Re-Entry Thought #2

I recently drove to and from Colorado. BUT since I got back to Missouri, I've seen COUNTLESS people wearing what look like ipod headphones, WHILE THEY DRIVE!!!! How in the world?

Apparently they are likely iphone headsets or other phone headsets. I guess I've been spoiled in Spain to have "hands free" built in to my car. Yes, it was installed by the gal who owned my car before me, but it's there. And if it weren't than I wouldn't be able to talk in the car BECAUSE IT'S ILLEGAL! And even though I am now in the US, I can't really believe that it's legal to talk in your car. I did see a billboard somewhere in Colorado or Kansas or Missouri saying that it's illegal to text while driving, BUT that seems to be the extent.

So, really, you think it's better to drive with HEADPHONES on instead of actually hearing the outside world and holding your phone in your hand while driving. Craziness...

I really thought I was going nuts until I found out that it was completely normal. Where am I? Not in Oz anymore.

my little miss sunshine moment

This morning I got up and went to my car to drive to a town outside of the city for a meeting. As I was nearing my car a construction worker asked if I was leaving. I said yes and he said, "Oh good. That fixes our problem. We needed somewhere to put construction supplies and all the parking spaces are filled." I began to start the car, but it wouldn't start. Eventually, after about five tries I got back out and told him that I wasn't sure that I was going anywhere. I asked if he had jumper cables and he said no, he would have if they would have brought the truck, but no. He said they could help push the car. I asked if that really worked. He said, "Of course, you just have to put it in second," and called a few other guys to come out. They helped me un-parallel park, pushing the car. They then pushed me down the hill a bit and then got behind and pushed it up the hill forward until they told me to put it in second and start the car. It worked and all was well. But, that is the first time I've ever started a car like that.

And, by the way, my car is fine. I just need to remember to drive it more often than once every three weeks. I don't think I've driven it since Christmas, which then is obvious why it wouldn't start. (And, I might add, this is the second time this has happened. I'd rather not admit this, but when I came back from the US after the summer, my car was dead as a nail, until the nice guy from my insurance company came and jumped the car.) I should learn. (Although, to my credit, this summer was more like six weeks, not just three.)

So that's my little story of the morning. Soon after starting I had to stop, to not run over a lady crossing the street, but all was well. The car kept going and all was well. It was one of those happy endings. Thank God for nice construction workers in the right place at the right time.

malasaña

so, i've been a little down today. mainly i'm exhausted because i haven't been sleeping well or enough. so i asked a couple friends to pray and then ran out on some errands. the Lord is so sweet to me. one, just the right music happened to be on my ipod from the last time i listened to it. i was going to turn it to some more melancholy music, but alas my fav enter the worship circle cd was on, so i listened. then i had to walk through one of my favorite neighborhoods of madrid. it's right by my apt, bohemian and hippy/trendy. fun stuff in the windows of boutiques, at 5pm its right after lunch and school so there are kids playing, people out and about, dogs running, it's sunny, and i do love where i live - the architecture, the ambiance. and i've probably been down bc i've been tired, bc i'm a little frustrated with certain aspects of life right now (ok, just the boy area), i have a lot on my plate the next few days and i'm tired, i have a long list that has yet to be tackled for today, and i've been inside too much today, not enough green space and sun. so... no, nothing has really changed, but i have a fresh outlook and am reminded of the great place i live and of all the things yet to be explored. :-)

little things

i am fully aware of the fact that at times i make no sense. today i was in a horrible mood for the latter part of the day for NO reason whatsoever (other than purely hormonal, which is actually nice to know). the day started off great and nothing today happened that changed that reality. in fact, life in general is good. yet i realized i was extremely irritated by the smallest and stupidest of things. I could list the reasons, but there is no sense in it. so, i went to the gym. fortunately today was cardio day, so i did weights with various aerobic stuff in between. it was a good, or better great, workout. in fact, it gave me enough motivation to then go for a run, which was the best idea yet! it was raining lightly and somehow it just put me in the giddiest of moods. it was dark, so only the lights around the track through this park i go to were lit. my eyes were half closed due to the rain that continued to come down. and somehow most of the runners were dressed in blue coats of various shades. strange.

i got there, passed a few guys, which of course made me feel great. (and made me then run harder, so they wouldn't turn around to pass me - since a girl had just passed them, which honestly at times seems their motivation.) i was running alright and kept on convincing myself to go just a little longer, either with the motivation of "you can at least make it to the next turn", "you can at least make it to the end of this lap", "at least pass the guy up ahead in the blue jacket before you finish", or "if the blue jacket guy (a different one) up ahead keeps going then you have to too." and the fact that there were so many blue men, both made me laugh and somehow who ever i decided to pace myself with or pass magically would disappear. go figure. i know this whole dialogue is funny, but it works. i am definitely both competitive and motivated by little things. in fact, as i was running, i was thinking how silly i am - that some light rain, and the fact that i was running in the rain on what was progressively becoming a more and more beautiful night, was making me so happy when not that much before i was rationalizing with myself why it made no sense that i was in a bad mood.

later i got home, changed, grabbed some money and went to get some food for dinner at the grocery store, and put some music on. i originally put some dance music on and electronic stuff, but somehow while i was talking to my roommate it changed to death cab for cutie, which i LOVE. and which i had forgotten how much i love and how happy it too can make me. go figure. i have no clue. again, i know that at times i can be fairly illogical. but sometimes the little things - rain, a good workout, some great music - can make all the difference.

a brief update

I am hoping to write some thoughts about my recent trip to the US and seeing it through my Spanish friends' eyes a bit since she came with me. I arrived back on Friday morning, am still fighting with jet lag (at least in the mornings), have watched four movies in the past 24 hours to prep for our film nights this fall, am trying to cram one and a million things into the next 24 hours, and leave tomorrow afternoon for two days of meetings in Barcelona.

