If my Life was a Detective Novel...

It was a grey Thursday afternoon, and the quiet threat of snow was in the sky. It was the type of weather that would resign most souls to their living room sofa and a good chapter book. But the monotony of life had driven me out of my home and to the intelligence agency (college), where fate sent me some solace in the form of a case.


Police Sketch



 I was driving home from the agency when I saw it: the strangest looking car pulling into a gas station. I couldn't believe my luck: THE GAME WAS AFOOT! I applied all my spare attention (I was driving after all, and solving this illustrious case could not come at the expense of public safety) to taking a qood mental photograph of the singular automobile. It was almost completely round with the exception of a small bump for the motor at the front. It had a huge, quarter-circle shaped front window and a tiny porthole behind it which I deduced would provide a vantage point for those in the back seat. Figuring out that it was not a new electric car became elementary as it pulled into a gas station.

Then it hit me how difficult this case may be to solve. I was able to describe it's appearence, but I knew nothing of it's make or model. And I would have to work quickly to avoid losing memory of what little data I did have. When I arrived at my office, I quickly drew a sketch of what I had seen to buy myself some time. My first instinct was to consult with my brother, whose knowledge of motor vehicles was nothing short of impressive, but alas he was unavailabe. An hour later, time was running out, my memory was beginning to fade and I had to act soon or else lose the case forever.

Photo From Wikipedia

I turned on my computer and openned my browser to google.ca. I had the vast knowledge of the internet at my disposal, but nothing I typed into the search bar seemed to yeild any relevant results. Just when I thought my case had hit a dead end, I remembered once reading once about a car that looked like a snail. It was worth a try: I google'd Snail Car, and halfway down the page my patience was rewarded with an exact replica of my memory. I was hot on the scent! I clicked on it and discovered that it was a Nissan S-Cargo. I chuckled at the clever name and discovered that it was extremely rare, with only 12,000 of them in existance when they were produced in the 1980's. Mystery solved. I had seen a relic and remembered what it looked like long enough to realise the significance of it-

You know, it just occurred to me that maybe I've been reading Sherlock Holmes just a little too much, lately... :)

WHAT is the meaning of this?!?!

One thing I am really not a believer in is believing things unquestioningly.
If a person has doubts, it's always easier to shrug one's shoulders, slip the doubts under the rug and continue to do whatever it is they are doing than to try to get to the bottom of whatever is causing them. Who knows what kind of baggage in your own life you might dig up that way? Who knows what other questions it might bring up? It's kind of a dangerous thing to question why it is you believe the way you do.

Here's the thing, though: you can fast all you want, but unless you understand the spiritual significance of the act it's really just starving yourself. And it's like that with anything: if you're an evolutionist but don't understand that Darwin believed humans evolved from chimpanzees, are you really an evolutionist? You don't really know how to drive until you understand that red lights are necessary keep roads orderly and people safe. If you sit in church singing praise and bowing your head in prayer without taking a minute to consider the significance of it, you might as well be at home reading the Sunday edition of the newspaper. Sure it's easier and more convenient to live this way, but you don't get nearly as much out of the experience if you don't understand it's significance.

If you're brave enough, however, it's almost always worthwhile to encounter whatever scary things you might find when you rip off the band aid solution that is pretending everything is okay, it can actually end up giving you a renewed sense of confidence in what you believe. Living a spiritually rich life is not about being comfortably numb, it's about growing in your faith and taking a journey with God, even if that means tough questions and doubts from time to time. You'll end up learning more that way than if you just follow the sit, kneel, stand, sing routine at the local church without ever thinking about why.

UGGHHH!!!! :(

Ever have one of those weeks that just slowly wears you down until by Friday, all you want to do is curl up and hide from the world for a little while? Well, that's what this week is shaping up to be so far. I have four midterms (two of which I've already writen), and one project due this week. And on top of all the school work, I left my binder in my music classroom. I'm just REALLY hoping it's still there when I go look for it tomorrow, and I'm sure it will be. I mean, who would WANT a binder full of some random person's notes, anyway?!? Well, that and the fact that I once left my laptop in the same classroom, noticed it was missing, frantically came back for it two hours later only to find that it was exactly where I had left it. But it was just the last straw for me today. I totally flipped out. It turns out indiscriminately throwing old papers out of your desk drawers is a good way to release pent up rage. The good news was that this calmed me down enough that I was able to focus on said project and get it finished today, although I probably looked like a complete psycho to my brothers and my mom felt so bad for me that she baked me cookies. I've been pining for this adorable sundress at the new Target in South Common, and I've decided that if I make it through the rest of this week, I'll go ahead and make a reward splurge on it...so much for my aforementioned ten dollar streak. This week totally sucks. But hey. At least I'll look super cute by the end of it. :)

Who'da Thunk it?

At the beginning of this year, I (with considerable help from my parents) invested in all the usual first year college student stuff. You know, textbooks (LOTS of textbooks), tuition, a locker, a new, less relient on hoodies and t-shirts wardrobe. It turns out, though, that a relatively small purchase has turned out to be, by far, the most useful of everything I spent money on last fall.
This little something was a day planner. It cost me about $20 at Indigo, and it was truly worth every penny I spent on it. There were cheaper ones available, but I bought the Pierre Belvedere Green Pixie Agenda, and I must say, it was totally worth the splurge. Not only is is beautiful, but it's got each day subdivided into time slots (which is surprisingly rare, considering how useful a feature it is), and it has an address book section, and even a section for notes (which is really useful when my laptop runs out of batteries unexpectedly).
I later found out that my school gives away agendas as freebies on orientation day, but because I spent the money to buy a pretty agenda, I was more motivated to use it than I otherwise would have been.
What really surprised me, though, was how highlighting the assignments in my agenda as I completed them became in itself a reward for me. In high school, I used to find this practise kind of overkill on the organization, but now I realise why a lot of people do it. Being able to cross something off of your list is a rewarding experience. It's almost like congratulating yourself on a task well done. There were literally times when I would say to myself "just one more page and I'll be able to highlight this chapter in my agenda".
It's pretty common wisdom that it's good to reward yourself for getting stuff done in order to keep motivated in college, but I really think that in the long run, I saved myself a fortune by buying this agenda.  Instead of buying rewards as I went, I would just highlight stuff. And I was shocked at how well that alone did the trick. Last semester, I spent $10 on some expensive creamery ice cream during exam week, but that was the only time I actually had to spend money rewarding myself. I really think that number would have been higher had I not used an agenda. Who would have thought that a little green book could be such a great investment?

A Single Song

A friend of mine posts songs on her blog every week, and although it's pretty sweet, I don't want to make a regular feature of it on this blog because my taste in music is, for the most part, quite acquired. ;) However, I'd like to share one (mainstream) song that has always really inspired me.

It's a little odd that the notion that nobody leads an easy life could make living my own life feel more do-able, but somehow it does make things feel more possible and less unfair (misery loves company, I suppose). Anyway, the youtube video is embedded below, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And so, without further ado: Hard Road by Sam Roberts. :)