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kiima
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Name: Lori
Birthday: 5/17/1985
Gender: Female
Interests: Jesus is a big one... and Jason. After that comes good friends, photography, reading, scrapbooking, and my research. Work is fun if you get to work on interesting disorders!
Expertise: Making myself look stupid, dropping things, and making a mean chocolate-chip cookie.
Occupation: Research Tech
Industry: Clinical Immunology Research
Message: message me
Member Since:
7/8/2004
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| I talked with my younger older brother last night on the phone for about an hour and twenty minutes... that's a lot longer than usual. It was his birthday, and he had a little too much to drink and was feeling talkative. He was still lucid, just... open. We talked about a variety of things, but the weird part about the whole conversation is that he kept telling me about events, often very emotional and/or traumatizing events, that happened in my family that I don't remember. The same thing has happened to me before in conversations with my sister - she references some event, like us sharing a room for years, and I don't remember it at all. I wonder if I have a poor memory, or my siblings/parents protected me by just never telling me some things, or I intentionally repressed them. Anyway, I'm glad I now know these events happened - hopefully, they will make me a better parent and sibling now - but I'm glad that for some reason I didn't know they happened all through my childhood. Conversations with people I love that I think are making poor life decisions always make me very sad. Especially since they usually tell me at some point in the conversation that I'm better to talk to than so-and-so because I recognize that they feel one way and I feel another, and I don't condemn them for it. Last night's conversation was good because the conversation was open enough for me to say that I try to show people what I believe is right by how I live, not what I yell at them for, but I also got to point out that I wished he would do or not do some specific things. Often, I feel like my attitude comes across as accepting the action - something I don't want to do. Some times I wonder if it would be better to be more like that - openly say to people that I think a specific thing they are doing is wrong. But so often, someone will confess something they are doing to me and ask for my help or advice because they know I won't condemn them for it. I think, in general, my way works pretty well. I hope it's truly motivated by love and not just the desire to be non-confrontational. | | |
| Lately I've been thinking a lot about how much I have - which is, quite frankly, a whole lot. Since Jason and I are both working now, we are basically choosing to live more wastefully than we used to but not nearly as wastefully as we could. We tithe, and we save something like 16% of his and all of mine except tithe. All this is to 1) contribute to God's work as called for in scripture and 2) to use our money as good stewards (i.e. investing in a home instead of paying rent forever).
With all this saving for the future, it's easy for me to feel like we have lots of money and none at all (the latter of which is ridiculous). It also makes me think of how well off my parents' could have been if they hadn't given so much of their money (my parents, by the way, gave and give way more than 10% to the Church, to missions, to Christian organizations, etc.). That leads me to wondering which one is better. Would not 10,000 be better spent going to a homeless shelter than into a slightly bigger/newer house for Jason and I?
I'm pretty sure God doesn't want us to live forever like we did the first two years of marriage - that is, I'm pretty sure he's okay with us spending the money on an apartment that's relatively energy efficient and has an oven that doesn't burn everything. I'm not sure about Him wanting us to buy things like big-screen plasma TVs. My mind keeps going back to the rich man of Mark 10, to whom Jesus said: "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." I don't know if we're as rich as that man, but I do know Americans as a whole are really, really well off. Are we really called to just sit on that wealth and not help our neighbors?
I've also been thinking a lot about "you are worthy of my praise" - that lyric that is in a lot of songs worshiping God. It bothers me, because I think the focus is wrong. Of course God is worthy of our praise! Praise God that He has made us worthy to even dare to raise our eyes and voices and hands to praise Him! It is only because of Christ's gift that we can "approach the throne of grace with confidence" (Hebrews 4:16).
On a completely different note, got a couple of cooking DVDs from a friend as a Christmas present and now I really, really like Alton Brown.
For those of you (y'know, all you hundreds that read this blog) who don't know Alton Brown, he hosts a cooking show called "Good Eats" in which he tells you how to cook pretty simple things extremely well. The "extremely well" part comes through science. That's right, science (now you know why I really, really like him). For example, in the episode about steaks he talks about breaking down the cellular structure of the meat through heat, and turning collagen fibers into gelatin. He tells you why it's important to use canola or peanut oil because of it's "smoke point," and other exciting science facts. Plus, he's entertaining to watch.
