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| If I had three wishes...
This is something that I often think about. What would I wish for if I had three wishes. Let's assume that the same rules apply to these wishes as applied to the wishes in Disney's Aladdin. You can't kill anybody, you can't bring anyone back from the dead, and you can't wish for more wishes. With only those guidelines, you could wish for a vast majority of things from wealth to world peace, but what would you choose? Would you give into temptation and wish for selfish things? Would you be completely selfless and help mankind? Would you use the third wish to set the genie free? I'd like to say that I'd take the noble road and help mankind with world peace or the cures to diseases, but I think I'd probably use my wishes for selfish things.
Luckily, I don't have to make that decision because I'd undoubtedly use my wishes to head down the slippery slope into the world of sin. This brings up a new thought. What would Jesus wish for if He had three wishes? He could already do miracles, so He wouldn't need to wish for that. If He wished for omnipresence so He could be in more places so He could save more souls while He was on this Earth, that would ruin the fully man aspect of the incarnation, so He probably wouldn't wish for that. He didn't particularly like the idea of dying on a cross ("Take this cup from Me, if at all possible..."), so He could have wished for a way out of that, but that would mess up God's plan for a once for all death for all sins, so He wouldn't wish for that. I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that Jesus would wish for. Maybe He would give His wishes to someone else, as long as they weren't going to be a stumbling block to that person. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Jesus wouldn't wish for anything. He was perfectly content living inside of God's will. Since Jesus is the standard by which we strive towards, I should be perfectly content to simply be inside of God's will. Hmmmm, interesting. I'm constantly thinking about all of the different things that I want. I want my loans paid off. I want new shoes. I want a new video game that comes out next Christmas. I want a wife and kids. Some of these things are good and worthwhile things, and others are periphery items that would bore me within six months. However, without God, all of these things, even the worthwhile ones are as dust under my feet. I need to start seeking first His kingdom. This reminds me, I need to read my Bible more.
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| Last night I dreamt that I was in my fifth grade classroom. I was back in school with random people that I've known throughout my life (including a girl that had a crush on me in the fifth grade, that I hated). Although it was in my fifth grade classroom with my fifth grade teacher, it was a college level course, and it was on my middle school campus, instead of my elementary school campus. Anyways, all of that aside, I'm sitting in class, and today is the day that we have to give our presentations. Each presentation is required to have enough visuals to cover 3/4 of the white board space. This particular classroom had enough white boards to cover the back wall of my downstairs living room, so it was a lot of space. Also, I hadn't prepared any presentation. The topic that was chosen for everybody was this: "Why wouldn't a person with gonorrhea want to use a public restroom?" Two things: a) I don't have gonorrhea, b) I don't know anyone with gonorrhea. So I'm not really sure why I was dreaming about it. All that aside, people were giving various presentations about gonorrhea as a disease including: symptoms, origins, molecular structure, and history. Then after that, they'd segue into how people with a disease like this wouldn't want to use a public restroom because with a disease this bad, they wouldn't want to go out in public. Everyone's presentation had that format. It was coming up to the end of class time, and also coming up to my turn to give a presentation. So, not only do I have to think of a speech I can give about why someone with gonorrhea wouldn't want to use a public restroom, I have to think of enough visuals that will cover 3/4 of the white space board. During the presentation before mine, the wheels started turning, and ideas started coming. Instead of focusing on the disease and how people with it wouldn't want to go out in public, I thought I'd take a different route, and focus on how if they used the restroom, they'd spread the disease to others. (I don't know if this is true or not [most likely not], but in my dream it was true.) My visuals included a giant toilet with a giant stick figure sitting on it. (All of my visuals were giant so that I would use enough space on the white board.) Then when they got up to leave, the next visual would show the toilet with a spider sitting on the seat. Have you ever seen the spiders in the Garfield comics? That's the type of spider I was thinking about. However, this spider wasn't a spider, it was gonorrhea. I don't know why I decided to make the disease shaped like a small spider, but that's what I was doing. Then the next person to sit on that toilet would smush the spider into their butt by sitting on it, and whala, they'd have gonorrhea. That was the plan anyways. When it came to my turn to give my presentation, I got up in front of the class and started erasing previous presentations to make room for my own. Then when I tried to draw a toilet I just couldn't get it right. I had to erase and try again a couple times. When I was starting on the third try, the class was over and most people had left. Disappointed in myself that I couldn't draw a toilet, I walked over to the teacher who said, "You'll have something good for me tomorrow right?" I forget how I responded to that, but I was grateful for a second chance. School was now out, and it was time to get to the buses, but I had stayed late so I thought I'd miss the bus. It was okay though, because I had my Eclipse waiting for me in the parking lot. It struck me as strange that I had this car on my middle school campus, because I didn't have it when I was in middle school, but that thought didn't linger, and I moved onto other things. On my way to my car, I saw a couple of my high school teachers. It looked like they were having a lovers quarrel. One was walking away angrily from the other, while the other was trying to catch up. The one who was trying to catch up was very apologetic, and trying to ask forgiveness. This, in and of itself, isn't very strange except for the fact that they were both guys. In real life I didn't have any gay teachers, and I'm pretty sure the teacher from my dream that was angrily walking away was my high school Chemistry teacher, who is happily married. In my dream, this seemed like a normal thing to be seeing, so I thought nothing of it, and continued towards my car. Then I woke up.
