Oh, the Places You'll Go

Austria
Germany
France
Spain
Italy
Hungary
Slovakia
Slovenia
Croatia
The Netherlands
Czech Republic
England (& Wales)
Scotland
Ireland
Denmark
Sweden
Turkey
Mexico

Those are all the countries I've visited.
And yet...sometimes I feel like I've hardly been anywhere.  I meet all these people who travel the world on what seems like a monthly basis.  Like a friend I work with--she and her husband went to Ireland last weekend.  (Last. Weekend.)  As in, just for the weekend.  Seriously.  Seriously??  
It must be nice to live a life where you can pick up and fly to a foreign land for a romantic weekend...
And then I look around my home.  I see all my things that I've collected on my travels--the framed postcards, keychains, posters, shot glasses, and don't even get me started on all the clothes...  I see gifts I've received from friends and family over the years--blankets, flower vases, jewelry, gently used furniture...  I see photos of fantastic memories--friends gathered for birthdays and holidays, awkward first dates that led to lifelong friendships, memories of good times hanging around the house or out making our own adventures.  I look at all these things and I think, How could I ever say I've never been anywhere?  
I'm thankful for being given the opportunities I've been given.  Really.  This week I'm going to work really hard on remembering that.


Oh.  Speaking of struggling to do things...


Yesterday's sermon at church was about Luke 6: loving your neighbors AND your enemies--the whole turning-the-other-cheek thing?  Yeah.  For me, that's really hard to wrap my head around.
I'm politically conservative.  Actually, according to politicalcompass.org/test, I'm dead center between right and libertarian.  Which, basically, I interpret it this way: you can do whatever you want to do as long as you don't force it on me or you don't (in any way) have your decisions affect my life or others' lives; and although my faith tells me that there is such thing as right and wrong--I firmly believe there is--I cannot make that decision for you; gov't should exist to make sure we don't kill each other and should interfere as little as possible.
I believe in personal responsibility.  [Hello.  My name is Rachael, and I'm a hardcore pragmatist.]  Although I'd love for us to all get along and agree, we don't.  And that's okay.  But as soon as you drag me into it--showing up on my doorstep flipping out on drugs, breaking into my home in the middle of the night, I will not hesitate to point a gun in your face.  I have the right to protect my own, and I will.
That sounds so overly dramatic, doesn't it?
Let me bring this full-circle back to Luke 6.  How can I possibly love my enemy?  How can I embrace and forgive those who do terrible, almost inconceivable things?  (Rodney Alcala or Charles Manson, anyone?)  If someone shoots my mother while holding up a gas station, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be able to put a hand out on his shoulder and say, "Look.  This was wrong, but I forgive you.  Please think about where you're going with your life.  Can I help you get a job?"  It's just not going to happen.
So I struggle.
How can I reconcile my faith and my natural human instinct?
Lots of prayer.
And hoping nobody gets shot.

<3
r.

Love is in the air...

So Valentine's Day came and went.  Ryan and I didn't have time to celebrate this past weekend because Valentine's ALWAYS falls on the weekend of the Festival of Winds and Percussion at Tech, and he brought some of his high-schoolers and his brother down for some good music education.  And let's face it, you just can't be romantic around hormone-crazed 16 and 17-year-olds.  Thus, this coming weekend is going to be our Valentine's.

Do you celebrate V-Day?  If so, how?  Pro-candy and flowers?  Anti-flowers and cards?  Dinner?  Movie?  Or something more original?  Homemade?  Heartfelt?
I'm not going to turn any of it away, but I tend to be a fan of the homemade offerings of love.  In fact, I just got done making Ryan's card.  This is where I got the idea: http://x30.xanga.com/2cbf870635c32274714209/m218977930.jpg, except mine is waaaaaaay cuter.  (Just sayin'.)  I'm a nerd, and he's a nerd...and the elements just make the whole thing perfect.
I almost don't wanna give it to him...just wanna hang it on the wall and admire my handywork.

My diet and exercise program is going...not as well as I'd hoped.  Granted, I've lost 2.5 lbs, but...that's not enough.  It's off my "goal" line.  I need more.  [Now!!]  Which makes me sound like the perfect target client for those crazy weight-loss pills or crash diets, etc.  Anyone know anything healthy that helps?

