Night on the town

Chrissy's birthday was last Sunday and how did she want to celebrate? Dancing! So, five, count them--five--Baptist girls went to Capitol Hill for some clubbin' at its finest. And let's face it, we were at our finest too.

We were quite a sight...have you noticed how getting sassy equals wearing black from head to toe? So we did.

We were also a little stair-step with Chrissy at 5'1", Greta at 5'7", Me at 5'10" (with my red high heels--mmm hmm), Melissa at 5'11-12", and Paula at 6'1". Nice, eh?

Unfortunately, I have no pics from the dancing part...we went to a place called the War Room on its hip hop night and let me tell you that we were some of the VERY few whities in da house (Chrissy excepted).

Chrissy & Paula

Mels & me

Me & Mel's red shoes


Me & my Greta

Mels & Chrissy put on their sassy-saucy faces

In other news, Wilbert has been adopted! He was at the Humane Society for less than 2 days...no surprise there!

I got tagged again...

So Marcy tagged me and behold, you have a post...

1. Name one thing you do everyday.

Brush my teeth. Hallelujah.

2. Name two things you wish you could learn.

"Wish" is lame, because I'm of the school of thought that if I want to learn something, I can...it just requires discipline!

Okay, okay...Cooking and dancing are on my to do list lately.

3. Name three things that remind you of your childhood.

Paintings of flowers. My grandma used to paint flowers on EVERYthing...refrigerator, her shoes, the TOILET (scared the crap out of me the first time)

Little girls. I often see myself in them.

Frito pies. Whatever happened to those delicious bits of heaven?

4. Name four things you love to eat but rarely do.

This is hard...I don't deprive myself of much in this department.

Senegalese food, it's a little hard to come by here.
Funnel cakes.
Kari's homemade pizza.
Those orange popsicles with the cream inside.

5. Name five things or people that make you feel good.

Friends who "get" me.
Grandma.
Wilbert.
Hugs.
Positive people

Trying to catch the bus in the snow is like...

Last Tuesday, I was planning to catch the 8:41 am bus down to the U. I was ready at 8:18, so I checked the schedule and a bus also came at 8:23 so I decided to try to make that one. I hurried to put on my shoes and coat, refill my Nalgene, and run down the stairs towards the bus stop.

Check time. 8:22.

I live on 15th Ave NE. It's a 4-lane street and during the 8 o'clock hour has a fair amount of traffic coming through. I looked down the street and saw the bus coming. I looked at the bus stop, still a good 2 minute walk including the need to cross the street.

I should mention here that it had snowed the night before. And what we were left with in the morning was snow. And ice. The thing with ice is you can't really see it. And I, still not knowing how to deal with snow, didn't realize it would still be on the ground the next day. I was wearing tennis shoes. Tennis shoes with no traction.

So, I'm looking at the bus barreling down 15th and decide to make a run for it. I run into oncoming traffic, hoping the whole "pedestrian has the right of way" rule will kick in and no one will run over me. HIGHLY stupid choice.

I eat it right there on the 4-lane street of 15th Ave NE. I mean, my right foot slipped on the ice, my right leg went flying up in a Rockettes-like kick, and I went down on my bottom. Hard.

Much more embarrassed than hurt, I picked myself up and continued to cross 15th, still slipping of course. The bus flies past me because I just lost a good 30 seconds to minute and of course had no chance of making it now (as if I ever did).

Then, oh but THEN, a man pulls up and yells out his car window, "Dude, like, you dropped your water bottle back there." Brilliant. My bright yellow Nalgene was 20 yards back on the curb it had rolled to after my fall. So I had to slip 'n' slide back to the scene of the crime, pick up my Nalgene, and resume walking to the bus stop.

The bus I "missed" wasn't even the one I was trying to catch. It was the one before running late because of the weather. The bus I wanted arrived at the stop about 2 minutes after I did. The running, the falling...it was all for naught.

pieces of me...missing

So, I'm frustrated with the blog.

I used to treat the blog as an open space where Pegs could shine.

Now, I feel like I have to temper each blog post. I have to make it appropriate for the public sphere (not that a million people read it, but you know what I mean).

And that leaves me feeling like the blog is not honest anymore. It is so censored that the real me isn't known.

Most people who know me beyond acquaintance level know that I am nothing if not honest. I am an open book. I meet you once and I'll tell you what my struggles are and who my crush is. (This has backfired on more than one occasion, and for awhile it was hard to open up to people, but I think I've more or less recovered.)

So, I wonder if I should keep the blog anymore. Because really, if all I can share with you is that I'm taking 3 classes (which I do like immensely so far), work part-time for the IAL program (which I also like immensely), and go to a church and community group with some great people...well, I'm just not sure the blog should continue.

I want to be real. But, is the blog the place for that?

If I wrote about the things that are forming me right now, I would share about:
--the restored relationship with my father that has been an answer to nearly 2 decades of prayer
--the dog I had to give up last week, a situation that left me simultaneously aching and at peace that God is already working His glorious ways through it
--my fear that the thing that I want (marriage and kids) is a pipe dream and I wonder everyday why in the world I'm pursuing a terminal degree towards a career that I can only feign passion about on most days

And that's what I'd actually blog about...if I could.

Bits & Pieces

Trip back to Seattle:
*53 hours total, 41 hours drive time
*Marathoned it from Amarillo, TX to Seattle for a total of 34 hours non-stop
*Me with the 3am-10am shift through the treacherous Grant's Pass in northern Cali, southern Oregon

New Year's:
*me, just 4 months after moving here, at a party overlooking the Seattle skyline, including Space Needle

Special surprise:
*Chrissy's found a place to live RIGHT NEXT DOOR. Unbelievable. Really.

Predicted stability from last quarter:
*Community group
*Jim, Sara & Cassady, fantastic faculty advisor, supervisor & peer mentor (respectively)
*My Starbucks at 42nd & the Ave

Predicted adjustments for this quarter:
*Wilbert living in Seattle
*Close friends from Texas, Chrissy & Melissa, living next door
*Tutoring a French-speaking Rwandan refugee who wants to be a doctor
*The myriad ways God will undoubtedly stretch me in His everloving pursuit of relationship with me