Ari the Hebrew Lion Hunter (she doesn't hunt Hebrew lions, she is a Hebrew lion)

Just after this happened this morning ('Black and Tan' Beaners coffee in my Ruth mug, Ellen makin' funnies on the tube, and me nicely enjoying both activities equally):

I prepared myself to take a shower. Minding my own business I pulled the shower curtain back and much to my horror there was the most terrible insect in my shower. I can barely type about it because they're so gross to me. All I'm going to say is that it had like 100 legs. EW. My mind quickly went into panic mode on how I was going to handle this crisis. The first possible remedy was to retrieve my sweet feline from the window ledge she was chilling in and plop her in the shower. So that's what I did. Then I waited anxiously in the next room to see if she would defend us both by hunting down the bogus monster in my tub. 5 minutes passed and I decided to check on her progress. SUCCESS! She was completely sprawled out in the tub enjoying the coolness of its surface next to her kill that was in several pieces!! Thank God for Ari! I praised her and praised and busted out a fresh pouch of stinky wet food as a reward. Such a good kitty. It was such a triumph for both of us. Hurray for Ari my in home insect hunter!

Here we are doing her daily drills to keep those reflexes sharp!

Floods, Noodles, and Chick Flicks

So it rained the other day. A lot. It thundered, lightening struck, the wind blew, a tornado or two touched down in some outer suburbs of Detroit. All this was happening while I was driving. The storm that ripped through southeast Michigan was a little frightening. I was actually scared as I drove down 13 mile to surprise my friend Nishba for her birthday with an early evening out (her birthday was a few days later). I had been secretly planning with her husband to take her out for a fun night in the D. No storm or tornado was going to stop me. Or flood for that matter.

I successfully surprised her! She had just started to cook dinner (husband wasn't home yet) and I swept her away to a restaurant in Detroit that she picked from a list I had prepared. On our way down 75 we hit a big old traffic jam as the rain came down. We were creeping along the freeway when we both realized that there's usually one section of the road that floods when it rains as hard as it was. We finally got down near 8 Mile and there was the flood. There were cars stopped on the side which apparently couldn't get through the deep water or tried and failed. We were in the far left lane at probably the highest point of the road. We prayed and screamed as my little Blue Bandit of a Saturn dove with all her might into the deep dark waters. I made Nishba take some pictures in an attempt to show how seriously flooded the road was. See below.




Finally we got through the mess with out a scratch or any trouble! We went to this fun little Thai place that is in an old fire house near Eastern Market. It was VERY yummy. Although it was Thai, they make sushi, as you'll notice.
We ended our night was a lovely chick flick- The Nanny Diaries. Which wasn't really that bad. I would call it cute. Although we had such sympathy as we walked out of the theater and saw a few brave boyfriends who sat through the whole thing. Poor guys. Scarlett did a nice job and there was some cleaver stuff in it to make it more bearable than say The Princess Diaries.

We had such fun overall! Happy Birthday Nishba!

The Blahs

Today I had a major case of the blahs. I hate the blahs. They are a bit frightening, at least the high dosage I had today. They were laced with apathy, nothingness, and the lack of desire to do anything at all- not even my favorite things. That's the scary part. As I scan my brain of things that will pull me out it the blah pit, I can't lift a finger of desire to do anything. These are the days when the dishes pile up, no food in my fridge seems edible, and no human contact could possibly sober me from my blah overdose. At least that's what I feel inside.

Enter Judy. I'm "mentoring" Judy right now through one of the steps in the volunteer staff process at Genesis. Judy is at least my mom's age. I'm actually "mentoring" her so that she can be a qualified mentor herself. It seems that through the process, she has really mentored me. She's a wealth of knowledge in many areas, especially the Bible. We went through the last few sessions together tonight. I still was feeling blah, although I hid it pretty well. We met by her condo association's pool. We were going to swim, then we both decided we didn't feel like it any more (surprise, surprise for me). But as our conversations went on about different things like the women at Genesis, the Apostle Paul, owning the vision of our church, and surrendering our thoughts to God and receiving the truth from him in return, my blahness slowly started to be lifted. Just as it started to get dark, I proclaimed in the middle of our conversation that I wanted to go swimming. I declared that I needed to seize this precious opportunity to use this lovely pool on this great evening. Wow, where did that come from? God was there all along of course and used Judy to pull me up- this reminds me of the Psalm I lived in for many months as I searched for a nonprofit job in LA:

Psalm 40
1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

Ahhh...such familiar words.

Judy and slowly waded into the 82 degree water. It was lovely. I hadn't been in a pool in over a year. The water felt so refreshing. It was such a beautiful night too. We swam back and forth for a while. It felt strange to swim. We chatted and eventually decided despite the gorgeous evening sky and soothing song of the crickets that we were getting cold and should call it a night.