Sorry--I'm just obsessing.

Obsessing and browsing real estate like a mad woman.  Planning my future: 5, 10, 15 years down the road because I can't stand thinking about everything going on in my life now.  :]

Cracked.

Has anyone ever gone to a chiropractor?
Anyone?
Because I used to go to one once a week all through high school...and I stopped when I went to college.  And now--for the life of me--I can't imagine why.  They are gods among men.  Today I woke up with a monster headache.  You know, one of those massive movements that you swear is a thunderstorm.  The back of your head is a radar map, and the headache is a massive cluster of tornadoes working it's way over every inch of your scalp.  Yeah, one of those.  So I finally decided to look up a chiropractor in Cooke-vegas and give it a shot.

And I was rewarded.

After which, I rewarded myself with SmoothieKing's Peanut Power Plus.  :)

So that's my little piece of happiness for today.  Not much, but it's something.

Long and Winding

Greetings and Salutations.

It's been a hectic week, but let me rewind and tell you a bit about my last weekend.  Ryan, I, and several more of his Magic buddies all piled into his Rodeo for the migration down to Atlanta.  I had forgotten my iPod, so after half an hour of nothing but hard core Magic talk, my nerves were pretty much shattered.  Ryan was sweet enough to notice and said nothing, but simply handed me his iPod out of his pocket and smiled, then rubbed my neck.  (Yet another reason I love him!)  I slept the rest of the way, awaking only to find ourselves stuck in rush hour traffic on I-75.  Oh, BigCityLiving, how I've missed thee!  We found our $5 parking downtown and entered the Hilton Atlanta.  I was home.  I have a thing for plush sofas tucked into nooks, and let me tell you, Hilton has done their homework on plush sofas tucked into nooks.  I set myself up with my schoolwork and told the boys to have a nice time.  Three hours flew by, surprisingly enough.  I woke up to Ryan gently nudging me, and 11 other Magic players standing behind him.
"Do you wanna get dinner?" he asked.
"Er...yeah..." I groggily replied, trying to hurry myself back into full awareness.  Please, oh please, I prayed, please don't let me have been drooling or anything equally embarrassing...  I glanced down at my shirt and nonchalantly rubbed my hand across my lips to check.  I was safe!!  Yes!!  "I mean, I could eat."
So we found ourselves the only restaurant open at 11:15 pm--a Ninfa's Mexican restaurant.  I ordered a beef chimichanga and Corona.  Ryan got nachos and a sangria margarita.  "You can see who wears the pants in the relationship, " he joked.  The night went well, though I grew tired soon.  We knew the Hilton's special pricing was $149 a night, and so we thought we ought to check out the Motel 6 just to be sure we had another option.  As it turned out, there was one room left at the 6--a King.  We took and were grateful.  Thinking ahead, we'd packed extra blankets and pillows, so the boys slept pretty comfortably on the floor, happy to be a 2 minute walk away from their play site.  I sprawled, reveling in my own King bed!

On Saturday, I met up with my cousins Matt and Erika, whom I had not seen since their wedding several years earlier.  It's remarkable how similar Erika and I are.  You may assume, well, yes, that seems logical as you are cousins.  However, let me enlighten you to the information that my family is a distant one.  I don't know why.  We just never seemed to have caught on to the whole staying-close-to-relatives thing.  I don't think it particularly is a good or bad thing--it is what it is.  It's not that we don't like them.  We just live in the middle of nowhere.  And before that, when we did live nearer, I was so involved in outside school activities, I was hardly ever home enough for holidays or family gatherings.  So I've never really known my cousins well, or my grandparents for that matter.  Which, I've come to realize, is sad.  I don't like it.  So when I knew I was going to be in Atlanta, my first thought was to email Erika.

