I realized yesterday that I'm all talk. Here I am telling you about this band I'm going to be in and school I'm going to attend and unless I actually learn an instrument or fill out forms - nothing is going to happen there.

So my solution is to take a break from blogging until I accomplish something. Coming back here to over dramatize will be my reward for diligently applying myself to usefulness.

Truly all I do is work and sleep and blog. I didn't say eat because I haven't been eating either, I haven't even taken time to go grocery shopping for my simple one or two item meals. I don't starve - I just throw a bunch of whatever in the blender and drink it with a strong vanilla flavoring to make it go down.

So you see why I have to do this. I'm sure I'll be back soon. Maybe in February. Or if not then March, or maybe the month after that. Whichever month it is I'll give you a heads up on what I'm probably up to. In February I'm probably going to be developing guitar callouses. March, no, maybe I'll develop guitar callouses in March and learn the flute in February. The flute is such a delicate instrument, I should probably do that first. Or maybe I should learn the piano before the flute because of all the note reading the flute would require, it would be easier to learn that on the piano. I'm sure about the flute being a more studious affair - whoever heard of a self-taught flutist.
"I just picked up the flute one day and was goofing around and suddenly I realized I could play." I wish! I've been spending ten minutes a year for the past seven years trying to learn the flute. I can kind of blow into it and make a noise. I learned that two years ago. So that's what I'll do - music theory in February, piano in March, flute in April and guitar in May.

I bet you are so excited! You're asking yourself,
"Is she really going to tantalize us with stories of practicing scales and small pretend songs that they put in those books we had to play from in band? Oh joy! I can hardly wait for June 2008!"

Well, I should just say right now that I can't tell the future so I can't say for sure when I'll take up blogging again. When the time is right, it will happen. No doubt I'll be write to you and tell you you have to come see! So till then - Love you Lot's! - Julie
(What's with the mountain stream and the boy with the rabbit? I don't know, I just like them. I guess I am wishing today was a warm summer day and I was cooling off beside a mountain stream with a floppy eared bunny on my lap. Do you ever wish for that?)

Defining Who We Are

This is a man. He is from the 1930s. At my house there is a dictionary from 1938 which defines his role for him.
Masculine: 1.Having the qualities of a man, strong, robust. 2. Resembling man, characteristic of or used by men 3. Bold Brave, as in masculine spirit or courage.

I like to contrast it with another definition.
Feminine: 1.Of pertaining to, or characterisitic of a woman. 2.Having the qualities natural to women. 3. Destitute of manly qualities











And further.
Feminism: A theory, cult or movement on the part of those who assert and advocate what they consider to be the rights of women, and who favor doing away with all social, economic, and political restrictions on the sex.

What I like about the above picture is the two portraits on the wall. The first is inscribed, Our First First Lady Martha Washington.

Beneath it a smaller picture with the words, Her Husband.

That is the work of Steven Kellogg (a man!) in The Wizard Next Door published in 1993.

We've won girls! Social and political anarchy achieved!

This morning I learned a something new to me

This is a more mild entry. If you came here looking for exciting, I have some good blogs I can recommend. Pretty much anyone you see with a highlighted name in the postings. Sampling them all will give you the full spectrum of awesome.

No pictures or anything. I just wanted to share something I learned this morning that I think Christy will relate to because she is a youth minister for the Catholic church here in Taber. (In this story I am at odds with God and get invited to a better path.)

So I woke up and I went to have my morning scripture snack, but a specific scripture came to mind. I looked it up and was surprised to find out I was in trouble. I needed to change my present attitude over to a meek one or I would be shutting myself off from God's help.

Of course I wanted instantly to be meek - whatever that was. I looked it up in the dictionary. I was supposed to show "patience and humility, be gentle, easily entreated, submissive." Again, foreign ideas, so I looked up what being patient meant. "Enduring pain and affliction without complaint; being understanding, tolerant and perservering". Perservering meant to "persist (continue firmly, steadfastly despite obstacles, to endure) in an idea, purpose or task despite obstacles". And endure means "to carry through successfully, to continue in existance (or life)".

Oh. Okay. And then I thought how that would be for me to be meek towards someone. No matter what pain or obstacles arose, to continue being loving and tolerant and understanding indefinitely. Brutal! Where's the joy in that I wondered. Then it occured to me that this was the way Christ loves me (loves all of us). We cause Him pain and no matter what obstacles come between us, or how we mistreat or turn against Him, He always persists in reaching out to us lovingly. And then it occured to me that if I try to love meekly, I will have more understanding of Him. I will more readily believe Him when He says "Come and be forgiven", because I will feel that same way towards others.

With His help I will be persistant in reaching out lovingly and mercifully no matter what. Then I would be able to get rid of that "if I'm in the wrong He must not love me anymore or as much as He used to" belief.
So really my invitation accept His help in changing over to meekness - is an invitation to know Him better. To understand and feel more of His love. Which is my favorite thing of all. And Christy's too! I can tell by the way she radiates His love.

Then this scripture wrapped up my morning feast, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God...Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth ...knoweth God. And this commandment we have from Him, that He that loveth God loveth His brother also. (1 John 4: 7,8,21)

I am proud of all of you

You did it didn't you. And you enjoyed it. No. No one told me. Your roommate kept it a secret. (Just like you threaten him to when he walked into the kitchen unexpectedly and caught you in the honey jar.)
I just have this amazing ability to sense these things. Otherwise, why do you come here so silently.
Hey, don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Yeah...Oh! I have another one for you that I am in love with.
Crack and egg in a bowl and whip it up and pour it on your hair. Just like the little guy in the picture!
I guess you could leave it in all day since it does hold your hair pretty stiff after a couple of minutes - but the best part I think is when you rinse it out - in cold water. (You don't want omlette hair!)
It is so hard to get it all out!
For the final step you pour vinegar over your head. I'm sure you've heard of doing that before - but have you ever tried it? Trust me. Its great! I wasn't wrong about the honey mask leaving you invigorated and radiant now was I. This you are going to love!

