ex(PR)essed

Well, it’s another dreary, rainy day in central Pennsylvania. Spring is certainly off to a slow start. The flowers are blooming and the trees are budding, but the weather has been mostly cool and wet. It’s safe to say that I’m not the only one with a major hankering for spring!

Let the randomness begin:

I have three lamps in my office. By using them, I avoid the unflattering and eye-straining glare of the overhead flourescent lights. On Monday, two of the bulbs burned out, and yesterday the third one gave out. Amazing timing, don’t you think?

Jeff and I had a pretty low-key, relaxing Easter weekend. This year, we enjoyed Easter dinner with a group of 13 other “orphans,” meaning those who were without biological family nearby to celebrate the holiday with. Let me tell you though, there was a definite sense of family around the table as we enjoyed a delicious Easter potluck at Ruth and Terry’s. What wonderful, gracious hosts to exchange a restful Sunday afternoon for a hectic house full of people. We felt blessed to celebrate the Savior amongst such loving friends.

I’m totally having one of those weeks where I’m feeling a bit overcommited. Of course, it’s all good stuff, but it’s taking its toll nonetheless. Evening commitments on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and hosting company on Saturday might be a bit too much. Note to self.

One wonderful stress reliever about this week was the season premier of “Deadliest Catch” last night. Jeff and I have been anticipating the return on this show for months, and we were in place right at 9 p.m. to see the new season get started. I could hardly stand the suspense of whether Phil would skipper the Cornelia Marie this king crab season after this terrible health issues last season. I’m disappointed that the boat left the dock without him…it won’t be the same, for sure. And, while I certainly don’t wish Keith any harm (he had both a scare with cancer and a head injury last night), I could do with him and the Wizard getting considerably less air time. There, I said it. Mean? Maybe. Honest. Yes.

It’s been splashed all over the headlines — this season’s “Bachelor” dumps girl #2 and proposes to girl #1 on the season finale of the show. Six weeks later, the Bachelor dumps girl #1 , on national television, and asks girl #2 to consider giving him a second chance. She agrees. Bachelor and girl #2 ride off into the sunset, both repeatedly explaining their despicable actions and questionable decisions by asserting, “We followed our hearts.”

I might be an unromantic cynic, but I think “follow your heart” is terrible advice. You know why? Because the heart is fickle. Well, at least my heart has proven to be fickle.

If I were to simply and only follow my heart, I could do any number of stupid things on any given day. I might decide that long-distance friendships are too hard and take up too much time and break fellowship with wonderful, lifelong friends. I might decide that marriage is too hard and that I don’t “get enough out of it” and walk away. I might think that working 8 hours a day is un-fun and unreasonable and quit my job so I can sleep in and lounge around the house instead.

If I were to “follow my heart,” I would probably be pretty lonely. Instead of just blindly following my blood-pumping vessel from one feel-good moment to the next, I weigh decisions and consequences and contemplate how my actions and attitudes affect other people. I think about things. I pray about things. I introduce a mental and spiritual component into my decision-making, so my fickle, sometimes-silly, and selfish heart doesn’t let me think that it’s all about me.

That doesn’t mean that my heart doesn’t ever influence the things I say or the way I say them. But, it does mean that I don’t let emotions run my life by solely informing my decisions.

I spend several evenings a week with teenage girls in my church’s youth group, and I worry that they see too many examples of people explaining away their hurtful, selfish actions by asserting that they valiantly “followed their heart.” I want my girls to know there’s nothing acceptable about mistreating people. There’s nothing romantic about breaking someone’s heart. Hearts are important, life-giving, emotion-producing vessels that God planted in our chests so that we might love Him and others deeply. But, He also gave us brains so that we might intellectually pursue Him (and others), and a spirit so that our whole selves might be nurtured in the wonder of Him.

There’s been some conversation among those I love about my complete lack of interest in blogging lately. I wish I had a good explanation, but I don’t. It seems like I don’t have the attention span for it. I also haven’t been reading. Go figure. Maybe I developed A.D.D. over the holidays?

Anywho, I was thinking about a few random things and thought I would share. (I’m going to create a “things I’m thinking about category” because I’m afraid this will be the extent of the blogging that I’m capable of for awhile.)

On Tuesday night, I made dinner for me and Jeff. It took about 90 minutes to make/bake and about 12 minutes to eat. Something just seems wrong with those time proportions.

In eight sleeps, we leave for Florida. My parents are leaving tomorrow to drive to Indian Shores, a beach community near Clearwater for two weeks. We’ll leave next Friday to join them for a few days. We can hardly wait. It seems like this has been the longest, coldest winter on record, and a little sun and surf can’t come soon enough.

I love that I work with a good friend who completely knows what I’m thinking (even when it’s evil!) without me having to say a word.

I’ve been listening to NPR a lot lately. XPN throughout the work day and news on the way home. I don’t feel any smarter, but I do know some interesting trivia about the housing market in Manassas, Virginia. (Go ahead…ask me sometime.)

I tried Pho soup again last week, and I loved it. It had been several years since my experiences with it at the Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Harrisburg with the PLCM girls, and there was always a spice in it that haunted me. Now I realize that I don’t care much for cilantro, and at the Vietnamese restaurant we were at on Friday, the cilantro was an add-on. I loved the soup without it (but with plenty of sprouts, hoisson sauce, and some hot sauce). Yeah!

I’m really tired of hearing Billy Joel and Elton John songs on the radio. I propose that radio stations give up those two artists for Lent and give us all a break. They have to be the most overplayed artists of all time.

I prefer black pens to blue pens, but I use a blue pen at work so that my edits stand out. I can’t bear to use red, except when it’s specifically requested.

The qualities in people I’m most valuing these days: organization, sincerity, humor.