And... I'm off!

TO HAWAII!
(hence the palm trees in the background)

I am so excited. Really, I am. Why else would I be blogging at 3 am, rather than sleeping!? Oh yeah, because I also haven't been sleeping lately. I am so afraid that is catching up to me. I am so afraid I'm going to have a cold in Hawaii. Ah, but who cares?! I'll be in Hawaii.

Sunshine, sand and water: HERE I COME!!

And no worries, I purchased an underwater camera case that promises to produce amazing photos - not to mention the fact that I am practically a pro photographer as it is...

Aloha friends! See you in 10 days.
Ahhhhh... I can already feel my toes thawing...

Thank you!!

I just want to say thank you to everyone for the best 27th birthday ever -- I'll never have another one, so I'm glad it was good!! So many people gave hugs and love and "shout outs." There were songs and diddies and all things birthday. Thank you!

I had an amazing dinner with wonderful friends and family. THE BABIES (my most favorite little people in the whole, wide world) came!! Samantha stole a few hearts, Houston broke a few noses and Caleb melted the toughest of critics - sorry folks, they just can't be beat. Thanks to all my amazing friends who came and threw together another tasty Kenyan feast -- ahhhh... chapati. Need I say more?!

Only one regret of the day -- those Skins just can't win on the 16th of November. :( Man, o man.
(I'm still trying to catch on to the whole photo upload and jargonotting this blog, so forgive the awkwardness of the photos and captions.)


Caleb Jeremiah.


Houston Walker.


Samantha Nicole.


Amber, Mike & Caleb.


The final group.

"You are the weakest link"

I feel like that all the time. Oh well.

Today I got all the dings and scratches out of my car. Glory, glory! But it came at a price... and then another price... and then a higher price... Moral of the story?? "CJ is a sucker." Oh well, my car is beautiful once again.

I didn't catch much sleep last night - as verified by the 2 am posting - but made it through today well enough.

Tonight I saw the new Daniel Craig - oh, I mean, Bond movie. So deliciously wonderful. I enjoyed the beautiful "scenery" and the action. Another hit for Bond, I say.

Now, it is my birthday. 27 years. Not too bad. I don't feel much like a 27-year-old, not that I've ever been one, so not that I would have any idea what one would feel like... I also don't think I look like a 27-year-old. I feel like I got stuck at 23 or so. Not that I'm complaining!! 27 has to be better than 26 - 26 was very itchy... I mean it. Now that's over, thank goodness. I wonder what another year will bring... Hmmmm.... Now that's something to ponder.... should I be making goals of some kind?? Deep thoughts, by Clarissa Baumann... never mind, I'm fresh out. :)

Now what do I do?! Oh, I don't know... maybe I should go to Hawaii. Ok! I think I'll fly out on Thursday. Aloha!

For Reals?!

So, I've been pretty sleep-deprived lately. I've just had so much to do and seemingly so little time to do it - seriously, my mind is buzzing with life until 1 or 2 in the morning. Hence today, I had a painfully long day at work because all I wanted to do was come home and take a nap. My head was having a really hard time focusing and not being achy. I was fighting the urge to drop off to sleep on my way home. It was hard!!

When I got home, I grabbed a box of crackers, a tall glass of water and sacked out on my couch to watch a movie. I was struggling to stay awake... the... whole... movie. I finally allowed myself to nod off and went full-out around, say, 8 o'clock. I woke up maybe around 9, crawled my way to my bed and that's where I've been for the last few hours. Uninterrupted?! Oh, no!! It's Friday night, so the roommates are busy, chatty and doing whatever it is they do and OUR WALLS ARE THIN!! Let me tell you!! Not only am I getting really horrible sleep, now it is 2 am and I can't sleep.

Oh bother! I shall never catch up. Maybe this is why people actually start to look old when they get old - sleep just seems to come to the young (does that mean I'm actually getting old?! :( ). I'm sooooooo very sleepy, but I can't sleep. I can't do laundry (remember the thin walls thing) and I can't really clean anything; I need real-life hours to accomplish any of the tasks I really need to do. Maybe I can lull myself to sleep with a book... seems to work when I've had plenty of sleep... tee hee

I'll let you know how that goes.

Terrified

Can I please just tell you how terrified I am of getting married?!

**Little disclaimer** I don't have ANY prospects of that predicament any time in the foreseeable future, but... maybe it's because I am so terrified. Seriously folks, I'm shakin' in my boots -- that is if I was wearing boots -- Seriously folks, I'm shakin' in my slippers. :)

Now, I'm used to telling people how I feel, I'm used to being a pretty on-the-surface kind of person, but this is not something I would usually shout from the roof-tops. But it needed to be said today. I don't know why. Maybe it's because all my old friends are seriously dating, engaged or married with like 50 kids and I'm... waiting, always waiting... NOT that I have a problem with that - as you can clearly see from the aforementioned statement :"terrified!!" Maybe it has to do with the fact that I am about to finish my 27th rotation around this sun (on Sunday) and I am pretty used to fending for myself, being by myself and acting entirely independently of someone else.

