I need to stop worrying so much.
Everything is going to be fine and I need to stop getting in the way and just let the chips fall where they may.
Sure, I'm a little impatient, but it will happen.
I know that now.
=)
Going home this weekend. I'm really excited to spend an evening with my mommy and to celebrate my birthday with her.
Oh, and picking up that new car might be kind of a plus...
God has a plan and a purpose for everything, right?
If I truly believe that, I have to consider why this whole thing with my parents happened in the first place.
I went to Atlanta the other day to have dinner with my aunt and uncle and baby cousin (she turns six months old tomorrow!) for my birthday, and my uncle and I got to talking about my dad.
My father barely knows my cousin exists, doesn't have any desire to meet her or get to know her, and told my uncle, in the following precise words, that he should just "forget [he] ever existed."
My uncle's argument was that, "He's my brother. That won't change. I can't forget him, and I won't."
And we got to talking about it. My aunt and uncle are crazy about each other; that much is obvious. And the deal with my father, according to my uncle, has enlightened him to the fact that he needs to put his wife and kids first, now and forever. He needs never to take Meg for granted, not to let himself drift away from her. He needs to work to maintain their relationship. My uncle is a very successful, very driven and devoted band director. He loves his job, and he hates being sick because he absolutely cannot stand being away from it.
But he realizes that his first priority needs to be the people waiting for him when he comes home in the evening, exhausted and often frustrated. He's not going to let history repeat itself.
The joy he derives from being around his young daughter is blatantly obvious when you see him interact with her. And I know that my father used to be the same way with me. Sometimes I am amazed how wholly and completely a person can change.
Thank the good Lord that my uncle and so many others have had this opportunity to learn from my father's mistakes.
May I always remember the greatest thing my father ever taught me: that the last thing I want to be, is him.
The economy's collapsing, the government has deluded itself into thinking tax and spend politics will fix it, my knuckles are size of golf balls, things are crazy and I'm buried in schoolwork, I don't know what's about to happen with a certain someone, and I have to drive to Dayton this weekend.
But I'm so, so happy! I'm absolutely loving UGA, and I had the most amazing Valentine's Day and birthday imaginable.
And I get to go home and spend an evening or two with my mommy right after my birthday. =) And she gets to meet all my friends from school...
I can't help but feel like everything is going to work out fine in the end. This will all blow over in time. And I'm not sure where all the positivity came from, but I like it.
Give it a week or two; I'll find something about which to rant, I'm sure, and the more interesting entries might return.
I've had a lot of people bending over backward to help in the last couple of days, and silly me just remembered she should be grateful.
I still don't know enough about reflection and refraction, but I'm not about to fail this physics test.
I'm going to be permitted to make up my Spanish work.
So many people have stayed up nights talking with me.
Thank you to everyone who has made my life easier by taking some time out of your own. Whether it was big or small, know that it meant a lot to me.
Also, I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day this year. <3
Yet man is born to trouble
as surely as sparks fly upward.
--Job 5:7
My friends tell me I've been through a lot in my short lifetime. They say that they've never had to withstand anything stressful or tumultuous or overwhelming as I have.
And yet, now that I am in the state I love, I find myself in a funk, more unmotivated and stressed and overwhelmed than I remember being when everything with my emotions and my family and my friends was going on.
I don't understand, and I don't know what I can do to fix it at this point. But I learned something else from Job.
But if it were I, I would appeal to God;
I would lay my cause before him.
--Job 5:8
As surely as sparks fly upward.
Philippians 4:13
According to the Associated Press and CDC, the first recorded case of Marburg virus has been confirmed in the United States.
The Marburg virus, first identified in 1967, is a hemorrhagic fever native to Africa and first identified in Marburg, Germany, in a shipment of Phillipine green monkeys. While it is responsible for fewer than five hundred recorded cases since 1967, it is a severe, systemic disease that has caused death in 82% of those nearly five hundred cases. As such, it has been even more lethal than the Ebola virus over its history, and it is the sole virus joining Ebola in the family Filoviridae at this point in time. There is no cure, and the only treatment available today is supportive care in a hospital.
In short, this isn't the kind of bug we want loose in the United States. Given the country's high standard of living and healthcare standards, this case was evidently handled professionally and safely in the Colorado hospital where the patient was treated, as no further infection has been identified. Had healthcare standards for safety not been in place, we could have had a national situation on our hands, and we have most certainly dodged a very scary bullet, considering the patient spent time on an airplane returning from Uganda.
The only other time a filovirus has been identified in the United States was in the early 1990s, when a previously unidentified strain of Ebola, named Ebola Reston, decimated a large shipment of monkeys in Reston, Virginia, only a short drive from Washington, D.C. Luckily, although four people developed antibodies to the Ebola virus, no one displayed symptoms or became ill.
The day may not be long coming when one of these viruses, or another disease for which we have no cure and little treatment, finds its way to American soil and actually does wreak havoc. With the modern airline industry, a virus, carried by an infected person, could conceivably be anywhere in the world in 24 hours. And that is a scary consideration. We should be thankful for how fortunate we have been in these situations in the past, and we should also be thankful that we have such a qualified healthcare system with such high sanitation standards in place. With a little luck and preparations in place, I pray that such situations in the future can similarly be contained in such a manner as to avoid disaster.
Is it the seven-day meal plan versus some sort of plan with a certain number of swipes? Or the (nearly) free access to a top-of-the-line gym facility? Or living off-campus rather than signing one's life away to University Housing?
Well, all of those things are pretty nice.
But I was thinking of Georgia Women's Basketball.
Yes, that's right. For the low, low price of... nothing (the games are free for UGA students), you can see all the Division I SEC play you desire right here in beautiful Stegeman Coliseum. The University charges a $2 fee for student tickets to the men's games, yet, as far as I can tell, the women play better and have much more exciting, edge-of-your-seat games.
Besides, there's something kind of fun about going to a basketball game at a non-basketball school. My friends and I go and stand in the student section and yell and dance and make fools of ourselves, and it's great.
I'm still getting used to the idea of going to a school I actually care about, and I'm loving getting involved, supporting Georgia athletics (without spending a dime!) and actually showing some school spirit.
Go Dawgs!
I'm finding my own words inadequate again. I fear that happens far too often. It's just that other people are so smart and have such wonderful insights that I would much rather read and enjoy the writing of others than devote the effort required to put my own thoughts into words.
I need something to make me angry, something to ignite my passion. I write my best posts when I'm angry, and lately I've just been lazy and upset. Mostly happy, but unsettled. And I'm not quite sure what's wrong, but the sun came out today for the first time in a week, and things are looking up. I will get out of the funk that's holding me back.
But for now, something that's been weighing on my mind a lot lately:
What's your view on predestination? Does everyone have a destiny, which they have no option but to fulfill, or is the future one's own? Does free will truly exist?
By the time you swear you're his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying--
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying.
-Dorothy Parker's "Unfortunate Coincidence"
Some days I truly wonder about the nature of true love. Some days I'm cynical, just like my dear friend Dorothy. Some days... I wonder whether I will ever find anyone who cares the same way I do.
Someday.
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