at scott's request

Five random things about me that you don't know (already):
1) when i was little, i wanted to be the Incredible Hulk when i grew up.
2) i'm a little claustrophobic.
3) i've never driven a standard-shift vehicle.
4) my small childhood pillow lasted until yesterday, when it was replaced by a new one from Santa.
5) and today, i saw Joe Nichols (the country artist) walking out of the Wal-Mart by my house.

What was I doing ten years ago?
enjoying Christmas of my eighth grade year (ha!) living in Orange, TX.

What was I doing a year ago?
Job - i had just quit my job in Abilene.
Life - i moved to Nashville exactly one year ago 12/22.

Favorite Snacks:
1) ice cream
2) peanut butter & apple/banana
3) anything chocolate. chocolate with peanut butter is better.
4) good granola cereal
5) plain Lays potato chips

Five songs I know all the words to:
okay, i know all the words to 500 songs, but here are 5 that have recently been in my car cd player:
1) Cheatin' - Sara Evans
2) I'll Take You Back - Brad Paisley
3) Calling All Angels - Train
4) Ice Cream - Sarah McLachlan
5) American Soldier - Toby Keith

Five things I'd do if I had the money:
1) move Karen to Nashville
2) buy my aunt's house
3) help a friend start his dream project in the most poverty-stricken area of east Tennessee
4) buy a puppy
5) invest the rest while i decide what else to do with it

Five bad habits:
1) staying up too late on work nights
2) procrastinating on things i don't want to do
3) eating cereal instead of real food for dinner... a lot
4) speeding in the construction zone on the way to work. it is 45mph on an open interstate. gimmie a break.
5) reading too many people's blogs! it was a slippery slope, i tell you.

Five things I love to do:
1) be outside
2) be alone
3) swim
4) take pictures
5) take naps

Five favorite toys:
1) my camera
2) Bejeweled (dad got me hooked over thanksgiving, but i dont have it here)
3) my car (does that count? i love to drive alone to think/escape)
4) all my Stampin' Up stuff (for making notecards)
5) and Hi-Ho Cherry-O, which i gave my cousin for Christmas today

Five people to tag:
1) Wheeza
2) Jenni
3) Fire
4) Commander
5) umm... this concludes my list of friends who A) know about this blog, and B) might actually comment.

true story

i heard a story at a christmas party tonight that i am SURE you will all want to know.

several years ago, this girl was trying to decide which college to attend. she wasn't sold on the idea of attending a christian university, so during her visit to harding university, she was really just checking it off her list. but her recruiter was very persistent, "a charmer," even. so one day, in front of hundreds of other students, her recruiter took her hand, got down on one knee, and said, "i have a very important question to ask you - will you attend harding?" after recovering from the near-death-embarassment experience, she said yes, and she lived happily ever after at harding.

the end.

boRING

at church tonight, we had a little contest in my class. we were instructed to wear a tie of any sort to class - a necktie, a bowtie, a ribbon tied in your hair, a sash tied around your waist, string tied around your finger, etc. (it related to a presentation we were having about someone's recent trip to Thailand.) the categories included most creative, most christmas-spirited, and most boring. i just wanted you all to know that i did NOT win for most boring. i didn't win for any of the others, either, but i felt it was important that you all know that i did not win for most boring.

name that program

Second Harvest Food Bank facilitates a program in a nearby rural school through which low-income students receive food on Friday afternoons as they head home for the weekend. This food is intended to supplement their supply at home, considering that these students are on free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches during the school week, but need breakfasts and lunches on Saturday and Sunday. The food is placed in the students' backpacks or, if their backpack is already full, in another bag that does not indicate the contents so as not to stigmatize the student.

This program has been casually referred to as "The Backpack Program" but this name confuses people into thinking Second Harvest is giving away actual backpacks to students. No backpacks are distributed, just food. We plan to expand this program to other rural communities that we serve, but to do so effectively, we need an official (a better) program name.

