Death in the Bakery

On Monday, Amos and I had some coffee chocolate chip muffins. This was our conversation:
A- "Those muffins were really good!"
J- "They tasted like coffee."

A- "I know; I ignored that part."
J- "You don't like coffee!"
A- "The chocolate chips were really good, though! I really liked that part!"

~later, at Frisbee~

~I'm eating a granola bar~

A- "Is that one of those muffins?!"
J- "No, it's a granola bar. You really liked that muffin, didn't you?"

A- "Yeah, I liked the chocolate chips. They were really good!"

So I, being the good girlfriend, decided to make Amos some chocolate chip cookies. This should not be a problem.

Oh, but it is.

See, for some strange reason, I cannot make good cookies (except for peanut butter-Nutella cookies). I can make a LOT of other stuff, but I cannot make cookies. My usual problem is that they end up being too crunchy/crispy. In the last few years, I have tried several things to try to remedy this problem. I have put a little extra liquid in the dough. I have taken the cookies out of the oven early. I have left the cookies on the pan to cool for a few minutes. I have taken the cookies off the pan quickly. I have put them in bags. I have left them on the counter. I have sprayed the pan. I have not sprayed the pan. I have put apple slices in the bag with the cookies (this turned them slightly slimy when they touched the apple). I have gotten mounds of advice (both asked for and volunteered), but nothing really helped.

But Tuesday's cookies were going to be better. They were going to taste so good, and I was going to get the thoughtful-girlfriend-and-nice-roommate award.

Well, pride goeth before a fall. Or in this case, pride goeth before a smushed, dried-up cookie.

I followed the recipe on the back of the Nestle' Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate morsel package. (I admit, I don't always follow recipes because I like to experiment, but I really wanted these to work.) I followed the recipe and mixed it all with a rubber spatula. (I don't like getting extra stuff dirty, so I didn't use the mixer.) I followed the recipe, only adding a little extra vanilla like my family always does. I followed the recipe and did not spray the pan, I left the cookies on the pan to cool for two minutes, and then I attempted to lift the cookies off the pan.

No luck. The cookies had spread out and did not want to come off in one smooth motion, like they did in my imagination. Instead they smushed up into little ridges, or they came off in two pieces, or I managed to get two halves of two different cookies. I am rather impatient, so I didn't want to use six different motions to get one cookie off the pan, which, in my opinion, is ridiculous. I was already very tired that day, and the misbehaving cookies did not help. In frustration I started shoveling cookies off the pan, not even bothering to flip some of them right-side up. I ended up with a mountain of melty cookies on the cooling racks on the counter. I managed to get about six pretty cookies out of about thirty-six cookies total.

In between scooping cookies off the sheet, I would flop on the couch, totally irritated at my cookies and totally irritated that I was so irritated. After all, it was a cookie! A cookie! I was bigger than the cookie! I had made the cookie! I had FOLLOWED THE RECIPE. And how did this cookie repay me? By being bad and not letting me make it beautiful and delicious! Why was I letting myself get so frustrated with this?! Lame cookie. I suppose I could draw a spiritual reference here, but I won't this time. And yes, this paragraph is rather embarrassing to own up to; I promise, I really am a mature twenty-three year old adult.

Anyway, my kind boyfriend tried to console me via Facebook messages that it wasn't that bad and that he would help me at another time to figure out the problem. I really did appreciate that, but I vowed not to make cookies anytime soon. I took him a few cookies at work, and he and David were happy.

Then my roommate came home.

small michelle- "What happened to your cookies?"

She had had a bad day, so the cookies helped make it better, which was good. I told her the story as she ate a cookie and some of the leftover dough.

The next day Jen asked me about the cookies.

Jen- "What happened to your cookies?"

Jennica- "I don't want to talk about it. No, just kidding. I couldn't get them to come off the pan in one piece, so I gave up."
Jen- "It looks like a cookie cemetery!"

Thanks, Jen. Haha!

And that, my friends, is how my cookies crumbled.

Thanks

Family

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Stuff

I made caramel corn yesterday. It is really good.

