Family Traditions

One of the things I enjoyed the most about dating Trevan was being invited over to grandma Osborn's house for meals. I relished those invitations to Friday dinners or Sabbath lunches because Grandma was awesome at making good, old-fashioned casseroles. Growing up in Costa Rica, we NEVER did casseroles, and it was quite an experience for me the first couple times I ate at grandma's.

When Trevan and I got married, grandma Osborn gave me a recipe book with some of the family favorites, including a noodle dish that I absolutely love! I cherish that gift because every time I pull out that recipe book it makes me think of those first couple years of my relationship with Trevan, and of warm, cozy nights spent at grandma and grandpa Osborn's home.

Grandma and grandpa have been gone for a couple years now, and every so often I feel a deep sense of longing for the old days. When the Osborn's get together we always talk about grandma's food, and there is usually one of the old favorite recipes on the menu.

I am not sure if grandma really understood that every time she put food on her table, and welcomed us all into fellowship, she was creating a lasting impression on our hearts that would inspire us to do the same for our families. I cannot count how many times I have made that noodle dish and tried to replicate that wonderful feeling I had when I went to grandma's house.

One of my most sincere prayers is that God allows me to give that feeling of love and warmth to all those that share a meal with us.

Saving the World's Women

This is a very interesting article I read on the New York Times a minute ago entitled Saving the World's Women. Really makes you worry about the state of women, and hopeful about our future.

There’s a growing recognition among everyone from the World
Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint
Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE
that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global
poverty and extremism. That’s why foreign aid is increasingly directed to women.
The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren’t the problem;
they’re the solution.

Meeting a Minor Celebrity

On August 1, Trevan and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary! Yes, we are very proud of ourselves for making it this far and decided to celebrate by going to the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Maryland on Sunday and Monday.

It was really cool because you could walk around to the practice courts and see all these great players doing their warm-ups, and then they would walk right by you on their way out. This is how my magical brush with a minor celebrity started . . . As I turned to walk away from a court I almost bumped into Ernests Gulbis, one of my favorite players. I have been a fan of his for a year now, and although he has not had his big breakthrough yet, he has tons of potential. A huge grin broke out on my face and I felt like a fool for being so excited. We watched him warm up with other players, and as he started to leave the court I gathered up all my courage and asked him if he would take a picture with me . . . he said YES!! Isn't he cute? Aren't I short?

As a rule I am a very self-conscious person and hate drawing attention to myself, so this was a great accomplishment for me to actually ask someone to take a picture with me. He was all sweaty from practicing but I did not care!

I had a chance to get pictures with two other players that are way more popular and higher ranked than Gulbis is, but I just could not muster-up the courage to inconvenience them for a picture. Trevan was very disappointed in my lack of "go-getterness" (made-up word) and is taking me to the classic again next year in the hopes that I will be more bold.

Me? I am so excited about my picture with Gulbis you would think I won the lottery!

Obsessed with Technology

This morning there is an op-ed article by Maureen Dowd in NYT that I really appreciate because it deals with a subject that drives me insane. Here is what she says:

"As John Ratey, the Harvard professor of psychiatry who specializes in the
science of attention, told The Times’s Matt Richtel for his chilling series,
“Driven to Distraction,” using digital devices gives you “a dopamine squirt.”

That explains the Pavlovian impulse of people who are out with friends
or dates to ignore them and check their BlackBerrys and cellphones, even if 99
out of 100 messages are uninteresting. They’re truffle-hunting for that
scintillating one.

Americans woke up one day to find that they were
don’t-miss-a-moment addicts who feel compelled to respond to all messages
immediately.

It also explains why Christopher Hill, a 21-year-old from
Oklahoma who killed a woman last September when he ran a red light while on his
cellphone and rammed into her S.U.V., tried to keep dialing and driving with a
headset his mother gave him two months after the accident."

I hate, absolutely hate being around people that cannot seem to put down their smart phones long enough to have a conversation with you. They are so busy "keeping up with the news" that they do not truly live in the present. Their friends, families, colleagues are right there ready to share life with them, but they are too busy reading their Twitter feeds on the situation in Honduras.

One of my biggest fears in life is that I, or someone I love will be killed by a drunk driver, but it seems like I should be more worried about being killed by that person that thinks they are so important that they cannot put down their phone, iPod or other devices long to focus on driving.

The Hats

I absolutely love this Christian Dior hat. One of my dreams is to become one of those pastor's wives that have these fantastically huge hats they wear to church and to Sunday picnics. Not sure I can pull it off without looking outrageous, but there's nothing wrong with looking outrageous once in a while!

Overeating

I was browsing the New York Times this morning trying to get up to date with the news. Quite accidentally I ran into this semi book review of the book "The end of overeating: taking control of the insatiable American appetite", by Dr. David A. Kessler.

Basically, Dr. Kessler finds that, much like cigarette makers manipulate nicotine levels to make them more additive, food manufacturers might also manipulate fats, sugar and salts to keep us wanting more food than we actually need. How fascinating! I think I will read the book.