You guys ooze creativity, so fire away with your suggestions for a program name. I'll send you a prize if we choose your suggestion.

Here are our other program names/descriptions so you have a little context:

Community Food Partners: We distribute over 7 million pounds of food annually to more than 500 nonprofit agencies that feed the hungry in our 46 county service area.

Nashville's Table: We rescue excess prepared and perishable food from food donors like bakeries, restaurants, hospitals, schools, and caterers and then deliver it at no charge directly to more than 200 nonprofit agencies like shelters, churches, youth programs, and senior centers that feed the hungry in Davidson County (Nashville) and the three surrounding counties.

Kids Cafe: We provide a weekly evening meal and daily summer breakfasts/snacks to children participating in activities at 30 community center sites in Davidson County.

Community Kitchen: We offer a course that equips people with barriers to employment with the skills they need to obtain and retain gainful employment in the foodservice industry.

Project Preserve: We manufacture shelf-stable food products in house from donated ingredients and then sell the canned or frozen product to other food banks across the country as a source of revenue for our local hunger-relief programs.

Emergency Food Box: We pack and distribute emergency food boxes to 15 sites in Davidson County such as community centers and churches with food pantries. When clients call SHFB needing food, we refer them to the nearest Emergency Food Box site according to their zip code. A box feeds a family of four for about three days.

Culinary Arts Center: We offer food safety training, catering services, event hosting, and more as an educational tool and a source of revenue for our other programs.

Other names we have used in the past for special projects/events:
Take Out Hunger
Feed the Need
Generous Helpings
First Harvest Cafe
Harvest Moon Ball

hey, look!

it is snowing outside! i would prefer it snow three feet so that there is no question about whether or not anyone goes to work tomorrow, but i suspect it will be juuuust icy enough to add an hour and three wrecks to my morning drive.

is this normal?

1) A guy from a roofer company left an advertisement on Dad's door yesterday. (Perhaps the giant blue FEMA tarp tipped him off that Dad might be interested.) Dad called him, and the guy came to the house today to give an estimate. The company is based in Arlington but has recently localized in southeast Texas for obvious reasons. As they chatted, Dad mentioned that they had evacuated to my sister's place in Arlington. Turns out, the guy used to live on the same street with an address just one number off from hers.

2) As I helped a coworker with a project this week, we started talking about our families and discovered that she went to high school with my parents. Her husband played football with my dad. Her husband also had my grandmother for a biology teacher. (And my grandmother remembers him clearly, as she does all of her former students.)

3) On my flight from Houston to Nashville after Thanksgiving, a guy was asked to change seats so that a family could use his row. He moved, sat on my row and struck up a conversation, during which I learned: he is from Hendersonville (where I live now), the building where he used to attend church is now the building where my church meets, he is best friends with my current preacher's son at college, and his college roommate has been on a mission trip to New Zealand.

4) My Boston-friend Karen was named after my Abilene-friend Caron.

5) When I moved here, I met a girl who went to Harding. She remembers Cole and Mark. Also, her best college friend accompanied my sister to Kenya when they (attending different colleges and never having met before) spent nine months teaching school to the children of the missionaries.

6) My current supervisor at work went to ACU when Ed was there.

it's a small world. and frankly, sort of creepy.

RLS

So tonight I saw a commercial advertising the cutting-edge medication for Restless Leg Syndrome, "a surprisingly common but serious condition." Translation: if a slight tingly feeling in your leg keeps you awake at night every once in a while, you should rush right out and pay big bucks for this drug which won't be covered by your insurance and will most certainly be recalled from the market in three years when we finish our research and discover it causes liver failure.

Now, I am sure that one of my faithful four readers actually suffers from RLS and will explain to me the legitimacy of the condition and the necessity of the medication. Fine. But I'm telling you now, I laughed out loud at the commercial. I felt like I was watching Saturday Night Live.