinions before making up my own mind. So here’s the thing. I’ve heard that guys like to feel needed. Like they enjoy having to kill the bug or unscrew the lid that’s on too tight or get something off the top shelf. But these are things I’ve learned to do myself. If there’s a spider, I catch it and take it outside, although it’s true that I might squeal and get the heebie-jeebies. If the lid is on too tight, I beat the crap out of it until it comes off. And I’m tall enough to get just about anything down off the top shelf. I’m even quite capable of rearranging furniture all by my lonesome. (I recently did it, in fact.)

So it’s crossed my mind that I might not make a guy feel very useful. This could be a problem some day. And then tonight happened.

I went to Wal-Mart tonight and parked close to one of the entrances. But at 10, they lock the doors at that entrance so I had to go out the other entrance. But guess what. It was raining. So I just stood there, thinking, “Now this is when having a guy would be helpful.” I’m assuming that if I was married, I would not be at Wal-Mart by myself at 10 at night. (Guys, don’t ever let your wives/girlfriends go to Wal-Mart by themselves that late. Either go with them or insist that they wait until the next day. They might get annoyed – I would – but they will appreciate your concern – I would.) I also assume that he would offer to run to the car, which was at the other end of the parking lot, and drive it up to the door so I wouldn’t have to walk in the rain with all my stuff. I almost think a guy would be proud to do that, likening running in the rain to some sort of badge of honor or something.

So guys, don’t ever feel like you aren’t useful. If nothing else, you’re necessary when it rains. And when something has to be done with the car. My registration has been out since December and it sure would be nice to have someone take care of it for me.

Oh, no!!!

I was late to work today. For two reasons. The first was beyond my control. There was a wreck and we had to detour. But I would have been late anyway. Why? I got distracted while I was getting ready. I normally don’t spend too much time on my hair (no comments, please) but I gave it a little extra attention today. I wasn’t actually DOING my hair, I was just looking at it. What was I looking at? The gray.

I found my first gray hair 3 years ago. Actually, I didn’t find it, my mom did. She was dyeing my hair and she found it. She thought it was funny. She told me, “Well, you ARE Fairy Wear’s granddaughter.” My grandmother went white pretty early. I don’t remember her not having white hair. It seems I’ve inherited her genes. Oy vey.

So for a while, I just ignored the fact that I was getting gray hair. I didn’t inspect my hair on a regular basis looking for the offending strands. But I can’t escape them now. They are right up front and entirely too visible when I part my hair. I don’t really mind them too much. They are more silver than gray, so I think it looks more funky than old. I’ll just keep telling myself that, anyway.

I was thinking of dyeing my hair this fall. Kind of a warm, reddish, fall-esque kind of color. This morning, I made up my mind for sure.

DON'T WORRY

I'm trying to customize my site a little bit and I'm trying to figure out how to make it all work. So if you see some crazy colors in here for a while, don't worry. I'll fix it eventually.

The gift of singleness

For the most part, I’m okay with still being single. I know that sometimes it’s hard for women. We hit 25, 28, 30 and there’s no sign of Prince Charming. But even though I’m coming up on 28, I’m still okay. In fact, I’m having a great time. I’ve made some wonderful friends, I’m serving in the church, my faith is maturing. I’m not unhappy. I’m not discontent. But sometimes these sneaky little thoughts invade my brain. And I start to wonder. Why am I still single? I mean, I’m okay with it, but I still wonder why. Am I too tall? Too obnoxious? Too intimidating? Too immature?

I think a lot of single women wonder these same things. Maybe even single men, although they probably wonder if they are too short rather than too tall. But I’m beginning to think and understand that these questions of inadequacy and our discontentedness with singleness in general are a result of our buying the lie that Satan feeds us.

I went to Borders last night. I shouldn’t go there. That place is evil. But I did. And I bought three books. One of the books is Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye? It’s written by a woman named Carolyn McCulley, who happens to be friends with Joshua Harris who wrote I Kissed Dating Goodbye. She is a woman in her 40s who is still single and was starting to wonder why. So she began to try to understand what “the gift of singleness” really means.

I didn’t want to buy the book at first. And I certainly didn’t want to tell anyone I bought it. I mean, I don’t want people to think I have a problem with being single. And I DEFINITELY don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. Oy vey. It really irritates me when people feel sorry for me.

Anyway, I’ve only read two chapters so far, but I really like what she has to say. And I thought I’d share of bit of it. I will use direct quotes a lot, so when I do, remember that it’s all from this same book and I’m not plagiarizing.

She starts off with scripture:

There are three things that are too amazing for me,
Four that I do not understand:
The way of an eagle in the sky,
The way of a snake on a rock,
The way of a ship on the high seas,
The way of a man with a maiden.
Proverbs 30:18-19

“Wise men and women remain confounded by the mystery of attraction and romance. We really don’t know why some relationships bud and bloom, and others do not. It takes humility – a sober recognition of our limitations – to be comfortable with that mystery. We don’t know the ways of the heart, but God does. He knows how everything operates, and nothing is a mystery to Him. Even better, He is lovingly involved in His creation. He didn’t just make us all and then stand back to have a good laugh. The whole Bible testifies of God’s faithfulness to us even in the face of our own faithlessness to Him.”

