A Picture for my Thoughts

I need pictures to inspire me right now.
I need to see a caved-in barnyard, surrounded by fields of knee-high corn. Hmm...
A hawk diving down right on the water-falls edge.
A mother sternly clasping the hand of her 4 yr. old as the two cross a busy New York street.
A democrat with mouth open wide in worship as Obama raises a fist to the heavens and proclaims, "If Obama can be President, Anybody can!!!" (I just had to get that in)
A young girl reading 'The Onion' at a coffee shop with wide eyes. (I just discovered 'The Onion'is a fake newspaper today!! The headline was 'Queen Elizabeth 2 announces she is expecting!'. I was like - what? That can't be right! She's like old! Is it a surrogate thing?' - lol. When I realized the paper was all sarcasm, I couldn't stop reading and laughing crazily! - literally)
A milk-shake with two straws.
Let's see... what else should I reveal about myself in these imaginative pictures...
I have writers block this month...
A typewriter, the cobwebs surrounding it cascaded by sunlight, on a dirty wooden table.
A childs chubby fingers reaching up and touching the keys of a Steinway piano.
The stethescope swinging from a doctors neck.
Horses in the tall grass, unanimously congregating to slap flies with their tails.
Grandparents writing out birthday cards for their grand-kids together.
The expression on the faces of four young boys jumping in a cold lake for the first time all year.
A middle-aged woman in her living room crazily swatting at a huge horse-fly with a fly-swatter.
A girl watching her hair be cut too-short in a mirror.
Dirty little bare feet on a sandy road.
Enough. You know what I'm picturing? Summer... I'm so glad it's summer. If summer were a hot buiscut with homeade raspberry jam on it, I would eat it. If it were a person, I would make it my friend. Now that you are officially picturing that and getting freaked out, I will grin and bid you good night.

My Sure Escape

Right. So the days have been hectic, so don't judge me for like not writing.... more than five articles this month.

I have few complaints. (Note: I did not say NO complaints - proves I'm still human). Work at PotBelly has been going rather well, but like any job it has both severe negatives and soaring positives. My manager has taken to yelling at me a lot, and I wince at the customers and wish I had the nerve to say, "He's always like that."

My greatest fault is that if I notice a need, my first instinct is to run and meet the need (which leaves my own station unattended) (thus the yelling). I'm still getting the whole highly useful 'assembly line' thing down. I preferr to banter with the fun loving customers and hand them a hot steamy sandwich made with love. (As opposed to briskly handing them a dry sandwich and shooing them towards the cash register). I have since learned that many people don't know how to experience things AS THEY GO. They can't walk slowly through the crowd. Such people care very little for a sandwich made with love, and that is one of the most disgusting type of people I have to make sandwiches for.

Back to my problems. I have one particularly loud-mouthed co-worker who often likes to point out my countless faults in front of customers. Here's a good example. I'm talking to a customer and then she comes up to me and saucily tells me, "Less lip, more grip." I was like, "What? That doesn't even make sense." According to her, I talk too much. Okay, but that was a horribly lame way to say it.

Otherwise, I have learned to generally keep to myself. I did allow myself one huge religious/political debate involving myself, a gay guy, and a guy who studied to be a Rabbi. That got rather heated and I kept laughing because it got so absurdly funny. You'll be glad to know the gay guy and the Rabbi found it amusing as well, so as far as I know I wasn't written up. Otherwise, most people I come into contact with are politically dull and too busy and important to have opinions and share them with a low-life PotBelly sandwich attendant. Admittedly, I have run into a Lowes manager who had a lively political debate with me, but it was almost dissapointing because he agreed with me too much. I like to disagree vehemently and see if they have as good an argument for their beliefs as I hope I have for mine.

Anyways, I'm going to share a poem thingy that I wrote a long time ago that pretty much defines how I'm feeling right now. This summer is stretching on and on.... Admitedly I'm normally not a basket-case when it comes to new things, but this waiting thing is about to kill me! Let the moment I step on my college campus be here! Let people stop telling me how nice it will be for me down there, and how successful I will be in life! I am willing to wager that the summer before one launches out on ones own, is THE longest feeling 3 months one will ever experience. I am pretty confident in saying this, because adults wiser and much older than myself have been telling me that 'once I begin college, life will fly by'. I wanted to say, "Thank you, that was significantly pessimistic, but may I say I am more than ever ready to launch off into the unknown."

Right now, the 'unknown' consists of 'what cheap, adorable, yet durable laptop can I find?', and 'should I splurge and buy school books?' The future and God alone know the answers.

I am stuck here.
In this long day,
With the irrepressible urge to find a bathroom,
And yet not willing to risk
Missing the very minute my ride arrives.
I have watched the road silently,
Sipping my cold ice water,
And longing for relief from
Strange surroundings.
I need to see something familiar,
Something I can kick and call home.
I need to see our little tan Prism,
Or our big hulky blue van,
Rolling towards me with
A familiar knight in shining armor at the wheel.
I want my car to be red,
So that car rolling towards me now,
Will be mine.
My sure escape.