On a side note: here are some fun books I've read recently or am hoping to read soon - Know it All by A.J. Jacobs who worked for Esquire, The Elegance of the Hedgehog (I've probably mentioned it before), and Reading Lolita in Tetuan. Oh and some good nonfiction books that I highly recommend are The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan, Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (or anything by Lewis for that matter), The Promises of Grace by Bryan Chappell (or Praying Backwards - also great), and The Prodigal God by Tim Keller (or anything by Keller).

As for movies...I have a list, so I'll finish watching them and then give you the reviews or send you to my ministry website.

8 hour lines, locura, entretenido

Somehow as americans we have no idea what a real line is. I mean yes you might CHOOSE to wait in a long line for concert tickets or an amusement park ride and yes, now and then, there is an annoying line of 30 minutes or even an hour.

Spain on the other hand knows what a real line is. I mean the first time I applied for my residence card I think I waited on five different occasions (in five different locations) in lines of two to four hours, but a minimum of two. On a regular basis at the grocery store I wait for a half an hour (in the fast line, mind you, to just grab a couple things) and I remember spending the entire day at the hospital in sevilla, not because i was deathly ill, but because i needed both to have xrays and blood drawn and of course see the doctor on the front and back end.

today i think trumped all the lines i have been in. i needed to go get fingerprints for my residence card (my new one). remembering last year i thought, "ok they open at 9am, i should probably get there a bit early (like at 8am), but 6am (when i got there last time) just seemed a bit overkill. i mean i had a good four hours i could wait if necessary.

so i got there at a reasonable time, with a book and music in hand. i figured out which of the three lines i needed to be in (and of course it was the longest), but no worries i had time and was a pro at this. so the time passes and i estimate i should be out the door by 11:30-12:00. great!

the line gets closer to the gate to get into the compound and somehow the closer it gets the slower it gets. so instead of moving every 10 minutes we're now moving every 30 minutes. it is now 10:30. then 11:00. okay it is now 12:00 and we have yet to even get in the gate (which i know is at least an hour wait longer). it has now been all of 4 hours. so i call some of the people helping me with the english club at 1pm. God-willing I will still make it, but just in case I let them know what is going on.

so they do finally let us in the gate and it is now 13:00 (1pm). another hour goes by and this is when all heck begins to break loose.

supposedly they close at 2pm for siesta and then reopen at 4pm. they actually do continue to see those inside the gate during this time, but the beasts are getting hungry and tired. i mean, it is lunch time and most of us haven't eaten since 8 or 9am. kids are crying or running around and adults are a bit cranky too.

the first sign of trouble is between two men. one apparently jumped ahead in line and so of course insults the one who tells him to go back to his place. there are some words exchanged and fists raised and that is that.

a bit later i have moved up to where these men were and a lady (who i have never seen before) edges up a few people behind me. she begins to go off on how she was behind chinese woman who is now far ahead. at first the lady was up ahead and then she changes the story to the lady being no where in sight to the lady already have taken off. it sounds a bit fishy, but i'm tired and not too concerned about what anyone else is doing or not doing.

it then occurs to me that this lady has brought a band of people with her who i vaguely remember seeing at the very end of this awfully long line. somehow they have now merged 4-7 people behind me and are continuing to rant and rave about this horrible chinese woman (which much emphasis on the fact that she was chinese) who i am beginning to wonder if even exists.

so now my part of the line is infuriated by all these people who have cut in front of us, when in actuality they are the people who are complaining. yes, there are a few people ahead of us who somehow magically appeared in front of us instead of behind, but for the most part it's the line we started in.

so a bit of time passes and then there is a woman who tells us to go past her because she just is sitting down ahead in the line, even though her place is behind. some people tell her to move, one of the guys in front of me starts to accuse him of being racist (it happens that the woman in question is a covered muslim woman and the people asking her to move are south american (although black) and the man defending the woman is also north african and muslim. this is the same man, mind you, who a couple hours earlier was screaming at the man who butt in line ahead of him. again as i said, the kids cry and the adults get into yelling matches.

so we wait a bit longer and there is a irate man at nearly the end of the line inside the compound (we're all in a sort of courtyard, but inside the gate versus outside). he is yelling at one of the women working here about the fact that he has a date to be here so they should attend to him NOW. the fact that he does not realize is that ALL of us have today's date, which is why we've chosen today to wait in line. and while he has only been in line a couple hours now, we have been in line for about double the time. the guards talk to him, he rants and raves a bit more and they give him the option of leaving or getting into line, so of course he chooses the line.

eventually we do make it inside, around 16:00 (4pm), when the gate again opens, and i nearly want to kiss the man who finally sees me. they look at my paperwork, take my fingerprints and john hancock, and give me a paper to come back and pick up my new residence card in 40 days! yippee!!! i felt like i was soaring in the clouds. que alegría!!! i was soooo incredibly happy to be done. really much more overjoyed than is even normal. somehow waiting does increase the joy you experience once it's all over. amazing!

so i finally left at 16:30, grabbed a sandwich to eat on the metro and went on with my day. and i'm now pretty much done for the next 2-3 years, until i have to renew it again.

the irony of this place is incredible. if you look at the picture above, the "compound" is brightly covered in red, yellow, blue, and white. it has triangular tops with flags and looks somewhat like an amusement park from the outside.

yes, you do leaved joyous and happy, but i just seems crazy that this place that causes so much angst is deceptively decorated. and it is a bit crazy how proud i feel
of the fact that i passed this cultural test of waiting. i feel like i have worked hard and EARNED my residence card.