words to live by

live with intention.
walk to the edge.
listen hard.
practice wellness.
play with abandon.
laugh.
choose with no regret.
continue to learn.
appreciate your friends.
do what you love.
live as if this is all there is.

author: mary anne radmacher

X marks the spot

I was in Dallas, Texas earlier this week for a day and a half. I had some personal business to attend to, then met with two Young Democrats of America friends, David & Chris, to talk shop. David (of Dallas) is running for President of YDA and Chris, who is from Tenn, is running for Executive Vice President. Our national convention this July will be in Dallas so David showed us the convention hotel and a little bit of the city. While taking the train (yay public transportation) to the convention hotel, David pointed out the Texas Book Depository and the place where JFK was shot and killed. What's notable is that on the street where Kennedy was killed is a big X, a permanent marker of sorts, so people can see the exact spot where he was shot. Is it just me or is that a little morbid? When we came back to out hotel, via train, we passed that memorial area again and there was a guy standing on the X, having his picture taken. Now that's just weird........I just don't get it.

Anyhoo....had a great time with my friends though it was a whirlwind trip. The political race is on as more candidates annouce their intention for various YDA offices. Should be an interesting couple of months. I am very proud to be associated with David's campaign and look forward to seeing him lead YDA for the next few years.

Peace!

Ice Ice Baby

Bracing for a few days of COLDDDDDDDD and ICE. There's a nasty front moving into Oklahoma and apparently it's supposed to be the ice storm of all ice storms. I didn't know about it until yesterday because I'm just oblivious to local news but last night I decided to take it seriously. I went to the grocery store to get a few provisions and you would think that people were preparing for some long term war or disaster...the shelves were empty...no milk...hardly any meat or bread. It was crazy. I do expect to lose power during the next few days because when that ice piles up the lines snap like crazy. So, I have candles, flashlights, a gas fireplace, and some books. It will be like camping (so I keep telling myself).

profound questions

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a trainstops. On my desk I have a work station... -
Can atheists get insurance for acts of God? -
If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP? -
Does fuzzy logic tickle? -
If they arrested the Energizer Bunny, would they charge it with battery?-
I believe five out of four people have trouble with fractions. -
How come you never hear about gruntled employees? -
How much faith does it take to be an atheist? -
I don't have a solution, but I admire your problem. -
If a tin whistle is made out of tin (and it is), then what,exactly, isfog horn made out of? -
If quitters never win, and winners never quit, what fool came up with,"Quit while you're ahead"? -
If atheists say there is no God, who do they think pops up the next Kleenex in the box? -
Okay, who stopped the payment on my reality check? -
I believe the only time the world beats a path to my door is when I'min the bathroom. - Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks? -
What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men? -
What WAS the best thing before sliced bread?

Hazy shade of winter

Happy 2007 to everyone! The holiday season is winding down and I'm trying to get all the Christmas decorations put away. I'm thinking of leaving my tree up with it's cute white lights. It's not a real Christmas tree but a topiary thingy in an urn. I don't know how to describe it. Maybe I'll leave it up for a while.
Christmas was good--spent a few days with my stepfamily in that boring small town in SW Oklahoma. My nieces were the best part of Christmas, Harper is 3 1/2 and Marin is 2. Adorable. I made them scrapbooks for Christmas (following their mother's strict orders of no toys). Actually, I started the scrapbooks and gave their Mom the rest of the materials needed to finish them. I got a microwave which I needed/wanted since mine went haywire about a week before xmas. I also got a set of good knives so watch out--I'll cut ya up. Eww...that was morbid, wasn't it?
I had today off of work as part of the national mourning of Pres. Ford. Kind of sad that someone has to die for me to have a day off work, huh? It was also the swearing-in ceremony for my wonderful commissioner, Jim Roth. I just adore Jim and his whole family, who treat me as family. I can't wait to see what other great things he accomplishes.

The next hurdle is class which begins in a few weeks. I haven't bought my books yet but need to so I can do the pre-course assignments. Why do professors do this??

Looking forward to a vacation in Feb, to NY to see the brothers and to show a friend around the city. There's talk of the family going to Disney as well which hey, if someone is paying for it then I'm there! LOL.

Be good.........

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone, and happy holidays to all those who don't participate in the Christmas-type tradition. I'm too tired to be politically correct!!

I JUST got my grade back from my Human Behavior/Social Environment class paper. I wrote on Pre-relase Discharge Planning and Continuity of Care in HIV Positive Inmates. Big title, I know......anyhoo....I got a 95 (out of 100) so yay for me. I was sweating bullets when i was opening my grade because I was really afraid that I had messed up. Whew. I know I got a 97 on the final exam so at least I'm still pulling a 4.0 average. Whoopeee.....lol. I know I know...it's social work and not rocket science.

