It's funny how a few new facts can spin a situation into a whole new light.

I had to laugh at myself today. I mean, reality smarts some, but I also have to admire the resourcefulness of my imagination. I know that sounds bitter, but I'm not. I'm just...laughing.

And once again, I'm going back to that song I sang to myself all the way home from Europe. Jill Paquette wrote it, but I could have written it just as easily. Sometimes yes, sometimes no...

It seems that I'm still in the no season. But I'm waiting fervently for my yes.

Easy isn't what I'd call this, who knows what easy means
The more I try to make this happen the less it's clear to me
The hope that keeps me moving is in Your promises to me
And right now that's enough, it's gonna have to be

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes that's the way it goes
You're not giving any secrets away
Who's to know, who's to say, sometimes it's hard to live this way
Holding on, letting go
When it's sometimes yes and sometimes no

I wanna know just what it looks like, what the answer's gonna be
I wanna grab a hold of something to give me some security
And know it's You I'm hearing gently helping me to see
When everything I've prayed for is not Your will for me

And it's not poetic justice that has me waiting all this while
It's the way a loving father deals with his child
So this is how I'm learning holding on and letting go
Sometimes yes and sometimes no
It's sometimes yes, sometimes no

I Am Not A Tourist: Nellie's Blog

NBC's annual showing of It's A Wonderful Life has been replaced by a televised beagle show.

No seriously. Judges walk out under a spotlight, examine the teeth of a beagle with a very unfortunate name, while two announcers give the play by play in a tone of breathless anticipation--almost as if someone actually gives a brass nickel if the beagle can chew his puppy chow or not.

This is usually where I insert a scathingly sarcastic comment. Somehow, though, I don't feel it's needed here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

1 generous helping of turkey
1 glass of blueberry wine
+1 knock-down-drag-out game of Sorry with the brothers/father
---------------------------------------------------------------
=3 hours of unavoidable slumber while the rest of the kiddos bemoan the delaying of the Pumpkin Pie

I love Thanksgiving. God is so good to us.

Ah-HAH!

I'm going to blog now.

But only for a few minutes, because I'm really supposed to writing a paper on Africa's Green Revolution. The cloudy part is that I have absolutely no motivation to write it right now. The silver lining (which, as you know, comes standard with every cloud) is that this is my seventh out of eight papers due for this class--almost done, I am.

Actually, this blog post represents a minor defeat in Nellie's full-on assault on the big, bad Procrastination Monster. And I've been doing so well recently. I made a list of things I had to do this weekend, and I've pretty much been sticking to it, with the major exception of not even starting the book on which I have a test on Wednesday. Ah well, getting books done is not normally my problem; if I'm up all night on Tuesday...eh...that's the way it goes, I guess.

To balance out the minor defeat, I had a minor victory this morning--I actually made my bed. Right after I got up. Go Nell!

You may think that is pathetic, but trust me...it's even worse than that. See, I cleaned my room and washed all my sheets two days ago, but I "didn't have time" to make the bed then, so I just threw everything on the bed and went to get some schoolwork done. I was going to do it that night, but by the time I got back to my room after playing a late gig at the YMCA I was far too tired to do anything. So I just put the pillowcase on the pillow, and slept on the mattress pad with the quilt mounded over me.

You'd think after such a traumatic, ridiculously unnecessary sleeping arrangement, I would have made the bed upon arising the next day. You'd be wrong. I studied history until 1:30 last night, and so was again too tired and slept under the pile of sheets. Well, this morning, the realization of how pathetic the situation was finally smacked me upside the head and so I made the thing up. I put some freesia and lavendar oil in the diffuser, as well.

So now I have a clean room, a clean floor, and made bed. And it all smells nice.

Now if I can just get my fingers to type....this...paper...

I'll get back to you later. (And to those of you to whom I owe emails, I will be writing those in a few days after my exams are done. And they'll be very cheerful emails, too...I'd be looking forward to them, if I were you... ;) )

Subject: I'm moving to Hawaii!!!

Body: When Jesus was on the cross, you were on his mind.
Forward this with the title "i'm moving to (a state)" or you're denying him

For some reason, I don't think Jesus Christ had blatant trickery in mind when he said "Go ye therefore...". And although the sins recounted to me on Judgement Day may be many, I doubt that refusing to inflict such an idiotic message on other victims will be one of them.

I don't know who starts these things, but I'd love the chance to toilet-paper their house.

Overheard two hours ago:

Mom: "Okay, I'm going to turn the dishwasher on now...no one flush the toilet!"

I'm beginning to suspect our recent plumbing problems may be more serious than I'd imagined.