Archive for September, 2007

There are certain things in life that are good for your heart. I’m not talking about a glass of red wine everyday or eating leafy vegetables while avoiding red meat. While yes, that is good, I’m talking more about those blessings that cause your heart to overflow with joy and love. Yeah, now you’re thinking, oh no! it’s a sappy xanga entry, and I will tell you, yes, yes it is, because I’m in my mid-twenties now which gives me authority to write a sappy xanga entry, so deal with it.
One thing I’ve always cherished about my family is the way we celebrate birthdays. It’s hard to describe, especially to people who’ve grown up with laid-back birthdays. Nope, we do it OVER THE TOP, packing every moment of that special 24 hours with fun, singing Happy Birthday, surprises, food, DP if you’re lucky, shouting and sometimes, jumping (especially if Cecilia and I are together on said occasion). And, honestly, I can’t remember a single birthday where I didn’t feel like the most loved and adored and BLESSED girl on earth. I remember my birthday freshman year at JBU. It was on a Friday and I couldn’t imagine NOT spending it with my family as I always had, despite living four hours from home with no means of transportation. So my mom, the best birthday do-er this world has ever seen, drove four hours to JBU to pick me up and then sat in the car for another four hours while I drove us home. I feel a tinge of shame at this because my mom was starting to get really sick and, really, no one should have to be in a car that long on one day for something so silly. Needless to say, feeling like the most loved and adored and blessed person on earth on your birthday is good for your heart! Thank you to all of you who helped to make it amazing!

Cecilia’s parents are visiting this week, which is exciting because, well it’s ALWAYS fun when family come to visit, but ALSO because my Aunt Kathleen and I have the SAME birthday (give or take a few years) and have yet to celebrate together. I’ve also never been with Cecilia, my best and beloved friend, on my birthday. So we all went out to P.F. Chang’s, laughed til tears ran down our cheeks, ate til we were so close to unbuttoning pants and just enjoyed each other. It was such a wonderful night. Being around family is good for your heart!

Wednesday I booked a pedicure at the Red Door Spa in Fairfax. Now this is a big deal on several levels, first of all, getting a pedicure is always a very, very, very good thing, in fact, it is one of my most favorite pampering rituals and I don’t indulge in it too often, especially now that I no longer work at a salon (i.e. no more discounts!). Second of all, RED DOOR SPA! is a very fancy place, they have them all over, like in FANCY places (New York City, Chicago) where they serve FANCY people (like Oprah and Jennifer Aniston). Cecilia and I about peed our pants when we realized I live 10 minutes from one. So Friday was the big day and even now, there are hardly words for what I experienced. It was GLORIOUSLY WONDERFUL! My hope is that every one of you ladies who reads this will, sometime in your life, receive a pedicure THAT amazing in your life! I used some of my birthday money (thanks Oma!), but it wasn’t that much more than a regular not-so-fancy-place pedicure (I am trying to convince you of how plausible and absolutely necessary it is that you get one of these!). Getting an out-of-this-world pedicure is good for your heart.

Last night, we went to a barbecue at some old friends’ home, “old friends” meaning they go way back with my parents and aunt and unlce, not that they are aged! It was a wonderful occasion, as are most reunions with old and dear friends! There was reminiscing and eating and drinking and cigar smoking and laughing. As we were preparing to leave, a man who has known my parents since college told me that I sounded just like my mom when I laughed. Being near dear, old friends is good for your heart. Being told you are like your mom is good for your heart.

So, in conclusion, my friends, my heart is doing well, overflowing with a good thing.

LOVE!

ps and HOW could I forget how good eating chocolate pie is for your heart as well!?!

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Arlington National Cemetery today

LOVE!