Be safe, love lots, and kiss your family.

World AIDS Day 2006

It's World AIDS Day 2006 and I'm sure many of you are expecting a post about the AIDS pandemic. Guess what? I'm not going to do one. Instead, I want YOU to post your thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc on the subject. So, get to it!

I Love Being Non-Essential!

Snow day! Snow day! It's been sleeting for several hours and the snow is supposed to kick in at any time. With the weather being so bad, pretty much everything in Oklahoma City has shut down, including my office. Woo hoo! Being a State Employee, the Governor has to declare if our offices can shut so last night & this morning we were all watching the news to see. Sure enough, "non-essential employees" were allowed to stay home. Ha ha ha. I absolutely don't mind being non-essential if it means I get to stay home in 20degree weather with sleet and snow. I have the gas fireplace cranked up, a nice warm blanket, and my cat. What could be better?

musical poetry

i spent a good portion of this evening listening to music. i bought a couple of cd's over the summer that i never really listened to and now i'm addicted to them. Tonight it was Martin Sexton, his album entitled Black Sheep. SOOO good. It's a bluegrass/blues/folk mix and powerful. I'm jealous of those who can write music and make it work. I've always been a musician but performance only. i can't create it, write it, envision it, or kick start its soul. i think that's where the true talent lies. ah well, i was destined to be ordinary i suppose. can i be satisfied with that?

Native American Perspective on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!
The Native Amercian PerspectiveFirst Thanksgiving? NOT!
The Pilgrims are said to have had the "first" thanksgiving feast in the New World in the autumn of 1621. Isn't that what you were taught in school? Nothing could be further from the truth!
People have given thanks for the bountiful harvests for thousands of years all over the earth. Historical records exist of the ancient Egyptians giving thanks to their gods for the Nile River floods that provided needed irrigation for their crops. The Chinese gave thanks to their gods and honored their ancestors. The Romans and Greeks celebrated with feasts, pageants, and revelry. Across Europe, India, Africa, North America and South America, and the rest of the earth over the millenia, there have been commemorations and feasts of thanksgiving.
The inhabitants of the North American continent were no different than other cultures. They worshipped the Earth Mother who provided the great herds for hunting, the aquatic creatures for fishing, and for bountiful crops of corn and other provisions. While the ceremonies differed from tribe to tribe across the continent, depending on their geographical location and their circumstances, a common thread weaves all mankind together. There is a common belief that some superior being(s) exist that are responsible for satisfying the need for sustenance and the perpetuation of the cyclical order of nature.
Prior to the Pilgrims' arrival in 1620, the Native Americans in the eastern shore of the North American continent had encountered other English and Spanish explorers. European visitors inadvertantly introduced smallpox to the Native American population in 1617. The subsequent plague decimated the population, with nearly half of the Native Americans succumbing to the virulent disease.
One hundred and two Pilgrim emigrants departed England on the Mayflower. During the voyage, one person was lost overboard and a child was born onboard. Of the 102 people who arrived at Plymouth Rock in December of 1620, only 50 survived the first winter in the New World. Cold and starvation killed many. Without the generosity of the Indians who provided food, many more would probably have died. The Pilgrims had much for which to be thankful.
According to the first newspaper published in America, Publick Occurrences, published on 25 September 1690 by Benjamin Harris, a group of Christianized Indians selected the date and place for the celebration of the first thanksgiving with the Pilgrims.
In the Fall of 1621, the thanksgiving commemoration took place. We know that it lasted for three days and included a period of fasting, prayer, religious services, and finally a shared meal. There were 90 Indians involved in this affair. While this celebration was never repeated, it has become the model for what most U.S. citizens celebrate today as Thanksgiving. This "first thanksgiving" marked a tranquil moment in time before tensions escalated and tempers flared.
The Pilgrims viewed the Indians as savages requiring the salvation of Christianity. They failed to recognize the deeply spiritual nature of the Native American people and their bond with the gods of nature. The Pilgrims aggressively tried to recruit the "savages." Those who accepted Christianity found themselves ostracized by their tribes and accepted by the Pilgrims as mere disciples. The Pilgrims' tampering with the beliefs of the Indians greatly offended the tribal leaders.
The Pilgrims were not adept at farming in their new homeland. Whereas the Indians were experts at growing maize, the Pilgrims were slow to learn. Their harvests of 1621 and 1622 were meager, and the Indians offered to exchange some of their harvest for beads and other materials. The Pilgrims eagerly responded but, in time, demonstrated bad faith by failing to fulfill their side of the bargain. The Indian leaders, proud men of their word, were insulted by the rude way in which they were treated. Tempers flared and, in time, open hostilities broke out.
History chonicles the subsequent colonialization, the infringement of colonists on Indian lands, the violation of the Indians' sacred beliefs and burial sites, and the forcing of the Indians farther and farther west. Treaties, massacres, seizure of lands, relocations, formation of reservations -- all of these represent a poor return for the Native Americans' investment of generosity.
Nevertheless, the commemoration of the "First Thanksgiving" that most U.S. citizens know is really not a celebration of bounties of the land. It should, instead, be a time to consider what might have been -- an honorable, mutually beneficial collaboration between two disparate peoples from different parts of the world.
In the meantime, remember that the celebration of thankfulness for the bounties of the land, the oceans, the streams, and of those things that make life wonderful did not begin with the Pilgrims. The Native Americans were commemorating these bounties long before the Pilgrims arrived. The customs still survive, more beautiful and meaningful today because of their fragile and spiritual nature. Author: GFS Morgan