We wound up hunting for a place to eat.  Our Mediterranean plans fell through (Thanks, UrbanSpoon, for not posting restaurant hours online...), so we wandered a bit before deciding to simply hit IKEA til we got particularly hungry.  Oh.  Dear.  Me.  IKEA: the store that I would move into tomorrow if they actually had working plumbing in the adorable kitchen and bathroom set-ups.  Erika and I ooh-ed and ahh-ed our way through the maze, discussing our styles, our likes and dislikes, and what we'd do if we had no monetary limit to our purchasing.  And more similarities exposed themselves.  Upon reaching the IKEA Cafe, we acknowledged that our two hour jaunt through the first level and a half had left us famished.  We dug in to Swedish meatballs and grilled salmon.  More shopping (read: drooling) followed, and we really did find some great deals.  I nabbed a comforter and a duvet bedding set that I had been eyeing for over a year, and Erika got some cute decor for her adorable home.  (Yes, she is one of those--so crafty!  I can only hope one day to aspire to such feats of crafty-ness!  And yes--I AM serious.)

Post-IKEA, we made our way through Atlantic City, an outdoor shopping/dining community which presented us with more shopping bargains.  Adorable $14.00 plates for $0.37 at West Elm???  A H&M cocktail dress on sale from $49.95 to $7.00???  SOLD.  We appreciate the finer things at Dave Ramsey prices.  Finally, after dinner, the day came to an end.  We posed for photos--proof that we actually had seen each other!--and went our ways, hoping to see each other again in the near future.  And I'm confident we will.  :)

I returned to the 6, took a bath, and continued my studying...while watching The Notebook.  I couldn't help myself.  It was on, and it reeled me in, playing off my female hormones...  I fell asleep long before the boys came in.  Only Jonathan had made Day Two this time, and on Sunday he ended up finishing 19th out of more than 1200.  Not too shabby, and definitely in-the-money.

I spent the ride home the same way I'd spent the ride there.  :)

Now, let me rewind a week.  The weekend before all this, two weekends ago, Jonathan had spent the weekend with me and Ryan here in Cookevegas.  While he was here, I asked him to take a look at my laptop which wouldn't boot up.  It was odd, working fine a day or two before, but suddenly refusing any request made of it.  Jonathan took it with him, along with discs containing images of my hard drive, hoping to restore it in his free time.  At the end of the Atlanta weekend, he broke the bead news: it's toast.  Whatever happened, it was bad.  He couldn't even get his computers to recognize my hard drive--like it didn't even exist.  Fantastic.  Ryan lent me his laptop for this week, but I knew I couldn't take it forever.  The poor child lives in the middle of nowhere--internet was his only link to the outside world! (maybe I exaggerate...)--I couldn't take that away from him indefinitely.  So when Mum called Sunday evening, I finally fessed up to my computer woes.  Mind you, this is my third laptop in five years that has crashed and burned.  She was upset, realizing it's hard to do online homework when you have no computer.  We discussed the options and then she said she'd talk to Dad.  We talked for another half hour about everything else--namely her surgery which I'll get to later.  Not ten minutes after hanging up, she called again.
"I talked to your Dad."
"Oh....okay..." I was hesitant.
"Are you going to make good grades this semester?"
"Well...when have I not made excellent grades?  Even that class I was borderline failing I managed to eek an A out of.  I'm confident I can make A's and B's.  Why??"
"Then go get yourself a Mac."
"...................."  (That was me.  Being breathless.)

So here I sit, typing away on my new MacBookPro.  :)  There's a lot that's different.  Some things I don't like.  (Such as, where's the delete button?  The one that says "delete" is a backspace, but there's no delete...)  I promise I won't turn into a hipster.  No beanies.  No coffee cup glued to my hand.  No flannel shirts.  No obsession with Apple products.  But I DO like my MacBook Pro so far.  Namely, the NO MORE VIRUSES thing!!!!  :):):)

Anyhoo.
I suppose I've yammered off your ear for now.  Thanks for reading, if you've made it this far.
I'll leave you with an Irish blessing:
     May the Lord keep you in His hand

     And never close His fist too tight.

<3

~r.

Snowmageddon 2011

When's the last time you heard of Alabama being brought to it's knees by a blizzard?
Yeah, I can't remember either.  I went to my parents' house intending to stay for the weekend, but wound up snowed in for seven days.  (SEVEN.  WHOLE.  DAYS.)  They've only lived there for ten years this August, but not once in those ten years have they had more than an inch and a half--and that only once.  This time, we woke to find seven to nine inches on the ground on various parts of our property.  Nine inches!!  Parts of Huntsville got thirteen.  How insane is that??