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edit: I did/am doing the next best thing, if there is a next best thing to being swallowed whole by the earth. I took a leisurely bubble bath in the GINORMOUS tub upstairs, shall have some Orange Tea (compliments of my job at Starbucks) and maybe read, maybe watch a little Anne of Green Gables while burrowing into my comfy bed, covered with a lovingly homemade quilt with my head upon a deep pillow. I’m going to revel in the fact that my Savior loves me and calls me beautiful, no matter how many mistakes I make or how much money is missing from my till. He is a good God. And then call it a night.

LOVE!

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Today was one of those days that I wished the earth would swallow me up as it did to people in the Old Testament (it’s true! I just read about it). Only I wish the earth wasn’t so much the earth as a big bed with a worn, homemade quilt and big, deep pillows, where I could cover my head and forget the day happened. And wake up tomorrow with a fresh start.

And please do not think this is about the iPhone, because I’m not really that dramatic/silly.

Love!

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*Prepare yourselves to be shocked and appalled my friends*

I’ve been playing phone tag with my brother for a couple days now, which isn’t that unusual as neither of us likes to talk on the phone much (must get that from my dad) and we run out of things to talk about after 15 minutes. Disclaimer: we NEVER run out of things to talk about in person, or laugh about for that matter. I called him Sunday just to catch up, but he couldn’t talk at that time. He called me yesterday but I couldn’t talk. You get the idea. So today we FINALLY both have time to chat. Things are going as they usually do, I ask about school and track and his job, he asks about my jobs, we talk about books, joke around. I ask about Kaitlyn (his long-time girlfriend/my adopted sister, you should know this people) and he says she is doing well, working hard. Then he says he has big news, which I immediately think involves Kaitlyn, until he says, “but it’s not about Kaitlyn.” Then come the words that PIERCED MY HEART LIKE A SERRATED KNIFE (for I find those to be the most painful), “I got an iPhone.” Alex has had the same cell phone for what seems like 5 years, it’s a metal flip Motorola that came out with color screens were the “new” thing. It was perfect for him as the metal casing provided a long life despite countless drops, scrapes, kicks, etc. They (being those cell phone company tyrants…ha…I just wanted to sound antiestablishment) are phasing out his “towers”, I believe they are called TDMA or some such thing, so by the end of the year he would have no service at all. poor Alex. IT GETS EVEN BETTER! I, knowing the answer, asked if mom bought it for him. He said she “mostly did”, which either means she paid it in full but he wanted to soften the blow to me OR he promised to pay her back for part of it, fully intended to do no such thing (it’s a crafty trick us Riester children have learned, although SOME of us are trying to grow up and lean only on ourselves and therefore have ceased such tomfoolery (just wanted to say “tomfoolery”)). AND! he got the 8 GB version. So there you have it, Mr. Riester, in the library, WITH the serrated knife AND some salt to pour in the wound. These people have NO shame.

yes, I know what you are thinking, “this poor, poor girl.” What is world hunger, homelessness, poverty in comparison to her pain?

These are the people I love, apparently unrequitedly.

ha

LOVE!

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HAPPY FIRST DAY OF FALL! YIPPEE!

Let’s see, life has been crrrrazy, guess that’s what I get for signing up for two jobs, eh? But, as I told my co-worker, I am an extrovert, as in I get my energy from being around people, therefore I really enjoy working at Starbucks. Well I did until I agreed to cover for someone on Saturday morning. I thought that it would be pretty busy, but busy doesn’t even come close to what I encountered yesterday. Chaos, pure insanity, bedlam, crazy…all words insufficient to describe it. Honestly, when I got my 10-minute break I felt as if I had been working out for 2 hours, I ached, I was sweating quite profusely and a little out of breath, I was the picture of loveliness. HOWEVER! my assistant manager let me work the bar, can you believe it!?! On a Saturday morning! I feel like I’ve established my “street cred” in the Starbucks biz *I’ll wait until you’re done laughing*, so I’ve got that going for me.

I went to Grouplink at my church here today and signed up for a small group. So now I know at least 1 person at that church, awesome. I am actually really excited about this because I’ve realized that going to church and doing my devotions is not nearly enough to sustain me. I need to talk to people about what I’m learning, to ask and be asked challenging spiritual questions, to have mentors, all things I long for.

