Now I Know...

...why the South hates the North! My Central VA home has been invaded by New Jersey - and I don't like it (I think there is a family reunion of sorts going on this weekend). The normally smiling faces of the hotel clerks and sevice personnel , look a tad stressed. The fairly quiet building that has been my abode for these past few months has been transformed into a zoo. The southern cheer and hospitality I have come to love and expect is being eclipsed by grating accents, only surpassed by the brash personalities accompanying them.
For the first time in my life, I feel ashamed to call the North my home. Is that really how we act/sound?! Or is this group of people particulary loud and obnoxious? (I'm hoping it's the latter!)

Joke of the Day

It's been a while since I've done a joke post, so here goes...

CJ: [pours remainder of ice from one cup into cup with iced tea] "look, I am consolidating."

Me: "Hahaha... yeah, consolidating your liquid assets."

[rim-shot]

Sometimes it amazes me...

just how many fat people there are! America is truly the land of excess. It's sad...

"It's gonna be a scorcher!"

I remember hearing those words often every summer throughout my childhood and always thought of it as code for "Get your bathing suit on. We're going to the beach!" I really didn't know what scorcher meant - actually, I wasn't even sure it was a real word (Mom was one for making up words to fit the need of the moment). Since then I have looked it up and saw that it merely means "a very hot day." But the phrase has stuck with me all these years and as I drove to the office this morning, AC blowing hard, I glanced up at the thermometer in my rental car and saw that it was alread 80 degrees at 8 o'clock in the morning. I thought to myself "wow, it is gonna be a scorcher!"

Rivanna Trail Foundation

One of the pluses of C-ville, is the river trail that circumnavigates the city, marked by little diamond-shaped, metal signed, nailed to trees and posts.

There are a number of foot bridges, crossing the Rivanna River

The trailes can get pretty dense at times, making the trail almost undiscernable from the surrounding brush. So far I have not had any run-ins with Virginia's snakes, but I am always on the lookout just in case.

All the recent rains have actually washed out parts of the trail... but that did not stop us. Wading, anyone?

Your Mercies in Disguise...

When trials come and difficulties arise, friendships disolve, loved ones pass away, and life seems particularly dark, we often question why. We wonder if there is a reason for it all and we try to make sense of it. For some, life has no purpose, and so good and bad times are just cycles of life that everyone goes through, devoid of rhyme or reason. For the Christian, meaning in life is expected, but sometimes hard to find. I recently heard a song that spoke to this very topic and thought I would share it here:

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

~ Blessings, by Laura Story