Random Moments of the C-Mac Show

You may have noticed in my more recent posts, the benefits of my fabulous new digital camera. Thought you would like to enjoy a few more of the spoils.



You can't tell me that's not cute.



Grapevine Lake


Todd and Adelita's Wedding








New Years Eve

The Plight of Mr. Lizard

The animal kingdom doesn't seem to understand the fact that my apartment, or whatever shelter I so choose to temporarily dwell, is a virtual deathbed for all intruders of the pest and rodent variety...which brings us to the latest casualty.
Here I was, minding my own business on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The porch door was open so Duncan could enjoy the weather, and he was snoozing in the sun when he discovered one of these aforementioned pests. He pursued, and naturally said pest took flight...right into my apartment (surely I had raised Duncan better than to chase something like that into our house??). I looked up just in time to see something scurry across the floor and into my recliner. I later learned it was a lizard...and I'm not talking about one of those teeny gecko things. This was a real, 4 inch long, slimy lizard. Ok maybe not slimy.
Now let me start my saying I am not afraid of lizards, nor was this any komodo dragon. But that doesn't mean I want it in my recliner, patiently waiting for night to fall when he can emerge from the depths of the chair springs and roam free in my apartment. So, Mr. Lizard as we will call him from now on, had to go.
My first thought was to get a bowl to trap him under once he escaped the chair. But, not willing to simply stroll out from the recliner and into my bowl, I needed to fashion some sort of poking device in order to drive him out. I started with a pen...definitely too short. I settled on a ruler. So I spent a good 30 minutes attempting to force him out of the nooks and crannies of the chair with my ruler...pretty much doing nothing but chasing him deeper into the chasms that I never noticed before within the depths of my recliner.
I paused. Found it necessary to document the occasion.

Refreshed, I decided to call Ross, who I consider a pretty good wrangler of wildlife. I don't know what I expected to get from him knowing he was already out of town, but I guess I was hoping he would have some great lizard-hunting tip like "lure it out with a piece of cheese" or something. No such luck. As I began to gain some important foresight, I realized if I suceeded in getting Mr. Lizard out of the chair, it was entirely possible he would escape my lighting-fast reflexes and foil my complicated bowl-trapping plot, and end up taking refuge under something else like the refrigerator, and I'd lose him forever.
So, I spent the next 10 minutes hauling the recliner outside onto the porch, lizard in tow, where I began the ruler-and-bowl game again. No dice. He was on to my plot. I needed a new plan of attack.

Not willing to simply close the footrest and crush him in the recliner, thus requiring me to clean Mr. Lizard guts out of it later, I slowly but methodically began a pattern of closing and opening the footrest, turning the chair upside down, turning it right side up again, and leaning it back to a reclined position. Gaining some ground in the battle, I found it necessary for more documentation.

My plan was working. The footrest mechanisms were forcing Mr Lizard toward the middle of the chair, and when it was leaned back he was being wedged out where the backrest met the seat. I was getting close, but I still needed something to pry him out the rest of the way, something more technical than a ruler.
I decided on a spatula.
Being able to wedge it into the folds of the seat right underneath him, after a few tries (the first with the spatula facing TOWARDS me...bad idea) I was able to get under him, slide him out and fling him across the porch. Not surprisingly, in the general direction of Duncan's teeth.
Somewhat dazed from his ordeal, Duncan had a good time playing with Mr. Lizard. Thus, victory was ours.

Looking at this picture, it kindof makes me wonder if it was all just Duncan's elaborate plan to get me to do all the hard work first...

Hallelujah!

Jimmy has officially graduated from TCU!!! We feared this day would never come. He and Cat will be moving to Lubbock at the end of June to start grad school (WHICH, by the way, I'm very upset with because I think they have no need to move until August which is when school starts, meaning they can spend more time with their fabulous sister, but whatever...). But at the least, they have to come back next summer to get married!

