New Cell Phone!

I will readily confess that I have been envying my dad's smart phone. It's such a snazzy phone with a touch screen, 8GB of space, and countless free apps. I've been planning that when costs go down on smart phone plans, I would get one like his because I simply could not swing an $80 cell phone bill right now.

So dad went into the Verizon store yesterday to ask about air cards for laptops, but noticed they were having a sahweet deal on those phones and adding smart phones to our existing plan. After about 20 minutes of playing phone tag, and talking myself into it while telling my boss about it, we decided to go for it.

Now I am the giddy owner of a brand new Droid Eris by HTC! I spent last night downloading a few must-have apps including the Facebook one and a Bible one with several versions and translations. Every Sunday, dad has the congregation hold up their Bibles as a subtle encouragement to bring them, and I'll be super happy to hold up my cell phone at that time! And then I transferred songs from my computer to my phone. I still have 7GB of free space that I haven't figured out what to do with yet.

I played with the texting last night and this morning, and it's going to take a while to get used to. This thing has touch screen keyboards, so I'll miss the cute little buttons on my other one. But I do loooove that I can play music and do other stuff on the phone at the same time! I can't multi task well, but this phone sure can!

I loved my little LG Banter. But this geek needed an upgrade.

Power Outage

So I have this side job sorta thing where I dogsit for people on vacations. I literally move into their house for the weekend and take care of the dog, water their plants, and bring their UPS packages into the house. It's a pretty awesome gig actually because I get paid to snuggle a dog and play house without the cost of vet bills and mortgages! I even get my own bathroom, which in my opinion is a little awesomer than getting paid! But it's not quite so awesome when the power goes out.

I was on Facebook and checking emails when suddenly the screen goes black, the computer stops humming, and all the lights go out. I'm scared of the dark even in my own home, but it's a little more terrifying when it's a different house and I can't remember where the homeowners have placed the life sized stuffed dog this time. I've nicknamed that frightening thing the Hound of the Baskervilles.

At this moment, I am super thankful that I still have one bar left on my cell phone's battery because I again discovered just how useful that device is as a flashlight. I used it to help me see as I dug around the kitchen drawers looking for matches to light the candles I found. I was so desperate for light that I didn't even care that the tiny matchbox had a UNC Tarheels sticker on it. In fact, I did not even have the would-be-normal urge to set fire to the entire box just to see the UNC symbol burn. These people are totally getting a Duke matchbox for Christmas.

Now that I had a source of light, I found myself ridiculously bored. I couldn't get back on the home computer, my laptop battery was almost dead, I couldn't watch television, and I found that it's very difficult to read by the light of an unpredictably flickering candle. And I couldn't go anywhere because my car was in the garage with the door down.

After an hour of darkness and remembering that I needed to take a shower, I called my sister to come and get me. By the time I had returned to the house with a mag light that could double as a deadly weapon, the electricity had come back and I did a happy dance. And then I watched some Disney channel and enjoyed some half melted ice cream before going to bed.

So that was my adventure for the week. God bless the man who discovered electricity. Mr. Franklin, you're my favorite dead guy for today.

Prayer's Pretty Awesome

I just want to take a few moments to tell you what God is doing in my life right now. Last week, I had talked about the Believing God study and what I was learning through that, specifically that I can fully rely on His promises even when He answers my prayers with a "no." But today, God has reminded me that He does in fact answer prayers affirmatively!!

For the last several weeks, I had been praying that a friend of mine would accept Christ as her Savior. But last Sunday, I prayed for her at church with one of my sisters. Yesterday morning, I received a message from my friend saying that she got saved recently, and I can't thank God enough! This made me so happy, and that's a big deal because I'm never so happy ten minutes after waking up! Never!

Lately during Wednesday night prayer meetings, we have been walking through the church building praying that the rooms would be filled up with people, that those who come would have their socks blessed off, and whatever else that God lays on our hearts concerning those who darken our doorways. Last week, me and a couple of other people prayed in one of the women's Sunday school classrooms, and this past Sunday, they had a room absolutely full of ladies! (The teacher of the class said that next time we do the prayer walk, she wants us to go back to her room, haha!) Also, from my perch up in the sanctuary balcony, it seemed like there were more people in the building this Sunday than there had been the last few weeks. Coincidence? I think not!

I think that a lot of the time, we are like Peter's friends in Acts 12. Peter was in jail, and his friends prayed fervently for his release. But when Peter showed up at their doorstep, they responded "No way...... wait, really?" Many times, we pray for something, but don't really expect God to answer it. But I do not want to be like these loyal, but somewhat slow people. I want to be the person that immediately recognizes God's answer to my prayer and is overwhelmed with thanks!

