How to Shmooze

I recently asked a good friend what the most influential books in his life had been, and he responded with Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." As I know this guy pretty well and respect his opinions, I completely thought he was joking. He wasn't. I had always thought of this book as a way that salesmen, politicians, and those hokey televangelists with the big pink hair could put some more notches in their belts and fifties in their pockets, a kind of brown-nosers' guide to life at the top. Having never read the book myself, though, I'm pretty sure that my perception was based entirely on the title alone. And by the way--I still do hold to the fact that it is an abysmal title. But, because my friend doesn't fit in any of the fake, money-grubbing, despicable categories I've mentioned here, I've decided that I should read the book for myself. I see this thing ending in one of three ways. One, I realize my friend for what he truly is: a sad, false little man with such little regard for himself that he relies on the number of "friends" on his myspace page for his only source of self worth. (As I created the page for him because he refused to resign himself to cyber-relations, I think this outcome is highly unlikely). Two, the book changes my life, as well, and consequently my relationships become much healthier and much more fulfilling for all involved. And three, I realize that the sway I have held over people in the past has been a drop in the bucket compared to the influence I could have, and I end up ruling the universe and "persuading" everyone to do the things that I think are necessary for life (eating ice cream at every opportunity; bringing home Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving, no earlier, no later; refusing to wear orange no matter the cost, etc.). If only I had more friends to give me their opinion on the book...oh, wait...that's outcome number four! Stay tuned...

Blessings from Heaven

"Consider the sparrows of the field, they neither sow nor reap, but God takes care of them.”
I'm not sure about how much reaping and sowing go on in our lives, but God sure does take care of us. Lately I've tried to be aware of all of the ways God blesses us. There are the little ways, like how we'll just oddly decide to take an alternate driving route to our friends' house, only to miss an incredible wreck that we would've been stuck in for hours if we had gone the other way. Or how I often get e-mails or phone calls from friends/family just when I need them most. Or how it seemed that we would be alone for both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year because of Mark's work but, without any doing on our part, it turns out that both holidays will bring family closer to us so that we can spend them with the people we love most. But just this past week, 2 huge blessings fell upon us and I feel like I'll burst if I don't tell everyone! Mark and I, as everyone knows, are pretty low on funds right now. Even though we are really strict in how we spend our money, it's a challenge every month to stay in the black (or is it in the red? in the white? I really shouldn't use phrases like this if I'm not sure how to use them correctly. I mean to say: in the whatever color means no debt). This is especially hard as the holidays approach because our friends and family are so giving and we really love to reciprocate that sentiment. So Mark comes home on Monday night and says that the people at work love him so much that they are giving him a promotion and a raise...to start at the beginning of December. Perfect timing or what? And then to top the blessing cup right off, this week we are down to the bare bones in our pantry and I can't go to the grocery until this weekend when I get paid. So I'm getting pretty creative in our meals this week, but even creativity runs out. Just as I was wondering what Mark could eat for lunch since all of our bread was gone, and wondering what we could eat for dinner since all of our everything else was gone, Mark gets a free lunch at work that was brought in for a meeting he wasn't a part of. And then, best of the best, our friend calls and invites us to celebrate his 30th birthday at one of the fanciest restaurants I've ever been to, courtesy of his father-in-law, who wanted to treat him to a birthday dinner and asked him to invite 2 friends. It was fabulous (although I think 5 choices of water is overdoing it a little bit)! All this to say, God is so good to us and we are so undeserving. I think the verse "Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself" is such an awesome encouragement and always proves to be so true. Thanks, God!

Wish List: Chi and Dragons

This past weekend brought two new items into my life that were immediately moved to the very top of my wish list: a Chi hair straightener and a dragon.
I'll start with the Chi. My sister-in-law came up to visit. We were getting ready to go out and she asked me if I wanted to use her hair straightener (a "Chi"). As anybody knows, because I had my hair up in a ponytail all day (from straight-out-of-the-shower-wet), I told her that no straightener could tame my hair well enough to wear it down that night. But she convinced me to try it, so I released my hair from its rubberbanded knot, revealing cascades of all kinds of wonky waves, and set to straighten. It was as if I had a magic wand in my hand and was secretly issuing some kind of ancient spell from my mind as I passed the wand over my hair. It was incredible. I have fairly crazy hair, so rarely do I ever talk about how pretty it is. Not this night. I couldn't STOP talking about it, touching it, brushing it, swooshing it back and forth. Glorious. It could've been angel hair, but it was MY hair. So now I just have to save up $85 to purchase it. Eighty-five dollars, you say, for a styling tool? Honestly, I would've been willing to pay five times that amount. It's that good.
Yesterday Mark and I watched Eragon and I fell in love. I want a dragon. I really want a dragon. In fact, I want a specific dragon, Saphira. But if I can't have her (which, clearly, I can't, because she has chosen another rider), I'll settle for whichever one chooses me. I wonder how long one must wait? I've heard that some dragons wait thousands of years to hatch until they feel the presence of their rider. That means that somewhere, maybe on a ranch in Nashville, maybe in a bar in Stockholm, maybe in a fune in Okinawa (where Mr. Miagi also waits for me), my dragon sits in his/her egg just hoping to soon fulfill her destiny with me, her rider. How exciting! Plus, how much more awesome of a dragon rider will I look like when I'm fighting evil from the tail of my beast with gorgeous, shiny, stick-straight hair?