Pretending to be Girl-With-No-Name

On Valentine's Day, my church's college and career group met like we do every Monday.  This time, however, we met to talk about the upcoming two-on-two basketball tournament we're putting on for the island.  It was announced that we'd be doing this skit at the tournament:

Our youth group did it once, and it turned out really well.  My brother's done it twice; the first time he was Satan, and the second time he was Jesus.  Go figure.  This will be his third time, and he's playing Jesus again.  The only thing is...I was unanimously volunteered to play the main girl.

What?  Are you serious?

I have virtually no acting skills, and my face is probably about as involuntarily expressionless as it can get.  I'm currently questioning the collective wisdom of our beloved C&C group.  Oh well...I'm sure it'll turn out well if the Lord's got anything to do with it.  Hopefully He'll be able to keep me from messing up horribly....

Here goes nothing.

Rededication

In the shower two days ago, on February 11, 2011, I gave my life back to Jesus Christ (if, that is, I had ever really given it before at all).

God is ♥.

Packing it off

I have good news for...well, myself.  The anorexia scare is over.  It was over awhile ago, actually, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it.

I've always been incredibly unhappy with my weight, but it wasn't until my late teen years that I found sufficient motivation to do something about it.  The first little bout of attempted weight loss (via boycotting food) lasting only nine days because virtually the only thing I consumed over that period was water.  I had absolutely no energy...I could barely brush my teeth in the morning and as I had a job to go to six days a week, it just wasn't fated to last.  That was about six months ago.  Then, a little over two months ago, I got much-needed braces at the age of eighteen.  I dreaded having metal all over my teeth and when they were finally on, I didn't talk to anyone for two and a half weeks.  I also consumed nothing for four weeks save a small breakfast shake every morning.  I started losing weight and people noticed...including my little sister, who was upset and angry that I wouldn't eat anything.  She told pretty much anyone who would listen.  So, to make her happy, I ate a couple of meals when we took our annual Christmas shopping trip to Chesapeake, VA.  Those few meals snowballed and soon I was eating normally again.

In mid-January, though, I decided that I'd had enough and I formed a meal and exercise plan.  I've done this before, but it never stuck due to lack of motivation.  For some reason, it's worked this time.  I went from 208 lbs (I think...ish) to 189.6 lbs as of yesterday.  So excited!  I still have 44.6 lbs left to go to reach my goal of 145 lbs, but I've got until mid-July to do that and I really think it's going to happen.  It is going to happen.  I know it is, because I need to be comfortable with the way I look when I go to LeakyCon 2011 on July 13 (which, now that I think about it, is probably my source of sudden motivation).  But that's a post for another time.  Anyway, update over.

Cheers!

God gave me life...I should at least give Him kudos

After a couple years' dry spell, I think I might be getting closer to being closer with God.  That long period of nothingness was, of course, my fault entirely because God never abandons us, we push Him away.  I wasn't ready to give up my whole life to Jesus...I still might not be ready, come to it.  But my heart's definitely more open to it.  For Christmas, my dad got me a 365-day devotional booklet and today I finally cracked it open.

I know almost all of us have done the whole sit-around-the-table-at-Thanksgiving-and-tell-what-you're-most-thankful-for thing and it can get a bit redundant to be asked if you've counted all your many blessings lately, but that's what today's devotion was about.  Have I stopped to thank the God who gave me life and a whole lot more?  There was one line imparticular that struck me:  "Failing to thank God is understandable...but it's wrong."  Usually, I think of failing to thank someone as rude or forgetful; wrong puts a whole new spin on it.  But I suppose if I created a human out of nothing and gave her a whole heck of a lot of things that made her life nice and comfortable and then she ignored me and didn't feel very appreciative, I might be just the least bit put out.

So let's make a list of everything I thank God for:

- I'm alive and healthy
- I have easy access to food, clothing, showers, and a warm bed
- I have the most awesome family anyone could ask for
- I have a church family who cares about me and a pastor who preaches the truth no matter who he "offends"
- I've been gifted with several abilities that few people have
- Romans 8:15 - God is my loving Daddy and always watches out for me

If you just read this post, it means you're alive and you have a bit of free time and access to a computer.  That puts you in the top 5% of the richest people in the world.  Have you thanked God today?

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This post was supposed to be published on December 14, 2010 but I forgot and lost track of it after almost finishing it. Go figure. But here it is, finally:

Last night, I went with a group of friends to see Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It was amazing, definitely the best Narnia film yet. I love that we've seen Skandar Keynes (Edmund) and Georgie Henley (Lucy) grow up on screen (Anna Popplewell and William Moseley, too, I suppose, but they don't play particularly prominent parts in this installment, and they were already close to grown in the first one). They're so grown-up and experienced in this one, it was nice to watch. I especially liked the little subplot of Lucy's ambition to become as beautiful as she believes her sister to be (does anyone else think it's creepy that Georgie already looks quite a bit like Anna? I mean, not exactly like her, sure, but the facial structure and some of the features are there; they didn't have to do much morphing to make them look the same).

I also enjoyed the design of the dragon and absolutely loved the characters aboard the ship. Gotta love that minotaur ("He's talking to birds!"). And don't even get me started on Eustace. From the previews, the small glimpses I got of him were enough to make me think, "That's him? That's the little stick with apparently not much screen time who's going to reprise David Thwaites' role?" But my goodness, I loved that boy. Perfect casting. He's completely annoying throughout most of the movie, of course, but in the most hilarious way possible. My family communicates 50% of the time in movie lines and, let me tell you, we'll be using his for years to come. Classic. By the end of the movie, you've grown to love him like you should, and I can't wait to see him in the next film.

As is inevitable, some things got lost or weirdly found in the adaptation process from book to movie (what's up with the green mist?), but it was a fantastic movie by itself overall.  I will definitely be buying this the minute it comes out. Two thumbs up, Michael Apted!

Bad bloody luck

I have given blood exactly once in my lifetime.  My current total for giving attempts?  Four.  This is getting ridiculous.  I've now been denied three times for too-low iron levels.  The first time it happened, I thought it was because of a defect in the machine because nearly everyone who came out of that one booth was sent away for being iron-deficient.  Therefore, I went back the second time fully confident that I would be accepted.  Epic fail.  I then became aware that I actually did have an iron problem.  So in preparation for the blood drive held at the local high school on February 1st, I ate spinach and raisins for a week and took a daily women's vitamin and thought I was in for sure.  No such luck.  I had the exact same iron content level.  An 11.9, and I need a 12.5.

Okay, look.  I understand that I'm a pre-menopausal female and that my mom also has problems with her iron levels, but seriously.  I ATE FRIGGIN' SPINACH FOR WEEK.  I would have been happier even if I was still denied but my levels had gone up a bit.  At least that shows that something happened.  But no...11.9.  I hate that number.  I wanna slash its tires, or TP its house.  I would think that I'm anemic except for the fact that I'm relatively healthy otherwise.  Probably just genetics and the American Red Cross acting against me.  Or a government conspiracy.  Either way, nobody's getting my blood.

Which is B+, by the way.  The irony does not elude me.