PROVERBIAL END OF THE YEAR REFLECTIONS

Oh 2010, you were an interesting year. Little did I know this time a year ago all that you would hold in store for me. . .

You helped me reacquaint myself with patience and faith while I lived in my parents' house [yet again], jobless and frustrated. You reminded me of the joys of adventure when I "visited" my brother and sister-in-law in southern California for five weeks. You allowed me to relax and enjoy the company of loved ones while traveling through Florida and the Caribbean. You showed me that God's timing is not my own when I finally landed a job with an organization that's near and dear to my heart, in a location that I've loved before, Colorado. You blessed me with a new stage in life, a new home, a new community that is challenging me, amazing me, growing me, and exciting me as I continue to see/experience all that it entails.

2010, while parts of you might not have necessarily been enjoyable, all of you was elemental in shaping and molding me, and for that I am grateful. Thanks for a good run!

. . . 2011, what do you have up your sleeve?

COME AND KNOCK ON MY DOOR. . .

Thanksgiving has come and gone so it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. Now all we need is the snow!

STILL NEEDS SOME WORK . . .

In spite of the temperature being in the high 70s today, a fall-like meal was sounding awfully nice come dinner time. Enter cheesy vegetable soup, my recipe for the month of September. 

Unfortunately, I had a wee bit of a problem in successfully completing the recipe and ended up with some huge (and I mean huge) chunks of melted cheese. It looks like I'll be going back to the drawing board (a.k.a. stove) with this one. . .However, it was still pretty darn tasty as it was. If anyone knows how to melt cheese properly in order to get it to a liquidy consistency though, help a girl out! Please, and thank you.

Until next time, goodbye from the kitchen!

OKTOBERFEST

My friend Jen is traveling through Europe at the moment. She was lucky enough to get to go to the actual Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany; I had to settle for Denver's version of it. And while I'm sure that what I took part in paled in comparison to the real deal, it still was fun in its own rite and even made me feel a little more connected to my own heritage.



Hopefully someday I'll have the chance to get decked out in a dirndl, eat authentic Bratwursts, and
Prost (toast) with German beer, but for now, I'll have to make due with drinking strawberry lemonade whilst watching an Asian man do a Bavarian dance in the streets of Denver.

Guten Tag meine Freunde!

WORDLESS

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Words. I've clearly been lacking the capacity to put some to paper computer screen recently. But I've also found myself getting tongue-tied, jumbled, and even hesitant, when it comes to my verbal words lately. I'm not a fan. Confucius says (or more accurately, said) "words are the voice of the heart," and I have to say that I agree. Thus, when my words are lacking or not coming out as I would like them then it's as if someone's slapped a muzzle over the voice of my heart. And that's never a pleasant way to go about living life. I'm thinking that maybe if I go eat some alphabet soup or something then it will help me get back on track to formulating my words. . .In the meantime, bear with me as I continue to make incoherent sentences or don't speak up in the way/when I should. Thanks for your understanding.

Relatively mute,

TALKING 'BOUT MY GENERATION

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An interesting read:

 What Is It About 20-Somethings?

AM I THE ONLY ONE

who intends to let Pandora know that I like the song that they're playing (one I think I've never heard before), only to discover that I've already done so some other time in my listening history?

who sometimes worries that other people actually can read minds and know what I'm thinking?

who adds things to my 'to-do list' only so that I can have the satisfaction of crossing them off?

whose least favorite season is summer (I'm not particularly fond of hot weather. . .)?

who goes up and down every aisle of the grocery store just to make sure I didn't forget something I might need/want?

who based their cereal selection this week off of the fact that you get a free (child's) book in a box of Cheerios?

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Just a week in the life of Megan.

SWEET, STILL NIGHT

I had the privilege of being in the Rocky Mountains last week when the full moon came about. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Crisp mountain air. Nary a sound (with the exception of the whispering wind). The landscape silhouetted by the moonlight. Clouds that dissipated at just the right time, letting the moon shine in all its glory and revealing the night sky that was dotted with stars. Within me: peace, contentment, reverence, and a reminder of Psalm 46:10a, "Be still, and know that I am God."