The best part is, he's allowed me to make a really good steak, something which I have never done before. Using that same steak episode, I made a delicious dinner last night with an incredibly juicy ribeye.
Now I just need other people to buy me all his books for my birthday :)
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| We began Sunday with the Empire State Building. We were suppossed to get in Fast Track with the passes we bought on line, but apparently they were advertising falsely. We waited about half an hour before getting to the giftshop and the elevators to the top. Before going up, we decided to go on the NY Skyride, which is this cool, hydraulic theater that shows you all of the best sites of NYC.... or so we thought. It was pretty dumb, even with Kevin Bacon narrating and throwing in the occasional 6 degrees of separation joke. After that waste of time, we went up to the top - where I took pictures, pictures, and more pictures. My favorite was the one of the pigeon olympian, who flew to the top of the ESB to look for crumbs and pose for pictures. After the ESB, we walked up Broadway to the Rockefeller Center, where we took a tour of NBCstudios. We definitely got escorted by Kenneth-esque pages. One of them, Eric, was absolutely hilarious. Either he or the crazy asian cameraman was the best part of the tour. The cameraman was more emphatic while directed us, and much more amused when the volunteers messed up their lines, but Eric had much more amusing quips about how we would get our cameras taken forever if we took them out... but they would give us back our knives. After the Rockefeller center, we wandered over to Central Park. I left Sabrina to play with Jason's iPhone while I wandered off in search of scenes from Enchanted. Instead, I ended up watching two awesome street performers doing a comedy/acrobatic show. After distracting myself with that for about 30 minutes, I walked quickly back to Sabrina (only getting lost once) and we headed out. Her feet (and mine) were very much done for the day. | | |
| Day 2 - August 16th - Day of Pain
The day began bright and early with our hotel's glorious continental breakfast (glorious meaning mostly comprised of sugared breads and sadly lacking in fruit). We hit the train stop and made the connection at Penn Station to Uptown with no hiccups. We got out at Cathedral parkway just after 11, which meant we couldn't hit the first tour of St. John's. We wandered about the north end of Central park to kill some time, then sat on the front steps of the Cathedral waiting for the tour to start and watching the multi-colored Double-deckers.
A little after one, the nice old lady tour guide showed up and lead us through the cathedral. She told us a myriad of facts, including 1) Gothic is a prejorative term coined by a French man who thought the style was a sad comparison to the Romanesque and nicknamed it after the Goths of Italy, 2) we were sitting on Mercy Seats, which were used by priests to pretend they were standing up when they were really sitting on tall ledges/leaning against the back, 3) the middle circle of the large circular stained glass window at the front of St. John's contains a sitting Jesus which is 5'7" - way, way taller than it looks, and 4) there was a fire at the church in 2001 which was started by an electrical fire in the office of the manager of the gift shop, did 5 million worth of damage, and left the organ inoperable. She also told us a ridiculous amount of other trivia... much more than we cared to know, actually.
At about 2, we finished the tour and went off in search of food. We took the subway to Columbus circle, then walked down Broadway in search of either Planet Hollywood or Hard Rock Cafe. According to the map, we passed one of each before getting to Times Square. The swarms of people and colored lights must have distracted us, but we eventually found the Planet Hollywood just next to Times Square. The sustenance (and the amusingly random music videos ) were much appreciated by both of us.
At about 3, we set off for the Empire State Building. At about 3:30, we learned the line was 2 hours long and the pass that should have given us FastTrack service had been downgraded. Instead, we ventured into Macy's, the World's Largest Department Store! We didn't even make it past the information desk before being overcome by the sheer number of people. Instead of Macy's, we decided to buy tickets (half price!) in Times Square for Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater. I stood in the insane line for 20 minutes or so while Sabrina rested her feet, then we checked out the Marriott-Marquis Hotel and had Starbucks for dinner before the show. Both of us were suitably impressed with the show (it is Broadway...). At intermission, we met the girls next to us, who were from Sweden (I think). They had arrived in NYC for business that morning and were leaving the next day, but decided to see a show while they were there. We met them during intermission, when the one right next to me leaned over and asked first if that was the end, and then how long it would be until it was over. They were, understandably, sleepy.
