GRRRR . . .

If any of you have been trying to contact me via telephone, then my deepest apologies. Telephone has been misbehaving. I never thought I would say this, but ... Verizon sucks.

Thankfully, Verizon also believes in free phone upgrades. Mine will be arriving Monday and so hopefully, my communication troubles -- by phone, anyway -- will be over. You'll have to call and re-record your messages, though. I probably didn't get any left in the last week and a half.

You'd think someone with as severe a telephone-conversation aversion as I do would be glad to have a phone that doesn't work correctly. But I'm all sorts of irritated. Sigh. And grrrr.

***

"FRIENDS WITH MONEY" . . .

Saw it and ... I can't decide if I liked it. Banana put it just right -- it was uncomfortable. Not just because one of the main characters is an unmarried woman without a lot of money (currently moi) in a sea of married girlfriends who are bringing home the bacon (currently everyone else in my life) ... but because it was just ... real. None of the actors looked particularly beautiful or made-up or movie-ized. No conversation was tempered, no emotion masked. Everything just was what it was. And that was uncomfortable.

It made me think: how do I view movies such that if they are not a complete and fake escape for me, they make me uncomfortable with their realness?

***

WHY I'M AN IDIOT AND NEED TO FIND A JOB PRONTO . . .

I just spent eight minutes staring at the laundry go 'round and 'round through the window of the washing machine.

***

FRIVOLITY . . .

Before I go silent and deep for Good Friday, here's a bit o' fun, thanks to JaneLane ...

10 CDs I am listening to:
1. Shane & Shane: An Evening With Shane & Shane
2. Shane & Shane: Psalms
3. David Crowder: A Collision
4. David Crowder: Illuminate
5. Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna
6. Imogen Heap: Speak For Yourself
7. KT Tunstall: Eye to the Telescope
8. Jason Mraz: Tonight, Not Again
9. Damien Rice: O
10. Soundtrack, "Brokeback Mountain"

9 random things about me:
1. I love classic rock music.
2. I can read a book a day.
3. Despite all my beef-lovin' talk, I could be a vegetarian and be perfectly content and satisfied.
4. I am much more traditional and conservative than I seem.
5. I think I am taller than I actually am, and it confuses me to look at pictures and see myself standing shorter than all of my friends.
6. I love to floss.
7. I like weird sensations, like the ones I feel upon being bitten (without breaking skin, obviously) or as I'm pulling hair out of my body (particularly the eyebrows and legs. Actually, only the eyebrows and legs. I don't really pull hair out of anywhere else. TMI?).
8. Silence doesn't bother me, but I struggle with the fact that it bothers other people.
9. I'm so, so, SO happy that baseball season has finally started.

8 places I've been to:
1. Block Island, Rhode Island
2. St. Petersburg, Russia
3. St. George, Utah
4. Nyack State Park & Beach, New York
5. Whistler and Vancouver, British Columbia
6. Seoul, South Korea
7. Yankees' spring training in Tampa, Florida
8. Newport, Rhode Island

7 ways to win my heart:
1. Listen.
2. Speak truth.
3. Infuse music everywhere.
4. Be faithful, loyal, forgiving, and put God before all others, even me.
5. Be smarter than me and unafraid to passionately teach me everything you know and love.
6. Be so funny that I'm always smiling and laughing, even when no one else is.
7. Give a darn good massage.

6 things I believe:
1. For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.
2. If I believe in something, I must not stay quiet, no matter how much a fool people think me, no matter what friends I may lose, no matter that I stand alone.
3. Prayer is powerful, because He hears, and then He does.
4. Words are powerful and must be wielded carefully and lovingly, and if I can't, if you can't, then we must stay silent until we are wise enough to do so.
5. The people who love me will never cease to surprise me with their care and generosity.
6. Reading saves lives.

5 things I'm afraid of:
1. Clowns.
2. Regretting my life and my choices.
3. Losing the ones I love.
4. Cats.
5. Being alone.

4 of my favorite items in my bedroom:
1. The orchid plant.
2. My marshmallowy comforter.
3. Framed family picture, circa 1982.
4. My favorite pair of blue jeans.

3 things I do every day:
1. Pray.
2. Drink coffee.
3. Ruminate.

2 things I am trying not to do right now:
1. Send an interruptive email, just to say hi.
2. Pick my lip, a bad habit I picked up at age 6 and TWENTY-FOUR YEARS LATER, still can't quit.

1 person I want to see right now:
1. Boboma.