3 Kings Day!

Well folks, it's Epiphany. I feel the urge to learn/do/create something new today in honor of it! I also feel the urge to have a cocktail or six...I mean it is the countdown to Lent, and a girl can only expect so much fun from a 40 day party soo it kinda sounds like I should get started now huh?
I think i should spend the next 40 days REALLY thinking about what I should give up for lent. My heart (where Jesus lives) keeps screaming alcohol, but my brain is fighting really hard to tell it to shut up. Why on Earth did I decide that I needed to celebrate Lent anyway? Sheesh. Maybe in 40 days time I will find something else that would cause me suffering to give up. Maybe I should take up gambling or crack...surely that would be something any good Christian would be hard pressed to continue doing while abstaining from something as trivial as alcohol? Right?
Well, while I fight my wicked soul for domination, I will also be going to get a 3 kings cake for dinner tonight (I'm a great mulitasker, I know). I was going to make spaghetti and meatballs, but in honor of Epiphany, I think a jambalaya would make more sence.
I wonder what it was like to walk in to that barn and see the most important person ever born into the world laying there helpless, and to then be the first people on Earth to bow down and worship Him. Seems incredible.

End of the world

Everyone asked me what I was doing for New Years. My response was a Y2K celebration. I planned on stocking up on crackers, tuna, tp, ect, and waiting in my house with my shotgun. Actually, I went over a friends house and had a quiet, small celebration, like we do every year.
Its funny how quickly people forget, and how quickly people are swayed. Total death and destruction will rear it's ugly head again in 2012, not nearly as bad as Y2K in my opinion, but it still will. I wonder what alot of people will be doing then?

At any rate, now is the time to decide to be a better person by changing some things about myself. The problem is I struggle with this all year long, leaving me exasperated and jaded about resolutions. I make plans over and over again, just to fail over and over again, so resolution making seems like an old worn down notion that I can't seem to grasp.
Maybe it's time I resolved to resolve nothing. I will try to take what I have, no matter how much I want to "improve" it, and make it what I love. Maybe my resolution should be to enjoy enjoy enjoy each day. I want to focus on God's grace and beauty, and know that no matter how much I may toil to an end, God's work in me is infinatly better, and my work will never compare.
OUCH! That is so much easier to say than it is to do, it hurts sooooo bad, mentally and physically. It pains me to try to be still for once, but labor pain brings new birth, and that's what I am desperatly seeking more than anything else.

Y2K isn't such a bad concept. I need to end the world as I know it, let that old world fall away, and be born into a New World Order where God's hands guide and lead me instead of my own.

Downtown at Christmas!

I took myself (and therefore you all) on a photo tour of the tunnel and a few of the buildings downtown lit up for the most wonderful time of the year!

This is the Houston Center 5, you know, the one that hates the rest of the Houston Center.

Their tree.

And table decorations.

And this is Houston 2. They have the best decorated trees of all the centers.

See!


Told Ya!




And this is Reliant's massive tree in the tunnel. I was in love the first time I saw this one!



This is at the juncture between JP Chase bank and Chase Tower. Not the fanciest, but I got be feeling Christmasy.



Here's the tree in the tunnel at Chase Tower. Looks like they were having somekind of toy drive?










This is the juncture of Penzoil and Bank of America. Very Nice!


The tree in Bank of America's lobby.

Close up of BOA and Penzoil juncture tree.







MY FOVORITE colors of any decorations downtown! This is in the tunnel of the Shell Building.

Here is what the pathway between Shell and Wells Fargo looks like. Very pretty!















Now this is hilarious, do you see how Wells Fargo treats it's poor Nutcrackers? Poor little guys.





Well, I guess the ones inside have it a little better. Must be considered less of a flight risk...


This is the skywalk in between Center Point and the Hyatt.


And here is the lobby at the Hyatt.


The poor people at Allen Center may have misjudged how much space this tree needed.

David the knome kickin it Christmas style.




This is the tree at some bank, I don't remember it's name, but I really enjoyed it's tree!


At the Embassy hotel.

This beautiful display is at Total Plaza. I'd never been in this building before, but thought I'd check it out for this project.







And here is Houston 4. I really like their decorations as well.






Phew, and that's the lot!

What I got goin on

We went to a lovely dinner party last night with Jonathan and Tara at Nathan and Jen's house. I feel like an old married woman...
I had a few cocktails and as usual felt slightly awkward and that I may have said too much.
Woke up HANGOVER FREE! Which is a Christmas miracle. Made it to work on time despite moving slow as molassas on a sub zero day.
I am currently in a biddng war for the last of Damon's presents on overstock. I've got 30 min left, but if this guy outbids me again he can have it.
I need to go to Forever 21 and get niece #1 some headbands. She saw the ones I had and asked to borrow them, I figure I'll give her a set.
I'm going to take a ton of pictures today that I will post to show the beauty that is downtown at Christmas. It's truely inspiring how all the buildings really get in the spirit!
Need to make a grocery list for tomorrow, but I think I'll wait until then..no rush.
And that's pretty much it. I was reading on Liz Jordan's blog that she got engaged. I love married people, it's so nice to know that there is so much love out there, and when another couple takes the plunge, it's kind of like a new life being born.
Oh, and one last thing. I've got 6 water bottles and 3 cans at my desk I need to go drop 3 ft away in the recycling bins. I'll do that when the mood strikes me.

