My uncle recently sent me an article from the San Jose Mercury entitled "Nicaragua, the next Costa Rica?" I think I am going to become a travel writer, but actually tell the truth about the places instead of talking about how the juice colors contrast very nicely with the teal of the tables in one restaurant in Granada. I mean is that really reason enough to visit a country that lacks consistent electricity? Oh well, on Saturday I am returning to the loveliness that sometimes I accidentally call Home. In honor of returning I figured there are two obvious topics this e-mail could discuss. Option one would be to write about my stay in the US of A, option two would be to talk about what I am doing in Nicaragua. Because I don't actually have a firm grasp on what I'll be doing when I return, I figured option one is the best bet.
An Ode to Life
(This is in true Thomas/Lee poetry form so really you can't make fun of, or analyze it like more traditional poetic styles)
I returned to the States the end of November,
And stayed here for most of January, and all of December.
So in this poem I'll recall some events of my life,
While leaving out details that may cause strife.
I took many hot showers,
Saw lots of dead flowers.
Was frequently cold,
and saw places of old.
As for specifics I have some to share,
Like on Saturday, Stacy styled my hair.
What else could be written? Possibly favorite food?
By two restaurants I am particularly woo'd
Zachary's and Zia's are my favorite places to eat,
Something about Z names can't be beat,
At other times coffee shops are a good place to chill,
Especially when someone else foots the bill.
This may sound pathetic, like I'm super poor,
But I worked nine partial days, I know "it takes a little more."
After two months some things I am ready to leave,
But others less so, to what do I cleave?
I saw lots of great friends, during my trip
It amazes me that people still think I'm hip.
Then there is my family that is amazingly rad,
They also love poetry that is particularly bad.
I love it how here I can be free,
To express all the different phases of me.
But life here is fast, speedy, and quick,
And the stress of it all tends to make my stomach sick.
My mind battles between which life I desire,
But then I remember my calling is higher
In Nicaragua,California, or wherever I rest,
God has a plan that will always be best.
I just have to remember that Christ gives salvation,
Regardless of trials in every situation.
Love, Joy
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
A day late and a dollar short
Hello people, sorry for the delay I was in Davis and couldn't get to a computer or think of anything to say, but alas maybe on Thursday nights my e-mailing skills are even better.
On Sunday I was telling one of my friends that I have been feeling emotionally detached lately. Today I was chopping pecans to put in my mom's birthday pie and I started crying. Yeah not with onions but pecans. I could give you a long analytical reason why but instead I won't.
In Nicaragua there are all these things to write about and they are rather separate from life here. But here most of my life is relational and those issues are probably better in "Dear diary" form than in "Dear everyone I have ever met" form. Oh well, as you have probably noticed I still find plenty to say.
Last night I got reprimanded because I was sitting at the table at Starbucks that you are supposed to make available to customers with disabilities. I stayed there, I am just as disabled as the next customer. Then later last night I was watching TLC and it was a special about 16 year old conjoined twins. As much as I love my sister I am glad that we do not share a body, although I'm sure then people would have no problem with me sitting in the table for the disabled.
Today the ol' Celebrity gave me a scare, I was driving home and it started shaking like crazy. At first I thought it was just a lot of bumps on the road but then it didn't stop. I'm still rather confused by the whole situation, at the time I was pretty sure that I was going to explode. One positive side effect was, since it rattled less when I drove slower, I did a very good job following the speed limit for the first time in my life. Except on the freeway then I would purposefully position myself behind a big truck so then I wouldn't feel totally left out driving 45 miles per hour. Did I mention I seriously thought I was going to die? Well maybe not die but at least need some serious dental work. I am fine, don't worry, and I don't need a car until November so I guess the timing was perfect.
Have a great Friday!
Love, Joy
I LEAVE FOR NICARAGUA ON JANUARY 27TH
On Sunday I was telling one of my friends that I have been feeling emotionally detached lately. Today I was chopping pecans to put in my mom's birthday pie and I started crying. Yeah not with onions but pecans. I could give you a long analytical reason why but instead I won't.
In Nicaragua there are all these things to write about and they are rather separate from life here. But here most of my life is relational and those issues are probably better in "Dear diary" form than in "Dear everyone I have ever met" form. Oh well, as you have probably noticed I still find plenty to say.
Last night I got reprimanded because I was sitting at the table at Starbucks that you are supposed to make available to customers with disabilities. I stayed there, I am just as disabled as the next customer. Then later last night I was watching TLC and it was a special about 16 year old conjoined twins. As much as I love my sister I am glad that we do not share a body, although I'm sure then people would have no problem with me sitting in the table for the disabled.