It was food for my soul. Great food.

AUGUST'S RECIPE

Absolutely. Deliciously. Divine.


Check out the new 'tasty concoctions' section at the top of the page for the scoop on how to whip this up in your own kitchen.

LEAN ON ME

Right now I'm sporting a pretty nice looking little bruise in the webbing of my thenar space. Its presence is attributed to an ill-fated attempt at putting up an event tent the other night. And while the bruise is physically what is staying with me, what is mentally staying with me are the thoughts that resulted from the situation.

Being one of a few attempting to put the tent up I was using all of my might to aid in the process, only to find our combined efforts to not be very mighty. As a result, the aforementioned webbing ended up getting severely pinched between two of the tent pieces. While I tried to free my hand I frantically looked around with pleading eyes for someone to help me, for surely they were seeing the predicament (and pain) I was in! Weren't they?! Once I realized that no one was paying me any attention I refocused myself wholeheartedly on trying to set myself free, for surely I could take care of this all on my own! Couldn't I?! Nope. Okay, back to beckoning people in with my wide-eyed looks of desperation. . .After a good 45 seconds or so (which nearly seemed like an eternity) I finally decided to vocally ask for help, which, surprise surprise, led to a very quickly freed hand.

Why didn't I just call out for help from the get go? Why did I assume that people would just know through osmosis or something that I was needing their assistance? Even more so, in life in general, how often do we wait around, hoping that others will see our needs, our hurt, and our pain without us having to tell them? How often do we try and take care of things by ourselves that in fact require the help of others? Why is it difficult for us to convey our needs, to ask for help, when we most need to? Don't we realize that if we speak up things will start heading in the right direction, if not get better, a heck of a lot faster? Or, if nothing else, at least we will have the support of others?

Nearly immediately after being rescued from the attacking tent, a phrase from Bill Withers' song "Lean on Me" came to mind, it goes: "For no one can fill those of your needs that you don't let show." How true. Sometimes people can sense when something is wrong, when someone needs something, but for the most part that is rare, especially since we've all gotten pretty good at hiding what's really going on with us. If we expect others to help us we have to open up ourselves to them, we have to invite them in, vocally, we have to swallow our pride. It may be a little frightening or out of our comfort zone but in so doing we allow ourselves to get the aid, care, support, and true friendship that we need. After all, we ALL need someone to lean on.

"Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me

So just call on me brother, when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'd understand
We all need somebody to lean on."

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT AUGUST

I'm beginning to see a pattern when it comes to the larger scale changes/events in my life. . .

August 2005: I moved to Colorado to work at a camp for three months (. . .instead of starting my junior year of college in the fall)

August 2007: I quit my first "real" job and moved out of the big city (a.k.a. Seattle)

August 2008: I moved from Washington to Virginia and started graduate school

August 2009: I moved back to Washington from Virginia after completing graduate school

August 2010: I officially started my new job in Denver

August 2011: ???

COOKING ON A DIME

I'm all about improvisation, people. So once I realized that July has pretty much passed me by and I still needed to whip up a meal from a new recipe for this month I got to brainstorming. I'm on a very, VERY, tight budget at the moment so I decided to look around the kitchen and figure out what I might be able to make with ingredients that I already had lying around. And after conferring with the Pillsbury "Breakfast & Brunch" recipe booklet that I got on the $1 aisle at Target awhile back I created a yummy improvised version of one of the recipes. Behold what I like to call the 'Scrambled Egg and Veggie Breakfast Sandwich':

APPLICABLE WORDS

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"Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely." ~ unknown

ONE WITH NATURE

If you're at all curious about my trip to Denver, here's the gist of it: I hit a deer somewhere in Montana while driving on the freeway (but miraculously managed to drive away unscathed -- both my car and the deer); saw a fair amount of bison, as well as some elk and moose in Yellowstone National Park;

and ripped my pants in the midst of trying to escape a cicada while dining out on my first night in town (what can I say, I'm afraid of bugs/insects). On the whole, in between driving long hours through seemingly endless lands of wide open spaces, this trip brought me that much closer to nature and strengthened my love-hate relationship with it. What more could you ask for on an excursion such as the one I just completed?

