Posts
Monday, November 27, 2006
This is kind of fun!
Tonight I decided to share a song with a co-worker. We have tentatively talked about actually singing together for special music for church, and I mentioned a song that he had never heard, so I decided to sing it for him. I was really nervous because I have horrible performance anxiety, so I didn't sound all that great to my own ears. He happens to be part of a small recording label and even through my nervousness thinks I've got talent worth pursuing, so he might actually recommend to the company that they consider me to record some stuff with them! Wow! That's pretty cool, and fun. Makes one feel rather good, too. We'll see if that pans out, but these last few days have been really good to me. It would certainly seem that God has me where He wants me, and that's always a good thing!
Little black dress
Today I bought a little black dress. Every woman needs one, and today I finally got mine. I bought it to wear to a Christmas party for the company I work for on Saturday night. I look forward to wearing it! I shall have to take a picture of myself all dressed up before Nicole and I go to the party. :)
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Amazing
It is amazing to me how much one little sentence can mean so much, can make someone's day, can put them on cloud nine... I received one of those sentences today from a friend, and I can't stop smiling now.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Thankful: Reflections upon Christmas
I posted this last Christmas and thought that I would post it again on Thanksgiving this year because I am truly and deeply thankful for the amazing gift God has given to us in His Son!
There is a story of love stronger and deeper than any love recorded by the great novelists of the world. The sweetest romance pales in comparison to the love that God showed the world when He sent His Son. This love story is so often told that we lose sight of how truly amazing it is. The stage is set outside the church building, under a tree and on the front of a greeting card. We think of the angels and shepherds, the magi from the east and the loving young mother, all worshipping the newborn king. It is a quaint picture in our minds as we bustle to and fro in the midst of the holiday rush. As we purchase gifts in anticipation of the joy on the faces of our loved ones do we miss the joy on the face of the Father when He gave His Son to His loved ones? If all we see is the manger, we have missed the greatness of Christmas.
Let us step back to look at the scene in Heaven prior to that first Christmas. We enter a temple filled with smoke, and there in the temple we see the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ, seated on a throne and He is wearing a robe so grand that its train fills the whole temple. The ground beneath our feet trembles at the sound of the Seraphim calling out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” We see that even the Seraphim, creatures made to worship at the throne of God, cover their eyes and their feet in the presence of the overwhelming glory and holiness of Christ Jesus. This picture was painted by Isaiah, and in it we see the rightful place of our Savior. He sat on the throne surrounded by praise and had every right to stay there, but love compelled Him to lay it aside for a time to become a servant.
Isaiah picks up the story of Christ several chapters later, and the man we see there is ordinary at best. “He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him” (Isaiah 53:2). What about the throne? He left it to rest instead in a manger, yet that manger was only a stop on the road to the cross. Along the way He would meet with rejection, grief and hate. The Seraphim hid their faces at the sight of His glory, but now men will hide their faces at the sight of His affliction. How then do I say that there was joy of the face of His Father when He came to earth? “The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10) because He knew that this was the only way to bring reconciliation with mankind. You and I mean so much to God that He would be pleased to send His own holy Son away from His rightful place on Heaven’s throne to become a despised man who suffered for sins He never committed. When you look at the manger, consider what Jesus left behind and what He chose to face on our behalf. The greatness of Christmas is not in the lights and bells of our decorations, rather the greatness of Christmas lies in the sacrifice of the King of the universe who traded His throne for a cross and the praises of the angels for the curses of men. Joy to the world! The Lord is come! Let earth receive her King!
There is a story of love stronger and deeper than any love recorded by the great novelists of the world. The sweetest romance pales in comparison to the love that God showed the world when He sent His Son. This love story is so often told that we lose sight of how truly amazing it is. The stage is set outside the church building, under a tree and on the front of a greeting card. We think of the angels and shepherds, the magi from the east and the loving young mother, all worshipping the newborn king. It is a quaint picture in our minds as we bustle to and fro in the midst of the holiday rush. As we purchase gifts in anticipation of the joy on the faces of our loved ones do we miss the joy on the face of the Father when He gave His Son to His loved ones? If all we see is the manger, we have missed the greatness of Christmas.
