Stonehenge News!

Ok, so I found this totally awesome news story on BBC today! A huge ancient settlement used by the people who built Stonehenge has been found. Very cool. And to think, I was there just months ago!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6311939.stm

Life Decisions

I am feeling very peaceful today.

It's been awhile. Even lately when I've been keeping myself busy with friends and Chris, I've been just "ok". Today is the first day that I've really felt content in several weeks.

I feel as through recently I have been conflicted, distressed, and just thinking about life too much. I'm at the point where I feel like I can just let it go a bit, and not have to have everything planned out for me. There are still things that I have to figure out, but I'm not going to push myself to make a decision until I feel ready. I don't know why I impose such strict timelines on myself.

I think it has a lot to do with this fear that I have. I have such a strong premonition that I won't do the things that I feel that I need to do in order to be happy. I get scared that I'm going to be stuck in Central Pa for the rest of my life. I get scared that I'm not going to travel. I get scared that I'm going to be stuck in a job that I don't love. I think most of all, I'm scared about making the wrong decision.

A lot of my indecision also has to do with the way I interact with myself. I have ALWAYS had to push myself to go above and beyond. What comes easily to others doesn't to me. I have had to work hard for everything that I have, and I have always been able to motivate myself to rise to the challenge in front of me. I think this applies to my situation now, because I am subconsciously pushing myself to start doing the things I know I need to do (live in a different area, get my Master's, travel) and I'm not allowing myself to have time in which I'm not working towards these goals.

I feel as though I'm spinning my wheels sometimes, which is part of what led to this whole life crisis thing in the beginning. I'm in a job that is making a difference in people's lives, but it doesn't fulfill me. I am not challenged by it. Most days it is easy, and I'm not very intellectually stimulated. I have professional ambitions that I want to fulfill eventually, and this job is not really going to lead me anywhere on that path.

However, for the first time since graduation, I'm feeling comfortable here. I'm LOVING being with Chris, spending my weekends with him. Its amazing that my friends are close by, and I get to see them once or twice a week. I am close to my family and able to be involved in my sister's life. All of these things are very important to me.

So! The point of all of this is to say that I have decided that I'm not going to push myself to make a decision right now. I'm going to, for the first time in awhile, let things take their course for a bit. I'm going to give myself some time, and call off the pressure that I had put on myself.

And this makes me feel oddly content. :)

~Molly

What I learned from Time magazine today

Ok, so I'm being incredibly unproductive at work today. That's why I'm posting twice in one day.

I just received the first installment of my Time magazine subscription (a Christmas gift) and read almost the whole thing through. I thought I would share some of my favorite parts with you all.

First of all, however, I came across this great link. It amused the heck out of me, anyway. http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2007-01-19T145018Z_01_HKG364170_RTRUKOC_0_US-HONGKONG-LIFE-CONDOM-ODD.xml&src=rss

So now down to the serious stuff. Did you know that Apple is coming out with a new cell phone? It's called (suprise, suprise) the iPhone. http://www.apple.com/iphone/ It is amazingly beautiful, and blows everything else on the market out of the water. Of course, it's like $500, so it will be prohibitively expensive for most people. It holds music (which you can flip through your collection by ALBUM COVER!), a full touch-screen keyboard for texting, email, and the web. However, the amazing thing is that the websites actually look like they appear on computers, not as tiny, messed up versions of themselves. It is 4.5 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide, ad less than half an inch thick. It is beautiful, and I am in love :)

I'm flipping through the magazine to refresh myself on what I wanted to talk about. Oh ok, this was interesting. The Tower of London appointed a woman as one of the tower's guardians for the first time in the 522 year history of the job. Also interestingly, this is where the term "Beefeaters" comes from. I do love their gin!

Toyota is developing sweat sensors for their steering wheels that will be able to detect a driver's blood-alcohol level and then disable the car. Kinda strange.

Apparently there is a huge crop of opium (which provides 90% of the heroin consumed globally, how did I not know this??) hitting the streets this spring. At the same time, there is a hiring freeze for the DEA, so there will be even less drug enforcement going on.

The man that invented Scooby-Doo, and worked on shows like the Jetsons and the Flintstones died recently. His name was Iwao Takamoto. The interesting thing to me, however, was that he was interned with his family in California during World War II. He learned animation/illustration from his fellow detainees. Japanese internment is such a dark blot on our nation's history, and it really gets to me every time I hear about it. I'm amazed that this man was able to forgive this country, and still manage to make such a large impact on its media.

