These are thoughts I've jotted down over the last few weeks and February 1 is a good time to pause and reflect on them.

1.  It's great to spend New Year's Eve without the weight of responsibility so you can be a bit stupid if you like.  Even better when there are people around doing stupider things. =D

2. Shopping in the States using American money without having to calculate back how much I spent in Canadian dollars is GREAT!  Buying 5 MAC items for the price of less than 3 at retail price is even better.  Take in the sweetness.

3. Intersession courses are brutal for everyone involved (i.e. profs and students) but for one reason or another, we will all persevere - unless we're called to go to Minnesota.  (Ha, just kidding Kevin!)

4. God is funny with his reality checks: After much wishing on my part, Benny finally agrees to us looking into a trip to Europe for early 2009.  Then I start to feel funny... like dizzy and nauseous... and lightheaded... and fatigued... and realize that if became pregnant over the next half year, it would be bittersweet b/c we wouldn't get to go to Europe (not enough money on one salary to go before 2009).  How horrible is that, to lament being pregnant because I wouldn't get to see Le Louvre or Stonehenge?  C'mon, it's a BABY!!  That'd be awesome, right?  Then again... visiting Europe with kids in tow isn't my idea of a wonderful trip.  *sigh*  That sounds so small of me.

5. Normalcy is a beautiful thing, especially when your body couldn't control its own temperature for almost 2 weeks.  Sweating but not feeling warm, feeling a deep cold but not chills, rubbing arms and legs and back but no shivering... it's more exhausting and frustrating than you'd think.  Couple this with the dizziness and nausea from #4 and you've got a very annoyed Ada.  Heat packs and a humidifier helped but were not my salvation.

6. Never take talents for granted.  I can't sing anymore, at least not in a way I'm not embarassed about.  Lack of practice really gets to you.  I can't express how much this sucks.  To sing a dearly loved song and then hear your voice crack like a pubescent boy's or not being able to hold a note for more than 1/2 a bar is so discouraging.  I'll try to keep practicing, at least 15 mins a day.  Not having a piano really hinders this, but at least my guitar skills might improve.

7.  Hamsters are resilient animals.  Both of my hamsters got one back paw caught in the wheel but I was present for one of them, which I freed from the wheel.  The hamster which didn't get help, Milk, chewed off her own paw to free herself.  She cannot stand up balanced now! =(  The other hamster, Chocoloate, has swelling in her paw but it went down after 2 weeks.  Then something else happened to it and it started turning very dark and cold.  It eventually went black and, the nxt morning, half the paw was gone!  By the evening it was all gone.  So both Milk and Chocolate have a back paw missing.

8. Speaking at another church is refreshing for perspective.  Speaking in general is easier to handle when your host seems more nervous than you are. =P  Not that my host was nervous about me speaking! - but about how the service would go, where the set-up crew was, etc.

9. There is hope for the next generation!  In my sermon we looked over some commandments Jesus mentions in a particular passage and I asked the group (Gr. 7-9) which ones were missing without looking it up.  I didn't expect much of a response, a scattered one at best, but one girl cautiously, quietly yet confidently named them off without a hitch!  It's great to know there are still some people reading their Bible, picture version or otherwise.  And that they care to use it!

10. Always let the people you esteem know how you feel about them.  I'm not talking about spilling your guts out, but just making sure you - sincerely - say hi and ask them how they're doing so they know you care about them.  I found out this weekend that a dear customer of our Starbucks store passed away over the holidays.  I didn't know her well but over the last year we've been chatting more when I'm making her drink or when I come in for a drink myself and find her there.  It was so shocking to learn she's gone and that I'll never be serving her doppio espresso with ice water on the side ever again.

11. Friendships aren't - or shouldn't - be based on what you do together but who you are together.  Expressions made between each other are confirmations of the friendship, not the substance of it.  That sounds contradictory to #9, but that's something for you to do and this one is something you allow for other people.  If a friend is down and can't express their love for you, it's not the end of the friendship!  That person needs to be built up, not abandoned.  Lack of action when you can do something is something to be criticized, but if the friend fails to act or express because s/he is struggling, why hold that against him/her?  Then the friend can't truly be him/herself around you, and what good is that for anybody?

12. Being neurotic isn't easy, but I have to give myself credit when my gut is telling me something because I'm usually right.