Mazel Tov!!

In a beautiful ceremony, my friend Jessica married her soul-mate Brian tonight. I've known Jessica through work (she's a great therapist for my clients) and lots of our work community attended her wedding. It's wonderful to see people come together to celebrate life's blessings. Congrats Jessica and Brian and many wishes for your life together.

rightwasright.us (very funny)

Now that the election is behind us, and the Democrats control both houses of Congress, there's no reason not to admit it: the Right was right about us all along. Here is our 25-point manifesto for the new Congress:

1. Mandatory homosexuality
2. Drug-filled condoms in schools
3. Introduce the new Destruction of Marriage Act
4. Border fence replaced with free shuttle buses
5. Osama Bin Laden to be Secretary of State
6. Withdraw from Iraq, apologize, reinstate Hussein
7. English language banned from all Federal buildings
8. Math classes replaced by encounter groups
9. All taxes to be tripled
10. All fortunes over $250,000 to be confiscated
11. On-demand welfare
12. Tofurkey to be named official Thanksgiving dish
13. Freeways to be removed, replaced with light rail systems
14. Pledge of Allegiance in schools replaced with morning flag-burning
15. Stem cells allowed to be harvested from any child under the age of 8
16. Comatose people to be ground up and fed to poor
17. Quarterly mandatory abortion lottery
18. God to be mocked roundly
19. Dissolve Executive Branch: reassign responsibilities to UN
20. Jane Fonda to be appointed Secretary of Appeasement
21. Outlaw all firearms: previous owners assigned to anger management therapy
22. Texas returned to Mexico
23. Ban Christmas: replace with Celebrate our Monkey Ancestors Day
24. Carter added to Mount Rushmore
25. Modify USA's motto to "Land of the French and the home of the brave"

Must I even say it?

Tomorrow is election day 2006. Vote. It's your right. It's your obligation. Vote. If you are not pleased with the governmental decisions being made then say so. Nothing irks me more than people who grumble and complain and say that politics is useless. It's the system we have and though it's not perfect it does work. Vote.

pull a bag over my face

So, I've had this cold for a couple of days. I stayed home from work on Wednesday because I felt really terrible. Today, Thursday, I went in for a few hours b/c there was some work I needed to wrap up. My co-worker Gaila came into my office to see how I was doing. The dialogue went like this...Gaila: "Hey, how are you?" Rachel: "Better thanks. I slept a lot yesterday." Gaila: "Whoa, you are really pale." Rachel: "Uh, yeah. I have no make up on." Gaila: "Oh. (pause) Glad you're better." I thought the whole thing was hilarious. Then again, it doesn't take much to amuse me.

for all the saints

today, nov 1, is all saints day in my christian world. i was too sick to get out and participate in a service, so i decided to do some remembering here at home. my experience of all saints day is to honor and remember those who have died in the last year. but, my friend shane pointed out that saints in day to day life also deserve a little shout out.
first...those who have died this year. Shelly, a family friend and true angel. MJ, my mom's long time assistant. Don, a very special client of mine. Nathan, a troubled soul. I know there are others, but these 4 stick out in my brain.

Saints in my life....it wouldn't be fair to try and name them. i guess each person in my life is there for a reason and i don't always know/recognize what that reason is. i think that i often forget to love people as they are, not as i think they should be.

if none of this post makes sense it's because i'm on major drugs for a cold. :-)

"For all the saints, who from their labors rest,Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.Alleluia, Alleluia!"

just another manic monday

It's like, 10:47 in the evening i should be in bed. i'm on the verge of getting sick (congestion in my chest) so I'm downing Mucinex and have the bottle of nasal spray standing by. I don't have TIME to be sick. doesn't my body realize it's election time??!! plus, my next class starts on Friday and i still have a couple of chapters left to read.
I know i sound like i'm complaining but i'm really not. i'm just a little stressy.....