We stared out the windows, marveling until we heard loud whining.  Our Simple Dog--does anyone else read Hyperbole and a Half???--Sam, who has trouble figuring out stairs to begin with, couldn't comprehend what the white stuff all over the stairs was.  His torment was endearingly amusing.  Poor Sam--he's just so simple he can't help but amuse.  First he tried to get up the stairs by the pool.

Despite the fact that Stormy climbed them with ease right before him, he still struggled.  After a few minutes, it dawned on him that there were other stairs to try.  More struggling ensued.  I grabbed his bowl and threw a handful of food in it to bribe him.  A few more lunges, and...

Triumph!!!
(Please excuse the fact that all these photos are large and not formatted--it's just because there's so much SNOW!!!!!)

As for the rest of the property, we had 17 acres of snowy goodness in which I wholeheartedly reveled.  The vehicles were covered, the barn was covered, the cows were freaking out, and so Dad and I decided to start clearing the snow off the tops of the cars before it froze overnight.  Playtime ensued.

Side yard:

Front yard from the porch:

Look at my car!!!

Dad's car:

We carved a tunnel through the top of my Saturn:

Tractor-turned-Snow Plow:

And so we headed down to the driveway.  After one run with the tractor:

This is the road we live on.  Looking right:

Looking left:

And looking from the road to the driveway.

It was DEEP!

I stood there in the quiet  for what seemed like an eternity.  With no signs of human touch anywhere, it was as if no one had ever stood at that spot before.  As I stood there, several deer came loping through the woods and ran across where the road would be:

 And, of course, the obligatory self-photo:

The interesting part is that it only snowed from 7pm to about 10 am.  Then the sun came out for an hour before it went down for the night during which temperature went well below freezing.  Thus, all the snow on the driveway became 2 inches of solid ice.  ICE.  It was another six days before I could leave.  Six days the last two of which I spent on the driveway with a shovel, an axe, and a can of windshield de-icer hacking away determined to get out.  We Stones mean business.

So here I am, finally back in good ol' Cooke-vegas.  Today was the first day of classes, and my 8 am Slimnastics met for a whopping five whole minutes this morning.  Five minutes!?!  Why did I have to get reacquainted with 6 am  for a five minute "class"???

Muttermuttergrumblegrumble...

However, I did go take my first ever Zumba class last evening.  :)  And--WOW.  It's definitely a workout, but it's so much fun.  I was mostly worried about not knowing the moves, but it turned out not to be a problem.  If I ever got off from everyone else, I just did my own thing until I caught back up and jumped back in.  And it rocked.  I'm going to start going every Monday.  :)

And there's more good news!  At the end of the week, I'm tagging along when Ryan goes to Atlanta and I'm going to see Erika and Matt for lunch!  I'm so excited!!!

<3
~r.

new year, new blog

hi.  remember me?  no?  that's okay.  i've been out and about for awhile doing the christmas/new year's thing with the various families and friends in my life.  only yesterday i sat down and thought...i have nothing to do, and nowhere to be...what am i forgetting??  but no, i actually hadn't forgotten to pick someone up from the airport or order a specialty cheese for next week's dinner or go shoot down some mistletoe.  (side-rant: when did the world give up on mistletoe??  and why??  it's been delightful having mistletoe in my holiday this year.  everytime i'd start stressing out about, oh, say picking up someone from the airport or ordering that specialty cheese...ryan would calmly walk over and just stand under mistletoe until i'd notice him there.  it was adorable and entirely endearing.)

