"I think I flushed my keys down the toilet."

I won't identify this person by name but today one of my friends accidentally flushed her keys down the toilet. Now of course this was an accident because who would flush their keys down the toilet on purpose? To make matters worse, these were not really her car keys but the car keys to a rental car that she needed to return to the car dealership this afternoon. She called the facility department on campus to see if they might some how magically be able to pull her keys from the toilet. The conversation went something like this:

"Hello, I'm calling to report a situation" Now by this time several of us had gathered around her trying to figure out a solution to her problem. Calling it a "situation" sent us all into fits of laughter.

"Umm hold on for a second" she said and then looked at us. "They want to know my name." Now it's bad enough to admit to your friends that you have flushed your rental car keys down the toilet, but to admit it to someone else? Well that takes courage. I'm sure the facilities folks will be talking about this for awhile.

Ultimately they were not able to find her keys, she had her rented car towed back to the dealership, picked up her car and unfortunately owes the dealership a hefty sum for the missing key. I bought her a hot fudge sundae tonight for dinner, it was the least I could do.

Surprised by Oxford

I'm sure it is no surprise to any of my blog readers that I am a book fanatic. I've joked in the past about trying to figure out a way to get paid just to sit and read. Well, I still haven't figured that out, but I did learn about a website www.booksneeze.com that does provide free books to bloggers in return for a review on their blog. Sign me up! The first book I picked was Surprised by Oxford a memoir by Carolyn Weber.

I work in student development at a Christian college so a memoir about discovering one's faith during their college years, well that's just right up my alley. Carolyn Weber is a self professed agnostic who from London, Ontario who receives a full scholarship to Oxford University where she plans to study romantic literature. She has spent her life relying on intellect and reason to survive, but it is faith she finds at Oxford. Her book reminded me a lot of another memoir "Girl meets God" which I also loved. Carolyn in just her first few days at Oxford was challenged by fellow students to really think more about her faith, God and what it means to be a Christian.

The fact that Ms. Weber has spent her life relying on her intellect she begins to look at her faith from an intellectual perspective and asking a lot of hard questions. One of my favorite quotes from this book is an interaction she has with one of her friends regarding her spiritual journey " I don't know if I can do this.. It's no use, I think I may need to leave it alone." Her friends response "Friend, you are no longer the person you were when you arrived in Oxford.. Oxford has changed you, or rather, what God is working through you at Oxford has changed you. You have been brought across, over, beyond. You are now in a different place. Of course you will continue to love, to question, to study, to learn, to do everything as before and more, just from a different place, this change, changes everything.

Isn't that the truth? Once we know and understand God's love, mercy and grace we are changed and we can no longer look at things in the same way. Ms Weber's mix of literature, her academic experience along with her spiritual journey make this a book I will share with others and keep for some time.

Be Still and Know that He is God

Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is holy
Be still oh restless soul of mine
Bow before the prince of Peace
Let the noise and clamor cease
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is faithful
Consider all that He has done
Stand in awe and be amazed
And know that He will never change
Be still
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is God
Be still
Be speechless
Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know He is our Father
Come rest your head upon His breast
Listen to the rhythm of
His unfailing heart of love
Beating for His little ones
Calling each of us to come
Be still
Be still

I love this song, it challenges me in so many ways. While I would never describe myself as an overly active individual I have a very, very hard time being still. And what I mean by that is I cannot just sit and be still. If I'm watching television, I usually have my laptop, a magazine or a book in my lap. If I'm reading, I might also be plugged in to my ipod. Even my prayer life can be somewhat schizophrenic. A prayer for someone may remind that I should really send them a note or at least a phone call, and speaking of phone calls did I pay my cell phone bill this month? Some people might call this multitasking I call it restlessness. Even as I fall asleep each night I need background noise, the television or a white noise machine with crashing waves, a thunderstorm or perhaps the sounds of a babbling brook, although truth be told the babbling brook makes me think I have to pee.

This past week though I was forced to be still. At the end of June I did a back somersault with a half twist down a flight of stairs. The Russian judge gave me a 9.3 because I did not stick the landing. As a result of this tumble I took a trip to the emergency room for a CT scan of my head and some x-rays of my ankle. I left the emergency room thinking I had nothing but a sprained ankle and a lot of bruises. Turns out, I was wrong and the CT scan of my head revealed what my doctor called "suspicious white matter" which I later learned from my neurologist are lesions on my brain. They wanted to do further testing.

I spent the weeks leading up to the MRI stressing out, doing multiple Google searches of what brain lesions could mean and having a few melt downs here and there and praying. A lot of praying. I already have more than one chronic illness and the thought of dealing with another (Multiple Sclerosis) was not something I was ready for. My MRI was Thursday, I've had MRI's done before but I guess I forgot how tight those MRI capsules are, how loud they are and how still one must be during this type of examination. For each new "picture" that the technician would take they would tell me "this one will last about 2 minutes" and then you are put through two minutes of the most annoying noise I can recall. The sound is hard to describe, smoke detector? Air horn? Car Alarm? You get the point. For each new picture the length got longer. "This next one will be 7 minutes" Are you kidding me? At this point I had to come up with someway to avoid the torture that was going on around me. I started signing Don McLean's "American Pie" its an 8 minute song, the longest one I know. And yes it's true I know all the words. Doesn't everybody?