Today the ol' Celebrity gave me a scare, I was driving home and it started shaking like crazy. At first I thought it was just a lot of bumps on the road but then it didn't stop. I'm still rather confused by the whole situation, at the time I was pretty sure that I was going to explode. One positive side effect was, since it rattled less when I drove slower, I did a very good job following the speed limit for the first time in my life. Except on the freeway then I would purposefully position myself behind a big truck so then I wouldn't feel totally left out driving 45 miles per hour. Did I mention I seriously thought I was going to die? Well maybe not die but at least need some serious dental work. I am fine, don't worry, and I don't need a car until November so I guess the timing was perfect.
Have a great Friday!
Love, Joy
I LEAVE FOR NICARAGUA ON JANUARY 27TH
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
So much to say...
Wednesday: Last Wednesday I flew home. My flight was very uneventful. I read The Hiding Place in it's entirety and then "Spirit" magazine. On the 13th there is a Rubik's cube championship at the Exploratorium and the fastest time now is 11 seconds. That is without pealing off and reattaching the stickers. I got home at midnight and there was a present for me from McGraw-Hill. Thanks to viewers like you, a box full of curriculum for teaching beginning English was donated. I didn't even know what I was looking for but someone did. God just blows me away sometimes. I know that He always provides for but still I think that eventually I'm going to face a task that He is going to want me to stress over. But I really don't think that is how He works.You know the whole being "able to to exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" thing. In summary I will use the words of Aunt Maria "Praise the Lord."
Thursday: We'll just ignore the fact that this was a day.
Friday: On Friday I got dressed, made scones, and had a tea party. I was on a roll until half way through the tea party I started feeling sick again so I went and watched TV until dinner. For dinner we had barbecued steak, which as I learned in Tennessee, is not the same as having barbecue.
Saturday: Saturday I got dressed and left the house. I took down the outside Christmas lights and replaced a fuse in my car. I guess one burnt out while I was gone. Kinda fishy if you ask me, but gasoline had mysteriously appeared as well, so it was a good trade. I also added oil and some other liquid, so you should be impressed by my mechanical skills.
Sunday: In the afternoon on Sunday I started unpacking some boxes of stuff from my apartment in Davis. Then that evolved into me cleaning out the cupboards in my bathroom. I had two blow dryers and like five brushes. I don't use one brush let alone five, and seriously when was the last time I used a blow dryer? Never. Oh and there was a bunch of conditioner, another thing I have no use for. Somehow this stuff just accumulates. On Sunday night I really wanted Peet's coffee so I decided to get my dad to volunteer to take me. You know for some father daughter bonding time. He talked on the phone to my brother-in-law for 18 minutes so not much verbal bonding was had. Then we went to Safeway and when we were in the parking lot walking to the car he thought he saw one of his friend's cars so he had us go back in the store to find him. It ended up being someone else's car. This brings up one area in which I am not at all like my father. Usually when I see people I turn the other direction, or go down a different hall, or step into a store, something like that. I definitely don't go chasing people down. Does that make me a snob?
Monday: I went to work. It was totally like a real job, one that I couldn't wear sweatpants to. Actually I think I could have worn anything I wanted because this summer the dress-code bar was definitely lowered. I consider what I worked to be "full time" but I guess technically 5 hours is not a full day. But seriously how can people work for longer than that? My mom asked me what I did and I said I listened to my iPod. Dave changed the computer passwords and then wasn't there so I couldn't even check my e-mail. Right, so what did I do? Stuff related to filing. All those alphabetization skills I picked up along my path of life really helped out. Another exciting thing at work was that it was luncheon day so I got free food. Monday night I watched Step Up, I won't go into details about that experience.
Tuesday: Work again. Jay fixed my computer. I like it better when Dave helps because he actually knows that my sister and I are different people. Well maybe Jay knows this but just thinks that I want JulieGonsalves as my user ID. Now I am set but I need to make sure I don't turn into the girl at the desk next to me that is always on MySpace. How did she even get that job? I mean I got mine because I'm related to the CEO, but I think the screening process is getting a little lax. I only worked for four hours today, so I'm going to have to go in overtime if I want to meet my quota of 25 hours this week. That brings us pretty much to now, plus or minus a few phone conversations.
Love, Joy
Thursday: We'll just ignore the fact that this was a day.
Friday: On Friday I got dressed, made scones, and had a tea party. I was on a roll until half way through the tea party I started feeling sick again so I went and watched TV until dinner. For dinner we had barbecued steak, which as I learned in Tennessee, is not the same as having barbecue.
Saturday: Saturday I got dressed and left the house. I took down the outside Christmas lights and replaced a fuse in my car. I guess one burnt out while I was gone. Kinda fishy if you ask me, but gasoline had mysteriously appeared as well, so it was a good trade. I also added oil and some other liquid, so you should be impressed by my mechanical skills.
