mac redeemed

what i meant to say (obviously) mac, was that it is too bad you are way too young for me because we are fun. and you make the best sugar-free peach italian soda i've ever had.

so just remember... if neither of us are married by the time you're 30 and i'm 45 or 46...wait.

why am i aging so much faster than you?

anyway i will be married before we are 30 and 45 respectively, but hopefully by then you'll have forgiven me for stubbornly refusing to get a myspace account.

also next time we go we'll bring our own table so there will be no risk of david asking your brother for drugs again. we'll just tell dominoes it's an intervention.

to mac...

mac you're the only person i know who ever made a sugar-free mousse from a suzanne sommers cookbook, promised to bring me some, but hung out with jessica and your sister instead.

why are you always lying about your relationship with girls, mac? you don't even have a sister. and remember when you told me you were at starbucks with your girlfriend but that girl was not your girlfriend?

then you made me another mousse and promised to bring it again but some mean people said they didn't like it and spit it out so you got all self-conscious.

but then... after a week... i finally got your sugar-free mousse.

and mac? it wasn't that bad.

sometimes you just have to go on a mini-road trip

like amy and patty and i did on saturday. i love being young and single.

we flipped a coin and headed south on 88. we thought maybe we'd go to sacramento but we ended up in this little town called pine grove where we walked around and just talked to people.

we visited a church and had huge burgers and met a lady named gay with a bird who talked to us. the bird that is. and the lady. they both talked to us.

we turned on mount zion road and it took us to this incredible lovely wilderness where we wandered around and took pictures.

it was simple and didn't take that long but we had so much fun.

we made snow angels. we prayed and worshipped and just hung out with each other and Jesus and it was beautiful. just to get away. awesome.

sweet Jesus...

why are you so downcast oh my soul?
why so disturbed within me?
put your hope in God
for i will yet praise Him
my Savior and my God

reminder

"if sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies;
if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees.
let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for." - charles spurgeon

dear Lord Jesus.

i'll draw near to You. draw near to me. show me how to exercise myself in Godliness.

sometimes i'm so far off track and my focus is so wrong.

but i trust You Lord.

sarah + vespa = very yes

i must fully support this.

i throw in my lot with the pro sarah owning a vespa crowd. there, it's on the record.

but hey...

How good is God?

prayer meeting? today? awesome.

right? can i just get one witness in here?

wow. thank You Jesus.

wisdom

fast friday + exceeding regular 2-cup per day coffee limit = bad plan.

ugh

weird? yes

yesterday i was in a restaurant and a girl came out of the kitchen, looked at me and said, "hey kate!"

i looked up at her, wondering if i knew her (i didn't) and she squinted, looked a little awkward in the way people do when they've accidentally addressed a stranger they thought was a friend and said,

"oh sorry. you're not kate."

didn't go to work today...

why?

because work is no fun that's why.

we went to see matisyahu last night. if you have not heard of him, look him up. i had not heard of him until recently but apparently he's getting pretty big. granted it was a wednesday night but it was at the hilton theater and completely sold out. there were like 2,000 people there.

and about 1,900 of them were smoking weed.

the opening band was really cool. it took me a minute to like them but they were so awesome. three guys ... guitar and lead vocals, bass player and drummer. but they sounded so good.

the lead singer had a faint jason mraz ring to his voice but his style was not similar at all. and their lyrics were so Godly. the last song had to be a worship song... i thought.

but i talked to him after the show and he was stoned out of his mind. i asked if the band was Christian and he said, "well...we're not really Christian, we're just really spiritual dude." or something like that. "we have a lot of different faiths."

how many different faiths can you have? there are three of you. well i guess if one of you is a polytheist...

anyway matisyahu was amazing. as expected. absolutely wonderful.

the downside was that our clothes and hair were so saturated with pot smoke that when i got in my car this morning it was all i could smell.

disgusting.