At some point during the MRI Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Be Still" came to me. I may have laughed a little, what choice did I have but to be still. And so I began signing this song to myself to block out the noise going on around me. "Let the noise and clamor cease" And for the first time in weeks amongst all the stress and worrying I had done I felt a sense of peace. His peace. I still do not know the results of the MRI but God does, and I am trusting Him.

Summer Reading

I'm sure it is no big secret to any of my blog readers but I love to read. And summer reading, when I can spend the day outside in my Adirondack chair or on my porch swing reading There really is nothing sweeter than that. My goal for this summer was a book a week, that has not happened but I have been making my way through some good books. Here's what I've accomplished so far.

The Waiting Place: Learning to Appreciate Life's Little Delays by Eileen Button. Now I know I am bias because Eileen happens to be on of my most treasured friends but her book is outstanding and this is a book that should be on everyone's nightstand, whether you read a chapter a night or fly through it as I did and then start over.

Room: A novel by Emma Don0ghue. I'll admit I downloaded this book to my Kindle on Christmas day started reading it and then got side tracked by other books. It is the story of 5 year old Jack who has lived with his ma in "room" his entire life. To Jack room is his world but to his ma it is where they are being kept prisoner. Once I finally took the time to sit down and read this one, it was a real page turner.

Others that I have completed:
The Pilots Wife by Anita Shreve
Prayers and Lies by Sherri Wood Emmons
The Sweet Relief of Missing Children by Sarah Braunstein

Still on my list for the summer:

Maine by Courtney Sullivan
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty
Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

If you are looking for me I'll be outside somewhere most likely with my nose in a book. So what are you reading? Comments please!

My Kind of Town

It was college graduation this weekend, I skipped it! I think in my 19 years of working for the college this is only the 2nd commencement that I have missed. I'm okay with that though. Instead of sitting through another commencement ceremony I was road tripping west to Chicago. I was hoping to be a part of one of Oprah's final episodes, but instead I settled for shopping trips to Crate and Barrel and IKEA neither which are located in my little city.

The real reason for the trip was to spend a few days with my brother, his girlfriend and my parents. I'm blogging about this now so that in a year I have a written reminder to never, ever take a 9 hour road trip with my parents again, EVER! They invited me along saying how much Matt and Kim wanted to see me and how we could all share driving responsibilities. Share driving responsibilities? Apparently sharing driving responsibilities to my parents means on a 9 hour trip my mom will drive 3 hours, my dad will drive for 27 minutes and I will drive the rest. So yes, I guess technically we shared driving responsibilities.

Other things that Chicago has that my city doesn't? Well these two.

My brother and his girlfriend, who I keep reminded him needs to be his wife. I'm pretty certain that it is going to happen, I just like to pressure him to make it happen soon. She does not seem to be too worried about though. They are in fact planning a future together. Our time at IKEA proved that, they are talking about what their next kitchen is going to look like.

Other things Chicago has? Well yes I have already mentioned Crate and Barrel and IKEA but also Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Costco and oh yeah a sweet little diner called the Honey Jam that has of all things on the menu white chocolate, raspberry waffles and pancakes and did I mention deep dish pizza? Yes, we shopped a lot and we ate a lot and we laughed a lot. And the weather there? It's a lot like the weather here but it seemed like the spring flowers there were a few days ahead of ours. I think I've mentioned before maybe once or twice how much I love spring. Look at these beauties.


And these. I think pink trees prove that God loves beauty and that he also has a sense of humor. I don't think I would have ever thought to create a pink tree. Both these trees are located on the grounds of the country club where my brother is a golf professional. He was extra excited this week because the day before we arrive he spent the day golfing with two players from the Chicago Blackhawks. They both sent him text messages afterwords saying what a great time they had with him. For a hockey fanatic this was huge, he referred to his new bff's several times while were there, and every time it made us all smile. Kind of the way pink trees make me smile.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I once read that Kirstie Alley spent as much on flowers as she had previously spent on her expensive drug habit. I don't have an expensive drug habit, well I don't have a drug habit but I have decided that having a few flowers throughout the house makes me a much happier person. And because spring has arrived I have been able to take advantage of picking a few blooms from my own garden. My hyacinths smell amazing, it's the little things that make me happy.

Oh and for me right now it is the most wonderful time of the year! Spring has arrived and so have the Stanley Cup playoffs. Hockey every night from now until June! It's hard not to be giddy with excitement. Of course I'm cheering for the home team, the Sabres and it would make me oh so happy if they could actually make it out of the first round. I like their chances this year, new owner with lots of enthusiasm. Let's Go Buffalo!

Adventures in the Kitchen part 4

If you have read my blog since it's inception you know that I was quite adamant that while plenty of great food blogs exist out there, this would not be one of them. And while I insisted that I wouldn't be blogging about my "expertise" in the kitchen, I lied. You can look back to June 2010 to see the original adventures in the kitchen.

While I may be pretty inept when it comes to cooking, I am a "little" better at baking but I could crush anyone when it comes to using the microwave. Imagine my surprise when I learned I could actually bake something in the microwave. This turned out so good that I couldn't resist the opportunity to pass it along. Did you know that you could "bake" brownies in the microwave? Now I know some of you are thinking, warming up a frozen pre-packaged is not baking but I'm not taking about those. I'm talking about baking brownies in a coffee mug.

Here's what you'll need.
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil

Mix all the dry ingredients and then spoon in an egg and then add the milk and the oil. Now you're ready to "bake" your brownie. Bake for approximately 3 minutes, if you have a powerful microwave like I do, you may only need to bake for 2 - 2 1/2 minutes. Enjoy!