Sunday: In the afternoon on Sunday I started unpacking some boxes of stuff from my apartment in Davis. Then that evolved into me cleaning out the cupboards in my bathroom. I had two blow dryers and like five brushes. I don't use one brush let alone five, and seriously when was the last time I used a blow dryer? Never. Oh and there was a bunch of conditioner, another thing I have no use for. Somehow this stuff just accumulates. On Sunday night I really wanted Peet's coffee so I decided to get my dad to volunteer to take me. You know for some father daughter bonding time. He talked on the phone to my brother-in-law for 18 minutes so not much verbal bonding was had. Then we went to Safeway and when we were in the parking lot walking to the car he thought he saw one of his friend's cars so he had us go back in the store to find him. It ended up being someone else's car. This brings up one area in which I am not at all like my father. Usually when I see people I turn the other direction, or go down a different hall, or step into a store, something like that. I definitely don't go chasing people down. Does that make me a snob?
Monday: I went to work. It was totally like a real job, one that I couldn't wear sweatpants to. Actually I think I could have worn anything I wanted because this summer the dress-code bar was definitely lowered. I consider what I worked to be "full time" but I guess technically 5 hours is not a full day. But seriously how can people work for longer than that? My mom asked me what I did and I said I listened to my iPod. Dave changed the computer passwords and then wasn't there so I couldn't even check my e-mail. Right, so what did I do? Stuff related to filing. All those alphabetization skills I picked up along my path of life really helped out. Another exciting thing at work was that it was luncheon day so I got free food. Monday night I watched Step Up, I won't go into details about that experience.
Tuesday: Work again. Jay fixed my computer. I like it better when Dave helps because he actually knows that my sister and I are different people. Well maybe Jay knows this but just thinks that I want JulieGonsalves as my user ID. Now I am set but I need to make sure I don't turn into the girl at the desk next to me that is always on MySpace. How did she even get that job? I mean I got mine because I'm related to the CEO, but I think the screening process is getting a little lax. I only worked for four hours today, so I'm going to have to go in overtime if I want to meet my quota of 25 hours this week. That brings us pretty much to now, plus or minus a few phone conversations.
Love, Joy
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Happy 2007
Hello, how are you? I am in Tennessee, I fly home tomorrow night. Today I spent mostly lying on the couch because lovely roommate here got me sick. Maybe you don't know why I am here so I will give the least cultish explanation I can think of (if you don't understand what I mean by that, don't try to read into it). I know two people that live In Memphis and their church was having a little New Year's conference for "young adults", so I decided to go. My sister told me that Memphis is terrible and tried to discourage my adventure but I decided to go anyways. And adventure it has been. I flew into Nashville last Wednesday and they lost my bag. Oh well, M.L.A. (momentary light affliction). Fortunately Memphis is the FedEx capital of the world or something so my bag got here the next morning. Then on the way home from the airport my ride got a little turned around on the freeway. It was quite the bonding experience.
There are two parts of Joy, well, maybe there are more, but let's focus on two. There is the Joy that wants to meet everyone and become their best friend ever. Then there is the Joy that is incapable of carrying on a normal conversation. The second Joy is definitely the one that decided to come with me on this trip. So obviously I made some really deep meaningful friendships. Why do I have this problem? I think I've been experiencing emotional shut-down. But maybe that is the Tylenol cold talking. I had all sorts of fun things to write in this letter but now I am drawing a blank. I just left the room because Amy started to read out loud. I am not a big fan of exercising my listening comprehension skills plus she is reading some war book, so I don't think the benefit would outweigh the cost. People keep asking me if I am going back to Nicaragua, I am. I leave on January 28th and am committed to be there until November. I have not been preparing for that at all. The more I write the more pathetic this e-mail is going to end up being so I'll sign off now.
love, Joy
There are two parts of Joy, well, maybe there are more, but let's focus on two. There is the Joy that wants to meet everyone and become their best friend ever. Then there is the Joy that is incapable of carrying on a normal conversation. The second Joy is definitely the one that decided to come with me on this trip. So obviously I made some really deep meaningful friendships. Why do I have this problem? I think I've been experiencing emotional shut-down. But maybe that is the Tylenol cold talking. I had all sorts of fun things to write in this letter but now I am drawing a blank. I just left the room because Amy started to read out loud. I am not a big fan of exercising my listening comprehension skills plus she is reading some war book, so I don't think the benefit would outweigh the cost. People keep asking me if I am going back to Nicaragua, I am. I leave on January 28th and am committed to be there until November. I have not been preparing for that at all. The more I write the more pathetic this e-mail is going to end up being so I'll sign off now.
love, Joy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)