So here's my conclusion:

Diagnosis: The Blahs
Symptoms: Don't care about much. Don't want to do anything. Tired. Down. Uninspired.
Prescription: One must force oneself to be with a friend. One must, if available, go for a swim. One must see things to appreciate and stop everything to appreciate them. One must acknowledge that God is there, waiting to hear from us, waiting to respond.

Thanks God for the new song.

"Perpetual optimism is a forced multiplier."

as Colin Powell said at the Leadership Summit, a 3 day conference that has shaken, inspired, amazed, and challenged me. I was anti-Leadership Summit up until recently and am feeling quite the opposite after being rocked at this event filled with fantastic speakers from all walks of life- both Christian and non-Christian, filmmakers to CEOs, men, women, black, white, funny and serious. I found nearly everything said to be gushing with wisdom, experience, and truly inspired by the Lord.

I was challenged by such questions as:
-Whose job is it to inspire me as a leader?
-How can we do well at doing good?
-Am I one of the 12% of Americans that use their strengths every day?
-How deeply am I committed to the ownership of the mission God is calling me to?

The event, the leaders, the speakers, the artists, the music, everything completely recharged my battery. I see clearly now why they do this once a year and why people come back.

A few of my most favorite bits of the conference:
A short film, Homeless Karaoke
John Ortberg (please disregard the overly flashy transitions and bump bump music- these are just highlight videos!)
and many more that aren't up on the web yet.

Oh, I also enjoyed carpooling down to the D with Drew Hunter in the convertible (he's borrowing his parents' car- the same one from this post) with the top down. (I can't believe how I keep bringing this car up. I really don't have a thing for sports cars at all and would never own one, but there's something so uniquely fun about getting to ride in one like this, especially on a beautiful day. Too bad it's not along the PCH.)

Here we are on our way home today, just after discovering his dad's aviator glasses in the car...it's simply amazing the looks you get driving around town in a Porsche...

Aunt Jenny in the Houuuuuse

I made a quick trip to Todd and Stacey's this afternoon to visit and help out. My new niece Molly is fascinating to me. So little. So helpless. So mysterious. So cute. Fritz, who will be 2 in November, seems to grow exponentially in size and cuteness every time I see him. I saw him just this past Saturday and he already looks different to me. Since then he's learned to say "I know" a lot. For example, he really likes to take everything out of my bag and hand it to me. I try to teach him some of the objects like, "Fritz, this is Aveda hand lotion with vitamin and minerals" and he'll say "I know". He has already an impressive knowledge of earth friendly products.

Pics...

She tried to milk me.

Release Your Inner Ari

While in a book store yesterday I saw this book:

Here's the book description from Amazon:

Looking for Catwoman? That’s great—but what kind? The owner of a pampered Siamese, if you please? The rescuer of a homeless, helpless stray? Know the kitty…understand the gal. Through a lighthearted look at women and their cats—20 breeds, with all types of coloring, patterns, and origins—the editor of a top magazine for animal lovers helps men better comprehend their feline counterparts. What will make the woman he adores purr—or have her baring her claws? Who’s the real hunter in the relationship—you or Ms. Maine Coon? Is the Manx a leader in love, or does she always “tail” behind? It’s the inside info every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the prowl wants to know!

At first I rolled my eyes and continued on to the travel book section. Upon further consideration, they might have something here.

I raised Ari beginning when she was just a few months old:

I think sometimes we're more alike that I'd prefer to admit. Although I don't bite people like she does, but we're both curious and cautious, yet a little feisty and stubborn. It's interesting to watch her when I have company over- how she responds to each person differently, especially males. For some she ignores, some she approaches them and just sniffs. One male friend of mine was sitting on the couch and Ari climbed up the back and started biting his ears! She's never done that before or since. What was that about? A warning of some sort? We've since broken up. Hmm...

Have you heard about this cat that has successfully predicted over a dozen deaths? Read this- it's really interesting.

Ari's a special one too. While she may not be able to predict death, she's quirky and playful, smart and daring. She does odd things like enjoys sitting on the ledge of my tub while I shower and hops in when I'm done to swat at the water drips in every direction. She enjoys fetching and hunting down these plastic mice- she honestly runs after them and brings it back to me and waits for the next pitch (notice the enlarged pupils and ears flattened so that I won't see her peeking up!):


She's a sweetheart too, but only when she says it's time. Usually right after she wakes up I have a 2-3 minute cuddle window before she decides she's done being touched. If I don't acknowledge that the time has ended she breaks out the fangs and nails. Ouch. My forearms are covered with scratches from the past year and a half of moody kitty.

Today I helped her enjoy my screen door a little more by providing her with my most favorite piece of furniture in the house- a short person's must have- and today I added a phone book to it for those extra inches of viewing pleasure:
From the inside and outside...