So that’s the gist of chapter 1. But chapter 2 is where it gets good. About the gift of singleness:

“How and when did I get this gift of singleness? I don’t recall putting it on my ‘wish list’ or asking anyone to give it to me. I don’t remember opening it up and saying, ‘Ooohh, thank you! Singleness! How did you know? It’s perfect!’ There are several Greek words that could be translated as ‘gift’ in English.” One “denotes a free gift of grace, used in the New Testament to refer to a spiritual or supernatural gift. This is the word Paul uses in this passage – charisma. As a gift of grace, it stresses the fact that it is a gift of God the Creator freely bestowed upon sinners – His endowment upon believers by the operation of the Holy Spirit in the churches. Theologian Gordon Fee says that Paul’s use of charisma throughout this letter to the Corinthians stresses the root word of ‘grace,’ not the gifting itself. Fee writes:

"'There seems to be no real justification for the translation ‘spiritual gift’ for this word. Rather, they are ‘gracious endowments’, which at times, as in this letter, is seen also as the gracious activity of the Spirit in their midst.'

"It’s not an activity or a role, but a blessing – like the free gift of eternal life (Romans 5:15) that was given to us without any merit of our own.”

Hold it right there. Did you just read that? This “gift” of singleness should be treated as a gracious endowment and can be seen as a gracious activity of the Holy Spirit. It was a gift freely given to me through no merit of my own. What? Do you think of singleness in this way? I sure as heck never did.

Okay, so maybe there is some truth to that. But for what purpose? Why do some people have to wait so long before they get married? If singleness is such a gift, why didn’t God give this so-called gift to all the poor schmoes who are already married? Why me? To answer that, Ms. McCulley goes to 1st Corinthians 12.

"'Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.'

“Spiritual gifts are given for the common good. The good news here is that the singleness is not about you – either your good qualities or your sinful tendencies. We have to stop here and ask ourselves if being gifted for the benefit of the church is important to us.”

Again I have to stop. I had heard a similar idea before. That we shouldn’t do something ABOUT our singleness, we should do something WITH our singleness. But it still had a self-centered flavor to it. What should I be using my singleness for NOW to serve ME? I never considered that I should be doing something WITH my singleness FOR the body of Christ. You’d think that wouldn’t need to be pointed out, but apparently it does. And I don’t think I’m alone in that. I think we are, by nature, very self-centered.

“But you may be wondering if it’s okay to still want to get married and have children. Yes! Those are also good gifts from God. It’s not wrong to desire marriage or to ask God for it.” However, “good gifts are in danger of becoming idols. ‘The evil in our desire typically does not lie in what we want, but that we want it too much.’ When any of us is tempted to think that the power to bless and satisfy resides in something other than God, this is idolatry.

"I like Elisabeth Elliot’s perspective: ‘Singleness is not to be viewed as a problem, nor marriage as a right. What may be your portion tomorrow is not your business today. Today’s business is trust in the living God who precisely measures out, day by day, each one’s portion.’”

Sometimes I have a problem with Elisabeth Elliot. I’ve read some of her books and they are very good. But I just sometimes have a problem with married people trying to encourage singles. And she’s been married three times. (Just so you know, her first two husbands died. One was martyred as he served as a missionary and one died of cancer.) But I do have to acknowledge the truth in what she says. God knows what I want. He will take care of me. He will give me everything I need, a lot of things that I want, and even more things that I didn’t know I wanted but still enjoy thoroughly.

The key to contentment in this time of singleness is understanding that a gracious God bestowed it upon me, through no merit of my own, for use in His kingdom. My singleness is not about me. My singleness is about Christ. Is yours?

Life as a guy

Bet you're wondering why I would know anything about that, huh?

Well, you can learn the same way I did.

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2005/life-as-guy-p1.php

Student workers

As of last Friday, I still owed UTD a little money, so I went up to the bursar’s office to settle my debt. Incidentally, I also had a few parking tickets. :( Here’s the conversation I had with the student worker.

Student worker: The system is down, so I can't help you.
Jan: Do you know when it will be back up?
Student worker: No. We don't know why it's down, so we don't know when it will be back up.
Jan: Are you thinking this morning, or this afternoon or next Monday...?
Student worker: I have no idea.
Jan: Okay, so do you know where I can pay my parking tickets?
Student worker: Well, you can either pay them here or at the police station.
Jan: I can't pay them here because the system is down.
Student worker: Yeah...
(Jan looks at student worker.)
Student worker: Oh, and another thing. Parking passes will be available on Monday.
Jan: I graduate next Saturday so I don't care.
Student worker: Oh, okay.


After the system came back "up" I went back. I talked to another student worker. She took forever figuring out how much I needed to pay, etc, because I was paying off a short term loan. Afterwards, she gave me my receipt and then went about her work, she filed something, etc. I just stood there and looked at her. I could tell she was getting uncomfortable. Finally she looked up and said, "That's all." I said, "Can I have my driver's license back?"

Not enough sleep...

I'm not Happy, I'm not Sleepy, I'm not Bashful, I'm not Sneezy, I'm not Dopey, I'm not Doc...I'M GRUMPY!

Slinkies

Some people are like slinkies. They're not really good for anything but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.