still thinking...and then some

I promised KB that I would give her something to look forward to in the morning which, let's be honest, is a pretty bold calling in the first place. However, I'm going to do my best to live up to this lofty ideal--like I usually do.

So, I'm sitting here at work today with not enough to do to put off yet another month without posting at all! :) I'm also trying to decide whether or not to take some tylenol for what I believe to be a mild dehydration/over-caffeination headache or to continue my routine of drinking a bit-peeing a bit for the whole afternoon. Lucky you. I pretty much didn't think anyone was reading anymore but in case you are, here ya go.

A) is for Amy. Thank you, Amy, for still reading this on the rare occasion that I post. And since you called my bluff, I'm going to do my best to remember the article(s) and tell you my response. I am resisting the urge to just copy and paste my comments that I made on CT's site. But a lot of those were in response to fellow responders to the articles anyway, so not much help.
So...I felt that the main article started out well because I think it's true that perhaps the church does not do a great job of preparing people for marriage. And I suppose he might even be correct that because of the whole "no ding ding without the wedding ring" thing, perhaps churches should be more prepared to need to discuss marriage with younger aged people. (The above was a quote from one of my favorite theological movies, Robin Hood: Men in Tights). I also am a firm believer that people should get married at the point at which the Father tells them to do so and not earlier (or later). So, in that sense, I'm a supporter of "early marriage". However, I disagree with the validity of getting married because it's hard to stay chaste and think that in far too many instances, many folks in the fellowship put too much stock in sex as a motivator. I'm not saying we need to be gnostic and pretend it doesn't exist or that it doesn't matter what you do with your body. I'm just saying that perhaps it's-in a lot of ways-not supposed to be as big a factor in our decision-making as we tend to perceive it to be. Though, one of my friends mentioned that they liked the author's take because they found it to be more earthy...that he just sorta said, ya know, if you love somebody and you know they're the one, marry 'em. And I found that interesting. And if in that instance, those people are 20, then yes, c'mon ch....urch, help them understand how to do it well. But I feel like that for people who are 40 also. So, those were some of my main thoughts about it.
I did not appreciate 2 of the articles that appeared along with this one in the CT magazine that came out. One mentioned that parents need to be prepared to help their children who want to get married young with their financial burdens (paying for school, etc). This seemed kinda out of touch with reality (at least my family's reality) and to lack an understanding of building responsibility in your children, young or adult. The other was an article about the older days when females who were physiologically mature were married and began to reproduce much earlier than women today. His concern is that he sees many women who are terribly saddened by being unable to bear children or who bore children with health problems, etc because of their older age. That is a good pastoral concern, I just think that in answering it, he might have made the problem worse. I mostly think this because he stated that those who follow the Son's primary role is to raise a family. I think that's a) incorrect--some people are called to celibacy, some to marriage without children and some to marriage with and are called to minister no matter which of these is the case and b) very hurtful to folks who want to bear children and can't and tells women that they are "deficient" or in some way, less of a woman if they can't bear children and this is not the case. One woman wrote an article and her concern was for openness to any of the options that the Father might call you to...like celibacy being valid, etc. And also giving a warning to not overly emphasize marriage amongst youngsters because there might be some not called to be married at all and also because it causes a pastoral situation in that those who do not get married feel, once again, like there is something wrong with them because they're not getting married young.
Okay, so, sorry, I feel like I went on and on. But those are the thoughts I remember having and what I remember about the articles I read. So, Amy, what are your thoughts? :) And anyone else can feel free to share theirs as well. Anyway, I found it all very interesting and good to think about theologically and also in a sense as to how we can be helping people do marriage well.

B) I'm trying to think of what else to write now. I always want to include something funny but I can't think of anything...might be because of the high pitched whining of the reel-to-reel recorder near my desk. This isn't really funny but it is kinda light-ish. It's about movies. We rented The Spirit (Frank Miller) and Twilight. I had told Greg earlier that night that I was possible up for watching a romantic movie and/or one that I didn't have to think about. But, see, I only am in a romantic movie-watching mood about 4 times a year, if that. So, he had to jump on his chance. And so the "jumping" wound up with us watching Twilight and us not thinking that it was as bad as we had thought maybe it would be. That's not to say it's getting an Oscar, but it wasn't bad. And, it made me curious about the books, which I had already considered reading but had not yet picked up. I really do have a soft spot for vampires, though. I was most intrigued by Edward's family and their stories so I'm really hoping there's something in the book that goes into them more. I'll let you know whenever I get around to reading the series. As we all know, like with the unfortunate 6th film in the Harry Potter series, the books are usually much better and I'm starting to think that when I can, I will see the movie first. An unfortunate circumstance where I can not reverse what is done is in the case of the Sherlock Holmes movie due to doom theaters this Winter. Don't get me started on that :) Oh, the Spirit was fun, too. We were REALLY glad that it was not really like Sin City...it was like a parody of it. And so was rather enjoyable. No good moral or anything but a really fun action flick...though we are still not sure why the Octopus was called "the Octopus" minus one vague reference to 8 arms at the end.
Anyway, there ya go.