That picture above from outside cracks me up. So does this one:

Even though she's just a cat, she's a great companion to have. Ari I think you're swell.

No AC Tan of a Sabbath

Just last week I was bragging and bragging about how the heat doesn't bother me here in Michigan, because of my vast worldly experiences in such hot destinations at Taiwan and southern California. Well, I must reverse the brag or at least call out to metro-Detroiters for some support in the fact that it was bloody hot today. Humid too. I think it really bothered me because I was in my car driving around with no AC for quite a while. I am really perfecting my "No AC Tan", in other words my left arm, shoulder, tops of my foot, and any exposed leg are considerably more tan than my right side because I'm forced to window-it all day long. So much for leaving LA to reduce pre-mature skin aging (that was THE main reason I left after all).

It was a hot sabbath. Sort of restful, I guess. I didn't really think about work or do anything work related, so it sort of counts. I tried to enjoy my blessings. I ended up chilling all morning at home- getting a few things done- one in fact was a great exciting event. Last week a plumber came to fix my leaky shower knobs (I only moved in about a month ago too, sheesh). Jeff the plumber did a fantastic job. I was happy to finally not have scalding hot water spray at my rear while I showered! Ouchies. The only problem was after his repairs for some reason the pressure in the shower head dropped by about half. Since last week I've been stuck in the shower for way too long waiting and waiting for the slow stream to rinse off the suds. Feeling irritated, I finally called dear Jeff back to see if he could flip a magic switch at his plumbing headquarters to fix it. He said simply to check the shower head for debris. Sure enough to my pure delight there was debris blocking the whole! Celebration! I thanked him and hung up. What a fabulous shower it was this morning. A quick one too.

Eventually I got my act together, grabbed my camera with sadly low batteries, and hit the road. I sang my heart out to some good tunes as I drove down steamy I-75 towards Wayne State. I pulled off a little early, pretending I knew where I was going on some exit off of 94. I quickly regained directional consciousness with familiar street names.

My first photo opp:

Any Detroit smarties out there who can guess where I was?
(I might not actually remember myself- heh)

Next I parked at Wayne and reminisced about my days on this unique campus. I was also reminded of my days as a book shelver at MSU as I poked around the WSU Undergraduate Library. Why do I always have to go to the bathroom the minute I hit the library? So weird. Anyways, the book I came down to check out was boring. So I reshelved it in its proper place and hit the mall. I ended up getting my daily fix at the coffee shop...got all dreamy over some photo books and such then headed back to my car. The meter police would arrest me in 5 minutes.

Next I drove straight down Woodward and was slammed with awe of the Detroit I didn't know. So much has changed. In the past 4 years, I don't think I've driven past Comerica Park on Woodward. If I went down there it was Wayne or Mexican Town. I had been down to the river front a month or so ago, but some how missed this area that hit me hard with all its downtown city feel splendor. I seriously had this really good ache going for a while because of what I was seeing. It felt sort of like downtown LA, except I have more confidence there- I know it well. This was only slightly familiar to me. I was tickled with a mixture of confusion and glee as I trapped myself on a traffic circle- Big Ben was no where in sight- just shiny tall buildings and people everywhere! Joy.

Another mystery spot:

I next found myself slowing down traffic on Jefferson as I input-ed my surroundings. Turning down random streets, turning back. Finally I turned down one that let me get to the Detroit River. It ended up being where the Coast Guard has some sort of station. For those non-Michiganders reading- Canada is just a short swim (well you might get run over by a barge or two) across the river.

Just before my battery died I got these fish out of water thingys. Buoys out of water. So interesting. They remind me of that Julia Roberts movie "Sleeping with the Enemy", when she fakes her death and falls off a sail boat in a storm and swims to one of these bad boys. How do they stay afloat? They seem heavy. It's probably that whole density thing.

I really wanted to take a picture of the sweet little Border Patrol Boat, but I was certain that the feds would scoop me up with a bag over my head and toss me in some unmarked van, only to end up under a bright spotlight surrounded with 2 way mirrors. Wait a second. These buoys are just as hot as those boats. They're probably waiting until I go to sleep tonight to make their move. Oops. At least I got this photo out to the public before hand.

Bunny trails (thanks Stacey)...

Moving along, I dripped and dripped with not-so-lady-like perspiration along the river walk only to realize the further I walked, the further I got from my car. At this point I was getting really hungry and was really needing to use the powder room- which equals river not so interesting any more. Exploratory mission to continue next Monday.

I drove back to the burbs and hit up my local Target and honestly felt sick after I entered the intense AC- such a temperature drop for my 1,000 degree body and no-ac-tan.

Finished the Shabbat with Bible study at my pad with the Holy Hotties. We read Romans 10. Good conversations and prayer time. Thanks ladies.