26.73

sometimes, right before i go to lunch, trish gives me a check for $26.73.

it's not much, but in my humble opinion it's way better than not getting a check for $26.73.

especially when you're not expecting it and things are a bit tight.

thank You Jesus.

um... wait that's not good

i pulled into my driveway last night and couldn't help but notice that water was flooding down into the street from... the garage? uh oh...

so i checked the mail.

then i stood next to the garage and listened for a second. sounds like it's raining in there, i thought, followed shortly by what?

i went inside and let our (stupid stupid stupid) pit bull puppy out of the laundry room, where the floor was soaking wet and tried to go into the garage but the door was blocked by something and water was just pouring from the ceiling.

this was way too much water for this to be a leak. it was a downpour.

that'll teach us to take our time about unpacking the garage! hahahah...oh dear Lord.

since i had no idea where it was coming from i did the only thing i could think of. i called the fire department, and then the landlord.

amazingly the landlord was angry that i called the fire department. "you called the fire department for water?" he asked incredulously.

geez, i'm sorry mitch. what would you like me to do next time your house floods?

katie got home just before the firemen arrived.

we paused for a moment to reflect on the fact that (A.) all of our things in the garage were ruined and (B.) there are three young single women living in our house and at our first emergency they sent three old fat firemen. hardly seemed fair.

eventually it all got sorted out. apparently the last renter installed a heater in the ceiling of the garage (this is a fact that remains totally inexplicable) and ran water to it. it froze. then it thawed. then it burst. good times.

but now we have to wear shoes whenever we enter the laundry room.

the moral of this story?

never ever go into the garage again. for any reason. ever.

i amaze myself...

yesterday i grabbed the phone reciever to answer it.

but on the way to my ear i totally misjudged the distance and hit myself in the face with it.

it's exactly like being an idiot sometimes...

why hello little eric and kendra. aren't you fun.

i like to take photos

on my desk when i got to work today

maybe i should finish my book...

according to the forbes.com money meter, i make $1 every four minutes.

j.k. rowling makes $2000 in the same time.

why did i even go?

7:05: i leave my house on the extreme north end of town. i go to texaco in the middle-south part of town to put air in my flat tire.

7:30: the attendant and i finally decide that the air pump is frozen and i will not be getting air. i go to shell across the street.

7:35: the air pump at shell is frozen. i go to sarah's house (at the north end of town), after calling and waking her up.

8:00: i drop off my car at sarahs where claire (being amazing) not only loans me a truck, she fills up my tire and promises to get it fixed for me today.

8:15: i stop at arco on the far south end of town to put gas in the truck, but realize my debit card is in my car. at sarahs. i decide maybe i can make it and start to head to tahoe. i immediately realize it's not going to happen but there's nowhere to turn around for ten minutes. finally i turn around and head back to sarahs. at the north end.

8:30: traffic is getting worse. i pick up my debit card at sarah's but not before loudly honking the horn in her quiet neighborhood by accident. this could be the second time i've awakened her and claire this morning.

8:40: back at arco. i finally get gas. i finally head to work. but now i've lost all motivation. i can't believe i went at all.

9:10: here i am.

total time to get to work from my house: 2 hours

more from LA ... why? good times, that's why

sarah and russ the mechanic, who not only fixed the truck, he gave us pocket knives in exchange for Batch 27 brownies. we won't forget you russ.


and then there's elias. remember when we found ourselves in LA at 1 a.m. with nowhere to stay and elias let us sleep in his garage but we couldn't go in the house so we wandered mission hills for 2 hours looking for a bathroom?

what could make a more perfect road trip, i ask you?

remember when that guy wanted me to take his picture in starbucks in LA and i did?

weird.

sometimes...

when i drive to work, i just slide around on the ice a lot and it's terrifying.

then when i get to work my boss says, "how was your drive?" and i tell her.

then she looks suspicious like i'm trying to find a reason to go home early and grills me about whether i put my chains on.

so now i just say, "it was fine," which is not a lie because i did, after all, make it to work.

valentine's day reborn...

i am sure i am not actually allowed to publish this National Geographic image.

i hate to admit it but for most of my life i've been one of the vast crowd that swears by hating valentine's day for any and all reasons. it is a hallmark holiday, we say. it is stupid. hearts and candy everywhere... sickening.

and by that we mean, "i hate that i am single and you're not."

also i have never been a big fan of pink. or girly stuff. odd that i would adopt such a girly attitude about valentine's day when i profess to be so... not... girly. or something.

anyway, this year, i'm adopting a new attitude. i have sarah to thank for this partly. she's got a lot of wisdom for her age.

because the fact is, i am a very romantic person and very much look forward to being in love and when that time comes i will probably really enjoy valentine's day.

it's a holiday for lovers. it's a time to focus on each other and remember the little things you may have forgotten about why you fell in love in the first place. it shouldn't be a pressure thing. it should be just another opportunity to show your love for each other. not necessarily through chocolates or whatever. that's not important. but it's never a bad thing to bring that love to the forefront of your mind.

