back from orlando

"Not only is the way narrow, but it involves suffering. To truly engage with how the world is, our hearts are going to be broken again and again. Just this past week, I met a woman who is terrified her husband is going to beat her, and another woman who has a degenerative muscle disease that is causing her face to freeze up, and I can think of at least five couples who are splitting up and... you get the picture. It is your world too. And so we are learning how to suffer well. Not to avoid it but to feel the full force of it. It is important that churches acknowledge suffering and engage it - never, ever presenting the picture that if you follow Jesus, your problems will go away. Following Jesus may bring on problems you never imagined... Ultimately our gift to the world around us is hope. Not blind hope that pretends everything is fine and refuses to acknowledge how things are. But the kind of hope that comes from staring pain and suffering right in the eyes and refusing to believe that this is all there is. It is what we all need - hope that comes not from going around suffering but from going through it." -Rob Bell // Velvet Elvis

that quote has nothing to do with this blog, i just wanted to post it because i think it speaks volumes alone without my comment on it. i will say, though, that i prefer the "raw" part of life... i think it is always best to feel sad when you are sad. to forget dressing it up and making it look better than it is. and to be happy when you are happy. to live without hindering yourself in those areas.

anyway, on to the cooler stuff...

i just got back from orlando, florida yesterday. i must say, disney world is about my favorite place ever now. i'm not even kidding. that's weird for me because i'm not big on huge corporations and expensive trips or anything, but disney really, really sucked me in. if you could climb into my head for just a day, you would see that im ever-serious. i think entirely too much. i worry entirely too much. i have a hard time not analyzing everything. i just have to. its what i do. if you know me in person, which you probably do, then you'll know that i don't necessarily act that way and i of course like to have a good time, but my brain never slows down. im very self-aware and very aware of whats going on around me and it never ever stops. anyway, when you go to disneyworld, you dont have to think about anything except having a good time. you dont have to compare theories of anything, you dont have to worry about your life, if only for a day, you dont have to give a crap about anything. its so nice. i cant express to you how nice it is. you just get sucked into the movies and entertainment and great food and you're sold. sold for life. i was. i want to work there now. its ridiculous! so, add that to the list of things i recommend.

im also starting a new list, though. a list of things i do not recommend. first thing on the list:

curry. ughhhhhh. curry sucks. dont ever eat it. dont ever eat indian food. it tastes good but later you'll be up puking in your hotel bathroom at midnight after having twenty minutes of sleep and then shaking all night when youre sitting in a tub of hot water but you cant get warm so you just stay up and call a friend you know will be up because you feel so awful that you would rather die than sit in a bathtub and think about it and then the next day you find out that your idea of branching out and eating indian food for the first time was actually a terrible idea and your intestines are inflamed and you also probably have acid reflux so you take lots of medicine and miss out on sea world and wish you didnt because you have always wanted to see a whale in person but you didnt so you hate curry even more. curry is at the top of my list of things you should never try unless you have a very strong stomach. just trust me.

aside from that, the trip was pretty much perfect. we met an english boy who gave us chocolate and told us how great his tea is and all of these things. the accent really blew my mind. its not that ive never heard one before, i just dont think ive engaged in conversation with a really, really cute english boy before. i want to move to england now. its like i found buried treasure. haha. im pathetic. i can assure you im not boy crazy but i think im a little accent crazy right now.

my blogs have been dumb lately. the truth is, im kind of sick of thinking right now. i just want to stop analyzing and just enjoy things for a little while. i have a few things i'd like to say, but not now. my life is predominantly good and easy at this time in my life, and im thankful, so im going to show thanks by enjoying it as best i can. do you want to know what that means? that means eating a whole box of chocolate covered cherries in the time it takes to watch stargate the movie and have time left over.

now im tired.