Babies and movies

Another week in the life of Sara.....

Today was a little out of the ordinary for me. I took care of my friend Lori's baby for the day. She brought him over around 11:00 this morning and picked him up this evening. He slept most of the time since he is still quite young--about 4 to 6 weeks. Babies are such innocent creatures--it's quite humbling to care for them. I never fail to wonder what they will be like as an adult when I hold them.

Yesterday I made some cream pies, but they just never turn out like Carol's do. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The flavor is still good, but the texture just isn't as creamy as my mind thinks it should be. I also made some chicken breasts marinated in Italian dressing for lunch. I guess I was having a domestic weekend--cooking, laundry, and babies.

I watched a very thought-provoking movie this afternoon. Have any of you seen Bowling for Columbine? I didn't realize that there was such a huge difference in the statistics of murder by gunshot of the United States compared to all other countries in the world. According to that movie, the U.S.A. had over 11,000 deaths by gunshot the year of the Columbine massacre and the closest country to that was only several hundred deaths. So the big question is--why are things so different in our country? Any ideas out there?

Another movie I watched gave me one of those very quotable quotes on the topic of feeling like your life needs to have made an impact on the world to have been significant. Don't we all feel that way at times? Anyway, the quote is as follows: "Breathing is all it takes to be a miracle." Isn't that just the coolest thing?

A friend from work has a birthday very close to mine and wants to do something to celebrate. We've come up with this brain storm of visiting Savannah, GA. I've always wanted to go, so we're going to go down on my spring break. It turns out that they have this really big St Patrick's Day celebration where they try to turn the river green. It's supposed to be secondary only to New York City and Chicago in celebrating. This celebration begins on the 12th of March and we're going to be down there until the 13th. So that should be interesting.

I was really tickled for my college buddy--Nicole--who entered the beauty pageant for Miss UTC. She won 1st runner up which means she won 2 cash prizes. She doesn't know how much yet, but she was really stressed that she was in danger of losing her scholarship because of her GPA. She came over last Monday and I altered her dress for her. I was a bit intimidated because it was only a borrowed dress and worth $300. She was supposed to return it to the store sponsoring her in the same condition she took it in. I had to work around all these hand-sewn sequins that covered the dress. That was quite a challenge, and she hadn't yet taken out my stitches the last I talked to her. I also made her a sarong cover-up for the bathing suit competition which she said was a big hit with her competitors.

I've got a lab test coming up this week that I need to study for tomorrow since I didn't touch my books today. I also have a quiz in the other lab tomorrow morning that I still need to study for.

Bloopers

At work last night, I was speaking with some of my buddies about our work habits carrying over to our homes in our phone answering techniques. Some of you may have experienced it too. I always answer the phone at work in the following manner: "Chattanooga REC, this is Sara." And I've been on the verge of it at home a few times.

Well, these two friends I was talking to both work at Blue Cross Blue Shield during the day. The one is in customer service and he always answers the phone: "Thank you for calling Blue Cross Blue Shield, How may I help you?" So the other night he was praying before he went to bed as he always does. He said he always starts his prayers, "Dear Lord....." Well this time he says, "Dear Lord, Thank you for calling..." Then he just went hysterical, apologizing to the good Lord in between bouts of laughter. I, of course, went hysterical upon hearing it. I chuckled for the rest of the night over that one, and am still smiling over it.

Another one from work...

I have this friend who is just priceless. She has me in stitches quite frequently. The other night was another good one. She was asking me if I knew where she could get her tax forms--1040 EZ to be exact. I told her I thought she could get them at the library. She thought you could get them at the post office, and I told her I think she's right. So she wondered if we'd have them there at work. I was sure we didn't. It's only in the public places that they put them out. But, I told her I'd just find her one online and print it out for her. She was just amazed and thrilled that I could do that. So I went to irs.gov and proceded to do it for her. I brought them to her, and she got this bewildered look on her face and said, "But they're not green!" After I explained to her that the IRS doesn't care what color your tax forms are, just the color of your money, she could see the humor in it too.

Things haven't been too bad for me in the exam department of my life. I had one on Monday which resulted in a 105, much to my delight. I have another one this coming Monday that I should be studying for right now. I really didn't want to spend another Sunday studying, but it looks like I'll have to.

Tomorrow I'm going to New Covenant Church again. My friend Lisa (the one who wanted the tax form) wanted to go together again like we did once before. We eat together afterward so I'm sure I won't get started on my studying until late afternoon. And I'm sure my body will be crying for a nap at that time, as usual. Now the next Sunday, I may be able to have a normal Sunday. I think I'm going to go get my friend Lori's baby to play with. She's thrilled with the idea of a day to do whatever she wants without her baby to consider. He's cute as can be, only about a month old, and his name is Yuriel Phoenix.

Last night I had a break from supervising my flats operation. I got to key instead, and a welcome change it was. I had e-mailed my boss to ask for a break. I said two weeks would be wonderful, but I'd be happy with one week. I got one day. But I think I may be getting more in the future because he wants to train somebody else to do my job. So I listened to music all night and talked to friends on my breaks.

Speaking of music, my current favorite song that I play over and over is "Bridge over Troubled Water." Michael W Smith and Clay Aiken both sing it. When I'm feeling blue, it makes me cry. When I'm not, I just love the sound of the music. It's one of those pieces that just flows over you. And if you like to howl along with your music, the chorus is great for that. I've also been playing this CD that I got of various artists playing Keith Green's music. I just love that one too.