Yesterday, Aaron and I had a conversation (while walking from the car to Target to get Father's Day cards) about the line in the Bible about not worrying too much because if God takes care of birds, then of course he will take care of you.  Here's the actual verse:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life.
Matthew 6:25-27 New International Version

I've always thought about this quote a lot, whenever I get a bit overwrought about things I have no control over. Which is a lot of things.
So I was telling Aaron yesterday that it bothered me a lot to see sick birds around, eating dirty pesto pasta from some crushed plastic container, or even dead ones that seem to have just dropped dead while flying and fell from the sky. He reasoned that God would be taking care of the birds if humans, with our free will, hadn't messed with the ecosystem, which makes sense. But it still bothered me.

And then today as I was driving home from class, I saw a bird diving and gliding in front of my car at a red light. I didn't think much of it until I noticed a moth flying in front of it. The bird was really beautiful, flying after the moth, it went in for the kill a few times and missed, but it never lost sight of the moth. And finally, before the light turned green, the bird caught it and flew off to eat. I didn't realize until I was driving away how much the event applied to my conversation with Aaron earlier.

It doesn't really change the fact that birds can have a really bad time of it, but I thought it was a reaffirming coincidence.

At the Union. In Austin! Whoop.

I'm sitting outside taking a break from studying. So I'm watching 30 Rock, the episode where Liz is going corporate. Seeing her success really cheers me up because it's almost like I'm watching myself succeed. There are a million reasons why I am Liz Lemon. Shall I enumerate the ways?

1. She loves food!
2. She is awkward!
3. She says things like, "You can eat my poo!"

This comparison cheers me up considerably because I was walking on campus to get to the Union today, and started feeling quite old. But then I thought, "Well, Liz is 37, and she is still awesome," and felt much better.

Have you seen this trailer? I went to see Terminator Salvation on Monday, and when I saw this trailer, I immediately wished that I was seeing Surrogates instead. It may be Bruce Willis' best movie since 12 Monkeys (which I saw on the UT movie channel in the dorms at least three times).



Terminator, on the other hand, was ok. It seemed more like an episode in a long series than an actual definitive sequel. Maybe because they were trying to hard to keep it open-ended so they can make more sequels and thus, more $$.

This past weekend, my mom and sister came up to visit, along with my sister's 2 week old bottle baby kitten, currently named "Lump." See her picture on my flickr, or here!

We went to Scarborough Faire on Sunday, which is the Renaissance Festival near Dallas, and I was quite tempted to go again Monday. Aaron and I were able to get 4 tickets for $40 online right before we went, so we saved about 50%. While there, the four of us ate two spinach pochettes, a sausage on a stick, a baked potato with the works (which apparently includes a single broccoli stalk garnish), two orders of fried pickles, and a meatball pochette. I think that's it... Oh wait, also Aaron and I shared a strawberry italian ice on an orange half, and we all shared two bottles of RC cola. The wonders that met our eyes at the festival included smoke bubbles, birds of prey, and a pewter creature vendor who asked me, "Young Lady, where did you get those sunglasses?", and then informed me that they were looking for a pair of green aviators.

Aaron has said two funny things lately by accident (and probably countless funny things on purpose...but those don't count).

First, as we were doing the Scarborough Faire ticket exchange at a gas station, Aaron asked the guy (a middle-aged guy with piercing blue eyes in spite of his brown hair) how he won them (at a dance contest) pondered the tickets and said, "They look pretty legit..." Looking hurt, the guy replied, with slight indignance, "They are." Pretty hilarious, since Aaron meant for it to be an internal conversation, but it slipped out.
>>Then later in the car, we wondered whether the man would have been willing to give us a little display of his dancin' skills that he won the dance contest with, to prove the tickets were for real. Such indignity for just $40, doing a jig at a Valero gas station.<<

And then yesterday, we went to On The Border, and when the host asked us whether we wanted to sit inside or outside, Aaron asked, "If it starts to rain, can we come inside?" The host just said, "Sure!" But it cracked me up, because what are they going to do, bar the doors?

hehe Dwight just did something awesome.
He loves to play with my elastic hair bands and I caught him picking one off the window ledge at the head of our bed. I told him, "No, don't do that" and sounded very disapproving. So he dropped it, but it landed on my pillow, instead of on the ledge--then, he nudged it with his nose until it was right back where it was before he touched it.

My dog might be the smartest creature that ever walked the earth. Actually, that's not true, he can be quite dense about many things, which is why I was so surprised at this turn of events.

Ha, ok, I am at work, and I just happened to think about this following video, and could not hold back a laugh.


Also, this one is pretty funny too:


And this


See more here.

My favorite thing is how the kitty lifts his head and closes his eyes at the end. The comedy is twofold:
1. He looks like he is blissed out on his keyboard music
2. He is wearing a shirt and some human has his hands stuck up in the shirt, moving kitty's arms around, and kitty acts like he is just getting a good petting.

