6710 Grand

Some men (and women) secretly sneak peaks at porn. Additcted or not, they might try to hide it--scoping out time in their day when they know no one is around and no one can see what they're looking at. My husband does not do this...at least not with naked people. He looks at pictures of airplanes. We affectionatly call it pilot porn. Sometimes, he'll be at his computer and I'll walk by and notice that he's rapidly closed a window. "What are you looking at?" I'll ask, already knowing the answer. "Nothing!" as if it's a secret. I think pilots are born, not made. You either love planes or know little about them. You can learn the aerodynamics or the mechanics but pilots are born with an innate awe and wonder about planes. Nick's dad is a pilot too. His mom once told me that she knew exactly how she was going to die. She'd be riding in the car with his dad who would hear a plane overhead. He'd be craning his neck to watch it

So, I like shoes. They're the one article of clothing that seem to fit no matter how much I weigh and I don't mind going up a size. I've been buying a lot more shoes lately since I discovered platforms. I bought a cute pair of purple strappy shoes for Easter and just fell in love with Baker's Shoes. Since April, I've bought three pairs of shoes from them and then I discovered Steve Madden. Love Steve Madden. In a meeting at work, I was introduced to Shop it to Me (yes, it really was in a business meeting. We were talking about dress code. Anyway...) So, now I get an email a few times a week with things the website thinks I'll like. One day I was scrolling through it and found a really cute pair of over the knee boots. When I clicked on it and went to the Steve Madden website, they had the same pair of boots in purple! I had to get them. They're fabulous. Now, all of these shoes are perfectly acceptable to wear to work, which I do often. I get several rema

I read a lot of books on writing, hoping it will help me not only to be a better writer, but to convince myself that I'm not doing it wrong. We writers all have our reasons for not writing, whether they're valid or not is up to each of us to decide. The book I fished today (and by finished, I don't mean I read the whole thing--I'm just DONE with it) is called Write: 10 Days to End Writer's Block or something like that. I remember buying it thinking "wow--10 days and I'll have something worth writing". Well, I've learned a lesson all right. Nothing happened after 10 days and nothing will. The whole premise of this book was that in order to free yourself and get over the blank page--for whatever reason--was to...get ready. This is gonna be good. Write with your other hand. WHAT? Yep--put the pen in my LEFT hand and give it a try! Um, that's stupid. It was full of these questions, written exactly the same way twice, where you answer it once with

I've been reading a lot of Bible study type books--it's like hearing a Sunday sermon except longer. And when it gets boring I can skip ahead. Today, I was reading When God Whispers Your Name by Max Lucado. He was talking about Moses being called out by God after he'd killed an Egyptian who was beating a slave and ran off to the dessert, and how Jesus was sort of an ordinary guy when he performed miracles. Those two things don't seem to go together much when I put it like that...except for one thing. It got me thinking about miracles. Max was talking about how any one of us could have been written about in the Bible. Some of the stuff people said about Jesus could have just as easily been said about us. Some of the stuff Jesus did (going to a wedding, working as a handyman) could be replaced easily by the things we do. Sure. I get it. But those miracles were stop you in your tracks miracles. People knew they were witnessing something of God. I don't think I can say

There wasn't much I hated about Korea (no Venti Starbucks was high on the list) but one thing I did was the bathroom. Part of it was that I just didn't understand. But the larger part was that it was just...annoying. First, imagine your shower. It might have a curtain or a door, but it's enclosed in some way. Now, add your toilet, sink, towell rack--everything else in the bahroom. That's right, put it IN the shower. Now, take away that enclosure. Poof! You have a Korean bathroom. Why? Why not close it in? Why not give it it's own floor so that you're not walking around in the bathroom in the evening when everything is still wet from your morning shower. Like any other Asian country that I know of, shoes aren't worn indoors. There's always a ledge or something to keep your shoes on when you walk inside (even in resturants!). In the bathroom, however, you're expected to wear shoes. Why? Because the floor is wet! You bring your flip flop

I never in my life thought I'd travel to Korea. Yet here I am in the VERY small town of Uljin (Ool chin). It is perhaps one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I'm here with Nick--it's his new home. I know--crazy. But as anyone who's following knows, we never stay anywhere for long. This is our latest adventure. We've been in Arizona for three years--that's longer than anywhere else except for the places we were born. Time to move forward. I have experienced more in these last three days than perhaps the last year. I've tried new foods, stayed in weird hotels, met amazing people and seen a place that I hadn't known existed. I've felt the stares of the locals and heard their whispering as I walk by. I've never really felt like a minority before, but here, I most certainly am. Everyone knows we're not from around here. They can tell by looking at us. And they try to help. We were nearly stranded in a subway station without our luggag

Sure, I can carry a tune—if you hand it to me in a bucket, but really, I shouldn't. Not unless there's a crowd also singing that can drown me out. I don't really like to sing. In my car maybe, but that's it. It's the one part of church I really don't like—well, that and the part where I have to shake hands with people I don't know. It's supposed to be a time of worship. I get that. Singing to God… Rapture practice, one of my pastors used to call it. 'Cause that's what we're going to spend eternity doing, right?' Praise and worship. But does it have to be singing? I really hope not. I don't feel particularly close to God when I'm singing. Sometimes, maybe, but it isn't the song. It's Him. Something He's telling me or something we're doing together and there just happens to be music playing. Don't get me wrong—I LOVE music. I mean, I really love it. It gets into my soul and I can listen to the same song over and

I don't understand why I need to make appointments to see a doctor. They certainly don't seem to honor them. I went to see a new doctor on Monday. I called several weeks in advance to make my 3pm appointment. I even supplied my insurance information prior so that I wouldn't have to do that in the office. I arrived about ten minutes early. Walking into the office, I saw four employees standing around behind the counter. One was on the phone. There were no other people in the waiting room. "I have an appointment," I said. to the three people who didn't seem to be doing anything. One of them motioned to the person on the phone. "She'll get you checked in." Because you're so busy. I sat down and waited. Finally the person on the phone hung up and gave me the paperwork I had to sign. I was told I'd be called in a few minutes. I waited. Waiting... At 3:20 I was finally called. I walked past several empty rooms wondering why we were

A big adventure is on the horizon! Nick is moving to South Korea...next week! While it's all very exciting, the entire process has been frustrating. A lot of "hurry up and wait". The biggest hurdle (so far) has been in obtaining a work visa. You can visit South Korea without a visa for up to 90 days, but they kind of expect you to have a return ticket. We've been unsure of a lot of things from the start, but when things got moving, they moved fast. In a matter of days, we've received a start date, itinerary and airline ticket from Los Angeles to Seoul. Ready to go, right? Not so much... We live in Phoenix, not Los Angeles. And still no work visa. More waiting... Less than one week before his expected start date, we're told that we should have a visa number by the end of the week. Then, we need to visit the Korean Consulate...in Los Angeles. We have to convert the visa number to a real visa (whatever that means). At this point, we're contemplating our opti