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| So today, I ran a 5K. I feel pretty good. My calves are sore. When I started training, I went on to Google maps and found a 1.1 mile city block that I ran around 3 times. That was what I trained on. A 5K is 3.1, so I thought that would be good training ground for me. My first time out, on Monday I ran 32:30. Then on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I ran 30:30. Then on Friday, I died a little and ran a 41:46. (I had to walk the entire last lap.) The next week I went home for Easter, and didn't run at all. I thought about it everyday, but I never did it. Then I got back, and ran a 28:06. Woot! First sub 30. Then we went to the Grand Canyon. I thought about running a lot at the Grand Canyon, but I let the hikes be my exercise. While training, I never felt like I was in very good shape, but when we hiked out of the Grand Canyon in an hour, I gained bucket loads of confidence. I came back and ran a 27:41 on Wednesday, then a 27:36 on Thursday, and a 30:04 on Friday. Those times include some walking, so I wanted to go non stop. Next Monday I took a slower pace and ran non stop. However, my time was 31:13, which I didn't like. I'd rather have some walking and be in the 27s than go non-stop and be above 30. It's now the week before the race, so I took Tuesday off, and ran on Wednesday. I ran my best time with a 27:26. My first mile that day was my best mile at 8:05. So, I'm feeling pretty good. I took Thursday and Friday off, and let my legs rest up for Saturday. We wake up Saturday, and I'm really nervous. I just get more and more nervous as time goes on. I want to jump around or do something, but I also want to save my energy for the race. We get to the starting line near the front. This makes me happy because if you start in the back, you technically run farther than everyone else. They have a little countdown before the start, and we take off. I'm trying to go at my own pace, but it's hard when there are a hundred people slowly passing you by. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't have enough gas to finish the race if I kept up at the pace I was going, but the constant flow of people passing me gave me energy. It was like swimming downstream. I'm sort of daydreaming the whole way, and before I know it, I'm at the mile marker. What? I've done a mile? Okay. I overheard some guys chatting (I hate them for having energy to chat idly while I'm gasping for oxygen) that said we were at 7:30. What? 7:30? Am I really running this fast? Now I'm worried again that I'm going at too fast a pace. We get to the point of the race where the 5Kers have to turn, and the 10 milers have to keep going. I turn off, and I'm practically the only one. There are a few people here and there near me. Now the running is a bit tougher. I'm no longer swimming downstream. There's no current to carry me on. I try to ignore the tiredness building up in my legs and keep going. I also try to smile and wave to the people I see as I run. I think this surprises people because most of the runners were just focused on running. The last mile was the hardest. I thought I was getting closer, but I really wasn't. Then when I saw the finish line, I tried to pick it up. I did okay, but I was really tired, and my increase in speed was probably only noticed by me. I finished 31st overall and 11/16 in my age group (20-29). My final time was something like 24:30 with an average mile time of 7:58. I'm so happy! I averaged better than my best mile time! :)
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| I just got another email from Xanga telling me that they missed me. Granted I don't put much effort into my relationship with Xanga ("You don't take me out anymore." "Shut up Xanga. You're a website." "I hear that new coffee shop has wi-fi." "Fine, let me get my shoes."), but I view my relationship with Xanga as the same as my relationship with my toaster. I don't want toast all the time, and I don't want my toaster complaining about how it misses me because I don't eat enough toast. ("You need to stop complaining, or I'll get a divorce and get a new toaster, a younger model, one with chrome." "They're fake you know." "Don't care.") I didn't know it was possible for an inanimate object to be so clingy. (Except for my shirts when they come out of the dryer. "Did you feel that spark between us?" "Shut up Susan. It's called static electricity, and it happens all the time. It doesn't mean we're in love." "I'll bet you say that to all the pretty shirts you bring into your bedroom." "Nope, just the talking ones." Some of my shirts are girls, so sue me.) The next thing you know, Xanga will be talking about settling down and having kids. ("How long have we been together?" "Off and on for a few years I guess." "It was a year last January. I still can't believe you forgot our anniversary. We've blogged 66 times including this one. