the domestic zoo

January 1st, 2008:

March 2nd, 2008:

I decided to go with a [livejournal] theme that really fits my life right now. My very, very caffeine-fueled life.

Today is Meatfare Sunday, and so I said farewell to meat with a hearty steak tip Greek salad. I didn’t get to church, though, as I spent most of the morning doing homework and tending to a certain pale, sickly thirteen year old girl. She had some friends over this week, and one of them was coughing like a sixty year-old smoker. Surprise, surprise, less than 24 hours later Hannah was sick too. Being rather paranoid about the rest of the house catching teh sick, I washed her sheets and have been Lysol-ing everything she touches.

Such is my life.

April 2nd, 2008:

Poor Hannah got hit with a triple whammy today: runny nose/sore throat, growing pains, and cramps. Sometimes it’s just hard to be a kid…

I, on the other hand, am having a slightly better day. Gonna get my schoolwork done, go to Presanctified Liturgy, and then see my friend Steph (for the first time in…almost forever). But I think I might also commiserate with Hannah for awhile. On the couch. With some chocolate. Watching a movie.

May 4th, 2008:

Hannah: You know, when you’re flipping someone off, there’s still four fingers pointed at you. 

June 1st, 2008:

waving my freak flag (or: God Has a Really Timely Sense of Humor…Doesn’t He?)

July 5th, 2008:

This is my third night of the five I’m working this week/weekend. And last night’s shift was considered a holiday. Cha-ching!

We had a pretty rockin’ Fourth of July. Grilled some steaks, sat around the bonfire, lit off some (illegal) fireworks and watched Huey Lewis singing at the celebration in D.C. Then Jimmy Smits, the host, tried valiently to muster some excitement over the upcoming Olympics. The loudest applause the audience gave was for the athletes themselves, which is nice, because they’ve worked their asses off to get to the Olympics and they’re not the ones who get to pick the polluted and oppressive location, amirite? 

And they picked athletes from the less publically popular sports, too: archery, fencing, sailing…modern pentathlon-ing. Do you have any idea what it takes to be a modern pentathlete? Multitasking LIEK WOAH. I am officially very impressed.

August 1st, 2008:

If all that The Church did to you growing up was make you wear dressy clothes, sit through boring sermons, withstand ten verses of "Just As I Am" accompanied solely by bowel-rattling organ, listen to Sandi Patty and/or The Master’s Five, or believe your soul is in eternal jeopardy if you don’t choose Jesus, you were not abused by the church. There are worse things than suffering the unhip-ness of church culture. God doesn’t care about your haircut or what style of music you listen to, and if you think a lost world would like Jesus more if only his followers looked more "emo", you’re an idiot.

September 4th, 2008:

I can’t for the life of me remember how to spell monastery.

Monastery.

M-o-n-a-s-t-e-r-y.

Anyway, that’s where I’m going, the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, PA. I’ll be leaving tomorrow at the butt crack of dawn 5 am, and will spend a restful weekend there with some good friends. Then I’ll be back sometime Monday night, sleep in my own bed, and then it’s off again on Tuesday, this time to New Brunswick, Canada, to stay with another friend. It’s going to be a lot of driving. My butt may never forgive me. Still, I think it’s going to be an awesome week.

Bye, y’all.

October 6th, 2008:

My winter coat has finally been pulled out for the season, and I’m on the hunt for a nice pair of boots to wear to church. Currently, I’m sitting at my desk wearing flannel pants, a long-sleeved shirt under a fleece sweater, a tam and slippers. Outside the foliage is in full swing and the air is starting to take on that musky smell of damp leaves.

continue reading so…October

November 2nd, 2008:

[so while y'all are enjoying your extra hour of sleep...]

I’ll be sitting through an extra hour of work.

Yay, me.

Right now it’s quiet at the switchboard, and I’m watching La Haine. It’s in French, and it’s black-and-white, which makes me feel all extra intellectual.

A very strange woman called earlier and got upset that I couldn’t give her any medical advice over the phone, even after I stressed that I was just the phone operator. Srsly?

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

And, of course, no post during my offline time (aka, December)

Nerd Test

This test is designed to help you determine your nerdity quotient. In the past, someone may have watched you, or listened to something you said and then exclaimed, “You geek! What do you think you are doing?” Or maybe it’s just us. In any event, we here at the nerdity testing lab were prompted to ask “just what is a nerd?” In response, we came up with this test. By taking it, you will determine your current nerdity quotient (from 0% to 100%), with 100% roughly corresponding to a pile of sludge unable to communicate with anything human except through a device that is a miracle of modern medicine and engineering, and whose only connection to the outside world is through the computer Internet system.

Your Score: 33.3 – Closet nerd

And then, for even more fun, The Geek Test v.3.1

Your Score: 31.75542% – Total Geek

from Morning Coffee

A) FOUR PLACES I GO OVER AND OVER: church, work, campus, and Subway

B) FOUR PEOPLE WHO ENCOURAGED MY FAITH ALONG THE WAY: My parents, my priest, and the wonderful Orthodox women I’ve met online (sorry, I can’t pick just one!)

C) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS: pizza, spinach, oranges and peanut butter

D) FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW: in bed, in a coffee shop, at the ocean, in Africa

E) FOUR MOVIES I WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Chalk, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Babe

F) FOUR THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHURCH: wholeness, balance, beauty, and ritual (above and beyond any experience I came close to in Protestantism)

G) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE HOBBIES: photography, reading, cooking and daydreaming