C) I am listening to Pandora right now and there's some Jack Johnson song on and one of the phrases I just caught was "She's one tough enchilada filled up with nada". Awesome.

D) We're not up to much new which is why I haven't said much lately. We just said good-bye to our friend, MJ, who just left to go back to Korea. We will miss him very much, but I guess we all know what that's like, eh? We're hoping that maybe MJ and KB can go travel around together since they both like it so much and love taking pics so much. And because sometimes it's lonely being in another country where the majority of folks don't get Americans. :)

E) We will get pictures up of 2009 adventures soon...our laptop just died which means we have to both get the photos off the hard drive (provided it's not fried) and then we also need to get an external hard drive to hold the photos...and we thought we got one from ebay but long story short, I think we were conned. Bummer. So, in any case, pictures pending.

F) I'm also forgot I should continue to be CG...so I just went up and CGified what I could find, sorry if I missed anything. But changes are you can't get here except by proxy anyway ;)

G) I hope you feel sufficiently like it was worth waking up this morning, katherine. But I'm pooped so I'm signing off now.

H) The End.

Happenings

I always think not much has been "happening" but then I come here to blog and realize, "Wow, time has really passed by and I have not had a moment's peace." My biggest issue at the moment is that I have not had time to clean my room and once again the clothes have proven themselves to make a great carpet. One day I will get to cleaning, I promise! That's what I tell myself anyway. It's funny because it seems that so long as I acknowledge it's a mess and make sure others know that I know, I feel like I don't have to clean. It makes me feel better, anyway. :)

I've had kind of a hard week, all joking aside, my room is merely one of the many ways in which I feel life is out of control right now. I don't usually like to share anything too personal on this blog or any blog, I guess. However, I'm not sure that many people read it anyway and those that do can just deal.

2 weeks ago, I went in for a lady doctor appointment. We all know those are thrilling in the first place.... But, I was going because my PCP had told me I should because some of my results were "off". Sooo...I went and she says I probably have PCOS. You can read about it here. I'm partly bringing this up because if anyone reads this and has firsthand experience, I'd love to know more about their experience. So, feel free to comment! Anyway, my new doctor was nice about everything and didn't seem to be worried so I wasn't either, she gave me a pamphlet said to call her at the end of the month and we'd go from there. There's nothing life threatening about it if it's treated and it seems that a lot of the symptoms get better through different medicines. Basically, my journey here has been hallmarked by not having a cycle for about a year and a half. So, ya know, best to get it dealt with.

But, here's the rub, doctors always seem to think that if you're overweight, that's where your problem started. That obviously my overweightness incurred the PCOS. However, the more I read, it's sort of a chicken and the egg problem. That those with PCOS find it really hard to lose weight because they're producing more testosterone than they should as well as other hormones and lacking some of the others. And, you're much more likely to get Diabetes with PCOS which also adds to the possibility of weight gain. So, I thought at first that this would be a liberating discovery; here was the answer to my mom's, coaches', dad's, my own questions about how I can exercise tons (especially in high school when i was a Varsity athlete), eat normally and still always have a roll around my waist and still struggle to get weight off. But, this week, it has not been, because the more I read, the more I learn that this is just a symptom of it and that none of the meds used to correct PCOS actually have any bearing on weight whatsoever unless you're determined to have an insulin deficiency.

So, from one medical alert to another, I looked up a condition that I had when I was a kid called Precocious Puberty. This is the first time I've ever shared about it in this public a setting. Apparently, it is sometimes linked to PCOS...so it would have been nice to know that and to watch out for it. (Incidentally, we've always contributed a lot of my weight issues to that because it makes you basically go from baby fat to puberty fat with no break in the middle like most kids have...but apparently that may not be the case).

All of this has resulted in my being upset with the Father--mad even. I finally pinpointed this a couple nights ago which is definitely a good first step. But, just being upset about having so many physical disorders through my life and for being given so many things that stack up to make me have a terrible self image. And sometimes I wish I were the kind of personality that would just give up. But, no, I still work out (nearly) everyday, eat well and try to take care of myself. And sometimes I feel like it's an uphill battle against Father which isn't right probably but it's how I feel sometimes. And I'm finally being honest about that. Anyway, so, that's something to lift up.

Well, I didn't mean this to be such a downer but I must return to working now. I feel a little better for having written this out though.

Hope all reading this are well and don't be a stranger, comment me!