Really, though, if you think about it... If a car were to come pick me up and take me away from all of my problems, I would just find myself in another situation that contains problems. Difficult situations are unavoidable, I suppose, so that means that one has to find the answers to ones internal problems instead of always dragging them along in some kind of pathetic version of a getaway car. Am I right?

Unavoidable Hazards of the Kitchen

-The first fatal session with boiling water
-Trying to jam a cupboard closed and having all the pans tumble out upon oneself
-Piling the dishes so high in the rack that one can’t touch, much less seek to dry them
-Getting just a LITTLE egg yolk in the egg whites
-Stains on white outfits
-Dishwater splashing up like a reversed water-fall when one tries to dump it down the sink
-Too much garlic
-Getting a phone call and forgetting about the delicacies in the oven
-Bad berries in a berry cobbler
-The occasional hair clinging to the muffin
-Making morning coffee taste like weak tea
-Smoke setting off the fire-alarm
-Making a dish meant for a purpose other than the male members of ones family

My Highway Complex

I have to admit. The highway is a terrifying place. I never realized it until my brother began driving and was crawling onto it with my Dad saying in high-pitches, “You have to go faster! We’re never going to make it!” Now it’s my turn to learn how to drive, and I can’t stop gripping the wheel and jerking it whenever I’m not centered in my lane. Tonight was like the third (?) time that I’ve been on the high way, and it was horrible. I couldn’t shake this feeling that I was in a horrible video game. I always lost those video games you know, where you’re supposed to race through strange terrain, while managing to stay in your lane and turn at break-neck speeds. I ALWAYS lost (but it was still fun). Well, suddenly as I was gripping the wheel and my back was bent over the wheel at a far from 90-degree angle, I realized that it was a real-life situation and I was ALIVE and I wanted to stay that way. My Dad didn’t help matters when he said quietly, “We almost lost control of the vehicle back there. Do you realize that? Tell me, Andria, what does it mean to ‘lose control’?” I was like, “Umm, I don’t know. I’m trying to drive here.” He continued to ask me, “What does it mean to ‘lose control’?” And it was all I could do to keep from looking down at my white knuckles and to keep my back straightened out against the seat. Anyways, so my Dad defined it for me by telling me about an accident that he had been in, “…I jerked the wheel, and then my vehicle slid sideways and it slid and slid and I had no control.” So I tried to keep the wheel straight, and then we came on a curve, and my Dad's like, “What are you DOING? There's a curve and we're going straight!” Needless to say, my father is a very brave man. I am the last of his four children and he’s a good sport about the whole “I have more gray hair because of you” thing.

I’ve had dreams about these things. For the longest time as a kid, it was always a given that when I dreamed I suddenly had the power to do amazing things. I could fly without any equipment, I could tell people off, I could walk around wearing questionable garments, and I could drive a car. But have you ever dreamed that you were supposed to go in reverse really fast and when you punched the gas you realized you were in drive? That’s a horrible feeling when you hear the crunch of metal and you don't wake up right away.

Anyways, that’s just something I’m going through right now. Thought I’d share the love.
But hey, I thought up a great quote. Sometimes you have to experience the potholes in life before you can appreciate the highway.

Brilliant! Yes, thank you.

You know that whole ‘My way or the Highway’? Totally lame. Now you have a good new highway quote.

Substitutes for Slightly Offensive Words

Have you ever looked at someone and said something in passing, and then suddenly you realized by their expression that it was the wrong thing to say? It's like, "What? What did I say?" and they won't answer you or help you out, because you should KNOW what you said. (If you're a guy you may be really relating at this point). Anyways, a lot of times silly disputes occur because a misunderstanding of communication occurs. Sometimes a word that means nothing degrading to YOU may be totally degrading to the person you're speaking to. So here's a small list (excluding profanity and all that) of words that can come off a little rude, and can be tactfully altered. Remember (Men especially), if you're always treating the person you're talking to with respect, and you use words that are dripping with sympathy (not accusation), you will lead a very charmed life.

Negative -----------------------Positive
Weird ----------------------------Different
Abnormal ------------------------Unique
Strange --------------------------Unusual
Freaky ---------------------------Unexpected
Odd ------------------------------Special
Paranoid -------------------------Stressed
Corny ----------------------------Not sure... just maybe sit this one out
Sappy ----------------------------Heartfelt
Unoriginal ------------------------A Popular thing to do
Common -------------------------Expected

Sometimes it's better to say nothing.

A Parade of Faces

You know, it’s interesting what you can see when you are looking. I got off work early today due to the lackage of holiday sandwich eaters. In other words, work was excruciatingly slow. My protests were quite weak when my manager asked me if I’d like to get off work early. In all truth, I wanted to join my little family for a little parade in my sister and brother-in-laws little neighborhood. This is because I haven’t been to a parade in years (the last time I went I had a little bucket and bobbed around looking for candy on the street).