so why would i want to spend my whole life developing this bitter attitude toward valentine's day. it could take away from the enjoyment of it when it becomes my holiday too and not just yours.

besides this year is a vast improvement on some other v-day's i've had. i'd rather be in no relationship than in the wrong one, right? right. Praise God.

in the meantime...

my Bridegroom is sweet. and He loves me.

so thanks, sarah, for giving me a bit of perspective. and more importantly, thanks Jesus, for being the first and last lover of my soul.

ugh. i just reread this and it sounds so different than i intended. haha. i hate that.

oh well. you get me.

in honor of my new take on the lovers' holiday, i baked cupcakes last night. they had pink frosting and little heart sprinkles. hahaha.

if you know me, you know that the very existence of these cupcakes is basically anti-kate. not because it's for v-day, but because i'm about as far from being a domestic, bake pink cupcakes kind of girl as you can get.

but hey. it's good to stretch yourself. i can't spend ALL my time playing with guns.

it wouldn't be healthy.

like we've been saying all along...

sheesh. we're slow to catch on, aren't we?

ah. He is so good

church today. amazing. thank you Lord for not letting us get stagnant or comfortable. ever.

also He spent the whole morning rebuking and correcting me and then almost immediately followed it up with incredible encouragement.

I am so wretched sometimes. but He is so good.

the secret's basically out anyway...

i used to never admit this to anyone. but now most of you who know me know this anyway, oddly enough, so i might as well take the next step and put it on the internet.

here goes

when i read books written by british authors... i catch myself reading them out loud. in a bad british accent.

there i said it.

i don't think i feel better.

i hope you don't either.

a goofy movie... and related stuff

if you are too "grown up" to watch A Goofy Movie, you are not grown up at all. yeah, i said it. what? just go watch it.

also i'm told that Tiny Toons: How I Spent My Summer Vacation is phenomenal, but i have never seen it, i'm sorry to say.

melissa is making lasagna right now and i have basically nothing to say but here i am saying stuff anyway. so since i'm here... if you've never read C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce" you must get off the internet RIGHT now, go to borders, buy two copies, give one to your best friend, go home, lock your door, sit down and read it immediately.

but hey. God is good. today i was sitting in my car, being ... well, let's just come out and say it ... a GIRL. and someone called me who i hadn't talked to in a long time. i didn't vent all my problems to her or anything, and it was really no big deal at all. but it was so sweet and it changed everything. it was like God saying, "hey i'm thinking about you. I'm not going to change anything right now. but I know. and it's okay."

but recently He's been talking to me about praising Him and loving Him not because of what He does for me, but for who He is. If I worship Him for what He's done that's thankfulness and it's good. But it's kind of become my focus lately. What He's done and what He's promised to do. Even believing in His promises can be a bad thing if His PROMISES is all your thinking about and not His PERSON.

Soon you will find yourself trying to do the right thing only as a means to achieving blessings and not to please Him because you want to please the one you love.

So keep that in mind. Believe in His promises. But believe more in Him. be thankful for His blessings. and be thankful in your dry seasons because God is still God. He is God no matter what your situation. And everything in His nature is good and according to the psalms, all His works are wondrous. that means ... that's right ... ALL His works.

Don't call His blessings a curse just because you don't always know what a blessing looks like. you think it's not good because you, with your carnal eyes, don't know how to recognize good.

oh man...wow

we were all thinking it. we just weren't thinking it this cleverly.

i'm sorry but...

did anyone SEE mick jagger dancing on sunday?

i mean seriously. ugh

i took the next day off work to recover.

actually i took the next day off work so as not to have to go to work.

but still.

oh and then there was that whole pittsburgh winning thing. my gosh.

bad year as far as superbowls go. the highlight of the evening was definitely playing scene it with mac and the snyders and coles (the Z. coles, that is. as opposed to the C. coles or the A. coles).

let's try for a better one next year, yeah?

kudos

To Denmark: Way to go Danish people for not being pansies even though people attack your embassies with guns and boycot all your dairy products and legos.

To France: Way to print whatever you damn well please. Usually you are such weenies. Good job. But you lose a few points for firing that editor guy.

To Germany and Spain: way to not be like Americans and fall all over each other to apologize every time you offend a Muslim.

To Christians: good thing we don’t act like this every time someone offends us, or Rolling Stone headquarters would have been burned down when they ran that picture of Kanye West as Christ crucified on the cover.

To America: champion of free speech. Support free speech or shut up. Stop trying to make yourself look good to Muslims. They're not going to like you either way.