Pumpkin Day

My sweet friend Sara and I love orange, love fall, love pumpkins. We also love art and beautiful things. So, we dedicated a day to appreciating these things at the Getty and called it Pumpkin Day (original, right?). Unfortunately, it's a little difficult to appreciate fall when it's 85 degrees out, but we managed. So, what exactly did we do on Pumpkin Day??

First, we wore orange. Duh.

Then we sipped pumpkin spice lattes and ate pumpkin scones on our way to the Getty. Delicious!
We also celebrated in September. Pumpkin Day can't be in October. That's just cliche.

We took lots of artsy photos. Sara has a super fancy camera and we had loads of fun snapping pics all day.

A candid shot...

Sara is a real photographer, but I took this one of her. I love it.

When I'm not at the Getty, I think to myself "Why am I not at the Getty?" It's so fun, it's free, they have amazing food, their art makes my heart smile, they always have a fun exhibit happening, and I just have the best days there.

Happy Fall.

Two Additions to the Bucket List

31. Learn how to solve a Rubik's cube.

32. Visit Salvation Mountain. Anyone in?

The Bucket List

1. Visit Greece, specifically the Acropolis in Athens.
2. Go spelunking somewhere tropical. (I just love the word "spelunking.")
   
3. Surprise someone in an extraordinary way.
4. Publish something I’ve written, drawn, or photographed.
5. Walk around Paris on a rainy day with a bright red umbrella.
6. Fall in love.
7. Memorize the Gettysburg Address and recite it where Lincoln did.
8. Learn how to read maps. (I seriously can’t.)
9. Teach girls how valuable they are. And to always remember it myself.
10. Read five thousand books. (Why not?)
11. Sew a dress for myself.
12. Make an important archaeological discovery.
13. Zip-line through a jungle.
14. Learn to skateboard.
15. Try out for JEOPARDY!
16. Catch a foul ball at a World Series game bare-handed.
17. Eat breakfast at Tiffany’s in New York City.
18. Re-enact a scene from "Gladiator" at the Coliseum in Rome.
    
19. Climb a mountain.
20. Feel comfortable dancing. I hate dancing.
21. Buy my parents something extravagant.
22. Eat at Club 33 at Disneyland.
23. Visit Mark Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri.
24. Break a 200 at bowling for the second time.
25. Learn how to be comfortable using a gun. (Not that I’m planning on shooting anyone!)
26. Perfect my British accent. This will require many trips to England.
27. Ride a roller coaster that actually scares me.
28. Write a movie script.
29. Finish a New York Times crossword puzzle.
30. Make sure everyone in my life knows how much they mean to me.

More to come...

I'm Lovin' It

Saddleback Church is doing 40 Days of Love this fall and my small group is currently doing the study. Do you want to know what we're learning? Well, one of our group members, Brian, has started his own blog to aid in our study of learning to love like Jesus. (The domain name is abetterlover.blogspot.com...can you believe that wasn't already taken? Unbelievable.) Brian is an insightful person and our group has had some great discussions so far. I've learned that I'm really not as good at loving people as I thought. You should read his blog to see what our group is learning.

Love is the most important thing!!

Mixin It Up

I LOVE MIX CDs! And if you've been in my car in the last couple of months, chances are you've heard my favorite mix CD EVER. I got a copy from Megan. Here are the songs...seriously, I LOVE all of these songs. They are so fun to sing to in the car. This CD is perfect. Download these immediately:

See You Again--Miley Cyrus (You are not too cool to listen to Miley, I promise.)

Always Be My Baby--David Cook (Better than Mariah Carey's version.)

The Way I Are--Timbaland

Shake It--Metro Station

Bleeding Love--Leona Lewis (I love singing this in my car. I think I sound pretty good. Ha.)

Shut Up and Let Me Go--The Ting Tings

Love Song--Sara Bareilles

Don't Stop the Music--Rihanna

Say--John Mayer (Oh, John...)

P.D.A. (We Just Don't Care)--John Legend (Is it wrong that I love this song so much?)

Don't Hold Back--The Sleeping

S.O.S.--Jonas Brothers (What's a mix without the JoBros?!)

If you think you can produce a better mix than this one, I'd be happy to listen to your attempt!!

Perspective

A TV advertisement for a national newspaper in Britain shows a close-up shot of a powerful-looking young man with a shaven head running at high speed toward an elderly woman, giving the strong impression that he was going to attack her. At the last moment the camera angle changed and we saw the full picture: he was running in order to get her out of the way of a fast-moving car which was going to hit her as she crossed the street. We saw him pick her up and take her to safety. The advertisement went on to claim, of course, that the newspaper gave its readers the fuller picture of what was really going on.