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" "Nope." "I want kids." "What?" "And grandkids. I want Bobby, Billy, and Betty to come over on Easter to their grandparents house and hunt for eggs on our front lawn." "We're breaking up." "What?" "I'm never naming anyone of my kids, or allowing any of my grandkids to be named Betty. Betty Petty?" "You'll still blog from time to time, right?" "Only if you stop whining about missing me.")
Also, my toilet is having surgery today. ("It's going to be okay Toilet. It's a simple procedure. 60% of the time, it works all the time." "It works all the time? I guess that's pretty ... Hey, wait a minute. 60%? That's like a one in fifty chance that I'll live! Woe is me!") PS, my toilet is bad at math ... and a drama queen.
At least my couch loves me. ("You don't need a job, just stay here with me all day." "Okay couchie. I love you.")
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| SBCC is on Spring Break, so I'll meet with them when I get back from the GC. What else is on my to-do list...
1) Go to bank.
I like to walk to the bank, even though it's over a mile away from me.
2) Clean bathroom.
It's gross, don't use it. (upstairs one in my and John's room)
3) Finish eating disgusting muffins.
I deviated from my normal brand and bought some more expensive muffins to see if they were better. They had real blueberries, so I had high hopes, but they're terrible. The recipe called for a 1/3 cup of oil, which I thought was strange, but I did it anyways. Now my muffins taste gross. I blame oil. I also blame Iraq for more oil based troubles.
4) Ride around on a giant blue and/or black chicken-like creature so that I may breed them into a golden chicken-like creature.
(Final Fantasy 7 anyone? For those that don't know, ff7 may be the greatest video game ever, based on the size of the fan base and the number of spin offs. I've never played it before, and I love the Final Fantasy series, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It's totally awesome! Here are some highlights so far: I ran away to join the army, I befriended the eventual villian, came back and joined a rebel cause against "The Man," developed a love interest with a random girl I met once that sells flowers on the street for cash, made friends (one of which is a red talking cat, and another is an animatronic puppet named Cait), watched as 25% of them (2/8) betrayed me, dressed up as a girl to fool a crime boss, went on a date with my love interest, discovered that my memories of my past aren't my memories of my past, nearly died, discovered that I'm a clone?, shrunk a giant pyramid down to fit in the palm of my hand, accidentally gave that pyramid (which was a huge source of evil magic) over to the main villain, beat my love interest with my fists (she forgave me because I wasn't "myself" at the time), learned that my love interest is actually from an ancient race of people that can save the planet from the main villain, watched as she ran away to save the world, went to find her, when I found her I nearly stabbed her with my sword (again, I wasn't myself), when I resisted, the main villain came out of nowhere and killed her with his giant sword then called a giant meteor to come down and kill the earth, hijacked an hovercraft, hijacked a plane, hijacked an airship, hijacked a submarine then used that submarine to blow another submarine out of the water, stopped a runaway train, played carnival games at the carnival, one of which is a game where I feed a creature some food so that he can fly, if I feed him the right amount then he'll be able to fly, and if he's able to fly, he is able to impress the ladies and go on dates and have sex (it took me 6 tries to finally get him to fly so he could date), and I'm only on disc 2 out of 3! (This was made back when they couldn't fit everything onto one disc.) I love this game. :) )
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