Let us step back to look at the scene in Heaven prior to that first Christmas. We enter a temple filled with smoke, and there in the temple we see the Lord Himself, Jesus Christ, seated on a throne and He is wearing a robe so grand that its train fills the whole temple. The ground beneath our feet trembles at the sound of the Seraphim calling out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” We see that even the Seraphim, creatures made to worship at the throne of God, cover their eyes and their feet in the presence of the overwhelming glory and holiness of Christ Jesus. This picture was painted by Isaiah, and in it we see the rightful place of our Savior. He sat on the throne surrounded by praise and had every right to stay there, but love compelled Him to lay it aside for a time to become a servant.
Isaiah picks up the story of Christ several chapters later, and the man we see there is ordinary at best. “He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him” (Isaiah 53:2). What about the throne? He left it to rest instead in a manger, yet that manger was only a stop on the road to the cross. Along the way He would meet with rejection, grief and hate. The Seraphim hid their faces at the sight of His glory, but now men will hide their faces at the sight of His affliction. How then do I say that there was joy of the face of His Father when He came to earth? “The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10) because He knew that this was the only way to bring reconciliation with mankind. You and I mean so much to God that He would be pleased to send His own holy Son away from His rightful place on Heaven’s throne to become a despised man who suffered for sins He never committed. When you look at the manger, consider what Jesus left behind and what He chose to face on our behalf. The greatness of Christmas is not in the lights and bells of our decorations, rather the greatness of Christmas lies in the sacrifice of the King of the universe who traded His throne for a cross and the praises of the angels for the curses of men. Joy to the world! The Lord is come! Let earth receive her King!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Unknown, possibly 12th century, translated by John M. Neale
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Refrain
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Refrain
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Refrain
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Refrain
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Refrain
O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
Refrain
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Refrain
Unknown, possibly 12th century, translated by John M. Neale
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Refrain
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Refrain
O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Refrain
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Refrain
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Refrain
O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
Refrain
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Refrain
Day before Thanksgiving!
I'm in a great mood right now. Yesterday I found out that there is another Christian who works with me. We are few and far between, so it is encouraging to meet others. We've had some good chats in the past two days about some issues relating to godly living and church. That has been fun.
I'm house and pet sitting this week for friends from church. It requires getting up at 6:00 every morning to feed the animals and take the dog out. I then promptly go back to bed for a few more hours. :) The first night I forgot my pajamas and my shampoo and conditioner, so I had to make due with what I was wearing and what they had in their bathroom. I did not forget those things last night, which is good.
My dad's step-father died on Monday. His body was full of cancer and he actually lived longer than we expected. He was always such a cheerful person and will be missed.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I will be working from 1:30-6:00, completely by choice. I want the overtime. I will have more than ten hours of overtime in my next paycheck. I do so look forward to that! I don't like living paycheck to paycheck, but that is where I find myself right now. God is faithful to provide, however, and I find myself lacking nothing.
I'm house and pet sitting this week for friends from church. It requires getting up at 6:00 every morning to feed the animals and take the dog out. I then promptly go back to bed for a few more hours. :) The first night I forgot my pajamas and my shampoo and conditioner, so I had to make due with what I was wearing and what they had in their bathroom. I did not forget those things last night, which is good.
My dad's step-father died on Monday. His body was full of cancer and he actually lived longer than we expected. He was always such a cheerful person and will be missed.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I will be working from 1:30-6:00, completely by choice. I want the overtime. I will have more than ten hours of overtime in my next paycheck. I do so look forward to that! I don't like living paycheck to paycheck, but that is where I find myself right now. God is faithful to provide, however, and I find myself lacking nothing.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
A bit early
Today we started to decorate for Christmas. I really love Christmas decorations. They are so cheerful. Generally I hold to the rule that Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving, but this year my roommate and I were both ready to start it a little bit early.
