For Love of my Small Animal

To start with the usual stuff, my weekend was awesome. :) Megs came over Friday night, and we watched Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and baked chocolate chip peanut butter cookies that turned out amazingly. *drool* They're all gone now. :(

Saturday, we met up again, and headed to Chris' tea party. As per usual, I hadn't met half of the people there before, so it was fun getting to know some new folks. I have to admit, Chris has the best friends ever. A guy called Derek was particularly fun, since he started bantering with Megs and I after knowing us for all of 4.34 minutes. Fabulous. I knew he had the right sense of humor when he asked me if I ever "thought before I spoke" before I even knew his name. :) The food was, per usual, exquisite: samosas, hit-the-pan-salsa and pasta, roasted butternut squash soup... *drool!* We also had loads of music. Chris has this mini-accordion that comes from China. It's called a Child Prodigy Midget 8 and the 'inteructions' for it are in beautiful Engrish. The best bit are the scores it provides: one song is "Home Sweet Home," and the other "For Love of my Small Animal." :D We got quite a few giggles out of that.

Dad picked us up from Chris' and we headed to the Pearl River for Jake's bday dinner. I love that place! The food was great. And is it only my family, or do are all families like this: We start out talking about happy things, and within half-an-hour someone's talking about the woman who gave birth to 3 babies (not triplets, separate kids), wrapped them in butcher paper like turkies, and froze them. Yeah. At my 9 y/o nephew's birthday dinner! Please tell me other families also do this!!

Sunday was church, and then home to do some chores and homework. Al called in the middle of the afternoon, and came over after dinner so we could watch Seasons 2 and 3 of Black Books an absolutely hysterical British TV show that I LOVE. We laughed til we cried, ate at least a kilo (no hyperbole!) of Rockets, were on a brutal sugar high, and our salivary glands spasmed from the combination of sucrose and the giggles. So much fun. I love that girl. :)

Today was a very... blah day, I guess. I didn't sleep well (hmmm - Rockets, anyone?), and was not excited for it to be Monday. I dozed off in a couple of my classes. *blush* But we did some neat stuff in anatomy (our current prof is wicked), and also for our phonology lab. I picked up some groceries on my way home, since I'm making dinner for Chris tomorrow, and now I'm in my room, procrastinating.

So that's the usual. Behind the usual has been running my bizarre conversations with myself in my head. They're less intense now than they were during the summer because, I think, I actually have to use my brains in my current location. :) But they're still there, and I'm still debating some of my age-old issues.

1) I'm still undecided on what a Christian woman's attitude toward dating in general should be. Megs and I talk about this quite a bit. I'm all about being content where I am, and I have a fantastic life (I really can't get over how happy I am right now), but I still don't know if I should just focus 100% on being single or not. *sigh* And there really aren't any answers out there! I think this is one of those things that everyone has to figure out for themselves, but I wouldn't mind an email from God that says: Dear Elizabeth, I would like to do: a), b), c).... :) I wonder what my parents think about arranged marriages?? ;)

2) Since starting school I've been thinking a lot about just how much of our lives we can 'blame' on God. I firmly believe that God's in control of the universe, and I also believe that he answers prayer. But I also know far too many people who use God as a cop-out. They don't try particularly hard at an endeavour, and it when it doesn't pan out, they say "oh well, God must not have wanted me to do that." Did he not want you to do it, or did you just not put in the effort required? God made me an intelligent woman, he gave me access to HUGE resources, and he gave me free will. To me, that indicates that he expects me to use my skills to accomplish the things that he and I both want for me. Yet I also know that there are times when he intervenes; like when he made it so, so clear to me that I was meant to be here in Edmonton and not at Dalhousie. Can I 'blame' things on him when I've done my best and they don't work? What's my best? What about when I go ahead and pursue something that he doesn't particularly want me to do, and I succeed at it? I don't think it's fair to say "well, I got here, so it MUST be where God wants me."

I know, I know. This is verbose and random. But I feel that it's something I need to work through. And yes mum - I do pray about it (my mother's response to everything is "have you prayed about it?"). I'm still not sure what the next step in answering the question is, though. Ideas?


Ok. This was long, and I hear Speech-Science calling me. Since tomorrow's lab is a topic related to my thesis, and it's a topic I really don't understand yet, I should probably get reading. :)

Loves you,
e.