We have a great big awesome God that is so ready and willing to bless our socks off. But I think that sometimes, He's just waiting for us to ask.

Time to Confess...

My nerdiness. I already have the geek factor due to my computer studies at school, but tonight I want to touch on my nerdiness. Yes, my friends, I am a Trekkie. Not quite the wear-a-uniform-complete-with-phaser-on-your-belt-and-attend-conventions type nerd, but a nerd nonetheless. (Although if I were, I would never doom and insult myself by wearing a red shirt - I'm smarter than that.)

When I was younger, I went through a stage where I would watch nothing but Star Trek: The Next Generation starring Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. He totally rocked the baldness. I even had the hugest crush on Wil Wheaton's character Wesley Crusher. That's right, I wasn't crushing on the actor, but the character. Don't ask me to explain it, because I have no idea why. I did mention that I was young when this happened, right?

Although I have not seem much of Star Trek: The Original Series, I did enjoy watching (and laughing at) William Shatner play Captain Kirk. Especially in the "Trouble with Tribbles" episode... I still want one of those little balls of fluff for a pet. And I will have one someday, dangit. To this day, I enjoy the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. There's just something about a scottish dude saying "There be whales here!"

But the new Star Trek movie with the amazing Chris Pine has made me fall in love with Star Trek all over again. Now if I could just find a ringtone that sounded like a tricorder...

Summer Reading

With my final school semester coming to a close, I've been spending my spare time wondering what the heck I'm going to do when it's over and I have my associates. While I'm sure I want to take at least an extended break from school, I am considering a second job or picking up some hobbies ranging from art to guitar lessons. So many things are unclear at the moment, but there is one thing that I know I want to do. Read.

School work has prevented me from being able to read anything interesting for quite some time now. In reality, I've read a lot, but it's all textbooks. I even took a class on literature this semester, but it's been pretty horrible apart from a few poems that I actually enjoyed. Come May 9th, I will have plenty of time to read whatever I want, and here's a list of some that I am really looking forward to...

"Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I got about half way through this book during Christmas break, and I am determined to finish it. After watching the new Sherlock Holmes movie, I was inspired to some of his novels and I'm sure I will read more than just this one during the course of the summer.

"Saved By Her Enemy" by Don Teague and Rafraf Barrak. I had set up an interview with the authors of this book for Coastal Daybreak, and Ben was so impressed with the people that he gave me the book and told me to read it. It's a true story in which a news correspondent covering the war in the middle east befriends an Iraqi woman translator. But her life becomes threatened by her own people and the correspondent brings her home and gives her the chance to start a new life.

"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. My older sister Sam, a mystery novel enthusiast, claims that this is one the best books she has ever read. Having heard rave reviews from others, I'm pretty sure this is gonna be something awesome. So I'm going to have to figure out a way to steal it from my sister's massive book collection without her noticing...

"Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis. I have had this book in my possession for the longest time, but I have yet to get past chapter three. In just the first few paragraphs, Lewis blew my mind with his simple logic and profound intellect, and then I realized I could only take this book in very small but potent doses. I plan on reading many other writings of his throughout the next few years.

There are countless other books that I would love to read, but I'll start with these few and see where I go from there!

Counting Down The Days

Ever since learning the news yesterday, I am so super giddy about Tenth Avenue North, one if my fave bands, releasing a new album next month. I feel like I'm waiting in line to ride the awesomest roller coaster at the theme park, both terrified and excited as I count how many people are in line before me.

I am terrified because I'm afraid that mah boys will disappoint me. Several times, I've looked forward to a band's new album, but then I don't like it because either the band has changed or my personal tastes have changed. Having listened to these fellas for over a year now and loved their music, I would hate to find their second album less satisfying than their first.

But I am also ridiculously excited because I am in desperate need of a new album of awesomeness to add to my music collection. And based on their previous album, I don't really expect to be let down. These guys brought me "Love is Here" and "By Your Side", along with "Times" which still brings me to tears nearly every time I hear it... which really isn't a good thing while operating a moving vehicle. They have their newest single "Healing Begins" (which I have already listened to about twelve times) available on their website, and if the rest of the album is anything like that song then I'm almost sure I will love it.

I will be happily counting down the days, my friends. I daresay I am anticipating this more than the opening weekend of Lord of the Rings 3 and the DVD release of Star Trek. And that's saying a lot.

