Parking: Part II

OK. Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately, because it has taken me so long to get this written down, there have actually been a two more funny episodes that have happened since the parking issue but, as with many sanguine personalities, I can no longer remember them. I just remember thinking, Oh My Gosh! I am totally going to blog about this!!! Now... my memory is shot.

So, let's move along on this story before I forget this one as well...

The parking saga...

If you will remember, a while back I posted and entry about the territorial neighbors that I live around. It went something like this. Review at your leisure.

So, because there are such issue with parking in this community, the HOA has given out parking notices to each resident to place on people's cars if there is a problem with parking. They are little squares of paper that say stuff like: You are parked illegally in this place based on the following qualifications:
- parked in someone else's parking place without permission
- parked going the wrong direction
- parked on the curb
- parked too far from the curb
- parked in front of a hydrant
- parked in front of a house with a door
- parked on concrete
- parking brake depressed on this park job
- your car has windshield wipers
- you have a first and last name
- you pay monstrous dues for HOA and yet we need more money.

You get the drift...

I have to be honest, due to the geographic location of the condo where I live, it is very common for other people to park in my parking place in front of the condo. We are the first condo when you pull into the street so it offers mucho convenience for everyone... except me when I come home from work and there is someone parked in my spot. I don't generally get angry easily. I get irritated sometime over stupid stuff but usually, I find most things funny.

I do NOT find this funny. I honestly get really TICKED when someone is parked in my parking place. Why? BECAUSE I KNOW THOSE JOKERS WHO LIVE AROUND ME ARE GOING TO CALL THE COPS AND MAKE 'EM WRITE ME A TICKET IF I PARK ANYWHERE ELSE BESIDES IN FRONT OF MY CONDO!!!

That is why.

I would by lying if I told you I had not put a few of those tickets up on the windshields of cars parked illegally in my parking place. HOWEVER, I always leave nonabrasive notes attached. NOT like the one that I got with threats of tow trucks and doggy disposal. In fact, this is what I wrote on the last parking notice I left on a truck with a Texas license plate...

"Hi! I LOVE Texas people and so I am sure that you guys are great but unfortunately, this is a personal parking place and I don't have anywhere else to park so, even though you are visiting and probably didn't know, please park near the pool so I can park in my correct spot. Enjoy your visit! :)"

Hello!! I practically offered to be there tour guide for the duration of their trip. Nonabrasive? I would call it really overly friendly. Probably obnoxious to some. My sister would totally roll her eyes if she got that message so I am sure some people would gag. Sorry. Love me, love all of me. Anyway, they got the message (because I was watching out the window) and put it in their truck and left. When they came back , they parked in front of their host's condo. I felt a warm fuzzy feeling.

UNTIL...

The next morning, I received a parking notice on my car that was parked IN MY OWN PARKING SPOT for the following reasons:
- parked going the wrong way
- parked on the curb
- being a generally nice person.

OK - I'm kidding about the last one but I am NOT kidding about the parking notice. What? Someone has their feathers ruffled when they parked in the wrong place.

I am so very black and white in so many cases.

My feelings were kind of hurt because that is just unnecessarily ridiculous. Then, when I came home that day, I parked off the curb and going the correct way.

I am big enough to admit and take responsibility for my mistakes. And I fixed them.

Still irritated that they gave me a notice in my own parking place. Just for meanness.

Why?

Yo no se!

I should have Vivi leave them a present. She is so sweet.

Parking Saga Continues...

I have not the time nor the energy right now to blog about this (primarily because I have notes, discharge summaries, treatment plans, comprehensive reports and transfer notes to write tonight), but DO NOT FEAR, I WILL be blogging the next installment of "How to Emblazon your Neighbor through Parking Shenanigans".

Honestly, this place is so ridiculous. I can not WAIT to tell you about the fun that ensues and the tempers that inflame.

Tune in...

SinGLE - Party of One - SinGLE

Want to pitch out some articles or series of written entries that I have read about singleness, courtship, relationships in general. These primarily came from my blogging "friends" that I visit and read on regularly and wanted to share with my single readers. These are not only for SINGLE ladies and they are not only for single LADIES. They will impact the lives of those that read them no matter what your relationship status is. Let me say this, if you yourself are not single, there is a really good chance that someone you love (like your aunt or your daughter) is or will be sometime in their lifetime. These are really thoughtful and wise writers who have a strong spiritual heritage and recommendations to back up their reputations.

Check them out!!!

