7 Quick Takes Friday

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I haven't blogged since Sunday night. I'm sorry I have been MIA from the "Blog Every Day in May" challenge. I will probably pick it back up here soon - just needed a break. Thank you to all who have left wonderful comments; you guys are great. I will return the love soon!

---2---

After my post Saturday about the ridiculous number of times I've fallen in my life, I rewatched an old favorite movie Sunday night: My Best Friend's Wedding. Want to know why it was my favorite? Well, besides the fact that it is absolutely charming, Julia Roberts falls 5 - go ahead, count them - 5 times in that movie. Seriously, that was one of the selling points for me.

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Also Sunday night, while I was watching said movies, I had two giant pieces of cake. Two. Giant. Okay, and a third small piece. And it was good. See, I am leaving for South Padre Island this coming Tuesday for -ha!- [one of] my best friend's wedding. So for the last couple of weeks I have been pretty much living on green smoothies and soup (and now cake). (WHY DID I EAT THAT CAKE?!) I have done pretty well since then, though, so I guess life and weight-loss will go on.

And since I shared about the cake, I will also share that I tried some organic soup from the farmer's market, too. One was called "Crazy for Carrots" and the other "Coco 'nuts' about Kale". The carrot one tasted like curry to me - good but not something I would want every day. The coconut one was good but kind-of watery. I also bought a bundle of asparagus and found a great recipe for Creamy Asparagus Soup I made after I tried the other soups. It was wonderful (I made mine without onions)! I don't think I will pay $7.50 for a pint of soup from the market again when I can make my own, that tastes much better, for much less.

 

I actually bought a bathing suit this week. I've had bathing suits before, but not many. My mom bought them for me when I was little, and she also bought me one after I was grown...after she had remarried and was trying to get back on my good side so she was buying me stuff - I enjoyed it (TMI?)...and I picked that one out (that was about 11 or 12 years ago). And that's it. I've never bought myself one, and haven't shopped for one in quite a few pounds years (okay, both). So I am a little nervous about it (I ordered it online). I decided to go with a tankini. Cute, right? I think so. We'll see when it gets here!

 

---4---

 

So, obviously this is a beach wedding. Not only will this be the first time I have attended a beach wedding, it will be the first time I have ever been to the beach and seen the ocean. I cannot wait!!!

 

(And, speaking of the beach and things being wet...here is a cute picture of my puppy after a bath!):

 

 

---5---

 

For one of my classes last Fall I wrote a research paper called "A Theology of Kingdom Inclusion From the Matthean Parables of Jesus." In that class, the top five papers were to be published in an ebook anthology on topics in New Testament Theology. I found out last night my paper is one of them! So, a few months from now I will be published. I have been published before, but this will be the first time it is academically credible - other things I have written include articles for a denominational magazine I helped edit, and two or three editions of quarterly adult Sunday school curriculum for the same denomination. So I'm pretty excited! This should be good for future teaching resumes, as well as applications into doctoral programs.

 

---6---

 

The summer job search isn't going so well. I already work full-time on third shift, but when I'm not in school I usually try to find something else to supplement my income. I thought I had found a job - applied online and got an email back saying they were interested - but never could get ahold of them. That was three or four weeks ago. So I am going to start applying for more and the search will be seriously underway when I get back from Texas. I plan to stick around here for the next year, but then I have a feeling I will be moving either to Boston, Atlanta, or Berkeley for my doctorate (those are the locations of the programs I am interested in), so I need to start saving for the move!

 

That, and I want to trade in my car for a truck by the end of the summer :).

 

---7---

 

Want to hear something slightly weird but interesting? Okay. Last summer my second job was doing home health care. And one of my clients had this neighbor who was married, but he always hit on me and generally made me uncomfortable. It was really bad because my client was blind, and this guy would come into her apartment to fix stuff and offer to go pick her up some cigarettes or whatever...so he was around all the time, and it just really creeped me out because if he had tried something, she wouldn't have been able to see or do much to help. And lest you think maybe I was imagining his intentions, one time he actually asked me, "Do you ever just want someone to hold you? I just want to hold you." Yeah. He actually used that line!! And he tried repeatedly to get my phone number.... It was just really stressful going to work there every day.

 

So, earlier this week, when I came home from work one morning, one of my newer neighbors was sitting out on the stoop at the apartment entrance, smoking. He initiated a conversation with me when I walked past him, and it culminated in him calling me "baby". So yeah, again, uncomfortable and dreading meeting him at the door again...and a little worried he might try to get into my apartment. Even woke up one day and had one of those in-between-dreaming-and-being-awake moments where I saw an old creepy guy walk in my bedroom door...O.o. But today that neighbor and his family moved out because they were evicted.

 

I shared all that as a sort of sigh of relief. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about him anymore and it was short-lived. (It probably sounds a little mean and callous to be glad they were evicted, but I will state for the record they ended up finding a place with an additional bedroom and lower rent, so it worked out well for them, too.)

 

And on that note, have a good weekend, everyone! :)

 

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