No Rest for the Weary

I am a sleepy girl. No surprise there. I'm pretty sure anyone who knows me could recount at least one occasion where I have fallen asleep at an inopportune time and/or place because, let's face it, I like to sleep. However, I also like to do fun things and so, for the past two weeks, I've been neglecting sleep in order to be a social butterfly.

Saturday before last, I went to the live taping of College Game Day at the Air Force Academy. I'm not even going to tell you what time I woke up because even now, it's nausea-inducing.

But it was totally worth it for this "MONEY SHOT" of Kirkers. I've harbored a slight crush on Kirk Herbstreit since approximately my sophomore year of college. Doesn't it kind of look like Kirkers is taking an obvious stand against the Texas Longhorns in this picture? I'd like to think so.

Then, of course, there was Lee "not so fast my friend" Corso.

And Chris Fowler, who graduated from high school right here in Colorado Springs.

And finally, Desmond Howard.

Monday night I lucked out and got last minute tickets to Monday Night Football: Broncos vs. Steelers (thanks, Maria!). Too bad it took us upwards of three hours to get from the Springs to Mile High, which caused us to miss the first quarter and resulted in a Series of Unfortunate Events. Nevertheless, the last three quarters were lots of fun and totally worth it. Here's Benny-boo-boo-boo (Ben Roethlisberger) planning his assault:

Then came Veteran's Day, which was a holiday for me because of my high-paying government job contract. Sarcasm. Anyway, a new Chick-fil-A opened on Nov. 12 in town and because they give a year of free meals to the first 100 customers at the Grand Opening, I decided to forgo sleep yet again to camp out for 24 hours in the parking lot to ensure that I would get more free chicken than can possibly be healthy.

After a frantic phone call from my good friend Phil at dark-thirty, I hastily threw 8 pairs of socks in a bag and flew out the door. I was number 98! It was so much fun because we probably knew 60 of the campers.

First we waited in line...Then we set up camp...

Then we played some games...
Then we nearly froze to death...

Then we got our chicken, complete with free t-shirt. But he wore these pants by choice...

Those are a few of the happenings recently. I will also be sleepless for the next 3-4 nights because of more ridiculous activities, but I will update you on those after they've happened and when I have a little less shame about what I'm doing with my life.

*All photos courtesy of Alecia DeLorme

Some Things and Stuff

Monday night I had the privilege of hearing The Pioneer Woman speak at The Tattered Cover in Denver. If you don’t know who she is, you should check her out. She’s a fantastic blogger and her website is amazing. I am constantly trying to win a KitchenAid mixer on her blog. My attempts have yet to yield any positive results. Anyway, she wrote a cookbook and I can’t wait to try some of the recipes.

Did I ever report about the Evening of Sophistication (Part Deux)? I don’t think I did. The hostesses threw a delightful party and the guests looked resplendent. Here we are being all sophisticated and what-not.And, at times, a little silly.

The next night I decided that sophistication is overrated and determined to be as unsophisticated as humanly possible. This picture was taken at Steve and Matthew’s birthday party, which was superhero themed. Can you guess what my super power is?

I’m able to repel men worldwide. Yup.

I literally just put that picture on my blog for everyone to see. Please pray for me.

Some other stuff:

Last week I noticed that the signature on my debit card looked kind of funny because it looked like it said “Denise Lastnameprotected” instead of “Micah Lastnameprotected.” Turns out, I had been spending Denise’s money for approximately 24 hours and she had been spending mine. Turns out I spend a bit more money in 24 hours than my friend Denise. So not only do I have to pay her back, I now have a complex about my spending habits.

Well, those are all the random things I have to tell you about right now. I'm sure we'll talk more later. Or I will. And hopefully you'll be willing to listen, er, read.

Arizona, Could You Please Keep Up?

There is little I enjoy in life more than winning. You might not think it just by looking at me, but I’ve been told on more than sixty occasions that I’m a competitive girl. Whether it’s beating my grandparents at Trivial Pursuit (which I often do), predicting the correct score of a football game, or getting a movie quote before anyone else, I like the winning.

I also like to pretend that I have an excellent memory; that I can pinpoint the exact moment I first heard a popular song or that I remember precisely what I was wearing when I saw a movie for the first time.

Given these qualities about me, it’s not surprising that people don’t really like to be around me.

Kidding. What I meant to say was that it’s not surprising that my one true joy in life is to “compete” daily in a radio contest called “Remember the Time.” At 8am each morning I tune my radio to John Jay & Rich, a morning show based in Arizona, in order to hear a montage of songs, movie quotes, and television snippets and then try to guess what year all of it happened.