We have two trees, one small and one medium. They both belong to my roommate and they are both fake. I really do prefer real trees to the fake ones, but I can settle for fake ones when no tree is a realistic alternative. My roommate, you see, grew up with what I consider small fake trees and really doesn't know any different. I grew up with real trees. They both look and smell better and I protested loudly when my mother bought a fake tree a few years ago. That was out for a couple of years and then she bought a real tree again. She said that she was tired of vacuuming up needles for months. My parents no longer have any carpet in their house, so needle clean-up is easier. I was amused to see my roommate's fake tree leaving fake needles on our carpet. :) I think real trees are worth the needle clean-up, but for now I will settle for the evergreen scented candle that I have. I really dislike most of them but found one that I do like and think does smell like Christmas should. I forgot to burn it last year but have it out this year and am appreciating the scent.
One thing I dislike about fake trees is that they look really stupid if the bottom of the "trunk" is not covered with presents. We don't exactly have tons of money around here, so one of my projects will be to wrap boxes to put under the trees. Most boxes will be empty, but there are a few exceptions. Right now there is a bar of soap wrapped up and placed under the small tree, which we put out on our patio just for fun. Fake trees with fake presents underneath. All this for a little ambience!
The almanac said that we were supposed to get a colder than usual winter. I wonder when that is supposed to come. So far we haven't had anything like winter weather. This week we had another rain storm that caused more flooding. It wasn't anything close to what happened when the river flooded so badly in June, but it still caused a lot of damage. The river crested just barely below flood stage, which is a relief to many in this area. That stormy day brought us temperatures in the 60s. That's a bit warm for November in New York! Tomorrow we are supposed to get some snow flurries, but it won't be cold enough for the snow to stick. The overnight lows are supposed to drop below freezing for a few nights, but nothing that really says that winter has arrived for good. I guess we'll just have to wait for December. I'm really quite okay with waiting!
Work is going well. I am not nervous about answering the phone now. I can handle most situations, and if I don't know what to do I ask someone. I ask and I learn and then the next time something comes up I know what to do. I've already picked up a little more than 6 hours of overtime for this pay period and it is only halfway over. I will very likely pick up at least a little bit more and have permission to stay at work late whenever I want to (which really only applies to 3 days every week since I work until closing the other two) and started working Saturday mornings today. It's going to be a nice boost to my paycheck, for sure, and right now I need that!
We have two trees, one small and one medium. They both belong to my roommate and they are both fake. I really do prefer real trees to the fake ones, but I can settle for fake ones when no tree is a realistic alternative. My roommate, you see, grew up with what I consider small fake trees and really doesn't know any different. I grew up with real trees. They both look and smell better and I protested loudly when my mother bought a fake tree a few years ago. That was out for a couple of years and then she bought a real tree again. She said that she was tired of vacuuming up needles for months. My parents no longer have any carpet in their house, so needle clean-up is easier. I was amused to see my roommate's fake tree leaving fake needles on our carpet. :) I think real trees are worth the needle clean-up, but for now I will settle for the evergreen scented candle that I have. I really dislike most of them but found one that I do like and think does smell like Christmas should. I forgot to burn it last year but have it out this year and am appreciating the scent.
One thing I dislike about fake trees is that they look really stupid if the bottom of the "trunk" is not covered with presents. We don't exactly have tons of money around here, so one of my projects will be to wrap boxes to put under the trees. Most boxes will be empty, but there are a few exceptions. Right now there is a bar of soap wrapped up and placed under the small tree, which we put out on our patio just for fun. Fake trees with fake presents underneath. All this for a little ambience!
The almanac said that we were supposed to get a colder than usual winter. I wonder when that is supposed to come. So far we haven't had anything like winter weather. This week we had another rain storm that caused more flooding. It wasn't anything close to what happened when the river flooded so badly in June, but it still caused a lot of damage. The river crested just barely below flood stage, which is a relief to many in this area. That stormy day brought us temperatures in the 60s. That's a bit warm for November in New York! Tomorrow we are supposed to get some snow flurries, but it won't be cold enough for the snow to stick. The overnight lows are supposed to drop below freezing for a few nights, but nothing that really says that winter has arrived for good. I guess we'll just have to wait for December. I'm really quite okay with waiting!
Work is going well. I am not nervous about answering the phone now. I can handle most situations, and if I don't know what to do I ask someone. I ask and I learn and then the next time something comes up I know what to do. I've already picked up a little more than 6 hours of overtime for this pay period and it is only halfway over. I will very likely pick up at least a little bit more and have permission to stay at work late whenever I want to (which really only applies to 3 days every week since I work until closing the other two) and started working Saturday mornings today. It's going to be a nice boost to my paycheck, for sure, and right now I need that!