One of his main messages is that overeating is not due to an absence of willpower, but a biological challenge made more difficult by the overstimulating food environment that surrounds us. “Conditioned hypereating” is a chronic problem that is made worse by dieting and needs to be managed rather than cured, he said. And while lapses are inevitable, Dr. Kessler outlines several strategies that address the behavioral, cognitive and nutritional factors that fuel overeating

Eroding Trust

I just finished reading this great op-ed by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. He is writing about Al Qaeda and their strategy to create a closed American society by causing an erosion in trust.

"By turning human beings into walking missiles and instruments from our daily lives — cars, airplanes, shoes, cellphones, backpacks — into bombs, Al Qaeda attacks the very feature that keeps our open society open: trust. If you have to fear that the person next to you on a plane or in a theater might blow up, there can be no open society."

It is a scary thought that it is up to all of us to keep an open mind and an open heart regardless of how chaotic things become. Once we, as a society, allow fear and prejudice to separate and isolate us from each other, they win.

Easter Revelation

The first time I heard the song our choir director wanted us to sing for our Easter program I was shocked. Here are some of the lines:

"You are a lunatic prophet, deceived and deranged . . . Crucify, let the cross be your fate. Crucify, it's your lies that we hate. Crucify, there is no time to wait. Jesus must die! Crucify, Crucify, Crucify."

I marched straight up to the choir director and told him I would not sing such a song. He simply replied: "That is exactly the reaction I am looking for. I want people to really feel the hatred in the crowd." My steely resolve began to erode on the spot. After all, he made a good point.

Of course, I was not the only one that felt a bit uncomfortable with the song. Many other choir members protested, but little by little, we were convinced that everyone else was singing, so why not sing too.

By performance time I was bellowing out along with everyone else in the choir: crucify, crucify, crucify!

A couple days later I started to analyze what went wrong with my resolve. It suddenly dawned on me that I had experienced what many people might have experienced who were at Jesus' trial that day. I am sure there were dozens of people there that knew in their hearts that Jesus was innocent. Little by little, however, witnesses came forth, religious leaders accused, people around them began to cave, and by the end of the trial, they had joined in with the others in bellowing together:

Crucify, crucify, crucify . . .

Snow Days

It snowed about 8 inches on Sunday night. When I woke up on Monday morning there were fallen branches, my car and driveway were totally buried, and there was no way for me to go to work. Yes!
I love snow days. Unfortunately, Trevan is in California for a conference, which means that I have been stuck in my house for two days now totally alone. Since Richmond does not see this amount of snow very often, the road crews tend to ignore entire neighborhoods when plowing. Mine happens to be one of the abandoned streets. Not to worry though, I have filled in my home alone time by working on various house projects.
Tomorrow the temperature is suppose to get up into the 50s, so I will be able to get out of the house.

Valentine's Day

This year for Valentine's day we had a blast! We started out with pancakes on Wednesday. Then I helped Trevan preach on Sabbath (mostly I just helped demonstrate proper communication techniques).

Then Trevan gave me chocolate and a wonderful card! The chocolate is so decadent . . .
Tomorrow, we are going to Ipanema Grill for lunch, my favorite restaurant in Richmond! This has been a wonderful week for Trevan and I.

Bring on the Pain!

I am becoming more and more disappointed with the apparent inability of congress and this administration to make tough decisions and bring on the pain. It almost feels like I am sitting in the doctor's office and he is going on and on about all the different things he can do to ease my symptoms because he is too scared of telling me that it will take a dramatic surgery to cure whatever I have.

We know things are bad, and we know we have to sacrifice and be in even more pain before things get better, but if we never get started with the surgery, then the real healing will take that much longer.

Maureen Dowd has a great article specifically dealing with Geithner's cuddly plan to deal with the financial sector. It is obvious that he is trying to avoid surgery. Here is an excerpt:

"Geithner is wrong. The pay of all the employees in bailed-out banks, not just top executives, should be capped. And these impervious, imperial suits who squander taxpayers’ money after dragging the country over the cliff should all be fired — preferably when they come to D.C. on Wednesday in a phony show of populism on Amtrak and the shuttle to testify before Barney Frank."

"Wall Street cannot be trusted to change its culture. Just look at the full-page ads that Bank of America (which got $45 billion) and Citigroup (which got $50 billion) are plastering in newspapers, lavishing taxpayer money on preening prose."

"We don’t want our money spent, as Citigroup did, to pat itself on the back “as we navigate the complexities together.” Bank of America cannot get back our trust by spending more of our cash to assure us that it’s “getting to work” on getting back our trust."

"Just get back to work and start repaying us."

Vegan for a Month

At the beginning of every year I like challenging myself to do something interesting or new. This year I decided to go vegan for the month of January.

While I have not been totally successful in my quest (had some cheesy pasta and some chicken once) this has been an interesting month.

Mostly, I cannot wait for it to be over. I miss yogurt for breakfast. . .

For some reason I expected to feel different by the end of the month. Not sure how this difference would manifest itself: more energy, better sleep. . . I don't know, something. Alas, nothing has changed. I feel the same as I did at the beginning of the month. I think this is because I don't eat that much meat and dairy to begin with, so it has not been a huge transition for me.

Overall it has been a fun experiment. This experience has showed me that I can cut down even more on my animal products consumption without much effort. Moderation is the key. . . and yogurt for breakfast!