To ensure that I’m honest, I text my answer to a friend each day as we listen so that it’s a legitimate--and I use that term very, very loosely--victory. And, well, I don’t like to brag, but I’m really good at it. Like really good. Like Usain Bolt running the 100 meter good.

Now I know you’re on the edge of your seat waiting with bated breath for the point of all this nonsense and you will be rewarded for your patience shortly.

I tuned my radio to 99.9 at 7:56am yesterday and were my friends playing a montage? No. They were discussing some meaningless drivel that had nothing to do with me getting a personal victory for the fourth day in a row.

And do you know why they were doing such things? Because stupid Arizona refuses to participate in Daylight Savings Time with the majority of the country, thus ruining my morning and causing my self-esteem to take a nosedive.

Remember the Time is now broadcast at 7am MST and there’s a better chance that I’ll start running as fast as our friend Usain than there is that I’ll be in my car by 7am each morning.

Just wanted to share my personal Daylight Savings Time heartache with you. De nada.

For Real

Yesterday in church I became positively overwhelmed with gratitude and emotion for the love, grace, and mercy I’ve been given. So today I’d like to share some thoughts about that with you in a rare but heartfelt moment of sincerity.

I love Jesus. I don’t always say it and I don’t always do the best job of showing it. But I do.

I also have questions and doubts and fears and sometimes I really don’t understand the God that I’m trying to serve. I keep coming back, though, because there is nothing else. In spite of all the struggles I have with my faith, I know without a doubt that truly surrendering my life to Christ is the best way to live.

I know what misplaced trust looks like, as I’m sure we all do. I frequently place my trust in things that have no value. I know what people’s homes and families and situations can become when they turn to the things of this world to ease their pain and heartache. I hurt for them. And I hurt for me. Because I know that I’m not living the abundant life like I could be. I’m not showing them what it’s like to live in victory.

If you’re reading this and you’ve never had any grace extended to you; if you’ve felt judged instead of loved, condemned instead of cared for, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that the unbelievable love that God has for you hasn’t been translated to you through His people; through me.

If you’re reading this and you know how much God loves you, I challenge you to show others that love. My earnest prayer as a follower of Christ is that I will be known for how I love others. It is not enough to say that I care for people or to shed tears over their stories. I want to show others His love in practical, real ways no matter how tired I am or how crummy I think my day has been. It is much easier said than done.

I am praying for you today, whether I know you or not. If there is something specific I can pray for you about or some way I can show you love today, e-mail me or leave it in the comments.

I pray that you would know God’s love for you today in a tangible way and that it would change how you see yourself and others. You are loved with an everlasting, unchanging, all-encompassing love.

Just thought you should know.

Read at Own Risk

Friday, oh Friday, you are such a blessing to me. This week has seemed positively endless. Perhaps it is because my social calendar has been a little, ah--how do I put this--oh yeah, EMPTY this week. Sometimes weeks void of all human interaction are such a blessing and sometimes they are so disappointing. Unfortunately, I happened to want to be an extrovert this week, but my opportunities were limited.

The low points of my boring week follow in bulleted format:

• Whittled my cluttered Inbox down from 844 messages to 15, after reading all 844 messages to determine if they were file-worthy or delete-worthy.
• Deep cleaned one of the living room walls that was saturated with sweet tea from a brief moment of indiscretion during Saturday’s game. A moment wherein I pithily calculated the cost of throwing a full cup of sweet tea at the wall after a particularly bad call from the now-suspended team of referees.
• Found an unopened bag of Superhero candy sticks (formerly known as candy cigarettes) from last Halloween and determined to finish them off in one sitting.
• Went to the Wal-Marts to get more candy sticks, because a home with no candy sticks is no home at all.
• Discovered that, based on the following description, I have a whole lot more in common with the “Teacup Piglet,” than I’m altogether proud to admit:
  

  "They will eat nearly endless amounts of food, particularly high-carbohydrate unhealthy food, if allowed, so it is vital to restrict access to the food it craves. They will constantly search for food, and should be kept far away from the kitchen."

• Became entirely too excited about the purchase of a new bottle of laundry detergent.
• Checked my blog incessantly to ensure that you all, for the most part, do not believe me guilty of taco theft. The results are 13-4 in my favor. So, thank you.