1) Carolyn McCulley's blog: Radical Womanhood -
Great article on the cultural romance "flu". It can change how you feel about love and courtship.
http://solofemininity.blogs.com/posts/2009/06/youve-got-lies-chick-flicks-and-the-worlds-approach-to-men-and-marriage-.html

2) Carolyn Mahaney and her three grown daughters blog: Girl Talk -
Section of entries on what to do while your preparing for marriage and how not to waste your single years....Let's use the time positively we have while we still have it...
http://www.girltalkhome.com/blog/category/courtship/

3) Nancy Leigh DeMoss blog- Reviving Our Hearts -
I LOVE her! She is herself a single women who just turned 50 and is so wise, discerning and solidly biblical when it comes to theology. Her article actually pertains to women who are married to "unbelievers" or a husband living as an "unbeliever".
http://www.reviveourhearts.com/pdf/uploads/ABCsSpiritualSingle.pdf

4) Lydia Brownback blog- The Purple Cellar -
Collection of short entries about facets of single life. I really enjoy reading everything on her blog.
http://purplecellar.blogspot.com/search/label/singleness

5) Titus2Talk
Great blog where they post lots of great pieces from around the web. They reference some very solid articles. This is their section on singles.
http://titus2talk.blogspot.com/search/label/Singles

I don't do that very often but thought I would show you around to the places that I visit from time to time and I haven't particularly talked to my single friends in a while.

So, blog out, venture away.... but be sure and come back.

A Pressing Fear...

The more I read, I feel more convicted that I have feasted on spiritually good upbringing, good heredity and milk toast theology. The problem is that I question if this has been enough for me. Have I rested on my laurels being the "good girl" and never delved into when I stand before Him and my actions, thoughts, desires, evidence of belief, are on display what He will say to me and about me? Have I tried to strike a bargain with God, promising to keep a bunch of rules? I fear I'm a spiritual slug.

As I am reading C.S. Lewis "MERE CHRISTIANITY", I have been profoundly impacted by the truths that are so often glossed over. A few thoughts that I have run across:

Final Curtain Call:

"Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as fiends. That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. ..... All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to good digestion, will fall off some of use; all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first time, see everyone as he really was. There will be surprises."

PRIDE

"According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind... it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began...For Pride is a spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense....The first step is to realise that one is proud.... At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. It you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed."

One more...

ONE BODY, MANY PARTS: Satan's Skew

"Things which are parts of a single organism may be very different from one another: things which are not, may be very alike. Six pennies are quite separate and very alike: my nose and my lungs are very different but they are only alive at all because they are parts of my body and share a common life.... If you forget that (someone) belongs to the same organism as yourself you will become an Individualist. If you forget that he is a different organ from you, you will want to suppress differences and make people all alike, you will become a Totalitarian. A Christian must not be either..."

"(We have a tendency to point out to each other) - which of these errors is the worse. That is the devil getting at us. He always sends errors into the world in pairs - pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is worse. You see why, of course? He relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled."

I am so glad that I have taken the time to read this book as I see it becoming a foundational book from which to draw deeper into the knowledge and love of Christ. I highly recommend it if you have not read it. I have almost the whole book underlined and highlighted. :)

You might find that you, too, could be a spiritual slug, moving about so slowly in your spiritual growth and depending on your good upbringing and good "heredity" that we do not work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We take on everyone else's faith and don't ever go beyond what is specifically fed to us by a trusted pastor, a parent, a good friend who attends church or mate that reads the Sunday School lesson before church.

This should not be.

There will be surprises. Of this, I am sure.

Oh Lord, please come quickly.

It Is a Blessing....

It is a blessing to have a job

that pays a regular check each and every month.

It is a blessing to have good health

and ability to be active.

It is a blessing to have good friends from 1981

all the way to my newest friend

made a few weeks ago.

It is a blessing to have a healthy family

where no one suffers from life ending illnesses

and/or physical diseases.

It is a blessing to have clothes

and enough to not wear the same shirt everyday.

It is a blessing to have a place to stay

with my own room and closet and study area

and place to be by myself.

It is a blessing to have a God centered church

with exceptional preaching and scripturally based worship.

It is a blessing to have parents

that are still married after 39 years.

It is a blessing to have an outlet where I can write

and hopefully encourage, vent, inspire and teach

and make some laugh a little.

It is a blessing to have opportunity to minister to others in music.

It is a blessing to live in a free country

where millions of other people would like to live.

It is a blessing to have financial resources

to pay my bills and much of my entertainment desires.

It is a blessing to have options.

It is the biggest blessing to have a relationship with the

Creator, Healer, Savior, Redeemer,

Teacher, Sovereign, Almighty God

who can take anything we give to Him,

good or bad,

and use it

to make us holy.

__________________________________________________

This is me talking myself out of complaining on here.

Really, when you have so much to be thankful for,

why complain about anything?