Did i blog about my new hobby?? I don't think i did....I've taken up knitting. yes, i'm a nerd (but you probably already knew that). i bought this thing that is like knitting-for-cheaters and it is so easy and so fun. in fact, i got two more people started doing it. every female in the family is getting a scarf for christmas!!! lol. i freakin love doing this.

sorry for the short and boring post but i feel like blah and need to go to bed.

Finally....an update!!

Because I'm tired of hearing some of you grumble...here's an update to my blog!! Lol. I was talking to my friend Shane last night and he's like--what's the deal with not posting lately?? Now, Shane has a nice, cushy little job at a seminary and he doesn't do much all day long. His idea of work is making his own coffee. Then, when he leaves work, he drives in his posh car, to his posh house, and plays with his adorable children. You know Shane....SOME of us have real work and real lives.

If you aren't laughing then you should be. I am chock full of sarcasm. And no, Shane has NONE of those posh things. Well, the part about the adorable children is true.

I have been a bad blogger lately and not updating. Between work, school, and campaign I have just been too tired. My cat barely recognizes me anymore. Pitiful, isn't it?

I did get to see my dear friend Emily last week. She was in town for a family funeral. It was one of those fly-in/fly-out trips so I only got to spend about 15 minutes with her but it made me SO happy to see her. I miss my OCU pals.

I think I am church shopping again. My current house o worship is too small...like 40 in worship, and i need more community than that. i went to a presby church last weekend and not sure where i'm going this wknd. It is so hard to be a liberal, Democratic, feminist, deeply religious person in Oklahoma. Actually, it's probably hard to be those things anywhere. Maybe i should start my own church so then worship would be what I want & think it should be. Hmmmm..

That's the update. Live with it.

Day is done

The weekend simply flew by and I am exhausted. I started Saturday morning early at the campaign (www.roth4commissioner.com). We sent people out to do lit drops and then Brent and I set up a Roth booth at a local festival. We sat out there from 11:30 till 5 and I was SOOO hot and tired by the time it was over. Sunday was the Oklahoma City AIDS Walk so my co-worker David & I set up a booth for our agency. The turnout for the walk was great this year and we had a lot of fun visiting with folks. I managed to get a little sun and my forehead is pink now. October and I am getting sunburned. Weird. I haven't done much since I got home but plan to get to bed early so I have the energy to make it through Monday. I have the feeling this week is going to be busy.

All hail Queen Bonnie

The Bonnie Raitt/Keb Mo concert was a-maz-ing. My stepsis drove up and we grabbed our lawn chairs and headed out to the Zoo amphitheatre. The weather was mild and I was concerned about getting cold so we took a blanket in with us. As we were heading toward the gates, I spotted my cousins David and Carolyn, as well as a few friends. Let's just say that Beth and I were amongst the youngest ppl at this concert!!! Keb Mo was soooo good. I had not heard him live before but Beth is a big fan. I will have to hunt down some of his music. Then, Ms. Bonnie Raitt came out and we jammed. I just love her style, her honesty, and her passion. When she did Angel From Montgomery I about melted. Of course, my favorite song is Can't Make you Love Me, which she did very slowly and full of feeling. Yes, it made me cry (just a little). All in all, a most fabulous evening and even better that I got to spend it with Beth.

I HADDDD to go to the fair

Me being the good kid I am.....lol
After my hair appointment this evening I was driving to Panera Bread to study for a while. I have a final in my Human Diversity class on Saturday. My plan was to study hard for two hours at Panera, come home, relax, and get a good night's sleep.
As I was driving I heard the radio announcer say, "Free tickets to Sunday's Bonnie Raitt concert to anyone who comes by our booth at the State Fair." OH NO!!!! What do I do??? I immediately picked up the phone and called my step-sis (she and I had just discussed this concert two days ago) and I left her a msg. My car somehow magically turned onto the highway and next thing I know I'm pulling into the State Fair parking area. Ok, I think, I'll just go get the tickets and then go study. I get the tickets and my step-sis calls back and we're both way excited. I decided to roam around the building to see if I run into anyone I know so I can have them go get me two more tickets. Well, didn't run into anyone. Then since I was already there I figured I could have supper at the Fair so of course I have an Indian Taco. Fry bread power!!! Yum.
I roam a little more, realize I'm too tired to study, so I hang out at the Fair longer then finally come home (with a bag of cotton candy). My cat likes cotton candy.

I am such a slacker. But I promise I have been studying and I WILL study tomorrow. If my brothers are reading this they are shaking their heads in disgust. What can I say? The tickets were FREEEEEE. I couldn't pass them up.