The remedy for this boring week is found in my weekend plans. Yes! I have some. Tonight I’m attending a soiree thrown by my friends Denise, Jaci, and Sarena. This event has been christened “An Evening of Sophistication (part Deux).” It’s a birthday party/swanky to-do where we all dress up and act like we have a modicum of class.

For my impression of someone with class, I have decided to impersonate Dame Judi Dench all evening, complete with British accent. My mantra for the evening shall be “What would the Dame do?” However, if throughout the evening that question ever begets the answer “Not eat candy sticks,” then I will reprise my role as myself and proceed to eat.the.candy.sticks.

Then tomorrow I will abandon all pretenses of classiness (I will effectually “leave classy at home”) and SCREAM, SHOUT, and WILL the Hogs to a victory over Ole Miss. In public. Because, unfortunately, this is the one game all season that I will not be able to access from the comfort of my own couch.

Of course it is.

If You're Not a Hog Fan, You Probably Don't Care

I would have blogged about the Arkansas/Florida game yesterday, but I needed a day to get over my heartbreak. And truthfully, I’m not quite over it yet. I sit here with tears brimming in my little brown eyes. I cannot believe we came so close and managed not to win that game.

And yet, I knew we would play them close. There’s a feeling in the air, is there not, Hog fans? I’ve been reading and comparing stats and praying since our final game last season. I just knew something like this was around the corner. Even when our defense got thrashed by Georgia a mere four weekends ago, and people wanted to write off our entire season as a dismal failure, I did not lose hope.

I will not blame this loss on the two back-to-back fifteen yard penalties that even Gary Danielson said were baseless and unjustifiable (which is a miracle of heaven in itself), even though I do believe they contributed to the loss. However, I will say that those SEC officials (the EXACT same officials who made the game changing and highly contested “Excessive Celebration” call against UGA a few weekends ago) should be held accountable for their actions. Perhaps they should attend some training on what is/is not pass interference. Or possibly, they should be reintroduced to the rule books on blocking until the whistle blows. I also have some other, more unsavory suggestions, but I will rise above mentioning them here.

The point is that we had a host of opportunities to win this game. We failed to capitalize on four Florida turnovers. We missed two end-zone catches. We missed two field goals. I could go on, but my poor heart can’t take it.

I am optimistic at this point because we should win out our schedule. I am proud of how we played and I know that with just a few small adjustments, we can beat any team on any given Saturday. And that gives me something to look forward to.

Yours truly,
Devastated but hopeful Hog fan

I Think I'll Try Defying Gravity

People. I know I’m several years late getting this memo, but if you have never seen Wicked, you must leave my blog right this moment, find out when it is coming to a city near you, purchase a ticket, and GO. Donna Vivino is currently playing the role of Elphaba on the nationwide tour and she is, without a doubt, the most talented performer I’ve ever heard. Her voice brought tears to my eyes on at least fourteen separate occasions.

As promised, I downloaded the entire musical and have now committed it to memory in the event that I’ll be tested on the material at a later date. Or, perchance, asked to audition for the role of Elphaba. In which case, I’ll be totally prepared other than the fact that I will not be able to hit a single one of those high notes. A girl can dream, though.

There’s a chance I’ll be trying to win lottery tickets to see it again next week. Also, plans are already in the works for me to fly to Dallas NEXT MAY to see it with one of my best friends on her 30TH birthday! I have rearranged my life around productions of Wicked. Oh, boy.
In other news, I’m possibly a thief and I’d like to know what your opinion is on this. I needed to grab a quick lunch on Tuesday and, therefore, made a drive thru stop at a local taco establishment. And by local I mean that there is one here locally, but also it’s a national taco chain. Whitney, I’m sure you know to what establishment I am referring, as it was one of our many jokes back in college.

Anyhow, I ordered and pulled up to pay with ye ole debit card when I was informed by the cashier that the credit card machine was offline and I would be unable to pay with a credit card. She told me all of this whilst handing me my tacos. To this, I replied that I had no cash and, therefore, no other way to purchase the tacos in question.

I waited while the young woman tried to reboot their system. For approximately 12 minutes. Finally, she informed me that it was still “jacked up” and I should just go ahead and leave, tacos in tow. I offered to return them, but she stated that they would just have to throw them away. And I’m not one to watch less-than-mediocre Mexican food go to waste, plus I had already taken a sip of my drink. So, under advisement from the taco employee, I left.

My question to you is, am I a thief? I will place a poll on my sidebar and would love to hear your thoughts on whether restitution must be made for what I’m calling “The Taco Incident of 2009.” You might be interested to know that the year is, in fact, necessary because my history is chock-full of other taco-related incidents.