Finally, I was reading an article called "Pillow Angel Ethics". It was about a 6 year old girl named Ashley. She is severely brain-damaged. Her parents got doctors to agree to shorten and sterilize her to make it easier for her parents to take care of her. They gave her high doses of estrogen which closed her growth plates and ensured she would stay at 4 feet 5 inches for the rest of her life. Her parents justify this by saying "Ashley's smaller and lighter size makes it more possible to include her in the typical family life and activities that provide her with needed comfort, closeness, security and love: meal time, car trips, touch, snuggles, etc." Doctors removed Ashley's uterus and her breasts also. The reasoning behind this was that "Ashley has no need for developed breasts since she will not breast feed," and that they would cause discomfort when she was strapped into her chairs.

My response to this is - How much more difficult would it have been to feed, transport, and touch a girl that is 5'6 with an intact uterus and breasts? It seems to me that the choices the parents made to medically alter their 6 YEAR OLD (lets keep that in mind) was done for their convenience, not in regard to what was best for her. How far will we go with this? Is it ok to amputate a child's legs to make them more portable if they will never walk? This is a precedent that is very scary. There also have been proved cases of other children in Ashley's exact condition that eventually learn to sit up on their own, work an electric wheelchair, etc. Because of Ashley's stunted size, she most likely will not be able to reach that point of autonomy.

I have an idea of what it is like working with people with disabilities (I volunteered with Best Buddies for 4 years). I also know what its like when people loose their human rights just because of a disability. I don't think what Ashley's parents did was ethical, but that is just my opinion. I'm not in the situation myself, so I will never know for sure. What do you think?

So that's what I learned from Time today. Hope you enjoyed it too! :)

~Molly

Mono, my weekend, the accident

Hello all!

I have lots to say, so lets jump right in there!

I do indeed have mono. The doctor diagnosed me last week (Wednesday). She also said that I'm suffering from anemia, so she drew more blood to test what type. When she gets the results back, I'll have to go in again so she can give me some iron or something for that. So the combo of not having iron in my blood, and having Mono had been what was making me so tired. I am feeling much better this week, although I still don't have my regular stamina back yet. Last week, my doctor forced me to take Thursday and Friday off work, and I managed to read almost three books, get loads of errands done, watch a bit of T.V, pay my bills, do some laundry, and go to the grocery store. It was great to get stuff done around the house.

I had a fabulous weekend with Chris, as always :) Friday we met up with Uly, Dan, and Vicky and went to Midtown Cinema and saw Babel. I enjoyed the movie, it was interesting. Afterwards, we went to Zephyr's for dinner. It was quite enjoyable - I do so love Zephyr bread. Then we stopped by Dan's for a bit to hang out and see his cat. Then Chris and I went home, and to bed. Saturday was another nice day. I slept in, which was lovely. We got showers, then went and got Thai for lunch. After that, we frequented both Targets and picked up some new board games. Did you guys know that the new Target has a Starbucks in it? It was fabulous. So after shopping for awhile, we returned home and played several rousing rounds of Scatergories, one of my favorite games. After some Trivial Pursuit, I took a quick nap. Then it was time to get ready to head to York to see Paula Poundstone. I had never heard of her, but she's a pretty famous comedian. Chris had gotten tickets to see her at the York Strand, which I had not been to for a long time. It was pretty packed out, and we had really good seats. The show was great, I thought she was really funny, and we had a great time. I did not sleep well that night, resulting in me being pretty cranky Sunday morning. I think this was the first time I had been particularly cranky in front of Chris, but he handled it well. He gave me cuddles and chocolate, which definitely helped me to snap out of it by around 12. We then left to go to Lancaster to meet up with Melinda and her fiance Sean for lunch at 2. Thankfully we got there early and put our names on the hour long waiting list. Lunch was delicious, and it was very nice to see Mel and Sean again.

When we left the restaurant, it was snowing. This was a super big deal for me! I have missed every snow flurry that we'd had so far this winter, so it was the first time I saw snow this year. I was very very excited, and it made it so much better to be with Chris when it happened. I'm smiling now just thinking about it :) We stopped at a couple of the outlets, but neither of us really needed anything, so we didn't stay long. After getting back home (and finally being exposed to the Beatle's entire White album) we spent the evening inside relaxing.