While driving home from work just now (no class today, just study time), I saw a basset hound with a faded blue collar on accosting random strangers down the street. I typically don't stop for stray dogs anymore because Aaron and I can never get them to come to us, they just run away from us, fast. But since this one seemed to be walking up to homeless people, I figured his standards weren't that high, and since he had a collar on and was friendly, perhaps he was lost. So I stopped, and saw him run into an auto mechanic shop where a guy was working. I asked the guy if that was his dog, and he said yes. Satisfied that I had attempted to do my duty towards all dogkind, I started walking away, when the dog ran back out and followed me. I petted him for a little while, and after that, he started to follow me down the street while nipping at my calves and thighs to try to get me to pay attention to him. The guy tried to get him to come, but every time the guy got close, the dog would mischievously dart away. Finally, I had to call him over and catch his collar and lead him back so the guy could hold onto him.
I wish we could go back in time when a dog could chill unleashed when his/her human was working outside. Dwight has far too much leash time and not enough free time, and thus, has not had the opportunity to develop his problem solving skills. (If this seems like a jump in reasoning, read Merle, The Adventures of a Free Thinking Dog.) Not to say that the basset hound seemed to be smarter than Dwight, but I wish Dwight could have time to figure things out for himself. For example, when he's on leash and Big Poppa (the cat) starts running past him during one of his playful moods, Dwight gets really excited and wants to chase. But at 3 am, when he's off leash for a potty break before bed, he stays away from kitty, because he knows he will get bitch slapped otherwise. I think it's cause he thinks we think for him when he's on leash, so he doesn't have to think for himself.
On the other hand though, this basset hound was skinny, and starved for attention. On coming home and finding Dwight curled up on his excessively cushy bed, I felt lucky that Aaron and I have the means to provide for him in the way that we do. But I also felt a little sad that he has such a sheltered, city dog life. If only we lived in the country with more safe, open spaces, he could have the best of both worlds.

On another note regarding Dwight and the cat, whenever we take Dwight for a walk to the yard, Big Poppa follows us--Dwight on leash, BP off. Sometimes I feel like the Pied Piper of animals. Anyways, a couple of days ago, we went, and Dwight was really hyper. When we got to the yard (Dwight's designated hyper area), Dwight saw BP and charged at him. Every time he would get close to the cat, he would play bow, make a circle around him, and then run away. I think he finally succeeded in scaring BP, because BP got up and nonchalantly (as cats will be, even if they are scared shitless) walked outside of the fence. Perhaps Dwight remembered playing w/ the neighbors dogs in that yard and thought we had brought BP along as a playmate? In any case, I think BP was surprised to see Dwight acting like a normal dog for once.

To round off this post about Dwight, here's a song that Aaron and I came up with as we were going to sleep last night--sung to the tune of Kookaburra...
"Dwighter-baby sleeps on the big warm bed,
Comfy he is, all warm and fed,
Sleep! Dwighter-baby, sleep,
Dwighter-baby Gay your life must be!"

Sometimes I feel like Aaron and I are 7 year olds at a sleepover.

Guess what? I won a bag from a contest that I entered 3 weeks ago online! I guess to continue, I must explain that I happen to frequent the "purseforum," a place where well-off handbag lovers from around the world post about their purchases and the minute details of each season's bags. On one of my idiosyncratic visits to this forum, I saw the particular bag that I just won on a certain celeb who I may or may not have a girl crush on, and loved it, especially the way, as Aaron said, "She carries that bag like it didn't cost $600." In fact, it probably didn't cost $600 for her...and now, it won't cost $600 for me either!
It's only the second contest I entered on that forum, because I only enter when it's a bag I actually want.

I'm super excited about receiving it. Obviously.





When I told my parents, I first talked to my mom.
Mom: Oh! So what's it like inside?
J: Well, it's zebra print, and I don't really like that, but--
Mom: I mean pockets! That's what's really important.
J: Oh, well it has one outside pocket and one inside pocket.
Mom: .....Why is it so expensive then?
Haha, my mom is so funny, she has been searching for a tote for ages with lots of pockets in it. The requirements are: lots of internal pockets for organization, and it must not look like the bag of someone who would carry an amount of cash worth robbing. My mom stopped carrying purses ever since she got robbed once when I was four in the parking lot of the public library, and is just now wanting a bag to carry. I found her one from Brooklyn Industries that would be perfect, but she doesn't like the colors, and thinks it's too expensive.

Then, I talked to my dad.
Dad: I hear you won a very expensive bag. Why is it so expensive?
J: I don't know...I guess because of brand name.
Dad: What color is it?
J: Brown...
Dad: Well that's a pretty normal color! I'm just trying to figure out why it's so expensive! (laughs) Well, you wouldn't have paid $600 for it anyway, I'm sure.

Which I wouldn't. But that wouldn't stop me from lusting after it, and other, out-of-my-price-range bags. But score! Now I don't have to lust. Or at least, it will be a fulfilled lust. Haha starting to sound a bit gross.