I like to say "I answer to no one." I just can't quite imagine having to account for how I spend my time to someone else (this is all excepting Heavenly Father, of course!!). I don't know how I feel about coming home and always having someone there. I SO enjoy my peace and quiet, my alone time. Believe me, if I could afford it, I would be living by myself and I would be loving it! (This is not to say that I don't adore my roommates - they are fabulous women who teach me a little every day how I could be a better person.) I can hardly even fathom having someone who wanted to spend enough time with me to really get to know all my idiosyncrasies -- I think maybe sometimes I am pretty whacked. Mostly, I am pretty balanced, but... Maybe I should stop, just in case some cute guy runs across this blog... Then I will seriously NEVER get married. I will just stay Aunt Issa, find a cottage by a mountain side and raise many cattle.


This posting will self-destruct in fifteen seconds...

Thank a Veteran!

Today was a good day. Veteran's Day. A day off (mostly).

I love to reflect on days like today the freedoms of this nation and where they come from. I decided a good way to enhance my reflection would be to immerse myself in some sort of history (which is always so easy, considering where I live). I chose to head out to the Newseum. And... I am so happy I did!! It was amazing.

*PAUSE* Can you name the 5 freedoms in the first amendment?? See answer at the bottom.

First of all, I took the metro to the Navy Memorial - I arrived just as the memorial ceremony began. I was moved to tears as the soldiers presented the flags, as the National Anthem played, and then as a General placed a wreath at the "Lone Sailor" Statue as "Taps" played in the background. What a solemn experience it was to hear the Chaplain give the invocation and the benediction and close it in the name of the God of our Fathers, the God of this great nation and the God of all men. This truly is "One Nation Under God."

I love the spirit that dwells in this city. This city memorializes everything good that has come out of this world -- we definitely also represent and witness the wicked, but there are endless memorials to bear witness of those who have given all for this nation and for noble, worthy causes.

From this very touching memorial ceremony, I walked a couple of blocks to the Newseum - Washington, DC's newest museum. I had heard wonderful things about it and read countless commentaries, but hadn't yet witnessed it myself. Well, today... I witnessed. I laughed, I cried, I witnessed. It was astounding. Anyone who knows me well knows the following three things about me: 1. I love history 2. I love people watching and 3. I love to be alone. I partook in the goodness of all three of these today, but I want to focus on the history, although, there will be one super funny story about people watching...

This whole museum was filled with six glorious floors of displays on all things history. There is no way I could get to it all in one day, so I splurged and bought the annual pass; which, by the way, is fully tax-deductible. :) **So I open the invitation for any and all to join me at some point in time** I made it through about four of the floors - and not as well as I would like. I fully intend to go back again and again. I was moved by the Berlin Wall displays (they actually have a guard tower and a portion of the wall), SERIOUSLY over-whelmed by the 9/11 film and exhibit and thrilled by all the old headlines and films and sound bytes. It was glorious. I strongly encourage a visit! This "short" commentary cannot do it justice. NOW I can hardly wait for the American History (my favorite of all museums) to have it's grand re-opening in just a few short days!! My life will truly be bliss once again. :)

QUOTE OF THE DAY: (Sadly, this comes from William Jefferson Clinton, but... he can't help that he is a wickedly smart, but stupid, stupid man.)

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed by what is right with America."

I really liked it and I fully agree.

God Bless America, my friends. I love this land - the land of the free, the home of the brave.

Ok... so the funny story: One of the exhibits was really neat. It was in a darker room with old newspapers you could pull out and look at and on the sides were walls filled with pieces of history. I was looking really closely at one of the displays and thought I could touch one of them... only to slam my hand (really hard, I might add) into a giant wall of glass that was in front of it. These two guys said "Wow, are you ok." I said "Uh, yeah, I was just trying to get a little closer. I guess I didn't realize there was actually glass here... It's so clean." To which one of the guys replies "Don't worry, birds do it all the time." Wait, what?? I just had to stand there and laugh at myself. Ok, so funny. Right?! But that's not the end. As I was laughing, I look over and some girl slams her HEAD into the glass really hard!! I about died -- I'm surprised she didn't get a concussion or something. I'm not kidding, it was a hard slam into the glass!! The guy she was with, I could tell, wanted to laugh too, but he just kept saying "Holy cow! Are okay?? That was really hard! Are you going to be alright??"
I hope you got a kick out of that - I sure did. I hope it's not one of those "you had to be there moments." Because, I'm not kidding, it was hilarious-- I'm laughing again just writing this!!

**First amendment freedoms - right to: speech, religion, press, assembly and petition.**
(Fresh on my brain from the Newseum)

Land That I Love

I voted today. Did you??

I realize this is going to be a common theme for everyones blogs today, but shouldn't it be?!

I believe God blessed and continually blesses America.
"God bless America" is a plea for help. He helps those who help themselves.

Get out and vote. Do your duty to God and country.
I, in all honesty, don't care who you vote for -- JUST VOTE. You know who I voted for.

Give yourself a right to be proud or a right to complain - if you don't vote I don't want to hear anything you have to say about our elected leaders for the next 2 to 4 years. :)

P.S. I was in and out of my polling place, start to finish, in 13 minutes. Not even enough time to start an episode of Prison Break on my ipod. I was pretty amazed. Although, it helped because I had studied what I was voting for and cast my educated votes. I just wish that everyone else would do the same.

Ahhhhh... I love America.