Okay my Tazo tea and bed are calling my name….

LOVE!

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Hello my dears. I’m still alive despite starting “real” shifts this week. Today a coffee urn bit me in two different places and it hurt. I tried to convince my shift supervisor that I deserved worker’s comp but he didn’t really buy it. HELLO! I was bleeding. With each passing day working at Starbucks I get a little more confident at my abilities and a little less interested in the FREE! DRINKS! while I work. Yeah, I know you were sure that would never happen, much less a mere two weeks after I started, but, alas, it has. I’m better for it. No one needs to be drinking 2-3 sugar-filled coffee drinks a day. Unless of course you are a paying customer, then you need like double that (and don’t forget to tip!).

I find myself exceedingly pleased with how busy life is. My feet, on the other hand, don’t seem so happy with this new fast-paced lifestyle (okay that just sounded ridiculous, who am I kidding?). I’m DEFINITELY treating myself to a pedicure for my birthday, mostly so my feet will ease up on hating me and not run off without me. Being crazy busy is nice because you forget to worry, stop obsessing over boys (but, really, who does that?) and have a legitimate reason to go to bed at 9:30 at night. Although, I am starting to feel the chaos close in on me. If you were to come over and hang with me in my basement abode, you’d be horrified at its state. There is junk EVERYWHERE. I’ve been working on it, but don’t judge me, because it steathily multiplies when I’m not looking. So, you see, it’s not my fault.

Today is Loren, my youngest “charge”’s birthday. Happy 9th Birthday Loren! I can’t believe I’ve been around long enough to witness two of his birthdays. I can’t believe he was 7 when I moved in. Time sure does fly!

Okay I’m off to put my feet up and if you need a reason why, you haven’t been paying attention.

I promise to post pictures of our photo-extravaganza-trip to D.C. as well as of the PKD Walk when I get to the TH this weekend (that is, if the kitchen remodeling has been finished).

LOVE!

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So I just realized that next week, when I start working “real” shifts instead of mere “training” shifts, I will work from 6 AM to 7PM (that’s including nanny hours). That equals 65 hours a week, for the next 6 months (at least!) of my life. What was I thinking? I always do this, think to myself, “hmmm it would be great if I got ANOTHER job”? And when I say “always” I mean senior year of college and then now. On the other hand, I’m making some extra money, therefore putting some extra money into my mutual funds and saving the rest AND these two jobs really do compliment each other. Like today, I got up at 6, woke Alex up, took a shower, had some breakfast, did my quiet time (I feel really uncomfortable broadcasting that to the world, oh well), woke Loren up, made Loren breakfast, finished getting ready for the day and headed to Starbucks. Worked at Starbucks from 8:30 until 2:30 and OI! do my feet ache, but THANKS to complimentary jobs I can sit here on the couch with my feet up while the boys play PS2. I really, really like working at Starbucks, maybe it’s the newness of it all or the FREE! DRINKS! or the feeling that I’m really starting to “get it”, who knows. And today I got paid tips, woohoo, 23 WHOLE dollars, can you believe it?!

Another great thing is that I found AND bought seasons 1 and 2 of LOST for $30 each, Happy Birthday to me.

Here’s to hoping I’m asleep by 10 tonight.

LOVE!

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I don’t want to be flippant, which would usually cause me to wait a day or two to post, but I decided to just go for it. I remember what today is, I just want to say that. I think most of you know I’m not the sort of person to be flippant about such things. Just thought I’d put that out there before proceeding.

