Hope is knowing

We talked about hope last night at Coffeehouse. About how "real hope" is waiting for something that you know will happen rather than just wishful thinking. And about how hope sometimes needs confirmation to keep having that faith.

I have hope. This is my miracle....

I moved to Minneapolis in January after I graduated from college. My car was old. (I drove to Minneapolis from Superior Wisconsin with no brakes - that is another story - but just to set the scene.) I was driving to work at the U from a west suburb one snowy, slushy morning during rush hour traffic. On the way, my wipers died. Just as a semi was passing me. My windshield was COMPLETELY covered in muddy slush. I prayed the road would not curve and just kept the car going in a straight line until the windshield cleared due to the wind. I made it to work with no mishaps, though. That night, after a long day in the lab, I had no idea how I was going to get home. Minneapolis was in the midst of a winter storm - the snow was coming down like mad. I walked out to my car and figured I'd give it a try to see if the wipers worked. I sat down, turned the car on, and VOILA! The wipers worked. I drove home through the blustery weather - snow plows and police everywhere. I pulled into the driveway, turned the car off, and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, I wondered.... I turned the car back on.... and the windshield wipers no longer worked.

That may be a bit less dramatic than walking on water, but it had the same effect. Whenever I have doubts in life, I think back to that moment and remember.... God loves me. And I have hope.

Clearly, it's not 4:30 am...

I've been having trouble sleeping these days. I wake up at 4:30 or so fairly routinely and cannot go back to sleep. It takes moving to the couch and watching TV for a bit and/or to the spare room futon to get back to sleep. And then, it's usually not until 6 am. It's just stress due to the fact that I'm trying to finish up my thesis work and it is constantly on my mind. The good news is that it will likely end after Jan. 8th. Either my committee will say that I can defend this spring or it will get pushed back. Anyway...

Why is it that in the middle of the night everything seems so dismal? In the light of day, and in a clearheaded, caffeine laden state, my life is quite wonderful. Even after 6 hours hunched over culturing.

I share my life with the best, funniest, cutest, most intelligent, all-around stupendous person. (She gets embarrassed when I compliment her, so I'll stop there.) We have 3 always cute, sometimes annoying, oftentimes hilarious kitties. I work with some very supportive, smart people who make my days entertaining (case in point: the guys in my lab had "Morning Man Hour" every day this summer). It's the Christmas season - I find myself singing Christmas songs when I'm alone. We have freshly made M&M cookies. I just got my 1st paper from my graduate work. I have 1/2 of my Christmas shopping done. But I have ideas for all of my Christmas shopping. I am doing what I want to do with my life. I have some very special family members and friends as a part of my life. Tomorrow is our GLBT Christian Coffeehouse. I love Thursdays.

Yes, life is good. I will graduate one day. And if not sooner, then later. No hurry. :)

Christmas - the season for bad movies

The month before Christmas is a special time for me. The reason? Well, I can spend an entire Saturday, if I have the time, flipping between the Hallmark channel and ABC Family and watching poorly acted, predictable, cheesy Christmas movie after Christmas movie. I love it. One might wonder why I choose to spend my time this way.... when the plots are predictable, and the acting is so abhorrent - particularly by Randy Travis today. It's not for the cute clothes either. Connie Selleca, Randy Travis' romantic interest (no chemistry, btw) in today's classic, was wearing particularly 80s looking pink leggings. Ugh.

I can't explain it. But, it makes me happy. I spent all morning bundled up on the couch with my two cups of coffee enjoying every moment. I told Katherine that it's her payback for me watching football all fall - she has to now suffer through these awful movies for an entire month.

I'm so excited.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We got snow here on Wednesday night. It was cold and blowy and two inches fell. Not a whopping amount but enough to give the ground a light dusting and look so pretty.... and entertain the kitties for hours as they thought the snowflakes were bugs.

So, since it was a cold, cozy night, we....
took out the Christmas boxes and put out all of our Christmas decorations (the tree will be next weekend).
baked cranberry bread - a Harcourt family tradition for the holidays.
watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (the first of many holiday watchings).

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving day with our surrogate family in Iowa - Joe and his family. A wonderful way to start this happiest of seasons.

The best kind of a day

Starts with waking up to a good cup of coffee while reading blogs in my comfy chair in our sunny bedroom.
Follows with going to church... and finding that I have a name tag (Yay!).
Continues with brunch in the form of quiche Lorrain at the Cottage and St. Louis Blues coffee from the Java House.
Percolates while napping on the couch with my head on my hon bun and two kitties on my feet all cozy under a comfy afghan while it rains outside and Kath watches football.
Continues with yummy dinner - tuna noodle casserole - the best kind of comfort food.
Wraps up with dear friend Joe coming over and discussing important things, i.e. is Bill Belichick like Darth Vader and Tom Brady like Anakin Skywalker. The answer is yes.

And, to top it all off, I won my fantasy football game. Yay for Tom Brady and Brady Quinn's Abs!

Why can't all days be like this?

"Cdesign proponentsists"

I'm watching Nova's "Intelligent Design on Trial" right now. This is an amazing documentary about the Dover, PA School Board's mandate to promote intelligent design as an alternative "theory" to evolution. It clearly shows the lack of any real science behind intelligent design and the vast amount of scientific data that supports evolution. It also shows that, despite the proponents of ID stating that it's not creationism in disguise, the author of the major ID biology book available had the intent to write a text with both creationism and evolution. One of the most damning pieces of evidence was the mistake in replacing "CREATIONISTS" throughout the text with "design proponents" : Cdesign proponentsISTS.

I wish I could sit down with the "scientists" at the Discovery Institute. Dudes, faith is not a testable hypothesis that can be proven or disproven. That's the beauty of it. Hence, it's not science.