Jim's degree will be in music and Cat's will be...well...some sort of criminal...forensic...psychology...thing...just think CSI. All I know is it takes 6 years. Yikes.
Congrats to you both, ya'll are AWESOME!!!

You know what this means don't you...we're growing up.
I don't really know how I feel about that.

What God is Teaching Me

Legalism = Perfectionism (or the strive for it) = Lack of trust (because no one can do it as perfect as you) = Lack of vulnerability (because you don't trust anyone) = Loneliness = Strive to fill the void with something besides the only thing that can actually fill it, which is God.

What was it meant to be?

Grace = Acceptance (imperfections included) = Open-ness = Vulnerability = Fellowship = God's provision of abundance and satisfaction.

Hmmm.

Semester One...Check!

So today officially marks the end of my first semester at seminary! And, so far so good! After the first couple months of attempting to read pages of what seemed like theological gibberish, alternated with looking up every other word in a dictionary and routinely convincing myself that no, I was in fact NOT an idiot, I did get back into the groove of the whole going-to-school and remembering-how-to-study thing. Seriously though, not one reading assignment did I not have to look up the defintion of multiple words. One time, I counted six words in one sentence I didn't know...six!!! And I haven't graduated yet, so don't ask me what ecumenical or exegesis or hermenutic or empirical mean yet because I'm still working on it.

If we rewind to undergrad, you would find out that I was compulsively obsessed with making perfect grades...and I almost did it too, I received only two B's in my entire undergrad career (And yes, those 2 Bs still haunt me to this DAY...but I'm over it, whatever..., and no you are not shocked by this fact because I'm still the same OCD dork so go ahead and insert mock surprise here...). But this time around, I resolved to be less obsessed with the GRADE, and more obsessed with actually learning and retaining. You see, I have fabulous memorization skills, and this is the reason I graduated with such flying colors. I literally memorized everything the professor said, and of course with the sophistication of the state school system, the final exams more often than not would also literally be word for word straight from the professor's lecture. So, simply memorize everything the professor says all semester, and finals are a breeze. But ask me now what type of volcanic rock is identified by it's striations or what happened at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, and I couldn't tell you (Ok but I did remember "striations" and "milvian bridge" and I bet you didn't so there...). The thing is, I'm the kind of person that learns by DOING...application, putting my hands on something and figuring it out...that's why I was good at theatre and all my arts classes. You don't just sit and listen and then get quizzed, you DO (which, by the way is a good reason you would think I would also be good at math...but guess again).

So all of that to say that when I began grad school, I decided that I didn't want to just succeed on paper, but break the memorization habits and actually learn for the long term and put it to the pavement and apply it, even if that means getting, God forbid, a B (or a grade with other letters I like to pretend don't exist). And let me tell you...accomplishing that goal is going to be hard for an obessive compulsive perfectionist like me. But by the end of the semester, I did finally figure out that it is not necessary to look up every single word I don't know in a 2,000 page book...it's ok to miss a few words here and there if you're still getting the big picture.
Easy concept you say...well I don't think you've tried being as perfect as I try to be.

All that being said, I'm still hoping for an A :) (Hey, baby steps...)

Blog? What Blog?

Ok, so it's been over a month since my last post. I will understand if you have boycotted my blog and hate me forever...but lets face it, if you keep that up, you will be sorry and humorless for the rest of your life, and we both know that an unfunny, blogless life is not what God intended. So thus, El Bloggo has resumed. It seems, surprisingly enough, that things got a little hectic at work with Easter, and I think only after it was over did I really take my first breath of relief since Christmas. So the blog fell by the wayside. But now I'm back with a brand new invention and I'll be regaling you with tales about mutant spiders and eharmony rejections once more. Stay tuned for stories about how I am a rockstar and rode go-carts with Hillsong United, and also the wrap-up of my first semester of seminary!

Until then, I'll try to live a much more exciting life that is worthy of the blog.