Ross and Audra are hilarious. Especially after they are stuck in a car for 5+ hours after a full day of work. Caffeine drinks seemed to add to the madness as well.

Facebook tries to tell me who to talk to on Facebook. I find this odd and kinda creepy.

My current city has no grassy hills (or at least none that I can recall). I wanted to find a grassy hill and slide down it on cardboard yesterday, but I couldn't think of any place that would work. There are a lot of hills around, but they usually are covered in buckwheat or sagebrush or rocky dirt or dried tumbleweeds. I will have to save my idea for another place, I guess.

I like the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I don't agree with everything the author does or says, but in general it is a good book, I think. He is a liberal Christian author who talks about life. The biggest part that impacted me, I think, is his genuine love for all people. This is not a general, "I'm a Christian, I love everyone!" kind of love, but a genuine love for the people that cross his path. This is hard for me. It is hard for me to love other people sometimes. Hearing his reasoning and his thought process on how he came to love others was really helpful. I do not agree with everything he says or does; he is an edgy guy who says some sketchy things. But I think that if a person is able to read with discernment, he can get a lot of good thoughts out of this book.

Thanksgiving is in five days. What are you thankful for?

Cars and such...

The other day, my car wouldn't start, right as I had to leave for tutoring. (Surprise surprise!) A nice neighbor tried to help me, but he couldn't get it to start either. small michelle came home early from her errands to take me to tutoring; she came back later to pick me up. I tried my car again when I got home, but no, it would not start.

The next day, Amos came over and helped me with my car. Of course, with Amos standing there, the car worked. Stupid thing. :P However, we decided to check the battery and various fluids, just in case. He popped the lid off of the battery and filled it with water. I hoped it would be fine after that, but no. About a week later, my car once again refused to start.

And I had to go to work.

And no one was home to help me out.

I pushed my car back and forth, hoping something would shift around and let my car start.

Nope, nothing.

I called Amos, waking him up. He mumbled a little bit and said he would be over as soon as he could to take me to work. It was really nice, in a roundabout way, that his work had been rescheduled because of a sick coworker. What a good boyfriend! :)

I pushed my car back into two parking spaces and left a note explaining why my car was double-parked.

Amos showed up half-awake but cheerful in a few minutes and took me to work, where the students were not too happy to see me, the substitute, again. He picked me up from work at 12:30 (it was a minimum day), and we went to see if we could jumpstart my car.

No, of course not.

Of course my car did not want to cooperate.

So I chose a towing company and waited for the driver to show up. While we waited, Amos hugged me and told me it would be okay; this car-is-being-dumb-and-now-has-to-be-fixed problem was a very frustrating, especially when I don't have a lot of extra money lying around. Though I'm not helpless, it was very nice to have him there.

I had my car towed to my favorite car shop down here. The owner is a nice, honest, helpful Christian from Ireland, and his employees are great, too. Amos and I followed in his car.

I had to pay the towing company upfront, but he didn't have any change for my cash. I ended up running down the street to a dry cleaners for change.

Amos and I left my car at the shop then headed to Master's. I used the copier/scanner machine in the library so that I could send my insurance company a copy of the receipt in order to be reimbursed for the towing costs. Amos then had me drop him off at home. Amos had me keep his car so I could tutor, hang out with my friend Melyndee, and go to work the next day.

The next day I went to work, picked up Amos, and went to get my car. We came back to my apartment, had dinner, then headed out to Kohl's (I had a $10.00 coupon). I got a sweatshirt, and Amos wandered around, pretending not to mind all the time I was taking (just kidding; he said he didn't mind).

We also went to Target. I had a fun time pointing out crazy-looking/ugly pillows. Amos showed me a dinosaur-shaped cupcake pan.

It was a lot of fun.

And it will be okay.

I have a good boyfriend.

UPDATE: You can read Amos' version of the story here. Reading it, I'm reminded that God had it all worked out. It wasn't Amos who fixed my problem, but God used Amos, his sick coworker Dennis, and all the other stuff we will never see, to help me. Whoa. I'm not proud enough to think that God fixed it only for me, but I'm thankful that my small problems and I were taken care of in such a way. God really does love me, for some strange reason. And I, for one, am so glad He does.