R.I.P. (YET ANOTHER) CAMERA

Either I'm jinxed or I'm just not cut out to be an owner of electronics.

I was hoping that my digital camera might be salvageable but after calling around I've found out that: 1. camera repair people are pretty outspoken about their feelings towards Samsung cameras, and 2. it'd cost near the same, or maybe even less, to just buy a new camera as it would to try and fix it. And so, after a short life, it looks as though I'll be parting with the 2nd camera that's been in my possession in the past year.

And while we're looking at the numbers, it's also worth noting that I'm currently on my 3rd computer in 2 1/2 years, and now that my phone is going a little nuts [which when I took it in to get checked out I was told by the salesperson, "now I remember why we stopped selling these phones" -- great.] I could very well be on to my 3rd phone in 1 1/2 years here soon enough. But, 3rd time's a charm, right? Right? I'm hoping so. If not, I may just have to move to Amish country and swear off all technology -- it sure would save me a lot of money.

I COULD GET USED TO THIS

Camp with some great kiddos. . .

Tasty cupcakes and macaroons from an open-air bakery in a quaint neighborhood. . .

Yummy lunch in the sun on a rooftop in a neat district of downtown . . .

Beautiful sunsets . . .

In addition to many other things (i.e. wonderful people, sense of community, other fun places to explore, etc.). . .

All this to say, if my life in Denver turns out to be anything near to what I experienced in the past week that I was there then I think that I'll be one lucky person. I guess I'll find out soon enough when I move there for good in a couple of weeks.

*disclaimer: I cannot take credit for any of the above pictures, they are all courtesy of the trusty old internet seeing as I dropped my camera multiple times while at camp and it now is pretty much useless -- c'est la vie

THE DOMINO EFFECT

Today I got up at 4 in the morning -- to miss my flight and sit here in the airport for who knows how long? Apparently. Mmm, sleep sounds awfully good right about now.

Since my frustration level has begun to subside somewhat, and I've got a bit of time on my hands (possibly a good 9 hours unless I can get on as a standby -- oh joy), the contemplative mood is striking me.

After this morning's events it's got me thinking, how much do our own lives and life decisions effect those of others? Clearly when we make a point of having some type of impact on other people the effect is going to be greater, but what about when we're simply minding our own business and in some shape or form it has an effect on people that we wouldn't have imagined?

For example, Joe Schmo probably was thinking that when he called in sick today that the only people that it would make a difference to would be himself and his coworkers who would have to pick up his slack. I'm sure that he didn't realize that the weight of his absence would be intensified by the absence of the four other people who would call in sick. Or that as a result his coworkers would be very shorthanded and ill-prepared to handle the number of people who would be coming to the ticket counter. I'm sure it didn't cross his mind that due to being understaffed many people would end up missing their flights. Or that by missing their flights those people would then continue the domino effect by having to rearrange their plans, thus effecting the lives of even more people. The gentleman who was behind me in line was on his way to a business meeting, that was now needing to be rescheduled -- it's merely hypothetical, but what if by having to reschedule that meeting everyone involved will have more time to mull things over and may go in a different direction than they were going to go in had the first meeting taken place? Could a business deal in Chicago really fall through on account of Joe Schmo calling in sick to his job in Podunkville, WA? It's probably not the case, but in essence, it very well could be possible.

We may not realize it, but as individualized as our lives can be we are all still very much interconnected. Even the little things that we do, that we say, are capable of carrying more weight and reaching farther than it would seem. We really can effect the lives of others by making a simple, mundane decision in our own life. It's a little bit crazy, but highly fascinating. . .for me atleast. I think I may have just guilted myself into never calling in sick again. Wait, nope, scratch that -- but I will be more mindful of how my actions, my life, may factor in to someone else's life.

As for now though, I'm off to find all of the happening hangout spots in the airport -- I'm sure there's tons.

Get well soon Joe Schmo.

ONE STEP CLOSER TO BEING A DOMESTIC GODDESS

. . . one very tiny, itsy bitsy, step, but a step nonetheless.

 

Yum.