So, the weekend was very busy, but very fun. It was hard to go back to work yesterday. I think I need an extended vacation. At any rate, I was driving on 83 (the not closed part) going home around 3:00 and I'm on the phone with my mom. All of a sudden, I see brake lights all in front of me, so I automatically start braking. The car in front of me, a blue jetta, doesn't brake right away, finally notices the brake lights, and starts braking with hardly any room. She swerves into the other lane to avoid rear-ending the car in front of her, and starts fishtailing across the highway, and slams into the guardrail. Now, I'm watching this all, and I'm stopped plenty far away from her. All of a sudden, I get rear-ended by a small truck behind me! (Obviously they were not paying attention, as I had stopped a long time ago) Mind you, I'm still on my cell, so I'm like "Mom, I was just in an accident, I have to go--" and hung up, amidst her freaking out. Now, the guy behind me didn't hit me that hard at all, but it was still pretty darn scary. We all exchanged info, but I don't think I'm going to report it to my insurance company as it really amounts to some scratched paint, and that's about it. In my job, I drive a lot, and I'm definitely more concerned about it now. With such a little car, I could get seriously hurt in a big accident. I'm going to make an effort to be more aware and defensive when I drive.

I went home for dinner yesterday, which was nice because I haven't spent any time with just my mom recently. She made chili and rice, and it was delicious. After I got home, Chris called me, which always makes my day :) We didn't really talk for long, though, because Teri stopped over for an hour before her dancing class at Messiah. It's always nice to talk to Teri, I love getting her imput on things going on in my life. I feel like she's my counselor sometimes. After she left, Sarah called me and we got to catch up also, which was lovely. Around 10, I called Chris back but I think he might have passed out, and missed my call ;)

Well, I think that officially brings us up to date. Life is good right now.

~Molly

To answer, or not to answer?

I may be the only one who does this, but I never answer the phone when its a number I don't recognize.

Since the inception and general worldwide usage of caller ID, I feel as though I DESERVE to know who is trying to contact me before I pick up the phone. No surprises. I can avoid a call if I feel like it. It is a very handy device, caller ID. So, if I receive a call on my phone and I don't recognize the number or the caller, I get indignant. Who could it be? 9 times out of 10, I wait for the person to leave a message then immediately call my voice mail to find out who it was.

However, last night, I answered a number I didn't recognize! I don't know what came over me...it must have been a full moon, or I had fever, or something. But I decided to answer. And as soon as I heard "Hello darling!" I was ever so glad I did!!

It was Mr. Andrew Lewis Esq. himself! The accent immediately brought a huge smile to my face -- It was so very good to hear from him. For those of you who haven't had the chance to meet Andy yet, he has the charming, eloquent, posh British accent. ("Hello dahling") There are others, like my friend Allyssa, who boasts a more "London-esque" accent. ("Oy! 'Ello Mate!") It's always a pleasure to hear Andy's voice. But anyway, he was calling me because he was currently in the "Non-alcoholic Student Union" (as he called it) at Messiah. He had arrived in the States on Monday, and got to E-town on Tuesday. Yesterday, being Wednesday, he was visiting Messiah. While we were talking, he told me he was waiting for Karen (another girl from England) to finish her shift at the SU and then he and several others were going to watch a "film, oops I mean 'Moooo-vay' " in her room. I told him I was sick and he laughed a lot when he heard about the mono. We just had a quick conversation, but it was fabulous to talk to him. He promised to call when there was something fun going on, and we're going to make plans to see each other soon. What a fabulous end to the night!

Well, I suppose I should talk briefly about what I did yesterday. I went to work really late, which was nice since I've been so tired. It was a good day at work- low key and semi-productive. After that, I picked Emily and Chris up, and we went to the Farm Show! It was a lot of fun - and we got delicious food as always. I got a baked potato, a milkshake, and chicken nuggets - Farm Show classics! We checked out the bunnies and the horses, and saw an absolutely gigantic pig with baby piglets. I even got to see what I came for - the pooping cows. The butter sculpture was also fun - it was Benjamin Franklin looking at the liberty bell. Yesterday was my best health day in awhile, but even still I got very tired and worn out after walking around the Farm Show for just a couple of hours. Still, it was the most physical exertion that I've done in awhile. I can tell that my body is still not recovered. I'm hoping that I'll feel better by this weekend, but you never know.