Monday

Today is Monday, and I don't have a sub job today. I really haven't done much today. I took a shower, made breakfast, checked Facebook, and laughed with my roommate small michelle about cool and crazy photography sites. Later I will tutor a 5th grader in math, hurry home to change, and go play Frisbee at the park for a few hours. I hope my Intramural Frisbee team plays well without me this afternoon; I have to miss it because I will be tutoring. I think I'll also go on a walk and read a book. I'm reading Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi right now. It is a very interesting book about the importance of fiction, life in Iran, and personal freedom.

I was debating about writing a post today because this would be my fourth post in November so far, and it is only the 9th day of the month. However, who says I can't write a ton of posts in one month?

Anyway, I have been thinking about a few things that happened yesterday.

Pastor Todd Smith at Crossroads was preaching on Ephesians 2:11-16. The phrase "He Himself is our peace" is found in those verses.

Jesus is my peace. Nothing else. Not more sub jobs. Not more tutoring hours. Not a full-time job. Not answers about my future. Not Amos. Not more money in my bank account. Not time at home with my family. Not having my loans paid off. Not more friends. Not being able to pay for all my bills. Nothing. None of that. Only Jesus is my peace. I have to remember that nothing else will satisfy, no one else will suffice.

Dr. Halstead led the Young Adults Ministry meeting last night. I think the series is called Acceptable Sins or Permissible Sins or something like that. Last night the topic was discontentment, which was fitting considering my current circumstances and attitudes. I was rather frustrated at first because many people said they were discontent with how much they read the Bible or how much they desired God. Or they were generally discontent with their present situation. Everyone else's responses were very vague and seemingly fake. Were Melyndee, Heather, Jenna, and I the only ones that struggled with real, tangible, practical discontentment? I was annoyed. However, I was very glad that I went because I had a realization that is probably rather obvious to many of you out there. It was that I couldn't just think "I need to love God, I need to read my Bible, I need to pray." Instead, I needed to be praying, "Make me want to love You more, make me want to give You glory, make me want to pray to You." Do I need to do those things? Yes, definitely. But I will never do them or at least I will not do them with the proper attitude if it is not my desire to do them.

This was a total shift in perspective. I have to want to do these things, and it is going to take more than sheer will power. I don't know what it will look like exactly. I don't want to be one of those people who is "so heavenly minded [she is] of no earthly good." However, I am reminded of the fact that if this is God's will for me to have a desire to live for Him, then He will be faithful to help me.

I never thought I'd be here. I had a plan. I was going to graduate from Master's, I was going to get my credential, I was going to get a job, and I was going to have no problems doing any of that.

I hate waiting, but I know that God will work this out somehow. I know what I want in the future, but I am realizing that I need to pray not that God's plans will maybe align with mine, but that I will want to follow His plans. That is hard. It is hard when I don't know what God's plans are. I want to know what they are so that I will know that I will be safe, that I won't end up with a broken heart, that I won't be in trouble, that it will be easy. But it doesn't work that way.

I guess the best thing right now is to pray that God will give me a desire to do what He wants to me to do, to remember that He alone is my peace, and to remember Ebenezer: thus far the LORD has helped me.

A-Z

The other day I noticed that when I simply type a J into my Google Chrome search bar, the website for my favorite photography site pops up, just with the J. I was curious what sites would pop up for each individual letter of the alphabet, so I tried typing in each letter of the alphabet, and this is what I came up with. This doesn't mean that I visit all of these sites a lot, but I've visited them enough to have them pop up when I type in the corresponding letter of the alphabet.

