We've gone too far.

This has been cleared by legal:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced, within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all, and a fiscallysuccessful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed,color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.



I just want to wish everyone a Blessed Advent and Christmas... but if I do it publicly... I might be "politically incorrect." What's up with Holiday Trees anyways??? GRRR.

Holidays...BLEH

Have you ever stopped to think about this "holiday season"?? It's supposed to be the season to be jolly. It's SUPPOSED to be the season of laughter and cheer.

I find it to be sort of grumbly and hectic.

I think it's kinda dumb that we all stress out over what present to buy whom... and who we should get presents for... and who is going to give us a present... and how will we pay them back... and what fun gag gift can i buy this year... etc. etc. etc.

I'm sorta in a BAH HUMBUG kinda mood this year when it comes to Christmas. It sorta pisses me off that we all go through this major stress out mode to give stupid items to people who don't really need said items and who will only maybe appreciate them anyways... because one has to be a mindreader to buy the perfect gift.

I say that it's all dumb. What we SHOULD be doing is using all of that money and all of that effort to give to people who need it. There are people without homes, without food, without coats, without ANYTHING right now. But no... we're giving xboxes and ipods and new leather jackets and fancy perfume to our loved ones to show how much we care.

It's kinda dumb.

I like Christmas because of the fun it brings. I like the parties and get togethers and spending time with friends. I like the hugs and the smiles and the true warmth that this season is supposed to have.

Let's celebrate ChristMass... not Materialismas.

Oh.. How Times are a Changin.

Sometimes when I've got a few extra minutes or when I have my laptop on late and night and sleep has not come yet... I look back at older posts on Delightful Delirium and I wonder...

I wonder how I could have changed so much in so short of a time. I've had this little piece of the web for nearly 2 and half years now... and it's quite amazing where my posts have been over that time span.

The other night I ran across a post from November of last year. I have new insight into this particular post now... so I'm gonna write on that one. If you need a reference point see That's Amore.

->I basically talk about how I don't think people rally ever stop loving someone to
->whom they've said "I love you." I say that although I'm not in love with the two
->guys that I once said that to... I do still love each of them in a way. And I
->wondered if that would ever change.

The answer is YES. Astoundingly, until I met Andrew, I didn't know that my brain was capable of not thinking about men 24/7. I mean... you guys remember back in the day when I had 6 or 7 crushes at one time. My brain was constantly thinking about who was nice and who was sweet and who I wanted to date and who I wanted to kiss. I was CONSTANTLY wondering where and who my next boyfriend was and would be. And even more than that... I still thought about past relationships I had had... I thought about how I had screwed up or how he had screwed up. I thought about what in those guys I did and didn't want in a future husband. And I think I wrote "That's Amore" because I thought I still had some weird sense of love for these guys beyond what I feel for just friends and family.

But I was wrong. Since I have discovered what real love... unconditional love... marital (almost) love is like, I don't think about any of those things anymore. So the answer is: you do fall out of love and eventually STOP loving those who you once loved. But I think it doesn't always happen until God shows you what REAL love is.

Comments?

Now I get it.

Did you ever wonder why there are so many movies about the first time grown children bring their love interest home for the holidays?

I now know the answer. Because it's a MOVIE WORTHY situation.

Whether it's a family who is too crazy for your love interest or a love interest who is too crazy for your family... you're bound to have an adventure like you've not experienced before.

As you may have guessed, today marks the last day of a four day stretch of shoveling copious amounts of food into my face. Andrew and I attended 3 different Thanksgiving dinners with 3 very different families and, wowie, was it an adventure!

All of the dinners consisted of the basics... family, talking, turkey, potatoes, dressing, dessert, etc. And yet all three dinners were SO VERY DIFFERENT.

Dinner #1 with Andrew's family friends was really old-school. It was a big giant extended family dinner with kids and grownups and grandparents. And it all took place in a big old farm house. Then afterwards we all put together a jigsaw puzzle. It was fun and very Brady Bunch.

Dinner #2 with Andrew's family was very educated. Everyone at this much smaller gathering were adults... and a very thoughtful and intelligent adults at that. Conversations drifted from generic "how's it goings" to heated political discussions. I found myself a little intimidated and slightly unworthy of the amount of education in the room, but dinner was still super yummy and it was fun to pipe in every now and then when I had a thought worth spewing out. Andrew sponged the night away by soaking in just how well I could handle his family's thanksgiving.

Dinner #3 with my family. Now I got to be the sponge. Although everyone at my family's Thanksgiving were still adults... we are much more proned to act like children. The weekend started with my brothers and sister-in-law returning from the bar just as Andrew and I were arriving to the house (around 2:30am). It was follwed the next day with much yummy food... icky flatulence... "T.M.I. moments"... and lots of fun and laughter. We also threw in one heated 2 hour conversation debating religious and political issues. And all of that plus some card games was followed by leftovers! It was just what I expected it to be... because our holidays tend to take on generally the same pattern each year. I love our Thanksgiving. And it was fun introducing Andrew to the tradition of Joe and I arguing for extended periods of time about religion and politics.


It was fun and interesting to experience Thanksgiving in 3 very different families. I'm now very excited to find out how Andrew and I will mix them all together to create our own Turkey Day tradition when we have kids.


HOW WAS YOUR TURKEY???!!!!

Here, Peeve... C'mere boy!

I have a pet. This pet bothers the heck out of me. So I named him Peeve.

Do you know what he does? He runs around with the knowledge that life as a Daisy Girl can be a bit hectic. And he runs around knowing that I love to be around people. But he also puts all of his efforts into asking me "what's going on at the Daisy House?" "What are we doing this weekend?" "What fun events are coming up?"

And in my head... I say... "Peeve, you silly pet... do you know that you're fully capable of coming up with something fun and then inviting others to come along??? Yes... it's true, little one... you CAN plan stuff. Yes you can... good boy... good boy."

It's strange. Being on the Young Adult Ministry Board, and involved in SALT and a Daisy Girl sort of gives me the title of perpetual inviter. But it seems that now that I've taken on this task of planning events (which I DO really like to do by the way), no one EVER invites me to do stuff. I'm not saying that I'd have time to go even if they did, but it'd be nice, every now and then, to stop getting blamed for not telling everyone about every fun thing happening, and rather to start getting asked to do fun stuff here and there that I didn't have to plan or invite people to.

Overall, I'm not even that annoyed about this anymore... but I just thought I'd post it anyways. Lisa says she feels the same way sometimes. Ah.. the trials of Daisy Life. :)

AAAAACK..PINK!

I'm so sick of the design of my webpage. I want something less pink again. But it takes so much darn work to keep all of my old stuff and still put in a new design. Boo and Hiss.

Kyle the great? Peter the genius? Anyone of my more technologically inclined friends want to help me out with this?

:)

Let the Contentment Continue

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!

After over 2 years of discerning God's call and looking and searching and waiting for a position that really truly fits me... I FOUND MY DREAM JOB!!!

I am now the assistant to the directors of the Spiritual Life Center of the Diocese of Wichita.

Whew.. that's a mouthful!

But I'm so super pumped. I get to use all the neato gifts that God has given me like hospitality and writing and administration and serve His Church. How cool is that!?!

iT'S DOGGONE COOL, THAT'S HOW!!!

:) YEAY :)