omylanta's Xanga

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:40:05 GMT

For your entertainment...

This was on the ever loved jesusoftheweek.com website.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:22:34 GMT

A dear friend of mine is always telling me that I never blog enough. What I find humorous is that this person is not necessarily up to date with the blogging world or - no offense my friend - probably even sure where to begin when it comes to blogging. All she knows is that she gets my xanga via email and thinks that it should happen significantly more often than it does. Now that's saying something.

So, dear friend of mine, this is just for you. And because I know you are already giggling to yourself - my recent, very long trip to Spokane...

I tend to travel from time to time for my job. This often includes trips to Spokane (those unfamiliar with the state of Washington, it is on the opposite side of the state and typically takes 5 and a half hours to drive their from Olympia. Only 59 minutes by plane). Our agency was hosting a huge conference in Spokane and we were all set to fly over there on Sunday. Unfortunately the weather was too bad (aka - lots of snow) and all flights were cancelled. So what do we, as the intelligent state employees we are do? We decided to caravan over there. Logic would tell you if the weather is too bad for airplanes that perhaps it would be too bad for cars, but apparently we are illogical people.

The drive over took 7 hours in the middle of the night. I was grinding my teeth the entire time. At one point I completely hit a patch of ice and spun around 2 and a half times in the middle of the freeway landing in a ditch. After changing my underwear, I continued on the journey. Only it was so cold that regardless of having the defroster on at full blast and sweating myself out of the car my front windshield kept freezing. So I would have to keep pulling over on the side of the highway to scrape the ice off my windshield. During one of these many stops I lost my favorite brown scarf on the side of the road. It's tragic I know.

Because this story is getting too long, and I am sure you all have tired head by now I will just say this. I was suppose to come home on Wednesday. I was snowed in until Friday. Every mountain pass in the state was closed on Thursday and the one I went across on Friday was the only one opened. (There are about 5 major passes you can cross in the state). However, other main roads to this pass were also closed so I had to go significantly out the way to get there. The trip home took 10 hours (did I mention it normally takes 5 and a half)? I also continuously slid down the hill, got my car stuck in the snow, and got a huge hole in my boot. One morning I woke up and it was 9 degrees. That's not even mentioning the wind chill.

I thought I was finally getting used to living here. Apparently not. Welcome to Washington Carrie!

These are some pictures that were taken on my friends cell phone on the way home just outside of Spokane.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:05:44 GMT

I discovered something wonderful today...

my closet.

Typically when I do laundry the clean clothes go back in the basket and the dirty clothes go on the floor. Then as I need them I get clothes out of the basket just to throw them on the floor again. It's a vicious cycle. Some may say I'm lazy - I like to say that it is a waste of my efforts to neatly put them away if I am just going to get them right back out.

With this said - today I took a big step and decided to get dressed from the closet today instead of from the pile of clothes strewn about the room. It was like a shopping spree! I quickly became overwhelmed with the number of things to choose from and don't remember wearing any of this, more less owning it.

I'm kind of excited to see what the morning holds for me...

I'm sure I will tire of the magnanimity of all my options soon and return to my usual ways - no fears.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:25:45 GMT

Today I went sailing.

Reason #37...

Tue, 15 May 2007 03:01:13 GMT

...why I love Olympia.

There is always (and I do mean always) something new, exciting, and/or entertaining to do here. On Saturday I went to the Farmer's Market and to a wooden boat festival. Yesterday I went on a snow shoeing excursion up in the mountains. Tonight I learned how to blow glass.

Poverty

Tue, 01 May 2007 01:32:46 GMT

In 2002, 22 of the worlds wealthiest countries decided to help put an end to world poverty and hunger by giving .7 percent of their national income to aid countries in extreme poverty. Of these 22 countries, only 6 have not set a scheduled goal of when they will reach their .7 percent and the United States is among those 6 countries. Spend .39 cents and two minutes to print and mail the following letter. We are a democracy - all we have to do is show that we support it.

http://poverty.com/letters/united_states.html

The Cost of Customer Service

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:15:22 GMT

The Arts Walk is going on right now in downtown Olympia. This is an event where 100's of businesses in the downtown corrider come together to display local artists, entertainment, and food. It's a huge thing here - they shut down streets and have a parade called the Procession of the Species. It's everything you would picture Olympia, Washington to be.

In the heart of the Arts Walk was this guy in a suit selling combs. Keep in mind he wasn't a homeless guy trying to make a penny by selling you a comb. On the contrary he was a well dressed relatively clean cut guy shmoozing the crowd. Seriously, he was selling small black combs for a buck - the crowd was engrossed by him. It was amazing. Such a smooth talker. The more I listened to him the more I realized that he wasn't selling a comb for a dollar - you gave him a dollar and he gave you a comb, business card, and very intentional customer service. If you're cheap, plastic dollar comb broke you call the number on the card and you talk to a person, a real human who will quickly and easily fix the problem of your broken dollar comb.

People were just eating this up. This guy was seriously banking because he put a comb in a package and sold customer service - something that is so hard to come by these days.

No More Pastors

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 03:21:39 GMT

What would church be like if we were to get rid of all hierarchical structures of leadership?

edit...perhaps Shane has a point. Not necessarily rid ourselves of pastors - however clear our minds of a CEO mentality. I suppose the real questions would be what role should a pastor really have - what would church be like if they had a healthy pastor that fit this role?

Controlled Chaos

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 00:53:51 GMT

I am now coaching teeball for the YMCA. I have 16 four and five year olds (with a few 3 and 6 yr olds too). Controlled chaos is very fitting. Tonight was our first practice. I don't think it went to well but the parents were very encouraging. I now know for next week what changes have to be made so hopefully it will get better. It was a lot of fun though. More to come soon.

pictures

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:51:29 GMT

So in the sadness of my computer dying I lost all of my pictures. Perhaps I should use my flickr page more. Regardless - I want my pictures back. So if you have some, you should email them to me.