Baking In Orlando... The movie title for my life this week

I have spent the past few days cooking to a nice melted mush in a large expo hall at the OCCC in Orlando. Let me try to describe the feeling of being cooped up in a huge hall with no AC in hot, humid Florida.

First, all you smell is stale BO and electricity (yes, electricity has a smell, especially when you have about 1,500 or more computers running). Then from 7:30 am to 9 or 10 at night, you feel like someone poured syrup all over you and then wouldn't let you take a bath. Lastly, everything you do, must be done twice or even three times. Fresh air? What's that?

That's pretty much it.

And its been really hard to keep up with the 40 day fast that I wanted to join in on. REALLY HARD. Ah well, at least I get to hang with about 200 MCs, my TSG peeps and receive a nice FAT paycheck at the end. Not to mention the obstacle course. I think some of my ex coworkers might remember this about the convention center here.

Did I mention the TORNADO WATCH that's goin' on for this area?

I miss Seattle. I love where I live.

**UPDATE**

They turned the AC on in here and it's pumping in over the help desk and now it's actually FREEZING in here. I think that they have temperature issues here. I'm going to need to bring my parka tomorrow.

and can i just say that Plantain Chips are delicious and tasty?

mandy and joshua's wedding--some pics

Lone Star State

I went to Mandy's wedding this weekend in San Antonio and now am staying with Jenny and Anthony in Dallas. I hope to post some pictures soon, but I am on a Mac at the moment and I don't know if I can use a usb stick between a PC and a Mac. I will post some pictures ASAP because you NEED to see them.

I just want to say that anyone who knows Mandy, you sure did miss a great party. Everything was absolutely gorgeous, including the bride. And did I mention that you all missed great party too? Texans sure know how to have fun!

San Antonio is a very special place. It's very happy, and it seems like Cinco De Mayo is 365 days a year. The River Walk is probably one of the coolest places I have been in a while. There is a path that runs all along the San Antonio River in the downtown area, with restaurants, fountains, shops, large trees, old bridges and the like. The Mission where Mandy was married is about 300 years old and absolutely amazing. I also saw the Alamo, but it was closed and I couldn't go through it. According to one Texan I met, it is quite the spiritual experience. I would love to come back here and spend some quality time. And I have said nothing about the food. All I can say is that I am eating enough to keep me going through the fasting period that begins on Monday! Yummy!!

Portland

On Saturday, I went to Portland, Oregon to do a little tax free shopping. I hadn't been there for about 10 years, and it was odd to be there again. I lived in Portland from about age 11 until age 21. In many ways, a lot of who I am today was formed during my time there as I spent my adolescence in that wonderful city. When we moved to Portland, I was a country girl, so not only did I grow up, but I was transformed from a small town hic to a sophistcated city girl--well, I supposed that can be debated.

Saturday, I was able to go to a few of my old haunts, Pioneer Square, Powell's Books and Rocco's Pizza. I drove by my old house, work, school and other places. One funny thing is that I kept getting lost! I think it's because when I was in Portland, I was a pedestrian. And being a driver is very different than being a pedestrian!

Being in Portland while at the same time knowing that I have grown up even more since moving to Seattle, everything felt a little unreal. I was walking the same streets, but my outlook and perspective is so different than the last time I was there. I think that I have mellowed out quite a bit since then, plus I am not depressed like I was. I am glad that life continually changes and that God is continually giving grace and mercy, while helping me grow up. I am also glad that even though I am almost 33, (oh gosh) that I am not done with my growing up.

Famous Friend?

Does anyone else see Rose in this picture?? I know the room is kinda dark, but I think I recognizer her from her shoulders...

Thoughts on Whaling

After being on Cape Cod and Nantucket, I have been hearing more about the whaling history of this area. Having time to read, I picked up a couple of books about it--a fictional story about Ahab's wife (The Ahab from Moby Dick) and a non-fiction tale about the whaleship Essex out of Nantucket (a story complete with an angry whale who "stove"--rammed-- a ship and starving shipwrecked sailors who reached a point of desperation where they began to eat their shipmates.

One thing I found intriguing is that Nantucket, the whaling capital of the world in the 1800's, but an island smaller than Camano Island, also had a strong Quaker community living on it. This came about because a highly influental woman on the island was converted by a Quaker when all other missionaries had been rejected and booted off the island.

When I think about the Quakers, I think most about their pacifism and their abolitionist movement, not the dirty but profitable whaling business. The more I read about whaling, the more it seems like an anomoly. Quiet spoken, plain dressed Quakers on a bloody, stinky, whaling ship where they would not only capture, but kill and process the whale all on the ship's deck? Quakers engaging in cannabalism? One interesting fact is that while other whaling ships would press black sailors on and treat them like slaves, the Quaker whaling ships treated the black sailors as equals, perhaps not total integration, but giving the sailor the same wage as the others. However, it still seems an oxymoron that that these Nantucket Quakers pursued whaling so passionately while making a ton of money on the oil that they produced all the while "Fulfilling the Lord's will" (from In the Heart of the Sea by Nathanial Philbrik). Were they really fulfilling God's will? It's hard to say. For sure, the oil brought in from the Sperm whale was used all over the world to light the lamps of lighthouses, which saved many people from death. However, they also brought a lot of money their way, while also producing many widows and fatherless children. I am in no position to judge the Quakers, as the question I hear being asked of me is, what things to I justify as "The Lord's Will" when in reality, I am pursuing them for my own profit?

