Life coming at me

Because I know he won't quit bugging me if I don't ... I liiiiiike him. :) But he liiiiiikes me, too.

Yes, I am once again dating someone. His name's Bobby, but I will refer to him as Kettle from this point on (because that is HIS nickname). I'm sure the two people (besides Kettle) that read this would love to hear about how this happened. I've made mention of him a couple of times previously. We've known each other for about five years (he thinks it's six, because he can't count); we met when we both worked at the Ledger during the summer of '02. He's been after me for a while, and I've been valiantly resisting - until recently.

Things definitely change, and I think both of us are proof of that. And we have both been a little surprised - with ourselves and with each other. We're still in the sort of casual stage, and we are trying to take things slowly. He lives in Enterprise/Daleville, and I live in Tuscaloosa, so we've been seeing each other as much as possible while I have been visiting my parents. It's actually been really nice - for various reasons. ;) That's for your benefit, Kettle.

I'm trying to remember what other areas of my life I should update.

My visit with my family has been really fantastic. My mom showed me how to do some things on the sewing machine; I'm still reasonably clueless, but I at least know how to get started now. We'll see where that goes. Today my sister Amy came over and brought Sarah-Grace, Jerred and Drew with her. I had a lot of fun with the kids. They are the cutest kids in the world, and I, of course, am not biased at all when I say that. I've also gotten to spend a fair amount of time with Meemaw and Aunt Janice, who's visiting from Texas. We played Skipbo Sunday afternoon, a tradition that has carried over from visits even during my childhood. I remember sweltering summer nights in Fort Worth with Aunt Janice, Meemaw, Mama, Jacque and any other random assortment of friends and family members, huddled around a wooden table playing Uno or some other card game.

I finished reading another book, and this was another great read. Prisoners of Hope is a true account of Heather Mercer's and Dayna Currie's imprisonment by the Taliban just before 9/11. They were Christian aid workers and were accused of attempting to convert Afghans to Christianity. While the sentence for this was supposed to be 3-10 days in prison, they got shuffled around the Afghani legal system for several months before finally escaping once the Taliban regime in Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance. I also started Red and Blue God, Black and Blue Church, but I'm not terribly impressed with it so far. I told Kettle that I am apparently on a non-fiction kick, though, because this will be the third non-fiction book in a row that I've read.

The clothes fast is going great so far. It has led me so far to begin to have a different perspective on settling for the status quo. Why on earth would I want to look exactly the same as everyone else? Why would I take so much pride in having a pair of shoes or a shirt or a skirt that hundreds/thousands of other girls also have? These thoughts carry over to other parts of my life as well, certainly.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. I am looking forward to Chrysalis this weekend. I am not looking forward to going back to Tuscaloosa on Monday.