After I dropped off Chris and Emily, I went home. Talked to Chris on the phone for a bit, and then got online briefly. Talked to Dan, Sarah, and my friend from England Stephanie. Steph wants me to come to Ohio and ride with her to see Anna (another fellow study abroad student) who is studying at Wheaton for the weekend sometime in Feburary. It's a 4 hour drive to Stephs, and then another 6.5 to Anna's. So, thats a lot for the weekend, so I'm not sure. I would really love to see those girls though - I miss them a lot, and it would be SO much fun! Then, Andy called me, and my story has come full circle!

Yesterday was a great day! Can't wait for Friday though! :)

~Molly

Tales from a Chipmunk

14 days since my last post!

I need to work on this. Pretty soon I'm going to forget all about my blogger again.

Anyway. Wow. So again, a lot has happened.

Today, actually in like 15 minutes, I'm getting audited by the good 'ole government! They will be checking my files and finding mistakes, I'm sure!! I have done a lot of prep work, so it might not be that bad (here's hoping!).

Oh yeah, I'm sick. I went to the Doctor's yesterday and she said that I have double ear infections, a throat infection, and the possibility of mono. YAY! Also, my face is very swollen, as are my glands. So I basically look like a chipmunk with nuts in its mouth. It's quite amusing to some of my friends. Namely Dan and Hierald. Although I did agree with them when they commented about how I always seem to get weird and random diseases, never just a simple cold. (I'm sure we ALL recall the pneumonia vaccine reaction- aka insanely painful swollen arm incident!)

Well, I haven't posted since Christmas basically, so I'll do a short rundown of the following days. I spent a ton of time with Chris - including New Years because my friends are a bit flaky and plans were cancelled for a second time. So Chris and I spent Saturday going shopping for things for his house (which included - a trash can, dish towels, pot holders, toaster, new rice cooker, salt and pepper shakers, a spoon rest, and some alcoholic paraphernalia.) We had a delicious dinner at Outback Steakhouse also. Sunday, we decided that we were going to throw a party for ourselves. So, we went to the grocery store and bought lots of ingredients. I made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and Chris made spinach balls. We also had chips and salsa. Complete with some wine and finally champagne around 12, it was a very awesome party. We actually missed the ball dropping, which is very amusing to me. I think our celebration was just fine though :)

So Monday morning we parted ways, and I haven't seen him since! It has been a real pain in the butt - i do not enjoy going eight days without Chris. Especially when I had seen him so much previously. I do not think I would be good at long-distance relationships. As much as emails, texts, and talking on the phone help, I definitely need the one-on-one actual interaction. Call me crazy ;)

Last week was pretty uneventful, I slept a lot. It was a three day work week for me, so that was nice. I also got to read a couple of books. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "City of Ember". I'm currently reading "Anthem" by Ayn Rand. The first is one of Chris' favorites, and the second and third he got me for Christmas. I very much enjoyed all of them so far and can't wait to read the sequels to City of Ember.

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Time lapse here - I just got audited and it went wonderfully!! Yay for me!!!!
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Last Friday I took off to go to Richmond with my family. I got to see my grandfather, who I haven't seen since June! It was really great to see him - I miss him so much. He's pretty old though (86) and looking feeble. Every time I leave him, I wonder if it's the last time I'm going to see him. I made sure to leave with a big hug and "I love you" just in case. I'll never forget the last thing my Grandma said to me when I visited her in the hospital - "Thanks for coming to see me. You made my day." I think it's really important to end everything ( a conversation, visit, email, etc) on a positive note, because we never truly know what the next day, hours, minutes... will bring.

Oh gosh - yesterday. So I'm chilling upstairs in my room, cleaning a bit and really gearing up to take a hugely satisfying nap. Kristen calls me downstairs to look at bridesmaid dresses, and then Dan walks in. He's all like "There's black smoke billowing out of your chimney." Kristen freaks out, thankfully, and calls Hierald who calls public safety, who calls maintenance, who almost calls the fire department. They turn off our furnace thingy, and the smoke stops. However, we have a high level of carbon monoxide, the silent killer, in our house. They opened all the windows and ventilated the house. But still -- how scary! If Dan had not come over and told us, and I had taken a nap, I could have been in serious trouble! The reading was 85, and the danger zone is 100 and over. So boo to that -- I was evacuated to my house for the night.

So I think that's all for now. I can't think of anything else extremely interesting to post.

Oh wait! My friend Andy is officially here! He's studying abroad at E-town for the semester, fresh from England! I'm stoked!

Tata!

~Molly