Friday, November 10, 2006
Memo: From Me, To All Blog Visitors
I thought I would update with a few notes from work. This week I sat in three desks, since I still do not have one of my own. There is a woman out on maternity leave, so I finally asked today if I could just use her desk until they find me a permanent place. They said yes. My supervisor actually asked why I wasn't sitting there all along. The other supervisor for our group was giving me seat assignments prior to that, so it really wasn't my fault. I just don't like being homeless. It took me 30 minutes to get ready to take calls today, and then only half of my work day was actually spent on the phone. The rest of the time I was in meetings and training or following up with issues. I felt so unproductive and got about an hour and a half of overtime in the process. Speaking of which, I will likely start to work for four hours on Saturday morning because I am interested in getting overtime since money is tight and they are low on staff on Saturday morning. I also got permission to work for half of a day on Thanksgiving. Since it's a holiday I will be paid double time and a half for the hours I work. I get paid for the whole day whether or not I work, so it's really just extra money in my pocket. Since I don't have family out here and will be housesitting alone that week I think I will enjoy being at work more than I would taking that time off! Holidays are lightly staffed but fun days to work, since they do like to celebrate. They will provide good food for all of us, so I won't go hungry. There are rumors of pay raises and restructuring due to a recent merger with a larger division in the area. Those are rumors. So far they have mentioned some things that will change or have already changed because of it, but nothing about pay. I agreed to work for my current wage and will accept it if there is no change, but I certainly would not protest against a larger paycheck. I have bills to pay, and commission only goes so far!
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Surviving, and I can do this
I have survived the first two days on my own at work. I have no desk and sit where there is an available desk for the day. I have made errors, but so far I think I have caught them on my own, which means that I know how to do things but am still new at actually doing those things. Last night I came across a situation that really confused me at first, until I realized that something was very, very wrong with a customer's accounts. It bothers me somewhat that I am not going to be at work until noon today because I want to make sure that we get right on that issue and I want to be part of the solution. I feel bad because my brain holds the most information about the problem and I won't be there to explain in detail what an e-mail at 11:00 pm cannot quite express. This situation did give me some confidence since this is an unusual and complicated problem and I was able to figure out what is wrong, although another department will have to fix it. I can do this job, but it may take me a little while to get a good grasp of all of those things that they told us in training that my brain is just not recalling right now!
Friday, November 3, 2006
It's snowing
It just started to snow outside. It has done it a few times overnight but this is the first time this season that I have seen it during the day. Beautiful, but a bit of a pain. I don't mind flurries, just keep the heavy snowfall away for as long as possible!
Thursday, November 2, 2006
Some firsts
On Tuesday I voted for my favorite couples on Dancing with the Stars. I had only watched part of one show that included such a thing as viewer voting before and had never watched Dancing with the Stars. I'm not usually a huge fan of dancing, but that show is really fun to watch. I submitted my five votes by telephone. It was fun. :)
Today I made my first sale for commission at work. I have never worked for commission before, so this is a big thing for me. I sold a DVR to a customer. It isn't a huge commission, but it is still my very first, and I'll take it! :)
Sunday is going to be my first day on the phones with no trainer or "mentor". That's a big step, but I think I am ready for it. Because I start my Sunday-Thursday shift next week I have tomorrow and Saturday off. That will be nice. I am leaving work at the end of the day feeling positive and energized. I help people fix their problems, and that feels good. I love the fact that I leave work feeling so good. :)
Today I made my first sale for commission at work. I have never worked for commission before, so this is a big thing for me. I sold a DVR to a customer. It isn't a huge commission, but it is still my very first, and I'll take it! :)
Sunday is going to be my first day on the phones with no trainer or "mentor". That's a big step, but I think I am ready for it. Because I start my Sunday-Thursday shift next week I have tomorrow and Saturday off. That will be nice. I am leaving work at the end of the day feeling positive and energized. I help people fix their problems, and that feels good. I love the fact that I leave work feeling so good. :)
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