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| Betcha can't guess where I am! That's right, the big apple (a term which I have yet to discover the origin of). Sabrina asked me a month or so ago if I wanted to vacation with her to the Grand Canyon. That didn't work out, and neither did the free airplanes tickets United was supposed to give her, but we decided to ask for lots of early presents from various relatives and go on a vacation anyway. Since I've been dying to see Wicked since it came to OKC, we went to NYC! Anyway, since we've been here, we've done lots of awesome stuff and a LOT of waiting in lines and on train platforms. The next couple of posts will be the breakdown of our trip, for those of you who are interested and also for my scrapbooking later!
Day one - August 15th (a.k.a. The Day of Disaster)
Sabrina arrived at my apartment bright and early (5:30, about 4 hours before she usually wakes up). After making sure we had all the necessary things, like umbrellas, we were off. Jason drove us to the airport, sent us off, we quickly passed through security, then we waited, flew, and arrived. Once at EWR airport, we tried to catch the SuperShuttle bus to our hotel. Turns out Cheaptickets.com (which I now hate only slightly less than United) sold me vouchers for a service that does not exist. Supershuttle only takes you to Manhattan from EWR, not into New Jersey. After wandering a bit about the airport, we got a taxi (cheaper than the aforementioned SuperShuttle) to take us to the hotel. We checked in early, hung around for a bit and unpacked, then decided to go into NYC and explore Chinatown.
After waiting half an hour or so for a train, we got on one. A few stops later, the conductor says, "To connect to New York Penn Station, get off at the next stop - Broad St." We, of course, get off. We then wander about confused until a nice policeman informs us the conductor actually said, "to connect to Newark Penn Station..." So, we go back up to the platform and wait another 45 minutes or so for the train. We get on, buy our tickets, travel about 15 minutes, then come to a dead stop under the Hudson Bay. That's right, in the dark and scary tunnel under many feet of water. The conductor informs us that no trains are entering or leaving New York, and they don't know how long it will be. Other people are getting off the train and onto one going the other way, hoping to get back to NJ then take a ferry across. Sabrina and I wait about 40 minutes... since we have no idea how to get a ferry. Fortunately for us, the train closes its doors just as scores of people head back towards it and moves forward, leaving all those less fortunate standing on the platform.
Once in NYC, we attempt to navigate Penn Station. After about 30 minutes or so of wandering, asking questions, and generally bemoaning Lori's poor preparation, we get to the right train. We go the wrong direction, but we were at least on the right train... so we get off, get back on going the other way, and eventually arrive at Chinatown. Hooray!
Just kidding. We wander for about 20 minutes without seeing anything that looks delicious, then it starts to rain. We, being the smart and prepared girls that we were, left those umbrellas we were so careful to pack back at the hotel. After standing under an awning and trying to wait out the rain, we made a mad dash for the subway and went back to Penn Station. Sabrina and I sought out a bathroom in vain, then sought out the correct train to take. As both ventures failed and no one was at the information booth (any of the three times we checked it), we finally asked at customer service. Luckily, our train was late, so we got on it in plenty of time and went "home."
Total at this point of the day: 14 hours of traveling, waiting, or wandering; 1 hour in Chinatown.
The last part of the day made us feel a lot better. When we got back to our station, we dropped by Walgreen's to get some dinner (9 pm is that late...). We hung out a bit that night, watching television and carefully planning the train stops for the next day - which we would start bright and early with St. John's, then Central Park, a walk down Broadway to Times Square, then the Empire State Building.
Tune in next time (maybe tomorrow) for Sabrina and Lori's Excellent Adventure, Day 2!
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