Hey, doesn't that empty canoe on the lake make you just want to be there right now? I have paddles for us. We could go right now! And you could bring the picnic lunch because we both know you are the better cook. Even at sandwhiches. I'm just good at appreciating what you make because you its so much better than what I can do.


What about this empty beach side chair? There should be two chairs, or maybe not ... maybe I can give you one of the best pedicures of your life while you relax and listen to the ocean. It would be so easy for me to do since there already is sand, seaweed, salt and water. Which are four main ingrediants of really great pedicures.

Wouldn't that be heaven! Let's not just talk about it. Let's do it! ... Unfortunately I'm booked up until 2010....The band is going out to Vancouver to record and also where I will be taking African drumming lessons. Then I get to watch my niece and nephew while my beloved sister-in-law goes to school. Then I'm getting my degree as a nail technician ... I'm swamped! But if you reply right away I will put you down as Next. Do you want to be Next?

I know what I want to be!

Does everyone else already have figured out what they want to "be" when they "grow up"? I used to say Happy! I want to be a happy grown-up.

Well ...there is something I love doing. Something I've been doing since I was five or six and still love and still do at every opportunity.

You know...giving pedicures, relaxing head and back massages, buffing your nails till they glisten ... What! I've never done any of that to you! Incredible! I didn't think there was anyone left who hadn't had me persuade them into letting me give them spa treatments.

People always would say "You should go into this!" But I never thought of it as credible. Like someone saying to you after you've made them a sandwhich - "You are really good at this! Have you ever thought of working at Quizno's?"

But yesturday, perhaps after defending honey masks - I let down my walls and have decided to go into esthetics after all. Now that I see I can be non-conforming in my natural spa methods, I'm in the game. I've found a school and everything! So thank-you but still I ask - has anyone tried the honey mask?

I'm sorry

I would like to retract what I said earlier about smearing honey all over your face and then bragging about it being a sign of bravery. Nathan is right. The two have nothing to do with each other.
I crave your forgiveness in asserting such a outrageous claim. I've been pondering all night about how such an idea as wiping honey across your face in the morning came about. Perhaps it was a young couple having breakfast together and as often happens one of them was a neat eater and the other kept getting honey everywhere and to hide their embarrassment at being in such a sticky state they casually mentioned "How good honey masks were for the complexion," and connected the honey that had dribbled across their chin and around their mouth up over their nose and cheeks and cleaned off their sticky hands on their forehead.
And after breakfast as they washed the dishes they reflected on how nice it actually felt and later after washing it off - noticed how much more radiant their skin was. And made a mental note to themselves to try it again sometime. And then used the incident later as a graceful way of responding to conversational pleasantries.

"How are you today?"

"Well, after the honey treatment I couldn't be better!
"My skin feels so soft! And notice how radiantly it shines!"

And so concludes the probable beginnings of the honey mask.
(I purposely left out "he or she" so that it wasn't a gender biased story.)
I also picked up from Nathan's post that I was being ... um, I was being ... maybe I doing some gender stereotyping - previously. And I shouldn't. So I'm sorry.
It could have been a man or women that invented the honey mask.

I was going to recommend using a honey mask in the morning as a way of energizing your whole body and leaving your skin soft. However I realized that since only half my readers are women - no one would post a comment about it.

The women probably already have some kind of regime and the guys, well...I'm not saying you are not brave just because you wouldn't feel comfortable posting us about trying the honey mask!

I'm just saying the person that would let us know how it worked for them is a very brave man.

Whew, I'm glad I got that straightened out.

Instead, I will tell you why I it would be worth it to go to China for some jade. I recently made friends with a couple from China.

We decided it would be in both our interests to get together in the evenings and discuss politics and culture and learn each other's language better. While in one of these discussions I learned that jade has unique properties. A jade bracelet will change color depending on the health of the wearer. Also that the jade get the brunt of unexpected mishaps instead of themselves. For example, my friend was wearing a jade bracelet and her little boy swung a belt around and it likely would have hit her, but it fell on the bracelet and shattered it.

They brought me some jade to feel and while holding it a sensation of calmness conquered my excitable nature. Sensing I wanted some jade of my own and warned me about crooked business people that sell glass jade and that they get their jade from her brother in China.

Naturally, I now want to go to there and find the jade piece that makes me the most calm and buy it. (I imagine that not all jade would feel exactly the same since it comes in so many different shades and colors.) The jade I held was white with orange and yellow streaks. Have you ever seen jade like that?

Do you want to come with me when I go to China to Ying's brother's jade shop?

I would love it if you would! There will of course be unforeseen dangers and hardships - and I know I'll need a very brave person to come along with me.

Happy New Year!

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed these past few days the way that they like most. I know I did. I had really good naps on some really plush couches to the melodic sounds of crowds playing wild Rook games while feasting on cheese balls and cream puffs. Oh, I did go to a house party where the couches were all taken up by boys wishing they had courage enough to talk to the cute girls who you saw right away were preparing themselves to make it big in Hollywood (as Lindsay Lohan stunt doubles.) And that was fine because I couldn't have napped anyway with the speakers rocking out right behind me. I found myself involuntarily dancing a couple of times so I got myself to the realtive safety of the festive food spread. And there I met a Southern Alberta celebrity and got my picture taken with him several times. Hopefully he tags it to me on facebook! The rest of the time I have been arranging furniture in my apartment and ...um, I've been .... I mentioned sleeping already so I can't use that again. Oh! I ....no, that's not very interesting. What about you? What have you been up to?