When my dear friend Kelly was getting ready to head to Azerbaijan to become a Peace Corps volunteer she had to figure out what she was going to pack. I can’t even imagine how she prepared herself for 2 years in a completely foreign country, knowing that she would most likely not be bringing much back after those 2 years. One of the things I love about Kelly (and boy are there a LOT) is our shared love of reading. Granted, everyone in my inner circle of friends loves to read, which you may think is prejudice, but, honestly, I just can’t relate to people who don’t love to read. Sorry, that’s just how it is. Anywho, the great thing is that some of my earliest memories of Kelly and my friendship revolve around books. In third grade if we finished our work early we could read under our desks, which were arranged by threes or fours, so it was like a fort under there and totally awesome! So Kelly and I would usually be reading the same book under our desks and really, what a great memory. So naturally when our conversation in more recent months would come to her packing, we would talk about books. As Kelly needed her load to be as light and as simple as possible she had limited herself to less than 10 books, which I find a very noble and self-sacrificing notion. Goodness knows I couldn’t limit myself, as we’ve already discussed, I have absolutely no self-control when it comes to books. She wanted to make wise choices for her reading materials, books that would challenge her, that she could read and reread and still be entertained. She found the complete works of C.S. Lewis in one volume and that was one pick. Another of her picks was the complete novels of Jane Austen in one volume. I had no previous knowledge that such a book existed and my interest (or lust) was piqued. I had forgotten about that book, until Cecilia and I walked into a charming little book store in D.C. where low-and-behold they had it. I debated for a while on whether I could afford $25 for one book, which may seem silly, but I’m holding myself to a tight budget and $25 is half of my “spending money” for a week. So I passed, but still held on to the hope that one day that book would be mine! So I found it online about 2 weeks ago, for $15 and ordered it! And after not-so-patiently waiting it FINALLY arrived today and my heart could not be happier. So if you don’t hear from me for a while, it is because my life now revolves around Jane Austen.

Now for that complete works of C.S. Lewis, muhahah.

LOVE!

ps. Just for future reference, I’ve already read all of Jane Austen’s novel once through.  I’m rereading them because I’m also reading a book about her life and letters.  Plus I saw Becoming Jane a few weeks ago and everything has snowballed from there.

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THEY LEFT ME ALONE, ALL BY MYSELF, JUST ME AND THE CUSTOMERS!  It was terrifying for oh, about 1 minute until someone came to help me.  
I think I’m getting in the hang of things.  It’s still absolutely crazy, but I’m becoming more confident in my drink-making abilities.  Now I ask to make sure, instead of because I HAVE NO IDEA how to make something.  
Oh and I got my first disgruntled customer, who, oddly enough, is a “regular”.  We won’t be getting any more organic milk until Thursday and she was quite peeved.  Yeah, because I’m in charge of ordering the milk and SOOO many people request organic milk.  My profound apology was met with a “this place is going down the tubes”.  I’ll be sure to pass that on to Starbucks corporate for you.  

This weekend was a little crazy, a little lazy and a lot lovely.  The TH situation is pure insanity, I can’t even begin to tell you what’s going on there.  We watched the whole season 3 of The Office and laughed accordingly.  Sunday we headed to the D of C and drove around.  We ended up at the National Cathedral and I ended up falling in love all over again.  I love that place, so much!  We walked around a bit and stumbled across the Bishop’s Gardens and that is now my number 1 favorite place in DC, the airport park has been knocked to number 2, sorry airport park.  It was like a mini-secret garden, only not so secret and no one died there and it was never locked up, well that’s not true, they lock it up at night.  So maybe the resemblance to the secret garden was merely in my heart, not in reality.  You, yes you, need to come to DC so I can show it to you, you will love it.  My heart is so full of DC, I can’t wait to spend another year here, to see all that it has to offer.  C and I keep making all these plans and I absolutely cannot wait to execute them.  Be prepared for some crazy stories, amazing pictures and the like.  

Okay I need a serious nap.  Why is it that working at a coffee shop makes me so tired.  OH!  I tried a Cinnamon Dolce Frappeccino Light today and YUM! do I like it!  I’ve found my SUMMER coffee drink, as the standard CDL is more of a winter, when-you’re-cold drink, I cannot tell you how relieved I am.  Yeah, especially since summer is over.  

LOVE!

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