I am Stricken with Jambalaya Food Poisoning

I fell prey to a mild bout of food poisoning tonight, and while Crystal is skeptical of my ailment, I really do feel slightly delirious at the moment. And yes, I've been sick tonight. Jess is now in bed, and I've read enough today, so I'm passing the time by typing. I was chatting with a customer recently who was formerly a court typer, and I discovered that she typed at a speed of 125 wpm, which strikes me as entirely insane. So I'll type my thoughts out as they come, provided that they don't come out at more than 70 wpm. Yesterday I made two very significant discoveries, both of which I shall relate here. First off, while ordering a soup combo from the lovely manager of my favourite Timmy Ho's, it came to my attention that instead of a single donut in a combo, one could receive two cookies instead. Two cookies! A soup, roll, non-Coke beverage, and two whole triple chocolate cookies make for a pretty great meal, all for the very low price of $4.48. While the lineups at Tim Horton's are at times laughably horrid, it's hard to beat such a steal of a deal (especially when there are macadamia nut and triple chocolate cookies to be consumed). I suspect that Crystal was really not a fan of me taking about 15 minutes to get my food yesterday, but it was almost worth her semi-masked grumpiness.

In addition to this marvelous food revelation yesterday, I was introduced to creamy dill ripple chips at my family's Grey Cup party last night. Dill chips are on my top five list of best chip flavours of all, but it would seem that creamy dill may have moved into first place. I took the leftovers home, and promptly finished them last night. I even found out via my super-fab uncle that there are Izzle Pops in this very city! Prior to last night, I believe that I had finished my very last Izzle Pop ever in NYC (you really must all try the many varieties of Izzle Pops). I am so thankful that God created our hundreds of taste buds, and that I am among the 600,000 super-tasters on this planet. Goodness I'm being self-indulgent tonight; I've drawn attention to the fact that I'm feeling under the weather, and have mentioned my superior tasting abilities. I am a pretty super taster though, it's undeniable. (Not a pretty super taster, a pretty-super taster.) I hope you all had a great deal of fun at your Grey Cup parties (I'm assuming you all watched the game, because otherwise it would be a tragedy of epic proportions). I missed the first half due to choir practice, and ended up cheering for the Als with my family in the second half because they were down by so much; our cheering almost allowed them to make a full comeback. It was, as one would predict, an awesome night of sports and giggling with family over a lovely meal. My only qualm is that Cahoon should have been outstanding Canadian player, since McCallum only really stood out because the B.C. offence was unable to finish a lot of their drives. Plus, Ben Cahoon has a pretty excellent smile. Perhaps this will make up for the manure incident in Saskatchewan, though.


Anyways, now that we have my rather meaningless thoughts out of the way, onto things of substance that have been circulating through my mind recently. I'm currently in the middle of deciding whether or not to head off to the Dominican Republic this spring with some fellow C&Cers over reading week for a missions trip. I am terribly conflicted over this decision, since my parents are wary of me spending a pretty large sum of money in the middle of a term where I'm working only twice a week. It is a sizable amount of cash, yes, but I know that it would be such a great experience, and that it would mean a deepening of my relationships with both God and the others in the group. The opportunity to lend a hand in a poverty-stricken country is hard to pass up, and it's likely one of the most convenient times in my life to do something like this. This term I've been toying with sponsoring my own Compassion child, since my family's really loved having our little Juan, but I don't know how feasible it would be for me to sponsor a child now if I need money go away. Not that I couldn't cut back on silly expenses and eating out, but I imagine it would be tricky. I've been back and forth for a week, and I'm still not sure what to do. I suppose that means more prayer then! Also on the topic of getting away from Edmonton is my family's annual Christmas skiing trip. We usually ski only one day downhill and one day cross-country, but it's nearly always one of the highlights of my year. I must inform you that I am one of the worst skiers in the world. I'm exceptionally afraid of crashing into another skier, and as a result, if I feel as though I might hit anyone, I stop and sit on the ground for a moment. Additionally, I dislike feeling out of control, and am usually the last one in the family lineup of skiers. There's something so peaceful and invigorating about the snowy mountains though, and I'm incredibly excited for the trip down to Banff in about a month. This will inevitably mean dinner at Coyote's, walks around town with Starbucks hot chocolates, and plenty of giddy fun. Yay for family skiing trips!


It's always so cool to find good where you didn't expect to find it. Pastor Lyle spoke about Paul yesterday, one of my top 10 Bible characters (it's kind of strange that we call them Bible characters; we don't call people in history books characters). Anyways, I digress; Paul's one of my favourite people in the Bible partly because his journey to Christ is the story of someone who was seemingly helpless to change made such a dramatic transformation. I find hope in the thought that anyone I know could experience this kind of change, no matter how far gone or out of reach they might seem. Paul was acting horrifically towards Christians prior to his conversion, and yet God used him for so many great things after he literally saw the light. Indeed, Lyle mentioned how Saul likely had experienced a feeling of "kicking at the goads," and there seemed to be something in him telling him that there was something more. Sometimes I find it difficult to imagine some people even considering God in their lives, but from Scripture like this I suspect that everyone does have moments where there's a sense that there is this God who they rely on. To some extent, this is why I think the death penalty isn't ours to enforce; who knows if Saddam Hussein could have changed his life around, or if he's contemplated whether Christians were onto something. If Paul made such a massive change, I believe that anyone can, and to basically condemn people when they commit heinous crimes strikes me as tragic.

My devotions led me to 1 Peter today, a letter written by someone who also was used by God despite some bumps along his journey. It would be no small thing to deny Christ three times, but Peter eventually matured into someone who led the church in its early years and was such an encouragement to downtrodden Christians. I find that so hopeful. I think I have to fight any cynicism developing in me as a get older, because there's no reason to be a cynic, and I want to always know the hope of Christ. I was reading through Song of Songs last week, and I was skeptical enough to believe that I wouldn't get as much out of that book as I do out of others. But reading what C.H. Spurgeon, William Reese, and T.S. Eliot wrote about the romance between Christ and the church really brought a new light to the text, and I got so much out of reading that sometimes-amusing love poetry. Yet again, my skepticism was nulled, and it became clearer than I ever that I need to steer clear of cynicism in my life. Yes, I believe that thinking critically is vital to a healthy faith, and that there's so much that I want to change in the world, but without hope I don't have much to strive for.

Reasons this Blog May be Nonsensical

• my coherence has been limited this evening
• I am sick
• it is late
• Crystal made me stare at ugly hair tonight