Can you picture this ad? It makes me think about how we all view life from our own unique points of view. We all see things from our own lens. There is no way that I read the Gospels in the same exact way that you read them. There’s no way that you watch a movie with the same perspective that I do. There are things that you can justify doing that I cannot. Our assumptions (conscious and unconscious), backrounds, world views, culture, faith, family, traditions, etc…they all play a role in how we see ourselves, others, God, and everything in life. But what about God's perspective on my relationships, motives, circumstances, etc.? How do I see God's perspective on things? I want to make sure I am observing, appreciating, and reflecting on the world around me through the eyes of the one who created it all, not through a lens that is distorted by selfishness, pride, and vanity.

My motives control my perspective on a situation. My perspective generates the choices I make. The consequences of my choices determine the reality of my life. It’s only in knowing God, in knowing how much he loves us and how valuable we are that gives us the ability to see through our circumstances to what is really going on. His love is full of insight and knowledge. And I want it.

Know the Lord. Know his love. Seek hard for his beauty, drink in his glory, cry out for his wisdom. Receive his rescuing love and his amazing grace. Look for him; you'll find him. And then abandon your life to him.

So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. As surely as the sun rises He will appear, and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. --Hosea 6:8

Lord, make me see thy glory in every place. --Michelangelo

AWK-WARD...

I have noticed that my level of awkwardness has dramatically increased in the last month or so...yes, dramatically. Just a few of the numerous examples include the following:

Cutting off Tim Davis--at church--and then smiling at him and waving hi. I didn’t mean to cut him off, but I turned and didn’t signal and it was just plain bad driving. And then I smiled and waved like I hadn't just almost caused an accident. Yep. Awkward. Sorry, Tim. I'm usually a way better driver than that.

Making Matt McGill think I am obsessed with him. Apparently he and his new assistant (a good friend of mine) came by my desk one day to see if I could go to lunch last-minute, and I wasn’t there and missed out. That has fueled my strange insistense on getting lunch with them at least twice now. (I normally do not beg to have lunch with people I hardly know. Honest.) Awkward.

Accussing a stranger of being demanding. One of my best friend’s friends is in town, and I had a super awkward interaction with him today. He was saying how, since it's his birthday, he wanted his friends to take the day off work and go surfing with him. A legit request, right? Jokingly, I said that he was a demanding friend. Who says that to a stranger? (I made sure that after I insulted him, I did wish him a happy birthday.) Awkward.

Being rude and awkward to Riley at Chili's. I saw that his car was in the parking lot at Chili’s as I walked in. So when I saw him, I said his car was really dirty. Awkward. A “hello” would have sufficed, right? To right this wrong, I waited until he was leaving the restaurant, and then ran up to him to apologize for saying his car was dirty. He looked at me like I was crazy. Awkward again.

I promise I am not usually this awkward...am I?!

That's All

I want my thoughts to bathe in Heaven’s lights

I want wisdom to crown my head like a garland

I want beauty that is musical as a waterfall

I want my heart to be soft as flowers

I want my love to be dangerous

I want my dreams to sleep on a cloud of truth every night

I want my voice to be golden as happiness

I want my laugh to ornament the world with sincerity

I want to seek adventure like lost time

I want to throw my dreams in a rainbow for everyone to see

I want my faith to swallow my voice and echo to the world

I want my fear to be lost in all that God is

That’s all I want.

Texting! 1, 2, 3...Texting!

This shouldn't be as big a deal as it is, but I finally got an unlimited text messaging plan!

I'm about, what, six years behind on things? Well, not anymore!

TEXT ME! Anything you want! A snide remark...a stupid joke...that you just heard a Jonas Brothers song on the radio and thought of me...anything!

Here's to entering a new and improved phase of my technology-challenged life...

If It Ain't Baroque...

On Sunday I went to the Getty with my museum pal, Hayley. We were both so excited to hear about a new exhibit on Bernini, the rockstar of 17th-Century Baroque sculpture. (“And why haven’t we all heard of Bernini if he’s so famous?” you may be wondering. Well, most of his work is in the city of Rome, and there it stays. Even to find him in the western hemisphere is rare.)

My favorite portrait at the exhibit was the only one Bernini ever produced without a commission, of a woman named Costanza Bonarelli. I love the intimacy and immediacy of this portrait. Look at how her lips are parted, gasping in fright, as if we barged in on her getting dressed! Her collar delicately floats undone on her chest and her hair is a bit disheveled. It’s as though she’s about to speak, to engage with the viewer. Bernini…I’m telling you. He's a genius.

And also kind of a creep.

This woman was Bernini’s lover. Obviously, he’d have to care very much about her to have carved her portrait for his home. But when Bernini found out that Costanza was cheating on him, with his own brother, he hired an assistant to find her and slash her face up with a knife. Ironic that he had already immortalized her beauty in marble, isn’t it? Oh, and did I mention that Costanza was married to one of Bernini’s assistants while she was cheating on him with his brother? And that the Pope himself was asked to intervene in this little spat? DRAMA!

(Isn’t art history fun?)

Go see Costanza at the Getty. She’ll be gone October 27th!!