Rambling Out Loud

I love Bay Area Park.  I think it's because it doesn't feel like Houston.  In fact, it's one place down here where I can go to escape traffic noise.  It has the feel of being off in the country, by a lake. This place helped me maintain my sanity last year.  I spent most of my lunch breaks there....thinking, praying, writing, taking pictures... It was my quiet place.  It still is.  There are times I go there just to get away.   Bay Area Park does disappoint me though!   These signs are posted everywhere: Damn.  I REALLY wanted to agitate an alligator...and introduce him to my five pound chihuahua... (By the way...being the Grammar Nazi I am, I must mention the incorrect word choice on the sign...if you see it too I love you!  I mean, really?  If the city pays for a sign you'd think they would have someone edit...) Here's the crazy part...I was there once and saw someone letting their two dogs splash around in the water.  Now

It's raining outside.  Ordinarily, I love this weather.  I like to lie on my bed, snuggled up in one of grandma's quilts, and watch the drops from my window.  I love listening to the rumble of thunder while reading a favorite book. I live for these days. They are my favorites.  Today it's just gray, cold and wet.  God has created a perfect setting for the way I'm feeling.   My teenager started off the morning by being difficult and making me late for work.  I had just about let that go when I received the call that my uncle had passed away.  Besides the worry for my aunt, I began to really think about death. I thought about when my mom and I found my stepfather on the couch, after the heart attack in his sleep.  I thought about the aging family members I have, and all their health problems.  I thought about my great-grandfather who was no longer in his right mind after a traumatizing assault, and who eventually ended his own life.   I thought I would be fine staying

I wrote this a while back, but I think it's funny.  So I decided it needs to be on my blog!  Please take it with a grain of salt...I was being silly that day.  This is what happens when word nerds sit in drive-thru lines for long periods of time...  :) My intense frustration at my isolation Is leading me to devastation.  I need salvation in the form of adoration From a man who won't be an irritation.  I'd like to take a vacation in God's creation With a man who will stop my desolation.  I'll starve myself to emaciation to find a man in a high paying occupation That will kiss me in the precipitation.  The only problem with this approximation?  It will surely lead to fornication!

Another Sunday has come and gone...and I never made it to church...again.  Why do I have such a problem conforming?  Why can't I just make myself get up, go eat donuts, sing for exactly 20 minutes, listen to a sermon and then go to Luby's with the rest of the crowd?  Every week I say this one will be different.  I go to bed with the best intentions, and I even set my alarm.  I begin to head in to wake up my teenager...and then I stop.  I stay in my pajamas, grab something to eat, and get sidetracked.  Time seems to fly by...I look up and it's noon.  Poo.  I did it again.  So I firmly resolve that next week will be different, and the cycle begins again. I love Jesus.  I really do.  I love most of the people...the ones that talk to me anyway.  Is it that I'm looking for a perfect church?  After sitting here thinking about this a lot today, I have come to the conclusion it's not church I'm opposed to but the idea of having to get ready for it.  It's having to

I finally bit the bullet and started a blog! This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but the process is overwhelming. On the surface, you might think it's a rather simple process. Pick a blog site, name your blog, apply a template. Done. Anyone that knows me well at all will realize how much I struggle with making decisions. The tendency to over-analyze everything is a curse. (Note that the word "analyze" begins with "anal"...this is very appropriate) Dilemma number one: What site do I use? Being the lemming I am, I jumped off the cliff and followed my few blogging friends from Facebook. The name was my second dilemma. I thought of several overused sayings, awkward windows into my head, and titles suggested by friends. My math genius college friend does get props for his suggestion, "It's a Heatherful Life". Maybe down the road I will actually get good at this and use his creation. We shall see. Being a very visual pe