Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A Day In The Life

This weekend one of my best friends mentioned how much she loves her mom and asked if I ever get that feeling, where I love something so much I don't even have words for it. My answer? Yes, yes, and absolutely YES!

I can't tell you how many times this basically indescribable feeling comes over me and I want to shriek with happiness. It's such an intensely wonderful way to feel and I wish I could explain it to you, but I can only hope to trigger your brain about those things you might take for granted but are really thankful for. Becky probably rolled her eyes at my crazy excitement as I explained that not only do I feel euphoric about my mom or brother or dad or friends (muah!) ... but sometimes I can't contain my happiness about sunsets or my bedroom or songs on the radio or naps or new shoes. (It's always the little things, right?) I love it so much when it just hits you how good you have it; how awesome someone or something is. Life is a such a great gift.

Something else I love about my life is how comically unpredictable it can be. I kind of thought this only applied to me when I lived in Hawaii, but it's all the time. Whenever anyone called me in Maui I'd struggle to catch them up on the weeks because a single day held a month's worth of happenings. I'm back in Lancaster and it's still the same scenario. :)

So I was inspired today to chronicle just that: a day in the life of me. Ridiculous? Well, no one is holding a gun to your head making you read this - so now's your chance to save yourself and exit if you're annoyed.

Wake up 5am and head to the gym. Gym attendant is sleeping at the desk - hilarious. Watch Fox News from the eliptical. Become frustrated and respond verbally - hilarious to guys laughing around me. Love talking to the senior citizens at the gym in the mornings. Drove to work and tried to apply mascara en route. Turning a city corner leads to a long streak of black across my dash. (And my arm?!) Oops. Suddenly the guy in the truck beside me is waving and mouthing something. Is he seriously looking for chicks before 7am?! OMG, that guy went to my elementary school. I start laughing which makes him smile more. Oops.

Get into my work routine and things are going smoothly. Lots of people didn't show up. Midmorning the director of food services hands out chocolates as a condolence for being overworked and underpaid. I'm rooting around for dark chocolate and he says, "Nice nailpolish! Is that maroon or purple?" "Oh thank you! It's more like a dark plum." He leaves and it registers that he's the head honcho of the department where nailpolish is strictly off-limits. Was he kidding? Am I going to get a write-up? I laugh it off.

A lady is coughing up a lung in the employee bathroom so I ask if she's okay. "I ca-n't ge-t ai-rrr ..." "Ummm ... " God, I hate situations like this! You know I don't know the heimlich or anything! An EMT walks in that very second! "Hey, this lady can't breathe!" And I'm out of there.

Every room is an adventure as I get breakfast and supper orders. You've gotta love the lady who says she eats a lot because she once dated a Jew who was 16 years older than her. (Yep, that's probably the reason for obesity across America, come to think of it.)

Things in the kitchen are chaotic & one coworker starts venting, "Where is the work ethic Chels?! I mean honestly. You've got it." I just shake my head and we talk about how no one is willing to work and how scary that is for the future. She thinks it all went downhill when they took prayer out of public schools and I want to yell hallelujah and AMEN.

Just before supper one of my supervisors says, "Is that purple?" "What? No, it's green. I'm drinking green tea." "No, your nails ... that's different, I like it!" I clock out thirty minutes later with two nailpolish compliments and no write-ups. Seriously?

Friday, February 20, 2009

Red Envelope Day

Have you heard about this yet?
Buy a red envelope or color one redand mail it to President Obama (1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC20500) on March 31st. Don't put anything inside, but write on the back:"This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion. It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be a part of ourworld."

Don't push abortion to the back of your mind or think that it's impossible tosee it end. Pray for abortion to be eradicated now, in our lifetime! If anyone Iknew were suddenly put in a life or death situation, would I not be desperatelypassionately constantly interceding on their behalf? YES. Abortion is life ordeath on a much larger scale. I need to pray consistently - not ask forsomething once or twice and give up, but to charge it a lot more than I have been.

Go to YouTube.com and type in "12-year-old girl speaks out against abortion." I couldn't figure out how to make it work as a link, but it encouraged me greatly and is well worth your time to watch! Children sure seem to know the business of God, yeah? I want their unabashed passion to rub off on me. They have the confidence tochange the world! I remember being completely enthusiastic about every world dilemma that my teachers taught us about. You name it, I wanted to fight it,help it, save it.

Once my fifth grade teacher came in saying that we would start having to pay a tax for every worksheet we were given and to take tests. Everyone was upset and I raised my hand and started protesting and rallying my classmates - "We don't have to pay this guys! No way! You know what we're gonna do? Boycott this!" Everyone in my class was cheering and honestly it started getting a bit out of control. Mrs. Moore starts cracking up and explained that she was just using it as an illustration to introduce our history lesson about the Boston Tea Party. "It was people like Chelsea leading rebellions and getting things done ..." HAHAHA, my teachers must've been entertained. :)

In seventh grade I got into a fight with my social studies teacher about abortion. Once again my class ate it up, because here's this quiet kid whipping out statements that lead to the teacher yelling and saying we're never bringing abortion up again. I pressed him about a passing comment that he made about abortion and while I forget a lot of the details of our talk, I know he said that if someone found out that their baby was going to be "deformed" with Down syndrome an abortion would be the only intelligent choice. Knowing his wife was pregnant, I asked, "So you're telling me that if you found out your baby had Down syndrome you would kill it?" Every eye was on our teacher as he swallowed and didn't answer, but after a moment began yelling and saying we could not discuss abortion anymore in his class. (Of course after that it seemed like everyone deliberately brought it up every chance they got, even if they had no strong opinion about it.)

What strikes me as "ironic" is that his son was born a month or so later on December 16 - my birthday. And I've heard varying dates for the Boston Tea Party, but a lot of times they say it was also on December 16!

That little girl's speech on the video reminded me of how I used to care so much. And how I used to not care what others thought, because it never crossed my mind to be "politically correct" or practice postmodern "tolerance." I hate that I'm held back by those bounds now. There's right and wrong - period. I want to start speaking out in my college courses like sassy seventh grade Chelsea, instead of silently leaving class frustrated by the ignorance and immorality.

Hmmm ... here I go!