Of course, one didn't really have to wonder what the outcome of the ID trial would be when George W. Bush put his support behind it as a valid scientific alternative to evolution....

And the federal judge who made the ruling against the school board received death threats! I guess those Christians who sent those are proponents of the Inquisition as well!

Sleeping on a cloud

We rearranged the bedroom this weekend. It's been long overdue, and I love it. We now can fit the kitties' chair next to the window (which they LOVE), and we have a cushy place to sit and read with the morning sun streaming through the window. I was supposed to buy a new mattress cover, but instead I bought a featherbed mattress topper. Ooh la la! It's like sleeping in a plush hotel bed - one that envelops you and with the down comforther on top, prevents you from getting up to shut the alarm off in the morning.

On another note, why is it that a $10 hideous orange velour chair from the Goodwill has survived for 5 years and has not been replaced? Could it be because it is small and so comfy and a great scratching post for the kitties? I think this chair will still be in our house in 50 years. In fact, I can practically guarantee it. I think I will have to relegate it to Katherine's future "Notre Dame Room", since it's gold and will match so well. :)

Just try to take away alcohol

We had a record turnout for voting in the municipal election in Iowa City on Tuesday. The reason? There was a proposal to limit bar access to those 21 and over. Currently, Iowa City is one of the few places, from what I've heard, where 19 and 20 year olds are allowed in bars, but "can't drink" - in quotes because you can guess how well that works.

I voted for the 21-ordinance. For a few reasons.
1) Students were threatening that if they were not allowed in bars, then there would be more house parties and more unregulated drinking. Please - you want to be treated like adults and allowed into bars, so act like adults. Regulate yourselves.
2) I would love a few more non-bar related businesses in the downtown.
3) The number of drunk college age students out and about in the ped mall on the weekends, especially football weekends, is overwhelming and leads to vast amounts of resources required to clean up the mess left behind.

Well, the ordinance did not pass. Students voted in record numbers. I can only hope they vote in record numbers come next November. They should've saved the 21-ordinance for 2008.

I'm disappointed, but not brokenhearted. Now, if this would've been a smoking ordinance that didn't pass, I would cry. I'm still waiting for that one.

So does being tired justify being angry?

When I am woken up from a nap suddenly by a loud noise, these days caused by my kitties, I get EXTREMELY cranky. I am generally fairly mild-mannered, but oh, you don't want to be around me at these times. Or at night, when the kitties wake us up 5 times in 1 hour, I get to a point where I want to shake them and shake them and shake them. (This is compared to my typical interactions with the kitties involving too much hugging and kissing and petting.)

So, when my co-worker showed me a paper from the October 23rd, 2007 issue of Current Biology, this all made sense. According to Yoo et al., when people are sleep-deprived, the prefrontal cortex and amygdala suffer a disconnect. This causes a more dramatic response to negative stimuli. Apparently, adequate sleep is required for the prefrontal cortex to mediate emotional reactions by the amygdala.

Well, for those sleep-deprived people, this makes perfect sense. It accounts for all of those sleepless nights when you lie awake and worry and fret and get all worked-up over the most insignificant things that seem so daunting at 3 am. And why the smallest things make you lose your temper after a sleepless night. And why tears come so frequently and easily over silly things like making a bad batch of cookies after a week of stress and little sleep.

I should keep this article by my bed at night to reread at 4:30 am. Right now, my three little kitty-girls are all nestled around me sound asleep. And, oh, I love them so. But in the middle of the night when they want foodies and bang the mirror, it will be a different story.

Seems like karma to me

General Pervez Musharraf has seized emergency power in Pakistan, abandoning the constitution, and leaving the Bush Administration in a pickle. Here's why.

President Bush's goal is to spread democracy throughout the Middle East - apparently the new reason we invaded Iraq after no WMDs were found.
Since 2001, the US has sent over $10 billion in aid to Pakistan to aid in the pursuit of Al Qaeda.
Pakistan is not a democracy - General Pervez Musharraf is a military dictator who seized power in a bloodless coup in the late 90s.
Since his regime was convenient for "our interests", the US supported Pakistan, apparently with the intent to help facilitate the transition to a democracy, while keeping Musharraf in power, of course, since he's useful for us.
But now, since Gen. Musharraf is worried about his power status, he's changing the rules.
Unfortunately for the Bush administration, there's little they can do, since Pakistan is a nuclear nation.

Kind of reminiscent of Saddam Hussein - he was supported by the US in the 80s since he was useful for our interests.

It makes me wonder about the real goals of the US - are they to promote democratic societies or to protect our interests (i.e. oil) in certain regions?

What I notice when watching baseball

Katherine, being from Massachusetts, is a member of Red Sox Nation so naturally we spent last week and this past weekend watching the Red Sox in the World Series. Amazingly, I found that I actually enjoyed watching baseball with Kath as she would tell me little tidbits about each of the players such as.... Manny only runs at one speed.... Julio Lugo adjusts his cup every 20 seconds (so then I began counting).... David Ortiz reminds her of the woman on her softball team who played first base but had a bad back so the ball had to be thrown directly into her mitt without requiring her to reach even the slightest...

So, it became quite interesting. I even got excited in the final game when Papelbon was trying to save the game by striking out the last batter for the 3rd strike.

I did watch the final game of the World Series in 2004 when the Red Sox last won, mainly because I was dating Katherine and wanted to share in the moment with her as she was in Massachusetts at the time. However, what I noticed about that game was not the baseball itself, but the celebration afterwards. I had to blink a couple of times and ask...

"Is that Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore kissing at center field?..... Huh..... Are they dating? I know Jimmy Fallon is from Boston, but wow! I didn't know Drew Barrymore was a Red Sox fan too."

When Fever Pitch, starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, came out in 2005, that strange sight finally made a lot more sense.