Moments from the crash...night.

What to do, what to do

Tomorrow is my shabbat.

Tomorrow is my day of rest. It's a Monday. Working at a church makes your weeks look funny. My week sure does look funny. Saturday and Mondays off. Although I'm told that if I wanted to do Friday and Saturday off I can. But it would be hard to work on Monday knowing that none of my co-workers are working. Can't fight that feeling. Weird huh? So tomorrow is suppose to be restful. I'm suppose to delight in the Lord tomorrow. Delight in what He's given me, delight in His creations in a restful manner. Sometimes that works, but sometimes being me, I tend to over plan the restful bit and end up being overly focused on accomplishing to the T every restful thing I had planned. This ends up being mentally unrestful. If only I could shut off that mental hum that sends me into hours of over-analysis, contemplation, and wonder. I could be reading a book. Meeting with friends. Writing those memoirs I said I'd write about my beloved time in LA. Doing exciting things outside of my apartment. Nope. I end up spending googles of time thinking and thinking and re-thinking my thinking. So much for rest. I have effectively rested on my Sabbath before though. I have to remind myself to relax. To not stick to the schedule. To stay in a moment if it's enjoyable and a celebration of what God has blessed me with.

So what am I going to do tomorrow? I have no idea. I must confess this makes me uneasy. Perhaps I should explore somewhere. Yes! I'll grab my camera and drive (blessing of a camera, a car, and a curiosity). Where should I go? Detroit? Stoney Creek? Port Huron? Windsor? Ann Arbor? Hmmmmm...Detroit and Ann Arbor are by far the most appealing to me. Although the fact that I can go into another country tomorrow is pretty swell. The problem with these spots is my slightly limited knowledge of the cool spots I imagine myself going to. Must learn. Must be brave. Must be free (unless coffee is involved). Oh! I just thought of something that would give me such delight. There's some big bookstore in Detroit I heard about. I will find it and go. What a treasure hunt that will be. Maybe I'll swing by the WSU library to pick up that one book I wanted to peek at- to dig even deeper in to the theories behind the Myers-Briggs Temperament Indicator.

Tuesday of this week is day 1 of training for the Detroit Half Marathon. It will be my 5th Half. My plan is to run my second full marathon a year from this October in Detroit. Although maybe I won't like the course or something. Maybe it will feel small compared to Chicago. Maybe New York? If only I could do LA. Training would be brutal in the winter here. I loathed running in the winter here. Can't think of any other cities in the US that would be worthy of the time and energy that go into marathon training. If money weren't a problem, I'd be in for the London, Paris, Dublin, Taipei, Rome, or Iceland Marathon. Rome would be incredible! Would I understand the cheers from the crowd though? Probably not.

Ok, photos I just came across...kinda fun...

I got to drive this bad boy. Stinkin fun. Don't tell Drew's dad.

Awwww....the Genesis staff and families!

I seriously love ice machines. This one was the farm mansion I stayed at for our recent staff retreat. Glasses of ice all day long.

8:05pm, 8lbs 5oz, on 8/4 (shoot should have been 8/5)

What to do in the waiting room while waiting for Stacey to give birth? Why not help little Fritz become a 'J' by teaching him the joy of sticky notes, tabs, and labeling things! Hurray for organization!!

New Life: Molly!

Tonight my new niece, Molly Ann Geib, was born to my brother Todd and sister-in-law Stacey. Praise God!

It was my first experience of its kind- being there in the waiting room all day, waiting and waiting. The waiting was more than worth it to be a part of this new life, this new amazing creation, this new child of God. Wow. I could strongly feel the presence of God tonight as I met this new little one. She seems sweet like her parents and truly is a testament of the existence of God our creator. It was an undeniable truth I felt in that place tonight as my whole family celebrated our newest relative.

It was so special to be waiting as my brother appeared out of the "Labor and Delivery" door we'd all been staring at for hours. Suddenly there he was, just after 8pm, tears in his eyes proclaiming that he now has a daughter- Molly Ann. The waiting room exploded in cheers, filled with family! It was so special to be there- I treasured the first hand experience I was having. Embracing my big brother in such joy. Holding in my arms his new daughter and watching everyone rejoice together. When his son Fritz was born almost 2 years ago, I was in Los Angeles, feeling bummed that missed out on this unique moment in history, in my family history. Thank you God for allowing me to be there tonight!

Here are some pictures from my cell phone:

My brother Todd after he came out to tell us the news and after he whispered in his son Fritz's ear "You have a sister!"-

Stacey and Molly, less than an hour old!

Fritz meeting sister Molly

Skillz

Check out this film one of my best friend's husband created. Used at Mosaic in LA and beyond! It makes me tear up every time I watch it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2166tVe8yQ