I give you,

The Google Chrome Alphabetical Search List!

a - amazon.com

b - billblakey.com/blog (TMC grad who is also a photographer)

c - craigslist.com

d - drchang.net/timesheets (timesheets for my tutoring job)

e - edjoin.org (education jobs available in California)

f - facebook.com

g - google.com

h - hartdistrict.org (high school district website)

i - imdb.com (international movie database)

j - jasminestarblog.com (awesome Christian photographer in SoCal)

k - megankphotography.com (another photographer that I recently found)

l - lukasvandyke.com (TMC grad who is also a fine art photographer)

m - masters.edu

n - notalwaysright.com (haha! terrible customer service stories)

o - photophilcro.blogspot.com (Lester's cousin's photography blog)

p - pandora.com

q - qldfrogs.asn.au (pictures of Goliath frogs!)

r - rawchristianity.wordpress.com (Gunner's blog)

s - singingforfreedom.wordpress.com (Whitney's blog)

t - toddbolen.com (Todd's blog)

u - unendingmercies.wordpress.com (Heather's blog)

v - verizonwireless.com

w - wamu.com

x - xkcd.com (comic strip)

y - youtube.com

z - zillow.com (I don't know; something to do with real estate; it was only a suggestion, I had never visited this site before.)

Happy Saturday!

Not Always Right

I've been reading two blogs recently. One is called My Life Is Average. People submit funny, average things that happen to them. Another blog is called Not Always Right. This blog has stories about rude or dumb customers that people encounter in their jobs. This story is hilarious! (Warning: Most of the stories on these blogs are okay, though some should be skipped.) (P.S. I'm sorry for the format, blogger won't let me copy and paste correctly.) (P.P.S. I think I have enough parenthetical asides now.) (P.P.P.S. Carry on, it's really funny!)

Burned HIGH ROPES | LIVERPOOL, UK (I’m a high ropes instructor and work with kids in the forest. There are “No Smoking” signs posted all over the place, but I see a woman smoking right next to a sign.) Me: “Ma’am, I’m sorry. There’s no smoking in this area.” Customer: “Why not?” Me: “Because it could start a fire.” Customer: *snottily* “Well, I’ll make sure not to do that.” Me: “Ma’am, you still can’t smoke in this area. There are children everywhere… the smoke’s not good for them.” Customer: “Well, they’re my children, so it’s really my decision to make, isn’t it?” Me: “Actually, as this is our property, it’s our decision. Please take your disgusting habit elsewhere.” Customer: “Your FACE is disgusting.” Me: “Well, ma’am, as soon as my face starts causing cancer, you can complain.”

Grab bag

I don't know how I'm getting to church next week. There is a marathon next Sunday, and the runners' route follows my route from my apartment to church. I suggested to Amos that I ride my bike with him hanging on the back, or he could pull me along on a skateboard. He said maybe we would drive close and then walk. Ummmm, okay; I guess that would work, too. ;)

I have over forty links bookmarked in my photography links folder. I love looking at pictures. And the nice thing is that, with so many different sites, I'm bound to see new pictures every time even if I look through just a few sites a day.

Frisbee was fun today, even though our Intramural Frisbee team lost this time. It was really hot, and I think we are a team with a lot of runners. The bad thing is that we all run and then we all get tired, and there is no one left to chase the other team's runners. Oh well, we'll figure it out and learn how to shut down the other teams, all in the name of friendship and good sportsmanship.

I have recently discovered the music of Owl City. I don't know what genre they are, but I'm thinking pop with techno? Maybe not. They use synthesizers and such. I know, Owl City sounds weird, but I like their imaginative lyrics and fun style.

The other day I found a leaf that looked like a mango! It was golden yellow, red, and green. I brought it home where it turned brown, but it was really cool while it lasted! I should try to find another one.

My family's phrase is "the other day..." When we say "the other day," we could mean yesterday, last month, two years ago, or a decade ago; other folks might never know, unless they recognize a discrepancy in a story or happened to be there for the particular event being discussed. I think Dad is responsible for this strange phenomenon, along with the terms deely-dos (hair ties), nibbles (crackers, cheese, and lunch meat), and many others. (I love you, Daddy. ;) )

I should probably go to bed in anticipation of a phone call in the early morning hours! And even if I don't get a phone call, I can always get up and do something profitable...I hope.