Quote of the Day

"Our fax machine was all backed up so it didn't come through."

-BR

Hehehehehe... poor fax machine. Must need more leafy paper.

GTD

I'm having one of those days. I've been trying for a couple weeks to get on top of my rapidly unraveling schedule. And today, I feel as though in my attempts to get more done, I am somehow getting less done. I need to focus, but I feel like I can't. I feel like a slacker. I feel bored, but I don't know if I'm bored or just not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I want to be creative, I want to be effective. I don't want to continue to be frustrated.

Imperfection: Why This Blog Exists

It's difficult to be both a human and a perfectionist.

The name of this blog is "Are We There Yet?" because it is something I often find myself asking, or wanting. My husband gets frustrated because I can't seem to enjoy the journey, whether it be a long road trip or a trial in life... I am all about the destination.

Yet, I'm learning, slowly, that my God is not a God of destinations. My God is a God of journeys, and adventures, and learning. Learning patience, learning peace, learning love, learning kindness, gentleness, and self-control. My life is going to be full of struggles and adversities, even if they're relatively tame. We all have a cross to bear, whether you believe in my cross or not.

I admit, I get whiny along the way. I get grumpy, and tired, and I don't always want to be nice. I often want to take out my frustration on people with my car, or snap at Aaron when I've had a bad day, or complain about whatever random discomfort I happen to be experiencing. These are among many of my imperfections. My embarrassing moments of being ungrateful, unteachable, and obstinate.

That's what this blog is about. I don't believe that anyone is meant to go through life alone, living from day to day, without sharing their experiences with someone else. Sure, I'll spare you some of the gory details. But as long as I'm striving towards this goal, working towards perfection (which I'll never reach while I'm alive), I'll write about it. I'll write about tools that help me to be a better employee, a better wife, a better "pack-leader", a better steward, a better friend, and a healthier human being. Because these things will always be shifting, changing, evolving. Parts of me will be dying while other parts thriving.

Humblicious

This morning, I was a jerk.

I was in a bit of a rush to get in and out of the drive-thru at Starbucks to get to a meeting here at the office. There was a lady who turned in front of me, not rudely - just as in, she was in front of me at the light, turned into the same driveway I was going into, took the same path I was taking.

Instead of being a calm and patient driver, I was following her pretty closely, feeling my impatience and rushedness burning hot in my cheeks. She stopped right at the entrance to the drive-thru, and was making "what the heck" gestures at me in her mirror. So I threw up my hands and said "I'm just waiting." Not that she could hear me.

After that, I realized I was being an idiot. As I sat behind her and waited for her to place her order, I thought to myself that I should try to buy her drink. Make some sort of peace offering, or be kind to an enemy so as to heap hot coals on her head, one of the two (okay, maybe a little of both). When I pulled up to the speaker to order, the barista on duty informed me that the lady in front of me was going to be buying my drink.

Doh!

So for breakfast today, I had a free vanilla latte, along with a blueberry scone that I added on at the window, and a big slice of humble pie.

Great Email Forward

So, my dad is a Republican. A hardcore, W-lovin', all-American... Republican.

Of course, this leads to great conversations and email battles. I used to keep my mouth shut, and before I completed my college education, I considered myself a "Republican", until I actually started to care and then I discovered that I was a "Democrat".

So my dad tries to convert me, by forwarding articles like the one below. And various others, such as the one about Barack being a Muslim (ironically, this email proclaims itself to be "Snopes" certified), emails full of digs at Hillary, plus scores of other blows to Democrats and liberal thinkers, etc.

This one was just too good not to share:

Top psychiatrist concludes liberals clinically nuts
Eminent psychiatrist makes case ideology is mental disorder

Posted: February 15, 2008

3:40 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

WASHINGTON – Just when liberals thought it was safe to start identifying themselves as such, an acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist is making the case that the ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder.

"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness." "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."

While political activists on the other side of the spectrum have made similar observations, Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism and links to "the vast right-wing conspiracy."

For more than 35 years he has diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.

Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder.

(Story continues below)

"A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity – as liberals do," he says. "A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation's citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state – as liberals do."

Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:

• creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
• satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;
• augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
• rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

"The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind," he says. "When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious."

Hacking is not just for computers any more

I have been on a quest lately... I'm trying to reorganize and declutter my life.

As the subject suggests, there are now countless blogs dedicated to "hacking" your life. There's even a blog for hacking Ikea furniture and making it *gasp* even more useful! Among some of the other awesome resources I've found are Lifehacker, Lifehack, and Unclutterer. There are so many ideas for how to organize your tasks and workspace and living space, it's incredible. Ironically, I think I have "wasted" countless hours of time foraging for any little morsels of information that could help me. I'm trying to consider this time my sponge time, and consider it an investment, rather than a waste. I hope that's truly the case.

While at work, I'm focusing on maximizing my workspace. Which brought me to the conclusion that I could really use some kind of phone stand, and I found one I really really like here.

So I am working in short bursts, and then alternating that with organizing / filing / making the most of my workspace time.

And this applies at home as well. Over the last weekend I went to Ikea and purchased a few pieces of a little system called Antonius, which is lovely for organizing my spare bedroom closet.

I'm thinking I'm going to focus the rest of February on this organizing venture and spend the last weekend celebrating with Joe & Nicole in Vegas. Sure, we'll actually be celebrating Nicole's 21st birthday, but inside, I'll be doing a victory dance over my successful quest in declutterization.

Does that count as a goal?

Ignorance

I have received numerous emails declaring Barack Obama as an unfit candidate based solely on his religion and upbringing. Then, I got into a debate with a young man there who expressed with a chuckle in his voice that he was going to switch parties to vote for Hillary in the primary because he would do anything to make sure we don't get someone with the middle name "Hussein" in the white house. He went on to describe just how much he despises Obama, that he would not want him in office because he's really a Muslim pretending to be a Christian (like it matters what religion he is, anyway), and that he would rather see Hillary in the white house than some "Muslim who grew up in Indonesia." Mind you, Obama lived in Jakarta from age 6 to age 10. I know that's when I developed my religious ideas and political views... (in case you missed my tone, that was sarcasm).

Sadly, this was the second person Aaron had heard this week who jumped parties to throw off the democratic primary. It makes me wonder how many other people are doing the same thing, and it makes me sick to my stomach.

How someone could say they despise someone for being Muslim (especially when he's not even a Muslim), for the fact that he spent part of his life in a predominantly Islamic country... and not see any problem with saying something like that, with thinking something like that, it just makes me incredibly sad.

I know it's just politics, and by this time next year it will all be over, but that kind of blind discrimination and intolerance is unacceptable.

Ugh.

*This post has been edited. I would like to apologize to anyone who may have taken this as being an attack on the young man from the conversation. Really, this blog is not directed at him. It's intended as an extension of the big political conversation, and I am thankful that there are people having these conversations. So if you're reading this, I'm sorry. Please accept my apology and know that I didn't intend any disrespect by writing this. Also, if you have read this and interpreted it as harsh, I'm sorry for that as well - I am more concerned with the issue of religious intolerance and assumption than one individual's thinking.*