I should add here that parades are the only time when it is socially acceptable to eat things off the road.

Another reason why I like Fourth of July parades is because the streets are filled with people that consider it cool to wear red, white, and blue. For the little bit of time I was at work today, I was severely disheartened by those who wore green, and other completely unpatriotic colors. I made sure I wore my blue Pot Belly shirt and a little red apron and I looked down my nose at people who didn’t. Today is the only day out of the 365.25 days in the year that I allow myself to judge.

Another nice thing about parads is that people freely yell, “Happy Fourth of July!” and have big smiles on their face that one can’t help smiling back at. I tried that at work. Know what I got in return?

“Yeah, I’d like lettuce, mayo, and a little hot peppers on that.”

Then if I had the guts to try again with, “Have any exciting plans for today?”

My customer would add dismissively, “I’ll take that to go.”

Wow. Some plans. Unfortunately for them, customers like that bring out the sarcasm in me. I attempted to bring out their patriotic spirit, and well, it was deemed non-existent. There were a couple gems in the bunch, but mostly I felt like the only fiercely patriotic person there. Thus is why the parade was cute and exciting for me. I ended up getting lots of candy thrown my way because I happened to sit in a children-free zone. I must have looked youthful as I took the peoples‘ pictures, because I often had to duck from 80 mph tootsie rolls thrown at me.

Actually, I don’t know if you guys know this, but the Declaration of Independence was written and signed on July 2nd, and was only copied on July 4th. This wasn’t announced until July 6th. That’s just an interesting fact for you.

No Fourth of July article is complete without patriotic pictures (the ones I took today). That’s a fact. So I, the neutral party, observed all the different faces of patriotism at the parade I attended. And, I can say without bias that the pictures capture the essence of patriotism. The faces you are about to see, are characters that represent a pride in the land I live in.
The pictured essence represents diversity; young and old, politician and farmer, suburban wife and Harley girlfriend, the child throwing candy and the child collecting candy, the emasculated Scottish men and the uniformed firemen, the woman sprawled out in the lawn chair with a coke and the woman reliving the glory days of twirling a baton for the band…. This represents all of us Americans, leading different lives but uniting all down the blocks of little neighborhoods across the country to celebrate this fourth of July.

My Enchanting College Application

As a child, I was always creating things. I was never handy with wood or art, but I would set my mind on fire with things I could do with the little scraps of paper and secret club-meetings I had. Words became a way to create things beyond my imagination. I wrote my first poem around age 6, and my brother told me it was ‘pretty good’. After that, whether it was writing contests, journaling, poetry, or just descriptions of people I observed, I couldn’t stop writing.

Around age 14, I became avidly interested in the things of the world going on around me. I listened as the whole network of talk radio came alive with fury over the 10 day starvation of Terri Schindler Schaivo. I, too, caught the fire and began listening to real things about others that I had never cared to tune into before. I realize now that the issue of life-support is a controversial and painful issue, but it was that vegetable of a soul that opened my mind to the injustices of politics, our court systems, and the twist of the law in favor of death.

While my interests ranged widely from singing, to photography, to playing piano, one of my greatest loves was just observing people. Some people say I think too deeply about what I see beneath the surface, but I believe that what is beneath the surface is who we are. As I grew to love being with people more than anything, I found myself passionate about telling them what I believe, and wanting to write it all down.

And yet, there’s something missing. I had gotten saved around the age of 10 when a preacher preached about fire, brimstone, and the sure way of salvation. For a while I had more of a fear of God, than a desire to serve Him, love Him, and do His will. I was busy debating politics, holding staunchly to what I believed to be right, and writing down everything that crossed my path and influenced me to think about something deeper than I had before.

So God got a hold of my attention by moving my best friend away, taking my brother off to college, and making me feel more alone and lost than I ever had in my life. Yet, I learned that the things He observes are far better than what I could ever see on my own. At the age of 17, He got me a job at a little gift shop, and there I met person after person who had a great job but really didn’t have any purpose or pleasure in their career. I found myself enjoying discussions of religion and politics - but God became more real to me as I realized that no career could ever make me happy. I realized one day while I was trying to tell a man what God meant to me, that God isn’t just a religion one can debate. He is a personal, all-knowing, all-powerful God. If I am to fight and write, He is whom I will fight and write for.

Wherever God leads me in life, I know that college is just a stepping stone. I plan to do a lot of things in life, but for once I believe I’ll let Him do the planning. I feel He is leading me to college to major in Print Journalism, and minor in my second love - music with a voice proficiency. I have no idea how He’ll use it, but I’m excited to think of all the ways I can grow along the way. After all, it’s not my career I’m living for. It’s right now where God has placed me. I hope you’ll consider your college to be the best place for God to grow me this next fall.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Andria