Believing God

An hour ago, I started typing up intellectual stuff about the Bible study I've been going through. My fingers went clickity-clickity across the keyboard making arrangements of letters pop up on my screen, but after two paragraphs, I realized that just wasn't working for me. So I backed up a few sentences and restarted. Then that didn't work for me either. Sitting in my bed, frustrated, my dad's simple words after every sermon flew through my brain... "Tell somebody what Jesus has done for you."

That said, this is what Jesus has done for me so far through this Bible study...

Through Beth Moore's study "Believing God," He has pointed out to me the disconnect between what I know as facts and how these facts are interacting with my life. My theology has been totally different from my reality. I KNOW that God is capable of miraculous things and is looking out for the best for me, but I haven't bothered to pray for anything miraculous in a loooooong time. To me, it was pointless because He would do whatever He thought was best whether I prayed for it or not. Why bother asking Him for anything, getting my expectations up when I may very well be disappointed? So I spared myself the disappointment and pretty much never brought any requests before Him.

Until just a couple weeks ago.

With the last year of politics leading up to a critical vote in congress concerning new laws that I thought could very well destroy the nation I love, I was sick to my stomach in worry. In the twenty-four hours before the vote, I finally took these worries to God, telling Him my fears although He already fully knew them. Moments before the vote, I passionately prayed that God would do wonders either on Capitol Hill or within my own life.

At the end of that prayer, I felt such a peace that I can't even begin to explain. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that He would take care of me no matter what happened in Washington that night. But it wasn't like the careless and cluesless knowledge that He would care for me as described before. No, this was total peace and confidence in His promises to me, and it was so ridiculously refreshing. As I logged onto my laptop and saw the news that the potentially nation-crippling bill had passed, I found myself still at peace trusting the God who was in charge, not disappointed in Him because it didn't go the way I wanted.

Two days later, dad brought in the mail at lunchtime and tossed an envelope in my lap. Curious, I opened it to find an unexpected check addressed to me for a big church thing I taught a class for weeks ago. With my jaw dropped, I did a happy dance in the inside... that might or might not had migrated to the outside. An hour later, I went to work where I was given yet another envelope. A random appreciation card from my bosses held a walmart gift card. Again, my happy dance took over, but then I stopped as an idea suddenly struck me. In an unnecessary response to my prayers two days before, God had proven to me that He was going to personally care for me. I nearly fell to the floor in thankful tears.

One intense instance of total belief in God resulted in Him pouring out His blessings upon me. In the last several years, what have I missed out on because I had not been exercising trust in Him? I may never know. But I do know that I don't want to miss out on that ever again.

Finally, They Asked My Opinion!

After months of analyzing short stories, poetry, and now tragic plays, the textbook finally asked me what my thoughts were concerning the ending of the tragic play "Oedipus the King." For those of you who don't know, this story consists of Oedipus rising to immediate power, but then realizing that he had murdered his father and married his mother, resulting in ultimate humiliation and exile. Sounds great, right?

So apparently, I'm supposed to think that the story was refreshing. According to my textbook, Aristotle believed that "after witnessing a tragedy, we feel better, not worse – not depressed, but somehow elated." Yeah, um, that didn't happen.

By the time Oedipus was gouging his eyes out, I pitied the character. I definitely did not feel better after reading such a tragedy. Now I realize that my opinion of literature is much different than that of supposedly great writers like Sophacles and Shakespeare. While their tragic stories can sometimes seem so true to life, I read books as an escape from everyday life.

I enjoy stories with happy endings, like Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, and the Chronicles of Narnia. If I know that a book or movie does not have a happy ending, I will not take the time to read/watch it! Maybe I'm just a wuss, but I cried all the way through the movie P.S. I Love You and was upset for days afterward, and X-Men 3 made me depressed for at least three days!

So yeah, my opinion is that sad stories are annoying and happy stories are the way to go. I have yet to see whether or not my English teacher agrees, haha!

Yes, I Have a Blog

...And I'm not exactly sure what to do with it yet.

I've been considering keeping a for realz blog for a while now. And lately, I've been finding myself pondering various topics and coming up with interesting ideas. Pardon the conceited appearance, but I think some of those thoughts were pretty awesome and I would like to share future ones with whoever may be interested.

In this blog, you may read about out of the ordinary experiences in the life of Mandy, mini passionate rants and raves, or simply strange but hilarious thoughts that happened to pass through my mind. But I hope to leave my readers with a peek into my quirky mind and maybe even something a little more important.

Check back for more soon!