Epiphany

God's been all up in my face lately...and I LOVE it! He spoke to me yesterday and told me something that knocked my socks off. Now before I get into it, remember, revelations are different for each person, just like there are some people that can sit down and understand trig at first glance, there are people whom God can get through to quite easily. Then there are people like me who don't understand what tangent has to do with anything, and who have thick almost cement-like skulls that God has to crack through to get his message in.

My epiphany was about work. I was walking on my lunch break, like I do everyday, and speaking with God. Really it was all about how nice the trees looked, how beautiful the weather was, you know, heavy spritual stuff. Then my mind roamed to the thought of work, and pride in work. While it's perfectly suitable to take pride in you work, in fact everyone should, it's not okay to be prideful about it. On my "Operational Definitions of Character Qualities" sheet, it has the following traits:
HUMILIY vs. Pride
Recognizing that God and others are actually responsible for the achievements in my life.
DILIGENCE vs. Slothfulness
Visualizing each task as a special assignment from the Lord and using all my energies to accomplish it.

Here was the conclusion I reached, if I am to give all glory to God for my achievements, than my work is a reflection of Him, which means I should do my best at it, becuase if we share in triumph, we share in tragedy.
WHOA
So what You're saying is (me talking to God), if I represent You in the good things I do, I also represent You in the bad things I do, which means I should always try take each task I get and fulfill it in a way that would give You glory. And not only that, but because You give me each task that is set before me, I should be eager and willing to work my hardest at it beacuse it's for You.

All I can say is YIKES. He is so good!

Crazy bird, crazy lady

This afternoon I saw this bird in the bayou. I didn't find it terribly interesting... until I saw its freakishly colored feet.















Also, when I got to my car to get my tripod at lunch, this is what awaited me















She was sitting in her car smoking when I came down to go home. Real nice, lady.

Viola James Fairfax

What a weekend. My precious grandmother went home on Thursday last week, I cried, a little. It hadn't sunk in, it still hasn't, how can it? Knowing you wont see someone again until you die, (which hopefully for me means not for a long LONG time), probably takes some getting used to. I don’t think this is an immediate transition that can be grappled with and put to rest in a few easy days. I'm dejected. I came from her, I am her, she is me, and therefore part of me is gone. Where I got these eyebrows, this nose, this inexplicable need to laugh at what appears to be nothing, this deep faith in a Heavenly Father, and this thirst for life’s little nuances that I always feel elude me. All back to the universe. *deep sigh*. I loved her, I slept in the same bed with her, waking her up all hours with uncontrolled legs and elbows protruding in to her space, I spent countless hours communing with her.
It's such a blessing to know that I will see her again, such a heroes welcome I know she had and will want to share with me when I get there. Grief is this choking sensation, a feeling that something just settled into your throat so you can’t breathe, and something just gripped your chest so you're heart wont beat properly. I think this is what being attacked by an octopus from the inside would feel like... less inky, but same general feeling. I feel the guilt of not spending enough time, throwing away and not appreciating my past, MY past. In the end, her past caught up with her, so many loved ones, so much heartfelt warmness surrounded her, and it glowed from within her. We all radiated on each other. If the end of my life could be anything akin to this, I will know that I have not only made it, but done it right.
She spent her childhood in Louisiana picking cotton. LOTS OF COTTON. That's what everybody on my dad’s side of the family did up until my dad, the oldest of three, was born. He was the first of the new generation, and the first born here in Houston. There were better opportunities for my grandparents, and therefore my dad. She would tell me about how they would do nothing all day but pick. It was hard work, and it built a sturdy woman. As she lay in her bed, I looked down at her, and my gaze stopped at her belly. I pondered how the life that came from that belly, after many years, and with no consideration on her part, led to my life. It's so weird to watch friends now getting pregnant and having babies, when I think about how it's all so circular. Each generation discovers it, and takes it as their own, not thinking on all those before them that did the exact same thing.
My grandmother ran away with my grandfather. She said he was leaving, her dad forbade her to, but she packed up and left anyway. GUTSY, I know! lol. My grandpa eventually sent a letter of apology and explanation to my greatgrandad, but I don't think it ever smoothed things over for them. How hilarious it is to ponder on how that young woman in love hopped on a train to Houston, leaving behind literally the entire family and life she knew, just to be with my grandpa! I laugh so hard about this, and realize there is truly nothing new under the sun, expect for the lives people bring into it. It's like an old play that just keeps replacing its cast members, new people, same shenanigans.lol.
She said over and over again how thankful she was, her foot went gangrenous, she was thankful; her leg got amputated; she was thankful; she got diagnosed with stage 4 intestinal cancer; she still praised; she lost her colon and was on a feeding tube for nearly a year; she lifted her hands for every new breath she drew, all the way until she didn't have breath anymore. What a remarkable woman!
Life goes on, people go on, the world goes on, somewhere in the universe a star is dying and we won’t know until hundreds of years from now, nothing has or will change... Except for on this small little isolated island that I occupy, my small insignificant corner of this universe. Here, it will never be the same.