On another note, while in Plymouth we walked around Burial Hill and saw many graves of some of the first Englishmen and women to live in our country. One grave stuck out, that of Adoniram Judson, who is called the "Father of the Baptist Missionary." Not only did he translate the Bible into Burmese, but he spent many years in prison in Burma. This man, while doing the Lord's will, obviously was not in it for his own profit.

Photographs from Cape Cod

For more selection, go here...

seedless watermelon...

for an excellent diatribe on the evils of seedless watermelon go.... HERE and HERE.

Cape Cod, MA

What a wonderful place! I have been able to spend some serious time wandering on various beaches here. I am accumulating quite the collection of seashells. They are very different than the Pacific variety. Its always windy here, but its been perfect with lots of sun and just the right temperature. I even managed to get sunburned. I could live here.

I have done a couple of watercolor sketches, but they aren't very good. I have, however, been taking a ton of pictures with my film SLR. Hopefully, I can get them developed and posted soon.

Commencement at Regent University 2007

I can now officially call myself: Jennifer Joy Staab, M.A.

With over 1000 graduates, 2007 was Regent Univeristy's biggest commencement ceremony ever. It is odd to go to a school where there are more graduate than undergraduate students. The ceremony was fun, not too long with inspiring speeches from Pat Robertson and Mit Romney. It felt great to walk across the stage, to get my "diploma"...a great finish to a long two years! Are my friends and family ready to have me back in their lives?

Where's Jen?

I have officially been hooded and commissioned with my Master of Arts! Tomorrow is graduation!!

Unwelcome Home

I came home yesterday at 9pm after being gone all day, and found a horrible surprise at my house. Someone had kicked in my door and burglarized my house! Yes, they took the laptops, my new camera, ipods and a bunch of dvds, but what really steamed us was when we realized that these darn thieves had snitched our PILLOWCASES!

Thank you to everyone who has been so encouraging and helpful in the past 24 hours, and thanks to our deputy sheriff, J. Reid.

Important Notice for the Residents of Madrona Beach on Camano Island...
Perhaps, the mis-spelled word is why Madrona Beach residents disregard the above notice and dig away to their hearts content when the tide is down.

Mugs of Tea

I am guilty of leaving a trail of of mugs and teacups behind me, half-full and tepid. I wake up in the morning, make a cup of tea and carry it to whatever chosen perch of mine to spend time in prayer. I get distracted, leave the mug behind and later make another cup, forgetting that I already had one, now cold and lonely. After a day of this, I might wander around and find the various drinking vessels scattered around the house, one on a windowsill, another on a dresser, and perhaps one in the laundry room on the dryer. I will even find some, days old, with the milk beginning to curdle in the brownish pale tea.

My obsession with tea started really after my return from Switzerland a few years ago. I moved in with a family, whose head is a British man. Their youngest son started drinking tea as a toddler, holding the china teacup carefully and sipping as elegantly as a Lord. The tea canister would run low at times, and a quiet fight would ensue to see who would get downstairs first the next morning to get that last cup of tea.

Still today, I find that I love to open the new box of tea from the store, breathing in the aroma of the tea leaves and packing my canister full with the round tea bags. Though I love a good cup of coffee, tea has taken that supreme place of that first drink in the morning.

Spring Fever

I can definately feel it. Does anyone else go crazy in the spring like I do? I feel this wave of unmotivation toward anything even remotely mundane and a total drive toward anything spontaneous and adventurous.

Want to skip work, eat lunch at 10am on top of a mountain pass? I'll be there.

Desire ice cream at 2am? Count me in.

Feeling the itch to swim the Pacific in April? I'll beat you too it.

Howl at the moon? Yep. Sounds like a plan.

Want to climb telephone poles wearing raingear covered in grease? uh... well, maybe not THAT.

There's not a lot on the internet that will make me cry,

but Billy Collins Action Poetry

makes me cry with happiness.

Sheer Joy.

Check out "The Country"

EGG HUNT: nothing better.

New Favorite Song

"The Story" from The Story, Brandi Carlile.

all of these lines across my face tell you the story of who i am...

Dreams About Me

Occasionally, I get these phone calls or emails from someone saying, "I had the craziest dream about you last night." Invariably they are the same, involving me, some guy I am about to marry and some other kind of shenanigans.

Not today. I did get an email, but the dream is worth repeating because it's probably the most hilarious, at least today, thing ever. The dreamer's name will remain anonymous, but it is worth mentioning that she is prego.

So, I dreamt last night that you were taking these vitamins that made your nose
hairs grow at insanely fast rates. Like long and curled up and over your
nose…sticking out and AWFUL…RREALLY BAD!!!

You were at a loss at
what to do about it because you couldn’t groom them fast enough b/f they grew
again.

In a moment of sadness, you went to “wander” through Wall
Mart. You’d heard that the only thing I’d craved so far is Sweet Tarts, but that
I wouldn’t allow myself any, so you thought it would be “really funny” to make
me MASSIVE Easter basket full of every type of Sweet Tart imaginable b/c
you wanted to be the person that made me give into my craving. You put this big
basket together and brought it to me on Easter Sunday. You were SO excited!
BUT…you left your nose hair trimmer that you’d found at Wall Mart in the basket
and were so embarrassed. But it was a special one that only Wall Mart carried to
“radically remove” those “pesky” nose hairs. Ha!

Then I woke up.

Any interpretations?