i've also spent perhaps a little too much time being obsessed engrossed fascinated with the semi-recent royal engagement.
let me spell it out for you.  when i was a child, princess diana was my idol.  i'm not saying i'm one of those that hides a shrine to her in the back of my closet or anything, but i thought she was the bee's knees.  she was pretty, she was kind, she could change the world...and she married a prince and became a friggin' princess.  and now, kate middleton is wearing her ring.  granted, i'm not a big fan of the ring itself, but holy cats--it's lady di's ring!  i'm so totally jeal'.  then again, depending on the degree to which you know me, you know that i'm pretty much jeal' of anything and everything British.  my grandfather's British (even if he immigrated here in the 30's), my cousins are British, and yes, i do take advantage of them and their hospitality and fly over every chance I get--only because they do the same, and it works out well like that.  i love the way they abbreviate everything.  "chocs" are chocolates, "do a sicky" actually means to take off work, everything is "brill" (brilliant), lovely, or fab...they have something called a "cream tea" (tea and scones and preserves and this heavy, devon cream that is a heaven for which i would gladly give up my first-born child) and my absolutely favorite thing?  my favorite thing about the Brits are their hats.  they range from headband-type ornaments to these staggering monstrosities.  see below:

omgilovethemsomuch.  one day i will wear them, too.

however, in this fresh start of a new year, i have determined to continue on with my "skinny-ing down" plans.  ryan's been putting me to shame lately with all his self-control, and now i'm determined to beat him.  my 8 am slimnastics/aerobics class should help with that.  :)  plus, we're making beach plans and i HAVE to feel comfortable in my own skin if we're going to the beach, right?  (oh, beach... how i miss thee!)  plus, when i go to berlin in march, i'm totally gonna wanna rock some German shopping--and what makes a better souvenir than clothes?  not much.

but i'm gonna have to get back on the dave ramsey envelope system in order to do all that.  see, it turns out that my car was a little worse off than i thought.  (try $1100 of "worse off") and then mum's transmission died, and then dad got t-boned by an 18 wheeler.  yeah.  it was the holiday of car issues.  i continually thank God for our blessings and that we're all safe now and having a wonderful 2011.  it's the year of possibility.  i smell changes ahead.  good ones.  tough ones.  ones i can't wait to encounter.

<3

dark comedy. foreign. violent.

These, according to netflix, are my taste in movies.  That's right--give me a film in which the hero slices the head off the bad guy and pauses for a delightfully clever line in a foreign language and, apparently, I'll be happy.  The thing is, it's true.  Oh, netflix, how you know me...

My car's in the shop.  Nothing major...I hope.  But there's a knocking coming from near the timing...so I'm crossing my fingers it's nothing that'll break the bank.  Until then, I've borrowed one of Ryan's cars.  It's kinda handy to have two vehicles, I suppose.  Anyway, it's freezing outside, right?  And pouring.  So I get off work and run to the car and dive inside, fight my way home, and get out, only to realize I locked my keys in the house.  Yeah.  That's right.  I did it...again.  So I'm huddled on the porch with a phone that's dying, groceries in hand, mail tucked under one arm, no porch light, peering into the depths that is my purse hunting for keys that I don't have when I remember: they're on my nightstand.  Really.  So I call my roommate with the last ooch of life left in my phone.  While I don't remember my exact words, I believe all I managed to get out is something along the lines of "nokeysfrontdoorhelpmeeeeee!"  About a minute later she trudges to the front door in a bathrobe.  "I'm sorry!!"  I felt bad hauling her out of bed because I couldn't remember my keys...  :(

I mentioned that it was cold, right?  It's supposed to snow tonight.  As in, 2-3 inches.  Eek!!  I'm trying not to get too terribly excited...because I know that if I do, I'll jinx it.  My mother's already called and made sure I was stocked up with food for the week.  Thanks, Mum.  I got this, though.  There's almost 20 lb of hamburger in the freezer, and I've got bread and milk out my ears.  Oh--and alcohol.  After the end-of-semester party the other night, I've got more alcohol than Jack Sparrow could ever drink...  I'm good.

I've also rediscovered Alias, one of my favorite shows while in high school.  As I rewatch them, I've become more and more convinced that I just watched it for Jennifer Garner's awesome outfits and hot wigs.  Because, let's face it, that would probably be my favorite part of being a CIA agent.  Well, that or shooting things.
So,  I'm tucking in tonight with a cup of hot tea and a movie.
Maybe something dark, comedic, foreign, and violent.

I'll let you know if I survive the the storm.