Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Stay home and make a difference!

I'm ashamed of myself.

I'm facebook friends with Christie Cotney, a missionary who is trying to make a difference in Bugabo Village, Uganda, East Africa. You can read all about her story, her calling, her dreams for the village, here. It's really a very honest, interesting blog, written by someone who is truly walking the walk.

Lately, I've been vaguely annoyed by Christie's facebook posts. She posts status updates regularly to let us know how her efforts are going - or not. She, and her fiancee, George Magera, have come up with a "faith list." It's a list of various things that they NEED not WANT, but NEED to make their ministry in the village work. It includes things like a well for the village so everyone has enough water, even in drought. Serious things, not "administrative fees." Her idea is that if 1500 people donate $36, everything will be covered.

Lately, she's really been pushing making a donation to her list or at least "sharing" a link to her blog so that others can learn about it - and posting her aggravations when she isn't getting the donations she needs.

I've found myself thinking that I've already donated enough money to her cause - I've sponsored three children to go to school, paid for the desks they'll need at school, purchased the Ugandan jewelry she sells as a fundraiser, etc. What more can she possibly expect from someone she's never even met? Someone that has taken on faith that all of the money she's already sent is being used responsibly - especially in light of the bad news from the Global Fund?

And then came the realization. $40. FORTY DOLLARS. I'll spend that in one night when I go with friends to dinner and a movie. So, this Saturday night, I'm staying home. And I'm sending Christie $40 so that everyone in the village can have fresh water to drink. Really, what does it matter if they can go to school if they have no water to drink?

Please consider joining me in staying home this Saturday night and making your donation for $40 on Christie's blog. Everyone should have clean water to drink.

Friday, January 21, 2011

TV - Early 2011

My friend, The Pop Culture Curmudgeon, wrote a short blog post about what she's watching right now. I realzied that my comment was actually longer than her blog post, so I made my response a blog post instead...

I've been getting a real kick out of Community and Cougar Town. I tried the new Americanized revamps of three British shows, Being Human, Shameless and Skins, but wasn't really impressed by any of them. Check out the originals instead. They're all available via Netflix. (you can even stream Skins instead of waiting for the disks.) Chuck is back and entertaining as ever. TNT's Southland is good and provides my Ryan Atwood fix. And Friday Night Lights... (mildly spoilery)

Well, I didn't think it was possible for FNL to get any darker... I mean, how do you top going to jail so your brother won't have to or becoming paralyzed from the waist down?... and then came season five. It has been so good, so heartbreaking, so... well, so FNL.

Coach and Mrs. Coach have been amazing as always - and how much do you love that Billy and Mindy have become role models? That absolutely cracks me up.

I do kind of wish they hadn't followed Julie to college - I really haven't cared for that story line at all, and there's been enough heavy stuff without it.

While I love they way they brought Street and Saracen back, and would love to see other favorites before the series ends, I kind of don't want to watch the last couple of episodes. I don't want to say good-bye. Ever. I know it it's ridiculous - it is a t.v. show after all - but I'm that attached to Dillon and its denizens. And don't even get me started on Tim Riggins... (I would completely watch a spin-off about the Riggins family, wouldn't you?)

Sigh.

Other than that, I'm patiently waiting for Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries to come back next week. It's been way too long.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

easing back in...

I know, I know, it's been at least a month since my last blog entry. Let's just say that between moving, work, the holidays and family stuff, life's been extremely hectic. So, I'm going to ease on back into the swing of things with a short, funny story from my days as a switchboard operator at a hospital.

I was working the overnight shift on the switchboard at Terrebonne General in Houma and had to dispatch security. At 2 a.m., I got a call from the loony ward. One of their patients had escaped and I get this description to provide to the security guards: he's medium height with dark hair, wearing a Harley t-shirt. I asked for further description and finally got a very sheepish, "Well, he's naked from the waist down."

Naked. From the waist down. Wouldn't you mention this first?

Oh, and by the way, when I got off shift at 7 a.m., they still hadn't found him. He was eventually found in the parking lot by an 80-year-old Cajun lady who was arriving to visit her husband in ICU. She called security from the courtesy phone in the lobby with this message, "Cherie, there is a little man in the parking lot asking everyone if they have extra pants. i don't think he's right and Lord knows what he got ain't enough to brag about."

Needless to say, they kept a recording of that conversation for "training purposes."

ROTFLMAO